Simpson at Fort Nisqually
This drawing of Fort Nisqually was done by Steve A. Anderson and is used with his kind permission
So we are having some fun following Sir George Simpson on his 1841 journey to Fort Nisqually and on to the northwest coast. All this started when I found a mysterious document in the BC Archives, and attempted to identify the writer of the document. Here is what it said, more or less: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/rough-notes/ If you want to be amused at my realization of whose journal this was, you will, of course, read the comments…
So, Sir George Simpson, Governor of the HBC, reached Fort Nisqually “on the evening of the fourth day from Fort Vancouver. Being unwilling to commence our voyage on a Sunday, we remained here for six and thirty hours inspecting the farm and dairy and visiting Dr. [J.P.] Richmond, an American missionary stationed in the neighborhood. The surrounding scenery is very beautiful. On the borders of an arm of the sea of about two miles in width, are undulating plains of excellent pasturage presenting a pretty variety of copses of oak and placid lakes, and abounding in chevreuil [deer] and other game.”
The HBC gentleman in charge of Fort Nisqually at the time of Governor Simpson’s visit was my great-grandfather, Alexander Caulfield Anderson. However, Anderson was away from the fort at the time Simpson reached the place. Where was he? Following the Fort Nisqually harvest of 1841, Anderson and some of his men rode east to receive a number of cattle transferred from the HBC to Puget Sound Agricultural Company [PSAC], from the posts of Fort Nez Perces, Colvile, and Okanogan. As he said:
After harvest /41 set out (as per journal) with a party of men to receive a number of cattle transferred from H.B. Co. to P.S.Co. [PSAC] from the posts of Nez Perces, Colvile, and Okanagan. Crossed the Canada [Cascade] Range over N.W. shoulder of Mt. Rainier by the Sanahamish (now known, I think, as the Natchess [Naches] Pass.) Followed an Indian trail, expending a good deal of labour in parts to render it passable for our return. Met the parties conducting the cattle low down on the Yaikama River (on the Swanapum branch). Hired some Yaikama Indians to assist in driving. Left the greater portion of the party to herd the cattle near the verge of the mountains so as to recruit. Returned to Nisqually with one man to procure provisions and further assistance. Met the party, and returned with them bringing the cattle through to the Nisqually Plains with some loss by strays on the way, some of which, if not most of them, probably afterwards reached the same locality, following on the trail of the herd.
Much of the information I have about Governor Simpson’s visit to Fort Vancouver and Cowlitz Farm in 1841 comes from the information I compiled on A.C. Anderson’s time at Fort Nisqually. So I am going to backtrack a little, and tell you what I learned about Simpson’s visit in the district from my A.C. Anderson collection of documents from the early 2000s. So this post will also be the last post in my “Anderson at Fort Nisqually” series, and if you want to read the whole series of 5 or 6 posts, you can click here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/anderson-fort-nisqually/
So, we will continue here with Simpson’s visit at Fort Vancouver, the Cowlitz Farm, and Fort Nisqually, with information from my A.C. Anderson collection, relevant to this series. I will probably write one more post before the Anderson series is finished, and when I do, it will appear here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/whatever-i-call-it/
Before Simpson ever arrived at Fort Vancouver…
Captain William Henry McNeill wrote a series of letters to John McLoughlin commenting on what he saw of the fur trade under the charge of clerk Alexander Anderson. On June 5,1841, McNeill reported that “Very little fur makes its appearance at this place, however I have seen some Beaver brought here and taken away again.” On June 9 he wrote that: “Mr. Anderson made no objection to deliver them [the Wool and returns] to me, but if you look at the Bill of Lading, you will see that they are consigned to him or are to be delivered to his order.” On August 4, 1841, McNeill wrote to John McLoughlin that: “Anderson has about 100 leafs tobacco at this post and no sale for it. I presume he can spare it to us until our return.” Then, in the same letter he reported that: “On the 2nd ault [ulto, or August] Mr. Anderson and Andre St. Martin had a quarrel together. I did not ascertain at the time the real cause of the dispute but have since learned that it was about some order that St. Martin did not execute cheerfully or with dispatch. St. Martin came to me today and said he would not remain at the place but would go and seek redress at Vancouver. I told him he must remain until I heard from you and he seemed satisfied as I told him I would write you about the affair.” Then, on August 5, “Saint Martin came to me again today and said he would go to the Cowlitz. I again told him that he must remain here till I heard from you, or that perhaps you would give Mr. Anderson orders concerning him. He says he can never do any more work with a will at the place again.
Simpson and his party arrived at Fort Vancouver on August 25, “where the intermittent fever was prevailing, as usual at this season of the year,” he said. Simpson’s letter continues:
Besides Chief Factors [John] McLoughlin and [James] Douglas, and the other officers and people belonging to this establishment, I here found Commodore [Charles] Wilkes, Captain Hudson, and other officers of the United States Discovery Expedition [United States Exploring Expedition]. Three of the five discovery vessels were in the river, say the Porpoise, sloop of war; the Flying Fish, tender; and the Oregon (late Thomas Perkins), store ship. The Peacock, sloop of war, had had been totally lost on the Columbia Bar a few weeks previous to my arrival, but the officers and crew were providentially saved, and the Vincennes, corvette, had proceeded from Puget Sound direct to San Francisco, there to await the arrival of Commodore Wilkes with the other vessels.
I probably forgot to tell you that Wilkes had just purchased the American ship Thomas Perkins, renamed the Oregon, to replace the ship Peacock, which had wrecked on the bar.
While Simpson was at Fort Vancouver, he reported on the success of Douglas’s purchases of farm animals in California. “In the 20th paragraph of my dispatch of 20th June from Red River settlement, I intimated that a flock of 3,670 sheep and a herd of 660 cattle had been purchased by Chief Factor Douglas in California in the course of the past winter, and had been dispatched by that gentleman previous to his departure from thence, for the Columbia. Considering the distance and the unfavourable character of the country for traveling, I have great satisfaction in saying that the journey was accomplished with less loss than might have been expected, as 3,200 sheep and 551 cattle were safely conveyed to the banks of the Columbia, from whence they were forwarded to Nisqually.” So they lost more than 400 sheep on that long journey from California. (These were not the same animals that Anderson was collecting on the east side of the Cascades.)
Governor Simpson’s report continues, as he sets off on his journey to Puget Sound. “Learning that the Beaver Steamer was agreeably to previous arrangement, in readiness at Puget Sound to convey me to the North West Coast on a tour of inspection of the posts in that quarter, and on a visit to the Russian American Company’s principal depot of Sitka, I took my departure from Fort Vancouver (after a stay there of six days) on the 1st September, accompanied by Chief Factor [James] Douglas, touched at the pastoral establishment on the Multnomah [Sauvie] Island, ascended the Cowlitz River, visited the Puget Sound Company’s village farm at the head of that river, crossed the Cowlitz portage to Nisqually, a distance of from 55 to 60 miles, and reached that establishment on the evening of the 4th.” So that statement confirms what I said in the last post: that Simpson arrived at Fort Nisqually on the evening of September 4, and viewed the farms the next day, September 5.
It is likely that while Simpson was still at Fort Vancouver, McLoughlin discussed the issue of the Anderson/St. Martin argument with him. Of course, Simpson would investigate. While he was at Fort Nisqually, he wrote a letter to John McLoughlin which read, in part: “I learn from Captain McNeill that the Indians usually frequenting this place are in a very disaffected state, arising from Mr. Anderson’s want of popularity, & as his recent conduct in reference to St. Martin has been exceedingly improper, both Mr. Douglas and Myself, likewise Captain McNeill, consider it advisable that a change of management should immediately take place, Mr [William] Heath (whose services on board the Steamer can be dispensed with), is therefore left in charge, with Mr. [Edward] Hopkins as assistant, and Mr. Anderson has been directed to proceed to Fort Vancouver immediately after his return from his present mission.”
So Anderson was not at Fort Nisqually to greet Governor Simpson. Simpson’s letter to Anderson read:
For a variety of reasons which it may not be necessary to detail at present, I think a change of management here is likely to be advantageous in several points of view. I therefore leave Mr. [William] Heath in charge of the Establishment, with Mr. Hopkins as assistant, & have to request you will on your return from your present Mission, proceed to Fort Vancouver.
As we probably all know, Heath was known to drink. However, Simpson said, “There is no danger of Mr. Heath’s erring from intemperance, as no means to occasion such are left at his disposal.” I don’t know what Simpson did with the liquor that was at the fort, but perhaps there was none. As we also all know, Edward Martin Hopkins was Governor Simpson’s personal secretary and assistant, who was now sick and unable to continue the journey north. That means that Hopkins did not keep any of the “rough notes” that continued after Simpson’s departure from Fort Nisqually. That means little, however. As we know, the “Rough Notes says this of Simpson’s Northwest Coast travels. [The items in square brackets are my notes]:
6 September. Embarked in Beaver Steamer.
12. Quikilthes ?? Fort McLoughlin. [Quikilthes is what Douglas calls Quakaeolth, and the word refers to the Kwakiutl First Nations who lived on northern Vancouver Island, on Queen Charlotte Strait. Queen Charlotte Strait runs between the northern part of the island and the mainland, and Queen Charlotte Sound is the open water between the north end of the island and the first islands that shelter Fort McLoughlin. And yes, Queen Charlotte Sound has a part to play in this journal (but not yet).]
18. Fort Simpson. Port Essington [in Skeena River Estuary.]
New Archangel Lat. 57 [Sitka].
Fort Simpson [no dates given]
Fort McLoughlin.
17 Oct. Whidbey’s Isle, 40 miles.
Nisqually [Soil?] gone. [Illegible word]
Fort Vancouver. [October 22.]
So, here is the job for my future posts, to try to figure out what dates Simpson arrived at and departed from these various places. This will not be easy. I know Simpson returned to Fort Vancouver on October 22, where he may have had some harsh words for Anderson, who was now also at the post. About a month later, Simpson and McLoughlin sailed away from Fort Vancouver in the Cowlitz, on their way to San Francisco and the Sandwich Islands. The two men had their conference in the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii] in February, and after that, the Cowlitz carried Governor Simpson north to Sitka, so that he would begin his journey around the world. McLoughlin returned to Fort Vancouver in the Vancouver. Thomas Lowe, who had travelled to Hawaii in the Vancouver that year, was transferred to the Cowlitz, where he became Simpson’s secretary until he was dropped off at his new posting, Fort Durham.
As for Anderson, he wrote of his leaving Fort Nisqually. “Leaving Nisqually in the autumn of 1841, I passed the winter at Fort Vancovuer and in the middle of March [1842] started up the Columbia River with my family on the way to York Factory and Hudson’s Bay, conducting the annual express, leaving my family at Colvile to await my return. We crossed the mountains by the route which I have already described, by way of the Athabasca and Saskatchewan River reached Norway House, where the annual council was held in June, thence after a short interval to York Factory and the Hudson’s Bay, and so back by the same route to Colvile about the end of October, whence I diverged and proceeded overland to Alexandria on the borders of New Caledonia, to the charge of which I have meanwhile been appointed.”
And that was his punishment: he was sent back to the “Siberia” of the Columbia district, where he spent the next dozen years in charge of Fort Alexandria and, later, Fort Colvile.
So the next part of this journey will continue to follow Governor Simpson as he makes his way north toward Fort Simpson and the other northwest coast post. When it is written, or published, you will find it here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/simpson-on-the-beaver/
Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2025. All rights reserved.