Date Published:

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

Pierre Crysologue Pambrun

Pambrun, Pierre Chrysologue (1792-1841), fur-trader, was born at L'Islet, below Quebec, Lower Canada, on December 17, 1792, the son of André Dominique Pambrun. He served in the Canadian Voltigeurs under Salaberry in the War of 1812, and took part in the battle of Châteauguay. After the war, in 1815, he entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company; and in 1816 he was taken prisoner by the bois-brulés of the North West Company on the Qu'Appelle river. In 1821 he was stationed at Cumberland House; and in 1824 he was transferred to the Pacific slope. Here he spent the remainder of his life. He died at Fort Walla Walla, in the Oregon country, in 1841, as the result of injuries received when breaking in a wild horse. Just before his death, in 1840, he had been promoted to the rank of chief trader. About 1821, at Cumberland House, he married the halfbreed daughter of Edward Umfreville; and she was still living, in the state of Washington, in 1878. One of his sons, Pierre Chrysologue, entered the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, and was met by Lord Milton and Dr. Cheadle in the foothills of the Rocky mountains in 1868. An account of the life of the elder Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun will be found in J. Tassé, Les Canadiens de l'Ouest (2 vols., Montreal, 1878).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada , Vol. V, Toronto , University Associates of Canada , 1948, 401p., pp. 80-81.