John McLoughlin

Physician and pioneer, born in the parish of La Riviere du Loup, 
Canada, 19 October, 1784; died at Oregon City, 3 September, 1857. 
He is the great hero of Oregon's pioneer period. His paternal 
grandfather was born in the parish of Desertegney, Ireland. He 
emigrated to Canada and married there and his son John was the 
father of Dr. John McLoughlin. The maiden name of the mother of 
the latter was Angelique Fraser, born in the parish of Beaumont, 
Canada. Her father was Malcom Fraser, a Scottish Highlander, who 
went to Canada in 1759 with the army of Wolfe. Dr. McLoughlin's 
father died while his son was a lad. He was brought up in the home 
of his maternal grandfather, and educated in Canada and Scotland. 
He became a physician while quite young, but did not practise 
long. He became a partner of North-West Company. When that company 
coalesced with the Hudson Bay Company in 1821, he was in charge of 
Fort William on Lake Superior, which was then the chief depot and 
factory of the North West Company. In 1824 Dr. McLouglin was sent 
to Fort Gerge [Astoria] near the mouth of the Columbia River. He 
soon moved the head-quarters of the company to Fort Vancouver, on 
the northern side of the Columbia River. There he ruled for 
twenty-two years as the absolute but kindly autocrat of what is 
known as the Oregon Country. He had no military force, but by his 
own personality and the aid of his officers and employees, he 
established order and maintained peace so that persons 
unaccompanied by escort could travel over the country without 
danger from formerly hostile Indians. There were no Indian wars in 
the Oregon Country until after he resigned from the Hudson Bay 
Company. The Methodist, Presbyterian, and Catholic missionaries he 
aided and protected, although at that time he was a Anglican . In 
1842 he joined the Catholic Church, and became a devote Catholic, 
being created a Knight of St. Gregory in 1846. In 1843 the first 
of the Oregon home-building immigrants arrived in Oregon. Dr. 
McLouglin fed and clothed them and cared for sick; he supplied 
them with seed and farming implement, and loaned them domestic 
animals. He gave similar assistance to the immigrants of 1844 and 
1845. As he furnished most of this aid on credit and did not 
discourage the settlement of Oregon by citizens of the United 
States, he was forced to resign by the Hudson Bay Company in l846. 
For the rest of his life he resided at Oregon City. Prior to 1840 
he had taken up a land claim, but there was no legal way to 
acquire ownership of land in Oregon before the Oregon land law of 
27 September, 1850. This land claim was at Oregon City, which he 
founded and named, where there is a fine water power. He developed 
this power, and erected flour and saw mills which he personally 
operated. It was asserted that as he was a British subject, he was 
not entitled to take up a land claim. But this was merely a 
pretext, for until 1846, when the treaty between the United States 
and Great Britain settled the ownership of the Oregon Country by 
the Americans and British, both having equal rights. Some of the 
Methodist missionaries and their followers all of whom had been 
befriended by Dr. McLoughlin -- started this action against him. 
It was continued until in the donation land law a section was 
inserted which deprived him of his land claim, and gave it to the 
territory of Oregon for the establishment and endowment of a 
university. It was restored to his heirs by the legislature of 
Oregon five years after his death. The effect of this law was that 
Dr. McLoughlin lost nearly all of the large fortune which he had 
accumulated. He died a broken-hearted man, the victim of 
mendacity, and ingratitude. He was buried in the churchyard of St. 
John's Catholic church in Oregon City, where his body has lain 
ever since. By common consent he has become known as the Father of 
Oregon. 

FREDERICK V. HOLMAN 
Transcribed by Joseph P. Thomas