Michel Laframboise (May 11, 1793 – January 25, 1865) was a French Canadian fur trader in the

Oregon Country Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, co ...

who settled on the

French Prairie French Prairie is located in Marion County, Oregon, United States, in the Willamette Valley between the Willamette River and the Pudding River, north of Salem. It was named for some of the earliest settlers of that part of the Oregon Country, Fr ...

in the modern U.S. state of

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

. A native of Quebec, he worked for the

Pacific Fur Company The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) was an American fur trade venture wholly owned and funded by John Jacob Astor that functioned from 1810 to 1813. It was based in the Pacific Northwest, an area contested over the decades between the United Kingdom o ...

, the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

, and the

Hudson’s Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

before he later became a farmer and ferry operator. In 1843 he participated in the

Champoeg Meetings The Champoeg Meetings were the first attempts at formal governance by European-American and French Canadian pioneers in the Oregon Country on the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. Between 1841 and 1843, a series of public councils was held ...

. Though he voted against the measure to form a provisional government, the measure passed and led to the creation of the

Provisional Government of Oregon The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected settler government created in the Oregon Country, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Its formation had been advanced at the Champoeg Meetings since February 17, 1841, ...

Early life

Jean Baptiste Eugene Laframboise was born on May 11, 1793, in

Varennes, Quebec Varennes is an off-island suburb of Montreal, in southwestern Quebec, Canada, on the Saint Lawrence River in the Marguerite-D'Youville Regional County Municipality. The city is approximately from Downtown Montreal. The population as of the Cana ...

, Canada along the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

.Mount Shasta Annotated Bibliography: Chapter 8 Early Exploration: American Trade & Migration, 1828-49.
College of the Siskiyous Library. Retrieved on May 11, 2009. His parents were Michel Laframboise and Josephe Monjau, with Jean Baptiste adopting his father’s first name. He was hired by John Jacob Astor’s

in 1810 and sailed from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

aboard the '' Tonquin''.Corning, Howard M. ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1989. p. 139.

Fur trader

Laframboise and the rest of the crew and passengers arrived at the mouth of the

Columbia River The Columbia River ( Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia ...

in 1811 where they established

Fort Astoria Fort Astoria (also named Fort George) was the primary fur trading post of John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company (PFC). A maritime contingent of PFC staff was sent on board the ''Tonquin (1807 ship), Tonquin'', while another party traveled overl ...

.Chapman, J. S. (1993). ''French prairie ceramics: the Harriet D. Munnick archaeological collection, circa 1820-1860 : a catalog and Northwest comparative guide''. Anthropology northwest, no. 8. Corvallis, Or: Dept. of Anthropology, Oregon State University. p. 11. He had been hired as a voyageur, but with the sale of the post to the

(NWC) he became an interpreter for that company in 1813. In 1821, the NWC was merged into the

(HBC) and he stayed on as an interpreter and as a postmaster in their

Columbia District The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the disputed Oregon Country. It was explored by the North West Company bet ...

. During his employment with the HBC, Laframboise participated and often led many expeditions through the southern

to Mexican-owned

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

. He served as interpreter for Alexander Roderick McLeod in a party that visited the Umpqua River Valley and then California. Laframboise was on site to aid the establishment of

Fort Umpqua Fort Umpqua was a trading post built by the Hudson's Bay Company in the company's Columbia District (or Oregon Country), in what is now the U.S. state of Oregon. It was first established in 1832 and moved and rebuilt in 1836.; online aGoogle Books/ ...

along with McLeod. During successive years' expeditions he led often went to French Camp near modern

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. Stockton was founded by Carlos Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquired Rancho Campo de los Franceses. The city is named after R ...

. While working for the HBC out of

Fort Vancouver Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading post that was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was located on the northern bank of ...

, he received permission to settle some land on the

in 1831. However, Laframboise stayed with the company and helped restore the health of Hall J. Kelley when he arrived at the fort in 1834 with

Ewing Young Ewing Young (1799-February 9, 1841) was an American fur trapper and trader from Tennessee who traveled in what was then the northern Mexico frontier territories of Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Alta California before settling in the Oregon Country. ...

. Young’s party had been attacked on their way through Southern Oregon in the

Rogue River Valley The Rogue Valley is a valley region in southwestern Oregon in the United States. Located along the middle Rogue River and its tributaries in Josephine and Jackson counties, the valley forms the cultural and economic heart of Southern Oregon nea ...

by the

Rogue River Indians Rogue River Indians are a conglomeration of many tribal groups in the Rogue River Valley area, belonging to three language families: Athabascan, Takelma and Shastan. Groups The principal tribes grouped under the name Rogue River Indians were: * ...

.Schwartz, E. A. 1997. ''The Rogue River Indian War and its Aftermath, 1850-1980''. Norman, Okla: University of Oklahoma Press. p.21. These Native Americans were retaliating against whites after an expedition led by Laframboise killed eleven Natives earlier that year. This series of killings lasted for decades and eventually led to the

Rogue River Wars The Rogue River Wars were an armed conflict in 1855–1856 between the U.S. Army, local militias and volunteers, and the Native American tribes commonly grouped under the designation of Rogue River Indians, in the Rogue River Valley area ...

in the 1850s. Meanwhile, Laframboise continued to lead expeditions south, occasionally independent of the HBC.

French Prairie

In 1839, he married Emile Picard, a Native American from the Umpqua region. The couple had several children before and after the marriage, settling on the

in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...

of present-day Oregon around 1841. That year he also worked as

Charles Wilkes Charles Wilkes (April 3, 1798 – February 8, 1877) was an American naval officer, ship's captain, and explorer. He led the United States Exploring Expedition (1838–1842). During the American Civil War (1861–1865), he commanded ' during the ...

' guide in the

when Wilkes was leading the

United States Exploring Expedition The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838–1842 was an exploring and surveying expedition of the Pacific Ocean and surrounding lands conducted by the United States. The original appointed commanding officer was Commodore Thomas ap Catesby ...

. Laframboise then built a home and barn on along the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward b ...

just north of

Champoeg Champoeg ( , historically Horner, John B. (1919). ''Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature''. The J.K. Gill Co.: Portland. p. 398.) is a former town in the U.S. state of Oregon. Now a ghost town, it was an important settlement in the W ...

. There he also had a mill and 200 horses. Laframboise took part in the

in 1843 where he voted against forming a settler government. However, the majority of settlers voted in favor and established the

.Corning, p. 206. By 1852 he had settled a

Donation Land Claim The Donation Land Claim Act of 1850, sometimes known as the Donation Land Act, was a statute enacted by the United States Congress in late 1850, intended to promote homestead settlements in the Oregon Territory. It followed the Distribution-Pr ...

north of his original property and was operating a ferry across the Willamette River to Champoeg, connecting to the Champoeg-Salem Road. He had a stroke in the early 1860s and then sold off his assets. Michel Laframboise died on January 25, 1865, at the age of 71.

References

External links

French Camp historical marker''John Sutter''.
- Albert L. Hurtado {{DEFAULTSORT:Laframboise, Michel 1793 births 1865 deaths Canadian fur traders Pre-Confederation Canadian emigrants to the United States Hudson's Bay Company people Champoeg Meetings North West Company people Oregon pioneers People from Varennes, Quebec

Early life

Fur trader

French Prairie

References

Further reading

External links