USA > Oregon > History of Oregon, Vol. II, 1848-1888 > Part 67
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
686
CHURCHES AND CHURCH SCHOOLS.
which was successful from the first. The Oregon Churchman, a small monthly publication in the interests of the church, was first issued this year.
The episcopal church was making steady advances when in 1867 Bishop Scott died, universally lamented. Over 200 persons had been confirmed, not all of whom remained steadfast during an interval of two years when the diocese was without a head. A fresh impetus was imparted to the life of the church when a new missionary bishop, B. Wistar Morris, arrived in Oregon, in June 1860. A block of land was purchased in Portland, on Fourth Street, between Madison and Jefferson, and St Helen Hall built. By the 6th of September it had fifty pupils. In the following year it was enlarged, and be- gan its second year with 125 pupils. The Scott grammar and divinity school for boys was erected in 1870, on a tract of land in the western part of Couch's addition, commanding a fine view of Portland and the Willamette River. Both of these institutions were successful, the grammar school having to be enlarged in 1872. The building was burned in November 1877, but rebuilt larger than before, at a cost of $25,000. In the same year the congregation of trinity church crected a new edifice on the block occupied by the former one between Oak and Pine. but facing on Sixth Street, and costing over $30,000, the bishop being assisted hy several clergymen. A church had been organized in Walla Walia by Wells, who extended his labors to several of the towns of eastern Oregon in 1973. In 1874 the bishop laid the corner-stones of five churches, and purchased four acres of land in the north-western quarter of Portland, on which was erected a hospital and orphanage, under the name of Good Samar- itan. the energy of Morris and the liberality of the people of Portland placing the episcopal society in the foremost rank in point of educational and charitable institutions. When Scott entered upon his diocese, it included all of the original territory of Oregon, but occupied later only Oregon and Wash- ington. In the latter, in 1876, there were seven churches, one boarding-school for girls-at Walla Walla-one parish school, one rectory, and 157 communi- cants. Episcopal Church in Or., a history prepared for the centennial commis- sioners, 1876, Vancouver, 1876; Seattle Intelligence, Aug. 24, 1879.
Among the other religious denominations of Oregon were the Campbellites. Like the other churches, they knew the value of sectarian schools, and accord- ing to one of their elders, would have had one in every county had it been practicable. As I have before said, they founded the school at MeMinnville, which became a baptist college, James McBride, William Dawson, and S. C. Adams erecting the first college building. Adams taught the school just previous to its transfer. A little later than the McMinnville school was the founding of the Bethel Academy in 1856. The promoters of this enter- prise were Elder G. O. Burnett, Amos Harvey, Nathaniel Hudson, and others. În 1855 it was chartered by the legislature as the Bethel Institute. In Octo- ber they advertised that they were ready to receive pupils, and also that 'stu- dents will be free to attend upon such religions services on each Lord's day as they may choose.' The institute opened in November with fifty or sixty pupils in attendance, and we learn that 'Judge Williams addressed the peo- ple' at a meeting of the trustees in February following. L. L. Rowland and N. Hudson were teaching in 1859, and in 1860 the act of incorporation was amended to read Bethel College. Or. Laws, 1860, 102-3. At this time the Bethel school was prosperous. It had a well-selected library, and choice appa- ratus in the scientific departments.
But Bethel had a rival in the same county. In 1855 measures were taken to found another institution of learning, the trustees chosen being Ira F. But- ler, J. E. Murphy, R. P. Boise, J. B. Smith, S. Simmons, William Mason, T. H. Hutchison, H. Burford, T. H. Lucas, D. R. Lewis, and S. S. Whitman. This board organized with Butler for president, Hutchison secretary, and Lucas treasurer. A charter was granted them the same year, incorporating Monmouth University; 460 acres of land were donated, Whitman giving 200, T. H. Lucas 80. A. W. Lucas 20, and J. B. Smith and Elijah Davidson each 80. This land was laid out in a town site called Monmouth, and the lots sold to persons desiring to reside near the university. In the abundant
687
UNITARIANS AND LUTHERANS.
charity of their hearts, and perhaps with a motive to popularize their insti- tution, the trustees passed a resolution to establish a school for orphans in connection with the university; but this scheme being found to be impracti- cable, it was abandoned, and the money subscribed to the orphan school re- funded.
Notwithstanding its ambitions title, the Monmouth school only served to divide the patronage which would have been a support for one only, and after ten years of unprofitable effort, it was resolved in convention by the christian church to unite Bethel and Monmouth, under the name of Monmouth Chris- tian College, which was done. The first session of this college is reckoned from October 1866 to June 1867. The necessity for an endowment led, in 1868, to the sale of forty scholarships at five hundred dollars each, by which assistance the institution became fairly prosperous. On the organization of the college, L. L. Rowland of Bethany college, Virginia, was made principal, with N. Hudson assistant. In 1869 a more complete organization took place, and T. F. Campbell, a native of Mississippi and graduate of Bethany college, was placed at the head of the college as principal, being selected president the following year, a situation which he held for thirteen years with profit to the management. A substantial brick building was erected, a newspaper, the Monmouth Christian Messenger, published, and the catalogue showed 250 students. In 1882 Campbell resigned and returned to the east, leaving the college on as good a basis as any in the state, having graduated twenty-three students in the classical and forty-one in the scientific course. The college property is valued at twenty thousand dollars, and the endowment twenty- five thousand. The census of 1870 gives the number of christian churches at twenty-six, and church edifices at sixteen. At a christian cooperation con- vention held at Dallas in 1877, thirty-one societics were represented. Later a church was organized in Portland, and a building erected for religious ser- vices.
Baker City Academy, an incorporated institution, was opened in 1868, with F. H. Grubbe principal, assisted by his wife, Jason Lee's daughter. Grubbe subsequently took charge of The Dalles high school, his wife dying at that place in 1881. He was succeeded in the Baker City academy by S. P. Barrett, and later by William Harrison. As the pioneer academy of east- ern Oregon, it did a good work. The corner-stone of the Blue Mountain University at La Grande was laid in 1874. In 1878 it was in successful op- eration, wich colleges of medicine, law, and theology promised at an early day. In addition to the preparatory and classical departments, there were two scientific courses of four years. The school was non-sectarian. G. E. Ackerman was first president. A good school was also established at Union, and the Independent Academy at The Dalles. The latter institution acquired possession of the stone building partially erected for a mint in 1869-70, but presented to the state when the mint was abandoned, and by the state trans- ferred to this school.
The First Unitarian Church of Portland, incorporated in 1865 by Thomas Frazier, E. D. Shattuck, and R. R. Thompson, was the first of that denom- ination in the state. Its first house of worship was located on the corner of Yamhill and Seventh streets, a plain building of wood, the lot costing $7,000, with free seats for 300 people. Its pastor, T. L. Eliot, drew to this modest temple goodly congregations; the society grew, and in 1878 was laid the cor- ner-stone of the present church of Our Father, one of the most attractive edifices in the city, which was dedicated in 1879. Olympia Unitarian Advo- cate, Aug. 1878; Portland Oregonian, July 27, 1878, June 14, 1879. There is a small number of universalists in the state. They had a church at Coquille City, organized by Zenas Cook, missionary of this denomination. They erected a place of worship in 1878.
The Evangelical Lutherans organized a church at Portland in 1867, A. Myres, of the general synod, acting. A house of worship was erected in 1869, being the first lutheran church in Oregou. Through some mismanagement of the building committee, the church became involved in debt, and after several
688
PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
years of struggle against adverse circumstances, the building was sold by the sheriff in May 1875. Another lutheran church was organized in 1871, by A. E. Fridrichsen, from the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians of Portland, and incorporated June 9, 1871, under the name of the Scandinavian Evangelical Lutheran Church of Portland. Being offered building ground in East Port- land by James B. Stephens and wife, they built there, but services were also held in the basement of the first presbyterian church, where a discourse in the Swedish tongue was preached Sunday evenings. As there was considerable im- migration from the Scandinavian and German countries, the lutheran church rapidly increased in Oregon aud Washington. From centennial report by A. Emil Fridrichsen, in Portland Christian Advocate, May 11, 1876.
Portland had also a German church, an African Methodist Episcopal Zion church, two Jewish societies, Beth Israel with a synagogue at the corner of Fifth and Oak, and Ahavai Sholom with a synagogue on Sixth street, between Oak and Pine, and a Chinese temple on Second street, between Morrison and Adler streets.
The Seventh-Day Adventists had a church incorporated in September 1878, at Milton, Umatilla county, by J. C. Burch, W. Russell, and W. J. Goodwin.
The First Society of Humanitarians of Astoria was incorporated in Janu- ary 1878, by James Taylor, L. O. Fruit, and John A. Goss.
The Methodist G. Church South was organized at Wingville, Baker county, in 1878, Hiram Osborne, C. G. Chandler, and E. C. Perkins, trustees.
The Emanuel Church of the Evangelical Association of North America, of Albany, was incorporated July 22, 1878, by E. B. Purdom, F. Martin, and L. G. Allen.
There were Hebrew Congregations at Astoria and Albany. Or. Sec. State Rept, 1878, 112-20.
The latest available statistics, those of 1875, gave the number of religious organizations in Oregon, of all denominations, at 351, with 242 churches, 320 clergymen, 14,324 communicants, and 71,630 adherents. The assessed value of the church property was $654,000. During the years following there was a large increase in numbers and property. With respect to numbers, the different denominations rank as follows: Methodists, baptists, catholics, epis- copalians, congregationalists, and other minor sects.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
That section of the organic act which conferred 1,280 acres of land upon every township for the support of public schools made a system of free edu- cation obligatory upon the people, and one of the first acts of the legislature of 1849 was a law iu consonance with this gift, providing for the appropria- tion of the interest of the money arising from the sale of school lands to the purposes of public insruction. The law, in a revised forin, exists still. But the income of the school fund arising from sales of school land was not sufficient for the support of the common schools, and in 1853-4 the revised law provided for levying a tax in every county, of two mills on the dollar, and also that the county treasurer should set apart all moneys collected from fines for breach of any of the penal laws of the territory, in order to give immediate effect to the educational system. The legislature of 1834-5 made every school district a body corporate to assess and collect taxes for the support of the public schools for a certain portion of the year.
When Oregon became a state it was even more richly endowed with lands for educational purposes, and in its constitution generously set apart much of its dower for the same purpose. In 1876 the common-school fund amounted to over half a million dollars. For the school year of 1877-8 the interest on the school fund amounted to over $48,000. As the fund increases with the gradual sale of the school lands, it is expected that an amount will eventually be realized from the three million acres remaining which will meet the larger part of the expense of the public schools. In Portland, where the schools are
689
STATE UNIVERSITY.
more perfectly graded than elsewhere, the cost per year for each pupil has been about twenty-one dollars. The total value of public school property in the state in 1877-8 was nearly half a million dollars, comprising 752 school- houses and their furniture. The lowest average monthly salary in any county was thirty-five dollars, and the highest seventy-one. Biennial Rept Supt Pub. Instruc. Or., 1878, 23. The course of study in the common schools, which is divided into seven grades, preparatory to the high-school course, is more fnily exemplified iu l'ortland than elsewhere. The whole city is com- prised in one district, with buildings at convenient distances and of ample size. The Central school was first opened in May 1838. It was built on a block of land between Morrison and Yamhill and Sixth and Seventh streets, for which in 1536 $1,000 was paid, and a wing of the main building erected, costing $3,000, the money heing raised by taxation, according to the school law. The following year another $4,000 was raised and applied to the com- pletion of the building; 111 pupils were present at the opening, the principal being L. L. Terwilliger, assisted by O. Connelly and Mrs Hensill. In 1872-3 the original structure was moved and added to, making a new and commodi- ous house at a cost of over $30,000. In 1SS3, the block on which it stood be- ing needed for a hotel, the building was moved to a temporary resting-place on the next block north. The second school building was erected in 1065, at the corner of Sixth and Harrison streets, cleven blocks sonth of the Central, at a cost of about ten thousand dollars. It was twice enlarged, in 1871 and 1877, at a total cost of nearly $21,000. The IIarrison-Street school was opened in January ISGG by R. K. Warre.), principal, assisted by Misses Tower, Ste- phens, and Kelly. In May 1870 it was nearly all destroyed by fire, but was re- built the same year at a cost of $18,000, and reopened in February 1880. The third school building erected in the district was called the North School, and was located between T'enth and Eleventh and Cand D streets, in Couch's Addi- tion. It was built in 1867, the block and house costing over seventeen thousand dollars. Two wings were added in 1877, with an additional expenditure of over four thousand. The first principal was G. S. Pershin, assisted by Misscs Ilay, Northrup, and Polk. The fourth, or Park School, was erected in 1878- 9, on Park Street, at a cost of $42,000. The high school occupied the upper floor, and some granunar classes the lower. Each of these four schools had in 188) a seating capacity of some 650, while the attendance was about four hundred and seventy-five for each. Two fine school buildings have been added since 1580, one in the north end of the city, called the Couch School, and one in the south end, named the Failing School, after two prominent pioneers of Portland. There was a high school, three stories and basement, of the most modern design, which cost $150,000.
The State University, which received an endowment from the general government of over 46,000 acres of land, has realized therefrom over $70,000, the interest on which furnishes a small part of the means required for its sup- port, the remainder being derived from tuition fees. The institution passed through the same struggles that crippled private institutions.
After expending the money appropriated by congress in political squab- bles, it was for a long time doubtful if a university would be founded within the generation for whom it was intended, when Lane county came to the rescue in the following manner: The citizens of Eugene City resolved in 1872 to have an institution of learning of a higher grade than the common schools. An association was incorporated in Angust of that year, consisting of J. M. Thompson, J. J. Walton, Jr, W. J. J. Scott, B. F. Dorris, J. B. Under- wood, J. J. Comstock, A. S. Patterson, S. H. Spencer, E. L. Bristow, E. L. Applegate, and A. W. Patterson, of Lane county, which was called the Union University Association, with a capital stock of $50,000, in shares of $100 each. During the discussions consequent upon the organization, a propo- sition was made and acted upon, to endeavor to have the state university located at Engene. When half the stock was subscribed and directors elected, the matter was brought before the legislature, of which A. W. Pat- terson was a member. An act was passed establishing the state university
HIST. OR., VOL. II. 44
690
PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS.
in September 1872, upon the condition that the Union University Association should procure a suitable building site, and erect thereon a building which with the furniture and grounds should be worth not less than $50,000, the property to be deeded to the board of directors of the state university free of all incumbrances, which was done. The law provided that the board of state university directors should consist of six appointed by the governor, and three elected by the Union University Association. The governor appointed Matthew P. Deady, L. L. McArthur, R. S. Strahan, T. G. Hendricks, George Hum- phrey, and J. M. Thompson, the three elected being B. F. Dorris, W. J. J. Scott, and J. J. Walton, Jr. At the first meeting of the board, in April 1873, Deady was elected president.
The legislature gave substantial aid by appropriating $10,000 a year for I877-8. Eighteen acres of land were se ured in a good situation, and a build- ing erected of brick, 80 by 57 feet, three stories in height, with porticoes, man- sard roof, and a good modern arrangement of the interior; cost, $80,000.
It was necessary to provide for a preparatory department. The institution opened October 16, 1876, with 80 pupils in the collegiate and 75 in the pre- paratory departments; 43 in the collegiate department were non-paying, the university law allowing one free scholarship to each county, and one to each member of the legislature. Owing to the want of money, there was not a full board of professors; those who were first to organize a class for graduation had many difficulties to contend with. The first faculty consisted only of J. W. Johnson, president and professor of ancient classics, Mark Bailey, professor of mathematics, and Thomas Condon, professor of geology and nat- ural history. The preparatory school was in charge of Mrs Mary P. Spiller, assisted by Miss Mary E. Stone. From these small heginnings was yet to grow the future university of the state of Oregon. In 1884 there were 7 regu- lar professors, 2 tutors, 215 students, and 19 graduates. Regents' Rept, 1878, State University; Or. Mess, and Docs, 1876, 148-53; Deady's Ilist. Or., MS., 53; Univer. Or. Catalogue, 1878, 18.
State institutions for the education of deaf, dumb, and blind persons re- mained backward. The deaf-and-dumb school at Salem was organized in 1870, with thirty-six pupils in attendance, in the building formerly occupied by the academy of the Sacred Heart, which was removed into a new one. The legislature provided by act of 1870 that not more than $2,000 per annum of publie money should be expended on the instruction of deaf-mutes. The legislature of 1874 appropriated $10,000 for their maintenance, and the legis- lature of 1876, $12,000. The first appropriation for the blind was made in 1872, amounting to $2,000; in 1874, $10,000 was appropriated; in 1876, $8,000; and in 1878 a general appropriation of $10,000 was made, with no directions for its use, except that it was to pay for teachers and expenses of the deaf, dumh, and blind schools, In 1878 the institute for the blind was closed, and the few under instruction returned to their homes; it was reopened and closed again in 1884, waiting the action of the legislature. These insti- tutions have no fund for their support, but depend upon biennial appropri- ations. Like all the other public schools, they were for a time under the management of the state board of education, but the legislature of 1880 organ- ized the school for deaf-inutes by placing it under a board of directors. Or. Mess. and Docs, 1882. 32.
A protégé of the general government was the Indian school at Forest Grove, where a hundred picked pupils of Indian blood were educated at the nation's expense. The scheme was conceived by Captain C. M. Wilkinson of the 3d U. S. infantry, who procured several appropriations for the founding and conduct of the school, of which he was made first superintendent. The cx- periment began in 1880, and promised well, although the result can only be known when the pupils have entered actual life for themselves.
Of special schools, there were a few located at Portland. The homeopathic medical college, H. McKinnell, president, was a society rather than a school.
The Oregon school and college association of natural history, under the presidency of Thomas Condon, was more truly a branch at large of the state
691
PROSE AND POETRY.
university. P. S. Knight, secretary, did much in Salem to develop a taste for studies in natural history, by example, lecturing, and teaching; while Condon, whose name was synonymous with a love of geological studies and other branches of natural science, did no less for The Dalles, Portland, Forest Grove, and Eugene. These with other friends of science formed an association for the cultivation and spread of the natural science branches of education, the seat of which was Portland.
The Oregon Medical College of Portland was formed by the union of the Multnomah Connty Medical Society and the medical department of the Wil- lamette University. The former society was founded about the beginning of IS65, and the latter organized in 1867. Eighty-three doctors of medicine were graduated from the university in ten years. In 1877 it was determined to remove this branch of the nniversity to Portland, where superior advan- tages might be enjoyed by the students, and in February 1873 the incorpora- tion of the Oregon Medical College took place, the incorporators being R. Glisan, Philip Harvey, W. B. Cardwell, W. H. Watkins, R. G. Rex, O. P. S. Plummer, Matthew P. Deady, and W. H. Saylor.
LITERATURE.
It cannot be said that Oregon has a literature of its own. Few states hare ever claimed this distinction, and none can properly do so before the men and women born on its soil and nurtured in its institutions have begun to send forth to the world the ideas evolved from the culture and observation obtained there. That there was rather more than a usnal tendency to anthor- ship among the early settlers and visitors to this portion of the l'acific coast is true only because of the great number of unusual circumstances attending the immigration, the length of the journey, the variety of scenery, and the political situation of the country, which gave them so much to write about that almost withont intention they appeared as authors, writers of newspaper letters, pamphleteers, publishers of journals, petitioners to congress, and re- corders of current events. It is to their industry in this respect that I am indebted for a large portion of my material. Besides these anthors, all of whom have been mentioned, there remain a few sources of information to notice.
The Oregon Spectator has preserved some of the earliest poetry of the country, often withont signature. Undoubtedly some of the best was written by transient persons, English officers and others, who, to while away the te- dium of a frontier life, dallied with the muses, and wrote verses alternately to Mount Hood, to Mary, or to a Columbia River salmon. Mrs M. J. Bailey, George L. Curry, J. H. P., and many noms de plume appear in the Spectator. Mount Hood was apostrophized frequently, and there appear verses addressed to the different immigrations of 1843, 1845, and 1846, all laudatory of Oregon, and encouraging to the new-comers. Lieutenant Drake of the Modeste wrote frequent effusions for the Spectator, most often addressed "To Mary;' and Henry N. Peers, another English officer, wrote 'The Adventures of a Colum- bia River Salmon,' a production worth preserving on account of its descrip- tive as well as literary merit. It is found in Or. Spectator, Sept. 2, 1847; Clyman's Note-Book, MS., 9-10, refers to early Oregon poets.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.