Page:Oregon, her history, her great men, her literature.djvu/154

 session at Canal, Ohio, to organize and conduct a missionary colony to Oregon. Five hundred dollars had been contributed by the church for the project. The amount was incredibly small for so great an undertaking. Yet it was one-fifth

as much as Congress had appropriated for the Lewis and Clark expedition to Oregon less than a half century before. The party of ninety-eight persons from various quarters gathered at Council Bluffs; and (May 7) began the journey to Oregon, with Rev. T. J. Connor as their leader.

REV. THOMAS JEFFERSON CONNOR

They arrived in the Willamette Valley in the following September. The most of them settled in Benton County, where they established churches, and rigidly observed many of the rules of religious life established by the Puritans. Regular attendance at church and the strict observance of Sunday as the Sabbath were among their requirements. Furthermore, dancing was frowned upon while simplicity of dress and plainness of manner were regularly taught from the pulpit. They believed in the kinship of cleanliness and godliness so thoroughly that Monday was set apart for putting their homes in order. Hence there were no schools in session on that day, but instead, Saturday was observed as a school day. Christian education of the young was an important canon of their faith. Therefore they were diligent in organizing church schools; they erected fine homes, and they prospered in the land of their pilgrimage.