FRANCOIS MERCIER
During the summer of 1874, François Mercier and Jack McQuesten founded Fort Reliance, the first commercial store or warehouse for fur trading, in the region which will become the Klondike. This warehouse was situated about 10 kilometers from the present spot where Dawson City lies. François Mercier chose the site in order to shorten the distance the First Nations people had to come to sell their furs. In his diary, R. Mercier wrote that by choosing this site he had enabled the discovery of many beds of gold since the miners had he tendency to stay close to the supply stores when they were prospecting.
François Mercier was described as the king of the fur commerce in the North. In fact he dedicated sixteen years of his life to this activity, between 1868 and 1884. With his giant stature, his energetic dynamism and great insight, François Mercier inspired respect. He knew how to win the trust and confidence of the independent businessmen and of the First Nations people. It is following his requests that the first catholic missionaries were sent to the area at the beginning of the 1870’s. (The Oblates arrived at Fort Providence, NWT in 1862; the Grey Nuns in 1867, and there were many missionaries in the NWT before 1870.) Because of this, he received from the Vatican a very high distinction for the services he rendered to these missionaries during his sojourn in the North.
In 1884, when the fur commerce was beginning to yield its place to mining prospecting, Mercier left the area to settle in Montreal. His friends, such as Senator J.R. Thibaudeau and the poet Louis Fréchette, presented him with a speech of commendation and a gold medal. The Government of France noted his work by awarding him with a highly honorary title.
François Mercier then travelled to the United States and to France where he made a presentation in front of the Genealogical Society of Paris. It is through this society that in 1884 he made a trip from Alaska to Siberia passing through the Bering Strait. On January 3rd 1906, aged 67, he died from cardiac arrest at his residence on the rue Saint Denis in Montreal. A large crowd assisted at François Mercier’s funeral, as the Montreal newspaper “La Press” noted in an article on January 8, 1906.
Ref: Empreinte, Volume 2, pages 7-9
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