Fur Trader: Alexander Henry Part 1
He was young, daring, well spoken and well mannered. Alexander Henry is without a doubt one of the best recorded fur traders in the Great Lakes region of this early period before the American Revolution. His travels included parts of Canada and took place during the end of the French and Indian War and during Pontiac's Rebellion. The records we have of his travels come directly from his journals. Much of his time was spent focused in the region of Lake Superior, Wisconsin, Canada, Michigan and Fort Michilimackinac, the center of the Great Lakes Fur Trade. This area was still sharply disputed and Englishmen (as colonists were called) were unwelcome in this territory.
A New Jersey native and son of a merchant, Alexander Henry made a living taking up the occupation of his father. In 1760 when Lord Amherst's army was making their way to Montreal to fight the last decisive battle of the French and Indian War, Henry took up the dangerous work of following the army with three flat bottom river boats supplying them with goods. During the advance the army lost several supply boats and Henry himself lost all of his boats and the supplies which they carried. He was set adrift and rescued by one of the general's staff. The Battle of Montreal (July-September of 1760) was a British victory and the last battle of the war. England had won the French and Indian War and with it, all of Canada. The Treaty of Paris would not be signed for another three years.
When the British opened up the newly acquired territory for business, Henry saw his opportunity and went to Albany to obtain some furs. From Albany he travelled to Fort De Levi where he spent his time waiting for better weather to continue his travels. In January when the snow and Ice were thick enough to make travel safe, Henry set out for Montreal with a Canadian fur trader as his guide. Henry, being unpracticed with snow shoes remembers falling several times. On the first day of the trip he reached a small Indian encampment that fought on the side of the French during the war. They decided to stay the night and not stay long. While he slept Henry's guide shared some rum with the natives in the village. One of the warriors had too much and woke Henry up by kicking him in the chest and then proceeded to attempted to kill Henry with a knife. Evading his attacker and receiving a small knife wound on his hand Henry was then led to safety by an elderly woman and was told to leave the village. He made his way to the outskirts of the village without his snow shoes and wore only the clothes he slept in. The woman found Henry's guide and reunited the two. The Canadian guide brought Henry's clothes and snowshoes, relieving him from the bitter January cold. This was Alexander Henry's introduction to the fur trade.
Upon receiving his license as a trader Henry went to Fort Michilimackinac, the center of the Great Lakes Fur Trade. Here He was met by a band of Chippewa Indians who reminded Henry of their long and unpleasant history with the English but seeing that Henry was unarmed and ready to trade much needed goods for furs, they regarded him as a "brother." It was at Fort Michilimackinac that Henry also met Ottawa warriors who were less pleasant but left without harassing Henry or his guide. A strange incident occurred where a native offered Henry a gift and by accepting this gift he would be accepted into the native's family and be regarded as an adopted brother. Henry accepted and the native left the fort not to be seen all winter.
Henry proceeded to stay the winter at Fort Michilimackinac where he learned how to subsist from the land. Henry's journals are one of the few records of how fishing, trapping, hunting and trading was done in this time period. According to Henry, fishing for trout in winter time was not unlike ice fishing today. Holes were created in the ice and a line with bait on the end was then placed through the hole. Henry says that he would place up to twenty lines and check them twice a day, often catching upward of one hundred fish. Henry also describes catching white fish with a large net that is set through the ice using sinkers on the bottom of the net and lines at the top which were secured to large rocks.
When it came to catching beavers, it was common to break up the beaver hut in order to scare the beavers out where they would be shot or speared by other men who waited in ambush. Henry also describes how currency was rarely used in the territory and instead furs were used among other items that were bartered.
At the end of the winter when the Ice broke up Indian tribes started to make their way to the fort to trade the furs they had obtained throughout the winter. Alexander Henry then left the fort in May and set out on his trade, travelling to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Henry describes the fisheries in this area as being so full of fish during autumn that a skilled fisherman could take up to five hundred fish in two hours using nothing more than a net in which the fisherman simply dip his net into the water. Henry then describes how he would dry the fish with their tail up and head downward. He then freezes them on the first night after catching them in order to preserve them, hopefully being able to live on them until April.
In December Sault Ste. Marie caught fire and Henry along with the other inhabitants of the fort were forced to travel back to Fort Michilimackinac. Traveling to the fort was an undertaking which was dangerous and Henry describes living on hares, grouse, and trout which they speared through a hole in the ice. They did this by covering the hole with branches and furs to keep the light from entering the hole, making it easier to see the fish which they desired to spear.
When Henry and his companions finally reached Fort Michilimackinac after a long and arduous journey he stayed at the fort until March. In March he set out with a number of companions and tapped maple trees in order to make maple sugar. In April when the work was done they returned to the fort carrying with them six hundred pounds of maple sugar and thirty six pounds of syrup. This sugar would be necessary for their survival. Henry describes the means in which they tapped these trees and made maple sugar in detail, but that is a story for another time. During this month they subsisted off of hunting and eating some of the sugar they made. They arrived back at Fort Michilimackinac in May.
Many English traders now resided at Fort Michilimackinac along with a garrison of British regulars. The natives began to arrive at the fort in large numbers, causing concern among the English but they remained friendly by trading away their furs. In June, Henry's Indian "brother" arrived at Fort Michilimackinac and wished for Henry to join him the next day to travel to Sault Ste. Marie because there were many Indians gathering at the fort. Henry declined but his Indian brother insisted warning against the large presence of Indians, yet Henry declined again.
The following day large numbers of Indians came to trade inside the fort by purchasing tomahawks and knives. The next day on the 4th of June, Henry suspecting foul play by the Indians and attempted to warn the commandant of the fort. The commandant suspected nothing and eased Henry's worries. During the day a Chippewa Indian started to invite the English traders to a game. The Chippewa challenged other tribes around the fort to a game of Lacrosse. Henry decided to not go to the game and instead stayed in his quarters to write letters before travelling to Montreal, which he planned to do the next day. A fellow trader came to Henry's quarters and invited him to come see one of the new canoes that arrived at the fort. Henry stated that he would be over when his letters were finished. His fellow trader walked out the door and no sooner had this happened when Henry heard an Indian war yelp.
Get a copy of his travels using this link.
Resources:
Henry, Alexander. 2020. "Alexander Henry's Travels and Adventures in the years 1760-1776" Author's Republic,
Photo Attributions.
CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons