01Biography
Born in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, to an Irish Catholic father and a Scottish-Canadian mother, McLoughlin trained as a doctor before joining the fur trade. He served as the Hudson's Bay Company chief factor at Fort Vancouver from 1825 to 1846, and for two decades was effectively the most powerful European in the Pacific Northwest. Despite London's instructions to discourage American settlement, which threatened the fur trade, McLoughlin extended food, seed, credit, and shelter to exhausted emigrant families arriving at Fort Vancouver, often on his personal account.
02Why they matter
Kept countless emigrant families alive through their first Oregon winter with food and credit on personal authority.
03How they died
Forced out of the HBC in 1846 over his pro-American policies, he became a U.S. citizen in 1851 and settled in Oregon City. He died there of natural causes on 3 September 1857, aged 72, bitter that the U.S. land office had stripped him of his Oregon City property claim. The land was returned to his estate in 1862.
04Legacy
Officially named 'Father of Oregon' by the state legislature in 1957. His Oregon City home is now a National Historic Site.