USA > Kansas > Wyandotte County > History of Wyandotte County, Kansas, and its people, Vol. I > Part 44
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THE KANSAS CITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
This school is just completing a successful tenth year with prospects of large increase for the next. It is the only Baptist Theological Seminary west of Chicago and Louisville. The field it commands in- cludes twelve entire states and territories and parts of three others, with an area of 1,120,000 square miles and a population of over 11,000,000, and is destined to be the most prosperous and populons section of the country.
Kansas City is the natural distributing point for the whole south- west, and no more accessible situation for such an institution could be found. The location of the school in a large city furnishes fine oppor-
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tunities for self-help, and eontaet with modern methods of ehureh work. The field presents all the elements which demand and should produce a school of the largest proportions and the widest usefulness. It may be questioned whether such another opportunity to invest money effec- tively for religious work exists anywhere.
The magnificent seminary building occupies the center of a eity block on a commanding eminenee at Troup avenue and Walnut street in Kansas City, Kansas. It contains thirty rooms, including chapel. reception rooms, class rooms, library, dining-room, etc., ete., with dormi- tories for a large number of students. It is heated by steam and lighted by gas. Extensive grounds afford opportunity for ont-door exercise in season.
The Pratt-Journeyeake Memorial Library contains a fine collection of theological and general reference and other books, to which large additions are constantly making from the Pratt-Journeyeake fund ($3,000, payable in five annual installments).
The building has been named Lovelace Hall, after Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lovelace, of Turner, Kansas, who contributed so munificently toward endowment and current expenses.
The aim of the institution is to meet the demand of every section of its wide and advancing field, in furnishing its graduates with an equip- ment adapted to conditions among which they are to work. Its watch- words may be considered to be three: Conservatism, Evangelism. Practicality. It is not a clearing house for new theological ideas, but a training school for the hand to hand, intensely earnest work of the active ministry, and seeks to hold fast the form of sound words, the faith once delivered to the saints, while it aims to make the student a well equipped soul-winner and practical administrator.
ITS COURSES.
It represents three courses :
(1) The Regular course, including both Greek and Hebrew, last- ing three years and leading to the degree of B. D.
(2) The Greek course, ineluding Greek, but not Hebrew, lasting three years and leading to the degree of B. Th.
(3) The Shorter course, lasting two years. When successfully completed, a certificate of graduation will be granted.
The departments of instruction inelnde systematic theology, English scriptures, church history, Hebrew, New Testament Greek, Homileties, pastoral theology, elocution and publie speaking. Occasional lectures are given by prominent leaders. Several supplemental courses on allied subjects of the highest practical importance are given by dis- tinguished specialists, as for instance, on "The Minister and the Law," "The Minister and Medicine," "The Minister and Business," and "Sunday School Management and Pedagogy."
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It is distinctly a Theological Seminary, and in no sense a substitute for a college. Its aim is to furnish a place where any student for the ministry, whatever his grade of preparation, can gain all of which he is capable in the way of theological training. No one for whom a college course is practicable, should forego that inestimable advantage. There are many worthy and useful men for whom the full college course is for various good reasons impracticable. These, as well as college graduates, are welcomed.
Properly indorsed students for the ministry of other denomina- tions are also admitted, and any who wish to avail themselves of its ad- vantages in preparation for other Christian work. The fullest pre- paratory training practicable is urged on all.
No charge is made for tuition or room rent. A fee of $15 a year is charged those who room in the building for incidentals, and $5 to those who room outside. A limited amount of aid can be given to approved students. They will also be given all practical assistance toward var- ious forms of self-support.
WESTERN UNIVERSITY AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.
A minister, the Rev. Edwin Blatchley, gave some of his money and much of his time to the foundation of a school for negroes at Quindaro about the time Abraham Lincoln emancipated the slaves. Ile called it the Freedman University and for several years it was in operation, but without marked success. It is said that Mr. Blatchley selected Quin- daro as the seat of the school because Ilorace Greeley, a few years before, told the people of the town that they were living on the site of a future great city. Mr. Greeley was not far wrong in his prophecy, for today the town is a part of Kansas City, Kansas. Mr. Blatchley's choice of the school site was not a failure, however, for no college could ask a location more fit for the purpose. The buildings are on hills overlook- ing a great bend in the Missouri river and, with tree-planting, the site could be made ideal.
Just before his death Mr. Blatchley expressed the hope that the little building then standing and the one hundred and thirty acres of land be always devoted to the education of negro youth. For years there was small prospect that his wish would be even partly fulfilled, for sometimes neither money, pupils or instructors were available. Fif- teen years ago William T. Vernon, of a fine African type, came to the school as instructor. He had been graduated from Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City and had taken lectures at Wilberforce University, Ohio. The Freedman University became the Western University, under con- trol of the African Methodist Episcopal church, with one instructor and twelve pupils. With an increase in pupils Professor Vernon hired two or three other teachers from Kansas City, Kansas, to give a few hours a
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week to the school. In fifteen years the school has so grown that today there are nine instructors and one hundred and two pupils. Seventy-five of the pupils board and sleep at the school. New buildings have been erected from time to time and the state industrial department has been made the main point in the instruction.
TEACHING THE NEGROES TRADES.
"The negro went into the higher branches too early," was the idea advanced by Professor Vernon. "Their first schools turned out law- yers, preachers or teachers nearly exclusively until the country was flooded with men of my race who wanted to make their way in the pro- fessions. The industrial side was overlooked. Teach the negro a trade and the commercial opportunity will follow. Every pupil in this school, unless ill health prevents, must put in half the time learning a trade. Maybe there's a chance for another Tuskegee here."
That policy is followed closely, it appears, in the Quindaro school. The girls are taught to sew and cook, and millinery has been added to the course. Ilalf of the day is given to dress-making or cooking, print- ing or book-making, and the rest of the time the pupils may devote to the common school branches, or to music, English or Latin, typewriting, stenography or bookkeeping. The boys must give either the afternoon or morning to the carpenter shop, cabinet-making, printing, mechanical drawing or building work about the school. The other half of the day is given to recitations. A tailoring department has been added and land is used to teach practical farming.
FRUGALITY THE CHIEF AIM.
From an announcement sent out by the institution this is taken : "It is not necessary that extravagant tastes be encouraged here; stu- dents are advised to bring strong, substantial clothing, but expensive apparel is not needed by one struggling for an education."
There is certainly little opportunity for extravagance at Quindaro and the student's expenses are surprisingly low. Tuition is $I a month, room rent costs another dollar and board is $5.50 a month. The boys and girls eat together in the dining hall, always under the supervision of an instructor, and there is great effort to teach them the table pro- prieties. The dining hall is in charge of a man and his wife, who are supposed to buy supplies with the money paid for board, reserving a stated percentage for their pay. Pupils, both boys and girls, do a certain amount of the work in the kitchen, in that manner holding down expenses and at the same time learning the rudiments of cooking. The food, of course is plain, but there is no restriction in the amount. The boys sleep in the second floor of Stanley hall, named for the late gover-
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nor of Kansas, and the girls are in a separate building. In elasses and recitations they are together.
EFFECT OF SCHOOL TRAINING.
What effect the school's training may have on the later life of the pupil is yet to be proved, but the present influence is very apparent. The scholars are orderly and more quiet, not only in the halls of the building, but about the grounds as well; possibly more so than the average lot of white college students. Their elothes are plain and, in many eases, show hard wear, but the mending has not been overlooked.
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WARD HALL AND INDUSTRIAL BUILDING, WESTERN UNIVERSITY.
Fifteen or twenty young negroes from sixteen to twenty-four years of age, at work in a carpenter shop, present a sight that makes the visitor stop to think. They handle the saws and planes as gravely as if they were really working for a contractor and there is not much to show they are boys trying to learn a trade that they can apply only under a strong handicap. In the printing offiee they stand at the ease as earnestly as if they were working on a regular newspaper. The cylinder press looks as if it were ready to run off a heavy edition for a small daily, and the little stationary engine throbs away with the business-like air that is apparent about the whole place. The teachers have at least given their charges a spirit of earnestness that is not evident in many manual training schools and is particularly surprising when found among the light-hearted Afrieans.
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THOROUGHINESS IN THE COURSES.
The school's plans, at least, are for thoroughness. In the sewing department, for instance, this is what is expected for the first year :
First term :- Position, threading needles, using thimbles; practice on odd bits of cloth ; basting, running, overhanding; hemming, stitching, overcasting.
Second term :- Felling-flat, bias and French fell; gathering, put- ting on bands; French hem on damask; blind stitching; putting in gusset, sewing on tape and buttons; making eyelets, buttonholes.
Third term :- Making an apron, hemming towels; darning, patch- ing, mending; tucking, whipping, ruffles; hemstitehing, herring bone stitch on flannels; making plain garments and faney underwear; free- hand drawing, simple bookkeeping.
In the last year of dressmaking instruction, following is the course :
First term :- Instruction in choice of material; draughting and making skirts from measurements; cutting sleeves, collars and waist patterns ; basting, trimming, finishing; free-hand drawing.
Second term :- Study of form and proportion in relation to draughting and trimming; draughting basques, sleeves, etc., from meas- urement; draughting basque with extra under arm pieee for stout figures; cutting and fitting plain, elose and double breasted garments ; free-hand drawing.
Third term :- Cutting and matching plaids, figured and striped waists; practice in the use of colors; cutting, fitting, pressing; talks on the choice of materials for house, street and evening wear: collars, pockets, jacket making; advanced work in making complete dresses from different materials; free-hand drawing.
The state of Kansas, by legislative appropriation, has contributed liberally to the support of the industrial department, while the African Methodist Episcopal church, in the states west of the Mississippi river, has maintained the university proper.
Professor Vernon, who was registrar of the United States treasury under President Roosevelt and also under President Taft, resigned his position at the head of the school in 1910 and was succeeded by Profes- sor HI. T. Kealing. A. M., a distinguished edueator of the south.
THE KANSAS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND.
No state institution has wrought with grander glory than has the Kansas Institution for the Education of the Blind, situated on a eom- manding eminence and rising from a restful mass of foliage at what was once the western edge of old Wyandotte, but now almost in the very center of Kansas City, Kansas. The naturally beautiful grove of ten acres, which comprises the ground, has been tastefully improved and the
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number of imposing buildings which have been erected during the forty-four years of its existence make the scene a stately, as well as a beautiful one.
What is now the south wing of the main building was erected in 1867, an appropriation of twenty thousand dollars having been obtained from the state for the erection of the building and the improvement of the grounds. The institution was opened September 7, 1868, under
KANSAS SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND.
the supervision of the late Hubbard H. Sawyer, and with an attendance of seven. From the first the aim of the management was to educate pupils and not to treat them as patients. They were, and are now re- quired to be, healthy mentally, morally and physically.
In March, 1867, the act was passed by the legislature to regulate an institution for the education of the blind, and appointing Dr. Fred Speck of Wyandotte, Hon. F. P. Baker of Topeka, and General Wil- liam Larimer of Leavenworth, as a commission to locate the institution. They seleeted Wyandotte. In March, 1870, Dr. W. W. Updegraft assumed charge, and in 1871 he was succeeded by Professor J. D. Parker.
It was during Professor Parker's able administration (in 1872) that the scope of the institution's usefulness was further enlarged by the establishment of an industrial department. The educational depart-
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ment had been in existence from the first, and the study of musie was brought into the course in 1869. In 1872 the legislature appropriated three thousand dollars for the erection of a shop, in which the boy students of the asylum could learn to make brooms, brushes, mattresses, cane seated chairs, ete. It was occupied in the spring of 1873. The hospital building, a substantial three story brick structure, was erected in 1879. Dr. Speck was the physician for many years.
The main or executive building, was erected in 1882, being occupied in June of that year. It is a commodious brick building, three stories and basement, with lofty tower, the schoolroom being in the first story, the chapel in the second and the dormitories in the third, with the din- ing room in the basement.
In the years that have followed, the Kansas legislature has pur- sued a liberal poliey with reference to expenditures for this worthy institution. New buildings have been erected, new equipments have been added, and, in fact, nothing has been left undone that would aid in the education and wise treatment of the sightless boys and girls of the state. It has for years been recognized as among the model schools for the blind in the United States.
Professor Parker was succeeded as superintendent, in 1875, by George H. Miller, who filled the position with honor until the adminis- tration of Governor Lewelling, in 1893-5, when the position was filled by the Rev. W. G. Todd. Mr. Miller was returned in 1895 and re- mained until the administration of Governor John W. Leedy, when William H. Toothaker came to serve two years. Mr. Toothaker was succeeded by Professor Lapier Williams, who was succeeded in 1909 by W. B. Hall, the present superintendent.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
HOSPITALS AND MEDICAL SCHOOLS.
ST. MARGARET'S HOSPITAL-BETHANY HOSPITAL-UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL AND HOSPITAL-OTHER HOSPITALS.
The service of the good Samaritan has been administered to more than fifty thousand afflicted persons in St. Margaret's Hospital during the twenty-four years that it has looked benignly down from the heights above the Kansas river in Kansas City, Kansas. It gives, day-in and day-ont, a visible and stanch assurance of aid and comfort to the busy world below, where, in the excitement of industrial activity, men play with death and rumbling wheels watch their opportunity to maim and mangle. The additions and the wings that have been added to the original main building give it distinction as one of the largest and best equipped hospitals in the country.
St. Margaret's is a monument to the energy, perseverance and the deep human sympathy of an humble priest, who has lived to see his fondest hopes realized in it. It is also a splendid evidence of public philanthropy without distinction of creed or sect and an enduring memorial to the patient and self-sacrificing devotion of a little band of Sisters of St. Francis.
While credit for the growth and enlargement of its work belongs to the Sisters, St. Margaret's owes its existence to the Rev. Father Anton Kuhls, founder and for nearly fifty years pastor, of St. Mary's parish in Kansas City, Kansas. In 1886 a respectable stranger, delirious with typhoid fever, was picked up in the streets of Wyandotte (as it was then called) and sent to the city jail. There was no other place in which he could be accommodated, and he begged to be permitted to die in the open air. The case attracted the attention of Father Kuhls. His heart was tonched and he was impressed with the need of a public hospital on the Kansas side of the line. He issued a stirring appeal to his fellow citizens to aid him in the project of establishing such an institution. This was the inception of the movement that resulted in the fine refuge for the sick, the poor and the maimed on the hills above the Kaw.
Father Kuhls came to Wyandotte county forty-seven years ago. His life work was to build up St. Mary's parish, where he has estab-
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lished a school and has laid the foundation for a magnificent ehureh edifice. llis most important achievement, however, considering its present magnitude as compared with the original project, was the build- ing of St. Margaret's Hospital. It has more than realized his highest hopes.
The building was begun on April 15, 1887, and dedicated November 19th of that year. Its dimensions were fifty by one hundred feet and the cost was $20,000. Of this all excepting $350 was Father Kuhl's own donation. When the Sisters arrived and the doors were opened
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ST. MARGARET'S HOSPITAL, KANSAS CITY.
it became apparent at once that the hospital would be inadequate to meet the demands upon it. This afforded the best of proof that it was needed.
In a public address, after the hospital had been opened, Father Kuhls set forth that it had been built and equipped at his own risk, and would be turned over to the Sisters of St. Francis. Then he deeded the property to them. He urged that liberal support be given the institution, and suggested that "promises fulfilled are real charities."
The original building had accommodations for fifty patients. Two years after it was finished, the west wing was construeted, providing
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room for fifty more. In three years another wing was built on the east side, and, by remodeling the other sections, room was provided for more than two hundred. A new addition later was built as an annex on the south side, and gives the building altogether, including the quarters of the attendants, three hundred rooms, every one of which is substantially furnished.
The site for the hospital was well chosen. It stands on one of the highest of the series of hills on the north side of the Kansas river. fronts on Vermont street, facing the north, and covers almost an entire block between Seventh and Eighth streets. The location is healthful and affords a magnificent view of the surrounding country. With its three stories reared majestically above the neighboring houses, it is easily distinguishable from a great distance. From any one of its myriad windows a varied and interesting panorama is seen.
St. Margaret's represents the very latest ideas in hospital arrange- ments. The large wards, with a score of beds in the same room, are not seen there. The largest room in the old building holds no more than ten, while in the new portion two beds to the rooms is the rule.
In the operating department the equipment is complete and up to date. One room is devoted exclusively to the steam appliances used in sterilizing the cloths and towels ready for the service of the surgeon. Another is the etherizing room, where the patient is placed on a wheeled couch and given the anaesthetic without having the mind disturbed by a view of the operating table. The couch is wheeled into the operating room, where everything is conveniently at the hands of the surgeons.
There are no religious or sectarian restrictions on the patients or their friends, and Protestant ministers have the same privilege of minis- tering the last consolation to the dying as Catholic. The Elks' lodge furnished and maintains one of the large rooms and other rooms are similarly maintained by individuals and church societies.
In the first year 545 patients were treated at the hospital ; last year the number was 2,400.
The medical and surgical staff, headed by Dr. George M. Gray, in- cludes some of the best known and most successful members of the pro- fession in the city. Provision is soon to be made for the isolation of consumptives and the establishment of a separate pavilion for infec- tious diseases. The work of the physicians is entirely gratuitous and the tireless devotion of the Sisters can only be appreciated through a knowledge of the work they do.
BETHANY HOSPITAL.
Bethany, one of the largest hospitals in the central west and the first public Protestant hospital to be established between the Mississippi river and the Pacific coast, was organized in March, 1892, by Dr. P. D.
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Hughes, Mrs. Reba S. Freeman, Mrs. V. J. Lane, K. P. Snyder, Dr. Hoyt and others. Dr. Hughes, for four years prior to that time, endeavored to interest the people in the matter of a Protestant hospital. Winfield Freeman and K. P. Snyder, attorneys, arranged a constitution and by- laws and applied for a charter from the state, which was granted March 8, 1892.
The management of the new institution was offered to any of the Protestant church organizations which would furnish the necessary nurses. The Chicago Training School for Deaconess Nurses, through Mrs. Luey Rider Meyer, who had been urging the extension of the Deaconess work in this section, furnished the nurses required, after eer- tain changes were made in the constitution making Bethany a Deaconess
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NEW BETHANY HOSPITAL.
hospital. Bishop W. X. Ninde of the M. E. church, residing in Topeka, was then asked to endorse the movement on behalf of the church organi- zation. In consultation with Doctor Hughes the Bishop suggested the name Bethany Hospital, which was adopted by the Board of Directors.
Thus eame into existence on May 16, 1892, Bethany Hospital. The General Conference of the M. E. church met in Omaha during that month and Mrs. Mayer eame from Omaha to Kansas City and spoke at the dedication of Bethany Hospital. In March, 1893, the Kansas Con- ference adopted Bethany Hospital as the institution of that body, and in 1908 the other three Kansas conferences, the St. Louis and the West German, followed its example. It was then the first Protestant hospital between St. Louis and the Pacific coast and between Omaha and the Gulf of Mexico.
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The call for the opening of the work in Kansas City was not ac- companied by money, land or houses. Neither were any monied individ- uals sent that the workers might feel that they had material backing. Along the way friends have been raised up where least expected, effi- cient workers have been sent, and, through their united efforts, wonder- ful progress has been made. While the institution now affords only limited accommodations and is not able to do as large a work as the times demand, yet those in control strive to have it of the very best quality.
While this hospital is organized under the provision of the Metho- dist Episcopal church, and while the burdens are largely borne by the members of this denomination, there is absolutely no discrimination in the distribution of its benefits. Without regard to color, nationality, creed or condition in life, patients are received into the hospital and given all the attention that the skill of its physicians and surgeons can supply, or its trained nurses suggest. Some years Bethany Hospital has done as high as seventy-five per cent of gratuitous work and has never fallen below thirty-three and one-third per cent, though there is no endowment fund. Friends have always supplied the needs to carry on the work.
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