Fort Vancouver Cultural Landscape Report

Site
(continued)

Fort Plain (continued)

North of Upper Mill Road

This area experienced significant changes between 1847 and 1860. The U.S. Army expanded its operations into the vicinity south of the garrison as it grew. The few Hudson's Bay Company structures left after the 1844 fire were gradually demolished, most presumably by the military. In addition, to the northwest of the stockade, the Catholic mission began its expansion, incorporating at least two Company dwellings within fenced grounds.

The topography of the rising ground north of Upper Mill Road has already been discussed. Generally, from the road it rose gradually to a second plateau, on which the army, during this period, located its garrison. The ground also rose to the east, creating the bluff on which the original Hudson's Bay Company fort was located. Illustrations, photographs, and documents executed during this period indicate some changes in vegetation and such features as fencing, particularly as the army garrison expanded.

Figure 11. Artillery units on Hudson's Bay Company orchard site, looking northwest across Upper Mill Road, c. 1860. In distant background is Officers' Row; mid-right is one of the Hudson's Bay Company schoolhouses, with the 1858 Army hospital behind. Courtesy National Archives..

Covington's 1846 map of the vicinity indicates undergrowth and forest still covered much of Old Fort Hill. To the north, east and west, the forest ringed the upper plateau, encompassing the army's cemetery, established in the 1850s, at the northwest edge of the upper plateau, and encircling on the north and west the Company's cemetery, which was further south. From there, it swept down in a southwesterly direction towards the west end of Fort Plain, coming close to the northwest edge of the Catholic mission, and continuing on towards the river in what appears to be the same narrow strip of dense undergrowth separating Fort Plain and Lower Plain, as described by visitors to the site in the 1830s and '40s. On Covington's Map, Upper Mill Road appears to cut through the forest towards Fort Plain as it did in earlier periods. The Company's cultivated fields surrounding and west of the barns which burned in the 1844 fire on the lower edges of the bluff, were, in 1846, still under cultivation.

It is evident that timber had been removed from the vicinity of the stockade over the years, including the area north of Upper Mill Road. A sketch of Fort Vancouver around 1846-47 looking towards the southwest shows tree stumps in the foreground, northeast of the schoolhouses. Dugald Mactavish, in later testimony to the British and American Joint Commission noted that when the stockade was "renewed" between the fall of 1842 and the spring of 1845, the "timber for the pickets was not by any means found close at hand and if I remember right many of the logs, which were very choice, were cut at a great distance from the fort, and had then to be dragged out by oxen to the river-side and rafted down the river, and hauled by oxen up to the fort." [965]

According to Dugald Mactavish, the open lands throughout Fort Plain and Lower Plain were sown with grasses by the company, although he did not state when, he said it was "before my time," indicating at least before 1853, when he took over the administration of the post. While in other statements, he makes reference to this in regards to lands along the Columbia, the implication of one of his references is that all open areas not under cultivation were sown with the grasses. [966] Although not shown on any maps of the period, it is apparent that the Company had at least one fenced, cultivated field, of about eight acres, on the site where the army established its garrison in 1849; the Company agreed to allow the military to occupy the land, sown in wheat, under the condition that the army pay for the cost of the lost crop. [967] It is also clear that the rising ground north of the stockade was not entirely clear of vegetation; photos as late as the 1860 Boundary Commission show clusters of firs and deciduous trees dotting the landscape north of the fort, around which army buildings have been erected.

An 1850 map by Captain James Stuart shows the pattern of vegetation around the area north of Upper Mill Road to be similar to that illustrated by Covington four years earlier. An 1851 sketch by George Gibbs of the area provides a bit more detail. While much of the land occupied by the military appears to be open ground, there are clusters of vegetation. One notable cluster of obviously older trees is located northeast of the Company's schoolhouses, in the vicinity of the guard house and the 1849 Company kitchen and bakery; the vegetation appears to continue to the north, towards the edge of the parade grounds. Some older fir trees and vegetation appear north of the 1849 officers' barracks, and smaller trees and vegetation appear to the west of it, near the east edge of the Company's cemetery. Further up the slope, there are older trees indicated east of the army's 1850 west barracks, and additional trees north of the first sutler's store. [968] The 1854 map by Captain J.R. McConnell shows the same clusters of firs and undergrowth in the vicinity of the bakehouse and guard house, and a cluster of apparently deciduous trees and undergrowth south of the 1849 officers barracks. This map also shows undergrowth and trees ringing the south and southwest edges of the Company's cemetery, and some trees and vegetation within the cemetery proper. It also seems to indicate undergrowth, firs and deciduous trees in the area west of the cemetery, ringing the Catholic mission grounds on the north and west.

The Covington and Hodges sketches of 1855 show the area between the company's remaining schoolhouse, the army's 1849 structures, and the Catholic mission to be mostly covered with vegetation, with the exception of a cleared area along Upper Mill Road east of the church, where several Company structures once stood. Neither sketch shows the tall fir trees noted in earlier illustrations in the vicinity of the 1849 officers' barracks and bakehouse, although photographs from the 1 860s and '80s show that they existed. The Covington and Hodges sketches also show that the Company's cemetery was mostly cleared of trees, although some vegetation within the cemetery's enclosure exists, and that it was ringed with vegetation. They both also show undergrowth and low trees extending north of the 1849 officers' barracks to the edge of the parade ground, and firs and dense vegetation west of the road which ran north on the east edge of the Catholic mission. Both also show the existence of single and small clusters of large fir trees on the north edge of the parade grounds, still visible in 1860. The 1860 British Boundary Commission photograph of the area still shows small trees in the vicinity of the old bakehouse, and several large firs in that area--as illustrated in the early illustrations of the site--as well as low-growing vegetation south of the army barracks, and a small cluster of trees at the southwest corner of the parade grounds, which in later maps is referred to as an oak grove.

Hudson's Bay Company Structures

In 1846-47, there were at least thirteen Company structures north of Upper Mill Road on Fort Plain. They ran from near the site of the old fort on Old Fort Hill to west of the Catholic church. All but two of these--the building known as Dundas' Castle on Old Fort Hill, and a Company barn located in the general vicinity of the barns burned in the 1844 fire--are indicated on the 1846 Covington stockade area map. In addition, the Company cemetery was located on the rising ground northeast of the Church, and there were at least two large fields northeast of the stockade. Three of the structures are known to have been built after the fire--the Catholic church, and the two schoolhouses mentioned in the previous section. Two more--a dwelling occupied by "Ryan," and a small stable northeast of it--may have been built after the fire; neither are shown on the 1844 stockade area map or the Vavasour map of 1845, but both are indicated on the 1846 Covington stockade area map.

"Ryan's"

A small gable-roofed structure along the road, which may have been the Ryan dwelling, can be seen west of the schoolhouses in an 1851 sketch by George Gibbs. By 1854, however, a William Ryan was claiming land south and east of the stockade on Fort Plain, and his claim is shown on the 1859 Covington map. The small building on the 1851 Gibbs sketch is not in evidence in the 1854-55 series of sketches and engravings showing the same vicinity, nor is it on the Bonneville map of 1854.

Stable

It is not clear if the stable was built in association with the Ryan dwelling, or not, but from October of 1849 through July of 1850, the U.S. Army rented it, a "private stable near the barracks," as "stables for public animals." [969] It appears as if this building, too, can be seen on the 1851 Gibbs sketch, south of the log barracks, just north of an east-west line of fence. A gable-roofed building southeast of the 1849 officers' barracks, which may be the stables, shows on the 1854 Mansfield map, the 1854 McConnell map, and the Bonneville map; it is also in evidence on the 1855 sketches of the site, a small gable-roofed building nestled in the vegetation southwest of the officers barracks.

Gristmill

As noted earlier, the "Old Mill" noted on the 1846 Covington stockade area map was the 1828-29 horse and oxen powered gristmill. Apparently milling ceased at this site in 1838-9 when the new water-powered mill was built on the river. It does not appear in the 1851 Gibbs drawing of the site, and was presumably in ruins or demolished by that time.

Cemetery

As discussed in the previous section, the Company's cemetery was located north of St. James Mission, and had been in use for a number of years--at least as early as 1839, and probably to the time the stockade was moved to Fort Plain. It can be seen east of the first sutler's store in the 1851 Gibbs drawing, and in the 1854 illustrations and Bonneville and Mansfield maps. Some of these show that the east, southwest and west edge of the grounds were enclosed with a fence, and that some of the graves were still, as Tolmie had noted in 1833, enclosed with palisades, or vertical log posts. However, by 1855, a map of the Vancouver vicinity by an unknown artist shows only the army's cemetery in a different location, west and north of the army barracks, and north of the sutler's store, and the 1859 Harney map also only shows this site. The 1859 Covington map shows both cemeteries, although the northeast quadrant of the Company's graveyard is indicated as falling within the bounds of the garrison.

In the Catholic church records of the period, around 1854, some distinction is made between the burials of soldiers and of others; soldiers seem to have been buried in the "grave yard at Fort Vancouver," while others are buried in the graveyard "at this place," or in "the cemetery of this parish." Since there is no known record of a graveyard on the grounds of the mission during this period, it seems probable that the burials of civilians, at least, took place, until 1855, in the Hudson's Bay Company cemetery. Dugald Mactavish, manager of the Company post in the 1850s, reported the Company "got on very well" with the army until about 1856, when a "misunderstanding arose from the garrison fence being run through the burying grounds of the company." Dr. Tuzo, at the post between 1853 and 58, said "The fences, and some of the head boards in the co's graveyard, were removed by some of the soldiers of the garrison at various times, and portions were used as fuel at their quarters. The graveyard became gradually almost obliterated. The authorities ran a fence through it, enclosing a portion within the parade ground, and excluded the rest." [970] By 1866 a military inspector reported: "...a little southwest of the parade ground I observed several others [graves] that Col Hodges told me were those of the H.B.C. men. They were unenclosed and offended the eye by their publicity. I recommended these graves be removed to the post cemetery and that the [army] cemetery grounds be at once put in complete order... " [971]

Dundas' Folly

"Dundas' Folly," or "Dundas' Castle" was referred to in British and American Joint Commission testimony by Company representatives at Fort Vancouver between 1851 and 1858, and thus was apparently still extant. Dr. Henry Tuzo testified that Dundas' Castle was later occupied by settlers. [972] The Mosquito Grotto's fate--if a separate structure--is unknown.

Barn

The barn, which is probably listed in the 1846-47 inventory of Company structures, and, as noted previously, can be seen on the 1845 Vavasour map, east of the schoolhouses, and on the 1846 Covington farm map, can also be seen in as a gable-roofed structure in approximately the same location as that shown by Vavasour, east of the school buildings in two 1851 Gibbs sketches. Although the 1854 McConnell map shows a cultivated field east of the schoolhouses, which another map identifies as an oat field, it does not show any structure nearby. It is difficult to see if it exists in the 1855 Hodges sketch, but it does not show on the Covington sketch of the same year. It is possible it is the small building shown on the 1855 Topographic Sketch of Fort Vancouver and Environs, just north of the Company gardens fence, but the distance appears too close to the schoolhouses. Dugald Mactavish, in listing buildings still extant in 1858, when he left Fort Vancouver, did not mention a barn, although he mentioned one stable, almost certainly the one torn down by the army in 1860 in the river front area. [973]

In 1852 Chief Factor John Ballenden noted he had promised the army surgeon Dr. Moses, "the use for one year of a piece of ground between the Barracks and the Barn for a hospital garden," presumably the field later noted as "Company Gardens," so it appears the barn stood until at least that year. [974] Dr. Henry Tuzo testified that on the north side of the fort was "a large barn, afterwards burnt." [975] The only building shown on the Covington farm map which could be considered north of the fort, which is not already identified, was this structure. Since Tuzo was at the post between 1853 and 1858, it appears the barn burned sometime within that time frame. It is not indicated on the 1859 Harney map.

Schoolhouses

As noted previously, the Hudson's Bay Company built two new schoolhouses north of the stockade, just east of the road leading to the back plains, between 1844 and 1846. They are indicated on both 1844 maps, on Vavasour's 1845 map, and on Covington's 1846 maps. In the 1846-47 inventory they are listed as 2 new schoolhouses, 50 x 40 feet each. [976] Both two-story hip-roofed structures can be seen on the 1851 sketch by George Gibbs, the easternmost one has a shed-roofed extension to the south, with eaves that appear to touch the ground, possibly a later addition by the army. It does not appear that the schools were ever put into operation. In the summer of 1848 Rev. George Atkinson reported the buildings, unfinished, were being used as sheep-shearing sheds. [977]

In May, Companies L and M of the First Artillery of the U.S. Army arrived at Fort Vancouver and camped "on a rising ground directly in rear of Fort Vancouver," according to officer Theodore Talbot. [978] In June Rufus Ingalls, assigned as quartermaster, arrived from California, and Talbot reported to his mother that "It is in contemplation to finish two new wooden buildings in the immediate vicinity of the Fort and to erect others for the use of our Company (L)." [979] Talbot was apparently referring to the two Company schoolhouses, which Ingalls subsequently rented, on June 15, and altered for use by the military. One was a ten room building (the west schoolhouse), used as a barracks for Company L; the other apparently had two rooms, and was used as a supply storehouse for the quartermaster and commissary. [980] The westernmost building was floored; the east one was unfloored. [981] By October 5, army quartermaster Major D.H. Vinton, reported to the Commander of the Pacific Division, General P.F. Smith, "Two unfinished buildings, belonging to the Hudson's Bay Co. have been placed in a condition for occupancy--one as barracks, and the other as a storehouse for the Quarter Masters' & Subsistence stores which he now holds at a moderate rent per month." [982]

Rental of the easternmost of the two buildings apparently ceased in 1852, although the westerly one continued to be rented to the army through 1860. By 1854, the east schoolhouse has disappeared from the maps. By 1854 the west schoolhouse was being used as a combination hospital and storeroom for ordnance, as reported by army inspector Mansfield in August of 1854. [983] By this time, rent on the building was forty-five dollars per month. In 1856 Ingalls told Major Osborne Cross, Chief Quartermaster of the Pacific, headquartered at Benicia, that the building was "not fit for any use if another and proper one could be put up." [984] Between the summer of 1857 and 1858, a new quartermaster's storehouse was erected on the river, and a commissary storehouse followed soon after. The west schoolhouse was still standing and in use in 1859, however; it is present on the 1859 Harney map, and Ingalls was still recording rental payments for it. In 1855, the area south and east of the schoolhouses--in 1844 the Company's cultivated tare field--has been converted to army "Company gardens." The sketches of 1855 show the grounds around the remaining schoolhouse to be enclosed by a fence, and the area to the east--indicated as gardens on the map--also at least partially enclosed by fencing. On the 1859 Harney map, an "officers garden" is located north of the company gardens, in the same location as a fenced, cultivated field shown on the 1845 Vavasour map.

Ice House

Both Dr. Henry Tuzo and John M. Work later testified that the Company had an ice house north of the fort. Work, who was at the post between 1853 and 1860 said when he left that an ice house was "...situated north of the fort." [985] Tuzo, at the fort between 1853 and 1858 said there was an icehouse on the north, outside the stockade. [986] The 1846-47 inventory does not list an ice house as part of the Company property; it is possible it was erected after the inventory. Its location is unknown at present. It may not have been on the north side of Upper Mill Road; possibly a former root house had been converted to an ice house, perhaps one of those two buildings in the northwest corner of the field east of the garden. It has been noted, however, that graphic evidence of the existence of these two structures into the 1850s is lacking. Another slight possibility is the long shed-roofed addition to the east schoolhouse, with eaves extending almost to the ground, which shows on the 1851 Gibbs sketch, but may have been an army addition. Also visible in both the Gibbs and the 1854-55 illustrations is a small gable-roofed building west and south of the east schoolhouse. This structure is not shown on the 1846 Covington stockade area map. It does not appear to be a U.S. Army structure, from the buildings known to have been erected by the military at that time. It is possible this building served as an ice house, built after 1846-47.

Figure 12. View of Kanaka Village and north of Upper Mill Road, looking northeast, by George Gibbs, c. 1851. St. James church to left; Columbia Barracks Officers' Quarters below trees; hip-roofed Hudson's Bay Company school houses slightly right of center.

U.S. Army Guard House

In later testimony on behalf of the United States before the British and American Joint Commission, it was claimed that the army rented a one room log house from the Company as a guard house in 1849. A list of rentals prepared by the Company between 1849 and 1860 do not show any structures rented as guard houses, although one--Ryan's--was in the general vicinity of the first structures erected by the army. It was not in or near the site, however, of the structure listed as a guard house on an 1850-51 army map, and a structure in the correct location as shown on the map can be seen on sketches and maps throughout the 1850s. Also, a later army list of buildings indicates the "old guardhouse" was built in 1849. It is possible that one of the employee dwellings listed in the rentals as rented by the U.S. Army in 1849 served briefly as a guard house for prisoners--the army did experience desertions and required some kind of place of detention in 1849--until one was built by the army, by the fall of 1849; the uses to which the rentals were put was not always recorded. It may have been Ryan's, or possibly one of the dwellings in Kanaka Village. At present, however, it does not appear the structure shown in the sketches and on maps in the 1850s was a Hudson's Bay Company building. [987]

Employee Dwellings

West of the church, completed by May of 1846, were three employee dwellings, which have been mentioned earlier. In 1846 they were occupied, from east to west, by either Charles or Francois Proulx, Alexandre Lattie--or perhaps just his wife by that time--and Rocque Ducheney. The three structures can be seen in the 1851 Gibbs sketch. In 1855, the Lattie and Ducheney houses, still enclosed by what appear to be picket fences, can be seen in the sketch of Fort Vancouver by Richard Covington; the Proulx house can also be seen, slightly set back from the road and nestled in a grove of trees, however, it does not appear on the Bonneville map of 1854, nor does it or the Lattie house appear on the 1854 Mansfield map. Both the Mansfield map and the Bonneville map indicate fenced enclosures which incorporate the structures--or their sites--within the Catholic church grounds. As noted below, the army rented the Lattie house from the Company between 1850 and at least 1852, to quarter officers.

St. James Mission

Between 1847 and 1860, the Catholic Church at Fort Vancouver expanded the space it occupied, erecting enclosures and additional structures to the north and west. As noted earlier, the Catholic church claimed 640 acres surrounding the church in 1853 under the donation land claim act. It is clear, however, that the Hudson's Bay Company considered the church its property.

When P.W. Crawford arrived at the fort in 1847, he noted that the "Catholic Church outside This Collection [the stockade]" stood southwest of the fort,...1/8 mile Priests French Canadians." [988] Honore-Timothee Lempfrit, who arrived in October of 1849 noted the priest was Mr. Delivaut (Delevaud, V.), "a young Savoyard priest to whom we were introduced..." [989] Delevaud served as a priest at Fort Vancouver from the fall of 1847 through the fall of 1850, when he apparently was replaced by J.B.A. Brouillet.

The army apparently rented space from the Company for its officers in the Church rectory: an army officer was noted as occupying it in 1849, and Forbes Barclay later testified that a Lieutenant Denman lived in it during the same period--a Second Lieutenant George Dement arrived with Hathaway in the spring of 1849, and could have been the Denman recalled by Barclay. [990] Probably in April, but definitely by July of 1850 the Lattie house was rented to the army, and occupied by Brevet Major C.F. Ruff of the Mounted Riflemen, who arrived at Fort Vancouver in April or June of 1850, and was placed in command of the post in August of that year. By March of 1851 the house was was occupied by a Lieutenant Hawkins; and the army continued to rent it at least through 1852--after that date, the rental records are not clear regarding this structure. [991]

Figure 12. Looking north-northwest towards St. James Mission grounds, with St. James Church to right, taken from site of Hudson's Bay Company orchard after demolition of Kanaka Village buildings. Vancouver village buildings in background. North American Boundary Commission Survey, 1860-61, original at Royal Engineers Library, Kent.

In the fall of 1850, the Rev. A.M.A. Blanchet, Bishop of Nisqually, apparently established his residence at Fort Vancouver, at least part time. [992] Quartermaster Ingalls later said, however, that no priests were in permanent residence after the arrival of the army until invited to Fort Vancouver by Colonel Bonneville, who arrived in the fall of 1852. By July of 1851, the grounds were enclosed with a fence, as shown in a sketch by George Gibbs, which shows the north end of the church, and one of Company's employee's houses, which appears to be the Proulx house. The Lattie and Ducheney houses are seen behind a fenced enclosure to the west of the church. William Crate later testified that the "Catholic priest occupied the house built by the Company for him and the church which the company erected," although he did not specify a date--it would have been after Crate's return in 1849. [993]

Father J.B.A. Brouillet, assigned as the missionary priest to the Church at Fort Vancouver, began his duties near the end of December 1850. According to Ingalls, and to Major General Thomas Anderson, who later commanded Vancouver Barracks (1886-1898), Brouillet was invited to take up permanent residency at the church by B.L.E. Bonneville, who commanded the military post from the fall of 1852 to May of 1855. Bonneville was French by birth; in March of 1854 he was confirmed by Monsigneur Blanchet at Fort Vancouver. [994] According to Anderson, Brouillet and Bonneville "set out an orchard on the site of the Kanaka village, worked together, smoked, sipped wine and talked of 'la belle-France' without a suspicion that their actions would be put in evidence in a great law suit many years after their death. " [995]

The reference to Bonneville and Brouillet setting out an orchard is interesting, and probably true. While Bonneville was in command of the military reservation, the size of the church's enclosures increased to around five acres. In 1852 Chief Factor John Ballenden leased several Company fields to Colonel Bonneville, apparently for use by the army. One of these fields was described as being "on the upper side of the road below the house formerly occupied by Mr. Noble." [996] John Noble, according to the Company's rental records, rented the Petrain house from November of 1851 to May of 1852, and the Petrain House was the former Lattie house, west of the church, which had been rented to Major Ruff for a few months in 1850. [997] Noble was a military commissary clerk at the army post who married Catherine McIntosh, daughter of John McIntosh, a part-Indian Hudson's Bay Company clerk serving in New Caledonia, who died in 1844 or 1845, and his wife, Charlotte Robertson. Married in November of 1851, the newlyweds apparently moved into the house at this time. [998] The field referred to by Ballenden must have been the field west of the Catholic church and the Company dwellings which, by 1855 is enclosed, with a young orchard planted in it. Rufus Ingalls said in 1859 that it was "not until after, under the auspices of a Catholic Post Commander, the priests were allowed many privileges and were permitted to make improvements within certain defined limits which they now wish to extend...What he [Colonel Bonneville] granted was by way of favors, and of course his successor had the right to withdraw them when the public service required it..." [999]

By May of 1853 the church had filed its claim to 640 acres around the site of the church. In later testimony Dugald Mactavish said the church "with adjoining dwelling house had passed into the hands of R.C. mission who made some claim to the place." [1000] By the time of the survey to reduce the military reservation to 640 acres, conducted under Bonneville's command, the church was located at the south end of a large enclosure, subdivided into several areas on the Bonneville 1854 map. About half of the entire enclosure appears to have been planted in some sort of crop at the north end. Two small structures are located west of the church, probably two of the original three Company dwellings, and there appears to be one--possibly two additional structures north of the church. An 1854 lithograph, prepared for the 1853-54 U.S. Pacific railway survey expedition, and a sketch by Lieutenant Hodges, which appears to have been based on the engraving, dated 1855, shows the subdivided areas were fences; the westernmost one appears to contain the mission's orchard. Henry Tuzo, a Company employee at Fort Vancouver between 1853 and '58, noted that the church had "...several dwellings and other buildings attached to it." [1001] By 1859 there were two more structures within the enclosure, although their functions have not at this time been ascertained.

U.S. Army Garrison

Camp Vancouver was established on the ground north of the Hudson's Bay Company stockade in May of 1849, with the tent encampment of Companies L and M, First Artillery, under the command of Brevet Major J.S. Hathaway. The Massachusetts, which carried the troops, arrived at Fort Vancouver on May 13, but it wasn't until May 21 that Officer Theodore Talbot recorded in his journal:

Moved to the high ground directly in rear of the Fort. It commenced to rain as we began to strike our tents & rain & hail fell in heavy showers all day. We had only one wagon so that half the baggage was transported by hand. Our new location is quite high and commanding. [1002]

After army quartermaster Rufus Ingalls arrived from California on May 25, quarters and buildings for the army were rented from the Hudson's Bay Company. Until the fall, the only structures that appear to have been rented were the two unfinished Company schoolhouses northeast of the stockade, a house in Kanaka Village--referred to as "Captain Johnstone's House," and two Company employee dwellings south of the church, at the northwest end of the "river road." Over the summer the army "placed into a condition for occupancy" the schoolhouses, "one as barracks, and the other as a storehouse for the Quarter Masters' & Subsistence stores." [1003] The northernmost Company dwelling was, in 1846, the dwelling of either Jean Pollet Charlesbois or Paul Charlesbois; probably Jean Pollet Charlesbois, since later the house is referred to as "Paulette's." The dwelling just south of it had been occupied by "Little Proulx," either Charles or Francois. These structures were rented for use by the army surgeon, Dr. Holden. [1004]

It wasn't until November, after the arrival of the Rifle Regiment, under the command of Colonel Loring, in late September and early October, that additional structures were rented from the Company. In addition to those noted above, they included stables used by the Modeste crew near the river; three more houses in Kanaka Village; half of the first floor of the fur store within the stockade; Ryan's house, north of the stockade, and the "private stable" northeast of "Ryan's" house. In March of 1850 another structure north of Upper Mill Road, the Lattie house, west of the church, was rented for Major Ruff.

During the summer of 1849, as Lieutenant James B. Fry of the First Artillery said, "Our command built, of logs quarters enough with a building belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company which they let us use, to protect ourselves, during the following winter." [1005] Ingalls report of expenditures between July and December indicate he paid for materials, such as 11,600 shingles and lumber; for labor--including mechanics and laborers and ten Indians with an overseer; for transportation--hiring yokes of oxen and hauling lumber. [1006]

That summer, four buildings were erected: a ninety by twenty-five foot log building with eleven rooms for the officers of the First Artillery; a twenty-four by twelve foot building divided into two rooms--and servant's room; two, forty by twenty foot buildings with two rooms each, containing the company mess room, a kitchen, a hospital kitchen and a bakehouse. These were arrayed in a cluster just north of the schoolhouses, in and around a small grove of fir trees with some deciduous vegetation below. The officers' quarters were farthest west, beyond the grove of trees. Below and to the east were the bakery and kitchen buildings; perpendicular to these ran the company kitchen, and a small building noted as a sutler's shop. [1007] To the north of the company kitchen and shop was the guardhouse. Although the firs do not appear on the 1855 sketches by Covington and Hodges, they were still extant in 1860, as can be seen in two photographs taken at that time.

Theodore Talbot was in charge of supervising the construction of the brick ovens for the new army bakehouse, located just south of a grove of fir trees north of the schoolhouses. The buildings containing the bakehouse, kitchens and company mess rooms can be seen in the Gibbs 1851 sketch, the 1855 Covington and Hodges drawings, and the Boundary Commission photographs. The structures are low, one story gable-roofed log buildings. In 1860 a new frame bakehouse was built, or the old log one rebuilt in approximately the same site; it was replaced in 1874 by a new bakehouse, erected south of the site of the artillery officers log quarters. The company kitchen, which apparently faced west, and was east of the bakehouse and artillery officers quarters, can be seen on the 1851 Gibbs sketch behind the schoolhouses. It may be present on the 1855 Hodges sketch as a blur north and east of the remaining schoolhouse. It does appear on the 1854 Mansfield map, and may be the structure on the west edge of the officers gardens in the 1859 map.

In October Major D.H. Vinton reported "a temporary building of logs has been constructed for officers quarters and other necessary appendages, of the same materials have been put up in a manner to contribute, in an degree to the convenience of the troops, who have been the main instruments employed in the work performed...I am assured that a sufficient number of workmen could not have been obtained at any price to accomplish the results in the same time... [1008] Theodore Talbot wrote his mother in November: "We have been in Winter Quarters about a month. The Company Officers all live in a long one story log house built by ourselves. It is partitioned off, each officer having a sitting and bed room to himself, with a general mess room. Our accommodations are rude enough, but still they afford us a good protection against the winter rains which have already commenced to pour down upon us." [1009] The officers' barracks are shown on an 1850-51 plat prepared by U.S. Army quartermaster's agent G.C. Bomford. The building appears as the long, gable roofed structure set on the rising ground in approximately the middle of the 1851 sketch by George Gibbs. It is seen again in the 1855 sketches by Covington and Hodges, and in the 1860 photograph taken by British Boundary Commission. It is also visible in a circa 1860 photograph of the artillery unit on the site of Kanaka Village.

No record has surfaced, at present, of the construction of the first guard house. It is, however, mentioned as a rental from the Hudson's Bay Company in testimony given in 1865 on behalf of the United States. In any case, the structure stood northernmost of the collection of early log buildings erected by the army on the Bomford map of 1850-51. It can be seen nestled in the grove of firs northeast of the artillery officers quarters. It can also be seen in the Covington sketch and the 1854 Sohon engraving. It was a small log building with a gable roof. It stood until 1864, when it was replaced by a new, two-story guard house almost immediately to the west.

In December, Ingalls reported he was "...putting up one of the Patent Saw Mills to prepare what lumber I can for next year. I shall send one to Astoria to have lumber in advance for Major Hathaway Command, which goes down in the Spring. The Third portable Mill will probably be sent to the Dalles." [1010] The exact locations of the portable mill are unknown, although from an 1850 report of materials and labor, it was moved at least twice, once in February and once in March. By 1871 a sawmill was located in the Quartermaster's depot area, formerly part of Kanaka Village.

In the spring of 1850, the First Artillery was sent to Astoria, and Colonel Loring's Riflemen, lodged in Oregon City in rented houses, moved to Columbia Barracks. [1011] Construction of the garrison on a Company wheat field on the upper plateau of Fort Plain began; construction of buildings along the west side of the Kanaka Village site for a quartermaster's depot also commenced at this time. Beginning in January, and continuing through December, Ingalls reported expenses for thousands of feet of lumber, building materials such as window glass, barrels of pitch and nails, labor on the sawmill and payments to brickmakers, masons, carpenters and laborers. [1012] In late October he was frantically writing the Pacific Division's quartermaster, Major R. Allen, for funds and material to finish the buildings. He said, "I have now some 40 Citizen Carpenters in my employ at a large daily expense (*$8 each per diem) and should you send us, now, what I require, I can finish off the quarters this winter, making short work of the job..." Can you not get these to me by the last of Nov.?"...We have no more material here of any sort, and even had we, you are aware that it costs a great deal; and when used is of very inferior quality." Among the materials he stressed he needed were "seasoned and dropped" boards to finish the officers houses, and fifty thousand bricks, apparently for chimneys. [1013] The request was reiterated towards the end of November. [1014]

By the end of November, Ingalls later reported, eight one-story officers houses, each with four rooms and a kitchen and privy in the rear, and a two-story house for the commanding officer of the garrison, were "fit for occupation." It appears the interior boards requested did not arrive--only the commanding officer's house was noted as being finished on the inside, and it and four of the eight other officers quarters had brick chimneys; the rest had stoves. Apparently also by November, or soon after, two large barracks for the rifle regiment companies, with kitchens, were also habitable. Five or more buildings were also built in the Quartermaster's Depot, on the west edge of Kanaka Village. Construction continued through March of 1851: an expense report for January through March of 1851 includes materials for interior plastering; "Indians to carry bricks;" bricks; shingles, and lumber. [1015] The total expense for erecting all buildings--including those in 1849--he said in a June 22, 1851 report, was $75,600. [1016]

The 1850-51 plat by G.C. Bomford shows the 1849 buildings, previously described, and the buildings "fit for occupation," described by Ingalls. They enclosed, on three sides, what would become the parade grounds for the garrison. On the west was a gable-roofed log barracks, immediately to the west of which were two smaller structures; one was a kitchen, and the other was later a kitchen, although it may have served as soldiers quarters during the winter of 1850, and possibly through 1855, at least. Both structures were gable-roofed, as is seen in the 1851 Gibbs sketch. On the east end was another gable-roofed log barracks, behind which were three gable-roofed kitchens. Facing the future parade grounds on the north were the officers' quarters, each with a kitchen behind. Four sets of quarters flanked the centrally-located commanding officer's quarters, two stories tall with a hipped roof and veranda. The officers' quarters had gable roofs, with ridges running east-west, and full length porches facing the parade grounds. A flagstaff was located south of the commanding officer's quarters, at the north edge of the open space. As noted earlier, several single and paired large fir trees ran along the north edge of the open space, and the Covington 1855 sketch shows trees and brush north of the west barracks.

By 1850 or '51, the sutler's store had moved to a stockaded, gable-roofed building north of the Catholic mission grounds, west of the Hudson's Bay Company cemetery. Labeled sutler's store on the Bomford 1850-51 plat, it was operated in March of 1851 by "I.R. Shepherd, a young man from Virginia." [1017] The building is shown on the 1855 Covington and Hodges sketches, and is still in the same position on the 1859 Harney map. However, by 1874 the sutler's store for the post had moved to a location southwest of the artillery officer's old barracks, as shown on the Ward map. It may have moved as early as the fall of 1859 or early 1860: both 1860 photographs of the site show a cross gable-roofed building south and west of the artillery officer's quarters which is in roughly the location shown on the 1874 map.

In 1852 Hudson's Bay Company Chief Factor John Ballenden leased several fields to Colonel Bonneville, who arrived in September to assume command of the army post, apparently for use by the garrison. These included the field west of the Catholic church and the former Lattie/Petrain/Noble house; the field behind the "private stables," the hospital garden mentioned earlier, and the site of the burned Company orchard, west of the garden, which, by 1854, is shown as "N. Soldiers garden" on the Mansfield map. [1018]

By 1854 some new buildings had been added to the garrison and additional roads had developed. One of the new buildings was a log magazine, northeast of the guard house, in the same area of the fir grove. A small building was erected north of the artillery officer's quarters, probably a kitchen, which can be seen on the 1855 Covington and Hodges sketches. Two additional small buildings with shed roofs appeared behind the kitchens on the west end of the parade grounds; probably laundress' quarters, and a third small gable-roofed building has been added to the south, probably another kitchen. [1019] The northernmost and largest kitchen behind the west barracks was, in 1855, serving as quarters for the army company band. Mansfield's 1854 map also indicates two small buildings at the east and west edges of the garrison, located on principal roads: the northerly road leading from Upper Mill Road west of the Catholic church, and the former Hudson's Bay Company road leading to the back plains towards the north east. The buildings are called out as blockhouses in an 1855 map of Fort Vancouver and its environs. By 1854 a road led off the extended road to the Back Plains, sweeping around the west side of the artillery officers quarters, crossing the future parade grounds, and headed north between two of the officers quarters at the north end of the open space. There were also some additional buildings in the quartermaster's depot area.

Mansfield, on his inspection tour of western forts in 1853-54, noted that during his visit in August of 1854, "The quarters of the men were inferior log buildings but neat and in good order. The quarters of the officers were ample, but of logs and inferior, and, like those of the men, difficult to keep warm in winter. A good bakery, guard house, magazine, and garden exists. The Hospital is a very inferior building, hired of the Hudson Bay Company, and store room for ordnance also in the same." He stated, "To repair the log houses of officers and soldiers is a waste. The logs are constantly changing by shrinking and expanding and rotting and settling, and it would be better to put up entirely new buildings of plank." [1020] It was another ten years before the recommendation was partly acted on. He also reported that the new assistant quartermaster, Captain T.L. Brent--Ingalls had been posted elsewhere--had made estimates and plans for a new hospital building, a storehouse, forage house, hay shed, stable and wharf.

That year Brent reported most of the buildings on the post had been whitewashed, and that many of the structures--especially officers' quarters, required finishing on the inside. He also noted that several log buildings required exterior weatherboarding. Two new buildings had been erected by June: an insane soldier's quarters, twelve feet by ten feet, and a new kitchen, forty-six by sixteen feet, both frame buildings. [1021] In the summer of 1854 fences were apparently built to enclose yards around each of the officers' quarters and to enclose the graveyards; Brent requested funds for this in the army fiscal year, ending June 30, 1854: "These quarters are now open with nothing to prevent hogs and cattle from coming about them--a due regard for cleanliness and the comfort and convenience of the occupants require the putting of these enclosures...destroying the adjoining highlands.. .destroying the grass and disfiguring the grounds--causing great annoyance and greatly increasing the police labor..." [1022] In November, Brent reported that some funds had already been expended on fencing "...necessary for the protection of the public property and comfort of the officers' quarters." [1023]

By 1860, if not a few years earlier, it appears that the entire upper garrison was enclosed by a fence, the purpose of which was almost certainly to exclude free-ranging livestock, rather than to secure the post. Drawings and photographs from the mid-1850s through 1860 show the fences to be low and simple, easily breached by humans. The 1855 Covington and Hodges sketches show what appears to be picket fencing to the south and between the officers" quarters, as does the Sohon engraving. The 1854 maps indicate each structure was enclosed by fencing on all four sides. By 1855, the parade ground was enclosed with a post and single top rail fence, as is shown on the Covington sketch; by 1860, if not earlier, it was whitewashed, as can be seen in the 1860 Boundary Commission photographs looking north. A fence enclosing the east side of the garrison may have been installed as early as 1856, which is when, according to Dugald Mactavish, a "...misunderstanding arose from garrison fence being run through the burying grounds of the company..." [1024]

Sometime between 1854 and 1855 a small log barracks was built east of the guard house, with a kitchen directly south of it.; The buildings can be seen in both the Hodges and Covington sketches, but is not present on the Mansfield or Bonneville maps of 1854. It is noted on the 1855 Topographic sketch of Fort Vancouver and vicinity. Passing reference is made by quartermaster Thomas Brent to "vacant officers' quarters" in 1855, and a framed officers' quarters listed in 1864 as having been built in 1855 is shown on an 1864 map north of the west log company barracks. A frame office, listed as having been built in 1854, is also shown on the 1864 map, north and west of the west log barracks; this may be a small gable-roofed building which can be seen on the Hodges and Covington sketches. The reports made by Brent, found to date, do not mention these buildings, as far as can be ascertained.

In 1855, Brent stated the maintenance problems associated with the log garrison buildings, and proposed a shift to frame construction for new buildings, a policy followed from that year onward. He noted: ...now cheaper to erect framed buildings, since lumber is cheap and logs must be procured by purchase and from a long distance. Log buildings are uncouth and unsightly and unless weatherboarded and ceiled cold and uncomfortable to live in, owning to shrinking and swelling of logs during dry and wet seasons." In arguing for weatherboarding the log buildings, he said, "In the dry season mortar and daubing fall off and leave the wind free passage, during the rainy season, the rains force through the crevices...should be something more than mere corrals of regulations size with roofs on them." The recent repairs with mortar and lime, he said, were no good--"sad work" was "made of the repairs in the rain." [1025]

In the late 1850s, two new two-and-one-half story framed barracks were built in the garrison area. One was located just south of the west log barracks; the other was placed south of the east log barracks, which were dismantled by 1859. The new buildings are shown on the 1859 Harney map, and also in the two 1860 photographs. In 1856 the army hospital was apparently moved to one of "the set of Barracks recently put up," which was converted for use as a hospital. [1026] That year Thomas Brent submitted plans for a new hospital building, and in the fall of 1857 army surgeon J. Simpson reported to Brigadier General Clark of the Department of the Pacific that he recommended a new hospital be immediately built, using the plan submitted by Brent and prepared by the post surgeon, Barnes. [1027] The T-shaped, two-story building, with a piazza, was built late in 1858, north of the site of the 1849 east log barracks; it can be seen in one of the 1860 photographs.

During Rufus Ingalls' first tour at Fort Vancouver, he had mentioned he had the materials on hand to build a new quartermaster's and commissary storehouse, but it was never built, due to an army order stopping all building construction following the death of the U.S. Secretary of War. When Ingalls returned for his second tour at the end of 1856, he began to lobby for a new storehouse on the river, and his correspondence constantly refers to the inadequacy of the fur trade store in the stockade, rented from the Hudson's Bay Company. A new storehouse was finally built on the river, between August of 1857 and the spring of 1858. [1028]

By 1857-8 two stables were located west of the west edge of the parade grounds. One, according to a later report, had been built in 1854; the 1855 Topographic Map of Fort Vancouver and its Environs labeled this rectangular building the Dragoon stable, which makes the date of construction plausible, since the dragoons were stationed at the post in the mid-1850s during the peak of the Indian wars. A second, L-shaped stable was apparently built in 1858, south of the first structure, according to the later report, as was a framed and shingled L-shaped gun shed south of the stable complex. Only the Dragoon stable shows on one of the three extant 1859 maps prepared for General Harney; but both stables show up on another version of the map. The gun shed, however, is not on either of these two versions. [1029] In July of 1858 Ingalls reported there was sufficient housing for 250 horses, which indicates both these stables and the one in the quartermaster's depot had been finished by that time. [1030]

By July of 1858 Ingalls was able to report that all buildings on the post were in a good state of "repair and preservation," and that all that was needed to make "...this station quite perfect is a hospital..."which, as noted above, was built that year. [1031] The actions of the army in removing or burning Hudson's Bay Company buildings in the area north of Upper Mill Road in the late 1850s have already been discussed.