USA > Washington > Spokane County > An illustrated history of Spokane county, state of Washington > Part 23
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HISTORY OF SPOKANE COUNTY.
the Black Gowns, but the whole party perished at the hands of savage foes. After long waiting for their noble five to return, the Flat- heads easily surmised what had been their fate when the weeks lengthened into months and the months into years, and yet they came not. But with a courage and determination, never sufficiently to be praised, two more offered themselves in 1839 to undertake the perilous journey. These were Pierre Gaucher and young Ignace, both of Iroquois blood. This expedition was, as we know, crowned with success, as it was in company with young Ig- nace on his return to the west. that Rev. Peter De Smet set out, the other Indian having pre- ceded him to apprise the Flatheads of their coming. Of Father De Smet's journey, safe arrival and warm reception among the Flat- heads, who had come many miles eastward to meet him, it does not pertain to me to speak.
Having now found the true source from which the Catholic church in Spokane sprung. I will confine myself to following its course as best I can through the dense, wild forest glades through which it wound its course. until. gradually widening and deepening. I find it running smoothly and majestically in its pres- ent well defined course.
It would oblige me to desert this my plan to follow Father De Smet in his journey from the Flathead country eastward to St. Louis, where he went to obtain men to aid him in his work. It suffices for our purpose to note that on this first trip to the Rockies Father De Smet heard that he had been preceded in the Northwest by Fathers Blanchet and Demers and he man- aged to communicate with them by letter.
In 1841, after Father De Smet had laid the foundation of St. Mary's mission, Montana, he set out for Fort Colville, Washington, going there to obtain seed. for the first farm land ever broken in Montana. This trip is of interest and bears directly on my article, for here it is that some have been led into error by believing that Father De Smet visited Spokane on this
trip. But there is nothing to substantiate such a conclusion. It is true that he profited by the trip to visit the Kalispels. Pend d' Oreilles and Cœur d' Alene Indians, baptizing in all one hundred and ninety. But neither Father De Smet in his letters, nor any of the early Fa- thers who have written in brief the history of this time, make mention of the Spokanes. Be- side, the purpose of the Father's trip required him to be expeditious and not tarry too long on the road for the seed he went for was needed for the coming spring. as the Fathers wanted to have something to subsist upon and not have to depend on the Indians or provisions brought from a distance for their maintenance. Besides. it was of paramount importance to instruct the Indians in farming and thus make them give up their nomadic life, for apart from its civiliz- ing influence, it would be almost impossible to instruct the Indians in the sublime truths of Christianity, if they could only be gathered to- gether now and then. Moreover their minds would be in no condition for instruction if continually dissipated by the chase. Father De Smet returned from Colville with a few bushels of oats, wheat and potatoes. When spring time came the Indians marveled to see the Father tearing up the bosom of the earth, as they would say, spoiling the grass, which was good for their ponies, and putting in the ground to rot what was good to eat. The whole process of plowing, sowing and planting was strange to them, but they watched it all with curiosity. But when they were told the seed just planted would, after rotting in the ground, germinate and reproduce itself. they smiled and gave expression to their disbelief by significant aspirations. Still, anxious to see what would happen, they used to come and perch on the fence awaiting developments : happily the crop succeeded very well and they were made par- takers of it, much to their delight. This was the first attempt at agriculture in Montana, ard by this practical lesson the Indians were taught the advantages of tilling the soil.
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HISTORY OF SPOKANE COUNTY.
That same spring, 1842, Father De Smet again turned his face westward and set out to visit Very Rev. F. N. Blanchet and Father Demers, both of whom he met for the first time at St. Paul on the Willamette. The murdered Archbishop Segers has left in his writings a touching account of this meeting of the Catholic Triumvirate of the Northwest, an account he received from Father Demers himself. These three heroic men, who had left home and kin, and come into these then western wilds, in order to be able to minister to the spiritual wants of the earliest white settlers and especially to win over to God the numerous Indian tribes, ar- ranged at their first meeting a plan of work and then, like the holy Apostles, they separated to carry it out.
Again the question can be asked, did Father De Smet pass through what is now Spokane on this trip? If so he was undoubtedly the first Catholic priest who ever visited Spokane. As this is a point of real historic interest, I have been careful to make it the subject of diligent research, and while I find it time and again stated in accounts of more recent date that Father De Smet came to Spokane in 1842, yet in the manuscript of the early missionaries, which I have at hand. I cannot find this ex- plicitly stated. Still I am inclined to follow other recent writers and give Father De Smet the honor of being the pioneer priest of Spo- kane and to date his first visit as to have been in 1842, and I am led to this decision by the following reasons : Because one of the oldest missionaries yet living, in reply to the question, who was the first priest who came to Spokane, said, "Father De Smet is supposed to have been the first priest that came to Spokane in 1842, when on his way to visit Very Rev. F. N. Blanchet and Rev. Modest Demers at Will- amette. Oregon, for then all the country round about Spokane formed the Spokane district of Oregon Territory. But he merely passed through, as did Fathers Devos, Vercruysse and Ravalli a few years afterward on the way to
Colville." Besides it must be remembered that apart from having Willamette as his objective point, Father De Smet was trying to get a good idea of the field of labor before him, and consequently tried to see as many tribes as pos- sible. Moreover I have a detailed account of a trip made by a missionary several years later, going from Colville to the old Cœur d' Alene mission, and in it he speaks distinctly of stop- ping at Spokane. This leads me to believe that probably this was the common road traveled and that Father De Smet also came this way. This is the conclusion I have arrived at and the motives leading to it, and I doubt if ever any- thing more explicit can be said. unless per- chance a stray manuscript or letter puts this question beyond a doubt.
In this trip, both going and returning, Fa- ther De Smet met the Coeur d'Alene tribe, who earnestly entreated him to remain among them. Unable to accede to their request, he promised to send them another Black Gown in the near future.
However, seeing the good disposition of these Indians and knowing. moreover, that the best laid plans oft go amiss. he determined to remain three days in their midst and give them what instruction he could in so brief a space of time. The method he adopted was a novel one, and shows how deft he was in adapting himself to the exigencies of the case. Gathering around him a large circle of the young people, especially those who seemed to have quick parts, he translated, by means of an interpreter, the Lord's Prayer, the Ave, the Commandments and several other prayers. To each of those who surrounded him he gave one sentence of a prayer, or one of the Command- ments to commit to memory, which they did readily. These. by dint of repetition, he fastened in their minds. so that. keeping the order of places and reciting each his or her sentence, the entire prayer could be repeated. Thus was the zealous missionary enabled. during his short stay, to make them acquainted with something
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of the Christian religion at the same time giv- ing them a means of keeping up this knowl- edge till such a time as a priest could be sent to them.
Father De Smet was much impressed dur- ing his short stay with the good disposition of these poor people and also at what seemed to him a favorable location of the place for founding a permanent settlement. for the Cœur d' Alenes were encamped along the St. Joe in the Cœur d' Alene valley, which was then clothed in all its natural loveliness.
Father De Smet got back to St. Mary's, in the Bitter Root valley, Montana, early in July, and on the 29th of the same month set out for St. Louis, but not before leaving orders that Father Nicholas Point, who was then with the Flatheads on their buffalo hunt, should on his return set out for the Cœur d' Alenes. The order was faithfully obeyed, and accompanied by Brother Huet, he arrived in the Cœur d' Alene country on the first Friday of November, 1842, and then started the mission of the Sa- cred Heart. From a reliable source I learn that this Father Point was the first Catholic priest who exercised the sacred ministry in what is now Spokane county, but just when it was and what he did is not stated.
As the first Cœur d' Alene mission, or, as it is commonly called, the "Old mission," and the Colville mission were the two points from which Spokane was first attended, it will be proper here to give a more detailed account of each of these, beginning with that of the "Old mission."
Cœur d' Alene has become a very common name among the people of Spokane, yet how few could give the origin of the name. Cer- tainly it is not the tribal name of those Indians, who now are designated by it, and from whom the lake and the mining district derived the same name. Coeur d'Alene, like many other names now given by us to Indian tribes, and the part of the country where they will or did dwell, is a mere appellation or nickname given
by the Canadians of the Hudson's Bay Company. These men, in order to designate the different tribes with whom they came in contact, made up a name from some peculiarity of the tribe. In some cases these names are not at all char- acteristic. But probably the few of the tribe first met with had such a peculiarity and some witty fellow invented the name, which has stuck to them ever since. However, the appel- lation Cœur d' Alene, meaning awl-like or pointed heart, seems to have been somewhat aptly bestowed, as in the early days this tribe was noted for cruelty, was hard to handle, and had a marked aversion for the whites. As proof of this, it is enough to state that it was the only tribe in which the missionaries found no half-breeds. The real tribal name, which at first was but the name of a band or camp, is Schizué, and might be translated into English "foundling."
As I have already stated, Rev. Nicholas Point, accompanied by Brother Huet, arrived in November, 1842, to start a mission among the Cœur d'Alenes on the St. Joe river. But the yearly spring inundations soon convinced the Fathers that their mission site had not been well chosen. So, in 1846, they removed to what is known as the "Old mission." A rude log cabin was erected to serve as residence, and be- sides it a church, if such it could be called. was built of cedar bark. Taught by reason and the experience they had had at St. Mary's, Montana, the Fathers directed their attention to starting a farm, both to have means of sub- sistence and to be able to get the Indians more concentrated in one part, as well as to restrain their wandering's and initiate them in farming.
The boys were given a home and employed on the farm, where they soon became of great assistance and took fairly well to this, to them, novel kind of life. When the first crop had been garnered they were in need of a mill to grind their wheat, the coffee-mill which had served all such purposes heretofore being in- sufficient. So the Brother, by dint of labor,
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HISTORY OF SPOKANE COUNTY.
worked two stones into shape, and after taxing his ingenuity, started the first grist mill in Idaho, which did service for thirty years. Now that they had flour, bread, such as it was, soon made its appearance, and at once became very popular, so much so that the Indians, in order to get the little ones to behave well, would promise to take them to the mission to eat "sinkolpo," this being their word for bread.
In 1853 the church, which is now a land- mark, was begun. Father Ravalli, who was one of those talented men who have the happy faculty of succeeding at most anything, de- signed the church, which is ninety feet long, forty feet wide and twenty-five feet from floor to ceiling. 'Just pause a moment and reflect on what an undertaking this was. For workmen there were, besides the Father and a Brother, only ignorant savages who had never handled a tool and never seen a house greater than a log-cbin. The materials were in the moun- tains, the rocks and the trees. Out of these latter had to be fashioned by hand, with the rudest kind of tools, twenty-four posts, twenty- five feet long by two and a half feet in width and the same in thickness; twenty thousand feet of boarding, fifty thousand shingles. Then there were needed three thousand cubic feet of stones for the foundations. All this had to be dragged to its place on the hill where the church stands, the stones often from a distance of half a mile, and some of the timber a whole mile. To facilitate transportation rough trucks were constructed, and owing to the scarcity of horses these had often to be dragged by the men. Ropes were woven by the women out of tall grass. But perhaps it will occur to some of my readers to ask, how were so many work- men paid, especially as the Father was little bet- ter off than his neophytes? I imagine I see my reader smile when he learns that mush was the currency in vogue. At stated hours all who were engaged on the building came with their bark-platters to receive their portion of good thick mush, and went away contented. No
other complaint was ever heard except that now and then someone would find fault because too much of the mush adhered to the big wooden spoon, which served both as ladle and measure.
At worktime the place presented the ap- pearance of a bee-hive, writes the missionary from whose manuscript I am taking these de- tails. All were at work, children gathering long grass, women plaiting the grass into ropes, the men at work hewing trees, shaping uprights or boards, or mixing clay to be used for plaster. How they ever got the huge, heavy uprights into place is more than I can tell. But the fact remains. This work was not done continuously, as the farm had to be attended to and the Indians had to go at stated seasons on their hunting and fishing trips. Thus was reared the first Catholic church, worthy of the name, in our part of the northwest; and it re- mains to-day, though somewhat the worse for wear and tear of nearly half a century, as a monument to the fervor of this noble tribe and the energy of the pioneer missionaries. Apart from the religious advantages which resulted from having a structure, so grand in Indian eyes, erected as a house of prayer to God, the erection of this church was far-reaching in its results. For it induced the Indians to restrain in great part their roving propensities. For beside erecting the church the Fathers induced the Indians to build some twenty log cabins for themselves ; so that the mission began to put on the semblance of a village. The Indians began to realize what they could do, and the Fathers fostered in every way their efforts towards self-improvement. They obtained farm im- plements, tools and blankets with which they paid the labor of the more industrious and promising. Thus the Indians had a place to which to return after a hunting trip, a place that might be called home. The religious fes- tivals and the instructions brought them all together; and even when they went on their hunts they generally left the women and chil- dren behind to be instructed, and the men
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HISTORY OF SPOKANE COUNTY.
themselves would not be long absent. And so, gently but surely, they were influenced to adopt a more civilized manner of life. The young men especially were looked to, and several of these were given a home at the mission itslf, where they were employed principally on the farm and in such work as would fit them to manage a farm of their own in the near future. Thus the building of the church served greatly to attain two great results : to destroy the habit of roving from place to place, and to induce the whole tribe to labor, and this without any diminution in their numbers, but rather with a slow but constant increase of population. For this tribe, which in 1805 was put down by Lewis and Clark at two thousand, had been so decimated by the frightful ravages of small- pox, that at the advent of the missionaries they numbered but three hundred and twenty all told. They now number four hundred and fifty.
These Indians were in the early days scat- tered over a stretch of country having a radius of fifty miles. Most of them lived near the mission in the log cabins which the Fathers had induced them to erect for themselves, some were scattered along the Saint Joe river, while there was a camp at Spokane bridge. The idea of making them a united people, of getting them well settled on good farm land before others would come and take up all the best claims-a thing to be expected as soon as tlie railroad would be completed-and the disad- vantages of the "Old mission" site, led the Fathers to attempt to get the whole tribe to settle on Hangman creek, where they now are. An account of the difficulties attending this pro- ject, first in getting the Indians to consent to move, and, harder still, to get them actually to move when they had consented to do so, as well as the happy results which ensued from this change, while they would be of interest, still would lead me beyond the limits of this present article. With the removal of the Fathers from the "Old Mission," the Cœur d'
Alene mission ceases to be connected with the history of the church in Spokane county.
The other missions whose history is inti- mately connected with that of the church in Spokane county is the Colville mission. As I have already mentioned earlier in this sketch the first priests to labor among the Colville In- dians were Fathers Blanchet and Demers ; and more especially the latter, as the former devoted himself with untiring zeal to work in what is now the state of Oregon and to the archibish- opric of which diocese he was deservedly raised.
I have recorded Father De Smet's first visit to Fort Colville, in the early fall of 1842, to obtain some supplies for luis first foundations in Montana. But no permanent station was founded until 1844. On July 31st, of that year, Father De Smet. accompanied by Fathers Jolin Nobilli. Michael Accolti, Anthony Ravalli, Louis Vercruysee and a lay brother. entered the mouth of the Columbia, having set sail from Flushing. Holland. December 12, 1843. and come by way of Cape Horn. On August 17, 1844, the party reached St. Paul in the Wil- lamette valley. With the approval of Very Rev. F. N. Blanchet, the Jesuit Fathers deter- mined to establish a sort of central liouse or source of supplies at that place, and according- ly a building was erected. It was liere, too, that for about five years, six Sisters of the or- der of Notre Dame who had come from Eu- rope, persevered under many difficulties in their endeavor to establish themselves for the good of the Indians, but they finally moved to Cali- fornia, where with the discovery of the famous miines a larger field was opened for their zeal.
The residence, established at St. Paul on the Willamette, was known as the residence of St. Francis Xavier. Here Father De Smet fell ill, but soon recovering, started for the mis- sions in Montana, leaving the other Fathers to continue the work of building up this station. However thie experience of a few years proved that this site was ill chosen, as it was too far
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HISTORY OF SPOKANE COUNTY.
from the other mission stations and in other ways found to be unsatisfactory. Hence, in 1853. it was abandoned.
The Colville Indians, after meeting with the missionaries, were accustomed to frequently visit them at their place among the Kalispels. But at the earnest solicitation of their chief. Martin Ilemuxsolix, Father Anthony Ravalli went to visit them in 1845, and built the first chapel in their midst. on the hill between the fishery and the Hudson's Bay Company fort. on the banks of the Columbia, near Kettle Falls.
It may perhaps serve to relieve my dull narrative to insert here a little incident, which happened to Father Ravalli while among the Colvilles. "News was brought to him one clay that an Indian woman had quarreled with her husband, and, driven to desperation by jealousy, had just hanged herself with a lariat to a tree. Father Ravalli hastened to the spot and cutting asunder the lariat, quickly freed the woman's neck, which upon examination, he found not broken. Although the body was still warm, pulsation at the wrists, as well as the heart, had entirely ceased, and to all appear- ances life was extinct. Father Ravilli stretched, what everybody supposed her to be, the dead woman upon the ground, and com- menced now to breath into her mouth, now to move her arms up and down, so as to impart artificially to her lungs the movement of natural respiration, and thus quicken again into action the spark of vitality still there, perhaps, and only latent and dormant. He kept working in this manner for about three quarters of an hour, when all at once a slight change of color appeared on the lips and face of the woman. Encouraged by the sign, he continued, and soon after clearer indications of returning life became noticeable. A little while yet, and the woman, to the astonishment of all, commenced to breathe, first faintly and at broken intervals, then more freely and more regularly. A while later she opened her eyes, and from a seeming corpse, she was soon after up and
moving around, living to be an old woman. This unusual, and yet simple occurrence, won to Father Ravalli with all the Indians the name of the great medicine man.
But in 1845 Father Ravalli did no more than erect a little chapel, neither did he remain here for any length of time. Other mission- aries, however, frequently visited the chapel and held services for the Indian's.
In 1847 Father Devos opened a mission here. retaining the name of St. Paul, already given to the chapel. He spent several years among these Indians, and while he had to labor hard and endure many hardships, still his work was lightened by the great success that attended it. as he converted not only the greater part of the Colville Indians, but many of the Sinatchsti tribe as well. However, in 1851. broken in health from his great exer- tions among the Colville Indians, he was obliged to go to the residence on the Willa- mette to recuperate.
Another station, that of the Immalculate Conception, was established at Fort Colville, about two miles from the present town of Col- ville. It was established for the whites and half-breeds in and around the fort. At times this station, like that of the fishery, had a resi- dent priest, while at other times both places were attended by Fathers from the other mis- sions.
Some years later both these places were abandoned, as the fort was no logner used and the fishery had lost its importance, as the In- dians no longer gathered liere to fish .. owing to the fact that large fisheries had been estab- lished by the whites at the mouth of the Co- lumbia, preventing the salmon from making their way up the river.
The missionaries then established them- " selves in the Colville valley, about seven and a half miles from the town of Colville. Here they opened the residence of St. Francis Regis, which has since grown into the flourishing mission of the same name. To-day it has its
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HISTORY OF SPOKANE COUNTY.
school for boys, taught by the Jesuits, and a school for girls, taught by the Sisters of Prov- idence. It can boast of a splendid farm. of a mill and many other modern improvements. The mission is now outside the reservation, though it continues to be the center to which the adjoining Indian tribes come, especially for the great feasts. Besides there are quite a number of whites and half-breeds who come to the mission for their religious duties.
Having traced the history of the Catholic church in Spokane county to its sources and followed its various windings, we at last draw near to where it begins to flow in a marked channel and to widen out till it reaches its pres- ent proportions.
As already said, it seems probable that Father De Smet was the first priest to visit Spokane, but even if this be so. he did but pass through it and most probably Father Nicholas Point was the first who ever administered the sacraments here. Several other Fathers of the Society of Jesus passed through here on their way to and from Colville mission, notably Fathers Joset, Giorda and Gazzoli, who used to visit the Spokane Indians during the fishing season. In October, 1862, Father Joseph Camana accompanied Father Giorda, then superior of the missions, and the former bap- tized seventeen Indian children and five adults at the large Indian camp, situated near the site now occupied by the Northern Pacific railroad station.
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