By George P. Edmonston Jr.

Cauthorn Hall, c. 1900.

Before it was Fairbanks Hall it was Kidder Hall, a women’s dorm, and before that it was Cauthorn Hall.

Built in 1892 as OSU’s first dormitory for men, Cauthorn could accommodate more than 100 students and included water, steam heat, electric lights, dining room and kitchen.

At the turn of the century, the building’s student residents were under the watchful eye of a live-in faculty member and his wife..."dorm parents" if you will. For a time, OAC faculty member and historian John Horner (for whom Horner museum was named) and Mrs. Horner served in the job. They were, in turn, replaced by the Whiteheads. Mr. Whitehead was easily recognized by his long and flowing white beard. Cauthorn students affectionately (it is assumed) referred to him as "Whiskers."

Mr. Whitehead, far right, in a group photo of the Cauthorn Hall Club, c. 1907, photo from the 1909 Orange.

Reading through OSU’s two earliest student yearbooks, titled The Orange and covering the school years 1906-1908, the reader is left with the impression that "Whiskers" was the constant butt of numerous student pranks. However, nothing pulled on "Whiskers" catches our fancy today like what the boys did when they were involved in Cauthorn’s most notorious initiation rite, the "rough-house."

The editors of the 1909 Orange described the rite and its purpose like this:

"The first event of the year, and one which affords huge enjoyment for the upper classmen, is the preparation and initiation of the new members into the Cauthorn Hall Club. There are always a few of the new men who have to be enlightened in regard to some of the simpler rules of etiquette, while others are so timid during the first few weeks after their arrival that they will not leave their rooms after dark and keep the windows locked and the doors bolted all the time. These eccentric individuals must necessarily be taught all the time, and as a matter of precedent, the Sophomores and Juniors have several practical and commendable methods of procedure which rarely fail to bring about a sure and speedy conversion of the most obstinate and obstreperous cases.

"The first installment of the initiation...is termed a "rough-house," and many of the older members of the Club display marvelous skill and ingenuity in this art of contra-decoration, which is attained only by constant practice. A "rough-house" consists, essentially, in collecting every movable and sometimes apparently immovable article within the room into an irregular pyramid in the middle of the floor. The sheets and blankets are tied into the most intricate knots possible, each article of furniture is dissected into its smallest component parts; the walls are stripped of their decorations; the trunks are emptied of their contents and stacked on top of the mass, and the contents of the waste-basket and water-pitcher liberally sprinkled over the whole."

To be sure, the "rough-house" always descended on a freshman’s room on the sly. Once the young man returned to his room, his reaction was predictable...lots of screaming, cursing, and yelling...along with swearing that revenge would descend on those responsible. The trick, of course, was to have a few names, but this never happened. Upperclassmen were sworn to secrecy. The Orange offered this in consolation: "(The student) must console himself by restoring order from out of the chaos, hoping that it will never return."

Such cacophony was bound to attract Mr. Whitehead’s attention. Up the stairs he would bolt, headed for the third floor to restore the necessary atmosphere of quiet and good manners becoming of young men attending a college of good standing.

Cauthorn Hall’s upperclassmen would be waiting. Let’s turn our story back over to the Orange to see what happened:

"There is a certain Personage possessing of long, flowing adrostal adnata, who is looked upon as the enemy of all; for it is he who insists that silence be preserved during the study hours and often interrupts the pleasant pastimes of various members of the Club. Hence you will not be surprised to learn that the average "Dorm" student has but little warm affection for this fatherly guardian; whence it often happens that upon making a lightning trip to the third floor, the seat of all disturbance, his progress is sadly impeded by a perfect deluge of H20.

"Had not the law of gravity been discovered by Newton, the honor of the discovery would no doubt have fallen to some member of the Cauthorn Hall Club; for here it is completely mastered by the students of the upper floors and is utilized: firstly, to retard the rapidity of Whitehead’s ascent during the execution of some of the most sacred rites in the initiation of new members, and, secondly, to aid in a rapid descent from the upper floors via the fire-escape or the banisters...."

In addition to the "round-house," other initiation rites practiced by members of the Cauthorn Hall Club included a "Kangaroo Court" activity in which unruly students were "tried" and ... surprise ... always found guilty. They were either fined a dollar’s worth of peanuts or sentenced to be "hot handed." It is still unclear exactly what this meant.

The Orange goes on to say that if these "expedients" proved to be unsuccessful, then it was necessary to resort to the one remedy that never failed, something the students called the "water-cure." This generally consisted of "external applications of the cold, sparkling fluid on or about the hour of midnight." It was usually applied using what the yearbook called "the famous old bath-tub method."

--George Edmonston Jr. is the editor of The Oregon Stater and Eclips.