Willamette

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This series comprises records from the Willamette district. They capture the district’s role as a vital regional hub within the wider church. The materials include minutes from district conferences, correspondence between local pastors and district leaders, reports from area churches, pastoral appointments, membership and financial statistics, and policy documents specific to the region.

These records reveal how the district guided and supported local congregations and clergy, implemented denominational policies on a regional level, and fostered church growth and ministry within the community.

The following petition was read To the General Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection (or Church) of America, assembled at Fairmount,
Indiana, Oct. 17, 1895:
The subscriber, who is a member of the Willamette Annual
Conference, and knowing the wish of other members of said
conference, hereby petitions your honorable body to receive the
above named annual conference and to enter the same upon
your Minutes, under the title of the Willamette Annual Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Connection (or Church) of
America. And it is further requested that said conference
embrace the States of Oregon, California and Washington.
The request of the conference was granted and the name
added to the roll of conferences. The 1895 General Conference statistical report Willamette had 10 appointments, 0 churches, 0 meeting houses, and 66 members. By 1907 the work was “tangled” and the General Conference authorized the Missionary Secretary to organize Willamette into a Mission Conference named “Columbia River”. In 1911, the name was changed back to Willamette.

In the 1907 Discipline the areas of OR, WA, and CA are known as the "Columbia River Conference"