Page:Portland, Oregon, its History and Builders volume 1.djvu/951

Rh association and board of trustees, and gave the first donation of $100 for Tualatin Academy and Pacific University at Forest Grove. Deacon Hatch, a trustee, moved over there for a while as its agent, and helped erect the first hewed log building of the institution, and on horseback Dr. Atkinson rode back and forth from Oregon City to Forest Grove, summer and winter, looking after the school he had helped to found.

Across the Willamette at his Robin's Nest, Robert Moore had organized a Reformed Presbyterian church with Wilson Blain as pastor; early in 1849 the name of Dr. Atkinson's church was changed to "The First Congregational Church of Oregon City." A lot had been given by Dr. McLoughlin for a church, but being considered too far up the hill to be available, another one was purchased and a church was built at a cost of $3,900. In August, 1850, Rev. J. H. Wilbur of the Methodist church, Rev. Hezekiah Johnson of the Baptist church, and Rev. St. Michael Fackler of the Episcopal church assisted in the dedication!

Early in 1849, shortly after Gen. Joseph Lane arrived with a commission as governor. Dr. Atkinson consulted with ex-Governor Abernethy, George H. Curry, and other citizens, upon forming a school district and establishing a system of free public schools. A meeting was called and the subject discussed. Governor Lane's first message to the legislature recommended the establishment of free public schools, and Dr. Atkinson was appointed the first school commissioner to district the county and encourage the establishment of schools.

As free graded schools were deemed too expensive for Oregon City at the time, Dr. Atkinson suggested a female seminary, and collected subscriptions for it to the amount of $4,000, of which amount he himself gave $1,500. Dr. McLoughlin gave the block of land on which the seminary was built, now the Barclay school—Dr. Barclay in his own person was the first school board—and a seminary was erected at a cost of ten thousand dollars. Dr. Atkinson sent to Governor Slade of Vermont for. teachers, and five ladies arrived in 1851, two of whom. Miss Lincoln of Portland, Maine', and Miss Smith of New York, were employed by Dr. Barclay at once to open the school. The next year the teachers having married. Dr. Atkinson was permitted to go east for ten months to secure teachers and funds for this seminary and Tualatin academy. With the new teachers, Professor E. D. Shattuck and wife, the seminary attained a high standing. In 1861 Dr. Atkinson was invited by the city school board to take charge of the seminary which had become a free graded school. He took it for one year with Mrs. Atkinson and Mr. Randall as assistants, established the grades and continued preaching as usual. In a sketch of this period Dr. Atkinson says school teaching for six terms aided him in getting free from debt for the first time in fifteen years.

In 1865 Dr. Stephen D. Pope took charge of the school, graduating the first class, six girls, in 1870. "The proudest day of my life," said Dr. Barclay, as he signed their diplomas both as mayor and school commissioner. Professor Pope afterward went to Victoria, B. C., where he was superintendent of public schools for many years. Oregon City now has half a dozen handsome school buildings, the Barclay, the Eastham named for State Senator E. L. Eastham, and built on another block donated by Dr. McLoughlin, a new $40,000 high school in process of erection, besides new graded school buildings in the suburbs at Park Place, Gladstone, Bolton, Canemah, Mt. Pleasant and West Oregon City. In 1885 the Catholic St. John's parochial school was opened by Rev. James Rauw, succeeded by Rev. A. Hillebrand in 1888, who has developed it into McLoughlin institute, a handsome structure on Main street, dedicated October 4, 1907.

The pioneer of the Episcopal church in Oregon was Rev. St. Michael Fackler, who in 1847 found a few members of his denomination in Oregon City, and held occasional services in the house of Archibald McKinlay, a retired clerk of the Hudson's Bay Company and son-in-law of Peter Skeen Ogden. In 1852 Rev. James A. Woodward held Episcopal services in the Congregational church