Background
Michel Aco was born c. 1680-1702 in Poitiers, France. No record of his family can be found.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Michel Aco
Edit Profile
also known as
Michel Accault
Career
In 1679-1702 Aco came into the Mississippi Valley in the train of La Salle. He is said by La Salle to have known the tongues of the Iroquois and of the Illinois tribes, and to have been able to communicate with the Iowa, the Oto, the Chippewa, and the Kickapoo.
In 1680 La Salle, who had determined to reconnoiter the upper Mississippi, sent on this errand three men, Aco, Antoine du Gay Auguel, called "the Picard" because of his home in Picardy, and Louis Hennepin, a Recollect friar, appointing Aco leader of the group. Near the Falls of St. Anthony the three men were seized by a large body of Sioux, who then left the river with their captives and struck out overland toward the Sioux villages about the Mille Lac.
Aco and the Picard being smaller were able to proceed with less difficulty. While the Sioux were conducting their three captives to the Mille Lac neighborhood, they were encountered by the French coureur de bois and explorer, Du Lhut (Duluth). The latter, a man of power with the Sioux, rescued the three captives and escorted them down the Mississippi to the mouth of the Wisconsin River; thence they proceeded up the Wisconsin and down the Fox River to Green Bay and Mackinac.
In the spring of 1681 the three men proceeded to Montreal. Here Aco and the Picard left Friar Hennepin (for whom Aco had little stomach) and busied themselves in disposing of a valuable store of furs which they had with them. We now lose sight of Aco; but by the year 1693 he was again in the Mississippi Valley as a business partner of La Salle's associates, Tonty and La Forest.
After the death of La Salle, Tonty built a fort in Illinois near the outlet of Lake Peoria. The fort became a center of trade and connected with this trade was Michel Aco. Near the fort lay a village of the Kaskaskia tribe under the chief Rouensa. Rouensa had a daughter seventeen years old, a devout convert to the Catholic faith. She took the name of Mary, and with her Aco fell desperately in love. Of the further life of Aco record is wanting.
Achievements
Personality
Aco was described as a "prudent, courageous, and cool" man.
Connections
He married Aramepinchieue (Mary), the daughter of a Kaskaskia chief in 1693, and had two children with her.
At first Mary would not wed the white man, but in the end consented to do so in order to help forward conversions among her people to the Christian faith. In 1693 Aco and the Indian maiden were united by the local priest, Father Gravier. In 1695 there was born a son named Pierre. In February 1702, another son was born; he was named Michel after his father.
