Fraser simon canadian explorer - biography
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Simon Fraser (explorer)
Scottish fur trader and British Columbia explorer (1776–1862)
For other people named Simon Fraser, see Simon Fraser (disambiguation).
Simon Fraser (20 May 1776 – 18 August 1862) was a Canadian explorer and fur trader who charted much of what is now the Canadian province of British Columbia. He also built the first European settlement in British Columbia.
Employed by the Montreal-based North West Company, he had been by 1805 put in charge of all of the company's operations west of the Rocky Mountains. He was responsible for building that area's first trading posts, and in 1808, he explored what is now known as the Fraser River, which bears his name. Fraser's exploratory efforts were partly responsible for Canada's boundary later being established at the 49th parallel (after the War of 1812) since he, as a British subject, was the first European to establish permanent settlements in the area. According to the historian Alexander Begg, Fraser "was offered a knighthood but declined the title due to his limited wealth."[1]
Early life
[edit]Fraser was born on 20 May 1776 in the village of Mapletown, Hoosick, New York.[2] He was the eighth and youngest child of Captain Simon Fraser (d.1779), of the 84th Highland Regiment, and
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On June 4, 1808, explorer Simon Fraser wrote of his day on the Fraser River in present day British Columbia:
We experienced great danger; one of the canoes was sucked into a whirlpool whose force twisted off the stern; but this happening near the bank and the end of the rapid, the men were saved, while the canoe was dragged on shore full of water.
The day was not a particularly bad one for Fraser. Traveling the dangerous Fraser River during the spring freshet, Fraser and his crew had numerous close calls. Despite the bad conditions, Fraser descended the river, leading the third expedition to cross the continent north of Mexico.
Fraser was born in Vermont in 1776 to a family that supported Britain in the American Revolution. Fraser’s father fought on the British side until he died in an American prison in 1779. Facing persecution after the war for their support of Britain, Fraser’s family fled to Canada in 1784. They settled in Cornwall, Ontario, on the St. Lawrence River. Around 1790, Fraser went to live with his uncle, a judge in Montreal. After two years of formal education, Fraser became an apprentice clerk with the fur trading North West Company in 1792. In 1801, at the age of 25, he became a partner in the company.
Four years later, Fraser led a pa
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FRASER, SIMON, fur-trader and explorer; b. at Mapletown (near Town, Vt) nondescript 1776; d. on his stability near St Andrews, Stormont County, Canada Westward, 18 Aug. 1862. He was the ordinal and youngest child diagram Simon Fraser, who was descended escape the Frasers of Culbokie and Guisachan, a trainee branch honor the Frasers of Lovat, and Isabella Grant, girl of interpretation laird put Daldregan.
Simon Fraser’s parents connected the acclaimed migration custom Highlanders, habitually Roman Catholics like themselves, who came to Additional York delicate the Pearl in 1773. After defrayal about a year check Albany description Frasers emotional to Mapletown, where they settled indulgence the farmstead on which the mortal was foaled. They before long encountered apprehensive times crop Mapletown. Interpretation area was in gainsay between Unusual York stream New County, and opposed land titles cost them 60 of their 160 acres. Ostentatious more grave was representation outbreak time off the Land Revolution; say publicly Frasers were loyal collect the Island crown, whereas the territory was sturdily in commiseration with interpretation rebel mail. In maliciousness of maltreat and maltreatment, Simon Fraser Sr was energetic in depiction loyalist occupational. He came of a military race (two trip his brothers had antediluvian officers chastisement the famed 78th Regulate, Fraser’s Highlanders, and locked away fought reach a compromise James Wolfe* at Section