Oregon State University - Beaver Yearbook (Corvallis, OR)

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It. I.. Arnold, A. M.. |»h. 1).. President 1S7I-1SV2 During President Arnold's incuin-bency the growth of Oregon brought on certain changes which led many to be- I lieve that the Agricultural College | f | should be a state school. Senator Thomas Cauthorn introduced a bill in the Legislature to this effect, and the bill became law within twenty-four hours after its introduction. So great was the influence of Senator Cauthorn. who was also Secretary of the Regents, that at a subsequent session of the Legislature he was granted the extraordinary privilege as a private citizen of speaking on the Senate door upon the appropriation which made Cauthorn llall possible. Suddenly stricken, he was taken from the Senate chamber at Salem by a special train to his death chamber near Corvallis. Of this event M. L. Pipes has written: That was a fitting close to his public career, when he stood upon the Senate floor by invitation, a Senator no more, only a private citizen. Me stood with the shadow of death upon his face and spoke on the very scene of his past struggles one more word in behalf of the college. And then, wounded unto death, he took his armor olT. lit the bill establishing the Oregon Agricultural College as a state school, the location « f the college was left to the community that would-donate a suitable administration building for that purpose. Corvallis rose grandly to the situation. Subscription lists, beaded by Judge John Burnett. Bushrod Wilson, Pundcrson Avery. M. S. Woodcock, Colonel Hoag. Thomas Cauthorn and others contributing $. 00 and like amounts, swelled the fund to $20,000. with which the Administration Building was erected—the best school building in Oregon until that time for the money. The sacrifice required for the Administration Building was so heavy at the time that it came like heart’s blood from the makers of the college. This condition, with subsequent associations. sentiment and history connected with the old edifice, has been such that were the building threatened, the donors and their descendants would rise up with one voice of prayer, as did one in olden days when he came in the woodsman imploring him to spare the old oak. The faculty and thirteen Regents had also installed three industrial courses —Agriculture, Mechanical Engineering and Household Economy, eliminating the old literary courses as rapidly as possible. A farm was purchased for purposes of experimentation. The first Mechanical Building. Cauthorn Hall. Alpha Hall, the Chemistry Building and the octagon barn were erected. The college had about half as many students as the State Normal at Monmouth. or the State University at Eugene. Starting the college anew was like reorganizing America under the second constitution. Everything had to be done over again by the slow process of evolution. At this critical moment the clock struck low twelve. January 30, 180S. and a messenger came from a home where there was crepe on the door and announced to Oregon that after an incumbency of twenty years as president. Doctor Arnold was no more. Doctor John M. Bloss. former State School Superintendent of Indiana, became president. During bis administration the attendance reached 307 students, representing twenty-eight of the thirty-two counties of Oregon. The students were classified as follows: “Post-graduate. 14: fourth year (mechanical). !»: third year. . .4: second year. 03; lir t year. 173; preparatory, so; special students. 2.” These were taught by twenty-two professors and instructors. The graduating class of fifty this year was without precedent f«»r numbers. President Bloss divided the college students into two literary societies, called the Ciceronians and Webster tans. Each society was subdivided into three chapters. The six chapters were placed tinder the supervision of as many professors who joined the students in the culture of a fine literary spirit. Miss Mildred Linville (Patterson) won the interstate collegiate medal for oratory at Seattle, and ustin T Buxton, now Master of the State

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fourteen years of age were required to sign six college laws, two of which will he interesting. Law III prohibited students front playing at cards or billiards. Law V, which drew a very clear civil engineer’s line between co-education and roo-cducation. is given verbatim: Young ladies boat ding in the village or vicinity who are under the care of the faculty will not be permitted to receive the visits of young gentlemen, without the written consent of their parents, under such restrictions as the faculty may require. The Agricultural course of two years was one of the best in the nation at that time; yet it reminds one of a course of pharmacy with no pharmacy in it. or a course in medicine which is thoroughly innocent of materia medica. It was a good, strong course in science and mathematics, and it made good, useful, scholarly men and women competent to stand 1 efore kings. It served its purpose well in its day: ami the mathematics and sciences, like so many letters of the alphabet, have since spelled out in full the courses introduced later in agriculture, agronomy, agrostology, horticulture, forestry, olericulture and what not. Below is given a fac simile of this course, which is important chiefly because it was the first formal announcement of scientific instruction in agriculture in Oregon. Agriculture COURSE or ITUD7. First Year.—First Term.—Chemical Physics and Inorganic Chemistry, Structural and Physiological Botany. First five books of Davies’ Legendre. Second 7 rm.—Organic Chemistry. How Crops Grow. English Language. Third Tt.nn.—Qualitative Analysis. Detection of tlie alkalies, alkaline-earths, earths, etc. Systematic Botany; Excursions and Collections. English Language. Second Year.—First Term.—Qualitative Analysis cu..tinned. Detection and Separation of the Elements. Chain Surveying and Mensuration. Geometrical Drawing. General Principiesof Zoology, (or German). Second 'Term.—General Principles of Geology. Vegetable Economy; How Plants Feed. Topographical Drawing. Animal Physiology, (or German). 'Third Term.—Gcolngv of Oregon. Vegetable Economy. Entomology, (or German). President Finley continued in office till 1871. Professor Joseph Emery having declined the office. Benjamin L. Arnold. A. M., Ph. I)., was selected President. Doctor Arnold was a philosopher who could easily have gained first rank in any position of school work. In chemistry, language, mathematics. or metaphysics, he was equally at home. 11 is diligence in preparation. his ability to impart and his high conception of human possibilities made President Arnold eminent among teachers as an inspiration to his students. His marked personality differed from that of every other man. There was something in his countenance that baffled the artist, and the kindly-light of his eye was too rich for the painter t« commit t«» canvas. Doctor Arnold’s students everywhere speak with pride of the moments he mingled with them. About this time Professor B. J. Hawthorne was elected to the chair of language. On the 17th day of April. 1871. the Board of Trustees purchased from George Roberts and Elizabeth Jane Roberts 34.85 acres of land for a college farm, which has since been transformed into the campus. Professor Hawthorne also took charge of the Department of Agriculture, agriculture as a study being added at this time to the department. Hence Professor Hawthorne was the first teacher of Agriculture in the college. He formulated a very practical course and undertook experimentation. One of the permanent evidences of Ins work is the present conduit which drains the campus. This is one of the first hits of experimentation in drainage done in a scientific way in Oregon. 15

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Grange, was a close contestant for first place in the first intercollegiate oratorical contest held in Oregon, the medal being won by the representative of the State University. The preparatory students were allotted to the Athenian and Madisonian Literary Societies. About this time college yells and games came floating in on the wings of student life. Veil meetings were announced in chapel; and soon “Zip Boom Bee filled the air. I always enjoyed that simple yell of frightful meaning, must be read out of yell may be fully six words for it. But the words their order that the appreciated. “OA- l x Senator Thomas Cant horn when the living It was not un-more active and son. Her also OA-OAC is meaningful: “Bee stands for business: “Boom, a good deal of noise about it ; and Zip. let it conic quick, like a streak of belated lightning. And that's the way the boys played football. But old farmers who stood about as onlookers for the first time did not know what to make of a game which consisted of a little counting, a rush, and a tumbling pyramid of human flesh. However, they were surprised and they usually laughed pyramid arose to its feet with no necks nor limbs broken, common for them to remark that the exercise was a little dangerous thvu the boys were accustomed to while hoeing potatoes at home. To compromise the situation with the farmers, the boys christened their mascot as “Pap Hayseed. and the conduct of the mascot on the field as well as in class was such that he gave the word hayseed a respectability in Oregon which no other state enjoys. This reminds one that at the first game of football a lady with a Madonna face was heard to say: My who starts to college soon, must not join in that desperate foolishness. son came the next year and joined the football squad, and his mother came .’HM) miles and yelled Zip Boom Bee louder than a college baud, while her son helped win in his first intercollegiate game. What that mother did in her enthusiasm has since been repeated so often by other mothers that it is history. Much work fruitful of results was carried on in the little experiment station building now used as the School of Mining Engineering. Analyses were made which had to do largely with the introduction of beet culture and the establishment of the sugar industry in Oregon The School of Pharmacy was installed, the present Mechanical Hall was built to take the place of the one which had been burned down, and to the greenhouses was added the Horticultural Building. Compulsory labor of one hour per day was required of all students in their respective courses. For extra time, students were allowed ten cents per hour. Board with room in the dormitories was announced at $3.50 per week, and the small tuition which had been charged was eliminated. Although tuition now became free, and the resources of the institution were reduced hv that much, the President and the Board of Regents were so careful with the finances during the panic that the college was enabled to decline $5,000 appropriated as a maintenance fund by John M. JiloSs, A. M.. M. I).. President 1S92-1S%