Page:All Over Oregon and Washington.djvu/373

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
SCHOOLS.
367

payment of one-third down, and the balance in two yearly payments, with interest, at ten per cent., on the notes, payable half yearly. They are valued at from $1.25 to $5.00 per acre, according to their quality and location. There will be other School lands coming into market when the surveys of now unsurveyed portions of the State are completed. The present School Fund amounts to $250,000, bringing in an annual interest of $25,000, to be divided among the several counties.

Besides the common schools supported out of this fund, and by taxation, there are eighteen other institutions of learning in Oregon, supported by tuition fees and endowments. Two of these are universities, several of them colleges, and the remainder academies and seminaries of various grades. St. Helen's Hall for young ladies, and the Bishop Scott Grammar-school for boys, are the two prominent seminaries in the city of Portland, after which the Portland Academy ranks next. All are well attended. St. Helen's Hall has an attendance of 179 young ladies, and the Bishop Scott Grammar-school numbers eighty-three pupils. The academy is not so flourishing as formerly, but still has a good many pupils of both sexes. Besides these, the three public -school buildings are well filled, and private schools find support.

Pacific University, at Forest Grove, with an endowment of $50,000, has in its academic and collegiate course about ninety pupils. Wallamet University, at Salem, also with $50,000 endowment, numbers a good many scholars, and has a medical department in a prosperous condition. Philomath College, near Corvallis, has an attendance of seventy scholars, and is favorably known. The Agricultural College is also