Garden Tenders: Old fashioned Christmas Celebration

Last week we celebrated Christmas............ in 1855.

Grab yourself a spot of tea and hang on... the time machine is warming up......

Ready ..... NOW!

Fort Nisqually was the first European settlement on Puget Sound. It was established in 1833 by the Hudson's Bay Company (notice the crate beside Bear), the original site was above the Nisqually River delta near the present day town of DuPont, Washington.

Gradually, the Fort grew from a small remote outpost into a major international trading post. The Puget Sound's Agricultural Company was established to create new sources of revenue for the HBC.

Soon Fort Nisqually was producing much needed crops and livestock for not only the locals but to export to Russian America, Hawaii, Spanish California, Europe and Asia. We were big players in the trade world! I'm not sure that we exported gun powder though....

When Fort Nisqually was established in 1833, the land that became Washington and Oregon was jointly occupied by Americans and the English/Brittish of the Hudson's Bay Company. Thirteen years later, in 1846, a treaty between the United States and Great Britain established the boundary between the two country's claims at the 49th parallel - today's border between the United States and Canada. This treaty left Fort Nisqually on American soil. With fur trade profits declining, increasing competition from American settlers, and mounting harassment from American revenue agents and tax collectors, Fort Nisqually was closed in 1869. (directly from http://www.metroparkstacoma.org/fort-history).

In 1846 the United States paid the HBC $650,000 for Fort Nisqually and the Puget Sound Agriculture Company lands. A HUGE sum of money back then.

In 1933, one hundred years after Fort Nisqually's construction, major efforts were undertaken to preserve the fort's few remaining structures.

Only the Factor's House and the Granary had avoided disrepair and decay.

Fort Nisqually stands as a memorial to the servants of the "Honorable Company of Gentlemen out of Hudson's Bay" who risked their hides for skins in the Pacific Northwest.

Children were at the fort and here is a game they played with rings and pointed sticks. I'm sorry but I can't remember the name of this game. Its more complicated than you might think, but in 1855 children even very young in years easily played it.

Of course jump ropes were popular as well as checkers and various puzzles and tic tac toe.

In the company store they sold pelts, cloth, tea, pencils, shoes, hats.... We came home with a square of tea much like what the settlers would have had when they purchased tea. We have had the opportunity to drink a pot a couple times and it is delicious!

Here the children pulled the Yule log into the Fort. They then christened the log, gave thanks to God and sang carols that would have been sung, including The first Noel, Silent Night, We Wish You a Merry Christmas....