PCN
WATCH DONATE CART
Sign InRegister
Politics & Policy History & Culture PA Sports & PIAA State Championships Battle of Gettysburg Pennsylvania's Neighborhood America's 250th in Pennsylvania Civics 101 Weather World
Schedule Shop About Donate Contact
Programs Politics & Policy History & Culture PA Sports & PIAA State Championships Battle of Gettysburg Pennsylvania's Neighborhood America's 250th in Pennsylvania Civics 101 Weather World

Cart

SCHEDULE
05:35 PMCapital Blue Cross Forum
06:45 PMWeather World
07:00 PMOn the Issues: Hospitals and the PA Budget
07:30 PMOn the Issues: Federal Funding Cuts for Immigration Programs
08:00 PMKeystone Cuisine: Big Dan's BBQ
08:28 PMKeystone Cuisine: The Dobbin House Tavern
09:00 PMIt's History! Early Firefighting in Philadelphia
09:30 PMIt's History! Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum

ADVERTISEMENT

PCN app
PCN app
Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook Facebook
You are here: Home / Archive PA Books / PA Books: “Frederick Watts and the Founding of Penn State” with Roger Williams

PA Books: “Frederick Watts and the Founding of Penn State” with Roger Williams

Frederick Watts came to prominence during the nineteenth century as a lawyer and a railroad company president, but his true interests lay in agricultural improvement and in raising the economic, social, and political standing of Pennsylvania’s farmers. After being elected founding president of The Pennsylvania State Agricultural Society in 1851, he used his position to advocate vigorously for the establishment of an agricultural college that would employ science to improve farming practices. He went on to secure the charter for the Farmers’ High School of Pennsylvania, which would eventually become the Pennsylvania State University. This biography explores Watts’s role in founding and leading Penn State through its formative years. Watts adroitly directed the school as it was sited, built, and financed, opening for students in 1859. He hired the brilliant Evan Pugh as founding president, who, with Watts, quickly made it the first successful agricultural college in America. But for all his success in launching the institution, Watts nearly brought it to the brink of closure through a series of ruinous presidential appointments that led to an abandonment of the land-grant focus on agriculture and engineering.

Roger L. Williams served as Associate Vice President and Executive Director of the Penn State Alumni Association and as Affiliate Associate Professor in Penn State’s Higher Education Program.

Description courtesy of Penn State University Press.

PA Books airs Sunday nights at 7.

Watch PA Books and more PA History and Culture on cable and the PCN Select Streaming Service.

ABOUT PCN
About
History
Our People
Awards
Privacy Policy
Certifications
WATCH PCN
How to Watch
Schedule
Channel Listing
Stream Now
Subscribe
Shop PCN
CONNECT
Careers
Contact Us
FAQ
Request Coverage
Support
Satellite Truck
Production Truck
PROGRAMS
Politics and Policy
History and Culture
Sports
Gettysburg Collection
FOLLOW US
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram

For closed captioning issues, please call 717-730-6000 or email closedcaption@pcntv.com
©2025 Pennsylvania Educational Communications Systems. All rights reserved.