appointment to work with the Osage Nation in the present state of Kansas. They had four more children born by 1846, Eliza, born in November 1837; Henry Hart; Martha Jane; and Amelia Lorene. Her daughter Eliza was the first white child born in Idaho. They also brought eight Nez Perce children into their family. In the Spring of 1838, after she had become a mother, Spalding made a commitment with fellow missionary Narcissa Whitman to spend the hour between 9 and 10 a.m. "to seek divine assistance discharging the responsible duties of mothers and for the early conversion of our children." This practice helped her feel connected to Whitman, who lived in Washington, and maintained the cultural practices she learned as she grew up about motherhood. In September 1838, Spalding, Whitman, and the newly arrived women missionaries—Myra Eells, Mary Walker, Mary Gray, and Sarah Smith—formed the Columbia Maternal Association. Missionary Journey The Spaldings joined a Presbyterian missionary party bound for Oregon Country (a large region of the Pacific Northwest) in the winter of 1835. They traveled by wagon train with fellow missionaries Narcissa and Marcus Whitman, who settled near the Walla Walla River, and William Henry Gray for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM). They were led and protected by fur traders from the Hudson's Bay Company and the American Fur Company. The Hudson's Bay Company forts sold supplies to the missionaries over the course of their journey. With Narcissa, the two were the first white women to cross the Continental Divide. Two markers pay tribute to the women, one near Daniel, Wyoming at the site of the Green River Rendezvous, where they were the first white female attendees from July 6 to July 18, 1836, and another along the Oregon Trail at Independence Rock near Lander, Wyoming. Establish mission The Spaldings arrived at their mission site on November 29, 1936. Initially they settled along Lapwai Creek, where they first lived in tipis while their first house was built. It was the first mission in Idaho. In January 1837, Spalding began teaching and Henry began preaching to the Nez Perce People. Her husband introduced irrigation farming, making the area the first agricultural settlement in Idaho. Spalding acclimated to a lifestyle that was remote and in many ways cut off from her family in the east. At that time, the Pacific Northwest was not part of the United