Christmas (Noel) Dagenet was born December 25, 1799 near Terre Haute and was baptised by Father Rivet, missionary at Vincennes. He was the son of French fur trader Ambrose Dagenet and Mechinquamesha, sister of Wea chief Jacco. He served the Wea nation and the U.S. government at the Treaty of St. Mary's signed in 1818. In 1819 he married Mary Ann Isaacs in a ceremony conducted by Isaac McCoy at his Baptist Indian mission near here. Recommended by William Clark, he worked for the U.S. government as an Interpreter, receiving $400 per year from June 1824 through 1827. He selected land here to fulfill a grant in the Treaty of St. Mary's, and the land was recorded in 1824. His family moved west in 1847. Dagenet was employed in the last removal of Miamis from Indiana beginning in 1846. He died before April 10, 1848.