610 McLoughlin Boulevard
Oregon City Elks Lodge on August 19, 2006
The Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks Lodge #1189 in Oregon City was chartered in 1912.
Oregon City Elks Lodge on August 19, 2006
This building was built in 1923 and following an extensive remodel was rededicated on November 16, 1968 by Past Grand Exalted Ruler Emmett T. Anderson.
Oregon City Elks Lodge on August 19, 2006
The southwest corner of the Elks Lodge building features a mural describing the life of Joseph L. Meek.
Oregon City Elks Lodge Mural on August 19, 2006
Meek was born in Washington County, Virginia in 1810. He left home when he was 18 and wound up in St. Louis in the fall of 1828, where he signed on as a trapper with the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Meek worked in the Rocky Mountains until 1839, when he traveled to the Willamette Valley and started farming on the Tualatin Plains. Meek was one of the settlers who attended the May 1843 meeting at Champoeg to form a government for the Oregon Country. Meek had a role in establishing an American form of government in Oregon. Meek was appointed Sheriff of the Oregon Country. In 1848, Meek accepted the role of messenger to Congress. Carrying dispatches concerning conditions in Oregon, Meek arrived in Washington D.C. on May 28, 1848, and was hosted by his cousin, President James Polk. After Oregon was admitted as a territory, Meek was commissioned as the first U.S. Marshall in the territory.
Oregon City Elks Lodge Mural on August 19, 2006
The rest of Meek's story is not told by the mural. Meek's daughter, Helen Mar Meek, was at the Whitman Mission when the Whitman Massacre occurred. Though she survived the attack, she was captured by the attacking Cayuse and died in captivity before Peter Skene Ogden was able to rescue the hostages. As a Federal Marshall, Meek supervised the 1855 hanging of the five Cayuse Indians believed to be responsible for the attack.
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