Fort Hays State University - Reveille Yearbook (Hays, KS)

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Normal School for the four- weeks session. In September of that year the School, twenty-three students strong, began business all alone. Through various vicis- situdes, students and faculty waited, hoped and labored in the old quarters until 1904, when the new building provided for by the Legislature of 1903 was ready for occupancy. There was great rejoicing on that day in June when the school moved into the new building. This building comprised what is now the central portion of Picken Hall. The library occupied room 12. The “assembly room” consisted of what is now the quarters occupied by the Commerce and Latin de- partments. Sliding doors permitted these three rooms to be thrown into one. Here were held the general exercises of the School, the lecture course numbers, and the various school entertainments. There were three recitation rooms and one laboratory. Very meager this seems to us now, but then it seemed splendid. We rejoiced in our good fortune and looked forward with faith and hope to the future. The next building to rise upon the campus was the gymnasium. Completed in May, 1906. This at once became the social center of the School. For two years this building was used for “gym” work, general exercises, lecture course entertain- ments, commencements, and social functions galore. For all assemblies folding chairs were used. At the conclusion of “Chapel” each morning, the students would rise, fold their chairs, and to the strains of music would march around the room, depositing the chairs in neat stacks against the wall, — thus converting the auditorium into a gymnasium. A movable stage, built in sections, served the dramatic department in presenting such plays as Hamlet and As You Like It. Some of the scenery now used on the Auditorium stage was first used on this tem- porary stage. The main building was completed in 1908, by the addition of two wings. The Model Rural School building was first occupied on September 1, 1907. Next came the power plant and the dam. The latest addition to the group of buildings on the campus is the Industrial building, completed in 1912. The shops and the engineer’s residence are “immigrants,” having been brought over from the old fort. A good-sized volume might be filled with the chronicles of the School. It is an interesting story, too long for our space, — how the curriculum has expanded from a two-year course with no certificate privileges, to an eight-year course grant- ing one-year, three-year, and life certificates, and the degree B. S. in Education; how the faculty has grown from two members to twenty-four ; how the enrollment has grown from twenty-three to over seven hundred in the school year; how the legal status has changed from that of a branch of the Emporia Normal School to that of an independent institution, with a president of its own. Will the next twelve years witness as great progress as the first twelve of our history? Yes, and greater. Page 20

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u Historical OLD FORT HAYS The School Campus is historic ground. It is a part of the old Fort Hays mili- tary reservation, comprising 7,600 acres of land. Old Fort Hays was one of a line of military posts established soon after the Civil War, to protect the construction camps of the Union Pacific Railroad, and the settlements of the pioneers who had pushed their way westward into the great Plains. The post was established in 1865, and was located on Big creek, about fifteen miles southeast of the present reservation. It was named Fort Fletcher, in honor of former Governor Fletcher, of Mis- souri. About a year later the name was changed to Hays, in honor of General Alexander Hays, an officer in the Civil War. In June, 1867, a disastrous flood destroyed the post and drowned a number of soldiers. A new site was then se- lected, on the high ground lying south of Big creek, about half a mile south of the present city of Hays. The tract of land surveyed for the reservation included about 7,600 acres, lying about three miles along the course of Big creek. The tract was well supplied with water and timber, and made an ideal site for a military reservation. The city of Hays was founded in the spring of 1867, and its industrial and so- cial interests were intimately bound up with the life of the fort for two decades. Many stirring scenes of pioneer days are associated with old Fort Hays. Some of these have been immortalized by Mrs. Margaret Hill McCarter, in “The Price of the Prairie.” Mrs. Custer, in her book, “Following the Guidon,” has presented many vivid pictures of life at old Fort Hays, in the form of personal reminiscences. The annals of the post contain the names of many men in the military history of our country. Among the more noted of these may be mentioned Sheridan, Custer, Corbin, Hancock, Miles, Hazen, Forsythe, Lawton, and Wheaton. Fort Hays was abandoned as a military post in 1889. Various proposals were made for the disposition of the land comprising the reservation. Homesteaders were anxious to file upon such choice land, but public-spirited citizens felt it should be devoted to public purposes. The Legislature of 1889 was induced to ask Con- gress for a cession of the land to the State for a soldiers’ home. Congress did not make the grant. The Legislature of 1895 passed a resolution asking Congress for a cession of the land to the State for the purpose of establishing upon it a public park, an experiment station, and a branch of the State Normal School, but Con- gress failed to act. Finally, in March, 1900, an act was passed by Congress grant- ing the land to the State to be used for a State Normal School, an experiment sta- tion of the Agricultural College, and a public park. In February, 1901, the Leg- islature accepted the grant and created the two institutions. Owing to delays occasioned by controversy over claims of squatters upon the land, the Normal School was not started until 1902. The formal opening oc- curred on June 28 of that year, with thirty-four students and two faculty members. School first opened in the old hospital building. By agreement with the County Superintendent, the Ellis County Normal Institute combined with the Page 19

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Fort Hays Kansas Normal School FACULTY OF 1913-1914 William A. Lewis, A. B., B. S., B. S. in Ed., President . Valparaiso University, Armour Institute of Technology, Missouri State Normal School. Clarence J. Smith, A. B., A. M., Professor Manual Arts. Kansas State Normal School, Fairmount College, University of Kansas, University of Chicago, University of Wisconsin. Thomas M. Wood, B. S., . . . Professor of Blacksmithing and Leader of Band. Kansas State Agricultural College, Kansas State Normal School, College of Emporia, Stout Institute. George R. Tilford, A. B. in Ed., B. C. S., . . . . Professor Commerce. Kansas State Normnl School, New York University. Charles A. Shively, A. B., A. M., Professor Education. Kansas State Normal School, University of Kansas, University of Chicago. Anna Keller, Director Training School. Kansas State Normal School, University of Chicago Julia M. Stone, B. S. in Ed., .... Kansas State Normal School, University of Chicago James H. Beach, Kansas State Normal School, University of Kansas. ♦Ward W. Sullivan, A. B., A. M„ Professor History. Fort Ilays Kansas Normal School, University of Illinois. Elizabeth J. Agnew, B. S., Professor Domestic Science. Kansas State Agricultural College, Columbia University. Elizabeth Condit, Professor Domestic Art. Kansas Manual Training Normal. School. ■(■Jennie E. Nickles, A. B., A. M., Professor German. University of Kansas. Elizabeth Apel, A. B., Substitute Professor German. University of Kansas. Annette Foster, Professor Latin. Kansas State Normal School, University of Chicago. Doing advanced work in University of Illinois, t Traveling in Germany and Italy. Page 21 Professor Rural Education. Professor Geography and Civics.