Artifacts - Garth, 1947 Archeological Report

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A wide variety of artifacts was recovered which can be identified with fair certainty as belonging to the mission period. Those found on or very near the cellar floor of the first house probably in the house when it burned. Among these are harness buckles (found in close association as would occur when a section of harness had burned), a grub hoe, a compass for describing a circle, as well as thin window glass (purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company), and square nails. Occasional squash seeds, as yet unidentified as to species, were also found on this floor.

The greatest concentration of artifacts, however, was on the Indian occupation floor thirteen inches or more above. These must as least partially represent mission property which was plundered or broken and scattered about the premises by the Indians. Other items, no doubt, the Indians obtained from the Hudson's Bay Company in trade-particularly the gun flints, percussion caps, musket balls, and beads. The musket balls range from 50 caliber to 30 caliber in size. Approximately twenty pounds of nails were recovered from this floor, particularly from the hearths. The larger nails, those over 6 penny size, are for the most part handmade, while those smaller are almost exclusively the flat-headed machine-cut variety. The handmade nails differ in that their heads have been manufactured by three or four stiff blows with a hammer and thus exhibit an uneven and often semi-conical shape.

Bone buttons with four or five perforations (ofttimes irregularly spaced, indicating hand manufacture) were common, most being about five-eighths inches in diameter though a few were smaller. The single perforation type of horn button was relatively scarce. In the three examples found the metal loop by which the buttons were attached. is lacking. Several globular gold gilt buttons and brass disc buttons with a metal loop on the under side for attachment occurred. One of the latter along with one from the mansion house ruin had the inscriptions, "Orange Colour," or "Warranted rich orange," on their under side. These may be Hudson's Bay Company issue as a similar button inscribed "Warranted orange gilt" was found in the recent excavations at Fort Vancouver. (20) Ball-headed pins were found in quantity along with a few flat-headed pins similar to those of today. One of these had been bent into a fish-hook. Doubtless the Indians were responsible, as the numerous fish bones - mostly salmon - in the hearths show that fish was a common article on their menu. More specific items include a half-round file, a triangular bar of ammunition lead, a metal door latch, a clay pipe bowl with a raised leaf design, two large brass finger rings, a scratch awl (?) for marking lumber, two fine-toothed combs, two pencils (?) of lead.

One of the most interesting discoveries was a lead seal made of two thin discs of lead held together by a thin lead loop. On one side is the Hudson's Bay Company emblem with their motto, "Pro Pelle Cutum," -a skin for a skin- on the other side the number "23" was crudely scratched. The seal or tag may have, been used to label bundles of skins purchased by the company. Only a negligible number of artifacts, mostly nails and window glass fragments occurred in the adobe brick rubble layer above the Indian floor. Ten feet west of the ruin at a depth that must have been ground level during mission times was a hollow four-inch cannon-ball. It seems certain that this was one of those stored at the mission by John C. Fremont in 1843. (21) The howitzer which Fremont brought with him shot an exploding ball (called a bomb) of this type and caliber. Two similar cannonballs, said to be from the mission site, are known. One of these is in the Whitman College Museum.

 

Adobe brick from the First House and pick from the Mission House. Dimensions of brick are five by seven by ten inches.

Although only a small amount of digging was done in the mission house ruin, there was enough to indicate that flatheaded "cut" nails were used almost exclusively in its construction. (22) On three large iron objects recovered from the ruin was an interesting phenomenon which makes for almost certain identification as mission property. Embedded in the rust of two picks and a half-inch-thick stove fragment is the imprint of straw and in one instance a piece of charred straw. When the dirt roof of the building collapsed in the 1848 fire the layer of straw underneath must have become impressed on the hot surface of the objects in question where it charred, being prevented from complete combustion by the dirt above. When the iron rusted later the imprint of the straw was left in the rust. In another area a quantity of this charred straw, which appears to be rye grass, was found-intact. The only other important object found in this ruin is an eighteen-inch-long blade resembling a crude bayonet. Conceivably it could have been made in 1848 by one of the Oregon Volunteers. Quantities of less diagnostic articles such as school slates and slate pencils, window glass, chinaware sherds, and bottle glass fragments were found here as in both the first house and mansion house ruins.

Pottery (chinaware, etc.) of the mission period is predominantly English. This is not unexpected, for when the missionaries came west in 1836 they were forced to leave most of their household goods along the trail when they abandoned their wagons. Thus most of their chinaware was purchased from the Hudson's Bay Company. The wares which predominate are Copeland & Garret, late Spode, Staffordshire, Woods, and Adams.. There are also a few American wares, with Bennington (made in Vermont) the best represented. The patterns are mostly in light blues, and practically all sherds show some decoration. No complete dishes have been found, and very little crockery and glassware, other than bottle fragments have so far been recovered. The only notable find in the mansion house ruin was a badly corroded pistol butt. However, particularly plentiful here were fire-warped fragments of green liquor-bottle glass. (23) Without doubt there was a quantity of this glass in the house when it was burned, probably the second time (in 1855). Some of this glass, though unburned, was also found at the level of the timbers of the mill foundation. In the first house a fragment of the glass occurred one foot above the Indian occupation floor among brick fragments from the fallen walls, but there was none on this floor or on the cellar floor below. This may indicate that neither the Whitmans, who were teetotalers, nor the Indians, used the glass to any extent. It may well have been brought in 1852 by the stockmen, who were far from abstemious, or by the Oregon Volunteers. The glass occurs abundantly in the level above the mission level.

Two harrow teeth, a man's ring and a small horseshoe were found on or near the floor of the blacksmith shop, besides some miscellaneous iron fragments. Several heavy iron pins and an iron bar from the grist mill site may prove to be part of the mill machinery. There was also a copper spoon with the initials "J. B." and a picture of three feathers on the back, and other items of less importance or which we are as yet unable to identify.

 

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