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  • Three ministers, the Rev. Kyle Taylor, left, the Rev. Dr. Stephen Wiley and Dr. Leroy Thompson, kneel to pray beside the stone Bible at Bacone College. It is said that founder Almon C. Bacone knelt with two men on that spot on Feb. 9, 1880. Staff photo by Cathy Spaulding

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February 8, 2012

Bacone College marks founding with ceremony

By Cathy Spaulding Phoenix Staff Writer

In 1880, educator Almon C. Bacone, J.B. Murrow and Daniel Rogers knelt atop a Muskogee hill to pray and establish an Indian university.

On Tuesday, dozens watched as the Rev. Dr. Stephen Wiley, the Rev. Kyle Taylor and Dr. Leroy Thompson knelt on that same hill to say a prayer in honor of Bacone’s legacy.

Students, faculty, alumni and friends of Bacone College gathered to mark Founder’s Day.

“Founder’s Day means a lot of things,” said Taylor, director of Bacone’s American Indian Work Community Program. “It means that what God has put at Bacone is real and still is alive and well today — growing and getting better. It means the mission has not moved away from its DNA at Bacone, to provide education for Indian youth.”

The Founder’s Day observance opened in the Bacone Chapel and featured a dramatic presentation depicting Almon C. Bacone’s call to establish an “Indian university.” Sandra Turner Peters, a 1964 Bacone College graduate, wrote the drama.

The audience then moved outside, beside a stone Bible sculpture, which marks the spot where Bacone, Murrow and Rogers are said to have knelt.

The Indian University opened Feb. 9, 1880, with three students meeting in a Tahlequah Baptist mission house.

The Creek Tribal Council gave 160 acres in northern Muskogee as permanent site of the school.

On Tuesday, Dr. Peter Coser, assistant vice president for Bacone’s Center for American Indians, stood by the stone Bible and spoke about the school’s commitment to provide a Christian education.

“Many people in society today would not know who Jesus Christ is if it were not for Almon Bacone,” Coser said.

Reach Cathy Spaulding at (918) 684-2928 or cspaulding@muskogeephoenix.com.

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