Father Wilbur and His Work. 21 was not only a forceful preacher, but a great executive. In- ured to the hardships and privations of pioneer life, he worked as a common workman in the construction of old Taylor Street Church and in the buildinng of Portland Academy, of which he was the founder. One of the earliest cares of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church in the Oregon country was the estab- lishment of educational institutions, the oldest one being the Oregon Institute, now Willamette University. It was in the mind of Wilbur to feed the university by the establishment of academies and schools in different parts of the state. With this end in view, and to serve its immediate constituents, he established the Portland Academy from a fund arising from the donation of three blocks of land in this city, one of which was used as a building site, and the other two of which were to constitute an endowment. The Portland Academy was opened in 1851, in charge of Calvin S. Kingsley. Father Wilbur also founded the Umpqua Academy at the town of Wilbur, in Douglas County, Oregon. In September, 1851, Chapman, Coffin and Lownsdale were the proprietors of the townsite of the city of Portland, and, recognizing the demands for the establishment of educa- tional institutions, donated block 205, upon which the Portland Academy was first built, and block 224, immediately west of this, for this purpose, the deed to which was made to Father Wilbur "in trust to build a male and female seminary thereon and therewith," and it was intended that this should be held in trust for the Methodist Episcopal Church, of the state of Oregon. At that time these blocks were covered with heavy fir timber, and it is recorded that Father Wilbur personally cleared the ground and hewed out of the native fir the timbers for the frame of the building, and assisted in its erection. He solicited subscriptions, advanced and borrowed on his own credit, about $5,000, and the building was completed Novem- ber 17, 185 1. In June, 1854, the Territorial Legislature incor- porated the school, with a board of trustees, of which Wilbur was president ; T. J. Dryer, vice-president ; C. S. Kingsley,
secretary, and W. S. Ladd, treasurer.----
