Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/261

 Peter Skene Ogden, Fur Trader. 239 the country, or as lawyers say, the Lex non scripta, is our only guide, we must in our acts of summary legislation, some- times perform the parts of judge, jury, sheriff, hangman, gal- lows and all !' " While at Isle a la Crosse, Mr. Ogden took unto himself a wife, as was the custom among the fur traders, an attractive daughter of the Cree nation, and his first son was born on January 18th, 181 7, and named Peter, of course. This son was educated in the Protestant school at Red River and en- tered the H. B. Company's service and died in 1870 while still in that service. His eldest son (named Peter Skene) had died suddenly and both were buried the same day and in the same grave. The two fur companies were in 181 7- 18 engaged in legal struggles at Montreal and we are told that the Northwesters did not hesitate to send some of their men to remote districts so as not to have them available at the trials. The famous Coltman-Fletcher Report to Gov. Sherbrooke (by him trans- mitted to England) mentions one tragic incident in which Ogden had a part near Isle a la Crosse in 1817, and says: "A bill of indictment was issued against Ogden for this." This may have been the occasion for the departure of Mr. Ogden for the Columbia the following year, for there is where we get our next glimpse of him. It is a fact worthy of emphasis that the partners of the Northwest Company were, as far as now known, the first explorers of and the first traders on the upper Columbia river. When the Pacific Fur Company's brigade ascended the Columbia in the summer of 181 1 to establish their posts in the interior they found there already built and doing busi- ness, Spokane House, Kootenai Fort, Flathead or Saleesh House, and perhaps a Fort at the mouth of the San Poll. And in the spring of 181 8, when Peter Skene Ogden came sweep- ing down the river on its flood waters, the Northwesters con- trolled the river from source to mouth without opposition. James Keith was then the senior partner in charge at Fort