Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/127

121 ORIGIN OF PACIFIC UNIVERSITY. 121 For a year the principalship was held by Rev. D. R. Williams, a Congregational minister, who had recently come to Oregon from Massachusetts. He resigned to ac- cept the pastorate of the Congregational Church at Salem and soon returned to the East, where he died the same year. The next principal was Mr. J. M. Keeler, who served until 1855. Mr. Keeler was later identified with the introduction of the public school system into Oregon and served as a teacher in Portland. He gradually drifted into other occupations and at the time of the civil war was United States marshal in Oregon. Although the resources of the academy were meager the sexes were taught separately in different buildings and by different teachers. As teachers for the girls are to be found the names of Miss Mary Johnson, Miss Sarah Brawley, and Mrs. Eells. In 1851 Miss Elizabeth Miller, now Mrs. E. M. Wilson of The Dalles, served for the period of one year. From her youth Miss Miller had cherished a romantic interest in Oregon. The journal of Patrick Gass had come into the possession of her father and had so aroused his interest that he had eagerly sought for his library everything that was published on the subject. From the shelves of the library they came into the hands of the daughter who was thus made ready to go out as one of the teachers sent by Governor Slade of Vermont, an enthusiast in the cause of education for the growing West. Mrs. Wilson is the oldest living teacher of the institution, and at various times has visited the institution with whose earlier history she was connected. At one of the annual meetings of the Oregon Historical Society she read a paper embodying some of her recollections of the journey to Oregon and of her experiences on arriving. A paper read before the Alumni Association of Pacific University at a recent commencement exercise gave more fully her recol- lections of the early days in Tualatin Academy.