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Myron Eells Papers

 Collection — Folder: MS File Box 2
Identifier: MS-76

Scope and Contents note

This collection includes 8 letters, mostly outgoing correspondence written by Myron Eells. The letters mainly concern his scholarly work, and his work as a member of the Pacific University Board of Trustees. Also included in this collection are three anti-slavery pamphlets that probably belonged to Myron Eells.

Dates

  • 1850-1897

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Pacific University owns the copyright to some, but not all, of the materials housed in its archives. Copyright for materials authored or otherwise produced as official business of Pacific University is retained by Pacific University and requires its permission for publication. Copyright status for other collection materials varies. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Biographical Note

Myron Eells was born to pioneer missionaries Cushing and Myra Eells in 1843. He was born near what is now Spokane, Washington, but the family relocated to the Willamette Valley after the Whitman Massacre in 1849. In 1859, Cushing Eells and his family returned to eastern Washington Territory and founded what is now Whitman College, in honor of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman.

Myron Eells returned to Oregon to attend Pacific University, and graduated in 1866 with his A.M. He then went home to Walla Walla to work on his father’s farm, but after two years went to the Northeast to study for the ministry. He graduated from Hartford Theological Seminary in Connecticut in 1871. He returned to the Northwest upon graduation, and led the Congregational Church in Boise, Idaho for a few years. In 1874, Eells moved to the Skokomish Reservation on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington Territory, and he lived there the rest of his life, working as a missionary and documenting the cultures and languages of the tribes he worked with in Washington. He wrote many articles, books, and pamphlets on the subject, and obtained a large collection of Native American artifacts and books on Northwest history.

Eells served on the Board of Trustees for both Whitman College and his alma mater, Pacific University. At the end of his life, he donated most of his personal papers and his personal library to Whitman College, which provided vital support to the institution his father founded.

Extent

1 folders (1 folder)

Language of Materials

English

Summary

Myron Eells, born in Oregon in 1843, was a missionary at the Skokomish Reservation in Washington, and a trustee of both Pacific University and Whitman College. This collection includes 7 letters by Eells, mostly related to Pacific University, and 3 anti-slavery pamphlets that may have belonged to him.

Location

Housed in MS File Box 2.

Accruals

No accruals are expected.

Separated Materials

A collection of copies of letters from Catherine Sager Pringle were separated from these documents and papers. The letters document the correspondence which Catherine Pringle had with H. H. Spalding, Myron Eells and W. H. Gray as she worked to collect information about the Whitman family and the Whitman Massacre. Mrs. Pringle was one of the survivors of the massacre and later settled in Oregon.

Creator

Title
Guide to the Myron Eells Papers
Status
Completed
Author
Lindsay Prescott Zaborowski
Date
2012
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.
Sponsor
Sponsored by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission

Repository Details

Part of the Pacific University Archives Repository

Contact:
2043 College Way
Forest Grove OR 97116 United States