Graduation!

It's that time of year when you see people wearing black robes and mortarboard hats as students are graduating from college. High school graduations, at least locally, seem to favor brightly colored robes.

We have in our artifact collection a robe and mortarboard that were worn by a local woman, Jessie E.(Wilson)  Bump, who graduated from Oregon Agricultural College (now Oregon State University) in 1924.

Jessie Bump about the time she graduated from OAC.

Jessie Wilson first enrolled at OAC in 1896-1897 as a young woman of 16.

There she met Clarence Lee Bump, who graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1897.  They married after her sophomore year, in August of 1898. She dropped out of school.  In 1900, the first of her three sons, Victor, was born.  He was followed by Chester in 1903 and Wilson in 1907.  During her time raising the three boys, she kept thinking about returning to college.  

She finally did so first in 1918 and then again in 1923.  She graduated with a degree in home economics in 1924.  She said, “I think I am getting more out of college than I did 20 years ago.  Things have more associations and greater value to me.”  A woman then returning to college later in life was usual enough but what made Jessie's story even more so is that she did so at the same time sons Victor and Chester were also attending the same school.  That circumstance attracted attention and her story was written up and published in newspapers across the country.  In the article she said:

            “My boys are glad I am finishing my education.  They walk down the campus with me just as a proudly as if they were with the best looking girl in school.

            “It's all foolishness that older people can't learn.  I am keeping up with the times and in closer touch with my children. When one of them comes home grouching about an exam I can sympathize with him because I know exactly what he means.”

After her graduation Jessie taught for a year in Philomath.  In 1925, she and Clarence moved to Kings Valley and she began teaching extension classes. She died in June of 1971. 

By Martha Fraundorf, Volunteer for Benton County Historical Society, Philomath, Oregon