Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 19/Correspondence of Reverend Ezra Fisher
CORRESPONDENCE OF REVEREND EZRA FISHER
Edited by
Sarah Fisher Henderson, Nellie Edith Latourette, Kenneth Scott Latourette.
(Continued from Page 480 in Quarterly for December, 1916.)
Cor. Sec. A. Bap. H. M. Soc., N. Y.
Dear Brother:
During the late high water I spent eight or ten days in Salem and vicinity and preached one Sabbath. As it was the time of the session of the legislature, I availed myself of the opportunity of making myself acquainted with the members from the different parts of the territory and collecting what facts I could relative to the extent of the farming country and the commercial, agricultural and mineral capabilities, the number of population, the prospects of rising towns and the number and character of Baptist members in their respective districts, the results of which I design to embody in a few days, or perhaps weeks, and forward to you. Salem contains ten drygoods stores, all of which seem to do a very fair business, a flouring mill, two saw-mills, some four or five lawyers, three or four physicians, mechanics of various descriptions and about five hundred 1 souls. The Episcopal Methodists are the prevailng denomination. Here is their Oregon institute[1] in a flourishing condition. Here are five Methodist Episcopal preachers,[2], four of whom hold their land claims, on one of which the town is principally situated, and the others are all adjoining.
The Protestant Methodists sent out a missionary[3] last year overland. He has fixed on this place as the place of his operations and is gathering a small church. The Presbyterians are holding occasional meetings here and contemplate forming a church before long. We have a few Baptist members wintering immediately adjoining the town but they will soon move to the country, perhaps Umpqua. We have two Baptist members living two miles north who were formerly united with others into a small church in the town. But the peculiar features of the land law called them all to their land claims.
I have formerly given you my views of the importance of occupying this place. I will repeat them and perhaps enlarge upon them: First, it is the seat of government and, whether that shall be removed or not, Salem cannot fail to be the center of a large and rich agricultural portion of the Willamette Valley and must have a rapid growth, situated, as it is, on the east bank of the river about midway between the Willamette Falls and the head of river navigation by small river steamers. From all that I know of the people in the place and the surrounding country, I think they are not generally committed to any denomination, although the Episcopal Methodists control a great share of the wealth and a large amount of influence. Yet the field in the immediate vicinity is very large and easy of access to a faithful, common sense, efficient preacher.
But another most important consideration is the fact that we have three young, feeble churches located in important farming portions of this county (Marion),[4] all at this time destitute of a minister. Should a Baptist minister be located in Salem and preach but half his time in town, he might receive a* portion of his support from one or two of these churches and exert a general influence through the county by way of building up these and other churches which must spring up soon, should the means of grace be enjoyed and blessed of God.
The churches in the county evince a missionary spirit and would aid liberally in the support of a man in Salem, if they could have his services but one Saturday and Sabbath each month.
The people generally are as much a church going people as is common for new countries. The influence in the churches is generally good in the country and the members have a fair proportion of talents and wealth. But they need (like all churches in new countries) habitual training in practical Christian duties. A minister, with a small family, adapted to fill that place, should be appointed with a salary of $700 from the Home Mission Society and he might expect the first year to receive $200 from the churches and people in Salem and vicinity, if he is a man with fair preaching talents in the old States and could command respect from the leading men in the territory and the government officers who will be located at Salem. As I expect soon to present you with some views on the importance of Oregon as a missionary field, I will only add that I conceive it of vast importance to the cause of Christ under God that your Board, as soon as practica- ble, sustain in the Willamette Valley at least three missionaries one at Salem, one at Oregon City and one at Portland. If all the churches besides receive little missionary aid, except as they receive it through the influence and labors of these men, we probably can find men on claims who can attend to the wants of the country churches for the present better than that these places go entirely neglected from year to year.
Yours respectfully,
EZRA FISHER.
Received March 19, 1853.
Oregon City, O. T., Jan. 10th, 1853.
Rev. Benjamin M. Hill,
Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc., New York.
Dear Brother:
I wrote Br. James S. Read about eight weeks since suggesting to him the propriety of his representing to you the importance of his field of labor and making timely application for reappointment, at the same time assuring him that I CORRESPONDENCE 137 would recommend his appointment as soon as I could learn that he had taken the requisite steps. I have received no answer and have not learned since what he was doing, but presume he is preaching the Word as far as he can. Br. Read is a modest, studious, prudent, amiable, pious young brother, in my opinion, better adapted to take the charge of a well organized church than to perform the pioneer work of an entirely frontier portion of a country. Yet he seemed determined on his course and I hope the hand of the Lord was in the work. I conversed freely with him relative to his pecu- liarities in this respect before I gave my consent that he should go alone into a field which seemed to me to call loudly for an offhand, business-like pioneer. Had we anticipated with cer- tainty that Brother Chandler would leave Oregon City, I think we should have thought it advisable, under all circumstances, to have kept Br. Read with us. But you know full well that in- stability is impressed in indelible marks on many of our most sanguine hopes in a frontier country. May God in His infi- nite mercy give us grace to meet every emergency like men richly furnished from the Gospel treasury till Christ shall be honored in Oregon. Br. Read did not preach so much as other ministers in Oregon while he taught. This was his excuse, that he could not preach without some previous preparation and the breth- ren, as they became acquainted with him, appreciated his apology. But no young man sustains a more unblemished character. I shall soon write him and encourage him to give himself to the work of the ministry as far as is consistent with his support. May the wisdom of the Most High direct you and us, is the sincere prayer of your unworthy brother. EZRA FISHER. Received March 19, 1853. 138 REVEREND EZRA FISHER Oregon City, O. Ter., Jan. 12, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, A. B. H. M. Soc., N. Y. Dear Brother: The time has arrived in which it becomes necessary that arrangements be made touching the field of my labor the coming year. To me it is no pleasant task to solicit a re- appointment. Yet it appears to me a matter of increased im- portance that the Baptists should have a man in the general field in Oregon who shall visit every church and town and opening district, at least Umpqua and Rogue rivers, Puget Sound 2 * 6 and the mouth of the Columbia and, at each place, spend a sufficient portion of time to learn the respective wants, and follow the openings of Providence in preaching the Word. Our churches are small and scattered over a large territory and generally have preaching but one Saturday and Sabbath each month, and some only occasionally; numbers of preach- ers have only limited opportunities and labor through the week for their bread. Now a visit from a minister in whom the churches repose confidence, who will preach the Word, administer counsel when needed, present both publicly and privately the objects contemplated by the Home Mission Society and inculcate the principles of Christian benevolence and the importance of cultivating the Christian graces, would no doubt, under God, contribute more to promote the unity and strength of the churches and the earliest establishment of the cause of Christ in places of rising importance than the confinement of all our ministers to a given limit, station or two each. It is to be hoped that something may be done the ensuing year by way of aiding the Society in sustaining the gospel in Oregon. I am far from saying to your Board that I am the man, and still farther from coveting the 296 For the early posts of the Hudson Bay Company on the CowIItz and at Nisqually, see notes 298 and 290. The first American settlements on Puget Sound were in 1845, near Tumwater. They grew gradually during the following few years, but suffered by the exodus to California m 1849. In 1850 a store was erected at Olympia and commerce in American ships began. There were perhaps 100 American citizens on the Sound at this time. In 1851 Port Townsend was laid out; in 1852-3, Seattle. There was steady growth of population from 1850 on. Bancroft, of Wash., Ida. and Mont, pp. 2, 4, 16, 17, 24. CORRESPONDENCE 139 fatigues and cares and domestic privations incident to the faithful discharge of the appropriate duties of such a mission. Yet, if I know myself, I desire to serve our common Lord in the field he seems to assign me by the counsel of the brethren who seek to understand the wants of Zion and meet them. Should your Board judge, in the fear of God, that the cause of Christ in Oregon would be judiciously promoted by giving me a re-appointment with a salary of $600 and traveling ex- penses, by the grace of God, I will endeavor to devote myself to that ministry. I say $600, not because I suppose that sum will cover my family expenses, but because I think with that and the means saved by the services of the family and rigid economy we can live, by occasional mortifications and priva- tions such as were common to our blessed Master and immedi- ate followers and always have been to the pioneers in the blessed cause. (No signature.) Received March 19, 1853. Oregon City, O. Ter., Jan. 12, 1853. To the Executive Board of the Am. Bap. Home Mission Society : The Subscriber desires reappointment as exploring agent of the American Baptist Home Mission Society for Oregon Territory for one year to commence on the first day of April, 1853. The total amount of my salary necessary for my sup- port while exclusively devoted to the labor of said agency is $1000 per annum; the least amount that will suffice from the Society in addition to the services performed by my family is $600 per annum and traveling expenses. Should the Board comply with this request I engage to devote myself wholly to the appropriate duties of the agency in accordance with their in- structions. N. B. It will be desirable that I should raise $300 or $400, sufficient to protect our school building from great exposure to the weather and ceil and seat one room, and this, it is thought, may be better done by me, without seriously interfering with 140 REVEREND EZRA FISHER the duties of the agency, than in any other way. I would not ask this but for the scarcity of laborers in the field and the di- rect influence the accomplishment of this work will have on the public mind in Oregon and consequently upon the cause of mis- sions in and out of our churches. Respectfully submitted!, EZRA FISHER. This is to certify that I fully accord with the above request in every particular except the amount asked for. $600 here is no better than $200 in any place that I have ever lived in. GEO. C. CHANDLER. I certify that I regard Brother E. Fisher as the best minister that we have in this territory for an exploring agent and rec- ommend him as such. The amount that he asks for his ser- vices is small. HEZEKIAH JOHNSON. Oregon City, Oregon, Jan. 17, 1853. Dear Br. Hill: I have made inquiries respecting the expenses of the journey to Puget Sound from Colonel Eby, 297 the member of the leg- islature from Whitby's Island, and find that such a tour as would enable me to reach the principal settlements on the Sound would cost me about six or eight weeks and about $75 or $100. The route is first by steam to the mouth of the Cow- letz [Cowlitz], thence up that stream to the Hudson Bay Com- pany's post on the Cowletz, 2 ^ 8 at this place hire a horse to Nes- qualy [Nisqually], 299 there leave my horse and hire a crew of Indians and canoe to take me to the various places rising up 297 This was I. N. Ebey. He came to Oregon in 1848, and after a visit to Cali- fornia in 1850, settled on Puget Sound and became prominent in the community. He was murdered by Indians in 1857. Bancroft, Hist, of Wash., Ida. and Moat, PP, IS. 29, 137. Whidbey Island was first settled in 1848. Ebey settled there in 1850. Ibid, p. 10. 298 The first Hudson's Bay Company fort on the Cowlitz was one of Its old stations, and the company had a laree farm there. The Jesuits settled there in 1838. Bancroft, Hist of N. W. Coast II:6i3. The post was in the vicinity ot the present Toledo. 299 Fort Nisqually was established in 1833, four or five miles northeast of the Nisqually River. The companjr had a large sheep and cattle farm there. It was a center of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, an organization closely allied to the Hudson's Bay Company, and was the depot for curing meat and loading vessels for Russian- American posts. Bancroft, Hist, of N. W. Coast, 11:525, 614. CORRESPONDENCE 141 along the Sound, a distance of 80 or 100 miles, and return the same way. From the best information I can obtain, there are from 2500 to 3000 souls in the whole country north of the Columbia River (some estimate the population at 5000) who have never been visited by a Baptist minister. A few of these are said to be respectable Baptist members. This number will doubtless be monthly increased. The question I wish to pro- pound is, Will your Board justify the expenditure of $100 in traveling expenses to have an agent visit that important por- tion of the Territory next summer? Before you answer this question I hope to be able to give you the best geographical description of the country I have been able to glean from intel- ligent residents on the Sound. Yours respectfully, EZRA FISHER. Received March 19, 1853. Oregon City, O. T., Jan. 20th, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc., New York. Dear Brother : Yours of Dec. 1st, 1852, has just come to hand and was read with deep interest. I have named at two several times in my quarterly reports the amount which I have collected for the Oregon City College, not because I regarded this a part of my direct duties I owed to the Home Mission Society, but because I had reason to suppose it would be a matter of gratification to the Board to learn that the cause of education was not neglected with the Baptists in Oregon. A few of the many reasons for the course I have pursued I beg leave to name in this. In Aug. of '49, on my return from California, I found a letter from you, pressing upon me the importance of Baptists securing a suitable amount of land at some favorable point and commencing a school which should eventually take its place among the colleges of the land. I acted accordingly. It was finally judged expedient to locate that school at Oregon City. My interests 142 REVEREND EZRA FISHER must be identified with the school till a suitable teacher could be found. In this work I think I do not exaggerate when I say that I deliberately sacrificed in dollars and cents more than half the little property I then had, most of which I had dug with my own hands out of the California sandbars and gulches in the space of eight weeks. I knew the Board, in view of all the circumstances, approved of my teaching, preaching Saturdays and Sabbaths and collecting funds when- ever opportunities presented ; not in the abstract, but from ne- cessity, just as the farmer in a new country makes his sled and his plow and repairs his clock. I understand, too, that your Board had somewhat departed from their ordinary course by appointing for said school two teachers and preachers in the same men, paying for their outfit and sustaining them in part in this two-fold relation. I looked upon this, under the cir- cumstances, as the best thing that could be done, although I regretted the necessity of giving one man the work of two or three. Upon entering upon the work of exploring agent I did contemplate doing something for the school and I think I wrote you on that subject, and I had the impression that I re- ceived from you in substance this reply, that the Board could not consent that their agents should enter into the services of any other society so as to interfere with their official duties as agents. But, upon referring to your letters, I find nothing on that subject except the instructions given in connection with the two commissions, the one in Nov. '51 and the other in Apr. '52. I understood those instructions would justify me in co- operating with any benevolent society, whenever it could be done without sacrificing the interests of the Baptist Home Mission Soc. In this work which I have performed I have studiously avoided encroaching upon the time and duties of every de- partment of my agency. Probably in doing this work I have not consumed the amount of two days' time, when I could have done anything for the Mission Society. Almost every man in Oregon had formerly known me as identified with CORRESPONDENCE 143 the school, and, while in that relation, I always carried our building subscription paper in my pocket and, whenever I found a friend of education, I introduced our building enter- prise and solicited his aid. Thus I have secured many sub- scriptions in various parts of Oregon. Numbers of these were unpaid when I entered upon the work of exploring agent. At that time we had about $4000 invested in the house. The house was enclosed, except the doors and wir- dows not one of them made. Our lumber was on hand for flooring and ceiling in part. Our school was still in a snail Baptist meeting house, thus rendering the house unfit for a place of worship. Br. Johnson was sick, Br. Chandler confined to the school and no man to engage in collecting funds; all said that I could do something without interfering with my official duties and I must do what I could or the work would stop and we as a denomination would suffer public reproach. With all these difficulties to meet, what could I do in the fear of God other than to pursue the work by littles, without interfering with the appropriate duties of my mission? I know it is not my business to over-reach the instructions, when I have sold my time, unless I am per- mitted to exercise some discretionary power. Yet it is my de- liberate conviction that the cause of Home Missions has been aided indirectly instead of retarded in the work I have per- formed for the school. I have sought my time when traveling on steamers, or spending the night with friends, to introduce this subject as incidental business, thus adding variety and giv- ing importance to my work rather than seriously impeding it. I have informed you in another letter that by far the greater part of the funds collected for the school building has been from men not directly members of Baptist churches, whose sympathies have been enlisted for the Baptists somewhat in proportion as they find them engaged in promoting the great interests of humanity. I have not entered upon this work from pecuniary considerations, nor from any inclination to covet the thankless drudgery of begging as some are pleased 144 REVEREND EZRA FISHER to term it. But it has been because I could not help it while all these and many kindred considerations were pressing upon me and sometimes preying upon my spirits. I have just written your Board requesting a reappointment, with privilege of performing a little more of the same kind of work, sincerely hoping when that is done this part of the cause of education may rest a few years. I know not what kind of a reception the educational part of the request will meet in the Board, but I believe they are all good; men and wise and, if they could be here and see things as they are, they would to a man judge of this matter as we do here. I sincerely hope the Board will weigh this subject well and allow me to do this work in connection with the work of exploring agent, so as not to interfere with my official duies. I will try to the utmost of my ability to prevent interference. I seriously fear that the work must remain undone unless it is done this way by me. If another man could be found here to do it, I would sincerely rejoice, probably more than you all. Yours with sincere esteem, EZRA FISHER. be secured free? When Mr. Atkinson 2 99-a returned to the be secured free? When Mr. Atkinson returned to the States to solicit funds for liquidating the debts of the female seminary building in this place his passage was secured free or nearly so. We have built our house without asking help from the churches at home and we ask for a man to be sent to bless Oregon in sustaining the teaching department of a public school of much greater moment than a county female school. Will our suit be denied by men making money by the hundred thousands? EZRA FISHER. Received March 19, 1853. Oregon City, O. T., Feb. 3d, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc., New York. Dear Brother: I noticed an article in the Christian Chronicle, under the ed- 299 Rev. G. H. Atkinson, who arrived at Oregon City in June, 1848, and was the first Congregational home missionary in Oregon. CORRESPONDENCE 145 itorial head, with the title "A Field of Promise," in which some extraordinary assertions were made, such as the following: "Oregon, California and New Mexico are all thrown into our hands inviting us to send into that vast region the missionary, the school teacher and the pious layman to preach and labor for God and His church ; there are our mountains and rivers of gold and to them our Eastern population are directing their course and pouring in by multitudes ; in a very few years this newly acquired territory may accommodate a population as large as that which the whole country now sustains ; there will be the wealth and the people and thence will emanate our laws and the great controlling influence." Now, dear brother, these are certainly startling assertions and seem to come from a very respectable source. Were I prepared to believe all this, how should I as a missionary feel^ in view of my responsibility, being one of the few Baptist min- isters in all this region so full of promise, and everywhere so richly endowed with schools of vice ? And how should I trem- ble under the vastness of the responsibility imposed upon not more than eight or ten missionaries who give themselves wholly to the ministry in this field of so much promise ? It must be that these assertions are not true or that our old and wealthy churches have not the map of the field before them, enquiring, like Daniel, after the time and place of the enlargement of Christ's kingdom, or we should see more self-denying soldiers of the cross directing their course to this field. I have thought, if half of these statements were believed to be true in the able and numerous churches, they would gird themselves for this work and quadruple their efforts to give the bread of life to the feeble rising interests everywhere struggling for existence in the settlements as they are rapidly forming through this field of promise. I propose giving in these sheets some geographical facts relative to the extent of that portion of the field embraced in Oregon, which must be crowded with immortal beings in the short space of twenty-five or thirty years. Oregon includes seven degrees of latitude, eight hundred miles of seaboard, with 146 REVEREND EZRA FISHER bays and harbors every sixty miles and sometimes more contig- uous, and more than fifteen degrees of longitude, making an area somewhat more than 364,000 square miles. 300 After de- ducting one-third for waste land, we have then a territory large enough for five states as large as New York or 32 as large as Massachusetts. It has formerly been supposed that the Willamette Valley comprised almost all the desirable re- sources of Oregon which were attractive to the immigrant seeking a home for himself and family west of the Rocky Mountains. But instead of this being the fact, it is becoming a matter of doubt by our best informed:, practical men whether this valley will even hold the first place in point of importance with various divisions now being occupied by the enterprise and daring of the hardy, adventurous pioneers of the Pacific Coast. This valley, however, from the extreme south, where the prai- ries begin to open out along the principal streams and their tributaries, to the junction of the main river with the Columbia, is about 170 miles [in length] and varies in breadth from 20 to 65 miles ; and even far beyond this, up the sides of the moun- tains, large bodies of arable lands are found which would be sought with great eagerness, if they lay unoccupied in the Green Mountains, with the mildness of this climate and fertil- ity of its soil. Aside from this, the inexhaustible water power and the unexplored mineral resources of its mountains and its agricultural capabilities equal, if not exceed, that of the same number of square miles of the most productive parts of Illi- nois or Missouri. Leaving this valley, the traveler passes over a transverse ridge of mountains eight miles and enters the Umpqua Valley. It is said that a pass has been discovered, but one or two miles east of the road, sufficiently level to lay a railroad track without grading. 301 The Umpqua Valley is about 75 miles from north to south and from 15 to 40 from east to west and forms a succession of high hills covered with grass and scattering oaks, and valleys, ranging from a few rods 300 The Oregon of this time, of course, consisted of all the territory west of the Rocky Mountains between the parallels of latitude 42 and 49 degrees. The area is overstated. 301 This is the pass now followed by the Southern Pacific R. R. CORRESPONDENCE 147 to three or four miles in breadth, with a rich deep soil, which extends to the tops of the highest hills. This country lies con- tiguous to the gold mines and is settling with astonishing rap- idity. Below the Coast Range, on the River bearing the name of the valley above, a commercial town is springing up by the name of Scottsburg. 302 In all this country there is but one Baptist and one Methodist minister. As the traveler proceeds south from this valley he passes through a narrow defile of another transverse range of mountains ten or twelve miles. This pass is called the Canon (pronounced kenyon) 303 and opens into the Rogue River Valley. This is surrounded by some of the richest gold diggings in the whole gold region of California andi Oregon, and is said to contain nearly as much farming land as the Umpqua Valley. In this valley already 2000 or 3000 souls have taken up their residence ; among this number two or three families of the first respectability are known to be Baptists. Here the Methodists have established a circuit occupied by two traveling preachers. Two years ago not a white man was found in all this valley. From this to the California line is a mining country, interspersed with some good land. Along the coast, south of the Columbia and west of the Coast Range, are numerous streams emptying into the ocean, on several of which are fine bodies of land, large enough to form small counties, generally lying about fine bays whose entrances are sufficiently large to admit brigs and schooners to enter with safety. These streams furnish a vast amount of water power and are skirted with immense forests of the best fir and spruce in Oregon. At the mouths of these streams settlements are being made such as Port Orford, the mouth of the Umpqua and Tillamook. But not a single gospel minister has ever visited one of these places since their settlement. Let us now take a brief view of that portion of country formerly embraced in Oregon situated north of the Columbia 302 See note 277. 303 This is the present Cow Creek Canyon. 148 REVEREND EZRA FISHER and west of the Cascade Mountains. This territory extends more than 200 miles from the Columbia to our northern boundary and about 140 from the Pacific to the summit of the Cascade ridge, having about 300 miles of seacoast, with three fine harbors and a small land sea 180 miles in length, with an almost endless number of harbors entirely secure from storm. And then the majestic Columbia, whose tides daily ebb and flow to the Cascade falls, rolls her deep, broad column of water along the southern border. I know of no state in the Union which combines within its own limits so many sources of wealth. Timber of an excellent quality and in vast quantities abounds on Puget Sound, along the coasts and on the Columbia, and water power is nowhere wanting to drive the machinery to cut it into lumber. Along the Chehalis and south and east from the Sound, the country opens into extensive prairies, the northern portion of which the white man has not yet explored. The Sound abounds with islands, among which Whitby's is said to be 60 miles in length and on an average seven in breadth, with a soil unsurpassed in fertility. The people residing in this division give it as their conviction that the soil as a whole is equal, if not superior, to that of the Willamette Valley. Colonel Eby, the member of the legislature from Thurston County, informs me that two navigable rivers (the Duwamish34 and the Snohomish) empty into the Sound from the southeast and flow through the ex- tensive prairies west of the Cascade Mountains. Between the Sound and the ocean much of the land is good, but prairies are said to be small. This county, which scarcely numbered 300 souls in 1850, except the government troops, contains at this time a population estimated from 3000 to 5000, and the present session of the legislature has passed bills to organize four new counties, making in all seven counties in this new portion of Oregon. 305 In this district not less than ten or twelve towns of importance will soon be the result of the en- 304 This was the Dewamish or White River. ' 305 These seven counties were: Lewis, organized by the legislature of 1845-6; Clarke; Thurston, organized by the legislature of 1851-2; Jefferson; Pierce; King and Island. CORRESPONDENCE 149 terprise of the present citizens. Saw-mills are being put in requisition, and already a considerable trade in lumber is car- ried on from the Sound and the Columbia. One Methodist minister 3 6 affords all the evangelical preaching the pioneers of this whole district receive. He entered the vast field but last December. As we leave this district and pass through the Cascade Mountains by the uninterrupted channel of the Columbia, sufficiently deep at all seasons to float the largest class of river steamers, we arrive at the Dalles east of the Cascade Mountains. This may be said to be the head of steam naviga- tion of this great river. Here we enter a region of country which has been generally described as altogether unfit for set- tlement by civilized man. But instead of this being one vast plain of sands covered with little else but sedge and artemesia, that portion of the country lying between the Cascade and the Blue mountains affords one of the finest grazing countries in North America, with a soil capable of producing all the prod- ucts raised in the northern and middle states in great profusion. The only serious obstacle to the speedy settlement of all this region of country is the scarcity of timber in the more southern and eastern portions and, in some parts, scarcity of water. Yet large portions of the north and west of this region are repre- sented as possessing both of these advantages. That portion of this division lying north of the Columbia and east of the Cascade range is represented by those who have traveled through it as a most desirable region, to which immigrants will soon be attracted in crowds. The Rev. Mr. Waller 307 who resided some eight years at the Dalles, rep- resents this section of the country as one hundred miles long andi varying from 15 to 50 miles in breadth and embracing large bottoms, with timber crowning the hills and mountain sides in abundance, also skirting the streams. The Rev. Mr. Par- 306 Rev. John F. DeVore was formally transferred from the Rock River Conference to the Oregon Conference in 1853, and was the apostle of Methodism to Puget Sound. Hines, Missionary Hist, of the Pac. N. W., p. 418. 307 Rev. Alvan F. Waller came to Oregon as a member of the Methodst Mit- sion in 1840. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. i: 177. 190. 150 REVEREND EZRA FISHER rish, 308 one of the Indian agents, traveled over a portion of this region in May and June of 1850. By his journals, he traveled one hundred and fifty miles in a course first northeast and then northwest. He says he passed 17 mill streams and, at the end of his journey, the plain appeared so broad that he could see no appearances of mountains as far as the eye could stretch its vision. He gives it as his opinion that this is a larger body of land and more productive than the Willamette Valley. Others who have traveled through this region give a similar descrip- tion of the country. Some represent it 100 miles wide in the broadest place; others represent it 150 miles across in every direction. A settlement is now being formed at the Dalles 309 and an- other is contemplated on the Umatilla the next summer, and the time is near when flourishing states will spring into exist- ence above the Cascade Mountains on the waters of the Colum- bia and Snake rivers and their tributaries. The missionaries who were stationed among the Nez Perces and Flathead In- dians 310 represent much of the land occupied by those tribes as exceedingly productive in grasses, small grains, Indian corn and all the varieties of vegetables grown in New York and New Jersey, while it possesses a mildness and salubrity of cli- mate nowhere else enjoyed in North America. The mineral resources of this country are yet unexplored, yet gold has been washed from the sands of the rivers, 60 or 70 miles north of the Columbia, which indicates the probability that the precious met- als, in greater or less quantities, lie buried in the sides of all the surrounding mountains. Now with all these facts spread out before us, shall not the spirit of immigration to the Pacific Coast pervading the whole country east of the Rocky Mountains be regarded as 308 Rev. Josiah L. Parrish came to Oregon in 1840 under the Methodist Mis- sion. Bancroft. Hist, of Ore. I:i77J II 1213. 309 The Dalles was occupied as a mission station by the Methodists in 1838. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. I:i62. It was transferred to the American Board in 1847. The place was abandoned after the Cayuse war in 1847-8, and only one or two persons lived there until the establishment of the government military post in 1850. A trading post was then soon established and a town began to grow up. Ibia, Ilrgi, 252, 289, 290. See also the letter of Jan. 15, 1855. 310 These were the missionaries of the American Board in the present north- eastern Oregon, southeastern Washington and northern Idaho. CORRESPONDENCE 151 the opening of God's providence to give the commerce of Asia and the Pacific Isles into the hands of that nation which has displayed the banner of liberty to the nations of the earth and which is first of all nations in giving the Bible and the de- voted missionary to Jew and Gentile sunk in degradation and reduced to a stupidity of which the heathen gods are too fit an illustration? I leave others to tell the growing numbers which crowd every steamer and clipper ship up from Califor- nia. It is sufficient for me to say that Oregon now numbers between 30,000 and 40,000 American citizens and it is a mod- erate estimate to predict that she will double her population every two years for the next quarter of a century. 311 Who then will give the bread of life to the thousands hastening to our borders ? Who are to build our schoolhouses and put our rising generations under the tuition of pious, effi- cient teachers instead of leaving them to the sport of all the baser passions of the human soul, while schools of vice are everywhere spreading wide their desolating, debasing influence over the unsuspecting and unguarded youthful mind ? To me it seems just as important that the missionary school teacher should accompany the home missionary to the frontier settle- ments of all our new territories as that the foreign missionary should be attended with such auxiliaries. I have felt for years that the right arm of the Home Mission Society is measurably palsied by attempting to separate these essential constituents. If the church is commissioned to go and teach all nations, why should not the youthful mind be imbued with the principles of the gospel in all its acquisitions ? I have no doubt our brethren at home who contribute liberally to sustain the missionary in these new and opening fields desire and pray that this cause may want none of the agencies necessary to crown the efforts with complete success. Why then should not the Home Mis- sion Society assume the responsibility at once of seeing at least one school sustained by efficient, pious teachers in each of the 311 This prediction was hardly fulfilled. The Federal census gave Oregon in 1850 a population of 13,294; in 1860 it gave Oregon and Washington, which then included part of Idaho, 64,000, and in 1870 it gave the three states and terri- tories 130,000. 152 REVEREND EZRA FISHER territories on the coast, in direct connection with the mission- aries there laboring, and that school grow with the growth of that territory and be so conducted as to meet the educa- tional wants of our denomination there ? I believe that such an organization under God would add fifty or one hundred per cent to the efficiency and permanency of the Home Mission work on the Pacific shores. No doubt our field is one of great promise, and, being one of so much promise, it demands laborers adapted to its culture, and will soon justify the out- lays. May God direct its devising and executing plans pre- cisely adapted to accomplish most harmoniously and efficiently His heaven born purpose so wonderfully opening in this field for the labor and faith and patience of the American churches. Respectfully yours, EZRA FISHER. Received March 29, 1853. Oregon City, O. Ter., March 16, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. Bapt. H. M. Soc., New York. Dear Brother: Yours and Br. Whitehead's bearing date Jan. 14, together with an invoice of goods and bill of lading, were received by the last mail. I did not design to recommend Br. Read for an appointment by the Board of the Home Mission Society till he had made an application in form according to direc- tions in the annual report. But as our field is so wide and our mails so irregular, I thought best to have the way open so that your Board might be prepared to act understandingly, should he make an application for reappointement in the Ump- qua in due form and give your Board necessary intelligence respecting the field. Br. Read has left the Umpqua and I am informed he is at Jacksonville, a flourishing mining town in Rogue River Valley. There are two or three Baptist families of his acquaintance in the vicinity of Jacksonville, and one or more others have moved there this spring. I think that he was makCORRESPONDENCE 153 ing an effort to build 1 a Baptist meeting house in Jacksonville in Dec. Should he succeed in the attempt (and God grant that he may), he will undoubtedly find it his duty to make that his field of labor, I trust, for coming years. The church in this place have so much confidence in Br. Read that they unani- mously voted to invite him to return and take charge of the church as pastor before they knew he had left the Umpqua. But now they have little hope that he will accept their invita- tion. I have, in another letter, given you my views respecting Br. Read's talents and character as a minister. I presume his extreme modesty, blended with his spirit of independence, will not prompt him to ask of your Board a reappointment till I either see him or receive some communication from him by letter. By this move of Br. Read, the whole of Umpqua Valley is left without a Baptist minister of any description. I trust, however, that a self-sustaining minister at least will find his way into the valley and gather up the scattered members into a church,* 1 * if nothing more efficient can be done for that most inviting field. SANTIAM CHURCH. I visited this church and attended their yearly meeting, commencing Friday before the second Saturday in February, which continued four days. Fifteen miles before I reached the place, my horse took fright and dashed me to the ground with such violence that, falling upon my umbrella, I had six ribs fractured, two in two places each. I however proceeded the next day and by walking my horse was able to ride to the place; preached four sermons the three following days, but it was attended with much pain in the flesh. Meeting was well attended, church seemed much revived and a few persons manifested unusual concern for their soul's salvation, Br. Stevens, 31 * now near Marysville, was present. Br. Cheadle is pastor of the church. This church has passed through a long series of trials, but seems to be in a healthy and promising con- 3x2 See note 328. 313 See note 084. 154 REVEREND EZRA FISHER dition. I should have taken up a collection in favor of the Home Mission Society but for the fact that the church felt bound to relieve the wants of Br. Stevens. On Sabbath, after preaching, Br. Cheadle made known the wants of Br. Stevens and a collection of $48.50 was taken up in his favor. WEST UNION CHURCH Last Saturday and Sabbath I spent with the West Union Church, 27 miles west of this place near the seat of justice for Washington County. Here I met Br. Weston,3'4 w ho is preaching to the church every Sabbath. He reached Oregon last Nov. extremely poor, having left his wife above the Cascade Mountains with a travelling companion till he could come into the Willamette Valley and raise means to bring his family down. The West Union Church helped him to $100, sent him back for his family, have fixed him on a claim of 320 acres of land near the place of meeting and one brother has furnished him his breadstuff and veg- etables ever since. This church are engaged in building a frame meeting house, 30 feet by 40, with 13 feet posts, the present year. Last Saturday they invited Br. Weston to be- come their pastor and will probably pay him about $300. The question of the expediency of their applying to the Home Mission Soc. for aid was raised. A leading brother from the other church in the Tualatin plains 3 j s being present, I advised that the two churches should unite and support Br. Weston, and, through that means, leave your Board to appro- priate the amount which would be asked for Br. Weston to sustain a preacher at Portland. The subject seemed to strike them favorably. I hope these churches will take up and sustain Br. W. and think, should you send the right sort of a man to Portland, I can raise $50 from these two churches the first year for his support. 314 Rev. Rodolphus Weston was pastor until 1854. He was a missionary of the Willamette Association in 1859. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore.. 1:4, 148. 315 This was the West Tualatin (Forest Grove) Baptist church, which was organized May 22, 1852. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore. I:n. CORRESPONDENCE 155 After preaching on Sab., I presented in brief the claims of the Home Mission Soc. and took up a collection of $9.00. Respectfully yours, EZRA FISHER. Received April 29, 1853. Oregon City, March 17, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc. Dear Brother: I wrote you about six weeks since, giving the reasons of Br. Chandler's removal from this place as near as I could. Be assured we have no designs to keep the affairs of the school a secret. I feel that it has been a serious msfortune to the school that Br. Chandler left it. The two last quarters the school has been in the hands of men interested in making a living for themselves, who went into the school till they could find a more lucrative employment. The school has not numbered more than fifteen, and in its most prosperous condition eighteen scholars. The second man, a graduate of Brown's University, left the school in the middle of the term. Had he continued, he would have lost all his school. We have now put the school into the hands of Professor Shat- tuck,3 l6 the principal of the female seminary of this place, and think we shall make no more changes till we can get a man to take charge of the school and identify his interests with the prosperity of it. The school has just opened and scholars are beginning to return, but it will require at least a quarter to bring the school to 25. Business is beginning to increase in town and I have no doubt but by next winter the school will pay a man a fair living. We need just such a man as you represent Br. Post to be and, were he here, he would, in his appropriate work, do more for the general in- fluence of the Bap. cause than any one minister can while 316 This was E. D. Shattuck, a native of Vermont, and a graduate of the University of Vermont, who was later prominent as a judge, and as a member of the Republican party. Hist, of Portland, ed. by H. W. Scott, p. 514. 156 REVEREND EZRA FISHER we leave the school in other hands. I wish with all my heart I could say to Br. Post, Come out and I will pay the passage for you and family and ensure you a salary of $1500 the first year. But I am poor in available means and cannot do anything till after the meeting of the Association in June. Then we hope to have our educational interest canvassed and it may be that we can secure a denominational pledge. I dare not hope for great things, but I will try and do what I can, by God's grace, for this as well as for every other interest connected with the advancement of the cause of Christ and humanity in Oregon. I sometimes almost wish I could be permitted to plead the cause of education and religion in Oregon before a thousand of our wealthy brethren in our old churches and, heaven approving, I would have the money to send a teacher to Oregon and furnish him his tools to do his work to the credit of the cause of Christ in Oregon. But duty calls me to labor on here under all the embarrassments incident to a new country, and I will try and do it as to Christ. Yours, EZRA FISHER. N. B. Some of our brethren here want me to obtain per- mission to return to the States andi present the claims of Oregon as a missionary field and at the same time do what I can for our school. But I have no desire on this subject aside from duty. Oregon is my home and I expect to do what little I do in the cause of Christ principally for this field. I have no curiosity to gratify and wish not to multiply labors to no effect. E. FISHER. Received April 29, 1853. Oregon City, Oregon Ten, Apr. 1, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. of Am. Bap. Home Mission Soc. Herein I send you my report of labor as general itinerant under the appointment of the Home Mission Society for the CORRESPONDENCE 157 fourth quarter ending Mar. 31, 1853. I have labored 13 weeks this quarter; preached 19 sermons, delivered two lec- tures to the Sabbath school in Oregon City, attended two prayer meetings and four covenant meetings, visited relig- iously 49 families and individuals, visited one common school, traveled to and from my appointments 325 miles. Respectfully submitted, EZRA FISHER, General Itinerant. N. B. But one Sabbath school is regularly sustained through the year in all the Baptist churches in Oregon. The church at Oregon City is temporarily supplied by Elders Chandler and Johnson. When at home I supply the place part or all the day. E. FISHER. P. S. (Private) The churches of the association which were opposed to benevolent operations seem more impressed with the conviction that the ministry at home, must be sus- tained or the churches must decline and give place to other denominations who will sustain and have a devoted ministry.
- * * E. FISHER.
Received May 9, 1853. Oregon City, Oregon Ter., Apr. 1, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc., New York. Dear Br. : Herein I send you my report of labor as exploring agent under the appointment of the Home Mission Society for the 4th quarter ending March 31st, 1853. During the quarter I have visited Portland and Milwaukie, towns on the Wil- lamette, and Santiam, French Prairie, West Union and Yam Hill churches. Traveled to and from my appointments 325 miles; labored 13 weeks during the quarter; collected $9.00 cash by a collection taken up in the West Unioa Church. Paid $4.00 for travelling expenses, 25 cents postage. 158 REVEREND EZRA FISHER Preached 19 sermons and addressed the Sabbath school in Oregon City twice and taught the Bible class when I have been at home on the Sabbath. Respectfully submitted, EZRA FISHER, Exploring Agent. Oregon City, Oregon Ter., May 13th, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc., New York. Dear Br. Hill: Yours of March 19th was received by last mail. I will now answer in brief the interrogations respecting our school, some of which I think I anticipated in one of my last. Br. Chandler holds no relation to the Oregon City College other than any other Baptist minister in the territory, except that he is deeply interested in the cause of education and religion in Oregon. He even declined becoming a member of the Board of Trustees while he taught and since he left the school the Board has had no annual meeting. We have no president of the school. I am president of the Board of Trustees. The school is in a feeble state of operation under the care of Mr. Shattuck, the principal of the county female seminary located at this place. He teaches the large boys and has an assistant who teaches the small boys and geography, etc. The school at present does not meet the wants of the community. But we see no way of doing better than to let it be in Mr. Shattuck's hands one quarter more. Brs. Johnson and Chandler have both requested me to go into the school again, but I cannot think of making teaching my business for life and, then, this season is a time which demands my services with the churches and the new portions of the territory to aid as far as possible in giving a healthy direction to the partially organized; and the un- organized interests in our rapidly increasing population. We would be glad to make no more changes in the school till CORRESPONDENCE 159 we can get a permanent teacher who will identify himself with the school. But we cannot see the school entirely run down, or, what is worse, let it slide out of our hands into others, which may be the case unless we keep a good man teacher in the school. We cannot, as a Board, pledge a certain definite salary to a teacher. We do not know how to do this while a very few men in the denomination will assume responsibilities. Brs. Johnson, Chandler and myself will have to meet most of the responsibilities, should the effort prove a failure, and we are all poor and; have sacrificed hundreds of dollars each to keep the school alive. We however intend to lay the whole business of the school before the friends of education next month at the annual meeting of the Associa- tion and see what we can do by way of bringing the school more immediately under the control of the denomination. We now want to commit the denomination more directly to the cause of the school. More than two-thirds of the funds which have been raised for the school have been raised out of the denomination. The school must languish, or its whole pros- perity must rest on a very few men of energy, till the Baptists of Oregon become committed to the cause. We are amply able to carry on the work, if we can call out the surplus means, but we are a new people and not much accustomed to systematic work and; systematic responsibility. Our town has received a new impulse in business this spring and will probably in- crease in numbers and in wealth gradually from this time. We shall have four or five wholesale houses in the place in four or five weeks and about fifteen retail drygoods stores, and all the relative branches of business are fast moving for- ward, such as steamboat building, foundries, tinners', smiths/ carpenters/ millers*, bakers', butchers', watch makers', lawyers', clerks', physicians', etc. I wish you would still have the good- ness to look out for a teacher. I have no doubt but I could support my family by the school the first year, should the Lord direct my labor to that employment, and now is the time for us to commence, with the present permanent increase REVEREND EZRA FISHER of population in our towns. I have been travelling through the churches the last five weeks and shall write you on the subject of the state of the churches by the next mail. Very respectfully yours, EZRA FISHER. Received June 22, 1853. Oregon City, O. Ter., June 13th, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc., N. York. Dear Br. : Yours of March 19th was received', as you will learn before the receipt of this; also yours bearing date April 2d, and I now haste to answer definitely some enquiries in that, before giving you an outline of my labor the past six or eight weeks, hoping however to have them both ready before the departure of the next mail. While I cherish a high regard for the piety and talents of Br. Chandler, as your agent I will state to you confidentially that I regard Brother Chand- ler's removal from the school an unfortunate one both for himself as a public man and for the school. Yet there is an apology. Brs. Johnson and Chandler have not always had the best understanding. Brother Johnson, from the earliest public labors of Br. Chandler, did: not regard him as the man either for the care of the church or the school. Although Br. Johnson was passive and too wise to interfere, yet Chandler soon found him rather cool and reserved. Br. Chandler had not long been in the place before he expressed a desire to settle permanently, if he continued in the church and in connection with the school after the first year. This doctrine did not meet with a very cordial reception with Br. Johnson. I assured Br. C. that it was desirable that our situations be made as permanent as the nature of the case would admit; yet permanency could only be obtained by securing the confidence of our employers, whether we were CORRESPONDENCE 161 employed yearly or during life. No man laboring for the honour of the cause of Christ would wish to become burden- some to his friends and the public mind would always judge of the usefulness of a man's labors. In the end Br. Chandler became convinced that he could not live happily as the pastor of the church and president of the school ... he also learned that he could not receive such an appropriation from your Board as would sustain his family in town, and I think he became too precipitate in selecting him a home. I have done what I could, without too much interference, to induce him to go to Marysville and visit that church, if he must leave Oregon City for a claim. But he saw differ- ently. The public mind is in a great measure ignorant of the causes that operated on Br. Chandler's mind to induce him to the removal. I have no doubt from all I hear that the public mind regards Br. Chandler as erring in judgment in leaving the school and Oregon City. In confidence, I think Br. Chandler never intended to take upon himself all the labor of teaching the small scholars, and he found the school would not sustain two teachers. Br. Chandler's present position is about fourteen miles south of Oregon City in a settlement where most of the community cannot thrive in business as the farming community will generally in a prairie country. He cannot leave his claim now for more than three years, without sacrificing almost all he has in this world, and he feels strongly disposed to labor near home and raise up a religious community around him. He means to be a faithful minister of Christ, labors hard with his hands through the week, preaches every Sabbath, and, what is better, I think he is growing in some of the essential Christian graces. But I deeply regret that his influence must be shut up in a corner for the present. I have two or three times asked him if he would not receive an appointment at Salem, or at this place, spend three or four days each week in town as pastor and do his studying at home, but he seems at present not inclined to receive any appointment from the Board, unless he can receive 162 REVEREND EZRA FISHER an amount that, in his estimation, is about equivalent to the value of his labor. I have now stated the case as nearly as I can, without going into details, and trust your Board will not use this communication either to the detriment of Br. Chandler or Br. Johnson. They are both valuable, tried Baptist ministers. Br. Chandler would succeed well at Salem or Oregon City, with the above named exception, and also in Marysville, that place being again suddenly vacated by the removal of Br. Stevens to the Umpqua Valley. By this removal that young church is left in a bad condition in a critical period of their history. But you must send an efficient, engaging preacher to Portland, if you can find the man. He should be a man of capacity, to meet the emergencies of building up a church in a rising city. Br. Read, as you have learned before this, was invited last fall to take the pastoral care of this church (Oregon City). He is now in the place and will probably give the church his answer this week, which will be to decline the invitation. He has spent the winter in Rogue River Valley near Jacksonville, the principal mining town on the waters of that river ; has collected a small churchs 1 ? of twelve members, five of whom are efficient working brethren of the right stamp. That church have in- vited him to become their pastor. They propose to pay him $250 and hope to add $50 more 'during the year. They also propose to build a house of worship in the town the present year, if he will settle with them. The Methodist church sus- stained two ministers in that valley last fall and winter, but have left the field and, should Br. Read leave, that valley with about 10,000 souls would be without a gospel minister of any kind. I dare not advise Br. Read to leave that field, although he would be acceptable here. He endured great privations last winter for Christ's sake, paying his board; while flour was $1.50 per pound and fresh beef fifty cents. Sold his horse to pay his board. He needs immediate aid from your 317 This was the Table Rock (Jacksonville) Baptist Church, organized May 28, 1853. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore. I:ia. CORRESPONDENCE 163 Board, although I am unprepared to say how much till I visit the place and see for myself. He is pious, modest, studious and unassuming and wishes to know nothing else among the people but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He wants no land claim, if he can live as a minister and avoid it and be honest. He tells me the church proposed; to ask the Board to appropriate $500 to his support, but he persuaded them to ask for but $400. Should this little church build the coming year, probably that sum should be appropriated to him. $700 is a small salary for a man in that place and I think in a very few years the church will be able to sustain their own minister entirely. Respectfully yours, EZRA FISHER, Exploring Agent. N. B. The church at Marysville needs immediate atten- tion. They are able to support a minister, if they fully understood the value of the ministry. But they are young members, mostly from the western states. Yet they have paid Br. Stevens during the last nine months. One brother told me two months ago that he had paid him in money and otherwise $209 and he still expected to help him. The same brother told me that he had paid the past year over $500 for building their meeting house and supporting the ministry. Another brother told me he had paid Br. Stevens $140 since last October. Yours EZRA FISHER. Received July 30, 1853. (Continued from Page 480 in Quarterly for December, 1016.)
- ↑ The Oregon Institute was about to become Willamette University. The latter was incorporated six days after this letter was written.—Bancroft, Hist, of Ore. II:678.
- ↑ Three of these Methodist ministers holding land claims were Revs. J. L. Parrish, L. H. Judson and J. D. Boon.—George H. Himes.
- ↑ This was Rev. Daniel Bagley, afterwards prominent in the State of Washington.—George H. Himes.
- ↑ These were the French Prairie, Shiloh and Lebanon churches.—Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore. 1:9, 16.