Willamette University - Wallulah Yearbook (Salem, OR)

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Board of Trustees. W. H. ODELL, President, Salem. JOHN W. REYNOLDS, Secretary, Salem. BISHOP E. CRANSTON .............. Portland C. B. MOORES ................. Oregon City F. A. MOORE ....................... Salem 0. P. BISHOP ....................... Salem SCOTT BOZORTH ...................... Salem JOHN H. ALBERT .................... Salem L. E. ROCKWELL .................. Portland W. H. ODELL ....................... Salem HAROLD OBERG .................... Astoria T. B. FORD ........................ Eugene G. W. GRANNIS ................ Venetia, Pa. G. P. LITCHFIELD ................... Salem W. T. KERR ...................... Portland C. P. BISHOP, Vice-President, Salem. A. N. BUSH, Treasurer, Salem. J . D. LEE ........................... Salem J . REYNOLDS ........................ Salem A. N. BUSH ......................... Salem GEORGE B. GRAY, ?78 ................. Salem JOHN W. REYNOLDS, 95 .............. Salem A. N. MOORES, WG ................... Salem D. A. WATTERS ..................... Salem JOHN PARSONS ..................... Salem CLAUD GATCH ...................... Salem M. C. WIRE ........................ Albany L. F. BELKNAP ................ Forest Grove J. W. FLESHER ............... Colfax, Wash. N. EVANS ................ Whatcom, Wash. II

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UNIVERSITY BUILDING. Kw . Wt

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H istorical. On the 6th day of October, 1834, Rev. J ason Lee and his nephew, Rev. Daniel Lee, and Cyrus Shepard, a layman, pitched their tents on what is still called Mission Bottom, about ten miles be- low the present site of Salem. 1834. Andrew J aekson was president. There were only twenty-four states. Fort Dearborn had been called Chicago about a year. Missouri was itout westjt in those days, and from her borders to the Pacific stretched a vast wilderness that only a few trappers and explorers had crossed. Ore- gon, the very land Shepard and his friends had traveled so far to labor in, was considered worth- less to the Union by many eminent Americans, and even the British, who prized it, held the entire territory for nothing but a great trapping ground for fur-bearing animals. Across that trackless expanse to this land where missionaries must not come to change the habits of the Indians, nor setters to drive away the animals, Shepard and the two Lees had come from far-away New England to convert the Indian to the faith and practice of the Gospel. One of the first labors was the'founding of a school, and Mr. Lee soon had a log house built and here he gathered about him the Indian children, itThe Oregon Mission Manual Sehooltp they called it. This little school, conducted in a log house, with Indians for pupils, and a missionary for a teacher, was Willamette University in embryo. Mr. Slocum, acting for the United States government, visited Oregon nearly three years later, and concerning the school he said: tilt is indeed a source of regret that I could continue no longer at your mission on the banks of the Willamette. I have seen with my own eyes, children who, two years ago were roaming their own native wilds in a state of savage barbarism, now being brought within the knowledge of moral and religious instruction, becoming useful members of society? Not long after this official visit Mr. Lee reerossed the plains and went to New York in the in- terest of his little mission. In response to his appeals, a large reinforcement was gathered for his Oregon mission and sailed around Cape Horn on the ship Lausanne, the Mayflower 0f the West. Our own Prof. Mabel Carters grandmother, Miss Orpha Lankton, was one of the number. It was the year 1839, the centennial of Methodism, and a thousand miles from the dear old home port the missionaries celebrated. Mr. Lee said: iiWe will have our eentennary celebration on shipboard and apply the fund to the starting of a school in the Willamette Valley? Rev. Gustavus Hines preached the sermon, and the collection amounted to $650. That was a generous gift, for the party com- prised only nineteen families; fifty persons in all, and eighteen of them were children. 12