Ewing Young lived a life of adventure. A major figure in the fur trade in the Far Southwest both as a trapper, but mainly as a leader. He migrated to the Oregon Country in 1834, where Young amassed a land claim of some 50 square miles. In his life, he figured big, but it was his early death at the age of 41 in the winter of 1841 for which he is best remembered. Dying without known heirs, local settlers came together to figure out how to settle his estate. That process is considered a germinal moment in the eventual founding of a local government in the divided Oregon.

BEGININGS

Ewing Young was born onto a Tennessee farm in 1899 – though Dr. Barton Barbour puts his birthdate “about 1796”. Leaving home, he bought a farm for himself in the early 1820s in Charitan County, Missouri on the north bank of the Missouri River. Charitan attracted settlers from Kentucky and Tennessee who brought their slaves and traditions with them. Young was not long for staying down on the farm. In the spring of 1822, he sold out to another farmer and in May, he joined William Becknell’s second expedition into New Mexico.

NUEVO MEXICO

Trade between New Mexico and anywhere was prohibited under Spanish rule. Mexico became independent in 1821. Becknell led a small group towards Santa Fe for the purpose of trapping and hunting. They discovered a population eager for some of the goods Becknell carried. The adventure gained Becknell $6,000 in silver from a $300 investment. Returning to Missouri, he immediately planned a second trip, only this time he would haul goods by wagon meaning a slight change in the route taken so as to inable the width of wagons. Leaving in May 1822, this time with an estimated $3,000 in goods, he sold those for a profit of about $91,000. One of the members of Becknell’s party was a young Ewing Young.

One of the side ventures of Becknell’s first trip to New Mexico was the potential of creating a powder supply for the Mexican government, a potentially lucrative enterprise. Young was possibly associated with Becknell before the second trip and may have even been a member of three companions accompanying Becknell on his initial venture.

staying behind

On arrival to New Mexico in 1822, Young stayed behind to search the countryside there for potassium nitrate – saltpeter. Unable to find any, the other men with Young returned to Missouri, but Young and William Wolfskill remained behind.

In the fall, they formed a party to trap the watershed of the upper Pecos River for beaver. Young joined again with Wolfskill and others in February 1824 heading out from Taos to trap along the San Juan River and other tributaries of the Rio Grande. They were able to bring in furs to Taos worth $10,000.

In 1826, Ewing Young led a group of 18 trappers to trap the Gila River, and he would spend the next nine years focusing between New Mexico and Missouri selling American goods for gold and silver coin while returning with furs, horses and mules. Known as Joaquin Jóven, he set up a trading post in Pueblo de Taos in the late 1820s.

A FAMILY

In 1828, Young lived together with Maria Josefa Tafoya in Taos. Young was too restless at that time to stay put and his was soon off. He left his young family behind after being baptized a Catholic in order to gain a Mexican passport. Coming to 1829-1830, Young fitted out a party of forty men with himself at the head. They set out for a trapping expedition to the Colorado River. One of the party members was a young Christopher – Kit – Carson.

ON TO CALIFORNIA

Leaving Taos in August 1829, they traveled north to throw possible Mexican authorities off their track. The party set out then across Navajo and Zuñi lands to trap down the Salt River as far as the confluence with the Verde River just east of Mesa and Scottsdale. Here, the party divided with half going back to Taos with their furs and 18 others, led by Young, heading west to California.

They crossed the Colorado River and followed the dry course of the Mojave River to Cajón Pass. Four days more brought them to the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel. Next, the team ventured over to the San Fernando Mission before making their way into the waters of the San Joaquin which they trapped until July 1830. Here, they met up with Hudson’s Bay trappers under the lead of Peter Skene Ogden. After a short time together, Ogden set back for the north.

making good with the authorities

Early in July 1830, a group of Christian Natives ran away from the mission at San José joining other Natives in the mountains. A Mexican party led by the Native American alcalde from the mission, Francisco Jiménez, were driven back trying to capture the escapees. Aware of the American presence, Jiménez sought them out to find if they could help. Young sent a party of eleven off under Kit Carson. The Natives were defeated with the fugitives returned to the mission. In return, Young was allowed to trade purchasing horses and mules with the proceeds.

After spending the summer trapping on tributaries of the San Joquin, in September 1830, Ewing Young began his way back to New Mexico.

While stopping in Los Angeles, his men became intoxicated. He managed to drag them out onto the road away from the pueblo but not before one man shot another. The party spent the winter trapping along the Colorado and Gila rivers. By April 1831, Young was back in Taos.

return trip

Young led another party of 30 out from Taos the following fall through the Zuñi lands again. Trapping down to the Salt River, they pushed down to the Gila, Colorado and to tidewater. Half of the party turned back here while the other half eventually made it to Los Angeles by the middle of March 1832. Some of the party were sent back to New Mexico after mules and horses were purchased. Young spent the summer hunting sea otters in California before trapping beavers in the Central Valley. They began a return trip to Taos in May 1833. Young and five other men returned to California being back in Los Angeles in June. He repeated his summer hunting for sea otter and was back in the upper San Joaquin region to trap by early October.

In the winter of 1832-33, Young took his men up over the Coast Range from the Sacramento River by way of Clear Lake to the Pacific Coast. Not finding much to trap along the coast, he made his way north where after reaching across mountains he reached Klamath Lake. Traveling south on the Pitt, they descended the Sacramento Valley along the American River. Heading through Cajón Pass, he spent the winter and spring on the lower Gila River before returning to San Diego in the early summer of 1834.

MEET HALL J. KELLEY

Hall J. Kelley was a longtime promoter of settlers to seek out Oregon. Kelley began a teaching career in Massachusetts in 1818. The previous year, he came across the journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He then came up with a plan to promote a plan of colonization for Oregon “to promote the propagation of Christianity in the dark and cruel places about the shores of the Pacific.” After several failed attempts, Kelley finally ventured to Oregon on his own from Massachusetts in March 1833. Down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans and then to Veracruz. From there, across Mexico to La Paz, Baja California and north to San Diego. Here he met up with Young.

Ewing Young said of his meeting, “I was in California, where I met with Mr. Hall J. Kelley on his way to the Columbia River, who represented himself to be the agent of a colonizing company. He wished my company, holding out many inducements.” At first Young declined. He knew it was a difficult journey having once been up north. Kelley was likewise unable to attract anyone else to accompany him to Oregon. In July 1834, Young had second thoughts agreeing to travel north with Kelley.

NORTH TO OREGON

Young noted, “I had seventy-seven horses and mules. Kelley and the other five men had twenty-one, which made ninety-eight animals which I knew were fairly bought. The last nine men that joined the party had fifty-six horses. Whether they bought them, or stole them, I do not know.” This time, Young moved up the east side of the Sacramento instead of heading for the coast. Nine other men joined up with the party whom Kelley described as “marauders”.

Crossing into Oregon, several men sickened with malaria and Young halted for a time on a small island in the middle of the Rogue River. They met Natives of the Rogue River tribe but growing concerned when they found two Rogues swimming to the island. Thinking them to be spies for a possible attack, the two were killed and buried. With that, the party decamped and headed quickly north to the Umpqua. The bodies were soon discovered and the news of the killings spread across southern Oregon and northern California, an episode with consequences regarding the relations between whites and Natives for years to come.

oregon reached

They reached Fort Vancouver 17 October 1834. Kelley, one of the sicker men of the group, arrived ill, and in bad spirits. One HBC employee remembers Kelley thus, “He was penniless and ill-clad, and considered rather too rough for close companionship, and was not invited to the mess. He may have thought this harsh. Our people did not know, or care for, the equality he had perhaps been accustomed to. It should be borne in mind that discipline in those days was rather severe, and a general commingling would not do… Kelley was five feet nine inches high, wore a white slouched hat, blanket capote, leather pants, with a red stripe down the seam, rather outré even for Vancouver.”

YOUNG AND MCLOUGHLIN

Before Ewing Young reached Fort Vancouver, HBC Chief Factor Dr. John McLoughlin received a letter from José María Figueroa, the Mexican governor of Alta California accusing Young of stealing horses. That cooled off the warmth with which McLoughlin normally received American guests. He kept both Kelley and Young at arm’s length. Confronted, Young admitted he did not know whether the horses had been stolen or not, but he was not involved. Except for the rapidly failing mission of Nathaniel Wyeth on Sauvie Island and the Methodist Willamette Mission, Young became isolated from outside trading.

Eventually, McLoughlin softened thinking maybe Young was not a thief after all. His gifts sent as a token of peace, however, were returned by Young who continued to hold a grudge against the doctor into 1837.

A NEW HOME

Young decided to stay in Oregon, even with his ongoing feud with the HBC. He claimed a 50 square mile plot of land centered upon the Chehalem Valley. Establishing a ranch, he planted 150 acres of wheat and started trading with American vessels who coming up the Columbia River from Fort William on Wapato Island, the Wyeth post.

Ewing Young’s next venture was planning to open a distillery with one of the large cauldrons used at Fort William to pickle salmon. Wyeth was closing his venture down and Young saw an opportunity. That opportunity did not please the HBC, who did not want easy access provided to their Native clientele which could easily cause interruptions in trade. A distillery did not please the Methodists either who started up a Temperance Movement to try and reason with Young.

ENTER WILLIAM SLACUM

More on the story of William Slacum you can find here. For the post here, let’s focus on the interactions between him and Ewing Young.

With the snubbing of Young by those in power at the HBC, Young needed to reach a little in order to focus his finances. The effect of a signed letter from members of the Methodist Temperance Society and word of McLoughlin’s displeasure equaled zero in the mind of Young. Slacum changed the equation.

Slacum saw the situation where locals were tied to the HBC because of its stranglehold on trade from the outside world. One thing solvable he realized, bring in cattle and horses. Locals could gain a cow for lease from the HBC but could not own them. By importing livestock into Oregon would give settlers more independence.

willamette cattle company

Approaching Ewing Young, Slacum proposed a scheme to bring the cows to Oregon from the herds of Alta California. He had leased a ship – the Loriot – and proposed to sail with a group of Oregon men to California. From there, led by Young, the men would herd the livestock north. Participants from the Willamette Valley could either buy into the scheme buying shares – joint stock options – or help with to drive the animals north. Young was nominated to lead at a meeting of settlers at Champoeg 13 January 1837. This meeting was a first chance for locals to band together to solve a problem they all faced. It would make it easier for another meeting to take place involving Young a few years later.

Young, at the time, probably already had the largest private herd of livestock outside of the HBC. But the opportunity to add to his flock enticed him into the scheme. McLoughlin by now changed his mind on Young and allowed him to trade with the HBC as needed. The doctor even put money into the scheme to add to the HBC herds. Harmony replaced division.

With a sum of $1600 in order to purchase around 500 cows at hand, the cattle driving group – Willamette Cattle Company – boarded Slacum’s vessel on 12 January setting sail for California. Weather at the mouth of the Columbia forced delays and it was not until 10 February before the ship finally left Oregon waters.

CALIFORNIA ONE LAST TIME

The Oregon group topped at Bodega Bay where the Russian staff of Fort Ross welcomed them. After more bad weather, the Loriot finally reached San Francisco on 1 March. The ship, with Slacum aboard, then sailed onto Hawaii.

The next stages of the cattle drive were up to Young. First, he had to convince the Mexican authorities to circumvent the restrictions forbidding the export of livestock from California. Meeting first with the Mexican military commander, Mariano Vallejo, in Monterey, he hoped to begin a negotiation to purchase the cattle.

Vallejo, however, told Young that only the civil governor, Juan Baptista Alvarado could sign off on such a transaction. Alvarado lived two hundred miles south at Santa Barbara. The mission at Santa Barbara, incidentally, is the burial site for Young’s earlier California nemesis, Governor Figueroa. On 13 March, Young headed south where the permission was granted.

By late June, the herd had been purchased and gathered on the south bank of the San Joaquin River though it was another month before the herd was swam across the river to begin the journey to Oregon. August went by as the men and cattle slowly moved north through the Sacramento Valley in the summer heat. Late in the month, they reached the Siskiyous.

The crossing of the mountains proved difficult. One participant put it, “Most of the party cursed the day on which they engaged, and would hardly have exchanged a draught of cool water for their expected share of the profits.” They finally reached Oregon in early October bringing in 630 surviving animals. Each animal was worth $8.50 with 135 going to Young making him Oregon’s largest rancher.

AFTER THE DRIVE

Ewing Young settled back into life after the cattle adventure on his Chehalem Valley ranch. In 1836, along with Sol Smith – Smith came to Oregon as part of Wyeth’s 1834 party – built a small sawmill. The mill turned out lumber for various homesteads over the following three years. He came to serve as a banker of sorts to the slowly growing community of settlers with the population rising to almost 500 Euro-Americans living in Oregon by 1840 – that number would soon double several times. A leader of men, it would have been interesting to see what he might have done if not for complications from an ulcer led to his early death 9 February 1841 at the age of 41. With his death, Young had no known heirs and no will. This provided a quandary for the local settlers of what to do with his vast properties.

PROBATE COURT

Settlers came together at the Methodist Mission House to figure out the next step. With three days of meetings Dr. Ira Babcock became appointed to “Supreme Judge with probate powers”. Additionally, a committee was formed to frame a constitution and draft a code of laws. Using his home state of New York laws to guide him, Babcock appointed David Leslie – both were associated with the Methodist Mission – as executor of Young’s estate – with George LeBreton as recording clerk. Leslie sold of Ewing Young’s properties, paying off debts and expenses. Asa Lovejoy would finalize the estate later dedicating a portion to build a jail for Oregon City. Young’s son, Joaquin, petitioned the territorial government in 1854 for his inheritance, settling for about $5,000 – a little more than $192,000 today.

The other settlers – mostly the French Canadians who still numbered as a majority – decided the time for further government had not yet arrived. The settling of Young’s estate did get locals together once more representing one more step to the eventual formation of local government in the form of the Provisional Government of Oregon two years later.

Jose Joaquin Young moved from Taos to Agua Mansa, one of the large communities in the 1840s near San Bernardino. A flood in 1862 wiped out the town with most of the inhabitants including Joaquin moving to nearby Colton.

LEGACY

Smith and his wife Miranda Bayley planted an acorn next to Ewing Young’s grave in 1846. The tree today is a huge, sprawling Oregon white oak.

Another New Yorker played a following role. Sidney Smith arrived in Oregon after a hard journey in 1839 with the Peoria Party. Upon arriving in Oregon, Smith stayed with Ewing Young. After Young’s death, Smith bought Young’s land and herd of cattle for about $300. At the May 2, 1843 meeting at Champoeg, Smith voted for the creation of the government becoming elected as one of the three members of the Executive Committee in lieu of a governor.

A local school not far from Ewing Young’s grave is named in his honor. Somewhat ironically, today on the former site of his farm-ranch, now a 147-acre horse farm, 125 yards away from his resting plot is the Ewing Young Distillery. Successful entrepreneurs Beverley and Doug Root developed the distillery about ten years ago. They opened a weekend tasting room in September 2018. The Roots currently source spirits from other distilleries for their products – most from MGP distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana (formerly a Seagram’s distillery).

Like many craft distilleries, the Roots blend in the beginning while getting their 53-gallon single column still going in the meantime. Blending and then finishing is important. They like eight years as a maximum age for whiskey and of course aging whisk(e)y is dependent on warehouse and local climate.  What is good for Islay or the Highlands of Scotland is not the same as Kentucky nor Oregon.

My only question is what happened to Ewing Young’s original cauldron 😎.