Colorado College - Nugget Yearbook (Colorado Springs, CO)

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ft r :: , iV SO WE RESPECTFULLY SUBMIT to the students, the alumni, and the other friends of Colorado College, Volume I of THE PIKE ' S PEAK NUGGET. You may test it in the crucible of criticism, you may horde it away like a miser, or you may make it an ornament for your table and exhibit it freely to your friends. Our labor will be repaid if you find it true gold. THESE SENTIMENTS are not unlike those felt by the current staff seventy years later, and so we echo this INTRODUCTION with but minor emendations. SO WE RESPECTFULLY SUBMIT to the students, the alumni, and the other friends of Colorado College, Volume Seventy- Three of THE PIKE ' S PEAK NUGGET, the record of the year of the Centennial, 1974. ALTHOUGH COLORADO COLLEGE is strictly non-sectarian and independent of all ecclesiastical control, its early history shows the influence of the Congregational Church. THE FOUNDATION of Colorado College was first actively un- dertaken by the Congregational Association in 1873 due to a proposal of Reverend Edward P. Tenney, who realized the need for educational facilities under Christian auspices. The first ac- tive work of the association was prompted by Professor Thomas Haskell, who entered into the foundation with great earnestness and acted as financial agent during the establishment of the College. The College was officially approved at a meeting of The Congregational Conference in Denver on January 20, 1874, two years prior to the statehood of Colorado. Chief financial backer of the young college was General William Jackson Palmer, owner and builder of the Denver Rio Grande Railroad. The Reverend Jonathan Edwards was in charge of the opening of the college.

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ON MAY 6, 1874, the association opened the first classes of Colorado College in the old Wanless Building (now the First National Bank Building) with an enrollment of Seventeen Students. The following September a two-room temporary building was erected opposite Acacia Park with the enrollment increased to forty students. For six years this building remained the home of Colorado College. By this time the Panic of 1873 and the grasshoppers of 1874 had completely paralyzed business and hopes. The cry of those who remain- ed in the territory was money for bread, and not money for colleges. President Dougherty went East at this time to appeal for financial assistance but after a most earnest effort reported that nothing could be done at that time in the way of assisting Colorado College financially, and with this report came his resignation. REVEREND EDWARD P. TENNEY was sent out from New England to investigate the reported possibilities of the College and upon his favorable report was elected President of the College, and he assumed his active duties in 1876. President Tenney ' s coming brought new life and hope to the college. President Tenney was an advocate of the highest standards of scholarship and was not satisfied with anything below the standards of Har- vard and Yale. He had, of course, the problem of finance. For the purpose of securing a large en- dowment fund without begging it, he entered upon a land scheme which, when viewed in light of pre- sent day business ventures, was exceedingly far- sighted and prospectively profitable. However, the venture ended in failure, and his office was vacated by the Trustees in 1884. His major con- tribution was the foundation of the present-day campus which began with the construction of Cutler Hall in 1877 and its occupation in January of 1880. The College was run by a faculty committee during the intervening years, and the future of the College was definitely in doubt. This bleak picture continued until 1888.