MEN OF THE PRIESTLEY CENTENNIAL William K. Kedzie from Kansas1 SISTER MARY GRACE WARING Marymount College, Salina, Kansas
MANY of the early settlers of the Kansas territory were well educated, and the residents in the vicinity of Manhattan, Kansas, had established Bluemont Central College as early as 1858. The bill for the admission of Kansas as the thirty-fourth state of the Union was signed by President Buchanan on January 29, 1861. President Abraham Lincoln approved the Morrill Laud Grant Act which provided for the offering of a grant from the public lands to each state in the Union for the endowment and support of a t least one college on July 2, 1862. Among other provisions, the college thus maintained should teach such branches as are related to agriculture and the mechanical arts. Kansas accepted the provisions of the Land Grant Act on February 3, 1863; and on February 11, of the same year, Manhattan, Kansas, was designated as the location, in response to an offer made by the Trustees of Bluemont Central College, to transfer the property belonging to that College Association to the state of Kansas, for the establishment of the Kansas State ~ ~ r i c u l t u rCollege. al The college catalogues from 1863 to 1873 show that a number of different curricula were offered. The classical curriculum was the chief basis of instruction for several years, and the degree of Bachelor of Arts was awarded to most of the graduates up to and including 1876. One of the ereat difficulties of this ~ e r i o da t the Kausas State Agricultural College was the almost nonexistence of men who were competent to give college instruction in agriculture and in sciences related to that industry. There was controversy among the members of the State Board of Regents, the College faculty, and the of and towns concerning the scope of the college and the subjects which could or should be taught within the provisions of the Morrill Act. In 1873 the Kansas legislature passed a law reorganizing the &nsas ~~~~d of Regents of all state educational institutions. Soon after, the new Board of Regents elected the Rev. John
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Presented before the Division of the tory of Chemistry a t the 118th Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Cbicago, September 6, 1950. This is the second of a series of papers [See, "The Priestley Centennial, turning point in the csseer of W. George Waring," J. &EM. EDUC.,25, 647 (1948).] revealing the early history of chemistry in the United States, by relating the lives and works of those who attended the first assembly of chemists in this country and prepared the ground for the organization of the American Chemical Society two years later.
A. Anderson of Junction City, Kansas, to the presidency of the Kansas State Agricultural College to replace President Joseph Denison who had been forced to resign. The result was a radical change of policy, so that under the new administration the school of literature was discontinued and a school of agricultural and mechanical arts was organized. William Knowlton Kedzie accepted an invitation to establish a department of chemistry and physics under the new rhgime. Previous to this time any work offeredin these subjects had been handled by the professor of natural philosophy. Mr. Kedzie assumed his duties on September 1, 1873, a t which time the whole amount of chemical apparatus and supplies was kept in a small box. During the first year Mr. Kedsie taught classes in inorganic chemistry, chemical physics, French, reading and orthography, and a weekly class in rhetoric. Only five months after he had started instruction a t the college, W. B. Christopher of the Farmers' Cooperative Association, after visiting the college made the following comment: This gentleman hss been in the college but a short time, sufficiently long however to show that he is destined to stand in the front ranks of the profession. . . . I was particularly pleased with the confidence and self-reliance with which he moved. . . Let it suffice to say that theoretical and practical competency is stamped an laboratory and classroom.*
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During the summer following Mr. Kedzie's coming to the Kansas State Agricultural College, an event, notable throughout the world, was celebrated a t Northumberland, Pennsylvania, concerning which W. George Waring, reporter for the occasion, wrote: This usually quiet town (Northumberland, Pennsylvania)
the streets being thronged with representatives , , to the convention of the centennial of chemistry, to celebrate
the discovery of oxygen by Joseph Priestley, whose remain8 lie here. Before the hour of organiaation the school house, with large seating capacity, was well filled, there being little or no room, , , the most prominent were: . ..R. C. Kedeie, of the State Agricultural College, Michigan, (and his son) W. R. (K.) Kedzie of the State Agricultural College of
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Perusal of the roster drawn up by the secretary of the 'CHRISTOPHER, W. B., "Report of W. B. Christopher to Fanners' Cooperative Association," Topeka Commonwealth, January 21, 1874. WARING,W. GEORQE,"Chemistry's Centennial," New York Herald, p. 3, August 1, 1874.
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Priestlry Cvnrmnial shows thut IV. K. I
