Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 2.djvu/82

66 custom. The public school was held about six months in the year. Usually there was a term in the spring and another in the fall. During the long intermissions the teacher in charge during the preceding term would be allowed to continue in the building with a private school.

The first notice of a school tax occurs in 1864. At the annual school meeting the directors were authorized "to procure and fit up a suitable building for school purposes of sufficient size to accommodate the children of the district, and were empowered to levy a tax to pay the expenses incident thereto." The vote is suggestive of a wave of public sentiment in Eugene, but it seems not to have been carried into effect, for no action was taken on building until 1869.

For the year 1865 we have the clerk's report. It shows that the district has one hundred and fifty-nine voters, one hundred and ten females and one hundred and twenty-four males over four and under twenty years of age, and that the school has an average attendance of eighty pupils.

For the fiscal year 1866-1867, District No. 4 received $329.94 in coin, and $238.84 in currency.

In 1867, apparently for the first time, we find two teachers employed. They are Mr. R. G. Callison and Miss Kincaid during one term, and Mr. Callison and Miss Emma Reese during the other.

At this time there seems to have been a decided interest in the public school. How far this was stimulated by the rival efforts of Professor Henderson's school, and how far by the rapid increase in population, it would be