Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 4.djvu/32

22 supported by private subscription. Public sentiment favored a public school, and its modifying influence is seen at this time. No tuition was charged the individual pupil, but the parents contributed toward the support of the school each according to his means rather than in proportion to the number of children he sent to the school. Mr. V. Boelling, in addition to furnishing the schoolhouse and residence for the teacher free of charge, contributed twenty of the forty dollars paid monthly to the teacher. The school was in session during the months of June, July, August, and September.

It is probable that between the closing of this school and the starting of the public school proper there were other semi-public schools. Private schools were a necessity in Upper Astoria, owing to the small number of families there and the lack of means of communication between the two parts of the town. There were at least two private schools here prior to 1859, and they were patronized by the children of three families. That this was done in at least one case from necessity, rather than choice, is shown by the fact that one of the patrons of these schools, T. P. Powers, a few years later, was the prime mover in the establishment of the Upper Astoria public school. Miss Pope and Mrs. H. B. Morse were two of the teachers employed in these schools.

In 1864 the first school that was in any sense a rival of the public school was started. The Grace Church Parish School became the rallying point for the first opposition to public education. This support alone would perhaps not have been sufficient to maintain it; but it