Note 289 — LETTER XV

Methodist missions in Oregon were founded by Rev. Jason Lee, for whom see Townsend's Narrative, in our volume xxi, p. 138, note 13. The establishment in the Willamette Valley was the central one, and consisted largely of an agricultural settlement with a school for Indian children, that afterwards developed into Willamette University. It was situated about eighteen miles above Champoeg, not far from Salem. The second station at Clatsop (not Klatraps) Plains, south of Point Adams, was founded by J. H. Frost, accompanied by Solomon Smith and Calvin Tibbits, who had married Clatsop women. The families removed to this point in February, 1841. Two years later Frost returned to the United States, and J. L. Parrish took up the work. Little attempt was made at this point to reach the Indians. The mission at Nisqually was begun in 1839. The following year, J. P. Richmond was stationed here; he returned home after two years, whereupon the Nisqually mission was abandoned. The Indian mission at the Dalles was begun in March, 1838, by Daniel Lee and H. K. W. Perkins. It was conducted with varying success until 1845, when the property was disposed of to the Presbyterians. The settlement at Willamette Falls, made in 1840 by A. F. Waller, was chiefly a colonizing experiment. In 1844 there were forty Methodists at this place.—Ed.