Joseph Gervais was a French-Canadian, later American, pioneer settler and trapper in the Pacific Northwest.
13 Facts About Joseph Gervais
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Joseph Gervais is the namesake for the town of Gervais, Oregon.
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Joseph Gervais was born in Maskinonge, Quebec, Canada along the St Lawrence River.
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At the age of 20 Joseph left home and spent time employed as a trapper and along the Arkansas River hunting buffalo to be sold in New Orleans.
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Joseph Gervais joined the Pacific Fur Company, a venture owned by John Jacob Astor.
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Joseph Gervais joined the overland expedition headed by Wilson Price Hunt on August 7,1810, being hired in Michilimackinac.
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Later that year Joseph Gervais went with a group to the Willamette Valley under the leadership of Donald Mackenzie.
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In 1831, after working for the Hudson's Bay Company, Joseph Gervais permanently settled on French Prairie at the site of what is the town of Joseph Gervais.
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In March 1843, Joseph Gervais' house was the site of the "Second Wolf Meeting", which provided for a bounty on predators and other protections for the settlers of the Willamette Valley and was a part of the settlers' Champoeg Meetings.
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Joseph Gervais was a member of the organizing committee of the Champoeg Meetings, where on May 2,1843, a vote was taken to create a government in the area.
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Once news of the California Gold Rush reached the valley in 1848, Joseph Gervais went south to the gold fields, but returned within a few years.
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Joseph Gervais had a total of three wives and many children.
13.
Joseph Gervais died of diphtheria in 1840 and Joseph married a third time, to Marie Angelique.