Background
Joseph James Hargrave was born and raised at York Factory, a fur trading post on Hudson Bay.
Joseph James Hargrave was born and raised at York Factory, a fur trading post on Hudson Bay.
He wrote the 1871 book, Red River, a history of the Manitoba Red River Colony. His family took him to Scotland in 1846 where he studied at Madras College, Saint Andrews, and completed his studies as a surveyor in 1859. In 1869, he began writing a series of articles for the Montreal Herald about the anticipated transfer of land from the HBC to Canada.
In 1871, he published the book Red River describing the history of the Red River Colony prior to the 1869–1870 Red River Rebellion of Louis Riel.
Before his retirement, he became a Chief Trader in the HBC. He died in 1894 in Edinburgh, shortly after returning to Scotland.