Collection is open for research.
Collection was acquired from multiple sources throughout the 20th century, including acquisitions logged as Lib. Acc. 12469, Lib. Acc. 12836, Lib. Acc. 14812, RL2022-069-RETRO, RL2026-009-RETRO, RL2026-015-RETRO, RL2026-016-RETRO, and RL2026-017-RETRO.
Collection is arranged in four series:
John Baptiste McLoughlin was born in 1784 in Riviere-du-Loop, Quebec, Canada. His father was John McLoughlin (died 1813). His mother, Angélique Fraser (1760-1842), was the eldest daughter of Scottish Canadian officer Malcolm Fraser (1733-1815); among her siblings were North West Company employee Alexander Fraser (1761-1837) and physician Simon Fraser (1769-1844).
John McLoughlin studied medicine before joining the North West Company as a surgeon and apprentice clerk. After the company merged with the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), he became the HBC's chief factor for the Columbia Department, headquartered at Fort Vancouver in the Oregon Country (now Washington), in 1824. In this post, he traded European goods to Native people in exchange for beaver pelts. He expanded and diversified the company's operations into industries including agriculture and lumber, making the company Great Britain's foothold in the Oregon Country at a time when both the United States and Britain made claims to the region. McLoughlin also began to provide support and credit to Euro-American emigrants arriving in the Oregon Country from the east. In the 1840s, declining profits, aid to American emigrants, and other issues created tensions between McLoughlin and the HBC. Tensions also increased between McLoughlin and American emigrants, whose steady arrival had reinforced the U.S. claim to the Oregon Country. In 1846, the HBC forced McLoughlin out; he took a settlement and retired to a land claim in Oregon City, where he operated milling and mercantile businesses. That same year, the Oregon Treaty set the U.S. border at the 49th parallel. McLoughlin became a U.S. citizen in 1851, but, through congressional legislation, was also deprived of the the title to much of his property. He died in 1857, and his house in Oregon City is now the McLoughlin House Unit of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
John McLoughlin had five children from two marriages. In his twenties, he had a marriage
Eloisa McLoughlin married Hudson's Bay Company employee William Glen Rae (1809-1845) and, after Rae's death, Daniel Harvey (1804-1868). William Rae and Eloisa Rae's daughter Margaret Glen Rae (1841-1912) married Theodore Wygant (1831-1905) in 1858. Theodore Wygant had emigrated to Oregon in 1850, and worked for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company (later the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company). Their daughter Nellie Amelia Wygant (1859-1940) married Martin Winch (1858-1915), who also worked for the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, and who successfully carried out the will of his aunt Amada W. Reed to establish Reed College in Portland, Oregon.
Sources: "John McLoughlin (1784-1857), by Gregory P. Shine, Oregon Encyclopedia,
Original 1847-1848 John McLoughlin letter book is at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, Vancouver, Washington. The originals of microfilmed 18th and 19th century documents in Burt Brown Barker's research files on Reel 2 are at the Library and Archives of Canada, Ottawa, Canada. Originals of many of the other microfilmed McLoughlin and Fraser family papers are held by the McLoughlin Memorial Association, Oregon City, Oregon. Original of the Hubert Howe Bancroft interview of Eloisa Harvey is at the Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California.
McLoughlin, Fraser, Wygant, and Winch family papers, Mss 927, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
Collection was processed before or in 1996. Some reprocessing was done and a revised collection guide written by Jeffrey A. Hayes in 2026. Collection was titled "McLoughlin-Fraser family papers" prior to 2026.
Other materials relating to the Wygant, and Winch families at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library include the Theodore Wygant papers, Mss 2082; the Theodore Wygant ambrotype, Org. Lot 1304; the Winch family papers, Coll 52; the vertical file Biography - Wygant, Theodore; and the vertical file Biography - Winch, Martin.
This collection was compiled by the Oregon Historical Society from a variety of sources. It consists of papers of and about Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor John McLoughlin and his family. People represented in the collection include members of McLoughlin's maternal family, the Frasers, and some of his descendants, who were members of the Rae, Harvey, Wygant, and Winch families through marriage and birth. Papers in the collection include correspondence, property and financial documents, scrapbooks, and biographical and genealogical materials. Papers of the McLoughlin, Fraser, Rae, and Harvey families are a mix of original documents, handwritten or typescript copies, photostatic reproductions, photocopies, and microfilm, while the Wygant and Winch papers are all original.
The McLoughlin and Fraser papers include correspondence of John McLoughlin; his uncles Simon Fraser and Alexander Fraser; his cousin John Fraser; his great-uncle Malcolm Fraser; his sister Marie-Louise McLoughlin (also named de Saint-Henri); and his sons John McLoughlin, Jr., and David McLoughlin. Some of the correspondence with and among the Fraser family is in French. John McLoughlin's correspondence includes communications with other officials in the Hudson's Bay Company, much of which is contained in two letterbooks, one original and another photocopied. David McLoughlin's papers include correspondence with Oregon Historical Society founder George H. Himes. Other papers of the John McLoughlin and Fraser families include property, estate, and financial documents of John McLoughlin; materials about McLoughlin's house in Oregon City, including specifications for its restoration in the 20th century by architect Glenn Stanton; a report by McLoughlin about Native peoples living between Fort William and Lake of the Woods in Canada; a 1775 land lease certificate in French, listing McLoughlin's great-uncle Malcolm Fraser and father John McLoughlin as witnesses; biographical and genealogical materials; and research by Burt Brown Barker.
The Rae and Harvey family papers consist of the wills of William Glen Rae and John Rae; marriage settlement agreements for Eloisa McLoughlin's marriages to William Glen Rae and to Daniel Harvey; a letter from Edward Roberts to Daniel Harvey; materials relating to Eloisa Rae Harvey's will; and materials about John McLoughlin that were compiled by Maria Louise Myrick (née Rae). Wygant family papers consist of Theodore Wygant's reminiscences about his overland emigration to Oregon; a lawsuit Theodore Wygant took part in against Forbes Barclay; a notebook and a scrapbook compiled by Maria Louise Wygant; and papers of Maria Louise Wygant's estate. Almost all the Winch family papers in the collection are property deeds and legal documents of Martin Winch. The exception is deeds for his son, Simeon Reed Winch, to property on Cornell Road in Portland, Oregon.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.
Includes a speech by John Minto and Sylvester Pennoyer, and documents by W. W. Walken, Burt Brown Barker, and Leslie M. Scott.
In 1838, Eloisa McLoughlin (1817-1884) married Hudson's Bay Company employee William Glen Rae (1809-1845). The couple had four children: John Rae (1839-1867), Margaret Glen Rae (later Wygant, 1841-1912), Maria Louise Rae (later Myrick, 1842-1929), and William Rae (January-February 1845). After William Glen Rae's suicide in 1845 in San Francisco, California, Eloisa Rae returned to the Oregon Country. In 1850, she remarried to Daniel Harvey (1804-1868), a former Hudson's Bay Company employee who managed mills for Eloisa's father, John McLoughlin. They had three children: Daniel Harvey, Jr. (1851-1897), Mary Angeline Harvey (later Leigh, 1854-1897), and James William Harvey (1856-1895). In 1867, the Harveys and Eloisa Rae Harvey's surviving children from both marriages moved to Portland, Oregon.
Sources: "The McLoughlin Empire and its Rulers," by Burt Brown Barker (Glendale, Calif.: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1959), pages 17 and 131; vital records via Ancestry.com.
Theodore Wygant was born in Ulster County, New York, in 1831. He emigrated to Oregon City, Oregon, in 1850. Beginning in 1852, he operated steamboats on the Willamette River. In 1863, he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he worked for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company, which later became the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, until 1887, after which he worked as a real estate agent.
In 1858, Wygant married Margaret Glen Rae (1841-1912), a daughter of Eloisa Rae Harvey and a granddaughter of John McLoughlin. The couple had three children: Nellie Amelia Wygant (later Winch, 1859-1940), William Rae Wygant (1862-1905), and Maria Louise Wygant (sometimes written as Maria Louisa Wygant, 1864-1931). Theodore Wygant died in 1905.
Sources: Obituary in the Oregonian, February 10, 1905, page 11; vital records via Ancestry.com.
Martin Winch was born in 1858 on the Henry Reed homestead in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1871, he moved to Portland, Oregon, where he lived with his uncle and aunt, Simeon G. Reed (1830-1895) and Amanda W. Reed (1832-1904). He worked for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and its successor firm, the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company. Simeon G. Reed trusted Winch with his finances, which Winch continued to manage after Reed's death. Following Amanda W. Reed's death, the Reeds' heirs contested their will, which stipulated for the creation of a college in Portland. Martin Winch successfully had the will upheld after a years-long court battle, and Reed College was established as a result.
Martin Winch married Nellie Amelia Wygant (1859-1940) in 1882. The couple had one son, Simeon Reed Winch (1888-1946), who became business manager of the Oregon Journal newspaper in Portland. Martin Winch died in 1915.
Sources: Obituary for Martin Winch in the Oregonian, December 18, 1915, page 11; obituary for Simeon Reed Winch in the Oregon Journal, August 24, 1946, page 1; vital records via Ancestry.com.