Normal School Years
1899-1925
Northern Arizona Normal School [NANS] opened its doors on September 11,
1899 with twenty-three students, one professor, and two copies of Webster's
International Dictionary bound in sheepskin. NANS first president, Almon
Nicholas Taylor, later assisted by Ms. Frances Bury, had scoured the countryside
in horse and buggy seeking students to fill the classrooms of the single school
building (now known as Old Main). From the students they recruited, four women
made up the first graduating class of 1901 and received lifetime teaching
certificates for the Arizona Territory.
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