William Alexander Aitken, also known as William Alexander Aitkin (abt.1785-1851), was a fur trader with the Ojibwe.

Biography

Aitken was apparently a native of Edinburgh, Scotland. He came to the Upper Mississippi

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

 region around 1802 from Canada and was employed by John Drew

John Drew (trader)

John A. Drew was a prominent trader in the Mackinac area in the early 19th century.Early in his career, Drew was an agent under Michael Dousman, trading with the local Ojibwe and Odaawaa. Later, together with Edward Biddle, Drew was part owner of Biddle & Drew. In the 1836 Treaty of Washington,...

, a trader in the Mackinac

Michilimackinac

Michilimackinac is a name for the region around the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Early settlers of North America applied the term to the entire region along Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior. Today it is mostly within the boundaries of Michigan, in the United States...

 area. As a clerk in John Jacob Astor

John Jacob Astor

John Jacob Astor , born Johann Jakob Astor, was a German-American business magnate and investor who was the first prominent member of the Astor family and the first multi-millionaire in the United States...

's American Fur Company

American Fur Company

The American Fur Company was founded by John Jacob Astor in 1808. The company grew to monopolize the fur trade in the United States by 1830, and became one of the largest businesses in the country. The company was one the first great trusts in American business...

, Aitken clerked under William Morrison's Fond du Lac

Fond du Lac (Duluth)

Fond du Lac is a neighborhood in Duluth, Minnesota, United States.Evergreen Memorial Highway serves as a main arterial route in the community.-History:...

 Department. In 1831, he became the Department's chief trader, establishing his headquarters at Sandy Lake, Minnesota

Sandy Lake, Minnesota

Sandy Lake is an unincorporated Native American village located in Turner Township, Aitkin County, Minnesota, United States. Its name in the Ojibwe language is Gaa-mitaawangaagamaag, meaning "Place of the Sandy-shored Lake"...

 with trading posts in the Fond du Lac District, which went as far to the west as Pembina, North Dakota

Pembina, North Dakota

Pembina is a city in Pembina County, North Dakota in the United States. The population was 592 at the 2010 census.The area of Pembina was long inhabited by various indigenous peoples...

, to the north as Rainy Lake

Rainy Lake

Rainy Lake is a relatively large freshwater lake that straddles the border between the United States and Canada. The Rainy River issues from the west side of the lake and is harnessed to make hydroelectricity for US and Canadian locations. The U.S...

 and to the south below the mouth of the Crow Wing River

Crow Wing River

The Crow Wing River is a tributary of the Mississippi River approximately in length. The river arises in a chain of 11 lakes in southern Hubbard County, Minnesota and flows generally southeast, entering the Mississippi at Crow Wing State Park, northwest of Little Falls, Minnesota. Its name is a...

. However, after 1836 when he was in disagreement with Ramsay Crooks

Ramsay Crooks

Ramsay Crooks immigrated to Canada from Scotland in 1803 and he 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 was discharged in 1838 for mismanagement. He set himself up in competition as an independent trader on the Upper Mississippi out of St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

. He died September 16, 1851, and was buried on the east bank of the Mississippi opposite to the mouth of the Swan River in Morrison County, Minnesota

Morrison County, Minnesota

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 31,712 people, 11,816 households, and 8,460 families residing in the county. The population density was 28 people per square mile . There were 13,870 housing units at an average density of 12 per square mile...

 where he had a trading post from 1842 until his death.

Family

Aitken had at least six wives:

• Mary Hole-in-the-Day (Ombebewonoquay), daughter of Chequodaince/Kechequodaince/Quodaince and Kechekahdayquayz/Chekahdahquayzai;
• Gin-gion-cumig-oke;
• Madeline Ermatinger (Beshakwadokwe, Striped-Cloud; recorded variously as Payshahquodoquay, Pach-a-kwa-dok-we, etc.), daughter of Charles Oakes Ermatinger and Charlotte Katawabide;
• Nu-gu-nay-au-nah-quod;
• Odishkwaagamiikwe (End-of-the-Lake Woman; recorded as O-dish-quah-gah-me-qu[ay]); and
• Julia Quodaince.

He was said to have had 25 children among his wives, including a daughter Mathilda who married William Whipple Warren

William Whipple Warren

William Whipple Warren was a mixed-blood Ojibwe historian, interpreter, and legislator in the Minnesota Territory. He moved from Wisconsin to Crow Wing in the fall of 1845. Warren suffered from lung problems for many years and died as a young man of 28 from tuberculosis on June 1, 1853.-Early life...

.

External links

• William Aitkin at Rootsweb
• Upham, Warren. "Aitkin County" in Minnesota geographic names: their origin and historic significance (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1910), p. 14.
• "Area History" by the Aitkin Area Chamber of Commerce
• Minnesota history, Volume 4, No. 7-8. (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1922), p. 380.