Walla Walla University - Mountain Ash Yearbook (College Place, WA)

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10 physical needs of the Cayuse Indians and im- migrants along the Oregon Trail. Each task seemed monumental. The Cayuse language first had to be mastered, then reduced to writing. The books they printed for their Indian school were the first published in the Northwest. Work with the nomadic people was slow. In October, 1842, a message from the Ameri- can Board told the Whitmans to close their mission and move to the north. In spite of the hazards of the winter journey across the rug- ged wilds of the interior, Whitman immediate- ly started for the East to ask the Board to rescind its orders. The Whitmans loved these natives. Hardships, disappointments, even the loss of their only daughter could not induce the Whitmans to leave the Indians who five years later massacred them and twelve others. Sprightly waters of the Natehes River cascade over rocks and boulders in their dash from the glaciers to the sea. Several parallels might be drawn between the dam and the college. The dam tame: and makes water power usefule the college does the same for youth. Such missionaries truly represented Christian- ity. Three Indian wars finally closed the territmy to settlers in 1856. When people did start moving in again, they huddled in the protection of Fort Steptoe, around which Walla Walla grew. Here Washingtonis first college was foundedethe first piano brought ethe first band and railroad founded. In 1869 the first Seventh-day Adventist family settled. In 1874 Elder and Mrs. I. D. VanHorn held the first Seventh-day Adventist evangelistic series. By 1877 when the Pacific Union Confer- ence of Seventh-day Adventists was organized, 200 members lived in the Northwest. Fifteen years later the membership had doubled itself three time. These 1,600 Adventists sacrificed $50,000 to start Walla Walla College. INTRODUCTION continued

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T0 recall their earliest efforts, we turn back to September, 1836, when Marcus Whit- man; his bride, Narcissa Prentice Whitman; and assistants, the Reverend and Mrs. H. H. Spalding and W. H. Gray arrived at the British post, Fort Walla Walla, located then about thirty miles west of the present city on the Columbia River. Sponsored by several Protestant churches through the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Mission, the Whitmans established the now famous mission at VVaiilatpu, six miles west of modern W alla W alla. Here they labor- ed in love, providing for the spiritual and Mt. Rainier, just 90 feet too short to be the tallest mountain in continental United States, is an extinct volcano which blew its top and still has three peaks over 14,000 feet. The war lord of the Northwest now wears a glacier pack to cool its violent temper. A little steam issuing from the crater xtill reminds climbers 0f the old mountaints fiery youth.

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On opening day, December 7, 1892, ninety-one students and a handful of teachers clustered around a wood-burning heater tem- porarily set up in an unfinished gymnasium. But school started. In the spirit commemorated by the Whit- man Monument, located approximately three miles west of the College, faculty, students, and Church members labored. The depression of 1892 threatened the young schooPs life. Budgeted income failed to materialize. Students were forced to work for their tuition in place of paying cash. The teachers eased the situation by doubling up on work, allowing four of the twelve staff mem- bers to accept calls to other positions and re- duce the college payroll. Such thriftiness helped the college weath- er the depression and made a few improve- ments possible. A boiler provided steam heat to replace the 01d wood stoves and electric lights eliminated the smelly kerosene lamps. Students did not have some of the con- veniences now provided by the school such as the intercom system to dormitory rooms. But pioneer ingenuity soon discovered that the