USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. I, 1834-1848 > Part 33
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The vicar-general repaired immediately to the
319
BLANCHET AND DEMERS.
Canadian settlement on the Willamette, where a log church was already awaiting him, four miles above Champoeg, having been built in 1836 when the French began to entertain the hope of having priests among them.4 Here Blanchet took up his residence October 12th. On the 23d of December he blessed the bell he had brought with him, and on the 6th of January, 1840, the humble edifice was formally dedicated to St Paul, and mass was celebrated for the first time in the Willamette Valley. The next three weeks were chiefly devoted to religious exercises, the men being examined to ascertain if their prayers were remem- bered, the women and children instructed in their duties, and all made to confess their sins. The fourth week was occupied in visiting the settlers at their homes, and in selecting a square mile of land for the Catholic establishment.
In the mean time, Demers, having finished his visit to Nisqually, was assigned to the charge of the Cow- litz establishment, where he arrived the 13th of Octo- ber, 1839. Next day he hung and rang out the first church-bell ever heard in the territory. There were at this time but eight families on the Cowlitz, includ- ing altogether forty-six persons, which number was occasionally augmented as more men were required by the Puget Sound Agricultural Company. To these persons Demers gave religious instruction during the early portion of the winter; and endeavored in the spring to impart a limited knowledge of farming to the natives within reach. in the hope of ameliorating their condition.
During the earlier part of 1840 the jealous rivalry between the Catholic and Methodist missionaries was shown with much bitterness on both sides. The former regarded it as impudent intrusion that Prot- estant ministers should preach their heretical creed to
4 This, the first building erected for public religious services in Oregon, was 70 by 30 feet in size. I suppose it to be identical with that in which Jason Lee and his associates preached to the settlers.
320
THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS-THE PRESBYTERIANS.
the Catholic Canadians, or even attempt to convert the natives; while the latter naturally took an exactly opposite view of the matter. This feeling was fre- quently the cause of mutual recriminations which were generally without foundation in fact, while in some cases the missionaries so far forgot the dig- nity of their calling as to proceed to acts of mild hostility against each other. Thus Blanchet relates in his history 5 that Leslie, in revenge for his action in remarrying those persons already united by the Methodist ministers, instituted a revival, which was, however, barren of fruits; that Daniel Lee endeav- ored to make proselytes by praying in the houses of the Canadians, and that the Methodists circulated among the Catholics an obscene book,6 which pre- tended to give awful disclosures concerning conventual life in Montreal. Further, that a complaint was made to Douglas by the Methodists, because the Catholic missionaries were using their influence "to keep the lambs of the flock out of the clutches of the Wes- leyan wolves," and that the governor told his inform- ant very curtly that "it was none of his business."
Blanchet then proceeds artlessly to laud his own zeal by describing how he meddled with Waller's mis- sionary work at the falls of the Willamette in 1840, on which occasion he claims to have christianized the most degraded company of savages in Oregon in seven days, though he was obliged every day to run after the lazy Indians to bring them to his tent. Finally he baptized eleven children, and as the result of his week's labors found that "nine families out of ten had
5 Historcial Sketches of the Catholic Church in Oregon, Portland, 1878. This work is not gracefully written, owing probably to the author's imperfect knowledge of the English language, Its contents for the most part appear puerile to the general reader, though the blame of this may be charged to the nature of its themes. The historical value of the work is great, though impaired by the coarsely abusive tone adopted by Blanchet when referring to the Protestant missionaries, which only serves to throw discredit upon his own statements. So far as the Methodists have written of the Catholic mis- sions, they have shown more charity and moderation.
6 Maria Monk, a publication which at one time created a great stir in the religious world.
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RELIGION AND POLITICS.
been rescued from brother Waller." In return for this interference with his mission, Waller pulled down a flag hoisted on Sunday by Blanchet's order. But the latter declares that he was consoled for this insult because some Clatsops, seeing the altar, ornaments, and vestments, spoke disparagingly of the Protestant missionaries, who had never shown them such pretty things.7
The childish quarrels, of which this is an example, might well be overlooked were it not necessary to refer to sectarian feuds hereafter to account for events of greater importance.
Despite their troubles with the Methodists, Blan- chet and Demers labored industriously to disseminate their religion. They visited distant tribes and bap- tized a vast number of infant savages, attended to the spiritual wants of the fur company's servants, most of whom were Catholics and taught diligently at St Paul and St Xavier. Aside from their super- abundant zeal, they were excellent men and faithfully discharged their duties as they understood them. If they drew away from the Methodist school the chil- dren of the French settlers, they did not neglect their education afterward, but were as zealous to establish institutions of learning as Jason Lee himself.8 Nor were they behind in erecting mills and making im- provements which might give them a title to the lands occupied by them when the United States should carry out its promise of free farms to actual settlers.
The immediate effect of the arrival of Blanchet and Demers was to unite the French settlers in a com- munity by themselves, and thus weaken the power of the Methodist Mission as a political body. This is shown by the fact that the first two petitions of the settlers to the United States congress were signed equally by French and Americans, but the subsequent memorials by Americans only. It increased the hos-
7 Blanchet's Cath. Ch. in Or., 120-2.
8 Parrish's Or. Anecdotes, MS., 33; White's Or. Ter., 16; Wilkes' Nar., iv. 374. HIST. OR., VOL. I. 21
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THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS-THE PRESBYTERIANS.
tility of the latter toward the fur company, and espe- cially toward McLoughlin, to whose jealousy of them the Methodists attributed the action of the company in allowing, or as they believed in inviting, the Cath- olics to settle in the territory. This suspicion was strengthened when McLoughlin joined the Catholic church in 1842. It then began to be said of him that he had always been a Catholic, and a very Jesuitical one, and that he was plotting against Protestantism and American progress in every form; and though nothing could be further from the truth,? these accu. sations had great weight with those opposed to him from personal, sectarian, or political motives. That neither McLoughlin nor the fur company had any intention of covering the country with missions. as the Americans had done, was evident from the refusal of the committee to allow two other priests, Rev. A. Langlois and J. B. Z. Bolduc, to follow the first two to Oregon, by denying them a passage in their express in 1841, although this did not prevent their coming the year following by sea.
The reader will remember that a petition of the Flatheads for white teachers, sent to St Louis about
9 Though McLoughlin's religion has been the subject of much rancorous dispute, there is really no mystery about it. He was brought up in the Anglican church; but his life in the wilderness had separated him so long from religious observances that at the time the first missionaries appeared at Van- couver he might be said to have had no specific creed. Naturally conscien- tious, he reproached himself that the free Canadians should have forestalled him in the direction of religious cultivation. Nevertheless he encouraged both them and the Methodists, and at the first opportunity suggested to the governor and committee in London the propriety of sending a chaplain to Vancouver. As we have seen, they sent Mr Beaver, of the Anglican church, who proved such a disagreeable and meddlesome member of the society, that McLoughlin was glad to be rid of him after a year and a half. This episode was followed by the Methodist war upon him at Oregon City, in the midst of which he chanced to read Dr Milner's End of Controversy, which seemed to him to establish the claim of the Roman Catholic church to be considered the true church, and he decided to unite with it at once. This he did November 18, 1842, to the end remaining a faithful Catholic, while never interfering with the religious sentiments of others. Blanchet, who was proud of this notable conversion, boasts on page 9 of his Cath. Church in Or., of having accomplished it in 1841; but forgetting this statement, he gives the true date on page 69 of the same work. See also address of W. H. Rees, in Or. Pioneer Assoc., Trans., 1879, 30: Hist. Northwest Coast, this series.
323
FATHER DE SMET.
1832, or perhaps even earlier,10 was really the original cause of the missionary movement into Oregon which followed. The earlier parties, however, either did not pass through, or did not remain in the region about the head waters of the Columbia, and it was not until 1840 that the Flatheads began to reap the benefits of religion which the western tribes had been enjoying for several years.11 In the spring of 1840 Pierre J. De Smet, a Jesuit, left the Missouri at Westport in company with the large party of fur- traders, immigrants, and independent missionaries who crossed the Rocky Mountains in that year. At the rendezvous he was met by a party of Flat- heads, who had heard of his arrival, and by them escorted to their country. De Smet was a worthy member of his order. Young, handsome, intellectual, educated, and energetic, he was well fitted to make a favorable impression upon the savages, and to succeed in a field which others had either shunned or aban- doned. On becoming acquainted with the Flatheads, he was surprised, as Bonneville, Townsend, and Parker had been, at the similarity between their religious practices and those of his own creed, but this he accepted as a proof of the special power of his religion to impress itself at once upon the minds of the heathen. The evening of his first day among them was closed with a prayer and solemn chant, and prayer was again offered in the morning. On the second day he trans- lated to them, with the aid of an interpreter, the Lord's Prayer, the creed, and the commandments. In a fortnight two thousand Flatheads knew the prayers. In two months six hundred were admitted to baptism.
This gratifying success led De Smet to think of procuring assistance and extending his labors among the savage nations of Oregon. But to his surprise he now for the first time learned of the presence in
10 See p. 54, this volume.
11 See p. 65, this volume, note 9.
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THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS-THE PRESBYTERIANS.
the territory of Blanchet and Demers, and of their missions to the tribes on the upper Columbia. He forthwith wrote to Demers, and communicated his plans of bringing out more priests for the work of the Rocky Mountains, and at once set about carrying them forward by hastening to St Louis and returning the following year with the Rev. Gregorio Mengarini of Rome, Rev. Nicolas Point, a Vendean, and three lay brothers, good mechanics, who were needed to erect the buildings requisite for two mission establish- ments.
The site of the Flathead mission was selected on the Bitter Root River, September 24, 1841, the cross planted, and the mission of St Mary founded. De Smet then proceeded to Fort Colville for supplies, while the mechanics constructed a residence and chapel, and the natives were instructed by Point and Mengarini Failing to procure provisions for the winter, the natives were dismissed after Christmas, Point going with the hunters to the chase, and bray- ing the danger of the Blackfoot, while De Smet and Mengarini remained to teach the remaining members of their charge. The lay brothers employed them- selves in erecting a palisade about the mission build- ings. They did not by any means pass a comfortable winter, but thanked God it was no worse. In the spring De Smet visited Fort Vancouver in the hope of procuring the requisite supplies to make the mis- sion among the Flatheads a permanent one. On this journey he narrowly escaped death in the rapids at the Dalles, for, while he made the portage on foot, the boat with five persons in it, and his baggage, was swallowed by a whirlpool.12
At Fort Vancouver De Smet again failed to secure the required aid, and after conferring with Blanchet and Demers, determined to make a further appeal to St Louis for assistance. Returning to St Mary, he
12 De Smet's Or. Missions, 38; Shea's Hist. Cath. Miss., 474; New Haven Courier and Journal, July 1871.
325
RETURN OF BLANCHET.
directed Point to found a new mission, under the name of the Sacred Heart, among the Cœurs d' Alene, and set out in August for the Missouri border to lay the wants of the savages before his superiors. The result of his appeal was, that in the following year, 1843, fathers Peter De Vos and Adrian Hoeken, with three lay brothers, were ordered to the Rocky Moun- tains, while De Smet himself was despatched to Europe to enlist other aid for the new field of Ore- gon.13 In the same year seven lay brothers came from Canada with the annual brigade, Blanchet hav- ing made such representations to Simpson at Van- couver as to overcome his objections.14
De Smet's journey to Europe was eminently suc- cessful. He returned to Oregon July 31, 1844, ac- companied by fathers Antonio Ravalli, Giovanni Nobili, Aloysius Vercruysse, Michele Accolti, several lay brothers, and six sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. They arrived, like the Methodist reenforcement of 1840, in a chartered vessel, the bark L'Indefatigable, from Antwerp, bringing money and material for the prosecution of their plans of establishing Catholic schools in the Willamette Valley, and Indian missions in the more remote parts of the territory.15 The sisters took possession of a convent erected for them on French Prairie, called St Mary, on the 19th of Oc- tober, and opened a school for girls soon after. A boys' college, named St Joseph, was already in opera- tion, under the charge of Rev. J. B. Bolduc, who
13 Burnett, in his Recollections of a Pioneer, 102, speaks of meeting De Smet and De Vos at the crossing of the Kansas River, but this is an error. De Vos and Hoeken were meant. They travelled in advance of the emigrants of 1843, a part of the time in company with a hunting party from New Or- leans, under Captain Stuart. See Niles' Register, lxv. 70.
1+ Blanchet's Cath. Ch. in Or., 131, 139. The archbishop is at fault again in his dates, writing 1842 for 1841. Sir George is also made to keep his promise of sending assistants,' as if he were part of the Catholic Mission, which he was far from being.
15 The Indefatigable entered the south channel of the Columbia, an entrance not attempted before. Her commander was without any knowledge of the river, but having lain outside four days waiting for a pilot, decided to try the entrance, and sailed straight in, being several times in peril from shallows, but arriving safe at Astoria. Subsequently the channel deepened until it ca'ne into common use.
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THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS-THE PRESBYTERIANS.
came from Canada by sea, in 1842, as previously men- tioned. 16
During De Smet's visit to Europe, Oregon was erected into an apostolic vicariate by Pope Gregory XVI., who appointed Blanchet archbishop of the ter- ritory, Demers succeeding him as vicar-general. The briefs were made out December 1, 1843, and reached Oregon November 4, 1844. Soon afterward Blanchet proceeded by sea to Canada, to receive his consecra- tion at the hands of the archbishop of Quebec. He then made a voyage to Europe to devise means of in- creasing the resources of the Oregon mission. He met with great success in securing funds and volun- teers,17 and returned to Oregon in August 1847, with twenty-one recruits, among whom were seven sisters of Notre Dame de Namur; three Jesuit priests, Gaets, Gazzoli, and Menestrey, with three lay brothers ; five secular priests, Le Bas, McCormick, Deleveau, Pretot, and Veyret; two deacons, B. Delorme and J. F. Jayol ; and one cleric, T. Mesplie.18
16 An offer was made by the Catholics to purchase the building and grounds of the Oregon Institute first erected on Wallace Prairie, and offered for sale by Gary, who was closing up the Methodist Mission; but that gentleman declined to sell to the successful rivals of Methodism, though the Methodist Society would have received double what it did receive for the property. Hines' Or. and Ins., 161.
17 Louis Philippe of France gave 3,000 francs, and ordered the ministers of the interior and marine to pay each 7,200 francs. The Leopoldine Society of Vienna gave 4,000 florins, and other societies or corporations different sums. Blanchet's Cath. Ch. in Or., 157-8.
18 The vessel which brought Blanchet's Catholic colony was L'Etoile du Matin, Captain Menes, belonging to V. Marzion & Co., of Havre de Grace, and was sent by them to Oregon, having a half-cargo for Tahiti. She was not, like the Indefatigable, obliged to cross the bar without chart or pilot, but was brought safely into the river by pilot Reeves, and ascended the Columbia to the mouth of the Willamette, where her cargo was unloaded. Proceeding immediately she finished her voyage to Tahiti, and returned to France, whence her owners once more despatched her to Oregon, where they designed estab- lishing a French colony. On returning to the Columbia River in '49 or '50, Cap- tain Menes, after waiting outside for a pilot several days, undertook to cross the bar without one, but his vessel struck on the sands, where she pounded for nine hours, and suffered serious damage. She was finally brought into Baker Bay by the assistance of Latta, a pilot of the Hudson's Bay Company, who with a number of natives went to her assistance, and constructing a box rudder brought her in. She was afterwards taken to Portland, where her cargo was landed, and the hull burned for the iron and copper. Captain Menes opened a French store at Oregon City for her owners, Marzion & Co. In
327
THE THREE SEES OF OREGON.
With the aid of his reinforcements De Smet did brave work, founding in rapid succession the mission of St Ignatius, among the Pend d'Oreilles, and the chapels of St Francis Borgia, among the Kalispelms, St Francis Regis in Colville Valley, St Peters at the Great Lakes of the Columbia, the Assumption on Flatbow Lake, and the Holy Heart of Mary among the Kootenais. De Vos and Accolti were placed in charge of St Ignatius, where a mission farm was opened. De Smet employed much of his time travelling among the aborigines; and as there was much despatch used in making converts, it was claimed that between 1840 and 1846 six thousand natives embraced the Catholic faith.19
During the absence of Archbishop Blanchet in Europe his vicariate had been erected into an ecclesi- astical province, containing the three sees of Oregon City, Walla Walla, and Vancouver Island; the first being allotted to the archbishop, the second to his brother, the Rev. A. M. A. Blanchet, canon of Mon- treal, and the third to Vicar-general Demers. The bishop of Walla Walla proceeded from Montreal to Oregon by way of St Louis, where he was joined by nine others, among whom were the Oblate Fathers and two lay brothers, two secular priests, namely, J. B. A. Brouillet, appointed vicar-general of Walla Walla, and Father Rosseau; and a deacon, Guillaume Le- claire. Brouillet and Rosseau immediately took up
1850 McLoughlin became a partner in the firm, and so remained till 1853, when the business was closed. Captain Menes settled on French Prairie, where he resided up to his death in 1867. Oreyon City Enterprise, March 21, 1868.
19 The good missionary was fond of writing. His earliest published work seems to have been Letters and Sketches, written in 1841, after his first visit to the Rocky Mountains, printed in 1843, and marked by the novel impressions received from contact with savages. His Oregon Missions, New York, 1847, is a book of over 400 pages, and contains, besides a narrative of the mission work in the Willamette Valley and a brief sketch of the territory, a great number of letters filled with descriptive, scientific, and religious matter. He followed this with several works, little more than reprints, in French and Italian; and published in 1863 his Western Missions and Missionaries, a series of letters addressed to the editor of Précis Historiques at Brussels, containing more information of a general character concerning the country than his earlier works.
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THE CATHOLIC MISSIONS-THE PRESBYTERIANS.
their residence at the Cayuse camp on the Umatilla, in a house provided by the chief Tauitau, while the Oblate Fathers went to found a mission among the Yakimas. 20
By the 1st of November, 1847, the Catholic mis- sionary force in Oregon Territory consisted of three bishops, fourteen Jesuit fathers, four Oblate Fathers, thirteen secular priests, including a deacon and a cleric, and thirteen sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, besides the lay brethren. Yet there was not a priest to spare to accompany Bishop Demers to Vancouver Island, and he was forced to make a journey to Europe in 1848, to raise funds, and enlist missionaries for his diocese.
In 1843 title was secured to a site for a church in Oregon City, which was completed and dedicated February 8, 1846. On the 24th of May the corner- stone of a new brick church at St Pauls was laid, which was opened for service on the 1st of Novem- ber.21 This edifice was 100 feet in length, by 45 in breadth, with wings 20 feet in length, used for chapels, and a belfry tower 84 feet in height.
That the Protestants of the Willamette Valley should be able to look upon the achievements of the Catholics without jealousy was not to be expected. Had they possessed the utmost liberality in religious matters, there was still the fear of foreign influences, and anti-American sentiments in their midst at a critical period of the colony's existence, which might defeat the most important ends at which they were
20 Blanchet, from whose Cath. C't. in Or. I have taken the account of the arrival of the bishop of Walla Walla, does not name the Oblate Fathers except Father Richard, who he says was their superior. But I gather from various authorities that two of the others were named Pandosy and Cherouse.
21 This was the first church built of brick in Oregon, but not the first briok building erected, as Blanchet supposes. Previous to this George Gay built a sinall brick house on his farm, the bricks being made at a place now called Wheatland, opposite the old Methodist Mission, by John McCaddon, who also made the first bricks in Salem. Abernethy built a brick house at Oregon City in 1844, and opened a store in it. The bricks were made at Bull Creek in Oregon City. Moss' Pioneer Times, MS., 33.
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METHODIST 'AND PRESBYTERIAN.
aiming. This feeling of apprehension served, on fre- quent occasions, to hold the balance even or to prompt certain conciliatory measures, when there was danger of a conflict of opinion dividing the population on colonial questions, as will be more clearly illustrated in a future chapter on government affairs. In the matter of religious differences, when the Methodist Mission was dissolved, the chief cause of irritation was removed, and Protestant and Catholic labored side by side with similar if not coincident aims, and without seriously interfering with one another. It was not, therefore, in the Willamette Valley that the intrusion of another form of religion was regarded with the greatest uneasiness, but in the unsettled Indian country east of the Cascade Mountains, where a few isolated fam- ilies were endeavoring to teach the first principles of progress to wilful and capricious savages, and where any interference with their labors was sure to create a division among the natives, which might destroy the effect of all their efforts.
The experience of the Presbyterian missionaries was entirely different from that of their Methodist brethren. They had to deal with tribes yet in their primitive strength of mind and body, having their intelligence not yet weakened but sharpened by con- tact with white men, lordly in their ideas of personal dignity, but blind to the rights of others while in- sisting with the utmost pertinacity upon what they esteemed their own. To teach such beings required the exercise of extraordinary tact, firmness, and pa- tience, and would have been difficult had the savages been constantly subject to the influence of precept and example. But their roving habits took them away from their teachers during a considerable por- tion of the year, and although eager and quick to learn, they gave little time to study.
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