Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/101

This page needs to be proofread.

METHODIST EDUCATIONAL EFFORT IN OREGON TO 1860 91

languished for a few years, and disappeared, but there were five of them in a sound and prosperous condition in 1860, Willamette, Portland Academy, Santiam Academy, Oregon City Seminary and Umpqua Academy. Many more were to come into existence and die out before the Methodist Church finally reached its educational angle of repose.

Short sighted and mistaken as its educational policy often has been, no one can deny that the Methodist Church has been one of the very greatest contributing forces in the educational development of Oregon; no one ever will be able accurately to appraise or measure what that influence has been, but all fair minded people must recognize it as very great and en- during.

If a complete appreciation were to be attempted, the roll would be too long to call, but the names of four men stand out pre-eminently above all others in the Methodist educational history of Oregon, James H. Wilbur, Alvan F. Waller, Francis S. Hoyt, and greatest of all, that farseeing statesman, colonizer, missionary, and champion of education, Jason Lee.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following bibliography does not purport to be a com- plete list of all the material which has a direct or indirect bearing on the subject under discussion in the article below. It comprises only such sources as were actually consulted in the preparation of this paper. It should be noted that there is thus far no satisfactory history of education in Oregon. There is not even a history of the educational activities of any single religious denomination. The purpose of this paper is a modest attempt to set forth the facts of the early educational efforts of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Oregon. There has been some effort to interpret the motives of the church and the leaders of its program, together with a little reference to the work of other denominations. However, the principal emphasis has been placed upon the facts as they actually oc-