Duelling Historians
The book cover for my book, The HBC Brigades, which will be published by Ronsdale Press in May, 2024
My Book, The HBC Brigades: Culture, Conflict, and Perilous Journeys of the Fur Trade, was published by Ronsdale Press in July 2024. You can order it now through your local bookstore, or via Amazon. In USA, the distributor for Ronsdale Press is Independent Publishers Group. Thank you!
This post is a continuation of the series I began a while ago: Fort St. James, as taken from Jamie Morton’s manuscript, “A Century of Fur Trade on Stuart Lake,” which is found on the Parks Canada History website at https://parkscanadahistory.com/series/mf/367.pdf. But as I am taking some information from Bruce McIntyre Watson’s books, we may have information from duelling historians. Well, that will make it fun, won’t it?
My first post in this series covered the period when the North West Company was in charge at Fort St. James: now we will talk about the Hudson’s Bay Company. You will find the first post in this series at: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/fort-st-james-2/ Firstly, in 1821, Jamie Morton says: “While Stuart and the brigade were en route” to Fort George, at the mouth of the Columbia River, “they had not yet heard the momentous news of the amalgamation of the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company. The latter company had had little direct impact on New Caledonia, but the commercial battle between these organizations had been raging for some years. The unrestrained competition began in 1811…”
The competition between the two companies had taken place mostly in the Red River valley, where the HBC’s Selkirk settlement had been established. But the Athabasca District was another focus for competition, and as we know, George Simpson himself was in charge of a post or two in that district before 1821. This story is covered, briefly, in the “Journeys” thread on my website, and will be spoken of more extensively in my hopefully-next-book, tentatively titled: “Three Journeys North: Hudson Bay to the Edge of the Arctic Sea.”
According to Jamie Morton, when the 1821 Brigade went out to Fort George [Astoria] from Fort St. James, the men of the North West Company were entirely unaware that they were working for the HBC! Morton says that on this journey, John Stuart, who was the NWC man in charge of the district, had also established the new post of Fort Alexandria, three hundred miles south of Fort St. James (the distance comes from Bruce McIntyre Watson, in his three-volume book, Lives Lived West of the Divide.) Interestingly, Watson also says Fort Alexandria was built on the east bank of the Fraser River, not the west, as a staging post between Fort George (Prince George) and Fort Okanagan. Building Fort Alexandria on the east bank of the Fraser makes a lot of sense to me, frankly, although I had understood the first fort was on the west bank of the river.
“Although records are thin,” Watson writes, “they would have constructed a warehouse, store, various quarters, the men’s own houses, plus large corrals to retain the many hundreds of horses needed for the cross country brigades. In the 1820s, aside from a Chief Trader and clerk, there was anywhere from four to six men at the post, with several children in tow.”
Now, was Fort Alexandria constructed by George McDougall as I had always understood it was? It would help to know in what month it was constructed. When was John Stuart on the Columbia River in 1821? So now we have another batch of duelling historians, as we dip into Lloyd Keith and John C. Jackson’s book, The Fur Trade Gamble: North West Company on the Pacific Slope, 1800-1820. Here I learn that Stuart set off from Fort St. James with dog sleds in February 1821; he left Fort George (Astoria) in June on his way home, and reached Stuarts Lake in October. That means that the letter of instruction to Thomas Hodgson, the servant temporarily in charge of Fort Alexandria, was written on October 15, 1821, from Stuart’s Lake (not yet called Fort St. James.) It is likely, I think, that George McDougall did build Fort Alexandria over the summer of 1821, and the fort was handed over to the care of Hodgson when McDougall was reassigned. Nevertheless, according to Bruce Watson, McDougall was in charge of Fort Alexandria from 1821 to 1826, and he was still there in 1839, when Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun took charge.
So, 1822: Early that year, John Stuart wrote that “Mr. [William] Brown will accompany me to the Columbia, from which place we get our outfit.” The furs were still sent out by the Peace River route to Portage la Loche and Carlton House, and the outfit in this case consisted of provisions and, perhaps, trade goods. George McDougall was apparently employed at Fort St. James, or he was while John Stuart was absent from the fort with the brigades, according to Jamie Morton. The York Factory Express did not yet exist, and would not exist until 1826. Still, the men who came in from “the Factory” were still called “the Factory party,” but they came into New Caledonia by the Peace River to McLeod’s Lake. There was another change: to make it easier for the “Factory party” to return home before snow fell, the men at York Factory would deliver the New Caledonia trade goods to Norway House, and the “Factory party” would drop off their furs at the same place. Except, did Norway House even exist yet?
I tell you: duelling historians! In his thesis, “Norway House: Economic Opportunity and The Rise of Community, 1825-1844,” James McKillip says that the first Norway House was built on Jack River in 1796, directly opposite the NWC post that had been built there the year before. Although it moved around, it did exist — it stood on Mossy Point when it burned down in November 1824, as we know from this blogpost: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/norway-house-fire/ So, in 1822 there WAS a Norway House, probably at Mossy Point.
In April 1822, John Stuart wrote to the Governor and Council that “We go this year as last, to the Columbia for our Outfit, and it will be for you to Consider and determine from what quarter this department will in future receive its necessary supplies.” Stuart thought the Columbia route was the best but was careful about supporting it too strongly to the HBC management. He also wanted good men in the territory, and felt that providing better provisions to the men would encourage the HBC employees to remain.
But Governor Simpson wanted to cut expenses, by reducing the number of employees at all the posts west of the Rockies. (No duelling historians needed here: we all know that the Columbia district also had its manpower reduced.) “It is intended that a very considerable reduction should be made,” Simpson wrote, “and a list of the former whose services can be dispensed with is herewith forwarded.” Four clerks: James McDougall, James Murray Yale, John McDonnell, and William S. McBean, plus apprentice clerk Thomas Williams, survived this cut and would be allowed to remain in New Caledonia, and all others were to be sent to Montreal.
James McDougall, who had gone out with the Factory party, brought in the news, arriving in late October. Stuart was unhappy with the reductions in his staff, and thought that there were not enough men left in the territory to take out the furs to Norway House, and bring back the trade goods: he would need help from the Peace River people. He thought that supplying New Caledonia from the Columbia River would cost half as much as from Norway House. With this change, the packhorses at Fort Alexandria were relocated: a few went to Stuart’s Lake, and the remainder to Kamloops. (Presumably Kamloops would continue to take out their goods to Fort George [Astoria], as they were reasonably close to the Columbia River posts, and these new rules only affected the northern New Caledonia district).
In May, 1823, John Stuart went out with the Factory party to Norway House, hoping that he would not return. James McDougall was placed in charge of Fort St. James during Stuart’s absence. Stuart tried to make Simpson understand the difficulties of delivering Fort St. James’s goods via Fort Chipewyan (Athabasca Lake), and the Peace. He also informed Simpson of the scarcity of provisions in the territory: telling him of the scarcity of large animals, and the salmon, “which, when dry, they have little more substance than a piece of rotten wood and do not exceed a pound in weight. The usual allowance for a man is four, but as all hands are constantly employed throughout the winter, either in quest of furs, in collecting provisions and carrying the goods to the different establishments, and the rations to the place of embarkation — a circumstance that renders dogs absolutely necessary — the average allowance for a man and his dogs may be reckoned at eight.”
To Stuart’s disappointment, he was assigned to Fort St. James. To make it worse, the Factory men now had to go out to Split Lake, well down the Nelson River from Norway House, to pick up their goods and drop their furs. Stuart was likely a very unhappy man on his return to New Caledonia. Simpson instructed him to “fix his residence” at McLeod’s Lake (hardly convenient for travelling around the territory he was in charge of). The clerks in the territory would be James McDougall, George McDougall, John McDonnell, William S. McBean, James Murray Yale, John Tod, and Donald McKenzie.
Stuart and his two canoes returned to McLeod’s Lake on October 25, 1823. James McDougall was at Fort St. James, which John Stuart had instructed McDougall to rebuild over the summer and fall. Work was slow, and by winter only a few building stood at the “New Fort.” Stuart was pleased, however, that his territory had been assigned additional provisions, but that depended partly on whether there was an increase in furs the following year (1824). There wasn’t, unfortunately. Fortunately for Stuart, who wanted to leave New Caledonia, the council of 1824 assigned Chief Trader William Connolly the job of running the New Caledonia District, and John Stuart was assigned to Carlton House, on the North Saskatchewan River. If you remember, we have John Stuart’s Carlton House Journal, and looking at this journal might add a little more information to the Fort St. James story as it stands now: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/carlton-house-journal/
So, 1824 is the end of John Stuart’s time in New Caledonia, and he would not return. On August 15, 1824, Governor Simpson set out on his now famous expedition to the Columbia District. And this is interesting: “After crossing the Athabasca portage, Simpson’s party met a group of free Iroquois. Based on information they provided, Simpson proposed a new brigade route in his journal:
My plan would therefore be to forward the New Caledonia Outfit in two Boats & thirteen men in company with the Saskatchewan Brigades, from Edmonton cross over to Fort Assiniboine in three or four days; then proceed in two Boats to Henry’s House (in Jasper Valley), in the mountain in ten days; thence by Horses to Buffalo Dung Lake (I pipe across) in two days; thence by land or water to the head of Fraser’s River in three Days; and thence by a fine bold stream to the different Posts. The returns to be taken out in like manner. The only objection appears to be the risk of damaging the Furs in the transport by Horses…
Once at Fort George Simpson changed his mind, Jamie Morton says, and began to think of using the Fraser River as a way to deliver the furs from New Caledonia to the mouth of the Fraser River. Another duelling historians moment, if I dare — I say that that Simpson had made up his mind to explore the Fraser River as he was coming down the Columbia, as you will see here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/fraser-river/
I think that story will keep you busy for a while, so I will end this blogpost and begin with whatever happened in the latter part of 1824, and in 1825, in the next part of the series. We will see the beginning of the York Factory Express, and also a major change in the HBC Brigades.
For more information, my book, The York Factory Express, book is published and available here: https://ronsdalepress.com/york-factory-express-the/ — and The HBC Brigades: Culture, Conflict, and Perilous Journeys of the Fur Trade, can be pre-ordered from Ronsdale Press through your favorite bookstore.
When the next in this series of blogposts is published, it will appear here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/researching-fort-st-james/
Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024. All rights reserved.