12 Facts About Michel Laframboise

Michel Laframboise was a French Canadian fur trader in the Oregon Country who settled on the French Prairie in the modern US state of Oregon.

Michel Laframboise's parents were Michel Laframboise and Josephe Monjau, with Jean Baptiste later adopting his father's first name.

Michel Laframboise was hired by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company in 1810 and sailed from New York City aboard the Tonquin.

Michel Laframboise had been hired as a voyageur, but with the sale of the post to the North West Company he became an interpreter for that company in 1813.

Michel Laframboise served as interpreter for Alexander Roderick McLeod in a party that visited the Umpqua River Valley and then California.

Michel Laframboise was on site to aid the establishment of Fort Umpqua along with McLeod.

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.

Meanwhile, Michel Laframboise continued to lead expeditions south, occasionally independent of the HBC.

Michel Laframboise then built a home and barn on 100 acres along the Willamette River just north of Champoeg.

Michel Laframboise took part in the Champoeg Meetings in 1843 where he voted against forming a settler government.

Michel Laframboise had a stroke in the early 1860s and then sold off his assets.

Michel Laframboise died on January 25,1865, at the age of 71.