Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/21

 UMPQUA ACADEMY 11 Vacancies in the Board of Trustees were to be filled by the Oregon conference of the Methodist Episcopal church and addi- tions made by the same authority. The church Conference was to appoint from its members each year a visiting com- mittee of three who were to "visit and examine into the financial and other affairs of said institution and meet and confer with the trustees." It is a fair implication of the charter that the faculty, trustees and visiting committee could make rules and regulations for the conduct of the school. This they did not fail to do. These "Rules and Regulations" made some hundreds of years after the landing of the Pilgrims, clearly indicate that "there were puritans in those days" and likewise testify that human nature in all its strength and embarrassment was the chief character- istic of boys and girls of the times. And, too, the minutes in the Record Book show that there were prophets and sages yet alive and also scribes, for the writings were profuse. There are suggestions in the preambles that the authority of the corporate body was somewhat called into question by the patrons. And the faculty watch over the students d'oes not seem to have been limited by the sunrise and sunset. And even certain things were not to be permitted at any time "save in the presence of parents or other revered personages." No record, however, is found that all of these "Rules and Regulations" were observed and there are those yet alive who testify to the contrary. It may seem tedious to go into the record of discipline, expressions of assumed "authority and justification" that surrounded the school and really surcharged the village air, but these things were a peculiar part of its life and without them it would not have been Umpqua Academy, as then known, and that stood out the more prominently in Southern Oregon history because of the extreme care and the right influences that were meant to be thrown about those com- mitted to the care of these early Oregon educators. Some recitation may therefore be permitted. The schools that were the educational forerunners of the Academy, as well as other schools of the state or Coast, were