John McLoughlin

The title "Father of Oregon" was officially bestowed on him by the Oregon Legislature in 1957, on the centennial of his death. He has since returned to the stage in more mature roles including that of the title character in The Velocity of Gary. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection. National Enquirer contacted him in 1997 to inform him that they intended to "out" him as a homosexual: he surprised many when he decided to grant them an interview commenting on his sexuality which was published in July 1997. In 1953, the state of Oregon donated a bronze statue of McLoughlin to the U.S. He took time off from professional acting to attend Stanford University. He died of natural causes in 1857. After the conclusion of that very successful series, he was less frequently cast.

He served as mayor of Oregon City in 1851, winning 44 of 66 votes. Daniel John Pintauro (born January 6, 1976) is an American actor who got started as a child actor on the television soap opera As the World Turns, and in the movie Cujo, and first came to prominence as a child actor on the television series Who's the Boss?. Although it was never enforced, it embittered the elderly McLoughlin. McLoughlin's opponents succeeded in inserting a clause forfeiting his land claim in the Donation Land Claim Act of 1850. citizen in 1849.

He became a U.S. Gregory, bestowed on him by Pope Gregory XVI. In 1847, McLoughlin was given the Knighthood of St. At his Oregon City store he sold food and farming tools to settlers, became the last stop on the Trail.

territory in the Oregon Treaty. The valley was the destination of choice for settlers streaming in over the Oregon Trail and had become officially U.S. After retiring from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1846, McLoughlin moved his family back south to Oregon City in the fertile Willamette Valley. In response they ordered McLoughlin to move their operation north to Vancouver Island where he constructed Fort Adelaide (now Victoria, British Columbia, Canada).

territory. Vancouver becoming part of U.S. The Hudson's Bay Company eventually realized that the increasing numbers of American settlers would result in Ft. The settlers understood that his motives were not purely altruistic, and some resented the assistance, working against him for the rest of his life.

McLoughlin's aid probably prevented an armed attack on his outpost by the American settlers. By that time, relations between Britain and the United States had become very strained at that time, and many expected war to break out any time. In 1841, with the arrival of the first wagon train, McLoughlin disobeyed company orders and extended aid to the American settlers. At the time, the wives of many Hudson's Bay field employees were Native Americans, including McLoughlin's wife Marguerite.

citizens, or Native Americans. McLoughlin was generally known for his fair treatment of the people with whom he dealt, whether they were British citizens, U.S. Under McLoughlin's management, the Columbia District remained highly profitable, in part due to the ongoing high demand for beaver hats in Europe. 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.

The post was opened for business on March 19, 1825. As a replacement he built Fort Vancouver (now Vancouver, Washington) across the Columbia from the mouth of the Willamette River. Upon his arrival, he determined that the present headquarters of the company at Fort Astoria (now Astoria, Oregon) at the mouth of the Columbia River was unfit. At the time, the Oregon Country was under cooperative settlement of both the United States and Britain.

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

In 1814 he became a partner in the company. He was hired as a physician at Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay, Ontario), a fur-gathering post of the North West Company on Lake Superior; there he became a trader and mastered the Indian languages. After studying for 4 1/2 years he was granted a license to practice medicine on April 30, 1803. In 1798, he began to study medicine with Sir James Fisher of Quebec.

Though baptized Roman Catholic, he was raised Anglican. McLoughlin was born in La Rivière du Loup, Quebec, of Scottish and French Canadian descent . In the late 1840s his general store in Oregon City was famous as the last stop on the Oregon Trail. John McLoughlin (pronounced mc-lock-lin, October 19, 1784 – September 3, 1857), the "Father of Oregon", was a fur trader and early settler in the Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest.

Dr. John McLoughlin
(NSHC statue).