Daniel Williams Harmon
| Daniel Williams Harmon | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1778-02-19 Bennington, Vermont |
| Died | 1843-04-23 Sault-au-Récollet (Montreal North), Lower Canada |
| Occupation | Fur trader, diarist |
| Father | |
| Mother | |
| Partner | |
Daniel Williams Harmon (19 February 1778 – 23 April 1843 (aged 65)) was an American-born fur trader and diarist who spent nineteen years in the interior of North America as a clerk and wintering partner of the North West Company, and whose published journal remains a primary record of fur-trade life in the early nineteenth century.
Early life
Harmon was born on 19 February 1778 in Bennington, the son of Daniel Harmon and Lucretia Dewey, who kept an inn and were devout members of the Congregational Church. In 1796 the family relocated to Vergennes. The pious household atmosphere that shaped the young Harmon's conscience would colour his writing throughout his years in the fur trade.[1]
Career
Entry into the fur trade
In 1799, seeking a different life, Harmon moved to Montreal and took a clerkship with the fur brokers McTavish, Frobisher and Company. He was subsequently engaged by the North West Company at £20 per year. On 29 April 1800, setting out for the northwest, he began the journal he would keep for the next nineteen years.[1]
His first posting was to Fort Alexandria, near present-day Fort Pelly, where he remained until 1805. The post supported over seventy people who required at least 450 pounds of buffalo meat daily. During this period he recorded the violent rivalry between the NWC and the New North West Company (XY Company), and he welcomed the merger that ended the strife in early 1805. He resisted repeated offers from Cree leaders of young daughters in marriage, framing his resistance in the religious terms that ran through his diary.[1]
Marriage and westward movement
In 1805–07 Harmon was stationed at South Branch House near present-day Batoche. There, around 1806, he entered into a country marriage with Elizabeth Duval, a fourteen-year-old Métis woman, daughter of a Canadian voyageur and a Snare Indian mother. He noted in his journal that he intended the arrangement to last only while he remained in the northwest — a resolution he would entirely abandon by 1819.[1]
His wife accompanied him from South Branch in 1806 to Cumberland House, then to Sturgeon Lake in the Nipigon department, and onward into the Athabasca Country. He reached Fort Chipewyan on 7 September 1808. The couple continued to Fort Dunvegan in the Peace River Country, remaining until 1810, before crossing the Rocky Mountains into New Caledonia, a district recently opened by the Vermonter Simon Fraser.[1]
New Caledonia (1810–1819)
For nine years Harmon worked primarily at Fort St. James on Stuart Lake, with periods at Fort Fraser. Trading occupied only a fraction of his time; much of his effort went toward making the posts self-sufficient in food. He accumulated large stocks of dried salmon — sometimes twenty-five thousand fish — and initiated small-scale agriculture. He carefully observed and documented the life of the Dakelh (Carrier) people among whom he worked. He taught his wife and daughters English and sent his sons to Vermont for schooling. In 1818 he was made a wintering partner in the NWC.[1]
The death of his eldest son in the period before 1819 profoundly altered Harmon's outlook. He had accumulated a large family and could no longer conceive of leaving them in the wilderness while he returned to settled life. As he wrote: "How could I spend my days in the civilized world, and leave my beloved children in the wilderness? The thought has in it the bitterness of death."[1]
Arrival at Fort William
In the summer of 1819, Harmon, Elizabeth Duval, and their children made their way east out of New Caledonia. He arrived at Fort William (Thunder Bay, Ontario) on 18 August 1819, and on that day he closed his journal.[1]
Publication and return to Vermont
Harmon paused in Burlington to arrange the publication of his journal, which appeared in 1820 edited by the Reverend Daniel Haskel of Burlington; it was heavily revised in the editing. While in Burlington he and Elizabeth were formally married; the couple then traveled to Montreal and on to Vergennes, Vermont. He returned briefly to the fur trade, managing the post near Fort Frances at Rainy Lake.[1][2]
Later life
When the NWC merged with the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, Harmon became a chief trader under terms by which he resigned immediately but retained his profit share for seven years. He spent the remainder of his working life in Vermont. With his brother Calvin he established a store and sawmill around which a small settlement, Harmonsville (now Coventry), grew up, but the venture did not prosper. Probably during the winter of 1842–43, Harmon rented a farm at Sault-au-Récollet near Montreal. He fared no better there, and died nearly in poverty on 23 April 1843, survived by Elizabeth Duval and six children, leaving an estate worth less than £100.[1]
Legacy
Harmon held no prominent rank in the fur trade and led no explorations. His lasting contribution is his Journal, which is both a detailed narrative of life in the NWC during the early nineteenth century and a candid account of moral choices under the conditions of the trade. It remains a foundational document of Métis people and fur-trade history.[1][3]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 George Woodcock."George Woodcock, "Harmon, Daniel Williams," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7."[website].Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7 (University of Toronto/Université Laval).1988.University of Toronto/Université Laval.Link.(Rights: copyrighted | Access: open)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Daniel Williams Harmon (edited by Daniel Haskel)."A journal of voyages and travels in the interiour of North America."[book].1820.Andover, Massachusetts; repr. New York, 1922.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Daniel Williams Harmon (edited by W. Kaye Lamb)."Sixteen years in the Indian country: the journal of Daniel Williams Harmon, 1800–1816."[book].1957.Toronto.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Daniel Williams Harmon."Manuscript copy of Harmon's diary, 1816."[record].University of Iowa Libraries, Special Collections and Manuscripts, Iowa City; photocopy at Library and Archives Canada.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Jennifer S.H. Brown."Strangers in blood."[book].(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Marcel Giraud (translated by George Woodcock)."The Métis in the Canadian west."[book].1986.Edmonton.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Harold A. Innis."The fur trade in Canada."[book].1930.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Arthur S. Morton."A history of the Canadian west."[book].1973.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Sylvia Van Kirk.""Many tender ties"."[book].(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Marjorie Wilkins Campbell."The North West Company."[book].1957.Toronto.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ Marjorie Wilkins Campbell."The Saskatchewan."[book].1950.New York.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ J. H. Archer."Tales of western travellers: Daniel Williams Harmon."[newspaper].Saskatchewan History, vol. 4.1951.pp. 62–67.Saskatoon.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)
- ↑ John Spargo."Two Bennington-born explorers and makers of modern Canada."[book].1950.Bradford, Vermont.(Rights: unknown | Access: open)