Lot
1028 
(Oregon Missionary Mail) "Kamiah Oregon, Aug. 21st 1840", dateline on folded letter with integral address leaf from Rev. Asa B. Smith to Isaac Goodsill at Woodbridge Ct., probably carried via Hawaii and around Cape Horn to Philadelphia, entered the mails in 1841 with blue "Philadelphia Pa. Sep 30" cds and matching "Ship" straightline and red manuscript "20¾" rating for the 18¾¢ inland rate to Conn. plus 2¢ ship fee, red "New Haven Ct. Oct 2" transit cds, total transit time was over 13 months, Very Fine. Estimate $3,000 - 4,000.
A REMARKABLE EARLY OREGON MISSION LETTER CARRIED AROUND CAPE HORN VIA PHILADELPHIA AND NEW HAVEN.
Rev. Asa B. Smith was one of the first American missionaries to the Nez Perces tribe of Indians in Oregon Territory. He founded the Kamiah Mission in 1838, which was located in the narrow valley of the Clearwater River in current day Idaho. He maintained the mission only two years, abandoning it in 1840 because of disillusionment and his sick wife, Sarah Gilbert White Smith, one of six white women to make the 1,900 mile overland journey over the Rocky Mountains to Oregon riding side-saddle on horseback.
The letter back home to the Reverend's friend precludes his leaving, starts with "Yours of Aug. /39 together with your children's came safe to hand July 2d.", and he continues "Alas, I am in a land of darkness, where the human mind is degraded & debased, & ignorance, such as cannot be realized in a christian land, abounds. It is to such minds that I attempt to unfold the blessed gospel…Our friends at home have no idea of the ignorance of the heathen & of the difficulty of bringing the gospel to bear on their minds. You can get no adequate idea of the degradation of mind which exists in a heathen country by comparing the people with the most ignorant in the States…" His postscript mentions his wife Sarah's health "P.S. Mrs S's health has been feeble for more than a year past. The hardships & exposures have been too much for her. Last autumn it became evident that her spine was affected…".
Realized: $3,500