John M. Shively was born in Shelby County, Kentucky in 1804. When he grew to adulthood he taught school in Stamper’s Creek. However, he had a spirit for adventure and did not stay in Indiana long. He moved to Louisville, Kentucky, then to St. Louis. Still the American spirit of freedom beckoned him, and he set off on the Oregon Trail in the 1840’s. He settled in a town that he named, Astoria. The land between St. Louis and Oregon was largely unsettled at the time and he was appointed the first U.S. postmaster of Astoria, which at the time was the
distribution center for all of the mail in present day Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. At this time international mail would have to be put on a ship that sailed around Cape Horn in Africa, and then to the U.S. Shively proposed a much shorter route going around Panama.

In the 1840’s the U.S. and Great Britain both wanted Oregon as their own territory. James K. Polk ran on the platform that Oregon and Texas should belong to the U.S. This led to the Mexican American War, but there was almost a war on two fronts. Shively was in Washington in 1845-1846 to try and help remedy the problem. He met with Polk and Lord Packenham, Great Britian’s representative. Shively proposed a compromise where the people of Oregon were to have five years to decide whether they wanted to be British subjects or American citizens. Eventually the question was settled and war was averted. Shively went back to Oregon in 1847, but found that another man who he had had previous disputes with was working as the postmaster, after telling the government that Shively had abandoned his duties. Shively then went to California during the Gold Rush, but he came back to Astoria and settled there, passing away in 1893.

Picture by Ancestry.com