Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/249

Rh all that is mortal of Jason Lee, lies buried the wife of his youth and the infant son for whose birth her life was a sacrifice, the first white child born in the State of Oregon, the first white woman married, and as Mr. Gill has so well said, "the first to die in the Oregon Country." Upon her tombstone you will read to-day at Mission Cemetery, Salem, these words: "Beneath this sod, the first broken in Oregon for the reception of white mother and child, lie the remains of Ann Maria Pittman Lee." This man and this woman together will sleep at last. The work which they did has outlived them. She in her sphere, and he in his, performed well their part. Jason Lee was by birth, education and training a devout enthusiast and loyal patriot and the prophet of a new State. His life illustrates again the truth of the statement that to achieve success there must be a single purpose, and energies must not be wasted or dissipated in attempting to do well more than one thing.

"There is always room for a man of force, and he makes room for many. Society is a troop of thinkers and the best heads among these take the best places. A feeble man can see the farms that are fenced and tilled, the houses that are built. The strong man sees the possible houses and farms. His eye makes estates as fast as the sun breeds clouds."

Jason Lee with the eye of prophecy saw in 1834 the great commonwealth of 1906. He saw the march and power of empire, and that the flag of his country would in less than a century wave from Panama to Behring Straits. The republic was to reach the zenith of its power on these shores. His work is done. The record of his life has been written. We cannot add to or take from that record, and the simple ceremonies attending this hour but feebly record the final chapter in the life of the great Methodist missionary, educator, pioneer, and statesman.