Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/84



74 READ BAIN

was opened or shut. The proverbial latch-string was made of Indian-tanned buck skin, which, like the latch-strings of all pioneer cabins of that time, hung on the outside as a constant reminder for folks to enter and make themselves at home.

"Desks and seats were made of split stuff, rude in con- struction. They were without backs, unless the walls of the cabin, around which they were arranged, could be called backs.

"Twenty-five pupils attended this school, some of them walking three miles or more, the distance my sister and I had to go twice a day. The road, or rather trail, ran through the dense timber the whole way. Indians and wild beasts passed across and along it daily.

"The text books used were "Webster's Elementary Spelling Book," "McGuffey's Readers," "Smith's Arithmetic," and "Grammar." Those composing the first spelling class had to go through the book without missing a word, a feat not often equaled in these days of graded schools and 'improved' methods."

The following interview with Peter R. Burnett also con- tains a pertinent criticism of modern educational methods.

Mr. Burnett came to Oregon in 1846 when he was four years old. His father settled near Monmouth where young Burnett grew to manhood.

Two years after coming to Oregon, he started to school (1848) in the little rough board school house at Bethel, now called Spring Valley, about fifteen miles south of Monmouth. This school was conducted by T. R. Harrison, "a remark- able man ; he used to make every scholar stand up and read aloud : and it would be a good thing if everyone had to do it yet. I hear some most abominable readers these days. Of course, I may be an old fogey on this subject."

Along about 1854, the people of Bethel began to get am- bitious for "higher education." So G. O. Burnett and Amos Harvey each gave 100 acres of fertile land as an endowment for Bethel Academy. This institution opened its doors, or