The circle banner. [volume] (Circle, Mont.) 1914-1939, 1920-07-30

Six miles from the little town OF
st. Ignatius, on the Flathead Indian
reservation in western Montana, on
Post creek, may still be seen the last
traces remaining of the once i'm
portant trading post of the mighty
Hudsons Bay company, chartered by
the British government to trade in
North America. This post was estab-
lished in 1847 by Angus Mcdonald,
member of a Scotch family famous IN
the annals of the northwest fur trade,
whose son, Duncan Mcdonald, is liv-I
ing at the age of II today at the
town of st. Ignatius and is known
as one of the outstanding men of In
dian blood in the northwest. Dun
can Mcdonald was born in 1894 at
the old Hudson's Bay post, and his
life has ben spent in western Mon
tana, in the development of which he
as been an important factor.
Members of the Mcdonald family
were among the first Scotchmen to
engage prominently in the business
of trading with the Indians for furs
in the Rocky Mountain area. John
the Northwest company as clerk in
1871, and was prominent in the Co
lumbia river district at the time of
the Aston enterprise, from 1911 to
1913. Retiring in 1916, he settled
near Montreal and died later at ripe
old age. Another member of the
family, Dr.. Archibald Mcdonald, was
also prominent as trader in the Red
River and Columbia river districts.
Angus Mcdonald, who later become
a figure in early Montana history,
was born in Ress-shire, Scotland, in
1916, received good education and,
in 1898, entered the employment of
the Hudson's Bay company. He spent
his first winter in the vicinity of Hud-
sons Bay, but the following year was
sent down into the Flathead coun-
try, where he remained for some
time as chief trader at the posts |
at Fort Hall and Fort Boise, and at
ColvilIe, on the Columbia river,
where he was promoted to the posi-
ton of chief trader or factor, re-
manning in charge of that post from
1852 to 1871, when he sold out his
interests to the company and remov-
ed to Montana, where he engaged in
stock raising until his death in 1883.
About 1910 he took as wife Cath
crime, a Nez Perez woman, sister of I
Eagle of the Light, chief of that
tribe. She died in 1892. There were
born to them 13 children, several of
whom, besides Duncan, reside in Mon
tana at this time.
Though he spent his entire life on
the frontier, Angus Mcdonald was
student and thinker. He was well
read, especially in the classics and
philosophy, had strong convictions on \
religious and other subjects and was
a writer. In the state historical Ii
brary at Helena number of his man
uscripts are filed, including number
of long poems and several plays
one, a tragedy, based on the massacre
of the Whitman family by Indians.
One manuscript left by Angus Nc
Donald gives a fine description of the
country surrounding the old Hudson's
BAY post on the Flathead reservation,
which was begun by Frank Macarthur,
another Hudson's Bay company trad
err, but finished by Mcdonald in 1847.
1t was called Fort Connah, and was
the last trading post established by
the Hudson's Bay company in the ter
ritory of the United States. Like
wise, Mcdonald was the last chief
trader that the Hudson's Bay COM
pany had in the United States. When
he sold his stock in the company in ,
1871 and returned to Montana from !
Fort Colville, Washington, the COM !
pany sold its interests in the United
States to this nation, or rather sur
rendered their claims to all their in
terests. for sum approximating
100000. :
The manuscript above referred to !,
contains description of journey I !
from old Fort Connah, on the Flat
head, to British Columbia. In it, Nc :
Donald says in part: