Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 25.djvu/124

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Charles E. Lewis

of the domestic department. But when this was done, many who had intended going to the school had entered upon their studies elsewhere, so that the number of boarders at the school was exceedingly small. Mr. Hodgkinson resigned in March and the year was completed by Mr. John W. Sellwood. Mr. Hodgkinson had been secured from the East and had evidently misunderstood the nature of the school.

The next year, 1862-63, the Rev. St. M. Fackler, who had been in the diocese since its organization, took over the school, but his report indicates that he did not get along well with the boys and he resigned at the end of the year. His report shows that there were 13 day and 10 boarding pupils the first quarter, and that, "one boarder, being refused to stay in Portland over night, went home at the end of one week, and three others were sent home for disobedience involving gross misconduct."[1] The second quarter there were only six boarders and six day pupils, and by the end of the year only five students were left in the school.

The following year, Mr. Cornelius, who had been at Eugene City at least part of the intervening time, returned to the principalship and remained the next two years, resigning again in 1865. Efforts were then made to secure another principal but they proved unsuccessful. The school was never reopened and the property was disposed of in February, 1866.

When the school was first organized, its management was vested in a committee of three with the Bishop' as chairman. In 1857 application for incorporation was made to the State Legislature. A charter-was granted by that body which, however, "limited the income and property of the institution, and reserved to the Legislature the power at any time to alter, amend, or repeal the charter, when the interest of the school or the public good may require it." These provisions were unsatisfactory to the convo-


  1. The reason given for his resignation, however, was poor health.