Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/150

 138 REVEREND EZRA FISHER Oregon City, O. Ter., Jan. 12, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, A. B. H. M. Soc., N. Y. Dear Brother: The time has arrived in which it becomes necessary that arrangements be made touching the field of my labor the coming year. To me it is no pleasant task to solicit a re- appointment. Yet it appears to me a matter of increased im- portance that the Baptists should have a man in the general field in Oregon who shall visit every church and town and opening district, at least Umpqua and Rogue rivers, Puget Sound 2 * 6 and the mouth of the Columbia and, at each place, spend a sufficient portion of time to learn the respective wants, and follow the openings of Providence in preaching the Word. Our churches are small and scattered over a large territory and generally have preaching but one Saturday and Sabbath each month, and some only occasionally; numbers of preach- ers have only limited opportunities and labor through the week for their bread. Now a visit from a minister in whom the churches repose confidence, who will preach the Word, administer counsel when needed, present both publicly and privately the objects contemplated by the Home Mission Society and inculcate the principles of Christian benevolence and the importance of cultivating the Christian graces, would no doubt, under God, contribute more to promote the unity and strength of the churches and the earliest establishment of the cause of Christ in places of rising importance than the confinement of all our ministers to a given limit, station or two each. It is to be hoped that something may be done the ensuing year by way of aiding the Society in sustaining the gospel in Oregon. I am far from saying to your Board that I am the man, and still farther from coveting the 296 For the early posts of the Hudson Bay Company on the CowIItz and at Nisqually, see notes 298 and 290. The first American settlements on Puget Sound were in 1845, near Tumwater. They grew gradually during the following few years, but suffered by the exodus to California m 1849. In 1850 a store was erected at Olympia and commerce in American ships began. There were perhaps 100 American citizens on the Sound at this time. In 1851 Port Townsend was laid out; in 1852-3, Seattle. There was steady growth of population from 1850 on. Bancroft, of Wash., Ida. and Mont, pp. 2, 4, 16, 17, 24.