The Church of England in the Old Oregon Country

Abstract

Most historians of the Pacific Northwest attribute the beginning of Christian missions in the old Oregon country to the appearance at St. Louis, Missouri, in the fall of 1831 of four Nez Perce Indians. According to Protestant sources these Indians were seeking the “Book of Life;” according to Roman Catholics they sought the “Blackrobes,” as the Jesuit missionaries were known. Some modern historians, unable to account for the Indians' interest in Christianity, have even asserted that they had no religious interest at all. The publicity given this event caused the Methodist Church to send out the Reverend Jason Lee in 1834, and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to send out the Reverend Samuel Parker in 1835. As a result of these exploratory trips the Methodists established themselves in the Willamette Valley and the American Board sent Marcus Whitman, Henry Spalding and W. H. Gray in 1836 and Cushing Eells, Elkanah Walker and A. B. Smith in 1838 into the area of eastern Washington and Idaho now called the Inland Empire. The Roman Catholic priests, Fathers DeMers and Blanchet, arrived at Fort Vancouver in the fall of 1838.