Student Riot at Pullman Agricultural College
A group of Pullman citizens and regents condemn students who pelted visiting officials with eggs and mud while defending their outgoing president.
PULLMAN, Wash., Dec. 22. — To the public: We, the undersigned citizens of the town of Pullman, in order to express our feeling in regard to the actions of certain students of the agricultural college and school of science, make public the following statement: Acting President George Lilley, in an address to the members of the Websterian Literary Society, indirectly incited and justified insubordination on the part of the students toward Prof. Heston, the newly-elected president. On the morning of December 21, 1892, Acting President Lilley allowed the students to act in a most contemptuous manner toward Regent A. H. Smith and President-elect Heston, singing songs like 'Prof. Lilley shall be our president' and 'We'll hang Regent Smith on a sour apple tree.' When the visitors attempted to leave, students set upon them with clods of dirt, eggs, and snowballs, and followed them into the main street of Pullman with hoots and jeers. We denounce this disgraceful and riotous conduct in unmeasured terms.
“We'll hang Regent Smith on a sour apple tree.”
This 1892 event reflects the intense, sometimes volatile transition periods at Washington State University (formerly the Agricultural College). Student activism and campus politics have long been a feature of the Pullman experience, though rarely with such aggressive physical confrontation against university leadership.
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