USA > Iowa > Polk County > Des Moines > Des Moines, the pioneer of municipal progress and reform of the middle West, together with the history of Polk County, Iowa, the largest, most populous and most prosperous county in the state of Iowa; Volume I > Part 61
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In the fall of 1880, three prominent members of the faculty, Shepperd, Botten- field and Macy, decided that the outlook for building up the college did not justify further sacrifice. At a faculty meeting they announced their decision. President Carpenter said, "I have organized the last faculty for Oskaloosa College." As the result of conferences with D. R. Lucas, J. B. Vawter and others, Carpenter determined that the interests of the cause demanded the removal of the school from Oskaloosa to Des Moines. Stubborn opposition was met, however, and the effort to transfer the assets of the old school was blocked. All the faculty, except one member, and most of the students, cast their lot with the new venture. Local in- terests reorganized and maintained a struggling school at Oskaloosa for nearly twenty years longer.
George Thomas Carpenter, the first president of Drake University, was a man of undaunted energy, prophetic vision and a devotion to the cause of education.
In 1881, Northwest Des Moines was a wilderness. The undergrowth was so dense as to be penetrated with difficulty. The street cars stopped at 15th and Woodland, which was practically the limit of settlement. One day, in company with Norman Haskins, D. R. Lucas and others, Dr. Carpenter looked the ground over and selected the site for the main building.
He enlisted a number of responsible citizens and formed the University Land Company. They purchased 140 acres of land, set aside a portion of it for a cam- pus, and proceeded to sell the rest, devoting a portion of the profits to the Uni- versity, partly for endowment and partly for a contingent fund. Norman Haskins was induced to take the presidency of the land company and Dr. Carpenter was
4 The author is under obligations to Prof. C. O. Denny for the subject matter of this sketch.
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made secretary. Both served without compensation until the books of the com- pany were closed.
In 1880, land in the vicinity sold for $15 an acre, but prices were advanced at the prospect of the new school, and the land company had to pay $80 for its first purchases, and as high as $1,000 for tracts secured later. With the money thus realized for the contingent fund, and with supplementary subscriptions, a four- story wooden structure was erected on the site of the present Music building at a cost of about $11,000. It bore on its front the name "Students' Home," as it was designed ultimately for a dormitory and boarding hall. But, for a year or two, it served all the purposes of the college.
About fifty students, mostly from Oskaloosa College, were present at the open- ing, September 20, 1881. Most of the faculty were from Oskaloosa, with the ad- dition of W. H. Kent in science, and Norman Dunshee in the ancient languages. The other teachers in the Liberal Arts faculty were G. T. Carpenter, president, and Professors Bruce E. Shepperd, William P. Macy and Lyman S. Bottenfield. Milton P. Givens, Mark E. Wright and Mrs. W. P. Macy presided over the de- partments of commerce, music and art, respectively. Professor Bottenfield and his wife conducted the students' home and the boarding club.
Religious services were maintained in the assembly room, conducted by President Carpenter and Professors Macy and Dunshee, Professor Givens s11- perintended the Sunday School. The city churches were two miles away.
General Francis Marion Drake, soldier, railroad builder and man of affairs, was associated with the new enterprise from the beginning. He was the brother- in-law of Carpenter. The General took a peculiar delight in making his brother- in-law his agent in dispensing a large portion of his wealth. Carpenter pos- sessed initiative, the power to inspire others with his ideals, and great executive and administrative ability. Drake contributed business sagacity and wise coun- sel. The General was president of the board of trustees from 1881 till his death, November 20, 1903. At critical emergencies he came forward with large gifts. The school could not have started, nor could it have lived through its earlier years without these two.
When the plans began to take definite form and the question of a name was under discussion in a conference of the provisional board of trustees, Carpen- ter proposed that the school should be named for the man who would give $20,000 toward an endowment fund. D. R. Lucas was directed to write Gen- eral Drake and ask whether he would supply the $20,000. The answer came back. "I can and will do it." This was the first of the General's many gifts, which amounted in the aggregate to $232,076.47.
It was the General's theory that his gifts should bear some proportion to the gifts of others; that it was better for the school to receive gifts from a large number of people. He said he did not want it to be looked upon as his university.
In 1882. B. J. Radford was made president of the College of Liberal Arts. Dr. Carpenter was elected Chancellor of the University. He held this office till his death in 1893. Dr. Radford remained but one year. The duties of president devolved upon the Chancellor until 1889, when Barton O. Aylesworth was made president. President Aylesworth held that office until 1897. In 1897, William Bayard Craig was made Chancellor, and Bruce E. Shepperd was placed in charge of the College of Liberal Arts, with the title of dean. On the resignation of Craig, in 1902, Hill McClelland Bell became acting head of the University. He had been called to the principalship of the normal and preparatory depart- ments in 1897, was elected vice-chancellor in 1901, and dean of the college of liberal arts in 1902, holding these several offices simultaneously. After serv-
ing a year as acting-chancellor, he was in 1903 made president of the university, that office. having been created and the office of chancellor discontinued. .
From the first, the university has been non-sectarian. Great liberality has been evidenced in the composition of its board of trustees and faculties; but
Institute of Fine Arts, Howard Hall
Carnegie Library
Science Hall
Administration Building
Cole Hall-Law College
Memorial Hall
GROUP OF DRAKE UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS
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its earliest, and most of its largest benefactors, have been members of the Church of Christ, or Disciples, and they have always been prominent in its counsels.
The new school started out with departments of Liberal Arts, Bible, Music, Art, Oratory and Commerce. A Law College and a Medical College were se- cured by affiliation. The Law College, known as the Iowa College of Law, had been affiliated with Simpson College at Indianola, since its organization in 1875. The Iowa College of Pharmacy, organized in 1882, was affiliated in 1887, and the Des Moines College of Dentistry in 1900, thus completing the circle of col- leges as originally planned by the founder of the University.
From the first, great expectations on the part of the Disciples of Christ were centered in Drake University for it came to be looked upon by many wise observers of the state and nation as the coming school of the church.
The knowledge that their brethren all over the land had such boundless con- fidence in them and expected so much of them was a burden on the hearts of the teachers. As new demands came, with no money to provide additional teachers or equipment, they were met by these men with additional sacrifices ; and, in reckoning the gifts that have been made to Drake University by gen- erous friends, the names of Carpenter, Shepperd, Bottenfield, Macy, Dunshee, and others should be assigned to a special roll of honor.
The articles of incorporation for the University were filed May 7, 1881. Fol- lowing were the incorporating board: F. M. Drake, C. E. Fuller, G. T. Carpen- ter, D. R. Lucas, J. B. Vawter, E. N. Curl, Samuel Merrill, Larkin Wright, C. A. Dudley, P. M. Casady, H. G. Van Meter, R. T. C. Lord, D. R. Dungan, J. B. White, Allen Hickey, N. A. McConnell, A. L. Frisbie, and F. M. Kirkham. F. M. Drake was chosen president of the board; G. T. Carpenter, vice-president ; D. R. Lucas, secretary, and C. E. Fuller, treasurer. The corporation being com- pleted, the work of soliciting funds, planning and erecting buildings, platting, im- proving and selling lots, and organizing the several departments of the school was promptly entered upon.
Soon after the opening of the school, President Carpenter placed in the hands of C. B. Larkin, architect, outlines for the main building. October 5, 1881, a contract was let for the necessary excavation. The work of selling lots and raising subscriptions went rapidly forward. In the spring of 1882, work was begun in earnest. In the fall three or four basement rooms of the roofless building were finished and occupied by classes. The building was completed in 1883.
In the preliminary announcement of Drake University, issued early in 1881, is found this significant paragraph: "This University has been designed upon a broad, liberal and modern basis. The articles of incorporation provide that all its departments shall be open to all without distinction of sex, religion or race. In its management and influence, it will aim at being Christian, without being sec- tarian."
Years passed before Des Moines began to show any real interest in Drake University. That the city is now heartily behind the school is made-manifest not only by popular demonstrations on every occasion where there is opportunity to show loyalty, but by the fact that more graduates of Des Moines high schools now attend Drake University than all other colleges and universities combined. A decided majority of the members of the Des Moines bar are Drake alumni, and hundreds of her sons are found in the other professions and in business. Eighteen hundred students and one hundred sixty-six teachers contribute nearly a million dollars annually to the commercial interests of the city. A suburb of fifteen thousand population has been built up about the University.
One of the last acts of the administration of Chancellor Craig was to bring all the professional schools under the direct ownership and control of the Univer- sity. Hitherto, they had held their own charters and were private corporations, with little more than a nominal relationship to the University. In October, 1908, the Keokuk Medical college was merged with Drake University College of Medi- cine, and all its assets transferred to Des Moines.
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During the administration of President Bell the school has enjoyed a phe- nomenal growth. The physical assets have been multiplied by three during this period. The entire number of students has increased almost one-half. This, however, does not show the real growth in numbers, for the preparatory, com- mercial, and other schools of sub-college grade have been dropped, and the attendance in the College of Liberal Arts increased from one hundred seventy in 1902 to seven hundred thirty-four in 1911. The total attendance for 1910-II was 1,827, or, excluding the Summer School, 1,586.
This has also been a building era. The second permanent building was Science Hall, erected in 1890. A telescope with an eight and one-fourth inch objective was added in 1893, the gift of General Drake. In 1900, the Auditorium was built, with money supplied by General Drake. In 1903, the same generous hand pro- vided the funds to build Howard Hall for the use of the Conservatory of Music. At about the same time the General proposed to give $10,000 toward a building for the law school, $10,000 for a Medical and $10,000 for a Bible building, conditioned on the raising from other sources of the further sums necessary to complete these buildings. The funds necessary to secure these gifts were promptly raised, and the Medical building was erected in 1903, the Law building (Cole Hall) in 1904, and the Bible building (Memorial Hall) in 1905. In 1907 the Carnegie Library was erected, Mr. Carnegie contributing $50,000 for the building, and the citizens of Des Moines a like sum for endowment. A $25,000 heating plant was added the same year. In 1909 the Men's Gymnasium ( Alumni Hall) was erected, and a Women's Gymnasium was equipped in the north wing of Administration building, adjoining the Auditorium. In 1908, the capacity of the Music building . was doubled by the addition of a wing on the east. In 1910, a large addition was added to the Medical building, and in 19II it was further increased in size so as to accommodate all the classes in the Medical School.
The Drake Stadium was completed in 1907. The funds were largely pro- vided by the generous gifts of Norman Haskins. It is a natural amphitheater. At present it has a seating capacity of 10,000 people, with room for as many more.
The University is on the accepted list of colleges of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching,-a guarantee of its standards, and insuring its instructors a retiring allowance when their days of activity are over.
The University's present assets amount to $1,280,000. Necessary equipment is provided, and the ordinary needs of the student are well taken care of. The men now guiding its fortunes share the belief of Chancellor Carpenter, that the institution is destined to be one of the great educational seats of the country.
Highland Park College-1889-19II.
Highland Park College was organized in 1889 by a company of business men in Des Moines. These men were all in a measure interested in real estate in North Des Moines and in Highland Park.
The main college building was started in the summer of 1889 and the corner- stone was laid in the fall of that year. President Longwell was engaged in Feb- ruary, 1890, and came to Des Moines in April, to take charge of the finishing of the main college building, the erection of other buildings and their equipment, the selection of the faculty, and in fact, everything that should be looked after in the organization of the college. While the syndicate furnished the money and con- ferred with the president as to the general plans of the buildings, the selecting of the faculty, the arranging of the courses of study, and the organization of the. school were left to President Longwell's judgment and management.
The opening of the college was set for September, 1890, and the correspond- ence indicated that the attendance would be large. A large dormitory for young ladies and one also for young men had been planned, but there came a strike in the brick yards, and the company was unable to finish either of these dormitories ; so there were erected four large temporary board buildings 100 feet long, con-
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HIGHLAND PARK COLLEGE
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taining 100 rooms, for the boys, also three large twenty-room cottages for the young ladies. These were finished at the time the college opened.
There was a large attendance for a new institution, and the president told the students they should hold a jubilee when the attendance reached five hundred stu- dents. They held the jubilee early in October! The strike at the brick yard was settled and Humboldt, Lowell and Franklin Halls, three large brick dormitories were successfully erected. Humboldt Hall was first occupied on Thanksgiving day and Franklin and Lowell Halls about Christmas. The attendance for the first year was 825 students, and this first-year record was counted almost unprecedent. The attendance the second year was over 1,200 and the third year over 1,500.
The panic of 1893, however, proved disastrous to the men behind the college. Their private fortunes were swept away and it became necessary to sell the prop- erty, yet the college as a business enterprise had been a financial success from the beginning. If by some means it could have been separated from the rest of their possessions, it would have escaped the trouble that attended it in 1894 and '95.
The college was, however, reorganized in 1896, and it has been growing in at- tendance and in material improvement ever since. A large Science Hall has re- cently been erected and equipped at an expense of about $150,000. The manage- ment have established an engineering school and machine shops. It is claimed that the machine shops are larger and better equipped than those of any other en- gineering school in the country. The machinery alone has cost about $12,000. The building is 135x104 feet with saw-tooth roof admitting light from the north. In this same building is conducted the trade school, including the machinists' and the automobile machinists' courses, manual training, traction engine, blacksmith- ing, forge work, foundry and gas and steam laboratories.
The college is well equipped in all its departments. Its laboratories are counted as good as there are in the state. They number the biological, physical, electrical, chemical, pharmaceutical and Materia Medica. The engineering department has been inspected by the government and placed upon the list of approved govern- ment engineering schools. The College of Pharmacy has been admitted to the highest rank of pharmacy schools and societies in the country. The Normal Col- lege was the first accredited in accordance with the new normal law and graduates from the Normal College and from the College of Liberal Arts receive state cer- tificates without having to take the examinations,-same as graduates from the State Normal or from the State University. Every department of the school has been standardized.
The college now has an annual attendance of over 2,000 students. In connec- tion with the residence school it has a correspondence school covering normal work, preparatory work and much technical work. During the current year it has had between 800 and 900 students in this department doing regular work, some of them making splendid progress. Hon. Henry Sabin, long state superin- tendent, while at the head of the department of pedagogy, placed that department on a high plane which it has since maintained.
In January, 1911, the school was transferred to the Presbyterian church and later was accepted by the Presbytery of Des Moines. The new board of trustees includes some of the leading members of that church. Rev. Dr. George P. Magill, pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church, is secretary of the new board of trus- tees, L. L. Hamlin, president of the Des Moines Tent and Awning Company, is vice president of the board. John Cownie, Sr., is a member of the board and also of the executive committee. Other members are Dr. Thomas Bond, Judge A. K. Stewart, Rev. S. D. McFadden, J. A. Hosmer, Rev. William Boynton Gage, A. D. Struther, James R. Martin, Prof. Z. C. Thornburg, and O. H. Long- well, who remains as president of the college as well as president of the board of trustees.
Two destructive fires recently visited the college. One destroyed the machine shops and all the machinery, but this has all been replaced by the new shops and machinery already described. The second fire recently destroyed Lowell and Vol. I-28
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Franklin Halls; but the insurance enabled the board to build a new hall which will contain as many rooms as both the other halls, and which will be strictly modern in every particular. It will be 243 feet long, four stories high, with a high base- ment and will contain 134 student rooms. In this basement, which is especially adapted to the purpose, will be organized a domestic science and household arts department.
Grand View College and Theological Seminary-1895-1911.
Grand View College and Theological Seminary belongs to the Danish Evan- gelical Lutheran Church in America and was founded in 1895. It was opened with one scholar and three professors besides the temporary president, Rev. N. P. Gravengaard, then of Brayton, Iowa. Its yearly attendance is now about 125, and its staff of teachers numbers ten. From 1897 to 1904 the president was R. R. Westergaard, now in Denmark. The next president was Rev. B. Norden- toft, who resigned in 1910, after whom Rev. E. Wagner was temporarily elected. No successor to President Nordentoft has yet been chosen.
The institution was established for young Danish Americans and about 1,300 of them have attended it thus far.
It was built primarily as a theological seminary and twenty-five of its grad- uates are now ministers in the synod of which Des Moines belongs. It has also a teachers' course, but this has not been well attended thus far.
The greater part of the student's come for the general course,-Danish Americans who would be helped along in English by teachers who know just what they need; also native Danish Americans, to gain a deeper understanding of the language and history of their forefathers beyond the sea. Many parents send their children to this school because it is the school of their church.
It should also be mentioned that since 1908 the college has had a special course for the training of teachers in gymnastics after Ling's System. This course has had about fifteen graduates. A new model gymnasium has been built for this purpose by the young people. It cost $4,500. The apparatus was imported from Denmark.
GRAND VIEW COLLEGE
BOOK III. DES MOINES.
PART VI. PIONEER CHURCHES AND THEIR SUCCESSORS.
CHAPTER I.
THE METHODIST CHURCH.
Dr. Waring, historian of the Des Moines Conference,1 says that Methodism in Iowa in 1844 was under one jurisdiction-that of the Iowa Conference. The Upper Iowa Conference was formed in 1856, leaving Des Moines in what was left of the Iowa Conference, the south half of the State. The Des Moines Con- ference was created in 1864, consisting of all the south half of the state west of a north and south line running between Wayne and Appanoose and Lucas and Monroe, dividing Marion in the middle and Jasper nearly in the middle. In 1872, the northern boundary of the conference was enlarged to include Story, Boone, Greene, Carroll, Crawford and the southern part of Monona.
Dr. Waring refers to the formation of the Three Rivers mission, "includ- ing the south part of the Ft. Des Moines mission." He records the organiza- tion of a new district including Fort Des Moines and "the rest of the Three Rivers mission." David Worthington was its first presiding elder.
According to Turrill,2 the first sermon ever preached in Fort Des Moines was by an itinerant Methodist preacher named Ezra Rathbun, the occasion be- ing a funeral -- held some time in 1845. Waring's History of the Iowa Confer- ence says "the first preaching at the Fort was in February, 1846, by Ezra Rath- bun, assisted by his two brothers, all local (lay) preachers." In '46, a Meth- odist Society was organized at the Fort, with Rev. B. H. Russel as pastor. Russel was a circuit rider in what was known as the Fort Des Moines Mission, including Polk, Madison and Warren counties, also the north half of Marion and the south half of Jasper, Boone and Dallas. This pioneer organization at the Fort consisted of Joseph Solenbarger, class-leader; Sarah Solenbarger, Rev. Abner Rathbun, Betsey Rathbun, Sr., Rev. Ezra Rathbun, Jonathan Rathbun, Benjamin T. Hoxie and William Meacham and wife. The pioneer presiding elders in the Fort Des Moines district were John Hayden, 1851; J. B. Hardy, 1855.
Michael H. Hare, an Ohio man, in his early ministry traveled the large circuit of those days. In 1850, at the age of thirty-three, he was appointed to the Fort Des Moines mission, and "did much pioneer work, visiting and plant- ing societies in the region for forty or fifty miles north and west of the Fort. In '62, he was appointed chaplain of the 36th Iowa Infantry. With his command he was captured in '64 and imprisoned in Camp Taylor, Texas," where his confinement developed tuberculosis from which he died July 27, 1868. He was a man of fine physique and strong mind. His social qualities and his gift of song greatly aided him in his pioneer labors.
The first Methodist Conference held in Des Moines and the fourteenth in the history of the Church in Iowa, was that of 1857. Bishop E. R. 'Ames presided. The body convened in the unplastered basement of the old Fifth street church. The panic of '57 affected the attendance, the collections and the proceedings. Business was transacted in haste. Many of the reports were wanting, and those made were not especially gratifying. Sunday morning,
1 History of the Iowa Conference of the M. E. Church, by Rev. . Edmund H. Waring, of Oskaloosa.
2 Turrill's Reminiscences of the City of Des Moines, p. 24.
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Bishop Ames preached on "Faith." In the afternoon, Dr. Elliott preached on . "Love," and in the evening, Dr. Scott's theme was Ministerial Education. The conference lasted from the 24th to the 29th of September.
The tearing down of the old First Methodist church on Fifth street, Des Moines, to make room for the new Iowa Loan and Trust Company building, drew from the late Isaac Brandt a reminiscent interview in the Register, which throws light upon the Fifties in Fort Des Moines. Mr. Brandt said the church erected in 1856 was dedicated "not only to God but also to patriotism." F. M. Mills, now of Sioux Falls, S. D., had just come to Fort Des Moines and bought a half-interest of John Daugherty in a brick yard, and the firm supplied the brick for the church. Charles Cate did the brick work and Harrison & Eddy, the carpentry. The first trustees of the first church were W. W. Williamson, Alexander Bowers, H. S. Burick, M. Sypher, Reuben .Wilson, J. W. Payne and Alexander Gordon. The funeral of Father Gordon, trustee, was the first serv- ice held in the church. The first pastor was Rev. Samuel B. Crawford. The second service held in the new building was at the funeral of Mr. Harrison, one of the builders of the church. It was conducted by Rev. Mr. Barnhart. The hard times of '57 brought work on the church to a standstill. It was all the congregation could do to pay the preacher and keep up the interest on $3,000 borrowed of A. J. Stevens, James Callanan and S. R. Ingham. In the summer of 1860 services were held in the completed basement, with Rev. Dr. George B. Jocelyn pastor. Mr. Ingham became the owner of the mortgage, and he finished off the upper part of the building so that it could be rented for conventions, shows, etc. It was called Ingham's Hall. In this hall, in '61, several stirring war meetings were held.
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