Date Published:
July 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Alexander Fraser

Fraser, Alexander (1761?-1837), fur-trader, was born at Murray Bay , Canada , about 1761, the eldest son of Malcolm Fraser. He entered the service of the North West Company as a clerk prior to 1789, possibly through the influence of Simon Fraser, sr., a merchant of Quebec, known as "the Bonhomme", who was his father's financial agent, and was a cousin of Simon McTavish. He seems to have been employed mainly in the English River district. In 1789-90 he wintered at the Côte des Serpents; in 1797 he was in charge of the post to which David Thompson came, when he transferred from the service of the Hudson's Bay Company to that of the North West Company; and in 1799 he is described as "proprietor, Lower English River". He must, therefore, have become a partner of the North West Company before 1799. In 1801 he went to Montreal on leave; and in 1802-3 he was "employed as a partner assisting the Company's concerns in the King's Posts and Hudson 's Bay". In 1804 he returned to the North West ; but he retired from the fur-trade about 1806, and settled at Rivière-du-Loup. He had bought the seigniory of Rivière-du-Loup-en-Bas in 1802; and he lived here until his death on June 14, 1837. He married in the Indian country an Indian wife, known as Angélique Meadows (d, 1833) ; and by her he had one son and three daughters. After settling down at Rivière-du-Loup, and while his Indian wife was living, in Indian fashion, at the Point at Rivière-du-Loup, he married, secondly, Pauline Michaud, and by her he had seven children. On his death a prolonged litigation over his estate took place between the children of his white and his Indian wife; and this was terminated only when in 1884 the court adjudged his marriage to his Indian wife valid.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 387.