Portal:Oregon/Selected biography/27

General Joel Palmer (1810–1881) was an American pioneer of the Oregon Territory in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. He was born in Canada, and spent his early years in New York and Pennsylvania before serving as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives. Palmer traveled to the Oregon Country in 1845, blazing the last leg of the Oregon Trail, the Barlow Road, with Sam Barlow and others. He wrote a popular immigrant guidebook, co-founded Dayton, Oregon, and served as a controversial Indian Affairs administrator. Prior to his time as Indian Affairs administrator he was a general for the Provisional Government of Oregon during the Cayuse War as well as a peace commissioner for the war. He would follow the gold rushes across the west for a few years following the war before returning to Oregon, interrupted by peace negotiations with the Native Americans in his role as Superintendent of Indian Affairs. After Oregon became a state in 1859, Palmer served in both branches of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. He was selected as Speaker of the Oregon House of Representatives for one session in 1862, and in 1870 narrowly lost a bid to become Governor of Oregon. Palmer would then serve as Indian agent before retiring to his home in Yamhill County. That home, Palmer House in Dayton, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.