James Birnie, Cathlamet founder

• Main Author: Unknown
• Format: Still Image
• Language: unknown
• Published: Washington State Library
• Subjects: Pioneers; Portrait photographs; History & Genealogy; Hudson Bay; Canada; Pacific; Indian; Hudson; Fort Simpson; Archibald; York Factory; Etienne; Fort George
• Online Access: http://www.washingtonruralheritage.org:2012/u?/wahkiakum,128

Was a clerk for the Hudson’s Bay Company and was stationed at Spokane House, Fort George (now Astoria), Fort Vancouver, Fort Simpson. He married Charlot Beaulieu a Red River Indian women at York Factory now located in northeastern section of the province of Manitoba in Canada before he came to what is now the Pacific Northwest. Charlot went wherever James went. We can track the forts that he served in by the births of his children with Elizabeth (1822) being born at Fort Spokane, Robert (1824) at Fort George (Astoria), Etienne (1825) at Fort Spokane, Susanne (1828) and La Rose(1830) at Fort Vancouver, Charlotte (1833) at Fort George, James (1834) at Fort Simpson; Mary Amelia (1836), Victoria (1838), Mary Ann (1839), Alexander (1842), Caroline (1845) at Fort George. James and Charlot retired to what is now Cathlamet in 1846 and where their last two children Archibald and Thomas were born. James operated a trading post on property close to where the Puget Island Bridge is now located. He sold Hudson Bay supplies but was an independent contractor. James died in 1864 and Charlot in 1878 and both are buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Cathlamet.