On June 30, 1871, the 15 members of the Third State Normal School’s first graduating class gathered with an overflow crowd of more than 150 proud parents, faculty, Normal School Board members and St. Cloud dignitaries to receive their degrees. The 13 women and two men were part of the school’s first class of 50 students who entered the rigorous new program of study and practice teaching that would prepare them to teach Minnesota schoolchildren.
The Normal School, which evolved into the St. Cloud Teacher’s College (1921), St. Cloud State College (1957), and St. Cloud State University (1975) opened its doors to 40 women and 10 men on September 15, 1869, part of the state normal school system established by Minnesota’s first legislative session in 1858 to provide well-trained teachers for its public schools. Fully supported by the state of Minnesota, the normal schools charged no tuition.
On that warm June evening in the Congregational Church on Fifth Avenue South – the building that is currently part of the Islamic Center of St. Cloud – the graduates, fresh from the oral examinations that proceeded the graduation exercises, read essays on such varied topics as “The Habit of Idleness” to “Should Latin be Taught in State High Schools.” The honorees were:
- Elizabeth Barnes
- Margaret Barnes
- Alfred Bertolet
- Ada Dam
- Emma Harriman
- Elora Hayward
- Lydia Hill
- Ellen Kimball
- Charles Lancaster
- Fannie McGaughey
- Evelyn McKenney
- Virginia Mason
- Alice Price
- Hester Tuttle
- Alfretta Van Valkenberg
Alfred Bertolet attended Keystone Normal School in Pennsylvania after being wounded while serving in the 50th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War. After graduation, he served as village school principal in Pine Island and taught at other southern Minnesota schools. He and his wife, Mary Louise Denton, had moved to California by 1876.
Fannie McGaughey of Winona married Edgar Martin in the mid-1870s and moved to Sonoma County, California. She became a teacher, a principal, a lawyer, and superintendent of schools in Sonoma County.
Hester Tuttle of Two Rivers, daughter of Minnesota’s first and only territorial treasurer, Calvin Tuttle, taught in Minnesota schools before marrying Elijah Griffith. After a few years in Salt Lake City, they moved to Los Angeles, where she led several reform movements, most notably as president of the California Women’s Christian Temperance Union. She also served as state superintendent of prison work and a national lecturer for soldiers’ and sailors’ issues.
In all since 1871, St. Cloud State has awarded approximately 148,100 degrees. Imagine the impact these graduates have had on their families, their communities and the world. This year St. Cloud State University is celebrating its 150th anniversary, with year-long festivities ending with special homecoming events this September.
This look back on St. Cloud State’s history was published in the program for the university’s Sesquicentennial Spring Commencement celebration. It was created by University Archives, University Communications and the Sesquicentennial Committee.
