Clark, Robert Carlton, Ph.D. "History of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Vol. 2.
Chicago: Chapman Publishing Company, 1927. p. 22.
 
MT ANGEL COLLEGE
 
     No history of Oregon's progress along educational  lines would be complete
without reference to Mt. Angel College, which has to its credit a record of
forty years of service as an institution of higher Christian   learning.
Nearly a  half century has passed since the arrival of the  Benedictine Fathers
in the  Pacific northwest.  The first years of their sojourn were spent chiefly
in missionary activities.  In 1883 a monastery was built near the town then
known as Fillmore but soon afterward renamed Mt. Angel in honor of the ancient
monastery of Engelberg, Switzerland, founded in the year 800.  It was from this
institution that the Fathers had been sent to Oregon to assist the struggling
but promising church in the west. In 1887 Mt. Angel College was founded by the
Rev. Adelhelm Odermatt, O. S. B., with the approbation of His Grace, Most Rev.
Archbishop William H. Gross, D. D.   By act of the legislature, the institution
was granted a charter, with power to confer the usual academic honors.   The
rapid increase of students soon necessitated the erection of a more spacious
building and in 1888 the seminary was opened for the training of candidates for
the priesthood.   Success seemed assured, when the fire of May 3, 1892, laid
waste the efforts of the Benedictines. Disappointed but not despairing, they
began the task of rebuilding and erecting a larger structure, situated on the
crest of Mt. Angel, a beautiful, gently sloping hill, rising to a height of
about four hundred feet above the surrounding fertile plain and affording a
magnificent view of the surrounding country.   Long before the white man trod
the forests of Oregon this butte had been called by the Indians, Tap-a-Lam-a-Ho,
signifying the Mount of Communion.  Years ago the noted cartoonist, Homer
Davenport, related to Abbott Adelhelm how his father had found the ruins of an
old Indian temple on the summit of this hill, learning from one of the red men
that for generations the members of his tribe had ascended the mountain to
commune with the Great  Spirit dwelling near  its top.   The college  and
seminary were built entirely of native gray stone and equipped with everything
necessary for the health and comfort as well as the training of students. The
Benedictine Fathers believe that true education implies the training of the will
and the control of the emotions as well as the development of the mind, and the
primary purpose of the curricula offered is to prepare the young man for life,
rather than merely for a certain work in life. Nothing has been left undone to
insure the efficiency of the institution, which has put forth every effort to
keep its collegiate department up to standard requirements, and for years Alt.
Angel College has enjoyed the esteem and cooperation of the University of Oregon
and the State Agricultural College. On September 21, 1926. the college buildings
were again destroyed by fire and although a heavy loss, this misfortune has by
no means arrested the progress of the school.
     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in December 2014 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.