ALASKA INDUSTRIES, 551 



ESTABLISHMENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS. 



On the 2d day of March, 1885, the honorable Secretary of the Inte- 

 rior assigned the work of making provision for the education of the 

 children in Alaska to the Bureau of Education. 



and. their educational needs, and by furnishing it to the Government officers and to 

 the people. In this effort Prof. W. H. Dall, of the United States Coast Survey, and 

 Rev. G. H. Atkinson, D. D., of Oregon, were especially helpful. 



"The report of this office for 1870 had a notice of education in Alaska, aud year 

 after year these notices were continued as data warranted. 



"In 1876 the Comnussionor of Education, as representative of the Department of 

 the Interior, expended a portion of the funds under his control to secure a represen- 

 tation of native life in Alaska for tlic Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. 



"In February, 1882, a special report from this office on education iu Alaska, rec- 

 ommending an appropriation of $.50,000 for schools, was made to the Secretary of the 

 Interior, and by him forwarded to Congress througli the President. 



"In 1877 Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D., siipermtendout of Presbyterian missions 

 for the Rocky Mountain Territories, having had his attention called to Alaska, visited 

 the southeastern portion, and established the tirst American school in that section 

 on the 10th of August, 1877, with Mrs. A. R. McFarland as teacher. Later he estab- 

 lished schools at Sitka, Haines (Chilkats), Boyd (Hoonahs), and .Jackson (Hydahs). 

 Returning to the States, Dr. Jackson commenced an agitation to arouse the dormant 

 public sentiment of the country in behalf of a government and schools lor Alaska. 

 He held public meetings in many of the leading cities and many of the prominent 

 towns from the Pacific to the Atlantic, delivering, from 1878 to 1884, about nine hun- 

 dred addresses on Alaska. He went before committees of the Forty-sixth, Forty- 

 seventh, and Forty-eighth Congresses, and with unflagging zeal sought to enlist the 

 interest of Congressmen. He secured the hearty cooperation of the missionary soci- 

 eties of the Ba'ptist, Methodist, Congregational, Episcopal, Moravian, and Presby- 

 terian churches. 



" In 1880 he published a book on Alaska, and on March 23, 1882, delivered an address 

 before the Department of Superintendence of the National Educational Association, 

 which was printed by this Bureau iu Circular of Information No. 2, 1882. Of this 

 circular three editions have been called for, making an aggregate of 60,000 copies. 

 During the summer of 1883 he visited the twenty-second annual meeting of the 

 National Educational Association of the United States, the second National Educa- 

 tional Assembly, and the State Teachers' Associations of Vermont, New Hampshire, 

 Massachusetts," and Connecticut, each of which passed strong resolutions asking Con- 

 gress to provide a school system for Alaska. 



"Through these meetings the teachers became interested, and thousands of peti- 

 tions, from teachers scattered from Maine to Texas aud from Florida to Oregon, were 

 sent to Congressmen, asking for schools for Alaska. So persistent aud continuous 

 was the pressure invoked by Dr. Jackson fiom so many, varied, and widely separated 

 forces, that when the bill was reached Congress passed it with great unanimity." 



House of Representatives, Washington, D. C, May 1, 1SS5. 

 My Dear Sir : In view of the very great and general interest manifested iu regard 

 to everything pertaining to Alaska,! feel like congratulating you on the reward you 

 are now receiving for your long, iinwearied, aud very efficient labors on behalf of 

 that distant portion of our country. When I remember your faithful work for Alaska 

 while you were superintendent of Presbyterian Missions for the Rocky Mountain 

 Territories, your able and successful efforts to arouse public sentiment in behalf of 

 a government and schools for Alaska, and your addresses all over the country on the 

 subject, taken with what has come under my personal observation while a Member 

 of the Forty-eighth Congress and a member of the Committee on Territories and on 

 tlie subcommittee having in charge the bill proposing a civil government for Alaska, 

 I say without any hesitation that in my humble judgment, to you more than to any 

 other one man or agency is due the success thus far attained iu the direction of the 

 establishing of a form of government and the improvement in the condition of the 

 inhabitants of Alaska. I took from the first a special interest in the bill l)efore our 

 committee because of the information you furnished and your connection with the 

 matter. Please accept my sincere congratulations on your appointment as the first 

 superintendent of public instruction for Alaska, and believe me 

 Yours, very truly, 



F. A. Johnson, 

 Member of Congress, Twenty-first District, New York. 



Rev. Sheldon Jackson, D. D. 



