An Executive Committee was the title of a three-person committee which served as the executive Branch of the Provisional Government of Oregon

Provisional Government of Oregon

The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected government created in the Oregon Country, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. It existed from May 2, 1843 until March 3, 1849. Created at a time when no country had sovereignty over the region, this independent government...

 in the disputed Oregon Country

Oregon Country

The Oregon Country was a predominantly American term referring to a disputed ownership region of the Pacific Northwest of North America. The region was occupied by British and French Canadian fur traders from before 1810, and American settlers from the mid-1830s, with its coastal areas north from...

. This arrangement was announced on July 5, 1843, after three months of study by the Provisional Legislature

Champoeg Meetings

The Champoeg Meetings in Oregon Country were the first attempts at governing in the Pacific Northwest by United States European-American pioneers. Prior to this, the closest entity to a government was the Hudson's Bay Company, mainly through Dr...

 at Champoeg

Champoeg, Oregon

Champoeg is a former town in the U.S. state of Oregon. Now a ghost town, it was an important settlement in the Willamette Valley in the early 1840s. It is positioned halfway between Oregon City and Salem and the site of the first provisional government of the Oregon Country...

. Two different Executive Committees served until the system was abandoned in 1845 in favor of an elected single chief executive

Governor

A governor is a governing official, usually the executive of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state...

.

Powers

The Executive Committee was empowered to grant reprieves and pardons, recommend legislation, and call out the militia.

Members of the First Executive Committee (1843–1844)

• David Hill
  David Hill (Oregon politician)
  David Hill , was an American pioneer and settler of what became Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. He served in the Provisional Government of Oregon in both the executive and legislative branches, and later as a legislator in the first Oregon Territorial Legislature...
  
  – Pioneer from Connecticut, went on to become founder of Hillsboro, Oregon
  Hillsboro, Oregon
  Hillsboro is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon and is the county seat of Washington County. Lying in the Tualatin Valley on the west side of the Portland metropolitan area, the city is home to many high-technology companies, such as Intel, that compose what has become known as the...
  
  .
• Alanson Beers
  Alanson Beers
  Alanson Beers was an American pioneer and politician in the early days of the settlement of the Oregon Country. A blacksmith by trade, he was a reinforcement for the Methodist Mission in what would become the state of Oregon...
  
  – Also from Connecticut, Methodist Missionary with the Reverend Jason Lee
  Jason Lee (missionary)
  Jason Lee , an American missionary and pioneer, was born on a farm near Stanstead, Quebec. He was the first of the Oregon missionaries and helped establish the early foundation of a provisional government in the Oregon Country....
  
  's mission. Later a business partner of George Abernethy
  George Abernethy
  George Abernethy was an American pioneer, notable entrepreneur, and first governor of Oregon under the provisional government in what would become the state of Oregon in the United States...
  
  .
• Joseph Gale
  Joseph Gale
  Joseph Goff Gale was an American pioneer, trapper, entrepreneur, and politician who contributed to the early settlement of the Oregon Country...
  
  – Ship builder, sea Captain and an accomplished trader.

Members of the Second Executive Committee (1844–1845)

• Peter G. Stewart
  Peter G. Stewart
  Peter Grant Stewart was a jeweler and pioneer of the Oregon Country in what later became the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. A native of New York state, he traveled the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley and settled first in Oregon City and later in what became Washington...
  
  – New York pioneer.
• Osborne Russell
  Osborne Russell
  Osborne Russell was a mountain man and politician who helped form the government of the U.S. state of Oregon. He was born in Maine....
  
  – Helped build Fort Hall
  Fort Hall
  Fort Hall, sitting athwart the end of the common stretch shared by the three far west emigrant trails was a 19th century outpost in the eastern Oregon Country, which eventually became part of the present-day United States, and is located in southeastern Idaho near Fort Hall, Idaho...
  
   in Idaho
  Idaho
  Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
  
  , fur trader, later candidate for Provisional Governor.
• William J. Bailey – Trapper and trader, later became a doctor.

Further reading

• Klooster, Karl. Round the Roses II: More Past Portland Perspectives, pg. 94, Portland, 1992. ISBN 0-9619847-1-6