D294 Marie
PIERRE COUC AND MARIE METIWAMEGHWAHKWE In the other sections of this book, we have told the family history from the more recent generations and then proceeded backwards in successive chapters to tell the story of earlier generations. In the next section, we will reverse that technique because of the unique way in which the story unfolds. Shortly after the founding of the first French settlement in Canada, Quebec City, a young French soldier by the name of Pierre Couc (also spelled Couck, etc.), born in Cognac, France, in 1624, arrived in the wilderness that Canada was then. Behind in Cognac, he left his parents, Nicolas and Elizabeth Templair Couc of the La Fleur branch (in French, dit) of the Couc family. Jesuit missionaries had been working with the Indians of the Huron Confederacy on Georgian Bay. In 1634 they had built their principal mission there. But in 1640 old enemies of the Hurons and their French allies, the Iroquois of New York, began a campaign to destroy the Huron Confederacy, which they did in 1648-1650. It was to fight the Iroquois that young Pierre Couc was sent to New France (Canada) during these years. But the Iroquois succeeded in driving west of Lake Michigan the Hurons and all the interior Indians friendly to the French. More than their British counterparts in North America, the French intermarried with the Indians. Couc, who had settled in Trois Rivieres (Three Rivers) on the St. Lawrence River between Quebec City and Montreal, was married April 16, 1657, by the Jesuit priest, Father Gagueneau, to Marie Metiwameghwahkwe of the Algonquin Nation. (She was probably a Huron.) The Dictionnaire Genealogique lists her birth date as 1631. [Another source lists the marriage year as 1647, but since there were no children until 1657 and then there were children at regular intervals, it would appear 1657 was the correct date.] In 1652 Couc was still in the military. That year was an especially difficult one for New France. The Iroquois carried out a constant surveillance of the small boats which plied the St. Lawrence River. On May 21, across the river from Trois-Rivieres, soldier Couc was attacked and wounded. (Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Vol.VIII, p.29) By 1660 Couc had left the military. On January 10, the Provost of Trois-Rivieres recorded that Pierre Dizy brought a lawsuit against Pierre Couc dit Lafleur, a former soldier of the garrison. (Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Vol. VI, p.94) That August a neighbor gained title to a stone wall which separated his property from that of Pierre Couc. (Our Canadian Ancestor, Vol.VII, p.189) About this time, the heirs of a man named Gille abandoned half of their real estate patrimony to Jacques Fournier dit Laville and Pierre Couc dit Fleur-de-Coignac. (Vol.VII, p.189, Our French- Canadian Ancestors) On March 4, 1662, Etienne de Lafond rented a farm for five years from Madeline and Pierre "Coucq" dit Lafleur. (Vol. VI, p.192 Our French Canadian Ancestors) On November 26, 1664, Pierre Boucher, Pierre Lefebvre, and Jean Cusson, sagacious men of their era, arbitrated a dispute between Father Jacques Fremin and Pierre Couc dit Lafleur. (Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Vol. VI, p.137.) The decade ended rather tragically for the Coucs: Jean Rattier dit DuBuisson murdered their daughter, Jeanne, in 1669. (Our French- Canadian Ancestors, Vol.IX, p.8) A fort had been established at Trois-Rivieres in 1635. A 1663 map shows a mere fifty or so lots, one belonging to Couc. He was clearly one of the earliest residents. The land of the Couces was located on the southwestern corner of Rue St.Pierre and Rue St.Michel, two blocks from the "Fleuve St.Laurent" (St.Lawrence River). Church records at Trois Rivieres and the Dictionnaire Genealogique show that the Couces had nine children: Jeanne, 1657, who was murdered in 1679; Louis, 1659, who in his adult life assumed the surname Montour; Angelique, 1661, who married a man named St.Corney in 1692; Marie, 1663; Marguerite, 1 June 1664, who married Jean Masse-Lafart dit Maconce or Macons (1657-1756), a famous coureur- des-bois who finally settled at Detroit, where he died at ninety- nine; Pierre, April 5, 1665, who was the father of Pierre III, born 5 April in St. Thomas, Pierreville; Elizabeth, 1667; Madeleine, born 1669, who married Maurice Menard; and Jean-Baptiste, born 1673, married Anne Sauvagesse, had a son Jean-Baptiste II born 27 November 1706 at Lachine, now a suburb of Montreal. The Dictionnaire Genealogique gives January 8, 1699 as the date of death for Marie Couc, but there is no date listed for Pierre Couc. A Jean Couc, who was married to Marguerite _______, may have been a brother of Pierre's. Jean's daughter Marie-Julienne, was born 13 April 1763 in Quebec.
History of the Cooper-Matheny-Hewitt Family by Don Rivara