Truman State University - Echo Yearbook (Kirksville, MO)

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historical Sketch j HE Slate Normal Seliool of the First District was created by the Legislature in 1870, located at Kirksville in Adair County and opened as a State Institution, January 2, 1871. Adair County voted $100,000 to secure the location of the School. The present building and campus cost about $150,- 000. The Legislature of 1901 appropriated $30,000 for a new build¬ ing. Plans have already been adopted by the Board of Regents. The new building will contain a library room 38 by 60 feet, a gymnasium of the same size, eight rooms for the training school, offices for the President and Board of Regents and four large recitation rooms for Normal School classes. The first faculty of the institution contained three men who have become distinguished in the educational world, Dr. J. Baldwin, Prof. W P. Nason, and Dr. J. M. Greenwood. While these men constituted Ihe faculty this was the most noted Normal School of the Mississippi Valley. Dr. Baldwin resigned in 1878 to take charge of the State Normal School of Texas. After ten years as President of that institu¬ tion he was promoted to the professorship of Pedagogy of the Univer¬ sity of Texas at a salary of $5,000 a year. Thirty years in three great institutions. Such was the honored career of this one of Missouri’s great men. Dr. Baldwin died on the 13th day of January, 1899. The venerable Prof. Nason is still an honored citizen of Kirksville. Dr. Greenwood after more than a quarter of a century as superintendent of the Kansas City schools is known to be one of the most popular school men in the United States. He is a great scholar, a contributor to many magazines and papers and in great demand as a public lecturer from New England to the Pacific coast. The graduates of this school have from the very outset taken high rank. Two of them now hold the office of State Superin¬ tendent, Hon. W. T. Carrington in Missouri and Hon. Thomas J. Kirk in California. Two others of its graduates also held that high office, Hon. W. E. Coleman was for eight years State Superintendent of Missouri; Hon. John R. Kirk for four years State Superintendent of Missouri. The administration of the School is of tin 1 most vigorous kind. This institution is the first Normal School of Missouri to es¬ tablish a Kindergarten, Manual Training, an Agricultural Laboratory, and Departmental Libraries. It is the first Normal School of the state to send out a graduating class with four years of training in Latin, there being in the class of 1901 34 students who are finishing their fourth year in that subject. The school gives four years in English, four in Mathematics, four in its four laboratories of Science, two in History, one each in Drawing, Elocution and Music. Its Training School exemplifies the best things done in the best organized schools of the country. Academically and Pedagogically the institution is well equipped. It has a strong, progressive Faculty. Its watchword is, “To attain educational leadership.”

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MAIN BUILDING.

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presidents of the Institution. DR. J. BALDWIN, 871-78 HON. J. P. BLANTON, 1878-91 DR. W. D. DOBSON, 891-90 HON. JOHN R. KIRK, 1899