Illustration of Marie Noelle Landeau taken from “The Far Fields” by Margot Stimely

1} Marie Noelle Nathalie Landeau 1638-1706. 

Noelle, as she is called in many places, may have been one of the “King’s Daughters” or  “Filles du Roi”. One of the girls who left her native France to come to the wilds of New France and wed a lonely Frenchman, in the little settlement of Trois Riviers. Fortified with only one blockhouse, openly in danger of wild animals of the forest and hostilities from the English and marauding Iroquois she married Jean Baudoin in 1659.  With him, she had two children. Before the last child was born in April 1662 her husband died and because his body was never found, it is thought, at the hands of the Iroquois. Marriageable women where a very scarce commodity at that time and Noelle could have her pick of the young men in the communitie. She was also very astute and thinking of her and her children’s future, made a legal contract with her new husband Louis Tatreau (1631-1699). In that contract it stated that Louis would treat her two children as he would any that were born to the new couple. This trait, of Noelle, was evident throughout her life. When Louis became quite a man of wealth, owner of a fife and a house in the growing village of Ville Marie, soon to become Montreal, she assured that all family members were well cared for. Noelle and Louis had two daughters and seven sons who established all of the thousands of Tetreau, Tetrault, Tatro, Tatroe and about forty other variations (including the dit-Ducharme) scattered over North America and beyond, although one of their sons died at the hands of an Iroquois. 

Noelle always assured that her children and herself were cared for as long as she lived. Her daughters married well, and her sons were dealt portions of property, as they became adults and had their own children. She arranged, when widowed in old age, to turn over her home to a son, so she would be looked after in her home, as long as she lived. She even arranged for her own funeral, with the Catholic Church, before her death. There now is a plaque to commemorate the Tetreau couple in the location where they spent their last years.

If you would like to read more about Noelle’s life you can read “THE FAR FIELDS” by Margot Stimely. I have a copy.