BEGINNINGS OF CHRISTIANITY IN OREGON
minister to
Richmond it may be said that begin work north of the Columbia
summer
of 1840 he went to a point about
In connection with Rev.
he was the
River
first
167
that in the
J.
P.
twenty miles from the present city of Tacoma, and built a log cabin, and surrounded it by a stockade for defense from the Indians, about three-quarters of a mile from old Fort Niswhich was a post of the Puget Sound Agricultural
qually,
Company, a branch of the Hudson's Bay Company, established in 1833, and that here, on August 16, 1841, Dr. W. H. Willson and Miss Chloe A. Clark were married. The first child of this union was the late Mrs. J. K. Gill of this city. The name of Willamette Falls was soon changed to Oregon City, and there Waller erected the first Protestant church on the Pacific Coast, the building of which was begun in 1843 and dedicated in 1844. in
A
little
Salem.
he built the first house of 1842 it was decided to create
later
in
Early worship an educational institution to be known as the Oregon Institute, and on October 26, 1842, it formally came under the control of the Methodist Church, and the "Oregon and California Mis-
was organized, by authority given by the General Conference of the United States, on September 5, 1849. At this time on the entire Pacific Coast there were 348 members of the Methodist Church and six probationers; of Stinday Schools there were nine, with 261 scholars. At the sion Conference"
March 22, 1853, which by that time Oregon Conference, there were 35 local preach-
close of the Conference of
was
called the
558 church members, and 214 probationers. first camp meeting in Oresron or on the coast was near what is now Hillsboro, and was begun on July 12, 1843. The first dav 14 were present, Rev. Jason Lee preaching from the
ers.
The
text.
"Where two
there
am
I in the
or three are gathered together in my name midst of them." The other ministers present
Rev. Gustavus Hines, Rev. H. K. W. Perkins, Rev. and Rev. Harvey Clark, the latter a Congregationalist. Mrs. Wiley Edwards, now of Portland, is probably were:
David
Leslie,
the only person living who was present at that meeting. On Sunday there were about 60 present, of whom 19 were not pro-
