 He also had close ties with American trader Norman Kittson and used Kittson to import goods from the United States to his store at Fort Garry.By the 1850s, Andrew McDermot was known as the "Richest Man in the Red River Settlement".He had a successful store, several water and grist mills dotting the Red and Assiniboine Rivers throughout the Red River Settlement and owned a large tract of land in what is now the nucleus of Winnipeg.