Concordia Normal School

Concordia Normal School located in Concordia, Kansas was a state-funded normal school operated by the Kansas state government from 1874 until 1876.

For the later, private "Concordia Normal School and Business College", see Great Western Business and Normal College.

Concordia Normal began on March 10, 1874 with Professor E. F. Robinson as the Principal. The school opened for students on September 16 that same year. In 1875, former State Superintendent H. D. McCarty was named president of the college. Sixty-six students were enrolled in the first year and in 1875 enrollment more than doubled to 171 students.[1]

Some in the area and in the state government felt the opening of the school was premature due to lack of development in the area, a recent grasshopper infestation and drought.[2] Depending upon state aid, the school closed on March 18, 1878 (a little before that of the Leavenworth Normal School).[3] Following the "Miscellaneous appropriations bill of 1876"[4] state normal schools were then consolidated to what is now Emporia State University.[5]

References

1. Kansas Collection Books "William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas"
2. Combined Kansas Reports Kansas Legislature reports, 1875, p173
3. A history of the State normal school of Kansas: for the first twenty-five years By Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia
4. Transactions of the Kansas State Historical Society, Volume 6 By Kansas State Historical Society]
5. A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans Archived October 19, 2013, at the Wayback Machine "State Normal School, Concordia" by William E. Connelley, transcribed by Carolyn Ward, 2000