In 1832, the Indians themselves asked for the American missionary. They had previously asked the Hudson’s Bay Company for religious teachers, but they only allowed a few Indian boys to go to Red River, there to receive a very limited English education, and return to be employed by the company as interpreters or traders. This did not satisfy the Indian longing for light and knowledge. The tribes in middle Oregon resorted to the American rendezvous, and, although there was little or no moral influence there, they discovered a more liberal and generous spirit among the Americans than among the English or French. This led to further inquiry as to the cause, and by some means they concluded that it must arise from their religious notions or worship. They asked to see the Americans’ sacred book, about which they had heard, as it was said that book told about the Great Spirit above. For a time they received packs of cards, but were not satisfied,—there must be something more. They sent some of their number to St. Louis, and as has been before stated, Mr. Catlin learned their object, and gave the information that started the missions.
While the American missionaries were going to the country, the American fur traders were being driven from it. Rev. Jason Lee and associate were allowed to locate in the Wallamet Valley. He labored, and measurably filled, gratuitously, the chartered stipulations of the company.
As there were no women in this first missionary party, no fears were excited as to the supremacy of the soil, or the future occupation of the country by the company’s retired servants.
In 1836, Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding and their wives arrived, with cattle and other material for a distinct and independent mission. They at once commenced their labors, and sent for assistance by the overland route. Rev. Mr. Lee received a re-enforcement by sea, with which came a wife for himself and Mr. Shepard. Dr. Whitman and Mr. Spalding’s associates arrived overland; more cattle were brought across the mountains, and, through the exertions and means of Mr. Lee and his associates, cattle were brought through from California.
Schools and farms were opened; mills, houses, and churches built; and more and better improvements made by the missionaries, than were then owned by the company, with the single exception of a farm at Vancouver.
The American missionaries did not stop with the mills and farms, nor with cattle and swine. Sheep and a printing-press were brought from the Sandwich Islands, and soon the Indian beholds the clean white paper made into a book, and his own thoughts and words placed before him, and he is taught to read for himself. In the Wallamet Valley an extensive building for an Indian boarding-school was erected, and one for whites and half-breed children, almost entirely by the American missionaries. A second school was started by the Rev. Harvey Clark and his friends at Forest Grove, which is now Pacific University. There were also private schools and churches all through the settlements, mostly under the Methodist influence; while the Hudson’s Bay Company, with their priests, established three schools,—one for boys at Vancouver, one for girls at Oregon City, and one at French Prairie. These last institutions were particularly an opposition to the American schools.
The improvements spoken of above were accomplished within twelve years from the first arrival of the American missionaries. This laid the foundation for education and civilization, upon which the country has been steadily advancing. While the Legislative Assemblies refused to take action on the subject of education, the missionary influence was active, and strongly in favor of sectarian schools.
In the Legislature of 1845, an ineffectual effort was made to establish a common-school system for the country. In 1846, Mr. T. Vault, from the committee on education, made a report recommending a memorial to Congress on the subject of education. This is all that was done that year. In 1847-8, the Cayuse war, the liquor question, and the gold mines excitement, seem to have absorbed the whole attention of the Legislature; hence the subject of education was left to the direction and influence of the religious sects and individual effort, until the Territorial organization in 1849, in which we find a very imperfect school law; and the one at the present day, 1870, is no honor to our State. This, however, is wholly due to the influence of the various sects, each seeking to build up its own peculiar sectarian schools, thus dividing the whole educational interests of the country to promote sectarian education.
It is to be hoped that our next Legislature will adopt a system that will at once lay aside all sects, and place the education of our youth upon a national, instead of a sectarian basis, honorable alike to the State and nation. With all due credit and honor to all previous missionary and sectarian efforts, we say, give us a national standard of education that shall qualify our youth to become the honored sovereigns of a free, intelligent, industrious, virtuous, and forever united nation.
We have occupied much more space than we would, in giving quotations, knowing, as we do, the ignorance there is in relation to our early history, and the efforts of the British Hudson’s Bay Company and Roman Church to secure the exclusive control of Oregon. We will here give an article which we find in the Missionary Herald. The writer says:—