Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/121

Rh operation of the law of supply and demand. As Mr. Atkinson departed for his long journey and his distant field he had been charged by Rev. Theron Baldwin, Secretary of the Society for Promotion of College and Theological Education, to keep in mind the "founding of an Academy which should grow into a College." Thus new and strong forces were placed behind the modest and heroic beginning of Mr. Clark and Mrs. Brown, forces that reached back to the older civilization of the East and were destined to center, before long, complex influences upon the creation of an institution of higher education.

Mr. Atkinson, like his predecessors, was a native of New England, born at Newburyport, Massachusetts. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College and of Andover Theological Seminary. He had planned to enter the service of the American Board in Africa, but had been turned from his purpose almost by chance. Unlike Mr. Clark and Mrs. Brown he came to Oregon by water, thus avoiding the danger and hardship of a journey by land. With the exception of the time consumed, the journey was one of ease and of pleasure. The days were spent in reading books useful to him in his future work, in making friends among the passengers, in taking observations along the route, in religious work among the sailors, and in laying plans for the future good of Oregon. When he reached the Sandwich Islands, which were at that time the front door to Oregon for one coming by water, he learned of the massacre of Doctor Whitman and his associates, a cheerful introduction indeed to his new field. He was advised by his friends to relinquish his purpose of working in a place so dangerous as Oregon seemed to be. With a greater faith than his friends, however, he refused to turn back, and in June of 1848 landed at Oregon City.

It is probably true that the coming of no man previous to that of Mr. Atkinson meant so much for the future of