TOLD by the PIONEERS - Washington Secretary of State

Told
by the Pioneers
the large building in the same block at South Ninth and G street. This
latter building remained the home of the school until 1903.
In 1892 Pres. Cherington was succeeded in the presidency by the
Rev. Crawford R. Thoburn, a graduate of Alleghany College, Pennsylvania,
who was given the title of chancellor. He was a fine speaker
and eloquently presented the cause of the school. He was also hopeful
and optimistic and not easily discouraged. It was well that he
had these qualities, for the years of his presidency were those covered
by the panic of 1893, in which the national economic and financial situation
was at a low ebb.
A noted event of Chancellor Thoburn's presidency was the effort
to locate the uniyersity on the Narrows on a campus overlooking Puget
Sound and having a fine view, both of the Olympic and Cascade
ranges. By purchase and otherwise control was obtained of between
600 and 1,000 acres. The lots and lands surrounding an ample campus
were to be sold and from the proceeds adequate buildings were to be
erected and money provided for current expenses and endowment.
Noble was the plan, high the hopes of the friends of the university,
but owing to the panic of 1893 and the years following, enough lots
could not be sold to carry out the plan.
Then, in the autumn of 1898 the trustees of the university reluctantly
consented to a plan to consolidate the university ",rith the Portland
University of Portland, Oregon. So most of the faculty, including
Chancellor Thoburn, became a part of the consolidated school at
Portland in October of 1898. But in March, 1899, the trustees of the
Puget Sound University reopened the school in Tacoma with Dr.
Wilmot Whitfield of Seattle as president.
From its founding, the life of the Puget Sound University was a
struggle for existence. Not only students and faculty, but the university
itself was in constant need of funds. Usually the faculty were
paid about half in money and half in lots. But the faculty members
were self-sacrificing and patiently bore want and suffering.
The university was fortunate in having devoted trustees who gan
much time to the welfare of the school, meeting often to devise methods
to keep the school going. Often a meeting would be held to order
the sale of one or more lots to meet some sudden financial emergency.
Also, always back of the school was the Puget Sound Conference,
inspired by the hope that a Christian institution of learning, of which
all would be proud, would arise in the Pacific Northwest.
By the spring of 1903 the board of trustees of the Puget Sound University
voted to disincorporate and to let a new board take over the
224