Michel Laframboise

Michel Laframboise (May 11, 1793 – January 25, 1865) was a French Canadian fur trader in the Oregon Country who settled on the French Prairie in the modern U.S. state of Oregon. A native of Varennes, Quebec, he worked for the Pacific Fur Company, the North West Company, and the Hudson's Bay Company before he later became a farmer and ferry operator. In 1843 he participated in the Champoeg Meetings. Though he voted against the measure to form a provisional government, the measure passed and led to the creation of the Provisional Government of Oregon.

Early life Jean Baptiste Eugene Laframboise was born on May 11, 1793, in Varennes, Quebec, Canada, along the Saint Lawrence River. His parents were Michel Laframboise and Josèphe Monjau, with Jean Baptiste later adopting his father's first name.

Fur trader Laframboise and the rest of the crew and passengers arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1811 where they established Fort Astoria. He had been hired as a voyageur,

While working for the HBC out of Fort Vancouver, he received permission to settle some land on the French Prairie in 1831. These Native Americans were retaliating against whites after an expedition led by Laframboise killed eleven Natives earlier that year.

The couple had several children before and after the marriage, settling on the French Prairie in the Willamette Valley of present-day Oregon .

Laframboise took part in the Champoeg Meetings in 1843 where he voted against forming a settler government. By 1852 he had settled a Donation Land Claim north of his original property and was operating a ferry across the Willamette River to Champoeg, connecting to the Champoeg-Salem Road. He had a stroke in the early 1860s and then sold off his assets. Michel Laframboise died on January 25, 1865, at the age of 71.