Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/450



442 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

objected to by one and only one of the members of the con- vention, but he is a man of influence and with his objections against eastern influence. It is understood, however, that this evangelist is to perform the duties of an exploring agent. It seems necessary that the Willamette and Umpqua valleys 246 be explored or visited by a faithful missionary who will be able to make a fair representation of the wants of the de- nomination, both to your Board and to the Willamette Asso- ciation. The people at the mouth of the Columbia should also be visited, and perhaps the settlement at Puget Sound 247 during the next season. Little, if anything, can be expected the present year in aid for the support of such an agent above what I shall receive from Portland, unless I should supply some destitute church a stated portion of the time. Yet the scattered members would be encouraged to early organizations and be led to appreciate the great utility of the missionary organization. Should the winter rains hold off, I hope to visit several destitute churches in the upper part of the valley. Baptist sentiments seem to be well received, and it is very ob- vious that our efforts in the cause of education seem to in- spire public confidence in the efficiency of the denomination. I will give one instance: A Br. Hill 248 from Missouri came to Albany, a county seat on the Willamette about 70 miles above this place, and commenced teaching and preaching some time last winter. His labors resulted in organizing a small church ; the proprietors of the lower part of the town have built a school house and at our late convention requested us to send them a teacher and a preacher, with the assurance that the people would help to support him as a minister and donate one-fourth of the lots of their town for church pur-

246 The Hudson's Bay Company had established a post in the Umpqua Valley as early as 1832. Bancroft, Hist, of N. W. Coast, II 1521. The valley was first carefully explored and extensively settled in 1850, largely through the efforts of the "Umpqua Town-Site and Colonization Land Company," which was largely financed from California. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. 11:175-183.

247 See note 390. There were a number of Americans of the immigration of 1851 who settled on Puget Sound. Bancroft, Hist, of Wash., Idaho and Montana, p. 21.

248 This was Rev. Reuben Coleman Hill, M. D., (1808-1890). He was born in Kentucky and moved to Missouri in 1846, to California in 1850, and to Oregon in 1851. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore., 11:82.