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.[1]
By the 1st of November, 1847, the Catholic missionary 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 cornerstone of a new brick church at St Pauls was laid, which was opened for service on the 1st of November.[2] 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
- ↑ Blanchet, from whose Cath. Ch. 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.
- ↑ This was the first church built of brick in Oregon, but not the first brick building erected, as Blanchet supposes. Previous to this George Gay built a small 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.
