Frontier Faiths: Church, Temple, and Synagogue in Los Angeles, 1846-1888

A Congregational missionary to Los Angeles complained in 1866 about newcomers who "left their religion at the [Mississippi] river and their principles somewhere on the plains." Between 1846 and 1888, Los Angeles mushroomed from a small Hispanic pueblo of fifteen hundred to an Anglo-American city of nearly fifty thousand. During those tumultuous decades, Angelenos--and in particular leaders of religious denominations--adapted to rapid changes that accompanied military conquest, cultural diversity, and urban growth.
Roman Catholics were a majority in Los Angeles until nearly 1880, but thriving Jewish and Chinese communities and the steady rise of Protestants created a religious and cultural diversity that made Los Angeles nearly unique as a western city. In spite of religious prejudice and racial violence, Protestants, Catholics, and Jews developed an unparalleled religious cooperation based on civic boosterism and the desire to attract newcomers to the city and its churches. Gradually, though, the hard-won tolerance disappeared as folk Catholicism gave way to more formal worship and competition for parishioners became more important than cooperating to provide schools, fight disease, and maintain public order.
As a major study of the role of religion in frontier community-building, this volume offers new insight into the complex beginnings of racial and ethnic diversity in Los Angeles.