David Leslie (1797 – March 1, 1869) was an American missionary and pioneer in what became the state of

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. A native of

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec to the nor ...

, he joined

Jason Lee Jason Lee may refer to: Entertainment *Jason Lee (actor) (born 1970), American film and TV actor and former professional skateboarder *Jason Scott Lee (born 1966), Asian American film actor * Jaxon Lee (Jason Christopher Lee, born 1968), American v ...

as a missionary at the

Methodist Mission The Methodist Mission was the Methodist Episcopal Church's 19th-century conversion efforts in the Pacific Northwest. Local Indigenous cultures were introduced to western culture and Christianity. Superintendent Jason Lee was the principal leader fo ...

in the Oregon Country in 1836. In that region he participated in the early movement to start a government and his home was used for some of these

meetings A meeting is when two or more people come together to discuss one or more topics, often in a formal or business setting, but meetings also occur in a variety of other environments. Meetings can be used as form of group decision making. Defin ...

. With the closing of the mission he became a founder of the city of Salem, Oregon, and board member of the Oregon Institute, which later became

Willamette University Willamette University is a private liberal arts college with locations in Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United States. Originally named the Oregon Institute, the school was an unaffiliated ...

Early life

Born in

in the town of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, Leslie lost his parents while he was young. Born in 1797, Leslie was the son of a minister (George Leslie) and received an education first in

Salem, Massachusetts Salem ( ) is a historic coastal city in Essex County, Massachusetts, located on the North Shore of Greater Boston. Continuous settlement by Europeans began in 1626 with English colonists. Salem would become one of the most significant seaports tr ...

, and later at the Wilbraham Academy where fellow missionary

would later attend. There David Leslie studied languages, especially French. He then received a license to preach at the age of 23 in 1820.

Oregon

While still in New England, Leslie began work with the

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

. There he began a working relationship with Jason Lee. Lee then recruited Leslie to join the

in Oregon Country that Lee started in 1834. So in 1836, Leslie agreed to go to the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...

as the first set of reinforcements to the mission. Leslie, his wife Mary A. Kinney, and three daughters sailed around

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...

and arrived in Oregon on the ''Sumatra'' on September 7, 1837. Once in Oregon Lee assigned Leslie to be a magistrate for the area south of the Columbia River. Then in March 1838 Leslie was left in charge of the mission while Lee traveled back east again to secure more people for the mission in what would become the Great Reinforcement of 1839. After Lee returned Leslie helped to start a branch mission with

William H. Willson William Holden Willson (April 14, 1805 – April 17, 1856) was a pioneer of the U.S. state of Oregon and the founder of its capital city, Salem. A native of New Hampshire, he immigrated to the Oregon Country in 1837 to work at the Methodist ...

at Nisqually on the

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

in modern

Washington state Washington (), officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. Named for George Washington—the first U.S. president—the state was formed from the western part of the Washington ...

. Then in 1840 from August through September David Leslie was in charge of a small group that explored further north, nearly reaching Russian-America to look for other locations for future branches of the mission. At this time the Methodist Mission began moving from Mission Bottom to Mission Mill due to flooding at the former. Here Leslie helped construct the new sawmill and dam. He also helped organize the Methodist Episcopal Church of Salem, and then serving as its first pastor in 1841. Also in 1841 the Leslie home burned with all their possessions.

Politics

On February 18, 1841, a meeting was held to discuss the idea of creating a government in Oregon Country. This meeting was held at Leslie’s home, and was in part a response to the death of pioneer

Ewing Young Ewing Young (1799-February 9, 1841) was an American fur trapper and trader from Tennessee who traveled in what was then the northern Mexico frontier territories of Santa Fe de Nuevo México and Alta California before settling in the Oregon Country. ...

. Young had died without a will or known heir, so the settlers needed a way to settle his estate as his business dealings were entangled with many of the other settlers. Not only did David Leslie host this meeting, but he also participated in the discussions about forming a government. Although only a few decisions were ultimately made (election of Dr.

Ira L. Babcock Doctor Ira Leonard Babcock (c. 1808 – March 21, 1888) was an American pioneer and doctor in the Oregon Country. A native of New York, he was selected as the first Supreme Judge with probate powers in February 1841 in what would become the stat ...

as a supreme judge to deal with the Young estate), this was the first of the

Champoeg Meetings The Champoeg Meetings were the first attempts at formal governance by European-American and French Canadian pioneers in the Oregon Country on the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. Between 1841 and 1843, a series of public councils was held ...

that two years later would lead to the creation of the

Provisional Government of Oregon The Provisional Government of Oregon was a popularly elected settler government created in the Oregon Country, in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Its formation had been advanced at the Champoeg Meetings since February 17, 1841, a ...

. These subsequent meetings began in the spring of 1843. Then on May 2, 1843, a vote was held and the settlers voted in favor of creating a government in the region by a vote of 52 to 50. David Leslie participated in these meetings and he voted in favor of creating the government at the May vote at

Champoeg Champoeg ( , historically Horner, John B. (1919). ''Oregon: Her History, Her Great Men, Her Literature''. The J.K. Gill Co.: Portland. p. 398.) is a former town in the U.S. state of Oregon. Now a ghost town, it was an important settlement in the W ...

Family

During this time in Oregon, Leslie and his wife had two more daughters, but Mary died in February 1842. Mary was buried at the Pioneer Cemetery, which was part of the Leslie land claim as the first person buried there. Without his wife to assist in raising the children, Leslie decided to take them to a mission in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

where there was a school for them. As they waited to leave Astoria on the mouth of the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

, one of the daughters (Satira age 15) left the ship and married Cornelius Rogers. Leslie accepted the marriage and then left two other daughters, Helen and Aurelia, in the new couples’ care. Leslie then continued on to Hawaii where he left the two remaining daughters Mary and Sarah at a boarding school. Sarah died a year later in Hawaii, while Cornelius, Satira and Aurelia also died that year in Oregon when their canoe went over

Willamette Falls The Willamette Falls is a natural waterfall on the Willamette River between Oregon City and West Linn, Oregon, in the United States. It is the largest waterfall in the Northwestern United States by volume, and the seventeenth widest in the wor ...

. Additionally two natives and Nathaniel Crocker died in that accident of February 1843. By spring of 1843 David Leslie had returned from Hawaii to the mission. However, by this time the mission was beginning to be closed in Salem for a lack of natives to convert due to disease that had decimated the original inhabitantsMcGregor, Michael
The Oregon History Project: Spreading Old World Contagions

Oregon Historical Society The Oregon Historical Society (OHS) is an organization that encourages and promotes the study and understanding of the history of the Oregon Country, within the broader context of U.S. history. Incorporated in 1898, the Society collects, preser ...

. Retrieved on March 9, 2008. of the region.Jason Lee's Mission to Oregon.
The End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center. Retrieved on March 9, 2008. The missionary board had sent the Reverend

George Gary George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd President ...

from New York to reorganize the mission. He was housed in Leslie’s home. Still Leslie remained and married Adelia Judson Olley on January 7, 1844. Adelia brought two-year-old Robert Thomas to the marriage from her prior marriage to the deceased James Olley. She was the daughter of Reverend Lewis H. Judson. The new couple had two children, Emma and Sarah, both of whom died before the age of seven. The only child to outlive Leslie was Helen.

Later life

After the closing of the Methodist Mission in Salem, David Leslie received the land in what is now between

Bush's Pasture Park Bush's Pasture Park (90.5 acres) is a public park and botanical garden in Salem, Oregon, United States. It is the site of the Asahel Bush House, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, and is now operated as the Bush ...

and the Willamette River, and McGilchrist and Mission streets in Salem. On that land he grew apples and pears, and he built just the fourth house in the city. In 1845, he was elected as the president of the board of trustees at the Oregon Institute and continued in this role until his death. During this time Oregon Institute would become

, and during this time Leslie laid the cornerstone for

Waller Hall Waller Hall is a building on the campus of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, in the United States. Opened in 1867 as University Hall, it is the oldest higher-education building west of the Mississippi River still in use, currently housing ...

that still stands today as the oldest building on Willamette’s campus. Meanwhile, in 1860 he sold of his farm to Asahel Bush II. In the civic arena, he helped found the local Masonic Order chapter, the local Grand Lodge of A. F. and A. M., and served as the territory’s first chaplain of the legislature. The Reverend David Leslie died on May 1, 1869, in Salem and was buried at the I.O.O.F. cemetery in Salem. This is the same cemetery in which his first wife is buried.

Legacy

*Leslie Middle School in Salem, Oregon is named in his honor.Salem Online History: Leslie Middle School.
Salem Public Library. Retrieved on March 9, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leslie, David Politicians from Salem, Oregon Methodist Mission in Oregon Oregon Country 1797 births 1869 deaths Champoeg Meetings Willamette University people Burials at Salem Pioneer Cemetery Oregon pioneers History of Salem, Oregon People from Sullivan County, New Hampshire