Yankton College

President Ward's thousand years ran to a little over a century. Yankton College closed in December 1984 with 240 students, two years after its campus, with buildings by the architect George Grant Elmslie, became the Yankton College Historic District on the National Register. In 1988 the grounds became Federal Prison Camp, Yankton, a minimum-security camp for men that held 424 people in April 2024, and the old conservatory, the Middle Building of 1883 and on the Register since 1975, stands inside it. Its graduates included the economist Alvin Hansen and Amanda Clement, the first woman paid to umpire baseball.

What the plaque says

Yankton College "Oldest Institution of Higher Learning in the Dakotas" Joseph Ward, a graduate of Brown University and Andover Seminary came to Yankton, Dakota Territory as a missionary pastor in 1868. He soon established Yancton Academy but it was taken over by the school board and became Yankton High School, the first secondary schools in Dakota. In May 1881, Yankton College was authorized by the Congregational Church Association of the Territory and it was chartered under Territorial laws, August 30, 1881. Classes were started in the Congregational Church, October 4, 1882, and continued in a small 3-room building near the church. Middle Building, still standing, was erected in 1883 and dedicated September 1884. At first commencement, in 1887, when only Edward Hinman Pound was graduated, President Ward made a memorable address prophesying a thousand years of growth of the college devoted to building character, the highest standards and a continual striving for ideals high above the horizon. He died December 11, 1889, leaving a firm foundation and a perpetual desire to achieve his ideals. Its campus on the reverse, shows the growth of the physical plant. The regimes of Presidents Warren and Nash showed the greatest advances in the construction program. In 1931, Fargo College was merged with Yankton and a year later, a like merger with Redfield College was effected. To include 1962, 2,238 of its graduates have gone out into the world to carry out the principles President Ward emphasized 75 years ago. Erected 1962 by his children in memory of their father, Bert L. Hall, Y.C. 1913. Yankton College Campus 1-Old Middle 1883 Conservatory 2-Dakin Hall 1889 Burned 1934 3-Ward Hall 1894 4-Clarke Ob'vty 1894 5-Fargo Union 1903 Was Crane Gymnasium 6-Library 1904 Carnegie 7-Kingsbury Hall 1915 8-Garden Theatre 1915 9-Forbes Hall of Science & Chapel 1930 10-Stadium 1928 Crane Field 11-Look Hall 1931 12-Nash Field House 1948 13-New Mens Dorm 1962 14-Lay Cottage 1890 Burned '92 Presidents 1. Joseph Ward 1883-89 2. Dan F. Bradley 1889-92 acting 3. Albert T. Free 1892-95 4. Henry K. Warren 1895-1925 5. George W. Nash 1925-40 Y.C. class of 1891 6. Joseph L. McCorison 1940-43 7. William Lang 1943-45 acting 8. James C. Graham 1945-54 9. Adrian Rondileau 1954-1962

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Spirit Mound Historic Prairie — 22 mi
  A lone hill north of Vermillion that Lewis and Clark walked to on a scorching day in 1804, now one of the few places left where you can stand exactly where they stood.

More markers nearby

• Pine Street Bridge — 0.4 mi
• Christ Church — 0.4 mi
• First Territorial Capital — 0.5 mi
• Trial of Jack McCall For Murder of Wild Bill — 0.6 mi