But by this time there were Httle knots of men in various parts of the United States,—Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri, — who thought of forming emigration societies to colonize Oregon. There was some delay in carrying out these plans; but the idea had begun to take hold of the popular mind, and a few years would see the wagon trains gathering for the wonderful journey across the continent.
Lee's missionary colonization scheme. We left Jason Lee busily at w^ork in the eastern states raising money and men for his missionary reinforcement. He was remarkably successful, securing, with the help of the Methodist board, the large sum of forty-two thousand dollars. He got together a company of over fifty persons—men, women, and children—with whom he sailed from New York in the ship Lausanne on the loth of October, 1839. In the following May they reached the mouth of the Columbia from Hawaii, and on the 1st of June all were safely landed at Vancouver. Here the party separated. One of the ministers, Rev. J. H. Frost, was sent to the mouth of the Columbia; Rev. A. F. Waller took charge of a station at Willamette Falls; two others. Rev. W. W. Cone and Rev. Gustavus Hines, went to the Umpqua to begin a new mission, which did not succeed; Mr. Brewer and Dr. Babcock, laymen, reinforced the station at the Dalles; and Rev. J. P. Richmond, with his family and Miss Clark as teacher, went up to the station already begun near Fort Nesqually on Puget Sound. The rest of
