Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1915-04-28
First Willamette Graduate
Tells of Pioneer School Days

| (Fred Lockley, in Oregon Journal)
Fifty.six years ago Willamette Uni,
versity held its first graduating exer.
eises. Miss Emily J. York was the
first graduate. Today. at the age of
SO years, this first graduate lives in
fortand, and is as keenly interested
IN current events and the progress of
education as she was more than half
century ago, when she was William
cite university's first graduate. Mrs.
Emily York Moore resides at SSH
SAVER street, and here | visited her
recently to learn of the early davs of
oregon pioneer educational institu.
tion. My father, John Wright York,
was one of Oregon S pioneer Methodist
minister's" said Mrs. Moore. "He was
born September 10, 1901, in Georgia
and was licensed as an exhorter when
he was % years old. In 1926 he was
licensed to preach, and was assigned
to circuit in Arkansas. He was al.
most constantly in the saddle. as his
circuit required over 200 miles of rid.
ing to cover. This meant that by av.
eraging to travel 25 miles day he
could preach every other Sunday in
the different settlements he served
He was paid salary of $25 year,
or little less than 80 cents week,
Of course, he was always welcome
guest whenever night overlook him, so
entertainment for himself and horse
cost nothing, In the early days visitors
were always welcome, for there were
no telephones, and papers were rare.
so the traveller brought welcome news
from the outside world.
From Arkansas my father was
transferred to a circuit in Missouri. ]
have often heard him tell how he was
stirred by Il message brought by the
Nez Perce Indians who came TO St.
Louis to seek the Book of God The
Nez Perces We're told by Lewis and
Clark, who stayed with them for a
short visit on their way to the coast
in the fall of 1905, Of the white man s
God The Nez Perces worshiped the
earth as the mother of their people
and the sun as the universal Father
When they learned from Lewis and
Clark that there was one greater than
the sun and the earth, a God more
powerful and more potent than either
of the gods they had paid reverence to
they wanted to know how to worship
this unseen and unknown God After
many councils, they finally sent a
delegation to st. Louis in The summer
Of 1881. Five started, four Ne2
Perces and one Flathead, but the Flat.
head was old, so he turned back. My
father, whose circuit was in Missouri
in 1881, happened to be present with
General Clark when the Indians ar.
rived and asked for the white man Is
book to make their road plain, so they
would no longer stumble in darkness
and grope their way toward the white
mans God. Years afterward, when my
father told me about it, he said h,
could not keep the tears out of hi,
eyes when he saw the eagerness of tn,
Indians to learn the better way, an(
their sorrow when they found a ma1
could not be sent to teach them the
/ new way
"Their message was published in the
Pittsburg Advocate, and all Method
ism was stirred by the appeal of thesC
trustful and earnest Indians. A mis-
sionary society was formed, and OF
October 10, 1893, at the meeting of the
missionary society, arrangements wer,
made to send Jason Lee and hii
nephew, Daniel Lee, and within a few
days $4,000 was raised to purchase al
outfit for the missionaries, The boart
decided to send two laymen also, ant