Ramsay Crooks


Ramsay Crooks was an American fur trader that immigrated to Canada from Greenock in Scotland. He was the father of American Civil War Colonel William Crooks who served in the 6th Minnesota Regiment. In 1803 Ramsay worked in a trading post on the Great Lakes. He helped W. Price Hunt to organize and lead an overland trip to Astoria in the Oregon Country for John Jacob Astor in 1809 through 1813, as a partner in the Pacific Fur Company. He became general manager of the American Fur Company in 1817 and was president of the company from 1834–1839. While traveling for the fur trade company he dealt with many Native American tribes. He married Abanokue, the daughter of an Ojibwa Chieftain. They had a daughter together, Hester Crooks. Abanokue died around 1825. Crooks then married Emilie Pratte and had nine children. He spent his final days in New York.

Early life and career

In 1803, when Ramsay was 16 years old he arrived in Montreal, Quebec, with his family. He stayed in Montreal while his mother and the rest of the family went on to Newark. It has been reported that he was a clerk with , a Montreal that supplied dry goods and hardware to the Indians. Later it was said that he was in Niagara with fur traders and then was a clerk for fur trader Robert Dickson at Michilimackinac on Lake Huron. Today it is known as Mackinaw Island or Mackinac in Michigan. Ramsay was with George Gillespie in 1805 and was in , for him from 1805 to 1807 learning the fur trade.
By 1807, Ramsay had enough funds, supplemented by the fur trading Choteau Family, to form a partnership with Robert McClellan with the aim of trading with the Indians on the Missouri River. McClellan was described as “a man of many perilous exploits and hairbreadth escapes, a sure shot, and one of the most romantic characters in the annals of the Western fur trade”. They formed an expedition of 40 men and went as far as South Dakota on the Missouri, but were forced back to Council Bluffs, Iowa, by about 600 Sioux. They erected a trading post at Council Bluffs. Ramsay and McClellan believed the Sioux were spurred on by Manuel Lisa, a Spanish trader of the Missouri Fur Company, and McClellan swore if he ever met Lisa he would kill him. Later, with the , he met Lisa on the Missouri, but, with difficulty, he was restrained from carrying out his threat. In 1809 Ramsay and McClellan dissolved the partnership, and Ramsay went to Mackinac to work for the Northwest Company where William Price Hunt, the organizer of the Astor expedition, signed Ramsey as a partner in the Astor group to take part in the expedition.