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The Jean Marie Cardinell Chapter,
NSDAR, was organized November 4, 1941. There was a
need at that time for a chapter that met to
accommodate the working woman, so two meetings
were held in the evening and two on Saturday.
Today, Saturday is the regular meeting day.
The name of the chapter was chosen to honor Jean
Marie Cardinell, an Indian trader on the upper
Mississippi River. He is believed to be the first
white man to permanently reside on Iowa land by
1754. Jean Marie was a hunter, trapper, trader,
and miner of the lead mines of Spain on the West
Bank of the Mississippi River (now Dubuque County,
Iowa). To fulfill his religious duties, he brought
his Indian wife to the newly erected church in St.
Louis to have his marriage blessed and to have his
children baptized.
He escaped the British attack at the Fox Village
on Catfish Creek on May 2, 1780, raced down the
river to St. Louis in time to give warning, and
joined the forces of liberty that defeated the
British and Indian attack on May 26, 1780. He died
from wounds suffered in that attack. Jean Marie
Cardinell is the only known Iowa resident to give
his life to the cause of American independence,
and there is a memorial window to Jean Marie at
St. Ambrose Cathedral in Des Moines, Iowa. |
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