Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/257

 Peter Skene Ogden, Fur Trader. 235 It has been suggested that the early years of Peter Skene were spent in dissipation and that he left the parental roof without the consent or knowledge of his parents. We prefer to think the contrary in the absence of any detailed informa- tion. The record is brief, but clear enough. It comes from the late Archibald McKinlay, his son-in-law, and from the late Elwood Evans, of Tacoma, both of whom took it from Peter Skene himself. It is this: In the year 181 1, that is, at the age of seventeen, in the Spring he entered the service of the Northwest Company as clerk; previous to that he had begun the study of law, and previous to that he had been in the employ for a short time of John Jacob Astor as a clerk. This takes him pretty well back toward boyhood, and as to that period — well, what real boy is not mischievous! Where he was employed by Mr. Astor is not stated, but presumably in Montreal. In 1810 the organization of the Pacific Fur Com- pany had been completed and the activity of that enterprise was at Montreal rather than New York. The partners and employees of that company took their start, both the overland party and those going by sea, from Montreal. Peter Skene's oldest brother, David, twenty-two years his senior, was al- ready a leading solicitor in Montreal and a few years later was one of the chief counsel for the Northwest Company in their litigation with Lord Selkirk. It is entirely reasonable to suppose that the family were influential in favoring the strong and wealthy Canadian fur company in preference to the more hazardous enterprise of Mr. Astor. 1 In Southern Athabasca there is a lake and an island, both called Isle a la Crosse ; and each of the two fur companies had a fort on the island. Sir Alex. Mackenzie tells us the occa- sion for this peculiar name : "This lake and fort take names from the island mentioned, which received its denomination from the game of the cross which forms a principal amuse- ilt may be stated with confidence that it was not Peter Skene Ogden who was supercargo of the Lark, Mr. Astor's vessel that was wrecked near the Sandwich Islands in 1813. That was Nicholas Gouverneur Ogden, a distant cousin, who afterwards represented the Astor Company in China.