Spalding, Henry Harmon, 1803-1874

Reverend Henry Harmon Spalding, pioneer Presbyterian missionary in the Oregon Territory, was born on November 26, 1803 in New York. In 1836, after successfully applying for an appointment under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Spalding traveled overland to Oregon with his first wife, Eliza Hart Spalding, and Marcus and Narcissa Whitman. Later that year he founded the Nez Percé Indian mission at Lapwai, where he remained until the Whitman Massacre in 1847. Shortly after the massacre, Spalding moved to Brownsville, Oregon and served as school commissioner, postmaster, and Indian agent. In 1853, after the death of Eliza Hart Spalding (d. 1851), he married Rachel Jane Smith. Henry Spalding returned to the Lapwai mission in 1871 and served the Nez Percé Indians until his death on August 3, 1874.

Henry Harmon Spalding and his wife, Eliza Hart Spalding, went to Oregon in 1836 with Elkanah and Mary Walker to join Marcus Whitman and establish a mission at Clearwater among the Nez Percé Indians.

Henry Harmon Spalding (1803-1874), Protestant missionary among the Nez Percé Indians.

Henry Harmon Spalding , pioneer Presbyterian missionary to the Oregon Territory, was born in New York and graduated from Western Reserve College in 1833. He married Eliza Hart that year and entered Lane Theological Seminary. After his graduation in 1835, he applied for work under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In 1836, Henry and Eliza Spalding along with the Whitmans, immigrated to the Columbia River Plateau region. Mrs. Spalding and Mrs. Whitman were the first women to cross the continental divide by the Oregon Trail. The Spaldings set up their mission near today's city of Lewiston, Idaho. Many of the Nez Perce were dissatisfied with Spalding's missionary discipline; the whip was used injudiciously. However, his accomplishments with the Nez Perce were significant. He was mostly successful as a missionary; he developed a written form of the Nez Perce language; he translated the book of Matthew to Nez Perce; he printed and distributed the translation to the Indians; he taught the Indians how to irrigate their land; and he brought potato cultivation to the Indians.

Christian missionary to the Nez Percé Indians of Idaho.

Henry H. Spalding was a Presbyterian missionary who arrived in the Oregon Territory in 1836 and was involved in work with Native Americans until his death in 1872. He is best known for his role as a missionary to the the Nez Perce at Lapwai, Idaho. A chronology of some significant events in his life follows:

Reverend Henry Harmon Spalding, pioneer Presbyterian missionary to the Oregon Territory, was born on November 26, 1803 in New York. In 1825 he entered Franklin Academy, and in 1831 he enrolled in Western Reserve College, graduating in 1833. On October 13 of that year he married Eliza Hart (born in Connecticut, July 11, 1807) with whom he would have four children, Eliza, Henry Hart, Martha, and Amelia. Also in 1833 he entered Lane Theological Seminary, and following the completion of his studies in 1835 he applied for work under the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In the summer of 1836, Henry and Eliza Spalding crossed the continent with Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and established a mission to the Nez Percé Indians at Lapwai.

In 1847, following the Whitman massacre, the Spaldings moved to Brownsville, Oregon Territory. There Henry Spalding farmed, taught school, preached at the local Presbyterian church, and served as school commissioner, postmaster, and Indian agent. Eliza Spalding died in Brownsville on 1851 January 7. Her husband remarried in 1853 to Rachel Jane Smith. He returned to the Nez Percé country in 1859, taking up farming on the Touchet. In 1863 he went back to Lapwai, and from then until 1866 he was the local Indian agent. He made an overland trip to the East in 1870, returning to Lapwai in 1871. There he served the Indians until his death on August 3, 1874.

Henry H. Spalding was an early Presbyterian missionary in the Pacific Northwest who worked from the 1830s to the 1870s. He is best known for his work with the Nez Perce at Lapwai and for being zealously anti-Catholic. After the Whitman massacre in 1847, he moved to Oregon, where he lived in several locations including Forest Grove and Brownsville. He returned to the Nez Perce lands in 1859 and divided his years thereafter between missionary work, travel, and time back in Oregon.

In 1855, Spalding served as the president of the Preble Wigwam, which was a local chapter of the Order of the Star Spangled Banner. This was a secret society for adherents of the American Party, also called the "Know-Nothings." They were an anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant, nativist party that arose in the Northeastern United States in the early 1850s. The Preble Wigwam held its meetings at various locations in the southern part of the Willamette Valley, including at Spalding's house.

In 1873, a Protestant member of the Spokane Tribe known as "Spokane Garry" became concerned about Catholic influence in his area. Garry sent several other Spokane Indians to see Spalding in Lapwai, asking him to visit the Spokanes. Spalding, who was then 70 years old, undertook a 3-week tour of the Spokane lands, baptising more than 100 people (see Ruby & Brown, p.160).