Mathematics from 1889 to 1906
In the fall of 1889 the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanics Arts began its first academic session. Alexander Quarles Holladay was president and there was a faculty of five: D. H. Hill, professor of English, J. R. Chamberlain was professor of agriculture, W. F. Massey as professor of horticulture, A. Withers, professor of chemistry and J. H. Kinealy as professor of mathematics and practical mechanics.
There were two courses of instruction, one in Agriculture and one in Mechanics. Four years of mathematics were offered: for freshmen, arithmetic and algebra; for sophomores, algebra and plane geometry; for juniors, solid geometry, analytic geometry and for seniors, calculus. Trigonometry was taken as part of the surveying course. The Agriculture students took only the first two years of mathematics while the Mechanics students took all four years.
Some idea of campus life can be gleaned from the following excerpts from the 1905 College Catalog. The emphasis on Agriculture and the importance of military training and religion is noteworthy.
Although military training was a required part of the curriculum from the inception of NC State, an ROTC* program to train future officers of the Army (and later the Air Force) did not start until 1916. All male students were required to take at least two years of ROTC training until 1964 when the program became optional. Women students were not admitted into regular programs at State until 1921; they were excused from military training.**PRIZES
A first prize of ten dollars and a second prize of five dollars are awarded annually to the students in the Freshman Class who earn the largest and the next largest amount of money by labor on the College farm.The Zenner Disinfectant Company, Detroit, Mich., offers a silver medal to the student making the best report on the Live Stock Exhibit at the State Fair. The value of this medal is $25.
The North Carolina State Fair Association offers a prize of $5 to the student preparing the best essay on the Live Stock Exhibit at the State Fair.
DISCIPLINE
The College is under military discipline and the students are regularly organized into a battalion. . . . The discipline is intended to secure studious and economical habits, with punctuality, system and order in the performance of all duties. A durable uniform, which is required to be worn on all occasions, prevents extravagance and folly in dress; rooms plainly furnished and a mess-hall economically managed by the College prevents extravagance in living; regular study hours, day and night, with proper restrictions as to visiting Raleigh, check, or at least minimize, tendencies to idleness, vice, and rowdyism.Every effort is made to develop strong, intelligent, high-toned men; and proper patience, forbearance and sympathy are used in this great work; but the College is in no sense a reform school, and its work must not be hindered by the presence of young men who are grossly vicious, idle or incompetent.
RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES
All students are required to attend chapel exercises in Pullen Auditorium each morning. These services are conducted by the President, by some member of the Faculty, or by some visiting minister.Each student is required to attend religious service in Raleigh on Sunday morning at the church of his choice.
The Young Men's Christian Association, containing in its membership representatives of all the Christian denominations, meets regularly each Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock for conference, Bible study and worship, and exerts a wholesome influence throughout the College.
During the first two years of existence of the College, there was no separate Mathematics Department; mathematics was part of the Department of Practical Mechanics and Mathematics. Robert E. Lee Yates was hired as an Adjunct Professor of Mathematics in 1891. He played a major role in mathematics at the College until 1932. By 1892 Kinealy the first professor of mathematics and practical mechanics, had left and mathematics became a sub-department of the Department of Mechanics and Applied Mathematics headed by Wallace Riddick. Surprisingly, in 1895--1896, there appears to be a "department" called "Pure Mathematics" as indicated in the report by Yates to President Holladay shown below:
REPORT OF ADJUNCT PROFESSOR OF PURE MATHEMATICS
Col. A. Q. Holladay, President College Agriculture and Mechanic Arts.
Dear Sir:
I have the honor to submit herewith the following biennial report of the work done by me in the Department of Pure Mathematics:
It has been the aim of this department to give the young men a thorough and practical knowledge of this subject. The course begins with the Freshman year, and is completed by the students in the Mechanical engineering course at the close of the Winter term of the senior year. Agricultural and Scientific students drop the study of mathematics with the completion of Trigonometry. The Freshman classed have, during each year, finished Arithmetic with the close do the Fall term. The remainder of the session has been devoted to the study of Algebra, about two-thirds of the subject being completed. The present class has, however, during this term, in addition to Arithmetic, recited Algebra twice a week.
The Sophomores, reciting five times a week, usually complete Algebra a little before Christmas. They then take up Geometry, completing Plane, Solid and Spherical by the end of the session. This class, during the Spring term, takes two recitations a week in Trigonometry additionally. It has been my pleasure to give the present class more in the theory of Equations than any preceding one. This, doubtless, will be of considerable advantage to them in their applied Mathematics.
The Juniors finish Trigonometry during the latter part of the Fall term, and spent the remainder of the session on Analytical Geometry. The present class will very nearly complete this subject by the end of the Junior year, which is very desirable.
The Seniors are under the charge of Professor Riddick [for Calculus].
Respectively submitted,
R.E.L. Yates,Adj. Professor of Pure Mathematics
In 1895 the program in Mechanics was dropped in favor of a program in Engineering. Mathematics was placed
in the new Civil Engineering Department headed by Wallace Riddick.
In 1896 the Populist-Republican party won control of the North Carolina Legislature and appointed a new Board of
Trustees for the College. Several professors were fired including Yates.***
However Yates was a popular instructor and the Board soon reinstated him. This was one of several times when the North
Carolina Legislature exercised its power over Public Higher Education. By 1906, the enrollment of the College had
increased to almost 500, and the powers that be decided to remove mathematics from a sub-department of
civil engineering and make it into a separate Department.***
| * | David Lockmiller, History of the North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering the University of North Carolina, 1889-1939, p. 127 |
| ** | Alice E. Reagan, North Carolina State University: A Narrative History, pp. 193-194 |
| *** | ibid, p. 31 |
| *** | ibid, p. 38 |