USA > Iowa > Fremont County > History of Fremont County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of many of its leading citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistic, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, history of Iowa and the Northwest, map of Fremont County, constitution of the state of Iowa, reminiscences, miscellaneous matters, etc > Part 65
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When Lane returned to Topeka, he found the U. S. dragoons there searching for him. He attired himself as a Mexican herder, and assisted in hunting for himself without being found.
Sometime later in the fall, when Col. Eldredge returned from the east with his company of emigrants, Lane again visited Tabor. This company had in procession eighteen or twenty covered wagons, a brass cannon and carriage, tents etc .- some families and in all about two hundred persons. They camped on what is now the public square, in front of the pastor's house, and but a few rods east of his gate. They placed the cannon in the centre, and on the carriage hoisted the stars and stripes-arranged the wagons in a circle around the national banner-pitched their tents in a circle outside of the wagons-kindled their fires outside of the tents and placed their sentries outside of all, and when the parson started across to prayer-meeting that evening, they cried out, " Who goes there?"
The next day was spent in drilling on the public square. The stage coach then passed each way daily on the route through Tabor, between Council Bluffs and St. Joe. It was said that the stage passengers carried the story into Missouri that there were two thousand men drilling at Tabor. Some of these men had come all the way from Maine, and had not yet received their arms. They complained that they had not been dealt with in good faith, that they had the promise of arms at Albany, then at Buffalo, again at Cleveland and at Chicago, and now at Tabor they refused to arm them; and they declared they would go no farther without Sharp's rifles. They were on the point of mutinying. To calm down their ruffled spirits, Gen. Lane mounted the cannon carriage and addressed them somewhat in the following strain:
"Gentlemen :- I am not sorry to hear that you grumble. A good sol- dler always grumbles. A soldier's life is a life of privation and hardship,
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and it is not in human nature not to chafe under it. But when the call is to arms, the patriot soldier leaps into the ranks, and forgets his fretting in his devotion to his country. You have had much to try you. You have marched many a weary mile; have left comfortable homes; have lived on coarse fare, and slept on the cold ground. You have endured all bravely, and now that you have almost reached the borders of the promised land, you surely are not going to back out now?
" In respect to arms: you want Sharp's rifles, a very good weapon in some cases; but if I had all the Sharp's rifles I could ask for, I would not arm all with them. Indeed an efficient army needs but few of them. If you should come to close fighting, which I hope you may, they are not worth anything. You want something with a point to it, a bayonet, a good musket, that is what you want." The next day they went on.
The people of Tabor were so entirely and so heartily in sympathy with the free state movement, that Tabor was chosen as a place of storage for arms, ammunition, clothing, etc. As a renewal of the troubles was feared at the elections in the autumn of 1857, an effort was made by the friends of freedom to be prepared for the worst. Hence, late in 1856, necessaries were stored in Tabor. Two hundred Sharp's rifles, and ammunition were stored in the parson's cellar that winter-a cannon was in his barn- besides many boxes of sabres, rifles, muskets, accoutrements, boots and clothing. Geo. B. Gaston's accommodations for storage were also all in requisition. Capt. John Brown and Owen, his son, and Col. Forbes passed several months at Tabor in the summer and fall of 1857, and when the fall elections occurred without disturbance in Kansas, the effects stored at Tabor were all removed and some of them probably were captured subsequently at Harper's Ferry.
To the little community of Tabor that summer of 1856 was a very exciting and busy summer. There were quite a number of persons of note connected with the free state cause. Besides Gen. Lane, Capt. Brown, Capt. Shombri, Col. Eldridge, Col. Dickey, Dr. Howe, Dr. Cut- ter, Dr. Kinney, Jas. Redpath, Rev. Parsons and Maj. Searles, already mentioned, there were also Prof. Daniels of Wisconsin, Rev. L. Bordwell, afterward pastor of a Congregational church in Topeka, Col. T. W. Higgin- son, contributor to the Atlantic Monthly and commander of a colored regiment in the war, Gen., afterward Senator Pomeroy, Rev. Strawn, son of Jacob Strawn the rich farmer of Illinois, and R. B. Foster and Luther Platt, both now Congregational ministers in Kansas.
Dreef, Paul
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
HISTORY OF TABOR COLLEGE.
BY PRESIDENT W. M. BROOKS.
. Thirty-three years ago, if you had stepped into a certain farm house in the township of Russia, Lorain county, Ohio, you would have found gathered in a social meeting to talk and pray, a few friends; listening to their words you find they are talking of the influence of Christian fami- lies,-how that influence is multiplied when they hold the educational centers and when they control the fountains of intelligence. They are talking of the wonderful work that Oberlin has already done. Some of them believe the same experiment can be successfully repeated. The leader has been a thousand miles west without the aid of railroads-he is telling them of a new state admitted to the union only a few months before, the state of Iowa. He tells them that western Iowa contains the soil and cli- mate and scenery which they desire. They are planning, not for them- selves alone, but for the thousands who in a few years are to find homes in the Missouri valley. God's direction is asked and his blessing upon their plans. Each week they met and talked and prayed. Their plans took definite shape and their faith grew strong that they might establish an institution of learning, where young men and women might receive Christian culture, and go out in the world with increased power for good because of it. The leader of this meeting was George B. Gaston, whose name will ever be fragrant with Christian memories in this community.
A few families removed to western Iowa in 1848, among them was Rev. John Todd, whose honored head and welcome face is familiar in all our churches. He came, not commissioned by any H. M. society, but brother Gaston said to him, (as Brother Todd feelingly told us at his funeral), that while he had anything upon which to live, he, their pastor, should not want; and he faithfully kept this promise to the end. They made a tem- porary settlement near the south line of Iowa, on the Missouri river, five miles above the present site of Nebraska City. They had before them many trials which must be endured to be known.
Freighting on the Missouri river was slow and dangerous. Boats passed up only at irregular intervals, and not unfrequently remained for weeks upon sand-bars and snags. Their steam mill on which they de- pended for lumber to make them comfortable for the winter was long de- loyed, and when it came at last the boiler was unfit for use and the repair shop four hundred miles away.
The next season, (1851) frequent rains and the melting of the mountain snows flooded the low lands, so that for miles around was a dreary wil- derness of water. Their pastor, commissioned by God, and the little band 18
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of Christians, who came to Iowa with him and rode through all the sur- rounding country looking up settlements, destitute of the preaching of the gospel, and laboring with the true missionary spirit. The trials of ordinary pioneer life-of sickness and high water, were but the beginning of what was in store for them. Socially, politically and religiously, they differed widely from the people about them. The difference was notice- able in their dress, their diet, their buildings and in their general habits and modes of expression. They believed with Wesley, "that slavery was the sum of all villainies," and that when the Saviour said, " Inas- much us ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me," he did not understand white before brethren. They, therefore, gave a cordial welcome to the weary traveler, though he were black. They gave him food, shelter and raiment, and sent him on his way rejoicing. It was not then strange that, living so near a slave state, a feeling, intensely hostile, should have arisen. This hostility showed itself in many ways, most annoying however, in the disturbance of public meetings and in the burning of their school house, because some colored children were permitted to attend school.
Below them, on the river, was a settlement known, on account of the character of its inhabitants, as the " Devil's Bend," and the "roughs" gave to this Christian settlement, in derision, the name of "Civil Bend "- a name which it has ever since retained. Fortunately, in the good prov- idence of God, they had a second season of high water, and as Brother Todd was returning from a preaching appointment, and his horses feet went splash, splash, splash, in the water, five long miles, he was, during that ride, brought to believe that the Lord called them to take higher ground. It is now more than twenty-nine years since this spot was selected by Dea. George B. Gaston and Rev. John Todd, as a site for the college. This location, high above the miasmatic influences of the bot- tom lands, was chosen chiefly on account of its healthfulness, other places might possibly have been selected with as beautiful scenery,-with prairie as gently undulating, with soil as rich, but certainly none in western Iowa are superior in these respects. If something has been lost in being off the railroad, doubtless, something has been gained in having a quiet place to study.
The first organization of which Tabor College is the outgrowth, was in the spring of 1854, when the citizens of Tabor met and chose Rev. John Todd, George B. Gaston, James L. Smith, Jonas Jones, Origen Cum- ings, and John W. Smith, of Civil Bend, as trustees and incorporators , of the institution they wished to establish. They formed an incorpora- tion under the name of Tabor Literary Institute. A fundamental princi- ple in the organization was that neither race nor sex should be made a, condition of admission.
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When the town was surveyed and platted, the land where the college chapel is located was designated as " college grounds." Monthly meet- ings were held and the school, before its establishment, was a more com- mon topic of conversation and prayer than at any time since its establish- ment.
November 3, 1857, a school was opened with William M. Brooks as principal, the special design of which was to fit students for teaching, also to prepare them for college and general business. The people of Tabor and vicinity have, with great unanimity, made the academy and the col- lege the central object of interest, and have been ready to plan for its suc- cess. A few have not been in sympathy with the spirit of the founders, or of those who have had the work in hand, but this is true in every place where any similar work has been undertaken, and is, I suppose, inevitable while human nature remains the same. With the exception of the second year of the academy, " Tabor Literary Institute" remained in successful operation to June, 1866, when after consultation with friends near and re- mote, it was decided that it was a favorable time to open a college depart- ment in accordance with the original intention. At a special meeting of the Council Bluffs Congregational Association in the spring of 1866, the following action was taken without opposition:
" WHEREAS, The interests of christian education in southwestern Iowa demand an institution of higher grade than any now existing within our bounds, and
WHEREAS, We regard the school at Tabor, from its past success, present prosperity, future prospects, healthful, moral influence, and salubrious situation, as well fitted to become such an institution, therefore,
Resolved, That we learn with pleasure that the trustees of Tabor Lit- erary Institute have decided to place their school on a college basis, and do cheerfully and cordially recommend Tabor College to the patronage of the friends of Christian education."
We were of course very glad for such expressions of sympathy and confidence, but resolutions were cheap and back of them there was not a large amount of felt responsibility. To publish a catalogue with the name college was an easy thing to do, but without money and without friends who could give pecuniary aid, it was a very serious matter for us to un- dertake to establish a college. The experiments about us were not encouraging. We had seen a board of trustees organized to establish a school under the high sounding name of Columbian University, only eight miles north of us. Sixteen thousand dollars were secured, put into the walls of a building which blew down, and the days of the university were ended before it was opened for students. Eighty miles to the north- west an effort had been made to establish at Fontanelle, Nebraska University, which still had a struggling existence - trying to bear up under the weight
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of so great a name. At Oreopolis, eighteen miles northwest of us, an institution began with the college name, with most glowing representa- tions, and failed. At Onawa, one hundred miles north, stimulated by the offer of the American Emigration Company to pay the interest of $20,000 for five years, if an equal amount should be invested in buildings, a spas- modic effort was made, which brought no results. At our county seat three different religious denominations began at different times under what were regarded very favorable circumstances, but they also failed. Fifteen thousand dollars were invested in a school at Nebraska City, which soon closed for lack of money. At a later date Western Iowa Collegiate Insti- tute at Glenwood, came into existence, lived for a few years, and passed quietly away. A building was also erected at Council Bluffs for a ladies' seminary, a school was opened, but soon its doors were closed and the building sold for a private residence. With several of these examples of failure before us, what reason had we to believe that we should meet any better fate?
We had two reasons. First, Tabor College was not, like some of the enterprises I have mentioned, connected with any town scheme, upon the success of which depended the success of the college, and out of which its originators expected to make a fortune. Second, the spirit of the peo- ple as seen in founding the colony and endorsing by substantial gifts the action of the trustees. I cannot better give an idea of the spirit of the people and their interest in the college than by reciting some incidents in giving to sustain the college at the opening of the college department. After the matter had been pretty thoroughly discussed as to what a col- lege should be, a meeting of citizens was called to see what substantial aid could be secured in this community. At this meeting Brother Gas- ton said, "I have felt ever since I came into the west and espec- ially when in the most spiritual state of mind, that I was making pro- perty for this one object, to build up an institution where the young peo- ple who should be educated, should go out into the world as christians, and I will now give from my capital all that can be spared from my business and carry that forward successfully, and I am willing to leave it to others to say how much that shall be. I will devote my income to the college, and if necessary I will put in every dollar I have and begin anew." With property assessed at $4004.00, he gave cash $2000.00 and his notes for $2000.00 more. It was not strange with such an example that a com- munity formed as Tabor had been should have grown enthusiastic and have given with unprecedented liberality. After several had said they were ready to do all they could, a mechanic (who is still with us) who owned only one acre of land said, "I used to say when interested in an object, that I would do all I could, but John Brown faced me down; on that once; he said, ' Its a mighty big thing for a man to do all he can,' I
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suppose I could give my notes of $1000.00 and work it out some way, but I will give $600.00." Others caught the same spirit and while many gave nothing, the giving was so liberal that it amounted to $75.00 for each person in the place-$30,000 in all. The first nineteen donors gave in cash and note sixty per cent of the assessed value of their property. The spirit manifested at that time has been in a good degree continued and the most liberal donors have been those who have had an increasing interest in the college, as shown by their words and their gifts.
Twenty-three years have passed since the opening of the school and in reviewing these years we see many influences that have not been as we would at the time have chosen. We have not lived in paradise; yet in the providence of God it may be that the adverse influences have, by con- trast helped to set the truth in clearer light and developed a more sharply defined and healthier moral character than could have been without them, so that we may thank God for the annoyance, the trials, and the opposi- tion, with which we have met. * Most of our colleges had small beginnings and small things often grow to great ones. If we compare our success with that of other colleges similarly situated, the comparison is not an unfavorable one. Some of the influences of a college may be inferred from statistics, others permeate society in a thousand unnoticed ways and effect its minutest parts. The object of a Christian college is to develop the highest type of moral character, to impress the thoughts of our college motto so that it becomes an abiding reality, "all truth leads to God.". . The catalogues for the ten years since the opening of the col- lege department show an average attendance of different students of 210 each year. For the last three years the average has been 248-the num- ber in attendance in each term varying from 90 to 160. An average of not less than 50 students has left us each year-some as graduates, some to study in other colleges, and others to enter upon life-work in the vari- ous branches of business. They have gone out with more culture than they came, and have taken with them some impress from the influences found here. From 40 to 60 students have each year engaged in teaching; some have taught only a single term, others for many years. They have had in the aggregate not less than 1500 pupils under their control or guid- ance each year.
The importance of the influences here cannot be measured by their present immediate effects. They go out through the fifty or sixty teach- ers, and through the increasing number of each year to the 1,500 pupils under their control, and extend to the homes of which these pupils are members. It goes out through the influence of 150 other students to their homes, and to the social circles of which they are members, and in which it is fair to conclude they exert more than the average influence.
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GENERAL PLAN OF THE COLLEGE.
The college embraces the following departments:
1. Collegiate department, including classical, scientific and literary courses, of four years each.
2. Teachers' department, with a two years' course of study.
3. Preparatory department, with 'facilities for fitting for the higher departments.
4. Musical department, embracing a course of study and practice from two to four years.
DEGREES AND DIPLOMAS.
Those who finish the classical course receive the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Those who finish the scientific course, Bachelor of Science. Diplo- mas are given to those who finish either the literary, musical or teacher's course.
LIBRARY.
The college library now numbers over 4,000 volumes, a fair proportion of which are standard and recent works. Arrangements have been made to increase the library every year, and it is to be hoped that it may soon be endowed. All students have access to the library.
MUSEUM AND HERBARIUM.
The museum contains over 9,000 specimens in the departments of zoo- logy, geology and mineralogy, besides numerous curiosities from India and other countries, and relics collected from the American Indians. Ex- tensive collections from the Atlantic, made in connection with the United States Fish Commission, and donations from the Smithsonian Institution of Pacific and British shells, enable the college to present a collection of marine invertebrates rarely excelled, if equalled, west of the Mississippi. A rare opportunity is thus afforded for that acquaintanae with marine life which is so valuable as an introduction to the study of geology and the biological questions of the day.
The geological collections, also, are now quite complete, representing all the prominent formations of this country.
Besides numerous smaller additions, the museum has been increased during the past year by the following donations:
One dozen microscopic slides (histological); a collection of rare Utah and Colorado ores; a collection of valuable New York fossils.
Also, by a loan of the remains of a large American mammoth, which were found at Malvern, Iowa, and have been deposited in the museum by Mr. J. D. Paddock and other citizens of that place.
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Several hundred geological specimens from the surrounding region have also been added to the general collection.
An herbarium, also, of several hundred specimens, has been collected, including tolerably complete collections of ferns from India and the Appa- lachians, algæ from the Atlantic, and the plants of the surrounding region. Quite a collection of woods and fruits has also been made for the illustra- tion of structural botany.
EXCURSIONS.
Excursions form an important part of the instructions in botany, zoology, and geology. For these the vicinity affords such facilities as are not often found in the west. The native flowers of the forest and prairie, of the hills and bottom lands, are easily accessible.
Extensive quarries of the upper carboniferous, not far away illustrate Paleozoic formations, while the deep and extensive beds of the loess or bluff deposit illustrate later formations and furnish excellent opportunities for studying erosion and kindred questions in dynamical geology.
LABORATORY AND APPARATUS.
A laboratory and apparatus for the study of chemistry, with fair oppor- tunities for personal practice have been provided. Apparatus has been obtained sufficient to illustrate the elementary principles of physics and astronomy.
MANUAL LABOR.
The trustees, believing that intellectual vigor is promoted by proper physical culture, desire to encourage manual labor among the students; and while they do not pledge themselves to furnish remunerative labor, yet most of those who have desired such labor have found it in the village.
AID FOR STUDENTS.
An educational society has been formed, which aids worthy students who need it, both gentlemen and ladies, by furnishing loans of money without interest, renting books, and in some cases by donations. The American Educational Society assists those in college who are preparing for the Chistrian ministry.
GENERAL REGULATIONS.
The principal regulations are comprised in the following statement: Students are to observe the common rules of morality; attend chapel prayers, recitations and lectures before students; attend public worship on the Sabbath; observe study hours so as not to interfere with the study
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of others; and select boarding places with the approval of the faculty. Students are not to use intoxicating drinks or tobacco, play at cards, or attend dancing parties; are not to travel on the Sabbath; and are not to visit those of the other sex at their private rooms.
FACULTY.
Rev. Wm. M. Brooks, A. M., president and professor of moral philos- ophy.
L. J. Nettleton, A. M., professor of Latin and Greek languages.
James E. Todd, A. M., professor of natural sciences.
Wm. B. Payne, Ph. D., instructor in chemistry and physical sciences.
Geo. S. Houghton, professor of mathematics and civil engineering. Thomas McClelland, A. M., instructor in Latin and English branches. Helen E. Martin, A. M., principal of ladies' department; instructor in higher English and other branches.
Mrs. Sarah D. Teele, teacher in preparatory department.
Ezra B. Geer, professor of music.
Assistant teacher, Miss Lillie Todd, A. B.
Other assistants will also be employed.
BOARD OF TRUSTEES.
Rev. Wm. M. Brooks, president, Tabor; term expires 1883.
Daniel C. Briggs, Glenwood; term expires 1883.
Lemuel E. Webb, Tabor; term expires 1883.
Alexander C. Gaston, Tabor; term expires 1882. Andrew B. Thornell, Sidney; term expires 1882. Isaac Townshend, Tabor; term expires 1881.
Nathan P. Dodge, Council Bluffs; term expires 1881.
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