DECENNIAL REVIEW OF EDUCATION IN ALASKA, 1885-1895. 



By Sheldon Jackson, General Agent of Education /or Alaska, 



[From the Annual Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1894-95, pp. 1442-1455.] 



As the present year closes ten years of education in Alaska by the 

 United States Government, it seems an appropriate occasion for recall- 

 ing the history of the past. Information concerning education under 

 the Russian Government is very meager, the only available sources to 

 the English reader being the admirable work of William 11. Ball, 

 Alaska and its Resources (pp. 351 and 352), and the annual reports of 

 the Bureaa of Edncation. 



The first European settlers were Russians, attracted by the valuable 

 furs and skins. Many of these married Indian women and raised fam- 

 ilies of mixed blood or Creoles. As these children increased in number 

 and grew up there began to be on the part of some of the fathers a felt 

 need for schools. Accordingly Gregory Shelikoft", governor of the col- 

 ony and founder of the Russian-American Fur Company, established a 

 school at Kadiak about the year 1792, which was taught by the trader. 

 In 1793 Catherine II, Empress of Russia, through a ukase ordered mis- 

 siomiries to be sent to her North American colony. In accordance with 

 this order, the following year 11 monks sailed from Ochotsk for Kadiak 

 Island in charge of Archimandrite Josasaph, an elder in the order of 

 Augustine Friars, who were expected to take charge of schools as well 

 as churches. In 1805 the Imperial chamberlain and commissioner. 

 Count Nikolai Resanofl", organized a school at Kadiak under the name 

 of the "House of Benevolence of the Empress Maria," in which were 

 taught the Russian language, arithmetic, and the Greek religion. In 

 1805 a school was opened at Sitka. It held a very precarious existence, 

 however, until 1820, when it caioe under the charge of a naval oificer, 

 Mho kept a good school for thirteen years. In 1833 this school came 

 under the direction of Etolin, who still further increased its efficiency. 

 Etolin was a creole, who by force of ability and merit, raised himself to 

 the highest position in the country, that of chief director of the fur 

 company and governor of the colony. He was a Lutheran, the patron 

 of schools and churches. While governor he erected a Protestant 

 church at Sitka and presented it with a small pipe organ, which is still 

 in use. 



In 1840, besides the colonial school at Sitka, was one for orphan boys 

 and sons of workmen and subaltern employees of the fur company, in 

 which were taught reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, mechanical 

 trades, and religion. In 1839 a girls' school of a similar character was 

 established and the number of boarders limited to 40. In 1841 a theo- 

 logical school was established at Sitka, which, in 1849, was advanced 

 to the grade of a seminary. This made 5 schools at Sitka — 2 for the 



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