Marie-Françoise Antoinette Petit

Marie Françoise Antoinette de Petit de Coulange de Vilemont (September 23, 1732 1812) was the first European born in the Arkansas region, specifically at the Arkansas Post. She was born to Pierre Louis Petit de Coulange and Françoise Gallard de Chamilly. She was widowed three times by the age of thirty-seven,

Family background Marie Françoise Antoinette de Petit de Coulange was born into a military family. Her father, Pierre Louis Petit de Coulange, served as First Ensign in Louisiana under French rule from late 1731 into 1734. De Coulange lived and worked in the Arkansas Post region from 1731 onward, joined by his wife. In the midst of his tenure as First Ensign and Commandant at the Arkansas Post, Marie was born on September 23, 1732. She was the first child of European descent born in the region. The completed garrison consisted of four wooden structures: a 40x16 ft. barracks, a 10x8 ft. prison, a 32x18 ft. house with three rooms and a fireplace, and an 8x10 ft. powder magazine. this garrison proved to be the first notable structure at the Arkansas Post. It existed through the Seven Years' War, after which it was destroyed. De Coulange felt threatened by other neighboring native tribes, After Le Sénécchal's death and subsequent inheritance, Marie Françoise Antoinette de Petit de Coulange relocated to Versailles, where she then married her third and final husband, Jean Pierre Robert Gerard de Vilemont in 1761, with her name officially becoming Marie Françoise Antoinette de Petit de Coulange de Vilemont. He inherited her aristocratic status. Unlike his maternal grandfather, Pierre Louis Petit de Coulange, who was Commandant of the Arkansas Post through the French colonial regime, he was appointed as Commandant through the Spanish regime as captain.

Death Marie Françoise Antoinette de Petit de Coulange de Vilemont died in 1812. She would have been 79 or 80 years old.