TABLE 38.-Diplomas and certificates issued 1891–1934, Cheney State Normal School 1

1 Oliphant, J. O. History of the State Normal School, Cheney, Wash., Spokane, Inland-American Printing Co. 1921, p. 152, and statistics furnished by Vice Pres. C. S. Kingston, June 17, 1932, and Registrar G. W. Wallace, Oct. 2, 1934.

1 No session.

The degree of A. B. in education was granted to 22 in 1933 and 73 in 1934. The law authorizing these degrees was enacted in 1933.

II. THE ELLENSBURG NORMAL SCHOOL

1. Establishment and Location

Legal enactment.-Six days subsequent to the establishment of the Cheney Normal School, March 28, 1890, the legislature enacted a law establishing a second one at Ellensburg. While the establishment of the two were under contemplation at the same time the statutes creating them are worded very differently. Certainly there was little

evidence of an attempt to plan an organized system of higher education in the new State of Washington. So dissimilar were the laws that it will be desirable to quote the main provisions.

SECTION 1. There shall be established in the city of Ellensburg, county of Kittitas, a school to be called the Washington State Normal School, for the training and educating of teachers in the art of instructing and governing in the public schools of this State.

The Governor, the superintendent of public instruction and the secretary of state were appointed trustees to select the site in Ellensburg which was to be donated by the city. The Governor, the superintendent of public instruction and three others to be appointed by the Governor were to "constitute the board of normal school trus tees." This board was vested with authority to select the principal and members of the faculty and to fix their salaries. They were to prescribe the course of study, conditions for graduation, the issuance of certificates and diplomas. They were authorized "when expe dient "to establish a “training or model school or schools in which the pupils of the normal school shall be required to instruct classes under the supervision and direction of experienced teachers."

The school was evidently intended to be State-wide rather than regional as the students admitted were to be "apportioned among the counties of this State according to the number of representatives from said counties in the legislature." Teachers holding first or secondgrade certificates were to be admitted from the State at large regardless of the other limitations. County superintendents and county boards. of education were authorized to hold competitive examinations before the first of May each year for candidates for admission. They were to be given preference for admission in the order of their standing. County superintendents were given discretionary power to "dis criminate in favor of those whose age and experience specially fit them to become normal pupils."

The law does not state the length of the course except by implica tion. It states that

To secure admission into the junior class of the normal school, the applicant, if a male, must be not less than seventeen years of age, or if a female, not less than sixteen years of age; to enter an advanced class, the applicant must be proportionately older. This was certainly indefinite. All were to present recommendations from the county superintendent certifying to their good moral char acter and their fitness to enter the normal school. All were obliged to sign a declaration of "intention to engage in teaching in the public schools of this State."

Tuition was, by implication, free to residents of the State; nonresidents were charged $100 and not required to sign the declaration mentioned. 13

The first five trustees included Gov. Elisha P. Ferry, ex officio, R. B. Bryan, State superintendent of public instruction ex officio. and three members appointed by the Governor, viz: W. R. Abrams, T. J. Newland, and M. Gilliam. The appointive members were all from Bellingham.14

The initial faculty.--The first faculty, 1891-92, consisted of B. F. Barge, principal, W. N. Hull, assistant principal, Rose M. Rice, and Fannie C. Norris. 15

The public schools of Ellensburg shared their building with the normal school. The first 4 grades of the public schools were used as a training school during the first 3 years.

Evidently Mr. Barge was employed a year before the school opened as he is listed as principal by the United States Commissioner of Education for the year 1890-91. No students are reported for that year. 16

Principal B. F. Barge 1891-94.-The one chosen to organize the normal school at Ellensburg was Benjamin F. Barge, a superintendent of schools from Illinois who had recently removed to Olympia. Mr. Barge was born in Concord, Mass., February 2, 1834. His father was a farmer. Mr. Barge studied at Yale for 3 years and at the age of 18 went to Louisiana where he engaged in teaching for 8 years.

At the outbreak of the Civil War he removed to Illinois and continued in the profession of teaching. For 6 years he was superintendent of the Cambridge city schools, following which he was city superintendent at Geneseo. During 11 years of this latter period he was also county superintendent. For 2 years, 1879-81 he served as a member of the State board of education in Illinois, resigning because of his removal to Iowa. He located at Webster City and engaged in agriculture and stock raising for 6 years. He then became a newspaper editor and publisher in Minnesota for 3 years.

In 1890, at the age of 56 after 29 years of teaching and a varied business experience he resumed his trek westward to Washington, then recently admitted to the Union and growing in population and wealth very rapidly. He settled in Olympia and almost immediately

13 Laws of Washington, 1889-90, pp. 278-281.

14 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1890, p. 182.

1 Dewey, History of Education in Washington, p. 46.

1 Report of United States Commissioner of Education, 1890-91, vol. 2, p. 1454.

was elected principal of the newly established normal school at Ellensburg.

After resigning, June 1894, at Ellensburg he was elected to the State legislature where he served 1 term. For 4 years he was disbursing officer of a Federal Commission on Indian Affairs. In 1896 he located in Yakima where he was very successful as a business man. For several years he served as president of the board of education in Yakima.17

An early course of study. The curriculum of 1892-93 and little modified for many years is reproduced below:

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION, 1892-93

Junior year

PROFESSIONAL. First term: Civil government and Constitution, 20 weeks. Second term: Manners and morals, 5 weeks.

MATHEMATICS. First term: Algebra, 20 weeks. Second term: Algebra, 10 weeks; arithmetic, 10 weeks.

ENGLISH. First term: Grammar, 20 weeks. Second term: Composition and literary reading, 20 weeks.

SCIENCE. First term: Physiology, 10 weeks; United States history, 10 weeks. Second term: Zoology, 10 weeks; geography, 10 weeks.

MISCELLANEOUS.-First term: Penmanship and drawing, 20 weeks; reading and calisthenics, 20 weeks.

Middle year

PROFESSIONAL.-First term: Methods and observations in model school, 10 weeks; ele mentary psychology, 10 weeks. Second term: School management and observations in model school, 20 weeks.

MATHEMATICS.-First term: Geometry, 20 weeks. Second term: Geometry, 10 weeks; bookkeeping, 10 weeks.

ENGLISH. First term: General history, 20 weeks. Second term: Rhetoric, 20 weeks; letter writing, physics, 20 weeks.

SCIENCE. First term: Botany, 15 weeks. Second term: Physical geography, 10 weeks. MISCELLANEOUS. First term: Penmanship and drawing, 20 weeks. Second term: Reading and physical exercises, 20 weeks.

Senior year

PROFESSIONAL. First term: Psychology, 10 weeks; pedagogy, 10 weeks; teaching in training school, 20 weeks.

MATHEMATICS.-First term: Arithmetic, 10 weeks. ENGLISH. First term: English literature, 20 weeks. grammar, 10 weeks.

Second term: Algebra, 10 weeks.
Second term: Review of English

SCIENCE. First term: Chemistry, 20 weeks; geography, 10 weeks. Second term: Geology, 10 weeks.

MISCELLANEOUS. First term: United States history, 10 weeks; perspective drawing, 20 weeks. Second term: Elocution, 20 weeks.

17 Data furnished by Mrs. E. B. Leckey, Yakima, daughter of Mr. Barge.

Exercises throughout the entire course: Spelling and word analysis, graphic work, clay molding, drawing, vocal music, and taxidermy. For unclassified students not in regular course: Arithmetic, English grammar, geography, United States history bookkeeping, commercial arithmetic, school management. 18

P. A. Getz, principal, 1894–98.—In September 1894 the new building was occupied. P. A. Getz became principal. The training school then was increased to six grades.

Mr. Getz was born at New Berlin (now Akron), Lancaster County, Pa., December 13, 1859. He was educated in the public schools of that county and in the State normal school at Millersville, Pa., from which he received the degrees of B.E. and M.E. in 1885 and 1887, respectively. In 1923 he received the B.A. degree from the University of Oregon, and also continued graduate work there intermittently until 1925.

He was principal of the high school at Hafeta, Pa., 1885-89; principal of the high school at Ashland, Oreg., 1889-92; and teacher of pedagogy in the State normal school at Monmouth, Oreg., 1892-94. In May 1894 he was elected principal of the State normal school at Ellensburg, which position he occupied until June 1898. In the summer sessions of 1924 and 1925 he served there as an instructor. Since 1916 he has been an instructor in the Roosevelt High School, Portland, Oreg.

In April 1898, Dr. A. E. Winship visited the Ellensburg Normal School, later publishing a very commendatory editorial concerning it and the services of Principal Getz in his journal. He also wrote a very flattering letter to one of the members of the normal school faculty. He said:

Considering the money at your disposal I have never seen any approach to the professional results obtained in Ellensburg, and in the purely professional side of the work, the imparting of high professional ideals and training in the adaptation of professional principles in methods I have not seen it equaled. 19

William E. Wilson, principal, 1898-1916.-Prin. William Edward Wilson was at the helm from 1898 to 1916. He came directly from Providence, R.I., where he had been principal of the Rhode Island State Normal School from 1884-92. He was a student at the State normal school at Edinboro, Pa., and the Jamestown Seminary in the same State. He was a graduate of the West Virginia State Normal School and of Monmouth College. He was for a time a student at the University of Edinburgh and Free Church College of Divinity,

18 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1892, p. 156. Data furnished by Mr. Getz through personal correspondence.