Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 13.djvu/103

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Oregon Provisional Government
95

the Guerriere in the war of 1812, but Wilkes does not say on which ship Johnson fought. Presumably, from Wilkes' narrative, Johnson was on the Constitution. After being a trapper for several years, Johnson settled in Oregon.

In 1836 there came the first missionaries appointed by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. They were: Rev. H. H. Spalding, Dr. Marcus Whitman, and their wives, and W. H. Gray, Presbyterians. They established their missions at Waiilatpu, near the present city of Walla Walla, Washington, and at Lapwai, near the present city of Lewiston, Idaho. In 1838 they were joined by Rev. dishing Eells and Rev. Elkanah Walker, and their wives, Congregationalists, appointed by the same Board, who established a mission at Tshimakain (now spelled Chemakane), near Ft. Colville, Washington, and by Cornelius Rogers who was a teacher, first at Lapwai and afterwards at Waiilatpu. None of these missionaries took part in forming the Provisional Government, excepting W. H. Gray, who had left these missionaries and settled in the Willamette Valley prior to 1841. They were all Americans.

In 1837 the following Methodist missionaries arrived in Oregon: Dr. Elijah White and wife, Rev. David Leslie and wife, Rev. H. K. W. Perkins, Alanson Beers and wife, W. H. Willson, and three women missionaries, who afterwards married Methodist missionaries. In 1837 Henry Wood came from California with the Cattle Company. They were all Americans.

In 1838 there came to Oregon the first Catholic missionaries. They were: Rev. Francis Norbert Blanchet, afterwards the first Catholic Archbishop of Oregon, and Rev. Modeste Demers, afterwards a Bishop. They were French-Canadians and British subjects. Rev. Pierre DeSmet, the noted Jesuit missionary, did not come to Oregon until 1840, and did not make Oregon his permanent home. He was a Belgian. In 1839 or 1840, there were several free trappers who made Oregon their home, having left the service of the American Fur Company. They settled on Tualatin Plains. They were: William Craig, John Larison, Joseph L. Meek, Robert Newell,