USA > Idaho > A history of Indian missions on the Pacific coast : Oregon, Washington and Idaho > Part 11
USA > Oregon > A history of Indian missions on the Pacific coast : Oregon, Washington and Idaho > Part 11
USA > Washington > A history of Indian missions on the Pacific coast : Oregon, Washington and Idaho > Part 11
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On the Pacific Coast.
In 1875 Rev. M. Eells prepared an account of the manners and customs of the Twana In- dians of Washington Territory, which was pub- lished in 1877 in Major F. V. Hayden's Geolog- ical and Geographical Survey of the Territo- ries-an octavo pamphlet of 58 pages; and in 1878 he also published a 16mo pamphlet of 16 pages, containing mainly hymns in the Chinook jargon language and their translation. In 1879 he furnished to Major Powell a more extended account of the Twana, Clallam, and Chema- kum Indians, and has written a history of the Congregational Association of Oregon and Washington Territory-an octavo pamphlet of 124 pages, and a memorial sketch of the life of Rev. S. H. Marsh, D.D., first President of Pa- cific University-an octavo pamphlet of 58 pages. The last two were published in 1881.
Science .- Says Carl Ritter, the eminent geographer: " The Missionary Herald is where the reader must look to find the most valuable and instructive documents that have been sent , home by the agents of any society, and where a rich store of scientific, historical and antiqua- rian details may be seen. The Herald is a medium through which a great amount of scientific knowledge goes into chris- tian and popular reading. Scientific journals quote freely from this publication." The Paci-
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fic coast missionaries have contributed a share to this scientific knowledge.
Geography .- A part of what they have done in this direction may be seen by a reference to the list of books given in this chapter under the head of literature, especially those of Messrs. Parker, Hines, White, Brewer and Gray-while their letters and those of the other missionaries to their home boards, and published in their mis- sionary magazines, added to that knowledge. Few persons except fur trappers and traders were here before them, and the Hudson's Bay Company held possession. Few, if any, of the common traders or trappers had the ability to write a description of the country for publica- tion, while the intelligent men of the Hudson's Bay Company did not wish to have the re- sources of the country described; hence, I have been unable to find a single book written by any person of that company previous to the advent of the missionaries, although at that time they had traded in the country for twenty- two years. Hence, Hon. J. Q. A. Thornton, in his Oregon and California, wrote: "It is suffi- cient to say that the facts respecting the char- acter of the country which the missionaries and these emigrants communicated to their friends and the public in the States, caused great num- bers to turn their eyes to the interesting, beau-
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tiful, yet distant country of Oregon." (Vol. I, page 23:)
Geology .- Professor Silliman, of Yale College, acknowledged that he was indebted to a mis- sionary, whose name is not given (Mr. Parker, probably), for his early knowledge of the ba- saltic columns on the Columbia River. In the Missionary Herald of October, 1837, is a de- scription by Mr. Spalding, of the geological structure and soda fountains of the country along the route; and Mr. Parker, in his work, besides noticing the geological structure in various places, devotes a chapter of fifteen pages to the subject, and gives a full page il- lustration of the basaltic columns on the Co- lumbia. Says the New Yorker, of May, 1838: "Mr. Parker's observations on the geography and the geology of the country through which he passed are alone richly worth twice the cost of the volume."
Ethnology .- During the past twenty or thirty years this branch of science has attracted the attention of some of the best minds of the country. The missionaries have contributed their share to the description of the manners and customs of the Indians. Mr. Spalding wrote about the flat heads of the Indians in the Missionary Herald of 1837; Mr. Gray described the various tribes on the Columbia and its
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tributaries, as well as along the route from the east ; Mr. Smith, in the same magazine of 1840, speaks of the objects of worship of the Nez Perces ; the September number, for 1843, con- tains from the pen of Dr. Whitman quite a full account of the superstitions, medicine men and religious customs of the Cayuses ; Mr. Parker devotes three chapters in his book to a de- scription of the Indians ; the works of Messrs. Hines, White and Gray, also describe them at considerable length ; and Mr. M. Eells has de- scribed the Twanas, Clallams and Chemakums.
Language .- A comparison of languages is a science esteemed of great value. Missionaries do not publish works in the Indian languages for the sake of the whites, but our best scientific men study them in the cause of science. Hon. George Gibbs, in 1863, published a Dictionary of the Chinook Jargon, under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institute, which is the best extant. In it he speaks of sixteen published works, which, by the vocabularies in them, had aided him in his dictionary, and the first of these was Mr. Parker's Exploring Tour, and the seventh, Lee and Frost's Ten Years in Oregon. Mr. Parker's work also contains a vocabulary of the Nez Perces language of 140 words, of the Klikitat language of 134 words; and of 118 words in the Calapooia language. In the Mis-
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On the Pacific Coast.
sionary Herald of 1839, Rev. A. B. Smith de- scribes that of the Nez Perces. Miss S. L. McBeth, missionary among the latter tribe, had, in 1879, collected 10,000 or 15,000 Nez Perces words with their English definitions for a dictionary, together with the outlines of a Nez Perces and English grammar. Her literary work is very highly commended by Hon. J. H. Trumbull, LL.D., probably one of the best linguists in the United States, and the late Professor Joseph Henry, Director of the Smith- sonian Institution. Rev. M. Eells furnished in 1879 to Major J. W. Powell, of the U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey, 780 words and phrases in the Chemakum language, 1,792 in that of the Twanas, 1,850 in the Squakson dialect of the Nisqually, 2,040 in the Clallam language. The works mentioned in the para- graph in this chapter, in regard to literature in the Nez Perces and Spokane languages, are the only ones which have been published in those languages, and that in the Chinook jargon the only one in that language, except dictionaries.
Natural History and Meteorology .- Mr. Par- ker devotes two chapters of his work to the natural history of the region, describing the birds, quadrupeds, fishes, and botany; and an- other chapter mainly to the climate-giving a table of the thermometer three times a day,
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and a note of the weather each forenoon and afternoon, from October 4th, 1835, to May 15th, 1836, while he was in the country-by far the earliest table of the kind which the writer has seen.
Railroad .- It may be as well here to men- tion that Mr. Parker first announced to the public the practicability of a railroad through the Rocky Mountains, saying in his edition of 1838: " There would be no difficulty in the way of constructing a railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; and probably the time may not be far distant when trips will be made across the continent as they have been made to the Niagara Falls, to see nature's wonders."
Education .- Education is the handmaid of religion-so much so that most missionaries to the heathen are convinced that they must establish schools alongside of the church. It is not common, however, for them to found these for the whites, yet such has occasionally been the result of their work in the United States; and this has been especially true on the north-west coast. Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, in its first stages, was an Indian mission school ; and Willamette University, the first collegiate institution in Oregon, owes its existence to the dying mission of the Meth- odist Episcopal Church among the Indians. Phoenix-like, this has risen from its ashes.
F
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On the Pacific Coast.
After the last reinforcement of that mission had arrived, in 1840, there was a community of about seventy-five persons, more than twenty of whom were children. Around this mission, as a centre, a number of trappers, travelers and others had settled, and children were becoming somewhat numerous. The settlers saw that most of them were likely to remain, and hence naturally began to turn their attention to the education of their children. It required, also, no great foresight to see that the mission was likely to close before many years, and that whites would take the place of the savages, and, therefore, that schools would be needed for the future. Hence Mr. Farnham, an ardent Amer- ican, who visited the country about 1838, says of the missionaries: "Their object in settling in Oregon I understood to be two-fold-the one, and principal, to civilize and christianize the Indians; the other, and not less important, the establishment of religious and literary in- struction for the benefit of the white emigrants;
. a site had already been selected for an
..
academical building." The settlement naturally looked to the mission, as being largely com- posed of educated men, to take the lead in the enterprise, and, accordingly, a meeting of those interested was called January 17th, 1842, Ly Rev. Jason Lee, at his house, to take into con-
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sideration the subject of English education and a literary institution. The general question was there discussed, and Dr. J. L. Babcock, Rev. D. Leslie, and Rev. G. Hines, all of whom were connected with the mission, were appointed to call a public meeting with refer- ence to the contemplated institution. This meeting was held February Ist following, at the " Old Mission," the original house erected by Mr. Lee in 1834, half a mile above the pres- ent town of Wheatland. It was well attended by the friends of education, and, after a careful investigation, it was unanimously resolved to establish a collegiate institution for the benefit of the rising generation of Oregon, and it was named "The Oregon Institute." Revs. J. Lee, D. Leslie, G. Hines, J. L. Parrish, and L. H. Judson, and Messrs. G. Abernethy, A. Beers, H. Campbell and J. L. Babcock, were elected its first Board of Trustees, all of whom had come out as missionaries, or assistant mission- aries, of the Methodist Episcopal Church. An- other committee was chosen to select a site for the Institute, and the place which they chose was on Wallace Prairie, two and a half miles below where Salem now stands. At an- other meeting, held March 15th following, a prospectus, constitution and by-laws were adopted. These stated that the institution was
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On the Pacific Coast.
designed not only to promote science, but also morality and piety; that it should always be under the supervision of some branch of the Protestant Church; that it should be begun as an academical boarding-school, with the inten- tion that it grow into a university whenever the proper authorities should think it expedient; and that it should be placed in the hands of that society of evangelical christians which should first pledge itself to sustain it. It was also made the right of any person subscribing fifty dollars or more, and paying the same ac- cording to the terms of subscription, to be as- sociated with said society in the transaction of business.
A subscription paper was then prepared, in order to obtain the means to erect a suitable building, and $3,970 were soon subscribed, all but $410 of which was from those who were connected with the Methodist mission, many of the persons giving from one-fourth to one- third of all they possessed. The Methodist Episcopal Church, at a meeting held October 26, 1842, resolved to take the institution under its care, and pledged itself to use every rea- sonable effort to sustain it. This was done in accordance with the article of the constitution which requested some branch of the Protestant Church to do so. The whole action was rati-
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fied May 29, 1843, by a meeting of the whole community, including nearly every subscriber to the funds of the institution, and the property was transferred to that church. This was done because the elementary Board of Trustees was believed to be irresponsible, that is, not respon- sible to any special body, though this was necessarily so at first. Some changes were now made in this board, though only one per- son, W. Hauxhurst, Esq., was chosen as a member, who had not been connected with Indian missions. The building was begun un- der the superintendency of Hon. W. H. Gray, who had been released from the mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and had been chosen General Super- intendent and Secular Agent of the Institute ; and by October, 1843, three thousand dollars had been expended on it. About this time Rev. J. Lee, who had been elected President of the Board at its first annual meeting, deter- mined to go east, to promote the civil and re- ligious interests of the country, and hence he was requested and authorized to act while there as agent for the institution, to solicit funds, donations for a library, philosophical ap- paratus, and the like ; but he died while in the east, bequeathing to it one hundred dollars, in addition to five hundred dollars which he
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On the Pacific Coast.
had previously subscribed. In May, 1844, en- ergetic measures were made to proceed with the building, by the survey and sale of lots, so as to begin school in the fall, when Rev. Geo. Gary arrived, and closed up most of the mis- sions, and also this mission manual labor school.
This school had a building erected at a cost of ten thousand dollars, and as it had to be put to some other use, and it was desirable that it should be used as nearly as possible to promote the objects contemplated by the church in its erection, Mr. Gary proposed to sell it to the Trustees of the Institute for four thousand dollars. Further, as the location was much bet- ter than the one on Wallace Prairie, and as they had an opportunity to sell the property there for three thousand dollars, they did so, and were enabled to purchase the school-house and lands of Mr. Gary. Thereafter the Oregon Mis- sion Manual Labor School, erected for Indian children, became the Oregon Institute, devoted mainly to the education of the children of the whites. Mr. Gary had an opportunity to sell this property to the Roman Catholics for twice the amount he received, but preferred to do as he did-the other four thousand dollars being in reality a donation of the Mission Board to the Institute-to the cause of education among the whites of Oregon
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In the fall of 1844 the school began with about twenty scholars under Mrs. C. A. Wilson as teacher, who had come to Oregon as an as- sistant missionary. She continued until 1848 in this position. Among others who have taught in the school are, Miss Mary Leslie, Rev. C. Eells and wife, all of whom had been connected with some of the Indian Missions. Mrs. L. L. Grubbs, a daughter of Rev. Jason Lee, and a graduate of the institution, was for several years first a teacher and afterwards preceptress of the school, and after leaving it, with her husband taught at Wilbur Academy, in Douglas County and in Baker County.
Among those who have been connected with the institution as Trustees, have been the fol- lowing missionaries, who labored for its good as long as they were in the country, or until the time of their death: Rev. Jason Lee, to whom reference has already been made; Mr. A. Beers, who for several years was treasurer, and died in 1853; Mr. H. Campbell, deceased; Hon. George Abernethy, a Trustee from the beginning, in 1842, until the time of his death, May 2, 1877; Rev. D. Leslie, one of the original nine and President of the Board from 1844 un- til the time of his death, March Ist, 1869, with the exception of one year, when he was absent on a voyage to the Sandwich Islands for the
On the Pacific Coast. 219
benefit of the health of his family; Rev. A. F. Waller, a member from 1843 until his death, December 26th, 1872, and for many years the zealous and successful agent of the institution, performing three years of such work without reward; Rev. G. Hines, another of the first nine, and a member at the time of his death in 1873; Dr. W. H. Wilson, from 1843 to 1853, and Secretary a part of the time; and Rev. J. L. Parrish, a Trustee from the beginning until the present time, Treasurer a part of the time, and President of the Board since Father Les- lie's death.
In January, 1853, the Institute grew into Willamette University, by act of the Legisla- ture of Oregon, and in April, 1867, the Medical Department was added. In July, 1859, the first person, Miss Emily J. York, now Mrs. Moore, Dean of the Woman's College Hall, received her diploma as Mistress of English Literature, and since that time 185 others have grad- uated in all the literary departments, and 110 in the medical department. The number of students has varied, reaching 225 in October, 1874. During the winter of 1880-81 300 were in attendance in all departments. The influence which Indian missions, through these students, has had in Oregon, is inestimable.
Not much was done for the endowment of
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History of Indian Missions
the institution previous to 1856, when Rev. T. H. Pearne, then Delegate to the General Con- ference of the Methodist Episcopal Church from Oregon, was authorized to solicit funds for the purpose in the east. As the Missionary Board had secured through its missionaries con- siderable property in Oregon, it was thought proper to ask it for help, and with liberality it responded, by promising to pay five thousand dollars as soon as fifteen thousand dollars should be secured from other sources and well invested. This was accomplished by August, 1859, when the Missionary Board proposed to transfer about eighty acres of land which it owned in the vicinity of Salem, as an equiva- lent for the money promised. This was ac- cepted by the Trustees in 1864, and in 1867 the final papers were executed; thus a hand- some gift, the cause of the first endowment of the University, was bestowed by the Mission- ary Board, on account of the early labors of its missionaries, and the interest they had awak- ened in the east in regard to the subject of education on this coast.
Also of the twenty-two thousand dollars se- cured in Oregon for this first endowment, three thousand was given by those who had come to the country in connection with the mis- sion.
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On the Pacific Coast.
"They came, those men of prayer, of lives austere, Of faith unwavering, and of toil severe.
They came and planted in the wilderness A tender vine, a vine whose fruit shall bless Unnumbered generations; and their deeds Do follow them and help men in their needs.
*
And savage men, and nature wild and free, These they subdued by faith and industry; And here they planted firm, and strong, and deep, A corner-stone, a watch for us to keep. Here for long years the wisdom and the youth Have quaffed rich nectar from the fount of truth. These walls have been our home; the dead our friends. A tender memory with our duty blends." *
Whitman Seminary .- In the upper part of Walla Walla City, Washington Territory, is a building with this name, in honor of the martyr missionary who fell about six miles from the place.
In 1859, very soon after the country east of the Cascade Mountains was declared open for settlement, Rev. C. Eells, one of the early mis- sionaries of the American Board of Commis- sioners for Foreign Missions, turned his eyes toward Walla Walla. He soon purchased of the Mission Board in Boston their right to the mission claim at Waiilatpu, where Dr. Whitman
* A. T. Hawley, at the Fourteenth Annual Reunion of the Graduates of Willamette University, June 23d, 1880.
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and his associates were massacred. This was the residence of himself and family most of the time from 1860 to 1872.
The great grave of Dr. Whitman, wife and nine others who were killed, was in sight of his house, and the memory of his deeds was in his mind. He and others felt as if a monument of stone ought to be erected over the grave, yet he believed that if Dr. Whitman could have anything to say in regard to it, it would be that the best monument would be a high school of earnest christian character, for the benefit of the youth of the valley. Hence, a charter was obtained from the Legislature of Washington Territory of 1859-1860, and a Board of Trustees was appointed, two of whom were early mis- sionaries to the Indians. The way then not being open, little more was done. Mr. Eells, however, in all of his varied labors, kept the idea of a school continually in view, until early in 1866, when subscription papers were circu- lated, a site donated by Dr. D. S. Baker on certain conditions, and steps immediately taken to erect a building twenty by forty-six feet, two stories high. It was built during the sum- mer, and so far finished in the fall, at a cost of $4,842.42, as to be dedicated on the 13th of October, and was opened for use a few days afterwards. The cost was not all paid at that
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On the Pacific Coast.
time, but when it was paid it was found that Mr. Eells had given $2,900, including interest. Since then he has given about $1,750 addi- tional to the seminary, making $4,600 in all; has acted as President of the Board of Trustees from the beginning to the present time-more than twenty years-and also, as its Principal, taught in it for about two and a half years sub- sequent to April, 1867.
Rev. Harvey Clarke, who was sent out by some of the north-western churches with the prime idea of benefiting the Indians, came to the country in 1840. When he arrived he found it impracticable, and immediately turned his at- tention to the wants of the whites, and began a school, which was at first an orphan boarding school, but in later years it became the Pacific University. With the exception of this early beginning, the history of that college belongs more properly to Home than to Foreign Mis- sions. .
Rev. E. Walker and C. Eells voted in 1848 for the establishment of Tualatin Academy at the first annual meeting of the Congregational and Presbyterian Association, and both would then have been chosen as Trustees, had their relations with the Board of Foreign Missions been dissolved; but there was a probability at that time of their resuming work among the
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Spokane Indians. This institution has since grown into Pacific University, at Forest Grove, Oregon.
Mr. Walker afterwards removed to Forest Grove, to educate his children at the institu- tion; and for the last ten years of his life he served as a Trustee. He died in November, 1877. He was most deeply interested in its success, and gave a thousand dollars of his property, and his counsel and zeal for it were direct and efficient.
When Rev. C. Eells left the mission he en- gaged more directly in educational work than most of his brethren. The first winter (1848-9) he and his wife spent in the Oregon Institute at Salem, Oregon, where, says Rev. G. Hines (Oregon and its Institutions, page 228), they " exerted an excellent influence and contrib- uted much while they remained to give charac- ter and stability to the school." He was next called to take charge of the institution at Forest Grove, where he remained for about a year and a half. In 1851 he removed to the re- gion near Hillsboro', and there taught school most of the time until 1857, when he was re- called to Forest Grove, as principal of Tuala- tin Academy, where he remained two and a half years. He then resigned, to begin his efforts for Whitman Seminary at Walla Walla. Mrs.
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History of Indian Missions.
Group of Piute and Warm Spring boys at the Indian Training School, Forest Grove, Oregon.
On the Pacific Coast. 225
Eells also donated to Pacific University a block of land in Forest Grove, to aid the endowment of a professorship of Mathematics, which, with accumulated interest, now amounts to about two thousand dollars.
Thus it will be seen that the influence of both missions in Oregon has been very wide on be- half of the cause of education on the north-west coast. Thousands of youth, many of them now filling important positions, have received the impress of their training, and influences have thus been exerted which will never die.
Temperance .- The first work of this kind of any importance in Oregon, was begun by the members of the Methodist mission. About 1837 Mr. Ewing Young erected buildings with the intention of carrying on a distillery in the Wil- lamette valley. Fearing that it might have an evil influence not only on the whites, but also prove dangerous to the settlement by its influence on the Indians, Mr. Lee remonstrated with him, but in vain. He then stated the case to his friends, and with such effect that they raised a considerable sum of money, which they offered to Mr. Young, provided he would re- linquish the business. He refused the money, but was so affected by this expression of the earn- est desire of these people, that he stopped the work-although he had completed the build- ing, raised the arch, and set the boiler.
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