trail, were either the youthful wives of the missionary workers, or young women teachers. Among their number were Puritan daughters of New England, who had inherited the daring spirit of their forefathers, and in whose veins flowed the blood of revolutionary heroes. They possessed the characteristics of the true pioneer. To them belonged an unfaltering courage which brought them through many a peril on their toilsome way, which led them undismayed by hostile tribes and left them unafraid to meet death in the wilderness. Endurance was theirs. In all the records there is no murmuring about their difficulties, no regret that they had undertaken so hazardous a. mission; but steadfast in hope and unswerving in purpose, they made their journey to a strange land. Above all they had the spirit of self-sacrifice. They had not sought to explore new scenes nor, like the early settlers of California, were they lured of gold; but for the glory of their religion and the love of humanity they sought in the isolation of the Oregon forests two thousand miles from the nearest church bell to become a civilizing power. In the homes and in the settlements not only among those of their own race, but upon those they had come to teach, their presence made for all that is permanent in the social and moral life.
Indians eager for the light were not awaiting them, but a degraded tribe, weakened by disease, listened indifferently to their teachings. The mission work was doomed. In 1848 it had to be abandoned, but not before a little had been accomplished in the betterment of the race for which the sacrifice had been made. Although the work was given up, there had come to these young settlers a love for the snow-covered peaks and grass-grown valleys of the land of their adoption, and there was no thought of returning to the East. Here they had suffered and sorrowed; here they had toiled,, and here they would cast their fortunes. They remained loyal to the great church, under whose auspices they had come, and the influential position of the Methodist denomination in the Northwest to-day is due not alone to the sterling qualities of the men who pioneered the work, but to the cultured Christian character of the women as well. Not only the church, but the state owes a debt of gratitude to these women who helped lay the foundations for the social structure that is our heritage to-day.
It was one of these pioneer women. Miss Chloe A. Clark, who opened the first school for higher education in Oregon, the Oregon Institute, and many of the sons and daughters of the settlers received from her and her associates the inspiration of higher ideals. This school, almost entirely supported by the early missionaries, was the leading educational institution of the state.
The missionary women sowed the seeds of righteous living. In the midst of the wilderness they set up their homes. It was one of their number (Anna Maria Pittman Lee, wife of Jason Lee) who was the first American wife and the first American mother in Oregon's boundaries, and it was this wife and mother who was the first white woman to be laid beneath Oregon's soil. They helped to rear the bulwarks for the future state in
