First Methodist Church in Oregon City—A Setting in My Novels

Original Methodist church in Oregon City, 1843-1857

In my about-to-be-published novel, My Hope Secured, several scenes take place in or around the Methodist Church in Oregon City. This church was also a setting in one of my earlier novels, Now I’m Found.

I imagine my characters in worship services, hearing marriage banns read (though the reading of banns was not required at the time), and socializing on the grounds outside the church. I don’t know for certain that people in Oregon City shared Sunday meals after church, but potluck dinners near the church give me a reason to bring characters from town and country together for conversation. And in those conversations, the plot thickens.

Map of Oregon City in 1846, with Methodist church circled on the left and Roman Catholic church circled on the right.

In October 1850, when my novel begins, there were three churches in Oregon City—Methodist, Roman Catholic, and a brand new Congregationalist church. Both the Methodists and the Catholics were early missionaries in Oregon.

Detail from John Stanley Mix painting of Oregon City showing Methodist church

Methodist missionaries arrived in Oregon around 1834. The first Methodists intended to convert Native Americans to Christianity, but with the flood of white emigrants into the territory, their focus shifted to ministering to existing Protestants. The first minister to settle in Oregon City was Reverend Alvan Waller, who arrived in 1840. He built a two-room house for his family that also served as a worship space.

In 1842, Reverend Waller built the first Protestant church west of the Rocky Mountains. (Though other sources say the church was completed in 1843 or 1844.) This Methodist church was the first church building constructed in Oregon City, although not the first Christian church in the territory (that honor goes to the Catholics—see below).

Reverend Waller and his family moved to Salem in 1847, so he was not the minister when my characters were in Oregon City. But the church he built is the one in which I picture my characters worshiping. At least one of my characters had Catholic roots, but her husband is Protestant, and so I have her worshiping in the Methodist church with her family and friends.

The Methodist church was moved to another location in Oregon City in 1857, and it was replaced in 1890 with a new building, and in the 20th century with still other buildings. But the original building is the only one relevant in my novels thus far. (I don’t know whether my series will continue past 1857.)

St. John’s Catholic Church, as of 1858

The Catholic church in Oregon City came soon after the Methodist worship space. Catholic priests had been in Oregon several years converting Native Americans also, and they established St. John the Apostle parish in 1844. The first Catholic church in Oregon City was built in 1845 and was blessed in early 1846. Although this was the first Catholic church in Oregon City, it was the second in the territory—the first was a log cabin chapel in St. Paul, Oregon, southwest of Oregon City.

Oregon City also became the see of the first Catholic Archdiocese in Oregon in 1846, with the naming of Archbishop François Norbert Blanchet. His territory covered all of the western United States.

The Congregationalists were latecomers—their church was not built until 1850.

One of the fun parts of writing historical fiction for me is tracking down facts like these, so that I can place my characters in realistic settings. Of course, the first Methodist church in Oregon City was small enough that the large families in my novels probably filled about half the pew space.

When you read, do you picture the buildings in which the characters’ stories take place?