Fraser Simon 1776?-1862 Brought To Canada As A Child From New York


state, his widowed mother settling near Cornwall. Joined the North West

Company in 1792, and ten years later became a bourgeois or partner.

Served for a time at Grand Portage, and sent to the Athabaska district;

in 1805, when the Company decided to carry its operations beyond the

Rocky Mountains, put in charge of the new field. After establishing

trading-posts in New Caledonia, now northern British Columbia, set out

fr
m Fort St. James on Stuart Lake, with Jules Maurice Quesnel, and a

party of voyageurs and Indians, upon the exploration of the great river

that bears his name. In 1811 promoted to the charge of the Red River

department, and offered knighthood as a recognition of his services in

the cause of exploration, but declined the honour. Was present at the

Seven Oaks affair, when Governor Semple of the Hudson's Bay Company lost

his life. Retired from the fur trade about the time of the coalition of

the Hudson's Bay Company and the North West Company. =Index=: (Sir James Douglas era) In

service of North West Company, 57; ordered to extend operations of

Company west of Rocky Mountains, 59; reaches Fraser River, 1806, 59;

builds forts on Stuart Lake and Fraser River, 59; ordered to explore

river to the sea, 60; his journey down the Fraser, 60-61; proves

Tacouche Tesse not the Columbia, 61; builds Rocky Mountain House and

other posts, 97-98; given command of Red River department, 1811, 98;

offered and declines knighthood, 98; dies, 1862, at age of 86, 98. (Mackenzie / Selkirk / Simpson era)

Sent to explore New Caledonia, 108; crosses Rocky Mountains, 1806, and

builds fort on Stuart River, 108; his journey down the Fraser, 108-110;

arrested by Selkirk at Fort William, 189. =Bib.=: Bancroft, History of

the North-West Coast; Masson, Bourgeois de la Compagnie du

Nord-Ouest; Morice, Northern Interior of British Columbia; Bryce,

Hudson's Bay Company; Laut, Conquest of the Great North-West;

Burpee, Search for the Western Sea.



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