John Baptiste DuBay (July 10, 1810 – January 11, 1887) was a pioneer fur trader throughout the upper Midwest, primarily in Wisconsin.

DuBay was born on 10 July 1810 in Green Bay, Illinois Territory, the son of a French trader and a Menominee Indian.

[4] In 1840 he was appointed Indian agent at Fort Winnebago, at the portage between the Fox and Wisconsin river valleys, and he operated a grocery there.

[5] The Knowlton homestead was his primary home for the rest of his life, although he frequently traveled back to Fort Winnebago on business.

During this period, aside from the trading post, DuBay engaged in several other enterprises, including running a stage line from Portage to Stevens Point.

[8] The dispute involved the fact that the American Fur Company had established quarters which DuBay assumed gave him preemption rights.

However, preemption could not be granted to business entities, only to individuals, and separately the title was acquired by a Mr. Nelson McNeal, who sold the property to the company of Reynolds & Craig.

After supper, he proceeded to cut it down, and a moment after it fell, a mob of thirty men, headed by Reynolds appeared with axes.

Three former Wisconsin governors — James Doty, Nelson Dewey and Henry Dodge — testified on his behalf,[11] and twice the jury could not agree on a conviction.

It was thought that relics and artifacts would be found relevant to the trading post, but as it turned out the site was the location of his home, not the business.