Robert Dickson (fur trader)
Robert Dickson | |
|---|---|
 Colonel Robert Dickson | |
| Born | ca. 1765 |
| Died | 20 June 1823 |
| Occupation(s) | Frontiersman, fur trader, officer in the British Indian Department |
| Employer | British Indian Department |
| Spouse | Ista Towin or Totowin (Helen Elizabeth) |
Robert Dickson (c.1765 – 20 June 1823) was a fur trader, and later an officer in the British Indian Department in Upper Canada, who played a prominent part in the War of 1812.
Early life
He was born in Dumfries, Scotland where his father was a merchant. When his father's business failed, Robert and his brothers, William and Thomas, traveled to Canada to work for their cousin Robert Hamilton. While Robert's brothers made careers for themselves in Newark and the Niagara peninsula, Robert found routine office work tedious, and was sent to Mackinac Island in 1786 to trade on his own.
He spent many years trading among the Sioux, Winnebago, and Ojibwe in modern northern Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and South Dakota. In 1797, he married Ista Towin or Totowin (Helen Elizabeth), the daughter of chief Wakinyanduta (Red Thunder) of the Cuthead band of the Yanktonai Dakota.[1]
War of 1812
During the years preceding the War of 1812, Dickson and other British and Canadian traders were angered by
During 1813, he led contingents of Indians at the unsuccessful
After the war, he retired from the Indian Department although, while on a visit to Scotland in 1816, he applied unsuccessfully to be the Indian Department agent at Amherstburg.
The war had ruined Dickson's fur trading business. He nevertheless resumed trading, but died unexpectedly at Drummond Island in 1823.
References
- ISBN 978-0-9759196-5-1.
- "Robert Dickson". Dictionary of Canadian Biography (online ed.). University of Toronto Press. 1979–2016.
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