Minnie A. Stoner of Boston was recruited to direct a University Boarding Club and to start cooking classes. She held the baccalaureate degree from South Dakota Agricultural College and a diploma for postgraduate work from the Boston Normal School of Household Arts. Beginning in the spring of 1896, she conducted cooking classes, using Bunsen burners for heat. She left UT for a post at Kansas State after the 1897–98 academic year.