Ewing Young
| Ewing Young | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1799 Tennessee |
| Died | February 9, 1841 (aged 41–42) Oregon |
| Occupation | Trapper |
Ewing Young (1799 – February 9, 1841) was an American fur trapper and trader from Tennessee who traveled in what was then the northern Mexico frontier territories of Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Alta California before settling in the Oregon Country. Young traded along the Santa Fe Trail, followed parts of the Old Spanish Trail west, and established new trails. He later moved north to the Willamette Valley. As a prominent and wealthy citizen in Oregon, his death was the impetus for the assemblies that several years later established the Provisional Government of Oregon.
Ewing Young was born in Tennessee to a farming family in 1799. In the early 1820s he had moved to Missouri, then the far western edge of the American frontier, not far from the border of the Spanish-controlled territories of present-day Texas, New Mexico and the Southwestern United States. While residing in Missouri he farmed briefly on the Missouri River at Charitan.
Under the Spanish colonial system, trade between Americans and the Spanish outpost at Santa Fe was prohibited, but with the end of the Mexican War of Independence Spanish authorities were removed from the area in 1821. American traders, mainly operating out of St. Louis, Missouri, were eager to test whether commercial activities in Santa Fe would now be allowed, and a small group of Americans returned successfully in December 1821 from a small trading foray. At age 18 Young sold the farm he had recently purchased and eagerly signed up to join a somewhat larger group bound for Santa Fe. In May 1822 this party departed, becoming the first overland wagon train to traverse the Santa Fe Trail. Young and the others found that they were welcomed by the new Mexican authorities in Santa Fe.
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