Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 7.pdf/153

Rh schoolhouse. It was immediately resolved to make an effort to secure the location of the university at Eugene. It was determined by the meeting to make an offer to the legislature of $50,000, or to procure a site and erect thereon a building suitable for university purposes worth the sum of $50,000, and deed the same to the State of Oregon. In order to handle this matter it was thought best to form a corporation, and a committee, consisting of J. M. Thompson, J. J. Walton, and Ben F. Dorris, was appointed to prepare and submit articles of incorporation. The committee prepared a form of corporation and named it the "Union University Association," with a capital stock of $50,000. The articles of incorporation were approved and adopted and the names of the incorporators are as follows: J. M. Thompson, J. J. Walton, W. J. J. Scott, B. F. Dorris, J. G. Gray, J. B. Underwood, J. J. Comstock, A. S. Patterson, S. H. Spencer, E. L. Bristow, E. L. Applegate, A. W. Patterson.

The articles of incorporation were signed and acknowledged on the 30th day of August, 1872, before O. W. Fitch, notary public. The legislature met in September, 1872, and it was necessary to have a bill prepared to present to the legislature to create the University of Oregon, and locate the same. The matter of preparing a bill in proper form was discussed by the incorporation, and it was determined to refer the same to Judge Mathew P. Deady, United States District Judge for Oregon, and then acting as code commissioner, appointed by the Legislature to codify the laws of Oregon. After some correspondence and interviews with a committee of the incorporation Judge Deady consented to prepare a draft of a bill with provisions suggested by the incorporators.

At that time it was thought proper and right by the members of the Union University Association, that inasmuch as the citizens of Eugene and Lane County were