Odd Wisconsin

Odd Wisconsin Archive

Looking Down on the Competition

According to local legend, fur trader Michel Brisbois (1759-1837) had himself interred high on a bluff over Prairie du Chien so he could forever look down on his rivals.

Brisbois was an independent trader who arrived in Wisconsin in 1781. For the next 40 years he paid little attention to the wishes of the authorities, undercutting more prosperous traders and even selling goods to both sides during War of 1812 (he was later accused of treason but acquitted). Brisbois went head to head with well-connected, affluent merchants such as Joseph Rolette and Hercules Dousman, both of whom were agents for the American Fur Company. Rolette in 1818 upped the ante by marrying Jane Fisher, an orphan whom Brisbois and his wife had raised in their home.

Michel Brisbois continued to disregard convention for the rest of his career. As he approached death, the legend says, Brisbois bought a hilltop parcel overlooking Prairie du Chien so that his rivals would know he was looking down on them from the grave. He was buried high on that bluff in 1837.

Brisbois' adopted daughter Jane Fisher may have had the last laugh. About the time that Brisbois died, she separated from Joseph Rolette, insisting he build her this house as part of their separation agreement. Shortly afterwards Rolette was ruined by John Jacob Astor, and he died in poverty in 1842. Jane Fisher promptly married Brisbois' other rival, Hercules Dousman, and became mistress of the finest fur trade mansion in the west, Villa Louis. Both houses belong to the Wisconsin Historical Society and are open to the public today, with Michel Brisbois looking down on them from his final resting place high above.