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

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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

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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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4 i 51, gs ,I -,L -42 f - ff: 10-RUDDER-10 ftijs 52? when they received their name from the Seniors at a party. This name was kept during the year but was not generally known throughout the college. At one time the 1908 class was known as The Three Gracesn but in their annual, the first Rudder published, they are known as a Species not yet classified . No name was given to the class of 1909 while they were Freshmen, but in the early part of their Sophomore year, they chose The People as a fitting name for their class. In the same year this class made the custom a permanent one by formally naming the Freshmen, or the class of 1910, Dumplings , The only break in the custom was in 1911 when the class of 1915 tired of waiting for a name, even an appeal to Santy not prevailing, and named themselves Mewasams . Later the Sophomores dubbed this class Prattlers . No final agreement on the name was ever reached. Since then, the Freshman class has always been duly named by the Sophomores, although several classes have come perilously near forfeiting their right to name the new class, since this must be done before the Christmas vacation or the Freshmen are given the right to choose their own name. The color ceremony was established by the class of 1912, its purpose being to re- place the usual color rush by a formal presentation of the Freshman colors by the XX X. K 1 1' 1 ifniYwY , 1 it 1 'x as 9, v1 v seg