Ewing Young
Encyclopedia
Ewing Young was an American fur trapper and trader from Tennessee
who traveled Mexican southwestern North America and California
before settling in the Oregon Country
. As a prominent and wealthy citizen there, his death was the impetus for the early formation of government in what became the state of Oregon
. Young traded along the Santa Fe Trail
and in Mexican Alta California
prior to that province becoming a part of the United States. He later moved north to the Willamette Valley
.
Young was born in Tennessee to a farming family in 1799. In the early 1820s he had moved to Missouri
where he farmed briefly on the Missouri River
at Charitan.
In Missouri, Young was on 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
. Under the Spanish colonial system, trade between Americans and the Spanish outpost at Santa Fe
was prohibited. However, by 1821, the new Republic of Mexico had won the Mexican War of Independence
from Spain, and a number of American adventurers living in Missouri were eager to test whether trade with the newly-empowered Mexican authorities in Santa Fe would be allowed. After a first small group of Americans returned successfully in December 1821 from a small trading foray, Young eagerly signed up to join a somewhat larger group going to trade in Santa Fe.
. Young and the others found that they were welcomed by the new Mexican authorities in the Santa Fe de Nuevo México
province. For the next nine years, Young began traversing the Southwest, dividing his time between Santa Fe and Missouri. In particular, the Spanish and later Mexicans had not focused on trapping the beaver and other fur-bearing animals of the Southwest as demand was small within the Spanish trading system. However, there was significant demand for these pelts in the American and European markets.
Young pioneered trapping the American Southwest, leading many of the first American expeditions into the mountains and watercourses of present day New Mexico, Colorado
, Utah
, and Arizona
. Young was 18 when he started to explore. Young and his associates would take the newly-caught peltry to Missouri for sale, purchase trade goods there, and return to Nuevo Mexico, where the American goods were sold for gold and silver coin. It was during the trapping expedition of 1827-1828, that Young employed a teenaged Kit Carson
. Despite tension that developed with Mexican authorities trying to restrict American activities, Young became a successful trapper and businessman, eventually setting up a trading post in Pueblo de Taos
in northern Nuevo Mexico, in the late 1820s. He took María Josefa Tafoya, the daughter of a prominent Taos family and a Mexican citizen, as his wife in a common-law marriage.
In the late 1820s and early 1830s, the Mexican authorities were growing concerned about American settlers and their influences in Nuevo México, and began imposing 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).
and the Mojave Desert
and arrived at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
near the Pueblo de Los Angeles
in the settled Alta California
province, present day Los Angeles
in Southern California
. After recuperating there, the group visited the Mission San Fernando Rey de España
in the nearby San Fernando Valley
, and headed further north into California's great Central Valley via its southern San Joaquin Valley
section, again, the first American trapping expedition to do so.
Once there the group moved north to the Sacramento River
in the Sacramento Valley
where they encountered Peter Skene Ogden
of the Hudson's Bay Company
(HBC). The two groups jointly trapped the valley before Young’s group moved on to San Francisco Bay
to trade their pelts. After this they went south to Pueblo de Los Angeles and then back to Taos before the year 1830 was up. Upon his return to Taos with the proceeds of this expedition, Young became one of the wealthiest Americans in Mexican territory.
Over the next few years Young and his group continued traveling to Alta California to trap and trade. Then in 1834 in San Diego
Young encountered Hall J. Kelley
, the great promoter of the Oregon Country. Kelley invited Ewing Young to accompany him north to Oregon, but Young at first declined. After re-thinking, Young agreed to travel with Kelley and they set out in July 1834.
on October 17 with Hall J. Kelley from California.
by trade, Young then stayed as a permanent settler in the Willamette Valley
. The group received little assistance from Dr. John McLoughlin
and the HBC or the Methodist Mission
group because the group was accused by the Mexican government of Alta California
of stealing 200 horses when they left. The group denied this charge saying some uninvited traveling companions had stolen the horses. Nonetheless, McLoughlin blacklisted Young from doing business with the HBC. Also in Young and Kelley’s party that emigrated to Oregon was Webley John Hauxhurst
, who subsequently built the first grist mill in the Willamette Valley. Another trapper, Joseph Gale
, who would later be an important figure in Oregon history was also part of the group.
Young settled on the west bank of the Willamette River
near the mouth of Chehalem Creek
, opposite of Champoeg
. His home is believed to be the first house built by European-Americans on that side of the river. In 1836, Young started to build a distillery to produce alcohol. Methodist Mission leader Jason Lee
organized the Oregon Temperance Society and along with McLoughlin tried to get Young to stop his efforts. McLoughlin and the HBC prohibited alcohol sales to the Native Americans. 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.
Slacum was there as an agent of the U.S. President, and also helped to put together a joint venture between all of them to purchase cattle. In January 1837, Young was the leader of the Willamette Cattle Company
that traveled to California with the assistance of Slacum on the Loriot, and brought back 630 head of cattle along the Siskiyou Trail
, as all prior cattle in the valley was owned by the HBC and rented to the settlers. Those accompanying Young on the cattle drive were Philip Leget Edwards
, Calvin Tibbets, John Turner, William J. Bailey, George Gay, Lawrence Carmichael, Pierre De Puis, B. Williams, and Emert Ergnette. During the drive Gay and Bailey murdered a native boy in retaliation for an attack several years earlier by the Rogue River Indians, which that attack had been in retaliation for murders that Young’s group had committed on their travel to Oregon in 1834.
that followed his death eventually led to the creation of a provisional government
in the Oregon Country.
The Ewing Young Historical Marker located along Oregon Route 240 notes the location of Young's farm and grave. A round-topped oak tree that is said to have grown from an acorn planted on his grave is present at that location.
Ewing Young Elementary School in Newberg, Oregon
, is named in his honor. In 1942 the Liberty ship Ewing Young (hull #631 from Calships in Terminal Island, California) was named in his honor. The Ewing Young served in the Pacific theater during World War II
and was scrapped in 1959.
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
who traveled Mexican southwestern North America and California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
before settling in the Oregon Country
Oregon Country
The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...
. As a prominent and wealthy citizen there, his death was the impetus for the early formation of government in what became the state of Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. Young traded along the Santa Fe Trail
Santa Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...
and in Mexican Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
prior to that province becoming a part of the United States. He later moved north to the Willamette Valley
Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley is the most populated region in the state of Oregon of the United States. Located in the state's northwest, the region is surrounded by tall mountain ranges to the east, west and south and the valley's floor is broad, flat and fertile because of Ice Age conditions...
.
Early life
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
where he farmed briefly on the Missouri River
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
at Charitan.
In Missouri, Young was on the far western edge of the American frontier, not far from the border of the Spanish-controlled territories of present day Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
and the Southwestern United States
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...
. Under the Spanish colonial system, trade between Americans and the Spanish outpost at Santa Fe
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
was prohibited. However, by 1821, the new Republic of Mexico had won the Mexican War of Independence
Mexican War of Independence
The Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the people of Mexico and the Spanish colonial authorities which started on 16 September 1810. The movement, which became known as the Mexican War of Independence, was led by Mexican-born Spaniards, Mestizos and Amerindians who sought...
from Spain, and a number of American adventurers living in Missouri were eager to test whether trade with the newly-empowered Mexican authorities in Santa Fe would be allowed. After a first small group of Americans returned successfully in December 1821 from a small trading foray, Young eagerly signed up to join a somewhat larger group going to trade in Santa Fe.
Southwest and New Mexico
Young sold the farm he had just bought, and in May 1822, became part of the first overland wagon train to leave Missouri and head for Santa Fe, along what would become known as the Santa Fe TrailSanta Fe Trail
The Santa Fe Trail was a 19th-century transportation route through central North America that connected Missouri with Santa Fe, New Mexico. Pioneered in 1822 by William Becknell, it served as a vital commercial and military highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880...
. Young and the others found that they were welcomed by the new Mexican authorities in the Santa Fe de Nuevo México
Santa Fe de Nuevo México
Santa Fe de Nuevo México was a province of New Spain and later Mexico that existed from the late 16th century up through the mid-19th century. It was centered on the upper valley of the Rio Grande , in an area that included most of the present-day U.S. state of New Mexico...
province. For the next nine years, Young began traversing the Southwest, dividing his time between Santa Fe and Missouri. In particular, the Spanish and later Mexicans had not focused on trapping the beaver and other fur-bearing animals of the Southwest as demand was small within the Spanish trading system. However, there was significant demand for these pelts in the American and European markets.
Young pioneered trapping the American Southwest, leading many of the first American expeditions into the mountains and watercourses of present day New Mexico, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
, Utah
Utah
Utah is a state in the Western United States. It was the 45th state to join the Union, on January 4, 1896. Approximately 80% of Utah's 2,763,885 people live along the Wasatch Front, centering on Salt Lake City. This leaves vast expanses of the state nearly uninhabited, making the population the...
, and Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
. Young was 18 when he started to explore. Young and his associates would take the newly-caught peltry to Missouri for sale, purchase trade goods there, and return to Nuevo Mexico, where the American goods were sold for gold and silver coin. It was during the trapping expedition of 1827-1828, that Young employed a teenaged Kit Carson
Kit Carson
Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was an American frontiersman and Indian fighter. Carson left home in rural present-day Missouri at age 16 and became a Mountain man and trapper in the West. Carson explored the west to California, and north through the Rocky Mountains. He lived among and married...
. Despite tension that developed with Mexican authorities trying to restrict American activities, Young became a successful trapper and businessman, eventually setting up a trading post in Pueblo de Taos
Taos, New Mexico
Taos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico, incorporated in 1934. As of the 2000 census, its population was 4,700. Other nearby communities include Ranchos de Taos, Cañon, Taos Canyon, Ranchitos, and El Prado. The town is close to Taos Pueblo, the Native American...
in northern Nuevo Mexico, in the late 1820s. He took María Josefa Tafoya, the daughter of a prominent Taos family and a Mexican citizen, as his wife in a common-law marriage.
In the late 1820s and early 1830s, the Mexican authorities were growing concerned about American settlers and their influences in Nuevo México, and began imposing 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).
California
In the Spring of 1830, Young led the first American trapping expedition to reach the Pacific Coast from the Mexican Santa Fe de Nuevo México Province. Young's journey to the west with traveling companions crossed eastern Alta California, present day Arizona, then the Colorado RiverColorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
and the Mojave Desert
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert occupies a significant portion of southeastern California and smaller parts of central California, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah and northwestern Arizona, in the United States...
and arrived at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
Mission San Gabriel Arcángel
The Mission San Gabriel Arcángel is a fully functioning Roman Catholic mission and a historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. The settlement was founded by Spaniards of the Franciscan order on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary," September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become 21 Spanish...
near the Pueblo de Los Angeles
Pueblo de Los Angeles
El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles was the Spanish civilian pueblo founded in 1781, which by the 20th century became the American metropolis of Los Angeles....
in the settled Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
province, present day Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
in Southern California
Southern California
Southern California is a megaregion, or megapolitan area, in the southern area of the U.S. state of California. Large urban areas include Greater Los Angeles and Greater San Diego. The urban area stretches along the coast from Ventura through the Southland and Inland Empire to San Diego...
. After recuperating there, the group visited the Mission San Fernando Rey de España
Mission San Fernando Rey de España
Mission San Fernando Rey de España was founded on "The Feast of the Birth of Mary" , 1797. The settlement is located on the former Encino Rancho in the Mission Hills community of northern Los Angeles, near the site of the first gold discovery in Alta California.-History:Mission San Fernando Rey de...
in the nearby San Fernando Valley
San Fernando Valley
The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area of southern California, United States, defined by the dramatic mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it...
, and headed further north into California's great Central Valley via its southern San Joaquin Valley
San Joaquin Valley
The San Joaquin Valley is the area of the Central Valley of California that lies south of the Sacramento – San Joaquin River Delta in Stockton...
section, again, the first American trapping expedition to do so.
Once there the group moved north to the Sacramento River
Sacramento River
The Sacramento River is an important watercourse of Northern and Central California in the United States. The largest river in California, it rises on the eastern slopes of the Klamath Mountains, and after a journey south of over , empties into Suisun Bay, an arm of the San Francisco Bay, and...
in the Sacramento Valley
Sacramento Valley
The Sacramento Valley is the portion of the California Central Valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta in the U.S. state of California. It encompasses all or parts of ten counties.-Geography:...
where they encountered Peter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden
Peter Skene Ogden , was a fur trader and a Canadian explorer of what is now British Columbia and the American West...
of the Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
(HBC). The two groups jointly trapped the valley before Young’s group moved on to San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
to trade their pelts. After this they went south to Pueblo de Los Angeles and then back to Taos before the year 1830 was up. Upon his return to Taos with the proceeds of this expedition, Young became one of the wealthiest Americans in Mexican territory.
Over the next few years Young and his group continued traveling to Alta California to trap and trade. Then in 1834 in San Diego
San Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
Young encountered Hall J. Kelley
Hall J. Kelley
Hall Jackson Kelley was an American settler and writer known for his strong advocacy for settlement by the United States of the Oregon Country in the 1820s and 1830s...
, the great promoter of the Oregon Country. Kelley invited Ewing Young to accompany him north to Oregon, but Young at first declined. After re-thinking, Young agreed to travel with Kelley and they set out in July 1834.
Oregon Country
Ewing Young, arrived in Oregon in 1834, arriving at Fort VancouverFort Vancouver
Fort Vancouver was a 19th century fur trading outpost along the Columbia River that served as the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company in the company's Columbia District...
on October 17 with Hall J. Kelley from California.
Willamette Valley
Though a trapperFur trade
The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...
by trade, Young then stayed as a permanent settler in the Willamette Valley
Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley is the most populated region in the state of Oregon of the United States. Located in the state's northwest, the region is surrounded by tall mountain ranges to the east, west and south and the valley's floor is broad, flat and fertile because of Ice Age conditions...
. The group received little assistance from Dr. John McLoughlin
John McLoughlin
Dr. John McLoughlin, baptized Jean-Baptiste McLoughlin, was the Chief Factor of the Columbia Fur District of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver. He was later known as the "Father of Oregon" for his role in assisting the American cause in the Oregon Country in the Pacific Northwest...
and the HBC or the Methodist Mission
Methodist Mission
The Methodist Mission was founded in Oregon Country in 1834 by the Reverend Jason Lee. The mission was started to educate the Native Americans in the Willamette Valley and grew into an important center for politics and economics in the early settlement period of Oregon.-Foundation:In 1831, several...
group because the group was accused by the Mexican government of Alta California
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
of stealing 200 horses when they left. The group denied this charge saying some uninvited traveling companions had stolen the horses. Nonetheless, McLoughlin blacklisted Young from doing business with the HBC. Also in Young and Kelley’s party that emigrated to Oregon was Webley John Hauxhurst
Webley John Hauxhurst
Webley John Hauxhurst, Jr. was a pioneer in Oregon Country. He helped build the first grist mill in Oregon, participated in the Willamette Cattle Company, and was a participant at the Champoeg meeting where he voted for the creation of a provisional government.-Early life:Hauxhurst was born in...
, who subsequently built the first grist mill in the Willamette Valley. Another trapper, Joseph Gale
Joseph Gale
Joseph Goff Gale was an American pioneer, trapper, entrepreneur, and politician who contributed to the early settlement of the Oregon Country...
, who would later be an important figure in Oregon history was also part of the group.
Young settled on the west bank of the Willamette River
Willamette River
The Willamette River is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States...
near the mouth of Chehalem Creek
Chehalem Creek
Chehalem Creek is a stream in Yamhill County, Oregon with a watershed. A tributary of the Willamette River, Its headwaters rise on the eastern slope of the Oregon Coast Range above Larsen Reservoir southeast of Gaston and discharge into the Willamette near Newberg...
, opposite of Champoeg
Champoeg, Oregon
Champoeg is a former town in the U.S. state of Oregon. Now a ghost town, it was an important settlement in the Willamette Valley in the early 1840s. It is positioned halfway between Oregon City and Salem and the site of the first provisional government of the Oregon Country...
. His home is believed to be the first house built by European-Americans on that side of the river. In 1836, Young started to build a distillery to produce alcohol. Methodist Mission leader Jason Lee
Jason Lee (missionary)
Jason Lee , an American missionary and pioneer, was born on a farm near Stanstead, Quebec. He was the first of the Oregon missionaries and helped establish the early foundation of a provisional government in the Oregon Country....
organized the Oregon Temperance Society and along with McLoughlin tried to get Young to stop his efforts. McLoughlin and the HBC prohibited alcohol sales to the Native Americans. Late in the year, U.S. Navy Lieutenant William A. Slacum
William A. Slacum
William A. Slacum was an American sailor and diplomat. He served as a purser in the United States Navy and received a Presidential commission to gather information on the Oregon Country. At that time the region was under the jurisdiction of both the United States and Great Britain...
arrived on the ship Loriot
Loriot (ship)
Loriot was an American sailing ship involved in exploration of the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. This brig took a member of a United States presidential expedition to survey land and the inhabitants of the area in the 1830s...
and helped to dissuade Young from following through on the venture.
Slacum was there as an agent of the U.S. President, and also helped to put together a joint venture between all of them to purchase cattle. In January 1837, Young was the leader of the Willamette Cattle Company
Willamette Cattle Company
The Willamette Cattle Company was formed in 1837 by pioneers in the Willamette Valley of present day Oregon, United States. The company was formed with the express purpose of purchasing cattle in California to bring to Oregon Country...
that traveled to California with the assistance of Slacum on the Loriot, and brought back 630 head of cattle along the Siskiyou Trail
Siskiyou Trail
The Siskiyou Trail stretched from California's Central Valley to Oregon's Willamette Valley; modern-day Interstate 5 follows this pioneer path...
, as all prior cattle in the valley was owned by the HBC and rented to the settlers. Those accompanying Young on the cattle drive were Philip Leget Edwards
Philip Leget Edwards
Philip Leget Edwards was an American educator from the state of Kentucky and first teacher in what became the state of Oregon. After teaching in Missouri, he traveled to the Oregon Country with Jason Lee and helped establish the Methodist Mission...
, Calvin Tibbets, John Turner, William J. Bailey, George Gay, Lawrence Carmichael, Pierre De Puis, B. Williams, and Emert Ergnette. During the drive Gay and Bailey murdered a native boy in retaliation for an attack several years earlier by the Rogue River Indians, which that attack had been in retaliation for murders that Young’s group had committed on their travel to Oregon in 1834.
Legacy
In February 1841, Young died without any known heir and without a will. This created a need for some form of government to deal with his estate, which had many debtors and creditors among the settlers. Doctor Ira L. Babcock was selected as supreme judge with probate powers after Young's death to deal with Young's estate. The activitiesChampoeg Meetings
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...
that followed his death eventually led to the creation of a provisional government
Provisional Government of Oregon
The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected government created in the Oregon Country, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It existed from May 2, 1843 until March 3, 1849. Created at a time when no country had sovereignty over the region, this independent government...
in the Oregon Country.
The Ewing Young Historical Marker located along Oregon Route 240 notes the location of Young's farm and grave. A round-topped oak tree that is said to have grown from an acorn planted on his grave is present at that location.
Ewing Young Elementary School in Newberg, Oregon
Newberg, Oregon
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 18,064 people, 6,099 households, and 4,348 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,599.4 people per square mile . There were 6,435 housing units at an average density of 1,282.2 per square mile...
, is named in his honor. In 1942 the Liberty ship Ewing Young (hull #631 from Calships in Terminal Island, California) was named in his honor. The Ewing Young served in the Pacific theater during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and was scrapped in 1959.