The Unsung Patron of Port Townsend
A local priest takes to the pages of the Dispatch to set the record straight on who actually paid for the town's new church, insisting on public accountability for his private donation.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Editor Dispatch: Your last week's paper contains a correspondence from Port Townsend in which I find a statement that is not correct, and upon which I would like to throw a little light through the instrumentality of your columns. Your correspondent states that a meeting was held in Port Townsend 'for the purpose of raising funds to build a new church on a beautiful lot on the hill, and that it was purchased through Father Prefontaine, by subscription, some years ago.' The purport of this statement would be that Father Prefontaine is not entitled to any other credit but for having bought the lot after the money was collected. I do not criticize the intention of the correspondent; he was probably so informed; but in order that the public may not be deceived as regards the extent of the sacrifices that the Catholic congregation of Port Townsend have made heretofore and are going to make in the erection of the church, I will say, as a fact, that the two beautiful lots on the hill were bought with my own money, not a cent having been collected in Port Townsend nor in any other part of the Sound. Had I been recognized in the correspondence, if not as a benefactor at least as the first and a very liberal subscriber towards the church in Port Townsend, I would never have said a word; but a statement so unfair could not pass with me unperceived; for I, like an American, love fair play, fair statement and everything that is fair and honest. Your humble servant, P. F. X. P.
“I, like an American, love fair play, fair statement and everything that is fair and honest.”
This 1872 dispute over the origin of a church's funding highlights a perennial tension in growing Pacific Northwest cities: who gets the credit for civic progress, and how historical memory is contested in local journalism. Even in the 19th century, leaders were navigating the modern struggle for transparency and correcting the narrative in real-time.
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