Saint Rose of the Cayouse Mission History Website

The Saint Rose of the Cayouse Mission was established in this vicinity in the fall of 1853 by Father Eugene Casimir Chirouse, a Catholic priest. The mission was located on Yellowhawk Creek near its confluence with the Walla Walla River. Father Chirouse also filed a Saint Rose Mission donation claim for 640 acres that included this property and the adjoining lands on both sides of the present road.

Saint Rose of the Cayouse existed only through 1855 when the mission house built that year was burned during the Yakima-Walla Walla Indian war, and the mission’s land claim was abandoned. Church records show that the first burial at the mission cemetery was on September 10, 1853 and the last was on February 3, 1856, the interred all being Native Americans who had converted to the Catholic faith. The site of the historic cemetery has not been determined.

In 1863, a log chapel was constructed on the adjoining donation claim of William McBean. The same year, that chapel was moved to the vicinity of the present Frenchtown Historic Site two miles west of the Whitman Mission, and a new cemetery was established there near the Walla Walla River. After flooding threatened the second cemetery, in 1876 those interred were moved to the present cemetery on a low hill at the Frenchtown site, and the Saint Rose of Lima Mission church was built nearby.

On August 8, 1855, Father Chirouse wrote to Bishop J.B.A. Brouillet, as follows:

“For four months I have been with the dear Cayouses.  By working I have been able to build a house of two rooms, 12′ by 15′, and have cultivated enough land to provide food for myself and to sell some of the vegetables. Young Chief, in accordance with the other great chiefs, has given me, written with his sign and the sign of others, some land (here), about 4 miles above the Whitman Mission…It would tempt no one, but its richness and beauty are hidden.  For I believe I have found the most fertile place….It might be, dear sir, that I misjudge, but I do not believe that this mission will flourish for a long time, neither with the whites nor with the Indians.

“I would like, dear sir, to have you help me if you could.  Talk, or have someone talk, to Mr. Dart, or to the Governor himself, so that he will give you a written permission for the missionaries of the Cayouse to use different left-overs of old boards or other things…from the ruins of the house of Mr. Whitman…I will make good use of all that I can take…Excuse me, I am in a hurry.” Translated by Harriet D. Munnick 

Sign placed by Walla Walla 2020 at 2904 Old Milton Highway.  For more information, go to frenchtownwa.org.