page_title: Norman Kittson
section_title: Fur trading
hierarchical_section_title: Norman Kittson / Fur trading
caption_attribution_description: Fort Snelling in the background; Pike Island in the middle; the settlement of Mendota in the left foreground. Cropped image of original.
context_page_description: Norman Wolfred Kittson was one of early Minnesota's most prominent citizens. He was best known as first a fur trader, then a steamboat-line operator and finally a railway entrepreneur and owner of thoroughbred racehorses. He was part of the original syndicate that went on to create the Canadian Pacific Railway. Kittson County, Minnesota is named for him. Norman County, Minnesota also was named for him.
context_section_description: Kittson received a grammar school education at Sorel, and like everyone in his family he was perfectly bilingual. His step-grandfather Alexander Henry and four of his five paternal uncles had all been active in the fur trade, particularly the North West Company. It therefore was no surprise that, seeking adventure, in 1830 he took an apprenticeship with the American Fur Company at Michilimackinac, where Alexander Henry and many others from Sorel had been active. Kittson served at various posts in what became Minnesota Territory in the United States.
  Kittson left the American Fur Company in 1833 to become a clerk to the sutler at Fort Snelling. In 1839, he went into business for himself, setting up as a fur trader and supply merchant at Cold Lake, near Fort Snelling. Henry Hastings Sibley, Kittson's old friend from the American Fur Company had risen to managing agent of the AFC, but left in 1843 to form a partnership with Kittson.
  In 1844, maintaining a large degree of independence, Kittson established a permanent post at Pembina, North Dakota, where he made his headquarters. Covering the Red River Valley, he boldly set himself up in direct competition to the Hudson's Bay Company, whose headquarters were only 100 km away in the Red River Colony at Rupert's Land. Kittson's almost immediate success at Pembina threatened the trade monopoly exerted by the HBC.
  He served in the Minnesota Territorial Council from 1852 to 1855, while living in Pembina.
  Kittson collected furs from James Sinclair and established strong connections to the local French Canadians. Through his first wife, he became particularly attached to the Métis people, employing them as tripmen and trading extensively with them. All of this enabled him to play a significant part in bringing about free trade to the settlement in 1849. Guillaume Sayer was trading with Kittson prior to the trial that ended the monopoly. In 1852, Kittson relocated from Pembina to St. Joseph to avoid the periodic flooding of the Red River of the North.
caption: Fort Snelling in 1844
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