Cushing Eells
| Cushing Eells | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
February 16, 1810 Blandford, Massachusetts, US |
| Died | February 16, 1893 (aged 83) Tacoma, Washington, US |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Congregational Missionary |
Cushing Eells (February 16, 1810 – February 16, 1893) was an American Congregational church missionary, farmer and teacher on the Pacific coast of America in what are now the states of Oregon and Washington. His first mission in Washington State was unsuccessful. Eells and his family had to leave after the Native Americans massacred a group of neighboring missionaries. They spent the next fourteen years farming and teaching in Oregon, before returning to Washington, where Eells founded a seminary that later became the Whitman College. Eells continued to teach and preach in Washington for the remainder of his life.
Cushing Eells was born at Blandford, Massachusetts on February 16, 1810. His parents were Joseph Eells and Elizabeth Eells, née Warner. He attended Williams College, and graduated in 1834, then went on to the East Windsor Theological Institute (later the Hartford Seminary) in Connecticut, from which he graduated in 1837. During vacations from the seminary he taught school. While teaching in Holden he met his future wife Myra Fairbanks (born on May 26, 1805), the eldest daughter of Deacon Joshua and Sally Fairbanks.
In the spring of 1837 the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions appointed Cushing and his fiancee Myra as missionaries to the Zulus in southeast Africa. They were advised to postpone their marriage until the eve of their departure. Eells was ordained as a Congregational minister on October 25, 1837. After a tribal war broke out the plans had to change. On December 5, 1837 Cushing and Myra were asked if they would be willing to go to Oregon instead, and they accepted the offer.
On March 5, 1838 Eells married Myra Fairbanks in Massachusetts. The couple left the next day for the west coast with fellow-missionaries Elkanah Walker, William H. Gray, Asa Bowen Smith and their wives. On August 29, 1838 the party arrived at the winter lodge site of the Cayuse people at Waiilatpu on the Walla Walla River in what is now Washington State. The site would later be called the Whitman Mission after Dr. Marcus Whitman. The Eells and Walker families moved on to Tshimakain among the Spokanes. On September 16, 1838 Eells conducted the first Protestant service in Stevens County at Chewelah, preaching through an interpreter.
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