Ovide de Montigny

Ovide de Montigny was a French-Canadian fur trapper active in the Pacific Northwest from 1811 to 1822.

He was hired by Alexander MacKay in Montreal in July 1810 to join the Pacific Fur Company.[1] Later in August at Montigny met MacKay's party that was bound for New York City. Once at the city the men awaited to sail on aboard the Tonquin, which departed in September. After sailing around Cape Horn and visiting the Kingdom of Hawaii, the ship reached the Columbia River in March 1811.

In the middle of April, Montigny and his fellow PFC employees began work on what would become Fort Astoria. Reports from near by Chinookan peoples made the management aware of fellow European descendants operating a trading post in the interior of the Oregon Country. MacKay led a small party that included Montignay and Gabriel Franchère up the Columbia River to investigate these claims on 3 May 1811.[2] Along with their Clatsop guide, Montigny and Mackay explored the Cowlitz River on 4 May and quickly encountered a large canoe force of Cowlitz warriors. MacKay was able to negotiate with the armed force and create amicable relations. The Cowlitz leadership explained they were in the middle of strife with a Chinookan Skilloot village nearby.[2]

Shortly before the Tonquin departed to trade with various Indigenous nations on the Pacific to the north, MacKay selected Montingny to accompany him. He however declined, citing an issue with sea sickness.[3] Soon afterwards the ship was destroyed in the Battle of Woody Point by Tla-o-qui-aht after Jonathan Thorn insulted an elder by slapping him in the face with an animal pelt.[4] Montigny was among the PFC employees dispatched into the interior to establish Fort Okanogan.[5] It was here he remained until the North West Company absorbed the Pacific Fur Company.[6] Montigny worked in various capacities for the NWC in the region until it was in turn merged into the Hudson's Bay Company.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Watson, Bruce M. Lives Lived West of the Divide: A Biographical Dictionary of Fur Traders Working West of the Rockies, 1793-1858. Okanagan: The Centre for Social, Spatial and Economic Justice of the University of British Columbia. 2010, p. 698.
  2. 1 2 Franchère, Gabriel. Narrative of a voyage to the Northwest coast of America, in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814, or, The first American settlement on the Pacific. Translated by J. V. Huntington. New York City: Redfield, 1854. pp. 104-108.
  3. ↑ Franchère (1854), p. 117.
  4. ↑ Jones, Robert F. The Identity of the Tonquin's Interpreter. Oregon Historical Quarterly 98 (1997): 296-314.
  5. ↑ Franchère (1854), p. 131.
  6. ↑ Franchère (1854), p. 278.
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