Jason Lee (missionary)
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Jason Lee
(NSHC statue)
Jason Lee (June 28, 1803 – March 12, 1845) an American missionary and pioneer, was born on a farm near Stanstead, Quebec. He was the first of the Oregon missionaries and helped establish the early foundation of American colonial government in the Oregon Country.
[edit] Biography
Lee attended the village school and by the age of 13 was self-supporting. After a conversion experience, he attended Wilbraham Academy, graduating in 1830. Between 1830 and 1832 he was minister in the Stanstead area and taught school.
In 1833 he was chosen to head a mission for the Flathead Indians. He and his party traveled overland, arriving in Fort Vancouver in 1834. After the site of their first mission was abandoned as unhealthy, the missionaries settled on the Willamette River, northwest of the present site of Salem, Oregon. In early 1837 Lee participated in the Willamette Cattle Company along with Ewing Young in order to procure cattle for the mission. Lee invested in the venture that was designed to break the cattle monopoly of the Hudson's Bay Company in the region. Though Lee was on the ship Loriot that took the company to California, Lee did not sail with them. Also in 1836 and then in 1837 he helped to draft a petition for the establishment of a territorial government, and in 1838 he journeyed east to present the petition in Washington, D.C., stopping at the Whitman Mission near Fort Walla Walla to visit Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. Lee continued to found missions during the 1830s and became increasingly active in the territorial organization of the Oregon settlement, encouraging its ties with the United States. He presided over the preliminary meeting for territorial organization held at Champoeg in 1841, and in 1843 he was instrumental in the formation of a provisional government. He also worked to promote education and formed the plan that resulted in the founding of Oregon Institute (now Willamette University). Problems with the mission including neglect to the education of Native Americans led to his return to headquarters in New York in 1844.
While he was visiting his sister in Stanstead, his health failed; he died on March 12, 1845. His remains were reinterred in Salem, Oregon, in 1906.
The house Lee occupied in 1841 is preserved as part of the Mission Mill Museum. You can see a picture of it here.
In 1953, the state of Oregon donated a bronze statue of Lee to the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
 |
Pioneer History of Oregon (1806–1890) |
|---|---|
| Topics |
Oregon Country · Oregon Treaty · Oregon missionaries · Executive Committee · Oregon Trail · Oregon boundary dispute · Pacific Fur Company · Provisional Government of Oregon · Hudson's Bay Company |
| Events |
Treaty of 1818 · Russo-American Treaty · Champoeg Meetings · Whitman massacre · Donation Land Claim Act |
| Places |
Fort Astoria · Oregon Mission · Fort Vancouver · Champoeg, Oregon · Fort William · Barlow Road · Whitman Mission |
| People |
George Abernethy · Sam Barlow · Tabitha Brown · Abigail Scott Duniway · Philip Foster · Peter French · Joseph Gale · William Gilpin · David Hill · Jason Lee · Asa Lovejoy · John McLoughlin · Joseph Meek · Ezra Meeker · John Minto · Joel Palmer · Sager orphans · Henry H. Spalding · Marcus Whitman · Narcissa Whitman · Ewing Young |
| Oregon History |
Native Peoples History · History to 1806 · Pioneer History · Modern History |
