By far the most colorful member of Oregon's first executive committee was Joseph Gale. Trapper, farmer, shipbuilder,  master mariner and, withal, something of a statesman, he was a key figure in Oregon's early history.

Oregon's first Legislative Committee, empowered at Champoeg May 2, 1843, to suggest a frame of government,  reported to the full citizens' meeting, also at Champoeg, July 5, favoring an Executive Committee instead of a single executive.  Two years later this was reversed. But in the meantime two Executive Committees, one elected in 1843 and the other the next year, were chosen, each body for one year, to do the work later performed by the Governors. The first of these two committees was made up of David Hill, Alanson Beers, and Joseph Gale. 
Born in Washington, D. C., in 1800, he came to Oregon in 1854 with Ewing Young who had come under the spell, in Los Angeles, of Oregon's most dedicated booster, Hall J. Kelley, the Boston schoolmaster.  Young added Kelley and Gale to a party of eight mountain men who moved north into Oregon backed by Jason Lee, Young returned south to get cattle for Oregon and brought back alive 630 head. In the Oregon country Gale did some trapping for the Hudson's Bay Company, and Dr. McLoughlin and many others were really surprised when he later blossomed out as a shipbuilder
and master mariner. 

Gale was one of a small group that took up the idea of building a ship in Oregon, sailing it on to San Francisco, and there trading it for cattle to bring back north. (Dean Collins, in a most readable Binfords & Mort book, tells the story of the building of that famous schooner Star of Oregon.) This trim vessel, 53 ft. 8 inches long, 10 ft. 9 in. beam and 4 ft. 6 in. deep, was
characterized by Gale as "one of the handsomest little craft that ever sat upon the water." 

Building of the vessel was supervised at first by Felix Hathaway, a ship's carpenter who chose Swan Island, in the Willamette at Portland for the building site, and began construction there. A bit of irony appears in the fact that the builders cut the fir timbers for the vessel from the Hudson's
Bay cattle ranch on the island. The oaken sides too were Oregon-grown. 

Construction moved slowly, and Hathaway grew dubious of the financial responsibility of the builders. Pay was slow and he finally gave up his job with the Star still unfinished. His associates descended on Gale at his farm and drew him away from whatever he was using for a plow. By offering him the command of the vessel and an expanded share in its ownership, they persuaded Gale to pitch in and complete the job. The vessel was launched May 19, 1841. 

As luck would have it, Lt. Charles Wilkes, U. S Navy, commanding that famous squadron busy at scientific and other types of survey in the Pacific, was in Oregon waters at the time. Gale needed master's papers. Lt. Wilkes took an interest in this alert, ambitious man and gave him what amounted to a correspondence course in navigation. Gale passed the exam, and his friend
arranged to have the master's papers sent along before leaving Oregon waters, Lt. Wilkes sent his pupil a compass a kedge anchor, a hawser, a log line and two log glasses-- and with all this an American flag and an ensign. 

Finally, June 2, I842, Captain Gale, who just then was running the Methodist mission sawmill gave up his job and rounded up his scattered companions at Willamette Falls to fit the Star of Oregon for her maiden voyage.   Perhaps even more essential--he trained his green crew in seamanship.  (On August 27, they left Oregon City for two weeks of "sea trials" in the Columbia River.)  They made a 'smart passage'. through to Yerba Buena (San Francisco) in five days.

At San Francisco, as had been planned, they swapped the trim schooner for 350 cows. Gale spent the winter in California, rounded up all the livestock he could get, and the next spring reappeared in Oregon with 1250 head of cattle. 600 head of horses and mules and nearly 3,000 sheep. This achievement gave a strong and much needed impetus to Orcgon's struggling economy

So this man who had been known to the Hudson's Bay group at Fort Vancouver only as a trapper turned out to be a fellow with real Yankee versatility. His services to Oregon were rewarded by his election as one of the three Executive Comrnitteernen in 1843. 

About 1850 Gale moved from the Willamette Valley to (the) Baker Country. His love of the outdoors prevailed, and he spent the remainder of his life farming and trapping in Eastern Oregon and Idaho. 

By his Nez Perce Indian wife he had three children. He died on his farm in 1881. 

(More about Gale's voyage in the Star of Oregon)