St Olaf College - Viking Yearbook (Northfield, MN)

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Sf, -sf ass! -.-...c:- ..Q.-.. ,..,..:- ..-,.. -tg,-'L-. -'.,- : av.,-, -.5-ci-,gy ,--A . ,. The Story of St. Olaf College By PROP. O. G. FELLAND. ,N'I'2 E celebrate annually the birthday of St. Olaf College on the sixth of November. On that day, in the year 1874, a clergyman, a merchant, and three farmers formed themselves into a corporation by adopting a charter un- der the laws of Minnesota for the purpose of establish- ing an institution of learning in Northfield under the name and style of St. Olaf's School. By virtue of this charter St. Olaf was officially recognized as an institution of learning, although it had no real estate or building, no president or faculty, and no students. It was somewhat like Lichtenberg's famous knife, Messer ohne Klinge, wo der Stiel dran fehlt. But it was not to remain long in this condition. The very first official act of the board of trustees was to issue on the same day a call to Reverend Thorbjorn N. Mohn to be the principal of the new institution. That call meant success. Mr. Mohn promptly accepted, and within a month he had arrived and taken up the work of arranging for the opening of the school. The first requirement was to secure rooms, and on the seventeenth of December the trustees bought the old Pub- lic School property, including the four lots on which the Congregational church now stands, and which were then occupied by two school buildings. These were furnished and fitted up to receive the students. Two thousand and five hundred dollars was the amount paid for the property. January the eighth, 1875, had been fixed as the opening day of the school. At ten o'clock the students and others gathered in one of the class rooms for the dedi- cation service, which was conducted by Rev. B. I. Muus, of Holden, Goodhue county, the father of the new institution. In the afternoon another meeting was held in the same room, on which occasion the principal, Reverend Mohn, delivered his inaugural address, and in the evening they gathered once more for divine ser- vices, conducted by Rev. H. G. Stub, now president of the Norwegian Synod. At the first roll call there were 38 students present, and the total enrollment for the first year was 50, of which I2 were girls. The arrangements thus made were looked upon as only temporary. To secure a permanent location was the next step, and naturally the wooded 'hill west of town, now known as Manitou Heights, attracted attention. Mr. H. Thorson, a member of the board of trustees, negotiated the deal whereby St. Olaf became the owner of the twenty acre lot on which the Main building now stands, and the ten . cg- 1 - . X ,AI-j 5f,.'T23 .T -,L '-L'-:ra gbv- s ,ix X--g af , . i fw- xs- 41' Q QL 1 N' 4

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:dh I' Him: Z N XL, 41-L .Z if? X13 'X'-1' '.f7-5-,Rf ,-e... by -2 -... A ... -G: f xys '- ,, .- -T:?A Y- 4, -7 I '4-,Tiff The Greater St. Olaf OR those who are yet unacquainted with St. Olaf College and into whose hands this volume may fall g for those who know something of our college and desire to learn more g for those who are interested in our college and enjoy watching her growg for those who have attended and graduated from our college and who hold her dearg and for us who now frequent her halls and enjoy her fruits, this de- partment is especially gotten up. Within these pages We have crowded a brief his- tory of our collegeg we have set down the principles on which our college restsg We have pointed to the opportunities that our college affordsg and we have shown what our college needs that she may be able to continue in her field of noble ser- vice. Reader, if you would know St. Olaf College, do not pass this depart- ment by, but rather study it, ponder over it, with one accord, heed the clarion call for The Greater St. Olaf. -EDITOR. 8

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X acre lot on which the Old Hall is located. The price was 340 and S45 an acre, re- ' f' -J xv- Ax -N.,-i Q , -.1-rx 'Ex' ,,f,:-::'.7.b.f ,P V ---H U-,TWT V, aw, M- ----. - - --,-me s. ASZ xl,-f T-5 fm. Q Q4 -5 416 if 4'f': Q? spectively. Real estate has gone up some. Half acre lots are now selling at the rate of 31,200 an acre. Having secured the grounds, the next step was to erect the permanent building thereon. The corporation, however, had neither funds nor endowment, and although all the members of the board belonged to the Nor- wegian Synod, they could not count on any direct contribution from that body for a private venture. The only way open for them was to solicit subscriptions from thoise interested in the success of the project, the town people and the adjacent territory within a radius of 25 miles. In Northfield about 36,000 was subscribed, while the congregations of Reverend Muus and Reverend Quammen subscribed about 316,000 With this sum the Main building was erected in the years 1877 and ,78. The cornerstone, which may be seen in the northwest corner at the top- of the basement wall, was laid by the president of the Norwegian Synod, Rev. H. A. Preus, on the fourth of july, 1877. In the fall of 1878 the building was occupied and dedicated, although not finished. In fact, the tower was not completed till 1884. As soon as the old buildings in town were vacated, the lots were sold and the buildings torn down, and with this material Mr. Thorson, at his own expense, erected the Old Hall, which is practically the same building in which the school first started. With this equipment the school carried on its work for more than twenty years. 7 During these years it grew and gradually developed into a college, which had been the aim of the founder from the beginning. Up to 1890 the course required three years, after that it became a four years' course. The college course was launched in 1886 and of the Freshmen who entered the first class three completed the course in 1890. In 1889 the charter had been amended by an act of the Legis- lature of Minnesota, and the institution was henceforth officially styled St. Olaf College. At first the work of the college department was made possible by annual con- tributions from the Anti-Missourian Brotherhood, consisting of those congrega- tions and ministers who had separated from the Norwegian Synod on account of the controversy concerning the doctrine of predestination. Upon the organiza- tion of the United Church, in 1890, St. Olaf was made the college of the United Church. But a part of the Norwegian-Danish Conference, the so-called Augsburg element, did not look with favor upon this move and soon found a pre- text for openly opposing St. Olaf. The consequence was that St. Olaf was aban- doned by the United Church in 1893 and lived in exile till 1899. These were years of hardship for St. Olaf, and had it not been for the cordial support of its old friends and the strenuous efforts of Prof. Ytterboe, the financial secretary of the college, it would be hard to tell what would have happened. As it was St. Olaf kept on working for the best interest of the United Church, and was rewarded by re-adoption in 1899. 10