Hudson's Bay Company

Our William Kittson was born in 1795 possibly in Montreal, Canada and died Christmas Day in 1841 at FortVancouver, Washington. He served in the War of 1812 as a 2nd lieutenant in the Canadian Voltiguers. He entered the Northwest Company as an apprentice clerk in 1817. He was sent to the Columbia Region of the Pacific Slope in 1818. William was first at Ft. Walla Walla and then Spokane House. It was customary for the men not only of the company, but the other pioneers to take indian wives. Some of the traders at Fort George who became sons-in-law of Chinook Chief Comcomly were Duncan McDougall (related on my Uncle Albert and Aunt Mae McBean Brouillard side of the family), Thomas McKay who is brother Mary Wadin McKay Sinclair (mother-in-law to our Jemima Kittson Sinclair), and Archibald McDonald (Uncle to our Helene McDonald-William Kittson's second wife). William Kittson first had a country marriage with an Indian woman known only to us as "Marie Walla Walla". We would really love to learn her Indian name and more of her ancestry as she is our great-great-grandmother. The little we know of Marie is through the sad story in Fancis Ermatinger's letters which only provides a contaversial story on their relationship which in the end broke the two of them up. This has kept us from knowing her. The Umatilla Indian Reservation is not able to find her history, nor has the Hudson Bay Company. We know the kind of person William was from his journals with the HBC and can see he was a good man of his day, so know too that Marie was a good woman, unlike the picture that Ermatinger presents of her. Trade Goods presents some of the Ermatinger family history. I hope to get in touch with Chalk Courchane. William and Marie had two sons. These sons were born at Fort NezPerce (Old Fort Walla Walla).

1. Jules who was born around 1829, lived his early childhood years along with his brother at the old Fort Walla Walla. When they were older they went to St. Joseph's College in St. Paul, Oregon around the time of the death of their father. Later they went to the gold fields of California. When they returned, it was understood by our aunts and uncles that Jules worked above the falls on the river. We are not sure if they knew if it was the Columbia or the Willamette. We are fairly sure he did both. As we can find no death records or marriage records we fear his fate may have been in the river.
2. Pierre Charles Kittson was our great grandfather. He was born in February of 1830. I think the 12th. We have records on all of his descendants. The majority of them live in Washington, Oregon, and California. He and his wife Angelique Dupre are burried in St. Paul, Oregon. Angelique was the daughter of Nazaire Dupre and Catherine Lafantasie. Catherine married David Mongrain after Nazaire's death and one of their children was Clarise Mongrain who married Calixte Lebeau for whom Lebeau Rd. is named for out in Sherwood, Oregon. My grandfather Nazaire Kittson was their first cousin and lived next door with their large family. There is a Lebeau-Hankle descendants family history on Calixte and Clarise's daughter, Mary Lebeau Hankle. I will tell more of his story later. For now I would like to try and link you to some other pages that will tell you more about his father William Kittson.

William Kittson we are told spent some time in a seminary when very young We understand there is a letter from Father Blanchet that mentions this. He was in the battle of 1812 and afterwards was with the Northwest Company which later merged with the Hudson Bay Company and was sent out west. I have found a site that carries the on line book "Adventures on the Columbia River" by Ross Cox as well as many other on line books similar to Canada's Canadiana link on my first page. He was at Fort Colvile for a time and crossed paths with John Work. I have found a very interesting web site that has John's journals which you may like to view here This site is very good for research of other figures of the same time era. The two journals of John Work that tie in with Kittson closest are the ones for December 15th, 1825-June 12th, 1826 and for July 5-September 15th, 1826. Also around this time William Kittson was assigned as clerk to go with Peter Skene Ogden on his Snake Expedition. This sight also shows you the map made by Kittson on this journey. An interesting side trip to make here is to a site which tells about William Kittson being a wittness to John Day's will. The first to be made here. While William was at Ft. Nisqually he was aquainted with Lieutenant Charles Wilkes of the American Exploring Expedition, who was charting the Puget Sound. Wilkes named one of the islands in the Sound, Kittson Island, but unfortunately when the information for making the maps got to Europe it was in error spelled, Ketron Island. If you note Works Journals, he also mispronounced it in similar manner so Ketron it remains. There is one ferrie that goes out there for the inhabitants only. It has been to our understanding that there are only about six families living there. A schedule is given by the Pierce County Public Works and Utilities for the ferry which runs out to Ketron Island. You are not allowed on the island without permission.

William Kittson was married to Helene McDonald (Daughter of Finan McDonald whoes family genealogy can be found in the book "Glenco and the Indians" by Mainstream Publishing written in 1996,shown in this link) After being discouraged to remain with his first wife, Marie Walla Walla, William Kittson went on to marry Helene. A new contact, Author, Pat McDonald, has a very exciting website on David Thompson whom Finan was with in some of his travels. He also has a book which may soon be on my shlef or in my hands called "Where The River Brought Them". See if it doesn't intrique your interest! When I do a better editing I will put this link on my first page where it belongs with the early histories. Dr. John McLoughlin performed the marriage between William & Helene, which was later blessed by Fr. Demers who was one of the first priests to come out to the Oregon Territory. William and Helene had four children that are known:

1. Eloise Jemima who was born in 1836 and married William Sinclair III. They were married at the Cowlitz Farm by Dr John McLoughlin. A Pow Wow is held at the Toledo Highschool near there and I will try to set up a box on one of my pages to note whenever they have them. Please check out the Sinclair history. We just received a photo copy of her baptism by Mr. Herbert Beaver, the Methodist Minister from a wonderful historian in Vancouver who always keeps us posted on any information. Our older aunts and uncles knew of Jemima, but her descendants were not known to us until a couple years ago. She had 11 children who traveled back and forth across Canada during William Sinclair's restless years. He was a third generation Hudson Bay Company man. His mother was Mary Wadin McKay Sinclair (the daughter of Marguerite Wadin McKay McLoughlin and Angus McKay). William & Jemima's descendants are scattered throughout British Columbia, California, and even Australia. They have their roots well recorded as do we with pictures and newsclippings. Jemima died in 1927 at 91 years of age. I hope to make a page on her family and tie it to this one.
2. Jessie died of small pox at Ft. Nisqually, Washington at about 5 years of age. He was burried in the "Old Cemetery" which we have seen marked off at a distance. They will not move their bodies and this land may be lost to developers, but time will tell for sure.
3. Caroline died before Jessie and is also in the "Old Cemetery" of the 1833 Ft. Nisqually sight. A battle is presently going on to preserve these burial sites as well as all the historic sites on this land owned by Weyerhaeuser. For those that do not know, there are three sights to this Fort. The Original 1833 sight where William worked at is up in Dupont at Exit I-119 off of the I-5. He had built the Chief Factor's House there known to the Indians as the Tyee house. The cellar of it I understand is still there. Not sure if any of the artifacts came from it. The second sight of the fort is the 1843 sight which is about 2 miles South of the first sight and it is preserved. The third sight of the Fort is up at the Point Definance Park This location is much farther North of the Original sights. It was there that I was able to obtain a copy of the Journals of the Fort which contain William Kittson's journals of the 1833 Fort.
4. Edwin was the last known child of William Kittson and Helene McDonald. He was born in 1840, so was only a baby when William died on Christmas day, 1841 at Fort Vancouver where Dr. William Tolmie took care of him.There are Kittson's in Browning, Montana whom we believe are his descendants and once we can establish that we will try and do a page on him and his famlies.

Helene (McDonald Kittson) later married Richard Grant who was the commandant at Ft. Hall. They had three daughters:

1. Helene Wilhelmina who died young and is buried at Walla Walla with her father, Richard
2. Julia Priscilla who married Christopher P. Higgins
3. Adeline who married

Before I go on to telling about Peter Kittson I would like to add a couple more very interesting sights for those interested in either the Kittson's or the fur trade. One is a digital collection of Hudson Bay Company artifacts as well as a multitude of other Canadian connections through this one link on Canadian history and as I followed it deeper it led me to a tour to Jemima Kittson Sinclair's neighbors theHelmcken's. I might add that also going through this very educational string I found a sight with which one of Jemima & William Sinclair's Great-grandsons is involved with. He is with the Old Cemeteries Society and you can be connected with them trough the tombstone connection. Another sight is the "Pig's Eye's Note Pad" which is filled with an historical encyclopedia of St. Paul, Mn. (1830-1850). This is an area where Norman Kittson was in business with the Fur Trade. A copy of our family journal is held at the DuPont Museum which has just begun their website and soon there will be a website for the group to which we belong, The Descendants of the Employees of Fort Nisqually so keep watch. To learn more about the Descendants in the meantime see my new pages listing some of our ancesters of our group.

To contact me just click rox61@hotmail.com

To turn to my other pages click William's Descendants Page 3
Pierre CharlesKittson Descendants Page 4
Or return to Kittson Family Home Page 1
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