THE METHODIST MISSION CLAIM TO THE DALLES TOWN SITE[1]
By Mrs. R. S. Shackelford, The Dalles
In the spring of 1838 Rev. Jason Lee, the superintendent for the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, sent to a place known as Wascopum the Rev. Daniel Lee and Rev. H. K. W. Perkins to establish a mission at that point. It was situated where the city of The Dalles now lies, and it will be seventy years this spring since the establishment was started.
In 1844 Lee and Perkins left the mission for the East and Rev. A. F. Waller entered upon the work about that time. "Mr. H. B. Brewer had been there since 1840, and the mission had accumulated quite a little stock and built six plain, moderate-sized buildings on the premises. The dwelling- house was a frame rilled in with adobe; the church, school-house, barn, storehouse and workshop were log, all of which were estimated to cost about $4000.00 and were built mostly by Indian labor, and there were about 70 acres under some kind of an enclosure.
In 1844 Rev. George Gary superseded Jason Lee as superintendent of Oregon missions, with instructions to reduce the cost of expenses, with the result of closing up all missions in Oregon except that one at The Dalles. The mission property in Willamette valley was sold to the Oregon Institute and to the laymen who had been dismissed from the service of the Society. Hines states that these sales amounted to twenty-six thousand dollars. By 1847 Mr. Gary had disposed of nearly all the livestock at The Dalles station and was trying to negotiate with Dr. Whitman of the American Board Mission for the sale of the station itself. In the same year before that had been consummated, the Rev. William Roberts succeeded Mr. Gary, and an agreement was finally made for the transfer of the mission station to Dr. Whitman, and in September, 1847, Messrs. Waller and Brewer transferred the station, a canoe, some farming utensils, grain and household furniture for the
- ↑ Read before a meeting of the "Old Fort Dalles Historical Society," 1908.
