Tag Archives: Ogden College

Let Us Serenade You

Making sweet music. . .

They were late-night, improvised musical events that captured the romantic imaginations of nineteenth-century students, particularly those at Southern women’s colleges.  At Bowling Green’s Potter College for Young Ladies (located where WKU’s Cherry Hall now stands), these “midnight serenades,” courtesy of the boys at Ogden College just down the hill, featured a group of admirers sneaking on campus to croon up at the windows such old-time standards as “Swanee River,” “On the Banks of the Wabash,” and “Home Sweet Home.”  Even the rumor of a forthcoming performance would stir excitement among the girls and consternation among their live-in teachers, whose job it was to shoo the interlopers off the grounds.

But at Cumberland Female College in McMinnville, Tennessee, serenades attracted more participants than just the parties to an exaggerated courtship ritual.  While staying with her aunt Josephine and uncle Joseph P. Hamilton, a teacher at the college, young May Hamilton told her grandmother about the previous night’s music.  “Just as I started to bed I thought I heard serenaders up at the college,” she wrote in a letter, “and so I went & sat down on the floor by the window to listen.”  The performers, however, were not ardent young males but “the girls of the college. . . making sweet music” nearby for one of the professors and his family.  His appearance at the door to thank the performers must have emboldened them, for the troupe then marched down to the Hamilton household.  “One of the girls plays the banjo & several had harps,” wrote May, who woke up another boarder at the house so they could both enjoy the “lovely” melodies.

Luckily, the night’s entertainment was not over.  The strains of more music came through the window, but the darkness concealed the identity of the players, who then proceeded up to the college.  May learned the next morning that the group consisted of four or five African-American youths who “go around that way often up here.”  So popular had they become, in fact, that the girl boarding at May’s house knew the group by the sound of their instruments, and even knew the horn player by name.  The local custom, it seemed, was for everyone so inclined to reach out and say goodnight with a song. 

May Hamilton’s letter is part of the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections.  Click here to access a finding aid.  For more collections, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

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Out of the Box – August

Welcoming students back to campus through the years.

Admissions

Board of Regents, 11/6/1914

Moving In

Moving In

College Heights Herald 8/24/1982 Diddle Dorm

Dress Code

English Club Gazette

Meredith Hall

Northeast & Southwest Halls

Ogden College Entrance Exam, 1889 Residence Halls

Rodes-Harlin Hall

WKU Housing

Zacharias Hall

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Rodes Myers Scrapbook

Ogden College Orchestra

Rodes Kirby Myers son of W.H. and Helen (Kirby) Myers was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky on June 29, 1900.  He attended Ogden College from 1916-1919 and taught there in 1920 and at Morganfield High School in 1921. Myers went on to study law at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Kentucky where he obtained his LLB in 1925. 

Rodes Myers followed his father into politics and served in many capacities including state representative 1934-1939 and 1945; state senator 1948-1950 and lieutenant governor 1939-1943. He died March 10, 1960.

He appears in this photo with other members of the Ogden College Orchestra in 1917.  They are sitting l to r: Joseph Jones, Horace Huddle and Thomas Wright. Standing l to r: Douglas Potter, Thomas Rogers, Foreman Gibson, Raymond Gilliam, Rodes Myers and Joseph Tobin.
 
The University Archives holds a partial scrapbook created by Rodes Myers during his time at Ogden College.  Items are pasted over pages of a State Board of Health Report for 1908-1909.  There are many articles about Myers’ participation on the Ogden debate team and other activities.   The scrapbook has been scanned and is now available for researchers through TopScholar.

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Ogden College

Ogden College

Ogden College

Before there was a WKU, Bowling Green was home to a number of private colleges. One of these was Ogden College. Located between State and Chestnut Streets, Ogden opened in 1877 as a boy’s school offering a 2 year prepatory course and 4 year college work. In 1927 the Ogden trustees and Western regents came to an understanding whereby the property was leased to Western. The campus is now home to the Ogden College of Science & Engineering. The records of the school were transferred to University Archives and are now available for researchers. These include images, student records, student newspapers and yearbooks.  Check out the following websites for more information regarding Ogden College:

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