Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 15.djvu/94



86 ROBERT #. BLOSSOM

These gentlemen together with their wives, Mrs. Eliza A. Spalding, Mrs. Narcissa Whitman, Joseph Maki and Maria Keawea Maki, his wife, were the charter members of the first church organized in "Old Oregon." This membership, a total of five, was all by letter, and it is interesting to note that Mr. Maki and his wife were from the native church in Honolulu, Oahu, Rev. Hiram Bingham, pastor. The old record of this first church says : "Brought from the darkness of heathenism into the glorious light of the gospel of peace."

The following resolution was adopted at the time of the organization :

"Resolved, That this Church be governed on the Congre- gational plan, but attached to the Bath Presbytery, New York, and adopt its form of confession of faith and covenant as ours."

There has been some doubt as to whether this organization was a Presbyterian Church. To remove such doubt the writer has made excerpts from the records of this old church. He has also obtained the written opinion of Rev. William Sylvester Holt, D. D., an able Presbyterian minister, formerly connected with the Oregon Presbytery, but now residing in Philadelphia, Pa., and occupying the position of Associate Secretary on the Ministerial Relief and Sustentation Board. His letter follows :

Philadelphia, Pa., December 18, 1913. Mr. R. H. Blossom, Chamber of Commerce, Portland, Ore.

Dear Mr. Blossom: Answering yours of December 6, I will say that personally I have never had any question as to the fact that the Church organized at Waiilatpu by Spalding and Whitman was a Presbyterian Church, and I based it on these facts : First, Spalding was a Presbyterian minister. Sec- ond, Whitman was an elder in the Presbyterian Church in the State of New York when he went out to Oregon. Third, as to adopting the Congregational form, it certainly was due to the fact that there was no Presbytery in Oregon, and that is the reason they were attached to the Presbytery of Bath, New York, and so no possibility of any form of government except their own. However, members were received by the session and not by the congregation so far as I can recall, and every-