The Pacific Fur Company (PFC) was an American fur trade venture wholly owned and funded by John Jacob Astor that functioned from 1810 to 1813. It was based in the Pacific Northwest, an area contested over the decades between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Spanish Empire, the United States of America and the Russian Empire.
Management, clerks and fur trappers were sent both by land and by sea to the Pacific Coast in the Autumn of 1810. The base of operations was constructed at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1811, Fort Astoria (present-day Astoria, Oregon). The destruction of the company vessel the Tonquin later that year off the shore of Vancouver Island took with it the majority of the annual trading goods. Commercial competition with the British-Canadian North West Company began soon after the foundation of Fort Astoria. The Canadian competitors maintained several stations in the interior, primarily Spokane House, Kootanae House and Saleesh House. Fort Okanogan was also opened in 1811, the first of several PFC posts created to counter these locations. The Overland Expedition faced military hostilities from several Indigenous cultures and later had an acute provision crisis leading to starvation. Despite losing men crossing the Great Plains and later at the Snake River, they arrived in groups throughout January and February 1812 at Fort Astoria.
A beneficial agreement with the Russian-American Company was also planned through the regular supply of provisions for posts in Russian America. This was planned in part to prevent the rival Montreal based North West Company (NWC) to gain a presence along the Pacific Coast, a prospect neither Russian colonial authorities nor Astor favored.
The lack of military protection during the War of 1812 forced the sale of PFC assets to the NWC. While the transactions were not finalized until 1814, due to the distance from Fort Astoria to Montreal and New York City, the company was functionally defunct by 1813. A party of Astorians returning overland to St. Louis in 1813 made the important discovery of the South Pass through the Rocky Mountains. This geographic feature would later be used by hundreds of thousands of settlers traveling over the Oregon, California, and Mormon routes, collectively called the Westward Expansion Trails. The emporium envisioned by Astor was a failure for a number of reasons, including the loss of two supply ships, the material difficulties of crossing the North American continent and competition from the North West Company. Historian Arthur S. Morton concluded that "The misfortunes which befell the Pacific Fur Company were great, but such as might be expected at the initiation of an enterprise in a distant land whose difficulties and whose problems lay beyond the experience of the traders."
John Jacob Astor was a merchant of New York City and founder of the American Fur Company. To create a chain of trading stations spread across the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Northwest, he incorporated an AFC subsidiary, the Pacific Fur Company. The commercial venture was originally designed to last for twenty years. Unlike its major competitor the Canadian owned NWC, the Pacific Fur Company was not a Joint-stock company. Capital for the PFC amounted to $200,000 divided into 100 shares individually valued at $2,000 and was funded entirely by Astor. The American Fur Company held half of the stock and the other half divided among prospective management and clerks. The chief representative of Astor in the daily operations was Wilson Price Hunt, a St. Louis businessman with no outback experience who received five shares. Each working partner was assigned four shares with the remaining shares held in reserve for hired clerks. Fellow partners in the venture were recruited from the NWC, the members being Alexander McKay, David Stuart, Duncan McDougall, and Donald Mackenzie. Astor and the partners met in New York on 23 June 1810 to sign the Pacific Fur Company's provisional agreement.
To establish the fledgling PFC trade posts in the distant Oregon Country, Astor's plan called for an extensive movement of large groups of employees overland following the route of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and navally by sailing around Cape Horn. The venture was planned on methods used in the AFC for the collection of fur pelts. Complements of employees (later called "Astorians") would operate in various parts of the region to complete trapping excursions. Outposts maintained by the PFC would be freighted necessary foodstuffs and supplies by annual cargo ships from New York City. Trade goods for the Pacific Northwest Indigenous such as beads and blankets would be exchanged for fur pelts.
Ongoing supply issues faced by the Russian-American Company were seen as a means to gain more furs. Cargo ships en route from the Columbia were planned to then sail north for Russian America to bring much needed provisions. By cooperating with Russian colonial authorities to strengthen their material presence in Russian America, it was hoped by Astor to stop the NWC or any other British presence to be established upon the Pacific Coast. A tentative agreement for merchant vessels owned by Astor to ship furs gathered in Russian America into the Qing Empire was signed in 1812. Company ships then were directed to sail to the port of Guangzhou, where furs were then sold for impressive profits. Chinese products like porcelain, nankeens and tea were to be purchased; with the ships then to cross the Indian Ocean and head for European and American markets to sell the Chinese wares.
The PFC required a sizable number of laborers, fur trappers and in particular Voyageurs to staff company locations. Recruiting for the company's two expeditions were led by Wilson Hunt and Donald Mackenzie for the overland party and Alexander McKay for the naval bound group. All three men were based out of Montreal throughout May to July 1810. Hunt was designated to lead the Overland Expedition, despite his inexperience in dealing with Indigenous cultures, or residing in the wilderness. It was suggested that Hunt instead trade positions with McKay and travel on the Tonquin. However, it was determined to keep Hunt in charge of the land party.
The customary time for free agents to be sent into the interior from Montreal was in May, leaving few men left in the city available for hire. The recruitment effort stalled in part from the bitter treatment by the NWC and Hunt's lack of prior experience as a fur merchant, the source of many issues later on. PFC contracts were atypically favorable for hired men when compared to its Montreal competitors. Terms included a forty percent larger annual salary, double the cash advanced prior to departure and a length of service lasting five years, rather than the more common two or three year employment.
During the summer of 1810, Alexander McKay hired thirteen French-Canadians for the Tonquin. The majority of the group remained in Montreal until late July, when they given directives to withdraw to New York City. A canoe provided transportation for the trip down the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain. At Whitehall additional men that were employed by McKay joined the southbound party, among them Ovide de Montigny. On 3 August they reached New York City, with the group's "hats decorated with parti-colored ribands and feathers..." causing some Americans to believe them to Natives. The following day lodgings at Long Island were reached and the scene was described by clerk Gabriel Franchère:
While waiting to depart for the Pacific, McKay met with British diplomatic official Francis James Jackson. The official assured McKay that in the event of war between the United States and United Kingdom, all PFC employees that were British employees would be treated as such.
Thirteen men signed contracts in Montreal to join Hunt on the journey to the Pacific coast by land. Notably only one had previously operated under a contract lasting longer than a year. The generous cash advancements were taken advantage by three men who deserted before Hunt and the remaining group left the city for Michilimackinac in July. The party reached Mackinac Island on 28 July 1810. Acting as a major depot for the regional Great Lakes fur trade, the island was where Hunt focused on hiring more men for the company. The veteran fur merchant Ramsay Crooks was convinced to join the company and assisted in recruiting additional men. Over the sixteen days spent there, a total seventeen men were recruited to the concern with sixteen being French-Canadian. This group of men, unlike those hired in Montreal, had extensive experience working in the fur trade as voyageurs and other roles. Likely suggested by Crooks, interested men already hired by other companies would have their contracts purchased from their employers.
After the men were finally gathered in early August, Hunt and the party departed for St. Louis and arrived there on 3 September. The hired voyageurs and fur trappers completed many transactions with various merchants in St. Louis and in the nearby French-Canadian settlement of Ste. Genevieve throughout September and October. These were recorded on the company ledger and particular purchases been argued as the men collecting goods to trade with various Indigenous nations they would visit. In particular, these negotiations by the French-Canadians have been thought to be steps towards later establishing themselves as independent traders in relatively unexploited fur regions. Most of the men in the Overland Party were engaged as hunters, interpreters, guides and voyageurs.
The advanced party was sent to create the initial base of operations at the mouth of the Columbia River. Necessary trade goods for deals with Indigenous and needed supplies to establish the station were shipped on the same vessel In addition to beginning the company headquarters, this party would block any attempts by the NWC to create a station in the area. The ship Tonquin was purchased by Astor in 1810 to start commercial operations on the Pacific Ocean. The majority of the company partners. Duncan McDougall, David and Robert Stuart, and Alexander McKay would head this detachment. In addition, clerks Gabriel Franchère and Alexander Ross would join them on the planned voyage.
Under the command of Jonathan Thorn the Tonquin left New York on September 8, 1810. PFC employees numbered thirty-three men in total on board. The vessel landed at the Falkland Islands on 4 December to make repairs and take on water supplies at Port Egmont. Captain Thorn attempted to abandon eight of the crew still on shore, among them clerks Gabriel Franchère and Alexander Ross. The stranded men were taken on board after Robert Stuart threatened to kill Thorn. Communication between company workers was no longer held in English to keep the captain excluded from discussions. Company partners held talks in their ancestral Scottish Gaelic and the laborers used Canadian French. On December 25 the Tonquin rounded Cape Horn and sailed north into the Pacific Ocean.
The ship anchored at the Kingdom of Hawaii in February 1811. Due to the possibility of men abandoning their posts to live in the tropical islands, Thorn assembled all of the crew and PFC employees to harass them to remain on the ship. Commercial transactions with Hawaiians saw the crew purchasing cabbage, sugar cane, purple yams, taro, coconuts, watermelon, breadfruit, hogs, goats, two sheep, and poultry in return for "glass beads, iron rings, needles, cotton cloth". Upon entering Honolulu, the crew was greeted by Isaac Davis and Francisco de Paula Marín, the latter acting an interpreter in negotiations with Kamehameha I and prominent government official Kalanimoku. 24 Native Hawaiian Kanakas were hired with the approval of Kamehameha I, who appointed Naukane to oversee their interests.
The Columbia River was reached in March 1811. Despite stormy conditions, over several days Thorn ordered two boats dispatched to scout a safe route over the treacherous Columbia Bar. Both boats would capsize and eight men lost their lives. Finally on March 24, the Tonquin crossed the bar, passing into the Columbia’s estuary and laid anchor in Baker’s Bay. Captain Thorn stressed the urgency for the Tonquin to start trading further north along the Pacific Coast as instructed by Astor. After 65 days on the Columbia River, the Tonquin departed with a crew of 23 with McKay was aboard the ship as supercargo. At Vancouver Island she was boarded by the Tla-o-qui-aht people of Clayoquot Sound, where Thorn caused an uproar by hitting a Tla-o-qui-aht noble with a pelt. In the ensuing conflict all of men brought on the Tonquin were killed besides an interpreter from the Quinault nation and the ship was destroyed. This put the occupants of Fort Astoria in a tough position, having no access to seaborne transport until the following year.
Construction on Fort Astoria, an "emporium of the west", began in the middle of April 1811. It was built upon Point George, the location being about 5 miles (8 km) from the Lewis and Clark Expedition winter camp of Fort Clatsop. The terrain and thick forests made clearing a foundation exceedingly difficult. Late in the month, McDougall reported that there was "little progress in clearing, the place being so full of half decayed trunks, large fallen timber and thick brush." No one among the party had previous experience in the logging industry and many hadn't used an axe before in general. Trees had a layer of hardened resin and were of a massive size. Four men worked as a team on platforms at least eight feet above the ground to effectively cut a tree, with it taking typically two days for a single tree to be felled. Medical issues quickly became another major issue for the party as there was not a single medical officer among the passengers brought on the Tonquin. This left treatments rudimentary at best. During the initial months on the Columbia River at any time upwards of half of the expedition was unable to perform manual labor due to illness.
Kaúxuma Núpika, a Two-Spirit from the Ktunaxa people, and his wife arrived at Fort Astoria on 15 June 1811 with a letter from John Stuart. Kaúxuma offered accounts of the interior and recommended that the station be opened at the confluence of the Columbia and "the Okannaakken River" among the Syilx peoples. It was determined that David Stuart would take a party to with Kaúxuma to the Syilx. Before they left however the inhabitants of Astoria were surprised by the arrival of David Thompson on 15 July. Thompson later stated that his group "set off on a voyage down the Columbia River to explore this river in order to open out a passage for the interior trade with the Pacific Ocean." The competing fur traders were cordially received at Astoria.
A party of eight led by David Stuart departed on 22 July for the Syilx territories. The personnel assigned to join Stuart were eight men, including Alexander Ross, François Benjamin Pillet, Ovide de Montigny, and Naukane. The group joined David Thompson and his eight men in traveling up the Columbia, staying together until the Dalles. Upon entering Watlala Chinookan territory, Stuart failed establish favorable relations with them. Watlala men performed several military displays and stole a small amount of goods. Naukane agreed to join the NWC shortly after this episode and the two parties separated. Stuart was able to secure the protection of Wasco-Wishram leadership in early August. Groups of Chinookan laborers were used to cross the portages of the Columbia in their homeland.
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