DR. HIPPOLYTE JOSEPH SEIGNEURET
The Exiled French Revolutionary Who Chose Minnesota Territory Heritage Presentation
Date/Time: Saturday, November 2, 2024, from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m.
Location: Dupuis House at Sibley Historic Site, 1357 Sibley Memorial Highway, Mendota, MN 55150
Cost: $15.00.
Register on the website of the French-American Heritage Foundation at fahfminn.org or send a check to FAHF at P.O. Box 13542, Saint Paul, MN 55113.
Refreshments will be provided.
MaryEllen Weller-Smith will discuss the life story of Dr. Hippolyte J. Seigneuret, a French doctor who was an exiled French Revolutionary leader in the European People’s Spring of 1848, who then came to Minnesota and was involved in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 as an assistant surgeon to Hatch’s Independent Minnesota Cavalry Battalion. He ultimately signed the death certificates
for the 38 condemned Dakota men who were hanged in Mankato in 1862.
MaryEllen Weller-Smith taught French and Spanish in Minnesota for over thirty years. She has a special interest in French-Canadian history and culture in this region. She is a founding member of the French-American Heritage Foundation of Minnesota. She was a Fulbright Exchange Teacher to Saint-Denis, France, was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar at the Newberry Library in Chicago, and is the author of a book about Frances Anne Hopkins who was renowned for her paintings of French-Canadian voyageurs.
