All four of these Corvallis young women attended Corvallis College as preparatory students between 1866 and 1868. Rose Russell married Lewis F. Wilson in 1869; their son, Eddy, graduated from the college in 1889 and was a longtime member of the board of regents.
The original Mechanical Hall was destroyed by fire in September 1898. A new Mechanical Hall was later named Apperson Hall and is now known as Kearney Hall.
Eddy Elbridge Wilson was born in Corvallis in 1869 and was a student at Oregon State when the school was still known as Corvallis College. Later an attorney and bank executive, Wilson was heavily involved with numerous campus and community organizations, as well as the State Game Commission. He twice served on OAC's board of regents -- from 1906 to 1915 and from 1924 to 1929. Wilson died in 1961.