During the 1820s and 1830s, British and American fur trading companies competed in the Oregon country for domination of the area’s fur trade. Beginning in the 1830s, missionaries came to the Willamette Valley and sent glowing reports back home about the rich soil and lack of Native population within the Willamette Valley. The Natives had just experienced a malaria epidemic caught from fur traders that had wiped out 90% of their population, so they were demoralized and believed their gods had abandoned them. This allowed the missionaries to easily convert them to Christianity and the farmer lifestyle. By 1842, there were approximately 500 whites in the area, mostly American and some French-Canadians who had been employed by the Hudson Bay Company.
"The Great Migration"
Then in 1843, over 900 immigrants arrived in 100 covered wagons in what has become known as the “Great Migration.” It was time to form a government. An earlier attempt in 1841, made necessary by the need to probate an estate had failed, but now with nearly 1500 residents a government was necessary. A provisional government was formed in May 1843. As more and more settlers arrived the pressure built in congress to create a territory.
First Government
The Whitman Massacre produced the impetus which made this happen for it was apparent that the settlers needed a military presence and police protection. Joseph Meek, who lost his daughter to disease shortly after the Whitman Massacre, and blamed his daughter’s death on the Cayuse Indians as they took away the child’s doctor, traveled to Washington D. C. to speak to President Polk, a relative by marriage, about creating a territorial government. Territorial status was granted on August 13, 1848. Meek was named marshal and Joseph Lane governor.
Statehood for Oregon
As the territory grew with increased immigration, talk of statehood increased as well. Most Oregonians were dissatisfied with the territorial government. “Inexperience, administrative difficulties, low pay, frontier discomforts, and changes of presidents contributed to a high rate of turnover among territorial officers.” The territorial delegate to Congress actually had more power than other officials, including the governor, in part because he was selected by the territory instead of by the federal government, and also because he served the functions multiple functions.
Oregon Votes for Statehood
Oregon voted against statehood three times, in 1854, 1855, and 1856, but then in early 1857, the Supreme Court issued the Dred Scott decision which “disallowed territorial but not state legislation regarding slavery”, which may have resulted in the overwhelming victory for statehood in 1857. The following November, Oregonians approved their state constitution and in two additional votes, outlawed slavery but “excluded free blacks and mulattos” from the state by a wide margin. One results of this vote was the migration north of the Columbia River of many free blacks including George Washington Bush, a founder of Centralia, Washington.
Source:
Carlos Schwantes, The Pacific Northwest, An Interpretive History, (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996)
