Bethel College (Kansas)
Memorial Hall, 2007
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| Motto | Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. (I Cor. 3:11) |
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| Type | Private Liberal Arts |
| Established | 1887 |
| Endowment | 9 Million |
| President | Perry D. White |
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Administrative staff
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60 |
| Undergraduates | 482 |
| Location |
North Newton, Kansas, United States 38°04′29″N 97°20′33″W / 38.0747°N 97.3425°WCoordinates: 38°04′29″N 97°20′33″W / 38.0747°N 97.3425°W |
| Campus | 90 acres (36 ha) |
| Colors | Maroon grey |
| Nickname | Threshers |
| Mascot | Thresher |
| Website | bethelks |
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Bethel College Administration Building
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Bethel College Administration Building
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| Location | Bethel College campus, North Newton, Kansas |
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| Area | 1.5 acres (0.61 ha) |
| Built | 1887 |
| Architectural style | Romanesque |
| NRHP Reference # | 72000505 |
| Added to NRHP | March 16, 1972 |
Bethel College is a four-year private Christian liberal arts college in North Newton, Kansas, United States. It is affiliated with the Mennonite Church USA.
Founded in 1887 and conferring its first four-year degrees in 1912, Bethel is the oldest Mennonite college in North America. Starting in 1874, thousands of Russian Mennonites began arriving in Kansas. In 1882, having a century of experience running their own schools, they opened Emmental, a training school for teachers, north of Newton, Kansas. The school was moved to Halstead, Kansas, in 1883. A better site was found in North Newton, Kansas, and the cornerstone of the main building was laid on October 12, 1888. This structure, the current Administration Building, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Administration Building has been on the Historic Register since March 16, 1972.
The Halstead school was closed for the 1892–1893 school year while it was relocated to the new site and reopened as Bethel College in 1893. Bethel College became the second institution of higher learning associated with the General Conference Mennonite Church (now known as the Mennonite Church USA), replacing Wadsworth Institute which had closed in 1878.
During the 1880s, Kansas cities and towns competed with one another to create, build, and construct many institutions and buildings including colleges. On May 11, 1887, representatives of the Newton community and the Kansas Conference of Mennonites signed a charter for Bethel College to be built on a plot of about 120 acres (0.49 km2). Over a year later on October 12, 1888, around 2,500 people gathered on the property to lay the cornerstone of what is today the Administration Building of Bethel College. The building project took around five years to fully complete. The fund-raising to create the institution was slow, but on September 20, 1893 there was a service of dedication held for the building to be opened, and classes began.
Cornelius H. Wedel, a young teacher, was made Bethel College's first president. There were 98 students – 77 men and 21 women ages 13 to mid-30s – living on the west end of the main floor and the ground floor of the Administration Building. Wedel and his family lived on the east end of the Administration Building's main floor. The classrooms, chapel, and library of 600 volumes were located on the second floor. In those days, the students were up by five in the morning and in bed by ten at night. Each student worked two hours a day at a campus job. Student conduct was strictly monitored. Men and women were not allowed to be in the library during the same evenings; they alternated each evening. Five men, including the president, made up the first faculty. They taught classes in the Bible, church history, German, English, mathematics, science, and music. Bethel College was a bilingual college until early 1918, when the U.S. entered World War I. German was removed from the curriculum, although it would later return. As of the 2011–2012 school year, two years of German are offered.
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