Palmer, Joel, 1810-1881

Joel Palmer was born October 4, 1810 in Elizabethtown, Ontario, Canada to Ephraim and Anna Palmer. When Joel was two his family fled the ravages of the War of 1812 and settled in the frontier village of Lowville in northern New York. At the age of twelve Joel was "bound out" (a form of indentured servitude) to the Haworth family in the Catskill Mountains. At age 16 he left the Catskills for Philadelphia where he married Catherine Caffee in 1830, who later died in childbirth. In 1836 Joel married Sarah Anne Derbyshire and moved to Laurel, Indiana, where he worked as a canal-building contractor. In 1843 Palmer was elected to the Indiana state legislature as a Democrat. He won a second term in 1844. In April 1845 Palmer visited Oregon. That trip is recounted in his Journal of travels over the Rocky Mountains. In 1847 he brought his family to Oregon to settle permanently. That winter the Cayuse War broke out and Palmer was chosen to be the commissary general of the volunteer fighting force. Within weeks he was also appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs for the provisional government, and became one of three men serving on the Peace Commission. In 1848 Palmer joined the California Gold Rush. In 1853 he was appointed Superintendent of Affairs of the Oregon Territory. He negotiated nine treaties between 1854 and 1855, and helped settle disputes during the Yakama Indian War. However, Palmer's tolerant treatment of the Indians and his attempts to restrain settler activities led to campaigns against him, and in 1857 he was removed from office. Palmer spent the latter part of his life pursuing a variety of mostly failed business ventures. He became Speaker of Oregon's House of Representatives in 1862 and in 1864 was elected to the State Senate. In 1870 he was defeated as Republican candidate for governor, but in 1871 he accepted a post as Indian agent of Siletz, from which he resigned in 1873. Palmer died on June 9, 1881; he was survived by his wife Sarah and their eight children.