Settlers in 1836.—Wallamet Cattle Company.—What good have the missionaries done?—Rev. J. Lee and party.—The Hudson’s Bay Company recommend the Wallamet.—Missionaries not dependent on the company.—Rev. S. Parker arrives at Vancouver.

There were in the country, in the winter of 1836, besides those connected with the Hudson’s Bay Company and the missions, about fifteen men, all told. The two missions numbered seven men and two women, making the American population about twenty-five persons. To bring the outsiders from the Hudson’s Bay Company and the two missions into subjection, and to keep them under proper control, it was necessary to use all the influence the Methodist Mission had. They, as a matter of interest and policy, furnished to such as showed a meek and humble disposition, labor, and such means as they could spare from their stores, and encouraged them to marry the native women they might have, or be disposed to take, and become settlers about the mission. Such as were not disposed to submit to the government of the mission, or the Hudson’s Bay Company, like Mr. E. Young, Carmichael, and Killmer, were “left out in the cold.” They could get no supplies, and no employment. They were literally outcasts from society, and considered as outlaws and intruders in the country. All seemed anxious to get rid of them.

McCarty, the companion of Mr. Young from California to Oregon, had fallen out with him on the way, as Young was bringing to the country a band of California horses (brood mares). McCarty, it seems, to be avenged on Young, reported to Dr. McLaughlin and the mission that Young had stolen his band of horses (though it has since been stated upon good authority that such was not the case); still McCarty was (I understand) a member of the class-meeting, on probation. His statements were received as truth, and Young suffered. Young was a stirring, ambitious man; he had spent some time in the Rocky Mountains, and in Santa FÉ and California, and the little property he could get he had invested in horses, and brought them to Oregon. This fact, with the malicious reports circulated about him, made him an object of suspicion and contempt on the part of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the mission. We find that Mr. Lee treated Mr. Young as an honest man, and, consequently, fell under the displeasure of Dr. McLaughlin and the Hudson’s Bay Company. With Mr. Young, Mr. Lee succeeded in getting up the first cattle company, and gave the first blow toward breaking up the despotism and power of the company. Mr. Young, as Mr. Lee informed us, was the only man in the country he could rely upon, in carrying out his plan to supply the settlement with cattle. He was aware of the stories in circulation about him, and of the want of confidence in him in the mission and among the French-Canadians and Hudson’s Bay Company. To obviate this difficulty, he suggested that Mr. P. L. Edwards, a member of the mission, should go as treasurer of the company, and Mr. Young as captain. This brought harmony into the arrangement, and a ready subscription to the stock of the Wallamet Cattle Company, all being anxious to obtain cattle. But few of the settlers had any means at command. Many of the discharged servants of the Hudson’s Bay Company had credit on their books. There were outside men enough in the country willing to volunteer to go for the cattle, and receive their pay in cattle when they arrived with the band in Oregon. This brought the matter directly to the Hudson’s Bay Company, and to Dr. McLaughlin. Rev. Jason Lee received the orders of the company’s servants, went to Vancouver, and learned from the clerks in the office the amounts due the drawers, then went to the Doctor, and insisted that certain amounts should be paid on those orders.

The Doctor very reluctantly consented to allow the money or drafts to be paid. This amount, with all the mission and settlers could raise, would still have been too small to justify the party in starting, but W. A. Slacum, Esq., of the United States navy, being on a visit to the country, Mr. Lee stated the condition of matters to him. Mr. Slacum at once subscribed the requisite stock, and advanced all the money the mission wished on their stock, taking mission drafts on their Board, and gave a free passage to California for the whole party. (As the missionaries would say, “Bless God for brother Slacum’s providential arrival among us.”) Uncle Sam had the right man in the right place that time. It was but a little that he did; yet that little, what mighty results have grown out of it!

On the 19th of January, 1837, six days after Mr. Young had given up his projected distillery, he is on board Mr. Slacum’s brig Lariat, lying off the mouth of the Wallamet River, and on his way to California with a company of stout-hearted men, eight (I think) in all, not to steal horses or cheat the miserable savages, and equally miserable settlers, out of their little productive labor, but to bring a band of cattle to benefit the whole country. In this connection, I could not do justice to all without quoting a paragraph which I find in Rev. G. Hines’ history of the Oregon missions. He says:—

“Mr. Slacum’s vessel left the Columbia River about the first of February, and arrived safely in the bay of San Francisco, on the coast of California. The cattle company proceeded immediately to purchase a large band of cattle and a number of horses, with which they started for Oregon. In crossing a range of mountains (Rogue River Mountains), they were attacked by the rascally Indians, and a number of their cattle were killed, but they at length succeeded in driving back their foe and saving the remainder. Contrary to the predictions and wishes of the members of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who INDIRECTLY OPPOSED them at the outset, they arrived in safety in the Wallamet Valley with six hundred head of cattle, and distributed them among the settlers, according to the provisions of the compact. This successful enterprise, which laid the foundation for a rapid accumulation of wealth by the settlers, was mainly accomplished through the energy and perseverance of Rev. Jason Lee.”

What good have the missionaries done in the country? I do not know how Mr. Hines arrived at the conclusion that the Hudson’s Bay Company “indirectly opposed” this cattle expedition. I know they did it directly, and it was only through the influence of Rev. J. Lee, and Mr. Slacum, of the United States navy, that they could have succeeded at all. Mr. Lee, in his conversation with Dr. McLaughlin, told that gentleman directly that it was of no use for the company to oppose the expedition any more; the party was made up, and the men were on the way, and the cattle would come as per engagement, unless the men were lost at sea. The Hudson’s Bay Company yielded the point only on the failure of the Rogue River Indians to destroy the expedition. Mr. Slacum placed it beyond their control to stop it. The courage of the men was superior to the company’s Indian allies. The cattle came, and no thanks to any of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s generosity, patronage, or power. They did all they dared to do, openly and secretly, to prevent the bringing of that band of cattle into the country; and, determining to monopolize the country as far as possible, they at once entered upon the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, under the auspices of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the English government.

Do you ask me how I know these things? Simply by being at Vancouver the day the brig dropped down the Columbia River, and listening to the discussion excited on the subject, and to the proposition and plan of the Puget Sound Company among the gentlemen concerned in getting it up.

The mission of the American Board had no stock in the cattle company of the Wallamet, not venturing to incur the displeasure of the Hudson’s Bay Company by expressing an opinion any way upon it. The writer was picking up items and preparing for a trip to New York overland, with one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s traders, Mr. Francis (or Frank) Ermatinger. While in New York, Cincinnati, and other places, he stated the fact that the Methodist missionaries had fallen under the displeasure of the Hudson’s Bay Company in entering too freely into trade and speculation in cattle in the country. Truth and justice to them require that I enter fully into their transactions as men and missionaries.

Rev. J. Lee, it will be remembered, was the first man to answer the call of the Indian to come to his country. The Methodist Board had been formed, and J. Lee accepted their invitation and patronage. In this expedition he gathered his associates, and at the same time made arrangements for future supplies to arrive by sea, coming around Cape Horn. Captain Wyeth was in Boston, getting up a trading expedition, and chartering a vessel for the mouth of the Columbia River, the May Dacre. On board Captain Lambert’s brig Captain Wyeth and the Methodist Board shipped their goods for the two expeditions. The goods on the way, it became necessary for the future objects of the mission to have a few horses to carry on the improvements necessary to a civilized life. Lee and associates start across the continent. Missouri is the most western limit of civilization. They reach it, purchase their outfit, and, in company with Captain Wyeth, reach Fort Hall; here they fall in with Thomas McKay and our English nobleman, Captain Stewart. Captain Wyeth stopped to build his fort, while McKay, Stewart, Lee, Dr. Nutall, Townsend, and parties all made their way to Wallawalla, on the Columbia River. The supreme selfishness of the Hudson’s Bay Company seems here to begin to develop itself. Lee and party were made to believe that the Flathead tribe, who had sent their messengers for teachers, were not only a small, but a very distant tribe, and very disadvantageously situated for the establishment and support of a missionary among them. These statements determined them to proceed to the lower Columbia, to find a better location to commence operations. Leaving their horses at Wallawalla, in charge of one of their party, they proceeded down the Columbia in one of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s boats, being eleven days in reaching the fort, and one hundred and fifty-two days on the way from Missouri. They were kindly received by the gentlemen of the fort, and in two days were on the hunt for a location.

The party that arrived just two years later, with two ladies, were not allowed to leave the fort to look for locations till they had remained twelve days, and been invited to ride all over the farm, and visit the ships, and eat melons and apples (being always cautioned to save all the seeds for planting).

Lee and party were frank to make known to the company their object, and plans of future operations. Questions of trade and morality were comparatively new with the company. As religious teachers and Christian men they had no suspicions of any interference in trade. Mr. Lee hailed from Canada, and so did Dr. McLaughlin and a large number of the servants of the company.

“Mr. Lee is the man we want to instruct our retired servants in religious matters. Mr. Shepard will be an excellent man to take charge of our little private school; we have commenced with a Mr. S. H. Smith, who has found his way into this country, in company with Captain Wyeth, an opposition fur trader and salmon catcher. We do not know much about him, but if you will allow Mr. Shepard to take charge of our school till you can make other arrangements, and you require his services, we will make it all right.”

This arrangement placed the labor of selecting locations and the necessary explorations upon our friend Jason Lee. All being smooth and cordial with the company, Lee proceeds to French Prairie and up the river till he reaches a point ten miles below Salem, about two miles above Jarvie’s old place, and makes his first location. From all the information he could gather, this was the most central point to reach the greatest number of Indians and allow the largest number of French and half-native population to collect around the station. In this expedition he occupied about ten days. The whole country was before them—a wilderness two thousand six hundred miles broad, extending from the gulf of California on the south, to the Russian settlements on the north, with a few scattering stations among the border Indians along the western territories of Missouri, and the great unknown, unexplored west, which the American Board, in a book published in 1862, page 380, says, “brought to light no field for a great and successful mission,” showing that, for twenty-five years, they have neglected to give this country the attention its present position and importance demanded, and also a total neglect on their part to select and sustain proper men in this vast missionary field. They are willing now to plead ignorance, by saying, “Rev. Samuel Parker’s exploring tour beyond the Rocky Mountains in 1836 and 1837 (but two years after the Rev. J. Lee came to it) brought to light no field for a great and successful mission,” and console themselves by asserting a popular idea as having originated from Mr. Parker’s exploration, “a practicable route for a railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific.” Mr. Parker never originated or thought of the practicability of the route till after Dr. Whitman had left his wagon at Fort Boise, and demonstrated the fact of a practicable wagon route. Then Mr. Parker, to give his work or journal a wider circulation, talked about a railroad. The American Board, I am sorry to feel and think, are good at attempting to catch at straws when important missionary objects have been faithfully placed before them.

Let us return to Mr. Lee. On Saturday, September 27, 1834, he was in council with Dr. McLaughlin, at Vancouver. The result of his observations were fully canvassed; the condition and prospects of the Indians and half-natives, Canadian-French, straggling sailors and hunters that might find their way into the country, were all called before this council. The call from the Flathead Indians and the Nez PercÉs was not forgotten. The Wallamet Valley had the best advocate in Dr. John McLaughlin. He “strongly recommended it, as did the other gentlemen of Vancouver, as the most eligible place for the establishment of the center of their operations.” This located that mission under the direct supervision and inspection of the Hudson’s Bay Company, and, at the same time, placed the American settlement south of the Columbia River.

Mr. Lee, the next day, was invited to preach in the fort. All shades of colors and sects attended this first preaching in the wilderness of Oregon. The effect in three months was the baptizing of four adults and seventeen children.

The Protestant missions were not dependent on the Hudson’s Bay Company for supplies any more than the Sandwich Islands were, or the American Fur Company. If such were the fact, that they were dependent upon the Hudson’s Bay Company, the missionaries themselves and the Boards that sent them to Oregon must have been a set of foolish men, not competent to conduct the commonest affairs of life. The idea that seven men and two women should be sent to a distant wilderness and savage country, and no provisions made for their subsistence and future supplies, is one originated without a soul, a lie to produce effect, a slander upon common honesty and common-sense Christianity. Whitman’s party left in the Rocky Mountains a better set of tools than could be found in Vancouver. They brought seeds of all kinds. They had no occasion to ask of the Hudson’s Bay Company a single seed for farming purposes, a single thing in establishing their mission,—only as they had disposed of things at the suggestion of McLeod and McKay as unnecessary to pack them further. Arrangements were made to forward around Cape Horn, as soon as was deemed necessary, such articles and supplies as might be required. Rev. Jason Lee and party did not arrive in the country (as those who have all along attempted to insinuate and make a stranger to the facts believe, and in 1865 claim the sum of $3,822,036.67 for stealing credit due to others, and preventing the good others might have done to the natives in advancing them in the scale of civilization) destitute and dependent upon the Hudson’s Bay Company for supplies. On the contrary, by the time they had selected their station, the goods on the brig May Dacre had arrived, and were ready to be landed at the lower mouth of the Wallamet River. These goods, whether suitable or not, were all received and conveyed to the station selected by Mr. Lee by the 6th of October. The rainy season soon commenced; they had no shelter for themselves or their goods. All old Oregonians who have not been seduced and brought up by the Hudson’s Bay Company can comprehend the condition they were in. Rev. Jason Lee, like Dr. Whitman with his old wagon, had undertaken a work he meant to accomplish. His religion was practical. Work, labor, preach, and practice his own precepts, and demonstrate the truth of his own doctrines. Religion and labor were synonymous with him, and well did the noble Shepard, though but a lay member of the mission and the church, labor and sustain him. These two men were really the soul and life of the mission, as Dr. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding were of the American Board. During the first winter, 1834-5, they were wholly occupied in building their houses and preparing for the cultivation of the land for their own subsistence. There was no alternative; it was work or starve. Rev. Jason Lee set the example. He held the plow, with an Indian boy to drive, in commencing his farming operations. The first year they produced enough for home consumption in wheat, peas, oats, and barley, and abundance of potatoes, with a few barrels of salt salmon. The superintendent of the mission put up at the Wallamet Falls late in the season of 1834. They had a supply of their own for the first year. It is true they did not have superfine flour to eat, but they had plenty of pounded and boiled wheat, and a change to pea and barley soup, with oats for the chickens they had received from the vessel.

Daniel Lee soon falls sick, and Edwards becomes dissatisfied. They both arrange to leave the country on the May Dacre. Rev. D. Lee is advised to go to the Sandwich Islands, and Edwards is induced to undertake an independent school at Champoeg.

Shepard toils on with his Indian and half-native school. Mr. Lee preaches and labors at the mission among the French, and at Vancouver.

In October, 1835, Rev. S. Parker arrived at Vancouver. In November he made a flying visit to Mr. Lee’s mission. His Presbyterian spectacles were not adapted to correct observations on Methodist Episcopal missions. He was inclined to pronounce their efforts a failure. This impression of Mr. Parker’s arose from the fact, that no female influence, except that of the natives of the country, was seen or felt about the mission. His impressions were also quite unfavorable to the Hudson’s Bay Company from the same cause. These impressions were, at the suggestion of the writer, omitted in his first published journal. Four months after Mr. Parker’s visit to Mr. Lee’s mission, we find the gentlemen of the Hudson’s Bay Company making a handsome donation to Mr. Lee’s mission of $130, including a handsome prayer for a blessing upon their labors, in the following words: “And they pray our heavenly Father, without whose assistance we can do nothing, that of his infinite mercy he may vouchsafe to bless and prosper your pious endeavors.” This is signed in behalf of the donors by John McLaughlin.