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biography
pronunciation:
[muhgloklin]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1784–1857)
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| biography:
| Fur merchant, born in Rivière du Loup, Quebec, Canada. Of Scottish-Irish descent, he studied medicine in Scotland and then came back to join the Canadian North West Fur Co, becoming a partner in 1814. When this company merged with the Hudson's Bay Co (1821), he was placed in charge (1825–46) of the far western region (including the present-day states of Washington and Oregon), whose capital was Fort Vancouver. He effectively monopolized the fur trade for the British, but he was also extremely helpful to the first American settlers in the territory, providing both the material aid and financial support that allowed many to survive, and gaining the reputation of a benevolent despot. After the treaty of 1846 that established the boundary between the USA and Canada at the 49th parallel (farther N than he and the Hudson's Bay Co had hoped), he retired from the company and began to develop a large tract of land in Oregon that he now claimed as his own. He was engaged in legal controversy with the American authorities to his death, but he became a US citizen and was honoured as ‘the father of Oregon’ when that state placed his statue in the US Capitol. The land was assigned to his heirs in 1862. |
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