As summer strikes up next month just prior to the annual Independence Day blitz from the St. Paul Rodeo, the community will take some time to celebrate its history.
Recently Gerry Lenzen, the vice president of the St. Paul Mission Historical Society Board of Directors, reached out to note that the St. Paul Post Office will officially celebrate a milestone: 150 years of continuous service. That milestone will be commemorated at 1 p.m. Monday, June 24, at the location, 20180 Main St., or just one block south of where Hwy. 219 forks through town.
Lenzen teamed with Bushnell University Professor Emeritus Tim Bergquist , who has written numerous historical articles for the Oregon Encyclopedia , including many dedicated to the St. Paul area.
Sponsored by the SPMHS, the free historical event will include refreshments and pictorial presentations with riveting historical tidbits, many of which are provided through Bergquist’s work.
The professor shared that the first postmaster was J.F.T.B. Brentano, who served from 1874 to 1881. The longest serving postmaster was Peter I. McDonald at 34 years, from 1911 to 1945. SPMHS founder Joe McKay was postmaster from 1958 to 1985; during his tenure the 100th anniversary celebration took place in 1974.
The current postmaster is Colleen Nolen who took over in 2022.
Bergquist further shared that St. Paul, which is located roughly 8 miles west of Woodburn and nine miles south of Newberg, was named after the town’s salient Catholic church, which was dedicated in 1839 by Rev. Francois Blanchet.
The current brick church was built in 1846 and is the oldest brick building in the Pacific Northwest. The town was settled by French Canadians from the Hudson Bay Company in the late 1820s and is one of the oldest communities in Oregon. The town itself was not incorporated until 1901.
Lenzen cited an SPMHS.com bio on Blanchet that notes he was recruited by the original French Canadian trappers who first settled on French Prairie.
“The Society has been creating, converting, and uploading data and files for several years to this site,” Lenzen said. “The Austin Family Foundation has made significant contributions for allowing us to employ anthropology/archeology graduate students at Oregon State University to create and convert data for the site. Plus, several other grants have helped this effort.”
To learn more, visit http://spmhs.com .
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