Reinforcements for Oregon
Their first, short winter at Waiilatpu passed swiftly
for the missionaries. But by summer a dissatisfied and restless William
Gray left Oregon, without Whitman's knowledge but with Spalding's
approval, to visit the East. Gray was unhappy with his position of
mechanic and helper to the mission. He was ambitious to become a
missionary in his own right, but neither Whitman nor Spalding felt he
was qualified for such work. In Boston, Gray was coolly received by the
American Board, but the trip gained him two things: he attended medical
college briefly, and he married Mary Augusta Dix.
At this time the American Board was recruiting the
only reinforcements it was to send to Oregon. In March 1838 Gray and his
wife joined this group, and the party headed overland for Oregon.
Besides the Grays there were tall, shy Elkanah Walker and his cheerful
wife, Mary; serious-minded Cushing Eells and his frail-looking wife,
Myra; and fault-finding but intelligent Asa Bowen Smith and his sickly
Sarah. Before they reached St. Louis, they were joined by Cornelius
Rogers, a bachelor. In addition to the usual hazards, the journey was
complicated by a clashing of strong personalities. One thing the new
missionaries agreed upon, however, was that none of them wished to be
assigned to the same station as William Gray.
Mary Walker.
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Elkanah Walker.
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Cushing Eells.
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Myra Eells.
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ALL WHITMAN COLLEGE |
Upon the new missionaries' arrival at Waiilatpu, a
meeting was held to decide a course for the future. Agreement was soon
reached on the composition of the stations. The Grays were to join the
Spaldings at Lapwai. The Smiths and Cornelius Rogers were to stay with
the Whitmans. The Walkers and Eellses, the two couples among the
newcomers who got along best, were to open a new station to the north
among the Spokan Indians near Fort Colville. But these plans were to be
changed in part.
Walker and Eells visited the Spokan tribe that autumn
and selected a site at Tshimakain ("the place of springs"). But winter
was close at hand, and they returned to Waiilatpu to await spring. The
Grays went to Lapwai, where Spalding and Gray quarreled throughout the
winter. At Waiilatpu, the Whitmans' little house was crowded to an
uncomfortable degree. Although the new mission house was far enough
along for the Smiths to move into it in December, the first house then
had to make room for the arrival of Mary Walker's first son.
J. M. Stanley sketched this view of the Tshimakain
mission in 1853. In the left foreground is an Indian burial on
poles.
Such crowded conditions were to lead to severe
irritations before the winter was over. The diaries and the letters home
show that hurt feelings were an all too common occurrence, and feuds
began to gnaw at the unity of the Oregon mission. There were
forebodings, which later proved correct, that the antagonisms of that
winter would hurt the future work of the missionaries.
Among the disagreements was one between Whitman and
Smith. It became evident that the two would not be able to work
together. Always the pacifier, Whitman took the initiative by offering
to leave Waiilatpu and begin a new station. But the arrival of spring
brought a new spirit of cooperation. The Walkers and Eellses left for
Tshimakain, and Whitman and Smith patched up their relations.
Nevertheless, they did separate; but it was the Smiths who left. Asa and
his wife moved to Kamiah, 50 miles up the Clearwater from Spalding,
where they began a new mission among the Nez Percé. By the summer
of 1839 there were four American Board stations in Oregon: Waiilatpu
among the Cayuse; Lapwai and Kamiah among the Nez Percé, and
Tshimakain in the country of the Spokan. Of these, the one most fully
developed and the one destined to be the center for the Oregon field was
Waiilatpu.
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