Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/141

135 ORIGIN OF PACIFIC UNIVERSITY. 135 time a selection of the more recent books needed in the different departments. Previous to the year 1863 there were no graduates. Several had entered the college, but had dropped out for various reasons. In 1863 the college had its first graduate in the person of Harvey W. Scott, the son of a settler living in the vicinity of Forest Grove. Mr. Scott had been a good student and while yet pursuing his studies had been intrusted with work in the academy. He took the classical course and received the degree of A. B. There was no regular commencement exercise at the time, but his oration was delivered in public. This event marks, perhaps, one of the triumphs in the administration of Doctor Marsh. It had now been demonstrated that a four-year course of study could be maintained. If one student could be graduated others were sure to follow. The next class to graduate, in 1866, consisted of three. Regular commencement exercises were held and every year since there has been a class with appropriate exer- cises. The largest class that President Marsh was privi- leged to see finish the course was the class of 1878, which numbered ten. The class of 1867 contained the first to take the scientific course, Dr. Dav Raffety, now of Portland. The first woman to graduate was Miss Harriet Hoover, wife of the late Benton Killen of Portland. After the graduation of the first student an alumni as- sociation was established for the purpose of strengthening the fraternal bonds between the educated men in the Northwest, to preserve the purity of aim that characterized the college life, and to give college graduates living in this region the privilege of a college association. This organization was open to all college graduates living in Oregon and Washington. The plan was well conceived because it brought to the support of the college that sympathetic indorsement of men from many of the col-