When?President?E. P. Tenney took over the inchoate Colorado College in 1876 (the summer of?Custer?s Last Stand,?of the Nation?s?Centennial?and of Colorado?s statehood), his first educational move was to hire W. D. Sheldon and send him to Colorado Springs to begin instruction in classics. Sheldon taught mostly preparatory students (it was six years before anyone graduated with a bachelor?s degree) and he gave himself to the general educational development of the new state with op/ed pieces on compulsory education and a leadership role in the state education association.