Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/11



XXI

Time is a relative quantity and the age of an institution or a nation is a matter of comparison. The Rocky Mountain range seems hoary indeed as compared with the generations of men who have lived in the Willamette Valley; and yet geologists tell us that this mountain barrier belongs to the most recent geologic time as compared with the countless aeons since first the Appalachian range lifted its head.

We are all young here in Oregon. Contrast the brief existence of our educational institutions with such a foundation as Harvard, nearly ready to celebrate her tercentenary; and yet Harvard is young compared with the University of Paris with its nearly 800 years of continuous history.

So, while it is my pleasing task to narrate some of the facts concerning one of the oldest educational institutions west of the Mississippi River preceded indeed, only by the splendid foundation laid by Rev. Jason Lee at Chemeketa, I realize that every work of man here is recent and immature by comparison.

Harvard was founded in 1636, Yale in 1701, and many a college in the East and Middle West has celebrated its hundredth anniversary. Oregon's Provisional Government was