Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/296

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290
F. H. Grubbs.

Lake Champlain, and proceeded to expend about $200,000 in erecting a strong fortification there. Then a joint commission of British and American officers made a careful survey and ascertained that the parallel of 45 degrees north latitude, instead of being where it was supposed to be, was about two miles south of Rouses Point, and of course our Government ceased to continue work on a fortification on British soil."

The fact that he became a pensioner of the States Government by the act of 1818, indicates that Daniel Lee was, at that date, recognized a a citizen of the United States.

Under these circumstances Jason Lee was born, 1803, six years after his father had made his home in the unbroken Wilderness which nothing but an Indian trail had hitherto penetrated. In 1828 he became a student at Wesleyan Academy, Wilbraham, Massachusetts, fourteen years before the planting of the monuments that mark the ascertained boundary.

The above corrects the conclusions of H. H. Bancroft that Jason Lee was positively of Canadian antecedents.