Birth: Dec. 5, 1805
Death: Sep. 2, 1858

Michel Brindamour Menard, also known as Michael B. Menard, was a French-Canadian born near Montreal in 1805. He arrived in Texas in 1829 at the age of 14 and entered the fur trading company of John Jacob Astor.

In the 1830s, Menard began speculating in Texas land. Because land was only granted to Mexican born Texans at that time, many of Menard’s land deals were made by Juan Seguin, a Mexican citizen who eventually fought under Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto. Seguin purchased 4,600 acres at the eastern end of Galveston Island on behalf of Menard in December 1836. Menard, needing additional money to promote the town formed the Galveston City Company with Samuel May Williams and other prominent Texas businessmen in 1838. Galveston was incorporated a year later.

The City of Galveston was named after Bernardo de Galvez, an 18th century governor of Spanish Louisiana who never set foot on the island.

Texas politician, Menard was a Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836. He served as a Member of Texas Republic Congress from 1840 to 1842.
Other members of the Menard family left Montreal at a young age for the US. Michel's uncle, Pierre Menard, a successful businessman, established on a point of land between the Mississippi and Kaskasia Rivers, became a judge of the court of common pleas, territorial commissioner, captain of the militia, delegate to the territorial legislature, and presided at the first elective legislature of Illinois Territory. It was in his honor that a provision of the new State's constitution allowed the lieutenant governor to be a naturalized American citizen for a minimum of two years, as opposed to thirty years required for a governor.