George W. Ebbert - Early Life

Early Life

Ebbert was born on June 10, 1810, in Augusta, Kentucky. His father died while Ebbert was still a boy, but left his mother well off financially. At age eight, he shot and killed a cow that had rampaged through the family home, earning him the nickname Squire. At age thirteen Ebbert became an apprentice machinist, but left with only three months to go of the seven-year apprenticeship to elope to St. Louis, Missouri with a woman against his mother’s wishes. Ebbert’s mother refused to attend their wedding, so he abandoned the plans and joined William Sublette as a fur trapper.

In August 1830, he was bought out as a partner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company by a group including Jedediah Smith. Later as a contract fur trapper, he worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company between 1833 and 1836, arriving in the Oregon Country in 1833. Following work for that fur trading company, he worked as a blacksmith at the Whitman Mission and the mission of Henry H. Spalding at Lapwai from 1837 to 1838.

In 1839, Ebbert moved to the Willamette Valley and became the first white settler at Champoeg. After a short time farming there, he sold his land on the French Prairie in 1841 to Andre Longtain for 100 bushels of wheat. In 1841, Ebbert arrived on the Tualatin Plains in the Tualatin Valley north of Champoeg to settle. There he met with other early settlers of the Plains such as Joseph Gale, Robert Newell, and Joseph L. Meek among others.