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Connors State School of Agriculture came into existence with the act of Oklahoma’s first Legislature in 1908. Connors was one of six state agricultural secondary schools created. The other state schools of agriculture included: Cameron (Lawton), Connell (Helena), Haskell (Broken Arrow), Murray (Tishomingo) and Panhandle (Goodwell).
“My beautiful valley.”
– Campbell Russell
Campbell Russell (1863-1937) is considered by many to be the founder and most passionate booster of Warner. He was Muskogee County’s first state senator, and served in the first, second, fourth and fifth Oklahoma Legislatures. Russell and members of the local area citizenry demanded and were granted open hearings on where one of the new agricultural schools was to be located. Petitions were circulated, signatures obtained and the group took the protest to the State Capitol in Guthrie. Russell and the citizens pleaded that students of the proposed agricultural school would be better served in a ranching community such as Warner as opposed to Muskogee or another city.
Russell is credited with pushing through the final decision on the school’s location with the help of first Chairman of the State Board of Agriculture (1907-1911), John P. Connors. The local citizenry subscribed nearly $8,000 at $40 an acre to donate 160 acres west of Warner for the institution’s site.
Russell proposed the school located in Warner be named after John Pierre Connors. The State Board of Agriculture served as the original governing body of all six state schools of agriculture for several decades..
Connors State School of Agriculture’s first session opened February 1909, in the Warner Public School Building under the leadership of President Jefferson Adolphus Liner and four faculty members. Fifteen students were enrolled in grades 6-11. Three weeks later, enrollment had grown to 35 students. At that time, Connors offered “a three year course in agriculture and domestic economy, a three year preparatory course, an elective course of special character, and short courses for farmers.”
The first decade of Connors State School of Agriculture can be best described as a decade of uncertainty and constant change. The State Board of Agriculture, the governing entity of all six state schools of agriculture, monitored enrollments, spending and politics threatening to close schools that seemed to be under-performing.
The board considered Connors first enrollment of 15 students in February 1909, as unsatisfactory and the school was threatened with closure if enrollment did not increase. Administrators responded and enrollment immediately jumped to 35 students and eventually reached 75 the following year. With the new growth of CSSA, Superintendent Walter Van Allen moved classes to the 2nd floor of the Overstreet Building in downtown Warner.
By 1911, Van Allen laid the groundwork, hired an architect and moved classes to its current location, the Administration Building (renamed to the Classroom Building in 1963) one mile west of town on land purchased by area citizens.
In 1912, the political antics of Campbell Russell concerning Superintendent J.S. Murray and members of the State Board of Agriculture resulted in a Board committee meeting held in Muskogee, “Relative to the recent order closing the…agricultural school at Warner.” More than 200 area citizens signed an invitation to petition the Board to hear their concerns in order to save the beloved school.
From 1911-1919, leadership changed six times. Despite the constant changes, CSSA continued to provide the citizens of the new state with the tools and knowledge necessary to work the land, raise the crops and livestock. Early education provided by Connors was predominantly of a practical nature and was drawn along gender lines, providing courses of study for boys and girls. Early day course announcements included such classes as farm machinery and implements, road making, farm crops, curing meats, farm accounts, cooking, sewing, needlework, laundering, millinery, as well as English, mathematics, history and civics. By 1915, in state schools, students who completed work in pedagogy, were awarded second grade state teachers’ certificates.
The first decade of Connors State School of Agriculture can be best described as a decade of uncertainty and constant change. The State Board of Agriculture, the governing entity of all six state schools of agriculture, monitored enrollments, spending and politics threatening to close schools that seemed to be under-performing.
The board considered Connors first enrollment of 15 students in February 1909, as unsatisfactory and the school was threatened with closure if enrollment did not increase. Administrators responded and enrollment immediately jumped to 35 students and eventually reached 75 the following year. With the new growth of CSSA, Superintendent Walter Van Allen moved classes to the 2nd floor of the Overstreet Building in downtown Warner.
During King’s tenure the Dining Hall; Berry Cottage, a residence for women; a shop building; a central heating plant; Holloway Hall, a men’s dormitory; and Kinghurst Hall, a women’s dormitory; were built.
An additional 60 acres of farm land was obtained from area citizens.
The boys of the class of 1924, under the direction of Industrial Arts Instructor, Burt Huckleberry built a stone bench that still stands in front of the Connors’ original Administration/Classroom Building.
In 1927, CSSA became a state-accredited two-year college by an Act of the 11th Oklahoma Legislature making H.C. King the first president of Connors State Agricultural College. Also, the first issue of the Connors Collegian newspaper was created and produced by students, J.K. McClarren and Edd Lemons.
The lack of electricity, plumbing and reliable water supply created challenges for the struggling school. An electric high line was run to the school in the late 1920’s. College announcements in the early 1930’s advertised the fact as a draw for prospective students. The school’s allotted maintenance budget of $600 annually would not be enough to furnish a water supply. King, with the help of students and a hired team of horses, dammed an existing water shed on the farm in three days and put an automatic electric pump on the resulting containment pond – all for $375.