Methodist Mission - Demise

Demise

Beginning in 1829, infectious disease was responsible for high fatalities among Native Americans in the Willamette Valley. By what was later called the Columbian Exchange, settlers introduced Eurasian diseases long endemic to their society, but the natives had little or no immunity to these. Their populations were decimated. Historians estimate that nearly 90% of the Native Americans in the Lower Columbia region died during the 1829 epidemic.

With few natives to convert, the Mission soon had little purpose.