Joseph Everett Gale

Joseph E. Gale was born in 1798, in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. Some sources report him being born in Harrison County, Kentucky*, presumably confusing his former home for his birthplace. He traveled by wagon and ox team with Thomas Davis and his family to Pike County, Illinois, in October of 1826. He enlisted as a Private in W. Ross's Company, Whiteside's Brigade, 3rd Regiment, at Atlas, Illinois, during the Black Hawk War. Joseph married Elizabeth Garrison on July 21, 1831. It was the first recorded marriage to take place in Montezuma, Pike County, Illinois. They lived there in 1840 when the census was taken and in 1850 they were in Iowa. He headed west with his family, including his father and a brother, arriving in Oregon on October 22, 1853. He was living in Coast Fork, Lane County, Oregon in 1870 and died in that county sometime after 1870.

On the 1850 census, Pennsylvania is given as Joseph's birthplace. Joseph's father, John Wesley Gale, willed him a tract of land in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, and John owned 300 acres in Dunbar Township in 1799. That was around the time he moved his family to Harrison County, Kentucky, where they remained until September 1, 1815, when they headed for Indiana in a band of 44 settlers. They arrived at Posey County, Indiana, on September 25, 1815, and settled near Robb Township. "John Wesley Gale, Sr. was appointed an officer of Robb Township by the county board from 1817 to 1820." (Thanks to Bill Hahn for sharing this information on Findagrave).