248 REVEREND EZRA FISHER Salem and vicinity. He will be sure to be taken up in part by these churches and receive at least half his support from them before he has been three months in Oregon, if he is a man in any degree adapted to the work in Salem. These churches may despair of finding an immigrant preacher to settle on the public lands and preach to them, as the public lands are all taken up in their vicinity. These churches, at least two of them, are feeling the importance of an efficient ministry given to the work. I know of no Baptist member in Salem, yet other denominations, with little strength in the country, are laboring to build up an interest here. Salem is growing with the rapidity of western towns on navigable waters. Albany, also, about 25 miles above Salem, is growing fast. In this town we have a feeble church. Albany is the county seat for Lynn County. 332 The church in this place has only occasional preaching. I think a good opening for a minister will be made in this place before next spring. Yours respectfully, EZRA FISHER. Received Oct. 6, 1853. Oregon City, Ore. Ter., Sept. 6th, 1853. Rev. Benjamin M. Hill, Cor. Sec. A. B. H. M. Soc., New York. Dear Brother: I received yours of July 5th, principally in reference to Br. Post's outfit, by the last mail. I had just written you that I should be on my way to the Sound immediately upon the close of the yearly meeting at this place, but the tenor of your last letter inclined me to delay the tour to the Sound four or five weeks, attend the yearly meetings of two or three churches in the valley and perform the double service of labor- ing in these meetings and raising what I can to aid Brother Post in his passage from San Francisco to this place. At the close of the forenoon service in the Baptist meetinghouse last Lord's day, the subject of Brother Post's wants was pre- 332 Linn County was organized in 1847. Bancroft, Hist, of Ore., 11:715.
