Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 224, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 September 1915 — AN OLD RUSSIAN CHURCH [ARTICLE]

AN OLD RUSSIAN CHURCH

Remains of a Building and a Few Relics Still Exist at Fort Ross, Cal. At Fort Ross, Cal., some fifty miles north of San Francisco, there are the very interesting remains of what was once a church of the holy orthodox religion—as the members of the eastern or Greek church call their faith, says the Youth’s Companion. It was in ISO 9 that an expedition of the Rus-sian-American F’ur company came south from Sitka, and made a settlement at Bodega bay, which they called Port Rumiantsof. Two years later they chose a position for their main post about twenty miles farther north, a little beyond the Russian river, which they called 1 the Slavianka. At this point, which they named Ros or Rus, they built a fort with watch towers and mounted 40 cannon. The settlement was ostensibly only a peaceful trading post and a center for sealing operations. There was ,po reason, however, in the character of the Indian inhabitants of the region, for a post of such strength to hold the territory as a Russian colony and, by gradual settlement farther south, to offer an effective challenge to the claims of Spain to the coast region north of San lYancisco.

The fort was built of heavy redwood timbers. It was about 100 yards square and contained the quarters of the officers and men, workshops, warehouses, granaries, a windmill, and, of course, bath houses. The population varied between 200 and 400, inclusive of some Aleuts who were employed in the sealing and sea otter industry. The fur business grew to be large and very profitable. Sir George Simpson, the governor of the Hudson Bay company, who visited Fort Ross in -1841, reported that up to that time no less than 80,000 sea otter skins alone had been taken and marketed by the Russian-American company, m 1813 the Russians built a church, ana there the gorgeous ritual of the Greek Catholic church was conducted until the close of the Russian occupation.