Oregon Mission - The Mission and Westward Expansion

The Mission and Westward Expansion

They located the mission in the Willamette Valley, about 10 miles north of present-day Salem, where the Wheatland Ferry now crosses the Willamette River. They called it Mission Bottom. Missionaries untrained in manual labor slowly built log cabins and a school. Lee remarked, “Men never worked harder or performed less.” In the first year, there were fourteen Indian students in the mission school.. Seven of these students died and five ran away. In 1836, there were twenty-five Indian students and sixteen died. One of the surviving Indians converted to Christianity. Indians in the Willamette Valley were dying at a horrendous rate. Retrospectively, it appears that this might have been due to new diseases unwarily brought to the area by the new immigrants. The mission began to form branches.

When a first wave of Americans arrived it is curious that they were greeted by two Canadians; Dr. John McLoughlin, Chief of the Hudson’s Bay Company, who was under orders to discourage white settlers, and Rev. Jason Lee who was most responsible for establishing white settlements, organizing schools, and creating government. Fortunately, Dr. McLoughlin was personally sympathetic to the newcomers. These first arrivals were mostly explorers, traders, mountain men, and missionaries. Hudson’s Bay Company did not want settlers in the region for business and political reasons explained below.

In March 1836, Rev. Lee wrote to Dr. Fisk telling of the need for tradesmen and farmers. He complained that there was little time for the business of religion. This resulted in reinforcements being sent in 1837 and 1838. After the 1838 reinforcements arrived, Lee moved back to New England. Part of the 1837 group was Alanson Beers, a member of the later Provisional Government.

The mission provided for the protection of American immigrants in the area as early as 1838 through a magistrate and constable.

Lee returned to Oregon with the Great Reinforcement of 1840. He had worked hard to recruit new settlers for his mission. He had 50 people, including needed tradesmen, teachers, and physicians. With this arrival, the population of Mission Bottom was forty adults and fifty children. In 1841, serious flooding resulted in relocation of the community and the Manual Labor School from Mission Bottom to the Chemeketa site, a site within present day Salem, Oregon. In July 1843, Rev. George Gary replaced Rev. Jason Lee. The church expenses were excessive for the limited success of the missions. Rev. Gary closed most of the mission branches.