Neither of these new counties was allowed a sheriff of its own; but the sheriff of Vancouver was compelled to do duty for Lewis, and the sheriff of Yamhill to serve Polk. Judges were not appointed, but it was left for the people to choose them at the annual election of 1846.[1] The boundaries of the five counties Previously created were definitely fixed as follows: Clatsop embraced the territory bounded by a line drawn from the middle of the mam channel of the Columbia River at Oak Point Mountain, thence south to the line dividing Tualatin from Yamhill, thence west to the Pacific Ocean, thence north to the mouth of the Columbia, and east along the middle of the main channel, to the place of beginning.
The southern line of Tualatin and northern line of Yamhill commenced one mile north of Butteville the Butte, as it was then called, and extended due west to the Pacific Ocean.[2] Tualatin County embraced all the territory lying north of this line, south of the Columbia, east of Clatsop and west of the Willamette River; and Yamhill all that bounded by Tualatin on the north, the Willamette River on the. east Polk County on the south, and the ocean on the west. Clackamas County was divided from Champoeog by a line running due east from a point in the Willametle River one mile below Butteville being an extension of the north line of Yamhill Both of these counties stretched east to the Rocky Mountains and Champoeg covered all the territory south to the Califoiil boundary, in order that everywhere in Oregon the benefits of the provisional government might be enjoyed.
One other matter connected with the welfare of society was settled by authorizing every ordained
- ↑ Grover's Or. Archives, 152.
- ↑ This line was definitely fixed by the legislature of 1846, beginning opposite the mouth of Pudding River, running north-west to the summit of the dividing ridges, between the Chehalim and Tualatin and the Yamhill and Tualatin. The county seat was also fixed at or near the falls of Yamhill River where the town of Lafayette was laid off in that year.
