Spokane County, Washington - Chapter 2: Pioneer Missionaries, 1900

The liistorv of the pioneer missionaries of the Pacific Northwest is a romance. By their exertions and sacrifices they have accomphshed a work that entitles them the honor and admiration of snccessive generations. They were the fonnders of a new empire and the ushers of civihzation to the land of the setting sun. Bancroft says in his history of Oregon; "It is in the missionary, rather than in the c^:lmmercial or agricultural elements, that 1 find that romance which underlies all human endeax'or before it becomes of sufficient interest for permanent preservation in the memory of mankind. I believe the time will come, if it be not already, when to the descendants of these hardy empire-builders this enrollment will be recognized as eciuixalent tu a patent of nobility." Few men ha\e in equal measure exhibited tlie heroic and self-denying spirit of the Apostles as these pioneer missionaries did. Seldom have been given to men such an opportunity to exert a far-reaching and enduring influence upon future generatinns. It was their privilege to la}" deep, strong and broad founilations, upon which their successors have, and will, erect grand and permanent superstructures. Though dead they yet speak, and we enter into their labors. A sense of our obligation to them should incite us to honor their memories and perpetuate their names.

The events leading to the establishment of the earliest mission stations in this region are full of interest. They have a political as well as a religious significance antl deserve a prominent place in the history of any and e\ery portion of the countrv.

All reliable historians cheerfully admit that as Xew England was settled Iiy people who came there to enjoy religious freedom which they could not find in the Old World and founded our empire of civil and religious liberly. so also - "American ascendancy on the Pacific coast north of California and west of the R(jcky mountains is largely due to tlie eftorts of Courageous men and women to Christianize the aboriginal inhabitants of the country. When the missionaries of the Atlantic states commenced coming to Oregon territory, all the white iieople here, with possibly a few exceptions, were subjects of the British crown, and though the i)bjects of the missionaries was to the Indians, their presence here was a standing ntJtice to Great Britain that the United States claimed the riglit to occupy the territory. Some criticisms have been passed upon the missionaries because they were not more successful in their missionary work, aild because they gave too much time and attention to other jnirsuits, but whate\er may be true as to these matters, their defiant struggle with the dangers and difficulties of pioneer life is worthy of the highest praise." (Judge Williams.)

In 1832 five Flathead or Xez Perce Indians arrived at St. Louis in search of the White Man's God and book. They were feeling j after the true inn\ if haply they might find ; Him. Two thousand miles they traveled. climl)ing precipitous rocks and over high and rugged mountains. They pressed their way through almost impenetrable forests, crossing; wide prairies and dismal vallevs. and fording: rushing streams and deep rivers, all in order to find out more regarding the hook that told all about the Great Spirit, the hunting ground of the blessed and the trail thereto. Who can conceive the hardships they endured ere they reached their j(_)urney's end? It is not known how long it took them to make the journey. But they reached St. Louis, and for a time they moved silently around in moccasin and Ijlanket, attracting but little notice among the few ihousaud inhabitants. Among them were two old chiefs noted for wisdom and prudence. The nther three were y(_)ung bra\'es selected liecause of their endurance and daring in any perils. It was not easy for them to make knciwn their errand. They found many things to interest them, but not that one thing which they felt they needed more than all else. They were kindly treated, entertained, blanketed and ornamented. They were led to the cathedral and shnwn the altar and the pictures of saints. But withal they were not satisfied. Why? Because they had faced the perils and endured the hardships of a long journey, in order that they might have better ideas of the (jreat Spirit of the white man and the book of the white man which shows the long trail leading to the Eternal Camping Cround. But this they had not found and doubtless thought their journey was in vain. As the three surviving braves were about starting on their return journey, sad at heart and disappointed, the farewell address of one of them deli\-ered in the office of General Clark, is full of genuine pathos and deserves a place among the world's literary classics.

'T came to you o\'er a trail of many ukkots from the setting sun. Vou were the friend of my fathers who have gone the long way. I came with one eye partly opened, for more light fur my peojile who sit in darkness. How can I go back with both e}-es closed ? How can I go back blind to my blind people? I made my way to you with strong arms, through many enemies and strange lands that I might carry back much to them. I go back with both arms lirolcen and emjjty. The two fathers who came with us - the braves of many winters and wars - we leave asleep by your great water and wigwams. 'I hey were tired in many moons and their moccasins wore out. My ])e(jple sent me t(i get the white man's Ixxik df Heaven. \ on took me where _\'ou allow your women to dance, as we do not ours, and the b(jok was not there; you showed me the images of good spirits and pictures of the good land beyond, but the book was not among them to tell us the way. I am going back the long, sad trail to my people of the dark land.

"You make my feet heavy with burdens of gifts, and my moccasins will grow old in carrying them, but the b(jok was not among them. \\ hen I tell my poor blind people, after one more snow in the big council, that I did not bring the Ijook, no word will be spoken l)y our old men or by our young braves. One by one they will rise up and go out in silence. My people will die in darkness, and they will go on the long jjath to the other hunting grounds, No white man will go with them and no white man's b(_)ok to make the way plain. I have no more words."

It was the p(_)tenc_\- of this plaintive appeal from the wilderness which started a spontaneous movement to establish an Oregon mission to the Indians, and thence came all those subse(juent and consequent e\'ents which, by welded liks of steel. ha\e bound into thi> union of states the whole brilliant galaxy of the Pacific commonwealths.

In response to the earnest appeal of the Intlians the first missionary to be appointed for Oregon was Rev. Jason Lee. in 1833. He established a mission in the Willamette \'allev. in the vicinity of Salem, under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1834. He was a great man and accomplished a marvelous work. He deserves all the rec- ognition and praise rendered liim in the excellent work entitled. "Oregon Missions," by Rev. H. K. Mines. D. D. But as his labors were confined to the present Oregon, but did not particularly affect this region, it does not seem to come within the province of this work to enter into particulars regarding his lifework. But we improve this opportunity to heartily commend the work above mentioned. In this work we shall be compelled to confine ourselves to those whose careers have exerted an influence, by exploration, missionary labors or otherwise, in the settlement and development of the country known as the "Inland Empire," and have thus became directly or indirectly identified with the history of this county.

A chn.inulogical treatment of the history will give the first place t(_) Rev. Samuel Parker. As early as April, 1833, he offered himself to the A. B. C. F. 'M. as a missionary to Oregon. He had enlisteil the interest of his own people and hoped to be promptly sent upon his perilous enterprise. But the Board hesitated, fearing, distrusting, delaying, yet they could not trust the inspiration of this man whom God had touched, and he pressed his suit, offering to raise all needed funds and find suitable associates.

In 1834 Parker went as far as St. Louis, but he was too late for the fur cara\-an. and returned to New York. While waiting for the passing" of winter he was not idle, but raised money and made missionary addresses. As Mr. Parker is the first explorer of Spokane coimty. whose work attracted the attention of eminent geologists. I think a sketch of his life is fitting in this work.

Re\-. Samuel Parker was born at Ashfield. Massachusetts, April 23. 1779. He was of Puritan ancestry, noted for their piety and positive character. His grandfather landed at Charleston. Massachusetts, soon after the settlement of Plymouth. ^Massachusetts. He entered Williams College, in 1803. was admitted to

Sophomore standing and graduated in 1806. His fidelity antl studiousness gave him a good standing am()ng his classmates. Following his graduation he spent one year teaching at Brattleboro. \'ermont. After this he pursued theological studies under the supervision of Rev. Theophilus Packard, D. D., and was licensed to preach in 1808 liy the North Congregational Association of Hampshire county. He was soon sent as a missionary to New York state where he did arduous work in the then wild regions of Geneva and Wayne counties for nearlv a vcar. His theological studies were resumed in the fall of 1809 at Andover Theological Seminary, graduating with the first class of that institution. On December 23. 181 2, he as ordained and installed at Danby. New York, bv a Congregational council. After a pastorate of fifteen years at Danby. New York, he became financial agent of Auburn Theological Seminary in New England. In 1833 he ofifered himself to the .\. B. C. F. M. as a missionary to OregtJU but was not accepted. In January, 1834, at the annual Fast and PVayer day. he offered to go in the employ of the First Presbyterian church of Ithaca, New York, with the sanction of the American Board. In the spring of 1834 he and Rev. John Dunbar and Mr. Samuel Allice. teacher, started for Oregon. But after starting they were falsely persuaded that they were too late for the caravan of the Fur Company. consec|uently Messrs. Dunbar and Allice went to the Pawnee Indians and Mr. Parker returned to the east.

While traveling in southern New York conducting missionary conferences Mr. Parker met at Wheeler. Marcus Whitman. M. D. In the spring of 1835 Parker and \Miitman started for Oregon. They went together as far as the Green ri\er rendezvous, whence Dr. \\ hitman returned for recruits. Rev. Parker continued his journey westward and spent 1835- 36-37 in making his exploring tour beyond the Rocky Mountains under the auspices of the A, B. C. F. 'SI. He is the first real explorer of the country nurtli of tlie Snake river. After liis return hewrotehis book entitled "Jounial of an Exploring Tour Bcyi'ud the Rocky Mountains under Direction of the A. B. C. F. M." J. C. Derby & Co., Publishers, jth Edition, 1S46. twenty thousand copies \vere sold and it was commended for its geological value by Professors Edward Hitchcock, Benjamin Sillman, and other eminent geologists. Mr. Parker lectured through New York. Pennsylvania, Illiniiis, Indiana, ^^lissiiuri. Kentucky, sixteen hundred tmies in all, whicli. with the distribution of his book, did much in creating public sentiment in fa\-or of Oregon, resulting in the present boundary line. "He was a bold, decided man, full of energy and resolution, doing with his might, wiselw whatever he undertook to do, daunted by no dangers." After a long life of arduous toil and many j-ears of physical inhrmity, Mr. Parker passed away from earth in his eighty-se\-enth year. He died in peace fully trusting in God's promises, and his physical remains were interred in the Ithaca, New "^'ork, cemetery near Cornell University.*

No early explorer or missionary received a more heartv welcome from the Indians than Rev. Samuel Parker. Thev fullowed him by the hundreds and ga\-e him e\-ery aid within their ability as he traveled over the mountains. Their joy seemed to be unbounded in view of his mission among them. In the fall oi 1835 Mr. Parker reached Fort \'anc(iuver and spent the winter there and was employed as a teacher l)y the Hudson's Bay Company. In the spring of 1836. he went up the Ci:ilunil)ia ri\"er til the mouth of the Snake river. He then traveled east and north, making careful obser- of rocks and soil. He describes quite accurately the fertile Palouse country and predicts its present fame as a wheat region. In liis journal he describes himself coming to the

Spokane woods, then to the Spokane river where there was a ferry. Of the valley he says, "This is a \ery jileasant, open valley, though not extensively \vide. The Northwest Company had a trading post here, one bastion of which is still standing, .\fter the river we crfis.'^ed a valley of level, alluvial soil, where it is about a mile and a quarter wide and the east side is especially fertile. Here the village of the Spokeins is located, and one of their number has comiuenced the cultivation of a small field or garden, which he has ])lanted with p(jtatoes, peas, and beans, and some other vegetaliles. all of which were fl mrishing and were the first I had seen springmg up under Indian industry west of the mountains." Page 288. ".As we wound our way up the mountains in several places I found granite. When we came to the summit of the mountains, we came to a sandy plain several tuiles wide and covered with yellow pine. Over parts of this plain were scattered \-olcanic eruptions of singular formation. Himdreds of regular cones of various magnitudes from those of a few feet in diameter and height to those of a hundred feet in diameter and sixty feet high. They all had the same appearance, dififering only in magnitude and were composed of broken granite in angular pieces, from those that were very small, to those six or eight inches in diameter, and on the outside were nearly black, as if colored with rising smoke. They had more the appearance of being broken liy manual lalior, and ])i1e<i U]) for future use in constructing roads and wharves than having been the result of internal fires, and vet no other cause but the latter can be assigned. The sandy plain around them was imdistiu-bed and large pine trees were growing about theiu as in other places. After passing the ])lain we descended and came again to the Spokane river which makes a bend around to the northeast. In this place the valley is less extensive and the mountains are more precipitous. We again descended the mountain, upon which granite and mica slate prevail without any volcanic api^earances. Fn>m this we descended into a ricli \alley whicli was covered with a kixuriant growth of grass though Init justspringingup. Thisxalley has the appearance of liaving been a lake filled up with mountain deposits. In the center is a small lake from which proceeds a rivulet passing i)Ut at the southwest. Leaving this ])lace we wound around a mountain in a northerly tlirection down a \alley less fertile but more extensive. Came to a stream of water in the afternoon at four o'clock. Came to encampment. Spokein and Nez Perce Indians brought a good interpreter, a }'>nmg man of their nation, who had been in school at Red River settlement. Winnipeg, and had obtained a very good knowledge of English.

Page 289. "These benighted Indians manifested the same solicitude to hear the gospel that others had done before them. And as an affecting proof that the impressions made on their minds were not momentarv. thev I went home and erected in their village a church constructed of rude materials, surely, l)ut designed, as they said, so that when the ne.xt missionary arri\'ed. they should ha\'e a place of worship. The morning of the 28th of May, 1836, was cloudy and some rain fell. After traveling a few miles in an easterly direction we came to a \cry fertile \alley well adapted to cu!ti\-ation. extending north and south for at least fifty miles, and of various extent in width. from one-half mile to two miles. The vallev is open prairie \vell supplied with grass, and at c\en this high latitude of 48 degrees cattle would do well through the year without the labor of cutting hay. Came to village of Indians. Near their principal village we came to Mill ri\er. Wherever 1 have met with the natixes of this distant region, they have invarial>ly with earnestness and importunity asked the gift of the Gospel from the hand of Christ." 290.