Note 156 — OREGON MISSIONS AN OUTLINE SKETCH OF OREGON TERRITORY AND ITS MISSIONS

Augustine Magloire Alexander Blanchet, younger brother of Archbishop Blanchet, was born near Quebec in 1797, educated in that city, and consecrated to the priesthood in 1821. For some years he served as missionary on islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and at Cape Breton; then he returned to parish work, being arrested on a charge of participating in the Papineau revolt. No evidence to that effect being adduced, he was released, and was serving as canon of Montreal cathedral when called by his brother (1844) to be bishop of Walla Walla. After consecration as herein described, he set out for his diocese by way of St. Louis, first having declared his intention of becoming a citizen of the United States. Blanchet arrived on the Walla Walla September 5, 1847, shortly before the Whitman massacre. The Catholics were accused, doubtless unjustly, of having instigated that event, whose horrors they sought to mitigate. Blanchet was obliged to abandon the Cayuse mission, and in 1850 was made bishop of Nisqually, a diocese which later (1853) was co-extensive with Washington Territory. He established his headquarters at Vancouver, where was inaugurated a long litigation of the land claim of the church. Bishop Blanchet resigned in 1878, dying in retirement February 15, 1887.—Ed.