Author: ZMUDA, KATHLEEN
Title: Fiddles By the Fireside
Description: Michigan City, IN: Open Skies, 1978. Second Revised Edition. First Printing; Paperback. Illustrated by Linda Sullivan. B&W Illustrations & Map; 11 x 8 1/2; 168 pages; Sarce Title. Oblong shaped soft cover has a cream colored spine. Expanded 2d edition, limited to a 1000 copies in this first printing of it. Illustrated with brown and white pictures and maps. Pages are clean and tight; appears as if unused. " Bailly was born in 1774, there were about 90,000 Canadian settlers compared to 2.8 million in the American colonies. While Bailly’s French-Canadian parents held aspirations for him to live a quiet life and marry “a nice Catholic girl from Quebec, ” he turned to a life as a fur trader, starting as a clerk for the North West fur trading company. During this time, everybody wanted North American furs. The North American fur trade made many fortunes, increasing the encroachment of Europeans into the Native American held areas. Life as a fur trader was known to be adventurous, requiring its operatives to stay outdoors for months at a time without taking shelter. Bailly became one of the most popular fur traders, knowledgeable and set up his own posts in Michigan near the intersection of the Grand and Maple rivers and traded with the Ottawa Indian Tribes. These fur traders, or voyagers as they called themselves, would often “marry” Native American women and typically would “have a wife on every river. In 1820 he became the first European settler and fur trader in Porter County, taking up residence on the Little Calumet River near present-day Porter." fascinating story of early pioneer life, the fur trade and life in the Upper Midwest.. Very Good+ .

Keywords: Native American History; Canadian History; Adventurers; Fur Trade; Michigan History; State History; Local History; Indiana; Cultural History; Native American History Women/Womens' History Cultural History Animals Education European History American Histor