Michel Branamour Menard

Menard was a businessman and founder of the Galveston City Company. He was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1805. He worked as a fur trader in Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri, including serving as the trader for a band of Shawnee. His work for the Shawnee brought him to Texas in 1828 where he applied for citizenship and continued to trade furs for various Indian tribes. His early business in Texas was successful and he amassed a large swath of land on the lower Trinity River. Though he opposed independence, he was a signer ot the Texas Declaration of Independence and was sent by President Burnet to secure peace treaties with the Shawnee, Delaware, and Kickapoo Indian tribes in Texas. In 1834 he started a scheme to acquire the east end of the island of Galveston. With a number of investors he formed the Galveston City Company in 1838 and started selling deeds and lots. He represented Galveston in the Texas Congress in 1840-41. He lost three wives to illness, and he died in Galveston in 1856.