Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/85

Rh more immediate consequence, he moved to Astoria in the fall of '46. That part of Oregon had then its share of settlers, at least one other denomination was beginning an effort there and the outlook for steady growth was most encouraging.

Throughout the winter he preached every Sunday but, with only two American families in Astoria besides themselves, his field of usefulness was limited. Most of his time for two months was occupied in building the house which for many years served as Astoria's postoffice and which has often been pictured as a landmark of the place. It was made of shakes, split with a frow, and was built entirely from one big tree, a portion of which remained unused.

Their privations and discouragements that year were great. They had received neither word nor remittance from the Home Mission Society since leaving Rock Island, Ill. They had no mail and very little reading matter. Their first home was a log cabin which had been abandoned some time before. It had been made more habitable no doubt by some repairs, but it had no windows and in it were few indeed of the commonest comforts of life. They were wearing old clothes which had served their day in Illinois and of food had small variety, although better supplied than the year before. The winter was severe and he lost all but two of his twenty cattle. More than all his privations, he regretted that he could be of so little use as a minister of the gospel and must spend so large a part of his time in providing the necessities of life. "If I have one object for which I desire to live more than all others," he wrote, "it is to see the cause for which Christ impoverished Himself making the people of Oregon rich."

In anticipation of the needs of California and of Puget Sound his first letter from Astoria had this: "Should the settlement of the Oregon question be what we anticipate, we shall greatly need a missionary stationed at Puget Sound before you can commission a suitable man and send him to the field. And should Upper California remain under the United States government, a missionary will be greatly needed