The Cowlitz Mission
By Curt Cunningham

The first Catholic Mass held on the Cowlitz Prairie was in Simon Plamondon's cabin on December 16, 1838. This is when the missionaries arrived on the Cowlitz. Rev. Francois Norbert Blanchet and Rev. Modeste Demers, settled on land between the Plamondon claim and the Cowlitz Farm. St. Francis Xavier Mission, as it was officially named, became known as the Cowlitz Mission. This is the oldest Catholic church in Washington and is still an active church today. The cemetery next to the mission was first used by the Hudson's Bay Company and Puget Sound Agricultural Company employees.

The church is well known for it’s “Catholic Ladder” that Father Blanchet used to help tell the stories of the Bible to Cowlitz People who wanted to hear about the Great Spirit. Fred Echenberg, a member of the Cowlitz Tribe and master woodworker, created a replica of that ladder which exists on the property today along with a guide that explains the symbols on the ladder.

In the Beginning

In the early 1830's French-Canadian settlers established a small community on French Prairie located in the Willamette Valley a few miles south of Champoeg, Oregon. Not long after they built their cabins and started to farm the land, they began to turn their attention to religious and educational pursuits. On July 3, 1834, they wrote a letter to Bishop Joseph Norbert Provencher of Juliopolis at the Red River settlement in Canada, asking for religious teachers to be sent into Oregon.

In January of 1835, Methodist missionaries began to arrive in Oregon. The Catholic's living on the French Prairie had not yet heard back from the Bishop, and they became anxious to have a representative of their own faith. Finally on February 23, 1835, the settlers of the French Prairie received a response to their request. The Bishop said that he had no body available in the Red River settlement to send to them, but he promised he would to send a message to Europe and Quebec asking for their help.

On February 17, 1838, HBC Governor George Simpson sent a letter to the Bishop of Quebec; “My Lords, I yesterday had the honor of receiving a letter from the Bishop of Juliopolis, dated Red River, October 13, 1837, wherein I am requested to communicate with your Lordship on the subject of sending two priests to the Columbia River for the purpose of establishing a Catholic mission in that part of the country."

“When the Bishop first mentioned this subject, his view was to form the mission on the banks of the Willamette, a river falling into the Columbia from the south. To the establishing of a mission there, the Governor and Committee in London and the Council in Hudson's Bay had a decided objection, as the sovereignty of that country is still undecided; but I last summer intimated to the Bishop that if he would establish the mission on the banks of the Cowlitz River, or at the Cowlitz Portage, falling into the Columbia from the northward, and give his assurance that the missionaries would not locate themselves on the south side of the Columbia River. . . . I should recommend the Governor and the Committee to afford a passage to the priests."

“By the letter received yesterday, already alluded to, the Bishop enters fully into my views and expresses his willingness to fall in with my suggestions. This letter I have laid before the Governor and Committee and am now instructed to intimate to your Lordship that if the priests will be ready at Lachine to embark for the interior about the 25th of April, a passage will be afforded them, and on the arrival at Fort Vancouver measures will be taken by the Company’s representatives there to facilitate the establishing of the mission."

"Your Lordship's most obedient servant,
George Simpson"

The Archbishop of Quebec agreed to the arraignment and appointed Rev. Francis Norbert Blanchet of the Montreal district to become the vicar-general and take charge of the new mission. The Archbishop also appointed Rev. Modeste Demers of the Juliopolis district as his assistant. In April of 1838, Rev. Francois Blanchet and his servant Augustine Rochon left Quebec with the HBC York Factory Express for the trip across the continent to the Red River District in Manitoba where they picked up Rev. Modeste Demers. From Manitoba the next stop would be at Fort Colville.

The trip went well until the party reached the Little Dalles, on the upper Columbia River. These rapids were located between Northport and Marble in northeast Washington. (In 1941, these rapids were submerged by the Grand Coulee Dam.) As they began to descend these rapids, one of the canoes overturned and was wrecked on the rocks, drowning 12 members of the party. When they reached Fort Colville, the "Black Robed" priests were welcomed with open arms. The priests remained at Fort Colville for almost a week and baptized 19 people and held Mass. The Indians took great interest in their sacred rites. The priests were met with similar welcomes and interest at Fort Okanogan, where they baptized a few of their residents.

From the Okanogan, they traveled to Fort Walla Walla, where the priests were able to baptize a few members of the Walla Walla tribe. They were less interested in the religion and more critical of the priests due to the influence of Dr. Marcus Whitman who was a Methodist. The priests held Mass and the accessories that were used in the ritual, struck the Walla Walla with amazement.

Soon the Walla Walla and the Cayuse people were impressed by the "black gowns" as the priests were called, as well as their mystical attitude of respect and chaste. They also liked that the priests were not interested in dealing with the daily drama of their lives. The Umatilla branch of the Cayuses were more interested in the priests religion than the other tribes of the area, and this began to cause a spiritual rift among them.

The Priests arrived at Fort Vancouver on November 25, 1838, and they were welcomed by a delegation of settlers who had traveled north to the fort from the French Prairie. The members of this delegation were; Joseph Gervais, Etienne Lucier, and Pierre Belleque. At that time, the priests told the delegation where the future mission was to be built. On the day they arrived at the fort, Mass was held, and many of the French-Canadian Citizens wept with joy as this was the first Mass these settlers had been able to participate in since their arrival in Oregon.

On December 11, 1838, Rev. Blanchet and Augustine Rochon traveled north to the Cowlitz Farm while Demers remained at Vancouver. They reached the Cowlitz Prairie on December 13th and they were welcomed by Simon Plamondon. On December 16, 1838, Blanchet held the first Catholic Mass on the Cowlitz Prairie in Simon Plamondon's cabin. The Next day Father Blanchet left Augustine Rochon on the Cowlitz Prairie with instructions to build the church.

Rochon set to work at once to build a log cabin for the missionaries, and to fence in part of the land now known as the Cowlitz mission. It is unknown exactly what this log cabin church looked like, though it is said the structure had an unusual appearance that looked like a wolf's head. This first church would quickly become known as the Wolf's Head Chapel.

Blanchet returned back to Vancouver, and then traveled to the Willamette Valley for a month to visit the people there. The first thing Blanchet did when he arrived in the Willamette Valley was to make the Catholic settlers who had taken Indian wives, separate for a short time so they could be reunited under the Catholic faith, and then remarried according to the laws of the church. The priests baptized 134 people, did 9 sepultures and married 49 couples. The priests also remarried those Catholics who were brought together under a Protestant union by the earlier missionaries, which disgusted the priests.

The Methodists had organized a temperance society and held prayer meetings on the French Prairie. The priests did not approve of these meetings and they were able to get many of the Catholics to quit.

In January of 1839, Blanchet departed for Fort Vancouver. During the time Blanchet spent visiting the fort, Rev. Demers was able to learn the Chinook Jargon, which was the universal language in the Pacific Northwest at the time. Demers would give teachings twice a day. One in French for the French speaking residents, and another teaching held later in the evening which was given in the Chinook Jargon. There would be about 150 Indians at the the evening teachings.

In 1839, their were 8 families totaling about 50 people living at the Cowlitz settlement, which was located west of the mission. The population would change from time to time as the employees for the PSAC would increase and decrease depending on the needs of the farms.

Back at the Cowlitz Farm, Blanchet was informed that the Methodists were about to open a church at Fort Nisqually. He immediately sent Demers north before the Methodists arrived in hopes to gain the attention of the Nisqually people before they were exposed to the Methodists. After 10 days, Demers was able to bring the religion to the Nisqually tribe and French-Canadians living there. Mrs. Kittson, the wife of William Kittson who was in charge of the fort, converted to Catholicism and became the interpreter. Before Demers departed, he made arraignments to build a church. He then traveled back to Fort Vancouver to take passage on the Hudson's Bay Company Express back to the Upper Columbia in Eastern Washington.

In the summer of 1839, Father Demers traveled to Eastern Washington and for about a month he taught the Indians the Catholic religion who resided in the vicinity of Fort Colville. After 2 weeks, Demers traveled down the Columbia to Fort Walla Walla to teach the religion to the Indians who lived there. Also that summer on the Cowlitz Prairie, between Plamondon's claim and the Cowlitz Farm, the PSAC employees built a 30X20 foot cabin for the priests to live in and to use as a church. Blanchet had a farmer assist them in raising produce, and 24 acres were fenced, and another 15 acres were ploughed for grains. Not long after, the church took the name of St. Francis Xavier.

The Catholic Ladder

After the priests arrived on the Cowlitz, the Indians abandoned the Methodist and Presbyterian meetings and flocked to the new Catholic mission. Blanchet invented an ingenious method of instructing the Indians by means of the "Catholic Ladder." This is a chart or scale, 6 feet long by 15 inches wide, on which the dogmas of the Catholic faith were represented by pictures, and on the margins were pious hymns and canticles. The locals called it the "Sahalie Stick" which translates to "God's Stick" or "Heaven's Stick" in the Chinook Jargon.

The news of the arrival of the priests on the Cowlitz spread quickly. This caused numerous delegations of Indians to come from great distances in order to see and hear the black gowns. Among the visitors, was a group from Whidbey Island 150 miles away. After a journey of 2 days in canoes to Fort Nisqually and an arduous march of 3 days on foot, across streams, rivers and by an exceedingly rough trail, they reached the Cowlitz mission.When they arrived, they were starving and many had bleeding feet. After they were fed and refreshed themselves, the priests began to explain to the Whidbey Island visitors, the teachings of the Christian religion. 

Blanchet goes on to say; "The great difficulty was to give them an idea of religion so plain and simple as to command their attention, and which they could carry back with them to their tribes. In looking for a plan, Blanchet imagined that by representing on a square stick the 40 centuries before Christ by 40 marks, the 33 years of our Lord by 33 points followed by a cross, and the 18 centuries and 39 years since, by 18 marks and 39 points, his design would be pretty well answered, giving him a chance to show the beginning of the world, the creation, the fall of the angels, of Adam, the promise of a savior, the time of his birth, and his death upon the cross as well as the mission of the Apostles."

The plan was a great success. After 8 days of explanation the chief and his companions became masters of the subject, and started for home well satisfied. The chief was then given a piece of wood marked with the rungs of the ladder. Not long after, the ladder was simply drawn out on a chart. Later, the ladder was redrawn in a very elaborate manner. Blanchet copyrighted the ladder in 1859, and his final version was 6 feet long and 2.5 feet wide.

The ladder is described as a veritable pictorial compendium of biblical and church history. The use of the ladder spread quickly, and a copy of the chart was to be found in every Indian camp visited by the priests. The chiefs took great pride in explaining the Ladder to their people.

Father De Smet praised it very highly, and the Protestant missionaries tried to counteract its influence by creating a "Protestant Ladder," in which the history of the Catholic Church was traced as a way that leads to perdition. The Catholic Ladder was much better suited to the teaching of the Indians and was more successful than the abstract doctrinal methods employed by the protestant missionaries.

In the fall of 1839, both Blanchet and Demers traveled back to Fort Vancouver to ask permission to establish a church in the Willamette Valley. James Douglas, who was in charge of the fort while Dr. McLoughlin was away on business in London, agreed to the request. The HBC had rescinded their previous arraignment now that a church had been established north of the Columbia River.

The priests then hurried to the French Prairie and established their church in a cabin that was built in 1836, about 4 miles south of Champoeg. This cabin was originally built in the hopes that the priests would come. Blanchet arrived at Champoeg on October 12, 1839. He then spent the next 3 weeks teaching the religion to the people, holding confession and instructing the women and children in their duties to the church. The last week was spent visiting the homes of the settlers. He then selected a square mile of land for the Catholic church. On January 6, 1840, Blanchet dedicated the new church to St. Paul and celebrated Mass for the first time in the Willamette Valley.

While Demers was busy teaching the Indians in the evening, Blanchet attended to the French-Canadians, who were occupied during the day at their work, and taught the young men how to read in French. Most of them were able to read English. He also taught them the responses of the Mass and the plain chant. After these exercises were completed at 9pm, the priests would then hear the confessions of the people.

Catholics vs Methodists

When the Protestants and Catholics first arrived at Fort Vancouver in the late 1830's, there were no church structures and they had to share the same worship space at the fort. Because of the rivalry between these 2 faiths, this arraignment was not well liked by either group.

The Protestants were the first to arrive in the Oregon Territory when Methodist Reverend Jason Lee arrived at Fort Vancouver with Nathaniel Wyeth in the spring of 1834. Rev. Samuel Parker a Presbyterian arrived at Fort Vancouver in the fall of 1835 and spent the winter there as a guest of John McLoughlin. In the spring of 1836, Parker left for Hawaii, and upon leaving Vancouver he told McLoughlin that the Whitman-Spaulding party was on its way to the Columbia and would arrive later that summer. Accompanied by HBC Trappers McLeod and McKay, the Whitman-Spaulding party arrived at Fort Vancouver on September 12, 1836. They then returned up the river and established the famous missions at Waiilatpu and Lapwai.

Lee continued his lecturing throughout the summer of 1839 and aroused so much interest that the mission board decided to send out large reinforcements. About $42,000 was contributed to the movement called the "Great Reinforcement." On October, 10, 1839, the ship Lausanne, with Capt. Josiah Spaulding at the helm, loaded with goods, sailed from New York for the Columbia River.

The ship entered the Columbia River, on May 21, 1840, and within a short time after arriving at Fort Vancouver, her cargo had been distributed to the various missions at the Willamette Falls, The Dalles, Clatsop, and Nisqually. Among the many passengers were Rev. Jason Lee, Rev, Alvin Waller, Rev, J. P. Richmond, Rev. Joseph Frost, Rev, William Kone, Rev, Gustavus Hines, Rev. Josiah Parrish, and George Abernethy who was the mission steward.

These men were to cause McLoughlin much trouble. When the Lausanne arrived, McLoughlin sent fresh provisions to the members of the “Great Reinforcement” and provided for them at the Fort. “Why this large addition to the Oregon Mission and these quantities of supplies which were sent at great expense," said Frederick Holman in his 1907 book; Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon, "has never been satisfactorily explained ." It has been said that the U. S. Government secretly contributed a good part of this money.

The 1840's began with a bitter jealousy between the Catholics and the Methodists, and both sides were not shy about showing their displeasure. The Catholics felt that the Methodists shamelessly intruded into the French settlements and preached their pagan beliefs to the French-Canadian Catholics, or to their horror, attempt to convert the Indians. The Methodists on the other hand, took the exact opposite view of the matter.

Both parties did not fully understand the intentions of the other, and the squabbling between them was mostly without any foundation in fact, but was from the fears of one's own mind. Instead of working together for the greater good, for the people, as they should have, their personal fears and ego's caused various acts of minor hostility against each other, to the detriment of all.

When Rev. David Leslie found out that Blanchet had remarried some of the settlers under the Catholic faith, he took revenge for his actions by instituting a revival that ended up being a flop, while Rev. Daniel Lee was trying and convert the Catholics by praying at their homes. When this attempt failed, he then tried to scare them with a book called; Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk. This book described the horrible treatment of the Catholic Nuns in Montreal.

The Methodists also filed a complaint with James Douglas of the HBC, accusing the Catholics of using their influence; "to keep the lambs of the flock out of the clutches of the Wesleyan wolves," The governor responded by saying tersely that; "it was none of his business."

Blanchet, began to boast of his meddling in Alvin Waller's missionary work at the Willamette Falls in 1840, to which he claimed that he was able to baptize the most savage of the Indians in Oregon over the course of 7 days, although he had to get up every morning and chase down the Indians to get them to do their daily duties as Christians. After a week at the falls, Blanchet said he was able to "rescue" 9 families out of 10 from brother Waller.

Waller became angry after hearing about Blanchet's doings and on the following Sunday he pulled down the flag that Blanchet had hoisted. After being confronted by Blanchet, Waller said that he was encouraged to do it by the Clatsops. The reason they did this, was that the Clatsop's were mad at Waller and they knew Blanchet would become angry towards Waller, to their satisfaction. They were mad at Waller because the Catholics used ornaments and vestments in their rituals and teachings and Waller never shown them such pretty things.

Despite their troubles with the Methodists, Blanchet and Demers worked tirelessly to spread their religion. They visited the distant tribes and baptized a vast number of infants, and attended to the spiritual needs of the HBC employees, most of whom were Catholics. The St Paul and St Xavier missions would continue to teach their faith to the people for many years to come.

The priests made sure that the children they took from the Methodist school, were not neglected in the continuation of their education, and they worked hard to establish institutions of learning as Jason Lee himself did. They never lagged in making improvements to their claim, which would give them a title to the lands occupied by them when the U. S. government opened the area for settlement.

One of the objects for the arrival of Blanchet and Demers was to unite the French settlers in a community by themselves, and thus weaken the power of the Methodist's as a political body. Not only was the struggle between Great Britain and the United States a struggle over earthen territory, it was also a struggle of spiritual territory.

The hostility increased between the Protestants and Catholics. McLoughlin was targeted by the Methodists who accused him of allowing, or as they believed, invited the Catholics to settle in the territory. The suspicion became more evident after McLoughlin joined the Catholic Church in 1842. They said he was always a Catholic and a very deceptive one. He was also accused of plotting against Protestantism and American progress in every form, and though nothing could be further from the truth. These accusations carried great weight with those opposed to him.

Even though McLoughlin was attacked by the Protestants. The success of all the missions whether Protestant or Catholic was due to his generosity. This would later be admitted to by Rev. Gustavus Hines, in his 1899 book Missionary of the Pacific Northwest. 

As a Christianizing influence, much of the missionary effort was wasted, though they produced some beneficial results to the native population. In Frederick Holman's book Dr. John McLoughlin, the Father of Oregon, said that the Indians; "had no ethical, or spiritual words. They had no need of such. They had no religion of their own, worthy of a name, to be substituted for a better or higher one. They had no religious instincts, no religious tendencies, no religious traditions. The male Indians would not perform manual labor, that was for women and slaves."

"The Religion of Christ and the Religion of Work go hand in hand. In the main that is true, yet the Catholics appear to have made progress toward Christianizing the natives. The Indian believed in a semi-spiritual Tamanous, a being which is represented by an image. For this reason the pictures and symbols of the Catholic worship were more appealing to the Indians than were the abstract teachings employed by the Protestants."

The Mission from 1840's to the 1900's

Neither McLoughlin nor the HBC had any intention of covering the country with missions, as the Americans had done. This was evident from the refusal of the HBC committee to allow two additional priests, Rev. Anthony Langlois and John B. Z. Bolduc, from following Blanchet and Demers into Oregon. They did this by denying them a passage with the annual York Factory Express in 1841, although this did not prevent them from coming to Oregon the following year by sea.

In 1842, Father Pierre Jean de Smet brought Jesuits and the Sisters of Notre Dame from Namur, France, to teach at the schools and assist the missions. So great was the progress of the Oregon missions that the Holy See, at the request of the Fifth Provincial Council of Baltimore, on December 1, 1843, elected Oregon into a Vicariate Apostolic, and Blanchet was appointed Vicar Apostolic.

Blanchet, then departed for Europe, by way of Honolulu and Cape Horn, to obtain aid for his missions, and arrived in London on May 22, 1844. On his way back, Blanchet stopped in Canada, his native country, and was consecrated by Bishop Bourget of Montreal, on July 25, 1844. Afterwards, he traveled to Rome, and arrived in January of 1846, and returned to Oregon with 6 secular missionaries, 4 Jesuit Fathers, 3 lay brothers and 7 Sisters of Notre Dame, 21 in all.

By 1844 in the Oregon Territory, 6,000 Indians had been converted and baptized, and a dozen Catholic communities were now clustered around the HBC posts. The territory now had 14 chapels, with 1,500 French-Canadians who had been reclaimed to the Church. Consecrated under the title Bishop of Philadelphia, Blanchet subsequently received the title of Bishop of Draza.

In 1846, the Oregon missions were organized into a Metropolitan See along with Nisqually, Vancouver Island, Princess Charlotte, Walla Walla, Fort Hall, Colville and New Caledonia, as Suffragans, and Blanchet became Archbishop of Oregon City on July 1, 1846.

By 1847, the Cathedral of St. Peter, in the Willamette Valley, established 22 chapels or stations. In 1848, the First Provincial Council of Oregon was held. In this year the Oblates came and founded a mission at Astoria. In 1865, the Episcopal residence was moved from Oregon City to Portland. In 1868, Right Rev. Charles John Seghers became coadjutor.

In 1864 Father Richard took charge of the mission for the next 9 years. He was the first one to establish a mission school and later began the erection of a larger building, which was to serve as a sisters' convent and boarding school. His work was completed by Father Hylebos, who also built a new church. The old log chapel being no longer suitable for the needs of the parish. The Cowlitz Mission continued to flourish until about 1890, when the development of the country placed a heavy demand upon the services of the missionaries.

The settlement of the Oregon question between England and the United States brought the Diocese of Oregon within the latter; its Suffragans were Nisqually and Vancouver's Island, and the Vicariate of British Columbia, created in 1863, and the Vicariate of Idaho, in 1868. This region, which, in 1838, had but 2 priests, now possessed 72 priests, 107 churches and chapels, 4 colleges, 11 academies, 4 hospitals, 4 asylums and 175 sisters.

The Diocese of Oregon City alone possessed 23 priests, 25 churches, 1 college, 9 academies, a hospital, an asylum, numerous schools and 20,000 Catholics. Exhausted by the labors of 45 years, Archbishop Blanchet resigned, in 1880, whereupon his coadjutor, Rev. Charles John Seghers, became Archbishop of Oregon.

Seghers had already been chief laborer in that Diocese since 1879, when he became coadjutor, when it contained 23 priests and 22 churches. His labors equaled those of Archbishop Blanchet, but in 1884, with the permission of Pope Pius IX, he resigned as the Archbishop of Oregon for the humbler and more arduous pursuits of his former labors, the Diocese of Vancouver's Island. Seghers had increased the Oregon churches to 29. On February 5, 1885, Rev. William H. Gross, formerly Bishop of Savannah became the Archdiocese of Oregon.

In 1901, a fire destroyed the church with all its contents and valuable records, and Father Van Holdebeck, who had been in charge but 2 days, lost his life from injuries received in the fire. In the Fall of 1906 this mission was placed in the care of the Franciscan Fathers of St. Louis Province.

On August 7, 1911, the mission building at the Cowlitz was completely remodeled and the old ivy covered walls that had for many years served as a historic spot in Lewis county, were replaced with a structure that was modern in every detail. The school was opened in September, with day and boarding enrollment, plus a high school course for girls. The Franciscan Sisters of New York took then took charge of the instruction. On October 26, 1913, the old wooden water pipes at the mission were replaced with metal pipe. That year, the mission had the highest attendance in it's history.

In August of 1916, a fire broke out in the church, completely destroying the building.

The Sunday Oregonian April 1, 1917.
New Church is Dedicated

Another epoch in the history of the Cowlitz church was marked last Sunday when the handsome new church was dedicated with all the pomp and splendor of the Roman Catholic Church. Archbishop Christie of Portland, and Bishop O'Dea, of Seattle, were the principal speakers. Archbishop Christie's address was made more particularly to the members of the church, and he exhorted them to be more loyal to the church in the future.

Bishop O'Dea prefaced his address with brief history of the foundation of the mission, then made an address. Following the dedicatory services mass was celebrated, after which all went to the convent, where the women had prepared a lunch. The new edifice was crowded, many having to stand throughout the long service. The music was good, the male choir which had been organized but recently, showing that they had been doing some excellent work. 

The new house of worship is of brick veneer and stands upon the site of the old frame structure which was destroyed by fire last August, The interior is one of the most beautiful in the Southwest, and the decorations are artistic. A large new altar, the gift of a friend in Oregon, the various pieces of statuary, some of which are votive gifts, the stained glass windows, the columns of pure white, all combined make the interior attractive as well as restful.

Much of the interior decorating is the handiwork of the two sons of J. B Sareault. A great deal of the labor on the new edifice was donated by members of the parish. The Cowlitz Mission has had an eventful history. The mission is one of earliest Catholic foundations in the Northwest, being founded In 1839 by Canadian missionaries for the purpose of converting the Indians and administering to the spiritual needs of the Hudson bay trappers and early settlers, and for a number of years it was the only Catholic establishment in the unexplored wilds north of Vancouver, and it became the permanent headquarters of the missionaries of that day.

Father Francis Norbert Blanchet, later the first archbishop of Oregon, was the founder of the mission. It was he who obtained the grant of a great section of prairie land for the establishment and support of the mission. He planted the first cross, celebrated the first mass and conducted the first mission with encouraging results, Father Modeste Demers. later first bishop of Vancouver Island, succeeded Father Blanchet. He erected a small log church and priests dwelling, laid out the mission land and cemetery, and made Cowlitz Prairie his permanent home for a number of years. His work for the next two decades was continued by Fathers Langois, Bolduc and La Clair.

The Church Today

The St. Francis Xavier Mission continues to serve the people of Lewis County and conducts mass on Sundays at 8:30am and Wednesdays at 10:00am

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Lewis County Parishes

Sources;

The United States Catholic Magazine, published in 1843

Pioneer Catholic history of Oregon, by Edwin V. O'Hara, published in 1911

History of the Catholic Church, by Richard H. Clarke, published in 1890

The Works of Hubert Howe & Bancroft, Volume 29, History of Oregon, Volume I 1834-1848, published in 1886

Washington West of the Cascades, by Herbert Hunt and Floyd Kaylor, published in 1917