Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/109

Rh was Sarah Hanson Ogden from Livingston Manor near New York city, a sister of Captain John Wilkinson Hanson, of the British army. His grandfather was Judge David Ogden, of Newark, N. J., a graduate of Yale college in the class of 1728.

"Judge Isaac Ogden, the father of Peter Skene, graduated from Kings college, now Columbia university of New York city. During the revolution the family split, Isaac and two other brothers becoming royalists. Isaac lost his property by confiscation and fled to New York, and from there to England, in 1783, but in 1788 was by King George III appointed to a judgeship in Canada. Soon after the birth of Peter Skene, he was promoted to be puisne judge at Montreal, and removed there. Of the two brothers who espoused the side of the colonies, Abraham became a close adviser to General Washington, and his house at Morristown was the headquarters at one time. He was a prominent attorney, and was appointed district attorney for New Jersey by President Washington. The other, Samuel, purchased land in northern New York, and colonized it, and founded the city of Ogdensburg.

"Peter Skene was educated in a private family, but early in life began his career in the fur trade as a clerk in the office of John Jacob Astor, at Montreal. He also began the study of law and acquired some knowledge of legal phrases. But in 181 1, at the age of seventeen, obtained a position as clerk with the Northwest Company, probably through his brother, who was a prominent attorney for that company. He was located until 1718 at Isle a La Crosse fort m southern Athabasca. This locality takes its name from the game of La Crosse, which the Indians there were playing, when first discovered. He participated in many exciting events in the region of Isle a La Crosse. Ross Cox gives a very interesting description of him there.

"In 1818 he was transferred to the Columbia, and arrived at tort George (Astoria) in June. On the way he had an encounter with the Indians at the Walla Walla river, and perhaps assisted in the building of the fort of that name that summer. He spent two years with trapping parties in the Cowlitz and Chehalis and Willapa neighborhoods, with headquarters at Fort George, and the next two years at the interior forts of Spokane and Flathead. In the fall of 1822, he went to Canada, and that winter to London; called there by the ill health of his father and the merger of the two fur companies. In the summer of 1823, he returned to the Columbia in charge of the fall express from York factory on the Hudson's bay. He had by this time acquired an interest in the company.

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"In the fall of 1824 he was at Spokane house when Governor Simpson and Dr. McLoughlin arrived from across the mountains and was assigned to take charge of the Snake country brigade, which started on the annual trading and trapping expedition in December of that year. They reached the Snake country by the Bitter Root valley and Gibbon pass, in the dead of winter. Here remained m charge of the Snake brigade for five seasons, and the sixth season that of 1829-30, led the brigade along the eastern side of the Sierras to the gulf of California. During this period he explored many localities not before known to white men especially central and southern Oregon, and Nevada and western Utah, and suffered many hardships and dangers. His name had been permanently attached to the river and city in Utah, and the Humboldt river was called Ogden s river for many years. He named Mount Shasta on one of his expeditions. He had been promoted to be chief trader in 1824.

"Returning from California in the fall of 1830 he found himself named to command the expedition to the coast of British Columbia, where the Yankee vessels were getting too much trade, but the sickness of the servants at Fort Vancouver delayed the expedition until April, 1831. That year he bui t the fort at the Nass river, near to where Port Simpson is now located. The following years he located a post on Milbank sound, and in 1834 attempted to enter the Stikine river to build a fort within the thirty mile limit, but the Russian-American Fur