| (20 May 1776-18 Aug. 1862), fur trader, explorer. Born near Bennington, Vermont. Parents: Simon Fraser and his wife Isabella Grant. This couple came to New York Province on the | (20 May 1776-18 Aug. 1862), fur trader, explorer. Born near Bennington, Vermont. Parents: Simon Fraser and his wife Isabella Grant. This couple came to New York Province on the |
| //Pearl// in 1773. (For //Pearl//, see [[references|Glossary]]) Simon Fraser the father died while a prisoner of the American revolutionaries. His widow came to Canada as a Loyalist. Young Simon received a little education in Montreal. He entered the service of the NWC in 1792, and was named a partner in 1801. He conducted his famous exploration of the Fraser River in 1808, reaching after an arduous journey the mouth of the Fraser River in the area of what is today Vancouver. Fraser named the Thompson River after David Thompson, and it was Thompson who in 1813 named the Fraser River after Simon Fraser. Simon Fraser was involved in the strife at Red River between the NWC and Lord Selkirk's settlers. In 1818 he was tried at York (Toronto) for treason and other offences in connection with these disturbances, but was acquitted. | //Pearl// in 1773. (For //Pearl//, see Glossary) Simon Fraser the father died while a prisoner of the American revolutionaries. His widow came to Canada as a Loyalist. Young Simon received a little education in Montreal. He entered the service of the NWC in 1792, and was named a partner in 1801. He conducted his famous exploration of the Fraser River in 1808, reaching after an arduous journey the mouth of the Fraser River in the area of what is today Vancouver. Fraser named the Thompson River after David Thompson, and it was Thompson who in 1813 named the Fraser River after Simon Fraser. Simon Fraser was involved in the strife at Red River between the NWC and Lord Selkirk's settlers. In 1818 he was tried at York (Toronto) for treason and other offences in connection with these disturbances, but was acquitted. |
| <tab>Simon Fraser retired from the fur trade and settled on a farm at St. Andrew's just west of GC about 1818. George Woodcock wrote in his article on Fraser in //The Canadian Encyclopedia// that he "retired to St Andrews among the Scots of Glengarry County, where he spent the rest of his life uneventfully." If this statement is geographically not quite correct, it does at least incorporate the truth that St. Andrew's is well within the "Greater Glengarry" and has always enjoyed something of the status of an honorary Glengarry village. John Mactaggart, who seems to have found his conversation with him informative and helpful, mentions in his //Three Years in Canada// (1829), II, 190, that "by accident" he met the explorer "Simon Frazer [sic], now a settler in Glengarry, Upper Canada." Fraser's life during the more than 40 years he lived at St. Andrew's is poorly documented. J.G. Harkness, a vigorous researcher, wrote in 1946, describing his own efforts, that "A diligent effort has been made to learn something of his life at St. Andrew's but almost without result." (P. 396) In the //Cornwall Observer// of 4 Oct. 1833 Simon Fraser, of St. Andrew's, advertised for a miller to tend a grist mill. "None need apply but those of regular habits." In the same newspaper, issue 20 June 1834, he listed lands totalling 1200 acres for sale in Mountain, Osgoode and Finch Tps. In the 1861 census he was listed as having 240 acres at St. Andrew's. We may suppose that being so close to GC he exchanged visits frequently with such eminent GC residents as the Nor'Westers David Thompson and John McGillivray and Col. Alexander Fraser of Fraserfield. The text of Simon Fraser's note of 1 Aug. 1859 to John Mcdonald of Garth on occasion of his last visit to the Garth household was published in the Cornwall //Standard-Freeholder// 15 Nov. 1935. Simon Fraser was a relative of Bishop Alexander Macdonell, and again we may suppose the two men knew each other well. | <tab>Simon Fraser retired from the fur trade and settled on a farm at St. Andrew's just west of GC about 1818. George Woodcock wrote in his article on Fraser in //The Canadian Encyclopedia// that he "retired to St Andrews among the Scots of Glengarry County, where he spent the rest of his life uneventfully." If this statement is geographically not quite correct, it does at least incorporate the truth that St. Andrew's is well within the "Greater Glengarry" and has always enjoyed something of the status of an honorary Glengarry village. John Mactaggart, who seems to have found his conversation with him informative and helpful, mentions in his //Three Years in Canada// (1829), II, 190, that "by accident" he met the explorer "Simon Frazer [sic], now a settler in Glengarry, Upper Canada." Fraser's life during the more than 40 years he lived at St. Andrew's is poorly documented. J.G. Harkness, a vigorous researcher, wrote in 1946, describing his own efforts, that "A diligent effort has been made to learn something of his life at St. Andrew's but almost without result." (P. 396) In the //Cornwall Observer// of 4 Oct. 1833 Simon Fraser, of St. Andrew's, advertised for a miller to tend a grist mill. "None need apply but those of regular habits." In the same newspaper, issue 20 June 1834, he listed lands totalling 1200 acres for sale in Mountain, Osgoode and Finch Tps. In the 1861 census he was listed as having 240 acres at St. Andrew's. We may suppose that being so close to GC he exchanged visits frequently with such eminent GC residents as the Nor'Westers David Thompson and John McGillivray and Col. Alexander Fraser of Fraserfield. The text of Simon Fraser's note of 1 Aug. 1859 to John Mcdonald of Garth on occasion of his last visit to the Garth household was published in the Cornwall //Standard-Freeholder// 15 Nov. 1935. Simon Fraser was a relative of Bishop Alexander Macdonell, and again we may suppose the two men knew each other well. |
