01Biography
Jason Lee trained for the Methodist ministry in Massachusetts. In 1834 he and his nephew Daniel crossed the plains with Nathaniel Wyeth's trading party, and that July, beside the Snake River where Wyeth was building Fort Hall, he preached what is called the first Protestant sermon in the Oregon Country. At Fort Vancouver, John McLoughlin persuaded him to build his mission in the Willamette Valley, near present-day Salem.
Malaria and smallpox had left few Kalapuya people in the valley, and few of them wanted to convert. In 1838 he went east with a petition asking Congress to take Oregon into the United States, and his lectures stirred wide interest. His wife, Anna Maria, died in childbirth while he was away. In 1840 he came back by sea with about 50 new mission workers.
02Why they matter
Founded the first American mission in the Willamette Valley and spread word of Oregon across the East.
03How they died
In 1842 he opened the Oregon Institute, a school for settlers' children. Critics said he kept poor accounts and neglected the Native mission, and late in 1843 the church removed him as superintendent. He went east and cleared his name, but fell ill while visiting his sister in Stanstead and died there on March 12, 1845, aged 41.
04Legacy
The Oregon Institute grew into Willamette University in Salem. His body was brought back to Salem in 1906 and lies in the Lee Mission Cemetery, and the site of his first mission is now Willamette Mission State Park.