History of Linn County Iowa Part 44

Jones, and before he was aware of it, he found himself at the head of a school for young men. This was in the autumn of 1851. He had erected for himself, meantime, a house of the same material of the old church, cement. It still stands on the hill north of the Milwaukee depot. The parlor of that house was at that time unfinished. It was lathed but not plastered. Mr. Jones said to the young men, if they would get one coat of plastering put onto that room, and put in some temporary seats made of slabs, they could have the use of it for a school room. The offer was promptly accepted, and, in due time, the school began in good earnest. One of the number would act as monitor in the school-room for a week, and then another, until the honor had been enjoyed by all. Mr. and Mrs. Jones were the first professors of the inst.i.tution, coming in at regular hours to hear recitations.

The branches of study pursued in the new academy were reading, writing, geography, arithmetic, algebra, grammar, Latin and Greek. Due attention was also given to composition, declamation, and vocal music. For six months that school continued in perfect harmony and marked success.

The term closed sometime in June, I think 1852, with public exercises appropriate to the occasion. The place of meeting was in a grove immediately in front of the school-room. The order of exercises, as nearly as I can remember, consisted in singing and prayer of course, recitations, reading of essays, and declamations. Everything pa.s.sed off pleasantly and satisfactorily, and I believe the school was p.r.o.nounced a success. This effort convinced Mr. Jones more than ever of the need of a permanent school of a higher order. He therefore wrote on to Knox college, I think to Professor Blanchard, to see if one of the graduates could not come and take charge of the school. The result was that Mr. David Blakely, then a recent graduate of Knox college, came in the fall of 1852 and opened the school in the church. The school then a.s.sumed the name of the Cedar Rapids Collegiate Inst.i.tute. Mr. Blakely held the position of princ.i.p.al of that school for two years, and then resigned his position to enter the active work of the gospel ministry, in which he is still engaged. During all this time the school was kept up with unabated interest, many students coming in from the country round about, and several from remote parts of the state. At least three of the members of that school entered the ministry, and are still engaged in the active duties of the sacred calling: one. Rev. Hiram Hill, in California; another, Rev. William Campbell, in Kansas; and the third in this state. It was during the spring of 1853, I think, that Mr. Jones was sent as a commissioner to the General a.s.sembly (N. S.) which met in Buffalo, N. Y. During his absence the school at home occupied his thoughts and called out all the energies of his ardent nature. He determined if possible to secure aid in the east by which to place the school upon a permanent basis, having for its chief end the education of indigent young men for the gospel ministry. He was not disappointed in his purpose. Guided no doubt by an all-wise Providence, he met Mr. Daniel Coe, who listened to his earnest appeal, and gave him the money with which the eighty acres of ground, where the college now stands, and these two lots now occupied by this church and chapel, and a lot now occupied by the M. E. church, were secured, Dr. J. F. Ely making the purchase. You will see then, that out of the little school, started in the first pastor's house, has grown Coe college, and Rev. Williston Jones was its founder."

[Ill.u.s.tration: W. F. KING, LL. D. Long President Cornell College]

It can thus be easily seen that the yearning of Mr. Jones to see a school provided in Cedar Rapids was a fire in his bones. And so, when in the providence of G.o.d, he was in attendance at a meeting of the General a.s.sembly of the Presbyterian church (New School) which was held in May, 1853, in the city of Buffalo, N. Y., he sought to interest everyone whom he met in the cause of Christian education in the west.

At that same session of the General a.s.sembly was a minister of the Presbyterian church from the Catskill mountain region of New York state. He said to Mr. Jones, in substance. "I cannot help you myself, but I believe I know a man in my section of the country who can and will, and if you come home with me to Durham, Greene county, New York, I will introduce you to him." The man alluded to was Mr. Daniel Coe, an elder of the church, already deeply interested in the cause of Christian education and preparing to help according to his ability when the suitable opportunity was afforded.

Mr. Jones went to Durham and met Mr. Coe, and presenting to him the matter nearest to his heart, the founding of a school of christian learning in the new world beyond the Mississippi. Mr. Coe gladly consented to a.s.sist in the enterprise. The sum promised, $1,500, would be considered in these days a very meagre one, but in 1853, and in Iowa, it must have seemed like $15,000 or more would seem now to us, and Mr. Jones must have welcomed the proffered aid with delight.

When he returned to his home in Cedar Rapids and to his brethren of the Presbytery of Iowa City, of which he was a member, he made such encouraging statements concerning the treatment he had received at the General a.s.sembly, and especially concerning the offer of Mr. Coe, that there was formed in Cedar Rapids a corporation by the name of the Cedar Rapids Collegiate Inst.i.tute, which prepared articles and filed them for record August 9, 1853. All persons owning one share of stock each in the Inst.i.tute became thereby members of the corporation, each share of stock being of the value of $25.00. Article twelve of the fourteen articles of corporation reads as follows:

"The Iowa City Presbytery in consideration of five scholars.h.i.+ps for the first five years, and of ten scholars.h.i.+ps thereafter, shall have the right to nominate all teachers of the Inst.i.tute, subject, however, to confirmation by the Board of Directors, but this right shall be forfeited if said consideration should at any time fail."

There is no reason to suppose from the records that this consideration was ever fulfilled.

Article thirteen gives the names of the directors: Williston Jones, John F. Ely, W. W. Smith, Seymour D. Carpenter, Addison Daniels, Isaac Cook, William Greene, John L. Shearer, and Aaron Van Dorn; and the following persons as officers of the board: George Greene, president; Samson C. Bever, treasurer; David Blakely, secretary.

It is very interesting to note that of these persons there is one who survives to this day, Mr. W. W. Smith, who at a very advanced age still lives at Minneapolis.

The first meeting of this board of directors was held July 18, 1853, and it was at that meeting that Mr. Jones presented the instrument of writing signed by Daniel Coe, of the county of Greene, in the state of New York, making a conditional donation to the Inst.i.tute of the sum of $1,500, of which the following is a copy:

"CONDITIONAL DONATION TO CEDAR RAPIDS COLLEGIATE INSt.i.tUTE

"Know all men by these presents that I, Daniel Coe, of the town of Durham, County of Greene, and State of New York, in view of the educational wants of the great and growing West, and in expectation of its resulting in the establishment of a permanent inst.i.tution of learning, do hereby engage to give in behalf of Iowa City Presbytery, connected with the const.i.tutional General a.s.sembly of the Presbyterian Church which met at Buffalo, May 19th, 1853, to Cedar Rapids Collegiate Inst.i.tute the following sums for the object hereinafter specified, to-wit: Four Hundred and twenty-five Dollars ($425.00) for the purchase of as large and suitable tract of land as practicable as a site for the location of the inst.i.tute. And Seventy-five Dollars ($75.00) for fencing of the same. Also One Thousand Dollars ($1000.00) to be appropriated in the best manner for a farm contiguous to the site, the avails of which are to be appropriated to the best advantage for the benefit of such students as may need to a.s.sist themselves by manual labor. Of these two sums the first mentioned, consisting of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), can be secured to the Inst.i.tute as a part of its property by the erection upon its site thus purchased of a building costing at least Two Thousand Dollars ($2000.00), and the last mentioned One Thousand Dollars ($1000.00) can be thus secured by bringing the Inst.i.tute into successful operation. _Provided_ that if these conditions fail, or if the Inst.i.tute be removed or diverted from its original design, either or both of these donations shall be forfeited, and the land purchased shall revert back to the said Daniel Coe, his heirs, executors, or administrators.

"Dr. John F. Ely, Hon. George Greene, Dr. S. D. Carpenter, Isaac Cook, Esq., James Ferguson, and Williston Jones are hereby authorized to act for me in the selection and purchasing for said Inst.i.tute the above mentioned site and farm, and are to draw on me for the money; of which sum Seven Hundred Dollars ($700.00) can be drawn at any time, and the remaining Eight Hundred Dollars ($800.00) one year from the date of this engagement.

"It is my strong desire that this Inst.i.tute should be made available for the education of females as well as males."

It is evidently to be seen that it was the purpose of Mr. Coe to enable the directors of the Cedar Rapids Collegiate Inst.i.tute to maintain a school of learning to be conducted in a building within easy access to the town, and at the same time aid such students as needed a.s.sistance through the products of the farm purchased on the edge of the town.

Steps were taken at once to procure two sites, one for the school building, the other for the farm. And after considerable inquiry and debate, two sites were chosen and purchased: the one for the school building consisting of the two lots on which the First Presbyterian church of this city now stands and has stood since 1869; the other for the farm, consisting of a plot of eighty acres, of which the present campus of Coe College of ten acres, is the southwestern extremity.

The town lots were purchased for $275.00. The eighty acres were bought for $1000.00. These eighty acres were obtained from Mr. Otho S. Bowling by Dr. John F. Ely, who bought them with Mr. Coe's money for the Cedar Rapids Collegiate Inst.i.tute. The date of the purchase is December 5, 1853. Mr. Bowling had obtained the land at the price of $820.00 from the executors of the estate of Mr. Joshua Phillips, of Franklin county, Pennsylvania. Mr. Phillips had died at his residence in Pennsylvania at some time between the 15th of December, 1852, and the 4th of January, 1853, and he had himself obtained the property in Cedar Rapids by patent from the United States government May 1, 1848. So that the plot of ground which figures in such a vital manner in the history of Coe College had pa.s.sed through but two hands before being transferred to the Collegiate Inst.i.tute from the government which had obtained it from the Indians.

It has also appeared that it was the wish of Mr. Coe and the design of the directors of the school that the building to cost $2000.00 should be erected as soon as practicable upon the town lots. But the erection of this building was delayed for various causes and especially in consequence of the lack of funds. Meanwhile, a school of very elementary character was maintained in the building used as their house of wors.h.i.+p by the First Presbyterian church, and Mr. David Blakely was obtained as princ.i.p.al at a salary of $400.00 per annum, payable quarterly.

As time went on it was found to be more difficult than seemed probable in the beginning, to obtain subscriptions for the erection of the building of a school of just the character that seemed within the feeble means of the directors. And it became even more difficult, if not impossible, to maintain the school in the building occupied by the Presbyterian church. For it would appear that this community of Cedar Rapids was in process of organizing a general public school system, and no place seemed to exist for a parochial school of the elementary character that was then being conducted by the Cedar Rapids Collegiate Inst.i.tute, at least in so small a community and one so feebly provided with material funds.

Therefore, through the want of proper sustenance, everyone connected with the Inst.i.tute and notably the princ.i.p.al upon whom the chief burden fell became wholly discouraged and the Presbytery of Iowa City, that had a certain relations.h.i.+p to the school and interest in its success, proposed to put the school on wheels and offer it to the highest bidder, naming several localities among which were: Vinton, Waterloo, Lyons, Cedar Falls, Newton, and Iowa City.[M]

It will surely be of interest to learn [See _Minutes Iowa City Presbytery_, Mt. Vernon, February 4, 1857] that the citizens and proprietors of Comanche offered a site and subscriptions to the amount of $10,000, or $200.00 more than any other town, for the location of the Collegiate Inst.i.tute of the Presbytery. Vinton also made a strong bid for the school and hoped to capture it, and might have done so had it not been that the eighty acre plot of ground, which was the only financial a.s.set of the inst.i.tution, was securely fastened down in Cedar Rapids, and Mr. Coe hesitated as to the propositions for the removal of the school.

But these internal and external discussions acted in a very unfavorable manner upon the Inst.i.tute, and led to the winding up of its affairs, for there is no record of any meeting of its board of directors subsequent to July 26, 1859.

Meanwhile, a new star of hope arose in the heavens, and for several years at least it was a star of considerable brilliancy. It was made known, namely, that the will of Mr. Lewis Baldwin Parsons, a benefactor and philanthropist, and who died in Detroit, Michigan, December 21, 1855, after a successful life as a manufacturer in Buffalo, N. Y., contained a bequest setting aside a very considerable amount of money to found a Presbyterian college in Iowa. It could not be a matter of surprise, therefore, that the brethren in Cedar Rapids, who had struggled so hard to found a college with Mr. Coe's donation, and who had been so sorely disappointed, should now with enthusiasm welcome the thought that the Parsons legacy might be located here and be added to the Coe donation, and thus become the foundation of a strong college in Iowa in connection with the Presbyterian church. Accordingly, steps were taken to incorporate a new body of stockholders into an organization to be known as Parsons Seminary. The date of the first meeting with this end in view is November 10, 1866, and the following persons were chosen to serve as officers until the annual meeting in December: Rev. James Knox, president; Hon. George Greene, vice-president; Dr. John F. Ely, secretary; and Mr. S. C. Bever, treasurer.

At the annual meeting, December 3, 1866, the following officers were chosen: George Greene, president; James Knox, vice-president; John F.

Ely, secretary; W. W. Walker, treasurer.

It was resolved immediately that Mr. Coe should be requested to deed to the new organization the eighty acres of land already donated by him to the Cedar Rapids Collegiate Inst.i.tute, and at a meeting of the board of trustees of Parsons Seminary, held January 4, 1867, Judge Greene, president of the board, reported that he had visited Mr. Daniel Coe at his home in Durham, N. Y., and had procured from him the deed to Parsons Seminary of the land in question.

This most generous act of Mr. Coe reveals the large and unselfish character of the man and declares the n.o.bility of his motive to promote the cause of high christian education in the west.

This act of Mr. Coe also gave great encouragement to the board of trustees of the seminary to proceed in their work, and they proceeded vigorously to raise what must in those days have been a considerable sum of money, for the purpose of erecting a suitable building for college purposes upon the edge of the eighty acre plot nearest to the town. The two town lots which had originally been purchased for the location of the school building were sold to the trustees of the First Presbyterian church, to become the site of a house of wors.h.i.+p, which building was erected by them in 1869, and still stands a substantial edifice of stone, facing the public square long known as Was.h.i.+ngton Park, now George Greene Square.

The ways and means and plans for this new building occupied the attention of the board for many meetings during the years 1867 and 1868, and the work was pushed with all vigor to enable the trustees to open their seminary in the new building in the fall of 1868.

Meanwhile, the school work was inaugurated, pending the erection of the building on the college grounds, in the Wadsworth block, a row of unpretentious buildings resembling a barracks, on Second street and Fifth avenue, in the school year 1867-8. The princ.i.p.al of this school was the Rev. A. B. Goodale, a Presbyterian clergyman who survived in southern California until a few years ago.

Mr. Charles J. Deacon, our highly esteemed and greatly respected fellow citizen, who has spent a long and useful life among us, as an attorney, and who has been for several years a most valuable trustee of Coe College, was one of the first students of Parsons Seminary, and he has furnished us the following reminiscences which we gladly incorporate in this historical sketch:

"I came to Cedar Rapids and enrolled as a student in Parsons Seminary early in September, 1868. The school had been in progress under that name for a year previous, but then for the first time entered into the new building, now the west half of the main building of Coe college. This school was then prosperous and the body of students very enthusiastic.

Dr. A. B. Goodale was the princ.i.p.al and Prof. Augustus Maasburg was the professor of Latin, Greek, French, and German. Miss A. D. Kelsey, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke, and a most estimable lady, had charge of the primary department, and also taught many of the cla.s.ses in mathematics, and had charge of the botany cla.s.s. Miss Lindsay, a sister of Mrs.

Goodale, taught painting and drawing. A few weeks after the school opened, Professor and Madame Masurier came, and Professor Masurier took charge of the music, and Mme.

Masurier was given the care of the French cla.s.s. I remember also that Miss Addie Goodell, now Mrs. Birdsall, of Lake City, Iowa, was a student in the seminary, and it became necessary to have an a.s.sistant in the primary department, and she was employed in that capacity.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAIN STREET FROM THE NORTH, FAIRFAX]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAIN STREET LOOKING WEST, CENTRAL CITY]

"At the beginning of the year 1868-1869 the school numbered over one hundred students. They were, of course, largely from the city of Cedar Rapids, but they came also from the surrounding towns of Fairfax, Springville, Center Point, Central City, and some from the farms within a few miles of the city. They came also from Vinton and Marengo, and some from more distant portions of the state, and I remember two from the state of Illinois, and one from Nebraska.

"The school year was divided into four terms of ten weeks each, the tuition being $7.50 per term. I remember there was some falling off in the attendance at the close of the second term in mid-winter. In the spring we were told that Dr. Goodale would have an a.s.sistant in the person of Mr. J.

W. Stephens. When he came he was introduced to us by Dr.

Goodale as his a.s.sistant, but it soon developed that he was the princ.i.p.al of the seminary, Doctor Goodale having about that time accepted the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Marshalltown. The attendance at the spring term under the conduct of Dr. Stephens was much smaller than in the fall, but the school continued until the 20th of June, when it closed for the summer vacation. It issued a catalogue as it had the previous year and announced the opening for the following September.

"I returned to the school in the fall when it opened for the third year, being the second year in the new building, and found many of the old students. The school, however, was much smaller than at the opening of the previous year. It also dwindled very much during the year, and when we closed in June, 1870, my recollection is that it numbered about forty students. Mr. Stephens announced that it would be continued, however, and the school opened again in the September following. I did not return to the school, but went to the State University of Iowa. Mr. Stephens continued the school until the following spring, and then closed it.

[We understand that Mr. Stephens is still living in connection with Park College, Mo.]

"One thing that is quite clearly impressed upon my memory is the meeting of the Synod of Iowa, North, in this city in the late winter or early spring of 1869. The application of the Parsons legacy and the endowment of the college was then a very prominent question in Presbyterian circles. Cedar Rapids was a most prominent applicant for the location of the college to be thus endowed, and the seminary had been named Parsons Seminary with a view to attracting that legacy here. A large representation of the synod visited the college at the time I speak of and addressed the students.

Amongst others, I remember Doctor Spees, then of Dubuque; the Rev. Samuel Howe, and Mr. Alexander Danskin, of Marengo.

They said to us that we were now a college, that whereas yesterday we were a seminary, today we were a college. There was much enthusiasm manifested among us by this statement, and we all felt satisfied that the matter had been practically settled. Subsequent facts proved that their statement was a little premature.

"Another thing that comes to my recollection is the visit of the committee to locate the Parsons legacy in the spring of 1870. This committee was headed by Doctor Craig, then pastor of the church at Keokuk, now of McCormick Seminary, Chicago.

The committee made a very thorough examination of the buildings and of the grounds and of the location generally.

I distinctly recall their walking over the grounds. The trustees of the seminary, being informed in advance of the coming of this committee, were preparing to create a good impression. A few days before their expected arrival, the ground, which had been leveled off in front of the college, and which consisted of coa.r.s.e sand, was ornamented by some fifty or sixty evergreen trees, and a large amount of black dirt was hauled in upon the sand with the expectation of spreading it over the sand to present a surface of good soil with a large number of evergreen trees set out in an ornamental order. Unfortunately, however, the committee arrived earlier than was antic.i.p.ated and the black dirt had not been spread over the sand. To render the situation still worse, a high wind was blowing the day the committee were here and the sand was drifting over the dirt piles and filling up against the lower board of the fence. What the effect of this was upon the committee I have no means of judging. It is, however, interesting to notice that the Parsons legacy never came to Cedar Rapids.

"I could mention many names of Cedar Rapids citizens who as boys attended school at Parsons Seminary during those early years. Mr. C. C. Greene, Mr. John S. Ely, Mr. George B.

Douglas, were all there with me. Mr. George W. Winn, also a trustee, used to go there for private lessons in German from Professor Maasburg. Mr. C. L. Miller, of the _Gazette_, Emery and Harry Brown, and Elmer Higley are names that also occur to me readily. I could mention, likewise, many ladies who studied there in those early years. The Rev. Alexander Danskin, editor of one of our church papers at Detroit, Michigan, was a student there at that time, afterwards graduating from Wabash College; also the Rev. R. M. L.

Braden, who likewise went to Wabash College.

"These are a few of the things that come to my mind as I review my two years in Parsons Seminary."

It can easily be read between the lines of Mr. Deacon's reminiscences that Parsons Seminary, however enthusiastic its support was at the beginning, did not continue by any means to be an entire success. We must look for the explanation of this very largely to its lack of financial resources. It was living largely on hopes, and hopes that were not destined to be realized. Mr. Coe's donation, lying in the eighty acres of land, was utterly unproductive of a revenue, and the Parsons legacy, which consisted of four thousand acres of wild lands in various counties in Iowa, had not yet been located in Cedar Rapids, but was hovering in the air as a glittering object which several localities in the state were reaching out to obtain.

It would be an interesting and instructive pursuit to trace the history of this legacy both within the Presbyterian synod of Iowa and within the various cities of the state which made bids for its attainment. The story, as far as Cedar Rapids is concerned, is one of bright hopes, earnest aspiration, valiant endeavor and achievement, to be followed by severe disappointment and bitter regret. The citizens of this city went heroically to work to raise the sum of $75,000 to be subscribed and added to the Parsons legacy [then estimated to be of the value of $50,000], and this again to be added to the Coe donation of eighty acres of land, which were continually increasing in value through the growth of the city of Cedar Rapids. These three sums, when added together, would furnish, it was intelligently felt, a very substantial endowment as the beginning of a college. We have often been told that when this campaign for the raising of the $75,000 had been successfully completed, there was such a general jubilee in our city that instinctively in demonstration thereof the whistles of the locomotives and manufacturing establishments were merrily blown. But all these plans went agley. Although committees from the synods of Iowa had presented unanimous reports recommending that the Parsons legacy be located at Cedar Rapids, it was eventually taken to Fairfield to found Parsons College. The fund of $75,000 which was raised in Cedar Rapids fell to the ground because of the failure to meet its vital condition of the bringing of the Parsons legacy here, and so, once more, all that was left for us was Mr. Coe's donation of the eighty acre plot and the indomitable spirit of a few of the citizens of Cedar Rapids to plant in our city an inst.i.tution of higher learning in connection with the Presbyterian church.

It is idle at this late date to discuss the wisdom or the folly of those men in the synod who were responsible for this result. It were wholly unproductive to speculate what might have been accomplished by the union of all our educational forces here in Cedar Rapids. What is written is written, what is done is an accomplished fact. Presbyterians are not in the habit of quarreling with Divine Providence, but are the rather given to rejoicing in the sovereignty of G.o.d. It is quite conceivable that results already visible can give occasion for grat.i.tude that we have now the two colleges, Coe and Parsons, instead of but one, as was once so ardently hoped for here at Cedar Rapids. If anyone in the years between 1870 and 1873 made an error in judgment in objecting to the merger, the only way to rectify it now is by pressing all the more for the promoting of the endowment and the buildings of both the colleges, the one at Fairfield, and the one at Cedar Rapids.