Jacques Vieau

Who was Jacques Vieau?

Jacques Vieau was a French-Canadian fur trader and first permanent white settler in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He was born near Montreal, Canada and died in Howard, Wisconsin.

Vieau married Angelique Roy in 1786, the granddaughter of Potawatomi Indian chief, Anaugesa, at Green Bay. They had at least twelve children together.

While employed by the North West Company, Vieau established a fur trading post in the area that would become Milwaukee in 1795, along with outposts at Kewaunee, Manitowoc and Sheboygan. His Milwaukee cabin was built on top of a bluff overlooking the Menomonee Valley and became his winter residence away from Green Bay. A historical monument marks this location in Mitchell Park as the first house in Milwaukee.

In 1818 Jacques Vieau hired another French-Canadian named Solomon Juneau, who later married his daughter Josette and went on to found what was to become the City of Milwaukee.

Vieau is the eponym of Vieau Elementary School and also a street found in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Although the descendants of Vieau are centered around Green Bay, there is a direct male descendant of Vieau presently residing in West Allis, a suburb of Milwaukee.