Buena Vista University - Log Yearbook (Storm Lake, IA)

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I0-RUDDER-I9 4 1 I ' . 4- 1 1- Traditions of B. V. C. The germ from which Buena Vista College has grown was in the idea of taking charge of the Calliope Academy which was proposed to the Fort Dodge Presbytery in 1883. The following April, Fort Dodge was chosen as the location for a Presbyterian College and in the fall of 1885, the Fort Dodge Institute was opened with Rev. F. L. Kenyon as president. Two years later, it was decided that the school would not thrive there and a new location was sought. Fortunately, the Storm Lake Town Lot and Land Company offered a gift of eighty acres and twenty-five thousand dollars in buildings or in money. The title of the land was to be vested in seventeen trustees, nine of whom were to be chosen by the company. These were E. E. Mack, R. Lemon, J. C. Felt, Geo. Witter, A. D. Bailie, S. J. Powell, W. C. Kinne, E. C. Cowles, and P. Morey. School was conducted in an opera house until a building could be completed. The true beginning, then, of Buena Vista was a little over a quarter of a century ago, in 1891, with Rev. L. Y. Hayes as president and Rev. Geo. H. Fracker as one

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xl? ff . - A ,- ?,1g4X.1,, I9-RUDDER-.79 E X f 1 f. 1 .1 I ll 1 IXJ4 J of the first faculty members. In 1893, Miss Jennie Gordon Hutchinson was granted the first A. B., she later became our professor of Latin. Buena Vista won her first inter-collegiate debate in 1912 and her first State Ora- torical Contest in 1918. Steady progress has been the aim of those who have managed the affairs of the col- lege. This is manifest in the additions and changes made. The Miller-Stuart House became college property in 1901, it being the gift of Mrs. Lois G. Stuart of Audubon, and Rev. Wm. Miller of Des Moines, the first endowment campaign realized 550,000 During these years of progress, the Y. W. C. A. and Y. M. C. A., the Franklin and Star Societies, have become permanent organizations. Permanent, too, have become numerous customs and traditions. Every people has its customs and tra- ditions, no less have the people of Buena Vista. Let us, then, recall the origin of a few of these. Among the most interesting of B. V.'s customs is that of naming classes. Probably the first class to have a name was that of 1907. The Would Be's were Juniors .f .hx