Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 16.djvu/89

Rh confusion and excitement there was little hope of accomplishing much in Oregon, and he lacked the means to devote himself to missionary effort in California. The loss of his supplies from New York for that year in the wreck of the. bark Undine off Cape Horn and the absolute necessity of devising some method by which to provide for the needs of his family induced him to go to the mines. This he did, hoping, at the same time, that he might be of more service by going than by remaining at home.

In San Francisco he met and preached for Rev. O. D. Wheeler, whom the American Baptist Home Mission Society had sent to California in 1848. He was in the mines about eight weeks and took out about one thousand dollars' worth of gold, most of which, upon his return, went toward the purchase of a claim to furnish a site for a Baptist college. If any one should think him mercenary, let him read his letters of '49 and that of Jan. 20, 1853.

Arriving home on August 23, he set out on the twenty-ninth for the Willamette Valley. At the call of several representative Baptists of the Valley, a meeting was held at Oregon City, Sept. 21, 1849, to consider the question of establishing "a permanent school under the direction and fostering care of the Baptist churches in Oregon," and on the following day was organized the Oregon Baptist Education Society. The attendance being small, it was voted to adjourn and meet with the church in Yamhill County on Sept. 27.

At the Yamhill gathering, every church except one, that of Molalla, was represented. A site for the institution was agreed upon, a Board of Trustees appointed, and to Rev. Richard Cheadle was assigned the task of raising two thousand dollars for building and other expenses. Ezra Fisher was placed in charge of the institution and was requested to move to the place as soon as practicable, and put a school in operation. The chosen location was on the "east bank of the Willamette about eight miles above the mouth of the Calapooia river."