FORT VANCOUVER The History of Fort Vancouver and its Physical Structure

¹Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 44, 58, 101-102; Finlayson, "A Biography of Roderick Finlayson," in The Washington Historian, II, (January, 1901), 72. The outbreak of the Cayuse Indian War, in 1847 and 1848, also was a factor in turning traffic over the new trail. The story of the pioneering of the new trail is summarized in E. P. Creech, "Brigade Trails of B. C.," in The Beaver, outfit 283 (March, 1953), 10-15.

²E. E. Rich, ed., London Correspondence, inward from Eden Colville, 1849-1852 (Publications of the Hudson's Bay Record Society, XIX, London, 1956), 137-138, 149-150, 168-170; Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 101.

³Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 127-128; [VIII], 106.

⁴Theodore Winthrop, The Canoe and the Saddle; or Klalam and Klickatat, edited by John H. Williams (Tacoma, 1913), 250-253.

⁵Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 127-128.

⁶It is generally stated that Work was appointed one of the managers of the Columbia Department in 1849. See H. B. S., IV, 356-358. However, according to information contained in a letter from the Hudson's Bay Company to J. A. Hussey, dated London, January 21, 1948, it would appear that Work may have been a member of the Board as early as Outfit 1846/47.

⁷H. B. S., VII, 309-314; Theodore Talbot, The Journals of Theodore Talbot, edited by Charles H. Carey (Portland, Oregon, 1931), 88; Snowden, History of Washington, III, 186; Hudson's Bay Company to J. A. Hussey, London, January 21, 1948, MS, in possession of the writer. The last-mentioned letter also states that it was not until 1849 that the Company's vessels proceeded directly from London to Victoria instead of to the Columbia "as previously." As has been seen, however, this practice actually began in 1845, although it may not have been a regular procedure until 1849.

⁸Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [XI], 44-45.

⁹Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 46, 215, 218, 227, 232. The date of Tolmie's appointment is not certain. According to the minutes of Council of the Northern Department of Rupert's Land, he was included in the list of chief factors in the Oregon Department from Outfit 1856/57 to 1858/59 inclusive. The manuscript Fort Vancouver Correspondence Books would seem to indicate that Mactavish was in exclusive charge of the Oregon Department from 1854 to 1858, but the fact that Tolmie perhaps maintained his chief residence at Fort Nisqually may account for the absence of his name from the Fort Vancouver Correspondence Books. Hudson's Bay Company to J. A. Hussey, London, January 21, 1948, MS.

¹⁰Elliott, "Peter Skene Ogden, Fur Trader," in Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, XI (September, 1910), 269-273; Talbot, Journals, 110.

¹¹For much of the information given above concerning the organization and personnel of the Columbia and Oregon departments the writer is indebted to the kindness of the Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company and of Mr. J. Chadwick Brooks, Secretary of the Company, who painstakingly answered questions concerning these topics from materials in the Company's archives.

¹²Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 178; [IX], 13; [XI], 72-73.

¹³Frank E. Ross, "The Retreat of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Pacific North-west," in Canadian Historical Review, XVIII (September, 1937), 268-273. As a matter of fact, the British government in 1854 also reached the conclusion that the Hudson's Bay Company did not have the right to trade with the Indians under the Oregon Treaty, but this opinion was not made known to the United States.

¹⁴T. C. Elliott, "British Values in Oregon, 1847," in Oregon Historical Quarterly, XXXII (March, 1931), 43.

¹⁵I. I. Stevens to W. L. Marcy, Washington, June 21, 1854, in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [XI], 220-221. See also report of George Gibbs, Olympia, March 4, 1854, in U. S., War Dept., Reports of Explorations and Surveys . . . for a Railroad from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean (12 vols., Washington, 1855-1860), I, 402-434.

¹⁶Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 109-111, 116, 381-383.

¹⁷Ross, "The Retreat of the Hudson's Bay Company in the Pacific North-west," in Canadian Historical Review, XVIII (September, 1937), 273-274.

¹⁸Ibid., 276-277.

¹⁹Schafer, "Documents Relative to Warre and Vavasour's Military Reconnaissance in Oregon, 1845-6," in Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society, X (March, 1909), 60; Clark, History of the Willamette Valley, 870; Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 52, 192.

²⁰Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 182-182, 191-192.

²¹Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 320-321.

²²31 Cong., 2 Sess., Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 1, part 2, p. 262.

²³P. F. Smith to W. G. Freeman, Fort Vancouver, October 7, 1849, in 31 Cong., 1 Sess., Senate, Ex. Doc. No. 47, pp. 75-108.

²⁴Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 323-324.

²⁵R. Ingalls to D. Mactavish, Fort Vancouver, September 23, 1857, in A. G. O., Fort Vancouver, Letters Sent Book, 1857-1865, MS, 7-17, in War Records Division, the National Archives.

²⁶B. L. E. Bonneville to E. D. Townsend, Columbia Barracks, February 23, 1853, MS, in General Land Office Records, Abandoned Military Reservation Series, Fort Vancouver, Box 100, in Division of Interior Department Records, the National Archives. See also Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 47.

²⁷Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 354-359; [XI], 368-373; Burnham, "Government Grants and Patents in Vancouver, Washington," in Oregon Historical Quarterly, XLVIII (June, 1947), 13; Lockley, History of the Columbia River Valley, 356.

²⁸The correspondence upon which the two paragraphs immediately above are based will be found printed in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 327-330.

²⁹P. S. Ogden and R. Ingalls, Agreement, Vancouver, May 28, 1850, MS, in Office of the Quartermaster General, Consolidated Correspondence File, Box No. 1176, in War Records Division, the National Archives.

³⁰B. Alvord to J. P. Usher, Fort Vancouver, August 28, 1863, MS, in General Land Office Records, Old Townsites Series, Docket 1 (165), Box No. 31. The fact that the land titles both within and without the reservation were not settled and the fact that the Army did not have funds for the purchase of sites for arsenals appear to have been even more potent reasons for the stopping of the work on the arsenal than the objections of the Hudson's Bay Company. See various letters in U. S., War Department, Records of U. S. Army Commands, Department of the Columbia, Letters Received, T2-W: A1-B167, 1859-1860, Box No. 3, MSS, in War Records Division, the National Archives.

³¹The correspondence upon which the above account of the difficulties between the Hudson's Bay Company and the military authorities is based may be found in the following: Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 189-191; 327-367; [IX], 78-85; A. G. O., Oregon Department, Document File 212-S-1860, MSS; A. G. O., Letters Sent Book, No. 32, MS, 398-399; Records of U. S. Army Commands, Department of the Columbia, Letters Received, Q-W84: A1-R52, 1860-1865, Box No. 5, MSS; ibid., C4-P34, 1860, Box No. 4, MSS. Most of these letters have been published in 36 Cong., 2 Sess., House, Ex. Doc. No. 98; and in 36 Cong., 2 Sess., House, Ex. Doc. No. 29.

³²Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 367.

³³R. Ingalls to J. A. Grahame, Fort Vancouver Depot, May 19, 1860, MS, in Records of U. S. Army Commands, Department of the Columbia, Letters Received, C4-P34, 1860, Box No. 4.

³⁴R. Ingalls to A. Pleasonton, Fort Vancouver Depot, June 14, 1860, MS, in Records of U. S. Army Commands, Department of the Columbia, Letters Received, C4-P34, 1860, Box No. 4.

³⁵Much of the material in the two paragraphs immediately above is based upon H. B. C. Archives, B. 223/b/42, fols. 173, 175-175d, as kindly quoted in Hudson's Bay Company to J. A. Hussey, London, January 21, 1948, MS.

³⁶The correspondence upon which the five paragraphs immediately above are based is printed in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 280-281; [XI], 405-407, 409-418.

³⁷A. G. O., Letters Sent Book, No. 32, MS, 424-425.

³⁸G. Wright to S. Cooper, Fort Vancouver, July 8, 1860, MS, in A. G. O., Oregon Department, Document File 212-S-1860.

³⁹B. Alvord to J. P. Usher, Fort Vancouver, August 28, 1863, MS, in General Land Office Records, Old Townsites Series, Docket 2 (265), Box No. 31.

⁴⁰H. B. C. Archives, B.226/b/19, p. 132, as quoted in Hudson's Bay Company to J. A. Hussey, London, January 21, 1948, MS.

⁴¹The destruction of the buildings at Fort Vancouver is described in detail on pp. 157-160 of this report.

⁴²As will be seen by reference to the bibliography appended to this report, several articles have been printed concerning the settlement of the Company's claims, but these have largely been superseded by the definitive discussion of the subject contained on pages 949-1065 in volume VIII of United States, Department of State, Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States of America, edited by Hunter Miller (8 vols., Washington, 1931-1948). An account of the proceedings under this treaty is to be found in John Bassett Moore, History and Digest of the International Arbitrations to which the United States Has Been a Party, together with Appendices Containing the Treaties Relating to Such Arbitrations, and Historical and Legal Notes (6 vols., Washington, 1898), I, 237-270.