Oregon's Pacific University is the oldest chartered university in the West. The Oregon Territorial Legislature granted its original charter as the Tualatin Academy on Sept. 26, 1849. In 2024, Pacific University celebrates its 175th anniversary.
Pacific University History
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Legacy of Care
In 1846, 66-year-old widow Tabitha Moffatt Brown crossed the Oregon Trail and arrived in the Oregon Territory. Though she had hardly a penny to her name, she dreamed of caring for the many children she saw abandoned or orphaned along the trail or in the wake of the California and Alaska gold rush.
With local Congregationalist leaders, like the Rev. Harvey Clark, she opened a home and school in a log cabin, where she served as housemother and caretaker. Soon after, Congregationalist Church minister George H. Atkinson proposed converting the school into “an academy that shall grow into a college.”
On Sept. 26, 1849, the Oregon Territorial Legislature’s first official act was to grant a charter to the new school, establishing Tualatin Academy and the foundation of what would become Pacific University.
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Like many universities, Pacific’s history is inextricably tied to the colonization of the West. As Tualatin Academy was growing into Pacific University, the Tualatin, or Atfalati, Kalapuya who had lived in this region long before white pioneers arrived, were being forced from this land. Today, they are part of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.
A generation later, Pacific leaders were complicit in their support for the federal Forest Grove Indian Training School, where children from throughout the Northwest were stripped of their culture. The Forest Grove Indian Training School operated from 1880 to 1885, when it moved to the Salem area. Today it operates as Chemewa Indian School.
Growing a University
Tualatin Academy and Pacific University grew up in tandem, the university bestowing its first baccalaureate degree in 1863. By the early 1900s, public high schools replaced the need for the academy and Tualatin Academy closed as Pacific transitioned exclusively into an institution of higher education.
Over the course of the 20th century, Pacific University grew from a one-building college to a robust university. Grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, Pacific sought to offer its students an educational foundation that launched them into careers of care and service.
In 1911, Pacific became one of just three colleges in Oregon authorized to recommend students for high school teaching certificates. In 1994, the university established a dedicated College of Education. In 1945, Pacific took over the Northwest College of Optometry, launching its foray into healthcare education. Optometry would later be joined by physical therapy in 1975 and the growth of health professions programs culminated in the establishment of the College of Health Professions with a dedicated campus in Hillsboro in 2006.
Pacific Today
Today, Pacific University continues to be a cornerstone of Forest Grove, Hillsboro and Washington County, the economic hub of Oregon. Pacific alumni work predominantly in schools, health systems and social/community services, uplifting their communities through a passion for purpose and service. Pacific University serves more than 3,500 students with undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in the liberal arts and sciences, business, education, health professions, and optometry, inspiring students to think, care, create, and pursue justice in a global community.
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