Doctor John

Dr. John McLoughlin presided like a feudal king out of Fort Vancouver on the lower Columbia River during the fur-trading era. In the days when the Oregon Territory was governed jointly by the U.S. and Britain, he was the sole governor over an area that covered one-twelfth of the Earth’s surface. After an epidemic reached Vancouver in summer 1830, killing 90 percent of the native population, only one person remained who was capable of governing in the absence of the native chiefs. That was Dr. John, who assisted settlers coming across the Oregon Trail and became known as the ＂Father of Oregon.＂ As a result, he was fired by the Hudson’s Bay Company, which wanted to push out the Americans. His story is told through the eyes of his daughter, Marie Eloisa, who accompanied him as a little girl to Fort Vancouver and stayed with him until his death.