Fur Trader
With capital from his father, Trent had a stake to buy goods and begin fur trading in the Ohio Country. Much of the upper Ohio Valley had been conquered by the Iroquois nations, based in New York and northern Pennsylvania, and they kept it open by right of conquest as their hunting ground. They had needed new grounds after exhausting some of the fur game to the East.
In 1744, Trent made large land purchases from Native Americans in the Ohio Country along the Ohio River, west of the Appalachian Mountains.
He took George Croghan, a young immigrant from Ireland, as a partner in the fur trade. Croghan had quickly proved adept at establishing a trading network among the Indians. He followed the French practice of establishing posts in existing Native villages, rather than expecting them to come to a separate English post. In addition, Croghan soon learned the Unami language of the Lenape (Delaware) and the Mohawk language of one of the Iroquois tribes. He was also involved in land speculation, usually holding property for a short period of time.
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Famous quotes containing the word fur:
“I have no doubt that they lived pretty much the same sort of life in the Homeric age, for men have always thought more of eating than of fighting; then, as now, their minds ran chiefly on the “hot bread and sweet cakes;” and the fur and lumber trade is an old story to Asia and Europe.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)