TOLD by the PIONEERS - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
efficient teacher of the primary department. Francis Tucker afterward
g-raduated from the University of Nebraska and is now Dr.
Francis Tucker, in charg-e of the Williams Hospital, in China.
Commencement exercises for a g-raduating class of the academy
were held for the first time on June 15, 1888, while Mr .Carraher was
was principal. Diplomas were presented by Mr. Carraher to Mary
De Brun, Mary Allison, Allie Dale and Ralph Hendricks.
In 1889-90, the last year that Mr. Sutton was principal of the public
school, high school work was offered after the regular school day.
It had been found that the school could not legally offer the high
school course during the day.
Interest in the academy had virtually ceased. The development of
the public school left it little excuse for existence. When the Territory
of Washing-ton was made a state on November 11, 1889, and
various communities started"gunning-" for state institutions, a plan
to have a normal school located in Cheney was conceived. Provision
for such an institution had been made in the enabling act. The proposition
was carried to the legislature at Olympia, was acted upon
favorabl~-, and the building and grounds of the Benjamin P. Cheney
Academy became the first home of the oldest state teacher-training
institution in \Vashington.
THE 81'ATE COLLEGE OF W A8HINGTON
By Doctor E. A. Bryan, President Em.eritus
Twenty-six years after the chartering of the University of \Yashington,
and eleven years after the making of its first constitution, the
constitution of the State of \Vashington went into effect on the date
of November 11, 1889. Not until this late date did the formation of
its college for instruction in agriculture and the mechanic arts receive
legislative attention. During- the first session of the state legislature
no less than six bills looking to this end were considered and
on the twenty-eighth of March, 1890, the bill creating the ag-ricultural
college, experiment station, and the school of science was enacted and
signed by the Governor.
A g-overning board of three was appointed and directed to select
a location for the proposed institution. The commission reported to
the leg-islature of 1891 its inability to agree upon a suitable location
for the institution. An amended bill was introduced to the legislature
and was passed and went into effect on the ninth day of :\Iarch,
215