Page:The History of Oregon Bancroft 1888.djvu/185

Rh The legislature provided for taking the census in order to apportion representatives, and authorized the county commissioners to locate the election districts; and to act as school commissioners to establish common schools. A board of three commissioners, Harrison Linnville, Sidney Ford, and Jesse Applegate, was appointed to select and locate two townships of land to aid in the establishment of a university, according to the provisions of the act of congress of September 27, 1850.

An act was passed, of which Waymire was the author, accepting the Oregon City claim according to the act of donation, and also creating the office of commissioner to control and sell the lands donated by congress for the endowment of a university; but it became of no effect through the failure of the assembly to appoint such an officer. Deady was the author of an act exempting the wife's half of a donation claim from liability for the debts of the husband, which was passed, and which has saved the homesteads of many families from sheriff's sale.

Among the local laws were two incorporating the Oregon academy at Lafayette, and the first Methodist church at Salem. In order to defeat the federal