George W. Ebbert

Ebbert was born on June 10, 1810, in Augusta, Kentucky.[1] His father died while Ebbert was still a boy, but left his mother well off financially.[2] At age eight, he shot and killed a cow that had rampaged through the family home, earning him the nickname Squire.[2] At age thirteen Ebbert became an apprentice machinist, but left with only three months to go of the seven-year apprenticeship to elope to St. Louis, Missouri with a woman against his mother's wishes.[2] Ebbert's mother refused to attend their wedding, so he abandoned the plans and joined Milton Sublette as a fur trapper with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company.[2] Later as a contract fur trapper, he worked for the Hudson's Bay Company between 1833 and 1836, arriving in the Oregon Country in 1833.[1] Following work for that fur trading company, he worked as a blacksmith at the Whitman Mission and the mission of Henry H. Spalding at Lapwai from 1837 to 1838.[1]

In 1839, Ebbert moved to the Willamette Valley and became the first white settler at Champoeg.[1] After a short time farming there, he sold his land on the French Prairie in 1841 to Andre Longtain for 100 bushels of wheat.[2][3] In 1841, Ebbert arrived on the Tualatin Plains in the Tualatin Valley north of Champoeg to settle.[4] There he met with other early settlers of the Plains such as Joseph Gale, Robert Newell, and Joseph L. Meek among others.[4]

On May 2, 1843, at the Champoeg Meetings pioneer settlers voted to create a government, with Ebbert voting for the creation in a vote that passed 52 to 50.[1] After the vote to create the Provisional Government of Oregon, Ebbert was elected as one of the constables for the government.[4] His neighbor Joe Meek was elected as sheriff.[4]

Following the Whitman Massacre in late 1847, the Provisional Legislature of Oregon authorized Joe Meek to travel east to Washington, DC, to ask for the creation of a federal territory with the start of the Cayuse War.[5] On March 4, 1848, Meek set off with Ebbert accompanying him on the journey.[5] The two arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 4 with Meek representing himself as an envoy from the Republic of Oregon.[5] Ebbert was never reimbursed for the expenses incurred on the trip.[1]

After returning from the nation's capitol, he settled on his farm with his wife Fanny.[1] She was the sister of Meek's Native American wife Virginia, and George and Fanny had three children.[1] Ebbert was one of the first purchasers of town lots in Hillsboro, Oregon, along with Ralph Wilcox, David T. Lenox, Alvin T. Smith, and others in the early 1850s.[4] His land claim in Washington County was adjacent to what became the town of Orenco, Oregon, and is the site of much of the Orenco Station development in Hillsboro.[6] George Ebbert died on October 1, 1890,[1] and was buried at the West Union Baptist Church Cemetery in West Union, Oregon.[7] The Washington County Museum has a George Ebbert Society.

• Works by or about George W. Ebbert at Internet Archive
• New York Times obituary