Faculty
members included (from left) Edgar E. Grimm, Professor of Agriculture
and Chemistry; Ida Callahan, Primary Department; Benjamin L. Arnold,
President and Professor of Moral Philosophy and Physics; B. J. Hawthorne,
Professor of Languages; Joseph Emery, Professor of Mathematics; and W.
W. Bristow, Principal of the Preparatory Department. Not present was
Miss E. McFadden, who taught drawing and painting. [OSU Archives #170.]
Professorship in Commerce established May 24.
The college received no annual appropriation; it only had the interest from the
land grant fund.
No annual catalogue issued in an effort to cut expenses.
Enrollment: 163 at all levels.
Population in Corvallis: 1,128; in Benton County: 6,403; in Oregon: 174,768.
Name of institution -- Corvallis Agricultural College.
State
Grange initiated awarding a medal to the most outstanding graduate
in agriculture.
Name of institution -- Corvallis College and Oregon State Agricultural College.
Department of Agriculture established; first in the Pacific Northwest.
Edgar Grimm, B.S. (Class of 1880), became the first Professor of Agriculture
in the Department of Agriculture in September.
Petition presented to Methodist Episcopal Church, South to separate Corvallis
College (the literary college) and the State Agricultural College.
The Board of Education of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South stated that the
relationship between the literary college and the state agricultural college,
as well as the relationship between the church and the state, should be continued.
First college newspaper, The Gem, published in February.
First intercollegiate athletic event held: a baseball game played against Monmouth
Christian College in Monmouth.
Name of institution -- Oregon State Agricultural College (as listed by the Budgeting
and Finance Committee).
The State Agricultural College Association of Citizens of Benton County
incorporated on February 5 for the purpose of acquiring the funds required
to provide for a new college building.
Passage of Senate Bill 135 provided that: "Students are to be selected
by the county school superintendents on the recommendations of state
senators and representatives. One-third of the number may be women."
Following passage of Senate Bill 135, the State of Oregon assumed complete control
of Corvallis College from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South on February 11.
Management of the college and the college farm assigned to a nine member Board
of Regents appointed by the governor.
Name of institution -- (1) Corvallis College and Oregon Agricultural College;
and (2) State Agricultural College of Oregon (as printed on the President's letterhead).
Name of institution -- State Agricultural College of Oregon (reference to
Corvallis College not used).
Federal
Hatch Act, which provided for the establishment of agricultural experiment
stations, approved on March 2. The Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station
began research activities in 1888 and was formally established in 1889;
Edgar E. Grimm served as its first director (1889-1890).
On August 17, cornerstone laid for a three-story brick building on "College Hill" (now
Benton Hall).
Lawsuit filed by Methodist Episcopal Church, South seeking unification of Corvallis
College and the State Agricultural College of Oregon. (This suit continued for
five years and was finally settled in favor of the State of Oregon).
On July 2, Governor Pennoyer accepted the new Administration
Building (now Benton Hall) and property for the state as a gift
of the citizens of Corvallis and Benton County. Cost: $25,000.
Board of Regents accepted provisions of the Hatch Act and authorized the appointment
of a chemist, botanist, horticulturist, and professor of household economy and
hygiene on July 2.
In October, the Oregon Agricultural Experiment Station issued its first
bulletin, written by Edgar Grimm. The bulletin was based on research
and directed toward providing advice and information to farmers,
orchardists, stockraisers, and poultrymen.
Length of class periods regulated by the manual operation of a large triangle.
Farmers'
Institutes began -- the first being held in Corvallis on November
15 and 16. Institutes continued in the spring of 1889, held at Salem,
Roseburg, and Hillsboro. Farmers' Institutes were the foundation
for the Oregon Extension Service (begun in 1911), reaching out beyond
the confines of the campus to spread research and academic knowledge
to Oregonians, especially rural Oregon.
Tuition -- $5.00 per term. Students holding state appointments paid no tuition.
All male students required to wear uniforms.
Faculty totaled eight members.
Name of institution -- State Agricultural College of the State of Oregon.
College completed move from the 5th Street location to the new campus.
First classes were held in the new Administration Building.
Alpha
Hall (dormitory) constructed; later used by the School of Pharmacy
and moved off campus in 1922. Mechanical
Hall built.
Grant Adelbert Covell, M.E., appointed the first professor of Engineering
(new department).
Margaret
Comstock Snell, M.D., appointed the first professor of Household
Economy and Hygiene -- the first department and position of their
kind in the Far West. (The college was the fourth land grant institution
in the country to introduce home economics, preceded only by Iowa
State College, Kansas State College, and the University of Illinois).
Oregon Legislative Assembly appropriated funds to purchase an additional 155
acres of land west of 26th Street.
Board of Regents instituted five new or reorganized degree programs: (1) three-year
courses leading to a bachelor's degree in Agriculture or Home Economics; and
(2) four-year courses leading to a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering,
Letters, or Science.
First social societies established along literary lines -- the Dialectic Society
and the Hesperian Society. (These two social societies were replaced in 1892
by the Websterians and the Ciceronians for more efficiency.)