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 Gen De Vleming served as secretary not only to Clement French, shown in
this undated photo, but also to Wallis Beasley, acting president, and
Glenn Terrell. Photo courtesy WSU News Bureau.
The land-grant institution of the state of Washington was
established by legislative act in 1890 as the Washington State
Agricultural College and School of Science. Construction started in
1891, on land donated by the citizens of Pullman, and it opened in
1892 under the name of Agricultural College, Experiment Station,
and School of Science.
George Lilley served as president for 19 and a half months from
May 1891 to December 12, 1892. He participated in difficult
meetings of the board of five regents over the final location of
the institution and the construction of the first classroom
building, the Crib. (The location of the institution is a tale in
itself—suffice it to say, the citizens of Pullman did everything
they could with generous gifts of cash and land, with politicking
everywhere, and with downright chicanery to ensure that the
land-grant institution would be in Pullman. See Historical
Sketch of the State College of Washington 1890-1925, by E.O.
Bryan, Alumni and the Associated Students, 1928, and Creating
the People’s University: Washington State University,
1890-1990, by George A. Frykman, Washington State University
Press, 1990.)
Classes began in Pullman on January 13, 1892, with five faculty
members and 60 students, many of them at only the preparatory
level. (There is much confusion as to the actual number of students
who started that first day in 1892—maybe there were 29 students who
were actually at collegiate level?) Instruction began in
agriculture, mechanic arts, engineering, sciences, and arts.
John W. Heston, principal of Seattle High School—there were
three high schools in the state then, in Seattle, Tacoma, and
Spokane—became president on December 13, 1892. As he and the
president of the regents were walking across campus the day Heston
was to be introduced, the students pelted them with rotten cabbages
that were still lying in the icy fields of the campus—the first
instance of “unrest” at this institution. George Lilley seemed to
be very popular with the students and was also a friend of Pullman
residents, and the citizens of the entire community were distressed
with his termination. As president, Heston apparently spent more
time in Olympia and Seattle than in Pullman, and there were
accusations of all kinds about what was happening in the southeast
section of the state, the cabbage patch incident having drawn the
state spotlight to the unruly students. With such an inauspicious
beginning, it is no wonder that poor President Heston did not last
long—he was gone by August 31, 1893, after only eight and a half
months.
Luckily, Governor John H. McGraw was very interested in the
State College and “was resolved,” in Bryan’s words, “that it should
be rescued from the condition into which it had fallen.” The joint
investigating committee he appointed absolved everyone of any
corruption and finally approved the location for Pullman (The Crib
had already been built at a cost of $1,500!), but recommended that
the entire Board of Regents be replaced. A new board of five was
appointed, not one of whom was a graduate of a college or
university, the notion being prevalent that a business background
and political experience were the prime qualifications for
membership on a governing board of an educational institution.
The new Regents decided that Heston had to leave, and they hired
Dr. Enoch A. Bryan as president on September 1, 1893, at a salary
of $4,000; he remained president until December 31, 1915. Dr. Bryan
set the academic tone for the land-grant institution, insisting
that it be more than just a vocational or technical school. His
undergraduate work was in the classics, and he had a master’s
degree from both Indiana University and Harvard. He had studied
both the federal and state statutes related to the establishment of
the institution, and he envisioned a college of science and
technology “shot through and through with the spirit of the liberal
arts.” Bryan’s emphasis on liberal arts as the firm foundation on
which the college curriculum was built led to the establishment of
the Phi Beta Kappa chapter in Pullman in 1929, the first such
permitted in a separated land-grant institution west of the
Mississippi River.
There had been only two quarters of instruction by the time
Bryan took over, and many of those early students were not eligible
yet to earn college credits—they were finishing preparatory
courses. Bryan set about to prepare young people to become freshmen
in the new institution and moved forward to establish standards in
all courses, to develop the concept of academic majors, to secure
well-trained faculty embers to develop the coursework, to organize
the faculty into schools, and to secure funding for buildings. In
1893, his wife, Hattie, was one of the Charter Members of
Fortnightly Book Club, which included other educated women from
both the college and the community. Agricultural research began in
Puyallup in 1894; agricultural extension came to the aid of many
immigrant families shortly thereafter. Research and extension
activities pleased the citizens of the state, many of whom believed
the institution had been trying to avoid its mission in
agriculture.
The first class graduated in 1897, all with baccalaureate
degrees—three in engineering, two in English, one in economics, and
one in botany. There was one additional student included in this
class. He had transferred from his college studies in South Dakota
in 1891 to accompany incoming first president George Lilley to
Pullman; he completed his work in 1893, but was not awarded his
diploma until 1897.
Dr. Bryan was instrumental, in 1905, in securing the change in
name of the institution to the State College of Washington. Bryan
enjoyed visiting with students, and he listened to them. At the
request of student groups, he established a debate class in 1900
and technical short courses for training young people for various
occupations. Bryan fought with state officers over what he
perceived to be the careless handling of state lands, the income
from which helped to finance the college. Other firsts in Bryan’s
term included varsity football, the Evergreen, the
Chinook, the glee club, the Alumni Association; instruction
in veterinary science, home economics, and pharmacy; the first
graduate degree, an M.S. in botany; Crimson Circle and Mortar
Board; and the student bookstore.
After Bryan notified the regents he would retire at the end of
1915, he helped the board to identify Dr. Ernest O. Holland, who
became president on January 1, 1916, and remained until December
31, 1944. Bryan was looking for someone with the same academic
standards he had worked so hard to incorporate into the curriculum
of the state college, and Holland, who had a doctorate from
Columbia, certainly met that criterion. He was 41 years old, a
bachelor, and a close friend of the Bryan family in Indiana. Bryan
later said the transition from his presidency to that of Holland
was so smooth that faculty and students were almost unaware of the
change. Holland showed great wisdom in delaying his coming from
Spokane to Pullman until January 7, 1916, a few days after the
college finished celebrating its victory over Brown University in
the first Rose Bowl!
Holland began his presidency with much conflict over legislative
issues in regard to the duplication of courses at the two state
universities. He was determined that Washington State College would
continue as an institution offering the liberal arts and sciences,
as well as courses for the “practical education of the industrial
classes.” The new president of the University of Washington, Dr.
Henry Suzzallo, had been a personal friend of Holland’s before the
two moved to Washington. Holland had served as best man at
Suzzallo’s wedding. Many state citizens hoped the two presidents
would work amicably to study the duplication of courses at the two
schools and to select the appropriate major lines for each.
However, each was very concerned with the status of his own
institution, and some state citizens believed Bryan had been far
too successful at that little school in southeast Washington. After
bitter battles, the Act of February 2, 1917, finally established
major lines at each of the universities, and these major lines
still restrict certain courses from the state college
curriculum.
Under Holland, the Graduate School began; the cougar became the
official mascot; pink and blue were replaced by crimson and gray as
the school colors; the library was greatly expanded; many buildings
were constructed; and Pullman citizens came to the aid of the
institution by purchasing bonds to finance the building of
Community Hall, a women’s dormitory, the revenue generated by
dormitory rentals to be used to repay the bonds. Holland’s
presidency also included the second Rose Bowl game the Cougars
played—a loss of 24-0 to Alabama in 1931. Cougar Gold cheese was
developed during Holland’s term; and enrollment jumped to over
5,000 students before dropping to about 2,000 during the war years.
The college department system was reorganized into five colleges
and four schools with deans as administrative heads.
The Depression years and the end of Prohibition introduced new
concerns for students, faculty, and administrators. There was a
general student strike in 1936 (the second “evidence of unrest”) to
protest rigid social regulations—to free students from the
continual inspections of their living groups and to abolish the
“ultra-conservative, dictatorial administrative policies.” Most of
the faculty members agreed with the students, and some changes were
made immediately. Holland’s final years were marred further by
inadequate state allocations, demands of students and faculty for
better library resources, and resistance to the strict policies
which were not always publicized. President Holland no longer
actively participated in campus activities as he had done as a
young bachelor.
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