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-
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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.
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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
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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.