University of Colorado - Coloradan Yearbook (Boulder, CO)

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two professors and forty-:Eour pupils. All of the students were in either the Preparatory or Normal departments. Not a single college student as a sample and source of inspiration. To attempt to portray the trials and triumphs, the victories and defeats, the hopes and despair of those early years would exceed the limits of this article and would be wanting in a sense of delicacy. The time is not yet ripe. Such a work is reverently consigned to the hands of a later chronicler. This much, how- ever, may justly be said, that from the beginning down to the present time the march of the University has been onward and upward and true to the line of real progress. It seems but yesterday since the class of '82 stood upon the steps of that lone, lorn first building, with their diplomas in their hands, and looked out eagerly across that barren waste of rocks and earth called a campus, into the world which then awaited them. But measured by the progress and growth of the University how vast and inseparable the distance between that day and now, Some years ago the writer, in an address before the Alumni said: 'L The next five or ten years will determine the issue whether the University is to sinh down into a comfortable mediocrity or is to stand pre-eminently at the head of the State system of education f' The issue has been determinedg the victory is ours. Osoan E. JAoKsoN. .fm-w'3-, .. 4. ,E v - - 5'a,'t'1.'-- a a: via. , ' 2' 1 4 13-' .F w k ' ,mf A -4 .. V. Avi. .Lt?F ' m-- N.-a'N'tf5QFPfS4Sf-f1istxs3l5vmwwg'i TQ ...QQ Yfifff' -'fm .' Y, ' .M FM'-I , . g 1 15 fffiiiife--'Erie-gg'1-... . , Q I, . C183

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enacted a University into being, with all the accompaniments of medical, legal and Zlzeologzkrzl UD departments. No fear of a clash between Church and State daunted them! In the years that followed were the Civil War and the Indian outbreaks. The Adjutant-Generalis report was the longest and most important public document. No wonder then that this premature child necessarily remained in Nzzbilms and was destined to live for many years on rarilied atmosphere and mountain scenery and in the fond imagination of its friends. The infant having nothing to eat went into a state of protracted hibernation . All that this Assembly could do was to appoint certain lead- ing men of the Territory as Trustees of the institution with au- thority to receive any donations that Uncle Sam or other chari- tably disposed people might feel disposed to make for the support of the youngster. In the Assemblies following the Hrst, whenever business was dull and interest flagged, some solon would introduce a Bill to change the location of the University, and in 1870 a majority report was brought in to change the location from Boulder to Burlington. Shades of the past! YVl1o of the present genera- tion can put his finger on Burlington? Again in 1877, as we look at it now, the opening of the University seemed to be an act of hardihood, not to say rash- ness. The population of the State barely reached one hundred and Efty thousand. The common school system was barely organized and was far from complete. But three high schools existed and an untold number of private institutions of Hhigher education 'l were already in existence and bidding Hercely for pupils. The income of the University was less than tS7,000, and in the expressive language of another, there was not a book for a library, not a piece of apparatus of any kind, and not a cent of money to expend for such purposesfi A naked, ill-constructed building situated in a barren waste and removed from any sidewalk by nearly a mile of mud, was all that marked the place for a future University. Under such circumstances the remark of a cultured citizen of Denver to our first President seems but a slight exaggeration. After visiting the scene and comprehending the situation he dolefully said: You must be God, doctor, if you accomplish anything here-able to make something out of nothing. So the University opened with i175

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CHAPTER II. AIL, all lm!! Ike coming Kzizzg. Thus .did President Se-wall introduce his successor, Dr. Hale, at the Commencement exercises in May, 1887. The following year brought many changes to the Uni- versity of Colorado. Things that had seemed but the outcome of the playful and gentle spirit of the under- graduate were condemned. Various innovations were made, some meeting with the disapproval of the students, came to untimely ends. The i'Legend of the Gongfl is as familiar as that of Rip Van 'Winlile. Arbor Day was duly observed in rubber boots and maclcintoshes. The year was on the whole very successful, the average attendance had been greater than any year before, and in May four were graduated from the Arts Department and one from the Medical School. The next year three degrees were conferred in the School of Literature, one in the Medical School. The University also conferred two honorary degrees. In 1890 VVoodbury Hall, so named in honor of Regent R. W. WVoodbury of Denver, was erected as a dormi- tory for boys, and in September of that year was ready for oc- cupancy. During this year the hearts of students and faculty alike were saddened by the death of Dr. J. W. Bell, who, after filling the chair of Greek for but a few months succumbed to that dread disease, consumption. Dr. Bell had previously held the chair of History and Political Economy, but had been forced to resign on account of failing health. Of Dr. Bellls life and character, too much cannot be said in praise. A man of broadest culture and learning, he endeared himself to everyone with whom he came in contact. Prof. Maurice E. Dunham was chosen to lill the place left vacant by the death of Dr. Bell. He has made the Greek department one of the best in the College. Just before Commencement of '90 the Seniors made a new departure by appearing in the regulation HSenior Capf' It aroused little feeling except in the hearts of a few envious cwi