The Whitman Controversy/6. W. C. McKay

by William Cameron McKay

The Whitman Controversy.

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LETTER FROM DR. W. C. McKAY.

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Portland, Oregon, Feb. 21, 1885.

The various contributions to the Whitman controversy which have recently appeared in the Oregonian have been read with a great deal of interest. It seems, after all the chaff is sifted away, that the great point in dispute is whether Dr. Whitman visited Washington in the spring of 1843, or not. The following letter will supply another link in the chain of evidence bearing on that point. It is written by Dr. Wm. C. McKay, of Pendleton, Oregon, who is a son of Thomas McKay, of pioneer fame. Thomas McKay came out in the Tonquin with Astor's unfortunate expedition, occupying the position of clerk for the Pacific Fur Company. His father, Alexander McKay, was one of the partners in that enterprise, and perished a few weeks after his arrival, at the time the Tonquin's crew were massacred on the coast of Vancouver Island. Thomas entered the employ of the Northwest Company, successor to the Pacific Fur Company, and later of the Hudson's Bay Company when it absorbed its great rival in 182 1. He afterwards became an American citizen and settled in the Willamette Valley. He commanded one of the volunteer companies in the Cayuse War. Dr. W. C. McKay was born at Astoria about 1826. His letter explains the other points necessary to show his value as a witness in this controversy. He related the facts several years ago, and this letter is In response to a request to put them in writing, made since the beginning of the controversy in the Oregonian:

Pendleton, Oregon, January 30, 1885.

Dear Sir:— I take pleasure in complying with your request. I am always glad to do what I can to set Dr. Whitman right before the people. His only critics, it seems, are those who did not come here till long after his death; and the only persons who have the temerity to question his character or throw aspersions upon his motives, are those who never saw or heard of him while in the flesh.

Briefly stated, the facts are as follows:—

In 1838 my father decided to send me to Scotland to be educated, the intention being for me to cioss the continent by the Manitoba route in company with the regular Montreal Express. My father was then in charge of Fort Hall for the Company. We started up the Columbia ahead of the express for the purpose of visiting Dr. Whitman at the Waiilatpu Mission, as the Doctor and my father were very warm friends. Here we were to separate, I to return to Fort Walla Walla (now Wallula) to join the express, and father to continue across the Blue Mountains to Fort Hall. When Dr. Whitman learned what the plans were for my future, he protested, and urgently urged father to send me to the United States and "make an American "of me. He said this country would certainly belong to the United States in a few years, and I would succeed better here if I was educated in the States and be come an American in thought and feeling. It was upon this urgent solicitation that father decided to send me to New York instead of Scotland, and place me in the same academy, at Fairfield, in which the Doctor himself had been educated. The Doctor even provided funds for my use there by giving me a draft on the Missionary Board which he represented, and taking from my father an equivalent in property needed at the mission. Consequently I accompanied my father to Fort Hall, and from there reached the States under the protection of trapping parties. In due time I reached Fairfield and was enrolled as a student. While there the school was removed to Geneva, N. Y., for the purpose of securing a State appropriation, and nearly all the students accompanied it. I, however, being much attached to a preceptor who had gone to Willoughby, Ohio, followed him, and remained there until my return to Oregon. I was at Willoughby in the spring of 1843, where, about the last of April or first of May, I received a letter from Dr. Whitman, dated at Washington, D. C, which was the first intimation I had received of his presence in the East. The letter was written some three or four weeks prior to the date upon which it reached me, since the Doctor was unaware of my change of residence. He had addressed it to Fairfield, from there it had been forwarded to Geneva, and again from that place to Willoughby The substance of the letter was that he had come back upon urgent business; that he would come to see me if he could find time to do so, but that he had agreed to join the emigrants at Independence early in May, and must visit New York and Boston before doing so; that the mission was progressing finely, and a large number of emigrants were going that year. Later the same year I left school and returned home with the Montreal Express.

When the great freshet in the Willamette about New Year's day, 1853, swept away the old Abernethy store building at Oregon City, I lost my trunk, books, papers, etc., among which was this letter from Dr. Whitman. I would give a good deal if I had it now, but it is gone. It would be convincing evidence of his presence in Washington at that time, and so far as my word is to be relied upon, it is such evidence now.

Yours, truly,

W. C. McKAY.