[headstone reads] Reverend Elkanah Walker, born at Yarmouth ME Aug. 2, 1805, died at Forest Grove, Oregon Nov. 21, 1822. He helped establish the Tualatin Academy in Forest Grove
A portrait of Elkanah Walker (1805-1877), one of the earliest missionaries in the Oregon Territory. Elkanah and his wife, Mary Richardson Walker, arrived at the Whitman Mission at Waiilatpu in 1838. They attempted to convert Spokane Natives at their own mission, Tshimakain, between 1839-1849. After their friends the Whitmans were killed, they evacuated to the northwest end of the Willamette Valley, at what would later be the town of Forest Grove. They helped to found Tualatin Academy and Pacific University soon thereafter, donating a portion of the land upon which the university lies. Several of the Walkers’ children (Cyrus Hamlin, Abigail Boutwell, Marcus Whitman, Joseph Elkanah, Jeremiah, John Richardson, Levi Chamberlin and Samuel Thompson) became missionaries and Indian Agents.
Portrait of Reverend Elkanah Walker, a Congregationalist missionary who spent much of the latter part of his life in Forest Grove, where he helped found Tualatin Academy and Pacific University.
Photo of a wooden church with a bell tower and steeple. The church has a gabled roof with three large windows with colored panes in a row down the visible side. The front has two levels of double-hung, paned windows which bracket a protruding, square bell tower. A covered porch with square carved columns and an arched pediment further extends from the building. Steps lead down to a boardwalk that runs across a grassy field to the church. Bare oak trees bracket the image front and more can be seen in the right of the image. The bell tower has windows in the second and third stories of its front, and is topped by a square belfry with louvered windows a four-sided steeple rises further and is topped by a small cross.
