Kate Stevens Bingham

“ Eliot, who stands as a type of motherhood, has yet found time in her busy life to enrich the literature of the West by her pen, and she, as well as her husband, the Pastor Emeritus of the Church of Our Father, are looked upon as they deserve to be from the points of years and service as the virtual heads of the Unitarian Church of the Pacific Northwest. ”

“ It has held weekly meetings every Wednesday. Many thousands of dollars have been earned by its faithful members, and it has ever been an incentive and comfort to the pastor and the general society of the church.
Dr. Eliot, who received the degree of Doctor of Divinity in 1889 from Harvard University in recognition of his faithful and efficient services in so many directions in the Northwest, after a service of twenty-five years, in 1892 resigned his pastorate to younger men. ”

“ They found Portland a city of six thousand inhabitants and well provided with churches representing almost every denomination except the Unitarian, whose followers were neither numerous enough nor strong enough to have a society of their own. ”