Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/102



74 ROBERT MOULTON GATKE

"I wish I could make you acquainted with brother Shepard's school," says Mr. Perkins, "as it was when I first visited the country. I wish I could make you see the very log house, the school-room, the chambers where the children slept, the little clapboard bedsteads, if bedsteads they could be called, the loose straw in which they nestled, the dining-room, the table, the bits of coarse bread, and basins of soup, as they used to be placed regularly along from one end of it to the other, and last, though not least interesting, to see the good man quietly seated at the board, sharing the fare with them. I wish I could introduce you to them, as he knelt with them and offered up evening and morning prayers, that you might hear them while they sing, and listen to the simple, artless instruction which they receive. The scene would impress upon your mind a vivid idea of the beauty of goodness." 7

The effectiveness of the home training was greatly increased at the time of the first and second reinforcements of the mis- sion in the year 1837, through the helpful presence of Chris- tian women. This touch was needed not only to make the home influence ideal but also to relieve Shepard and the others of work, which even with all of their great effort, they could do but poorly as compared with those fitted by nature and training for such work. The marriage of Jason Lee to the cultured and beautiful Anna Pitman, and of Cyrus Shepard to the devoted and inspiring Susan Downing caused two Chris- tian homes to be added to those just established by Alanson Beers and his wife, and Dr. and Mrs. White. Miss Margaret J. Smith became the assistant teacher for the mission school and took charge of the girls of the mission home.

Some realization of the new elements introduced is forced upon us when we read the story of the life and death of one of the little Indian girls, Sally Soule (so named by the mis- sionaries in honor of the wife of one of the bishops of their church), who, like so many of the other Indian children en- tered the school afflicted with tuberculosis. Miss Smith tells us that the child was so neat and prim that her school mates termed her "the old maid," and yet she was so much loved

7 Ibid., pp. 196-7.