out his protection and assistance none of these missionaries could have stayed in Oregon. The first Methodist missionaries came to Oregon in 1834; the Presbyterian, in 1836; and the Catholic, in 1838.
In 1828, Jedediah S. Smith, a rival trader, came to Oregon by the way of California. Of his party of eighteen men, fourteen were massacred at the Umpqua River. Smith was one of the four survivors. Dr. McLoughlin protected these survivors and sent a large party of men to the place of the massacre, who recovered the furs and restored them to Smith.
THE FIRST SCHOOL IN THE OREGON COUNTRY.
In 1832 Dr. McLoughlin established the first school in the Oregon Country. There was no other school in the Oregon Country until the Methodist missionaries began to teach the Indians, in 1835. When Nathaniel J. Wyeth came to Oregon in 1832, on his first expedition, he brought with him, as one of his party, John Ball, who was born in New Hampshire in 1794. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, and had been admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of New York. He arrived at Fort Vancouver in November, 1832. In his manuscript journal, excerpts from which were published in The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society of March, 1902, Ball says, under date of November 16, 1832:
"Mr. Wyeth and myself were invited by Doctor McLoughlin, the oldest partner and nominal Governor, to his own table and rooms at the fort. * * * We were received with the greatest kindness as guests, which was very acceptable, or else we would have had to hunt for subsistence. But not liking to live gratis, I asked the doctor (he was a physician by profession) for some employment. He repeatedly answered me that I was a guest and not expected to work. But after much urging, he said if I was willing he would like me to teach his own son and the other boys in the fort, of whom there were a dozen. Of course I gladly accepted the offer. So the boys were sent to my room to be instructed. * * * I found the boys docile and attentive, and they made good progress. The doctor often came into the school, and was well satisfied and pleased. One day he said: 'Ball, anyway you will have the
