Part 2 (1/2)
For convenience I shall first mention the Presbyterian missionaries, although they came two years later than the first Methodist missionaries. Rev. Samuel Parker was the first Presbyterian minister to arrive in Oregon. He came in 1835. He started to Oregon with Doctor Marcus Whitman, but Whitman returned East from Green River to obtain more a.s.sociates for the Mission. These came out with Dr. Whitman in 1836. Parker returned home by sea, reaching his home in 1837. Parker published a book called, ”Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky Mountains.” The first edition was published in Ithaca, New York, in 1838. On page 138 of his book he says: ”At two in the afternoon, arrived at Fort Vancouver, and never did I feel more joyful to set my feet on sh.o.r.e, where I expected to find a hospitable people and the comforts of life. Doct. J. McLoughlin, a chief factor and superintendent of this fort and of the business of the Company west of the Rocky Mountains, received me with many expressions of kindness, and invited me to make his residence my home for the Winter, and as long as it would suit my convenience. Never could such an invitation be more thankfully received.” On page 158 he says: ”Here, [Fort Vancouver] by the kind invitation of Dr. McLoughlin, and welcomed by the other gentlemen of the Hudson Bay Company, I took up my residence for the winter.” And on page 263 he says: ”Monday, 11th April [1836]. Having made arrangements to leave this place on the 14th, I called upon the chief clerk for my bill.
He said the Company had made no bill against me, but felt a pleasure in gratuitously conferring all they have done for the benefit of the object in which I am engaged. In justice to my own feelings, and in grat.i.tude to the Honorable Company, I would bear testimony to their consistent politeness and generosity; and while I do this, I would express my anxiety for their salvation, and that they may be rewarded in spiritual blessings. In addition to the civilities I had received as a guest, I had drawn upon their store for clothing, for goods to pay my Indians, whom I had employed to convey me in canoes, in my various journeyings, hundreds of miles; to pay my guides and interpreters; and have drawn upon their provision store for the support of these men while in my employ.”
In 1836 Dr. Marcus Whitman came to Oregon. With him came his wife, Rev.
Henry H. Spalding and wife, and W. H. Gray, a layman. They arrived at Fort Vancouver September 1, 1836. Here they were most hospitably entertained by Dr. McLoughlin and the other gentlemen of the Hudson's Bay Company, and all necessary and convenient a.s.sistance to these missionaries was freely given. When these missionaries arrived at Vancouver, they had hardly more than the clothes they had on. They concluded to locate one mission near Waiilatpu, near the present city of Walla Walla, Was.h.i.+ngton; and another at Lapwai, near the present city of Lewiston, Idaho. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding remained at Fort Vancouver for several months, while their husbands and Gray were erecting the necessary houses at the Missions.
_Methodist Missions and Missionaries._
With Wyeth's second expedition, in 1834, came the first Methodist missionaries: Rev. Jason Lee, Rev. Daniel Lee, his nephew, and the following laymen: Cyrus Shepard, a teacher; P. L. Edwards, a teacher; and a man named Walker. They arrived at Fort Vancouver September 17, 1834. They were also hospitably received by Dr. McLoughlin, and treated with every consideration and kindness. On Dr. McLoughlin's invitation Jason Lee preached at Fort Vancouver. Boats and men were furnished by Dr. McLoughlin to the missionaries to explore the country and select a proper place for the establishment of their Mission. In the McLoughlin Doc.u.ment, he says: ”In 1834, Messrs. Jason and Daniel Lee, and Messrs.
Walker and P. L. Edwards came with Mr. Wyeth to establish a Mission in the Flat-head country. I observed to them that it was too dangerous for them to establish a Mission [there]; that to do good to the Indians, they must establish themselves where they could collect them around them; teach them first to cultivate the ground and live more comfortably than they do by hunting, and as they do this, teach them religion; that the Willamette afforded them a fine field, and that they ought to go there, and they would get the same a.s.sistance as the settlers. They followed my advice and went to the Willamette.”
Rev. Dr. H. K. Hines published a book in 1899 ent.i.tled, ”Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest.” While, as is to be expected, Dr.
Hines' book is biased in favor of the Methodist missionaries, and Jason Lee is his hero, nevertheless, he has endeavored to be fair and just to all. In this ”Missionary History,” page 92, Dr. Hines says: ”It was no accident, nor, yet, was it any influence that Dr. McLoughlin or any other man or men had over him [Jason Lee] that determined his choice [of a site for the Mission]. It was his own clear and comprehensive statesmans.h.i.+p. Mr. Lee was not a man of hasty impulse.... This nature did not play him false in the selection of the site of his Mission.” And on pages 452, 453, he says: ”Some writers have believed, or affected to believe, that the advice of Dr. McLoughlin both to Mr. Lee in 1834, and to the missionaries of the American Board in 1836, was for the purpose of pus.h.i.+ng them to one side, and putting them out of the way of the Hudson's Bay Company, so that they could not interfere with its purposes, nor put any obstacle in the way of the ultimate British occupancy of Oregon. Such writers give little credit to the astuteness of Dr. McLoughlin, or to the intelligence 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 devising 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 establish their work in the very centers of the great region open to their choice. This he did, as we believe, honestly and honorably.”
Jason Lee selected, as the original site of the Methodist Mission, a place on French Prairie, about ten miles north of the present city of Salem. When he and his party were ready to leave for their new home, Dr.
McLoughlin placed at their disposal a boat and crew to transport the mission goods from the May Dacre, Wyeth's vessel, on which their goods had come, to the new Mission. He loaned them seven oxen, one bull, and seven cows with their calves. The moving of these goods and cattle to the Mission required several days. He also provided and manned a boat to convey the missionaries, personally. In his diary, Jason Lee says: ”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, politeness and liberality.”[11]
March 1, 1836, Dr. McLoughlin and the other officers of the Hudson's Bay Company, all British subjects, sent to Jason Lee, for the benefit of the Methodist Mission, a voluntary gift of one hundred and thirty dollars, accompanied by the following letter:
”FORT VANCOUVER, 1st March, 1836.
”The Rev. JASON LEE,
”Dear Sir:
”I do myself the pleasure to hand you the enclosed subscription, which the gentlemen who have signed it request you will do them the favor to accept for the use of the Mission; and they pray our Heavenly Father, without whose a.s.sistance we can do nothing, that of his infinite mercy he will vouchsafe 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.”[12]
From its beginning, and for several years after, the successful maintenance of the Methodist Mission in Oregon was due to the friendly att.i.tude and a.s.sistance of Dr. McLoughlin and of the other officers of the Hudson's Bay Company in Oregon. Without these the Mission must have ceased to exist. This applies also to the successful maintenance of all other missions in the Oregon Country in the same period of time.[13]
In May, 1837, an addition to the Methodist Mission arrived at Vancouver.
It consisted of eight adults and three children. Of these three were men, one of whom was Dr. Elijah White, the Mission physician; five were women, one of whom was Anna Maria Pittman, whom Jason Lee soon married.
In September, 1837, the s.h.i.+p Sumatra arrived at Fort Vancouver loaded with goods for the Methodist Mission. The Sumatra also brought four more missionaries, two men, two women, and three children. Rev. David Leslie and wife were two of these missionaries. All these missionaries were entertained by Dr. McLoughlin, and provided with comfortable quarters at Fort Vancouver.
In March, 1838, Rev. Jason Lee left for the Eastern States, overland, on business for the Mission. His wife died June 26, 1838, three weeks after the birth and death of their son. Immediately on her death Dr.
McLoughlin sent an express to overtake and tell Jason Lee of these sad events. The express reached Jason Lee about September 1, 1838, at p.a.w.nee Mission, near Westport, Missouri.[14] From this act alone could anyone doubt that Dr. McLoughlin was a sympathetic, kind, thoughtful, and considerate man? Or think that Jason Lee would ever forget? Later, in 1838 Dr. McLoughlin made a trip to London, returning to Fort Vancouver in 1839.
While Jason Lee was on this trip to the Eastern States, the Missionary Board was induced to raise $42,000 to provide for sending thirty-six adults, and sixteen children, and a cargo of goods and supplies, on the s.h.i.+p Lausanne, to Oregon for the Methodist Mission. Among these new missionaries were Rev. Alvan F. Waller, Rev. Gustavus Hines, and George Abernethy, a lay member, who was to be steward of the Mission and to have charge of all its secular affairs. This party of missionaries, who came on the Lausanne, are often referred to as ”The great re-inforcement.” The Lausanne, with its precious and valuable cargoes, arrived at Fort Vancouver June 1, 1840. As soon as Dr. McLoughlin knew of her arrival in the Columbia River, he sent fresh bread, b.u.t.ter, milk, and vegetables for the pa.s.sengers and crew. At Fort Vancouver he supplied rooms and provisions for the whole missionary party, about fifty-three people. This party remained as his guests, accepting his hospitality, for about two weeks.[15] Shortly after some of this missionary party were endeavoring to take for themselves Dr.
McLoughlin's land claim at Oregon City. The Lausanne was the last missionary vessel to come to Oregon.
Why this large addition to the Oregon Mission, and these quant.i.ties of supplies, were sent, and this great expense incurred, has never been satisfactorily explained. It seems to have been the result of unusual, but ill-directed, religious fervor and zeal. The Methodist Oregon Mission was then, so far as converting the Indians, a failure. It was not the fault of the early missionaries. Until 1840 they labored hard and zealously. The Indians would not be converted, or, if converted, stay converted. Their numbers had been greatly reduced by the epidemics of 1829-32, and the numbers were still being rapidly reduced. And why the necessity of such secular business as a part of a mission to convert Indians to Christianity?[16] The failure to convert the Indians was because they were Indians. Their language was simple and related almost wholly to material things. They had no ethical, no spiritual words. They had no need for such. They had no religion of their own, worthy of the name, to be subst.i.tuted for a better or a higher one. They had no religious instincts, no religious tendencies, no religious traditions.
The male Indians would not perform manual labor--that was for women and slaves. The religion of Christ and the religion of Work go hand in hand.
Rev. Dr. H. K. Hines, in his _Missionary History_, after setting forth certain traits of the Indians and the failures of the Methodist missionaries to convert them, says (p. 402): ”So on the Northwest Coast.