devised to appeal to their interests. The meetings that have gone down in history as the Wolf Meetings,[1] by their name suggest the interest that was appealed to. These meet- ings were called to devise some means of protection against the wolves which preyed upon the stock of all. Little was done at the first meeting, February 2, 1843, but to announce a meeting for March 6, at the home of Joseph Gervais, half way between Salem and Champoeg (or Champoick.) At that meeting there was a full attendance; bounties were fixed,[2] and means of exterminating the wolves discussed, and at the close of the meeting, a committee was appointed "to take into consideration the propriety for taking measures for civil and military protection of this colony."[3] The question was skill- fully agitated among the Americans and French settlers. The hostile attitude of the natives in the interior; the need of military organization, and the benefit to be derived from a land law, were the ruling motives with the Americans, but these did not influence the Canadians.[4]
The determining meeting was called at Champoeg for May 2, 1843, and the committee reported in favor of a provisional government.[5] Unable because of confusion in the course of proceedings to decide the question, the American cause was in danger of being lost, when Joe Meek, with the instinct of a leader ,strode forward, saying: "Who's for a divide? All in favor of the report, follow me!"[6] The day was won; the count stood 52 for, 50 against organization.
- ↑ Lang, History of the Willamette Valley, pp. 251-253.
- ↑ Grover, Oregon Archives, p. 9.
- ↑ Ibid, p. 11.
- ↑ Grover, Oregon Archives, p. 12. An address of the Canadian citizens of Oregon, to the meeting at Champoeg, March 4, 1843.
- ↑ Ibid, p. 14.
- ↑ H. W. Scott, Oregon Hist. Society Quarterly, 1900, Vol. II, p. 103. Joe Meek is one of the picturesque characters in Oregon history. A cousin of President Polk, he came to Oregon as a young man, married an Indian bride, to whom (unlike so many of his countrymen) he was always faithful. He represented the type of sturdy pioneer who won and held the great Pacific Northwest.
