Anglo-Saxon in type, full of the strong, virile elements of that race. He attracted the especial attention and care of Dr. Wilbur Fisk, then president of Wesleyan academy, and when the Methodist church determined upon sending a mission to the Indians of the Oregon country. Dr. Fisk recalled Jason Lee, who had returned to Stanstead and by authority of the missionary board of the church he wrote to Lee, offering him the superintendency of the mission. The young man had already offered his services to the Wesleyan missionary society of London as a missionary to the Canadian Indians, and when Dr. Fisk's letter reached him he was expecting the appointment from London. Up to this time Jason Lee had been a member of the Wesleyan church of Canada.
Jason Lee was born in 1803 at Stanstead, and his life was that of a backwoodsman, with limited means of education. It was in 1827 that he entered Wilbraham academy as a student, at the age of twenty-four. He was born in Canada, but upon the border line of Vermont. Eastern Canada and northern Vermont in 1800 were but thinly peopled. New England was more populous than Oregon is today. Jason Lee's father, Daniel Lee made his home in Stanstead with a large colony of New Englanders who believed their farms were really within the boundaries of the United States. In 1842 the adjustment of border lines threw these farms partly within Canadian territory.
The Lees for two hundred years had been captains and leaders among their American comrades, and the young student of Wilbraham must have been inspired by his gallant father, who had served as a soldier in the Revolutionary war, with love for the land and home of his ancestors. Had the Lees been tory in sentiment, doubtless Jason would have sought his education at McGill or some other Canadian college. He chose instead a famous American academy in the heart of the Connecticut valley, and from the hill above Fisk hall he could see the country about Hartford which had been the home of his fathers for two centuries.
Wilbraham was the great Methodist academy of New England in the time of Jason Lee. There were many young men at that school who rose to high distinction in the church. One of his fellow students, Rev. Jefferson Hascall, was well known to the writer. Other students of Lee's time were David Patten, Moses Hill, Miner Raymond, and Osmon C. Baker. From such first rate material Dr. Fisk, when asked to name the man to be sent upon the mission to the Flatheads, selected wisely. 'T know but one man—Jason Lee," was his answer. The choice was warmly approved, and July 17, 1833, Lee was appointed by the board of missions to be missionary to Oregon.
Jason Lee was received into the New England conference in the spring of 1833, and set about the preparation for his mission at once. As his assistant in the duty of the new field he chose Rev. Daniel Lee, his nephew, then a minister in New Hampshire. As a teacher, Cyrus Shepherd, of Lynn, was engaged. The board appropriated $3,000 for fitting out the mission and a progress of the missionaries was planned, to take them through the eastern states as far as Washington, with the hope of receiving the aid and cooperation of the eastern churches in the enterprise. They held a farewell meeting in New York in the Forsyth street church, November 20, Bishop Hedding presiding. At Washington papers of authorization were given them by the president and secretary of state, to aid as such documents might in the neutral land to which they were going.
Captain Wyeth, at this time, was planning a second expedition to Oregon, and was to start overland in the spring of 1834. The opportunity was thus offered for our missionaries to cross the plains and mountains with men who had become acquainted with the route, and the Methodist mission took its departure early in March, to pass via Pittsburg, and the Ohio river and Mississippi to St. Louis, and fell into the train of Captain Wyeth at Independence, then the last town westward, on the last day of April. From St. Louis to Independence, Jason and Daniel Lee had ridden horseback across Missouri. At Independence
