History: "Jesuits in Oregon", St. Andrew's Mission ********************************************************************************* USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE: ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/or/orfiles.htm ********************************************************************************* Transcribed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: W. David Samuelsen - April 2002 ************************************************************************ Chronological List of Jesuits in Oregon "Jesuits in Oregon" 1844-1959, Rev. Wilfred P. Schoenberg, S.J., published June 1959 by the The Oregon-Jesuit to commemorate the Centennial Year in Oregon. No copyright, not registered. St. Andrew s Mission 1888 When a Cayuse Indian Chief in eastern Oregon requested baptism for his infant son in 1839, Fr. Modeste Demers performed the rite in the chief s camp along the Umatilla River. This was an inconspicuous beginning which subsequently developed into an important civilizing enterprise, St. Andrew s Mission on the Umatilla Reservation. The chief, whose name was Taawitoy, apparently took his son s religion seriously, for in November, 1847, he presented a cabin to Fr. Demer s successor, Fr. John Baptiste Brouillet, to be used as a Catholic mission. At first sight, this event may also appear to be inconspicuous or lacking in significance, but the date of the giving is not; indeed, November, 1847, was a kind of dividing line in Oregon mission history especially for the Protestants, who were almost destroyed at that time. Taawitoy s own people, the Cayuse, were involved in the tragedy which historians have come to term "The Whitman Massacre." When Fr. Brouillet accepted Taawitoy s cabin, he knew that Protestant missionaries in the vicinity were discouraged with the results of their efforts and that the hostility of the Indians toward them was growing. He did not know that a massacre was in the making, so he calmly dedicated his new mission to St. Ann and began the tedious business of learning the. Indians language. He had scarcely got settled in this work when he was called to the Cayuse camp to baptize several sick infants. He arrived there in the late evening of Nov. 29 and found to his dismay that some of the Indians had murdered Dr. and Mrs. Marcus Whitman and 12 others and that 63 others, mostly women and children, had been taken prisoners. What followed hasbecome the subject of controversy for a whole century since, and Fr. Brouillet s defense of Catholic missionaries in Oregon has become a great classic in "Americana." The massacre provoked a 2-year war between Indian and white. During the struggle, although he tried desperately to remain neutral, Fr. Brouillet was forced to withdraw from his mission in February, 1848, and the Indians plundered and~ burned it to the ground. In 1849, the war over, Fr. Brouillet returned, but due to the disturbances of the times and the opposition, of certain government Indian agents, his missionary work on the Umatilla Reservation was intermittent. St. Ann s Mission remained in theory; in fact, there was not even a post to mark it. On the first of November, 1866, a most energetic Belgian priest arrived, and a new era began. His name was Fr. Adolph Vermeersch. From the day of his arrival to this, the mission has continued without interruption. Fr. Vermeersch built a new St. Ann s on the south bank of the Umatilla River on a site presently indicated by a lone pine tree in a grove of cottonwoods. There, for 8 years, he labored with the great enthusiasm characteristic of Belgians and with considerable success as a consequence. When he was transferred elsewhere, Fr. Bertrand Orth succeeded him for one year. Then he, too, was transferred to other assignments, the last being the distinguished one of Archbishopric of Victoria. A Mighty Missionary Fr. Louis Conrardy followed Fr. Orth. A Belgian, like Fr. Vermeersch, he was a most remarkable missionary. He had already tasted the bitterness of mission life in India, so the Umatilla Reservation in Oregon could offer him little that he had not already suffered. He arrived in late January, 1875, prepared for the worst, and he soon had St. Ann s humming with his own energy. He was busy at baptizing and instructing children within 24 hours. He studied the Indian s language and ate with them in their tepees. When not occupied with labors at the mission, he traveled on horseback into the remotest parts of 3 vast counties. Morrow, Wheeler, and Gilliam, ministering to whites in these frontier settlements. He built the first Catholic churches in the newly pitched towns of Pendleton, Heppner, Vinson, and Condon. At the mission, he built the first Catholic school for Indian children, in 1883, and secured Sisters of Mercy from Philadelphia to staff it. During the same year, he moved the mission church to a new site below Emigrant Hill, dedicating it to St. Joseph, to whom he had a very special attraction. As early as 1877, Jesuits visited his mission to assist him. Fr. Cataldo came in that year to preach to the Indians in their own tongue. Five years later, from Nov. 20 to Dec. 4, Fr. Conrardy assisted by Archbishop Seghers, Fr. Cataldo, S.J., and Fr. Anthony Morvillo, S.J., conducted a "brimstone and hellfire" mission, attended by more than 600 Indians. Fr. Cataldo wrote later that their mission had tremendous influence on the lives of the Indians and that many conversions followed it. Their point is confirmed by the baptismal book, which records 23 baptisms for 1881, 32 for 1883, but 60 for the year-of the mission, 1882. Before 1887, Father Conrardy heard about the work of Fr. Damien among the lepers at Molokai, and he felt agreat desire"to work among the most abandoned." He offered himself to Damien, who replied: "Come, in God s name!" It was quite natural for Conrardy at this point to turn to the Jesuits to take over the Umatilla Mission. Archbishop William Gross of Portland added his own plea to that of Fr. Conrardy. The mission was accepted by the Superior of the Jesuits, Fr. Cataldo, and Fr. Urban Grassi, S.J., was ordered to take over. Fr. Grassi arrived in May, 1888. He found the school closed because of a government agent s highhanded dealings, and the sisters were gone. He began, like his predecessors, by rolling up his sleeves and moving the church, this time to a site about one-half mile eastward. The following year he began construction on a new school with six thousand precious dollars provided by Mother Drexel. He also persuaded the Mother General of the Franciscan Sisters of Glen Riddle Pennsylvania, to send 4 sisters to help him, and, by March 10, 1890 his school was ready for business Thirteen wide-eyed and apprehensive pupils appeared that first day and the number increased daily So many came that an addition had to be built on the school in 1892. Mother Drexel provided another $3,000 for that purpose. Father Grassi Dies Father Grassi did not have to worry about that, however. Eleven days after his school opened, he died from the affliction of over work, which was complicated somewhat by another pneumonia. He was buried under the mission church, his boots still on his feet, as though he was being prepared for harder labors elsewhere. Fr. Morvillo took over the direction of the mission. With Fr. Morvillo, there began a succession of missionaries which has continued up to the present day: Jesuit priests, scholastics, and brothers - sometimes in two s and three s, sometimes alone often struggling against odds that would discourage most men but always giving their best whatever the outcome. Each left his mark. Father Leopold Van Gorp, for example, in 1893, changed the name of the mission to St. Andrew s to honor Fr. J. A. Stephan of the Catholic Indian Bureau in Washington. Fr. Neate, in 1905, moved the church again. He transferred Fr. Grassi s body, also, to a nearby cemetery, where he erected a large red stone cross to mark the grave. As if rewarded for his reverence to the holy remains, he, too, died of overwork and pneumonia not a sad ending at all if one looks beyond the grave. Mission Fires There were many mission fires to separate the mountains and valleys of the years. On April 1, 1926, fire completely destroyed the sisters and girls residence, and one nun, Sister Lucretia, died in its flames. Five years later, on April 21, 1931, the priests and boys building burned. On September 6, 1942, the girls building, erected to replace the first, also burned to the ground, and with it went all classrooms of the school. As a result, school at the mission was discontinued until new quarters could be provided. In 1942, a day school was resumed, and this has been in operation ever since. Despite these handicaps, small perhaps when compared to the opposition of some of the governmentagents on the reservation, St. Andrew s has more than survived. Fr. Neate could write in 1911 that the average number of children in the boarding school was 86. The number of Catholics on the reservation, including full and mixed bloods, exceeded 700. Baptisms average 36 a year. Present records indicate no considerable change. For example, baptisms during the last 14 years have average exactly 35. A recent census of Indians on the reservation reveals that there are presently 550 Catholics, including mixed bloods. The number of deaths among these per year has averaged 11, and the number of children in the school 70. Fr. James Hurley, S.J., is presently missionary in charge. He, too, is leaving his mark in buildings and writings but most of all, in the hearts of countless hundreds of Indians who have come, after a century of tradition, to look upon the "Black Robe" a teacher, friend, and father.