1578: Sir Francis Drake sails along the Oregon coast.
1602: Spanish pilot, D'Aguilar, notes an opening in the vicinity of the Columbia river.
1765: Major Robert Rogers petitions King George III to explore Oregon territory in search of Northwest passage.
1787: Captain Charles Barkley and wife discover the Strait and name it Juan de Fuca.
1792: Captain Robert Gray enters the "great river of the west", subsequently known as the Columbia River, which was named after his ship, the Columbia Rediviva.
1793: Alexander Mackenzie is the first to reach the Pacific overland, from Canada.
1803: Louisiana purchase brings United States territory to the summit of the Rocky mountains.
1805: November 7th, Lewis and Clark expedition reaches the Pacific ocean.
1806: Captain William Clark and six companions of the Lewis and Clark Expedition ascend the stream called the "Multnomah" by the Indians, and continued to about the future site of Portland, Oregon.
1811: John Jacob Astor’s ship the Tonquin, arrives, and his men establish both a fort and his Pacific Fur Company trading headquarters at Astoria, Oregon. One of the young Canadians, Andre Longtain,
hired by the Company as a trapper and boatsman, was also on board the Tonquin. Longtain was French Canadian, born in La Prairie, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, November 30, 1794.
1813: Astoria becomes Ft. George under British Flag, after the war of 1812.
1818: Astoria is again under United States flag. Oregon is now under joint occupancy with Great Britain.
1819: Treaty with Spain fixes California's northern border with the United States and everything north of 42º is now in US territory.
1824: American treaty with Russia limits Russia's southern boundary to 54º 40', north.
1824: Hudson’s Bay Company headquarters moves from Ft. George (Astoria) to newly selected Ft. Vancouver. Dr. John McLoughlin becomes chief factor of the Alaska to California District where he remains for 22 years.
1828: Jedediah Smith and party enters Oregon from California and only he and two others survive an Indian massacre on the Umpqua river.
1828: Etienne Lucier built a cabin on the east bank of what would become Portland.
1829: Dr. McLoughlin permits the Hudson’s Bay French Canadian trappers to take land and farm on the banks of the Willamette at Champoeg. It is here that Andre quit trapping for the Hudson’s Bay Company and decided to
settle down with his family. He had, in fact, purchased his land for 100 bushels of wheat from George Ebbert in about 1834, long before the donation land claim act of 1850 was established. When he actually did apply for the donation land claim in 1852,
Longtain stated under oath that he had occupied the tract in question continuously since November 30, 1834, his 40th birthday.
1829: McLoughlin establishes a trading post for the Hudson's Bay Company at the Willamette Falls, Oregon City.
1834: Jason Lee arrives and establishes a Methodist Mission south of Gervais's farm.
1834: Nathaniel Wyeth arrives with his Columbia River Fishing & Trading Company.
1834: Ewing Young party arrives at Ft. Vancouver.
1836: Missionaries Marcus & Narcissa Whitman, Henry & Eliza Spalding arrive.
1839: First Catholic priests arrive and settle at St. Paul, Fathers Francois Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers, after petitions from the French Canadians at Champoeg.
1842: Dr. Elijah White's party of 200 head for Oregon over what would later become the trail for thousands heading west.
1843: Feb, first Wolf Meeting was held at William Gray's house on present Salem site.
1843: On May 2, 1843, the Provisional Government was formed as a result of "the vote" at Champoeg with the gathering for this famous meeting on Andre’s land. "The vote" determined whether or not this Oregon Territory would fall
under American or British rule. Because of that choice of venue both the history of the Oregon Territory and this part of our family destiny actually took place on "our land".
1843: Over 800 people outfit for the first major migration to Oregon and establish the Oregon Trail.
1846: Treaty with Great Britain establishes Oregon title and the northern boundary is set at 49º north.
1847: Brigham Young leads the Mormon Brigade to Utah.
1848: The discovery of gold in California draws off more than three-quarters of the male population of Oregon.
1849: Gold is discovered at Sutter's Mill and 30,000 emigrants, most of whom are California-bound, race west.
1850: The 55,000 people headed west on the Oregon Trail make this the biggest year of the emigration.
1851: Portland is incorporated and first public school school is established on December 15th.
1861: There was a mammoth flood of the Willamette River and Champoeg was nearly wiped out. Most of the town which had stood on Longtain’s land was now gone. Andre was then forced to rebuild across the river "down by the creek",
near the home of his daughter Genevieve Longtain Herbert McCann. This house, as well as the McCann, Newell and McKinley houses were all built by Andre’s son-in-law and daughter Luce Longtain’s husband, Joseph Osborn.
1869: United and Central Pacific railroads are connected.
1890: As happened 29 years earlier, the waters overflowed the banks of the Willamette in 1890, just 2 inches short of the 1861 flood level; however, this time the town of Champoeg was swept clean and so in 1892, the site was officially abandoned.
1901: On May 2, 1901 a monument was erected at Champoeg on what had been Longtain’s land and near the original site where "the vote" had taken place. The names on the monument are those of the men who voted in 1843 to form the Oregon Territory under the United States.
