James Sinclair

Here is an excellent biographical account of James Sinclair's life written by Irene Spry - http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/sinclair_james_8E.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Sinclair_(fur_trapper)

James Sinclair (1811–1856) was a trader and explorer with the Hudson's Bay Company. He was the son of Hudson's Bay Company factor William Sinclair, from Eastaquoy in Harray, and his Cree wife, Nahovway. He was a brother of William Sinclair. James was born in Rupert's Land and educated in Scotland at Edinburgh University. He twice led large parties of settlers half-way across Canada, from the Red River Valley to the Columbia River valley.

The Treaty of 1818 set the boundary between the United States and British North America along the 49th parallel of north latitude from present day Minnesota to the "Stony Mountains" (now known as the Rocky Mountains). Under the treaty, the boundary in the Columbia District had not been fixed under a policy of "joint occupation" of lands west of the continental divide. The Hudson's Bay Company, which controlled much of the Oregon Country, discouraged settlement because it interfered with the lucrative fur trade. However by 1838, American settlers were coming across the Rockies. Many left from St. Louis, Missouri on the Oregon Trail; a fairly direct, but difficult route.

British traders, missionaries and settlers used the Carlton Trail, which followed the Red River north, then crossed Lake Winnipeg and followed the Saskatchewan River system west to Fort Edmonton. They then went on to Jasper House and the southern leg of the well established HBC York Factory Express route over the Athabaska Pass and down the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver. This route while longer, was easier than the route followed by the Americans.

Belatedly realizing that settlers would ultimately decide who controlled the Columbia district, Sir George Simpson created the Pugets Sound Agricultural Company, a subsidiary of HBC around 1840. The purpose of the company was ostensibly to promote settlement by British subjects of land on the Pacific coast of North America. Company operations were centered at Fort Nisqually, near present day Olympia, Washington, where the company developed dairy, livestock and produce farms.

Simpson instructed Alexander Ross to organize and lead a party of Red River settlers across Rupert's Land and over the Rockies into Oregon country, to be settled on HBC farms. Ross felt that he was too old for such an arduous journey and enlisted Sinclair to lead the party.

In 1841 James Sinclair guided a large group of Red River Colony settlers west from Fort Garry in an attempt to retain Columbia District as part of British North America. Twenty-three families, comprising one hundred twenty-one people, set out on 3 June 1841. Most of the families were of mixed-race (metis), headed by men who were well known to Sinclair and who were capable hunters, well-suited to living off the land; while on the trail and as pioneers in Oregon Country.

Governor Simpson caught up with them, in the Red Deer Hills, on his round-the-world trip. He had set off from London on May 3 and was traveling fifty miles a day on horseback and up to one hundred miles a day by canoe. Simpson told Sinclair that instructions had been left at Fort Edmonton as to how he was to cross the Rockies. Simpson wrote in his diary, "Each family had two or three carts, together with bands of horses, cattle and dogs. As they marched in single file their cavalcade extended above a mile long. The emigrants were all healthy and happy; living with the greatest abundance and enjoying the journey with great relish."

Traveling southwest from the Red Deer Hills, the Sinclair expedition pioneered a quicker, more southerly route. They entered the Rocky Mountains at "Devils Gap" on Lake Minnewanka, near present day Banff. They crossed the Bow River and then followed its tributary the Spray River and the Spray's tributary Whiteman Creek over Whiteman's Pass entering into the Columbia Valley through Sinclair Canyon, near present-day Radium Hot Springs, British Columbia. From there they journeyed south-west down to Lake Pend'Oreille then on to an old fort known as Spokane House then to Fort Colville on the Columbia River and finally to Fort Vancouver along established trade routes.

Despite such efforts, Britain eventually ceded all claims to land south of the 49th parallel to the United States by the Oregon Treaty in 1846, as resolution to the Oregon boundary dispute. This was partly due to John McLoughlin, Chief Factor of Fort Vancouver. Known to be friendly towards American settlers, McLoughlin was slow to settle the Sinclair expedition families on Hudson's Bay Company lands; but did not discourage some from settling in the Willamette Valley on the south side of the Columbia River where they could get free land. The other families settled at Cowlitz and Fort Nisqually. The Sinclair expedition had successfully journeyed 2000 miles, in 134 days,without the loss of a single life and grew in number by three babies born along the way.

Sinclair returned to the Red River Colony. He then traveled to St. Louis, then California and finally back to what had become the fully American Oregon Territory. He also traveled to London where he petitioned Parliament on the rights of Metis for a free fur trade, which angered Governor Simpson. He and Governor Simpson eventually overcame their animosity, and Sinclair rejoined the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1854 led a second large group of Red River settlers on a secret journey to Fort Nez Percés (old Fort Walla Walla) in what had become the fully the American Oregon Territory. He had been promised 200 head of cattle by the HBC for doing so. Upon reaching the Rockies he followed the Kananaskis River south and made a difficult crossing following the Elk River into the Columbia-Kootenay's. He died in an Indian attack at Fort Nez Percés on March 26, 1856.

Mount Sinclair, Sinclair Pass, and Sinclair Canyon in the Canadian Rockies are named for him. ____________________________________________________________________________________ http://www.redriverancestry.ca/SINCLAIR-JAMES-1811.php

JAMES SINCLAIR (1811-1856) ELIZABETH MARIA BIRD (1806-1845) MARY CAMPBELL (1832-?) (Last Updated: June 17, 2014)

James SINCLAIR was born around 1810-11 at Oxford House, son of NAHOVWAY and William SINCLAIR (1766-1818), an Orkney Scot. In the spring of 1818 his father died at York Factory when James was only about seven or eight years old.

• * MORE ABOUT NAHOVWAY and WILLIAM SINCLAIR

When William SINCLAIR died, his executor Alexander KENNEDY (1781-1832) followed his instruction that his son James should be sent to school in Orkney. He took James SINCLAIR and his own two eldest sons, John and Alexander KENNEDY, to Britain on the 1819 HBC ship King George and lodged them with his sister Mary in St Margaret’s Hope in South Ronaldsay. At the age of 17 James went to Edinburgh University and studied the arts and law. His father had hoped he'd enter business in Britain but he decided to return to Canada. ** MORE ABOUT JAMES SINCLAIR in DCBO

In 1824 his widowed mother (NAHOVWAY) moved to Red River.

James returns to Rupert’s Land 1826

James signed on as an apprentice for a year with the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) and sailed on the Camden in 1826 to Moose Factory. He served out his year under Chief Trader Jacob CORRIGAL (1772-1844) at Albany Post and then headed for Red River. Somewhere along the way he became acquainted with Andrew McDERMOT (1791-1881), a retired HBC employee who had established himself north of Lower Fort Garry (Red River Settlement) as a leading merchant and private trader. Like McDERMOT, James disliked the slow advancement offered by the fur trade and wanted to be his own master. In the summer of 1827 James the HBC and began a partnership with McDERMOT.

• * MORE ABOUT ANDREW McDERMOT in DCBO

Marriage to Elizabeth Maria BIRD 1829

On Dec 3, 1829 James married Elizabeth Maria BIRD, daughter of Elizabeth MONTOUR and James Curtis BIRD (1773-1856). The marriage was performed by Reverend David JONES (1796-1844).

• * MORE ABOUT JAMES CURTIS BIRD

On July 9, 1832 their first child, daughter Harriet was born in St Paul Parish (East St Paul; Birds Hill).

By 1840 (prior to his trip to Oregon) , according to most accounts, James would have had four surviving children: Harriet (age 8), Maria (6), Jessie (3), Alexander Christie (2).

First Party of Settlers to Oregon 1841-1842

In 1841 the HBC organized a party (The First James SINCLAIR Party) of 23 families from Red River to emigrate to the Columbia River, hoping that, as settlers, they would strengthen British claims to the Oregon Territory, then in dispute with the United States.

James’ brother-in-law, John FLETT (1815-1892) would later write a detailed account of their journey. John was married to Elizabeth’s sister, Charlotte BIRD. He was s son of Margaret WHITFORD and George FLETT (1774-1850).

• * MORE ABOUT the 1841 SELKIRK EMIGRATION TO OREGON TERRITORY by John FLETT

On Oct 13, 1841 the party arrived at Fort Vancouver. The following year, in 1842 James returned to Red River.

Elizabeth Maria Dies 1845

In February (or April) of 1845 James’s wife Elizabeth Maria died in Red River. Surviving children at that time: Harriet (age 13), Maria (11), Jessie (8), Alexander Christie (age 7) and Colin (age 1).

James Re-marries to Mary CAMPBELL 1848

Tit: On Apr 20, 1848 James re-married at St Johns, Red River, to Mary CAMPBELL b-1830, daughter of Liza McGILLIVRAY & Colin CAMPBELL (1787-1853). ** MORE ABOUT COLIN CAMPBELL

In 1852 eldest daughter Harriet married Dr. William COWAN (1818-1902) from Scotland, the newly appointed Chief Magistrate at Fort Garry. ** MORE ABOUT WILLIAM COWAN in DCBO

SECOND SINCLAIR PARTY TO OREGON JAMES SINCLAIR DIES AT THE CASCADES 1854 1856

In order to rid Fort Garry of James SINCLAIR and others who clashed with the HBC ideas, Governor George SIMPSON (1786-1860) proposed to lead another party to Oregon. In return, SINCLAIR would be put in charge of one of the Oregon posts. The group set out from Ft Garry in May, 1854, and arrived at Walla Walla, Washington in November where SINCLAIR took over as Chief Trader. Circumstances leading up to this event, and the ensuing death of James SINCLAIR, can be seen by revisiting this link:** MORE ABOUT JAMES SINCLAIR in DCBO.

n March 26, 1856 James SINCLAIR was shot and killed at the Cascades (north of Portland on the Columbia River) during an attack by Yakimas Indians.

It is said that after her husband died, Widow Mary re-married to Indian Agent Nathan Hale OLNEY (b-1824), that they lived together only a week and divorced a year later.

In 1873 daughter Jane married Hardy Cole STANTON in Roseburg, Oregon.

In 1893 son Colin James married Mary Rowena PHILLIPS, daughter of Kootenay Chief Paul DAVID of the Tobacco Plains Indians and Michael PHILLIPS (d-1916). The Tobacco Plains Reserve is located south of Bernie (BC), about half way to the Montana border. ** MORE ABOUT MICHAEL PHILLIPS in HBC ARCHIVES

Please post comments and queries at this link: FORUM DISCUSSING the JAMES SINCLAIR FAMILY

====================== Family Details =======================

Children by Elizabeth Maria BIRD:
1. July 9, 1832 HARRIET (HENRIETTA) GOLDSMITH SINCLAIR (m. Dr William COWAN) 2. Feb 26, 1834 JAMES CURTIS SINCLAIR (Died in infancy) 3. 1836 MARIA SINCLAIR (Died age 20) 4. Mar 31, 1837 JESSIE SINCLAIR (m. Unknown COPELEY) 5. Mar 12, 1837 HENRY SINCLAIR (Died in infancy) 6. Dec 17, 1838 ALEXANDER CHRISTIE SINCLAIR 7. 1844 COLIN JAMES SINCLAIR (m. Mary Rowena PHILLIPS) Children by Mary CAMPBELL: 1. 1850 MARY SINCLAIR (m. Hugh FOSTER) 2. 1852 JENNIE JANE MARGARET SINCLAIR (m. Hardy Cole STANTON) 3. 1854 AGNES LUCY SINCLAIR 4. 1856 UNKNOWN (BOY) SINCLAIR

    Mount Sinclair and Sinclair Canyon in the Rockies are both named after James Sinclair (1805-56), son of William Sinclair from Eastaquoy in Harray, who twice led large parties of settlers half-way across Canada, from the Red River valley to British Columbia. He grew up at Oxford House, where his father was Chief Factor. There he learned many of the skills that would prove so useful in his adventurous life: hunting and trapping animals and travelling by canoe, dog-sled and snow-shoe. He was also initiated into many of the ways of his mother Nahovway's tribe, the Cree, and learned their language.

When William died, his executor Alexander Kennedy followed his instruction that his son James should be sent to school in Orkney. He took James and his own two eldest sons, John and Alexander, to Britain on the 1819 HBC ship King George and lodged them with his sister Mary in St Margarets hope in South Ronaldsay. At the age of 17 James went to Edinburgh University and studied the arts and law. His father had hoped he'd enter business in Britain but he decided to return to Canada.
He signed on as an apprentice for a year with the Hudson Bay Company and sailed on the Camden in 1826 to Moose Factory. He served out his year under Trader Jack Corrigall at Albany Post and then headed for Red River.
Andrew McDermot, Andrew Bannatyne's father-in-law, was a free trader, operating under a special licence from Governor Simpson and with the good-will of Chief Factor Donald Mackenzie, in charge at Fort Garry. The Hudson's Bay Company found it useful to have some traders like him to supply the settlers with little odds and ends. Their goods were brought on Company ships and it was then the traders' responsibility to transport the goods from York Factory to Red River.
McDermot had been given a special licence to trade in furs in 1824, so that he could compete with an American trader and drive him off. He was allowed to continue to do so, as long as he sold the furs on to the Company. Sinclair's brother-in-law, Thomas Bunn introduced him to McDermot, who took him on as an assistant. This was probably partly to repay the gratitude McDermot felt to William Sinclair, for his help many years earlier. That same day he met Alexander Ross, who had helped establish Fort Walla Walla west of the Rockies and would become Sinclair's closest friend.
Sinclair began work for McDermot, probably in 1827, making friends with the people of the Red River settlement and the Indians and Metis. He travelled widely with the Metis, probably down into the United States as far as St Louis. The Metis were half-French but Sinclair came to identify with them and be accepted by them. As he travelled widely with them he came to realise that Fort Garry was linked by riverways to the American fur posts and ultimately to the great fur trading centre at St Louis. Waterways converged on Fort Garry from almost every direction.
In 1829 James Sinclair married Elizabeth, daughter of Chief Factor James Curtis Bird, who had been in charge of Edmonton House for many years and had been a close friend of his father's. Bird had settled in Red River and was recognised as its unofficial leader. The Sinclairs settled into a fine house in the heart of the Red River but in 1834 an epidemic of violent dysentery struck and their eldest daughter Elizabeth and only son Alexander both died.
The United States and Britain, in the guise of the Hudson's Bay Company, had turned their eyes to the Oregon, west of the Rockies. The boundary had not been fixed there so both countries wanted to get their settlers in. By 1838, American settlers were pouring over the Rockies and might settle the entire Columbia River country. They set out from St Louis and followed a fairly straight, although difficult, route but the British settlers had to follow the Red River north, carry on up Lake Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan River system to Fort Edmonton, then west to Jasper House, over the Athabaska Pass and down the Columbia River to Fort Vancouver. This route was longer but easier.
Governor Simpson invited Alexander Ross to conduct a party of Red River settlers over the Rockies into the Oregon, to be placed near Fort Vancouver, on HBC farms. Ross felt that he was now too old for adventures like this and suggested that his friend Sinclair should go in his stead, describing him as a recognized authority on prairie travel, able to deal competently with any Indians met on the way and compatible with the Metis who would make up a large part of the party.
Sinclair was very willing to do so and realised that the journey would be shorter and easier if new passes could be found over the Rockies. Sinclair knew from his friend Ross that those passes existed and was keen to discover them. He sought information from his father-in-law, who knew about southern passes within British territory from the Indian scouts at Fort Edmonton.
Twenty-three families, one hundred and twenty-one people, set out on 3 June 1841. Most of the families were of mixed-race, headed by men who were well known to Sinclair and who were capable hunters, well-suited to life on the trail and as pioneers in Oregon. It is evident from the names that several of the families were of Orcadian stock.
Henry Buxton ,wife and 1 child

James Birston , wife and 3 children

John Cunningham, wife and 1 child

John Tait

Julien Bernier, wife and 2 stout boys

Horatio Calder, wife and 7 children, 3 grown up

William Flett, Mother and 4 children

John Spence, wife and 4 children

James Flett, wife and 4 children

John Flett, wife and 4 children

David Flett, wife and 2 children

Joseph Klyne, wife

Toussaint Joyale, wife and 4 children

Francois Gagnon, wife and 5 children

Baptist Rhelle, wife and 1 child

Pierre St. Germain, wife and 5 children

Charles McKay, wife and 4 children

Francois Jacques, wife and 4 children

Alexander Birston, wife and 4 children

Gonracque Zastre, wife and 6 children

Pierre Larocque, wife and 3 children

Louis Larocque, wife and 3 children

Archd Spence, wife and 7 children

    Each family had been told to bring two or three Red River carts and enough horses, cattle and dogs. The men and boys rode while the women and children travelled in the horse-drawn carts, covered with canvas or buffalo hide. They were not allowed to bring surplus belongings, just essential supplies - pemmican, buffalo hides, shot, powder, guns, flints, knives, blankets and tobacco. They were allowed just enough kettles, frying pans, tin plates, mugs, water pails, wooden kegs, butcher and hunting knives, axes, shovels, and shaganappi (rawhide rope) and sufficient clothing to deal with any weather that might be encountered between early summer and late autumn. [Click here to hear and see what a Red River cart was like.]

They were expected to largely live off the land but took 50lbs of pemmican per person, enough for two months. Very limited amounts of flour, sugar and tea were allowed as luxuries to relieve the monotony of the diet. Sinclair carried a good gun, toilet articles to make himself presentable to company officers and clothes suitable to his position. He also had a medical kit, a compass and a spyglass. He had a limited amount of alcohol for emergencies but no-one else was allowed any.
Sinclair was recognised as a firm but fair leader and he established his authority from the start. Rules were laid down and everyone was expected to do his fair share. All the men were expected to know how to make camp efficiently, repair carts, negotiate streams, build bridges, handle horses and hunt game. In an emergency every member of the party was expected to conduct himself with fortitude, restraint, consideration and good humour. Their lives depended on their livestock so the men and boys took the cattle, oxen and horses to water and pasture at regular intervals and at night they were placed within the ring of carts and a watch was kept.
The track led at first between HBC posts - two hundred miles to Fort Ellice, three hundred miles to Carlton House and four hundred miles to Edmonton House. The group rendezvoused at White Horse Plain and the carts were allotted their places in the line. They camped on the first night on the shores of Long Lake. They didn't pitch tents but slept in and under the carts, with buffalo robes beneath and over them. On the first leg of their journey they had to pass through the Bad Woods with their swarms of bulldog flies and mosquitoes and then an escarpment covered in tree stumps before they reached the Big Plain. After about a hundred miles they had to cross several wide and deep creeks and the carts often had to be eased down the banks on rawhide ropes or the men had to push the carts through muddy streams, wading waist deep in water.
They stopped for three days at Fort Ellice to repair their carts, exchange their horses and replenish their stores. Travelling was then relatively easy until they reached the South Saskatchewan River in mid June, swollen to two hundred feet wide by flood waters and within banks one hundred and fifty feet high. The carts had to be turned into rafts and the horses were driven across. A log raft was then made to ferry the oxen and some of the women and children unwilling to cross in the crude boats. Sinclair crossed last, after seeing everyone else safely across.
They spent three days at Fort Carlton, where the York boat brigades stopped between York Factory and Fort Edmonton. Two trails led from Fort Carlton to Fort Pitt and Sinclair chose the northern route, where there was less danger of Blackfoot attack. This trail had many streams to cross and some of them could only be crossed by building bridges. Logs were cut, hauled into place and lashed together with rawhide ropes. They had to be strong enough to bear the weight of the animals and the laden carts. It must have been a nerve-wracking business, driving the first cart across.
In the Red Deer Hills, a range about four hundred feet high with still more streams to be crossed, Governor Simpson caught up with them on his round-the-world trip. He had set off from London on May 3 and was travelling fifty miles a day on horseback and up to one hundred miles a day by canoe. Simpson told Sinclair that instructions had been left at Fort Edmonton as to how he was to cross the Rockies. Simpson wrote in his diary, "Each family had two or three carts, together with bands of horses, cattle and dogs. As they marched in single file their cavalcade extended above a mile long. The emigrants were all healthy and happy; living with the greatest abundance and enjoying the journey with great relish. There were more members in the party at the finish than when they started! This was due to several births that had delayed the party who tried to travel at least twenty miles a day.
The settlers' next stop was at Fort Pitt, which had been established ten years before on the banks of North Saskatchewan and was an important exchange base for horses. The party exchanged their horses, made their repairs, replenished their supplies and took on an Iriquois guide called Michele. There were many creeks still to cross, and many more bridges to be built, delaying them as they hurried to reach the Rockies before bad weather set in.
They arrived at Edmonton House in August, more than two months after leaving Red River. Sinclair found his instructions there from Simpson to travel by the Athabasca River but disregarded them in favour of finding a new overland route. At Edmonton Sinclair met a Cree Indian chief called Mackipictoon, also known as Broken Arm, who said he knew passes that no white man had crossed and that he would guide the party over one.
They would follow the same trail as Governor Simpson until they reached Devil's Lake [Lake Minnee-wah-kah] at the foot of the Rockies, then they would follow a track never before taken by white men. Good horses were chosen for riding and packing and very few carts were taken. They took warm clothing and enough pemmican to last all the way over the mountains and set off in the second week of August.
As they set off, most of the party were on horseback, including the women with their children behind them. The most trusted men had been trained in the art of packing by the men who prepared the pack trains at Edmonton and they all carried the very minimum of equipment. The party soon adjusted to the new mode of transport, they slept in shelters made of buffalo hides and headed south at about twenty to thirty miles a day.
In their approach to the Rockies they had to cross the Red Deer River. The trail to the only good crossing followed the Little Red Deer River, crossing it and its tributaries forty times but this was much easier when travelling by pack train.
They entered the Rockies by the Devil's Gap into a valley with four lakes, Minnee-wah-kah being the largest, where they rested for a few days. They then followed a trail that went half way down the east and south side of the lake and then turned to go through a little gorge into the valley of the Bow River. They forded the river and headed south-west up past the Goat Range through a country of fine lakes.
The change as they crossed the Great Divide was barely noticeable, apart from the difference in the flow of the streams and the softer air. They travelled up the Kootenay Valley to the awe-inspiring Red Rock Gorge, now called Sinclair Canyon. Its walls are over a thousand feet high but it is so narrow they had to follow a dangerous path beside a mountain stream, now the Sinclair River. The path led down to hot springs that were called Sinclair Hot Springs but are now Radium Hot Springs.
The settlers soon reached the valley of the Columbia River and rejoined the route that Simpson had expected them to take. They followed the river down to the Canal Flats where a canal had been dug by the North West Company to join the Columbia and Kootenay rivers and then followed the Kootenay and then overland to Grand Quete Lake. After some hard travelling through dense forest they reached Fort Colville and their guide left them to return to Edmonton. The commander at Fort Colvile, Chief Trader Archibald McDonald, an old friend of William Sinclair, was surprised to see his son arrive at the head of a pack train, as he had been told by Governor Simpson to expect him to arrive by boat down the Columbia.
From Fort Colville they moved on to Fort Walla Walla, a pseudo-Spanish mission fort, built of adobe. It was in dangerous Indian country and had deteriorated since the death of Pierre Pambrum so the party didn't linger. They loaded themselves into the HBC boats to travel the last two hundred miles to Fort Vancouver. They had to portage around the Celilo Falls, where the river fell more than eighty feet in twelve miles and the Dalles, where the river was forced into a passage deeper than it was wide. After passing more rapids at the Cascades the party floated down to Fort Vancouver. Sinclair had brought them safely across the Rocky Mountains and half a continent.
Alexander Kennedy had chosen the site of Fort Vancouver, about a quarter of a mile from the bank of the Columbia River and about ninety miles inland. Under the leadership of Dr John McLoughlin, it was the great trading centre of the Northwest Pacific region.

    The party had to hang around at the fort while waiting to be allocated farms. They became increasingly disgruntled as nothing happened but Sinclair could do nothing to help them as it was up to McLoughlin to place them and he seemed to be in no hurry. After many weeks, some settlers were placed on farms at the Cowlitz and Nisqually but conditions weren't good and not at all what the settlers had been led to expect.

Sinclair left Fort Vancouver in December, intending to travel from Fort Colvile to Fort Edmonton by boat but the weather forced him to spend the winter at Fort Colvile. He decided he would like to settle in the area someday. In the spring he joined the first HBC brigade of bateaux and then a pack train over the mountains to Jasper House, then to Edmonton and by York boat brigade to Fort Garry.
Sinclair went back to work for McDermot, travelling to York Factory with a fleet of York boats. Word came from the Oregon that the settlers had felt the HBC hadn't delivered what had been promised so they had moved to the better land of the Willamette Valley to become independent farmers. This didn't suit the HBC's purposes so they decided not to send Sinclair with another party. He felt that the people he had led so far had been badly let down.
He returned to business in Red River. His daughter Harriet reminisced about her father in the book Women of Red River, published in 1923, when she was ninety-one. "My father was a busy man and was often away on his journeyings, by dog trains in the winter, and by Red River cart trains in the summer over the plains. He used to take his furs to St Peter's, on the Mississippi. He was the first to send furs from Rupert's Land to England independently of the Company".
Another epidemic struck Red River in 1843, this time of influenza and dysentery, and two of Sinclair's young children, Emma and Louise, died. Business difficulties also arose, when Chief Factor Finlayson refused to carry McDermot and Sinclair's goods on Company ships. An enormous prairie fire had also made conditions difficult by scattering the buffalo.
James' wife Elizabeth died in February 1845 and he had to close his house and send his three oldest children to boarding school while his youngest was looked after by relatives.
Governor Christie brought in other regulations to reinforce HBC's power, issuing new licences and bringing in an act that no one could have land without agreeing not to trade with North America. The Metis believed they had a special right to the land and James Sinclair sent a petition to Christie asking what their rights were but it received a dismissive answer. Relations between the Metis and HBC continued to be unsettled and in 1846 Sinclair was asked to go to London to place their case before the government. He travelled down to St Louis and then to New York, from which he took a boat that took him to Britain in five weeks. His friend Alexander Kennedy Isbister, although only 25, was asked to present the petition. It was to no avail however, as legal opinion was on the side of the Company.
When Sinclair returned to Red River in the spring of 1847 he found troops stationed at Fort Garry and business improved. He married Mary Campbell, daughter of Chief Trader Colin Campbell of Fort Dunvegan. Tensions between his children and their step-mother led to his placing his daughters, Harriet and Maria, in boarding school, Knox College in Galesboro, Illinois. Sinclair took his daughters there and then moved on to St Louis. He struck up a friendship there with a young army lieutenant, Ulysses S Grant, and assisted him financially and in his courtship of Julia Dent. He was a guest at their wedding in August 1848 and seems to have remained in America that winter and taken steps to become an American citizen.
Sinclair spent 1849 away from Red River. Having heard in St Louis about the gold strike in California, he travelled up the Missouri River in July, crossing the Rockies by the California trail and arrived early at the Gold Rush. He seems to have found some gold and was quite active, speaking up at miners' councils but didn't stay long and returned to St Louis to plan a return to Oregon. A letter from an officer at Fort Edmonton said that Sinclair found 22lbs of gold, worth £1300 but Sinclair made no comment.
Sinclair wanted to move his family to Oregon and so brought his daughters back from boarding school. The journey back was difficult because of flooding. A letter arrived from Simpson, asking Sinclair to go to the Oregon to discover whether the HBC forts that had fallen into disrepair could be re-established. As the flooding meant he couldnâ't emigrate that year, he did this instead and set out with a cart train to Edmonton. There he met up again with Mackipictoon and they quickly crossed the Rockies by the same route. He found Walla Walla in very poor condition and even Fort Vancouver had gone downhill since McLoughlin's retirement and most of the trade was now conducted from Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island. The increasing numbers of settlers had roused the Indians to resist them so there was a constant threat of Indian attack.
Sinclair spent several months in the Oregon and then sailed from Fort Vancouver to San Francisco. He discovered there that Captain Colin Sinclair, said to be an Englishman with his own clipper ship, had been in port for more than a year. He had been well-known in the city and had considerable influence at the height of the Gold Rush, representing the miners' interests at Sutter's camp. Sinclair was sure this was his brother, whom he hadn't seen since Oxford House but they didn't meet.
Colin had made himself well-liked for his fairness and good sense. He realised that the best of the Gold Rush was past, used his gains to buy another sailing ship and sailed for England, picking up a profitable cargo of sandalwood in the South Sea Islands, which he planned to dispose of for valuable China tea and other oriental goods in Shanghai - returning to London a much richer man.
Sinclair sailed from San Francisco to Panama City in 1852 and crossed the Isthmus of Panama on mule-back, then sailed to New York via Cuba. When he returned to Red River he found that his daughter Harriet was betrothed to Dr William Cowan who had arrived as surgeon to the Chelsea pensioners who were stationed at Fort Garry.
In the summer of 1853 Governor Simpson offered Sinclair a timber limit and breeding stock if he conducted another party over the Rockies. The plans for the trip were more complicated this time because many of the emigrants were leaving good properties to try their luck in the Oregon. They took much the same equipment but the carts were pulled by oxen instead of ponies. The oxen would travel more slowly but they had more endurance and could cope with poorer grazing. They could be used as pack animals or eaten if necessary and they were easier for the women to drive. Each leader of a group was told to only bring enough carts to carry their belongings and act as shelter. However, one influential settler insisted on bringing 300 sheep. Sinclair knew this was a bad idea but to refuse would be to endanger the whole venture.
Simpson had set 1 May as the date of departure but they were only ready to leave at the end of May. There were one hundred people in the party; most were from families well known to Sinclair - Gibsons, Birds, Sutherlands and Whitfords. George Taylor was his right-hand man on the trip and afterwards. Sinclair travelled with his wife Mary, their two children and his daughter Maria and sons from his first marriage. Two of Mary's sisters and her brother John, who kept a log of the journey, also travelled with them.
In return for undertaking this trip, Sinclair received the rank and salary of a chief trader of £150 a year and the right to raise his own stock near Walla Walla, which he was to take charge of.
The party left on 24 May 1854, Mary's unmarried sister Margaret Campbell driving the Sinclair family wagon, as she would all the way to the Rockies. Rules were laid down - Sinclair's word was law but he would consult on important matters with some reliable members of the party. No tardiness was to be tolerated and each day would start with the cry, "Every man to his ox!" The oxen weren't all properly broken and caused problems in the morning. The sheep dawdled. On the first day the largest family group went first, then the next and so on. The next day the second family went first and so on, so that everyone had a turn at travelling dust-free. They aimed to travel 2.5 miles per hour, even with the sheep.
The trail between Fort Garry and Fort Carlton was better than previously, because it was more used. When crossing the Qu'Appelle River, the banks were long and steep and slippery with rain. There were no brakes on the carts so ropes had to be tied round the ox's horns to hold them back. A feud between the Cree and Blackfoot meant that guard had to be stood against Blackfoot attack. Shortly after the left Fort Pitt they were met by Chief Mackipictoon, who offered to accompany them to Edmonton. The hundred Cree he had with him helped to guard the party. They also helped to make and break camp, heard stock, hunt game and build bridges. Sometimes these bridges had to be strong enough to bear the weight of carts and oxen over deep ravines. It was estimated that they had to build eight bridges like these after leaving Fort Pitt, the shortest forty feet long and the longest 1000ft long.
As they crossed the plains, young John Campbell described an astonishing sight. "We were travelling along as usual, and we could see a black mass moving towards us. These were the buffalo travelling towards the north and we had to stop to let them by. When they came up to us they separated; some going ahead of our carts and the others behind. We had to stop and let them by and go around our loose cattle and horses as they wanted to follow the band of buffalo. We were obliged to remain at that place for over two hours to let them go by us. Just as far as the eye could see there was nothing but a black mass of them and they were going on a small lope. One cannot think how they came to be gathered together, as it were, into one band and started travelling north.
Mackipictoon assured Sinclair that the carts could cross the mountains but he was unconvinced. He was willing to take them as far as possible but, while at Edmonton, he made sure that they could convert into a pack train if necessary. The most able men learnt the most efficient way to pack the animals. Convincing the oxen was another matter but they were finally won over. Several of the men also learned how to make ox saddles in case women and children had to ride on them if not enough horses were found. Sinclair made sure that his right-hand man, George Taylor, had enough nails. With difficulty, he persuaded the party to travel as lightly as possible over the mountains. He urged him to leave things as gifts or get anything suitable credited to their accounts, to be redeemed at Fort Vancouver.
The settlers left Edmonton House in mid-August, travelling south-west and fording the Red Deer River, where they got their first sight of the Rockies. Instead of heading for Devil's Gap, they entered the Bow river valley between the present towns of Cochrane and Morley, further to the east than the previous trip. Mackipictoon led them up the Kananaskis River to two passes close together, Upper and Lower Pass. They camped where the Kananaskis River joined the Bow and were delayed for two weeks as Mrs Robert Flett gave birth to a baby that only lived for a few days.
While they waited, Sinclair and some of the other men reconnoitred and were disturbed at the roughness of the ground. Mackipictoon insisted it would be a better way but they would have to travel by pack train. Many wanted to take the carts further but Sinclair was adamant. Women carried babies on their back and small children rode behind them. The carts were broken down and saddles were made.
The way was heavily timbered, causing problems when the oxen reacted to their packs being knocked. The trail became harder, over mountain shoulders and swamps, on a mountain shelf between a rock wall and an abyss. No-one was hurt but Sinclair could see the strain and regretted taking this new path. They often had to slash their way through burnt-out remnants of forest. A party of men had to travel ahead to scout the best way and the stock suffered from insufficient feed. Food had to be husbanded as there was very little game. Finally, their Cree guide admitted he was lost and the party had to wander to and fro to find a route. Sinclair had to guide the party by compass.
John Campbell wrote that "At one place we came to a place that had to be bridged; a most fearful spot. Small trees were thrown across a narrow chasm that seemed almost bottomless. Mr Sinclair said - "That is the Crow's Nest!" One of the people replied, "The Devil's Bridge would be a better name for it!" Over such gorges we had to construct bridges even stronger for cattle and horses, women and children, to cross these terrifying abysses." Sinclair had to urge his dispirited party on step by step, assuring them that the worst must be past.
The scenery was magnificent but oxen had to be killed for meat, leaving fewer pack animals. A decision had to be made as to which pass to take and from the descriptions it is presumed they took the Upper, more difficult pass. The terrain was so rough that everyone had to walk, leading the animals, stumbling over the shale, boulders and snow. Campbell wrote "We crossed the height-of-land walking through snow three feet deep in October, 1854." This was the first crossing by white men over the Kananaskis Pass but it had taken them thirty days.
They made their way down the other side, following the Beatty Creek and the Palliser River down to the Kootenay Valley. Travel was easy in the broad valley down to the Canal Flats.
At Tobacco Plains they met John Linklater, the HBC man in charge of Fort Kootenay. He was the only white man for three or four hundred miles. He forded the river, having been so glad to hear other white men were near that he didn't stop to saddle his horse. Linklater warned Sinclair to be careful near Walla Walla as the Cayuse tribe were warming up for trouble.
The settlers reached Walla Walla in December and Sinclair's family and some others stayed there while the remainder of the party carried on to Fort Vancouver. Sinclair reported at Fort Vancouver and then returned to Walla Walla. The Sinclair family settled down there, building houses, barns and a saw mill.
In the following May, Governor Stevens, administrator for the new Washington Territory arrived with fifty men, wanting to hold an Indian council. Sinclair and Stevens got on well and Stevens sent messengers to the seventeen tribes to come before early June. Twenty-five bands gathered and then more and more - a large party of Nez Perces then three hundred Cayuse bent on trouble, led by Five Crows. Two days later two thousand more of the Yakima, Umatilla and Walla Walla arrived, led by Kamiakin and Peu-peu-mox-mox. This is considered to be one of the greatest Indian enclaves ever held. Plans were put forward for reservations and the Indians held a pow-wow. The Indians split between those wanting peace and those unwilling to accept the restrictions being imposed upon them. Looking Glass of the Nez Perce tried to incite war but didn't succeed. Three reservations were to be set up, one on the Umatilla River, one in the Yakima Valley and one on the Clearwater and Snake rivers. The Indians left and life carried on, irrigation canals were re-opened, gardens planted and the orchard pruned. A gold rush to Colville took almost all the men away.
In October Sinclair's young interpreter John McBain brought word that an Indian War was about to breakout in the Oregon. Scattered attacks had already been made. Sinclair set about defending the fort and sent word for aid on 12 October 1855 to the United States Army commander at the Dalles and to Chief Factor Dugald MacTavish at Fort Vancouver. The Indian agent, Nathan Olney, ordered the evacuation of the area and ordered Sinclair to throw all the fort's powder and balls into the Columbia River. Sinclair insisted on a receipt. They left that night, only taking what they could carry.
Sinclair met Chief Factor Dugald MacTavish at the Cascades. He had responded to his appeal for help. MacTavish wrote to London that Mr Sinclair has acted in this matter with much prudence and discretion, and had evinced sound judgment in the management of the Company's business committed to his charge through a very trying period. Sinclair was ordered to attempt to reclaim the fort so set out with a party of Oregon volunteers.
They set out in mid-November knowing that Chief Peu-peu-mox-mox (Yellow Serpent) had taken the fort with more than 800 men. A base camp was set up at Wells Springs on the Umatilla River, 40 miles from the fort. Sinclair accompanied the hundred and fifty mounted volunteers who intended to occupy the fort but they met a messenger with the news that the fort was occupied by about a thousand Indians. They halted twenty-five miles from the fort to await reinforcements. "In the meantime we fortified our position and soon built a stockaded fort. Here we were cooped up for fifteen days surrounded by a large body of Indians. After receiving reinforcements, we made a night march to the fort which was found deserted and a mass of ruins. We had a pretty hard fight for four days. We, however, drove the Indians from their position, and drove them before us for forty miles. I was with the party who made the first charge. I had no idea of getting into the fight but the excitement was such there was no keeping out of it; the country was in that state where there was no moving with safety a few miles from our camp. After waiting for better than a month, I got a chance of writing to Colville by the return of one hundred and fifty friendly Nez Perces who had escorted Governor Stevens to our camp. Our victory saved him and his party. I have sent instructions to McDonald in charge of Colville to stop the trade in arms and ammunition. This will bring the Indians down on him, but of the two evils it is better to have the Yankees as friends. Our position is a delicate one to avoid coming in conflict with either party. I am glad to say that the hostile feeling formerly entertained by the Yankee population against the Company is fast giving way, and that they now give us credit when we deserve it. There are, however, a few who would wish to saddle the Company with being the authors of the present Indian difficulties, but the fact that we were obliged to abandon our property to the mercies of the Indians has tended to remove the old feeling against the Company; I was within a yard or two from the great Walla Walla chief, Peu-peu-mox-mox, when he was shot. The whole scalp was taken from his head and cut into twenty pieces. His skull was divided equally for buttons, his ears preserved in a bottle of spirits, and large strips of his skin cut off along his back to be made into razor strops. Such is Indian warfare!"
Indian attacks became increasingly vicious and atrocities occurred along the Columbia, particularly from the Klickitats. Sinclair was concerned about his family, who were staying at the Dalles with Mrs Moar, his wife's sister. When things quietened a little, Sinclair returned to Fort Vancouver to report and estimate the loss to the company. Sinclair lost all but twelve of his two hundred cattle and all his horses.
In March 1856 he received orders from MacTavish to return to Walla Walla to salvage what he could and to restore the post ready to resume trading when the troubles ended. He set off on 24 March, up the Columbia River and stopped at the Cascades to wait for the steamer to take him to Dalles to see his ailing daughter Maria, who was receiving treatment from an army doctor there. A tramway was being built around the rapids so there was a large force of men with their families living there and cabins and warehouses had been built.
The steamer was preparing to leave the next day when gunfire was heard, signalling an Indian attack. Cascade Indians came galloping in, attacking everyone. Sinclair had been near the door of the store and helped people in as it was the only place that might withstand a siege. The doors were shut and barred and Sinclair took charge of the forty people inside.
He ordered a hole cut in the ceiling to reach the roof, as the Indians had taken possession of land above the store and were attacking from above. It happened that nine rifles and a quantity of ammunition had been left in the store about an hour before. Volunteers crawled onto the roof to fire from there and holes were cut in all four walls to cover all sides of the building. Just as he was effectively ordering the defence, two more people were seen running towards the store, with bullets striking the ground around them. Sinclair opened the door for them, only to be shot and die instantly.
John McBain had been with Sinclair almost constantly since he came to Walla Walla. Although not yet twenty, he took charge and realised the greatest need was for water, to drink and to douse fires as the Indians were throwing balls of burning moss on the roof. He knew they would set fire to the other buildings, to prevent escape under cover of darkness. As darkness fell and before they could do this, he crawled to the water's edge, returning with seven buckets before the firing became too intense. For the next two days no-one could leave the store and the water had to be severely rationed. On the morning of the 28th the Indians seemed to have run out of ammunition so McBain brought enough water to fill two barrels and hid Sinclair's body in a deep pool. When firing broke out again the next day, he held a meeting. It was agreed that when only four rounds were left, they should make a dash for an old large flat-bottomed boat, push off into the stream and go to their deaths over the Cascades.
In classic Western style, just before they were forced to make this suicidal choice, the cavalry arrived. A settler who had escaped when the attack began had just happened to meet a body of soldiers, led by Lieutenant, later General, Sheridan.
Chief Factor MacTavish sent William Sinclair, then working at Fort Vancouver, to bring his brother's body back for a full Masonic funeral. When Governor Simpson heard of the tragedy, he said, "We have lost our best man and the Hudson's Bay Company has lost its ablest officer".
His wife Mary was left with a step-son, three daughters and a son born posthumously. MacTavish did what he could for them but Sinclair had not left a will. Finally, as the dependant of a deceased American citizen who had suffered loss at the hands of the Indians his widow was compensated for the $30,000 worth of cattle and possessions lost at Walla Walla. Sinclair's old friend Ulysses S Grant, by a special Act of Congress, granted her a land claim of six hundred and forty acres in the Walla Walla valley.
Principal source - West of the Mountains: James Sinclair and the Hudson's Bay Company D Geneva Lent 1963