Laframboise and the rest of the crew and passengers arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River in 1811 where they established Fort Astoria.[1][3] He had been hired as a voyageur,[3] but with the sale of the post to the North West Company (NWC) he became an interpreter for that company in 1813.[2] In 1821, the NWC was merged into the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and he stayed on as an interpreter and as a postmaster in their Columbia District.[2][3]
While working for the HBC out of Fort Vancouver, he received permission to settle some land on the French Prairie in 1831.[2] However, Laframboise stayed with the company and helped restore the health of Hall J. Kelley when he arrived at the fort in 1834 with Ewing Young.[2] Young's party had been attacked on their way through Southern Oregon in the Rogue River Valley by the Rogue River Indians.[5] These Native Americans were retaliating against whites after an expedition led by Laframboise killed eleven Natives earlier that year.[5] This series of killings lasted for decades and eventually led to the Rogue River Wars in the 1850s.[5] Meanwhile, Laframboise continued to lead expeditions south, occasionally independent of the HBC.[2]
French Prairie
In 1839, he married Emilie Picard, a Native American from the Umpqua region. The couple had several children before and after the marriage, settling on the French Prairie in the Willamette Valley of present-day Oregon around 1841.[2][3] That year he also worked as Charles Wilkes' guide in the Oregon Country when Wilkes was leading the United States Exploring Expedition.[2] Laframboise then built a home and barn on 100 acres (0.40 km2) along the Willamette River just north of Champoeg. There he also had a mill and 200 horses.[3]
Laframboise took part in the Champoeg Meetings in 1843 where he voted against forming a settler government.[2] However, the majority of settlers voted in favor and established the Provisional Government of Oregon.[6] By 1852 he had settled a Donation Land Claim north of his original property and was operating a ferry across the Willamette River to Champoeg, connecting to the Champoeg-Salem Road.[3] He had a stroke in the early 1860s and then sold off his assets.[3] Michel Laframboise died on January 25, 1865, at the age of 71.[2]
^ abcdefghijklCorning, Howard M. Dictionary of Oregon History. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1989. p. 139.
^ abcdefghChapman, J. S. (1993). French prairie ceramics: the Harriet D. Munnick archaeological collection, circa 1820-1860 : a catalog and Northwest comparative guide. Anthropology northwest, no. 8. Corvallis, Or: Dept. of Anthropology, Oregon State University. p. 11.