A Deeper Look: Benton County
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| Corvallis, Benton County, Oregon |
In the early days it was only Linn-Benton Counties
along the southern end of the Willamette Valley, all the way across to the ocean.
Lincoln County, sectioned off from Benton and Tillamook Counties, didn’t come
into being until 1893.
We are checking out Benton this time, but as we head
west, there is an interesting stop in Linn County just this side of the Benton
County line. Oakville Presbyterian Church sits in the middle of beautiful farm
county between Corvallis to the northwest and the little unincorporated community
of Shedd to the southeast. This congregation has been in existence for 172
years, since 1850, and while the beginning structure was a log cabin, this white,
steepled church building is the original one built in 1860 and has been in use continuously.
It has undergone renovations during that time, and been moved a few yards, but
it is still a beautiful building and still an active congregation.
I learned about this historic building and
congregation when I got a surprise call from my daughter-in-law, who works for
her church’s district office in Yakima and was returning from a meeting at Oakville
Presbyterian. This triggered the historian in me, and I began looking up the
background of the Presbyterians in the Linn-Benton area.
At first it was called First Willamette Church, established
in 1850. At Union Point, just south of there, another church from a slightly
different Presbyterian sect was started in 1851. In 1852 they got permission to
join forces from their respective synods and became United Presbyterian Church.
This church, now Oakville Presbyterian, has been promoted as “the first psalm-singing
church west of the Rockies.” What does that mean? It seems early Reformation churches
sometimes excluded hymns from their worship services and sang only the Psalms
from the Bible. Eventually hymns became more popular and accepted, but in 1830
there was a revival of psalm-singing. I suspect this group was part of that revival.
The Union Point congregation, the one with which they
joined forces, was started by a minister who had moved from the Oregon City area.
One of the founding elders was Josiah Osborne, who, with his family, had
escaped being killed in the Whitman Massacre by hiding under the house
floorboards, then walking by night to Fort Walla Walla. Which brings up an
interesting question about the massacre. What were the after-effects of the
Whitman Massacre? In my mind it has been all negative – it was followed by a
war with the Native Americans and their removal to reservations. It stopped the
missions work at Lapwai and at The Dalles. However, we see that it also brought
the Spaldings to Linn County to establish a Congregational church near
Brownsville, and it brought the Osborne family to help establish a Presbyterian
one. When the believers at Jerusalem were persecuted, they scattered and spread
the gospel wherever they went. Perhaps something similar happened because of
the tragedy.
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| Benton County |
The recent
primary leaves Pat Malone as the incumbent on the Board of Commissioners.
Xan Augerot and Nancy Wyse are the other two commissioners. Pray
for the November elections.
How do we pray for Benton County?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7
Pray for the congregations of the various churches in
the Linn-Benton region. There are many historical churches in this area, and
they form the bedrock of Oregon’s spiritual heritage.
Pray for the local government leaders and the November
elections.
Pray for the teachers and schools, including Oregon State
University. Pray for protection and ask for prayer warriors to rise up and pray
consistently over each school and district.
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