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= Esther Short =

Early Life & Settlement
Esther Clark was born on December 24, 1806 in Tioga County, Pennsylvania. After marrying husband Amos Short, the family moved West to Illinois in 1837. A few years later, the family moved further West to the Oregon territory in 1845. They settled near Fort Vancouver in 1947 on a plot of land originally claimed by Henry Williamson, who had left the land in the care of the Hudson's Bay Company. This led to a conflict between the Shorts and the Hudson's Bay Company officials, as tensions remained high between British fur traders and American settlers in the area. The Treaty of Oregon specifically stipulated that Hudson's Bay's property rights were to be respected, and the British officers repeatedly tried to drive the Shorts back to the American territory South of the Columbia River.

The conflict eventually led to an incident in the spring of 1850 in which Amos shot and killed Hudson's Bay officer Dr. David Gardner. Amos was put on trial for murder and acquitted on grounds of self-defense by a territorial judge. While he was away awaiting trial, Esther was confronted by another group of Hudson's Bay men on her property, led by the French Canadian Lieutenant Francois Facette. Fed up with the company's harassment, Esther slapped Facette across the face, after which point the company ceased to bother the Shorts.

Founding of Vancouver
Shortly after his acquittal, Amos Short drowned while returning on a trip from California aboard the ship the Vandalia, which sank in the Columbia Bar. Following his death in 1853, Esther filed papers to claim 640 acres of her husband's land pursuant to the Donation Land Claims Act. She opened a restaurant on the land that same year, and opened a hotel the year following. In 1855, she donated a parcel of land for use of the city. Included in this parcel was land bequeathed as a public plaza which later became Esther Short Park, as well as a strip of waterfront on which the Port of Vancouver now stands. The City of Vancouver was incorporated two years later in 1857.

Personal Life
Various reports describe Esther as being either half-Algonquin Indian, half-German, or entirely Native American (one-fourth Cherokee, one-fourth Algonquin, and one-half Six Nations). Over the course of her life, she raised a total of ten children and gave birth to twelve, with two dying in early childhood.