GUSTAVUS HINES

Reverend 'Gustavus Hines' (1809-1875) was a missionary for the Methodist Mission in Oregon Country and involved in early attempts to form a government at the Champoeg Meetings in 1841. Later he served on the Board of Trustees for the Oregon Institute, which became Willamette University, and wrote several books on Oregon.

Contents

Early life

Oregon

Later life

Works authored

References

Early life

Hines was born in 1809 in Herkimer County, New York.Bryant's Rare Books and Documents: A Voyage Round the World He then entered the ministry in 1832 as part of the Genessee Conference. The Reverend then joined missionary Jason Lee in 1839 as part of the Great Reinforcements for the Methodist Mission in the Oregon Country.^[1]

Oregon

Reverend Hines arrived in Oregon in 1840 aboard the ship Lausanne.Emigrants to Oregon in 1840 He, his wife, and his sister-in-law all journeyed to the Pacific Northwest via Cape Horn at the tip of South America. The following year Gustavus Hines was involved with the Champoeg Meetings as a person selected to a committee designed to draft laws that were an attempt at creating a government in the region that was under no formal government at the time.^[2] At the February 1841 meetings at David Leslie’s home, Hines served as secretary for the legislative body gathered on French Prairie.^[3] These meetings did not create a government in 1841, but did elect Doctor Ira L. Babcock as a judge to deal with the estate of Ewing Young. Two years later continued meetings led the formation of the Provisional Government of Oregon. In 1842 Lucy Anna Lee was born to Jason Lee’s second wife who died shortly after child birth. The Reverend Hines and his wife took in the child and raised her.^[4]

Later life

After the closing of the Methodist Mission, Hines returned to New York in 1845. However, he would return to what became Oregon Territory in 1853. There he was involved as a trustee for Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, including work on the committee that designed Waller Hall.Hines, Gustavus. ''Oregon and Its Institutions; Comprising a Full History of the Willamette University''. Carlton & Porter, 1868. Gustavus Hines also wrote several books before dying in Oregon City in 1875 and is buried at Lee Mission Cemetery in Salem.

Works authored

★ ''Oregon and Its Institutions; Comprising a Full History of the Willamette University''. Carlton & Porter, 1868.

★ ''A Voyage Round the World: With a History of the Oregon Mission and Notes of Several Years Residence on the Plains Bordering the''... George H. Derby & Co., Buffalo: 1850.

★ ''Wild life in Oregon'':... Hurst & Co., New York: 1881.

References

1. Bancroft, Hubert Howe. ''History of Oregon'', Vol. I. The History Company, 1886.
2. Visionaries, Mountain Men, & Empire Builders, , Fred, Lockley, Rainy Day Press, 1982,

3. Oregon Legislative Assembly (Pre-Provisional) 1841 Meetings
4. Geer, Theodore Thurston. ''Fifty Years in Oregon''. The Neale Publishing Company, 1912.