great immigration of 1843, which reached the Willamette Valley in the autumn of that year. It numbered about nine hundred persons, among whom were many men of strong character and conspicuous ability, afterwards famous in our affairs; as James W. Nesmith, Jesse Applegate, Matthew Gilmore, M. M. McCarver, John G. Baker, Absalom J. Hembree, Daniel Waldo, William T. Newby, Henry A. G. Lee, John and Daniel Holman, Thomas G. Naylor, John B. Jackson, the first American settler in the country between the Columbia River and Puget Sound, Peter H. Burnett, who went from Oregon to California and became the first Governor of that state after its admission to the American Union; and many more. With so great a reinforcement of American citizens, maintenance of the supremacy of the United States was no longer doubtful. Not yet for three years was the northern boundary to be settled; but it was certain that a territory which contained so many American citizens would never be ceded away.
A difficulty with the Indians on the Clackamas in the fall of 1843 led to the death of George W. Le Breton, clerk and recorder, a very useful young man who had come to the country by sea with Capt. John H. Couch. The alarm led to the formation of a company of "Oregon Rangers," numbering twenty-five men, with Thomas D. Keizer as captain. Happily the new commonwealth had as yet no need to use a military force, and this first company was not called into service.
The first general election was held May 14, 1844. It resulted in the election of Peter G. Stewart, Osborn Russell, and W. J. Bailey as Executive Committee; John E. Long, Territorial Recorder; Philip Foster, Territorial Treasurer; Joseph L. Meek, Territorial Sheriff; Ira L. Babcock, Supreme Judge. Peter H. Burnett, David Hill, M. M. McCarver, M. Gilmore, A. L. Lovejoy, Daniel
