Henry Liberty Bates

“ PACIFIC UNIVERSITY
By Henry L. Bates
Time is a relative quantity and the age of an institution or a nation is a matter of comparison. The Rocky Mountain range seems hoary indeed as compared with the generations of men who have lived in the Willamette Valley; and yet geologists tell us that this mountain barrier belongs to the most recent geologic time as compared with the countless aeons since first the Appalachian range lifted its head.
We are all young here in Oregon. ”

“ Today there are 200 of the standard variety.
While being in some sense the child of the churches, Pacific University has never been sectarian or under denominational control. Her aim has always been "to make it possible for the young people of the Pacific Northwest to obtain a thorough education under Christian influences." The name "University" has always been somewhat of a misnomer. It reflects the high aims and worthy aspirations of its early founders rather than actual achievements in the shape of graduate courses and pro- fessional schools. ”

“ Her graduates are admitted for graduate or professional
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study in all the leading colleges and universities in the land.
If Garfield's conception was a true one, that Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and himself as a student on the other end was all that was needed to make a college, then must it not be true that the value of a college must be measured at least as much by the devotion and learning and character of its instructors and the fine quality of the young men and women which it turns out, as by its costly equipment and size of its student body? ”

“ Pacific University at least does not think she has lived altogether in vain.
Her growth has been slow partly because the population of Oregon has never been great. When Dr. Atkinson came to Oregon there were not more than 7,000 people in the state.
In 1870 Oregon, Washington and Idaho combined had only 130,000.
The rush for gold in '48- '49 drew one-half or two-thirds of the able-bodied men from Washington County. And yet in 1912 Oregon ranked third in having the highest percentage of students in college or one to every 150 of the population. ”

“ Marsh was a young man of 28, descended from a line of educators. His father was President James Marsh of the
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University of Vermont, and one of the foremost American edu- cators of his day. His grandfather was Eleazer Wheelock, the first president of Dartmouth College.
It is not strange that a young man with such an ancestry and such an inheritance should accept with enthusiasm the invitation to go to Oregon and give the best of his powers to build up in the new land a college similar to those with which he was familiar in New England. ”

“ President Marsh set himself steadfastly and courageously to supply all these needs.
Immediately upon his arrival steps were taken to add college grades of instruction to those in the Academy and in January, 1854, new articles of incorporation were granted by the Legis- lature, and under the corporate name of Tualatin Academy and Pacific University the present school was created.
We today can hardly realize the trials and hardships which the new president had to endure. But brighter days began to dawn. The country began to fill up. Families moved in and built homes around the young college. ”

“ Then comes that heroic pioneer Methodist missionary, Rev. Jason Lee, whose mission, as often has been the case, was to found schools as well as churches; and in 1842 the Oregon Institute at Chemeketa or North Salem, was begun primarily as a school for Indian children though the school was not formally opened till 1844. Out of this grew in time Willamette University, which received its college charter from the Territorial Legislature in 1853, just one year before Pacific University received its charter. ”

“ Students began to stay long enough to get into college and in process of time young men and women were graduated, many of whom have been among the foremost leaders in the public life and service of the state. The need of funds was ever pressing and Presi- dent Marsh made three different trips to the East to solicit aid. ”

“ A beautiful campus, second to none in the state ; five buildings, all modern but one; an endowment fund of about a quarter of a million ; a loyal and enthusiastic student body ; the prestige of an honorable past and an honor roll of worthy sons and daughters ; the confidence that her friends who believe in her and in her mission, will show their faith by their works and increase her funds and add to her buildings and her equip- ment ”

“ She has always kept her standards high none are higher in the North-west. A few years ago when a Federal Commis- sion standardized the colleges and universities of the state, she was one of the first three to be recognized as a standardcollege. ”