River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1915-09-30

WARREN D. PARKER, President of
Faculty, l875-1889 and l9O4.1908
The scope of this paper is con-
fined to little more than the per-
iod Of the presidency of the writer.
Others will undoubtedly complete
the school record.
The pioneers in the Valley of the
Saint Croix River, who resided in
in Wisconsin, bore grateful
remembrance Of the privileges
of schools and churches in
their early experiences on two sides
of the Atlantic Ocean. They be-
lieved that a normal school would
supplement existing institutions
sufficiently to afford facility equiv
alent 10 college training; and they
believed in the American tradition
of the stability of representative
government when the whole people
are made intelligent in politics by
institutional instruction. When
the state proposed the establish
ment Of normal school at River
Falls in 1885, some leading citi-
zens proceeded to consolidate the
fundamental sentiment already
fairly operative, by a house-to
house canvass in solicitation of
funds that should supplement those
supplied by the state in promoting
the chief undertaking. That all
winter, fireside search for the bonus
secured approximately thirty thou
sand dollars, and the daily confer
ences performed the further bene-
fit service Of establishing perma
nent friendship for the school. Late,
those thrifty people were wisely
alert to visit the school in operat-
ion, sufficiently to determine the
facts in the case. All this intimacy
resulted in opening wide the doors
of rural schools for the Inaugural.
ton of cadet practice. The peo-
pie might have been engrosseG by
the severe routine of transforming
their local wilderness or by the re-
establishment of industries and
professions that had lan2uished
under the tense interests of the
period of the civil warrior by the
efforts of the nation in re-establish-
ment of southern states govern
ments, but they took ample time
for learning that sacrifices made
for their school actually Injured TO
the advantage of their children, the
Valley, the State.
The brick and stone built into
the first normal home gave an i'm
posing facade of three stories, base
ment, and believer. High wind
ows admitted abundant light to all
rooms and corridors. The Ruttan
system of ventilation flushed the en-
tire structure twice hourly, and
seven woodworking furnaces tenn
pered the winter air to seventy de-
grees in defiance of the outdoor
congealation of mercury. That
edifice occupied the site of the Sec
ond building now in service across
the avenue, and it was appropriate
ely dedicated in September 1875,
remained in service ten months
annually until it burned in Novem-
Der 1897, having been extensively
repaired and fitted with steam
heating apparatus and mechanical
ventilation in 1895. Municipal
water was introduced, electric light
ing displaced kerosene, and tele-
phones banished speaking tubes in
the interval of 1894 y. During the
seven school months succeeding the
fire, adequate Accommodations for
the Normal and thetraining schools
were courteously provided by the
societies of the Methodist, Baptist,
Congreg ationalist and Lutheran
Churches and the Masons and Odd
Fellows Lodges. The second home
of the school was erected during
March-September 1898 and it was
promptly occupied. Its construc-
ton was made possible through
use of the first building. Other
writer's will undoubtedly complete