In 1868 Archbishop Tache hired Ulphie Cossette to guide a party of missionaries from Winnipeg, Manitoba down the Red River to the Holy Cross Roman Catholic mission  which had recently been founded by Bishop Genin near Fort Abercrombie in the Dakota Territories.  Having just left the Hudson's Bay Company, Ulphie was looking for a place to homestead and liked what he saw there.  After delivering the missionaries safely he journeyed on to his family's home at Champlain, Quebec.   There he convinced several others in his family to join him as homesteaders in the Dakota Territories.  In the spring of 1869, Ulphie along with his brothers Pierre and Delphis (Adolphe) and Delphis' son, Adolphe, returned to Fort Abercrombie.  The brothers then staked out homesteads in the area where the Wild Rice river flowed into the Red River.  In about 1870, Ulphie’s sister, Emilie, also arrived with her husband Urcisse Morin and settled on the land to the west of Ulphie .  Finally Ulphie's half-brother Hyacinthe arrived there with his large family in the 1880's.

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This site was last updated 04/13/06