Occidental College - La Encina Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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incidentals ... it is a mistake to give money to the student for indiscriminate use. All such money should be furnished through the President or some other member of the faculty. Each boarder will be furnished with a blank book in which to keep his or her personal account. The semester beginning October, 1888, opened with an enrollment of forty in the college and eighty-six in the academy. In 1894 the students for the institution totaled seventy-four. In i8gi President J. M. McPherron was installed in Dr. Weller ' s place only to resign three years later. It was a heavy burden, the presidency, in those days both on private purse and mind. Two years after succession to Professor McPherron in the office of president. Rev. C. N. Condit saw the physical wealth of his institution burned. A contemporary report is filled with the tragic completeness of the catastrophe: At 11:35 ' M-j a man driving toward the college across a field from the west, saw flames bursting from the roof of the tower adjoining the chimney. He whipped up his horse and gave the alarm to the inmates. Tliere was no fire apparatus about the place, but Professor Condit, assisted by members of the faculty, formed a bucket and pitcher line, but could not get water to the tower fast enough to check the flames, which spread rapidly south and east. Meanwhile a telephone message was sent to the city for aid from the Boyle Heights fire department, but the distance of the college from the city and the absence of water made it useless for the firemen to respond. It took but a few minutes to convince all that the building was doomed, so the little time remaining was devoted to removing furniture, clothing, etc. The dormitory was on the third floor, and a number of the students saved their effects by throwing them out of the windows. It being a school holiday, many were absent, and all their belongings they had left in their rooms were destroyed . . . The only students who looked cheerful were the young men of the football team who were fortunate enough to save their football-hair. Perhaps, the greatest single beneficence that grew out of the ashes of what had been Occidental College was the realization of the loyalty of the Young family to that school. To stranded students, the home of Dr. and Mrs. Wm. S. Young was thrown open as temporary haven. And for the remainder of the year classes were held in Dr. Young ' s Boyle Heights Presbyterian Church for the rental fee of 190 yards of three-ply ingrained carpet. To quote from Dr. Cleland ' s History oi Occidental College, Before the opening of the next semester, arrangements were made to lease a part of the building formerly occupied by St. Vincent ' s College, at 614 South Hill Street in Los Angeles. Here the college held its sessions until its removal to Highland Park in 1898. One wonders how many of the tens of thousands who now daily pass Seventh and Broadway realize that the alley which separates 11

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passed. Little happened in actual progress, but to two more important minds, those of Pro- fessor John M. Coyner and Samuel D. Weller, D.D., the college became a molten incentive. And in January, 1887, eleven months later, a committee of the Presbyterian Union w as appointed to draft articles of incorporation for the proposed college. These were completed on February twenty-fifth and certified by the Secretary of State at Sacramento on April 20, 1887. Today this date is celebrated as Founders Day. From the minutes of that momentous board meeting which convened on February twenty-fifth, this exciting bit may be gleaned: Mr. E. S. Field suggested the name The University of the Occident — which was lost. Mr. W. C. Stevens the name The Occidental University of Los Angeles which was carried. On a motion of W. S. Young the last vote was reconsidered and the name The College of the Pacific suggested— which was lost. Then on motion of W. J. Chichester, the name of ITie Occidental University of Los Angeles, California was again proposed and carried. In regard to the quotation, it is of interest to note that while University was first used as a part of the official title for Occidental, this was changed upon the request of the trustees and through the action of the Los Angeles Supreme Court to College on July 2, 1892. For, Occidental never has been, nor probably ever will be, a university. September 20, 1887, a corner stone was laid to what the Los Angeles Times called one of the architectural beauties of the county, the original Occidental building, located in Boyle Heights. This single structure was to serve as hall of letters, administration building, women ' s dormitory, president ' s office, library, refectory, and chapel until it burned down on January 13, 1896. Hard task-master was this college in its infancy to first president, Samuel D. Weller, who saw his dreams for the growth and advancement almost tumble with times contemporary as Southern California rushed headlong from boom days into deep mire of depression. Yet it was in his four years of service that much of the stable foundations were laid upon which the college was to grow and eventually prosper. In 1888, the McPherron Academy was absorbed as a part of Occidental College. And it was this move of creating a preparatory school that was to help succor the college through its leanest years and give to the school some of its grandest alumni. Quite different was Occidental in the years of its genesis from its present composition and generation. Its terms were three, fall, winter, and spring. Monday instead of Saturday was the holiday so that the students would not be forced to travel from their homes on Sunday. Tuition for the year amounted to fifty dollars, and all expenses for the boarding collegiate came to three hundred dollars. And according to an early catalogue, there are no 10

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the two main wings of Bullock ' s Department Store was once used as a straight-a-way by the Occidental trackmen! Personal losses borne in the fire, and the failure of the Board of Trustees to approve of his financial program for the college caused Rev. Condit to give up his office of President for a pastorate in the Northwest, and his difficult position was filled by Rev. Guy W. Wads- worth late in August of 1897. In that paragraph telling of Rev. Wadsworth ' s resignation. Dr. Cleland not only pays fine tribute, but offers a brief summation of the college ' s progress in the years of his leadership. All concerning those years is not told here for space is limited. Friends made by the school and who made it what it is today are passed over. Trials, tribu- lations, successes, and the heat of the so-called Occidental spirit are hinted at only in the mute evidence of prosaic facts. Honor, where honor is due remains a part of The History oi Occidental College . . . Now, for a flight of years. In August of 1905, Dr. Guy W. Wadsworth resigned— His devotion and effectiveness were reflected in the growth of the college during the eight years of his administration — a growth evidenced by the development of the new campus in Highland Park, the erection of three large buildings, the establishment of a substantial endowment fund, and a great increase in faculty personnel and student enrollment. When Dr. Wadsworth became presi- dent in 1897 there were eight instructors on the faculty, nine students in college and thirty- eight in the academy. When he resigned there were twenty-four members of the faculty, one-hundrcd-and-eight students in the college and one-hundred-thirty-four in the academy. In its resolution of regret over Dr. Wadsworth ' s resignation the Board said, He has followed the vicissitudes of the college through darkness as well as sunshine, sacrificing his financial and personal interests, until he was unquestionably one of the most potent factors in bring- ing Occidental College from its humble beginnings to its present commanding position. To temporarily fill the chair left vacant by Dr. Wadsworth, Rev. Wm. S. Young was appointed acting president. This position he filled with a fidelity that was his own, effectively for over a year, laboring without a salary, doing his whole duty. Then, in September, 1906, John Willis Baer assumed the reins for the college ' s guidance. Here, definitely, began a distinctive era in Occidental ' s growing. To be present at his inauguration came Benjamin Ide Wheeler, president of the University of California, David Starr Jordan, president of Leland Stanford University, and principal speaker, Robert E. Speer, secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. But what of the college life of those times that saw three presidents in a span of two years? Wliere were found those beginnings that have established the many ties with today, through names, through institutions, and through happenings? 12