Wilbur, James H.

James Harvey Wilbur was born in Lowville, New York on September 11, 1811. He married Lucretia Anne Stevens on March 9, 1831, and soon after they converted to Methodism at a camp revival meeting. Wilbur was admitted on trial to the Black River Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church the following year, and served as a circuit-riding missionary in upstate New York until he received a letter on September 26, 1846, calling him to the Oregon Mission. A month later, Wilbur and his family sailed on the ship Whiton to the Oregon Territories. Wilbur documented this trip in his journal. A published version of the journal is titled "Travels of J.H. Wilbur: journal written from September 27, 1846 to January 25, 1848 from New York around Cape Horn to the Oregon Institute and the onset of his Methodist mission work in Oregon Territory."

Upon arriving in Oregon, Wilbur traveled to the Willamette Valley, where he became principal of the Oregon Institute, predecessor of Willamette University, in 1848. For the next two years, Wilbur, his wife, and daughter Ann taught at the school.

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