East Stroudsburg University - Stroud Yearbook (East Stroudsburg, PA)

Page 29 text:

SHAWNEE LODGE In 1905 Dr. Kempis daughter, Gertrude, was married to Mr. Harry Templeton by Dr. Kemp. The wedding took place in the rooms which are now the Dean of Womenis offices. Miss Jennie Ackerman, principal of the Model School, was doing a fine job in that capacity, and in 1906 it was announced that Kindergarten classes were to be started. More room was needed for the everrgrowing Model School; so a new training school building was proposed by the Board of Trustees. As early as 1907 the trustees were examining plans, estimating costs, and deciding on a location for the new building. Before the building could be erected it was necessary to expand the limits of the campus. The original campus was bounded on the west by an extension of Ransberry Avenue 25 and on the south by a line that ran close to the side of Stroud Hall. On the southern side of the main building was a strip of land owned by SCV' eral people. To procure this land, Professor Kemp, through a real estate agent, secured op tions on the property. Dr. J. A. Singer secured enough trustee votes to guarantee the purchase of this land. The faculty cottage, which is now located back of Wayne gymnasium, was on the newly acquired land and had to be moved. It was moved on rollers and pulled by horses and later used and kept as the infirmary. Below this house and on the strip of land just purchased by the Board of Trustees was a swamp covered with dense underbrush. Dr. Kemp Cleared much of this land himself by hand; one of the rewards for his labors was a bad case of sumac poison.

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Dr. E. L. Kemp On July 3, 1902, Professor Ellwood L. Kemp was elected principal of the East Stroudsburg State Normal School. Dr. Kemp was born in Hamburg, Berks County, in 185 7. He attended the public school in that town until he was seven' teen. He had to leave school to work because his fathers health had been shattered by service in the Northern Army during the Civil War. He worked at several trades until the summer of 1877, when he learned of a teacher vacancy in the Orwigsburg school. He successfully passed the teachers examination and for two years taught in that position. It was during this time that he made the acquaintance of a Lutheran minister, 24 who encouraged him to prepare himself for col, lege. Mr. Kemp was then graduated from Frank, Iin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylv vania, in 1881 at the head of his class. After gradr uation he taught at Keystone State Normal School, which was located in Kutztown, Pennsyle vania. Later he was chosen president of Wichita University in Kansas. Just before going to Kansas he was licensed as a Reformed minister, having prepared himself privately, and while president of the University he supplied several mission churches. He remained in Kansas for about five years and then decided to return East. He brought with him his famous white pony, which later accompanied him to East Stroudsburg. He served as president of Palatinate College in Meyerstown before becoming vicerprincipal of the State Norr mal School in East Stroudsburg in 1893. The purchase of a fiveehundredrdollar manikin and additions to the library, plus a very large attendance, were outstanding features of 1904. The basketball team was state champion in this same year. Additional cars had to be put on the trains going West because of the flood of students going home at the close of school in June, 1904.

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In April, 1908, work was finally begun on the new building. It was while excavation was going on that the glacier'scarred rock, mounted on a concrete platform on the front campus, was found. Later, Emery Gordon, 21 student at the Normal School, found an Indian tomahawk in the same excavation. This relic of the days of' the Indians was placed in the cornerstone of the new building, now Shawnee Hall, which was to be four stories high and to have sixteen classrooms, and auditorium, and dormitory space. The corr nerstone was laid May 20, 1908, a great day for the school since there was a big parade and n0 Classes. One of the events of the basketball season of 1908 was the teams leaving the floor during a game with Muhlenburg because of 3. disagree ment with the referees over fouls called on the East Stroudsburg team. East Stroudsburg was ahead, 5'3, and there were only three minutes left to play when the team left the floor. The boys were very rudely treated after they walked off. Later in the season the basketball team he came State Normal champions after defeating Mansfield, 22,10. In the class of 1908 there were one hundred and eleven graduates. Valedictorian 0f the class was George N. Kemp, who was the son of E. L. Kemp, principal of the school. During his normal school career he was a leading member of the basketball and baseball teams. Second honors went to Lillian Bennett, sister of Miss Ida M. Bennett, at present an instructor at the East Stroudsburg State Teachers College. 1906-07 BASKETBALL TEAM