Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/123

Rh Thus the "Orphan Asylum" gave place to a regularly organized academy with a board of trustees, and with a broader backing than those interested in the earlier enterprise of the settlers could have dared to hope for in so short a time. It is interesting to notice that at the time this action was takent at Oregon City there were only a few thousand inhabitants in the whole of the Oregon Country; the fur-trading period was just giving place to that of agricultural settlement, and with the exception of the "Oregon Institute," established by the Methodist missionaries near the present site of Salem, there was no school of the grade of an academy on the Pacific Coast.

For the institution thus started a charter was prepared by Mr. Clark and Mr. Atkinson. It was secured from the territorial legislature by J. Q. Thornton, who had been added to the board within the year to take the place of one of the original members who had removed. This charter was secured in 1849 and was the first charter to be granted by the civil government of Oregon, A copy may be seen in the Oregon archives. A study of this early charter is the best means of securing a knowledge of the purposes of the founders. The distinctly religious character of the school may be seen in the provisions requiring the Bible to be used as a text-book, with provision for morning and evening prayers, and in the provision requiring the trustees to be subscribers to the Westminster creed, a requirement that was soon changed to read "evangelical religion." The form of administration is seen in the provision for the creation of a board of trustees, which should be self-perpetuating, and an agent, who should have the direct management of the affairs of the school. The property of the school was limited to three hundred and twenty acres of land and a capital stock of $40,000. The ultimate purpose and hope is seen in the provision making it possible for a collegiate department to be established whenever it