Bethel University - Spire Yearbook (St Paul, MN)

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The Acorn VOL. I. MAY, 1909 No. 7 ARTISTIC EYE OF NATURE. Who can paint Like nature? ran imagination boast Amid her gay creatjor. hues like hers? And can he mi? them with that matchless skill. And lay them on so delicately tine. And loose them in each other, as appears In every bud that blows? —Thomson. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE SCHOOL. It was in 1903. at the General Conference in Stromsburg. Nebr.. that the Swedish Baptists appointed a committee to consider the advisability of establishing a secondary school. At the next annual meeting. held in Kansas City, Mo., said committee submitted its plans and recommendations. The report led to the unaimous adoption of the following motion: That the brethren, Dr. Frank Peterson, Uev. O. P. Peterson, Rev. O. Bodien, Dr. Robert O. Earl. Dr. Drvid Gordh, Mr. John Halvarson, Mr. John Nicholson, be commissioned to organize a Board, to incorporate the same, and. in behalf of the General Conference, direct everything pertaining to the success ol the school.” In the minutes of the next annual meeting, in 1905. we read: — “The committee, appointed by the General Conference, has elected an additional number of members, and is now organized into a Board. The name of the school is Bethel Academy. Dr. Arvid Gordh and Rev. J. O. Backlund have been engaged as instructors. The school begins the second day of October in the new edifice of the Elim Church of Minneapolis.” The work of the opening year was divided into two departments—Preparatory and

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4 THE ACORN Academic. Thirty students were enrolled in the regular academic course. Mr. Horace Peterson gave assistance in the Academic department and Miss Ruth Sandvall in special evening classes. The Bethel Academy Male Chorus was under the leadership of Mr. Victor Bodien. The following year the school was cared for in the same temporary quarters. Classes were multiplied and we found considerable difficulty in conducting the work satisfactorily. We struggled on. month after month, but felt very keenly the need of a home of our own, yea, we felt, that not only the development of the school but its very existence was dependent on a right solution of the building problem. No wonder then, that we received the news with rejoicing, that the administration had decided to erect a building on the beautiful site already secured in St. Anthony Park. On the Uth of June. Mr. Olof Swenson, the generous friend of the Institution, invited us to lay the corner stone, and the house was completed in time for the opening of the Fall term. October 1st. Now the school had a modern brick structure, heated by hot water and lighted by gas, and containing recitation rooms, reading room, furnished rooms for a number of students, dining hall, and kitchen. Thus Bethel Academy came to be located in North St. Anthony Park, a beautiful residence district, midway between St. Paul and Minneapolis, on the Como-Interurban Electric Line, within the five cent limit of either city. Hopefulness marked the opening of the third year. Of the former staff of teachers, only the principal remained. But the vacancies on the faculty were now more than filled by four new and able instruc- tois. all full of life and enthusiasm. Mr. Horace Peterson, whose assistance during the first year had been appreciated by all, entered upon another year of service. The new appointees were Miss Freda Swenson of St. Paul and Mr. David E. Haglund of Lindsborg and Me. Alfred J. Wingblade of Topeka. Kansas. The year was most profitable. Commencement came, and our first graduates, Carl Tidema.n of New Haven, Conn., and Leonard Palmquist of Oakland. N'ebr.. received their diplomas. Mr. Peterson discontinued his service in the spring of 1908. and with the opening of the present school-year Mr. William Smith began his work in the departments of history and science. By his untiring labor, and by the liberality of the Young People of the First Swedish Baptist Church of St. Paul, we now have a laboratory, well equipped with all apparatus needful for the teaching of physics. A recommendation to establish a commercial department—an idea entering into the original plans of the school—met with the approval of the Board. This promising department? offering courses in book-keeping and shorthand, has been in charge of Mr. R. C. King, an expert penman and an able instructor in business branches. The students of this department have had the privilege of taking one or more subjects in the regular academy without any extra charge. Space does not permit us to tell of the Missionary Band, the Literary Society, the Male Chorus, the Quartettes, the Athletic Association, and—The Acorn, all contributing factors in the development of gifts and the enriching of character. Arvid Gordh.