Our Lady of Good Hope church in Fort St. James was substantially completed and used only from Christmas 1878. Signage outside the church and at least forty websites mistakenly say the church was built in 1873.
It would have been impossible to build a church in 1873. When Fathers J.M.J. Lejacq and Georges Blanchet arrived at Stuart Lake in May 1873, they scoured the countryside searching for a suitable site for a permanent mission station. Fr. Lejacq had to file a pre-emption claim for 320 acres of land.
Fr. Blanchet and his volunteer crew set to work building a log residence consisting of a kitchen, two bedrooms, a community hall and chapel. A bishop also had to travel a great distance to approve the site chosen. In 1876 Bishop Pierre Paul Durieu arrived at Stuart Lake, accepted the site and ordered a church built, 25 feet by 40 feet.
Fr. Lejacq wrote a lengthy report of the founding of the mission, which includes a chronology of the construction that occurred. This report was published in the March 1880 issue of the Oblate journal “Missions de la congrégation des missionnaires oblats de Marie Immaculée.”
Lejacq wrote, “Until 1876, all the exercises were held in the church at Nak’azdli. Every Sunday I went there to say holy mass. In 1876 the site we had chosen was finally approved and we were ordered to build a church with sanctuary, sacristy and bell tower. All this work was done under the direction of P. Blanchet.”
In June 1877 the walls of the church were raised and work halted due to a lack of boards; Gavin Hamilton’s sawmill was not in operation. In order to have a place large enough for the Christmas 1877 reunion a catechism house was finished.
In the spring of 1878, Hamilton’s sawmill began operation, and work resumed on the church during the June 1878 reunion [considerable efforts made by the indigenous population who gathered at Stuart Lake Mission various times of the year].
Lejacq wrote, “When the reunion ended, the young men followed each other two by two to help P. Blanchet until the roof was raised and the floor installed. Simon and Billy of Fort George, the best workers in all the district, worked with P. Blanchet from All Saints until Christmas, under the direction of P. Blanchet, to finish the interior, and this gratis pro Deo [free of charge or For God and king’].We were able to have the Christmas ceremonies in the new church. As soon as we can get the boards we need, our two workers will return to finish their work.”
- with files submitted by William O’Hara, Prince George, B.C.