Upon his arrival with his family at Oregon City late in November, Ezra Fisher learned that the intended site was not vacant. While awaiting developments, he opened a school in the little meeting house[1] which Hezekiah Johnson had built in Oregon City the year before, and where his niece, Miss Mary Johnson,[2] had taught for a few months immediately after its completion.
It was finally thought best to locate the college in Oregon City, the opportunity of purchasing a claim adjoining the townsite of Oregon City, the success of Ezra Fisher's school, and the desirability of Oregon City as a place of location, doubtless being the chief reasons which led to this decision. The claim was purchased for five thousand dollars by Hezekiah Johnson, J. R. Robb, Joseph Jeffers and Ezra Fisher, the latter giving twelve hundred and fifty dollars, most of it being what he had dug from the California gold mines. About fifty acres, half a mile back from the town, and so located as to command an unsurpassed view of the Willamette River and the Cascade mountains, when once it should be cleared of timber, were donated for college purposes.
To obtain title, Ezra Fisher moved his family to the claim the first of December, 1850. There they built a home and lived until the close of 1855. Upon receiving patent from the government, he deeded to each of the other men their portion of the land according to the agreement. Ezra Fisher taught in Oregon City for about two years and was at the same time pastor of the Baptist church of that place, that Hezekiah Johnson might give his time to the general field. Portland, Milwaukie and other nearby places, he supplied with occasional preaching.
In November, 1851, the Home Mission Society appointed him Exploring Agent for Oregon, this action meeting with the hearty endorsement of the Willamette Association. In this capacity he labored until 1856. As Exploring Agent, he travelled on foot up and down the Willamette Valley many
