Henry Harmon Spaulding and his wife Eliza started a mission in Idaho where Lapwai Creek flowed into the Clearwater River. They worked with the Whitmans as missionaries. First they journeyed to Fort Vancouver. Eliza and Narcissa Whitman where the first white women to travel the Oregon trail. It was very rough. The Spauldings and the Whitmans stayed in John McLaughlin's house.
In Lapwai, Spaulding tried to teach the Nez Perces about salvation and how to farm. Spaulding's wife, Eliza, was very plain, yet she was a smart teacher. She and Narcissa Whitman were very good friends.
The Spauldings mission closed down after the Whitman mission was attacked. Later, Henry Harmon Spaulding was on the board of trustees at the Whitman College.
Source: The Empire of Columbia by Dorothy Johanson, Second Edition