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Scandinavian Fur Traders
This page is under constant development. The idea is to list Scandinavians somehow connected to the North American Fur Trade. We need your help with this! So if you stumble across what might be a Swede, Dane, Norwegian or Finn in the literature, please send us an e-mail containing information such as name, period, geographic area &c. and of course, the source of information.
·Cross Eagle (??-??), so far only known by his “camp” name. He seems to have been a true Mountain Man of Swedish or German descent, and active during the 1830s and 40s. He is mentioned as follows:
George Frederick Ruxton in his Life in the Far West mentions:
"A curious assemblage did the rendezvous present, and representatives of many a land met there...A Swede and an "old Virginian" puffed together.", whom this Swede was is lost to history, but later in the book Ruxton writes:
“He [La Bonte] was accompanied by three others a man named Wheeler, and one Cross-Eagle, a Swede, who had been many years in the western country. ”Later the party splits up, and early one morning the three are attacked by Indians. "Cross-Eagle seized his rifle, and, though severely wounded, rushed to the cover of a hollow tree which stood near, and crawling into it, defended himself the hole day with the greatest obstinacy, killing five Indians outright, and wounding several more. Unable to drive the gallant trapper from his retreat, the savages took advantage of a favorable wind which sprang up suddenly, and fired the long and dried-up grass which surrounded the tree. The rotten log catching fire at length compelled the hunter to leave his retreat, and, clubbing his rifle, he charged amongst the Indians, and fell at last pierced through and through with wounds, but not before two more assailants had fallen by his hand. -Ruxton
Rufus Sage tells almost the same story in Rocky Mountain Life:
“Three trappers, with whom I became acquainted upon my return to the Fort, tempted by the abundance of fur-bearing game common to the vicinity, came here for the purpose of making a summer hunt. While successfully pursuing their occupation, unsuspicious of immediate danger, they were suddenly surrounded, early one morning, by a war-party of Sioux, whose first salute was a discharge of fire-arms, accompanied by a shower of arrows and the sharp thunder of deafening yells.
Two of them fell dead. The remaining one retreated to a hollow tree (…)
His triumph would have been complete had not the remorseless crew, as a last resort, set fire to the woods and burned him from the shell-like fortress from which they could not drive him.
(…)
Of these unfortunate men, one, named Wheeler, was a Pennsylvanian; another, named Cross Eagle, was a Swede; and the third, name not remembered, was a native of France. They were men of noble hearts and much esteemed by all who knew them.”
Last but not least there are a few references in William Drummond Stewart's novel Edward Warren where at Rendezvous his hero Edward describes how:
"Crosseagle sang the Kosciusko song, which he finished as I came up, and then the voices of all were mixed up in common din. Many had just met after a long separation, and news was exchanging from Dardanelles to the Sandwich Islands, from the church-going citizen of New England to the unbridled wanderer of Texas"
Later on he describes the conversation between the famous Old Bill Williams, Cross Eagle and a few other mountaineers as follows:
""There is Crosseagle, who is thinking of the Rhine all the time, or singing about it, though he never saw it, as it does not run through Brandenberg, said old Bill.
"Well, and you never saw the Delaware," said the German.
"No, but no man ever heard me sig a psalm upon it, you think there is nothing like your river and your split bird."
"Yes, our eagle has two heads, that is true, and yours has but one, and that is bald," said the Teutonic champion, reddening with wrath. (...) "Come Crosseagle, sing us a hymn," shouted Harry Smith, and imitating a Tyrolian air, broke out to be joined by most of the rest; and now song and chorus succeded, and the wild yudle rung through the neighbouring pines,..."
In other words, Cross Eagle or Crosseagle, might very well be a German or even Austrian. Brandenberg is a municipality in Tyrol, Austria. His camp name possibly derives from this "split bird", which might be some coat of arms from the region.
·Jacob Fahlström, (1793 or 1795-1859) perhaps more famous as "the first Swede in Minnesota". He was known to the Indians as "Yellowhead" and to the white settlers as "Swede Indian".
Fahlström was born in Stockholm, and by the age of twelve followed his uncle who was a sea captain to the Hudson Bay of Canada.
“…shortly after reaching land, he went for a hunt with his new double barrel shotgun and got lost in the woods. His uncle did not find him until eight days later in a most fatigued state.”
By the age of sixteen he had decided to stay on the North American continent, and shortly after started his fur trade career. He began trading with the Iroquois, and was soon on the mighty Hudson’s Bay Company payroll.
Fahlström is believed to have wandered south along the Red River to Minnesota. Some says he arrived before the construction of Ft.Snelling in 1819, others say after. This is the achievement that made him “the first Swede in Minnesota”.
He was later hired on by Astor’s American Fur Company and became chief trader among the Chippewa. His employment lasted for seven years, and during that time he managed to marry Margaret the daughter of Chief Bungo of the Lake Superior Chippewa chiefs in 1823.
As a married man he settled in a cabin close to Ft.Snelling where he was contracted to supply the fort with firewood for three years. He also tried his luck as a courier on the route between Ft.Snelling and Prairie du Chien.
In 1836 Jacob was converted at the Kaposia mission and two years later moved with his family to a cabin close to Lakeside from where he decided to preach his new belief to the Chippewa.
“One night, when he had scratched away the snow, laid down on pine twigs and put a kettle filled with trail food, a freshly killed fowl. Came a wolf and shoved his head into the kettle, but his head got stuck in the handle and he ran into the woods carrying both kettle and food.”
From the early 1840s he lived with his wife and nine children at Bollas Creek close to Afton Minnesota. Here he was known to preach among the Swedish settlers that came in the 1850s.
Fahlström was described as: ”blond and of common stature, a skilled woodsman, a fairly good speaker and with a good singing voice.”
Some claim he lived an “Indian life”, and preferred his life in the woods. He was for example offered to become a partner in the local bank but turned the offer down. He knew at least four languages; Swedish, English, French and Chippewa, probably Iroquois and Sioux as well.
Fahlström died in 1859, his wife in 1880
References:
Lager, Birgitta Jacob Fahlström. - 3 pg. = Pg. 62-64 in: SVENSKT BIOGRAFISKT LEXIKON…15. -1956.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~washingtoncountymn/Fahlstrom%20Cemetery/jacob%20fahlstrom.htm. Retrieved on Nov. 13 2008
·Harry Macfie (1879-1956), famous trapper, adventurer, canoe builder and writer from Bohuslän, Sweden. Active in Canada and Alaska in the early 1900s. Find out more at Harry Macfie Canoe Club
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