Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 6.djvu/139

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133
F. G. Young.
133

ORIGIN OF PACIFIC UNIVERSITY. 133 ing in connection with academies in New England. His connection with the college has been continuous since that time. For a period of about a year Levi C. Walker, an alumnus of the college, served as instructor of Mathe- matics. In 1882 William D. Lyman was employed as in- structor in English and History. He was a son of the Professor Lyman and upon the death of the latter suc- ceeded to his chair. He was the first alumnus of the col- lege to hold a chair in the college. He remained until his resignation to accept a similar position in connection with Whitman College. In the earlier times the scientific equipment was meager indeed. It has been said that it began with a spy-glass to view the stars and a galvanic battery which Professor Ly- man owned and used as a curative for rheumatism. Small appropriations were made later for equipment and mate- rials and laboratories were started. The development of a library was one of the special ob- jects of President Marsh's effort. Already a start had been made before his arrival in Oregon. The first book secured for the library so far as the records show was a " History of Harvard College," given in 1851 by Rev. S. C. Damon of the Sandwich Islands, a friend of Mr. Eells and interested in the establishment of a school through a visit to the Tualatin Plain. To one looking back there seems to be a peculiar fitness that this history of a pioneer col- lege of Atlantic Coast should become the first book in the library of a pioneer college of the Pacific Coast. Hon. S. Thurston, delegate from the Oregon Territory to Congress, interested himself in the college, secured many publica- tions from the government, and placed the institution in line to receive many more. Subsequent representatives in Congress have aided in the acquisition of books, and an alumnus of the college, Hon. Thomas H. Tongue, when member of the House of Representatives, had the institu-