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Lee, Jason, 1803-1845 Indians of North America--Missions--Northwest, Pacific
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Letter from Jason Lee to the Christian Advocate and Journal, April 29, 1834

Typed letter written by Reverend Jason Lee to the Christian Advocate and Journal. Written at the Shawnee Mission on April 29, 1834 and published in the Christian Advocate and Journal on June 13, 1834. Letter is titled, "News from Rev. Jason Lee." Lee wrote this letter shortly after his departure from Independence, Missouri as he began his journey on the Oregon Trail to become a missionary in Oregon. He writes of the difficulties he had in finding an adequate crew of men to accompany him on the Oregon Trail. Page 2 of this document was written at a later date, on May 2, 1834. It quotes Mr. Lee's observations of the native tribes in Kansas as he travels on the Oregon Trail. [Lee used language common to justifying the nineteenth century missionary movement, including using disparaging and inaccurate terms and/or descriptions of Native peoples.]

Lee, Jason, 1803-1845

Letter from Jason Lee to the Christian Advocate and Journal, June 25, 1834

Typed letter written by Reverend Jason Lee to the Christian Advocate and Journal. Written in the Rocky Mountains on June 25, 1834 and published in the Christian Advocate and Journal on October 3, 1834. Letter is titled, "Flat Head Mission." Lee wrote this letter as he traveled on the Oregon Trail to become a missionary in Oregon. It summarizes his journey thus far, through the months of May and June, much of it along the Platte River. Subjects include Lee's observations of local native tribes, including the Pawnee and Nez Perce. Other subjects include the landscape, weather, and buffalo. [Lee originally intended to do missionary work among the Flathead Indian tribe, but the area where he eventually settled in the Willamette Valley, near present-day Salem, was home to bands of the Kalapuyan people. Lee used language common to justifying the nineteenth century missionary movement, including using disparaging and inaccurate terms and/or descriptions of Native peoples.]

Lee, Jason, 1803-1845

Letter from Jason Lee to the Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist E. Church, June 1, 1834

Typed letter written by Reverend Jason Lee to the Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist E. Church. Written in the Rocky Mountains on July 1, 1834 and published in the Christian Advocate and Journal on September 26, 1834. Letter is titled, "Flat Head Mission." Lee wrote this letter as he traveled on the Oregon Trail to become a missionary in Oregon. Subjects include life on the Oregon Trail, the loss and maintenance of horses, Captain Nathaniel Wyeth, and Lee's observations of local native tribes, including the Sioux, Crow, Snake, and Blackfeet. He also states his views on the importance of missionary work and warns of the potential danger of non-missionary, colonial settlements to the local native populations. [Lee originally intended to do missionary work among the Flathead Indian tribe, but the area where he eventually settled in the Willamette Valley, near present-day Salem, was home to bands of the Kalapuyan people. Lee used language common to justifying the nineteenth century missionary movement, including using disparaging and inaccurate terms and/or descriptions of Native peoples.]

Lee, Jason, 1803-1845

Letter from Jason Lee to the Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist E. Church, February 6, 1835

Typed letter written by Reverend Jason Lee to the Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist E. Church. Written on the banks of the Willamette River in Oregon on February 6, 1835 and published in the Christian Advocate and Journal on October 30, 1835. Letter is titled, "Flat Head Indians." In this letter, Lee sums up the last leg of his journey on the Oregon Trail, from the Rocky Mountains to Oregon. Subjects include Soda Spring, the Lewis River, Captain Nathaniel Wyeth, and Lee's observations of Native tribes including the Nez Perce, Flathead, Snake, Cayuse, and Wallawalla peoples. He then summarizes his arrival in Vancouver, Washington, his interactions with John McLoughlin, and his subsequent move to the Willamette River, where he built a house. He writes of his observations of the local native tribes, including the Kalapuyan peoples. [Lee originally intended to do missionary work among the Flathead Indian tribe, but the area where he eventually settled in the Willamette Valley, near present-day Salem, was home to bands of the Kalapuyan people. Lee used language common to justifying the nineteenth century missionary movement, including using disparaging and inaccurate terms and/or descriptions of Native peoples.]

Lee, Jason, 1803-1845

Letter from Jason Lee to the Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist E. Church, March 14, 1836

Typed letter written by Reverend Jason Lee to the Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist E. Church. Written at the Mission House on the Willamette River in Oregon on March 14, 1836 and published in the Christian Advocate and Journal on September 2, 1836. Letter is titled, "Oregon Mission." Subjects include illnesses in the region, the mission's "manual labor school", Lee's support for a temperance society, and John McLoughlin's support for the mission. [Lee used language common to justifying the nineteenth century missionary movement, including using disparaging and inaccurate terms and/or descriptions of Native peoples.]

Lee, Jason, 1803-1845

Reverend Jason Lee's Diary, 1833-1838

Leather-bound diary of the Reverend Jason Lee, Methodist missionary who traveled on the Oregon Trail to Oregon Country in 1834. The first entry is dated August 19, 1833 and the last entry is dated June 1, 1838. Lee first describes his overland journey on the Oregon Trail, leaving Independence, Missouri in April 1834 and arriving at Fort Vancouver, Washington in September 1834. Subjects include obstacles faced on the Oregon Trail, various people met along the journey, and the party's leader, Captain Nathaniel Wyeth. Upon arriving at Fort Vancouver, Lee writes of meeting Dr. John McLoughlin, and heeding McLoughlin's advice that he build his mission 60 miles to the south in the Willamette Valley in Oregon Country. He then writes of building a mission house for the Methodist Episcopal Church, and of his attempts at converting local Native peoples to Christianity. [Lee originally intended to do missionary work among the Flathead Indian tribe, but the area where he eventually settled in the Willamette Valley, near present-day Salem, was home to bands of the Kalapuyan people. Lee used language common to justifying the nineteenth century missionary movement, including using disparaging and inaccurate terms and/or descriptions of Native peoples.]

Lee, Jason, 1803-1845

Jason Lee papers

  • Mss 1212
  • Collection
  • 1834-1845

Collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Reverend Jason Lee. The papers date from 1834 to 1845. Included are Lee’s diary of his overland journey to Oregon and the construction of his mission with entries dating from 1834 to 1838; an 1844 report Lee made to the Methodist Missionary Board; miscellaneous papers related to the illness and death of Lee in 1845; and fragments of an undated biography of Jason Lee likely written by Harvey Kimball Hines. The collection also contains a folder of Anna Maria Pittman Lee's correspondence dated from 1834 to 1835.

Jason Lee was born on June 28, 1803, in Stanstead, Quebec. After his ordination in 1834, Lee and his nephew, Daniel Lee, journeyed overland to Oregon with the intention to establish a mission to minister to the Flathead Indians. He instead established his mission in the Willamette Valley near present-Day Salem, Oregon, in territory that was home to bands of the Kalapuyan people. Lee returned east in 1838 to justify his decision and recruit reinforcements for the Willamette mission, as well as missions at The Dalles and Clatsop plains. In 1840, The Great Reinforcement, a group of 51 men, women, and children, arrived in Oregon on the ship Lausanne in response to Lee’s promotion in the East. In 1843, Jason Lee participated in the founding of Oregon's provisional government and Willamette University. Lee was relieved of his missionary post in 1844. Lee married Anna Maria Pittman, who died in 1838, and then Lucy Lee who died in 1842. Jason Lee died on March 12, 1845.

Lee, Jason, 1803-1845