The Coming of the Missionaries to the Tribes of the River
Journey of the Nez Perce Chiefs to Find the White Man's Book of
Life--Interest Excited among Christian People by this Event--Methodist
Church Leads in Preparing for a Missionary Party--Jason Lee and his
Mission near Chemeketa--The Reinforcement by the
_Lausanne_--Importance of Jason Lee as a Force in Oregon History--The
Missions of the American Board at Walla Walla, Lapwai, and
Tshimakain--Preliminary Journey of Whitman and Parker in 1835--The
Wedding Journey from Missouri to the Columbia in 1836--Dr. Whitman and
his Associates and their Traits of Character--On the Summit of South
Pass--Whitman's Waggon--Arrival at Vancouver and Conference with
McLoughlin--Locations of the Missionaries--Reinforcement in
1838--Friendship of the Nez Perces--First Printing Press--Whitman's
Ride in 1842-43--The Catholic Missions--Fathers Blanchet, Demers, and
De Smet--Influence of the Missions.
In 1832 a strange thing happened. Four Indians appeared in St. Louis
seeking the "White Man's Book of Life." At that time General William Clark
was superintendent of Indian affairs, located at St. Louis. He was
familiar with the Western Indians and had greatly sympathised with them.
Learning of these strange Indians and their stranger quest, General Clark
sought them, and entered into communication with them. It is usually
stated that these Indians were Flatheads from the Pend Oreille region, but
Miss Kate Macbeth, a missionary for many years to the Nez Perces, became
convinced that three were Nez Perces and the fourth a Flathead. How they
had learned that the white man had a "Book of Life" is not known. Captain
Bonneville's journal states that Pierre Pambrun had given many of the
Oregon Indians instruction in the rudiments of the Catholic worship. Some
have conjectured that Jedediah Smith, a noted American trapper, and, most
remarkable of all, a devout Christian, may have imparted religious
thoughts to them. Miss Macbeth believed that the motive of the mission was
to find Lewis and Clark, the explorers, whose visit in 1804-05 had
produced a profound impression on the Nez Perces. The first published
account of these four Indians appeared in the _New York Christian
Advocate_ for March 1, 1833. This was in the form of a letter from G. P.
Disoway, in which he enclosed a letter to himself from his agent, William
Walker, an interpreter for the Wyandotte Indians. Walker was at St. Louis
at the time, and met these four Indians in General Clark's office. He was
much impressed with their appearance, and learned that General Clark had
given them as full an account as possible of the nature and history of
man, of the advent of the Saviour, and of His work for men. Walker states
that two of the four men died in St. Louis, and as to whether the others
reached their native land he did not know.
In the _Illinois Patriot_ of October, 1833, the same topic was taken up,
together with the statement that Walker's report had excited so much
interest that a committee of the Illinois Synod had been appointed to
investigate and report on what seemed the duty of the churches in the
premises. The committee accordingly went to St. Louis and confirmed the
account by conference with General Clark. They also made it an object to
learn all available facts in regard to the general conditions among the
Indians west of the Rocky Mountains.
One of the most valuable records in respect to these Indians is from
George Catlin, the noted painter and student of Indian life. Catlin was on
the steamer going up the Missouri toward Fort Benton with these two
remaining Indians on their homeward journey. His account of them in the
_Smithsonian Report_ for 1885 is thus:
These two men, when I painted them, were in beautiful Sioux dresses
which had been presented to them in a talk with the Sioux, who treated
them very kindly, while passing through the Sioux country. These two
men were part of a delegation that came across the mountains to St.
Louis, a few years since, to inquire for the truth of representation
which they said some white man had made among them, that our religion
was better than theirs, and that they would all be lost if they did
not embrace it. Two old and venerable men of this party died in St.
Louis, and I travelled two thousand miles, companion with these two
fellows, toward their own country, and became much pleased with their
manners and dispositions. When I first heard the objects of their
extraordinary mission across the mountains, I could scarcely believe
it; but, on conversing with General Clark on a future occasion, I was
fully convinced of the fact.
It appears from still another account of the matter that the two surviving
Indians were disappointed in that they did not actually get possession of
the "Book." A speech of one of the chiefs as he left General Clark has
been published in a number of books, and is well worthy of preservation.
It should be stated, however, that this speech has no authentic source,
nor does it appear anywhere how it was obtained. It is commonly stated
that it was "taken down" at the time by one of the clerks in General
Clark's office. The historian Mowry is authority for the statement that
one of the Indians gave the substance of the speech to the missionary,
Spalding, at a later time. It has, also, a somewhat conventionalised
sound. Yet with whatever discredit may be cast upon it, it possesses so
many elements of interest that it may well be given here. This is the
reported speech.
I come to you over the trail of many moons from the setting sun. You
were the friend of my fathers, who have all gone the long way. I came
with an eye partly open for my people, who sit in darkness. I go back
with both eyes closed. How can I go back blind, to my blind people? I
made my way to you with strong arms through many enemies and strange
lands that I might carry back much to them. I go back with both arms
broken and empty. Two fathers came with us. They were the braves of
many winters and wars. We leave them asleep here by your great water
and wigwams. They were tired in many moons and their moccasins wore
out.
My people sent me to get the White Man's Book of Heaven. You took me
to where you allow your women to dance, as we do not ours, and the
book was not there. You took me to where they worship the great Spirit
with candles, and the book was not there. You showed me images of the
good spirits and the pictures of the good land beyond, but the book
was not among them to tell us the way. I am going back the long and
sad trail to my people in the dark land. You make my feet heavy with
gifts and my moccasins will grow old in carrying them, yet the book is
not among them. When I tell my poor blind people after one more snow,
in the big council, that I did not bring the book, no word will be
spoken by our old men or by our young braves. One by one they will
rise up and go out in silence. My people will die in darkness, and
they will go on a long path to other hunting grounds. No white man
will go with them, and no White Man's Book to make the way plain. I
have no more words.
Taken altogether, it may be said that this event, as preserved in these
various ways, constitutes one of the most pleasing and significant, though
pathetic, incidents in Indian history. It was, moreover, pregnant with
results. It might almost be said that it was the key to American
possession of Oregon. For upon the acquisition of the story by the
Christian people of the United States, there rose an immediate demand that
something be done to carry the Gospel to the Indians of the Oregon
country. This story was interpreted as a Macedonian cry. The period was
one of strong religious feeling, as well as missionary zeal. The
warm-hearted followers of the Cross felt at once that here was a
providential opening to honour that Cross and to advance its kingdom upon
the western border of civilisation.
The Methodist Church was first to take up the work of sending forth
missionaries to the Oregon Indians. To Wilbur Fiske of Wesleyan University
seems due the credit of the first move. He enlisted the interest of Jason
Lee, a former student at Wesleyan University, but then engaged in
missionary work in the province of Quebec. Lee was a tall, athletic young
man, full of zeal and consecration, not polished or graceful in manner,
but powerful in spirit. He grasped at once the great possibilities in the
proposition of Dr. Fiske, and, going to Boston, became appointed by the
New England Conference as superintendent of a mission to Oregon. Daniel
Lee, Cyrus Shepard, and P. L. Edwards were named his associates.
In 1834, this mission band learned that Nathaniel Wyeth, famous as a
fur-trader, was expecting to cross the continent, sending his goods by the
brig _May Dacre_ to the Columbia River. Such an opportunity was too
favourable to be lost, and the Methodist Board at once opened negotiations
with Captain Wyeth, with the result that this first missionary company to
Oregon went with him and arrived safely at Vancouver on the Columbia, the
headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company. The _May Dacre_ reached her
destination soon after, and thus Mr. Lee and his comrades found themselves
at the threshold of their labours. The first intention had been to locate
among the Nez Perces and Flatheads, the ones from whom the Macedonian cry
had gone up. But Dr. McLoughlin, the chief factor at Vancouver, who had
received them with the utmost interest and cordiality, persuaded them that
the Willamette Valley would be a more promising field. Its advantages were
obvious. It was directly on water navigation to the sea, and within easy
distance of it. It was so near the chief entrepot of the Hudson's Bay
Company as to be comparatively safe and accessible to all mails. The
valley was of extraordinary scenic charm and salubrious climate. The
natives, moreover, seemed more tractable and peaceful than those of the
upper valley. Accordingly the Methodist brethren ascended the Willamette
to a point near a group of farms which had been located by French
employees of the Hudson's Bay Company on what is known now as French
Prairie. One of these Frenchmen was Joseph Gervais, and from him the
subsequent town of Gervais was named. The mission was located on the
Willamette near Chemawa, the present site of the United States Indian
School. It was ten miles north of Chemeketa, which was the great Indian
Council Ground, or Peace Ground, from which fact the missionary applied to
it the name of Salem,--a change of name more commendable for piety than
for taste.
Jason Lee set to work at once with zeal, patience, and intelligence, to
inaugurate the work to which he had consecrated his life. At times his
efforts seemed to be well rewarded. Then pestilence would attack the
Indians, followed by suspicion and excitement, as a result of which all
the gains would be lost. The work among the whites and their half-breed
families was more encouraging than that with the Indians. At the best,
Indians have been inconstant and unreliable in respect to religious
instruction.
In 1837 a strong reinforcement arrived, among whom were Dr. Elijah White,
destined to become a man of note as Superintendent of Indian Affairs.
In 1838, Rev. Daniel Lee and Rev. H. K. W. Perkins established a new
station at Wascopum, now the location of The Dalles. In the same year
Jason Lee returned East to secure an addition to the mission. His efforts
were crowned with success. Five missionaries, one physician, six
mechanics, four farmers, one steward, and four female teachers, with a
number unclassified,--in all thirty-six adults and seventeen
children,--reached the Columbia River on the good ship _Lausanne_, under
charge of Captain Spalding, on May 21, 1840. This was the most notable
company that had yet reached our Great River. Among them were men and
women who contributed in a great degree to the subsequent growth of
Oregon. Of the number were Revs. Gustavus Hines, Alvin Waller, J. P.
Richmond, and J. H. Frost; Dr. Ira L. Babcock, George Abernethy,
afterwards governor of the territory, J. L. Parrish, and L. H. Judson. All
the men were accompanied by their wives, and most of them had children.
They were, in short, the advance guard of the American home-builders in
Oregon, and as such they deserve a special place on the roll of honour.
With this added force, it was possible to enlarge the work, in both
secular and religious lines, both among the whites and the Indians. A
mission was started at Clatsop on the south side of the mouth of the
Columbia under Mr. Parrish, one at the falls of the Willamette, and
another on Tualatin Plains, under Mr. Hines, while still another was
located by Mr. Richmond at Nisqually on Puget Sound.
As time passed on, it became more and more evident that this work was to
become less for Indians and more for the incoming whites. The whole aspect
of it changed. The Methodist Board in New England decided that they were
not justified in maintaining the missions, and these were discontinued
during the decade of the forties.
Out of the mission at Chemeketa grew Willamette University, one of the
most prominent educational institutions of Oregon.
Jason Lee returned to the East and died in Canada in 1845. His life,
though short, was heroic and influential. He looms large on the background
of the history of the Columbia. In brief retrospect, it may be said of
him that he combined religious zeal with shrewd common sense and capacity
to see and adapt himself to the business and political conditions of his
time and place. This capacity is illustrated by his shrewd management of a
bold and enterprising character named Ewing Young. This man was about
starting a distillery in the Willamette Valley. Knowing the ruinous
effects of intoxicants on Indians, the missionaries strongly opposed the
enterprise. But knowing also that Young was a man of force and capacity
and much more valuable as a friend than as an enemy, Mr. Lee accomplished
the abandonment of the distillery by indirection, and at the same time
gained one of the most important steps in the development of the country.
For he induced Young to undertake the great work of driving into the
Willamette Valley a large herd of cattle from California. To the settlers
beginning to locate on the fat pasture land along the Willamette and its
tributaries, this was a stage in history of priceless moment. Up to that
time the only cattle in the country belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company
and it was not their policy to encourage American settlers.
Another fact in connection with Jason Lee constitutes a landmark in the
history of American acquisition of Oregon. This was a memorial prepared by
him, with the assistance of P. L. Edwards and David Leslie, and signed by
practically all the adult men then accessible in the Willamette Valley,
thirty-six in number, addressed to the United States Congress and praying
that the Government would consider the importance of the Columbia River
country and the question of acquisition. This memorial was dated March
16, 1838, and was taken by Mr. Lee to the East and given to Senator Linn
of Missouri, in January, 1839. Senator Linn was so aroused over the
boundless possibilities offered to westward expansion that he introduced a
bill in the Senate calling for the establishment of Oregon Territory and
the occupation of it by the military forces of the United States. Though
this bill did not become a law, it constituted a rallying cry for the
friends of American possession, which had results of utmost importance.
In short, to Jason Lee, more than to any other one, unless we except Dr.
Marcus Whitman, of whom we shall speak later, must be attributed the
inauguration of that remarkable chain of causes and effects, a long line
of sequences, by which Oregon and our Pacific Coast in general became
American possessions, and the international destiny of our nation was
secured.
From the Methodist missions of Lower Columbia we turn to the Presbyterian
and Congregational missions of the upper River and its tributaries. The
American Board of Foreign Missions was at that time under the joint
control of three religious bodies, Presbyterian, Congregational, and Dutch
Reformed. At the instance of the last named body, the Board in 1835
commissioned Rev. Samuel Parker of Ithaca, N. Y., and Marcus Whitman,
M.D., of Rushville, N. Y., to make a reconnaissance of the country of the
Columbia, with the view of a mission. Under the protection of the American
Fur Company, the two spiritual prospectors journeyed as far as Green
River. There deciding that what they learned of the land beyond the Rocky
Mountains warranted the carrying out of the missionary project, they
determined to part company, Dr. Whitman returning to the "States" for
reinforcements, and Dr. Parker going onward through Oregon to the mouth of
the Columbia, and proceeding thence by ship to Honolulu, whence he
returned by water to his home. Dr. Parker was an elderly man, somewhat
pedantic and notional in his ways, but withal full of energy and zeal in
the cause. He was not so popular with trappers and frontiersmen as his
companion. For Whitman was a young, athletic man, capable of any degree of
fatigue, very ready in proffering his professional or other services to
those in need. There was a bonhommie and general disregard of the
conventionalities in Whitman that caused the rough spirits of the border
to "take to" him at once, while they rather looked askance at the more
straight-laced ecclesiastic. But Parker was a man worthy of all respect
for his qualities both of mind and purpose. He was a keen observer, and
has left us, as his contribution to history, his _Travels beyond the Rocky
Mountains_, one of the most readable and valuable books of travel in our
western literature. His journey was, in fact, the first one across the
continent, after that of Lewis and Clark, which produced a book of high
standard.
Dr. Whitman made his way at once to his home in New York, accompanied by
two Nez Perce Indians. Arriving late on Saturday night he stopped with his
brother, and no one else of the village knew of his arrival, until at the
hour of service the next morning, he appeared in the aisle followed by his
two Indians. His appearance was so like that of an apparition that his
usually staid and proper mother lost her head entirely, and leaped to her
feet, shouting "Why, there is Marcus!" The equilibrium of the meeting was
for the time almost destroyed.
Within a few months, Dr. Whitman was married to Narcissa Prentiss. He
persuaded Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife, who had hitherto planned to go as
missionaries to the Osage Indians, to join them for Oregon. W. H. Gray was
secured to go with the party as secular manager.
And now began the famous "Wedding Journey" from New York to the banks of
the Columbia. It included within itself the romance, the pathos, the
devotion, the heroism, and at the last, the tragedy of missions.
_The History of Oregon_, by W. H. Gray, is the chief original authority
for this journey, though the women of the party kept journals which are of
great value. It would seem that all the members of the party were of
marked personality. Dr. Whitman was a tall, spare man, with deep blue
eyes, wide mouth, iron-grey hair, of inflexible resolution, and very set
when his mind was once made up, though flexible and even variable till
that point had been reached. He was of enormous physical strength and
endurance, with a constitution, as one who knew him later told the writer,
"like a saw-mill."
Mrs. Whitman was a woman of liberal education for those times, large,
fair-haired, blue-eyed, dignified, and somewhat reserved (rather
"starchy," the mountain men thought her), very ladylike, refined, and
attractive. One of the pathetic and interesting things about her is
related by Mrs. Martha J. Lamb in the _Magazine of American History_, in
1884. This relates the fact that the church of which Miss Prentiss (Mrs.
Whitman) was a member in Plattsburg, N. Y., held a farewell service for
her, and in the course of it the minister gave out the hymn:
Yes, my native land, I love thee,
All thy scenes, I love them well;
Friends, connections, happy country,
Can I bid you all farewell.
The entire congregation joined heartily in singing, but before the hymn
was ended voice after voice was choked with sobs, and in the last words
the clear, sweet soprano voice of Miss Prentiss was heard alone,
unwavering, like a peal of triumph.
Mr. Spalding was a very different man from Dr. Whitman and has not been so
well treated by historians. He is said to have been more nervous and
crotchety, though of remarkable industry and intense likes and dislikes,
which he never scrupled to express in vigorous fashion. The fact remains,
however, that his mission was altogether the most successful of all those
founded in Oregon.
Mrs. Spalding was tall, dark, rather coarse featured, and of fragile
health. It is truly wonderful that with such a handicap she should have
been able to accomplish the arduous journey to Oregon. She was less
fastidious and reserved than Mrs. Whitman and adopted the policy of taking
the habits and manners of the Indians in greater degree, whereas her more
dignified sister believed in the policy of trying to raise the Indians to
her own level. The Indians therefore understood Mrs. Spalding better. The
Indians always desired the privilege of entering Mrs. Whitman's private
room unannounced, and, if possible, of seeing her at her bath or toilette.
Her natural objection to such intrusion was a chronic grievance which
resulted in the suspicion by the Indians that she was conspiring against
them.
W. H. Gray, the secular agent, was a young, fine-looking, daring, and
athletic man, very skilful in making and handling boats, teams, waggons,
and anything else of a practical nature. He was so positive and even
violent in his views as to alienate many with whom he came in contact. Yet
he was one of the manliest men that ever came to Oregon, and was
intimately connected with nearly every important event in the history of
the Columbia River, navigation included. His four sons, all born in
Oregon, became steamboat captains and pilots, and without question, no one
family has been so intimately associated with the River as has the Gray
family. If any one group of people could be said to have filed a claim on
the River, it is the family of W. H. Gray. Gray's history is of high
value, yet so intense was his hatred of the Hudson's Bay Company and of
the British in general, as well as of Roman Catholics, that his book has
been subjected to unsparing criticism by later writers.
The little missionary band of five, accompanied by the two Nez Perce
Indians who had gone East with Whitman the year before, joined the
westbound caravan of the American Fur Company, and journeyed with them the
greater part of the way. One of the most thrilling and suggestive moments
in their journey was when they stood on the summit of the Rockies at South
Pass. There they looked down the westward maze of mountains and valleys
drained by the Snake River and its tributaries as these swept west to join
the Columbia and thence proceed to the Pacific. With that vision before
them, they spread the Stars and Stripes to the breeze and kneeling upon
the turf, they took possession of the great unknown to the westward in the
name of God and the American Union. Nobly was the claim maintained, though
with it came the crown of martyrdom.
Whitman desired above all other things to demonstrate the feasibility of a
waggon road to the Pacific. He therefore insisted on taking his
waggon,--"_Chick-chick-shaile-kikash_," the Indians called it, in
attempted onomatopoeia. His demonstration was successful, though the
trouble was infinite. He was compelled to leave the waggon at the Hudson's
Bay Fort on the Boise, near the present site of Boise City, with the
intention of getting it the next year. The Hudson's Bay people used every
effort to discourage Whitman in his waggon enterprise, though according to
Gray, they made much use of the vehicle in their fort.
On September 2, 1836, the mission party reached the Hudson's Bay Company's
fort at the mouth of the Walla Walla, a little more than four months and
two thousand two hundred miles from the banks of the Missouri to those of
the Columbia.
But the journey was not complete, for their definite location must yet be
selected. They proceeded now in bateaux down the Great River to Vancouver,
the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's empire. There Dr.
McLoughlin, the chief factor, met them with his own peculiar cordiality,
and yet with the dignity befitting the head of so great an establishment.
He was a noble man, and though business considerations and the orders of
the directors of the company would have led him to "freeze out" the
Americans, yet humanity and his own genial nature forbade him to withhold
the cordial hand from the mission band. The fort and two ships in the
river were arrayed in gala attire in honour of the event. Dr. McLoughlin
did the honours of his spacious hall to Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding in
a style that would have graced a baronial mansion.
By Dr. McLoughlin's advice, since the Methodist mission had been located
in the Willamette Valley, Whitman decided to establish himself among the
Cayuses in the beautiful and fertile valley of the Walla Walla, at
Waiilatpu, the "Place of the Rye-grass." Spalding accepted the urgent
appeal of the Nez Perces to go a hundred and twenty-five miles eastward to
Lapwai on the Clearwater, near the modern site of Lewiston. Both stations
were fair to look upon, with every natural advantage. It proved, however,
that the Cayuses were fierce and intractable, while the Nez Perces, though
warlike and manly, were also docile, ambitious to learn, and predisposed
to friendly relations with the Americans.
In 1838, the American Board of Foreign Missions sent a reinforcement to
the field, consisting of Revs. Elkanah Walker, Cushing Eells, A. B. Smith,
and their wives. Mr. Gray, who had returned the previous year in order to
organise this reinforcement, had found a wife, and with her was now
accompanying this second missionary band to Oregon.
Messrs. Walker and Eells located at Tshimakain, on what is now called
Walker's Prairie, near Spokane. Mr. Smith went to Kamiah up the
Clearwater, about sixty miles from Mr. Spalding's station at Lapwai.
Time fails to speak of the many interesting events marking each of the
missions. They were all located in singularly attractive spots, and every
one of the missionaries made great progress in cultivating the ground,
building mills, houses, and fences, and interesting the Indians in the
arts of peace. It is true that when the novelty of the white man's ways
had passed, many of the natives lost all interest. Yet upon the Spokanes
and the Nez Perces, lasting influences were wrought. The Nez Perces in
particular, under the influence of their noble and intelligent chief,
Hal-hal-tlos-sot, or Lawyer, almost decided the fate of American
institutions in the upper Columbia River region for years.
One of the especially interesting events in connection with the Nez Perce
mission was the acquisition by Mr. Spalding of the first printing-press
used west of the Rocky Mountains. This was donated by the church of Rev.
H. Bingham at Honolulu in 1839. The indefatigable Spalding, with the
assistance of his wife, who had unusual powers as a linguist, began at
once reducing the Nez Perce language to a written form and printing in it
translations of hymns and portions of the Bible. Some of these first books
of the Columbia River are still in existence. The venerable printing-press
is in the museum of the Oregon Pioneer Society at Portland.
The most dramatic and influential event in connection with the missions of
the Columbia, one of the most so in all American history, was Dr.
Whitman's mid-winter ride in 1842-43 from Waiilatpu to St. Louis. Dr.
Whitman, in common with Jason Lee, soon began to perceive that the
Columbia Valley possessed resources and a location which would inevitably
make it the seat of a civilised population. The corollary of this was that
the mission must conform to the movements of the whites and in time cease
to be simply an Indian mission. He perceived another thing. That was the
purpose of the Hudson's Bay Company to hold Oregon under English
possession and keep it a wilderness for the sake of the fur-trade. The
corollary of that was that, if American families could be induced to
locate in Oregon, they would in time topple the scale in favour of
American ownership.
The value of Oregon was then but dimly understood among the Americans.
Webster, Benton, and others of the great statesmen are on record in the
_Congressional Globe_ with many disparaging remarks upon "that worthless
Columbia River country."
Whitman watched all signs with anxious eye. Negotiations between England
and the United States indicated a probable surrender to the former. The
American Board was considering the abandonment of the mission. Looking
over the broad field of the future of the American nation with a
statesman's vision, Dr. Whitman readily saw that the interests of his
country and of Christian civilisation demanded the acquisition of Oregon.
Those interests were in jeopardy. He made the great resolution to proceed
at once to the "States" with the threefold aim: confer with the officers
of the American Board on the retention of the mission, confer with
President Tyler, Secretary Webster, and such others of the officers of
government as he could see at Washington, and finally help organise and
lead back to Oregon an American immigration. His fellow-missionaries
strongly opposed his purpose. They felt that it was abandoning the
religious aims of the mission to take up political questions. But he
declared that he had not expatriated himself by becoming a missionary. Go
he would. The undertaking seemed chimerical, even desperate. But Whitman
was bold, athletic, persistent, possessing all the qualities of a hero.
With a single white companion, A. L. Lovejoy, and one or more Indian
guides, he left Waiilatpu on October 3, 1842. His journey through snow,
ice, wind, hunger, peril, and deprivation of every sort, has been ofttimes
described. The extent of his influence in securing the adoption by our
Government of the policy of retaining Oregon has become the theme of
earnest, even acrimonious discussion. The simple fact remains that Oregon
was "saved" to the American Union. The missionaries Lee and Whitman bore,
each his part, and a great one, in the great final result. It is not too
much to say that of the various lines of influence by which the valley of
the Columbia became American territory, that of missions was one of the
strongest.
The Catholic missions of the Columbia Valley have found several
chroniclers, of whom the most valuable are Rev. F. N. Blanchet and Rev.
Pierre J. De Smet. The former in his book, _The Catholic Church in
Oregon_, gives a clear and circumstantial account of the founding and
carrying on of the work in the Willamette Valley. The latter in his
_Oregon Missions_, and _Western Missions and Missionaries_, has given a
singularly graphic and interesting report on religious progress, and with
it many charming descriptions of the scenery and other natural conditions
of the country.
Father Blanchet, in company with Rev. Modest Demers, went from Montreal to
Vancouver, a journey of over four thousand miles, in 1837. At the Little
Dalles of the Columbia, near the present Northport, a lamentable disaster
cost the lives of twelve of the company with whom they were travelling.
Reaching Vancouver on November 24, 1837, they received from Dr.
McLoughlin, who had himself been brought up a Catholic, a most cordial
welcome, though apparently not more cordial than the good man had given
Lee, the Methodist, and Whitman, the Presbyterian. The fact that there
were so many French Canadians in the country made the way of the Catholic
Fathers easier than that of the other missionaries. For the French, with
their gayety, sociability, and usual habit of intermarriage with the
Indians, were much more popular with them than were the more harsh and
reserved British and Americans. In fact the Catholic Fathers found a
building all ready for their use at the historic town of Champoeg on the
Willamette, thirty miles above Portland. There in 1836, the French
settlers had built a log church, the first church building in Oregon. It
is rather sad to relate that petty dissensions and jealousies marred the
relations between the Catholics and the Methodists. But both alike were
zealous and indefatigable in promoting the secular and religious interests
of both red men and white men.
While Fathers Blanchet and Demers and their associates were busily engaged
in the Willamette Valley, Father de Smet had come in 1840 into the
Flathead country, in what is now Northern Idaho. His first mission was
St. Mary's, on the Flathead River, founded by the planting of the cross on
September 24, 1841. Other missions were soon established on Coeur
d'Alene Lake and Pend Oreille Lake. Branching out from them were missions
in Colville, and ultimately in the Walla Walla, Yakima, Wenatchee, and
Chelan valleys.
De Smet greatly overestimated the number of Indians, reckoning those in
Oregon at one hundred and ten thousand. He numbered his converts by the
thousands. So pressing seemed the needs that in 1843, he went to Europe
for reinforcements. He was very successful in his quest, returning the
following year in the ship _L'Indefatigable_, from Antwerp, accompanied by
four fathers, six sisters, and several lay brothers. He gives a thrilling
account of his entrance of the Columbia River on July 31, 1844. He vividly
portrays the terrors of the bar with the mighty surges dashing across the
entrance. The captain did not understand the channel and became diverted
from the true course, which was then by the north channel, and got into
the south. The latter is now the main channel, but then was dangerous. De
Smet piously regards their escape from wreck as due to the special
interposition of divine providence, and to the favour extended to them
because of its being the day sacred to St. Ignatius Loyola, founder of
their order. De Smet's brilliant and poetical descriptions of the grandeur
of the river and its forests denote a keen appreciation of nature and a
facile pen.
Demers, De Smet, and Blanchet entered upon their work with such energy
that by the time of De Smet's report in 1844 there had been established
four dioceses in the region tributary to the Columbia; viz., Oregon City,
Walla Walla, Fort Hall, and Colville. Oregon City was the Metropolitan See
and in charge of Rev. F. N. Blanchet. Walla Walla was under the direction
of Rev. Magloire Blanchet, who at that date had charge also of Forts Hall
and Colville. Eleven chapels had been erected at different points; five in
the Willamette Valley, one at Vancouver, one on the Cowlitz, one on
Coeur d'Alene Lake, one on Pend Oreille Lake, one at Kettle Falls on the
Columbia near Colville, and one near Calispell among the Flatheads. There
were three schools; one being St. Mary's among the Flatheads, while at St.
Paul's on the Willamette, there were two, a college for boys, still the
site of a college, and a girls' academy. Twelve clergymen were engaged at
that time in the work, and the number was soon increased to twenty-six by
another reinforcement from Europe. With the reinforcement were also seven
female teachers.
Each of these three chief groups of missions had its special aims,
methods, and results. The Catholic was more exclusively religious, while
the Protestants passed over readily from their initial religious aims to
the domain of political and educational interest. The net result was
tremendous in the history of the country.
Among the educational institutions growing directly out of the labours of
the missionaries we may mention Willamette University at Salem, the direct
successor of the Methodist mission at Chemeketa; Whitman College at Walla
Walla, founded by Cushing Eells as a memorial to Marcus Whitman; Pacific
University at Forest Grove, Oregon, founded by a later set of
Congregational Home Missionaries; and the Catholic College at St. Paul's,
the successor of the school founded in 1839 by Blanchet.
They rest from their labours and their works do follow them.