Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 31/Jane Barnes, First White Woman in Oregon

by Kenneth W. Porter

JANE BARNES, FIRST WHITE WOMAN IN OREGON By KENNETH W. PORTER

THE CHARACTER of Jane Barnes,^[1] the first white woman on the Columbia River, is one of many which may be classed as much more interesting than inspirational. Originally a lively, flaxen-haired, blue-eyed barmaid at a hotel in Portsmouth, England, she caught the fancy of Donald McTavish,^[2] who had stopped at the establishment where she was employed a few days previous to his embarkation in the Isaac Todd for the Columbia River, where he was to act for the North West Company as governor of the post which that organization hoped would supersede the American station of Astoria. That gentle man, without much difficulty, succeeded in adding her to all those comforts of home, including "bottled porter," "excellent cheese," and prime tinned English beef, with which he and his fellow-proprietor, John McDonald, intended to solace their long ocean voyage and subsequent exile in the Indian country of the northwest coast.^[3] What some of his inducements were may appear later, but at any rate Miss Barnes must have possessed a fair share of courage to brave the dangers of sea, war and savages, and this perhaps helps to justify her right to that small but secure niche in history which her physical charms were chiefly instrumental in winning.

After a passage of 13 months from England, the Isaac Todd, with Governor McTavish and his cormpagnonne de voyage, crossed the bar of the Columbia on April 17, 1814. It was on Sunday morning, a week later, that Alexander Henry, Jr., went on board and was introduced to her by McTavish, after which the morning was pleasantly spent in smoking and chatting. Dr. Swan, McTavish, the governor of Fort George when it was Astoria, Duncan McDougall, Henry, and Miss Barnes also dined together, at which meal, Henry observed rather disapprovingly, "A vile discourse took place in the hearing of Jane on the subject of venereal disease and Chinook ladies." After dinner the company went ashore in the jolly-boat for the afternoon, Jane Barnes doubtless being glad to feel the earth beneath her feet for the first time since leaving the Isaac Todd's wintering port of San Francisco.^[4]

The next day, McTavish, as one of the first acts of his administration, chivalrously rechristened as the Jane, the sloop hitherto known as the Dolly (which had come out in the ill-fated Tonquin and had probably been named for Dorothea Astor, John Jacob Astor's sister-in-law, or, possibly, for his own daughter), doubtless getting a great deal of satisfaction from this demonstration of his company's commercial victory over their great New York rival. During that week Miss Barnes, accompanied by the doctor and the governor, made occasional visits to the shore, once for a couple of hours during the afternoon of the 26th, and all day on the 30th. On Sunday, May 1, McTavish and his lady, with the doctor, returned Henry's call by breakfasting with him, apparently spending the night on shore and returning to the ship next morning. McTavish was planning on taking up his permanent residence on shore at once, even though living accommodations might not be so comfortable, and, accordingly, two men were set to work, putting " a room in order for Mr. D. McTavish and Jane." His reason for this decision was that his person was thought not safe on board, due to some difficulties he had experienced with the captain and his extreme unpopularity with the crew. How ever, he did not immediately carry this plan into effect, though he was ashore on May 4, for the first time, it seems, unaccompanied by his mistress.^[5]

This was for a very good reason. It seems that McTavish had at first intended, after getting the fort well established, which apparently he thought would not be a very extended task, to take Jane back with him overland to Montreal when he returned, but, "on learning the impracticability of her performing such an arduous journey, he abandoned that idea, and made arrangements with the captain [of the Isaac Todd] for her return to England by way of Canton."^[6] The Isaac Todd was to sail on August 1, and McTavish may have expected to leave before that date. At any rate, he determined that the inevitable break could best come at once, and so proposed in order to protect the woman from the crowd of clerks and voyageurs at the post, to turn her over formally to Henry. To this proposition the latter, after a joint conference with McTavish and Miss Barnes, finally consented, describing the arrangement as "tmore an act of necessity than anything else," and disclaiming all emotional considerations save those of humanity. Accordingly, on the appropriate date of Sunday, May 8, the new arrangement went into effect, the longboat "came with Jane, bag and baggage," and "about sunset the jolly-boat took Mr. D. McTavish on board alone." A further interchange of notes and another conference took place on the next two days, indicating that McTavish was not altogether satisfied with the arrangement which he himself had proposed, but after this the understanding seems to have been so complete that the name of the

1. Alexander Henry, Jr., on the only occasion when he mentions her surname, scotticizes it to "Burns," but it is clear that it should be as given in the text; Elliott Coues, Henry-Thompson Journals, page 895.
2. Cox, possibly out of a charitable desire to avoid attaching scandal to the name of the dead, speaks of the proprietor who made a conquest of Jane Barnes, or vice versa, merely as "Mr. Mac," thereby casting suspicion on both Donald McTavish and John McDonald, the other proprietor. It is not likely that Alexander and James McTavish and Alexander McKenzie, clerks, who with Alexander Fraser, another clerk, and Mr. Swan, a doctor, made up the male passenger list, could be accused because of the common prefix to their surnames, since their position as clerks would obviate any possibility of being able to afford such an expensive luxury; Ross Cox, Adventures on the Columbia River, chapter XIII, page 139. Henry's journal states definitely that Jane Barnes was the mistress of Governor McTavish, thereby apparently exonerating the others. See Henry-Thompson Journals, page 895, following. Coues points out that no mention, save by Cox, is made of any John McDonald arriving at the Columbia River in the Isaac Todd, and suggests the possibility of a mistake; same, page 762, note. Inasmuch as Cox was absent from Astoria or Fort George until June 11, 1814, prior to which date John McDonald of Garth, who started in the Isaac Todd but arrived in the Raccoon, had left the coast, and Donald McTavish had been drowned, it is easy to see how he might have thought that John McDonald of Garth had arrived at the Columbia in the same vessel as that on which he left England. Cox, Adventures on the Columbia River, chapter XIII, page 139.
3. Cox, same, page 140.
4. Masson, Les Bourgeois de la Compagnie du Nord-Ouest, volume II, page 52.
5. Henry-Thompson Journals, pages 895-908.
6. Cox, same, pages 141, 145.