Laura....my husband's grandfather was a Methodist "circuit riding preacher" in the Puget Sound Conference of the Methodist episcopal Church (all of Western Washington). Try contacting - General Commission on Archives and History, The United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 127, Madison, New Jersey 07940. Fax 973-408-3909. I no longer have the e-mail address & can't locate the site any more. Your minister was 30 years earlier than my husband's, so they may not have much on him, but is worth a try. Unfortunately, they charge $25 for a search of records. We got a copy of his obit from the 1927 minutes of the Annual conference. Kathy ----- Original Message ----- From: Laura Chushcoff <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2000 11:22 PM Subject: Methodists background Hi I enjoyed the minister's story from Oregon. My gggrandfather John Jackson Galloway was a circuit riding minister (Methodist) coming to the Heppner, Morrow Co. area in he 1860's. He settled in Waitsburg, WA. I am trying to find information on Rev. Lee A. Johnson from Walla Walla. He appears in the newspapers in 1906 from Walla Walla. Ada Fine married L.E. Johnson. Rev Johnson had property in Sunnyside. All have the Episcopal Methodist background. Is there a way to find what seminaries or colleges they might have attended in Oregon or in the 1850-60's in Iowa, Illinois, etc.? Laura GALLOWAY, FUDGE, TURNER, GIBSON, PORTER, TEEL, KIRBY, HALES, FINE, JOHNSON -----Original Message----- From: Stephen Clark [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 3:01 PM To: [email protected] Subject: An Oregon Pioneer's Story The Family of Rev. Jonathan Snow Tibbetts of Manchester, Dearborn Co., Indiana, Oakland, and Portland, Oregon Rev. Jonathan S. Tibbetts of Manchester township, Dearborn Co., Indiana, and of Oakland, Oregon, (1852) later of Portland, Oregon, was a pioneer Methodist minister, born 17Apr.1804, in Penobscot Co., Maine, some 17 mi. west of Bangor, died 23Jun188, in East Portland, buried in Lone Fir Cemetery. Rev. Tibbetts was the son of Benjamin and Hannah (Snow) Tibbetts. He married Mary Redding of Versailles, Ripley Co., Indiana, in 1830. Rev. Tibbetts, when about 30 years of age, was ordained at Whitewater, Indiana, by Bishop Cavanaugh of Kentucky, as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He preached for many years in Indiana. The following account of trek to Oregon was given by his daughter Sarah (Tibbetts) Gouldin and is posted here by his descendent Stephen Clark. ³In 1851 he removed with his family from Manchester, Indiana, spending the winter in Oquawka, Illinois, and, in March, 1852, starting from Fort Madison, Iowa, he commenced the long, tedious overland journey to Oregon with his wife and eight children. He commanded the wagon train in which the trip was made across the plains. They traveled in a caravan, with ox-teams, enduring many hardships and being eight months on the way before they reached Portland. Among other traveling companions were the families of John Tucker Scott and Dr. Justin Millard. Crossing the desert, they journeyed by night, owing to the intense heat. They never traveled on the Sabbath Day. On that day Rev. Jonathan Tibbetts held services morning and evening, and preached to hundreds of pilgrims journeying on the same mission as themselves; to make a home in the far west. He made many converts on his way across the continent. Upon reaching the Snake River, where most of the caravans crossed, his party, of 17 wagons and about 25 men, chose a shorter route and, by so doing, encountered the village of the Snake River Indians, who were by no means willing to allow them to continue on their way unmolested. There were about eight hundred Indians, men, women, and children, and they were determined to rob the travelers of their animals, provisions, etc., and did everything they could to make the little party start a fight. Their Chief understood English, and Rev. Tibbetts stood on the wagon-tongue for three hours or more, preaching to the Indians and holding them at bay, the Chief translating to his tribe, telling them that they (the Pioneers) positively refused to have any trouble ... that he was a missionary preacher, and if they gave any trouble, the Government would punish them... that Fort Boise, Idaho, government barracks was only fifty miles away, and was sending out soldiers to meet them ... the courier had passed them the day before with an appeal from the emigrants, to the commander of the Fort, to send soldiers and provisions. The Indians followed them for miles, taunting them and doing everything they could to hinder their journey, until two or three hours before the appearance of the soldiers. Their scouts (the Indians) gave the signal and they disappeared. Rev.Jonathan S. Tibbetts and family spent a part of the year, 1852, in Portland, and then moved to the Umpq ua Valley, settling near Oakland on the Calapooia, the Rev. buying a farm from an Indian. Here he took up his missionary work, he being the only minister in fifty miles, the first in the Umpqua Valley Circuit. He had a large district to cover, the population being so scattered; among them Indians, French, and half-breeds. He often rode horseback twenty miles Sunday morning to preach, returning at night. On these trips he was accompanied by his twelve-year-old daughter, Sarah, who taught Sabbath School and learned the Chinook jargon in order to teach the Indians. After the Indian War of 1855 the country settled very rapidly and a better class of people came to that locality. He is said to have made more converts than anyone in that part of the state. Rev. Jonathan S. Tibbetts was closely associated, in southern Oregon, with such interesting personages as Rev. Robert Booth, I.D. Driver, and Elder Wilbur, with whom he helped to build the first collage (Wilbur Seminary) in that part of the state. He spent the last years of his life in Portland, where he died at the age of eighty-one, having been in the work of the ministry forty-five years, and preaching until within two years of his death. His wife was a great help and inspiration to him in his work. She was a woman of strength and good health and had a great magnetic influence. Her home was open house to the weary traveler and she entertained all who came that way. Rev. Jonathan S. and Mary (Redding) Tibbetts had ten children, all but the last two being born in Manchester township, Dearborn Co., Indiana. i. Elizabeth Jane, b. 16Dec.1832 ii. Mary Eliza, b. 16Feb.1835 iii. Francis Marion, b. 2Nov.1837 iv. Sarah Emily, b. 28Feb.1840 v. Sophia Ellen, b. 16Jun.1842 vi. Albert Thomas, b. 16Dec.1844 vii. Flora Ann, b. 23Oct.1847 viii. Lois V., b. 19Sept.1850 ix. Oregon Andrew, b. 25Dec.1853 x. Jonathan Edward, b. 11Nov.1856