1925 Fort Vancouver, Washington, History, Coin, And Celebrat

I'm the type of person who get's antsy if I can't share some history and knowledge behind our coins. For me the Early Classic Commemorative Series is the best in satisfying this urge. Here is a little history around Fort Vancouver and the Centennial held in 1925:


Dr. John McLoughlin, The Oregon Pioneer - 1822, photographer, Houseworth's, San Francisco, formal head and shoulders vintage studio portrait. Image courtesy of The Washington State Historical Society.

". . . Dr. John McLoughlin and the Vancouver Centennial.
Last August there was celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of the building of Fort Vancouver, in the State of Washington. This event marked a new era in the progress of Western civilization. The fort became the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, which governed a vast territory reaching as far north as Alaska, as far south as California, east to the Rocky Mountains and west to the Pacific Ocean. The fort, built near the present barracks of Vancouver, Wash., became the seat of government for all that territory. This was at a time when neither the English nor the United States Government was functioning in that part of the West. The territory was peopled by about 1000 white men, the employees of the Hudson's Bay Company, engaged principally in fur trading, and perhaps 100,000 Indians. The fort was built in 1825 by Dr. John McLoughlin, chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company. The centennial of this building is of such importance that the Government has issued a commemorative half dollar, showing the fort on the reverse and a portrait of Dr. McLoughlin on the obverse.

The interest in this coin is heightened by a knowledge of the man whose portrait it bears. Dr. McLoughlin was truly a great man. He ruled this great territory as an absolute monarch, a benevolent, despot, Haroun-al-Raschid reincarnated. He was able to convince the savage tribes of Indians that he and his company intended them no harm. If an Indian did wrong to a white man, he was punished, and the same punishment was administrated to a white man who wronged an Indian. He forbade the evil practice which had existed theretofore of trading 'firewater' to the Indians. He dealt with such business toward these savage tribes that for hundreds of miles around they acknowledged him their Big Chief and lived in peace and quiet among the whites.

Dr. McLoughlin was born in Canada in 1784, of Scotch-Irish descent. Being a British subject, it was to his interest and that of the company by whom he was employed to prevent a settlement of the country by Americans, but his loyalty to his country and to his company was not so strong as his love for humanity. This stern man of business was ever ready to welcome the weary wayfarer, and his generous hand was always outstretched to render aid in time of need. Had it not been for Dr. McLoughlin's bounty, hundreds of American immigrants would have perished from starvation. Without his wise and just treatment of the Indians, countless numbers of whites would have been massacred.

In appearance, Dr. McLoughlin was a large man, his face beaming with intelligence, firmness and benignity, whose long white hair, florid complexion and clear blue eyes distinguished him among a thousand men. Dignified, courtly and gracious in his deportment, he was a conspicuous representative of the picturesque and romantic period of our history. He conducted the affairs of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver from the time of his appointment in 1824 until 1846, when he resigned and retired to live at Oregon City. There he engaged in private enterprises, became a naturalized American, and died there in 1857. The conspicuous and honorable part he played in the development of the West renders it fitting that honor be paid his memory."1

1. The Numismatist, The Fort Vancouver Half Dollar, October, 1925, p. 543-544.



I hope you enjoyed this little bit of history and I'll add more in the future.