of the French settlers. Unleavened bread made from flour brought from Fort Vancouver, and a little milk, to which was sometimes added a haunch of venison obtained from the natives, completed their stock of provisions.
To Cyrus Shepard, unable to endure the hardships, McLoughlin gave charge of the school at Fort Vancouver, previously taught by Solomon H. Smith, who had taken up his residence with Joseph Gervais, and whose children, among others, he instructed.[1] Shepard rejoined the mission probably soon after, the house was made comfortable, about which time C. M. Walker, having fulfilled his engagement with the Lees, entered the service of Wyeth as clerk.
Then came the labor of beginning a farm; and the winter being mild, a field of thirty acres was ploughed and enclosed by a rail-fence, and in the spring was planted and sown in wheat, corn, oats, and garden vegetables. For the security of the prospective crops a barn was erected thirty by forty feet, of logs cut by the Lees and Edwards, assisted by Rora, a Hawaiian, and a Calapooya boy called John, the Canadians of the vicinity helping to lay up the logs. Later, two of the men who came with Kelley and Young were hired to saw logs into planks and boards for flooring and doors, the barn being in some respects an improvement on the house. Shingles were split from four-foot sections of fir logs, and were kept in place by heavy poles, the buts of the second course resting against the pole on the first, and so forth. In this manner a good roof was obtained without nails.[2]
Such were their secular pursuits. But it must not be forgotten that missionaries had other labors to per-
- ↑ Smith was from N. H., and fairly educated. He was a large, well-formed man, with a ruddy complexion and clear gray eye, intelligent and pleasing in conversation. See appendix, chap. iii., this volume.
- ↑ This method of making a roof was not original with the missionaries, but common to the frontier of Missouri and the settlements of Oregon. The shingles were called 'clapboards,' and were often used for siding a cabin, being put on perpendicularly.
