Missionaries Come to Nez Perce Country In 1831, four Nez Perces traveled to St. Louis in search of the 'book of Heaven and the teachers'. In response to that, Henry and Eliza Spalding along with Marcus and Narcissa Whitman were sent as missionaries by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions. Eliza and Narcissa were the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains. The Whitman's settled at Waiilatpu near present day Walla Walla, Washington, and the Spaldings at Lapwai near Idaho's Clearwater River. "We road on and entered the valley. It proved to be larger than we expected. It is on a little stream emptying into Koos Koos from the south. We found it well-timbered with cotton wood, balm of gilead, birch, and a few pine. Soon found good soil. The Indians could scarcely contain themselves for joy when they heard us pronounce the word 'good'". So wrote Rev. Henry Harmon Spalding about his first view of Lapwai Valley in the fall of 1836. Spalding's built their first home at Thunder Hill, 2 miles up Lapwai Creek but heat and mosquitos forced them to move to the banks of the Clearwater River where morning and evening breezes made for more pleasant living conditions. Spalding felt the Nez Perces needed a settled existence to learn the Christian religion. He therefore gave out seeds and hoes and taught them farming methods. Orchards were planted and land cultivated. They built a home, meeting house, school, mission church, blacksmith shop, sawmill, gristmill and a series of ditches, dikes and ponds that provided water to run both mills. Eliza taught school, often with over 200 students at a time. Chief Timothy and Chief Joseph (father of the now famous Chief Joseph) were the first two to be baptized. As many as 2000 people attended Sunday services at the height of the Spalding mission efforts. Spalding was often considered stern and unyielding and yet ironically was the most 'successful' of any of the early missionaries, baptizing over 900 Indians before his death in 1874. Eliza gave birth to four children while at the mission. The oldest, also name Eliza, was the first white child born in Idaho. In 1847, due to the murders of the Whitmans and 12 others at Waiilatpu, the Spaldings were ordered to close their mission. Eliza died three years later in Brownsville, Oregon. Henry returned to Nez Perce country twice as a teacher and missionary, dying at age 70 in Kamiah, Idaho. Years later, as a fitting memorial to her, the Nez Perces retrieved Eliza's body from Brownsville and placed it beside Henry's grave, just a few yards from their old mission home.