Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 / Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties

by William Denison Lyman

DR. MARCUS WHITMAN
From a statue on the Witherspoon Building, Philadelphia

The letter of Disoway in the Christian Advocate was discussed in the Illinois Patriot of October, 1833, together with the statement that the subject had excited so much interest that a committee of the Illinois Synod had been appointed to report on the duty of the churches. The committee went to St. Louis and conferred with General Clark, receiving from him a confirmation of the report. When this pathetic story, together with the stirring appeal of the committee, had reached the Christian people of the country, it produced a profound impression, although, quite curiously, the little book by Lee and Frost of the first Methodist Mission, which passed through St. Louis in 1834, and whose members conferred with Gen. Clark, refers rather slightingly to the event. The decades of the '20s and '30s were a time of deep religious sentiment. It was the beginning of the Missionary movements of the century. To the sensitive souls of the time this unheralded call from the Far West seemed a veritable Macedonian cry. From it sprang the Christian Missions of Oregon. And the missionaries were the advance guard of immigration. And the immigration decided that the American home-builder and farmer should own Oregon, rather than that the British fur-trader and the Indians should keep it as a game preserve and fur depot. It would indeed be too much to say that American ownership of Oregon would not have resulted, if it had not been for the missionaries. But it may safely be said that the acquisition would have been delayed and that there would have been many more chances of failure, if the missionaries had not fitted into the evolution of the drama just as and just when they did. The missionary period was an essential one, coming between that of the fur-traders and that of the immigrants.

While the scope of our undertaking requires us to confine our narration mainly to the area covered in this history, yet in order to preserve the historical continuity and to exhibit the forces which led to subsequent developments, we must enlarge the picture enough to include glimpses of the mission locations outside of Walla Walla.

The first of the Christian Crusaders to respond to the Macedonian call from Oregon was a party under Jason Lee of the Methodist Church. This party came to Oregon in 1834 in company with Nathaniel Wyeth, the American trader, of whose bold and worthy, and yet unsuccessful undertakings we have spoken in Chapter Four. Reaching Vancouver, the missionaries presented themselves to Doctor McLoughlin, the chief factor. He met them with every expression of generous goodwill and advised them to locate in the Willamette Valley rather than among the tribes from whom had proceeded the Macedonian call. As a result, Lee with his assistants, located at Chemawa, near the present Salem, Ore. From that mission sprang the first permanent American settlement, the native name of which was Chemeketa, place of Council, or peace-ground. The missionaries gave it the Bible equivalent, Salem, a proceeding of more piety than good judgment. The Willamette University of the present is the offspring of the school started by the missionaries for the Indian children, and within a few years modified so as to meet the needs of the white children. For that earliest mission, like the later, discovered that this great work, after all, must be for the white race, not for the Indians.

The next year after the coming of the Lee party, another movement was initiated which was destined to have a most intimate connection with Walla Walla. For in 1835, the man who became the first white man, aside from the fur trappers and traders, in the Walla Walla Valley, left his home in New York for Oregon. This was Dr. Marcus Whitman, who, more than any other one man, put Walla Walla on the map of the world. In 1835, Doctor Whitman, in company with Dr. Samuel Parker, set forth on a reconnaissance to determine the advisability of locating a mission among the Indians from whom had gone the Macedonian call. Reaching Green River, the outlook seemed so encouraging that it was decided to part company; Doctor Parker continuing westward with Indians who had met them at Green River, while Doctor Whitman, the younger and more active of the two, returned to his home in Rushville, N. Y., and there organized a missionary band.

As a result of Doctor Whitman's return, a party consisting of himself and his bride, Narcissa Prentiss, and Rev. H. H. Spalding and his newly wedded bride, Eliza Hart, set forth in 1836 for Oregon. With them was William H. Gray as secular agent and general manager. With the party also were two Indian boys who had accompanied Doctor Whitman the year before on his return from Green River. Of this bridal journey of 4,000 miles, most of it on horseback, our space permits only a few hurried views. Aside from the momentous results in the history of Oregon and the United States, the story is one of heroism and devotion which has few parallels, and the record closes with a martyr's crown for Marcus and Narcissa Whitman.

Among the precious relics in Whitman College, is Mrs. Whitman's diary of the journey, and also that of Mrs. Spalding. That of Mrs. Whitman was made by herself from notes on the way and was sent from Vancouver to her parents upon the completion of the journey. Its heading is as follows:

"Narcissa Whitman's Diary of a Missionary Tour West of the Rocky Mountains performed 1836. Being the first white female ever beyond the mountains on the continent. The journey was performed on horseback—a distance of 4,000 miles. She, in company with her husband, Marcus Whitman, M. D., and H. H. Spalding and wife, left the state of New York for this tour in February of 1836—travelled through a part of Pennsylvania, Ohio—and finally arrived at St. Louis in Missouri. Here they joined the Fur Company that crosses the mountains every year—and were also joined by Messrs. Suturly [Saturleé in Mrs. Spalding's diary] and Gray—missionaries to the West. Matters thus arranged they all left St. Louis in March—for the 'far West.' The further particulars of the journey may be learned from the following extracts from her journal taken on the way."