Collection is open for research.
Transferred from the Whitman College and Northwest Archives in March 2024 (RL2024-019).
The election of June 1848 was the last general election held under the Oregon Provisional Government, before the establishment of the Oregon Territorial Government. The election included a question on whether intoxicating liquors should be prohibited or regulated; prohibition won by a vote of 700 to 683. In the months following the election, several individuals who had been elected to office left Oregon to participate in the California Gold Rush. Consequently, the December 1848 legislative session failed, and a special election was held to fill vacancies.
Source: "General History of Oregon through Early Statehood," by Charles H. Carey (Portland, Or.: Binfords & Mort, 1971), pages 359-360.
Handwritten tally of Oregon election returns, Coll 1029, Oregon Historical Society Research Library.
The collection consists of a handwritten tally of returns for a general election that was held in Oregon in June 1848. The results listed are for the Oregon City precinct and for the eastern and central precincts of Tuality County (written as "Tualatin Co.," and later divided between Washington County and Multnomah County). The results include races for representative, sheriff, treasurer, justice, and coroner. The returns also recorded the results for a question about whether to prohibit or regulate liquor. The back side of the sheet contains some additional notes in ink, and numerous pencil markings, some of which are calculations of vote totals. Other pencil markings may have been to track votes.
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