The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1895-06-04
Rev. Josiah l.. Parrish.

Rev. j. l.. Parrish, whose death oc-
CURED at his home in Salem yesterday
morning. was a conspicuous figure in
the missionary era of oregon territory.
A sturdy young man, who had been
brought up to labor, he was well
equipped to perform his part in sub
DUNG the beautiful wilderness that
was vaguely known in the East as a
PARKWAY Indian country" when he
landed here i'm 1910. A dutiful son of
the church i'm whose simple tenets he
had been brought up. he was a force
full factor i'm the missionary effort
made by the Methodist Episcopal
church to gain a foothold i'm the new
country and lay a shaping hand upon
it's civilization.
Born January IA. 1906. he was i'm his
Goth year of life. nearly two-thirds of
which he had lived in Oregon. Hale
and vigorous. devoted To his work, a
stranger to fatigue. he rode the cir
cult" in early territorial days, when
Indian trails were the only highways,
when streams were unbridged and the
settlements were sparsely populated
and far apart. He was known through
out the Willamette valley in those
days as Brother Parrish" and the
latchstring of every pioneer cabin hung
out for him.
A minister who is earnest i'm his
work and sympathetic and self-sacrific-
ing in it's performance comes close to
the hearts of an isloated homesick peo-
pie. Whether. therefore. Brother Par
IRISH" came To the early settlers of Ore
gon with vigorous presentment of the
plan of salvation as outlined by old
time Methodism, urging them To ac-
cept IL as the passport to eternal hap
piness; officiating at the then rare
ceremony of marriage I'm lOwly pioneer
homes, or at the rite of baptism in
the rude log churches; saying the last
prayer at the bedside of the dying, or
the later one at the open grave of the
dead, he was at once welcome and
revered by the people.
mweih Aspi-rhisfiseoboav-
All of these labors have long since
belonged to the shadowy realm of
memory-a realm narrowed by each
succeeding year by the passing out of
some of it's subjects. a man who has
lived for four score and ten years
where he was born and brought up
will have relatively few years of his
prime as comrades on the last two
decades OF his journey Still fewer
will he have whose prime was spent in
a new and sparsely settled region.
Hence IL is that Josiah l. Parrish was
known personally to few of the pres
ent inhabitants OF Oregon. Father
Parrish he came To be called years
and years ago, as he appeared a ven
cradle figure, a Veritable leaf from
the past, at n pioneer reunion or an
occasional church gathering. For sew
eral years. however. he has remained
quietly at home, waiting for the end.
Its announcement will bring tears TO
the eyes of his few surviving COM
rades of the missionary cra-tears not
of sorrow, since natures call i'm such a
case is wise and kind. hut of tender
retrpspection. Flc survived the date Of
his arrival i'm Oregon full 50 years: died
near the site of the first Methodist
aus, Ia, nrIs .a..l,
potent factor. having served well his
day and generation No history of the
missionary era of Oregon will he COM
plete without his name and a chronicle
of the simple but active part he took
i'm its dcvelopment-Orcgo