Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/15



PACIFIC UNIVERSITY 5

Northwest. In 1865 he was sent East by the state in the in- terest of prison reform. With Lt. Symonds of the U. S. Corps of Engineers, he wrote the article on Oregon for the Encyclo- pedia Britannica, ninth edition.

He dedicated the first Congregational Church building in the North-west at Oregon City, August 18, 1859, and later he organized the First Congregational Church of Portland. But Dr. Atkinson, like a true son of New England, brought with him to this new land an ambition and a well-defined purpose to plant schools as well as churches here.

It is on record that before leaving for his distant field of labor he made a visit to New York for final instructions and while there was introduced to Rev. Theron Baldwin, secre- tary of the American College and Education Society, then newly organized to establish and aid new colleges. He said to Dr. Atkinson:

"You are going to Oregon ; build an academy there that shall grow into a college, as we built Illinois College." Learn- ing soon after his arrival of the orphan school at West Tual- atin, he rode over from Oregon City and visited Mr. Clark in his log house. The men found they had a common purpose and ideal and at once combined their efforts to attain their purpose.

They called together an association of ministers at Oregon City on September 21 ? 1848, at which time it was resolved to establish an academy at Forest Grove. One year later, Sep- tember 29, 1849, Tualatin Academy was incorporated by the Territorial Legislature.

Mr. Clark was the first president of the board of trustees and continued to hold the position till the time of his death. Mrs. Brown's orphans were taken over by the new school, but for a 1 number of years she kept a boarding house for the students, the price of board being $2.00 a week. In 1854, in a letter to a friend, Mrs. Brown, then in her 75th year, said :