Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/285

Peter Skene Ogden, Fur Trader. 263 H. B. Company's vessels, and the payment of duty upon goods transferred around from Vancouver to Nisqually. In the Spring- of 1849 United States troops began to arrive at Van- couver and their encampment was on the higher ground immediately behind the H. B. Company stockade under a formal lease at a pretty stiff consideration entered into be- tween Capt. Rufus Ingalls, Quartermaster, and Mr. Ogden. This lease continued for periods of six months at a time until Col. Bonneville (the Capt. Bonneville of Washington Irving) was instructed from headquarters at Benicia to lay out a military reservation one mile square, and this was sur- veyed so as to include the entire stockade and village of the H. B. Company. There was every occasion for serious fric- tion, at least in sentiment, for the H. B. Company was claim- ing a large amount of land along the river. But Mr. Ogden, although holding strictly to the rights of his company, man- aged to avoid conflict and was on the best of terms with the army officers. Fort Vancouver continued to be the supply point for the company's forts along the coast and at the Sandwich Islands, and the business with the Oregon settlers and the Indians of the interior continued to be large; and there were accounts to be collected from the early settlers. As manager of the largest business concern in the country Mr. Ogden's responsi- bilities were both varied and great. He came to be called Governor Ogden and many Oregon pioneers yet living recall him as "a short man, dark complexioned, witty and lively in conversation" and distinguished in appearance. Of those years we can not here speak in detail but will offer a few glimpses of him through contemporaneous documents. On October 5th, 1849, the mounted regiment of riflemen to Oregon arrived overland from Fort Leavenworth and their quartermaster, Maj. Osborne Cross, has this to say in his report : — "My duties had now come to a close and from this time to the nth of November I was employed in paying off the team-