working for the Hudson's Bay Company, Gervais permanently settled on French Prairie at the site of what is now the town of Gervais. There he built a square-hewed, two-story log cabin that measured He also constructed a post-in-sill style barn, grew an apple orchard, and grew wheat on the parcel. On the property he had under cultivation and several outbuildings including a grist mill. Chief Factor John McLoughlin gave financial support to Gervais and other French-Canadian retired employees, giving them farming implements on credit. The French-Canadians had to remain on the payrolls of the HBC, and could be ejected from the Oregon Country if their behavior wasn't satisfactory. In 1834, Jason Lee arrived to build the Methodist Mission on the prairie, and for a time preached to the French-Canadian trappers at Gervais' home as Catholic priests had yet to arrive in Oregon Country. A guest to his house that year described a meal consisting of "Canadian soup, excellent pork, and beaver, and bread made without bolting, and as fine muskmelons as I ever had." In 1836, along with most Catholics in the valley, he signed a petition sent to Norbert Provencher, Titular Bishop of Juliopolis, requesting Catholic clergy. In 1841, Gervais was elected justice of the peace. In March 1843, Gervais' house was the site of the "Second Wolf Meeting", which provided for a bounty on predators and other protections for the settlers of the Willamette Valley and was a part of the settlers' Champoeg Meetings. Gervais was also a member of the organizing committee of the Champoeg Meetings, where on May 2, 1843, a vote was taken to create a government in the area. Although Gervais voted against a civil authority, the vote passed and the Provisional Government of Oregon was formed. Gervais eventually became a U.S. citizen. In the aftermath of the Whitman Massacre, two of his children, Isaac and Xavier, joined the settler's militia in a conflict known as the Cayuse War. Later years and death Once news of the California Gold Rush reached the valley in 1848, Gervais went south to the gold fields, but returned within a few years. Joseph Gervais had a total of three wives and many children. His first wife was Chinookan and they had a son named David and daughter named Julie. Upon her death he married Yi-a-must (later Marguerite), a daughter of Clatsop chief Coboway, and they had four children.