Page:Centennial History of Oregon 1811-1912, Volume 1.djvu/211

Rh the Flathead Indians and establish a mission among them. If Lee had been moved wholly by sentimental consideration he would have gone to the Flatheads. But while Jason Lee was first, last, and all the tiin.' an evangelist and servant of his God, he was at the same time eminently a man ol safe practical common sense. With nothing but his own light and resources to guide him. he must shoulder all the responsibility of his position, and take that course which would secure success in this great experiment, or be blamed for a failure. He had noted care- lully the conditions of an experiment with the Flatheads. si.x hundred miles from .sea coast transportation, surrounded by unfriendly Indians, aud exhausted by <'ontinuous wars with vengeful Blaekfeet. The outlook was not inviting. And the very fact that he had become the friend of the Flatheads, if he had decided 1o locate there, would have aroused the enmity of the Blaekfeet and other tribes, and not only cut off from him the friendship and access to other tribes, but might have resulted in the destruction of himself, supporters and innocent victims he had sought to help. More than that, the Willamette was the wider field, with the greater outlook to the future. Lee saw, then, as we see now, that the Willamette valley was more important to the future than all the valleys of the Rocky moun- tains. His decision was based upon practical common sense, and the great in- terests he had come to serve, and has been a thousand times over vindicated by the development of the country, and by the vast results of his work. Let us now look in on this young missionary to the Oregon Indians as he builds his first log cabin, three thousand miles distant from the comfortable and luxuri- ous homes of the people who sent him out here from the state of New York. As he stood there on the virgin prairie alongside the beautiful Willamette the hills, the waving grass, and silent woods, with native men, all innocent of the great work of civilization ahead, he was facing the great responsibility, and he must commence his work with the humblest means. Before a sheltering house could be raised, he must sharpen his axes, his saws, and break his half wild oxen to the services of the yoke and the discipline of a driver. Napoleon might easily win the greatest battles, but he would have failed utterly to make a wild ox pull in a yoke, as Jason Lee did. But the great work had to be done ; and these men reso- lutely went at it and built a house in thirty days from the standing trees. Logs were cut, squared and laid up, a puncheon floor from split logs put in, doors were hewn from fir logs, and hung on wooden hinges, window sashes whittled out of split pieces with a pocket knife, a chimney built of sticks, claj'^ and wild grass mixed ; two rooms, four little windows, and tables, stools and chairs added little by little from the work of patient hands. And thus was started the first Christian mission west of the Rocky Mountains. While the jMethodists were first in the Oregon missionary field, the officers of the American Board were not idle spectators of the movement. On the con- trary, they were deeply moved by the stoiy of the four Flatheads; but having no funds in hand at the time to send out any number of missionaries, and in order to proceed wisely, they decided to send two men to "spy out the land." Accordingly Rev. Samuel Parker, of Ithaca, N. Y., fifty-six years old, formerly a pastor in Congregational churches, of that State and Massachusetts, the latter of which was his native state, and Marcus Whitman, M. D., a native of Rush- ville. N. Y., thirty-three years old, a graduate of the Berkshire Jledical School at Pittsfield, Mass., were chosen. The object of the Board in appointing them