It’s a fairly well-known historical fact around here that Penn State was founded in 1855, and was first known as the “Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania.”
Townies and Penn Staters alike are also familiar with the names of many of the individuals who played important roles in the early years of the school — names like Pugh, Pollock, McAllister and Allen, to list a few.
However, the name of the man that historians have dubbed the “father” of Penn State — Frederick Watts — is less well-known.
With the recent publication of his new book, “Frederick Watts and the Founding of Penn State,” local historian Roger L. Williams is looking to change that.
This is the third book Wiliams has written about Penn State history. He said his research while writing his second book, “Evan Pugh’s Penn State: America’s Model Agricultural College,” piqued his interest in learning and writing more about Watts.
“I was curious about what really happened, how this place really got started before Evan Pugh, and I was also equally fascinated in what happened after Pugh,” he said. “I was interested in doing what I call a prequel and a sequel to Pugh. It’s both of those things.”
The book explores the life of Watts (1801-1889) — a fascinating figure from Carlisle, who ran a lucrative law practice for 40 years, served as a Pennsylvania state court reporter and district court judge, and was president of the Cumberland Valley Railroad for 30 years.
But that description only scratches the surface of the life and influence of this “19th century man of affairs,” as Williams calls him. Despite his suburban upbringing, Watts fell in love with agriculture while studying law in Erie County under an attorney and farmer named William Miles. He eventually established Creekside Farm near Carlisle, where he made several major agricultural contributions, including introducing a hardy new variety of wheat to Pennsylvania farmers, and being one of the first Americans to own and demonstrate the McCormick Reaper, an innovative farming machine that would eventually reform American agriculture.
“He was always looking to innovate, looking to improve Pennsylvania agriculture and American agriculture. That really was his animating purpose in life — to improve the social, economic and political standing of the Pennsylvania farming class,” Williams said.
This sense of purpose led Watts to help found the Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society in 1851, and as its first president, led the organization to sponsor the new “Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania.”
The institution’s use of the name “high school” was meant to distinguish it from the private, literary institutions that made up most of formal post-secondary education at this point. This new, public institution was intended to offer a more vocational, practical curriculum focused on the science of agriculture and soon, engineering.
After considering potential locations from Erie to Philadelphia, Watts was instrumental in choosing 200 acres of Centre Furnace land as the site for the new Farmers’ High School.
The book details the many trials and tribulations the new board faced as they attempted to construct a new campus, raise money and secure funds from the Pennsylvania legislature.
Watts served as the president of the Board of Trustees for the new college, and hired its first president, Evan Pugh — a brilliant young scientist and leader determined to “develop upon the soil of Pennsylvania the best agricultural college in the world.”
Williams described the endeavor under Pugh as “an overnight success,” as this new school, which was renamed the Pennsylvania Agricultural College in 1862, quickly became the national model for land-grant agricultural and engineering schools.
Unfortunately, after just five years on the job, Pugh died at the age of 36 from typhoid fever, and Watts went on to make several disastrous hires for presidents to succeed him, leading the school to the brink of closure. It was not until George Atherton was hired in 1882 that Penn State was able to turn itself around and re-establish itself as a leading land-grant college.
(Ironically, the names of those unsuccessful presidents — ie., Allen, Fraser, Burrowes, Calder, Shortlidge — have become local household names as they grace the names of local streets in State College and on the University Park campus. For his part, Watts has a residence hall in West Halls named after him.)
Meanwhile, Watts continued to impact American agriculture in his later years. At the age of 70, he was named the US commissioner of agriculture under President Ulysses S. Grant, and during his tenure there, his contributions included promoting a national seed distribution program through the Department of Agriculture and creating the U.S. Department of Forestry.
“Watts was the leading figure in Pennsylvania agriculture for three decades,” Williams said.
“He was an amazing man, there’s no question.”
Williams, who is retired as associate vice president and executive director of the Penn State Alumni Association and affiliate associate professor of Higher Education, is the current president of the Centre County Historical Society.
In addition to the book about Watts and Pugh, he wrote “The Origins of Federal Support for Higher Education: George W. Atherton and the Land-Grant College Movement.”
All three of his books were published by Penn State University Press.
This story appears in the Feb. 10-16 edition of the Centre County Gazette
