Minnesota State University Moorhead - Praeceptor Yearbook (Moorhead, MN)

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Smtterea' here and there over the wide prairies, frame buildings hegan to appear-the emhryo of Moorhead. The little red schoolhouse? No, this strueture, atgudged eommodious enough in its day, was Clay Countylfjfrst courthouse. Apparentbf before the daysjof the drought-in fart when prartimlbf all of Moorhead was under water. All dressed up in the latest sports clothes with a hieycle built for two-but alas, all alone! Moorhead, playing its part in the enactment of this great drama, bids farewell to its World War huddies. With a thoughtful eye on the future, and the spirit of growth ever domi- nant, Moorhead erected its frst hig 1 school. 1887 THE 1937 COLLEGE IT IS sA1D that an institution is but the length- ened shadow of a man. Whether it is as simple as that, or whether one should speak of the length- ened shadows of many men and many women is perhaps a matter of conjecture. After careful study of the facts available, however, and after listening spellbound about a table to a group of early graduates, faculty members, and friends of the College, who witnessed, or knew those who witnessed the growth of the College from its be- ginnings, the staff feels that it should speak of several people who have made the College what it 1s. IN THE FIRST place there was HONORABLE SOLOMON G. COMSTOCK, Moorhead pioneer, legis- lator, state senator, and congressman from Minne- sota, who was responsible for the location of the fourth normal school, as these institutions were then designated, in Moorhead. It might have been Fergus Falls, which chose instead to ask for a state hospital, or Detroit Lakes, which assumed as a matter ofcourse that it would be awarded the

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,i F I, Wg I -HIL., TABLE OF CONTENTS GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY CLASSES ORGANIZATIONS ACTIVITIES FEATURES O COPYRIGHT 1937 EUGENE 4HARRIS, Editor MELVIN WEDUL, Managivzg Editor and thf Slaj' Looking for all the world like a typical frontier town this wa: Moorhead in 1879. Pirture by Flalen Studio

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A town of colleges, Moorhead today is also proud of Concordia and all that it stands for Looking down Center Avenue, we ealeh zz glimpse of Moorhead as we know it today. . . . Anxious for the wefore of its young men and women, Moorhead boasts of thfs modern semor high school A new structure is the ug' Armory, where each Monday night can he found college men at guard drill. normal, or Crookston, which was actively interested but which was outmaneuvered by MR. CoMsToc1c's tactical ability and his con-tribution of six acres of land for a campus. Later M11 .Coivrsrocx served as member of the Normal School Board and of the University Board of Regents, and lived to see the campus take its present shape with the completion of the great rebuilding program of 1931-32. His daughter, DR. ADA LOUISE, was graduated from the Normal School, and now, as president of Radcliffe college and one of America's most dis- tinguished women, returns to her Alma Mater to deliver the Golden Anniversary Commencement address. Thus the spirit of this far-sighted pioneer, Father wr the College, lives on. ESTABLISHED by the legislature in 1887, the Normal was ready to function in the autumn of 1888, and when the lone janitor proudly' opened the doors to Old Main, most com- modious and handsome structure of the Northwest, in walked twenty-nine students and a faculty of four, at the head of which was DR. LIVINGSTON C. LORD. ALL WHO KNEW DR. LORD, and particularly those who came under his influence at the Moorhead Normal, testify to the inspiring nature of the man, his unremitting energy, his strict attention to the business at hand and his insistence upon the same attention in others. You could have heard a pin drop, early graduates say of the daily chapels which he conducted. But he was a friend to all, and his influence comprehended i not only the Normal School, but the state as well. No history of education .in Minnesota is complete without reference to this fine scholar and cultured gentleman. ' '