Biographical Note
Andrew Dominique Pambrun was born February 14 of 1821 or 1822 in
Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River. He was the oldest child of Pierre
Chrysologue Pambrun, a long-time employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company and Chief
Trader at Fort Walla Walla from 1832-1841, and his wife Catherine Humpherville,
the daughter of a fur trader and a native woman. He was educated at a school at
Fort Vancouver and the Red River School, an academy at the Red River Colony, in
present day Manitoba.
Andrew Pambrun married Mary Cook, a woman of Cree-English descent, and
taught school in Red River and Minneapolis / St. Paul for several years.
Pambrun and his wife eventually had twelve children. After his father’s death
in 1842, Pambrun returned west. After an unsuccessful stint as a California
gold miner, he took a position as trader with the Hudson’s Bay Company at Fort
Walla Walla.
Capable in the Shahaptian Indian language spoken by the Nez Perce,
Walla Walla, and Yakima tribes, Pambrun served as aide to Territorial Governor
Isaac Stevens from 1855-1858, translating at the treaty negotiations in 1855.
He also participated in the wars following the signing of the treaties.
After 1858, Pambrun returned to the Walla Walla Valley, where he died
in 1895.
Content Description
The majority of the collection consists of autobiographical
manuscripts attributed to Andrew Dominique Pambrun – one 278 page complete
manuscript and one 58 page fragment. An edited version of these manuscripts has
been published as
Sixty Years on the Frontier in the Pacific
Northwest (Fairfield, Washington: Ye Galleon Press, 1978). Other
materials in the collection include a genealogical scrapbook about the Pambrun
family presumably assembled by Harriet Munnick, a transcript of a talk
delivered by Harry L. Drake in 1962 entitled
"Pierre Chrysologue Pambrun: Walla Walla County’s First
Citizen", assorted photocopies of deeds and contracts signed by Andrew
Pambrun, and miscellaneous clippings about the Pambrun family.
