Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/177

 BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN OREGON

minister to

Richmond it may be said that begin work north of the Columbia

summer

of 1840 he went to a point about

In connection with Rev.

he was the

River



first

167

that in the

J.

P.

twenty miles from the present city of Tacoma, and built a log cabin, and surrounded it by a stockade for defense from the Indians, about three-quarters of a mile from old Fort Niswhich was a post of the Puget Sound Agricultural

qually,

Company, a branch of the Hudson's Bay Company, established in 1833, and that here, on August 16, 1841, Dr. W. H. Willson and Miss Chloe A. Clark were married. The first child of this union was the late Mrs. J. K. Gill of this city. The name of Willamette Falls was soon changed to Oregon City, and there Waller erected the first Protestant church on the Pacific Coast, the building of which was begun in 1843 and dedicated in 1844. in

A

little

Salem.

he built the first house of 1842 it was decided to create

later

in

Early worship an educational institution to be known as the Oregon Institute, and on October 26, 1842, it formally came under the control of the Methodist Church, and the "Oregon and California Mis-

was organized, by authority given by the General Conference of the United States, on September 5, 1849. At this time on the entire Pacific Coast there were 348 members of the Methodist Church and six probationers; of Stinday Schools there were nine, with 261 scholars. At the sion Conference"

March 22, 1853, which by that time Oregon Conference, there were 35 local preach-

close of the Conference of

was

called the

558 church members, and 214 probationers. first camp meeting in Oresron or on the coast was near what is now Hillsboro, and was begun on July 12, 1843. The first dav 14 were present, Rev. Jason Lee preaching from the

ers.

The

text.

"Where two

there

am

I in the

or three are gathered together in my name midst of them." The other ministers present

Rev. Gustavus Hines, Rev. H. K. W. Perkins, Rev. and Rev. Harvey Clark, the latter a Congregationalist. Mrs. Wiley Edwards, now of Portland, is probably were:

David

Leslie,

the only person living who was present at that meeting. On Sunday there were about 60 present, of whom 19 were not pro-