James Sinclair

Mount Sinclair from Sinclair Creek Valley Courtesy of David Wasserman

[You can see more of David Wasserman's photos of the Canadian Rockies in this website of hiking trails.]

The change as they crossed the Great Divide was barely noticeable, apart from the difference in the flow of the streams and the softer air. They travelled up the Kootenay Valley to the awe-inspiring Red Rock Gorge, now called Sinclair Canyon. Its walls are over a thousand feet high but it is so narrow they had to follow a dangerous path beside a mountain stream, now the Sinclair River. The path led down to hot springs that were called Sinclair Hot Springs but are now Radium Hot Springs.

The settlers soon reached the valley of the Columbia River and rejoined the route that Simpson had expected them to take. They followed the river down to the Canal Flats where a canal had been dug by the North West Company to join the Columbia and Kootenay rivers and then followed the Kootenay and then overland to Grand Quete Lake. After some hard travelling through dense forest they reached Fort Colville and their guide left them to return to Edmonton. The commander at Fort Colvile, Chief Trader Archibald McDonald, an old friend of William Sinclair, was surprised to see his son arrive at the head of a pack train, as he had been told by Governor Simpson to expect him to arrive by boat down the Columbia.

From Fort Colville they moved on to Fort Walla Walla, a pseudo-Spanish mission fort, built of adobe. It was in dangerous Indian country and had deteriorated since the death of Pierre Pambrum so the party didn't linger. They loaded themselves into the HBC boats to travel the last two hundred miles to Fort Vancouver. They had to portage around the Celilo Falls, where the river fell more than eighty feet in twelve miles and the Dalles, where the river was forced into a passage deeper than it was wide. After passing more rapids at the Cascades the party floated down to Fort Vancouver. Sinclair had brought them safely across the Rocky Mountains and half a continent.

Alexander Kennedy had chosen the site of Fort Vancouver, about a quarter of a mile from the bank of the Columbia River and about ninety miles inland. Under the leadership of Dr John McLoughlin, it was the great trading centre of the Northwest Pacific region.

The party had to hang around at the fort while waiting to be allocated farms. They became increasingly disgruntled as nothing happened but Sinclair could do nothing to help them as it was up to McLoughlin to place them and he seemed to be in no hurry. After many weeks, some settlers were placed on farms at the Cowlitz and Nisqually but conditions weren't good and not at all what the settlers had been led to expect.

Sinclair left Fort Vancouver in December, intending to travel from Fort Colvile to Fort Edmonton by boat but the weather forced him to spend the winter at Fort Colvile. He decided he would like to settle in the area someday. In the spring he joined the first HBC brigade of bateaux and then a pack train over the mountains to Jasper House, then to Edmonton and by York boat brigade to Fort Garry.

Sinclair went back to work for McDermot, travelling to York Factory with a fleet of York boats. Word came from the Oregon that the settlers had felt the HBC hadn't delivered what had been promised so they had moved to the better land of the Willamette Valley to become independent farmers. This didn't suit the HBC's purposes so they decided not to send Sinclair with another party. He felt that the people he had led so far had been badly let down.

He returned to business in Red River. His daughter Harriet reminisced about her father in the book Women of Red River, published in 1923, when she was ninety-one. "My father was a busy man and was often away on his journeyings, by dog trains in the winter, and by Red River cart trains in the summer over the plains. He used to take his furs to St Peter's, on the Mississippi. He was the first to send furs from Rupert's Land to England independently of the Company".

Another epidemic struck Red River in 1843, this time of influenza and dysentery, and two of Sinclair's young children, Emma and Louise, died. Business difficulties also arose, when Chief Factor Finlayson refused to carry McDermot and Sinclair's goods on Company ships. An enormous prairie fire had also made conditions difficult by scattering the buffalo.

James' wife Elizabeth died in February 1845 and he had to close his house and send his three oldest children to boarding school while his youngest was looked after by relatives.

Governor Christie brought in other regulations to reinforce HBC's power, issuing new licences and bringing in an act that no one could have land without agreeing not to trade with North America. The Metis believed they had a special right to the land and James Sinclair sent a petition to Christie asking what their rights were but it received a dismissive answer. Relations between the Metis and HBC continued to be unsettled and in 1846 Sinclair was asked to go to London to place their case before the government. He travelled down to St Louis and then to New York, from which he took a boat that took him to Britain in five weeks. His friend Alexander Kennedy Isbister, although only 25, was asked to present the petition. It was to no avail however, as legal opinion was on the side of the Company.

When Sinclair returned to Red River in the spring of 1847 he found troops stationed at Fort Garry and business improved. He married Mary Campbell, daughter of Chief Trader Colin Campbell of Fort Dunvegan. Tensions between his children and their step-mother led to his placing his daughters, Harriet and Maria, in boarding school, Knox College in Galesboro, Illinois. Sinclair took his daughters there and then moved on to St Louis. He struck up a friendship there with a young army lieutenant, Ulysses S Grant, and assisted him financially and in his courtship of Julia Dent. He was a guest at their wedding in August 1848 and seems to have remained in America that winter and taken steps to become an American citizen.

Sinclair spent 1849 away from Red River. Having heard in St Louis about the gold strike in California, he travelled up the Missouri River in July, crossing the Rockies by the California trail and arrived early at the Gold Rush. He seems to have found some gold and was quite active, speaking up at miners' councils but didn't stay long and returned to St Louis to plan a return to Oregon. A letter from an officer at Fort Edmonton said that Sinclair found 22lbs of gold, worth £1300 but Sinclair made no comment.

Sinclair wanted to move his family to Oregon and so brought his daughters back from boarding school. The journey back was difficult because of flooding. A letter arrived from Simpson, asking Sinclair to go to the Oregon to discover whether the HBC forts that had fallen into disrepair could be re-established. As the flooding meant he couldnâ't emigrate that year, he did this instead and set out with a cart train to Edmonton. There he met up again with Mackipictoon and they quickly crossed the Rockies by the same route. He found Walla Walla in very poor condition and even Fort Vancouver had gone downhill since McLoughlin's retirement and most of the trade was now conducted from Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island. The increasing numbers of settlers had roused the Indians to resist them so there was a constant threat of Indian attack.

Sinclair spent several months in the Oregon and then sailed from Fort Vancouver to San Francisco. He discovered there that Captain Colin Sinclair, said to be an Englishman with his own clipper ship, had been in port for more than a year. He had been well-known in the city and had considerable influence at the height of the Gold Rush, representing the miners' interests at Sutter's camp. Sinclair was sure this was his brother, whom he hadn't seen since Oxford House but they didn't meet.

Colin had made himself well-liked for his fairness and good sense. He realised that the best of the Gold Rush was past, used his gains to buy another sailing ship and sailed for England, picking up a profitable cargo of sandalwood in the South Sea Islands, which he planned to dispose of for valuable China tea and other oriental goods in Shanghai - returning to London a much richer man.

Sinclair sailed from San Francisco to Panama City in 1852 and crossed the Isthmus of Panama on mule-back, then sailed to New York via Cuba. When he returned to Red River he found that his daughter Harriet was betrothed to Dr William Cowan who had arrived as surgeon to the Chelsea pensioners who were stationed at Fort Garry.

In the summer of 1853 Governor Simpson offered Sinclair a timber limit and breeding stock if he conducted another party over the Rockies. The plans for the trip were more complicated this time because many of the emigrants were leaving good properties to try their luck in the Oregon. They took much the same equipment but the carts were pulled by oxen instead of ponies. The oxen would travel more slowly but they had more endurance and could cope with poorer grazing. They could be used as pack animals or eaten if necessary and they were easier for the women to drive. Each leader of a group was told to only bring enough carts to carry their belongings and act as shelter. However, one influential settler insisted on bringing 300 sheep. Sinclair knew this was a bad idea but to refuse would be to endanger the whole venture.

Simpson had set 1 May as the date of departure but they were only ready to leave at the end of May. There were one hundred people in the party; most were from families well known to Sinclair - Gibsons, Birds, Sutherlands and Whitfords. George Taylor was his right-hand man on the trip and afterwards. Sinclair travelled with his wife Mary, their two children and his daughter Maria and sons from his first marriage. Two of Mary's sisters and her brother John, who kept a log of the journey, also travelled with them.

In return for undertaking this trip, Sinclair received the rank and salary of a chief trader of £150 a year and the right to raise his own stock near Walla Walla, which he was to take charge of.

The party left on 24 May 1854, Mary's unmarried sister Margaret Campbell driving the Sinclair family wagon, as she would all the way to the Rockies. Rules were laid down - Sinclair's word was law but he would consult on important matters with some reliable members of the party. No tardiness was to be tolerated and each day would start with the cry, "Every man to his ox!" The oxen weren't all properly broken and caused problems in the morning. The sheep dawdled. On the first day the largest family group went first, then the next and so on. The next day the second family went first and so on, so that everyone had a turn at travelling dust-free. They aimed to travel 2.5 miles per hour, even with the sheep.

The trail between Fort Garry and Fort Carlton was better than previously, because it was more used. When crossing the Qu'Appelle River, the banks were long and steep and slippery with rain. There were no brakes on the carts so ropes had to be tied round the ox's horns to hold them back. A feud between the Cree and Blackfoot meant that guard had to be stood against Blackfoot attack. Shortly after the left Fort Pitt they were met by Chief Mackipictoon, who offered to accompany them to Edmonton. The hundred Cree he had with him helped to guard the party. They also helped to make and break camp, heard stock, hunt game and build bridges. Sometimes these bridges had to be strong enough to bear the weight of carts and oxen over deep ravines. It was estimated that they had to build eight bridges like these after leaving Fort Pitt, the shortest forty feet long and the longest 1000ft long.

As they crossed the plains, young John Campbell described an astonishing sight. "We were travelling along as usual, and we could see a black mass moving towards us. These were the buffalo travelling towards the north and we had to stop to let them by. When they came up to us they separated; some going ahead of our carts and the others behind. We had to stop and let them by and go around our loose cattle and horses as they wanted to follow the band of buffalo. We were obliged to remain at that place for over two hours to let them go by us. Just as far as the eye could see there was nothing but a black mass of them and they were going on a small lope. One cannot think how they came to be gathered together, as it were, into one band and started travelling north.

Mackipictoon assured Sinclair that the carts could cross the mountains but he was unconvinced. He was willing to take them as far as possible but, while at Edmonton, he made sure that they could convert into a pack train if necessary. The most able men learnt the most efficient way to pack the animals. Convincing the oxen was another matter but they were finally won over. Several of the men also learned how to make ox saddles in case women and children had to ride on them if not enough horses were found. Sinclair made sure that his right-hand man, George Taylor, had enough nails. With difficulty, he persuaded the party to travel as lightly as possible over the mountains. He urged him to leave things as gifts or get anything suitable credited to their accounts, to be redeemed at Fort Vancouver.

The settlers left Edmonton House in mid-August, travelling south-west and fording the Red Deer River, where they got their first sight of the Rockies. Instead of heading for Devil's Gap, they entered the Bow river valley between the present towns of Cochrane and Morley, further to the east than the previous trip. Mackipictoon led them up the Kananaskis River to two passes close together, Upper and Lower Pass. They camped where the Kananaskis River joined the Bow and were delayed for two weeks as Mrs Robert Flett gave birth to a baby that only lived for a few days.

While they waited, Sinclair and some of the other men reconnoitred and were disturbed at the roughness of the ground. Mackipictoon insisted it would be a better way but they would have to travel by pack train. Many wanted to take the carts further but Sinclair was adamant. Women carried babies on their back and small children rode behind them. The carts were broken down and saddles were made.

The way was heavily timbered, causing problems when the oxen reacted to their packs being knocked. The trail became harder, over mountain shoulders and swamps, on a mountain shelf between a rock wall and an abyss. No-one was hurt but Sinclair could see the strain and regretted taking this new path. They often had to slash their way through burnt-out remnants of forest. A party of men had to travel ahead to scout the best way and the stock suffered from insufficient feed. Food had to be husbanded as there was very little game. Finally, their Cree guide admitted he was lost and the party had to wander to and fro to find a route. Sinclair had to guide the party by compass.

John Campbell wrote that "At one place we came to a place that had to be bridged; a most fearful spot. Small trees were thrown across a narrow chasm that seemed almost bottomless. Mr Sinclair said - "That is the Crow's Nest!" One of the people replied, "The Devil's Bridge would be a better name for it!" Over such gorges we had to construct bridges even stronger for cattle and horses, women and children, to cross these terrifying abysses." Sinclair had to urge his dispirited party on step by step, assuring them that the worst must be past.

The scenery was magnificent but oxen had to be killed for meat, leaving fewer pack animals. A decision had to be made as to which pass to take and from the descriptions it is presumed they took the Upper, more difficult pass. The terrain was so rough that everyone had to walk, leading the animals, stumbling over the shale, boulders and snow. Campbell wrote "We crossed the height-of-land walking through snow three feet deep in October, 1854." This was the first crossing by white men over the Kananaskis Pass but it had taken them thirty days.

They made their way down the other side, following the Beatty Creek and the Palliser River down to the Kootenay Valley. Travel was easy in the broad valley down to the Canal Flats.

At Tobacco Plains they met John Linklater, the HBC man in charge of Fort Kootenay. He was the only white man for three or four hundred miles. He forded the river, having been so glad to hear other white men were near that he didn't stop to saddle his horse. Linklater warned Sinclair to be careful near Walla Walla as the Cayuse tribe were warming up for trouble.

The settlers reached Walla Walla in December and Sinclair's family and some others stayed there while the remainder of the party carried on to Fort Vancouver. Sinclair reported at Fort Vancouver and then returned to Walla Walla. The Sinclair family settled down there, building houses, barns and a saw mill.

In the following May, Governor Stevens, administrator for the new Washington Territory arrived with fifty men, wanting to hold an Indian council. Sinclair and Stevens got on well and Stevens sent messengers to the seventeen tribes to come before early June. Twenty-five bands gathered and then more and more - a large party of Nez Perces then three hundred Cayuse bent on trouble, led by Five Crows. Two days later two thousand more of the Yakima, Umatilla and Walla Walla arrived, led by Kamiakin and Peu-peu-mox-mox. This is considered to be one of the greatest Indian enclaves ever held. Plans were put forward for reservations and the Indians held a pow-wow. The Indians split between those wanting peace and those unwilling to accept the restrictions being imposed upon them. Looking Glass of the Nez Perce tried to incite war but didn't succeed. Three reservations were to be set up, one on the Umatilla River, one in the Yakima Valley and one on the Clearwater and Snake rivers. The Indians left and life carried on, irrigation canals were re-opened, gardens planted and the orchard pruned. A gold rush to Colville took almost all the men away.

In October Sinclair's young interpreter John McBain brought word that an Indian War was about to breakout in the Oregon. Scattered attacks had already been made. Sinclair set about defending the fort and sent word for aid on 12 October 1855 to the United States Army commander at the Dalles and to Chief Factor Dugald MacTavish at Fort Vancouver. The Indian agent, Nathan Olney, ordered the evacuation of the area and ordered Sinclair to throw all the fort's powder and balls into the Columbia River. Sinclair insisted on a receipt. They left that night, only taking what they could carry.

Sinclair met Chief Factor Dugald MacTavish at the Cascades. He had responded to his appeal for help. MacTavish wrote to London that Mr Sinclair has acted in this matter with much prudence and discretion, and had evinced sound judgment in the management of the Company's business committed to his charge through a very trying period. Sinclair was ordered to attempt to reclaim the fort so set out with a party of Oregon volunteers.

They set out in mid-November knowing that Chief Peu-peu-mox-mox (Yellow Serpent) had taken the fort with more than 800 men. A base camp was set up at Wells Springs on the Umatilla River, 40 miles from the fort. Sinclair accompanied the hundred and fifty mounted volunteers who intended to occupy the fort but they met a messenger with the news that the fort was occupied by about a thousand Indians. They halted twenty-five miles from the fort to await reinforcements. "In the meantime we fortified our position and soon built a stockaded fort. Here we were cooped up for fifteen days surrounded by a large body of Indians. After receiving reinforcements, we made a night march to the fort which was found deserted and a mass of ruins. We had a pretty hard fight for four days. We, however, drove the Indians from their position, and drove them before us for forty miles. I was with the party who made the first charge. I had no idea of getting into the fight but the excitement was such there was no keeping out of it; the country was in that state where there was no moving with safety a few miles from our camp. After waiting for better than a month, I got a chance of writing to Colville by the return of one hundred and fifty friendly Nez Perces who had escorted Governor Stevens to our camp. Our victory saved him and his party. I have sent instructions to McDonald in charge of Colville to stop the trade in arms and ammunition. This will bring the Indians down on him, but of the two evils it is better to have the Yankees as friends. Our position is a delicate one to avoid coming in conflict with either party. I am glad to say that the hostile feeling formerly entertained by the Yankee population against the Company is fast giving way, and that they now give us credit when we deserve it. There are, however, a few who would wish to saddle the Company with being the authors of the present Indian difficulties, but the fact that we were obliged to abandon our property to the mercies of the Indians has tended to remove the old feeling against the Company; I was within a yard or two from the great Walla Walla chief, Peu-peu-mox-mox, when he was shot. The whole scalp was taken from his head and cut into twenty pieces. His skull was divided equally for buttons, his ears preserved in a bottle of spirits, and large strips of his skin cut off along his back to be made into razor strops. Such is Indian warfare!"

Indian attacks became increasingly vicious and atrocities occurred along the Columbia, particularly from the Klickitats. Sinclair was concerned about his family, who were staying at the Dalles with Mrs Moar, his wife's sister. When things quietened a little, Sinclair returned to Fort Vancouver to report and estimate the loss to the company. Sinclair lost all but twelve of his two hundred cattle and all his horses.

In March 1856 he received orders from MacTavish to return to Walla Walla to salvage what he could and to restore the post ready to resume trading when the troubles ended. He set off on 24 March, up the Columbia River and stopped at the Cascades to wait for the steamer to take him to Dalles to see his ailing daughter Maria, who was receiving treatment from an army doctor there. A tramway was being built around the rapids so there was a large force of men with their families living there and cabins and warehouses had been built.

The steamer was preparing to leave the next day when gunfire was heard, signalling an Indian attack. Cascade Indians came galloping in, attacking everyone. Sinclair had been near the door of the store and helped people in as it was the only place that might withstand a siege. The doors were shut and barred and Sinclair took charge of the forty people inside.

He ordered a hole cut in the ceiling to reach the roof, as the Indians had taken possession of land above the store and were attacking from above. It happened that nine rifles and a quantity of ammunition had been left in the store about an hour before. Volunteers crawled onto the roof to fire from there and holes were cut in all four walls to cover all sides of the building. Just as he was effectively ordering the defence, two more people were seen running towards the store, with bullets striking the ground around them. Sinclair opened the door for them, only to be shot and die instantly.

John McBain had been with Sinclair almost constantly since he came to Walla Walla. Although not yet twenty, he took charge and realised the greatest need was for water, to drink and to douse fires as the Indians were throwing balls of burning moss on the roof. He knew they would set fire to the other buildings, to prevent escape under cover of darkness. As darkness fell and before they could do this, he crawled to the water's edge, returning with seven buckets before the firing became too intense. For the next two days no-one could leave the store and the water had to be severely rationed. On the morning of the 28th the Indians seemed to have run out of ammunition so McBain brought enough water to fill two barrels and hid Sinclair's body in a deep pool. When firing broke out again the next day, he held a meeting. It was agreed that when only four rounds were left, they should make a dash for an old large flat-bottomed boat, push off into the stream and go to their deaths over the Cascades.

In classic Western style, just before they were forced to make this suicidal choice, the cavalry arrived. A settler who had escaped when the attack began had just happened to meet a body of soldiers, led by Lieutenant, later General, Sheridan.

Chief Factor MacTavish sent William Sinclair, then working at Fort Vancouver, to bring his brother's body back for a full Masonic funeral. When Governor Simpson heard of the tragedy, he said, "We have lost our best man and the Hudson's Bay Company has lost its ablest officer".

His wife Mary was left with a step-son, three daughters and a son born posthumously. MacTavish did what he could for them but Sinclair had not left a will. Finally, as the dependant of a deceased American citizen who had suffered loss at the hands of the Indians his widow was compensated for the $30,000 worth of cattle and possessions lost at Walla Walla. Sinclair's old friend Ulysses S Grant, by a special Act of Congress, granted her a land claim of six hundred and forty acres in the Walla Walla valley.

Principal source - West of the Mountains: James Sinclair and the Hudson's Bay Company D Geneva Lent 1963