Five community members who lived at Fort Vancouver in the 1800s are getting special attention this month.
It is part of the national historic site’s celebration of Women’s History Month. However, these “Founding Mothers” aren’t just material for a March nod to women’s history. Historical figures such as Marguerite McLoughlin and daughter Eloisa — whose stories will be shared in a March 15 lecture by Meagan Huff — deserve wider appreciation.
Four of the five women (the McLoughlins, Sarah Winnemucca and Maria Pambrun Barclay) had Indian ancestry.
“These women of color overcame tremendous difficulties and endured incredible hardships, and so I see them as symbols for all women — and, for that matter, men — today,” said Fort Vancouver Superintendent Tracy Fortmann.
When measuring our own lives against the challenges they faced, “it is hard not to be in awe with their life stories,” Fortmann said.
The focal point of the March observance is an exhibit by local artist Hilarie Couture. It’s an extension of a yearlong project called “Founding Mothers: Portraits of Progress.” The exhibit will be on display through the month at the Fort Vancouver Visitor Center, 1501 E. Evergreen Blvd.
Couture created five paintings for the exhibit. In addition to Marguerite McLoughlin and Eloisa McLoughlin Rae Harvey, the sepia-toned portraits show Maria Panbrum Barclay, Sarah Winnemucca and Idabelle Sparks Kress.
They share the gallery with 23 of Couture’s earlier works illustrating community contributors. The five new works bring Couture’s total of “Founding Mothers” to 54 faces, she said. Couture will officially open the exhibit at 1 p.m. Saturday in the Visitor Center.
Huff, a National Park Service assistant curator, will discuss the lives of Marguerite McLoughlin and daughter Eloisa at 7 p.m. at the Visitor Center.
Barclay also gets special recognition this month. One of her dresses — a silk garment about 170 years old — will be on display at the McLoughlin House Site in Oregon City, Ore. The McLoughlin House is a unit of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
“The historical record can be lacking when it comes to the lives of women at Fort Vancouver,” Huff said. “But with the research that we have done, and through our exhibits and public programs, we are working to highlight the very important roles they played here. We want their stories to be a part of the overall history we share.”
Marguerite’s father was murdered when she was 7; she was later abandoned by her first husband and the father of her four children, then crossed the continent with John McLoughlin and became the “first lady” of Fort Vancouver.
Eloisa grew up at the fort, married one of its clerks, gave birth aboard a rickety steamship, partied in San Francisco in what then was Mexican California, witnessed her husband’s suicide, and eventually became a prominent resident of Oregon City.
FORT’S FOUNDING MOTHERS
• Maria Pambrun Barclay: Born in 1826, she was the eldest daughter of a Hudson’s Bay Company chief trader who died in 1841 at Fort Walla Walla. Her mother moved the family to Fort Vancouver. In 1842, Maria married Dr. Forbes Barclay, the fort’s physician; they lived at Fort Vancouver until 1850, when they retired to Oregon City, Ore.
• Sarah Winnemucca: A member of the Paiute tribe, she was born in 1844 in present-day Nevada. Winnemucca worked as an interpreter and a negotiator between Indian tribes and the U.S. Army during the Indian Wars of the 19th century. In 1881, Winnemucca worked at Vancouver Barracks as a teacher and interpreter for the Indians incarcerated there.
• Marguerite McLoughlin: Born around 1775, Marguerite Wadin McKay McLoughlin was the daughter of a Swiss fur trader and an Ojibwe woman. She married Alexander McKay, a North West Company clerk who was killed in 1811 while establishing Fort Astoria on the Oregon Coast. Her second husband was Dr. John McLoughlin, who became Fort Vancouver’s chief factor in 1824. In 1846, they retired to Oregon City, Ore., and lived in the McLoughlin House, now part of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site.
• Eloisa McLoughlin Rae Harvey: Born on the northern side of Lake Superior in 1817 to Dr. John and Marguerite McLoughlin, she grew up at Fort Vancouver. She married a clerk, William Glen Rae, in 1838. After his suicide in 1845, she and her children moved to Oregon City to be with her parents and remarried.
• Idabelle Sparks Kress: After her father’s death in 1873, the New York native and her mother, Elizabeth, took a trip west. While visiting the U.S. Army post at San Juan Island, Elizabeth met and married 1st Lt. James Haughey, the commanding officer. The Haugheys soon moved to Vancouver Barracks, where they lived from 1874 to 1884.