USA > Nebraska > York County > York County, Nebraska and its people : together with a condensed history of the state, Vol. II > Part 3
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Rev. Wm. Peck, A. M., professor of German and French and instructor in military science.
Dexter P. Nicholson, M. S., professor of natural science.
Rev. A. R. Wightman, professor of Latin and Greek.
Professor Smith, A. M., professor higher mathematics.
Edwin R. Andrus, M. Accounts, professor of commercial science.
The art department of the college is accomplishing a great work in our midst. It is certainly a rare treat to visit the art rooms, study the fine productions of art, and note the skill and progress of the students. This department is taught by Ella Thomson, instructor in portrait painting and crayoning.
Miss Louisa Vance, instructor in drawing, pastel painting, etc.
Our music department offers a fine opportunity to the student for music culture. It is constantly growing in magnitude and influence. The instructors in this department are :
D. B. Worley, M. G., professor of musical composition, vocal music and organ. Miss Anna Reavis, M. G., professor of piano music.
Miss Montie Harper, M. G., professor of violin and assistant on piano.
Connected with the college is the ladies' hall, in which young ladies may room and live in the family of the president, under the special charge of the preceptress.
The financial basis of the college is good. While its endowment fund is indeed not yet sufficient to sustain the heavy financial burden of an institution of this kind, yet this fund is daily increasing. As an evidence of the hold this college has upon the sympathies of the people of this state may be mentioned the fact that one man, Hon. J. W. Small of Fairfield, contributed lately the sum of $15,000 to its support. Besides this, the simple fact that the college is under the control and management of one of the great religious denominations of the land, which is pledged to its support, is sufficient to insure its permaneney and snecess.
A fight was put up to retain this school, as shown better by the following story from the Democrat in November and December, 1888 :
Voters should bear the fact in mind that the location of the university at this place largely depends upon the result of the vote next Saturday. Three of the board of control have expressed themselves as willing to vote for the location at York if the bonds carry. The great complaint that has always been urged against our city in matters of this kind has been our want of railroad facilities. Parties living north or south of this place find it impossible to reach York unless by traveling a hundred miles ont of their way. With this great drawback removed, we are informed that our chances are good to secure the university. There is no question whatever that the bonds will carry in the City of York, and there should be none in the adjacent townships. A vote for the bonds is a vote indirectly for the location of a great institution of learning in our midst.
640
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY
List of Contributors for the Location of the University at York
F. L. Mayhew $2,000.00
Jas. D. White. 50.00
F. O. Bell
1,000.00
E. A. Gilbert. 50.00
McNeal and wife. 1,000.00
Hackney & Son 50.00
F. F. Mead 1,000.00
J. Ragan 50.00
E. J. Wightman 50.00
Mrs. J. W. Small 1,000.00
HI. Kleinschmidt 50.00
G. A. Beck. 500.00
W. D. Stuart 50.00
W. M. Knapp 500.00
A. B. Test. 25.00
M. Sovereign
500.00
D. Hutchison 25.00
E. P. Warner
500.00
August Baker 25.00
Lee Love 500.00
F. N. Rial
25.00
N. M. Ferguson 500.00
A. B. Codding. 250.00
J. M. Mckenzie. 250.00
Ella Graves 25.00
J. R. Beveridge 250.00
N. Kennedy 25.00
A. Montgomery 250.00
W. Frew 25.00
D. E. Sedgwick
250.00
J. N. Plumb
25.00
W. E. Morgan.
250.00
F. (. Merrifield 25.00
F. Sovereign 25.00
J. V. Gardner. 250.00
R. F. Chipperfield 25.00
John Galagher
250.00
Mrs. Blackburn 25.00
P. H. Isham.
100.00
Mrs. Jackson 25.00
E. B. Atkins.
100.00
E. Vandeventer
25.00
Doctor Carscadden
100.00
M. M. Wildman 25.00
C. C. Cobb.
100.00
Mrs. L. A. Weed. 25.00
A. F. Bloomer
100.00
H. S. Braneht . 25.00
O. P. Sheldon
100.00
W. H. Eagleson 25.00
S. C. Grippen
100.00
Geo. Holgate 5.00
W. J. Linch
100.00
W. L. Morgan
25.00
J. Sollenberger
100.00
J. K. Lewis. 25.00
W. T. Scott.
100.00
R. M. McKaig
$2,000.00
(. Il. Jerome
100.00
E. M. Cheney 1,000.00
Mrs. H. T. Davis
100.00
J. H. Mickey 1,000.00
Doctor Forristall
100.00
J. W. Barnes.
1,000.00
W. Kneeshaw
100.00
F. G. Mayhew 1,000.00
F. B. Daggy
100.00
F. K. Atkins
500.00
Ewen & Butler 100.00
Kate Harrison
500.00
D. E. Sayre.
100.00
E. M. Battis.
500.00
T. J. Hatfield
50.00
Mrs. Crapser
500.00
S. P. Buckmaster 50.00
Ladies M. E .- Church. 500.00
F. A. Creighton 50.00
M. B. Atkins. 500.00
Leroy Ilill 50.00
Wm. Cowell 250.00
E. MeCarty
50.00
Doctor Farley 250.00
G. W. Markham
50.00
M. P. Harrison
250.00
Venie Harrison
50.00
J. C. Lenox 250.00
J. A. Johnson 50.00
A. C. Snyder. 250.00
D. Iliesler 250.00
C. T. Macy 25.00 Clem Wilde 25.00
G. W. Post. 1,000.00
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY
641
D. P. Nicholson. 250.00
M. E. Sunday School 250.00
Will Wyckoff 50.00
A. R. Wightman 250.00
A. O. Faulkner 50.00
E. W. Mosher 250.00
H. J. Porter 50.00
Mrs. G. Harrison. 200.00
John Frew 50.00
S. Alexander 200.00
C. S. Edwards. 100.00
A. J. Newman
100.00
J. S. Morrison 100.00
G. II. Wehn 100.00
T. D. Knapp
100.00
Duke Slavens
100.00
Anna Beck 25.00
J. M. Bell.
100.00
L. F. Newville 25.00
W. L. Whedon.
100.00
Blanche Burns 25.00
A. D. Wyckoff.
100.00
Mrs. C. Beveridge. 25.00
B. II. Westervelt 100.00
G. HI. Jerome 25.00
A. Brubaker 100.00
Lottie Cornwell 25.00
T. Eddy Bennett
100.00
Annie Harrison
25.00
G. A. Hobson
100.00
C. A. Ewen
20.00
Woods Bros.
100.00
T. L. Baily . 25.00
O. H. Blackburn
50.00
Jennie Osborn 25.00
G. F. Ingalls
50.00
Geo. Floek
25.00
H. E. Wells
50.00
John Atkinson 25.00
Harper 50.00
L. R. Biekley
25.00
Mrs. Doctor Sedgwick.
50.00
Robbie Codding 25.00
R. McCarty
50.00
Mrs. MeKinzie
25.00
Buckmaster & Knight.
50.00
John Bishop 25.00
M. A. Green
50.00
Goldson Prewitt
25.00
WESLEYAN HISTORY
The following press excerpt describes the development of Nebraska Wesleyan as the outgrowth of pioneer experience. Over forty years ago a college was founded at York. For five years there were graduating classes. In 1886 a joint university commission representing the annual conferences and the then existing colleges of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Nebraska evolved a plan of consolidation for one university. A board of trustees was organized to consist of seven trustees from each conference in Nebraska. The charter was granted in 1887. Since then the alumni have been given places on the board. With the opening of classes on the present site of Wesleyan in University Place, September 18, 1888, there were thirty students. The institution has multiplied that number many times.
Nebraska Wesleyan alumni are found in twenty-eight states of the Union and about a dozen countries. The student body is drawn mainly from Nebraska, but large numbers of students from neighboring states also attend. The faculty has been largely increased this summer. Also a number of the professors have received this summer advanced degrees for work completed in other institutions.
L. F. Smith and wife. 50.00
N. A. Sherman 25.00
P. W. Dale 25.00
J. L. Sleeper 25.00
Wm. Bernstein 5.00
O. Washburn 5.00
642
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY
YORK BUSINESS COLLEGE
The York Business College was founded during the summer of 1901, and commenced operations September 10th of that year. President Jacobs, the founder of this school, has had four years' experience as teacher of commercial and short- hand branches, and this, combined with his business and executive ability, has accounted in large part for the success of the school.
Before the opening of the school the second floor of the Wirt Block, consisting of ten large and convenient rooms, was secured for the use of the school. Two of these rooms have since been thrown into one to make room for the greatly increased attendance and other rooms have been secured until in 1903 the York Business College occupies in all thirteen rooms.
The furniture and equipment are everything that could be desired for business college work. The offices for business practice, the furniture of which was manu- factured expressly for its use, contain large counters, containing drawers. book vaults, and every convenience known to the modern accounting house. The type- writing room is well equipped with new Remington and Smith Premier typewriters. mimeograph, etc. A library of several hundred volumes occupies one end of the large recitation room. An elegant piano, which is used in the chapel exercises, literary, etc., occupies a corner in the large commercial room. The furniture throughout is such as might be expected in a well-equipped business college.
For night school, literary, receptions, lectures, etc., the school is lighted by electric lights. The city water in the hall connecting the rooms is a great con- venience.
The attendance at the York Business College has shown a remarkable growth. While the school opened September 10, 1901, with nine students and increased to 125 during the first year, it began its second year's work with an enrollment of twenty-five the first day, and on January 1, 1903, had a much larger attendance than it had one year before.
The graduates of the first year number thirty-tive, many of whom hold some of the most important positions in the business world. Among its graduates may be found the most successful teachers, stenographers and accountants, while many have entered other fields of usefulness. But whatever vocation they have entered, they are eminently successful and their success reflects credit upon their alma mater.
Five courses of study were offered by this school, viz., commercial, post-graduate commercial, shorthand and typewriting, reporting shorthand and normal. These courses are practical, and while short they give the student the training necessary in his chosen line.
The teachers were specialists in their respective branches and took great interest in the individual welfare of each student. Professor Eberly, the penmanship spe- cialist, made a wide reputation as a plain and ornamental penman, The colored cards written by him were very attractive. Professor Jacobs was eminently sue- cessful in placing his students and graduates in good positions. During the year he received many calls that he could not fill.
A brief history of the York Business College would not be complete without mentioning in a special way the great commencement exercises which were held in the York auditorimn, April 10, 1902. The large auditorium was packed with
1
YORK BUSINESS COLLEGE ** NORMAL SCHOOL.
YORK BUSINESS COLLEGE AND NORMAL SCHOOL
THE NEW YOLE PUBLIC LIBRARY
ASTOR, LE VUA AV . TILDAN FOUNDATIONS
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645
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY
friends, and Chancellor AyIsworth of Cotner University delivered a very interesting address upon "The Modern Era of Education." Excellent music was rendered and at the close of the exercises President Jacobs presented diplomas to twenty-six grad- nates. After the commencement exercises a banquet was held in the business col- lege. A graduation banquet was also held June 15, at which time the second class of the York Business College graduated. The next commencement exercises were held about April 1, 1903.
In the brief period which marks the existence of the York Business College it has made a remarkable record, and its future even promises a greater success than the past has achieved. It has already taken front rank among the business colleges of the West.
After President Jacobs terminated his connection with this institution, about 1905, it was taken over and for many years very successfully conducted by Buckley Brothers.
In 1916 the school became affiliated with York College and, under the auspices of that institution, is managed by Prof. O. V. Moore.
PRESIDENT G. M. JACOBS
Sketches of Professor and Mrs. Jacobs prepared in 1903 showed that President Jacobs, founder of this sehool, was born in Nemaha County, Kansas. November 10, 1878. His education began in a little country schoolhouse, and, upon graduating from the common school, he entered the commercial department of Campbell University, Holton, Kan., from which he graduated in the spring of 1896. The next year was spent in the Western Normal College, Shenandoah, Iowa, from which he graduated March 22, 1897. Mr. Jacobs is also a graduate of the shorthand department of the Fremont Normal School. He holds five diplomas, two of which confer degrees. In his work as teacher, which covers a period of nearly six years, he has ever been a elose student, which accounts in a large measure for his success. September 3, 1901, he was married to Miss Imogene Houser, a charm- ing young lady of Illinois.
Mrs. G. M. Jacobs was a native of Illinois. She, like her husband, was reared in the country, and after completing her course in the distriet school entered the high school at Lincoln, Ill., and upon her graduation she entered the Illinois Woman's College at Jacksonville, where her literary education was obtained.
Mrs. Jacobs, having a strong desire for business college work, entered the com- mercial department of the Eureka (Ill.) Business College, graduating in the spring of 1900. The following year was spent in the study of shorthand at York, Neb., where she graduated with high honors June 12, 1901. She is conversant with both the Pitman and Gregg systems, and has proved an eminently successful teacher. Mrs. Jacobs took an active part in teaching and management of the York Business College, and its early success was due in no small degree to her untiring efforts.
THE URSULINE CONVENT
This wonderful institution was located at York in 1890. The following account details the part played by the citizens of this community in receiving it and starting it upon its grand work here:
616
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY
Considerable talk and some little work has been indulged in the past week, in regard to securing the Ursuline School for York. The board of trade has held two meetings and on Tuesday night a mass meeting was held and the matter thoroughly discussed. The committee appointed by the board was endorsed and considerable enthusiasm was manifested. It was decided to relieve the syndicate property of debt which is about $9.000 by subscribing ninety shares of $100 each. To affect this indebtedness it is estimated that nearly or about $6,000 can be collected from the contracts of the lots that have been sold, leaving but about one-third of the indebtedness to raise in cash. A person who subscribes one share or $100 will probably not be called upon to pay over $30 of the amount, the balance of his $100 being realized from the lots already sold. Judge Post, C. J. Nobes, and F. O. Bell each headed lists with subscriptions of five shares, or $500 each. Other good subscriptions have been taken, and with one last effort the matter can be brought to a successful issue and the necessary amount pledged in a very short time. From the Peoria Journal of Monday morning we learn that the Sisters have made the sale of the convent property at Peoria and are ready to come to York just as soon as their proposition is accepted here. The citizens committee who have the matter in charge are M. Sovereign, G. W. Post. C. J. Nobes, N. P. Lundeen and George F. Corcoran. If the committee does not find you. hunt them and put down your name for a few hundred.
In deference to the wishes of those who conduct this institution. the compiler has refrained from any personal roster of those in charge or attendance thereat, and given the space that is allotted to this noble enterprise to a short, historical account of the order. So thoroughly and completely does each member of this order merge her personality into the order to which she dedicates her life, that this is entirely appropriate, for they prefer the tribute paid to the noble order rather than to the individual. The institution at York was opened by a band of Ursulines driven from their German home by the Kulterkampf, after they had worked for some time in the diocese of Peoria, Ill.
From time to time notable improvements have been made to the plant at York, and it is now a well-equipped and very successful school.
St. Angela's Hall. a more recent addition to the Ursuline Convent. was dedicated on Thursday, May 6, 1909, by the Rt. Rev. Thomas Bonacum. bishop of Lincoln. This new building. fully equipped, was an addition of much worth to the Ursuline Convent and an improvement which the patrons of the school fully appreciated.
The Ursulines. A religious order founded by St. Angela de Merici for the sole purpose of educating young girls. It was the first teaching order of women estab- lished in the church, and up to the present date has adhered strictly to the work of its appointed mission to lay the foundations of an educational order. Angela for seventeen years could do no more than direct a number of young women who were known as "The Company of St. Ursula." but who continued to live in the midst of their own families, meeting at stated times for conferences and devotional exercises. The many difficulties that hindered the formation of the new institute gave way at last, and in 1535 twelve members were gathered together in a com- munity with episcopal approbation, and with St. Angela de Merici as superioress. The movement was taken up with great enthusiasm and spread rapidly through- out Italy, Germany and France. Within a few years the company numbered many
URSULINE CONVENT, YORK
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THE NEW YOU PUBLIC LIBRARY
AST. TENT TILOEN FOO. DALLUNE
649
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY
houses, each independent. Constitutions suited to the work of the institute were developed and completed shortly before the death of the foundress in 1540. In 1544 the first approbation was received from Paul III and the Rule of St. Augustine adopted. Many important details were left unsettled at this time, and as a result several congregations developed, all calling themselves Ursulines but differing widely in dress and customs. The largest and most influential of these were the Congregation of Paris and the Congregation of Bordeaux. In 1572 St. Charles Borromeo, cardinal archbishop of Milan, obtained for the new congregation the status of a monastic order with enclosure. In some of the older European con- vents, in Canada and Cuba, strict enclosure is still observed ; in other sections, though nowhere entirely abolished, the enclosure has been modified to meet local conditions. A bull of final approbation was given in 1618 by Paul V.
In the early part of the seventeenth century an appeal was made from Canada for bands of religious women to undertake the arduous task of training the Indian girls to Christian habits of life. It met with an instant and generous response. In 1639 Madame de la Peltrie, a French widow of comfortable means, offered herself and all that she had to found a mission in Canada, In May of that year she sailed from Dieppe accompanied by three Ursulines and three hospital sisters. At Quebec the latter founded a Hotel Dieu, the former, the first Ursuline convent on the western continent.
The superioress of the new foundation was Mother Marie de l'Incarnation Guyard, whose heroic virtues won from the Holy See the title of venerable in the year 1877, and the process of whose canonization is about to be presented. The earliest establishment of the Ursulines in the United States also owes its origin to French initiative. In 1727 Mother Marie Tranchepain, with ten companions, embarked from L'Orient to found their convent at New Orleans. After years of struggle a firm foothold was secured, and the Ursulines still flourish in the city of their original foundation. A notable feature of Ursuline labors in the United States may be found in the history of the Rocky Mountain missions, where for years they have labored for the Indians, and have established ten flourishing centers. From these western foundations have sprung two branches in Alaska.
In accordance with the wish of Leo XIII, a congress of Ursulines from all parts of the world convened at Rome during the fall of the year 1900. Repre- sentatives were sent from the United States, South America, Java, and all parts of Europe. Under the auspices of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, the Roman Union of Ursulines was then formed, with the Most Reverend Mother Mary of St. Julien as the first mother-general. Cardinal Satolli was appointed the first cardinal protector. To this union belong over a hundred communities, and aggregations are made from year to year. The united communities are divided into eight provinces as follows: Italy, Austro-Hungary, Hungary, the East of France, the West of France, Holland-Belgium-England-Germany, the North of the United States, the South of the United States, Spain and Portugal. Many large and important communities still retain their independent organization. Of late years the Ursulines have suffered severely in France and Portugal. The members of the expelled communities have become affiliated with other foundations both in Europe and the United States.
The habit of the order is of black serge, falling in folds, with wide sleeves. On ceremonial occasions a long train is worn. The veil of the professed religious is
650
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY
black, of the novice white. The guimpe and bandeau are of plain white linen, the cincture of black leather. There are two grades in each community: the choir religious, so called from their obligation to recite the office daily in choir; and the lay sisters. The former are ocenpied in teaching, the latter in domestic duties. Candidates for either grade pass six months' probation as postulants in the com- munity in which they desire to become stabilitated. This period is followed by two years of preparation in a central novitiate at the expiration of which the three vows of religion are prononneed temporarily for a term of three years. At the end of the third year the profession is made perpetual. In some Ursuline communities solemn vows are taken, and there papal enclosure is in force. The vows of the Ursulines in the United States, though perpetual, are simple. From their earliest foundations the Ursulines have been thorough and progressive teachers. Their system might be termed eclectic, utilizing the effective points of all methods. The European houses are for the most part boarding schools; in the United States combinations of boarding and day schools. The nuns also conduct many parochial schools, which, like the others, comprise all grades, elementary. academic, and college courses. The first Catholic college for women in New York State was founded by the Ursulines at New Rochelle in 1901. The Ursulines in several other parts of the United States have followed this precedent, and are laboring practically to further the higher education of women. The German Ursulines, who were expelled through the influence of the Kulterkampf and readmitted after an exile of ten years, are permitted to resume their teaching, but for pupils of high school grade only. In Europe and America alike the Ursulines make it a point to secure state approval, and avail themselves of every advantage offered by the public institutions .*
EARLY SCHIOOL STATUS
The following reports prepared in 1881 will show the status of the public school system in York County at that time, and the various data upon the school system of the present, some forty years later, will show the great progress made during that period :
Summary of the County Superintendent's Report for the Year Ending April 3, 1881
To make it of more interest, I shall briefly compare in part the reports of last year and this :
Number of school districts, 1880. 85
Number of school districts, 1881 86
Number of frame school houses, 1880 61
Number of frame school houses, 1881 71
Besides these there are ten sod houses and one brick.
Total enumeration for 1880. 3,627
Total enumeration for 1881. 3,993
Increase 366
Number of teachers, 1880. 128
Number of teachers, 1881 101
* From the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XV, pages 228-229, by Mother Mary Fidelis.
651
HISTORY OF YORK COUNTY
Deerease
Distriets having six months' school, 1880. 13
Districts having six months' school, 1881
Increase 21
Number months' school, 1880 448
Number months' school, 1881 555
Increase 107
Number children attending school, 1881
Average attendance for county, 1881. 1,660
These two items cannot be given for 1880, as the reports of
that year were incomplete. $31.245.09
Value of school property, 1880
Value of school property. 1881
35.465.84
Increase 4.220.75
Paid teachers, 1880.
12,245.28
Paid teachers, 1881
13.053.57
Increase
808.29
Total cost of schools, including expenditures of all kinds.
whether paid or not, 1880.
26,983.36
do 1881 ..
23.278.87
Decrease
3,704.49
Total indebtedness, 1880
17,141.90
Total indebtedness, 1881
17.071.53
Deerease
70.37
Number institutes, 1880.
1
Number institutes, 1881.
1
Number attending institute, 1880 45
Number attending institute, 1881
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