, 1866-03-02
LECTURES BY REv.H. H. sPAULD1Ne.
Early OREGON Missions--Their Importance
in Securing the Country 70 Americans.
TNrNREn FoUR.1

Early Oregon MissiOns--Their Importance
in Securing the Country 70 Americans.
LNUNBER -FOUR.
A double purpose Vas accomplished. The
one only purpose Of those two American hero
ines, both now walking the golden streets Of
heaven with some Of their Indian converts, was
to obey their Lord and carry the gospel to the
Indians. God had also another, great Nation
| al purpose, 10 accomplish the opening OF the
great Emigrant Wagon Road from the Missouri
to the Columbia, and the opening of the mines.
/ These feeble women were selected Of God 70
settle the qnestion by their own sacrihces and
trials and hazards, that white women and wag-
ons and cattle could cross the mountains, a
| thing pronounced impossible by hundreds Of
mountain men. The gold Of California did not,
/ and the gold Of the world could not have in
duced them to undertake what they did. But
God knew the power that would move them.
| He brought q single short sentence from the
words Of Jesus "Go teach all nations" to
bear upon their minds, and behold the stupen-
| dous National results and the end is not yet.
Mark the finger of God in directing the several
agencies concernsd.I Had Mrs. Spsulding lis
tened to the strong remonstrances of those who
/ pronounced the undertaking an act Sf insanity;
| or had she yielded to my wishes and delayed,
| the fate of this country would have been fixed.
] It would have been to-day a British province.
| Two weeks later, and the great decision was
|
had reached the States. Mr.. Lee, after person
ally examining the whole, pronounced it, like
| all the mountain travellers, impossible for
| white woman to endure the hardships and dan
gers of the overland route therefore changed
| his mission fields from the mountains TO the
coast, and sent for his lady missionaries to come
around Cape Horn. Had our wives seen this
| opinion of Mr.. Lee, they would have been de-
TERED, and if they had come at all it would have
| doubtless been around Cape HorA. Or had DR..
| Whitman not turned back from Green river the
game year, the offer to cross the mountains would
not have come before Mrs. Spaulding. And
| whereas, these two missionary ladies were the
| first and only two women found in the United
States up to 1896 who had the physical and
moral courage, in obedience to their Lord, to
| face the self denials and dangers of the over
land route and whereas, that settled the ques-
tion that women could cross the mountains, and
as this mission called out a reinforcement of four
| lady missionaries, who crossed the mountains
two years after in 1898, and thus established the
great Emigrant Wagon Road from the Missouri
| to the Columbia and as this, our mission party
| of 1898, afforded = convoy from the Popiage
east of the Rocky mountains to Oregon, to Cap
tain Sutter, who went thence TO California, aud
ten years later, opened in his mill-race the first
gold mines on this coast and whereas, the over
land emigrant road led to the settling of this
coast and finally the interior Territories by
Ame-ioau fsraEttiSs-~sd miners, and this aaaip-
has secured this great country to tue govern
ment; and again, as that remarkable man, DR..
Whitman, would not have been here to rush, as
| if supernaturalfy sent, to Washington in the
Winter of 1923, at the risk Of his life just in
time to save this country from being traded of
to England for cod6shery, but for the COM
mencement of our mission then and there in the
town of Howard, in the State of New York, by
the decision Of that remarkable disciple Of
| bris nd he
ence of the Doctor; and whereas the gigantic
efforts Of wise men and men of wealth TO estab
| lish an American colony on the Pacific coast had
thus tar failed therefore, to the self-exiling, the
| hardships aud dangers of these two missionary
| heroines, IS the American Government ard the
American people indebted moro than to any
| other two persons, dead or alive, for all they
| hold valuable on this Pacific slope, their COM
merce now whitening every sea and river, their
| gold and silver mines pouring out every day in
| creasing thousands 10 augment their National
wealth, and for the civilization and christianity
which are everywhere taking the place Of the
| thick moral darkness that had reigned unbro-
ken for unknown ages.I The Doctor, on receiv-
ing our consent to share with him and his the
fate Of crossing the Rocky mountains, wrote by
us to his intended companion Miss Narcissa
Prentiss, then living in Allegheny county, that
he had obtained the required associates, and
that he would be there at given day to lead her
|
share with him the tolls and dangers Of the
Rocky mountains, and the Joy of preaching
Christ to the benightsd tribes beyond and, as
| events have shown, to share with him the terri
BILE death by the hand Of SavRges. Miss PREM
tiss received this intelligence as only one would
| who had early made an entire surrender Of all
to ChSisti She had given herself to the Lord at
the early age of thirteen by public profession,
with seventy others the SAME day. The writer
was wicked boy among the spectators that
day, and it was not until five years after that
God in his sovereign mercy, brought him unto
the same church under the faithful labors Of
that most godly man, James h. Hotchkin. Hence
we were members Of the same church, and for
years of the same school in that, our dear home,
Prattsburg, and now to/be companions in a
fearful journey across the continent, mission
among the Indians.
Myself and wife spent the next Sunday in her
town, Angelica, where commenced the acquain-
| tance and the christian fellowship of these two
missionary heroines which was ended only by
death. The real delight and the great success
of these missionary women in their missionary
work. and their parental faithfulness to their in
: fant ch ildren, as God committed them to their
keeping, will appear in extracts from Mrs Spal-
ding's journal.
= Observe, it is not claimed that no other white
women would have crossed the Rocky noun
taiDs, or that no emigrant road would have been
Opene0 or tnat some otner agency WOul0 not
have interVened to have stopped the trading Of
Oregon for codfshery with England, or that
the gold mines would not have been discovered.
But 1t is claimed that the above named two wo-
men, not for gold or the hope Of gain for then
such objects were not known in this direction,
but solely in obedience to the command of their
Lord, were the. FIRST and only two women in the
United States as late as 1896, willing to under,
take and actually did cross the Rocky noun
kains and the continent, and that the heroic
TAmerican missionary, Whitman, eventually did
reach Washington in March, ls43, through ter
rible sufferings and hazards from Indians, star
Yation and freezing in the mountains of Utah
l and New Mexico, not an hour too soon to save
this country from becoming British province
in the Ashburton Treaty, by giving personally to
President Tyler his knowledge of this country,
its importance to the United States, and the
fact that himself and associates had actually
: taken their wives and a wagon across the couti-
! nsat six years before, and that he intended, God
. willing, to take back that season caravan Of
several hundred wagons through to the Colum-
bia. And it is claimed that the actual, the