Gray was successful in enlisting for the mission three clergymen with their newly married wives, a young unmarried man, and a young woman who became his own wife. In a private letter written after her death in 1881, he says that it was an instance of love at first sight, which continued as long as her life. He met Miss Mary Augusta Dix, a handsome, stately brunette, on the evening of the 19th of February, 1838, and became engaged to her the same evening. Six days after, they were married, and on the morning of the 26th started westward to join the caravan of the American Fur Company.
On account of the feeling among the Flatheads over the loss of five of their people and the young chief, in Gray's company, his destination as missionary to them was changed, and he remained alternately at Lapwai and Waiilatpu, visiting several tribes both in eastern and western Oregon, and going back to secular pursuits after three or four years. A mission was begun at Kamiah, sixty miles up the Clearwater, above Lapwai, by Rev. Asa B. Smith, in May 1839, and abandoned in 1841 on account of the hostility of the upper Nez Percés, who were in sympathy with the Flatheads. Thus, after all the expressed desire of this tribe for teachers, no Protestant missionary was allowed to establish himself among them.
Elkinah Walker and Cushing C. Eells, with their wives, established a permanent mission on the Chemakane[1] branch of the Spokane River, within easy distance of Fort Colville. Cornelius Powers became a teacher, first at Lapwai, and then at Waiilatpu.[2]
- ↑ Chemakane, according to Wilkes, means 'the plain of springs,' from the fact that the streams sink in the earth, and passing underground a few miles, burst forth again in springs. Wilkes' Nar., U. S. Explr. Ex., iv. 483.
- ↑ Rev. Elkinah Walker, thirty years of age, tall, spare, and light complexioned, was from North Yarmouth, Me, and was educated at Kimball Academy, Meriden, N. H., from which he went into the Bangor Theological Seminary, where he studied for three years. He was a diffident and amiable man without strong traits. He intended to go as a missionary to Zululand, South Africa, but being prevented by a fierce tribal war, was ready to respond to the first call elsewhere, which came from Oregon. He was married on the 5th of March, 1838, and next day started for St Louis to join Gray. Ten years afterward
