USA > Iowa > Linn County > History of Linn County Iowa : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 32
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This most generous aet of Mr. Coe reveals the large and unselfish character of the man and declares the nobility of his motive to promote the cause of high christian education in the west.
This act of Mr. Coe also gave great encouragement to the board of trustees of the seminary to proceed in their work, and they proceeded vigorously to raise what must in those days have been a considerable sum of money, for the purpose of ereeting a suitable building for college purposes upon the edge of the eighty acre plot nearest to the town. The two town lots which had originally been pur- chased for the location of the school building were sold to the trustees of the First Presbyterian church, to become the site of a house of worship, which build- ing was erected by them in 1869, and still stands a substantial edifice of stone. facing the public square long known as Washington Park, now George Greene Square.
The ways and means and plans for this new building occupied the attention of the board for many meetings during the years 1867 and 1868. and the work was pushed with all vigor to enable the trustees to open their seminary in the new building in the fall of 1868.
Meanwhile, the school work was inaugurated, pending the erection of the building on the college grounds, in the Wadsworth block, a row of unpretentious buildings resembling a barracks, on Second street and Fifth avenue, in the school year 1867-8. The principal of this school was the Rev. A. B. Goodale, a Presby- terian clergyman who survived in southern California until a few years ago.
Mr. Charles J. Deacon, our highly esteemed and greatly respected follow citi- zen, who has spent a long and useful life among us, as an attorney, and who has been for several years a most valuable trustee of Coe College, was one of the first students of Parsons Seminary, and he has furnished us the following remin- iseences which we gladly incorporate in this historical sketch :
"I came to Cedar Rapids and enrolled as a student in Parsons Seminary early in September, 1868. The school had been in progress under that name for a year previons, but then for the first time entered into the new building. now the west half of the main building of Coe college. This school was then prosperous and the body of students very enthusiastic. Dr. A. B. Goodale was the principal and Prof. Augustus Maasburg was the professor of Latin. Greek. French, and German. Miss A. D. Kelsey, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke, and a most estimable lady, had charge of the primary department, and also taught many of the classes in mathematics, and had charge of the botany class. Miss Lindsay, a sister of Mrs. Goodale, taught painting and drawing. A few weeks after the school opened. Professor and Madame Masurier came, and Professor Masurier took charge of the music, and Mme. Masurier was given the care of the French class. I romem- ber also that Miss Addie Goodell. now Mrs. Birdsall, of Lake City, lowa, was a stu-
MAIN STREET FROM THE NORTH, FAIRFAX
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MAIN STREET LOOKING WEST, CENTRAL CITY
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dent in the seminary, and it became necessary to have an assistant in the primary department, and she was employed in that capacity.
"At the beginning of the year 1868-1869 the school numbered over one hun- dred students. They were, of course, largely from the city of Cedar Rapids, but they came also from the surrounding towns of Fairfax, Springville, Center Point, Central City, and some from the farms within a few miles of the city. They came also from Vinton and Marengo, and some from more distant portions of the state, and I remember two from the state of Illinois, and one from Nebraska.
"The school year was divided into four terms of ten weeks each, the tuition being $7.50 per term. I remember there was some falling off in the attendance at the close of the second term in mid-winter. In the spring we were told that Dr. Goodale would have an assistant in the person of Mr. J. W. Stephens. When he came he was introduced to us by Dr. Goodale as his assistant, but it soon developed that he was the principal of the seminary, Doctor Goodale having about that time accepted the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Marshalltown. The attend- ance at the spring term under the conduct of Dr. Stephens was much smaller than in the fall, but the school continued until the 20th of June, when it closed for the summer vacation. It issued a catalogue as it had the previous year and an- nounced the opening for the following September.
"I returned to the school in the fall when it opened for the third year, being the second year in the new building, and found many of the old students. The school, however, was much smaller than at the opening of the previous year. It also dwindled very much during the year, and when we closed in June, 1870, my recollection is that it numbered about forty students. Mr. Stephens announced that it would be continued, however, and the school opened again in the September following. I did not return to the school, but went to the State University of Iowa. Mr. Stephens continued the school until the following spring, and then elosed it. [We understand that Mr. Stephens is still living in connection with Park College, Mo.]
"One thing that is quite clearly impressed upon my memory is the meeting of the Synod of Iowa, North, in this city in the late winter or early spring of 1869. The application of the Parsons legacy and the endowment of the college was then a very prominent question in Presbyterian circles. Cedar Rapids was a most prominent applicant for the location of the college to be thus endowed, and the seminary had been named Parsons Seminary with a view to attracting that legacy here. A large representation of the synod visited the college at the time I speak of and addressed the students. Amongst others, I remember Doctor Spees, then of Dubuque; the Rev. Samuel Howe, and Mr. Alexander Danskin, of Marengo. They said to us that we were now a college, that whereas yesterday we were a seminary, today we were a college. There was much enthusiasm mani- fested among us by this statement, and we all felt satisfied that the matter had been practically settled. Subsequent facts proved that their statement was a little premature.
"Another thing that comes to my recollection is the visit of the committee to locate the Parsons legacy in the spring of 1870. This committee was headed by Doctor Craig, then pastor of the church at Keokuk, now of McCormick Semin- ary, Chicago. The committee made a very thorough examination of the buildings and of the grounds and of the location generally. I distinctly recall their walk- ing over the grounds. The trustees of the seminary, being informed in advance of the coming of this committee, were preparing to ereate a good impression. A few days before their expected arrival. the ground, which had been leveled off in front of the college, and which consisted of coarse sand, was ornamented by some fifty or sixty evergreen trees, and a large amount of black dirt was hauled in upon the sand with the expectation of spreading it over the sand to present a surface of good soil with a large number of evergreen trees set out in an ornamen-
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tal order. Unfortunately, however, the committee arrived earlier than was an- tieipated and the black dirt had not been spread over the sand. To render the situation still worse, a high wind was blowing the day the committee were here and the sand was drifting over the dirt piles and filling up against the lower board of the fence. What the effect of this was upon the committee I have no means of judging. It is, however, interesting to notice that the Parsons legacy never came to Cedar Rapids.
"I eould mention many names of Cedar Rapids citizens who as boys attended school at Parsons Seminary during those early years. Mr. C. C. Greene, Mr. John S. Ely, Mr. George B. Douglas, were all there with me. Mr. George W. Winn, also a trustee, used to go there for private lessons in German from Professor Maasburg. Mr. C. L. Miller, of the Gazette, Emery and Harry Brown, and Elmer Higley are names that also occur to me readily. I eould mention, likewise. many ladies who studied there in those early years. The Rev. Alexander Dans- kin. editor of one of our church papers at Detroit, Michigan, was a student there at that time, afterwards graduating from Wabash College; also the Rev. R. M. L. Braden, who likewise went to Wabash College.
"These are a few of the things that come to my mind as I review my two years in Parsons Seminary."
It can easily be read between the lines of Mr. Deacon's reminiseenees that Par- sons Seminary. however enthusiastic its support was at the beginning, did not continue by any means to be an entire success. We must look for the explanation of this very largely to its lack of financial resources. It was living largely on hopes, and hopes that were not destined to be realized. Mr. Coe's donation, lying in the eighty acres of land, was utterly unproductive of a revenue, and the Par- sons legacy, which consisted of four thousand acres of wild lands in various coun- ties in Iowa, had not yet been located in Cedar Rapids, but was hovering in the air as a glittering object which several localities in the state were reaching out to obtain.
It would be an interesting and instructive pursuit to trace the history of this legaey both within the Presbyterian synod of Iowa and within the various cities of the state which made bids for its attainment. The story, as far as Cedar Rapids is concerned, is one of bright hopes, earnest aspiration, valiant endeavor and achievement, to be followed by severe disappointment and bitter regret. The citizens of this city went heroieally to work to raise the sum of $75,000 to be sub- seribed and added to the Parsons legacy [then estimated to be of the value of $50,000], and this again to be added to the Coe donation of eighty acres of land, which were continually inereasing in value through the growth of the city of Cedar Rapids. These three sums, when added together. would furnish, it was intelligently felt, a very substantial endowment as the beginning of a college. We have often been told that when this campaign for the raising of the $75,000 had been successfully completed, there was such a general jubilee in our city that instinctively in demonstration thereof the whistles of the locomotives and manufacturing establishments were merrily blown. But all these plans went agley. Although committees from the synods of Iowa had presented unanimous reports recommending that the Parsons legacy be located at Cedar Rapids. it was eventually taken to Fairfield to found Parsons College. The fund of $75,000 which was raised in Cedar Rapids fell to the ground because of the failure to meet its vital condition of the bringing of the Parsons legacy here. and so, onee more, all that was left for us was Mr. Coe's donation of the eighty acre plot and the indomitable spirit of a few of the citizens of Cedar Rapids to plant in our city an institution of higher learning in connection with the Presbyterian church.
It is idle at this late date to discuss the wisdom or the folly of those men in the synod who were responsible for this result. It were wholly unproductive to
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speculate what might have been accomplished by the union of all our educational forces here in Cedar Rapids. What is written is written, what is done is an ac- complished fact. Presbyterians are not in the habit of quarreling with Divine Providence, but are the rather given to rejoicing in the sovereignty of God. It is quite conceivable that results already visible can give occasion for gratitude that we have now the two colleges, Coe and Parsons, instead of but one, as was once so ardently hoped for here at Cedar Rapids. If anyone in the years between 1870 and 1873 made an error in judgment in objecting to the merger, the only way to rectify it now is by pressing all the more for the promoting of the endowment and the buildings of both the colleges, the one at Fairfield, and the one at Cedar Rapids.
But the facts are that through the force of circumstances, the school at Cedar Rapids was obliged to suspend its work, and little or nothing was done in the building erected in 1868 from 1871 to 1875. Then for the third time, and under new auspices, was the work begun afresh, and it took place on this wise: On the 26th of April, 1875, the trustees of Parsons Seminary held a meeting, at which meeting a committee of the Presbytery of Cedar Rapids was present for the pur- pose of consulting with the board to the end that the seminary building and the Coe legacy located at Cedar Rapids might be made available for the establishment of a school of a high order under the care of the said Presbytery. This committee had been appointed by the Presbytery at its session at Anamosa April 24, 1875, and they presented to the board of trustees of Parsons Seminary a formal report in writing, which expressed the readiness of the Presbytery to undertake the care of the school at Cedar Rapids on condition that all its debts be cancelled, and its charter be so amended as to give to the Presbytery the power to appoint its board of trustees. The Presbytery also pledged itself to do all in its power to maintain the school and open it in the school building by the 1st of October, 1875. The board of trustees consented to the proposition of the Presbytery and resolved to change the name of the institution from Parsons Seminary to Coe Collegiate In- stitute. The articles of incorporation of Parsons Seminary, which had been adopted October 30. 1866, were amended May 11, 1875, to meet the new conditions. The board of trustees was fixed at the number of eighteen, and the power to elect them was vested in the Presbytery of Cedar Rapids, or in the synod of Iowa North, if the said synod shall assume such power with the consent of said Presbytery. The first election was appointed to take place in the fall of the year 1876.
Mr. Daniel Coe had passed from earth in the interval between December 23, 1866, when he deeded the eighty acres of land in Cedar Rapids to Parsons Semin- ary, and this date in 1875, when these new relations with the seminary were en- tered into. He left a daughter, an only child, who had become the wife of Mr. J. E. Jewell. This daughter, Mr. Coe's sole heir at law, with her husband, entered in a very friendly manner and measure into the new plans of the institution, and nobly agreed to permit the school to avail itself under certain conditions well understood and agreed to, of the advantages accruing from the revenues of the property.
On the 21st of September, 1875, it was announced at a meeting of the trustees of Coe Collegiate Institute that correspondence had been conducted with the Rev. R. A. Condit with a view to his being made principal of the school. Mr. Condit was then elected to that office. This event marks the entrance into the work of Coe College of a personality of rare value in himself and of rare value to the institution of learning which he served most faithfully for a period of thirty years after his appointment in 1875. Robert Aaron Condit was a man of sweet spirit and gentle demeanor ; he was a christian and a scholar. No one ever doubted his piety or his moral integrity. The students who for a whole generation passed under his care all loved him because he loved them, and was himself so lovable. His influence upon them was mild, but effective, and we venture to say without
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fear of contradiction, that all the alumni of Coe College who knew him as their preceptor recognize the l'act with gratitude that they are better persons for having known him. In the weak and struggling days of Coe Collegiate Institute before it emerged into its present larger, stronger growth, as Coe College, Robert Condit was a factor peculiarly fitted for the task providentially laid upon him, and his full value to the college can scareely be over-estimated or even stated sufficiently.
On the 8th of March, 1876, Prof. J. W. Mebaury was employed to assist Mr. Condit in the school, his salary being raised by voluntary subseriptions. Mr. MeLaury's services, though valuable, were not long retained by the institution.
At the meeting of the board held December 28, 1876, the report of the election of the trustees by the Presbytery October 4, 1876, was made, as directed by the charter. And at the same meeting the following officers of the board were chosen : Hon. George Greene, president; Thomas M. Sinclair, vice president; D. W. C. Rowley, secretary; George W. Winn, treasurer. It was at this meeting that the present writer took his seat with his brethren for the first time as an officially aceredited member of the board. And it is a matter of grateful, tender recollec- tion to him, that he has remained to this day in unbroken relation with the insti- tution in all possible varieties of official position and duties upon its manifold committees. And it is a solemn recollection with him that he alone remains on the board of all those who have served with him for thirty-four years.
He can well remember the tone and atmosphere of the meetings of the board, which he was then called upon to attend. It was truly a day of small things. The meetings were frequent and they were often lengthy, and we must truly say they were usually dreary, and we went from them with depressed hearts. For the questions for disenssion were mostly, not how to promote high christian learning, but how to pay the debts of Parsons Seminary. And the problem was, how to pay something with nothing. There were notes at two of the leading banks of the city, notes which were increasing fearfully by the compounding of interest at ten per cent, and there were notes held by individuals who had loaned money to the seminary, there were mechanic's liens of sums unpaid in the erection of the build- ing put up in 1867-8, and to meet these obligations there was nothing in sight. For all moneys that found their way into the treasury were needed, and more than needed, to pay current bills to teachers, heating and lighting bills and such minor fees. We remember that our treasurer was onee garnisheed by the brother of one of our teachers for the payment of his sister's salary, and some sort of compromise settlement was effected.
We have not a thought or word of disparagement concerning any member of the board at that time. But it would have required men of heroic mold and prophetic vision to face those problems. The president of the board, the Hon. George Greene, a name never to be mentioned in this city without a tribute of re- speet, was deeply immersed in his own private interests and was compelled to be absent from home a great part of the time. Soon after the date of which we speak, he insisted upon pressing his resignation as president of the board. Other prominent business and professional men on the board were also engrossed in large personal interests. The ministers on the board, however valuable though they may have been for counsel concerning educational questions, were quite help- less in grappling with the financial problems which from necessity were uppermost.
The Rev. James Knox had passed from earth October 10, 1875, after having contributed valuable services to the college during the eleven years of his pastorate in this city. We here insert the following tribute to Mr. Knox, which was pre- sented at a meeting of the board of trustees March 8, 1876, and was adopted, all the members present standing :
"In the providence of God the Rev. James Knox, former vice president of this board, having been removed by death we take this opportunity to record our testi-
Born in Scotland Ju6.10.1\03.
DIED ..
July 25.156-1.
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REV. J. B. ALBROOK, D. D.
AN OLD GRAVE AT SPRINGVILLE
PROF. HARRIETTE J. COOK
MRS. MARGARET McKELL KING
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mony to his exceeding worth as a man and his wisdom and faithfulness as a min- ister of the gospel, and to his great devotion and usefulness to this institution, having been connected with it from its earliest days, and having given to it his best strength and ability for many years, and his very latest prayers. We feel that his place cannot easily be filled and that in him the college has lost one of its truest and best friends."
There was one notable exception to all these. One personality stands out from the midst of his brethren and to him more than to any other element at this eritical period of the history of Coe College do we attribute the fact that we have a college today, and one with such promise and potency. We refer to Mr. Thomas M. Sinelair. Mr. Sinclair had come to Cedar Rapids in 1871 a young man not quite thirty years of age. He was pursuing a large manufacturing business, that of pork packing, with rare energy and intelligence, and with great success. He was making money, and his great desire and single aim was to use this money with a keen sense of responsibility to God and usefulness to his fellow men. He was a man of rare christian character, one among ten thousand. It may truly be said of him that he walked with God. Coming into this young country from the older world, he took a most keenly aetive interest in all things that pertained to its welfare, and it was a fortunate thing for Coe College that he eame to Cedar Rap- ids at such a time as he did. The cause of christian education was one of his most treasured conceptions of opportunity, and he identified himself with the rep- resentative of that cause which he providentially found to his hand in this strug- gling institution.
Seeing the imperative need of relief from debt which Coe Collegiate Institute manifested, he determined in the nobility of his heart that he would pay out of his own pocket sneh obligations, principal and interest, as lay against the institu- tion, although they amounted to several thousand dollars. And this he gladly did in all such cases as he could not induce those who owned these obligations to cancel them themselves. And thus it eame about one happy day that he could deelare the college was actually free from all such inenmbranees. Then he and several of his colleagues, inspired with new hope and courage, and determined to launch the institution upon broader and deeper waters, went before the synod of Iowa North, which met at Waterloo, Iowa, in October, 1880, and asked the synod to assume the care and control of the Institute, free from debt, and possessed of a building, and of eighty aeres of land in the city of Cedar Rapids. The synod accepted the proposition, and steps were taken at onee to frame articles of incor- poration of a new organization to be called Coe College. The articles were filed for record on the 16th day of April, 1881. Proper deeds were drawn and filed for record which conveyed to Coe College all the properties owned by Cedar Rap- ids Collegiate Institute, Parsons Seminary, and Coe Collegiate Institute, and thus · the line of inheritance and descent was duly established. In these negotiations relating to the transference of the property through the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Jewell, negotiations which required great care in the handling. the valuable ser- viees of Mr. A. V. Eastman should be mentioned. Mr. Eastman served the college most valuably for several years at this period as its secretary. He subsequently removed from Cedar Rapids to St. Paul, Minn., and still later to St. Charles, La., where he died most suddenly several years ago.
We have now emerged with our history from the intricacies of a somewhat tortuous channel, and we have passed out from shoals and shallows to enter upon elearer, deeper, broader waters. Henceforth we are to pursue the story of the institution known as Coe College, which, with devions fortunes, but with percep- tibly inereasing volume, has been filling its place and doing its work under the charter prepared in 1881. Certain changes have been made to this charter,
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more or less important, but Coe College is the same institution, conducted by the same incorporation from 1881 to the present time.
The first item which we are called upon to record at this period of the history of our college, is the lamentable death of Mr. Thomas M. Sinclair, which occurred on the 24th day of March, 1881. The circumstances were peculiarly startling. By an accident he fell through an open hatchway in his own packing house and never recovered consciousness, although he continued to breathe for several hours. We can never forget our emotions over this event. It was truly an inserntable Providence. Mr. Sinelair was at that time a young man, full of vigor and energy. Ile was a pillar of strength upon whom many leaned. He had done so much to bring the college up to this point of its new beginning that both he and we were looking forward with desire and delight to what might he accomplished through his co-operation. But it was willed otherwise. We cannot interpret the event, but may we not even now at this comparatively far removed time from its occurrence use it in memory of him for the greater glory of God and increase of the college. "He being dead, yet speaketh."
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