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  From 1600 to 1867
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The fur trade influenced the historical development of Canada in a number of ways including: the development and expansion into western and northern Canada; the significance of Canadian place names; the origin and rise of the Métis Nation; the impact of interaction between the First Peoples and the Europeans-and these connections can be found in personal and commercial stories about the people and events of the fur trade.


Image 1
Location: HBCA - Archives of Manitoba
Copyright Holder: Expired; no restrictions on use. Please credit HBC Archives - Archives of Manitoba.
  221 - Alexander Ross

Alexander Ross
b. 1783 - d. 1856
Ross was a former schoolmaster who entered the fur trade, serving the Pacific Fur Company (1810-13), the Northwest Company (1813-21) and the Hudson's Bay Company (1821-25).

Although most of his fur trade career was spent west of the Rocky Mountains, he decided to settle with his family in Red River. He became one of the settlement's most prominent and active residents, serving in most of the settlement's administrative offices at one time or another in the 1830s and 1840s.

He wrote two volumes of fur trade memoirs, and a history of the Red River Settlement, which is widely regarded as the best book written about Red River in the nineteenth century.



Other Related Material
Read an excerpt from Ross' writings - enter 'Ross' in the search box to your left.

Check the Beaver Index - type in Ross, Seven Oaks, etc.

Read more about Ross in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.