Isaac Tellier is one of the men who has opened the western country for settlement, being an intrepid pioneer and a man of enterprise and stirring energy. His wife and children’s allotments were taken in 1894 and he has a fine body of land of four hundred and eighty acres, with a good large house and other improvements, as orchard, fences, and so forth.
Isaac Tellier kas born in Walla Walla, on February 20, 1860 being the son of Louie and Angelique (Tecomtah) Tellier. The home ranch joined the Whitman ranch. The father was born in 1806 in Canada, and died in 1880. He settled in the vicinity of Walla Walla in 1833 was an independent trapper and sold to the Hudson’s Bay and American Company. He knew Whitman, Spalding and all the early missionaries, also Dr. McLoughlin. The mother of our subject was born in the Flathead country in 1822 and lives with this son. Her uncle Coon-Coon-Staine was chief of the Flatheads.
Our subject lived on the home ranch and was educated there until fifteen, when he rode the range until twenty-two. In 1883 he went to the Coeur d’Alene country and learned the harness maker’s trade. Then he packed to British Columbia with General Sherman and afterward for the Northern Pacific. After this he went to the Flathead reservation and worked for the mission for a time, continuing until 1894.
On April 14, 1888, in Montana, at the Flathead mission, Mr. Tellier married Miss Cecile, daughter of Louie and Mary Ann. The father was a Frenchman and the mother a Nez Perces Indian woman. Her father was a smart man and one of the first among the Indians who was educated. His Indian name was Kimpilets, but in English he was known as Dick Richards. He was a powerful chief and a firm friend of the whites. Mrs. Tellier was born in Missoula, Montana, on May 30, 1864, and she has one sister, Lillie Compleville. Mr. Tellier has the following brothers and sisters: Mary Beauchamp, Nelson, Cleofaus, Theodore, Adelaide. The children born to Mr. and Mrs. Tellier are named as follows: Rosa Findlay, who was educated in the Montana mission and is at Kamiah; Esther, educated at the Montana mission; Cleofaus, Laurett, Albert, Louie, all at home and will be educated in the English schools.
Mr. and Mrs. Tellier are members of the Catholic Church. He is a Democrat and takes an active part in the campaigns.
Back to: Nez Perce Biographies
Source: An Illustrated History of Northern Idaho, Embracing Nez Perce, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone Counties, Western Historical Publishing Company, 1903