This image shows some of the preparatory and college level students enrolled at the time. The 1872-73 college catalog lists ninety-eight students at all levels, including twenty-six “agricultural students.”
This view of what is now Second Street in Corvallis is one of the first images taken of its business district, and was taken around the time that Corvallis College received permanent designation as the state’s land grant institution. Corvallis’ 1870 population was estimated to be 1,200.
William Asa Finley served as the first president of Corvallis College from 1865 to 1872. He was appointed as president in 1865 by the Methodist Episcopal Church South and was president at the time the college was chosen as the agricultural college for Oregon under the provisions of the 1862 Morrill Act.
Benjamin Lea Arnold was named the second president of Corvallis College in the summer of 1872 by the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and he arrived in Corvallis that September. During Arnold's twenty-year presidency, one of his greatest achievements was starting the State Agricultural Association with the intent to construct a suitable building for school purposes.
William W. Moreland was head of the Primary department and a professor of Natural Sciences at Corvallis College. In 1868, Moreland, a legislative clerk, and Senator C. B. Bellinger made Corvallis College Oregon's land-grant institution. Under the Morrill Act of 1862, Corvallis College would be granted 90,000 acres of land.
From back left: Frank Cauthorn, Newton Addison Thompson, George P. Lent, and Isaac Jacobs. Addie M. Allen and Minnie M. White are the women in the photo. Addie M. Allen married Newton Addison Thompson and Minnie M. White married O.A.C. Pres. B. L. Arnold.