BANDON — The 125 years of Holy Trinity Parish include zealous Irish miners, massive falling trees, intrepid clergymen, a catastrophic blaze, a lonesome dog who boarded boats and a new springtime brought on by the mix of a good dinner and education in faith.
The parish marks its anniversary with a Mass set for 10:30 a.m. Sunday, May 18. That’s the Catholic feast of the Holy Trinity. The celebration will continue afterward.
The area around Bandon was initially settled by the Coquille Indians who had villages along the Coquille River. By 1851 gold was discovered by French trappers and coal mines opened, drawing miners and other entrepreneurs to the area.
Meanwhile in Oregon City, Archbishop Francis Norbert Blanchet in 1851 assigned Father James Croke as a missionary to southern Oregon. By 1853, the intrepid Father Croke made his way by horseback to the south coast, penetrating as far as Port Orford. Eventually, a mission was set up at Roseburg and priests would make occasional trips to the Pacific.
By 1856 conflict between settlers and Native Americans resulted in the movement of the tribes to the Siletz Reservation. In 1859 the vessel Twin Sisters sailed up the Coquille River. That started the trade of inland produce and resources. A year later, the Coquille River mouth was surveyed for navigation.
In 1873 George Bennett arrived in the area and by 1891 named the newly-incorporated town Bandon, after his home in Ireland. The settlement grew with the opening of a post office, cheese-making enterprises, a sawmill, a school district and a woolen mill. Many Irish Catholics peopled Bandon and yearned to practice their faith. In 1878, the town’s postmaster sold four acres to the Archdiocese of Oregon City for a single dollar. Local Catholics pledged funds.
In 1880, the adventuresome Archbishop Charles Seghers made the long trek from Portland and blessed the foundation of a church. Workmen completed the 25-by-30-foot wood building in 1881 and it was named for “Mary, Refuge of Sinners.” The little church was the pride of the town.
It was not until Aug. 12, 1883, that Archbishop Seghers returned to dedicate the building, the first Catholic church on the Pacific coast between Astoria and the California border.
It was still a wild place. There is a tale told that in the mid-1880s, Father John Heinrick from Roseburg set off for Bandon to perform a wedding of a local girl and a man from San Francisco. Horrendous weather kept the groom at sea for more than three weeks past his appointed time and the priest stayed on faithfully in Bandon until the storms cleared.
In fall 1887, Archbishop William Gross took the train from Portland to Roseburg and then took a stagecoach west toward the coast.
“The weather was fair, and the road led through forests of tall, magnificent cedars and spruces that cover the valley and ridges stretching away on every side as thick as grass,” reported the Sentinel. “At several places along the road the forests were on fire, and at one place a monster burning tree crashed down across the roadway where the party had just passed.” Down the road, another tree across the road delayed the party for more than an hour. The archbishop was among those who got out to clear the way.
The same article says that, when the archbishop made it to Bandon, he found a “neat church.” He presided at confirmation there. The next day, he went to the Patrick Hughes home at Cape Blanco and preached to a large congregation. The townspeople of nearby Port Orford invited the learned archbishop to speak, though few of them were Catholic.
An ocean-going schooner had been built in Bandon in 1888, setting up a ship-building economy. In 1896 the Bandon Lighthouse was constructed. By 1909, when the name of the Bandon church was changed to Holy Trinity, the city was a popular tourist destination.
The City of Bandon attempted to condemn some church land to build a straighter road, but the parish refused and the road is still the winding route set up when the town was founded.
In 1921, Father James Carrico became pastor, traveling by jalopy and river to logging camps and small towns like Gold Beach, Coquille and Langlois. His dog, Jiggs, became almost as well known as he. The small canine, when left at home alone for an extended period, would make his way to the river docks and board steamers headed upriver, hoping to find his busy master. Father Carrico, no doubt bolstered by Jiggs, was undaunted when the Ku Klux Klan became active in town.
Parishioners next recalled Father Louis LeMiller, who on his travels carried not only his Mass kit, but licorice for the children and small bottles of gasoline since service stations were few and far between. It’s said that he once mistakenly baptized a child with petrol, confusing it for the holy water.
Disaster had struck in 1914 when a fire destroyed the waterfront business district, but that would seem small compared to what came in 1936.
During the bone-dry autumn that year, 18-year-old Don Fraser was posted in the fire lookout tower atop a butte east of the windy beach town. The humidity had dropped to about 7 percent. Fraser’s heart sank when he saw smoke in the woods. He made a phone call and set out the alert.
Since the blaze was east of town, the 1,800 citizens of Bandon were not particularly concerned. But then the wind shifted, blowing furiously from the east. Fraser reported the conditions promptly and people in town were advised to head to the water for safety.
Fraser himself had to make a late-night escape from the tower as flames advanced upon it in a sickening rush.
Wind drove fire into the town, where the volatile oily gorse plants, beloved of Irish immigrants, exploded into flame. That sent sparks through the darkness onto many houses. Water mains were damaged, hampering the work by firefighters.
The beach grass also ignited and sent jets of fire over the heads of those who had sought shelter in the sands. They retreated farther and stood in the water. In the end, 11 people perished.
The flames destroyed almost everything in town, including hundreds of houses and Fraser’s church — Holy Trinity. Catholics trekked to homes outside of town for Mass until 1937, when a new Catholic house of worship was built on the same spot in just about the same style, but larger — 68-by-30 feet. The cost was $5,000.
Fraser, 90, is still an active parishioner. He served as godparent to three children baptized at the Easter Vigil this year.
The fire could not destroy faith life. Catholic children attended a summer religion school at Floras Lake, swimming, boating and learning the faith. In 1944, Mass was said on an Oregon beach for the first time as far as anyone recalled. It happened near Bandon.
In 1956, Father Ervin Vandehey arrived, the first resident priest in Bandon since the big fire. Four Sisters of St. Francis of the Atonement were invited to teach the faith and train lay catechists. In 1963, their religious education classes in the towns of the region had almost 500 students involved.
Father Alan Kennedy guided the parish through Vatican II and valued youths, setting up a ping-pong table and basketball hoop on the grounds.
Through the 1970s, the town population continued to grow. Bandon has again become a coastal tourist destination and still supports cranberry growing. Yearly events include the Bandon Cranberry Festival and a blessing of the fleet.
Since 2003, Holy Trinity Parish has been building community and forming faith with Wednesday night Mass, dinners, youth group and religious education classes. “It is wonderful for working parents,” says Sharon Hennick, a longtime pastoral council member who started the gatherings. “The whole family can eat together and the children can go to religious ed classes. It has strengthened and brought our parish together in a way that nothing else has.” Older people, Hennick says, come to the dinner instead of eating at home alone.
In 2005, members of the 160-household parish were asked about hopes and dreams for the future. The result has been a committee focusing on spirituality, retreats, seminars and special events and another group sponsoring gatherings like a Mardi Gras party and luncheons.
