dists and Congregationalists, but the charter specifically stated that the school was to be undenominational and no one religious sect was ever to have complcte control.
Dr. Atkinson, who was chosen secretary of the board of trustees, assumed the responsibility of soliciting and collecting the subscriptions for the financing of the building. Especially interested in this enterprise was George Abernethy, provisional governor of Oregon, who donated the first thousand dollars and later added $500 more to the subscriptions. In all the cash subscriptions amounted to $4,000. Dr. John McLoughlin donated the block[1] of land on which the seminary was built. A Mr. Morrison, an architect, donated the drawing and plan of the building which was a two-story structure, thirty by sixty feet, with arrangements for family living quarters and boarding school.
The contract for the building was finally let to Welch and Hanna for $11,000. In order to meet the obligations of building and furnishing the school, George Abernethy loaned[2] on June 12, 1850, to the board of trustees, $6,000, due June 12, 1856. If the loan was not repaid at that time, Abernethy was to get complete control of the property and building. The building of the seminary was very expensive: lumber at that time cost $55 a thousand, and carpenters received from ten to twelve dollars a day. After spending $10,000 the building was finally left incomplete in May, 1851.
Although the building was not completed, plans were made to open the school. In order to have a high type of instruction, Atkinson carried on a correspondence with Governor Slade of Vermont for teachers for the seminary. Governor Slade at that time was superintendent of the Society for Promoting Popular Education in the West, and had sent over two hundred[3] young ladies as teachers to new states and territories of the west and southwest. After some difficulties, five young ladies were sent to Oregon, two of whom, Miss Lincoln of Maine, and Miss Smith
