John O'Brien

John O'Brien served with P. C. Bambrun as a Hudson's Bay Company trader at Pelly Banks in 1848-49. O'Brien took furs to Fort Simpson in the spring of 1849 and was supposed to return with supplies for Pelly Banks and Fort Selkirk. He turned back at Fort Liard because of sickness and when his Indigenous workers deserted him, so the fall supplies never arrived at the post. All the buildings at Pelly Banks burned in November 1849 except for a small warehouse. On 15 March 1850, a HBC trader named Dubois starved to death and was eaten by Mr. Foubister, who himself died on 25 March. The third trader, Pambrun, survived until a search party arrived from Fort Selkirk in April 1850. Mary Charlie told the story from a Kaska perspective.¹⁾