USA > Washington > History of Washington; the rise and progress of an American state, Vol. II > Part 10
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remain among them for some time, but with evident unwill- ingness. They demanded pay for everything he used-their land, wood and water, and finally ordered him to leave. He made a brave effort to overcome their prejudices, but finally gave up, and in April 1841 abandoned his post, con- sidering the people "given up of God, and devoted to destruc- tion." He left the mission and went to the Sandwich Islands.
Messrs. Eells and Walker immediately went north, after receiving their assignment, and after consulting with Archi- bald McDonald, who was then in charge at Fort Colvile, they determined to locate at a place called Tshimakain (the place of springs) now called Walker's Prairie. It is about six miles north of the Spokane River, and was then on the trail between forts Walla Walla and Colvile, seventy miles from the latter post and one hundred and twenty-five from Whitman's. Here they built the walls of two log houses, but did not remain to put roofs on them, and then returned to Whitman's for the winter. In the following spring, and just a year from the day on which Mr. and Mrs. Eells were married, they set out from Waiilatpu for their new home.
The several missions thus established by the American board, in eastern Washington and Idaho, seemed to prosper for a time in every way except in that for which the mis- sionaries most hoped and prayed for prosperity. They were practical people. Like Paul they labored with their hands, and they taught those whom they gathered about them by example as well as by precept. They plowed and planted; they built churches and schoolhouses and mills and shops; they encouraged the Indians to help them, and gave them a generous share of the products of their joint labor, as their reward. They not only taught them to read and to pray, but they taught them also how to make themselves more
OLD FORT COLVILE.
This Hudson's Bay fort was established in 1825, and for a considerable time it was second in importance only to Fort Vancouver. It was on the east bank of the Columbia River, below the junction with Clark's fork, and not far from the British Columbia line. Gold was discovered near it in 1855, and it subsequently became a military post of some importance.
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
TOO THE BEEWith evident unwill-
men ach ai bodeildadas asw, for ever amabu He used their
sail sidmulo dertig er mor ish for me drol andoned is post, con-
sosfromipomos to hoa nesdevotedtodestruc-
n andl went to the Sandwich Islands.
Mars Ful sol Walks lowliately went north, after How to order'tan, Mer consulting with Archi- Build Alissontd, who wat thee wy charge at Fort Colvile, They Approved utcair a . face called Tshimakain (the pee / spring) now cided Walker's Prairie. It is about ut miles north of the Spa River, and was then on the wal berween forts Walls and Colvile, seventy miles Wow the latter post and a hundred and twenty-five from Wwwwman's. Here they At the wall of two log houses, How did not remain to pos von them, and then returned Wlutman's for the www low w year from the dis om buich Mr. and Mrs. Eells were married, they set out low Wajilatpu for their new home.
Wh the following spring, and The everal mission from established hy the American Lundi, in eastern Washingem and Idaho, seemed to prosper for a trước in every ve yer in that for which the mis- Độc tìm Thoát hoped sol bergel for prosperity, They were practical people Like Post dliy lobend svih their hands, and drey cmght die wor dy garbacó about them by Paampie as well sa bor preto Thet ford and planted; they built chor how and koelboxuet ind chills and shops; they encouraged die Indios - help them, and gave them a generous share of the produen af their wint labor, as their reward. They not only sangin them to read and to pray, but they taught them also bow w make themselves more
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
comfortable homes, and to supply them more regularly, as well as more abundantly with food, and to dress better than they had ever done before. Their wives, with infinite pa- tience and tireless industry, went among the lodges, nursing the sick, teaching the women to sew and to cook, to knit, to spin and to weave, and 'so far as possible something of that cleanliness that is akin to godliness. They took the Indian children to their homes, where they taught them not alone from books, but in every other way, the homelier arts and customs of civilized life. Every day, and every hour of the day, had its duties, the discharge of which always required watchfulness and patience, and often the exercise of much Christian fortitude.
So long as the church and the school, and the work of plow- ing, planting and reaping; the building of houses and mills, and all the manifold occupations of the mission were new, the Indians were sufficiently attentive and helpful to give promise that they would ultimately be benefited. The missionaries did not hope for an instant change from the habits of savage to that of civilized life. They expected many failures and discouragements. Unfortunately this was al- most the only one of their expectations in which they were not disappointed.
But some progress was made at all the stations, except Smith's, and at Whitman's most of all. His own tireless energy, as well as skill in planning and arranging improve- ments and in meeting and overcoming difficulties, soon pro- duced a marked change in the appearance of the mission. Its site had been well chosen. The soil was fertile and easily brought under cultivation. By the aid of a little irrigation, which was easily provided by a ditch made without difficulty in the loose soil, wonderful crops were produced. A garden
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and orchard were planted. Year by year the cultivated area was increased, and what was better than all, a few of the Indians were induced to plant small fields and gardens of their own, and care for them in a more or less satisfactory way.
As the mission farm prospered its buildings were increased, until in 1841, when one of the small parties sent east of the mountains by the Wilkes expedition called there, it found "two houses, built of adobe with mud roofs, to insure a cooler habitation in summer. There were also a saw mill and some grist mills at this place, moved by water. All the premises look very comfortable. They have a fine kitch- en garden, in which grow all the vegetables raised in the United States, and several kinds of fine melons. The wheat, some of which stood seven feet high, was in full head, and nearly ripe; Indian corn was in tassel, and some of it meas- ured nine feet in height. They will reap this year about three hundred bushels of wheat, with a quantity of corn and potatoes." There were also a good-sized herd of cattle, some horses, sheep and swine.
One of the mission buildings was eighteen by sixty feet in size, with a half story above; the other was thirty by forty, with a full upper story. These buildings contained the rooms in which the family lived, also a school room, a large dining room, and dormitories for children, with several spare sleeping rooms for guests, for the mission meetings were held here, and on those occasions several guest cham- bers were required. There was also a blacksmith shop near the house, and barns and smaller outbuildings. The flour mill was on the bank of the creek near the mission; the saw mill was nearly twenty miles distant, and near the timber with which it was supplied.
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At Lapwai there was a large house in which there were eleven fireplaces; an Indian reception room; a room for spinning and weaving; a school room and a number of sleeping rooms. There was also a church, a saw mill and grist mill, and several shops, store houses and other build- ings.
Mrs. Spalding seems to have been a very remarkable woman in many ways. She easily made the Indian women her friends, and many of them came regularly to her house to be instructed in sewing, spinning, weaving and all the household arts. Some of them also attended her school, where she was also successful in teaching the Indian chil- dren. Mrs. Whitman was equally industrious, at Waiilatpu, though apparently not equally successful. She was by nature less sympathetic, though equally earnest, and equally interested in and attentive to her work. The Indian women did not approach her so readily as Mrs. Spalding, though children in time became devoted to her.
The Wilkes party found that the school at Waiilatpu was regularly attended by some twenty-five pupils, a few of whom "showed some little disposition to improve." But this was only one-fifth of all who had been enrolled. At Spalding's five hundred were enrolled and about one hundred attended regularly. "The great aim of the missionaries," the Wilkes report says, "is to teach the Indians that they may obtain a sufficient quantity of food by cultivating the ground. Many families now have patches of wheat, corn, and potatoes growing well, and a number of these are to be seen near the Mission farm."
But while things seemingly prospered in a worldly way for a time, there was but little apparent change of the kind the missionaries most hoped for and prayed for. A few of
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the Indians attended the religious services held for their benefit with regularity, and listened with apparent attention, but that change which is called conversion, though anxiously hoped for, rarely appeared. In March 1847 Mrs. Eells wrote her mother: "We have been here almost nine years, and have not yet been permitted to hear the cry of one peni- tent, or the songs of one redeemed soul. We often ask our- selves, why is it ? Yet we labor on hoping and waiting, and expecting that the seed, though long buried, will spring up and bear fruit."
But at Waiilatpu and Lapwai there were other evidences that the mission was not succeeding. The Indians who had received the missionaries at first with so many professions of good will, began gradually to treat them with disrespect. They refused to work unless paid more than they had for- merly asked, and sometimes they demanded that articles in constant use at the mission should be given them in addi- tion. They demanded pay also for the mission lands, for the wood, and even for the water used, claiming that all these were theirs and had been taken without their permis- sion. They demanded water from the Whitman irrigating ditch for their gardens, and when this was refused, because there was no more water than was needed at the mission, they made a rude ditch of their own, and closed that of the mission entirely. They claimed also that the mill was theirs, and sometimes when they brought grain to it they would threaten to take charge of it themselves if their grain was not ground immediately. They began to visit the school room for the sole purpose of making a disturbance, and showing their contempt for what was going on there. They thrust themselves into the kitchen, dining room, and even the living rooms, and helped themselves to food from the tables, and
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even from the stoves where it was cooking. Sometimes so many came and remained that the ordinary work could be carried on only with difficulty, and if told to leave would refuse, saying that the place was theirs and they would remain there as long as they wished. At Spalding's station they destroyed his mill race, and when he rebuilt it they tore it away again. They even took possession of the mill, and so far disarranged the machinery as to render it for a time useless.
One day some Indians rode up to Mrs. Spalding's school and began to make a disturbance. She tried to induce them to be quiet or go away, but did not succeed, and finally sent for Mr. Spalding. "I requested them to leave," says Mr. Spalding. "They refused. I sent for old James, as they belonged to his lodge. He refused to come. I went to him and found to my great surprise and sore grief that he counte- nanced the evil doers. Mark George and the whole camp joined the heathen party. Red Wolf turned away from me, and the two or three who discountenanced the deed, and joined the heathen party. Timothy, the Eagle, and Con- ner's father-in-law were the only three who openly discoun- tenanced the evil doers."
On April 17, 1841, two years after he and Eells had begun their work at Tshimakain, Walker wrote in his diary: "Oh, the stupidity of the people! How little the anxiety they feel in regard to their souls' concern, if we judge them by their actions. All they seem to think about is to gain some- thing of this world, and if they cannot get this we are of no use to them."
At Waiilatpu, in the summer of 1841 an Indian turned his horse into the mission grain fields, and when Whitman remon- strated with him he struck him twice. Gray, who was living
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at this station at the time, found it necessary to put an Indian out of the house because of his impudence, and a few days later other Indians called and ordered him to leave the place. When Whitman interfered one of the party attacked him. "I told him," says the doctor in describing what followed, "that if Indians came to Mr. Gray's, or my house, and re- fused to do as we desired, it was right for us to put them out. He then took hold of my ear and pulled it, and struck me on the breast, ordering me to hear-as much as to say we must let them do as they pleased about our houses. When he let go I turned the other to him and he pulled that, and in this way I let him pull first one and then the other until he gave over, and took my hat and threw it in the mud. I called on the Indians who were at work for Mr. G. to give it to me, and I put it on my head, when he took it off again and threw it in the same place. Again the Indians gave it to me and I put it on. With more violence he took it off and threw it in the mud and water, of which it dipped plentifully. Once more the Indians gave it back to me and I put it on, all mud as it was, and said 'perhaps you are play- ing.' A day or two after this McKay, another Indian, made a violent speech and forbade all the Indians to labor for us."
The Indians could not appreciate this conduct or respect those who thus meekly accepted the indignities they offered. Had Whitman consulted with the Hudson's Bay agents, all of whom were his friends, and most ready to help him at all times, he would easily have learned that he must manage these savages with firmness if he wished to manage without difficulty. Such people do not appreciate the Christian virtues. To turn the other cheek only excites their con- tempt and invites further indignities. To live among them
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safely one must follow Napoleon's principle and "first of all be master."
But there were other troubles than those made by the Indians, that disturbed the harmony of the mission, and threatened its destruction. Men are only human, no matter what their calling may be, and these men who had sacrificed so much and dared so much, could not after all lift them- selves above their own natures. Spalding was a man of most unhappy temperament. He had been one of Mrs. Whitman's early suitors, and she had refused him. For this he never forgave her, or her husband, and his bearing toward them was often such as to make cooperation in the general management of the mission affairs well nigh impos- sible .*
Gray also made trouble for all concerned. Although sent out as a mechanic, he was not content to be a subordinate, and all the other members of the mission found it difficult to live in peace with him. In the report of the general missionary board for the year following his return east for reinforcements, he was accredited as "physician and teacher," and against this Whitman protested, saying that an atten- dance at medical lectures for sixteen weeks was all the medical study or education he could boast. None of the missionaries he brought back with him in 1838 cared to have him for an assistant. Smith said he could scarcely receive him as a visitor, much less as an associate. So unwelcome was
* Mrs. Whitman has left this account of his conduct and its effect on the work of the mission in a letter to her father, dated Oct. 14, 1840: "The man who came with us is one who never ought to have come. My dear husband has suffered more from him, in consequence of his wicked jealousy, and his great pique toward me, than can be known in this world. But he suffers not alone-the whole mission suffers, which is most to be deplored. It has nearly broken up the mission."-Trans- actions Oregon Pioneer Association, 1893, pp. 128-133.
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he at all the stations that he sought permission in 1839 to start a new station of his own, but Eells and Walker ob- jected, and his plan was defeated, though Whitman and Spalding seem to have been willing to get rid of him in that way. He spent all of the succeeding winter at Spalding's but refused to do any work, although two mills were build- ing at the time, and the assistance of a mechanic would have been valuable. When they were nearly completed he pretended to take charge of them, giving the workmen to understand that Spalding had built them contrary to the in- structions of the board, and would soon be recalled, when he would probably be placed in charge. All this led to the utmost confusion, and tended greatly to weaken the influence of everybody with the Indians.
At nearly every meeting of these missionaries it was neces- sary to take action to reconcile some difference between Spalding and Gray, or between one or the other of them and Dr. Whitman, or the mission itself. Many reconciliations were made but none was lasting. Eells and Walker used their good offices as mediators, but were never able to bring about the permanent understanding that was so necessary to harmonious action.
The minutes of the various meetings of the local board, at which these disagreements were considered, were for- warded to the home office of the missionary board in Boston. Each of the disaffected members also wrote long letters to the general secretary, filled with minute details of their griev- ances, and equally minute explanations for the course each had pursued, with an occasional confession of error and promise of more considerate conduct in future. To these were added other letters from Eells and Walker, stating with more calmness than the parties themselves were able
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to do, the causes of disagreement, and always expressing the hope that things might in time improve. The board advised, admonished and waited. But matters did not improve and finally its prudential committee, at its February meeting in 1842, decided to order the stations at Waiilatpu, Lapwai and Kamiah discontinued, and that Spalding and Gray should return east, while Whitman should sell the property at his station and remove to Tshamikain.
While this order was on its way west, the seventh annual meeting of the mission was held at Waiilatpu. Its session lasted eight days, and much of the time was taken up with efforts to reconcile differences existing between its members. These were so successful that at its conclusion, the modera- tor, Rev. Walker, was able to assure the authorities in Boston that "The difficulties have been met and settled in a Chris- tian manner, and we feel that we now have reason to hope for permanent peace and harmony."
But this hope did not long endure. This reconciliation was not more lasting than those which had preceded it. Gray was already negotiating with the authorities at Fort Vancouver for a place for his wife as teacher in the school maintained there for the benefit of the children of the Com- pany's employees, and with the Methodist mission for a place for himself as secular agent for its school. The Company did not entertain the application in behalf of Mrs. Gray with favor, but the application on his own account was successful. He accordingly notified his associates of his wish to leave them.
The order of the prudential committee closing the south- ern station of the mission, and directing the return of Gray and Spalding to the States, reached Waiilatpu late in Septem- ber, and at the same time Gray presented his application
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for leave to withdraw. The mission was immediately sum- moned for a special meeting. Its members arrived at Whit- man's, the usual meeting place, on September 26th, and all of the 27th was spent in considering Gray's application. By the single vote of the moderator it was decided not to grant it. Then so far as the minutes show, the meeting adjourned. The important order of the prudential committee directing that all of the most important stations of the mission be closed, leaving but one to continue its work-an order that meant "death to the mission if it was put in force," as Mr. Walker wrote, was not considered at all.
This action of itself would indicate that all present, or a majority of them at least, were in no condition of mind to consider any matter of importance. Mr. Walker's journal clearly shows that this was so, and indicates the reason for it. For the three days the entries are as follows :
"Monday 26 . . . Reached the station of Dr. Whitman about 10, and found Mr. Spalding there. Did nothing of business till evening, and then had rather a short session dis- cussing Gray's case.
"Tuesday 27-We did not do much today. The doctor preferred some charges against myself and Mr. Eells, which we did not admit, and held him to the talk I had with him last summer.
"Wednesday 28-Rose this morning with the determina- tion to leave, and found Mr. Spalding had the same view, and was making preparations to leave as he felt that nothing could be done. At breakfast the doctor let out what was his plan, in view of the state of things. We persuaded them to get together and talk matters over. I think they felt some better afterwards. Then the question was submitted to us of the doctor's going home, which we felt that it was one
REV. ELKANAH WALKER.
From North Yarmouth, Me. He and his wife came with the Cushing Eells party to Oregon in 1838. Together with Eells, he established a missionary station at Tshimakain, which they maintained until after the Whitman massacre. During these years he mastered the language of the Spokane Indians, and prepared a small pamphlet, or primer, which was printed at Lapwai, and is perhaps the only publication in that language. After the massacre, he went to the Willamette, and died there about thirty years later.
1 ).
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
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of tor most important stations of the mission be wol, leaving but one to continue its work - an order that tas "dajak to the mission if it was put in force," as Mr. dley write, was and considered at all.
Tin senon al wæelf would indicate that all present, or a mon of des & bus, were in no condition of mind to for log min importance. Mr. Walker's journal sew io dua rok wo, and indicates the reason for Two h ibne dom the entries are as follows :
Mewched the station of Dr. Whitman tto ir Spalding there. Did nothing of IR trong wod thien had rather a short se sion dis-
We did not do much today. The doctor against myself and M. Bells, which , ch hund him to the đối l had with him last
"lu .à R the mormim. nå de determina- - M. Spalding Wad the same view, just to leave ashe felt that nothing A Weak last Ine doctor let out what was his you sure of things. We persuaded them to gui matters over. I think they felt some berger Them the quemun was submitted to us of the doors ume, which we felt that it was one
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OF AN AMERICAN STATE
of too much importance to be decided in a moment, but finally came to the conclusion that if he could put things in such a state that it would be safe, we could consent to his going, and with that left them and made a start for home."
During this informal conference a resolution was prepared and signed by all present approving of the withdrawal of Gray and wife from the mission. Another and far more important resolution was as follows :
" Resolved; That if arrangements can be made to con- tinue the operations of this station, that Dr. Whitman be at liberty and advised to visit the United States, as soon as practicable, to confer with the committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in regard to the interests of this mission.
E. Walker, Moderator. Cushing Eells, Scribe. H. H. Spalding.
"Waiilatpu, Sept. 28, 1842."
No entry of either of these resolutions was made in the minutes of the mission. All was done informally and after very hasty consideration. And yet the members, in all the years of their association together, had never before discussed or decided a matter of so much importance to themselves or to their work. It is quite conceivable that on considering Gray's request with more calmness than they had been able to give it in a formal meeting, where the members were mak- ing charges against each other, that each had concluded for himself that Gray's withdrawal would at least be conducive to harmony, and though they might not like the manner of it, it would be best to let him go. But the other resolution pertained to a far more serious matter. By assenting to it they permitted one of their number to attempt a most dangerous undertaking. There remained but two more days
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