Walla Walla University - Mountain Ash Yearbook (College Place, WA)

Page 16 text:

newly installed steam pipes made an excellent communication system. Visitors were sometime a little shocked the first time they heard this strange cross between a telegraph key and a jungle drum, and a little amazed at its effi- ciency. Students were sometimes a little shock- ed when an invitation to a snack vibrated over the pipes and a little amazed when the dean crashed the party. The luxuries in the 1890s were few, yet the students in these early years enjoyed privileges WVWC-itest, crave today - three subjects were considered a full load; room, board, laundry, tuition, and fees for an entire year amount to $113; and the first class began at eight dclock in the morning. When the 1890s closed the doors on an- other century, Walla Walla College was here to stay in spite of serious problems of depres- sions, over-erowded classrooms, and a shortage of teachers. Through the years the dedication and ingenuity of staff, constituents, and stu- dents have made Walla Walla College success-

Page 15 text:

On opening day, December 7, 1892, ninety-one students and a handful of teachers clustered around a wood-burning heater tem- porarily set up in an unfinished gymnasium. But school started. In the spirit commemorated by the Whit- man Monument, located approximately three miles west of the College, faculty, students, and Church members labored. The depression of 1892 threatened the young schooPs life. Budgeted income failed to materialize. Students were forced to work for their tuition in place of paying cash. The teachers eased the situation by doubling up on work, allowing four of the twelve staff mem- bers to accept calls to other positions and re- duce the college payroll. Such thriftiness helped the college weath- er the depression and made a few improve- ments possible. A boiler provided steam heat to replace the 01d wood stoves and electric lights eliminated the smelly kerosene lamps. Students did not have some of the con- veniences now provided by the school such as the intercom system to dormitory rooms. But pioneer ingenuity soon discovered that the

Page 17 text:

INTRODUCTI ON continued thxe backwater: 0f McNary Dam, framwl by the cliffx of 7allula Gap, wash thc .vhoms f Sacajawea and Hat Rock late parkx when: picnicking tudents can play ball, water hki, 07-011 a windy dayhpick and out of shamburgmx. 011m 15 per cent of the nationhs green pea crop ix raised in Washington, providing mmmer labor for many xtudcnts, though all hand picking and shelling has hem; eliminated by mechanical hhzlincrs? Much of the match: crop is grown and pwcmscd in the Walla Walla Valley. The world record of wheat production fmr acre hax been held intermitcntly by countim in Eastern Washington. This grain field ix typical of much of the dry land farming Hut 0f the Caxcades.