Connecting Stories

Flintlock Guns

Sometimes, quite by accident, a writer is able to connect one story to another in ways that makes two little stories into a bigger story that is much more important. Connecting stories is, after all, what writers are supposed to do; and so it was quite a joy to discover that what I did not understand in Book #2: The York Factory Express, was explained in Book #5, “Headquarters,” [not yet published].

[If you think you have seen this post before, you have. Somewhere it got messed up (WordPress does this sometimes), and I trashed the original post and redid it.]

I always wondered why clerk James Douglas was in such a rush to get to Red River in 1835. In my book, The York Factory Express, I say this about Douglas setting out from Fort Vancouver, leading the outgoing York Factory Express to Hudson Bay. 

In early March 1835, 32-year-old James Douglas led out the York Factory Express, leaving Fort Vancouver two weeks earlier than others had done. The long-time clerk at Fort Vancouver was heading east to the annual meeting of the Governor and Council of the Hudson’s Bay Company, held at Red River that year. His journal is more of a personal journal than most…

There are many other places in this journal that indicate he was in a hurry. But why, I did not know at the time. I thought it was just his bossy and controlling personality, but it wasn’t. And it was not until I found the connecting stories that I finally understood his rush. So, for you to also understand this, you will have to go back in time, as I did.

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In the early 1830s, Peter Skene Ogden was put in charge of the northwest coast, where the HBC wanted to build a series of posts to compete with both the Russians, in what is now Alaska, and the “Boston” ships that regularly traded for furs that came to the coast via the Grease Trails from the interior. In 1833, Ogden sailed north to Millbanke Sound to establish Fort McLoughlin. When he considered it safe to leave the fort for a while, Ogden sailed north to visit Russian territory, to explore the inland waters of the Stikine River.

The Russians owned the ten-mile strip of land next to the coastline, but Ogden planned to build his new post far enough up the Stikine to be in British Territory. The Russians, however, heard of his short visit, and by the time Ogden returned to the Stikine River in 1834, they had established their own post, Redoubt St. Dionysius, at the mouth of the Stikine River. They politely, but firmly, refused to allow Ogden and his men upriver, even though they knew, and admitted they knew, that Ogden had every legal right to travel through the thin strip of Russian-owned land to establish a post in British territory beyond.

And what does this have to do with Douglas’ 1835 York Factory Express? As you will see, all of these seemingly unconnected stories are connecting stories. 

After a month’s long delay and many fruitless negotiations with the Russians, Ogden retreated from the Stikine, recognizing that he could not win this battle. As he had the goods aboard to build a new fort, that is what he did: he moved Fort Nass [the first Fort Simpson] from its old location far up the Nass estuary and near the mouth of the Nass River, west, to the coast. This new fort became known as Fort Simpson: named for Aemilius Simpson, who travelled to the Pacific Ocean in the incoming York Factory Express of 1826. Yes, his journal is also part of the story of The York Factory Express.

So how is this incident connecting stories together? Well, when Peter Skene Ogden finally returned to Fort Vancouver in the Dryad in December 1834, he reported on the incident to Chief Factor John McLoughlin. McLoughlin, and his clerk, James Douglas, prepared the reports that Governor George Simpson would need in order to defend the Hudson’s Bay Company’s legal rights, and James Douglas carried these same reports to Red River in the paper box that the 1835 York Factory Express carried. And that is the reason for Douglas’s anxiety to get to Red River! If you read his entire journal from end to end, you would see his anxiety going out, and understand how relaxed he is coming home, when he knew he had done his job well.

So what happened? Why is this little story of Peter Skene Ogden being turned away from the Stikine River one of the many connecting stories that I have come to realize are important to the history of the HBC in the Columbia?

The HBC men at Fort Vancouver knew they had a right to ascend the Stikine River through Russian territory, in order to reach their own territory east of the 10-mile wide strip of land the Russians controlled. They also had a legal right, backed by International law, to build a post there, as long as that post stood in British Territory. John McLoughlin’s reports, which were delivered to Governor Simpson by James Douglas in 1835, were forwarded by Simpson to the Hudson’s Bay Company headquarters in London. The London Committee complained to the British government, and the British government negotiated with the Russian government to settle this violation of international law. It took a few years: but on January 25, 1839, the agreement between the Russian American Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company was signed in Hamburg, Germany, by the HBC’s Governor Simpson, and Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel for the Russian American Company.

In this agreement, the Hudson’s Bay Company leased from the Russians a 350-mile long strip of continental coastline south of Cape Spencer, on Cross Sound, for a period of ten years, with the offshore islands remaining in Russian control. The HBC also took possession of the Russian establishment of Redoubt St. Dionysius, at the mouth of the Stikine River, renaming it Fort Stikine. With ownership of this post under their belt, the HBC men now had access to the Stikine River valley, an extensive river valley known to be particularly rich in furs.

In April 1840, James Douglas and forty men sailed north to the Russian American Fur Company’s headquarters at Sitka to negotiate the remainder of the settlement between the two companies. Douglas was now, secretly, a Chief Factor, with special instructions from the Governor and Committee to force his way past the Russian fort at the mouth of the Stikine if the Russians did not seem amendable enough. The Russians, however, were agreeable to the loss of part of their fur trading territory. I believe they considered they were giving away a very troublesome piece of their fur trading territory, and were pleased to rid themselves of it.

Both companies benefitted from the settlement. The HBC now owned the fort at the mouth of the Stikine River, and they were able to set up another fort in the region: Fort Durham, to the north. The HBC also negotiated with the Russian American Company to supply the Russian’s northern posts with provisions from their farms — hence the creation of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company. As part of their settlement with the Russians, they must import “land otter skins” from the Saskatchewan district every year, in part payment of the lease.

So the HBC might have benefitted from the final settlement with the Russians, but they also suffered the consequences of their agreement. There seemed to be a little difficulty in delivering the food supplies from Fort Vancouver or Fort Victoria every year, or several times a year: the London ships now stayed in the region for about a year and a half, rather than returning home immediately, and that made the necessary deliveries much less difficult.

But there are more connecting stories, as we know — although we might not have made the connections immediately. For one thing: over the years that followed the HBC men certainly had their troubles with the First Nations who lived close to Fort Stikine (the renamed Redoubt St. Dionysius), and Fort Durham, to the north. And the land otter skins from the Saskatchewan district caused the poor York Factory Express men a ton of trouble every year, as it was they who transported them over the Rocky Mountains. According to artist Paul Kane, on October 15, 1846, the incoming express was making its way up the Athabasca River west of Jasper’s House during a particularly cold and early winter. They “held a council, and it was determined that, as the weather had set in so bad, five men and one boat with the clerk [John] Charles, should return back to Fort Assiniboine with the Russian packs of otter skins.” In 1847, as he was leading out the York Facory Express to Hudson Bay, Thomas Lowe met John Charles “and two Scotch shepherds whom we found here [at Jasper’s House] with the Packet for the Columbia. The Horses had been waiting for us a week..” There is no mention of the Otter Skins here: they would be left for Thomas Lowe to bring in on his return, along with the packs of otter skins for the current year! And yes, indeed, they were. In his journal, Lowe writes that on arriving at Fort Assiniboine on his return, on September 30 1847, that “Besides the 40 packs Otters… we brought with us [from Edmonton House] we likewise take with us from Assiniboine the 40 packs Otters left last season.”

So, connecting stories. I think poor Thomas Lowe got the worst of it! Carrying 80 packs of otter skins across Athabasca Pass and down the Columbia River cannot have been an easy job.

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2025. All rights reserved.

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