312 FREDERICK V. HOLMAN. a few miles below Fairfield, in 1836, not properly located, ordered it to be removed, and rebuilt on a large prairie, its present beautiful site." Dr. McLoughlin's parents were Catholics, and when he was fifteen days old, he was baptized by a Catholic priest. After- wards, and up to the year 1841, Dr. McLoughlin was a mem- ber of, at least he affiliated with the Anglican Church. In 1842 he became a member of the Catholic Church and con- tinued, a consistent, exemplary, and steadfast member of that church until his death. It was truly said by J. Quinn Thorn- ton, one of Oregon's early pioneers, a Protestant, in speaking of Dr. McLoughlin, that "as a Christian he was a devout Roman Catholic, yet, nevertheless, Catholic in the largest sense of that word. ' ' There has been some question as to when Dr. McLoughlin joined the Catholic Church. Commodore Charles Wilkes, of the United States Navy, was at Fort Vancouver in May, 1841. In his ' ' Narrative ' ' he says that, at that time, Dr. McLoughlin, although treating the Protestant missionaries with great kind- ness, was then a professed Catholic. This shows that Dr. McLoughlin was then attentive to the usages and tenets of that church. The matter has now been settled, I think, beyond dispute. For this I am indebted to the kindness of Rev. A. Hillebrand, pastor of St. John's Church, at Oregon City. The original "Memoraixte" of the establishment of the first Catholic mission in Oregon, kept by Archbishop F. N. Blanchet, are now a part of the archives of St. John's Church. A copy of a part of this Memoranda, given to me by Father Hillebrand, is as follows: "When they F. N. Blanchet, V. G. of the Archdiocese of Quebec, and Rev. Modeste Demers, assistant missionary ar- rived at Fort Vancouver [in 1838] , Dr. John McLoughlin was chief-factor and governor of the Hudson Bay Company, west of the Rocky Mountains, and in charge of said Fort Van- couver. Said Dr. was then a Protestant. About September [1842J he begged to [be] received in the Holy Catholic Church. On the 18th of November, he made his abjuration of the Protestant church and his profession of the Catholic faith
