b. LaPrairie, Canada, 1752
d. Green Bay, Wisconsin, Spring 1821

Charles Reaume was a fur trader and judge. Reaume worked in the fur and Indian trades, but moved to Detroit after his business failed.

Revolutionary War

During the American Revolutionary War he supported the British. But after he was captured by the American forces, he took an oath of neutrality. Around 1792, he moved to Green Bay. He worked in the fur trade briefly and then turned to farming.

Justice of the Peace

Reaume was most famous for his long, legendary career as Green Bay justice of the peace. He was appointed to the office by Governor William H. Harrison of Indiana Territory in 1803. In 1818, Governor Lewis Cass of Michigan Territory appointed him associate justice of the Brown County court. Reaume held both offices until his death.

Legacy

Although Reaume's legal claim to office was sometimes questioned, his acceptance by the French Canadians in Green Bay is credited with making a civil commission unnecessary. Reaume's judgments were usually mild and nearly always unorthodox. But many people disliked him. They considered him pompous, arbitrary and lazy. Reaume was one of the most intriguing figures in early Wisconsin — an American judge, dispensing justice according to French law and Indian custom while wearing a British uniform.

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Charles Reaume

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Colls. State Hist. Soc. Wis., 1 (1855), 3 (1857), 19 (1910); J. Tasse, Les Canadiens de l'Ouest (2 vols., Montreal, 1878); WPA MS; C. Reaume Papers.