USA > Iowa > Linn County > History of Linn County Iowa : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 29
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In the matter of attendance there has been a vast betterment. In 1873 there were 460 boys and 544 girls between the ages of seven and fourteen not in school. In 1909 these numbers were 29 and 17.
The value of school property in 1873 was $240,105; in 1909, $814,300. The value of school apparatus was $2,309.50 in 1873, and in 1909, $20,035.25. There were in 1873 in the school libraries 482 volumes, which was increased to 17,079 in 1909.
There are now between twenty-five and thirty fine school buildings in the country districts. They are modern in all respects, being supplied with slate blackboards, hardwood floors, ventilators, cloak rooms, bookcases and enpboards. Several have furnaces and cloak rooms in the basements. Some of the buildings are supplied with telephones, making it possible for the county superintendent and patrons to communicate direct with the school.
The plans and specifications for these buildings are owned by the county, and are furnished gratis to the school districts wishing to build. All of these school- honses except two or three are not only provided with libraries, cloak rooms, ete .. but are also provided with a good organ.
This year there is being installed a hot air ventilating system which keeps the warm air pure, the cold air being taken directly from the outside and passed through the het air radiators before being allowed to enter the school room.
i
CORNELL COLLEGE IN 1865
CHAPTER XXIII Historical Sketch of Cornell College
BY WILLIAM HARMON NORTON, ALUMNI PROFESSOR OF GEOLOGY, CORNELL COLLEGE
Linn county may well take pride in the history of her oldest school of higher education, founded in 1853, when the county held but 6,000 people. But the beginnings of Cornell College are of more than loeal interest; they are thoroughly typical of America and of the West. Cornell was founded in much the same way as were hundreds of American colleges along the ever advancing frontier of civil- ization from Massachusetts to California - a way which the world had never seen before and will never see again.
THE FOUNDATION AND THE FOUNDER
Cornell owes its inception to a Methodist cireuit rider, the Rev. George B. Bowman, a North Carolinian by birth, who came to Iowa from Missouri in 1841, three years after the territorial organization of the commonwealth. This heroic pioneer, resourceful, far seeing, and sanguine of the future, eminent in initiative and in the power of compelling others to his plans, was one of those rare men to whom the task of building states is intrusted. He was not himself a college man, but with him education was a passion. To found institutions of higher education he considered his special mission. Hardly had he been appointed as pastor of the church at Iowa City in 1841 when he undertook the building of a church school, called Iowa City College. In 1845 Rev. James Harlan, a local preacher of Indiana, was chosen president, and with one assistant opened the school in 1846. The next year Mr. Harlan was elected state superintendent of public instruction, and the college was elosed never to be re-opened. It had. at least served to bring to the state one of its most distinguished citizens, afterward to be honored with the United States senatorship and the secretaryship of the interior. Meanwhile Mr. Bowman had been appointed presiding elder of the Dubuque district, which then included much of east-central Iowa. The failure of the pre- mature attempt at Iowa City had not discouraged him; he awaited the favorable opportunity he still looked for - suitable local conditions for a Christian eollege in the state. It is a long-told legend, even if it be nothing more than legend, that when Elder Bowman came riding on horseback to the Linn Grove cirenit, he stopped on the crest of the lonely hill on which Mount Vernon now stands. From its commanding summit vistas of virgin prairie and primeval forest stretched for ten and twenty miles away. Here there fell upon him, the eirenit preacher, the trance and vision of the prophet. He saw the far-off future; he heard the tramp of the multitudes to come. Dismounting, he kneeled down in the rank prairie grass and in prayer to Almighty God consecrated this hill for all time to the cause of Christian education. And it is a matter of authentic history that in the spring of 1851 Elder Bowman and Rev. Dr. A. J. Kynett, in the parsonage at Mount Vernon, planned together for the early founding and upbuilding of a Christian college on this site.
With the characteristic initiative of the Iowa pioneer, Bowman did not wait for authority to be given him by anybody, for articles of incorporation to be
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drawn up, or even for a title deed to the land on which the college was to stand. Early in 1852 he laid his plans for the launching of the school. On the Fourth of July of this year an educational celebration was held at Mount Vernon, which drew the farmers for miles about the town, and other friends of the new enterprise from Marion and Cedar Rapids, Anamosa, Dubuque, and Burlington. The ora- tion of the day was delivered by State Superintendent Harlan on the theme of Education, and at its elose ground was broken formally for the first building of the college. A month later a deed was obtained for the land and the following September the guardianship of the infant school was aeeepted under the name of the Iowa Conference Seminary, by the Methodist Episcopal church.
In this highly demoeratie manner Cornell College was founded by the people as an institution of higher learning, which should ever be of the people and for the people. It was born on the anniversary of the nations's natal day, and was to remain one of the highest expressions of patriotism and eivie life. Christened by the head of the educational interests of the young commonwealth, supported by its citizens, protected by a eharter from the state, and exempt as a benefieent insti- tution of the state from contributing by taxation to the support of other institu- tions, the college was thus begun as a state sehool in a very real sense.
One ean not read the early archives of the college without the profoundest admiration for the pioneers its founders. Avid of education to a degree pathetic, they depended on no beauroeracy of ehureh or state; they waited for no foreign philanthropy to supply their educational needs. They laid the foundations of their colleges with the same free, independent, self-suffieing spirit with which they laid their hearthstones, and they laid both at the same time.
THE IOWA CONFERENCE SEMINARY
In January. 1853, the first meeting of the board of trustees was held, and in the fall of the same year the school was opened in the old Methodist church at Mount Vernon. Before the end of the term a new edifiee on the eampus was so far completed that it was available for school purposes and "on the morning of November 14, 1853, the school met for the last time in the old church and after singing and prayer the students were formed in line and walked in procession with banners flying, led by the teachers, through the village, and took formal possession of what was then declared to be a large and commodious building."*
The first eatalog - a little time-stained pamphlet of fifteen pages - lists the following faculty :
Rev. Samuel M. Fellows, A. M., professor of mental and moral seience and belle lettres.
Rev. David HI. Wheeler, professor of languages.
Miss Catherine A. Fortner, preeeptress
Miss Sarah L. Matson, assistant.
Mrs. Olive P. Fellows, teacher of painting and embroidery.
Mrs. Sophia E. Wheeler, teacher of instrumental musie.
The first board of trustees is also noteworthy :
Rev. George B. Bowman, president, Mount Vernon ; E. D. Waln, Esq., seere- tary, Mount Vernon ; Rev. II. W. Reed. Centerville; Rev. E. W. Twining, Iowa City ; Rev. J. B. Taylor, Mount Vernon ; Jesse Holman, North Sugar Grove ; Henry Kepler, North Sugar Grove; William Hayzlett, Mount Vernon; A. I. Willits. Mount Vernon.
The roster of students enrolls 104 gentlemen, and 57 ladies. Among them are familiar and honored names, some of which are to reappear in all later catalogs of the school, either as students of the second and third generation, or as trustees and members of faculty. Four Righys, for example, were students in 1853. In
* Rev. Dr. S. N. Fellows, A Record of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Cornell College, p. 91.
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1910 the eatalog lists three Rigbys, one a student and two members of the faculty. The first eatalog contains the names of no less than nine Keplers as students, six stalwart young men from North Sugar Grove and their three sisters. Four Walns are enrolled from Mount Vernon, two Farleys from Dubuque and two Reeders from Red Oak.
In 1853 the population of the entire state was only about 300,000. Not a rail- way had been projected west of the Mississippi river. And yet the seattered set- tlements sent across the unbroken prairie and the unbridged rivers no less than 161 students to the young school on this the first year of its existenee. The most important route to Mount Vernon was the military road extending from Dubuque to Iowa City. Both towns contributed their quota of students, Dubuque sending no less than twelve, although the entire population of Dubuque eounty was then, less than 16,000. Considering the difficulty of communications, the poverty of the pioneers, the wide extent of the sphere of influence of the school is remarkable. Students were drawn this first year from as far to the northeast as Elkader and Garnavillo. They came from Dyersville and Independenee, from Quasqueton and Vinton, from Marengo, Columbus City, West Liberty, and Burlington. Mus- eatine alone sent seven students. This town was at the time the point of supply for Mount Vernon, and the materials for the first building of the college except such as loeal saw mills and brick kilns eould supply were hauled from that river port .* Students came also from Davenport, Le Claire, Princeton, and Blue Grass in Scott county, from Comanche, and from the pioneer settlements of La Motte and Canton in Jackson county. The eight hundred students of Cornell today reach the school from all parts of the state and the adjacent portions of our neighboring states by a few hours swift and comfortable ride by rail. But who shall picture in detail the long and adventurous journeys in ox cart and pioneer wagon and perchance often on foot of the boys and girls of 1853 - the elimbing of steep hills, the fording of rivers, the miring in abysmal sloughs, the suecession of mile after mile of undulating treeless prairie carpeted with gorgeous flowers stretehing unbroken to the horizon, the camp at night illuminated by distant prairie fires, until at last a boat shaped hill surmounted by a lonely red brick building lifts itself above the horizon, and the goal of the long journey is in view !
No doubt there were other hardships awaiting these students after their ar- rival. Rule No. 1 of the new school compelled their rising at five o'clock in the morning. They were expected to furnish their own beds, lights, mirrors, etc., when boarding in Seminary Hall. It is interesting to note that they paid for tuition $4.00 and $5.00 per quarter, and for board from $1.50 to $1.75 per week. The next year the steward's petition to the board of trustees that he be allowed to put three students in each of the little rooms was granted with the proviso "that he furnish suitable bunks for the same." The catalog's statement regard- ing apparatus is a guarded one: "The Institution is furnished with apparatus for illustrating some of the most important principles of Natural Science. As the wants of school demand, additions will be made to this apparatus." And that regarding the library is wholly prophetic: "It is intended to procure a good selection of readable and instructive books, by the commencement of the next academic year, to which the students will have access at a trifling expense. With these books as a nucleus, a good library will be accumulated as rapidly as possible. Donations of good books are solicited from friends of the institution." In the next eatalog it is stated that "a small but good selection of readable and instruc- tive books has been procured," the remainder of the statement being the same
* The pioneer settlements about Mount Vernon had sent several flat boats down the Cedar and Mississippi to New Orleans with cargoes of wheat, corn and potatoes. With the proceeds of sale of boats and cargo, sugar, molasses and other goods were purchased and shipped by steamers to Muscatine. Col. Robt. Smyth was one of those who thus made the voyage from Stony Point, three miles south of Mount Vernon, to New Orleans.
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as that of the first year. This statement appeared without change in all succeed- ing catalogs during the remainder of the first decade.
THE FIRST DECADE
As early as 1855 the articles of incorporation were amended changing the name of the institution to Cornell College, in honor of W. W. Cornell and his brother J. B. Cornell, of New York City, men prominent in business and widely known for their benevolences to various enterprises of the church. It will be noted that Cornell College was thus named several years before the founding by Ezra Cornell, of Cornell University at Ithaca, N. Y.
The first year of the sehool under the new collegiate régime was that of 1857- 1858. Rev. R. W. Keeler of the Upper lowa Conference was made president, Principal Fellows of the Seminary taking the professorship of Latin. Two years later President Keeler reentered the more congenial work of the ministry, and Principal Fellows was elected president of the college, a position which he held most acceptably until his death on the day after commencement June 26, 1863. thus completing a full decade of years of service in the school.
President Fellows had come to Cornell from the Rock River Seminary at. Mount Morris. His character and the quality of his work left lasting impressions on his pupils at both institutions. Thus Hon. Robert R. Hitt, of Illinois, writes of him as follows: "Ile was a diligent, aente, and active student, and his personal character was admirable. It is the fortune of few men to exercise so wide and prominent an influence from a position which, to the ambitions, is not considered eminent." And Senator Shelby M. Cullom has written: "I regard Professor Fellows as one of the best men I ever knew. I said it when I was under him at school, and now that I am over seventy years of age, I say it now. He was strong. honest-hearted, full of kindness, and a splendid teacher."
His colleague at Cornell, Dr. David H. Wheeler, described him as "a man sweet-spirited, pure-minded. of fine executive ability, a rarely qualified teacher, a patient sufferer, a tireless worker, a model friend."
A word may be said as to the members of President Fellows's faculty :
Miss Catharine A. Fortner, a graduate of Cazenovia Seminary, N. Y., was sent ont in 1851 by Governor Slade. of Vermont. as a missionary teacher to Iowa. Her sneeess near Tipton was so marked that she was chosen as the first preceptress of the institution. In 1857 she resigned to marry Rev. Rufus Ricker, of the Upper Iowa Conference.
Wm. H. Barnes, professor of languages in 1854-1855, resigned to accept a professorship in Baldwin University, Ohio, and is known as anthor of several works in history and politics.
His sneeessor, Rev. B. W. Smith, after leaving the school in 1857 became pas- tor of several of the largest churches in northern Indiana, and president of Val- paraiso College.
Dr. David H. Wheeler, professor of languages in 1853-1854, and professor of Greek from 1857 to 1861, when he was appointed U. S. consul to Genoa, was a brilliant and versatile man, anthor of a number of books. professor for eight years at Northwestern University, editor for eight years of the New York Metho- dist, and for nine years president of Allegheny College.
The brother of President Fellows. Dr. Stephen N. Fellows, has a large place in the educational history of Iowa. He assisted his brother in laying the foundation of Cornell College, being professor of mathematies from 1854 to 1860, and later occupied the chair of mental and moral science and didaeties at the State Uni- versity of lowa for twenty years.
On account of her long connection with the college, from 1857 to 1890. Miss Harriette J .Cooke exerted a more potent influence on the institution than any
A STREET SCENE IN MARION
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THE DANIELS HOTEL, MARION
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of her colleagues of the first decade. Miss Cooke came to Cornell from Hopkinton, Massachusetts, and brought the best culture for women which New England then afforded, as well as an exceptionally forceful personality, and rare natural apti- tndes for her profession. From 1860 to the time of her resignation she was dean of women, and her influence for good on the thousands of young women under her care is incalculable. After long service as an instructor she was made a full professor in 1871, the first woman in America, it has been said, to be thus honored. Her chair for fifteen years was history and German, and after 1886 history and the science of government. On leaving the college she studied the methods of deaconess work in England, wrote a book upon the subject, and returning to her native land became one of the leaders in this new department of social service. For many years she has been closely connected with the University Settlement of Boston. On the recent celebration of her eightieth birthday she received hundreds of letters of loving congratulation from her former students of Cornell, and each of these letters was answered by her painstakingly and at length.
The first ten years of the institution were marked by a singularly rapid growth, considering the fact that they included the darkest days of the Civil war, when nearly every male student was drawn from the college halls to the service of his country. At the end of the decade the faculty numbered eight professors and instructors, and 375 students were enrolled, fifty-one of whom were in college classes, the largest enrollment of collegiate students in the state, unless at the State University. The assets of the institution amounted to $50,000 in notes and pledges, a campus of fifteen acres, and two brick buildings which compared not unfavorably with other college buildings in the west and with the earlier halls of Harvard.
In a large measure this exceptional growth was due to Elder Bowman, to his initiative and wide and powerful influence. The chief problem then as now was one of sustenance, and as a college beggar Bowman was incomparable. He trav- elled over the settled portions of the state, winning men to his cause by a singular personal charm, and enticing even out of poverty money, promissory notes at altitudinons rates of interest, farm produce, live stock and poultry, household furniture and jewelry. His barnyard at Mount Vernon was continually stocked with horses, cattle, and chickens - votive offerings to the cause of higher educa- tion. A citizen of the town once told me how under some mesmeric influence he bought at high price from Elder Bowman an old book case and coal seuttle, begged somewhere for the school. This prince of college beggars once returned from Dubuque with a silver watch which he had plundered off the person of an eminent minister of that city.
FROM 1863 TO 1910-GROWTH IN RESOURCES
Nothing is so tame as the history of a college once the interesting period of its childhood is over, and the history of Cornell is exceptionally uneventful among colleges. No building has been destroyed by fire or tornado. No famous lawsuit against the school has been defended by some Webster among the alumni. None of the faculty has won notoriety by sensational speech or erratic morals.
The salient feature of the forty-seven years since 1863 is a marvelous growth unparalleled in some respects in the history of education. The campus has been enlarged by addition after addition until now it measures sixty acres, including the larger part of the long hill and wide athletic fields along its northern base. To the two first buildings, still used, one for the chemical, biological and physical laboratories and the other for class rooms and society halls, there have been added South Hall, built in 1873 and now used for the engineering and geological labora- tories; the Chapel, completed in 1882, a stately Gothic structure of stone, con- taining the auditorium, seating about 1,500, a smaller audience room, the museum,
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and several music rooms; Bowman Hall, built in 1885, as the well appointed home of ninety-two young women; the library dedicated in 1905, the gift of Andrew Carnegie ; the alumni gymnasium in Ash Park, built in 1909, a noble structure, one of the largest of the kind in the state, besides several minor buildings used for allied schools and professors's residences
The material equipment has made a phenomenal growth, until several of the scientific laboratories are reckoned among the best in the Central West, and the library, numbering 35,000 volumes, ranks as third in size among the university and college libraries in the state, and second to but one of the city libraries of lowa. The museum includes several collections which rank among the largest in the west : the Kendig collection of minerals, the Norton collection of fossils, and the Powers collection in American anthropology.
GROWTH IN ATTENDANCE
From the beginning Cornell has been a relatively large sehool measured by the number of its students, and its growth the last decades forbids it longer to be called a small college. Indeed, for many years it has maintained its place as the largest denominational college, or among the two or three largest, in the United States west of the Great Lakes, reckoned by the number of students of collegiate rank. The attendance has steadily risen until, in 1909-1910, 741 students were enrolled, 450 of them being in the college of liberal arts. The steady growth in numbers of collegiate students evidences the satisfaction which the school has given to its patrons, and an ever widening influence and power. Moreover, it has increased the efficiency of the school by the inspiration of numbers and the intensity of competition in all departments of college life. By bringing together students from all parts of the state and scores from other states, some with the polish of the city and others with the sturdy strength of the country, it has escaped the narrowness of the provincial and has attained something akin to cosmopolitan- isın.
To make Cornell an institution state-wide in its patronage and influence was the evident purpose of its founders. Nothing was further from their minds than a local college for the students of a town or county, or one drawing its patronage from a few contiguous counties. The trustees have been chosen widely over the state and the attendance from all parts of Iowa has been surprisingly large, con- sidering the many excellent colleges the state supports. In an investigation made a few years since of the geographie distribution of the students it was found that 41 per cent of the collegiate students came from beyond the borders of the patron- izing conference, and the counties west and south of the Des Moines river furn- ished 20 per cent of the students in attendance from the state. The college has thus grown to have a state-wide field.
THE STRATEGIC POSITION
In explaining the growth of Cornell college we must recognize, of course, that it has grown up with the country. We must relate the growth of the school di- reetly to the material prosperity of this land of corn and swine, to the marvel- ously fertile soil and to the era of expansion in which our history falls. The fact remains, however, that the college has obtained somehow a good deal more than its dne share in the general advance. While the population of the state inereased 330 per cent from 1860 to 1900, the collegiate attendance at Cornell increased 720 per cent. The college has grown more than twice as fast as has the state, and that notwithstanding the numerous good schools which have sprung up to share its patronage.
We can not doubt that much of the success of the school has been due to its strategie position. It is located in a suburban town of the chief railway center of
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eastern Iowa. From Cedar Rapids long iron ways, like the spokes of a wheel, reach in all directions to the limits of the state and beyond, and bring every por- tion of the commonwealth and the adjacent parts of our neighboring states within a few hours ride of Cornell college. It is located also in east Central Iowa, an area of the state the first to be settled and developed, an area surpassed by none in the fertility of its soils, and the wealth which has been produced from them. To these geographic factors, advantages shared in like degree by none of the early competitors of the school, we may assign a place similar to that given such factors in explaining the growth of New York city and of Pittsburg.
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