Fort Vancouver Historic Furnishings Report: Bakery

1. In 1845 Lieutenant M. Vavasour stated that the pickets were 15 feet high. Since he was a trained military engineer, his evidence is the best available. Joseph Schafer, ed., "Documents Relative to Warre and Vavasour's Military Reconnaissance in Oregon, 1845-6," in Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society (hereafter cited as OHQ), X (March, 1909), 46, 85, and plan ff. p. 100.

2. J. J. Hoffman and Lester A. Ross, Fort Vancouver Excavations — I (processed, Vancouver, Washington: National Park Service, May, 1972), 9, 12, 68, 75.

3. Except where otherwise indicated the sources upon which this description of the bakery is based will be found cited in John A. Hussey, Historic Structures Report, Historical Data, Fort Vancouver National Historic Site (processed, Denver: Denver Service Center, National Park Service, June, 1972), vol. I, pp. 51-57.

4. Thomas Lowe, Private Journal Kept at Fort Vancouver, Columbia River [1843-1850], MS, 5, 7, typescript in Provincial Archives of British Columbia, Victoria, B. C. As shall be brought out in a later section of this report, 5,000 bricks would not have sufficed to build two ovens of the size of those at Fort Vancouver.

5. Hudson's Bay Company, Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1845, in Hudson's Bay Company Archives, B.223/d/160, MS, p. 130. Hereafter the Hudson's Bay Company Archives are cited as H.B.C.A. All quotations from Hudson's Bay Company records are made with the kind permission of the Hudson's Bay Company through the courtesy of Mrs. Joan Craig, Archivist. No attempt has been made in citations to distinguish between the original documents in the Company's Archives in London and the microfilm copies in the Public Archives of Canada, since often both versions of a single document were consulted.

Evidently it was a common Company practice to use tile in bake ovens. In the requisition of goods for the Columbia District for Outfit 1853 (mid-1853 to mid-1854) the shipment of "250 crown fire proof Bricks" and "1/2 M Tiles p Ovens" was requested. It is not known that these were for Fort Vancouver, however. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/207, MS, fols. 213d, 218d.

6. Hussey, op. cit., 50.

7. Hoffman and Ross, op. cit., 68. These dimensions are somewhat larger than the 24.5' x 14.0' given in a preliminary report. Certainly the "excess" cannot have been great in view of this earlier estimate.

8. Hoffman and Ross, op. cit., 9, 75. A plan of the excavated foundations is to be found in ibid., 8; a photograph in figure 6 following p. 11.

9. Ibid., 58-65, 75.

10. During 1948 NPS archeologists uncovered what appears to have been a considerable amount of tile, but unfortunately all the locations at which the tile was found were not stated in the archeologist's reports. The bakery is not mentioned in this connection. The tile came in four sizes: 6-1/2" x 10-3/4" x 1/2"; 12" x 12" x 2-1/4"; 4-3/4" x 9" x 1-3/4"; and 7-1/2" x (?)" x 1-1/2". Louis R. Caywood, Excavations at Fort Vancouver, 1948 Season (mimeographed. [Vanccuver, Washington]: National Park Service, 1948]), 16; ibid., Final Report, Fort Vancouver Excavations (mimeographed, San Francisco: National Park Service, 1955), 58.

11. Samuel Parker, Journal of an Exploring Tour Beyond the Rock Mountains . . . in the Years 1835, '36, and '37 . . . 2nd ed., Ithaca, New York, 1840), 184.

12. Theressa Gay, Life and Letters of Mrs. Jason Lee, First Wife of Rev. Jason Lee of the Oregon Mission (Portland, Oregon, 1936), 152-153.

13. Herbert Beaver, Reports and Letters of Herbert Beaver, 1836-1838, Chaplain to the Hudson's Bay Company and Missionary to the Indians at Fort Vancouver, edited by Thomas E. Jessett Portland, Oregon, 1959), 78.

14. Ibid., 142.

15. John McLaughlin to Governor and Committee, Vancouver, November 18, 1843, in E. E. Rich, ed., The Letters of John McLoughlin from Fort Vancouver to the Governor and Committee, Second Series, 1839-44 (Publications of the Champlain Society, Hudson's Bay Series, VI, Toronto, 1943) (hereafter cited as H. B. S., VI), 158.

16. H. B. S., VI, 162.

17. Abstract of Servants in the Columbia Department, Out. 1845, in H.B.C., Fort Vancouver, Miscellaneous Items, H.B.C.A., B.223/z/4, Ms, p. 53.

18. Philip Goldring, The Doctor's Office, the Walls, and the North-West Bastion: Lower Fort Garry: The History of their Structures and Functions (typewritten, Ottawa, Canada: National Historic Sites Service, June 1, 1971), 26-27.

19. H.B.C., Fort Vancouver, Account Book, 1848-1849, H.B.C.A., B.223/d/183a, MS, fol. 10. The fact that this "bread" was packed in casks would seem to indicate that it was in actuality biscuit.

20. H.B.C.A., B.223/d/150, MS, pp. 55, 58.

21. George B. Roberts, "The Round Hand of George B. Roberts," in OHQ, LXIII (June-September, 1962), 197.

22. In addition to the sources cited in Hussey, op. cit., 50, this sketch of Pétrain is based on Joseph Pétrain, Deposition, in United States, Department of the Interior, General Land Office Records, Old Townsites Series, Docket I (165) [Vancouver], Box No. 31, MS, in Division of Interior Department Records, the National Archives; and Mikell De Lores Wormell Warner, trans., and Harriet Duncan Munnick, annotator, Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver, Volumes I and II, and Stellamaris Mission (St. Paul, Oregon: French Prairie Press, 1972), Vancouver II, p. 21.

23. Warner and Munnick, op. cit., Vancouver II, pp. 37, 39, 60, 70, 77, 89, A-81; H.B.C.A., B.239/1/12, MS, p. 63. In 1862 Pétrain stated that while employed at Fort Vancouver he lived outside the pickets, in or near the Village. Pétrain, Deposition, MS, 5.

24. Governor and Committee to John McLoughlin, London, December 21, 1842, in M. B. S., VI, 299.

25. Ibid., 304.

26. A. Etolin to John McLoughlin, New Archangel, September 1, 1843, in M. B. S., VI, 332.

27. H. B. S., VI, 124,127.

28. Archibald Barclay to John McLoughlin, London November 30, 1844, in H.B.C.A., B.223/c/1, MS, fol. 228d.

29. M. B. S., VI, 201.

30. H.B.C., Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1844 [Inventories], H.B.C.A., B.223/d/155, MS, p. 165.

31. H.B.C., Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1845 [Inventories], H.B.C.A., B.223/d/160, MS, p. 143.

32. H.B.C., Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1847, H.B.C.A., B.223/d/174, MS, 200.

33. H.B.C., Account Book, Fort Vancouver, 1848, H.B.C.A., B.223/d/181, MS, p. 162.

34. Warner and Munnick, op. cit., Vancouver II, pp.. 14, 27, 30, 119. In January, 1843, Father Blanchet recorded that Pétrain did not know how to sign his name, but in October of that year his name is signed as witness to a marriage. In January, 1844, it is again stated that Pétrain did not know how to sign, yet thereafter for several years he frequently signed as a witness, though sometimes he was still described as unable to sign.