Champoeg Meetings Totally Explained

Everything about The Champoeg Meetings totally explained

The Champoeg Meetings in Oregon Country were the first attempts at governing in the Pacific Northwest by United States European-American pioneers. Prior to this, the closest entity to a government was the Hudson's Bay Company, mainly through Dr. John McLoughlin at Fort Vancouver in present day Vancouver, Washington. There were a series of meetings over three years held at Champoeg on the French Prairie along the Willamette River in present day Marion County, Oregon beginning in 1841.
A small but growing number of pioneers were settling in the Willamette Valley where no Euro-American government was in place. With the death of prominent settler Ewing Young in 1841, a group of settlers began to advocate for a settler run government in the region. These meetings at Champoeg culminated in a vote on May 2 1843, with a vote of 52-50 in favor of forming what became the Provisional Government of Oregon. Although primarily supported by the American pioneers in the region, several French-Canadian settlers did vote in favor of forming the government. A state park and marker at the site of the May 2 vote commemorate the proceedings, as well as a large mural behind the desk of the Oregon Speaker of the House in the Oregon House of Representatives chamber at the Oregon State Capitol in Salem.

Background

After Lewis & Clark’s journey through the region, leaving in 1806, other Europeans explored more and more of the land west of the Rockies. This made him very wealthy and intertwined him economically with many of the other pioneers in the valley. The first meeting was a general meeting about the formation of some governing body, to which the need became more acute after Ewing Young's death. Other positions created and filled by the group included: George Le Breton as Clerk of the Courts and Public Recorder; William Johnson as High Sheriff; William McCarty, Pierre Billique, and Havier Laderant as constables.

1842

In Oregon City at the Oregon Lyceum pioneers debated the aspects of forming a government or forming an independent country. On September 22 1842, Dr. Elijah White organized and spoke at a meeting at Champoeg. The Second Wolf Meeting took place on March 6 1843, and set in motion the organizing of a provisional government. ť Pleasant M. Armstrong

    Ira Babcock ť Dr. William J. Bailey

    Alanson Beers ť J.C. Bridges

    Hugh Burns ť Charles Campo

    William Cannon ť Harvey L. Clark

    Medorem Crawford ť Amos Cook

    Allen J. Davie ť William M. Doughty

ť George W. Ebbert

    Francis Fletcher ť George Gay

    Joseph Gale ť William H. Gray

    John Smith Griffin ť Webley John Hauxhurst

    David Hill ť Joseph Holman

    John Howard ť Gustavus Hines

    Thomas J. Hubbard ť William Johnson

ť L.H. Judson

    George W. Le Breton ť David Leslie

    Reuben Lewis ť Étienne Lucier

    François X. Matthieu ť Joseph Meek

    William McCarty ť Charles McKay

    Robert Moore ť John L. Morrison

    Robert Newell ť James A. O'Neil

ť Josiah Lamberson Parrish

    John Edmunds Pickernell ť James R. Robb

    Osborne Russell ť Robert Shortess

    Alvin T. Smith ť Sidney Smith

    Solomon H. Smith ť Calvin Tibbetts

    David Weston ť Caleb Wilkins

    Albert E. Wilson ť William H. Willson

Those voting against the creation of the provisional government:
It is the de facto first Oregon constitution.

Elections

Created the First Executive Committee with Joseph Gale, David Hill, and Alanson Beers elected as the committee members to serve in place of a governor.

Participants

Subsequent History

The Provisional Government of Oregon operated as a fully functioning government that taxed, built roads, authorized ferries, passed laws, and even waged war against some Native American tribes in the Cayuse War following the Whitman Massacre. Oregon's pioneers considered this government framework that was installed by the adopted Organic Laws of Oregon to be their first constitution. Over the next few years the boundary dispute with Great Britain was settled in 1846, which reduced the area claimed as governed by the provisional government to that territory south of the 49th degree of latitude. Then a new territorial government was formed after 1848 when Oregon was added as an official United States territory. The presidentially appointed governor of the Oregon Territory, Joseph Lane, arrived March 3 1849, and he officially ended the provisional government by declaring U.S. laws and government as in effect over the territory. Oregon entered the Union as the 33rd state on February 14 1859.

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