City history
Marie-Thérèse Guyon Cadillac
1671–1746 · pioneer, wife of Detroit's founder
Quebec-born wife of Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac who traveled by canoe to Fort Pontchartrain in 1701 and is remembered as the First Lady of Detroit.
- Born
Beauport, Quebec, New France- Died
- Birth name
- Marie-Thérèse Guyon
- Also known as
- Madame Cadillac · First Lady of Detroit
- Detroit years
- 1701–1710
- Field
- City history
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Marie-Thérèse Guyon was born in 1671 in Beauport, near Quebec City, the daughter of a merchant and farmer, and lost both parents before she turned twenty. In 1687, at seventeen, she married the ambitious officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac. When he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit in the summer of 1701, she followed that autumn, crossing hundreds of miles of lakes and rivers by canoe with her young son and Madame Tonty, the wife of the fort's second-in-command. The two are remembered as the first European women to settle in Detroit. At the fort she took on real administrative work, hiring voyageurs, signing contracts and caring for the sick, and she stayed behind to guard the family's interests when her husband was recalled to Quebec. The couple also brought what is described as Detroit's first art collection, displayed in the Sainte-Anne church. She is honored in the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.
Highlights
- Reached Fort Pontchartrain in autumn 1701 after a long canoe journey
- Remembered with Madame Tonty as Detroit's first European women settlers
- Handled contracts and supplies at the fort during her husband's absences
- Inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Related place · 1701–1710
Ste. Anne de Détroit
The colony's parish church, where the Cadillacs displayed what is described as Detroit's first collection of fine art; today's church building dates from 1886–1887.