26 - First Church in Umatilla, Oregon

26

First Church in Umatilla, Oregon

1 p.; clipping

A clipping from the ‘Oregon Sunday Journal’ detailing the establishment of the first church in Umatilla, Oregon, in 1910, after the town had spent over sixty years without one. In its earlier days, Umatilla was a major navigation head, a prominent stage business headquarters, and the largest, most important town on the Columbia River in eastern Oregon. The text describes a rowdy frontier past where dance halls, cheap saloons, and gambling open to the public were widespread. While the town’s population once peaked near 5,000, it had dwindled to a few hundred by the time of the article, sustained primarily by the railroad business and diverging transit lines to Spokane and Walla Walla. It notes how local Catholics built St. Patrick’s Church on the site of the old town – where previous buildings had been removed or left to ruin – creating a comfortably fitted space where services became well attended.

ISAD(G) 2nd edition