ciation now has more than five hundred members. The first man was graduated in 1869. This is a record of which any college might well be proud. These graduates constitute a strong body of men and women. But few of them have failed to come up to the high expectations that followed them from their homes and their Alma Mater. With such a record the State College has little to fear in the future. The period of her probation is over. She may now enter upon her career with the confidence of mature years. The General Assembly has recently shown its appreciation by voting fifteen thousand dollars additional income to the College.
No account of the State College would be complete without mention of the man to whose efforts is due its present prosperous conditionPresident James K. Patterson. It may almost be said that the College owes its very existence to President Patterson.    Tn  1880 when the half-cent tax was
imposed, the sectarian institutions in the state combined to test the constitutionality of the Act. President Patterson represented the State College and won, although the ablest lawyers in the State were employed by the other side. Again in 1890, an effort was made in the Constitutional Convention to abolish the half-cent tax and a second time President Patterson won. The devotion with which President Patterson has applied himself to the interests of the State College is almost inconceivable. He became the official head of the institution in 1869. In length of service he is surpassed by few, if any, college presidents in the United States, in ability he is surpassed by none. A man of great executive and business ability, of profound scholarship, a speaker of great powerhis talents are too many to enumerate. President Patterson stands without a peer in Kentucky today. The State College attests the greatness of its builder.
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