USA > Kansas > A standard history of Kansas and Kansans, Volume II > Part 49
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Both President Morrison and Dean Isely died in 1907. Dr. Henry E.
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Thayer succeeded Doctor Morrison as president and Dr. S. S. Kings- bury became dean. Doctor Thayer resigned in 1914 and Dr. Walter H. Rollins, a Dartmouth man, became president. He is now at the head of that institution. Arthur J. Hoare, professor of mathematics, is dean of Fairmount College, and Miss Flora C. Clough, head of the literature department, is dean of the women.
The college has a campus of twenty acres surrounding the main building. In addition to the administration building, which was the one erected in the '80s there are five other buildings belonging to the college. These include two dormitories, the president's house, Morri- son Library, and a gymnasium. A large athletic field is near the gymnasium.
Fairmount is noted for its democracy. Many of its students sup- port themselves while obtaining their education, social fraternities are not permitted, and vocational training is a leading feature of the curriculum.
The Morrison Library at Fairmount, built from a bequest of $40,000 from the Carnegie Fund, already contains 36,000 bound volumes. Plans are now on foot to establish a large endowment fund by 1920, which year will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the college. Graduates from Fairmount are admitted without examination to the best graduate schools of the United States.
MT. ST. SCHOLASTICA
The academy stands on an imposing elevation about one mile south from the business section of Atchison, and the other buildings are located on the eastern side of a thirty-eight acre tract of woodland and meadow, fronting upon a broad and terraced lawn. An extensive campus affords excellent facilities for out-door exercise. Part of the laud is devoted to the culture of fruit and vegetables for the use of the institution. The buildings consist of the convent, academy and music hall, laundry, bakery, greenhouse, poultry house and a power and heating plant. A few yards distant from this latter is a two-story brick residence for the male employes of the institute. China kiln and various minor buildings form necessary adjuncts.
The purpose of Mt. St. Scholastica is the training of young ladies with a view to forming them into practical, virtuous, Christian women, and its courses of study embrace all the modern branches, both useful and ornamental, such as drawing, painting, music, needlework, stenog- raphy, typewriting, bookkeeping, the regular common studies and the classics. The ages of the pupils range from six to sixteen. Although Mt. St. Scholastica is pre-eminently a Catholic institution, it is not sec- tarian.
Mt. St. Scholastica Academy was founded in 1863 by Benedictine Sisters of St. Cloud, Minnesota, who, in answer to the request of Rev. Augustine Wirth, then pastor of St. Benedict's Church, were sent to
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Atchison to establish a house of the Order for the education of girls. The Sisters were seven in number with Rev. Mother Evangelista Krem- eter as superior. They arrived in Atchison November 11, 1863, and at once took up their abode in the little convent which had been prepared for them. This was a neat two and one half brick structure and was erected by the pastor and parish; the Sisters, however, to assume the debt and the building to be used for educational purposes. It stood at the corner of Second and Division, near St. Benedict's Church. School opened December 1, 1863, with a single boarding pupil, but a good day school. Before the year ended there were eleven boarders.
For the lack of teachers the course was limited to the common school or grade studies until 1866. In the spring of this year Sister Augustine Short of St. Mary's, Elk County, Pennsylvania, was sent out to help the Atchison foundation. Sister Augustine, aided by Miss Horgan, a grad- uate of Notre Dame, Indiana, who was hired for the purpose, began a partial high school course.
In 1865 a school for boys was opened, a room in the convent being devoted to that purpose, and in the following year a building was pro- cured for the first of the parochial schools, attended by both sexes which are conducted by the Sisters of Mt. St. Scholastica in different parts of the country. The first mission school was begun in September, 1876.
On March 19, 1873, Mt. St. Scholastica was incorporated under the laws of Kansas and with its present title and purpose, viz., the train- ing and education of youth. The first body of directors was composed of seven members, as follows: Mother Evangelista, president; and Sis- ters Gregoria Moser, Gertrude Kapser, Augustine Short, Amanda Meier, Dominica Massoth and Theresa Moser.
Early in the summer of 1877, what was then known as the Price Villa property was put up for sale by its owner, John M. Price. It was purchased by the Sisters, and the transfer of the convent and academy was effected in July of the same year. From this move dates the real progress of Mt. St. Scholastica. In the following winter a modern and complete steam heating system was installed.
March 31, 1880, Sister Augustine, who had served as directress of the academy since 1866, was succeeded by Sister Aloysia Northman. Sister Aloysia filled the office till 1892, when she was chosen to the office of sub-prioress or assistant mother. Sister Adelaide Cass, who is still directress, was appointed to succeed Sister Aloysia. December 29, 1880, occurred the first death in the community, that of Sister Dominica Mas- soth, O. S. B., one of the original seven Sisters. Sister Dominica's place as member of the board of directors was filled by Sister Aloysia North- man. Sister Dominica's death gave rise to the Convent Cemetery-a beautiful spot on the eastern hillside to the rear of the convent.
Although plans for the building of a new convent were made in July, 1883, it was not completed until 1889. On December 29, 1884, Sister Theresa Moser was elected to succeed Mother Evangelista, thus becoming president of the corporation. Sister Theresa filled this
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office till July 12, 1897, when Sister Aloysia Northman was elected. Mother Aloysia still holds the office.
In 1901 the present massive convent building was completed. It is now the main building; was two years in construction and cost $65,000. Into this the Sisters moved, and the former convent, after being remod- eled, was converted into an academy, which purpose it still serves. The "Villa" building has since been devoted to the use of the Music and Art classes under the title "St. Cecilia." It also contains the school library. In 1907, new recreation grounds were laid out, comprising junior and senior tennis courts, basket ball, etc.
In 1909 it was decided to tear down the old convent, which was becoming unsightly through age and neglect. From 1877-1889, it was used as a parish school. The completion of St. Louis College, the new parish school, left it tenantless. It still served as a meeting place for church and school societies, as well as a home for some aged ladies of the city.
Mother Evangelista's health had been failing for some years and she peacefully passed away June 21, 1909, at the age of seventy-seven years.
In the same year was purchased the ten-acre traet of land adjoining the convent property on the north, as site for a new academy, with andi- torium and gymnasium, but the European war has blocked all progress.
The community numbers at present 304 members, including postu- lants and novices. The academy has for the past decade had an enroll- ment varying from 189 to 203.
COOPER COLLEGE
The project of establishing a college at some central point in Kansas under control of the United Presbyterian Synod of the state was consid- ered by that body in 1879, and again in 1885, but did not come to a practical conclusion until 1887. It was then made a matter of virtual certainty by co-operation between the Sterling Land and Investment Company and the Synod, and the joint contract by which the company donated ten acres of land for a site at Sterling and the Synod agreed to erect a college building at a cost of $25,000, operate the institution and raise an endowment of $25,000, was signed October 22, 1886, by .J. H. Rickseeker and W. H. Page, for the company, and Rev. J. O. Campbell, Rev. H. T. Ferguson and J. L. Acheson for the Synod.
The charter originally filed with the secretary of state vested the con- trol of the college in a Senate, composed of seven trustees and fourteen directors chosen by the Synod. The name "Cooper Memorial," after- ward "Cooper," was given to the college in honor of the late Rev. Jos. T. Cooper, D. D., LL. D., of Allegheny, Pennsylvania, a man loved and honored by his church.
The Senate named in the charter held its first meeting at Sterling on July 28, 1887, pursuant to a call issued July 21st, by Rev. A. J. Hanna, secretary of trustees. Those present at this meeting were Rev. A. R. Rankin, Rev. R. J. Thompson, Rev. A. J. Hanna, J. L. Acheson, J. O.
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Stow and J. C. Johnson. Rev. A. R. Rankin was chosen president and Rev. A. J. Hanna secretary of the Senate. The first work of the new Senate was the choice of a president and faculty. Rev. C. H. Strong was chosen president; A. N. Porter, professor of Mathematics and Eng- lish Literature; S. A. Wilson, professor of Languages. Rev. R. J. Thompson was appointed financial agent until next meeting of Synod. A second meeting of the Senate was held at Americus, October 4th, at which meeting a partial curriculum was prepared and direction was given that the college be opened November 1, 1887. Rev. C. H. Strong declined the presidency, not feeling that he could give up the pastorate. Accordingly the doors were opened to students on that day, with A. N. Porter as acting president. The art department was organized at the beginning of the second year by Miss Alice M. Brown, who came from Morning Sun, Iowa, and who still remains in charge of that depart- ment. It was not until March 12, 1889, that Rev. F. M. Spencer, of New Concord, Ohio, was chosen president, and he was not inaugurated until the 4th of September.
Doctor Spencer continued at the head of Cooper College for twenty years, during which he materially raised the standard of the institution, completed the raising of $10,000 to cancel the college indebtedness, and otherwise placed the institution on a secure footing. Largely through the efforts of Rev. R. J. Thompson, Dr. W. M. Ewing and Rev. W. L. Garger, the $25,000 endowment fund was completed which was necessary to secure a clear title to the college site, and in October, 1891, the deed of the property was formally transferred to the Kansas Synod.
In June, 1909, after twenty years of service, Doctor Spencer laid down the presidency, retaining connection with the college for a time as field agent to raise endowment. After an interim of one year, in which Prof. Talmon Bell, as vice president, was in charge, Dr. R. T. Campbell, who had been president of Amity College, College Springs, Iowa, became president.
During the present administration Cooper has become a fully acered- ited institution; has increased its faculty, equipment and endowment. Twenty aeres have been added to the college grounds, a gymnasium has been provided. Cooper now rounds out her thirtieth year with largely increased facilities, with a strong student body, with enlarged faculty and with still higher ideals. In the second year the enrollment was 84, in the third year 129. There has been a moderate increase in the suc- cecding years.
HIGHLAND UNIVERSITY
In 1837 Rev. S. M. Irvin established an Indian mission, which con- tinued its work of educating the Indians in the manners and customs of civilization for over twenty years. But the Indian mission had run its course. The country was being settled by people who demanded the advantages of the East, and consequently, the mission was chartered by the Territory of Kansas in 1857 as Highland University.
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Highland University is the oldest institution of learning in Kansas. The log cabin of the Indian mission gave place to a new frame building, and was given over to the care of Highland Presbytery as an academy. In 1859 nine trustees were appointed: Hon. Walter Lowrie, Gen. John Bayless, Rev. C. Vaniens, Rev. J. Campbell, Rev. G. Graham, C. B. Campbell, G. S. Rice, E. M. Hubbard and Rev. S. M. Irvin. Under their efficient work the first brick building was erected at a cost of $10,000.
In the same year (1859) the City Council gave eight blocks of prop- erty in the present location. The charter was then amended and the university transferred to the Synod of Kansas. It was at this time that an endowment was begun. Its first contributor was Kirwan Murry, an Indian convert, who gave $100 in gold. This was followed by a similar gift of Sophie Rubetti, another Indian convert.
Until 1870 the work done in the university was academic. A college course was added the same year, and soon afterward the institution passed from the control of the synod, The next few years were the darkest in the history of the university. But by the help of J. P. John- son and the faithful work of the board of trustees they managed to keep out of debt. In 1885 J. P. Johnson offered $10,000 if the citizens would raise a like amount. This was promptly done. In 1890 Mr. Johnson repeated his offers, which were again accepted. The last offer made the total endowment $51,033.
In 1903 a movement was started to raise funds for a new college hall, but it was not until 1909 that it was completed, at a cost of $30,000. The old college hall contains the large library and reading rooms on the first floor.
The campus contains eight blocks, four of which are occupied by the college halls. These four blocks are thickly planted with large shade trees, some of which are half a century old. Immediately on the north are two blocks devoted to an athletic field. The grandstand and bleachers are large enough to accommodate a very large crowd. The dormitory is immediately joining the main building on the west.
Of late the affairs of Highland College have been much stimulated by the adoption of the self-help plan (in March, 1916). A new dormi- tory was begun and a campaign started, in that year, for a fund of $200,000.
KANSAS WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
The long stretch of territory of more than 400 miles ranging from the Missouri River on the east to the Colorado line on the west, together with inadequate railroad facilities made it advisable to divide the Kansas Conference in the early '80s. When the Northwest Kansas Conference, after a division had been made, convened at Beloit in March, 1883, the question of establishing an educational institution was considered of vital importance to the conference and to the Methodists of the northwestern part of the state.
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Several cities within the bounds of the conference made flattering offers for the location of the institution. Salina proposed to donate a tract of fifteen acres for a college campus and to erect a building at a cost of $26,000, on condition that the conference maintain a school of full collegiate grade. This generous offer was accepted by the confer- ence and steps were immediately taken to found an educational institu- tion making Salina the educational center of the Northwest Kansas Conference. A board of trustees composed of nine men elected by the conference organized and in December, 1885, secured a very liberal charter and became incorporated under the laws of the state, with the name of Kansas Wesleyan University. Of these men composing the first board of trustees only two are now living, viz : Rev. A. N. See, at present in the Old Peoples Home of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Topeka; and Rev. M. M. Stolz, who is serving the college faithfully as their librarian. Doctor Stolz has well served the Northwest Kansas Conference from its organization as pastor, as district superintendent and as trustee of the Kansas Wesleyan. C. Eberhardt and R. A. Hoff- man were honored founders.
The cornerstone of the first building was laid early in 1886, and in March the building was dedicated by Bishop Andrews, assisted by the Reverend Bennett, of Garrett Biblical Institute, and Doctor Gray, of the Freedom's Aid Society. The school was opened on the 15th of September, and the first year showed an enrollment of 123. During the thirty years that the school has been in existence there have been 2,915 students enrolled in the college and academy. Two hundred and forty- nine have been graduated from the college with a Bachelor's degree.
The first faculty of the college consisted of Rev. Wm. F. Swahlen, Ph. D., acting president, who was professor of Latin and the Modern Languages; Thomas W. Cowgill, A. B., who was professor of Greek; Rev- Aaron Schuyler, A. M., Ph. D., who was professor of Mathematics and Astronomy; Rev. W. H. Sweet, A. M., D. D., who was professor of Ethics and Metaphysics; Rev. A. C. Hillman, A. M., who was dean of the Normal Department; Amos T. Griffith, head of the Commercial Department ; Clede H. Green, head of the Music School; and Daniel McGurk, teacher of elocution. Doctor Sweet and Doctor McGurk are the only surviving instructors of the first faculty of the Kansas Wesleyan.
The commercial school has grown from a one teacher department to a great business college, one of the largest in the central states. It has a faculty of twenty-one teachers and an enrollment of several hundred. Prof. T. W. Roach is largely responsible for its expansion. The college has also expanded through the addition of new departments and the subdivision of some of these that had been organized.
Rev. Wm. F. Swahlen, A. M., Ph. D., served as acting president of the institution from 1886 to 1887. Later he became professor of Greek in DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, which institution he served until his death in the winter of 1915. Aaron Schuyler, A. M., LL. D. served the Kansas Wesleyan as vice president and acting president from 1887 to 1890 when he became president and continued in that capacity
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until 1894. Rev. Edwin W. Mueller served as president from 1894-96; Prof. George J. Haggerty, 1899-1900; Dr. Milton E. Phillips, 1901-02; Dr. Thomas W. Roach, 1903-07; Dr. Robert P. Smith, 1907-15, and Dr. John F. Harmon, since June of that year. During Doctor Roach's administration a ladies' dormitory was constructed, Science Hall com- menced, and progress made toward securing the $25,000 Carnegie endow- ment. The campus was also plotted.
There were many improvements made during Doctor Smith's admin- istration, viz: the enlarging the faculty ; the completion of Science Hall; the building of a president's home; the beginning of a magnificent gym- nasium. Also the endowment was greatly increased making a total of about $119,000 in actual endowment, with about $40,000 more pledged. President Harmon has successfully continued the Forward Movement Campaign, which had been launched by Doctor Smith in an effort to increase the endowment to $200,000.
With only a little more than a quarter of a century's history to the credit of the institution it has a plant and an endowment together amounting almost to $500,000 valuation. This has come almost entirely from and through the loyalty and devotion of the Methodists living within the bounds of the conference territory. During the quarter of a century since the college was planted 249 young people have received degrees from it. The alumni of the institution include such men as Dr. W. D. Schermerhorn, president elect of the Dakota Wesleyan ; Dr. B. O. Petersen, a leader of the church in the Philippines; Rev. W. H. Blair, a leader in the foreign field of Korea. Also a score or more of men and women scattered throughout the foreign field engaged in missionary work.
The Ladies' Dormitory was built in 1903-04, and will accommodate about 100 girls. The Carnegie Science Hall contains the library, museum, a lecture hall and various laboratory rooms.
The president's residence is a handsome building, the gift of Doctor and Mrs. Roach, and is known as the Roach Home. The Business Col- lege is housed in a large three-story brick building, located near the busi- ness section of the city, and the College of Music occupies the second floor of a business block.
The class gifts to the college are among its most attractive features. These include the fine cut-stone entrance gateway facing Santa Fe Avenue, from the class of 1912; the beautiful fountain on the campus, class of 1914, and the handsome tower clock of the gymnasium, elass of 1916. The building named was completed in the spring of the year last named.
If to the plant were to be added the Business College and Music Col- lege buildings and equipment, together with a new church edifice being erected on a corner adjoining the campus, the valuation of the plant would reach more than $500,000-the accumulation of only a little more than a quarter of a century. The school and members of the community are engaged in erecting a magnificent church edifice to be the place of worship for students, faculty and citizens of the community, to be
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known as the University Methodist Episcopal Church, with a seating capacity of something more than 1,000.
ST. BENEDICT'S COLLEGE
As early as 1858 Kansas saw the opening of a college aiming to teach young men Latin, and in time, all the branches of a classical course. In 1857 the Rev. Augustine Wirth, O. S. B., from the Benedictine mon- astery of St. Vincent in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, accom- panied by a seminarian, Casimir Seitz, O. S. B., was sent to Doniphan, in Doniphan County, by their superior, at the request of the bishop of Leavenworth, the Right Rev. J. B. Miege, S. J. Here they joined the missionary, Rev. Henry Lemke, O. S. B., who was the first Bene- dictine priest to set foot on Kansas soil.
But it was at Atchison, which was rapidly becoming the more prom- ising town, and not at Doniphan, that the embryo institution was to take root and flourish, and here on March 27, 1858, Messrs. P. T. Abell and B. F. Stringfellow gave Father Augustine about three acres north- east of the town, at the present junction of Division and Second streets. This grant, together with a money donation by the then king of Bavaria, Louis I, as well as the assistance of the monastery mentioned above, paved the way, and on May 29, 1858, St. Benedict's was begun.
Material for a more than ordinary structure was hard to obtain in the days before a bridge spanned the Missouri River at Atchison ; yet the first building erected was of brick, 39 by 80 feet, and contained 21/2 stories, besides a basement. It abutted against the church, a small frame building, which occupied the site of the present church. St. Benedict's College, named after the founder of the order of which Father Augustine was a member, opened October 12, 1858.
In 1861 it had doubled in size, a south wing being completed in that year. With the lapse of time this completed structure came to be called the "old building," and is now the oldest of four college buildings, each representing a step ferward in material progress. In the beginning there were but four students in attendance. Before the close of 1859 there were fourteen. In 1861 the number had reached twenty-seven. In 1866 the razing of the wooden church and the building of another necessi- tated the loan of the college dormitory in the new south wing to the parishioners, to be used as a chapel. For this reason no boarding scholars could be admitted from 1866 to 1868.
In 1868 the Very Rev. Louis M. Fink, O. S. B., Prior of St. Joseph's Rectory and pastor of St. Joseph's Church, Chicago, was chosen by the Rt. Rev. Boniface Wimmer, O. S. B., arch-abbot of St. Vincent, to relieve Father Augustine, and take charge of the ten-year-old institution at Atchison. The same year (June 28th) St. Benedict's was incorpo- rated under the laws of the state, with power to confer academic degrecs.
When Father Louis M. Fink was consecrated bishop in 1871, Father Giles Christoph, O. S. B., was appointed president of St. Benedict's Col-
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lege. Devoting himself in particular to the pastoral work of St. Bene- dict's parish, he intrusted the supervision of the college to the vice president, Father Timothy Luber, O. S. B. In 1875 Father Giles was succeeded by Father Oswald Moosmueller, O. S. B.
In 1876 the faculty elected its own head in the person of Father Innocent Wolf, O. S. B., then a member of the Pennsylvania house. He was installed as abbot of St. Benedict's March 21, 1877.
One purchase after another had increased the original three-acre grant tenfold, so that the Missouri River had become the eastern boun- dary of the college premises. In 1878 a new building plan was designed, which resulted in the erection of the first section of a more imposing structure than was common in Kansas in the '70s. It rose high above its predecessor, extended north and south, and measured 40 by 50 feet. It was added to in 1883 by a 50 by 92 extension. It is now known as the recitation building.
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