John Saunders Pt. 3: John’s Early Career

At the age of 14, despite being considered “too small and too young” by some, John Saunders formally entered the fur trade, becoming a cashier’s apprentice with the Hudson’s Bay Company at Moose Factory. 

John, like his father, was “anxious that I should now do something to gain my own livelihood”. He was a determined worker, attending Reverend Horden’s school in the evenings where he improved his reading and writing, while also learning the demanding Company trade. 

After several years, however, John was sent to the newly established post at Matechewan to support local Company efforts. There, John spent winter months trekking across snow-covered landscapes to reach isolated camps and trade for furs, testing his physical endurance, cultural fluency, and deep place-based knowledge. John later remembered:

“This was a some-what hard winter, for I frequently had to make a small quantity of food do for a long time. As may well be expected, I was glad when spring came for me to return to Moose again.”

After his initial seven-year apprenticeship contract with the HBC expired, the determined John took on another three-year contract through which he “worked as a journeyman with an advance of wages.”

However, “These three years, like the previous ones, soon came to an end”, and by 1870 John was ready for a change. Inspired by his former teacher, Reverend Horden, John left the HBC and joined the Church Mission Society, beginning the next chapter in his career and life.

See Our Sources

• Saunders Family Vignette

• John Saunders, “My Autobiography, July 18, 1876” General Synod Archives

• Saunders-Leblanc VMFL Document

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