Joseph Gale - Oregon Country

Oregon Country

In 1839, Joseph Gale and his family left Fort Hall and moved west of the Cascade mountains. Gale soon had a job working at the Methodist Mission sawmill in Mission Bottom. Within a year, the family had settled on the Tualatin Plains, where they were soon joined by the families of other mountain men, including Robert Newell, George W. Ebbert, Caleb Wilkins, William Doughty, and Joe Meek. With the collapse of the international market for beaver furs, the fur trappers had quit the business and were settling down in the Oregon Country.

As Oregon began to attract people, the lack of a sustainable economy became a problem. Moreover, settlers were suffering from an acute livestock shortage. In 1840, a group of settlers began construction of a ship with the goal of sailing the vessel to San Francisco, and trading it for cattle to bring back north. Ship building commenced on the Star of Oregon (as it was later to be named) on Swan Island (Portland, Oregon) with Felix Hathaway hired as the ship builder. A year later, Joseph Gale was offered command of the ship and a share of the ownership. To raise capital and free his labor for its construction, Gale sold his Tualatin Valley farm and moved his family to Champoeg. All summer and fall he worked on construction of the schooner at Oregon City, where it had been relocated, which came after Hathaway quit the project and left the completion up to the remaining partners. During the winter and spring of 1841 to 42, Gale worked for the Methodist Mission, running its sawmill.

In August 1842, the Star of Oregon - the first ocean-going vessel built in Oregon - left Oregon City for two weeks of practice runs on the Columbia River. In September, the ship left for California with a crew of five inexperienced men and an Indian boy with Gale as captain. On reaching San Francisco, the ship was sold for 350 cows. The following spring, Gale and 42 others drove 1,250 cattle, 600 horses and mules, and 3,000 sheep back to Oregon.

Partly in recognition for his accomplishment, Joseph Gale was named to the first executive committee of the Provisional Government of Oregon. Oregon’s first form of government, as implemented by the citizens’ meeting at Champoeg on July 5, 1843, favored an Executive Committee instead of a single executive. The Executive Committee of 1843 was made up of David Hill, Alanson Beers, and Gale.

By 1844, Joseph Gale and his family had settled on Gales Creek in Washington County, Oregon, where he established a grist mill and sawmill, perhaps using profits gained from the California cattle drive.