Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

1. There are references to the cooks and the cooking at Fort Vancouver during the 1829-1838 period, but evidently little was written about the structure itself. For examples of mentions of the cooking arrangements, see Dease, Memorandum Book, 1829, MS, entry for October 15, 1829; Beaver, Reports and Letters, 21, 79, 83.

2. Emmons, Journal, MS, III, entry for July 25, 1841.

3. A separate kitchen was not universal at Company posts by any means, but it seems to have been the most usual arrangement. The lack of space will not permit a more extended, documented, discussion of this interesting point. For quotations from a number of primary sources concerning the locations of the kitchens at assorted fur-trading posts, see Leechman, Notes and Comments on Hudson's Bay Company Trading Posts, MS, section on kitchen. For a diagram showing the location of the kitchen at Fort William, the model for many later posts, see Thompson, Grand Portage National Monument, Great Hall, illustration 17.

4. MacLeod, Letters of Letitia Hargrave, 62.

5. Cowie, The Company of Adventurers, 210.

6. For a direct statement to this effect by Narcissa Whitman in 1836 see Drury, First White Women, I, 95. It was a common practice, however, to employ women, particularly Indian women from nearby villages, to clean the living quarters and fort yard on occasions, and native women were hired by individual employees for such tasks as washing and sewing.

7. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 118-119. The size given in the inventory is 60 x 24 feet. The kitchen also is shown on the Covington map of 1846 (plate XIII).

8. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 202-203.

9. Ibid., [VIII], 137.

10. H.B.C.A., B.223/b/40, MS, fols. 42-43.

11. The original report is in Adjutant General's Office, Oregon Department, Document File, 212-S-1860, in War Records Division, the National Archives. More convenient is the printed version in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [IX], 75-77.

12. The two paragraphs immediately above are based upon a perusal of a long series of account books in the Company's London Archives. Most useful were the District Statements, York Factory, covering Outfits 1837 to 1852 (B.239/l/8 to B.239/l/23); and Abstract of Servants' Accounts . . . Columbia District, Outfit 1843 (B.223/g/8); and Abstract of [Servants'] Accounts . . . Oregon Department, covering Outfits 1853 to 1860 (B.223/g/9 to B.223/g/16).

13. H.B.C.A., B.223/b/5, MS, fols. 30-31d.

14. For a sampling of favorable comments on the Fort Vancouver cuisine see Drury, First White Women, I, 106; Farnham, Travels, 195; and Wilkes, Narrative, IV, 328-329.

15. Gay, Life and Letters of Mrs. Jason Lee, 152-153.

16. Roberts, "The Round Hand of George B. Roberts," in OHQ, LXIII (June-September, 1962), 183.

17. Beaver, Reports and Letters, 79.

18. MacLeod, The Letters of Letitia Hargrave, 72.

19. The sources for these general remarks on stewards are the same as those cited in note 12 in this chapter.

20. H.B.C.A., B.223/b/5, MS, fols. 30-31d. The surgeon was also ordered to tell the cook how to prepare the foods thus dispensed, that is whether they were to be "boiled or Roasted &c &c as may best suit them."

21. H.B.C.A., B.239/l/l0, MS, 55; B.239/l/11, MS, 58; B.239/l/13, MS, 58; B.239/l/14, MS, 60; B.239/l/15, MS, 59; B.223/g/8, MS, 8. See also Lowe, Private Journal, MS, 10.

22. Roberts, "The Round Hand of George B. Roberts," in OHQ, LXIII (June-September, 1962), 225.

23. H.B.C.A., B.223/g/8, MS, 33; B.223/g/15, MS, 3; B.239/l/16, MS, 61; B.239/l/17, MS, 45; B.239/l/18, MS, 44; B.239/l/19, MS, 43; B.239/l/20, MS, 46; B.239/l/22, MS, 44.

24. H.B.C.A., B.223/g/8, MS, 35; B.239/l/16, MS, 62. Thibeault evidently did not serve as mess steward for long. During Outfit 1846 he seems to have been back at his regular job as middleman.

25. Dease, Memorandum Book, 1829, MS, entry for October 15, 1829.

26. Caywood, Excavations at Fort Vancouver, 1948 Season, 7.

27. Caywood, Final Report, 7, 15.

28. J. J. Hoffman, memorandum to Chief, Archeological Inves tigations, Western Service Center, NPS, Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, August 2, 1971; September 1, 1971, MS: J. A. Hussey telephone conversation with Mr J. J. Hoffman, April 3, 1972. In addition to the plaster floor, the archeologists in 1971 also found evidence of hard-packed earth floor in places. J. A. Hussey, interview with J. J. Hoffman and L. Ross, Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, February 23, 1972.

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

30. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [X 74.

31. Wilkes, Narrative, IV, 332.

32. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [II], 176-177.

33. Testimony of T. R. Peale, in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [IX], 345.

34. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, 154; B.223/d/160, MS, 144.

35. John Charles to James Hargrave, Red River, December 2, 1843, in Glazebrook, The Hargrave Correspondence, 453-454.

36. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, 114, 152. This conclusion seems to be supported by the fact that the 1847 inventory listed "5 Stoves with Funnel," in the kitchen and pantry. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/174, MS; information through the courtesy of Mrs. Joan Craig (Archivist, H.B.C.) in letter to the writer, May 24, 1972.

37. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, 154.

38. MacLeod, The Letters of Letitia Hargrave, 85.

39. MacLeod, The Letters of Letitia Hargrave, 72.

40. For example, see H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, 153.

41. Beaver, Reports and Letters, 81-82.

42. Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1844 [Inventories], H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, 93, 143, 153-154.

43. Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1845 [Inventories], H.B.C.A., B.223/d/160, MS, 85, 129, 144.

44. Narcissa Whitman to "Brother Oren and Sister Nancy," Vancouver, October 24, 1836, in Drury, First White Women, I, 110.

45. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, 96.