Alexander Ross

Contents

By Irene Ternier Gordon

Published by Ternier Gordon Publishing, 2021

Alexander Ross was one of the many Scottish Highlanders who immigrated to North America and became a fur trader. The following are only a few of the many adventures he experienced over his long life in America:

• Almost being abandoned on the Falkland Islands while sailing to Cape Horn

• Losing nine shipmates while sailing into the treacherous mouth of the Columbia River

• Being driven from home by the notorious Red River flood of 1826

• Accompanying the 1840 buffalo hunt

After spending 15 years as a fur trader in what was then known as Columbia Country — now British Columbia and the American states of Washington and Oregon – Ross moved to the Red River Settlement in the 1820s.  There, over the next 30 years, he farmed, worked as a trader, was active in local politics, and wrote a number of books about his experiences.

He and his First Nations wife Sally raised a large family, at least four of whom took an active public role in Red River society and the formation of the province of Manitoba.  The Ross family is representative of a group sometimes ignored in the history of the Red River – people of mixed First Nations and British ancestry.

© Copyright 2022 Irene Ternier Gordon All rights reserved