Kate and Sue McBeth, Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce

1874

. . . [I]n 1874 Father Cataldo opened St. Joseph's Mission about six kilometers (four miles) south of present-day Jacques, Idaho, in the Sweetwater Valley above Lapwai. Built on the land of a headman who had converted his entire Presbyterian following to Catholicism, it was referred to as the Slickpoo Mission in his honor. . . . That same year [1873] after baptizing more than 600 Nez Perces, Spalding became ill, returned to Lapwai, and died there on August 3, 1874, at the age of 71. He was buried close to the location of his early mission at present-day Spalding, the site of the Nez Perce National Historical Park headquarters. (pp. 111)