Willamette Cattle Company

Ewing Young led the overland party as they drove these animals north back to the Willamette Valley.

Chief Factor John McLoughlin had for sometime a general arrangement with the Willamette settlers and missionaries for access to livestock.

[4] John McLoughlin welcomed the naval official and informed Jason Lee of his arrival, who met Slacum at Champoeg in January.

A variety of settlers, including missionaries such as Jason Lee of the Methodist Mission in Oregon, former French-Canadian HBC employees, and American pioneers agreed to create the joint-stock company in January 1837.

[1] On January 22, 1837, the overland party of eleven men and three Native American boys set sail aboard the Loriot from Wappatoo Island on the Willamette River.

However permission to purchase any cattle had to come directly from Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado, who resided in Santa Barbara.

In June the enterprise had procured enough cattle and started driving them north back to the Willamette Valley.

A stockpile of gunpowder became wet which required a small group of men to return to San Francisco to purchase more.

They passed through the valley during the hot summer and crossed over the Siskiyou Mountains of northern California and southern Oregon.

William Bailey and George Gay murdered a native man and also attempted to kill the boy but he escaped.

Young's role made him the wealthiest of the settlers, which would lend a part in the attempt to form a government after his death in 1841 to deal with his heirless estate.