Archange Chevallier Ouilmette was a Potawatomi woman who lived in the Evanston area with her husband Antoine, a French fur trader, from about 1836 to 1840. The Ouilmette’s were prominent citizens of early Chicago. They moved north to Archange’s ancestral lands when settlement in Chicago grew and the Native American tribes that called it home began to be forcibly removed by treaties and other government actions. Archange was deeded 1,280 acres of land as part of the 1829 Treaty of Prairie Du Chien, encompassing much of present day Wilmette (named for the family) and land north of Central Street and east of Ewing in Evanston.
Significance
Archange Chevallier Ouilmette was from an influential Potawatomi family. Her mother was Potawatomi and her father was a French fur trader. She was born in Michigan around 1781. In about 1796 she married Antoine Ouilmette, a French fur trader. They were married in what was then called Gross Point (later the North Evanston/Wilmette area). At the time, Pottawatomie villages were located throughout Gross Point. Antoine Ouilmette first came to the area in 1790 from Canada and was an employee of the American Fur Company.
The family had a cabin and small farm near Fort Dearborn in Chicago when it was first established. They helped supply the fort with produce and livestock, offered guide services as needed, and were an integral part of the community. Both Archange and Antoine Ouilmette were instrumental in saving American lives when tensions between the British and Americans escalated leading to the Battle of Fort Dearborn in 1812. It was thought that because of their actions in support of the Americans, Archange was given the land as the Ouilmette Reserve in the Treaty of 1829.
In about 1829, the Ouilmettes built a cabin for their family of eight children on the Ouilmette Reserve at Lake Street (Wilmette) and Lake Michigan, in what is now the village of Wilmette (named for them, though the spelling was changed). Their home was a well-known stopping place for traders and travelers, and their farm continued to supply the growing settlement in Chicago. Archange and Antoine lived on the reserve until about 1838 when they joined fellow Potawatomi tribe members who had been forcibly removed to Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was there that Archange died in 1840 and Antoine in 1841. In 1844 their heirs petitioned the U.S. Government to sell the reserve’s land. The government purchased the land (640 acres) for $1,000 and then gradually re-sold it to real estate developers.