George Anson Pease was born at Stuyvesant Landing, Columbia County, New York State, on September 30, 1830.

[1] In 1849, news of the California Gold Rush induced Pease to go to the west, by way of a ship around Cape Horn.

[2] When in 1851, the first steamboat, the sidewheeler Canemah was brought to the upper Willamette River, Pease became a deckhand and a clerk on the vessel for six months.

[1] In the summer of 1852, Pease supervised the construction of the sidewheeler Oregon, at Fairfield Landing, on the Willamette River.

[5] During the great flood of the Willamette River in November and December 1861, which among other things destroyed Champoeg and Linn City the steamer Onward, under Captain Pease, was able to run through the streets of Salem to rescue people.

The river was cluttered with debris from riverside houses and landings that had been washed downstream by the flood.

By the time Onward reached Salem, her ordinary commercial operation turned into one of rescuing people from the flooded city.

Nat H. Lane, Sr. (1823-1878), C. Friendly, Judge Riley E. Stratton, C. Crawford, James Wilson, C.W.

[2] The law resulted in giving the towing on the Columbia River to the Union Pacific Railroad Company.

[1] In March 1889, the pilots and engineers of the Oregon Railway & Navigation company went on strike for higher wages.

[2] Pease became a Mason in 1855, in Oregon City, and acted as master of Multnomah Lodge, which was the oldest on the Pacific coast.

On Tuesday, June 11, 1861, in command of Onward, he carried a pro-Union crowd upriver to a large Union rally at Corvallis, Oregon, with the trip from Canemah taking two days.

[11] Around the state in the summer of 1861, flag poles were being set up in various towns, on which the national colors were hoisted.

[12] Confederate sympathizers in Oregon, referred to derogatorily as "secesh" by opposing Unionists,[13] occasionally replaced the flag of the Union with that of the Confederacy.

[12] At the now-vanished town of Linn City, Oregon, on Monday, July 1, 1861, Pease and fellow steamboat captain James D. Miller led a group of pro-Union citizens in raising a 132 ft (40.2 m) flag pole, at the top of which was placed a Union flag made by the women of the city.

[15] The following is a non-exclusive list of vessels owned (in whole or in part) commanded, built or piloted by George A. Pease.