"This course," says Ballou, "was soon found to be not only impracticable, but absolutely impossible, and at the general meeting of the Oregon Mission in 1838 it was formally voted: "That we apply ourselves to the study of the Native Language & reduce it to writing."

19

Rev. Hiram Bingham, pastor of the Kawaiahao Church of Honolulu who was much interested in converting the Indians in Oregon, secured a printing press to send to the Clearwater Mission. His letter to Rev. R. Anderson was as follows:

The church and congregation of which I am pastor has recently sent a small but complete printing and binding establishment, by the hand of Brother Hall, to the Oregon Mission, which with other substantial supplies amounts to 444.00 doll. The press was a small hand press presented to this mission but not in use. The expense of the press with one small font of type was defrayed by about 50 native females, including Kinau or Kaahumanu 2d. This was a very pleasing act of charity. She gave 10 doll. for herself and 4 her little daughter Victoria Kaahumanu 3d.”

Mr. Hall, who was to instruct in the use of the press, left Honolulu with Mrs. Hall and the press March 1839, arriving at Fort Vancouver about April 10, 1839. They left there on the 13th of April, arriving at Fort Walla Walla on the 29th or 30th of the same month. They reached Lapwai on May 13 and had the press set up by the 16th, when they struck off the first proof sheet.

On May 16th the press was set up and on May 24, 1839, four hundred copies of a small 8-page book in Nez Perces in the artificial alphabet devised by Mr. Spalding were printed, thus constituting the first book ever printed in the Oregon Territory." In 1840 the American board reported that the mission

has recently received a most valuable donation, as the fruit of the foreign missionary spirit of the Sandwich Islands churches, consisting of a small printing press, with the requisite types and furniture, etc., all estimated at about $450. This was a donation from the Reverend Mr. Bingham's church at Honolulu, which the year before sent to this mission eighty dollars in money and ten bushels of salt. The health of Mrs. Hall, wife of one of the printers at Honolulu, requiring a voyage, Mr. Hall proceeded with her to the mouth of the Columbia river, with the press, which he took to Clearwater, where it was immediately set up, and employed to print a small elementary schoolbook of twenty pages; the first book printed in the Nez Perces' language, and the first printing known to have been executed on the western side of the Rocky Mountains.22

During the next 7 years they must have been exceedingly indus trious. They printed many leaflets, reading books, a hymn book, the Gospel of Matthew, and a code of laws worked out by the Nez Perces

19 Ballou, Howard M. A History of the Oregon Mission Press. Oregon Historical Society Quarterly. 23: 39, March 1922.

20 Ibid. p. 44.

31 Ibid., p. 45.

32 American Board of Commissions for Foreign Missions, 1840, p. 178.

for their government. These publications were in the Indian language and necessitated the formulation of alphabets to make translation possible. At least one book was printed in the Spokane dialect.

Dr. Myron Eells is authority for the statement that in 1846 the press was taken to The Dalles, where it remained until after the Whitman massacre. It was then transferred to Hillsboro, Oreg., where eight numbers of the Oregon American and Evangelical Unionist was printed. Later in 1875 it was taken to Salem and depos ited in the State historical rooms. It was destined to be transferred once more, 1900, to Portland where it was taken by the Oregon Historical Society. There it may be seen now in the city auditorium. It bears the following label:

Mission Printing Press brought to Oregon from Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1839. First used at the Mission Station of the A-B-C-F-M at Lapwai, on the Clearwater, thirteen miles from the present city of Lewiston, Idaho, and was used by E. O. Hall, on May 18th of that year, to print leaflets containing translations of hymns and Bible verses in the Indian language, made by Rev. H. H. Spalding and wife, missionaries of the American board.

As a school and as a general civilizer the Clearwater Mission left much more of a permanent influence than the Whitman Mission. This was probably largely due to the different characters of the Indians at the two posts. The Nez Perces are generally regarded as among the most intelligent and least warlike of all the Indian tribes. The Cayuses were apparently far more warlike and of lower character traditions. An Indian village still exists at Lapwai. The Indians speak of the Spaldings with the greatest affection. Spalding's grave is cared for by the Indians.

5. The Spokane Garry School

Spokane Garry, son of the chief of the tribe of Spokane Indians, was born about 1813. He spent his early life in the region surrounding the present city of Spokane. He and seven other lads were taken to the Red River Missionary School, "and were the first Indians belonging to the Oregon country that were taught to read and write." 23

He spent 5 years at the settlement, securing a good education and learning to speak both English and French. He also took to civilized ways. In 1830 he returned to the Spokane country; and became, finally, the predominant influence in the Indian life of that section— an influence he retained for 60 years.

Spokane Garry started the first school in that section upon his return. from the Red River country. He induced the Indians to construct a "Lewis, William S. The Case of Spokane Garry, p. 13.

schoolhouse 20 by 50 feet in size. The site of the school was about 2 miles north of Spokane Falls, within the present limits of the city of Spokane, at a place called Drumhellers Springs, west of Monroe Street.24

The school was built with a framework of poles covered with tule mats. The reeds were woven and sewed together by the squaws into mats, which were stretched over the framework of the building.

This school was conducted in the wintertime, and frequently had to be shut down to allow the Indian children to get food. It was an attempt to teach the Indians how to read and write. The date of the opening of this school is not known at this time. Possibly some documents will be unearthed which will bring the matter to light. From the present indications it is not likely that it was started previous to the school of John Ball at Fort Vancouver. However that may be, this early attempt of Spokane Garry deserves a place in the history of edu cation in this State. Gov. Isaac Ingalls Stevens was well acquainted with Spokane Garry and seemed to think well of him. In his journal, written during his survey for the United States Government of a railroad route from the Mississippi River to the Puget Sound, he wrote:

I have now seen a great deal of Garry, and am much pleased with him. Beneath a quiet exterior he shows himself to be a man of judgment, forecast, and great reliability, and I could see in my interview with his band the ascendancy he possesses over them. October 24, 1853.25

Edward Curtis, who is the most outstanding authority on the North American Indians, has written considerable detail concerning Garry of which the following is an excerpt:

At that time Ilumhú-spŭkani, Chief Sun, or Garry (the Indians pronounce the name as if it were Jerry), was chief of the Sinhoméně. Born about 1813, at the age of about twelve years he was taken by Sir George Simpson, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, to be educated at the company's post on Red River. After five years of schooling he returned to his people, and began to preach and to institute some of the forms of Christian worship among them. As the report of his new teaching spread, people from other tribes came to hear him, and his influence increased until he was head of his tribe. Also, in the place of Nahŭtŭmh-l-kó, Erect Hair, the senile chief of the Sintutuuli, he caused to be recognized a nephew of the latter; but because of his education and knowledge of the ways of the white men, he himself was in effect the head chief of both tribes. All this occurred before the first mission in that part of the country was established, in 1839, by the Reverend Elkanah Walker and the Reverend Cushing Eells, among the lower Spokane at the site of Walker Prairie.26

24 Ibid., p. 20.

24 Stevens, Hazard. Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, vol. I, p. 399.

26 Curtis, Edward S. The North American Indian. In 20 vols., vol. VII, p. 55. Published by he author, 1911.

6. Conditions in Northern Oregon (Washington)

Washington Territory was not separated from Oregon until the year 1853. However, on August 20, 1845, the territory north of the Columbia was given legal recognition and called the District of Vancouver. Lewis County was created in December 1845, being named in honor of Meriwether Lewis of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Vancouver District later became Clark County in honor of the other member. Lewis County embraced all the territory west of the Cowlitz River. No other county was organized until February 1851, when Pacific County was established.

In 1852 there were the following: Thurston County, named after John R. Thurston, county seat, Olympia; Pierce County, named in honor of President Franklin Pierce, with the county seat at Steilacoom City, on the land claim of John M. Chapman; King County, named in honor of W. R. King, with the county seat at Seattle, on the land claim of David S. Maynard; Jefferson County, named in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the county seat being placed on the land claim of Alfred A. Plummer. Island County was organized in January 1853, the county seat being located at Coveland, on the claim of Richard H. Lansdale. At the time of the separation of Washington Territory from Oregon there were eight counties.

The factor of population had much to do with the slow growth of education north of the Columbia. There were 1,201 persons in the Territory in 1850, while there were only 304 in 1849. The first movement into the Territory was in the year 1845. Thus there were only 304 persons arriving in 4 years. Meany points out that the slow growth of population was due to the Whitman massacre of 1847, the newly found gold fields of California in 1848, and an Indian war at Nisqually in 1849.27

In addition to those already mentioned there was a school at Vancouver "under the superintendence of Mr. and Mrs. Carrington." This school was not a public school under the Iowa law, but was operated by the Hudson's Bay Company. The Carringtons taught also at Fourth Plain, where they took up a homestead in 1848.

Richard Carrington was an Englishman and an accomplished scholar, brought to this land by the Hudson's Bay Company. He was an artist of no mean merit, and was a lover of music, having brought a piano, violin, and guitar from England with him. Mrs. Carrington was a very accomplished woman. They went to Fourth Plain in the fall

*Meany, Edmond S. History of the State of Washington, p. 225.

65757°-35-5

of 1846. It is said that when General Grant was stationed at Fort Vancouver he spent much of his time with the Carringtons.28

The educational situation in northern Oregon by the year 1850 is told tersely in the following table.

TABLE 5.-Census of 1850-colleges, academies, and private schools 1

There were two schools in Clark County, with three teachers. There were two teachers in the Hudson's Bay Company's school; but that there was another school in the county, seems to be evident from the above report of the United States Census Bureau. There seems also to have been a school of one teacher in Lewis County.

In a personal interview with one of the authors, George H. Himes expressed the opinion that the Lewis County school was possibly on the Cowlitz River. In a published document he states that Urban E. Hicks, in the spring of 1851, “joined his stepfather, Stephen Dudley Ruddell, and crossed the plains to Oregon; spent the winter on the Catlin place, near Kelso of the present day; taught school there-the second school in Cowlitz County, Wash.-the first teacher being F. D. Huntress." Urban East Hicks was born in Boone County, Mo., May 14, 1828; he learned the printer's trade in Paris and Hannibal, in Missouri. He knew Samuel M. Clemens, better known as "Mark Twain", and taught him how to set type. Besides the teaching experi ence mentioned, he taught two terms of school in 1855-56, George H. Himes being one of his pupils.

If he taught the school in the winter of 1851, and was the second teacher, there is a possibility that this school existed in 1850, and was the school referred to in the census. In a search for substantiating facts, however, two items have appeared that bear upon this point, both of which rather cast doubt upon the above.

In the Washington Standard of February 16, 1861, a correspondent from Cowlitz County wrote: "One or more schools have been estab lished since 1851." The other document is a letter which bears on the point. Isaac N. Ebey was the leader of a movement to have a separate county organized for the country around Olympia, and on December

Alley, B. F. History of Clark County, p. 340.