Methodist Mission in Oregon

In 1832, four Nez Perce Indians and Salish (also known as Flatheads) traveled to St. Louis, Missouri. They sought out a meeting with General William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition per the instructions of their tribe. General Clark was trusted, having met with their fathers and hearing the stories of his greatness from them. They viewed him as "the first great chief of the white man to visit their nation" and wanted to inquire about the "book of which they were informed by the hunters, which the Great Spirit had given the white man to teach them his will." General Clark was asked about the event two years later and recounted that two of the four had fallen ill and died while still in St. Louis. The other two embarked on the return journey home with word eventually returning that one had died during the voyage and the other had made it to his destination. There was speculation as to how truthful this ending of the story was and that both had likely perished along the way. The visit of St. Louis by the delegation was announced by William Walker, a Wydandot Methodist, who published an article in the Christian Advocate and Journal. The editorial inspired the Methodist Episcopal Church and other churches to begin the first transcontinental missions in Oregon Country. President Willbur Fisk of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut was the first church leader to respond, by advising the establishment of a mission among the "Flathead" people. A former student of his, Jason Lee, and his nephew Rev. Daniel Lee volunteered to serve as ministers in Oregon. The entrepreneur Nathaniel Jarvis Wyeth was contacted by the Methodists to travel overland with his party and to ship supplies around Cape Horn on Wyeth's ship May Dacre, a proposition he agreed to. ==Early years==

The now Rev. Lee left Boston for St. Louis in March 1834 with Daniel Lee, to rendezvous with Wyeth and his group. Along the way two laypersons, Cyrus Shepard from Boston, Massachusetts, and Philip Leget Edwards, from Missouri were hired by Daniel to accompany them. After crossing the continent the Methodists met Thomas McKay of the British Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) at Wyeth's recently created Fort Hall. McKay guided the group all the way to Fort Vancouver, headquarters of the HBC Columbia District, in what is now Vancouver, Washington. Lee and his companions were greeted by Chief Factor John McLoughlin, district director of the HBC. McLoughlin recommended the Willamette Valley as a better spot for settlement than the area to the north where the Flathead lived. Upon entering the valley, the Methodists came in contact with the Kalapuya, residents of the Willamette Valley. Epidemics of malaria had begun to afflict the Kalapuya and neighboring Chinookan peoples of the Lower Columbia region starting in 1830, and continued throughout the decade. While accurate reports of population numbers of local indigenous peoples are few, the diseases certainly decimated their populations. Upon visiting the various indigenous tribes of the Lower Columbia region, Daniel Lee reported that they were the "most degraded human beings that we have met", and concluded that "the time is not far distant when the last deathwail will proclaim their universal extermination." It is often said that on September 28, 1834, Rev. Jason Lee preached the first Protestant sermon on the Pacific coast, yet, to be precise, he was perhaps fifty miles from the Pacific coast. Mission Bottom Lee ignored the missionary board's instructions and set up a mission located 60 miles up the Willamette River from its junction with the Columbia. In March 1836, Rev. Lee wrote to Dr. Fisk telling of the need for tradesmen and farmers to relieve the staff of temporal duties. This resulted in additional members being sent in 1836 and 1837. In the same year the Methodists received a small donation from McLoughlin and other employees of the HBC, hoping that God would "bless and prosper your pious endeavours." Arriving in May 1837 at Fort Vancouver on the ship Diana was a party of seven adults and four children under the leadership of Dr. Elijah White. Included in the party was White's wife, William H. Willson, Anna Maria Pittman, Alanson Beers, Susan Downing, and Elvira Johnson. Several marriages were soon contracted, with a double marriage ceremony of Jason Lee to Anna Pittman and Cyrus Shepard to Susan Downing occurring on June 16, 1837. A second group consisting of a teacher, Margaret Jewett Bailey, and two more ministers, David Leslie and H. K. W. Perkins, arrived at the Mission on September 7, 1837. As the number of members increased, missionaries added a large granary and hospital to Mission Bottom and eventually a small retail store was opened. The mission also began to provide for the protection of American immigrants in the area by appointing a magistrate and constable in 1838. John Sutter, while traveling to Alta California, visited the Mission Bottom over several weeks in 1838. ==Expansion==

By the end of 1837 Lee was leading a community divided about his leadership. The community advised him to return to the east as it "would result advantageously to himself and the mission." Additionally a petition was sent to him from fellow missionaries advising he resign as superintendent. In March 1838, Jason Lee and Phillip Edwards began the planned visit to the United States to recruit more laborers for the mission. Before departing Lee appointed David Leslie as acting superintendent. While the Methodists and Chinooks were holding a speech in Peoria, Illinois, Thomas Adams fell ill and stayed there to recover. His stories of the lands west of the Rocky Mountains helped inspire the Peoria Party. The main mercantile store of the Mission was transferred to Oregon City in August 1842. While meeting with the Umpquas, one chief stressed that their reputation of being "a bad people" was undeserved and they desired for a priest. The negative impression of the Umpquas was gained after the murder of the majority of a fur trapping party under Jedediah Smith in 1828. The Methodists however never opened a station among the Umpquas, with Hines concluding: The Umpqua tribe, but a few years ago numbering several hundred, by disease and their family wars has been reduced to less than seventy-five souls. Under the impression that the doom of extinction is suspended over this wretched race, and that the hand of Providence is removing them to give place to a people more worthy of this beautiful and fertile country,... ==Educational efforts==

When the housing at the Mission Bottom was complete, the Indian Mission School was built to be used to teach the Native American children the ways of Western society. Cyrus Shepard became the first teacher of the school in March 1835. The students came from a variety of Native tribes, which over the years included Kalapuyas, Cayuses, Chehalis (the Sts'ailes, and the Upper and Lower Chehalis peoples), Walla Wallas, Iroquois, Shastas, Tillamooks, Klickitats, Umpquas, Chinooks, and even Hawaiians. Additionally there was participation from the children of the French-Canadian settlers and Native wives. Besides being the main source of labor for maintaining the growing farms, the students also hunted game for the mission. The initial class had 14 Native students though during the summer upwards of 40 were in attendance. Over the years illness from exposure to new diseases killed many students, and some ran away. Relatives of deceased students sometimes blamed the Methodists and occasionally attempted to get revenge, though no acts of violence have been recorded. Shepard died on January 1, 1840, and the school went into a decline without his teaching abilities. The school was relocated to the Mission Mill in 1842 in a building under construction with a budget of $40,000 planned to accommodate upwards of 300 students. A song taught to the girls of the school illustrates the limitations of using Chinook Jargon to preach religious concepts. After almost a decade of operation the viability of the school was in doubt. An assessment by mission members was not promising with the most positive feature being "quite a number had experienced religion here and died when in school and hopefully gone to heaven." The students at that time were cultivating 34 acres fields of peas, potatoes, wheat and oats outside the school. Runaway students were treated as "criminals", and when caught "[they were] put in chains, severely whipped, &c., &c., guarded and kept in a high enclosure, like prisoners." Oregon Institute In Salem on January 17, 1842, at Jason Lee's home, a group of settlers met and formed the Oregon Institute as a school for the Euro-American children in the area, eventually evolving into present-day Willamette University. A ten-person board of trustees was created; they selected the Wallace House three miles north of Salem to serve as the school. Later in 1844, the school opened in the new building intended for the indigenous with Chloe A. Clark Willson as the first teacher of the school, considered the first for European-American children west of the state of Missouri. (Note: Early Oregon histories bragged that this was the first school for European Americans west of the Mississippi River, but St. Louis Academy was founded by Jesuits in St Louis, Missouri in 1818.) ==Reduction of mission activities==

There was considerable concern that the account of the mission had been "injudiciously managed" by the board in 1841. While David Leslie had remained supportive of Lee, it wasn't enough to counter the negative appraisals. After 14 years of operation the Methodists had 348 members in Oregon, the vast majority being settlers. Before the division of the Oregon and California Conference in 1852, California already surpassed Oregon for number of Methodist converts. ==Legacy==

With the flood in 1861, all buildings at the Mission Bottom site were washed away except the granary and hospital. Some of the original structures of the Willamette station may be seen at Mission Mill Museum located in Salem. A city street and a cemetery in Salem bear the name of Jason Lee. A statue of Jason Lee stands in the U. S. Capitol Building's Statuary Hall in Washington, D.C. as one of the two statues allotted to the state of Oregon. ==See also==