The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1912-03-07
PIONEER DAYS In
new OREGON


The first sermon ever preached west
Of the Rocky mountains was preached
/ By Rev. Jason Lee in 1884, at Fit. Hill
on Snake river. Jason Lee was the
/ first missionary to the Indians of the
Oregon country. He. with three other
men, came in answer to that remark
able quest Of four Indians from the
/ Nez Perees country who in 1892 rode
across the continent to st. Louis to find
the white Mans Book of Heaven. F"
i Lee and his companions arrived at Ft.
Hall in July and there to a company of
/ Hudson Bay men, traders and Indians
preached the first sermon on Oregon
soil. What a seed planting. The
/ preacher looked westward that day and
| from the Rocky mountains to the great
ocean was a midnight darkness of
savage life. Christianity, homes,
schools and states grew out Of that
planting.
! The first sermon ever preached with
in the present boundaries of Waseo
county was preached by Rev. Daniel
| Lee at Pulpit Ro:k in what is now the
city of The Dalles. That sermon was
preached in March, 1888. Lee and
| Perkins, missionaries, came up the
| Columbia in their canoes from the
| willamette mission and found that
spot, and there Rev. Lee preached the
first sermon to the Wasco Indians.
There at the big spring, now within
the school grounds, they built their
mission. Pulpit Rock is at present
marked by bronze tablet.
The first sermon ever preached in
Eastern Oregon was preached in the
Grand Ronde valley in 1853. That SER
mon was preached in my fathers tent
one Sunday in August at the Emmi-
grant camp just at the west boundary
of the valley, at the exact spot where
La Grande grew. 1t was Rev. Laban
Case who preached and his audience
consisted of attentive, tired and hungry
emigrants on the road to Oregon.
What great beginnings of great results.
The first camp meeting ever held in
Wasco county was held on Fifteen Mile
creek near the present site of Dufur.
That camp meeting was held in the
summer of 1862 and was lead by Rev.
VIM. Roberts of the Oregon mission.
The pioneer settlers for many miles
around attended as well as quite a
number of Indians. George Waters,
the Yakima Indian preacher, was con-
verted there Thus the white man and
Indian mingled songs of praise to-
gether to the Great Father while the
smoke of camp fire and wigwam rolled
upward from the forest of balm, birch
and pine.
The first mile of railroad built in
Oregon was out from The Dalles to-
ward CeIlo in 1862. The fifteen miles
completing the portage was finished
early in 1863. 1t was my privilege to
ride on that road the same year. Here
tofore the whole transportation around
the falls had been made by freight
wagons.
The first apple tree that bore fruit
in the Oregon country was grown from
a seed planted at Vancouver, then the
Hudson Bay government. This was
planted by gentleman from London
who came to Oregon in about 1920.
Having eaten an apple at abandon he
pocketed the seeds, carried them across
the Atlantic and planted them in Ore
gon soil
The first apple tree planted in Wasco
county was planted by soldier at Ft.
Dalles in 1850. 1t bore fruit. This
was the beginning of a mighty horti-
cultural following