With a non-Native American population numbering in the low hundreds in the 1830s, the long-simmering struggle for control over the vast Oregon Country began its inexorable swing towards the United States. Methodist missionaries doubled down on their numbers at their Willamette Mission sited a few miles north from today’s city of Salem along the Willamette River. The Great Reinforcement brought fifty-one men, women and children from New York City all the way to the Hudson’s Bay Company fort at Vancouver.
While their missions would not convert the masses of Native Americans to their faith, many of the people coming as part of the Great Reinforcement would play a large role in the development of Oregon. The eventual decision to cede lands south of the 49th parallel by the British came from the beginning of a much larger push by settlers from the States who migrated to the new lands in the far west.
CONDOMINIUM
By treaty, the area was “ruled” over by both the United Kingdom and the United States. This agreement came about following the end of the War of 1812. That treaty – signed in London 20 October 1818 – tried to iron out the border between both parties. It established the 49th parallel as the boundary from the Rocky Mountains (“Stony Mountains”) to the Lake of the Woods. Both sides gave up areas they claimed. West of the Rockies, the compromises did not iron out as easily. Both sides agreed to a joint control to take place over the next ten years. Each side gained free navigation and the use of the land. After ten years, the agreement could be extended.
AN INTEREST IN FUR
Until the 1830s, Caucasian interest in the Oregon Country – known to the British as the Columbia District after the 1821 merger of the HBC and the North West Company – centered around animal fur – beaver specifically – trade with Native Americans.
The North West Company dominated the fur trade west of the Rockies establishing several trading posts in 1811 and 1812 throughout the region. An American partner/competitor arose in the form of John Jacob Astor who created the Pacific Fur Company in March 1810 after being approached by North West partners. Both companies envisioned a string of fur trading posts across the continent to gather in animal furs with the hope of marketing them in China. Astor’s company succeeded in establishing Fort Astoria near the mouth of the Columbia River in 1811 just in time for the War of 1812.
1812 BRINGS MONOPOLY TO THE BRITISH
Fear of attack by British ships led those at the fort to sell the fort to a group of seventy-five traders of the North West who came down the Columbia in October 1813. The two major British trading companies, HBC and North West merged in 1821. HBC continued to use Fort Astoria – renamed now Fort George – as its main regional fur depot until the winter of 1824-1825 when Fort Vancouver was established. Fort Vancouver came about because of better agricultural options, and the fact Fort George lay on the south side of the Columbia River. HBC officials believed the eventual border would become the Columbia River with lands to the north becoming British.
The merger of the two companies was pushed by North West partner John McLoughlin. HBC continued using the North West organization in the Columbia Basin including several Nor’Westers as prominent members of HBC operations in the new company.
“FUR DESERT”
During the 1820s, HBC Governor George Simpson hoped to create a “fur desert” in the lands south of the Columbia River in order to discourage American intrusion into their bailiwicks. Fur brigades were sent out throughout the Snake River basin, eastern Oregon and Nevada for almost the next thirty years after the 1821 merger. The problem with a “fur desert” was the agricultural potential latent in the Willamette Valley. That potential already tempted Nor’Westers to leave the fur business to start their own farms in the valley south of the Willamette Falls which became known as the French Prairie.
MEN WITH A MISSION
While the region was dominated by the HBC between 1821 and 1840, American interest remained through the visits of a variety of individuals. American missionaries arrived next in the mid to late 1830s hoping to bring salvation to the Native populations – Jason Lee in 1834, the Whitmans and Spauldings in 1836. The missionaries were encouraged by HBC officials to set their operations up to the south and east of the Columbia.
The efforts of missionaries came about following the 1832 visit of four men from the Nez Perce and Bitteroot Salish tribes to William Clark. Clark was not only the second man of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, but also US Superintendent of Indian Affairs. The four men requested someone to bring a “book containing directions on how to conduct themselves in order to enjoy” the favor of “the Great Spirit.” Published in The Christian Advocate and Journal, the story caused a sensation in the United States. In short order, the Board of Missions for the Methodist Episcopal Church tabbed Reverend Jason Lee to establish a mission to the tribes in west of the Rocky Mountains – “Aboriginal Mission west of the Rocky Mountains”.
NATHANIEL WYETH
Businessman and inventor Nathaniel Wyeth created an ice industry allowing New England fishing interests to preserve and export their catches to Europe and beyond. He looked to the Oregon Country for new business opportunities in 1832. He gathered a party from Boston and beyond to venture west on 10 March. From Independence, Missouri, his team of 18 – six had left along the way – joined William Sublette who looked to take supplies to a Rendezvous of trappers at Pierre’s Hole – near the town of today’s Driggs, Idaho – west of the Teton Mountains.
Wyeth’s group eventually made it to Fort Vancouver arriving on 29 October via the HBC Fort Nez Percés at the confluence of the Walla Walla and Columbia Rivers. His business plans floundered when the sailing vessel Sultana sank with supplies he needed to begin with. He spent the winter at Vancouver developing new ideas for future commercial developments.
Then in 1834, Wyeth got a new expedition together. He had big plans for fur trading posts, salmon fisheries, and a colony. But first the party headed to the rendezvous held that year at Hams Fork. Jason Lee joined Wyeth’s team with his nephew Daniel with their own plans to bring religion to the Native Americans in the Oregon Country, focusing first on the region where the Flathead tribes – actually, the Nez Perce – lived in the eastern interior of Oregon Country. Guided west by Wyeth’s team, the two missionaries reached and spent the winter of 1834-1835 at Fort Vancouver.
WILLAMETTE MISSION TAKES HOLD
While Wyeth’s plans foundered once again, Lee plowed ahead with his. The original plan to head into the interior changed, however. John McLoughlin, now Chief Factor for the HBC at Vancouver, convinced Lee, a mission in the interior with the Flatheads as a risky idea in the extreme. McLoughlin advised Lee to look south into the Willamette Valley, advice Lee took. The area Lee chose to set up his mission lie in the area known as the French Prairie. The Mission stood along the Willamette River just south of where the Wheatland Ferry crosses the river.
While he found the land around excellent for farming, floods caused destruction Lee also strived to be out of the influence and dependence of the HBC. Plans as early as 1836 developed to build a sawmill at the mission.Those plans did not get carried out quite yet. HBC monopoly on prices for supplies – they also owned the only sawmill in the region – were greatly resented by Lee and other early settlers – some Americans and others, French-Canadians. This had ramifications for the future political development of the country.
pURPOSE REDIRECTION
Early on, Lee recognized his mission needed redirection. Most of the Native American tribes in the Willamette Valley suffered decimation from diseases earlier released from sailing vessels. Word of the good agricultural lands available in the Valley brought a trickle of early American pioneers out. It was to the American settlers whom Lee began focusing his mission – renamed the Oregon Mission – on with time. He wrote many letters to his superiors in New England requesting additional missionaries and layman to come out to relieve him from his temporal duties. This would allow the Lees to focus their time on conversion efforts.
CATTLE QUESTIONS
One bone of contention between the HBC and the settlers was livestock. HBC maintained the only cattle in the country. Their herd started in 1825 with some 27 cows. Those numbers increased to nearly a thousand according to US Navy Lieutenant William Slacum. He arrived at the end of 1836. His voyage was on orders of President Andrew Jackson and Secretary of State John Forsyth to ascertain the situation in the Oregon Country. McLoughlin welcomed the American lieutenant to Fort Vancouver sending word to Jason Lee of his arrival.
Slacum met up with Lee at the river landing settlement of Champoeg in January 1837. Noting problems settlers had in obtaining cattle, the sailor proposed for the settlers to buy cattle from Alta California.
Then they could drive them north. This led to the establishment of the Willamette Cattle Company, a joint-stock company. The company aimed to send a team of men to California to buy as many cattle as they could. This team was led by early settler Ewing Young. The men were given transport on Slacum’s ship, the Loriot, leaving at the end of January from Oregon to California. Gaining permission from Mexican authorities, they purchased 746 cows along with 40 horses in May. By June, the men began driving the cattle north.
CATTLE DIVIDENDS
They reached Oregon in October with about 630 cattle and 15 horses left, losing some along the way. The animals were then divided among the investors. Young gained the largest number – 135, but Lee’s mission also enjoyed the fruits of the expedition.
Interestingly, half of the shares had been purchased by McLoughlin, even though the result of the cattle drive helped settlers to break the HBC monopoly. Young’s share made him the wealthiest settler in early Oregon. His death in 1841 without an heir would eventually lead to the development of local government. McLoughlin and the Lee mission also owned most of the rest of the over 600 cattle. Success would lead to another larger cattle drive in 1840-1843 led by Joseph Gale, a member of Young’s earlier team.
MORE REINFORCEMENTS
In 1837, a second group of missionaries and laypeople arrived at the mission in May. They came out at Lee’s request to begin the move to relieve mission staff away from temporal to secular duties. Seven adults and four children arrived with two women among the group. One of the women, Anna Maria Pittman, ended up marrying Lee in July. Another group arrived at the mission in September – a teacher and two more ministers.
return to the east
The members of the mission convinced Lee to return to the East to recruit more members. As well, he wanted to bring the Board up to date on developments with the mission. In March 1838, Lee and five others headed up the Columbia visiting the newly opened Wascopam Mission at the Dalles. This mission showed Lee had not totally given up the proselytizing nature of his mission to Native Americans. The mission here reached many more Natives because of the proximity to the fishing grounds at nearby Celilo Falls. They then spent a few weeks at the missionary posts run by Marcus Whitman and Henry Spalding. Their missions controlled through the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions made up of Protestants of several denominations.
Reaching the United States, Lee got some bad news from McLoughlin. His wife and infant child died in June. Pushing on, Lee lectured on his way east to meet with the Methodist Board raising $42,000 – about $1.45 million today – for the mission. Farmers were recruited in an advertisement from the Board, though only “pious” men were sought. The money raised went to fund the return voyage on the Lausanne. The ship carried several farmers, a blacksmith, a few mechanics and four teachers – all single women – fitty-one men, women and children in total. They sought married couples to come as missionaries, laymen with carpentry skill and women teachers.
THE GREAT REINFORCEMENT ARRIVES
The Lausanne spent seven months in rounding Cape Horn. They arrived over the Columbia River bar 21 May 1840 having left New York in October 1839. River pilots guided the vessel upriver to Fort Vancouver by 1 June. After a couple of weeks regaining their land legs, the new missionaries headed out. They went to missions in both the Willamette Valley and north to the Puget Sound. Several of the members of the Great Reinforcement went on to play large roles in Oregon’s early history both politically and culturally.
GEORGE ABERNeTHY
George Abernethy, a secular volunteer, arrived to become the Steward of the Oregon Mission. He focused his attentions on the Mission’s businesses in the new settlement of Oregon City. Abernethy went on to become the first Governor of the Provisional Government of the Oregon Country in June 1845. He was responsible for the building of the first steamship to operate on the Willamette River.
GUSTAVUS HINES
An itinerant Methodist preacher, Gustavus Hines came out with his wife Lydia. He wrote one of the first histories of the region in 1851 while serving as an original leader of the Oregon Institute. Hines served as secretary for the Champoeg Meetings in 1841 which led two years later to the Provisional Government. He believed God killed off the Native Americans of Oregon allowing for their replacement, “The hand of Providence is removing them to give place to a people more worthy of so beautiful and fertile a country.”
On Lydia’s behalf, the couple returned to New York in 1844 with Jason Lee. Lee was called east to defend the management of the mission. After preaching in Genesee for eight years they returned to Oregon in October 1853. Writing, preaching and serving as a trustee for the Oregon Institute – Willamette University, Hines lived the rest of his life in Oregon.
ALVAN WALLER
Alvan Waller was another minister coming west with the Great Reinforcement with his wife. Their family boasted of five children, the last two born in Oregon. His success as a circuit rider in western New York brought him to Lee’s attention. He and his family took up residence in Oregon City. Waller became embroiled in a land dispute with McLoughlin and the HBC whose claims he contested. Neither he nor the HBC could establish legal ownership under the Convention of 1818, however – another reason for the eventual development of a local government in abeyance of the lack of under the Convention. Eventually, McLoughlin gave Waller $500 and he returned to Willamette Mission in 1843. Focusing on Methodist education, Waller became involved with the Oregon Institute and the later Willamette University. He continued to collect money for the university until his death in 1872.
IRA BABCOCK
Ira Babock was a physician who came west with the Great Reinforcement. With the death of Ewing Young and the need of a probate court to deal with Young’s estate, Babcock was selected to become the first Supreme Judge for the region. He held the position for two years, presiding over the meeting where a Provisional Government was accepted on 2 May 1843. He left for the Sandwich Islands for a year – Hawaii. Upon his return to Oregon Babcock was re-elected Supreme Judge. He left Oregon for good in November 1844 and served as a surgeon with the US Army.
JOSEPH FROST
Joseph H. Frost and his family came west with the Great Reinforcement. He set up a mission with William Kone for Chinook and Clatsop peoples near Astoria in 1841. His efforts went unnoticed in the most part. Malaria swept through the lower Columbia killing off Natives and disrupting the local economies. With little help from the main mission, Frost spent most of his time trying to provide for his own family. After their own problems with malaria, Frost and his family returned to New York in 1844.
HENRY BREWER
Henry Bridgewater Brewer was one of the ministers, with his family, from the Great Reinforcement sent to the Wascopam Mission. He spent seven years working there, though without much long-term success in gaining converts from the Native Americans. In 1847, he returned to the west side of the Cascades acquiring a farm near Oregon City. Only a year later, tiring of being a settler, the family returned to the United States. He lived the rest of his life in Massachusetts.
JOSIAH PARRISH
Josiah Lamberson Parrish came West with the Great Reinforcement as a blacksmith. He was involved in the last Champoeg Meeting creating the Provisional Government. He was involved in the building of the Star of Oregon, a local sailing vessel built to sail to California to augment the local cattle industry. Parrish also became one of the trustees of the Oregon Institute, a school designed to teach the children of the missionaries – later, the Willamette University. He then went to the Clatsop Plains to take over the mission there from Joseph Frost in 1842. The Methodist Mission dissolved in 1844 and Parrish purchased the Clatsop Plains mission. He worked also as an Indian Agent in the Oregon Territory from 1849 until 1854.