Kingfisher College was a college in

Kingfisher, Oklahoma Kingfisher is a city in and the county seat of Kingfisher County, Oklahoma,. The population was 4,903 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the former home and namesake of Kingfisher College. According to the ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History ...

from 1895 to 1922.

Bringing a College to Kingfisher

Founded by the Rev. Joseph Homer Parker, a Congregationalist Minister who had founded many Congregationalist churches in Canada and the Northeast U.S., and who had also founded the predecessor institution to

Wichita State University Wichita State University (WSU) is a public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 areas of study in ...

. Parker, who had graduated from Middlebury College in 1869, wanted to bring the academically rigorous tradition of the liberal arts education he had received to the Midwest. Parker gave $2,500 of his own money to pay for the campus.

Beginnings

First opened in an old hotelHanneman, Carolyn G
"Kingfisher College,"
''Oklahoma Historical Society.'' Retrieved September 12, 2016. in Kingfisher on September 2, 1895, the college was the 42nd with ties to the

Congregational church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

in America. The class of 1896 took classes in the Beard Building, and the class of '97 graduated from the

Baptist Church Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

. Parker Hall was completed for 1897, and held class as well as dormitories inside. In the following years, Gilbert Hall, Osgood Hall, and Seay Hall were all built. Dr. Moody was president until 1915, a period in which Kingfisher continued to struggle. After subsequent President George Hatfield's six-month tenure, Dr. Tuttle took control. Tuttle would remain president until the college's close. Enrollment was increasing until

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when it sharply fell. The college was forced to close in 1922, due to declining donations, cheaper tuition at schools such as

Central State Normal School The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO or Central State) is a public university in Edmond, Oklahoma. It is the third largest university in Oklahoma, with more than 17,000 students and approximately 434 full-time and 400 adjunct faculty. Founde ...

, and failed investments in a local flour mill, which closed due to falling wheat prices in the 1920s.

Athletics

A member of the Oklahoma Athletic Association, Kingfisher competed against the major schools of the state. Their signature sport was tennis: led by Rhodes scholar Roy Lange, Kingfisher won state titles in 1901 and 1902, dropping the sport after Lange's graduation. The 1901 Kingfisher football team had a 4-1 record; from 1897 to 1919, Kingfisher met the mighty University of Oklahoma Sooners a total of 22 times. Although Kingfisher managed a trio of scoreless ties in 1900, 1903 and 1904, the Sooners soon began to dominate, winning the other 19 contests easily, notching 100 points in three of the games (and 96 in another). The 1917 tilt ended 179-0, still the second-worst rout in college football history (eclipsed only by the Georgia Tech's infamous 222-0 win over Cumberland the year before). Kingfisher was also strong in track and field, hosting the conference meet several times.https://www.lostcolleges.com/kingfisher Kingfisher: Lost Colleges

Alumni

A total of 117 students graduated from Kingfisher College, 55 women and 62 men. The graduating classes never exceeded 12, including two classes of two members. The two initial years both produced only one graduate. Despite a low number of alumni, three were

Rhodes Scholars The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

and three more qualified for the prestigious honor. One alumnus,

Joyce C. Stearns Joyce Clennam Stearns (June 23, 1893 – June 11, 1948) was an American physicist and an administrator on the Manhattan Project. Stearns resigned from the Manhattan Project in July 1945 to become dean of faculty at Washington University in St. Lou ...

, became an atomic scientist and worked on the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

After 1922 closing

The Pentecostal Holiness Church bought the site, where King's College was open for ten years before closing. The college waited until 1976 to be added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The records, degrees and library holdings were transferred to the

University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma (OU) is a Public university, public research university in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it had existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two Territories became the state of Oklahom ...

, per a 1927 agreement by the Kingfisher Board of Trustees."Department of Philosophy.
Philosophy.

. Retrieved on 5-30-2008. The Kingfisher College Chair of Philosophy of Religion and Ethics was created at OU in 1951 after a thirty-thousand dollar endowment. Thirteen years later, the entire endowment fund was transferred to the University of Oklahoma.

References

{{authority control Defunct private universities and colleges in Oklahoma School buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Oklahoma Buildings and structures in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma 1922 disestablishments in Oklahoma Educational institutions established in 1894 1894 establishments in Oklahoma Territory National Register of Historic Places in Kingfisher County, Oklahoma