Ewing Young was an American fur trapper and trader from Tennessee who traveled in what was then the northern Mexico frontier territories of Santa Fe de Nuevo Mexico and Alta California before settling in the Oregon Country.
18 Facts About Ewing Young
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Ewing Young was born in Tennessee to a farming family in 1799.
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At age 18, Ewing Young sold the farm he had recently purchased and eagerly signed up to join a somewhat larger group bound for Santa Fe.
4.
Ewing Young led many of the first American expeditions into the mountains and watercourses of the present-day states of New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona.
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Ewing Young eventually set up a trading post in Pueblo de Taos in northern Nuevo Mexico, in the late 1820s.
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At the time of his return to Taos with the proceeds of this expedition, Ewing Young was established as one of the wealthiest Americans in Mexican territory.
7.
In 1834 in San Diego, Young encountered Hall J Kelley, the great promoter of the Oregon Country from Boston.
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Ewing Young decided to settle permanently on the west bank of the Willamette River, near the mouth of Chehalem Creek, opposite Champoeg.
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Ewing Young's home is believed to be the first house built by European Americans on that side of the river.
10.
In 1836, Ewing Young secured a vat from Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth's failed post on Wapato Island and began a distillery to produce alcohol.
11.
The Methodist Mission superintendent Jason Lee organized the Oregon Temperance Society and, along with McLoughlin, tried to get Ewing Young to stop his efforts.
12.
Late in the year, US Navy Lieutenant William A Slacum arrived on the ship Loriot and helped to dissuade Young from following through on the venture.
13.
In January 1837, Ewing Young was selected as the leader of the Willamette Cattle Company.
14.
Ewing Young traveled to California on the Loriot.
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Ewing Young took Maria Josefa Tafoya, the daughter of a prominent Taos family who were Mexican citizens, as his wife in a common-law marriage.
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In February 1841, Ewing Young died without any known heir and without a will.
17.
In 1942 the Liberty ship Ewing Young was named in his honor.
18.
The Ewing Young served in the Pacific theater during World War II and was scrapped in 1959.