Thomas Lowe, Fall 1845

Fort Victoria in 1846, painted by Henry James Warre, Courtesy American Antiquarian Society.

In Fall, 1845, Thomas Lowe continued to record the many new happenings and visitors to Fort Vancouver. I finished the last post with this this paragraph: “Two other British officers are also now in the Columbia, from the 50 gun Frigate, America. They were Lieutenant William Peel, and Captain Parke, of the Marines. So with Vavasour and Warre, Lieutenant Peel and Captain Parke, we have quite a few English “spies” funning around the Columbia District, all meeting up with each other and discussing the Oregon Territory’s strengths and weaknesses behind the HBC men’s backs. Douglas, McLoughlin, and Ogden must have felt as if they were surrounded by enemies. And they were, in a sense.”

Well, that is not exactly true: as you know I have learned a little bit more about these men. So, let’s follow them around the Columbia district, in Thomas Lowe’s jottings about Fall 1845. First, Lowe tells us that there are “many cases of Fever and Ague amongst our men.” I am presuming that this “Fever” is intermittent fever. To my surprise I found that as late as 1850, Peter Skene Ogden was suffering bouts of what seemed to be Malaria. As at that time he was the only man holding down the fort, it did not make his job any easier. Lowe has often spoken of ague and fever — is it all intermittent fever (Malaria?)

18th. Thursday. Two boats arrived with Wheat from the Willamette Falls, in which came Mr. William Sinclair, brother of Mrs. [Francis] Ermatinger’s who has been for some time at the Falls, and Mr. [Michel] Laframboise, an old Canadian who used to head the Company’s trapping parties in California. Warm and pleasant.

Michel Laframboise was born in Quebec in 1793, so by 1845 he was only 52 years old. He died in January 1861, and so he did live until he was the good old age of 68. Remember that Thomas Lowe is only about 22 years old, so 52 was “old” to him. And of course, considering the life he had led, Michel Laframboise would have looked older than he was. As for Catherine Ermatinger, she had been born Sinclair alright, and William was probably her brother.  In 1849, Francis Ermatinger wanted to divorce Catherine because of her indiscreet behaviour. 

19th Friday. In the afternoon Mr. Laframboise returned to the Falls, and Mr. Ogden arrived from Fort George, having procured a canoe at the Caweemen Granary and sent Lieutenants Vavasour and Warre up the Cowelitz River to overtake Mr. [James] Douglas and party. Mr. [Peter Skene] Ogden reports that a vessel has been seen off the bar, and that the Cadboro and Chinamus got out on the 11th inst.[September]. Rode down in the afternoon by Chalifoux’s Lake in company with Mr. Grahame and W. Sinclair.

The Chinamus was an American ship that spent some time on the coast and at the Sandwich Islands. And I see that clerk James Allen Grahame has arrived at Fort Vancouver, and I presume he came in with the incoming 1844 York Factory Express. He is George Traill Allan’s nephew, as Thomas Lowe once said. Both these young men, that is: Thomas Lowe and James Allen Grahame, would marry Birnie girls, and so both are in my family tree.

So, what else happened in Fall 1845?

20th. Saturday. This morning early Mr. Ogden again started in his boat for the Willamette, accompanied by Mr. [Richard] Lane who is to return soon. Several Americans came here today and bought a large quantity of provisions, intending to go and meet the immigrants from the States, to whom they will be able to dispose of these provisions at a very high rate. General [Morton Matthew] McCarver arrived in the evening. Mr. K[enneth] Logan has been absent for two days taking an inventory of the Cattle for the purpose of furnishing a correct account of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s stock here, in order to determine the amount of taxes payable to the Oregon Government.

21st Sunday. Mr. [James] Douglas being absent, I had to officiate today in the Hall, Mr. Grahame reading the lessons. Beautiful warm weather. Bathed in the River. The Peaches, pears and apples are now perfectly ripe, and the garden abounds this season with these fruits, as well as with melons, grapes, etc….

23rd. Tuesday. Beautiful clear day. The Barge arrived from Willamette Falls with a load of Wheat, and the boat which took Mr. Douglas and party to the Cowelitz returned. Barge started again at night. 

We are in 1845, and the “Barge,” mentioned here, is not the Prince of Wales, a sailing ship built at Fort Vancouver in spring 1846. 

24th. Wednesday. Continued fine weather with every appearance of its lasting for some time. A party of 18 Americans arrived at the Fort from above before breakfast, in two of the Company’s boats, being part of this year’s immigration from the States. The whole party when they started from Independence amounted, they say, to 3300 men, women, and children, having with them 600 waggons, of which number, however, 100 waggons have branched off to California. This statement agrees with what the three Canadians who arrived some time ago told us. No accounts are to be opened here with the new Immigrants, whatever they get from the Shop must be paid for in cash. These 18 men took passage again in the forenoon for Lynnton in the Green Boat, which was proceeding there for wheat. “Callepooiah” arrived in the afternoon from the Falls, as did also Captain Smith from Tualatin Plains.

 25th. Thursday. The “Callepooiah” started up the River to meet the Immigrants at the Cascades. Fine weather. 

26th. Friday. Confined to my room today with violent toothache, brought on by getting my last wisdom tooth, the first made its appearance in the Spring. Cloudy. 

He was confined to the house for a day or two, being too unwell to even attend prayers on the Sunday that followed. Then, On Friday, October 3,

Mr. Ogden and Mr. Angus McDonald started before breakfast in a Boat to proceed into the Interior. Mr. Ogden intends visiting New Caledonia for the purpose of discovering a good and safge route for the Interior Brigade to bring the Returns out to the N.W. Coast instead of down the Columbia to [Fort] Vancouver as hitherto, the [political situation of the Country, rendering the] latter at present most unsafe. It is thought that Fraser’s River will be chosen as the most eligible water communication. Mr. McDonald returns to the Snake District. 

[The words in brackets above were not in my copy, but were in the original].

So, what is happening here, in Fall 1845?

As we know, Peter Skene Ogden arrived at Fort Vancouver with the incoming York Factory Express, surprising Chief Factor John McLoughlin, who hadn’t expected him. We know he had come in to replace (or at least partially replace) McLoughlin as a member of the new Board of Management, which McLoughlin so far knew nothing of. He had to come in with reasons to be there, of course. Firstly, he had guided Warre and Vavasour to Fort Vancouver, and had showed them the passage through the mountains that they were supposed march soldiers through, if war broke out between the United States and the British Territory. Yes, that’s real — the Brits were preparing for the possibility of war with the United States, all to protect the part of Oregon Territory which lay north of the Columbia River. Ogden came in with other things to do: he was to make land claims at Cape Disappointment, and probably in the Willamette. The third thing he was supposed to do was to arrange for the exploration and opening up of a new brigade trail that would bring the furs out to the northwest coast, instead of through the Okanagan. Alexander Caulfield Anderson had already written a letter to Governor Simpson which had reached him at Red River. Anderson had offered to explore for a trail to the coast: Simpson and Ogden took him up on that offer. And that was why Ogden was going upriver: he would perhaps reach the Kamloops post where he would ask John Tod for information on the best route. Then he went to Fort Colvile, where he wrote the letters to Tod and Donald Manson that would instruct Anderson to explore for a route down the Fraser River to Fort Langley. This letter of instruction was written on October 22, 1845. Ogden would stay at Fort Colvile until the incoming York Factory Express arrived at that place. The Express reached Fort Vancouver on November 9, 1845. As we know, it carried two letters from Governor Simpson that advised McLoughlin of the formation of the Board of Management, with Ogden and Douglas as part of his team.

The arrival of those letters would be a powerful shock to McLoughlin. But then imagine how he felt when he realized that both Ogden, and Douglas, knew about these plans before he did. And I think that even Thomas Lowe knew. In his journals he hardly mentions Dr. McLoughlin for months on end. 

So anyway, let’s continue with Lowe’s journal, Fall 1845. “[October] 7th, Tuesday. About 8 o’clock this evening the Cadboro arrived from Fort Victoria in ballast. Captain Scarborough reports having spoken [to] the Barque Vancouver, three weeks ago, outside the bar, when proceeding with the Cadboro to Victoria, and that Captain Mott afterwards succeeded in getting nearly a mile inside of the Bar, but had to ship cable and put to sea again with the loss of a best lower anchor, Kedge, and warp. He saw her a second time a considerable distance at sea on Friday last from the top of Cape Disappointment, standing in towards the land.”

So you can climb up to the top of Cape Disappointment: that’s interesting. (Ogden, Warre, and Vavasour must had made that climb when they were there.) The Cowlitz is the ship that would be sailing to London this year, but she was sailing to London from Fort Victoria, it seems. The HBC ship, Vancouver, had arrived at Fort Victoria on February 18, 1845, and she would remain on the coast until December 1846. For the Vancouver, this was just a visit to the Columbia River. 

Thomas Lowe reports that the new immigrants arriving at Fort Vancouver “appear rather more respectable, and are certainly better equipped than those of former years.” On October 16, Douglas returned to Fort Vancouver with Warre and Vavasour, who he had taken on a visit to Fort Victoria (with a side visit to the HMS America, who was anchored in Port Discovery. On their return journey, they also visited the Modeste, who they were surprised to see was anchored off Dungeness.) On October 19, “Mr. Lattie arrived from the Barque Vancouver, which has at last got safely in. She anchored on the morning of the 16th in Baker’s Bay, and an American Barque named the Toulon got in at the same time.” Then the Modeste comes into the River, and it seems the only ship that isn’t crossing the bar is the tiny Cadboro, on her way to Fort Victoria.

Then the Beaver arrives at Fort Nisqually, with Captain [Charles] Dodd in command, “Humphries being half crazy, and unable to carry on the duty of the Vessel.” And I forgot to notice that the incoming York Factory Express arrived at Fort Vancouver on October 9, in the charge of Dugald Mactavish. “C.F. Ogden who went up to Colvile about a month ago returned here with the Express Boats,” Lowe says. 

There is no mention of John McLoughlin in Thomas Lowe’s journal. It is as if he was not at the fort, but he was. Chief Factor Douglas and John Work travelled to Fort Victoria, via the Cowlitz Portage, on November 24. On November 25, several of the Red River Settlers had “high words” with McLoughlin about their accounts, and refused to pay for the debts contracted at Fort Nisqually. Promises had been made that were broken, they said. On December 4, Captain Baillie, of the Modeste, gave a dinner “on board the Modeste, at which Dr. McLoughlin and several of the other gentlemen of the Establishment were present.” Lowe, it seems, was not. On December 20, the crew of the Modeste had a foot ball match on the fields at the back of the Fort. And then, in the afternoon, “An eruption of Mount St. Helen’s took place this afternoon, which was distinctly seen from the Lower Plain.”

On Christmas Day, Lowe excluded himself from the Christmas Party aboard the Modeste, although “we were all invited on board…to see the splendid manner in which the ship’s company had decorated her, and the Christmas feast that the table groaned under. Many of the ladies and gentlemen of the Fort went, I did not. [He was sick.] We had no fun on shore but on board they kept it up in grand style, and many of our men joined them.” 

James Douglas returned to Fort Vancouver on December 27, having dispatched the Cowlitz to London. That night, “Captain Baillie [of the Modeste] gave a dance in the New Office where he has lately taken up his shore quarters in the Fort. Most of the officers of the Modeste were present, and we kept it up until midnight. It was rather a noisy affair. I sprained my ankle in dancing.” On New Year’s Even, Ogden returned from the Willamette — so all the gentlemen including Dr. McLoughlin, were inside the fort for New Year’s Eve and Day. 

Then, on January 5th, “Dr. McLoughlin started for the Willamette Falls in the Forenoon, where he is to remain for some time.” And that’s it.

When the next post in this series is completed, it will be published here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/

Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2025. All rights reserved.

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