The next episode in the history of the diffusion of the
legend of Marcus Whitman is the wide celebration of the
semi-centennial anniversary of his death. At the meeting
of the American Board in New Haven in October, 1897,
Mr. G, L. Weed of Philadelphia delivered an address, and
a committee was appointed to arrange for memorial services
in Boston and Washington, and for the general observance
of Whitman day.^ Sunday, November 28, was selected, and
its observance was urged in The Congregationalist? As a
result it was reported in The Outlook that " on last Sunday
the Congregational Churches of the United States very gen-
erally celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the massacre of
Dr. Whitman," and, in explanation. The Outlook reminded
its readers that "Whitman was the first to discover the
rose of Whitman College which, is published in The Advance, March 14, 1895, in which he says : " If my series of works on American History ever come down to such a recent period, I shall try to do justice to the noble Doctor. If not I shall at some time revise my oration and print it in a volume of essays."
It will not be out of the way for me to say here that when I wrote my article " The Legend of Marcus Whitman," published in the American Historical Review in January, 1901, I knew nothing of Mr. Marshall's extensive researches, to which my attention was first called in December, 1900. I was likewise igno- rant of an article in The American Catholic Historical Researches for Oct. 1899, 187-197, by H. M. Beadle, in which the same conclusions are reached as in my own paper.
1 The Congregationalist, Oct. 21, 1897.
2 Ibid., Nov. 18. In this issue William A. Mowry published a long article on Whitman, in which he succeeded in finding support for his views by leaving out from his quotations from the records anything that militated against his position. In the November number of the Ladies' Home Journal, Mr. George L. Weed brought the complete Spalding legend before hundreds of thousands of readers. Dr. Nixon's account in his Oration of the action of the Board may be quoted : " The American Board were aroused from a silence of fifty years, and began to ask, What can we do ? They appointed a committee of their ablest men to recommend special services in the churches on the fiftieth anniversary of Whit- man's death, and many eloquent discourses were heard all over the East and Middle West." Mention may be made at this point of the part played in difius- ing a knowledge of the Whitman story by those who were engaged in raising money for an enlarged endowment for Whitman College. Dr. Nixon makes special mention of the labors of Miss Virginia Dox in New England, New York, Ohio, and Michigan. " There are 10,000 interested hearers and readers of the Whitman story to-day in all New England, where there were ten, five years ago." Whitman Coll. Quart., Ill, No. 4, 14
