Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 21/David Thompson and Beginnings in Idaho
THE QUARTERLY
of the
Oregon Historical Society
Copyright, 1919, by the Oregon Historical Society
The Quarterly disavows responsibility for the positions taken by contributors to its pages
DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO[1]
By T. C. ELLIOTT
The statement has not infrequently been made that the missionary of the cross has led the way in exploration and the acquisition of geographic knowledge among the wilderness lands of the earth. The name most often mentioned in this connection is that of David Livingstone and the claim is true as to a certain part of the continent of Africa. But it is not true as to the extensive region of North America once known as "Old Oregon," of which the present State of Idaho is a part. Into "Old Oregon" it was the flag, the red, white and blue flag we delight to honor, in the hands of Lewis and Clark in 1805 which led the way. And the fur trader seeking for gain followed immediately behind, first the trader from Montreal across the mountain passes into what is now British Columbia, and next the trader from St. Louis from the head waters of the Missouri river, into Idaho.
Earlier than the acquisition of Louisiana by the United States the Northwest Company, fur traders of Canada, had been planning to cross the Rocky Mountains and had sent their partners into the foothills to spy out the road; but the activities of a rival company in the Canadian field delayed them. The "Northwesters" were, of course, not ignorant of the movements of the Lewis and Clark party in the United States and a trader named Francois Larocque was sent to follow them up the Missouri; and that same year, 1805, Simon Fraser started toward the Pacific by way of Peace River, where Alexander Mackenzie had already explored the way. In 1806 Fraser was building trading posts along the waters of the river of his name, and David Thompson was receiving orders to cross the mountains further to the south, and in 1807 he did so from the head waters of the Saskatchewan to those of the Columbia. That year he remained at the source of the Columbia, but in 1808 extended his trade to the Indians along the Kootenai river, and in 1809 came still further south to the waters of the Pend Oreille and Clark Fork rivers. It is this really wonderful man, David Thompson, and his brief career in what is now the State of Idaho which furnishes the material for this address.
The City of Boise has been built upon one of the camping or resting places on an old Indian road passing east and west across the State of Idaho, which later became the route of travel for white families migrating to Oregon and known as the Oregon Trail. May it ever be held in honored memory as such! In northern Idaho connecting the waters of the Kootenai river at Bonners Ferry with those of Pend Oreille lake near Sand Point there was another established road or trail, known to the earliest explorers as the Lake Indian Road. This road is now, with variations, used by the swiftly moving automobile but more than one hundred years ago in September, 1809, such a use was not foreseen, and a slowly moving pack train followed it southward, in charge of David Thompson, an Englishman and partner of the North West Company already mentioned, assisted by Finan McDonald, a Scotchman; the rest of the party consisting of French-Canadian voyageurs and halfbreed hunters and servants, perhaps ten in all, and some Indians. And it may be here noted with some emphasis that these two men, David Thompson and Finan McDonald, were then the only white men in existence in the entire watershed of the Columbia river, from California to the Fraser river and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific ocean. That seems an historic fact of sufficient importance to call for special mention.
These two men were not ignorant trappers or mere adventurers but intelligent observers of the country and its people and seriously engaged in organized exploration and trade. David Thompson was a trained astronomer and surveyor and carried with him both sextant and chronometer and made observations of the sun and moon. He also carried paper, ink (in powdered form) and pens and wrote regularly in a journal a brief account of the daily journey and events. It is this journal, preserved to us among the archives of the province of Ontario, Canada, which contains a record of some of the earliest incidents in the history of Idaho.
Before quoting some of the summarized writings in this journal it may be well to recall with you that Pend Oreille lake is the largest body of water in Idaho, more than thirty miles long and five in width and of extraordinary depth, a portion of the waters of which may soon be put to use to irrigate a million acres of land in an adjoining state. Its outlet is the river of the same name at its northwest corner where the city of Sand Point is located, and at its northeasterly corner it receives the waters of Clark Fork river coming from the glaciers of the Rocky mountains. The Northern Pacific railroad follows the northern end of the lake between Sand Point and the mouth of the Clark Fork river and a large peninsula extends into the lake from the north, near the town of Hope. David Thompson assigned the name Kullyspell to this lake and to the river flowing from it, a name taken from the Indian tribe residing along the river to the westward, while a contemporaneous writer[2] (in 1810) applied the name Ear Bob
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(Pend d'Oreille, now officially spelled Pend Oreille) Indians to this same tribe.
The arrival of white men at this lake and their activities during the first few days thereafter were chronicled by Mr. Thompson as follows: Sepr. 8, 1809: Friday A fine day, but very cold night. Ice was formed, but the leaves are yet every- where very green, except a few on the Ground, which in places are a little faded. At 7% a.m. set off, Co. S. 20 E. % m. to a Brook, which we followed, S. 40 E. % M, then crossed it. 2 It is 15 Yds wide, deep & very easy Current. Co. S. 20 E. 6 M. to a Rill of Water which we followed down S. 40 E. 1%M. to the Lake. 3 I do not pretend to take any Courses farther as I hope for a better opportunity, we went abt. 1 M. then met Canoes who embarked abt. 20 Pieces of Lumber & Goods. We held on SEd. 4 or 5 M. & put up at 2% p.m., the wind blowing too hard for the Canoes to hold on. Killed 2 Geese. Mr. McDonald 1 do. & Bouche 1 do. Beaulieu 1 Crane & the Flatheads 3 Ducks.
Sepr. 9. Saturday. A fine day, the wind moderating, the Canoes got off & we followed, but the wind rising, the Canoes were obliged to lighten & reload part of the Horses. We all at length arrived in safety, thank God, at the mouth of the River 4 at 2 p.m., where we camped for the night. They all smoked, say 54 Flat Heads, 23 Pointed Hearts 5 & 4 Kootenaes, in all about 80 men. They there made us a handsome present of dried Salmon & other fish with Berries & a Chevruil &c.
Sepr. 10. Sunday. A very fine day. Early set off with 2 Flat Heads to look for a place to build a House, we at length found a place somewhat eligible but labours under the want of good earth. I returned & we got all the Goods embarked by the Flat Heads & landed the whole by 3 p.m., when we set up our Lodge & Tents &c.
Sepr. 11. Monday. A cloudy day with a little Rain we made a scaffold for our Provisions & got Birch for Helves, which is very scarce & helved our Tools &c. &c.
2 Pack river, flowing into the lake near Hope, Idaho. So named in mining days because loaded boats ascended the stream to this crossing of the trail.
3 Pend Oreille lake.
4 Clark Fork river.
5 Coeur d'Alen Indians.
DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO 53
Sepr. 12. Tuesday. A rainy night but very fine day began our warehouse. The Ground is so very full of small stones that the Holes for the Posts &c. &c. is a long time making. Got the Posts and Needles ready & threw down a Red Fir of 2 fm. round to make a Canoe for fishing &c. 16 canoes of Pointed Hearts passed us & camped with the other Flat Heads. Sepr. 13. Wednesday. A fine morning, but abt. 10 a.m. a heavy Gale from S.W. which soon brought on moderate Rain, which lasted nearly all night. Bouche & the Chein Foux brought 2 Chevruil, cut & hauled wood, the Needles & arranged a Horse Collar 6 which broke towards evening, we then got wood for another. Spent much of the day in trading 7 with the Indians who brought abt. 120 or 130 skins. Put out a Fire the Indians kindled.
A transcript of the entire text 8 would be monotonous read- ing and sufficient has been given to indicate the style and extent and accuracy of the journal. In it we find one of the earliest instances of contact between" the white man and the Indian in Idaho and unimpeachable proof of the friendliness and even cordiality of the relations then existing. In it is given the narrative of the building of the first houses in Idaho, for another year elapsed before Andrew Henry, the American trader from St. Louis, erected his temporary cabins at the headwaters of Snake River. In it are given some figures of the first commercial transaction known to have taken place in Idaho. These are historic facts not widely known as yet.
An interesting item of nomenclature also appears in one of the entries ; the name of the next largest lake in Idaho, Coeur d'Alene. Here appears the first written reference to that name, which literally translated means awl-hearted or stingy-hearted, referring to trade relations. But it is evident that some French- Canadian or half-breed trapper had already penetrated to Coeur d'Alene lake and brought back that name to David Thompson for his use in the corrupted form of Pointed Hearts, referring to the Indians from that region.
6 Used in moving logs with horses.
7 The first recorded commercial transaction in Idaho. Lewis and Clark had bartered for food and horses but not for gain.
8 See Washington Historical Quarterly, Vol. XI for complete text and annota- tions.
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The site selected by David Thompson for this trading post has been quite positively identified as a rather rocky point of land projecting from the peninsula already mentioned, about two miles from the mouth of the main channel of Clark Fork river and a half mile from Memaloose Island, and locally known as Sheepherders Point. Kullyspell House was the name as- signed to it and it consisted of two log houses, one for the trading goods and furs and the other for the use of the men. At noon on September 23rd, 1809, Mr. Thompson took an observation of the sun and calculated that he was standing at latitude 48 12' 14" (and near longitude 116) and so recorded. Comparison with the latest quadrangle maps of the U. S. Geological Survey shows that he was astonishingly correct in this calculation. Sheepherders Point is located very close to the northwest corner of Section fourteen in Township fifteen North, of Range one East of the Boise Meridian, according to maps of the U. S. Land Office.
Reasons for the selection of this location were its proximity to the canoe route from all parts of the lake and its freedom from the mosquitoes. Two years later Mr. Thompson had found that the trail by land was used as well as the canoe route and that the Indians going to the lake to fish and visit were neither numerous or industrious trappers for furs and so he ordered it abandoned in favor of the Spokane House, which was built in the summer of 1810. But the distinction of being the trading post first opened for commercial transactions in the whole Oregon Country south of the 49th parallel belongs to Kullyspell House. Finan McDonald, officially designated as clerk, was in charge during the winter of 1809-10, while Mr. Thompson in November built another trading post known as Saleesh House at Thompson's Prairie in Montana, and win- tered there in company with another clerk named James Mc- Millan, who had arrived from the Saskatchewan country with more trading goods.
From Kullyspell House David Thompson made two jour
DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO 55
neys of exploration down the Pend Oreille river, going nearly as far as Metaline Falls, and being the first white man to survey that interesting river. He was endeavoring, without success, to find a nearer route for canoe travel to the Columbia river. From Kullyspell House also he was the first man to survey and leave a record of the route later adopted by en- gineers for use in the construction of the Northern Pacific railroad between Missoula, Montana, and Lake Pend Oreille. His last visit at this house was on June 6th, 1811, when pass- ing from the Saleesh or Flathead country to Spokane House and Kettle Falls on his remarkable journey down the Columbia river to its mouth that summer. 9
In the spring of 1810 the furs collected at Saleesh House were brought down the river to Kiullyspell House and together with those bought locally were pressed and packed for trans- port to market, and on May 9th, 1810, Mr. Thompson and Mr. McMillan set out on that long and weary journey, Finan McDonald and Jaco Finlay being left in charge of the business in the field. The route to market was circuitous and hazard- ous, the greater distances by water but with long portages by land. From Kullyspell House the loaded canoes were pushed up the swollen waters of Pack river to the crossing of the Lake Indian Road to the Kootenai, and there pack horses were in waiting. At Bonners Ferry other canoes were made ready and from there partly in canoes and partly upon horses the packs were carried up the river to the portage at Columbia Lake in what is now British Columbia. From there by the water route the transport was one hundred miles northward down the Columbia river to the mouth of Blaeberry creek, where was the western end of the trail leading across the Rocky mountains by way of the Howse Pass. After climbing over the "height of land," as they termed it, the waters of the Saskatchewan were reached and canoes and bateaux again brought into service. Then came the long journey down the river and across Lake Winnipeg and through the chain of
9 Consult "Journal of David Thompson" in Oregon Historical Quarterly, Vol .X. v
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Rainy Lakes to the headquarters of the "Northwesters" at Fort William, and from there all furs were carried to Montreal and to London.
What was this first shipment of merchandise from the State of Idaho? The "Narrative" of David Thompson tells us when it says, as of date May 17th, 1810 (at Bonners Ferry) : "We got the canoes repaired and in the afternoon with forty- six packs of furs and eight bags of Pemmican we went off for the Rocky Mountain defiles. Mr. James McMillan, one man and myself and sixteen horses went by land." At ninety pounds to the pack there were a little more than two tons of pelts, and "A long, long way to Tipperary" to travel with them.
But the more human part of this story remains to be told, namely, in brief summary the career of its hero. 10 The earliest mention of David Thompson is to be found in the records of The Parish of Saint John, The Evangelist, London, which contains the date of his birth, at Westminster, England, as April 30th, 1770. The same record shows the death of his father to have been on February 28th, 1772, when David was not quite two years old. The next mention of him appears at The Grey Coat School, Westminster (London), then a charity school for boys; its "principall designe to educate poor chil- dren in the principles of piety and virtue, and thereby lay a foundation for a sober and Christian life." The three following entries appear on the record books of this school : April 29th, 1777. "Abram Ackworth, Esq. was this day pleased to pre- sent David Thompson to be admitted into this Hospl on ye foundation, and ye Governors present being satisfy with ye child's settlement. Ordered that he be admitted on bringing in the usual necessities."
December 30th, 1783. "The Master also reports that ap- plication was made by the Secretary belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company, to know, if this Charity could furnish them 4 boys against the month of May next, for their settlements in America."
10 The only complete life of David Thompson was published by the Champlain Society, Toronto, Canada, in 1916, entitled "David Thompson's Narrative" and edited by J. B. Tyrrell, whose research and personal courtesies are hereby acknowl- edged. T. C. E.
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June 29th, 1784. "On the 20th May David Thompson, a mathematical boy belonging to this Hosp-1 was bound to the Hudson's Bay Company & the Treas. then paid Mr. Thomas Hutchins, Corresponding Secretary to the said Company, the sum of five pounds for taking said boy apprentice for seven years."
These brief extracts sufficiently disclose a boyhood spent under conditions of poverty and with very little of personal attention by a loving mother, but under strict observation and schooling which plainly marked his future habits, and at the tender age of fourteen he is landed in September, 1784, on the bleak shores of Hudson's Bay at Fort Churchill to begin the life of a fur trader in a region where the presence of white women was unknown. His only companions are to be men and Indians.
When David Thompson began his seven years of apprentice- ship the Hudson's Bay Company had been in business for more than one hundred years, but their rivals in the field were just organizing into the well known North West Company, under the leadership of certain astute Scotchmen of Montreal. The practice had been that the Indian of the remote interior would carry his furs to the trading posts at or near Hudson's Bay but now the order had been reversed and the rival traders vied with each other in carrying their goods into the Indian country. So after two years of office and store duties at Churchill and York our hero found himself assigned to field service and in company with those who ascended the rivers and built trading posts and even lived in tents for a time near the Indian en- campments, although the winter season was usually spent at one of the established posts.
In this sort of life the next eleven years were passed, during which he very luckily found himself able to indulge his great fondness for mathematics. The trade was carried on with system and intelligence and an attempt made to map the country as the business expanded and among the officers were men
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skilled in surveying. One Philip Turner was one of those, and during the winter of 1789-90 it happened that David Thompson, nineteen years of age and eager to learn, and Mr. Turner, a kind man and willing to teach, wintered together at Cumberland House near the Saskatchewan river, and it was then that David Thompson became skilled in the use of the sextant and chronometer and the fine art of astronomical observations. And from that time in particular began his habit of noting in his daily journals the scientific location of the prominent stopping places and trading posts, and courses of the streams.
The "gentlemen" of the Hudson's Bay Company in charge of affairs in North America were as a rule forceful and saga- cious and tactful men, but of necessity life at trading posts was monotonous and solitary and tended to make some men morose and overbearing, particularly because of the use of liquor in the trade. David Thompson had an abhorrence for liquor in every form and also was a devout man in his daily life and ambitious to do his work thoroughly, and when it happened that the chief factor at York, who was a surly man and gen- erally disliked, sent orders to do no more surveying, he decided to make a change, 11 and so we find in his journal on May 23rd, 1797, this entry : "This day left the service of the Hudsons' Bay Company, and entered that of the Company of Merchants from Canada. May God Almighty prosper me." He walked seventy-five miles across country to a trading post of the rival company, and from there was sent to headquarters at Grand Portage on Lake Superior, where he was welcomed and set to work and soon after received into active partnership.
Life now became to David Thompson a continual joy in the sense of freedom to do the kind of work he loved to do well. His was the task of locating scientifically the various trading posts of the North West Company, and the energy with which he entered into the hardships and toil of such a task is an inspiration to contemplate. He was now in active
11 His term of service was about to expire.
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association with such men as Alex. Mackenzie and Simon Fraser, the MacTavishes and McGillivrays and others. His movements took him to all the lakes and rivers between Lake Superior and the Rocky mountains, to the Mandan villages on the Missouri, to the source of the Mississippi and through the marshes and lakes between that source and Lake Superior, along the south shore of that lake to the straits of Mackinaw, to Peace river and the Athabasca and into the defiles of the Rocky mountains. And when in 1806 he was given the au- thority to cross the mountains and carry the trade to the regions not yet traversed by the foot of white men he was a happy man indeed.
Of David Thompson's career west of the Rocky mountains something has already been said. He was in charge of the business of his company in this district for five years and established trade relations with all the tribes of the extensive Saleesh family in the Columbia Basin. The observations he recorded as to the habits of these Indians and their future are of absorbing interest and have become true in their later history. His prediction as to the future development of the country has also been fulfilled. Because of his scientific ob- servations he became known to the Indians as Koo-Koo-Sint or the star man. In his journey down the Columbia to its mouth in 1811 he had with him a copy of the journal of Patrick Gass, the only journal then published covering the travels of the Lewis and Clark party. He not only was the discoverer of the source of the long looked for Columbia river, but was the first traveler upon the upper three-fourths of its entire length. His contributions to the ethnology and geographic knowledge of this district exceed that of any other one person. He left the Columbia in the spring of 1812 by way of the Athabasca pass and had then opened to use the first regular line of communication across the continent (Latin America excepted) over which mail and express were carried from Montreal (and from New York and Boston for that mat
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ter) to the trading and missionary stations in Oregon and Idaho for a period of thirty years. Mention has been made in published references 12 of an attempt to anticipate the Pacific Fur Company (John Jacob Astor) in their settlement at the mouth of the Columbia river, but such was an erroneous con- clusion. No such attempt was made by the Northwesters, although unfortunate physical conditions in the fall of 1810 probably prevented David Thompson from proceeding down the Columbia then.
David Thompson was forty-two years of age when he re- turned to Fort William in 1812 and the following two years were devoted to recording the results of his surveys in Western Canada and the Rocky Mountain and Columbia River regions, and adding thereto surveys of other traders in districts he did not reach himself. The map he drew hung upon the wall of the directors room of the North West Company at Fort William for years and is still preserved in Toronto, Canada. It bears the legend : "Map of the North West Territory of the Province of Canada, 1792-1812, embracing region between Latitudes 45 and 56, and Longitudes 84 and 124. Made for the North West Company in 1813-1814." It was the only source of information about much of Western Canada for fifty years, and quite remarkably, still is as to certain parts. The surveys and observations of David Thompson in Canada and in Idaho are confirmed by those of the present day ; such was their accuracy.
In 1816 David Thompson was employed by the Dominion Government to take charge of surveying, in behalf of Great Britain, the international boundary line between the United States and Canada, work which required ten years to com- plete. He set the boundary marks from the St. Lawrence river as far west as the Lake of the Woods. For ten years longer he continued to do field work for the government and under private contract, but the later years of his life are not pleasant to refer to. His competence was quite ample for a
12 See Oregon Historical Quarterly Vol. XII, p. 195 et seq.; "David Thompson and the Columbia River," by T. C. Elliott, for such references, and other slight errors.
DAVID THOMPSON AND BEGINNINGS IN IDAHO 61
time, but, as has not been infrequent with children of mixed blood, his sons were not successful in life and in assisting them his property was dissipated. His last years were spent in con- ditions of poverty as abject as those of his childhood and much harder to bear. He died at the advanced age of eighty-seven, by the public unrecognized and forgotten.
The body of David Livingstone was buried in Westminster Abby in London with high honors and his tablet is visited by thousands, but the body of David Thompson lies in an un- marked grave in the Mount Royal cemetery at Montreal. Both were devout men and beloved by those in their employ or inti- mate association. David Livingstone was a missionary of the cross and died among the people he went to serve and we would not diminish in the least the honors due to his name. David Thompson lived the principles of his faith in God amid the debaucheries of liquor in the fur trade as practiced by a large number of those engaged in it. His scientific contributions to our knowledge of the unexplored lands of North America entitle him to honor as one of the greatest land geographers if not the greatest the English race has ever produced.
A conclusion appropriate to the title of this address is found in the brief journal entry of David Thompson when at Kullyspell House on Sunday, April 22nd, 1810: "A fine Easter 13 Sunday, rested all day."
13 The first known observance of Easter in Idaho.