Background
Martin McLeod was born on August 30, 1813, in L'Orignal, near Montreal. He was the son of John and Janet McLeod and one of a large family of children.
Martin McLeod was born on August 30, 1813, in L'Orignal, near Montreal. He was the son of John and Janet McLeod and one of a large family of children.
In 1836, impelled by a desire for adventure in the wilds, McLeod resigned a Montreal clerkship and joined a mysterious filibustering expedition under "General" James Dickson, a visionary who planned to cross the continent and establish an Indian kingdom in the Far West. As a major in Dickson's "Indian Liberating Army" of some sixty adventurers, including a few Polish refugees, McLeod endured the rigors of a winter march across northern Minnesota to the Red River colony. Cold, hunger, and fatigue caused the collapse of this fantastic filibuster but failed to break the buoyant spirit of McLeod, who found leisure to study Spanish, to read Xenophon, The Lady of the Lake, Thaddeus of Warsaw, and Scottish Chiefs, and to keep a remarkable diary, with entries telling of nights when he lay nearly buried in snowdrifts to escape the biting fury of northern blizzards. Late in February 1837, with a guide and some members of the defunct filibuster, he set out from the Red River colony for Fort Snelling. Two of his companions lost their lives on the journey, but McLeod, though he nearly froze to death and so blistered his feet that "at every step, " he wrote, "the blood from my toes oozes through my Moccasins, " reached his objective. Soon after his arrival, in April 1837, he engaged in the fur trade, which for two decades led him up and down the Minnesota Valley, braving the perils and loneliness of wilderness winters, equipping Indians, and collecting furs from them at Traverse des Sioux, Big Stone Lake, and Lac qui Parle. Notwithstanding his growing influence and responsibility and his tireless industry, the evils of the credit system brought him continued losses, and in 1858, he sold his interests. He was a member of the territorial council from 1849 to 1853, and president during his last term.
McLeod identified himself with the frontier commonwealth of Minnesota. He was a vigorous settlement promoter. His letters to Canadian newspapers brought out a considerable number of pioneers. He planned town sites and bought and improved property in various places in the hope that an influx of settlers would enhance its value and bring him fortune. In 1849 he established his family on a farm at Oak Grove, near Fort Snelling, which remained his home until his death.
Quotes from others about the person
"McLeod was a man of noble form, commanding presence, cultured intellect dignified, eloquent, persuasive, charming".
About 1838, McLeod contracted a union with Mary E. Ortley, the daughter of a trader and a Sioux woman, and they had several children.
