Andrew McDermot

Andrew McDermot's store near Upper Fort Garry

Andrew McDermot, former Hudson's Bay Company clerk and independent fur trader, was born in Rosscommon,Ireland in the late 1700's. By 1815 he had engaged with the Hudson's Bay Company and found himself in Norway House as a clerk. In Norway House, he married Sara McNabb, mixed-blood daughter of another HBC employee.

He left the employ of the Hudson's Bay Company in the early 1830's and started an independent trading company with two partners, James Sinclair and American Norman Kittson. Mc Dermot opened his own store just north of the HBC store at (Upper) Fort Garry. They were often able to undercut the Hudson's Bay Company by shipping goods through the United States.

By the 1850's, Andrew McDermott was known as the "Richest Man in the Red River Settlement".