Pacific Northwest Annual Conference History
By Kevin Hall
The Pacific Northwest Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church has its origins with the Oregon Mission of the Methodist Episcopal Church. One of the first Methodists in the states of Oregon, Washington and Idaho was Jediah Smith who was frontiersman and trapper. Lewis and Clark may have introduced the Native Americans of the Inland Empire to Christianity. In 1824 the Hudson Bay Company governor Simpson made a visit to the Columbia Department and returned to the Red River Settlement with two Native Americans who returned teaching the Christianity they had learned.
Four Native Americans made their way to St. Louis to visit General William Clark, the superintendent of Native American affairs. William Walker wrote to D.P. Disosway the founder of the Methodist Episcopal Church’s Missionary Society about this visit. He forwarded the letter to the editor of the Christian Advocate and Journal in New York where it appeared March 1, 1833. Zion’s Herald, another publication, then copied it. Lee was selected as “Missionary to the Flat Heads” He was accompanied by his nephew Rev. Daniel Lee of the New Hampshire Annual Conference, Cyrus Sheppard a teacher, P.L. Edwards and Courtney M. Walker laymen of Independence Missouri joined them. They traveled to Oregon with Nathaniel J. Wyeth.
On June 1, 1840 the Lausanne from New York City arrived at Fort Vancouver with nine ministers, eleven men in the secular service, five teachers and a stewardess. This was known as the Great Reinforcement. They missionaries where sent to Clatsop, Nisqually, Umpqua, The Dalles, Willamette Station and Willamette Falls.
At Nisqually the Richmond’s joined Captain Wilkes Expedition’s observation of the first Fourth of July celebration in Washington State held on July 5th. At the mission Miss Chloe Clark married William Holden becoming the first marriage by the Methodists in the Puget Sound region.
The Rev. George Gary succeeded Jason Lee as the second Superintendent. Rev. Gary closed many of the missions and arranged for the sale of The Dalles Mission to Marcus Whitman of the Board of Foreign Mission. But the Whitman’s where killed at Waaiput and the other missionaries in the inland moved to the Willamette Valley for their safety. Rev. Gary served until the Rev. William Roberts arrived to take charge as the third and last Superintendent of the Oregon Mission. In 1848 the Mission became the Oregon and California Mission Conference with Rev. Roberts as superintendent.
In 1853 the first session of the Oregon Annual Conference was held by Bishop E.R. Ames, and Rev. Benjamin Close was appointed presiding elder of the Puget Sound District and Rev. William B. Morse his associate. There were organized congregations in the newly formed Washington Territory. Rev. Close resided at Olympia by the end of the year preaching had occurred on Whidbey Island (April 25, 1853 near Coupeville with the church organized in July), and when Rev. John F. DeVore arrived from the Rock River Annual Conference he established the first church on Puget Sound at Steilacoom (August 23, 1853), and Rev. David E. Blaine of the Genesee Annual Conference the Seattle church Dec. 4, 1853. The next year Port Townsend was organized.
In eastern Washington, Walla Walla was organized in October 1859, and Rev. James Harvey Wilbur began work at White Swan in 1859. He had arrived in Oregon along with Rev. Roberts. The oldest congregation in Idaho still in existence is Moscow organized Dec. 21, 1876, and the Grangeville church was organized the following year.
The Oregon Annual Conference was divided in 1873 with the establishment of the Eastern Oregon and Washington Annual Conference at Olympia. The first session was in 1874 in Walla Walla. After two years the name was changed to the Columbia River Annual Conference. In 1884 the Puget Sound Annual Conference was formed for western Washington, and the Idaho Annual Conference for the eastern most counties of Oregon, and southern Idaho (south of the Salmon River / Idaho County)
The German Methodists originated with a District within the Oregon Annual Conference and where organized as the “North Pacific German Mission”, in 1892 and later became a Mission Conference (1892 – 1905), and still later (1905-1928) an Annual Conference until they rejoined the Oregon Annual Conference. After a couple of years the German Churches in Washington State joined the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference. The Pacific Swedish Mission Conference was organized in 1908 having been a district within the Puget Sound Annual Conference. They merged with their geographical conferences in 1928. The Western Norwegian-Danish Conference was organized in 1890 and in 1939 united with their geographical conferences.
Around 1908 there arose a dispute over the border between the Columbia River and the Puget Sound Annual Conference, which was defined as the summit of the Cascade Mountains. The church at Stevenson, originally organized by the Columbia River Conference was left to be supplied and the Puget Sound Conference supplied the church. After review by a joint committee it was determined the boundary was to be defined as halfway between the cities of Carson and Stevenson. It is interesting to note that after the transfer of the Dallas District to Oregon and the return of the Washington Charges to the Pacific Northwest Conference Stevenson and Carson formed a single charge. The Pacific Northwest Annual Conference also included the charges of Milton, Freewater and Gresham, Oregon after this time.
In 1924 the Columbia River Annual Conference was reduced by the transfer of The Dalles District to the Oregon Annual Conference, as referenced above. After a few years the churches of Washington State where transferred to the Vancouver District of the Puget Sound Conference.
In 1972 the Pacific Northwest Annual Conference (E) of the former Evangelical United Brethren Church united with the Oregon-Idaho and Pacific Northwest Annual Conferences. Six local churches joined each conference (Oregon-Idaho, and Pacific Northwest).
A special thanks to Rev. Melvin Finkbeiner for his research and finding this article for the PNW website and to the PNWAC Commission on Archives and History.
