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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. irrata to palure, nd I D 32X 1 2 3 12 3 4 5 6 II. K. IIINES, D.D. MISSIONARY HISTORY OK THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, Containing the Wonderful Story ov JASON LEE, With Sketches of Many of His Co-laboreis ALI. ILLUSTRATING Cife 01? tl?e plains ai^d ip tl?e mouQtaiijs IN PIONEER DAYS. By H. K. HiNES, D. D. S"; £XjXjXTSrCTiJtL.T:EilD. PORTLAND: H. K. HINES SAN FRANCISCO: J. D. HAMMOND. ir j Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1899 by H. K. HINES, In the oflSce of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. Marsh Printing Company, Portland, Oregon. {' CONTENTS. I. THE OLD OREGON Origin of name — Geographical descripticn— Begin- ning of history — Its people — Two great events. II. THE OPENING VISION - - - - ' - The world's moral condition — A moral awakening — The Indians search for "The Book" — Response to tbeir call— Jason Lee chosen. III. THE INSTRUMENTS CHOSEN Who was Jason Lee? — Conversion in school — Teacher and companions — A call to the missionary work — Appointed superintendent — The plan adopted. IV. ON THE TRAIL Lee reaches the frontier — Commencement of the journey — Incidents — "Scott's Bluffs" — Ou the sum- mit of the continent — Rendezvous — Meeting with the Indians — Departure for the west— First sermon west of the mountains — Tragic incidents — Scarcity of ■ food— Tender reflections— At Fort Walla Walla- Down the Columbia — Reach " Fort Vancouver." .V. THE FIELD CHOSEN .Sources of information — Dr. McLoughliu — In the Willamette valley — Return to Vancouver — First ser- mon — Location of mission chosen — Removal to it — Building a house. VL THE OPENING WORK Preparations — Visit of Dr. Parker — Donation from Hudson's Bay Company — Young and Carmichael — An important enterprise — Visit of Mr, W. A. Slacum J7 33 44 58 83 98 I 4f5R*^7 4 TABLE or CONTENTS. — His letter — Report to congress — "We lap-tu-lekt" — Influence of the incident — First reinforcement — En- largement of mission — Second reinforcement — ^Trip to the Umpqua — New station at The Dalles. VII. AN EPOCH OF HISTORY 123 Character of society — " Elect Ladies" — Romantic service — Mr. Lee's address — First marriage of whites on the Pacific Coast — First baptism and church membership, VIII. LEE'S RETURN TO THE EAST .... 138 Call for enlargement — Preparation for journey — Great episode of history — Historical Memorial — Its influence — Lee's pathetic leave taking — On the jour- ney — At The Dalles— Visit to Waiiletpu and Lapwai — Baptism in the desert — Birthday reflections — Captain Thomas McKay and his three sons — Reaches "Ren- dezvous,, — At the Shawnee mission — An awful grief. IX. THE WORK IN OREGON 158 Mr. Leslie in charge — Death of Mrs. Lee — Her epi- taph — Mr. Leslie visits Wascopam — Work of Daniel Lee and Mr. Perkins — A wonderful revival — "Wil- liam McKendree" — Great revival at the Willamette Peu-peu-mox-mox and his son — Death of Cyrus Shepard — A mountain adventure — Webley Haux- hurst. X. MR. LEE IN THE EAST 186 At the Shawnee mission— Mr. Johnson — Visits the Illinois conference — Robert Shortess — Lee at the Missionary Board — General enthusiasm — Action of the Board— Great reinforcement— Wm. Brooks— Dr. Bangs' statement— Lee's letter to Caleb Cushing— Action of government — Great plans of the Board — "Farewell meeting" — Reinforcement sails — "Cen- tennial Celebration" on the ship— Expedition reaches the Columbia. TABLE OF CONTEXTS. XI. THE NEW ERA 213 The force in the field — Appointments — Scattered abroad — Tour to the Umpqaa — Exciting incidents — Great changes among the Indians — Annual meeting — Incidents of travel — Why a "New Era?" XII. NIGHT AND MORNING ...... 24a Tiansitions — Death of Mr. Lee's second wife — Two letters— A new order of life — Educational movement — "The Oregon Institute" — Indian Manual Labor School — A new initial — First Church on the Pacific Coast. XIII. TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS 257 Rumors of Indian wars — Mr. Lee's visit to The Dalles — A perilous journey — Meeting with Peu-peu- mox-mox — Plain talk — A remarkable incident — A fearful tragedy — New aspects of the work — First camp meeting among the whites. XIV. CLOUDS AND DARKNESS 282 Sudden and mighty changes — Misapprehension and dissatisfaction — Lee's letters to the Board — Conflict of action — A new superintendent appointed — Mr. George Gary. XV. LEE RETURNS TO THE EAST - - - . 296 Changes in the mission — Daniel Lee — ^Jason Lee de- ' termioes to visit the east — David Leslie left in charge — Pathetic incident — Lee passes through Mexico — Reaches New York-.Visits Washington — Meets the Missionary Board — His address and vindication. XVI. DEATH OF JASON LEE 314 Mr. Lee visits his early uorae — His last sermon — His last letter — Longing for Oregon — His daughter. XVII. LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY . - - - ^ 320 Mr. Lee's personal qualities — A thorough American TAlUJi O!' CONTENTS. His faith and courage -- His clear foresight — The true missionary idea — The pioneer missionary — Lee and Whitman compared. XVHI. INDIAN MISSIONS CLOSKD 343 New adjustment of the work — (ieorge (iary arrives — Meeting of the missionaries — Resolve to close the Indian missions — Interesting coincidence — Mission property — Indian Manual Labor School becomes the Oregon institute — Value of the mission property — Mr. Lee's statement— Statious of the preachers — H. K. W. Perkins — The Dalles station given to the American Board — Rev. William Roberts succeeds Mr. Gary — Characteristics of the Indian race. XIX. MISSION TRAGEDIES 369 William Roberts — Organized first church of Califor- nia — Visits The Dalles— A tragedy — Indian war — The country defenseless — The missionary and mountain- eer — The mission to the rescue. XX. MISSION CONFERENCE ORGANIZED - - - 382 Oregon and California Missiou Conference — Roll of Statistics and appointments — Rapid changes — Hegira for gold — Second session of the conference — Large increase of members — Last session of tht Mission Conference. XXL OREGON ANNUAL CONFERENCE - - - - 394 Bishop Edward R. Ames — A stone of witness — Con- ference personnel — Statistics — Appointments — Three stages of development — Close of the Missionary Era Order of development. XXIL RE;VIEW of THE FIELD 404 The pioneers — Their character and work — Illustrat- ing incidents — Campmeeting preaching — Character of population — Summary of condition — I'reachers , and people — Problems. TAIil.H or COiXTENTS. xxni. EDUCATIONAL 420 Indian Manual Labor School — Transfer of properlj — "Oregon Institute" — Letter of G. Hines — First teacher— Arrival of Messrs. Roberts and Wilbur — Mr. Doan's appointment--- Appointment of F. S. Hoyt — Arrival in Oregon — Difficulties of I be work — Social conditions — New educational work — Letter from Dr. Hoyt — "Willamette University" chartered Umpqua Academy. XXIV. AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS - - - - 447 Organization — Dr. Parker commissioned — Journey to Oregon — Board appoints missionaries — Their jour- ney — Reach Walla Walla — Dr. McLaughlin's advice Location of missions — Gray's return to the states — Mission reinforced — M. Eells statement received — Board orders to break up the missions— Character of mii-sion church — Dr. Whitman's return to the east — The questions involved — Emigration of 1842 — Dr. Whitman's journey — Unrest of the Indians — Dr. Whitman's mission destroyed — Himself and wife murdered — Missrons destroyed — Causes — Results remaining. XXV. THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT - - - 487 Country without government — The contending par- ties — The stake at issue — Memorial to Congress — First movements for organization — Indian agent ap- pointed — Debate in Lyceum — Address of Canadian citizens — Final decision — Organic laws adopted^ — Form of government '"Provisional" — Oregon's flag the "Stars and Staipes." ILLUSTRATIONS. Facing Page Froutispiece—H. K, Hint-s. Dr. John McLoughlin .--.••- 85 David Leslie • • -119 Mrs. Jasi.n Lee '43 Mrs. H. Campbell • - • 213 A. F. Waller - - 25.^ First Church -257 George Gary ^93 J. L. Parrish ... 297 Lucy Lee Grubbs ----- 3«9 Gustavus Hines 365 William Roberts 37 1 Oregon Institute • ' - 421 N. Doane 4^9 J. H. Wilbur 437 F. S. Hoyt .... ... - 441 T. F. Royal 395 I. Dillon 399 George Abernethy - " 489 INTRODUCTORY. IN presenting this "Missi( -ary History of the I^acific Northwest" to the reaed,with the clouds of the sky, white with the m M' I f i I.; !^ i8 MISS ION A R Y HIS TOR Y. * I snows that ages could not melt, and on the other by the gray and desolate ocean whose width meas- ured nearly half way round the globe, "Oregon" seemed a fit symbol of a remoteness and inac ssi- bility where, if anywhere, he who would d a place where the "dead" are not might hope to find it. The poet's type of solitude and inaccessibility was well chosen. To statesmanship, commerce, and even to Christianity itself it was an unknown region. Only poetry could weave the witchery of its strange spell of flowing speech about it, albeit its very spell was itself as mysterious as the land of which it sung. But poets are often discoverers, discerning the real beyond the ideal, and leading the feet of those who do not sing, but rather march in the paths the singer discovers and the prophet foretells to the realization of the ideal of which they sang and prophesied. "Oregon." Whence came the name? The readers of this volume need not fear that they will be led through dry chronologies or cos- mogonies, or be tortured with riddles of speech or doubtful guesses about aboriginal names and races. It is well, however, that a few initial facts and inci- dents be stated in this "Preliminary" chapter, that are so connected with the theatre on which, or in relation to which, the events hereafter to be set PRELIMINARY, 19 forth took place, that the reader can only under- stand them in the light of their physical and his- toric settings. Only thus can they take in the wonderful story itself. So we ask whence the name? In 1766-68 Captain Jonathan Carver, of Con- necticut, who had won some fame in the war against Frar ce in which England had wrested from her a part of her American possessions, inspired with zeal to establish English supremacy over the entire northern portion of the American continent, made an exploration of the regions of the upper Mississippi. His intention was to explore the en- tire breadth of the contmenf from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in its broadest part, between the 43d and 46th degrees of north latitude. He evidently found the undertaking much greater than he had anticipated, and after spending quite a time about the headwaters of the Mississippi, gathering what information he could from the tribes with whom he came into contact about the country yet to the westward, he returned to the east and published a book descriptive of the lands he had visited. It is due to history that we transcribe the brief passage from his published work in which he Ubos the word "Oregon," the first time probably that it was ever used in print. In this use he attaches the name to -\'\ I! Il s ! t F ao M/SS/ONAR Y HIS TOR V. i' ;! a river instead of a country. The reference is as follows: "From these natives [called by him Nandowes- sies, Assinapoils, and the Killislioners,] together with my own observations, I have learned that the four most capital rivers of North America — the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi, the River Bourbon, and the Oregon, or River of the West, have their sources in the same neighborhood. The waters of the three former are within thirty miles of each other; the latter known as rather farther west. This shows that these parts are the highest in North America; and it is an instance not to be paralleled in the other three-quarters of the world, that four rivers of such magnitude should take their rise to- gether, and each, after running separate courses, discharge their waters into different oceans at a distance of 2000 miles from their sources." This, embracing all that Carver said respecting Oregon, or the"Great River of theWest," served to fix the name for the vast region west of the Rocky Mountains lying between the 42d degree of north latitude and 54° 40'. and including all of the present s^ates of Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and no inconsiderable part of the state of Montana. Carver gives no account of the origin of the name, and no authority for its use, and up to this date no research has been able to discover either. There is little doubt but it was invented by Carver, and has no historic or scientific significance whatever, except as it is associated with the mystical "Great PRELIMINARY. 21 River of the West," and from that passed to repre- sent the vast country through which it was sup- posed to flow. Bryant at last made it classic in Thanatopsis. Geographically the Oregon of the period covered by the history contained in this volume was hound- ed on the north l)y what was then known as the "Russian Possessions," on the east by the Rocky Mountains, on the south by Mexico, and on the west by the Pacitic Ocean, and included an area of not less than 1,000,000 square miles; or over twen- ty states each as large as New York. Its magnifi- cent size was rivaled by its vast and towering mountain ranges, the length and grandeur of its rivers, and the wonderful bays and straits cuul sounds projecting inland from the ocean, in some instances 200 miles. Its sea coast, trending north west from the Mexican line, is closely pressed in all its course by what is known as the Coast Range of Mountains. \\'\\.\\ an average altitude of perhaps .{.ooo feet, this range has many sunnnits reaching 8,000. and. in its northern extension, near the Straits of Fuca, some reaching 10,000. This range has a width of not far from forty miles. It then sul)sides, and a series of valleys not far from fifty miles wide supervene between it and the greater Cascade Range. The greater of these are the val- ' -■ >> ^ aa MISSIONARY HISTORY. ley, or basin, of Puget Sound, which practically ex- tends from the Straits of Fuca, on the 48^" of lati- tude southward to the Columbia River, a distance of 200 miles, and abutting directly on the Columbia against the valley of the Willamette, 150 miles long on the south. Sloping ruggedly up from the eastern borders of these valleys the Cascade Moun- tains reach an altitude of 10,000 feet, with great snowy peaks rising from 3,000 to 6,000 feet higher. There is hardly a spot in any of these great valleys from which from one to six of these wonderful peaks cannot be seen. This range is about 50 miles wide. Eastward of the Cascade Range is a vast, roll- ing, almost mountainous plateau, destitue of tim- ber, and reaching north and south from the old Mexican boundarv to the northern line of the old Oregon, on an average 150 miles wide from east to west. This is broken in places by lateral spurs projecting on either side from the Cascade Moun- tains on the west and the Blue Mountains on the east, but nowhere losing its characteristic identity for a length of 500 miles. This plateau is deeply seamed by the gorges through which flow several rivers, both from the north and south, into the great Columbia, which cuts the plateau and both the Cascade and Coast Ranges of Mountains from PRELIMINARY. 23 east to west just about in the middle of their reaches from north to south. East of the Blue Mountains, which are about thirty miles wide, the great valley of the Snake River, in which lies the greater part of the Slate of Idaho, sweeps still eastward to the very foot of the Rocky Mountains. This river, after it has cloven its way through the Blue Mountains, unites with the main Columbia, which has swept down from the north and east for fifteen hundred miles, and together they constitute the second greatest river-flow in the United States of America. It is second only in length. In magnificence of scenery, in clearness and purity of water, in value as a chan- nel of inter-continental commerce, in the extent and richness of its fisheries, it is clearly first in America, if not in the world. It drains 700,000 square miles of territory, including nearly all the large agricultural areas of the old Oregon. The only exception to this is the country west of the Cascade Mountains and north of the Columbia be- girting Puget Sound, which among the bays and ocean inlets of the world has the same pre-emin- ?nce that the Columbia has among the rivers. This vast region, thus generally outlined to the eye of the attentive reader, is that where the events and histories which are to be chronicled in this SI ' 1 I ■ u H MISSIONARY HISTORY. volume were laid by Providence. Its valleys and river banks, its plains and mountain fastnesses were the homes and haunts of the aboriginal tribes in whose behalf the work herein described was under- taken. At the period when our history begins these tribes were as much a myth and a mystery as was the land they inhabited. But we can neither de- scribe the work attempted for them, nor character- ize the workmen that attempted it, without some description of the tribes themselves, even though that description be short and its data largely tradi- tional. Without a written language of any kind, unless it was the use of the rudest and most bar- barous symbols, they have passed away and left no recorded history. Without architecture, except that which exhausted its genius in the construction of skin wigwams or bark lodges, they have died and left no monuments. No form of civilization had ever been brought them from without, and they had evolved none out of themselves. If their an- cestors ever had any they had utterly lost it out of their life and out of, the tendencies of their life. So far as we know the Indian of 1830 on the Pacific Coast was the living petrifaction of his remotest fathers. He slept in the same smoky wigwam. He hunted with the same sinewed bow. As to PRELIMINARY. '5 progress, the ages of God had been thrown away upon him. Such he was when he first came to the observation of civilized and christiani-ed man; of the man of progress, who had not, like himself, thrown away the chance that God had given him. With some distinctions and differences, as the vari- ous tribes and clans were found in the lowlands of the ocean shore and the lower rivers, or on the high uplands of the interior plateau, or on the dry and cinerous plains that lie brazen and fruitless far to- wards the Rocky Mountains, this was the general state of the, perhaps, forty or tifty thousand In- dians that inhabited the Oregon of 1830. On the lowlands, in the soft, humid climate of the coast and lower valleys, they were dull and indolent and filthy. On the interior plateau, where the altitude is from 500 to 2,000 feet above the sea, and the at- mosphere IS as clear as the sky is cloudless, and the very air he breathed is a thrilling tonic in the veins, where his life was that of a trained equestrian from his very birth, he was alert, active, observant, with keen perceptions and often a splendid physical en- dowment. On the fruitless and desolate lava- olains of the further interior, where the climate was more rigorous and the earth yielded but little for his sustenance, his life was a continued struggle for the smallest supply of the poorest food, such as 1i 'I I ill JS f I w^ 26 MISSION A R V HISTOR Y. M 3 I il haw-berries, cricketvS, grasshoppers, or ahiiost any Hving thing that crawled across his path. Hence he was crafty, cruel, murderous. There was really no nationality among them. They were tribes, or clans, only. It is only by the most elastic figure of speech that we can speak of an "Indian Nation." There was no common lan- guage. Each clan had its dialect. Not until the whites of the Hudson's Bay Company invented a "jargon," compounded of Indian sounds, French or English words intermixed and varied in termina- tions a;id accent and emphasis, exceedingly limited in its vocabulary, and taught it by their own use of it in their intercourse with all the tribes, was there any means of communicating intelligently with them. Even then the means were very imperfect, and the thought necessarily very restricted. Whether these people were numerous, whether there was in them any impulse of progress, or whether they were but few and lacking in those mental and moral yearnings and dissatisfactions which are the subjective basis of all efforts for a larger and better life in any people, nobody knows. Twenty years l^efore, Lewis and Clarke, under the direction of Thomas Jefferson, then President of the United States, whose statesmanlike fore- thought clearly prophesied of what ought to be ill PRELIMINARY. 27 and was to be on the Oregon shore, had made their unprecedented journey of exploration to the Paci- fic Coast. Their story, as it was pubUshed in 18 14, while it increased public interest in the Westland, gave hut little real information in regard to the aboriginal tribes. Their daily itinerary, as they pushed further and further into the then unknown, has a certain interest to the reader, but their ob- servations among the people were so transient and fragmentary that when, twenty years later, infor- mation preparatory to a different embassy to the tribes through which their journey led was sought, little indeed could be obtained. Their geographic- al observations were largely confined to the imme- diate valleys of the Missouri and Columbia. These ol)servations were intelligent and trustworthy, and they fixed the descriptive geography, and made the nomenclature of the immediate vicinity of the riv- ers whose courses they traversed with a good de- gree of fidelity and judgment. As the tribes of the lower Columbia regions, among whom they spent the winter of 1805 and 1806 were those among whom the first missionary work west of the Rocky Mountains was begun nearly a quarter of a century later, it seems proper to append a brief ac- count of them from the pubUshed journal of the expedition. It says: 111 ill i8 MISSIONAR V H/S TOR Y. ''The natives Avho inhabit this fertile region are very numerous. The Wapatoo Inlet extends three hundred yards wide for ten or twelve miles, when it receives the waters of a small creek whose sources are not far from those of the Killimuck [Tillamook] river. On that creek reside the Clack-Star nation, a people of 1.200 souls, who subsist on fish and wapatoo, and who trade by means of the Killimuck river with that nation on the coast. Lower down the Inlet towards the Columbia is the tribe called the Cathlocumup. On the sluice which connects the Inlet with the Multnomah [Willamette] are the tribes Cathlanahqua and Cathlacomatup, and on Wapato [Sauvies] Island, Clannaminamum and Clahnaquah. Immediately opposite, on the north side of the Columbia, are the Ouathlapotles and the " Shotos, All these tribes, as well as the Cathla- haws, who live on the lower river, and have an old village on Deer Island, may be considered parts of the great Multnomah Nation which had its princi- pal residence on Wapato Island, near the mouth of the larger river, to which they gave their name, [Multnomah, or now Willamette]. Forty miles above its junction with the Columbia it receives the waters of the Clackamas, a river that may be traced through a wooded and fertile country to its source in Mount Jefferson, almost to the foot of which it is navigable for canoes. A nation of the same name resides in eleven villages on its borders. They live chiefly on grass and roots, which abound in the Clackamas and along its banks, though they sometimes descend to the Columbia to gather wap- ato, when they cannot be distinguished by dress or manners or language from the tribes of the Mult- nomah. Two days journey from the Columbia, or about fortv miles, are the falls of the Multnomah. PRELIMINAR Y. 29 At this place are the permanent residences of the Cashooks and the Chahewahs, two tribes who are attracted to that place by the fish. * * * These falls are occasioned by the passage of a high range of mountains, beyond which the country stretches in- to a high, lev^l plain, wholly destitute of timber. As far as tb , Indians with whom we conversed, had ever penetrated that country, it was inhabited by a nation called Callepoewah, a very numerous peo- ple, whose villages, nearly forty in number, are scattered along each side of the Multnomah (Wil- lamette) which furnishes them their subsistence — • fish, and the roots along its banks." Obvious as it is in the light of later knowledge that their personal observations were limited, and the information given them by the Indians very imperfect, yet history must forever give them the honor of precedence in opening the way for the footsteps of civilization whose coming lingered long behind them, but came at last in the tracks of their brave venture. These clans of the lowlands, as before intimated, were not of promising character mentally, morally or physically. They lacked virility. There was no spirit of passion, of lofty conquest in them. Lacking these they lacked everything that could fit them for the pursuits of civilization, and much more for the warfare that is not alone against flesh and blood but against the rulers of the darkness of the world. i ' %\\ fcfl 30 MISSIONARY HISTORY. Eastward of the Cascade mountains the case was different. The tribes were large. The modes of life among them were more elevated. There was more individual virility; much more national spirit. They rode on horseback; very centaurs streaming over the open plains in chase or war. The Klicki- tats. the Wascos, the Yakimas, the Walla Wallas, the Cayuses, the Nez Perc.es, all more or less bound together by a community of blood, a homogeneity of pursuits, and all dwelling in a vast region of the same general climatic productions, and with fewer dialects in their speech, they presented a character of more strength, and hence of more hopefulness, "^'et they were, from these very facts, more intract- able, and when Lewis and Clarke passed down the Columbia through the vast plains on whose mar- gins they inhabited they saw and heard compara- tively little of them. Such were the mythical regions, and such the not less mythical ];)eople that inhabited them, at the end of the first quarter of the 19th century. The two great events that had set slightly ajar both the western and the eastern doors of access to these regions and these people were the discovery of the Columbia river in 1792 by Captain Robert Gray, of Boston, and the tracing of that same river's course by Lewis and Clarke in 1805 from the moun- PRELIMINARY 31 tain springs on the summit of the American conti- nent to where the crystal drops that burst from be- neath the everwasting yet never dissolving glaciers nearly two thousand miles away, mingled with the briny tide that on that special day bore the keel of Gray's good ship Columbia. The American Flag thus floated in by the sea, and thus marched down by land, consecrated every league of the mighty river's flood to an Anglo-American civilization of which they were the providential prophets and fore- runners. Strangely enough the eyes of the Span- iard and the Briton, as they sailed by the mouth of the "Great River of the West" were holden that they could not see it. Strangely enough, the Briton and the Russian and even the Frenchman were turned aside from the springs that fountain the mighty river, and led down roaring torrents through cloven mountains to inhospitable coasts. Strangely enough some propitious angel touched the eyes of the Americans, Gray and Clarke and Lewis, and they saw, and entered in. Still there was an interregnum in unified, con- centrated, decisive action. Moving figures, half mythical, half real, climbed the mountains or trail- ed through the forests, or shot down the rivers in flashing canoes. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the movement thickens, quickens, and finallv the ■ l''.! S\ 1 ', I ' t 32 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR V. mightiest forces that God has set in the human soul for all that is thrilling and beneficent in human progress in every line of that progress, are set to a work that had no limit of purpose but the limit of man's possibility of moral, social, intellectual, and spiritual elevation. How these potencies were planted in the "Old Oregon;" how they wrought and evangelized and civilized until they created the "New Oregon," is what we are to see in the story that follows: II. THE OPENING VISION. The heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. — EzEKiEL. THE first half of the present century may be said to date the beginning of the modern mis- sionary movement. For ages there had been lit- tle aggressiveness in the Church. Religion was worship, not work. Piety had degenerated into monkish cloistering, or, if sometimes it had other impulse, it exhausted itself in swinging censers and mumbling rituals. Meanwhile the myriads of hu- manity swept by the doors of church and convent and cathedral to death. The priests were brutish and the people loved to have it so. Wesley and his small though gallant and devot- ed corps of helpers, had stirred up a deeper spirit- ualitv of life and a holier zeal of endeavor in Eng- land, and their influence had reached across the At- lantic and kindled answering zeal in America, but that zeal had expended its force mostly along the Atlantic seaboard. A few adventurous spirits, chosen out of the more robust and deter- mined of the Atlantic pioneers, had scaled the Al- leganies and planted far advanced outposts in the |j! .'i ti« )■' w 34 MISSION AR Y HIS TOR Y. \ ( valleys of the Ohio and the Holston, but the men were few and their means limited, and, besides, the fulness of the times had not yet come. The Church was waiting on Providence. As the years grew on Methodism in America be- gan to accrete and consolidate her potent individ- vidualism into a compact and powerful organism. She did this under a magnificent leadership. Scarcely Loyola himself had greater ecclesiastical generalship, or a loftier spirit of consecration to his ideal work than had Asbury. His lieutenants were like him, or they soon ceased to be his lieu- tenants. With a statesman's mental grasp and a warrior's imperious \\\\\ he was the man for the hour and the crisis of Methodism. With himself, under the great "Captain of our Salvation," as leader awd commander of the people, and sucli men as Jesse Lee, Freeborn Garrettson and Wil- liam McKendre, followed later by Elijah Hedding, Nathan Bangs and \Vilbur Fisk and their hundred equals to carry out his orders on the field, there could be no want of wisdom in design or vigor in execution. But the face of the Church was to- ward the east. Judson had burst ajar the gates of Burmah, Cox had opened the western door of the Dark Continent, and the churches were preparing to carry another crusade over the plains of the Ori- THE OPENING 17S/0N. Jg ent. There was, it must he confessed, a spleiulid inspiration in the thought that Bethlehem's Star should rise again on India's sky out of the western horizon. No wonder that, for a time, the Church forgot the west, and even the American Church thought and prophesied only of "Africa's sunny fountains and India's coral strands." But God never forgets. His needy children are in His heart and thought forevermore; and in His own good time He will givfe their need a voice that will awaken His people to deliver and save the perish- ing. So, suddenly, out of the Rocky Mountains, He peals a call that faces the Church westward as well as eastward. It was on this wise: From the Mississippi to the western sea there stretched a wild and weird unknown. Dim rumors of its great mountains and broad valleys, teeming with a wild and savage life, had crept a little east- ward of the Missippi, but had hardly reached the ear of the Church in her places of power and au- thority in the cities of the Atlantic. Whether the wild tribes of that vast western region had any idea of God or any susceptibility of progress, none knew; scarcely any inquired. But God has ways to make the church hear when His time has come. "The man of Macedonia" can ever make his "Come over and help us" audible when God bids him speak. '1:1' TIT 36 MISS ZONA R Y I US TORY. ■ i 1 : Up among the springs that fount'ain the Cohtni- bia. in one of the smiling valleys of the great moun- tains, in 1832 the chiefs of the Flat Head Indians are in serious council. They are not painted as for war, nor armed as for the chase. A look of deep reflection is on the faces of the old men; of listening inquiry on those of the younger. They were rehearsing in each other's ears a strange story that wandering trappers had brought to their wigwams. It was the story of the white man's worship; of the book that told him of God and immortality, and of the presence and power of the Great Spirit. The Indian is a worshipper — feeling after God in his dim way, if haply he may find Him; and such a story must needs find and hold his heart. Through many such cotmcils, in the simple and sincere way of these uut.'iught children of nature, this investigation cnitinued. The conclusion reached was. if there were such treasures even far away they must find them. They selected one of their old sachems, and with him a trusted brave of full years, and two young and daring men, and with the benedictions of those thev left behind them the four went out on their sublime search. How often we are taught that God's messengers are not all commissioned from the schools of the prophets. He has all seasons and all instrumen- 'I OPENING VISION. 37 talities for His own. The heart c>{ humanity beats round the world, and God can touch that heart anywhere with a thrill of His own inspiration. His providences are beyond our ken, and His king- dom is advanced by means all His own. This was never more wonderfully seen than in the manner in which the Church was first made aware that the great tribes of this far west were repeating the vision and mission of the Magi: — they "saw His star in the east and came to worship Him." In 1832 St'. Louis was a hamlet of the far fron- tier. It was the resort of hunters and trappers, where they came to dispose of their furs and pel- tries, and whence they went again to seek other treasures of the forest and mountains. Many weeks after the Indian council among the moun- tains four Indians walked stealthily down its streets, looking everywhere as for a hidden treas- ure. Finally they appealed to General William Clarke, of whose name the two older of the com- pany had heard a quarter of a century before, away up in their far mountain home, when he and Gen- eral Meriweather Lewis had passed through the mountains on their way to the western sea. To him they stated the object of their search. They were received kindly, amply supplied with blankets and ornaments, but neither General Clarke nor X I ■ . I 'i:-3-\ 1 .ill -.4 J Tl ^■^ ^ i 3S MISSIONARY HISTORY. '1 f ' anybody in that Roman Catholic frontier town gave them any satisfaction as to the object of their embassy. They waited until their heart became weary, and two of their number had died, and then the remaining two prepared to go back to their distant people with their tale of disappointment. The Indian is ceremonious, and these desired and were granted a farewell leave-taking in the rooms of General Clarke's Indian agency, hung and carpeted with robes and furs from the forest. Thi'' was their farewell speech, as well as an Indian's rugged and stormy eloquence can be interpreted into English. "We came to you over a trail of many moons from the setting sun. You were the friend of our fathers who have all gone the long way. We came with our eyes partly opened for more light for our people who sit in darkness. We go back with our eyes closed. How can we go back blind to our blind people? We made our way to you with strong arms, through many enemies and strange lands that we might carry back much to them. We go back with empty and broken arms. The two fathers who came with us — the braves of many winters and wars — we leave here asleep by your great wigwam. They were tired in their journey of many moons, and their moccasins were worn out. Our people sent us to get the white man's Book of Heaven. You took us where they worship the Great Spirit with candles, but the Book was not there. You showed us the images of good spirits. f THE OPENING VISION. 39 and pictures of the good laud beyond, but the Book was not among them to tell us the way. You made our feet heavy with burdens of gifts, and our moccasins will grow old with carrying them, but the Book is not among them. We are going back the long, sad trail to our people. When we tell them, after one more snow, in the big counsel, that we did not bring the Book, no word will be spoken by our old men, nor by our young braves. One by one they will rise up and go out in silence. Our people will die in darkness, and they will go on the long path to other hunting grounds. No white m.n will go with them, and no Book of Heaven to make the way plain. We have no more words." There is a sad, wild pathos in that speech. Few like it have ever been heard. It seems the wail of a heart broken in sorrow for a lost hope. As soon as these sad words had fallen from the lips of the speaker, these r;(i men turned away westward to- wards their home and people bearing to them only the grief of a great disappointment. Only one Uved to reach his people. Possibly we can imag- ine the sadness of his reception and the grief of his people as he rehearsed the failure of his mission and told where he had left his companions in si- lence and death. But was this mission of these children o\ the mountains a failure? To them individually, yes; but to the American Church, to the Pacific coast, and especially to Methodism, no. 40 MIS SI ON A R V HIS TOR Y. I I A few months had passed after the retiiin of the Indian messengers to their people, when, through the instrumentality of Mr. George Catlin, their story was published in the newspapers, and it was soon read in all the cities and villages of the land. Its publication in the Christian Advocate and Journal thrilled the heart of the Methodist Episcopal Church as it had never been thrilled be- fore. Instead of the Church seeking the heathen the heathen were seeking the Church. On the 20th of March, 1833, Rev. Wilbur Fisk, D.D., placed a communication before the Mission- ary Board upon the subject of a mission to the Flathead Indians, to be established at once. The Board mimediately proceeded so far as to order the Secretary, Rev. Nathan Bangs, D. D., to confer with the Bishops and others in relation to the Flat- heads. On the 17th day of April, Bishop Emory communicated to the Board the fact that he had consulted with the war department of the national government and had learned that that department had no knowledge of any such tribe. Still he thought that the inquiry should not be given up without consulting with General Clarke, as it was through him, professedly, that the call for the Book o{ Heaven had come to the ears of the Chun:-. Through that correspondence some very interest- THE OPENING VISION. ii ■■v« ing reports of that tribe and some related and ad- jacent tribes were communicated to the Board. These had their effect, and the Board immediately resolved to proceed at once to establish "a mission among the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains." Among the ablest, as they were the most earnest of the advocates of this proposition were Dr. Wil- bur Fisk and Dr. Nathan Bangs. Dr. Bangs was the first Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Church which had been in existence only a few years, and up to this time had established only a single foreign mission, that of Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, and to which Melville B. Cox, of Maine, h?,d been appointed. Dr. Bangs gave not only the influence of his position to the proposed plan but the full power of his trained pen and voice. Dr. Fisk was at that time the most potent personality in the Church. He was educated, eloquent, devoted, and stood at the head of the educational work of the Church. Up to the present day Methodism has produced few equal and none superior to Dr. Fisk. His powerful and eloquent appeals in the pulpits of New England and New York, and also through the press, which, even at that early day, was beginning to sway a mighty power over the thought and life of Meth- odism, bore the Church right onward to the con- i I :i I 42 MISSIONARY HISTORY. \ il «i: iRtI elusion that it was her imperative duty to send the mess '^ of hope and salvation to the red men of the dist. est who had so plaintively called for it, as she had but just sent it to the black men on the coast of Africa. The conclusion was heroic, and in it Methodism began to gird herself for her march of conquest round the world. When this conclusion was reached it was largely an abstraction to the general church and the pub- Uc mind. A mission was to be established, but there was no missionary. "Who will go for us?" became immediately the paramount question. A great hour had come and the man for the hour was wanted. The Church turned at once to Dr. Fisk as the man almost certain to voice the Divine selection. The reasons for that confidence were apparent. His judgments were discriminating and his intui- tions clear. His zeal for her was consuming, but it was evenly tempered with discretion. His op- portunity for forming reliable opinions of men and means was unrivaled. As principal of Wilbraham Academy he had under his training many young men of brilliant talents and devoted piety, coupled with lofty aspirations for themselves and the Church and cause they served. Among them were Jefferson Hascal, David Patten, Moses Hill, THE OPENING VISION 43 Miner Raymond, Osmon C. Baker, and last but not least, Jason Lee. It was natural that, when Dr. Fisk was expected to find the fitting instru- n5ent for this great missionary undertaking, he should seek that instrument among those of whom he knew so much and in whom he confided so fully. His answer was explicit: "I know but one man, JASON LEE.'' This selection was prompt and emphatic, and received such a warm approval from the authorities of the Church wherever Mr. Lee was known, that it was not long before the whole question was settled, and, on the 17th of July, 1833, Mr. Lee was officially designated as the lead- er of the great missionary adventure. But before we take up the story of his work our readers will desire to know more of the workman himself. 1 : '! il I ', ii IP \ i 1 ,1 ,■■■! ■1 "I: 1 4 ■•;i '■''■} it ii III. THE INSTRUMENTS CHOSEN. ,, I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit remain. —Jesus. JASON LEE came of an honorable and Chris- tian, if not of a distinguished parentage. His father, Daniel Lee, was born in Connecticut when that State was a wilderness.. Near by, in a log cabin embowered in the deep woods, was born his mother, Sarah Whitaker. It is related that as the infant Sarah lay in her cradle while the cabin door stood open one bright spring day, a huge bear rushed through the open room. Mr. Whitaker, a man of great strength, grappled with the bear and threw him to the ground, calling on his wife to shoot him, but she, in the excitement of the mo- ment, was unable to do so, and Mr, Whitaker, dis- engaging himself from the embrace of the shaggy monster, seized the gun, and as bruin was climbing a tree near the house brought him down with a fatal shot. Amid the scenes and wrestlings of such a pioneer life, and with all the hardihood of body and independence of mind they develope, the parents of Jason Lee had their childhood, youth, THE INSTRUMENTS CHOSEN. 45 ■ /•: and early married life. After their marriage, Mr. I)«niel Lee and his excellent Christian wife re- mained in their native State for almost fifteen years, and then removed to Rutland, Vermont; and thence, after a few years, joined the band of •hardy New Englanders that had settled Stanstead, fn' Canada East, about the beginning of the year 1800. Here, amidst the hardships and toils of pio- neer life, at fifty years of age, Mr. Daniel Lee gave his heart to God, and after two years of singular de- votion to the Divine service, was called to the rest of tlie just. His death threw upon Mrs. Lee the care of her large family of children. The country was new. Her means were limited. Still, with the goodness of the saint and the resolution of the heroine, she toiled on, striving to give her chil- dren a substantial education, and thus prepare them for wider fields of usefulness than she had trodden. The success of her pious endeavors, as well as the vindication of her grand womanhood and motherhood, are seen in the honorable and useful record that not a few of her descendants have made for the name of Lee. Of this parentage Jason Lee was born in Stan- stead in 1803. His early training, under the stren- uous exactions of a life in the wilderness, was of the kind that builds a sturdy and independent I % '•>■' d (! I 46 MISSIONARY HISTORY. i ,1 H i n I I,-;'! Sll manhood, physically and mentally; though it is not necessary for the purposes of our history to relate its incidents. From the settlement of Canada East until 1820, religious privileges were few, and the work of the Christian ministry scarcely known. Suddenly "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" was heard. Hick, a Wesleyan minister, burst unannounced in- to the forest settlement and startled its dwellers by his clarion call to repentance. His ministry was able, and laid the foundation for that decided and fruitful Christian life for which the Methodism of Stanstead and all Lower Canada soon became fa- mous. He was followed by Pope, and after him came Turner; names redolent of goodness and faith, the fragrant memory of which is yet rehears- ed in the traditions of Canada Methodism. A. wonderful revival of religion was enjoyed under the labors of these devoted and godly men. While this revival was in full progress Jason Lee came down from the pineries of the north, where he had been employed, and was astonished to find that all things had become new about his old home. Old faces wore a new glory, old friends spoke a new tongue. The song of the revel and the shout of the fray had given place to the hymns of Zion and the praises of the sanctuary. These, however. THE INSTRUMENTS CHOSEN 47 found no sympathetic response in his heart. Still his was too true and manly a heart not to be moved and it was also too true and manly to be moved by mere impulse. Action, with him, was always con- siderate, deliberate, decided. Measuring and weighing the question that he felt he must now decide, for some time he stood apart, his mind gradually inclining in its most intelligent convic- tions to the side of Christianity. On a Sabbath, while returning home from church in company with his nephev/; afterwards Rev. Daniel Lee, his companion and coadjutor in the Oregon Mission, the latter spoke to him about the salvation of his soul. He was answered only by a silent tongue and downcast eye; most impressive of all answers. Returning to the church again in the evening, while the people were engaged in a prayer meet- ing, he stood up in their midst and announced his firmly formed resolve to be a Christian. All hearts thrilled as his tall form, six feet and three inches in height, the very impersonation of manhood and strength, rose in their midst and he began to speak. His own emotions were deep, and tears flowed free- ly as he uttered the vows that gave to Christ's grace a new and rare trophy; to evangelical Chris- tianity one of her most apostolic servants. Jason Lee was converted in the twenty-third 'i \: m 48 MISSIONARY HISTORY. ll year of his age. For two or three years thereafter he continued at his accustomed manual toil, while all the time the thought was growing upon him that God had other business for him to do. When this thought had become so deeply a conscio .isness that to longer resist it was to fight againsl. God, he laid down the implements of labor, and in the autumn of 1827 entered the Wesleyan Academy, at Wilbraham, Massachusetts. . This institution was then under the presidency of Dr. Wilbur Fisk. Mr. Lee entered the institu- tion in company w ith a class of young men of rare genius and talent, some of whose names have al- ready been mentioned. His most intimate friend in school and ever thereafter was Osmon C. Baker. Years afterward, when this friend had become one of the most revered Bishops of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and Jason Lee had gone up to even a higher place than that in the Kingdom of God, Mr. Baker drew the following picture of the man and his work while in school: "He was a large, athletic young man, six feet and three inches in height, with a fully developed frame, and a constitution of iron. His piety was deep and uniform, and his life, in a very uncommon degree, pure and exemplary. In those days of ex- tensive and powerful revivals, I used to observe with what confidence and satisfaction seekers of religion would place themselves under his instruc- THE INSTRUMENTS CHOSEN 49 tion. They regarded him as a righteous man, whose prayer availed much, and when there were indications that the Holy Spirit vvas moving on the heart of a sinner within the circle of his acquaint- ances, his warm christian heart would incite him to constant labor until dehverance was proclaimed to the captive." So highly did Dr. Fisk estimate the character and talents of Mr. Lee that, on the organization of an important class of these promising young gentlemen in the academy he put them under his care, knowing that his energy and stability quali- {led him to govern well, and his solid talents to thoroughly instruct those committed to his care. Before and during his residence at Wilbraham Mr. Lee's mind had been deeply impressed with the feeling that the work and duty of his life would be to live and labor for the Indian tribes. This feel- ing remained after his return to Stanstead, and while he was engaged in teaching in the St?- • tvad Academy. Himself and Osmon C. Baker had al- most formed plans for united labor in Pagan lands. Under date of March, 1831, he wrote to Mr. Baker as follows: "I have not forgotten the red men of the west, though I am not yet among them. O, that I had some one like yourself to go with me. and help me in the arduous work, with whom I could hold sweet converse. Or could I be assured that I should, in a few years, embrace you in the wilds, and 50 MISSION A R y HIS TOR V. I ! I have you for a coiupaiion as long as the good Lord should have need of us in the forests, I could cheer- fully forego all the pleasure I receive from the soci- ety of friends here, tear myself from the embrace of my nearest and dearest relatives, and go (as John before our Lord) and prepare the way before you. But I am building castles in the air. No! no! that I fear can never be. Not my will, but thine, O Lord, be done." After Mr. Lee's return to Canada he engaged in the active work of the Gospel ministry under the direction of the Wesleyan missionaries in his native town and towns adjacent, and among those with whom his boyhood and youth had been spent. His life work was gradually opening before him, and he was preparing himself to enter in. His studies were earnestly prosecuted, and, amidst the hard work of an incipient ministerial career, and the toil necessary to sustain himself in it, his whole being was broadening for the coming responsibil- ity. He had offered his services to the \\^esleyan Mis- sionary Society of London as a missionary among the Indians of Canada, and when the spring of 1833 came he w^as waiting anxiously the result of his ap- plication. Richard Watson was then secretary of that society, and his death, occurring during the pendency of Mr. Lee's application, so deranged and impeded its business that his application was THE INSTRUMENTS CHOSEN. not acted upon. But, suddenly, another call, from another part of the world, heralded in the manner already recorded, thrilled the heart of the church, and all, Mr. Lee included, paused to listen. While waiting and wondering whereunto this strange thing would grow, Mr. Ler received a com- munication from Dr. Fisk relative to his undertak- ing the establishment of a mission among the peo- ple whose strange call had thus awakened the church. Mr. Lee, after due consideration, consent- ed to the proposition of Dr. Fisk, provided he could honorably detach himself from the service of the Wesleyan Board to which he had already offer- ed himself. In due time all these arrangements were satisfactorily made. The circumstances under which this appoint- ment was made were highly creditable to Mr. Lee. When he was chosen he was not a minister, not even a member, of the church whose herald beyond the mountains he was to become, but was connect- ed with the Wesleyan Church of Canada. That he had so impressed himself upon the leading minds of Methodism in the United States at that time as to designate him as the most suitable man to un- dertake so great a work is remarkable. It must be confessed the qualities requisite for such work combine in verv few. it' - ( .i'l w 52 MISS ION A R V HIS TOR V. n I' ; The distance of the proposed site of the mission from civiUzation; the perilous way of advance to it; the hardships to be endured; all required a strong, stalwart physical manhood. The people among whom the mission was to be founded, their superstitions, old paganism, their warlike charac- ter, everything of them and around them required a man of clear insight into character and motives, prompt and decided, yet gentle and winning. The great church of which he was to stand the symbol and representative, required that that rep- resentative should fitly indicate her greatness and type her evangehstic fervor. And as the plans of future evangelistic conquest were to be laid on the very ground where these conquests were to be won, a clear, broad intellect, with the forecast of the statesman as well as the fervor of the evangelist, was a prime necessity. That such men as Dr. Bangs and the Board of Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, comprising such men as Bishop Hedding, Bishop Roberts, Bishop Soule and Bishop Emory; men of whom it were no disparagement, living or dead, to say that they were the chief glory of our earlier history, should consider these high endowments to be found in a young man of thirty years of age was itself enough to crown that young man with honor. The unanimitv with which the wn THE INSTRUMENTS CHOSEN. 53 church approved the choice thus made was remark- able, and when Jason Lee thus found himself ap- pointed to the unsought field, it was with the deep conviction everywhere prevailing throughout +'^e church that the providential hour had found th<" providential man. The appointment of a superintendent for the missions with the full approval of the mind of the church as expressed through the Missionary Board and the Episcopacy, involved the necessity for the appointment of assistants and the adjust- men cf the entire autonomy of the work contem- plated. The Missionary Board, with the approba- tion of the Episcopacy, resolved to appoint an ad- ditional ministerial missionary, and to associate with the mission two laymen. To the first place Rev. Daniel Lee, a nephew of the superintendent, was appointed. He had been fo more than two years a traveling preacher in t' e New Hampshire Conference, and was an ordained deacon at the time -^f his appointment to the missionary work. Mr. Jason Lee, as we have seen, was not, at the time of his selection as superintendent of the mis- sions, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, although he was a local preacher in the Wesleyan Methodist Church of Canada. He was. however, admitted into the New England Conference at its I Mil Itili '% % \ ; 54 MISSIONARY HISTORY. II Hi \l ■'; \ session in 1833, ordained deacon and elder, and re- ceived from tlie bishop presiding his official desig- nation as "Missionary to the Flathead Indians." "The King's business requires haste." After the mission had been resolved upon, and the mis- sionaries selected, all were anxious if not impatient for the opening of its work. On October loth, 1833, the missionaries met in New York for con- ference with the Missionary Board, and final prep- arations for their work. The Board appropriated $3,000 for the outfitting of the mission, and ar- rangements were made for an early departure of the missionaries for their allotted field. A farewell missionary meeting was held in Forsythe Street Church, in New York, November 20th, 1833, at which Bishop Hedding presided, and Dr. Bangs, Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Socie- ty, Dr. AIcAuley, of the A. B. C. F. M., and several others made addresses. The presence and ad- dresses of the newly appointed missionaries excited great interest. The people felt that their venture was bold beyond all precedent, for the region where the mission was to be established was then as little known on the Atlantic seaboard as the far- ther Indies. It was only known that the boldness and bravery of mammon had been foiled in the field to which they were destined; and that they, al- THE INSTRUMENTS CHOSEN. 55 most alone, should be able to take and hold that land for Christ, when commercial enterprise, with powder and ball, had not been able to hold it for gain, seemed the very hardihood of human resolve. The plan adopted by the Missionary Board, with the sanction of Mr. Lee, was for the newly ap- pointed missionaries to travel through the Atlantic cities as far south as Washington for some weeks and present the missionary cause to the churches, and then proceed westward to the fr^ intiers of Mis- souri and be ready to enter upon their great «ner- land journey to the Rocky M n tains and beyond at the opening of spring. It was also desirable that Mr. Lee should confer with the national au- thorities in Washington and secure the endorse- ment of the government in his contemplated set- tlement in the Indian country; and, as he might enter into the region then in dispute between the United States and Great Britain, but which under the "joint occupancy" treaty between these two powers, was equally open to the citizens of both, he needed also the passport and permit of the gov- ernment t.. shield him from interference by the sub- jects of Great Britain resident or trading there. These plans were carried out by Mr. Lee. and with the full endo-sement of the President of the Unit- ed States, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary TF Hii^l^ 56 MISSIONARY HISTORY. % i of War, he was prepared to go out, not, indeed, knowing entirely whither he went, for the whole land lay before him. The how of the journey was not yet fully determined. In January, 1834, it became known to the Mis- , sionary Board and to Mr. Lee that Captain Na- thaniel Wyeth, of Boston, who had visited the Co- lumbia river the preceding year, would dispatch a vessel to that river in the spring and himself would lead a party overland to the same point during the summer. This was a providential opportunity. The outfit designed for the establishment of the mission was forwarded in Captain Wyeth's brig — the Maydacre — and it was determined that Mr. Lee and his company should accompany the over- land expedition in the spring. Captain Wyeth, who had visited the Columbia river, and seen the tribes between it and the Missouri the year before, gave such information of the field to be occupied and of the Indians residiuj^^ in it as greatly to en- hance the public interest in the mission itself. Mr. Cyrus Shepard, of Lynn, Massachusetts, a teacher of excellent qualifications, and a gentleman and Christian of the highest character, was selected by Mr. Lee as one of the laymen to be associated with him in the work of the mission, and his choice THE INSTRUMENTS CHOSEN. 57 was most cordially approved by the Missionary Board. These preliminaries settled, early in March Mr. Lee left New York for the west. On his route westward his addresses awakened great interest in his mission, especially in Pittsburg and St. Louis, where he remained longer than at other points. From St. Louis he proceeded on horseback, accom- panied by his nephew. Daniel Lee, to the western frontier of the State. On reaching the frontier Mr. Lee engaged Mr. P. L. Edwards, of Indepen- dence. Missouri, a young gentleman of good abili- ty and character, for service as teacher in the Mis- sion, and a Mr. Walker for other labors, for a year. 11 IV. ON THE TRAIL. li! mi " We are journeying to a land of which the Lord hath said I will give it Thee." —Moses. IN the spring of 1834 the now flourishing town of Independence, Missouri, was only a small ham- let on the remotest western verge of civilization. It was known chiefly as the point from whence the half-nomadic troopers and voyageurs over the plains and in the Rocky Mountains took their de- parture for a life of wild adventure, of fierce conflict with savage men and savage nature and savage beasts; and perchance, for an unmarked and un- historied grave in the deep, wild defiles of the dis- tant mountains. To pass that limit, in most cases, was to die, if not in the literal, yet in the deeper, sadder sense of a life bereaved forever of home and friends and all that makes life worth the living. The thought that any impulse other than one of sordid gain could ever tempt a human foot adven- turously to cross the line beyond which all was darkness, would have startled, if it could have en- tered into the minds of the bold leaders of travel and trade along the dim trails of these far western ON THE TRAIL. 59 wilds. When, therefore, in the early spring, when the new life of the year was bursting out of field and fen in promise for its autumn garners, Jason Lee suddenly appear- ed amidst the wild troop just preparing for the western march, it was as though a being from an unknown world had stepped out of his un- seen realm full in their vision. When, for the first time, his tent was pitched among the lodges of their wild camp, on the night of the 28th of April, 1834, and the sweet song of praise and low voice of prayer trembled through the twilight stillness as hushed music from an unseen minstrel, in many minds a new thought was shaped, into some hearts a new life was projected. To him, also, it could not but be an era hour. The time of preparation, of consideration and decision, was now past. Hon- orably for himself or innocently before God, he could not now look back. He was now as never before the embodiment and representative of the Church in half a continent. The bark that bore Cassar and his fortunes bore not half so momen- tous a burden as the beast that bore Jason Lee and his mission toward and over the Rocky Moun- tains, Something of this feeling impressed him, as, with the two elected companions of his travel and toil, he bowed in his lowly tent to pray for wis- '\\) IM I \\'\ \\\ ■■ • i 6o MISSIONARY HISTORY. dom and strength and guidance as "he went out not knowing whither he went." His journal gives evidence of this condition of feehng for the days of the preparation, and the quietude of his trust as he records his "thankfuhiess that he is now on his way to the farthest west." At that date, now sixty-five years ago, the prep- arations for a journey across the continent were exceedingly primitive. Horses or mules to ride and pack; with a few, and a very few, conveniences and comforts for the tent or lodge; guns and am- munition for defence and to procure game for food, were the outfit. For the rest, the day must find its own. To this rule there was no exception. Missionary and voyageur were alike. Mr. Lee, ac- cording to his exjjectations, had joined his com- pany with that of Capt. Xathaniel Wythe, and, be- sides, they would travel in close proximity to Capt. W'm. Sublette, the most renowned and the ablest of all the rangers of the mountains from 1826 to 1836. Thus companioned, on the last day of April, "the train" began to wind its way over the rolling prairie hills that lie .south of the Kan.sas — then known as the Kaw river, passing near the Shawnee Indian Mission, then, and after for many years, under the superintendence of Rev. Thomas Johnson; where Mr. Lee made such observations iii ON THE TRAIL. 61 as his time would allow, the better to prepare him- self for his own future work. There would be much interest in following Mr. Lee daily as his journal records his journey, but we judge it better to reserve the space that would thus be occupied by details of travel for more important matters. A few quotations from his journal at some of the interesting points of his journey, and in its more eventful incidents, will only be given. These will give the reader a clear general impres- sion of what it all was, as well as a true insight into the hardships and struggles of such a journey. The company of Mr. Wythe numbered not far from two hundred men. Outside of civilization they were a law unto themselves. For them the civil anti had no terrors. The very decalogue seemed to be abrogated. Brave, in the sense of reckless physical hardihood; generous, in the sense of improvident wastefulness, they surely were. "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." was the motto which summed the whole philosophy of their life. Of course between them and a man of high Christian feeling, whose soul was bearing the burden of a divine mission, there could be little of affinity. Alike they were men in outward form only. To be under the necessity of a close com- panionship with such a multitude for five months A .1 6a MISSIONARY HISTORY. of tiresome travel, was not the least hardship of his journey. An extract from his journal, under date of Sunday, May ii, 1834, will show something of this trial. They had encamped the night preceed- ing on the Big Vermilion, in the present State of Kansas. He says: "Decamped early this morning, but losing the trail, came to a stop about ten o'clock. The day has been spent in a manner not at all congenial with my wishes. Traveling, laboring to take care of the animals by all, cursing, swearing and shoot- ing by the company. Read some of the Psalms and felt that truly my feelings accorded with Da- vid's, when he so much longed for the house of God. I have found very little time for reading, writing or meditation since leaving Liberty, for I am so constantly engaged in driving stock, en- camping and making preparations for the night, and decamping in the morning. But still we find a few minutes to call our little family together and commend ourselves and our cause in prayer to God." Some of the perils of the way soon began to be manifest. The whole country from the Missouri River westward was destitute of roads; Indian trails only marking the plains. These more fre- quently led in wrong than in right directions. Otherwise courses must be taken by compass or by the traveler's .knowledge of the nattiral land- marks of the country. When the first was absent and the second wanting, the traveler was almost 14. ■:".:ag ON THE TRAIL. 4s certain to be lost in the wilderness of hills; happy if he found his way back to camp, or if the arrow of some treacherous Pawnee did not pierce his side. The day after the record above such an incident of peril occurred to Mr. Lee, with one companion, Mr. Cyrus Shepard. They had left camp early in the morning in pursuit of a stray animal, and in at- tempting to return were led far astray in a country where a small party was sure to be robbed if not murdered, if discovered by a stronger one of In- dians. A good providence, however, did not for- sake them, and just before nightfall they were first alarmed by the appearance of a number of horse- men sweeping down upon them from a distant em- inence, though greatly relieved to find they were of their own company and able to guide them safely to camp. From this point the route took the company northwest across Blue River, then over a wide stretch of rolling prairie to and up the Republican Fork of the Kansas, thence over a still more bro- ken and sandy country to the Platte River, which they reached a little below Grand Island. In this vicinity the first buffalo were seen, and from henceforth the meat of these animals was the al- most exclusive food of the entire party for many weeks. The missionaries did their part of the hunt- m ifei l! It \i'4i |l 64 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR Y. ing, and shared in messes alike with the traders and trappers. Until far up towards the moun- tains, packing and unpacking, camping and de- camping, hunting huffalo and cooking ?nd eating their meat, with occasional visits from some strag- gling bands of Indians, were the incidents of all the days. At night camp was to be guarded, sen- tinels paced their vigils, every man slept with his arms within reach prepared for an attack from the Indians, of which they were in constant danger. It was a vigilant, wearisome life; not. however, without its compensations to the missionaries, as a preparation for the self-reliant toil of the future. They were the stronger physically, perhaps morally too. for the strained and tensioned thought and action of these days oi" danger and toil. In after years the same experiences, with varying incidents, ])rei)are(l an hundred thousand men and w'omen to found the most vigorous commonwealths of all his- tory on the shores of the Pacific. The scenery of the route along the middle Platte is very fine. The ;;oft marl hills have been washed and worn by the winds and rain, and chipped and cleft by the frosts of ages until they stand in every fantastic and beautiful form. Castles are imaged in hills as though chiseled by sculptors. The swell- ing dome, the tall spire, the deep and long corri- wummi ON THE TRAIL. ^5 dors, all carry the niiiul back to days of departed chivalry, and one half expects to see mailed and ar- mored cavaliers emerging- from the car^^le gates to engage in tilts and tournaments for ine smiles or hand of some noble lady on the plain beyc nd. To some of these castled cliffs local names, or names having their origin in some wild adventure or thrill- ing romance are attached. Such are "Scott's Bluff's." Of the origin of this name Mr. Lee, un- der date of May 30, 1834, gives the following ac- count, received from the old companions of Scott, when encamped near them. Mr. Scott was the superintendent of Gen. Ashley's fur company in the Rocky Mountains. The exposures, excitements and nervous strain of a life in the mountains proved too severe for his constitution, and at length he was taken delirious somewhere in the Black Hills, far west of this spot. In lucid inter- vals his thoughts turned homeward, and his heart longed to ease its fevered beatings among his kindred. This desire he expressed, and the com- pany made {^reparations to convey him to his peo- ple. A boat of skins was constructed, and with two men he was launched out on the Platte, and drifted downward, homeward. In rapids the frail boat was upset and lost, and the maniac and his two companions were defenceless on the wild des- lit' 66 MISSIONARY HISTORY. ii I r^ ert. They wandered on, the wild, longing eyes of Scott ever strained in their insatiate searchings for home. The two men at length returned to the companw half famished, and reported Scott as dead. Afterwards his bones and blanket were dis- covered at the foot of these bluffs. Henceforward they were known among all mountain men as "Scott's Bluffs," and the wild, thrilling story of his life, remembered and rehearsed whenever the voya- geur kindled his dim camp fire in the shadow of this, his grand and lasting monument. This year, and while the missionaries were en- camped on Laramie's Fork, Fort Laiamie was built by Captain Wra. Sublette. It was on the eastern border of the trapping country, and was intended for a depot fon- trade and supplies. While writing of the dangers incurred by the trappers in their wild pursuit, Mr. Lee rays: "Thus these men incur more danger for a few beaver skins than we do to save souls; and yet some who call themselves Christians would Iiave persuaded us to abandon our enterprise because of the danger attending it. 'Tell it lot in Gath.' " On the 15th of Junne the company reached the summit ridge of the continent. From Fort Lara- mie their wa^ led nearly where what afterwards was known a« "the Emigrant Road.'' was made. 11 ON THE TRAIL. 67 Then only dim, uncertain trails marked the earth, and they so crossed and blinded by buffalo paths that they were exceedingly difficult to follow. Game was becoming comparatively scarce, and as a consequence some of the less provident of the com- pany were without food for two davs. It was also the most dangerous part of the Indian country, and often at night they lay down to their rest without fire or supper; fearing that a light might betray them to some marauding band. After the rest of a supperless night Mr. Lee records: "Awoke just at daylight after a night's sweet repose and found all safe. Roasted buffalo meat and pure water made our rich repast. Am persuaded that none even in New England, ate a more palatable meal. We feel no want of bread, and I am more healthy than I have been for years." So soon does the flexible human constitution adjust itself to its sur- roundings, and prove that hardships are seldom more than names. To sleep on a bed of down is a hardship to one whose life has been cast in the sturdy mould of a free, open world. To such the earth is the sweetest, softest bed. Almost imperceptibly the company wound its way over a gentle ridge, and on the 15th day of June were surprised to find themselves suddenly on a rivulet that trilled away toward the west. The Hi ) ,. f 68 MISSIONARY HISTORY. missionary s bone beat high as he stood on that summit and looked away westward toward that enshrouded field which already enshrined his heari. True, only by faith could the darkness be penetrat- ed, or any promise be gathered out of its con- cealed depths. But faith then, as ever, was the guide of the workers in God's vineyards. And whether it were for his hand to hold the plow that first cleft the untilled sod, and prepare it for the root of the vine, or to do the easier work of gath- ering the ripe, rich clusters from vines of others' planting, it was all the same. It was God's work, hence his work, and he was content. Content? He was more; he was hopeful, joyous, longing' for his field and his toil. When he passed the crest of the mountains he says: "It gives me pleasure to reflect that we are now descending towards the vast Pacific. With the blessing and preservation of the Almighty we shall soon stand upon the shores that have resisted the proud swelling waves of the ocean from time immemorial. O, thou God of Love, give us still Thine aid, for without Thee we can do nothing." In the capitol at Washington there is a fine alle- gorical fresco which pictures the Pioneers of the Pacific States as they reach the crests of the Rocky- Mountains, and under it the motto: — ON THE TRAIL. "The Spirit grows with its alloted space. The mind is narrowed in a narrow sphere." 69 In this fresco Jason Lee might well appear as its most regnant and impressive figure, as the first of the real Pioneers of the Pacific to enter the wider sphere of the vast west and occupy it for civ- ilization and Christianity. Here they were not without incidents of a novel and exciting character. Two hunters were lost in the mountams for days. The whole company wan- dered over the dreary desert plains between the summit ridge ancf Green River, until their animals were nearly famished for forage, and themselves for food. The occasion was this: Annually all the companies and free trappers of the mountains gathered at some place, in midsum- mer, for trade and recreation. The place selected was called "Rendezvous." From the Colorado of the South to the Red River of the North they came, the leaders for counsel and to mature plans for the future, and the men to purchase outfits for another fall and winter's hunt, or. what seemed more imperative to a trapper's nature, a month's carousal in the utter abandon of drunkenness and lust. Not knowing where the rendezvous was to be this year, the company was wandering in search of it. After manv davs search it was found at last ^fpl ' 1 rr 1 i li ' 1 ! i I 1 ■li*^ !■ -V BBSiK 7.0 MISSIONARY HISTORY. it I ! P on Ham's Fork, a stream that rises in the high mountains dividing the waters flowing to the Paci- fic through the Gulf of Cahfomia, and those losing themselves in the Great Salt Lake. Into this fierce, swaying throng of several hun- dred men, wild with the untamed passions of the human heart, uncontrolled by any law but appe- tite, cultured to a desperate recklessness by the perils of Indian warfare, and rendered the bolder in their vice by the rivalry of their savage compan- ionship, the company emerged from its thousand miles of lonely travel at noon of the twentieth day of June. Threats of violence to the missionaries had been freely uttered. Capt. Wythe communi- cated these threats to Mr. Lee, with the advice to be on his guard and give no occasion of difificulty, but if any did occur to show no symptoms of fear. For this advice ]\Ir. Lee expressed his obligation, but informed the Captain that he feared no man, and had no apprehension of any difficulty with or annoyance from any. He went immediately, in the calm, unassumed stlf-possession of one who is too brave either to do or submit to a wrong, to the lodges of the leaders, sought an introduction to those who had threatened him and his company, conversed with them about the perils of their mountain life, and after a few hours association m ggn-m ON THE TRAIL. n with them returned to his own camp, having so av/akened their respect that all were ready to serve him or his cause in any way in their power. His splendid physical proportions elicited the admiration and respect of those who estimated men by their pounds avoirdupoise, and his calm and fearless bearing impressed those who had yet some lingering recollection that there is such a thing as moral and mental manhood with his supe- riority over them. Mr. Townshend, a scientific gentleman traveling with the expedition, says of Mr. Lee in his own journal: — "Mr. Lee is a great favorite with the men, de- servedly so, and there are probably few persons to whose preaching they would have listened with so much complaisance. I have often been amused and pleased by Mr. Lee's manner of reproving them for the coarseness and profanity of expres- sion among them. The reproof, though decided, clear and strong, is always characterized by the mildness and alTectionate manner peculiar to the man, and although the good effect of the advice may not be discernable, yet it is always treated with respect, and its utility acknowledged." An incident occurred here, which, to Mr. Lee, augured hopefully for his mission. A company of Nez Perce Indians from the Columbia River, under the lead of a young chief, Tsh-hol-hol-hoats-hoats. long and universally known and respected among !. ! il . i ■ ! :k1| I i 1 '1 i 1 I'J III 72 MISSIONARY HISTORY, the people of the Cohimbia Valley as "Lawyer," being informed of the object of his visit to the country, waited upon him in a body, greeted him cordially by shaking of hands, and by signs made him understand that he would be gladly welcomed in their country as a teacher of religion. The missionaries remained at Rendezvous until the 2d day of July, when they again began their westward march. All the Indians bade them fare- well with the utmost cordiality. The Flatheads from the north and the Nez Perces from the west each expressed a desire for the location of his mis- sion among their people. Mr. Lee was much affected by this parting scene. It fanned the missionary fire already kindled in his heart, and lifted him above any weak regrets for past sacrifices or abandoned joys. He was clearly in the way of Providence, and never turned a long- ing eye to any other path. Quickly the company moved out of the noise and confusion of rendezvous, and was soon w^ind- ing through the defiles of Bear River Mountains. On the fifth of July they emerged upon the grassy meadows of that stream, having already left far behind them the dark forests and glittering glaciers of the Rocky Mountains, in sight of which they had been traveling so long. ii«>^«^>' ON THE TRAIL. 73 The piney crests of distant mountains darkening l.ehind the bold and rocky foothills, the meadow- vales whose green is beautifully interlaced with the silver threads of meandering rivulets, all covered and canopied with a sky whose cerulean is seldom dimmed by cloud or mist, was the charming picture through whose golden paths they traveled; think- ing meanwhile, of Heber's poetic limning of a like, though far Orient scene: — "Where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile." It requires no vivid fancy to believe that the deeper his paths penetrated this world before un- trodden by any of Christ's annointed heralds the more he felt the burden and the honor Christ and his Church had laid on him in making him the first to bear the standard of Calvary through these dark skies to its perpetual planting on the shores of the western ocean. Our pen kindles with the enthusi- asm of eulogy, but we restrain it to the sober trac- ings of history. On the tenth day of July they passed over the western rim of the Great Basin, and for the first time encanii)ed on waters that reached the Pacific through the channel of the Columbia. Three days after they reached Snake River near the mouth of the Portneuf, and for a few days rested their jour- neyings while Capt. Wythe began the erection of ii^iii 74 MISSIONARY HISTORY. \ li a trading post at that point which he called Fort Hall. Here it became necessary to remain suffi- ciently long to procure and prepare provisions sufficiently to last the entire company for a journey of six or seven hundred miles. Westward the country afforded few spoils for the rifle, hence little food for the traveler. For two weeks they remain- ed, the hunters gathering meat; Mr. Lee fevered and restless with longings to be gone. His anxie- ty preyed upon his health, and for the first time hi the journey he speaks of being sick. Kis comfort, as he lay there in his tent, alone in his pain, was from the Bible and Mrs. Judson's Memoirs. He was so far recovered by Sunday, July 27th, that he was able to improve the first opportunity he had had to preach since leaving the frontiers of civili- zation. As this was the first sermon ever preached west of the Rocky Mountains it has great historic interest. Mr. Lee's own simple and unadorned ac- count of it, as I find it in his journal, will fix the scene and some of its surroundings in the mind. Under date of Sunday, July 27, 1834, he writes: — "Repaired to the grove about half past three for public worship, which is the first we have had since we started. Ey request of Captain McKay, a re- spectable number of our company, and nearly all of his, consisting of Indians, half-breeds, French- men, &c.. few of whom could understand the ser- ON THE TRIAL. 75 vices, had gathered; and all were extremely at- tentive. I gave a short discourse from ist Cor., x: 21, "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or what- soever ye do, do all to the glory of God." O that I could address the Indians in their own language!" Scarcely were these scenes over when a tragic incident occured throwing a short-lived solemnity over the entire camp. Two of Capt. McKay's men engaged in a horse race, and when in full speed an- other horseman ran in before them, and the three rushed together in a fearful collision. One was kill- ed, and at twelve o'clock on Monday Mr. Lee per- formed his burial services, reading a Psalm and the Order for the Burial of the Dead. His journal says: "All the men from both camps attended the funeral, and appeared very solemn. The Cana- dians put a cross upon his breast and a cross was erected at his grave." Thus, in this desert, then so covered with loneliness and solitude, death was claiming his own; and thus, too. the gospel lifted up in this darkness the light of life and immortali- ty. It were an apostolic distinction for any one to be permitted to flash the first rays of that light into the night that never till then had been broken by promise of a morning. That distinction forever honors the name of Jason Lee. The company was just entering on the most try- ing part of the journey. Westward stretched the I I ■ 76 MISSIONARY HISTORY. ! 1 1 ■ & !i I.I I gray sage deserts of Snake River almost to the foothills of the Blue Mountains. The river itself is often locked in deep rents in the black basalt, or if flowing through the dry plain seems powerless to add even a green leaf to the cheerless desolation. Few of human kind ever dwelt there, and those few the most degraded that wear the human form, In leaving this place and pursuing the westward journey it became necessary to change their com- panionship, and the missionaries associated them- selves with the company of Mr. T. McKay. A pleas- ing incident, also, here occurred, which is noted by Mr. Lee, with especial satisfaction. With Mr. Mc- Kay were Indians from the Columbia. When they learned who the missionaries were, and what was their purpose in the country, they came voluntarily and presented him with two fine horses, express- ing much gratification that there was a prospect of his stopping permanently in their country. On the third day of August they were prepared to leave Fort Hall and move forward. It was Sab- bath. Instead of the sanctuaries of home, with their songs and blessings, their sanctuary was a wide, open world, and their worship the unuttered outflow of love and gratitude to God, while wearily winding their way through the basaltic gorges that rend the plain south of Snake River. Was such ON THE TRAIL. n worship less acceptable? And was the calm serenity following less an answer to the prayers which there ascended unspoken to God? So sterile was the land through which they trav- eled in all that could support life, that the company was compelled to deflect southward into what is known as the Goose Creek Mountains, dividing Salt Lake Valley from that of Snake River, in search of game. For some days the whol com- pany ranged the mountains without success, and the missionaries were dependent on the gcnerosit\- , of Capt. McKay and his Indians for food, which "the Indian women would bring and putting ii down return without saying a word, as they can speak no language that we understood. Mr. Lee says: — "My ardent soul longs to be sounding salvation in the ears of these red men. I trust I shall yet see many of them rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. Lord hasten the hour, and thou shalt have all the praise." After a weary and fruitless search for game, the party reached Snake River again a few miles above "Salmon Falls," where they were al)le to obtain salmon for food. On the dreary desert of SnakeRiver occurred the anniversary of Mr. Lee's departure from his native home and the associations of his boyhood for the '! 1 i\ 78 MISSIONARY HISTORY. long and perilous journey yet far from being end- ed. His reference to it in liis journal shows how deeply susceptible was his heart to the fine senti- ments of the son, the brother, and the friend. He says : — "I saw five brothers and four sisters, their hus- bands, their wives; nephews, nieces, friends and companions of my youth grouped together to take the parting hand with one whose face they had bui the slightest expectation of seeing again. The parting hand was extended, it was grasped, tear after tear in quick succession dropped from the af- fected eye, followed by streams flowing down the sorrowful cheek. I turned my back upon the, group and hurried me away, and for w'hat? For riches? honor? power? fame? O, thou searcher of hearts, thou knowest. A year has passec', and 1 have not yet reached the field of my labors. O, how I long to erect the standard of my Master in these regions, which Satan lias so long claimed for his own." Another week of travel, when each day repeated the preceeding and every other, brought the party where they began to enter the outlying spurs of the Blue Mountains. Another week placed them on the westward summits of this range, and over- looking the valley of the Walla Walla, which he had been looking forward to as a possible location for his missionary station. The valleys of Powder River and Grand Ronde, through which this part of the journey led, now the peaceful homes of a ON THE TRAIL. 79 thriving rural population, were then only the oc- casional resort of the Indian tribes whose perma- nent home lay westward of the mountain ranges. Beautiful they were, even then, lying in the yellow sunshine of a summer day, like a golden jewel in the evergreen setting of the mountains. The most sanguine outlook over the coming years could scarcely nave revealed to the eye of this pioneer missionary the fact that within one generation these valleys would have been comprised in a Pre- siding Elder's district and in charge of the man des- tined to write the history of his own life and work. So rapidly does time wheel its revolutions; does providence work its marvelous changes. On the first day of September the company emerged from the Blue Mountains, and before night of the next day had passed over the sixty miles of valley l)etween their point of egress and Fort Walla Walla and the Columbia River. Here the question of the ultimate location of his mission began to assume practical form. Should it be seaward or among the powerful tribes of the interior? His observations were evidently careful and his preliminary decisions sagacious. He was yet more than three hundred miles from the sea, yet he was where centered the trade and travel of the interior, and surrounded by a large Indian pop- l:m So AflSSIONAR }' HISTOR Y. Illation. He saw that for an interior work this was the favored spot. His views ni this regard were afterward those of the far-seeing Whitman, for it was near this place that he established his mission, and where his murder by the very Indians for whom he toiled made Waiiletpu forever historic in the an- nals of heroic and tragic fame. Coming to no definite conclusion, but carefully noting the advantages and disadvantages of the place for his work, he prepared to move forward, and, after having disposed of his animals, the com- pany took passage on the barges of the Hudson's Bay Company, and on tlie fourth of September, launched out on the crystal bosom of the broad Co- liunbia for a novel and exciting voyage of two hun- dred and fifty miles to Fort Vancouver, the head- quarters of the company west of the Rocky Moun- tains. This voyage at that day and thus, was at- tended with no little fatigue and danger. The river, thougli broad and grand, is in many places a rusliing. roaring rapid. These were all run in safe- ty until the "Great Dalles" were reached, where a ])ortage was made. Here the ri\'er for iifteen miles, is a succession of magnificent rapids, low cat- aracts and narrow, sinuous channels. About mid- way the entire Columbia — and it is one of the mightest rivers of the globe — is crowded over to mmmmmmi'm^ it, I ON THh TRAIL. 8j r the southern shore throng'' a passage not more than fifty yards in width, between perfectly naked and perpendicular walls of basalt. Just beyond, in olive and green, smoothly and resistless is glidini^ the grand flow a mile in width, then plunging over a rugged wall of trap blocks reaching from shore to shore. Higher up the stream is always fretted and toimented by the obstructions of its bed. Not even Niagara has a grander expression of power, and only the Columbia can round such lines of grace as are made by these waters, rasped to spray, reposing in limpid sheets, or shot up in misty foun- tains edged with rainbows as they strike some ba- saltic hexa^i^Dn rising in midstream to oppose their flow. The passage of these rapids when only the ashen oar and the human arm contended with their fury was always fearful!}- perilous, and many a sad tale of wreck and disaster rnd death lingers in the le- gends of the old voyageurs: a race now long since departed, only in some lingering relict whose stal- wart form has defied the storms of fourscore win- ters, in later years the emigrant, after safely lead- intr wife and familv over the wild mountains and across the dreary deserts has buried wife and chil- dren and his own heart in these fearful and stormy depths. * 82 MISSIONARY HISTORY. These perils safely passed, on the eighth day of September, they erected their tents where "Dalles City" is now located, just where the river sweeps out of the dry and nigged interior, and enters the timbered but still more rugged band of the Cascade Mountains. They were detained four days by the characteristic winds of that locality. On the six- teenth they passed the great Cascades of the Co- lumbia in safety, and struck the ebb and flow of the ocean tides. At three o'clock of the 17th the prows of their barges touched the gravelly beach at "Fort Vancouver," and the long wearisome jour- ney to "The Oregon" was ended. For nearly five months he had been on his way to these far depths of darkness, ever panting with desire to lift the lu- minous standard of the cross in the dark heavens of Oregon. We who, later and under more favorable circumstances, have traveled the same weary road, can better appreciate the trials and perils of the no- ble pioneer missionary than can those whose knowledge of them has been gained from the stor- ies of the romancer, or even the delineations of the historian, in the pleasant quiet of cushioned and cultured ease. ^:-r^- ^w ; 'I V. THE FIELD CHOSEN "Lift up your eyes aud look upon the Fields, for they are white already to the Harvest". —Jesus. THE long", trying journey of Mr. Lee and his companions across the wilderness was end- ed, and they were within the limits of their appoint- ed field cf toil. The whole land was before them, and there was no hot to divide its inheritance with them. Had there been the work would have been easier and the problem that confronted them less difficult to solve. The great question to be de- cided was the precise location of their mission. Information was to be obtained and explorations made preparatory to this decision. The country was so large and the sources of information so lim- ited that this was no easy task. Yet time was passing; winter would soon be upon them, and they felt the most anxious solicitude to enter upon the real work for which alone they were in the country before it came. While all felt this solici- tude, and most earnestly co ')perated with him. yet Mr. Lee, as the responsible superintendent of the work, felt the exigent pressure of the occasion much more severely than did his co-1ahore.-s. He m:i 84 MISSIONARY HISTORY. must decide at last, and they were only to help him in carrying out that decision. There were no sources of information but his own observations, and the voluntary conmnmica- tions of the gentlemen connected with the Hud- son's Bay Company, of whom, for the time being, he and his companions were guests. His plans and purposes were so \ery different from any con- ception of theirs as to what the residence of white men among Indian tribes was for that he felt little dependence could be placed on their judgment in the premises, even conceding their kindly feeling towards his professed work — not altogether an easy concession. What to them, and for the pur- pose for which they ere here, as trappers and hunters, might appear as a desirable location, to him and for his purpose might be the most undesir- able. A people among whom he might hope to plant a vigorous and permanent Christian work; a people strong and virile enough to give promise of the endurance and ultimate fruitage of the seed he should ])lant in their hearts, was his first want. But this was not all. Mr. Lee had the prescience of a statesman as well as the zeal of an apostle. He could not but .see that future national history was to date from him and from his work. Chris- tianity, too. in him and by him was setting tip Tm- * 1 ])lt. .lOUX McI-rH'CJIILIX. m wm THE FIELD CHOSEN. m manuel's claim to half a continent. And. while in this large sense he was the voice of another Fore- runner proclaiming- in the wilderness the coming- Lord, in a special sense a great Church had intrust- ed to him her work and fame as the most regnant evangelic force of Christendom in a region larger than forty Palestines, and which, in him, she was pre-empting as her's and her Lord's. What won- der, then, that a decision thus fraught with im- measurable consec|uences appalled him, or that he should write in his dairy as he contemplated it: — "Could J know the identical spot the Lord de- signs for it. be it even a thousand miles in the in- terior, it would be a matter of rejoicing. O, my God, direct us to the |)lace where we may best glorify Thee, and be most useful to these degraded red men." Dr. McLoughlin, the superintendent of the in terests of the Hudson's Bay Company west of the Rocky Mountains, resident at Vancouver, express- ed great interest in the question that was so ab- sorl)ing the attention of Mr. Lee. He was a very intelligent and able man, a giant both in body and mind. Though his opinions had great weigh i with Mr. Lee. they were not decisive. He lis- tened, meditated, but, remembering that Dr. Mc- Loughlin was the embodiment and representative of a great foreign commercial corporation antago- :^1 I- ■\ 86 MISSIONAR Y HIS TOR } ' ' nistic in its very elenietits to all the purposes for which his work stood, he left the decision to Prov- idence and further information he personally should secure. Though he was too wise to give those about him any sign of the ground of this hes- itancy, it is obvious from his journal that he felt from the first that he must not place his mission w' ere the direct and constant and possibly jealous surveilance of those connected with this antagonis- tic force would be over him and his work. Still he spent some days in the examination of different lo- cations in the neighborhood of Vancouver, but could find no place that, even aside from its objec- tionable nearness to the headquarters of the Hud- son's Bay Company, offered the pro]ier advan- tages. Which way should he now turn? Eastward were the large nomadic tribes of the interior, in- habiting a beautiful country and enjoying a de- lightful climate. Northward the tribes of Puget Sound were located, dwelling on the Cowlitz and Nesqually plains, and girting all the borders of that inland sea with their camp-fires. Southward were the tribes of the Willamette. The latter were the most accessible. Their home was not far from the great Columbia, the port to which all vessels visit- ing the great northwest coast turned their prows. THE FIELD CHOSEN. S? It lay, also, south of the Columbia, and Mr. Lee was not unaware of the facts of the diplomatic con- troversy between Great Britain and the United States on the boundary question, and knew that it was not likely that any diplomatic stupidity on the part erf the United States would surrender the •country south of that river to the English. There- fore, after mature deliberation he decided to ex- plore the Willamette. .,The, governor and gentlemen of the Hudson Bay Company offered him every possible facility for this work. They provided him boats, boatmen, and provisions for his journey On the 19th of September, 1834, accompanied by Daniel Lee, he left the fort and dropped down the Columbia to the vicinity of the brig May Dacre, which had brought their missionary outfit around Cape Horn, and now lay anchored near the lower mouth of the Willamette. They spent a few days in this vicinity, examining some locations for a mission, and then proceeded up the Willamette Riv-er, the wilderness of whose banks had never been disturb- ed by the sound of an axe. The survey of the country was very laborious. Prairies were to be crossed, forests and thickets were to be penetrated, rivers to be forded, and all to be done under the dis- advantages which entire ignorance of the country imposed. \'\ I ;.■!•; 88 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR Y. \\ On the 2211(1 of September we find them on what is one of the most beantiful and productive agricuhural sections of Oregon, near where tlie Hudson's Bay Company had colonized (|uite a number of its superanuated servants, mostly (Can- adian Frenchmen, and hence this region was call- ed "French Prairie." Their examination of this region was thorough, and yet Mr. Lee could come to no dehnate conclusion, and on the 25th he re- turned as far as the Falls of the Willamette, where Oregon City now stands, and made some examina- tions in that vicinity. l)ut without decisive result. Returning to Vancouver he writes: "After ma- ture deliberation on the subject of a location for our mission, and earnest prayer for divine guid- ance. 1 have nearly concluded to go to the Willam- ette." This was on Saturday. On Sabbath Mr. Lee preached twice at the Fort to a congregation in which were mingled the highest intelligence auvl the deepest ignorance. American. English, Scotch, French. Irish. Japanese. Kanakas, [fall- breeds and Indians were intermixed in the motlv group. With exception of the discourse of Mr. Lee at Fort Mall. already mentioned, these were the first gospel sermons these solitudes ever heard. The congregation itself was a type of the gospels broadly human mission. The preacher was, for UL THE FIELD CHOSEK. Si, the time, and before this strange assembly, the in- carnation of gospel message and purpose. The scene had a strange significance — an uncoinpre- hended import. It was the introduction of a new force; a moral and spiritual force; into the elements that had hitherto given mold and character to Or- egon, e\er since, to civilized knowledge, tiiere had been an ()regon. The auditors little appreciated it. To them it was only an incident to vary the hitherto unbroken monotony of trade and revel, of revel and trade, which had swimg their wearing alternations until even savage and sordid hearts resented them. Even the preacher could hardly have augued the future of which this hour was the morning star. With the Sal)bath all doubt and hesitancy pass- ed from the mind of Mr. Lee, and on Monday morning earnest preparations were begun for the removal to the Willamette. Again the character- istic kindness of Dr. McLoughlin was manifested in providing and manning a boat for the journey. Mr. Lee makes the following entry in his diary, which the justice of history requires should have a prominent record on this page. "After dinner embarked in one of the Company's boats, kindly manned for us by Dr. McLoughlin, who has treated us with the utmost attention, po- f sa IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (:.iT-3) y A / #^."^ / '»'j 1.0 I.I 1.25 '^itt IIIIIM ^ m 1 2.2 fii 1.4 12.0 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 ^ V V \\ r..- leted, and a little before dark the party landed on the eastern bank of the river, on a beautiful prairie, and encamped on the selected ground of their toil. The place chosen was just above the settlement of the servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, on French Prairie, and considering the ignorance of , the party in relation to the pecularities of different sections of the country, well chosen. They had reached it late in advancing autumn, were in an un- THE FIELD CHOSEN. 97 tried climate, and first of all must provide a shelter that would stand to them instead of home; little like, though it would be, that old remembered vSpot. They were their own axemen, carpenters, railmakers, oxdrivers, housewives, everything that the ever changing exigencies of the day requir- ed. Their work was interluded by religious ser- vices on Sunday, October 19, when Mr. Lee preached at the residence of a Mr. "Gervais" to a congregation of French, half-casts and Indians, few of whom understood anything he said. Five weeks of such labor passed. The rainy season had fair- ly begun. Partially sheltered by a small tent at night they were only poorly prepared for the day. The first week of November the logs of their house were up, a part of the roof on, and their goods moved into it. The house was of unhewn logs, 32 by 18 feet, and one story high. Even before it was completed Mr. Lee opened his direct mis- sionary work by receiving Indian children into the family for the organization of a school, and to im- part to them their first lessons of Christian faith. ■ y i ' i » >llt;ll!H. '^ VI THE OPENING WORK. ■ • I ■ "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness < Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.' " — Isaiah. !1 ^1 H ! THE winter of 1834 and '35 was mainly and necessarily spent in preparation for the future. Beyond all people Indians are improvident for themselves, and consequent- ly unable, even if willing, to supply the wants of others. Everything depended there- fore on the strength of their own arm, and courage of their own will. Still amidst the toil of the month Mr. Lee found time and occasion to visit Vancouver, where on the 14th of December he preached, and baptised four adults and seven- teen children. Undoubtedly these were the first that, on Oregon soil, were consecrated to God by the rite of holy baptism. The gentlemen of the Fort indicated their friendship for Mr. Lee and the mission by handing him a voluntary contribution of twenty dollars for its benefit. With the opening spring the necessity for man- ual labor was no less urgent. Ground was to be THE OPENING WORht. 99 fenced and broken, seed sown, and finally the har- vest to be garnered. In the midst of this manual toil, some part of eveiy day was employed in teaching the Indians, the children especially, and the Sabbaths were all diligently usee;! for religious worship. Their services were established first at the house of Mr. Joseph Gervais, though after- wards removed to the mission station near by. The principal attendants were French and half- casts, children of the retired servants of the Hud- son's Bay Com[»ai>y. Over the French, who were mostly from Canada, Mr. Lee had great influence, which he held to an unwonted degree until h.e finally left the country, notwithstanding the sub- sequent advent of Roman Catholic priest's among them. All that could be done during these months of preparation in the work of instructing the Indians was done. In March the mission school was com- fided to the faithful hands of Mr. Cyrus Shepard, who had spent the winter at Vancouver teaching the children belonging to the Fort. By midsum- mer the school appeared well established, when an incident occured which indicated at once the slight hold the mission had on the Indian mind, and the personal peril of the missionaries themselves in the prosecution of their peaceful work. Iflp iP lOO MISSIONARY HISTORY. An Indian boy by the name of Ken-o-tr.esh was received in the school in April, and died the follow- ing August. The brother of Ken-o-teesh resolved to revenge his death by taking the life of Daniel Lee and Cyrus Shepard. He visited the mission, armed for the purpose, and remained over night seeking the opportunity to glut his barbarous ap- petJce for blood. An Indian friendly to the mis- sionaries had accompanied him to the mission and by his constant vigilence prevented his accom- plishing his design. Not satisfied, however, with- out blood, soon after he left the mission premises he fell upon a small band of unarmed Indians and savagely murdered several of them. Ill health, arising doubtless from the malari.\ from the newly turned prairie, interferred with the labors of the missionaries, and converted the mis- sion into a hospital, so that Mr, Daniel Lee was compelled to seek relief in a voyage to the Sand- wich Islands, and Mr. Edwards having left the ser- vice of the mission, only Jason Lee and Cyrus Shepard remained for the winter of 1835 and '36. It was in 1835 ^'^^t Rev. Samuel Parker visited Oregon in the service of A. B. F. M. with a view to the establishment of missionsamong the Indians west of the Rockv Mountains bv the Board. He was a remarkably intelligent and comprehensive THE OPENING WOJih'. /or observer, aiul on his return to the east made a very able and important report to th*" Board that had sent iiini out. I.ater he published i book entitled. "Exploring- Tour Beyond the Rocky Mountains." on the whole the most valu^ole and «iientitic ac- count of the country published up to that time. Mr, Parker visited the Methodist Mission on the Willamette on the 26th of November, 1835. The account of his visit, giving as it does, the impres- sions of one eminenily qualified to judge of the character of such work, is well worth transcribing on this page. It is as follows: **Near the upper settlement the Methodist Church of the United States ha= established a mis- sion among the Calapooah Indians, of whom there are but few remaining. Rev. Messrs. Jason Lee and Daniel Lee are the ordained missionaries, and Mr. Shepard teacher. "Their principal mode of instruction for the present, is l)\- means of schools. They have at this time Indian children in their school, supported i.'. their family, and the prospect of obtaining others as fast as they can accomodate them. Their facilities for jjrovidii-r for their school are good, having an opportimity to cultivate as much e.Kcel- lent land as they desire, and to iaise the necessaries of life in great abundance, with little more labor than what the scholars can perform, for their suj)- port. The missionaries have an additional oppor- tunity of usefulness, which is to establish a Chris- tian influence in these infant settlements. Mr. J. Lee preaches to them on the Sabbath, and they 1 11 !f J02 MISSIONARY HISTORY. have a very interesting Sabbath school among the half-breed children. These children generally have fair complexions, active minds, and make a fine appearance. The prospect is that this mission may lay a foundation for extensive usefulness. There is yet one important desideratum — the mis- sionaries have no wives. Christian white women are very much needed to exert an influence over Indian females. The female character must be ele- vated, and until this is done but little is accom- plished, and females can have access to, and in- fluence over females in many departments of in- struction, to much better advantage than men. And the model which is furnished by an intelligent and pious family circle, is that i:ind of practical in- struction, whether at home or abroad, which never fails to recommend the Gospel." Mr. Parker remained with our missionaries only a couple of days, and they chanced to be a^ a time when a strange epidemic was raging among tl>e Indian children at the mission, and during his brief stay several of them died. It was a great relief and encouragement to IVIr. Lee and his lonely company to have the visit and encouragement of this accomplished and Christian man. and indefatigable and intelligent expU.'-er, and the benediction of his presence and prayers re- mained long after he had gone. Notwithstanding the somewhat discouraging influences that surrounded the mission on account of the prevalent sickness spoken of, at the close of THE OPENING WORK. lo^ the year the school had so increased as to require a large addition to its accommodations. The children made rapid progress in the branches taught them, and manifested a very general ambition to lay aside habits of barbarism and adopt the manners of civilization. And the mission had also at this time so im- pressed the gentlemen of Hudson's Bay Company then in the country, its influence was so marked for good on the retired servants of the company, that Dr. McLoughlin and other officers of the com- pany at Vancouver voluntarily forwarded to Mr. Lee the generous donation of one hundred and fifty dollars under cover of the following note: Fort Vancouver, ist March, 1836. "The Rev. Jason Lee, Dear Sir: I do myself the pleasure to hand you the enclos- ed subscription, which the gentlemen who have signed it request you will do them the favor to ac- cept for the use of the mission; and they pray our Heavenly Father, without whose assistance we can do nothing, that of his infinite mercy he will vouch- safe to bless and prosper your pious endeavors, and believe me to be, with esteem and regard, your sincere well-wisher and humble servant. JOHN McLOUGHLIN. The personal character of those who contributed this sum and the terms in which their communica- tion was made sufficient. r indicate the favorable Irlj f i ■I t lO^f MISSIONARY HISTORY. M impression the work of the mission was making on their minds. None of these gentlemen were mem- bers of the community to which Mr. Lee belonged, and all of them were British subjects. Hence all the prejudices of country and even of religious af- filiation stood to the disadvantage of the cause they so generously and delicately served on this occasion. It was one of those acts that redeem hu- manity from many surmises of utter selfishness, and deserved, as it received, the grateful acknowledge- ments of those in whose aid it was performed. New as was the country, and distant from civil- ization, yet occasional episodes of thrilling interest were sometimes enacted with the wandering ones, who, either for crime or adventure, had strayed into those wild retreats. Many loved sons of New^ England mothers found lonely and unsculptured sepulture at the foot of some mountain, or by some rushing rivulet in this far-away clime, c. prodigal, dying at last, only to feel when dying how fearful was the end of his wasted life. Mr. Lee was called to visit the death bed of such an one, Mr. G. Sargeant, a native of New England. As he entered the room the dying man told him. with horror in his tones, what a life of wickedness he had lived, and what a death of dispair he was dying. The memory of the Churches and Christianity of THE OPENING WORK. i(>3 his native New England was upon his heart, while though sadly and unwillingly far away from them he was ending a miserable career. Mr. Lee point- ed his dying eye to "The Lamb of God," and com- mended his soul to the mercy of the Divine Re- deemer in humble, earnest prayer. Respondmg a deep, and apparently sincere "amen," he ceased at once to breathe. The year 1836 was closing. On the last day of December it was found that added to the miscel- laneous labors of preaching the Gospel among the roving tribes and in the scattered settlements of French and haif-breeds the mission had under in- struction twenty-five children. By their own labor the missionaries had raised enough food to sustain themselves and the school for the following year. It is well to pause here and note that this man- ual labor was a severe tax on the time and strength of the missionaries To Mr. Jason Lee, as superin- tendent, all looked to set an example of industry in whatever department the call of the hour requir- ed effort. That example was never wantmg. He proved himself the careful and competent superin- tendent, as well as the earnest and hard-working laborer, and the consecrated minister. Now occured an event in which Mr. Lee and his coadjutors stepped boldly out to the front to shield r« io6 MISSIONARY HISTORY. I ii 111 ■«i the Indian tribes and all others in the country from a swift and terrible destruction. Two men had entered into an engagement to begin the manu- facture of ardent spirits, and had already begun work by procuring apparatus for that purpose. It would not only have been destruction to the mission, but probably death to the missionaries. The gentlemen of the mission addressed to Young and Carmich \el, the persons engaged in the crim- inal purpose, a bold but dignified and decided pro- test. They reminded them that they were violat- ing the laws of the United States, endangering the lives of the people, and ended by promising lo pay them what they had already expended if they would only desist from their purpose. Young and Carmichael replied endeavoring to extenuate their purpose, alleging the tyranny of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the obstacles thrown by that com- pany in the way of all business enterprises but their own, but finally agreed to abandon the un- dertaking, declining, however, to receive any com- pensation for their outlay. No other influence but that of the missionaries could have secured the country at that time from the blighting curse of rum. In connection with the incident just recorded it seems proper at this point to relate another that THE OPENING WORK. loj still more strongly illustrates the strength and in- fluence the mission had attained in the brief time it iiad existed. With all the personal friendship of Dr. Mc- Loughlin for Mr. Lee, and the constant favors that as a man he was conferring upon the mission, in his relation to both as head of the Hudson's Bay Company, he was compelled to be governed by the rules and policy of the company he served. Some of these rules bore hardly on all who were not con- nected with that great company, and though orig- inally adopted to shield the company from all busi- ness competition, their application was just as bur- densome to the poor settlers in the country and to the missionaries as they would have been to business enterprises. Among these rules was this: All the cattle in the country belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company, and the policy of the com- pany forbade the selling of any to any one. They would loan cows to the settlers, including the mis- sionanes, but they must be returned with all of their increase. All felt that this state of things could not be endured. The mission, with Jason Lee at its head as Dr. McLoughlin was at the head of the Hudson's Bay Company, was the only body that could step forward, either for its own libera- tion or the liberation of the few settlers of the 11* loS MISSIONARY HISTORY. if V, ■'1 country from what they ill felt to be a tyranny. Mr. Lee in his direct, plain way, proposed the or- ganization of a company for the purpose of sending to California and purchasing a band of neat cattle for the settlers and the mission. The few settlers responded to the plan to the extent of their ability. For the most part the subscriptions of the settlers were paid in service in going to California, obtain- ing, and driving the cattle to the Willamette, a distance of about 600 miles. The enterprise was entirely successful. The expedition was put under the care of Mr. Ewing Young, with Mr. P. L. Ed- wards of the original missionary force as treasurer. In a few wrecks it returned with six hundred head of cattle which were distributed among the set- tlers according to the terms of the compact. The justice of history cannot be preserved without say- ing at this point, that while, as the head of the Hudson's Bay Company Dr. McLoughlin rigorous- ly executed the rules of that corporation in all re- spects, yet he not only did not oppose this enter- prise of Mr. Lee, but he became personally a sul)- scriber to the stock of the cattle company to a con- siderable extent, and practically all the money used on the occasion came from the mission through Mr. Lee and from Dr. McLoughlin. This was the beginning of the end of Hudson's Bay dominance THE OPENING WORK. log in Oregon, but as the "Relations of the missions and the Hudson's Bay Company" are to be dis- cussed in a subsequent chapter, no more need be said about it now. Another incident closely associated with the pre- ceeding, and showing in a still wider sense the at- tention the mission as the center and organizer of whatever American sentiment existed in the coun- try was attracting, was this: At the close of 1836 Mr. William A. Slacum, United States naval agent, on a special mission to the coast, arrived in the Co- lumbia on the brig Loriot, and was anchored near the mouth of the Willamette, when plans were be- ing made for the importation of the cattle. His position as a representative of the United States government gave him great influence. He seem- ed every way to deserve it. He visited nearlv every house in the community, took an account of the produce of their farms and the number of the inhabitants and interested himself in every way in the American settlement and in the mission as its center. When the company that was sent to Cal- ifornia for the cattle was ready to go he made the generous offer to convey them to San Francisco in his brig free of expense, e.xcept for board, which offer was of course gratefully accepted, and thus I % Ni 'It III 11 Mi ,' -1 \ ; 1; 1 I u I ■'■'% S I' ITO MISSIONARY HISTORY. Mi : easily and speedily they were conveyed to their destination. As Mr. Slacum was taking leave of the country he was accompanied by Mr. Jason Lee as ' as Van- couver. As he was leaving the mission, »/hich he mainly made his headquarters while in the coun- try, a letter signed by the missionaries, commenda- tory of his course while in the country, was put in- to his hands. At his last interview with Mr. Lee at Vancouver, just before the sailing of his vessel, he put into Mr. Lee's hand the following letter, most appreciative of the work of the mission and most honorable to himself as a gentleman and an American: — "American Brig Loriot, ofif the Wallamet, i8th January, 1837. My Dear Sirs: I have much pleasure in acknowledging your kind favor of the i6th, and I beg leave to thank you for the expression of regard contained therein. It was indeed a source of regret that I could con- tinue no longer at your mission on the banks of the^ Wallamet, for the visit was to me one of exceeding interest. On my return to the civilized parts of our country I shall not hesitate to express my hum- ble opinion that you have already effected a great public good by practically showing that the In- dians west of the Rock Mountains are capable of the union of mental and physical discipline, as taught at your establishment. For I have seen with my own eyes children who, two years ago, THE OPENING WORK. Ill were roaming in their own native wilds in a state of savage barbarism, now being brought within the knowledge of moral and religious instruction, be- coming useful members of society by being taught the most useful of all arts, agriculture, and all this without the slightest compulsion. As an evidence of my good will towards the laud- able efforts you are making in this remote quarter, debarred of almost every comfort, deprived of the association of kindred, and of home, I beg you to accept herewith the sum of fifty dollars, only re- gretting my means at present will not allow me to add more. I pray you to accept, my dears sirs, the assurances of the unfeigned regard of Your friend and obedient .servant, • • WM. A. SLACUM, U.S.N. When Mr. Slacum was preparing to leave the country a petition was drawn up and signed by the Americans in the Willamette, and, at the close of 1836, that meant little more than the members of the Methodist Mission there; and several of the French and Canadians, asking the United States government to recognize them, and to extend over the country Lhe protection of its laws. This was put into the hands of Mr. Slacum. That gentle- man made a very able and exhaustive report to the State Department, especially careful in its study of the condition, business and methods of the Hud- son's Bay Company all over the Pacific Northwest. His visit and reports undoubtedly had a very fa- 1 ij. 1 ' ira MISSIONARY HISTORY. vorahle influence on the sentiments and action of the government relating to Oregon. We will now return to the relation of the general course of the work in the mission itself. When Mr. Lee was on his journey to Oregon in 1834 he traveled, as our readers will remember, in company with some of the Cayuse and Walla Walla Indians between Fort Hall and Walla Walla. Among these Indians was a Cayuse by the name of We-lap-tu-lekt, who became deeply interested in the purpose of Mr. Lee's mission. Finding that he had decided to remain in the Willamette in- stead of returning to Walla Walla to establish the mission, in July, 1836, Welaptulekt brought two of his sons to the mission school to be educated. He was so well pleased with what he saw and heard there that he returned at once to his country and removed his entire family and settled them near the mission. His children entered the school and made rapid advancement. This was hailed as an omen of good by the missionaries, as it showed that the leaven of their work was operating far be- yond the limits of their own mission. But this was quickly all changed. Two of Welaptulekt's children died, another was taken with a burning fever, and Welaptulekt's superstitious fears were all aroused. He fled with his family from what a few THE OPEN INC. WORK. rr3 weeks before he had sought as an asykini of life and hope for him and his, but which had proved the house of death to them. Before he had proceeded far the other child died, and wrapping its form in a blanket he hastened still more rapidly up the Co- luml)ia, sounding the death wail through the night and over the wave. This incident had a widespread effect. It reached with disastrous force the Indian mind, for two hundred miles around. That mind had, in its deep superstition, a basis of suspicion and fear already laid, and such an event only too strongly aroused that suspicion. Why should the neigh- borhood of the mission be so fatal? \Vhy, in the presence of the missionaries should the Indian race fade and die? What fearful "medicine" was there in the white man's shadow that, as it rested on the Indian's path, poisoned his steps? The Indian was never a reasoner. He knows literally nothing of any law of ratiocination. What he sees that is good, according to his idea of good, is the effect of "good medicine." He stops not to ask the why or the wherefore. One of the most difficult works that ever grace performed is to lift an Indian out of his old super- stitions and paganism so as to enthrone a Chris- tian reason in his dark mind. His nature has run t ; 114 MISSIONARY HISTORY. in ruts of darkness for ages how long? The world and even the church never allows Christianity and Christian agencies half enough time for their work. They are childish in their demand for "immediate results." The Church certainly ought to be able to "wait," for she has the heritage of the ages. It is not surprising that this unfortunate con- clusion of the attempts of an Indian father to edu- cate his children and prepare them for a life of civ- ilization should exert such deep and widespread apprehension among the Indians. It was mu.h more difficult after this to procure children for the school than it had been. Still the prospects of the mission were far from being discouraging. Indeed they were so much the reverse of this that Mr. Lee had already written to the Board at home, urgent- ly requesting reinforcements to be sent forward. The Board had responded by the appointment of eight persons, including a physician, as assistant missionaries, and dispatching them from Boston in July of 1836. This reinforcement included also five ladies, and as they were, next to Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding, of the mission of the American Board of the interior, the pioneers of their sex in the christianization of Oregon, it is proper their names should be here recorded. They were Mrs. Dr. E.White, Mrs. Alanson Beers, Miss Anna Maria THE OPENING WORK. 'i5 I'ittman, Miss Susan Downing and Miss Elvira Johnson. This company reached Oregon in May, 1837, having heen only two months less than a year from Boston. How they were welcomed by the missionaries, especially as they were hereafter to have their lone mission home lighted up by the presence of educated and Christian females, may be imagined. The work of the mission was at once enlarged. Discharged by the opportune arrival of the lay helpers from the great burden of domestic care and manual labor heretofore necessary, Mr. Lee was henceforth able to devote more time to the strictly spiritual department' of the mission. Still, lest those unacquainted with Indian character should be mislead, and so underestimate the manunl part of mission work, it is proper to note thai in all successful Indian missions the plow and the gospe' go together. If is harder to teach an Indian to work than it is to teach him to worship. He is in dolent except in war and in the chase, and he has been taught that work is for the slaves and women. So while Mr. Lee was holding the plow, driving the oxen. or hewing the beam, he was breaking down the old prejudices of the Indian mind against work, and really every time he turned a furrow of the prairie sod he was driving a not less needed plow- II mp ' Ii6 MISSIONARY HISTORY. share through the stubborn moral soil that sur- rounded him. Little could be done comparatively in any Indian mission for the improvement of the adults. Some of the more amiable and capable will give good response to effort', but for the most part the men- tal and moral accretions of years of vicious and barbarous life are too thoroughly hardened into their very being to be materially modified by civ- ilizing or even Christianizing influences. In some cases the sinister comparison between the intelli- gence, refinement and comfort of a state of civiliza- tion, and the ignorance, barbarism and degrada- tion of their own condition seems to repel from the former, and with a scornful contempt of change they proudly choose the old traditions of their race, and wrap themselves in even ^; gloomier bar- barism. The school, where the young can be with- drawn from contact with barbarism, where they can have the example of Christian life, as well as the teaching of letters and science, is the absolute need and the only hope. Very early did this conclusion force itself on the clear perception of Mr. Lee, and the mission school became the chief object of so- licitude at the station. Under the general super- vision of Mr. Lee Mr. Cyrus Shepard had the special oversight of the children. A truer mission- THE OPENING WORK. iij ary never wrought in any field than Cyrus Shepard. The school under his management was an eminent- success, and the glory and the life of the Oregon mission. The scholars made very rapid advance- ment in the English language, and in the elements of science, and many of them gave good evidence of conversion in the virtues and tempers of a daily Chirstian life. At this midsummer about forty were in attendance, and the outlook was exceed- ingly encouraging. During vacation Mr. Lee and his faithful teach- er and friend, Cyrus Shepard, and their wives, took two missionary tours among the scattering Indian bands inhabiting the upper valley of the Willamette and that region of the coast known as Tillamook Plains, These journeys occupied the whole of the month of August, and were variegated by the pleasantest and most romantic scenery, the finest prairie encampments, and then by the most precip- itous and mountainous ascents and descents over the whole Coast Range of Mountains to the sea. Much of the country traversed, then untouched l)y the hand of improvement, is now the most charm- ing rural home-world of Oregon. The silence that- then reigned unbroken except by the voices of sav- ages and wild beasts, has long since heard the echo of the church bell, the call to college and seminary ?ll I' ' i m II ii8 MISSIONARY HISTORY. halls, tlie tread of trade, the rushing to and fro of the ponderous engine, as all the busy ways of civ- ilized industry have been opened on the old desola- tions. Their labor among the scattered clans probably produced little permanent fruit further than to direct the attention of the younger of them to the possibility of a better state. Yet even this possibility seems, in the logic of the Indian, to be only for the white race not for them, or for their children. ::)eptember, 1837, was signalized by the arrival at the mission station of another reinforcement, consiting of Rev. David Leslie and wife, Rev. H. K. \\'. Perkins and Miss Margaret Smith. This was a very important accession to the force of the mission. Mr. Leslie was a minister of experience, having for a number of years held important posi- tions in the New England Conference, and was well qualified by general culture and the stability and integrity of his character to support and strenr then the work of the mission. Mr. Perkins was a younger man, of singular devotion to the work to which he had been appointed, and with a spirit of enthusiasm which pushed him forward in his work, and often rendered that work more than ordinarily successful. It was that character of reinforcement which the mission greatly need- IIP 1 I 1 ■ill. , 1 J l-i 1; Jl:: i k ' ' l! I It 1 { 1 i' 511 • THE OPENING WORK. 119 ed. The secular department was already better provided for than the ministerial ; Jason and Daniel Lee being all the ministers connected with it. So late in .ue autumn, however, did Mr. Leslie and Mr. Perkins reach the country that it was impracti- cable to establish any other station until the storms of the winter had passed. In preparation, how- ever, for such tMilargement of the work at an early day, Mr. Lee undertook a very difficult and labori- ous journey to the country of the Umpquas, two hundred miles to the soiith, and reported to con- tain several thousand Indians accessible to mis- sionary eflfort. This journey was performed in the middle of the winter. The streams were swollen by long con- tinued rains. The narrow trails through morass and wilderness were often nearly impassable. Though the Indian tribes through which he trav- eled were not hostile, yet they could offer very few of even the necessaries of life to alleviate his discom- forts. On reaching Fort Umpqua, then a trading- post of the Hudson's Bay Company, he found the condition of the country such that it appeared im- practicable to pursue his explorations further, but he secured much encouraging information in re- gard to the tribes of the valley and coast. So difficult and laborious was his journey that it con- 1 M f Yk\ 1 1 i r 1' M- ' i 1' 1 1; ' = 1: ■ ■ ' i 11 p 1 "^ !U ¥ i Si'i- 1 1 ■■tl Hi li fi ii I20 MISS ION AR Y HIS TOR Y. sumed nearly two months, he reaching the station on the Wallamette on his return on the nth day of March, 1838. The time had now evidently come for an enlarge- ment of the field of the mission. There were now four ministers connected with it, and their services were not all needed on the Willamette station. Af- ter a thorough canvass of the present wants and future possibilities of various sections of the coun- try, the superintendent determined, in accordance v,':th the unanimous advice of the missionaries, cler- ical and lay, to establish the new station eastward of the Cascade Mountains, and fixed upon a point near The Dalles of the Columbia, among the Was- co Indians, as the one having most present impor- tance and future prospect in its favor. In this decision was again evinced the statesman like grasp and forecast of Mr. Lee's mind. He al- ready held the center of the lower country. Dr. Whitman, of the A. B. C. F. M., had located three hundred miles eastward. Mr. Lee determined to now occupy a point where all the converging lines of travel from the eastward meet to pass the bar- riers of the Cascade Mountains to reach the valley of the lower Columbia and the Willamette. This place was then known as Wascopam. It was on the south bank of the Columbia, about three miles THE OPENING WORK. 121 below the lower end of that narrow, rock-bound channel known as La Dalles, and was a place of most picturesque scenery. The present city of "The Dalles" is located on the ground chosen for the mission. The new mission determined upon, the superin- tendent designated Rev. Daniel Lee and Rev. H. K. W. Perkins as the missionaries. Mr. Lee was cool, deliberate, cautious and prudent though per- sistent and determined. Mr. Perkins was enthu- siastic, hopeful, full of fiery zeal, and had intense spirituality. Together there was the daring and impetuosity of assault and the hardness and stabil ■ ity of defence. Both were deeply and unwavering- ly pious. Had the number from whom to choose been much greater, the superintendent could not have found two men better adapted to such a work or more completely complemental of each other. Mr. Lee and Mr. Perkins left the mission on the Willamette on the 14th of March. 1838, for the new station. They embarked in two canoes, with a cargo of supplies, and passing down the Willam- ette about sixty miles and then up the Columbia about seventy-five, reached Wascopam safely on the 22d, and immediately began their work, holding meetings with the Indians, and teaching them as well as thev were able in the limited and unelastic I i !;,.pii5,ii mm '■■ /t :''! ''-rtfl If '' 1 -fl, It 111 i I 122 MISSIONARY HISTORY. "iaro-on" which was then used as the mecUum of communication with the natives, the first pnnci- ples of saving truth. The story of the work in this field will be recorded in a later chapter. VII. AN EPOCH OF HISTORY. "A new heaven and a new earth.' -John. AT this time, outside of the mission, there was no society in Oregon. Those who made any pretension to a hfe ahove that of the savages were mostly Canadian Fench, who, by long residence among the Indians had become in habit and life very like those they had so long associated with. They lived in the camp and on the trail, and the one had been a scene of barbarity and the other of carousal. They were living in a sort of concubin- age with Indian women whom they took to their homes or cast away at pleasure. It is difficult to depict to those who have nexer seen any of this character of life its utter degradation of thought and feeling and action. Standing in the midst of this degradation the mission family, consisting of seven males and fivp females, was a world to itself, and a new w^orld to those who surrounded them. In the mission house there were books, intelli gence, refined speech and cultured manners. In short, there were civilization and Christianitv. t 124. MISS ION A R Y HIS TOR Y. Outside there were no books, little intelligence, coarse speech, barbarism and paganism. This band of twelve two thousand miles away from the nearest' echo of the church bell reminds one of that other and earlier band of like number who took the banner of the Crucified fresh from the pierced hand of the cross and went forth to the conquest of the world. This twelve bore a kindred banner and had come forth to a kindred conquest. Their faith in the "Captain of their Salvation" was hardly less radical than that of the first disciples. Their isolation was even more complete. The earlier stood where deep philosphies and trained thought could weigh in intellectual scales the message brought them from Zion. These stood where stolid ignorance, incapable of weighing argument or appreciating culture heard their message with list- less indifference. Theirs was the more hopeless mission. The eulogies we pronounce on the old apostleship that carried the gospel into Macedonia are but the just tribute we should pay that not less self-denying apostleship that planted the Gospel first in Oregon. ; , ■,- - ,- On the arrival of the "elect ladies" at the mission the influence of its work began perceptibly to broaden. The old truth, uttered in the very in- fancy of our race, 'Tt is not good for the man to be AN EPOCH OF HISTORY taS alone," was founded in the order of a divine philos- ophy. It is as true in missions among- heathen and barbarous tribes as anywhere in Ufe. After op- portunities of wide observation running through near half a century among Indian missions, Prot- estant and CatholiCjthe writer is prepared to say that any mission that leaves out the family is an assured failure. The necessity of the presence of Christian wo- manhood and wifehood to the ultimate success of missionary work among the barbarous peoples to whom he was sent was clear to Mr. Lee and his co- workers from the beginning. It was also clear to the Missionary Board under whose direction they labored. But they were to enter into an absolute- ly unknown land, and simple prudence required that they should come alone, although it was well understood that at as early a day as Providence should seem to dictate Christian ladies should join them in their distant field. They came not too soon nor too many. They were not too soon to relieve the missionaries from the cares of domestic toil that necessarily required their attention, nor too many for the influence of the mission among the surrounding people. Sabbath, the i6th day of July, 1837, was a day that dated an epoch not only in the work of the it I I'll i! ifi^^ t 1^ li p 'I ,.4 1 A : I «: ! f \* i 126 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR V. 1 < mission, but in the history of the Pacific Coast as well. Near the mission house, on the margin of a most beautiful prairie, stood one of those groves of small fir trees, with some interspersing oaks, that impart such romantic loveliness to the plains of the Willamette. It had been carefully prepared and seated for the small congregation that was expect- ed to join in the first public sacramental service ever held west of the Rocky Mountains, and to wit- ness the marriage of Mr. Cyrus Shepard and Miss Susan Jowning, a lady of culture and high Chris- tian character, who had left her tine New England home to join her at'iianced husl)an(l in tlie deep wilderness of Oregon, and with him there to dedi- cate her life to mis^^iDiiary service. The day was one of Oregon's loveliest. The cloudless sky, with a clear blue seen nowhere 1)ut on the Pacific Coast, bent from horizon to horizon, a canopv of glory over the scene. A gentle sea-breeze just rustled the evergreen branches of the firs which distilled a sweet, odorous welcome to the little band that were quietly gathering for fellowshi]) and worship under their cool shadows. Seven men and five women came from the mission house. A few white men, who, some chance day, had strayed down from the mountains or floated up from the sea, led by curiosity or prompted by the Good BS ;( ' AN EPOCH OF HISTORY. I2y Spirit, found their way to the shadowy sanctuary. Besides the five from the mission house there was not another white woman within two hundred and fifty miles, and but two others west of the Rocky MouMiains. The mission scliool of thirty or forts' Indian children was there. Around the out- skirts of the little audience a fringe of the dusky daughters of the forest, with scarlet shawls about their shoulders, with beaded leggings and mocca- sins, stood or reclined, a suggestive and romantic framework for the little group of civilized and Christian life within the circle. The Canadian- Frenchmen of the settlement, with their Indian companionsand half-caste children, in decent attire, and with timid decorousness, occupied seats with the Americans. Few such congregations were ever gathered. When all were seated Mr. Jason Lee arose and in his composed, impressive way announced Ad- dison's beautiful hymn of gratitude: — "When all thy mercies, O! my God, ' My rising soul surveys, Transported with the view, I'm lost In wonder, love, and praise." It may well be thought that this beautiful and soulful hymn was sang that morning in that Ore- gon grove "with the Spirit and with the under- standing also." lip I I s f I2S MISSIONARY HISTORY. Mr. Lee then "fervently addressed the Throne of Grace, while every knee bent in the attitude of supplication and many prayers v^ent up as a mem- orial before God." Mr. Lee then arose and addressed the audience as follows: — "My Beloved Friends and Neighbors. More than two years have passed since God, in his prov- idence, cast my lot among you. During this peri- od I have addressed you many times and on vari- ous subjects, and I trust that you bear me witness this day that I have never, in any one instance , ad- vised you to that which is wrong, but that I have, on all occasions, urged you to "cease to do evil and learn to do well." I have frequently spoken to you, in no measured terms, upon the subject of the holv institution of marriage, and endeavored to impress you with the importance of that duty. It is an old saying, and a true one, that example speaks louder than i)recept, and I have long been convinced that if we would have others practice what we recommend, circumstances being equal, we must set them the example. And now, my friends. I intend to give you unequivocal proof that I am willing in this respect at least to practice what I have so often commended to you." Mr. Lee then step])e(l forward and led Miss Anna Maria Pittman to the altar, where Rev. Daniel Lee. according to the ordinance of God, pronounced them husband and wife, "for better or for worse, till death them siiould part." A pleased and gratified surprise was depicted on every coun- AN EPOCH OF HISTORY. \2g tenace, for, with the exception of Daniel Lee, not one of all the company had the slightest intimation that this union, which all desired to see, would ever be consummated. Cyrus Shepard then led Miss Downing forward and they also were united in marriage by Jason Lee. Then Mr. Charles Roe and Miss Nancy, an Indian maiden of the Calla- pooia tribe, were also married, after; which Mr. Lee preached a sermon of great power and pathos from Numbers x: 29, "Come then with us and we will do thee good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." All were greatly moved, and even the furrowed cheeks of some of the old French mountaineers, who did not understand the lan- guage spoken by the preacher, were washed witii tears. Mr. Lee then read Ihe Rules of the Methodist Episcopal Society, after which he baptized the young man just married, and received him into the church. The Lord's Supper was then administer- ed. It was a thrilling hour, Mr. Lee says: 'T have seldom known the presence of the Lord more sensibly and powerfuly manifested. A young man from New York, who had been brought up a Qua- ker, and who had tor some months given good evi- dence that he was converted and had been for some time earnestly praying that his duty in regard to . Ill "rr I ^1 r 130 MISSIONARY HISTORY. baptism might be made plain to him, came forward and begged to be baptised and received into the church, that he might have the privilege of partak- ing of the Lord's Supper." This was Mr. Webley Hauxhurst. who is well known in the annals "^ Oregon Methodism as the first white man convei - ed west of the Rocky Mountains, and the first name recorded on the illustrious list of those uniting with the church on the Pacific Coast. It was a great honor, and Mr. Hauxhurst carried it w^orthily until, fifty years thereafter, he passed to the Church Tri- umphant in Heaven. The exercises closed with a Love Feast, and. in addition to the Christian tes- timony given by every member of the church in the Willamette Valley at that time, several of the Can- adians, Roman Catholics, spoke of their past wick- edness penitently, and expressed a purpose to lead Christian lives and save their souls. Undoubtedly this day must be counted as the date of the real founding of the Christian Church in ils visible, outAvard form in Oregon. The Gospel was preached, baptism and the Lord's Supper celebra- ted, three couples were married according to the rites of the church, and two persons — Webley Hauxhurst and Charles Roe — were iev,t;'i\cd and recorded as accepted members of ihe mvs v; dbody of which Christ is the head. These were all first AN EPOCH OF HISTORY. 131 f 111 \k acts of their kind in Oregon, and it would undoubt- edly 1)6 historically accurate to say that the church was first organized on the Pacific Coast on the T6th day of July, 1837. That day dates an epoch. ii)i i \n I '' ' VIII. LEE'S RETURN TO THE EAST. rii "He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless return again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him." — P.<5a.i,mist. (T^HREE full years had now passed since Jason J Lee and his earliest coadjutors began their missionary work in Oregon. Amidst difficulties that would have daunted any but the bravest of men, and perils that would have frightened any but the most resolute and determined from the field, they had crossed the continent, selected the site of their stations, built houses, fenced and culti- vated farms and thoroughly entrenched Christian- ity in the very center of the country. They had not only planted a Church but an empire, an ever- lasting kingdom. The questions they had been obliged to determine were of the broadest and weightiest character. After history has shown them to have been so wisely determined that these men. and especially Mr. Lee, with whom was the final determination in all cases, takes his place among the wisest master builders of Methodism any where between the seas. wnff LEE'S RETURN TO THE EAST. 133 With the opening of 1838 it appeared evident that the rapidly changing circumstances of the country and the new and opening fields for work t mong the Indians demanded an increase of labor- ers far beyond any previous reinforcement. There was also in all minds a clear conviction that some gr<;at forward movement of civilization to occupy Oregon was in the thoughts and on the tongues of statesmen and diplomats. Great nations were awakening to the greatness of the land beyou'l the mountains. The few God-commissioned men who had led the advance of civilization and relig- ion into the wilderness were feeling stirring within them that prophecy with which God touches the souls of his agents when He has for them mighty preparations for mighty events which His provi- dences "half conceals, half discloses." At several meetings of the missionaries this subject had awak- ened absorbing interest. It was ever recurring to them. They were moved to a common conclu- sion. Mr. Lee himself listened, meditated, com- muned with God, put his soul in accord with what might prove to be God's purpose, and waited for the sure call. Almost from the l)eginn:ng of the of the discussion, which followed immediately upon the pregnant events recorded in the last chapter, his coadjutors were unanimously of the opinion that it Hliiil 1 1: rr; f I -J i I I I. ^34 MISS ION A R Y HIS TOR Y. was the duty of Mr. Lee himself to return to the United States and lay the work of the mission and the condition of the country before the Missionary Board and the Church at large, and ask the needed :aid. There were then in the field with him all those who accompanied him to the coast in 1834, namely, Rev. Daniel Lee, Cyrus Shepard and P. L Edwards, and in addition to these Rev. David Les- lie. Rev. H. K. W. Perkins. Dr. Elijah White, Mr. Alanson Beers, and Mr. W. H. Willson, not to mention the wives of these men. who. in devotion, intelligence and careful judgment, were the noble equals of their husbands. WHien the reader re- membered who these men and women were, and calls to mind the long and nol)le service they ren- dered to Oregon in the after years, he will feel that such advice from such a council must sound in the heart of such a man as Jason Lee like the voice of God. Still Mr. Lee did not respond hastily to that de- cision. He was here in charge of great interests. A great church had set him a sentinel on her most advanced outpost. No small consideration could justify him in leaving it in charge of another. He was a man who was always married to his work. His devotion to it was more steadfast than thai of lover to his affianced. Besides he knew the LEE'S RETURN TO THE EAST. 'J.y perils of that "great and terrible wilderness" that mnst be crossed, and even his daring spirit did not covet the months of weariness and exposure need- ful for the journey. He says in his journal: "I en- deavored to persuade myself that it was not duty to go, and tried to compose ray mind to represent the circumstances and wants of the mission by writing." But the conviction grew upon his mind that the judgment of his co-laborers indicated a Providential though ii.nvelcome duty. That word, duty, could by him be responded to only by obedience. So he said: "I prepared to leave home and wife and friends and retrace my steps to the land of civilization." One can hear the pa- thetic heart-beats of the great missionary when this hard compulsion of duty was upon him, as he reads these words. March was advancing, and but a few days re- mained for preparations for tii.' journey, but sucli men have always staff in hand and sandals on their feet when their names are called. r: [i.i •I i 1 At this point occurred one of those great epi- sodes that identify and reveal the potent forces that underlie and give character to history. With- out attention to these such forces are not capable of historic description. It was as follows: !> ' 11 f I I! .Si i > I J ^36 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR Y, w I m After Mr. Lee had determined to return to the United States the American citizens resident in the Willamette Valley, and such of the Canadians as desired to become citizens, met together in a "mass meeting," at the mission to formulate a memorial to be forwarded by his hand, "To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America." It was prepared by Jason Lee and P. L. Edwards, doubtless assisted by David Leslie. It was a paper remarkable for its patriotism, its clear and long-sighted statesman- ship, and the literary ability that characterized it. It was signed by every male member of the mission at the Willamette station, ten in number; by sev- enteen American citizens, nearly all that were in the country, and by nine French Canadians who desired to become citizens of the United States. This constituted about three-fourths of all the white male inhabitants of the Willamette Valley at that time. The memorial was committed to the hands of Mr. Lee for safe carriage to Washington and delivery to Congress. So intimately were the missionary work and American interests in Ore- gon interwoven that this great State paper must find a place in the annals of missionary history on this coast. We quote as follows: — "The undersigned, settlers of the Columbia Riv- er, beg leave to represent to your honorable body i| I LEE'S RETURN TO THE EAST. 137 that the settlement, begun in 1832, has hitherto prospered beyond the most sanguine expectations of its first projectors. The products of our fields have amply justified the most flattering descrip- tions of the fertility of the soil, while the facilities which it affords for raising cattle are, perhaps, ex- ceeded by those of no country in North America. The people of the United States, we believe, are not generally apprised of the extent of valuable country west of the Rocky Mountains. A large portion of the territory from the Columbia River south to the boundary line between the United States and the Mexican Republic, and extending from the coast of the Pacific about 250 or 300 miles to the interior, is either well supplied with timber or adapted to pasturage or agriculture. The fertile valleys of the Willamette and Umpqua are varied with prairies and woodland, and intersec- ted by abundant lateral streams, presenting facili- ties for machinery. Perhaps no country of the same latitude is found with a climate so mild. The winter rains, it is true, are an objection, but they are generally preferred to the snows and in- tense cold which prevail in the northern parts of the United States. The ground is seldom covered with snow, nor does it ever remain but a few hours. We need hardly allude to the commercial ad- vantages of the territory. Its happy position for trade with China, India and the western coast of America will be readily recognized. The growing importance, however, of the islands of the Pacific is not so generally known and appreciated. As these islands progress in civilization their demands for the produce of more northern climates will in- crease. Nor can any country supply them with beef, flour, etc., on terms so advantageous as this. A very successful efifort has recently been made at lar m ^wj ' I3S MISS ZONA R \ ' HIS TOR ) '. r 1 the Sandwich Islands in the cultivation of coffee and sugar cane. A colony here will, in time, thence easily derive these articles and other tropi- cal products in exchange for the products of their own labor. We have briefly alluded to the natural resources of the country, and to its external rela- tions. They are, in our opinion, stront^ induce- ments for the government of the United States to take formal and speedy possession. We urge this step as promising to the general interests of the nation. But the advantages it may confer upon us and the evils it may avert from our prosperity, are incalculable. Our social intercourse has thus far been prosecut- ed with reference to the feelings of dependence on the Hudson's Bay Company, and to their moral in- fluence . Under this state of things we have thus far prospered, but we cannot hope that it will con- tinue. The agricultural and other resources of the country cannot fail to induce emigration and com- merce. As our settlement begins to draw its sup- plies through other channels, the feeling of depen- dence upon the fiudson's Bay Company, which we have alluded to as one of the safeguards of our social intercourse, will begin to diminish. We are anxious when we imagme what will be, what must be. the condition of so mixed a community, free from all legal restraint, and superior to that moral influence which has hitherto been the pledge of our safety. Our interests are identical with those of the country of our adoption. We flatter ourselves that we are the germ of a great state, and are anxious to give an early tone to the moral and in- tellectual character of its citizens. We are fully aware, too, that the destines of our posterity will be intimately affected by the character of those LEE'S RETURN TO THE EAST. ijg who emigrate to this country. The territory musi populate. 'J'he congress of the United States musi say by whom. The natural resourses of the coun- try, with a well judged civil code, will invite a good community. But a good connnunity will hardly emigrate to a country which promises no protec- tion to life or property. Incpiiries have already been submitted to some of us for information oi the country. In return we can only speak of :i country highly favored by nature. We can boast of no civil code. We can promise no protection but the ultimate result of self-defense. By whom then, shall our country be populated? By the reckless and unprincipled adventurer, and not by the hardy and enterprising pioneer of the west. By the Botany Bay refugee, by the renegade of civilization from the Rocky Mountains, by the profligate, deserted seamen from Polytiesia, and the unprincipled sharpers from South America. Well are we assured tliat it' will cost the govern- ment of the United States more to reduce ele- ments of discord to social order, than to promote our permanent peace and prosperity by a timely action of congress. Nor can we suppose ;i:'r. so vicious a ]:)opulation could be relied on in case of a rupture l)etween the United vStates and any other power. Our intercourse with the natives among us, guided by the same influence which has promoted harmony among ourselves, has been generally pa- cific. But the same causes which will interrupt harmony among ourselves, will also interrupt our friendly relations with the natives. Ttis, therefore, of primary importance, both to them and to us, that the government should take energetic meas- ures to secure the execution of all laws affecting Indian trade and the intercourse of white men and 'i'-l ^Wj ^^Bl' '% \ 1 [11 T 140 MISSION A R ) ' HISTOR Y. Indians. We have thus briefly shown that the se- curity of our persons and our property, the hopes and destinies of our children are involved in the ob- jects of our petition. We do not presume to sug- gest the manner in which the country should be occupied by the government, nor the extent to which our settlement should be encouraged. We confide in the wisdom of our national legislators, and leave the subject to their candid deliberations: and your petitioners will ever pray. J. L. WHITCOMB. . , . And thirty-five others. March 16, 1838. This memorial was safely taken to its destina- tion by Mr. Lee and presented to the Senate through Senator Linn of Missouri, one of the ablest and most steadfast friends that Oregon had in Congress, January 28, 1839. Within ten days Mr. Linn presented a bill establishing a Territory north of latitude 42° and west of the Rocky Moun- tains to be called Oregon Territory; authorizing the erection of a fort on the Columbia River, and the occupation of the country by the military force of the United States; establishing a port of entry, and requiring that the country should then be held subject to the revenue laws of the United States; with an appropriation of $50,000 for the opening of the work. This action, led by the Methodist missionaries, and wholly dependent on their influence for its ef- ' IJiE'S RETURN TO THE EAST. 141 feet on Congress and the public mind occurred when there were only two male missionaries of the American Board west of the Rocky Mountains, namely, Dr. Whitman and H. H. Spaulding. They were from 250 to 350 miles in the interior, entirely out of the reach of what little American sentiment and settlement there were in tlie country. The Roman Catholic missionaries had not yet reached Oregon. No more important and eminent mile- stone was ever set in Oregon history than was set in this "Memorial." Its second paragraph — that relating to trade with China, India, and the Is- lands of the Pacific would almost seem to have been written under prophetic inspiration in 1838 which is finding its wonderful fulfillment in 1898. Can it be that the men who framed it heard the guns of Dewey at Manilla through the sixty years that intervened? Surely there was a wonderful prescience in the minds that conceived this mas- terful memorial. When all the arrangements for his going were completed and Mr. Lee was about to depart he reviews, in his journal, the experiences of his life to some extent, and especially gives some very tender and touching references to those of eight months that had passed since his marriage with Miss Pittman. Though so utterly isolated from .1 1 i [! E^ M |;' \% ! I 14P. MISS J ON AR V ins TOR Y. \ m the great world of social life they were supremely happy in each others society, as well as perfectly united in the great work in which they were en- gaged. His wife bore an honored, even a historic name, in Methodistism. When she surrendered that for "Lee" she blended the history of central with the chivalry of both Atlantic and Pacific Methodism. Eastern reminiscences, when Jesse Lee, the man on horseback, became the a vaunt courier of a vital faith in New England became renewed and present history when Jason Lee re- peated, with even a sublimer daring, the consecra- tion of the earlier in that of the later Lee in the newer New England beyond the Rocky Mountains. Well did she deserve the honor of her own, and the added honor of that greater name which she now wore so worthily. When it became fixed that, in his mind, imperative duty demanded th^ separa- tion she said: — "I will not take it upon me to ad- vise either way, and I will not put myself in the way of the pertormance of your duty. If you feel that it is your duty to go. go, for I did not marry you to hinder, but rather to aid you in the perfor- mance of your duty." Undc; the circumstances braver words were never uttered. Braver became the soul that received them because of the bravery of the heart that prompted them. is' i pi ij ilT ? ■ ■', '■ 1 » 1 :i ■ 'i i k] .MItS. ANNA M. IMTT.MAX LHK LEE'S RETURN TO THE EAST 143 Mrs. Lee v/as a woman of fine literary attain- ments, as well as of high natural ability and deep Christian devotion. She was also a poet of narms mWiaiiMiiiai 174 MISSION A R V HIS TOR V. and with words of confession and tears of contri- tion l:>esought each other's pardon. They were made 'one in Christ Jesus." Thus, and thus only, Christianity ruled the lawless elements of early Oregon life. But this revival was not confined to the few whites of the country. The youth of the school shared largely in it. The most of these youths had received English names, and can be known in a narrative of the mission only by them. Among them were a few whose names should have special notice. One of these was Elijah Hedding. When Mr. Lee was on his way to Oregon in 1834 he be- came acquainted with the most renowned chief the Walla Walla Indians ever had, Peu-peu-mox- mox, or The Yellow Serpent, and traveled in his company through what is now one of the most thrifty parts of the State of Oregon, Grande Ronde Valley. With Peu-peu-mox-mox was his son. then a mere lad, but the pride of the chieftain's heart. This chief desired Mr. Lee to locate among his people, but as soon as he found that the mission was estab- lished in the Willamette, though it was three hun- dred miles away, he took his son and consigned him to the care of the mission, returning himself to his people. During the revival Elijai^ was convert- THE WORK IN OR KG ON. i75 ed, and while he remained with the mission Hved a most exemplary life, and improved rapidly in his English edncation. After returning to his own peo- ple, however, he lapsed measurably into the hab- its of his earlier life, but at the camp meeting at The Dalles, he was again renewed in Christian ex- perience and life. The fame of his father had reached even to Cali- fornia. He was known among the Indians to be dreaded for his prowess in war; among the whites for his ability and eloquence. On the reception of a message from Captain Sutter, requesting him to come with his braves and hunters into the Sacra- mento Valley, he left Walla Walla accompanied by his son and many of his people, and traveled six hundred miles to comply with this friendly-request. While there, Elijah, who being able to talk good English, was much with the whites, was at Sutter's Fort one day in his father's absence. Some cattle had been gathered by the chief and some of his men, and among them a few claimed by some of the whites, who demanded of Elijah their instant return. The reply was "I have spoken in favor of their return, but my father is chief, and he is now absent." This answer was no-^ ble and Christian, but the angry attitude and <^ords of the whites satisfied Elijah that they designed to K •1 '< ® I Iff i^fm 7. % 176 MISSION A R V HIS TOR V. take his life. Calmly he said: "If I am to die, give me time to pray." He dropped upon his knees and while in an attitude of prayer a white man shot him dead. His father returned to his people with a sad heart and a dark brow. Is it a great wonder that, seven years later, when the Indian wars of Oregon were raging, Peu-peu-mox-mox was one of the most dreaded foes of the whites? The most important and successful work of the mission so far as the Indians were concerned, was done through the school. This was under the care of Cyrus Shepard. Mr. Shepard was Mr. Lee's own selection for this very work, and accompanied him on his jour- ney to the country in 1834. He was a teacher by profession before he entered the mission work. His religious character was cast in the finest mould. No man ever entered a mission field more fittingly adapted to the work before him that Cyrus Shepard. After Mr. Lee had been selected as the superintendent of the mission he made diligent inquiry for the right man for the position of missionary teacher, and, from the mul- titude suggested he selected Mr. Shepard, who was at the time a teacher in the City of Lynn, Massa- chusetts. Accepting the position offered him he entered (heart and soul into the missionarv work. II THE WORK IN OREGON. '77 winning the love of all who were associated with him, and the touching affection of the Indian chil- dren who were under his care. At the same time in which Jason Lee was mar- ried to Miss Anna Maria Pittman, as before record- ed, Mr. Shepard was married to Miss Susan Down- ing, of Lynn, Massachusetts, who had sailed in company with Miss Pittman around Cape Horn in 1836 to engage in the mission work in Oregon. Miss Downing was also every way suited to the place she was called to fill. She was engaged to Mr. Shepard bef )re his leaving the States for Ore- gon in 1834, and so has the distinction of being the first woman who deliberately planned to identify her life with the missionary work in Oregon. She was a sister of Rev. Joshua W. Downing, one of the most brilliant and devoted young minis- ters that ever entered the New England Confer- ence, who died when pastor of Broomfield Street Church, Boston, at 27 years of age. Nearly three years had j^assed since their marriage, in which both had justified by their work the faith Mr. Lee and the church had reposed in tl^em. As 1839 drew towards its close Mr. Shepard's health began to decline, and under most pathetical- ly painful conditions he was prostrated with dis- ease. On the 1st day of January. 1840, his pure Hill iiM !i> T^ 178 AflSS/ONAR V HISTORY. spirit went forth to its crowning of immortality. Read in the light of their own feelings the loss within six months of Mrs. Lee and Mr. Shepard was irreparable to the missionaries. It left the band sorely stricken, yet strongly upheld by the hand that had so grievously smitten. God never forgets. He always cares for His own. When Mr. Shepard was taken away it was feared that the school at the mission would be al- most, if not entirely broken up. Providentially however, Mr. Wm. Geiger, a Presbyterian, on his way to California, consented to remain at the Wil- lamette station and took charge of the school. Under his care it prospered until the arrival of the great reinforcement six months after the death of Mr. Shepard. The missionaries in the field had already been apprised of the sailing of the Lausanne from New York with Mr. Lee and the great reinforcement to the mission on board, and were anxiously await- ing their arrival. A few incidents illustrating the progress and character of the work in the field and the devotion of the workmen may suitably close this chapter. To provide for the forty or fifty persons, includ- ing the Indian children in the school, dependent on the mission involved a vast amount of manual -I THE WORK IN ORECiON. '79 i labor. A larp^e farm was to he cultivated, herds were to be gathered and cared for, and everything under conditions that exacted the utmost patience and greatest disinterestedness. To get the wheat floured for bread was no small task. The mill was twelve miles away, and the wheat was to be trans- ported on packhorses. A pair of large saddle-bags made of elk skins were suspended over the saddle, and a sack of wheat holding a l)ushel and a half put into each side, and all lashed firmly to the horse with a stout rope. Often, especially during the rainy season, flour ran short, and then boiled wheat was its substitute. Up to this time no wheeled vehicles were in the country except such as were manufactured by the missionaries them- selves out of pieces of logs for wheels and fir poles for axles, and constructed with such tools as an ax, an auger, and a shaving knife. They were fastened and ironed by rawhide thongs, very much like the vehicles of three thousand years ago on the plains of Thibet. They were waiting for the wag- ons that were coming by and by. ^ At the mission in the interior at The Dalles there were no cows for milk and no catde for beef. It was of course necessary to obtain them. When Mr. « Lee came into the country in 1834 he had driven ' some American cows and horses as far as Walla » f ! N ri I IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) {■/ C3 /A^. #/ l/j {/. 1.0 I.I ■-ilM ." IB '•' m M 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 M 6" — ► Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 V ^v ^ ^1? ts c^< J?, i/j !'; m mt I h i.ilii ;|F! It g6S MISSIONAR Y HIS TOR V hundrecl and fifty miles down and up great rivers broken by falls and cascades, swept by wintry tem- pests, with icy currents a mile wide, rushini;; through great mountain ranges whose pinnacles are wrapped in ne\er-melting ice, no civilized man dwelling at but two points in all that gloomy dis- tance, did this man make this perilous voyage on his mission of love and help to the most degraded of earth. Adventure has no more thrilling story, piety no diviner devotion, and courage no more magnificent daring than were displayed by this man here and in all his story of missionary life. Ten years after this wonderful voyage the writer began his travels over the same rivers and over the samt' mountain trails that Lee thus traveled. Even then it was changed, but he always passed on his ways with an unspeakable reverence in his heart for the life so much greater than his own that opened to all other feet the way to the mighty west- land. Since Lee marched across the continent in 1834, "any man can march to the sea now.*' Mr. Lee remained at The Dalles lor about two v/eeks, attending carefully to the interests that brought him heie. The chief object of Mr. Lee's journey to The Dalles at this time being to allay, if possible, the warlike excitement among the Cayuse and Walla TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 26g Walla Indians. Hehad caused the fact of his intend- ed visit to be communicated to Peu-peu-mox-mox. the great Walla Walla chieftain, with an intima- tion that he would be glad to meet him at The Dalles to consult with him about the difficulties between the whites and the Indians, and the talk of war that was agitating the whole country. They were well acquainted with each other, and the chief had full confidence in the word and judgment of the missionary. As stated elsewhere, the son of Peu-peu-mox-mox had been brought to the mis- sion school by his father, where he had been in- structed in the elements of an English education, as well as in the principles of the Christian life, and had received the name of Elijah Hedding; after that most eminent bishop who had oeen a chief in- strument in founding and sustaining the Oregon mission. As the Walla Wallas were deeply in- volved -vith the Cayuses in the warlike rumors, the chief, who was himself at that time disposed to be a friend of the whites, came down to meet Mr. Lee with a company of his warriors, and confer with him on the subjects that were alarming both the whites and Indians in all the country. He was especially anxious to learn of Mr. Lee whether the whites wished peace or war, and particularly ur- gent to know what effect the coming of so many W^J i 2yo MISSION A RY HISTORY. r! I white people into the country would have upon the Indians. Peu-peu-mox-mox, otherwise known as "Yellow Serpent," had the instincts of a states- man, and Mr. Lee knew he could be addressed as such. Very frankly Mr. Lee said to him and his warriors, as I quote from his journal: — "That will depend largely upon yourselves. If you imitate our industry and adopt our habits your poverty will soon disappear, and your people will have things as well as we. Our hands are our wealth, and you and your people have hands as well as we, and you only need to use them properly in order to gain property." . This, Mr. Lee further says: — "I illustrated this by showing them that Ameri- cans who passed through their country entirely destitute would by their industry upon the Wil- lamette in a few years have horses and cattle and houses and other property, the fruits of their own labors." They wanted to know if Dr. White, the Indian agent who had but recently visited them at Walla Walla, intended to give them any thing. Mr. Lee told them that "to be always looking for gifts was a sure sign of laziness, for the industrious would rather labor and earn a thing than to beg it." After several conversations, in all of which Mr. Lee was frank, though kind and sympathizing. Peu-peu-mox-mox and his people departed for 1. TRIALS AMD TRIUMPHS. 271 their own place at Walla Walla, more than one hundred miles from The Dalles. Without doubt this perilous winter journey of Mr. Lee had very much to do in calming the fears of 'the Indians at this most critical time the Amer- icans in the country ever saw. They were so few that an Indian outbreak, such as was threatened at this time, would easily have sw^ept them all from the face of the earth. No other American in the country had the influence Mr. Lee had among the Indians, and his courage and sagicity were equal to any emergency that came to him. In order to keep the order, relations and con- tinuity of history clearly in the reader's mind, it is needful to say here that this visit of Mr. Lee to The Dalles, and his conference with Peu-peu-mox- mox occurred when Dr. Whitman, of the mission of Waiiletpu, was absent on his journey to the States, and when Mrs. Whitman had been com- pelled to leave that mission for her own personal safety, and was spending her time with the mis- sionaries of the Methodist Church at The Dalles. Practically the work of the mission at Waiiletpu was suspended for nearly a year for these reasons and in this way. A further account of these inci- dents in their relation to that mission will be given hereafter. ill I t- ■ .r '\ w i MB:- '" ii I ? -?7^ MISSION A R J ' HIS TOR V. During- th€ journey of Mr. Lee. occurred an in- cident vvliose after results so illustrates his faithful- ness and the greatness of his influence over ^he In- dian mind that it should have a brief record. After preaching to the Indians, and praying with them he then gave them small books or papers, as to- kens of his interest in them, and sometimes copies of the New^ Testament. The incident was related by Rev. E. R. Geary, D.D., one of the most emin- ent Presbyterian ministers ever in Oregon, the brother of General Geary, who won high honor at the storming of Lookout Mountain, and we give it to our readers in his own words, in a letter com- municated to Mr. F. H. Grubbs, the son-in-law of Jason Lee, many years after the incident occurred: "Ln the summer of i860 I and my party were mercifully preserved from the wreck of a sail boat on the Columbia River, about twenty miles east of The Dalles. After hours of toil and danger we reached the north bank, wet and worn, and entered the lodge of an Indian. He was in feeble health, but impressively vener- able in appearance. Our misfortune seemed to arouse all his energies. It being important that I should reach The Dalles that night, he immediate- ly sent out several young Indians to bring in and prepare us horses. Being told that I was Superin- tendent of Indian Affairs, he said he had heard of me, and that I was God's man; he was glad to see me. He then (we spoke in the Jargon), said that we both had one God; that he talked with that vw TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 273 God every day. 1 was at once impressed with his fervor and earnestness. Who told you, said I, of the great God you worship every day? The priest, ''"• was his reply; and in mediately hurrying to the corner of the lodge he drew out a carefully folded •■ buffalo robe from beneath a number of other pack- ages. Within this was a dressed deer skin, then that of a badger, then a piece of bright blue cloth enwrapping a small book. Holding it up, he ex- ' • claimed, "This is God's book; the priest gave it to me." I of course concluded him to be a Catholic, • and that the book was a volume of devotion. On opening the book, however, 1 was surprised to find it one of the early publications of the American Sunday School Union. He evidently thought it the Bible, and I did nothing to destroy the innocent ,. illusion. I row asked the name of the priest. His prompt reply was "Jason Lee." Light at once broke on the mystery. "Many years before," he told me, "he had heard Jason Lee talk first to the Indians and then to God" — that is, I suppose, preach and pray, and he had talked to that God ■ ever since. - ■ , The book was restored to its wrappings and place. To the Indian it seemed a "holy of holies." That night, beneath a bright moon, we started on our cayuses, convoyed by Elippama, th'e In- dian's name, over the rugged and dangerous trail, on the north bank of the Columbia, and arrived at The Dalles safelv about 2 o'clock in the morning. Elippama, a trait seldom paralleled in an Indian, was very reluctant to accept remuneration, saying that he wanted no pa/,, "hat his heart was to help us in our trouble. The horses were, however, loaded back with flour, and a sack of that Indian luxury, sugar, for M mm 274 MISSIONARY HISTORY 9 . i \m ! -lis i ill III I ill 11 which, on a fair representation of the case, the gov- ernment paid without a question. The next spring I had prepared a small present for my benefactor, but learned that he had died of consumption during the winter, Elippama lives in my memory as a beautiful ex- ample of simple faith and Christian kindness, that would have adorned the highest civilization. Is he not now one, not the least brilliant, of the stars in the crown of the venerable Lee?" On the 14th of February Mr. Lee found his work at The Dalles so done that he was ready to retrace his way down the Columbia. The snow was two feet deep, but the river was open and at dark he and his four Indians again pushed their frail canoe out on the mighty river. The journey downward was but a repetition of that coming up. Through rain and sleet and snow, now windbound at some great rocky headland and compelled to encamp in the deep snow and the biting cold, dragging their canoe at times over snowy crust and icy floe, they toiled onward and at dark on the night of Febru- ary 7th their canoe toi^ched the shore at Vancou- ver. He was received by Dr. McLoughlin with his usual kindness and hospitality, but was scarcely seated before the Doctor inquired,"Have you heard of the dreadful disaster?" With a heart almost standing still Mr. Lee replied: "I have heard of no recent disaster. What is it, pray?" Dr. Mc- TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 275 Loughlin replied: "Mr. Rogers, Mrs. Rogers and her sister, also Esquire Crocker and two Indians, all went over the Falls of the Willamette and are drowned!" The facts of the "dreadful disaster" thus announced to Mr.Lee were as follows: On Thursday, February 2, 1843, Mr. Cornelius Rogers, who had formerly been connected with the mission of Dr. Whitman at Waiiletpu, left the Wil- lamette settlement with his wife, who was the eld- est daughter of Rev. David Leslie, and her little sister Aurelia, to remove to "The Falls," where they intended to reside permanently. With them in a large canoe belonging to the Mission were Mr. W. W. Raymond, a member of the Mission resid- ing at Clatsop; Dr. Elijah White, sub-agent of In- dian affairs in Oregon; Nathanial Crocker, Esq., late of Lansingville, N. Y., and five Indians assist- ing in paddling the canoe. They passed safely from the Mission to the head of the rapids above the Falls. At this place canoes were let down the swift current a few rods above the cataract around a point of rock by a rope, below which they were brought to the shore by the side ot a large log, where all passengers got off to make the short portage on foot. Mr. Raymond and three Indians were on shore letting the canoe, with all the others on board, down beyond the rock. As the canoe i 1 j 1 '* 1 K .'■ < ;, ; *?'• . \ r' t ^Aiiiii i i ■ ^ \ : ) i 9K.%I&'li 4 2^6 MISS ION A R ) ' HIS TOR V. swung to the side of the log Dr. White immediate- ly stepped upon the log, but as he did so the rapid current caught the bow of the canoe, which was up the stream, and swung the canoe outward with a force that drew Mr. Raymond and the three In- dians into the river. They were obliged to let go of the rope. It was just above the brink of the cataract, where the river makes a sheer leap of twenty-feet into a seething cauldron availed in by perpendicular basaltic rocks at least thirty feet high. In an instant the canoe made the dreadful plunge. A wild wail of despair was heard as the doomed victims were buried in the unfathomed depths. • "•'• When it was remembered that the entire Oregon community at that time comprised only a few dozen souls, and that this dreadful disaster took out of that small number four of the most influen- tial and useful members of it in an instant, the shock to the people of Oregon will be realized. There was a romance preceding the tragedy and made a part of it, that was particularly thrilling. Mr. Rogers had been one of the most useful mem- bers of the mission of Dr. Whitman, but becoming discouraged with the condition of the mission, and seeing no prospect for its future success, he asked and obtained his discharge from it, and re- TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS. 277 moved to the Willamette to make a home under its more promisinj^ auspices. Only the September before Rev. David LesHe, with his family of five motherless girls, had taken passag-2 on the bris^ Chenamas for the Sandwich Islands, and perhaps to the United States, that he might put his daughters in school. Mr. T^ogers accompanied him and his family to the mouth of the Columbia River in the brig. W hen the vessel was about ready to sail the marriage of Mr. Rogers with Satira, the eldest of the five girls, was solemnized on board the ship by Dr. J. P. Richmond, and it was arranged that Mr. Rogers and his wife should take back the two younger daughters of Mr. Leslie and care for them until the father could make further provision for them. Tn pursuance of these noble purposes Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, who was one of the most be- loved members of the "Oregon Mission Family," and her youngest sister. Aurelia. took this fatal voyage, and thus sadly their hopes and the high expectations of their friends for them perished. The event spread a pall ov^r the whole land and it was long before the sad shadow was lifted. Only a few months before Mr. and Mrs. Lee and Rev. fiarvey Clark and wife had narrowly escaped the same fate at the same place. Exposure to such dangers was constant. Nearly all traveling, as the t"*. J I ■ 27S MISSIONARY HISTORY. reader has seen, was done in canoes on these rapid rivers, filled with cascades, broken by falls, and of- ten walled by basaltic clifTs hundreds of feet hig^h. No such dangerous itinerancy was ever known else- where in Methodism. Mr. Lee arrived at the Mission station at Che- niekete to find an inexpressible sadness and gloom over all hearts and all faces. With the discourage- ments that rested upon the work ;\mong the In- dians, the departure of some of those who had been longest and most faithful in the field, the rumors of war that had agitated the minds of the few peo- ple of the country, and the awful death of the com- pany at the Falls, it does not appear strange that all should feel that "clouds and darkness are round about" the ways of God. Nothing but the most steadfast faith could keep its poise in such an hour. This Mr. Lee had. and so among the dismayed he was undiscouraged, for he was of that nature that "converses unshaken with what the stoutest war- riors have trembled to think upon." The changed conditions resulting from the amalgamation of the considerable immigration of 1842 with the American Society which had pre- ceded it began plainly to be observed in the sum- mer of 1843. Methods and objects of work began to take on new aspects. As an illustration; On m TRIALS AND TRIUMPHS, m the 12th (lay of July the first camp meeting helrl for the benefit of white people west of the Rocky Mountains, was begun. It was held on Tiijl.ithi Plains, one of the most beautiful sections of tiie Territory, not far from where the town ^ Besides he had become aware in some way of the fact that the I'oard (Hd not comprehend the true rehition of the mission to the settlement' of the country, nor understand the vital importance of continuing unchang'ed the policy that had been so deliberately adopted, at least until the history of Orej^on had more clearly developed itself. To ex- plain these (juestions by letter so that the Board would understand them as he did. he feared could not be done. Besides he was exceeding'ly sensi- tive to all {|uestions of personal honor, and any in- timation of a wrong, or even an unwise use of the means the Missionary Board had committed to his care was enough to make him journey round the world to rectify it. Considering the state of things here, and the ability of the men who would be left to care for it, he felt that the work in Oregon would take no harm during his absence. About the ist of November it was announced that the English bark Columbia was about to sail from Vancouver for the Sandwich Islands, and Mr. Lee engaged passage on her for himself, his little daughter, and Rev. G. Hines and wife, who had taken the charge of Mr. Lee's daughter from the time of her mother's death, wdien the child was but three weeks old, and with whom Mr. Lee had also made his residence from about the same time. 302 MISS ION A R Y HIS TOR V. Their intention was to take the first opportunity at the Islands to proceed to the east. Before embark ing^ Mr. Lee appointed Rev. David LesHe superin- tendent of the Mission. The ship crossed the bar of the Columbia and took her course for the harbor of Honolulu on the 3d day of February, 1844. On the departure of Mr. Lee the work in the mission was adjusted as follows: David Leslie, superintendent, and preacher for the Willamette settlement; Alvan F. Waller. Willamette Falls, and missionary to the Indians in that vicinity; FL K. W. Perkins, Wascopam; J. L. Parrish, Clatsop. The last two were the only exclusive Indian sta- tion now occupied. The laymen were distributed amonii^ the several stations according to the needs of the work and were all usefiUy employed. The voyage to Horo'vi'ii occupied twenty-five days. Just before they arrived intelligence reached the Islands that Rev. George Gary had been ap- pointed to supersede Mr. Lee as Superintendent of the Oregon Mission, and that he was expected at the Islands in a few weeks on his way to Oregon. This intelligence was communicated to Mr. Lee by Dr. Ira L. Babcock. who had been in Honolulu for a few months. This intelligence caused both Mr. Lee and Mr. Hines to hesitate whether to pro- ceed on their voyage or remain until Mr. Gary's ar- -■ — T-T" IJiE RETURNS TO THE EAST. 303 rival, or return to Oregon and await his arrival there. As no opportunity to proceed together on the voyage was likely to occur for some months, and a small Hawaiian schooner would sail the next day for Mazatlan, on the coast of Mexico, they finally decided that Mr. Lee would take the schooner for Mexico and thence find his way to New York, and Mr. Mines and family, including the little daughter of Mr. Lee, would take the brig Chenamus, which was soon to .sail, and return to Oregon. This was a great trial to Mr. Lee. This daugh- ter he looked upon as his earthly all. Mrs. Hines had received the child at the death of its mother to care for her as long as Mr. Lee should desire. His friend, and the foster-father of his daughter, ^^r. Hines, makes this affecting reference to the separ- ation of the father and the child on this "Isle of the sea": "Mr. Lee looked on this, his only child, as his earthly all, and no personal consideration would have induced him to leave her in the care of others on an island in the Pacific ocean, and perform a hazardous journey to the other side of the globe, with but little prospect of ever again beholding his beloved daughter. But with a heart as affection- ate as ever beat in the breast of a man Mr. Lee never allowed his personal feelings to control his action when they opposed themselves to the call of duty. In his opinion it was the voice of duty that called him to tear himself from all he held dear on ! . ■ I II ■j-l r || HIN^ ,:S?I 304 MISSIONARY HISTORY. earth, and return to his native land. Accordingly on the 28th of February, after tenderly committing his motherless child to the care of the writer and his compaion he was conducted to the "Hoaikai- ka," and was soon wafted from the shores of Hawaii towards the Mexican coast." According to arrangement with Mr. Lee, Mr. Hines and family, and Dr. I. L. Babcock and fam- ily, who were returning to Oregon to resume their places in the mission, left Honolulu on the 3rd of April on the Chenamus, and after a voyage jf twenty days entered the mouth of the Columbia River, and soon thereafter reached "The Falls, ' which by this time began to be known as "Oregon City," and resumed their missionary work. On the 6th of April Mr. Lee landed at San Bias, on the coast of Mexico, and immediately pursued his journey towards New York. His route was by diligence via Guadalajarra to the City of ?\Icxic(). and thence by the same conveyance to Vera Cruz, l^he relations between the United States and Mexico were strained on account of the agitation in reference to the annexation of Texas to the United States, and at Guadalajarra all Mr. Lee's letters and papers were taken from him and the Mexican authorities threatened to impris- on him, but he was finally permitted to proceed on his journey. From Vera Cruz he took the packet LEE RETURNS TO THE EAST. jos for New Orleans, and thence by steamboat to Pitts- burgh, by stage across the Allegheny Mountains, and arrived in New York on the 27th day of May, 1844. He found the General Conference in ses- sion, and in the midst of the great debate on the Bishop Andrew case. All minds were filled with that and for the time would open to nothing else. No meeting of the Missionary Board could be had to take up th :; business of the Oregon Mission, l)ut at a meeting for another purpose the Board re- quested Mr. Lee to proceed to Washington and before the Departments, the President, and the members of Congress, attend to the interests of the mission claims in Oregon and to other import- ant interests relating to the Territory that had been intrusted to him. The reception of Mr. Lee at Washington was of the most cordial character. The President and all officers of the government gave him assurances that the affairs of Oregon stood in good case be- fore Congress and were sure to have favorable ac- tion at no remote date. He writes, however: "The annexation of Texas to the Union was the all-absorbing question the latter part of the ses- sion. It was the administration's hobby, but it has failed. War with Mexico was anticipated if Texas was annexed, and great preparations were made, which have brought lasting anathemas upon the M;^' Vi ■IP ■■ I:m! m 306 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR >". President. An Oregon bill will probably pass next session, but if not next session, tbe settlers of Oregon may rest assured that one will pass soon. It cannot be put ofif much longer. This is conce- ded even by the opposition." • : Mr. Lee's visit to Washington occupied the last half of June. It will be remembered that this was during the last year of the administration of Mr. Tyler, and just when the two great political parties of the nation were aligning themselves for the con- flict of the coming autumn. One. preparatory to the final battle, was blazoning on its banners in ref erence to the Oregon cjuestion, "Fifty-four-forty or fight!" Near this legend the same party had set the "Lone Star" of Texas. These were the signs by which that party swept the country in the elections of 1844. In the midst of the excitement preceding the election Mr. Lee's presence in Wash ington, with his standing as the actual pioneer of American settlement in Oregon, and his great abil- ity in influencing the minds of others, was a very l)otent power for the good of O-egon. and he did not hesitate to wield all the power he possessed for the land that he loved so well. On his return to New York the last of June. Mr. Lee sought the earliest opportunity *a meei the Missionary Board in order to set before it aii tne facts in regard to the condition of the Oregon Mis- LEE RETURNS TO THE EAST. 307 y pass tiers of s soon. conce- - ■-.-. ,■ •■■' the last his was of Mr. parties :he con- it or y to s in ref ■ ur-forty irty had ;ere the •y in the itement n Wash- oneer of eat abil- ,s a very (I he did lossessed une. Mr. nee I the it aa tne gon Mis- sion. He faced a strong prejudice against the Mis- sion and against himself as its superintendent. The reasons for this prejudice have been so stated in a previous chapter that nothing further need be said of them here. Still it should be said that not one of them touched the integrity or personal charac- ter of Mr. Lee. They were beyond suspicion. They related wholly to the wisdom of his adminis- tration of the secular affairs of the Mission, and. as stated in a former chapter, they grew out of the changed conditions of the country and the com- plaints of dissatisfied and returning missionaries. V\"iih but little knowledge of facts as to the coun- .1}. .hid on the exparte statements that were made iv. vhe Board, that body took the extreme step ot (*i. iviadng Mr. Lee and of instructing the newly appudited superintendent to reverse the plans of the former in the administration of the great in- terests he had been the founder of on the North- west coast. Of course the suspicion of intentional injustice or wrong to Mr. Lee on the part of the Missionary Board could not be entertained for a iionicnt. If there was an error in their action it arose from the causes specified. Mr. Lee met the Missionary Board on the ist day of July, 1844. Dr. George Peck, was in the chair. Charles Pittman was corresponding secre- Ill mi m i ! MISS ION A R Y HIS TOR Y. tary. A body of eminent ministers and laymen constituted the Board, among whom, and present at the mt .■ appears the name of William Rob- erts, of New crsey, a name that will appear on many a page in many an important connection with subsequent Oregon history. It would not be just to the Missionary Board, nor just to the Mission- ary History of the Pacific Northwest, nor yet to Mr. Lee as the pioneer of that history, if we did not give at least some extracts from the address of Mr. Lee before the Board at that time. It lies in its original manuscript in Mr. Lee's own hand- writing, yellow with its fifty-five years of age, l)e- fore the writer, and in that form he quotes from it in excerpts. Dr. Pittman, the corresponding sec- retary of the Missionary Society, stated that the meeting had been called to offer Mr. Lee an oppor- tunity of making a statement in reference to the Oregon Mission. Mr. Lee said: — "I desire to express my gratitude to (iod for His protection, and for guiding me once more to a civ- ilized land, and for permitting me to meet again with this Board. From what I have heard since my arrival in this city I am satisfied that it is nec- essary for me to give the Board all the information in my power in regard to ihe Oregon Mission. 1 will state, briefly, some of the reasons which in- duced my return from Oregon. First, the Mission has obtained possession of n I »l.|, ; II : 1.1 LEE RETURNS TO THE EAST. J09 large tract of land in connection with its work, and, as a large emigration was pouring into that country I believed it a duty to the Board to imme- diately petition the government of the United States to se uire to the Missionary Society the right of possession. I believed if I went to Washington I could present the claims of the Society in such a manner as would make a favorable impression on Congress and the national authorities. In my re- cent visit to the federal city I saw and conversed with the President, with heads of Departments. Secretaries and members of the House of Repre- sentatives, and gave them my views in regard to these and other matters in Oregon, and. I think, made a most favorable impression on all. Al- though nothing could be effected as yet in a legal way, I have no doubt but the claims of the Society will be favorably considered. Col. Benton and others said that our claims were reasonable and just, and that at a suitable time Congress must be memorialized, a case made out and submitted to that body. I had heard that it was in contempla- tion by the Board to send a special agent to Ore- gon to examine into the condition and affairs of the Mission, and my impression was that he would probably cross the mountains. I believed that, availing myself of the offered opportimity I could reach home previous to the agent's departure if one was appointed, and by giving to the Board a detailed statement of events and of the affairs of the Mission as might save the expense of sending the contemplated agent. Third. T had become fully .satisfied that the Board had had such representations made to them that it was my duty to appear before them, and so far as was in my power to correct these erroneous '■| i npi ..jm I" 310 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR Y. statements in regard to the condition of things in the Mission. Affairs in Oregon and in the Mission have great- ly changed since I had the happiness of meetin«>- the Board last. First the Indians upon the Wil- lamette River have diminished in a surprising de- gree. Secondly, the white population has greatly increased. When the Board sent out its large reinforcement the object was that Methodism should spread throughout Oregon. For what purpose else did it send out so large a number of laymen? If it had been only to form one or two stations among the Indians it would seem to me that both the Board and myself as iiieir agent must have taken leave of our senses." Mr. Lee discusses in a very particular way what- ever special complaints had been made to the Board about the administration of the affairs of the Mission. He clearly shows that they were made under misapprehension of fact, and that the policy adopted by the Superintendent was the only one that promised that large success that the Board and all the friends of the Mission desired to see achieved. In regard to the relation of the mis- sion to the early inmiigrants, he makes this state- ment : "Without our mission they could not have re- mained in the country, and they knew it. They told me when I arrived in the country the last time [in 1840. with the great reinforcement], that they should have left the countrv unless I had taken ^ifMfll LEE RETURNS TO THE EAST. 3'i out supplies and saved them from succumbing to the Hudson's Bay Company. We have been the means of the conversion of 'Rocky Mountain men' who had been in the mountains for ten or fifteen years, and spent every cent in drink, and we have persuaded the people who were living in concubin- age to marry. They now are making a handsome living and are industrious and Christian men and women. Never since the world was made has a settlement of such men been so benefited by Chris- tian influence as has the Oregon settlement. Blood-thirsty men have been prevented from anni- hilating the Indians. I have a paper handed me just as I left, signed by all who saw it but one. a stranger, which abundantly confirms all that 1 have said. " V-.'ii It is hardly necessary to quote from the address of Mr. Lee at greater length, as many of the facts described by him have already been treated of in the progress of this history. His personal vindica- tion was complete, and the Board was fully satis- fied that he had served the church and the mission • ary cause in Oregon with great devotion and faith- fulness. The Board saw the difiiculties that ha<] encompassed his work much more clearly than ever before, and had such a statement of them been before the body before the appointment of Mr. Gary no such action would ever have been taken. But it was not, and while expressing undiminished confidence in Mr. Lee, it was too late to recall its : ' "■ 1 :|li*^ ll; 3i2 MISSION AR Y HIS TOR Y. action, although Mr. Lee was yet recognized as ■'Missionary to Oregon." It would hardly be proper to close this chapter in the history of Oregon Missions without saying that it was but the natural and inevitable result that Mr. Lee as superintendent of the mission, should have to bear all the blame of what seemed to the church a failure. Still it was not a failure, and nobody was to blame for the existence of the conditions that made it appear so. It was a provi- dence that was preparing the Great West for a greater good. When thousands of Indians were roaming over the fair prairies and through the green and fragrant mountains of the Willamette five years before, what human prescience couid foretell that in that brief space their camp fires would be extinguished, their trails obliterated, and only a few degraded bands, eaten by disease, dis- heartened and disconsolate and almost longing for the time to come for them all to join their depart- ed fathers in the "happy hunting grounds" their pagan faith pictured beyond the river, would be all that remained of those thousands. And then there was another fact that had been hidden be- hind a providential veil, a fact not less strange than the others, that as the echo of the departing foot steps of the Indian race died away the ringing tread -w w]r p- ' '\ LEE'S RETURN TO THE EAST. 313 of a coming people full of all that is mighty in mind and vital in faith would resound through the land. Lee, almost alone of all the men about him, caught the gleam of the banners of the "Avaunt Couriers" of that coming host on the eastern heights as they began to descend towards the vales. God had been making his preparations in these changes, sad as they were passing as battles are sad, but glori- ous in their outcome of religion and civilization as battles are glorious when they bring freedom to man. We can see it now. In 1844 the Mission- ary Board, four thousand miles away from the field of God's great Providences, did not, perhaps could not see it. Wi !; \ iii'j' k -. !» • M:: 1 !i , J! ■ ■; • ■ ■ i " ! XVI. DEATH OF JASON LEE. "I have fought a good fight; I have finished my coarse; I have kept the Faith." — Paui<. AT the conclusion of his conferences with the Missionary Board, Mr. Lee turned aside to rest his body and his heart among his own beloved kindred, and in the circles of the friendships of his early life, whence he had gone out eleven years before on his great mission amidst their tears and with their benedictions. On his way he attended the session of the New Hampshire Conference and also of the New Eng- land of which he was a member. He was received by his conference with great honor and earnestly besought to receive an appointment within its bounds, but his heart was in Oregon, and at his own request he was appointed "'Agent of the Ore- gon Institute." He then visited Wilbraham, Massachusetts, where he had pursued his studies under Dr. Fisk, and held a public service in the in- terests of the Oiegon Mission. From this poir.l he proceeded toward Standstead, and on his way visited Daniel Lee. his nephew, and his trusted and DEATH OF JASON LEE. 315 faithful helper in the wilds of the farthest west for ten years, who was then pastor at North Haverhill, New Hampshire. After such a reunion as the reader may imagine but we cannot describe be- tween these fellow pioneers who together had opened the way for civilization to the shores of the Pacific, he passed onward to the home of his youth and the scene of his conversion, designing to spend a few weeks in rest and then to return to the field that he loved better than all others beyond the Rocky Mountains. He came to his friends for rest just as the early autumn frosts were tinging the northern forests with the prophecy of nearing winter. They de- tected, too, the seering leaf in his pale brow that betokened what they shrank from believing that the autumn of his life had come. He sought rest. On the bosom of an elder sister, who had been to him both mother and sister for many years of his early life, his throbing head and aching heart found repose. He went abroad no more. Mr. Lee ascended the pulpit for the last time in November, 1844, in his native town of Stanstead. among his friends and relatives, and not far from the place where he experienced the "new celestial birth." He was pale and feeble. His tall form appeared even taller in his emaciation. He K I it 31^ MISSIONARY HISTORY. m y f] I \t \ preached, as he always preached, the Gospel, plain, unadorned, mighty; "the power of God unto sal- vation." The Gospel had to him no other mean- ing, and its preaching no other end. It seemed a strange providence that this man, who had thrice crossed the continent from ocean to ocean when to cross it was to expose one's self to daily peril of death from savage foes, who had been the chief instrument of pre-empting half a continent for Im- manuel, who had sailed over all the seas of the western hemisphere on the same mission, doing in ten years the work of a long life time, should close his ministry in the shadows of his native hills, and the dying echo of his message should fall on the same ears that heard its opening call. Yet so it was. That cold November day, though it sent its chill through his enfeebled body, could not chill the ardor of his soul. He was never more alive to God. alive to the salvation of souls, and alive to Oregon than he was that day. Reluctantly did Mr. Lee submit to the convic- tion that his work was done. With every evanes- cent flash of the expiring embers of life, Oregon again arose on the horizon of his mind, and for the moment her vales and hills filled all the field of his vision. To reach Oregon, to live, if live he could. wMth and for her; to die, if die he must, under her plain, [o sal- nieau- nied a thrice hen to leril of e chief [or Im- of the oing in Id close ills, and on the et so it sent its lot chill alive to alive to t convic- f evanes- Oregon d for the eld of his he could, under her DEATH OF JASON LEE sn peaceful skies, and lay his dust at last where for so long had been his heart, was the measure of his earthly desires. The mental and moral outgrowths of his best life had taken root in Oregon, and if it were only to water and enrich the soil where they were planted with his tears and his ashes, this last possible office he prayed with a great de.^re to be permitted to perform. Nor did he forget where, l:)eneath the oaks of the lovely vale of the Willam- ette, rested the weary dust of his two beloved com- panions, the heroic sharers of his exile and his toil. And as a last reason, appealing to the deepest, loveliest nature of humanity, the ties of his father- hood had been stretched across a continent, the only being calling him father yet remaining near the shores of the Pacific. How could he die and she far away? Had not duty dealt hardly with him already in calling him away almost before even his countenance could be impressed on her memory? Must he now die and she only know of him as fath- er through traditions rehearsed in her ear? That he reluctantly submitted to that conviction is not wonderful; nor that his brave soul struggled to pluck a few more years from the grave, to add an- other chapter to the history of a life scarcely past meridian years. But it was all in vain. The last time probably that his name was signed p i >. m i jsassmm wm. 111! • 1 3IS MISSION A R V HIS TOR Y. by his own hand to a letter was on the 8th day of Febniary. 1845, four daysmore than a monthbefore his death. The letter was directed to Rev. G. Hines, long his friend and the appointed guardian of his child. The letter was writteii by another, though signed by his own hand. In it he said: — *T think I mentioned in my last that I was afflic- ted with a severe cold. No remedial aid I could pro- cure has been able to remove it, and unless some favorable change occurs soon it is my deliberate conviction that it will prove fatal. Shoukl such a favora^>le change take place I may advise you to be looking out for me coming around Cape Horn, or threading my way up the Willamette in a canoe as I used to do. But if I never make my appearance what shall I say concerning the 'dear little one.' Let her have if possible a first-rate education, but above all do not neglect her religious education. Dear Brother and Sister Hines. I must hold you responsible, under God, to train that child for heaven. I remain your affectionate friend and brother, JASON LEE. He longed to return to Oregon to pick up igain such threads as he might of the old life, yet he was calm, knowing what betided but not fear- ing it; steady, noble, a warrior figure to the last, dying as those who loved him might have wished to see him die. On the 12th day of March, 1845. at 41 years of age, he was absent from the body .iirl day of before 2V. G. ardian lother, id:— 5 afflic- Id pro- s some iberate such a u to be orn, or loe as I earance le one.' on, but .tcation. old you hild for ither, LEE. -tp ag^ain life, yet lot fear- the last. e wished :h, 1845. he bodv ^I'i Mil Hi »l 'II I \A('\ A. LKK (JUrnHS. (Milv Itiuiyliler itf Jnson I-cc ~r.n Wf::" ' DBA TH OF JASON LEE. 319 but present with the Lord. He was absent but accounted for. He was with the heroes. Here it is proper to say that the daughter of Jason Lee and Lucy Thompson, into whose deep eyes he never looked after he laid her in the arms of her devoted foster-mother on that "lone isle of the sea," lived to become one of the most accom- plished graduates of the Willamette University, the school her father founded as the "Oregon In- stitute," and then the most successful preceptress that institution ever had. Then in full orbed, majestic womanhood she lay down to test by her mother's side in "Lee Mission Cemetery," at ba- lem, Oregon, the old Chemekete, a spot consecrat- ed by the sacred dust of more of the pioneer heroes and heroines of American civilization and Ameri- can Christianity than sleep anywhere else by the shores of the western sea. In the cemetery at Stanstead, in Lower Canada, there reposes precious dust that Oregon covets as her own, that it might sleep with this. Surely the hero should rest by the side of the he'*oines. 1|K^~ -'^ XVII. LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY. i "When God moulds a prophet He places him for a while in the »-'ilderne.'is so that he may be framed after vastness of His own heart." "He shall come back on his own track, and bj* his scarce cold camp There shall He meet the roaring street, the derrick and the stamp : For He must blaze a nations way, with hatchet and with brand. Till on his last won wilderness an empire's bulwarks stand." — RuDYARD Kipling. PROVIDENTIALLY the history of the mis- sionary work in Oregon from the time of its inception in the mind of the American Church in 1833 to the time of liis departure from Oregon in 1843, accreted about the name of Jason Lee. By the very same providence whatever there was of civil history in the same field and time gathered about the missionary work of which he was the center. The current incidents connected with his personal association with that work in fields broad- er and more important than those occupied by any other man have been discussed in the foregoing pages. It is only the justice of history, however, before we dismiss his name from the story of the LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 32r work that others took up as he laid it down, that we give a clear and connected view of iiis dominant place in the history of the Northwest during that era that did most to determine its final civil rela- tions, and, as well, the ultimate character of its in- tellectual and social and religious life. Our read- ers cannot have failed to discern the general trend of his strongly marked characteristics as they have traced him in his journey in 1834 as the true "Path finder" for civilization through the 2,000 miles of mountain wilderness that lay between the Missouri River and the Pacific Ocean. They have seen these same characteristics magnified as he toiled on. out of sight of the world, among the most wretched and degraded humafi beings that Chris- tianity ever ventured the experiment of a gracious renewal upon, for four solitary years, until his faith- ful work had brought in to that people some dawn- ing hope of a better life. Still more strikingly were these (|ualities shown in his retracement of the weary pilgrimage of 1834 over the Rocky Mountains in 1838, to find and bring more laborers for the rescue and salvation of the wretched tribes for whose sake he had come at the first. Yet more was his character and force honored by the intelli- gence with which he organized, and the fidelity and faithfulness with which he conducted the great \ \ pt"""" M Hi ' \ n; I '* »j':« I r . i I , ) ^i;;:.!: J22 MISS I ON AR Y HIS TOR V. reinforcement through that trying sea voyage half way round the world in the ship Lausanne, in 1839- 1840. Lastly they have seen these characteristics lifted to the acme of sublime action in the last great journey that he undertook for his mission, and the Oregon he had adopted as his own through the bandits of Mexico and by the sinuous and treach- erous paths along which he labored his way to New York in 1844. Though these characteristics have been observed by our readers they should have a clearer historic setting. Mr. Lee's natur^' was cast in an opulent mould. Physically he was an imposing personality. Six feet and four inches in height, well and symmetri- cally developed, his appearance gave the world as- surance of a man. His complexion was almost blond, his hair light, and his eyes grayish-blue; a marked Anglo-Saxon combination, and he was fud of the strong and virile elements of that race. Of course this had much to do with what he accom- plished, and rendered it possible for him to hold the supreme place he did hold in fashioning the his- tory of the early Oregon, and hence the Oregon of all history. There is yet another fact that has es- caped its proper statement, if, indeed, it has not had misstatements in many places, that greatly in- fluenced the results of his relation to the countiV LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 323 and society where he wrouj^ht so faithfully and ef- fectually. It was this: Though l)orn in Canada. he was a thorough American. We mean by this that he was not only an American citizen, and as such entitled to all the franchises of that citizen- ship, but American in the broadest and most patri- otic sense. His birthplace was but a few miles across the line from Vermont. His parents were thorough New Englanders. who had themselves heired the longest and purest lineage of Puri- tan blood. He had but to step across the line into the United States to enter into the citizenship that was his by birthright. Beyond this right was the fact that the most fashioning years of his early manhood were spent in school at Wilbraham, in Massachusetts, under the tutelage of one of ihe most patriotic of Americans, Dr. Wilbur Fisk, and in the close companionship of Osmon C. Baker and many others like him. all Americans of the Ameri- cans. No man ever had better title to whatever credit the trusts of high friendships or the rights and franchises of citizenships could give him, than Jason Lee. All that made and moulded him, blood, education, life-work, were Americati, and made him the tit representative of the most intense American ecclesiasticism on the continent in the great work of his life in Oregon. This plain and ^rHI'l" :!' '" 3^4 MISSIONARY HISTORY. ir.i .!' !i -4, emphatic statement of facts in regard to his civil position, and his loyalty and love for American institutions is made, in a manner, necessary be- cause some recent writers, conversant only with the fact that his birthplace was in Canada, seem to have tried to discount his fame and detract from the credit due to his work because, as they have of- ten repeated, "he was a Canadian." Our readers will see that, in the sense in which they make this statement, there is no foundation for it in fact. In any sense in which he was a Canadian there is ab- solutely nothing that derogates from his thorough Americanism, and hence nothing that can impeach the claim here made of his premiership in the plans and work that made Oregon the solid, intense, patriotic American commonwealth she has been ever since she left the fashioning hands of Mr. Lee. Mr. Lee was a man of firm faith, great courage, and sustained and persevering action. His whole life is a commentary on tiiis state- ment. These basal moral elements of greatness abounded in his nature. His faith was radical. It did not rest on a visionary hope that happy inci- dents or accidents would intervene in his favor at fortunate times, but in a just appreciation of per- sonal confidence in the government of God. ^Wm' LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 325 Hence the consciousness of danger never operated as a deterrent to his work. "His hand the good man fastens on the skies: — Then bids earth roll nor feels her idle whirl." So Jason Lee fixed his hand on the skies, and that grip of trust was never shaken loose for a mo- ment during all the conflicts and dangers of his way. He never wearied in his good doing. Such a thing as faltering never entered into his mind. This is one of the true tests of greatness. This is the faith that overcometh. His work itself never failed to meet any just expectations. The Indian tribes for whom he wrought faded away and per- ished out of sight, but he had so done his work that on the very foimdations where he had laid it at the first it stood ready for the higher and the stronger life that so unexpectedly soon took the place of the vanished Indian life. This was evi- dence of his forecast (;f events that surprised him only in the quickness of their coming. As early as January, 1837, he wrote the corresponding sec- retary of the Missionary Board. "I am fully of the opinion that this country will settle ere long, and if you can send us a few good, pious settlers you will aid essentially in laying a good foundation for the time to come, and confer an incalculable benefit upon the people which will be felt by generations n;r 1:111 ?^<$ MISSIONARY HISTORY. (I 't| 'I ■ I 'I 1'^ ' ! : I? !■ :!' yet unborn. Pious men we want and must have to superintend our labor, but they are not to be had here at present." What prescience was here. Less than a decade justified his prophecy. His states- manhke comprehension of the then condi- tions, was fully evinced in the selection of the strategic centers of his work. To name the missionary stations that Mr. Lee selected from whence to work outwardly and touch all the land is to name as many of the controlling centers of ed- ucation, religion, and trade in the Pacific Northwest to-day, as he established missionary stations. See: They were Salem, now the beautiful and cultured capital of Oregon. Oregon City, the most mag- nificent Welter power of half a continent, now prac- tically a part of Portland, the finest city on the coast. The Dalles, the very key and entrepot of the great Inland Empire that comprises two-thirds of the States of Oregon and Washington, and all of Idaho. Astoria, which guards the entrance and exit of the Columbia River Valley, at the mouth of the river itself; and Nesqually, now practically Ta- coma, the marvelous creation of genius conspiring with destiny on the sea-deep waters of Puget Sound. No other missionaries on this coast ever approached him in that clear foresight. Though he was before them he had chosen but one station LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY, 327 when they appeared upon the ground and chose' their fields. Even the keen sighted Jesuit priests under the direction of such astute and diplomatic " leaders as De Smet, Blanchet and Brouillette, and they rated among the ablest men ever on the coast, ' did not begin to equal his grasp of the great fu- ture. Nor did the able and devoted men who came out under the direction of the American Board in 1836, two years after Mr. Lee, namely,- Dr. Marcus Whitman, Rev. H. H. Spaulding and Mr. W. H. Gray, nor those who later became their earnest associates. As the bearing of these facts and events on the history of the missionary work,' and of Oregon itself will be observed further on in this work, they need not be further discussed at this point. ' ' Jason Lee, better than any other man of his time, comprehended the true missionary idea. In tensely religious, he was also intensely practical. The stern struggles of his early manhood had taught him that this is a hard world to conquer. Mere pietism, enthusiasm, zea', he found could not subdue the world to righteousness. His faith was in the magic of work as an instrument for the accomplishment of the immeasurable ends of (iod in the bringing in of "the new heaven and the new earth." Many in the church could not understand 328 MISSIONAR Y HIS TOR Y • h\ xui ; ! his policy. They wanted only "the gospel," or, as they were wont to say, a "purely spiritual work." They did not realize that God's days of accomplish- ment have all had their ages of preparation. That his great, strong, conquering peoples were al! once small, weak and often apparently beaten. That the baptism of suffering and of conflict always came to man or nation before the baptism of power; before the baptism of the spirit. And they failed to understand that "the word of this salva- tion" had its con(|uering tongues in every age of its progress. And another principle of its advance- ment had failed to catch their attention, namely, that its divine commission. "Go ye into all the world." was nf)t to a man. or to a minister only, but to the church as such in her whole manhood, her whole womanhood, and even to her whole childliood.. That it had in it the colonization, the expansion idea. That beyond the voice of the min- ister in the enunciation of the Word there must be the life of the living manhood in all possible practi- cal exemplifications of the law of the divine life. That the gos])el on the lips of the minister must be illustrated and exemplified behind the plow, it the blazing forges and the ringing anvils, at the bench and at the .shuttle, everywhere that life finds lawful use for itself, or the night -dark perceptions \A\ ii LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 329 of pagan nations can never form an idea of its real character and power. Jason Lee comprehended this from the first, and in this he was wiser than his masters, and wiser than many of those who were incidentally associated with him in the field in which he wrought. To-day, in the light of the missionary experience of an added half-century in India, China, Africa, all over the world, and especially in that great Pacific lunpire where he sought to unfold the philosophy of his high conceptions of the co-ordinance of Christianity and free civilization, his then misun- derstood and undervalued philosophy has become the ruling principle of Christian progress. Does not this place him among the very leaders of the true missionary concept? It was the great merit of Mr. Lee to comj)re- hend the terms of the great problem of Christian civilization which he was chosen to work out on the Pacific coast as a Christian and a missionary of the most manly type, and also as a statesman ca- ])able of founding empires. He could weigh cir- cumstances, generalize facts, and foresee conclu- sions. If those who had committed to his hands the trust of founding the Christian commonwealth of the Pacific coast had not been separated from him by so great a distance, or if they had not lost 1^ t. :l I .! ff 'f T^Wfr ■■^'^ k ^; ^J^S 11 \Wn m Ilk 330 MISS J ON AR Y HIS TOR Y their own judicial balance, and had left him to work out the problem of his mission in the way he had planned and toward which he was vorking the history which we have to record would have been a very different one. We do not at all impeach their purposes, but they could not understand that Lee on tl:e ground, though but a single man, was far more likly to apprehend the case than any niim- ber of men 4,000 miles away. And so it proved a great misfortune that the votes of good men in the Missionary Board, given in comparative ignorance of the conditions of the distant problem on which they were voting, were put into the scale against the sword and courage and judgment of Lee when he was on the field, and i"lioroughly informed con- cerning what they were comparatively ignorant of. But it must be remembered that all this occurred in the very beginning of the misionary work of Methodism in such distant fields. Nor must it be forgotten that we are estimating a character and a work in the light of a history already made; a pioneer character in a field of Christian achieve- ment, which, since his day, has lifted many a man to greatness who followed in the footste])s of his great example, and vindicated missions and mis- sionaries as the most potential instruments of hu- man advancement. There was, in this first great LEBS PLACE IN HISTORY. 331 missionary movement of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which Mr. Lee was the eminent type, the very spirit that makes for the ultimate practical realization of the universal brotherhood of man. It was only a specific unfoldment of a genuine fact announced in that briefest of all definitions of the design and means of human redemption in the words, "The Son of Man is come to save that which was lost." The Son of a whole humanity, He came to save a whole humanity. It is the faith and purpose of Christendom borne into the heart of the New Regeneration when the "Son of Man" came. This is why Christianity became the ger minal force of the world's civilization. It goes be- fore. It is the pioneer. Governments may forget or overlook it, but Christianity never can. To for- get or overlook it would be to unmissionize her own being. What she carries to all are the liberties she has achieved for herself. She carries them into the world's great waste of darkness and captivity, in the best symbols and types of her most exalted life, the product of her own truest spirit. Her mis- sionaries are her princes and princesses; carrying to their yet unenfranchised brothers of other lands not teaching and preaching and rituals and baptisms only, but refined, virtuous and cultivated civic life; and with a free brother's pure heart and a strong !l '1^ \l h .. 332 MISS ION A R Y HfS TOR V. • brother's helpful hand proffering them to all in the name of Christianity as freely as flowed the Christ- blood for the life of them all. Of this class we have said Jason Lee was the pioneer in Methodist history. We do not forget Melville B. Cox, whose name will rise to the memory of every one at all read in Methodist history when this statement is made. Cox was a splendid prophecy of things that might be but never were. In character he was a hero, in purpose he had a large comprehen- sion, and in consecration he was divine. Africa was his chosen field. He entered it with courage and begun his work with a large faith on the 9th day of March, 1833. Four months and twelve days thereafter he was sleeping in death amidst the plans of his field. His dying cry: "Let a thous- and die before Africa be given up!" became the in- spiration of heroic purpose all about the altars of Methodism. Lee had barely time to hear this thrilling shout of battle and of victory from the eastern continent before he began his march to- wards the western shores to become in fact what Cox was in his splendid purpose, the first of the great company of Methodist Apostleship to set the stamp of his life as well as shed the glory of his death on the story of her missionary work. It was only twenty-nine days after Cox had died in Af- LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 333 rica that Jason Lee left his home on the work of preparing- for his mission in Oregon. There never was but one name that couki, by any possibiHty, be made to enter the lists with Lee for foremost place in the true story of Oregon's evangelization and civilization That was the name of Dr. Marcus Whitmati. In a subsequent chapter on the "Missions of the American Board," we shall give what we believe to be a fair and ap- preciative account of tl.is noble missionary and splendid man. Mr. Lee and Dr. Whitman had a strangely com- mon cast of life. They were both of thorough New England ancestry. The parents of both left New England about the same time, Mr. Lee's re- moving northward into Canada, and Dr. Whit- man's westward into Central New York, both then — about 1800 — almost unbroken wildernesses. The fathers of both died when they were children and they were left to the care of widowed mothers. Both went into Massachusetts for education, the first at Wilbraham, the other at Plainfield. Bot!i spent some of the early years of his professional life in Canada, the one as a minister and the other as a physician. Both passed through the early dis- cipline of hard toil on the farm and in the forests and lumber mills. With this common training, ■•: I. . piiWIUPiipiHW Ul 111!! !:^ 334 A/ISSIONARY HISTORY. and the not less strangely similar tendencies of their life, they were now put, by a somewhat singu- lar providence, into different relations to the field where they were both to do the great work of their lives. The Missionary Board of the Methodist Episco- pal Church, under which Mr. Lee was to go to the west, immediately established and equipped a full- orbed mission, shipped an abundant supply of goods in the bark "May Dacre" for the Columbia River to sustain it, and Mr. Lee and his compan- ions were on the way to meet them by land before the snows of the spring of 1834 had melted from the New England hills. The American Board of Commissioners for For- eign Missions, instead of organizing a mission, ap- pointed Rev. Samuel Parker and Messrs Dunbar and AUis as a conmiission to go and "explore the country." They went westward as far as Sr. Louis, but Lee and his helpers were far on their way towards the distant mountains, and Mr. Par- ker returned to his home in central New York. The next summer. 1835. Dr. Whitman joined Mr. Parker and proceeded as far west as Green River, and then returned to the east to recommend the establishment of a mission, and Mr. Parker con- tinued his explorations, returning home via the LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 335 Sandwich Islands and Cape Horn in 1836. In the autumn of 1836, just two years after Mr. Lee had fully entered on his work in Oregon, Dr. Whitman entered upon his, though their missions were es- tablished two hundred and fifty miles apart; Mr. Lee's in the heart of the Willamette and Dr. Whit- man's at Waiiletpu, far in the interior. As we have seen before, these men, so very like each other, did not meet until April of 1838. Unquestionably their views in relation to the in- terests of Oregon, and the means proper to be adopted in order to secure them were in remarka- ble harmony. How far this resulted from their mental and moral similitude, or how far from con- sultation with each other, it is perhaps impossible to determine. Probably there was something of both in the case, yet there was this difference. Lee, as the pioneer, having precedence of Whit- man by two years, first gave form and expression to the action desired by the national government, and. as representing much the largest missionary influence in Oregon, probably the most determin- ing expression. Every essential principal^ that found place in the memorials and petitions sent from Oregon to Congress, or to the executive of the United States, up to the time of the final ad- justment of the diplomatic struggle between the ' I V .y m-- ^ ri :.ir- JJ*^ MISSIONARY HISTORY. United States and Great Britain, in 1846, is found in the memorial drawn by Mr. Lee and Mr. Ed- wards in March of 1838. This memorial was in the possession of Mr. Lee, who was on his way to Washington with it when he first met Dr. Whit- man, in April of 1838, at Waiiletpu. Tracing the logical line of cause and result it seems clear that A this memorial was the subject of conversation be- tween Mr. Lee and Dr. Whitman during the time that Mr. Lee spent with Dr. Whitman and the missions under his charge when on his way to the United States with the memorial, namely, from the 14th of March to the 12th of April, 1838. It could not have been otherwise. These kindred souls could not have been in close and confidential com- munication on the very field for which they were planning so wisely and patriotically, and for whicli either or both were ready to sacrifice life itself, without this. The record in Mr. Lee's journal of the dates named clearly show this. Their first meeting is thus described: — "Dr. Whitman came and conducted us to the house. Mrs. Whitman met us at the door and I soon found myself seated and engaged in earnest and familiar conversation as if we were old ac- quaintances." This was Saturday. On Sabbath, the 15th of April, Mr. Lee said: 'T had a very interesting w '^ I Hy". LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 337 time pn^aching to the Indians while the Doctor interpreted." Mrs. Whitman, in writing ta her parents after this visit of Mr. Lee to the mission of Dr. Whit- man, and speaking of an Indian called Umtippe, who was in a decline, said: "Last Saturday he came here on purpose to spend the Sabbath; said he had recently three fainting turns, and that he felt he should not live a great while. * * * Sabbath morn, after the morning worship (Mr. Lee was here and preached and husband interpreted), he (Umtippe) said: The truth never appeared to cheer him before. Always, when he had attended worship, his mind had been on those about him, but now it had been on what was said to him." Mrs. Whitman said: "Mr. Lee has spent much time Avith us, and we have been greatly refreshed by his prayers and conversation." Thus, from the record made by Mr. Lee and also by that made by Mrs. Whitman, the fact appears that these two men were in long consultation and close and friendly communion, sanctified and made more trustful and confiding by prayer, on the great ((uestions with which their names were destined to have such a magnificent historic connection. But the initiative was plainly with Lee, because the very instrument that gave potential form to the great policy that finally wrought so much for Ore- gon, had been in Lee's possession, signed and ready for presentation to the government, for weeks be- Nl r ? t:; III M-i'M 338 MISS ION AR V HIS TOR Y. fore they met. This meeting and conference oc- curred when Dr. Whitman had been on his mission station less than a year and a half, and when Lee was hundreds of miles on his way to lay the docu- ment before Congress and the President. From that conference Mr. Lee pushed forward on that eastward journey which has already been followed by our readers. He discharged the great trust the people of Oregon had committed to him, as he discharged every trust, with truest fidelity. Twenty-six months later, at the head of the "great reinforcement," he was again in Oregon, and now with a broader and mightier initiative in his hand. Dr. Whitman was still in his place; still faithful, as he also ever was. Still both were in- tent on their pious and patriotic purpose. Later Dr. Whitman was in Washington urging the same things that Lee had urged before him. On the 22d day of June, 1844, a very important letter, with a synopsis of a bill that Dr. Whitman suggest- ed as desirable for Congress to pass, was received at the War Department in Washington. And now appears another strange coincidence. Two weeks before that letter was received by the War Depart- ment Jason Lee was in Washington in person urg- ing on the President, on the Secretaries of War and of State, and on Senators and Representatives " 'f>r;^i fm^f LEE'S PLACE IN HISTORY. 339 the very things that were presented in substance in the letter and the synopsis of a bill forwarded by Dr. Whitman . He was there when they came, and for a number of days thereafter, and he wa.s there with the influence of a formal resolution of the Missionary Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church to sustain and reinforce all that he person- ally could do for the end so much desired. Thus, while these two great missionary statesmen held common sentiments and sought the same action in regard to the great Northwest, Lee, who was by two years first in the field, and who stood at the head of much the largest and most central and in- fluential missionary and American community on the coast, clearly was the most influential personaU- ty in shaping the results that history records for the Pacific Northwest. "To this complexion we must come at last." Lee, as the "Foreloper," guided by the marks he set on the mountain peaks the tide of population that soon began to chafe against the barriers which he had been the first to scale. De Tocqueville had but just marked the facing- westward of the conquering race of earth, and, in this most majestic and impressive sentence had put his concept of its conditions and its destiny on his brilliant page: "This gradual and continuous pro- gress of the European race towards the Rocky A^ \ \ II iiifr m 1 ■.'■I;' 34f^ MISSIONARY HISTORY. Mountains has the solemnity of a providential event; it is like a deluge of men rising unabatedly and daily driven onward by the hand of God." He conceived accurately. It was a providential event. Nor was Lee less the providential leader of the providential movement than was the move- ment itself providential. In it was the force of a "divine thrusting on," the mighty though silent genesis of a sure coming kingdom that would march out of the old times and old traditions by companies and regiments and armies following the lead of this grim and stal- wart leader of men, — this founder of civilizations. He was only a missionary, it is true, but it was in that fact that resided his power to accomplish what God wanted done on the Pacific Coast. It was only another manifestation of God's way of subduing all things unto himself, and making the new heaven and the new earth of a free Christian- ized civilization. Gladstone, with his deep Chris- tian vision, penetrated this secret of God's ways when he said. "It is the wretched missionaries that we have to follow into Central Africa, and we have not men enough to send to govern these ])laces." What he said of Central Africa is the simple fact everywhere. Missionaries go into savage regions T^' LEE'S PLACE LW If /STORY. ^4r in advance of soldiers or travelers. All tliroiii^li Africa, China, India, America, the missionary is the pathfinder. Merchants follow, then governments find their pretexts. Cecil Rhodes is not the real fonnderbf Rhodesia. It is Moffat and Livhigston. Everywhere the blazoned trail of the missionary becomes the hig-hway of the emigrant, the roadbed of the Pullman, and the line of the telegraph. So the footprints of Lee were the guide of all whn came after him through the weary wastes of the continent. And having thus jiioneered the way, Lee and his company gave those original impulses to the moral and intellectual life of Oregon which have held that life through all the story of the com- monwealth. Jason Lee's work can never die. its influence will flow on "through channels measureless by men" forever. His place as first and most influ- ential in determining the course of history in the Northwest can never be successfully contested. Careful and candid historians on a survey of the whole field of the decade from 1834 to 1844, that really decided the character and position of Ore- gon, both in the elements of its intellectual and so- cial life and in its relation to the United States can- not fail to see that he was first in every movement that determined that history. It was a great I 342 MISSION AR Y HIS TOR Y. struggle, and great and good men were in various ways agents in it and even martyrs to it. Yet the splendid eulogy of Napier on Ridge from the field on which he had gloriously died, befits Lee best of all: "None died on that field with more glory than he. Yet many died and there was much glory." A man who stands, as this man stands, at the beginning of a state or nation, and is the mould- ing and fashioning influence of that beginning, oc- cupies an eminence that no other one can ever at- tain. 1 :n •;5!. i; xvin. INDIAN MISSIONS CLOSED. WHEN Mr. Lee left Oregon in the autumn of 1844 he left che mission in the care of Rev, David Leslie as superintendent. After his depar- ture from Honolulu for Mexico on his way to the United States, Mr. Hines and Dr. Eabcock took the first opportunity that offered to return to Ore- gon and resume their places in the Mission. They arrived in the Columbia River on the 23d day of April, 1844, and a few days thereafter the annual meeting of the Mission occurred. Pending the arrival of Mr. Gary, the newly appointed super- intendent, the work of the missionaries was ar- ranged as follows: David Leslie, Superintendent; to supply the Willamette settlement with preach- ing. Gustavus Hines was appointed to Oregon City, as the Willamette Falls was now called, and Tualatin Plains. A. F. Waller was to preach to the Indians along the Willamette River. H. K. W. Perkins was to remain at The Dalles; and J. L. Parrish to supply Clatsop Plains. This, with the Mission School and the various secular depart- ments constituted the Oregon Mission when Mr. ii 344 MISSIONARY HISTORY. Gary arrived at Oregon City on the first day of June, 1844. As the Mission had now come to a new initial, and was about to pass under an administration whose acts were to be in a great measure different from, if not contrary to, the order under the admin- istration of Mr. Lee, it is proper that we give some statement of its condition as the eld regime went out and the new came in. To make the condition plain a few facts should be recorded. Let it be first observed that when Mr. Lee was appointed to the mission in 1833 it was with no thought in his mind or the mind of the church, that his appointment meant anything r'-ore than a purely Indian mission. Indeed this was the case for at least tv/o years after he had established him ■ self on the Willamette, and at least two reinforce- ments had come to him. He thought of nothing and planned for nothing beyond this. The con- ception began to dawn on his mind with and after the arrival of the reinforcement of 1837, that, what- ever he and the Missionary Hoard believed and planned at the beginning. God had a better and greater design in the planting of the Mission when and where it was planted than that. This is shown in the tenor of all his reports to the Board, and es- pecially in his pre])arations for his jonvnex across INDIAN MISSIONS CLOSED. 345 of the plains in 1838, under what he cjIIs ''the incon- ceivably delicate circumstances" attending his sep- aration from his companion and his work, because he despaired of making- the condition of the coun- try and the real state and relations of the Mission understood by letters. What would have been concluded from these circumstances was made ab- solutely certain by the "memorial" which he bore to Cong-ress, which has been already given to the reader. He saw what was near: the speedy ex- tinction of the Indian tribes; the sure and swift coming- of an American population to occupy the splendid country from which the Indians were de- parting; and for the very purpose of preparing for that sure coming he took upon himself that most self-denying and dangerous journey. What ho communicated to the Mis.sionary Board carried it to the same conclu.sion. It di.l more; it carried the government of the United States to the same lielief. so that it co-operated with him in his plans to an extent hitherto unprecedented in all its re- lations with missionary operations; not as co-oper- ating in and sustaining a reli^^ious propagandism . ^/>. o . \>^ IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 »« IIIIIM !^^ llitt ^ m M 2.0 1.4 1.6 Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, NY. 14580 (716) 872-4503 s m %^ ,\ 'q^' \\ ^\-^ 6^ *^ > ^ V "%" /<^ &. .m called for supplies, as they had ex- hausted their stock of provisions on their long journey. On Sabbath, the 22d day of August, a party of ten called at the station desiring to make some purchases, and were directed by Mr. Brewer to a good camping place a mile or so from the house, with the promise that what they needed should be furnished them in the morning. On Sunday night they admitted some lewd Indian wo- men to their camp, who, on leaving, stole three sacks of clothing. This enraged the Americans, and when, on Monday, innocent Indians — among whom was a son of Equator, the chief of the Wab- co tribe, visited their camp — they took a rifle from him, and from others three horses. These Indians had done no harm, and were greatly In- censed at the conduct of the whites. Equator, be- ing immediately informed of what had happened, declared that he would have back the property of his son and his people at all hazards. Mr. Waller endeavored to persuade him to trust the settle- ment of the matter with the missionaries, but he was determined to vindicate his own rights and the rights of his people. With fifteen of his war- riors he surrounded the Americans, who had f nv MISSION TRAGEDIES. 373 moved down near the mission house, and began taking back the property which the whites had ta- ken from the Indians. A man by the name of Shepherd drew his gun and shot Equator through the heart. Two Indians immediately shot Shep- herd. Two more white men and one Indian were wounded. Equator leaned on Mr. Waller's breast and died. The Indians were crazed w:<"h excite- ment. A chief had been slain. A white chief's blood must pay for his. The white men fled to the mountains. For a while the blood of Mr. Walle* seemed likely to be the price the Indians would exact for that of Equator. A wounded white man was concealed in the house of the missionaries. Mr. Roberts, who had been a witness of tjie terrible scene, at the earliest opportunity took him away privately to the Willamette, procured the services of Mr. George Abernethy, who was then Governor of Oregon, and returning with him to The Dalles succeeded in allaying the excitement by a liberal payment of goods to the Indians. Thus, after much difficulty and at the entire expense of the mission, the danger of an immediate massacre that would have involved the mission and gone far beyond it was averted by the prompt action of Mr. Roberts in his capacity of Superintendent of the Mission. '' i ■ :i m^w^^ J74 MISSIONARY HISTORY. ill Ijii The entire force of the Methodist Mission was soon concentrated in the Willamette Valley, and its members were steadily engaged in the several departments of work. There had been many dis- quieting rumors of impending Indian troubles east of the Cascade Mountains, especially among the Cayuses, among whom the Mission of Dr. Whit- man was located. From their somewhat violent and intractable disposition, excited by several un- fortunate circumstances connected with that mis- sion in the past, many of the calmest and most ob- servant of the people of the country had been led to believe that it was slumbering on a volcano that might at any moment break forth and destroy it. It was hoped however that the plans of Dr. Whit- man to remove his mission to The Dalles in the fol- lowing spring might avert the threatening disaster. Suddenly, however, on the 29th day of November 1847, the very Indians for whom that noble mis- sionary and his wife had lived and labored for eleven years, broke forth in murderous fury and smote them both down in death, and annihilated in a moment the mission they had planted in Christian love and sustained with unfaltering and heroic devotion for the salvation of the very ones who had bcome their murderers. The story ot this most terrible incident in the missionary his- MISSION TRAGEDIES. 375 tory of the Northwest belonj^s to another chap- ter on "The Missions of the American Board" later on. and is referred to here only for continu- ity of narration in the history of the Methodist Missions; as, of course, they were profoundly af- fected by it. « The whole country east and west of the moun tains was shocked. The great interior tribes were reported as rising for a war of extermination against all the Americans. Oregon had only a "Provisional (jovernment/ without exchequer or any means of providing one. Though it was American territory, and had an American popula- tion now numbering perhaps three thousand, with an additional white population of nearly half as many more of mixed nationalities, its government was simply provisional and men of every nation were admitted to equal franchise under it. There was no sign or semblance of national authority within it or of national protection over it. To be sure the American population had borne the spirit of American citizenship across the great deserts or around Cape Horn, but the government itself had given them but the slightest aid. It had left them, apparently, to build out of their own hearts and lives such a commonwealth as they might. Most of them were young adventurers, seeking IB I !»<■ ! i. I . 37(> MISSIONARY HISTORY. such open doors as the Pilgrims found in New luigland, or the western pioneers found in Ken- tucky and Ohio, through which they might step upon a career that would give them honor and place and riches in some future day that they thought would come to the Pacific coast. They were poor. They had no money and they had cora€ to a country where wheat in .he bin and or- ders on stores were legal tender. A mule and a rifle were their only personal property, and the dust of two thi usand miles trailing their only real estate. Hardihood of body and a certain keen perception and self-poised intelligence that the ex- periences of the journey had imparted to them were their capital for the upbuilding of a free com- monwealth that, by and by, they would ofifer back to the Great Republic as one of the "bright partic- ular stars" that would grace the l>anner of Liberty. Resourceful enough to win their way to this land of promise, it might be expected that they would be brave and patriotic enough to defend what they had so hardly won. ■ - Immediately after the massacre of Dr. Whit- man and the destruction of his mission at Waii- letpu it became evident that an Indian war was in- evitable. To permit that bloody deed to go un- avenged would be to subject the whole land to .1 "-r Af/SS/ON TRAGEDIES. 377 like dreadful fate. The Provisional Legislature met almost immediately, and among the measures it was thought necessary to adopt in the distress- ing emerjj^ency was the sending, by a special mes- senger, of information of the awful event, and of the defenceless and imperiled condition of the country to the government at VVashintgon. The Provisional government had no resources. There was almost literally no money in the country. The only avenue through which the means neces- sary could be secured seemed to be the Methodist Mission. It was one of those trying con- ditions that come to men and communities when great things are to be done with- out some means of doing them. The journey was a perilous one across the continent in the win- ter on horseback, through hostile savages, over snowy mountams, but a man who had spent twen- ty years in the mountains over which lay the trails that must be traveled was ready to assay the dan- gerous undertaking if the means to defray the nec- essary expenses could be provided. He was a member of the Provisional Legislature; a Virgin- ian by birth, but a mountaineer from his boyhood, with Sublette and Bridges and Smith and others of their kith in the far. deep, fastnc".ses of the Rocky Mountains. His name was Joseph L. Meek, and this one bold and manly offering of I S\ til: (F I r mi 378 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR Y. himself as a messenger in this momentous crisis in Oregon liistory would, if he had clone no other acts to deserve it. place his name among the honor- ed brave of the Pacific Northwest. , There is a strange kinship between the mission- ary and the mountaineer. They are built on the same original model. The man who would search the longest and the most daringly for the grizzly • bear in his den or the lion in his lair as a mountain- eer, would hunt the longest for the lost soul of the worst sinner as a missionary. The man who as a missionary will penetrate the farthest forests among the most degraded of men to set up the banners of his loved Christ and bring men to it, as a mountaineer will find the dimmest trails of the wild beasts and follow them to their wildest lairs, or climb the highest and stormiest peaks for out- look, and swim tlie coldest, iciest rivers to find the ashes of his camp-fire. There was no spot the true missionaries of the Northwest loved better than the camp of the mountaineer, where he was always welcome to the softest blanket and the juciest roast, unless it were the altar of his own campmeeting. where he could welcome the broth- er of his heart from the mountain camp not only to the most nutritious viands, but to that Bread and water which giveth Life to the world. MISSION TRAGEDIES. 379 Finding no other means of raising the amount rea':ired to meet the expenses of the proposed messenger, application was made to Mr. Roberts who, as Superintendent of the Mission, it was thought, might have the abiUty and the disposi- tion to come to the rescue of the people in this emergency. In simple and plain terms Mr. Rob- erts thus refers to this incident: — "During the winter of 1847 'i^'^d iv848 the legis- lature was called together to devise means for car- rying on the war. Money was needed to send a messenger to Washington. The Superintendent of the Methodist Mission was applied to for $1,500 to aid in the emergency. Jesse Applegate (noble man that he was and is), was the commissioner. I furnished the funds. These were trust funds and not my own money, and there was no security: none whatever. It took some courage to handle the money then, for we lived by faith largely in those days." It was not within the power of any other man or men in the country at that time to meet that great emergency, but Mr. Roberts and the Metho- dist Mission. Indeed, since the mission was or ganized in 1834 until then there had been no cen- ter around which an American community could accrete, and no financial resources that could have formed and held the fragmentary and moneyless emigrants into a community with germs of solid aritv within it but the Methodist Mission. I ' i\-m m I ' ? reports were made from Cali- fornia. Three subjects of interest as furnishing a clue to the thought of the body in regard to the future of the work of the church on the coast were acted upon, namely, a movement towards the self- support of the church; the organization of a Mis- sionary Society, and the adoption of the "Oregon Institute" as the educational institution of the body. Thus these men of large purposes and clear and far outlook began at this very first session of the Mission Conference to outline work for the ages. The body remained in session three days, and on the 8th of September adjourned with the announcement of the appointments by Superin- tendent Roberts: j86 MISSION A R ) ' HIS TOR V. 'A. ^^ il.:' Oregon and California Mission Conference: William Roberts, Superintendent. Oreg-on City and Portland: J. H. Wilbur. J. L. Parrish. Salem Circuit: Wm. Helm, J. O. Raynor, Davifl Leslie, supernumerary. Yamhill: John Mc Kinney, C. O. Hosford, sup ply. Marys River: A. F. Waller, J. E. Parrott. > ■ Astoria and Clatsop: To be supplied. CALIFORNIA. San Francisco: William Taylor. Sacramento and CuUoma Mills and Stockton: Isaac Owen, one to be supplied. Pueblo, San Jose and Santa Cruz: To be sup- plied. It had now been l)ut fourteen years since Mr. Lee had established his mission among the Indians of the Willamette. The church at home expected that this would remain an Indian mission indefi- nitely. It did not enter into their thought that in so brief a time missionary work among the In- dians here would cease, and the entire force of the church would be directed towards the establish- ment of a Christian state where only Indians had lived before. They could not have believed, for history had never seen it done, that a nation, af MISSION CONFERENCE ORGANIZED. 387 erence : r. J. L. , David rd, sup tockton •. be sup- ince Mr. I Indians expected in indefi- ght that the In- •ce of the estabUsh- dians had ieved, for lation, af one stride, would step over two thousand miles of pathless wilderness and establish itself on the thither side of the globe. And it could not have been done had not the church herself been greater than she knew. The results of her work had been far beyond the measure of her purpose when shi sent forth Lee in 1834. When in 1849 the twelve men named above went forth at the behest of the church to inaugurate the new order they were but following the legitimate and logical ways of God's providence in His great work of the world's re- demption. The work of the conference year thus entered upon was marked by no incidents requiring special statement. The Indian war that began with the massacre of Dr. Whitman and the destruction of his mission, known as the Cayuse war, had closed, and the volunteers had returned to their homes in the Willamette Valley. It was hoped that a quietude more favorable to Christian work would succeed the public excitement attendant on the prosecution of the war. But this hope was sooti dissipated. Scarcely had the war ceased when it became known in Oregon that gold had been dis- covered in California, and stories of the fabulous wealth of the mines stirred the people to an ex- citement far beyond any that attended the pro- i!f im I •■{ Mr ! 'i ^ i m l! J; and conditions of life that Ciiina has givi:n to the world, such cycles must cease to roll. If the ages of Africa could alone only make the Hottentot or the Bushman, of what use is their continuance? So on the Northwest Coast. The course and growths of a history whose beginnings cannot be discovered had ended only in the production of the een born west of the Rocky Mountains. ]VIen and women were there who had listened to Hedding. Fisk. Bangs, Maffit. Olin, Bascom, "Kavanaugh, Walker, Bigelow, Akers, Cartwright. and numberless others, their peers. The standard of preaching which these mighty men had taught the immigrant Methodists on the camp grounds and in the cities and villages east of the Rocky Mountains was the standard by which they judged the preaching on this occasion. 11 'ill i*;i if Ml] n I: I m 41 ' III i ^IS M/SS/ONAR V HISTOR Y. (ironps would g^ather.and in reminiscent converse make their comparisons, and they were generally not nnfa\oral)le to the i)reachers and discourses on that Willamette camp-ground oil that splendid Sabbath in June. And this gathering of preachers and peoi)lc was only a fair type of what were all the preachers and people that the Methodism of the east had contributed out of its best, freshest, most vigorous life, as the material that was to base her history of the Northwest. A journey across the plains had hardened their sinews, keened their ])erceptions, broadened their views, and given them a round, full manhood, or a strong, gracious womanhood that even they themselves did not possess when they entered upon it. As battles and marches make warrit)rs, so such experiences and and struggles, such watchful vigils and alert action and prompt decisions as the momentary exigen- cies and constant perils of that most wonderful journey required, made resourceful and reliable Christian men and women. Nine-tenths of all the people then in the country had passed the way that led to such attainments. And such was the people who were to ])e built by such a ministry into the foundations of Oregon Methodism. In estimating the character of the field that had been prepared by the intelligent and devoted toil kE\'IE\V or THE FIELD. 4'3 of the missionaries and the strenuous processes of emigration for the work of the Annual Conference now organized, it is necessary to take into consid- eration the character and tendencies of the popu- lation of Oregon outside of the church. That was no less distinctly marked, in its way, than was the character of the Christian people. The same ele- ments had combined to develop strength and inde- pendence and powerful personality in them as in t!ie others. Young men of original force, of high ambition, fretted by the limitations that circum- scribed their action and enfeebled their efforts in the east, and aspiring to a career that seemed de- nied them there, worked their way as ox-drivers or cattle drovers over the plains to find their op- portunity in this westernmost west. With a fresh diploma from a school of law, or a new parchment from a medical college, or an A.B. or A.M. de- gree from Yale or Harvard, they walked the weary two thousand miles that stretched into broad des- erts or piled into rocky mountains between the Missouri and the Pacific, to find the scope and verge for the powers they knew themselves pos- sessed of that they could not see in the east. Or, if not thus trained for a professional life, the ambi- tions of commerce, or the attractions of agricul- ture, or the hopes of wealth that inspire the miner, \v 1 4'4 MISSK )I^AK Y HIS T( >/v' ) '. iieive little of infidelity. God and Christ and the FJihle were not rejected out of their beliefs though their lives were not made to comport with their faiths. Measurably this may be so with most people; certainly it was so with them. But this writer believes, if a true census of the moral influences that ultimate in a Ciu'istian character and an active religious life could be taken it would be found that a larger number of the people who come to this coast un- der such conditions would be found who finally became truly religious than of any other class of people that American civilization ever saw. The reasons are to his mind obvious, though he can- not trace them here. • In summing up the condition of Oregon Meth- odism in Oregon when the Oregon and California Mission Conference was organized in 1849, we find that Methodism had, in the Territory, four minis- ters, 400 members, and but three churches. In i^pir kEVIEW 01- THE FIELD. i'S ; jiian- course rative- mincl, 1 is the luch of ridelity. ejected ere not isurably { it was [ a true ite in a ous life a larger oast un- finally class of w. The he can- n Meth- >lifornia I, we find ur minis- thes. In > 1898, the year of the last reports, she had in the conferences inckuled in the boundaries of the then Oregon, 359 members of the conference, with 49 probationers; 29,343 members and probationers in the church and 22\ local preachers; and 477 churches, of the value of $1,038,005, with all other church interests advanced in like proportion. Thus the seed planted by the hand of Jason Lee in 1834, and cultivated by those who succeeded him in the work that he so splendidly inaugurated, has become a magnificent harvest. The work within the conference had been divi- ded by Bishop Ames into three districts, one cov- ering the Willamette Valley, to which Thomas H. Pearne was appointed Presiding Elder; another Southern Oregon, of which James H. Wilbur was the superintendent; and the other Northern Ore- gon, to the charge of which Benjamin Close was assigned. In the Northern and Southern Oregon the population was very small and widely scatter- ed, and there were no church organizations of any kind. There were a few Methodists, scattered \ ery widely; for who ever knew anybody brave enough or adventurous enough to go deeper into a wilderness or further onto a desert than Metho- dist preachers or people? The Northern district included all the country north of tne Columbia ^l6 MISSION A R } ' HIS 7 ( >A^ } '. River and west of the Cascade Mountains, the identical territory now occupied by the Pup;et Sound Conference. The Southern district extend- etl from the summit of the Callapooia Mountains to the CaHfornia line, and was also entirely west of the Cascade Mountains. East of the Cascade Mountains there was no white population, with the exception of a few m a small hamlet of Indian lodges, cloth tents and board shanties on the site of the old mission at The Dalles, where were a few traders with immigrants and Indians, and a few iin'.iigrani: families who had stopped in the late au- tumn of the preceding year. All that vast region now covered by the Columbia River and Idaho Conferences was absolutely without white inhabi- tants. In comparing the population of the country in the spring of 1853, and more particularly the Methodist population with the number and abil- ity of the preachers appointed by Bishop Ames to the work in the Conference, one is impressed with the thought that Methodism was then especially planning for the future and not simply providing for the present. The whole number of Methodists in the conference would not more than have suf- ficed for three average charges in the Eastern Coiiierences. Men of first-class capability were as- REMEW OF THE FIELD. 417 signed to fields, vast in extent of territory, but with only a few people and no reported church members at all; where there was no parsonage, no church, and almost no means of support. They went without a murmur, they toiled undiscour- aged, and they wrought as the master workmen they were. One, a talented though frail young- man, with an accomplished wife, moved two hun- dred and fifty miles with an ox team and set un the banners of the Cross in the deep southern wil- derness. The rigors of such an itineracy proving too severe for his frail body, he afterwards locaterl became a leading lawyer, representated his State in the Congress of the United States with great ability: living and dying a noble Christian man. But despite all poverty and all difficulties, nothing could stand still. With the splendid eloquence, the intense spirituality, and the rugged and untiring zeal of Pearne at the head of the central district of the conference every boy was made a man and every man a hero. With the pathos and sympa- thy, the effective and able generalship and com- manding personality of Wilbur in Southern Ore- gon, almost alone though he was, the mining camps and the isolated farmers and ranchmen were reached and touched and turned into a new life e\ervwbere, ("lose, in Northern Oregon, had even fIflHffi 4^3 M/ssioNAR y H/srORV. a more difficult problem than Pearne and Wilbur. His field was a watery one. It could only be trav- ersed in canoes. What people were in it were more scattered and inaccessible. Almost the densest wilderness of the world enveloped Puget Sound. It was a still, lone hunt, man by man, family by family. There were literally no communities. Where the cities of that unrivalled sea now stand, if the solitude of the "continuous woods" had been broken at all, it was only by the Indian's wigwam or the adventurous pioneer's low and lonely log cabin. Only a single name was set with that of Close to the work in Northern Oregon. That was W. f>. Morse, a young man whose name soon dis- appeared from the lists where only the strong and vigorous and indomitable and far-seeing could long remain. It can hardly be said that real work was begun on Puget Sound until a somewhat later day. Mr. Close terminated his work on the dis- trict when only a tentative occupancy of two or three points had l)een niade. These were made largely by John F. DeVore. who was transferred from the Rock River to the Oregon Conference bv Bishop .Ames in the siunmer of 1853, and who be- came the actual pioneer and apostle of Puget Sound Methodism, but the history of whose work belongs to a late period. Rli I IE W ' or THE FIEIJ). 419 A'ilbur. )e trav- -e more densest Sound, niily by amities. \! stand, ad been ,vigwam lely log- that of hat was oon dis- ong- and g could eal work hat later the dis- f two or re made ansferred irence bv who be- ){ Puget ose work Such, in a general view, was the tield that, in twenty-hve years, from a land of darkness and t>f the shadow of death," a land hidden out of the sight of the civilized world under a pall of age- long pagan darkness, had l)een prepared by the missionary work of the church for the ultimate and ])erpetual occupancy of a free Christian civiliza- iton. History has no parallel to such missionizing. If the church, in a moment of forgetfulness, was impatient of the work of her heroes that was bring- mg in this possibility, she has now abundant rea- son to crown those she could not then understand with her greenest laurels and her highest love. \'\ IH,1 I 1 i i i 1 1 XXIII. EDUCATIONAL. And wisdom aud knowledge shall be the stability of thy times and the strength of salvation. OUR readers have already seen with what care and interest the work of education was push- ed forward among the Indians from the l)egiiming- of Mr. Lee's work in the autumn of 1834. He even considered it not' "iily an important, l)Ut really the chief instrument in the work he had un- der taken to do for them. With little hope of any very large benefit coming to the adult Indians in- dividually through the work of the mission, he had great hope that the children could be brought into the school in large numbers and kept there until they had acquired a good education and been well trained in the arts and economies of civilized life. In the progress of our history we have already seen how these expectations were disappointed at the old mission station, and yet how persistently and consistently he clung to them, and how great- ly he enlarged the capacity of the school in the erection of the new Manual Labor School build- ing on the removal of the mission from Chemawa thy times hat care as push eghining '34- He ant, l>ut ! had tin- DC of any idians in- 11. he had aght into lere until been well ilized life, e already lointed at Tsistently ow great- )ol in the ool build- Chemawa 'i I J V. r % v. y. y. 1/ 'J REVIEW OF THE FIELD. 42/ to Chemekete. After the death of Cyrus Shepard, who was chosen by Mr. Lee for that special work before comino^ to Oregon, the school was well cared for by other teachers, and. at times, seemed to be destined to fulfill the hopes of the superinten- dent. We have already seen how, despite all the efforts of the superintendent and some of the ablest men in the mission, the door of failure seem- ed to darken over it because the doom of extinc- tion was darkening over the Indian race. It is not necessary to recapitulate the steps by which, at last, the fine property of the "Indian Manual Labor School" — much the finest in Oreu^on at that time — passed out of the hands of the Missionary Board by the act of Mr. Gary, and became the possession of the trustees of the "Oregon Insti- tute." This action of Mr. Gary so far as its inten- tions were concerned, was noble and praiseworthy, however unfortunate it afterwards proved to the Missionary Board and even to the cause of edu- cjltion itself. Had Mr. Lee's purpose been carried out and the grant of the mile square of land held by the mission under the Provisional Government, made by the Government of the United States, as it was made to all missionary stations that had been maintained as such up to the time of the passage of the act by Congress, one can easily see i^ 1 ; ■15 ; r. 422 MISSIONAR Y HlSrOR Y. what a majj^nificent vantage j^^round both school and church would have held in Oregon. The transfer of the property to the Trustees of the Oregon Institute obliterated the mission, and every claim it had i.eforc to an inch of land at Chemekete. The Trustees of the Institute could not ac(|uire title wiien the mission abandoned theirs, and so. when Congress passed the act granting lands to settlers and to missions, both the Missionary Board and the Trustees of the Insti- tute had no case under the law. It is worthy of repeated remark that the very month this sad work was done at Salem by the new superinten- dent. Mr. Lee was in the city of Washington using all his influence with the President and members of Congress for the passage of an act to secure the very thing that had thus been made impossible in this case, namely, the confirmation of the title to 640 acres of land at all the mission stations on the coast. What should ha\'e been done, and what Mr. T-ee intended to do. and what the Missionary Board in New ^'ork. after they had met Mr. Lee in June of 1844, also desired to have done, was to continue the Mission Manual Labor School, gath- ering in all the Indian children possible from near and far. and. while the Manual Labor training system was having a more thorough test, await ■"■^ EDUCATIONAL. 4^3 school 1. The of the -)n. and land at :e could andoned the act ns, both he Tnsti- orthy of this sad Derinten- :on using members ecure the ossible in e title to ns on the ind what [issionary Mr. Lee le. was to ool. gath- from near • training est, await the action of the government in the passage of i land hill for Oregon; which Mr. Lee was fully as- sured would l)e favorable to the rightful claims of the missions. Surely there were no rightly claims to the consideration of the United States govern- ment in Oregon, if the work done by Mr. Lee and Dr. Whitman and their associates and companions in o])ening the great Northwest to .Vmerican occu- pancy, and leading the nation to its magnificent heritage on the Pacific shores, had not secured that claim. The whole nation so recognized it. But. in this case, it was lost. The Trustees of the Oregon Institute took pos- session of the premises of the Indian Manual La- bor School in the sununer of 1844, and from that time the latter name was blotted from the current history of Methodism in the Northwest, and the other comes into view as one of the most import- ant factors of the history. A few weeks after that change was accomplish- ed Gustavus Hines, who, with Alvan F. Waller and others, had yielded rather reluctantly to the purpose of Mr. (iary to dispose of the property in any form, and consented to it at last only when they saw that, if it were not disposed of in thi.-, way, it would be in some other less favorable to 424 MISSIONAR Y HIS TOR K the interests of Methodism, wrote to the Mission- ary Board in New York as follows: — THE OREGON INSTITUTE. "This institution stands upon an elevated por- tion of a beautiful plain, surrounded with the most delightful scenery, and at a point which, in some future day is destined to be one of great import- ance. The building is beautifully proportioned, being seventy-five feet long and forty-eight feet wide, including the wings, and three stories high. When finished it will not only present a fine ap- pearance without, but will be commodious, and well adajjted to the jnu'poses intended to l)e ac- complished within. It is already so far advanced that a school is now in successful operation, under the tuition of one well qualified to sustain its in- terests. Already it numbers more students than did Cazenovia Seminary or the Wilbraham Acad- emy at their commencement, and who can tell but that it may ecjual, if not surpass both these institu- tions in importance and usefulness. Though T cannot say that it is the only hope of Oregon, for whether it lives or dies ( )regon will yet be re- deemed from the remains of Paganism and the gloom of Papal darkness by which she is sur- rounded; but the sentiment forces itself upon the mind that the subject of the Oregon Institute i-^; \ital to the interests of the Methodist Episcopal Church on the Pacific Coast. If it lives it will be a luminary in the moral heaven of Oregon, shed- ding abroad the light of knowledge long after its founders have ceased to live. But if it dies, our sun is set. and it is impossible to tell what will suc- ceed. Perhaps a long and cheerless night of Papal darkness; but. more probably, EDUCATIONAL, 495 others more worthy of the honor than ourselves, will come forth to mould the moral mass to their own liking, and give direction to the literature and religion of Oregon." This letter was written in the summer of 1844. Perhaps in May of 1845, ^s the writer well remem- bers, it appeared in the "Christian Advocate and Journal." and one bright sunny afternoon the pa- per found 'ts way into an humble rural home in northwestern New York, while he was but a youth, and sitting all rilone by the side of his own mother and the niuther of the writer, he read it to her listening ears; rather to her listening heart, and they talked of the distant son and brother, so distant that it seemed improbable if not impossible that we should ever look upon his face ngain. Yet we did, and side by side we wrought for many a year in that same Oregon in the darkness of which he was then so deeply shut in. In our treatment of the history of the Oregon Institute we do not intend to do more than to give the story of the school as such, and thus bring to view the work of those who so devotedly and successfully wrought within it and for it. , Under the Board of Trustees, upon a lady de- volved the honor of opening the Oregon Institute, and conducting the first school of this character on the Pacific Coast. We are elad to make this t ^^ ( ;l' 1 '' i MK-ii 4.26 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR Y. record. The ladies of the Oregon Mission, the wives and daughters of the missionaries, have never been given the proper credit for the part they bore and the work they did in Oregon. Some writer should enshrine their names antl memories in terms as sweet as i)oetry ever sang or affection ever uttered. Mrs. C. A. Willson was the lady for whom the distinguished honor of opening the Oregon Insti- tute v/as reserved. ' Mrs. Willson. nee Miss Chloe A. Clark, was a member of the great reinforcement of i^^39. She was appointed to the Oregon Mission as a teacher for the children of the missionaries. On her ar- rival in the country June ist. 1840. she was assign- ed to work with Dr. J. P. Richmond at Nesqually. on Puget Sound, where Mr. Willson had charge of the secular ^fTairs of the mission. In a few months Mr. Willson and Miss Clark were married. They remained at Nesqually until the work at that station was abandoned, when they were called by the superintendent to Salem and were employed at that station, Mr. Willson in the secular work and Mrs. Willson in teaching. Mrs. Willson's work in the school was of an ex- cellent character. The institution took high rank under her care. It was conducted as a boarding ^ EDUCATIONAL 427 school, and the most of the students were from abroad and boarded in the institution. At the close of the first year of the existence of the insti- tuition. an imperative need was felt for enlarged facilities, and especially for an increase of the teaching force. The autumn of 1845 brought a large immigration f "om the east into the Willam- ette Valley, mostly composed of families, many of whom had already had echvational opportunities in the old states, and great interest was felt by all in the building up of the Institute. Xot only so. it became evident to all that the Willamette Val- ley was to rapidly fill up with population, and that very soon a thoroughly ecjuipped school of an academic grade would be an absolute need. This had become apparent by the close of the first year of the school, but the conditions of the mission, and the circumstances surrounding and shadowing the title of the Institute to the property which it held were such that nothing more could be done than to continue the school under the care of Mrs. Wdlson, with such help as could be had from the missionaries and immigrants until such futiire time as some way out of the embarrassments of the f,it- uation could be found. One of the difficulties of the situation arose from the fact that the Provisional Government had enacted no laws permitting the 428 MISS ION A R \ ' HIS TORY \\ I n mm' incorporation of such bodies as trustees of schools, and hence no purchases could he made nor sales effected, nor any property held by any legal tenure. A more embarrassing situation could hardly be con- ceived of. Not much change occurred in the condition or prospects of the institution until 1847. when Wil- liam Roberts arrived in the country and superseded Mr. Gary as superintendent of the Mission. With him came James H. Wilbur, who soon took charge of the institution under the appointment of Mr. Roberts, ruid conducted it successfully for perhaps a couple of years. Meantime the Missionary Societ^• in New York was appealed to for aid in ])rocuring (jualifieJ teachers, and also for assistance in the permanent endowment of the school. The Board agreed to send out from time to time, at its own charges, such properly (jualified teachers as npght be neces- sary to man the school and sustain the educational department of church Nvork in the Northwest. In compliance with that agreement in the sunnner of 1849 l^t'\ . Nehemiah Doane, who was at that time a student in the Biblical Institmc at C oncord, New Hampshire, was invited by the Missionary l>oar(l to accept the position of a teacher in the "( )rego'i Institute." He accepted, anfl in September, 184c), chools, )r sales tenure, be con- ition or en Wil- )ersede(l I. With <; charge : of Mr. perhaps e\v York ciualified srmanent loreed to charges, be neces- kicational iwest. In unimer oi that time cord, New ary l>oard e "Oregon nl)er, 1849, N. DOANK. I'.n. i^^i.-^ UIUIIWII EDUCATIONAL. 429 was received on trial in the Clenesse Annual Con- ference, ordained Deacon and Elder under the mis- sionary rule, and appointed as "Missionary to Ore- gon," in view of that position. Mr. Doane was at this time a student in the Methodist Biblical Institute at Concord, New Hampshire, under the presidency of the renowned John Dempster, and the especial tutelage of Os- rnan C. Baker, afterwards one of the most revered Bishops of the church, and the friend and confidant of Jason Lee when they were fellow students under Dr. Fisk at Wilbraham. Mr. Doane had entered as a student in the Biblical Institute on the first •day of its existence in April, 1847, and had steadily pursued his work of preparation for the Christian ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church until his call to the mission field in Oregon in the sum- mer of 1849. His fitness for the place was most emphatically endorsed by the president and profes- sors of the Biblical Institute. He was the first man ever appointed to tlie foreign missionary work — as Oregc^n was then rated as a foreign mis- sion — from any theological school in Methodism. While hi- was in school an incident occurred which, in its after results, united Mr. Doane's life to Meth- odist history by a \ery strong and te.der tie. He met by i hance a small, somewhat nervous young k i ■I • 430 MISSIONARY HIS TOR V. man. some years younger than himself, stniggHng with adverse conditions, yet aspiring to a greater and broader life, with whom he fell into conversa- tion. He pressed him most earnestly to set his mark for a thorough collegiate training, including a thological course. It was the first dawning of such a possibility on the mind of the young man. and he resolved then and there to follow the ad- vice thus given. That young man was Charles H. Payne. This is not tradition. The writer, and the whole Oregon Conference heard this statement made with most affecting pathos by Dr. Payne himself, in the presence of the honored instrument of so much good, not more than nine months be- fore his translation to be with God. Mr. Doane left New York for Oregon on the steamer Empire City on the i6th day of October. 1849. via Panama. On the 4th day of November he preached the first Methodist sermon ever deliv- ered in that city. In the beginning of 1850 he reached the Columbia River, and finding his way to Salem through far more perils and difficulties than one would now meet in traveling round the world, though it was only a distance of one hundred and fifty miles, in the spring of 1850 he took the place for which 'c had been chosen by the Missionary Board in the "Oregon Institute." EDUCATIONAL, 431 About the same time Mr, Doane took charge of the Institute the Missionary Board entered into corresi)ondenc with Rev. Francis S. Hoyt, a mem- ber of the New Jersey Conference and then sta- tioned in Bergen, asking him to consider the ques- tion of accepting the principalship of the Oregon Institute, to which Mr. Doane had been appointed as teacher. After due consideration the appoint- ment was accepted, and under the direction of the Board Mr. Hoyt spent a few weeks in farewell vis- its among his New Engkmd friends, and in soHcit- ing contributions of money for the purchase of philosophical and chemical apparatus for use in the Institute. Having been ordained an elder under the missionary rule at the session of the Oneida Conference, he reported to the Board in New York in the first week in September, and soon after sailed from that city in one of the steamers of the Panama line for his allotted fieM of labor. Besides Mr. Hoyt and his wife. ivev. John Flinn sailed ni the same ship for the Oregon work; and M. C. Briggs, S. D. Symonds and wife, and Edward Ban- nister, with wife and children, for the work in Cali- fornia. Late in October, 1850, Messrs. Hoyt and Flinn reached Oregon, landing at Portland, then a rus- tic hamlet of some twentv or thirtv habitations, *e k 4^ 43» .]flSSrONAR V HIS TOR Y. m ! :* and a few jjlaces of business. In the most primi- tive style of ])ioneer travel Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt made their way to Salem, and he entered at on;e on his work as jjrincipal of the Institute. He found the school under management of Mr. Doane in a very satisfactory state, notwithstanding^ the uncom])leted condition of the building and the limited facilities at command for its advancemenl. The thoroughness of instruction and the precision and order of his work delighted the new principal, and he was greatly pleased with tiie i)rospect of having him for an associate in the conduct of the great interest that had been committed to his charge. But this satisfaction was short lived, for plans had already been framed by the Superinten- dent. William Roberts, in connection with James H. Wilbur, who had charge of the work in Port- land, for the erection of an academy in that place, and Mr. Roberts decided to send Mr. Doane imme- diately to open a school there in preparation for the intended academy. In pursuance of this decision Mr. Doane removed to Portland and opened the first school ever taught in that place. This ar- rangement was not in harmony with the ideas of Mr. Hoyt, and certainly not in harmony Avith the interests of the Oregon Institute, which was left by it with an inadequate faculty. I'lnrCATIOXAL. 433 and compelled the principal to devt te all iiis ener- gies to mere class work in the school room. Of course it was an advantage to the Portland enter- prise, and the school of Mr. Doane in ihat place furnished an important nucleus around which its supporters could gather and more successfully prosecute their work. Th.e difficulties that surrounded the educational work of the church in Oregon were, from the he- ginning, most formidable. They arose from a vari- ety of causes which need to be stated before the reader can understand the heroic struggle which those who bad that work in special charge had to make to sustain it all, much more to carry it to any successful results. The necessity for schools was apparent; all could see it and feel it. But how to perform that which it was seen was so vital and imperative was not easil\ found. As a starting point in the statement the vast extent of the coun- try and the smallness of its population must be ob- served in connection with each other. Oregon, which, at the lime of the initiation of the educational plans of the church here, was all the Pacific Northwest, meant in fact the country west of the Cascade Mountains, extending from the Straits of F"uca, on the north, to the California line on the south, a distance of 500 miles. Its SA i mi 434 MISSIONARY HISTORY. 1 !:' I width was from the ocean to the mountains, about 150 miles. Its poi)ulation did not exceed 10,000. and they were widely scattered over the plains and through the forests and along the rivers and bays of that immense area. The facilities for intercom- munication between the different sections of the country were very limited and poor. Except upon the open prairies, which was far the smaller por- tion of the country, there were literally no roads; only such trails as none but those who had driven ox teams over the Rocky Mountains would think ir possible for a vehicle to pass over. There were no towns. When the Oregon Institute was estab- lished two or three only of what are now the great cities were rude hamlets of from one to four hun- dred people. Portland was an unbroken wilder- ness. Seattle, Tacoma. Olympia, Albany, Eugene, and all the rest of the present beautiful cities of Oregon and Washington had no existence even in the dreams of dreamers. Oregon City and Salem v/ere hardly more than names. The geographical empire was here, but the empire of people was yet to come. When Mr. Hoyt, the third teacher that took charge of Oregon Institute, found his way from the steamer that landed him on the shores of Oregon to the seat of the educational institution he had come, under the authority of the church. EDUCATIONAL. 435 about lO.OOO, ms and 1(1 bays ercom- of the pt upon er por- ) roads; 1 driven d think ;re were [IS estab- he great our hun- T wilder- Eugene, cities of e even in nd Salem igrajihical e was yet icher that 1 his way ; shores of nstitution le church, to build up, it was by canoe and ox wagon. Mr. Doane, who had preceded him by about a year, had it even worse than that. And all this was in the most populous and best improved region of the Empire of the Pacific. And that was less than fifty years ago. Within a radius of twenty-five miles from the Institute there could not have resided at that time more than 3,000 people, and within daily reach of the school not more than 1,000. Jacob was small, exceedingly small. Small and scattered as was this population there were social and economic conditions that increased the difficulties. One was this: The "Land Dona- tion Law," enacted by Congress in 1848, had pro- vided for the donation of 320 acres of land to a single man, or 640 acres to a man and wife — 320 to each — on a continuous residence of four years upon it. This provision led to innumerable cases of "love at first sight." Many of them were ex- treme. (Jirls of from ten to fifteen years of age were often married to "get the land." The effect of this condition was to take out of the schools nearly all girls of from twelve to twenty years of age. and also all the young men of from eighteen to twenty-five, leaving for students only children. As the schools were entirely dependent upon tui- tion for their support, they found it exceedingly it' I iim^ I 4 436 MISSIONARY If /STORY. difficult to maintain even a respectable teachinj^ corps, much less an adequate one. Indeed but for the fact that the schools of the church were under tlie care of ministers belonjjfin^ to the Con- ference, most of whom had wives competent for te^^hinj^. and who were always ready to take up the burdens that no one else could be found to bear, they could not have been carried on at all. This was the case at the Oregon Institute, where, first. Mrs. Doane and afterwards Mrs. Hoyt, were the ever ready and abundantly competent helpers of their husbands in all departments of school work whenever the exigencies required that sacrifice. While this work was going forwards in the Ore- gon Institute under Mr. Hoyt, other educational enterprises were inaugurated elsewhere. That at Portland under the direction of Mr. Wilbur, with Mr. Doane as teacher, has already been not-ed. With his accustomed energy. Mr. Wilbiu- pushed his work forward. He procured of the proprietors of the town site three blocks of land most eligibly located, as a donation. On one of them a good academic building was erected ,and the other two were reserved for future endowment of the school. Portland was yet a hamlet in the forest, but its people had large dreams, which were not all dreams, for its future. The blocks secured were i eachitij;' Indeed ch were he Con- tent for take up onnd to n at all. ;. where, ►yt, were t helpers ool work rifice. the Ore- ncational That at Inir. with Ml not'ed. ^Y pushed roprietors St eligibly m a good other tAvo he school, it, but its e not all ured were 'I *> A^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT 3) ^ .^i t^- f^/ ^< 1.0 I.I 25 !:« 12.5 IM IIIII2.2 1.4 12.0 1.8 1.6 P> <^ //. 'w A Photographic Sciences Corporation ^ V « ;\ \ "^ V o .^^ 6^ 'f.' 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 :<" c :<$> '3 ,^-1 f??/ ■ i£lS .1. II. wii, r.ru. n.i>. m^ EDUCATIONAL. in the midst of great fir trees, far away from the few business houses tliat stood on the river banks, and it required a vast amount of the hardest kind of work to clear away the timber and prepare the site for occupancy, but such difificulties were noth- ing to such stalwart pioneers as Wilbur and those associated with him. At the same time this was being done a church was being built by the same indomitable man. He was architect, carpenter, ox- driver, axman. painter, blacksmith and pastor. He begged money and material from door to door. When all other resources were exhausted he called on the Missionary Board in New York for assist- ance, and that body advanced him $2,000, with which to complete tlie academy, to be repaid in some better day hereafter. Finally the academy and church were both completed, and church and educational work were put on a solid foundation in Portland. By the close of 1851 this school was in successful operation under the charge of Rev. Calvin S. Kingsley. who had been transferred from Michigan to take charge of it. He was an able man, and an excellent educator, and the school was highly prosperous under his presidency for a num- ber of years. ' During all this period of struggle the Oregon In- stitute, and, succeeding that, the Willamette Uni- "W 43S MISSION A R V HIS TOR Y. r\ .IHii versity, was the leading educational institution of the Pacific Northwest, and Mr. Hoyt, as principal of the one and president of the other, the leading educator in the same field. Few men combine in themselves more of the qualities of a successful col- lege president than did Mr. Hoyt. His scholarship was of the most complete type. His natural abili- ties were of a very high order. The social elements Vv^ere delightfully blended in his temperament and life.. His esthetic nature and tastes were refined and elevated. He was capable of long continued and persistent application. His mind was forecast- ful, and he did not quickly change plans once formed. He held tenaciously to central pnnciples, and ever kept in view ultimate ends. Hopeful and optimistic, he was not visionary and impracticable. He could bear sacrifice and deprivation in the pres- ent for the sake of the future. He had ample sup- port in his best nature and work in the nature and work of Mrs. Hoyt who braced his armor as he went forth into the public responsibilities that ful- ly measured all the lengths and breadths of his powers and culture. His subsequent career in other fields of church work fully vindica^^ed the estimate his friends — he had no enemies — put upon his value to the formative interests he served in Oregon through the eventful and struggling de- EDUCATIONAL. 439 I • cade from 1850 to i860, and l)ut intensifies to-dav the regrets of that long past day when he was re- moved from their care and gnidance. And, in clos- ing this chaj ter of history relating to one of the most vital inverests, if not the most vital interest, of Methodism in the Northwest, we deem it proper to give the following from Mr. Hoyt's own pen written but a few weeks ago, and in view of such use of it as we should see fit to make in this work. It is valuable for appreciative historic statements, and for the deep interest '•'. manifests in the future of the educational work of the coast. After speak- ing of the constant difficulties attendant on the procuring of suitable teachers for the school, he savs: — "Some of the very competent teachers who.;e association with us was very helpful were Mrs. Thurston, widow of the delegate Thurston, and afterwards the wife of Gen. William H. Odell, a very noble and accomplished woman, and a very successful teacher; Miss Mary Leslie, af- terwards Mrs. Jones; Rev. Isaac Dillon. Mi.is Plamondon, afterwards Mrs. Dillon; and later (i859-T)o) Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur, nephew and niece of Rev. James H. Wilbur; and in 1859- '60. Mr. T. M. Gatch. afterwards the president, and the only gentleman who was a classical scholar, of fine tastes and adequate attainments, who as- sisted me. From time to time, sometimes for one 01 more' years continuously. Mrs. Hoyt gave me 440 MISSIONARY HISTORY i : her assistance. When other help failed, she always came to the rescue. , The Board of Trustees . ; the Oregon Institute, •and later the Willamette University, were excel- lent men, sincere and ardent friends of the institu- tion, and giving to its affairs their best judgment, their personal influence, and much of their valuable time. Those who, owing to their residence in or near Salem, were usually present at the metings of the Board were Revs. A. F. Waller, Wm. Roberts, David Leslie. J. L. Parrish, Gustavus Hines, F. S. Hoyt, and Messrs. Dr. Wm. H. Willson, L. F. Grover. afterwards senator and governor, J. 5. Smith, afterwards representative in Congress, and J. H. Moores. Owino- to the fact that Rev. A. F. Waller re- sided at Salem, and was greatly interested in the ])rosperity and development of the Institute, he was at an early period appointed financial agent. Under his direction some important improvements were made in the interior of the Institute building. He also, after ample consultation and due authori- zation by the Trustees, carried forward energeti- cally ancl patiently the plan of raising a moderate endowment for the Willamette University, the suc- cesor of the Institute. That fund as represented by good notes, signed by responsible parties, bear- ing lo per cent, interest, payable annually until maturity, amounted to nearly $20,000 at the time my connection with the University ceased in 1861. It was solemnly agreed among us when the plan was entered upon, and the agreement was under- stood to be a pledge from which there was to be no departure, that the moneys thus raised should remain inviolate as a permanent fund, the interest of which, solely, should be used to meet deficien- cies, (in the income from tuition,) for the payment I'll e always nstitute, e excel- ; institu- dgnient, valuable ice in or ;tings of Roberts, es, F. S. n, L. F. )r. J. S. ress, and '^aller re- ;d in the itute, he al agent. Dvements building. authori- energeti- moderate , the suc- 3resented ies, bear- ally until the time 1 in t86i. the plan as under- vas to be sd should e interest ' deficien- payment ■5 It i il ii ■ '1 ^iW| 1 It III 1* F. S. IIOYT, D.I). I'Mrst Prt'sidciit of tlic Willniiicttc Tiiivcrsit v. EDUCATIONAL. ur of teachers. And it was a sad day when that agree- ment was departed from. The educational plan which was adopted by com- mon consent among the leaders in church and edu- cational movements between '50 and '61, contem- plated the establishment in the entire Northwest of one University with academies or seminaries for local advantage and for preparatory schools, at such places as here and there through the whole territory could supply considerable local patronage — enough to ensure their support and permanency. Several academies sprang up under this general plan. In that earlier day Portland was a thriving, promising village, but no one had any conception of its subsequent growth and relative importance. The Oregon Institute and its successor, the Wil- lamette University, being the first school estab- lished, and being located, moreover, at the then central point, and at the proposed capital, was nat- urally thought of as the one to be built up and de- veloped into the hoped-for University. Had 1 the chance to address the entire ministr\- of the M. E. Church in the Northwest, and all the staunch laymen of the church, I would say: Meet and consult freely and fully. Lay aside all local considerations. Determine to the best of yoar ability the best location for one general school — one great university, which may grow on and on for centuries, and supply every need of the North- west. As things seem and as they are likely to be for a long series of years, there are a goodly num- ber of places in that vast region which by local pat- ronage aided by the surrounding country, could support an institution as an academy or seminary, but one university; one large, growing university; having general support, will do a hundered fold |-i*r m^rw ^hi 442 MISSIONAR ) ' H/S TOR } " *i f! more for tlie cause of education than twenty weak, strugglinj^. narrow collej^es can do. We hope tliat those who lahor there now will be wise, ardent and consecrated, and with hearts full of faith and heroism, and with a jirophetic eye that sees the possible grandeur and magnificence of the Northwest as it is yet to be, will be one in heart, and untiring in effort, to build up the cause of Christ, and to make and execute wise, broad and enduring plans in the department of educa- tion." Great as were the obstacles in the way of the Oregon Institute, it was not long before the school had so advanced under the direction of Mr. Hoyt and his accomplished and faithful assistants that it was evident that the school should have an en- larged scope, and be prepared to conduct the students applying for it not only through an academic but a college training. So the Board of Trustees appointed a committee to procure from the legislative assembly of 1853 a charter for the "Oregon Institute and University." Subse- quently the name of the institution was changed, and an act incorporating the "Willamette Univer- sity" was passed by the legislature and accepted by the Board, and the, school was organized under that name, with Mr. Hoyt as president, yet having appended to it a primary and an intermediate or academic department, all under his direction. The EDUCATIONAL. 443 I first meeting of the Board of Trustees under the University charter was held March ist, 1854. In some respects che enlargement of the scope of the work of the University added to rather than diminished its emharrassment. It rendered a large and more expensive faculty needful without in- creasing its means of sustaining them. This, in- deed, was foreseen, and every effort was inade to provide for this contingency, but such was yet the smallness of the population of the country that no very great progress could he made in that direc- tion. In 1853 the white population in all Oregon did not exceed 25,000 souls, and only about iialf of these were in any sense available as a constituency of the University. These were mostly poor and had just arrived in the country from a journey that had swallowed up whatever resources they had when they started from the old states. This condi- tion of things left the support of the University al- most entirely on the hands of those who from the first had been the supporters of the Oregon Insti- tute. These were largely the people who had been connected with the Methodist Mission from 1834 to 1852, together with those ministers and their families who had been transferred to the Orego\i Conference after its organization in 1852. It will be remembered that at the first session XL \ \ 444 MISSIONARY HISTORY. I of tlie Oregon Annual Conference Mr. Wilbur was appointed to the cliarjj^e (if Southern Oregon. Among tlie tirst things that he undertook there was the establishment of an academy at a central point in the yet almost entirely unsettled Umpqua Valley. This school was for a time quite success- ful, and for a number of years was the leading in- stitution of learning in Southern Oregon. Ft had a list of able and popular teachers, among whom was Rev. T. F. Royal and his wife, and Prof. F. H. Grubbs and his wife, the daughter of Jason Lee. but as the population of that section increased, other points proved more central, and the school ceased to exist. It bore the name of its founder. Wilbur, and it is likely did as much to form the intellectual character of the youth of Southern Oregon as any school ever sustained in that par- ticular region of country. Probably no community so small ever undertook to build up and sustain such an educational system as the Methodist Mission at first, and the Oregon Annual Conference afterwards, and succeeded be- fore the end of the period covered by this history. When that period closed the pre- paratory department of the Willamette Uni- versity was in successful operation, as was the Portland Academv and Female Seminary. HDUCATIONAI. m iiiuler the administration ot ''''v. C. S. Kin^s- ley, and also the UmiKiua Academy, under Rev. '!'. F. Royal, which had close' i its second year of suc- cessful work. And in connection with their pro-i- perity as schools a large nuniocr of their students had been converted; a number of whom soon i)e- came active and successful in various fields of edu- cational or evangelical work. And at that time the committee on church property in the Annual Con- ference reported that on all the schools there was an aggregate indebtedness of but $443. Hetter work, truer work, was never done in this depart- ment of Christian enterprise than was done by these Fathers of Oregon Methodism. ill XXIV. AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. THE "American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions" was organized in 1810, under the auspices of the Congregational Churches of New England. The impulse that led to its or- ganization was the resolve of Mr. Adoniram Jud- son and four other young .nen in attendance upon the Andover Theological Seminary to devote them- selves to the missionary work in Asia. When the "Macedonian cry" from the western wilds awaken- ed the whole church in America to the i?eeds of the Indian tribes west of the Rocky Mountains, the attention of the Board was called to that field, but no active measures were taken for the establish- ment of a mission there until 1834, when the Dutch Reformed Church resolved to establish a mission in that region, and invited the American Board to take charge of it. Instead of proceeding h^ once to the establishment of a mission, as did the Meth- odist Board, it resolved to appoint a commission to explore the country, before deciding whether it would enter it as a missionary field or not. It ac- cordingly appointed Rev. Samuel Parker, of Ithi- i AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 447 ca, New York; Rev. J. Dunbar and Mr. S. Allis, to undertake that work. Somewhat late in the spring of 1834 these gentlemen proceeded westward as far as St. Louis, intending to accompany the an- nual caravan of the American Fur Company as far as the Rocky Mountains, but finding that it was al- ready some weeks on its way, their purpose was given up for that year, and Mr. Parker returned to his home in Ithica, while Messrs. Dunbar and Allis engaged in missionary work among the Paw- nees. But with this failure the purpose was only deferred, not abandoned. In the following spring. 1835, Mr. Parker, having Dr. Marcus Whitman as- sociated with him. returned to St. Louis, and put- ting themselves under the protection of the American Fur Company's caravan, they proceeded as far west as Green River, about a hundred miles west of the summit of the Rocky Mountains, where the fur traders and the Indian tribes of the moun- tains met for Rendezvous that year. Here they held consultations with the traders and the Indians and from the facts and opinions communicated to them, decided that a mission should be established somewhere on the Pacific slope. It was agreed, therefore, that the two should separate; Mr. Par- ker continuing his journey to the Pacific coast, and Dr. Whitman returning to the east and organiz- nn iff 448 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR V. ing a missionary company to enter the field the fol- lowing year. Mr, Parker's journey was continued in company with the Nez Perce Indians. In the autumn he reached Vancouver, where he remained during the winter. He visited the Methodist ^P mission in the Willamette, an account of which visit is given in the history of that Mission, He occupied his time usefully at Vancouver in preaching to the people of the post, and won their kindest consideration. The summer of 1836 he spent in a long tour in the interior, visiting the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company, and taking careful and intelligent obser- vations of the Indian tribes, as well as giving a somewhat special study to the geological forma- tion of the different regions that he visited. In the latter part of the summer he returned to Vancou- ver and took pas.sage in a vessel of the Company for the Sandwich Islands, and thence by the way of Cape Horn for Boston, and his home in New York; reaching the States in 1837. He published an interesting, and, at the time, valuable volume relating to his journey, but his long and expensive pilgrimage had no appreciable effect on the ques- tion of missions beyond the Rocky Mountains. While Mr, Parker was thus occupying his time in Oregon, Dr. Whitman had returned to the east mr AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 449 and entered with zeal on the work of organizing a missionary company for the region into whicii Mr. Parker had disappeared. Early in 1836 the com- pany was constituted by the addition of Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife; Dr. Whitman having married Miss Narcissa Prentiss, and Mr. W. H. Gray, a single man, who had charge of the secular depart- ment of the mission. Mr. and Mrs. Spalding had alread\ been desig- nated for the mission among the Osages. and they were on their way thither when Dr. Whitman suc- ceeded in securing a change in their assignment, and they were appointed to Oregon. Arrange- ments were made under which the missionary com- pany should journey with the caravan of the Amer- ican Fur Company across the mountains, but when they arrived at Council Bluffs, on the Missouri River, they found that the Fur Company was al- ready a week on tlie journey. They were now on the extreqie western limit of civilized settlement, and it is not surprising that there was debate among them whether they should retrace their steps or move out into the unknown region before tiiem alone, trusting in God's good guidance and in their own intelligent and persevering efforts to carry them safely to their destination. Certainly the experience of Dr. Whitman the year before, i % 450 MISSIONARY HISTORY. itiMij while on his journey of exploration, stood them in good stead here, and under that inspiration they decicfed to move forward as expeditiously as pos- sible, believing that, with their smaller number and lighter outfit they could overtake the Fur Company's convoy in a short time. The company here consisted of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, Mr. and Mrs. Spalding, Mr. Gray and two Indian boys who had accompanied Dr. Whitman to the east from the "Rendezvous" the preceeding summer, and some temporary assistance procured from the Paw- nee Mission on the Missouri. The venture, though a lonely one. was not specially dang^^rous, as they were traveling through friendly tribes and along a plain trail, or wagon road, leading up ihe level and beautiful valley of the Platte River on the north side, and they were yet far east of the coun- try where they might need the presence of a large company to secure safe passage through the more predatory tribes. Their route followed the present line of the Union Pacific Railroad from the cross- ing of the Missouri, where Omaha now is, to the North Platte, and thence up the North Platte on its north side to the Rocky Mountains by the way its north fork, called the Sweetwater. The missionary company overtook the Fur Com- ])any at Loup Fork, and from that point traveled AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 451 with it to the Rendezvous on Green River. There v^'ere many interesting and romantic and even laughable eqisodes connected with the journey, but our work has more to do with ultimate results than with incidents of travel, however romjuitic and interesting, we must relegate these to the writers of romance; not because we do not appre- ciate them, but because they do not come within the scope of our work. Through all the incidents and dif^culties the missionary party made their way safely, and on the first day of September reached the Hudson's Bay Company's post at Walla Walla, where they were hospitably received and generous- ly entertained. Mr. Jason Lee and his company of missionaries had reached the same point on the first day of September, 1834, exactly two years be- fore the arrival of Dr. Whitman and his associates, though Mr. Lee's party had been nine days longer from the Missouri River than had Dr. Whitman's. After remaining at Walla Walla a few days the en- tire party proceeded down the Columbia River to Vancouver, the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company, and the residence of Dr. McLoughlin, its controlling spirit in the Northwest. Some time was spent at Vancouver in consulta- tion with Dr. McLoughlin and other gentlemen of the company in regard to the establishment of i ! • V ! Wl It i II I-' P H i .5^ * i ■ 4S^ MISSIONARY HISTORY. their stations, and especially as to their location. They were now within a short distance of the mis- sion of Mr. Lee, who had already had the experi- ence of two years in the field, and one rather in- stinctively wonders that they did not visit his mis- sion and avail themselves of the benefit of his ob- servations and experiences in the dif^cult work that they were entering upon. But they did not, and made their selection of locations almost solely on the advice of the gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company. The writer believes that advice Was good, and sees no reason to believe that it was given by Dr. McLoughlin with any sinister pur- pose either against the missions or in favor of the Hudson's Bay Company. The advice was general, and only that their missions should be located east of the Cascade Mountains, and within the reach of the strong tribes that inhabited that region of country. Mr. Lee had occupied the center of the Willamette Valley, and it was but reasonable that these missionaries would occupy the great unoccu- pied field now known as the "Inland Empire." Some writers have believed, or affected to believe, that tl^e advice of Dr. McLoughlin both to Mr. Lee in 1834, and to the missionaries of the American JJoard in 1836. was for the purpose of pushing them one side, and putting them out of the way of Irfl « :ation. le mis- 2xperi- her in- lis mis- his ob- t work lid not, t solely udson's advice ,t it was :er pur- r of the general, ted east reach of gion of r of the ble that unoccu- miiire." l)elieve, Mr. T.ee merican ])ushing- wav of AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 433 the Hudson's Bay Company, so that they could not interfere with its purposes, nor put any ob- stacle in the way of the ultimate British occu- pancy of Oregon. Such writers give little credit to the astuteness of Dr. McLoughlin, or to the in- telligence and independence of the missionaries of the American Board. Had such been the purpose of Dr. McLoughlin, or had he been a man capable of advising a course of action so adverse to the purposes for which his guests were in the country, he certainly would not have advised them to estab- lish their work in the very centers of the great re- gion open to their choice. This he did. as we believe, honestly and honorably. Nor is it likely that either he or they, at the time, fully compre- hended the providential import of the establish- ment of these American missions in Oregon. When the missionaries had concluded their in- vestigations they resolved to establish two mis- sions, one among the Cayuses not far from Fon Walla Walla, and one on the Clearwater River among the Nez Perces; the two strongest tribes of the interior. This determined upon, the two ladies. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding, were left at Vancouver, and Dr. Whitman, Mr. Spalding and Mr. Gray proceeded up the Columbia river again for the erection of houses and the o])ening ' !| 454 MISSION A R V HIS TOR V. w M ' ' of their work. Dr. Whitman's Mission was located at Waiiletpu on the Walla Walla River, and Mr. Spalding's at Lapwai on the Clea'* Water. Before winter the work of erecting hour was so far ad- vanced that they returned to Vancouver and took their wives with them into the field which they had thus set up a claim to in the name of the Lord. Mr. Spalding began his work among the Ncz Perces the last of November, and Dr. Whitman his among the Cayuses early in December 183;". Their work opened auspiciously and the Indians seemed to be so desirous of receiving religious in- struction that by the next spring the mission de- termined to send Mr. Gray to the East to obtain more teachers for the wide work which seemed to be opening. He took with him four Nez Perce Indians, and a large number of horses and other property, from the sale of which he expected to provide means to meet the expense of the rein- forcement sought. Three of the Indians returned from the Rendezvous. When the party was on the Platte River near "/\sh Hollow," it was at- tacked by a band of Sioux and the Nez Perce was killed, the horses and property all caiv tured,Mr. Gray alone escaping with his life. This unfortunate issue of his expedition was an occasion of much embarrassment to the mission subsequent- .U-. AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 455 ly, and the loss of the Nez Perces while under the direction and care of Mr. (iray, caused him, in sub- sequent years, much personal annoyance, and seri- ously injured his usefulness among the Indians. This was not owing to any special blame that could be laid to Mr. Gray, but to the peculiar idiosyn- cracies of the Indian mind and character. While in the States Mr. Gray's representations were such that the American Board decided to appoint two additional teachers to theOregon Mis- sion. Rev. E. Walker and Rev. C. Eells and their wives were under assignment to the Zulus of south- eastern Africa. The Board of Missions changed their destination to Oregon, and also associated with them Rev. A. B. Smith. Mr. Gray, who had married since his return to the States, remained in the employ of the Board, and, with his wife, ac- companied them as guide and secular agent on their journey. The company thus constituted left New England in March, 1838, and traveling by the same route as those who had preceded it, and with the usual incidents of the journey, reached Wall.i Walla on the 29th day of August. ()n the arrival of this company Mr. Gray was associated with Mr. Spaulding at Lapwai, and Mr. Smith with Dr. Whitman at Waiiletpu, but the next year he opened a new mission at Kamiah, .1 .'If 456 MISSION A R V HIS TOR Y. % v among the Nez Perces. In the spring of 1839 Messrs. Walker and Eells established a new station at Tshimakain among the Spokanes, six miles north of the Spokane River. In writing of these missions subsequently, Rev. M. Eells, a son ox Rev. C. Eells, of the mission at Tshimakain, says: — ''The first few years 01 the mission were quite encouraging. Owing partly to the novelty, the Indians seemed very anxious to labor, to learn at school, and to receive religious instruction. In 1837, as soon as a school was opened at Lapwai, Mr. Spaulding wrote that a hundred, both old and young, were in attendance. As soon as one had learned something more than the others, they would gather around him while he would be their teacher. In 1839, 150 children and as many more adults were in school. Similar interest was shown in religious instruction. They sometimes spent whole nights in repeating over and over what they had but partly learned at a religious service. Two years later from 1,000 to 2,000 gathered for a relig- ious service. Then 2,000 made a public confession of sin, and promised to serve God. Many of them evidently did so with imperfect ideas of what they were doing, yet not a few were believed to give evidence of conversion. Among the Cayvises, also, more were ready to attend the school than the mission family could sup])ly with books, or had ability to teach. Morn- ing and evening worship was maintained in all the principal lodges, and a confession of sin was made somewhat similar to that among the Nez Perces. For a time when Dr. Whitman or Mr. Spalding traveled through the country they were followed AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 457 by hundreds of Indians eager to see them and hear Bible truths at night. They had a strong desire for hoes and other agricultural implements, and were willing to part with any property they had 'U order to obtain them, even bringing' their rifles to be manufactured into such articles. From 80 10 100 families planted fields near Mr. Spalding's, and many near Dr. Whitman raised enough pro- visions for a comfortable supply for their families. In 1838 Mr. Spauling reported tlu;t his field pro- duced 2.000 bushels of potatoes, besides wheat and other articles. In 1841 a saw and grist mill were erected among the Nez Perces, a grist mill among the Cayuses. In 1837 a church was organized, and in Septem- ber, 1838, the first Indian was received into it, though in July previous two Indian girls, who af- terwards died in Mr. Sijalding's fami^ v gave evi- dence of conversion, and were baptized as the first- fruits of the work. In November, 1839, Joseph and Timothy, Nez Perce Indians, were admitted to the church. In 1840 Mr. Eells reported a school of eighty scholars. In 1839 the mission received a donation from Rev. H. Bingham's church at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, of a small printing press, with types, fur- niture, paper, and other things of the value of $450. Mr. E. O. Hall, a printer at the Sandwich Islands, came with the press, and the first book printed west of the Rocky ^tountains, so far as known, was issued that fall in the Nez Perce lan- guage, and one in that of the Spokane followed. Mr. and Mrs. Hall remained until the spring of 1840, when they returned to the Islands." This extract from Mr. Eells' story of these mis- sions shows that externallv, at least, the work of '1^ !l|i^ .. L 45s MISSION A R ) ' HIS TOR ) ' the missionaries was producing ahundant fruit in the chanjred lives and purposes of the Indians. The missionaries tlieniselves were very f^reatly en- couraged and these missions were everywhere re- ported of the most successful and promising char- acter. This was espeoiall\ true of that of Mr. Spalding at Lapwai. where Mrs. Spalding seem- ed to exert a controling charm over the minds of the Indians, and where the superior intelligence and character 01 the Nez Perces appeared a most promising field for the ripening of the harvest of truth. But it was not long before the natural un- rest of the Indian character began to assert itself again. The novelty of the new life wore of¥, and the habits of the old life reasserted themselves. The Indians were divided. Indeed the majority had never yielded their old ways even temporarily. and a strong opposition to the missionaries and their work soon developed itself, led by some of the Spokane and Cayuse chiefs, and sympathized and abetted by many among the Nez Perces. The Cay- uses particularly grew insolent and abusive, de- stroyed much property belonging to the mission of Dr. Whitman, personally mistreated Mr. Gray and Dr. Whitman, and in many ways evinced such hos- tility to their work and such distaste at their pres- ence in the country that, but for the active inter- AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 459 fruit ill tuliatis. itlv en- lere re- ig char- of Mr. T seem- ninds of ;lli^ence a most irvest of ;ural un- ert itself off, and nnselves. majority iporarily. iries and ne of the lized and The Cay- sive, de- nission of Gray and such hos- leir pres- ive inter- ference of the Hudson's Bay Company, they would have been driven out of the country, if, indeed, tliey had not been killed. In a few months the prospcts of the missions were so clanged from the promising conditions indicated ant. become so dis- couraging that the lioard of Missions decided, in February, 1S4J, to close up he missions among the Cayuscs and Nez I'erces, and issued instruc- tions for Messrs. Spalding and (Iray to return to the east, ai^d Dr. Whitman to join the mission at Tshimakain, among the Spokanes. For the same reasons Rev. J. D. Paris and Mr. W. H. Rice who had been bent to the mission by the way of Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands, when they arrived at the Islands were induced to remain there temporarily, an arrangement that was made permanent by the Board at Boston. It is somewhat difficult fj^r the historian to ac- count for these sudden and marked changes in the apparent condition and prospects of the missionary work among the Indians on any basis consistent with the general integrity and improvableness of the Indian character. The same general state of facts are apparent in these missions of the Ameri- can Board as were seen in those of the Methodist Board in the Willamette, although the external conditions stood much in favor of the missions of f 4.60 MISSION AR Y HIS TOR V. the American Board. In the Willamette, as our readers have seen, there was a rapid gathering of white people and a consequent thrusting aside of the Indian race. Here nothing of this kind existed. There was no white settlement ; indeed no wdiites resident in all this region of country but those directly connected with the missionary stations of the American Board; thirteen in all, six of whom were women. This was the entire American pop- ulation east of the Methodist station at The Dalles in 1841. In the Willamette the Indian tribes seemed worn out. smitten with inuiiedicable decay, and their numl)ers were diminishing with a rapidity that was bewildering. Here the}- were strong; retaining all the former \irility and force that had made the Nez Perces and Cayuses and Spokanes and Yaki- mas the controlling tribes west of the Rocky Mountains. So far as these conditions were con- cerned these missioviS had every advantage over those established by Mr. Lee, and, if any Indian missions ought to haVe been able to succeed in put- ting the germs of a new life into the character of the Indian race, or the lease of new ages into their history, these were the missions and these the peo- ple where it should have been done. But it was not, and the missions, so far ;is this large view of AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 461 , as our ering of aside of existed. 3 whites It those itioiis of 3f whom can pop- le Dalles • led worn nd their that was retaining made the nd Yaki- e Rocky vere con- age over ly Indian ed in put- aracter of into their ^ the peo- ut it was e view of the purpose of their establishment and the hopes that were entertained by the missionaries, the Boards under whose direction they labored and the whole American church, whose instruments for hu- man evangelization both Boards and missionaries were, were a sad and sorrowful failure. Nor can this result be charged to the unfaithfulness of the missionaries, nor to their want of intelligence in adaptation of means to ends. When such men as \\'hitnian. Spalding. ^Valker and Eells. of the American Board, aided and encouraged by such in- tellectual and moral princesses as their wives; or .such men as Lee, Leslie, \\'aller. Hines, with then- equally si)lendid companionship, failed, ordinary men may venture criticism of their work but spar- ingly. Certainly we shall hesitate before we pro- nounce it in an ultimate sense a failure. And this the more especially as those of them who lived to enter the era that rapidly followed this time of ap- j)arent failure, led and commanded that era in its moral and intellectual work as few other men did or could. 'Hie two great leaders, Lee and Whit- man, one by the martyrdom of eleven years of ex- cessixe toil and hardship, the other at the end of eleven years of the same kind of toil l)y a more bloody though not more painful martyrdom, were not [permitted to enter that later era, except by the i 'A mm^ 462 MISSION A R V HIS TOR Y, m\\ I [ ■ A^^^-t spirit of their consecrated and illustrious example as an ever present inspiration to the remaining toil- ers on the field for which they lived and died. Per- haps the only safe refuge of the mind in such a case is in the fact that we cannot entirely comprehend the "improving purpose" of Providence which for- ever runs through all chances and changes of his- tory towards the best and largest progress of the whole humanity, even though the "golden corn" of its ultimate harvest is fed by the bones and ashes of consumed races and decayed peoples. .The decision of the Board to break up the mis- sions at Waiiletpu and Lapwai did not meet the ap- proval of Dr. Whitman or Mr. Spalding. These missionaries were encountering the same troubles that Mr. Lee encountered, arising out of the im- mense distance between themselves and the Board under which they served, and especially the great time that it took to pass communications between them. The Boston Board, like that at New York, always acted in the light — rather in the darkness — of conditions that were almost ancient history be tore they heard of them. The report of an hour's visit of some chance traveler, or, possibly, some government official, who saw nothing excep.. in the distortions of a worldly causitry, were often per- mitted to sway opinions and determine actions in AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 4^3 ixample ing toil- d. Per- h a case prehend lich for- s of his- ;s of the in com" nd ashes the mis- t the ap- These troubles the im- le Board he <^reat between iw York, rkness — story be in hour's ily, some xcep.. in )ften per- ctions in the Board that should have been left to the judg- ment and decision of the truly noble and great men who had the missionary work in charge on the very held where it was to be done. Two sentences from "Captain Wilkes" reports, one in regard to the mission of Mr. Lee in the Willamette, and one in regard to that of Dr. Whitman at Waiiletpu, after a visit of a few hours to each, casting an unfavora- ble coloring over them, exerted great, if not con- trolling influence on the action of both Boards in deciding questions of vastest importance in regard to the men and their work. Perhaps they decided the action which required Dr. Whitman to aban- i 466 MISSION AR Y HIS TOR Y. careful and candid consideration. Whatever there may have been of more dramatic incident, or of personal hardship and peril in it, and there was much of all. must needs be passed by, that we may follow the clear thread of historic interest that is easily tracable through all. A brief preliminary statement is needful. All the missionaries west of the Rocky Moun- tains, by virtue of their civil and political as well as religious affinities, necessarily sustained a double relation to the country in which they had located. They were not only religious propagandists, seek- ing the conversion of the Indians, but they were political propagandists as well by the very force of the anomalous political conditions of the country itself. Oregon at that time had no settled and de- termined political status. The United States and Great Britain each asserted a claim to it, but neith- er conceded the right of the other. The result of an acrimonious and long continued discussion w.-^s the adoption in t8i8 of a treaty between the two nations, providing for a "joint occupancy" of the country for a term of ten years, "without ])reju(lice to any claim which either party might have to any part of the country." There was not much effort by the negotiators of the treaty to determine boundaries or ownership, although the British AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 467 er there t, or of ere was we may : that is liminary ^ Moun- s well as I double located, ts. seek- ley were force of country 1 and de- ates and lit neith- result of ^sion was the two r of the prejudice kq to any jch effort letermine t British commissioners intimated that the Columbia River itself would be the most convenient boundary that could be adopted, and declared that they would not agree upon any boundary that did not give Great Britain the harbor at the mouth of the river in common with the United States. The joint occupancy treaty expired by its terms in 1838, but, against strong opposition in Con- gress and in the country, was renewed for an in- definite period, either party being permitted to withdraw from it on giving one year's notification. While joint occupancy was the law of the land there was no American occupancy of the country in any form until 1834. Up to this time the Hud- son's Bay Company, a strong British corporation, and thoroughly loyal to that country, was its sole possessor. The first party of Americans to perma- nently fix themselves in Oregon was Jason Lee and his three coadjutors of the Methodist Mission in 1834. As we have told the story of that company, we need not here recapitulate it here. The mission established by that company became the center around which all American settlement gathered, and it logically stood as representing the claim of the United States to Oregon as against that of England. When the American Board established its mission two years later, it was so isolated from ■i ' -I i i|iai« f , I. ' . I 468 MISSIONARY HISTORY. ill . f the centers of influence, American and British, that its members individually and the mission as a body could not participate in any of these mo\'ements that had origin or reference to the rival parties. Its members, however, were all thoroughly loyal Americans, and so, in the ultimate estimate of forces nuist be counted on that side of the issues in- volved. The only other missionary force in the country while these issues were pending was the Roman Catholic, which established itself in 1838. The members of this propaganda were all ardent and zealous advocates of the pretentions of Great Britain. They were even more imanimous and more zealous in opinions and actions than were the members of the Hudson's Bay Company them- selves on that side of the contention. Not a few of the gentlemen connected with that company had a warm admiration for the institutions of the United States, and were also close personal friends of the American missionaries, especially of Mr. Lee and Dr. Whitman, whose bold and chivalrous char- acters had a charm for them notwithstanding the company itself was strongly on the British side of the Oregon question. Nothing else could have been expected of them, as the decision of the ques- tion in favor of England would mean a continua- tion indefinitely of the rights and principles of that ^•^•^=1 AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 469 company as the virtual owners of the Northwest. All these, and other related (|uestions. were excit- ing the small American population of Oregon when Dr. Whitman determined to return to the States, and doubtless added something to the motives that led him to that determination, but its first and chief«i*t motive was the salvation of his mission and that of Mr. Spalding's from annihilation. In tracing the line of events that determined history on this coast it is interesting to note that the autumn of 1842, in which Dr. Whitman began his eastern journey, w-as the autumn that brought the first real American immigration of families into Oregon, outside of the families that came in asso- tion with the work of the missions. That emigra- tion was led by Dr. Elijah White, who had been appointed Sub-Indian Agent for Oregon by the government of the United States, and consisted of about 130 adult ])ersons. It began to reach Waiiletpu the last of September, about a month after Dr. Whitman had determined to s^fo east, and when his preparations for that journey were almost entirely completed. The inunigrants brought a ru- mor that negotiations were pending in the spring- between the high contending parties in regard to Oregon, and that the United States was likely to disjiose of the country to Great Britain for the con- I* n \aa ■f^ Ill IJ , 470 MISSION A R Y HIS TOR ) '. sideration of some fishing privileges on the Eastern banks. Practically this entire statement was un- true, for, though Englir d and the United States, through Lord Ashburton on the one hand and Taniel Webster on the other, were negotiating a treaty of boundary between the two powers, it was the eastern, or Maine, boundary and not the west- ern or Oregon boundary at all. Incorrect as the statement was it caused considerable excitement, and became in later years the foundation of much inconsequential romancing, and, coming, as it did, a few days before Dr. Whitman actually started on his journey, it has been seized upon as a l)asis for the claim that Dr. Whitman, by this journey, "saved Oregon to the United States." Before we give a statement of the historic events connected with the diplomatic relations of the United States and ( ireat Britain which resulted in confirming the title to Oregon in the former we will follow Dr. Whitman in his celebrated journey, upon the result of which the continuation of his mission station and that of Mr. S])alding dej^ended. The Mission Council at Waiiletpu had deter- mined that all communications to be forwarded by the missionaries to the east by him should be in his hands before the 5th of October, and that day was fixed upon as the date of his departure. They AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 471 (leter- reached him earlier and he began his march on the 3d day of the month. He iiad secured the services of a young gt itlenien who had just arrived in the country with the emigration led by Dr. White, Mr. A. L. Lovejoy, to accompany him on his journey. The writer had the pleasure of a long and some- what intimate acquaintance with Mr. Lovcjoy, ex- tending from 1853 to the time of his death, about thirty years after, and often conversed with him in regard to the events of the journey, as well as the incidents of early pioneer life in Oregon. There is little extant about the journey in fact except an ac- count of Mr. Lovejoy's written in 1876. From this a few extracts will be given, which contain the gist of the whole story. He says: — "1 crossed the plains with Dr. White and others and arrived at Waiiletpu the last of September, 1842. My party camped some two miles below Dr. Whitman's place. The day after our arrival Dr. Whitman called at our camp and asked me to accompany him to his house, as he wished me to draw up a memorial to Congress tO' prohibit the sale of ardent spirits in this country. The doctor was alive to the interests of this coast, and mani- fested a very warm desire to have it properly repre- sented at Washington, and after numerous conver- stations touching the future prosperity of Oregon, he asked me one day in a very anxious manner if I thought it would be possible foi" him to cross the mountains at that time of the year. I told him I thought he could. He next asked, "Will you ac- 472 MISSION AR Y HIS TOR Y, company me?" After a little rcttection I told him I would. ♦ * * We left Waiiletpu October 3d, trav- eled rapidly, and reached Fort Hall in eleven days, remained two days to recruit, and make a few pur- chases." " Here Dr. Whitman and Mr. Lovejoy were on the direct and plain hi^-hway of travel between the western frontiers and Oregon. They had both passed over it, Mr. Lovejoy only a few weeks be- fore. It was a plain wagon road, leading over com- paratively low spurs of mountains until it reached Green River, and then through the wide depression in the Rocky Mountains known as the South Pass, lou- kaikt, was especially decided in opposition to the continuance of the mission. Dr. McLoughlin, V'\i € 478 MISSIONARY HISTORY. whose judgment and friendship were always at the ■••r,'ire of all the missions, advised Dr. Whitman tc lOve from among the Cayuses. as he believed not only that he could no longer be useful to them, but that his life was in danger if he remained among them. Dr. Whitman, however, could not see what these astute leaders clearly perceived, and in the summer of 1847 hegan to make preparations for the erection of a Church and other btiildings. He also urged the American Home Missionary Society to occupy the field at once. This hopeful feeling was shared at the other stations. Mr. Eells at Tshi- makain wrote in April, 1847. "we feel that as a mis- sion our prospects were never more encouraging." It was at this time that Dr. Whitman entered into negotiations with Rev. George Gary, Superin- tendent of the Methodist Missions in Oregon, for the transfer of the Dalles mission of that church to him for the American Board, as related in a former chapter. It appears on the whole, that, on finding that Mr. Gray was willing to withdraw from all the missionary work east of the Mountains. Dr. Whit- man decided to close -ttp his work at Waiiletpu and concentrate it at the Dalles. He expected to ac- complish this by the spring of 1848, so he wrought on amid discouragements undiscouraged, and amid failure hopmg for succees through the summer and autumn of 1847. Nothing could be braver. i\ AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. b' 179 Suddenly, however, on tlie 29th day of Novem- ber, 1847, t'le thrilling drama changed to bloody tragedy, and the mission of Waiiletpii went out in blood. The very Indians for whom Dr. and Mrs. Whitman had performed their heroic and self-sacri- ficing toil for eleven years, excited to savage frenzv by the everlasting whisperings of suspicion that were addressed to their superstitious fears, gathered in numbers about the mission station, and while one of them was treacherously seeking a favor of the Doctor, another buried a tomahawk in his brain. A scene of barbarous cruelty and murder that has had few parallels in the history of mission- ary martyrdom followed the fatal blow. Mrs. Whitman was shot, and several others shared her fate before the terrible tragedy was over. Over the circumstances of the appalling hour in which expired these noble lives and this noble mission we draw a veil. It were enough to state the awful fact without detailing the horrors of the atrocious deed. With the death of Dr. and Mrs. Whitman, and the utter destruction of their missicn. all the mis- sions of the American Board in the country were abandoned as soon as those who conducted them could escape from the country. This was not easi- ly done, and probablv could not have been effected e'l: ' i:i m\ 11 ^: 4S0 MISSIONAR Y HIS TOR Y. at all but for the immediate and effective interpo- sition of the Hudson's Bay Company in their be- half. Mr. Spalding was on a visit to Waiiletpu at the time of the massacre, but on the fatal day was temporarily absent at Umatilla, about forty miles distant, and so escaped the fate of his fellow mis- sionary. Returning towards Waiiletpu the next day, he was within three miles of the station when he met a Catholic priest who informed him of the terrible fact. He turned and fled towards his own station, over a hundred miles distant, with no food but a little furnished him by the priest. The In- dians in the whole country were frantic with this taste of blood, and it was only after he had traveled seven nights on foot, his horse having escaped him soon after he began his flight, that he reached Lap- wai. He found his own premises plundered by the hostile Nez Perces, though his wife had been pro- tected by friendly chiefs of the same tribe. Messrs. Walker and Eells and their families con- tinued at their station a short time, when threats of danger became so alarming that Chief Factor Lewis of the Hudson's Bay Company, in command of Fort Colville, about seventy miles north of Spo- kane, offered them asylum at that post. This of- fer they accepted, and removing to that station re- mained until the following June. Meantime the I ' AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 481 Indian war that followed the massacre at Waiilet- pu had brought an army of several hundred volun- teers into the Cayuse country who had spent some months in vigorous effort to subdue the Cayuses and punish the murderers, and were about to re- turn to the Willamette Valley. When they were about to leave the vicinity of the fearful tragedv of November 29th, Col. H. A. G. Lee, commanding the forces, asked for volunteers to proceed to Col- ville and rescue the missionaries from the Indian country. Major James Alagone and sixty men undertook the duty. On their way north they met the missionaries and families near their old station, and, taking them under their care, conducted them safely to Oregon City. Col. Lee, as military commander, proclaimed the country closed to missionaries. This was a mere form. It was closed by something more imperative than a military order, and the work among the In- dians could not have been continued if no such order had been issued. Although Messrs. Walker and Eells retained their connection, nominallv, with the Missionary Board for a few years longer, this was the end of the missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions among the Indians of Oregon. Although the missions themselves as an organ- !,: I ■ 1:^ m. i: 1 p . , ■ . ! ?; r -til 1 m 1 ■e iS' m •U. I'll ;,UJ^ ^82 MISSIONAR V HIS TOR Y. i?,e(l work ended here and thus, the history of their work does not end here, and it would not be right to dismiss it from our record in this summary way. There were elements and influences connected with and flowing out of these missions that have had a continuous effect on some of the tribes among' whom they were established up to this titne. It is proper that some of these be named. \\'e have mentioned before that these tribes were in all respecLs much superior to those west of the Cascade Mountains. They had much the finer physical and intellectual make-up. Their modes of life corresponded with their personal elevation. Living in a country of vast rolling prairies, inter- sected and bordered by most magnificent moun- tain ranges, they ranked with the great equestrian tribes that roamed the plains eastward of the Rocky Mountains. They were alert, long-vis- ioned. and. in their aboriginal way, full of mental resources. It may be doubted if any Indians in .American ever furnished as promising a field for the efforts of the missionary as did the Nez Perces, and next to them, possibly, the Spokanes. includ- ing their neighbors and relatives the Cayuses. Yak- imas and Walla Wallas. They were the literal owners of the greater half of the present States of Washington and Oregon and Idaho; a region now ■^■F AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 483 boasting- the third, if not the second city of the Northwest, Spokane, with hundreds of thriving cities and villages, and that may without exagger- ation claim the honor of being the finest wheat producing region of the United States. They roamed it far and near, over plain and mountain, at will. The conditions of their life were such that they seemed to present the finest opportunities for suc- cess in missionarary work, and for some years after the missions at Waiiletpu and Lapwai were estab- lished strong hopes were entertained that they would become a civilized Christian people. These hopes were the stronger because they were so widely separated from any larger contact with white people. So distant was all Oregon from all sources of emigration, and this part of it so far inland from the Pacific coast, that it did not seem likely to any but a few of the most astute observers that the Indians could be disturbed in their sole oc- cupancy of it until these tribes had themselves put on the new life of a Christian civilization. I-Ience, even the Methodr^t missionaries of the Willamette, who visited these missions, believed that they had by far the best chance of final success. Wx. Lee, who, as has been previously recorded, visited them in the spring of 1838, and gave nearly a month to % i i i M- ._ .-I- 4S4 MISSIONAR Y HIS TOR Y. their examination and study, formed this opinion. Mr. Hines, who visited them in the summer of i843p,in company with Dr. EHjah White, then suh- In(han Agent for Oregon, and Rev. H. K. W. Per- kin^of the Methodist Mission at VVascopam, and had the best opportunity for formirg a judgment of the character of the Indians tliemselves, pro- nounced the mission of Mr. Spalding among the Nez Perces "the most promising Indian mission in Oregon." Still their end as missions was what we have stated, and as we have stated it. It is somewhat difficult to satisfactorily delineate the causes that led to this result. Different writers, each studying the facts of the attendant history from a different standpoint, assign it to a different cause. This fact alone would indicate that the . causes must be somewhat occult, and hence not easy to detect in any simple or single form, but that they must be found in a combination of condi- tions and facts that, operating on the strongly personal and prejudiced nature of such a people, inflamed a portion of them to such a deed of mur- der to avenge what they conceived to be injuries or wrongs wrought upon themselves. This, of course, is the most charitable view to be taken on the side of the Indians, but it is in harmony with their well- known mental and moral character, and the tradi- AMERICAN BOARD MISSIONS. 485 pinion, mer of en sub- V. Per- m, and Igment ;s, pro- )ng the mission as what eHneate writers, history Ufferent hat the nee not rm, but )f condi- jtrongly people, of mur- juries or f course, the side leir well- lie tradi- tions of their race. It should not escape state- ment, however, that it was only a portion of the Cayu.se tribe that was engaged in the fearful, mur- derous tragedy that thus ended these missions. For many years these causes were mucli dis- cussed. Some writers, among whom Mr. W. H. Gray, who was connected with the mission of Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding as a secular agent from their beginning until the spring of 1843, ^V'l'^ most prominent, charged it almost entirely u])on the in- fluence of the Catholic missionaries, and what he conceived to be their matured intention to drive the Protestant mission out of the countrv at any .sacrifice; abetted and encouraged by the Hudson's Bay Company, for the purpose of destroying their ir.fluence in favor of the United States in the con- test then going on for the ownership of the coun- try. The concensus of later and calmer i-c Igment, however, has been that, while the presence of the Roman Catholic missionaries in the country, with their always unrelenting and unconcealed oi)posi- tion to Protestantism, had a strong influence on many of the Indians against the missions and the missionaries, they did not seek nor advise the de- struction of the mission in this awful wav. Tlie controvensy on this theme has been verv extended, and we can not enter upon it in this book. Still '.K} ! »= I 1 . ; !,|,, 1:' i i ) ■ li ■ ii i' li ii jj; J;; 1 . 4S6 MISS ZONA R V HIS TOR V. it would not be fair to the unstudied reader if we did not say, that, after many years of examination^, and a ])ersonal acquaintance with all the chief actors in the events of that thrilling- era in Oregon hist- ory except Dr. Whitman himself, including the Catholic priests and the leading characters of the Hudson's Bay Company, such seems to us t be the most reasonable conclusion of history. • More remains to this day of the results of the missions of Mr. Spalding among the Nez Perces than of those of any other Indian mission of Ore- gon. Possibly this is because more remains of the Nez Perces thetriselves. Having the most stable and elevated character of any of the tribes, and withal, being the largest of any, they retain many traces of the work he and his most excellent wife did among them. Christian men and women, with Christian churches still existing, and even yet mul- tiplying among them, testify that their work was not in vain in the Lord. XXV. THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. THE subject of what i^ known in historv as "The Provisional (mvernment of Ore^-on," is to he introchiced liere only so far as it relates to the era of the missionary organizations, and the periods when the results of their presence and work were crystalizing into social conditions that called for civil and political order. Before this time the dreamy story of the Indian tribes had sim- ply changed into the scarcely less dreamy story of the fur traffic, hardly more civilization than was the other. How little there was of anything that had the fragrance of civilization I'ather than the odor of the wigwam in it up to the close of 1840 will be seen by the following summary of arrivals of Americans in the country up to that time. Tn 1834 the four members of the Methodist Episcopal Missions and six other Americans arrived. In 1835 there were none. In 1836 three male and two fe- male missionaries of the American Board. In 1837 live male and seven female missionaries of the Methodist Board, with three children and three settlers reached the country. In 1838 eight per- ■■■ i! ■ \i «■ h i ' Ifr ^SS MISSION A R Y HIS TOR Y. sons reinforced the Missions of the American Board and three white men from the Rocky Moun- trains came into the country. Tn 1839 four inde- pendent Protestant missionaries and eight settlers came. In 1840 thirty-one adults and fourteen chil- dren came to the Methodist Mission, and four in- dependent Protestant missionaries and thirteen settlers, mostly Rocky Mountain men with Indian wives, came in. This made in all 86 adults con- nected with the missions and twenty-eight Ameri- can settlers, a total of 114. Besides these, in 1838 and 1839 F. N. Blanchet, A. Demers and P. G. De Smet, Jes""!t missionaries, arrived. These, of course, added nothing to the American settlement, and surely not to the American sentiment in the country, but rather the reverse. Outside of these there were a small number of the superanualed employes of the Hudson's Bay Company located at various points, yet holding legal and social rela- tions to that body. Civilly and politically there "^re two senti- ments: one American and one British. Being largely in the majority of the Americans, and a chosen body of able and educated men and women, the missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church naturally and necessarily took the lead in all matters that looked towards the establishment senti- I I': 1 [. ; f , f ■ 1 ! ;■ '■ ■ ■ 1. 1 ' m •i;« .'I I X <;i:<)ii(;K AitKitxi'/niY. I'MrsI (JdVciiKir nC ( )i't'ii(ni. ' ^ i THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. ^8(j of any form of government in the country. The missionaries of the American Board, namely, Dr. Whitman and Messrs. Spalding and Eells and Walker were so far removed from the center of set- tlement that they had no participation in the movements that resulted in the establishment of the Provisional Government. There was not a single American resident within a hundred and fifty miles of any of their missions. So situated they had no opp^)rtunity to co-oper- ate with the small Am' 'ican community in the Willamette in any movement lookinu to the gen- eral interests of Oregon as related to general ed- ucational work, or to the extension tf the autl jr- ity of the United States Government over the terri- tory. Of course they were in sentiment entirely in accord with the American citizens of < Oregon, and but for their isolation would have heartily co- operated with them. On the other hand the Jesuit missionaries, the retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, with that company itself, could always be relied on t^ sustain the pretensions of Great Britain, and oppose the plans and purposes of the American population, led by the Methodist missionaries. Thus it happened at the close of 1840, that the forces in array against each other for the ultimate ■s '■( . ! U fri; 490 MISSION AR Y HIS TOR V. lib possession of the country, were on the one side, the Hudson's Bay Company, and its retired servants, together with the Roman CathoHc missionaries. On the other side the Methodist Missions and the American settlers. The stake was the country itself, and whether it should l)ecome American or English was the question at issue. The stake was immeasurable; and the players were so nearly equal in number that no man could tell where the majority would fall until the day for a final count should come. Counted by numbers it was the smallest force that ever contended for an empire. Gauged by results i< was the mightiest conflict of the century. All told there were 137 Americans of all ages and sexes in the country, over 90 of whom were con- nected with the Protestant missions. Such men as led the American contingent in this contest do not slumber on their posts. In- deed before 1840 the first step towards the final one was taken by the memorial gotten up by the mission and carried by Mr. Lee to Washington, to which former reference was made. In 1839 the subject was again brought to the attenion of Con- gress in a memorial, too important as a part of the missionary history of the Northwest to be omitterl here, ft was as follows: . ' THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 491 ^Pfn In- ''To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Rep- resentatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled: "Your petitioners represent unto your honorable bodies that they are residents in the Oregon Ter- ritory, and citizens of the United States, or per- sons desirous of becoming such. They further represent unto your honorable bodies that they have settled themselves in said territory under the belief that it was a portion of the public domain of the United States, and that they might rely upon the government thereof for the blessings of free institutions, and the protection of its arms. Your petitioners further represent that they are uninformed of any acts of said government by which its institutions are extended to them; in consequence whereof themselves and families are exposed to be destroyed by the savages around them, and others that would do them harm. And your petitioners would further represent that they have no means of protecting their lives and the lives of their families other than self-con- stituted tribunals, originated and sustained by an ill-instructed public opinion, and the resort to force and arms. And your petitioners would further represent these means of safety to be an insufficient safe- guard of life and property, and that the crimes of theft, nun-der. infanticide, etc., are increasing among them to an alarming extent, and your peti- tioners declare themselves unable to arrest this pro- gress of crime and its terrible consequences without the aid of law. and tribunals to administer it. Your petitioners therefore pray the Congress of the United States to establish as soon as mav be ' rl 492 MISSION A R V HIS TOR Y. ,i M- V 111 a Territorial Government in the Oregon Terri- tory. And if other reasons than these presented were needed to induce your honorable bodies to grant the prayer of the undersigned, your petitioners, they would be found in the value of the territory to the nation and the alarming circumstances that portend its loss. Your petitioners, in view of these last considera- tions, would represent that the English govern- ment has had a surveying party on the Oregon coast for two years, employed in making accurate surveys of all its bays, rivers and harbors, and that recently the said government is said to have made a grai.t to the Hudson's Bay Company of all lands lying between the Columbia River and Puget Sound, and that the said company is actually ex- ercising unequivocal acts of ownership over said lands and opening extensive farms up(5n the same. And your petitioners represent that these cir- cumstances, connected with other acts of said company to the same effects, and their declaration that the English government owns and will hold, a? its own soil, that portion of Oregon Territory sit- uated north of the Columbia River, together with the important fact that the said company are cut- ting and sawing into lumber and shipping to for- eign marts vast quantities of the finest pine trees upon the navigal)le waters of the Columbia, have led your petitioners to apprehend that the English Government does intend at' all events to hold that portion of this territory lying north of the Colum- l)ia River. And your petitioners represent that the said ter- ritory north of the Columbia River is an invalua- ble possession to the American Union; that in and THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 493 about Puget Sound are the only harbors of easy access and conmiodious and safe upon the whole coast of the territory, and that a great part of this said northern part of the territory is rich in timber and valuable minerals. For this and other reasons your petitioners pray that Congress will establish its sovereignty over said territory. Your petitioners would further represent that the country south of the Columbia River and north of the Mexican line, and extendino' from the Pacific ocean 120 miles into the interior is of un- equaled beauty. Its mountains, covered with per- petual snow, pouring into the prairies around their bases transparent streams of the purest water, the white and black oak, pine, cedar and fir forests that divide the prairies into sections convenient for farming purposes, the rich mines of coal in its hills, and salt springs in its valleys, its quarries of lime- stone, sandstone, chalk and marble, the salmon of its rivers, and the various blessings of the delight- ful and healthy climate, are knowai to us and im- press your petitioners with the belief that this is one of the most favored portions of the globe. Indeed the deserts of the interior have their wealth of pasturage, and their lakes, evaporating in sunnner, leave in their basins hundreds of bushels of the purest soda. Many other circumstances could be named showing the importance of this territory in a national, commercial and agricultural point of view. And although your petitioners would not undervalue considerations of this kind, yet they beg leave especially to call the attention of Congress to their own condition as an infant colony, without military force or civil institutions to protect the lives and property and children, sanctuaries and tombs from the hands of uncivilized fi •p. t ^P^PfiJnn r^T [h II' ■''''!; 1 1 1 1 '■*;! ■'■ ' h\ i 9 J35, 1 ■ ( < » 1 i 1 m ! II gt , 1 Mt Mi ( 1 ( r ' '!. , p ' i_ ' j ( 1 1 1 ■ i ' ii 1i 1 1 i^*'ik.^.i^ ui-. ^9^ MISSIONARY HISTORY. and merciless savages around them. We respect- fully ask for the civil institutions of the American Republic. We pray for the high privilege of Amer- can citizenship, the peaceful enjoyment of life, the right of acquiring, possessing and using property, and the unrestrained pursuit of rational happiness. And your petitioners will ever prav. DAVID LESLIE. • And about seventy others. The reader must pronounce this a most remarkable document. David Leslie was at this time pro tem Superintendent of the Methodist Mission in Ore- gon, in the absence of Jason Lee, then on his re- turn from the States with the great reinforcement that reached Oregon June ist, 1840. It certainly was fortunate for the United States that the church had in her missionary work in Oregon at that most critical period of Oregon history men who were capable of producing such documents, and at the same time brave and patriotic enough to take up on the disputed soil the cause of the . American possession of the country, when that of Great Britain was cham- pioned by such a power on the very ground as the Hudson's Bay Company, aided by all the influence of the Catholic missions. It is a most brilliant chapter of Methodist history. While this memorial had gone on to Congress, and the people of Ore- gon were waiting for some congressional action, the THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 493 necessities of the colony were growing more and more urgent. Something in the form of a govern- ment seemed imperatively demanded. To meet the requirements of the time a meeting of a num- ber of the leading citizens was called at Champoeg, not far from the Methodist Mission, on the 7th of February. 1841, for consultation on the steps nec- essary to be taken for the formation of laws and the election of officers to execute them. Rev. Jason Lee was called to the chair. He advised the ap- pointment of a committee to draft a constitution and by-laws for the governmefnt of the country south of the Columbia River, but no definite action was had. yVnother meeting was held at the Meth- odist Mission on the 17th of February, when nearly all the people of the valley were present. Rev. David Leslie was president, and Gustavus Mines and Sidney Smith were secretaries. Though .1 committee was appointed to formulate a system of government of which Rev. F. N. Blanchet, after- wards Roman Catholic Archbishop of Oregon, was- chairman, to report to the meeting of June nth, it was found that Mr. Blanchet had not called the committee together, and no further ac- tion was had in the matter at this time. Early in the autumn the first indication that the memorials sent to Congress in 1838 and 1839 were n n lii '!« f 11 496 MISSION A R V HIS TOR V. m i ■• having any effect on the action of the government relating to Oregon was received in the country. Dr. Elijah White, who had formerly held the p(,»M- tion of physician to the mission, hut had returned to the States, arrived again in the country holding a government commission as suh-Agent for the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains. The peo- ple were rejoiced at even so slight an evidence that the government would, sometime, extend its jurisdiction over the country, and. at least, were encouraged to wait with confidence. Gradually it became rather clear that the American sentiment predominated over the English. This induced the British and Catholic influence to adopt the plan of forming a government entirely independent; na- tional in itself; a new power among the world's nationalities. Dr. McLoughlin gave the weight of his name and influence to this scheme, carrying with him. of course, the men of the Hudson's Bay Company, the Catholic clergy, and the retired ser- vants of the Company. This was a combination not easy to be overcome. It was the more danger- ous because Dr. McLoughlin was a man of large business, much the largest in the country, and had retained able attorneys to care for it, who were al- ways ready to serve whatever he considered for his interests. At a public lyceum in Oregon City, THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT, /gy where many of the most influential meii of the com- munity were accustomed to meet to (Uscuss public questions, Mr. L. W. Hastinj^s, as attorney for Dr. McLoughlin, introduced a resolution in the fol- lowing words: . . ''Resolved, That it is expedient for the settlers of the coast to organize an independent govern- ment." ... • At the close of the discussion the vote was taken and the resolution was adopted. This was a crit- ical moment in the history of Oregon. While this lyceum was not a legislative body, it had influence enough to determine the action of the community on any question upon which the people was so evenly divided as upon this- All the British party were in favor of this action, because anything that would prevent the United States from assuming jurisdiction over the country would only be a way of turning the country over to Great Britain- This, doubtless, was the ultimate end sought by the par- ty that sustained the resolution. The resolution was passed, but the man was at hand who was equal to the emergency. It was Mr. George Aber- nethy. the steward of the Methodist Mission. ha\ - ing charge of all the temporal business of the Mis- sion, who was a resident of Oregon City. He im- mediately shifted the issue by introducing the fol- : 1 rl ill '' f V] I i ii i ti 111 : 498 MISSION A R y HIS TOR Y. lowing resolution for discussion the following week : "Resohed. That if the United States extends its jurisdiction over this country durii. >; the next four years it will not be expedient to form an indepen- dent government." A very earnest debate followed. Both sides were at their best. lk)th felt that the action here to be had would determine the course the Oregon com- munity would take in the establishment of a gov- ernment, which, evidently, could not be much longer delayed without plunging the country into a state of riotous anarchy. By a considerable ma- jority the resolution of Mr. Abernethy was adopted. This resolution, in effect, pledged the people against an "Independent government," at least for four years. It also clearly indicated the abiding faith of the American party that the laws of the United States would soon be extended over Oregon. It also left the wa\ open for the organi- zation of such a scheme of order as the peo])le might adopt that woukl anticipate iis own super- cession by the authority of the United States at some future date. There were three classes of opinion in the coun- try at this time in regard to the proper action to l)e had. First, and perhaps stronger than either of the others, as it was led by the influence of the Hud- kXJ THE PROl'ISIONAL GOVERNMENT, ^^if son's Ray Company, under the guidance of Dr. Mc- Loujj^hlin; An Independent (iovernment. Second, a Provisional (iovernment lookinj^ to the early ex- tension of the authority of the United States over the country. Third, a continuation of the present con(htion until the United States should extend its laws over Oregon. The American sentiment was somewhat divided between the second and third propositions. Mr. Abernethy's resolution had a strong tendency to unite this sentiment, as it, in connection with the action on the resolution of Mr. Hastings, showed clearly that the majority of the people were decided that a government was a necessity. It became at once, therefore, only a (|uestion whether it should be "Independent" or "Provisional." The "Independent" movement meant' nothing ultimately but British ownership. The "Provisional" movement meant just as cer- tainly American ownership. The action that must now soon be had would determine what the people of Oregon themselves chose as the relation of the future State that all now saw was soon to rise out of the somewhat chaotic condition of the coim- try. What that choice should be when made undoubtedlv meant the decision of the "Oreoon question." It was a pivotal time; and Mr. .\ber- nethy's resolution was the pivot on which the fu- ture turned. r ■ V M I'M rt Ur : ■ I !! ^ li M >.> i i ill '^ Jfoo MISSION AR V HIS TOR V. Fearing- that the swing of opinion was against the formation of an "Independent" government, those who liad favored that began to fall in line against any government at all. The reason is ob- vious. A Provisional government meant simply a temporary regulation which avowedly looked for- ward to the speedy occupancy of the country by the United States. This was the one thing that all who favored an Independent government were trying to avoid. That movement was from the be- ginning to end in l^half of the British ownership of Oregon under the guise of independency until such a time as the guise could be thrown ot^f and the ownership proclaimed- Events beg.'::i now rapidly to hasten. Space does not permit i^^ to follow the successive steps of the drama, only to state their outcome. After some important preliminar}' meetings and conferences on the part of the friends of a Provisional govern- ment, and many counter movements on the part of those who had adopted the shibboleth of "No Government," a meeting was called to be held at Champoeg on the 2d day of May. 1843, ^t which all understood that the determinative action would be taken. Pending this meeting "An Address of the Canadian citizens of Oregon to the meeting at Champoeg," was circulated throughout the coun- m THE PRO VISIONAL GO VERNMENT. 501 inst ent, try, and every effort was made to prevent affirma- tive action at the meeting of May 2d. This "Ad- dress" was written by Rev. F. N. Blanchet, a very astute Roman Catholic priest, who afterwards he- came Archbishop. He was a master in dialectics in his own tongue, the French, but was not able to perfectly Anglicise his speech. It was ably con- ceived, though expressed in imperfect English. A quotation of paragraphs 11 and 12 will disclose the animus and purpose of the entire address. They are as follows: "11. That we consider the country free, at pres- ent to all nations till government shall have decid- ed; open to every individual wishing to settle, without distinction of origin, and without askin,;^- him anything, either to become an English, Span- ish, or American citizen. 12. So we. English subjects, proclaim to be free, as well as those who come from France, California, or the United States, or even natives of this coun- try; and we desire unison with all the respectable citizens who wish to settle in this country; or we ask to be recognized as free among ourselves '^o make such regulations as appear suitable to our wants, save the general interest of having justice from all strangers who- might injure us, and that our reasonable customs and pretensions be re- spected." Through the ambiguous expressions of this ex- tract is shown as clearly as any thing can be shown, that the real conflict that v/as to be joined S02 MISS TON A R Y HIS TOR Y. at the meeting at Champoeg was the old one of British or American ownership of Oregon, now on the very point of coming to a decisive issue before the people of Oregon itself. It was an intense moment when the appointed meeting gathered at Champoeg on the 2d day of May, and it was found that the larger part of the adult males of the Oregon settlement were present and ready for the decisive contest. Dr. Ira L. Bab- cock, of the Methodist Mission, was made chair- man of the meeting, and G. W. Le Breton elected secretary. A committee of twelve, which had been appointed at a previous meeting to report at this, made a report which favored an organization. A motion to accept it was made, but- the Hudson's Hay men and the Catholics under the lead of Rev. F. N. Blanchet, unanimously voted "No," and the motion to accept was lost. There was much con- fusion and some consternation at this result, for it seemed that all the hopes of those who had labored so earnestly and patriotically in behalf of the or- ganization of a Provisional government were to be blasted. Mr. Blanchet's forces were well trained, and though many of them did not well understand the English language, they could say "No" when any motion was made by one on the side of an or- ganization, and "Yes." when the motion was made THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 50^ by one of their own side. There was hesitation about another motion that would luring the ques- tion to a direct vote. In the midst of the uncer- tainty, a loyal mountaineer stepped fortli and solved the uncertainty. '']ot Meek," an old Rocky Mountain man, whom our readers have seen before in this volume, of tall, erect and connnandin!^ form, fine visan to vote and act for the interests of the United States. The mountaineer and the missionary stood side by side on this occasion, as, indeed, they did on many an- other that concerned the country which they had both chosen for their home. The result of the count was received with ring- ing shouts by the Americans; shouts which will ''go ringing down the grooves of time," as mark- ing an act hardly less decisive than any other one act that illustrates the history of Oregon. Prompt- ly the chairman called the meeting to order again, but the defeated party, under the lead of Mr. Blan- chet, silently and somewhat sullenly withdrew, leaving only those who had voted in the affirmative to conclude the business of the day. This was eas- ily accomplished, as the meeting was now in the hands of its friends. It proceeded at once to the organization of a form of government, providing for the election of a supreme judge, with probate powers, a clerk of the court, a sheriflf, three magis- trates, three constables, a treasurer, a major and three captains. It also appointed a Legislative Com- mittee of nine. These places were all filled by com- petent and patriotic men, as follows: A. E. Wil- son, supreme judge; G. W. Le Breton, clerk of the court; J. Meek, sheriff; W. H. Willson, treasurer; side ' an- had THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 505 and Messrs. D. Hill, Robert Shortess, Robert New- ell, Alanson Beers, T, J. Hubbard. W. H. Gray. J. O'Neil. R. Moore and William Dougherty. Legis- lative Committee. This meeting adjourned to the 5th day of July, when it was to hear a report from the Legislative Committee on a form of organic law for the nas- cent commonwealth. It had been fixed on the 5th day of July in order that the people might gather on the day preceed- ing and show their American loyalty by a grand "Independence Celebration." Both the celei)ra- tion and the meeting on the 5th were occasions to call out the greatest enthusiasm. Rev. Gusta- vus Hines delivered an oration on the 4th, and was also the president of the meeting on the 5th. Quite a number of those who opposed an organi- zation at the preceeding meeting were present at this and announced their cordial support of the objects sought to be obtained by the Americans. The Catholic missionaries and the members of the Hudson's Bay Company, however, not only did not attend, but publicly asserted that they would not submit to the authority of any government that might be organized. The representatives of the Hudson's Bay Company even addressed a com- munication to the leaders of the movement, stating thatthev felt abundantlv able to defend both them- n ■1^ I jo<5 MISSIONARY HISTORY. Vi ! - "I! \ m Hi selves and their political rights. But neither op- ])osition nor tiireats gave pause to the determined men who were leading this movement for a govern- ment that should be American. With affairs 'in this attitude, Mr. Hines an- nounced that the report of the Legislative commit- tee was in order. It was accordingly read by Mr. Le Breton. It consisted of a body of what were styled "organic laws," prefaced by the following preamble: • , "We, the people of Oregon Territory, for the purpose of mutual protection, and to secure peace and prosperity among ourselves, agree to adopt the following laws and regulations until such time as the United States of America extend their juris- diction over us." ■ The report of the Legislative Committee, with slight amendments, was adopted by the meeting. The report provided for the election of an "Blxecu- tive Committee" of three, and, on ballot being ta- ken. Alanson Beers, David Hill and Joseph Gale were chosen- The other officers elected in May were continued until the following May. When this primary meeting of the loyal citizens of Oregon adjourned on the evening of the 5th of July, 1843, Oregon had passed from a condition where every man was a law unto himself into th.it of an organized political commonwealth. This action was bold, and might be called revo- THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. 507 revo- lutionary, as Oregon was claimed alike by Great Britain and the United States- As against the claim of Great Britain it approached rebellion. The people of Oregon had decided for themselves where their allegiance lay. That decision did more than any one thing or any dozen things else to de- cide the "Oregon Question." and if it is justifiable to claim for any man or any one fact the glory of "Saving Oregon" to the United States, it must lay to the credit of the men whose presence and work in the country, and whose constant memorial- izing of the government of the United States in behalf of the country, and whose intense American- ism, always and everywhere displayed, had made the organization of the "Provisional Government" a possibility. The government thus ordained was so wisely ad- ministered that ojjposition gradually subsided. Tn the autumn following an inunigration of not far from TOGO people from the eastern states entered the Willamette Valley, and melted quietly and hap- pily away into the body politic of the embryo State, thus giving such a vast preponderence to the American population and sentiment that even the Hudson's Bay Company and the Catholic priests saw that further opposition would be useless, and began to co-operate with the new order of things. PI 5'>^ M/SSIONAR V HISTORY. ^1 '1 Some changes were subsequently made in the "Or- ganic law." The "Executive Committee" of three was found to be cumbersome, and provision was made for the election of a governor, and at an election in 1845, George Abernethy, whose name has so often and honorably appeared in this history, was chosen to that most important place. To the immortal honor of Oregon it may be re- corded that no country ever had a greater propor- tion of men strong enough and wise enough to govern themselves than she had. This was the re- sult of the auspices under which the foundations of her civilization were 'aid. Her pioneers were the Missionaries of the Cross, and no names at this day of 1899 are mentioned so often by her his- torians as the names of the noble missionary bands of the period beginning with Jason Lee, first and foremost of them all. in 1834. Mr. Abernethy's term of of^ce was in most exi- gent times for the new and feeble commonwealth, but he filled it in a manner that reflected honor on himself, on the missionary service from which he graduated to the chair of executive of the yovmg commonwealth, and to the great advantage of the people who had chosen him to be the First Gov- ernor of Oregon. All questions of the ownership of Oregon having been decided in the manner fore- Dr- of THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT, sag cast in the organization of the Provisional Govern- ment, and the (Jovernment of the United States having organized her into a Territory of the Union, on the 3d day of March, 1849, Governor (ieorge Abernethy, of the Provisional Government, passed over his authority into the hands of Governor Jo- seph Lane, appointed Territorial Governor by Pres- ident Polk, and the Provisional was merged into the National authority. This change was a change only in form. The Provisional Government was an American Govern- ment. California had her ''Bear Flag," Texas had her "Lone Star," but Oregon never marched under any other banner than the "Stars and Stripes-" From the time Jason Lee stepped over the ridge of the continent on the 15th day of June, 1834, and began his march tc the western sea, her mission- aries, her innnigrants, her mountaineers forever sung to the winds and the waves of her glorious mountains and her illimitable seas "The Star Spangled Banner forever shall wave O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" w True, he found, as he stepped on the i)ebbly beach of the mighty Columbia at Vancouver, on the 1 6th day of September, 1834, a flag-staff, and a British flag flying at its peak, but it was marred by the cabalistic sign, "H. B. C." on its crimson VX I;' 5'o MISSIONARY HISTORY. U W-'- '-'%\ folds. It was degraded from its national signifi- cance to the mere emi)lem of trade and barter and gain. Th€ results of his work, and the work of those who accompanied him and of those who fol- lowed him have found their glorious vindication in the grand Pacific Empire that they revealed, and then confirmed to the Great Republic. And it is not possible to evade the historic conclusion reached by one of the most painstaking students of the story of missionary work on the Northwest coast; "That to the Methodist missionaries and their friends in Washington and elsewhere^ was due the Americanization of the Willamette Valley, and the inaugural movements towards a Provisional Gov- ernment with all that it implied." Its implication and its sure prophecy '\Vas the treaty of 1846, be- tween the United States and Great Britain, under which the latter withdrew her flag from all the territory of the "Old Oregon," and the former lift- ed the "Stars and Stripes" in unchallenged author- ity over what is now the grandest, most resource- ful, most patriotic and most promising of our Na- tional Domain. This Empire of the West faces the old Orient, and here are the forces that will renew the great histories of the olden times in them under the loftier inspirations of the Anglo-Saxon spirit that so splendidly dominates this "Ultimate West." ma^sm V