Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 17.djvu/486

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478 REVEREND EZRA FISHER

labors performed than Brother C. could do in connection with the school and that it was very desirable that we should have the undivided labors of a minister in this place and vicinity, if we hoped to secure our proportion of influence as a denomination in the place where our school was located. How much this consideration influenced Br. Chandler to leave the work of teaching, I cannot say. Probably some- what. It was Br. Chandler's decision that it was his duty to leave the department of teaching, and not that of the Trustees. If he erred, it was an error of judgment, not of design.

Br. Read was appointed by your Board, I understand, at Br. Chandler's request, to be associated with him in tiK school; I am quite sure it was not at the request of the Trustees of the College. But as you had appointed him and made the outfit, we regarded it our duty to remove all the obstacles we could and render every facility to their use- fulness as teachers and preachers we could. But I never ad- mired the economy or utility of that part of the arrange- ment. However, before the close of the second quarter, Brother Read signified to the Trustees his determination to leave the school at the expiration of the year, or as soon as he could be spared from the school, with a strong conviction that it was his duty to devote his labors exclusively to the ministry of the Word. I have no doubt the Trustees would have given him the school when they found Br. Chandler must leave, but he could not for a moment entertain the thought of teaching and we had no control of his convic- tions of duty. He left the school by mutual consent at the close of the third quarter.

It is true the school did not give an entire support for two men, yet I think, if Br. Chandler's health would have al- lowed him to teach five days in the week and preach occa- sionally on Saturday and regularly on Sabbath, that the in- come of the school, $200 from your Board and $100 from the church would have given him a comfortable living. You ask what the school is worth per year. The school last