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Biographical Notes
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Peter Skene Ogden
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At the request of HBC's Chief Factor at Fort George, John Haldane, Ogden agreed to remain at his post until he could be replaced. In the spring of 1822 he took his wife and children to Ile a la Crosse and then continued on alone across Canada to Montreal where, after visiting with his family, he took ship for England. In England he appealed the decision to exclude him from the new company. Aided by the McGillivrays he was successful. On February 27, 1823, he was appointed clerk of the first class with a salary the equivalent of a chief trader. Before returning to Canada, Ogden visited with his aging father who had retired to England. In mid-July 1823 he was back in Canada where he attended the annual council of the HBC at York Factory on Hudson Bay. After the meeting, he was put in charge of the Columbia express and he once again crossed the continent arriving in Ile a la Crosse a month after his departure. There he found that his wife had died but his two sons were in good health. He continued on to the Columbia where he was ordered to take charge of Spokane House on the Flathead River in present day Washington. At Spokane House Ogden met Julia Rivet, a Salish Flathead Indian woman, step-daughter of Francois Rivet. Rivet, a French Canadian trapper, had accompanied Lewis and Clark on their Expedition of Discovery and had lived among the Indians virtually his entire adult life. Rivet had married Julia's mother following the death of her first husband - a Flathead warrior. Julia, in turn, was widowed when her own warrior husband was killed. Ogden courted and married Julia in 1823. He and Julia together with his two children from his first wife set up housekeeping in Spokane House.
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In 1824 Hudson Bay Governor George Simpson arrived at Spokane House with confirmation that Ogden had been promoted to Chief Trader. He assigned Ogden to lead the Snake River Expedition. This expedition would penetrate deep into the area that was under the joint control of the United States and Britain. Simpson instructed Ogden to trap it so thoroughly as to destroy all of the beaver in the entire region. American trappers were beginning to penetrate the area. Simpson sought to discourage them and thus maintain British control of what was then known as the Oregon Territory. Ogden departed for the Snake Country in October 1824. He was accompanied by his wife and children. At the time Julia was breast feeding her youngest child. Also in the party of 120 men women and children was Francois Rivet, Julia's step-father. On the 29th of December Jedediah Smith and six other Americans joined the party. Together they crossed the Rocky Mountains through Gibbon Pass and camped in American territory. Blackfoot Indians harassed the party and they soon recrossed the mountains. On March 19, 1825, Smith's party left Ogden and went their own way. During April the HBC party and the Americans trapped the same general area. In May both parties were trapping in present day Utah. Two of Ogden's party are credited with the first recorded sight of the Great Salt Lake.
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On May 23, 1825, Johnson Gardner, an American member of the Smith Party, confronted Ogden declaring that the HBC party was in American territory and demanded that they leave immediately. Ogden, believing that he was in territory jointly administered by Britain and the United States, refused. (Both parties were in fact in Mexican Territory.) On the following day there was another confrontation between the two groups and a number of Ogden's men deserted him to join the Americans. The Americans paid better and charged less for supplies. The deserters also took a quantity of furs with them. In the confusion of the moment Ogden's eight month old child, Michael, who was tied into a sack on Julia's horse, was stampeded into the American camp. Julia, on foot, pursued her child into the American camp, mounted her horse, and spurred out taking an HBC pack animal and its furs with her. Joe Meek was a member of the Smith Party and recorded the event. He later explained that the Americans were glad to be rid of the baby, but when Julia took the furs he heard shouts of "shoot the squaw." There were, however, no shots fired at Julia. Meek's explanation being that the men admired her courage. On May 25, with the larger American party watching, Ogden broke camp and departed the area. Moving north he continued to suffer desertion and the loss of horses to Indian theft. In spite of his difficulties, he continued trapping his way north and on November 12, 1825, his written report noted that the expedition had netted 4,000 beaver pelts and, due to American intrusion into the area, beaver were extremely scarce.
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On November 21, 1825, Governor Simpson ordered Ogden to return immediately to the field - this time to the Klamath Lake Region of the Oregon Territory. For reasons of economy, Simpson also ordered that the party would be limited to a total of fifty men with no women or children. Much to her displeasure, Julia, seven months pregnant, was forced to remain behind at Fort Vancouver. Her displeasure increased later when she learned that several of the other wives had managed to join the Ogden party after it's departure and Ogden had permitted them to remain with their husbands. The Klamath area proved to be poor beaver country and winter proved very difficult with long bouts of near starvation plaguing the party. Ogden moved back into the Snake Country that he knew from the year before and, by the end of March 1826, the party had managed to collect 1,000 pelts. On April 9, 1826, 28 Americans camped near the Ogden camp and amicably traded their furs with them. On July 17, 1826, after crossing present day northern Oregon from east to west, he returned to Fort Vancouver with 3,800 pelts. There he reunited with his family and met for the first time his six month old daughter - Sarah Julia.
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Ogden remained in Fort Vancouver for two months before setting out on his third "Snake River" expedition on September 11, 1826. Although referred to as a "Snake River" expedition, Ogden was instructed to trap and explore what is today Central and Southern Oregon. At her insistence, Julia and the children were with him. As was usual with these expeditions, Ogden and his party suffered near starvation, numerous hostile encounters with Indians, freezing conditions, and serious accidents along the way. They did not see these incidents as unusual, but rather what was to be expected. Ogden returned to Fort Vancouver on August 5, 1827, and set out on his fourth Snake Expedition on September 1, 1827. Julia, four months pregnant, and the children, aged two to ten, were still with him. This time he headed into Eastern Oregon and Southern Idaho. Late in September it became evident that Americans were trapping the same streams that Ogden's men were working. Several Americans actually joined Ogden's party and traded their furs to him in return for supplies. Winter trapping and hunting required snowshoes. The British had good snowshoes but the Americans did not. Ogden was willing to sell supplies to the Americans, but refused to provide them with the snowshoes that would make it easier for them to trap beaver. On February 1, 1828, Julia gave birth to a son who they named David. A few days later he died. The fourth Snake River expedition returned to Fort Vancouver in late July 1828.
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