Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/101

 OREGON PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 93 "There were a very few of the old Canadian settlers who had received any book education, and as few that could speak any English. The latter was in a great measure owing to the formation by the early fur traders of a dialect called the Chinook Jargon, comprising words from the In- dian, French and English languages." Nevertheless, they were men of good character, and of kindly disposition, and regarded Dr. McLoughlin with simple, but absolute, reverence. Among these French-Canadians, in addition to Etienne Lucier, were Joseph Gervais, and Louis LaBonte, who came to Oregon with the party of Wilson Price Hunt in 1812. AMERICAN SETTLERS IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY PRIOR TO 1841. Prior to 1841 a number of American citizens, and a few British subjects, most of them having Indian wives, had settled in' different parts of the Willamette Valley, and particularly near French Prairie, in parts of Yamhill County, and on what was called the Tualatin Plains, situated in Washington County. These men were men of high courage, and most of them had been engaged in trapping or trading with the Indians. It is dif- ficult, if not impossible, now, to ascertain the names of all of these early settlers, and in some instances, there is doubt as to the exact years in which they settled in Oregon. After a somewhat careful examination, however, I believe that I have obtained the names of most, if not all of them, who were living in Oregon in February, 1841, and, at least, approximately the respective years in which they settled in Oregon. The Ameri- can citizens I shall hereinafter call "Americans." The following men were Americans : William Cannon, who came to Oregon in 1811, with the party of Wilson Price Hunt. He was living in the Willamette Valley when Commodore Wilkes was here in 1841. Solomon H. Smith, Calvin Tibbetts, and G. Sargent came to Oregon with the first expedition of Nathaniel J. Wyeth, in 1832, and settled in the Willamette Valley. George W. Ebberts, a free trapper, is said to have settled in the Willamette Valley in 1833, but in Bancroft's His-