La Grande Schools and Churches, Union County, Oregon
Churches in La Grande
After
the birth of the little community
which was to become the city
of La Grande, one of the first
interests of the people
was the establishment of
a church. To the Methodist group goes
the honor of being the first to
conduct organized
religious services and these
were begun in
1863 in
the old store building,
formerly known as the OK Grocery, in Old Town. The first
minister to preside was the
Reverend Doha Flynn. People of all denominations used this
building, however, services
being held for the respective groups whenever an itinerant
minister of a particular faith appeared
in La Grande. Union services and a Union Sunday School were
conducted in this building also.
The second organized group
to have services in La
Grande and the first to have its own
church building was
the Episcopal Church.
Under the direction of Reverend R. D. Nevius, they began services in
1884 and 10 years later erected the first church building in La
Grande on the south-east corner of Fourth and D Streets. It is
interesting to note that the first service held in this building was
a marriage ceremony. Miss Anna Webb became
the bride of
Jasper Stevens
on 24 September, 1874. The
building was not
completed, but the
principals in the wedding were pleased that the activities of
the church began with such a happy event.
Services of those of the Catholic faith were first held in 1867
at the Gangloff residence in La Grande. Father Dittman of Baker
officiating. Before the erection of the first Catholic Church in the
valley, at Island
City in 1882, services
were held in other communities, particularly in the Catherine
Creek area where many French Canadians resided. The church was built
through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Gangloff at Island City as it
had been the understanding that the main depot of the railroad
company in Grande Ronde Valley
would
be located there.
The first Catholic Church building in
La Grande was erected in 1890
and served until the present structure was erected and
dedicated in 1915.
The first people of Mormon faith
canoe into Union County
in the 1890's and
missionaries came shortly thereafter. Before the completion of the
present Mormon tabernacle in 1908 the Latter Day Saints worshipped
at first in private
homes, then
in the Steward Opera House, and
then in their own building, erected on the site of the
present Mormon Recreation Hall. Members of this group organized in
all of the other valley communities and a church house, still
standing was erected at Pine Grove above Elgin. The sugar factory
enterprise in the late 90s in
Grande Ronde Valley
was
promoted by
members of this group and it would undoubtedly have been most
successful had there been
irrigation facilities in the valley for the growing of sugar
beets.
The first meeting of the Presbyterians was held in 1877 and a
church building was constructed in 1886. The present Presbyterian
Church was erected in 1925. The Baptist congregation first met to
organize a church in 1872, and the
present building was
erected in
1906. Other denominations
represented in La Grande
in the past and present are
the Lutheran, Christian, Adventist, Nazarene and United
Brethren groups.
The proper education
of
their children was a matter of prime importance to the
pioneers who established La Grande and the first
school was
organized
in the late
fall of
1862.
Provedence
M..
Currey,
a
man of
broad education, consented to
become the teacher
holding the school in his
home.
The first school presented
a marked contrast with the fine education
facilities offered to the
children of this region
today. The school was
held in a cabin that
stood on a hillside
near what
was known as the Patterson
place between B and C Avenues on
First Street. Desks were made of logs while boxes and split
timbers served as seats. The
only available text book
was a First Reader that Joseph
Baker father of one of the first
pupils had brought with him across the plains. To teach the
A-B-C's the resourceful Mr. Currey cut large
letters from the headlines of
some
eastern Newspapers which had
found their way to the
west. The school was taught as a "rate school” the parents
paying
10
dollars a term as tuition
for the education of their children. Six students met with
Mr. Currey during that year, they being Joseph Baker Jr., Ada Brown,
Esther Brown, George Chase, Sarah Russell and William Russell.
The second year of
school, 1863-1864 was taught by Miss Mollie Babbington later Mrs
John Wilson. School was
probably held in the same
log cabin used the
previous year.
The school held in the year 1864 and
1965
was taught by
S. M. Grandy. Mr. J. D.
Slater later a prominent attorney of La Grande recalled that there
was a small school house built
probably during the summer of
1864. This building
constructed of rough boards battened with narrow strips of
rough lumber
was about
20
or 25 feet
wide and
30 or 35 feet
long and it was probably
in this structure that Mr. Grandy held forth as schoolmaster. The
building was not long used as a
school but was
sold after two years
to
A.C.
Huntington who moved it to the
north side
of
C Street where he used it
for a
number of years as
the
back part
of his furniture
and
cabinet
making
shop.
A larger schoolhouse to replace that just described was
built by the Bowman brothers on
the north side of B Street. This was a two-story building,
the lower floor being given over to the younger students and the
upper room to older pupils. Later when the lower floor of the
building was used as a print slop, a thick covering of sawdust was
laid on the upper floor to
deaden the sound of the scholars’ feet as they minted about
probably with a heavy tread in the
coarse footwear of that
day.
Contributed by: Jim Reavis
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