roaming the Rocky Mountains, deserting seamen from Polynesia, and banditti from Spanish America were not wanted.
Thus far, said the memorial, the colony had depended to a great extent on the influence of the Hudson's Bay Company, which had preserved peace among both the settlers and the natives by its judicious management. But they could not hope, as the settlements became independent of the fur company, that this condition of harmony would remain unchanged, with a mixed population, and without a civil code. The memorial is dated March 16, 1838, and signed by the ten preachers and laymen, Ewing Young and ten other colonists, and nine French Canadians.[1]
Toward the last of March, Lee left the Willamette Valley on his projected mission, and proceeded to Fort Vancouver, the Dalles, and Fort Walla Walla. Edwards accompanied Lee, having long contemplated leaving Oregon; yet although he had no disposition himself to remain, he gave favorable accounts of the country, during subsequent years, to the frequent inquiries for information on that subject.[2] There were also with them F. Y. Ewing of Missouri, and two Chinook boys named W. M. Brooks and Thomas Adams, who had been in the mission school for some time.[3] Possibly
- ↑ 25th Cong., 3d Sess., H. Rept. 101; Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 235–6. The signing of this memorial by Young and his associates indicates that their standing was very different at this time from what it was when they first entered the valley and were ostracized by McLoughlin; otherwise they were signing a petition to exclude just such adventurers as themselves. Jason Lee had marked ability in using others for his own advantage; Edwards was his instrument in drawing up this memorial, enabling Lee himself to keep in the background. Edwards' Sketch of Oregon, MS., 17.
- ↑ Returning to Missouri, Edwards studied law, married, and during the Mormon troubles in that state in 1841 did military duty, receiving the title of colonel. In 1850 he emigrated to California, settling in Nevada County, where he engaged in politics as a whig and afterwards as a republican. In Shuck's Representative Men, 461–72, is a biography written by Robert E. Draper; and there is also his Diary of the Willamette Cattle Company, and Sketch of Oregon. He died May 1, 1869, leaving descendants in California.
- ↑ Daniel Lee does not mention them in this connection, and Hines in his Hist. Or., 30, agrees with Lee. White states that Alexander, William, and John McKay accompanied Jason Lee, and that they returned in 1842 from the east; having gone there to be educated in the Wilbraham Academy, Massachusetts, where the Lees, years before, had completed their studies. Mrs.
