Charlotte Small Travels with David Thompson
The Life of an Explorer's Wife Between 1807 and 1812
Jun 24, 2009
Growing up at a fur trade post, the daughter of a fur trader, Charlotte Small would have been familiar with the life of a fur trade family. As David Thompson’s wife, she accompanied him to various fur trading houses and on several mapmaking expeditions. Often, however, she remained behind with their children, especially on his big expeditions between 1807 and 1812.
Charlotte Small at Kootenay House
Charlotte and her three children accompanied David in his 1807 expedition across the Rockies. After starting out from Rocky Mountain House in May, they established a fort on the Kootenay Plains. That would be David’s “base camp” for his next expeditions.
Jack Nisbet, author Sources of the River: Tracking David Thompson Across Western North America, says that David and his “voyageurs continued on upriver, leaving the women, children, and livestock with Finan McDonald at Kootenay Plains.” Perhaps there was no room for the women and children in the canoes, or perhaps the next stage of the voyage was more dangerous.
David and his men returned to Kootenay House for the winter. When he wasn’t busy with the work of the fort, David worked on his maps. Nisbet comments, “Fur trade journals did not usually dwell on personal matters, and Thompson’s was no exception. There is no hint of Charlotte’s role. . . . There is no comment on what it was like to work out several hours of trigonometry by a grease lamp with three kids playing on the rough floor of a small cabin.”
Thompson Children on the Expeditions
That summer (1808), Charlotte was pregnant again, but she and the children travelled with David, as he records a couple mishaps in his journal. One of the horses had been badly loaded and nearly crushed the children. David mistook the horse as being vicious and says in his journal, “I shot him on the spot and rescued my little ones.”
In June, as they approached Howse Pass, two-year-old Emma went missing. They were travelling by canoe and David wrote, “we concluded she was drowned & all of us set about finding her.” After searching for most of the morning, they found her sleeping quietly under a bush. One can only imagine Charlotte’s fear at losing her daughter, or how much work it was to keep track of three young children on an expedition.
Charlotte Small at Boggy Hall
David left Charlotte and her children at Boggy Hall, where her brother Patrick was working, while he went to exchange furs for trade goods at Rainy Lake. Baby John was born at Boggy Hall, and David visited his family on his way back to Rocky Mountain House. He likely left them there, as travelling with a baby would have been difficult, while he explored the Kootenay River.
In 1810 David was back, picking up his family on his way to an overdue furlough in Montreal. Nisbet records that “In mid-July they stopped at the company post on Lake Winnipeg, and ‘here I left my little Family with her Sister in Law to the care of good Providence.’" Apparently Charlotte and the children were not going on to Montreal with Thompson for his furlough.”
At this time, their oldest daughter Fanny was already in Montreal, for David had sent her back there to school. David explained to an old friend of his, “It is my wish to give all my children an equal and good education; my conscience obliges me to it, and it is for this I am now working in this country.” There is no record of how Charlotte felt about sending her daughter so far away.
The Thompsons Retire in Montreal
David never made it to Montreal, as word came that his mapmaking work was now of utmost importance. He was sent back over the Rockies again, to find the mouth of the Columbia River. There is no record of where Charlotte was during this time; presumably, she stayed at Fort Augustus, possibly with family.
In 1812, the family was finally reunited for good as David, his explorations finished, picked up his family and headed for Montreal to retire.
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