Willson, Chloe Aurelia Clarke, 1818-1874
Biographical notes:
Chloe Aurelia Clarke was born in Connecticut on April 16, 1818. She received her academic training at Wilbraham Academy, a seminary that specialized in training Methodist missionaries for service around the world. In 1839 she joined other Methodists on the ship “Lausanne” traveling to the Oregon Territory as part of the “Great Reinforcement” movement led by Jason Lee.
Following her arrival in Oregon in May, 1840, Clarke was sent to the Washington Territory to teach at the mission station in Nisqually, Puget Sound. There she met Dr. William Willson, whom she married in August, 1840. In June, 1841 the Willsons moved to the mission station at Wallamette Falls (Oregon City), Oregon, where they worked for three years. The Willsons moved to the Willamette Valley in 1844, where they contributed to the work of creating the educational and cultural community of Salem, Oregon.
One reason for their move was that Chloe Willson was asked to be the first teacher at the Oregon Institute, founded by Jason Lee and a board of dirctors in 1842. When the Oregon Institute opened in August 1844, Chloe Willson was both teacher and housemother for five primary grade students. Within two years the student body numbered twenty. In 1846, William was chosen by the Board of Trustees to serve, along with three other men, as a business agent and manage the Institute’s land holdings. In this position, under the direction of the board, William drew up the first plat for the town and gave the town the name Salem.
Chloe Willson taught at the Oregon Institute, which was subsequently named Willamette University, until 1847. William served on the University Board and ran a pharmacy in downtown Salem. After William’s death in 1856, Chloe Willson went back east, put her daughters in school, and opened her home to students to help with the costs.
In 1863 she returned to Willamette University where she served as the Governess of the Ladies Department for the next three years. In 1871 Chloe Willson moved to Portland, Oregon to live with her daughter, Frances and her son-in-law, Joseph Gill. Three years later Chloe died, July 2, 1874. She is buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Salem, Oregon, next to her husband.
From the guide to the Chloe Clarke Willson journal, 1839-1840, 1841-1849, (Willamette University University Archives and Special Collections)
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Subjects:
- Lausanne (Ship)
Occupations:
Places:
- Oregon Territory (as recorded)
- Sandwich Islands (as recorded)
