10 



business ability and foresight in the 

 bustling "miller of the Seine." He 

 died in 1864, the idol of the French 

 halfbreeds of Eed River. 



ALEXANDER ROSS, 



Sheriff and Author. 



To no one are we more indebted than 

 to Sheriff Ross for an interesting ac- 

 count of the history of the Red River 

 settlement. He has been charged with 

 being partial, but this charge has 

 lieen made by interested parties. He 

 was a man of decided character and 

 much energy and in every "way worthy 

 of being remembered. He was bom in 

 the Highlands of Scotland in the year 

 1781. At the beginning of this cen- 



AL,EXANDER KOSS 



tury the "Highland clearances" made 

 it difficult to gain a living in the north 

 of Scotland. A regiment of Highland- 

 ers had been recruited from those 

 dispossessed of their holdings, and 

 this was known as the Glengarry fen- 

 cibles. After taking part against the 

 rebels in Ireland, the regiment was 

 disbanded in 1802, and in that or the 

 next year emigrated to Canada and 

 settled in the Glengarry district. With 

 the disbanded soldiers came also a 

 number of colonists from the High- 

 land districts of Glenelg and Kintail 

 and elsewhere. 



Among these was Alexander Robs, 

 a youth of twenty-one. For a number 

 of years young Ross taught school in 



the new settlements of Glengarry in 

 Ontario, and in 1810 entered the As- 

 tor Fur company, vrent in the pioneer 

 ship, the Tonquin, to the Pacific coast 

 and helped to found Astoria at the 

 mouth of the Columbia river. On the 

 purchase of Aster's fort by the North- 

 westers, Ross entered the Northwest 

 company and was placed in charge of 

 Okanagan, a fort in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. Here he married the daughter 

 of the chief, and old residents of Win- 

 nipeg will remember Granny Ross as 

 we used to call her, who died some 

 twelve years ago. Trader Ross was 

 for a time in charge of the post at 

 Kamloops, but in 1825 he was ordered 

 by Governor Simpson to Red River the 

 object being to make him a school 

 teacher in the settlement. 



Alexander Ross settled down on what 

 Is now the site ot the city of Winnipeg, 

 and his house, "Colony Gardens," was 

 well knowD to all old residents. He 

 ■was an ardent partisan of Company 

 interests, and acted for some time as 

 sheriff of the colony. His large family 

 grew up to take an important part 

 in the social life of the settlement, and 

 one of his sons, James, became a gra- 

 duate of Toronto university, and 

 was for a time one of the 

 editors of the Toronto Globe. 

 One of his daughters married 

 the late Dr, Black, and another, who 

 is the only survivor of the sheriff's 

 childrep heff>me the wife of Rev. Geo. 

 Flett. the veteran Indian missionary 

 of the Presbyterian church. 



Sheriff Ross, with the tenacity of his 

 race, never rested until he i^a'w on 

 the banks of the Red river a 

 minister of hif '"'■W" fnlth.. As he tells 

 the stor.v in. hie book on Red River 

 innumerable difficulties met him and 

 the Kildonan people in accomplishing 

 their hearts' desire. He lived to see 

 the fulfilment of his hopes in the ar- 

 rival of Tfev, John Black in this coun- 

 try in 1851, Mr. Ross beenme an eld- 

 er and a. leadings man in the Kildonan 

 church. 



In literature aJso Alexander Ross 

 gained no little reputation. He wrote 

 n number of books on the countrv, 

 viz.. "Red River Set+lemont," "The 

 Fur Traders of the Far W<^st," "Ad- 

 ventures OP the Oregon and Columbia " 

 nnd it is said an essa^ on "Afrricul- 

 ture.'* Ap a writer he is graphic and 

 in the main reliable. Perhaps he al- 

 lo^wed hi? opinions to influence him 

 too much in his de'^cript'on of some of 

 the uproar? and strugeles of the Red 

 River people His own and his fam- 

 ily's names are abundantly commemor- 



