After several months of soliciting donations, classes opened at Bluemont Central College with twenty-nine students enrolled for the first term in 1860. Goodnow served as the college's first acting president, and an instructor of astronomy and algebra. In 1862, he was elected to the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction.
After Kansas became a state on January 29, 1861, the directors offered the three story building and 120 acres of its property to the state of Kansas to become a state university. A bill accepting this offer easily passed the Kansas Legislature in 1861, but was controversially vetoed by Governor Charles Robinson of Lawrence, Kansas. An attempt to override this veto failed by a mere two votes. After the 1862 federal Morrill Act was passed and accepted by the State of Kansas, the trustees of Bluemont College transferred its assets to the State. As a result, Kansas State Agricultural College opened on September 2, 1863 with fifty-two students enrolled, including twenty-six men and twenty-six women, making it one of the first land grant colleges in the nation. The campus relocated to its current location in 1875. In 1959, this college officially became Kansas State University. Click HERE for additional information on Bluemont Central College.
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Bluemont College BellIsaac Goodnow, co-founder of Bluemont Central College, solicited funds from a wealthy easterner, Joseph Ingalls, to fund the college bell. Ingalls provided $175 for the bell and $75 for the shipping in exchange for having his name engraved on the side. In December 1861, the 513-pound bell arrived in Manhattan after traveling by train and wagon from Maine. The inscription on the bell reads, "Gift to Bluemont College by Joseph Ingalls, 1861."
Today, the bell is mounted in the courtyard outside of Bluemont Hall on the Kansas State University campus. |