Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/44



34 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE

who considered them to be merely personal papers which should not concern the public. The only reason the present group escaped a like fate was owing to the fact that the signed copies had been written in a large letter book, bound in heavy leather which Mr. Roberts kept with his library, and hence passed with his other books, into the possession of Willamette University.

Before letting the letters speak for themselves, it may be well to remind ourselves, in just a word or two, concerning the position of Roberts in Oregon history. As the third Super- intendent of the Oregon Mission between the years of 1847 and 1849, Mr. Roberts directed the newly founded church through the danger period of the Indian troubles and the mad rush for California at the time of the Gold Discovery. He organized the Oregon-California Mission Conference of the Methodist Church, and exercised a wise control over the newly established church in California as well as in Oregon. When the Mission Conference was formally organized into two Annual Conferences (1852) Roberts continued his work as an aggressive pioneer minister. His position, ability and interest gave him a marked influence in the civic and educa- tional life of the new country, as well as its religious life, so we find his influence touching many phases of Early Oregon History.

This leader of Early Oregon was born in Burlington, N. J., in 1812, was city reared and educated, and entered the Methodist Ministry in the Philadelphia Conference in 1834. His early pulpit work marked him as a man destined to become a leader in his church. In 1846 he was appointed to succeed Dr. George Gary as Superintendent of the Oregon Mission, and reached Oregon in June, 1847. The William Roberts best remembered was as he appeared in later years, but a description given of him by an associate of his earlier years will serve to bring to mind his appearance at the time he wrote the letters now before us: "He was thirty- four