TALES OF YUKON (260 ENGLISH)
François Mercier, the king of the commercial fur trade in the North; portrait of a coureur des bois.
François Mercier, son of François Mercier and Victoire Therrien, was born on June 22, 1837 in Saint-Paul l'Ermite, an area located north-east of Montreal, PQ. His family was well-known because among his cousins one finds Honoré Mercier, the prime minister of the province of Quebec from 1887 to 1891, and Joseph Royal the lieutenant governor of Manitoba. François Mercier had four brothers: Moise, Felix, Eugène and Joseph. According to the 1861 census, he also had two sisters who were nuns: Victoire and Sophie.
François Mercier left home at the age of18 and worked in the commerce of fur trading in the United States. In 1866 he was hired by the Hudson Bay in Canada and remained there for two years. Then he left for San Francisco, in California (U.S.) "with the intention of working in the carriage industry where his two brothers, Felix and Joseph were finding success in Montreal. But his passion for adventure was still not quenched, and a sedentary life did not please him.
On April 16, 1869, he joined an expedition headed for the Bering Strait with his brother Moise, Michel Laberge and other French-Canadians.
During that same year, François Mercier worked for the Hutchison Kohl and Company" which soon became the Alaska Commercial Company and he became the general agent. From Saint Michael's in Alaska, he supervised the establishment of stores and commercial outlets in the Yukon and guaranteed their supplies with only a little steam-boat, the Yukon. François Mercier was the first to bring goods and supplies through the mouth of the Yukon rather than through the difficult MacKenzie-Porcupine route. The Company for whom he was working, let's say in passing that they had many millions of dollars, spared nothing to keep him in their service.
To follow.
-----------------------
No comments:
Post a Comment