USA > Missouri > A history of northwest Missouri, Volume III > Part 114
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119
The presence of such a citizen as D. A. Colvin in one community for more than forty years has an actuating and vitalizing influence in many ways. Few movements for the public welfare have been undertaken in this time without his cordial cooperation and support. Among other things he was instrumental in the building of the privately owned rail- road through Rockport, and is still financially interested in that enter- prise. As a banker his well known conservatism, his thorough integrity and popular relations as a citizen with the community have helped to give poise and stability to local business affairs. Mr. Colvin is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, is a past chancellor in the Knights of Pythias, and in politics a republican.
PARK COLLEGE. There are probably few residents of Northwest Missouri who are not familiar with at least the name of Park College, an institution which for forty years has been doing the service of enlighten- ment and of Christian education in its picturesque location on the rugged hills bordering the Missouri River in western Platte County. For the purpose of making the readers of this work better acquainted with the material facts, the ideals and the influence of this institution, the fol- lowing sketch finds an appropriate place in these pages.
Park College was founded in 1875 by Col. George Park and Rev. John A. McAfee. The latter was its president for a number of years, and was succeeded by his son, Lowell M. McAfee, and since the latter's retirement the acting president has been Dr. Arthur L. Wolfe. The fundamental idea of the founders was to provide a school for the training of young men and young women of limited means so as to make them efficient factors in Christian leadership. John A. McAfee had been con- ducting a private institution with similar aims, but without financial support, and Col. George Park was a business man who had long been interested in educational work and agreed to furnish the resources for such an undertaking. Professor McAfee brought seventeen students to Parkville, and the college was opened May 12, 1875. Colonel Park had donated land for the campus and an old stone hotel building. Since that date there has been a steady unfolding and growth, both in financial
2058
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
means of the institution and in its facilities and purposes of educational service.
Park College lies just east of the Town of Parkville, and nine miles from Kansas City. The campus contains eighty acres on the rugged bluffs of the Missouri River, a site of many attractive features, greatly improved by simple methods of landscape gardening. The buildings are nearly all of brick and stone, and most of them were built by student labor, only the more difficult technical parts having been performed by skilled artisans. The original building is Woodward Hall, which was formerly located on the river front. It was remodeled in 1894 and used as a men's dormitory until 1908, when the land was bought by the Burlington Railroad Company and the new hall constructed on the campus, much of the old material having been used. One of the older buildings is McCormick Chapel, of brick and stone, the gift of Mrs. Cyrus McCormick of Chicago, and erected in 1886. This chapel has seating capacity for 900, and is used for many of the college services and also for the services of the Presbyterian Church of the Sabbath School. Mackay Hall, three stories, was occupied in March, 1893, and contains lecture halls, laboratories and executive offices. In 1898 was erected the Charles Smith Scott Astronomical Observatory, located on the summit of a hill overlooking the campus and containing a complete equipment of superior instruments. The Carnegie Library, gift of Andrew Carnegie, built in 1909, provides room for a library of over twenty-five thousand volumes. As a result of gifts from the Alumni Association one of the newer and handsome structures on the campus is the Alumni Building, containing an auditorium, offices, banqueting hall and other facilities for social purposes. A pumping station was built in 1897, and in 1906 a heating, lighting and power plant was completed, furnishing power and light both to the college and to the Town of Parkville. Another building, the headquarters of the industrial features of the college life, is Labor Hall, built in 1906. From funds supplied by the late Anthony Dey of New York, Waverly Hospital was completed in 1912. There are also nine dormitory buildings, and shop buildings preserve the aims of industrial and vocational education, including printing office, planing mill, storage building, etc.
The first class was graduated from the college in 1879, and in that year the state granted a charter and its government has since been under control of a self-perpetuating board of trustees, with affiliations with the Presbyterian Church. While not a sectarian school, the religious feature has always been emphasized, and the college maintains several strong organizations, the Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association, and also a student volunteer band for foreign missions. Over one hundred of the alumni are scattered in foreign mission service in all the countries of the globe. Another organ- ization that deserves mention is the Park College Chapter of the Asso- ciation of Cosmopolitan Clubs, whose object is the cultivation of fraternal spirit among students of different nationalities and the promotion of universal peace. While under the same general control, Park College has two distinct departments, one for the regular collegiate work, and the other of academic scope. There are six college literary societies, and four societies in the academy. Ample facilities are given for athletic work, but athletic competition is confined to the college bodies, without participation in intercollegiate sports. Park College has graduated nearly nine hundred young men and young women, who are now found in twenty-three different countries of the world, and at least five thou- sand others have been students for longer or shorter periods, and have
2059
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
gained there some of the inspiration and efficiency for the work of their lives.
Aside from the work of Park College in its regular academic and collegiate departments, and its persistent influence in the training of men and women for Christian citizenship, there are two distinctive features which deserve some notice.
The first is what is called the "College Family Idea," continuing the early purpose of the founders to make it a school for the education of people of moderate means. As a result of the evolution of this idea a larger part of the students of Park College are found enrolled in its students' service, reducing the expenses of a college education by con- tributing three hours daily labor in some branch or other of the work of maintenance. Thus the students are to a large degree a family circle, to some extent self-supporting, and standing in the relation of giving as well as receiving the benefits of college life.
Out of this first idea, with the continued growth of the school, have necessarily been developed a great variety of utilities for the practical services of the student body which are not only an integral working part of the institution, but furnish a means of practical education to · those engaged. This industrial work is esteemed of the highest value as giving wholesome physical exercise, developing practical efficiency, and producing a symmetrical training for life. Many students become expert workmen at their special crafts, but few choose them as permanent vocations. The largest department is the farm, where much of the food consumed by the college family is produced and prepared for use. The farm consists of 1,200 acres of fertile Platte County land adjacent to the campus. Five hundred acres are under cultivation, and the students themselves perform much of the labor of the fields. An immense amount of grain, hay, garden vegetables and other farm products are raised, and a striking feature is the apple orchard of 160 acres. The farm has a dairy herd of sixty-seven Holstein cattle, and the young farmers thus gain a practical experience in a modern sanitary dairy. This farm in its equipment of machinery, livestock and general manage- ment is a model institution of itself, and it is performing a great service in the training of young men who go from Park College to places on farms of their own. An auxilliary to the farm is a canning factory, where the raw products of the land are preserved. The surplus products are sold at the regular market rate. In the printing shop opportunities are given to those who are inclined to this particular line of industry, and all the publications of the college are printed there. Other college shops are carpenter shop, planing mill, broom factory, and also the light and power plant.
From this sketch it will be seen that Park College has succeeded in fitting its service closely into relationship with the demands of modern life, and in the forty years since its founding the influences emanating therefrom have helped to mold and direct the activities of many thou- sands of the world's workers.
ARTHUR L. WOLFE, Ph. D. The present acting president of Park College is Arthur L. Wolfe, who was born at Montclair, New Jersey, September 16, 1866, and has been identified with this institution con- tinuously for twenty-six years.
Doctor Wolfe was reared at Montclair, attended the common and high schools, graduated in 1885 and then entered the New York University, where he took his degree A. B. in 1889. In the fall of the same year he came to Park College as professor of Latin. While an undergraduate at New York University he had won a fellowship, and by post-graduate
·
2060
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
study he obtained from his alma mater in 1892 the degree Ph. D. He is the author of a handbook of Latin Syntax and of the Elements of the Science of Language. Aside from his professorship he has always been interested in college activities. In 1913 he was elected dean of the faculty, and on July 1, 1913, was made acting president.
During 1901-02 Doctor Wolfe was given leave of absence from his work, and spent some months in the University of Leipsic, Germany, and in the American Classical School of Rome.
In 1890 at Montelair, New Jersey, he married Gertrude R. Snow, who was born at Albany, New York, January 28, 1867. They are the parents of five children: Arthur Whiting, now a student in Chicago; Austin Robert, a student in Park College; Herbert Snow, also in Park College; Edward Winslow and Hugh Campbell.
Dr. and Mrs. Wolfe are both active members of the Presbyterian Church, and Doctor Wolfe is a member of the Parkville Board of Education.
WILLIAM HENRY CONN. Probably few men in Northwest Missouri have better exemplified the principle of self-help or have made better use of the opportunities of life in spite of the limitations of physical powers than the present probate judge of Nodaway County and judge of the Juvenile Court, William Henry Conn. His has been a career of loyal usefulness and service, and his general popularity is based not only upon his personal character and his gallant fight against difficulties, but upon his practical value as a working member of his community.
Judge Conn has been a resident of Nodaway County since 1890, in which year he located at Ravenwood and spent four years in the milling business, followed by activity as a real estate man. In 1906 he received the republican party's nomination for the office of probate judge, was elected, four years later was renominated and again elected, and in 1914 was again his party's nominee for a third term. Throughout the eight years of his official service the citizens of Nodaway County have felt that the interests of widows and orphans were safely intrusted, and he has also made the Juvenile Court an agency of reform and improve- ment and has corrected the wayward course of many boys not naturally vicious.
Judge Conn was born in Hancock County, Illinois, November 4, 1846, being the youngest of four children of Henry and Permelia (Miles) Conn. The parents were born, reared and married in the State of New York, and moved to Illinois in 1840. When Judge Conn was about five years of age his parents located in Lee County, Illinois, and it was in that section of the prairie state that he was reared and educated. Following the discovery of gold in California his father left Illinois, and after a varied career there of about four years, died in that state. Judge Conn received his education in the public schools of Lee County, was graduated from the Teachers' Institute and Classical Seminary at Paw Paw, Illinois. In 1866 his widowed mother and her other children moved out to Worth County, Missouri, and Judge Conn followed them in 1870. He was a teacher in Worth County, and also served four years as county superintendent of public schools. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a Baptist in religious faith.
When a child of two years Judge Conn sustained an injury from a fall that weakened his spine, and since then he has never had the use of his lower limbs. It was with this severe handicap he had to face the world, and few careers better illustrate the efficiency of a well-trained
2061
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
mind and well-poised character than the life of Judge Conn, as briefly outlined in this sketch.
CHILLICOTHE BUSINESS COLLEGE. To many thousand people in Mis- souri and elsewhere Chillicothe is best known for its associations with the old Chillicothe Normal School, which in recent years has become the Chillicothe Business College. This institution is a monument to the late Allen Moore, a sketch of whose life has been briefly outlined in following paragraphs.
The late Allen Moore came to Chillicothe early in 1890 from Stan- berry, Missouri, where he had been successfully identified with the Stanberry Normal as instructor and half owner. He was attracted to Chillicothe because of the progressive spirit of its citizens, the wealth of the surrounding agricultural territory, and the superior railroad facili- ties. Another influence, already noted, was the fact that his wife's people lived in the adjoining County of Linn. Mr. Moore made a proposition for the establishment and maintenance of the normal school, provided a stock company among the local citizens would purchase desirable ground and construct a building suitable for school purposes. Furthermore Mr. Moore guaranteed to erect on the chosen site a dormitory of three stories and to pay rental to the stock company for the use of the college building. The citizens accepted his proposition, and following a cam- paign of determined effort and enthusiasm the sum of $25,000 was raised. The first building was hurriedly but substantially erected, and in 1890 the institution was incorporated as the Chillicothe Normal School and Business Institute, with thirteen of Livingston County's well known citizens on the board of directors. The building was completed in the fall of 1890, and the school opened about the same time.
In the scope of the work the institution at first offered courses in common school branches, pedagogy, science, classics, bookkeeping, stenog- raphy, penmanship, elocution, music and photography. The first year's enrollment was 600. With the growing reputation of the school and its head, the attendance increased, the faculty was enlarged, and additional courses added. The school grew more rapidly than its material facilities and the financial resources of the local stock company. As a result Mr. Moore, in 1899, purchased the outstanding stock, and became sole owner. In 1900 the third building was erected on the campus, supplying facili- ties which had been urgently needed for fully eight years. All that time the work of instruction in the normal school had been maintained at the highest standards, such that the State University and other normal colleges accepted the grades and allowed full credit for work done at Chillicothe. But with the beginning of the present century conditions changed. The State University, with its large income from the state, introduced and expanded its academic and normal work, several new state normal schools were established with liberal appropriations, and the high schools were graded up and made more efficient and offering more courses. Thus the private normal school had to compete with a growing number of institutions supported by local and state government. While the services of a private normal became correspondingly less important, the complexity of modern civilization offered other fields for a private school. There was a demand for telegraph operators, and the Chillicothe Normal was the first institution of its kind to introduce telegraphy and courses in practical railroad work as regular departments of its curriculum.
The death of the founder of the Chillicothe Normal, Allen Moore, Sr., occurred January 9, 1907. His life had centered in the institution, and it represented his highest ambitions and efforts. He had planned for its Vol. III-49
2062
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
continuation, and had reared his sons with the idea that they should continue the work when he should retire. After his death Allen Moore, Jr., became president and Ralph LeRoy Moore became vice president. The institution under their management was continued along the original lines for almost three years, but as the demand for business education increased with more and more competition in the normal department from state institutions, the young men wisely placed additional emphasis upon the business departments. In the fall of 1910 the normal depart- ment was abandoned, and the new title of the school became the Chilli- cothe Business College and College of Telegraphy. At first, however, only the advanced work in the normal department was dropped, other- wise classes being maintained in all branches required for the different grades of certificates in Missouri. With the opening of the school year in September, 1911, this feature was also abandoned, and since that time the Chillicothe Business College has conformed strictly to its name. There has been a marvelous growth of the business college, and its attendance has increased to such proportions that additional buildings became necessary, leading to the erection of Dryden Hall, a modern dormitory of twenty-four rooms for young men. The Chillicothe Busi- ness College occupies the largest plant in America devoted exclusively to business education. Its patronage is national in scope, and each year some students are enrolled from foreign countries. Approximately thirty thousand men and women have attended the Chillicothe institution since it was founded, and a large number of them have reached positions of business prominence and success. While the present institution is a monument to the efforts of its founder, the spirit of his work has been ably continued by his sons, who are equally well qualified as educators and administrators.
ALLEN MOORE. One of the foremost educators of Missouri was the late Allen Moore, who was distinguished not only as a teacher, but as an educational executive and administrator, and during his active life in North Missouri founded, built up and gave remarkable prestige to the Chillicothe Normal School and was also owner and president of the Stanberry Normal School at Stanberry, and part owner of the Spring- field Normal School at Springfield, Missouri (a private normal). The late Allen Moore exerted a larger influence on the life of the state than many men whose names more frequently appeared in the current press. Under his regime the Chillicothe Normal maintained the highest standards of instruction and life in general. A long procession of students passed through its halls, and there are hundreds of successful men and women in the world who have grateful memories of the kindly and helpful influence exercised by Mr. Moore as an executive and teacher.
Allen Moore was born July 4, 1853, at Huntington, Huntington County, Indiana, and died January 9, 1907. His parents were Samuel and Elizabeth (Wiley) Moore, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of Ohio. His father was a farmer, and spent his active career in Huntington County, Indiana. It was in that state and county that the late Allen Moore spent his early boyhood, and had training in the district schools. At a early age one of those adversities befell him which often serve to bring up and refine the highest qualities of manhood. At the age of fourteen he contracted white swelling, and for seven years walked on crutches, and never entirely recovered the use of one leg. This affliction unfitted him for the so-called active work of the world, but limited in one direction, there was proportionate enlargement and ex- pansion of his intellectual horizon and he always showed a splendid faculty for organization and for effective carrying out of plans formu-
2063
HISTORY OF NORTHWEST MISSOURI
lated in his own mind. At an early age he was given a certificate as a teacher, and taught twenty-six terms in the public schools of Indiana. In the meantime he had continued his education in higher institutions, at the National Normal University at Lebanon, Ohio, and later the Northern Indiana Normal School at Valparaiso, Indiana, from which institution he was a graduate. His expenses in these colleges were defrayed by his work as a teacher.
Mr. Moore came to Missouri in 1881, locating at Stanberry, where he became principal of the commercial department and teacher of English in a school conducted there by Professor Morris. After the death of Professor Morris, who was the founder of the school, Mr. Moore and J. E. Fesler became joint owners of the institution, and after the retirement of Mr. Moore, Mr. Fesler was sole proprietor for a number of years. Mr. Moore came to Chillicothe in 1890, and organized the stock company which built the Chillicothe Normal. In 1899 Mr. Moore became sole owner of the institution which he conducted until his death. He is remembered for his especial gifts as a teacher of English, and was also a polished speaker and one of the most popular lecturers before teachers' institutes and assemblies in the state. In the autumn before his death he had addressed twenty-nine county teachers' meetings in addi- tion to the heavy burdens involved in the management of his own schools.
At the time of his death Mr. Moore was also owner of the Stanberry Normal at Stanberry, and half owner of the Springfield Normal at Springfield. The old Stanberry School has since burned, while the lease of the Springfield Normal was sold to the state when the State Normal was located there. After buying the Springfield Normal, Mr. Moore divided his time between that institution and the Chillicothe Normal for one year, at the end of which time J. A. Taylor purchased a one-half interest and took active charge of the Springfield school. Mr. Moore also owned a farm in Livingston County, and at his death left a splendid property to Mrs. Moore and the children.
Though a democrat, he was never active in politics. He had been reared in the faith of the Quaker Church, and always regarded that faith as his own.
In 1883 Allen Moore married Miss Emma J. Dryden of Linneus, Missouri. Mrs. Moore had grown up in that section of Missouri, and her presence in the state was one of the factors that influenced him to locate here permanently. Mrs. Moore died January 19, 1908, a little more than a year after her husband. To their marriage were born seven children, two of whom died in infancy, and the others are mentioned as follows: Allen, Jr., Ralph LeRoy, Irene, Elizabeth, and George Dryden, who died at the age of fourteen, not long after his father.
After the death of their father the sons, Allen, Jr., and Ralph LeRoy, came into the possession and management of the Chillicothe Normal School, which they continued as a normal until 1910. It was then con- verted into a business college, and has since been known as the Chillicothe Business College and College of Telegraphy. The attendance has in- creased largely since the change, and the daily enrollment is now 600 pupils with a yearly attendance of 1,200. As an exclusive business college it has the largest plant in the state. When the Springfield Normal School was leased to the state, Allen Moore (senior) and J. A. Taylor built the Springfield Business College, a one-half interest of which was left to the five children and which interest is still held by the estate. The institution has a yearly attendance of about one thousand pupils. In 1915 the two brothers and J. A. Taylor established at Joplin, Missouri, the Joplin Business College, which, profiting by the experience and prestige of the names associated with its ownership, now has a yearly
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.