A. Cornwall, D. H. Bellknap, and James Henry Dickey Henderson, who on October 5 of that year presented a report recommending that funds be raised to establish a Presbyterian school in the territory.

[1] Gillespie, who was serving in the Oregon Territorial Legislature, then introduced a bill in order to secure a charter for the college on January 11, 1855.

[1] That committee, consisting of Gillespie, Asa L. Lovejoy, and Delazon Smith, returned the bill to the main assembly after a single day of consideration.

[1] By August 1856, Enoch Pratt Henderson (brother of James Henry), a minister was hired to serve as president of the college, which he did from November 3, 1856 until September 19, 1859.

[3] The conflict arose, in part, as the debate over slavery raged in the East in what would eventually result in the American Civil War.

[1] Slavery supporters attempted to gain control of the school's board of trustees, and eventually did in 1859, causing president Henderson to resign in 1859.

[1] M. I. Ryan then became the principal, who was pro-slavery, and in June 1860 he assaulted Byron J. Pengra before fleeing back east.