CAROLINE D. CARLEY the social, cultural, and economic center of the Oregon Country (Hussey 19572). In addition to the established fort proper, a Historical and Archaeological village for employees, called Kanaka Village, grew up southwest of the stockaded quarters, Evidence of 19th Century stores, and warehouses. South of this village, Fever Epidemics and Medicine another cluster of structures was established. Referred to today as the Riverside Complex, at Hudson’s Bay Company’s this group of buildings near the riverbank in- Fort Vancouver cluded boat sheds, a cooper’s shop, a hospital, tan pits, and several domestic dwellings. ABSTRACT The Riverside Complex was discovered on a narrow stretch of land between a major state During the Hudson’s Bay Company’s occupation of highway and a railroad embankment during Fort Vancouver in the Pacific Northwest, fevers in excavations of 45CL300 in the summers of epidemic proportions occurred intermittently through- 1974, 1975, and 1977. The projects were out the late 1820s and early 1830s, severely affecting the Company’s employees, operations, and aboriginal funded by the Washington State Highway population. Department, through the Office of Public Evidence of these epidemics has been found in the Archaeology at the University of Washington. archaeological record of a little known complex associ- The features and artifacts recovered indicated ated with Fort Vancouver. The investigation of 19th the presence of diverse Hudson’s Bay Com- century medical beliefs and practices aided in the in- terpretation of site activities as responses to the epi- pany activities in the area. A stockade trench demics. and numerous fire pits filled with charcoal were among the more unique features un- Introduction covered (Chance 1976, Chance and Chance 1976, Carley n.d.). In the winter of 1834-1825, Hudson’s Bay Subsequent research located an historical Company established a fur trading post and source which referred to a stockade along the supply depot on the north bank of the Co- riverbank; it enclosed the hospital (Emmons lumbia River, 100 miles inland from its mouth 1841). This hospital was presumably built as a at the Pacific Ocean. This post, Fort Van- response to fever epidemics which occurred couver, was the administrative headquarters annually for a number of years, severely af- for the Company’s Columbia Department, fecting the Company’s operations, employees which reached from the Rocky Mountains to and the aboriginal population. the Pacific Ocean and included the entire Co- The investigation of 19th century concepts lumbia River watershed. Here, all furs of the of hospitals, epidemics, and the causes and trade of the department were gathered and cures of diseases has aided in the interpreta- sent to England. Supplies from England ar- tion of the archaeological data from the River- rived at Fort Vancouver on ships navigating side Complex. A combination of historical and the Columbia River and were subsequently archaeological information had led to an dispatched to other HBC posts in the North- understanding of why the hospital was built at west and to ships participating in the coastal such a distance from the fort, why it was sur- trade. Until 1843, Fort Vancouver was the rounded by a stockade, what archaeological only major establishment in the vicinity of evidence remains from an early 19th century what is now Vancouver, Washington, an area hospital, and how unique features of the site which was jointly occupied by both British can be explained in terms of period medical and American citizens. For years the post was concepts and activities. 20 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY, VOLUME 15, NUMBER 1 Intermittent Fever Epidemics their disease-worn companions, shrieked and howled in the last sharp agony. In the late 1820s and early 1830%fever epi- demics spread rapidly throughout the Pacific Chief Factor John McLoughlin estimated Northwest, especially in the areas of the that nine-tenths of the native population were Columbia River and its tributaries. The har- swept away by these epidemics (Parker 1967: shest epidemics occurred between the years 178). Writing of the fever’s ruinous impact 1830 and 1834 (Rich 1941:88, 104, 129-130), upon the aboriginal population Dr. William though the fevers continued to disrupt daily Fraser Tolmie (1963: 183), stated in 1833 that: life until at least 1839 (Rich 1943:224), and . on the lower bank and just opposite to Coffin is- were mentioned as late as I84 1 (Rich 1943:4 I). land is the site of an indian village, which a few years The epidemics had a devastating impact upon ago contained two or three hundred inhabitants, but at the aboriginal population of the area, annihi- present only its superior verdure distinguished the spot lating entire villages and taking the lives from the surrounding country. Intermittent fever which of hundreds of individuals. Though deaths has almost depopulated Columbia R. of the aborigines, committed its fullest ravages and nearly exterminated among the Euroamerican population of the the villages, thy. few survivors deserting a spot where area were not numerous, these people often the pestilence seemed most terribly to wreck its ven- were weakened or totally debilitated for gence. weeks or months at a time. It was not unusual for the Company’s activities to come to a Sufferings of the Company complete halt when the epidemics peaked seasonally during the late summer and early Though there are accounts of large numbers fall months. At times, everyone at the fort was of individuals on the sick list at Fort Van- agitated by the fever, some suffering up to couver, death rarely resulted among the Euro- four relapses. The pestilence was usually re- american population contracting intermittent ferred to as “fever and ague” or, more com- fever. monly, “intermittent fever,” known today as In writing of the early years of the fever, malaria. Peter Skene Ogden (1933:139) stated that in the autumn of 1830, upon returning to the fort, Impact on the Natives he found several servants suffering from the illness. Twenty days after the symptoms first Those to suffer most with the coming of the appeared, the whole garrison, comprising 80 malady each year were the native Americans servants and 5 gentlemen, with the exception living near the Columbia River. John Kirk of 2, had been struck by the disease. Accord- Townsend (1905:333) wrote in 1834, after the ing to Chief Factor McLoughlin, it was not initial impact of the epidemics had lowered the uncommon for the sick list to be comprised of native population substantially, that: 75 individuals and for work about the fort to halt substantially (Rich 1941:94). In 1830, The depopulation here has been truly fearful. A gentle- there were 104 males employed at Fort Van- man told me, that only four years ago, as he wandered near what had been a thickly peopled village, he couver (Kardas 197 I : 169), thus 75 men on the counted no less than sixteen dead, men and women, sick list at once was a large portion of the lying unburied and festering in the sun in front of their population at the fort and included most of the habitations. Within the houses all were sick; not one working force. had escaped the contagion; upwards of a hundred indi- By 1834, the fever subsided somewhat and viduals, men, women, and children, were writhing in agony on the floors of the houses, with no one to McLoughlin reported that it was not as pre- render them assistance. Some were in the dying strug- valent that summer as previously “. but it gle, and clenching with the convulsive grasp of death is a fact that since it first began in 1830 it so EVIDENCE OF 19TH CENTURY FEVER EPIDEMICS AND MEDICINE AT FORT VANCOUVER 21 much weakened our people that it was with animal, vegetable or mineral; dispersed over the sur- the greatest difficulty we got through our face of the earth, and which is capable of being dis- work” (Rich 1941: 130). solved by water, consumed by fire, or volatized by heat, is diffused in endless variety and proportion Fewer cases of intermittent fever appeared through the different strata of air. When, therefore, we in 1836, but in 1839, the epidemics appeared consider that at every inspiration this fluid is applied to again with enough rage to inhibit ongoing an expanded tissue of the most delicate blood vessels work at the post (Rich 1941:158). As James in the lungs we cannot but conclude that its every vary- Douglas wrote from Fort Vancouver in that ing properties, temperature, density, and impregna- tions, must have a predominant influence on the health year: of the human race [Johnson 1820:1]. At this moment and for the last month, we have been In 1822, after much research and observa- so severely afflicted by the prevailing fevers of the tion, John Armstrong concluded that inter- country as to render it a matter of difficulty to carry on our work. A fourth or upwards of our effective force, mittent, remittent, and typhus fevers were are now in hospital, and fresh cases appearing every- modifications of the same disease and attribu- day [Rich 19432241. ted the causes of fever to a poisonous miasma. Intermittent fever recurred annually, taking Here we find a more specific explanation of the lives of hundreds, weakening as many, and the conditions of the atmosphere. The primary bringing commerce to a standstill. source of such fevers, according to Armstrong (1822:412), was “what the Italians vaguely call mal aria, and the English, as vaguely, marsh Etiology in the Early 19th Century effluvium.” He defined mal aria as a morbid To understand how those living at and in the exhalation of the soil which produced inter- vicinity of Fort Vancouver may have re- mittent and continued typhus.