History of Iowa State: People of Distinction

Sponsored by the University Archives, Iowa State University Library

Copyright 2006

William M. Beardshear

Born in Ohio in 1850, William Miller Beardshear joined the Union Army at the age of 14 and served throughout the Civil War.  He studied for the ministry at Otterbein College and Yale Divinity School. He filled several pastorates before coming to Iowa in 1881 as the President of Western College in Toledo.  In 1889, he was appointed Superintendent of Schools in West Des Moines.

In 1891, Beardshear was appointed President of Iowa State, and during his tenure, ISC truly came of age.  Beardshear developed new agricultural programs and was instrumental in hiring premier faculty members such Anson Marston, Louis B. Spinney, J.B. Weems, Perry G. Holden, and Maria Roberts.  He also expanded the university administration, and the following buildings were added to the campus:  Morrill Hall (1891); the Campanile (1899); Old Botany (now Catt Hall) (1892); and Margaret Hall (1895).

While Beardshear was President, the following events also occurred at Iowa State:  the school colors of cardinal and gold were named, Iowa State became known as the Cyclones (1895), and the first Bomb (the university yearbook) was published in 1893. He died in 1902 of complications following a heart attack.  In his honor, Iowa State named its central administrative building (Central Building) after Beardshear in 1938.

Resources available online

RS 2/5
University Archives, Iowa State University Library