EIGH

TEACHER EDUCATION
at

BLOOMSBURG

1869-1954
(FOUNDED 1839)

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
FRANCIS B. HAAS, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Ex-officio Member*
REG. S. HEMINGWAY, President ..... ..... ........ .. .... ....... .............. ..... .. .... . Bloomsburg
FRED W. DIEHL, Vice-President .

..... ....Danville

MRs. ELSIE Yoru{S JONES, Secretary

. Bloomsburg

EARL V. W 1sE .... ... .... . .. ......... ....... ..... ..... .. ....... ......................... .......... Berwick
GEORGE L. WEER .... ................. .... ............ .... .... ... ......... ................ .. ............. Kingston
HowARD S. FERNSLER ............ ............. ......... .... ..... ..... .... .. ................ ... .. Pottsville
CHARLES D. STEINER ....... .. ............ ................. ... ,..... ........................... ..... Shamokin
C. WILLIAM KRB1sHER .... ............. .... .. ..... .. .................................. .. .. .. .. .... Catawissa

VICTOR C. DIEHM ..... ................. ........... ..... ... .... .. .. ..... .... ..... ... ................. .Hazleton
.. President of the College (1927-1939)

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President
DR. E. H. NELSON '11

........ .... ... ..... ......... Bloomsburg

Vice-President
MRs. RuTH SPEARY GruFFITH '18 ........ ............ .. .... ... ....... .. ........... Wilkes-Barre

Secretary
MRs. C. C. HousEN1CK '05

... ... Bloomsburg

Treasurer
Miss HARRIET F. CARPENTER '96 .. .. .. ...... .............. ........................... Bloomsburg
MR. FRED W. DIEHL '12 ......... ... ......... ..... .............. .. ..... . .... .............. Danville
MR. EnwARD F. ScHUYLBR '24 ... .... .... .. ... ...... .... .... ..... . ... Bloomsburg
MR. HowARD F. FENsTEMAKER '12 ...... ..... ....... ... ..... ... .. ............

.. Espy

HERVEY B. SMITH, EsQ. '22 .. ...

Bloomsburg

Miss ELIZABETH H. HuBLER '45 .. .....

..... . Gordon

.,.

-THE WHITE TOWERS OF BLOOMSBURG
I saw the towers of Bloomsburg as I was passing by,
The white towers of Bloomsburg against the autumn sky.
The river flowed beneath them across the purple hills,
The town lies just below them with all its stores and mills.
The towers shine white at Bloomsburg above the mountains grand,
Looking at the clock there, no matter where you stand.
There's a tower on old Carver and on sprawling Waller, too,
This first one is the larger that shines against the blue.
Those who come to Bloomsburg and see September's haze
Are reminded always of their happy college days.
Up the street to Carver with its ever-welcoming door,
They've climbed with eager footsteps for four-score years or more.
So we set up our signposts for those who follow here,
That they may see the towers that we have tried to rear.
Our towers may not point upward like fingers to the sky,
But looking always at them we cannot fail to try
To serve our Alma Mater and to it e'er be true,
For the years look down upon us and others that we knew.
HARVEY

THE
BLOOMSBURG
BEACON
. . dedicated to the Students
Bloomsburg State Teachers College
who made the Supreme Sacrifice
in VV orld War II

\
lo

A.

ANDRUSS

GOLD STAR HONOR ROLL
World War II

Class
1944

ALLEN, KENNETH MORSE .
Shamokin, Pennsylvania

... 1943

BLASS, LAMAR K. .

1937

Aristes, Pennsylvania

. ... ... . 1934

Luzerne, Pennsylvania

w ........ ..

1945

... . . ... 1937

.. 1945

J.

McHALE, PAUL

1940

Mt. Carmel, Pennsylvania

Catawissa, Pennsylvania

J.

.. 1942

Bloomsburg, Pennsdvania

Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania

. ····· 1941

ROWLAND, CYRIL

J. ............. .l 938

RuDY, ALBERT E.

······ ·· ··· ·· 1948

.. 1933

ScHu YLER, MAnv F .

1944

SoBACK, l\11cnAEL

1941

TuHlNI, VICTOR R.
Wyoming, Pennsylvania

1933

Rupert, Pennsylvania
JENKINS, DONALD ....... ... .. ....... 1943
Forty Fort, Pennsylvania

H.

Bloomsburg, Pcnnsylvani::i

1945

w.

REED, WALTER

Bloomsburg, Pennsylvani:.i

... 1946

L.

...... 1937

Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania

Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania
HOFFMAN, LEO J., JR.

w.

Connerton, Pennsylvania

... 1942

I-IARJ\1AN, JAMES

REAGAN, THOMAS

Shillington, Pennsylvania

... .1940

HANCOCK, Jmrn

HUMMEL, vVooDROW

McCRACKEN, ALLEN A.

Lost Creek, Pennsylvania

Ebervale, Pennsylvania

1-IowEn, JonN

1935

\i\Tilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

Forty Fort, Pennsylvania

HARRIS, EARL

KITCH' CLYDE C.

Riverside, Pennsylvania

CARR, JOHN R. .

J.

. . ... . .. ... . .. 1944

Columbia, Pennsylvania

Hatboro, Pennsylvania

EvANCHO, JosEPH

J.

Dickson City, Pennsylvania

ATKINSON, JOHN LEE

CRESSWELL, ROBERT

Class
KANIA, \i\1ALTER

WENRICH, CHALMERS

s.

1939

H::irrisburg, Pennsylv:mia
YENALAVAGE, ANTHONY C.
Kingston, Pennsylvania

1943

_...,,,....

PROGRAM
Carver Hall Auditorium, 8:30 P. M.
. Francis Scott Kev

The Star Spangled Banner"'
Invocation

Mr. Fred W . Diehl, Vice-President, Board of Trustees

\,Velcome

Dr. Harvey A. Andruss, President of the Collc; e

BSNS and BSTC - -Dr. Francis B. Haas, Superintendent of Public Instruction
Taylo r-Brahe

Bless This House*
Miss Diann Jones, Soloist

Presentation of the Bloomsburg Beacon
( in memory of World \iVar II Gold Star Alumni)
Mr. Reginald S. Hemingway, President, Board of Trustees
Acceptance of the Bloomsburg Beacon
Dr. E. H. Nelson, President, Alumni Association
Where'er You Walk*

Handel
Quartet

Richard Williams
William Phillips

Robert Ebner
Samuel Hall

Directed by Mr. Nelson A. Miller

"Lengthened Shadows"

Dean Emeritus William B. Sutliff
Joseph H. Dennis

The Alnia Mater*
*Miss Mary Jo Williams, Accompanist

ALMA MATER
Far above the river winding
Midst the mountains grand,
Stands our College, dear to students
Far throughout the land.

J

Chorus
Bloomsburg, Bloomsburg, Bloomsburg
College
Up on Colle6e Hill;
Years to come shall find us ever
True to Bloomsburg still.
Air-"Annie Lyle"
At the Console-Miss Myra Albertson

Carver Hall Lobby

In the beginning
It was midsummer, 1839.
The young nation was paralyzed by panic. Accomplished politician that
he was, President Martin Van Buren seemed powerless to do anything to
relieve the widespread distress and suffering. Beneath the growing economic
unrest bubbled the discontent of the Antislavery forces. In a few short weeks,
grizzled William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, who enjoyed a tenuous reputation
as a military hero, would be nominated for the Presidency on the Whig ticket
in the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Harrisburg. The now-famous
"Log Cabin and Cider" campaign was little more than a year away.

In the sleepy Pennsylvania Town of Bloomsburg, however, something was
stmmg. Here enterprising citizens, including the Reverend David Jewett
Waller, Sr., a graduate of Williams College and Princeton Theological Seminary, were planning further ec1,ucation for the youth of the town. They
persuaded Charles P. Waller, brother of the Rev. Mr. Waller, and later President Judge in the district of vVayne and Pike counties, to come to Bloomsburg
to found an academy, which was established at Third and Jefferson Streets.
Thus youth had an opportunity of securing a liberal education. Mr. Waller
remained two years, and when he left the institution was in a Hourishing
condition.
From that time on it was touch and go, but in 1856, while nervous
Americans watched the mounting political strife, the Rev. Mr. Waller prepared

a charter providing for the Bloomsburg Literary Institute. The object of the
corporation was to promote education, both in the ordinary and higher branches
of English, Literature, and Science, and in the Ancient and Modern Languages. William Robison and others circulated the petition and obtained
the signatures of twenty-seven other citizens. It was submitted to the court
at the September term and confirmed.

.j

Despite increasing political tensions, the Bloomsburg Literary Institute began its service to the youth in the old Academy building. D. A. Beckley and
others conducted the school, but there was no succession of teachers, and the
Board of Trustees exercised little control over its management.
The Institute struggled along through the critical days of the Civil War,
but the end of the war brought expansion, increased enrollments, and progress.
The Board of Trustees, of which the Rev. Mr. Waller was president, began
a search for an educator of established reputation to head the Institute, the
charter of which was revived on May 2, 1866. Shortly afterwards, amid
rumors of the impending impeachment of President Andrew Johnson, Henry
Carver of Binghamton, New York, was elected Principal.
Carver was a self-educated man. After serving as principal of an academy
in his native state of New York, he was head of the Preparatory Department
of the University of California. While there he lost his left hand by the

Dean Emeritus Sutliff and President Andruss examine original
Trustees' Minutes dating from
1866.

l

d

Waller Hall Lounge

explosion of a fowling piece. After returning to his home in Binghamton,
he made a trip down the Susquehanna River. Impressed by the beauty of the
environment of Bloomsburg, he spent several days here and inquired about the
local schools. After talking with the Rev. Mr. Waller, D. A. Beckley, and
others, Carver was persuaded to remain in Bloomsburg and to open the
Academy.
On June 29, 1866, just one week after his election, the trustees passed a
resolution to erect a building to accommodate 300 students at a cost not to
exceed $15,000. Although this was five times the amount anyone but Carver
had thought of expending, immediate steps were taken to raise the money.
By the end of the summer, when the Fourteenth Amendment was being
submitted to the states for ratification, $11,290 had been subscribed.
The location of the building at once became a public issue. Four sites
were offered, including three acres of land above the Forks Hotel, which stood
squarely across Main Street. Despile objections filed in a minority report to
the Board of Trustees, owners of stock, eligible to vote on the location of the
building, met in the Court House June 16, 1866, and the present site was enthusiastically approved. The owners of the Forks Hotel agreed to move the
building within a reasonable time and thus allow for the opening of Main
Street up to the entrance of the Literary Institute Hall.
Professor Carver was instructed to consult an architect in Washington and
to secure plans for the erection of the proposed building. These were subrn itted to the Board of Trustees and adopted July 13, 1866. Meanwhile,

Carver was busily engaged in advertising the opening of the Institute and
securing teachers for the fall term.

--Some difficulty was encountered in securing a capable contractor to
erect the new building. On November 25, 1866, the Trustees requested
the Principal "to employ a competent teacher for the balance of the term, at
the expense of the Institute, to enable Professor Carver to devote his full-time
to the pending Subscriptions and the erection of the building."
ff';

..

For the dedication of the building on March 30, 1867, a committee was
appointed "to invite the clergy of the Town and Judge Elwell to accompany
the Trustees in a procession from the Academy to Institute Hall, on the following Wednesday at 1 :00 P. M. A band led the procession and the new
building was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies."
A faculty was selected and the classwork of the Bloomsburg Literary
Institute began in Institute Hall, now Carver Hall.
The first year in the new building was not completed when James P.
Wickersham, State Superintendent of Common Schools, while passing through
Bloomsburg on a train, saw the new school on the hill "ablaze with light." The
location of a new normal school in the Sixth District was pending, and Mr.
Wickersham, who had been principal of the Millersville Normal School, returned to Bloomsburg and addressed a meeting of the citizens, expressing the
opinion that the Literary Institute would be an ideal location for a State Normal
School.
On March 9, 1868, the following resolution was adopted: "Resolved that
the Trustees of the Bloomsburg Literary Institute agree to establish in connection with the same, 'A State Normal School' ..." Exactly one week later, the
impeachment of President Andrew Johnson was begun with Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase presiding over the Senate of the United States. The hearings

The new Business Office

dragged on, but in Bloomsburg citizens were more concerned with progress
of the school on the hill.
A month later, Professor Carver, who had declined to serve as head of the
school for more than two years unless a more suitable building was erected,
submitted plans for a new dormitory. While funds for the building were being
raised, news was received of the decision in Washington to vote on the 11th
article of impeachment-whether President Andrew Johnson was guilty of high
misdemeanors as charged. The Senate voted 35 for conviction, 19 (7 Republicans and 12 Democrats) for acquittal, one short of the necessary two-thirds.
Interestingly enough, U. S. Senator Charles R. Buckalew, of Bloomsburg, cast
one of the Democratic votes for acquittal. Buckalew later became a member
of the Board of Trustees of the Normal School.
Less than a month later, on June 25, 1868, the cornerstone of the new
dormitory was laid. The occasion was a memorable one. Governor John White
Geary, whose career in national politics was as distinguished as his military
record in the Mexican and Civil \Vars, placed the stone in position, made an
appropriate address, and handed the plans to Professor Carver, who accepted
them and promised to complete the work as soon as possible.
State Superintendent Wickersham, who addressed a still larger audience
in Institute Hall that evening, was present along with the Honorable William
Elwell, President Judge of the county courts, who spoke on behalf of the
Board of Trustees. L. B. Rupert read a history of the institution, and the
Rev. Mr. Waller offered prayer.
Early in February, 1869, the trustees requested that a committee be
appointed under the act of 1857 to consider the chartering of the Literary
Institute as a State Normal School. On February 18, 1868, this committee
examined the charter deeds, organization, methods of instruction, and other
matters pertaining to the character of the institution. They reported favorably
the following day, February 19, 1869, which is the birthday of the State
Normal School of the Sixth District, although the proclamation of the State
Superintendent was signed and sealed three days later.
And so today, on the eighty-fifth anniversary of the formal recogmt10n
of teacher education at Bloomsburg, it is significant that appropriate exercises
are being held in Carver H The setting sun casts lengthening shadows across the campus, but none
of these embrace "Normal Hill" as completely as the lives of those whose
labor of love founded on this spot a great institution.
-JOHN A. HocH.

·FACULTY, FEBRUARY 19, 1954
,,,.

Harvey A. Andruss

Harold H. Lanterman

Mrs. Lucile Baker

Mary E. Macdonald

,,,

Edna J. Barnes

Nell Maupin

Edwin M. Barton

Lucy McCammon

Mrs. Iva Mae V. Beckley

Joseph A. McCurdy

Mrs. Olive Payne Beeman

M. Beatrice Mettler

Elsie Bower

Mrs. Elizabeth Miller

Boyd F. Buckingham

Nelson A. Miller

Edward T. DeVoe

Thomas P. North

Ernest H. Engelhardt

Honora M. Noyes

Mrs. Dorothy J. Evans

J. Almus Russell

Howard F. Fenstemaker

Walter S. Rygiel

W.C.Forney

Russell F. Schleicher

Earl A. Gehrig

Mrs. Anna Garrison Scott

Richard G. Hallisy

Cecil C. Seronsy

Edna J. Hazen

Harold S. Shelly

Charles H. Henrie

William B. Sterling

Ralph S. Herre

Marcella Stickler

Clayton Hinkel

Marjorie Stover

John A. Hoch

E. Paul Wagner

Stephen R. Hopkins

Margaret E. Waldron

Warren I. Johnson

Clara B. Weir

Mrs. Martha M. Johnson

Grace H. Woolworth

Elinor R. Keefer

JackW. Yohe

Kimber C. Kuster
Mary Louise Fontana, Dietitian
Paul G. Martin, Business Manager
Edward D. Sharretts, Superintendent, Grounds and Buildings

,....

EIGHTY-FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF
TEACHER EDUCATION (1869-1954)
Bloomsbur.g Literary Institute and State
Normal School 1866-1916*

Principals
Henry Carver ........ ..... ....... ... ... .... .. ...... ....1866-1871
Charles G. Barkley .. ........... ..... ..... ........ 1871-1872
John Hewitt ............. ............ ....... .. .......... 1872-1873

T. L. Griswold .........
David

J. Waller,

..................

.1873-1877

Jr. .. .. ................. .......... .1877-1890

Judson P. Welsh ....... . ... ... ...... ...... .. ......... 1890-1906

Bloomsburg State Normal School 1916-1926

Principals
David J. Waller, Jr. .. .................. ............ .1906-1920
Charles H. Fisher .... ........... . ................. 1920-1923
G. C. L. Reimer ... ...... ... ...... ... ..... .. ... .. .. ..... 1923-1927

Bloomsburg State Teachers College 1927-

Presidents
Francis B. Haas ............ ............... .. ... .. .. .. .. 1927-1939
Harvey A. Andruss ..... ......... .. ... ... .. ......... 1939-

* Chartered as State Normal School of the Sixth District
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, February 19, 1869.