Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/72

56 count of the private schools, many of which were excellent institutions of their kind; but a few of them demand a brief notice.

In 1856 the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Oregon established at Eugene the so-called Columbia College. About the time that the first school was kept in the new district schoolhouse on Eleventh Street, this institution on College Hill also opened its doors for the reception of students. Rev. E. P. Henderson, a graduate of the Cumberland Presbyterian College at Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, was its head. Under his direction the school was carried successfully to the conclusion of its third year in spite of the great misfortunes which it suffered. In 1859 Mr. Henderson resigned the principalship, and a Mr. Ryan of Virginia was secured to take his place. But the times were troubled, and in the bitter political struggle of the following year the life of Columbia College was sacrificed.

But its work was not lost; its influence can be traced far beyond the crucial time in which the institution perished. The school had enjoyed a very respectable patronage from all sections of Oregon, and to some extent from California. It turned out a number of men who have left their impress upon the state, and at least one whose fame has become world-wide, the "Poet of the Sierras," Joaquin Miller.