This is the fifth in a series of columns by Dr. Sam Dicks, university historian, concerning the history of what is now Emporia State University and the people who helped the university get to where it is today. The name of his column, "Wave the Old Gold," is taken from the title of a song that served as an alma mater (school song) in the early years of the institution.
EMPORIA, Kansas - Isaac T. Goodnow, Kansas Superintendent of Public Instruction, had lamented in his 1863 report to the Legislature: "Gentlemen - To retard the cause of education, we had, first, the border troubles of 1855 and 1856, the financial crisis of 1857, the drouth of 1860, and lastly, the rebellion of 1861."
Baker University at Baldwin City, a Methodist school, became in 1859 the first college in the state to hold classes. Other denominational and private schools were present by the last year of the Civil War in1865 in Highland, Ottumwa, Hartford, Wetmore, Lecompton (Lane University), and Topeka (Episcopal Female Seminary).
Three state schools were finally authorized by the Legislature early in 1863, but the threat of hostile forces from Missouri or the Indian Territory distracted Kansans from quickly doing more. The Kansas State Agricultural College (Kansas State University) and the Kansas State Normal School (Emporia State University) began classes before the end of the war, and the University of Kansas began classes in the fall of 1866.
KSN was in1867 the first state college to hold a graduation commencement. The demand for qualified teachers for the common (elementary) schools exploded.. Many New England settlers who had come to Kansas as Free-Staters in the 1850s strongly supported the creation and improvement of public schools.
Yet rural school districts, some with no teacher or building, numbered 847 in 1865. There were 54 districts, for example, in Douglas County and 42 in Lyon County. Some districts only held school for three or four months as a teacher shortage, coupled with a lack of funds, discouraged eight or nine months of schooling. High schools were almost nonexistent and most colleges had more students enrolled in their "preparatory" schools than in college level classes.
The first term at the Kansas State Normal School in the spring of 1865 had begun with 18 students, and the fall term of classes ended in December with an enrollment of 90. KSN was ready to fulfill its commitment to teach, not only the basic academic subjects, but also the latest in classroom teaching skills.
Kansas supporters of education were never happier at Christmastime than in 1865. Slavery was abolished and the Union saved. War and the fear of terrorism from "border ruffians" was at an end. There would be difficulties in the 1870s: grasshoppers, drouth, tornadoes, and economic depression, accompanied by a lack of state funding for education - but that they could not see.
Goodnow, in December of 1865, saw only a bright future:
"Our citizens no longer are compelled to pursue their toils by day, and stand guard or sleep in the brush by night. Once more every man can rejoice 'under his own vine and fig tree, with none to molest or make him afraid.' Those who are left of our noble Kansas regiments have returned and received such a welcome as our citizens know how to give. The lonely, deserted cabins are again occupied, and the fallow grounds of the last four years will again be made to yield their accustomed products. Nor are we cheered alone by our own 'boys in blue.' Many of those from the brave regiments of Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Ohio, who chanced to visit us during the war, have fallen in love with our beautiful fertile and healthful country, and are returning with their families and friends. To intelligent, moral emigrants no more inviting field is open."
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Last Updated July 2, 2007>