Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 37.djvu/369

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Oregon City Private Schools, 1843–59
321

additional charge will be made for lessons in vocal music. Half a dollar will be added to each scholar for fuel. No pupil will be admitted for less than one half a quarter. A pair of thirteen inch globes and new set of philosophical apparatus including an air pump, galvanic battery, etc., have just been received and will contribute to facilitate the study of Geography, Natural Philosophy, etc.

By order of the trustees,

Ezra Fisher

Although the school prospered somewhat under the direction of Chandler and Read it did not develop to the point where it could adequately support both men. Consequently, both men became dissatisfied and sought other fields, and at the end of the third quarter, Read left the college to do Baptist missionary work in southern Oregon. Chandler finished out the year and then took up a land claim a short distance from Oregon City.

The departure of Chandler and Read again left the school without a teacher. As it was a long and tedious process to secure competent Baptist teachers from the east, the trustees engaged such teachers as were available. These teachers were not very satisfactory for Fisher says,[1] "the last two quarters have been in the hands of men interested in making a living for themselves, who went into the school until they could find a more lucrative employment. The school has not numbered more than fifteen and in the most prosperous condition eighteen scholars. The second man, a graduate from Brown's University, left the school in the middle of the term. We now have put the school in the hands of Professor Shattuck, the principal of the Female Seminary of this place." Although Shattuck undoubtedly was a competent teacher he was not the man for this school as he was not a Baptist and did not fit into the Baptist scheme. Again Fisher made numerous appeals for a competent Baptist teacher and preacher.

The next man assigned to take charge of the Oregon City College was the Reverend J. D. Post,[2] a very able teacher, who arrived in Oregon City early in 1854. He was well liked and immediately the school prospered and soon the enrollment again reached forty pupils. The building of the school house on


  1. Fisher, Correspondence, 387.
  2. Post was school superintendent of Clackamas County, 1856-60.