Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/462



454 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

The meeting was conducted with great unanimity of senti- ment and, although the weather was very unfavorable, trav- eling bad! and the waters high, the congregations were large for the place and, after preaching, five were received for bap- tism and four followed the footsteps of their Redeemer through the liquid grave, one the teacher of the school in the place. The deferred member will be baptized next Sab- bath. He also is one of the leading men in the county. This church has received four or five others by baptism the past winter under the labors of Rev. R. C. Hill from Missouri.

Yours in the gospel, Received May 17, 1852. EZRA FISHER.

Oregon City, O. Ten, Apr. 1, 1852. To the Executive Board of the

Am. Bapt. Home Mission Society :

The subscriber desires reappointment as a missionary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society, for the term of one year from this date, to labor one-quarter of the time with the Baptist church at Lebanon, Marion County, one-quarter of the time with the Shilo church, Marion County, and the Marysville 261 church, Benton County, and to spend the re- maining time as an itinerant preacher, in which time it is proposed by the friends in Oregon that I shall visit the Ump- qua Valley and other portions in Oregon as often as circum- stances may seem to demand. The Lebanon 262 church is in an important farming country 12 miles east of Salem ; church numbers but 8 members. Average attendance on Lord's day about 50. The missionary Baptists have no church within 12 miles of the place. The church agree to pay for my support $50 and hope to raise it to $100. The Shilo church has 10 members; congregation the Sabbath I preached to them about 55. The position is important, both for farming and

261 This was the nresent Corvallis. The name was changed in 1854. The church was organized in December, 1851. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore., I:io.

262 The Lebanon Church was organized May 17, 1851. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore., I:i6.