Peru State College - Peruvian Yearbook (Peru, NE)

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THE NORMAL AND PERU I Ik I 'em Normal School has always had the advantage of an enchanting natural environment. 11 up on the hill-top. overlooking the village, and. far below, the majestic breadth of the Missouri, lies the beautiful campus, where are located all the buildings of the institution. There are sixty acres in all. extend- ing in part over a beautiful wooded territory where Nature revels unmolested. Dr. A. K. Winship. editor of the New Kngland Journal of Kducation. has paid a tribute to this ideal situation in the following words: “Peru. Nebraska, has the best natural setting of am state normal school in the I’nited States. I he grounds are an ever-changing dip and lip of hill and vale. I only know of sixty-four of the state normal schools, and many of these have beautiful grounds: but no one of them has sixty such acres as these. If one of the schools I do not know has superior grounds, it would be interesting to know of it.” The Normal at Peru and the State of Nebraska had their birth in the same year. 1870. The lirsi legislature ot the state purchased the Peru Seminary, as it was then known, from the Methodist Kpiseopal denomination, and established the Normal School, electing as the first president. J. M. McKenzie, the prin- cipal of the seminary, who is still living, and to whom I he Peruvian” of was dedicated. In those «lays only the ex- treme eastern part of the state was settled at all. and even here communities with any considerable population were few and tar between. With Nebraska’s rapidly increasing population, Peru has not grown as many of the surrounding vicinities. I pon two I'ifln 11

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sides Hilly is ilu little town hounded by the rich agricultural re- gmus of llu- ciMinty, and the location is not favorable for traffic of any considerable importance. I bit the progress and success of the institution as the years h lied by have been phenomenal, increasing with geometrical bounds during each successive period of time. The natural charms nt the position, the freedom from the debasing influences of city life, the high ideas which have inspired both leaders and students in Peru, have more than outweighed any seeming dis- advantage. A casual glance at figures showing the number of graduates from Peru during the past ten years will show more deaily than words can tell the results of these conditions, which are now widely recognized as closely approaching the ideal: Class of moo. . Class of moi.. Cla-s of moj.. Cla» of mo.?.. Class « 1 1004.. Class of mos.. (. lass c»f U)0(). . Cla- of UJQJ.. C la-s of nx S.. Class nf hjoo. . Class of 1010.. i lar gv and 1 ppr« ipriations 50 54 54 45 »4‘ 140 17 - tin I til buildings now adorn the campus, c been made by the legislature for the erection of a new administration building, the cost of which will be about $40.000. Such smaller buildings as the observatory and greenhouse have not been included in this account. St t • 11 h 1 n