Michel Klyne (2 July 1781 – 1868) was an employee of the

North West Company The North West Company was a fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in what is present-day Western Canada and Northwestern Ontario. With great weal ...

and later the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business div ...

, serving as postmaster at

Jasper House Jasper House National Historic Site, in Jasper National Park, Alberta, is the site of a trading post on the Athabasca River that functioned in two different locations from 1813 to 1884 as a major staging and supply post for travel through the Can ...

in the

Rocky Mountains The Rocky Mountains, also known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range and the largest mountain system in North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch in straight-line distance from the northernmost part of western Canada, to New Mexico in ...

Early life

Klyne was born in the

Province of Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirteen p ...

in 1781, son of a

Hessian A Hessian is an inhabitant of the German state of Hesse. Hessian may also refer to: Named from the toponym *Hessian (soldier), eighteenth-century German regiments in service with the British Empire **Hessian (boot), a style of boot **Hessian f ...

soldier, Johan Adam Klein (or Jean Adam Klyne) who fought in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

, and his French Canadian wife, Marie-Geneviève Bisson. He had one sister, also named Marie-Geneviève, and several half-siblings through his father.

The North West Company and Hudson's Bay Company

Klyne entered the employ of the North West Company in the late 1790s as a fur trader. Following the 1821 merger of the NWC and the HBC, he was put in charge of Jasper House, near modern

Jasper, Alberta Jasper is a specialized municipality and townsite in western Alberta within the Canadian Rockies. The townsite is in the Athabasca River valley and is the commercial centre of Jasper National Park. History Established in 1813, Jasper Hou ...

. He served as postmaster for 11 years, from 1824 to 1834. In 1835, he retired to the Red River. Alberta's

Cline River The Cline River is a short river in western Alberta, Canada. It flows from Pinto Lake and joins the North Saskatchewan River at Lake Abraham in west-central Alberta. Geography Pinto Lake is located north of Sunset Pass. The lake is fed from the g ...

and

Mount Cline Mount Cline is a mountain in western Alberta, Canada, north of Saskatchewan Crossing, southwest of Nordegg. The mountain is located in the North Saskatchewan River Valley, west of Resolute Mountain. It was named in 1898 by J. Norman Collie ...

Travel Nordegg - Mount Cline
were named in his honor (using a variant spelling of his surname), as well as "Old Klyne's Trail", a trail running along the Cline river valley from the Kootenay Plains to the

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is pro ...

Personal life

In 1807, Klyne married Suzanne Lafrance, daughter of a prominent

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

. They had ten children, including Jane Klyne McDonald, wife of

Archibald McDonald Archibald McDonald (3 February 1790 – 15 January 1853) was chief trader for the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Langley, Fort Nisqually and Fort Colvile and one-time deputy governor of the Red River Colony. Early life McDonald was born in Leech ...

of the Hudson's Bay Company, and George Klyne, MLA (1871–74)The Manitoba Historical Society - George Klyne (1828-?)
/ref> for

Ste. Agathe, Manitoba Ste. Agathe is a primarily francophone community in the Rural Municipality of Ritchot, Manitoba, Canada, located along the Red River. Ste. Agathe is in the provincial riding of Morris and the federal riding of Provencher. History The village ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Klyne, Michel 1781 births 1868 deaths Hudson's Bay Company people