History of Seattle
Catherine Paine Blaine and David Blaine were Methodist missionaries who arrived in Seattle in 1853 via the Isthmus of Panama sea route. Catherine Paine (Blaine) was one of the 240 signers that launched the National Woman Suffrage Association. David founded Seattle's first church, called the "White Church," and Catherine became Seattle's first teacher and School Superintendent. After the January 1856 Battle of Seattle (a conflict with Indians), the Blaines left for missionary duty in Portland. They returned to Seattle in retirement in 1882.
David Blaine's prayer meetings seldom attracted more than four people, and David complained in a letter that "we are low in the scale of spirituality ... even those who moved in refined society at home ... now show no respect for religion, no regard for the Sabbath." Despite these disappointments, townspeople grew to like the Blaines and supported them in many ways. Doc Maynard (1808-1873) and Carson Boren each offered land for church, parsonage, and seminary.
The White Church existed for 10 years, then closed. The White Church building reopened in several incarnations: as a church, a gambling hall, a saloon, a restaurant, and a vaudeville house.
Henry and Sarah Yesler were spiritualists who refused to join any church. They hosted spiritualist-astrologer W. E. Cheney's sessions at their house. The spiritualists believed in free love and Sarah formed a passionate attachment to at least one other woman, while remaining a loyal wife to Henry. She was in the forefront of the suffrage movement, active in the Seattle Library Association, a founding member of Seattle's first benevolent organization, and at the center of life in Seattle.
From early 1856 through late 1860, Seattle had no resident minister. Church meetings were held quarterly in the Methodist church. In late 1860, the Reverend Daniel Bagley arrived from Oregon. Bagley became one of the main second-generation city founders, and was instrumental in getting the first university started in Seattle (later the University of Washington). He was also a Freemason, along with several other city founders.
Additional ministers began arriving in 1865, when the Episcopalians from Olympia. The Presbyterians arrived in 1866 in the form of the Reverend George Whitworth, who also became an industrial leader with the Reverend Bagley. At this early stage, the churches worked together well – two churches and four pastors represented four denominations. The Catholics arrived in 1867, the Congregationalists and Baptists in 1869. The Baptist minister was the Reverend Edward Hanford, who was one of the great early spiritual leaders of Seattle.
Arthur Denny, founding father of Seattle, for all his values and integrity seems to have been basically a man of inaction regarding moral issues. He basically minded his own business. This attitude seems to have permeated the city in that day, and continues on today. (www.historylink.org)
Three main religious groups are those who affiliate or are part of an organized religious church, synagogue or other organization. Those who identify with a religious heritage by not actively participating and those who declare they have no religious affiliation or identity. (Source: The None Zone Edited by Patricia O’Connell Killen and Mark Silk)