Tag Archives: Hudson’s Bay Company

DEFT OF HAND AND A KEG OF WHISKEY: MAGIC AT CUMBERLAND GAP – JOHN DE COURCY IN AMERICA

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Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture in 1864.
1864 Drawing by a Union soldier of Federal camps at Cumberland Gap after its capture by John De Courcy.

I knew before that a certain Captain George Pickett, a thirty-four-year-old veteran of the Mexican War and graduate of West Point – albeit, last in his class – served on San Juan Island in the Puget Sound just before the American Civil War.  What I did not know, was one of his opposites in the whole Pig War ordeal in 1859 was an Anglo-Irish peer by the name of John De Courcy.  Like Pickett, De Courcy would figure in the next war, as well.  Pickett’s role would be bigger and better known, but De Courcy’s role was big enough for someone involved in command. And not even as a citizen of either side.

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TERRITORIAL OREGON – IN THE THRALL OF THE SALEM CLIQUE

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Shirt commemorates one of the election slogans of James K. Polk in 1844.

With the Cayuse War, the federal government finally acted in Washington, D.C., 18 August 1848, to develop an official form of government over the region of the Oregon Country transferred to American control by the Oregon Treaty of 1846 officially ending the awkward condominium shared with Great Britain since 1818.  The new territorial government ushered in new power brokers – aka the Salem Clique – to administer the political machine during the next decade. This setting the stage for a Statehood granted 14 February 1859 with war clouds gathering furiously back in the East.

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MCLOUGHLIN AND OGDEN – HBC REMINDERS LYING IN OREGON CITY

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John Mix Stanley's painting of Oregon City 1850.
John Mix Stanley’s painting of Oregon City 1850.

The Hudson’s Bay Company provided the main source of European influence in the Oregon Country throughout the period of condominium rule shared by the United Kingdom and the United States – 1818-1846.  The Treaty of Ghent noted sovereignty sharing over the vast northwestern regions, but failed to say anything about how to conduct internal affairs.  Into the void, the HBC.

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COUNTERWEIGHT TO THE AMERICAN DELUGE – RED RIVER COLONISTS IN OREGON

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Métis Family in Ontario – photo by Robert Bell, courtesy of Library and Archives Canada, e011156727_s1

Hudson’s Bay Company – HBC – ran things in the Pacific Northwest from 1813 until the mid-1840’s. Then American emigrant numbers began to overwhelm their control.  While political control in 1818 over the Oregon Country officially split between the governments of Great Britain and the United States, true economic control from a Eurocentric standpoint remained in the bailiwick of the HBC. The story of the Red River colonists featured an attempt by the HBC to help out on the political side.

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PLAYERS OF THE CAYUSE WAR REVISITED

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Cayuse men on horseback – from Lee Moorhouse photo collection – University of Oregon Special Digital Collections; photo is from about 1900.

Warfare erupted from the killings of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman at their mission along the Walla Walla River at Waiilatpu.  Like most wars, they are easier to extinguish than to begin.  Here are some of those involved with the Cayuse War, a “war” having grievous results for the Natives belonging to the Cayuse peoples and directly transforming the state of government in the Pacific Northwest.

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VANCOUVER BARRACKS NATIONAL CEMETERY REVEALING HISTORY OF THE FORT AND MORE

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The post cemetery for Vancouver Barracks became established in 1857.  The Army maintained the cemetery until recently. In 2020, the cemetery became part of the National Cemetery Administration – Department of Veterans Affairs – renamed the Vancouver Barracks National Cemetery.

Graves laid out – view from the south or the top of the “heart”.

Vancover Barracks National Cemetery.

Fort Vancouver was built in 1824 to serve as a central hub of business for the Hudson Bay Company in the Oregon Country. The company had its way in the region until the late 1830’s when American settlers began to arrive.  Attempts by the company to meet this influx with colonists of their own came to naught and the Oregon Treaty of 1846 set the border far to the north at the 49th parallel.  The fort, left deep in American territory though the company continued its operations.  However, those operations became more unprofitable and difficult as more and more settlers came into the picture.

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