Joseph Gale

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For the U.S. Tax Court judge, see Joseph H. Gale.

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Joseph Gale (1807-1881) was an American pioneer, trapper, and politician who contributed to the early settlement of the Oregon Country.

[edit] Biography

Joseph Gale was born in Washington D.C. in 1807. During his life, Joseph Gale was a trapper, farmer, shipbuilder, sailor and somewhat of a statesman.

Joseph Gale is said to have traveled the Santa Fe Trail by 1830. In October 1831, he departed Santa Fe as a member of Ewing Young's second expedition to California. Although often said to have accompanied Young from California to Oregon, Gale was employed by Nathaniel Wyeth in 1834, and was involved in the construction of Wyeth's Ft. Hall (Pocatello, Idaho) in August of that year. "As soon as the fort was built and goods securely housed, Wyeth thought it was high time to commence business, and a party of men were at once sent off, under the command of Joseph Gale to trap Beaver in the Blackfoot country" (Isaac P. Rose, Trapper). Around this time, Joseph acquired a Nez Perce Indian wife (Eliza), who was a daughter of Old Chief Joseph (Tu-eka-kas), and half sister to Young Chief Joseph(Heinmot Tooyalakekt). Joseph and Eliza's first two children were born at Ft. Hall in 1837 and 1838. With the sale of Ft. Hall to the Hudson Bay Company in August, 1837, he began trapping for the company. Gale later settled on lower Gales Creek, Oregon Territory in 1841.

As Oregon began to attract people, the lack of a sustainable economy became a problem. Joseph Gale was one of a small group that took up the idea of building a ship in Oregon, sailing it on to San Francisco, and there trading it for cattle to bring back north. Ship building commenced on the Star of Oregon (as it was later to be named) on Swan Island. The shipbuilding was supervised by Felix Hathaway - a ships carpenter. Construction went slowly, and Hathaway became skeptical that he’d receive any pay for his efforts. He finally quit before the Star was finished. Joseph Gale was offered command of the ship, and an expanded share in the ownership. The Star of Oregon was finally launched on May 19, 1841.

As luck would have it, Lt. Charles Wilkes, U. S. Navy, commanding a squadron busy at scientific and other types of survey in the Pacific, was in Oregon waters at the time. Joseph Gale needed master’s papers. Lt. Wilkes took an interest in this alert, ambitious man and gave him what amounted to a correspondence course in navigation. Gale passed the exam, and his friend arranged to have the master’s papers sent along before leaving Oregon waters, Lt. Wilkes sent his pupil a compass, a kedge anchor, a hawser, a log line, and two log glasses - and with all this an American flag and an ensign.

On June 2, 1842, Captain Gale, rounded up his companions at Willamette Falls to fit the Star of Oregon for her maiden voyage. August 27th, 1841 the Star of Oregon - the first ocean-going vessel built in Oregon - left Oregon City for two weeks of practice runs on the Columbia River before departing for San Francisco. The ship left for California in September with a crew of five experienced men and an Indian boy. In San Francisco, the ship was sold. Gale eventually ended up buying 1,250 cattle, 600 horses and mules, and 3,000 sheep. Gale and 42 Californians drove the livestock back to Oregon.

Partly in recognition for his accomplishment, Joseph Gale was named to the first executive committee of Oregon. Oregon’s first form of government, as implemented by the citizens’s meeting at Champoeg on July 5th, 1843, favored an Executive Committee instead of a single executive. The Executive Committee of 1843 was made up of David Hill, Alanson Beers, and Joseph Gale.

In 1844, he established a grist mill and sawmill on Gales Creek, perhaps using profits gained from the California cattle drive. The community of Gales Creek in Washington County was named after him.

With news of the California gold rush, Joseph Gale moved from the Oregon Territory to California, where he lived first at Mission San Jose and later near Fort Tejon in Los Angeles County where he ran a sawmill. On January 9th, 1857, Joseph Gale and family suffered the effects of the Great Fort Tejon earthquake. "Mr. Gale, whose dwelling is situated..[approximately 1.5 miles from] the Fort experienced a severe injury during his exertions to rescue his children from the ruins of his falling house" (Santa Barbara Gazette, vol. 2, n. 36; Thursday, Jan. 22, 1857). By 1860 he had moved to Tulare County, where he briefly ran a ferry. He next moved to Walla Walla, Washington Territory, and by 1868 had relocated to Eagle Valley in Eastern Oregon. There he engaged in farming and other business activities related to the gold strikes in the Eagle Cap mountains. Before the Nez Perce War (1877), Young Chief Joseph would come and stay with his sister and brother-in-law during his visits to Eagle Valley, Nez Perce hunting and fishing territory.

Together Joseph and Eliza had seven children. Joseph Gale died on his farm on December 13 1881 and is buried in the Eagle Valley cemetery, Richland, Baker Co, Oregon. After Gale's death, Eliza moved to the Umatilla Indian Reservation, where she died in 1905. She is buried in the Weston Cemetery in Weston, Umatilla County, Oregon.

[edit] External links

	Pioneer History of Oregon (1806 - 1890)
Topics	Oregon Country · Oregon Treaty · Oregon missionaries · Executive Committee · Oregon Trail · Oregon boundary dispute · Pacific Fur Company · Hudson's Bay Company
Events	Champoeg Meetings · Treaty of 1818 · Russo-American Treaty · Donation Land Claim Act · Whitman massacre
Places	Fort Astoria · Oregon Mission · Fort Vancouver · Champoeg, Oregon · Willamette Stone · Barlow Road
People	George Abernethy · Sam Barlow · Tabitha Brown · Abigail Scott Duniway · Peter French · Joseph Gale · William Gilpin · David Hill · Jason Lee · John McLoughlin · Joseph Meek · Ezra Meeker · Joel Palmer · Marcus Whitman · Narcissa Whitman
Oregon History	Native Peoples History · History to 1806 · Pioneer History · Modern History