Images From the Attic: Oregon promoter Hall Kelley: Hero or rascal?

Reading and rereading the 1814 Nicholas Biddle edition of “The Journals of Lewis & Clark” sparked a New England schoolteacher’s vision of the Oregon Country as an Eden, turning him into a fanatic promoter. As early as 1817, Hall J. Kelley endorsed the colonization of the area. Later, he founded the American Society for Encouraging the Settlement of Oregon.

In 1830 to assist Oregon’s colonization, Hall published his crazy vision as “A Geographical Sketch of that Part of North America, called Oregon.” Although he had never visited Oregon, he proclaimed the mountains “conspicuous and sublime,” the climate “salubrious,” and the land with sufficient “natural facilities” for labor. Like many evangelists, his vision often trumped fact.

Early in life, Kelley accepted divine command fearlessly. P