Oregon history

Oregon

The first known Breaking of Bread in Oregon was in 1887, held in the Joseph Marshall home on Hoyt Street on the west side of Portland. Four or five Christians were present.

In 1892, Donald Ross arrived in Portland for a tent campaign, bringing with him his son-in-law James Harcus, another evangelist. The tent was pitched on the corner of Seventh and Ash Street in East Portland, as Mr. Ross reported in the June 1892 issue of his monthly magazine Our Record.

A year later, the little Portland Assembly rented and met in Parrott Hall. Donald Ross, James Harcus, W. J. McClure, and John Monypenny ministered the Word at the first Bible Conference of the assembly, held in 1895. The Christians continued to meet in various rented quarters until 1904, when a small Gospel Hall was built on S. E. Eight Street. The numbers in the assembly increased slowly to about 40 by the turn of the century.

In 1915, the assembly erected a building on East Stark Street at 29th in Portland. The building was known as the Stark Street Gospel Hall. By about 1950 it was called Stark Street Gospel Chapel. In 1957, some 165 were in fellowship and Sunday School attendance was about 85 children. The mid-week prayer meeting attendance averaged 40.

In 1958, the assembly bought a large building site in an area of new homes much farther east at 114th and Stark Street, and built Eastgate Bible Chapel in Portland, the current location of the assembly. The assembly has commended the Floyd Schneiders to the Lord’s work in Austria and elsewhere. Walter Purcell, Jim Hislop, and Eliseo Lopez have served as full-time workers in the assembly. About 275 are in the assembly today.

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In 1929, a Sunday School work was started in a goat barn in southeast Portland, as an evangelistic outreach of Stark Street Gospel Chapel. Andy and Beth Schroth were among the first of many workers from Stark Street to help with the growing children’s work. The Sunday School moved from its goat barn in 1934 to a rented facility on Southeast 87th Avenue near Powell Boulevard. Preaching meetings there began to attract the parents of many of the children. Dave Masson and Joe Murray shared the preaching responsibility. The Stark Street assembly took over ownership of the 87th Avenue facility in 1948 and added more Sunday School rooms.

By 1952 the band of about 20 committed workers formed an assembly meeting in the building, calling it the 87th Avenue Bible Chapel in Portland. In 1957, there were 50 in fellowship and 115 children in the Sunday School. In the 1960s, the building was enlarged. Leadership at that time consisted of Dave Jannsen, Bob McNicol, Dean Sigler, and Jon Marks.

The growing assembly moved into a larger building at 76th and Irving in Portland in 1975, calling it the Laurel Park Bible Chapel. Bruce McNicol and Rex Koivisto were its first commended workers. Growth continued, and in 1980 Laurel Park hived-off her daughter church, West Side Bible Chapel in Beaverton; this assembly is now located in the Hillsboro section of Portland and is known as West Side Bible Fellowship.

Laurel Park continued to grow and moved into McGuire Auditorium at Warner Pacific College in 1985. While at its numeric peak, the assembly experienced internal trials, and many people left. In 1990, the remaining Christians sold their building on 76th and Irving and purchased land at 122nd and Mather Road in the southern reaches of Portland. The assembly constructed the Spring Mountain Bible Church in Clackamas, having its first meeting there in 1994, with a common goal and new priorities.

Spring Mountain Bible Church and its predecessors have commended workers to Chad, Rwanda/Uganda, Russia, Austria, Peru, Uzbekistan, and to Interest Ministries and International Teams.

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Before 1909, a small group of Christians associated with the Grant ‘exclusive’ brethren met in various homes in the St. Johns district of Portland for Bible study and the Breaking of Bread. Some of those who met together were Hans Jackumsen, his brother Mads, and J.P. Andersen and family, all of whom had moved west from New Jersey. Through the years, they met in homes and rented storefronts on North Halladay Street and on East 4th and Burnside, and even met in a dance hall.

In 1920, evangelist Fred Elliot teamed up with E.K. Bailey for a series of meetings in a large tent in Portland. Several people were saved and added to the assembly, which was known then as the Grace and Truth Gospel Hall. In 1926, the Christians purchased a building at 602 NE Prescott, and met there for over 30 years until they outgrew those facilities. In 1932, the decision was made to break away from the Grant brethren and become associated with the ‘open’ brethren.

In 1957, about 120 were in fellowship and 110 children were in the Sunday School. The present building of the assembly was erected in 1960 at 12420 NE Siskiyou Street, Portland, and the name was changed to Grace and Truth Chapel. Since 1996, the assembly has been known as Grace Bible Fellowship.

Missionaries have been commended from Grace Bible Fellowship to Peru, Ecuador, France, and Zaire; others have been sent to work among native Americans and with Hospital Chaplains’ Ministry of America. Gilbert and Sue Gleason have been commended to pastoral ministry at Grace Bible Fellowship.

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An assembly in Bonita near Tigard on the southwest edge of Portland started with a Sunday School in the farm home of Mrs. West in 1912. The Bonita Gospel Hall was built in 1927 and 1928 with volunteer labor and was enlarged from time to time. There were 25 in fellowship in 1957, with an average of 75 in the Sunday School. The Stark Street Gospel Chapel in Portland supplied some workers over the years. The assembly has disbanded.

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An influx of believers from North Dakota led to the start of the Forest Grove Gospel Hall in the town of Forest Grove, west of Portland (see North Dakota). Dick and Fanny Goff arrived first and purchased a farm in the Hillside district eight miles northwest of the town. A few weeks later the Hazlitt family arrived and settled on a farm in the Thatcher district. The Alex Hunter family came with the Hazlitts and bought a house on the Gales Creek Road.

On the last Sunday of 1901, this little group of eight first met to Remember the Lord in a rented house on 17th Avenue in Forest Grove. Within a few weeks, Mrs. Emma Goff and her son Edward arrived. Edward purchased a farm in the Hillside district. For the next eight years, the assembly met in that home.

In the spring of 1902, James Harcus and W.C. Arnold held a series of Gospel meetings in the Thatcher Community Church, at which many were saved. Over the next decade, a steady flow of brethren preachers, including J.J. Rouse, Alex Matthews, David Scott, and W.J. McClure, as well as Messrs. Harcus and Arnold, held Gospel meetings in the area. A Sunday School work was established, at which upwards of 30 children attended. Nevertheless, the assembly remained small. From 1911 until 1919, the assembly met in the Jacob Hazlitt home on Thatcher Road.

In 1919, the assembly started meeting in the Thatcher Community Church and met there through 1946. They neither owned the building or paid rent, but maintained and improved the building, sometimes with help from neighbors. This was their Gospel Hall, and they would refer to it as Community Hall or Thatcher Hall. Gospel meetings were held in a hall on Pacific Avenue that B.B. Goff had purchased in 1922. In 1946, the Christians moved into their newly built Forest Grove Gospel Hall at 21st and Cedar Streets, where they still meet.

At the end of 1920, although only about 13 were in fellowship, some 70 were attending the Sunday School. The assembly grew slowly but steadily. Records show 48 in fellowship in 1947. In 1958, the Sunday School and Sunday Bible Class reached 144. In 1964 there were 79 in fellowship. However, that year was also a time of testing for this and other assemblies in the state and as far away as Seattle, and numbers decreased.

In 1969, a new assembly was begun in Salem, some 50 miles to the south. The Salem Gospel Hall and Forest Grove Gospel Hall are in happy fellowship.

B.B. Goff, W.C. Arnold, and E.G. Goff were the principal leaders of the assembly at Forest Grove for the first 50 years. B.B. was the energetic leader, Ben Arnold was the teacher, and E.G. was the shepherd. Other leaders have been Harry Goff, Ralph Goff, Frank Goff, John Robertson, David Williams, and Richard Goff. Gaius Goff joined Herbert Harris in Newfoundland to work on his Missionary Gospel Messenger boat for the summer of 1960 and has continued to minister there and elsewhere on the continent. The assembly commended Fanny Mae Goff to the field in Venezuela, where she eventually became director of the Colegio Evangelico in Puerto Cabello. About 30 are in fellowship at Forest Grove today.

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An assembly at Linnton Gospel Chapel near Portland began in 1932 as a result of personal work by Will Hall of Vancouver among Italian families in the district, as a follow-up to Sunday School work among their children. Stark Street Gospel Hall was involved in the early days of the assembly. At first the meetings were Italian-speaking, but by 1957 were entirely English-speaking. This assembly has since discontinued.

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An assembly in Gresham on the east side of Portland began in 1958 as Clinton Street Bible Chapel. The families of Darwin L. Kirchem and Ralph N. Morris from the 87th Avenue Bible Chapel in Portland began the new work with the blessing of the elders of that assembly.

Later, the Christians shortened the name Clinton Street Chapel, and then changed it to Cascade Community Church. The assembly has commended workers to the field in Colombia, Indonesia, and other areas abroad, and others to ministries in the States. Rick Simmons has been commended for work at Cascade Community Church.

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An assembly began meeting in 1895. in the home of the Bates family on the Columbia River Highway, 18 miles east of Portland. Helping in the beginning were Clement and Amos Crowston, along with the S.S. Bates, Lucos, Chamberlain, and Shelley families, among others. A local school was used later for the Sunday school and special meetings. The W. D. Close, Conzler, Charles Berney, and James Berney families became active in the assembly. In 1914, the Christians built the Springdale Gospel Hall. Years later the name was changed to Springdale Bible Chapel.

The assembly has commended workers to the field in the Congo, Peru, and Europe. James and Berney has been commended as Director of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship in Canada. Others have been commended to serve with Operation Mobilization and Interest Ministries. Springdale Bible Chapel was small by the 1990’s.

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In 1940, several Christians met in the Michael Keefe home at Eugene to Break Bread. They continued there until the late 1940s, when Fred Elliott and Neil Fraser held a series of tent meetings on the edge of the downtown area. Following those meetings, five or six couples met as an assembly in the Presbyterian church on Sunday afternoon for worship; they also started a Sunday School and an adult Bible class in a gymnasium in a neighborhood school.

The principal persons who devoted themselves to the building of the assembly in the early years were Michael J. Keefe, Clarence Caudell, Dick Taylor, and Phillip Gossard.

The Christians purchased the lot across the street from the school, at the corner of East 33rd and Donald Street, and in 1952 construction began on the Willamette Gospel Chapel under the supervision of Walter McAfee of California, who had done the same work for many assemblies of the West coast. The chapel was completed in 1953. In 1957, there were 50 in fellowship and 125 children in the Sunday School.

Visiting speakers from Portland came frequently after the move into the building in 1953, including R. Fred Elliot, David Masson, and Wally Johnson. Neil Fraser came to live in Eugene from 1956 to 1968, committing himself to the building up of the assembly. Throughout the 1950s, the chief evangelistic outreach was through neighborhood visitation, youth meetings, and the very large Sunday School, which reached into many unbelieving families. The name was changed to Willamette Bible Chapel in the late 1960s. Additional classrooms were added later.

Through the years, various young persons have gone on short term missions to India, Kenya, France, and Papua New Guinea. Along with Eastgate Bible Chapel in Portland, Willamette Bible Chapel has commended workers to Europe, Papua New Guinea, and the Samuel Zwemer Institute.

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Two families from the Stark Street Gospel Chapel in Portland moved in 1944 to Seaside, on the northwest tip of Oregon, and began meeting to Remember the Lord in the home of Joseph Murray. In 1950 they were offered use of a vacant Baptist community church building in nearby Gearhart, which was later deeded to them. In 1957, there were 20 in fellowship and 60 in the Sunday School. This assembly has disbanded.

Sources

• Questionnaire Responses
• History of the Arlington (Washington) Assembly, undated but apparently written in late 1980s
• History of the Forest Grove Assembly, by R. Goff, 1965, revised 1976
• Spring Mountain Bible Church: Our History, 1994
• Our Record, June 1892
• Letters of Interest, November 1958, p. 11