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Martin Lynch (1821 – April 28, 1898) was a fur trader and coureurs des bois throughout the upper Midwest, primarily in Wisconsin. He was the first white settler on the Wisconsin River between Merrill, Wisconsin and Eagle River, Wisconsin.

Early life
Martin was born 1821 in Ireland and at age 19 immigrated to Canada where he trapped and fished in the Canadian wilderness. During this time he joined a band of Indians and traveled with them south to Wisconsin where the hunting and fishing were said to be better. It is said the migration south to Wisconsin took several years time, arriving their sometime around 1844. During this time Martin learned the ways and language of the natives, becoming a voyageur.

Marriage and family
While living and hunting with the natives Martin and met and took a young Indian woman named Boganes Layoqua as his wife. Her English name was Ramona Layoqua. Ramona was born in 1835, married Martin Lynch in 1848. She bore 10 children from her marriage with Martin: Bridget, Thomas, Henry, Helen, Alice, Maria, Edwin, John P, Margaret, Julia and James. The first child, Bridget, was born in 1845 in a cabin at the family homestead. Ramona died at the age of 53 in 1888 at the Lynch family homestead a few miles south of the where the Wisconsin and Pelican rivers meet near Rhinelander, Wisconsin

Career
Martin Lynch's career was spent entirely trapping furs and selling them to the Hudson Bay Company at LaPointe on Lake Superior. He would canoe and portage the furs North to LaPointe using the Tomahawk, Flambeau, Manitowish and Bad river waterways.

Legacy and honors
<-- * Mooningwanekaaning Island, designated Île St. Michel by the French in the 17th century, became more widely known as Michael's Island, after Cadotte, during the 19th and into the early 20th century.
 * Since then, the island has become associated with his wife Ikwesewe, who lived into her nineties. Her Catholic saint's name was Madeline, for whom the island is named.
 * Cadott, Wisconsin in Chippewa County, Wisconsin was named for him.
 * One of the grandsons of the Cadottes, William Whipple Warren, was also born in La Pointe. A native speaker of Ojibwe, he was elected as a legislator from Minnesota Territory in 1851. He wrote the first history of the Ojibwe people, combining oral traditions and European-American style of documentation. It was published in 1885 and reprinted in 2009.
 * The Cadottes have numerous living descendants throughout Ojibwe Country, especially in the Red Cliff area. -->