Oregon State University - Beaver Yearbook (Corvallis, OR)

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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%

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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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tin preceding Legislature. This is probably the only incident of the kind in Oregon history. August l. 1896, the Regents elected Hon. H. B. Miller, one of their number President of the college to succeed Doctor Bloss. who resigned. President Miller. a tine business man of wide acquaintance. administered the finances of the college and directed the experiment station. Professor F. Bcrchtold. A. M., the senior member of the faculty, was chosen dean of the college. The President developed the industrial features of the institution whenever and wherever it was possible. Hence many changes were made in the curricula to that end. The faculty strove to reach the farmers as well as the students, so as to obtain results more immediate. Farmers’ institutes grew more popular, and a large portion of the people were in this way brought into touch with the institution for the first time. The armory and gymnasium was built. The literary societies, which were reorganized and renamed with constitutions of their making, became social as well as literary. In the catalogue, Doctor Margaret Snell, as manager of the two dormitories, made the following announcement regarding the cost of living -at Cauthorn Hall, which brought many new students the following year: “It is confidently believed, from the experience gained in the management of the girls' hall last year, that the cost of living will not exceed six dollais per calendar month of thirty or thirty-one days. The hall will be under the supervision of Lieutenant C. F.. Denter, U. S. A., as commandant. Doctor Thomas M. (latch was president for a decade beginning 1897. During his administration the school was more than doubled in attendance and capacity. The Hall of Agriculture and Waldo Hall were built and the Chemical Building was devoted to Mining Engineering. Courses in Music, Forestry. Civil Engineering. Electrical Engineering and Literary Commerce were introduced. The attendance, which gradually grew to 833. was divided as follows: 745 regular students. 56 short course students, and 32 students taking only music. But let President J. K. Weatherford, who speaks for the Regents, tell you of Doctor Catch: for the Regents are the highest tribunal in college circles: “President Catch, reputed for long experience and classic finish, came to us when we were sorely in need of a guiding mind, and grasped the helm with a firm and steady hand, and with the poise of genius directed its course onward with a well-defined purpose and a definite aim and object in view. He came to Oregon in 1859 as president of the Willamette University, at Salem. Since then lie has been president of Wasco Academy, the University of Washington and the Agricultural College, and all of these institutions are indebted in great part for their eminent success to the directing and guiding mind of Professor Catch. He is one of the pioneers of pioneers in the line of higher education of the Pacific Coast, and now at a ripe age he retires with the honors and with the blessings of many of the younger people of the state, who were by him directed in the pathway of honor and success Under his administration new vigor and new life were felt in every department. To him is due in a great measure the splendid institution that now tells upon the activities and development of the material resources of Oregon. as well as upon the social life and character of its citizens.” Upon Dr. Catch’s resignation. Dr. Kerr was elected to the presidency May 2. 1907. and since his inauguration, in the summer of 1907. the Mechanic Arts Building. Agronomv Building. Y. M. C. A. Building and the new barn have been built. Alpha Hall has been transformed into the Pharmacy Building. and the blacksmith shop into a mining laboratory. At the present time the following buildings are under contemplation: Central Agricultural Building, at a cost of $55,000: central heating plant. $35,000; armory and drill hall. $35,000: greenhouses, $5.ooo. The course in Literary Commerce has been changed to Commerce; also Household Science to Domestic Science and Art. Several new industrial courses have been introduced, and it lion. It. it. Miller (‘resident is .-ls'j?