Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 20.pdf/181

Rh Baptist minister to reach Oregon, arrived and served this church for a time. Its location was a few miles north of Hillsboro, Washington County. Revs. Ezra Fisher and Hezekiah Johnson (1845) were the next Baptist ministers to arrive, and churches were organized at Yamhill and Rickreall in 1846, at Oregon City in 1847, at Clatsop plains, near Astoria, in 1848. These, with the West Union church, had a combined membership of 95. On June 23 and 24, 1848, pursuant to a call by the West Union church, an association was organized, each church being represented by four delegates. It was resolved that two hundred dollars be raised at once to employ a minister to travel and preach within the bounds of the association for one year. The church at Forest Grove was organized on May 22, 1852, and it was the thirteenth Baptist church organized in Oregon.

In the period under review there was but one Presbyterian church organized, that of Clatsop Plains, on September 19, 1846, by Rev. Lewis Thompson, and in the historical summary of the growth of the Presbyterian denomination in Oregon, published by the First Presbyterian Church in Portland under date of June 18, 1899, it asserted that that "was the first Presbyterian Church on the Pacific Coast."

The first service of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the original Oregon Territory was held at Vancouver in 1836, by Rev. Mr. Beaver, the chaplain of the Hudson's Bay Company. He held services at Cathlamet, also. Rev. St. M. Fackler held services at Champoeg, and possibly at Oregon City. The first Episcopal missionary was Rev. William Richmond, who arrived in Portland in May, 1851, and organized Trinity Church on May 18. On the 25th he organized St. Paul's at Oregon City. The first Roman Catholic Church in Portland was dedicated Feb. 22, 1852. By the end of 1854, the total number of Catholics in Oregon Territory was 303.

It is impossible to state with any degree of certainty the number of professed Christians connected with Protestant