Melinda Marie Jetté

"we have allmost Every Religion but our own"

French-Indian Community Initiatives and Social Relations in French Prairie, Oregon, 1834–1837

DURING THE EARLY SUMMER MONTHS of 1834, the French Canadian men who had settled in the area of the Willamette Valley now known as French Prairie, likely in consultation with their Indian wives, discussed the need for religious and educational training for their growing families. By July, they had decided to send a letter to the nearest Roman Catholic ecclesiastical seat at Red River in the Canadian Northwest, asking that priests be sent to their nascent community. Dated July 5, 1834, the Willamette settlers' first letter to Joseph Provencher, known as the Bishop of Juliopolis, probably did not reach the Red River colony until the fall or winter of 1834.¹ Having received no news from the bishop by the early spring of 1835, the French Canadians sent a second letter, repeating their request for priests and "promising to do all in their power to help them survive." They pledged twenty minots of grain per family to support the priests, "which the members of the company there saying that they can easily deliver," since the Willamette Valley was a "beautiful country where one plants and harvests nearly year-round, and fishing there is in abundance."²

The French Canadians' petition for Catholic priests was not to bear fruit until 1838. In a curious turn of events, however, while the French Canadians were busy drafting their first letter to Bishop Provencher, the first party of Christian missionaries was already on its way to Oregon. Headed by the Reverend Jason Lee, a small group of American Methodist missionaries joined Nathaniel Wyeth's second expedition to the West and arrived at Fort Vancouver in mid-September 1834.³ The Methodists subsequently established their mission in the Willamette Valley; but, hampered by organizational problems, bouts of poor health, and their own cultural biases, they made no significant attempts to convert the local Kalapuyans to Christianity during their first three years there.⁴

This map, produced by the Oregon State Highway Commission in the 1960s, is a modern rendering of French Prairie and the surrounding areas in the 1830s. French Prairie was originally the home of the Ahantchuyuk Kalapuyans but, as this map demonstrates, it became prime area for non-Kalapuyan colonization and re-settlement following the French Canadians' retirement from the regional fur trade.

Reprinted from Champoeg by J.A. Hussey (Oregon Historical Society, 1967)

Jason Lee and his colleagues were more successful with their French-Indian neighbors. Given sectarian tensions between Catholics and Protestants in both the United States and Canada during the early nineteenth century, the Catholic French-Indian families were surprisingly hospitable to the American Protestants during their first few years in the Willamette Valley.⁵ During the mid-1830s, they worked together to solve local problems in French Prairie, reaching across cultural divides — even in times of tension and conflict — and demonstrating a commitment to ethnic, religious, and community solidarity.⁶

Because the early French Canadian settlers and their Native wives were nearly all illiterate and left few written records, their role in early Oregon history has long been obscured.⁷ A fresh examination of the surviving documentary record, including some previously untapped Canadian sources, however, reveals a complex story in which the French-Indian families in French Prairie used all the means at their disposal — including ties with Methodist missionaries — to advance their own community interests.⁸

FRENCH PRAIRIE SETTLERS initially came into contact with American missionaries when Jason and Daniel Lee spent September 19 through September 26, 1834, touring the Willamette Valley to reconnoiter a site for their new mission. French Prairie, the original territory of the Ahantchuyuk Kalapuyans, was named after the French-Indian families who settled there. Located in the mid-Willamette Valley, French Prairie is bounded by the Willamette River to the north and west, the Pudding River to the east, and what remains of Lake Labish (lac labiche) to the south. The Methodist missionaries first visited the French-Indian families living in Ahantchuyuk Kalapuyan territory, staying with Joseph Gervais and Yiamust Clatsop and their children, who lived on a farm about ten miles southwest of Campement de Sable (Champoeg). Also living at the Gervais home were Yiamust's sister Celiast and her husband Solomon Smith, who was then a schoolteacher to the local French-Indian children. The families whom the missionaries met at the Gervais farm were happy to see the Lees and provided them with food and lodging while they were in the valley. According to Lee's diary, the French-Indians families encouraged the Methodists to build a mission near their small agrarian settlement.⁹

Jason Lee's diary only covers the missionaries' first five weeks in the Willamette Valley, but he does provide some information on early social relations. Through the months of October and November, as the fall rains turned into winter rains, the missionaries constructed their buildings in the valley. Fortunately for them, they did not work in complete isolation. Beginning in mid-November 1834, they employed Edwards Rora, an "old [Sandwich] Islander," and a local Native youth, John Calapooya, to help build their first barn. When the mission barn was partially completed, the Methodists realized they would need help to finish the structure and called on the French-Indian settlers, who willingly helped. The missionaries also hired two Americans who had accompanied Ewing Young's party of fur trappers, who had recently arrived from California.¹⁰

This drawing, produced by an unknown artist in the 1840s, is one of the few existing visual images of the bicultural couples who lived in the Willamette Valley in the 1830s. It features the American Solomon Smith, a member of the Nathaniel Wyeth expeditions, and Smith's Clatsop wife Celiast.

OHS neg., OrHi 014130

Beginning in October 1834, Jason Lee held services at the home of settler Joseph Gervais and Yiamust Clatsop. He also led services in the Champoeg settlement some twelve miles to the north of the Methodist mission.¹¹ According to Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) officer George Roberts, relations between Jason Lee and Gervais, his nearest neighbor, were friendly. Roberts believed that a "good deal of stuff or kindly contributions of the Eastern People" went to Gervais and his French Canadian neighbors.¹² These were the contributions and items intended for the local Indians. On Monday, October 26, 1835, Philip Edwards began teaching at Campement de Sable; by December 31, 1835, he had thirteen pupils whom he was instructing in the "first rudiments of education."¹³

The Methodists began admitting orphaned children to their mission soon after its inception. Children came from both lower Columbia Native groups affected by malaria epidemics and from the ranks of former fur-trade families. The mission thereby provided the region with a much-needed social service and was supported in that work by both the French-Indian families and HBC Chief Factor John McLoughlin. Widowed French Canadians sometimes placed their children at the mission. Charles Carpentier, for example, enrolled his daughters Angélique and Sophie following the death of their mother.¹⁴ When retired Iroquois hunter Louis Sangaratti died, McLoughlin appointed Jason Lee as executor of his estate and asked him to take Sanagaratti's children and former slaves into the mission, which Lee did on October 18, 1835.¹⁵

In 1834, the Rev. Jason Lee led the first Methodist mission to Oregon. The group included missionaries the Rev. Daniel Lee and Cyrus Shepard and laymen Phillip Leget Edwards and Courtney M. Walker.

OHS neg., OrHi 8342

The social relations between the French-Indian families and the American Methodist missionaries were generally positive during the early years of the mission. The French-Indian neighbors demonstrated their support for the mission by donating labor, providing food, having their children educated by teachers Cyrus Shepard and Philip L. Edward, and assisting in construction work when asked. They allowed Daniel and Jason Lee to conduct worship services in their homes. Perhaps equally important to the French Canadians was the opportunity for additional socializing. In his diary, Jason Lee expressed annoyance that the French Canadian settlers liked to visit the mission and to talk for hours on all manner of subjects — and in French, which Lee did not understand well.¹⁶ The agrarian community also donated material and cash to the mission; and in March 1836, the leading HBC officers in the region wrote a letter of support and contributed a total of twenty-six pounds.¹⁷

In contrast to the sectarian conflicts between Protestants and Catholics in the United States, the local French Canadian men, all former fur traders, demonstrated broad-mindedness toward the newly arrived Protestant missionaries. The French Canadians had sent a petition to the Bishop of Red River, asking for Catholic clergy in Oregon, because they were interested in the spiritual and intellectual welfare of their children and of Native and bicultural orphans in the region. For them, the Protestant mission provided social, educational, and Christian religious services to the community that were initially more important than its denomination.

THE FRENCH PRAIRIE families' collaboration with the Methodists is indicative of the nontraditional culture of French North American communities born of the fur trade. In those communities, an official Catholic Church hierarchy was either absent or present in small numbers or it wielded limited power. The multicultural world of the fur trade had long exposed French Canadian men and Native and métis women to a variety of European and Indian religious traditions. This diversity created an environment in which strict adherence to sectarian and ethnic differences were the exceptions rather than the norm.¹⁸ The survival of laborers and their families often depended on such flexibility. Due to their numbers and their mixed fur trade-agricultural economy, the French-Indian families enjoyed a prominent role in the growing agrarian community of French Prairie. In addition, the French-Indian settlers had long-standing ties with local Native groups and with the HBC, affording them economic access to both communities. The bicultural families were thus confident enough to work cooperatively with the American Methodists when they arrived.

This detail of Joseph Drayton's 1841 sketch of the Willamette Mission shows Native women dressed in the fashion of Plateau/Plains Indians.

OHS neg., OrHi 46192

Given the animosity of American Protestants, including evangelicals, toward the Catholic Church throughout the nineteenth century, the willingness of the Methodist missionaries to cooperate with the French-Indian families on religious, educational, and social endeavors might seem puzzling. When viewed in light of local conditions, however, the Methodists' actions and attitudes were to some extent pragmatic. The five men had no missionary experience and limited resources, and they lived among Kalapuyans and French-Indian settlers. Had they not demonstrated a willingness to work cooperatively with the settlers, they likely would have found it difficult to persevere in the Willamette Valley on their own.

Pragmatism was not the only factor contributing to the Methodists' cooperation with the French-Indian families. Of equal importance was their evangelical spirituality. All three religious members of the mission — Jason Lee, Daniel Lee, and Cyrus Shepard — were devout Methodists who believed it their Christian duty to minister to the spiritual and educational needs of settlers. Their writings demonstrate that they believed in the righteousness of the Protestant tradition vis-à-vis Roman Catholicism. That sense of righteousness was not a roadblock to positive social relations because of the absence of institutional opposition from the Catholic Church. With no literate, highly educated Catholic clergy in the Oregon Country, there were no direct challenges to the religious authority or practices of the Methodists and little occasion for theological debates that could sow discord in the Willamette Valley. That exemption from sectarian strife would last only until the fall of 1838, when Catholic missionaries finally arrived in the Columbia region.¹⁹

The presence of American Methodists in the Willamette Valley during the mid-1830s coincided with the development of several community initiatives, including cooperative efforts that crossed ethnic and sectarian lines as well as an intra-ethnic project pursued by French-Indian families. Both contemporary observers and historians have tended to interpret the role of the French Canadian male settlers within these community initiatives from the perspective of either the Methodist missionaries or HBC officials. A closer examination of the historical record suggests that, while the settlers may have been influenced by the Methodists and HBC officials, they acted according to their own cultural values and interests. Ultimately, the French-Indian families worked cooperatively with McLoughlin and the Methodists on these community initiatives because they sought to maintain healthy social and economic ties with the two groups while establishing their own institutions.

The first initiative was a Methodist-led temperance effort. In the spring of 1836, Ewing Young, who was then settled on a claim across the Willamette River on present-day Chehalem Creek, purchased a large caldron, which originally had belonged to Nathaniel Wyeth's company, for the purpose of establishing a whiskey distillery.²⁰ Young's project eventually came to the attention of the Methodists who, along with John McLoughlin, opposed it. McLoughlin, who had previously sought to curb the use of alcohol as a trade item in the Columbia Department in keeping with the HBC's 1821 charter, worked with the Methodists to stop the distillery. In 1837, McLoughlin notified officials that he had ceased operations at the Fort Vancouver distillery the previous year due to the "bad effects it had on our affairs," and he recommended that such a project never be attempted again.²¹ Elijah White, a New York-born physician who joined the Methodist mission in May 1837, later recalled that McLoughlin had responded to Young's distillery plans by issuing orders that no grains would be ground in the HBC mills for the distilling of liquors.²²

Henry Eald Jr. made this drawing, which he labeled "Encampment on the Banks of the Willamette with the Methodist Mission on the opposite side of the River," on September 9, 1841. Eald was a member of the Wilkes Expedition, as was Joseph Drayton, who created the sketch on page 227.

Courtesy of the Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library

For his part, Jason Lee conferred with McLoughlin and sought to re-energize the Oregon Temperance Society, which the Methodists had founded in February 1836.²³ Lee's first step was to confront Ewing directly and ask him to abandon his plans for a distillery. When Ewing declined, apparently for financial reasons, Lee and the other missionaries turned to the larger settler population for support.²⁴ They organized a temperance society meeting at their mission on January 2, 1837, which resulted in the drafting of a petition addressed to Young and his partner, Lawrence Carmichael, outlining why the settlers believed the two should cease their distillery operations.²⁵ A comparison of that petition with the 1837 Willamette Valley census shows overwhelming support for the Methodist initiative from within the different settler groups. In addition to the four current members of the Methodist mission (Jason and Daniel Lee, Cyrus Shepard, and Phillip Edwards), twelve of the fifteen local English-speakers unattached to the Methodist mission signed the petition, and all but one of the French-Canadian settlers affixed his mark.²⁶

Table 1: FRENCH-INDIAN COUPLES IN THE WILLAMETTE VALLEY, 1830–1833
Freeman *(home parish)*	Wife *(ethnicity)*	Date of Settlement
J.B. Desportes McCkay [Temiscaming, LC]?	1 Marguerite Kalapuyan 2 Marie Chehalis	1831
Joseph Gervais Maskinongé, LC	Yiamust Clatsop	1832
Etienne Lucier St. Edouard, LC	Josette [Nouette]?	1832
Joseph Delard Sorel, LC	Lisette Shushuwap	1832
J.B. Perrault St. Atoine, LC	Angèle Chehalis	1832
Louis Labonté I Laprairie, LC	Kilakotah Clatsop	1832?
Amable Arquette St. Laurent, LC	Marguerite Chinook	1833
Pierre Bellique L'Asumption, LC	Geneviève Métis	1833
Pierre Depot St. Roch, LC	Marguerite Clackamas	1833
André Picard St. Thomas, LC	Marie Okanagan	1833?
LC=Lower Canada (Quebec). Note: Yiamust and Kilohotah were sisters, the daughters of Clatsop headman Coboway. Sources: Harriet Duncan Munnick, ed., Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest: Vancouver and Stellamaris Mission, trans. Mikell Delores Wormell Warner (St. Paul, Ore.: Frence Prairie Press, 1972); Munnick, ed., Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest: St. Paul, Oregon, 1839–1898, in collaboration with Mikell Delores Warner (Portland, Ore.: Binford and Mort, 1979); H.S. Lyman, ed., "Reminiscences of Louis Labonte," Oregon Historical Quarterly 1:2 (June 1900): 169–88; William A. Slacum, "Slacum's Report on Oregon, 1836–37," Oregon Historical Quarterly 13:2 (June 1912): 197–98; and Harvey McKay, St. Paul, Oregon, 1830–1890 (Portland, Ore.: Binfords and Mort, 1980).

Because Young was a neighbor to the settlers, the temperance society chose a diplomatic approach, stressing that the presence of alcohol would have a negative effect on the "temporal and spiritual welfare" of both the settler community and the local Indians. They appealed to Young's and Carmichael's respect for American jurisprudence, emphasizing that the sale of liquor to Indians was prohibited by U.S. law. The petitioners also stressed that they were "not enemies but friends" of Young and Carmichael and offered to compensate the two men for the their investment in the project. Half of the thirty signatories agreed to pay a set sum to the temperance effort, ranging from four to eight dollars.²⁷ The petition concluded with a passage stating that local settlers who had not joined the temperance society were still encouraged to sign the petition and donate to the cause.

Table 2: French-Indian Settler Data, 1830–1833
of ten total settlers: Male settlers from Lower Canada Other: French-Algonquin Female settlers from Lower Columbia Female settlers from the Plateau Other: 1 métis and 1 unknown Male settlers originally with Pacific Fur Company Male settlers originally with Northwest Fur Company Male settlers originally with Hudson's Bay Company Average age of male settlers in 1830	9 1 7 2 2 3 4 3 40 years
J.B. Desportes McKay had at least two wives in 1830. Sources: See Table 1.

Young and Carmichael did not immediately reply to the temperance society petition. In the meantime, however, an unexpected visitor to the Willamette Valley provided a means to resolve the controversy. Just after midnight on January 12, 1837, William Slacum, a U.S. naval purser dispatched by Secretary of State John Forsyth to make a survey of the Oregon Country, arrived at the home of Jean Baptiste Desportes McKay. Slacum spent that day meeting the missionaries, the local French-Indian families, and the American settlers — and he had a long talk with Ewing Young. Having discussed the distillery controversy with HBC officials, Slacum informed Young that he had been authorized by Chief Trader Duncan Finlayson to notify Young that if he would "abandon his enterprise of distilling whiskey, he could be permitted to get his necessary supplies from Fort Vancouver, on the same terms as the other men."²⁸ The purser also offered to give Young a personal loan and passage to California on his ship, the Loriot. The trip would allow Young to clear himself of allegations of horse thieving leveled by the Mexican governor of California, charges that had soured his early relations with the HBC. The next day, Young and Carmichael agreed to cease the production of ardent spirits "for the present," citing recent "favorable circumstances" that would allow them to "get along without making spirituous liquors."²⁹

Slacum met with many of the Willamette Valley settlers at Champoeg and offered them passage to California to purchase livestock in the Mexican territory. Because the settlers could not purchase cattle from the HBC — McLoughlin's policy was to loan, not sell, livestock — eleven settlers signed the articles of agreement for a cattle expedition to California, designated the Willamette Cattle Company. They agreed to raise the funds for the trip, including livestock purchases, and to send a contingent of volunteers to California on the Loriot.³⁰ The venture was organized as a simple joint stock company whereby the investors contributed funds for travel expenses and the purchase of cattle. Slacum loaned Jason Lee $500, and the other investors drew on money owed them by HBC. They elected Ewing Young as the expedition leader and Philip Edwards, formerly a lay member of the mission, as company treasurer. The investors included eight Anglo-Americans, one Briton, and two French Canadians, Pierre Depot and Amable Arquette. Although only Philip Edwards signed from the mission, Jason Lee and the others all bought stock in the company.

SOME NINETEENTH-CENTURY chroniclers argued that HBC opposed the enterprise, but there is no evidence to support that conclusion.³¹ Documents relating to the probate of Ewing Young's estate attest that McLoughlin invested $558 in the venture, and Chief Traders James Douglas and Duncan Finlayson jointly invested $300.³² McLoughlin's decision to join the venture rather than oppose it was likely both strategic and economic; it kept HBC on good terms with the settlers while securing additional cattle for its operations in the Columbia Department. A party of eleven men departed on the Loriot with Slacum on January 18, 1837, but a violent storm at the mouth of the Colombia delayed the ship until February 10, after which the ship proceeded to Fort Ross and then to San Francisco. After several months of administrative and financial wrangling with Mexican military leaders, civil authorities, and cattle merchants, the Willamette Cattle Company party left San Jose in late June 1837. The expedition and 630 Spanish cattle reached the Willamette Valley after an arduous four-month trip in early October 1837.³³ The cattle were distributed to the investing partners, and Slacum's share was later sold by his nephew to John McLoughlin.

This view of the northern Willamette Valley, photographed by Kiser Studios in 1908, provides a striking illustration of the precontact landscape alongside ecological change that had been wrought by Euro-American colonization by the late 1800s. The foreground features a small oak opening, characteristic of the oak savannahs that resulted from long-standing Kalapuyan burning practices. The background features the forest cover that spread after American settlers stopped the Kalapuyans' annual firings of the valley in the mid 1800s.

OHS neg, bb000250

Nineteenth-century chroniclers and later historians have conflated the interests of the settlers with those of HBC or the Methodists in the development of the Oregon Temperance Society and the Willamette Cattle Company, intimating that the French Canadians largely followed the advice of their more educated social betters.³⁴ Historian Robert J. Loewenberg concluded that the Willamette Valley settlers acted in accordance with the wishes of HBC officials, because the company was the only source of supplies and foodstuffs in the region.³⁵ Daniel Lee recorded the temperance society effort some ten years after the event, writing that HBC "seconded" the Methodists' temperance effort. Lee also believed the Willamette Valley settlers had supported the initiative due to the righteousness of the temperance cause and the moral persuasiveness of the missionaries.³⁶ Neither of these long-standing interpretations fully explains the actions of the French Canadian male settlers, because they do not address the question of agency — of what the settlers sought to gain through their participation. In addition to the immediate aims of regulating (if not banning) alcohol production and of acquiring additional cattle for their agricultural operations, the French Canadians were motivated by a desire to protect the long-term interests of their families.

Living in an isolated Willamette Valley settlement, the French-Indian families were somewhat removed from the controversy over "the Oregon Question" — that is, whether or not the Oregon Country would become U.S. or British territory. Through their actions, however, the French Canadian male settlers sought to retain positive ties with both the HBC — the current representative of the British government — and the American Methodists. Perhaps the most important factor in the settlers' decision to support the temperance initiative was the need to ensure themselves a stable social and economic position in the event of a future American annexation of the Willamette Valley. In their discussion with William Slacum at Champoeg on January 13, 1837, the French Canadians expressed concern about the legal title to their lands should the Willamette Valley become part of the United States.³⁷ If the settlers supported the Methodists on the temperance issue, they probably reasoned, then the missionaries might in turn support the French-Indian families should the Americans eventually gain control of the region south of the Columbia River.

Two additional factors likely played a role in the French Canadians' decision to sign the temperance petition. The first is that, as a religious leader and an educated man, Jason Lee held a position of moral authority among the French Canadians. William missionaries' overland journey to Oregon in 1834, naturalist Robert Townsend observed that although Jason Lee evinced the pious and sometimes self-righteous attitude typical of evangelical Protestant missionaries of the period, he had such a gentle way of critiquing the "rough" fur trappers that they came to respect him.³⁹

On the issue of temperance itself, the French Canadians would not have endorsed a complete ban on alcohol but would have agreed that some measure of local regulation was warranted. The consumption of alcohol was not only a component of the Catholic mass in the Canadians' native Lower Canada, but it also played a central role in community events, holidays, and celebrations characteristic of the fur trade in North America. Yet, alcohol could also create grave problems for both Native and fur-trade communities, particularly in those areas outside the jurisdiction of the HBC or where HBC trade policies and personnel guidelines received short shrift.⁴⁰ Native leaders frequently pushed for a ban on the trade of alcohol. Given the HBC's problems with American maritime fur traders' use of alcohol on the Northwest coast and McLoughlin's ending of distillery activities at Fort Vancouver, both the French Canadian male settlers and their Indian wives would have been aware of the potential problem of having alcohol available in the Willamette Valley. Elijah White reported in his memoirs that drunken brawls would sometimes erupt in French Prairie during the Christmas season when the head of each household received a "few gallons of liquor." He recorded one case in which a drunken man nearly beat his wife to death, writing that she "lay insensible for thirty days."⁴¹

The decision to support the Methodists' temperance society suggests that the French Canadians were concerned about social issues — namely, alcoholism — that could have a serious impact on the nascent community. The petitions sent by the Willamette settlers to the Bishop of Red River in 1834 and 1835 indicate that the French Canadian men were keenly interested in the welfare of their families. Having retired from the fur trade to an agrarian community, they expressed a desire to establish social institutions not found in most fur-trade outposts, specifically schools and churches. English and Scottish fur-trade officers and educated Americans tended to disparage the French Canadians as uneducated, ignorant, and lacking in "moral restraint," but the settlers, by their actions, belied such stereotypes.⁴²

WHILE THE FRENCH-INDIAN FAMILIES lent their support to the Methodist Mission and cooperated in community initiatives such as the temperance movement, they continued to lobby for Catholic missionaries from French Canada. Responding to the settlers' letters of 1834 and 1835, Joseph Provencher "encouraged them to persevere" in the practice of their faith and promised to do all in his power to send clergymen to the small colony as soon as possible. Yet, he also informed them that he was unable to dispatch priests directly from Red River, because none were then available for a new missionary initiative.⁴³ In the spring of 1836, the French Canadian settlers sent a third letter to Bishop Provencher.⁴⁴ Because all of the French Canadian settlers at that time were illiterate, they dictated this text to an English-speaker:

Reverend sir	Willammett March 22th 1836
We recived your kinde letter last fall wich gave us Much pleasure and ease to oure minds for it has bean a Long time since we have heard the Likes of it[.] it has Gave us a new heart since we recived your kinde instructions to us[.] we will do oure Best in deavours to instruct oure fammilies to youre wishes[,] still Living in hope to some Speadet Releafe wich we are Looking for with eager hearts for the day to Come[.] since we Recived youre kinde Letter we have beGun to Build and make some preparations to Recive oure kinde father wich we hope that oure laboure will not be in vain[,] for you know oure sittuwations better than oure selves[.] for Some of us stands in greate Neade of youre Assistance as quick as possible[.] We have nothing to Right to you about the Countrey but that the farms are All in a very thriving state and produces fine Crops[.] We have sent theis few Lines to you hoping that that it will not trouble you to much for Righting So quick to you[.] but the Countrey is setteling Slowley and oure Children are Learning very fast wich make us very eager for youre assistance wich we hope by Gods helpe will be very sone[.] oure prayers will be for his safe Arival[.] We have sent you a list of the families that Are at preasent in the settlement[,] so more preasent[.] from youre humble servants.
	[Mark]	Children
Joseph Jarvay [Joseph Gervais] Xaviar Laderout [F. Xavier Laderoute] Eken Luceay [Etienne Lucier] Peare Belleck [Pierre Bellique] Charles Rondo [Charles Rondeau] Charles Plant [Charles Plante] Pear Depot [Pierre Depot] Andrey Pecord [Andre Picard] Joseph Delar [Joseph Delord] Louey Fourcy [Louis Fourcier] Lamable Erquet [Amable Arquette] Jean Bt Perrault Joseph Desport [Joseph Despard] Andrey Longten [Andre Longtain] John Bt. Desportes [McKay] William Johnson Charlo Chata [Charles C(h)arpentier?] William Mcarity [William McKarty]	X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X	7 1 6 3 3 4 1 4 5 3 3 2 3 4 8 2

The letter was signed by all of the French Canadian men of the settlement, including the French-Algonquin Jean Baptiste Desportes McKay.⁴⁵ Aside from the unidentified Charlo Chata and the Irishman William McKarty, who had come to the Willamette Valley with the Ewing Young party, the petitioners were all former trade laborers and trappers who had retired to the valley with their wives and children.⁴⁶ Although they were illiterate and uneducated in the formal sense, they found a means to communicate their needs to the Catholic hierarchy that bypassed their former employer, the HBC.⁴⁷

The view that the French Canadians acted in response to McLoughlin's urgings rather than on their own initiative conflates the interests of the HBC chief factor and the settlers, again negating the French Canadians' agency in the development of historical events. The evidence suggests a more nuanced interpretation, one in which the French Canadian settlers expressed a genuine desire for Catholic clergy with the support of the highest official in the Columbia Department, John McLoughlin. Francis Norbert Blanchet, the Catholic priest who led the mission to the Columbia in 1838, claimed in an 1841 letter to HBC North American Governor George Simpson: "in writing these requests to their bishops, at a distance of 20 leagues from their bourgeois, they were not influenced but by the desire of their hearts."⁴⁸ Blanchet's assessment was probably correct, although it is important to note that his emphasis on the French settlers' independence would likely have been partially motivated by his desire to convince Governor Simpson of the settlers' devotion to their faith.

The semi-literate nature of the 1836 appeal indicates that the French Canadians would not have received assistance from either the Methodists or HBC officials, since all of those men exhibited a more advanced level of writing skill than indicated by the text. The list of possible writers includes a handful of early Anglo-American settlers who enjoyed close relations with the French-Indian families but were unfamiliar with French surnames and pronunciations. Three likely candidates were Solomon Smith, who taught the French-Indian children before the Methodists arrived and who was married to Celiast Clatsop; John Hoard, who married Lisette Deportes in May 1837; and T.J. Hubbard, who married a local Native woman, Mary Somamata, at the home of Pierre Bellique in April 1837. Given their kinship ties to the French-Indian community, those men had the greatest incentives to assist the settlers.

THE SETTLERS' APPEALS of 1834, 1835, 1836, and finally in 1837 carry a clear, consistent message. They desired social, religious, and educational institutions for their growing colony, preferably directed by Roman Catholic clergy from Quebec. While they welcomed similar services offered by the Methodist missionaries in the short term, the French Canadian settlers wanted to bring the central institution in French Canadian rural society — the local parish church — to French Prairie.

Most French Canadians living in the Willamette Valley were recruited as fur-trade laborers from rural communities in Lower Canada. In those villages, the local parish provided habitants with Catholic worship services and sacraments, social welfare assistance, and educational opportunities. The parish church was an important center of community life, where villagers gathered for discussions, debates, and other social events. In this sense, the local parish church served as both a religious and a secular institution. This practice, which was somewhat at odds with the views of many French Canadian priests and the more ultramontaine French Canadian church hierarchy, stemmed not only from the remote geography of the St. Lawrence region and French Canada's agrarian culture but also from financial considerations. Because villagers paid for the operations of their local parishes, they tended to view the parish as a community institution rather than an extension of the Catholic Church. As such, the parish buildings, including the rectory, might be used for both regular socializing and special community events.⁴⁹

Given the French Canadians' understanding of village life in Lower Canada, it is not surprising that they would welcome the Methodist missionaries, even to the point of visiting them regularly to socialize. Such behavior was in keeping with their notions about community life. Yet, however much they cooperated with the American Methodists, who practiced a religion different from their own and spoke another language, the Methodist mission would never belong to the French-Indian families in the same way that a parish in rural Lower Canada belonged to local villagers. Thus, the French Canadians' petitions to Bishop Provencher were as much aimed at providing their families with religious and educational opportunities as they were intended to create community institutions that would enrich the social life of French Prairie settlers.

Bishop Provencher responded to the settlers' letter of March 1836 with another pastoral letter providing encouragement and support for the small colony. He may have suggested that he would try to visit the Willamette settlement, but he was not able to offer any concrete plans. Church officials in Red River and Quebec were still trying to negotiate the logistics of sending missionaries to the Columbia region by gaining approval from the HBC, finding personnel sufficiently trained for the travails of missionary work, and securing the financial resources needed to support a mission.

The French Canadians found the delay vexing, and their frustration is evident in this fourth and final appeal to Bishop Provencher:

Reverend Sir

Willammett March 8, 1837

We have taken the Opportunity to Rite to you hoping this Will meate you on youre way to oure Settlement for we are waiting with Greate Angsitty for youre Arivall[,] wich we have beane looking for[,] this sometime since we have the Pleasure of Reciving youre kinde leatter[,] wich Gave us Greate encouragement[.] But we finde the time very long[.] Reverend Sir you will think us very troublesome[.] But we hope you will excuse us for We have much Neede of some Assistance from you[,] for we have allmost Every Religion but our own[,] wich you know Reverend Sir with oute youre Assistance wen we are surounded by every One[,] it will be very hard for us to bring Our famelues up to our owne Religion wen theire i[s] so maney others around them[.] We are bringing oure famelyes up as well as we possible Can[.] But not so well as We would wish[.] We have built a bidend [building] to receve the Reverend Gentlemen that Should please to Come wich will be a hapy Day for us[.] we still remaine youre humble Servants[.] [Emphasis added]

Willammette Settlers[.]
	[Mark]
Peare Belleck [Pierre Bellique] Joseph Desportes Charlo Chayta [Charles C(h)arpentier ?] Andrey Longten [André Longtain] John B. Desportes McK [McKay] Atoam Lafourty [Antoine Laferte] Jonva [F. Xavier] Laderoute Joseph Jarvay [Joseph Geravis] Charlo Raut [Charles Plante] Charls Rondo [Charles Rondeau] Joseph Delar[d] Louey Labounty [Louis Labonte] Luey Foursey [Louis Forcier] Peare Depo [Pierre Depot] Lemob Erquect [Amable Arquette] Eken Lucey [Étienne Lucier]	X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X⁵⁰

This letter again emphasizes the need for Catholic clergy but, in a more urgent tone, refers directly to the French Canadians' concerns about the growing prominence of Protestant missionaries in Oregon. Their concerns had been magnified in the fall of 1836 by the arrival at Fort Vancouver of a group of American Presbyterian missionaries, headed by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. The Presbyterians decided to establish their mission among the Cayuse and Nez Perce (Nuumíipuu) in the Columbia Plateau east of the Cascade Mountains, but this letter marks a shift in the French Canadians' attitudes toward Protestant missionaries in the region. They appeared to be increasingly worried about bringing their families "up to [their] own religion." They may also have had growing concerns about the social and political position of the Protestant missionaries vis-à-vis the French Canadian settlers. The presence of an educated Catholic priest would strengthen the standing of the bicultural community, for the settlers would then have an additional community representative to advocate on their behalf. The settlers' determination to establish a parish is evident in their decision to begin construction of a church, despite the lack of a firm commitment from French Canadian church officials.

LATER IN 1837, the French Prairie settlers faced an expansion of the Methodist establishment when two groups of reinforcements joined the Willamette Valley mission. The first party, headed by Dr. Elijah White, arrived at Fort Vancouver in late May and included White's wife and son, Susan Downing, Anna Marie Pittman, Elvira Johnson, Alanson Beers, and William H. Willson. The second group, led by the Reverend David Leslie, disembarked in early September and included Leslie's wife and three daughters, Margaret J. Smith (later Margaret Bailey), and the Reverend Henry K.W. Perkins.⁵¹

When those reinforcements arrived at the Methodist mission in 1837, they encountered a settler society that had undergone several changes during the previous three years. Most significantly, Northern and Central Kalapuyan groups — the Tualatin, Yamhill, Ahantchuyuk, and Santiam — had witnessed the increased settlement of their lands by Euroamericans who had no kinships ties with them. Americans from the Ewing Young party had claimed land on the west side of the Willamette River, and American Methodists had established a mission twelve miles south of Champoeg. This new wave of settlers and missionaries for the first time marginalized the Kalapuyans within their own homeland.

The newcomers did receive support and encouragement from the local French-Indian settlers, however, which reinforced the marginalization of the Kalapuyans. The ability of the Methodists and the French-Indian families to work across ethnic and sectarian lines on community initiatives resulted from a complex set of factors: pragmatism, self-interest, spiritual and cultural traditions, and a common need for social interaction. Historical sources documenting the intercultural relations between the Americans and the French-Indian families demonstrate a growing sense of community among the earliest settlers. As much as they aided their Protestant neighbors, the French Canadian settlers remained determined to establish a local Catholic parish, a social institution that would allow them to recreate elements of the culture of Lower Canada. Their yearly petitions to the Catholic bishop at Red River demonstrate a desire for a French Canadian, Catholic presence in French Prairie. While supporting the Methodists and benefiting from the educational opportunities they offered, the French-Indian families were also active agents in the colonization of the Willamette Valley, not the deferential, uneducated followers of either the Methodists or the HBC. Because the French-Indian settler families in the Willamette Valley left few written records of their own, their role in the early history of Oregon has long been obscured. Re-examining the existing documentary record from the perspective of these historical actors, however, can offer tantalizing clues in the search to interpret Oregon's past. The determination of the unlettered French-Indian families to communicated their desire for Catholic missionaries is one clear example of a more complex history.

During his 1841 expedition, Charles Wilkes drew this "Map of the Oregon Territory, showing the region's Catholic and Protestant missions. Wilkes's map also indicates the traditional homelands of the area's Indian tribes, places that were soon overrun by newcomers. Both Champoeg and the Methodist Mission are incorrectly placed on the west side of the Willamette River; they were located on the river's east side.

Courtesy of Lewis & Clark College Special Collections

Following the petitions of the French Canadian settlers, Father Francis Norbert Blanchet led the first Catholic mission to Oregon in 1838. He was accompanied by Father Modeste Demers, a former assistant to Bishop Provencher in Red River. This photograph, from about 1850, shows (from left) Bishop A.M.A. Blanchet of Nisqually, Archbishop Francis Norbert of Oregon City, and Bishop Modeste Demers of Vancouver Island.

OHS neg., OrHi 1713

Notes

Melinda Marie Jetté wishes to dedicate this article to her doctoral advisor, Arthur J. Ray, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, who recently retired from the University of British Columbia after a long and distinguished career. She wishes to thank Arthur J. Ray, Dianne Newell, and the anonymous reviewers for the Oregon Historical Quarterly for their constructive criticism of earlier drafts of this article.

^1. Joseph Provencher to Joseph Signay, Archbishop of Quebec City, June 9, 1835, British Columbia Records, 26 CN, Archives of the Archdiocese of Quebec (AAQ), Quebec City; Francis Norbert Blanchet, "The Catholic Missionaries of Oregon," P-A 5, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California, 3; Francis Norbert Blanchet, Historical Sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon, ed. Edward J. Kowrach, (1878; reprint, Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1983), 38. In 1918, Provencher traveled to Red River as Vicar General of the first Catholic mission to the Canadian Northwest. In 1822, he was consecrated as the Bishop of Juliopolis, making him Auxiliary to the Bishop of Quebec and Vicar Apostolic for the District of the Northwest (Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia) and technically giving him ecclesiastical authority over the Oregon Country. Wilifred P. Schoenberg, A History of the Catholic Church in the Pacific Northwest, 1743–1983 (Washington, D.C.: The Pastoral Press, 1987), 17.

^2. Provencher to Signay, June 9, 1835. These passages, translated from French by the author, are Provencher's paraphrasing of the settlers' letter. According to officials at La Société historique de St. Boniface, which holds the early Red River Catholic records, neither the originals nor copies of the 1834 and 1835 letters have survived. The Archives of Archdiocese of Quebec likewise does not have copies of the two initial letters.

^3. Jason Lee, "The Diary of Rev. Jason Lee II," Oregon Historical Quarterly 17:3 (September 1916): 261; Cyrus Shepard, The Diary of Cyrus Shepard, ed. Gerry Gilman (Vancouver, Wash.: Clark County Genealogical Society, 1986), 65; Robert J. Loewenberg, Equality on the Oregon Frontier: Jason Lee and the Methodist Mission, 1834–43 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1976), 80–82.

^4. See Gray H. Whaley, "'Trophies for God': Native Morality, Racial Ideology, and the Methodist Mission of Lower Oregon, 1834–1844," Oregon Historical Quarterly 107:1 (Spring 2006): 6–35.

^5. See Jason K. Duncan, Citizens or Papists? The Politics of Anti-Catholocism in New York, 1685–1821 (New York: Fordham University Press, 2005); Dee E. Andrews, The Methodists and Revolutionary America, 1760–1800 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2000); and David Hempton, Methodism: Empire of the Spirit (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005).

^6. The term "French Canadian" refers to the male settlers originally from Lower Canada (Quebec). "French-Indian" is an inclusive term that refers to the men, their wives, and the couples' children. These were bicultural families mostly headed by French Canadian men and Native or métis women (women of French Canadian and Indian ancestry). The one notable exception was Jean Baptiste Desportes McKay, who was métis of French Canadian and Algonquian ancestry.

^7. See the Hubert H. Bancroft volumes largely written by Francis Fuller Victor, History of Oregon, 2 vols. (San Francisco: The History Company, 1886); and James R. Robertson, "The Social Evolution of Oregon," Oregon Historical Quarterly 3:1 (March 1902): 1–37; Keith D. Richards, "In Search of the Pacific Northwest: The Historiography of Oregon and Washington," Pacific Historical Review 50 (November 1981): 415–44; James P. Ronda, "Calculating Ouragon," Oregon Historical Quarterly 94:2/3 (Summer-Fall 1993): 121–40; and Susan H. Armitage, "From the Inside Out: Rewriting Regional History," Frontiers 22 (2001): 32–47. David Peterson del Mar offers a particularly compelling critique of Oregon's "founding mythology" in his introduction to Oregon's Promise: An Interpretive History (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2003), 1–10

^8. See Harvey McKay, St. Paul Oregon, 1830–1890 (Portland: Binford & Mort, 1980); J.A. Hussey, Champoeg: Place of Transition, A Disputed History (Portland: Oregon Historical Society/Oregon State Highway Commission, 1967); Juliet T. Pollard, "The Making of the Metis in the Pacific Northwest: Race, Class, and Gender" (Ph.D diss., University of British Columbia, 1990); Mary S. Wright, "The Circle Broken: Gender, Family, and Difference in the Pacific Northwest, 1811–1850" (Ph.D diss., Rutgers University, 1996); Melinda Marie Jetté, "'At the Hearth of the Crossed Races': Intercultural Relations and Social Change in French Prairie, Oregon, 1812–1843," (Ph.D. diss., University of British Columbia, 2004); and Jetté, "Ordinary Lives: Three Generations of a French-Indian Family in Oregon, 1828–1934," (M.A. thesis, Université Laval, 1996).

^9. Jason Lee, "Diary II," 263–64.

^10. Daniel Lee and Joseph Frost, Ten Years in Oregon (1844; reprint, Fairfield, Wash.: Ye Galleon Press, 1968), 128–29; Shepard, Diary, 71–73; Holmes, Ewing Young, 103–105. Tennessean Ewing Young led a group of some sixteen American fur trappers and the erstwhile American colonizer Hall Jackson Kelley to Oregon in the summer of 1834, following a decline in Young's financial fortunes in the Spanish colony and considerable legal and financial wrangling with Spanish authorities. Kenneth L. Homes, Ewing Young: Master Trapper (Portland: Binfords & Mort, 1967), 93–97.

^11. Charles Henry Carey, ed., "Documentary: Mission Record Book," Oregon Historical Quarterly 23:3 (September 1922): 230–66, 235; Samuel A. Clarke, Pioneer Days of Oregon History, vol. 1 (Portland, Ore.: J.K. Gill, 1905), 340.

^12. George Roberts, "Recollections," P-A 83, H.H. Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California, 40.

^13. Carey, "Mission Record Book," 239–42.

^14. Harriet D. Munnick, "Annotations," in Catholic Church Records of the Pacific Northwest, St. Paul, 1839–1898 (CCRPN-SP) (Portland, Ore.: Binford & Mort, 1979), A-14. For the admission dates of Angelique and Sophie Carpentier and the other children, see Carey, "Mission Record Book," 230–66.

^15. Sanagaretti is listed as "Shanagarati" in the Mission Record Book. See Harriett D. Munnick, "Mission Roll Call," Marion County History 11 (1972–1976): 23–26. Joseph Sanagratti, Louis's son's only surviving child, joined the Grand Ronde tribal community during the reservation period; his descendants continue to reside there.

^16. Jason Lee, "The Diary of Rev. Jason Lee III," Oregon Historical Quarterly 17:4 (December 1916), 401.

^17. Carey, "Mission Record Book," 242–43.

^18. See Tanis Thorne, The Many Hands of My Relations: French and Indians on the Lower Missouri (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996), 64–97.

^19. For details on the later French Canadian Catholic mission to French Prairie during the late 1830s and early 1840s, see Jetté, "At the Hearth," 200–87.

^20. Courtney Walker, "Sketch of Ewing Young," in Transactions of the Eighth Annual Re-Union of the Oregon Pioneer Association (Salem, Ore.: E.M. Waite, 1881), 57–58.

^21. John McLoughlin, The Letters of John McLoughlin from Fort Vancouver Letters, 1^st Series, ed. E.E. Rich (London: Hudson's Bay Record Society, 1941), 208.

^22. A.J. Allen, comp., Ten Years in Oregon: Travels and Adventures of Doctor E. White and Lady, West of the Rocky Mountains ... (Ithaca, N.Y.: Mack, Andrus, & Co., 1848), 78.

^23. Carey, "Mission Record Book," 242.

^24. Allen, Ten Years, 78.

^25. Carey, "Mission Record Book," 248; and Lee and Frost, Ten Years in Oregon, 141.

^26. William A. Slacum, "Slacum's Report on Oregon," Oregon Historical Quarterly 13:2 (June 1912), 212–13. Of the English-speakers in the Willamette Valley, William Bailey, William Johnson, and John Rowling did not sign; of the French-speakers, only André Longtain did not affix his mark.

^27. Carey, "Mission Record Book," 248–50; Slacum, "Report on Oregon," 211–13; and Lee and Frost, Ten Years in Oregon, 141.

^28. Slacum, "Report on Oregon," 195–96.

^29. Ibid., 213.

^30. Ibid., 208–209.

^31. S.A. Clarke, Pioneer Days of Oregon History, 1:306–309; H.O. Lang, History of the Willamette Valley (Portland, Ore.: Geo. H. Himes, 1885), 230.

^32. F.G. Young, "Ewing Young and His Estate," Oregon Historical Quarterly 21:3 (September 1920), 208–209.

^33. Webley Hawkhurst left the party after the storm and returned to the Willamette Valley. For detailed accounts of the cattle drive from Spanish California to the Willamette Valley, see Holmes, Ewing Young, 122–34; and Philip Leget Edwards, The Diary of Philip Leget Edwards, (San Francisco: Grabhorn Press, 1932).

^34. H.H. Bancroft, History of Oregon, 1:102. The Bancroft-Victor Fuller interpretation stressed the crucial role of William Slacum.

^35. Loewenberg, Equality, 170.

^36. Lee and Frost, Ten Years in Oregon, 140–41.

^37. Slacum, "Report on Oregon," 196–98.

^38. Ibid., 195.

^39. John Kirk Townsend, Narrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia River, reprinted with an introduction and annotations by George A. Jobnek, (1839; reprint, Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 1999), 77. Townsend wrote: "Lee is a great favorite with the men, deservedly so, and there are probably few persons to whose preaching they would have listened with so much complaisance. I have often been amused and pleased by Mr. L.'s manner of reproving them for the coarseness of profanity of expression which is so universal amongst them. The reproof, although decided, clear, and strong, is always characterized by the mildness and affectionate manner peculiar to the man; and although the good effect of the advice may not be discernible, yet is always treated with respect, and its utility acknowledged."

^40. Thorne, Many Hands, 188–205; Edith I. Burley, Servants of the Honourable Company: Work, Discipline, and Conflict in the Hudson's Bay Company, 1770–1879 (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1997), 131–39.

^41. Allen, Ten Years, 78.

^42. The "moral restraint" phrase is a quote from William Slacum, "Report on Oregon," 195.

^43. Provencher to Signay, June 9, 1835, AAQ; Willamette Settlers [Joseph Gervais et al.] to the Bishop of Juliopolis, March 22, 1836, Oregon Historical Society Research Library, Portland, Oregon [hereafter OHS Research Library], Mss 83. The letter from the French Canadian settlers was transcribed and printed in Les Cloches de Saint-Boniface 31 (June 1932): 143–44.

^44. Willamette Settlers [Joseph Gervais et al.] to the Bishop of Juliopolis, March 22, 1836.

^45. Louis Labonté, Sr., did not sign the petition because he was then foreman of the Thomas McKay farm near Scappoose. See H.S. Lyman, "Reminiscences of Louis Labonte," Oregon Historical Quarterly 1:2 (June 1900): 169–88.

^46. Munnick, CCRPNW-SP, "Annotations," A-62 to A-63.; Fort George [Columbia River], Report on Districts, 1824–1835, B. 76/e/1, HBCA, Winnipeg.

^47. The French Canadians' familiarity with seeking the assistance of literate and semi-literate individuals to write letters on their behalf is evident in the undelivered letters of French Canadian voyageurs employed by the Hudson's Bay Company and the undelivered letters from their families in Lower Canada (Quebec). See Judith Hudson Beattie and Helen M. Buss, eds., Undelivered Letters to Hudson's Bay Company Men on the Northwest Coast of America, 1830–1857 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2003), 285–311. Stephen Woolworth has recently identified HBC Chief Factor John McLoughlin as the instigator of the French Canadians' early petitions to the Bishop Provencher. Woolworth apparently restates the views of Herbert Beaver, an Anglican minister who came into conflict with McLoughlin while stationed at Fort Vancouver, but provides no additional evidence and neglects to mention the actual missives from the Willamette settlers to Provencher or the correspondence among Catholic Church leaders in Canada. See Stephen Woolworth, "The School is Under My Direction: The Politics of Education at Fort Vancouver, 1836–1838," Oregon Historical Quarterly 104:2 (Summer 2003): 232–33; and Herbert Beaver, Reports and Letters of Herbert Beaver, ed. Thomas E. Jessett (Portland, Ore.: Champoeg Press, 1959); Herbert Beaver, "Experiences of a Chaplain of Fort Vancouver, 1836–1838," ed. R.C. Clark, Oregon Historical Quarterly 39:1 (March 1939): 22–38.

^48. Francis N. Blanchet to George Simpson, November 15, 1841, Francis N. Blanchet Collection, Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon Archives (APOA).

^49. Allan Greer, The Patriot and the People: The Rebellion of 1837 in Rural Lower Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993), 60–63; and Peter N. Moogk, La Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada, a Cultural History (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2000), 212–13.

^50. Willamette Settlers [Pierre Bellique et al.] to the Bishop of Juliopolis, March 8, 1837, OHS Research Library, Mss 83. This letter was also transcribed and printed in Les Cloches de Saint-Boniface 31 (July 1932): 165–66.

^51. Cornelius J. Brosnan, Jason Lee: Prophet of the New Oregon (New York: Macmillian, 1932), 87–90.

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