USA > Washington > History of Washington; the rise and progress of an American state, Vol. II > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36
152
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
therefore removed, or about to be removed, and all that remained to do was to make the long trail across the moun- tains as smooth and as safe as possible, and the rest would soon follow. The claim that any single person, or any single act saved the country at that period, is therefore obviously absurd.
To support this claim a series of absurd statements have been put forth from time to time, that have passed current with the careless, until their falsity was exposed by those who had determined to know what the facts actually were. It has been asserted that the Catholic missionaries were assiduously at work in the interest of the British government, though how they could have served it is not clear. Nor is it probable they would have done so if they could. England is not a Catholic country. Not one of these priests was English, either by birth or education. Most of them were Belgians or French Canadians, and one of them, according to the testimony of one who was for a long time closely asso- ciated with him,* was sent to this coast just after he had been liberated from a British dungeon in Montreal, in which he had been confined seven months because of his sympathy with and activity in the Papineau rebellion in 1837. It is hardly possible that such men would have been active workers in the interest of Great Britain. It has also been claimed that the records of the Hudson's Bay Company, long hidden in the dusty vaults in Fenchurch Street, had given up some evidence to support it; but no such evidence has ever been produced, nor is it even remotely probable that any exists there. Neither is it true, as often represented, that the Hudson's Bay Company or its people were unfriendly to
* Rev. P. F. Hylebos of Tacoma: Address at breaking ground for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, 1907.
153
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
these missionaries, or that they ever put obstacles in their way, or opposed or in any way delayed or obstructed the coming of the settlers. On the contrary both missionaries and settlers have borne most abundant testimony to their many kindly offices. The Company was loath to give up the country north of the Columbia, and long hoped to see the river made the boundary. Its officers and agents did what they could to dissuade the settlers from going north of it, but in no case did they use other than reasonable and legitimate means to keep them from doing so.
It is but just to the memory of Dr. Whitman to say that nowhere in his correspondence, which is far more voluminous than has yet been published, has he made any claim to have saved the country by his visit to Washington. Nowhere has he made any claim to have seen the president or secre- tary of state, or talked with them about the boundary treaty, or on any other subject. The utmost credit to which he ever laid claim, even when attempting to justify himself to the mission board for leaving his station and making a long and expensive trip without authority, was that his party was among the first to cross the mountains, and was the first to bring white women to Oregon; that he brought the emi- grant train of 1843 through to the shores of the Columbia with their wagons, contrary to all former assertions of the impracticability of the route; that the establishment of this route was due to his ride alone, and that one of his purposes in making it was to "open a practical route and safe passage, and secure a favorable report of the route from the emi- grants"; that the success of the migration of 1843 was the foundation and cause of the treaty of 1846, and that upon the results of emigration to the country the existence of his mis- sion and of Protestantism in Oregon hung also. He has thus
154
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
claimed all, and more than can in even justice be allowed, but it must be remembered that he did not urge these claims upon public notice, but made them to justify himself to his superiors, who were not in good humor with him and were disposed to be exacting.
The emigration of 1843 was not the first to find a road to the Columbia; it was hardly the second. It was not due to Whitman's efforts "alone" that the road chosen for it was established, nor did he save it from disaster. Nor is it possible that he could have done much, if indeed he did anything to induce anybody to join it. He did not reach Westport, on the Missouri-which was near the site of the Kansas City of the present day-until February 15th, and it was some days later before he reached the settlements where recruiting might begin. It is certain that he did not stop anywhere long enough to talk very much to people about the attractions of Oregon; he was in too great haste to reach his destination to do that. Nor is it probable, if he had delayed, that he would have been able to persuade any to make the hasty preparations that would have been neces- sary to join the train that left the Missouri only a little more than two months later. No very desirable emigrant would have been able to make his preparations in that short time-to sell what he had and buy what he would need -and it was only desirable emigrants that Whitman wished for; "some Christian familes," to settle near his mission, and help him in his missionary work, both by their efforts and by their example, are spoken of both in his own letters and those of his wife. But not one such person from the immigration of 1843 stopped in eastern Oregon. It must be true therefore that such efforts as he made to encourage settlers to go to the
155
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
Columbia, bore fruit, if they bore any at all, only in later years.
But it is not necessary to quibble about these niceties. There would be no need to mention them if those who have sought to exalt him to an eminence where he does not belong had been half as willing to be just to him during his life, as they were more than willing to be after his death. A gen- erous public will always allow to the memory of an earnest and courageous worker in any field of endeavor, that full measure of admiration to which his efforts entitle him. Whitman did enough to make that measure in his case an ample one, and he and his heroic wife suffered enough to make it an abundant one. Their fame requires nothing to be added that does not justly belong to it.
No man's place in history is fixed either by his panegyrists or his defamers. Neither the eulogiums of the one nor the libels of the other will place his name one notch higher or one lower in the temple of fame than it belongs in. History is not to be trifled with. Fictions, the fancies of admirers, the misrepresentations of enemies, may have a certain cur- rency for a time, but the truth alone can abide. It is by what each man does, or thinks or suffers, if he does or thinks or suffers anything in this life that is at all worthy of note or remembrance, that the world will ultimately judge him, and no attempt by friends or foes to add or detract anything from the record thus made will avail. The judgments of time are the judgments of the Almighty, and they are true and right- eous altogether.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES.
N ONE of the Catholic missionaries who came earliest to that part of the old Oregon country that is now known as Washington or Oregon, came because of any of the visits of the Indians to St. Louis. Father de Smet, who was the first to come west of the mountains in response to that call, made two visits to the Columbia River country, but on neither occasion did he remain long. As is well known, he traveled almost con- tinually in his work and, as has been estimated, covered a distance equal to five times the circumference of the globe, much of it through the wilderness in boats, on horseback or on foot. Such an enterprising traveler would scarcely find time to remain very long in one place. He was an ardent admirer of the Columbia River and Puget Sound countries, early saw their brightest prospects, and more than once expressed the ardent wish that he might be able to live here and die here.
But he was not the first of the Catholic missionaries. His earliest visit was in 1842, when he came to Fort Vancouver in search of supplies for his mission of St. Mary's in Montana. He returned again in 1844, after his visit to Europe in search of missionary assistants, coming by sea direct to the mouth of the Columbia, and bringing with him a considerable party, both priests and teachers. He was offered land on the Wil- lamette for a central mission, and at once began to clear the ground and erect the necessary buildings, while the sisters gathered the children of the settlers and natives about them and began to teach them while the builders were at work.
But four years before his first visit, Revs. Francis Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers had come to the Columbia direct from Montreal. They arrived at Fort Vancouver on Saturday November 24, 1838, and on the following day
160
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
celebrated mass for the first time in Oregon. Doubtless they were given a more cordial greeting than the other mis- sionaries, though none of them ever complained of want of welcome. But the chief factor had been born of a Catholic family, and most of the laborers about the fort were Catholics. They had long wished that priests would come among them, to marry them to the Indian women with whom they were living, and baptize and educate their children, as well as pro- vide them with the religious service to which they had always been accustomed. In 1834 and again in 1835, they, and the French families who were established in homes of their own on the Willamette, had applied to the Catholic bishop of Red River in Canada, to send them missionaries, but the bishop had answered that there were no disposable priests in his diocese. He promised, however, that as soon as mis- sionaries could be obtained from Europe, he would establish a mission in Oregon, not alone for their benefit but "also for the numerous Indian tribes among which you live." In pursuance of this purpose he applied to the Hudson's Bay authorities for passage for two priests from Red River, and for authority to establish a mission on the Willamette River, but it was refused, the governor, the committee in London and the council at Hudson's Bay being unwilling that any such establishment should be made south of the Columbia.
So the matter rested for two years when the bishop renewed his application to Sir George Simpson, who later wrote to the archbishop of Quebec that the Company had objected to a mission on the Willamette, because "the sovereignty of that country is still undecided; but I last summer inti- mated to the bishop that if he would establish the mission on the banks of the Cowlitz, or the Cowlitz portage, falling
161
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
into the Columbia from the northward, and give his assurance that the missionaries would not locate themselves on the south side of the Columbia River, but would form their establishment where the company's representative might point out as the most eligible situation on the north side, I should recommend the governor and committee to afford a passage to the priests, and such facilities towards the successful accomplishment of the object in view as would not involve any great inconvenience or expense to the com- pany's service. . . If the priests will be ready at Lachine, to embark for the interior about April 25th, a passage will be afforded them; and, on their arrival at Fort Vancouver, measures will be taken by the company's representative there to facilitate the establishing of the mission, and the carrying into effect the objects thereof generally."
Father Blanchet, of Montreal, was designated by the arch- bishop for this service, and Father Demers by the bishop of Red River. They were instructed by the archbishop in regard to their authority, the work they were to undertake, and the region to which their labors were to be confined. They were particularly charged "not to form any establish- ment in any territory, the possession whereof is contested by the United States." "As to that part of the territory," the letter says, "it is probable that it does not belong to any of the dioceses of the United States; but if the missionaries are informed that it forms a part of some diocese, they will abstain from performing any act of jurisdiction there, unless they be authorized to do it by the bishop of such diocese."
The archbishop only expressed a fear that these priests by going to the Willamette, might intrude into the jurisdic- tion of some bishop in the United States. But the bishop of Red River at the same time sent a letter to the Catholic
162
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
families living in the Willamette, and in it no doubt at all was expressed. "They would no doubt be disappointed," he said, "because these missionaries who were now sent to them would not settle among them. Your settlement is situated in the territory of the United States," he said, "and consequently outside of the diocese of Quebec. The com- pany cannot favor the establishment of a colony in a foreign country; and I, as a bishop British subject, cannot allow the priests whom I send to establish themselves anywhere else than on British territory, because the line which divides the two powers also bounds my jurisdiction. It is the reason why the passage of the missionaries was refused last year; and it has been granted this year only on the special condi- tion that the missionaries would fix their residence on the north side of the Columbia River; thus this change does not come from the ill will on my part, which I thought proper to let you know. The missionaries, however, can go and visit you, but always temporarily, and will not be able to fix their residence among you. You might perhaps, in course of time, join them in moving to their establishment. The desire of the salvation of your souls shall induce you to do it."
Doubtless the archbishop and the bishop got the political information on which they based the views they thus expressed from the same source. They had now been in correspondence with the Hudson's Bay officials for two years or more in regard to this matter. The only reason given them for withholding what they asked for was a politi- cal one. When their request was finally granted, it gave permission to establish their missions only in the neighbor- hood and not among those who had asked for them, because they were in a foreign country.
163
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
This was early in the year 1837. At that time the Hud- son's Bay Company, from whom these bishops got their infor- mation, had definitely and finally abandoned all hope of holding the country south of the Columbia. Its officials were in close touch with the authorities of the British govern- ment, and it is therefore equally certain that they also had given up hope of keeping more than the country west and north of the river, and were resolved to be content with this joint occupation arrangement as long as it could be perpetu- ated.
Father Blanchet left Montreal early in May in a bark canoe, which carried the express of the Hudson's Bay Com- pany. A month later he was joined by Father Demers. On July 26th they left Norway House, on Lake Winnipeg, with the Company's annual brigade, in a fleet of eleven boats, laden with merchandise, and a large number of hired men, with women and children. With them were two English botanists, Messrs. Banks and Wallace, on a tour of scien- tific exploration.
Their journey lay along the toilsome route which Mac- Kenzie had followed forty-four years earlier, to the crest of the mountains. There they took a southerly course to the headwaters of the Columbia, which Mackenzie and Fraser had failed to find, but to which there was now a well beaten trail. They encountered no accident, or adven- ture of special interest until they reached the big bend of the Columbia River. There in the transfer of persons and freight from that point to the House of the Lakes, one of the boats was badly wrecked, and, of twenty-six persons on board, twelve were drowned. The travelers, Banks and Wallace, with the wife of the latter, were among the lost.
164
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
To carry out the instructions given him to establish the principal station of his mission at Cowlitz Prairie, Father Blanchet left Vancouver on the 12th of December, reaching Cowlitz Prairie on Sunday, the 16th. The settlement then consisted of the families of four retired servants of the Hudson's Bay Company, who had taken claims upon the prairie on the west side of the river. Mass was celebrated on Sunday and Monday, at the house of Simon Plomondon. A section of land was taken for the mission, and prepara- tions made to obtain timber for buildings, after which Father Blanchet returned to Fort Vancouver.
Early in January 1839, with the approbation of the chief factor, Father Blanchet visited the Catholic families residing on French Prairie. A log church, seventy by thirty feet, had been built in 1836. On Sunday, January 6th, the vicar-general blessed the chapel, under the patronage of St. Paul, and celebrated the first mass in the Willamette Valley.
In the spring, Father Demers visited the Indians of Puget Sound. He returned to Fort Vancouver by June, and met the trading expedition of the Hudson's Bay Company on its annual return to Vancouver from New Caledonia and the interior posts, after which he visited the upper Columbia, Forts Walla Walla, Okanogon and Colvile.
On the 9th of October, Chief Factor Douglas communi- cated to the vicar-general "that the governor and committee have no further objection to the establishment of a Roman Catholic mission in the Willamette, and that the missionaries were at liberty to take any means towards the promotion of that object." Father Blanchet assumed charge of Wil- lamette mission, and assigned Cowlitz mission to Father Demers.
FIRST CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES.
The first Catholic missionaries to reach Oregon were Fathers F. N. Blanchet and Modeste Demers, who came from Canada in 1838. Fathers A. M. A. Blanchet and J. B. A. Brouillet came a year or two later." Father F. N. Blanchet early became bishop, and then arch- bishop in Oregon, and his brother A. M. A. Blanchet was the first bishop of Nisqually. Father Demers, the first Catholic to do missionary work on. Puget Sound, became bishop of Vancouver Island. Father De Smet was a Jesuit and came to the coast from St. Louis. He was the first Catholic missionary to come to the coast in response to the request of the four Indians who crossed the mountains to that city in 18317
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
Заня лионам энтэ тая
Stew nogetO dbest of asignadaaime skloniteD tam oil establish the adw asmall stashoM bre tadanslat Cat MªFairie, Father
todonsla .A .M .A Todtord aid bris nogetO ni godaid
.Vitelpaivi Yo yoneid Jaff oft asw yants of the JaguY noBarwCrnotary uthor haddtekenaclaims upon the a mort Jason edt of sso bus tivas saw Jama 9moh) (ba )yindianin DH0H83 HAHAF SH Simon Plomondon.
IE81 givtio født of anistaupm pdt boazony odw tion: mads to obtain tiniber for buildings, after which Father Blanchet returned to Fort Vancouver.
Early in January 1839, with the approbation of the chief factor, Father Blanchet visited the Catholic families residing Im French Prairie. A log church, seventy by thirty feet, lå been built in 1836. On Sunday, January 6th, the wear-general blessed the chapel, under the patronage w St. Paul, and celebrated the first mass in the Willamette Kailey.
the spring, Father Demers visited the Indians of Puget Nos. He returned to Fort Vancouver by June, and met wwding expedition of the Hudson's Bay Company on its return to Vancouver from New Caledonia and the pusts, after which he visited the upper Columbia, Walla Walla, Okanogon and Colvile
it way of October, Chief Factos Douglas communi- lar-general " that the governor and committee bon Autws objection to the establishment of a Roman Cad in the Willamette, and that the missionaries take any means towards the promotion of
thay users Faber Blanchet assumed charge of Wil- lamene n wod assigned Cowlitz mission to Father Demers
165
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
In the spring of 1840 Vicar-General Blanchet visited the Indians of Puget Sound, extending his mission as far as Whid- by Island. There he erected a cross, taught the Indians, baptized children, and reconciled two hostile tribes engaged in war. Father Demers accompanied the brigade of the Hudson's Bay Company, which started from Fort Vancou- ver for the upper Columbia, June 29th, extending his missionary visits to Forts Walla Walla, Colvile and Okano- gon. While at Colvile, he learned of the presence of Father Peter J. de Smet among the Flatheads, who, with equal surprise, had become advised that Father Demers was labor- ing in that vicinity. The two missionaries succeeded in com- municating with each other; and Father Demers carried a letter from Father de Smet to Vicar-General Blanchet.
Sir George Simpson, upon his tour to Oregon, in 1841, made such a favorable report of the missionary labors of Messrs. Blanchet and Demers, that two other priests from Canada, Revs. Anthony Langlois and John B. Z. Bolduc, were added to the mission. Refused passage overland, by the Hudson's Bay Company, they came by sea, via Cape Horn, at the expense of the Society of Quebec for the Propa- gation of the Faith. They arrived September 17, 1842, at St. Paul, on the Willamette. The Vicar-General assumed charge at Vancouver, assigning Rev. Langlois to St. Paul, Rev. Bolduc to Cowlitz, Father Demers being on a mission to the upper Columbia.
On the 25th of November, Chief Factor John McLoughlin addressed the following to the vicar-general: "I am instructed to place one hundred pounds sterling to the credit of your mission, as an acknowledgment of the eminent ser- vices you and your pious colleagues are rendering the people of this country."
166
THE RISE AND PROGRESS
In 1843 the missionary force was increased by the arrival of Jesuit Fathers de Vos and Hockens, from St. Louis. In October, St. Joseph's College was opened at St. Paul, with thirty scholars, with Rev. A. Langlois, Superintendent. With the arrival of the Hudson's Bay Company brigade came five men and two women, aids of the mission, to whom free pas- sage had been furnished. In the following August Father de Smet arrived with a number of missionary priests, who were to help him in his work among the mountain tribes of the interior, several lay brothers, and six nuns of the order of Notre Dame de Namur. The latter immediately opened a school for girls as already related.
Early in November Father Blanchet received notice that Oregon had been made a vicariate apostolic, of which he was to be the ecclesiastical head, with the title of bishop of Phila- delphia. To be consecrated and invested with the authority of his office, it was necessary for him to return to Canada, or to go to some other bishopric, if one could be found that could be more easily reached, where there were church officials with sufficient authority to perform that ceremony. Upon reflection, and consideration of the difficulties of the journey, and the time he would need to be absent, he concluded to go to Mexico where the church had been established since the time of Cortez. But on arriving there he found that while the notice of his appointment was regular, and its genuineness undoubted, the canonical law required his own identification as the person for whom the appointment had been made. As identification was impossible where nobody could be found who had ever seen him before, he went to France, but found the same difficulty there. He accordingly crossed the Atlantic again to Canada, where at Montreal, the city from which he had been sent out to the West seven years earlier,
167
OF AN AMERICAN STATE
as a missionary priest, the pioneer head of the Catholic Church in Oregon, was duly consecrated on July 25th, but with the title of bishop of Drasa instead of that of Philadel- phia, the title having been changed meantime.
The Catholic mission in Oregon then included nine per- manent stations or missions, four of which were conducted by the Jesuit fathers from St. Louis. Eleven churches had been built. There were two educational establishments, one for each sex, and fifteen priests and six sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Father Demers was made vicar-general. A year later this bishopric was made an ecclesiastical prov- ince, and Bishop Blanchet became archbishop, with his see at Oregon City. Rev. A. M. A. Blanchet, then canon at Montreal, was appointed bishop of Walla Walla, which title was afterwards changed to that of Nisqually, and Father Demers, bishop of Vancouver Island. Bishop A. M. A. Blanchet was consecrated at Montreal September 27, 1846, and crossed the plains the next season, reaching Walla Walla September 5, 1847. He was accompanied by Very Rev. J. A. B. Brouillet, Vicar-General, Rev. Messrs. Rousseau and Leclaire, four fathers of the O. M. I .* of Marseilles, and two lay brothers. Bishop Demers was consecrated on the 30th of November 1847, at the church of St. Paul, by Arch- bishop Blanchet, his former companion in the Oregon mission.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.