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Page 3 text:
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Thi» photograph of Teddy Rooacve’t jpeakiog »o «tudenlt from ibe ltepi of Old Mein it from the Alfred Thome» Co'leclion, end I» elvo Included In • recently poblilhed Wtfory of Ariione Srete wrirren by Alfred Thome»-end 6rn« t Hopkin». Y67IRBOOK 61 proudly presents a pictorial view of the incomparable excitement of a booming university — its faculty, its students actively engaged in deep thought, in serious study; in relaxed fun. Research Division Department of Library. Archives and Pubic Record! STATE OF ARIZONA
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Page 4 text:
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HISTORICAL SKETCH - ERNEST J. HOPKINS 3n% Wn3 I «, probability aside when you consider the history of ASU. Among America's largest fifty or sixty universi- ties, few have a more unusual story to tell. The Arizona desert was improbable enough in archeo- logical times. If became legendary when the Conquista- dores explored it in the 1500's. A lifetime ago it was still America's last Frontier, an Indian-ridden wasteland with a few hardy American pioneers. Some will say that the conquest of Arizona's central desert by stored water, and the modern rise of the Greater Phoenix metropolitan area on that redeemed desert, have been the most im- probable of all. Improbable, certainly, was the fact that in 1885, 35 years before water came, Arizona's pioneers decided to bring higher education to desert-land and established twin institutions — a Territorial University at Tucson, a fairly large town, and a Territorial Normal School at Tempe, a very small 1 cable-ferry and grainmill village in the thinly-settled central Arizona desert. The Tucson location was natural enough; the Tempe one was as unlikely, at the time, as a small oasis in mid-Sahara. Nobody, except Don Carlos Hayden, the Normal School's Founder, could have foreseen that the Normal School, founded on $5,000, would one day be a Univer- sity in the upper five per cent of American collegiate size. More improbable still was the fact that, when the 33- student Normal School opened its doors and for some four years afterward, this was the only institution of higher learning in a desert area one-fifth the size of the United States. Collegiate institutions existed at los An- geles, Reno, Provo, Salt Lake City, in the Denver area, and at Fort Worth Austin, Texas. But in all the area bounded by these points, and south to the border of Mexico, no other advanced education could be found except in the four-room institution at the base of Tcmpe Butte. This held true, after February 8, 1886, when the Normal School opened, until New Mexico founded its University in 1889 and the University of Arizona, char- tered on the same day as the Normal School, opened in the Fall of 1891. In point of operation, ASU is today the oldest institution of higher learning in what is modernly called the Southwest. Why it was founded in the first place is a story in it- self. The early 1870's were a time when Chief Cochise's Apaches were murdering settlers right and left and the few American pioneers were fighting for their lives. At this worst of times, a new Governor who was a fa- natic for education came into the Territory and proceed- ed, of all things, to launch e system of public schools. Governor Safford risked his life by riding desert trails, visiting the scattered settlements, and conducting a one- man crusade for schools. Result: seven were founded in 1872, and when Safford left the Governorship five years later there were 28. In four years after ho loft office, the number increased to 148. But — there were almost no teachers on the last Fron- tier. By strenuous advertising teachers were brought in from outside, but if they were fominine, they soon got married. In 1881, 50 of the 148 schools could find no teachers, and had to close. In Arizona the cry started: let's train our own teachers! The Normal School at Tempo, today's Arizona State University, was the an- swer to that urgent need. It was Charles Trumbull Hayden, known as Judge Hayden or Don Carlos, who responded to that need. Of a Connecticut family, well educated, young Hayden had come West in the 1830's, teaching frontier schools. At the time of the Fortyniner gold-rush he turned trader on the Santa Fe trail, setting up in New Mexico in the freighting and warehousing business. When the road was opened to the Coast, Hayden came to Tucson on the first stage that ran; he was a large-scale trader there for years. In 1870, drivina his freight-laden wagon across the desert, he climbed Tempo Butte, fell in love with the riverbank location, and proceeded to found a town there. Settlers came in; the first irrigation ditches were dug; by 1884 this was a flourishing town of 800 people, with milps of desert all around. Then came the cry for a Territorial Normal School, and Hayden, who led the movement, decided to make his town an educational center of Arizona. It wasn't easy. Tucson, a far larger community, wanted a University. The Central Valley, with only 1,900 regis- tered voters, had no political power. John Samuel Arm- strong, a brilliant young Southerner, was business man- ager of Hayden's grainmill. In 1884 Armstrong ran for the Territorial Legislature, led the county ticket with 808 votes, and went up to Prescott, the capital, determ- ined to get the Normal School. By landing the educa- tional chairmanship of the House of Representatives, young Armstrong made the powerful Tucson forces come to him to get their university bill passed, and so worked out a trade. The Thieving? Thirteenth Legis- lature, as it was known, voted to charter both institu- tions, and Governor Tritle signed the twin bills on Founders Day, March 12, 1885. Armstrong thus became the legislative Founder of ASU. That a building on- campus should be named for him was recently suggest- ed by the Alumni Association. Hayden, who became president of the Normal School's first Board, rushed a four-room building to completion. Tempeans, George Wilson primarily, gave twenty acres of desert land for its campus. Professor Hiram Bradford Farmer was retained as the school's first president, prin- cipal, and teacher. The future ASU was founded on an appropriation of $5,000, had $3,500 for its first two years' running expenses, and opened February 8, 1886, with 31 students in attendance, two enrolling later. Its only equipment was a globe map of the world; it had blackboards, and Professor Farmer himself dug down into his pocket and bought the chalk. Continued on p g 262
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