University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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the corral he shot out through the opening and the ride to Oakland and the University was begun. The ride lasted four days : the first day only a few miles were made, but by night both man and horse were pretty well done up. The fourth day Hawkins rode from Stockton to Oakland, a distance of eighty miles. The next morning he commenced his entrance examinations. What became of the horse, do you say? He had developed a good case of spring halt, but was used by his master for a year or more, on a newspaper route, for it was as a news-carrier that Hawkins met his expenses during the early part of his college course. Among the twenty-five freshmen, not already mentioned, and who became pretty well known in the State were: James H. Budd. Clay M. Greene. J. B. Reinstein. Frank Otis. George J. Ainsworth. Thos. P. Woodward. E. Scott and Chas. B. Stone. The University spent the first four years of its existence in Oakland. The first year Professor John Le Conte was acting president. The second and third years Henry Durant. who had been president of the College of California, was president. The fourth year Daniel C. Gilman was president. With each year the classes increased in number. 74. ' 75 and ' 76 had entered. The grounds at Berkeley were being planted with cypress and eucalyptus. Frederick Billings, the landscape artist for Central Park. New York, had designed a plan for the future home of the University. My class assisted in the laying of the corner-stone of the Agricultural Building, now called South Hall, and my class set the stakes for the College of Letters Building, now called North Hall. At the time that South Hall was built we had not forgotten the earthquake of 1868. The building is a skeleton of Norway iron rods, built like a bird cage, and then filled in with stone, brick and mortar. North Hall was built of wood for the reason that the University was financially unable to make any other kind of construction. The building of North Hall made a lot of trouble for the University and its friends. In order to get the building ready for occupancy by commencement time in 1873 there was a hurry-up order for its construction. Dr. Samuel Merritt. of Oak- land, a graduate of Bowdoin College, a man of large proportions, and of large interests as well, who was a member of the Board of Regents, and who was very much interested in the University, undertook the building of what was then to be called the College of Letters. He had his own crew of builders, his own lumberyard, and the means for getting from Puget Sound and elsewhere the best of lumber with prompt delivery. He put the building up on time, with a saving to the State of $30.000. and then had a legislative committee on his back for doing what seemed to him and to the other regents to be an emergency call. That was the end of Dr. Merritt ' -i interest in the institution. When the University was first established the number of students was too small for the making of a military department, although required by law. But in 1871. after the classes of ' 74 and ' 75 had entered, the organization of a battalion of four companies was effected. Professor Welcker. the professor of mathematics, a graduate of West Point, and :M

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an ex-officer in the Confederate Army, was, by the authority of the Board of Regents and the Adjutant General of the State, made the head of the organization, and :nt Professor Soule was made Commandant of Cadets, Curtis H. Lindley was the ranking Cadet Officer. Thos. P. Woodward was Battalion Adjutant. James H. Budd was an Orderly Sergeant, and John E. Budd was the Corporal. The battalion appealed in parades in Oakland and San Francisco and went to Sacramento to assist in the inauguration of Governor Booth. The first uniform was dark blue ; the coat being a doub g-breasted frock, and the hat a black felt. The rifles were the heavy muzzle-loading Springfield, fcf the type used in the Civil War. It was on the trip to Sacramento that John Budd. prompted by Arthur Rodgers. William R. Davis, and Ed. Parker, made his famous speech to Corporals and Officers Assembled, and which lasted four hours: from 10 o ' clock in the evening until 2 in the morning. For recreation, there was while yet in Oakland, comparatively little of organized contest. Baseball was the leading sport. The Pacific Coast championship was won by the Wide Awake Club, composed chiefly of college men. The chief contestant was the Pacific Club, composed chiefly of players in San Francisco. Most of the games were played on the Clinton grounds, in what is now East Oakland. The championship bat for one series of games I saw only a few months ago. but I won ' t tell where I saw it. The quality of amateur baseball was as good in those days as it is now. Football, there was none, except as occasionally a spherical ball was brought to the small campus, sides chosen, coats hung on the fence, and we went at it under rules of our own making. Billiards formed quite a prominent part of the recreation, and Fennessy ' s Parlors at Eighth and Broadway was the general meeting place from 4 to 6. Debating held a -eery prominent place in college affairs. The Durant Rhetorical, which numbered among its members Arthur Rodgers. Hairy Whitworth. John M. Whitworth. George W. Reed and William R. Davis, was the parent organization. The Durant maintained the college paper, called for a time The Echo. which was published monthly, then bi-monthly, then weekly. A double quartet of excellent voices, well trained, constituted the University Glee Club. Charlie Stone. Will Davis. Ed. Parker. John Whitworth and George Ains- worth were the more prominent members of the club. Of pranks of the small college type there were plenty. The college bell weighing some 300 pounds was gotten down out of the belfry and hidden away to be brought out a month later and be made the motif (is that the word?) for a camp fire orgie on the campus. Dr. Durant ' s good old bossy cow, with proper persuasion, one night took up her quarters on the second floor of college hall, that brownish red building of five rooms, f shall always think that the young man who first registered in the University had something to do with those affairs. Professor Durant was our instructor in mental and moral philosophy. He was a 23