Cushing Eells - a founders story of both the First Congregational Church of Walla Walla and Whitman College. Join their Sesquicentennial celebration Sunday, October 5th, all are welcome, beginning at 10 a.m.! firstchurchuccww.org/#!special-events Cushing Eells was born at Blandford, Mass., on Feb.16, 1810 and graduated from Williams College in 1834. He later entered East Windsor Theological Institute in Connecticut and graduated in 1837. Rev. Cushing Eells was licensed to preach Dec. 14, 1836, and was ordained a year later as a Congregational Missionary to the Zulus in Africa, but the planned voyage there was affected by a war between the Zulu tribes, so the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions instead sent him to the Oregon Territory. Following the deaths of the Whitmans and others at Waiilatpu in 1847, Eells decided to build a school in memory of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, with first classes held in December 1859. The actual seminary was constructed later in nearby Walla Walla. During the summer of 1866, the first building of the Whitman Seminary was erected on a site purchased by Dr. Dorsey Syng Baker, and the seminary opened the same year on Sept.14 The Washington Territorial Legislature, which had granted a charter to Whitman Seminary on Dec. 20, 1859, issued a new charter on Nov. 28, 1883, and changed it to Whitman College. Until an endowment allowed the college to be financially secure and survive, Eells made efforts to keep it alive, giving it $10,000 during his life. He also willed a great portion of his property to Whitman College. Despite the financial and enrollment problems in the beginning, Eells’ Whitman memorial – a small, provincial seminary – transformed itself over the years into a reputable secular college. Read more at the Cushing Eells Collection at Whitman College and the Northwest Archives. nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv09590
Posted on: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 20:35:13 +0000
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