California Historical Society Quarterly/Volume 22/John Work of the Hudson's Bay Company
John Work of the Hudson's Bay Company
Leader of the California Brigade of 1832-33
By Alice Bay Maloney
JOHN WORK was an active participant in the fur trade of the Pacific slope during its peak years.[1] His geographical range was wide, and he served the Hudson's Bay Company in many capacities: from his enrollment in 1814 as a writer he advanced through the ranks of steward, clerk, trader, and factor, and finally served as a member of the Legislative Council of Vancouver Island.[2]
From York Factory, headquarters of the company on Hudson's Bay, John Work's progress continued westward until he reached the shores of the Pacific Ocean in 1824.[3] As leader of trapping and exploring parties he traveled with his men east to the Rocky Mountains and as far south as the Stanislaus River in central California. For many years he was stationed at Fort Simpson on the Northwest Coast. He explored the Queen Charlotte Islands and the Skeena River[4] and other mainland streams in pursuit of his duties. His travels by canoe and horseback through numerous friendly and hostile Indian tribes gave him an intimate knowledge of a vast terrain and schooled him in the rough diplomacy which characterized the dealings of a great fur company with savage peoples drawn by the fur trade into the international network of world commerce.
The fur trade of the Pacific Northwest had a maritime inception, but from 1793, when Alexander McKenzie, of the North West Company of Montreal, broke through the barrier of the Rocky Mountains and spanned the continent from coast to coast, the land fur trade began its slow development toward the high point reached in the 1830's. Simon Fraser and John Stuart established posts on the lakes of New Caledonia, in what is now British Columbia, in 1807, and heard from the Indians stories of the Americans, Lewis and Clark, who had reached the mouth of the Columbia River in 1805. Fraser descended, in 1808, the river which bears his name but found the stream unnavigable and with no site suitable for a fur trade post.
Two great fur companies, the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, were competitors for the furs of the northern portion of the North American continent, but prior to 1821 the Hudson's Bay Company did not extend its activities west of the continental divide. The North West Company sent David Thompson on several trips of exploration and trade promotion, and his maps and journals are witnesses to the extent of his travels and knowledge of the region now covered by the states of Washington, Montana, and Idaho. He traced the course of the Columbia River to its mouth, which he reached in 1811.
Upon his arrival there Thompson found competitors in possession of the field. Americans sent out by John Jacob Astor had established a post, which they had named Astoria, and were engaged in trapping furs for shipment by sea. The Oregon Country, extending from the Spanish land of California northward, was claimed by both the United States and England, and the race to secure the furs of the region was stimulated by international rivalry which was sharpened by the threat of still another participant, the Russian American Company, now well established in Alaska and looking toward the south. As a concomitant of the War of 1812 Astoria was purchased by the North West Company, and was renamed Fort George. This company thereby gained trade supremacy in the area. In 18 18 a treaty of joint occupation was signed by England and the United States. This agreement was extended in 1827, and it was not until 1846 that a boundary line between the lands of the two countries lying west of the Rocky Mountains was definitely fixed.
In 1821 the long and bitter rivalry of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company terminated in a coalition of the two firms under the name of the latter. George Simpson was named Governor of Rupert's Land, with jurisdiction extended to the fur posts of New Caledonia and the Columbia District. Under his energetic management the establishments of the Pacific Northwest became the scene of renewed activity. Headquarters were removed from Fort George to a more advantageous site on the north bank of the Columbia River, 112 miles upstream. The new post. Fort Vancouver, was the fur capital of the region. The brigades of trappers were increased in size and number, and each year saw the fur hunters ranging farther afield in an effort to secure the harvest before American rivals should arrive at the trapping grounds. The two nationalities clashed first in 1824, when Peter Skene Ogden and his Snake brigade encountered American trappers in the Rocky Mountains. Subsequently the English brigades were instructed to remain west of the continental divide. International boundaries at this time had not yet been surveyed and in some cases had not yet been determined upon by the disputing nations. The line between California, then a province of Mexico, and the Oregon Country was stipulated as the 42nd parallel of latitude. Gradually the Hudson's Bay Company brigades encroached upon Mexican territory, as the streams near the posts in the Columbia District were depleted of beaver and otter pelts, the furs in greatest demand.[5]
An American trapper, Jedediah Smith, reached Fort Vancouver by way of California in 1828.[6] The reports he gave of the quantity and quality of the furs in interior California streams led the Hudson's Bay men to hasten south to secure the furs before other Americans could arrive on the scene. Brigades were sent out from Fort Vancouver under Alexander Roderick McLeod in 1828-29[7] and under Peter Skene Ogden in 1829-30.[8] Both brigades reached the great valley of California and found Smith's reports were not exaggerated. McLeod came to grief in the mountains on his way home and lost his furs. A portion of his journal has appeared in print, but the section published deals exclusively with Oregon.[9] Ogden also met disaster when his boat capsized in the Columbia River as he neared Fort Vancouver. His records were lost.
The next brigade of the Hudson's Bay Company to reach California was that of John Work which left Fort Vancouver on August 17, 1832, and returned to that post on October 31, 1833. Work's journal of the expedition will be published in subsequent issues of this Quarterly.
John Work was sober, industrious, reliable, faithful to his employers, loyal to his friends and devoted to his Indian wife and their family of eleven children. These are not spectacular traits with which to enliven a biographical sketch, nevertheless they must be assumed to form a background for the dramatic incidents of exploration, fur-hunting, and Indian fighting in which he participated, and for his life at distant Fort Simpson. These same traits graced the serenity of his declining years in the picturesque settlement which grew up at Fort Victoria on Vancouver Island.
John Work brought to the Pacific Northwest standards of conduct from which he did not deviate. He chose as a mate a half-breed Indian girl, whose father was a wandering French Canadian trapper, and treated her with much consideration and affection. This consort accompanied John Work on his long and dangerous journeys, and his life was so closely linked with hers that his story without hers would be incomplete. Just as the background of his character must be assumed to color his every action, so must the presence of the wife be taken for granted in the thick of every episode, even those punctuated by the flight of arrows and the flash of firing muskets.
John Work was born in 1792 near Londonderry, Ireland, where the family had resided for three hundred years. His correct name was WARK, not WORK. Upon his enlistment in the ranks of employees of the Hudson's Bay Company his name was entered on their books as "JOHN WORK," and this spelling he adopted henceforth. His Irish friends and relatives were very indignant that the time-honored name of WARK had been anglicized. A tradition that the change was due to an error in the Office of Land and Works is discounted by family members. John Work's associates adapted themselves readily to the new spelling, as is attested by their letters, but the pronunciation was another matter, and descendants still refer to their progenitor as "Wark."[10]
In letters now on file in the Archives of British Columia John Work makes occasional reference to a much younger brother who also had emigrated to Canada. This brother has been identified as the late Senator David Wark who celebrated his one hundredth birthday in 1905. A nephew, John Wark or Work, joined his uncle in Victoria in 1 850 and remained as his amanuensis until 1861.[11]
At the time of the coalition of the North West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821, John Work was at Red River. On July 18, 1823, he started for the Columbia District.[12] In the party was Peter Skene Ogden, already a veteran of the Pacific Northwest fur trade. Ogden was returning from London where he had gone to reinstate himself with the Hudson's Bay Company after service with the Nor'westers. There is no evidence that any close friendship developed between Work and Ogden whose trails were to cross and recross for twenty-five years as they journeyed from company posts in the Columbia and New Caledonia districts. John Work, in his correspondence, always referred to "Mr. Ogden" and betrayed no warmth of feeling as he did when he mentioned his particular friends, Edward Ermatinger, Archibald McDonald, John McLeod, Samuel Black, the irrepressible Frank Ermatinger, and the devoted John Tod.
In the intervals between fur-gathering expeditions. Work took up residence at Fort Colville. In the course of a few years he "established there a very productive farm, the first attempt at agriculture in British or American possessions west of the Rocky Mountains and an achievement of no small importance in those early days when the fur traders had to be dependent mainly upon themselves for the cultivation of grain and the production of other supplies necessary for their own subsistence and the support of outlying posts."[13] John Work also spent some time at Flathead House in what is now Montana during his earlier years in the Columbia District.
Several direct and indirect references appear in Work's correspondence, both from Red River and Fort Colville, regarding Indian housekeepers employed by him during his early years in Canada and in the Oregon Country. They were an indispensible adjunct to life in the fur trade in which care for shelter, food and clothing was essential to maintain existence. It was at Fort Colville (in what is now northern Washington), however, that John Work met his life's companion. She was Josette Legace, daughter of Pierre Legace[14] who had crossed the Rocky Mountains with Finan McDonald about 1807. Legace and McDonald took up residence with an Indian chief near the site of Spokane, Washington, where they resided over the winter season.[15] This chief is sometimes referred to as a Spokane, but Josette herself told a grandson that he was a Nez Perce. Legace (as did Finan McDonald) took a daughter of this chief as mate, and Josette was the child of this union. She became a young woman of great beauty and outstanding character. The historian, Hubert Howe Bancroft, meeting her in 1884, was impressed with her dignity and worth, remarking, "The Indian wife in body and mind was strong and elastic as steel."[16] None but an Indian woman could endure the perils and hardships of a fur trader's life of this period. She bore eleven children[17] for whom there are records. There may have been, and probably were, others who died in infancy. In the main the children arrived when the couple was temporarily domiciled in a trading post or fort, but one, at least, arrived in an Indian lodge. This was Letitia who was born in Idaho in 1831, and tradition claims that her birth occurred while the Snake brigade was under siege by Blackfoot Indians.
One small glimpse of John Work's life at this period comes from a letter written by John Tod to Edward Ermatinger: "New Caledonia, 18 Feb. 1830, I have got a letter from our worthy friend Work which has pierced me to the soul—he has given Kittson a sound beating."[18] References to his friend
were not always punctuated by the sly humor which marked Tod's letter of 1830. In 1831 he again wrote Ermatinger, then residing in eastern Canada: New Caledonia, 10 Apr., 1831. I have not one word of either Work or Frank [Ermatinger]—but believe both proceeded last summer on the trapping expeditions. God bless them both—I wish them well out of it—Poor Work—if he remains much longer in the Country neglected I fear he'll die of the spleen—he is much more discontented with the manner in which the good things are shared here than myself—He has now however an arduous duty to perform, but there is little doubt of his getting through it with his usual success."[19]
John Work returned from the expedition mentioned by Tod on July 27, 1832.[20] He was informed that he was to start on another expedition almost at once. His reaction to the prospect is seen in a letter he wrote to Edward Ermatinger:
I am going to start with my ragamuffin freemen to the southward towards the Spanish settlements but with what success I cannot say. I am tired of the cursed country, Ned, and becoming more dissatisfied every day with the measures in it; things don't go fair, I don't think I shall remain long, my plan is to hide myself in some out of the way corner, and drag out the remainder of my days as quietly as possible. Susette [Josette] is well, we have now got three little girls, they accompanied me these last two years, but I leave them behind this one, the misery is too great. I shall be very lonely without them but the cursed trip exposes them to too much hardship.[21]
It was not John Work's intention to take his family on the California expedition, but he reckoned without the intrepid Josette. Although not the slightest intimation is written in his day by day record that she was a member of the southern brigade, a letter written to a friend after their return states definitely that she and the three little girls were with him.[22] Josette came down from Fort Colville, where she had been visiting during Work's absence at Fort Vancouver, and met him when the brigade came up-river to Fort Nez Perce.[23] A list of the sick people of the California party has recently been found among some uncatalogued papers in the Archives of British Columbia. It is in John Work's handwriting. Entries include members of his family.[24]
The route of the southern brigade of the Hudson's Bay Company of 1832 followed the Columbia River by water to Fort Nez Perce, later called Fort Walla Walla, where horses awaited the party. The band of trappers, which numbered one hundred men, women and children, then turned southward over the mountains until they reached the headwaters of Silvies River, which stream they followed to its mouth at Malheur Lake in central Oregon. Here they turned west across the sagebrush desert region, finding their way by familiar landmarks: isolated buttes now called Iron Mountain, Wagontire Butte, and Juniper Mountain. Bending to the southwest they passed Alkali Lake, Abert Lake and Abert Rim, reaching at last Goose Lake on the 42nd parallel, the boundary between the Oregon Country, jointly held by England and the United States, and the Mexican province of California.
Goose Lake was traced along its eastern shore until Pit River was reached. The trail followed down this stream, crossing and recrossing Pit River several times, until a stream now called Hat Creek was attained. The brigade ascended Hat Creek to a point now known as Doyle's Corners. A trail here turned to the west to ascend a steep slope between Magee Peak and Burney Mountain. A fairly low pass in the Cascade Mountains enabled the party to reach the headwaters of Cow Creek, which they followed through the foothills to reach the Sacramento River.
The great valley of California formed by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers in the early years of the nineteenth century was a no man's land traversed by wandering parties of Russians, British, and Americans who trapped the furs of its streams. Glimpses of these early explorers, who included French Canadian employees of the northern fur companies, flash across the pages of the journal in which John Work kept a daily record. From these sparks can be caught brief pictures of the fierce competition engaged in by the various groups in their desire to be first to trap the streams for their rich harvest of beaver and otter pelts.
Entries in Work's journal concerning the American, Ewing Young, are a hitherto unknown source of information on this hardy frontiersman. Work enlarges on exploits already known and contributes additional material on Young's route of 1832-33. Comments upon mission padres, the Russian governor of Fort Ross, Indian chieftains, early English and American residents of California, the attendance of Catholic French Canadians at mass on Easter Sunday, 1833, and a battle with Indians on the San Joaquin add dramatic interest to the daily record.
From Cow Creek the trappers traveled south along the banks of the Sacramento River to the Sutter Buttes where there was a campsite already well known from previous visits to the region. From the Buttes the men attempted to proceed farther south along the slopes of the Sierra foothills to the eastward but were prevented by torrential rains and high water. An excursion to the American River resulted in Work's determination to spend the winter at the Buttes. Here he was joined by another band of Hudson's Bay men who had come south along the Oregon and California coastline by the trail of Jedediah Smith. Michel LaFramboise headed this party of sixty-five people, many of whom were Oregon Indians. They left Fort Vancouver in April 1832 and penetrated the great valley of California as far as French Camp, near what is now Stockton. John Work, as was fitting his rank as gentleman of the company, became leader of the joint party.
When spring approached, the trappers followed the Sacramento River north to a crossing that had been discovered by Ewing Young. They crossed safely to the west bank and proceeded south along the foothills of the Coast Range to the Bay of San Francisco. After visiting Sonoma Mission and Fort Ross they searched the coast line to the north for furs but found none. Prevented from proceeding farther by mountain barriers south of Cape Mendocino, the brigade turned inland and returned to the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, where the party spent the summer of 1833. The southernmost point reached by the trappers was the Stanislaus River.
Disappointments marked the stay of the trappers in the valley. Furs were scarce and the Indians were belligerent, stealing horses at every opportunity. To add to the distress, mosquitoes were almost unbearable, and sickness followed their visitation. Work, completely discouraged, determined to return home with what furs he had collected. LaFramboise had left the party in June when the combined brigades were encamped on Eel River, as he was already overdue at Fort Vancouver. The journey northward of Work's brigade was fraught with peril because of the weakened condition of the members of the company. Only the fact that the Indians of California were afflicted by the same devastating disease saved the brigade from the annihilation which Work feared.
In the main, Work retraced his trail until he reached the confluence of Hat Creek and Pit River. From that point he took another well-used road across the headwaters of McCloud River, passing to the northeast of Mount Shasta to reach an old campsite at Sheep Rock in what is now Siskiyou County. The trail from Sheep Rock led almost directly north to the Klamath River, which Work called the "Sorty" or "Sarty."
The illness with which the members of Work's party were afflicted abated somewhat when the mountains were reached, nevertheless those who were convalescent had become so weakened by their sufferings that travel was very slow. Mountains, however, were climbed and rivers crossed, and the borders of Oregon were attained at last. Here help arrived in the person of LaFramboise, sent out from headquarters to search for Work's long overdue brigade. The food and letters brought by LaFramboise renewed the spirits of the men, and the party struggled on over familiar trails to reach Fort Vancouver on October 31, 1833.
John Work returned from California a very ill man, and for some time he remained with his family at Fort Vancouver to avail himself of the services of Dr. Meredith Gairdner, a London physician, who had reached the Columbia during his absence. With Dr. Gairdner had come Dr. William Fraser Tolmie who was soon stationed at Fort Nisqually on Puget Sound where he subsequently became factor. Dr. Tolmie was later to become Work's son-in-law. During the time John and Josette were at Fort Vancouver a fourth daughter was born. She was named Margaret for the wife of Chief Factor John McLoughlin. After Work's partial recovery he was placed in charge of shipping on the Columbia River, which position he held for about three years before he was assigned to the command of Fort Simpson on the Northwest coast. There the Work family resided until 1849.
Glimpses of John Work are obtained from John Tod's chatty letters, particularly when the changes and chances of the fur trade gave opportunity for brief reunions. From Cowlitz Plain, in February of 1840, Tod wrote to Edward Ermatinger:
Friend Work on his way to Vanc'r last fall was induced to remain here with me two nights during which many a phillipic was held forth on the privations of the Service and this "Cursed Country," but he is as far as ever from coming to any determination about quitting it. You would scarcely know him he is quite bald and altogether has really an old appearance, in short he goes under the name here of "Old Gentleman"[25]
Back in New Caledonia in the upper Columbia region, in 1 842, Tod wrote on March 18 to Ermatinger:
Work from whom I had a letter lately is indeed a queer looking old chap—of his hair there remains but three small elf locks which protrude, far between over his Coat neck and the point of his nose is actually coming in contact with that of his chin—he still continues to talk & I suppose will do so till the end of his quitting the Country—but he does not know what to do with his family . . . Poor Work is always complaining and I doubt not he has some cause, but bating [barring?] his delicate state of health which gives me much anxiety at times, I am inclined to believe that not a few of the evils of which he complains are merely imaginary. For instance he frets and worries at the idea of being superceded in his charge by a person subordinate to himself—Now when I leave this—were they to put a shoe-black in my place it would not give me one moment's uneasiness. Another striking fault of our worthy friend, and which tends not a little to increase his habitual anxiety is his want of decision, but if he does not take decisive measures soon to clear out, were it only for a season he will in all probability fall victim to
hypochrondisy.[26]
Thus does "Dr." Tod diagnose the ailment of his friend and prescribe a remedy.
Two years later, from his station at Thompson's River in New Caledonia, Tod sent Ermatinger another bit of news of John Work. "Poor dear Work is still in the usual way and as undecided as ever about going out while every letter I get announces the birth of another child."[27]
In 1849 John Work was transferred to Fort Victoria as one of the managers of the Hudson's Bay Company affairs west of the Rocky Mountains, and in 1853 he was appointed by Chief Factor James Douglas a member of the Legislative Council of Vancouver Island. The appointment was confirmed from London in 1854.
Until the formation of this colony Mr. Work had always expressed a fond intention of spending the evening of his days in his native land, the north of Ireland, but the prospect of a civilized home on this Island under British institutions induced him to settle here where he acquired considerable property and became one of the earliest and most enterprising farmers in Victoria District.[28]
In 1850 John Work purchased a large tract of land near Fort Victoria. All of this land now lies within the limits of the city of Victoria. Street names in certain districts bear names of the Work children, and there is a Work Street and a Wark Street as well.
While residing in Victoria, John Work nevertheless seems to have retained for several years supervision of Fort Simpson, and while so engaged made two or more voyages to the northward in connection with the discovery of gold on Queen Charlotte Island. He was accompanied on one of these trips by "Old Pierre," that is, Pierre Legace, his father-in-law, always a reliable companion on the trail and a veteran of the California expedition.[29]
John and Josette took with them to Victoria their large family and built for their first home a log residence. Later a mansion which they called "Hillside" was erected. This structure is still standing and was located and identified in 1941. It has been altered and removed from its original site in a grove of oak trees to a new situation across the street.
During the residence of the family at Fort Simpson, Work was distressed at the lack of educational facilities for his children. He made the experiment of sending the elder daughters, Jane and Sarah, to Oregon, where they resided for a year in the family of the Reverend David Leslie, a Methodist missionary. But this course did not prove satisfactory, and eventually he took upon himself the task of educating his children. This must have been a rewarding experience, for the occasional references to "the Misses Work" in contemporary letters and newspapers during the early days of Victoria indicate that they were belles in local society and were sought as wives by company officials and newly arrived Englishmen. The first to marry was Sarah, who became the wife of Roderick Finlayson, of the Hudson's Bay Company, in December 1849.
But before her marriage lines were read, another interesting and important ceremony took place. When John and Josette met at Fort Colville there was neither civil authority nor clergyman in all the vast Northwest. As was the custom, the simple notification that Josette Legace had been taken under the protection of John Work sufficed for the day and place. In the records of Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria are included the earlier records kept by the first chaplains at Fort Victoria in which occurs the following entry:
Settlement of Victoria, Vancouver Island, in the year 1849, John Work, at present residing at Fort Victoria but generally of Fort Simpson, N. W. America
and
Josette Legace, at present residing at Fort Victoria but generally of Fort Simpson, N. W. America
were married in this Fort by banns this sixth day of November in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty nine by me, Robert John Staines, Chaplain to the Honourable Hudson's Bay Company. This marriage was solemnized between us in the presence of
James Douglas, Chief Factor H.B.C.
mark
John Tod, Chief Trader.
JOHN WORK
her
JOSETTE X LEGACE[30]
It was John Work's plan that as each of the daughters married he would present her with a house and lot in Victoria. A small portion of one of these homes is still standing in the form of an adjunct to the Peter Reilly residence at Rock Bay. Family tradition tells that each year John Work ordered from London gowns for his wife and daughters, and that one season the ship brought gold watches as well. One of these is still treasured by a granddaughter. In his later years it was Work's custom, as he strolled through Victoria, to carry in his pockets sweetmeats for the children, not only for his numerous grandchildren, but for other children as well. He was greatly beloved by all who knew him.
On September 1, 1861, John Tod, the ever faithful friend, at that time also living near Victoria at Oak Bay, wrote to Edward Ermatinger, "Our old friends Work and Yale are both well."[31] However, two months later his next letter strikes an ominous note.
You will be sorry to hear of the long protracted sufferings of our poor friend Work—he has scarcely been out of bed for the past two months—his complaint is a relapse of fever and ague with which he was attacked at Vancouver 27 years ago, and to his medical attendants has appeared a very extraordinary case— Latterly he has become so much reduced, and so very weak I have felt it a sacred duty to be constantly with him, administering what little consolation to him I can—it has been no small gratification to myself to think I may have been of some use to him in what I greatly fear may be among his last days—his family have frequently said too that he never appears so cheerful as when I am with him. While sitting at his bedside we have often conversed of You and when I left him only a few hours since I told him it was for the purpose of writing to You, as soon as your name was mentioned, the poor sufferer struggled hard to get up— "Yes do," said he, "and tell him oh tell him that I shall never again see him in this world."
Two days later, on December 23, 1861, Tod continued his letter:
I have just returned from the house of mourning where lays the body of our departed friend Work."[32]
John Work was buried in the churchyard of Christ Church Cathedral, and his interesting tomb is one of the few that were preserved when the historic site was beautified as a rest park for Victoria residents and visitors.
Josette, surrounded by her children and grandchildren, survived until 1896, residing at "Hillside" in Victorian formality. "An interesting though sad feature of the Legislature on January 31,1 896, was the passage of a resolution of sympathy by the House to the members of the family of the late Mrs. Work."[33]
NOTES
- ↑ Edwin Ernest Rich and W. Kaye Lamb, eds., The Letters of John McLoughlin from Fort Vancouver to the Governor and Committee, First Series, 1825-38, Hudson's Bay Record Society, Publications of the Champlain Society, Hudson's Bay Company Series, IV (Toronto and London, 1941), 356.
- ↑ Harry Dee, "John Work, A Chronicle of His Life and a Guide to His Journals" (thesis submitted for degree of M.A., University of British Columbia, 1943).
- ↑ Rich and Lamb, loc. cit.
- ↑ William Downie, Hunting for Gold, Reminiscences . . . of the Pacific Coast from Alaska to Panama (San Francisco, 1893), p. 223.
- ↑ See sources cited in Alice Bay Maloney, "Early Trails of Northern California" (a paper read at a history seminar at the University of California, April 18, 1941, library of Dr. Herbert Eugene Bolton, Berkeley).
- ↑ Maurice S. Sullivan, ed.. The Travels of Jedediah Smith (Santa Ana, Calif.: Fine Arts Press, 1934), p. 108.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 149.
- ↑ Alice Bay Maloney, "Peter Skene Ogden's Trapping Expedition to the Gulf of California, 1829-30,"California Historical Society Quarterly, XIX (December 1940), 308.
- ↑ Sullivan, op. cit., p. 112.
- ↑ Obituary published in newspaper at the time of John Work's death, in the form of a copy furnished by Dr. Joseph Huggins (no place, no date, but presumably from a Victoria publication).
- ↑ The Edward Huggins Papers in the Soliday Collection, Huntington Library, San Marino, California, include original letters of both uncle and nephew written during the decade 1850-60.
- ↑ Rich and Lamb, loc. cit.
- ↑ See Note 10.
- ↑ Dr. Huggins notes three versions of this name: Legace, Legase, and Legasse. Joseph Huggins to Alice Bay Maloney, Downington, Pennsylvania, February 13, 1941.
- ↑ Mark Sweeten Wade, The Thompson Country (Kamloops, 1907), p. 13.
- ↑ Hubert Howe Bancroft, Literary Industries (San Francisco, 1890), p. 354.
- ↑ The children of John and Josette Work were:
Jane, born at Fort Colville, December 25, 1827; married William F. Tolmie, Victoria, February 19, 1850.
Sarah, born at Fort Colville, November 1829; married Roderick Finlayson, Victoria, December 14, 1849.
Letitia, born in Idaho in summer of 1831, probably in June; married Edward Huggins, October 21, 1857.
Margaret, born at Fort Vancouver, September 15, 1836; married Edward Jackson, Victoria, February 5, 1861.
Mary, born at Fort Simpson, January or February 1837; married James A. Graham, Victoria, September 5, i860.
Catherine (Kate), born at Fort Simpson; married Charles W. Wallace, Victoria, February 5, 1861.
John, born at Fort Simpson, 1839.
Josette, born at Victoria, 1843; married E. Prior, January 30, 1878.
David, born at Fort Simpson, June 1846.
Cecelia, born at Fort Simpson, June 1849; married Charles Jones, Victoria, October 12, 1870.
Henry, born at Fort Simpson, 1844 or 1845; died young, in an accident.
Sources: Materials in the Archives of British Columbia, Provincial Library, Victoria, B. C; the Huntington Library, San Marino, California; and the Oregon Historical Society, Portland, Oregon; also statements of Dr. Joseph Huggins, and Miss Etta [Josette] Tolmie.
- ↑ John Tod to Edward Ermatinger, New Caledonia, February 18, 1830, Edward Ermatinger Papers, 1826-1874 (photostats. Archives of British Columbia, Provincial Library, Victoria, B. C.)
- ↑ Same to same. New Caledonia, April 10, 1831, ibid.
- ↑ William Stanley Lewis and Paul Chrisler Phillips, eds., The Journal of John Work, a Chief Trader of the Hudson's Bay Co., during His Expedition from Vancouver to the Flatheads and Blackfeet of the Pacific Northwest . . . and Life of Work, (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1923), p. 176.
- ↑ Ibid., p. 181.
- ↑ John Work to Edward Ermatinger, Fort Vancouver, February 24, 1834, Washington Historical Quarterly, II (January 1908), 163-64.
- ↑ "Bring Work's family down if he has so directed." John McLoughlin, Fort Vancouver, to McGillivray, at Fort Colville, 1832, no month, no date but context indicates summer (copy in Archives of British Columbia, B223 b8).
- ↑ List of sick people on Work's California expedition, 1832-33 (MS in Archives of British Columbia, Provincial Library, Victoria, B. C.).
- ↑ Tod to Ermatinger, Cowlitz Plain, February 1840, Letters to Edward Ermatinger, January 2, 1828, to November 14, 1856 (bound photostats. Archives of British Columbia, Victoria).
- ↑ Same to same. New Caledonia, March 18, 1842, ibid.
- ↑ Same to same, Thompson's River, no month, 1844, ibid.
- ↑ See Note 10.
- ↑ Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of British Columbia (San Francisco, 1887), p. 346.
- ↑ Information from Pioneer files in Provincial Library, Victoria, British Columbia.
- ↑ Tod to Ermatinger, Letters to Edward Ermatinger.
- ↑ Same to same, December 23, 1861, ibid.
- ↑ N. de Bertrand Lugrin (edited by John Hosie), The Pioneer Women of Vancouver Island, 1843-1866 (Victoria, B. C., 1928), p. 61.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
MANUSCRIPT MATERIALS
In the Archives of British Columbia, Provincial Library, Victoria, B. C.
1. Correspondence:
Letters to Edward Ermatinger (from John Work, William Tod, Jane Klyne, and Archibald McDonald, January 2, 1828, to November 14, 1856. Bound photostats.)
John Work Correspondence (with Archibald McDonald and others, relating to Fort Langley), 1830-1859.
John Work Correspondence (from John McLeod), 1826-1837.
Fort Simpson Correspondence Outward, September 6, 1841-October 11, 1844.
Fort Simpson Correspondence Outward to 1849. (Bound transcripts.)
Fort Victoria Correspondence, Outward, 1849-1861.
Fort Victoria Correspondence Outward, 1850-1871.
Fort Victoria Correspondence Outward, 1858-1871.
Vancouver Island Colonial Secretary, Correspondence Outward, September 28, 1860-August 13, 1861. (Letters dated May 21, June 6, and June 7, 1861, signed by John Work. Official letterbook copies.)
2. Journals:
John Work Journal, April 15-November 17, 1824. Bound with his journal for July 18-October 28, 1823.
John Work Journal, November 18-December 30, 1824.
John Work Journal, March 21-May 14, 1825.
John Work Journal, June 21, 1825-June 12, 1826.
John Work Journal, July 5-September 15, 1826.
John Work Journal, May 20-August 15, 1828.
John Work Journal, April 30-May 31, 1830.
John Work Journal, August 22, 1830-April 20, 183 1. (To be published in an early issue of the British Columbia Historical Quarterly.)
John Work Journal, April 21-July 20, 1831. (To be published in an early issue of the British Columbia Historical Quarterly.)
John Work Journal, August 18, 1831-July 27, 1832.
John Work Journal, August 17, 1832-April 2, 1833.
John Work Journal, April 3 -October 31, 1833.
John Work Journal, May 22-July 10, 1834.
John Work Notebook, May-June 1834.
John Work Journal, December 11, 1834-June 30, 1835.
John Work Journal, July 1-October 27, 1835.
3. Miscellaneous:
Miscellaneous material relating to John Work.
PRINTED MATERIALS
1. Correspondence:
John Work to Edward Ermatinger, Fort Vancouver, February 24, 1834, Washington Historical Quarterly II (January 1908), 163-64.
John Work to Edward Ermatinger, Fort Simpson, September 10, 1838, Washington Historical Quarterly II (April 1908), 261-62.
John Work to Edward Ermatinger, Steamer Beaver, October 24, 1839, Washington Historical Quarterly, II (April 1908), 262-64.
2. Journals:
"Governor George Simpson at Astoria in 1824," edited by Walter Noble Sage and T. C. Elliott, Oregon Historical Quarterly XXX (June 1929), 106-10.
"Journal of John Work, November and December, 1824," edited by T. C. Elliott, Washington Historical Quarterly, III (July 1912), 198-228.
"Journal of John Work" (June 1825-June 1826), edited by T. C. Elliott, Washington Historical Quarterly, V (April 1914), 83-115; (July), 163-91; (October), 258-87.
"The Journal of John Work; July 5-September 15, 1826," edited by T. C. Elliott, Washington Historical Quarterly, VI (January 1915), 26-49.
"John Work's Journal of a Trip from Fort Colville to Fort Vancouver and Return in 1828," edited by William S. Lewis and Jacob A. Meyers, Washington Historical Quarterly, XI (April 1920), 104-14.
"Journal of John Work, April 30th to May 31st, 1830," edited by T. C. Elliott, Oregon Historical Quarterly, X (September 1909), 296-313.
"Journal of John Work, Covering Snake Country Expedition of 1830-31," edited by T. C. Elliott, Oregon Historical Quarterly, XIII (December 1912), 363-71; XIV September 1913), 280-314.
"John Work's Journey from Fort Vancouver to Umpqua River, and Return, in 1834," edited by Leslie M. Scott, Oregon Historical Quarterly, XXIV (September 1923), 238-68.
The Journal of John Work, a Chief-Trader of the Hudson's Bay Co., During His Expedition from Vancouver to the Flatheads and Blackfeet of the Pacific Northwest, Edited, and with an Account of the Fur Trade in the Northwest, and Life of Work, by William S. Lewis and Paul C. Phillips (Cleveland: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1923).
3. Documents:
4. Periodical article: