Memorable Manitobans: Peter Warren Dease (1788-1863)

Fur trader, explorer.

Born at Mackinac (now Michigan), he joined the XY Company in 1801 and stayed on in the North West Company after their amalgamation in 1804. He served in the Athabasca Department until 1824, when he was seconded to Franklin’s Arctic expeditions of 1824-27. In 1831 he took charge of the New Caledonia District, and in 1836 he was assigned to command the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Arctic exploratory expedition. His second-in-command was Thomas Simpson, who constantly complained that Dease was indolent. Nevertheless, the expedition filled in the gaps left by Franklin and others in the survey of the Northwest Passage. Dease married his fur-trade wife at Red River on 3 August 1840 and then retired to a farm near Montreal, where he lived contentedly until his death.

See also:

Peter Warren Dease, Dictionary of Canadian Biography IX, 196-99.

Sources:

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by J. M. Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

This profile was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Profile revised: 7 April 2013

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