The Reverend James Harvey Wilbur, a native of Lowville, New York, was called to missionary work in the Oregon and Washington territories in 1846. He soon made his way to the Willamette Valley, where he and his family all taught at the Oregon Institute for two years, during which time Wilbur was appointed principal due to the illness of Joseph Smith. He went on to serve for nearly 20 years as agent at the Yakama Indian Agency near Walla Walla in the Washington Territory, but remained on Willamette’s board of trustees, and served twice as temporary president: in 1857, when he was again a circuit rider in the Salem area, and in 1870, during a change in government policy that caused him to be temporarily dismissed as Indian agent.