We are now arrived at what we may call the third period. The four Flathead or Nez Perces Indians, shall we not call them Pilgrims, had crossed over to St. Louis (1832) in search of the "White Man's Book of Heaven". General Clark, of Lewis and Clark fame, then Indian agent for the West, had received them kindly, and introduced them widely to the religious world and elsewhere. Their advent kindled a flame of missionary zeal not often excelled, with the result that in 1834 the Methodists sent Jason Lee and others, and in 1835 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, representing the Presbyterian and Congregationalists, sent Dr. Samuel Parker and Marcus Whitman as missionaries to the Oregon country. Parker completed the trip during the year of 1835, but Whitman turned back at the rendezvous on Green River, west of the crest of the Rock Mountains, and retraced his trail to his home for the purpose of securing more aid to occupy the field, and the following year with his young wife, in company with H. H. Spaulding and wife, crossed over to Vancouver, where the party arrived in September, 1836. These two were the first ladies to pass over the Oregon Trail and deserve special mention here, not so much for this distinction as for their piety, coupled with heroism and courage, not popularly expected of their sex. I will venture to digress to pay a just tribute to the pioneer ladies, so often, and I may say so generally, misunderstood. Students of history are well aware that, but for the firm support of the Pilgrim mothers, the lot of the Pilgrims that landed on Plymouth Rock would have been infinitely harder. I have often thought that in thinking and speaking of the Pilgrims we ought always to speak of the Pilgrim fathers and mothers. It has fallen to my lot to observe at close range the heroism of Pioneer mothers, and I wish to testify that, under stress of suffering or danger, they always became a bulwark of encouragement and support.

Let me relate one instance. Meeting one day nine wagons on the Oregon Trail returning, we discovered the teams were all driven by the women and children—the men were all dead. This was on the trail in the Platte Valley after that dreadful scourge of cholera had struck the columns.

While the missionaries were but few in number, their influence became widespread, and especially helpful to the later inrush of home builders, and even if not successful in saving men's souls, they were instrumental in saving men's lives, and deserve a tender spot in our hearts. I would not have you infer from the remark about "saving men's souls" that I wished to belittle the efforts of those sincere men, the missionaries. I simply record a fact acknowledged by the missionaries themselves.

We now approach the fourth period, that of the home builders. It is hardly fair to say this class exploited the country, developed is the better word. We have, in fact, come to the turning point as to the future of the country. If the English had been able to throw a strong colony into the Oregon country, no man can tell what the final result would have been. England was arrogant, and some at least, of her statesmen held the United States in contempt, and would have welcomed a war over the Oregon country. The joint occupancy treaty (fortunate for us) disarmed the war spirit, for did they not have control of the trade of the country? And could they not afford to wait?—forgetting that exploiting and developing a country are radically different.

When the American home builders began to arrive in great numbers it became impossible to again renew the pact for joint occupancy, and the treaty of 1846 quickly followed. As I have said, a few of the Wythe party of 1833 remained and joined the settlers' colony already begun by discharged Hudson Bay servants, and trappers who had tired of nomadic life, less than a hundred all told, at the end of the year 1839. In May, 1840, the ship "Lusanne" arrived, bringing fifty men, women and children as a reinforcement to the Methodist Mission at Champoeg, but who soon became home builders. During the two following years, possibly a hundred more arrived direct from the east, having traversed the Oregon Trail from the Missouri River.

All of a sudden there came a widespread "Oregon fever" during the winter of 1842-3. A measure known as the Lynn bill had passed the Senate, granting land to actual settlers. Whitman had returned overland during the winter. Fremont had made his first trip as far as to the Rocky Mountains and returned to be commissioned to lead a large exploring party to the Oregon country. The "times" were not prosperous, nor health good in the Middle West, and besides, an unrest had taken possession of the minds of many people on account of the slavery question. The result was that more than a thousand people congregated nearby what is now Kansas City, preparing to start for Oregon as soon as time and seasonable weather would permit; some pushed out to Elm Grove, west of the Missouri, and camped; others passed on a little farther; finally a great company was formed, captains appointed, and all was to move with precision, and order, and the start was made. But the independent spirit of the frontiersmen would not brook control and soon there came a division into two parties, then, later, others broke away, until finally but little of the discipline was left, though there continued co-operation in the face of a common danger. Whitman joined, or rather overtook, the main body of the moving caravan, but he never led it, or attempted to lead it. His knowledge of the trail and his counsel was helpful. It was upon Whitman's advice that the great venture was made to open a wagon road from Ft. Hall west—over 600 miles—a wonderful feat. Thus, nearly a thousand people reached the Oregon country in 1843, and news sent back that a wagon road had been opened the whole length of the Oregon Trail.

Life was at once infused into the dormant body of the Provisional Government that had been formed, and the absolute rule of the Hudson Bay Company ended.

During the year 1844, nearly fifteen hundred immigrants reached Oregon and yet, early in 1845, the British Government refused to accept the thrice made offer of a settlement of the boundary on the 49th parallel, but when 3,000 emigrants crossed over during the year 1845, and the Hudson Bay Company gave up the contest by formally, on the 15th of August, 1845, placing themselves under the protection of the Provisional Government, then the British Government of their own accord, offered to accept the line she had so long persistently refused. The Ashburton Treaty speedily followed, and the Oregon question was settled—the conquest was complete.

Of the subsequent migration, I cannot tarry to speak in detail. In 1850, the population of the whole of the old Oregon country was less than 15,000. The gold excitement had drawn large numbers to California, and turned much of the immigration from the east to that field. Not until the great wave of 1852, when 50,000 people crossed the Missouri River, did Oregon make a new beginning in the race for population.

I had cast my fortune with that throng—a marching column 500 miles long—and like Sherman's army marching through Georgia 50,000 strong at the beginning, but leaving 5,000 dead on the way. At the parting of the ways at Bear River, many turned to the south, yet leaving a great throng to reach the Oregon country. And yet, when I rowed my little open boat, 18 feet long, into Commencement Bay on a June day of 1853, there were less than 4,000 inhabitants in all the territory within the boundary of this great State, and but eleven persons within the borders of the present city of Tacoma.