Jason Lee (1803 - 1845)

Born 28 Jun 1803 in Stanstead, Estrie Region, Quebec, Canada

Ancestors

Husband of Lucy (Thomson) Lee — married 28 Jul 1839 in Barre, Vermont, USA

Died 12 Mar 1845 at age 41 in Stanstead, Estrie Region, Quebec, Canada

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Biography

Jason Lee is Notable.

Jason Lee was involved in the westward expansion of the USA. See Trails and Wagon Trains.

Jason Lee was born in 1803. He converted to Methodism at 23. In 1834, he volunteered for a mission among the Flathead Indians. After about a 2000-mile trip, he and others on the mission wintered at Hudson's Bay Company's (HBC) fur trading station of Fort Vancouver. He then traveled to near Salem, Oregon. The mission proselyted to the indigenous peoples. He formed the Oregon Temperance Society in 1836. In 1838, he traveled east to promote the mission and statehood for Oregon. He advised leaders that if America were to control the area many of the laymen of the Mission would in time become permanent settlers. He spoke on tours throughout the United States along with a visit to his hometown in Canada to raise funds for the mission.

In 1844, he travel east to Washington D.C. and had conferences with both President John Tyler and Senator Thomas H. Benton. He later raised money for the Oregon Institute, (now Willamette University), a school he helped organize. He died in Canada in 1845. His remains were reinterred at the Lee Mission Cemetery in Salem, Oregon in 1906.

The house he occupied in 1841 remains preserved as part of the Willamette Heritage Center, formerly known as the Mission Mill Museum. He is one of two individuals from the State of Oregon honored in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C. Another statue resides on the grounds of the Oregon State Capitol.

Sources

• U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2012 Lehi, UT, USA Record Collection 60525, Find A Grave: Memorial #5986416.
• Jason Lee, https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/lee_jason/
• Diary of Rev. Jason Lee, https://www.oregonhistoryproject.org/articles/rev-jason-lees-diary/
• U.S., Newspapers.com Marriage Index, 1800s-current Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations Inc 2020 Lehi, UT, USA Record Collection 62116
• Vermont, U.S., Vital Records, 1720-1908 Ancestry.com Publication: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2013 Lehi, UT, USA Record Collection 4661 State of Vermont. Vermont Vital Records through 1870. New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
• Willamette Valley, Oregon, U.S., Death Records, 1838-2006 Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. 2012 Provo, UT, USA Record Collection 2468 Note: Death, Burial, and Obituary Collection. Salem, Oregon: Willamette Valley Genealogical Society.
• Jason Lee Statue, https://www.aoc.gov/explore-capitol-campus/art/jason-lee-statue.

See also:

• Wikipedia: Missionary Jason Lee
• Wikidata: Item Q195572, en:Wikipedia