Colorado College - Nugget Yearbook (Colorado Springs, CO)

Page 11 text:

GENERAL WILLIAM J. PALMER.

Page 13 text:

GENERAL WILLI A M J . PALME R Colorado College has had many loyal and generous friends during its short existence of twenty-eight years, but to none of them does it owe more than to William J. Palmer. He it was who, as president of the Colorado Springs Com- pany, secured the College for Colorado Springs by a gift of the College reservation and ten thousand dollars, and ever since its establishment he has been a stanch friend of the institution. •General Palmer was born on a Delaware farm in 1 830 and received his early education in the public and private schools of Philadelphia. At the age of seventeen he first began railroading, being employed by the Hemp field Eailroad Company. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the Federal army and served with distinction during the four years of that struggle. He earned his title as commander of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania cavalry. In 1869 he came to Colorado and began the construction of the Denver Eio Grande, and Kio Grande Western railroads. In 1871 he founded the city of Colorado Springs and two years later offered fifty-six acres of land and ten thou- sand dollars to any society which would found a college here. As a result of this offer Colorado College was founded in 1874. The first years of the College ' s existence were years of toil and hardship with little of encouragement for the strug- gling institution, and had it not been for General Palmer and a few others like him, the College would not have survived its infancy. In 1880 the first of our College buildings was erected and fittingly named in honor of this first loyal friend. Since those early years the College has grown rapidly, and with its growth has gained many friends who have given generously to its support, but in its comparative prosperity General Palmer has remained as loyal to it as he was in its adversity. Like President Slocum he has a high ideal for Colorado College, and is always ready to help it in any wav he can to attain this ideal.