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| Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant | |
|---|---|
| Name | Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant |
| Birth date | c. 1777–1785 |
| Birth place | near Sault Ste. Marie, Upper Canada |
| Death date | 1844–1860 (disputed) |
| Death place | Saint Paul, Minnesota? / Winona, Minnesota? |
| Occupation | Fur trapper, settler, tavernkeeper |
| Known for | Early settler of Saint Paul, Minnesota; eponym of Pig's Eye |
Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant was an early 19th-century fur trapper and tavernkeeper associated with the founding era of Saint Paul, Minnesota and the surrounding Minnesota River valley. He is traditionally credited as the first resident to establish a drinking house that attracted voyageurs, Ojibwe, and settlers, and his sobriquet gave an early name to the settlement that became Saint Paul. Accounts of his biography mix oral tradition, fur trade records, and newspaper reports, producing contested details about his birth, arrival, and death.
Parrant is believed to have been born in the late 18th century near Sault Ste. Marie, in what was then Upper Canada or Lower Canada, to a background linked with French-Canadian voyageurs and mixed-heritage families active in the Great Lakes fur trade. Contemporary networks such as the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company shaped migration patterns for many French-Canadian trappers who later moved into the Minnesota Territory and along the Mississippi River. Connections to communities at Mackinac Island, Detroit, and trading posts at Sault Ste. Marie and St. Joseph Island are cited in some accounts, while genealogical records remain sparse. His skills as a trapper and interpreter would have linked him to figures and places like Jean-Baptiste Faribault, Alexander Ramsey, and the broader milieu of voyageur culture.
Parrant appears in documentary and oral sources as arriving in the upper Mississippi River region during the 1830s, a period marked by increased movement after treaties such as the Treaty of 1837 and the growing influence of Saint Anthony Falls and Fort Snelling. The migratory currents that brought him included routes used by Philippe LeSueur, Henry Hastings Sibley, and other traders who frequented posts at Mendota and St. Paul. His presence intersects with land speculation episodes involving individuals like Lucius Lyon and institutions including the American Fur Company, while demographic shifts associated with the Black Hawk War aftermath and territorial expansion set the context for early settlement.
By the mid-1830s or early 1840s Parrant had established a drinking establishment on the east bank of the Mississippi River near present-day Lower St. Anthony Falls and the site that became Saint Paul, Minnesota. His tavern served voyageurs, French-Canadian settlers, Ojibwe men, steamboat crews, and employees of outfits like the American Fur Company and independent traders. The house functioned as an informal hub comparable to inns and taverns associated with frontier towns such as Galena, Illinois and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, facilitating commercial interactions and information exchange among hunters, trappers, and speculators linked to figures like Henry M. Rice and Joseph R. Brown.
Parrant's sobriquet "Pig's Eye"—attributed to a moniker for his appearance, a nickname among voyageurs, or a reference used in local vernacular—gave rise to the early place-name for the hamlet: "Pig's Eye" or "Pig's Eye Landing." The persona corresponded with other memorable frontier nicknames found in accounts of Andrew Myrick, James "Jesse" Brown", and voyageurs chronicled in journals associated with Lieutenant Zebulon Pike and Henry Schoolcraft. Local oral histories, recounted in newspapers like the Minnesota Pioneer and later compiled by authors connected with the Minnesota Historical Society, portray Parrant as a convivial, roguish figure whose identity became woven into the toponymy later altered by religious leaders and civic boosters such as Lucien Galtier and Joseph R. Brown.
Parrant's career in the frontier tavern economy brought him into contact with evolving legal authorities including Territorial Governor Henry Hastings Sibley, local magistrates, and militia officials. Stories recount episodes of brawls, arrests, and disputes over licenses resembling incidents recorded in other frontier towns like Stillwater, Minnesota and Duluth, Minnesota. His conflicts reflect tensions between indigenous alcohol regulations stemming from treaties with the Dakota and Ojibwe and Anglo-American territorial law as administered by figures like Willard Keyes and officials linked to the Minnesota Territorial Legislature era. Documentation is uneven, and surviving court records and newspaper notices from the 1840s yield fragmentary corroboration.
Accounts diverge sharply regarding Parrant's later life and death. Some narratives assert that he left the Saint Paul area around the late 1840s, moving upriver toward Winona, Minnesota or returning to trading routes; other versions place his death in the 1850s or as late as 1860, possibly at a military post or at a remote trading post. Confusion mirrors contested identifications common in frontier biography, such as debates over burial locations in cemeteries tied to Fort Snelling and early parish registers maintained by Lucien Galtier and Bishop Joseph Crétin. The lack of a definitive death certificate or grave marker has allowed multiple local traditions to persist.
Parrant's enduring legacy is primarily toponymic and folkloric: the early name "Pig's Eye" for the settlement that became Saint Paul, Minnesota persisted in popular memory and was contested by civic leaders, clergy, and newspapers favoring the Saint Paul designation tied to St. Paul and missionary enterprises. His story appears in works published by the Minnesota Historical Society, in regional folklore collections alongside narratives of Zebulon Pike and Stephen Harriman Long, and in artistic treatments that engage with French-Canadian and Ojibwe frontier interaction. The neighborhood and wetlands named Pig's Eye Regional Park and cultural references in local histories, biographies of settlers like Jean-Baptiste Faribault and Alexander Ramsey, and commemorations in municipal histories demonstrate how a marginal frontier figure became a symbol in debates over identity, memory, and place-naming during the Minnesota Territory and early State of Minnesota periods.