Saint Louis is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
in the
French Prairie
French Prairie is located in Marion County, Oregon, United States, in the Willamette Valley between the Willamette River and the Pudding River, north of Salem. The prairie area roughly corresponds to the traditional land of the Kalapuya peopl ...
area of
Marion County,
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
, United States, about three miles northwest of
Gervais, at the intersection of St. Louis and Manning roads. It is part of the
Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area.
History
One of the oldest communities in the state, Saint Louis was founded in 1845 when a
Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
missionary, Reverend Aloysius Verecuysee, built a
log church there for the early settlers.
[Oregon Historic Photograph Collections, Salem Public Library.] Saint Louis
parish
A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...
was organized in 1847 with a resident priest and named for
St. Louis
St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...
, King of France.
[ It was the third parish organized in what is now the ]Archdiocese of Portland
The Archdiocese of Portland in Oregon (''Archidioecesis Portlandensis in Oregonia'') is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in western Oregon in the United States.
Established in 1846, it was the second Catholic archdiocese establi ...
.[ The current Saint Louis cemetery is northwest of the church.][ At one time the community had a school and store.][
]
See also
* Marie Aioe Dorion
"Madame" Marie Aioe Dorion Venier Toupin (ca. 1786 – September 5, 1850) was the only female member of an overland expedition sent by Pacific Fur Company to the Pacific Northwest in 1810. Like her first husband, Pierre Dorion Jr., she was Métis ...
, member of the Astor Expedition buried in Saint Louis
* St. Paul, Oregon, site of the oldest church and second-oldest parish in the archdiocese
References
External links
Historic images of Saint Louis
from Salem Public Library
Transcription from the church register of the burials in the old St. Louis cemetery
from U.S. Genweb Archives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Louis, Oregon
Salem, Oregon metropolitan area
Populated places established in 1845
Unincorporated communities in Marion County, Oregon
1845 establishments in Oregon Country
Unincorporated communities in Oregon