The site of Fort Steilacoom was first occupied by settlers from the Red River basin in present Manitoba who had been invited by the Hudson’s Bay Company to settle on lands claimed on the Company in 1841. The Company was unable to fulfill the terms of the agreements and by 1844 all who came from Manitoba had left the area. \ Joseph Thomas Heath arrived in 1845 and leased land from the Company and chose a site formerly occupied by a Red River settler. Heath died in the winter of 1848-1849 and it was his farm that was chosen to be the site of Fort Steilacoom.
https://github.com/davepinch/pinchy.cc/blob/master/content/topics/places/rivers/red-river-of-the-north/red-river-of-the-north.md