USA > Kansas > Sedgwick County > History of Wichita and Sedgwick County, Kansas, past and present, including an account of the cities, towns and villages of the county, Vol. I > Part 32
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The student in search of opportunities for obtaining a liberal education can find ample courses of instruction open to him and from which he can select to suit his taste or prospective needs if he wishes to fit himself for specialization later. In addition to the large number of college courses offered, there are courses for teachers leading to state certificates, and which are recognized by the State Board of Education; also commercial and academy courses are maintained. The university has a strong and exceed- ingly popular conservatory of music, with instructors of marked ability and thorough preparation. In a word, the great structure so magnificently planned has within its walls abundant room for many and varied lines of work, and it is the purpose to occupy and utilize as rapidly as means will justify and the increase of students demand.
The great Southwest should have at its door all the facilities for the thorough education of its children, and if the business enterprise and sound judgment prevail in this, as in most other interests, our people will not long withhold their means from the institutions in their midst that promise such valuable returns for investments. There are many reasons in favor of educating our young men and young women at or near the home and home influ- ences, besides the question of financial cost, and as the community comes to a fuller realization of these advantages, institutions of learning in our midst will receive better patronage, stronger
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financial support and more hearty appreciation. Our young men and young women are our most valuable assets in business, and their proper education and equipment for life will yield the great- est returns for our financial investments. Indeed, the investment that men put into the lives and minds and hearts of those they help and influence is the only permanent and enduring invest- ment that they can make. All others perish.
FACULTY FRIENDS UNIVERSITY.
1909-10-1910-11.
Edmund Stanley, A. M., Penn College, 1892; President ; Pro- fessor of History and Political Science.
William P. Trueblood, B. S., Earlham, 1875; Vice-President ; Professor of History and Philosophy.
Benjamin W. Truesdell, A. B., Friends University, 1902; Graduate Student University of Chicago, 1902 and 1904; Pro- fessor of Education and Chemistry.
Anson B. Harvey, B. S., 1894, A. M., 1895, Haverford; Gradu- ate Student University of Pennsylvania, 1895-97; Professor of Biology and Psychology.
John J. Wheeler, A. B., Indiana University, 1904; Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy.
Edith Furnas, Ph. B., Earlham, 1897; Graduate Student Bryn Mawr, 1898-99; University of Berlin, 1903-05; Student The Sor- bonne, Paris, 1908-09; Professor of German and French Lan- guages.
Charles E. Cosand, A. B., Earlham, 1896; Graduate Student University of Chicago, 1899-1900; Summer, 1908; Professor of English Language and Literature.
William L. Pearson, A. B., Earlham, 1875; A. M., Princeton University, 1880; Graduate and Fellow Princeton Theological ยท Seminary, 1881; Student University of Berlin, 1881-83; Ph. D., University of Leipzig, 1885; Principal of Biblical School and Professor of Biblical Literature and Exegesis.
Arthur W. Jones, A. B., 1885, A. M., 1890, Haverford; Gradu- ate Student University of Chicago, 1894-95; Professor of Greek and Latin Languages.
Edgar H. Stranahan, A. B., Earlham, 1898; A. M., Earlham, 1906; Professor of Church History and Christian Doctrine.
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Verne F. Swaim, B. S., Earlham, 1909; Assistant in Mathe- matics and Director in Athletics.
Elsie McCoy, A. B., Wilmington, 1906; A. B., Ohio State Uni- versity, 1909; Assistant in Latin and English.
Lucy Francisco, A. B., 1895, A. M., 1898, Earlham College; Graduate Student, Bryn Mawr, 1895-97; University of Chicago, Summer 1901; University of Wisconsin, 1902; Student in Con- servatory of Music, Berlin, 1903-04, and Winter 1908-09; Director of the School of Music and Instructor in Piano and Voice, 1910-11.
Nellie May Benton, A. B., Friends University, 1907; Gradu- ate School of Music Friends University 1907; Student in New England Conservatory, Boston, 1908-09; Instructor in Piano.
Gabriella Knight, Graduate Judson College and Conservatory of Music; Two Years Student in Berlin, Germany; Instructor in Violin, 1909-10.
M. Frederic Cahoon, Graduate of Dallas and Nashville Con- servatories of Music; Student of Max Bendix, New York; Violin Instructor in Orchestral Instruments; on leave of absence 1909-10.
Gretchen Cox, Student of Max Bendix, S. Jacobsohn and Theodore Spiering; Instructor in Violin, 1909-10.
Lillian Crandall, Principal of the Commercial School.
Charlotte Whitney Barrett, Instructor in Elocution and Oratory.
Mabel Beck, Teacher in Training School.
Wm. P. Trueblood, Registrar.
C. E. Cosand, Librarian.
E. H. Stranahan, Principal of Preparatory School.
Anson B. Harvey, Curator of Museum.
Verne F. Swaim, Director of Gymnasium.
Charlotte Whitney Barrett, Assistant in Gymnasium.
FRIENDS UNIVERSITY A GREAT INSTITUTION.
By FARMER DOOLITTLE.
Since Friends University has become a great educational institution, people are beginning to realize the great work of Prof. Edmund Stanley, who has been a teacher ever since he was
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seventeen years of age. This magnificent building was a sort of an elephant drawn by Wichita in the days of her real estate boom. It was built away out on the prairie, beyond Robert Lawrence's farm, to boom an addition. It was given to the Christian church, which did not consider itself able to buy hay for the elephant. It was called Garfield University then, and Wichita soon realized that she still had one elephant on her hands. An effort was made to give it to the state of Kansas. The government lived in the northeastern section of the state, and it did not want any educational institutions in Wichita. Garfield University was a magnificent pile of red bricks, but that did not prevent its being an elephant on the hands of Wichita. The men whom the Christian church put in charge of the univer- sity tried hard to establish a school, but when they conceded their failure there was a big mortgage on the property. This mortgage put the university in the hands of Mr. Harding, of Boston, who sold it to James M. Davis, of St. Louis.
Mr. Davis actually bought the elephant, and just to show his magnanimous nature he gave it to the Friends church of Kansas and Oklahoma, and in 1898 Edward Stanley was elected presi- dent of the university. He came to Wichita at once and opened the school. He had $250 in cash and an endowment of $2,000. That appeared like a huge burlesque on universities, but some of the old-timers said: "Wait and see. This man Stanley is a James G. Blaine style of man, and the Friends are a common sensed people. There is no foolishness about them; they may succeed." Well, when Prof. Stanley opened his school in Sep- tember, 1898, he had forty-two students. He closed the term this year with 400 students, and some friends of the institution predict that when the next term opens in September 500 stu- dents will be enrolled. The university now has an endowment of $130,000 and it closed its twelfth year with not a dollar of . debt against the institution.
One hundred and twenty students have been graduated, and it means something to be a graduate of Friends University. The work in this great school is recognized by the state university on a par with its own, admitting its students for post-graduate work on a record of work in Friends University. The state university each year awards to Friends a fellowship valued at $280, given to a graduate to pursue post-graduate work in the state university. Friends University is a religious school, but
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non-sectarian. It has among its students Protestants, Catholics and Jews. This thing that Wichita regarded as an elephant that nobody wanted through the untiring industry of a President Stanley and the wise liberality of the Friends church has become one of the great educational institutions of the West.
President Stanley had received a training before coming to Wichita that fitted him for his great work. He became a teacher at the age of seventeen in the public schools in Hendricks county, Indiana, where he was born, and in this was earned the money to pay his way through the academy at Lafayette, Ind. He desired to see the South, and after the war he accepted a posi- tion as teacher under the Freedmen's Bureau, and opened a school at Curthage, Tenn., in 1867. He now has in his possession a Ku-Klux letter warning him to leave the place. He refused to leave, and his schoolhouse was burned down. He repudiates the idea that the ex-slaveholders and better class of people recog- nized the methods of the Ku-Klux. He rented a warehouse of a rich ex-slaveholder and reopened his school in it, and when there were threats to lynch him some of the ex-slaveholders armed their negroes and secreted them in nearby buildings to open fire on the mob if an attempt was made to molest the young school teacher. That kind of service was not pleasant to Prof. Stanley, and he gave up his job with the Freedmen's Bureau. He came to Lawrence, Kan., in 1868, and became a teacher in the public schools. In 1871 he married Miss Martha E. Davis, of that place, who was a Southern girl.
While in Lawrence he took up a line of studies in the state university. He was for four years principal of a ward school and assistant in the high school. He was for fifteen years superin- tendent of the Lawrence schools, and was elected state superin- tendent in 1894. The growth of this great school under President Stanley is very pleasing to the people of this city. When Prof. Stanley assumed control the huge building was not one-fourth completed, but now two-thirds of the sixty-six rooms and halls are finished without creating a debt, and Friends University is today the finest school building in the state of Kansas. The men who work in the cause of humanity never get rich and some of Prof. Stanley's friends say that he never could have succeeded so well if he had not had means outside of his salary to support his family. There now seems to be no legitimate reasons why Friends University shall not continue to grow until its influence
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shall be as wide as the nation. It is even now a great institution, and in the years to come its patron saints will be Edmund Stanley and James M. Davis.
FRIENDS UNIVERSITY.
A little more than twelve years ago the largest and one of the most beautiful buildings in the city of Wichita was the home of bats, pigeons and sparrows. In September of 1898 the bats, sparrows and pigeons were crowded out. Where thousands of them had roosted for years there was started Friends University. The magnificent building now occupied by the prosperous Quaker college was erected during the boom days. Its original cost was $265,000. It was built as the Garfield University and for a few years a school by that name was conducted. The college was closed at the bursting of the boom some twenty years ago. For about fifteen years the magnificent structure of Gothic archi- tecture was unoccupied except for the birds and vermin. Vandals broke out windows here and there, destroyed furniture and car- ried away whatever pleased them. But the building itself remained intact. Then came James M. Davis, a wealthy St. Louis stereopticon view manufacturer, who was raised in Kansas of Quaker parents. Mr. Davis saw and admired the old and deserted Garfield University. He strolled about the unkept campus of virgin prairie; he entered the building and prowled about among the cobwebs; he frightened away hundreds of spar- rows and pigeons from their nesting places among the rafters of unfinished wings. Then he went out of the musty corridors into the clean pure air and dreamed a dream.
At the beginning of this dream James M. Davis saw a young man of his own likeness struggling in poverty and privation for an education. He followed that young man through a number ' of years until he became a wealthy manufacturer in a city on the Mississippi. Then the scene shifted and the dream changed to a vision of the future. Mr. Davis saw the wild grasses of the campus transformed into a beautiful lawn of blue grass. Broad walks appeared on all sides leading to the main building. The nailed and cleated doors swung open and streams of happy faced students marched past him into the class room. The dream and the vision pleased James M. Davis. He smiled and went away to his home in the eastern city. In time he became the owner of
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the building that had given him his dream. And he was proud of the ownership, for within his mind there was a deep purpose. Not long after the purchase of the building Mr. Davis appeared before the Kansas yearly meeting of the Friends church and offered to its members the building of his dreams for a college. With his gift he imposed certain restrictions as to the main- tenance of a university and its endowment fund. The Friends of Kansas were elated with the gift of Mr. Davis. They imme- diately began the preparation of the building for the opening of the first Quaker college in the middle West. In September of 1898 school was opened.
From that time on the growth of the university has been rapid and permanent. The first year there were scarcely a hundred students and a half dozen professors. Next year there were twice as many students and a number of new faces in the faculty. The Quakers of Kansas came to the support of the new institution with money and students.
It was not many years till every Quaker academy in Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas was sending an annual delegation to Friends University for higher education. Frequently students have come from Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri, Indiana and other states further away. They were drawn to Wichita by the fact that the big Friends school here is one of the finest and best equipped institutions maintained by the Friends in America. As a college, Friends quickly made a place for itself in the state of Kansas. At the present time the courses maintained at the university by a student at Friends are accepted for their face value in any other college of the middle West in the event a student desires to transfer. Kansas University, which sets the standard for Kansas scholarship, has given the Quaker college in this city full recognition. The Friends Biblical School is one of the few first class institutions of the sort in the West. Pro- fessors of long and careful preparation head this department. During the current term there are three pastors of Wichita churches taking advanced Biblical work at the university. A number of the foremost Quaker preachers and missionaries of the present generation are graduates of the Friends Biblical depart- ment. In athletics the Quakers stepped into the first rank of Kansas colleges within four years after the school was estab- lished. From 1903 to 1907 the Quakers sent onto the football fields some of the best football men who ever wore moleskins in
FRIENDS UNIVERSITY.
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this state. Three years ago football was officially wiped off the curriculum of Friends University. Instead of football the Quakers are now introducing soccer. The first soccer ball game ever played in Kansas occurred last fall between the Quakers and a state normal team. This year the game is spreading and half a dozen contests will be played by the local team. In base- ball and basketball the Quakers rank with the best teams of Kansas and Oklahoma. In the past ten years there have grad- uated from the college courses of the university something like two hundred students. A large number of these have continued their studies in the East .. Many specialized and are now engaged in professions of all sorts in various parts of the United States. In the past five years a dozen graduates of Friends have taken their diplomas of medicine, dental surgery or law from the best universities of the country. Two scholarships are given annually to the graduates of Friends University. One of these is offered by Haverford College, of Philadelphia, to the young man making the best record for four years at Friends. The other goes to the young woman with the best four years' record. It is given by Earlham College, of Richmond, Ind. The opening enrollment of the university this year was close to 350. This shows a healthy increase over the enrollment for the first semester of last year. The faculty consists of fifteen capable professors, each a special- ist in his line. In the training school department there are five instructors.
HISTORY OF FAIRMOUNT COLLEGE.
By ANDREW P. SOLANDT.
The men who founded Wichita had great visions, intending to .make the city a great commercial center. But even that did not satisfy them; they laid tremendous plans for making it also an intellectual center, so that in 1871 the first small schoolhouse was built, which, in 1887, had grown to a high school building and nine large public school buildings. Higher education was pro- vided for in the following list: Garfield University, built at a cost of $200,000, the building now being used by the Friends University on the West Side. It comprised a college of law, college of medicine, a college of arts, a college of theology and
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a college of commerce. It opened its door to students and sur- vived for a few years. The Wichita University of the Reformed Church of America, built on College Hill, the fine building now owned by Catholic Sisters. It also opened its door to students for a few years. Judson University, under the care of the Bap- tists, was projected with the following departments: University, academy, college of liberal arts, school of theology, college of music and college of fine arts. They claimed assets of $400,000, but I cannot find that they ever enrolled any students.
John Bright University, under the Society of Friends, claimed $300,000 in money and lands to establish an institution here. The Presbyterian College, it was claimed, had $200,000 to begin work with.
Other institutions were: Lewis Academy, Brothers Academy, Southwestern Business College and the Kansas Military Institute.
In 1886 Rev. J. H. Parker, pastor of Plymouth Congrega- tional Church of Wichita, not wishing his denomination to be outdone by the churches represented in the foregoing list, pro- posed founding in the city a ladies' college, that was to be the Vassar of the West. Interesting a few friends in his plan, they advertised for bids of money and lands. Several being sent in, they chose the spot where Fairmount College building now stands, on account of its high elevation and the large amount of money and land given by the friends of that vicinity. The growth of his plans was so rapid that the next year he decided to enlarge the board of trustees from five to fifteen and change the name to Fairmount College, under which a state charter was obtained. Rev. J. H. Parker was elected president of the board of trustees, other members being: H. A. Clifford, W. J. Corner, H. H. Richards and F. G. Stark. The institution was to be under the care of the Evangelical Congregational churches.
Hon. J. J. Ingalls and G. C. Strong served on the board of trustees when the board membership was increased to fifteen. Bids were called for, plans adopted, and the present college main building erected. A committee was appointed to search for and engage a president at a salary not to exceed $3,000 a year, and Rev. S. S. Mathews, of Boston, was called.
Financial troubles began, the trustees appealed to. the citizens of Wichita with small result, and after spending $40,000 on the building the property was sold to satisfy claims, passing into the
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hands of D. B. Wesson. Therefore the first corporation known as Fairmount College never opened its door to students.
Before the commercial panic all the educational institutions of a high grade fell into ruins, Fairmount College alone rising later into vigorous life. The population of Wichita decreased ten thousand in two years, much property was deserted and many houses were moved from Fairmount and vicinity or sold for a trifle of their cost. With the slow return of better conditions Fairmount Institute was organized as a legal corporation, to which D. B. Wesson conveyed what is now Fairmount College main building and some surrounding land, the corporation agree- ing to pay off the mortgage still hanging over the property. This action was taken March 7, 1892, the institute applying for the endorsement of the state association of Congregational churches. The first and only prospectus issued by the Fairmount Institute is dated June 15, 1892. It gives the board of trustees with Rev. R. M. Tunnel as president of the board, also principal of the institute. Nine other clergymen were on the board, as well as W. J. Corner and H. A. Clifford, of the original Fairmount Col- lege board. H. T. Cramer was treasurer, and last, but most important of all, we find the names of J. M. Knapp and R. L. Holmes, who ever since have faithfully served on the board. Besides Mr. Tunnel the faculty consisted of Miss Della M. Smoke, Miss Marie Mathis and Dr. E. W. Hoss.
The founders of the institute declared it to be their intention to establish a school that shall rank as high for classical scholar- ship as the far-famed Phillips academies, at Andover, Mass., and Exeter, N. H., and in addition the institute shall be co-educational and practical.
The Bible shall be thoroughly studied, also English, mathe- matics and the ancient and modern languages. Any person not less than twelve years of age and having a moderate education may enter. September 15, 1892, Fairmount Institute opened its doors to students. The number enrolling the first year cannot be found. The institute obtained the recognition of the Con- gregational Educational Society of Boston, and in the session of 1894-95 enrolled seventy-eight students. The next year the institute took on new life by the coming of forty students and several teachers from Garfield University, which had been forced to close its doors.
June 22, 1894, the trustees voted to develop the institute as
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rapidly as possible into a college, Mr. J. M. Knapp making the motion, seconded by Mr. Graves. This was done after a long and heated discussion. Principal Tunnel immediately resigned, as well as many of the trustees. Mr. Tunnel, however, agreed to remain principal until other arrangements could be made. The courses in the institute were considerably expanded.
August 4, 1894, Mr. W. H. Isely was elected member of the faculty. Born in Brown county, Kansas, of Swiss-French parent- age, educated at Ottawa and Harvard universities, he came with youth, energy and a fine education to begin his long and splen- did career at Fairmount as professor and dean.
The institute felt the power of his leading mind, and rapid development ensued, leading to the calling of Dr. N. J. Morrison to be president, June 11, 1895. Dr. Morrison came indorsed by the Educational Society of Boston and invited by them and the trustees to take charge of the school and develop it as rapidly as seemed best into a first class college. Mr. Morrison brought with him Prof. Paul Roulet, of Springfield, Mo., who had been asso- ciated with him for fourteen years in Drury College.
March 30, 1896, the trustees of Fairmount Institute voted to give up their charter and reorganize as Fairmount College. The April following the state of Kansas issued a new charter grant- ing full college and university rights and privileges to Fairmount College of Wichita, and the Congregational Educational Society of Boston approved of their action. The charter declares that it is the intention of the trustees to establish on a broad and perma- nent foundation a college of the first rank, this school to be positively, aggressively and wholly Christian in the evangelical sense, but in no wise sectarian; to fashion young men and women in knowledge and in character for the best citizenship in a Chris- tian state of the Nineteenth Century. July, 1896, Miss Flora Clough was elected dean of women and professor of English literature, which positions she still fills with gracious efficiency.
The following September the college opened with a faculty of thirteen, all finely equipped mentally and determined to work harmoniously together to build up a strong and efficient Christian college. Prof. Paul Roulet, besides being professor of mathe- matics and French, at once began to build up a library, thus laying the foundation of our splendid collection of books.
The building now known as Holyoke Cottage was purchased and refitted as a ladies' dormitory, which purpose it has filled
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since. The college year was divided into three terms-fall, win- ter and spring; and three degrees were given-B. A., at the close of the classical course; B. S., at the close of the scientific course, and B. L., at the close of the literary course. At the end of the year, June, 1897, there were 154 students. Fifty-one of these were in the college department, which consisted of three classes- Junior, Sophomore and Freshman.
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