lishment of a college under the patronage of the Congregational church and finding his brethren in Oregon about to erect a new building for the school at Tualatin plains, and to organize a board of trustees, an arrangement was entered into by which the orphan school was placed in the hands of the trustees as the foundation of the proposed college, which at first aspired only to be called the Tualatin academy.
Clark gave two hundred acres of his land-claim for a college and town-site, and Mrs Brown gave a lot belonging to her, and five hundred dollars earned by herself. Subsequently she presented a bell to the Congregational church erected on the town-site; and immediately before her death gave her own house and lot to the Pacific University. She was indeed earnest and honest in her devotion to Christian charity; may her name ever be held in holy remembrance.
Mr Clark also sold one hundred and fifty acres of his remaining land for the benefit of the institution of which he and Mrs Brown were the founders. It is said of Clark, "he lived in poverty that he might do good to others." He died March 24, 1858, at Forest Grove, being still in the prime of life.[1] What was so well begun before 1848 continued to grow with the development of the country, and under the fostering care of new friends as well as old, became one of the leading independent educational institutions of the north-west coast.[2]
- ↑ Evans' Hist. Or., MS., 341; Gray's Hist. Or., 231; Deady's Hist. Or., MS., 54; Or. Argus, April 10, 1858. Clark's daughter married George H. Durham of Portland.
- ↑ The first board of trustees was composed of Rev. Harvey Clark, Hiram Clark, Rev. Lewis Thompson, W. H. Gray, Alvin T. Smith, James M. Moore, Osborne Russell, and G. H. Atkinson. The land given by Clark was laid out in blocks and lots, except 20 acres reserved for a campus, the half of which was donated by Rev. E. Walker. A building was erected during the reign of high prices, in 1850–1, which cost, unfinished, $7,000; $5,000 of which
church in Portland. His health failing about 1866, he gave way to younger men; but he continued to labor as a missionary of religion and temperance in newer fields as his strength permitted. Nor did he neglect other fields of labor in the interest of Oregon, contributing many valuable articles on the general features and resources of the country. Added to all was an unspotted reputation, the memory of which will be ever cherished by his descendants, 2 sons and a daughter, the latter married to Frank Warren jun. of Portland.
