Bethel College
Dr. James Matthew Alley
In the figures of the 1850 census, there were no illiterate persons in Polk County. This was due to the high quality of the pioneers who settled in this area of present-day Yamhill and Polk Counties, which was called “The Athens of the West.” Between the years of 1843 and 1860 some of the best educated and most dedicated men ever to come over the Oregon Trail gravitated to this section of the Oregon Territory. Wherever they settled they started a school and a church. Many of them were members of the Christian Church.
It was only natural that a circuit rider preacher, Elder Glen O. Burnett, should call the people of this religious communion together in a camp meeting in an oak grove near Bethel in 1852. At this meeting the idea of Bethel College was conceived.
In 1851 a physician and surgeon, Dr. Nathaniel Hudson, took a land claim in this “Athens of the West.” The first thing he did was to build a log schoolhouse; and in the late spring and early summer of 1852, he held the first public school in the area. Because of his superior education, the Doctor was able to teach the higher branches of education which was not possible in most of the pioneer schools.
In 1854, Dr. Hudson sold his squatters’ rights at Bethel and took a claim two miles west of Dallas. The pioneer families about Bethel had come to depend fully on Dr. Hudson’s school, and its loss was a severe one to the whole community.
Two Christian preachers, Amos Harvey and Glen O. Burnett gave 261 acres of their donation land claims for the financing of Bethel Institute, later Bethel College. This was near the first of the year in 1855. A two-story frame building, 36 × 44 feet in dimension, was proposed. From March until July 4, 1855, materials were gathered on the grounds for the college building “raising.”
On the “glorious Fourth of ’55,” men with their families in wagons began arriving. Some came from great distances. Besides carpenter work, there was a sermon, a patriotic address, and a basket dinner. At the close of the day, the main framework of the building, with its roof in place, was done. The building was finished and dedicated, October 22, 1855. Bethel Institute was chartered by the Territorial Legislature on January 11, 1856. Four years later, on October 19, 1860, Governor John Whiteaker signed the charter of Bethel College, which has never been revoked.
Although for many years Bethel College has ceased to function as far as actual classes are concerned, it still exists. It has a board of trustees, and owns the college property—the ground on which Bethel Elementary Grade School is located. It elects a board of trustees each year, and has the power to grant degrees.
Too little is known about this college which gave Oregon one governor; the wife of a United States Senator; and many who later became lawyers, school teachers, and clergymen. One of the founders of Bethel College, Amos Harvey, gave to the United States Senate his great-granddaughter, the Honorable Maurine Neuberger.
Each year in midsummer the alumni association and the descendants of the pioneers of Bethel gather on the grounds for an all-day picnic and annual meeting.