Kansas State University - Royal Purple Yearbook (Manhattan, KS)

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The original site of the campus is marked by a monument against which leans Harold Nelson, who dug through libraries, dusty attics and private collections to assemble this photo-history. Preserved in stone is the memory of Kansas State ' s humble beginning. This lettered arch which once crowned the front f f Bluemont College Building was rescued from the oblivion of a farmer ' s barn to span the southern wall of the Library Art gallery. emphasis on literature, morals and elliics instead of much-needed practical and technical training. The only attempt at physical addition was the purchase of a boarding hall. Built originally by private parties, the hall was later purchased by the college for $10,000. It housed men students in one part and women in the other. A widely circulated story of a certain strait-laced faculty member who is said to have suggested a board fence be built down the center of the walk leading from the hall to prevent the oppo- site sexes from associating with each other unduly. Early Social Life Kansas State ' s earliest social organization was the Bluemont Literary Society, designed to combine pleasure with forensic training. In 1868 the society split to form the Alpha Beta and Webster Societies. A field of corn, or rather an attempt by one of the professors to grow corn in the rocky clay soil led to the change to the present campus in 1871. The ex- periment convinced the faculty and the Board of Regents that any attempt to fulfill the agricultural provision of the Morrill Act would be futile until the college obtained some more productive land. The Friends and fishing lillcd many Imppv liours lor curly Kan- Staters. The Blue River and Wildcat creek were favorite ham for study-wearied students before the days of shows and varsilic Literary societies sponsored most of the early si liclore Ihc advent of other social organizations. Pi ildcal rated high with the society members. long the

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LONG, LONG AGO Kansas State College, builder of personalities, contributor to science, leader in midwestern education. Seventy-five years of service to individuals, the state and the nation. The hisl.M-N of tilis college is not the dry record of edu- cators, research workers, and politi- cians. It is more than a chronicle of events. It is tlir Steaming up the Kaw alter coming all llir »ii rrotii Connecticut, the Hartrord hnMi ' lil New Englanders to earlv Manhattan. and its struggle to 11 Nf and grow and serve through the changing decades. Although (lie story ollieiallx Ix- gins February If). 1863, when the stair Kansas Stale Agricul- legLslature furinall located tural College at Manhattan under the [ r(j i iuii of the Morrill Act, the real birth of the ill lil nliun occurred several years earlier. Kansas State College was born nientall in I!!, ' ), ' ) as the steamboat Hartford wound its way slowly up the Kansas River bearing the founders of .Manhattan. Four years later the vision took physical form with the ereeliori of I lie liluemont College building on a hill about two miles west of the present campus. Here elementary subjects and a preparatory course were taught to a handful of students soHcited from the infant town and surrounding country. When Kansas became a state in 1861, the poorly- supported school was offered as a site for the state university but the offer was rejected because the governor was pledged to locate the university at Lawrence. During the following year, however, the passage of the Morrill act, providing for the establish- ment of state colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts, opened the way for another state-supporled inslilulion. State Accepts Offer Inimedialrly I he Hluemont College association repeated its olfcr of I lie Bluemont building, and 100 acres of land. This time the offer was accepted on February 16, 1863, the governor signed the legislative act and Kansas Slate College was in legal existence. Along Willi ilir S2. ' ).(l(l() gift of the campus and hniiding of lilncnionl ( ' .ollege came Rev. Joseph Denison from the old association to be president of the institu- I ion. During its first ten years the college grew slowly, graduating onK I. ' ) students, most of them teachers. It «as a mislil. The (iirriciiium a8s classical with Westward-bound wagon trains wound their way up the dusty road tl Poyntz Avenue. This picture was taken in 18.58, looking toward the river. Bluemont College Building brought edu- cation to the pioneer community and cradled the infant Kansas State.

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Women should learn to sew declared President Anderson. From that time on domestic art has been offered to all Kansas State girls. These early seamstresses had to treadle their own. town of Manhattan, fearful that the college would be combined with the university at Lawrence, contributed a generous sum of money and the present 155-acre campus was purciiased. The following year a pre- tentious barn was planned and one wing erected. Then came an about face and real progress. The change began with a legislative investigation of the college and ended in the appointment of an executive. Anderson Made President John A. Anderson, the new president, took the chair in 1873 and occupied it for only six years, but in that short time he completely reorganized the college, swinging it out of the backwater of classical education into the current of usefulness to the information- hungry people of the expanding state. He abolished the literary course, made 50 minutes of constructive physical labor mandatory for all able- bodied students, installed telegraph between buildings, and offered courses in telegraphy to both men and women. lie changed the barn on the present campus Food, well-cooked and served, opens the door of any man ' s heart. And State ' s co-eds have cheered many jaded palates. The floor-li ' ngth skirts were no hindrance to deft fingers. inlo a classroom and office building and added three new buildings for mechanics, horticulture and chemistry respectively. He also drew the plans for the building which was to become his own monument and the best known symbol of the college he recreated, Anderson Hall. He established the Industrialist in 1875, giving it a dynamic editorial policy and state-wide circulation. Anderson left Kansas State College in 1879 to become a member of Congress, but he had charted a course, established precedents which have guided the institution in all subsequent constructive development. George T. Fairchild, his successor, came to the the helm of Kansas State from Michigan State Agri- Baseball stars of 1897 wore KAC on their jerseys. When thes diamond dusters were playing ball, the school was generally knowi as the Kansas Agricultural College. Wildcat gridsters of ' 90 practiced in the city park. To these early players riiiiipiiiciit was something to wish for. Punishment was severe and cluers meager. They played for the love of the game.