Dr John McLoughlin from Hudson’s Bay Company Visits Lakewood

Jerry Eckrom, a re-enactor from Ft Nisqually Interpretive Center, masterly portrayed Dr. John McLoughlin, of the Hudson’s Bay Company at the Lakewood Library on September 15th. The free program was sponsored by the Lakewood Historical Society and, as always, was open to the public.

Dr McLoughlin was Chief Factor of the Columbia Fur District for Hudson’s Bay Company. At the Tuesday program, Eckrom brought McLoughlin to life in 1854 while in retirement at his home in Oregon City, Oregon. During the presentation Dr McLoughlin provided the audience with a look back on a long and eventful life.

Heightening the re-enactor’s presentation was a special display including a beaver hat from the Lakewood History Museum’s collection. It came from the John Harry Woolverton estate. Also on display was a life sized beaver and beaver pelt loaned for the evening by Roger Hamel of Roger’s Taxidermy in Lakewood.

Dr McLoughlin was born in Canada in 1794 of an Irish father and Scotch mother. His father died when he was 16 years old and he was raised in the home of his maternal grandfather, Malcolm Fraser. He was greatly influenced by his great uncle, Simon Fraser, Canada’s famed explorer.

After obtaining a license to practice surgery and pharmacy in Scotland in 1803, he was appointed as the medical officer for the Northwest Fur Company, a fierce competitor of the Hudson’s Bay Company. His hair prematurely turned white in 1816 after a near drowning incident. As a result he was widely known as “The Great White Eagle”.

The two companies merged in 1821 and in 1824 John McLoughlin was personally appointed by Governor George Simpson as the Chief Factor of Fort George (Astoria, Oregon) which later moved to Ft Vancouver. The new headquarter was a more favorable location on the northern side of the Columbia River.  Thus began his illustrious career with the Company.

By the 1840’s Simpson and McLoughlin were at odds on how the district should be run. It coincided with the arrival of American immigrants and the decline in fur trading because of over trapping. Dr McLoughlin, going against company policy, was sympathetic to the plight of the settlers and offered them aid. He resigned his position with the Company in 1845.

After separating from the Company he moved to Oregon City to land he had previously claimed back in 1829. Unfortunately, he was met with hostility by his neighbors and a conspiracy to strip him of his claim began when Oregon became part of the United States in 1849. He immediately applied for U. S. citizenship but even that wasn’t sufficient to settle the land dispute.

In 1851 he served as mayor of Oregon City. Sadly, he died a heart-broken man in 1857, before the land dispute could be rectified. The state of Oregon released the property to his heirs in 1862 after a nominal payment.

Upon the centennial of his death in 1957, the state legislature awarded him the title “The Father of Oregon”.