Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/166

 154 REVEREND EZRA FISHER dition. I should have taken up a collection in favor of the Home Mission Society but for the fact that the church felt bound to relieve the wants of Br. Stevens. On Sabbath, after preaching, Br. Cheadle made known the wants of Br. Stevens and a collection of $48.50 was taken up in his favor. WEST UNION CHURCH Last Saturday and Sabbath I spent with the West Union Church, 27 miles west of this place near the seat of justice for Washington County. Here I met Br. Weston,3'4 w ho is preaching to the church every Sabbath. He reached Oregon last Nov. extremely poor, having left his wife above the Cascade Mountains with a travelling companion till he could come into the Willamette Valley and raise means to bring his family down. The West Union Church helped him to $100, sent him back for his family, have fixed him on a claim of 320 acres of land near the place of meeting and one brother has furnished him his breadstuff and veg- etables ever since. This church are engaged in building a frame meeting house, 30 feet by 40, with 13 feet posts, the present year. Last Saturday they invited Br. Weston to be- come their pastor and will probably pay him about $300. The question of the expediency of their applying to the Home Mission Soc. for aid was raised. A leading brother from the other church in the Tualatin plains 3 j s being present, I advised that the two churches should unite and support Br. Weston, and, through that means, leave your Board to appro- priate the amount which would be asked for Br. Weston to sustain a preacher at Portland. The subject seemed to strike them favorably. I hope these churches will take up and sustain Br. W. and think, should you send the right sort of a man to Portland, I can raise $50 from these two churches the first year for his support. 314 Rev. Rodolphus Weston was pastor until 1854. He was a missionary of the Willamette Association in 1859. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore.. 1:4, 148. 315 This was the West Tualatin (Forest Grove) Baptist church, which was organized May 22, 1852. Mattoon, Bap. An. of Ore. I:n.