Date Published:
July 2005

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

Gabriel Franchère

Franchère, Gabriel (1786-1863), fur-trader, was born at Montreal, Canada, on November 3, 1786, the son of Gabriel Franchère, a merchant. In 1810 he took service with the Pacific Fur Company of John Jacob Astor, and in 1811 he took part in the founding of Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia river. After the surrender of Astoria to the North West Company in 1812, he returned to Montreal; and in 1820 he published at Montreal his Relation d'un voyage à la côte du nord-ouest de l'Amérique septentrionale dans les années 1810, 11, 12, 13, et 14, a book now rare and much sought after by collectors. In 1854 an English translation of this work, edited by J. V. Huntington, was published at New York. After his return to Montreal, Franchère lived successively in Sault Ste. Marie, in St. Louis, and in New York. He died on April 12, 1863 , at St. Paul, Minnesota, at the home of his stepson. In 1815 he married Sophie (d. 1837), daughter of J. B. Routhier; and by her he had several children. See J. Tassé, Les canadiens de l'ouest (2 vols., Montreal, 1878).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 383.