Ewing Young
Ewing Young | |
---|---|
Born | Before 1794 |
Died | Feb. 9, 1841 |
Occupation(s) | Trapper, businessman |
Spouse | María Josefa Tafoya |
Ewing Young (c. 1792-February 9, 1841) was an American fur trapper and trader from Tennessee who traveled in what was then the northern Mexico frontier territories of Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Alta California before settling in the Oregon Country. Young traded along the Santa Fe Trail, followed parts of the Old Spanish Trail west, and established new trails. He later moved north to the Willamette Valley. As a prominent and wealthy citizen in Oregon, his death was the impetus for the assemblies that several years later established the Provisional Government of Oregon.[1]
Early life
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a5/Ewing_Young_expeditions.png/350px-Ewing_Young_expeditions.png)
Ewing Young was born in Tennessee to a farming family in 1799.[1] In the early 1820s he had moved to Missouri, then the far western edge of the American frontier, not far from the border of the Spanish-controlled territories of present-day Texas, New Mexico and the Southwestern United States. While residing in Missouri he farmed briefly on the Missouri River at Charitan.[1]
New Mexico
Under the Spanish colonial system, trade between Americans and the Spanish outpost at
The Spanish and later Mexicans had not focused on trapping fur-bearing animals of the Southwest as demand was small within the Spanish trading system.[citation needed] Expeditions of the Hudson's Bay Company, the American Fur Company and others established the North American fur trade (mainly beaver) in response to demand for furs in American and European markets, and the new trail opened up fresh hunting grounds. For the next nine years Young pioneered trapping in the region, dividing his time between Santa Fe and Missouri.[2] He led many of the first American expeditions into the mountains and watercourses of the present-day states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona.
Young and his associates established a commercial route between Nuevo México and Missouri that exchanged Mexican furs, horses and mules for American-produced trade goods.[3] When they returned to Nuevo Mexico, they sold the American goods for gold and silver coin.[2] During the trapping expedition of 1827–1828, Young employed a teenaged Kit Carson.[4] Despite tension that developed with Mexican authorities trying to restrict American activities, Young became a successful trapper and businessman. He eventually set up a trading post in Pueblo de Taos in northern Nuevo Mexico, in the late 1820s.[4] During his time in Mexico he was generally called Joachin John[3] or Joaquin Jóven by fellow inhabitants.[5]
California
In the spring of 1830, Young led the first American trapping expedition to reach the Pacific Coast from Santa Fe, traveling via the Salt River, Gila and Verde rivers, then cross-country to the Colorado River[6] and on across the Mojave Desert following the trail marked three years before by Jedediah Smith, eventually arriving at Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, where they recuperated. The group then visited Mission San Fernando Rey de España on their way north into California's great Central Valley via its southern San Joaquin Valley section.[7]
Once there, the group moved north to the
Over the next few years, Young and his group continued traveling to Alta California to trap and trade. In 1834 in
Oregon Country
Young and Kelley arrived at the
In 1836, Young secured a vat from Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth's failed post on Wapato Island and began a distillery to produce alcohol.[12] The Methodist Mission superintendent Jason Lee organized the Oregon Temperance Society and, along with McLoughlin, tried to get Young to stop his efforts.[11] McLoughlin and the HBC prohibited alcohol sales to the Indigenous peoples, as they had seen that it caused problems.[11] Late in the year, U.S. Navy Lieutenant William A. Slacum arrived on the ship Loriot and helped to dissuade Young from following through on the venture.[11]
Willamette Cattle Company
Slacum was an agent of the U.S. President; he helped put together a joint venture among the men to purchase cattle.
Marriage and family
He took María Josefa Tafoya, the daughter of a prominent Taos family who were Mexican citizens, as his wife in a common-law marriage.[4] By the late 1820s and early 1830s, the Mexican authorities were growing concerned about American settlers and their influences in Nuevo México. They began to impose increasingly severe restrictions on trade and trapping. Perhaps in part to avoid these restrictions, Young was baptized a Catholic in 1830 (perhaps he also became a Mexican citizen and formalized his marriage to Maria Tafoya; however, if he did so, no record of these two events survives).[15]
Legacy
In February 1841, Young died without any known heir and without a will.
The Ewing Young Historical Marker located along Oregon Route 240 notes the location of Young's farm and grave.[17][18]
Ewing Young Elementary School in
Ewing Young Heritage Oak Tree
On May 6, 1846, an acorn was planted on Young’s grave near his cabin site by Miranda Bayley and Sidney Smith. The oak still survives as of 2018 and was listed among Oregon's Heritage Trees on April 7, 1999. It is located 4 miles (6.4 km) west of Newberg, Oregon on private property but can be seen from Highway 240. In 2011 the tree had a 14 feet 8 inches (4.47 m) trunk circumference and a crown measuring 88 feet (27 m).[20]
Notes
- ^ a b c d "Ewing Young Route". Oregon's Historic Trails. End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Archived from the original on 2006-12-10. Retrieved 2006-12-21.
- ^ a b c d e Holmes, Kenneth (1967). Ewing Young:master trapper. Portland, Oregon: Binsford & Mort. pp. 9–20.
- ^ a b Young, F. G. and Joaquin Young "Ewing Young and His Estate: A Chapter in the Economic and Community Development of Oregon." The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society 21, No. 3 (1920), pp. 171-315.
- ^ a b c Holmes, Kenneth (1967) p. 40-43.
- ^ a b c d Bancroft, Hubert History of California, Volume III San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft & Co. 1885, pp. 174-175
- ^ Utley, R. M. (1997). A life wild and perilous: Mountain men and the paths to the Pacific. New York: Henry Holt and Co. (chapter 8)
- ^ a b Holmes, Kenneth (1967) pp. 46-60
- ^ The American Rocky Mountain Fur Trade
- ^ a b c d e f Bancroft, Hubert and Frances Fuller Victor. History of Oregon, San Francisco: History Co., 1890
- ^ a b c d Hussey, John A. Champoeg: Place of Transition, A Disputed History. Portland: Oregon Historical Society. 1967, pp. 73-74
- ^ a b c d e Terry, John (October 15, 2006). "Oregon's Trails - Pariah eases into spirited endeavor". The Oregonian. pp. Regional News, Pg. B11.
- ^ Allen, A. J. years in Oregon. Ithaca, NY: Mack, Andrus, & Co. 1848. p. 78
- ^ Slacum, William A. "Memorial of William A. Slacum." The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society p. 196
- ^ "Wallamette Settlement Articles of Agreement". Provisional and Territorial Records. Oregon Provisional Government: 406. 1837-01-13.
- ^ Holmes, Kenneth (1967) pp. 64-65
- ^ Horner, John B. (1921). Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature. The J.K. Gill Company:Portland, Oregon.
- ^ "Ewing Young Historical Marker". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey, United States Department of the Interior. 1980-11-28. Retrieved 2010-06-11.
- ^ Munford, Kenneth; Charlotte L. Wirfs (1981). "The Ewing Young Trail". Benton County Historical Society & Museum. Archived from the original on 2010-08-13. Retrieved 2010-06-11.
- ^ Ewing Young History. Archived 2008-02-29 at archive.today Newberg School District. Retrieved on March 24, 2008.
- ^ Madeline MacGregor (September 24, 2011). "Ewing Young Oak". Salem, Oregon: Oregon Travel Experience. Retrieved March 2, 2018.
References
- Carter, Harvey L. "Ewing Young", featured in "Trappers of the Far West", Leroy R. Hafen, editor. 1972, Arthur H. Clark Company, reprint University of Nebraska Press, October 1983. ISBN 0-8032-7218-9
- Holmes, Kenneth (1967). Ewing Young:master trapper. Portland, Oregon: Binsford & Mort. ISBN 978-0-8323-0061-5.
- Carter, Harvey Lewis "Dear Old Kit": The Historical Christopher Carson, University of Oklahoma Press, hardcover (1968), 250 pages; trade paperback reprint, University of Oklahoma Press (August 1990), 250 pages, ISBN 978-0806122533Pages 38 to 150 of "Dear Old Kit" consist of an annotated edition of "The Kit Carson Memoirs, 1809–1856", an original manuscript dictated by Kit Carson with 322 annotations by Carter.