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. 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 120 acre (0.4856232 km²) campus.

Beginnings

First opened in an old hotel in Kingfisher on September 2, 1895, the college was the 42nd with ties to the Congregational church

Congregational church

Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

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

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

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

University of Central Oklahoma

The University of Central Oklahoma, often referred to as UCO, is a coeducational public university located in Edmond, Oklahoma. The university is the third largest in Oklahoma, with almost 18,000 students and approximately 434 full-time and 400 adjunct faculty...

.

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

Rhodes Scholarship

The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...

 and three more qualified for the prestigious honor.

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

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.

The records, degrees and library holdings were transferred to the University of Oklahoma

University of Oklahoma

The University of Oklahoma is a coeducational public research university located in Norman, Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory for 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. the university had 29,931 students enrolled, most located at its...

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