What a button Can Tell – The Age of Columbia River Exploration

[PacificNorthWest-Relics]

The following discussion details my super-sleuthing journey to educate myself about a metal button I had recently obtained. Now I should clarify from the start, I do not fancy myself a button collector. I lean more towards a collector of Columbia River history - with a particular interest in the river's prehistoric past.

THE WHO
A few weeks ago, a close collecting friend contacted me to let me know he had obtained some items from a well-known region collector who had passed-away in 2009. I had visited the home of this well-known collector 6 months before his death and considering he had been a charter member of the Oregon Archaeological Society with the likes of Dr. Luther Cressman, Emory Strong and Norma G. Seaman, I felt it had been a privilege for me to have met him and have the opportunity to view is collection. This collector had been collecting the Portland region of the Columbia River since the early 1920s. I told my collecting friend I would be over that same night to see what he had obtained.

It turned out my collecting friend had acquired most of the "Trade Goods" from the collection - minus two valuable 1820 North West Company Tokens and a frame of Phoenix buttons the family had decided to keep. Most of the trade goods were nicely arranged in homemade wood and glass frames. Many of the items were easy to identify such as skeleton keys, Chinese coins, bells, sheet and rolled copper. I decided I would like a frame or two - to have as a keepsake in remembrance of the well-known collector I had visited 18 months earlier.

THE WHAT?
There were several buttons in the frame I acquired that appeared to be from military uniforms. I had one button in particular that featured an anchor and single perforation - indicating it had been used by our native Columbia River Indians. I was most keen to learn about it and decided to turn to TreasureNet.com, a well-known Internet site frequented by metal detecting collectors. I posted my anchor button and asked for help with the identification and age. Those folks at TreasureNet know their stuff and in short order I was informed that I had a Royal Navy Button, pre-1812. Now for the Columbia River, this is a really early button and would predate the start of the fur trade. With this information, I was now able to start looking for people who specialize in this sort of button.

I found on the Internet a Mr. Burt in Ontario Canada who researched and collected British Naval buttons. Mr. Burt was able to given me very specific information about the button based on the Don Troiani book, "Military Buttons of the American Revolution," published by Thomas Publications.

"... British Naval Uniform Buttons (Officers) featured a plain, gilded, domed or Tudor Rose button until the regulation of July 30, 1774, which stated for both ranks would ware: "a flat button, with an anchor and cable (rope) engraved thereon according to the pattern lodged in the Navy Office." This stayed in use for a short time being replaced in 1787 by a pattern with the "Anchor in a Recessed Oval." It is important to note that the 1774 pattern captain's button was adopted in 1787 for midshipmen, and warrant officers, and continued in use by other ranks through the first quarter of the 19th century."

I asked if this sort of button was used in the fur trade? Mr. Burt indicated that he did not believe so and further added that those he had were associated with areas on the East Coast of Canada that had been frequented by the British Navy.

So, based on Troiani's book, my button was a British Naval Officer's uniform button that was first used by the Royal Navy in 1787 (Anchor in a Recessed Oval).

THE HOW
So I asked myself, how did a British Naval Officer's uniform button, first used in 1787 and discontinued by 1812, end up with our native Columbia river Indians? I had to go to the history books to find the answer. There are only two references for the early Columbia River where we know for a fact that the Royal Navy had visited the river.

HMS Raccoon

The later reference is for the HMS Raccoon, an 18-gun ship sloop of the Cormorant Class of the Royal Navy under the command of Captain William Black, which arrived at Fort Astoria in November 30, 1813. Arriving just seven months after the North West Company had negotiated the purchase of fort Astoria from Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company. The arrival of the HMS Raccoon seemed to be to late to be the source of my button.

On October 1792, the Royal British Navy arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River. Known as the Vancouver Expedition, the fleet consisted of the HMS Discovery under the command of Captain George Vancouver, the survey brig - armed tender ship HMS Chatham under the command of Lt. Robert Broughton and the supply ship HMS Daedalus.

Lt. William Robert Broughton

The expedition commander, George Vancouver sent Lt. Broughton and HMS Chatham into the river to chart the Columbia. The Chatham crossed the dangerous Columbia Bar and sailed up river. The Chatham was large so Lt. Broughton, not wanting to risk the ship in unknown waters, had the survey team reloaded on to smaller boats. He ordered the Chatham moved closer to shore and to set anchor. In Lt. Broughton absences, Lt. Thomas Manby was in charge.

HMS Chatham

October 25, 1792
On the Chatham, Manby wrote: "I was left with the command and directed to be on my guard against the Indians, and contrive some mode of replenishing our stock of Wood and Water." He purchased a canoe from the Indians, who "took up residence under a Tree abreast the vessel" and were happy to supply Manby with fish. Firewood was easy to obtain by snagging floating driftwood. The men aboard the Chatham entertained themselves by greeting "the good natured females [who] came daily on board to get themselves adorned with Beads and Buttons." (Howay and Elliot, "Vancouver's Brig Chatham," 321.)

Lt. Broughton continued up river and got as far as the Sandy River at the western end of the Columbia River Gorge, about 100 miles (160 km) upstream. Here is another interesting item related to when Lt. Broughton was near present day Sauvie Island.

October 28, 1792
When Broughton and his men looked easterly from Warrior Point (Present day Sauvie Island) and saw the large Indian village [Cathlapotle], according to Bell, "the strangers as seemed to belong to it strongly solicited the party to proceed thither; and to enforce their request, very unequivocally represented that if the party persisted in going to the southward they would have their heads cut off." Broughton proceeded south anyway. "The same entreaties, urged by similar warnings, had before been experienced by Mr. Broughton during his excursion but having found them to be unnecessary cautions, he proceeded up that which he considered to be the main branch of the river." It became clear that the residents of Cathlapotle and others who had gathered in the waters off Warrior Point did not wish to trade away their copper swords or their battle-axes made of iron. Sherriff documented how the meeting changed from confrontation to trade:

... the Chief after having some conversation with Mr. B. [Broughton] by signs, as we did not understand their language, in which conversation I thought he ask'd what we wanted here which was explain'd in the best manner we could, & likewise shewed him in the use of our Arms & fir'd a Musquet, which at once astonish'd & frighted them; after this the Chief spoke a few words to his followers & they unstrung their Bows & pull'd off their War Dresses immediately, and everyone was eager to dispose of his Arms, for our Trinketts (David, "John Sherriff on the Columbia, 1792," 56).

No details are given as to just what these "trinkets" were that made for easy trading, but it is likely that they included such things as small coinage, buttons, and beads. These types of trading items would become part of the fabric of Chinook life on the Columbia during the fur trade.

I called my friend, author and historian Paul Fridlund about my button. Paul is known for his fur trade collection and he informed me that he had three such buttons that were found on Sauvie Island - the same area my button was found. Paul stated these buttons on the Columbia river are exceedingly rare and that he suspects these Royal Navy buttons were traded on the Columbia river between the sailors and native Chinook women for quote, “special favors.” Paul's suspicion is fully supported by Lt. Thomas Manby October 25th journal entry.

SUMMARY
Research on this button suggest it is a British Naval Officer's uniform button given to a native Chinook Indian (woman for special favors?) by an officer of the Royal Navy during the Vancouver Expedition of 1792 – coinciding with the first exploration of the Columbia River by Europeans.

For most folks outside of the Northwest this is a ho-hum story. For those in the Northwest it may be of some historical interest.

…David

[uniface]

Seriously nice item, tale and research !!!!!!!!!

[Aboman]

Very interesting, David.

[DesertWalker]

Nice presentation, David. Just a few questions. Does that button have some backmarks on it? Is it solid brass or a brass shell with backfill? How do you suppose that hole was made?

[Indianasmith]

How totally cool!!! As a history nerd, I find this stuff fascinating!

[silver lake]

Very Interesting story and a nice history to go along with that little treasure!

[uniface]

The hole was punched through with a nail, against a log or something.

You see that hole on coins a lot. They kept them on strings.

[PacificNorthWest-Relics]

Originally Posted by DesertWalker

Nice presentation, David. Just a few questions. Does that button have some backmarks on it? Is it solid brass or a brass shell with backfill? How do you suppose that hole was made?

Hi Dave... good questions. The button appears to be brass, of a solid construction and still has some of the original gold gilding. I know later period buttons are typically a two-part construction. There are no manufacturer's marks on the reverse that I can tell. There is a fair amount of oxidation on the reverse, but I will not clean it.

The single perforation looks to be punched based on the "pucker" on the exit side. How the punch was achived I do not know. I do have several Columbia River copper pendant/bangles with similar holes (being punched).

...David

[DesertWalker]

I have found some coins from the mid 1800s with holes in them, some look drilled, others punched. IMO - That was most likely punched out by hammering on a sharpened metal awl of some sort, as nails of that era were square.

[PacificNorthWest-Relics]

I'd agree. I know both Lt. Broughton and Lewis & Clark recorded that the native Columbia River Indians had metal items (examples include copper and iron items). The Spanish and Russians certainly visited the Columbia River region prior to 1792. There was a pox epidemic that reportedly hit this region in the mid 1770s attributed to one other those two groups. Problem is, no detailed records have ever been found prior to Cptn Vancouver (British) and Capt'n Grey (American) both in 1792.

On August 15th, 1775 Spain's Bruno Heceta in the Sanitago and Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra in the Sonora arrived at the mouth of Columbia after having lost part of their crew in a skirmish with Indians on the Olympic peninsula (present day WA). Many of the remaining crewmen were weak with scurvy. They never explored the Columbia, only noted where it entered the Pacific.

Use of metal was on the Columbia prior to the earliest written records. Who and where it came from is still to be determined.