more perfectly graded than elsewhere, the cost per year for each pupil has been about twenty-one dollars. The total value of public school property in the state in 1877–8 was nearly half a million dollars, comprising 752 schoolhouses and their furniture. The lowest average monthly salary in any county was thirty-five dollars, and the highest seventy-one. Biennial Rept Supt Pub. Instruc. Or., 1878, 26. The course of study in the common schools, which is divided into seven grades, preparatory to the high-school course, is more fully exemplified in Portland than elsewhere. The whole city is comprised in one district, with buildings at convenient distances and of ample size. The Central school was first opened in May 1858. It was built on a block of laud between Morrison and Yamhill and Sixth and Seventh streets, for which in 1856 f 1,000 was paid, and a wing of the main building erected, costing $3,000, the money being raised by taxation, according to the school law. The following year another $4,000 was raised and applied to the completion of the building; 111 pupils were present at the opening, the principal being L. L. Terwilliger, assisted by O. Connelly and Mrs Hensill. In 1872–3 the original structure was moved and added to, making a new and commodious house at a cost of over $30,000. In 1883, the block on which it stood being needed for a hotel, the building was moved to a temporary resting-place on the next block north. The second school building was erected in 1865, at the corner of Sixth and Harrison streets, eleven blocks south of the Central, at a cost of about ten thousand dollars. It was twice enlarged, in 1871 and 1877, at a total cost of nearly $21,000. The Harrison-Street school was opened in January 1866 by R. K. Warren, principal, assisted by Misses Tower, Stephens, and Kelly. In May 1879 it was nearly all destroyed by fire, but was rebuilt the same year at a cost of $18,000, and reopened in February 1880. The third school building erected in the district was called the North School, and was located between Tenth and Eleventh and C and D streets, in Couch's Addition. It was built in 1867, the block and house costing over seventeen thousand dollars. Two wings were added in 1877, with an additional expenditure of over four thousand. The first principal was G. S. Pershin, assisted by Misses May, Northrup, and Polk. The fourth, or Park School, was erected in 1878–9, on Park Street, at a cost of 42,000. The high school occupied the upper floor, and some grammar classes the lower. Each of these four schools had in 1883 a sealing capacity of some 650, while the attendance was about four hundred and seventy-live for each. Two fine school buildings have been added since 1G80, one in the north end of the city, called the Couch School, and one in the south end, named the Failing School, after two prominent pioneers of Portland. There was a high school, three stories and basement, of the most modern design, which cost $150,000.
The State University, which received an endowment from the general government of over 46,000 acres of land, has realized therefrom over $70,000, the interest on which furnishes a small part of the means required for its support, the remainder being derived from tuition fees. The institution passed through the same struggles that crippled private institutions.
After expending the money appropriated by congress in political squabbles, it was for a long time doubtful if a university would be founded within the generation tor whom it was intended, when Lane county came to the rescue in the following manner: The citizens of Eugene City resolved in 1872 to have an institution of learning of a higher grade than the common schools. An association was incorporated in August of that year, consisting of J. M. Thompson, J. J. Walton, Jr, W. J. J. Scott, B. F. Dorris, J. B. Underwood, J. J. Comstock, A. S. Patterson, S. H. Spencer, E. L. Bristow, E. L. Applegate, and A. W. Patterson, of Lane county, which was called the Union University Association, with a capital stock of $50,000, in shares of $100 each. During the discussions consequent upon the organization, a proposition was made and acted upon, to endeavor to have the state university located at Eugene. When half the stock was subscribed and directors elected, the matter was brought before the legislature, of which A. W. Patterson was a member. An act was passed establishing the state university
