The Willamette Mission

Undated drawing shows front of mission.

        Almost thirty years after the Lewis and Clark Expedition, four desperate Northwest Indians trekked half way across the continent to ask General Clark for his "Book of Heaven", hoping to save their people from disease and poverty. Alerted by a sympathetic article in the Christian Advocate, the Methodist evangelical spirit responded by financing a missionary effort to Oregon led Jason Lee. His nephew, Daniel Lee, was selected to be his assistant missionary, and Cyrus Shepard was appointed as lay missionary. With the addition of two other laymen, Philip Edwards and Courtney Walker, the small party prepared to cross the continent into a fate none could have imaged.
        The 1834 overland expedition was guided by Nathaniel Wyeth, a successful Boston businessman hoping to establish western fur and dried salmon trading posts and, from Fort Hall to Fort Vancouver, by Thomas McKay, stepson of John McLoughlin, who was a Hudson Bay Company brigade leader and explorer of the Columbia River area. The Methodist mission was organized in the Willamette Valley near a French Canadian settlement, about ten miles north of the present city of Salem. In contrast to the trader/trapper attitude of living in concert with the Indians, the Americans wished, through their preaching classes for the Indian children, to "civilize" the native people by their own standards of society. As examples, the Methodist sponsors realized that American women were needed in the mission community to serve as teachers and to establish families. Aside from these practical matters, one can imagine that the young missionary gentleman were as eager to seek the comfort of women as had the retired French-Canadian trappers living nearby and to attain female help for household domestic activities in their rough frontier cabins. The Methodists recognized that, even if one of their missionaries sought Christian marriage with a native women of the area, it would not be recognized if they returned to their former homes "in the states." There was also the general observation that native women, if they displeased with their male companions, would simply leave them. The ceremony of marriage was a necessity, and with American women who understood the duties of the institution.
         The Board of Missions of the New England Conference of the Methodist Church responded by sending five women who volunteered to be in the next group of missionaries sailing in two whaling vessels from Boston in the summer of 1836. The year-long voyages, including several months in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), ended in Fort Vancouver (near the present city of Portland, Oregon) in May and September of 1837. The travelers proceeded by canoes for three days to the landing at Champoeg where horses were obtained carry them to the mission settlement on the Willamette River about 10 miles north of the present city of Salem. This route took them over the potential rich farmlands of “La Jolie Prairie”, now known as the historic French Prairie area between the two cities. Among the voyagers were three families: a future leader of the missionary community, David Leslie, arrived with his wife Mary and three daughters; a much-needed blacksmith, Anson Beers, with his wife Rachel and three children; and Dr. Elijah White, his wife Serepta and adopted son. A carpenter, William Willson, who had learned medical skills from Dr. White, came as a bachelor. Two of the four unmarried women of the group were already engaged: Susan Downing, to Cyrus Shepherd, a teacher at the mission and Elvira Johnson to minister H. K. Perkins. The Methodist church sponsors hoped that Anna Maria Pittman, acquainted with Jason Lee, would become his wife. Margaret Smith, an experienced teacher, was alone determined to continue unmarried in her profession.

The future of these seven women would be revealed in the frontier life of the structures seen above.

Today's "Ghost" structures in the State Park recall the original mission settlement. This interpretive view point  shows the reverse of the drawing above.

A Triple Wedding ~ Susan, Anna Maria, Nancy

      On July 16, 1937 a triple wedding took place in a grove of fir trees, perhaps like this one, near the mission settlement. Two of these couples are well-known in Oregon history, the other largely ignored. Jason Lee conducted the first ceremony uniting Susan Downing and Cyrus Shepherd, the most gifted of the mission teachers. They had become engaged to marry before the expeditions to Oregon. The second ceremony of marriage that day, for Jason Lee and Anna Maria Pittman, a teacher, was more of a surprise: although she was informed before she left New York that she was a "suitable" prospect as his wife, he had expressed reservations.

         Susan and Anna Maria had voyaged together to Hawaii on the ship Hamilton, then waited several months for the Diana to complete their landing at Fort Vancouver. They were still together in the canoes paddling upriver to Champoeg the next three days. At that landing, Babtiste Desporte McKay presented a letter from Daniel Lee, reporting twelve sick persons at the mission and urging Dr White and the party to hasten in relief. They found the dirt floor of the mission structure covered with the sick, covered with blankets. Susan, dressed carefully for her reunion with Cyrus, found him unkept, busy with housework and caring for the ill. Soon he, too, became sick and Susan found her duties, which continued after their marriage, would be in nursing the sick and caring for the mission children.
     Susan's daughter, born in August 1838, was named Anna Maria Lee Shepherd. Unfortunately, Susan's friend for whom the infant was named, had died a few days after her son was born in the previous June. The Lee son died as well.

     There follows an excerpt from a letter written by 34 year-old Anna Maria Pittman while she was preparing to come to Oregon. Date June 9, 1836, it was written from New York to her brother, George W. Pittman, she says:

       "I have taken my pen in hand to address you for the last time. The time is drawing nigh when I must bid a long farewell to all I love. I quit the scene of my youth, the land of my birth, and in a far and distant land among strangers I expect to dwell. Soon the rolling billows of the tempestuous ocean, and the towering mountain's rugged steep, will intervene between us, and perhaps we see each others faces no more. As the hour approaches for my departure, I still remain firm and undaunted; I have nothing to fear, God has promised to be with me even to the end of the world. Dear brother, farewell, may Heaven bless you, and oh remember your sister who goes not to seek the honors and pleasures of the world, but lays her life a willing sacrifice upon the altar of God."

       Jason Lee in his diary recorded his second meeting with Anna Maria Pittman: "In our first reinforcement in the summer of 1837 there were three single ladies, one of which was not engaged. I had seen her before in N.Y. City, but was not at all favorably impressed with her personal appearance, and least of all, did I think she would ever become my wife; even when I was informed by letter that she was coming to Oregon, and on my first interview with her there, my prejudices remained the same. I was told that she was sent out on purpose for me, and that she had come with expectation that I would marry her.

After the marriage, Jason Lee wrote "Thus I commenced a new era in my life and began an experimental acquaintance with the state of marriage, the happiness of which I had long been favorably impressed. The most perfect harmony and unanimity subsisted between us, and we were always happy in the enjoyment of each others society."

      The Lees and Shepherds took a honeymoon camping trip the coast (each way was four days by horseback) where the ministers preached to Indians and, we hope, the ladies indulged in salmon and enjoyed the dramatic Oregon coast views.  Early in the next year, Jason Lee was on his way back to the east to gain more financial support for the mission effort. Although pregnant and ill, Anna Maria accompanied him to the ship in Vancouver (again by horseback, being helped on and off by their companions). Her friends felt at that time that she would not recover. Indeed, she and the new born son died in June of 1839 and were buried together in a hastily constructed casket. Flooding caused damage to the mission grave site. Her casket was later moved to Lee Mission Cemetery in Salem. 

       In 1840, Cyrus, always in ill health due to tuberculosis, died after the amputation of a leg. Susan must have left the mission at that time. In 1841, Susan married Joseph Whitcomb in Washington and returned east the next year. He died soon after. A grandchild, Clara Shepherd Newell Traxler wrote "Stories my Grandmother Told Me", including memories of Susan's tragic four years Oregon.

        The third couple was Nancy McKay, daughter of Captain Thomas McKay and his Indian wife, Timmee T'ikul Tchinouk, to Charles Roe, an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. The mission community festivities included a "love feast" with sermons on the joys of married life, singing, and conversions of Indian attendees. Charles Roe also joined the church that day.
        Nancy was as close to northwest aristocracy as any young lady of that day. Her father, Thomas McKay was the respected explorer, trapper and trader who acted as guide for the party that brought Jason Lee to Oregon. McKay was the step-son of John McLoughlin, the leading representative of Britain in the northwest. Nancy’s mother has been described as a daughter of a Chinook chief. With this family background, it is not surprising to find a record that Nancy and her brothers were among the “Indian” children who attended the mission school where Cyrus Shepard was teacher. However, Nancy and Charles were not a part of the mission community. They lived in the French Prairie area, among the retired French-Canadians and their families. Her home, later described as a "hut" by Gustavus Hines who found it unoccupied, was a modest one. The only recorded sighting of Nancy herself after her marriage was in 1843, near Walla Walla. Hines wrote the following: 

        "An Indian woman and her daughter joined our party, of whom mention has been made in another part of this narrative. The old woman lived many years with Thomas McKay, but he finally cast her off, and she is now the wife of an old half-breed Iroquois, by the name of Jo Gray. Her daughter is the wife of Charles Roe. They both live in the lower country, but were up on a visit to their relatives among the Indians. Their dresses were an imitation of the Boston fashions, but were much defiled by the smoke, dirt, and grease of wigwams. They were both astride their horses, the younger carrying her little son before her."

        And so Nancy and her son disappear from the records of that time. Nancy’s birth date is unknown, but she died before 1856. Charles Roe remarried in that year and in 1859 was hanged in Salem for the murder of this second wife.

Marion County photograph by TN Green, Jr.

A Life of Adventure ~ Lydia Hines

Traveling by sailing ship on the world's oceans and by the "Prairie Schooner" across our continent, Lydia Bryant Hines had a life of adventure.  The following profile of this exceptional Salem woman is condensed from an article in the Pacific Christian Advocate of April, 1870.

In 1830 Lydia Bryant married Gustavus Hines. In the following winter they settled in the woods of Ellicottsville, NY.  Her husband received his first license to preach the gospel, and was appointed by his presiding elder to travel the circuit on which they were living; and she very unexpectedly found cast upon her the responsibilities of the life of a Methodist itinerant preacher's companion. In all her calculations for the future, she had made no reckoning for this and the prospect appalled her.  However she became convinced that the call of the Church was indeed the call of God: and accordingly yielded and prepared herself as best she could.

 Early in the spring of 1839 she was called upon to endure perhaps the most severe trial of her life; the severing of all ties that bound her to the land of her nativity, the committal of herself to the treacherous storms of ocean, and in connection with others, to seek, as a missionary, a far distant home on the then almost unknown shores of the great Pacific. The evening of Oct. 9th, 1839 found her for the first time on the deck of a ship. Nearly eight months of ocean life, during which she was permitted to look in upon Brazil, Chili, and the Sandwich Islands, acquainted her with the lights and shadows of a sea voyage in a crowded vessel. June 1st, 1840 found her at Vancouver, and exchanging the ship Lausanne for a Chinook canoe, by which the waters of Oregon were then navigated, she arrived on the 15th of the same month.

Early in the spring of 1841 it was her lot to occupy a small shanty located near what is called the "old parsonage" in Salem. She often feared that she and her family would fall victims to savage fury—and the more so as she now had under her protection a young and helpless sister. One day, at the dusk of evening, in the fall of the year, while the neighborhood was agitated by rumors of Indian outbreaks, there appeared immediately in front of the parsonage 12 mounted savages of the Molalla tribe, painted in the most hideous and frightful manner, and rushing up into the very dooryard, all dismounted, giving evidence at the same time that their visit was not friendly. Mr. H. went out to meet them, and approaching one who appeared to be their leader, offered him his hand in token of friendship. He refused and immediately the whole band set up a horrid laugh. This demonstration of hostility so alarmed Mrs. Hines that she resolved to take her little sister, and if possible, escape to a house on the north side of Mill Creek, occupied by the families of L. H. Judson and James Olley, (sister of Judson) the only house within many miles. She took a circuitous route for a distance down the little stream running in the rear of the parsonage, so as to keep from the sight of the Indians as long as possible. Sometimes leading little Julia by the hand and at others lifting her in her arms, she struck across the prairie northward, struggling through the tall grass with her precious burden, while expecting every moment to be pursued and feel the violent hand of a savage laid upon her. On reaching the creek, not daring to extend her flight to a footbridge a short distance below, she dashed straight through the current, bearing her sister in her arms. Not being pursued, she gained the house in safety, and collecting all the adults belonging to the families, she returned with them through the darkness to look after the fate of her husband. The savages had in the meantime encamped in [the] rear of the parsonage, where they remained quietly for a few hours, and then before daylight decamped, bearing with them as booty some provisions and a valuable horse, the property of Mr. Hines.

 In the spring of 1842, by the death of Mrs. Jason Lee, the infant daughter, but three weeks old, was taken by Mrs. Hines from the bed where its mother, just deceased, still reposed, and conveyed to her own home. For reasons that need not be inserted in this sketch, Mr. Lee, Mr. and Mrs. Hines and family, left Oregon in Feb. 1844, intending to proceed to the eastern states. But on arriving at Honolulu it was found that there was no sailing for any of the Atlantic ports for several months. It was however ascertained that a small Hawaiian schooner about to sail for Mexico, would take one person on board. And Mr. Lee being exceedingly anxious to proceed, took passage in hope of being able in some way to get from Mexico to New York: while Mr. Hines and family, including Mr. Lee's daughter, decided to return to Oregon. It was here, on the Island of Oahu on the 28th of Feb., 1844, that with flowing tears and words of sympathy and love Mrs. Hines received the daughter from the arms of the weeping father, and made a solemn pledge that all a mother could do for a daughter she would do for the motherless child that then in her heart she adopted as her own. Mrs. Hines with her family returned again to Oregon, and arrived at Oregon City the last of April. Residing there for the best part of two years, she was active in Church interests, but especially in searching out the destitute among the emigrants who crossed the plains, and in affording relief. During the years 1844-5, in company with her husband, she visited every portion of Oregon then occupied by whites, for Missionary purposes, traveling on horseback and in canoes.

Lifeline

In September 1845, it became the duty of Mrs. Hines to leave Oregon again and return to the States. Accordingly, she with Mr. H. and their two adopted daughters bade a second adieu to the wooded mountains of Oregon, and performed another voyage to the Sandwich Islands, where she spent upwards of three months. From the Islands, she had the opportunity of crossing the Pacific Ocean to the coast of China and of spending upwards of two months at Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton. From thence, in the good ship Leeland, the Chinese and Java Seas were traversed, the Straits of Sunday penetrated, the Indian Ocean crossed, the Cape of Good Hope doubled, the Atlantic Ocean again traced, and on the 5th of May the missionary family arrived in safety at New York City. [The anticipated reunion of Lucyanna and her father was not to be: Jason Lee had died at his sister's home just two months before.]

In 1852, very unexpectedly to her husband, she informed him that she would be glad to return again to the Pacific Coast, and there spend the remainder of her days. Sympathizing in this feeling, Mr. Hines asked and obtained a transfer to the Oregon Conference, with the privilege of returning to the country by way of the Plains. The journey across the Plains, which was performed the same year, was one of great interest to Mrs. Hines though attended with great toil and exposure. Their first place of residence after reaching Oregon in October 1853 was on the Vancouver circuit; and in the spring of 1854 by virtue of the appointment of Mr. H. to Salem she became a resident of that city. On this year she received a third orphan [this was Marie Smith] into her family and into her heart. Here, for fourteen years she has had a settled home, though from time to time she has extended her travels to various parts of the State and Washington Territory. In this home she closed her highly useful and eventful life in great peace, March 14th, 1870.
Lydia is buried near the original entrance to Lee Mission Cemetery, a site now unmarked.

Lucy Anna Lee ~ An Orphan Daughter

 Willamette University began in this Oregon Institute building. This was where Lucyanna attended college and became a teacher.

When she was three-weeks-old, Lucy Anna's mother, Lucy Thompson Lee, died.

Lucy, a native of Vermont, was born on March 10, 1809 at Barre Lower Village. She began her religious studies at the Newbury Seminary in 1836 and was valedictorian of her graduating class in November 1838. Her professor, a classmate of Jason Lee, told his friend about Lucy and showed Lee a copy of her address. Their meeting led to a brief courtship with Lucy marrying Lee just four months later in July 1839. In autumn of that same year, they were part of the group sailing together on the “Lausanne,” bound for Oregon. The ladies of the mission community who had come to Oregon two years before had expected to conduct a memorial for Jason Lee's first wife,Anna Maria Pittman, and were surprised by the new wife. After a month, the missionaries left the settlement now known as the Willamette Mission site (near the present Wheatland Ferry) to found what became Salem. Lucy and Jason lived, with the Parrish, Raymond and Judson families, in the first house built in the new community on Mill Creek. Now relocated, it is known as the Jason Lee House at Willamette heritage Center. Lucy's life at the pioneer mission was short.  She died of pleurisy on March 20, 1842, less than two years after her arrival. 

Lydia Hines, a faithful friend, who had recently lost an infant daughter, took the infant from her mother's arms. She pledged to child's father, Jason Lee, that she would take care of his only child. Two years later, 1844 the Lees and Hines left Oregon for Hawaii. The Methodist sponsors of the Oregon mission were not satisfied with Lee's leadership and this was to be the first segment of a return to the United States for negotiations. Because passage for all three was not available from Honolulu, Lee returned to the east alone.  Lucy Anna returned to Oregon with Rev. and Mrs. Hines. Two years later, the Hines and Lucy sailed to New York, taking a circular voyage around the globe, intending to return her to the father.  The first news they received upon arrival in that city was that Jason Lee had passed away on March 12, 1845 and his will had given his only child to their loving care.

            Lucy Anna did not return to Oregon until Rev. Hines returned, overland this time, to Salem in 1853, when she was 11 years old.  She graduated from Willamette University with the class of 1863 and became a teacher there, being one of a staff of five in 1865.  When Chloe Willson retired from the position of Governess, or Dean of Women, at the end of that school year, Lucy Anna succeeded her.  She became the wife of Francis H. Grubbs, a classmate and fellow instructor. Their only child was a daughter, Ethel.

            Her students later described Mrs. Grubbs as being tall, with a slender, and stately appearance, her hair braided and wound around her head. A woman of superior knowledge, she was reserved and dignified, and a most devout Christian.  A gifted teacher in many disciplines, girls later remembered how they used to sit around a fire on winter days, eating their lunch while she read aloud her favorite poem, Evangeline. Exacting in her instruction and her expectations of her students, they also recalled she could be amused, even slightly sarcastic at times: calling a student’s attention back to the lesson when he attempted to distract her attention from his lack of preparation.

            As Ethel, the third generation of the Lee family entered the 1870s, Salem was no longer a pioneer mission settlement.  Several hundred homes on tree-lined streets housed the population of over a thousand citizens.  There were numerous commercial enterprises, a railway line to Portland, steamboats on the Willamette, eight churches, five schools, three drug stores - and thirteen saloons.

            Professor Grubbs taught at Willamette for six years then in 1869 "was called to organize an academy at Baker City," that being the reason for their departure from Salem. He was associated several other schools of the Northwest until poor health forced him out of his profession. He took part in various enterprises, finally going into a printing business in Portland.  Lucy Anna died in 1881 at the age of 39. Her childhood friend and stepsister, Julia Bryant Terry, was with an "invalid" Lucy Anna the day she died.  The widower father has been recalled as giving much time, care and travel to his daughter Ethel.  She must have been in her thirties when he died in Portland in 1911. Since Ethel did not marry, the Jason Lee family did not survive into another generation.

Both Lydia Hines (A Life of Adventure) and Chloe Willson (Women of Property) are profiled in this series.