for buckskin, worked them into gloves for the Oregon ladies;m<l gentlemen, which cleared me upwards of $30.
THE BEGINNING OF PACIFIC UNIVERSITY.
Later I accepted the invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Clark, of Tualaten Plains, to spend the winter with them. I said to Mr Clark one day, "Why has Providence frowned on me and left me poor in this world. Had he blessed me with riches, as he has many others, I know right well what I would do." "What would you do?" "I would establish myself in a comfortable house and receive all poor children and be a mother to them." He fixed his keen eyes on me to see if I was in earnest. "Yes, I am," said I. "If so, I will try," said he, "to help you." He purposed to take an agency and get assistance to establish a school in the plains. I should go into the log meetinghouse and receive all the children, rich and poor. Those parents who were able were to pay $1 a week for board, tuition, washing, and all. I agreed to labor for one year for nothing, while Mr. Clark and others were to assist as far as they were able in furnishing provisions. The time fixed upon to begin was March, 1848, when I found everything prepared for me to go into the old meetinghouse and cluck up my chickens. The neighbors had collected what broken knives and forks, tin pans, and dishes they could part with, for the Oregon pioneer to commence house-keeping with. I had a well-educated lady from the East, a missionary's wife, for a teacher, and my family increased rapidly. In the summer they put me up a boarding-house. I now had 30 boarders of both sexes, and of all ages, from four years old to twenty-one. I managed them and did all my work except washing. That was done by the scholars. In the spring of '49 we called for trustees. Had eight appointed. They voted me the whole charge of the boarding-house free of rent, and I was to provide for myself. The price of board was established at $2 per week. Whatever I made over my expenses was my own. In '51 I had 40 in my family at $2.50 per week; mixed with my own hands 3,423 pounds of flour in less than five months. Mr.Clark made over to the trustees a quarter section of land for a town plot. A large and handsome building is on the site we selected at the first starting. It has been under town incorporation for two years, and at the last session of the legislature a charter was granted for a university to be called Pacific University, with a limitation of $50,000.00. The president and professor are already here from Vermont. The teacher and his lady for the academy are from New York. I have endeavored to give general outlines of what I have done. You must be judges whether I have been doing good or evil. 1 have labored for myself and the rising generation, but I have not
