XXXI. THE CHURCH AT JAMESTOWN.

IN the section about the Field and Work some account has been given of the beginning of civilization at this place. The Indians there had at first no help from the government, because they were not on a reservation. They had, however, some worthy aspirations, and realized that if they should rise at all they must do so largely through their own efforts. This has been an advantage to them, for they have become more self-reliant than those on the reservation, who have been too willing to be carried.

The agent, on some of his first visits to them, gave them some religious instruction, and at times they gathered together on the Sabbath for some kind of religious worship, which then consisted mainly in singing a song or two and talking together.

In March, 1875, their chief, Lord James Balch, while on a business visit to the reservation, was very anxious to obtain religious instruction. All was given to him that I could furnish, which consisted of instruction, a Chinook song or two, and a few Bible pictures. He returned with more earnestness to hold meetings at home.

My first visit to them was the next fall, in a tour with the agent, and then their village was named Jamestown, after their chief. Since then I have generally been able to spend two Sabbaths, twice a year, with them.

They continued their meetings, and usually met in one of their best houses for church on the Sabbath. After a time they selected one of their number, called Cook House Billy, to pray in their church services, as he had lived for some time in a white family, could talk English, and knew at least more about the external forms of worship than the rest.

In 1877 the Indians began to think about erecting a church-building for themselves. They originated the idea, but it was heartily seconded by the agent and missionary. About the time of its dedication Balch said it was no white man who suggested the idea of building it to him, but he thought it must have been Jesus. It was so far completed by April, 1878, as to be dedicated on the eighth of that month.

About a hundred and twenty-five persons were seated in the house: ninety Clallams, ten Makah Indians, and twenty-five whites. The house is small, sixteen by twenty-four feet. It was made of upright boards, battened and whitewashed. It was ceiled and painted overhead. It was not quite done, for it was afterward clothed and papered and a belfry built in front, but was so far finished as to be used. Although not large or quite finished, yet there were three good things about it: it was built according to their means, was paid for as far as it was finished, and was the first church-building in the county. Its total cost at that time, including their work, was about a hundred and sixty-six dollars. Of this, thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents were given by white persons, mostly on the reservation, four dollars were given by Twana Indians, and some articles, as paint, lime, nails, windows, and door, came from their government annuities, it being their desire that these things should be given for this purpose rather than to themselves personally. It was the first white building in the village, and had the effect of making them whitewash other houses afterward.

The evening before the dedication the first prayer-meeting ever among them was held. Five Indians took part, most or all of whom were accustomed to ask a blessing at their meals. This prayer-meeting has never since been suffered to die.

It was not, however, until the next December that any of them became members of the church. Then two men joined. They really united with the church at Skokomish, although they were received at Jamestown. For a time this became a branch of the Skokomish church. The first communion service was then held among them. Only five persons in all participated in the communion.

No more of those Indians joined until April, 1880, when four more became members, two of whom were Indians, and the next December two more joined.

A rather singular incident happened a year later. Some of the older Indians, including the chief, were not satisfied with the slow growth of the church; but instead of remedying affairs by coming out boldly for Christ, they chose three young men, who were believed to be moral at least, and asked them to join and help the cause along. These consented, although they had never taken any part in religious services or been known as Christians. As I was not informed of the wish until Sabbath morning, I did not think it wise to receive them then, but replied that if they held out well until my next visit, in five months, I should have no objection. They were hardly willing at first to wait so long, but at last submitted. Before the five months had passed, one of them, the least intelligent, had gone back to his old ways, where he still remains, and the other two were received into the church, one of whom has done especially well and has been superintendent of the Sabbath-school. Yet it always seemed a singular way of becoming Christians, more as if made so by others than of their own free will, they simply consenting to the wishes of others. God works in various ways.

During the winter of 1880-81 a medicine-man made a feast on Sabbath evening and invited all the Indians to it. It was to be, however, a bait for a large amount of tamahnous, which was to take place. The Indians went, the members of the church as well as the rest, leaving the evening service in order to attend it. The school-teacher felt very badly and wrote me immediately about it; but a little later he learned that on that same evening the Christian Indians, feeling that they were doing wrong, left the place before the feast was over, went to one of their houses, where they held a prayer-meeting and confessed their sin, and on the following Thursday evening, at the general prayer-meeting made a public confession. We could ask for nothing more, but could thank the Holy Spirit for inclining them thus to do before any white person had spoken to them about it.

Knowing of four new ones who wished to join the church in April, 1882, I thought that the time had come to organize them into a church by themselves. So letters were granted by the Skokomish church to seven who lived at Jamestown, and the church was organized April 30, 1882, with eleven members, nine of whom were Indians. The services were in such a babel of languages that their order is here given: Singing in Clallam and then in English; reading of the Scriptures in English; prayer by Rev. H. C. Minckler, of the Methodist-Episcopal church, the school-teacher; singing in Clallam; preaching in Chinook, translated into Clallam; singing in Chinook; baptism of an infant son of a white church member in English; prayer in English; singing in English; propounding the articles of faith and covenant in English, translated into Clallam, together with the baptism of four adults; giving of the right hand of fellowship, in English, translated into Clallam; prayer in Chinook; singing in Chinook; talk previous to the distribution of the bread, in Chinook, translated into Clallam; prayer in English; distribution of the bread; talk in English; prayer in Chinook, followed by the distribution of the cup; singing in English a hymn in which nearly all the Indians could join; benediction in Chinook. A number of their white neighbors gathered in, to the encouragement of the Indians, six of whom communed with us.

The next fall three more joined, and seven more in 1883, one of whom was a venerable white-haired white man, over seventy years old. In the fall of that year five infants were baptized, the first belonging to the Indians in the history of the church.

In the fall of 1883 three of them accompanied me on a missionary tour to Clallam Bay. They gave their time, a week, and the American Missionary Association paid their expenses. It was the first work of the kind which they had done, and I was pleased with their earnestness and zeal. The previous spring I had been there, and there were some things which made me feel as if such a trip might do good. Still it is a hard field because a majority of the men are over fifty, and, being in the majority, practise and sing tamahnous, and go to potlatches a good share of the time during the winter. There is very little white religious influence near them.

When the day-school first began, in 1878, the teacher, Mr. J. W. Blakeslee, began also a Sabbath-school. His successor, Rev. H. C. Minckler, carried it on until he resigned in April, 1883, and no other teacher was procured until early in 1884; but then they chose one of their own church members, Mr. George D. Howell, who had been to school some, and still carried on the school. He served until November, when he temporarily left to obtain work, and Mr. Howard Chubbs was chosen as his successor.

In 1880 they procured a small church-bell, the first in the county, and added a belfry to the church.

Not all, however, of the people in the village can be called adherents to Christianity. There is a plain division among them. Some are members of the church, a few who are not attend church, and some hardly ever go, but profess to belong to the anti-Christian party.

It is worthy of note that while Clallam County had so many people in it as to be organized into a county in 1854, and had in 1880 nearly six hundred white people, yet these Indians have the only church building in the county, the only church-bell, hold the only regular prayer-meeting, and at their church and on the Neah Bay Indian Reservation are the only Sabbath-schools which are kept up steadily summer and winter. One white person, who lives not far from Jamestown, said to me on one Sabbath, in 1880, as we came away from the church: “It is a shame, it is a shame! that the Indians here are going ahead of the whites in religious affairs. It is a wonder how they are advancing, considering the example around them.”