Gabriel Franchère 1786-1863
French-Canadian fur trader Gabriel Franchère played a foundational role in the early commercial settlement of the Pacific Northwest as a member of John Jacob Astor's pioneering 1811 Pacific Fur Company expedition. Arriving aboard the ill-fated ship Tonquin, he helped construct Fort Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River in present-day Oregon, the first American-owned settlement on the Pacific coast. Following the outpost's forced sale to the rival British North West Company during the War of 1812, Franchère departed the region via a grueling overland journey back east. His meticulously detailed journal of the expedition, published in 1820, provided an invaluable firsthand account of early regional fur trade operations and Native coastal cultures, later serving as a primary source for Washington Irving's famous history of the endeavor.
Franchère was a native of Montreal and joined the Pacific Fur Company as a merchant apprentice, arriving at Fort Astoria on the Tonquin.
Biographical Overview
- Lived from 1786 to 1863
- Born: Jan 1, 1786, Montreal, Lower Canada
- Died: Jan 1, 1863, Saint Paul, Minnesota
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Bibliography for Gabriel Franchère
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Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the Years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 The First American Settlement on the Pacific by Gabriel Franchère, translated by J.V. Huntington
The author, a Canadian, was one of the party sent out by John Jacob Astor to establish his colony at Astoria and he describes the voyage up the Columbia
376 pages, 4 unnumbered leaves of plates + 8 unnumbered pages of publisher's advertisements : frontispiece, illustrations (plates) ; 19 cm
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Last updated: 2026-09-30