Hines, H. K. "An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon." Chicago: Lewis
Pub. Co. 1893.  p. 856.
 
HON. PETER PAQUET

     of Oregon City, one of the Oregon pioneers of 1852, was born in St. Louis,
January 13, 1839.  He is of French ancestry, and his forefathers, on his
father's side, came to America at a very early day and settled in Canada, near
the city of Quebec.  Here his father, Francis X. Paquet, was born, January 15,
1811, and was married in the city of St. Louis, Missouri, January 12, 1836, to
Miss Marie Louise Lanadier de Langdeau.  She was born in St. Louis July 7, 1818,
and was a descendant of one of the earliest French families in this country.
They have been in this country previous to the acquirement of the Northwest
Territory by the United States, and her great-grandfather, Jean Baptiste de
Tuga, received land from the French Government where the town of Vincennes,
Indiana, now stands.  He settled on it and had it platted according to the act
of Congress, and the United States confirmed his title to the property by an Act
of Congress.  He was killed there by the Indians, and the family, being driven
away, went to St. Louis, which then was the only settlement of importance west
of the Mississippi.  Previous to his marriage our subject's father had been in
the employ of the American Fur Company, and in 1828 lived at the post where
Chicago now stands.  At that post there were then three small log houses, one
storehouse and a few men who sawed limber with whipsaws, with which they made
batteans and staves for five-gallon whisky kegs.  These kegs were filled with
alcohol, and when they reached their destination whisky was made by adding
sixteen parts of water.
     On his expedition with the fur company, Mr. Paquet left Makinaw and went to
Prairie du Chien in the fall of 1828, going by way of Green bay and up Fox river
to Fort Winnebago.  They made portage to the Wisconsin river, going down it 180
miles and then up the Mississippi nine miles, being three months on the journey
through an almost unknown region.  Here they spent three months making boats and
repairing wagons, and in 1829 he made the trips with furs to Mackinaw, and
continued in this business until the spring of 1832.  He then left Prairie du
Chien and went to Galena, where he worked in the lead mines until the fall of
1835, when he went to St. Louis and was engaged in boat-building until 1852.
     Mr. Paquet had performed his duty in assisting in the suppression of the
Indian depredations.  The first massacre took place on Rock river, when sixty
families were killed by the savages.  Mr. Paquet was in the Bates Company and
went to Fort Lake with them, and there the party stopped until General Scott and
General Dodge arrived.  They then all -- that is, volunteers and regulars --
followed the Indians to Bad Axe river, where they surrounded the Indians, and
Black Hawk and twenty of his warriors escaped by swimming the Mississippi river.
They were afterward overtaken by a band of Sioux Indians and captured during
this campaign.
     Mr. Paquet was sent by General Dodge with dispatches to General Scott, a
distance of 200 miles, and the last day of the journey the rain came down in
torrents, and when Mr. Paquet arrived he was so drenched that General Scott felt
compassion for the trusty messenger and insisted upon his donning a suit of his
own clothes.  As General Scott was a very large man and Paquet a short man, the
clothes did not fit, but he wore them until his own dried.  In 1852, with his
wife and family, he crossed the plains to Oregon.  The children were Mary
Delema, Peter, Joseph, John F., Louis and Emma Adaline.  Elizabeth died in St.
Louis in infancy.  George Washington was born at Willow Creek, Oregon, September
22, 1852; and also in Oregon were born, Francis X., Jr., Edward, Oliver L. and
Ida, but all of this latter family are dead except one.  Those now living are:
Peter Joseph, Louis and Oliver L.
     The family arrived at the Dalles September 22, and on October 10 they
reached Portland, where they wintered, and about the last day of May, 1853,
moved to Canemah, and in August, 1854, purchased a right to a donation claim
three miles south of Oregon City, where they resided until 1863, when they
removed to Canemah.  In 1865 they moved to Stringtown and in 1876 went to Oak
Grove in eastern Oregon, but in 1891 came to East Portland, where both Mr. and
Mrs. Paquet now reside.  She has reached the age of seventy-five years, and he
is in his eighty-second year, both quite hale yet and are among the most worthy
of Oregon pioneers.
     Our subject, Peter Paquet, was the second child and the first son of the
pioneers above mentioned.  He was thirteen years of age when they started for
Oregon, and on the journey he drove stock and a team and took his turn at
standing guard like a man.  After arrival here he learned the trade of
boat-builder with his father.  He had been sent to school in St. Louis and
attended the public schools in Oregon wherever the settlement of the family
happened to be.  When he reached his majority he engaged in boat-building, and
as general contractor and builder.
     The marriage of our subject took place September 5, 1871, to Miss Sarah E.
Hamilton, a native of Illinois, and a daughter of John and Jane (Shepherd)
Hamilton.  Mr. and Mrs. Paquet have three children:  Louisa J., Florence C. and
Victor H.  Mr. Paquet is a member of the Masonic fraternity and is a Past Master
of Multnomah Lodge, No. 1, and has served in other offices in the order.  In
politics he is a reliable Republican, and has served three terms in the State
Legislature as follows:  1870, 1888, and 1890.  He has served nine terms as a
member of the City Council of Oregon City, and has also been its Mayor.  Among
other positions of responsibility may be mentioned that he served as president
of the Board of Delegates of the Oregon City Fire Department.  During the last
term in the Legislature he was Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means and
was a prominent candidate for Speaker of the House, and as Chairman of the
committee on Ways and Means made a record never excelled by any person in that
capacity.  On the 4th day of February, 1892, Mr. Paquet was appointed by
President Harrison, Receiver of Public Moneys at Oregon City, Oregon.  He was
confirmed by the United States Senate on the 8th, and his commission signed by
the President on the 11th day of February, 1892.  On the 14th day of April,
1892, he took possession of the office, in which position he is now serving.
     Mr. Paquet is a man of considerable ability, of much general information,
is generally consulted about legislation and public measures, and his opinions
carry much weight.  Uniformly courteous in matters of business, he is very
popular in the community in which he lives and in every part of the State in
which he is known.  Few men in Oregon have the excellent reputation of Hon.
Peter Paquet, of Oregon City.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in August 2006 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.