Page:History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana.djvu/407

Rh A school was opened in Olympia, Nov. 22, 1852, by A. W. Moore, first teacher and postmaster on Puget Sound after its settlement by American colonists. Moore died in 1875, aged 55 years, having always labored for the best interests of society. The first school-house, it is claimed, was on the Kindred farm, on Bush prairie, and was erected by the Kindred family and their neighbors. Phillips first taught in this place. During the winter of 1852–3 a tax was levied on the Olympia precinct, and money collected to erect a public school-house, which was demolished by the heavy snow of that winter, as before related. The Columbian of July 16, 1853, remarks that it had known of only three schools north of Cowlitz landing, one in Olympia, taught by E. A. Bradford, one at the house of William Packard, taught by Miss White, and one near the house of S. D. Ruddell, taught by D. L. Phillips, probably the one above mentioned.

About this time the owners of the Seattle town site offered a liberal donation of land to the methodist church if they would erect an institution of learning, to be called the Seattle Institute, within 2 years. The matter was laid before the conference by Benjamin Close, but the offer does not appear to have been accepted. Meantime the common school at Olympia was continued, Moses Hurd, C. H. Hale, and D. R. Bigelow being trustees.

In May 1854 Bernard Cornelius, from Victoria, V. I., and graduate of Trinity college, Dublin, took charge of the Olympia school, and seems to have been a competent and industrious educator. He proposed to establish a 'classical, mathematical, commercial, and training school,' and conducted the public instruction of the youth of the district for one year satisfactorily, when he set up a private school, with what success I know not. In Dec. 1856 the methodists incorporated the Puget Sound Wesleyan Institute, located on a point of land midway between Olympia and Turawater. The school opened that year under the charge of Isaac Dillon and wife. The trustees were D. R. Bigelow, G. A. Barnes, C. B. Baker, F. A. Chenoweth, A. A. Denny, G. M. Berry, R. H. Lansdale, A. S. Abernethy, James Biles, W. S. Parsons, William Wright, J. S. Smith, W. D. Van Buren, T. F. Berry, B. F. Yantis, W. N. Ayres, Edward Lander, W. W. Miller, J. F. Devore, John Briscoe, G. K. Willard, Isaac Dillon, L. A. Davis, W. Rutledge, Morris Littlejohn, R. M. Walker, C. H. Hale, and Elwood Evans. In Ebey's Journal, MS., iii. 45, I find mention of a school-house erected at Port Townsend in 1855, where a Mr Taylor had opened a school; and I find that the public school of Seattle was closed in Oct. 1860, owing to the mining excitement having carried off the teacher, while other schools at Port Madison, Teekalet, Whidbey Island, Port Townsend, and Olympia were in a flourishing condition.

As there was no school fund from the sale of the 16th and 36th sections until the same should be surveyed, and the commissioner of the land-office having decided that the grant was not available until the territory should become a state, the common schools were supported by a tax annually levied, and by fines arising from a breach of any penal laws of the territory. County superintendents were provided for by the law of 1854, to be elected at the annual elections. In 1861 it was enacted that a territorial superintendent should be chosen triennially by the legislature, whose duty it should be to collect such information as might be deemed important, reporting annually to that body, and supervising the expenditure of the school fund. An act approved Nov. 29, 1871, provided that the territorial superintendent should be elected in joint convention of the legislature during that and every subsequent session, his duties being to disseminate intelligence in relation to the methods and value of education, to issue certificates to teachers, call teachers' conventions, consolidate the reports of county superintendents, recommend text-books, and report to the legislative assembly, for all of which he was to receive $300. Nelson Rounds was the first sup. under the this law, and gave an elaborate report. He was a graduate of Hamilton university, and was in the methodist ministry nearly 40 years. During this time he was connected with several schools, and was four years editor of the Northern Christian Advocate. He came from Binghampton, N. Y., to take the presi-