Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of OregonHolman, Frederick V.
History
Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon
Holman, Frederick V.
McLoughlin, John, 1784-1857; Oregon Territory -- History
Kelley was a Boston school teacher who became an Oregon enthusiast. From
the year 1815, when he was twenty-six years of age, for many years, he
wrote and published pamphlets and also a few books on Oregon and its
advantages as a country to live in. He originated a scheme to send a
colony to Oregon; to build a city on the east side of the Willamette
River, at its junction with the Columbia River; and to build another
city on the north side of the Columbia River, nearly opposite Tongue
Point. His efforts resulted in immediate failures. He died a
disappointed man. Young was a type of a man who was often successful in
the Far West. He was forceful and self-reliant, but often reckless, and
sometimes careless of appearances. He was so accustomed to meet
emergencies successfully that he did not always consider what others
might think of him and of the methods he sometimes felt compelled to
adopt. He had been robbed in California of a large amount of furs and
had not been fairly treated by the representatives of the Mexican
Government in California. While Young was an adventurer, he was a man of
ability and became a leading resident of early Oregon. The relations of
Dr. McLoughlin and Ewing Young finally became quite amicable, for Dr.
McLoughlin learned of and respected Young's good and manly qualities.
_Presbyterian Missionaries._
For convenience I shall first mention the Presbyterian missionaries,
although they came two years later than the first Methodist
missionaries. Rev. Samuel Parker was the first Presbyterian minister to
arrive in Oregon. He came in 1835. He started to Oregon with Doctor
Marcus Whitman, but Whitman returned East from Green River to obtain
more associates for the Mission. These came out with Dr. Whitman in
1836. Parker returned home by sea, reaching his home in 1837. Parker
published a book called, "Journal of an Exploring Tour beyond the Rocky
Mountains." The first edition was published in Ithaca, New York, in
1838. On page 138 of his book he says: "At two in the afternoon, arrived
at Fort Vancouver, and never did I feel more joyful to set my feet on
shore, where I expected to find a hospitable people and the comforts of
life. Doct. J. McLoughlin, a chief factor and superintendent of this
fort and of the business of the Company west of the Rocky Mountains,
received me with many expressions of kindness, and invited me to make
his residence my home for the Winter, and as long as it would suit my
convenience. Never could such an invitation be more thankfully
received." On page 158 he says: "Here, [Fort Vancouver] by the kind
invitation of Dr. McLoughlin, and welcomed by the other gentlemen of the
Hudson Bay Company, I took up my residence for the winter." And on page
263 he says: "Monday, 11th April [1836]. Having made arrangements to
leave this place on the 14th, I called upon the chief clerk for my bill.
He said the Company had made no bill against me, but felt a pleasure in
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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