Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/324



316 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

Territory will have entered into a systematic arrangement of their own to sustain preaching part of the time. Yet we have serious drawbacks upon our spiritual prospects by means of the gold excitement. Some of our leading members and many of the men, especially our young men, are off in the mines much of the time, and the mind dwells on the thought of golden treasures at the expense of all the great moral and religious subjects which are indispensable to a happy and re- ligious influence. Our citizens are now mining successfully in Oregon on the Umpqua and Rogue rivers and gold is found above the Cascade Mountains on both sides of the Co- lumbia River 209 and it is the opinion of those who have visited that region as prospectors that it will also become a mining region this fall.

Our school is quite as flourishing as could be expected in the midst of all these exciting causes. Several of the young men have gone to the gold regions and one or more will leave soon. Yet my average number of scholars, large and small, is about 56 the present quarter. I have had 75 different scholars since the term commenced, which was on the 27th of May. The school calls for all my energies during the week. My oldest daughter is almost constantly employed in teaching with me. In addition to teaching, for the last eight weeks I have spent about one hour each day soliciting sub- scriptions for our school building. We shall build the first building in the city, on account of obtaining scholars, but think we shall be able in two or three years (perhaps sooner) to take the department for young men to the college prem- ises. We have resolved as a Board to build a house 22 feet by 42, two stories, so as to accommodate the school with two good school rooms in one story and appropriate the other story to a lecture room, 22 by 32, and a room of 10 feet by 22 for a library, philosophical apparatus or reading room, as the case may demand. We have now subscribed $3332 in cash and what is called $6500 in Pacific City property. The

209 This gold was found on bars just above the Cascades of the Columbia. George H. Himes.