Methodist Mission - Legacy

Legacy

In Salem on January 17, 1842 at Jason Lee’s home, a group of settlers met and formed the Oregon Institute as a school for the Euro-American children in the area. A ten-person board of trustees was created; they selected the Wallace House three miles north of Salem to serve as the school. At that time the Mission was building a new three-story structure to serve as a school for the Native Americans.

With the Mission closing, in 1844 it sold the building to the Institute for $4,000. That year the school opened with Chloe A. Clarke Wilson as the first teacher of the school, considered the first for European-American children west of the state of Missouri. (Note: Early Oregon histories bragged that this was the first school for European Americans west of the Mississippi River, but St. Louis Academy was founded by Jesuits in Saint Louis, Missouri in 1818.) The Oregon Institute developed into Willamette University in 1853.