- Elbridge Trask
Elbridge Trask (
July 15 ,1815 -June 23 ,1863 ) was an American fur trapper andmountain man in theOregon Country . Immortalized by a series of modern historical novels by Don Berry, he is best known as an early white settler alongTillamook Bay on the coast of theU.S. state ofOregon .Biography
He was born in Beverly,
Massachusetts . In 1835, he joined the employ of the Columbia River Fishing and Trading Company ofNathaniel Jarvis Wyeth . In December he arrived atFort Hall in present-dayIdaho and joined his first trapping expedition with experienced mountain men the following December. Much of what is known about this portion of his life comes from the journals of his travelling companionOsborne Russell . In January 1838 he camped at Jackson Hole withJim Bridger and spent the next year acquiring a large number of beaver pelts in the Yellowstone area. In August 1839, he became separated from his party, which waited for him for several days until threat of an attack from theBlackfoot forced his party to return to Fort Hall. The following month he returned to Fort Hall by himself unharmed.On
August 22 ,1842 , while in theSnake River valley, he andOsborne Russell joined awagon train led by the missionary DrElijah White headed theWillamette Valley . While serving as a guide for the wagon train, he met Hannah Able, a young widow fromIndiana with a baby daughter travelling with theW. T. Perry wagon. On arriving atWillamette Falls at present-day Oregon City, the two were married onOctober 20 .Elbridge and Hannah set up a homestead
Clatsop Plains near Astoria at the mouth of theColumbia River . In 1852, they left the Clatsop Plains to settle near Tillamook Bay south along the coast. They were the first white family to settle in the bay, establishing a homestead along theTrask River , which is named for him.Trask Mountain convert|3412|ft|m in theNorthern Oregon Coast Range is also named after him.In 1960 Trask was popularized in the historical novel "Trask" by Don Berry. The novel, as well as its two sequels, are collectively known as the "Trask novels."
External links
* [http://www.peak.org/~mransom/already.html Oregon Pioneers]
* [http://oregonstate.edu/dept/press/s-t/Trask.html Oregon State University: Trask by Don Berry]
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