A portrait of Myron Eells (1843-1907). This photograph was taken at the I. G. Davidson Studio in Tacoma, WA, which was active between 1886-1891.
Eells was born at the Tshimakain Mission near modern Spokane, WA, in 1843. His parents were the missionaries Cushing and Myra Eells. The family relocated to Forest Grove, OR in in 1848. Myron's father moved back to eastern Washington in the early 1860s, where he founded Whitman College. Myron Eells remained in Forest Grove, graduating from Pacific University in 1866. After studying to become a minister, he moved to the Skokomish Reservation in 1874, where his brother Edwin Eells was the Indian Agent. While working there as a missionary, Myron became a well-known historian and ethnologist, collecting hundreds of Native American artifacts and early Pacific Northwest manuscripts and books. He published numerous works on Native American language and culture. Myron also served as a trustee of Pacific University for many years and wrote one of the first histories of Pacific University in 1902. He died in 1907.
A newsprint copy of two portraits of Elkanah Walker (1805-1877) and Mary Richardson Walker (1811-1897). The Walkers were among the earliest missionaries in the Oregon Territory. The couple arrived at the Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu in 1838. They attempted to convert Spokane Natives at their own mission, Tshimakain, between 1839-1849. After their friends the Whitmans were killed, they evacuated to the northwest end of the Willamette Valley, at what would later be the town of Forest Grove. They helped to found Tualatin Academy and Pacific University soon thereafter, donating a portion of the land upon which the university lies. Several of the Walkers’ children later became missionaries and Indian Agents. Mary and Elkanah lived in Forest Grove until their deaths. This copy of their portraits, evidently clipped from a newspaper, appears to have been donated to Pacific University by the Eells Family, who also lived at Tshimakain in the 1830s-40s. The original portraits upon which this copy was made is also in the Pacific University Archives; see PUApic_010688 and PUApic_008396.
A later-life portrait of Mary Richardson Walker (1811-1897), one of the earliest missionaries in the Oregon Territory. Mary and her husband, Reverend Elkanah Walker, arrived at the Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu in 1838. They attempted to convert Spokane Natives at their own mission, Tshimakain, between 1839-1849. After their friends the Whitmans were killed, they evacuated to the northwest end of the Willamette Valley, at what would later be the town of Forest Grove. They helped to found Tualatin Academy and Pacific University soon thereafter, donating a portion of the land upon which the university lies. Several of the Walkers’ children (Cyrus Hamlin, Abigail Boutwell, Marcus Whitman, Joseph Elkanah, Jeremiah, John Richardson, Levi Chamberlin and Samuel Thompson) became missionaries and Indian Agents. This portrait, which is a later copy of an original, was probably taken around the 1880s when Mary was in her 70s.
Portrait of George H. Atkinson, a missionary who helped to found Tualatin Academy. This image is an etching and was probably based on a photograph that was taken circa the 1860s. See related image in the Pacific University Archives, PUApic_008216.
