A special birthday will be celebrated this Saturday.

The Vincennes Historical & Antiquarian Society will commemorate the 324th birth anniversary of the founder of the city of Vincennes, Francois Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes.

The observance will be at the Vincennes Farmer’s  Market at the corner of First and Busseron Streets at 10 am.

After singing Happy Birthday, there will be cupcakes and then the  celebration will move to the statue of the Sieur de Vincennes at the end of Main Street, by the Riverwalk.

The Mayor will make a proclamation of “Sieur de Vincennes Day” and a wreath will be laid at the foot of the statue.

Francois Marie Bissot, Sieur de Vincennes, was born in Montreal on June 17,1700.

He was an officer in the French Marines, first in Canada, and later in the Province of Louisiana.  In 1730 he persuaded Piankeshaw Indians to move to the lower Wabash River.

In 1731 the Sieur de Vincennes began a small fort at this place, which was completed in 1732.

The Sieur, his wife, Marie, and their two daughters, lived in the fort and constituted the first family of the settlement.

In 1736 the Sieur joined an expedition against the Chickasaw Indians in northern Mississippi.

In the battle he was captured and killed on March 25.

The small settlement of French soldiers, fur traders, and Indians that he founded on the banks of the Wabash River, continued to bear his name and grew into the first permanent community and city in the state of Indiana.