 Beginning on July 24–26, 1894, the newly formed Willamette Valley Chautauqua Association held an annual summer assembly that offered performances, lectures, and concerts.This event would reoccur annually, until Gladstone's Chautauqua Park grew to be the third-largest permanent Chautauqua assembly park in the United States.In 1896, William Jennings Bryan drew a crowd of 6,000 to Gladstone's then 78-acre Chautauqua park to hear him give his popular lecture, "The Prince of Peace", which stressed that Christian theology, through both individual and group morality, was a solid foundation for peace and equality.