A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic InformationGray, W. H. (William Henry)
History
A History of Oregon, 1792-1849: Drawn From Personal Observation and Authentic Information
Gray, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- Oregon; Oregon Territory -- History
The American Board appointed Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife to accompany
Dr. Whitman and wife, to aid in establishing the Nez Percé mission. Mr.
Spalding and wife had just completed their preparatory course of
education in Lane Seminary, near Cincinnati, Ohio.
The first impression of the stranger on seeing H. H. Spalding is, that
he has before him an unusual countenance. He begins to examine, and
finds a man with sharp features, large, brown eyes, dark hair, high,
projecting forehead, with many wrinkles, and a head nearly bald. He is
of medium size, stoop-shouldered, with a voice that can assume a mild,
sharp, or boisterous key, at the will of its owner; quite impulsive, and
bitter in his denunciations of a real, or supposed enemy; inclined in
the early part of his missionary labors to accumulate property for the
especial benefit of his family, though the practice was disapproved of
and forbidden by the regulations of the American Board. In his
professional character he was below mediocrity. As a writer or
correspondent he was bold, and rather eloquent, giving overdrawn
life-sketches of passing events. His moral influence was injured by
strong symptoms of passion, when provoked or excited. In his labors for
the Indians, he was zealous and persevering, in his preaching or talking
to them, plain and severe, and in his instructions wholly practical. For
instance, to induce the natives to work and cultivate their lands, he
had Mrs. Spalding paint a representation of Adam and Eve, as being
driven from the garden of Eden by an angel,--Adam with a hoe on his
shoulder, and Eve with her spinning-wheel. He taught the natives that
God commanded them to work, as well as pray. Had he been allowed to
continue his labors with the tribe, undisturbed by sectarian and
anti-religious influences, he would have effected great good, and the
tribe been now admitted as citizens of the United States. As a citizen
and neighbor he was kind and obliging; to his family he was kind, yet
severe in his religious observances. He was unquestionably a sincere,
though not always humble, Christian. The loss of his wife, and the
exciting and savage massacre of his associates, produced their effect
upon him. Charity will find a substantial excuse for most of his faults,
while virtue and truth, civilization and religion, will award him a
place as a faithful, zealous, and comparatively successful missionary.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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