1813 The Americans operating the Pacific Fur Company trading post in Astoria, Oregon, turn the post over to the British North West Company, and for the next three decades Britons dominate the fur trade of the Pacific Northwest.
1823 Archibald McDonald, a Hudson's Bay Co. clerk at Ft. George [Ft. Astoria], married Princess Raven, daughter of Chief Comcomly of the Chinook.
1824 Ranald MacDonald born on Feb. 4 to Archibald and Princess Raven. Princess Raven died shortly after.
1825 Archibald married Jane Klyne.
1833 Ranald attended John Ball school at Ft. Vancouver, WA.
1835 Ranald attended Red River Academy, Winnipeg, Canada.
1839 Ranald apprenticed as a bank clerk at St. Thomas, Ontario.
1841 Ranald abandoned his apprenticeship to sign on a Mississippi riverboat as a deckhand.
1845 Ranald shipped out of Sag harbor, NY, aboard the whaler Plymouth bound for the Pacific.
1846 The Plymouth arrived at Lahaina, Maui.
1848 March: The Plymouth entered the Sea of Japan.
1848 July: Ranald left the Plymouth in a small boat and landed on Rishiri Island. He was arrested and sent from Rishiri to Nagasaki.
1848 October: Ranald was incarcerated in Nagasaki; he began teaching English to 14 scholars, including Einosuke Moriyama, who later became an interpreter for the Japanese when Com. Perry entered Japan in 1854.
1849 April: Ranald and 13 shipwrecked Americans from the ship Lagoda were rescued by the US Corvette Preble.
1849 Ranald left the Preble at Hong Kong for Australia and Europe.
1853 Ranald returned to Canada.
1861 Ranald engaged in road construction and mining.
1864 Ranald joined the Victoria Island Exploring Expedition.
1882 Ranald took a 153-acre preemption land claim at Ft. Colvile, WA.
1894 Ranald MacDonald died at Toroda, WA.
1923 Ranald's memoir, Ranald MacDonald, The Narrative of His Life, 1824-1894 was published posthumously by the Eastern Washington Historical Society.
1988 “Friends of MacDonald” was organized as a Clatsop County Historical Society Chartered Committee, its purpose to honor Ranald MacDonald, a native Astorian who, in 1848, risked his life on a mission of friendship to forbidden Japanese shores.
1990Ranald MacDonald, The Narrative of His Life, 1824-1894 was reprinted with new forward and afterward by the Oregon Historical Society with support from the Friends of MacDonald through funds generously donated by Epson Portland Inc.
