Harvey L. Clarke (October 2, 1807 – March 25, 1858) was an educator, missionary, and settler first on the North

Tualatin Plains The Tualatin Plains are a prairie area in central Washington County, Oregon, United States. Located around the Hillsboro and Forest Grove areas, the plains were first inhabited by the Atfalati band of the Kalapuya group of Native Americans. Euro ...

which would become

Glencoe, Oregon Glencoe is a neighborhood and former community in Washington County, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1842, the town, which was north of Hillsboro, died off after 1910 when neighboring North Plains was created to the west. Most of Glencoe is ...

, and then on the West Tualatin Plains that would become

Forest Grove, Oregon Forest Grove is a city in Washington County, Oregon, United States, west of Portland. Originally a small farm town, it is now primarily a commuter town in the Portland metro area. Settled in the 1840s, the town was platted in 1850, then incorpora ...

. A native of

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, he moved to the

Oregon Country Oregon Country was a large region of the Pacific Northwest of North America that was subject to a long dispute between the United Kingdom and the United States in the early 19th century. The area, which had been created by the Treaty of 1818, co ...

in 1840 where he participated at 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 ...

, May 2, 1843, and helped to found

Tualatin Academy Tualatin Academy was a secondary school in the U.S. state of Oregon that eventually became Pacific University. Tualatin Academy also refers to the National Register of Historic Places-listed college building constructed in 1850 to house the academ ...

that later became

Pacific University Pacific University is a private university in Forest Grove, Oregon. Founded in 1849 as the Tualatin Academy, the original Forest Grove campus is west of Portland. The university maintains three other campuses in Eugene, Hillsboro, and Wood ...

. Clarke also worked for 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 ...

and was a

chaplain A chaplain is, traditionally, a cleric (such as a Minister (Christianity), minister, priest, pastor, rabbi, purohit, or imam), or a laity, lay representative of a religious tradition, attached to a secularity, secular institution (such as a hosp ...

for the

Provisional Legislature of Oregon The Provisional Legislature of Oregon was the single-chamber legislative body of the Provisional Government of Oregon. It served the Oregon Country of the Pacific Northwest of North America from 1843 until early 1849 at a time when no country had ...

in 1845.

Early life

Harvey Clarke was born in

Chester, Vermont Chester is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 3,005 at the 2020 census. History The town was originally chartered by New Hampshire Governor Benning Wentworth as Flamstead in 1754. The terms of the charter were n ...

, on October 2, 1807.Corning, Howard M. ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. Binfords & Mort Publishing, 1956. pp. 54-55. In Vermont he married Emeline Cadwell , and they would have five children. In 1840, Clarke, with his wife, moved to

as a Congregational Minister and as missionaries to the Native Americans.

Oregon

Clarke traveled overland to the region, arriving in September 1840, at the Whitman Station.Gray, William Henry. 1870. ''A history of Oregon, 1792-1849, drawn from personal observation and authentic information''. Portland, Or: Harris & Holman. pp. 188-190. He was an independent missionary, unaffiliated with any missionary organization such as the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most imp ...

. His party included mountain men,

Joseph Meek Joseph Lafayette "Joe" Meek (February 9, 1810 – June 20, 1875) was a pioneer, mountain man, law enforcement official, and politician in the Oregon Country and later Oregon Territory of the United States. A trapper involved in the fur trad ...

, and Robert Newell,

Alvin T. Smith Alvin Thompson Smith (November 17, 1802 – January 22, 1888) was an American missionary and politician in what became the state of Oregon. A native of Connecticut, he lived in Illinois before moving to the Oregon Country to preach to the Na ...

, P. B. Littlejohn, and their wives. In Oregon, Clarke taught at the

’s first location at Mission Bottom on the

French Prairie French Prairie is located in Marion County, Oregon, United States, in the Willamette Valley between the Willamette River and the Pudding River, north of Salem. It was named for some of the earliest settlers of that part of the Oregon Country, Fr ...

in 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, ...

. By 1842, Harvey and Emeline Clarke had moved to the North Tualatin Plains, built a small log home in Glencoe. They were teaching the

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

children from Red River, and a few

Atfalati The Atfalati , also known as the Tualatin or Wapato Lake IndiansRobert H. Ruby, John A. Brown & Cary C. Collins, Atfalati, in ''A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest'' (3d ed. 2010, University of Oklahoma Press) are a tribe of the ...

children in their cabin. Harvey and Emeline Clarke were the first teachers in what would become the district of Tuality and later

Washington County, Oregon Washington County is one of 36 counties in the U.S. state of Oregon and part of the Portland metropolitan area. The 2020 census recorded the population as 600,372, making it the second most populous county in the state and most populous "Wash ...

. They moved to West Tuality on the

, and taught there. This location would later become the town of Forest Grove, and Clarke would take a land claim at the location. In 1843, he was one of several participants from the Tualatin Valley that participated in the Champoeg Meetings. At the May 2, 1843, meeting, Clarke voted for 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 ...

, which passed by a 52 to 50 margin. In 1844, Clarke established a Congregational Church simple log churchin Forest Grove and another in

Oregon City ) , image_skyline = McLoughlin House.jpg , imagesize = , image_caption = The McLoughlin House, est. 1845 , image_flag = , image_seal = Oregon City seal.png , image_map ...

. The following year he served as one of several chaplains to the

.Oregon Legislative Assembly (4th Pre-Provisional) 1845 Meetings.
Oregon State Archives. Retrieved January 7, 2008. Clarke made his land claim in 1846 for about .
City of Forest Grove. Retrieved January 7, 2008.

Pacific University

In 1842, Clarke and his wife started a school for Native Americans at Glencoe in what is now Hillsboro to the east of Forest Grove.History of Pacific University.
Pacific University. Retrieved January 7, 2008. A few years later

Tabitha Moffatt Brown Tabitha Moffatt Brown (May 1, 1780 – May 4, 1858) was an American pioneer colonist who traveled the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Country. There she assisted in the founding of Tualatin Academy, which would grow to become Pacific University in F ...

arrived in Forest Grove and joined the Clarkes in operating a home for orphans. In 1848, George H. Atkinson arrived and began working with Clarke to create a college in Oregon, which was chartered by the

Oregon Territorial Legislature Oregon's Territorial Legislature was a bicameral legislative body created by the United States Congress in 1848 as the legislative branch of the government of the Oregon Territory. The upper chamber Council and lower chamber House of Representati ...

in 1849 as

. Clarke donated to the school that year, and deeded another . Tualatin Academy would grow with the addition of a college, Pacific University in 1854, while the academy would be closed in 1915. Marsh Hall at the school is situated where the three original land claims of the town’s founders met, including Clarke’s.

Later years

In 1849, he taught for a short time at the

Clackamas County Female Seminary The word Clackamas may refer to: * Clackamas people, a Native American people in what is now Oregon * The now extinct language spoken by the tribe, one of the Chinookan languages Named after tribe * The Clackamas River, a tributary of the Willa ...

. Clarke would also sell of his land claim and donate the proceeds to the school he helped to found.Bancroft, Hubert Howe. 1882. ''The works of Hubert Howe Bancroft''. San Francisco: A.L. Bancroft & Co. pp. 33-34. The Reverend Harvey L. Clarke died on March 25, 1858, at the age of 50 in Forest Grove.

References

External links

History of West Tuality
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Harvey L. Champoeg Meetings Methodist Mission in Oregon Pacific University people 1807 births 1858 deaths American Congregationalist missionaries People from Forest Grove, Oregon Oregon pioneers People from Chester, Vermont Congregationalist missionaries in the United States