JOURNAL OF JOHN WORK
April 30th to May 31st, 1830.
John Work, the writer of this journal, was one of the tireless and forceful "gentlemen" in the Hudson's Bay Company's employ west of the Rocky Mountains, and more particularly along the Columbia River and its tributaries, beginning with the year 1823.
In the course of serving his time as a clerk, he was sent from York Factory on Hudson's Bay in July, 1823, with the annual express, in charge of Peter Skene Ogden, to Fort George (Astoria). This was one year prior to the coming of Dr. John McLoughlin to assume charge of the business of the Company west of the mountains.
From 1823 to 1830, John Work's field of employment was principally at the Posts or Forts of the upper Columbia; Spokane House, Colvile, Flathead and Kootenai, and it was he who superintended the building of Fort Colvile, just above Chaudiere or Kettle Falls (Ilth-Koy-Ape, according to David Thompson) in 1825-6, and the abandonment of Spokane House in 1826. In 1830, he was promoted to Chief Trader and appointed to succeed Mr. Ogden in charge of the Snake River Brigade, leaving in the fall of that year.
We very little appreciate or understand at the present day the constant and extensive demand for horses in the fur trade, primarily as beasts of burden, but very often as necessary articles of food; and the difficulty of obtaining them.
Among the descendants of John Work are his grand-children, comprising the family of the honored Dr. Wm. Eraser Tolmie, deceased, once a member of the legislature of the Provisional Government of Oregon and a scholar as well as a gentleman and man of affairs. The original journal is in
