Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

History and location

In late 1845, the approximate period to which it is planned to restore Fort Vancouver, the post contained four large general warehouses or "stores" as they were commonly called. Two of these buildings were ranged along the west stockade wall and two along the western portion of the south wall.

These warehouses were as follows (building numbers from "Site Plan, Historic Fort Area, Historic Structures Report, Fort Vancouver National Historic Site," July 1965, see plate II; building names, first as given by Vavasour (plate VI), second as given by contemporary H.B.C. sources):

It will be noted that all of these structures were within the area of the original square stockade of 1829. Furthermore, the sites of these buildings were, in 1841, occupied by structures of similar size and general function as is shown by the Emmons ground plan (plate III) and the drawing by Henry Eld (plate IV). [5] The Emmons map shows the two warehouses along the west wall as a single structure, but the Eld view clearly shows that there were two separate buildings linked by a partial roof.

Because of the similarities in size and location, one might be tempted to assume that the warehouses of 1845 were also those of 1841. But the pictorial and documentary evidence proves otherwise, at least as far as most of the structures are concerned.

The Eld drawing of 1841 demonstrates that all four warehouses at that time had gable roofs. The Warre view of 1845, on the other hand, shows that by then three of the four, all that are visible in the picture, had hipped roofs (see plate IX). The Coode water color sketch and the Paul Kane pencil drawing, both dating from about a year later, show hipped roofs on all four structures with great clarity, as does the Yale University painting which probably represents the fort as it appeared in 1847-1848 (see plates XI, XIV, and XV). Also, the warehouses shown in the Eld drawing, except possibly for that on the site of Building no. 7, seem to be appreciably lower than those shown in the views of 1845 and later (see especially the George Gibbs drawings of 1851, plates XVII and XVIII). On the basis of the pictorial evidence, therefore, one must conclude that between 1841 and 1845 the four warehouses were either rebuilt or rather extensively altered.

The written record supports such a conclusion, at least in part. According to the later testimony of one old Company employee, the principal storehouses were replaced by better-built structures in 1843 and 1844, although another witness placed the construction of at least two of the new storehouses at a somewhat later date, about 1845 to 1846. [6] Still another witness, however, denied that there was any extensive rebuilding during 1845 and 1846. [7]

Be this as it may, the construction of one of these new stores, that now termed Building no. 5, is known by an entry in Clerk Thomas Lowe's diary to have begun in the spring of 1844. [8] Also Building no. 4 and Building no. 7 were shingled during the summer of 1845, which means that construction work on them had been completed, and perhaps long completed, prior to that time. [9] It is also most probable that Building no. 8 had been finished by the end of 1844, because on December 21 of that year Lowe noted the erection of a new flagpole "within a few feet of the East end of the Fur Store." [10] From Vavasour's plan it is known that this flagstaff was located directly east of the building presently designated as no. 8. In 1841 the structure on the site of Building no. 8 was the rather low, gable-roofed Indian trade store. By 1844, therefore, this old Indian shop had been replaced at least in function by the fur store, and it seems most reasonable to suppose that the replacement in the actual physical sense, which is known positively to have taken place by late 1845, had also occurred by the end of 1844.

It seems clear, then, that the sale shop of late 1845 was quite a new building, constructed sometime between 1841 and mid-1845. Probably when completed, perhaps about 1843, it was topped by a temporary plank roof. On May 24, 1845, Clerk Thomas Lowe noted in his journal: "A gang of men put to shingle the roof of the Sale Shop." On June 5 he recorded: "Finished shingling the Sale Shop." [11]

Nothing has been found in the documentary record concerning further structural alterations to the sale shop, but it is certain that some were made. The Coode water color dating from 1846-1847, for instance, shows the sale shop door to have been rather simple, unflanked by lights or windows and unsheltered (see plates XI and XII). By 1860, as is demonstrated by the photograph taken in May of that year, there were lights, similar to French doors, adjacent to each side of the door, and a covered entryway projected from the front of the building (see plate XXVIII).

During the late 1850's when the staff at Fort Vancouver was reduced to a mere skeleton crew, it became impossible to keep up with the needed repair work. "The buildings are becoming very old and some of them crazy," lamented Chief Trader James Allan Grahame on September 19, 1859. "The Warehouses in which the goods are kept, being newer than any of the other buildings," he continue "are in a much better state of preservation, but even they are beginning to show the effects of wind and weather, and are so ponderously put together that when any part gives way it is very expensive and laborious to patch it up." [12]

The sale shop was still standing when the United States Army took possession of Fort Vancouver on June 14, 1860. The next day a board of officers examined the buildings in the old post and found the Hudson's Bay Company's "store" to be entirely unsuitable for military purposes. [13]

Under the direction of Captain Rufus Ingalls, assistant quartermaster of the army's Fort Vancouver, soldiers were soon set to work tearing down the Company's buildings. The destruction was halted about the end of June as the result of a protest by the British government, but by that time the old sale shop had been partly demolished. Nothing further concerning the fate of this individual structure has been found in the record, but it undoubtedly gradually melted away from vandalism and decay as did most of the other structures from the fur-trade period. [14]

Evidently from the date of its establishment Fort Vancouver possessed a sale shop which was distinct from the "Indian Shop" where the natives traded furs, salmon, mats, and various types of game for guns, axes, ammunition, blankets, and a host of other manufactured items. During the early years, when there were few visitors who were not Company employees and when there were no settlers except a few "freemen," the sale shop was largely for the convenience of the firm's own gentlemen and servants. The officers and clerks frequently ordered clothing, books, special foodstuffs, and similar luxuries directly from England, but for the men in the lower ranks the Fort Vancouver sale shop was ordinarily the only available source for the shirts and trousers, tobacco, pipes, eating utensils, and other items they and their families needed to augment the rather spare rations dispensed by the Company.

The sale shop or trading store at Vancouver served not only the employees at the headquarters depot but also those at many outlying posts, since the goods kept on hand at those places were largely reserved for trading with the Indians. Generally the servants at the subsidiary establishments were allowed to buy only once a year, through written orders sent to the Fort Vancouver sale shop. Perhaps this same rule held also for the lower ranks at the headquarters itself, since the common laborers and trades men certainly had little time for shopping. [15] But clerks and commissioned officers seem to have been permitted to drop into the shop whenever convenient. Dr. W. F. Tolmie, for instance, visited the store soon after his arrival at the post in 1833 and "looked out" cloth for two calico jackets and a tartan vest. He also purchased a rifle. [16]

Pricing at Company sale shops was in accordance with tariffs or rates established by the Councils of Rupert's Land. These rates varied from time to time and were fairly complicated. [17]

Thus Clerk George B. Roberts was only partially correct when he remembered in later years that commissioned officers (chief traders and chief factors) bought goods at an advance of 33-1/3 per cent over invoice or London cost, while clerks and servants paid an advance of 50 per cent, and "outsiders" paid 100 per cent.1 [8] That the rate to "outsiders" was of long standing and was applied in the Columbia District is demonstrated by the words of Narcissa Whitman, who wrote at Vancouver on November 1, 1836, that the Company "only charge us a hundred per cent more than the prime cost, or England prices" for the articles needed to establish the American Board missions in the Oregon Country "All their goods," she added, "are of the best quality & will be durable." [19]

Transaction at the sale shop were conducted almost entirely upon a credit and debit arrangement. As far as employees were concerned, this was virtually the only method used, since wages and other types of remuneration were not paid in cash but were credited to the accounts of each individual. Items purchased at the sale shop were charged to these accounts.

Travelers and settlers transacted business at the store on much the same basis. Missionaries, government expeditions, and well-recommended travelers like William Drummond Stuart established accounts with various types of notes or bills of exchange. Free trappers brought in furs, deerskins, and other product of the chase for which they were given credits on the Company's books. Even as late as the mid-1840's the sale shop continued to take in furs, although by that time the amount of credit established in this manner was small. [20]

The first permanent agricultural settlers in the Oregon County were retired Company servants, largely French-Canadians. Since Dr. McLoughlin would not permit them to establish farms unless they had a credit of £50 on the Company's books, these settlers all had substantial balances against which they could charge their purchases at the sale shop. But when Americans began drifting into the Willamette Valley during the early 1830's they were, for the most part, destitute. McLoughlin was practically forced to grant them credit, though it was against Company policy to do so.

As soon as the Willamette farms came into production, however, there was a new form of "currency" -- wheat -- which could be applied against the debit balances and used to create credit accounts. Until 1840 the settlers had to bring their grain to Fort Vancouver, but in 1840 the Company began accepting it at Champoeg. For many years the Company purchased all the wheat that was offered, and the receipts given by the receiving clerk passed as currency. [21]

The sale shop account books for Fort Vancouver have disappeared, but those for the trading store at Fort Nisqually have survived. They illustrate vividly the types of transactions that were conducted in the sale shop, though undoubtedly provisions played a larger role in the trade at Nisqually than they did at Vancouver. James Flett was a settler, one of a group brought from Red River by the Company to strengthen the British position in Oregon. His account from November, 1841, to January, 1842, includes the following transactions:

These items were charged to Flett's account, and it is not clear how he made payment. Another settler, however, paid for a "Boar Chinese breed 35 days old" by turning in two "Chevreuil [mule deer] Skins" and by "27 days Labor Cradling and mowing." [23]

Until well into the 1840's there was very little coin circulating in the Oregon Country, and seemingly not much of that found its way to the Fort Vancouver sale shop. In fact, one old settler said that gold and silver money was not accepted by the Company during the "early days." [24] Be this as it may, the firm certainly had no hesitation in receiving gold dust and coin after the California gold rush made those articles common in Oregon. The transportation of gold between Fort Vancouver and Fort Victoria became almost routine after 1849.

All of these matters are not merely of academic interest as far as a restoration project at Fort Vancouver is concerned. It will be recognized that the system of business only briefly and partially outlined above must have required the keeping of voluminous accounts. These started with the "pencilled blotter" that the clerk carried around with him in the shop for recording sales and also receipts of items such as furs. The blotter entries were copied in ink into a day book, a fur receipt book, and one for receipts and expenditures of provisions. [25] From these records, evidently, the clerks in the office posted entries in the accounts of the individual employees, settlers, and other customers. All of this activity should be reflected in the furnishings of both the sale shop and the office.

Evidently during the earliest years the stock carried in the Fort Vancouver sale shop was somewhat limited. In 1829 William Connolly wrote from Stuart Lake in British Columbia to his friend James Hargrave in the East asking him to send a half dozen "neat cotton handkerchiefs" as "nothing of the kind can be got at Fort Vancouver." [26] When ordering fresh stock, Chief Factor McLoughlin frequently kept in mind the tastes and the incomes of the Company's servants. [27]

The effects of this policy were evident as late as 1836. Mrs. Whitman complained that she could buy no sheets at Fort Vancouver, nor was any bedding except blankets offered. No cloth was available for making shirts, she found, "except striped or calico." She could find only one piece of linen cloth in the shop. [28] Her conclusion was that the shop contained "every article for comfort & durability we need, but many articles for convenience & all Fancy articles are not here." [29]

As more and more settlers moved into Oregon, the Company responded to demand by increasing the variety of goods stocked. The inventories reproduced later in this chapter and in chapter XII show that by the mid-1840's there was no lack of white muslin handkerchiefs, "bed ticking linen," and even white cotton shirts with linen "collars & bosoms" in the Fort Vancouver sale shop.

But the wants of most customers continued to be simple. Undoubtedly the purchases made by John Minto, a pioneer of 1844, at the Fort Vancouver sale shop during January of the next year were quite typical. He came away with 20 pounds of flour, 6 pounds of salt pork ("the company made no bacon" he later recalled), a gallon bucket of block tin, with a lid, a pint cup, and 6 "highly colored coarse cotton handkerchiefs." [30]

In order to round out this picture of the trading store, it may be well to notice that during the boom period of the fur trade in the Oregon Country, largely the 1830's, the sale shop was not rated highly as an income producer. "The business of Fort Vancouver may be said to consist of three distinct branches," wrote James Douglas in 1838: "These are the Indian Trade, the Farm & Saw Mill, each of importance." There was no mention of the sale shop although for Outfit 1836 its profit was about £1665, about half that produced by the "important" Indian shop, while for Outfit 1837 the sale shop profit of £1613 was almost equal to the £1985 produced by the Indian shop. [31]

As the 1840's progressed, the sale shop assumed an ever-larger share of the business conducted at Fort Vancouver. The fur trade, on the lower Columbia at least, declined greatly during this same period. Figures for the years 1840 to 1850 reveal that, for the posts south of the forty-ninth parallel as a whole, business shrank about two thirds during that time, from about £13,000 to approximately £4,500.

As the fur returns grew less, the Company turned more and more to a general merchandising business, which continued to expand with the population. During the California gold rush, particularly, the Hudson's Bay wholesale and retail stores enjoyed a booming trade. One employee of the firm later estimated that for Outfit 1849/50 the profits "at and around" Fort Vancouver were about £22,000. Sir George Simpson was somewhat more conservative in 1852 when he stated that the profit at Fort Vancouver exceeded £17,000 in 1849. [32]

By 1852, however, the competition of American merchants began to make itself felt. [33] Three years later Chief Factor Grahame could only describe business at Fort Vancouver's "extremely dull." [34] The Indian wars of 1855 to 1858 brought large sales to the Oregon Volunteers and others engaged in the campaigns, but the prosperity did not last. [35] By 1859 Grahame was again complaining, "Business here is very dull indeed." [36] The course of the Fort Vancouver sale shop had nearly been run.

During 1845 and early 1846, the period in which we are particularly interested, the clerk in charge of the Fort Vancouver sale shop was James Allen Grahame. He was a young Scotsman from Edinburgh who had signed with the Company as an apprentice clerk in 1843. After wintering at Red River he had come overland to the Columbia Department with the express in the fall of 1844. He reached Fort Vancouver on October 31, 1844.

At that time David McLoughlin, clerk and son of Chief Factor John McLoughlin, presided over the sale shop, but since he was away on another assignment the freshman apprentice, Grahame, was put in his place. On November 29, 1844, Grahame began the responsible task of taking the sale shop inventory. By the twenty-third of the next month it had been "settled" that Grahame would remain in charge of the trading store, since David McLoughlin was being transferred to the post at Willamette Falls.

Although perhaps not immediately germane to the present study, it is interesting to note that Grahame's career, both before and after he served in the Vancouver sale shop, illustrates certain aspects of the Company's employment policies. First, he was the nephew of Chief Trader George Trail Allan, and thus family influence no doubt played a part in his winning an appointment. Second, he demonstrated that a man of ability could go far in the firm's service. As a chief trader in 1860 it fell to him to turn the keys of Fort Vancouver over to the army quartermaster when the Company decided to retire from the post. A year later he was promoted to chief factor, and in 1874 he was appointed chief commissioner, the Company's principal officer in North America, at a salary of £1500. [37]

Construction details

a. Dimensions and footings. By using the scale on the Vavasour ground plan of late 1845 (plate VII), it is seen that the dimensions of the sale shop as thereon represented were 40 feet by approximately 83 feet. The inventory of 1846-1847 gives the measurements of "Store No. 1" as 40 x 86 feet. That "Store No. 1" was the sale shop is demonstrated by the fact that the measurements given for the remaining three stores are greater and correspond almost exactly with the sizes of those structures as shown on the Vavasour plan. [38]

In 1952 National Park Service archeologists tested the site of the sale shop and found the footings at all four corners. If the excavation maps represent the findings correctly, the building was about 40 feet wide and 82 feet long. [39]

Not all of the side and end wall footings were found, but enough were located to demonstrate clearly that the footings were spaced, as usual in the Canadian type of construction at Vancouver, about ten feet apart from center to center. "All of the footings," reported Mr. Caywood, "followed the general pattern [for Fort Vancouver] in that they were of Douglas fir, some were partially burned, all were in a poor state of preservation, and those on the sides of the building were perpendicular to the log axis." [40]

b. General construction. Along with the other principal warehouses, the "Shop & Store" was generally described as being two stories high. [41] A closer observer, however, said that there was "one story complete, and one that may be called a story under the roof, and a place for storing light stuff in the roof part." [42] A glance at the Coode water color and the 1860 photograph (plates XI and XXVIII) confirms the latter description. There clearly was full head room to the top of the walls on the second floor, but the small windows, the low clearance, and the lack of a ceiling could easily lead one to describe this space as what "may be called a story." [43]

Although the exterior walls are sheathed by horizontally laid weatherboards in the 1860 photograph -- the only known picture which clearly shows construction details of the warehouses -- there can be no doubt that the sale shop was built in the usual Canadian, Red River frame, or post-in-the-sill style so characteristic of Company structures. The general shape, the spacing of the doors and windows and the hip roof all attest to the fact that beneath its clapboard sheathing the sale shop had walls of squared logs exactly like those of the adjoining "New Store." One visitor to Fort Vancouver later estimated that the upright posts of the warehouses were sixteen feet high. [44]

It is not a purpose of this historical section of the historic structures report to give a detailed description of the fabric of a typical Hudson's Bay Company warehouse, of which the "Shop & Store" was one. This is properly the function of the architectural section. It might be noted, however, that a splendid example of such warehouses survives at Fort St. James, British Columbia. Measured drawings of this structure were made by Historic Architect A. Lewis Koue on the basis of data gathered by him and the present writer during a visit to Fort St. James in 1967 (see plates LXXIX, LXXX, and LXXXI) Very detailed measurements of this same building have been made by the Technical Services Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Canada, and the resultant drawings undoubtedly would be available to the National Park Service upon completion. [45]

In this section of the report, therefore, only the specific construction details revealed by the documentary and pictorial evidence relating to the sale shop will be discussed. It might be noted, however, that the construction of all the Fort Vancouver warehouses impressed visitors as being "rough." [46] General P. H. Sheridan, describing conditions as they were in 1855, found the trading store to be nearly as rude as the other warehouses. [47]

Walls. One witness who saw the warehouses at about the time they were being demolished, testified that the walls of the stores were formed of "planks" three inches thick. [48] Undoubtedly, however, the horizontal filler timbers at Fort Vancouver were at least as thick as those at Fort Edmonton, which, as shall be seen by pictures cited in the next chapter, were about six to eight inches through.

This view is confirmed by the testimony of Thomas Lowe, who was a clerk at Fort Vancouver during most of the 1840's. Most of the buildings at Vancouver, he said, were built of timbers six inches thick, which were let into grooved upright posts forming very solid walls. Significantly he stated that these timbers were sawed. [49]

Roof. The Warre lithograph of 1845 shows, directly to the left of the bastion, a hipped-roof building which probably is the sale shop (plate IX); but the Coode water color of late 1846 or early 1847 provides the first unmistakable view of the sale shop as a hipped-roof structure (plate XI). But it has already been seen that shingles were applied to the roof during May and June, 1845, so it is virtually certain that the roof was hipped by that time.

It should be noted that with most Company structures, particularly large ones, the shingles were nailed to solid roof sheathing. On the only surviving old structure at Fort Langley, which apparently served as a trading store for a time, the roof sheathing is composed of whip-sawn planks seven inches wide and of undetermined thickness. [50] Hip boards and ridge boards were applied over the shingles.

Special note should also be taken of the fact that the roofs at Fort Vancouver did not flare out at the eaves as did those at Fort Langley, Fort Victoria, and several other posts. The technique for achieving this result is illustrated in Mr. Koue's drawings of the warehouse at Fort St. James (see plate LXXXI). See also the photograph which forms plate LXXXII of the present report.

Chimneys. No known picture of Fort Vancouver shows chimneys protruding from the roof of the sale shop or of any other warehouse at Fort Vancouver. As shall be documented later in this chapter it was general Company practice not to permit stoves or fireplaces in shops and "stores" due to the danger of fire. Hence there were no chimneys in these structures.

Exterior finish. The 1860 photograph (plate XXVIII) shows that the exterior of the sale shop, at least on the front of the structure, was covered with horizontally laid siding. No evidence as to when this weatherboarding was applied has been uncovered.

The sale shop, along with the other warehouses, was unpainted in 1851-1852. [51] It undoubtedly never was painted, except that in 1860, at least, the door and the window trim on the first floor were painted white or a very light color, as is shown by the photograph of that year. The door itself seems to have been a dark gray in 1846-1847, and the shutters were reddish brown. [52]

Doors. Both the Coode sketch and the 1860 photographs show only one door to the sale shop. It was located in the front wall, somewhat north of the center of that wall. As has already been noted, the Coode water color indicates that this door in 1846-1847 was rather simple in design, without the side lights shown in the 1860 photograph. The drawing is so indistinct that one cannot make out whether the door had a curved top, whether there was a light over it (as there seems to have been in 1860), or whether the object shown above the door is an ornament, a sign, or some type of rain shelter.

It is not known whether the front was entered through a single door or a double door. In either case, the construction probably was not much different from that observable in the surviving double door to the trade shop at Lower Fort Garry (see plate LXXXIII). The method of constructing such a door, of two thicknesses of planks, the exterior vertical and toe interior diagonal, is illustrated by the front door to the the warehouse at Fort St. James (see plate LXXXIV).

It will be noted that both the Coode sketch and the 1860 photograph show the sale shop linked to the next warehouse to the south by a covered and partially enclosed platform of some type. Although not visible in any known picture, it seems probable that there was a door in the south well of the sale shop to permit the transfer of goods from the "New Store."

If this reasoning is correct, the door most likely was double so as to facilitate the movement of the large bales and barrels received by ship from London. An example of this type of door can still be seen at the Lower Fort Garry trade store (see plate LXXXV).

One of the dangers which had to be guarded against at Fort Vancouver, though actual break-ins were extremely rare, was the stealing of goods from the shops. For this reason it is very probable that there were no doors in the rear and north walls of the structure.

According to the Coode water color there was a stop or stoop of some sort before the front door.

Windows. Both the Coode water color and the 1860 photograph demonstrate that there were seven windows on the front of the sale shop on the first floor level. Four of these were south of the front door, and three were north. These windows wore double-hung, with 12 panes each in the upper and lower halves.

The 1860 photograph shows four windows at the second story level on the front of the trade store. Spaced unsymmetrically, these openings were smaller than those on the first floor. They were covered by heavy wooden shutters. Something of the construction of these shutters can be learned from the 1860 photograph, but unfortunately the details are not clear in the picture. Probably the hinges were like those on the shutters of the surviving trading store at Fort Langley, British Columbia (see plates LXXXVI and LXXXVII), although see also the photographs of the warehouses at Fort Edmonton (plates LXXXVIII and LXXXIX).

The second-story windows probably had nine panes like those once in the warehouse at Fort St. James. [53] Or, they may have had twelve panes as was the case in at least one of the warehouses at York Factory (see plate XC). In either event, they were un doubtedly single-frame, and they may have been fixed as were their counterparts at Fort St. James.

It is also possible, however, that the second-floor windows resembled those in the surviving original building at Fort Langley. This structure, which was a residence, seems to have served at one period as a trade shop. The small windows on the upper story of this building were single, "side-hung, small paned of four panes and opened inwards. Similarly, the shutters to these windows were also single, composed of rough, ledged hoards of random widths and hung by a wrought-iron strap and gudgeon." [54]

There is a puzzling fact connected with the second floor windows, however. The Coode water color seems to show five evenly spaced windows across the front of the building on the second story. On analysis, the three southern windows match reasonably well the three southern windows shown in the 1860 photograph. But the two northern-most seem entirely different from the single northern window of 1860. Therefore, either Coode was in error, or the upper story windows were changed in location and number between 1846 and 1860. There seems to be no way of determining which possibility is the more likely. Since, as was discussed in Chapter IX on the big House, Coode evidently sometimes was not too accurate in recording window and door details, the present writer favors following the 1860 photograph in this respect.

As for the windows in the other walls of the sale shop, there is very little information available. Four known pictures provide fairly good views of the upper portion of the rear or west wall of the sale shop. These are an excellent and evidently very careful pencil drawing by George Gibbs in 1851 (plate XVII), the lithograph view of Fort Vancouver from the northwest, 1851, by Gustavus Sohon (plate XXI), the now-lost drawing of the same scene in 1855 by R. Covington (plate XXII), and a sketch made about 1860 by Lieutenant John W. Hopkins (plate XXVI). The first three agree in showing four windows at the second story level; the Hopkins sketch shows five. It can be assumed that these were of the same type as their counterparts on the front wall.

Another view of Fort Vancouver, said to date from 1854, shows the upper portion of the north wall of the sale shop (plate XX). It appears to show three or four windows at the second floor level. Unfortunately this picture is so inaccurate in many respects, particularly as to the number of windows in various structures, that it cannot be relied upon. If the practice followed at ether posts was an indication, two windows would appear to have been a generous allowance (see plate XXXII). [55]

The number of windows at the first story level of the rear and side walls is entirely unknown. Due to the fear of pilferage, they were probably few and strongly shuttered.

c. Interior finish and arrangement. There is practically no specific information available concerning the interiors of the sale shop and the other warehouses at Fort Vancouver. Thus reconstruction will have to be based largely upon what is known concerning similar structures at other Company posts.

The general, overall impression given by the warehouse interiors was one of gloom. The windows of the trade shop were described as "very small," but even so this building seemed to visitors to be "a little more cheerful" than its companions. [56] General Sheridan's remark that the sale shop was "nearly as rude" as the others seem to have applied to the interior as well as to the exterior.

Floors. The floors of the warehouses evidently were made of three-inch planks, rough and loosely laid. [57] Since the sale shop was somewhat more carefully finished, however, it is probable that the floor of the ground story, at least, was planed.

Architects planning the reconstruction of Fort langley in 1953 believed that the floor of a comparable building had been originally composed of a single thickness of "rough whip-sawn boards about 2" in thickness and about 10" in width. These boards had either a tongue or a groove along each edge for close fitting and were fixed to the beams by means of spikes." [58] The floor on the upper story of this same building consisted of 2" x 11-1/2" tongued and grooved boards. [59]

Walls. If the practice at surviving Company stores and warehouses was followed at Fort Vancouver, the interior walls were lined with planed boards or deals. At Fort St. James, for instance, the walls of the lower floor have vertical, tongue- and groove siding from floor to ceiling. The boards are not of uniform width. The siding is finished at the ceiling (actually the floor of the upper story) and around the rafters by a trim of thin, square stock, bevelled along its lower, outer edge. [60]

As will be seen by the photographs of Company trading shops referred to later in this chapter, the siding was sometimes applied horizontally, though vertical sheathing appears to have been the more common. Occasionally the edges of the boards were beaded (see plate XC). [61]

Ceilings. It seems to have been the almost universal practice of the Company to leave the rafters (which were also the joists of the second story) exposed in buildings such as sales shops and warehouses. This fact is demonstrated by surviving structures and, particularly as regards trading stores, by the photographs of Company shops referred to later in this chapter. Thus the floor planks of the second story, applied to the tops of the rafters, formed the ceiling of the ground floor rooms. This probably was the condition described by General Sherman in a somewhat ambiguous statement concerning a ceiling in the Fort Vancouver sale shop. [62]

With regard to the upper story, there is no such question. Describing the Vancouver trading store as it was in 1855, Sherman said there "was no covering above the upstairs room but the roof." [63] In other words, the ceiling was open. Since this condition is in conformity with what is known of usual Company practice, Sherman's statement may be accepted without hesitation.

Windows. At the Fort St. James warehouse the ground floor window openings are protected by a series of horizontal iron bars attached to the inside frames. These bars are round, 5/8" in diameter, and flattened at the ends to receive two bolts or screws. It is probable that similar bars were used at Fort Vancouver. [64]

Hardware. An examination of the Fort Vancouver Depot inventories makes it obvious that many items of building hardware, such as hinges, nails, locks, and padlocks, ware imported from England and carried in stock for construction purposes. [65] Archeological excavaions at Fort Vancouver have provided and will provide many examples of such standard articles.

Field visits to surviving Company buildings at Fort Nisqually, Fort Langley, Fort Kamloops (fragment of structure in local museum), Fort St. James, and Lower Fort Garry, however, indicate that some types of hardware, such as door handles, hasps, hooks, and latches, often were not of standard pattern but were individually designed by the local blacksmith. A splendid example of a warehouse latch at York Factory is illustrated in plate XCIII. Other typical hardware items are shown in the preliminary historic structures drawings for Fort Vancouver prepared under the direction of Mr. A. L. Koue and in several illustrations in the present report (see plates XCI and XCII). It will be noted that items from widely scattered posts show a remarkable similarity in design and feeling even though not identical.

Stairs. In warehouses and shops the universal Company practice, as far as can be determined from surviving old structures and from photographs of such buildings, seems to have been to construct stairs of heavy plank open treads, generally about 2-1/2 inches thick, and stringers of about 3-inch thickness. [66] There were no handrails. A splendid and typical example of a warehouse stair is preserved at York Factory (see plate XCIV).

There usually seem, however, to have been protective railings on the second floor around the stairway opening. The railing in one of the warehouses at York Factory may be taken as a typical example (see plate XCV). Another and evidently later railing at Fort St. James is also of interest. The top of the rail is a 1-1/2" x 3-1/2" plank, rounded at the upper edges. It is supported by a series of posts, 2" square, set diagonally into holes in a base board. There are corresponding holes in the rail. The 2-1/2" x 3-1/4" corner post is 34-1/2" high. [67]

Room arrangement. As far as is known, there is not a shred of information concerning the interior layout of the sale shop building. In 1866 the "Fort Colvile storehouse" -- which was distinguished from the "warehouse" — is said to have been divided by "two partition walls." The building was not much smaller than the Fort Vancouver trade shop. [68] When the sale shop at Fort Langley was moved to a different building in 1858, the new store and a baling room occupied between them the entire lower floor of the structure. [69]

The available comparative data is thus not of much help, particularly as the other Company shops about which anything is known, such as the one at Lower Fort Garry, came at the ends of the buildings in which they were located. The trading store proper at Fort Vancouver evidently was in the center of the sale shop building or near to it, since the door was almost in the middle of the east wall.

The "breadth" of the 1858 Fort Langley sale shop building already mentioned was about 40 feet, and it was intended to have the shop proper occupy this entire width. It will be remembered that the "breadth" of the Fort Vancouver sale shop building was also 40 feet, so it would not have been out of keeping with Company practice if the trading store at Vancouver extended from the front to the rear wall.

Sale shop fittings. A newcomer to the Company's field of operations in America was somewhat taken aback upon his first visit to the Fort Vancouver trading store. "It seems in a state of confusion," he wrote in his diary after he saw the array of blankets, guns, strouds, trinkets, and many other items offered for sale. [70] But twenty years later another new arrival pronounced the sale shop to be "very conveniently and commodiously fitted up." [71]

Only one specific description of the Fort Vancouver sale shop is known to the present writer, and it seems of modest utility. It is given for what it is worth.

Shortly after arriving in Oregon following a difficult overland journey in 1842, a Willamette Valley settler named F. X. Matthieu "went down" to Fort Vancouver to buy some much-needed clothes. He was able to establish credit with Dr. McLoughlin, who gave him an order for about $18 worth of goods. "Go to the office [sale shop?]," said the chief factor, "and get this filled."

"At the office [shop?]," said Matthieu many years later, "there was a little entrance, about eight feet square, and a little window into the store, where the goods were passed out. The clerk there was Doctor McLoughlin's son, whom I had seen in Montreal. He knew me, and at once opened the door inside and asked me in. 'Take all you need,' he said, 'and never mind the old man.'

"But I took only the amount of the order. But all the clothes were made for big fellows -- a great deal too big for me. So I took cloth, and got it made up the best I could." [72]

Lacking specific details concerning the Fort Vancouver sale shop, one must rely on descriptions of the trade stores at other Company posts. Robert Michael Ballantyne, once a clerk in Rupert's Land, later described in a novel the trading shop at Upper Fort Garry, evidently during the 1840's:

Its interior resembles that of the other stores in the country, being only a little larger. A counter encloses a space sufficiently wide to admit a dozen men, and serves to keep back those who are more eager than the rest. Inside this counter . . . stood our friend Peter Mactavish, who was the presiding genius of the scene.

"Shut the door now, and lock it," said Peter, in an authoritative tone, after eight or ten young voyageurs had crushed into the space in front of the counter. "I'll not supply you with so much as an ounce of tobacco if you let in another man."

Peter needed not to repeat the command. Three or four stalwart shoulders were applied to the door, which shut with a bang like a cannon-shot, and the key was turned.

"Come now, Antoine," began the trader, "we've lots to do, and not much time to do it in, so pray look sharp."

Antoine, however, was not to be urged on so easily. He had been meditating deeply all the morning on what he should purchase....

"Come now, Antoine," said Peter, throwing a green blanket at him; "I know you want that to begin with.... And that, too," he added, throwing him a blue cloth capote. "Anything else?"

"Oui, oui, monsieur. . . . Tabac, monsieur, tabac!"

"Oh, to be sure," cried Peter. "I might have guessed that that was uppermost in your mind. Well, how much will you have?" Peter began to unwind the fragrant weed off a coil of most appalling size and thickness, which looked like a snake of endless length. "Will that do?" and he flourished about four feet of the snake before the eyes of the voyageur.

Antoine accepted the quantity, and young Harry Somerville entered the articles against him in a book.

"Anything more, Antoine?" said the trader. "Ah, some beads and silks, eh? Oho, Antoine! -- By the way, Louis, have you seen Annette lately?"

Peter turned to another voyaguer when he put this question, and the voyageur gave a broad grin as he replied in the affirmative, while Antoine looked a little confused. He did not care much . . . for jesting. So, after getting one or two more articles -- not forgetting half-a-dozen clay pipes, and a few yards of gaudy calico . . . --he bundled up his goods, and made way for another comrade. [73]

More useful, perhaps, is a description of the trade store at Lower Fort Garry during the 1870's:

The sales-room is a square apartment, with no attempt at ornament, no plaster, the ceiling merely the joists and flooring of the second flat, thickly studded with nails and hooks, from which are suspended various articles of trade. Along the side walls are box shelves, nearly two feet deep. On the floor within the counter are piled bales of goods, bundles of prints, hardware, etc.; and this space within the counter comprises almost the entire room. A small area is railed off near the door sufficiently large to hold twenty standing customers. When this is filled, the remaining patrons must await their turn in the courtyard; and it is not at all an unusual sight to see from fifty to one hundred people standing quietly about outside until their time comes to be served. The best goods of all manufacturers alone are sold here. No shoddy or inferior goods are ever imported or sold by the company. Everything is purchased direct from producers and of a stipulated quality. The principal articles of trade are tea, sugar, calico, blankets, ammunition, fishing-gear, and a kind of cloth, very thick and resembling blanketing, called duffle. Coffee is rarely sold, and green tea is almost unknown, the black only being used. Raw spirits are sold to a large extent in the posts immediately contiguous to settlements. . . .

Amidst this stock of merchandise, composed in so great a part of staple articles, may be found, nevertheless, an assortment of dress goods and gewgaws over a century old -- old-time ruffs, stomachers, caps and what not; garments of antique cut and trim, articles of vertu, and apparel long since out of vogue are mixed up in a heterogeneous mass. . . . Yet doubtless, much would be found apropos to the reigning fashions; for here, too, maybe purchased the latest styles of wear upon Cheapside and Regent's Park -- kid gloves at fabulously low prices; made-up silks, Parisian bonnets, delicate foot gear, etc., with near neighbours of huge iron pots, copper cauldrons, and iron implements of grim aspect and indefinite weight, together with ships' cordage, oakum, pitch, and other marine necessities. Over this dispensary of needfuls and luxuries presides an accountant and two clerks, none of them gotten up in the elaborate costumes of the counter-waiters of civilization, but rather affecting buckskin coats, corduroy trousers, and the loudest styles of flannel shirts. [74]

From these descriptions one gathers that counters and shelves were an indispensable feature of the trade shop. That this condition was not unique to Fort Garry or a development of decades later than the 1840's is demonstrated by a few scraps of information from earlier times. During the construction of Fort Nisqually in 1833, for example, the following entry was made in the post journal on September 23: "Pierre Charles has been making a cou[nter for] the store. . . ." Three days later further information appeared: "Pierre making shelves in the store." [75]

But knowledge of the mere fact that there undoubtedly were counters and shelves in the Fort Vancouver sale shop does not provide much guidance for the reconstruction of those features. Once more we must look to the practices at other posts.

Some idea of the fittings of a Company sale shop may be derived from the instructions and specifications which Chief Factor James Douglas, at Victoria, sent to J. M. Yale, who was in charge of Fort Langley, on April 27, 1858:

I now send a supply of deals to complete the Fort Langley sale shop, and also a person named . . . Adams, who has contracted to do all the work, at his own expense according to the Contract and specifications herewith, for the sum of. . . .

The plan of the counter and interior arrangements of the shop, is sent herewith. I was not sure of the exact breadth of the building, but we assumed it to be about 40', and made the internal arrangements accordingly. Should the breadth be less than 40', the stalls must be contracted to suit the dimensions of the house, but the counter and passage must remain the same . . .; at the other end of the shop we shall have a baling room partitioned off for packing Servants orders and other purposes.

The shop and baling room will therefor occupy the whole of the lower part of the building. . . . Pray bear in mind that the shop is to be in the lower story and not in the garret of that building. [76]

The specifications mentioned by Douglas and enclosed with his letter were as follows:

I, Daniel Fowler Adams hereby agree and Contract in consideration of the sum of Four Hundred and forty dollars to be paid on the faithful completion of this Contract to perform all the Work mentioned in the Specifications in a Workmanlike manner that is to say.

Windows.	To be fitted with outside facings hinges etc complete. 12 in all.
Shutters.	To be made in halves and properly hung and planed tongued and grooved with an iron bar to secure the same when closed.
Door.	Four feet 4'0" wide to be made in two halves and properly hung -- to be double-formed of 7/8" or 1" stuff planed, tongued and grooved the inner lining or thickness to be put on in the opposite direction to the outside and fitted with locks etc complete.
Counter.	To be in all 90 lineal feet with two openings as shown on plan -- 3'4" high -- 2'6" wide distance between counters 5'0" rounded at the ends instead of square as shown on plan. Outsides all round to be panelled and properly framed, planed and dressed, -- and fitted with drawers 3'0" wide and 6" deep. Inside the counter to be a shelf rough but properly fitted -- the openings mentioned above to be formed with panel doors like the counter facing itself.
Stalls.	8 in number. Lower shelf to be of same height as Counters. 3 shelves 2'0" apart -- these Stalls 11'0" long and 4'0" wide [sic] planed, tongued and grooved and properly framed and joined into uprights -- which are to be 6 in number and planed.
Gun Racks Shelves	Over the Windows right up to the Ceiling 1'6" deep and 1'0" wide and 1'6" apart to extend to height of Stalls. At the end of the building to be 3 rows of shelves 2'6" deep and of same height as Stalls. The Whole of this Work to be faithfully performed in a substantial and Workmanlike manner and to the entire satisfaction of the Officer in Charge of the Fort. All materials to be found and delivered on the Spot. The entire work to be completed in 6 weeks from the time of arrival at Langley. Dated this 26th day of April 1858. [77]

In all of the descriptions quoted above a common feature will be observed. By one means or another -- a railing, a small entrance, or simply by a confined space between the counters -- provision was made for limiting the number of customers conducting business at one time.

Further information concerning the fittings of Hudson's Bay Company sale shops may be gained from historic photographs of such stores at posts scattered over the firm's field of operations. Unfortunately these pictures date from the early decades of the present century, by which time such modern innovations as glassed display cases, spring scales, and canned foods had considerably altered the appearances of the shops. Yet tradition died hard at the establishments of the Honorable Company, and enough of the old features, such as the exposed ceiling beams, the hanging kettles, and the shelves heavy with bolts of cloth, remained to give an idea of how the stores of the 1840's must have looked. A selection of such historic photographs, and modern photographs of old shops, is included among the illustrations to this report (see plates XCVI, XCVII, XCVIII, XCIX, C, CI, CII, and CIII).

Another source of information is to be found in surviving Canadian stores of the 1840's and '50's. A splendid example is to be found in the annex to Seven Oaks House, at the West Kildonan Museum, near Rupertsland Boulevard and Jones Street, West Kildonan, Manitoba. This annex was the original house on the property. It was built in 1835 and later served as a post office and store. Constructed in typical Canadian style, the shop section has interior vertical siding with no trim except a small base board. The counters and shelves must be much like those in Hudson's Bay Company shops of the period. [78]

Furnishings

The "furnishings" of a retail general store would, of course, consist primarily of the counters, shelves, and drawers, which have already been discussed, and of the actual goods displayed for sale or held in reserve for replenishing shelves as needed. But there undoubtedly were also at hand various items of "furniture" of a different type, articles such as scales, funnels, and ledgers used to facilitate the conduct of business.

Unfortunately, the inventories of "articles in use" at Fort Vancouver for 1844 and 1845 contain no separate listing for the sale shop. It can only be assumed that the lists of articles in use "in Stores" included the items employed in the "Shop and Store" building as well as in the other warehouses. Articles inventoried as being in the Stores which might have been found in the sale shop include the following:

Small iron Beams & Copper Scales
Tin funnels
Sets tin Measures
Sets, brass weights
Sets iron weights, of sizes. [79]

No inventory of articles in use at Fort Vancouver for 1846 has yet been found, but the inventory taken in the spring of 1848 makes amends for earlier deficiencies. It not only includes a separate listing for the sale shop, but it itemizes even such pieces of furniture as a desk and a stool. Undoubtedly the changes in shop equipment between 1845 and 1848 were few. The 1848 inventory of articles in use in the sale shop is as follows:

2 counter Beams, with copper Scales
1 small counter Beam, with copper Scales
1 small brass Scales & weights, for Specie
6 assorted tin Pans
3 assorted tin Kettles
1 set Weights, 1/4 lb. @ [to] 14 lbs.

1 desk
1 Stool
1 Table

1 ivory Folder
2 glass cone Inkstands
2 Rulers

1 old Rifle [80]

Also in evidence undoubtedly were several account books (which will be described in chapter XIX) together with the necessary pencils, quill pens, and other writing materials of the period.

There was one item of furniture, however, that was conspicuous by its absence. Due to the fear of fire, no stoves or other means of heating were permitted in the shop or in the stores at Company posts. [81]

By far the most colorful part of the "furnishings" consisted of the goods offered for sale. Enough has been said about the manner in which they were displayed to serve as a guide for refurnishing, but it now remains to examine the stock itself in some detail.

For this purpose it seems desirable to reproduce the inventory of the Fort Vancouver sale shop for one of the years during the period in which we are particularly interested. That for 1844 has been chosen simply because it was encountered first in the Company's archives. Additional scattered items from the inventories of 1845 and 1846 have been listed also in order to give a more extended view of the items carried in stock.

It should be remembered that the inventories show only the goods on hand in the spring of each year and not the entire range of products offered at the start of the Outfit. [82] But they will certainly provide adequate guidance for all practical refurnishing purposes.

More complete lists of goods which might have been found in the sale shop when stocks were full will be found in the depot inventories appended to chapter XII. Perhaps still more complete lists could be garnered from the annual indents or invoices (lists of goods ordered from London) of the Columbia Department, but there seems to be no way of knowing which of these items were to be offered at the Fort Vancouver sale shop.

The inventory for 1844 is as follows:

Extracts from "Inventory of Sundry Goods property of the Honble. Hudsons Bay Company remaining on hand in Fort Vancouver Sale Shop Spring 1845." 85

Extracts from "Inventory . . . Fort Vancouver Sale Shop," spring, 1846. [86]

It will be noted that the items in the inventories quoted above are all articles imported from England, the Hawaiian Islands, or other overseas region. Yet it is known, from inventories at other posts, from settlers' narratives, and from individual accounts such as that of James Flett quoted earlier in this chapter, that the Company's sale shops stocked and sold a considerable amount of farm produce as well as items manufactured at the posts or purchased from the Indians. Such was certainly the case at Fort Vancouver. [87]

The annual inventories of the stock in the Fort Vancouver sale shop, at least during most of the 1840's, do not seem to list the locally produced articles on hand, but in the Company's archives in London there has been preserved a separate account book containing the so-called "country produce" inventories in the Columbia District for Outfit 1840/41 [Outfit 1840]. The rather brief list relating to the Fort Vancouver sale shop is as follows:

Fort Vancouver Sale Shop Outfit 1840

Country Produce & Country made articles remaining on hand spring 1841

Recommendations

a. It is not known when the weatherboarding was applied to the exterior of the sale shop. Unless additional information comes to hand indicating that this finish was applied after 1845, it is suggested that the sale shop be reconstructed with the siding.

b. It is suggested that prior to preparing the working drawings for reconstruction of the sale shop the advice of the Technical Services Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Canada, be obtained, so that we can benefit from the drawings made and the experienced gained as the result of planned restoration at Fort St. James, British Columbia.

c. It is suggested that the front door treatment be as shown in the Coode water color, without the side lights and the projecting porch shown in the 1860 photograph. The lack of definition in the Coode sketch, however, still allows the possibility that there was a light over the door.

d. The door trim and the window trim on the first floor should be painted white. The door should be painted a dark reddish brown.

e. The number of windows should be as shown in the 1860 photograph.

Mere lists of items carried in stock at Company sale shops convey to present-day readers only a vague impression of the shape, feel, and general appearance of many of the articles. While a few items, such as needles, thimbles, and earthenware, have changed very little over the years, probably most have been considerably altered or are no longer being manufactured at all. A number were produced according to Hudson's Bay Company specifications to meet the needs of the Indian trade.

The determination of the exact descriptions of goods to be placed on display in a reconstructed and refurnished Fort Vancouver sale shop is a matter for curatorial experts and cannot be treated in this report. However, during the course of research certain scraps of information which might be useful in preparing such descriptions have been encountered, and they are given here for what they may be worth.

The best source of information, of course, is found in the actual surviving artifacts of the northern fur trade. Perhaps the best collections of such items are in the museum and the restored trading store at Lower Fort Garry National Historic Park, Manitoba Another fine assemblage of trade goods, though of a slightly later era than our 1845-1846 period, is in the refurnished sale shop at Fort Langley, near Vancouver, British Columbia. Other items are held in the study collections, and sometimes in the public exhibits, at a number of provincial museums in Canada, particularly those of British Columbia and Alberta.

The Hudson's Bay Company no longer maintains its former fine historical museum, but the Company's library and photographic collections will prove helpful. Guidance can be obtained from Mrs. Shirlee A. Smith, Librarian, Hudson's Bay Company, Hudson's Bay House, 79-93 Main Street, Winnipeg 1, Manitoba, Canada. The National Historic Sites Service, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, Ottawa, Canada, has also done considerable research concerning Hudson's Bay trade goods in connection with the development and interpretation of several former Company posts now under its jurisdiction.

Another source of information consists of the fairly considerable body of pictorial material available. A close study of a complete file of The Beaver, the periodical issued by the Hudson's Bay Company, should prove rewarding. Goods listed in the Fort Vancouver sale shop inventory are illustrated by the following plates in the present report, several of which are from The Beaver: CIV, CV, CVI, CVII, and CVIII).

The documentary sources, particularly the Hudson's Bay Company Archives, yet remain to be completely explored for information relating to trade goods. If the stray items incidentally encountered are any indication, a systematic search should be rewarding. Some of these items are as follows:

a. In a list of goods imported to the Columbia Department from England in the barque Vancouver in March, 1845, were the following patterns of tartan cloth:

b. After complaining to the London office about some shawls received in March, 1845, James Douglas, at Fort Vancouver, said that for Outfit 1847 he had ordered:

By the former, said Douglas, he meant ladies fine wool shawls, "to be half scarlet and half assorted grounds, 8/4 square, with fringes on the four sides."

The second lot, he continued should be after a pattern sent to England several years earlier and should be fine wool shawls, 8/4 square, with fringes on four sides. [2]

c. Hudson's Bay strouds was a "strong cloth" much favored by the Indians. One native, for instance, bought dark blue strouds for gowns and red for leggings. [3] A sample of this type of cloth, made to Company specifications, may be seen at Lower Fort Garry.

d. Russian sheeting was a "singularly light but strong flaxen material" often used for tarpaulens on boats. [4]

e. During March, 1847, the chief factors in charge of the Columbia Department complained about the gentlemen's trousers supplied by the firm of Favel & Bousfields: "They fit no one, being too wide and too long in the body, while the legs are disproportionately short and wide. There being no corpulent people in this country, a few inches of cloth can therefore be spared from the body, to add to the legs." [5]

1. Lowe, Private Journal, MS, 4; H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, 37

2. Lowe, Private Journal, MS, 4, 7.

3. Ibid., 17.

4. Ibid., 11.

5. In general function, that is storage and sales, the buildings of 1845 resembled those of 1841, but not in specific function. For instance, the fur store of 1845 was on the site of the 1841 Indian trade shop; and the receiving store of 1845 was on the site of the 1841 fur store.

6. Testimony of T. Lowe, in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 24; testimony of W. H. Gray, in ibid., [VIII], 164.

7. Ibid., [VIII], 214.

8. Lowe, Private Journal, MS, 4.

9. Ibid., 17.

10. Lowe, Private Journal, MS, 11.

11. Lowe, Private Journal, MS, 17.

12. H.B.C.A., B.223/6/42, MS, fols., 148-150d.

13. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [IX], 75-77.

14. For citations of sources relating to the destruction of the sale shop see Hussey, History of Fort Vancouver, 157-160.

15. On August 27, 1844, Clerk Thomas Lowe at Fort Vancouver noted in his diary: "Men getting their advances from the Sale Shop." These words may indicate that the once-a-year rule was still in force at the depot. Lowe, Private Journal, MS, 4.

16. William Fraser Tolmie, "Diary," in Washington Historical Quarterly, XXIII (July, 1932), 216. See also Tolmie, Journals, 173, 176-177.

17. In 1845 and early 1846 the basic pricing policy for sales at Company shops was that stated in the first standing rule of the Standing Rules and Regulations of 1843. This first standing rule reads as follows:

That the following be the Tariff for Sales throughout the Northern and Southern Departments.

Commissioned Gentlemen. The Depot Inventory Tariff for all Goods supplied them during the Summer and 25 p Cent thereon for all subsequent supplies, without distinction, whether taken at the Depot or Inland, Wines and Spirits excepted, to be at 100 p Cent on the Depot Inventory Tariff, but all Country and Colonial Produce at the Depot Inventory Tariff or actual cost throughout the year.

Clerks and Servants. 50 p Cent on the prime cost of all imported Goods and 12-1/2 p Cent on the Depot Cost of all Country made articles, supplied during the Summer at the Depot Wines and Spirits excepted, to be continued at fixed prices viz. Madeira Wine 20/- Port and all other Wines 16/- Shrub Gin and Brandy 16/- Spirits reduced to proof strength 12/- p Gallon: and all subsequent supplies without distinction of articles, whether taken at the Depot or Inland, to be charged 50 p Cent on the Depot Inventory Tariff, with the exception of Wines and Spirits, to be sold at 50 p Cent on the Depot Summer Sale Tariff to Servants, all country Produce to be sold throughout the year at 50 p Cent and Red River or Colonial Produce at 12-1/2 p Cent on Inventory prices.

Wesleyan Missionaries -- to be charged at the Tariff for Sales to Clerks and Servants. H.B.C.A., B.239/k/2, MS, 293.

As far as the Columbia District was concerned, this tariff was modified by the Council of the Northern Department of Rupert's Land at its meeting at Red River beginning June 7, 1845:

In order to simplify the Sale Tariffs in the Columbia District

It is Resolved 76th That they be determined as follows vizt Commissioned Gentlemen Clerks and Servants as p. 1st Standing Rule of 1843, the Summer Tariff at the Depot, commencing on the 1st March and ending on the 31st October each year. Sandwich Islanders on wages exceeding the Standard of the District 200 p.Cent or upwards on prime cost, Settlers and Missionaries of all denominations and strangers 100 p.Cent on prime cost for Cash or approved Bills, Dollars being valued at 4/6 each. Settlers in payment of Furs or wheat to receive goods at 50 p.Cent on prime cost. H.B.C.A., B.239/k/2, MS, 364-365; both quotations supplied through the kindness of Mrs. Joan Craig, Archivist, H.B.C.

18. Roberts, "The Round Hand of George B. Roberts," in OHQ, LXIII (June-September, 1962), 182.

19. Drury, First White Women, I, 112.

20. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, 51.

21. John A. Hussey, Champoeg: Place of Transition: A Disputed History (Portland, Oregon, 1967), 108-109; H. S. Lyman, "Reminiscences of F. X. Matthieu," in OHQ, I (March, 1900), 102.

22. Fort Nisqually, Settlers' Accounts, Nov. 1841-Sept. 1842, MS, I, 2-3, in Fort Nisqually Collection, in Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California. The above entries are extracts only and do not reproduce Flett's complete account.

23. Fort Nisqually, Settlers' Accounts, June 1842-Sept. 1843, MS, III, 21.

24. Lyman, "Reminiscences of F. X. Matthieu," in OHQ, I (March, 1900), 102.

25. Cowie, The Company of Adventurers, 225.

26. Glazebrook, The Hargrave Correspondence, 27-28.

27. H.B.S., IV, 219-220.

28. Drury, First White Women, I, 112-113.

29. Ibid., 103.

30. Minto, "Reminiscences," in OHQ, II (September, 1901), 246.

31. H.B.S., IV, 286.

32. Elliott, "British Values in Oregon," in OHQ, CCCII (March, 1931), 43.

33. H.B.C.A., B.223/b/39, MS, fols. 109d-118d.

34. J. A. Grahame to Dugald Mactavish, Vancouver, June 18, 1855, MS, in Fort Nisqually Collection.

35. H.B.C.A., B.223/b/41, MS, fols. 114d-116.

36. H.B.C.A., B.223/b/42, MS, fols. 144d-145d.

37. This sketch of Grahame's career is based principally upon Cowie, The Company of Adventurers, 466; Hussey, History of Fort Vancouver, 110; Lowe, Private Journal, MS, 8-11; and E. E. Rich, ed., The Letters of John McLoughlin from Fort Vancouver to the Governor and Committee, Third Series, 1844-46 (Publications of the Champlain Society, Hudson's Bay Company Series, vol. VII, Toronto, 1944) (hereafter cited as H.B.C., VII), 107 note.

38. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 118-119.

39. These estimates are derived by measuring between the outside edges of the footings of opposite walls, not between the footing centers as shown on Mr. Caywood's map. Caywood, Final Report, 10-11, and Map of Archeological Excavations, sheet 4. Ordinarily in Company structures the outside edges of the footings were flush with the outer surfaces of the sills and walls they supported.

40. Caywood, Final Report, 10.

41. Vavasour ground plan (see plate VI); and Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 91, 137, 176-177; [IX], 119; [XI], 219.

42. Testimony of W. H. Gray, in ibid., [VIII], 184.

43. The surviving old H.B.C. warehouse at Fort St. James, British Columbia, has full head room on its second story, and its windows are even closer to the top of the walls than were those at Fort Vancouver. Compare plate XXVIII and plate LXXVIII. The clearance on the second floor of the St. James warehouse is 6 feet 9 inches.

44. Testimony of W. H. Gray, 1866, in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [VII], 184. He resisted an attempt by a lawyer to get him to state that the posts were 22 feet high. It is interesting to note that the posts at the Fort St. James warehouse, a very comparable structure, are about 16 feet 4-1/2 inches high.

45. Inquiries should be addressed to Director, Technical Services Branch, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, 400 Laurier Avenue W., Ottawa 4, Ontario, Canada.

46. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [VIII], 164.

47. Ibid., [IX], 267.

48. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [IX], 119.

49. Ibid., [II], 37. It should be noted, however, that a visitor of 1841 said that the fort buildings then were "generally" of "hewn logs." Emmons, Journal, MS, III, entry for July 25, 1841.

50. J. Calder Peeps, A Preliminary Survey of the Physical Structure of Fort Langley, B. C., 19th November 1858 (typewritten, [Vancouver]: University of British Columbia, June 30, 1953), 18.

51. Testimony of T. Nelson, in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [IX], 88.

52. Based on examination of the water color copy of the Coode sketch in the H.B.C. Archives.

53. Thompson, Grand Portage National Monument, Great Hall, illustration 42.

54. Peeps, A Preliminary Survey of the Physical Structure of Fort Langley, MS, 21. At least some of the upstairs windows at the York Factory depot were also side-hung and opened inwards. See illustration in The Beaver, Outfit 288 (winter, 1957), 59.

55. However, the Coode water color indicates that at least one Fort Vancouver warehouse probably had four upstairs windows in an end wall.

56. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [VIII], 149; [IX], 267.

57. Testimony of L. Brooke, in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [VIII], 128; see also ibid., 216.

58. Peeps, A Preliminary Survey, MS, 18. The authority for this assumption is not apparent, however, since the source cited by Mr. Peeps contains no mention of such a floor.

59. Ibid., 18-19.

60. Field trip, A. L. Koue and J. A. Hussey, September 8, 1967.

61. In the trading store at Lower Fort Garry, the siding on three sides of the shop room is horizontal and unbeaded, while that on one end is vertical and beaded. Field Visit, A. L. Koue and J. A. Hussey, September 20, 1967.

62. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [IX], 267.

63. Ibid.

64. The design of these bars will be found in the drawings of the Fort St. James warehouse prepared under the direction of Mr. A. L. Koue (plate XCII).

65. For examples, see H.B.C.A., B. 223/d/155, MS, 103, 107, 108-109. ee extracts from inventories in this chapter and chapter XII.

66. There are examples of interior stairs with risers, as at Fort St. James, but these seem to have been of rather recent construction for the most part. The stair at Fort St. James does have a hand rail.

67. Data gathered on field visit, September 8, 1967.

68. Br. & Am., Joint Comm., Papers, [VIII], 276.

69. H.B.C.A., B.226/b/16, MS, fol. 46, as quoted by Peeps, A Preliminary Survey, MS, 50-51.

70. Tolmie, Journals, 173.

71. Deposition of E. A. Tuzo, in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 176-177.

72. Lyman, "Reminiscences of F. X. Matthieu," in OHQ, I (March, 1900), 102-103.

73. Robert Michael Ballantyne, The Young Fur-Traders: Snowflakes and Sunbeams (London: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, [n.d.]), 73-74.

74. Canada, Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, National Park Branch, Lower Fort Garry National Historic Park (Ottawa 1967), 6, quoting H. M. Robinson, The Great Fur Land or Sketches of Life in the Hudson's Bay Territory (1879).

75. Bagley, "Journal of Occurrences at Nisqually House," in Washington Historical Quarterly, VI (July, 1915), 196.

76. H.B.C.A., B.226/b/16, MS, fol. 46, as quoted in Peeps, A Preliminary Survey of the Physical Structure of Fort Langley, MS, 50-51.

77. H.B.C.A., B.113/2/1, MS, fol. 130, as quoted in Peeps, A Preliminary Survey, MS, 51-52. There seems to have been an error of some sort in copying the paragraph on the gun racks and shelves.

78. Field visit, A. L. Koue and J. A. Hussey, September 21, 1967. Drawings and photographs made by Mr. Koue at Seven Oaks House will be found in his folders of Fort Vancouver architectural data.

79. H.B.C.A., B. 223/d/l55, MS, 143.

80. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/181, MS, 171; copy supplied through the courtesy of Mrs. Joan Craig, Archivist, H.B.C.

81. Cowie, The Company of Adventurers, 213; McKenzie, "Forty Years in Service of the Hudson's Bay Company Inland," in The Beaver vol. I, no. 5 (February, 1921), 15. There seem to have been exceptions to this rule, particularly in later years, but no evidence of stoves in the shops or warehouses at Fort Vancouver has been found. For mention of a Carron stove in the trading store-office at Fort Ellis in 1876, see McKenzie, "Forty Years," in The Beaver, vol.1, no.5 (February, 1921), 15.

82. Actually, inventories seem to have been taken in November or December of the year preceding the date of the inventory.

83. This inventory is from H.B.C., Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1844 [Inventories], H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, 37-51. In reproducing this list, prices and total value figures have been omitted as not germane to the present study. No attempt has been made to correct errors in spelling, but certain explanatory material has been added in brackets, particularly when to do so on the first appearance of an abbreviation or unusual term would seem to be helpful.

84. Goods under this heading and the next three headings represent items acquired from various individuals or sources and not received from London. Chief Factor John McLoughlin had purchased goods from Captain Varney of the Thomas Perkins in 1841, and those here listed seem to have been still on hand. H.B.S., VI, 37.

85. This inventory is found in H.B.S., Account Book, Port Vancouver, 1845 [Inventories], H.B.C.A., B.223/d/160, MS, 1-13. Only a sampling of items not included in 1844 inventory is given here to show additional varieties of goods sold.

86. From H.B.S., Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1846 [Inventories], H.B.C.A., B.223/d/165, MS, 126-141.

87. Minto, "Reminiscences," in OHQ, II (September, 1901), 246.

88. H.B.C., Account Books, Fort Vancouver, 1840-41 [Country Produce Inventories], H.B.C.A., B.223/d/137, MS, 10. There are also other separate inventories of country made articles and country produce for the Columbia District during the 1840's in the Company's Archives. That made in the spring of 1846, for instance, is in B.223/d/161, MS, 119-[136].

1. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/161, MS, 26.

2. H.B.C.A., A.l1/70, MS, fols. 110-111.

3. Cowie, The Company of Adventurers, 242.

4. McTavish, Behind the Palisades, 234.

5. H.B.C.A., A.l1/70, MS, fol. 251d.