Knox College - Gale Yearbook (Galesburg, IL)

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be Meat '9 5 NOTHER YEAR has been added to old Knox's history. And it has been a successful year-a year of growth. It began auspiciouslywith the announcement that Dr. Pearsons' gift! had been secured, thus adding 5,125,000 to the endowment fund. The promise of the opening of the year was not misleading. In attendance, in standards of scholar- ship, in the 'influences exerted by the College, a marked advance is noticeable. The preparatory work required in each course has been given the same time value, and the Col- lege courses of study have been enlarged. Knox is to-day offering greater opportunities for study than ever before. But still more is to come. The year has been remarkable for the new plans which it has brought forward. In this direction the efforts of Mr. S. S. McClure, '82, of the Board of Trust, have been conspicuous. Not only has the magazine of which he is the head established a hundred scholarships in the College, but Mr. McClure has inaugurated a plan for the reorganization of the Scientific Department under the name of The Abraham Lincoln School of Science, and has undertaken to raise an endowment of S250,000 for the purpose. Other alumni of the College have exhibited their loyalty in practical ways. Mr. G. A. Lawrence and Mr. E. A. Bancroft have offered prizes for the encouragement of .yyork inextem: pore debate and oratory by the literary societies. I Nor has the College received substantial evidences of inter- est from her alumni alone. The Williamson Theme Prize and the generous gifts of Miss McKee, Mr. Joseph Medill, and Mr. O. T. Johnson, of Riverside, Cal., are evidences of the interest which those outside of her more immediate circle of friends have in Knox College. Among the events of the year, Founders' Day holds a prominent place, and this year's program fully sustained the high character of the preceding ones. The centennial of the birth of the poet Keats was appropriately celebrated, as was also Arbor Day. Student activities and enterprises have been prosecuted with even more than usual vigor. The athletic interests of Knox have, for the first time, been placed on a sound basis. Professionalism has been finally rooted out by the Faculty, with the general, approval of the student body. This course has already borne fruit in the winning by Knox of the Illinois InterfCollegiate Championship in Athletics and the excellent records of our football and baseball teams. With the close of the year comes the fiftieth anniversary of the graduation of the first class. The portraits of its sur- viving members and of the late Dr. Blanchard, then and for several years after President of Knox, we present on the opposite page. In the half century since this class left her doors,.Knox has. grown from an insigni-ficant school with only. local reputation, to. a college which ranks in character, if not in'size, among the first- of- the country. The earnest hope of every loyal son of Knox is that the promise of the first half century of her life may be more than fulfilled in the years to come.

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W. S. BUSH. , E. G. SMITH. JONATHAN BLANC!-IARD. HENRY HITCHCOCK. W. E. HOLYOKE ' KNOX'S FIRST CLASS.

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lbonorarxg egreee. HE INFLUENCE of a college is measured not alone by the number of those who have actually graduated from her halls. In multitudes of ways the college life may come in touch with and leave its impression upon the outside world. With Knox this has been true to an unusual degree. No better illustration can be found than in the list of those who have honored the College and been themselves hon- ored in receiving honorary degrees. Portraits of four of Knox's distinguished foster-sons we present on the opposite page. Abraham Lincoln has been in several ways identified with the College. It was on the campus just east of the main College building that he and Douglas held their memorable debate in October, 1858, and in 1860, shortly before his nomi- nation for. the Presidency, there was bestowed upon Mr. Lincoln the honorary degree of LL.D. Eugene Field, in whose death both Faculty and students felt a personal loss, had already been identified with the Col- lege as a student in 1870 and 1871. The bond of union was made stronger by conferring upon him the honorary degree of A. M. in 1893. Mr. Edward G. Mason received in 1893 the degree of LL.D. Mr. Mason is a prominent lawyer of Chicago, and is Presi- dent of the Chicago Historical Society. To Professor Albert Hurd more, perhaps, than to any living man, Knox College owes her existence to-day. In the most critical period of her history he it was who assumed charge of her affairs and brought about the beginning of better times. In 1854, shortly after his coming to Knox, he received the honorary degree of A. M.