The Coolidge examiner., 1934-08-10

two sides and by n slough forming protection
on the tAird. Arriving there ou July IL. WyctA
lost no time ln getting 10 work on the fort
According % Townsend part 81 the men began
Telling trees. collecting drift logs and making
c0rrals for their horses while the rest were sent
out 90 hunt FOR meat Osborne Russell, a young
ster from Maine who accompanied the party as
rapper. records IN his Journal that ION the
18th we commenced the actual construction OF
the fort. which vas a stockade eighty feet
square built of cotton wood trees set on end.
sunk two and one-half feet IN the ground and
standing about afteen feet above with two bas
tons eight feet square at the opposite angles"
When the hunters returned on Saturday. July
&c they found the st0ckade virtually completed
and the men working on the houses inside. The
next day wyeth invited Jason Lee the leader OF
the missionaries. TO preach 10 the men and al
two o'clock that afternoon the whole party as
sembled 10 the shade OF a cottonwood grove to
listen 10 the first sermon ever delivered within
the boundaries OF the state OF Idaho.
On july 80 Mckay decided 10 leave FOR Fort
Vancouver and lee and his followers. In order 10
reach their new fields OF missionary labors the
sooner. joined them
After the completion OF the fort on August 4
and the hag-raising ceremony the next day.
wyeth and his men commenced packing on Au-
gust G 10 push on TO the Columbia, leaving Fort
n
I'll men. II horses and mules and three COWS"
Thus began the history Of this famous fort
AS for the later fortunes OF the leader and
others who had played a part IN its building
Wyeth continued on to Walla walla where there
was happy reunion with his friend Jason Lee
He reached Vancouver on September IL and was
again cOurteOusly received by Doctor McLough-
lin. on the lower end OF Wapatoo island later
called Sauye island. he built another post which
he called Fort William. But during the next two
or three years although he worked tlrelessly
the competition OF the Hudson's Bay company
under the management OF his friend, Doctor Nc.
Loughlin. was too strong for him TO overcome
So his enterprise for which be had had such
high hopes ended in failure. In 1897 Fort Hall
was sold to the Hudson's Bay company and Fort
William was left In charge OF c. ". Walker with
instructions 10 lease Il TO some trusty person
for 10 years" Then Wyeth returned to his home
town OF Cambridge TO attempt 10 retrieve his
lost fortunes by going into the ice business again
In 1874 Jason Lee also went back TO his home
town, Stanstead, In eastern Canada, and there he
died the next year. But his fame, as the pioneer
missionary OF Oregon and the founder of a school
which later became Willamette university was
already secure. In 1867 Doctor Mclaughlin died.
poverty stricken and broken-hearted. Man
without Country" For the Hudson's Bay COM
pany had removed him from his position be-
couse he had not exerteo himself TO discourage
American settlement In the Oregon country and
his efforts TO become an American citizen were
thwarted by Americans who remembered only
that he had once been an employee OF a British
company and who forgot how he had befriended
their fellow-eountrymen when they were In dire
need.
In contrast to this sad ending to the man who
was once the Emperor OF the West" 1t is pleas
ant to record that when death had come to
Nathaniel J. Wyeth the previous year II had
found him once more prosperous man OF affairs
even though a century was TO pass before his
name would be widely honored in connection with
the celebration OF the fort which he founded
Fort Hall on the Oregon Trail
chy Western Newspaper Union