John McLoughlin - The Father of Oregon

End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
History 101

The Great White-Headed Eagle

He stood six foot four inches tall. His abundant hair had turned brilliantly white. For twenty years, he had absolute control over a territory stretching from California to Alaska to Nebraska. The natives called him the White-Headed Eagle.

John McLoughlin was born in 1784 at Riviere du Loup, Quebec. He was the son and grandson of Irish farmers. His mother was a niece of Simon Fraser, for whom the Fraser River was named. Raised a Catholic, McLoughlin left home at 16 to be trained in medicine. At 19, he was practicing in Montreal. He joined the North West Company as a resident physician and fur trader. In 1812, he married Marguerite McKay, the Chippewa widow of a NWC trader who had been killed in the Tonquin disaster. She brought three children, he an older son, and together they had four more.

In 1824 the NWC was absorbed by the much older Hudson's Bay Company (Here Before Christ, it was said of it). McLoughlin was named co-factor of Fort George at Astoria, one of 25 Chief Factors in the newly-consolidated HBC. He was paid 16/17 of a share of the company -- about $8000 a year -- plus a £500 stipend.

McLoughlin was personally appointed by Governor George Simpson to head up 13 outposts from a base of operations at Fort Vancouver. He was the Chief Factor of the largest trading center west of the Rockies prior to the California gold rush. Built north of the Columbia River near its confluence with the Willamette, Fort Vancouver had eight substantial buildings within an enclosure for the 100 whites living there, and a number of smaller buildings outside the walls for a population of 300 Indians. Indians were not allowed inside and were forced to trade through a porthole in the door. Managing the post's fur trading activities was only part of the job. Fort Vancouver also boasted a farm producing food to be exported to Alaska, a small shipyard, a lumber mill, and regular harvests of the astonishing salmon runs in nearby rivers.

McLoughlin ran the Columbia district like a feudal baron. He kept it free from war. His influence was wise but his word was law. He employed Kanakas from the Sandwich Islands as servants (these Hawaiians were called "Blue Men" because their skin reportedly took on a distinctly bluish hue during the winter months).

American immigrants started arriving in great numbers in the 1840s. When the overlanders arrived, quite often in dire distress, they were aided with HBC boats and food at The Dalles. McLoughlin sold them goods on credit and advised them of the best lands in the Willamette Valley. John Boardman wrote in 1843, "Well received by Doct. McLaughlin, who charged nothing for the use of his boat sent up for us, nor for the provisions, but not satisfied with that sent us plenty of salmon and potatoes, furnished us house room, and wood free of charge, and was very anxious that all should get through safe."

Immigrants were told of the Provisional Government, which was created from a desire to seek protection from HBC rules, and advised to abide by its laws. In 1845, with British subjects badly outnumbered by the more recently arrived Americans, McLoughlin agreed to bring the HBC's local operations under the Provisional Government's jurisdiction. Clark County was created north of the Columbia River, and two HBC employees became officers in the government.

This cooperation with the Americans was McLoughlin's downfall. Governor Simpson demoted McLoughlin following an exchange of increasingly argumentative letters. Accused of violating the spirit of his contract with the company and engaging in business on his own, his stipend was eliminated. On November 20, 1845, McLoughlin sent off one last angry letter to Simpson and retired to Oregon City.

In 1829, Dr. McLoughlin had taken possession of a claim at Willamette Falls which would grow into Oregon City. The claim was for the HBC, although he later purchased it from the Company. He surveyed, platted, erected buildings, and made improvements. In 1846 he built his retirement home, but McLoughlin remained a public figure during his retirement. He donated land for a jail and female seminary, and in 1851 he was elected mayor of Oregon City.

The last years of his life were not pleasant. Many Americans could not see beyond McLoughlin's years of service to the British Hudson's Bay Company, and despite the aid he rendered to many overlanders and his willingness to compromise with the Provisional Government, a conspiracy to strip him of his claim and ruin his reputation began as soon as Oregon became a part of the United States in 1849. Samuel Thurston, the Oregon Territory's Delegate to Congress, had written into the Donation Land Act a section giving most of McLoughlin's HBC claim to the legislature. Thurston and Jason Lee made false statements about McLoughlin before the US Supreme Court in an effort to publicly discredit him.

McLoughlin continued to live in his house and became a naturalized American citizen in 1851, while he was serving as mayor of Oregon City. However, the legal challenge continued, and McLoughlin died in 1857 before the injustice could be rectified. In 1862, the state returned portions of his claim to his family. In 1909, his house was spared from encroaching industrial development by moving it up the hill to where it now stands proudly restored as a National Historical Site. In 1957, Dr. John McLoughlin was named "Father of Oregon" by the state legislature.