Oregon Historical Quarterly/Volume 7/Jason Lee memorial address by Allen Weir
ADDRESS
By Hon. Allen Weir.
Someone has said that a man's life history should not be written until fifty years after his death—meaning, I suppose, that if he had any animosities or imperfections during his lifetime they should be permitted to die out and be forgotten. Besides, the progressive and far-seeing statesman, the man who is ahead of his day and generation, is not always appreciated until after events have justified his course. Be that as it may, while there was no lack of appreciation during his lifetime of the man whose memory we honor to-day, and no reason for postponing this event, still it is certain that as time rolls on he looms as a larger and yet more important figure on the horizon of the history of the Pacific Northwest.
As we stand reverently near the dust that was once Jason Lee, I wish to say that, speaking in behalf of the State of Washington, her Governor, and the Washington State Pioneer Association, I am honored in having been authorized to bear a message to you this evening.
We honor the memory of Jason Lee because of his noble, pure and consecrated life, the best years of which were given to the perilous duties of a missionary to our land before it could boast of many white settlers; because he it was who preached the first sermon from the Word of God ever uttered within the bounds of what is now the State of Washington—when his was literally the voice of "one crying in the wilderness," and especially because to his wise and far-seeing statesmanship, patriotism and energetic, happily directed efforts, more than to those of any other individual, is due the fact that the soil of what is now the big, lusty young State to the north of us, once a part of Old Oregon, became American soil and not British. The State of Washington desires to acknowledge her debt of gratitude to him, and to add her tribute to his memory to-day.
Life, death, eternity! How vast, how deep, how solemn are these three words! Astronomy can not tell us where the bounds of this visible universe are. Theology can not determine the locality of that invisible universe from which no traveler returns. But we are told that somewhere, "in our Father's house," are many mansions. This we do know, that when a human being, endowed with the kingly qualities of a free moral agent, capable of using his powers for the uplifting and bettering of humanity, does so use those powers instead of wasting his life in selfish gratification or sloth, or in wrongdoing, his memory should be honored by those who follow after. Life is a glorious mystery, with a heaven beyond for attainment by just men made perfect. Jason Lee, from the battlements of heaven to-day, must look down with the never-ending satisfaction of duty well and faithfully performed on earth.
In one respect death levels all:
"The hand of the King that the scepter hath borne;
The brow of the priest that the miter hath worn;
The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave,
Are hidden and lost in the depth of the grave."
But not so with the splendid character that lives in the minds of fellow-mortals after useless clay has served its purpose and been laid away in the grave. Rather should it be said of these in the language of Lord Lytton:
"There is no death! The stars go down
To rise upon some fairer shore;
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
They shine forevermore.
For ever near, though unseen,
The dear immortal spirits tread;
For all the boundless universe
Is life—there is no dead."
"The sweet remembrance of the just
Shall flourish when he sleeps in dust."
As we contemplate the object and purpose of this gathering to-night, what memories crowd in upon us! The scenes, incidents and individuals of the past crowd in and haunt the vision and fill the minds of those in this presence who took part in the doings of early pioneer days in "Old Willamette," or those who had contemporaneous existence with those days in the "Oregon Country." I wish I might recall that past yet more vividly to your attention. I would like to hold before your eyes the old Chemeketa founded by the man whose dust lies in yonder Lee Mission Cemetery; the dwelling erected by him here when first he built a habitation in the "Land of the Sundown Seas."
"The shadows lie across the dim old room,
The firelight glows and fades into the gloom,
While mem'ry sails to childhood's distant shore,
And dreams, and dreams of days that are no more."
When Jason Lee came from the Eastern States to the "Oregon Country," in 1834, he came as a vigorous young preacher of the word of God, fired with enthusiasm in his mission and message to the native tribes of the Northwest, his ambition to Christianize and civilize them, and imbued with a lively conception of the magnitude and importance of this country and of his undertaking. Large and wholesome, mentally and physically, of distinguished lineage, and having been well educated and trained to lofty ideals, he was splendidly equipped for the work that made him famous and left the stamp and impress of his personality upon all the Pacific Northwest for the molding of character of the white population coming to these shores, fostering patriotic citizenship, and building up a heritage priceless to humanity. The little band under his leadership were the first to raise the Stars and Stripes in these ends of the earth, the first to put forth a successful effort to establish a local self-government here, and the first to bring to the attention of the Government of the United States the importance and desirability of extending National protection to the people and exercising National authority over this vast domain.
Born in Stanstead, Canada, in 1803, he was nevertheless a thorough American. His ancestor, John Lee, was one of the first fifty-four members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony to settle at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1634. The names of his ancestors appear in every war of the colonies and of the United States prior to his time and in the Pequot War, in the old French and Indian War, at Concord and Lexington, at the siege of Boston, at the battle of Long Island, at the storming of Stony Point, with Washington crossing the Delaware, at Princeton and Trenton, Germantown, and Monmouth. Colonel Noah Lee raised and equipped at his own expense a regiment in Vermont and led them to the aid of Ethan Allen in the attack upon Ticonderoga. Captain Nathan Hale, Washington's scout, executed at New York as a spy by order of General Howe, was a descendant from Tabitha, youngest daughter of John Lee, as was also the celebrated divine, Rev. Edward Everett Hale. Among college presidents in this same lineage we find the names of William Allen Lee, of Bowdoin and Dartmouth, and John Parker Lee, of Los Angeles, California. Among statesmen is Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania; among jurists, William Strong, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; among soldiers of the Civil War, Kirby Smith, the last Confederate general to surrender. His father was a Minute Man, and hastened to the defense of Concord and Lexington, and was with General Washington at the siege of Boston, and in all the campaigns in New Jersey. At the close of the Revolutionary War the elder Lee settled in the then almost impenetrable wilds of Vermont, in a location that was afterwards divided by the boundary line between the United States and Canada. The town, which lies on both sides of the line, is called Rock Island on the Canadian side of the line, and Derby Line on the American side. By the location of the boundary the Lees were left a stone's throw from the line on the Canadian side.
Converted in 1826, Jason Lee entered Wilbraham Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts, the following year, and spent the remainder of his life in the United States. Upon his arrival in Oregon, accompanied by his nephew, Daniel Lee, and Cyrus Shepard and P. L. Edwards, he began work by opening a school for Indian children in a log house they erected a few miles below the place where we stand to-night.
Mr. Lee had an adequate conception of the country, its importance, and his great work, even before he left the Atlantic States, because he had visited Washington, D. C., prior to his coming, where he interviewed President Andrew Jackson, to whom he unfolded his plans and from whom he secured executive indorsement and a promise of assistance. On his way West he held religious services at Fort Hall in what is now Southern Idaho, July 27, 1834, preaching from the text:
"Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." I Cor. x:31.
On the following day he conducted the first funeral services west of the Rocky Mountains by a Protestant Christian minister. On September 28, 1834, he preached at Vancouver, now in Washington, then a Hudson's Bay Company trading post, and on October 9 following he preached at Gervais.
Among the missionaries coming within the next few years, Lee was easily the foremost in leadership. He was aggressive and resourceful, planning with wisdom and executing with the firm, manly tread of a conqueror. His consecrated, Christian manhood, strong in body and mind, hopeful and helpful, enabled him to accomplish things. He survived all dangers incident to crossing the plains, the main part of the continent then being uninhabited save by wild beasts and hostile, treacherous Indians. He blazed a pathway for oncoming civilization. Weary and footsore, trudging along with milch cows over desert plain, through swamp and forest, never hesitating in his purpose, immediately upon his arrival he began his work with the zeal of one who felt that he must be "about the Master's business."
In 1838, when Mr. Lee returned to "the States" after reinforcements for his missions, and to bring the importance of this country to the attention of the Government, he carried with him a memorial to Congress, which he had prepared, and which was supported by the settlers, that was significant and important, prophetic of our future greatness, and which described the needs and possibilities of the country, its conditions, and the earnest desires of the petitioners. One paragraph alone from his pen will suffice to indicate the strength of his grasp of the situation. He said:
"We need hardly allude to the commercial advantages of the territory. Its happy position for trade with China, India and the Western Coast of America. The growing importance, however, of the islands of the Pacific is not so generally known or appreciated. As these islands progress in civilization their demands for the products of more northern climates will increase; nor can any country supply them with beef, flour, etc., on terms so advantageous as this."
This memorial reads like the arguments of expansionists in Congress within the past decade. It was presented to the United States Senate by Senator Linn of Missouri on January 28, 1839, in connection with a bill to create a territory north of latitude 42, and west of the Rocky Mountains, to be called "Oregon Territory."
Mr. Lee also enlisted the active support of Caleb Cushing in his plan to add more stars to our National emblem from the far Pacific Northwest. On January 17, 1839, he wrote to Mr. Cushing from Middletown, Connecticut, referring to the memorial and to the "Oregon Question":
"You are aware, sir, that there is no law in the country to protect or control American citizens, and to whom shall we look, to whom can we look, for the establishment of wholesome laws to regulate our infant and rising settlements but to the Congress of our own beloved country.
"The country will be settled, and that speedily, from some quarter, and it depends very much upon the speedy action of Congress what that population shall be and what shall be the fate of the Indian tribes in that territory. It may be thought that Oregon is of little importance, but rely upon it there is the germ of a great state.
"We are resolved to do what we can to benefit the country, but we are constrained to throw ourselves upon you for protection."
During the year 1839 Mr. Lee traveled extensively throughout the East, delivering lectures, at many points, awakening great interest and enthusiasm in and over the subject of far-away Oregon, its condition and its wonderful natural resources, mild and equable climate, and its advantageous geographical location with reference to the growth of civilization and the aggrandizement of the United States among the growth and development of the Nations of the world. He attended the Methodist Episcopal Conference at Alton, Illinois, and commanded the rapt attention of all there in his theme and his personality. From there he went to Peoria, and lectured, and at that point was organized the first company of Americans who were not missionaries to seek permanent homes in Oregon.
While in the East, Mr. Lee met and married Lucy Thompson, of Barre, Vermont, a lady of rare culture and attractiveness, who accompanied him back to his far Western home. Here in old Chemeketa was their family fireside, here was set up their family altar; here, on February 26, 1842, their daughter, Lucy Anna Maria Lee, was born; here that daughter grew to womanhood and developed into one of the most lovely and lovable of Christian characters ever known on the coast.
Wherever he was, Jason Lee was abundant in labors. In his chosen field here, from the California line to Puget Sound, his activities were incessant. A great many trips were made by him up and down the Columbia River, with no conveyance except an Indian canoe, and no shelter when overtaken by nightfall but the friendly earth and the forest and sky overhead and round about. On the 9th day of October, 1839, a company of missionaries and their families, some fifty-two persons in all, sailed from New York in the ship Lausanne for the "Oregon Country,' to reinforce the work of Mr. Lee. These were recruits, enlisted through his efforts. They arrived at the mouth of the Columbia River June 1, 1840, and twelve days later met at Vancouver for consultation. Mr. Lee, as superintendent of the mission work, assigned them to their different stations. On June 15 he appointed Dr. John P. Richmond, of the party, to establish a mission at Nisqually, near Puget Sound, now in Pierce County, Washington. Doctor Richmond was the first American man with a family to become a resident north of the Columbia River. Mr. Lee had visited and selected the place for this mission in 1838. The first American child born in the Puget Sound Country was a son of Doctor and Mrs. Richmond. The entry in the family bible reads:
"Francis Richmond, son of John P. Richmond and wife, America, was born at Puget Sound, near Nisqually, Oregon Territory, on the 28th day of February, Anno Domini 1842, and was baptized by Rev. Jason Lee, Supt. of Oregon Missions."
It seems inexpressibly sad even yet that the beloved wife of Mr. Lee should have so prematurely ended her earthly career in 1842, and that his own life ended almost exactly three years later, just apparently in the beginning of his great usefulness.
Jason Lee would have graced any position of honor and responsibility to which the American people might have called him, and would have risen equal to any emergency. The splendid institution of learning here in Salem, with its long, honorable, and highly useful career, is a fitting monument to the man. No mausoleum erected here to mark his resting place could be too elegant or costly to properly express the love and appreciation of the people for him and his memory. But his grandest monument is the splendid character he builded, of which we get an occasional glimpse for our edification and inspiration. He was modest, unassuming, one of the quiet, forceful souls, devoted in every fiber to a great work. The everlasting snows on Mount Hood are not purer nor fairer than the unsullied personal character he left behind. While his work has been carried on by other devoted and able men, and its sphere of usefulness will go on broadening like the waves rippling from a stone cast into placid waters, yet the impetus given to it all by the man himself who laid broad and deep foundations, will continue as an abiding example for all who follow.
Jason Lee undoubtedly felt the responsibility of being an instrument in God's hands in working out the higher destiny of the race. The oncoming civilization of which he was a forerunner swept across the continent, subduing the savage races and changing conditions and overcoming all obstacles, and now at the dawn of the new century it has passed all former boundaries and is crossing the ocean to repeople the Philippines, Hawaii, Porto Rico, and other "Islands of the Sea," and the new order of things has become a part of the world's history. He would doubtless feel that the unfurling of the Stars and Stripes and the playing of "The Star Spangled Banner" and "America" on these new shores, accompanied by the roar and rattle of our artillery, were but incidents in the onward march of our Christian civilization; and that when we say:
"Forever float that standard sheet,
Where breathes the foe but falls before us,
With Freedom's soil beneath our feet
And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us?"
We should do so in a spirit of humility born of the responsibility placed upon us by the all-wise arbiter of destiny who holds the fate of Nations as in the hollow of his hand, and who desires to use us as instruments in working out the uplift of the human race. He was one of our nobility. His life would say to succeeding generations:
"Look up, my young American! Stand firm on earth;
Where noble deeds and mental power give places over birth."