Henry Elijah Alvord (March 11, 1844 – October 1, 1904) was an American university administrator, educator, and Army officer. He served as the president of the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (now Oklahoma State University) and the

Maryland Agricultural College Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to it ...

(now the University of Maryland) as well teaching Military Science at Massachusetts Agricultural College (Now the University of Massachusetts – Amherst). Alvord was born on March 11, 1844, in

Greenfield, Massachusetts Greenfield is a city in and the county seat of Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. Greenfield was first settled in 1686. The population was 17,768 at the 2020 census. Greenfield is home to Greenfield Community College, the Pioneer Val ...

. He was educated at

Norwich University Norwich University – The Military College of Vermont is a private senior military college in Northfield, Vermont. It is the oldest private and senior military college in the United States and offers bachelor's and master's degrees on-campus ...

and was given the degrees of C.E. and

B.S. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in 1863. He joined the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

in 1862 as a private, eventually reaching the rank of

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

in 1865 through meritorious service. He became interested in the emerging western cattle industry while serving as captain of the United States cavalry near the close of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Alvord later lobbied for the passage of the

Hatch Act of 1887 The Hatch Act of 1887 (ch. 314, , enacted 1887-03-02, et seq.) gave federal funds, initially of $15,000 each, to state land-grant colleges in order to create a series of agricultural experiment stations, as well as pass along new information, es ...

and the

Morrill Act of 1890 The Morrill Land-Grant Acts are United States statutes that allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges in U.S. states using the proceeds from sales of federally-owned land, often obtained from indigenous tribes through treaty, cession, or se ...

, which helped establish

agricultural experiment stations An agricultural experiment station (AES) or agricultural research station (ARS) is a scientific research center that investigates difficulties and potential improvements to food production and agribusiness. Experiment station scientists work with f ...

. In 1872, he was appointed a special Indian courier. He served as Professor of Agriculture of the

Massachusetts Agricultural College The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

from 1886 to 1887, as well as the second president of Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College from 1894 to 1895. He organized and became chief of the dairy division of the

bureau of animal industry President Chester A. Arthur signed the Animal Industry Act23 STAT 31 on May 29, 1884 creating the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), an organization that was established under the United States Department of Agriculture. It replaced the Veterinary Di ...

of the U.S. department of agriculture in 1895. He died on October 1, 1904, in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

while attending the

World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

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* * 1844 births 1904 deaths People from Greenfield, Massachusetts United States Army officers Presidents of the University of Maryland, College Park Presidents of Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University faculty University of Massachusetts Amherst faculty Military personnel from Massachusetts {{Oklahoma-university-stub

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