The college building itself has changed but very little.  It was built as staunch as was the instruction it gave.  The campus has altered greatly.  The trees that various classes planted to mark some special period in their school days are now veritable giants of their kind, and have almost hidden the old college building.  And in the old college hall, where Greek and Latin once held sway, little children now lisp through their A B C’s.

Those who were teachers and student in the Woodbridge Academy and the San Joaquin Valley College, as it was later named, are scattered afar.  Many of them have passed from the “School of Life”.  Some are in high places.

One of the founders of the college, T.R. Burkett, now lives near Lockeford, and from him the writer gathered, a few days ago, some of the facts that are here set forth.

In the late ‘60’s Mr. Burkett was in the meat market business in Woodbridge, and C.L. Newton, now the Supervisor, was employed by the firm.  Meeting one morning, Mr. Burkett jokingly inquired of Mr. Newton what they could do to make the town livelier.  “Well, we might build a High School,” answered Mr. Newton.  It was a chance remark, but it set the pair of them thinking and to talking.

“One day Judge Thomas came into the butcher shop,” relates Mr. Burkett, “and we requested him to draw up a form of subscription list.  He wrote it down on a piece of paper such as we used to wrap meat in, and Newton and I circulated the list.  Well, we got $5000 subscribed, but the people of Woodbridge made much fun of our project.  One day the late J. P. Folger met us and inquired how we were getting along with our High School.  We showed him our names and asked him how much he would cash the list for.  He replied that he would cash it for 95 cents on the dollar, but he said that we needed $10,000 instead of $5000, and said that if we would let him have the list he would get the money.  Folger was the father of Mrs. C. B. Hart of Stockton, Mrs. Southworth and Mrs. Barnbee of Los Angeles, you know.  Well, it was only two weeks until he had the money, and we bought the land, seven acres, and built the school.  But we had no plan for conducting it.  Finally we made a bargain with S. L. Morehead by which he was to conduct the school for five years to our satisfaction and at the end of that time the property was to become his.  Complications arose and we had to cancel the contract before he had taught the term.  The school was then idle for several years.

“J. A. Sollinger started for the United Brethren conference, in 1879 I think it was, and I told him to see if he could get the United Brethren to take the school off our hands.  The conference sent a committee to look at the college and they soon closed the deal for it.”

The Trustees who had charge of the building of the college were Dr. R. S. Bentley, E. G. Rutledge, John C. Thompson, Jacob Brack and Victor Jahant, the last two being the only ones now living.

D. A. Mobley, principal of the Stockton High School for several terms and now pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Vallejo, was the first president of the Woodbridge college.  E. H. Ridenour, now a teacher in the Stockton High school, and W. H. Klienfelder were his assistants.  Later John H. Francis, vice-principal of the Stockton High school for several terms, and now City Superintendent of Schools in Los Angeles, was one of the faculty.

Of the former students at the Woodbridge college, the one who becomes most widely known is Marion DeVries, Congressman for several terms and now presiding Judge of the United States Customs Court.

The late Ed R. Thompson of Stockton was a graduate of the Woodbridge college, as was Avery C. White.  A. L. Cowell, now editor of the Modesto News, was a student in the college while Alice Gingrich was teaching music there.  They are now man and wife.  Some of the early graduates were Edith A. Field, now Mrs. Waltrip of Los Angeles; Alice Thompson, now Mrs. R. C. Minor of Stockton; Matties Folger, now Mrs. Barnby of Los Angeles; Charles A. Palmer, now District Attorney of San Luis Obispo County; A. L. Walker, now teaching in Humbolt county; Mary Bentley, now Mrs. E. P. Morey of Washington, D.C.; Ella Northrop, now Mrs. Hazeltine of near Acampo; W. S. Snediger, who became a well-known physician in Stockton, and Mamie Solinger, who became his wife; Edith Emde, now Mrs. W. N. Smith of Biggs; John H. Thompson, now in Stockton; Charles L. Bryant, now teaching at Clements; Helen Corell, now Mrs. W. S. Montgomery of Lockeford; Mary Corell, now Mrs. Platt Smith; Lou Hott, now Mrs. A. C. White of Stockton; Susie Plummer, now Mrs. Fred McKain of Stockton; Robert L. Beardslee of Stockton; Walter Blodgett, a physician in Napa; Amy Keen, now Mrs. Walter Blodgett; Mark Keppel, now County Superintendent of Schools of Los Angeles; Mamie Bourland, now Mrs. Fred Perrott of Woodbridge; W. G. Fisher now president of the United Brethren college at Philomath, Oregon; Florence McMurtry, now Mrs. E. Covell of Woodbridge; Wilson H. Thompson of Lodi.

The college had three famous literary societies, the Philophroneans, the Advance, and the ladies society, the Zetegatheans.  The Philophroneans and the Advance members use to have some whirlwind debates.  On the evening of January 22, 1892, A. L. Covell and Mark Keppel of the Philophroneans defeated Louis McMurtry and W. H. Thompson on the negative of the question:  “Is the People’s Party a Wise and Commendable Movement?”

The United Brethren church eventually abandoned the college, turning it back to the people of Woodbridge, who converted it into a grammar school building.