fur trader, militia officer, office holder; b. Lachine, Quebec. First white European to settle in Fox Valley in 1793 where he paid two barrels of rum to two Indians for control of the portage around the lower Fox River and began trading with Indians. In 1794, Ducharme and trader Jacob Franks obtained a 999-year lease on 1200 acres from the Menominee on both sides of the Fox River. He may have continued to trade there for next 15 years. Ducharme returned to Montreal and married Agathe de Lorimier on June 26, 1812. Ducharme became lieutenant in Pointe-Claire Battalion during War of 1812. In 1816, he became interpreter for the Indian Department and in 1819 received a commission of the peace. Ducharme was appointed commissioner for the trial of small causes at Lac-des-Montagnes in 1821. He died in 1853 in Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes.

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[Source: Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=38005]