USA > Colorado > History of Colorado; Volume I > Part 69
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In the year 1889 the State Legislature made a special appropriation of $18,- 000 for erecting an extension to the main building.
On August 30, 1890, was passed what is known as the "second Morrill act," by which Congress gave the agricultural college the sum of $15,000 for the first year and an additional $1,000 each year until the total sum of $25,000 should be reached. No part of this appropriation can be used for building or repairing, but the whole must be "applied only to instruction in agriculture, the mechanic arts, the English language, and the various branches of mathematics, natural and economic science, with special reference to their applications to the industries
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of life and to the facilities for such instruction." The income thus received has been of great benefit to the college. For the year 1899 it was $25,000.
On March 17, 1891, the State Legislature passed an act to replace the one- fifth mill tax by a tax of one-sixth of a mill, whereby the income of the college was considerably reduced for several years, until in 1895 the act was declared un- constitutional by the Supreme Court of the state and the one-fifth mill tax re- stored.
In the year 1891 President Ingersoll resigned. Prof. J. W. Lawrence acted as president until the appointment of Alston Ellis, A. M., Ph. D., LL. D., as president and professor of political economy and logic.
Early in 1899 President Ellis resigned his position and on August Ist he was succeeded by Rev. Barton O. Aylesworth, A. M., LL. D., formerly president of Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa.
Doctor Aylesworth resigned the presidency of the college in 1909, and after serving as acting president, Dr. Charles A. Lory was in 1912 placed in complete charge of the institution. It has made wonderful strides during his term of office.
The State Board of Agriculture, organized primarily as the board of control of the State Agricultural College, is now, through laws passed by the General Assembly, serving the State of Colorado in the following capacities :
Board of Control of the State Agricultural College.
State Board for the Collection of Agricultural Statistics.
Board of Control of the Colorado Experiment Station.
State Fair Board.
Board of Control of the Colorado School of Agriculture.
Board of Control of the Fort Lewis School of Agriculture, Mechanic and Household Arts.
Board of Control of the Teller School of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts. State Board of Forestry.
Supervising Board of the Office of State Dairy Commissioner.
State Board of Horticulture.
The Teller School of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts teaches horticulture, for- estry and vocational learning at what was formerly known as the Grand Junc- tion Indian School, and was provided for by the eighteenth General Assembly in 1911, the control of the institution being placed with the State Board of Agri- culture. This school was named by the board "The Teller School of Agricul- ture, Mechanic and Household Arts" in honor of Senator Teller.
There are thousands of young men and women in the state who cannot go to college, but must return to the farm or enter other vocational lines after leav- ing high school. For these young people Colorado has provided opportunity for training in Agriculture, Mechanic Arts, Household Arts and Rural Teaching in the secondary schools maintained by the Agricultural College.
The Colorado School of Agriculture, established in 1909, is located at the Agricultural College at Fort Collins, the same buildings, classrooms and labora- tories used for the college being used for the school. Young men and women are admitted from the eighth grade and are given training in the lines specified, which fits them in a thorough, practical manner for lives of usefulness.
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
At Fort Lewis, twelve miles west of Durango, is located The Fort Lewis School of Agriculture, Mechanic and Household Arts, established in 1911. Here the young men and women of the southwest are trained in Agriculture, Mechanic Arts, Household Arts and Rural Teaching. The course here is peculiarly prac- tical because the term comes in summer-time and the students thereby are given an opportunity to learn by actual practice, as well as by theory, in the fields which are under cultivation at this season of the year. Provision is made for high school students who wish vocational training during the summer or who wish to prepare for rural teaching.
In addition to the work being carried on at the Experiment Station at Fort Collins, branch stations are maintained at Rocky Ford, Cheyenne Wells and Fort Lewis. Experiments in alfalfa breeding are in progress at Rocky Ford. At the Cheyenne Wells station, experiments with crops and farm practice adaptable to the plains region are being carried on. This is a most important piece of work, for the problems of the dry farmer are quite as complex and numerous as those of the farmer under an irrigation ditch. At Fort Lewis, experiments with high- altitude crops, both under dry farming and irrigated farm methods, are being conducted. To those familiar with the possibilities of mountain parks the in- portance of this work need not be emphasized.
All the information obtained in these investigations is made available to the people of the state through bulletins published by the station or through the Extension Service.
It is through its Extension Service that the Agricultural College is able to render direct and general service to the people of Colorado. The workers in agricultural and industrial pursuits when confronted by problems which they are unable to solve can call on any or all the specialists at the college through the Extension Service for technical information and helpful suggestions. New methods are constantly being discovered which will give better production and better profits. These are brought to the people of the state through the ex- tension workers.
The farmers and communities in eighteen counties in Colorado are at the present time receiving the aid and assistance of county agricultural agents, main- tained by the Extension Service of the Agricultural College through cooperation with the United States Government, the county governments and other interests. Twelve men are looking after the work in these eighteen counties, bringing the farmers better cultural methods, advising them about the selection of crops and livestock, aiding them in organizing themselves in order to bring about better cooperation, helping in the improvement of rural school conditions and social conditions in the country.
Besides these, specialists who devote all their time to the needs of special phases of agriculture or community betterment are maintained in the following lines : Farm management demonstrations, animal husbandry, boys' and girls' clubs, home economics, markets and marketing, rural school improvement.
One example of the work of these specialists will suffice. Until four years ago little attention had been generally given by the institutions of higher learn- ing to the improvement of the rural school. The work the Agricultural College was carrying on in Farmers' Institutes convinced the workers at the college that the rural school was the strongest factor for community betterment. The plan
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of employing a field worker who should give all his time to the rural schools was proposed and met with strong favor and support by the county superinten- dents of the state, and by the school patrons.
The eighteenth General Assembly authorized the college to employ such a field man and made an appropriation for the support of his work. The work was begun in the summer of 1912 and has proven to be one of the most effective lines of service rendered the rural communities. This field man, or specialist, has given his entire time during the past four years to studying the problems of rural education as they are found in Colorado and lending assistance to the people in these communities. As the result of this work the people of many of the country districts have built handsome consolidated schools, where their children are now receiving training every bit as good in every particular as their city cousins are receiving. A very striking feature of the coming of these consoli- dated schools is that, wherever there is one of these schools, the boys and girls are getting high school training, a thing they could not have gotten under former conditions without going to some neighboring city, and then they would not have been taught agriculture, manual training and domestic science as they are now taught in the consolidated schools. Since this work was begun four years ago twenty consolidated schools have been established, taking the place of forty- eight small country schools. In these consolidated schools 3,296 boys and girls are enrolled this year and 446 are in high school.
The following figures are taken from the report of the director of Extension for the year ending June 30, 1916:
Farmers' Institutes, Attendance 19,777
Farmers' Congress and Short Course 477
Meetings held by County Agents, Attendance 45,393
Number of People reached in meetings and at exhibits by Specialist in Rural School Improvement 12,598
Days of Judging at Fairs 145
Number of County Agriculturists 12
Number of Counties having Agriculturists 18
Farm Bureaus organized 8
Membership (to January 1, 1916) 952
Boys' and Girls' Clubs, Members
3,325
Counties in which Clubs are formed 20
Farm Visits made by Agents
Letters written by County Agents 5,610
6,45I
Letters written by Instructors and Experiment Station
Workers in Reply to Requests for Information 12,572
Articles for Press I73
Acres of Corn planted with Selected Seed 4,631
Farms treating Oats for Smut 827
Acres of Oats treated 12,810
Hogs vaccinated for Cholera 2,567
Cattle treated for Blackleg 803
Acres of Land drained 4,250
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
Exactly 1,019 of Colorado's sons and daughters were getting an education in 1917 at the Colorado Agricultural College. They were receiving instruction in Agriculture, Mechanic Arts, General Science, Home Economics, and Veterinary Medicine. Of these 649 were enrolled at the college proper, and 370 were re- ceiving training in the Colorado School of Agriculture, the secondary school maintained for eighth grade graduates. In addition to these there were 140 enrolled in the Conservatory of Music, or a total of 1,159 students on the campus.
During the seven years, from 1909 to 1916, the enrollment at the college has almost tripled. In 1909 it was 217 and for 1916-17 it was 649. The following shows the growth year by year since 1909:
1909-10
217
1913-14 515
1910-II
253
1914-15
602
1911-12
322
1915-16
638
1912-13
403
1916-17 649
THE COLORADO STATE TEACHERS' COLLEGE
. From the very first the picture of education in Colorado was a bright one. The state early established the State University at Boulder, the Agricultural Col- lege at Fort Collins and the School of Mines at Golden. Private initiative brought forward Colorado College at Colorado Springs and the University of Denver.
None of these institutions however was established primarily for the train- ing of teachers and there was a lamentable gap in the educational forces of the state during its first four years. Either it had to look to other states for trained teachers or be content with the high school graduate. People all over the state began to realize this want and a clamor arose for the establishment of a normal school. In many centers in the state this agitation was carried on, but a group of men in Greeley who knew at first hand the work of the normal school and colleges of the middle west and east and the educational and social benefits of such institutions upon the communities where they were located had clearly the most definite vision.
Some of these citizens might be mentioned. State Senator J. W. McCreery and George D. Statler, later a member of the board of trustees, were both grad- uates of the Indiana (Pa.) Normal School and were former school teachers in Pennsylvania. The late Judge J. M. Wallace, then president of the First Na- tional Bank of Greeley, was deeply interested in higher institutions. Attorney J. M. Look was a former resident of Michigan and knew intimately the normal schools of that state.
In the fall of 1888 the gentlemen mentioned, together with Governors Eaton and Brush, J. Max Clark, B. D. Sanborn, Doctor Hawes, and other citizens, com- menced to agitate for the location of a normal school at Greeley, and in January of 1889 a meeting was held of the citizens of the town to urge the founding of such a school there.
The result of the citizens' meeting was the introduction of two bills, one in the House by Representative George C. Reed of Washington County, and one in the Senate by Senator J. W. McCreery of Greeley. The bills were drawn up by Senator McCreery and Attorney Look of Greeley, and were based on the
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knowledge their authors had of the laws in Pennsylvania and Michigan, which had created the normal schools of those states.
The bill which finally passed by a majority of one vote in each house carried an appropriation of $10,000 for founding the school, and specified that the building site and $25,000 should be furnished by the people of Greeley. At that time "Normal Hill," the region on which the school stands and extending to the top of the hill south of the school, was largely owned by the Colorado Investment Company, Limited, of London. The site for the school was donated to the state by the company and by J. P. Cranford. The company also donated $15,000 toward the $25,000 fund demanded by the state, and the other $10,000 was donated by local citizens.
The Colorado State Normal School opened its doors to students October 6, 1890. The first faculty, five in number, was composed of the following instruct- ors : Paul M. Hanus (now head of the department of education in Harvard Uni- versity ), was vice president and professor of pedagogy; Thomas J. Gray of the Mankato (Minn.) Normal School was president; Miss Margaret Morris was teacher of English and history ; Miss Mary D. Reed was teacher of mathematics and geography, while Prof. John R. Whiteman of Greeley was teacher of vocal music.
When the first session of the school was opened, the building had not been completed, and so the classes were held in rooms down town. There were three places of meeting-the vacant courtrooms in the courthouse, the lecture room of the United Presbyterian Church, and the old Unity House Church at the north- east corner of Ninth Street and Ninth Avenue, Greeley.
On June 1, 1890, the cornerstone of the main building of the State Normal School was laid by Fred Dick, state superintendent of public instruction. Gov- ernor Cooper, the president of the State University, Superintendent Gove of Denver, and many other prominent persons in the state were present. The east wing of the main building was first finished, and it was two years before the west wing was added.
One must remember, in attempting to get a proper setting for the institu- tion, that Greeley at that time was a town of 3,500 people, instead of over ten thousand, as now. The campus then was a waste of sage brush and wild oats, and nothing was done to improve it until Doctor Snyder later took charge of the institution. A very hopeful move forward, however, was made the follow- ing year when a millage bill was passed by the Legislature placing the school on an assured basis.
Dr. Z. X. Snyder, who had been superintendent of schools at Reading, Perin- sylvania ; principal of the Indiana (Pennsylvania) State Normal School, and who had been appointed by Governor Robert Pattison state superintendent of public instruction of Pennsylvania, was in 1891 elected to take charge of the institution.
The course, at first, because there were few high schools in the state, was a four-year one, the first two years being devoted to a review of the common and high school branches, the last two years having the emphasis upon the profes- sional branches. In 1897-98 the standard of admission was raised to high school graduation. There was no decided tendency to allow election of subjects for the first decade of the history of the school. From that time on the course of study has been a decided amplification and enrichment as well as a chance for election
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
of subjects in wide and varied fields. The change to the three term system was accomplished near the beginning of the second decade of the school's history, and the establishment of a high school department to replace the old four-year course gave an opportunity for the training of high school teachers. By an act of the Legislature in 1911 the name of the school was changed to the State Teachers' College, and it entered upon newer and broader fields of usefulness. This steadily expanding aim has been reflected in a growth from seventy-eight students of the first year to over seven hundred and fifty in the year 1915-16. The material growth has been as remarkable as the intellectual. The beautiful library build- ing occupying the center of the campus was finished in 1906. The commodious training school building, a splendidly lighted and well equipped structure, was completed in 1910. The Simon Guggenheim Hall of Industrial Arts was a gift from Senator Guggenheim to the cause of education in the state. No pains were spared to make it the last word in buildings of its kind. The corner-stone of the woman's building was laid in 1912.
During all its formative years Doctor Snyder, who died in November, 1915, was at the helm of the institution. Each step in its growth was directed by him.
After a nation-wide search the board of trustees finally, in June, 1916, se- lected Dr. John Grant Crabbe as a successor of Doctor Snyder. Doctor Crabbe is a man of wide educational experience. An Ohio man, he spent twenty years of his life in the schools of Kentucky, rising to the highest educational honor it was possible for the state to bestow-that of state superintendent of public in- struction. At the time of his call to Greeley, he was president of Eastern Ken- tucky State Normal School.
During his first year in the school Doctor Crabbe obtained from the Colorado Legislature a $50,000 additional annual fund for maintenance, and a $75,000 annual fund for building. He immediately embarked on an extensive building program, including the building of a domestic science building and a gymnasium.
Doctor Crabbe also enlarged the faculty and placed it on a most satisfactory and definite salary schedule.
THE COLORADO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL
Archie M. Stevenson, then a resident of Gunnison, and state senator from the district, introduced the bill thirty-one years ago, to establish the first state normal school in Colorado with its location at Gunnison.
Nothing further was done toward consummating the ambitions of Gunnison until the election campaign of 1896, when the Gunnison Tribune started agitation for the resurrection of the old bill of Senator Stevenson's and its introduction. This also failed.
Two years later, in 1899, Charles T. Rawalt became a member of the House of Representatives of the twelfth General Assembly, and he introduced the bill, which was very simple in form and was for "An Act establishing a State Nor- mal School at Gunnison." This finally was enacted.
On May 3, 1899, Governor Orman named the first board of trustees, as fol- lows: T. W. Gray, H. F. Lake, Jr., and C. E. Adams, all of Gunnison. The
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
first meeting of this board was held at Gunnison, July 18, 1901, and Mr. Adams was named president and Mr. Lake secretary.
From private subscriptions a sufficient fund was raised to purchase twenty acres from Dr. Louis Grasmuck, ten acres were donated by Frank P. Tanner and Joseph F. Heiner, five acres by Dexter T. Sapp, five acres by Doctor Gras- muck, and a strip of land 100 feet wide by 660 feet long by C. T. Sills, making in all, in one block of land, lying in the shape of an L, for the normal school prop- erty, approximately forty-three acres.
The seventeenth General Assembly voted an appropriation of $50,000 for the normal school building. The corner-stone of this new building was laid on Octo- ber 25, 1910.
During the period of the erection of the building, the question that was up- permost in the minds of the people of Gunnison was how the school could be opened without funds, as Governor Shafroth had vetoed the maintenance appro- priation. Meetings were held and the patriotic business men and citizens agreed to loan the state enough money to start the school and keep it going until the next session of the Legislature, when an appropriation could be secured to make up the deficiency. The people once more demonstrated their loyalty and loaned the sum of $10,000 without interest. The last of this amount was paid back to them in the summer of 1914.
The school was finished and the first term of school was opened on September 12, 1911, with Dr. Z. X. Snyder of Greeley as president, and C. A. Hollings- head, principal.
The following year, on May 29, 1912, the first commencement exercises were held, when five young ladies received life certificates as teachers in the public schools of Colorado.
In December, 1913, James Herbert Kelley was chosen principal of the school following the resignation of Professor Hollingshead.
The General Assembly in 1910 made the state normal school at Greeley the Colorado Teachers' College, and this gives to the school at Gunnison the dis- tinction of being the only state normal school in Colorado. It was, however, continued under the management of the Colorado Teachers' College until June 6, 1914, when the board of trustees, unanimously adopted a resolution segregat- ing the two institutions, electing Mr. Kelley as president, and officially desig- nating it as the Colorado State Normal School.
The growth and popularity of the school have been beyond all expectations. It was opened in 1911 with an enrollment of twenty-three, while at the summer normal term of six weeks in 1915 there was an enrollment of 275 teachers and students from all parts of Colorado.
On April 12, 1915, Governor George A. Carlson signed the bill giving the school a .03 mill permanent income.
On March 24, 1917, Governor Julius C. Gunter signed the bill for additional mill levy of .02 mill for maintenance and .015 mill for ten years for buildings.
COLORADO COLLEGE
Before the year 1874 many proposals had been made looking to the founding of one or more colleges in the Territory of Colorado. The University of Colo-
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HISTORY OF COLORADO
rado was incorporated in 1861. The Colorado Seminary was founded in 1864, and continued to exist for several years. An Episcopalian school for boys- afterwards known as Jarvis Hall-was established at Golden in the early '70s.
On July 12, 1871, the Colorado Springs Company adopted the report of a committee concerning the laying out of a town site for the Fountain Colony. This committee, consisting of Gen. R. A. Cameron, William H. Greenwood and E. S. Nettleton, recommended that a tract of land one-third of a mile wide and a mile and a half long in the valley of Monument Creek be set aside for educa- tional and other public purposes. Included in this tract was the present college res- ervation, "which was distinctly set aside by this committee for the founding of a college." This action of the committee was largely owing to the advice and sug- gestions of Gen. William J. Palmer and Gen. R. A. Cameron.
One of the first proposals to establish a college in Colorado under the auspices of the Congregational Church seems to have been made by Rev. T. N. Haskell, A. M., before the Congregational Conference at Boulder on October 28, 1873. Mr. Haskell was appointed moderator of the conference and chairman of a permanent committee on education "to ascertain what opportunities there are for founding a higher institution of learning in Colorado under Congregational auspices."
The committee immediately took steps to secure offers of land and money from towns desiring to be the seat of a college. Several towns made proposals, including Greeley and Colorado Springs. The Colorado Springs Company offered to give to the college seventy acres of the reservation above mentioned, together with a block of twenty acres on higher ground and a cash donation of $10,000, on condition that the trustees should raise $40,000 more.
At a meeting of the General Congregational Conference held at Denver on January 20, 1874, Mr. Haskell, as chairman of the committee, made a report in favor of establishing the college at Colorado Springs.
After the address of Mr. Haskell and a full discussion, conference decided without a dissenting vote to undertake at once the establishment of a Christian college in Colorado under Congregational auspices, having a board of trustees of not less than twelve or more than eighteen men, two-thirds of whom must be members of evangelical churches. Colorado Springs was also selected as the most suitable site and the offers made from that town through the educational committee were accepted.
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