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
At least three of the Methodist missionaries and those connected with
the Methodist Mission were not citizens of the United States at any time
prior to the passage of the Donation Land Law in 1850. Rev. Jason Lee
was a native of Canada and died in Canada. He did not become a citizen
of the United States. His allegiance was always that of a British
subject. Jason Lee was of English descent. His parents were born in the
United States but settled at Stanstead, Canada, and made it their home
several years prior to his birth. He was born at Stanstead in 1803 and
that was his home until 1834, when he came to Oregon. For a number of
years he worked in the pineries in the north of Canada. In 1826 he was
"converted" and joined the Wesleyan Church of Canada. In 1827 he entered
the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts. After attending that
Academy for a time, he returned to his home at Stanstead, where he
stayed for several years, first teaching school and afterwards becoming
a preacher of the Wesleyan Church of Canada. For several years he had
desired to be a missionary among the Indians and in 1832 or 1833 offered
his services as a missionary to the Indians of Canada to the Wesleyan
Missionary Society of London. In 1833, while waiting a reply to his
application, he was offered the appointment by the New England
Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church of "Missionary to the
Flathead Indians," and was admitted as a member of the latter
Conference. In the spring of 1834 he started for Oregon, which, during
the rest of his life, was jointly occupied by citizens of the United
States and subjects of Great Britain under the Conventions between these
countries. The political status of a resident of Oregon then remained as
it was when he arrived in Oregon. It could not be changed there during
joint-occupancy. He died at Lake Memphremagog in Canada, March 2, 1845.
His body was buried at Stanstead. These facts I have obtained mostly
from Dr. Hines' _Missionary History of the Pacific Northwest_, and I
have verified them from other reliable sources.
Rev. Daniel Lee was also born in Canada. Up to the time of his return to
the Eastern States in 1843, he had not become a citizen of the United
States. As the rest of his life was spent as a Methodist minister in the
United States, he probably became a citizen of the latter country. Rev.
Daniel Lee, I believe, took no part in, nor did he encourage, or
sympathize with any action against Dr. McLoughlin.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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