The Madonna.
There were two other churches during Russian days, one, a Lutheran, built during Etolin’s time, which stood near the site of the first church, and is said to have contained a small but very excellent pipe organ, brought from Germany. The other church stood near the blockhouse on the hill, was on the line of the stockade, and had two doors, one inside the fortification, the other outside and used as an entrance by the natives. It was known as the Koloshian Church, and its site is marked by a monument. Both these buildings long ago fell into ruin and were removed.
The Russian religion was closely associated with the Government, so in the colonies the official charter of the Company compelled them to provide well for the church and the priests according to the standard of the times, and the work was carried on with zeal and fortitude by the missionaries who came from the monasteries of the old Russian cities.
Of all the missionaries who came to Russian America, the greatest was Ivan Veniaminof. Father John he is often called in the old records, a wonderful man, broad of mind and of body, combining the qualities that inspire awe and reverence with a gentleness of word and deed that made him beloved wherever he was known. His zapiski, or letters, are among the best authorities extant which remain from those years on Alaskan matters, and they were written home to Russia during his stay in the Aleutian Islands and at Sitka. He came to Sitka after a ten-year stay at Unalaska, remained there for five years working for the church and teaching in the schools, then returned to Moscow and was consecrated as bishop of the new diocese. He again arrived in Sitka in 1842, and made a tour of all the churches in the colonies, traveling by sailing ship to every settlement, then went home to Russia where he became Metropolite of Moscow.
The schools of Sitka, under the Russian regime, were well maintained, and many of the mechanics, clerks, pilots, and men of other trades were educated there. Kadin, who drew the charts for Tebenkof’s Atlas of Alaska from the surveys made by the Russian Navigators; Tarantief, who engraved the maps on copper-plate at Sitka; and many of the shipmasters and accountants in the employ of the Company, were the product of the educational institutions of Sitka. In the time of the greatest prosperity there were five schools. The church school was advanced to the grade of a seminary in 1849 and there were taught navigation, mathematics, astronomy, bookkeeping, and other branches of learning. Some of the best pupils, both Russian and Creole, were sent to St. Petersburg for more advanced instruction. Chief Manager Etolin was the especial patron of education, and made many improvements in the system. Under the auspices of Madame Etolin, who was a native of Helsingfors and was educated in the schools of that city, a school was opened and maintained by the Company for the girls of the colony. After the transfer to the United States of the Territory the teachers returned to Russia and the schools were closed.
CHAPTER VI
SOCIAL LIFE
At the top of the kekoor, or the Baranof Hill as it was called in recent years, there stood a building occupied during Russian days as a residence by the chief managers of the Russian American Company. The one known to the residents and visitors of the earlier days of the American occupation was known as the Baranof Castle, although Baranof himself never lived in it. There were three, if not four different buildings which occupied that position. The first to be placed there was built at once upon the founding of the post and is described by Resanof in his letters to the Company as being a very “Unpretentious building, and poorly constructed.” Before the close of Baranof’s administration, however, according to the account of Captain Golofnin, it was an establishment well built and furnished with some degree of luxury.