Work of Unitarian Women in the Pacific Northwest
By KATE STEVENS BINGHAM
THE one person to whom more than all others the Unitarian Church of the Pacific Northwest OAves its origin is Mary Ellen Frazar, who, together with her husband, Thomas Frazar, and their six children, came to Oregon in 1853. Both were natives of New England and thoroughly imbued with that spirit of liberal Christianity which at this era, largely owing to the influence of the saintly Channing, was rife in that section of our country. They found Portland a city of six thousand inhabitants and well provided with churches representing almost every denomination except the Unitarian, whose followers were neither numerous enough nor strong enough to have a society of their own. The Frazar family for some years held private services in their own home, but in 1863, having made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Burrage, also New Englanders of the same religious faith, the two women, in December, 1865, with five others, namely, Mrs. Goodnough, Mrs. Cooke, Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Abbott and Mrs. Burrell, met at the Goodnough residence for the purpose of organizing a society "to promote and advance the cause," as the preamble reads. The organization effected two weeks later called itself the "Ladies' Sewing Society," and afterwards were added the words "of the First Unitarian Society. Portland, Oregon."
Three years before this date the Kev. Thomas Starr King, of San Francisco, a noted Unitarian minister and lecturer, had preached in Portland when upon a lecturing tour through the Northwest; and in 1866, a few months after the formation of the Ladies' Sewing Society, Dr. Horatio Stebbins came to Portland by invitation and for three Sundays preached in the basement of the Baptist Church. It was during this visit that the first Unitarian communion and baptismal service was held, the latter being at the suggestion of Mrs. W. W. Spaulding, a New England woman, at which seven children were baptized. The silver service used in this communion was bought by the "First earnings" of the Ladies' Sewing Society, and at this day is still in use. The society had in the meantime been holding its regular weekly meetings, where by sewing and getting up entertainments it was steadily raising funds for the cause it held so dear. In these ways and with an average attendance of but seven members, the society by the end of the first year had raised nearly four hundred dollars. The immediate result of Dr. Stebbins' visit was the formation in the following June of "The First Unitarian Society of Portland, Oregon."
And now these two societies bent all their energies to the purpose of building a chapel and engaging a minister. By the end of 1867 an appropriate building had been erected upon Seventh and Yamhill streets. Their first pastor, the Rev. Thomas Lamb Eliot, with his wife and infant son. had arrived from St. Louis just in time to assist in the dedication of the new edifice. The
