The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4)Dent, John Charles
History
The Canadian Portrait Gallery - Volume 3 (of 4)
Dent, John Charles
Canada -- Biography
After receiving his primary education at the public schools of
Amherstburgh, he entered Oberlin College, Ohio. This institution was
then held in high consideration by many persons in this country, and
some of our prominent men have been educated there. Mr. Schultz remained
there long enough to pass through the Arts course. Having chosen the
medical profession as his future calling, he studied medicine at Queen's
College, Kingston, and afterwards at the Medical Department of Victoria
College, in Toronto. He had conceived the design of emigrating to
Mexico, with a view to practising his profession there, but after
graduating as M.D., in the spring of 1860, he relinquished that design,
and found his way, by the rude and toilsome route then in vogue, to the
Red River Settlement. The community there at that time consisted of
about eight thousand persons, separated from the city of St. Paul,
Minnesota, by a distance of 550 miles of country, a great part of which
was owned by the Ojibway and Sioux Indians. There was of course no
railway in that part of the world in those days, and anyone undertaking
to travel from St. Paul to Fort Garry entered upon a journey which was
not only toilsome but perilous. The barbarians all along the route were
fierce and intractable, not much given to discriminating between
subjects of Great Britain and those of the United States. Between the
latter and the Indians there was much ill-feeling, and murders and
assassinations of white travellers were matters of frequent occurrence.
After enduring many hardships, Dr. Schultz reached Fort Garry, and there
commenced the practice of his profession. He soon afterwards entered
upon the traffic in furs, a pursuit which was very profitable in those
days, but which was still held as a monopoly by the Hudson's Bay
Company. The great Company doubtless well knew that it would not much
longer be permitted to enjoy its monopoly, but it was not disposed to
encourage rivalry, and looked upon Dr. Schultz's interference with no
friendly eye. There are of course two sides to this question. The
Company's agents were sometimes overbearing and tyrannical in resisting
the encroachments of free-traders. On the other hand, it was scarcely to
be expected that they would encourage or quietly submit to interference
with what they regarded as the Company's exclusive rights. In spite of
all opposition, however, Dr. Schultz continued to carry on his
operations with great profit to himself for some years. His negotiations
with the Indians and half-breeds rendered it necessary that he should
traverse a wide extent of country, and he thus gained an accurate
knowledge of the topography of the North-West, as well as an intimate
acquaintance with Indian manners, traditions, and customs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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