Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/78

70 On the twelfth of November, 1832, they bade goodbye to their friends in Springfield and, with their little daughter, began their first journey westward. Stopping only for a visit of a few days with Mrs. Fisher's parents in Clinton, N. Y., they were five weeks on the way, not reaching Indianapolis until the 22d of December.

His commission probably awaited him there. It was among the first issued by the American Baptist Home Mission Society. He at once began work at a salary of three hundred dollars a year, fifty dollars having been allowed him for outfit.

With his arrival at Indianapolis, his own pen takes up the account of his life and work and continues it almost uninterruptedly until 1856. It is the story of how he strove to place the leaven of the Kingdom of God within the developing life of the Mississippi Valley, of how he journeyed by ox team to the Pacific Coast to perform a like service for Oregon, and of how he did indeed labor in Oregon amid many discouragements to set in motion the forces which make for effective righteousness. For the most part, only the outlines of what he himself has written would be in place here.

While the purpose of his correspondence was primarily to give the Society an account of his own work and of the Baptist cause where he labored, he does much more than this. He describes the country, its places, the life and conditions of every field he occupied, suggests, often with prophet's vision, bases for future operations, gives a comprehensive view of American expansion westward and at least touches upon nearly every event of importance connected with the earlier history of the Pacific Coast.

The church in Indianapolis was a chaotic one of fifty-five members. They had no articles of faith and their beliefs were almost as varied as the places from which they had come. Most were opposed to the support of the ministry. They had no Sunday school and many did not believe in the institution.