Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/86

78 at San Francisco Bay immediately upon the settlement of the Mexican War. . . This whole country and Upper California are emphatically missionary grounds, and our relation to the whole Pacific Coast and the half of the globe in our front demands prompt and faithful action. . . Whatever God has in store for our majestic River and our spacious and safe harbors on the Pacific, one thing is now reduced to a demonstration: We must become a part of the Great North American Republic. It remains for the Christian churches of that Republic to say whether our territory shall prove a blessing or a sore curse to the nation. Shall the needed help be denied us?" His plea for San Francisco and Puget Sound was often repeated.

In the spring, because they could the better earn their living and, at the same time, be as useful as at Astoria, they moved to Clatsop Plains.

In connection with the Presbyterians, they at once organized a Sunday school in the log school house where their eldest daughter taught during the week.

This at first numbered twenty-five and soon grew to thirty. Following Sunday school each week, either Rev. Lewis Thompson, the Presbyterian minister, or Elder Fisher would preach, the two men acting alternately and their congregations numbering about fifty.

In June, mail from the East began to reach the Baptist missionary. It was the first since leaving St. Joseph, Mo., more than two years before. In August, two boxes from the Home Mission Society arrived. At the age of seventy-five, the only living member of the family remembers with what delight these, and a box from her grandparents, which arrived at the same time, were received.