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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2016)
C2 History Blue Mountain Eagle ‘BAPTIZED IN FIRE’ Wednesday, September 28, 2016 SOME SAY ST. THOMAS EPISCOPAL CHURCH IS A ‘A SYMBOL OF GOD’S GREAT MERCY’ Canyon City church named for patron saint of architects survives two catastrophic fires By Sean Hart Blue Mountain Eagle Some folks don’t believe in miracles. For other folks, well, they say all you have to do is open your eyes and believe. Some say you need to look no further than a little church in the little town of Canyon City. Built on the ashes of the town’s irst catastrophic ire in the 1870s, St. Thomas Episcopal Church stood tall through not one but two more blazes that laid waste to al- most every other building downtown. The little church still stands today. Was it the spring of water near the church? Was it the mercy of the Lord? Or was it just dumb luck? Well, I guess you can de- cide. The aftermath of the 1937 Canyon City fire shows St. Thomas Episcopal Church, in the upper right, still standing while most of the town was reduced to ashes. A House of God in the land of gold It was gold that started it all. During the rush, Canyon City sprouted into a booming town. It’s said the miners preferred saloons to salvation, but that didn’t stop the Rev. R.D. Nevi- O R C H A R S A M D S T H O the This year mily fa Thomas s their c e l e b t r h a t e n 6 9 y e a s r s i . busine IN SEASON: Cherries • Apricots • Peaches • Nectarines Apples • Plums • Pears T H O M A S O R C H A R D S - Kimberly, Or. 541-934-2870 Serving Eastern Oregon Since 1979 us, a learned man and a doctor of divinity. He held his irst ser- vice at the Good Templar’s Hall on May 31, 1874, with a lock of about 15. It didn’t take long for the congregation to muster up $130 to purchase a parcel of land nestled against the hillside. The Reverend and Bishop Morris laid the cornerstone Sept. 3, 1876. The Reverend designed the chapel, a mix of Anglican and Gothic architecture with a steep roof and pointed window frames. He inished the interior and built the pews with hand- sawed knotty pine. The stained glass windows were sailed around the Horn to The Dalles and hauled in by wagon from there if they didn’t cross the country on the Oregon Trail. The Reverend held the irst service July 15, 1877. The Bishop consecrated the church and set it aside as a House of God on June 20, 1879 — a hair shy of two decades before the rest of the town would go up in lames. ‘Baptized in ire’ It was November of 1898 when the second ire tore through Canyon City, the irst time since the church was erect- ed. Hard to say how it got lit, but there sure were suspicious circumstances. It started in the room of a traveling performer, they say, just about an hour after he sang “There’ll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight” in the town’s New York Theatre. They rounded him up for tri- Contributed photo/Grant County Historical Museum St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Canyon City, date unknown. The Eagle/Lindsay Bullock St. Thomas Episcopal Church, taken 2016. al, all right, but he didn’t hang for lack of evidence. An out- of-town newspaper, known as the East Oregonian, said an oil lamp had exploded in the room of a “morphine iend.” One thing is sure, not much was left of the town but the Grant County News, which now goes by the name of the Blue Mountain Eagle, and the little Episcopal Church. It would be another 40 years before the chapel would be tested by ire again, but sure enough, it came. Buster Cresop, who was liv- ing at a local hotel, sounded the alarm when he saw smoke bil- lowing out of the attic of the old wooden building at about 7:30 p.m. on April 19, 1937. Folks as far away as Sene- ca, some 25 miles to the south, could see the lames as the downtown went up in smoke. The spectacle drew hun- dreds, and they were quickly put to work passing buckets of water to try to douse the blaze. Firemen from all the sur- rounding towns and the Forest Service came to help as the ire burned through the night. They laid extra hoses to try to save the historic buildings like the church and the former home of Joaquin Miller. When the smoke cleared, an apartment and 15 business- es had been turned to ash. A store next to the church was completely destroyed, but the church escaped with little more than some scorched paint and its walls blackened by smoke. Maybe it was the iremen and the bucket brigade that saved it. Certainly can’t dis- count their effort. Maybe it was the spring of cool water spouting up from the back of the church they use for baptisms that kept the lames at bay. Or maybe God himself reached down his hand to spare this little house of worship in a canyon prone to burning. I guess we may never know, at least not till it’s our turn to meet our maker. But I know where I’m go- ing if Canyon City is set ablaze again. And I’ll be praying. EO Media Group writer Renee Struthers contributed to this report. BRIEFS FROM THE PAST Jerry Franlin Michal Madden GRI, ABR, SRES Broker GRI, Principal Broker Principal Broker 541-620-4408 541-620-4239 541-820-3721 Wendy Hull Lindsey Madden Traci Frazier Shanna Langley Broker Broker Broker 503-791-1180 541-792-0031 541-620-0925 office@easternoregonrealty.net www.easternoregonrealty.net www.rmls.com • www.realtor.com www.farmseller.com• eastoregonrealestateguide 160 E. Main, John Day • 541-575-2121 Aug. 27, 1964 Barbers to raise haircut prices Three of John Day’s bar- ber shops have announced that the price of haircuts for both men and children will go up when the shops re-open after the Labor Day weekend. New prices will be $1.75 for men and $1.50 for chil- dren. Each is an increase of 25 cents over the current price which has been in effect since 1955. By making the price in- crease effective Sept. 8 the barbers are making it possi- ble for all students and teach- ers to go back to school with fresh haircuts obtained at a lower price. W r i g h t C h e v r o l e t April 27, 1951 Grant County exceeds Red Cross mark Residents of Grant Coun- ty contributed $3,140.87 in the 1951 American Red Cross drive. This igure was $714.87 more than the assigned quota, $2,426. Considerable credit is due to Mr. Muzzy and Mrs. Lois Lee, John Day, Grant County chapter chairman, for the eficient man- ner in which the drive was con- ducted. The campaign opened March 1st and exceeded the quota before scheduled closing date for the drive. Grant County’s quota in the 1950 campaign was $2,300. The 1951 quota was substantially higher than any quota ever as- signed to the county. Jan. 19, 1951 Sawing resumed at John Day mill Nearly 200 workmen at the Blue Mountain Mills’ sawmill • Your source for automobile, truck and tractor parts & accessories • Full line of Martin Senour paints • ASE- Certified Countermen • Oxygen & Acetylene Providing Eastern Oregon with quality service since 1959 8 0 0 - 3 6 6 - 0 0 5 7 • J o h n D a y & F o s s i l w r i g h t c h e v r o l e t i n c . c o m • Steel Sales in John Day returned to their jobs Monday morning, Janu- ary 15, after the plant had been closed down for about three weeks due to log shortages and need for mechanical repairs. J. D. Welch, one of the com- pany’s managers, said the mill has about three weeks supply of logs ahead and logs are com- ing in daily from the company’s three timber areas in the county. This backlog of raw material is expected to carry the mill in operation through possible poor logging conditions incurred by muddy roads in the spring, he said. No oficials of the Huds- peth Inc. lumber company have arrived to take over the local management since their recent purchase of the mill and timber holdings in the area, said Welch. May 22, 1958 Pool slated for opening Final arrangements for the opening of the John Day swim- ming pool were discussed at the special city council meet- ing Tuesday night. Swimmers should be allowed in the pool between June 1 and 6, with all efforts being directed toward opening by the former date. Lynn Pryse of John Day has been named pool manager and will be assisted by several John Day residents who will serve as cashiers and pool helpers. Pool will be opened from 1 to 9 p.m. every day. Ad- mission charges at the pool were set at 25 cents for stu- dents and 50 cents for adults. Advance sale of coupon booklets has been planned. Bookets will contain 25 cou- pons for $5.00 with one cou- pon needed for student pool admission and two for adult admission. Wading pool admission will be free for children ac- companied by their parents, and no child will be admitted to the wading pool unless they are accompanied by a respon- sible adult. Present at the Tuesday meeting was Jack Kalenows- ki, city superintendent from Prineville, who told council members of some of the prob- lems encountered in that city’s municipal pool program, and of the way in which they were solved. Oct. 23, 1942 Get deer with bare hands Van Nuys, California — While polishing their guns preparatory to a deer hunting trip, three hunters looked out the window of their house and there in the yard was a large buck. The hunters, Robert Kempley, H. C. Mathers and Tom Enriquez gave chase, cornered the buck in an ad- joining yard and captured it alive.
