Fort Vancouver Historic Structures Report

1. Frederick Merk, ed., Fur Trade and Empire; George Simpson's Journal: Remarks Connected with the Fur Trade in the Course of a Voyage from York Factory to Fort George and back to York Factory, 1824-1825: together with Accompanying Documents, Harvard Historical Studies, vol. 31 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931), pp. 50, 78.

2. This account of the beginnings of grain culture at Fort Vancouver is based on sources cited in Hussey, History of Fort Vancouver, pp. 34, 37-38, 43-52.

3. H.B.S., 4:143.

4. Washington Historical Quarterly, 2:165-66.

5. H.B.S., 4:241.

6. Oregon Historical_Quarterly, 13:197.

7. H.B.S., 4:241.

8. Oregon Historical Quarterly, 13:198.

9. H.B.S., 4:276.

10. Ibid., p. 284.

11. Beaver, Reports and Letters, p. 79.

12. Ibid., p. 82.

13. James Douglas to George Simpson, Fort Vancouver, March 5, 1839, in H.B.C.A., D.5/5, MS, fol. 110.

14. James Douglas to Governor and Committee, Fort Vancouver, October 14, 1839, in H.B.S., 6:224.

15. H.B.S., 6:124—25.

16. Wilkes, Narrative, 4:333-34. In 1845, however, the Fort Vancouver farms produced about 5,000 bushels of oats, about 1,000 bushels more than the wheat crop of that year. H.B.S., 7:148.

17. H.B.C., Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1840-41 [Country Produce Inventories], H.B.C.A., B.223/d/137, MS, p. 13.

18. H.B.C., Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1844-1845, H.B.C.A., B.223/d/158, MS, pp. 102—3.

19. H.B.C., Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1845-1846 [Abstracts, Cost and Charges of Goods Received], H.B.C.A., B.223/d/161, MS, p. 121. In the fall of 1845 the Company had about 30,000 bushels of wheat in store at Vancouver, Willamette Falls, and Champoeg, with about 10,000 more at Cowlitz. The wheat crop at Vancouver that year was about 4,000 bushels. H.B.S., 7:148.

20. H.B.S., 7:33.

21. Margaret J. Bailey, "French Prairie Farm, 1839-1850," in Marion County History, vol. 5 (1959), p. 45.

22. James Douglas to W. F. Tolmie, Cowlitz Farm, June 23, 1845, in Fort Vancouver, Correspondence Outward, 1830-1849, Letters Signed by James Douglas, in Provincial Archives of British Columbia.

23. H.B.S., 7:139-40.

24. Ibid., pp. 124, 148.

25. Neil M. Howison, "Report of Lieutenant Neil M. Howison on Oregon, 1846," Oregon Historical Quarterly 14 (March, 1913): 40; H.B.C.A, B.223/b/34, MS, fols. 1-13.

26. Arthur L. Throckmorton, Oregon Argonauts: Merchant Adventurers on the Western Frontier (Portland: Oregon Historical Society, 1961), pp. 61-63, 85-106.

27. Oregon Spectator (Oregon City), March 4 [5], 1846.

28. Throckmorton, Oregon Argonauts, pp. 59-60, 63.

29. Testimony of Lloyd Brooke, August 8, 1866, in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers [8:]128.

30. Testimony of H. A. Tuzo, in ibid., [2:]1 76-77, 184.

31. H.B.C., Fort Vancouver Miscellaneous Items, 1845-1866, H.B.C.A., B.223/z/5, MS, fol. 75d.

32. Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers [9:]75-77.

33. During archeological excavation of the Wheat Store site in 1950 and 1952, remains of metal shingles were found "on top of burned wood," suggesting that fire may have been involved in the final destruction of this building. Caywood, Final Report, p. 12.

34. H.B.C.A., B.223/z/5, MS, fol. 265d.

35. D. H. Vinton to P. F. Smith, Fort Vancouver, October 1, 1849, in Br. & Am. Joint Comm., Papers, [9:]133.

36. Caywood, Final Report, p. 12, and Excavation Drawings, sheet 8.

37. Wilkes, Narrative, 4:332.

38. Caywood, Final Report, p. 12.

39. It should be noted here that the sizes and locations of the "Grainery" shown by Emmons and of the "Wheat Store" on Vavasour's map of 1845 do not coincide. In fact, the differences are considerable. Yet the same building undoubtedly was intended in each case Emmons, as a guest of the Company, evidently did not feel free to make measurements, and thus his plan is only an approximate diagram in several respects.

40. The Sohon drawing of 1854 (Plate XXI, vol. I) shows two windows in the upper story of the west wall, but this picture contains certain known inaccuracies.

41. A. Edlin, A Treatise on the Art of Bread-Making: Wherein the Mealing Trade, Assize Laws, and Every Circumstance Connected with the Art, Is Particularly Examined (London: Printed by J. Wright for Vernor and Hood, Poultry, 1805), p. 20.

42. Ibid., p. 20.

43. Ibid., p. 21. No attempt is made here to describe the cleaning process the grain kernels underwent upon their arrival at the Granary or the screening that accompanied the periodic turning of the grain.

44. Historic American Buildings Survey, Fort Nisqually Granary, Point Defiance Park, Tacoma, Washington, Measured Drawings, 2 sheets, in Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

45. Edlin, A Treatise on the Art of Bread-Making, pp. 20-21.

46. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, pp. 166-68. The 1845 inventory adds nothing of significance to the 1844 items listed here.

47. Edlin, A Treatise on the Art of Bread-Making, pp. 20-21.