Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/16



6 HENRY L. BATES

"In 1851 I had 40 in my family at $2.50 a week and I mixed with my own hands 3423 Ibs. of flour in less than five months.

200 acres of Mr. Clark's donation land claim were given as a basis of the endowment for the new school and later 150 acres more were given to secure adequate instructors.

About one-half of the present beautiful campus of 30 acres was the gift of Mr. Clark. Others contributed generously of their scanty means and their labor none to so great an extent as Mr. and Mrs. Clark. His interest in education was broader than his denominational choice. He was a warm friend and supporter of the Methodist school organized in 1842 and he taught for a year in the Mission School at Champoeg.

For 40 years or until his death in 1889, Dr. Atkinson was secretary of the board of trustees of the Academy and College and was seldom absent from its meetings.

Doubtless the greatest single service which he performed for the struggling enterprise was the securing the man who was the first president. For several years after the founding of the Academy there were no permanent teachers and no established curriculum.

Faithful work was done in the log church by such men as dishing Eells and J. M. Keeler, but still the vision of Mr. Clark seemed far from fulfillment.

So Dr. Atkinson went East by way of the Isthmus no easy journey in those days. He gained the support of the American College and Education Society, which endorsed the college and pledged the interest on $10,000 for the support of its first president. Best of all, however, and more significant for the future development of the school, he persuaded Rev. Sidney Harper Marsh to leave his New England home and become the head of the school at Tualatin Plains and develop it into a college.

Mr. Marsh was a young man of 28, descended from a line of educators. His father was President James Marsh of the