May 17: The Father of Oregon

Welcome to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Today is May 17th, and our story is The Father of Oregon. Dr. John McLaughlin's general store was a sight thousands of Americans once dreamed of seeing. To arrive at its doors was to arrive at the last stop on the Oregon Trail. McLaughlin, however, was more than just a general store owner in Oregon City. Born in Quebec and baptized Catholic, but raised Anglican, McLaughlin worked for 11 years as the staff doctor at Fort William in Ontario, before the Northwest Fur Company, which ran the fort, made him a partner.

Ten years later, in 1824, after Northwest merged with the Hudson's Bay Company, HBC, McLaughlin left Ontario to manage... HBC's operations in the Pacific Northwest. For the next two decades, McLaughlin exercised almost absolute authority over the land west of the Rockies, north of California, and south of Russian America.

Friend to natives and pioneers alike, McLaughlin ran the fur trade, inaugurated the salmon and lumber trade, built the Northwest's first lumber mills, and constructed forts throughout the region, including Fort Vancouver. When Americans began arriving via the Oregon Trail, he welcomed them too, setting up schools and assisting missionaries.

Eventually, two of those missionaries, Father Francois Blanchet and Father Modeste Demers, brought McLaughlin back to the faith of his baptism. Later, in 1847, Pope Gregory XVI thanked McLaughlin for assisting the missionaries by naming him a Knight of the Order of St. Gregory.

Although McLaughlin was arguably the lone reason no armed conflicts broke out between British and American settlers in the Oregon Territory, some resented his power. That resentment showed in 1850, when the territory's legislature slipped a clause into the Oregon Donation Land Act, stripping McLaughlin of most of his personal land holdings. In 1857, McLaughlin died a financially broken man. But, in the end, he got his due. The Oregon legislature apologized in 1862 and restored the confiscated land to his children. Then, about a hundred years after his death, on May 17, 1957, the state officially conferred upon McLaughlin the title he'd more than earned, Father of Oregon.

McLaughlin's story challenges us to lead with integrity, invest in others' well-being, and trust that God sees and honors our sacrifices. Identify one way to serve others with generosity this week, even if unnoticed. Thank you for listening to the American Catholic Daily Reader podcast. Join us tomorrow, May 18th, for another story of faith and courage in America.