EELLS, CUSHING
CUSHING (16 February 1810, Blandford, MA-17 February 1893, Tacoma, W A). Education: B.A. Williams College, 1834; B.D. East Windsor Theological Institute, CT, 1837. Career: agent for the American Board of Foreign Missions in Oregon Territory, 1838-48; schoolteacher and Congregationalist minister, OR and W A, 1848-93.
When Cushing Eells graduated from college, earnest young Congregationalists were taking their faith to places as remote as the Hawaiian Islands. What had been a New England religion was gaining converts across the nation and world. In the spirit of expansion, Eells planned at first to be a missionary among the Zulus in South Africa. But warfare there interrupted his plans, and he was sent instead to another remote locale, the Oregon Territory. He arrived in 1838, first visiting the mission begun by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and then moving on to minister among the Spokane Indians.
Eells was not adept at languages. While other missionaries were learning native tongues, devising alphabets, and translating the Bible, he preached simple Christianity through an interpreter and tried to set a good example in leading a Christian life. In an Indian uprising in 1847 the Whitmans were killed, but the Spokane tribe remained friendly. None the less, the mission was abandoned a year later. The mission board attempted to send Eells to Hawaii, but he preferred to stay in the Northwest. So he ended his association with the board and devoted the remainder of his'life to teaching and ministering on the frontier.
Eells taught in academies that became Whitman College and Pacific University. But he devoted most of his attention to scattered groups of unchurched Congregationalists, some of whom had not seen a minister for twenty years. Using his own funds he ministered without pay throughout Washington, built churches, and hired men to staff them. He once remarked, "I have believed the Scripture to such an extent that everything-soul, spirit, body, purse, house, land, horse, buggy-was laid on the altar of God." His "parishes" included Colfax, Medical Lake, Sprague, Half Moon, and Cheney in the eastern part of Washington Territory. He was the first Congregational minister to come to Oregon and he established the first Congregational Church in Washington. In 1883 the National Congregational Council characterized Eells as, "John the Baptist of the Home Missionary Society." Known affectionately as "Father Eells," he is a good example of the way that the Congregational Church of the 1800s entered the west almost as an afterthought, chasing the settlers.
Bibliography
B: DARB, 144-45; Myron Eells, Fat Mr Eells (Boston, 1894).
When Cushing Eells graduated from college, earnest young Congregationalists were taking their faith to places as remote as the Hawaiian Islands. What had been a New England religion was gaining converts across the nation and world. In the spirit of expansion, Eells planned at first to be a missionary among the Zulus in South Africa. But warfare there interrupted his plans, and he was sent instead to another remote locale, the Oregon Territory. He arrived in 1838, first visiting the mission begun by Marcus and Narcissa Whitman and then moving on to minister among the Spokane Indians.
Eells was not adept at languages. While other missionaries were learning native tongues, devising alphabets, and translating the Bible, he preached simple Christianity through an interpreter and tried to set a good example in leading a Christian life. In an Indian uprising in 1847 the Whitmans were killed, but the Spokane tribe remained friendly. None the less, the mission was abandoned a year later. The mission board attempted to send Eells to Hawaii, but he preferred to stay in the Northwest. So he ended his association with the board and devoted the remainder of his'life to teaching and ministering on the frontier.
Eells taught in academies that became Whitman College and Pacific University. But he devoted most of his attention to scattered groups of unchurched Congregationalists, some of whom had not seen a minister for twenty years. Using his own funds he ministered without pay throughout Washington, built churches, and hired men to staff them. He once remarked, "I have believed the Scripture to such an extent that everything-soul, spirit, body, purse, house, land, horse, buggy-was laid on the altar of God." His "parishes" included Colfax, Medical Lake, Sprague, Half Moon, and Cheney in the eastern part of Washington Territory. He was the first Congregational minister to come to Oregon and he established the first Congregational Church in Washington. In 1883 the National Congregational Council characterized Eells as, "John the Baptist of the Home Missionary Society." Known affectionately as "Father Eells," he is a good example of the way that the Congregational Church of the 1800s entered the west almost as an afterthought, chasing the settlers.
Bibliography
B: DARB, 144-45; Myron Eells, Fat Mr Eells (Boston, 1894).