Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/22

12 quite primitive. The method of their support varied. The legal taxing power and the sentiment later supporting it were yet undefined. Voluntary subscriptions for the support of district schools were common and boundaries were not established. The school facilities offered were the response, not by any means uniform, to the fundamental need of education. Then, as now, there were differences of opinion and resultant bickering and strife. These perhaps were not serious at Wilbur but were in evidence. The same contentions, somewhat modified, have generally if not uniformly followed the establishment of all schools in the state, except the public grammar and high schools. Some adjustments, not always pleasantly made, between the district authorities and those of the higher state institutions of all classes, have generally attended the establishment of all our advanced schools and it was uniformly so in the independent colleges under church patronage. This was but natural when there appeared some duplication of effort.

The nearly sixty-five year old record book of the Academy has been carefully reviewed for the preparation of this article. It would be difficult to find in the west a more interesting book. From the recitals found in the journal it may be well established that there was need for missionaries and reformers. We read that "Godless Directors" were sometimes elected: and were "aided and abetted by other kindred spirits." Partial justification of this statement is found in the following quotation from the preambles to the "Rules and Regulations :" "Thus a party IN the school, allied with kindred spirits WITHOUT united with the spirit of the PIT to corrupt our youth and children among decent people and sap the foundations of civil society in our midst."

Here is another one: "They acknowledged; the school authority of the institution but denyed the right of any and all the powers of the concern to meddle with their outside conduct and unfortunately older persons were not entirely wanting to endorse their declaration of rights. Several families seemed to measure the prerogatives of the academy managers by their notions of common schools."