USA > Oregon > Marion County > Salem > Oregon and its institutions; comprising a full history of the Willamette University, the first established on the Pacific Coast > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19
The Methodists, Congregationalists, and Baptists all have comfortable houses of worship, and the people are generally liberal in supporting the insti- tutions of the Church.
These delightful plains have easy access to the waters of the Willamette River at Oregon City and Portland, and to the Columbia River at St. Helens, by good roads leading to these places. Washington County, in fine, embraces a very valuable portion of the state, and is second to none in everything relating to improvements in all the departments of husbandry, as well as in respect to all those institutions which are designed more especially for the promotion of the moral and intellectual wellbeing of its population.
YAMHILL COUNTY.
A tribe or class of Indians who were the original proprietors of the land embraced in this county, and a beautiful river which runs through its entire extent, were known by the name of Yamhill by the aborig- ines long before the country was occupied by the pale faces. This accounts fully for the origin of the name
125
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
of the county. This county is bounded on the north by Washington and Clackamas, on the east by the Willamette River, on the south by Polk County, and on the west by the Coast Range of mountains, which separate it from Tilamook and Clatsop counties. It comprises not only a very magnificent, but also a very rich, fertile, and lovely portion of the state of Oregon. It is, as with many other counties, wonder- fully diversified by lovely valleys, extended plains, gentle undulations, rising grounds, and lofty emi- nences, and these are all characterized by a naturally rich and productive soil.
The county contains a population of upward of four thousand souls, with a preponderance of four hundred males over the females. At the last elec- tion the votes cast numbered one thousand and eighty-two.
The number of acres of land under cultivation was twenty-six thousand three hundred and forty-three. Assessable property was valued at one million dollars.
Lafayette, situated on the left bank of the Yamhill River, and five miles from where that river empties into the Willamette, is the county seat. It is located twenty-four miles northwest of Salem, and thirty iniles southwest of Portland. It is most delightfully located in the midst of a fine agricultural country, and is yearly advancing in commerce and population. It has a court-house, a church, and an academy, which imply that its financial, spiritual, and intellectual necessities are provided for and secured. Below La-
126
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
fayette two miles, on the same river, is the town of Dayton, which is also a growing place. A steamer runs regularly to this place from Oregon City. Here is a commodions Methodist church and parsonage, and from this point, in a circuit of some fifteen miles, there are three other Methodist churches, besides those that belong to other denominations. South of La- fayette some four miles is situated the beautiful vil- lage of M'Minnville. This is one of the most de- lightful spots in the Yamhill country, and the agents of the Baptist Church in Oregon, to whom the re- sponsibility was committed, displayed not only good judgment, but fine taste in selecting this place for the location of their principal literary institution in Oregon. This is called the M'Minnville College, and will doubtless work its way into a permanent univer- sity. This institution has for some years been under the general direction of the Rev. Dr. Chandler, aided by a corps of professors and teachers fully qualified not only to elevate the character of the school, but to insure its future permanence and prosperity. Common schools, those fruitful adjuncts of acade- mies and colleges, abound also in this county in every neighborhood able to support them. The other places of note in this county are Amity, Mountain House, North Yamhill, Sheridan, and West Chehalem; but they must be passed with the general remark that they help to make up one of the most beautiful, fertile, and desirable counties included within the limits of the Willamette Valley.
OREGON INSTITUTE.
129
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
CHAPTER VI. HISTORY OF THE OREGON INSTITUTE AND WILLA- METTE UNIVERSITY.
THE history of all nations proves that science and literature flourish most where the foundations of soci- ety are laid in the principles of a pure Christianity.
For untold ages the great Pacific slope of the North American Continent had been enveloped in almost impenetrable darkness, and the wandering tribes of savage barbarians which roamed over its extended plains were as untamed and ignorant as the wild beasts by which they were surrounded ; but at length was heard over this region of the valley and shadow of death the voice of Providence, saying, " Let there be light," and there was light.
Heathen hands were outstretched from these Cim- merian realms, and heathen voices were heard im- ploring for the Christian's book and the white man's God. Connected with the introduction of Christian civilization into the Pacific world, and leading to that important event, was one of the most interest- ing circumstances that ever transpired in the history of any heathen nation. It was this: A deputation of Indians from one of the principal tribes inhabiting this vast region of night, who had heard of the exist- ence of the white man, and of his superior knowledge,
130
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
traversed the whole distance from the waters of Ore- gon to the frontiers of Missouri, exposed to the fury of hostile clans and beasts of prey, for the purpose of learning from General Clark, who was then the su- perintendent of Indian affairs for the whole western world, the truth of what they had heard concerning the white man's worship and civilization. This won- derful event was hailed by the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States as the clear expression of the will of heaven that a gospel mission should be at once established in the benighted regions bordering the Pacific Ocean. Measures were taken to carry a resolution formed to this effect into immediate execu- tion, and in the month of June, 1833, the Rev. Jason Lee, of Stanstead, Canada East, was ordained in New England by Bishop Hedding, and was appointed to the superintendency of a mission which he was au- thorized to establish in the territory of Oregon. In the following August Rev. Daniel Lee, a nephew of Jason, was appointed to accompany his uncle, and early in March, 1834, they left New England for the Pacific shores, accompanied by Cyrus Shepherd, a lay member of the Church. On reaching what was then considered the far West, they were to accompany the expedition of Captain Nathaniel Wyeth, of Mas- sachusetts, who was intending to proceed to Oregon for purposes of traffic among the Indian tribes. On their progress westward from New England they held missionary meetings in all the principal towns through which they passed, and great interest was excited in the public mind in relation to the enter-
131
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
prise. On the twenty-fifth of April they had reached the frontiers, and on that day, having been joined by P. L. Edwards, of Missouri, also a lay member, they left civilized society behind them, and started on their perilous journey across the trackless wilds. They penetrated the deepest recesses of savage life, and experienced all manner of hardships and depri- vations and exposures incident to journeyings over thousands of miles of almost unexplored regions, beset on every hand by hostile savages and beasts of prey ; but, preserved in the midst of the imminent and multiplied dangers by which they were sur- rounded by a merciful Providence through the many months of their wearisome toil across the arid deserts, on the twenty-first day of September, 1834, they found themselves in the territory of Oregon, on the banks of the beautiful Willamette River, ten miles below the spot where the city of Salem now stands, and there they commenced laying the foundations of Christian civilization in this western world.
Up to that period unbroken heathenism lad reigned from Arkansas to the waters of the great Pacific, and from the hyperborean regions of Alaska to the country of the Montezumas. But in the order of the divine economy another state of things was now to be introduced. The dominions of dark- ness were to be invaded, "the wilderness and the solitary places were to be glad for them, and the desert to bud and blossom as the rose." Simple were the means employed, but grand have been the results secured.
132
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
At the time these missionaries of the cross located themselves on the Willamette there were no white children on all the Pacific slope of the continent of North America, and but very few white men. There were, however, a few Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Canadian French, who were connected with the Hudson's Bay Company, and had married Indian wives, and rejoiced as the fathers of half-caste chil- dren ; and at Vancouver there were a few children that were three fourths white, their fathers being white men and their mothers half-caste. These were also connected with the Hudson's Bay Company. So soon as these devoted missionaries had established themselves at their post on the Willamette, and had thrown up a log-cabin to shelter those that might remain from the storms of winter, one of their num- ber proceeded to Vancouver and commenced a school for the benefit of the half-breed and other children at that post, and the others commenced teaching the children of the natives of the country the rudiments of science and religion, and preaching the Gospel to the members of the Hudson's Bay Company, and to such other straggling white men as had preferred to remain in the country rather than return to civiliza- tion with the companies with which they had been connected, and also to the Indians as far as it was possible to get their attention. They gathered to- gether some dozens of Indian children in the little log school-house which they had erected for the pur- pose, and immediately established what was denomi- nated the "Oregon Mission Manual Labor School."
133
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
This school, and the one at Vancouver already men tioned, were the first that were opened on the Pacific coast for instruction in the English language.
The school on the Willamette in a few years be- came a flourishing institution, and gave great promise of future usefulness to the Indian race. Mr. Slocum, who, under the auspices of the government of the United States, visited Oregon in 1837, remarks in relation to this school as follows: "It is indeed a source of regret that I could continue no longer at your mission on the banks of the Willamette, for the visit was to me one of exceeding interest. On my return to the civilized portions of our country I shall not hesitate to express my humble opinion that you have already effected a great public good, by practically showing that the Indians west of the Rocky Mountains are capable of the union of mental and physical discipline as taught at your establish- ment. For I have seen with my own eyes children who two years ago were roaming their own native wilds in a state of savage barbarism, now being brought within the knowledge of moral and religious instruction, becoming useful members of society by being taught the most useful of all arts, agriculture, and all this without the slightest compulsion." The prosperity of the school and the general state of the country seemed to demand an increase in the number of Christian laborers ; accordingly Mr. Lee addressed letters to the Missionary Board in New York, car- nestly soliciting them to send out a reinforcement. In compliance with this request, the Board appointed
9
.
134
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
Dr. Elijah White and wife, Mr. Alanson Beers and wife, Miss Ann Maria Pitman, Miss Susan Downing, Miss Elvira Johnson, and Mr. W. H. Wilson, assist- ant missionaries. This company sailed from Boston in July, 1836, and performing the voyage round Cape Horn, arrived safely in the Willamette Valley on the 27th day of May, 1837. On the 20th of Sep- tember following the mission settlement was again increased by the arrival of Rev. David Leslie and family, Rev. H. K. W. Perkins, and Miss Margaret Smith.
Sixteen adult persons were now connected with the mission, and at the close of 1837 they were all at or near the Willamette station, and were laboring in their respective departments, not without effect; some in sustaining the interests of the mission school, some in preaching the Gospel to the Callapooias and other Indians and to the few white men who had begun to gather around the mission, some in the mechanical branches, and some in taking care of the mission farm and the rapidly increasing stock of cattle and horses. Though some of the members of the mission school had died during the year, yet, in view of all the circumstances surrounding them, the missionaries were greatly encouraged, and began to take measures for the enlargement of their work. A new mission station was established at the Dalles of the Columbia, and it was the unanimous opinion of all the mission- aries, expressed in a meeting held for general con- sultation, that provision should be made for the sup- ply of other portions of the extended field. They
135
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
considered that "the harvest was plenteous, while the laborers were few;" and they passed a unanimous resolution advising the superintendent, Rev. Jason Lee, to make a visit to the United States for the pur- pose of representing before the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the public generally, the true condition of the country and of the Indians, and soliciting the men and means which, in their judgment, were necessary for the successful prosecution of the mis- sionary work.
Mr. Lee concurred in the opinions thus expressed by the members of the mission, and accordingly took leave of his wife and brethren on the Willamette on the 26th of March, 1838, and commenced the long and hazardous journey back across the Rocky Mount- ains. He was accompanied by P. L. Edwards, of the mission, Mr. Ewing, of Missouri, and two Indian boys. Mr. Lee and his company made the tedious and dangerous transit in safety, and on the 1st of September he arrived at the Methodist mission among. the Shawnees, then under the superintend- ency of the Rev. Mr. Johnson, and having at night retired to his room, he was offering up a tribute of thanksgiving to Him who had been his preserver while on his toilsome journey through the hostile tribes of the mountains, when he heard a rap at his door. Rising, he admitted the stranger, who placed a package of letters in his hands and immediately left the room. He broke the black seal of one, and the first line conveyed to him the heart-rending in-
136
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
telligence that his Ann Maria and her little son were numbered with the dead.
Sorely afflicted by the loss which he had sustained, a knowledge of which had been communicated by an express sent by his friends in Oregon, after resting a few days he proceeded on to New York, where he arrived about the 1st of November, and at once zeal- ously engaged in accomplishing the objects of his visit to the United States. On the 14th he was present at a meeting of the Missionary Board, and stated at length the object of his visit. He urged with much earnestness the importance of extending the missionary work in Oregon ; and, in view of this, he pleaded with great zeal the necessity of sending to that country a large reinforcement. In his opinion it was essential, for the prosperity of the mission, to supply it with the requisite means to furnish itself with all the means of support, and all the necessary implements for husbandry and mechanical purposes should be sent out by the Board. To meet all these demands would require a very heavy outlay, and for this and some other reasons Mr. Lee met with strong opposition from some of the members of the Board, who sincerely doubted the expediency of the measure; but the superintendent, who had just come from the field of operations, perseveringly and powerfully urged the claims of the mission until he succeeded in obtaining all, and more than all he requested.
As a result of his interviews with the Board, the latter, at a meeting held on the 6th of December, 1838,
137
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
passed a resolution to send to Oregon five additional missionaries, one physician, six mechanics, four farm- ers, one steward or accountant, and four female teachers, making thirty-six adult persons. Connected with the different familes were seventeen children, making the aggregate fifty-three. These were all selected and appointed within a few months, the lay- men by Dr. Bangs and Mr. Lee, and the missionaries by Bishop Hedding, wlio at the time had the charge of the foreign missions. This company was collected from almost every part of the United States, and was the largest mission family that had ever sailed at one time from any American port. They left the port of New York, accompanied by Mr. Lee himself, on the 9th of October, 1839, in the ship Lausanne, and going by the way of Cape Horn and the Sandwich Islands, arrived in Oregon in May, 1840. The following are the names of the persons belonging to this expedi- tion who subsequently were connected with the great educational enterprise of the country, whose history it is the object of the following pages to trace : Rev. A. F. Waller, Rev. Gustavus Hines, Rev. J. L. Parrish, Rev. L. H. Judson, Rev. James Olley, Doctor J. L. Babcock, Mr. George Abernethy, Mr. Hamilton Campbell, M. H. B. Brewer, Mr. W. W. Raymond, and their families ; and Miss C. A. Clark, (now Mrs. Wilson,) Miss Elmira Phillips, Miss Almira Phelps, (now Mrs. Holman,) and Miss Orpha Lancton, (now Mrs. M'Kinney.) There were other persons con- nected with this large reinforcement who came out as missionaries, but as they remained in the country
138
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
but a short time, and had nothing to do in the matter of providing for the educational wants of the popula- tion, it is not necessary to mention them particularly in this history. Some of the members of the last reinforcement were sent into other portions of the work, but most of them received their appointments within the Willamette Valley.
At this time the missionaries themselves and their families constituted quite a large colony, their num- ber being about seventy-five, embracing upward of twenty children. Situated as they were, the parents could not educate their own children, and they began already to feel the necessity of having a public school established, where they could place their children for education, and have them separated from those influ- ences arising from the heathenism by which they were surrounded. Besides these already named, all of whom were directly connected with our missionary es- tablishment, there were beginning to be, as early as 1841, some immigrants from the Eastern States, and other portions of the world, who had settled in vari- ous parts of the country, constituting already quite a growing community. Children and youth were be- coming somewhat numerous, and were growing up in comparative ignorance, and the general voice seemed to call loudly upon the friends of science to make one united effort in some way to furnish means to supply the pressing educational demands of the infant though rising colony.
The community generally looked to those who were connected with the Oregon Mission to take
139
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
the lead in the grand enterprise, and, accordingly, a meeting of the members of the mission, and all others interested in the subject, was called on the 17th day of January, 1842, by the Rev. Jason Lee, superin- tendent of the mission, at his own house at what was then known as Chemekete, now North Salem, for the purpose of consultation upon the subject of English education in Oregon, and to prepare the way for the speedy establishment of a literary insti- tution which should meet the wants of the growing community.
Little more was done at this first meeting than to discuss the general question of education as the great want of the country, and to appoint a committee to call a public meeting, and to prepare business for the consideration of such meeting in reference to the contemplated institution.
Dr. J. L. Babcock, David Leslie, and Gustavus Hines were appointed that committee. According to instruction, general notice was given, and the meeting was called to be held at what was then be- ginning to be known as "the Old Mission," on the 1st day of February, 1842. The house where this primary public meeting for the promotion of educa- tion in Oregon was held was the original mission house which was erected by Mr. Lee in 1834 on the eastern bank of the Willamette River, near the place known in past years as Garrison's Landing, and one half mile above the present little town of Wheatland.
The tide of influence which was then and there set in motion by the action of that meeting will roll on
140
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
OLD MISSION HOUSE IN OREGON.
in its elevating and purifying course, increasing in volume and power to the end of time; but the house itself, made memorable by many other hallowed associations, and the ground upon which it was loca- ted, by the ceaseless action of the waters of the river have long since been swept away. In addition to the members of the mission, the meeting was well attended by the friends of education in the country generally, among whom was the Rev. Harvey Clark, of precious memory, a minister of the Congregational Church, who, by his judicious counsel contributed much to the promotion of the objects of the meeting. After a careful survey of the whole ground, and a thorough investigation of all the difficulties in the way of accomplishing the object, it was unanimously resolved not simply to make the attempt, but pos- itively to proceed to establish a collegiate institution for the benefit of the rising generation of Oregon. Retreat and failure were terms that were entirely rejected from the vocabulary of the men who were
141
OREGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
the originators of the important measures that were to result in the establishment of the first collegiate institution on the waters of the great Pacific.
The name by which the institution should be known became a subject of considerable discussion, and it was finally moved by G. Hines, and seconded by J. L. Babcock, that it should be called The Oregon Institute. This motion prevailed, and the meeting then proceeded to organize the institution by the election by ballot of a board of nine trustees. After balloting twice the following persons were declared duly elected the first board of trustees for the Oregon Institute :
Rev. Jason Lee, Rev. David Leslie, Rev. G. Hines, Rev. J. L. Parrish, Rev. L. H. Judson, Mr. George Abernethy, Mr. Alanson Beers, Mr. H. Campbell, and Dr. J. L. Babcock.
A committee was also elected by this meeting called the committee of location, consisting of Rev. Jason Lee, Rev. G. Hines, Rev. D. Leslie, Rev. H. Clark, and Dr. J. L. Babcock.
This committee proceeded at once to survey vari- ous localities in the valley to find a suitable place at which to locate the buildings of the institute, and reported in favor of the upper end of the high prairie known as the French Prairie, a very beautiful locality, but defective in the accommodation of living water. For this reason it was subsequently abandoned ; and it was finally resolved that the Oregon Institute be loca- ted on what was then called the " Wallace Prairie." The land selected for the claim of the institute was
142
OBEGON AND ITS INSTITUTIONS.
the same that is now owned by Asahel Bush and the gentlemen Keizer, two miles and a half below the city of Salem.
To set the whole thing in motion, the next step taken was to adopt measures to draw up a prospectus to present to the public, and a constitution and code of by-laws for the government of the school. Accord- ingly, at a meeting of the Board held on March 9th, 1842, it was resolved to appoint a committee of three to accomplish the above object, and report at the next meeting of the Board. The persons appointed on this committee were L. H. Judson, J. L. Parrish, and G. Hines.
Without anything to guide them in the accom- plishment of their work except their own judgment, this committee produced the following prospectus, constitution, and code of by-laws, and reported them at a meeting of the Board held on the 15th of March, at the house of L. H. Judson, in North Salem. This report, with slight alterations by the Board, was unanimously adopted :
PROSPECTUS.
To all whom it may concern. Whereas it is be- lieved to be highly important, and indispensably necessary to the future welfare of this rising com- munity, that a permanent literary institution be established in this valley, of such a character as fully to meet the present and prospective wants of the children and youth of Oregon, in which they may
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.