Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana . lished the Mission in the Bitter Root Valley. The earliest Protestant missionaries in the Northwest,the Lees of the Methodist Church in 1834, the Whitmansand Spauldings of the Presbyterian Church in 1835, wentbeyond the present boundaries of Montana to labor amongthe Indians of Oregon, these missions being the direct resultof the search that had been instituted by the FlatheadIndians for the great book of the White Man. In 1857 a Presbyterian minister and his wife came up theMissouri River to Fort Benton for the purpose of establish
Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana . lished the Mission in the Bitter Root Valley. The earliest Protestant missionaries in the Northwest,the Lees of the Methodist Church in 1834, the Whitmansand Spauldings of the Presbyterian Church in 1835, wentbeyond the present boundaries of Montana to labor amongthe Indians of Oregon, these missions being the direct resultof the search that had been instituted by the FlatheadIndians for the great book of the White Man. In 1857 a Presbyterian minister and his wife came up theMissouri River to Fort Benton for the purpose of establish-ing a mission among the Indians. In July, 1897, when V. Moore, then pastor of the First PresbyterianChurch of Helena, was preparing his Sketch of the Be-ginnings of Presbyterianism in JMontana, he received let-ters from two old-timers who lived in Montana in the Jacob Schmidt, then living near Browning, Teton Coun-ty, wrote: I knew the person to whom you refer. He was a Pro-testant minister and came up the Missouri River with me. REV. GEORGE GRANTHAM SMITH.*?Deceased November 30, 1898. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH HISTORY. 291 in 1857, with liis wife, as far as Fort Benton, to do mission-ary work. He did not stay long, only about ten days, and his wifegot homesick, so they sold the furniture they had and wentback by Walla Alalia, Oregon, as they did not want to takeany chances by going back on the Missouri, as the Indianswere very treacherous. He was a man about 5 feet 6 inches in height, blue eyesand sandy mustache. He was a German, as he talked withme on our trip and he was a very pleasant, jolly man. Everyone liked him that met him. I have forgotten his name. Thepeople who came on the boat at the same time were FatherDe Smet, Mr. Dawson, General Warren, and Mr. Kipp,father of John Kipp of Blackfoot, and the rest of the peoplewere all young and I did not know any of them. ^ I had a talk with Mr. Schmidt at Shelby on February 26^1907, and he confirmed the above stat
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