Fifty Years in Oregon was written by Theodore T.
Geer, a grandson of Joseph Carey Geer and a shirttail ancestor of
ours.
I have put much of the book on
this website. I started because several
chapters describe the early roots of our family history in Oregon. I
kept going because
I found many of the chapters from this perspective on the early
settlers and the history of Oregon to be quite
interesting.
On the fifth of September,
1863, I entered the primary department of the Willamette University, then known
as the “Institute.” It was the name of the institution established and erected
by Jason Lee and his associates and was, indeed, the same building. It was
rechristened by the Legislature the “Willamette University,” but in 1863 nearly
all the pioneer missionaries were yet living and many of them were to be seen on
the streets of Salem every day. I easily recall the faces of “Father” Waller,
David Leslie, Gustavus Hines and his brother Harvey, William Roberts, J. L.
Parrish and others as prominent men in those days. The University was called the
“Institute” until it was removed to the new brick structure, a hundred yards
distant, on October 21, 1867, the cornerstone of which had been laid with
fitting ceremonies on July 24, 1864. I remember with what pride the students,
some two hundred in number, marched on that occasion across the campus to view
the rare collection of souvenirs deposited in the cornerstone, and to listen to
the addresses of the men who had been instrumental in securing the money which
enabled the trustees to begin the structure. It was more than three years before
it was actually occupied, so difficult did it prove for even Father Waller and
his persistent associates to raise sufficient funds to proceed with the work.
The Institute had been changed
to the Willamette University by the territorial Legislature on January 12, 1853,
the preamble of which act read as follows:
Whereas, the happiness and
prosperity of every community, under the direction and government of Divine
Providence, depend in an eminent degree on the right education of the youth who
must succeed the aged in the important offices of society, and the principles of
virtue and the elements of liberal knowledge fostered and imparted in the higher
institutions of learning tend to develop a people in those qualifications most
essential to their welfare and future advancement; and,
Whereas, it appears that the
establishment of a university in the town of Salem, Marion County, with a
suitable preparatory department for the instruction of youth in the arts and
sciences, is likely to subserve the intellectual development and enlightening of
the youth of this Territory,
Therefore, Be it enacted, etc.
Section I of the charter of
this, the oldest university in the United States west of the Rocky Mountains,
has been deemed of sufficient interest to warrant reproduction here because of
the unusual array of prominent men who constituted its first Board of Trustees:
Section I. That there shall be
established in the town of Salem, in the County of Marion, a university to be
called the Willamette University, and that David Leslie, William Roberts, George
Abernethy, W. H. Willson, Alanson Beers, Thomas H. Pearne, Francis S. Hoyt,
James H. Wilbur, Calvin S. Kingsley, John Flinn, E. M. Barnum, L. F. Grover, B.
F. Harding, Samuel Burch, Francis Fletcher, Jeremiah Ralston, J. D. Boon, Joseph
Holman, James R. Robb, Cyrus Olney, Asahel Bush and Samuel Parker, and their
associates and successors, are hereby declared to be a body corporate and
politic in law by the name and style of “The Trustees of the Willamette
University.”
To the pioneer Oregonians,
what a wealth of memories in law, religion, business, campaigning, backbiting,
scheming, vituperation, successes, failure, statesmanship and genuine
Christianity does this list of names recall! At that time, Oregon had been a
territory but four years and it had belonged to the United States but seven
years. Prior to that (1846) it had been No Man’s Land – a veritable wanderer
upon the face of the earth, if the somewhat strained figure of speech may be
pardoned.
But these men were here at
this early date – many of them for several years previous – and showing a
remarkable activity in developing the country along all lines which tended
toward better conditions materially, socially, spiritually and intellectually.
David Leslie, the president of
the Board, who had joined the old Mission in September, 1837, accompanied by his
wife and several children, was a member of a prominent New England family. One
of the first men to settle in Salem, he “took up” a quarter section of land
which now constitutes a part of the southern section of Oregon’s capital city.
Mr. Leslie deserves a more
extended mention and a larger degree of appreciation than is usually given him
in the accounts of the early history of Oregon. As early as 1839, Senator Lewis
F. Linn, of Missouri, presented a petition to the Senate of the United States,
dated March 16, 1838, setting forth the earnest desire of the American settlers
that Congress should take immediate and decisive steps toward the ultimate
acquisition of the Oregon Country. I will quote a few paragraphs which will
serve to illustrate the forceful character of the few men who, even at this
early date, had made their way to the Pacific Coast and were clamoring for
national recognition and protection. This great plea for help from the nation’s
representatives began with the following clear-cut statement of conditions and
possibilities:
We are anxious when we imagine
what will be, what must be, the condition of so mixed a community, free from all
legal restraint and superior to that moral influence which has hitherto been the
pledge of our safety. We flatter ourselves that we are the germ of a great State
and are anxious to give an early tone to the moral and intellectual character of
our citizens, for the destinies of our posterity will be immediately affected by
the character of those who immigrate. The Territory must populate – the Congress
of the United States must say by whom. The natural resources of the country,
with a well-judged civil code, will invite a good community, but a good
community will hardly emigrate to a country which promises no protection to life
and property… Well are we assured that it will cost the Government of the United
States more to reduce elements so discordant to social order than to promote our
permanent peace and prosperity by a timely action of Congress.
This patriotic and dignified
appeal for assistance in the great work which confronted the early settlers in
the Northwest is worthy a place alongside the best clauses in the Declaration of
Independence. It was a strong cry from the wilderness, from those who had
wandered afar in the interest of the mother government, to be taken under the
shadow of the Stars and Stripes.
This petition was followed by
another in 1840, of which David Leslie was the author. It was no less patriotic
and earnest, and eloquently expressed the purpose of the American settlers here
to remain Americans, and to hold the fort until the Government should recognize
the value of the great region which could be acquired if prompt and energetic
steps were but taken. A part of this appeal reads as follows:
They have settled themselves
in said territory under the belief that it was a portion of the public domain of
said States, and that they might rely upon the Government thereof for the
blessings of free institutions and the protection of its arms. But they are
uninformed of any acts of said Government by which its institutions and
protection are extended to them; in consequence whereof, themselves and the
families are exposed to be destroyed by the savages around them, and others who
would do them harm.
That they have no means of
protecting their own and the lives of their families other than self-constituted
tribunals originated and sustained by the power of an ill-instructed public
opinion, and the resort to force and to arms.
That these means of safety are
an insufficient safeguard of life and property – that they are unable to arrest
the progress of crime without the aid of law and the necessary tribunals to
enforce it.
Thus was Father Leslie taking
a prominent and effective part in “saving” Oregon two decades before the
breaking out of the Civil War and many years before most of the men now
prominent in national affairs were born.
David Leslie was born in New
Hampshire in 1797, was reared in the shadow of the White Mountains, and remained
there, preaching from the time he was twenty-five years of age until his coming
to Oregon in his fortieth year. He was in charge of the Oregon Mission from 1838
to 1840 during the absence of Jason Lee while the latter was engaged in securing
the “Great Re-enforcement,” which arrived in the latter year.
A great affliction overtook
Mr. Leslie in 1842 in the death of his wife. Being left with a family of five
daughters, he soon afterward decided to take two of them to the Sandwich
Islands, that they might have the advantages of an education, leaving the
youngest two with a married daughter, Mrs. Cornelius Rodgers. Mr. Rodgers and
his wife were moving just then to the Falls, as Oregon City was called in those
days, which they intended to make their future home. The journey was made in a
large “Chinook” canoe, manned by four Indians. In the boat were Dr. White,
Nathaniel Crocker, W. W. Raymond, of the Mission, Mr. Rodgers and his wife, with
the youngest Leslie girl, the other, who was in delicate health, remaining with
some friends in Salem.
Upon their arrival at the
Falls, it was necessary to make a portage. They fastened a line to the canoe, as
was customary, and Mr. Raymond, with two Indians, walked along the rocks,
endeavoring to guide it to a safe landing. Dr. White had also stepped ashore. At
this juncture a swift current struck the boat and capsized it, with the result
that it was immediately swept into the raging waters. The men lost the line,
and in a
moment Mr. Rodgers, his
wife and her little sister were dashed over the Falls. A contemporary account of
this most appalling affair says: “Mrs. Rodgers, on seeing her inevitable fate,
clasped her baby sister to her breast and the remorseless waters passed over
them, hiding them forever from mortal sight.” Mr. Crocker also lost his life in
this disaster which threw a mantle of gloom over the little settlement of
whites.
During the three years I
attended the Willamette University, David Leslie was the president of the Board
of Trustees. I remember he appeared to me as an extremely old man. I do not know
what his physical affliction was, but it must have been some phase of paralysis,
as his steps were scarcely six inches in length and he seemed to be so very
feeble that it used to make me long to render him some assistance. He always had
a kind word for everybody and was beloved by all. He remained at the head of the
Board of Trustees for twenty-five years, or until a year before his death, which
occurred at his home in Salem on March I, 1869, when a truly good man passed on,
“full of years and full of honors.”
Next Chapter
- Brief histories of many of the founders of Willamette University including
Asahel Bush, John Flinn, Lafayette Grover, and Dr. W.H. Willson.
If you are interested in finding this book, Fifty
Years in Oregon, it can
often be located at Powell's Books in Portland
which is one of the largest used book stores in the United States or, through the
Alibris service
which catalogs used books from stores across the country. For more information on the Geer Family, visit the Geer Family website. Other resources
and references include:
