John Rowand
Encyclopedia
Fur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
r for the North West Company
North West Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...
and later, the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
. At the peak of his career, he was Chief Factor at Fort Edmonton
Fort Edmonton
Fort Edmonton was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1795 to 1891, all of which were located in central Alberta, Canada...
, and in charge of the HBC's vast Saskatchewan District.
Montreal
John Rowand was the son of Dr. John Rowand, a surgeon in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. Though possessing only an elementary education, Rowand joined the firm McTavish, Frobisher and Company at sixteen years. The firm's head, Simon McTavish
Simon McTavish
Simon McTavish was a Scots-Quebecer entrepreneur and the pre-eminent businessman in Canada during the second half of the 18th century.-Biography:...
, was the leading share-holder in the North West Company
North West Company
The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what was to become Western Canada...
.
North West Company Clerk
1803 saw Rowand posted to Fort Augustus, the NWC companion to the Hudson's Bay CompanyHudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
's Edmonton House, as an apprentice clerk. Apart from his regular duties there, Rowand participated in hunting bison
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
and indulged in another of his most notable pastimes through the years: horse-riding. Over the next few years, Rowand was positioned either at Fort Augustus or another of the nearby NWC posts.
Rowand suffered a broken leg from a riding accident in 1810. He was rescued by Louise (Lisette) Umfreville (daughter of Edward Umfreville
Edward Umfreville
Edward Umfreville came to Canada in 1771 to work as a writer for the Hudson's Bay Company. He came to York Factory and almost immediately was transferred to Fort Severn. There, he and Andrew Graham designed a comprehensive plan listing long term requirements for the inland posts that the company...
), a Metis
Métis people (Canada)
The Métis are one of the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who trace their descent to mixed First Nations parentage. The term was historically a catch-all describing the offspring of any such union, but within generations the culture syncretised into what is today a distinct aboriginal group, with...
woman who nursed him back to health. Subsequently, John Rowand engaged Louise in a country marriage, and received a herd of horses as a dowry. According to some traditions, Rowand also adopted several of Louise's children by another man. John and Louise had at least five children together. In 1838 when Catholic priests passed through Fort Edmonton John and Louise did not get their marriage solemnized, but after living together almost 30 years they seem to not have felt the need for external affirmation of their relationship. Rowand described Louise as "my old friend the mother of all my children" and remain connected with her until her death in 1849.
Joining the Hudson's Bay Company
The Battle of Seven Oaks in 1816 threatened a further escalation of violence between North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company servants. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of the battle, the NWC lost several of its investors who were wary of the company's continued existence. In a move brokered to end hostilities between the companies, shareholders in the NWC agreed to merge with the Hudson's Bay Company, signing an agreement in 1821 that saw its name dissolved and its employees & properties absorbed under the HBC name. The agreement named several persons as chief factors and chief traders at this time; with Fort Augustus consequently being absorbed by Fort Edmonton, John Rowand was made a chief trader at Edmonton.Chief Factor at Fort Edmonton
Starting in 1823, Rowand was the chief factor at Fort Edmonton, making him answerable only to Governor Simpson or the HBC's London committee. Rowand's fort was positioned on one of the best means of transportation across the continent at the time: the North Saskatchewan RiverNorth Saskatchewan River
The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows east from the Canadian Rockies to central Saskatchewan. It is one of two major rivers that join to make up the Saskatchewan River....
. In the early years of Rowand's administration, overland routes to northern posts such as Fort Assiniboine
Fort Assiniboine
Fort Assiniboine is a hamlet in northwest Alberta, Canada, within Woodlands County. It is located along the north shore of the Athabasca River at the junction of Highway 33 and Highway 661...
were made, and Edmonton became a central hub for furs to be shipped.
The fort was located on a flood plain at the time, however, and Rowand oversaw the moving of the fort a short distance to higher ground following floods in the 1820s. On this new site, which is now home to the Alberta Legislature Building, he had a massive house constructed for his own use along the fort's courtyard. The house was known as "Rowand's Folly" for its extravagance; it is reputed to have been the first house to have glass windows in the west.
Relations with workers
Rowand was regarded as something of an ill-tempered taskmaster by the workers under him. Noted Rowand on the subject, "When they misbehave I will tell them of it without fearing to hurt their feelings – they must do their duty as I was made to do mine." Rowand's high expectations of the workers also showed in his little sympathy for illness; Father Albert LacombeAlbert Lacombe
Albert Lacombe , commonly known in Alberta simply as Father Lacombe, was a French-Canadian Roman Catholic missionary who lived among and evangelized the Cree and Blackfoot First Nations of western Canada...
came upriver with a boat brigade with Rowand in 1852, and recalled that when he tried to convince Rowand that one of the labourers was ill and needed rest, Rowand responded, "Any man who is not dead after three days sickness is not sick at all."
Rowand's various abuses against the workers earned their ire, but it was an unfair Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
practice that put a mutiny over the top in 1851. The issue that drove the work stoppage was that labourers were required to pay for work horses; horses were drawn randomly from lots and cost the same regardless of their condition. The men were only permitted to do the company's work with the horses. If the horse died, which was common, the man would have to pay for a new one. In response to the work stoppage, the company agreed to provide horses for free, but according to labourer William Gladstone, the men made a further demand that John Rowand provide each man a quart of rum in a stirrup cup
Stirrup Cup
A stirrup cup is a "parting cup" given to guests, especially when they are leaving and have their feet in the stirrups. It is also the traditional drink served at the meet, prior to a traditional foxhunt...
. Rowand capitulated, but as per Gladstone's account, only after presenting himself in a dramatic fashion to them, fearless and defiant, to be struck dead by the mutineers, though the revolting workers told him that that was not their intent at all.
Some workers were in the habit of calling John Rowand by a nickname, "One-Pound-One". This was from the shuffle-step-shuffle sound made when Rowand walked, owing to the broken leg he had suffered earlier in his career.
Relations with First Nations
Rowand prided himself as a fair trader, writing of himself, "No one will say that I ever spoilt Indians. [...] I give them due but they must do their duty." Rowand was bold in his dealings, evidently bold enough to raise his voice to native chiefs in their own camps when surrounded by their warriors. This spirit is captured in a 1947 painting by Henry Simpkins (seen here http://www.canadiana.org/hbc/_popups/PAMp411_e.htm) that was used for an HBC calendar; the painting shows Rowand (stylistically slimmer) standing up to a mounted Blackfoot attack on the plains. According to the accompanying story, the chief recognized Rowand, apologized, and turned away.Impressed by Rowand, the natives referred to him as "Big Mountain" or "Iron Shirt". Rowand's term as chief factor saw greater fur returns than before.
Family
Although John never had his marriage to Louise solemnized he had his four daughters baptized by the Catholic priests. Also when his daughter Nancy Rowand married John Edward HarriottJohn Edward Harriott
John Edward Harriott was a fur trader who worked for the Hudson's Bay Company.A Londoner who entered the trade at age 17, Harriott was a dedicated and prosperous worker. He climbed through the ranks of the Hudson's Bay Company to become a chief factor for the Saskatchewan District...
it was a marriage performed by a Catholic priest with John Rowand serving as the lead witness.
Death
In spring of 1854, Rowand joined the boat brigades which annually carried furs to Hudson BayHudson Bay
Hudson Bay , sometimes called Hudson's Bay, is a large body of saltwater in northeastern Canada. It drains a very large area, about , that includes parts of Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, most of Manitoba, southeastern Nunavut, as well as parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota,...
where they would be loaded onto ships and commence their voyage to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Rowand would stop at Norway House as usual to attend a factors' convention, but he did not make it this far. On May 31, while at Fort Pitt - a post commanded by his son John - Rowand was about to intervene into a dispute between two tripmen, when he clutched his chest and fell suddenly dead.
Initially buried at Fort Pitt, Rowand's remains were exhumed. George Simpson explained in a letter to Rowand's son Alexander, "It was one of the last instructions your father gave John [Alexander's brother], on the day preceding his death, that his bones were not to be left in the Indian Country but removed to Canada and interred near those of his own father." The intended burial place was Montreal, but lacking means to preserve Rowand's body for a journey of so many weeks, his cadaver was boiled down to the bones. Ripley's states that his remains were "pickled" in a keg of rum and shipped overland. Simpson took the bones in a package to Red River
Red River of the North
The Red River is a North American river. Originating at the confluence of the Bois de Sioux and Otter Tail rivers in the United States, it flows northward through the Red River Valley and forms the border between the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota before continuing into Manitoba, Canada...
, but from fear that superstitious boatmen might try to dispose of it on the longer journey to Montreal, he had them repackaged and shipped to England via York Factory instead, where they could then be shipped again to Montreal. In a course of years, Rowand was buried at Mount Royal Cemetery
Mount Royal Cemetery
Opened in 1852, Mount Royal Cemetery is a 165-acre terraced cemetery on the north slope of Mount Royal in the borough of Outremont, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The burial ground shares the mountain with the much larger adjacent Roman Catholic cemetery -- Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges...
with a sizeable monument.
In Popular Culture
Edmonton musician Cadence WeaponCadence Weapon
Cadence Weapon is the stage name of Rollie Pemberton, a Canadian rapper.-Biography:Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, his father was Teddy Pemberton, a pioneering hip hop DJ on CJSR-FM, and his grandfather was Rollie Miles, a football player for the Edmonton Eskimos...
recorded a timpani
Timpani
Timpani, or kettledrums, are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum, they consist of a skin called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally made of copper. They are played by striking the head with a specialized drum stick called a timpani stick or timpani mallet...
-based dance music song about Rowand titled "One Pound One".