Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon — John Shaqi
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
Rev. Dr. H. K. Hines, in his _Missionary History_, after setting forth
certain traits of the Indians and the failures of the Methodist
missionaries to convert them, says (p. 402): "So on the Northwest Coast.
The course and growth of a history whose beginnings cannot be discovered
had ended only in the production of the degraded tribes among whom the
most consecrated and ablest missionary apostleship the Church of Christ
had sent out for centuries made almost superhuman efforts to plant the
seed of the 'eternal life.' As a people they gave no fruitful response."
And, on page 476, he says: "Indeed, after Dr. Whitman rehabilitated his
mission in the autumn of 1843, the work of that station lost much of its
character as an Indian mission. It became rather a resting place and
trading post, where the successive immigrations of 1844-'45-'46 and '47
halted for a little recuperation after their long and weary journey,
before they passed forward to the Willamette. This was inevitable." And
on page 478 Dr. Hines says that Dr. McLoughlin "advised Dr. Whitman to
remove from among the Cayuses, as he believed not only that he could no
longer be useful to them, but that his life was in danger if he remained
among them."
J. Quinn Thornton in his "History of the Provisional Government of
Oregon,"[17] says: "In the autumn of 1840 there were in Oregon
thirty-six American male settlers, twenty-five of whom had taken native
women for their wives. There were also thirty-three American women,
thirty-two children, thirteen lay members of the Protestant Missions,
thirteen Methodist ministers, six Congregational ministers, three Jesuit
priests, and sixty Canadian-French, making an aggregate of one hundred
and thirty-six Americans, and sixty-three Canadian-French [including the
priests in the latter class] having no connection as employées of the
Hudson's Bay Company. [This estimate includes the missionaries who
arrived on the Lausanne.] I have said that the population outside of the
Hudson's Bay Company increased slowly. How much so, will be seen by the
fact that up to the beginning of the year 1842, there were in Oregon no
more than twenty-one Protestant ministers, three Jesuit priests, fifteen
lay members of Protestant churches, thirty-four white women, thirty-two
white children, thirty-four American settlers, twenty-five of whom had
native wives. The total American population will thus be seen to have
been no more than one hundred and thirty-nine." (This was prior to the
arrival of the immigration of 1842.)
[Illustration: DR. JOHN McLOUGHLIN
_Taken from a miniature of Dr. John McLoughlin painted on ivory. This
miniature was probably painted in 1838 or 1839, when he was in London.
The original miniature belongs to the widow of James W. McL. Harvey, now
living at Mirabel, California. Her husband was a grandson of Dr.
McLoughlin._]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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