George LeBreton

Who was George LeBreton?

George W. LeBreton was a pioneer politician in the Oregon Country and served as the official recorder in the Provisional Government of Oregon.

LeBreton was born in 1810 in Massachusetts. He then moved to Oregon along with Captain John H. Couch, an early sea merchant in Portland, Oregon. He arrived in Oregon aboard Couch’s vessel Maryland in 1840. In Oregon on February 18, 1841, he was elected as the recorder for the Champoeg Meetings and for the probate court that was created. Then in 1843 when the provisional government was formed he was again elected as the recorder, the forerunner to the office of Secretary of State. He was still the government recorder when he was killed by a Native American named Cockstock on March 4, 1844. Cockstock had stabbed and shot LeBreton along with another before being killed himself by Winslow Armstrong, but the incident lead to the creation of the Oregon Rangers as a militia.