University History
The Aylesworth Years:
Agriculture, broader educational philosophy bloom
When ag interests spoke, Colorado Agricultural College nearly always listened. Such was the course of Colorado's land-grant institution as it entered the 20th century.
At about the time CAC was pioneering the higher-education landscape, the U.S. government embarked on a conservation movement to protect federal lands. This protection included grazing permits and demands on cattlemen to abide by federal range-management practices.
Out of frustration with the mandates, the Colorado Cattle and Horse Growers Association decided to become more involved in the affairs of Colorado's land-grant institution. The group managed to get two of its members appointed to CAC's governing board.
Meanwhile, a new president took the college's helm. Barton Aylesworth had an easy-going demeanor, a willingness to delegate authority and a tolerance for opposing views when he assumed the CAC presidency at age 38 in July 1899. The combination of Aylesworth's non-confrontational style and the vocal agricultural group on the governing board allowed ranching and farming interests to take the college's agricultural programs to greater heights - and nearly to determine the destiny of the entire school.
At first, the influence of ranching interests brought tremendous progress to CAC's agricultural teaching, research and extension efforts. The State Board of Agriculture appropriated $4,000 for stock purchases that emphasized development of purebred herds. It also re-established studies in veterinary medicine - which had languished since 1886 - by hiring George Glover, one of the college's first three graduates.
Glover's work to eradicate tuberculosis from the college's dairy herd and then from Fort Collins herds brought statewide attention and the attention of CAC's governing board. By fall 1907, the school finally had a full-fledged veterinary curriculum that would prepare students as professionally certified veterinarians.
The cattle growers also influenced the board in 1903 to hire William Carlyle to direct the college's agricultural programs. He became dean of agriculture two years later. Carlyle's initial contributions to CAC included quadrupling enrollment in the college's agricultural programs in one year, securing a $25,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and procuring livestock donations from people interested in his work.
Carlyle also brought in agronomy Professor Walter Olin and Henry Cottrell, director of the school's Farmers' Institutes. Olin laid the foundation for Colorado 4-H clubs through a seed-testing program open only to youths. Cottrell took CAC agricultural exhibits and lectures to Colorado farmers via the "Potato Special," a demonstration train provided by the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad beginning in 1908.
CAC's Experiment Station also benefitted from the college's close association with the Colorado Cattle and Horse Growers Association. In 1905, lobbying efforts by stock growers and Sen. William Drake of Fort Collins helped finally to secure state appropriations for the station.
Two other special interests - forestry and electrical engineering - also influenced CAC curricula during Aylesworth's presidency. In June 1904, the Colorado Forestry Association urged the State Board of Agriculture to establish a school to train foresters who could protect America's wood supply. The college offered a class on the elements of forestry the following fall, and by the start of the 1909 academic year, it offered a four-year program in the discipline.
Engineers were not to be left out of all the new programming. Faculty and student pressure led to re-establishment of an electrical engineering program, which the school had dropped in 1903 for lack of a professor. The new degree program, planned by future CAC president Charles Lory, made its debut in 1907.
Eventually, special interests - particularly the vocal Colorado Cattle and Horse Growers Association - tried to extend their influence too far. The association twice asked the State Board of Agriculture to replace Experiment Station Director Louis Carpenter with its favorite professor, William Carlyle. The board, with Aylesworth's uncharacteristic reinforcement, denied the requests. Further conflict arose when Carlyle tried to establish irrigation-engineering instruction, a curriculum overseen by Carpenter, within the college's agricultural division.
Problems with Carlyle and his supporters may have prompted Aylesworth to begin promoting a balanced curriculum at CAC. Many faculty members, especially Carpenter, spoke in favor of broader academics.
However, the cattle growers association was determined to keep CAC a training ground for agriculturists and created a public uproar over the issue in spring 1908. With the blessings of the inexperienced and eager-to-please Gov. Henry Buchtel, the association took it upon itself to appoint a special committee to visit the campus and consult with Aylesworth, Carlyle and department heads.
What ensued were rumors about Carlyle considering an offer at another college, rumors about Aylesworth mismanaging CAC and innuendos, later proven false, about the president's moral behavior.
A series of investigative meetings by the State Board of Agriculture during summer 1908 exonerated Aylesworth. His only faults: an easy-going leadership style and lack of strict devotion to the narrow interests of agriculturists.
Despite the investigation's outcome, the secretary of the cattle growers association continued the agitation until the congenial Aylesworth could stand no more. In August 1908, he called for the governing board to dismiss Carlyle and Olin, who had become a Carlyle loyalist and Aylesworth accuser. Aylesworth also announced he would not return to the presidency in the 1908-09 school year.
After a stormy meeting, the board accepted Aylesworth's demands. The broader educational philosophy prevailed, and the young college learned - but at a price - the importance of avoiding dominance by outside special-interest groups.
Competition, culture sprout at CAC under Aylesworth
Extra-curricular activities sprouted nearly as quickly as CAC's agricultural programs during the Barton Aylesworth presidency.
Unlike his predecessor, Alston Ellis, Aylesworth supported activities that gave relief from the rigors of academic life. Football returned to the college in fall 1899, complete with a new but rocky playing field named after Charles Durkee. Durkee gained the honor by donating $650 to enclose the field on three sides so the college could collect paid admissions to games. Railroad tracks bounded the fourth side. South College Gym now sits on the former Durkee Field.
Baseball was the school's most popular sport during CAC's early years, and Aylesworth himself played in a game of faculty versus the senior class. In 1905, the college team won the Colorado intercollegiate baseball championship. However, female athletes won CAC's first unofficial athletic championship two years earlier. In 1903, the women's basketball team won five of its six games, ending the season with a 12-11 victory over the University of Colorado.
New clubs such as the Agricultural Club, Domestic Science Club and the Civil and Irrigation Engineering Association also were born during the early 1900s. In 1906, the first honorary fraternity - Alpha Zeta - took its place on campus. Social fraternities and sororities also emerged.
Vocal and instrumental concerts also gained popularity on campus and in the community during the Aylesworth years. CAC students organized a band, orchestra and glee club in 1901. By 1905, the school had a fledgling music department led in part by George Toomey, the same man who coached the football team. Two years later, the department gained legitimacy when it became the Conservatory of Music and the college hired Alexander Emslie, who had trained at the Boston Conservatory of Music.
Emslie began with only six students but increased that to 150 music scholars by 1910, the same year the Conservatory moved into the brand-new Guggenheim Hall. The Conservatory also created a link with the community and pleased the culturally astute residents of Fort Collins by offering public performances in the College Auditorium.
Spirited competition, social pleasantries and a taste of culture had arrived at Colorado Agricultural College.
