owever, too small to accommodate the growing settlement. Prominent friends came from the east to visit the school.
About the year 1894, a fund was raised by the eastern committee to erect the north wing, or the last part of the present standing dormitory, which is about 40 by 70 feet and four stories high, counting basement and attic. The attic was finished up in one large room and was used as a gymnasium. This was probably the first gymnasium in Oklahoma. The basement contained two large rooms, one used as a primary department and the other for the boys’ living room, and also as a bath room. The water tank used as a reservoir, together with the bathtub, is preserved intact. Every boy who sat in that living room burned his initials upon the wall
with a red hot poker, as there are yards upon yards of initials of all descriptions and kinds on the wall to this day. The ground floor above the basement is divided into four rooms and a hallway. The central room, with the bay window facing the east, was Uncle John Watson’s private room where he prepared his sermons. The first room on the right of the hall at the entrance was a guest chamber. The room at north end of the hall was reception room, and the northeast room was another guest chamber. On the second floor is a hall the entire length of the structure, with sleeping rooms on either side. This was the girls’ sleeping apartment. The west wing before mentioned and built by John Watson, is about 18 by 50 feet, is two stories high with a cellar beneath. The ground floor contains two rooms, the east room for storage quarters and the west one a dining room. On the south side of the dining room there is a long room, about 20 by 60 feet and two stories high. The ground floor was used for all public occasions, for a conference, a festival, or anything of a public nature that required a large room. On the upper floor are sleeping apartments. Then comes the south wing, built by Murdock, two stories high with the upper floor divided into sleeping apartments, and a parlor and private room below. The entire structure contains twenty-four rooms, counting basement and cellar. Quite a good-sized structure for those early days.
The church house has long since disappeared. A part of it was sold, taken three miles east of the old site and converted into a farmhouse. The other part was moved four chains north where it was used as a church for a time, but was wrecked so much in moving that it became unsafe. Six years ago it was torn down and such material as was good was used in the construction of the new edifice that graces Hillside Mission. Only the dormitory of the Mission remains intact. It was sold by the trustees in Philadelphia to Mr. Simon M. Abbott, who resides here.
The deed to the four acres that comprise the site of the Mission was executed in Philadelphia. Mr. S. M. Abbott paid $300.00 for the four acres and the pile of buildings. The deed was signed by Walter Smedley, Charles J. Rhoads, Jonathan M. Steele, Alfred J. Scattergood and Thomas Smedley as trustees of the Associated Executive Committee of the Friends
Society of Indian Affairs, Philadelphia. This land was never allotted, but was transferred direct by the government to the Friends Society at Philadelphia.
Hillside Mission became such a prominent school center because it was the only school in this region. But when the allotment of Indian lands took place the Mission began to lose its position. School sites were purchased in the surrounding villages and in the country, and school houses were erected. Free public schools had come and the Mission, with nearly all patronage gone, dwindled along for a time and then finally died out entirely. But during its time the Mission teachers trained many of the most prominent men of this section of the state. The school was attended by Cherokees, Shawnees and Osages, and many white children also attended here. Board and lodging were $8.00 per month.
In 1885, Hillside cemetery was founded. In this year, a seventeen-year old boy by the name of Jesse Robenett died. Murdock called a meeting