Congregational, but the institution is not a denominational one. It stands on an independent basis, embodying clear and pronounced educational ideas of its own. It is attaining a growth as one of the distinctive institutions of Oregon, and its prosperity seems assured." In connection with the university is an academy for young ladies, some of the students of which also take the college course.
At Forest Grove, reside some of the earliest settlers of the valley—persons who have seen their children, born in Oregon, grow up to manhood's estate, and have sent them back to "the States" to learn something of an older civilization than that of the mountains and plains of Washington County. There is always a great charm in hearing the annals of a State from the lips of its founders. Many walking cyclopedias of Oregon history belong to the population of the Tualatin Plains, and to their influence is due much of the good order and good morals of the community.
Traveling south from Forest Grove, we soon cross the northern boundary of, and find ourselves in, the beautiful County of Yamhill. Comparisons between counties in this portion of the State, would truly be invidious. Their comparative merits must be very nearly the same; yet this is, if possible, a more beautiful section than Washington County. Yamhill is, also, one of the first-settled and favorite sections of the valley, with perhaps a little larger population, and a little more cultivated land, than Washington County. It contains eight towns, none of them of much size. Lafayette, the county-seat, is situated on the pretty Yamhill River, about eight miles from its junction with the Wallamet, at the Yamhill rapids or falls, on the north side. A short distance below, and on the
