Alexander Ross

Author Code: OARX

Ross emigrated to Ontario, Canada from Scotland around 1805, where he worked as a trapper and fur trader before joining John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company in 1811. He helped to found Astoria, a fur-trading post in Oregon, and later joined the Northwest Company when it bought Astoria. In 1821, Northwest merged with the Hudson Bay Company and Ross continued to work for them until 1825 when he moved to the Red River settlement in what is Manitoba, Canada today. There he served as a sheriff and local councillor. In 1849, he published Adventures of the First Settlers on the Oregon or Columbia River. In 1855, his Fur-Traders of the Far West appeared. His other works include Red River Settlement (1856 Posthumous) and Journal of the Snake River Country (1905 Posthumous).