Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 19.djvu/17

UMPQUA ACADEMY 7 and accepted it with fixed purpose to do their part. For the furtherance of the plan he showed the necessity of a suitable building properly furnished and offered as a gift, from his own claim, land upon which to locate it. He had won the con- fidence of all and they generously responded to his solicita- tions. It was difficult of course to accomplish such an under- taking but the well-founded belief that it was not insurmount- able was sufficient for the man of the hour. What if some men of less heroic mould should have been the leader of the enterprise? Or suppose Wilbur had not been rescued when he fell overboard from the ship as he did on his western trip ! He was discovered far to the rear, a mere speck on the ocean wave, and when picked up by the sailors he said in reply to an inquiry: "I knew help would come and I kept in motion so I would not sink." This Umpqua Mission was a dry land job; just how dry we cannot now tell, but it is evident that our hero kept in motion and help came. Nevertheless, the destiny of many a young man and woman then living in the Umpqua Region and of others yet to be, was in the balance during the years intervening between the date of Wilbur's assignment to the mission work in 1855 and 1857, the date of chartering the Academy and of occupying the first substantial building. How splendid that no sad words of "might have been" are strewn along Father Wilbur's pathway! Let us not forget, however, that the settlers were poor and they were seekers of wealth rather than possessors of it. They were home build- ers and the fathers and mothers of boys and girls. The home and the children were to become their riches. Money and other things of value were contributed; willing hands and strong arms were mighty adjuncts for they felled the trees, hauled the logs, sawed them into lumber and fashioned it into a building. Father Wilbur in his work was day laborer and architect. He chopped, sawed, drove ox-team and worked in the mill six days and the seventh met the men with whom he had worked and others at the house of worship. The first academy building was well proportioned, substan-