  THE MISSIONARY PERIOD In the preceding chapter we learned that the various attempts of American trappers and fur companies to control the fur trade of Oregon failed. The Hudson's Bay Company was too firmly entrenched in its vast domain to be loosened by any business of its own kind. Nor would there have been any special advantage to the United States or the world in dislodging the great British company and substituting an American enterprise of the same sort. The aims and policy of all fur companies were the same: i. e., to keep the country a wilderness, to trade with the natives and derive a fortune from the lavish bounty of wild animal life. The Hudson's Bay Company was as good as any enterprise of its type could be. The unfortunate fact was not so much that it was the British who were skimming the cream of the wilderness, as that the regime of any fur company was necessarily antagonistic to that incoming tide of settlers who would bring with them the home, the shop, the road, the church, the school, in short, civilization. Hence the necessary policy of the great fur company was to discourage immigration, or, in fact, any form of enterprise which would utilize the latent agricultural, pastoral, and manufacturing resources of Oregon. This policy existed, in spite of the fact (of which we shall see many illustrations later) that individual managers and officers of the company were often of broad and benevolent character and predisposed to extending a cordial welcome to the advance guard of American immigration. A few stray Americans had drifted to Oregon and California with the hope of inaugurating enterprises that would lead to American occupation. In general, however, the land beyond the Rockies was as dark a continent as Africa. But in 1832 a strange and interesting event occurred which unlocked the gates of the western wilderness and led in a train of conditions which made American settlement and ownership a logical result. In 1832 a party of four Indians from the Far West appeared at St. Louis on a strange quest—seeking the "White Man's Book of Life." Efforts have been made by certain recent writers to belittle or discredit this event, for no very apparent reason unless it be that general disposition of some of the so-called critical school of investigators to spoil anything that appeals to the gentler or nobler emotions, and especially to appose the idea that men are susceptible to any motives of religion or human sympathy or any other spirit than the mercenary and materialistic. But there can be no question about the journey of these four Indians, nor can there be any reasonable doubt that their aim was to secure religious instruction for their people. The details of the journey and the nature of the expectations of the tribe and of the envoys might of course be variously understood and stated, but the general statements given by reliable contemporary authorities are not open to doubt. To what tribe the Indians belonged seems uncertain. It has been stated by some that they were Flatheads and that tribe, though quite widely dispersed, had their principal habitat in what is now Northern Idaho and Northwestern Montana. Miss Kate McBeth, for many years a missionary to the Nez PercÉ Indians, and located at Kamiah and then at Lapwai, near Lewiston, thought that three of the Indians were Nez Perces and one a Flathead. Nor is it known how those Indians got the notion of a "Book of Life." Bonneville states in his journal that Pierre Pambrun, the agent at Fort Walla Walla, taught the Indians the rudiments of Catholic worship. Some have conjectured that the American trapper, Jedadiah Smith, a devout Christian, may have imparted religious instruction. Miss McBeth formed the impression that their chief hope was that they might find Lewis and Clark, whose journey in 1805-6 had produced a profound effect on the Nez Perces. It is interesting to note that Clark was at the very time of this visit of the Indians the superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis. He has left no statement as to the location of these Indians, though he referred to the fact of their visit to several passers who have recorded his statements. The first published account of this visit appeared in the New York Christian Advocate, of March 1, 1833. This was in the form of a letter from G. P. Disoway, who had charge of the removal of certain Indians to a reservation west of St. Louis. In his letter Disoway enclosed one from William Walker, an interpreter for the Wyandotte Indians. Walker had met the four Indians in General Clark's office in St. Louis. He was impressed with their appearance, and learned that General Clark had given them some account of the origin and history of man, of the coming of the Savior, and of his work for the salvation of men. According to Walker, two of the Indians died in St. Louis. As to whether the others reached their home he did not know. Walker's account was confirmed in a most valuable way by George Catlin, the noted painter and student of Indian life. He was making a journey up the Missouri River on one of the first steamers to ascend that stream to Fort Benton. In the Smithsonian Report for 1885 can be found Catlin's account, as follows: "These two men, when I painted them, were in beautiful Sioux dresses which had been presented to them in a talk with the Sioux, who treated them very kindly, while passing through the Sioux country. These two men were part of a delegation that came across the mountains to St. Louis a few years since, to inquire for the truth of the representations which they said some white men had made among them, that our religion was better than theirs, and that they would all be lost if they did not embrace it. Two old and venerable men of this party died in St. Louis, and I travelled 2,000 miles, companion with these two fellows, toward their own country, and became much pleased with their manners and dispositions. When I first heard the objects of their extraordinary mission across the mountains, I could scarcely believe it; but on conversing with General Clark on a future occasion, I was fully convinced of the fact." Rather curiously Catlin speaks of these Indians as being Flatheads or Nez Perces, as though the two tribes were identical. DR. MARCUS WHITMAN The letter of Disoway in the Christian Advocate was discussed in the Illinois Patriot of October, 1833, together with the statement that the subject had excited so much interest that a committee of the Illinois Synod had been appointed to report on the duty of the churches. The committee went to St. Louis and conferred with General Clark, receiving from him a confirmation of the report. When this pathetic story, together with the stirring appeal of the committee, had reached the Christian people of the country, it produced a profound impression, although, quite curiously, the little book by Lee and Frost of the first Methodist Mission, which passed through St. Louis in 1834, and whose members conferred with Gen. Clark, refers rather slightingly to the event. The decades of the '20s and '30s were a time of deep religious sentiment. It was the beginning of the Missionary movements of the century. To the sensitive souls of the time this unheralded call from the Far West seemed a veritable Macedonian cry. From it sprang the Christian Missions of Oregon. And the missionaries were the advance guard of immigration. And the immigration decided that the American home-builder and farmer should own Oregon, rather than that the British fur-trader and the Indians should keep it as a game preserve and fur depot. It would indeed be too much to say that American ownership of Oregon would not have resulted, if it had not been for the missionaries. But it may safely be said that the acquisition would have been delayed and that there would have been many more chances of failure, if the missionaries had not fitted into the evolution of the drama just as and just when they did. The missionary period was an essential one, coming between that of the fur-traders and that of the immigrants. While the scope of our undertaking requires us to confine our narration mainly to the area covered in this history, yet in order to preserve the historical continuity and to exhibit the forces which led to subsequent developments, we must enlarge the picture enough to include glimpses of the mission locations outside of Walla Walla. The first of the Christian Crusaders to respond to the Macedonian call from Oregon was a party under Jason Lee of the Methodist Church. This party came to Oregon in 1834 in company with Nathaniel Wyeth, the American trader, of whose bold and worthy, and yet unsuccessful undertakings we have spoken in Chapter Four. Reaching Vancouver, the missionaries presented themselves to Doctor McLoughlin, the chief factor. He met them with every expression of generous goodwill and advised them to locate in the Willamette Valley rather than among the tribes from whom had proceeded the Macedonian call. As a result, Lee with his assistants, located at Chemawa, near the present Salem, Ore. From that mission sprang the first permanent American settlement, the native name of which was Chemeketa, place of Council, or peace-ground. The missionaries gave it the Bible equivalent, Salem, a proceeding of more piety than good judgment. The Willamette University of the present is the offspring of the school started by the missionaries for the Indian children, and within a few years modified so as to meet the needs of the white children. For that earliest mission, like the later, discovered that this great work, after all, must be for the white race, not for the Indians. The next year after the coming of the Lee party, another movement was initiated which was destined to have a most intimate connection with Walla Walla. For in 1835, the man who became the first white man, aside from the fur trappers and traders, in the Walla Walla Valley, left his home in New York for Oregon. This was Dr. Marcus Whitman, who, more than any other one man, put Walla Walla on the map of the world. In 1835, Doctor Whitman, in As a result of Doctor Whitman's return, a party consisting of himself and his bride, Narcissa Prentiss, and Rev. H. H. Spalding and his newly wedded bride, Eliza Hart, set forth in 1836 for Oregon. With them was William H. Gray as secular agent and general manager. With the party also were two Indian boys who had accompanied Doctor Whitman the year before on his return from Green River. Of this bridal journey of 4,000 miles, most of it on horseback, our space permits only a few hurried views. Aside from the momentous results in the history of Oregon and the United States, the story is one of heroism and devotion which has few parallels, and the record closes with a martyr's crown for Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. Among the precious relics in Whitman College, is Mrs. Whitman's diary of the journey, and also that of Mrs. Spalding. That of Mrs. Whitman was made by herself from notes on the way and was sent from Vancouver to her parents upon the completion of the journey. Its heading is as follows: "Narcissa Whitman's Diary of a Missionary Tour West of the Rocky Mountains performed 1836. Being the first white female ever beyond the mountains on the continent. The journey was performed on horseback—a distance of 4,000 miles. She, in company with her husband, Marcus Whitman, M. D., and H. H. Spalding and wife, left the state of New York for this tour in February of 1836—travelled through a part of Pennsylvania, Ohio—and finally arrived at St. Louis in Missouri. Here they joined the Fur Company that crosses the mountains every year—and were also joined by Messrs. Suturly [SaturleÉ in Mrs. Spalding's diary] and Gray—missionaries to the West. Matters thus arranged they all left St. Louis in March—for the 'far West.' The further particulars of the journey may be learned from the following extracts from her journal taken on the way." Following this heading is a letter addressed to her parents, dated Vancouver, October 20, 1836, in which she says that the journal covers the journey from the "Rendezvous," and that while at Vancouver she had been so situated that she could copy her notes taken on the way. The party had crossed the Great Divide on July 4th, and on that day celebrated the natal day of the country, and as they looked down the long vista westward, seem to have felt that they would claim possession of that western land in the name of the American Union and the Church of Jesus Christ. They had reached the "Rendezvous" on Green River July 6th. After several days there, refitting and resting and conferring with Indians, they resumed the next great stage of the march with a detachment of the Hudson's Bay Company, under Mr. McLeod, bound for Walla Walla. It was July 18, 1836, when they set forth under these new auspices. A company of Flathead and Nez PercÉ Indians also travelled with them. It appears from the diary of Mrs. Spalding that the Nez Perces were very anxious that "Dear H. (This was her sister Harriet, to whom she is especially addressing the words): The little trunk you gave me has come thus with me so far and now I must leave it here alone. Poor little trunk! I am sorry to leave thee. Thou must abide here alone and no more by thy presence remind me of my dear Harriet. Twenty miles below the falls on Snake River, this shall be thy place of rest. Farewell, little trunk. I thank thee for thy faithful services, and that I have been cheered by thy presence so long. Thus we scatter as we go along." A little later it appears that Mr. McKay rescued the trunk. Mrs. Whitman shows that she had quite a sense of humor by recording that when she found what Mr. McKay had done her "soliloquizing about it last night was for naught." The journal contains quite a glowing account of the beauties of Grande Ronde Valley, then of the toilsome, zigzag trail out of it into the Blue Mountains westward. On August 29th, the party stood upon the open summit, from which they saw the Valley of the Columbia. "It was beautiful. Just as we gained the highest elevation and began to descend the sun was dipping his disk behind the western horizon. Beyond the valley we could see two distant mountains, Mount Hood, and Mount St. Helens." The latter of those mountains was Adams, not St. Helens. Our missionary band were now in sight of their goal. It was not, however, till September 1st, that they actually rode into Walla Walla. In fact, part of the company, including the Spaldings, did not reach the fort till September 3d. It was a thrilling moment to that devoted little band. It seemed to them almost equal to what it would to one of us moderns to enter Washington The next chapter in the story of the Whitman party was their journey to Vancouver, the emporium of the Hudson's Bay Company. Leaving Walla Walla by boat on the 7th of September, they reached the "New York of the Pacific," as Mrs. Whitman says they had been told to consider it, on the 14th. Mrs. Whitman in her journal the admiration of the party for the beauty of the river, more beautiful, she says, than the Ohio, though the rugged cliffs and shores of drifting sand below Walla Walla looked dismal and forbidding. They found much to delight them at Vancouver,—the courtesy and hospitality of Doctor McLoughlin and his assistants, the bounteous table, with feasts of salmon, roast duck, venison, grouse and quail, rich cream and delicious butter, a picture of toothsomeness which it makes one hungry to read; the ships from England moored to the river brink, and the well-kept farm with grain and vegetables, fruits of every sort, grapes and berries, a thousand head of cattle, and many sheep, hogs, and horses—a perfect oasis of civilized delights to the little company of missionaries, worn and homesick during their months on horseback across the barren plains and through wild mountains. Doctor Whitman and Mr. Spalding, leaving their wives in the excellent keeping of the Hudson's Bay people at Vancouver, returned, in company with Mr. Gray, to the Walla Walla country to decide upon locations. They had expected, so Mrs. Whitman says, to locate in the Grande Ronde, the beauty and fertility of which had been portrayed in glowing colors by returning adventurers and fur-traders. But discovering as they passed through that it was so buried in the mountains and so difficult of access from the rivers and the regular routes of travel, they fixed upon Waiilatpu (Wielitpoo, Mrs. Whitman spells it) for one post and Lapwai for another. The Whitmans became established at Waiilatpu, "the place of rye grass," six miles west of the present Walla Walla; and the Spaldings at Lapwai, two miles up the Lapwai Creek, and about twelve from the mouth of the Clearwater, the present site of Lewiston. A few months after the location at Waiilatpu, on March 4, 1837, a beam of sunshine lighted in the home of the Whitmans, in the form of a daughter, Alice Clarissa, the first white child born west of the Rockies and north of California. The Indians were extraordinarily pleased with the "little white papoose," or "Cayuse temi" (Cayuse girl), and if Both Doctor Whitman and Mr. Spalding were indefatigable workers and quickly created civilized conditions upon the beautiful places where they had planted their missions. That of Mr. Spalding was outside of the territory covered by this history, and we therefore devote our larger attention to the mission at Waiilatpu. It should, however, be said that from the standpoint of results among the Indians, Mr. Spalding accomplished more than any of the missionaries. This may be accounted for in some part by the superior characters and minds of the Nez Perces, among whom he was so fortunate as to have cast his lot. They seem to have been of the best Indian type, while the Cayuses in the vicinity of Waiilatpu were turbulent, treacherous, and unreliable. Doctor Whitman was of powerful physique and familiar from boyhood with the practical duties of farm and mill. He could turn his hand to almost anything in the way of construction. The same was true of Mr. Gray, who spent part of his time at Waiilatpu and part at Lapwai, though he returned in 1837 to the east in search of new helpers. But within a few months the Whitmans were comfortably housed, and every year saw some improvement about the buildings and land. Seed for grain, and fruit trees were secured at Vancouver, and stock was provided also. The Waiilatpu farm consisted of a fertile belt of bottom land of about three hundred acres between the Walla Walla River and Mill Creek, with an unlimited range of low hill and bench land covered with bunch-grass, which furnished the finest of stock feed almost the whole year round. Doctor Whitman was himself a practical millwright and soon had a small sawmill equipped about twenty miles up Mill Creek, while adjoining the mission house he laid out a mill dam, the lines of which can still be seen. The water for the mill pond was supplied from Mill Creek by a ditch which followed nearly the course of the ditch of the present time. The mill was a grist mill and located at the western side of the pond, and within a few steps of the mission house and the "mansion," as they called the large log building erected a few years after their arrival for the accommodation of the frequent visitors, especially after As has been stated, Mr. W. H. Gray went east in 1857 for reinforcements. The next year he came again to Oregon with a valuable addition. Besides the addition to his own life of a bride, Mary Dix (who was one of the choice spirits of Old Oregon, and during many years a center of life and light in the new country) there were three missionaries, each also with a newly-wed wife. These were Revs. Elkanah Walker, Cushing Eells, and A. B. Smith. Mr. Cornelius Rogers accompanied the party. Reaching Walla Walla, the new arrivals were assigned to new stations, Messrs. Eells and Walker to Tschimakain, near the present City of Spokane, while Mr. Smith went to Kamiah, about sixty miles east of the present site of Lewiston. Mr. Rogers and the Grays went to Lapwai. There seem never to have been more faithful and devoted missionaries than were these of the four missions of Waiilatpu, Lapwai, Tschimakain, and Kamiah. Yet, it could not be said that they were successful in turning any considerable number of natives to Christianity. The Nez Perces at Lapwai and other stations established by Mr. Spalding, notably the one at Alpowa, were most amenable to Christian influences, while the Cayuses in the Walla Walla Valley were least so. In contemplation of the apparently scanty progress, the Missionary Board at Boston decided to discontinue the missions at Waiilatpu and Lapwai, to discharge Messrs. Spalding, Gray, Smith, and Rogers, and to send Doctor Whitman to the Spokane country. WHITMAN PARTY ON CREST OF ROCKY MOUNTAINS, JULY 4, 1836 While these difficulties were harassing the missionaries, very important events were taking place in national life. The slavery and the tariff questions had become firebrands in domestic politics. The questions of annexation of Texas, of the occupation of Oregon, of possible trouble with Mexico over the former, and with England over the latter, were threatening corresponding chaos in foreign affairs. Doctor Whitman, reticent and sagacious, saw clearly that his chosen aim of leading the natives to civilization and Christianity was rapidly sinking in importance in comparison with the question of the white race in the new land, and of the ownership of this great region. In 1842 the Ashburton treaty with England settled the Northeastern boundary and the supposition was that it would also settle the Oregon question. But when the treaty was signed on August 9th, it appeared that the question of Oregon was left unsettled. In a message of August 11th, President Tyler explained to the Senate that so little probability of agreement existed that it was thought not expedient to make that subject a matter of negotiation. While the Ashburton treaty was pending, the first real immigration, though a small one of 112 persons, came to Oregon. In it, among several of the most notable of the old Oregonians, was A. L. Lovejoy, a young New England lawyer, a man of energy and ambition, destined to play a conspicuous part in Oregon history. When the party reached Whitman's Station on the Walla Walla, they delivered to him letters from the United States and discussed with him the pending treaty and the danger that it might draw the line so as to leave Oregon to Great Britain, or at least to make the Columbia River the boundary, placing the entire Puget Sound Basin and the mountains and plains eastward to the river in possession of Great Britain. Seeing the imminence of the danger, Whitman determined upon a supreme effort. He decided to make a mid-winter journey East with three aims in view: to present to the Government the situation and the vital need of preserving Oregon for the United States; to try to aid in forming and guiding an immigration to Oregon; and to settle affairs of the mission with the Board at Boston. He asked Lovejoy to go with him. It looked like a desperate undertaking, but Lovejoy, an athletic, ambitious young man, agreed to go. At this point comes in the bitterly disputed "Whitman Controversy." It is not within the scope of this work to undertake an argumentative treatment of this question. The question at issue, if rationally considered, is rather the extent of the services of Doctor Whitman in "saving Oregon to the United States." Mrs. F. V. Victor, Elwood Evans, Prof. E. G. Bourne, and Principal W. I. Marshall have, more than others, presented arguments in favor of the contention that Doctor Whitman had no important part to play in the great political drama of Oregon, while the claim that he had large political aims and bore a conspicuous part in influencing the final result has been supported in books written by Dr. O. W. Nixon, Rev. William Barrows, Prof. William Mowry, and Rev. Myron Eells. The final book by the last named, the "Life of Marcus Whitman," is, in the judgment of the writer, the final and unanswered and indeed unanswerable word on the subject. The author of this history has given in the Washington Historical Quarterly of April, 1917, his reasons for thinking the statements of Professors Bourne and Marshall inaccurate and their arguments inconclusive. The fact Practically the only account of that memorable mid-winter ride from Waiilatpu to St. Louis is from A. L. Lovejoy, the sole white companion of Whitman. Whitman himself was, like most heroes, a man of few words. He told various friends something of his experiences in Washington and Boston, and told to associates and wrote a few letters to friends about the immigration of 1843, but he seems to have been very reticent about the "Ride." Mr. Lovejoy wrote two letters about that journey, one dated November 6, 1869, which is found in W. H. Gray's History of Oregon, and one addressed to Dr. G. H. Atkinson and used by him in an address on February 22, 1876. This letter so vividly portrays the character of this undertaking as it comes from the only witness besides Whitman himself, that we deem it suitable to incorporate it here. "We left Waiilatpu October 3, 1842, traveled rapidly, reached Fort Hall in eleven days, remained two days to recruit and make a few purchases. The doctor engaged a guide, and we left the Fort Uinte. We changed from a direct route to more southern, through the Spanish country, via Salt Lake, Taos and Santa Fe. On our way from Fort Hall to Fort Uinte we had terribly severe weather. The snows retarded our progress and blinded the trail, so we lost much time. After arriving at Fort Uinte, and making some purchases for our trip, we took a new guide and started for Fort Uncumpagra, situated on the waters of Grand River, in the Spanish country. Here our stay was very short. We took a new guide and started for Taos. After being out some four or five days we encountered a terrific snowstorm, which forced us to seek shelter in a deep ravine, where we remained snowed in for four days, at which time the storm had somewhat abated, and we attempted to make our way out upon the highlands, but the snow was so deep and the winds so piercing and cold, we were compelled to return to "We at once agreed that the doctor should take the guide and return to Fort Uncumpagra and get a new guide, and I remain in camp with the animals until he could return, which he did in seven days with our new guide, and we were now on our route again. Nothing of much import occurred but hard and slow traveling through deep snow until we reached Grand River, which was frozen on either side about one-third across. Although so intensely cold, the current was so very rapid that about one-third of the river in the center was not frozen. Our guide thought it would be dangerous to attempt to cross the river in its present condition, but the doctor, nothing daunted, was the first to take the water. He mounted his horse; the guide and myself shoved the doctor and his horse off the ice into the foaming stream. Away he went, completely under water, horse and all, but directly came up, and after buffeting the rapid foaming current, he reached the ice on the opposite shore a long way down the stream. He leaped from his horse upon the ice and soon had his noble animal by his side. The guide and myself forced in the pack animals, and followed the doctor's example, and soon were on the opposite shore, drying our frozen clothes by a comfortable fire. We reached Taos in about thirty days, having suffered greatly from cold and scarcity of provisions. We were compelled to use mule meat, dogs and such other animals as came in our reach. We remained at Taos a few days only, and started for Bent's and Savery's Fort, on the head waters of the Arkansas River. When we had been out some fifteen or twenty days we met George Bent, a brother of Governor Bent, on his way to Taos. He told us that a party of mountain men would leave Bent's Fort in a few days for St. Louis, but said we would not reach the fort with our pack animals in time to join the party. The doctor, being very anxious to join the party so he could push on as rapidly as possible to Washington, concluded to leave myself and guide with the animals, and he himself, taking the best animal, with some bedding and a small allowance of provision, started alone, hoping by rapid travel to reach the fort in time to join the St. Louis party, but to do so he would have to travel on the Sabbath, something we had not done before. Myself and guide traveled on slowly and reached the fort in four days, but imagine our astonishment when on making inquiry about the doctor we were told that he had not arrived nor had he been heard of. I learned that the party for St. Louis was camped at the Big Cottonwood, forty miles from the fort, and at my request Mr. Savery sent an express, telling the party not to proceed any farther until we learned something of Doctor Whitman's whereabouts, as he wished to accompany them to St Louis. Being furnished by the gentleman of the fort with a suitable guide, I started in search of the doctor, and traveled up the river about one hundred miles. I learned from the Indians that a man had been there who was lost and was trying to find Bent's Fort. They said they had directed him to go down the river and how to find the fort. I knew from their description it was the doctor. I returned to the fort "Late in the afternoon he came in very much fatigued and desponding; said that he knew that God had bewildered him to punish him for traveling on the Sabbath. During the whole trip he was very regular in his morning and evening devotions, and that was the only time I ever knew him to travel on the Sabbath. "The doctor remained all night at the fort, starting only on the following morning to join the St. Louis party. Here we parted. The doctor proceeded to Washington. I remained at Bent's Fort until spring, and joined the doctor the following July near Fort Laramie, on his way to Oregon, in company with a train of emigrants." In the life of Whitman by Myron Eells, there is a summary of the events which immediately followed, so well adapted to our purpose that we quote it here as resting upon the authority of Mr. Eells, whom we regard as a writer of undoubted candor and accuracy. "When Doctor Whitman arrived at St. Louis he made his home at the house of Doctor Edward Hale, a dentist. In the same house was William Barrows, then a young school teacher, afterward a clergyman and author of Barrows' 'Oregon.' "Reaching Cincinnati, he went to the house of Doctor Weed. Here, according to Professor Weed, he obtained a new suit of clothes, but whether he wore them all the time until he left the East or not is a question. Some writers speak of him as appearing in buckskins, or something akin to them, afterwards both at Washington and Boston. Some, as Dr. S. J. Parker, say he was not so dressed. It is just barely possible that both may be true—that he kept his buckskins and buffalo coat and occasionally wore them. It is quite certain that he did not throw them away, as according to accounts he wore his buckskins in returning to Oregon the next summer. "The next visit on record was at Ithaca, New York, at the home of his old missionary friend and fellow traveler, Rev. Samuel Parker. Here, after the surprise of his arrival was over, he said to Mr. Parker: 'I have come on a very important errand. We must both go at once to Washington, or Oregon is lost, ceded to the English.' Mr. Parker, however, did not think the danger to be so great, and not for lack of interest in the subject, but because of other reasons, did not go. Doctor Whitman went alone, and reached Washington. "The doctor, or his brother, had been a classmate of the Secretary of War, James M. Porter. Through him the doctor obtained an introduction to Daniel Webster, then Secretary of State, with whom he talked about Oregon and the saving of it to the United States, but Mr. Webster received him very coolly, and told him it was too late, as far as he was concerned, for he had considered it, decided it, and turned it over to the President, who could sign Oregon away or refuse to do so. Accordingly Doctor Whitman went to President Tyler, and for some time they talked about Oregon. Even the Cabinet were called together, it is said, and an evening was spent on the subject. The objection was made that wagons could never be taken to Oregon and that consequently the country could never be peopled overland by emigrants, while the distance around Cape Horn was altogether too great to think of taking settlers to the country that way. In reply to this, Doctor Whitman told of the great value of the country and of his plans to lead an emigration through with their wagons the next summer. He stated that he had taken a wagon into Oregon six years before to Fort Boise, that others had taken one from Fort Hall to Walla Walla, and that with his present knowledge, having been over the route twice, he was sure he could take the emigrant wagons through to the Columbia. The President then said that he would wait, before carrying the negotiations any further, until he could hear whether Doctor Whitman should succeed, and if he should there would be no more thought of trading off Oregon. This satisfied the doctor. DR. WHITMAN LOST IN A SNOW STORM, 1842 "He then went to New York to see Mr. Horace Greeley, who was known to be a friend of Oregon. He went there dressed in his rough clothes, much the same that he wore across the continent. When he knocked at the door a lady came, Mrs. Greeley or a daughter, who, on seeing such a rough-looking person, said to his inquiries for Mr. Greeley, 'Not at home.' Doctor Whitman started away. She went and told Mr. Greeley about him and Mr. Greeley, who was of much the same style and cared but little for appearances, looked out of the window, and seeing him going away, said to call him in. It was done, and they had a long talk about this Northwest Coast and its political relations. "From New York Doctor Whitman went to Boston, where the officers of the American Board at first received him coldly, because he had left his station for the East without permission from them, on business so foreign to that which he had been sent to Oregon to accomplish. Afterwards, however, they treated him more cordially. "From Boston he went to New York State and visited relatives. Then taking with him his nephew, Perrin B. Whitman, bade them good-by and left for Missouri. While there he did all he could to induce people to join the emigration for Oregon, then went with the emigration, assisting the guide, Captain Gantt, until they reached Fort Hall, and aiding the emigrants very materially. Fort Hall was as far as Captain Gantt had agreed to guide them, and from that place Doctor Whitman guided them or furnished an Indian guide, so that the emigrants reached the Columbia River safely with their wagons." The incoming of the immigration of 1843 was a determining factor in the settlement of the Oregon question. There can be no question that Doctor Whitman performed a conspicuous service in organizing and leading that immigration. It is true, however, that many influences combined to draw that company of frontiersmen to the border of civilization and to give them the common purpose of the great march across the wilderness. The leading motives perhaps were the desire first to acquire land in what they thought would prove a paradise and second to carry the American flag across the continent and secure ownership of the Pacific Coast for their country. Perhaps no one ever so well expressed the mingled motives of that advance guard of American possession as did James W. Nesmith, father of Mrs. Levi Ankeny of Walla Walla, who was himself a member of the immigration and later became one of the conspicuous builders of Oregon and of the nation. Senator Nesmith's account is as follows, given in an address at a meeting of the Oregon Pioneer Association: "Without orders from any quarter, and without preconcert, promptly as the grass began to start, the emigrants began to assemble near Independence, at a place called Fitzhugh's Mill. On the 17th day of May, 1843, notices were circulated through the different encampments that on the succeeding day, those who contemplated emigrating to Oregon would meet at a designated point to organize. "Many of the emigrants were from the western tier of counties of Missouri, known as the Platte Purchase, and among them was Peter H. Burnett, a former merchant, who had abandoned the yardstick and become a lawyer of some celebrity for his ability as a smooth-tongued advocate. He subsequently emigrated to California, and was elected the first Governor of the Golden State, was afterward Chief Justice, and still an honored resident of that state. Mr. Burnett, or, as he was familiarly designated, 'Pete,' was called upon for a speech. Mounting a log, the glib-tongued orator delivered a glowing, florid address. He commenced by showing his audience that the then western tier of states and territories was overcrowded with a redundant population, who had not sufficient elbow room for the expansion of their enterprise and genius, and it was a duty they owed to themselves and posterity to strike out in search of a more expanded field and more genial climate, where the soil yielded the richest returns for the slightest amount of cultivation, where the trees were loaded with perennial fruit, and where a good substitute for bread, called 'La Camash.' grew in the ground, salmon and other fish crowded the streams, and where the principal labor of the settler would be confined to keeping their gardens free from the inroads of buffalo, elk, deer and wild turkeys. He appealed to our patriotism by picturing forth the glorious empire we would establish on the shores of the Pacific. How, with our trusty rifles, we would drive out the British usurpers who claimed the soil, and defend the country from the avarice and pretensions of the British lion, and how posterity would honor us for placing the fairest portion of our land under the dominion of the Stars and Stripes. He concluded with a slight allusion to the trials and hardships incident to the trip, and dangers to be encountered from hostile Indians on the route, and those inhabiting the country whither we were bound. He furthermore intimated a desire to look upon the tribe of noble 'red men' that the valiant and well-armed crowd around him could not vanquish in a single encounter. "Other speeches were made, full of glowing descriptions of the fair land of promise, the far-away Oregon, which no one in the assemblage had ever seen, and of which not more than half a dozen had ever read any account. After the election of Mr. Burnett as captain, and other necessary officers, the meeting, as motley and primitive a one as ever assembled, adjourned, with 'three cheers' for Captain Burnett and Oregon. On the 20th of May, 1843, after a pretty thorough military organization, we took up our line of march, with Captain John Gantt, an old army officer, who combined the character of trapper and mountaineer, as our guide. Gantt had in his wanderings been as far as Green River, and assured us of the practicability of a wagon road thus far. Green River, the extent of our guide's knowledge in that direction, was not half-way to the Willamette Valley, then the only inhabited portion of Oregon. Beyond that we had not the slightest "Captain Grant, then in charge of the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Hall, endeavored to dissuade us from proceeding farther with our wagons, and showed us the wagons that the emigrants of the preceding year had abandoned, as an evidence of the impracticability of our determination. Doctor Whitman was persistent in his assertions that wagons could proceed as far as the Grand Dalles of the Columbia River, from which point he asserted they could be taken down by rafts or batteaux to the Willamette Valley, while our stock could be driven by an Indian trail over the Cascade Mountains, near Mount Hood. Happily Whitman's advice prevailed, and a large number of the wagons with a portion of the stock did reach Walla Walla and The Dalles, from which points they were taken to the Willamette the following year. Had we followed Grant's advice and abandoned the cattle and wagons at Fort Hall, much suffering must have ensued, as a sufficient number of horses to carry the women and children of the party could not have been obtained, besides wagons and cattle were indispensable to men expecting to live by farming in a country destitute of such articles. "At Fort Hall we fell in with some Cayuse and Nez PercÉ Indians returning from the buffalo country, and as it was necessary for Doctor Whitman to precede us to Walla Walla, he recommended to us a guide in the person of an old Cayuse Indian called 'Sticcus.' He was a faithful old fellow, perfectly familiar with all the trails and topography of the country from Fort Hall to The Dalles, and, although not speaking a word of English, and no one in our party a word of Cayuse, he succeeded by pantomime in taking us over the roughest wagon route I ever saw." In that immigration were nearly a thousand persons, among them several families whose members and descendants have borne honorable parts in building the region of Old Walla Walla County and the part of Umatilla County adjoining, in Oregon. In the belief that among the readers of this work may be many now living in the counties covered by this story, who can trace their ancestry to the blood royal of that great immigration and that a list of its names would have a permanent value in such a record as this, we incorporate here a list of the names of all the male members of the train over sixteen years of age, as secured by J. W. Nesmith at the time of the organization of the train. His list included some who turned back or went to California, or died on the way. We quote from the "History of the Willamette Valley," by H. B. Lang: "The following list contains the names of every male member of that great train over the age of sixteen years. It was prepared by J. W. Nesmith when the train was organized, and was preserved among his papers for a third of a century before given for publication. All reached the Willamette Valley, except a few, the exceptions being designated by marks and foot-notes: Applegate, Jesse
"There were in Oregon at the time the train arrived the following individuals, a few names, possibly, having been omitted from the list, and the list not including the various missionaries named elsewhere: Armstrong, Pleasant The men in these lists, with their families, constituted the population of Oregon in 1843, aside from the Hudson's Bay Company people." Doctor Whitman himself wrote several valuable letters referring to the "Marcus Whitman inclosing synopsis of a bill, with his views in reference to importance of the Oregon Territory, War. 383—rec. June 22, 1844." Portions of the letter follow: "To the Hon. James M. Porter, Secretary of War. "Sir: In compliance with the request you did me the honor to make last winter, while in Washington, I herewith transmit to you the synopsis of a bill which, if it could be adopted, would, according to my experience and observation, prove highly conducive to the best interests of the United States generally, to Oregon, where I have resided for more than seven years as a missionary, and to the Indian tribes that inhabit the immediate country. The Government will now, doubtless for the first time, be apprised through you, or by means of this communication, of the immense immigration of families to Oregon which has taken place this year. I have, since interview, been instrumental in piloting across the route described in the accompanying bill, and which is the only eligible wagon road, no less than three hundred families, consisting of one thousand persons of both sexes, with their wagons, amounting to 120,694 oxen, and 773 loose cattle. "The emigrants are from different states, but principally from Missouri, Arkansas, Illinois and New York. The majority of them are farmers, lured by the prospect of bounty in lands, by the reported fertility of the soil, and by the desire to be first among those who are planting our institutions on the Pacific Coast. Among them are artisans of every trade, comprising, with farmers, the very best material for a new colony. As pioneers, these people have undergone incredible hardships, and having now safely passed the Blue Mountain Range with their wagons and effects, have established a durable road from Missouri to Oregon, which will serve to mark permanently the route of larger numbers each succeeding year, while they have practically demonstrated that wagons drawn by horses or oxen can cross the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, contrary to all the sinister assertions of all those who pretended it to be impossible. "In their slow progress, these persons have encountered, as in all former instances, and as all succeeding emigrants must, if this or some similar bill be not passed by Congress, the continual fear of Indian aggression, the actual loss through them of horses, cattle and other property, and the great labor of transporting an adequate amount of provisions for so long a journey. The bill herewith proposed would, in a great measure, lessen these inconveniences by the establishment of posts, which, while having the possessed power to keep the Indians in check, thus doing away with the necessity of military vigilance on the "Many cases of sickness and some deaths took place among those who accomplished the journey this season, owing, in a great measure, to the uninterrupted use of meat, salt and fresh, with flour, which constitute the chief articles of food they are able to convey on their wagons, and this could be obviated by the vegetable productions which the posts in contemplation could very profitably afford them. Those who rely on hunting as an auxiliary support, are at present unable to have their arms repaired when out of order; horses and oxen become tender-footed and require to be shod on this long journey, sometimes repeatedly, and the wagons repaired in a variety of ways. I mention these as valuable incidents to the proposed measure, as it will also be found to tend in many other incidental ways to benefit the migratory population of the United States choosing to take this direction, and on these accounts, as well as for the immediate use of the posts themselves, they ought to be provided with the necessary shops and mechanics, which would at the same time exhibit the several branches of civilized art to the Indians. "The outlay in the first instance would be but trifling. Forts like those of the Hudson's Bay Company, surrounded by walls enclosing all the buildings, and constructed almost entirely of adobe, or sun-dried bricks, with stone foundations only, can be easily and cheaply erected. *** "Your familiarity with the Government policy, duties and interest render it unnecessary for me to more than hint at the several objects intended by the enclosed bill, and any enlargement upon the topics here suggested as inducements to its adoption would be quite superfluous, if not impertinent. The very existence of such a system as the one above recommended suggests the utility of post-offices and mail arrangements, which it is the wish of all who now live in Oregon to have granted them; and I need only add that contracts for this purpose will be readily taken at reasonable rates for transporting the mail across from Missouri to the mouth of the Columbia in forty days, with fresh horses at each of the contemplated posts. The ruling policy proposed regards the Indians as the police of the country, who are to be relied upon to keep the peace, not only for themselves, but to repel lawless white men and prevent banditti, under the solitary guidance of the superintendents of the several posts, aided by a well-directed system to induce the punishment of crime. It will only be after the failure of these means to procure the delivery or punishment of violent, lawless and savage acts of aggression, that a band or tribe should be regarded as conspirators against the peace, or punished accordingly by force of arms. "Hoping that these suggestions may meet your approbation, and conduce to the future interest of our growing country, I have the honor to be, Honorable Sir, "Your obedient servant, "Marcus Whitman." It may be added that Whitman was so thoroughly interested in the idea of the line of forts across the continent that he wrote another communication to the Secretary of War from Waiilatpu in 1847, October 16th, only about six weeks before his murder, setting forth with similar force and clearness the wisdom of such a system. During the four years that followed the coming of the "Great Immigration," the mission at Waiilatpu was a center of light and help to the incoming immigrations. Many incidents have been preserved showing the industry, fortitude, and open-handed philanthropy of the Whitmans. The earlier immigration usually stopped at Waiilatpu, coming across the country in the vicinity of the present location of Athena and Weston and down Pine Creek to the Walla Walla. The immigrants were always short of provisions and generally had no money. To have a stock of provisions at all equal to emergencies put a tremendous strain on Doctor Whitman, and nobly did he meet the needs. Among many instances of the helping hand of the missionaries are two given in Eells' life of Whitman which we give as illustrative of many that might be given. "Among the immigrants of 1844 was a man named Sager, who had a family consisting of his wife and seven children, between the ages of infancy and thirteen. The father died of typhoid fever on Green River, and the mother sank under her burdens when she reached Snake River and there died. The immigrants cared for the children until they reached Doctor Whitman's, but would take them no farther. The doctor and his wife took the strangers in at first for the winter, but afterward adopted them and cared for them as long as they lived. "Mrs. C. S. Pringle, one of these children, afterwards gave the following account of this event. It was written in answer to a charge made by Mrs. F. F. Victor that the doctor was mercenary, making money out of the immigrants: 'In April, 1844, my parents started for Oregon. Soon after starting we were all camped for the night, and the conversation after awhile turned upon the probability of death before the end of the journey should be reached. All told what they would wish their families to do in case they should fall by the way. My father said: 'Well, if I should die, I would want my family to stop at the station of Doctor Whitman.' Ere long he was taken sick and died, but with his dying breath he committed his family to the care of Captain Shaw, with the request that they should be left at the station of Doctor Whitman. Twenty-six days after his death his wife died. She, too, requested the same. When we were in the Blue Mountains, Captain Shaw went ahead to see about leaving us there. The doctor objected, as he was afraid the board would not recognize that as a part of his labor. After a good deal of talk he consented to have the children brought, and he would see what could be done. On the 17th day of October we drove up to the station, as forlorn a looking lot of children as ever was. I was a cripple, hardly able to walk, and the babe of six months was dangerously ill. Mrs. Whitman agreed to take the five girls, but the boys must go on (they were the oldest of the family). But the 'mercenary' doctor said, 'All or none.' He made arrangements to keep "Another incident with an immigrant is here related, given almost in the words of the narrator, Joseph Smith, who came to the country in 1846. He says: I was mighty sick crossing the Blues, and was so weak from eating blue mass that they had to haul me in the wagon till we got to Doctor Whitman's place on the Walla Walla River. Then Mother Whitman came and raised the wagon cover and says, 'What is the matter with you, my brother?' 'I am sick, and I don't want to be pestered much, either.' 'But, but, my young friend, my husband is a doctor, and can probably cure your ailment; I'll go and call him.' So off she clattered, and purty soon Doc. came, and they packed me in the cabin, and soon he had me on my feet again. I eat up a whole band of cattle for him, as I had to winter with him. I told him I'd like to work for him, to kinder pay part of my bill. Wall, Doc. set me to making rails, but I only made two hundred before spring, and I got to worryin' 'cause I hadn't only fifty dollars and a saddle horse, and I reckoned I owed the doctor four or five hundred dollars for my life. Now, maybe I wasn't knocked out when I went and told the doctor I wanted to go on to Webfoot and asked him how we stood; and doctor p'inted to a Cayuse pony, and says, 'Money I have not, but you can take that horse and call it even, if you will.'" It is worth noticing that though Mr. Smith says "Mother" Whitman, she was only thirty-eight at the time. But at that time, the very year of the final consummation of the great work of Whitman, the treaty of 1846, giving Oregon up to latitude 49° to the United States, a consummation which must have made the brave hearts of the heroic pair thrill with joy and gratitude, the shadow was approaching, the end was near. The crown of heroism and service must be still further crowned with martyrdom. Even since the death of little Alice, the Indians at Waiilatpu had seemed to lose in growing measure the personal interest which they had manifested. With the coming of constantly growing immigrations and the apparent eagerness of the whites to secure land, the natives felt increasing suspicion. The more thoughtful of them, especially those who had been in the "States" and had seen the countless Seeing the gathering of clouds about the mission and the many warning indications, Doctor Whitman had taken up the project of leaving Walla Walla and going to The Dalles, a point where he had in fact at first wished to locate, but had been dissuaded by the Hudson's Bay Company officials. The story of the massacre has been many times told and may be found in many forms. We can but briefly sketch its leading events. Mr. Spalding of Lapwai was temporarily at Waiilatpu, and on November 27, 1847, he and Doctor Whitman went to the Umatilla in response to a request for medical attention. Feeling uneasy about affairs at home, Doctor Whitman returned on the next day, reaching Waiilatpu late at night. On the following day, the 29th, while engaged with his medicine chest, two Indians, who seem to have been leaders in the plot, approached him, and while one, Tilaukait, drew his attention by talking, the other, Tamahas, struck him with a tomahawk. He fell senseless, though not yet dead. Jo Lewis seems to have directed the further execution of the cruel conspiracy and soon Mrs. Whitman, shot in the breast, fell to the floor, though not dying for some time. She was the only woman slain. There were in all fourteen victims of this dreadful attack. Several escaped, Mr. Spalding, who was on his way back from the Umatilla, being one of them. After several days and nights of harrowing suffering, he reached Lapwai. There were forty-six survivors of the massacre, nearly all women and children. Many of these are said to have been subjected to cruelty So ended in darkness, but not in shame, the mission at Waiilatpu. The peaceful spot six miles west of Walla Walla, in the midst of the fair and fruitful valley, is marked with a granite monument on the summit of the hill, and a grave at the foot. There the dust of the martyrs rests in a plain marble crypt upon the surface of which appear their names. It is indeed one of the most sacred spots in the Northwest, suggestive of patriotism, devotion, self-sacrifice, suffering, sorrow, tragedy, and final triumph. In November, 1916, the remains of W. H. Gray and Mary Dix Gray, his wife, were removed from Astoria and placed in the grave at Waiilatpu. As associates from the first of the Whitmans, and engaged in the same arduous struggle for the establishment of civilized and Christian institutions in this beautiful wilderness, they are fittingly joined with them in their final resting place. By reason of priority in time as well as its connection with immigration and public affairs, and also its tragic end, and perhaps, too, the controversies that have arisen in connection with it, the Whitman Mission has secured a place in history far more prominent than that of any other, either east or west of the Cascade Mountains. But it should not be forgotten that within a short time after the incoming of white settlers, all the leading churches sent missionaries into the Northwest, both for the Indians and whites. Next in point of time after the Methodist missions of the Willamette Valley and the Presbyterian and Congregational missions of the Upper Columbia and Snake rivers, came the Catholic. It should be understood that in speaking of that church as third in time, we speak of the era of the beginnings of settlement. For it should be remembered that there had been visiting Catholic priests among the Hudson's Bay posts long prior to the coming of Jason Lee, the first of the Protestants. The French-Canadians were almost universally of Catholic rearing, and the officers of the company encouraged the maintenance of religious worship and instruction according to the customary methods. There were not, however, any regular permanent Catholic missions until a little after the Protestant missions already described. The inauguration of regular mission work by the Catholic Church grew out of the planting of a settlement at Champoeg on the Willamette by Doctor McLoughlin during the years from 1829 on. Quite a little group of retired Hudson's Bay Company men, French-Canadians with Indian wives and half-breed children, became located on the fertile tract still known as French Prairie. So well had the settlement thrived that in 1834, the year of the arrival of Jason Lee in the same neighborhood, an application was made to Doctor Provencher, Vicar Apostolic of Hudson Bay, to send a clergyman to that point. Not till 1837 could the request be fulfilled. In that year Rev. Modeste Demers went to the Red River, and the following year, in company with Rev. Francis N. Blanchet, resumed the journey to Oregon. In the progress of their journey they stopped at Walla Walla for a day. Reaching Vancouver on November 24, 1838, they entered with zeal and devotion upon their task of ministering both to the whites and Indians. Remaining at Vancouver till January, 1839, Father Blanchet started on a regular course of visitations, going first to the settlement on the Willamette where there were twenty-six Catholic families and where the people had already constructed a chapel. Next he visited Cowlitz Prairie, where there were four families. These stations were, of course, outside of the scope of the present work, but reference to them indicates the time and place and manner of starting the great series of Catholic missions which soon became extended all over Oregon. While Father Blanchet was at Cowlitz, his fellow worker, Demers, started on an extended tour of the upper Columbia region. In the course of this he visited Walla Walla, Okanogan, and Colville, starting work among the Indians by baptizing their children. From that time on Father Demers or some one of the Jesuit priests made annual visits to Walla Walla, adding children by baptism each year. In the meantime another of the most important of the Catholic missionaries, and the one to whom the world is indebted for one of the best histories of Oregon missions, was on his way. This was Rev. Father Pierre J. De Smet. In March, 1840, he set out for Oregon from the St. Joseph Mission at Council Bluffs, journeying by the Platte River route. On June 25th he reached Green River, long known as a rendezvous of the fur-traders. There he held mass for the trappers and Indians. Referring to this in a subsequent letter he writes thus: "On Sunday, the 5th of July, I had the consolation of celebrating the Holy Sacrifice sub dio. The altar was placed on an elevation, and surrounded with boughs and garlands of flowers; I addressed the congregation in French and in English and spoke also by an interpreter to the Flatheads and Snake Indians. It was a spectacle truly moving for the heart of a missionary to behold an assembly composed of so many different nations who all assisted at our holy mysteries with great satisfaction. The Canadians sang hymns in French and Latin, and the Indians in their native tongue. It was truly a Catholic worship. The place has been called since that time by the French-Canadians, la prairie de la Messe." WHITMAN MONUMENT AT WAIILATPU, SIX MILES WEST OF WALLA WALLA After a week at the Green River rendezvous, Father De Smet with his Indian guides resumed the journey westward by way of the Three Tetons to the upper waters of Snake River. While at Henry Lake he climbed a lofty peak from which he could see in both directions and while there he carved on a stone the words: "Sanctus Ignatius, Patronus Montium, Die Julii 23, 1840." That was as far west as Father De Smet went at that time. After two months among the Flatheads about the head of Snake River, he returned to St. Louis in the last part of the year. One point of interest in connection with this return, as showing the disposition of the Indians to seek religious instruction, is that a certain Flathead chief named Insula who accompanied Father De Smet to St. Louis, had gone to Green River in 1835 to meet missionaries. It is stated by Rev. Father E. V. O'Hara in his valuable "Catholic History of Oregon" that Insula was much disappointed to find, not the "black-gowns" as he had expected, but Doctor Whitman and Doctor Parker on their reconnaissance. It is probably impossible to determine just what distinction between different denominations of Christians may have existed in the Indian mind, but it may be recalled that Whitman and Parker while at Green River deemed the outlook so encouraging that they decided that Whitman should return to the "States" for reinforcements, while Parker went on with the Indians and made an extensive exploration of the entire Oregon country. Father De Smet returned to the Flathead mission in 1841 and in 1842 proceeded to Vancouver by way of the Spokane. In the course of the journey The Catholic missions were gradually extended until they covered points in the entire Northwest. The bishop of Oregon was Rev. Francis N. Blanchet who was located near Salem. In 1845 and 1846 he made an extensive tour in Canada and Europe for the purpose of securing reinforcements. As a result of his journey and the action of the Holy See the Vicariate was erected into an ecclesiastical province with the three Sees of Oregon City, Walla Walla, and Vancouver Island. Rev. A. M. A. Blanchet was appointed bishop of Walla Walla, and Father Demers bishop of Vancouver Island, while Bishop F. N. Blanchet was promoted to the position of archbishop of Oregon City. Bishop A. M. A. Blanchet reached Fort Walla Walla on September 4, 1847, having come with a wagon train by the usual emigrant road from St. Louis. This might be regarded as the regular establishment of Catholic missions in Walla Walla. The bishop was accompanied to Walla Walla by four oblate fathers of Marseilles and Father J. B. A. Brouillet as vicar general, and also by Father Rousseau and Wm. Leclaire, deacon. Bishop Blanchet located among the Umatilla Indians at the home of Five Crows. The mission was fairly established only a few days prior to the Whitman Massacre. Bishop Blanchet went to Oregon City after the massacre and by reason of the Indian war he found it impossible to return to Walla Walla. He established St. Peter's Mission at The Dalles, and there he remained till September, 1850. During that year there came instructions from Rome to transfer the bishop of Walla Walla to the newly established diocese of Nesqually. The diocese of Walla Walla was suppressed and its administration merged with that of Colville and Fort Hall in the control of the archbishop of Oregon City. That event might be considered as closing the missionary stage of Catholic missions in Walla Walla, though Father Brouillet remained into the period of settlement and in conjunction with Father Arvidius Junger, founded the Catholic Church at Walla Walla of what may be called the modern period. There was during the period of the Hudson's Bay Company and of the Indian wars, a location at Frenchtown, known as St. Rose Mission. There was a little church building there until a few years ago. With the period of Indian wars it may be said that the missionary era ended and after that sanguinary interim the modern period began in Walla Walla.
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