Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/373

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In the field of religious denominational schools the Catholics were not to be outdone by other denominations, and also established a school at Oregon City which met with some degree of success during its operation. This school was the Young Ladies Academy, established in 1848, and incorporated February 1, 1851, by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. The early history of this school is quite hazy and is intermingled with the educational project of the same sisters at Saint Paul, Oregon.

Six sisters left Brest, Belgium, on February 22, 1848, and arrived at Oregon City some six or seven months later. At Oregon City, Dr. McLoughlin offered to give them a lot for settlement but for the time being they continued to Saint Paul and then returned to Oregon City on September 12, 1848. Since their convent was not yet completed they occupied four rooms in the rectory which were used as living quarters as well as school rooms. The school was opened on September 15, of that year but statistics of the early school are not available.

The hardships connected with opening the school were many and the resources with which to work were few. In addition to carrying on their classroom duties, the sisters also did all in their power to hasten the completion of their new convent by lending their own manual labor both before and after school hours.

The school began as boarding school but owing to the congestion in their small quarters the beds and bedding of the lodgers had to be carried outside during the day so that the rooms could be used for school purposes. Later a house was secured a short distance from their school and some classes were conducted there.

In 1849, their convent was completed and the sisters took possession on June 9. The building was a two and half story structure, seventy by thirty feet, built on a lot donated by Dr. McLoughlin. The school was made up of some fifteen or twenty