DOCUMENTARY
DIARY OF REV. GEORGE GARY
Introductory Note
Rev. George Gary, who was sent by the Mission Board of the Methodist Episcopal Church to Oregon with broad powers, left New York November 30, 1843, accompanied by Mrs. Gary, on board the Lawrence. After an uneventful voyage they arrived at Honolulu, April 24, 1844, and sailed thence by the bark Brothers of Guernsey, Captain Flere, for the Columbia River. Although the vessel entered the river May 23, it was not until the last day of that month that Vancouver was reached. Mr. Gary proceeded to the Willamette Valley, and as his diary shows, acted with promptness and vigor in curtailing the activities and disposing of the properties of the Mission, His reasons are clearly stated, and the diary gives his side of the long debated controversy as to whether his acts were justified by the circumstances.
Mr. Gary's diary is in the possession of his descendants and has never been printed. Until the present time none of its important contents has been accessible to students of the period, although some of his letters relating to Oregon have been available and have been published. The diary is voluminous and covers much besides the portion of his life that was spent in Oregon, from 1844 to 1847. This portion, however, is important to Oregon history, and arrangements have been made to publish so much of it in the Quarterly, where it will appear in several successive numbers.
George Gary was a native of Middlefield, New York, having been born there December 8, 1793. He was therefore fifty years of age when he went to Oregon in 1843.
He was licensed to preach by the Annual Conference
