From Hawaii he sailed for home and later wrote many booklets on Oregon. In one of these he suggested that the addition of California to the United States was a thing greatly to be desired-perhaps the first one to suggest what was later accomplished.

In 1868 he applied to the Federal Government for a grant of land. At that time he wrote a book of 128 pages, each of which breathed hatred of the Hudson's Bay organization at whose door he laid the blame for all his many troubles. It was the plea of a man disappointed because his Government did not recognize his services. His attack upon the Hudson's Bay Company doubtless was meritorious; but in assailing Doctor McLoughlin he showed ingratitude. Young was given credit of having been instrumental "under an over-ruling Providence, of much good in Oregon." The Lees, he could not forgive for their connection with the Hudson's Bay Company. Jason Lee, he wrote, was opposed to the settlement of the country and contemplated the building up of "a great farming establishment" rather than the conversion of the Indians.

Young, reduced to rags through inability to buy clothing at the Hudson's Bay Company store, defied not only that organization, but the missionaries as well. These, he charged, were under the control of the company. Knowing that both would oppose the liquor traffic, he settled on the west side of the Willamette and began building a distillery. A temperance society promptly was organized, Demon Rum was denounced and Oregon might have experienced all the thrills of a modern "wet" and "dry" campaign had a compromise not been reached and the still destroyed. This was brought about by the removal of the horse-stealing charge by the Mexican governor, who found that it was neither Kelley nor Young but men attached to their party, who were guilty.

Young's fighting spirit, his honesty and his strong Americanism won the admiration of the settlers and also of Doctor McLoughlin, and when W. A. Slacum, a secret agent sent to Oregon by Secretary of State John Forsyth, urged the settlers to organize the Willamette Cattle Company for the purpose of importing California cattle, Young was chosen captain. Doctor McLoughlin was the main supporter of this movement and largely was responsible for the election of Young. In California Young bought 800 cattle at $3 a head and forty horses at $12 each. He and other settlers drove them to Oregon, losing about 200 head on the way.

While in California Young, improving his opportunity, demanded and obtained from Governor Figueroa a complete retraction of the horse-stealing charge and payment for a part of the furs which the Mexicans had taken from him. With this money he obtained a large interest in the cattle company and was in a fair way to become one of Oregon's rich men when, in 1841, he died leaving an estate the settlement of which brought into existence Oregon's first government. Young's death was a misfortune to Oregon. He was fit running mate to Joe Meek and had he lived ten years longer would have played an important part in the organization of the Provisional Government.

CHAPTER VI

STRANGE DISEASE DECIMATES INDIANS-MISSIONARIES COME AND LABOR EARNESTLY -HOW THEY WERE RECEIVED BY THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY, WITH SIDELIGHT FROM A LETTER WRITTEN BY PETER SKEEN OGDEN JASON LEE GOES EASTSENDS FIRST MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS-GOVERNMENT SAID TO HAVE AIDED LEE WITH MONEY—CATHOLICS IN THE FIELD “MUCH OF THE MISSIONARY EFFORT

WAS WASTED"-SCHOOLS FOUNDED UPON MISSIONS.

When Jason Lee came to Oregon the Indians told him that Captain Dominis, while in the Columbia in 1829, brought the disease which, in the next few years brought death to so many of them. Dominis, the Indians said, paid them more for their small beaver skins than did the Hudson's Bay Company for the large ones. With an eye to business the Indian let the American trader have the small skins, reserving the large ones for the British firm. Knowledge of this reached Dominis, who became "hias silix,”—very angry,—and as a punishment liberated the disease which he carried in a small bottle. The Indians regarded their punishment as justifiable and undertook no retaliative measures. Where the disease came from seems as hard to determine as the question of what it was. Some writers called it ague; others refer to it as "the great epidemic." Whatever its origin or name it certainly was disastrous to the native population and resulted in so many deaths that the Oregon missionaries found their prospective flocks reduced to small and weak bands living in constant fear of a recurrence of the dread malady.

The first two years after coming to the country the missionaries labored earnestly for the conversion of the Indians to the Christian religion. Harvey W. Scott, for so long the talented editor of the Portland Oregonian, gathered the facts relating to the Lees and those who shared this labor. Jason Lee, Scott says, was an idealist who believed the Indians could be converted. His nephew, Daniel, was of a more practical turn of mind and when, at the close of the second year's labor, he saw that the Indian character did not respond to the efforts of the missionaries, gradually turned his attention to colonizing the country.

Daniel Lee remained in Oregon about a decade, then returned East where he continued in the ministry for many years. He died in 1895 in Oklahoma. Cyrus Shepard died in Oregon in 1840. Phillip L. Edwards taught school in Champoeg in 1835, returned to Missouri with Jason Lee in 1838 and opened a law office in Richmond. He served in the Missouri Legislature and in 1855 went to California, later serving in the state's Legislature. In 1869 he died in Sacramento. Courtney M. Walker married an Indian women and remained in Oregon, where he died. Under the diligent management of the Lees the

Oregon Methodist Mission developed a good farm which supported a school for both white and Indian children.

Other missionaries traveled the trail which the Lees had made to Oregon. Rev. Samuel Parker, Presbyterian, came in the fall of 1835, and after spending the winter as the guest of Doctor McLoughlin, left in the spring for Hawaiian entry in his journal reads:

"Monday, April 11th. Having made arrangements to leave this place on the 14th, I called upon the chief clerk for my bill. He said the company had made no bill against me, but felt a pleasure in gratuitously conferring all they had done for the benefit of the object in which I was engaged. In addition to the civilities I had received as a guest, I had drawn upon their store for clothing, for goods to pay my Indians, whom I had employed to convey me in canoes on various journeyings hundreds of miles; to pay my guides and interpreters; and have drawn upon their provisions store for the support of these men while in my employ."

On his trip across the plains, Parker, according to his Indian guides, wore a high hat. This gave him the name of the "Plug Hat Missionary." He was earnest in his work and never lost an opportunity of trying to convert the people with whom he came in contact. He selected the sites upon which the Whitman and Spaulding missions were built. Upon leaving Vancouver Parker told Doctor McLoughlin that the Whitman-Spaulding party was on its way to the Columbia and would arrive in the late summer. Accompanied by McLeod and McKay the Whitman-Spaulding party arrived September 12. They returned up the river and established the famous missions at Waiilatpu and Lapwai. To Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spaulding belongs the honor of being the first white women to cross the plains to Oregon.

Doctor McLoughlin for many years was not connected with any religious organization. On Sundays, at Vancouver he read the service of the Episcopal Church. This doubtless led the company to send the Rev. Herbert Beaver, an Episcopal clergyman, to the post. The Rev. Mr. Beaver is said to have attempted to dictate to the chief factor. There was quarrelling and on one occasion the minister received a blow in the face from the doctor's fist, or cane. Recovering control of himself the doctor apologized, but the dignity of the dominie had been insulted and he and his wife departed for a less primitive vineyard. In a letter dated "Western Caledonia, February 25th, 1837," Peter Skeen Ogden gives his friend John McLeod the following "running account of events: 66 * * * amongst the many good things their honours from Frenchurch Street sent us last summer was a Clergyman and with him his wife, the Rev'd. Mr. Beaver, a very appropriate name for the fur trade, also Mr. & Mrs. Coppindale to conduct the Farming Establishment & by the Snake country we had an assortment of Am. Missionarys the Rev. Mr. Spaulding & Lady two Mr. Lees & Mr. Shephard surely clergymen enough when the Indian population is now so reduced by this is not all there are also five more Gent. as follows 2 in quest of Flowers 2 killing all the Birds in the Columbia & in quest of rocks and stones all these bucks came with letters from the President of the U. States and you know it would not be good policy not to treat them politely they are a perfect nuisance-long ere this you would have heard of David Douglas death he fell into a Bull Pit and was gored to death." Peter Skeen Ogden was

known among the traders as "M'sieu Pete." In his later life he grew very fat-so fat that the Indians marvelled and travelled far to see him.

The Methodists by this time seem to have realized that their work best could be advanced by bringing to Oregon a civilization based upon the home and settled communities. In response to an appeal for assistance the mission board sent two parties by sea. The first, consisting of Dr. and Mrs. Elijah White and two children; Mr. and Mrs. Alanson Beers and three children; William H. Willson, founder of the City of Salem, early day missionary at Nisqually and prominent in the provisional government; and the Misses Anna Maria Pittman, Susan Downing, and Elvira Johnson arrived on the ship Hamilton in May, 1837. J. L. Whitcom, mate of the Hamilton, also joined the mission. Shortly after their arrival Miss Pittman was married to Jason Lee and Miss Downing to Cyrus Shepard. In September the settlement was further increased by the arrival, on the ship Sumatra, of Rev. David Leslie, wife and three children; Rev. H. K. W. Perkins and Miss Margaret Smith. Two months later Perkins and Miss Johnson were married.

In March, 1838, Jason Lee, accompanied by P. L. Edwards, Ewing and two Indian boys, set out overland for the East. June 26 Mrs. Lee died in childbirth and Doctor McLoughlin at once dispatched an express which in sixty days, overtook Lee at the Shawnee Mission. Lee continued his journey and while in the East he married a second time.

While the announced object of this trip was the awakening of greater interest in the mission, Lee devoted considerable attention to arousing the people to the importance of colonizing Oregon with American settlers. That those already in Oregon hoped for the establishment of United States authority is shown by the memorial prepared at the mission and carried to Washington by Lee. It was signed by thirty-six American and Canadian settlers, was the first appeal made to the Federal Government by Oregon people and was presented in Congress in January, 1839, by Representative Caleb Cushing. It asked that Oregon be taken under federal protection.

In Peoria, Illinois, one of Jason Lee's addresses resulted in the organization of the T. J. Farnham expedition, composed of young men who sought adventure more than farms and their announced intention was to build a city in Oregon. Carrying a banner bearing the flamboyant legend, "Oregon or the Grave," they traveled across Illinois and did much to increase interest in the western country. Only a few of the original party reached Oregon. Farnham returned East by way of California, wrote the manuscript for a book which was published in the New York Tribune and exerted considerable influence in inducing the large immigrations of the early '40s.

Lee continued his lecturing throughout the summer of 1839 and aroused so much interest that the mission board decided to send out large reinforcements. About $42,000 was contributed to the movement. It has been said the Federal Government secretly contributed a good part of this money. October, 10, the ship Lausanne, Capt. Josiah Spaulding, loaded with goods, sailed from New York for the Columbia. Her passenger list included the names of the Rev. Jason Lee and wife; Rev. Joseph Frost, wife and child; Rev. William W. Kone and wife; Rev. Alvan F. Waller, wife and two children; Rev. J. P. Richmond, M. D., wife and four children; Ira L. Babcock, M. D., wife and child;

Rev. Gustavus Hines, wife and child; George Abernethy, mission steward, wife and two children; W. W. Raymond, farmer, and wife; Henry B. Brewer, farmer, and wife; Rev. Lewis H. Judson, cabinet-maker, wife and three children; Rev. Josiah L. Parrish, blacksmith, wife and three children; James Olley, carpenter, wife and children; Hamilton Campbell, wife and children; David Carter, Miss Chloe A. Clark, Miss Elmira Phillips, Miss Maria T. Ware, later Mrs. D. Lee, Miss Almira Phelps, teachers; Miss Orpha Lankton, stewardess, and Thomas Adams, the Chinook Indian who had accompanied Lee on his trip to the East.

The ship entered the Columbia River, May 21, 1840, and within a short time her cargo had been distributed to the various missions at the Willamette Falls, The Dalles, Clatsop and Nisqually. To Nisqually went Rev. Mr. Richmond. Rev. Mr. Frost and wife were assigned to Clatsop where they built a house and for more than three years worked among the Indians and the few white men who drifted across the Columbia River bar into the mission.

Becoming a victim of bronchitis, Frost was compelled to give up his labors, and with his wife, returned East, where he died. Mrs. Frost on January 1, 1866, became the wife of Rev. Stephen R. Beggs and later removed to South Dakota. In July, 1907, Edward S. Curtis and Prof. Edmond S. Meany, while photographing the Indians of the Rosebud agency, were told that a very old lady living in the village, professed to have been one of the early day missionaries to Oregon. The two Seattle men were taken to see this "very old lady," and to their great astonishment and pleasure found her to be the Mrs. J. H. Frost of the Clatsop mission. Although so deaf she scarcely could hear, her mind was bright and her memory good-so good in fact that Professor Meany conversed with her in the Chinook, a dialect she had not used for more than fifty years.

Boston, ever ready to listen to anything about Oregon, heard Lee; the Cushings loaded a cargo of goods on the bark Maryland and sent her around the Horn in charge of John H. Couch. She arrived in 1840, disposed of her goods and sailed away. Couch was back again a few years later with another cargo of American goods on the Chenamus. He established a store at Oregon City. American goods came in competition with those of the Hudson's Bay Company. The Lausanne had brought machinery for grist and saw mills which 300n were in operation, and the American settlers began to feel independent of the big British firm on the north side of the Columbia.

Missionaries of many denominations came to Oregon. The larger number of them had the support of denominational mission boards or the American Board; but some came on what was known as the self-supporting system. Among these were Rev. Mr. Griffin and Mr. Munger, with their wives, who arrived in 1838, and Rev. Mr. Clarke and wife and two laymen, who came two years later. The Indians were not yet willing to support the missionaries, the "selfsupporting system" failed, and the missionaries turned to farming.

Vicar General Francis Blanchet and Father Modeste Demers arrived at Vancouver from Canada, in 1838. Although the last of the churches to enter the Oregon mission field, the Catholic priests soon were establishing missions far into the interior country. Other priests followed, and in 1844 the first nuns, six sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, arrived at Vancouver on board