Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/294



From "Lee Family Genealogy," 1634-1897 and "Supplement" to the same, 1900; and "Forests and Clearings," a history of Stanstead County, Canada, as well as other original sources, the following was collated by F. E. Grubbs respecting the lineage and national allegiance of Jason Lee.

Jason Lee's American ancestor, John Lee, joined the Puritan movement led by Rev. Thomas Hooker of Braintree, Essex County, England, 1634, and was one of the first fifty-four inhabitants of Newtowne (Cambridge), Massachusetts Bay Colony. His residence was at the southwest corner of Holyoke and Winthrop Streets, near the present site of Harvard University. The next year, 1635, he joined the expedition under Hooker and journeyed through the wilderness to the Connecticut Valley, being present at the founding of the City of Hartford, Connecticut. Subsequently he was one of eighty-five to purchase a tract of one hundred and twenty-five square miles in the Connecticut Valley from the Indians. The original map is still extant and exhibits the several holdings of John Lee.

The family was prominent in all the military, civil, and religious affairs of the Colonies. At the outbreak of the Revolution, Daniel Lee, Jason Lee's father, lived at Willington, Connecticut. He was one of a company of Minute Men who, at the first alarm at Lexington, marched to Boston, was present at the siege of that city, and afterwards participated in all the battles in New York and the Jerseys. By the act of Congress, 1818, he was made a pensioner of the United States.

About the year 1797 there was a large emigration to the northern parts of Vermont and New Hampshire. Among the earliest of these settlers was Daniel Lee, who located