Fraser, Paul (1797-1855)
Fraser was born in 1797 and entered service with the Northwest Company in 1819 as an apprentice clerk at Fort Vermillion, later at McLeod Lake (1832). Rising, Fraser became Chief Trader, briefly managing New Caledonia (1846), an officer’s position he retained in the Hudson’s Bay Company. Along the Thompson River, he established Little Fort (1850), but the post was abandoned two years later. At this time, Fraser had come under a cloud due to drinking, and in 1855 may have so severely beaten Michel Fallardeau that he died of his injuries. A. C. Milliken takes stock of Fraser’s disposition: “autocratic, curt to even his brother officers, a tyrant with an uncontrollable temper.” However, an entry in Fraser’s Fort Kamloops Journal places Fallardeau’s death in 1852, from suicide. Fraser died by accidental circumstance while reading correspondence in his tent, and was interred near the Brigade Trail, atop Mount Manson. He married Angélique Harnois, having four children.
Sources:
- Anderson, Nancy Marguerite. “Michel Fallardeau.” Nancy Marguerite Anderson. http://nancymargueriteanderson.com/michel-fallardeau/ (this site includes the quotation from Paul Fraser’s Fort Kamloops Journal).
- Evans, Mike. “Michel Fallardeau,” BC Metis Mapping Project. http://ubc.bcmetis.ca/hbc_bio_profile.php?id=OTcw
- Evans, Mike. “Paul Fraser,” BC Metis Mapping Project. http://ubc.bcmetis.ca/hbc_bio_profile.php?id=MTA2Nw==
- Milliken, A. C.. “Paul Fraser’s Grave,”
Pioneer Days in British Columbia . Heritage House Publishing Company, 1979. https://books.google.ca/books?id=ETRnNvNStZ8C&pg=PA161&lpg=PA161&dq=paul+fraser+chief+trader+kamloops&source=bl&ots=egsOE0P2Dk&sig=O8AA1N96NKu0m32MYniuP40QnpI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7odi96sDLAhVK82MKHQTHCa8Q6AEIJDAB#v=onepage&q=paul%20fraser%20chief%20trader%20kamloops&f=false
