#Flashback Friday – Cardinal Tales

This Flashback Friday post is about a table that Special Collections and University Archives received in 2008. The bulk of this Friday’s blog post is authored by Becky Jordan, Reference Specialist.

The table was received as a gift in 2008, and was thought to be part of the original furnishings of Morrill Hall. However, once Archives staff started to do research on the names and other writings on the back side of the table top, it was apparent that it predated the opening of Morrill Hall in July of 1895. It may have been in use as early as 1884.

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Here is information collected by Becky back in 2008:

Writings on the Back of the Table Top

Scattered across the table are a number of dates:

May 9 ____

May 14 ‘87

May 29 1889

November 10 89

84 (this is etched in—there is also an 84 on the inside edge of the table itself)

There are three tic tac toe games.

Also scattered are some names:

Orris Roberts—younger brother of longtime faculty member Maria Roberts, he was expelled in 1892 for joining a fraternity after they had been banned by President Beardshear.

Ch_____t______ Esq. (The name looks as if it was rubbed out—it is smeared, rather than illegible. The Esq. may not belong to this name)

Grace Axtell—appears in the 1896 Bomb as a class member, but did not graduate.

Rhoda Ryan

There are also 14 names grouped together:

Grace Axtell (again)

Daisee Robinson

Louise Hamilton

Loretta Hamilton

Cora Thompson

Ruth or Faith Thompson

Emma McCarthy

Grant Kirtrow or Kertrow

W.S. Dawson

E.E. Smith

R.B. Armstrong

C.S. Lincoln

_. W. Deaver or Driver

W.D. Mason

I could find no information for Rhoda Ryan, Ruth Thompson or _.W. Deaver. Following is what I could find about the rest of these names:

Grace Axtell

She is listed in the Catalog as a freshman in the Ladies’ Course in 1893 and a Sophomore Special in 1894. She was the daughter of Charles P. and Harriett Adelaide (Ada) Miller Axtell. Her father was a partner in the firm of Ray & Axtell, a dry goods store on the west side of the square in Newton, Iowa. Grace married Alfred Herschel (Fred) Munn on October 21, 1897. Fred was a member of the class of 1894 but did not graduate. His family owned (and still does) the Munn Lumber Company in Ames. Their son, Hiram Axtell, was a member of the Class of 1922.

Daisee Robinson

She is listed in the Catalog as a freshman in 1893 and a sophomore in 1894. Like Grace Axtell, she was from Newton. Her father, Ralph Robinson, was the editor of the Newton Journal. Her mother’s maiden name was Fannie Hamilton. Both parents were from Ohio. According to her father’s obituary, Daisee’s husband was Mark Evans.

Louise Hamilton

She is listed in the Catalog as a freshman in 1891, a sophomore in 1894, and a junior in 1895 in the Ladies’ Course. She appears as a member of the class of 1896 in the 1896 Bomb. She is listed in 1895 Census in the Nevada 1^st Ward with no occupation, age 20, and in the Ames 1^st Ward as a student, age 20. She was the daughter of Charles and Tennetta Hamilton, with siblings Dora, Ethel, Loretta and Charles Jr. Both parents were from New York.

She married William C. Boardman, September 29, 1897.

Loretta Hamilton

Loretta was Louise Hamilton’s sister. We have no record of her as a student. She is listed in the 1895 Census in Nevada 1^st Ward with no occupation, age 23 and in Ames 1^st Ward as a bookkeeper, age 22. She married Benton Davis, June 27, 1900.

Cora Thompson

Cora May Thompson is listed in 1895 Census in the Nevada 1^st Ward, occupation ?her (perhaps teacher), age 20. Her parents were F.D. and Abbie Thompson, and siblings were Kate, Sylvia, Clayton, and Olive. We have no record of her as a student. She married Charles S. Lincoln (Class of 1894) on September 15, 1898.

Emma McCarthy

A member of the class of 1885, who did not graduate, Emma McCarthy was the daughter of Ames pioneer Daniel McCarthy and his wife Mary Ann Ross McCarthy. In the 1894 yearbook (published 1893), she is listed as Iowa State’s assistant librarian. She attended Iowa State for three semesters (1881-1882) then taught school in Story County for eight years. She then spent two years at the Ames Post Office, joining the Iowa State staff in 1892. She married Chaucer G. Lee (Class of 1894) on September 23, 1896. Lee practiced law with Daniel McCarthy and was the judge of Iowa’s 11^th District for eight years. Emma’s name is very familiar in Ames, because her husband presented a park to the city bearing her name in 1949.

W.S. Dawson

He is listed as an Electrical Engineering sophomore in 1893 and a “Special” junior in 1894, but did not graduate. He was from Nevada.

E.E. Smith

Edwin E. Smith was an 1893 graduate in Science. He is listed in Iowa State College Graduates as being from Sioux Rapids, Iowa, and deceased.

R.B. Armstrong

Listed as a “special” from Polk City in the 1894 Catalog and the 1895 Bomb, he did not graduate.

C.S. Lincoln

An 1894 graduate, Charles S. Lincoln was the son of James Rush Lincoln, Iowa State’s head of Military Science, 1883-1919. Charles Lincoln had a distinguished military career, enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1894 and retiring as a Brigadier General in 1936. He married Cora May Thompson (see above) on September 15, 1898.

W.D. Mason

Watson Mason is shown as a member of the Class of 1894 in the 1894 yearbook, but did not actually graduate until 1896. His degree was in Mechanical Engineering, and he is noted as deceased in the 1912 engineering directory. His hometown was Toledo, Iowa.

Some Explanations:

Until 1925, Iowa State’s yearbook The Bomb was published by the junior class and called by their class year. Thus, the 1895 Bomb actually came out in 1894. The last year this was done was 1924. Then the yearbook staff was opened to all classes and the book was dated with the year it was actually published. (This is also why there are two 1925 yearbooks).

The “Ladies’ Course” was a basic course of college study which included Domestic Economy. For example, the first term of the sophomore year included Domestic Economy, German or Latin, History, One Essay, and the choice of two sciences from Botany, Horticulture, Physics or Trigonometry. The degree received was the B.L. or Bachelor of Letters.

“Specials” were those taking special lines of study. The 1894 Catalog describes these students as follows:

“Any person of mature age and good moral character, who desires to pursue studies in any department of instruction of the College, and who is not a candidate for a degree, will, upon application to the president, be admitted on the following conditions: (1). He must meet the requirements for admission to the freshman class, and pass such special examinations as the professor in charge of the department selected shall deem essential to a profitable pursuit of the work. (2). He shall confine his work strictly to the line of study chosen at the time of admission, and shall take enough class work, laboratory and other practice equivalent to work required of regularly classified students. (3). He shall submit to the same requirements in daily recitations and in examinations, with students in the regular courses.

Students who have pursued thus a special line of study in the Institution, will, upon application to the faculty, be granted the College Certificate, showing their standing in such studies.”