72 READ BAIN
a quarter of a million. The missionizing results were nil, but the indirect benefits to education and civilization, incalculable. 12
IV. PIONEER ELEMENTARY TERM SCHOOLS,
1844-54
The only reason for dealing with this subject here is to show the soil from which the Methodist institutions grew. This type of education cannot be ascribed to any particular denom- ination, but it is safe to say that the majority of the commun- ities where such schools were found up to 1850 were pre- dominantly Methodist.
The first school, in Oregon proper, as well as the first non- mission school, was that taught by Solomon Smith in the house of Joseph Gervais on French Prairie, near Wheatland (Cham- poeg) as above set forth.
But it was not a "term" school. This type of educational institution is one for which the teacher receives so much a head for every pupil attending, the term being usually about three months. Of course, when the first formal institutions were organized, they followed this same plan, but they were doing academic as well as elementary work, and furthermore, the fees were paid to the institution, not to the teacher. The term schools must be distinguished from the Mission schools, which were "free and without price," and also from the later public schools supported by public taxation. The teacher of a term school very often "boarded around" for part of his pay.
Sidney W. Moss provided a school at Oregon City in 1843, for which he himself paid. J. P. Brooks was the teacher.
The first regular term school so far as I can find was or- ganized by J. E. Lyle, and held in the log house of Colonel Nathaniel Ford, near Rickreall, Polk County, beginning April 13, 1846, and was known as Jefferson Institute, with Col. Ford, Jas. Howard and Wm. Beagle named as trustees. 13 This school served about twenty-five students, all white.
12 Bancroft, Vol. I, "Oregon History," p. 224.
13 Oregon Spectator, Mar. 1846.
