Below: Tabitha Brown was proclaimed the "Mother of Oregon" in 1987 by the Oregon Legislature. Image courtesy of Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR.
Below: Tualatin Acadamy buildings.
Tabitha Moffat Brown — A Pilgrim in the Wide World
by Mary Jo Morelli
Despite her children’s protests, in 1846, 66-year-old Tabitha Moffatt Brown joined a wagon train from Missouri to Oregon. Tabitha had made up her mind: She would travel with most of her family to a land that so intrigued her son.
The journey took far longer then the family anticipated and left them near starvation. Deep into the trip, they were abandoned by a man they hired to lead them on what he billed as the Applegate Trail short cut. They lost almost everything but eventually made it to Salem, arriving on Christmas day of 1846.
With her last six cents, the ever-resourceful Tabitha bought three needles and traded some clothes for buckskin. Thus began her first business of fashioning gloves for the men and women of her adopted state.
Tabitha Brown, who taught school in the Midwest to support her family after her husband died, joined with Rev. Harvey Clark to build a home and school for orphans in Salem. She also helped start the Tualatin Academy in Forest Grove to educate young children. The academy’s charter later expanded to launch Pacific University.
Many came to know the small frail woman with a big heart as “The Mother of Oregon.”
Tabitha Brown’s eloquent writings provide insight into the remarkable woman who moved through life's “vicissitudes and dangers” with dignity, grace and no small amount of determination and fortitude.
Tabitha’s depiction of Forest Grove is one that is still accurate today. Read this excerpt and then take a drive. Approach Forest Grove from the north or south and think about her words:
“... Now I must give you a short description of the beautiful scenery of this delightful and healthful country. The whole of Oregon is delightful, especially the plains, of which there are many, but this West Tualatin is the most beautiful of all others. The outskirts of the plain are circled around with hills, a few miles distant, covering their summits with fine bunch grass, fir and oak timber. Near to the edge, the plain is circled clear around with beautiful fir trees, green all the year, standing three hundred feet high. In front of them, in contrast with the green, there are large spreading oaks casting their shade over the farmers’ white houses, as there are many in full view. Grass is green here all winter, and cattle get their living without being fed. Snow seldom lies on the ground longer than a few days...”
The 300-foot Douglas fir may be gone but many other features remain. The purpose here is to experience the world as Tabitha Brown saw it. She loved Oregon! She was happy on the West Tualatin Plains and was happy with her decision to emigrate. In another letter she describes spring in Oregon to her niece in Ohio.
“... the earth has been carpeted all winter with green, and beautiful flowers of every hue and colour rise above, dancing in the breeze and glittering in the sunbeams...”
Tabitha Brown did regret the great distance between herself and family who did not make the trip. Her son Manthano and his family remained in Missouri, and she maintained correspondence with her brother and his family in Ohio. In May of 1854 Tabitha wrote her granddaughter Mary Brown in Missouri.
“I occasionally have an opportunity of seeing letters sent from Missouri to the friends in Oregon. I pity their blindness - they have no knowledge of any other place in this world and believe that that miserable, sickly, frozen place is paradise. They have no conception or idea of the advantages, growth, and beauty of Oregon.”
There is a transcendent quality to her writing as displayed by this letter to her niece Mary Moffat:
“Not withstanding that we are absent in the flesh, not a day has passed since I received your last letter that I have not been with you, though not seen, ... Oh, that it were possible for me to fly, like Peter Parley, in his dreams, across the Rocky Mountains!” (Peter Parley was a character in a series of books by Samuel G. Goodrich (1793 - 1860).
Tabitha Brown corresponded with many, including S. H. Marsh, first president of Pacific University. He credits her with keeping him from becoming dispirited in the consuming task of leading the new school in its early years. He even encouraged her to travel east at the age of 74 to raise funds on behalf of Pacific University. She wrote many letters, some of which were published in eastern newspapers. However, she never made the trip to see family and friends she remembered so fondly.
In 1856 Tabitha wrote the following to her niece:
“How delighted I should be, dear niece, if you and I were so near that we might enjoy each other’s society. There is great disparity of age between us, yet, notwithstanding my advanced age, I still retain the lively habits of youth. I am thankful that I was blessed with a cheerful disposition, for I heartily believe that this is a tendency to prolong life; whereas, a gloomy, desponding being will cut short the thread of life many years.”
In a letter Tabitha wrote in 1854, labeled ‘the Brimfield Letter,’ she describes her own and fellow travelers sufferings on the South Road (aka, the Applegate Trail or the Scott-Applegate Trail); her arrival in Salem; finding her only remaining money, a coin that she had thought to be a button in the finger of her glove; and her reminiscence of a conversation with Rev. Harvey Clark that resulted in a school. The adventures, phrasing and spirit of the Brimfield Letter and all of her correspondence -- much of which was published in the Brown Family History II (Judith Young & Celista Platz, 1992) -- tell us a great deal about this “pilgrim in the wide world” as she called herself.
About the author:
Mary Jo Morelli is an avid Washington County historical researcher who is especially interested in educational history. Mary Jo, who lives in Forest Grove, is a native Oregonian descended from a pioneer family that settled in east Multnomah County in 1852. She is a founding member of Friends of Historic Forest Grove.
