Jacques Raphael Finlay (1768 - 1828)

Born 1768 in Francois Finlay Fort, Nipawin, Saskatchewan

Descendants

Died May 1828 at about age 60 in Fort Spokane, Spokane County, Washington Territory

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Jacques Raphael was Ojibwe.

Biography

Jacques Raphael Finlay was born in 1768 in Francois Finlay Fort, Nipawin, Saskatchewan, son of James Finlay.

1. Jacques married Teshwentichina Unknown. Their known son was Augustin Finley (about 1800–about 1883).
2. Jacques married Josette Cree. Their known son was Patrick Finley (about 1802–1879).

Jacques was mentioned on a memorial in Finlay Burial Site, Spokane, Spokane County, Washington with a death date of 20 May 1828.^[1]

Birth

Birth:

Date: 1768

Place: Francois Finlay Fort, Nipawin, Saskatchewan^[2]

Death

Death:

Date: MAY 1828

Place: Fort Spokane, Spokane County, Washington Territory^[3]

Reference

Reference: 116

Note

Note: #H01583

Sources

1. ↑ Memorial: Find a Grave (has image)
   Find A Grave: Memorial #92803229
   Memorial page for Jacques Raphael “Jocko” Finlay (1768-20 May 1828), citing Finlay Burial Site, Spokane, Spokane County, Washington, USA; Maintained by Matty (contributor 47804330).
2. ↑ Source: #S00029
3. ↑ Source: #S00029

• Source: S00029 Title: Family Records of Eugene Felsman NOTEFamily Records of Eugene Felsman, Source Medium: Other CONT .
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Raphael_Finlay
• Eric J. Holmgren, “FINLAY, JACQUES-RAPHAËL,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 6, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed January 26, 2019, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/finlay_jacques_raphael_6E.html.

Notes

Note H015831/2 Scottish, 1/2 Chippewa

Jacques' family was visited and was noted as being composed of lots of children, many with light blue eyes.

Half-blood Chippewa Indian.

Worked for his father in the Northwest Fur Company and in 1798 defended the company at Bow River in Canada while under attack by 150 hostile Indians.

May 30 1806, John McDonald visited Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River. Jacco (Jacques) Finlay, a Metis, wintered on the Saskatchewan above the Kootenai Plains, hoping to establish a trade route to the Columbia using the Howse Pass. Some claim he was marking a trail over the divide to the Columbia for David Thompson's trip in 1807. Finlay is likely following a well established Indian trail to the Columbia. Finlay would go on, in 1810, to establish Spokane House.

Was employed by David Thompson in 1810 to build Spokane House.

In 1809, helped build "Kalispel House" on Lake Pend d'Oreille.

Died while in charge of the "Spokane House" fur trading post.

Located near the confluence of the Little Spokane and Spokane Rivers, Spokane House soon became the hub of a far-flung trapping empire embracing the entire Columbia Plateau. Its attractions for the lonely fur traders, and Indians too, are quite understandable when one reads contemporary descriptions of it. Alexander Ross provides a lively account:

"Spokane House was a retired spot, no hostile natives were there to disquiet a man. Here the Bourgeois (Trader Chief) who presided over the Company's affairs resided, and that made Spokane House the center of attraction. There all the wintering parties with the exception of the northern district met. There they were all filled out. It was the great starting point, although six weeks travel out of the direct line of some, and more or less inconvenient to all! But that was nothing. These trifles never troubled the great man."

At Spokane House, too, there were handsome buildings. There was a ball room, and no females in the land so fair to look upon as the nymphs of Spokane. No damsel could dance so gracefully as they; none were so attractive. But Spokane House was not celebrated for fine women only, there were fine horses also. The race ground was admired, and the pleasures of the race. Altogether, Spokane House was a delightful place and time had confirmed its celebrity.

While Spokane House basked in its fame and enjoyed the pleasures of the ball room and the race track, a rival firm soon entered the area to compete with it. This was John Jacob Astor's American firm called the Pacific Fur Company. One of Astor's traders, a former Northwesterner called John Clarke, established him self at the comer of the opposition post, then went about winning the Spokane's to his own cause. The Indians were assembled, long speeches were made, and mighty things were promised on both sides. As soon as Clarke had got himself settled, he organized outposts, the most notable being one on Coeur d' Alene Lake where the Spokane River had its origin. For a time it appeared that the new rival would take over the area's trade. However, one year after its construction, because of the war between the United States and Great Britain, the American trading posts were sold out to the Canadian firm.

The trading posts introduced many new products to the Indians, the most important being guns and ammunition. The Indians acquired these goods by exchanging pelts. Usually the exchange was twenty pelts for one gun. A gun on the European market sold for one and one half pounds, though twenty pelts brought about twenty-five pounds sterling. It is easily seen that the traders made a tremendous profit. Tobacco was a very important trade item and was popular with the Indian trappers.

The Indian way of life changed considerably with the arrival of the traders. Wool blankets replaced animal robes; guns replaced the bow and arrow; iron pots and pans replaced the coiled baskets for cooking; and grain crops were grown in the fields.

The fur companies had a much better relationship with the natives than did the United States government for several reasons. The, main reason was that most of the fur company employees were half-breed eastern Indians who married Spokane women. This made the employer-employee relationship practically a family affair. Also, the Indians became dependent upon some of the modern conveniences which only the traders possessed.

During one season more than 9,000 beaver pelts were traded in the Spokane district which included the Snake River, Kootenai River, and Flathead River. Thompson is said to have taken ,000 worth of pelts with him when he returned to Canada.

In 1821, the Northwest Fur Company was forced to merge with its rival, the Hudson's Bay Company. Nearly five years later, Hudson's Bay Company decided to abandon Spokane House because it was too far from the Columbia River trade route. The fur company built a new post on the Upper Columbia, Fort Colville, which became the most important trading post in the area.

The splendid buildings of Spokane House soon crumbled away and the Spokanes joined the other tribes in the trek to Fort Colville for exchanging their pelts. Little else changed until the arrival of the missionaries, which had a more lasting influence than even the white man's guns.

From "Jaco Finlay's Grave"--Archeological Excavations at Fort Spokane 1951, by Louis R. Caywood, Archeologist, Vancouver, Washington, June 1, 1952...

"The second burial found (plate III B) is believed to be that of Jaco Finlay...........

The grave was found by Roy Carlson while looking for evidence of a bastion outside the southeast corner of the "red" fort. A number of large flat stones were found six inches below the surface of the ground. Removal of the stones disclosed a thin layer of rotted wood which later was found to have been the top of a coffin. The skeleton was immediately below the rotted wood. The head was to the south and east. The heavy stones had caused the coffin to collapse.

The coffin measured 6.2 feet long by 1.7 feet wide and 1.2 deep. It had almost entirely rotted away, leaving only a thin shell of rotten wood surrounding the skeleton. Thirteen nails were found which had been used in making the coffin. The skeleton was an extremely poor condition because of the interworking factors of shallow burial, destruction by rodents, and the heavy stones which had been placed over the grave. Roots, insects, and humidity had all played their parts in the decay of the bones. Because of rodent activity many of the bones were entirely gone. The ribs, all of the vertebrae, the finger and toe bones, both petolla, and the left clavicle were missing. The facial portion of the skull and the upper jaw had been reduced to meal by the pressure of the heavy stones. Some of the teeth were missing. The right tibis showed abnormal enlargement probably due to rheumatism.

Buried with the skeleton was a sizable collection of personal objects. Five pipes were found with the remains. Two were of clay, one of wood in the exact reproduction of a clay pipe, one was of stone and metal, and the fifth was of copper. One pipe has lines which appear to have been filed into the clay bowl as though Jaco had tried to mark it as his own. The "J" is very plain, but whether an "F" was meant to be part of the "J" could not be clearly ascertained. The mark actually may be nothing more than that placed there during the manufacturing process. Other objects found with the skeleton included the fragment of a bone comb, a piece of writing slate 10 inches by 3 inches, a hunting knife in a thin iron sheath, the fragments of a pair of spectacles, the remains of an iron cup or mug, and 3 metal buttons. A few fragments of cloth were distinguishable which probably were the remains of a coat on which the buttons had been fastened.........