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Dr. John McLoughlin, baptised Jean-Baptist
McLoughlin, (October 19, 1784 – September 3,
1857), the "List of people known as the father or
mother of something|"Father of Oregon", was a fur
trader and early settler in the Oregon Country in
the Pacific Northwest. In the late 1840s his
general store in Oregon City, Oregon|Oregon City
was famous as the last stop on the Oregon Trail.

==Biography==

McLoughlin was born in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec|La
Rivière du Loup, Quebec, of Scottish and French
Canadian descent . Though baptized Roman Catholic
Church|Roman Catholic, he was raised Anglican and
in his later life he returned to the Roman
Catholic faith. In 1798, he began to study
medicine with Sir James Fisher of Quebec. After
studying for 4 1/2 years he was granted a license
to practice medicine on April 30, 1803. He was
hired as a physician at Fort William, Ontario (now
Thunder Bay, Ontario|Thunder Bay, Ontario), a
fur-gathering post of the North West Company on
Lake Superior; there he became a trader and
mastered several Native American|Indian languages.


In 1814 he became a partner in the company. In
1816 McLoughlin was arrested for the murder of
Robert Semple (Canada)|Robert Semple, the governor
of the Red River Colony, though it is often
claimed he stood in proxy for some Indians who
were blamed. He was tried on October 30, 1818,
with the charges being dismissed.  McLoughlin was
instrumental in the negotiations leading to the
North West Company's 1821 merger with the Hudson's
Bay Company.

In 1824 the Hudson's Bay Company appointed
McLoughlin as Chief Factor of the Columbia
District in the Oregon Country, which comprised
600,000 square miles (1,600,000 km²)
between Spanish California and Russian Alaska,
with Peter Skein Ogden appointed to assist him. 
At the time, the Oregon Country was under
cooperative settlement of both the United States
and United Kingdom|Britain. Upon his arrival, he
determined that the present headquarters of the
company at Fort Astoria (now Astoria,
Oregon|Astoria, Oregon) at the mouth of the
Columbia River was unfit. As a replacement he
built Fort Vancouver (now Vancouver,
Washington|Vancouver, Washington) across the
Columbia from the mouth of the Willamette River. 
The post was opened for business on March 19,
1825. From his headquarters in Fort Vancouver he
supervised trade and kept peace with the Indians,
inaugurated salmon and timber trade with
California and Hawaii, and supplied Russian Alaska
with produce. Under McLoughlin's management, the
Columbia District remained highly profitable, in
part due to the ongoing high demand for beaver
hats in Europe.

McLoughlin's appearance, 6'4" (193 cm) tall with
long, prematurely white hair, brought him respect,
but he was also
generally known for his fair treatment of the
people with whom he dealt, whether they were
British citizens, U.S. citizens, or Native
Americans. At the time, the wives of many Hudson's
Bay field employees were Native Americans,
including McLoughlin's wife Marguerite. 

When three Japanese fishermen, among them
Otokichi, were shipwrecked on the Olympic
Peninsula in 1834, McLoughlin, envisioning an
opportunity to use them to open trade with Japan,
sent the trio to London on the Eagle to try to
convince the Crown of his plan. They reached
London in 1835, probably the first Japanese ever
to do so. The British Government finally did not
show interest, and the castaways were sent to
Macau so that they could be returned to Japan.

In 1841, with the arrival of the first wagon
train, McLoughlin disobeyed company orders and
extended aid to the American settlers. Relations
between Britain and the United States had become
very strained, and many expected war to break out
any time. McLoughlin's aid probably prevented an
armed attack on his outpost by the numerous
American settlers. The settlers understood that
his motives were not purely altruistic, and some
resented the assistance, working against him for
the rest of his life. The Hudson's Bay Company
eventually realized that the increasing numbers of
American settlers would result in Ft. Vancouver
becoming part of U.S. territory. In response they
ordered McLoughlin to move their operation north
to Vancouver Island where he constructed Fort
Adelaide  (now
Victoria, British Columbia|Victoria, British
Columbia, Canada).

After retiring from the Hudson's Bay Company in
1846, McLoughlin moved his family back south to
Oregon City, Oregon|Oregon City in the fertile
Willamette Valley. The valley was the destination
of choice for settlers streaming in over the
Oregon Trail and had become officially U.S.
territory in the Oregon Treaty. At his Oregon City
store he sold food and farming tools to settlers,
became the last stop on the Trail. In 1847,
McLoughlin was given the Knighthood of St.
Gregory, bestowed on him by Pope Gregory XVI. He
became a U.S. citizen in 1849. McLoughlin's
opponents succeeded in inserting a clause
forfeiting his land claim in the Donation Land
Claim Act of 1850. Although it was never enforced,
it embittered the elderly McLoughlin. He served as
mayor of Oregon City in 1851, winning 44 of 66
votes. He died of natural causes in 1857. 

In 1953, the state of Oregon donated a bronze
statue of McLoughlin to the U.S. Capitol's
National Statuary Hall Collection. The title
"Father of Oregon" was officially bestowed on him
by the Oregon Legislature in 1957, on the
centennial of his death.

==See also==
*Jason Lee (missionary)|Jason Lee

==References==

* The definitive biography is Dorothy Nafus
Morrison, Outpost: John McLoughlin and the Far
Northwest (Portland, Oregon: Oregon Historical
Society Press, 1999). Morrison also wrote a
children's biography, The Eagle and the Fort
(Portland, Oregon: Western Imprints, 1979).

==External links==

*
*http://www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=3820
6 Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian
Biography Online
*
http://bluebook.state.or.us/notable/notmcloughlin.
htm Notable Oregonians: John McLoughlin - Father
of Oregon State of Oregon website
* http://www.nps.gov/fova/ Fort Vancouver National
Historic Site Website with historical information
and how to visit the reconstructed fort where
McLoughlin was Chief Factor.
* http://www.nps.gov/mcho/ McLoughlin House
National Historic Site Basic travel information on
how to visit McLoughlin's home in Oregon City
where he lived his last years.
*http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/nsh/mcloughlin.cfm NSHC
biography of John McLoughlin