The Oregon Territory passed racial exclusion laws forbidding African Americans from settling there. The first, passed in 1844, declared slavery illegal yet compelled African Americans to exit within three years. Anyone staying longer could be whipped “not more than 39 times.” The second passed in 1849. It banned, as the law spelled it out, any “negro or mullatto to enter into or reside in” Oregon country. At least four Black men received punishment under the statute, but were eventually allowed to stay.
Three African American men bearing George Washington’s name appear in local history by spending time at Fort Vancouver. The similarity of their names and the location makes them easy to confuse.
The first in the area, George Washington Creol, worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company throughout the 1830s. His wife was Chinook and bore him five children. Hudson’s Bay Company records note his job as “general charge,” meaning he likely worked at several jobs. He also worked as a cook on Hudson’s Bay Company ships stopping at the fort.
Creol may have served as a “middleman” who paddled in the midsection of a boat. After retiring from Hudson’s Bay Company in 1841, he stayed at the Willamette Settlement with other company retirees. Three years later, the 1844 Exclusion Law forced him north. In Chinook, a priest baptized his children at the Catholic Stella Maris Mission. Descendants still live in the state.
The second, George Washington Bush (circa 1790-1863) founded Tumwater. Born of a white father and black mother, he too was a Hudson’s Bay Company employee and Army veteran. He led six families (including his own) west in 1844 on the Oregon Trail. Exclusion laws forced Bush north of the Columbia River in 1844, where he spent the winter at Fort Vancouver. Chief Factor John McLoughlin gave him work, which is why he’s noted in company rolls. He and the other families traveled to Tumwater, where he started a profitable farm. When the United States expanded into Washington, Bush again fell victim to an exclusion law. However, friends in the territorial legislature finagled the law to omit him.
George Washington (1817-1905) next passed through the fort, by then the Columbia Barracks. To escape his enslavement, he and the Cochrans, his white foster family, trekked from Lancaster, Mo., arriving in Oregon City in August 1850, according to the 2018 book “George Washington of Centralia” by Brian Mittge and Kerry Mac Gregor Serl. Territorial exclusion laws banned him from staying. Yet he worked as a logger until he came down with an unknown illness. The Cochrans carried him to the barracks, where a surgeon cared for him. Recovering after many months, he settled by the Chehalis River in 1852. Once established in the area, Washington married a widow of African American and Jewish descent, Mary Jane Cain. Together the couple co-founded Centerville, later renamed Centralia. Today it’s the largest city in the United States founded by an African American.
The Pacific Northwest territorial and state exclusion laws did what their framers intended. They kept the African American population low. It took World War II and the area’s demand for shipyard employment to boost it. Today, African American population remains low in the Pacific Northwest. White residents often fail to recognize that as the result of a long history of racial discrimination.
Martin Middlewood is editor of the Clark County Historical Society Annual. Reach him at ClarkCoHist@gmail.com.
