Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/91



METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 81

sessions, in the fall of 1844. Mrs. Chloe A. Clark Willson was the teacher.

The following advertisement appeared in the "Spectator"

August 10, 1846. " And as one ostensible object of

the Oregon Institute is to promote piety and morality as an essential in the forming of the character of the young for eminence and usefulness, every possible attention will be bestowed upon the manners, morals, and habits of all con- nected with the school. David Leslie, Chairman of Board of Trustees." It went on to say that this could be done for $24 a year.

Mrs. Willson continued to teach (except that Jas. H. Wilbur had charge 1847-48) the school till 1850 when Rev. F. S. Hoyt took control and remained principal and president till 1860. Nehemiah Doane taught the school in 1850 till the arrival of Hoyt. The Donation Land Law of Sept. 27, 1850 had a bad effect on the school attendance. 20 . Any married man could get 320 additional acres of land for his wife. The result was that there were numerous cases of love at first sight and few "young ladies" over 15 were left in school.

On Jan. 12, 1853, the Territorial Legislature passed an act incorporating Willamette University. This was not the first educational institution incorporated in Oregon, but it was the first one designed for higher education. Tualatin Academy and two Catholic schools were chartered before this. The preamble of the act is as follows :

"Whereas the happiness and prosperity of every community (under the direction and government of Divine Providence) depend in an eminent degree on the right education of the youth who must succeed the aged in the important offices of society; and the principles of virtue and elements of liberal knowledge fostered and imparted in the higher institutions of learning tend to develop a people in those qualifications most

20 There is more or less confusion in all the secondary sources as to the date of this law. There was provision for survey made in the Organic Law of 1848, and a Donation land law was discussed in Congress, but was not passed till 1850, according to the Territorial Laws of Oregon printed by Ashel Bush, Salem (now in U. of O. vaults). Of course, the tales of such a law in 1848, and the expected passage of it, had the same effect as if the law had actually passed, because the squatter" had priority rights on the claimj of his choice. So the schools were deserted and many short notice marriages occurred.