COMMUNITY What Once Was... Early image of the “College on the Hill,” left to right: Ward Hall, Middle Hall, later known as the Conservatory of Music and Ladies’ Hall (later destroyed by fire) Part 1 of 2 Imagine the existence of the first Christian-based liberal-arts College, in Yankton, from where thousands of students, including nine Rhodes Scholars, emerged to become successful doctors, lawyers, theologians, educators, musicians, actors and athletes all over the nation and around the world. Envision the centerpiece of the campus: the open-air Garden Terrace Theater constructed to seat 3,000 in a hedged enclosure and designed to produce epic Shakespearean plays or musical concerts, providing a new era of entertainment and culture in Yankton. Picture Crane-Youngworth Field or Nash Gymnasium, the “Homes of the Greyhounds,” where numerous record-holding athletes and undefeated athletic teams (named after the official Greyhound mascot chosen for speed and courage rather than physique) were trained by skillful coaches in football, track, basketball, cross-country or wrestling, as well as baseball, tennis and golf. This college, like others, had its homecomings (referred to as Pioneer Day), student organizations, convocations and graduation commencements (not to mention panty raids, pranks and student protests). Devoted teachers, college presidents and staff demonstrated a standard of excellence and stabilizing influence to hundreds of students who came for their education from rural areas of the upper Midwest and other far-away parts of the United States like: Peoria, Illinois; Long Island, New York; Atlanta, Georgia; Belzoni, Mississippi and Hilo, Hawaii. Funding was endowed by wealthy benevolent followers, Congregational churches, a growing number of alumni and members of the Yankton business community to cover expenditures and scholarships. But this College, established against great odds, was continually encumbered with financial worries. Volkswagon mysteriously appears on the steps of Forbes Hall as a result of a student prank Julius Caesar performed in the Garden Terrace Theater circa 1966 Hail! Yankton College! Looking back, in 1881 Yankton College began in sparsely populated Yankton where Indians and buffalo still occupied the land; the iconic school that became the first educational institution of “collegiate grade” in Dakota Territory. The vision of Yankton College stemmed from Joseph Ward, a clergyman from Perry Students circa 1963 with the Greyhound mascot In Your Time Of Need... We’ll Be Here For You •Traditional Services • Cremation Services • Prearrangement Planning Guiding and serving families with compassion and trust. Funeral Home & Crematory, Yankton Tami Keller Memorial Resource Center, Tyndall • Memorial Chapels, Tyndall, Tabor & Menno Funeral Director 665-9679 • 1-800-495-9679 • www.opsahl-kostelfuneralhome.com 8 v HERVOICE MARCH/APRIL 2014