Ball State University - Orient Yearbook (Muncie, IN)

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REMINISCENCES OF THE PRESIDENT “On the spot now occupied by the main building of the Terre Haute school there stood, when I was a very small boy, a brick school house known, I think, as the Vigo County Seminary. This school was conducted by a school master of the old type whose name was Benjamin Hayes, familiarly and to this day known and spoken of in Terre Haute as ‘Uncle Benny Hayes.’ With Uncle Benny Hayes in the old County Seminary building on this very spot of ground I spent my first day in school as a boy of seven in the year 1857.’ “My direct connection with the State Normal School dates from the opening of the institution on January 6, 1870. On the morning of that day when the school opened its doors to receive students, I was one of eighteen or twenty persons who offered themselves a willing sacrifice to the first experiment in Indiana in the professional training of teachers for the public schools. “Although, except for a period of three years, I have been connected with the State Normal as a student, teacher and officer since its opening, I recall this first day more vividly than any other day in its history. At nine o’clock the president called the little group of persons present to order, and the venerable Barnabas C. Hobbs, then President of the Board, conducted the first chapel exercises by reading a lesson from the Bible and then kneeling on the hard, bare floor and offering a fervent prayer for the success of the State Normal School in the years to come.” “It requires no prophet’s eye to see that educational Indiana is entering upon an era of enlarged opportunity and enriched usefulness to the commonwealth. That this institution may do its full part in meeting the larger responsibilities which lie at the doors of all schools of the State is my hope and prayer.”

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OUR DONORS OR more than thirty years the Ball brothers have been in business in J Muncie. During that time they have been connected with almost every progressive movement or philanthropic enterprise the community has undertaken. Whether in the field of moral reform, civic improvement, or social betterment,— whatever the work, if it has been in the interest of com¬ munity uplift and the betterment of Muncie, it has always had their support. Ever interested in the welfare of young men and young women they have, both by large contributions and by their active interest and moral en¬ couragement, fostered schools, libraries, young men’s and young women’s Christian associations, art exhibits, and everything connected or allied with educational work. From its first inception these men have been anxious to see tbe Muncie Normal School on a permanent basis. While it was a private enterprise every effort to establish the school on a firm financial footing had their sup¬ port. It was due largely to their forethought and interest that the buildings were kept in repair and looked after during periods when no school was maintained; and in the efforts, at different times, to secure such legislation as would lead to the school being made a state, institution they have been leaders. When the time came at which there seemed opportunity to make the school a part of the Indiana State Normal School system, the property, having been purchased by the Ball brothers to prevent its being dismantled and en¬ tirely lost for educational purposes, was turned over by them as a free gift to the state, the necessity for the large initial expense, which would other¬ wise have been necessary in starting a new school, being thus obviated. By this gift they have added another to the many acts of generosity already to their credit, and have established themselves in the minds and hearts of the people of Eastern Indiana who have long felt the need of a free state school for higher education in this part of the state. The Orient is glad in this, its first issue, to voice the appreciation of the students of the school for this generous gift. It has made possible the establishment of an institution which serves the people of Eastern Indiana in the double capacity of furnishing, free, higher education to their young people and supplying trained and efficient teachers for their children.