322 REVEREND EZRA FISHER
or myself. Give us at least a male and female teacher be- fore next spring, and a good, young minister for Astoria and vicinity; a man adapted to rise with the people and mold the mind of the people, both morally and religiously. This seems to me indispensable, if you will have the Baptist interest take deep root at the great commercial point in Oregon. 21 * Yours with great respect.
EZRA FISHER. Received Sept. 6, 1850.
Oregon City, Oregon Ten, Sept. 20, 1850. Rev. Benj. M. Hill. Dear Brother:
After a long delay I take my pen to write you a kind of a general epistle, a part of which must be virtually a re- capitulation of some of my former letters. By Divine bless- ing my family and Brother Johnson's are all in tolerable health. I commenced the fall quarter of our school last Monday. We have now fifty suholars; probably we shall have an increase next week. My daughter still assists and we are yet compelled to have all the school in one room. The work on our school building progresses as fast as we could expect, in view of the present state of things in our country. We have the frame now erected, forty-two feet by twenty-two; two stories of ten and eleven feet, and a base- ment of wood eight feet in the clear. We shall be able in a few days to pay for the timber and work as far as we have gone, which will be about $2000. Our financial affairs will then stand somewhat as follows: $3000 on subscriptions in cash and building materials, town property as subscribed $6700, which we estimate worth about $2000 or $2500. 216 It would seem by a glance at our subscription list that there
215 The reason why the commercial metropolis of Oregon rose at Portland instead of Astoria is probably because of the long haul from Astoria to the more thickly settled parts of Oregon. It was cheaper to bring ocean ships to the head of navigation, Portland, than to make the longer haul overland to Astoria.
216 The school building completed at so much sacrifice was not used as such for more than a few years after the period covered by these letters. It was finally torn down in the seventies. The proceeds of such property of the school as could b sold were given to McMinnville College. Mattoon. Bap. An. of Ore. 1:37.
