Oregon Historic Landmarks: Willamette Valley

Oregon Society Daughters of the American Revolution
The Blockhouse at Dayton, Oregon
This building was a military blockhouse built at the Grand Ronde Indian Agency by Willamette Valley settlers in 1856. U. S. Troops were sent to the station the same year and it was named “Fort Yamhill.” Among the famous Army officers stationed at this fort were Phil Sheridan, Joseph Wheeler, A. J. Smith, D. A. Russell, and W. B. Hazen.
By permission of the U. S. Government, Fort Yamhill was moved from Grand Ronde Agency to Dayton in 1911, through efforts of John G. Lewis, a patriotic citizen. The structure was rebuilt on this spot as a memorial to General Joel Palmer, a pioneer of Oregon, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, founder of Dayton, and donor of this park.
LANDMARKS COMMITTEE 1963
Mrs. J. Dean Butler, Chairman Mrs. W. D. Foster Mrs. Lester Horton Mrs. George R. Hyslop Mrs. Albert H. Powers Mrs. A. R. Quackenbush
The State Society Daughters of the American Revolution assumes no responsibility for statements of contributors
Copyright 1963 by the Oregon Society Daughters of the American Revolution
Printed in the United States of America by the Metropolitan Printing Company Portland, Oregon
Oregon’s first sheriff and marshal, Colonel Joseph LaFayette Meek, should be remembered, not so much as a witty adventurer, a part much overplayed by writers, but as one of the very most important—at times the most important—political leaders in this northwest society. True, distance and lack of formal education limited his contribution, especially to national developments. The fact that his mother was a member of the important Walker family, that his uncle Joseph married Jane Buchanan and that his cousin Sarah Childress married James K. Polk might otherwise have opened doors leading to distinction for a man of great natural ability and winning personality.
There were twelve, or by one account, fifteen children in Meek’s Virginia family, too many for one man to educate in a day when schooling was neither universal nor free. Joseph L. Meek chose to go west. From his brother Hiram’s home at Lexington, Missouri, he enlisted in the fur trade in 1829 and continued that wild career for eleven years. Decline of the fur trade forced him to move to Oregon in 1840, driving one of the first wagons ever to reach the present Oregon-Washington area.