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1810 -- a year best remembered as the height of
Napoleon Bonaparte's career. He had conquered much of Europe and
was locked in a fierce struggle with Britain. In the Western hemisphere,
the vast Spanish empire began to collapse as a revolt against imperial
rule broke out in Venezuela. Here in the United States, public anger
continued to rise over the British practice of forcing American
sailors into the Royal Navy. Other significant events also happened
in the same year. The most relevant event for the history of Waiilatpu
was that the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions
was established in Massachusetts. This was the same organization
that sent Marcus and Narcissa Whitman into the Pacific Northwest
twenty six years later to a mission station considered more remote
than Africa.
The American Board therefore played a crucial role in the history
of Waiilatpu and the Pacific Northwest. As a result, many interesting
questions arise about this organization such as who established
the American Board and what was its objective? How was the organization
affected by some of the important historical events of the nineteenth
century? How did the technology of that same century affect the
American Board's operations in the Pacific Northwest? Finally, what
was the eventual fate of this organization and what was their legacy?
The effort to found the American Board was led by a man named Samuel
Mills. He wanted to establish an organization which would fulfill
Jesus Christ's command for his disciples to "Go ye therefore,
and teach all nations…" Mr. Mills thought of this idea
in 1806 when he was a student at Williams College in Massachusetts.
He found several other students who supported this concept and the
group established the "Society of Brethren" in 1808. This
society's objective was to promote the idea of establishing missions
outside the United States. Mr. Mills and one of his friends from
the society continued to recruit supporters when they became students
at the Andover Theology Seminary in 1810. Mr. Mills' dream became
a reality during that same year when the Society of Brethren persuaded
the General Association of Congregational Ministers of Massachusetts
to establish the American Board. Many other Congregational and Presbyterian
groups also began supporting the American Board.
The first American Board mission was established two years later
in India. Several members of this mission were Andover alumni who
had worked with Mr. Mills to establish a foreign missionary organization.
Since Mr. Mills had worked so long to establish missions in other
countries, it is interesting to see that he also wanted to establish
missions for the Native Americans. These tribes did not speak English
as a native language and the American Board therefore viewed them
as being within the realm of their conversion efforts. In 1816,
the American Board established their first Native American mission
amongst the Cherokee people of the southeastern United States. The
American Board also continued to set up missions throughout the
world in locations such as Turkey, South Africa, Burma, China, Singapore
and Hawaii.
These missions all reported to a "Prudential Committee"
that was located in Boston. The Committee handled the organization's
fundraising and administrative tasks. The Whitmans' main contact
with the Committee was through Reverend David Greene. His letters
to Dr. Whitman and the Whitmans' responses are among the most important
primary sources from Waiilatpu's history.
The operations at Waiilatpu and the other American Board stations
were part of the "Second Great Awakening," a series of
religious revival movements that swept through the United States
during the first half of the nineteenth century. Mr. Mills and his
fellow students at Williams College were amongst the many Americans
who were affected by this movement. The Second Great Awakening also
strengthened the ties between the Presbyterian and Congregational
Churches in the U.S. This made it easier for these groups to work
together in organizations such as the American Board. Yet another
byproduct of the Second Great Awakening was that it encouraged the
founding of seminaries such as Andover. Similar seminaries were
established in Bangor, Maine and Hartford, Connecticut.
The American Board was also affected by other events that took
place in the United States during the nineteenth century, including
the Panic of 1837. This recession produced a steep drop in the amount
of donations made to the American Board. Indeed, Reverend Greene
sent out a letter in 1837 which warned the Whitmans and the Spaldings
of the dire financial situation. The letter said that the Pacific
Northwest missions would be limited to a budget of one thousand
dollars each year. The letter also stated that there was a high
probability that the budget would be reduced even further. This
allocation had to cover the operations of both Waiilatpu and Reverend
Henry Spalding's Lapwai mission near present-day Lewiston, Idaho.
As it turned out, the limitation of one thousand dollars per year
was never actually enforced. In fact, 1842 and 1847 were the only
two years during Waiilatpu's eleven year history where the annual
expenses were less than one thousand dollars. These expenses were
for items such as furniture, tools and other items that were sold
by the Hudson's Bay Company. Dr. Whitman and the other missionaries
tried to reduce these bills by becoming as self-sufficient as possible.
However, the effort to obtain self-sufficiency reduced the amount
of time that the missionaries had available to teach the natives
about Christianity. This problem became even more severe for the
Whitmans once Waiilatpu became a way station on the Oregon Trail.
Reverend Greene expressed his concern in a letter that he wrote
on April 6, 1846. He was worried that the Whitman Mission was rapidly
turning into "a great restaurant for the weary pilgrims on
their way to the promised land." Reverend Greene also feared
that the Cayuse would view Dr. Whitman as a businessman as opposed
to a missionary. He felt that the Cayuse would then become less
interested in learning about Christianity and more interested in
making money.
The typical nineteenth century American Board missionary definitely
did not have much interest in becoming wealthy. Indeed, the organization's
missionaries did not even receive salaries! This factor helped the
American Board survive the financial crisis of 1837 and the organization
even expanded its Pacific Northwest operations in 1839 when two
new missions were established. These missions were the Tshimakain
Mission near present-day Spokane, Washington and the Kamiah Mission
near present-day Kamiah, Idaho. The Tshimakain Mission was operated
by Reverend Elkanah Walker, Reverend Cushing Eells and their wives.
The Kamiah Mission was run by Reverend Asa Smith and his wife.
Reverend Smith did not get along with his fellow missionaries and
he
also became very unhappy about living in the Idaho wilderness. He
expressed his frustration by writing many letters to the American
Board headquarters. These letters featured a wide variety of bitter
complaints about Reverend Henry Spalding. Mr. William Gray, a handyman
and carpenter who worked with both Dr. Whitman and Reverend Spalding,
also sent several similar letters back to Boston.
These hand-written letters traveled at a speed that was painfully
slow by modern standards. Documents had to be sent either on a ship
or by overland travelers such as Hudson's Bay Company employees.
It took about seven months for a letter to travel across the overland
continental route and fourteen months by ship around Cape Horn,
South America.
Since the communication methods were so slow, it was difficult
for the Prudential Committee to obtain Reverend Spalding's views.
The Committee therefore decided to take the drastic measure of dismissing
Reverend Spalding, Reverend Smith and Mr. Gray. These individuals
were ordered to leave the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Whitman was to
be reassigned to work with Reverend Walker and Reverend Eells at
the Tshimakain Mission.
Dr. Whitman decided to challenge this order, making his famous
journey east in the winter of 1842 to plead his case before the
American Board in Boston. His travelling methods show another way
in which the technology of the period affected the American Board's
operations. Since automobiles and planes had not been invented yet,
Dr. Whitman had to travel most of the way on horseback. He was then
able to travel on steamboats once he reached the Midwest. Dr. Whitman
was able to persuade the Prudential Committee to cancel its order
and he returned to his mission in 1843. The American Board's operations
at Waiilatpu continued another four years. These activities abruptly
ended when the Whitmans were killed on November 29, 1847.
The American Board, however, continued to run its missions in other
parts of the world well into the twentieth century. Indeed, Reverend
Walker and Mrs. Walker's grandchildren became American Board missionaries
in China and South Africa during the 1920's and 1930's. The twentieth
century also witnessed the absorption of the American Board into
the United Board for World Ministries in 1961. This group is a part
of the United Church of Christ and they still have active missions
all over the world. So, part of the American Board's legacy is an
ongoing attempt to fulfill Christ's command to his disciples.
In order to achieve their objective, the United Church missionaries
still perform tasks similar to those mentioned in Mrs. Narcissa
Whitman's letters. For example, a group of United Church missionaries
in Haiti regularly hold prayer meetings and build churches. In addition
to conversion efforts, the United Church missionaries also perform
social work. The organization runs a school for African children
in Botswana and helps to fund hospitals in the African country of
Lesotho.
The American Board also has a legacy here in the Pacific Northwest
because some of the modern descendants of the Cayuse and Nez Perce
tribes are Presbyterians. There is currently a Presbyterian church
on the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon and there are six Presbyterian
churches on the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho.
The Whitmans and the other American Board missionaries who worked
with these tribes were well aware that they were part of a larger
effort. Perhaps this feeling was best expressed in a letter that
Reverend Greene wrote to the Pacific Northwest missions on March
13, 1845. In this letter, he informed the missionaries that the
American Board wanted its missionaries to say a "special prayer"
at the same time as the Prudential Committee's annual meeting. The
prayer was aimed at:
"…securing the blessing of God upon the deliberations
& proceedings of the Board during its session; upon the Prudential
Committee during the ensuing year, & the missionaries &
agents laboring under its direction; & upon the several missions,
& the churches which contribute for their support."
The Whitmans' labors for the American Board ended only a few years
after Reverend Greene's request. Their lives had been dedicated
towards what Reverend Greene described as "the general work
of planting and sustaining the standard of Christ in Oregon."
If it had not been for the American Board, then the Whitmans might
have spent their lives elsewhere. Perhaps the Methodists or the
Roman Catholics would have established a mission at Waiilatpu instead.
But, the existence of the American Board allowed the Whitmans to
be the ones who worked at Waiilatpu for what Mrs. Whitman felt was
"the cause of Christ in this land."
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