|
Anna Maria Pittman Lee, the first wife of Methodist missionary
Jason Lee, died in childbirth on June 24, 1838, while her
husband was enroute to the East Coast in search of more support
for the growing Oregon mission. On March 17, 1839 while the
widower mission superintendent was touring and lecturing in
the eastern conferences, he met Lucy Thompson in Montpelier,
Vermont.
Lucy Thompson, a native of Vermont, was born on March 10,
1809 at Barre Lower Village. She began her religious studies
at the Newbury Seminary in 1836 and was valedictorian of her
graduating class in November 1838. Her professor, a classmate
of Jason Lee, told his friend about Lucy and showed Lee a
copy of her address. Their meeting led to a brief courtship
with Lucy marrying Lee just four months later in July 1839.
In autumn of that same year, they sailed together on the "Lausanne,"
bound for Oregon.
The second Mrs. Lee's life at the pioneer mission was
short. She died of pleurisy on March 20, 1842, less
than two years after her arrival. She was survived by her
newborn daughter, Lucyanna, only three weeks old at
the time of her death. Lucyanna was cared for
by Lydia Hines, wife of Reverend Gustavus Hines, who
had recently lost an infant daughter of their own.
In 1844 Jason Lee and his daughter, Lucyanna, accompanied
by Reverend and Mrs. Gustavus Hines, left Oregon for Hawaii,
on the first leg of their return to the United States for
negotiations with the Methodist sponsors of the Oregon Mission.
Because passage for all three adults was not available from
Honolulu, Lee returned alone to the eastern United States.
Some months later, Lucyanna returned to Oregon with
Reverend and Mrs. Hines.
Two years later, the Reverend and Mrs. Hines, accompanied
by Lucyanna, sailed to New York, intending to return the girl
to her father. Only upon their arrival did they receive
the news that Jason Lee had passed away March 12, 1845. In
his will he had entrusted the care of his daughter to the
loving care of Reverend and Mrs. Hines.
In 1853, when she was eleven years old, Lucyanna returned
to Oregon with Reverend Hines. She graduated from Willamette
University with the class of 1863 and became a teacher there,
being one of a staff of five instructors in 1865. When Chloe
Willson retired from the position of Governess, or Dean of
Women, at the end of that school year, Lucyanna Lee
succeeded her.
Lucyanna married Francis H. Grubbs, a classmate and fellow
instructor. Their only child was a daughter, Ethel.
Lucyanne's students described her as being tall, with
a slender, and stately appearance, her hair braided and wound
around her head. A woman of superior knowledge, she was reserved
and dignified, and a most devout Christian. A gifted teacher
in many disciplines, her students recalled how they sat around
a fire on winter days, eating their lunch while Mrs. Grubbs
read aloud her favorite poem, "Evangeline."
Exacting in her instruction and her expectations of her students,
they also recalled she could be amusing, even slightly sarcastic
at times, when calling a student’s attention back to
the lesson.
As Professor and Mrs. Grubbs, and daughter Ethel, entered
the 1870s, Salem was no longer a pioneer mission settlement.
Several hundred homes on tree-lined streets housed the population
of over a thousand citizens. There were numerous commercial
enterprises, a railway line to Portland, steamboats on the
Willamette River, eight churches, five schools, three drug
stores, and thirteen saloons.
Professor Grubbs taught at Willamette University for six
years and then in several other schools in the Pacific
Northwest until poor health forced him out of his profession.
The family moved to several cities Grubbs took part in various
enterprises, finally going into a printing business in Portland.
Lucyanna Lee Grubbs died in 1881 at the age of 39.
Professor Grubbs raised their daughter Ethel with care. He
died in 1911 when Ethel was an adult woman in her thirties.
Since Ethel did not marry, the Jason Lee family line
did not survive into another generation.
Compiled by Virginia Green.
Bibliography:
Helen Krebs Smith. With Her Own Wings.
Pages 73 to 75. Portland: Beatie & Company,1948
Gatke, Robert Moulton. Chronicles of Willamette.
Pages 245 to 249. Portland: Binford & Mort, 1943.
|
