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ENVELOPE CORp.

Grinnell College

JOHN SCHOLTE NOLLEN

GRINNELL COLLEGE

By JOHN SCHOLIA NOLLEN

THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA
IOWA CITY 1953

BY THE TORCH PRESS, CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA

Editor's Foreword

IOWANS are justly proud of Grinnell College. Standing at the fore-
front among the private and denominational colleges of Iowa, Grin-
nell is mature in years, rich in experience, steadfast in its traditions
and ideals, and generously supported by its alumni and friends. For
more than a century thousands of sons and daughters of the Hawkeye
State have been nurtured in body, mind, and soul by the presence of
this fine college in their midst. As a result, Grinnell graduates have
left an enviable record of good deeds and accomplishments, not only
in Iowa but throughout the world.

Grinnell College represents the fruition of the vision, hopes, and
dreams of a small band of Congregational ministers who trekked
westward from New England to the Black Hawk Purchase in 1843.
These courageous young men, who are known today as the Iowa

vi Grinnell College

Band, had crossed the Mississippi, each pledged to establish at least
one church and all together to found a Christian college in Iowa. It
took more than hopes and dreams, however, to bring their Christian
college into reality. Three precious years slipped by following their
arrival, and still the Iowa Band could point to no college. Finally,
the impatient James J. Hill catapulted them into action when, at their*
annual meeting at Davenport in 1846, he stepped up to the table and
said: "I give one dollar for the founding of a Christian College in
Iowa. Appoint your trustees to care for that dollar." It is to such a
humble beginning that Grinnell can trace its origins, for it springs
from a union with Iowa College which was established by the Iowa
Band at Davenport in 1 846.

"While Iowa College was struggling along in Davenport, Josiah B.
Grinnell had taken Horace Greeley's advice to "Go West." Born in
Vermont in 1822, Grinnell had a liberal college training before be-
coming a Congregational minister. In 1854 he purchased land in
Poweshiek County, laid out the town of Grinnell 120 miles west of
the Mississippi, and projected a college Grinnell University
which in 1858 was combined with Iowa College. Grinnell organized
a Congregational Church and became its first minister. He helped
form the Republican party in Iowa in 1856 and served in the Gen-
eral Assembly of Iowa as well as in the United States Congress.
Through the years he was actively engaged in railroads and other
business interests. He was always a devout Christian and an ardent
temperance advocate. The impact of the character and personality
of Josiah B. Grinnell can be felt to this day on both the town and
the college that bear his name.

From its humble beginnings on the Mississippi, through the lean
formative years in the valley of the Skunk River, Grinnell College has
grown by dint of good business sense, the devotion of its faculty, and
the generosity of its alumni and friends, until it has developed into
one of the outstanding schools in the Midwest. To reach this peak
required constructive leadership, not only in financing the college but
also in building up the effective and inspired teaching staff that has
won widespread acclaim for Grinnell. The half dozen men who have
guided Grinnell since 1865 have exhibited unusual qualities of leader-
ship over the years. Happily for Iowa as well as for Grinnell, one of
these presidents, John Scholte Nollen, wrote the following history
before his death in 1952. Born in Pella, educated at Central College

EDITOR'S FOREWORD vn

and the University of Iowa, Nollen taught at Grinnell for many
years before assuming the presidency in 1931. He brought to this
book a fluent pen, a ready wit, and an Olympian detachment in his
narrative that should make this volume unique in its field. Since
Grinnell was founded in 1846, the very year Iowa achieved statehood,
the book mirrors the growth and development of higher education
in our private colleges through more than a century of time.

The twenty-five chapters that make up the book have been divided
into four parts which are self-explanatory. The first three parts are
the work of Dr. Nollen, while the fourth part contains chapters
which President Nollen asked others to prepare, or which were soli-
cited by the editor to round out the story. President Samuel N.
Stevens wrote an Epilogue which carries the story from 1946 to 1952.
In addition, an unfinished autobiography of President Nollen's early
life has been included.

The editor is grateful to the following members of the staff of the
State Historical Society of Iowa for assistance in preparing the
manuscript for publication: Dr. Mildred Throne, Dr. Robert Rutland,
and Mrs. Adelaide Seemuth. James Stronks of Iowa City, an alumnus
of Grinnell, also read the manuscript in galley and made excellent
suggestions. Grateful acknowledgment is especially made to Dr. Leola
Nelson Bergmann for valuable assistance in editing and in seeing the
manuscript through the press.

WILLIAM J. PETERSEN
SUPERINTENDENT AND EDITOR
STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA
IOWA CITY, IOWA

jjfwm??^

Contents

PART ONE

From New England to the Prairies

1 The New England Heritage 3-

2 The First Pioneers and Asa Turner 13

3 Denmark 21

4 The Iowa Band 29

5 A College for Iowa 41

6 Grinnell and the "University" 51

7 The Early Years at Grinnell 59

PART Two

They Carried the Torch

8 The College Under Magoun, 1865-1884 69

9 The Presidency of George A. Gates, 1887-1900 82

10 The Social Sciences and Jesse Macy 92

11 The Presidency of Dan Freeman Bradley, 1902-1905 103

12 Administration of President Main, 1906-1931 108

13 Through the Great Depression, 1931-1940 118

14 ' Through the Second World War, 1940-1946 126

PART THREE

Cornerstones

15 The Academy 133

16 The Faculty and Statf 137

x Grinnell College

17 The Board of Trustees 144

18 The Alumni 155

19 The College in War 158

PART FOUR

Campus High Lights

20 Art and Music 165

21 Athletics and Physical Education 172

22 The Library 184

By Margaret G. Fullerton

23 Student Publications 190

By Charmayne Wilke

24 The Theatre 199

By Kent Andrews

25 Grinnell's Plan for College Living ; 205

By Evelyn Gardner

PART FIVE

Epilogue

Epilogue 215

By Samuel N. Stevens

Appendices

A Members of the Iowa Band 227

B So Many Yesterdays: Reminiscences of an Octogenarian 231

Footnotes 263

Index 273

SffiflStfiHWffl^^

Illustrations

John Scholte Nollen Frontispiece

The Iowa Band from Andover Seminary in 1843 68

Presidents of Grinnell 69

An Early Science Laboratory 84

Physics Laboratory in the New Hall of Science 84

Iowa College at Davenport about 1855 85

Men's Dormitories 85

Rededication Service, Herrick Chapel, 1949 85

Administration Building Tower 100

Three Units of Women's Quadrangle 101

Darby Gymnasium 116

Aerial View of the Campus 117

Part One

From New England to the Prairies

j^^ffjjfffj^^

The New England Heritage

"I LIKE this place. It has atmosphere/* In these words more than one
visitor, American or European, has expressed his feeling about Grin-
nell. This "atmosphere" is essentially that of the New England
college town. Grinnell, town and college, is a bit of New England
transplanted and flourishing among the cornfields of Iowa; not the
later New England of manufacture and dense traffic, of teeming cities
and a varied population of foreign origin, but the older, simpler,
rural New England, still marked with the stamp set upon their new

4 Grinnell College

world by the Pilgrims of the Mayflower and the Puritans of Salem.
These sturdy men cherished, above their practical material interests,
two ideals: religion and education. The most characteristic product
of this dual devotion is that peculiarly American institution, the
Christian college.

Grinnell College and the town of Grinnell have their roots deep in
the Pilgrim and Puritan tradition; so their story cannot be told with-
out reference to the developm mt of religious thought in early New
England. For the modern mind, steeped in the lore of experimental
science, it is difficult to recapture the emotion or to appreciate the
burning zeal of the older divines of New England in their passionate
quest for absolute truth. To us their diverse efforts at a precise formu-
lation of the eternal verities may seem like an attempt to scrutinize
the inscrutable and to solve the insoluble. Their theological subtleties
and bold paradoxes are foreign to our way of thinking. Moreover,
we may even be Soiiused rather than edified by their habit of hurling
verbal thunderbolts at one another. However, if we are to get at the
genesis of Christian education in the Midwest, we must at least take
a rapid flight over this Sahara of arid speculation and stony invective.
The miracle of Isaiah's vision was re-enacted on our soil. "Like a root
out of dry ground," from the dogmatic ardor of the New England
theology grew the tree of life for religion and education in the West.

The first half of the nineteenth century was a time of peculiar un-
rest in the ecclesiastical history of New England. The inevitable was
happening. Wherever religion is interpreted dogmatically, there is
sure to be, as long as the human spirit is free, reaction in the form of
questioning, faction, schism, heresy. Protestant orthodoxy, with its
sectarian divisions, has no central authority to cushion change with
ex cathedra solutions, and any variation in doctrine is likely to be
accompanied by a more or less noisy and destructive explosion.

For one hundred and twenty years after the landing of the Pilgrims,
Congregationalism was in undisputed possession of New England.
There was little occasion for doctrinal dissension, although questions
of church government did cause heated discussion, as there were
many who favored the Presbyterian rather than the democratic Con-
gregational system. The Puritans, who had been Anglicans before
their migration and who looked upon the Church of England as their
ecclesiastical mother, naturally formed an established church of their
own in their new home. Dissenters, such as Quakers and Baptists,

NEW ENGLAND HERITAGE 5

were unwelcome and, in case of recalcitrance, were persecuted, jailed,
driven away, and even martyred. Furthermore, the legislature, or
General Court, exercised control in ecclesiastical matters, and only
church members, a small minority of the population, had the fran-
chise, until this privilege was abrogated in 1692. The official expres-
sion of Congregational faith remained, in substance, the Calvinistic
"Westminster Confession adopted by Parliament in 1647. By the
eighteenth century, however, the ckwrches of New England had
achieved such complete independence that they resented missionary
work in their territory by the Anglican Church. Yale was purged of
episcopacy by the trustees of the college, who voted that rectors and
tutors should not be accepted without examination as to the "sound-
ness of their faith in opposition to Arminian and prelatical corrup-
tions." *

The "Great Awakening," the powerful religion revival beginning
in Jonathan Edwards' church at Northampton in ; .17*34 and extending
widely with George Whitefield's preaching a few years later, strongly
reinforced the Calvinism of the New England churches, which had
fallen into laxness during the preceding decades. On the other hand,
this revival of doctrinal orthodoxy led to wide and violent contro-
versy, intensified by the uncharitable attacks of the revivalist preach-
ers upon ministers who repudiated their methods. The faculties of
both Harvard and Yale were led by the excesses of the movement to
issue "testimonies" against Whitefield himself. Even Edwards, who
has with good reason been called the father of modern Congrega-
tionalism, was expelled from his pastorate at Northampton in 1750
and forbidden by the town meeting to preach there again, 2 His sub-
sequent declaration of preference for the Presbyterian form of church
government no doubt prepared the way for his later call to the presi-
dency of Princeton College, only a few weeks before his death.

Another occasion for religious controversy arose from the persistent
efforts of the established church in England to extend the Protestant
Episcopate in the colonies. As Samuel Adams wrote in 1768, these
efforts were "very alarming to a people whose fathers, from the
hardships they suffered under such an establishment, were obliged to
fly their native country into a wilderness. . . . We hope in God such
an establishment will never take place in America." 3 This fear of
"ecclesiastical tyranny" and "prelatical rule" reinforced the exaspera-
tion at civil oppression that moved the colonies to revolution.

6 Grinnell College

Far more perilous, however, to the solidarity of New England
Christendom was the defection of the Unitarians, a reaction to the
Great Awakening. The spirit of free inquiry was abroad (was it not
the Age of Reason?), and there was wide revolt against the doctrinal
rigidity and the metaphysical subtleties characteristic of the tradi-
tional theology and also against the emotional excesses that often
accompanied revivals. By the beginning of the nineteenth century
Boston and Harvard College had been captured by the new liberal
movement. The conservatives then rallied their forces and found an
eloquent leader in President Timothy Dwight of Yale, and a new
"awakening" of great power swept westward. The Congregational
Missionary Societies of Massachusetts and Connecticut were organized
in 1798 and 1799. Their purpose was to send the gospel to "the
remote parts of our country, where Christ is seldom preached," and
even "through more distant regions of the earth, as circumstances
shall invite and the ability of the society shall admit." 4 So home and
foreign missions were recognized as the responsibility of the New
England evangelical churches. They consequently had a large part
in the evangelizing of the new and undeveloped West.

The concern of orthodox Congregationalists in Massachusetts over
the inroads of Unitarianism was responsible for the founding of And-
over Theological Seminary. The way was open at Andover through,
the provision by the Phillips brothers, founders of Phillips Academy,
of a fund for the support of students who wished to pursue theologi-
cal studies. When a pronounced liberal was appointed to the chair
of divinity at Harvard, Dr. Jedidiah Morse of Charlestown, a mem-
ber of the board of overseers, and Dr. Eliphalet Pearson, professor
and acting president, who had been the first head of Phillips Acad-
emy at Andover, withdrew from the Harvard Corporation. In July,
1806, they formed an association to found a conservative theological
institution at Andover. Four other gentlemen joined them in the
association, among them Samuel Abbott, who had bequeathed his
estate for the education of theological students at Harvard, but who
now revoked this will and transferred the bequest to Andover. 5

Meanwhile a similar movement to found a seminary on orthodox
principles had begun ten miles away at West Newbury. An effort to
unite these two movements, similar in spirit and motive, finally suc-
ceeded in 1808, but not without difficulty. The crux of the problem
was of course doctrinal, for there were two camps of orthodox Cal-

NEW ENGLAND HERITAGE 7

vinists, separated by super-metaphysical subtleties. Dr. Pearson and
his associates were "Moderate'* or "Old Calvinists" and held to the
Westminster Confession and the doctrine of election, but were in-
clined to stress the love of God rather than His absolute sovereignty.
The brethren at West Newbury, on the other hand, were Hopkinsians,
so named after Samuel Hopkins, a pupil of Jonathan Edwards. They
called themselves "Consistent Calvinists," and were as hyper-Calvin-
istic in their interpretation of divine sovereignty and predestination
as Mrs. Edwards had been in her assertion that she was willing to
endure damnation if God could thereby be glorified, and as Hop-
kinsian Professor Leonard Woods at Andover, who, when his fifth
child was born, doubted whether he ought to ask God to save all his
children, lest he thus offend against foreordination. 6

These two schools of strenuous orthodoxy finally arrived at a
workable compromise after nine months of "complicated negotiations
between theologians of great ability and astuteness in drawing fine-
spun distinctions." Dr. Pearson journeyed thirty-six times alone in his
chaise from Andover to Newburyport to carry on this debate. How-
ever, the parties surrendered none of their cherished theoretical differ-
ences: Hopkinsian money was to support only Hopkinsian teaching,
and Moderate Calvinist funds were to be used to pay professors of
that faith. Meanwhile, Hopkinsians remained free to scoff at the
"absurdities of the old Calvinism." Nevertheless, these discordant
elements were merged in a Creed, and the Association Statutes pro-
vided that "every article of the aforesaid Creed shall forever remain
entirely and identically the same, without the least alteration, or any
addition or diminution." Every professor must pledge himself to
maintain and inculcate the Christian faith as summarily expressed in
the Shorter Catechism, "in opposition not only to Atheists and In-
fidels, but to Jews, Mahometans, Arians, Pelagians, Antinomians,
Arminians, Socinians, Unitarians, and Universalists, and to all other
heresies, ancient and modern," and he must repeat this declaration
every five years. The Rules of the Seminary began with 7 chapters
of 65 articles, and grew to 13 chapters of 102 articles, 7 Evidently
the personnel at Andover was expected to maintain a precarious
balance on a theological tight rope. The first president of "Iowa
College" the original name of Grinnell was an expert in this
acrobatic exercise.

Despite all the efforts at strict dogmatic statement, the old conflict

8 Grinnell College

of orthodoxies would not down. One member of the board of trus-
tees remonstrated for forty years against subversive tendencies in the
Seminary: "Candidates for ordination were not measuring up to the
standards in the matter of total depravity . . . there was error in Zion,
the professors were deviating from the Catechism/ 3 It seems odd in
perspective that Professor Edwards A. Park, uncompromising cham-
pion of an unchanging Calvinism, should have been considered "not
sound in the faith." s All these honest brethren were zealously en-
gaged in the enterprise attributed to Theodore Parker by Julia Ward
Howe:

Saving the perilous souls of the nation
With holiest, wholesomest vituperation. 9

Parker himself, in turn, offered a shining target for the shafts of the
conservatives. One reverend opponent wrote: "Hell never vomited
forth a more blasphemous monster than Theodore Parker and it is
only the mercies of Jesus Christ which now preserve him from
eternal damnation." Samuel Hopkins had been no less explicit about
the Arminians: "The smoke of their torment shall ascend up in the
sight of the blessed forever and ever . . . and all this display of the
divine character and glory will be ... most entertaining, and give
the highest pleasure to all who love God, and raise their happiness to
ineffable heights." But "vituperation" was not confined to such
crusading extremists. Even such a benevolent and liberal spirit as
Emerson described Garrison's Convention on Universal Reform as
consisting of "madmen, madwomen, men with beards, Bunkers, Mug-
gletonians, Come-outers, Groaners, Agrarians, Seventh-day Baptists,
Quakers, Abolitionists, Calvinists, Unitarians and Philosophers." 10
It remained for William James to discover virtue in "varieties of
religious experience."

Conditions of living in the new seminary at Andover were as nar-
row and rigid as the brand of theology there professed. Stark sim-
plicity and extreme economy were the rule. Tuition was free, room
rent two to four dollars a year, board in Commons plain and cheap,
dispensed in an unheated room. Molasses was often substituted for
meat, and in an access of asceticism or penury the students voted to
dispense with sugar. That students and teachers suffered from in-
digestion was not surprising. Nor were summer epidemics uncom-
mon. For exercise, the students blasted and cleared away rocks on

NEW ENGLAND HERITAGE 9

the grounds, or did carpentry in a cold barrack. "Coffins fashioned
in the workshop by student hands were grim reminders of the
brevity of life. . . . Hard by [there was a cemetery on the campus]
the winter snows drifted over the graves of students who had died
before their time and lay in the winding sheet of God's acre. 55 It
was not exceptional that the work of the day began at 4:30 in the
morning. At Yale, too, prayers began at 4:30 in the summer and at
5:30 on winter mornings. Timothy D wight got up early enough to
"qualify" for parsing a hundred lines of Homer before these exercises
began. 11

It was these sturdy Congregationalists of the old faith who fostered
the two great movements for the spread of Christianity, home and
foreign missions. The Haystack Meeting of students at orthodox
Williams College in 1806 gave birth to foreign missions. The Ameri-
can Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions was organized in
1 8 1 in response to a petition by four Andover students. Likewise, the
organization of the American Home Missionary Society in 1826 fol-
lowed an appeal from Andover students. The spread of Christian
education in the opening West was another absorbing interest of these
pioneering theologues. It was an Andover man who started a sem-
inary at Jacksonville which, with the help of a Yale Band, became
Illinois College. It was another from Andover who "dedicated Wa-
bash College to Christ as he knelt in the snow of the primeval forest
on a winter day." 12 One Andover class after another sent a large
contingent westward. Twenty-six different classes sent at least ten
each into the home missionary field in thirty -three states, from Maine
to Texas.

Iowa's turn came in the 1840's, when the tide of settlement began
to pour across the Mississippi into a territory newly opened as the
Indian tribes retreated westward. This rich new land tempted thou-
sands to pioneering adventure. It could not help appealing to the
imagination of young men imbued with the missionary spirit, lured
by the no less hardy adventure of carrying the gospel to this new
population that was reputed to be in urgent need of religious conver-
sion and educational opportunity.

The first thought of the Iowa country as a home mission ground
seems to have occurred to a group of young men studying theology
at Yale. This was quite in line with Yale tradition. As early as
November, 1828, in response to an essay on "The Call of the West"

10 Grinnell College

by one of their members, a group of students gathered under the
elms at New Haven and pledged themselves to give their lives to the
work of education and of preaching the gospel in what was then the
Far West, the state of Illinois. 13 The founding of Illinois College in
1829 was largely the work of this Yale Band. So, in 1837, seven
theological students at Yale formed the te lowa Educational Asso-
ciation ... to establish upon a firm basis a college for the future
state of Iowa." The "firm basis" in the minds of these young men
was a land-sale plan, such as appeared repeatedly in the founding of
western colleges. 51 "

One of the young men, Reuben Gaylord, on March 1, 1838, wrote
on behalf of the group to the secretaries of the American Home
Missionary Society:

A few young men, members of this seminary, have become deeply interested
in that section of our country lying west of the Mississippi, commonly
known as the "Iowa District," or "Black Hawk Purchase." Seeing its des-
titute condition, both as respects education and religious institutions, and
learning that the District is filling up with a rapidity unparalleled in the
history of our country, we feel a strong conviction that, if the way can be
opened, it is our duty to plant our feet west of the Father of Waters. We
wish to concentrate our influence, and bring it to bear upon the future
state of Iowa while yet in its infancy. Our object will be two-fold to
preach the gospel, and to open a school at the outset, which can soon be
elevated to the rank of a college. Knowing that such an enterprise cannot
be accomplished by individual effort, the following brethren are ready to
associate and pledge themselves to engage in the work, if the way can be
opened so as to warrant the undertaking: J. P. Stewart, M. Richardson,
H. D. Kitchel, A. B. Haile, R. Gaylord, J. A. Clark, M. Mattocks. Upon
mature consideration we have thought best to lay the subject before your
Society and put the inquiry, How much may we expect you to do toward
founding such an enterprise? It is our purpose to enlist one or two more of
the right stamp, who will throw themselves into the work, determined not
to yield to any obstacle which is not insurmountable. One of our number,
Stewart, was educated at the west, and has traveled extensively in the Iowa
district. The writer of this has spent two and one-half years as teacher in
Illinois College, at Jacksonville, so that we are not acting without such
knowledge as will enable us to come to an intelligent decision. The tract of
country we propose to enter, embraces an area of nine thousand square miles
at present, and this will doubtless soon be enlarged by other purchases from

* In 1837 Iowa was still a part of the Territory of Wisconsin. In forming the Iowa
Educational Association the members of the Yale Band showed that they were familiar with
the book by Albert M. Lea, Notes on the Wisconsin Territory; Particularly with Reference
to the Iowa District or Black Hawk Purchase, published in Philadelphia in 1836.

NEW ENGLAND HERITAGE 1 1

the Indians still further west. It has a population of from thirty to fifty
thousand, and by its superior soil, local advantages and salubrious climate,
holds out strong inducements to an industrious class of emigrants, who are
making their way thither in large numbers. Its destitution of school and
religious privileges is almost entire. Towns and villages are springing
rapidly into being, one of which, Burlington, already numbers one thousand
people, and it is of the greatest importance that a stand should be early made
by the friends of education and religion. Friends [funds?] will be provided
to support one or two of us as teachers. The others will devote themselves
to preaching, and will be under the necessity of looking to you for a partial
support. As one of the above individuals, and in their behalf, I now address
you. Will you write us as speedily as convenient, expressing your views of
our prospective enterprise, and stating what the society will be able to do
for us. This will throw light upon our paths, and we trust promote the
object for which you are laboring. 14

Only three of the seven Yale men actually went west, however,
and only one, Reuben Gaylord himself, participated in the educa-
tional enterprise planned by the seven. But other Yale men, older
than the group of 1837, had a part in the work to be done princi-
pally by the "Iowa Band" from Andover. Most important of these,
a leading figure in the religious and educational winning of the West,
was "Father" Asa Turner. Others were Julius A. Reed and "William
P. Apthorp, who was also a student at Andover. Apthorp had no
direct part in the educational enterprise, but Reed became one of the
prime movers in it.

Julius A. Reed, whose career was to be closely bound up with
Iowa College, was born at East Windsor, Connecticut, January 16,
1809, one of the many descendants of Governor William Bradford
of the Mayflower. He was graduated from Yale in 1829, and his call
to the ministry came four years later, after tutoring in New York
and Mississippi, seeing the West on a visit to a brother in Jackson-
ville, and debating the claims of law and medicine. He had a "pro-
phetic glimpse" of the Iowa country across the river in May, 1833:
"I could see the prairie where Montrose now stands, and the bluff
beyond, with a tall tree here and there upon its brow. The view was
beautiful, but, I reflected that the vast region between me and the
Pacific Ocean was inhabited only by savages. All beyond the river
seemed buried in profound sleep." Reed returned to New Haven (a
six weeks' trip on horseback) , entered Yale Seminary, was graduated
in 1835, and was commissioned by the American Home Missionary

12 Grinnell College

Society, He was ordained at "God's Barn/' Asa Turner's church at
Quincy, in April, 1836, and in January, 1837, first set foot on
Iowa soil:

I crossed the river on the ice from "Warsaw to Keokuk, and preached the
first sermon ever preached in the place by a Congregational minister, and I
think by any minister. I preached in a building afterwards known as the
Rat Row. At that time there were scarcely more than a half dozen buildings
in the place, of which the Rat Row was the best. The inhabitants were
chiefly river men, and were rough. Some of my friends thought it hazardous
for me to attempt to preach there, but I could not ask for better treatment
than I received. I recollect a man who was prostrated by rheumatism and
was not expected to live. He had kept an account of the liquor he had
drunk, and said it amounted to twenty-seven barrels. ... I saw an Indian
hunting within forty rods of the landing. 15

Upon the completion of four brief pastorates in Illinois and a
year's service as chaplain of the insane asylum at Worcester, Massa-
chusetts, Reed again answered the call of the West. Following Asa
Turner's advice, he came to the Territory of Iowa and began preach-
ing at Fairfield on November 29, 1840. From 1845 to 1857 he was
agent of the Home Missionary Society for Iowa; more than sixty
churches were organized under his supervision. 10 He was a charter
member of the board of trustees of Iowa College, 1846 to 1868, was
treasurer of the College, 1858 to 1863, and acted as principal of the
Preparatory Department and teacher of mathematics, 1862 to 1863.
Dr. George F. Magoun testified of him:

In the College business, his industry, his minute accuracy, his competence
and practical judgment, his inflexible integrity, and love for Christian
education were invaluable. In several instances someone has done for the
College what no other could have done; and Dr. Reed's part in discovering
the fraud of the second Treasurer, in extricating us from financial difficul-
ties, and in conducting the removal [to Grinnell] was one. His success in
business hid the fact that he was alsq a sound and discriminating theologian
though not very widely read, but deserving the honorary degree he should
have earlier received. 17

Reed retired from active service in 1869, but continued his helpful
and generous interest in the Congregational enterprises of the state
to the end of his days. He died in Davenport August 27, 1890, the
last of the early patriarchs to pass away.

GfflfiffiflH!^

*H*

The First Pioneers and Asa Turner

THAT portion of the Louisiana Purchase now known as Iowa had
neither name nor independent existence for fully three decades
after President Jefferson, in March, 1804, "shutting up the Con-
stitution for a time," 18 took over this vast territory. This unauthor-
ized purchase from Napoleon, negotiated the previous year by Mon-
roe and Livingston, turned out to be the best land deal in our history.
At the time, this section was largely unknown. Jefferson transmitted
accounts he had received telling of "Indians of giant stature, of a

14 Grinnell College

mountain of salt one hundred and eighty miles long, forty-five miles
wide, and of towering height." As late as 1819, Thomas Hart
Benton of Missouri, later United States Senator, described the land
west of the Mississippi as an arid plain, without wood or water. 19
Long before, however, Patrick Henry had a more prophetic vision:
"Cast your eye, sir, over this extensive country and see its soil inter-
sected in every quarter with bold, navigable streams, flowing to the
east and to the west, as if the finger of heaven were marking out the
course of your .settlements, inviting you to enterprise and pointing
the way to wealth. 35 20

The day was still far distant when men were to discover the in-
exhaustible agricultural riches of the Iowa land. The Indians had no
thought of this potential wealth. William Clark, Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, reported of them in 1826:

During several seasons in every year they are distressed by famine in which
many die, and the living child is often buried with the dead mother. They
Have neither hogs nor cows, and do not want them, because they would eat
up their little patches of corn which are without fences, and because, as the
whole nation go out to hunt twice a year, they want nothing but horses and
dogs which accompany them. In these expeditions the aged and infirm, when
unable to keep up, are frequently left to die. 21

For many years, even before the Louisiana Purchase, mining and
the fur trade had lured white men across the Mississippi. As early
as 1690 Perrot is; said to have discovered lead in the Galena-Dubuque
area. The lead mines opened here continued to be the principal
source of wealth from this unexplored region. For both Indians and
white trappers, the fur trade was important. Early travelers found
the meadows teeming with "Buffaloes and other wild beasts," deer,
black bear, beaver, otter, grey fox, raccoon, muskrat, mink, elk,
panther, lynx, and swarming with wild turkey. In 1788 Julien
Dubuque, fur trader, obtained a sanction from the Indians to work
the lead mines, the value of whose product through the years was
counted in millions. 22

French and Spanish explorers had some difficulty with the fluid
name of the nomadic Siouan tribe of hunters who roamed over this
territory before the white immigration, and early documents give
about fifty different spellings for these Aioua or loway Indians. 23
They were described as rude and crude, of great physique, deep-
voiced and dark-colored, courageous and emotional (weeping copious

FIRST PIONEERS 15

tears of joy) , good-hearted and intelligent. Their contacts with the
whites were sporadic until well into the nineteenth century.

As late as 1832 there were not over fifty white persons settled in
the Iowa country, and these few were squatters without legal rights.
The following year, as a result of the Black Hawk Purchase, the
Indian title to the lands expired. Long lines of pioneers crossed the
Mississippi, still illegally, as Congress had passed acts in 1785 and
1807 forbidding anyone to enter upon public lands until they were
surveyed and offered for sale. In spite of this, there were 10,531 set-
tlers across the river by 1836, and twice that number by 1838, when
both Calhoun and Clay inveighed in Congress against these "lawless
intruders." 24

This sprawling wilderness, once a part of the Territory of Louisiana,
had been incorporated in the Territory of Missouri when that district
was established in 1812; but when in 1821 Missouri was admitted as
a state, the Iowa country was left without civil government and con-
tinued so until it was made part of the Territory of Michigan in 1834.
Two years later it was included in the Territory of Wisconsin.

It was in 1836 that the name "Iowa" (derived from the name of
the river, and indirectly from that of the Indian tribe) first appeared
in print as applied to this section, in Notes on the Wisconsin Territory
by Lieutenant Albert M. Lea, who had traversed this region with the
United States Dragoons. 25

The Territory of Iowa was established in 1838; it included all the
region north of the Missouri line, and running up into Minnesota
and the Dakotas. One of the early acts of the Supreme Court of the
Territory was to validate the claims of the settlers, who through
claim associations and land clubs had effected an orderly organization
for the protection of their status; this was their answer to the charge
that they were lawless intruders. Finally, on December 28, 1846,
President Polk signed the act for the balanced admission of Florida
and Iowa, and so Iowa became the first state free from slavery in the
Louisiana Purchase.

Many of the early settlers in the Iowa country were Southern,
drawn, however, not from the sedentary slaveholding class but from
the Scotch-Irish stock of the foot-loose pioneers. The Southern pi-
oneer followed the streams and forests. The prairie lacked, to his
mind, both fuel and sufficient water, shelter from the winter's cold,

16 Grinnell College

and fertility. And so the prairies remained for occupation by the
Northern pioneers. 26

As to the quality of these early lowans, reports naturally differ.
Lieutenant Lea, writing in 1836, when the settlers were still the
"lawless intruders" of the Clay-Calhoun invective., found everything
lovely, even among the miners:

The character of this population is such as is rarely to be found in our
newly acquired territories. "With very few exceptions, there is not a more
orderly, industrious, active, pains-taking population west of the Alleghenies,
than is this of the Iowa District. Those who have been accustomed to asso-
ciate the name of Squatter with the idea of idleness and recklessness, would
be quite surprised to see the systematic manner in which everything is here
conducted. For intelligence, I boldly assert that they are not surpassed, as
a body, by an equal number of citizens of any country in the world.

Asa Turner's impression at the same time was similar: "The settlers
generally are of much better character than usually falls to the lot
of a new country. For enterprise, intelligence and industry, they far
surpass those who first settled Illinois." 27

The miners of Dubuque, in 1834 and 1835, were described by
Edward Langworthy: "My experience proves that nowhere has ever
such a state of society existed for honesty, integrity, and high toned
generosity as was found among the miners. . . . No need here for
locks to keep out burglars." Charles Augustus Murray, an English
traveler, found in Dubuque "as profligate, turbulent, and abandoned
a population as any in the world, [yet] theft is almost unknown;
and though dirks are frequently drawn, and pistols fired in savage
and drunken brawls ... I do not believe that an instance of larceny
or housebreaking has occurred." And a young home missionary saw
this picture: "In such a population there was none of the religious
element, but, on the contrary, there was a total destitution of the
fear of God, and, I had almost said, of regard for man. There was,
of course, no recognition of the Sabbath, and no public worship,
while vices of almost every kind were practised. A gentleman in-
forms me that, wishing to procure a Bible, he searched the place
[Dubuque] in vain to find one. . . ." Another summed it up in a fair
generalization: "This population is a mixed multitude gathered from
all parts of the United States, possessing every degree of intelligence
from the liberally educated, to the most ignorant, and belonging to
almost every religious sect in Christendom, besides including many

FIRST PIONEERS 17

who boast that they are infidels/' 2S The Home Missionary Magazine
in August, 1842, stated that there were only 2,133 professing Chris-
tians in a population of 60,400.

There could be no question, however, of the sobriety and the piety
of the New Englanders who crossed the Mississippi in 1836 and set-
tled at a spot known first as "Haystack," and soon as "Denmark."
Their coming was the result of "Father" Turner's missionary labors.

Asa Turner, pioneer extraordinary and home missionary patriarch,
was born on a farm in the town of Templeton, Massachusetts, June
11, 1799, grandson of a Revolutionary soldier who had seen service
at Bunker Hill and Saratoga. Asa was a sturdy youth, quick, social,
impulsive. Unsatisfied by the Unitarianism of the parish, he was con-
verted to an orthodox faith by the reading of Doddridge's Rise and
Progress of Religion in the Soul. Even as a student, he conducted
religious services in the home and was called "The Little Priest."

He taught school at Templeton and Winchendon, and was already
twenty-two when he entered Amherst Academy, and twenty-four
when he became a freshman at Yale. He was graduated with the Yale
class of 1827, almost one-third of whose members entered the Chris-
tian ministry. Already he had been active in evangelistic work, in
the annual revival services of religious awakening. Poverty and over-
work impaired his robust health. Entering college with bedding and
two dollars, he worked on the academic woodyard, taught school,
and boarded himself at about fifty cents a week; result, chronic
dyspepsia, which left him "half dead."

After a brief course at Yale Theological Seminary, Turner was
licensed to preach at the age of thirty. Meanwhile, in 1828 he had
joined a group of Yale men who planned to go to Illinois to preach
and promote education, and who founded Illinois College, of which
Turner became a trustee.

The year 1830 was decisive for him. He went to Boston to study
with Lyman Beecher and met Martha Bull, who was teaching there.
They were married August 31, he was ordained September 6, they
started west September 14, and arrived at Quincy, Illinois, November
5, fording streams and passing through prairie and timber fires
on the way, Quincy was then a frontier village of about four
hundred souls. A Presbyterian church was organized December 1,
with fifteen charter members, "three Baptists, three Congrega-
tionalists, four Presbyterians, and five from the world." Already

jg Grinnell College

Turner had lifted his spirit above sectarian disputes: "I do think the
'isms' of evangelical Christians among the greatest evils in this
"Western country. The withering influence is seen in almost every
church, stirring up jealousy and strife and suspicion, paralyzing
action, and putting a damper on all the holy affections." However,
he created an orthodoxy of his own: "All must come into the church
through the door of total abstinence/ 5 Poverty was the rule in the
little parish: "But few have outside garments. Children met me at
the Sunday School one morning when it was 14 below zero, more
than half of them with nothing but their summer dresses. Little boys
clad in tow-cloth/' Epidemic diseases were common; at one time for
ten weeks "there was but one family where there was no affliction."

It was well that the Turners were accustomed to simple living.
They came to a home where one room served as sitting room, bed-
room, study, kitchen, and dairy. They lived on wheat batter-cakes
and corn dodgers, milk toast, coffee, and tea. Their salary was $400,
half of which the first year went for debt. Not unnaturally, illness
followed privation.

The young missionary did not spare himself. His parish was
broad "as boundless as the eye can see a territory greater than
that promised to Abraham, more abundant in its productions, and, I
fear, almost as destitute of the knowledge of the true God." Turner
preached two or three times each Sunday, and on Wednesday eve-
nings, "held conferences Saturday evenings, prayer-meetings Thurs-
day evenings, and for women Wednesday afternoons," superintended
the Sunday School, and preached twice a week in the country at three
stations eight to fifteen miles distant. Besides, he was in great demand
for "protracted meetings" or revivals at other towns as far distant as
Galena, two hundred miles away, and he was instrumental in organiz-
ing thirteen churches in northern Illinois.

Travel had its difficulties. On the way back from Presbytery in
Jacksonville, "on Thursday it stormed; on Friday left my wagon and
wife so as to get home for the Sabbath; the cold was excessive, the
storm very severe; nine miles on my way came to a creek, so cold I
dared not swim; hired a man to build a raft and help me across; swam
my horse and arrived in season; had been sick five weeks; took cold;
was obliged to swim my horse three times, and swim with her twice,
and thus, all drenched with water, ride fifteen miles before I could
dry."

FIRST PIONEERS 19

In 1832 Asa Turner went East to interest people in Illinois College
and the new territory he was serving. At New Ipswich, New Hamp-
shire (birthplace of Ephraim Adams), two men were moved to fur-
ther inquiry, one of them visiting Quincy two years later. At last,
in 1836, four bachelors and four men with their families journeyed
from the East to seek western homes, arriving in Quincy while Turner
was across the Mississippi reconnoitering the Black" Hawk Purchase.
The newcomers, one of whom had a brother already settled in the
Purchase, crossed the river and settled ten miles inland, buying out
the squatters and acquiring a cabin measuring eighteen by sixteen
feet, the first home of eighteen persons. These New Englanders were
not welcomed by the earlier pioneers, who were Southerners; one of
these, the earliest settler at this spot, had taken up a claim in 1835
and was "sorry when he heard that the Yankees were coming." 29

In 1833, at the request of the members and encouraged by the
pastor, the Quincy church became Congregational. This change at
Quincy from the Presbyterian to the Congregational polity became
important later in the ecclesiastical history of Iowa. Asa Turner's
background and education were in the Congregational tradition. His
early connection with Presbytery at Quincy was due to the practical
effect of the "Plan of Union," 30 which had been adopted in 1801 by
the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and the Congrega-
tional Association of Connecticut, to which the associations of Ver-
mont, Massachusetts, and Maine later acceded. Both denominations
were then essentially Calvinistic in theology, but they differed widely
in polity, Presbyterianism being highly centralized, with authority
over local churches mounting through Presbytery, Synod, and Gen-
eral Assembly, while in Congregationalism the local church was com-
pletely independent.

There was, at first, fraternal cooperation in missionary extension.
The American Home Missionary Society represented both denomina-
tions, "to promote mutual forbearance and a spirit of accommoda-
tion" between members of the two communions in new settlements.
Its agents were at first largely Presbyterian, and the sentiment grew
that the Congregational form of government was not well adapted to
the mixed population of the West. This steady drift toward Presby-
terianism in territory largely settled by Congregationalists from New
England resulted in an estimated loss of over two thousand churches
to Congregationalism in the home mission territory.

20 Grinnell College

The dissatisfaction of many who were loyal to the New England
tradition grew with the acrimonious differences between conservatives
and liberals within the Presbyterian fold, which led to its split into
Old School and New School organizations in 1837, when the Plan of
Union was formally abandoned by the Old School party. The New
School Presbyterians attempted to keep up the connection, but a
national convention of Congregational churches in 1852 declared the
plan inexpedient. This declaration was generally accepted by the
churches. The dissension between Old and New School had to do
with the attitude toward slavery as well as with theological differences.

"Upon such minds as had gone into the missionary work from
New England" the controversy among Presbyterians "produced a
deep and abiding conviction that it was not the church of their
fathers nor of their youth, and that in it they could not fight the
battle of life either with freedom or efficiency."

Asa Turner's church at Quincy prospered under the Congregational
banner. In eight months it became self-supporting with but fifty-
five members, and during the first year received nearly eighty new
members. More than once, no doubt, Asa Turner had cast longing
glances across the Mississippi upon the thinly settled Iowa district,
and he had been charmed with the beauty of the site that was to be-
come Davenport. 31

In April, 1836, the month in which this Iowa land was made a part
of the newly established Territory of Wisconsin, Turner and his
fellow-member of the Yale Band, "William B. Kirby, crossed the river
at Fort Madison for a survey of the Black Hawk Purchase. They
traveled north through the sparsely settled country, going a few
miles beyond the site of Davenport, preaching at such settlements as
they found along the way. Turner's impression was most favorable:
"As to the country, I see but one objection. It is so beautiful that
there might be an unwillingness to exchange it for the paradise
above, . . . The soil [is] similar to that of the Military Tract; as a
whole . . . better. Prairies generally dry and rolling, streams clear,
of course more healthy than they generally are in this state [Illi-
nois], better supplied with timber, water-power, coal, etc." 82 It
is evident that he was already prepared in spirit for further pioneering
in this newer country. The call was not long delayed.

Ill

Denmark

IN THE summer of 1836, when the New Englanders who had been
drawn westward by Asa Turner's plea at New Ipswich finally
reached the Black Hawk Purchase, there were about ten thou-
sand white settlers across the Mississippi. The only town claiming
one thousand inhabitants was Dubuque, far to the north. No doubt
these newcomers avoided the river bottom because of the prevalence
of the ague, which the early settlers considered incurable. They made
their way to the plateau ten miles inland above the Skunk River, on

22 Grmnell College

whose banks the brother of one of them was then building a sawmill.
Their first name for the new settlement was "Haystack," as the hay
for the community was kept in a common stack, making a prominent
landmark on the open prairie. They later called it "Denmark" after
a hymn which seems to have been a favorite tune with the settlers
from New Ipswich. 83

These New Englanders ran true to type. Half of their townsite was
set apart for a school, and within a year a schoolhouse was erected
which also served as a church. It was a rude structure covered with
split oak boards smoothed with a drawing-knife, the floor loose, the
walls unplastered, the whole unpainted. A pulpit was made of two
cottonwood boards in front and one on each side, with a black walnut
board nailed across the top. The pews were plain wood slabs without
backs. "This house was the cradle of Congregationalism in Iowa." 84
In this cabin in Denmark, Iowa, Miss Elizabeth Houston from Lynde-
borough, New Hampshire, began to teach in 1837. William P.
Apthorp, Yale and Andover home missionary, preached there inter-
mittently in 1837 and 1838.

A Congregational church was organized May 5, 1838, with thirty-
two members, representing every New England state but one. The
ministers present were Asa Turner, William Apthorp, and Julius A.
Reed. The new church called Asa Turner to be its pastor. He ac-
cepted, and began his thirty years' ministry at Denmark on August 3,
1838, as the first settled Congregational minister in the Iowa coun-
try. 35 He came with the understanding that an institution of learn-
ing be founded, thinking, no doubt, of the successful work of the
Yale Band in Illinois.

The village of Denmark then consisted of three houses and a
schoolhouse. Conditions of living in these pioneer homes were severely
simple. A daughter of an early settler wrote:

Come with me, favored children from ample Eastern homes, into our cabin,
twelve by sixteen feet. One window of three panes of glass, made to swing
out on leather hinges, a leather strap to fasten it inside, a large fire-place
with sod-chimney, a loose floor, a slab-door, with wooden latch and leather
string, an attic for store-room, to which we went up on wooden pins driven
into the logs on the left side of the fire-place, while on the right were four
narrow shelves for a cupboard, with a curtain hung before it. Two bed-
steads in opposite corners; under these, two trundle-beds; back of them
three swing-shelves against the wall for library. The table in the center, the
side of a bed serving for seats while eating; at night the table placed across

DENMARK 23

the hearth so another bed might be made in the center. Every thing moved
twice a day. Chests containing our clothing piled up at night, and spread
around in the morning for seats. In this house thirteen of us lived, longed, and
hoped; yes, and enjoyed. 36

Conditions of travel were no improvement over what Asa Turner
had found in Illinois. Julius A. Reed wrote in his Reminiscences:

There is not a stream in Iowa, north and east of Cedar Falls, or south of
Cedar Falls and east of Des Moines, that has not been forded by one or more
of these pioneers, and some of the largest at many different points. Some-
times they drove their horses through the creeks and caught them as they
came out, crossing themselves on logs; sometimes they swam their horses by
the side of a canoe, sometimes took their buggies across large streams, piece-
meal, in skiffs. Father Turner once swam the creeks between Farmington
and Denmark, with his horse and buggy, though he could not swim one
stroke himself. It was hard for him to stop when he had once started. . . .
Bro. Lane had a narrow escape in the ice at Keosauqua. . . . Bro. Ripley was
carried over the dam at Bentonsport. 37

Mr. Reed makes it clear also that theological controversy was not
limited to New England. The minister of a German Congregational
church at Dubuque left the Association.

His plea was that our belief on some point connected with the fall of our
first parents was erroneous. . . . With Joe Smith [Mormon] on one side and
Abner Kneeland [Atheist] on the other ... we had no heart for curious
speculation and had no use for anything in our preaching but the essential
facts of the gospel. . . . We were assailed with charges of heresy and dis-
order. . . . Congregationalists of Danville had been made so suspicious of
Father Turner, through the same insinuations from the same source, that
they were pleased that he was prevented from being present at the organiza-
tion of their church. . . . Charges . . . were circulated at the east till they
produced an extensive distrust of western Congregationalism. Presbyterian
papers were full of these charges and Presbyterians visiting New England
repeated them. 38

Asa Turner's salary from the Denmark church was $300, paid
partly in produce. In 1839 he began to act as agent of the Home
Missionary Society, and thus $200 was added to his income, which
for ten years was never more than $500, often less. "That he was
economical in his household you can easily believe," wrote Julius
Reed. "I have seen his children more than once making their suppers
solely of stewed pumpkin and milk. I have heard that his family and
his horse have been supplied from the same barrel." At one time

24 Grinnell College

Turner rode for nearly half a day to borrow money so as to get his
letters from the post office. Postage on eastern letters was then twen-
ty-five cents, payable by the receiver. 39

Before the end of 1838, "Father" Turner was heartened by the
arrival of a fellow-laborer in the new area across the Mississippi.
Reuben Gaylord, of the ce lowa Educational Association" at Yale, who
meanwhile had taught at Illinois College, was commissioned by the
American Home Missionary Society in July, ordained in August,
married Miss Sarah Burton of Round Prairie, Illinois, in October, and
arrived at Mount Pleasant with his bride in December, soon to be-
come Turner's close neighbor in a newly organized church at Dan-
ville. Gay lord's first report to the Society was optimistic:

After a fatiguing journey of nearly five weeks, I have found everything as
favorable here as I expected, considering the age of the country. The first
settlers came into this county about four years since, and it now contains not
far from 4,000 inhabitants on an area twenty-four miles square. The im-
provements have been rapid beyond a parallel in any country. . . . Mt.
Pleasant is three years old. It stands high and commands an extensive view
of timber and prairie. It will have every facility for building when the
enterprise of the people shall develop its natural resources. I mention these
things to show the prospects of the place for future growth. There has been
occasional preaching here by the Methodists, who have done much good. 40

Reuben Gaylord organized five churches in the Iowa territory and
the first Congregational church in Nebraska; later he represented the
Home Missionary Society in the founding of many churches in the
Far West. He was one of the first trustees of Iowa College.

In 1840, after a brief interlude in the East, Julius A. Reed re-
turned to Iowa for a lifetime of service. That same year, on Novem-
ber 6, Turner, Gaylord, Reed, and licentiate Charles Burnham, with
the help of three ministers from Illinois and five laymen, organized
the Congregational Association of Iowa at a convention held at Den-
mark. 41 This was the first Congregational State Association formed
west of New York.

The next year brought two further accessions to the ministerial
ranks. Oliver Emerson, Jr., club-footed and half -paralyzed from
birth, afflicted with a chronic kidney disease, had never seen a well
day and never taken a step without pain. He began preaching while a
student at Waterville College, Maine, preached his way through Lane
Seminary in Cincinnati, was twice refused ordination as a Baptist

DENMARK 25

because he rejected "close communion/' joined the Congregational
Church at Davenport, and continued preaching as a private member
until the Congregational Association ordained him in November,
1841, "with anxiety and hesitation." His salary at Davenport was
fifteen dollars a month and "boarding 'round/' This wreck of a man,
living a Pauline life as itinerant evangelist for eastern Iowa, was the
founder of many churches. As an apostle to the "scattered sheep in
the wilderness," Emerson evangelized the whole region between
Davenport and Dubuque and at one time served ten congregations
simultaneously. His itinerant work enabled him to lead in the forma-
tion of not less than twenty-five churches, not all Congregational.
He was a trustee of Iowa College, 1852 to 1883. "No speaker stirred
the college students more effectively in the '60's than he," said L. F.
Parker.

John C. Holbrook, like Reed and Gaylord a descendant of Governor
Bradford of the Plymouth Colony, was the son of a paper manu-
facturer and book publisher at Brattleboro, Vermont. He had re-
ceived a desultory education by private tutors and at Norwich Mili-
tary Academy. Despite an early experience of sermons up to "six-
teenthly" in an unheated meeting house, he turned his back upon a
promising business career and, moved by a revival and the reading of
Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, dedicated him-
self to Christian service and began lay preaching and the private
study of theology. In 1839 he took his family to Davenport, whither
a farmer brother-in-law had preceded him. Disgusted with the auto-
cratic leadership of a rigid Old School Presbyterian pastor, he with-
drew and with others formed a Congregational church. Licensed to
preach by the Congregational Association in November, 1841, Hol-
brook held briefly a ministry at Lyons, then accepted a call to a small
Presbyterian church at Dubuque, which soon became Congregational.
Here he continued his service for twenty-two years, with an interval
of three years in Chicago, where he participated in the founding of
the New England Church and the Congregational Herald. He also
was one of the first trustees of Iowa College. 42

Turner, as first home missionary agent for Iowa, was moved by
elation and dismay as he saw the flood of pioneers pouring into his
new empire. Insistently he pressed upon his eastern correspondents
the urgent needs of this new population: "Have the churches yet to

26 Grinnell College

learn that the best time to teach a state, as well as a child, is in its
infancy?" In June, 1840, Turner wrote:

I have been here now almost two years, and during this time the A.H.M.S.
has not sent a single man to this territory. Do try to find some more good
men and true. We need some ten at least this moment imperatively need
them. Why should this most interesting territory be left? The land sales
are over. Settlers have got their titles to earth. Now is the time to secure a
title to heaven. ... I suppose every day adds to our number, even Sundays.
Children come into the world without respect of days; so [people] do into
the territory. Do labor a little in our behalf. 43

After an exploring tour for the Society as far north as Dubuque,
Turner again sent a plea to the eastern churches, this time for twelve
more home missionaries. The following year he asked in his annual
report: "Ought the six missionaries (in the field) to be left alone to
labor with a congregation of about a thousand added to the territory
every month?"

For a time these Macedonian cries for help seemed to go unanswered,
and the tireless missionary had moments of discouragement. He
wrote later of this phase:

For twelve years [i.e., beginning at Quincy] I had written so many letters
to call men into this Western field that I had about concluded it was a waste
of time and paper. And especially after I got to Iowa. I had heard so often
of ministers, boxed and marked "for Iowa," lost on the road, that I had lost
pretty much all faith in spiritual transportation companies. I did not really
believe that a batch of them would come worth their insurance policy. One
of the number wrote me that my want of faith in their intention operated
as a stimulant to make them determined to come anyhow.

When he began to receive inquiries from a group of students at
Andover Seminary, he answered, with uncharacteristic skepticism:

June 7, 1843. My dear young brother, I am happy to hear a reinforcement
from Andover is talked of. I hope it may not end in talk, but I fear. I have
received so many promises of the kind that they do not now even begin to
excite hope. If jour professors should write and say that the whole class
would start for Iowa in two weeks, I should expect to see, in the course of
two years, one or two of them who could find no other resting-place for the
soles of their feet. 44

This time, however, the spiritual transportation company was really
at work.

Meanwhile, expansive educational plans were the order of the day

DENMARK 27

in the new and hopeful West. At the 1837-1838 session of the Wis-
consin Territorial Assembly, held in Burlington, charters were au-
thorized for eighteen institutions for the territory, including eleven
west of the Mississippi. One of these, t a college for the purpose of
educating youth, the style, name and title whereof shall be "The
Philandrian College of the town of Denmark, 3 " was placed under the
direction of seven trustees by act of January 19, 1838. The incentive
for this action came from a family in Princeton, Illinois, who had
contributed to the funds of Illinois College and selected Denmark as
a proper site in the Black Hawk Purchase. Loss by fire of the family
mills at Princeton and the failure of an emissary to secure funds in
the East caused the projectors to abandon the enterprise, and with it
the plan to establish several academies as feeders for the "Philan-
drian." 45

Less ambitious, but more in keeping with the pioneer conditions,
was the actual fulfilment of Asa Turner's desire for an institution of
learning at Denmark. The owners gave seventy-two town lots and
fourteen out lots for such an institution, and the territorial legislature
of Iowa, on February 3, 1843, granted a charter for Denmark Acad-
emy, which thus became the oldest incorporated educational institu-
tion in the Territory of Iowa. 46 The catalogue stated the pedagogical
theory of the founders as follows: "Education consists in the amount
of manhood, spiritual as well as intellectual, which is developed, and
not in the abundance of facts with which the mind is gorged." In-
struction began in the church building in September, 1845.

The first principal, Albert Anderson Sturges, came from Granville,
Ohio, by way of school teaching at "Washington, Iowa. After two
years at Denmark he completed his own education at Wabash College
and Yale Seminary. He was ordained at Denmark in 1851 and later
had a remarkable career as missionary of the American Board in
Micronesia. His successor for five years was the Rev. George W.
Drake, an Oberlin man, who worked as a stonemason before and after
school, taught briefly at Eddyville before coming to Denmark, and
afterward taught at Oskaloosa. Then came Henry Kingman Edson,
under whose twenty-seven years' service the Academy saw its greatest
growth, from an enrollment of 18 up to 272. He was an Amherst
man, served as principal of Hopkins Academy at his birthplace,
Hadley, Massachusetts, studied theology at Andover, and was licensed
to preach before going West. During his principalship, in 1867, a

28 Grinnell College

commodious stone academy building was erected, greatly enlarging an
older structure. His later years were spent as professor of didactics
at Iowa College, and then in retirement at Grinnell. 47 Denmark
Academy did yeoman service until, like so many other private pre-
paratory schools, it was submerged by the rising tide of public educa-
tion in the secondary as well as in the elementary field.

ifMjWf^

The Iowa Band

IF THE first impulse in Iowa came from Yale, the decisive one came
from Andover. However, even there the Yale influence was indirectly
traceable. Among the budding theologians at Andover early in the
forties there was a relatively mature young man named Edwin Bela
Turner. Born at Great Barrington, Massachusetts, October 2, 1812,
he was the son of a well-known temperance lecturer. Converted at
sixteen, he and other young men began to hold religious services, out
of which a church developed. When his family moved to Godfrey,

3 o Grinmll College

Illinois, Edwin attended Illinois College, graduating in 1840. He
carried with him to Andover his knowledge of and interest in the
Vest and a personal acquaintance with Asa Turner.

As early as March, 1841, he wrote from Andover to "Father"
Turner, expressing his inclination toward the Mississippi Valley as a
field of work, but with doubtful optimism about his fellow-students
at the Seminary: "The majority of Andover students have not suffi-
cient zeal and energy for the West, but would soon acquire [them]
by mingling among Western people." He was writing for informa-
tion on behalf of the "Domestic Branch of the Society of Inquiry."
The next January another letter came to Denmark from three mem-
bers of this "Society," including two later members of the Iowa
Band, James J. Hill and Horace Hutchinson. "Our minds," they
wrote, "are drawn towards the Great Valley. . . . Compared with the
needs of other parts of our country, or even of the world, at this
juncture, many of us incline to believe that those of three or four
North-western states and territories are particularly urgent and im-
perative." 48

The solitary home missionary at Denmark had made so many vain
pleas for help from the East that he could not be sanguine over this
approach. Ready enough to send cautious advice to the young men
at the Seminary, he yet had little hope that he would ever see them.
But by that time the die was cast at Andover.

Ephraim Adams, leading member and historian of the Iowa Band,
tells the story in which disabling sickness turns out to be a means of
grace:

It was a beautiful evening in the summer of 1842, when the students of
Andover Seminary assembled in the chapel, to be led as usual in their evening
devotions by one of the venerable professors of those days. Among them sat
one, pale and emaciated by continued illness, one of whom friends began
to whisper, "Unless relieved soon, we fear he will never be well, even if he
lives.". . . He had entered the chapel that evening under the combined in-
fluence of his studies and his disease. He longed for the time when he should
be a preacher; but then, could he be one? Even the duties of the Seminary
were a burden almost too heavy to be borne. . . . Just then there came to his
mind the thought that there was a field where the necessary labors of a
minister would probably counteract, rather than foster, his disease; and that
field the West. "With this came a rush of other thoughts, of things that he
had heard and read about the West. It would be self-denial to go; but then,
in self-denial there would come strength of character, with the gain of a

THE IOWA BAND 3 1

more conscious consecration to God. Then there was the probable influence
of his going upon fellow students, friends, Christians, and the Church, for to
go West then was truly a missionary work. . . . The spell was upon him, and
he seemed to stand alone as before God, his feelings, his petitions, all em-
bodied in one sentiment, one feeling, a position of soul in which his one
desire was, "Lord, prepare me for whatever field Thou hast before me. Pre-
pare me for it, and make me willing to enter it."

It was Daniel Lane, and his trouble was the endemic Andover disease,
dyspepsia. He was a Maine man, graduate of Bowdoin in 1838, and
had taught school before beginning his theological studies. He was
in the middle year, when "the student's heart kindles with desire to
preach the great truths of the Bible to his fellow men." His urgent
thoughts had the absorbing power of a vision. "He went out that
evening not as he came in. Henceforth the prayer was, "May I be
found in the right place, doing the right work!' " 49

The next spring, in their senior year, Daniel Lane and two of his
classmates, Hutchinson and Ephraim Adams, were on a tramp
through the hills, talking about their future field of service. Their
feelings inclined toward the West. Hutchinson suggested a common
enterprise: "If we and some others of our classmates could only go
out together, and take possession of some field where we could have
the ground and work together, what a grand thing it would be!"
Soon after, a meeting of the students was called to hear an elder of a
church in Cincinnati present the claims of the West. At the hour
appointed, the elder failed to appear, but a Western meeting was held
none the less. A letter was read from a little church, on the frontier
it was from Ira Houston of Denmark, Iowa calling for young men
for the new territory; two of the professors also urged the claims of
fields of labor outside of New England. One of the seniors, Harvey
Adams, was so impressed that he pondered the question through a
sleepless night and the following day, and finally came to the decision,
"I am for the West, where needed, and where most needed." 50

There followed a series of evening meetings for prayer and con-
sultation, to which the men already mentioned quietly invited others.
The meetings, secret at first, were held in the dark in a corner of the
unlighted Seminary library, Daniel Lane, as assistant librarian, hav-
ing access to the building. Various western locations were discussed.
Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin were, they thought, already com-
paratively well provided. Missouri was suggested, but there slavery

32 Grinnell College

was an obstacle. There remained the newest territory of all, Iowa.
Correspondence was opened with the secretaries of the Home Mis-
sionary Society and with Asa Turner.

Daniel Lane was the first to come to a decision: "I am going to
settle this question so far as I am concerned," he announced. "We
have been thinking about it long enough to conclude one way or
another." One evening, as he walked with a friend, after a day spent
in fasting and prayer, he said, "Well, I am going to Iowa. Whether
any one else goes or not, I am going." "And I think I will go with
you," said quiet Ephraim Adams. Here was the nucleus. Gradually
others joined in this decision, until there were twelve, one of whom,
however, desisted at the last for fear of the climate, though Asa
Turner had written: "Effect of climate on healthy persons about as
great as going from Andover to Lowell." 51

Evidently Asa Turner's skepticism about recruiting for the West
began to thaw before the warm interest of these young men at And-
over. He answered their many questions with characteristic home-
spun humor and practicality, especially as to the advisability of mar-
riage:

Don't come here expecting paradise. Our climate will permit men to live
long enough, if they do their duty. If they do not, no matter how soon they
die. Chances for health, if one is inclined to pulmonary complaints, I think
are greater than in New England. I have known many persons improved by
a residence here. We have some two hundred people connected with our
society here. I doubt whether one in fifty has ever had fever and ague. I
never knew so much good health for so long a time. Office and station are
but little regarded here. People will not speak of you or to you, as the Rev.
Mr. So-and-So, but will call you simply by your name, and your wife Peggy
or Polly, or whatever her name may be. ... Come prepared to expect small
things, rough things. Lay aside all your dandy whims boys learn in college,
and take a few lessons of your grandmothers/ before you come. Get clothes,
firm, durable, something that will go through the hazel brush without tear-
ing. Don't be afraid of a good, hard hand, or of a tanned face. If you keep
free from a hard heart, you will do well. Get wives of the old Puritan stamp,
such as honored the distaff and the loom, those who can pail a cow, and
churn the butter, and be proud of a jean dress or a checked apron. Tell those
two or three who think of leading out a sister this fall, we will try to find
homes as good as Keokuk, the high chief and his lady live in, and my wife
will have the kettle of mush and the johnny-cake ready by some cold night
in November. 52

With one exception, the men who formed the Iowa Band were

THE IOWA BAND 33

New Englanders (one was a New Yorker) , and all but three were
graduates of New England colleges, three of Amherst, two of Bow-
doin, one each of Dartmouth, Harvard (by way of Yale), and Ver-
mont. One each came from Union College, New York University,
and Illinois College. They were all members of the Andover class of
1843. The names of the eleven were: Ephraim Adams, Harvey
Adams, Ebenezer Alden, Jr., James Jeremiah Hill, Horace Hutchin-
son, Daniel Lane, Erastus Ripley, Alden Burrill Robbins, William
Salter, Benjamin Adams Spaulding, and Edwin Bela Turner.

Despite Father Turner's sage advice, these young missioners had
little conception of the conditions they were to encounter in the field
of their choice. William Salter had a cozy plan for his missionary
activity: "I am going to Iowa; and, when I get there, I am going to
have my study and library. Then I am going to write two sermons
a week; and, when the Sabbath comes, I am going to preach them,
and the people, if they want the gospel, must come to hear." The
reality was somewhat different.

Well, he came to Iowa to find his home, for the time being, in the house of
kind Christian people, in which the one room must answer all the needs
of the family, with those of the new minister superadded. The familiar quilt
of those days partitioned off one corner for his bedroom and study; and his
study-chair was a saddle. As for written sermons, they were, of course, few;
and if any one was compelled to go about in search of the people, instead of
being sought by them, it was William Salter. 53

Another, most likely Ephraim Adams,

. . . pictured to himself a country destitute of preachers, and a people, with
the recollections of Christian homes fresh in their memories, all eager to hear
the gospel. He had fancied, that, when once among them, the simple an-
nouncement that he came as a minister would be enough immediately to draw-
about him those famishing for the bread of life. "Oh, what a joy," thought
he, "to be a home missionary!"

Imagine the change in his views as he found, in the place to which he was
assigned, the great majority of the people not only just as indifferent as
elsewhere, but, owing to the sharp, worldly features of a stirring Western
town, even more so. The few that had any interest at all in religious things
were cut up into cliques and denominations of all sorts, some of which he
had never heard of before; and, to meet their wants, there was a minister
or preacher of some kind at every corner of the streets, making it, as the
Sabbath came, not only difficult to find a place or an hour in which to
preach, but more difficult still to secure anything like a stated congregation

34 Grinnell College

from Sabbath to Sabbath. Here was actual experience as against the theory
of home-missionary life.

Later wisdom led Ephraim Adarns to this mature afterthought:

Often the young minister finds himself coming awkwardly into his calling,
because he seeks to carry into it the full panoply of the schools, or of
favorite theological giants, instead of going to his work simply in the name
of the Lord. The process of getting to work so as to work successfully, in
which everyone has so much to learn that has not been taught him by books
and teachers, is always more or less a process of disappointments and failures.
A modification of previous views and plans becomes necessary. There are
frequent calls for self-adjustments and adaptations, to meet unthought-of
exigencies; so that the man often, in the course of a few years, comes out
far different in many respects from what he had proposed. So it proved in
the case of the classmates, who, in a few short days, were taken from the
quiet scenes of student life at Andover, and set down one here, and an-
other there as Home Missionaries in Iowa. 54

Having made up their minds to a common endeavor, "each to
found a church and all a college," the adventurous Band lost no time.
It was the fateful year 1843, which, according to William Miller's
calculations from Daniel and Revelations, was to see the cataclysmic
end of the world, when the Millerites, clad in white garments, went
to housetops and hilltops to await their translation. For these young
men it was instead the year of a great beginning. Nor were they
allowed to forget the educational aspect of their mission. Shortly
before their departure they were invited to the home of Samuel
Farrar, treasurer of the Seminary, who urged that a part of their
missionary work in Iowa should be the early founding of a college,
and who then gave each of them a copy of the charter and constitu-
tion of Phillips Academy.

Near the close of the term at the Seminary, September 3, 1843, a
public meeting was held in the South Church at Andover, in recog-
nition of this unusual group of Christian apostles to the frontier.
Leonard Bacon, "the Congregational Pope of New England," himself
twenty years out of Andover, came from New Haven for the sermon,
and Dr. Milton Badger of the Home Missionary Society advised the
Band: "You go where you will find a soil of surpassing richness, all
covered with beautiful flowers. But remember that the soil is yet in
its natural state, and must be all turned up. Those flowers, though
beautiful to the eye, are but flowers of weeds, wild and useless. They
must be rooted out and better seed cast in their place." 65

THE IOWA BAND 35

Asa Turner had written: "Well then, come on; come all of you
directly to my house; come here to us, and we can then help you to
your respective fields of labor." So Denmark, Lee County, Iowa, was
to be provisional journey's end, and boxes were shipped to Burlington,
Iowa, via New Orleans. Two of the Band were detained for a year,
Hill by the illness and death of his father, Ripley by a graduate ap-
pointment at the Seminary. The other nine were to rendezvous on
Tuesday, October 3, at the Delavan House (a temperance hotel) in
Albany, the next morning to take the train westward. Hutchinson
was delayed a day by the death of a friend. Lane and Robbins had
married, evidently unaffrighted by Asa Turner's warnings.

A month's travel lay ahead, with experiences quite new to the
hardy adventurers. The westward journey from Albany began Wed-
nesday, October 4, 1843, the first stage ending at Buffalo, where they
spent Sunday after the inevi cable trip to Niagara Falls; several of the
pilgrims spoke at an evening service in the First Presbyterian Church.
Monday, October 9, they boarded the steamer Missouri bound for
Chicago over the Great Lakes:

. . . head winds and rough sea without, and seasickness and monotony on
board, made it anything but a pleasant passage. Late on Saturday night, in
stormy weather, they had only reached Milwaukee. There most of them left
the boat to tarry for the Sabbath. A few, either too sick to leave their berths,
or for some other special reason, remained on board to arrive at Chicago in
the morning. Those tarrying for the Sabbath had a quiet, pleasant day, and
on Monday found a boat to take them, on their way to join those who had
gone before them. And so the Lakes were passed.

Chicago, then a frontier town of eight thousand inhabitants, was
the western terminus of lake transportation, but was without rail
connections. Farmers drove in from all parts of Illinois to find a
market for their produce. Farm wagons were thus available for the
westward trip, and in such the pilgrims continued their hegira, some
across the prairie to Davenport and down the Mississippi by boat,
others by the longer southerly course direct to Burlington. They had
laid in a supply of canvas wagon coverings, blankets, coffee, bread,
and bacon for the trek across the prairie.

Now began Western life; and, for a while, it was well enjoyed. Now in
a slough in the bottom-lands of some sluggish stream, and now high up on
the rolling prairie: what a vast extent of land meets the eye, land in every
direction, with scarce a shrub or a tree to be seen! How like a black ribbon

36 Grinnell College

upon a carpet of green stretches away in the distance before them the road
they are to travel! And occasionally some far-off cloth-covered wagon like
their own is descried, like a vessel at sea, rightly named a "Prairie schooner."
In the settled portions, what farms! what fences! how unlike their Eastern
homes! No stones, no barns, children and pigs running together. Then what
places in which to sleep! and what breakfasts! If, after a morning ride, they
made a lucky stop, such honey! such milk! such butter and eggs! and all so
cheap twelve and a half cents a meal!

Day by day they traveled on, gazing, wondering, remarking and being
remarked upon. Some thought them "land-sharks," some Mormons. But
even this became at last wearisome and monotonous. On Saturday afternoon,
the southern party, worn with travel, halted at Galesburg for another Sab-
bath's rest.

Monday morning found them early on their way, refreshed, and eager for
the end. "To-day," thought they, "the setting sun is to look with us upon
the great Mississippi;" and so it proved. For an hour or so, near the close of
the day, they had been winding and jolting through timbered bottom-lands
among huge trees, grand in their silence, gazing the while earnestly forward,
till at last it was seen, the smooth, broad bosom of the great river, with
the last silvery rays of the setting sun playing upon it. "Three cheers," cried
they, "for the Mississippi!" Their hearty cheers rang out upon the forest;
and, in a few moments more, they were on the river's bank. But the ferry-
boat had just made its last trip for the day; and, though they hallooed for
help, no one responded to the call. The twilight deepened. It was soon dark,
save as the stars and the moonbeams sparkled and danced upon the waters.
The hallooing had ceased as useless, and things looked desperate; but the dip
of a paddle was heard, and a canoe soon came in sight. It was a chance to
cross the river, twenty-five cents apiece, and a bark of limited accommo-
dations. Brothers Salter and Turner declared they would rather stay by the
stuff all night. The others paid the price, and stepped in. It was a heavy
load for a light canoe, and all must remain motionless. So, in stillness and
silence, with God's stars looking down upon them, they were paddled across
to Iowa's shore.

Now in Iowa, at Burlington! Kind friends, even here, were waiting their
arrival; and, as the news spread, they were soon constrained to turn from
tavern fare to Christian homes. The watchers by the stuff carne over in the
morning; and before another night they had traveled fifteen miles on Iowa
soil to Denmark. They had seen the Western pastor in his home, and he had
scattered them for hospitality among the members of his flock. The northern
party soon came in safety. All were to rest a while, and then scatter.

It was October 23 when they sighted the promised land. 56

Such an influx of new preachers was unexampled in the young life
of the Territory of Iowa. In anticipation, Asa Turner and Reuben
Gaylord, both veterans of five years in the Iowa country, had taken

THE IOWA BAND 37

a long tour in September to spy out the land for the newcomers.
Sunday, November 5, 1843, was a notable day for Denmark nine
young ministers from the East to be formally welcomed, seven of
them to be ordained: Ephraim Adams, Alden, Hutchinson, Lane,
Salter, Spaulding, and Edwin Turner. With them were William A.
Thompson, a Yale man who had fallen in with the Band on their
western trip, and a licentiate, Charles Granger, who had come in
July. Pilgrim pioneers already in the territory, in addition to Asa
Turner, Reuben Gaylord, Julius A. Reed, Oliver Emerson, and John
C. Holbrook, were Charles Burnham, a Dartmouth man who had
come in 1841 from teaching in the Missionary Institute at Quincy,
Illinois (joining Apthorp there) ; and Allen B. Hitchcock, whose
family had come from Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to Iowa in
1837. He had studied at Harvard, was graduated from Illinois Col-
lege in 1838 and from Yale Seminary in 1841, then became pastor of
the church at Davenport. In 1 843 there were fourteen little Congre-
gational churches in Iowa, with a total of about three hundred mem-
bers, one-third of these at Denmark. 57

The missionaries already in the field were overjoyed at this sudden
more than doubling of their number. Reuben Gaylord said: "Such
a day I had never seen before; such a day I had never expected to see
in my lifetime. The most I could do, when alone, was to weep tears
of joy, and return thanks to God. Tather' Turner was radiant. He
said: Tor three weeks past, I have felt like weeping all the time.
My heart has overflowed. O what a week we have had! The Lord
be praised!'" 58

Before the ordination there had been a meeting to decide upon
future locations.

The young men were willing to place themselves in Father Turner's hands
for assignments, but he was not willing to accept the responsibility. He and
Mr. Gaylord met the young men, spread a map before them, and described
the field, and then retired, leaving them to adjust the matter among them-
selves. The wonderful thing "was done with perfect harmony and good will,
and quickly done, without an unpleasant word or a jealous thought; and
everyone was satisfied." Hutchinson inclined to Burlington, and Harvey
Adams to Farmington. A man from Keosauqua, seeking a minister for that
place, picked out Daniel Lane. Bloomington, now Muscatine, a smart town
of four hundred, seemed to be the place for one of the brides of the Band,
and so Alden B. Robbins went down there to stay a little while, say fifty
years or more! Out in the New Purchase, in the region about what is now

3 8 Grmnell College

Ottumwa, some rough work was to be done. Brother Spaulding said he
would as soon take that field as any. William Salter and E. B. Turner rather
liked the idea of exploring fields to the north in Jones and Jackson Counties.
Ephraim Adams selected Mt. Pleasant, and Mr. Alden, Solon. 59

Spaulding's experience indicates the conditions found by the more
adventurous brethren. Five days after ordination he reached his field,
November 10, 1843: "Their frail dwellings, slight fences, beaten
trails and newly made graves [of the Indians] are still seen; and they
are often passing and repassing, carrying away corn which has been
raised on their fields, as if unwilling to leave a land which has been
so long their home." 60 On September 15, 1844, a church was organ-
ized and a communion service held where less than two years before
"savages were sitting and lying upon the floor, smoking their pipes
and singing their songs." A few months later Spaulding formed an-
other church at Eddyville, holding his first service in an Indian wicki-
up. A year later he began another church at Ottumwa, a village then
consisting of fourteen buildings.

The question of ecclesiastical affiliation for the newly established
churches was important and as yet unsettled. At Buffalo the young
men had been told that there were only Presbyterians to unite with,
which was almost true, because of the practical working of the Plan
of Union. Asa Turner had been positive in answer to a question about
the best polity for the West: "Congregationalism, the world over!"
But when he met the group at Burlington, he was noncommittal
". . . if they wished to be Presbyterians, Presbytery was to meet at
such a time and place, if Congregationalists, the Association would
meet at Denmark/ 3 They all chose Congregational ordination, and
though three of them took charge of Presbyterian churches, these
also soon became Congregational. In at least one case, holy guile
solved the problem. The church was Presbyterian; many of the mem-
bers, however, were Congregationalists. Unfortunately, there was but
one ruling elder, who made himself obnoxious by showing a "dicta-
torial spirit" and involving the church in debt. In order to circum-
vent the unpopular brother, a young man made a motion that all the
members be elected ruling elders; the motion prevailed, and the ma-
jority then proceeded to transform the body into a Congregational
church. 61 There was pressure from the Home Missionary Society upon
the new churches for organic union with the Presbyterians, and an
elaborate plan of union was actually adopted by the Iowa Congrega-

THE IOWA BAND 39

tional Association in 1843, but since Presbytery never gave official
recognition to this advance, nothing further was done in the matter.
It would be difficult to estimate the value of the pioneering service
rendered, often under the most trying conditions, by the members of
the Iowa Band and their few predecessors. Among them they gave
over five hundred years of ministry to Iowa, most of them spending
a lifetime of service in this field. Historians of Iowa record their
appreciation of the work accomplished by these young pioneers:

What they did, suffered, and endured constitute one of the religious and
educational epics of Iowa history. At first they found more fasts than feasts.
They preached under the trees and in rooms over saloons. . . . No like group
of men exerted a wider or more lasting influence in the making of Iowa.
They were nowhere the mass, but everywhere the leaven. ... It is in part
due to these deeply religious, educated, cultured, courageous men and women,
that the Iowa of today belongs to the "Bible Belt". . . with the lowest per
cent of illiteracy in the United States. 62

It was the custom of the Band, at periodic meetings of the Asso-
ciation, to draw up a "testimony" for all surviving members to sign.
At Burlington on June 6, 1863, in the twentieth year after their
coming, there were seven to sign the statement recording "with grati-
tude their testimony to the faithfulness and care with which Divine
Providence and grace have upheld them, their continued and con-
firmed trust in the promises of the great Head of the Church, their
joy and gladness of heart in the work." The last of these statements,
dated again at Burlington, May 24, 1901, found only Ephraim Adams
and William Salter left to record

. . , their devout thanksgiving to the great Head of the Church for the
continued care of divine Providence over them to the fifty-eighth year of
their ministry in Iowa, their grateful recollections of the goodness of God
in giving to them and to their brethren who have rested from their labors, a
humble part in planting Christian civilization in this beloved Common-
wealth, and their fervent prayers that the fruits of righteousness may in
every part of the state be sown in peace of them that make peace in all the
future years of its history. 63

One of the precious heirlooms in the possession of Grinnell College
is a silver-headed ebony cane, presented to Benjamin Spaulding at
Ottumwa in 1864, and inscribed with the name of each surviving
oldest member of the Band. It thus passed from Spaulding to Lane, to
Harvey Adams, to Robbins, to Ephraim Adams, and finally to Salter,
after whose death in 1910 it came to the College.

40 Grinnett College

To this brief record of the Iowa Band, let us add a final word on
their leader, Asa Turner. After thirty years' service to the church
at Denmark, Father Turner found in failing health and advancing
years reasons for retirement, and in October, 1868, he became pastor
emeritus. His last years were spent quietly at Oskaloosa. He suffered
a paralytic stroke in 1878 and an irreparable loss in the death of his
wife in 1 8 82, a year and a half after their golden wedding anniversary.
He died December 13, 1885, at the age of eighty-six.

The General Association of Iowa passed this tribute to his noble
Christian character:

A Christian experience deep and thorough, formed under peculiar obstacles
in youth, developed into an unwearied evangelism; an industrious and con-
scientious use of his time, energies, and means for the salvation of men; an
ever-vigilant care of the churches among which he labored; a constant in-
terest in the spread of the gospel every- where; and a notable courage in
bearing reproach and facing danger for the cause of truth and righteousness.
. , . The acuteness of his mind; his genial and incisive mother -wit; the
kindly interest that he took in all whom he could benefit especially all of
the household of faith; his benign and gracious patriarchal manners as age
wore on; his utter lack of self-seeking; his constant beneficence, won him,
without effort of his own, the dear esteem and fraternal and filial love of
Christians and ministers of Christ beyond all denominational lines. And
reverence for his great and thorough nobleness, simplicity, and truth of
character, and his consecrated life, deepened in all who knew him to the end. 64

jStSfflrtSM^

A College for Iowa

COLLEGE building was in the minds of all these pilgrims of Iowa.
While the members of the Iowa Band were still at Andover, Ephraim
Adams said to his associates: "If each one of us can only plant one
good permanent church, and all together build a college, what a work
that would be!" 6S At the same time, half a continent distant, Asa
Turner said to Julius A. Reed: "We must take steps to found a col-
lege. 3 '

At the meeting of the Congregational Association on October 6,

42 Grinnell College

1842, a committee was appointed to report upon the expediency of
founding a college in the Territory of Iowa, but this committee re-
ported that a discussion of the subject was inexpedient, and recom-
mended that another committee be appointed to "correspond and
take such other measures as may be necessary." At the next meeting,
April 13, 1843, Asa Turner reported for this committee that a letter
had been addressed to the editor of the Congregational Journal in
New Hampshire. After the arrival of the Band in Iowa, its members
were "a little surprised and not a little gratified" when at one of the
first meetings at Denmark they were invited to "tarry a few moments
to listen to plans for founding a college." 66

On March 12, 1844, a meeting of ministers and others interested
in founding a college was held at Denmark; a plan was approved to
find a tract of land subject to entry, obtain funds (of course in the
East) for its purchase, "and then sell it out in parcels ... to settlers
favorable to the object; thus securing an endowment for the institu-
tion and a community in which it might prosper." 6r (This was an
idea common to settlers in a new country, and, among others, it was
later exploited by J. B. Grinnell in the establishment of the town and
the college that bear his name.) A committee of exploration with
Julius A. Reed as chairman was to find a suitable location.

A favorable report was made to a meeting on April 16, 1844, of
eleven Congregational and five New School Presbyterian ministers.
They approved a resolution presented by Reuben Gaylord: "That we
deem it expedient without delay to adopt measures, preparatory to
laying the foundation of an institution of learning in this territory."
The site proposed by the committee was on high wooded land in
Buchanan County, on the Wapsipinicon River, which offered water
power for miles, 68 (Three years later a trapper was to found at this
point the town of Independence.) The report was adopted unani-
mously by the brethren, who now formed the "Iowa College Asso-
ciation." They then appointed Asa Turner as their agent to seek
funds in the East for the purchase of this tract, those present agreeing
to defray his expenses from their scanty resources.

Asa Turner went East the next month, and on May 2 8 and 29 met
in Boston with a group consisting of ten prominent ministers and two-
laymen who had just organized a "Society for the Promotion of Col-
legiate and Theological Education at the West." They considered his
report with care, and sent him home with wise though partly adverse

COLLEGE FOR IOWA 43

counsel. They considered it expedient "to begin to put things in
train for the foundation of a college in Iowa," but were definitely
opposed to the land speculation plan. They advised instead the choice
of a favorable location; the securing, if possible by donation, of say
forty acres for college grounds, and as much more land as might be
donated; to raise money by outright gift, without offering "peculiar
privileges" in return; to get churches to make annual contributions;
to "avoid the contraction of debts as a first principle"; to begin in-
struction on a moderate scale, enlarging plans as means warranted;
and to hope for help from the East when plans were so matured that
they could "secure the confidence of the Eastern mind." 69

The pioneering brethren in Iowa perforce accepted this advice from
the East, and at their next Association meeting, October 6, 1845,
they appointed a committee on location, which selected Davenport
as the most promising site for the college, "a point which, at that day,
for ease of access and beauty of situation, stood forth without a
rival." Asa Turner had been impressed by its beauty on his first ac-
quaintance with the Iowa country. In June, 1846, this choice by the
committee was approved, "provided the citizens would raise fourteen
hundred dollars, and provide certain specified grounds for a loca-
tion." 70 At this historic meeting, James J. Hill of the Band laid a
silver dollar on the table and asked that trustees be appointed to care
for it as the nucleus of an endowment. 71 A board of twelve trustees
was accordingly selected, and thus, on June 10, 1846, Iowa College
began its corporate existence.

These first trustees were Ephraim Adams, Harvey Adams, Ebenezer
Alden, Reuben Gaylord, J. C. Holbrook, Daniel Lane, Julius A. Reed,
A. B. Robbins, Asa Turner; Presbyterian ministers J. M. Boal and
W. W. Woods, and W. H. Starr, layman. Of the original trustees,
Boal served only a year, Alden three years, Starr five, Lane seven,
Woods ten, Gaylord eleven, Holbrook and Reed twenty-two, Turner
forty, Harvey Adams and Robbins fifty, Ephraim Adams sixty-one
years. Of the other pioneers, Salter was a trustee from 1850 to 1863,
Oliver Emerson from 1852 to 1883.

In 1847, after the citizens of Davenport had pledged $1,362 and
thirteen lots, Articles of Incorporation were recorded at Davenport,
signed by five of the Iowa Band, four of the earlier pioneers, three
Presbyterian ministers, and three laymen. Of these founders, four
were educated at Yale, two at Amherst, and one each, at Bowdoin,

44 Grinnell College

Dartmouth, Vermont, Norwich, Trinity, Union, and Maryville,
Tennessee.

The original charter reads as follows:

Be it known to all whom it may concern that we, Asa Turner, Jr., Daniel
Lane, John C, Holbrook, Julius A. Reed, Harvey Adams, Reuben Gaylord,
Alden B. Robbins, Ebenezer Alden, Jr., Ephraim Adams, William H. Starr,
William W. Woods, Gamaliel C. Seaman, Henry Q. Jennison, James Mc-
Manus and Charles Atkinson, do for ourselves, our associates and our suc-
cessors, adopt the following articles of association, in order to become a
body corporate and politic, agreeable to an act of the General Assembly of
the State of Iowa, entitled "An Act to authorize general incorporations for
other purposes than those of pecuniary profit," and approved February 24,
1847.

Article 1. This body shall be styled "The Trustees of Iowa College."

Article 2. The object of this body shall be to found and sustain an institu-
tion of learning to be called Iowa College and to be located at Davenport,
Scott County, Iowa.

Article 3. The object of this institution shall be to promote the general
interests of education and to qualify young men for the different professions
and for the honorable discharge of the various duties of life.

Article 4. The Board of Trustees shall have power to remove any member
who shall be guilty of dishonorable conduct or who shall neglect to attend
to the duties of his office. They shall also fill all vacancies and may at any
annual meeting add to their number; provided that the whole number of
trustees shall not exceed twenty-one. No instructor in the college shall be
a member of the board except the president, who shall be a member
ex officio.

Article 5. The clerk of the board of trustees shall reside in Davenport,
or its immediate vicinity, and the records of the board shall be deposited in
his hands.

Article 6. There shall be an annual meeting of the board of trustees at
Davenport on such day as shall hereafter be designated by them.

Article 7. The first meeting of the board of trustees shall be held at
Davenport, on Thursday, the seventeenth day of June, 1847, at which meet-
ing rules and regulations for the government of the board shall be adopted,
which rules and regulations may be altered or amended at any annual meeting.

Signed by the members. Filed for record, June 17, 1847, at 11 o'clock a.m.
Recorded in Book E of Deeds, pages 355 and 356. Jno. D. Evans, Recorder,
Scott County, Iowa. 72

Once the location of the new college had been secured, instructions
were given "to plan and erect a building, which shall be a permanent
college building, in good taste, and which, when enclosed, shall not
exceed in cost the sum of $2,000." In keeping with the injunction of

COLLEGE FOR IOWA 45

the eastern society, trustees and members of the Association pledged
themselves to make up any deficiency up to $600.

So the building was erected, and all bills paid. It was one-story
brick, located near Western Avenue between Sixth and Seventh streets
in Davenport. It measured thirty-five by fifty feet, with the chapel on
one side, and two recitation rooms across the hall. This was ample
space for the modest beginnings, for when the first term opened in
November, 1848, there were but two students to meet Erastus Ripley
of the Band, professor of ancient languages, whose salary was to be
$500. "There were appropriate opening exercises, including an ad-
dress and dedicatory prayer. It was a windy, wintry day. Not many
were present, but a few were there, with hearts full of gratitude to
God for all success hitherto in the enterprise wherein by faith was
seen a college for Iowa." 73

A graduate of the early years, later a distinguished educator, Dr.
Henry Holmes Belfield, described the beginnings as follows:

The solitary building of the College was a cheap brick edifice of three rooms,
a large room which served as chapel, lecture room, general assembly hall,
recitation room. One of the two smaller rooms contained the chemical and
physical apparatus . . . meager enough. No laboratory, not even for the
professor. Science teaching was then, as elsewhere at that time, by lecture
and recitation. An occasional experiment, such as could be performed with
the simplest apparatus, relieved the monotony of text-book and lecture. The
other little dingy room, furnished with wooden benches, one chair and a
blackboard, was the mathematical recitation room. When four recitations
were conducted at one time, a professor's house furnished the necessary
fourth room.

Thus was re-enacted on the banks of the Mississippi the old story
of the founding of New England colleges. Harvard was founded on
a gift of 260 books and 780 bequeathed by a Puritan divine. Yale
was built on forty folios, when ten ministers presented a number of
books, each saying: "I give these books for the founding of a college
in the colony/' Dartmouth began humbly as an Indian charity school.
Williams was founded on a small bequest for a "free school/* Am-
herst grew out of a small village academy and was hampered for
twenty-five years by a crippling debt.

From the first, the founders of Iowa College were faithful to the
legacy of liberty that was theirs as heirs of the Congregational tradi-
tion; and no doubt they remembered the difficulties created for And-

46 Grinnell College

over by attempts to perpetuate doctrinal differences through the con-
trol of seminary funds. They were determined that their new college
should be free from ecclesiastical domination. So it happened that,
though New School brethren had cooperated in the founding, they
refused to accept the offer of Presbyterian funds for the endowment
of a professorship, coupled with the condition that control of the
chair be vested in Presbytery. Since then there has never been any
question that the trustees, as a self -perpetuating body, had undivided
powers of management and control, nor have the Congregational
churches ever sought to limit them in their liberty. 74

Iowa College began, naturally, as a preparatory school, and it gave
the first instruction of any kind in Davenport. (Not until two
years later was a district school opened there.) The first catalogue,
for 1849-1850, sets the tuition charge at $5.00 a term, and the cost
of board at $1.50 a week. The catalogue for 1850-1851, when there
was a freshman class, sets the tuition in the Preparatory Department
at $15.00, in the College at $24.00 for the year.

It should be remembered that the dollar then had far greater pur-
chasing power, in most directions, than today. A good six-room
house could be built for $800, "and $2500 secured a town mansion
of the finest architectural design.** In Iowa at that time beef and
pork sold at two to three cents a pound, corn at twelve and a half
cents a bushel, and other agricultural products in proportion. On the
other hand, clothing, furnishings, and books were more expensive
than in the East, and living was necessarily severely simple. 75

Ephraim Adams remembered te y ears anxiety and labor" for the
infant College:

. . . teachers toiling, trustees planning, and the executive committee trying
to execute, meeting often, with much to be done, but never able to do it.
When they could do nothing else, they could at least pray. So they worked
and prayed and worked. Every year, as the churches came together in their
annual association, the story of the college was told, its wants rehearsed, and
their prayers and alms besought. This was not without response.

In 1849 there were subscribed for it four hundred and forty- two dollars
and sixty-five cents, all but four of the subscribers being ministers; and
the minutes of that year show the whole number of ministers to have been
twenty-one. ... As the old tale of pecuniary embarrassment was there told
[in 1850], hearts were opened for relief, and four hundred and fifty dollars
were pledged. In the minutes of that meeting it stands recorded that "the
wives, also, of the ministers, anxious to share in the enterprise of founding

COLLEGE FOR IOWA 47

this college, resolved to raise a hundred dollars out of their own resources;
and seventy dollars were subscribed by fourteen persons who were present.'
"It was a great sum then," said one of them, years afterward; "it was a
great sum then, five dollars, but I managed to pay it."

So it went on for years afterwards. In 1852 a hundred and fifty-three
dollars were raised; in 1853, seven hundred and eleven dollars. In this year
came the first decided help from abroad the donation from Deacon P. "W.
Carter of Waterbury, Connecticut, of five thousand and eighty dollars. It
seemed a great sum. 76

This first considerable gift to the endowment came through the
vigilance of someone who learned that money had been deposited,
subject to the donor's order, with the home missionary treasurer in
New York for the benefit of some educational institution in a new
western state. On inquiry it was learned that the donor was Preserve
Wood Carter, farmer, whose son Franklin was later to be president
of Williams College. Correspondence with Mr. Carter, endorsed by
Dr. Milton Badger of the Mission Board, brought a check for one
hundred dollars, and later the magnificent gift of $5,080, which, con-
sidering the time and the circumstances, was one of the most helpful
contributions in the history of the College. It was used for the en-
dowment of the Carter professorship of ancient languages.

In 1850 "the critical Ripley, a superior linguist," 77 was joined by
the Rev. Henry L. Bullen, who came from the East as professor of
mathematics and natural philosophy (i.e., physics), and the first col-
lege freshman class of six members began its academic career. By
this time growth had been rapid. There were 28 students in Latin
and 8 in Greek, and a total of 70 in the Preparatory Department,
conducted in 1851-1852 by Francis Adams Ball, in turn followed by
Daniel 'Lane of the Band. The studies of the freshman year were
modeled strictly after the common curriculum of the New England
colleges: algebra, Davies' Legendre (geometry), Livy, Latin composi-
tion, Horace's Odes, Xenophon's Cyropaedia, Herodotus, Worcester's
history, and a manual of elocution. It is evident that the preparatory
course had been heavily loaded with ancient languages.

In 1853 two new departments were opened in the College. The
"tactful and winning" David S. Sheldon, M.A., "with the largest
teaching gift (has Iowa ever had finer?) ," came as professor of chem-
istry and natural (i.e., biological) science. A graduate of Middlebury
College and Andover Seminary, he had taught at Burlington from
1850 to 1853, and after the removal of Iowa College to Grinnell, he

48 Grmnell College

remained in Davenport to teach science at Griswold College. He was
a member of the Board of Trustees of Iowa College from 1859 to
Dr. Belfield wrote of him:

Professor David Sylvester Sheldon . . . taught the Natural Sciences. Having
some means of his own, he was not wholly dependent upon the meager pit-
tance called his salary. He therefore consecrated himself to his work, refusing
flattering calls elsewhere. Professor Sheldon is my ideal of a Christian scholar
and gentleman. Modest, gentle, a thorough scholar, a good citizen, he im-
pressed himself deeply on every student, on none more than myself, who had
the rare privilege of being one of his household during my junior and senior
years. 78

Daniel Lane, "upright and godly," who "excelled most men in pure
character and unadulterated goodness," was principal of the Prepara-
tory Department, 1852-1855, and also, in 1853, professor of mental
and moral science, a field of instruction which was no doubt added
because a senior class was in the making. And indeed, in June, 1854,
two brothers, John H. and William "Windsor, received their diplomas,
the first B.A/s produced by any college in all the vast territory west
of the Mississippi. 79 They were sons of an Englishman, John "Wesley
Windsor, who had been a midshipman in the British Navy (once in
battle against our famous Constitution} ; he had been in Brazil, the
Shetland Islands, and France. In 1820 he came to New York, was
converted, and returned to England as a lay preacher. In 1844 he
came to Iowa, became a deacon in John C. Holbrookes church in
Dubuque, and was licensed as a home missionary ministering to many
small communities in Iowa. 80

The brothers followed an invitation from Professor Ripley to at-
tend Iowa College, with a promise to help them find work. They
walked half the way from Maquoketa to Davenport, finding a ride
in a stagecoach for the rest of the distance. The forty-mile walk
home at Christmas was more exhausting, "a bitter cold day, wolves
howling and the wind blowing hard/* They worked their way
through the four years, beginning with "chores" feeding pigs,
milking cows, sawing wood for four or five wood stoves. As labor
was cheap, the day's work began at 4 a.m. While dressing on bitter
winter mornings, they often stepped in the snow that had drifted
into the attic room. Most of their studying had to be done after
eight in the evening. 81

Both brothers were graduated from Andover Seminary in 1857 and

COLLEGE FOR IOWA 49

ordained in 1858. Both began their pastoral service in Iowa, but
whereas John's work was about equally divided between the West
and New England, William's was largely confined to Iowa and Illinois.
"In death they were not divided," except by distance; John died
August 23, 1908, at LaGrange, Illinois; William, September 8, 1908,
at Los Gatos, California.

It was in 1854 that the city fathers of Davenport began to make
trouble for the new college, whose importance as a pioneering venture
in higher education they did not appreciate. The growth of the town
led them to cut a street through the campus. A new location was
found on ten acres between Brady and Harrison streets, above Tenth,
and an "elegant stone building with a boarding house" was erected
in 1855 at a cost of $22,000.

At this time prospects were bright. In his study of educational
opportunities in the new state, N. Howe Parker says of Iowa College:

This College is located in the city of Davenport, and occupies grounds of
great natural beauty, overlooking a wide expanse of prairie on the north, and
commanding on the south a fine view of the Mississippi River and the adjacent
cities. . . . The institution, under the care of well-qualified instructors, is
furnished with a chemical and philosophical apparatus, and has a library of
some 2000 volumes. With the new building . . . the College will be prepared
to offer facilities for a thorough education, both in the preparatory and col-
lege departments. 82

Satisfaction with more commodious quarters for the growing col-
lege was short-lived, however. Again a street was thrust through the
ten-acre tract, completely ruining it for the use intended. Finally in
1858 the trustees decided to sell the property and seek a site elsewhere,
a decision reached because of a combination of circumstances: the
persistence of the city authorities in building streets through the
college grounds; lack of funds for necessary improvements; indebted-
ness caused by a breach of trust by the financial officer; fear that the
College would not succeed in its present eastern location when rival
colleges were starting in the interior, now rapidly being settled. Then,
too, Davenport was not a congenial home for the College, an at-
mosphere probably stemming from the institution's temperance senti-
ment which found no favor among the strong liquor interests of the
town. 83 However, in spite of some drawbacks Iowa College had made
progress during the years in Davenport, enrolling 139 students in
1856. There had been some increase in funds. In 1856 Ephraim

50 Grinnell College

Adams, acting as agent, had secured $11,000 in subscriptions, "a
large part of which was realized," and the Society for Western Col-
leges had made appropriations of about $6,000 for current expenses.
In 1859 the property of Iowa College was sold and proposals were
invited for a new site. 84

God, in his providence, had one in preparation. A few years previous, in the
heart of the State, a colony had settled with the express purpose of establish-
ing, and at the outset had made provision for, an institution of learning.
Here a school had already been commenced. After due thought and much
prayer, it was concluded, with the general approval of all parties interested,
that the fountain opened by the Father of Waters should be united with the
rill of the prairies. 85

The next step was the merger of Iowa College with Grinnell Uni-
versity. Among the trustees were two men who were to play an im-
portant part in the future life of the College: J. B, Grinnell and
George F. Magoun.

iJIMM!!^

Grinnell and the "University"

EPHRAIM Adams gives credit to Divine Providence for a succession
of events which the unregenerate mind would describe as a series of
fortunate accidents, producing unforeseen results. Fortuitous indeed
were the steps by which the town of Grinnell and the college of the
same name came to be established on the prairies of the young state
of Iowa. The first line of causation we have described. The moving
cause in the second line was a Congregational preacher named Josiah
Bushnell Grinnell. 86

52 Grinnell College

c 'Oh, that my friend Freeman were here! If Freeman were here, he would
build an altar and make an offering/' The speaker was James Bryce, author
of "The Holy Roman Empire" and "The American Commonwealth." On
the platform at Iowa College he has just been introduced to Josiah Bushnell
Grinnell, oekist-eponymus of the town, and heard the story of its founding.
Little wonder that the historian's mind reverted to the great days when
Hellas was sowing her colonies from end to end of the Mediterranean, and
to be an oekht was greater than to be a king even a demigod.

So wrote an eminent graduate of Iowa College, J. Irving Manatt. 87

This oekist, Grinnell, like the pioneers from Yale and Andover,
was of sturdy Pilgrim stock, and he too passed "through harsh ways to
the stars." His ancestry was Huguenot and Scotch (Paris has several
reminders of the name "Crenelle"), and he was born on a farm near
the village of New Haven, Vermont, December 22, 1821, while his
father farmer, schoolmaster, and temperance lecturer was ad-
dressing a Forefathers' Day Meeting in the village church. After the
death of his father in 183 1, the orphaned boy went to live with a guar-
dian in the village. At fifteen he was entrusted with the care and sale
of stock and the hiring of "hands" for the haying. He went to school
only in the winter and, like Lincoln, studied grammar and arithmetic
by a pine cone fire at a neighbor's. For a year, before he was seventeen,
he taught a country school for ten dollars a month, boarding 'round at
farm houses. During the next two years he attended Castleton Semi-
nary, the Allen Classical School at Vergennes, and taught at Middle-
bury.

Intending to enter Yale College, he went to New Haven. But
during a short visit at a young lady cousin's home in near-by Meriden,
he was warned against such a course by her guardian, the venerable
Rev. Erastus Ripley (no doubt a kinsman, but not father, of Ripley
of the Band) , a radical antislavery preacher, who felt that the tone
of student morals at Yale and the old courses of study in the classics
would endanger the boy's future. With a letter to President Beriah
Green from Ripley, Josiah went instead to the Oneida Institute near
Utica, "the hot-bed of radicalism as it existed at that day." The
Institute combined education (which favored living and sacred lan-
guages rather than the classics) with manual labor on a farm. 88 He
was graduated in 1843, with his digestion impaired by rigidly austere
living at a dollar a week.

Colportage in Wisconsin for the American Tract Society followed,

THE "UNIVERSITY" 53

and correspondence for the New York Tribune ', couched in terms so
glowing that the state reprinted the letters to induce immigration to
Wisconsin. In 1847 Grinnell was graduated from Auburn Theologi-
cal Seminary which he found conservatively stuffy after the free at-
mosphere of Oneida. His first charge, 1847-1850 (he was ordained
in October, 1848), was a Congregational church at Union (Green-
wich) Village, thirty miles north of Albany. This unique church,
whose cultured, high-minded parishioners were equally devoted to
temperance and social reform, freely opened its doors to Negroes in
a salutary effort to uplift a class. Grinnell, preaching against the
saloon and slavery, doubled the membership of the church during
his three years' pastorate there. 89 In 1849 he received a master's degree
from Middlebury College.

In 1850 Grinnell went to Washington, D. C., full of crusading
ardor, to establish a Congregational church as a free pulpit and a
focus of reform. There he was distressed to find an "open alliance of
politicians and the Church, to keep still" about the evils of slavery. 90
Emotions were being sharpened by the appearance of the first chap-
ters of Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin in the National Era published
by Gamaliel Bailey, who was one of GrinnelPs supporters, together
with other leaders of opinion like Henry Ward Beecher, Richard S.
Storrs, and Horace Bushnell.

Though the young crusader found eminent supporters, even among
political leaders, and was enabled to buy the vacated Trinity Church
building for his new congregation, his ministry in the scrubby Capital
City was not for long. Passions ran high. Congressmen carried pistols
and bowie-knives, other clergymen gave him no support, his throat
gave signs of failing him, and he had a "pleasing early matrimonial
prospect which I did not desire to have clouded by violence, or by
the lips of base informers." So he shook the dust of Washington
from his feet and returned north, continuing his preaching and anti-
slavery and temperance agitation in New York, meanwhile acting as
superintendent of a "ragged school." Early in 1852 he married Julia
A, Chapin of Springfield, Massachusetts. 91

Outdoor speaking, in which Horace Greeley often joined, ruined
GrinnelPs voice, and Greeley recommended a novel cure: "Go West,
young man, go West. There is health in the country, and room away
from our crowds of idlers and imbeciles." 92 And the great editor
made his advice practical by sending Grinnell to Springfield, Illinois,

54 Grinnell College

to report to the Tribune on the state fair held there. While in the
West, Grinnell went to Missouri to inspect a tract of land inherited
by his wife, and by chance met Henry Farnam, capitalist, philan-
thropist, and railway builder from New Haven, who advised him to
"Go to Iowa, a free State, which I have just come from; and I am
to build a railway across to the Missouri River, an extension of the
Rock Island Road." Grinnell's interest in Iowa had been further
aroused by his meeting with Julius A. Reed, whose advice he sought
in a letter written December 27, 1853. ^

Evidently the great open spaces fascinated the preacher-reporter,
for on his return to the East, he began to advertise for associates
"desirous of educational facilities, and of temperance and Congrega-
tional affinities," who would be willing to join him in founding a
colony in the new state of Iowa. He thought it important that the
new population be homogeneous, and so he asked for "persons of
congenial, moral and religious sentiments, embracing mechanics, and
pecuniary ability to make the school and the Church paramount and
attractive institutions from the outset." 94

Farnam had introduced Grinnell to one of his engineers, a son of
the famous Dr. Leonard Bacon, who suggested a location in township
80, range 16 west, near Lattimer's Grove, high land along the rail-
way survey (not to be divulged) where a future north-and-south
road was also indicated. 95 This was in Poweshiek County (organized
in 1848), named after the Fox chief who, with Chief Keokuk of the
Sauks, had ceded this section of Iowa in 1842. The exact spot recom-
mended was marked with a red flag on a tall flagpole at a controlling
point on the surrey.

In the spring of 1854, Grinnell, with Dr. Thomas Holyoke of
Searsport, Maine, the Rev. Homer Hamlin of Wellington, Ohio, and
Henry M. Hamilton, a young surveyor just out of Western Reserve
University, set their stakes at the spot marked by the red flag. Grin-
nell drove to Iowa City to locate and buy 5,000 acres for the new
colony.

The educational feature of the original plan was not forgotten, and
160 acres, divided into 348 lots, were set apart for the proposed uni-
versity. Hamilton contributed the profits on the sale of 1,200 acres
of his land to start a "Literary Fund" for the benefit of the univer-
sity. 96

The "Trustees of the Literary Fund" were incorporated in January,

THE "UNIVERSITY" 55

1855, and on August 13, 1856, articles creating a university corpora-
tion were filed with the recorder of Poweshiek County. These foun-
ders were H. Hamlin, T. Holyoke, H. M. Hamilton, S. L. Herrick,
G. Gardner, T. B. Clark, L. C. Phelps, S. Loomis, J. W. Stowe, J.
Conwell, A. A. Stevens, J. B. Grinnell. 97

Grinnell was to be a temperance town, and so every deed for lots
sold to settlers bore the provision that if strong drink were sold on a
lot, it should revert to the maker of the deed. The Congregational
Church was organized in 1855. A rude $150 building sixteen by
twenty-four feet, erected on contract by J. B. Grinnell in six days,
was used for both school and church. The first teacher was Miss
Louisa Bixby. 98

This year 1856 was a busy one for J. B. Grinnell. In February he
helped in the organization of the Republican party at a meeting in
Iowa City. He was elected to the State Senate where he served for
two terms, 1856 and 1858; he led the movement for a state-supported
system of free schools, and was instrumental in bringing Horace
Mann, whom he had long admired, to Iowa to devise a school law for
the state." He also began the erection of a building for the "Grinnell
University," which was incorporated August 13, 1856.

The following year he was admitted to the bar. As chairman of
the Senate committee on schools he introduced a school bill which
remained the basis of all future educational legislation. He also gave
active support to the establishment of a state agricultural college,
and became a regent of the State University. Naturally, however, his
first and enduring loyalty belonged to the institution growing up in
his eponymous town. This institution was to be "separated into two
departments a male department which shall resemble eastern col-
leges, a female department which shall be modeled in its domestic
arrangements and in its general course of instruction, after the Mt.
Holyoke institution at South Hadley, Mass." 10

The sexes were still to be definitely separated. Two distinct loca-
tions for the two departments were to be at least one-fourth of a
mile from each other, the building for the female "seminary" to be
erected first. This building was not completed until 1861 and, as
"East College," for some years served all the purposes of the institu-
tion after the merger with Iowa College. The name first adopted
for the projected men's college and "seminary" at Grinnell was "Peo-
ple's College," but this was soon changed to "Grinnell University."

56 Grinnell College

This "Grinnell University," before the merger with Iowa College, was
somewhat more than a dream. As J. B. Grinnell, its founder and
president, said at the ceremony inaugurating the first president of
the newly merged colleges, it brought to the marriage "an untarnished
reputation, two* professors, a half hundred of students, the good-will
of a community, and a considerable dowry of the value in College
building, lands, and cash, of twenty-five thousand dollars." 101

The two professors were Leonard Fletcher Parker and the Rev.
Stephen L. Herrick. The Early History of Grinnell, Imva, 1854-1874
indicates a more ambitious educational program (antedating Pro-
fessor Parker's arrival) most of which evidently remained on paper.
It records:

The University faculty was thus constituted: J. B. Grinnell, A.M., presi-
dent; S. L. Herrick, A.M., professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy;
Thos. Holyoke, M.D., professor of chemistry, physiology and agricultural
chemistry; Sam'l Loomis, A.M., professor of Ancient Languages, Mental and
Moral Philosophy; Mrs. A. J. Hamlin, wife of H. Hamlin, instructor in
French, etc.; Mrs. C. S. Wyatt Mrs. Frank Wyatt instructor in music;
Miss J. E. Loomis, instructor in Rhetoric, etc. ; Miss L. Bixby wife of H, A.
Wolcott instructor in English branches; Darius Thomas, instructor in
vocal music.

These persons were all residents of the town, who gave "more or less
of their time to the institution, some of the officers laboring gratui-
tously." 102 Evidently J. B., like other enthusiastic founders, was not
averse to propaganda by exaggeration. He was a typical promoter,
just the right energetic leader for the bustling, rapidly expanding
West. His was a magnetic personality, a generous, outflowing nature,
incorrigibly optimistic, eagerly seizing upon new ideas and promising
ventures.

There was excitement for students and townspeople in February,
1859, when John Brown spent a weekend in Grinnell, bringing with
him a load of "contraband" on the way by the Underground Rail-
way to safety in Canada. Brown was entertained by Grinnell, who
turned over his large wool barn for the accommodation of the Ne-
groes. An evening meeting was arranged for Brown at the church,
and Grinnell helped him in his further travel by surreptitiously pro-
viding him with a stock car from Iowa City to Chicago. J. B. was
roundly denounced by antiabolitionists for his part in this affair, and
for it was adorned with the sobriquet "John Brown Grinnell."

THE "UNIVERSITY" 57

There was further excitement when the Rock Island Railway
finally extended its lines to Grinnell in 1863. This new accessibility
was no doubt partly responsible for the sudden increase in the enroll-
ment of the College from 92 to 174 in the following year.

To the mythical "faculty" listed above, with its expansive "et-
ceteras," the Early History adds the following significant informa-
tion: "Professor L. F. Parker and lady came later and were able and
devoted instructors before the removal, and in the college after re-
moval filled their respective positions with ability and fidelity." 103
Here indeed was the nucleus of a real faculty for the pioneer college.

Leonard Fletcher Parker was born of Puritan and Revolutionary
stock August 3, 1825, at China (now Arcade) in western New York.
Fatherless at four, he lived and worked on a small farm encumbered
with debt until he was twenty, meanwhile attending the academy at
Arcade, teaching district school, and becoming ardently interested
in the antislavery movement. He started for Oberlin College, then a
"ferment of reforms," with five dollars in his pocket, and spent four
dollars on the way. He made his way by teaching and was graduated
in 1851 and married in 1853 at Oberlin, having remained for two
years* study at the Theological Seminary. His plan to go as a foreign
missionary to Siam was frustrated by failing health. The doctors said
he was dying of consumption, but he had fighting blood ; defying the
verdict, he lived to be eighty-six. 104

After three years* teaching in Brownsville, Pennsylvania, Parker
was drawn to Kansas by the free soil agitation; but "bleeding Kan-
sas" was in the throes of civil war, and the town of Lawrence gave
no promise of school work. He went to Iowa, and there was advised
by an evangelist to stop at Grinnell rather than Des Moines, as it was
"a temperance town, anti-slavery, growing like a spring flower and
building a university." 105

Arriving in September, 1856, he found a town of perhaps two
hundred inhabitants, a public school newly opened, "with the school-
room well filled. After weeks later others came in to compel an over-
flow. A third room was added in 1857." When he arrived excavation
was proceeding for the "University." Parker's first impression of
Grinnell was favorable: "The intelligence of the people, their cheer-
ful acceptance of pioneer conditions, their purpose to make every-
thing vastly better, and their spirit of pitching into everything that
promised good with a cheerful abandon, and then with Mr. Grinnell

5 g Grinnell College

a living sunbeam, everywhere at home and an unpaid advertising
agency everywhere in the state and out of it, I concluded this is the
spot." 106 On the other hand, the new arrival was scrutinized with
some question: to the more conservative Grinnellians "an Oberlinite
was an object of suspicion, a crank probably." But Parker soon
proved his reliability and his value as a teacher and a citizen.

In 1858 he became the first county superintendent of schools, ful-
filling his duties with a six-day teaching schedule in Grinnell and
visits to the rural schools as frequently as possible. The impression he
made on one of these visits is described by R. E. Sears, a pupil in the
Brooklyn school, later a student at the College:

I always remember the first time I saw him. It was about 1860 or earlier. . . .
Our school consisted of a dozen scholars in a little room perhaps twenty feet
square. One morning there was a delicate rap on the door and I was told by
the teacher to go to the door. I opened it and there stood a gentleman of
delicate frame but with a face such as I had never seen except in picture books.
To my boyish fancy he seemed a stranger from another world. He advanced
and introduced himself to our young teacher. Then followed an hour of I
do not remember what, except that it was an hour of absolute harmony. 107

During his service as county superintendent he "discovered" two
farm boys, Jesse Macy at Lynnville and J. Irving Manatt at Bear
Creek, who were to become famous in education. Parker's teaching
hours were divided between the public school and the infant Univer-
sity, which he served without charge. Like Iowa College, the Uni-
versity in the early years was a preparatory school, as indeed was also
the State University at Iowa City, where Parker, passing through in
1856, found sixty pupils studying everything from the highest study,
algebra, down to the three R/s.

Mrs. Parker (Sarah Candace Pearse) was a true helpmeet for him.
Also of Revolutionary stock, she was born on a farm in- the town of
Sudbury, Vermont, February 21, 1828. She had taught in Cincinnati
before graduating from Oberlin, then in Vermont and at Painesville,
Ohio, before her marriage. She was quite capable of mending the
failing budget of the college boarding hall by her good management,
taking over her husband's duties as county superintendent when he
was called to the State University of Iowa, and teaching some of his
classes during his one European sabbatical leave in 1875. She was
the first and for seven years the "Lady Principal" of Iowa College
after its merger with Grinnell University. 108

flMBBM!^

*VII*

The Early Years at Grinnell

IOWA College, having ceased its operations at Davenport in 1858, re-
mained in a state of suspended animation until the merger with
Grinnell University was voted by the trustees. Meanwhile, circulars
had been issued by the Board inviting proposals for relocation, to
which eight towns and eight individual landowners replied. Three
of the trustees visited proposed sites at Anamosa, Maquoketa, Musca-
tine, Davenport, and Grinnell. Such locations as Des Moines, Fort
Dodge, and Webster City were evidently considered too far west.

50 Grinnell College

The arguments for Grinnell emphasized "healthiness, cheapness of
living, opportunities for students to obtain work and teaching, cen-
tral position, absence of temptations to squander time and money/'
As a final inducement to the trustees the communication from Grin-
nell concluded:

We ardently desire that henceforth the interests of these two institutions
may be united. So far as we can judge, the voice of our brethren in this
state favors it, and the prosperity of the two united in one will be secured
by the union. We earnestly hope that the time has fully come when the
friends of Congregationalism in Iowa may unite their efforts in building up
and sustaining one college, and only one; that one being so located as to be
properly a college for the state. To secure this result we have already ten-
dered your honorable body all the property which we have secured, &c. We
propose not merely to aid you in the erection of buildings, and in financial
affairs, but also to rally around you in the support of good order in society
and of proper discipline in the institution. The students who come among
us will find us in the social circle and in public the uniform supporters of
your plans and the zealous advocates of your educational measures. 109

After long discussion, the trustees at Davenport voted on Septem-
ber 27, 1858, "to remove Iowa College to Grinnell at the commence-
ment of the next college year or as soon thereafter as the interests of
the institution will permit." In April, 1859, the trustees of the
Literary Fund and the University at Grinnell took steps to make over
their holdings to the trustees of Iowa College, who then added
Thomas Holyoke and the Rev. S. L. Herrick to their number. J. B.
Grinnell had been a member of this Board since 1854.

Before the removal from Davenport, the funds of Iowa College had
been seriously impaired by the dishonesty of a treasurer who "swin-
dled the College out of $13,000," and there were debts to be paid.
By the energy of Julius A. Reed, the liquidation was successfully com-
pleted, and Reed traveled to Grinnell "with our scanty library, our
few pieces of apparatus, our meagre nucleus of a museum, and the
old safe containing the college papers and $9000," 110 to be added to
the funds; of Grinnell University, whose thirty-five pupils now be-
came the "Preparatory Department." The name Iowa College was
retained for the united institution.

The growth of Iowa College during the first few years after the
merger appears from additions to the faculty as well as the enroll-
ment. L. F. Parker, principal of the Preparatory Department, 1860-
1861, was elected professor of ancient languages in 1861. He was

THE EARLY YEARS 61

joined in 1863 by Carl W. Von Coelln as professor of mathematics
and Mrs. Parker as principal of the Ladies' Department. In 1864
the Rev. Henry Webster Parker came as professor of chemistry and
natural science; the Rev. Charles W. Clapp, from a pastorate at
Rockville, Connecticut, as professor of rhetoric and English literature
and instructor in vocal music; and the Rev. Samuel Jay Buck as
principal of the Preparatory Department.

During the pioneer years at Davenport ten students had been grad-
uated from the College. There were no graduates from 1858 to 1865,
as the men who might have received their diplomas during the first
years after the removal to Grinnell were called away by the Civil War.

In 1861 there was a freshman class of twelve. But then the war came. Soon
all but two were in the field. Other young men came, but their minds turned
feebly to Latin and Greek, while their thoughts were following those who had
enlisted in their country's cause. Sometimes, when the news was sad, the
recitation room even had no place for the lesson either for student or teacher,
but gave way to a discussion of the situation, its responsibilities and demands.
One after another was missing. Where gone? To the war. As the thickening
conflict was prolonged and the call for men became more urgent, twenty-six
enlisted at one time, their teacher at the head. The time came when all the
male students of military age were bearing arms. They were found in fifteen
different Iowa regiments and in some of other states. Their record as soldiers,
and a tablet hanging inside the chapel door on which is subscribed the names
of eleven that never returned, are witness to noble service rendered. 111

It was impossible to keep the men at their books. Students joined
Company E of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry, which was made up largely
of enlistments from the vicinity of Grinnell, and other units. Pro-
fessor Parker wished to go with them, but was dissuaded by the trus-
tees. In 1864, however, he did join the twenty-six students who were
enrolled in Company B of the Forty-sixth Infantry, and acted as
first lieutenant, much of the time in command of the company. "It
was the hour of supreme effort on the part of the government, when
the college retained no student within its walls who was liable to
military service."

Two, who were consistent members of the Society of Friends, and
did noncombatant service during the war, later did inestimable service
to the College: Robert M. Haines as a leading trustee, Jesse Macy as
the most distinguished member of the faculty. Of the ten men pre-
viously graduated during the years at Davenport, three laymen all
had distinguished records in the Union Army, and two of the minis-

62 Grinnell College

ters also served, one as chaplain, the other on the Christian Com-
mission.

It was the women students who kept the College going during the
four years of the Civil War. 112 The question of coeducation had arisen
quite naturally, in the absence of women's colleges and the impos-
sibility of realizing at that time the dual plan first proposed for
Grinnell University. The problem had been solved at Oberlin as
early as the 1830's when "y un ladies of good minds, unblemished
morals, and respectable attainments" were received and "placed under
the superintendence of a judicious lady whose duty it is to correct
their habits and mould the feminine character." However, there was
not complete equality at Oberlin: "young ladies received only three
cents an hour for the labor of the steward's department^ together with
the washing, ironing, and much of the sewing for the students,"
whereas the men received five cents; in return, the weekly charge to
women was reduced from one dollar to seventy-five cents. 118 At
Davenport, in the absence of other provision, girls had been admitted
to college classes on a petition from parents and with faculty approval,
in spite of the opposition of men students. 114

The year 1865 saw the graduation of the first class completing the
college course at Grinnell, and at the same commencement, the inau-
guration of the first president. For seventeen years Iowa College had
continued without a titular head, except for the president of the
Board of Trustees, Alden B. Robbins of the Iowa Band. The first
attempts to supply such academic leadership were fruitless. During
the years at Davenport, the eminent Congregational clergyman, Dr.
Ray Palmer of Albany, had been elected to the presidency in 1856,
and in 1858 the Rev. Jonathan Blanchard, who had resigned as presi-
dent of Knox College; but neither accepted the proffered post. After
the removal to Grinnell, the Rev. Horace Bushnell, D.D., famous
liberal theologian, who had just terminated his long pastorate at Hart-
ford, Connecticut, declined a call to the young college in Iowa. In
1861, the attempt of a committee to interest the Rev. S. W. S. Dutton,
D.D., was equally unsuccessful. Finally, in August, 1862, the trustees
turned to one of their own number, the Rev. George F. Magoun, who
had been a member of the board since his pastorate at Davenport and
was at this time minister of the Congregational Church at Lyons. 115

Again there was delay, as the election was conditional upon provi-
sions being made for the salary of the new head. At the request of

THE EARLY YEARS . 63

his fellow-trustees, John C. Holbrook was given leave of absence
from his church at Dubuque to seek help in New England. The first
modest goal of $2,000 was soon passed, and hopes raised to $5,000;
then the elated agent succeeded in interesting Samuel Williston of
Easthampton, Massachusetts, whose benefactions to Christian educa-
tion were already considerable. This generous Congregationalist con-
tributed a total of $28,500 for the endowment of the presidency at
Grinnell. 116

When provision had thus been made for his support, Magoun ac-
cepted the presidency at the annual meeting of the Board in July,
1864, and was also elected professor of mental and moral science. He
was granted a leave of absence of six months for travel in Europe.
"My health was so broken," he wrote later, "having buried wife and
child, that all the assurance I could give the Trustees was that on my
return, if I could do any work at all, I would see what could be done
for the College." Mrs. Abby Hyde Magoun had died at Lyons, Feb-
ruary 10, 1864. In his Inaugural Discourse, Magoun mentioned "sor-
rowful providences" as opening the way to his acceptance of the
presidency, and added: "Surrendering a most happy pastorate, and
declining other posts of honorable and more gainful service, I have
heeded this call as the voice of God." 117

It will be noted that the members of the faculty in these early years
were recruited almost exclusively from the ranks of the clergy. In-
deed, there was then no graduate work offered in this country except
in theology, and the ministry was therefore the only learned profes-
sion in that sense. The versatility of these clerical pedagogues must
seem prodigious to the too highly specialized academic minds of our
day. An excellent example of this variety of talents was Henry "Web-
ster Parker, clergyman, scientist, artist, poet, historian, and taxi-
dermist. His father, the Rev. Samuel Parker, was a member of the
first class graduated from Andover Seminary in 1810. After a pas-
torate of twenty-five years at Danby, New York (near Ithaca), and
two other brief charges, Samuel Parker was "exploring agent" for
the Missionary Society in the Oregon Territory, 1835-1837, and en-
listed Marcus Whitman as associate missionary. Born at Danby,
September 7, 1822, Henry was graduated from Amherst College in
1843, and from Auburn Theological Seminary (of which his father
had been agent) in 1846, a year before J. B. Grinnell. Ordained in
1848, he was pastor of Presbyterian churches at Aurora and Dans-

64 Grinnell College

ville, New York, then of Congregational churches at Brooklyn, New
York, and New Bedford, Massachusetts. In 1864, at the age of forty-
two, he came to Grinnell (no doubt through J. B/s influence) as pro-
fessor of chemistry and natural science. He also taught painting,
trained himself in taxidermy, and created a museum of stuffed birds
and animals. 118

In 1870 Parker returned to the East and became professor of men-
tal, moral, and social science at Massachusetts Agricultural College at
Amherst, where he also taught rhetoric and elocution, English com-
position, the Bible, geology, physical geography, physiology, and land-
scape gardening "as a system involving the study of nature and of
art." He was also college chaplain and chairman of the committee on
fancy articles of the Hampshire Agricultural Society, for which he
wrote a poem, "Farm "Wonders." In 1879 he returned to Grinnell as
professor of natural history, serving until his retirement in 1889. He
was given a D.D. degree in 1886. His publications included a book
of verse in 1850, The Agnostic Gospel, with Related Essays, The Spirit
of Beauty y and How Oregon was Saved to the United States.

Such extraordinary breadth of interest was possible at a time when
universal knowledge was still the scholar's ideal, when Humboldt was
reputed to have encompassed within himself the total sum of human
science. However, it should be remembered that laboratory science
was still in its infancy, and social sciences, as Parker said, were "quite
inchoate." Thus the teacher's task was the relatively simple one of
imparting "book-larnin' " and listening to recitations on the text.

In the Grinnell curriculum, only chemistry had gained a separate
existence among the sciences, all the rest being included under such
generic terms as "Natural Philosophy," "Natural Science," and "Nat-
ural History." It was not until the middle seventies that physics
appeared as a secondary subject, not until the nineties that it became
a distinct department. Biology and zoology emerged from the
"Natural History" complex in 1891, and botany finally separated
itself in 1902.

The first Mrs. Henry W. Parker, nee Helen E. Fitch, of Auburn,
New York, was a vivacious lady, "of whose gracious beauty in all my
wanderings I have never known the match," wrote the widely
traveled J. Irving Manatt. Like her husband an artist (she taught
drawing) and a collector (she was inordinately proud of a huge case
full of sheik), she was also author of a novel, Constance Aylmer*

THE EARLY YEARS 65

published by Scribners in 1869, but unsold. Mrs. Parker never re-
ceived any royalties to reimburse her for the borrowed money spent
for the plates of the book. Her sprightly letters to a sister in the
possession of the latter's granddaughter, Mrs. Marquis Childs de-
pict the social life of a pioneer community with some condescension;
she seems to have been incorrigibly and quite consciously "Eastern."
She quotes with relish her husband's comment that, in comparison
with other women at a party, she was a "hummingbird among spar-
rows" she, in her "green silk and green headdress/' while "every-
body else had on plain dark delaines, black silks, etc." The local shops
were not helpful.

You said you would let me know about bonnets. I hope you will for it is
impossible to get information here. I went into a milliner shop once and drew
back thinking I had made a mistake but was urged to walk in. A stove with
the dinner steaming on it, a table set in the middle of the floor, a bed in the
corner, a girl dressmaker and behind the door a bit of a counter with a small
set of shelves and a few boxes was what I saw. Yet there I must buy a straw
bonnet for spring by and bye. . . . No tailor here but a Hoosier cutter.

Mrs. Parker found social customs strange and crude. As to re-
freshments:

First came plates, second came tea, carried by the host, then the son with milk
and sugar, then the daughter with a dish of watery, stewed cranberries, which
went swimming about the tea cup on the plate. After some time biscuit and
butter went the rounds, then came a glass dish of cheese! Then a plate
of tarts. Lastly came cake. At 10 o'clock we were politely reminded to
keep early hours and so broke up! The people here are mainly from country
villages or are and have been plain farmers all their lives. They are substantial
New Englanders. There are two or three families of more refinement and
accustomed to city ways of living.

She was irked by the habit of carrying dishes in piles "up to the chin"
and made much of her own use of a "salver," which she hoped to
teach the inhabitants to imitate. It troubled her especially that the
hired help expected to sit at the table with the family, and she finally
put her foot down against this remnant of frontier democracy. (In
the census of 1850, of 192,214 inhabitants of Iowa, only ten are
listed as "domestic servants.") But she thought there was some hope
for improvement:

Never mind, all these ways of the backwoods will disappear in time. I do
what I can by example and advice when it is asked. But there is one hopeless

66 Grinnell College

western fashion which will only die out in the next generation. Borrowing!
My yeast-pot is a nuisance. One neighbor depends so much upon it (and
when she returns any it is not fit to make good bread) that Henry proposes I
shall save the yeast she hereafter returns and give it to her instead of mine
when she borrows! . . . Another neighbor used our wheelbarrow all summer
till it really seemed as if it was his and that we had the privilege of keeping
it in our yard. My pattern bag I have seriously thought of hanging by the
back door so often have I to dispense these. The wash-tub has gone -weekly
and the butcher's wife I guess tries out all the lard for the shop in my iron
kettle. I have lent dresses (for patterns) , night dresses, chemises, drawers,
sun-bonnet, Henry's clothes and cap, Mr. Parker's vest and dressing-gown,
shoes, mouse-traps, baskets, all sorts of tools, coal &; wood, books 3 all sorts of
cooking materials, flour, meal, eggs, soda, mustard, spices, tin pans, egg beater,
thread and needles, everything in short except my large enamelled preserve-
kettle, that nobody shall have. Even the cat has been proposed for, being a
good mouser. Much cake being left at my tea last week, a neighbor who is
wife of one of the richest here, offered to take it in exchange for fresh beef
as they "had been killing" and as she wished to have some company! ! ! Henry
cannot get over that. Well, it is something pleasant to live where your
notions get a shock occasionally. One gets broader ideas. ... A neighbor
has just sent in to borrow pen and ink.

In one respect, however, Mrs. Parker had to hand the palm to the
new West. On a stagecoach ride westward, "the way led through a
beautiful region abounding in corn and grain. The country was
fine like an old cultivated farm district not like a new country.
You should have seen one farm of thirty thousand acres 119 with one
field of 250 acres of ripe grain. You can see nothing of this mag-
nificence at the East."

Some years later, a famous Englishman recorded a pleasanter im-
pression of the social scene at Grinnell. James Bryce, the distinguished
author o The American Commonwealth >, wrote to Mrs. Jesse Macy,
February 16, 1891: "We have a delightful recollection of our glimpse
of your life the most idyllic life, if I may use the expression, I
have seen in the West, was that of Grinnell."

Part Two

They Carried the Torch

Z 6 w

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B
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k ac

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O O

od W

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PRESIDENTS OF GRINNELL

JOSIAH B.

GRINNELL
Founder

GEORGE A.
GATES

1887-1900

JOHN H. T.

MAIN

1906-1931

GEORGE F.
MAGOUN

1865-1884

DAN F.
BRADLEY

1902-1905

SAMUEL N.
STEVENS

1940-

JJ&ffljfjSM&ij^^

The College Under Magoun

1865-1884

COMPARED to many of the pioneers, his friends and associates in the
new West, George Frederic Magoun was born with a silver spoon in
his mouth. 120 His father was a leading citizen of Bath, Maine, ship-
owner, bank president, mayor of the city, member of the state legis-
lature in both branches, and as such co-author of Maine's first law
prohibiting intoxicating liquors.

The family, like the Grinnells, was of Huguenot descent and came
by way of North Ireland to America in 1660. George was born

70 Grinnell College

March 29, 1821, attended Bath Academy, graduated from near-by
Bowdoin College in 1841 (A.M. in 1856), studied theology at And-
over and Yale, and spent two years in the "West, 1844-1846, as prin-
cipal of the public school at Galena, Illinois, and of an academy at
Platteville, Wisconsin. He returned to Andover for the completion
of his divinity course, graduating in 1846. The next year he married
Abby Anne Hyde of Bath.

He was ordained January 25, 1848, at Shullsburg, Wisconsin,
where he founded a home missionary Congregational church. He
was pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church at Galena in 1848, and
five years each of Congregational churches at Davenport and Lyons,
Iowa, with an interval of law study and practice at Burlington, 1851-
1855. He assisted at the forming of the Republican party, and in
1856 became a trustee of Iowa College. He received the degree of
doctor of divinity from Amherst College in 1867.

President Magoun was a man of large stature and commanding
presence, with a leonine head, long hair and beard, prominent nose, a
resonant voice, and an oratorical manner. A student in 1871 re-
marked on the amusing contrast between Dr. Magoun's "ornate, lofty,
high-sounding" introduction and the drawling, unadorned simplicity
of Horace Greeley as a lecturer. 121

Magoun was fearless and decisive, an ardent partisan, combative and
dictatorial, yet generous in nature and tender in his affections. His
personality was of the all-out type that inspired adoring loyalty in his
admirers, but also the undying hatred of certain others over whom he
rode roughshod. The word "compromise" was not in his large vocab-
ulary. One alumnus never forgave him or the College for the
summary dismissal of his father (Professor Charles W. Clapp) from
the faculty on the same commencement day that the son received
his diploma. 122

Two events in particular tested the sturdy courage of Magoun as
a leader. In 1871 "East College/' the original Grinnell University
building, burned, and the next year there was a better "Central Col-
lege" to take its place. In 1882 a tornado destroyed the entire college
plant just at commencement time, but graduation exercises were held
as usual, and the next year three new buildings were ready for oc-
cupancy. In such emergencies Magoun had the invaluable backing of
J. B. Grinnell, who gave himself to the cause with all his character-
istic energy, personally raising large sums for the rebuilding. J. B.

UNDER MAGOUN 71

was fond of saying later that the "cyclone was a wind-fall for Grin-
nell," both town and college.

President Magoun brought with him all the belligerent orthodoxy
of the Andover Calvinists, the doctrinal severity and rigidity which
the more conciliatory members of the Iowa Band had found ill adapted
to their pioneering religious tasks. The "Articles of Faith" adopted
by the Iowa Association in June, 1845, were as conservatively Cal-
vinistic as the Andover stalwarts could have required; 123 but the
members of the Band and their early associates were too busy with
their absorbing religious message to waste time in theological hair-
splitting. Magoun, on the contrary, was rock-ribbed in his conser-
vatism, and he asserted it with ponderous dogmatic vehemence.

As the unmitred bishop of Iowa Congregationalism, he saw to it
that no young minister who accepted the newly propounded Dar-
winian theory of evolution was settled in an Iowa pastorate. Natural-
ly, the Higher Criticism of the Bible, with all its implications, was
anathema to him. As a teacher, he never forsook the old-school psy-
chology of Noah Porter's Human Intellect, or the type of apologetics
represented by Mark Hopkins' Evidences of Christianity. Wide read-
ing and a retentive memory provided him with an arsenal of con-
troversial lore, which he could train with devastating effect upon any
attempt to oppose or even mildly question his dogmatic statements.

In theory according to the catalogue his courses were sup-
posed to encourage "the utmost freedom of inquiry and investigation,
with special reference to the clear distinction of truth from error."
But the "clear distinction" rather than the "freedom" was Magoun's
province. His method of teaching was by monologue, and his occa-
sional questions to the students were couched in such terms that they
always suggested the acceptable answer. Naturally, there was no need
of preparation by the student, and inattention was common in his
classes. At the least dissent, Magoun could be an angry Jove hurling
his thunderbolts. On the other hand, he could be faultlessly courteous
and affable.

As a matter of course, the reins were held tight during Magoun's
administration. It was a period of rules and regulations applied with
an iron hand, and the students sometimes felt that the judicial process
was tinged with espionage. Demerits were imposed for what today
would seem trivial and even absurd causes, such as a young woman's

72 Grinnell College

walking half a block downtown with a man she chanced to meet,
though the gentleman in question was an elderly acquaintance.

College girls enjoyed no informality of attire. Agnes Wilson wrote:
"I will give you a list of the fashions. Hoops and great bustles are
all the rage, also dresses with basques. Almost every girl wears curls
or frizzes. . . . Hats are mostly turbans and are worn on top of the
crown." 124 Social relations between men and women students were
guarded with special care. "Young gentlemen" were allowed to visit
"young ladies" only Saturday afternoons, later also Friday evenings.

Of course Iowa College held no monopoly in such restrictive legis-
lation. It is said that Oberlin College, in the old days, had "coeduca-
tional walks" on the campus, consisting of two boards far enough
apart so that a couple could not walk arm-in-arm, and that one of
the primitive rules there read that a young man and a young woman
should not "walk together unless they were going in the same direc-
tion." An early rule at Princeton provided that students must take
off their hats at a distance of ten rods for the President, and five for
a tutor. It may be remembered that students at Andover Seminary
were supposed to observe 102 rules laid down in thirteen chapters.

Of course dancing, cards, billiards, intoxicants, gambling, and
tobacco were equally taboo at Grinnell, and these indulgences were
linked with "profanity, obscenity and lewdness" in the college rules,
and with "keeping of gunpowder, fire-arms and other dangerous
weapons." The early laws of Harvard and Yale were full of similar
restrictive regulations.

Attendance at morning and evening religious exercises, and twice
at Sunday services, was strictly required at Grinnell. Old grads still
remember "going to prayer-meetings" as the chief social experience
of their student days. This was quite in the old Andover tradition.
When the eminent German theologian Dr. Friedrich Tholuck was
calling upon Professor Parker, he inquired: "How do you get along
without the opera and theater?" The reply was prompt: "You forget
that we have the church and the sewing society." At Grinnell, going
to a circus cost a student from twenty -five to a maximum of thirty-
one demerits.

President Magoun came to Grinnell as a widower, shortly after the
death of his wife and child at Lyons. Six years later, in 1870, he
married Elizabeth Earle, twelve years younger than himself. She
came from Brunswick, Maine (where he had attended Bowdoin Col-

UNDER MAGOUN 73

lege) , was a graduate of Mt. Holyoke and a teacher there until her
marriage. "Cultured, refined, a brilliant conversationalist, a mar-
velous Bible-class teacher, a gifted speaker, glowing with enthusiasm,
cordial in her social relations, zealous in missionary endeavor, she was
for many years a woman of commanding influence in our denomina-
tional life. After severe and prolonged suffering she 'fell on sleep*
January 7, 1896." 125 Her husband survived her by less than a
month. Mrs. Magoun was "Acting Lady Principal" from 1882 to
1884, and occasionally took charge of classes in English literature.
Her alert mind and keen sense of literary values made her a stimulat-
ing teacher. Her memory is perpetuated by the ever- vacant chair in
the membership of a work-and-reading club that bears her name.

During the twenty years of President Magoun's administration, the
faculty of Iowa College was marked by an academic distinction rare
among the small colleges of the growing West. The oldest member of
the faculty, Leonard Fletcher Parker, has already been introduced as
the first qualified teacher to come to the town of Grinnell, and the
first member of the faculty in the merged college, as professor of
ancient languages. He was another example of the versatility of the
preacher-pedagogue of that day. As a student at Oberlin, while
looking forward to future work as a foreign missionary, he had taken
charge of classes in Greek and Latin in the absence of the professor.
His theological studies were interrupted by poor health, and he was
thus shifted to a teaching career. Nevertheless, he was ordained in
1862, and though never a pastor, he preached frequently. He acted
as county superintendent of schools in Poweshiek County in 1858-
1861 and 1869-1871. His interest in politics and reform led to his
election as Representative in the Iowa state legislature in 1867, and
in 1868 he became a trustee of the State University at Iowa City. In
1870 he accepted a call to the new department of Greek at the Uni-
versity.

Parker's departure from Grinnell was no doubt due in large part to
the difficulty he found in close association with so domineering a chief
as Dr. Magoun, for Parker was himself a man of positive nature,
vigorous in his expression of his views, and far more adroit than the
ponderous president. Besides, Parker, who was first on the ground
and had complete confidence in his own ability, could not help feel-
ing aggrieved that another, less expert in education, had been placed
over him. Parker's former student, Professor J. Irving Manatt,

74 Grinnell College

wrote: "President Magoun with his strong personality dominated all.
The Oberlin element was a bit restive/' There was no provision in
Dr. Magoun J s book on logic for the amicable meeting of the irre-
sistible force and the immovable object.

Though Greek was an optional subject at Iowa City, it became
under Professor Parker's skillful tuition one of the most popular
courses at the University. In 1874 his title was broadened to include
the instructorship in history, and his interest in this secondary field
increased until he became entirely engaged in that study. During his
last years at Iowa City he was head of the department of history,
while retaining his interest in ancient philology and literature.

His crusading dedication to reform, especially to the temperance
cause then being hotly debated in Iowa, brought his professorship at
the University to an untimely end. The Board of Regents happened
to be politically opposed to prohibition, and used its power to de-
mand the resignation of three prominent members of the faculty who
had been active in the support of the prohibitory law. Professor
Parker was thus inactive during the academic year 1887-1888. The
Alumni Association of the University protested vigorously against this
action of the regents, and by an almost unanimous vote asked recon-
sideration, but in vain. The years at the University had also brought
bitter bereavement; of three children then living, two had drowned
in the Iowa River. Mr. Parker's return to Grinnell belongs in the
next chapter.

Of Carl Von Coelln little is known save that he was an "importa-
tion from Germany," and that he at one time attended the academy
at Orwell, Ohio, of which Professor S. J. Buck later, in 1862, became
principal. 126 En route to Iowa in 1863 Von Coelln and his wife
stopped in Ohio to see the Bucks. Von Coelln had accepted a position
as professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at Iowa College,
a post in which he remained until 1869. He was state superintendent
of public instruction from 1876 to 18.82, and a member of the faculty
of Buena Vista College for some years after its opening in 1 891.

Samuel Jay Buck, next in age to Professor Parker, was destined to
one of the longest terms of service in the history of the College at
Grinnell. 127 From Russia, Herkimer County, New York, where he
was born on July 4, 1835, his family moved to a farm near the village
of Mecca in eastern Ohio, and there he spent his boyhood. He was
graduated from Oberlin College in 1858, from the theological school

UNDER MAGOUN 75

in 1862, and was ordained to the Congregational ministry in 1863*
As principal of the academy at Orwell,, Ohio, near his home, he com-
bined teaching with preaching. Von Coelln's recommendation led
to Buck's selection early in 1864 as principal of the Preparatory and
English department at Grinnell. When Von Coelln resigned in 1869,
Buck succeeded him as professor of mathematics and natural philos-
ophy, his subjects later changing to mathematics and physics, and
then to mathematics and astronomy.

Intermittently Buck acted as pastor of near-by churches, as county
superintendent of schools, county surveyor, weather observer, and
financial agent for the College. In 1903 Tabor College honored him
with a degree of doctor of divinity. He retired in 1905, after more
than forty years at Grinnell, most of the time as senior professor and
from 1884 to 1887 as acting president. He and Mrs. Buck (an
Oberlin classmate) lived to celebrate their golden wedding anniver-
sary, November 17, 1909.

During the twenty years of President Magoun's administration,
the curriculum remained almost unchanged. The "Classical Course"
naturally continued Greek and Latin as the core of the curriculum.
The "Scientific Course/' which first made its appearance in 1862,
omitted the ancient languages, added advanced mathematics, and was
extended from three to four years largely by the simple expedient of
adding "electives." The "Ladies' Course" also grew from three to
four years by absorbing some of the didactic material of the disap-
pearing "Normal Department/'

However, a few courageous females were by this time permitted
to attempt the full college courses, "with due regard to constitutional
differences and suitable safeguards." 12S President Magoun, as trustee,
had from the first supported the admission of women to college
privileges, but evidently this liberality was accompanied by mental
reservations, without formal explanation of what the "constitutional
differences" might be.

So too Magoun's argument, in his Inaugural Discourse, in favor of
the modern languages as claiming a place in the college course with
the ancient, "perhaps before them," was not followed through. Ger-
man and French remained feeble adjuncts to Greek and Latin, which,
by 1884, absorbed the energies of two instructors.

The classics were taught by men of real distinction. When L. F.

76 Grinnell College

Parker went to Iowa City In 1870, he was succeeded by Dr. John
A very, the "distinguished philologist" whom Dr. Magoun called

. . . our specimen scholar, pure and simple, one of the most unpretending of
erudite men, having in Sanscrit only one superior in all the land, Whitney,
his own instructor, knowing hardly more of the ways about our little town
than those to his recitation room, the church, and the post office, able to
stint himself to almost any extent for books which no one else in this great
commonwealth could read, toiling and economizing for years to set himself
free from bread-winning occupations that he might delve more profoundly
in Oriental tongues, died suddenly just as he had attained his freedom and
resigned his chair at Bowdoin. 129

When Avery was called to Bowdoin in 1 877, he was followed by
Fisk P. Brewer, A.M.,

... as strong intellectually as he was feeble physically, of extraordinary
attainments in several learned specialties, at home in Modern Greek as in
Ancient, and in the linguistic transition from the one to the other, following
a classical recitation with utmost keenness when he could scarcely breathe, a
humble, tender-hearted, refined, cheerful Christian believer, gave us eminent
evidence for thirteen suffering years, how brilliancy of mind and fervor of
faith can conquer and command the body.

Next in this worthy succession, coming in the last year of Dr.
Magoun's administration, was Dr. John M. Crow, who was the

. . . most devoted of these three men to the ancient Greek, had studied abroad
like them, though not so long in Greece as Brewer, a child of nature never
spoiled, losing none of the genuineness and quaint shrewdness of his rustic
youth, enlivening with them his learned lectures on ancient art and his
homely fireside talk; it is easily remembered here how all too late he went
to Colorado to live, if possible, and started homeward only to die. He would
have been a preacher, but for feeble lungs.

Meanwhile, Latin was taught by Richard W. Swan from 1871 to 1883.
He was an older man, who had taught at Phillips Exeter and at Al-
bany, than whom Magoun knew "few milder or more inoffensive*'
faint praise indeed!

English language and literature was still taught by one professor,
with sporadic dashes of instruction in elocution. Professor Clapp,
whose abrupt dismissal in 1871 has been mentioned, was followed in
1873 by Stephen G. Barnes, A.B., who came directly from graduation
at Lafayette College, remained professor of English language, litera-
ture, and rhetoric until 1891, and in course of time acquired a "Rev-

UNDER MAGOUN 77

erend," a Ph.D., and a Litt.D., and became Dr. Magoun's son-in-law.
He was resident licentiate at Andover Seminary in 1879.

Ill health seemed common among the teachers of this generation.
Barnes was slight in build, sallow in color, and suffered from insomnia.
He repelled students by a cold, distant manner and a stony look, but
his chilly exterior concealed a warm interest in their welfare, which
expressed itself especially in persistent concern about their religious
sentiments and convictions.

One of the ablest students at Grinnell in the later years of Barnes's
professorship remembered him as third, with Macy and Crow, in the
trio of teachers who most markedly influenced his development. 130
Less serious students were rebellious at Professor Barnes's puritanical
attitude and suspected him of reporting to the Rhadamanthine presi-
dent trivial infractions of college regulations which he happened to
observe. After leaving Grinnell, he held pastorates at East Long-
meadow, Massachusetts, and St. Johnsbury, Vermont, and for brief
periods was dean of the theological department of Fisk University and
lecturer on systematic theology at Hartford Seminary. Iowa College
gave him a D.D. in 1896.

Physics and the biological sciences remained adjuncts to mathe-
matics and chemistry until H. W. Parker, who had taught "Chem-
istry and Natural Science" from 1864 to 1870, returned from Massa-
chusetts in 1879, as professor of natural history, remaining until his
retirement in 1889. Continuing his earlier interest, he did much to
restore the museum of natural history, which had been destroyed by
the tornado in 1882.

Dr. Henry Carmichael, the first professionally trained chemist to
fill the chair of chemistry, was called to Bowdoin College in 1873
after but two years at Grinnell. He was followed after a year's
interval by William H. Herrick, A.M., who remained until 1885.
During the brief service from 1871 to 1873 of Albert Sherburne
Hardy (an author of some reputation), the courses in mathematics
and natural philosophy expanded into "Civil Engineering, Applied
Mathematics and Military Drill,** but this was a transient phenomenon.

President Magoun himself taught mental and moral science, and
congratulated himself at the beginning on using the newest texts, but
as he inclined to remain faithful to these same texts for a generation,
their novelty was at last somewhat tarnished. So the contention in his

78 Grinnell College

Inaugural Discourse that western college culture must be "advanced"
and "progressive" yielded to an increasing conservatism.

Two new departments were in the making during the last years of
President Magoun's administration. By far the more important of
these, because of the developing genius of Jesse Macy, deserves ex-
tended notice in a later chapter. The other was an extension of in-
terest in the education of prospective teachers, which goes back to
the early years of the College. Desultory instruction in this field was
followed in 1879 by the transfer of the Rev. Henry K. Edson, A.M.,
from the principalship of Denmark Academy to the newly created
chair of the theory and practice of teaching, 131

Two years before, the early sporadic teaching of music had crys-
tallized into a "Conservatory of Music" under the direction of Wil-
lard Kimball, who came as instructor in 1875, and remained as
director until 1894. During this time it was a loose annex rather than
an integral part of the College.

Under President Magoun's leadership the College grew very grad-
ually in enrollment, with occasional sharp fluctuations. Counting
both men and women, and remembering that during this period the
"Ladies 5 Course" was less severe in its requirements, the total registra-
tion rose from 60 in the college department in 1864 to 112 in 1883-
1884. There was a sudden decrease from 105 in 1870 to 69 in 1871-
1872, due perhaps to the burning of "East College" and to the retire-
ment of four of the five members of the college teaching staff. Again,
in 1882, the tornado that destroyed the college buildings caused a
drop in the enrollment from 160 the highest figure for the entire
period to 120. The registration of preparatory, English, normal,
and music students remained greatly in excess of that in the college
classes.

The most dramatic and potentially tragic event of Dr. Magoun's
administration was the famous "cyclone" of 1882, the first destruc-
tive tornado to wreak its havoc upon an educational institution. This
furious storm cut a swath of ruin through the town and completely
wrecked the two large brick buildings which then housed the Col-
lege, "West College" (built in 1867), and "Central College" (built
in 1872 after a fire in December, 1871, had destroyed the original
building, "East College," erected in 1861).

The event seems sufficiently unique to justify quoting a descrip-
tion by an observer from outside, the Rev. David O. Mears, D.D., of

UNDER MAGOUN 79

Worcester, Massachusetts, who had come to Grinnell to deliver the
commencement address: 132

The 17th of June, 1882, in Grinnell, was a day of terror and of death. All
through the sunshine the sky seemed a curtain, above which the intolerable
heat could not find a vent. Not a breath of air moved even the topmost
leaves of the highest trees. The grass, parched by the burning heat, rustled
like silk, beneath the tread of men who ventured upon their errands. Even
the children gave way to the oppressiveness of the day, and waited for the
sun to set. The cattle sought the shade of the trees, but panted for breath,
as if between them and the sun there was no foliage. They sniffed the air
in fear of what men did not see. The birds winged a hurried flight before
the storm-clouds for safety.

The evening gave no rest. From an hour before sunset, hurrying clouds
banked the western sky. These clouds, colored with green and yellow and
crimson, swayed to and fro in malignant shape, arresting attention through
their fantastic changes. ... At eight o'clock, after the sunset, the huge
clouds put on their deepest black, as of mourning for what was to come.
Following a fierce thunder-gust of rain, and a brief, deathly calm, at a quar-
ter past eight, the black funnel-shaped cloud was seen making its awful
course. Within its sable folds the caged lightnings were at their horrid play.
Almost in a moment of time there was the fearful terror of blackness and
the deadly roar and all was still as if the shrill whistling train of death
were passed.

There was only death and ruin left in its track, save where people had
hidden in cellars, some of whom were yet prisoners beneath the debris. Build-
ings had been tossed like egg shells from their foundations. Freight trains
with many cars had been seized by the fiery hands and tossed ojQf the track.
The ponderous locomotive had been lifted from its standing place as children
toss their toys. Trees within its track were twisted from their roots, some one
way, and some another, by the electric forces in their havoc and play. The
spokes of wheels were twisted from their hubs by a process no man has dis-
covered. Carriages were lifted from the street and lodged in the tops of trees.
Human beings were seized by the terrible blast and carried away hundreds of
feet, and left among the ruins that had covered from sight the streets and
gardens. Huge timbers were driven deep into the earth as no ponderous ham-
mers could drive them. The college buildings of stone and brick were crum-
bled under the crunching hand of destruction. For the width of a quarter
of a mile, the prostrated ruins were a monument of death. Thirty-two dead
bodies were left as its evidences, while nearly a hundred persons more were
seriously wounded.

"No such destruction of its outward belongings/* said Professor
Park of Andover, "ever befell any college in the whole history of
education.' 5 13a But the resolute temper of the pioneers was still alive.

80 . Grinnell College

College exercises were suspended only on Monday, June 19, when the
victims of the tornado were buried. Commencement was held at the
appointed time, and the graduates of 1882 an unusually able
group have always taken pride in their distinction as the "Cyclone
Class." Dr. Magoun's manuscript for his baccalaureate had been swept
away in the storm. He chose a new text for his sermon, modified for
the occasion: "And God was in the "Whirlwind."

There was an unexampled outpouring of sympathy and help from
every part of the country. The list of donors who came to the rescue
includes many famous names Blair, Dodge, Russell, Sage, Vander-
bilt, Huntington, Gould, Jesup, Whitney, Farnam, Slater, Mather,
Corliss, Coats, Goodnow, Farnsworth, Phillips, Ames, Hyde, Ham-
mond, Blatchford, Armour, Farwell, Hooker, Grimes, Congregational
churches everywhere, and even "six Wellesley girls," and the trustees
of Knox College. 134 Three buildings were erected that same year to
replace the two destroyed; three years later a fourth was added.

Dr. Magoun's presidency ended in 1884, when he was sixty- three
years old. He retired unwillingly from his post of authority, but his
inflexibility and conservatism were felt to be detrimental to the fur-
ther development of the College in a time that was seething with new
ideas and methods. He continued his teaching function, as professor
of mental and moral science, until 1890, and then lived in retirement
at Grinnell until his death in his seventy-fifth year, January 30, 1896.
The Minutes of the Congregational Association for 1896 record the
following tribute: 135

Doctor Magoun, eloquent as a preacher, profound as a thinker, eminent
as an educator, was one of the strong personal forces of our state for many
years. His loyalty to his conceptions of truth, his bold and convincing utter-
ances, his interest in that which affected men socially, politically and reli-
giously, drew attention to him early. He was a man to be taken account of,
so all felt who saw his grand proportions and heard his trumpet voice. He
was intimately associated with the Congregational fathers of Iowa, the
founders of Iowa College. It was not strange that they turned to one who
moved before them like a king, and called him to the place which it was
long his pride to fill, the presidency of the young and struggling school.
That was his real life-work. It commanded him. His heart went into it. He
gave the name of the college publicity. He drew to it the respectful and
kindly thought of many friends who opened their hands to it with gifts. In
the time of the great disaster his name and influence meant much for its re-
building. His literary activity was unremitting as long as his health allowed,
and even after it was seriously broken. He had the genius of work. His most

UNDER MAGOUN 8 1

valuable contribution to the churches of Iowa is his "Life and Times of Asa
Turner." It is a monument of patient research, showing better than anything
else the work of those pioneers who planted our churches in Iowa. He held
the pen of a ready writer. It was natural for him to speak his thought fully.
He was quick to defend his position, if assailed. He was not easily intimi-
dated; the polemic spirit was no stranger to him. He loved the missionary
work and the workers of our churches. He was a corporate member of the
American Board. He was before the war an earnest opponent of slavery. The
cause of temperance always enlisted his hearty sympathy. He did a good
work and will live in the respectful memory of the Christian people of Iowa
as well as in the respect, honor and affection of many who, as students, learned
of him to think and to believe.

fflSflSBBSlSft^

The Presidenq^ of George A. Gates

1887-1900

THREE quiet years of interregnum followed the retirement of Presi-
dent Magoun. Professor Buck, by virtue of seniority, officiated as
acting president. He was a schoolmaster of a type fast disappearing;
large of frame and slow of movement, quiet in speech, patient and
industrious, solid and unimaginative, kindly in spirit, with an ele-
mentary sense of humor expressing itself in too obvious quips uttered
without the moving of a muscle. One of his favorite witticisms was
to refer to an abandoned part of the former curriculum as "The Old

PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE A. GATES 83

Ladies' Course." He was a textbook teacher, capable of using the same
book (in physics! ) for a lifetime, so that students passing down the
class text from generation to generation with all the old traditional
jests (after the lesson on the lever: "Well now leave *er be") scrib-
bled in the margin, and the traditional horse-laugh, could anticipate
the recital. He was not alone in this fidelity to the familiar. So bril-
liant a lecturer as Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes at Harvard used the
same notes on anatomy for thirty-five years. Steadily conservative,
a fatherly spirit, carrying on in the old ways, Buck saw a healthy
increase in the college enrollment during his incumbency from 122
in 1884 to 187 in 1886-1887. The registration of preparatory and
music students also rose to- a new maximum. Quiet waters made good
sailing.

During this time Iowa College again had the unpleasant experience
of seeing its presidency declined by two distinguished ministers. In
December, 1884, the Rev. Charles F. Thwing, pastor of the North
Avenue Church in Cambridge, was elected president, but declined;
in 1890 he became president of Western Reserve University. The
catalogue for 1885-1886 names the Rev. David O. Mears, D.D., as
president-elect. Dr. Mears was the pastor of the Piedmont Congre-
gational Church at Worcester. He was widely known as preacher,
lecturer, and author, and had a special relation to Grinnell by his
marriage with Mary, the beautiful and accomplished daughter of J. B.
Grinnell, which resulted from his coming to Iowa College as com-
mencement speaker at the time of the tornado. But Dr. Mears pre-
ferred to continue in the ministry, and after further search the choice
of the trustees fell upon the young pastor of the Congregational
Church at Upper Montclair, New Jersey, George Augustus Gates. 186

There could scarcely be a stronger contrast than that between the
first and second presidents of Iowa College. The transition was like
a sudden leap from the past into the future, from fixity to fluidity,
from metaphysics to experimental science, the conservative reluctantly
passing the torch to the radical. A good touchstone, for that time,
was the difference in the attitude toward the theory of evolution.
While Magoun, at least in his public utterances, remained to the last
hostile to the Darwinian "heresy," Gates was capable of saying to a
graduate student in biology, himself as yet undecided in the matter:
"Are you an evolutionist? You will never amount to anything until
you are." Meanwhile, the teachers of science had been quietly prepar-

84 Grinnell College

ing the way for the acceptance of evolution, without interference
from Dr. Magoun.

George Augustus Gates was born January 24, 1851, in the village
of Topsham, Vermont, the son of Hubbard Gates, miller, who moved
soon after to St. Johnsbury, and died in 1861. The widowed mother
opened a millinery shop to support her three children. George at-
tended St. Johnsbury Academy and was graduated from Dartmouth
College in 1873. After two years as principal of an academy at Mor-
risville, Vermont, he began his theological studies at Andover Semi-
nary, where he was graduated in 1880, having meanwhile tutored in
Boston and spent the years 1878 and 1879 in study and travel abroad,
hearing lectures at Gottingen, Bonn, and Neuchatel.

During the generation that separated Gates from Magoun, decisive
changes had developed in the theological atmosphere at Andover. A
notable exception was the chair of Christian theology held since 1847
by the formidable Edwards A. Park, who remained solidly anchored
in his dogmatic assertion of strict Calvinist orthodoxy. The other
professors, who had come in the sixties and seventies, were more open
to the new currents of thought coming from the advance of natural
science, biblical criticism, and German scholarship. The time was
fast approaching when Andover was to be the very storm center of
theological controversy in the country. The new spirit was most
evident in William Jewett Tucker, who came to the faculty in 1879.
In contrast with Park's static theology, he interpreted Christian
thought dynamically, and was among the first to see the social im-
plications of Christianity (he was the founder of the Andover House
settlement in Boston) , 137

Gates's generous nature and deep human sympathy could not help
responding eagerly to such intellectual and moral leadership. He was
also powerfully influenced by his contact with the progressive thought
of German philosophers and theologians, particularly by the "realistic
idealism" of Rudolf Hermann Lotze at Gottingen, with its emphasis
on the emptiness of abstract notions and the fullness of individual
life, with its aspirations, feelings, and desires, its aesthetic and ethical
interests, and its religious faith.

Gates thus approached his pastoral responsibilities as a convinced
and enthusiastic modernist. He was made aware of the bitterness of
the conflict between old and new when he was charged with subver-
sive radicalism and therefore refused ordination by an ecclesiastical

AN EARLY SCIENCE LABORATORY

PHYSICS LABORATORY IN THE NEW HALL OF SCIENCE

Top: MEN'S DORMITORIES. Inset: IOWA COLLEGE AT DAVENPORT ABOUT 1855.
Bottom: REDEDICATION SERVICE, HERRICK CHAPEL, 1949.

PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE A. GATES 85

council at Littleton, New Hampshire. The council was presided over
by President Bartlett of Dartmouth, who was to make amends ten
years later by conferring a D.D. upon his former student, and who
even recommended Gates to succeed him in the presidency of his Alma
Mater. Similar fears as to his theological soundness led the American
Board to decline to accept Gates for missionary work in Japan. A
newly organized Congregational church at Upper Montclair, New
Jersey, showed more courage by calling the proscribed radical to its
pulpit, and he remained the successful pastor of this church from
1 8 8 to 1 8 87, when he came to Grinnell. In 1 8 82 he was unanimously
accepted for ordination by an ecclesiastical council headed by Lyman
Abbott. Charles Noble, then a pastor in New Jersey, later called to
the chair of English at Grinnell, was a member of this council. It was
also in 1882 that Gates married Isabel Augusta Smith of Syracuse,
New York.

The arrival of George A. Gates on the Grinnell campus in 1887
had the effect of an electric shock. He did not have the impressive
personal presence of Dr. Magoun. Of medium height and slender
build, with short sandy hair receding somewhat from his broad fore-
head, a ragged moustache concealing his full lips, with merry blue
eyes and a quizzical expression of countenance, the new president had
none of the Jovian air of his predecessor. Nor did he have a preacher's
manner. He spoke in short, sharp sentences, quite different from the
oratorical rotundity of Magoun's periods. Not only was he a con-
vincing speaker by the clear impact of his thought and the fearless
courage of his utterance, but he had the gift of brevity. His short
Friday morning chapel talks were powerfully effective. He had a
keen sense of humor, and his frankness often gave the impression that
he enjoyed shocking people by a startling brusqueness. His pedagogi-
cal method was in keeping with this habit. The textbook and the
opinions of traditional authorities were only occasions for sharp, bold,
ruthless discussions in which student contribution was explicitly en-
couraged. He was positive in his views, blunt and forthright in ex-
pression, but never authoritarian.

Pomp and ceremony were quite foreign to his nature, and that he
must preserve the professional dignity of his office never occurred to
him. He was happy batting up flies for the ball players in his shirt-
sleeves, or coasting down a hill on his bicycle, thoughtless of the
bumps that might lie in wait for him at the unseen bottom. One of

86 Grmnell College

his characteristic sayings was "You get your best fun on the edge of
disaster/*

Of course Gates's theological and philosophical views and his frank
acceptance of the "higher criticism" of the Bible were diametrically
opposed to those of Dr. Magoun, who, still teaching mental and moral
science, no doubt had to restrain himself to avoid taking sharp issue
in his classes with his presidential successor. Dr. Frank I. Herriott in
his reminiscences records an occasion when the old school won out
by a subtle stratagem. President Gates was to* preach at the Congrega-
tional Church. Seeing Dr. Magoun in the congregation, he asked him
to assist in the service. In his opening prayer the old war horse made
such an eloquent and powerful plea to the Almighty to guide the
thought of the preacher in ways of truth and to shield him from the
manifold errors of insidious modern heresy and infidelity that his
young successor shifted from an intended discourse of controversial
tenor to a completely inoffensive sermon to which the most conserva-
tive of his hearers could not take exception. But that was a type of
ironic courtesy which Gates the crusader was more likely to honor in
the breach than in the observance.

Gates was not a great scholar, and his pedagogical experience was
limited. He was wise enough to leave the educational planning and
functioning of the curriculum to his faculty, while he attended most
successfully to the public functions of his office and to student dis-
cipline. He was a keen sleuth, or perhaps still enough of a boy inside
to sense the ways of boys, and he enjoyed grilling the mischievous
youths who worked off their surplus energy in miscellaneous pranks.
He usually succeeded in locating the culprits in jig-time, no matter
how cleverly they covered their tracks. Gates discarded the minute,
vexatious regulations of the old days, for he expected students to be
ladies and gentlemen and good citizens. In his eyes the cardinal sin
was lying. His own transparent honesty, his winning kindliness and
humor removed any sting from his discipline, even of the young
sinners whom he handled most roughly. They often became and
remained his most ardent admirers.

President Gates showed excellent judgment in his selection of new
members of the faculty, and, as he had the appointment of an almost
entirely new teaching staff during his term of thirteen years, that was
his most important and lasting contribution to the life of the College.
The faculty, which was relatively strong under Magoun, became un-

PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE A. GATES 87

der Gates one of the best teaching groups in the entire country this
in spite of a pitifully low salary scale.

Of the nine members of the teaching staff whom Gates inherited
in 1887, only two, Buck and Macy (one mediocre, the other truly
great) remained through his entire term of service. Of the sixteen
full members of the faculty at the close of his presidency, fourteen
were chosen by him, in addition to others who came and went during
the period. This fact alone indicates to what extent again, as in the
first presidency, the College became the "lengthened shadow of a
man." So far as it is known, the retirement of older members of the
faculty was accomplished without the bitterness that accompanied
some such changes under the former administration.

The work in the classics was notably strengthened in personnel and
reached high distinction. Professor John M. Crow, who added in-
struction in the modern languages to his proper work in Greek, was
a humanist of the most humane type. His quiet, sober, kindly man-
ner still carried an illumination which inspired respect. No mere
syntax-grinder, he made his students conscious of the human interest
of his subject and its enduring value for the modern world, the litera-
ture and life of the Greeks becoming through his interpretation a
living influence in the thought of his students. His service at Grinnell
lasted only seven years. In 1890 he sought relief from tuberculosis in
Colorado, but found only temporary improvement and died on the
way home. The contrast between Professor Crow and his wife,
Martha Foote Crow, who served from 1884 to 1891 as "Lady Prin-
cipal/' was quite marked. A source of some amusement to the stu-
dents, she expressed her individuality by spelling their name "Crowe,"
and always marched briskly ahead of her husband as they walked to
their work at the College. A beautiful woman, mercurial and senti-
mental, her moods varied from graciousness to severity. She could
wax sweetly lyrical about the blue gentians on the campus, and then
pour out the vials of her disapproval upon young ladies who departed
from her accepted norm of conduct. After leaving Grinnell, she was
assistant professor of English literature at the University of Chicago
and at Northwestern, where she also served as dean of women.

After Professor Crow's death, Greek was taught a d interim by the
Rev. James A. Towle (A.B., Harvard), until in 1892 the coming of
John Hanson Thomas Main marked a new era, to be discussed in the
chapter dealing with his long and fruitful presidency. The growing

88 Grinnell College

popularity of the courses in Greek led soon to the transfer from the
preceptorship of the Academy of Clara E. Millerd ( A.B., A.M., Grin-
nell, later Ph.D., Chicago), one of the most brilliant women grad-
uates of the College, to a professorship of Greek and philosophy.

Latin (with French as an adjunct) was taught from 1886 to 1890
by Ernest Sicard, Ph.D., a native of France who spoke English with
a strong accent. He was a scholarly man whose teaching contrasted
sharply with that of Professor Crow in his emphasis upon grammatical
and syntactical minutiae to the virtual exclusion of literary values. 138
He was succeeded by Moses Stephen Slaughter, Ph.D., who came from
graduate study at Johns Hopkins and an instructorship at Bryn Mawr
College (where he met his charming and accomplished wife) . After
five years at Grinnell he was called to the chair of Latin at the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin. Slaughter was not an outstanding scholar in
the narrower sense, but he was a great teacher, making participation
in his classes an absorbingly interesting experience, spiced with mis-
chievous humor. Occasionally a bright student came back at the
professor. One such, with an innocent air, asked: "Professor, what
does MSS stand for?" Slaughter answered: "You ought to know
that; those are just my initials/* The boy grinned and said: <C O, now
I understand. The notes to this passage say 'MSS hopelessly corrupt/ "
The professor used to tell this story with great gusto.

Slaughter was succeeded at Grinnell by William Arthur Heidel
(Ph.D., Chicago), one of the most learned men in philology and
philosophy among classicists. After nine years at Grinnell he rounded
out a notable career on the faculty of Wesleyan University, Connecti-
cut, where he occupied the chair of Greek and published a series of
scholarly works.

The modern languages came to life during the Gates administration.
At first a feeble adjunct to the classics, they claimed a professorship
when John R. Wightman, Ph.D., came in 1889, After two years he
transferred to Oberlin, and was succeeded by Raymond Calkins
( A.B., Harvard) , who taught French and German for two years, but
was soon on the way to a distinguished career as pastor of Congrega-
tional churches in New England. He was succeeded in 1893 by John
Scholte Nollen (Ph.D., Leipzig) , who was later to become the fifth
president of the College.

The English department was still served for a time by a succession
of clergymen. Barnes carried on until 1891, followed for two years

PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE A. GATES 89

by the Rev. Newton M. Hall (A.M., Dartmouth). In 1893 the Rev.
Charles Noble (A.B., Williams), came from a pastorate at Charles
City, Iowa, and continued on the faculty for twenty-six years. He
was born in New York, December 3, 1847, the son of a minister.
After graduation from Williams he studied at Union Theological
Seminary and abroad, was ordained in 1873, and held pastorates at
Franklin, New York; Hyattsville, Maryland; Woodbridge, New Jer-
sey (at which time he participated in the council that ordained George
A. Gates) ; and Charles City, Iowa. 139 Neither a scholar nor an accom-
plished teacher, Noble had a literary knowledge that was broad rather
than deep; but he had a most lovable and sympathetic nature, and
his influence as a friendly adviser far transcended his importance as
a pedagogue.

In his second year at Grinnell he found an invaluable colleague in
Selden Lincoln Whitcomb (A.M., Columbia), 140 who was the first
professor of English literature in Grinnell to bring an ample scholarly
training to bear upon his teaching in this field. Born at Grinnell,
July 19, 1866, he was graduated from Iowa College in 1887. He
taught foreign languages in 1887-1889 at Stockton Academy, Kan-
sas, earned his master's degree at Columbia University in 1893, and
carried on graduate study at Cornell University, Harvard, Chicago,
and Colorado. During his eleven years 5 professorship at Grinnell he
developed a new technique in the study and criticism of literature
and stimulated serious work in comparative literature with the help
of colleagues in other language departments. His book, The Study
of a Novel (1905), set a new standard in literary analysis. Leaving
Grinnell in 1905, he taught English literature at the University of
Kansas, and was professor of comparative literature there from 1919
until his death in 1930.

Whitcomb, poet as well as scholar, published several booklets of
verse. Short of stature, quiet and retiring in manner, never in robust
health, he limited his activities to his study and his classroom, except
for his meditative pleasure in nature and his membership in several
learned societies devoted to economics, sociology, and politics, as well
as literature. His modest estate was willed by his widow to Grinnell
College for prizes in poetry, which bear his name.

The natural sciences found their full place in the curriculum dur-
ing the administration of President Gates. Following the five years'
service of Joseph Torrey, Jr., Walter Scott Hendrixson 141 (A.M.,

<20 Grinnell College

Harvard, 1889; Ph.D., 1903; Berlin and Gottingen, 1894-1895)
came in 1890 to spend thirty-five years as head of the department of
chemistry. He shared with Professor Harry Waldo Norris (biology)
the responsibility for making Grinnell a center of research as well as
of distinguished teaching in science. From their laboratories issued
an unbroken stream of publications in their specialties and a succes-
sion of well-trained young scientists for the colleges and the research
laboratories of the country.

Physics, hitherto unequally yoked with mathematics, became a
separate department in 1893, with the arrival of Frank F. Almy
(B.Sc., Nebraska) , 142 He remained for thirty-nine years head of this
department, from which also many younger physicists went on to
academic teaching.

In the biological sciences, the inclusive term "natural history" re-
mained through 1891. Following the retirement of Henry "W. Parker,
whose last year was filled out by Norris as instructor, Erwin Hinckly
Barbour (Ph.D., Yale) held this chair in 1889-1891, going then to a
successful career as professor of geology at the University of Nebraska
and as state geologist. He was followed by Norris, 143 who rounded out
a full half-century as a member of the Grinnell faculty in 1941.

Norris was born in Pittsfield, New Hampshire, September 11, 1862,
was graduated from Iowa College in 1886 (M.A., 1889, D.Sc., 1924),
and did graduate work at Cornell University, the University of
Nebraska, and Freiburg, Germany, With his coming, "natural his-
tory" became biology and zoology, with further limitation to zoology
in 1903. He was exchange lecturer at Harvard in 1913-1914, and at
various times taught summer courses at the universities of Iowa,
Illinois, and Minnesota. He engaged in internationally recognized re-
search on the comparative anatomy of the nervous system, his pub-
lished researches numbering some sixty titles. To the life of the Col-
lege he also made a singularly valuable contribution in his chapel and
vesper talks and in his work as chairman of the faculty, a post he held
for many years.

Norris succeeded in carrying into all his living and doing the un-
compromising and clear-eyed integrity that characterize the true
scholar. It was due largely to him and to Professor Hendrixson that
the laboratory sciences won their full place in the curriculum at
Grinnell, though only after many a skirmish with the proponents of
the older restricted course of study. The result was the acceptance of

PRESIDENCY OF GEORGE A. GATES 9 1

the new concept that a rounded college course included both the
humanistic disciplines and the sciences. Soon, as we shall see in the
next chapter, the social sciences also claimed a larger place in the
scheme of education.

When former President Magoun retired from teaching in 1890,
the way was open for a full-fledged and modernized department of
philosophy under James Simmons, Jr. (A.M., Beloit), who had come
as instructor in mathematics in 1889, after three years' graduate
study in Berlin. He soon changed the older title "mental and moral
sciences" to "philosophy and pedagogics," retaining the work in edu-
cation carried until 1892 by Professor Edson, and also elementary
work in psychology.

Simmons, quiet and unassuming, became one of the most beloved
and efficient members of the faculty, constantly active in counseling
and in committee work. His early death, after but a decade of teach-
ing at Grinnell, was felt as a personal bereavement by all who knew
him.

Faculty control of the educational interests of the College was
firmly established under President Gates, and with it the independent
sovereignty of each department of study within its particular sphere.
The pressure of new subjects upon the curriculum broke through the
bonds of the older courses of study. In 1895 Grinnell adopted the
Group System, then newly inaugurated at Johns Hopkins, in order
to make room for new material and yet prevent the indiscriminate
choice of unrelated subjects and the piling up of elementary courses
in many fields. Thus a high degree of elasticity was secured, without
the danger of futile scattering which was inherent in the method of
the uncontrolled election of subjects with which Harvard was then
experimenting when President Eliot had "turned Harvard over
like a flapjack," as Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote to John Lothrop
Motley.

2MSM2JM

The Social Sciences and Jesse Macy

WITH Gates's strong personal commitment to the cause of social prog-
ress, it was inevitable that he should do all in his power to encourage
the study of social science at Grinnell. The local atmosphere was al-
ready favorable to this development through the presence in the fac-
ulty of a graduate of the College, whose unfolding genius, growing
through a strangely changing program of teaching, was to make him
a great pioneer in the study of national and international politics.
Jesse Macy 14 * was the youngest son, the thirteenth of fourteen chil-

SOCIAL SCIENCES AND JESSE MACY 93

dren, in a Quaker family settled on a farm near Lynnville, Iowa.
Pioneering was in the Macy blood, as was sturdy independence of
thought. The founder of the American branch, an English Puritan,
emigrated from Wiltshire to Massachusetts about 1635, came under
condemnation of the law in the colony by harboring "obnoxious'*
Quakers, and escaped to the island of Nantucket, where the family
became converts to the faith of the English Friends. Jesse's progeni-
tors later joined a Quaker settlement in the forests of North Carolina,
His parents, to escape the blight of slavery, journeyed over mountains
and across rivers to the wilds of Indiana, later moving to a still newer
section of the Hoosier state. Jesse was born in Henry County, In-
diana, June 21, 1842. In the 1850*s, the pioneering urge drove his
parents to seek a larger opportunity for their many children in
Poweshiek County, Iowa, fifteen miles south of the location selected
by J. B. Grinnell and his associates for a town and a university.

Jesse was seventeen when Professor L. F. Parker, who was then also
county superintendent, "discovered' 5 him and persuaded his father
to send him to Grinnell to be educated. Since Jesse was destined to be
the most distinguished son of the College and its most influential
teacher, and since no other man's career was more completely bound
up with Grinnell, it seems appropriate to give ample space to the
events of his life.

"The week John Brown was hanged" (December 2, 1859) Jesse
Macy walked fifteen miles across the prairie and came to Grinnell to
complete his fragmentary preparation for college. A girl in the later
academy class of 1865 remembered the "tall gangling figure in a
butternut suit" coming into the upper room of the public school, and
remarked that the young recruit was well behind her own class in
preparation. After one term Jesse's beginning of formal education
was interrupted. These fanner boys had to work for the few dollars
it cost to go to school, and Jesse applied himself to farm labor and
rural school teaching. When he continued his own schooling, it was
at the Friends' Institute near Oskaloosa, from 1861 to 1863, after
which he returned to Grinnell for another term in the junior prepara-
tory class.

Meanwhile he had been chosen a member of the representative com-
mittee of the Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends. It was this official
responsibility rather than personal preference that led him to claim
the legal exemption from military service granted to Quakers, when

94 Grinnell College

he was drafted for the Union Army in 1864. The military officers
refused to honor this exemption and insisted on his bearing arms, but
he steadily declined. As he was denied hospital service for which he
applied, he remained with his military unit and participated, strictly
as a noncombatant, in Sherman's March to the Sea. He was at last
given a hospital assignment shortly before he was mustered out at the
close of the war. This extraordinary experience is described graphi-
cally and with good humor in his Autobiography. His personal con-
tact with the pretentious rigidity and arrogance of the limited military
mind was calculated to confirm him in his loyalty to Quaker prin-
ciples.

In February, 1866, Macy entered Iowa College as a freshman. He
was just twenty-eight when he was graduated from the classical
course, which included Greek, Latin, mathematics, mental and Chris-
tian science (no relation to Mrs. Eddy's later sect), "belles lettres"
(bits of English literature, rhetoric, aesthetics, and general history) ,
a smattering of physical science, and one term of political science.

While remaining a member of the Society of Friends, he had joined
the Congregational Church at Grinnell and chosen the ministry as his
life work. However, instead of going to Yale for a theological course,
he accepted a position as tutor in Iowa College, to which he had been
elected without his knowledge, but a position for which he had
qualified himself by teaching Academy classes during his own college
years. By the end of the year, the trustees elected him principal of
the Academy. Their urging, together with his fear that a serious
weakness of the throat would prove a permanent impediment to suc-
cess in the pulpit, led him to abandon his plan for a ministerial career
and accept the teaching profession that seemed "thrust upon him."

During the fifteen years of Principal Macy's administrative service,
he was feeling his way toward his lifework and his original method
as a teacher. More or less filling gaps in the curriculum, he taught
mathematics (rebelling against repetition of the same material),
ancient languages (with a defective verbal memory and uncertainty
as to the forms of speech) , physiology, history of civilization, history
and constitutional law (replacing desultory lectures by visiting jur-
ists), and political economy, for which his preparation consisted of
six weeks devoted to the study of an inferior text in economics. All
the time his own chief interest was in politics and government.

During the last two years of his principalship he was also acting

SOCIAL SCIENCES AND JESSE MACY 95

professor, and then professor, of history and political science in the
College. From 1885 to his retirement in 1912 he gave his time alto-
gether to college teaching; his chair was described presently as con-
stitutional history and political economy, and finally as political
science.

Macy's interest in problems of government and social reform
stemmed in part from his family's discussions of the slavery issue and
the reading of Horace Greeley's editorials in the New York Weekly
Tribune and of Mrs. Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin as it appeared serially
in the National Era during his boyhood; in part from his experience
in the Civil War, after which he sought but failed to find work among
the freedmen in Missouri. His method, which was a natural expres-
sion of his personal rectitude and devotion to truth, was stimulated
by the reading of Darwin's Origin of Species, which came to him as
a "veritable new gospel." The unprejudiced objectivity of Darwin's
approach, the untiring accuracy and patience of his twenty years'
observation and gathering of facts, the honesty of his consequent
generalizations, came as a revelation of a scientific method which Macy
was eager to apply to the study of human relations, in order that there
might be a science of politics, leading to a "new and righteous order."
"Great as was the revolution actually accomplished in the advance-
ment of the natural sciences, even greater and more beneficent would
be the expected revolution to be accomplished in social and political
science." 14S

Macy was realistic enough to recognize the difference in the ma-
terials of political as compared with natural science: "What men say
and think about the operations of oxygen and hydrogen makes no
difference to the phenomena; but what men say and think about
the relations of capitalists and their employees does make a difference."
So opinions, prejudices, traditional views, partisan loyalties, and
hatreds, which have no place in the study of physical and biological
phenomena, are among the very materials of investigation in the field
of politics. But Macy was also enough of an idealist to believe that a
political debate, conducted in the scientific spirit, might promote a
willingness to surrender individual and partisan advantage for the
sake of general welfare. However, the political scientist would al-
ways begin by inquiring, not how the human animal ought to behave
according to any preconceived system, but how he actually does
behave.

96 Grinnell College

Macy tells in his Autobiography how he stumbled on the proper
method of study in his chosen field. He was teaching a class in Greek
and Roman history, and though he had himself found much pleasure
in reading Rollins' Ancient History, he could not arouse the students'
interest in the remote subject of the Greek city-state. At last, in a fit
of desperation, he closed the book and dismissed the class with the
assignment: "You may take the town of Grinnell for your next
lesson!" So he and his pupils consulted local officials, interviewed
pioneer citizens, read town ordinances and state laws, and learned what
they could about the relation of the little municipality to township,
county, state, and federal government. When at last they resumed
the study of the ancient Greeks, both class and teacher were trans-
formed: "We had planted our feet upon the solid earth. Political
phenomena, in Athens or Grinnell, had become an object of tran-
scendent interest, and civil duties were to be taken note of in the
classroom as an important part of our daily work." 146

Here was the new method: never to learn by rote out of a book
what the student could see with his own eyes, but to go to the grass-
roots, gather the facts, and let theories grow out of the facts. This was
quite in the spirit of Macy's great contemporary, Justice Holmes, who
said in his Lowell Lectures (1881) : "The life of the law has not been
logic; it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time . . . even
the prejudices which judges share with their fellow-men, have had a
good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by
which men should be governed."

Macy was eager to impart his discovery to other teachers, espe-
cially to those in the public schools, but he found it most difficult to
wean the ordinary pedagogue away from his (or her) dependence
upon the authority of the textbook. School superintendents de-
manded a book containing the materials which the teachers could not
be expected to gather at firsthand. Making this concession from his
design, Macy published Civil Government in Iowa (1881), and ex-
panded it in A Government Textbook for Iowa Schools. Publishers
were asking for a general text on civil government, and the result
was Our Government, What It Does and How It Does It (1886).

This was the beginning of extensive writing, during a period of
forty years, on political, social, religious, and international subjects.
Meanwhile, textbooks in civil government multiplied throughout the
country, all following the lead of Macy's essential idea. In his later

SOCIAL SCIENCES AND JESSE MACY 97

writing Macy encountered charges of radicalism because he combatted
the rigidity of contemporary interpretations of the Constitution.
Here again he was at one with Justice Holmes, who said: "The Con-
stitution is an experiment, as all life is an experiment."

The chair of political science in Iowa College was the original crea-
tion of Professor Macy. In it he pioneered not only in the instruc-
tional material but also in the use of the discussion method rather
than formal lectures or textbook recitation. Though he had strong
convictions, he never imposed his own opinions on his students or
gave them ready-made formulas. He was so objective in his attitude
and consistently inductive in his method that his students often com-
plained they could not discover where the professor stood on con-
troversial issues.

Abstractions and facile generalizations never allured his inquisitive
and realistic mind. It was the human scene itself, with all its crudities,
complexities, contradictions, and oddities that fascinated him. For
statistics and mere book-learning he had little use, and for propa-
ganda none at all. It was refreshing to watch his keenly penetrating
mind, illumined by a dry and kindly humor, cut through the specious
sophistries of self-important pedantries of academic debate to the
warm human values underneath. Human conduct was his raw ma-
terial, and his clearness of vision in reading it was matched by the
honesty and simplicity of his interpretation. He was therefore con-
sistent in treating with great patience and consideration the imma-
ture opinions and arguments of his students, when they were genuine
and honestly expressed. But toward evasion and disingenuousness he
was without pity.

Professor Macy was an idealist with a realistic method. He was a
rare combination of the scientific mind and the sympathetic heart, one
of the few men whose minds and hearts are big enough to harbor a gen-
uine concern for the whole of humanity, without the least admixture
of sentimentality. His thinking about the facts of political behavior
rose inevitably into a philosophy, which was at one with his religion.
His steady loyalty to the church was based more upon his conviction
of the social significance of the church as an institution than upon
any dogmatic consideration or any direct personal inspiration he
derived from it. He was fundamentally impelled to an unswerving
devotion to those institutions which he felt were expressive of the
common life and instrumental in its best development.

98 Grinnell College

Among the happiest of Professor Macy's life experiences were the
cordial relations formed with other authorities in the field of interest
that he had made peculiarly his own. Such contacts were widened
through occasional leaves of absence for foreign travel or temporary
teaching elsewhere, or by giving courses at summer sessions of Ameri-
can universities. He carried on this work even after his retirement
from active teaching at Grinnell, and in 1913 gave the Harvard Lec-
tures at the French provincial universities in Poitiers, Tours, Bordeaux,
and Toulouse, substituting for Albert Bushnell Hart. During his
stay in England he formed close associations with such leaders of
advanced thought as Sidney Webb and George Bernard Shaw.

James Bryce became Macy's intimate friend and visited him at
Grinnell whenever his travels brought him within reach. Bryce con-
sulted Macy with regard to his American Commonwealth and later
books, and asked him to prepare the abridgement of his Commonwealth
for college use. In 1921 Lord Bryce wrote to Mrs. Macy: "There was
no one in your country whose friendship I valued more or for whom
I had a deeper respect/* And one of Professor Macy's old students
expressed the general feeling of many in saying: "He was the wisest
and kindest man I have ever known."

Professor Macy was already well established in his college chair
when his former teacher of classics, Professor L. F. Parker, declining
calls from other colleges, returned to Grinnell from his unhappy
experience at the State University. He relieved Macy of part of his
dual chair by creating, in 1888, a separate department of history,
which he conducted until his retirement. Professor Parker remained
a teacher of the old school, and retained undimmed his crusading
loyalty to causes that appealed to his patriotic and religious devotion.
He differed from Macy in his inflexible partisanship and in his grow-
ing conservatism, supported at times by special pleading. But Pro-
fessor Parker's vivid personality, his generous interest in his students,
and his never failing devotion to the welfare of the community en-
sured him the widest recognition as the Grand Old Man of college
and town.

Professor Parker retired in 1898 and was succeeded by Allen John-
son (Ph.D., Columbia), 147 who brought modern equipment to the
teaching of history. After seven years Professor Johnson accepted a
call to Bowdoin College and went from there to Yale, where he edited
the collection of Chronicles of America. In 1926 he retired from

SOCIAL SCIENCES AND JESSE MACY 99

teaching to become general editor of the Dictionary of American
Biography.

Reactions differed toward the establishment of a new department
of study under the challenging title of "Applied Christianity/* Gates
was characteristically enthusiastic, Parker instinctively hostile, Macy
favorable with quiet reservation to the injection into the Grin-
nell scene of a firebrand whose name was George Davis Herron. 148
Herron was born into a devoutly religious family in Montezuma,
Indiana, January 21, 1862, and even in his boyhood seems to have
developed a persistent conviction that he was destined to play a
messianic part in the regeneration of the world. His formal education
was fragmentary an unfinished course of study in the preparatory
department of Ripon College in Wisconsin but he was able to
assimilate the materials for his career as a public speaker by diligent
reading. Impatient of the lore of the schools, he managed admission
to the ministry without the formality of a course in theology, and he
did not escape the tendency to cocksureness that is often found among
the self-taught. He was twenty-one when he entered the ministry
and married the daughter of the mayor of Ripon. His horizon was
widened by two years* subsequent travel and study in Europe.

In 1891 Herron was pastor of a small Congregational church at
Lake City, Minnesota, when an address before the State Association
of Congregational Churches at Minneapolis gave him an opportunity
to display his oratorical power before a wider audience. His subject
was "The Message of Jesus to Men of Wealth." The impression made
by this address led to his call to Burlington, Iowa, as associate pastor
with Dr. William Salter of the Iowa Band. Here his fervid preaching
of a social gospel aroused the instinctive hostility of many conserva-
tive members of the church, but found ardent support among the
liberal-minded. Among these were Mrs. E. D. Rand, wealthy widow
of a pioneer lumberman, and her daughter Carrie. Their sympathy
with the young preacher's desire to find a free platform and a wider
resonance for his radical message prompted them to provide the en-
dowment for a chair of Applied Christianity at Iowa College, in
which, with the cordial support of President Gates, Herron was
installed as professor in 1893, just after Tabor College made him a
doctor of divinity. Mrs. Rand and her daughter also now made Grin-
nell their home, and Carrie became instructor in social and physical
culture, as well as principal for women in the College.

100 Grinnell College

The impact of the personality and the teaching of Professor Herron
upon the College and the larger community was electric; it soon be-
came nationwide. His appearance was arresting rather than impres-
sive: a slender frame of somewhat over medium stature, a pale com-
plexion contrasting with the deep black of hair and beard, a carrying
voice which could become rasping in invective, a combative self-
assurance, and a certain hypnotic power reminding one of Svengali in
Du Maurier's Trilby. The man had a passionate conviction of his
prophetic mission, which made him as ready as Amos to ride rough-
shod over the prejudices and cherished traditions of creative minds,
and with harsh denunciation to attack entrenched privilege in eco-
nomic and social life.

This flaming evangel of a Christ-motivated society made a power-
ful impression on serious and generous minds in the college com-
munity, as well as on ever wider circles outside. Here was a prophet
of a new Christian order who might have hastened the progressive
movement toward social justice in the nation if his unquestionable
power had not been vitiated by weaknesses that became more evident
during his eventful six years at Grinnell.

The contrast between Macy and Herron, who were working in the
same general field, was as sharp as that between Magoun and Gates,
though in a different way. Both, indeed, had a common passion for
social righteousness and shared a common devotion to the ideals of
Christian living. Both, likewise, were self-taught. But despite the
Quaker's inbred faith in the "inner light," Macy was conscientiously
scientific in his survey of the political and economic scene, basing all
his study upon a careful investigation of factual data. Herron was
audaciously intuitive, believing himself the recipient of direct per-
sonal revelation of the truth. There was always a twinkle in Macy's
eyes; Herron was too intense ever to be humorous. Macy's method
was Socratic he made his students talk and acted as a judicial arbiter
of their discussions; Herron was authoritative and taught by omnis-
cient exhortation. Macy's style was simple, lucid, didactic; Herron's
utterance was apocalyptic, with free use of superlatives and flam-
boyant phrases. Macy's high-pitched voice and somewhat hesitant
manner disqualified him for effective public speaking; Herron was a
forensic wizard, Macy was a faithful and humble communicant of
his church; Herron was its caustic critic. Macy would improve the
social structure by intelligence and good will; Herron would lay the

ADMINISTRATION BUILDIISTG TOWER

SOCIAL SCIENCES AND JESSE MACY 101

torch to it, that after its destruction there might arise something
nearer to the heart's desire. In short, Macy was for reform, Herron
for revolution.

In essence, it was Herron's manner rather than his substance that
was most offensive to the defenders of the status quo. His theory, in
so far as he had a definite doctrine, was not more subversive than that
of progressive religious and social thinkers in general. His earlier
publications were approved by religious journals of various denomina-
tions and highly praised by men whose judgment carried weight.
Lyman Abbott said of Herron's first book: "It is electric, and needs
not the impassioned utterance of the speaker to give it emphasis. It
flashes with a fire that is internal, and contains even more than it
imparts. It is timely, courageous, Christian." Dr. John H. Barrows
commented: "Nothing so eloquent and timely has appeared for many
a month," and Josiah Strong wrote: "In this volume there speaks a
man with the profound conviction and intense earnestness of one of
the old Hebrew prophets."

Unfortunately, there were rifts in this champion's armor. He was
the victim of his own extraordinary qualities, and he lacked the
strength of character to overcome his peculiar temptations. His self-
confidence easily took the form of overweening pride, his intense con-
viction made him impatient and censorious, his eloquence ran into
exaggeration and wild invective, his hatred of the tyranny of wealth
and privilege and his sympathy for the victims of social injustice were
marred by his personal love of luxury and the alluring satisfactions
that wealth can buy. Of money that came into his hands he was a
thoughtless spendthrift. His domestic life was unhappy, and he took
refuge from discord (doubtless much of his own making) in the
adulation and ease that he found in the home of his patroness, whose
daughter was his best comforter. Even in Burlington, before his com-
ing to Grinnell, "a domestic tragedy had developed which made it
impossible for him to continue as pastor/'

There came into his manner an acerbity and a martyr-complex
neither of which could gain him sympathy. His scathing condem-
nation of existing institutions aroused bitter antagonism and even
alienated many who had once been his ardent partisans. President
Gates continued to support him with exemplary loyalty, but many
of the trustees and some members of the faculty felt that his presence
was detrimental to the best interests of the College. This opposition

102 Grinnell College

led to his resignation in October, 1899. When he joined the Socialist
party, his enemies felt that their strictures had been justified.

Mrs. Herron secured a quiet divorce in a distant Iowa town. When
it became known that she and her four children had been compensated
with a large sum from the Rand fortune, and when Herron and Carrie
Rand were married in an informal service, "each choosing the other
as a companion," the Greek tragedy of the flaming prophet of
righteousness seemed to have reached its catastrophe, at least so far as
Grinnell was concerned.

In June, 1901, a Council of Iowa Congregational Churches, after
full investigation, found Herron "guilty of immoral and un-Christian
conduct" and expelled him from the Congregational ministry. His
later opulent life abroad, in Italy and Switzerland, his third marriage
after Carrie's death, and his activity as a sort of super-spy for Presi-
dent Wilson during and after the first World War had only faint
reverberations among his old associates in the Midwest.

The Herron episode, backed by Mrs. Rand's financial support, made
Grinnell the center of nationwide interest in the bold experiment of
applying the teachings of Jesus to the solution of social and economic
problems. Eminent lecturers were brought to Grinnell for addresses
on social questions; summer schools and "retreats" organized by the
department of Applied Christianity brought ministers and social
workers to Grinnell from every part of the country for discussion
and conference. One feature of such meetings has remained a per-
manent characteristic of great educational value: Grinnell College has
always maintained a free platform for the serious discussion of con-
troversial issues.

The administration of President Gates had made Grinnell a pioneer
in the preaching of the Social Gospel. Reform was in the air, and
soon the muckraker was abroad, proclaiming the economic and social
sins of the nation. The Protestant churches began to draw together
in a concerted movement toward social justice. In 1908 the Federal
Council of the Churches of Christ in America was organized, and the
Council soon went on record as advocating protection of the worker
from occupational diseases, abolition of child labor, suppression of
the sweatshop, reduction of the hours of the work day, workers* com-
pensation, old age insurance, and "the most equitable division of the
products of industry that can be devised." The church was well on
the way toward a new interpretation of the Abundant Life.

Presidency of Dan Freeman Bradley

1902-1905

THE contention aroused by the activities of Dr. Herron cast a shadow
over the last years of President Gates*s administration. Not only some
of his associates on the faculty and among the trustees but many of his
ministerial brethren were increasingly critical of the radicalism that
seemed to be injected into the academic blood stream. This disapproval
reacted upon the president, who had remained a sturdy champion of
freedom of teaching. He could not help feeling also that Herron, whom
he had supported with fraternal loyalty, had let him down. Burdened

103

104 Grinnell College

by such griefs, and by the state of his wife's health, which required a
change of climate, he resigned the presidency in 1900. A brief but
strenuously public-spirited pastorate at Cheyenne, Wyoming, was
followed by two further college presidencies, at Pomona College,
California, 1901-1909, and at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee.
His death, November 20, 1912, was the indirect result of a serious
injury in a railway accident.

During the interregnum following the departure of President Gates,
John H. T. Main, professor of Greek, served as acting president. He
seemed so well fitted for academic leadership that his colleagues on
the faculty urged his election to the vacant presidency. However,
the trustees were still faithful to the tradition that the head of a
Christian college be a minister. They were also mindful of the sus-
picion of the College that had arisen among ministers, and hence de-
sired that the new president be able to reknit strong bonds of sym-
pathy between the churches and the College. In September, 1900,
they extended a call to Professor Frank Knight Sanders of the Yale
Divinity School, who visited Grinnell but declined the offer, probably
because of the financial burden it involved. Then their choice fell
upon another prominent churchman who seemed to possess all the
desired qualifications: the Rev. Dan Freeman Bradley. He was
elected president in June, 1902.

Dan Freeman Bradley I4Q was born into a family of missionaries in
Bangkok, Siam (now Thailand) , March 17, 1857. He was a graduate
of Oberlin College and Oberlin Theological Seminary, and had some
academic experience as acting president of Yankton College in South
Dakota, 1889-1892, and as a trustee of Oberlin. He had been for ten
years pastor of the First Congregational Church in Grand Rapids,
Michigan. Dr. Bradley was an excellent preacher, though without the
exuberance of Gates or the fiery eloquence of Herron; he was possessed
of a friendly and loyal spirit. The fine trees on the Grinnell campus,
many of them planted by his hands, bear witness to his love of
natural beauty.

He introduced an element of conservatism into the academic scene
which was welcomed by friends of the College who had been disturbed
by what seemed to them perilously radical tendencies. He was received
with sympathy by the churches of the state, and did much to re-
establish the College in their confidence. In short, Dr. Bradley did
for Grinnell just what the trustees wished to have done. On the other

PRESIDENCY OF DAN FREEMAN BRADLEY 105

hand, the students were inclined to be critical of the informality with
which he conducted public exercises (the Chapel had never before
been used for pep-sessions) , and the faculty failed to find in him the
educational leadership which seemed to them essential in the conduct
of academic affairs. He was himself disappointed in the lack of en-
thusiasm he encountered among men from whom he had confidently
expected financial support.

Dr. Bradley presently realized that he was better fitted for the
pastorate than for a college presidency, and after three years he re-
linquished the somewhat uncongenial task at Grinnell and accepted
a call to the important pulpit of the Pilgrim Congregational Church
in Cleveland, which he served with distinction for thirty-two years.
His well-earned place of leadership in the Congregational ministry
was recognized in his election as associate moderator of the National
Council in 1925; and his Alma Mater honored him in 1934 with a
medal of distinction as the most useful alumnus of Oberlin. Dr.
Bradley retained a generous interest in the welfare of Grinnell Col-
lege until his death in 1939.

Faculty changes were relatively numerous during the three years
of Dr. Bradley's administration. Professor Buck's long reign as sole
professor of mathematics was nearing its end, and for the first time
expert teaching came to this department in the persons of William
James Rusk (A.M., Toronto and Bishop's College), who began his
forty years' service in 1903, and Raymond Benedict McClenon (A.B.,
Yankton; Ph.D., Yale), who came as instructor in 1905, to become
professor in 1918.

Two new departments were created. Botany was severed from the
biological complex and began its separate existence in 1903, under
Bruce Fink (Ph.D., Minnesota) , who transferred to Miami University
after three years. A department of speech was organized by John P.
Ryan (A.B., Cornell; A.M., Chicago), who came as instructor in
1903 and became professor in 1906.

The resignation of Professor Nollen, who transferred to Indiana
University in 1903 after a year's leave of absence abroad, was fol-
lowed by the appointment of Percy B. Burnet, A.M. He was suc-
ceeded after two years by Roy Henderson Perring (A.M., Indiana;
later Ph.D., Pennsylvania) , who remained for thirty-eight years, first
as professor of modern languages, later confining his teaching to
German.

106 Grinnell College

Allen Johnson's departure for Bowdoin brought Paul Frederick
Peck (A.B., Grinnell; Ph.D., Chicago) back to Grinnell as professor
of history in 1905. Dr. Heidel was succeeded by Charles Newton
Smiley (A.B., Drury; Ph.D., Wisconsin) as professor of Latin in
1905. In the department of English, Professor Whitcornb was fol-
lowed in 1905 by Herbert S. Mallory (Ph.D., Yale), who remained
in Grinnell only two years.

After the death of Professor Simmons late in 1900, John Elof
Boodin (Ph.D., Harvard) became professor of philosophy, succeeded
in 1904 by John Dashiell Stoops (A.B., Dickinson; Ph.D., Boston),
who thus began thirty-eight years of service in this department.

The aftermath of the Herron episode was more complicated. The
departure of Dr. Herron in 1899 gave Associate Professor Garret
Polhemus Wyckoff (A.B., Grinnell) 150 charge of the department for
the second semester. He remained as acting professor until 1903, then
filled out Professor Macy's absence on leave as acting professor of
political science, and in 1905 became professor of economics.

Meanwhile, as a result of meeting Dean Main on a transatlantic
vessel, Edward Alfred Steiner (Ph.D., Heidelberg) 151 had become
professor of Applied Christianity in 1903 and continued to adorn this
chair for thirty-eight years. Dr. Steiner was born in Slovakia, then
under Hungarian domination, November 1, 18 6. He was educated
in the public schools of Vienna and the gymnasium at Pilsen, Bohemia,
attended the University of Heidelberg, and later the universities of
Gottingen and Berlin. A pilgrimage during his student days to the
home of Tolstoi left a deep impression upon him. An indiscreet in-
terest in revolutionary literature made him an object of suspicion to
the Hungarian authorities; a timely warning made him a fugitive
and an emigrant to America. His book From Alien to Citizen is a
moving story of his escape from the clutches of a despotic government
to our shores and of the struggles of a lone immigrant with inhospita-
ble elements in this land of the free.

From an extraordinary variety of discouraging adventures and hard
labor he came at last to Oberlin, where he found spiritual peace and
a vocation, entered the Seminary, and received his B.D. in 1891. He
was ordained a Congregational minister that same year and held
pastorates at St. Cloud and St. Paul, Minnesota, Springfield and
Sandusky, Ohio. In 1903 he was the special representative of the
Outlook in Russia, where he renewed his acquaintance with Tolstoi,

PRESIDENCY OF DAN FREEMAN BRADLEY 107

whose biographer he became. In September, 1903, he came to Grin-
nell, from where he also carried on a lecturing activity that covered
the entire country; he wrote sixteen books and many magazine arti-
cles. For some years he made frequent trips abroad with groups of
students, investigating immigration conditions and problems.

Probably no one connected with the College from the beginning
has carried the name of Grinnell to so wide an audience throughout
the nation as has Dr. Steiner. Considering that English was not his
mother tongue, his felicity of style and his effective use of humor
and pathos may be called phenomenal; his power to express spiritual
values in forms that are intellectually and emotionally telling is un-
excelled. He received two honorary degrees from Grinnell, D.D. In
1915, L.H.D. in 1943.

Dr. Bradley's brief administration marked the end of the ministerial
tradition at Grinnell. Henceforth the presidency was to be considered
as primarily an educational function, demanding the service of men
with a definite training and experience in the academic field. Such a
man was then immediately available, and this time the trustees and
faculty were agreed that the College could be best served by the pro-
motion of Dean Main, who had already proved his ability as a teacher
and an administrator. This time there was no need of a hiatus be-
tween administrations.

*XII*

Administration of President Main

1906-1931

JOHN Hanson Thomas Main 152 was born at Toledo, Ohio, April 2,
1859. His father was a farmer and contractor, of remote English
descent, but the branch that settled in Maryland early in the seven-
teenth century came from Germany. His mother died when he was
a few weeks old, and he was brought up by an aunt near Fremont,
Ohio. Intending to become a physician, he read some medicine while
attending Moore's Hill College in southern Indiana (A.B., 1880;
A.M., 1883). After graduation he taught in country schools, then
108

ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT MAIN 109

returned to Moore's Hill to teach Latin and Greek, and to become
vice-president of the college. Here, in 1881, he married Emma Myers
of Jeffersonville, Indiana. He did his graduate work and earned his
Ph.D. in Greek under the famous Gildersleeve at Johns Hopkins,
1889-1892, meanwhile teaching Greek and Latin at the Woman's
College of Baltimore (now Goucher) and holding a fellowship at
Hopkins.

Dr. Main began his thirty-nine years* service at Grinnell in 1892
as professor of Greek. At this time he seemed the typical cloistral
scholar and teacher, whose influence would be limited to the college
close. He was very tall (six feet four), slender, quiet, retiring in
manner, and ineffective in public address, but a born teacher. He
immediately drew to the study of Greek some of the ablest of the
academic youth and aroused their enthusiastic loyalty. His capacity
for academic leadership soon became evident to his colleagues, who
elected him secretary of the faculty and member of the curriculum
committee which so dominated the academic procedure (untouched
by President Gates) that other members of the staff jocularly, or
sometimes petulantly, referred to it as the Impermm in Imperio.

During the interval following the departure of President Gates,
Main was made acting president and with the coming of Dr. Bradley
became dean of the faculty. In 1906 he entered upon his twenty-five
years' service as president, the longest and in some respects the most
fruitful administrative term in the history of the College, ending with
his death April 1, 1931.

The friends and associates of John H. T. Main were able to follow,
in his career, the unanticipated development of a public leader. Be-
ginning as a highly successful teacher, but demure and unimpressive
in his wider relations, by dint of an indomitable will and untiring
devotion to the interests of Grinnell and of higher education, he suc-
ceeded in becoming one of the great college builders of his generation
and a leader in academic affairs in state and nation. His growing im-
portance as an educator was recognized by five honorary doctorates,
including one from Harvard, and by his election in 1924 to the gov-
erning board of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching. During the first World War he served as member of the
American Relief Commission to the Near East,

As an executive officer, President Main tended to be somewhat
autocratic. Confident of his own ability and his own judgment, he

Grinnell College

found It difficult to devolve responsibility, and he was impatient of
opposition. The Board of Trustees, of which he was the president as
well as the appointee, did little more during his administration than
approve his recommendations, consequently losing some of its active
members who had independent opinions and expressed them with
vigor. He made some costly mistakes in acting, without full support
of the trustees, upon his own imperfect business judgment, and toward
the end this cost him the backing of some strong friends of the Col-
lege. Nevertheless, largely by his own personal efforts, he raised the
College to a new height of importance and influence.

The quarter-century of President Main's administration saw the
building of the Grinnell of today. Curriculum, character of the fac-
ulty, endowment, effective plant, campus organization these are
in large part the work of his brain and his unflagging energy. Though
it was many years since he had left the classroom for wider fields of
activity, still all his thinking to the last day remained educational in
the truest sense.

Not only in the rebuilding and the modernizing of the curriculum,
and the choice of instructors, but in the planning of residences for
men and women, in the development of student government, in the
Gates Memorial Lectures, and in the Harvard Exchange relationship,
he thought always in terms of a liberal education. The "Women's
Quadrangle and the Men's Dormitories are perhaps the most char-
acteristic expression of this dominant interest in his life; because he
embodied unique educational values in the structures and the furnish-
ings of these student homes, they became a model for other institu-
tions far and wide.

Above all, President Main had a zeal for the building of character,
and he could contribute greatly to this end because he was himself
endowed with a rarely rich and powerful character, some of whose
outstanding qualities no one who knew him well could fail to observe
and admire. Like the good Greek that he was, he remained a follower
of Plato and an uncompromising idealist. He could not deliver an
address without reference to eternal and absolute verities, and his
clear eyes were unwaveringly fixed upon the Hellenic triad of the
Good, the True, and the Beautiful. He was a man of faith, to whom
Jesus was not a vague image in the dim distance, but a living presence
calling men to follow Him, the very Master of Life.

He had abounding courage and never turned his back upon a

ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT MAIN 111

baffling problem or a threatening foe. He was sincerely a man of
peace; yet he had the qualities of the good soldier. He had a power
and persistence of will that carried him through every crisis of his
severely tested administration and that bade him in the end drive
himself with the last ounce of his waning strength, that his long task
might be fully accomplished.

His was a sensitive spirit, responsive to every fine and lovely thought
or thing, sympathetic and affectionate beyond the imagination of
those who could not penetrate beneath the outer shell of reserve that
always encased him to the core of tenderness in his heart. The last
word in an estimate of his character must be devotion. He believed
in Grinnell with a loyalty that claimed his whole being.

The outward aspect of the College was transformed during Presi-
dent Main's administration. For many years there had been little
building on the campus. Under Gates had come the Mears Cottage
for women and the two gymnasiums; under Bradley, the Carnegie
Library, secured with the influence of Dr. Albert Shaw, alumnus and
trustee. Now Herrick Chapel and the Christian Association building
(1906) provided an adequate center for the religious life of the Col-
lege. Students who had been housed in private dwellings through the
town were gathered into the Women's Quadrangle (1915) and the
group of Men's Dormitories ( 1917) , built according to the president's
plan. These residence groups furnished a beautiful and dignified set-
ting for the integration of student life for both men and women on
the campus, making it possible to organize the social life of students
more effectively and to experiment with appropriate methods of stu-
dent self-government. A dean of men and a dean of women were
added to the staff in order to give better guidance to the social as well
as the academic life of the College, and housemothers or hostesses for
the various cottages and men's dormitories made the life of these
residence centers more homelike. It must be admitted that the men
at first looked askance at the intrusion of this female element into
their masculine life, but the ladies who assumed this motherly func-
tion soon made themselves popular and indispensable.

The religious life of the students was not neglected. President Gates
had experimented with a brief vesper service on Wednesday after-
noons, but this experiment was of short duration. It was while Dr.
Main was acting president in 1901 that he proposed a regular Sunday
afternoon period of worship in the Chapel; he favored a service rather

H2 Grinnell College

formal in type, musically enriched, with the use of liturgical elements.
This was arranged by a committee of the faculty, and for forty years
this vesper service continued as a "heritage of beauty/' The archi-
tecture of Herrick Chapel (built in 1906) lent itself admirably to
this purpose, as did the Terrill Memorial Organ after 1908; the men's
and women's glee clubs furnished the personnel of an exceptionally
effective vesper choir. 153

To accommodate the rapidly growing enrollment, a new Recita-
tion Hall was erected in 1916; and in the following year a new Presi-
dent's House was built, which was admired and envied by visiting
college executives. An athletic field and grandstand and a modern
heating plant had been provided in 1910; in 1927 a swimming pool
rounded out the equipment for physical education.

When Dean Main became president, it was assumed that his duties
would be academic rather than financial. However, it soon became
evident that no one else was equal to the task of attracting the neces-
sary funds; and perforce the scholar-teacher-administrator became
also the financial agent of the College. This function he fulfilled with
a success beyond the dreams of his predecessors.

Fortunately, Dr. Wallace Buttrick, executive secretary and later
chairman of the General Education Board, had great faith in Grinnell
College and was personally friendly to its president. Dr. Main was
able to launch three campaigns for endowment, based on conditional
grants from the Rockefeller Foundation. Thus one endowment cam-
paign for $500,000 was completed in 1908, another for the same
amount in 1914. Four years later a more ambitious effort was con-
templated: the raising of one million dollars in pledges, to secure an
additional gift of half a million from the General Education Board.
World War I and its aftermath greatly delayed progress on this cam-
paign. The attempt to set up outside organizations to carry the load
had no success, and the work, after such costly experiments, came
back to the Grinnell office. Extensions of time were granted by the
General Education Board, and finally by the last day of the last year
of grace, December 31, 1930, the great task was completed. To it
President Main gave the final efforts of his failing strength, as he was
assailed by a fatal anemia for which medical science had no cure.

During the first quarter-century since the founding of the College,
the endowment had grown to $90,000, including subscription pledges
and unpaid notes. Twenty-five years later the productive funds

ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT MAIN 113

amounted to almost $400,000. At the close of President Main's quar-
ter-century, the productive endowment amounted to $2,165,000.
There had been an equally notable increase in the value of the college
plant. By 1945 the endowment had increased to $3,760,000, and the
value of the plant to $2,600,000. 154

Another significant event of Dr. Main's administration was the
change in the name of the College. In 1909, with the renewal of the
original charter, the trustees decided to abandon the confusing name
"Iowa College" (there being two state institutions of later date, the
State University of Iowa and Iowa State College), except as the legal
title of the corporation under the old charter, and to adopt the name
"Grinnell College," which was already in general use.

Grinnell College was granted a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa in 1907,
and was early admitted to the approved list of the Association of
American Universities, the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, and
the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Grad-
uates of the College were given large recognition by the Rhodes
Scholarship Trust and for the special Iowa fellowships at Columbia on
the Roberts Foundation, and the Perkins scholarship at Harvard.

President Main's activities served always to widen the scope of
Grinnell College. The Harvard Exchange relationship, established in
1912, brought a succession of distinguished men to Grinnell as tem-
porary members of the faculty. Albert Bushnell Hart initiated this
plan at Grinnell, and he was followed by George Herbert Palmer,
Clifford Herschel Moore, Lawrence Joseph Henderson, Thomas Nixon
Carver, James Hardy Ropes, Edward Caldwell Moore, George Howard
Parker, William Ernest Hocking, William M. Davis, George D. Birk-
hoff , George Graf ton Wilson, and other eminent Harvard teachers.

The Gates Memorial Lectures also brought leading interpreters of
the Social Gospel to the campus for brief courses of lectures. Among
these were Hugh Black, Walter Rauschenbusch, Edward A. Ross,
Franklin H. Giddings, Shailer Mathews, Willard L. Sperry, Harry
Emerson Fosdick, Francis J. McConnell, Rufus M. Jones, Charles W,
Gilkey, Harry F. Ward, Reinhold Niebuhr, George A. Buttrick, and
Half ord E. Luccock.

In 1913 the Grinnell-in-China educational movement was inau-
gurated, and since that time Grinnell graduates have been active in
the conduct of schools for Chinese boys and girls at Techow in the
province of Shantung. 155 In this same year the annual Fellowship Con-

114 Grinnell College

ference of Congregational Churches in Iowa was inaugurated, in
connection with which eminent leaders in the fields of religion, philos-
ophy, and sociology have been brought to Grinnell for memorial
lectures on a foundation created in honor of former President George
A. Gates, and in memory of his dedication to the cause of the Social
Gospel.

Another outpost of Grinnell, in the Near East, is Anatolia College.
This college was organized in 1886, growing out of a school long
operated under the A. B. C. F. M. at Marsivan in Turkey, In 1890
the Rev. George E. White, Grinnell "82, became a member of its
faculty, in 1913 its president. During the first World War the
college was closed by the Turks. After interim work with the Near
East Relief, Dr. White in 1923 began the creation of a new Anatolia
College at Salonika, the ancient Thessalonica, "beginning not only
without a building, but without a bench, a book, a bed or a bell."
Since that time the staff has been made up largely of Grinnell grad-
uates ) r . White's son George D. and his wife, both '15, Dean and
Mrs. Carl Cornpton, both '13, and a succession of others. Dr. White
tells the story in "Adventuring with Anatolia College." 156 The col-
lege at Salonika was taken over as a hospital during the second World
War, first by the Greeks and then by the Germans, but was reopened
in 1945.

During the quarter-century of President Main's administration the
academic enrollment (exclusive of music) had grown rather steadily
from 388 in 1905-1906 to a maximum of 785 in 1925-1926. A dis-
turbing element had entered into the picture, however, when the
first World War brought the Student Army Training Corps to the
Grinnell campus in the fall of 1917. The young officers who were in
command of the training corps were too inexperienced to succeed in
the care and discipline of the boys in their charge, and were too con-
scious of their brief authority to cooperate smoothly with the mem-
bers of the faculty who remained to carry on their teaching func-
tions. As a result of this condition, there was a needless loss of life
among recruits from an epidemic of influenza. Meanwhile several
members of the faculty were in auxiliary war service away from
Grinnell, and President Main himself worked, from December, 1918,
to June, 1919, as a member of a commission appointed by the Near
East Committee of New York to investigate famine conditions in
Armenia and Syria. Much remained to be done to restore normal

ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT MAIN 115

conditions on the campus after the disbanding of the S. A. T, C.
which brought a sudden drop in enrollment. The flush twenties more
than compensated, however, but the early depression years brought
the enrollment down to 661 in 1930-193 1, and further to a low point
of 551 in 1933, when the enrollment in music, which had touched
nearly 300 in 1920, dropped almost out of sight, with 19. But this
was a problem for the next administration.

The doubling of the enrollment up to 1925 had brought with it a
large increase in the size of the teaching staff, and also the establish-
ment of several additional departments of study. In 1905 there were
sixteen departments; by 1931 ten had been added, partly by the
division of modern languages into German and Romance languages,
the separation of economics and sociology, and of education and
psychology; partly by the creation of new departments, such as
business administration, history of thought, art, drama, journalism,
and physical education. The "School of Music," originally semi-
independent, was now incorporated into the curriculum as a regular
department of the College. There were also temporary titles, such as
engineering, history of philosophy and religion, biblical education
and religious education, and religious thought.

It is evident that in these years of expansion the College was reach-
ing out for an ever wider interpretation of the concept of liberal
education (in which President Main used to say that Grinnell "spe-
cialized") , with the result that some rather technical material was
more or less fully absorbed, and there was inevitable duplication of
the subject matter between the departments. Later years were to see
a recession from this tendency.

With the great increase and constant fluctuation of personnel dur-
ing this administration, it is manifestly impossible to follow the
changing membership of the faculty in full detail. Of the sixteen
members of professorial rank who came before 1906, eight remained
beyond 1931. They were Norris in biology, Almy in physics, Rusk
and McClenon in mathematics, Perring in German, Ryan in public
speaking, Stoops in philosophy, Steiner in Applied Christianity.

Changes in personnel during President Main's incumbency were
kaleidoscopic, and the pattern remaining at the close of his admin-
istration was in many ways different from that at the beginning. The
fundamental purpose of the College had not changed; the ideal of a
liberal education was constantly held in view, but the injection of

Grinnell College

rich new material into the curriculum led to much experimentation
in the arrangement of the course of study.

The group system, which had liberalized the curriculum in the
nineties, in turn broke down under the pressure of multiplied courses.
A major-and-minor system was adopted, with specific requirements
stressing foreign languages (preferably ancient) for the B.A. degree,
and laboratory science and mathematics for the B.S., with minimum
requirements for either degree in English, mathematics, laboratory
science, social science, foreign language, and philosophy or psychology.

Later the B.S, degree was discontinued, "orientation" and physical
education appeared among the general requirements, and an ancient
language or an additional laboratory science were admitted as pos-
sible substitutes for the required mathematics. Still later a system of
concentration and distribution was adopted, with a grouping of sub-
ject matter and comprehensive examinations at the end of the course.

Naturally, the discussion as to the meaning and the content of a
"liberal education" continued, and committees labored interminably
to devise curricular arrangements that would combine strength with
flexibility. The faculty continued to prove its liberality by its readi-
ness to try educational experiments with a view to educational
progress.

The title of dean of the faculty was unknown in Grinnell until Dr.
Main was so designated with the coming of President Bradley. Presi-
dent Main at first continued to carry the duties of this office as a part
of his administrative work, but when his frequent absences on endow-
ment business suggested the revival of the deanship, Dr. John S.
Nollen was recalled from his Red Cross service abroad in 1920 to fill
this post, in which he continued until his election to the presidency
in 1931.

Meanwhile the functions of a dean of men and a dean of women
had been carried on as auxiliary service by various members of the
faculty. Thus Fanny Cook Gates (Ph.D., Pennsylvania) was pro-
fessor of physics and hygiene and dean of women, 1913-1916. The
increase in the enrollment and the creation of the dormitory system
made it advisable to give greater emphasis to the personal guidance
of students. This service was first developed into a major function by
Luella Jane Read (Ph.D., Michigan), who became dean of women
in 1919, after serving as instructor in German, and who also taught
the history of art until her death in 1932. Her service to the College

ffi

ADMINISTRATION OF PRESIDENT MAIN

was recognized in the naming of Read Cottage in the "Women's
Quadrangle.

The first full-time dean of men was Paul Norton MacEachron, * 1 1 ,
who went from Oberlin Seminary to Techow, China, in 1916 as
educational director of "Grinnell-in-China," and returned to Grinnell
as dean in 1922. He was succeeded in 1925 by James Franklin Find-
lay, '22 (PhJD., New York University) 5 who transferred to the dean-
ship of men at the University of Oklahoma, and then became presi-
dent of Drury College. In 1929 Shelton L. Beatty (A.M., Cornell)
came as dean of men and assistant professor of English, until he
entered the naval service in 1943, when the second World War had
reduced the registration of men to a handful.

In general, it may be said that during President Main's administra-
tion Grinnell College grew to full stature as one of the leaders in
mid western higher education. The last word about the president him-
self was spoken by Professor Harry W. Norris at the memorial service
held in Herrick Chapel: "President Main personifies to me the driving
force of ideals. On such men rest the staggering burdens of the
world's unsolved problems. Such men are never daunted by disaster,
never frightened by fear. With eye fixed upon the goal they never
swerve from the course of their dreams. They may perish in the
attempted fulfilment of their plans, but at least they hand the torch
to light the way through the dead wood of tradition." 15T

*xi:

Through the Great Depression

1931-1940

BY THE end of 1930, after eleven years of strenuous effort, President
Main had succeeded in securing pledges for one million dollars in his
third endowment campaign. When, after his death, the officers of
the General Education Board came in April, 1931, to make settle-
ments on the Board's conditional pledge of half a million, only two-
thirds of this amount was actually due, as one-third of the million
in pledges still remained unpaid. This one-third was never realized,
except in very small part. The Great Depression was on, and friends
118

THROUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION H9

of the College who had pledged generously out of previous prosperity
were now utterly unable to keep their pledges, and most of these
were subsequently written off by the trustees as uncollectable.

The depression had a cumulative effect upon Grinnell, as upon
colleges in general. The academic enrollment, which had already
declined from 785 in 1926 to 661 in 1930, dropped to a new low of
551 by 1933. Meanwhile, heavy deficits began immediately after the
settlement with the General Education Board, at the rate of about
eighty thousand dollars for the first fiscal year. Conditions were most
unfavorable to the raising of money for current expenses.

It was under these conditions that John Scholte Nollen (A.B.,
Iowa; Ph.D., Leipzig) was promoted from the deanship to the acting
presidency in April, and to the presidency in June, 1931. He was
born January 15, 1869, at Pella, Iowa, the town founded by his ma-
ternal grandfather, the Rev. Henry P. Scholte, a Dutch noncon-
formist minister who had brought a colony of Hollanders to Iowa in
1847.

John received his early education from his father, who had taught
mathematics at a gymnasium in Holland before coming to Pella, to
become in time cashier of the local bank. This instruction at home
was supplemented by courses at Central College in Pella. After grad-
uating in 1885, he taught there for two years, in such varied fields
as preparatory science, Greek, mathematics, and history, then studied
a year at the State University of Iowa, specializing in chemistry and
physics. The five years from 1888 to 1893 were spent abroad, two
years in private tutoring at Cham, Switzerland, the rest in study at
the universities of Zurich, Leipzig, and Paris (Sorbonne and College
de France) .

He came to Grinnell as professor of modern languages in 1893,
and after ten years transferred to Indiana University as professor of
German. He was married to Emeline Barstow Bartlett in 1906, just
before taking a year's leave of absence abroad, whence he was called
to the presidency of Lake Forest College, Illinois, in 1907. Mrs.
Nollen died in 1910; four years later he married her sister, Louise
Stevens Bartlett.

With the entrance of the United States into the first World War,
Mr. Nollen in the fall of 1917 volunteered for service abroad under
the Y.M.C.A., and after working with the American troops in France
he was appointed general secretary of the Association to organize and

12Q Grinnell College

direct its work with the Italian Army. "When it became evident that
this war service would last indefinitely, he resigned the presidency of
Lake Forest College, as well as the presidency of the Association of
American Colleges, in which capacity he had also served on the educa-
tional section of the National Council of War. After the completion
of his service with the Y.M.C.A., he served for some months in 1920
with the Commission to Europe of the American Red Cross, In the
fall of this year he returned to Grinnell as dean of the faculty. Dur-
ing his eleven years as dean he did occasional teaching in the modern
languages and in religious education.

The transition from Main to Nollen was marked again by a sharp
contrast between a president and his successor. Main and Nollen
always were and remained as close as the initial letters of their names
in personal friendship and mutual confidence, but they differed in
disposition and policy. M. was autocratic, N. cooperative; M. was
remote, N. companionable; M. towered above his associates, N. was
primus inter pares, M. was a Platonic idealist, N. a realistic meliorist;
M. was a devotee of absolute verities, N. inclined to pragmatism;
M. was essentially solitary (a tendency accentuated by later deaf-
ness) , N. was sociable; M. was impatient of opposition or criticism,
N. welcomed advice or suggestion; M. had the longest administration
in the history of the College, N. came to the helm at sixty-two and
could expect only a few years of executive activity.

"O wad some power the giftie gie us. . . ." N. had this "giftie"
presented to him in a collection of letters gathered by his former In-
diana colleague, John M. Clapp, then at Lake Forest, when the latter
was proposing him (without his knowledge, during his year abroad)
for the presidency of Lake Forest College. As N. has characterized
M. in these pages, let the latter return the compliment. President
Main wrote as follows:

I [have] had every opportunity to know in detail of [Professor Nollen's]
work in the classroom, his training and his personality. He is a man with
especially fine training and possesses, I believe, the qualities of personality
and executive ability that are demanded in a successful administrator. He
is a scholar in the best sense of the term. The work he has done has won
recognition the country over, and he is looked upon by men competent to
pass judgement as one of the ablest men in his department in the United
States. He has every assurance of a brilliant future in his own department.
I believe, however, that he is so well qualified for administrative work that
he ought to take up the work of administration permanently. He is a man

THROUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION 121

of large sympathies and appreciates thoroughly the claims of all the subjects
embraced in the college curriculum. He is a ready writer, a man of first-rate
business ability, has a wonderful capacity for detail, and would be able easily
to keep in touch with every college department and interest. In the matter
of personality I am acquainted with no man whom I regard as his superior.
He is sane, easily approached, sympathetic, and quick to appreciate in difficult
situations the exact thing to do. I have long regarded him as the best availa-
ble man for a presidential position.

This too-generous estimate by a friend is transcribed with proper
diffidence, at the risk of its subject's appearing to be eavesdropping
at his own funeral.

Naturally, the first concern of the new administration and of the
trustees was to conserve the financial stability of the College in a time
of severe economic crisis without impairing its educational efficiency.
It was impossible to avoid laying a burden upon the administrative
and teaching personnel; and in keeping with the general practice of
colleges during the depression, salaries (none too large) were reduced
as much as 20 per cent (half of this cut was subsequently restored).
The faculty met this necessity with exemplary magnanimity.

In view of the extreme difficulty in the way of securing gifts for
current expenses, a resolute effort was made to increase income by
adding to the enrollment while also raising the charges for tuition
and living to a figure commensurate with the quality of the service
offered. Success was achieved in this matter, in spite of the cost of
the method adopted, through the efficient work of field agents who
were as much interested in the quality as in the number of the new
students secured by their efforts. President Main had always been
opposed to such field work, being persuaded that the quality of in-
struction at Grinnell should be its only recommendation ("the best
mousetrap," etc.) . He did not reckon with the power of the personal
approach in publicity, or the extent to which other colleges, and even
the state universities, were taking advantage of it. Much of the credit
for the rapid increase in the enrollment at Grinnell was due to the
intelligent work of Mrs. Elizabeth Howe, Associate in Public Rela-
tions, 1934-1937, whose efforts raised the enrollment from the Chi-
cago area from 40 to 140. The entire academic enrollment was in-
creased from 551 in 1933 to a new maximum of 817 in 1937-1938,
and in June, 1939, the 168 students receiving bachelor's degrees con-
stituted the largest class ever graduated from the College.

122 Grinnell College

In order to accommodate the increased attendance, three large
residences were taken over as additional dormitories. The over-all
charge for tuition, room, and board, which in 1933 had been tem-
porarily reduced to $620 as an emergency measure, was gradually
increased to $750, which was still far below the amount charged by
eastern colleges for similar accommodations. The general result of
these expedients was the achievement of a balanced budget by 1936.

Another prime concern of the administration was the conserving
and improvement of the teaching function of the College. To this
end it became a difficult duty to sever the connection of several in-
structors with the College, and to find competent persons to fill these
and other vacancies. It is a testimony to the appeal Grinnell made to
well-trained and experienced teachers that, despite the financial diffi-
culties of the time, it was possible to raise the general standard of
teaching to a higher level.

The core of the faculty remained intact. Of the more important
members of the staff in 1931, thirty-six continued through the nine
years of this administration. The serious vacancy caused by the death
of Dean Luella Read in 1932 was filled in 1933 by the election of
Evelyn Gardner (A.B., Beloit; A.M., Radcliffe, formerly dean of
women at Emporia College) as dean of women and associate professor
of English.

The perennial discussion of the curriculum continued as usual, with
an effort to limit the number of two-hour and two-student courses,
to encourage scholarship by an improved grading system, and to
arrive at a better balance of teaching loads among the members of
the staff. A system of comprehensive examinations with reading
periods was adopted in 1933. The circumstances which had led to
the appointment of a dean of the faculty did not now exist, and as
was the case during the earlier years of the preceding administration,
the president continued to exercise the functions of the deanship.
Certain of these functions, especially during the frequent absences of
the president on visits to alumni gatherings throughout the country,
and with "prospective donors," were assumed by Professor Henry S.
Conard as chairman of the faculty, and his intelligent and devoted
service to the interests of the College deserve grateful appreciation.

The tendency toward democracy in college government, which
began with President Gates, came to its fullest development under
this administration. The Board of Trustees was urged to change the

THROUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION 123

rule by which the president of the College had always been also
chairman of the Board; and Fred Crego Smith, alumnus of the Col-
lege and ever generous and loyal trustee, was elected president of the
Corporation. The Board of Trustees was strengthened by the return
of most useful members who had recently retired, the substitution of
inactive members by new accessions giving promise of faithful service,
and the election of two women to the Board, as seemed appropriate
for a coeducational college.

All appointments to the faculty were made on recommendations of
relevant faculty committees, and freedom of teaching continued to
find defense against occasional criticism from the outside. Each
teaching department remained autonomous within its own field.
Trustees and faculty were animated by the same spirit of friendly
cooperation; there was a minimum of the friction that is inevitable
where many minds meet in common effort, and in spite of the eco-
nomic difficulties of the period, the College approached the idyllic
state of a harmonious confraternity of scholars. The students were
given every opportunity for self-government they were ready to
assume, and the advice of representative student groups was sought
with reference to legislation affecting student life and organization.

Meanwhile, the gracious hospitality of the "first lady" made the
President's House, ideally adapted to the purpose, a genial social cen-
ter for the College, with a welcome also for the people of the town,
few of whom had as yet entered its inviting doors.

The interest of the alumni was maintained and perhaps raised to
a higher level. Many of them had found their enthusiasm flagging
under the impact of continuous and burdensome though necessary
appeals for funds, especially when professional soliciting agencies were
employed whose tactics were more vigorous than judicious. Direct
financial admonitions were now avoided at the many reunions attended
in all parts of the country, though no secret was made of the needs
of the College. There was enough in the recognized standing of the
College and in the fine record being made by the newer graduates to
arouse new pride in Alma Mater.

The constituency of the College was widened by the action of the
Episcopal Diocese of Iowa in "adopting" Grinnell, there being then
no college in the state officially recognized by that church. The Bishop
of Iowa was elected to the Board of Trustees and became a faithful
and valued member of this body.

124 Grinnell College

Interest in international affairs was further stimulated by the
association of the College with the American Friends' Service Com-
mittee and the Congregational Council for Social Action in organiz-
ing and conducting since 1935 a summer institute of international
relations on the Grinnell campus, attended by delegates from all parts
of the Midwest.

Since 1937 the generous interest of a friend of the College has
provided the Rosenfield Lectureship on International Relations, which
has brought a succession of experts to Grinnell, spending enough time
on the campus for public lectures and more intimate conferences
with students. The lecturers have included \V. Arnold-Forster, British
authority on world affairs, formerly associated with the League of
Nations; Professors Hans Kohn and Walter Kotschnig of Smith Col-
lege; Professor Owen Lattimore, leading expert on the Far East and
political adviser to Chiang Kai-shek; Dr. Hans Simons of the New
School for Social Research; and Dr. Pitman B. Potter, long connected
with the Institute for International Study at Geneva. These develop-
ments have represented an attempt at a realistic appraisal of the forces
making for a new world order. Much credit is due in this connection
to the organizing leadership of Professor Charles E. Payne, head of
the department of history.

Mr. Nollen's personal interest in world affairs was stimulated by
several sojourns abroad, so that he spent altogether ten years in resi-
dence in European countries. During his deanship he had a year's
leave of absence in 1927-1928, spent in teaching at Pomona College
in California; this followed upon attendance during the summer as a
delegate at the World Conference on Faith and Order at Lausanne,
Switzerland. His more recent public services have included member-
ship on the Iowa State Board of Educational Examiners from 1933 to
1940, the governorship of the Nebraska-Iowa District of Kiwanis
International in 1936, and the chairmanship for Iowa of Finnish Re-
lief under Herbert Hoover. In 1941 he was appointed state chairman
of the War Finance Committee for Iowa under the United States
Treasury.

President Nollen arrived at the normal retiring age in 1939, but at
the instance of the trustees he remained in office for an additional
year, during which a committee of the Board, with representation of
the faculty, engaged in an exhaustive search for his successor. The
committee winnowed a list of one hundred and fifty suggested names

THROUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION 125

down to a small group o the most available, but when some of these
gentlemen visited Grinnell, none seemed to the local authorities to
combine all the desirable qualities.

Then an apparently fortuitous concatenation of casual circum-
stances led to the desired result. Toward the end of the year, Presi-
dent Nollen happened to be invited to speak on "college day" at the
Congregational Church in "Wilmette. Passing through Chicago, he
happened to call on an alumnus of Grinnell, who chanced to mention
the remark of a friend favorable to a Dr. Samuel Nowell Stevens at
Northwestern University. With some difficulty, the alumnus suc-
ceeded in arranging an interview for Dr. Nollea with Dr. Stevens
on Sunday afternoon. Immediately after the interview Dr. Nollen
sent a report to members of the trustee committee (of which he was
not a member) . They had further conferences with Dr. Stevens, who
then came to Grinnell for a visit and met other members of the Board
in Des Moines.

Within a few days the whole matter was settled; election of Dr.
Stevens followed at the annual meeting of the trustees at commence-
ment. The next day the new president was presented to the alumni
at their annual meeting, and met many who had come to attend the
commencement exercises. Thus the torch was handed on from in-
cumbent to successor with smoothness and dispatch, and a clear course
was open for the new administration.

The attitude of the faculty toward the retiring executive was most
generously expressed in the following resolution, adopted January 8,
1940:

Our friend and President, John Scholte Nollen, having resigned from the
active administration of Grinnell College, the faculty wishes to place on
record its profound respect and affection for one who has been its honored
chief for nine years. He was elected at a time when all agreed that the new
president should be one familiar with the traditions of Grinnell. His name
was the only one mentioned on the campus, and he entered on his term of
leadership with the unanimous support and confidence of his colleagues. That
confidence has been fully justified. The range and versatility of 'his mind,
the ample scholarship that he has never allowed to lapse, the integrity and
generosity that all could count on, having been humanized by his friendliness,
his sense of humor, his unfailing patience, and his joy of living. Dr. and Mrs.
Nollen have been a priceless element in the life of Grinnell for over twenty
years. They will be greatly missed and gratefully remembered by their
associates.

BM&fflM!^

Through the Second World War

1940-1946

THE recovery of the country from the Great Depression and the threat
hanging over the world of a global war made it imperative that the
new leadership of the College be in firm and experienced hands,
ready to guide its destinies into an as yet uncharted future. Such
leadership Dr. Samuel N. Stevens seemed unusually well qualified to
provide. Men who knew him intimately testified that he was alert,
vigorous, and well-rounded, <c a superb administrator, utterly devoted
to education in its best sense," with an enormous fund of energy,
126

THROUGH THE SECOND WORLD WAR 127

accomplishing things by working with people, enlisting their loyalty
and cooperation. In discussions with the trustees, he gave convincing
evidence of a philosophy of life and education that was in full accord
with the historic character and ideals of Grinnell College. The con-
junction seemed most fortunate.

Samuel No well Stevens was born October 22, 1900, at Eastport,
Maryland, near Annapolis. His father, Philip T. Stevens, was an
officer in the United States Navy, assigned to the experimental station
at the Naval Academy,* the family had been connected with naval
affairs for several generations. Samuel served in the United States
Army at the end of the first World War, in 1918, and received his
undergraduate education at Wesleyan University in Connecticut
(B.A., 1921). Graduate work at Johns Hopkins University was fol-
lowed by a theological course at the Garrett Biblical Institute in
Evans ton, Illinois (B.D., 1924) and graduate courses in psychology
at Northwestern University (Ph.D., 1926). In 1922 he married
Anna Albert, who was a graduate of Johns Hopkins. Beginning as
an instructor in psychology at Northwestern, he became a professor
in charge of graduate courses in business and industrial psychology,
specializing in psychotechnical problems. This special interest enabled
him to act later as an expert consultant to important industries.

In 1929 he undertook the development of adult higher education
at Northwestern, becoming the director of this department in 1931.
Out of this experience grew the University College of Northwestern
University; as its dean, he saw its enrollment increase from 400 to
over 3,000. He also directed a course on the history and enjoyment
of music for about 3,500 participants annually, and was active in the
work of the North Shore Festival Association. He is a member of
Phi Beta Kappa and other honorary societies.

Dr. Stevens began his service as president of Grinnell College on
July 1, 1940. His wide and varied experience made it possible for
him to apply himself without delay to the tasks of his position, which
soon posed new and difficult problems with the outbreak of World
War II. His many connections at Washington enabled him to secure
for Grinnell such military educational units as were best adapted to
the facilities of the College. There was an Officer Candidate School
in the Adjutant General's Department, numbering about 750, in
residence from October, 1942, to July, 1943 ; a Specialized Training
Assignment and Reclassification Unit in residence from July, 1943,

128 Grinnell College

to March, 1944, which brought from 500 to 1,100 men to the cam-
pus; and a unit o the Army Specialized Training Program from
September, 1943, to March, 1944, attended by 250 to 30 men. The
care of such large numbers was made possible by two important
additions to the college plant, the Gardner Cowles Dormitory, pro-
viding additional dormitory rooms and a spacious refectory, and the
Darby Gymnasium, with modern equipment for physical education
and indoor games, as well as abundant space for large gatherings.
These buildings were completed just in time for the use of the military
units, and much of their furnishing could be secured only with the
use of military priorities.

As at the time of the Civil War, so now, Grinnell became prac-
tically a women's college for the duration, and the civilian enrollment
dropped to half the normal figure. The faculty too was reduced,
partly by the demands of the war upon the younger personnel, partly
by the retirement of an unusual number of older professors and the
merging of departments related in subject matter. Latin and Greek
were combined into a department of classical languages, and business
administration was merged with economics.

The members of the faculty who were drawn into the national
service included Henry Alden, Shelton L. Beatty, Evelyn M. Boyd,
Herschel M. Colbert, Ben Douglas, H. K. Gayer, John W. Pooley,
Elbert M. Smith, Walter J, Schnerr, and Dwight L. Wennersten.
Others on leave were G. L. Duke, John Scott Everton, Raymond B.
McClenon, and John C. Truesdale.

The "emeriti" included Henry S. Conard (D.Sc., 1944), Letitia
Moon Conard, John W. Gannaway, Cecil F. Lavell, Eleanor Lowden,
John S. Nollen, Harry W. Norris, George L. Pierce, William J. Rusk,
E. B. T. Spencer, Edward A. Steiner, John D. Stoops, Milton Wittier,
and G. P. Wyckoff.

Earl D. Strong, professor of economics, was elected dean of the
College in 1944. In the absence of Dean Beatty, Associate Professor
Joseph W. Charlton became acting dean of men, and Professor Paul
Spencer Wood succeeded Professor Conard as chairman of the faculty.
In 1945 the new office of vice president of the College in charge of
institutional development was created by the trustees, and Louis Gage
Chrysler, former mayor of Grinnell, was elected to this office.

The new administration was able soon to announce important addi-
tions to the resources and the physical equipment of the College. Al-

THROUGH THE SECOND WORLD WAR 129

though these were in part due to the maturing of older plans, they
testified to the strong faith of friends of the College in the present
leadership and the assured future of Grinnell. In addition to the
Cowles Dormitory, the gift of Gardner Cowles, publisher of the Des
Moines Register and Tribune, and the Darby Gymnasium presented
by Trustee John Frederick Darby, other gifts came to Grinnell. In
1942 Benjamin A. Younker, of Des Moines, and his family created
the munificent Younker endowments to provide for the erection of
an additional dormitory for men, a health center, instruction in
branches of study pertaining to health, and a large number of scholar-
ships to be awarded "without financial responsibility or liability for
repayment upon the part of the recipients, so that they may start life
free from debt and in the hope that those who in later life are in a
position to do so, of their own accord, will give some other boy or
girl in need of financial assistance the opportunities that Grinnell has
given them/* In 1945 the trustees inaugurated a campaign for one
million dollars as an addition to the working funds of the College.

Plans under way for the improvement of the curriculum were now
quickly matured. The proliferation of short-hour courses was sum-
marily stopped with the adoption of a uniform system of four-hour
courses. The material of the curriculum was organized into five
divisions: Language and Literature, including the ancient and modern
foreign languages, English, and speech; Social Studies, including
economics and business, history, philosophy, religion, political science,
psychology, and sociology; Natural Sciences, including botany and
zoology, chemistry, mathematics, and physics; Fine Arts, including
art, drama, and music," and Education, including health education,
physical education, secretarial training, and teacher training.

As the College completed, in 1946, the first century of its persistent
contribution to the furtherance of liberal education in America, its
objectives were stated as follows in the annual catalogue:

Grinnell College is a college of liberal arts, dedicated to the advancement of
humane learning. The College defines a liberally educated person as one who
has the ability to read, write, and speak his own language well and has an
appreciation of its literature; who can read at least one foreign language and
has first-hand acquaintance with the literature and culture of the country
in which it is spoken; who is thoroughly grounded in the history of the
modern world and in the Christian tradition, and has a sympathetic under-
standing of the social problems of his time; who has subjected himself to the
discipline of science and learned to understand the principles and methods

130 Grinnell College

of the natural sciences and the part which they play in modern society; who
has acquired the ability to perceive the values of the arts and to derive enjoy-
ment from them; and who has learned to care for his own bodily health and
to take an intelligent interest in the health of the community in which he
lives.

In order to implement these objectives, which supersede the usual
academic requirements met by the mere passing of certain designated
courses, the College offers the student a form of guidance which inte-
grates educational, social, and vocational counseling into the academic
pattern. It is significant that more recently other colleges and univer-
sities east and west have been developing similar programs. This may
indicate how the pioneering activity of Grinnell in the past continues
in vital response to the needs of the present and the demands of a
living future.

Part Three

Cornerstones

ffisissffiflH^^

The Academy

IN A sense, the Iowa College Academy antedates the College itself,
since it was necessary in the beginning to prepare students for the
first college freshman class, entering in 1850. For many years the
preparatory enrollment exceeded that of the four college classes. It
was not until the eighties that the number of college students equalled
the number in preparatory courses, and not until the nineties, in the
administration of President Gates, that the college enrollment def-
initely surpassed that of the Academy. The attendance of prepara-

133

134 Grinnell College

tory students grew rather rapidly during the years in Davenport,
from 2 in 1848 to 70 in 1850, to 130 in 1857. In the first full year
at Grinnell there were 99 academy students, 64 denominated "Males 5 *
and 35 "Females." During the Civil War the number fell to a total
of 41, but then rose rapidly until in 1867 there were 238 enrolled
in the Academy, while there were only 68 in college classes. The all-
time high in the academy enrollment came in 1871, with 259 stu-
dents, most of whom were in the so-called normal and English courses.
In succeeding years there was much fluctuation in attendance, with
a gradual downward trend. In course of time the development of
the public high school throughout the Midwest undermined the col-
lege preparatory courses, finally leading to their abandonment. The
Iowa College Academy continued until 1910-1911, when it enrolled
102 students; then it disappeared from the scene, leaving only a
residue of "sub-freshmen" to be sloughed off during the next two
years. Thus the Academy had existed for sixty-three years, doing
an essential task in giving boys and girls an excellent preparation for
college until the public school system could take over this service.

In the early years there was no distinction between College and
Academy in the teaching staff. The first principal to devote his en-
tire time to the preparatory and English department was the Rev.
Samuel Jay Buck, from 1864 to 1869, when he became professor of
mathematics and natural philosophy in the College. The most im-
portant early period in the history of the Academy was that from
1871 to 1885, when Jesse Macy was principal; he too took on college
courses, in history and political science, and soon devoted his energies
exclusively to college teaching, though his old students always con-
tinued to refer to him as "Prin Macy." He was succeeded for brief
periods by two graduates of the "Cyclone Class" of the College, who
were likewise destined to have distinguished careers in the academic
field: from 1885 to 1888, Oliver Farrar Emerson, '82 (Litt.D., Ph.D.,
Cornell), son of pioneer and trustee Oliver Emerson, later professor
of English at Western Reserve University; and George Meason
Whicher, *82 (Litt.D., Dr., University of Padua), gifted classicist
and poet, for many years professor of Greek and Latin at Hunter
College in New York City. Moses Stephen Slaughter (Ph.D., Johns
Hopkins) took over for one year, combining the principalship with
his professorship of Latin in the College. After them, from 1890 to
1899, came J. Fred Smith, a Dartmouth man, and finally from 1902

THE ACADEMY 135

to 1911, Charles Henry Horn (A.M., Olivet), the last of the line
of principals.

The first preceptress of the Academy was Mrs. L. F. Parker, 1863-
1870, who was also "Lady Principal" of the College, as were after
her Mary Ellis, 1874-1882 (the young women named their Ellis
Society after her), Mrs. Magoun, 1882-1884, and Mrs. Martha Foote
Crow, 1884-1888. Later preceptresses included Mary Haines, '90
(later Mrs. Frank I. Herriott, daughter of alumnus and Trustee
Robert M. Haines), Clara E. Millerd, '93, later professor of Greek
and philosophy in the College, Emeline Barstow Bartlett ( A.B., Vassar,
later Mrs. John S. Nollen), Arietta "Warren (Ph.D., Michigan),
Grace Moreland Henderson (B.L., Western Reserve), and finally
Fanny Orythia Fisher, '94, from 1902 to 1911.

During most of its history the Academy was operated solely as a
feeder for the College. However, from 1871 to 1884 the regular
preparatory courses were supplemented by a normal and English de-
partment. The strictly preparatory course consisted very largely of
Latin and Greek, with one year of mathematics, one term each of
English, physiology, and mental science, and two terms of ancient
history. The English course at first retained Latin, but eliminated
Greek and added English, astronomy, and physical geography. Later
Latin disappeared from the English course and snippets of "Science,"
modern language, drawing, didactics, and additional mathematics
filled the void. It was apparently thought that this miscellaneous ma-
terial would be useful to teachers in the common schools who did not
look forward to a college course. After 1 879 the training of teachers
was transferred to the College, with the creation of a professorship
of the theory and practice of teaching. Courses in didactics now ap-
peared in the outline of college studies, with the somewhat grudging
early footnote: "The time for Didactics is taken from the other
studies." The technique of this particular operation is not indicated.

The unique value of the Academy was expressed by Principal
Smith in the President's Report for 1898 as follows:

Unquestionably the preparation for College afforded by the Academy far
excells that of any public High School. Contact with College men and
women, concentration of thought and energy upon carefully arranged "work,
the training afforded by skillful teachers of broad scholarship and wide
experience, are advantages of untold value. Perhaps the most helpful in-
fluence of all is the almost unconsciously acquired realization that the work

136" Gr inn ell College

is but preparatory, an introduction to a higher course. The average High
School graduate is more exposed to the danger of considering his education
finished. The Academy student realizes fully that his is but just begun.

It was the hope of the principal that the Academy might become a
"well endowed, permanent institution, well fitted to continue the
good work of the past fifty years." This hope was not realized.

*XVI*

The Faculty and Staff

THE faculty of Iowa College In 1848 consisted of one professor; in
1850 there were two teachers; in 1853, three. Under President
Magoun's administration the teaching force grew from five in 1865
to thirteen in 1885. The thirteen years of the Gates administration
saw an increase from 15 in 1887 to 24 in 1900. Three were added
to the number in the three years of Dr. Bradley's service. During
the quarter century of President Main's administration, with an un-
exampled increase in enrollment and equipment, the teaching force

137

138 Grinnell College

grew from 27 to 70. There was no further increase, though there
were many changes during the next ten years, when the enrollment
reached its maximum. With the heavy drop in the enrollment of
men, due to the second World War, the teaching force in 1943 was
reduced to 54. There was a similar development in the office force
and service staff, which grew from zero to a maximum of 48, then
fell to 37. The total payroll thus grew from one to a high of 121,
decreasing then to 91.

The earliest records of the faculty were destroyed in the cyclone
of 1882, with the exception of minutes from 1878, which were
rescued by President Magoun. Probably there was little change in the
preoccupations of the faculty until the end of the first thirty years,
when there were as yet only eighty-five students, including "Ladies,"
in the college courses. These preoccupations seem to have been largely
of a disciplinary nature, and the faculty was cooperating loyally with
the trustees in this field. It was the day of "demerits," and also of a
species of inquisition or "self -reporting" (each class had a faculty
father-confessor) of which the trustees finally disapproved. The in-
tensive work of later years on the curriculum was not then antici-
pated, for the traditional course of the New England college was
taken for granted.

The meetings of the faculty, therefore, were concerned with small
details of housekeeping and matters of individual student conduct,
governed by a system of numbered rules. Larger matters of disci-
pline came under four heads: probation, suspension, dismissal, and "
reinstatement. Actions are recorded on the provision of a stove for a
professor's room, on "objectionable phrases" in the student paper
(leading to 10 to 15 demerits for the editors), on permission for
parties, receptions, and sleighrides, on excuse from Sunday evening
church for a young lady who had "no escort," on the prevention of
Halloween "misdemeanors," on smoking, drinking, and billiard-play-
ing, on a "violent scuffle in Professor Buck's room," on students
breaking into the taxidermy room, on permission to attend the
Methodist Church, on order in chapel, on "profanity and low lan-
guage" in the student paper (considered also by the trustees) , on the
use of the Revised Version at prayers, on evening skating by ladies
(not allowed), on a request for a pump in the cistern, and for
thermometers in the rooms, on the location of the bell-rope, on the
"Roman" pronunciation of Latin, on pancake or strawberry "festi-

THE FACULTY AND STAFF 139

val," oyster supper, and "sugaring off," on calling hours, on inex-
pedience of a dramatic performance, on a leak in the roof, on mats
and scrapers at the doors, on the spelling of "catalog," on discourag-
ing attendance at theaters, on the stealing of a sophomore cake, on
hazing, throwing of water, forgery of names, and frequently on noise
and disorder. A student who later became a trustee was chided for
his "unsteadiness in recitation and insubordination of spirit." One
student was haled before the faculty for smoking, and plead "the use
only of catarrh cigarettes, so medicated as to conceal the odor and
taste of tobacco." Another who eventually became a federal judge
was suspended for six weeks for "posting an impertinent notice in
the Reading Room." Another who was destined to a place among
the benefactors of the College was "forbidden to associate with the
young damsels of the College." Students were admonished "not to
be under trees on the campus in study hours," with demerits for
violation. They were granted permission to use the "reformed or
brief spelling" if such words were printed or written backhand. The
trustees were respectfully asked to arrange so that teachers could
draw their salaries monthly, and also to put in a steam heating ap-
paratus; after its installation, there were actions relating to its de-
ficiencies.

Under the liberalizing administration of President Gates there was
a gradual change in the content of the faculty minutes. The concern
about disciplinary matters persisted for a time, and the catalogue of
student delinquencies still adorned the record. However, scholarly
interests were coming to the fore. The old habit of bestowing a
master's degree after three years of intellectual living was abandoned,
and a graduate course and examinations for the M.A. adopted. Regu-
lations on College Honors were approved. The group system (after
Johns Hopkins) was substituted for the old restricted courses. The
epic struggle between the scientists and the classicists for the full
recognition of laboratory science in the curriculum was fought and
won. The modern languages and the social sciences were gaining
ground. The "Princeton Examination Scheme" was adopted to com-
bat dishonesty in written work, but this honor system was abandoned
after a few years for lack of student support. Grades were recorded
in letters A to E, instead of percentages. In an access of meticulosity,
pluses and minuses were appended by the professors, but these were
banned a year later. Caps and gowns were discussed and eventually

140 Grinnell College

adopted, as was also a commencement address by a distinguished
visitor instead of class orations. The social amenities were considered
and a system of chaperons and hostesses adopted for parties and
picnics, but dancing and smoking in public were still taboo. The
semester system was adopted. Gradually a system of standing com-
mittees of the faculty was developed to take over the routine ad-
ministration of academic matters. Five such committees appear for
the first time in 1895 on curriculum, athletics, scholarships, teach-
ers and schools, and extension lectures. These proliferated so rapidly
that there were eighteen in 1902, and twenty-one in 1904, in spite of
a movement in 1903 to "consider reduction in the number and work
of Faculty committees." One member used to refer to committee
meetings as "the great American disease."

During the earlier years of President Main's long administration,
the social regulations of an older day were reaffirmed: no dancing or
card parties in term time, or Immediately before or after; no strolling
or driving of men and women on Sundays. Sunday calling, however,
was now left to the discretion of the dean. Fraternities were still
opposed, and in fact were never established at Grinnell. Dishonesty
in examinations was still a matter of concern, as was also the question
of chapel attendance, which had become voluntary under Gates. A
student council was formed to represent student opinion and regulate
student conduct, and on its recommendation a semester fee was
adopted to cover admission to all athletic contests, lectures, and reci-
tals. The old hostility to the drama had vanished, and three dramatic
performances a year by students were approved; later years saw even
the phenomenon of a faculty play and the formation of a department
of drama. A chapter of Phi Beta Kappa was secured; the Harvard
Exchange established; membership in the Assocation of Collegiate
Alumnae, the Association of American Colleges, and other intercol-
legiate organizations followed. The rapid development of intercol-
legiate athletics called for constant faculty control of regulations,
personnel, and schedules. New courses and departments of study
were approved, the curriculum and teaching loads were matters of
regular study, and the organization of the student body remained a
subject of discussion.

During the thirties much attention continued to be given to cur-
ricular matters. A reading period and a system of comprehensive
examinations betrayed Harvard influence. A new curriculum was

THE FACULTY AND STAFF 141

adopted, governed by the principles of distribution and concentra-
tion. A summer session, tried fitfully in earlier years, was again at-
tempted, then abandoned. A new grading system was adopted, for
the better recognition of superior work and to correct the tendency
toward up-grading which seems to be a professorial weakness. The
student council was twice reorganized. It was considered inexpedient
to form a unit of the R.O.T.C. Arrangements were made to co-
operate with the Friends Service Committee and the Congregational
Social Council in a summer session of an Institute of International
Relations.

During the early forties, the faculty was organized in five divisions:
language and literature, social studies, natural sciences, fine arts, and
education. A four-course plan was adopted, implying four-hour
courses throughout, graduation requiring sixteen such courses. The
number of departments was reduced by merging those covering
similar material, thus eliminating some duplication, and the number
of faculty committees was reduced to fifteen. New major fields for
the bachelor's degree were set up in general humanities, American
history and literature, and international relations. New action was
taken on appointments and tenure. A trimester division of the year
was substituted for the semester plan, each of the three terms to
cover 15i weeks, thus adding ten weeks to the college yean

The impact of the second "World War was evident in its effect upon
the faculty. Younger members of the teaching force were drawn into
the armed forces or into auxiliary service. Action was taken on de-
grees for men in the national service, and a "conditioning program"
adopted for students remaining in college. A number of faculty
members, including some "emeriti," participated in the teaching force
or the administration of the units of the Army Specialized Training
Program which were in residence until March, 1944, Meanwhile,
considerable change in the personnel of the faculty was involved in
the retirement of an unusually large group of the older professors,
so that the Directory for 1944-1945 listed fourteen "emeriti," by far
the largest number in the history of the College. The veterans who
had borne the burden and heat of the day for a generation and longer
were receiving their honorable dismissal. The task was now laid upon
the shoulders of their younger associates and successors.

In the higher ranks of the faculty fairly long terms of service have
been common. The average length of service for full professors is

142 Grinnell College

just under fifteen years; one-third of all professors from the begin-
ning of the College have been in residence twenty years or more.
Professor Norris' term of fifty-one years is, of course, unique; only
three other professors have served for forty years. There has been
far less permanence in the lower grades. Associate and assistant pro-
fessors have had an average term of somewhat over six years, with
one extreme case of thirty-five years, and only three others of twenty
years or more. Instructors have averaged under three years, with a
maximum of eighteen, and assistants average about a year and a half.

In the early years of the College there was no office force: the
financial affairs of the institution were in the hands of a treasurer
who was a member of the Board of Trustees, serving, like his col-
leagues, without salary. Registration and other auxiliary services
were carried on by the faculty. At that time the typewriter was
unknown. During President Gates's administration, two local bank-
ers, H. C. Spencer and C. W. H. Beyer, neither one a trustee, served
as treasurer and auditor, the former until 1902, the latter until 1906,
followed by bankers George H. Hamlin and Samuel J. Pooley, '92.
The first salaried officer of the Board was Horace H. Robbins, '69,
son of A. B. Robbins of the Iowa Band, who had also been the first
president of the Board. H. H. was secretary from 1887 to 1906, and
a member of the Board from 1890, and he kept the College books
during his term of office. Herbert W. Somers, '82, succeeded him as
secretary from 1907 to 1921. Louis V. Phelps came to Grinnell as
superintendent of construction for the new dormitory system in
1915, and remained as business manager and secretary-treasurer of
the Board. The first full-time registrar of the College was Mary E.
Simmons, '91, who served from 1908 to 1925; she was succeeded by
Bethana McCandless, '19.

The administrative staff of a modern college would look formida-
ble, if not fantastic, to an old-timer, serving as it does a multitude of
functions unknown in the early days. Not only deans, registrars,
secretaries, and bookkeepers, but counselors, consultants, vocational
experts, public relations folk, publicity men, directors of foods, col-
lege nurses, superintendents of buildings and grounds, personnel
advisers, and hostesses (a woman's college calls them "wardens")
make up an extensive list of services necessary to the health and com-
fort as well as to the recruiting and guidance of a large student body.
The business of education, like that of industry, has developed a

THE FACULTY AND STAFF 143

whole complex of specialized services. The jack-of-all-trades has
passed away with the disappearance of the frontier and of pioneer
versatility. Specialization is the order of the day in the auxiliary
services of the College, as well as in the teaching and research of the
faculty.

BftMjlfflM^

-XVII*

The Board of Trustees

THE trustees of an American college represent an element in the
academic life for which there is no analogue in the administration of
higher education in other countries. On the European continent such
education is a function of the state, directly controlled by a depart-
ment of the central government and dependent on the government for
its support. The internal organization of such a university is complete-
ly controlled by the faculty, which elects its own presiding officer by
a process of rotation from its own ranks. The "colleges" of the English
144

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 145

universities, growing out of early voluntary associations of teachers
and students, are governed by a head, or master, and fellows, or grad-
uate students. The legal control of the American college, on the
contrary, is completely in the hands of an extraneous self -perpetuat-
ing corporation from which the members of the teaching staff are
usually explicitly excluded by the charter. The president of the col-
lege, ex officio member and also often chairman of the Board, is the
only direct link between the trustees and the faculty. The relation-
ship of the trustees to the college is therefore much like that which
obtains in any charitable trust. The trustees constitute the corpora-
tion and manage the property. Administration and faculty are their
employees, whose appointments, tenure, salaries, and privileges are
subject to their direction and control. In the course of a natural
evolution, boards of trustees have usually divested themselves of
strictly educational functions, and have left the internal management
of the college and the control of its students to the faculty.

In the early years, at Davenport and Grinnell, the trustees of Iowa
College concerned themselves with every detail of academic life, and
evidently felt themselves directly responsible for the action of the
College in loco parents. They even dealt with individual cases of
student discipline, which are duly recorded in their proceedings. As
late as the eighties and nineties they directed the courses of study to
be taught, ordered that the faculty "hear each four lessons a day"
(June, 1881), and later expected instructors to teach an average of
eighteen hours a week (June, 1890). "When a professor resigned in
protest against this arrangement, his resignation was cheerfully ac-
cepted by the Board.

The trustees deliberated on the proper calling hours for students,
on commencement honors, and the contents of the student publica-
tion. They legislated on the personal habits of students, commanding
church and daily chapel attendance, study hours, and abstention from
"profanity, obscenity, intoxicants, gambling, dancing, cards, billiards
and all unlawful games'* (June, 1884). However, they reacted
against an unwise procedure of the administration by advising the
abandonment of the system of self -reporting by students, no doubt
considering it too much like the "popish** rule of the confessional, or
accepting the student judgment that lying was developed by this
weekly inquisition in chapel. They kept a close rein on individual
members of the faculty, interviewed them personally on occasion,

146 Grinnell College

reminded them of rules to be observed, and suggested desirable resig-
nations. They made the faculty responsible for the observance of
rules of propriety. They controlled the assignment of scholarships to
students. They asked the faculty to limit intercollegiate contests
(June, 1888) and disapproved the use of non-students in athletics
(June, 1893). They considered $117 spent for periodicals for the
library "quite large," and one of the trustees, an Oberlin man, is
said to have actually asked the famous question: whether the students
had read all the books already on the shelves. They considered the
dissatisfaction of the seniors with Dr. Magoun's required course in
logic and made it optional (June, 1890). They passed a resolution
against secret societies, which, incidentally, have never been estab-
lished at Grinnell. They decreed that examinations should count one-
tenth of daily work in computing grades (January, 1892) and voted
against semi-annual examinations.

In the nineties it was decided that the faculty should have a voice
in the selection of "members of its corporate body" and be consulted
as to honorary degrees, and that seniors should be permitted to choose
a commencement speaker from the outside, in place of the traditional
annual orations for men and essays for women. Permission was re-
fused to keep the library open evenings. In 1895 the faculty was
entrusted with the arrangements for commencement, and it was
ordered that students present their petitions through the faculty.
However, indiscreet remarks by members of the faculty were frowned
upon in a resolution condemning professors and instructors who
criticized the administration or fellow-teachers in the presence of
students (1905), and committees were still being appointed to in-
quire into the work of individual teachers.

During President Main's administration the trustees relinquished
their direct control of academic work and mores^ and limited them-
selves to their more appropriate duties as custodians of the property
and promoters of the financial interests of the College, which were
growing rapidly in importance. Repeated efforts during preceding
years to add significant amounts to the funds of the College had met
with indifferent success, and deficits in current accounts had become
almost chronic. The trustees themselves had to bear the larger part of
the financial burden involved, and their resources were not equal to
the demands. By 1904, after almost sixty years of labor and struggle,
the productive endowment amounted only to the utterly inadequate

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 147

sum of $340,000, the value of the plant to approximately $250,000.
Meanwhile, the income from investments had been falling steadily.
The interest rate, amounting to 1 per cent in the early years, became
8 per cent by 1886, fell to 7 per cent and 6 per cent ten years later;
by 1903 the recognized rate was 5 per cent, though loans were still
made at 6 per cent. The catalogue for 1890-1891 lists about four
hundred names of contributors to an endowment fund of $200,000,
in sums ranging from $5.00 to $25,000. Of $62,000 secured during
1904-1905, the trustees themselves contributed $25,300, the alumni
$10,117, the faculty $6,650; only $19,770 came from other donors.
For many years the only large gift from outside sources had been
$50,000 for the library building, secured from Andrew Carnegie by
the efforts of alumnus and Trustee Albert Shaw in 1903. In 1886 the
trustees had declined an offer of $50,000 by E. A. Goodnow of Wor-
cester, donor of Goodnow Hall and Mears Cottage, because it was
conditional upon changing the name of the College, which the Board
considered "unwarranted," though they might have considered a
change of name for $150,000 or $200,000.

It became evident that the College must make very substantial
additions to its endowment and plant if it was to maintain its place
as a pioneer and leader among the colleges of the Midwest. The trus-
tees did what they could by making generous pledges themselves and
appointing a succession of field agents to work with the president
on financial campaigns. Fortunately, President Main succeeded in
interesting the General Education Board, which administered John
D. Rockefeller's benevolences. He likewise obtained further support
from the Carnegie Corporation. With this encouragement, two cam-
paigns, each for $500,000, were completed in 1908 and 1914, touched
off in each case by a conditional offer of $100,000 by the General
Education Board. In spite of this notable increase in endowment,
deficits still occurred for which the trustees felt a painful respon-
sibility. The expansion of the College made further heroic efforts
imperative in order to provide a plant equal to the needs of the grow-
ing student body, without waiting for the slow accumulation of the
necessary gifts.

In 1909 a plan to form a "syndicate** to finance a music building
had been abandoned. In 1913 plans were approved for the organiza-
tion of the Grinnell College Foundation, a corporation separate from
the Board of Trustees, formed to finance the building of a complete

248 Grinnell College

system of dormitories by a bond issue to be amortized from subse-
quent gifts and by a long-term use of surplus income from rentals.
By this method the Women's Quadrangle was completed in 1915,
and the Men's Dormitories in 1917. Meanwhile, the Alumni Recita-
tion Hall, the President's House, and a new heating plant were erected
with funds secured from other sources. Thus within a few years a
completely modern plant was created, which made the College self-
sufficient, for the time being, in the organization of the student life.

In 1909 the trustees amended the Articles of Incorporation, adopt-
ing formally the name "Grinnell College," which was already in com-
mon use, while retaining for the Corporation the old charter title
e The Trustees of Iowa College." They discontinued the indeterminate
tenure for trustees by dividing the Board into three classes, each
elected for a term of six years, and they continued an earlier provision
for alumni representation. They adopted a new scale of salaries:
president $4,000, professors $1,600 to $2,000 (compared with $1,200
in the nineties), assistant professors $1,200 to $1,400. In 1914 a
system of sabbatical leaves for professors was adopted, providing full
salary for a semester's leave, or half salary for a year. By 1917 the
president's salary was raised to $7,500, in 1919 to $9,000; other
salaries were scaled higher somewhat in proportion.

There still remained the necessity of further addition to the pro-
ductive funds. In 1919 the trustees made a bold venture of faith by
contracting with a professional money-raising agency, with a draw-
ing account of $800 a week, for a campaign to raise three and a half
millions. "Within a year the professional agency was discharged, since
it had succeeded only in accumulating a debt which the trustees were
compelled to underwrite. In the process, the agents of the concern
had so alienated the alumni by their crude methods that it was diffi-
cult to revive the confidence and support of these graduates. In 1920
a more manageable campaign was inaugurated by an offer of
$500,000, conditional upon the raising of an additional million by
the College. Even this amount proved exceedingly difficult to attain.
The General Education Board was generously willing to grant suc-
cessive extensions of time, but it was not until the very last day of
grace, December 31, 1930, that the task was completed, with gifts
and pledges for a million dollars secured and a heavy total of def-
icits paid up.

But now the Great Depression brought new difficulties. Pledges

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 149

made in good faith could not be collected, because generous donors
found themselves impoverished; actually only two-thirds of the con-
templated million and a half was realized. Mounting costs, a dwin-
dling student body, and reduced charges, resulting in a decreased in-
come, made new deficits, and it was practically impossible to find new
money. Salaries were cut, and resolute efforts gradually built up the
student body to a new maximum, requiring the use of additional
dormitory space, while charges were restored and then increased to a
more adequate figure. Tuition in the early years had been fantas-
tically low, beginning at a rate of $24, and remaining at this figure
for thirty years. By 1889 the tuition had risen to only $37; it be-
came $50 in 1895, $70 in 1910, $100 in 1914, $125 in 1917, $150
in 1919, $160 in 1921, $210 in 1925, $250 in 1934, and $320 in
1941. There was a somewhat similar increase in living expenses for
students. In the early years, it was stated that "board may be ob-
tained in good families at $1.50 or $2.00 per week," and when the
College began to furnish board and room, the price for meals was
still $1.50 to $1.75 per week, and room rent $3.00 to $4.00 per term
of twelve weeks. In the fifties, total charges for room, board, and
tuition for the entire college year varied from $63 to $75, according
to figures quoted in the catalogue. By 1919, when the new dormitory
system at Grinnell was in full operation, the over-all annual charge
was $525. This amount was gradually increased until in 1942 the
over- all charge, including all fees, became $800. Even this sum,
over ten times the amount of the expenses quoted a century earlier,
remained well below the actual cost per student to the College, and
far below the charges by eastern colleges for similar accommodations.*
Another experiment in college financing, common to western in-
stitutions, was disappointing in its results. Apparently it was not
clear to trustees, here or elsewhere, that the magnitude of their opera-
tions did not justify competition with insurance companies in the
annuity business, nor did they reckon with the rapid drop in interest
rates or the disastrous effect of an unanticipated depression upon
income from farms and other real estate, nor did they realize that
annuitants are apt to enjoy an altogether unwarranted longevity.
The agents of the College therefore entered into a large number of
annuity contracts, at rates graduated according to the age of the

* In 1953 the over-all charge amounted to $1,400, o which $600 was tke tuition.

150 Grmnell College

annuitant, sometimes as high as 8 per cent upon the presumed value
of the property taken over as principal. The trustees tried to direct
these operations within safe limits, but their best wisdom was frus-
trated by the inherent unsoundness of the procedure itself and by
the unsettling effect of the Great Depression upon values and in-
comes. Losses from this source added heavily to the burden of other
deficits. On the other hand, welcome help came from the ever-
generous General Education Board, which again came to the aid of
colleges, including Grinnell, by a three-year appropriation for teach-
ers* salaries.

In spite of all difficulties, a balanced budget was achieved in 1936,
and for some time things proceeded on a fairly even keel. The early
forties brought new problems as well as new resources. With the
entrance of the United States into the second World War, President
Stevens succeeded in securing three military training units for the
Grinnell campus, thus keeping the Men's Dormitories full to over-
flowing, in spite of the virtual disappearance of civilian men students
from college halls. It had been intended to accommodate 750 men
in these units; the numbers actually in residence fluctuated widely,
but at times ran up to about 1,200. It was fortunate that the Cowles
Dormitory had just been completed before the arrival of the military
units. The educational arrangements were far superior to those of the
S. A. T. C. in the first World War. The College undertook all re-
sponsibility for teaching faculty and administration, as well as hous-
ing and meals. Relations with the military command were most
amicable and cooperative, the men were loud in their praise of the
comforts provided for them, and on nationwide educational tests the
units in Grinnell ranked among the very highest in achievement.

The twenties had seen but one addition to the college plant, the
building of the swimming pool in 1926, due largely to the interest of
Trustee Jay N. Darling. In the thirties the pressure of a greatly in-
creased enrollment was met by the taking over of several large resi-
dences as temporary dormitories, but there was no new construction.
In 1940 occurred the first loss by fire since 1871, in the burning of
the Rand Gymnasium. The early forties brought a new building era.
The Darby Gymnasium provided a modern center for physical edu-
cation for men, while the Cowles Dormitory provided an adequate
refectory for the men of the College, as well as additional housing
and recreational facilities. At the same time the munificent donation

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

by the Younker family of Des Moines, establishing the Marcus and
Annie Berkson Younker Endowment, provided for the erection of a
Health Center and another Men's Dormitory, as well as funds for
generous scholarships, eventually amounting to eighty-four such
awards to students. This donation, the largest in the history of the
College, is a signal testimony to the regard in which Grinnell is held.*
The administration announced that it "came to Grinnell unsolicited.
After the founders had Investigated the privately endowed colleges
of Iowa, Grinnell was selected by them as the college best adapted to
carry out the objectives: to assist boys and girls to obtain a college
education, to give supervision to their health while In college and to
help support the teaching staff of the college,"

From the long list of good citizens who have given generous service
to the College as members of the Board of Trustees, It is difficult to
select a few for special mention. It was not until 1875 that an alum-
nus was elected to the Board; in 1876 there were two; in 1884, three.
Since 1891 the Alumni Association has nominated first two, then
three trustees, and others have been elected by direct action of the
Board. Since 1903 a majority of the trustees have been alumni.

In the early years it was naturally the men of the Iowa Band and
their fellow-pioneers who kept the flickering light burning by their
unconquerable devotion. Some of them saw such fruition of their
hopes as must have surpassed their fondest anticipations In the diffi-
cult formative years. The longest and perhaps most fruitful service
among the pioneers was that of Ephraim Adams, covering sixty-one
years, a record almost matched by that of alumnus Albert Shaw's sixty
years on the Board. Harvey Adams and A. B. Robbins each served
forty-nine years, the latter for the first seventeen years as president of
the Board, before there was a president of the College. "Father" Tur-
ner served for thirty-nine years, Oliver Emerson thirty-one, Daniel
Lane twenty-six, J. C. Holbrook and Julius A. Reed each twenty-one,
William Salter thirteen, Reuben Gaylord ten. Of the laymen on the
original board, James McManus served for thirty-two years, Charles
Atkinson and Henry Q. Jennison each sixteen years. Among the early
residents of Grinnell, J. B. himself was a trustee for thirty-six years,
Dr. Magoun for twenty-eight, S. L. Herrick for twenty-six, Dr.
Thomas Holyoke for seventeen. From near-by Newton, Colonel John

* In April, 1953, the College received an even larger donation $5,000,000 from the
estate of John Frederick Darby.

152 Grinncll College

Meyer attended meetings for forty-one years. From pastorates in
Dubuque, Des Moines, and Eddyville came the Rev. Joshua M. Cham-
berlain, generous donor, trustee for thirty-seven years, treasurer of
the College for nineteen years, and librarian for seven years. 158

There are several cases of two members of a family (father and son
or daughter, husband and wife, brothers) serving on the Board, but
only one case of three members of one family: Colonel Samuel Mer-
rill, 159 Civil "War veteran and seventh governor of Iowa for two
terms, trustee from 1867 to 1900; his brother Jeremiah H., from
1875 to 1904; and the son of the latter, Samuel A., of the class of '79,
from 1898 to 1920. Also from Des Moines came the Rev. Alvah
Lillie Frisbie, D.D., 160 pastor of Plymouth Church, trustee for thirty
years; his son, A. L., '00, an alumni trustee. From Osage came Hon.
James A. Smith, 1 * 31 organizer of an extensive lumber business, state
Representative and Senator, his thirty years of benevolence remem-
bered in the naming of Smith Hall; his son Fred Crego, '00, suc-
ceeded him as trustee and became chairman of the Board. Colonel
J. K. P. Thompson, 162 Civil War veteran of Rock Rapids, served for
fourteen years; his nephew Burt J., of Forest City, was twice a
member of the Board.

Among the trustees of the intermediate years, the longest service
was that of Archibald Cattell, '91, who was one of the most active
and faithful members of the Board for twenty-eight years. Henry
W. Spaulding 18S of Grinnell, buggy-builder extraordinary, was ac-
tive on the Board for twenty-six years. Roger Leavitt of Cedar Falls
and James G. Olmsted of Des Moines each served seventeen years.
Among others prominent in the public eye who were trustees, we may
mention superintendent T. O. Douglass, D.D.; Governor and United
States Senator Albert B. Cummins; Iowa Supreme Court Justice
William D. Evans; Director of the United States Mint George E.
Roberts; Governor and Senator Clyde L. Herring; Edward W. Cross,
D.D.; Jay N. Darling, cartoonist; Walter W. Head, banker and
insurance president; George M. Bechtel, broker; F. L. Maytag, manu-
facturer (succeeded later by his grandson Frederick Louis Maytag
II) ; Brigadier-General Hanford MacNider; Rt. Rev. Harry S. Long-
ley, D.D., S.T.D., Bishop of Iowa; Stoddard Lane, D.D., minister of
Plymouth Church, Des Moines; Robert B. Adams of Odebolt, farmer
extraordinary; Woodward Harold Brenton, banker.

In the early years, it did not occur to the trustees that it might be

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 153

appropriate for a coeducational college to have women on its govern-
ing board. In the eighties the death of Hon. R. D. Stephens, after
but four years' service, suggested the election of Mrs. Stephens as his
successor, but she remained only two years. Thirty years later Mary
Chamberlain, '92, daughter of Trustee J. M. Chamberlain, was a mem-
ber of the Board for four years. After another quarter-century, it
became the policy of the Board to include women in their number,
with the election of Mrs. David S. Kruidenier of Des Moines (daugh-
ter of Gardner Cowles, ex~*82) , and of Mrs. Frank P. Hixon of Lake
Forest, Illinois.

The naming of the grounds and buildings serving the College was
naturally a function of the trustees. Blair Hall, laboratory, was
named for John L Blair; Goodnow Hall, first used as a library, then
as a laboratory, for Hon. E. A. Goodnow of Worcester, Massachusetts.
The office building, formerly Chicago Hall, was renamed after Presi-
dent Magoun. The first dormitory unit for women, vulgarly yclept
"the Shack/ 5 was named Mears Cottage, for Mary Grinnell Mears,
'81, at the request of the donor, E. A. Goodnow, a member of Dr.
Mears's church. The central building of the new Women's Quad-
rangle was made a memorial to President Main. James Cottage is
named for Mrs. Mary B. James of Minneapolis; Cleveland for Martha
Cleveland (Mrs. LeRoy Dibble), '67, of Kansas City; Haines for
Mrs. Robert M. Haines, *65; Read as a memorial to Luella J. Read,
late dean of women. Among the men's dormitories, Smith Hall is a
memorial to Trustee James A. Smith; Langan to W. H. Langan of
Des Moines; Rawson to alumnus and Trustee Charles A. Rawson;
Gates to President George A. Gates; Clark to Theodore F. Clark,
father of Edith M. Clark (Mrs. F. A. McCornack), *89, of Sioux
City; Dibble to Dr. LeRoy Dibble of Kansas City. Cowles is named
for donor Gardner Cowles, ex-"82. The women's gymnasium, de-
stroyed by fire in 1940, was named for E. D. Rand, of Burlington,
father of Carrie Rand, the donor; the Library, for Andrew Carnegie;
the Chapel, for Trustee S. H. Gerrick, '65; the new men's gymnasium,
for Fred Darby, '95. Three sections of the college grounds have been
named: Chamberlain Park, the women's campus, for the donor,
Trustee J. M. Chamberlain; the Athletic Field for Herbert Clark
Ward, *9G; the men's campus for Paul MacEachron, *11, formerly
dean of men. The fine service of President Bradley was recognized

154 Grinnell College

by naming a splendid clump of trees, among the many planted by
his hands, the Bradley Oaks.

The roster of the Board of Trustees for the centennial year of 1946
follows:

* Robert B. Adams Odebolt

* W. Harold Brenton, B.S. Des Moines

* George Melville Crabb, '06, M.D. Mason City
John Frederick Darby, '95, LL.D. Tulsa, Oklahoma
Chester Charles Davis, '11, D.Sc., LL.D. St. Louis, Missouri
Rt. Rev. Elwood Lindsay Haines Davenport

* John R. Heath, '19, LL.B. Chicago, Illinois

* Mrs. Frank P. Hixon, A.B. Lake Forest, Illinois
Harry Lloyd Hopkins, '12, LL.D. Washington, D. Q

* Stewart Ray Kirkpatrick, '15 Omaha, Nebraska

* Mrs. David S. Kruidenier Des Moines
Fred Albert Little, '16, LL.B. Des Moines
Rev. Bruce H. Masselink, B.D. Burlington

* Frederick Louis Maytag II, A.B. Newton

* Gerard Scholte Nollen, '02 Des Moines
Samuel J. Pooley, *92 Grinnell

* Joseph Frankel Rosenfield, '25, J.D. Des Moines
Albert Shaw, 79, Ph.D., LL.D., Litt.D. New York City
James Glenn Shifflett, LL.B. Grinnell

* Samuel Nowell Stevens, Ph.D., ex officio Grinnell
Burt J. Thompson, *94, LL.B. Forest City

* Rudolph Wilson Weitz, '21 Des Moines

* Murray DeWitt Welch, '16, LL.B. New York City

The members whose names are starred are still serving on the Board.
They, together with the following, make up the 1953 Board of
Trustees:

Louis G. Chrysler, Sr., Chico, California

Donald H. Clark, St. Louis, Missouri

W. Donald Evans, Des Moines

Rev. Judson E. Fiebiger, Grinnell

Rupert A. Hawk, Grinnell

Maxwell H. Herriott, Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Mrs. Leonard Hurtz, Omaha, Nebraska

Robert Kinsey, Grinnell

Dr. Angus C. McDonald, Huntington Park, California

F. Wendell Miller, Rockwell City

John W. Norris, Marshalltown

Fred M. Roberts, Seattle, Washington

Rt. Rev. Gordon Smith, Des Moines

IffifiSKBaH^^

XVIII

The Alumni

THE QUALITY of a college as an educational institution depends prima-
rily upon its teaching force, and secondarily upon its physical assets
and equipment. Another criterion is the output of the "knowledge
factory," which is more difficult to estimate. In general, it may be
said that Grinnell graduates everywhere have been noted for their
sturdy character and their pubHc spirit, as well as their devotion to
the ideals of the College. Faye Cashatt Lewis, in the novel, Doc's
Wife, bears interesting and humorous testimony from the outside to
tie loyalty of Grinnellians:

155

Grinnell College

If one has attended Grinnell College, one need never worry about his passage
through the pearly gates! I write this in no spirit of cattiness toward Grin-
nell College, but in puzzlement and wonder. I have never known the alumni
of any other institution to emanate such complete satisfaction with their
alma mater. I have never heard any of them say that Grinnell is the most
wonderful school on earth; they merely exude that opinion in some subtle
way that I have not been able to analyze. Most of them are intelligent and
discriminating people, who know something of other schools elsewhere, so
there must be some basis for this opinion.

For many years, only desultory attention was paid to the organiza-
tion of Grinnell alumni. The General Alumni Association was^estab-
lished in 1879, but the catalogue makes no mention of its existence
until 1890, when the officers, in addition to president, vice-president,
secretary and treasurer, included an "orator," who disappears from
later lists. The organization of local alumni groups followed very
slowly. The alurnni in the Chicago area were first in the field, organ-
izing in 1892. The Des Molnes group followed nine years later, as
did the association formed in Southern California. In 1903 a New
England Association was organized; in 1905 the alumni of New
York and vicinity formed an Association of Middle States, the San
Francisco area gathered in a Bay Association, and a local group was
established in Grinnell. The following years brought a more rapid
increase in the number of local groups, attesting to the spread of
graduates of the College throughout the country and even into the
Orient. The Minneapolis-St. Paul group was formed in 1907. In
1912 associations were formed in Montana, Oregon, and Utah, and
the "Inland Empire"; in 1913 Denver, Omaha-Council Bluffs, and
the Oriental group in China followed. In addition to the more im-
portant towns in Iowa, by the twenties such more distant centers as
Kansas City, Lincoln, "Washington, San Diego, and Urbana were
organized. Ten years later Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Phila-
delphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis had been added. By 1920 the cata-
logue listed thirty-five alumni associations; a few of these had a pre-
carious existence, but new groups replaced those that ceased to f unc-
tion, and in the early forties there were thirty-three associations still
alive.

The attention of the College to its alurnni interests has been some-
what sporadic. In the early years there was no attempt to keep in
touch with graduates and former students from the central office in
Grinnell, and it was usually in connection with financial campaigns

THE ALUMNI 157

that ad hoc efforts were made in this direction. Looking toward the
systematic encouragement of alumni Interest in college doings, from
November, 1900, the loica College News Letter was sent to graduates
and others interested.

The first publication aimed specifically toward alumni was the
Grinnell Review, begun in October, 1905. A two-column paper, it
was published monthly during the college year and "devoted to the
interests of Iowa College and its graduates." Concerned mainly with
money-raising, it carried news of alumni and of the College as well
as reviews, essays, poetry, and editorials.

In November, 1919, President John Hanson Thomas Main wrote
this message to readers of the Review.

Whatever contribution the Middle West may have for American thought,
this contribution cannot be articulate without a journal where it may be
expressed. The Grinnell Review expects to be such a journal . . . Yet here,
as in the East, are men and women in passionate revolt against the existing
order and men and women In exquisite harmony with it. If the Grinnell
Review can express the particular quality of this revolt and the harmony,
It will have done much.

Grinnell and "Yon was another bulletin of Information for the
alumni and friends of Grinnell College which was published from
1921 to 1940. Continuing along the same lines as the Grinnell Kc-
vleiVi It was published eight times during the year. There were reg-
ular columns for births, deaths, and weddings, and a "Here and
There" column with alumni news by classes,

The alumni publication. Alumni Scarlet and Black, Is issued four
times a year in September, November, February, and May, and It
varies In size from four to twelve pages. Births, deaths, and mar-
riages are listed, and a "People You Know" column carries alumni
news by classes. In addition it has major alumni stories, campus news
and events, and an "Across the President's Desk 33 section.

fiMaattHM^^

The College in War

DURING the hundred years of the history of the College, the United
States has been involved in four wars, each of which naturally affected
the institutional life. The participation of pioneer Iowa College in
the Civil War is indicated by the catalogue for 1865-1866, which
lists seventy- one men, practically the entire masculine enrollment,
as having entered the service from Grinnell; one member of the fac-
ulty and five of the ten men graduated at Davenport were also in
the national service. Of this number, eighteen were commissioned

158

THE COLLEGE IN WAR 159

officers, including one Lieutenant Colonel, two Majors, and two Cap-
tains. Casualties were relatively high, with eleven fatalities, five
killed in action, six the victims of disease and exposure in prison
camps. The names of those who gave this "last full measure of devo-
tion" are engraved on a marble tablet in the College Chapel Pro-
fessor Jesse Macy in his Autobiography gives an interesting account
of the grudging attitude of military officers toward recruits who were
legally entitled to be noncombatants.

It was probably not merely the backwash of the Civil War that
brought the first and only experiment with peacetime military train-
ing at GrinnelL It was probably rather due to the engagement of
Albert S. Hardy as professor of civil engineering "etcetera/ 5 and the
fact that he was a West Pointer. In any case, during Mr. Hardy's
presence, 1871-1874, military drill in artillery and infantry tactics
was required of all male students for a half hour daily, four days a
week. After his departure students still drilled under "officers
selected from their own number who had large experience in the late
war," but this arrangement was dropped in 1876, "owing to the want
of a suitable instructor," whom it was hoped to provide "as soon as
circumstances allow"; but this was the last mention of the matter in
the catalogue.

The six months* war with Spain in 1898 made little impression
upon the college enrollment, which showed a drop of only ten, from
280 to 270, more than made up for in the following years. The
President's Report for 1898 had this brief reference to such participa-
tion as there was:

The call for volunteers for the war against Spain has affected our numbers
probably less than those of institutions in which regular military organiza-
tions existed. Three of our students were already members of the National
Guard and felt, therefore, under this special obligation to enlist. Three
others have followed them. Five of these are in Company K of the 50th
Regiment [which never left the United States], and one in the 49th Regi-
ment [which spent the winter in Cuba], ... A military company has been
formed which includes a very large number of students. They drill regularly,
so far as they are able to do so without arms. These they have tried to
obtain but up to this time have not been successful.

Military medicine was then still in its infancy, and the choice of
training camps, dictated by political pull, was most unfortunate;
consequently, disease was rampant. Of all the volunteers from the

Grinnell College

entire state of Iowa, about two hundred died In the service, of whom
just one man was killed in battle. 164

The first World War caused a serious dislocation of college pro-
grams throughout the country, and there was a disturbing lack of
intelligent cooperation between military commands and the academic
organization. In many cases, as at Grinnell, young and inexperienced
officers, who were evidently overmuch impressed with their brief
authority, made it impossible for college officials to work effectively
with them, and by ill-advised orders, jeopardized the health of the
men under their charge in the Students' Army Training Corps. As
President Main said in his Report for September, 1920:

The confusion and disarrangement attendant upon military service during
the first portion of the year, and demobilization continuing through the year
1918-1919, made the establishment of normal conditions, for college work
and activity, practically impossible. Connected with this period there is
much to regret from the College point of view. On the other hand there is
every reason for thanksgiving from the point of view of loyalty to the
great cause to which our country committed itself,

The faculty made every concession to students entering the na-
tional service. On April 30, 1917, they voted full credit for such
students In courses In which they were in good standing, and students
were granted degrees In absentia. In March, 1918, proportional
credits were voted for men leaving for the national service. In 1919
men who were unable to return to complete the course were granted
a "war diploma" recording their work in college. Meanwhile, twenty-
three members of the faculty, among them the president, were en-
gaged In various forms of war work.

During the first World War, the total number of Grinnell men
and women in all forms of war service was 951, of whom 868 were
In military service and 83 in auxiliary services, such as the Red Cross,
the Y.M.C.A., and War Camp Community Service. The number in
training on the campus in, the S.A.T.C. was 259. From the classes
attending college during the war, 301 were in the service. The total
number of fatalities was 22, of whom 6 were killed in action and 16
died of disease evidence that the army medical service was still on
a low plane. There was a great improvement in this- service during
the following quarter-century, as appears from its record in the
second World War, when, however, airplane accidents during train-
ing introduced a new element of danger.

THE COLLEGE IN WAR 161

For about a quarter-century after the armistice of 1918, the Col-
lege was free to return to its traditional pacific activities, and Grin-
nell made a conspicuous contribution to the discussion of ways and
means to organize the world for peace by holding summer institutes
and lectureships on international relations. The reluctance of the
nation to take an active part in the second World "War is a matter of
history, as is the decisive impact of the attack on Pearl Harbor, De-
cember 7, 194 1, upon the public mind. A year before this historic
event, arrangements had been made at Grinnell for training in
aviation for students applying for such preliminary training. Now
the war claimed the service of all able-bodied men of military age.

The American participation in the first World War was so brief
that its impact upon the colleges, though disturbing, could be con-
sidered a disagreeable interlude. The second World War made incom-
parably greater demands upon the resources of the nation, and far
more effective arrangements were made for the indispensable co-
operation of our educational institutions. As for Grinnell, the normal
college activities were carried on by the women, while the men en-
tered the national service. The total number of Grinnell students,
graduates, and former students engaged in various branches of the
national service exceeded 1,300, the great majority in the army and
the air corps, relatively few in the navy, the marine corps, and the
medical service. Of forty-four who were reported as giving their
lives, twenty- four were direct war casualties, eleven were victims of
plane accidents and five of other accidents, and four died of disease.
Over two-thirds of the casualties were commissioned officers.

In addition to the students and alumni mentioned above, there
were large numbers of men resident for short periods on the Grinnell
campus for specialized training under the army. This educational
work was far better organized and directed than was the case in the
S.A.T.C. in 1918. By October, 1942, an Officer Candidate School
was set up under the office of the Adjutant General; it took over the
Men's Dormitories, the Alumni Recitation Hall, and several buildings
off the campus. During the next nine months this school graduated
over fifteen hundred administrative officers. This work was discon-
tinued July 1, 1943, together with similar courses in other centers
throughout the country. Immediately afterward the facilities of the
College were made available for the Army Specialized Training Pro-
gram, which included instruction in foreign languages, the history,

162 Grinnell College

geography, and culture of foreign areas, mathematics and the physical
sciences, and physical education. The Officer Candidate School had
utilized only military personnel for instruction, but the Specialized
Training Program required civilian instructors. Many members of
the Grinnell faculty were engaged in the administration and full or
part-time teaching, and a number o additional instructors were
engaged by the College for this work. A great flow of soldiers passed
through the various programs of instruction, and at times the military
personnel on the campus exceeded 1,200. The War Department dis-
continued these programs throughout the country in March, 1944.

During the war, following the recommendation of the North Cen-
tral Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, and of the Edu-
cational Policies Commission, the College admitted students from
high schools at the end of the junior high school year, under rather
strict conditions of scholarship and maturity. The effect of the war
upon student enrollment did not, of course, end with the cessation
of hostilities. The return of the younger members of the armed
forces was necessarily slow; the demands of the armies of occupation
continued. For the year 1945-1946, the registration of women at
Grinnell was by far the greatest in the history of the College, while
the enrollment of men began to rise from the minimum of the war
years.

Meanwhile, new and formidable developments in the conduct of
war, such as radar, rocket propulsion, and the atomic bomb, changed
the whole basis of national defense. The spectacular evidence in re-
cent research of the paramount value of the trained mind and the
pursuit of pure science will justify anew the claims of our colleges
and universities to freedom of action and adequate support in their
essential educational work.

Part Four

Campus High Lights

StflBlfiKBH^^^

Art and Music"

CONSIDERING the great importance of art and music in Greek cul-
ture, it seems strange that these disciplines found their way very slowly
into the program of the American college, though its early curriculum
was dominated by classical influence. The Puritan was indeed wedded
to the Good, but he paid scant heed to the Beautiful, and in that he
was un-Hellenic. Besides, his English ancestry was not conducive to
artistic endeavor.

Typically, both at Davenport and then at Grinnell, Iowa College

* This chapter is based on studies made by Edith A. Sternfeld, associate professor of art,
and George L. Pierce, professor emeritus of piano.

165

Gr'mnell College

paid only the slightest lip service to the arts. It is only by comparison
with other colleges that Grinnell was early in the development of this
interest. In the sixties the catalogue of Iowa College lists an instructor
in vocal music, and states that "instruction in instrumental music can
be obtained in the village," but there is no indication of organized
work in this field. An interest in art, equally inchoate, appears even
later. An instructor in drawing is listed for the first time in the cata-
logue for 1877-1878, but no place is provided for it in the curriculum,
whereas by this time a "Conservatory of Music" is announced, with a
three-year course of study. Meanwhile, it appears that opportunities
for instruction in drawing and painting were offered by the ubiq-
uitous Professor H. W. Parker and his vivacious lady while they were
in Grinnell, and later by Professor Barbour and his sister.

Art disappears from the catalogue during the ten years from 1878
to 1888, when an instructor in drawing and painting is listed, though
again the curriculum knows nothing of the subject. Three years later,
Alfred V. Churchill appears for one year as "director of the Art
School," and three courses are offered in drawing and painting, with
additional provision for ee wood-carving and china-painting." These
accessories were omitted from the courses offered by Susan Burroughs,
'84, who succeeded Churchill as director, but continued for only
two years.

For a period of twenty years, from 1895 to 1915, art again had no-
place in the college curriculum. It was in vain that the trustees had
shown some hospitality to the claims of art; in June, 1891, they re-
ferred to the executive committee a petition asking for an art depart-
ment. The faculty was also asked to consider a combined music and
liberal arts course, but they displayed a grudging attitude toward art
instruction, as appears from an inconclusive vote in June, 1893, on
a recommendation that courses be given in free-hand drawing and the
history and principles of art.

In February, 1895, art was accepted by the faculty as a three-hour
elective, but in September this credit was rescinded. In March, 1898,
an unfavorable report was made on a proposed art exhibit, but in
March, 1900, an art class under Mrs. H. H. Robbins was approved.
Meanwhile, members of the faculty and others had formed an art
club, which made a collection of photographs of masterpieces and
held exhibits with informal lectures for the benefit of students and the
public.

ART AND MUSIC 167

It was not until 1915 that courses in art history and theory began
to receive full recognition for college credit. Miss Millerd offered
courses in Greek and Roman sculpture and the Italian Renaissance,
Miss Sheldon lectured on mediaeval art, and Professor Spencer's
courses in classical archaeology and Greek and Roman monuments
also contained relevant material. The course in archaeology con-
tinued until Mr. Spencer's retirement in 1940; the course in monu-
ments was conducted in turn by Professors Smiley and Bridgham,
with an interval from 1929 to 1940. Miss Read, then assistant
professor of German, began teaching in the field of art in 1918;
during the next fourteen years she gave a variety of courses in the
art of the Renaissance, the Netherlands, American art, domestic art,
modern painting, history of architecture, and art appreciation. In
1925 the College received a gift of $50,000 from the Carnegie Cor-
poration for the development of courses in art.

Thus far, except for sporadic instruction in the early years, the
art courses given were all in the field of history and theory. Studio
courses in creative art began in 1930, with Edith Sternfeld (A.B.,
Northwestern; B.A.E., Art Institute of Chicago; A.M., Iowa) as
assistant, later associate, professor of art. With changing assistance,
particularly by Mrs. Elizabeth M. Hensley in crafts, Miss Sternfeld
developed a full-fledged department of art, offering a major in this
subject. The aim of the instruction was stated as follows:

Throughout the work of the department the aim is to develop a sensitivity
to artistic values, sound critical judgment, and interests which will be a
source of satisfaction during and after college days. Opportunities are offered
for the exploration of various mediums and techniques and for the develop-
ment of skills with a view to ease and adequacy of expression. While the
courses are definitely nonprof essional in character, they are fundamental and
thorough enough to serve as the basis for later specialization should that be
desired. But the chief purpose is to give to all students artistic resources
which will make daily living richer and more significant.

By the early 1940's, courses in history and theory included intro-
duction to the visual arts, history and appreciation of art, modern art,
interior decoration, and dress design. The studio courses included art
structure (in design and drawing) , art in the elementary school,
crafts, lettering and advertising design, puppetry, and studio prob-
lems. A new educational feature was a picture rental collection of
framed originals or reproductions available to students or faculty

168 Grinnell College

members for the decoration of their rooms. For the benefit of the
whole academic community, a variety of loan exhibitions, numbering
eighty from 1930 to 1945, presented collections in many art forms,
including oil paintings, water colors, prints, Japanese, Chinese, and
Amerindian art, sculpture, stained glass, textiles, and fresco. Noted
artists have cooperated by giving lectures on their art fields.

During the sixties and early seventies the College had made some
provision for instruction in vocal music. The first instruction in this
subject was offered in 1862-1863 and again, 1867-1870, by the Rev.
Darius E. Jones, 105 who sang his way through an extraordinary variety
of occupations, as manufacturer, editor, church chorister, pastor, sec-
retary of the American Home Missionary Society, agent of the Bible
Society, representative of the Boston and Maine Railway, composer,
and compiler of songs. In 1863 William Beaton taught vocal music,
and from 1864 to 1867 the Rev. Charles W. Clapp added this func-
tion to his duties as professor of rhetoric and English literature. For
the two years, 1873-1875, Harlow S. Mills, '74 (D.D., 3 14) had
charge of this work. At this same time Miss Debra C. Fessenden was
the first instructor in instrumental music to appear as a member of the
teaching staff.

All this was preliminary to the appearance in 1875 of Wiliard
Kimball (B.Mus., Oberlin) as instructor in vocal and instrumental
music. He became professor the next year when a regular course in
music was "contemplated/* In 1877 a "Conservatory o Music" was
organized with Kimball as director, and a three-year course was out-
lined in the catalogue. Director KimbalFs nineteen years at Grinnell
saw the full development of the Conservatory, with a teaching force
of five instructors, a maximum enrollment of 180, and courses in
piano, pipe organ, violin and stringed instruments, voice culture, and
the science and theory of music. In the early years music was still
regarded as an extra; in June, 1880, the trustees permitted it to be
offered as an optional subject only in the ladies* course, and the ex-
pectation was that the Conservatory should be self-sustaining. Seven
years later the trustees by-passed a suggestion that music be an
optional subject in the classical course.

By this time it appears that Director Kimball took over the work
in music as a private venture, and in 1888 a separate catalogue was
issued for the Conservatory. He had the use of the college plant, but
in return was required in 1889 to pay 10 per cent of his gross income

ART AND MUSIC 1 69

to the College. In 1891 the offering of a degree for the music-literary
course was voted down, but the next year music became available as
an elective in the junior and senior years of all college courses. In

1893 the Conservatory of Music was taken over by the trustees as an
integral part of the College, and the equipment was purchased from
Kimball, who transferred the next year to the University of Nebraska,
taking his staff of instructors with him.

It was therefore a completely new music faculty that took over in

1894 under Rossetter Gleason Cole (Ph.B., A.M., Michigan; later
Mus.D., Grinnell) as director, and the Conservatory was now renamed
the School of Music. The opportunities for the election of music by
the academic students were enlarged by the offering of ten two-hour
courses in theoretical music, including courses in harmony, counter-
point, theory and history of music, musical analysis and form, and
aesthetics of music. A normal course for teachers was also added.

Integration with the College had the result that gradually a large
majority of the music students took academic courses, and the influ-
ence of the music faculty affected the College life in the organization
of the College Glee Club and the Amphion Orchestra, which culti-
vated serious music of a type quite different from that purveyed by
conventional student clubs, and which carried its influence far and
wide on concert tours. There had been earlier choral groups of an
ephemeral character, but here was the beginning of the application of
ideals in musical education that made it truly coordinate with long-
cultivated academic fields. This tendency found its final expression
when the School of Music became the Department of Music in the
College in 1931.

Mr. Cole was succeeded as director for brief periods by Henry "W.
Matlack (B.Mus., Oberlin; A.B., Grinnell), 1901-1903; by William
B. Olds (A.B., Beloit; instructor in singing since 1901) as acting
director, 1903-1904; and 1904-1907 by Dudley Lytton Smith (A.B.,
Western Reserve; instructor in piano since 1901). In 1907 George
Leavitt Pierce (B.Mus., Oberlin) began his twenty-four years of
service as director.

During this period there were six others of full professional rank
on the music faculty. Edward Benjamin Scheve (hon. Mus.D.) came
in 1906 as professor of musical theory and composition and instructor
in organ. He continued to render distinguished service as teacher,
composer, and organist until his death in 1924.

170 Grinndl College

Henry V. Matlack returned to Grinnell in 1909 as acting professor
of musical theory and instructor in organ; lie was acting director dur-
ing Professor Pierce's leave of absence in 1910-1911, and remained as
professor until he became assistant to the president in alumni relations
in 1922, continuing as college organist and serving again as professor
of organ as well as alumni secretary, 1931-1936.

The enrollment in the School of Music increased rather steadily
after 1910 and in 1920-1921 reached an all-time high of 293, of
whom 152 were also enrolled in academic courses; 90 were children.
Ten years later the depression had left its mark, reducing the enroll-
ment in music to 89 adults (practically all academic students) and
14 children. It was evident that the public at large still considered
music a luxury.

Meanwhile, the teaching staff had done not only its full share in
developing an interest in good music on the campus, but also in
making the excellent results available to the public. As a successor to
the Amphion Orchestra, Professor Pierce in 1907 organized the Grin-
nell College Symphony Orchestra, which continued under his direc-
tion until 1940, except for his two leaves of absence, when Professor
Scheve took charge, 19 10-1911, and Professor Peck, 1930-1931. Dur-
ing its best years the orchestra numbered fifty-five members; its
repertoire included symphonies by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schu-
bert, Franck, and Dvorak, the classic overtures, and a variety of con-
certos with eminent soloists.

The Grinnell String Quartet was also organized in 1907, and, under
the leadership of David E. Peck as first violin, performed the classic
quartets and a selection of modern works. During the thirty-five
years of its existence this quartet probably did more for the apprecia-
tion of chamber music in the Midwest than any other organization.

The Men's Glee Club, organized in 1895 by Rossetter G. Cole, was
conducted from 1901 to 1907 by Dudley L. Smith, from 1907 to
1910 by George L. Pierce, and then for twenty-seven years by David
E. Peck, its repertoire including many of the finest works for male
chorus. The club made frequent tours in the Midwest and two sing-
ing trips to the Pacific Coast. In 1924 it won first place at the contest
of college and university glee clubs in Chicago, and a high place
among eastern clubs in the subsequent contest in New York. For
forty years it sang without the personal direction of the conductor.
The Grinnell College Girls* Glee Club was conducted by George L,

ART AND MUSIC 171

Pierce from 1907 to 1942. This club also made annual tours o the

Midwest, and one trip as guests of the Sante Fe Railway to Los Angeles.

A general choral organization was attempted as early as 1874, when

the "Lowell Mason Society" met to sing works by classical composers.

In the eighties this was followed by a "Mozart Club" and a "Musical
Union/' and in 1901 an "Oratorio Society" sang Mendelssohn's Elijah.
The first permanent College Choir was organized in 1907, consisting
of the membership of the two glee clubs. For thirty-five years this
"Vesper Choir" introduced its members to the best sacred music as a
part of the formal vesper service on Sundays in the College Chapel.
With an enlarged membership, it participated annually in the produc-
tion of the great oratorios. The Choir thrice entered the Des Moines
Eisteddfod, twice winning the first prize and once the second prize.

Members of the music faculty were responsible for the organization
of the music festivals held in May or June since 1901, first with the
participation of the Chicago Symphony (not the one founded by
Theodore Thomas), later with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra un-
der Frederick Stock, and the New York, Minneapolis, and St. Louis
symphonies. The musical programs brought to Grinnell included the
names of practically all the great recital artists of the past fifty years,
famous string quartets, orchestras, and other instrumental groups,
bands, choruses, and singing groups.

Grinnell was one of the first colleges in the country to offer the
degree of bachelor of arts with a music major, and to provide a
standardized course for the degree of bachelor of music. In recent
years, the department of music has become so completely integrated
into the academic curriculum that students are no longer listed sep-
arately as enrolled in music.

jj!?t??f?ffji?mi?mf^

*XXI*

Athletics and Physical Education'

THE athletic teams representing Grinnell College have long rejoiced
in the sobriquet of '"Pioneers," which might be a recognition of the
early development of interest in athletics on the campus, as well as
of the priority of the College in midwestern education. During the
first decades this interest remained subordinate to the demands of
humbler and more lucrative occupations upon the leisure hours in the
student life. John Hall Windsor, '54, first graduate of the College,
wrote in 1889: "First claims on physical exercise in 1849-1854 were

* This chapter is based on. a study made by John C. Truesdalc, professor of physical

education.

172

ATHLETICS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION 173

so great in sawing wood and doing chores that gymnasium and out-
door recreation were rendered unnecessary. Still, we had some first-
class baseball games. Even now we would willingly take up the chal-
lenge of freshmen against sophs, though the game as we knew it would
doubtless astonish the professionals of today." 1GG H. H. Belfield and
E. O. Tade, '58, wrote: "This was the glacial period of amusements.
No gymnasium, no baseball, no rowing, no glee clubs, no nothing.
We did hunt a little along the river and in the woods. Life was too
serious to be devoted to frivolous sports. Our amusements were
'prisoner's base' and 'town ball' mere general games. We were
nearly all poor young men and had to cut wood and do chores for
our fun and to pay board." This was the story for the Davenport
days.

The early years at Grinnell brought little change of procedure.
Professor Jesse Macy, 70, writing in 1902, remembered no playing
of games during the Civil War period, but claimed credit for himself
introducing a game of football, "neither Rugby nor Association"
the latter term equivalent to "soccer." Macy reports that Charles N.
Cooper, '67, was a positive advocate of regular physical training,
prophetic of later enthusiasm for athletics, and that he "raised a little
fund and erected a swing among the locust trees west of Alumni
Hall," the present Music Building. Mahlon Willett, '69, "contracted
a very uncomfortable habit of arising early in the morning and tak-
ing a brisk walk or run into the country before breakfast. By down-
right persistence he induced a score of others to join him in these
early perambulations." 16T This was the first adumbration of the later
keen interest in track sports.

The "national game" was naturally the first to be played with some
regularity on the Grinnell campus. Macy reports that baseball was
introduced about 1867 by a returned soldier, Michael Austin, 71,
later a trustee of the College, The first match game with an outside
team was played in 1868 with the State University. Grinnell won,
24-0. This was apparently the earliest intercollegiate contest in Iowa. 168
Baseball, played in both spring and fall, remained the one athletic
game on the campus through the seventies, with occasional outside
games. The student paper indulged in frequent editorial exhortations
to a flagging athletic interest. It urged students to "bestir them-
selves, to wear down the weeds on the base paths of the diamond field,
to walk or hunt instead of day-loafing or smoking as their Saturday

174 Grinnell College

pastimes. Our boys are famous for their eloquent orations on "Physi-
cal Culture*; our eyes long for a practical demonstration."

The sporadic interest in soccer mentioned by Macy was revived in
the late seventies and early eighties, when the students evidently be-
came possessed of a football. Thus the News Letter in May, 1881,
wisecracks: <e the football is here, and when a student is sad and wants
to die, he goes out and runs the ball across the campus for an hour.
If he isn't dead before morning, he will have endured so much bodily
anguish that the blues can not get hold upon his constitution. . . .
The Juniors, essaying to beat the Preps, were ingloriously defeated by
a score of 8 to 7." Such intramural matches continued throughout
the eighties.

The change from soccer to Rugby toward the end of this decade
was highlighted by the first intercollegiate game in modern football
west of the Mississippi. * The occasion was a challenge issued by the
State University Foot Ball Team in October, 1889, to any college or
other team in the state of Iowa. The Grinnell student papers for
October and November abound in discussions of the challenge and
its results. The first approach was almost a plea in avoidance: "Our
boys have just started to play foot ball and perhaps could not do up
the S. U. I. team. However we are ready to try them in base ball this
year." 169 But evidently the student dander was up, and the Pulse for
October 26 published a communication urging acceptance of the
challenge:

Why cannot we accept their challenge? The answer is simply because we
do not know enough about the Rugby game. We have balls, grounds laid
out, several Rugby players, and a whole host of men who would make good
Rugby players. We could put a rush-line in the field of an average weight
of 170 Ibs., and all of them men who can run an 11 -sec. gait. But to play
this game as it should be played there must be a large amount of practice
and in order to get this practice there must be system. If they are not will-
ing to do this and if proper training cannot be taken, then let us keep quiet
and still retain the old worn-out back seat which we have hitherto held in
respect to foot ball.

A football association was formed, "the longed-for football" arrived,
Rugby was now the popular game, and the challenge was accepted.
The Pulse for November 23 reported the epic struggle:

* One sports authority cites 1881 at the University of California as the starting date for
collegiate football in the trans-Mississippi West. See Christy Walsh (ed.), College Foot-
ball , . . (Culver City, Calif., 1949) ^ 19,

ATHLETICS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION 175

The S. U. I. has quite a reputation among Iowa colleges for athletics and
when the challenge was issued it was with fear and trembling that Iowa

College accepted it. This fear was in no way lessened when their brawny
representatives appeared on the grounds last Saturday. Much heavier in
actual weight and looking even larger than they were in their new uniforms,
the S. U. I. team was not exactly calculated to inspire confidence in Iowa
College's victory. It being a fine day and the first match ever played here
a large crowd was out to witness the game, and judging from the enthusiasm
both during the game and after the game all enjoyed the sport and will hail
with pleasure the announcement of another. 170

The score: "Iowa College 24; State University 0" in spite of the
fact that the coach at the University (also professor of English)
played with his team. This historic contest was honored fifty years
later by the erection of a suitable monument on the athletic field,
flanked by flagstaifs for the display of banners of the home and visit-
ing teams at each game.

Following the 1889 contest with the University of Iowa the foot-
ball tradition at Grinnell grew during the last decade of the nine-
teenth century as a more ambitious schedule was arranged. Grinnell
defeated the University of Minnesota In their first meeting in 1893,
6-2, and outscored Iowa State College, 38-2, during the same season.
Other gridiron victims of the Pioneers during the days of the "flying
wedge" and the drop-kick artist were the University of Nebraska,
Drake University, Carleton College, and the Des Molnes Y. M. C A.
(the latter squad fell by a score of 132-0 In 1892). Rivalries with
Coe, Simpson, Cornell, and Penn colleges also added to the collegiate
sports scene at Grinnell long before spectators considered a reserved
seat or bottle of carbonated water a necessary adjunct to such

contests.

At the end of World War I Grinnell officials moved the College
into the Missouri Valley Conference, one of the major collegiate
associations in the Midwest. Founded in 1907, the Missouri Valley
already included Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas State,
Drake, Iowa State, and Washington of St. Louis among its members.
Grinnell teams found competition in the conference formidable.
"Grinnell had a hard-fighting eleven," a Kansas City sportswriter
noted in 1923, "but the material was not of sufficiently heavy caliber
to enable Coach [A. H.] Elward to put out a team to cope success-
fully against the heavier and more powerful Conference members."
The Pioneers made creditable showings in 1925 and 1926, but discord

176 Grinnell College

in the conference soon led to a realignment of member schools. Most
of the original members formed their own conference, limited to
state-supported universities, and Grinnell remained in the old Mis-
souri Valley group until 1939. Before the 1939 football season began,
Grinnell shifted its membership into the smaller Midwest Conference,
although occasionally nonconference contests with the University of
Colorado, Washington University, and De Pauw were scheduled.

Track and field sports began to engage the serious attention of the
students in the eighties. 171 The News Letter for June, 1886, records
the first home Field Day, consisting of a variety of running and
jumping events and stunt races, for prizes such as "100 glasses of
soda-water, laundry for twenty weeks, or a pair of knee pants."
This Field Day was to continue through the years as an Annual
Home Meet of contests between the college classes. The first State
Meet was held in Grinnell in 1890, under the auspices of the Iowa
Intercollegiate Athletic Association formed during the preceding
winter. Such State Meets were held regularly until 1917, and occa-
sionally in later years. During the track seasons of 1907, 1908, and
1909 the Grinnell teams captured the Iowa Intercollegiate Track
Meet cup with convincing victories in dash events, hurdles, relays, and
the pole vault. The climax of the three-year reign came on May 29,
1909, when Grinnell won the championship cup for the third straight
time by amassing 63^ points*. E. W. Turner was the individual star
for Grinnell as he won the 100-yard dash, the 220-yard dash, and the
440-yard run to contribute personally 15 points to the scarlet-and-
black total. William Ziegler pressed Turner for team, honors by win-
ning the shotput and placing second in both the hammer throw and
discus throw. "Seldom in the history of track athletics in Iowa has
one team shown such wonderful superiority," a sportswriter wrote
following the meet. In 1894 Ralph Lee Whitley, '95, ran the 440
in 49 seconds, a state record which stood for over forty years.
Grinnell track athletes participated with honor in national and
international contests, such as the Western and Missouri Valley
Conference, the Drake Relays (at which Grinnell was classed
with the universities) , and the Olympic Games. In the nineties
John Harland Rush, '97, in the 1900's Harry J. (Doc) Huff, '09,
in the next two decades Charles B. (Chuck) Hoyt, '18, and Leonard
T. Paulu, '22, were national champion sprinters, and later Myron
C. (Mike) Pilbrow, *33, was a national champion two-miler. Fred-

ATHLETICS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION 177

erick Morgan Taylor, '26, won the 400-meter hurdles at the Olympic
Games In 1924, in the best time to that date, and almost repeated by
taking second place in the Olympics four years later, and third place
in 1932 at Los Angeles. He is the only American athlete known to
have placed in track and field sports at three Olympics. 172

Tennis began as a female sport in Grinnell, and in reporting the
formation of a girls' tennis club in April, 1886, the News Letter
added: "Tennis is a game particularly adapted to ladies/' Male mem-
bers of the faculty, led by President Gates, also were addicted to this
sport, as well as to cycling, before the college boys took it up and
founded a Tennis Association in 1888; the next year there were
twenty-six competing for the college championship. Intercollegiate
matches in dual contests and state tournaments began in 1890 and
were continued rather regularly in subsequent years. The women
have also shown a continuing interest in this sport.

Indoor sports had perforce to await the provision of a suitable
building. Student agitation for a gymnasium began as early as the
seventies. The first attempt in this direction was the installation of
an outdoor gymnasium, the purchase of a "health lift" by the stu-
dents, and the setting up of "vaulting and turning poles/' After the
cyclone of 1882 the basement of the old Alumni Hall was used as a
gymnasium, but attendance was voluntary and the catalogue stated
rather vaguely that "it has been used by a large number of students
under competent instruction [unspecified] and is believed to be of
great service." The faculty evidently took no part in this "com-
petent instruction," and the optimistic "belief" was ill founded, for
the facilities provided were completely inadequate, and even janitor
service left much to be desired. The student paper announced the
occupancy of "our gymnasium" in the spring of 1884, but it brought
no happiness. There was frequent action by the faculty in an effort
to obtain order, quiet, and participation. Student leaders were hired,
a bathtub was installed to attract customers, apparatus was purchased,
members of the faculty attempted to oversee the area and even direct
classes, dues were charged and fines imposed, but there was no- cure
for the ills that all recognized and deplored. The women were first
supplied with adequate quarters when the E. D, Rand Gymnasium
was built in 1897 by Miss Carrie Rand, who had come in 1893 as
"Instructor in Social and Physical Culture." Then the men finally
got their gymnasium, which was opened in January, 1900. The Rand

j: 7g Grinnell College

Gymnasium was destroyed by fire in December, 1939. The men of
the College occupied their new and completely adequate quarters in
the Darby Gymnasium in 1942, and the old Men's Gym was then
made available as a temporary home for the women's program of
physical education.

Basketball, like tennis, began at Grinnell as a women's sport, in-
troduced to the campus by Emeline Barstow Bartlett (Vassar, '94) ,
who was acting preceptress in the Academy. Thus, even before the
erection of the Rand Gymnasium, the "cottage ladies" and the "town
ladies" in 1896 practised in a room "over the C.O.D. laundry," and
played championship games in the "armory," a wooden structure
downtown which has since disappeared. 173 Largely as a joke, the girls
of the class of '98 challenged the boys of the class to a game of basket-
ball, which the boys won by a score of 59 to 32. Four years later the
college men were playing the game on their own account, and basket-
ball was formally adopted as a college sport by the Athletic Union
in January, 1901. Since that time basketball has been continuously
on the Grinnell sports schedule.

Bowling was at first an activity of members of the faculty, who
financed the building of an alley in the basement of the new Rand
Gymnasium. As other alleys were developed, the students also par-
ticipated. The interest in bowling lapsed in the course of time, and
it was never a medium of intercollegiate competition. Neither was
handball, which was apparently first played in 1900, with the forma-
tion of a club, and the installation of a court in the Men's Gymna-
sium. Swimming had to await the building of a swimming pool in
1926, and became an intercollegiate sport only four years later; since
then Grinnell swimming teams have participated in Missouri Valley
and Midwest Conference meets. Wrestling was doubtless indulged
in sporadically and unofficially from the early days, but the first
recognition of it as a college sport appears in the college papers late
in 1935. For a time there was participation in intercollegiate wres-
tling; more recently it has remained a part of the intramural program.
Boxing was formally prohibited by action of the faculty in Decem-
ber, 1 891, and has never developed into a recognized sport at Grinnell.

Golf, like bowling, was first played by members of the faculty
as early as 1899, when Professor Macy and others chased the elusive
gutta-percha over an improvised course, first on the campus and later
in Sanders* pasture. It became a student sport much later, after the

ATHLETICS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION 179

present golf links were laid out by a town club. The earliest mention
of golf in the student press occurs in 1935. Since that time golf
teams have participated regularly in dual and conference meets. In-
tramurals began at Grinnell as competition between the college
classes, there being no fraternities and for many years no men's
dormitories. The class unit remained in later years, but has been
supplemented since the building of the Men's Dormitories in 1917
by lively competition between the various houses, which have devel-
oped a somewhat remarkable tradition of house loyalty. Intramurals
have extended to the entire student body the benefits previously
limited to the candidates for memberships on the college teams.

In the early years the management of athletics was in student
hands, and the faculty took little notice of activities that were evi-
dently considered unacademic and unimportant. Early actions of
the faculty were purely restrictive in character, to meet abuses or
matters that were considered such. In 1883 both faculty and trustees
took action forbidding students to engage in contests outside of Grin-
nell in term time; and it was only "under protest," as late as 1888,
that occasional permission was given for such absence from town.
The passion for victory was too strong for the immature conscience,
and Grinnell was not guiltless of the common practice of hiring
"ringers" to bolster the strength of athletic teams. In May, 1890,
the faculty voted that "no one be allowed to register from now on
for the sake of entering State Field Day"; in February, 1891, it was
hoped to "suppress betting and riotous conduct" at an intercollegiate
field day; in March, 1892, the president was asked to correspond with
other college executives "in regard to professionalism in athletics";
and in 1893 the trustees took action against extended tours by athletic
teams and "the use of hired men on teams." In May, 1894, the stu-
dent paper claimed that "professionalism has wholly vanished this
Spring," but one suspects that this claim was premature.

The first committee of the faculty on athletics, appointed in De-
cember, 1890, recommended the encouragement and furtherance of
physical culture throughout the College. It became a standing com-
mittee in April, 1891. Soon a petition was granted for the establish-
ment of an Athletic Union. Intercollegiate games were now regu-
larly authorized, and the names of members of the teams were passed
upon as to scholarship. Reports were made upon individual students
whose work suffered from "over-athletic zeal." Athletic rules were

180 Grinnell College

adopted in 1897, and coaches were approved by the faculty. Alumni
interest in athletics crystallized in 1900, when the faculty adopted
a new constitution for the Athletic Union, providing for a board
composed of three alumni, one faculty representative, and one stu-
dent. In the long run this organization proved ineffective, and the
faculty assumed definite responsibility for the conduct of athletics,
including eligibility, the physical examination of contestants, restric-
tion of the number of games on the schedule, approval of the election
of captains and managers, and financial control. In 1909 a system of
permanent coaches with faculty rank was adopted, and in 1910 the
one-year residence rule was accepted.

The custom of wearing the insignia of the College on uniform or
sweater was apparently adopted at Grinnell in the early nineties,
and in 1892 Ernest W. Atherton, '95, won a contest for the selection
of an official emblem, a Maltese cross with the block letter G, which
was first used by the track team and then extended to contestants in
all other sports. 174 Since 1928 the Honor "G" has been awarded in
eight sports: football, basketball, track, cross-country, swimming,
tennis, golf, and wrestling.

As athletics developed beyond the primitive stage of the possession
of "a football," the problem of financing the expenses of the program
became increasingly difficult; the student papers were full of pleas
for more careful planning, frequent auditing of accounts, and more
adequate facilities. For many years necessary expenses were met by
voluntary contributions from students, alumni, and members of the
faculty. Too frequently there were harassing deficits and inexpert
bookkeeping. In 1907 a plan was adopted, with the consent of the
student body, to add to the tuition charge a semester fee, first of
$3.00, later increased to $5.00 and $7.50, payment of which entitled
the student to attendance at all athletic contests, concerts and lectures,
and eventually also to certain dramatic performances. The proceeds
have been allocated to various interests by the student council, with
the approval of the faculty, and the funds handled by the College
treasurer*

The earliest playing field was on the central campus, north of the
present location of Blair Hall, but the disturbance caused by the close
proximity of the field to classrooms caused criticism. In 1892 the
present athletic field was laid out and named after Herbert C. Ward
of the class of 1890. The concrete grandstand was built in 1910.

ATHLETICS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION 181

The one-third mile track was completed in 1903, but in order to
conform with common custom it was reduced to a quarter-mile track
in 1938. In 1918 an additional field was laid out for tennis and base-
ball north of Ward Field. The ground between Ward Field and the
dormitories, used as a practice area, was named for Paul MacEachron,
*12, former dean of men. The women's outdoor playing field in
Chamberlain Park, adjacent to the Women's Quadrangle, was laid
out in tennis courts, a hockey and baseball field, and courts for volley
ball and badminton.

In the early years the coaching as well as the management of
athletics and physical training was in student hands. The first pro-
fessional football coach employed was H. O. Stickney, from Harvard,
in 1893; he was followed in 1894 by Martin J. (Mike) Bergen, a
Princeton man. From 1897 to 1904 John Pyper (Jack) Watson was
track coach and trainer of the football team, and from 1899 to 1902
Walter W. Davis (Ph.D., Yale) was director of physical training.
Since his time, physical directors have been recognized as members
of the teaching staff. For six years Charles Edward Fisher ('99; A.M.,
Harvard) combined this work with an assistant professorship in Latin.
Arthur Milton Brown (A.B., Williams) was full-time director of
physical training, 1911-1913. He was succeeded by Harry J. Huff,
'09, who remained in charge until 1926 as director and as track coach,
assisted by others in the coaching of other sports. Raymond W.
Rogers was associate professor of physical training, 1920-1924. John
Cushman Truesdale (S.M., Iowa) came as professor of physical edu-
cation and director of athletics in 1927, and has more recently had
charge of intramurals, which were organized by Huff and Duke in
1925. G. Lester Duke, '25, came as instructor in physical education
in 1925, acted as track coach from 1926, since 1933 has been assistant
professor, and since 1940 director of intercollegiate athletics. Lester
L. Watt, '18, was associate professor of physical education and foot-
ball coach, 1927-1936. F. Benjamin (Ben) Douglas, '31, was assist-
ant professor of physical education and football and basketball coach
from 1940 until his call to military service in 1943.

The physical education of women was introduced in 1890 by
Siveri L. Ringheim, '89, as instructor in elocution and physical cul-
ture ("Delsarte and Calisthenics") and continued after 1893 by Miss
Carrie Rand as instructor in social and physical culture, with the use
of the armory, a large wooden building off the campus. It was

182 Grinnell College

organized more formally with the building of the Rand Gymnasium
in 1897, and continued until 1903 by Annie Bell Raymond, '97. She
was followed by Grace Douglass, '02, and Frances Rebekah Gardner
(ex- J 00; A.B., Stanford); in 1909 Clara Julia Andersen came from
Y. W. C. A. service in Des Moines; she taught physical training for
women at Grinnell until 1945. During these years there have been
material changes in the program of physical culture. In the early days
classwork consisted of Swedish gymnastics, a formalized "day's order"
which included the use of apparatus, stall bars, ladders, parallel bars,
etc. Games were then restricted to tennis and basketball. Costumes
consisted of long black hose, full, heavy serge bloomers, and long-
sleeved middy blouses, a far cry from the present abbreviated cos-
tumes. Gradually additional sports were introduced, and with the
erection of the Women's Quadrangle seasonal tournaments between
the cottages were organized. These intramurals now include hockey,
basketball, volley ball, badminton, tennis, and baseball. Swimming
meets and a dance intramural, for which each cottage develops its
own original theme, complete the year's events. These intramural
tournaments are in addition to the two years of physical education
required for graduation.

Ever since the first World War it has been apparent that greater
emphasis on neuro-muscular control and physical development is
essential. This became even more evident during World War II,
since so many women had gone into military service and were work-
ing in factories where great endurance was required. To meet this
need, a conditioning program for women was organized in February,
1942; since that time every woman has had two conditioning classes
a week, in addition to two classes in a selected sport or in swimming.
Those who are not physically able to take this work are given special
restricted exercise. The emphasis in physical education is now upon
the type of physical activity which can be carried on after college
days. Hence individual sports are popular. In the entire program
stress is laid upon social and aesthetic values.

For many years physical education remained an accessory to the
academic curriculum, a requirement in addition to the 120 hours
specified for graduation. In the twenties the women were given the
first opportunity to register for a minor in physical education, which
included a course in dramatics. By the thirties both majors and
minors were offered for men as well as for women, and these courses

ATHLETICS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION" 183

were fully integrated into the requirements for the bachelor's degree.
For students not registering for these courses there remained the gen-
eral requirement of six semester hours in physical education, in addi-
tion to the standard 120 academic credits, these six hours being dis-
tributed over three years of participation in athletics or gymnasium
work. In the forties the courses in physical education were integrated
into the new system of concentration, within the Division of Edu-
cation.

assfflwswjM

The Library

By MARGARET G. FULLERTON

THE history of the Grinnell College Library follows so closely that
of the College itself that the two are inseparable. Its function as an
integral part of the educational program throughout the years is
revealed in the catalogues, librarians' reports, news letters, and other
college publications that furnish the story of its growth and service
from 1846 to 1946.

The first mention of a library is found in the first catalogue of
Iowa College at Davenport, for 1849-1850. It states that "a small

* Margaret G. Fullerton, assistant in the library from 1938 to 1942; reference librarian
from 1942 to 1944.

184

THE LIBRARY 185

library of some 150 volumes" had been secured for the members of
the institution. The Rev. Erastus Ripley, professor of ancient lan-
guages, and the first member of the teaching force, was also librarian
until 1851. This practice, of having a member of the faculty assume
the office of librarian, was followed until 1889, when the Rev. Joshua
Chamberlain who was also a trustee, became the first full-time li-
brarian, following the occupancy of Goodnow Hall.

During the period that the College was at Davenport, the Rev.
Henry L. Bullen, professor of mathematics and natural philosophy,
was in charge of the library from 1851 to 1858, David S. Sheldon,
professor of chemistry and natural science, in 1858-1859, and Quincy
Gilmore for part of the year 1858 and again in I860. The collection
of books grew from its original 150 volumes to 1,800, plus 500 vol-
umes of the Chrestomathian Society. This society, as well as those
that were organized later, maintained its own library for many years,
and these collections were listed separately in the college catalogues
until 1890, when they were incorporated in the main library. After
1890, the Chrestomathians used their book fund to purchase books
in the field of political science, while the Grinnell Institute special-
ized in American history. These funds are a part of the book fund
today.

The catalogue for 1861, following the College's removal to Grin-
nell, lists the number of books as 2,500, with the Rev. Julius A.
Reed, acting principal of the Preparatory and English departments,
as librarian. He served until 1863, when Carl W. Von Coelln, pro-
fessor of chemistry, natural science, mathematics, and natural philos-
ophy, took charge, serving until 1865, when the collection had grown
to 3,000 volumes.

During this period a library fund was begun; the catalogue for
1863-1864 states that "the income of the library fund will enable
the trustees to make valuable additions to the library annually and it
is expected that friends of the Institution will continue to donate
works of permanent interest/* These "friends of the Institution"
have played a major part in the development of the library, for their
gifts of books and money have been an indispensable and invaluable
contribution to its enrichment since its beginnings in 1 849.

The Rev. S. Jay Buck, principal of the Preparatory and English
departments, was librarian from 1865 to 1870, and the collection
increased to 4,000 volumes. For the academic year 1870-1871 George

Grinnell College

Henry Lewis was principal of the Preparatory and English depart-
ments and was in charge of the library, followed by John A very,
Carter professor of Greek language and literature, who served for a
year. It was during this year that a reading room was established for
the first time. The catalogue states that "the young gentlemen of
the College, with the assistance of the Faculty and other friends,
established in the Fall Term a Reading Room, which occupies Rooms
No. 9 and 10, East College, and is supplied with 40 or 50 periodicals
and newspapers. It is open to all subscribers from 1 to 7 p.m. daily,
except Sundays."

Richard W. Swan, Benedict professor of Latin language and litera-
ture and associate principal of the Academy, was the next faculty
member to serve as librarian. He continued for a ten-year period,
which included the disastrous year of the cyclone. This calamity,
which struck so devastatingly at the College, revealed again very force-
fully the role that the friends of the library played in its preservation
and growth. The catalogue for 1882-1883 claims 6,450 volumes for
the library, "including those damaged by the cyclone," and lists the
many gifts received in response to the crisis. It also mentions the fact
that the society libraries were burned in the destruction of Central
Building, but that new collections had been started. The response of
friends is even more evident in the statement of the following year,
when S. G. Barnes, Ames professor of English language, literature,
and rhetoric, was in charge, for the number had by then grown to
10,000.

It is also evident that the problem of caring for and administering
the library had become acute, in the comment that "so much time is
required for the proper care of a library, that until the friends of the
college endow the Librarian's chair, and thus furnish her with one
who can give his undivided attention to it, the work must be slowly
and imperfectly done by some member of the faculty sufficiently
occupied already with the duties of his own chair."

This need was not provided for immediately, however, and Henry
K. Edson, Iowa professor of the theory and practice of teaching, held
the office from 1885 to 1887; Professor O. F. Emerson, '82, principal
of the Academy, in 1887-1888, with Miss Carrie M. Edson listed as
assistant librarian from 1887 to 1889.

It was at this time that E. A. Goodnow, of Worcester, Massachu-
setts, made a gift of $10,000 for a library and observatory building.

THE LIBRARY 187

It was completed In 1886, and occupied in 1887. A description states
that it "has a high hall with galleries for 50,000 volumes, besides a
spacious reading room, two apartments for art, and a tower for an
astronomical observatory.** With this provision of a library building,
a new era was begun, and a full-time librarian placed in charge the
Rev. Joshua M. Chamberlain, a trustee of the College. With a col-
lection of 20,000 books, the need for provision of an adequate classi-
fication system and card index had become imperative.

In the librarian's report for 1892, Mr, Chamberlain stated that

. . . the Faculty are making inquiries as to methods and expense of making
a card catalogue of the Library at the least cost possible, by their own and
students' voluntary labor. It seems desirable to encourage the effort to the
extent of purchasing the material necessary and the employment of an expert
assistant for a short time as an instructor and to inaugurate the work. It is
inevitable that we must have a catalogue soon at a large outlay unless some
voluntary labor can be secured. This comes to us from the right source and
in the right way a voluntary proposal from the Faculty, each one in his
department of study.

The Dewey decimal classification was adopted, and the card cata-
logue begun. During this time a special effort was also made to add
to and fill out the periodical sets.

Chamberlain served until 1896, and was followed by Harley H.
Stipp, '96, who served until 1898. The separate libraries in the science
departments were established at this time, as well as the School of
Music Library. In 1898-1899, Miss Cora W. Hastings, a Bates grad-
uate, was librarian. Matthew Hale Douglass, *95, an Iowa College
graduate with additional library training, served from 1899 to 1908.

The catalogue for 1899-1900 reveals that the library was for the
first time "open four evenings a week, also, electric lights having
been added during the year." At this time the library contained over
26,000 books and 100 periodicals. This was a most significant period
in the, expansion of the library. The present building was erected in
1904, and a staff of assistants employed. The catalogue for 1903-
1904 contains the following information about the new building:

Goodnow Hall, which has been used as the library building for the past 19
years . . . has served its purpose admirably in the past, but has now been
outgrown. Through the beneficence of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, who has con-
tributed $50,000 for the purpose, a substantial, modern library building will
be erected, during the summer of 1904. The new building will provide
large periodical and general reference reading rooms, a stack room to accom-

188 Grinnell College

modate 100,000 volumes, rooms for cataloguers and librarian, for art and
other special collections; for seminar, conversation and conference purposes,
adequate cloak and store rooms; and also, four large rooms to be used tem-
porarily for recitations. As a condition of the gift, which the trustees have
accepted, $5,000 a year will be expended in support of the library.

This gift of Carnegie was at the suggestion of Dr. Albert Shaw, 79.

The building was occupied in April, 1905, and a canvass was
launched for the endowment fund. As was stated in the catalogue
for 1904-1905, the library had until this time "been largely de-
pendent upon the generosity of its friends," but now, with the new
building and the consequent expansion of the library program, the
need of an adequate permanent fund for its support was obvious, and
a continuing campaign was made to build it during the following
years. During his administration Douglass inaugurated an apprentice
class for students interested in library work, and thus began the sys-
tem of employing student assistants which has been intermittently
in use ever since.

In 1908, L. L. Dickerson, of Oklahoma State College and the New
York State Library, took over the duties of librarian. He remained
until 1917, when he was granted leave of absence to enter war work.
During his administration the size of the library staff increased to
four, and the special collection of Grinnell College and Iowa historical
material was organized under a classification system of its own.

The need of more funds for books was being increasingly felt, as
an excerpt from Dickerson's report for 1912 indicates:

The income from book funds is gradually increasing. However, this is not
large enough to provide for the ordinary growth of the library and build
working collections for recently organized courses. We should make ar-
rangements as early as possible for increasing the permanent endowment for
books. The great number of new books appearing annually, giving expression
as they do to the most recent investigations, afford a source from which
we should buy extensively in order to keep abreast with the times.

The fund was increased over a period of years, and the number of
volumes soon passed 50,000. Miss Isabelle Clark, of Western Reserve
University, who had joined the staff in 1916, was made acting librar-
ian during Dickerson's leave, and in 1917 was appointed librarian.

In 1919 the building was for the first time devoted entirely to
library use. The administration offices had been moved to Chicago
(now Magoun) Hall in 1913, but it was- not until after the comple-

THE LIBRARY 189

tion of Alumni Recitation Hall in 1917 that all recitation rooms were
removed from the library building. The first floor has since been
converted into reading rooms and offices. The Iowa College (Grin-
nell) Collection and the newspapers and public documents are housed
in the basement. In 1921 the Carnegie Corporation gave $50,000
for the endowment of the library. In 1931 the library received a
grant of $15,000 from the Carnegie Corporation for the purchase of
new books, in payments of $3,000 annually for five years.

In 1929 Miss Clark was given a year's leave of absence to organize
the library of the Institute of Pacific Relations in Hawaii. During
this year Gretta M. Smith, '11, was in charge, and established the
Mabel M. Smith memorial rental collection of books in current fiction
and nonfiction. In the fall of 1938 individual study desks were in-
stalled in the south end of the first floor. Many books of current
interest, such as novels, poetry, plays, and biography, had been moved
to open shelves on this floor to make them more accessible.

One of the interesting events in the recent history of the library
was the accessioning of the 100,000th volume at the commencement
in 1935. A well-bound volume of Merezhkovsky's The Forerunner ',
on the life and times of Leonardo da Vinci, bearing the accession
number 100,000, was adorned with the signatures of distinguished
guests, including the Chinese Minister, Dr. Sao-ke Alfred Sze, who
was the commencement speaker, and who had just received an hon-
orary degree, as had Chester C. Davis, '11, Harry L. Hopkins, '12,
and Ervine P. Inglis, '16.

At present the library has about 110,000 volumes. More than 450
American and foreign periodicals are received, and there is an exten-
sive collection of government documents, of which the library is an
official depository. There is also a collection of several thousand
photographs and slides that are used as teaching aids in the various
departments.

Under normal conditions, before the war cut down student enroll-
ment, the library circulated about 60,000 volumes a year, or an aver-
age of more than eighty books per student. In 1943-1944, while the
men in the Army Specialized Training Program were on the campus,
extensive use was made of the library. Several hundred army books
were placed on special reserve, and the library's own resources were
used for study, reference, and research.

XXIII*

Student Publications

By CHARMAYNE WILKE *

GRINNELL College's first venture into student journalism came in
1871, just twenty-five years after the founding of the College itself,
when, on August 23, the Grinnell Herald carried the first Iowa Col-
lege News Letter. Occupying two columns of the newspaper, this first
publication, conducted by members of Iowa College, was written by
President Magoun, members of the faculty, and students. Termed
ee a very interesting department of the local paper," the News Letter
discussed theology, science, and philosophy.

* Charmayne Wilke, *52, assistant to the director of public relations.

190

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS

In 1873 faculty permission to publish the Iowa College News
Letter as a separate paper was granted, and in the first issue in July,
1873, the front page carried the message: "The News Letter is pub-
lished the first of each month during the College year, under the
authority of the Trustees of Iowa College, to give reliable informa-
tion regarding college matters to members of the Alumni Association
and the friends of the institution who otherwise would have no
regular source of supply." The four-page paper, with three columns
on a page, carried faculty and alumni notes and a "News of the
College" section. One item in the December 1, 1903, issue, for ex-
ample, was a list of the estimated expenses for the college student:
Tuition $55; laboratory fees $7 to $14; room rent, average
$45; board, average $100; textbooks, average $17; laundry
$15. Early issues carried no ads, but did use pictures occasionally.
Full reports of commencement activities, including texts of all
speeches, were given in the early years. For seven years the News Let-
ter was issued monthly during the college year. In September, 1882,
the paper increased its number of pages and in 1882-1883 was pub-
lished every third Saturday. It became a monthly again in the fall
of 1883, and remained so until January, 1889, when it was again
published every three weeks. Becoming a bi-weekly in September,
1889, it was published every other week until its merger in Septem-
ber, 1890, with the Pulse.

February 2, 1889, marked the first appearance of the Pulse, which
"pulsated fortnightly during the college year." The first issue of
ten pages carried this announcement for students, faculty, trustees,
alumni, and friends of Iowa College:

Greetings: Behold the PULSE! It has come; and, the Fates consenting, it
has come to stay.

We extend our greetings to the students first because we are of the stu-
dents and for the students; to the faculty because the interests of the students
are also the interests of the faculty; to the trustees, alumni, and other
friends because we believe that the strength of the college to-day is due
largely to their devotion and loyalty.

We propose to be absolutely independent of all clique, society, or class
influences. Nonpartisanship shall be our watchword. Whatever we do, we
shall do conscientiously. We are not anxious to sneer at the preps or to stamp
on the faculty, but, as persons who are deeply interested, we claim the right
to criticize anything or everything pertaining to college methods. . . .

The Pulse invites contributions, especially from the students. The day

192 Grinnell College

for filling up with "heavy" articles, essays, and prize orations has passed.
This is to be a college newspaper. Correspondence, short stories, articles upon
subjects in which you are interested, will always find a place. . . .

One point we wish to emphasize particularly. This paper is to be entirely
independent. No factional spirit will ever be allowed to predominate. All
interested are seeking to make a paper worthy of the front rank in college
journalism a true exponent of Iowa College. We mean to make it live,
interesting and "up to the times."

The two-column paper was published every other Saturday, but
the first issue was three days late in reaching the newsstands. Editors
had this explanation: "The second issue will appear Feb. lth. Our
Chicago photo-engravers missed connections, thus delaying this issue
three days. Henceforth, the paper will come out regularly every
other Saturday of the collegiate year. Eleven numbers will be issued
this year, including an elaborate one for Commencement." Under
topical headings that remained unchanged from week to week (there
were no headlines as they are known today), the Pulse contained
standard columns. Typical were "The College World," sports, and
personals, A section devoted to "Pulsations" contained miscellaneous
information on clubs and societies, satirical comment on the electric
doorbell recently installed in the cottage, and questions for a debate
on campus social events. Under the "Our Exchanges" column, the
first Pulse had little to offer, but the editors added that they expected
"to have a regular column for other college journals." Later an
"Alumni Notes" column was also added. Local advertising 1 sold for
ten cents a line; among early advertisers were Joe Morris, The Tailor;
Dr. J. T. Everett, Physician and Surgeon; and White Elephant
Restaurant and Lunch Counter. A special edition dated May 3, 1889,
at 4:30 a.m. carried the results of the Inter-State Oratorical Contest
and the Pulse's first headline: "THE INTER-STATE Ohio First!
Wisconsin. Second! Indiana Third!"

During 1889-1890 when the Pulse and the News Letter were being
published on alternate Saturdays, Iowa College had, in effect, a week-
ly paper. Unable to continue separately for financial reasons, the two
papers merged in September, 1890, to form the Unit, whose name
signified the union. Published bi-weekly, the Unit's first issue ap-
peared on September 10, 1890, in an extra edition. It was a two-
column paper, and, like its predecessors, the Unit carried no head-
lines. Editorials were usually found on the first page. "De Alumnis,"

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS 193

"Other Colleges/' "Sports," "Personals," "Units," and "Exchanges"
were weekly columns which were supplemented with poems, essays,
and other student literary efforts.

In its first regular issue on September 20, 1890, the Unit's editors
said:

Two things we wish to emphasize. The Unit is one paper. It is not a
combination of two papers with conflicting interests and divided leadership.
The old papers are gone, not buried but transformed, unified; another takes
their place, a Unit, undivided, indivisible. Let it be understood once for all
that the Unit is neither News Letter nor Pulse nor a piece of each.

The Unit is not a new paper, though it has a new name. It is a continua-
tion of existence in a higher form. The spirit of past journalism lives on,
in and through it. It has behind it all the years of steady, persevering, even
brilliant, work of the News Letter. It is inspired by the fiery energy and
burning enthusiasm of the Pulse. The objects of the old papers were in no
point incompatible, nor will the Unit fail in aught to fulfill them. We
therefore come before Iowa College, its alumni and friends, declaring that
the Unit is no new departure. It is an outgrowth of the past moulded by the
circumstances of the present, combining all the traditions and inspired by all
the spirit of past college papers, with all the bad, as we hope, eliminated.

Like all college newspapers, the Unit was at times somewhat cen-
sorious of student behavior. On March 5, 1892, an editorial read:

Attention ought to be called by some means to the fact that the noise in
the corridors of Chicago Hall is growing steadily worse. At times it would
seem that there is no recognition of the fact that it is a recitation building.
Attention has already been called to the confusion in the building from one
o'clock until two. But, besides this, usually during the last five minutes of
a recitation it is almost impossible to hear a word that is being said in a
recitation room. A few years ago professors would not attempt to hear reci-
tations in such a racket, but somehow the problem of quiet in Chicago Hall
seems to have been given up in despair.

In the fall of 1892 the Unit, which from 1890 to 1894 was the only
student newspaper, became a weekly. Announcing the change in the
September 17 issue, the editors said:

The Unit has assumed new responsibilities this year in promising to appear
weekly. This will incur more labor, and necessitate more hastily written
articles with less time for thought; and these two unavoidable features of a
weekly will give more just cause for just criticism. The policy of the manage-
ment for this year will be very similar to that pursued by the Unit as a semi-
monthly conservative; but yet it reserves the right of free expression and
criticism, and whatever the sentiments expressed or criticisms given they will

194 Gr'mnell College

be honest, frank, impartial and unprejudiced from a student's standpoint.
Mistakes will be made; sometimes through carelessness, sometimes through
ignorance. We cannot ask you to overlook or forgive these errors, since
carelessness is unpardonable and ignorance ought to be enlightened before
making a display, but we do ask you to allow us the privilege of correcting
any mistake; and of making reparation to anyone for unjust criticism. The
Unit's ambition is to be truthful and instructive; and to shed a newsy luster
of pleasure over the lonely hours that sometimes come to students and alumni
away from home.

Another change, announced the next week in the September 24 issue,
Indicated that the last issue of each month would be a literary number
with "the best literary and poetry contributions collected during the
month being published in that issue."

The idea of a semi-weekly paper had for some time interested a
group of Iowa College students. On September 12, 1894, two years
after the Unit became a weekly, the first semi-weekly, Scarlet and
Black, appeared. For a year the Unit and the Scarlet and Black were
both published. However, financial difficulties again called for a
change, and in September, 1895, the Unit became a literary journal
and continued as such until 1907. The editors of the Scarlet and
Black announced their program in the first issue:

The main effort of this publication is fully to represent the growing in-
terests of the College among many lines. Prominent among these are its
athletic and society interests which reach out to include nearly the entire
number of students. A few years ago a bi-weekly paper was sufficient, then
a weekly periodical supplied the need, now a semi-weekly is not only neces-
sary but is demanded. What better proves and represents the growth of the
institution whose colors form our name than the mere fact. We wish to
make Scarlet: and Black truly a students' paper.

Published every Wednesday and Saturday, the Scarlet and Black still
carried only label headlines, although the size was increased to four
columns. The paper, usually four pages, carried notices of meetings,
alumni notes, editorials, and other campus news, but few pictures.

The Scarlet and Black in its first years, as is the policy of the paper
at the present time, carried mainly local news. In 1897 there was
some criticism of this policy, and the editors replied:

Scarlet and Black has been quite severely criticized by some of our ex-
changes and also by some Grinnell graduates, for publishing only matters of
local interest to the exclusion of more general affairs. ... To us it has
seemed that the proper sphere of college journalism is the college first alma

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS 195

mater and then other colleges. We have not tried to compete with metro-
politan dailies; we have not printed telegraphic news nor written editorials
on New York politics, nor discussed the Hawaiian question. . . . We have
considered that if anyone wanted such news, the daily newspaper was the
place to get it and not in a college publication.

The first banner headline In the Scarlet and Black was printed on
Saturday, May 11, 1901. It read "May Festival Monday, Tuesday"
but did not lead into a story. "WE BEAT CORNELL" led, strange as
It may seem, Into an ad, which went on: "This is one more thankful
victory. Why? Because our boys worked, fought and earned every
inch. This is the victory we have won in Honest Jewelry, College
Emblems, stationery, etc., etc. H. P. PROCTOR, OLD RELIABLE
JEWELER."

In 1910 the Scarlet and Black began to take on the semblance of a
modern newspaper. The return of James Norman Hall of the class
of 1910 to the campus in 1919 was heralded by the Wednesday,
March 19 issue of the Scarlet and Black with these headlines: "Capt.
James Norman Hall Returns to Grinnell Famous Airman Tells
Experiences in German Prison Camps During Closing Days of Great
World War Speaks to Largest Audience of Year in Chapel Tues-
day Morning Says Germans Treated Aviation Officers with Ut-
most Courtesy Anxious to Get Back Into 'Civvies.' "

On April 9, 1943, the Scarlet and Black became a weekly paper,
and it has continued to be published weekly since that time. Presently
it is of tabloid size, five columns wide, varies from four to twelve
pages, and carries campus news, several pictures, editorials, and occa-
sional cartoons.

Indication that campus problems were similar in 1890 and in the
present day is found in the comparison of two editorials. In 1890
the Scarlet and Black reported, "Some time ago there was a mass
meeting held in the interest of systematic yelling. If there was any
fruit borne by the enthusiasm there manifested, it has not been very
apparent." On October 20, 1950, a Scarlet and Black editorial said,
"What happens to the community noisemakers when they get to a
football game? . . . Perhaps they seem loud only in the isolated quiet
of a place where silence is the rule. Whatever the case may be, the
lusty- voiced are conspicuous by their absence at football games."

After the demise of the literary journal, the t/72/7, in 1907, there
was a hiatus until June, 1916, when the first issue of the forty-page

Grinnell College

Grinnell Magazine appeared. Issued five times a year, the magazine
was published until the spring of 1918. A typical table of contents
is that found in the November, 1917, issue: "From Shanghai to
Grinnell," "The Haunted Isle," "When Adam Delved and Eve Span
Who Was Then the Gentleman?" "The Vesper Hour," "The King's
Throne," "A Father to His Son in College," "The Oil of Lebanon,"
"Bits of Humor."

Verse and Fiction, "a monthly record of creative writing," took
over the literary spot in October, 1921, and continued for three years
until June, 1924. Published by the department of English, it con-
tained poems, short stories, plays, and essays, and usually ran about
eight pages. Similar in content and form were Junto, four issues of
which appeared during 1924 and 1925, and the Tanager, a quarterly
literary review, published from 1925 to 1948.

Arena, the "magazine of ideas," made its first appearance in the
fall of 1950. A quarterly magazine, it is literary in nature, but con-
tains some humorous articles and occasional cartoons, with student,
faculty, and guest contributors. Among guest writers for the maga-
zine was the late James Norman Hall. In the Commencement, 1951,
issue an article by Janet Reinke, '52, "Colleges in War," dealing with
the problem of the draft and its effect on America's colleges and
national culture, won for Arena the first-place award in nonfiction
writing of the division of the 1951 student magazine contest pre-
sented by Sigma Delta Chi, professional journalistic fraternity.

Humor magazines on the Grinnell campus have been relatively
short-lived. The most successful was the first, Malteaser, published by
Sigma Delta Chi, which made its appearance in 1919 and lasted until
1936. Issued six times a year, the magazine called itself the "Judge
of Mid-Western Wit" and the "Old Cat," and printed the daring
jokes of the Roaring Twenties: "Flapping Flora says: It's not how
much you love 'em, but how often." "It was announced in one
of our leading magazines that 'Knee-length skirts had reduced street-
car accidents 50 per cent.* Wouldn't it be nice if accidents could be
prevented entirely?" The April, 1933, issue satirized the Scarlet and
Black, labeling it the "Garnet and Sable."

Malteaser was followed in 1947 by Zephyr. Although primarily
a humor magazine, Zephyr in October, 1948, also took over the lit-
erary functions of Tanager. The Commencement, 1949, issue fol-
lowed Life magazine's example and .contained a section on High,

STUDENT PUBLICATIONS 197

Upper Middle, Middle, Low, and No-Brows, all with campus con-
notations. The Zephyr changed to a smaller size in the fall of 1949,
but the ill-fated magazine changed editorial hands twice that year and
was abandoned with the February, 1950, issue. Since then Grinnell
has had no humor magazine.

The first yearbook, the Cyclone, was published at the College in
May, 1889, with the following greeting from the editors:

Friends, greeting. The first annual ever issued by Iowa College students
is before you, to meet either your approbation, censure, or indifference. The
first would please us, the second meet our expectation, but the third we
have done our best to prevent. We have not tried to be wise or funny or
even original, but simply to present a picture of college Hfe from a student's
standpoint. No doubt the picture is not an exact portrait, no doubt our
camera was often out of focus, yet we tried to be just. And if the Cyclone
shall blow some bright remembrance of college life to any dark corner or
shall cause a single smile where only frowns are wont to be seen, then our
weeks of labor will be well repaid.

Perhaps you think that the Cyclone is misnamed. For its object is not to
destroy but to build. But remember, kind friends, that once before a cyclone
struck you, and in a moment all was destruction and sorrow, but out of
those ruins of seven years ago our college rose to a new life of usefulness
and honor, until to-day we feel that it is stronger for having passed through
the storm. So may it not be that any idols of yours which are shaken by our
rude blasts may be dispensed with and newer and better ones take their
places?

Cyclones have varied considerably since the first one in 1889.
Noticeable changes occur in the use of pictures. In the early years
of the Cyclone its contents were largely written material, but the
Cyclone has since come to be a pictorial review of the college year.
Of primary interest to those whose years in college it represents, it
recalls events which will be remembered, perhaps with nostalgia,
years after college graduation. Exceptions in the long line of Cyclones
include "The Professor's Discovery," a play written and presented
by the class of 1897 and published as the 1896 annual; "On a
Western Campus," stories and sketches of undergraduate life pub-
lished by the class of 1898; the "Blue Book" in 1899; the "Imp" in
1900; and an annual published under the "Zephyr" title in 1937.

The campus publications of 1953 include Scarlet and Black, the
weekly newspaper; Arena, the quarterly literary magazine; Cyclone,
the yearbook; and Alumni Scarlet and Black. Except for the latter,

198 Grinnell College

which is published by the College, these periodicals are issued by the
Board of Publications, which elects all editors and business managers
from applicants for the positions. The Board consists of student
editors and business managers, two faculty-appointed representatives,
and the director of public relations. There is, however, no censor-
ship of any student publication. GrinnelPs various publications over
the years total fifteen. Changes in style, number, and purpose have
occurred throughout the eighty-two years of Grinnell College's jour-
nalistic history and will undoubtedly continue to follow this pattern
as future generations of Grinnellians take over the reins.

!BWH!fiH^

The Theatre

By KENT ANDREWS *

FROM its beginnings, Grinnell College has always recognized that
public performance should go hand in hand with academic preparation
and procedure. The earliest records show that elocution was required
of all students, along with the classical and scientific studies. Too, the
literary values of the literature of the theatre have been stressed from
the first. Iowa College's first catalogue, issued in 1850-1851, stated
that elocution would be taught to beginners from CaldwelPs Manual

* Kent Andrews Is associate professor of speech and director of the Theatre.

199

200 Gnnnell College

of Elocution, and the study of Greek tragedies would be undertaken in
the third year of the course of study for each student.

It was not until 1862, after Iowa College had merged with Grin-
nell University, that "declamations and extemporaneous discussions'*
were required weekly. This declamatory practice continued until
after the turn of the century. In 1865-1866, Kidd's Elocution was
added to the course of study in the English and normal departments,
and in 1867, Kidd's Elocution was made mandatory for all other
courses of study.

Several prizes were offered for excellence in declamation some
dramatic, some humorous, some oratorical. The most important of
these was the Hyde Prize, first offered in 1866. This prize was
awarded each year until 193 S, except for the cyclone year. A Cooper
Prize for reading was offered in 1868. In 1874 and 1875 the Rev.
S. L. Herrick announced a prize for "distinctness and naturalness of
delivery in reading. " In 1880 there was a special elocution prize
offered at commencement as a part of the regular exercises. Another
similar prize was offered in 1889.

The study of aesthetics was added to the curriculum in 1872, and
in 1873 a regular instructor in elocution joined the staff. Studies in
Shakespeare were also added to the curricuhim in that year. By 1880
the regular elocution instructor was transferred to the ladies' course,
but "Exercises in Declamation and Essays are required of all students,
once in three weeks in the Academy and English Departments, some-
what of tener in the higher departments, where private rehearsals pre-
cede the Declamation. Occasional exercises are devoted to elocu-
tionary drill. Once a term, public exercises are held, for which origi-
nal productions, prepared with special care, are required."

A second instructor for elocutionary drill and declamation was
engaged in 1884. By 1887 lectures on Shakespearian tragedies were
delivered to the entire student body. The first record of presentation
of scenes from plays is found in a college publication of 1889. These
scenes were from Greek plays in translation and were given by stu-
dents of Iowa College to "secure funds to aid in the excavation of
Delphi/ 9

The popularity of elocutionary studies made greater demands on
the instructors at Iowa College. In addition to the regular instructors
in elocution, staff members in other departments were called upon
to aid in the study. In 1890 a formal department of elocution and

THE THEATRE 201

expression was established using a New Delsarte System of training.

The Electro, of Sophocles, the first completely staged Greek play on
the prairies, was presented on June 10, 1892. It was produced by the
members of two literary societies, one composed of young men, the
other of young women, and it was directed by Miss Siveri Ringheim,
"Instructor in Elocution and Physical Culture." It is interesting to
find that the late Frederick Darby, who has contributed so much to
the growth of Grinnell College, was a member of the cast of this first
big production of a Greek play west of the Mississippi.

The student publication, the Unit (predecessor of the Scarlet and
Black) of May 23, 1891, reports that "A week ago last "Wednesday
about a score of students met at the cottage and organized a dramatic
club. It intends to give several plays soon and will no doubt become
an interesting factor in our college life." But the public and the
administration of Iowa College in the "gay '90*s" regarded "play-
acting" with a skeptical eye. The dramatic club ceased to exist with-
out producing a play. This attitude prevailed for most of the decade,
though theatre-minded students continued to give occasional per-
formances. An editorial in the Scarlet and Black of May 23, 1896,
comments that "When the Merchant of Venice was presented by the
Class of '96 a year ago, there were some loyal supporters of Iowa
College in Grinnell and out, who would not sanction a theatrical per-
formance given under her auspices. Many would not attend because
'they never went to the theatre!' " But, the same editorial adds, "As
to the moral influence of the stage, it is noticeable that the Junior
plays of '96 and '97 were both managed by successive presidents of
the Y.M.C.A.; that many of the leading roles were taken by the
most active workers of the Y.M. and Y.W.C.A.; and that for years
the moral tone of the college has not been so high nor the spiritual
life of the Christian organization so intense as is true today."

The persuasion of the Scarlet and Black must have been successful
because in 1899 there was formed the Iowa College Dramatic Club,
dedicated to "the serious study and occasional production of contem-
porary drama." The Club's first production, Sweet Lavender, by
Arthur "W. Pinero, was given on Saturday, January 13, 1900, in the
old chapel, and was reportedly "attended by a well-pleased audience
of 175 invited guests including members of the faculty and those
interested in the study of the drama." A. L. Frisbie, later editor of
the Grinnell Herald-Register, was one of the fifteen charter members.

202 Grinnell College

Miss Glenna Smith, "Instructor in Oratory and assistant in Eng-
lish," was praised highly in the Scarlet and Black for her "coaching"
of the senior play, As You Like It, and the 1901 class play, The Rivals.
Miss Smith was in charge of the orations and addresses in connection
with the required English course, the oratorical contests, the inter-
collegiate debates, and the contestants for the Hyde Prizes.

The college catalogue for 1903-1904 lists three elective courses in
public speaking and debate, taught by J. P. Ryan, who became the
official director for campus plays. Meanwhile, the Dramatic Club
was losing some of the fervor with which it had started; it met
occasionally as a study group, but produced no plays. The Scarlet and
Black of September 29, 1906, announces the "Reorganization of the
Dramatic Club/' and mentions as leaders of the movement Professor
Ryan and Harry L. Beyer, '08, who later became a trustee of the
College.

The new club limited its membership to twenty students, ten men
and ten women. It held try-outs each year to fill the vacancies. They
presented at least one play a year and on occasion brought famous act-
ing companies to Grinnell. The Club was dedicated to the progressive
study and production of all types of plays and to the creation of an
interest in the drama as an art.

While still a member of the English department, and later as chair-
man of the public speaking department, Professor Ryan offered col-
lege credit courses in dramatic art. Later, when the growing pop-
ularity of the speech classes demanded all of Professor Ryan's time,
a course in "Dramatic Writing and Production" supplemented those
in dramatic literature in the English department. Trie catalogue of
1921 describes the purpose of the course: "to prepare students for
work in community drama [including the coaching of high school
plays] ; offering a laboratory study in playwriting and the art of the
theatre."

Mrs. Hallie Flanagan Davis, professor of drama and director of the
Smith College Theatre, is a former student-member of the Dramatic
Club. Over a period of several years she organized the dramatic
program, which remained substantially the same until 1942. Her
work as an instructor at Grinnell, from 1922 to 1929, included
developing courses in creative drama and organizing the students
in playwriting and production courses into "The Experimental
Theatre."

THE THEATRE 203

Mrs. Davis felt that the limited membership of the Dramatic Club
and its "social significance" excluded too many students who -wished
to participate in dramatic activities. In the mid-twenties, the Dra-
matic Council was created by President Main "to formulate a policy
for student dramatics." The members of the Council included the
instructor in drama, the deans of men and women, two members
from the Dramatic Club, and two members from the Experimental
Theatre. The Dramatic Council organized dramatic activities so that
the Dramatic Club produced the fall and commencement plays, while
the Experimental Theatre gave various programs including the try-
outs of original plays written in the play writing classes.

In 1928, when Mrs. Sara Sherman Pryor came to Grinnell College
from the Baker "47 "Workshop" at Yale University, courses in ele-
mentary and advanced production, drama survey, and playwriting
were a well-established part of the elective courses in English com-
position and literature. By 1930 courses in acting and advanced play-
writing were offered, and a "minor" in theatre was approved by the
faculty. In 1931, at the request of President Main, art and dramatic
art were given major department status in the college curriculum with
requirements stated in the catalogue. During Mrs. Pryor's tenure at
Grinnell College the department attained national recognition be-
cause of the theatrical work done on the campus.

The Grinnell Players, the dramatic organization of today, was
formed in 1932, after the disbanding of the old Dramatic Club. The
1935 Cyclone describes the aims, at that time, of both the Players
and the department of dramatic art:

To give for entertainment such plays as O'NeilFs Emperor Jones, Shake-
speare's The Merchant of Venice, groups of the medieval Mysteries, Erskine's
The First Mrs. Fraser, Milne's The Perfect Alibi, Gilbert and Sullivan's The
Mikado, or even Ten Nights in a "Barroom, as a worthy but secondary pur-
pose. . . . Its immediate purpose is educational to prepare students for
teaching, for other types of community work in the theatre arts, or for later
professional training and experience. Its ultimate aim is to make Grinnell
College an important center for creative drama.

After Dr. Stevens was named president of the College, the depart-
ments of dramatic art and speech were merged for two reasons: first,
unifying the two would lend strength and vigor to the program; and
second, the unification would lend itself more readily to the divisional
structure of the curriculum.

204 Grinnell College

Since 1943 the dramatic activities have continued in the tradition
established over the years. The College has produced a wide variety
of plays, ranging from the classic Greek to current Broadway releases.
Attempts have been made to include as many students as possible in
dramatic activities. As much stress is laid on the extracurricular as
on the curricular program. Although the prime aim of the depart-
ment is not to train for the professional stage, some Grinnell grad-
uates have been successful on Broadway. A recent example is Jennie
Egan (Ann Jacobsen, *48) , who was appearing in Arthur Miller's The
Crucible during the spring of 1953.

In 1951 a summer theatre for the training of outstanding students
was established in the Iowa Great Lakes region at Okoboji. This
theatre placed students in a professional situation, which gave them
invaluable experience. In addition, the theatre proved an asset to the
community, as well as extending the influence of Grinnell College.

Prompted by the desire of President Stevens, the departments of
music and speech have inaugurated an "Opera "Workshop." The re-
sults have been such as to make this program an integral part of the
college activities of the future.

The renaissance in theatre that occurred in the United States in
the twenties was paralleled by the theatrical growth and development
at Grinnell College. The College is confident that its theatrical pro-
gram will continue to serve the dual purpose of widening the experi-
ence of the individual and training future leaders and educators.

saffiflnMB^^

Grinnell's Plan for College Living

By EVELYN GARDNER *

Our dormitories are an expression in brick, and 'mortar
of the Grinnell ideal. They are a perpetual challenge to
incarnate these ideals.

PRESIDENT JOHN HANSON THOMAS MAIN
Chapel Address, April 11, 1928

THE development of Grinnell's internationally known pattern of
student housing has been one of the College's chief concerns during
the second fifty years of its history. During the early years at
Davenport and the first years at Grinnell the housing of students
presented no real problems. The small enrollment of trie College in
early days could be comfortably accommodated in the homes of the
hospitable citizens of Davenport and of GrinnelL However, in their

* Evelyn Gardner is dean of women and associate professor of English.

205

206 Grinnell College

definition of aims and plans founders of the College dreamed of
developing on the campus a democratic student community.

Testimony to this dream is expressed in the last public address
given by Dr. George Frederic Magoun, the first president of Iowa
College. Dr. Magoun died in January, 1896. At the preceding com-
mencement in June, 1895, he addressed the Alumni Association of
the College at their annual meeting held in the Stone Church at
GrinnelL Reviewing his early recollections of the organization of the
College from the year 1844, Dr. Magoun summarized the achieve-
ments of its trustees over a period of fifty years. He quoted a state-
ment made in January, 1855, by the founders of Grinnell College.
Their aim was "to promote the educational, social, moral and religious
interests of this place known as Grinnell, Poweshiek County, Iowa . . .
by the creation of an institution to include a college, a female sem-
inary, and a teacher and preparatory department/* He described
the cautious enrollment of the first women students. Particularly
significant is his conclusion that the lady students had never been
housed so that adequate dormitory life could be developed.

I found the College cramped, burdened, struggling; but its faculty of six
were proceeding loyally, steadily, and hopefully on the lines laid down at
Davenport. The slight change of sky had brought no change of mind. In
no respect had the standard been lowered. In one an advance initiated m the
last two Davenport years had been completed. When certain worthy parents
petitioned that their daughters might attend our Freshman and Sophomore
recitations with the young men with whom they had graduated from the
City High School, to be no otherwise under Faculty government than in the
class room, we granted it; the Faculty approving, though the size of classes
would be increased and their pleasantness; all the students, young men,
opposing one included who has since won high rank at the head of mixed
schools and but two Trustees advocating it (Dr. Robbins and myself) ,
with one other who was the father of one of the young ladies in question. We
acted practically, without any theory, and never inquired if our friends here
had one when they surrendered all their educational assets and plans to us
on condition that the new Ladies' Department "in its domestic arrangements
and literary character be modelled after the Mt. Holyoke institution at South
Hadley, Mass." The "domestic" part of this compact has never been com-
plied with because the lady students have never been so housed that it could
be. 175

During the years from 1870 to 1888 about twenty of the women
students were accommodated in the Ladies Boarding Hall under the
supervision of the lady principal This hall was a large frame house,

COLLEGE LIVING 207

one block south of the campus. It was operated as a dormitory at
least until 1888. During the 1870's a few of the men students were
accommodated in rooms on the third floor of West Hall, where each
paid $5.00 rent every term. "West Hall was destroyed in the cyclone
of 1882.

In 1888 the College received a valuable gift from the Rev. Joshua
M. Chamberlain an extensive property to the east of the M. & St. L.
railroad tracks. Through the gift of $5,000 by E. A. Goodnow of
Worcester, Massachusetts, a substantial brick dormitory was built in
Chamberlain Park. Mr. Goodnow asked that this building should
bear the name of Mary Grinnell Mears, daughter of the founder of
the town and wife of the Rev. D. O. Mears of Worcester, Massachu-
setts. This building became GrinnelPs first real dormitory for women,
housing in 1888 twenty-eight girls; later it was enlarged to accom-
modate fifty students in dormitory rooms and one hundred in the
coeducational dining room, which was included in the new north
wing added a few years later. The advantages of dormitory life be-
came apparent so quickly that the years from 1906 until 1916 were
devoted to consistent efforts, under the leadership of President John
H. T. Main, for the development of a thoroughly adequate scheme
of housing both for men and for women students. This campaign
culminated from 1915 to 1917 in the opening of the Men's Dormi-
tories and the Women's Quadrangle.

Many persons contributed to the definition of the social philosophy
that inspired this building program. Early in the 1890's a realistic
social and recreational program had been organized even with the
limited facilities available. Significant encouragement had been given
by the building of the Rand Gymnasium for women in 1897 and
the new "old" men's gymnasium, which was completed in 1899. A
comprehensive description of college life in the late 1890's was written
by two women members of the faculty, Helen B. Morris and Emeline
B. Bartlett, for the May, 1898, issue of The Midland Monthly, pub-
lished in Des Moines. This article was accompanied by now invaluable
photographs of Mears Cottage, the central campus, including Good-
now Hall, the Administration Building (then called Chicago Hall) ,
Blair Hall, and the Music Building, as well as the new, deservedly
admired, Rand Gymnasium. The social philosophy expressed in this
article is remarkably close to the statements of social purpose given
prominence in the 1952 edition of the college catalogue. Mid-twen-

208 Grinnell College

tieth century students may find the language of this description
quaint, but its philosophy still permeates GrinnelPs dormitory and
social programs.

It is only an institution alive to what the truest meaning of education is,
that opens legitimate avenues for its students to gain from mutual inter-
course the benefits which can never be reaped from book lore alone. This
is a fact which Iowa College has had in mind from the commencement of its
existence, the ever present influence which is exerted over its students that the
broadest life is the life lived for and with their fellow-beings. . . .

But coeducation is not the only side to a girl's life in Grinnell. Living in
little groups of six or seven around the town, there is opportunity for many
a spread or fudge party, for which no chaperon, or permission of the faculty
is necessary. From these houses the girls assemble for their meals in clubs
of twenty or thirty which serve as a bureau of exchange for bits of news,
where each one finds out "who is going with which," to the next party or
lecture, who has been the recipient of the last box of flowers, etc. But this
way of living in one place and boarding in another has its disadvantages.
Even a tempting supper loses its attraction when the price to be paid for it
is a walk of three or four blocks in a blinding storm, and, going to eight
o'clock recitations, one frequently meets a pitcher and a mysterious bundle
being carried to some room-mate who prefers an extra half hour sleep to
exercise at that early hour.

But this difficulty has been partially done away with by the one college
dormitory, "the Mary Grinnell Mears Cottage." This pretty brick cottage
which is on the part of the college property given by the late Rev. Joshua M.
Chamberlain, for so many years a trustee of the institution, offers a home
for twenty-eight girls. 176

Between 1895 and 1915 the enrollment of the College grew from
475 to 800, Except for the fifty students housed in Mears Cottage,
all others were living in Grinnell homes, in friendly groups ranging
from six to twenty. The many large homes still standing on Park,
Broad, and Main streets, west of the campus, as well as in the blocks
immediately south of Highway 6, give testimony to the cooperation
of Grinnell citizens in the problem of housing students in these
years of rapid expansion. By November, 1915, the College was ready
to invite distinguished educators from all parts of the country to
join in its proud dedication of the Women's Quadrangle. The next
two years, 1916-1917, saw the opening of the first six men's halls in
their quadrangle on the north campus.

This ambitious building program represented the investment of at
least a million dollars. Most of it was contributed through the

COLLEGE LIVING 209

generosity of alumni and friends of the College in a prolonged finan-
cial campaign under the leadership of President Main. The cost of
the Women's Quadrangle has been estimated at $339,500. Its replace-
ment value in the 1950's would be at least a million dollars. The
Men's Dormitories cost $368,800. They, too, could not be replaced
for less than a million dollars. The per capita cost of the investment
for each student was at least one thousand dollars at the time of build-
ing. The architects were Proudfoot, Bird, and Rawson, of Des Moines,
Iowa. The contractors were the Bailey-Marsh Construction Company
of Minneapolis.

The educational significance of this double plan for college housing
was recognized at the dedication of the Women's Quadrangle in
November, 1915, when the Association of Colleges of the Interior
(the forerunner of the present Midwest College Conference) met at
Grinnell to compliment President Main's achievement. The Des Moines
Register and Leader in its Sunday edition, November 21, 1915, gave
appropriate attention to this significant dedication. The week-end
ceremonies began with the conference sessions of the college presi-
dents, further distinguished by a special lecture and a reading of his
poems by the English poet, Alfred Noyes. Dr. William F. Slocurn,
president of Colorado College, presented the key address in Herrick
Chapel on the subject of "Women in Coeducational Colleges." "The
coeducational college makes for the purest democracy," he said, "for
we do not get the best democracy in college without the stimulus of
men upon women and the stimulus of women upon men."

The Des Moines Register gave an interesting account of the dedica-
tory ceremony:

The impressive ceremony of the kindling of the fires in each of the six
cottages, symbolic of the ancient mythology which typified the home by the
hearth, came at the close of a day of formal exercises held in conjunction
with the annual conference of the Association of Colleges of the Interior.

The new dormitories, which have been opened before to the girl students
who are required by a new ruling of the college to make them a communistic
home center, are said by prominent educators to be unsurpassed anywhere in
the United States in point of completeness, comfort, safety, and elegance
of equipment, and the exercises last night were a tribute to the sentiment
with which the new home is already regarded by the college and the tradi-
tions which have already begun to grow up about it. 177

Further encouraging testimony to the success of Grinnell's housing
program was given In 1934 by the American Association of Univer-

210 Grinnell College

sity "Women in a national survey under the title, "Housing College
Students." The Grinnell plan was among those especially recom-
mended. In a written statement, President Main summarized this
plan:

The objectives of the Grinnell College housing plan are: to provide a dis-
tinct and fruitful educational element in college life, epitomizing practically
the life that all must live as citizens in the larger world; to create a house
fellowship which is projected naturally into community fellowship; to foster
a spirit of loyalty and democracy; to develop the consciousness of community
responsibility.

In the houses the meaning is learned of cooperation for the common good;
an appreciation is gained of the ordinary courtesies that have value in the
social world; an understanding is acquired of the principles of democracy.
Therefore the student should find the step from college into world life not a
difficult readjustment, but a natural developing process.

As an integral part of its educational program Grinnell College began in
1914 the construction of two groups of residence houses one group for
women on the east campus and another group for men on the north campus.
Each group is composed of relatively small houses, each accommodating a
maximum of fifty students. The houses are connected by a cloister leading
to a central house or community center.

The community center for women was finished in 1915 and has fitted into
the educational plan admirably. It is beautiful architecturally, and ample in
its proportions. It includes a dining room for four hundred, drawing room
and parlors, offices, a suite for the Dean of "Women, a little theatre; in addi-
tion it has dormitory facilities for the regular quota of students.

The building plan as originally conceived was based on the belief that the
living accommodations for women should be complete in themselves and
should afford, so far as independence and leadership in social and community
life are concerned, every facility that is provided in the best colleges for
women. The six units in use since 1915, built as a composite structure by
the use of the connecting cloister, have illustrated the idea in every detail
and have demonstrated its unique educational value.

Precisely the same plan has been followed in building the six units now
in use by men. The results have been equally satisfactory.

From 1917 until 1941 the two dormitory systems continued to
demonstrate their adequacy and their significant influence on the
patterns of student government and social life. The Women's Quad-
rangle, however, had one marked advantage over the men's dormitory
plan. Its central building, named Main Flail in honor of President
Main, included facilities for meetings of all students from the six
individual dormitories in the quadrangle system. The beautiful draw-
ing room, the inspiring Gothic dining room, and the Little Theatre

COLLEGE LIVING 211

have encouraged a closely unified program of student government and
of group recreation throughout the years since the Quadrangle was
designed. The original plans for the Men's Dormitories provided for
a similar central building. However, the construction of this build-
ing was delayed until the generosity of the Cowles Foundation made
it possible in 1941. It now provides a capacious central lounge availa-
ble to all men students and their guests. The large modern men's
dining room, which can be readily converted into a ballroom, accom-
modates as many as 600 persons. Ironically, this building was first
occupied by a unit of the Officer's Candidate School which was as-
signed to the College in 1942; Cowles Hall was not available for
civilian use until 1945, when the military units were withdrawn and
veterans returned to continue their interrupted educational careers.
A further addition to the Men's Dormitories was built in 1950-1951
through the generosity of the Younker Endowment. This hall in-
cludes another large reception area, recreational equipment serving
the whole College, and an infirmary for men students facilities
which increase in valuable ways the services which the College tries
to provide for its students.

The only addition to the Women's Quadrangle since 1915 has been
the seventh of its dormitories, built in 1947-1948, the modern hall at
the end of the Quadrangle, named for Dr. David N. and Francelia
Spitzer Loose. Built during the administration of President Samuel
Nowell Stevens, Cowles Hall, Younker Hall, and Loose Hall have
added residence space for 250 students, so that the College is now
equipped to accommodate comfortably 900 students (450 women
and 450 men) in well appointed and handsome dormitories.

The achievement of this building program has been called "The
Triumph of the Dormitories" by a Marshalltown alumnus, D. W.
Norris '96:

GrinnelPs dormitories are at once the pride and crowning triumph of its
architectural scheme. None can enter them and see the beautiful, simple,
cultural effect of a college home environment without acknowledging his
admiration for the management that had the vision to conceive or the courage
to achieve such an accomplishment.

The back attic rooms of my day with their unkempt and unmade cots
and the unregulated habits of their young men are gone. The olden boarding
club and its tragic struggle with the economic problem of something for
nothing has been replaced with the modern community dining hall. Grinnell
has made place for democracy in its dormitories. Its students need not be

212 Grinnell College

"Rushed" for fraternity memberships in order that the fraternity may live.
The tendency toward exclusiveness, social cliques, student aristocracy of
wealth or an accentuation of group pride is missing from the one great
family of all students at Grinnell.

The undoubted influence of architectural patterns on group living,
anticipated by President Main, has been demonstrated clearly in the
evolution of student government and social life at Grinnell College.
Each dormitory has developed self-government through a house coun-
cil, "which in turn has become part of a unifying central governing
council, for men under the leadership of the Council of House Presi-
dents, and for women under the leadership of the "Women's League
Board, This combination of efficiency in organization and adequate
individualizing of student problems seems to have been achieved by
the distribution of Grinnell students in house groups of approximately
fifty, all to be unified under the leadership of the senior executive
officers "who have united to form the Central Committee of the Stu-
dent Council. In a chapel address in 1928, Dr. Main summarized the
strength of the Grinnell pattern by saying, "The whole question of
college government is solved when the house governments are satis-
factory. The government must be a system of sympathetic personal
relationship."

Democracy in Grinnell's dormitories has consistently been pro-
tected by the insistence on the ban against fraternities, as well as by
the continuing policy of a single charge for all types of dormitory
rooms without differentiation because of size or location. Through
their unity and appropriateness of design, the residence halls are the
realization of the social ideals envisioned by GrinnelPs leaders fifty
years ago.

Part Five

Epilogue

ffiwMfflt^ffi^

Epilogue

1946-1952

By SAMUEL N. STEVENS

THE YEARS immediately following the war were for the colleges of
the nation a period of adjustment, when old problems, temporarily
pushed into the background, had once again to be faced and to be
solved along with many perplexing new ones which had arisen. For
Grinnell College these problems were of three kinds: rebuilding and
expanding the campus; adapting to a large veteran population with-
out losing its character as a small college or diminishing the quality of
education offered; rebuilding the faculty, a project started at the
beginning of the war and temporarily shelved.

Plans for rebuilding and expanding the campus were re-examined

215

Grinnell College

by the trustees in 1946, at which time it was decided that an attempt
should be made to complete as rapidly as possible those dormitory-
units which would enable the College to house 550 men and 450
women on the campus. A final unit for the Women's Quadrangle was
needed. Dr. David Loose of Maquoketa, Iowa, a pioneer physician in
the state, contributed funds in memory of his wife. While not meet-
ing the entire costs of the structure, his contribution made the con-
struction financially feasible. Loose Hall was built. It was, and still
is, a nearly ideal dormitory for women, setting a new standard of
functional excellence that has been studied and copied by dormitory
planners in many other institutions of higher learning.

One of the conditions of the Younker Trust, mentioned already by
Dr. Nollen, was that a fund should be accumulated with which to
erect a men's double dormitory unit. In 1949 sufficient funds were
on hand to begin construction, and by the second semester of the
school year 1950-1951 the unit was occupied. Through the gen-
erosity of Dr. Loose and the Younker family, the College was able to
complete its housing program quickly. We were then prepared to
undertake other construction designed either to replace or to supple-
ment existing educational facilities on the campus.

Grinnell College has always cherished the fact that it has placed
spiritual and moral values at the center of its life. For many years
there had been a strong desire to make the Chapel the most beautiful
place on the campus, to improve its facilities so that there would be
a physical representation of the spiritual aspirations of the faculty
and students. With the assistance of money given by many alumni
and friends the Chapel was extensively remodelled and beautified.
A new Aeolian Skinner organ, complete with chimes and harp, was
especially designed to meet the particular requirements, for this type
of music in the college community. The organ is recognized by com-
petent organists as one of the finest instruments of its kind in the
Middle West. The hopes of many years were richly fulfilled when in
the spring of 1949 Herrick Chapel was rededicated. In 1952, Pro-
fesor Arthur J, Jones and his son, both graduates of the College, gave
the College a set of carillonic chimes in memory of Ethel L. Jones.
This added facility for the creation of beauty through music placed
the crowning touch on the Chapel reconstruction.

Grinnell has its roots in the deep spiritual commitment of the Iowa
Band. Through the changing life of more than a century, with all

EPILOGUE 217

of the social pressure for secularism in our society, the College has
continued to hold undeviatingly to these basic commitments which
are Christian in purpose and intention. With the Chapel, a proud
symbol of our faith, as the point of reference for all our values, we
remain true to the tradition that made our life possible.

A science building had long been dreamed of and hoped for. In
spite of physical limitations, the College had maintained a distin-
guished record for giving basic scientific instruction to men and
women who later attained great distinction as scientists. In recent
studies Grinnell ranked among the first fifty colleges and universities
in the United States as a center of scientific education. The trustees
were convinced that such notable achievement under difficult cir-
cumstances should at last be rewarded. After a period of most inten-
sive study and investigation a basic plan for the education of scientists
was established and a physical structure was designed. The new Hall
of Science at Grinnell College, representing a financial investment of
nearly a million dollars, is now in use. Every trustee made a financial
contribution. John Frederick Darby, a life trustee of the College,
contributed nearly 40 per cent of the final cost. This building was
occupied in the first semester of the school year 1952-1953 and on
March 13 and 14, 1953, was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies.
Scientists from universities, colleges, and industries from many parts
of the country honored the College by their presence on this occasion.
A bright, expanding future in science lies ahead for Grinnell. The
challenge of better and more adequate facilities will be met with
courage and enthusiasm by a competent staff of young, devoted men,
who have committed themselves to a professional life that combines
both teaching and research.

The essence of the plan for science education is to be found in the
program of undergraduate research, which all majors will undertake
under the supervision of the faculty and research staff. To know
the discipline of science and to have the opportunity to do significant
research within the range of student competence will accelerate the
professional growth of men and women. We may well expect that
these graduates will be in great demand by graduate schools, profes-
sional institutions, government, business, and industry. The existence
of this program as it has become generally known has attracted sup-
port in the form of grants for research and for scholarships from
both government and industry.

218 Grinnell College

While it would be a serious mistake for our work in science to
overshadow all other educational activities of the College and thus
to divert us from the major purpose of humane learning, it is safe
to say that the presence of an expanding staff and more than adequate
facilities in science will become a challenge to all other divisions of
the College to raise their sights and to engage in parallel professional
activities. The strengthening of our work in science will raise the
whole College to a more vigorous intellectual life and to new heights
of educational performance.

Several large projects must yet be undertaken and completed before
the campus will be thoroughly modern and adequate. The library
must either be replaced or enlarged. Facilities for fine arts work, for
which the College has been recognized for many years, must be im-
proved. A student center is needed, and the administrative depart-
ments require modern housing. Finally, if the women of our campus
are not to be neglected, there will have to be a new women's gym-
nasium to replace the old and inadequate women's physical education
quarters.

To the completion of these physical plans for an ideal college en-
vironment the trustees and the administration are now addressing
themselves. Studies are being made, plans are being tentatively
formed, and it is expected that the necessary capital will be found.
To make any predictions as to when this program will finally be
completed would be unwise. Suffice it to say that we view the future
with optimism and are reasonably certain that the rest of these
dreams will become realities before many years have been added to
our College history.*

Enrollments in institutions of higher learning have doubled each
decade since 1900. Most of the increase has been channeled into
state-supported colleges and universities and into junior colleges.
Privately endowed colleges and universities, during the first four
decades of the twentieth century, experienced a much slower incre-
ment of student registration. In spite of this fact, more than half
of all the men and women enrolled in institutions of higher learning
in 1940 were to be found in colleges like Grinnell and in privately

* Wliile this book was in press, Grinnell College became the recipient of $5,000,000,
a major portion of the estate of John Frederick Darby, life trustee of the College and fre-
quent benefactor, who died February 28, 1953.

EPILOGUE 219

endowed universities. When in 1946 the flood tide of veterans re-
turned from World War II, the total national enrollment again
doubled that of 1940. The question which Grinnell had to face was
whether to accept a double load, thereby radically changing both the
nature of campus life and the quality of instruction, or whether to
take a more conservative position. This involved much more than
our institutional convenience. Implicit in it was the basic problem
all privately endowed education had to face. As institutions respon-
sible for the public welfare, we had to re-evaluate our historic posi-
tion. The privately endowed college or university had always main-
tained discriminating standards for admission. It had emphasized the
conception of education as one of the environmental factors in the
intellectual, social, and spiritual growth of young people. It had
taken the position that the student's supreme loyalty was to the col-
lege as a whole and not to any smaller social or academic segment of
it. It had placed emphasis on the individual, and all of the educa-
tional processes had been judged by the effectiveness with which they
had contributed to the growth of each student. Classes and labora-
tories were only instruments contributing to the totality of the educa-
tional experience. Courses were means, not ends. The conditions for
graduation were more than the sum total of course credit.

The administrations of small colleges throughout the country were
clearly aware that the demands of veterans for higher education had
to be met. Some compromise with size, with administrative proce-
dures, and with admissions standards had to be made. This decision
commonly accepted by all administrators and boards of trustees was
made operationally effective in many different ways. Grinnell College
chose the following compromise. Standards for admission were rigid-
ly held. The faculty was expanded. About 30 per cent more students
than had ever enrolled in prewar years were accepted. At the peak
of veterans* enrollment nearly 1,200 students were in attendance.
Because the men and women attending the College in those years had
been carefully selected and because the veterans themselves were more
mature and were highly motivated, the experience was uniformly
satisfactory. Attrition rates were normal. The level of educational
attainment as measured by Graduate Record examinations was raised.
Social problems were no more serious than those encountered in nor-
mal, peacetime years. At the end of these years the College adminis-
tration was convinced that the national investment in the education

220 Grmnell College

of veterans was one of the wisest uses of federal money that had ever
been made.

Any thoughtful student of population satistics is aware of the fact
that during the middle of the depression there was a significant de-
cline in the birth rate. A natural deduction from this body of facts
is that from 1949 to 1955 there would be a smaller number of young
men and women graduating from the high schools and entering our
colleges and universities. Just as it was inevitable that the flood tide
of veterans would pass, leaving a serious vacuum behind it, so also it
was equally obvious that the succeeding generation of fewer young
men and women would not fill it. The failure of educators generally
to recognize these facts and administratively to anticipate them is
difficult to understand. However, even if they had foreseen these
particular circumstances there would have been no way for responsi-
ble college officials to have evaluated realistically the impact of post-
war inflation on educational costs. Furthermore, educational institu-
tions are somewhat lacking in adaptability. Commitments sometimes
have to be made for extended periods of years. Administrative over-
head is not subject to wide fluctuations, and the maintenance of
physical properties is a trust that cannot be ignored even though
there may be a declining student enrollment.

By 1950 the conditions previously described were affecting the life
of all privately endowed educational institutions and were creating
severe problems for Grinnell. Newspapers and magazines carried
articles about "The Fate of the Liberal Arts College." Large deficits
which were not subject to assimilation by current gifts appeared on
the balance sheets. Although tuition charges and the costs for board
and room had been steadily increasing during the previous five years,
gains in income from these sources were not sufficient to offset the
effects of inflation; furthermore, the increased charges began to
jeopardize enrollments. The fear of pricing ourselves out of the edu-
cational market in competition with the publicly supported institu-
tions, which could depend upon special tax appropriations to meet
unusual expenses, was a real one. It still is a source of grave concern
to those who believe in the validity of a double system of higher
education in the United States. New and more productive sources
of income had to be found. Grmnell College, along with many other
institutions, began to seek out industry and business as sources of
charitable gifts for educational purposes. Thoughtful industrial and

EPILOGUE 22 1

business leaders, such as Frank Abrarns of the Standard Oil Company
of New Jersey and Henry Ford of the Ford Motor Company, sought
to influence their associates in the industrial and business world to
consider seriously the need of the colleges. Many colleges combined
into state and regional foundations in order more effectively to estab-
lish a new pattern of giving by American industry. Grinnell College
took the leadership in helping to organize the Iowa College Founda-
tion, and, with seventeen other privately endowed four-year colleges
in the state, made its first approach to Iowa industrial institutions in
the fall of 1952.

This history of the general economic dilemma facing higher educa-
tion is recounted here because in a very real sense it is also the history
of Grinnell College. The success of this effort to secure additional
sources of financial support will determine whether or not privately
endowed education will continue to serve the needs of a free demo-
cratic society, or whether it will become an instrument of economic
privilege and be available only to those young men and women whose
parents possess great wealth. No more important problem faces our
American economy today, for leadership is more likely to emerge
from small units than from large ones. The need for critical and
enlightened direction can be met best if the hundreds of small col-
leges and privately endowed universities in our country find satis-
factory ways of keeping their heritage alive and serving the oncom-
ing generations with the same spirit and intention which made them
the carriers of the most precious aspects of political, intellectual, and
social freedom in the past.

The greatness of Grinnell in the past hundred years has been due
to one fact more than any other. The college has challenged many
great men to commit themselves to its way of life. Great teachers
make a great college. Without them buildings, riches, and prosperity
are futile and sterile. With great teachers, students grow in vision,
insight, and power, in spite of poor buildings, limited equipment,
and small endowments. Men build men. Money does not. Land can-
not. Buildings have no power to add to the spiritual and intellectual
stature of a human being.

The discovery of potentially great men, willing to make teaching
a way of life, is the major task of every college president today. It is
not an easy one. Several factors are at work to reduce the effectiveness

222 Grinnell College

of our educational institutions. In the first place, as knowledge be-
comes more specialized, men's minds, as they seek to master it, become
narrower in range and perspective. Therefore the law of diminishing
returns constantly operates in the academic world. When men know
more and more about less and less, we can expect that admiration for*
and commitment to broad humane learning will correspondingly
decrease.

In the second place, our society seems to require at most opera-
tional levels an ever higher degree of technical proficiency. This
places a premium upon vocational education as a preparation for life
work and depreciates education as a general experience in preparation
for living.

In the third place, since there are not enough potentially great
men to go around, colleges and universities are in economic competi-
tion with the government, with industry and business for the best
men and the best minds. In such a competition the educational
institutions are bound to be the losers. In the long run, even those
institutions which temporarily benefit from the ability to give larger
economic rewards to gifted men also lose, even when it appears they
have won. The reason for this is obvious. Unless colleges and univer-
sities can keep the ablest men with the best learning and the wisest
perspective in the classroom and laboratory, the quality of the educa-
tional product will consistently decline. Business and industrial
institutions will find themselves impoverished because they have de-
voured those human resources which over the years could have pro-
duced the best for them. When a great chemist leaves the classroom
laboratory and goes into the industrial laboratory, he may make great
contributions to our contemporary problems, but he ceases to dupli-
cate himself year after year in other promising young men who, as a
result of his wise guidance, may have the potential ability to be even
greater than he is. The history of the faculty of Grinnell College
since 1946 reflects the struggle to retain for teaching men who have
economic worth to other institutions. However, young men of great
promise have gradually been added to the faculty. In spite of allur-
ing offers they have continued to teach. While salaries have increased
nearly 100 per cent since 1940, they are not comparable to the
financial rewards to be found in government and in industry.

Grinnell College is committed to a firm policy in regard to its
faculty. We believe that there must be a full-time teaching faculty

EPILOGUE 223

of fully prepared men and women large enough to maintain a stu-
dent-faculty ratio of ten or eleven to one. "We believe that teaching
loads should be small enough to encourage members of the faculty
to devote large blocks of time to the interests and needs of individual
students. "We believe that the research interests of the faculty should
be nourished by releasing teaching time for research purposes. We
believe that the evaluation of professional achievement, on the basis
of which advancement in rank and salary depends, should include
teaching performance, scholarly productivity, and capacity to con-
tribute significantly to the enrichment of our corporate life. We be-
lieve that character in the teacher is as important as technical knowl-
edge of subject matter, but should not be thought of as a substitute
for the latter. We believe that the faculty should be paid the largest
possible salaries consistent with our economic capacity to make com-
mitments and keep them. This policy, which has been systematically
followed during the last six years, already is justifying itself. More
than a dozen first-class books and several score of research articles
and critical essays have been written. Each year during this period
at least one member of the faculty has enjoyed a sabbatical leave or
has been released from duties to accept some outstanding fellowship
award. Every member of the faculty who has not yet completed his
doctorate has made significant progress toward this goal. Students
have been encouraged to carry on research and to write for publica-
tion, and many of them have as undergraduates enjoyed the satisfy-
ing experience of reading papers before the Academy of Science and
other professional groups, as well as seeing their names in print in
respected publications in their chosen fields.

Someone has said that "our past flames at us from afar, and what
we have been makes us what we are/* The future of Grinnell is
dependent on three things: the validity of our educational mission;
the success with which we are able to influence young men in teach-
ing at Grinnell as a way of life; the success which the president and
the Board of Trustees may experience in undergirding our purposes
and our people with adequate financial support.

Thoughtful men and women everywhere, in government, in busi-
ness, and in our general society are rediscovering the critical necessity
for humane learning. We are all discovering that knowledge is not
enough. There must also be wisdom, deep social concern, and bright

224 Grinnell College

ideals. Leadership for our great social and political institutions -will
not be derived from men whose narrow technical training has caused
them to lose the common touch, or the capacity to make sweeping
generalizations that are intuitively correct. We have also learned the
bitter lesson that there is a realm of the spirit which men can neglect
only at the peril of their lives, their honor, and their fortune. So it
would seem that there is a new and imperative validity to the mis-
sion of the liberal arts college and Grinnell. To meet the demands
of our second objective requires an act of faith, as well as a better
than average capacity to take young men up onto high mountains
and to show them some of the glories of the life of Academe.

The third factor which looms so large in the minds of many is, in
my opinion, the one most easily solved. What we have been able to
achieve in this period of time has been equalled or surpassed by many
other institutions. Our own future is bright because of an ever
increasing number of men and women who see the College as an
instrument which they may creatively use for the protection of their
own treasure and for the projection of their lives through their money
into the lives of generations still unborn.

Grinnell faces the future, humbled by her past, proud of her pres-
ent achievement, committed to a continuance of all those things
which are beautiful, true, just, and of good report.

Appendices

<!!

Appendix A

Members of the Iowa Band

EPHRAIM ADAMS, born February 15, 1818, at New Ipswich, New
Hampshire, studied at Appleton Academy and Phillips Andover, and
was one o over forty students who withdrew because they were for-
bidden to form an antislavery society, abolitionism being then highly
unpopular in both the Academy and the Seminary. Graduated from
Dartmouth in 1839, he taught a year at Petersburg Classical Institute
in Virginia before entering Andover. He was pastor at Mount Pleas-
ant one year, at Davenport eleven years, at Decorah fourteen, at

227

228 Grinnell College

Eldora six, meanwhile acting as field agent for the College for two
years and as superintendent of home missions for ten years. He died
at Waterloo in 1907, aged eighty-nine. "So passed from our sight,"
wrote his successor as superintendent. Dr. T. O. Douglass, "one of our
very best men, 'an Israelite indeed/ a man almost without a blemish.
He was a brother to us all He showed us how to be ministers and how
to be men. He rebuked our fever and our unchristian ambition. He
was a forceful man in the counsels of our church life. For years,
though he was the personification of modesty, he was the real leader
of the Congregational hosts of Iowa. Iowa has never had a more
useful citizen/'

HARVEY ADAMS, born at Alstead, New Hampshire, January 16,
1809, came late to Montpelier Academy, was graduated from the
University of Vermont in 1839, spent one year at Andover, taught a
year at Medway, Massachusetts, then returned to Andover to com-
plete his theological course. He was ordained at Franklin, Massachu-
setts, September 27, 1843. He preached at Farmington, 1843 to 1860,
and again 1863 to 1866. He pioneered for some years in far western
Iowa, and spent his last years at New Hampton, where he died in

EBENEZER ALDEN, JR., was born at Randolph, Massachusetts, Au-
gust 10, 1819, a descendant of John and Priscilla Alden (as was also
Daniel Lane) , and came from Randolph Academy to Amherst Col-
lege, where he was graduated in 1839. After preaching for five years
at Solon and Tipton he returned East to be the pastor of Daniel
Webster's church at Marshfield, Massachusetts, and died there in 1889.

JAMES JEREMIAH HILL was born May 29, 1815, at Phippsburg,
Maine, son of Judge Mark Langdon Hill, who served a brief term as
United States Senator from Maine. Educated at Bath and North
Bridgton academies, he was graduated from Bowdoin in 1838 and
spent a year in teaching and in tract society work before entering
Andover. He was ordained at Phippsburg, April 30, 1844. His
preaching service covered a wide area of northernmost Iowa, Illinois,
and Minnesota. In his later years he supplied churches near Grinnell,
where he died in 1870, a year before the graduation of his two sons,
who became prominent as trustees and benefactors of the College.

HORACE HUTCHINSON, born at Sutton, Massachusetts, August 1 0,
1817, was Alden's classmate at Amherst, and was a tutor at Hopkins
Academy in Hadley before entering Andover. His pastorate at Bur-

APPENDIX A 229

lington lasted but three years; he died of consumption at age twenty-
eight in 1 846. He was succeeded by William Salter.

DANIEL LANE, born at Leeds, Maine, March 10, 1813, was Hill's
classmate at Bridgton Academy and Bowdoin, and taught English and
modern languages at North Yarmouth Academy before coming to
Andover. After ten years of preaching and teaching at Keosauqua,
he was the second member of the Iowa College faculty, 1853 to 1858.
After the removal of the College to Grinnell, he continued teaching
at Davenport for four years, preached at Eddyville and Belle Plaine
ten years, then acted as field agent for the College for six years. The
last seven years of his retirement he lived at Freeport, Maine, where
he died in 1890.

ERASTUS RIPLEY was born March 15, 1815, at South Coventry,
Connecticut, graduated from Union College in 1840, and came to
Andover after a year at Union Seminary, New York. He remained
at Andover for a year after graduation as "Abbott Resident" and
was ordained at Bentonsport, Iowa, April 3, 1845. He preached four
years at Bentonsport, was the first professor of the new Iowa College,
1848 to 1858, and taught later in the East. He died in 1870.

ALDEN BURRILL ROBBINS was born February 18, 1817, at Salem,
Massachusetts, and was a classmate of Alden and Hutchinson at Am-
herst. Like Hutchinson he taught at Hopkins Academy, then was
principal of Pawtucket Academy, and like Ripley studied a year at
Union Seminary before transferring to Andover. He was ordained
at Salem, September 20, 1843. He had but one charge at Bloomington
(later Muscatine), from 1843 to 1891, and remained there as emeri-
tus until his death in 1896. He was president of the Iowa College
trustees from 1847 to 1864.

WILLIAM SALTER was born November 17, 1821, in Brooklyn, New
York. He studied Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic at private
schools, was graduated from New York University in 1840, and
studied two years at Union Seminary and one year at Andover, After
three years' pastorate at Maquoketa and Andrew, he came to Burling-
ton just before Hutchinson died in 1 846. His pastorate of sixty-four
years exceeded in length that of any other missionary in the Vest.
He was the last of the Band to die, August 15, 1910, in his eighty-
ninth year. He was poet and historian as well as preacher and pastor,
author of Life of James W. Grimes, of Life of Joseph Pickett, of
Iowa: The First free State in the Louisiana Purchase, and of a book of
essays, Sixty Years. It was a fitting tribute to this Christian patriarch

230 Grinnell College

when the mayor of Burlington and the president of the Commercial
Exchange joined in requesting that all places of business in the city
remain closed during the funeral of William Salter.

BENJAMIN ADAMS SPAULDING was born January 20, 1815, at
Billerica, Massachusetts. From Phillips Academy he entered Yale for
the year 1836-1837, and was graduated from Harvard in 1840, After
eighteen years' service at Ottumwa and thirty other places, some of
them one hundred miles apart, ill health sent him to Wisconsin, where
he died in 1867.

EDWIN BELA TURNER was born October 2, 1812, in Great Bar-
rington, Massachusetts, and lived later at Kinderhook, New York,
and Godfrey, Illinois. He was graduated from Illinois College in
1840. After eleven years* service at Cascade and Colesburg, failing
health took him back to Illinois. He was Home Missionary Super-
intendent for Missouri for twelve years, then went East, and died
in 1895.

Appendix B

So Many Yesterdays

REMINISCENCES OF AN OCTOGENARIAN
JOHN SCHOLTE NOLLEN

Family Background

IT HAS been said that one needs to be specially careful in the selection
of one's grandparents. In this case a my grandfathers dictated at least
a modicum of intellectual and spiritual interest, for one was a teacher,
the other a preacher. Yet they transmitted also a certain bent toward
the practical, for one was the son of a village innkeeper, the other of
a small manufacturer in a large city. Since they both journeyed from
ancestral homes to a far country, they may have bequeathed a love
of travel and mundane as well as spiritual adventure. As for my

231

232 Grinnell College

grandmothers, one was visibly wedded to the finer things of life, the
other a tireless worker whose fingers made useful but also beautiful
things. It seems to me I could not have chosen better.

Salvador Dali was probably spoofing when he claimed to have dis-
tinct prenatal memories. I am skeptical even when others pretend to
remember things that happened to them in very early infancy. I
believe they actually recall only what parents have told them in later
years. My earliest "memories/* though quite definite, are of this
derivative type. This only do I know, that my older brother Henry,
who later became my best and most generous friend, did not greet my
first appearance with fraternal joy. "When I was born, January 15,
1869, he was somewhat over two years old, and as the first-born had
enjoyed a pleasant monopoly of parental attention. Now he sat in
his high chair with flaming cheeks and kept muttering Stoute Mama,
stonte Mama (stoitte is Dutch for "naughty") . Twice he attempted
a more vigorous protest, coming to the bed where I lay by Mother,
first with a tin cup full of water, then with a stick of firewood, in-
tending to dispose summarily of the rival for her affection and care.
Later, however, he became reconciled, and assumed brotherly func-
tions by trundling my perambulator. When a kind lady stopped to
look at baby and said "What a pretty little girl," Henry corrected
her: "Yes, but this little girl is a little boy." In part because the little
photograph still exists, I do remember my first picture-taking, when
I was about three; I can recall my disappointment when the blue
binding on the gray flannel suit, which Mother had made for me, came
out white instead of blue in the photograph. After that, when I was
five, I remember Henry's taking me by the hand and leaving me in
the kindly care of Miss Pratt at my first school, after I had already
learned to read at home. Why I was then transferred to the care of
a Mr. Lubberden, in a little detached school building near home, I
cannot say. It was there that I had my one and only school fight, but
it left no scars: the name of the small boy who was my opponent,
the reason for the contention, and its outcome have alike vanished
into the vague. Of childhood playmates, aside from young relatives,
I have no recollection whatever. School equipment and techniques
were still quite primitive, typified by the unhygienic use of slates
and slate pencils for our written exercises. One pioneer custom I
found especially agreeable the spelling-down, when the school was
divided into halves, lined up along opposite walls, and hotly contested
competitive spelling followed. I happened to display considerable skill
in this exhilaratory exercise; my heredity had given me language-
sense.

APPENDIX B 233

Our childhood home is quite clear in my mind; it still exists, but
no more recent visit is needed to make all its details a vivid memory.
My parents made it their home on the day of their marriage in 1 8 64,
and there they celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, shortly
before my father's death. The house had been built by my Uncle
Gerard as an artist's studio with a bedroom attached. The studio
became and remained our living room, and as the family grew, my
father had successive additions built at the rear, so that the house had
the structure of a tapeworm. It had no proper basement, and no
attic; a small cellar with dirt floors served only for storage. The house
was heated by stoves, first wood, then coal (the "boys' room, 35 where
Henry and I slept, had no stove) , and lighted by kerosene lamps; in
very cold weather, "pigs' 5 with hot water took the chill off our beds;
no bathroom, no plumbing, a cistern behind the house for "soft
water, 55 a well in front, remote from contamination, for drinking and
cooking water, carried in by the bucketful with problems of de-
frosting in winter. The day of processed and packaged foods and
refrigeration was not yet, and all the culinary processes were carried
on in the house: green coffee roasted in the oven and ground in a
hand mill; bread and cake baked and ice cream prepared and frozen
and tea blended at home; great crocks of vegetables in brine put up
for the winter. There were pitchers and washbowls, with occasional
baths in wooden washtubs hauled in for the purpose. A "privy, 5 '
defined as "a place of retirement for defecation, 55 of course unheated,
in the back yard. In short, it was the simple life under ordinary
pioneer conditions, without even a thought of the conveniences and
gadgets that complicate and clutter modern living. Much later, even
before the town acquired a water and sewer system, our old house too
was supplied with plumbing when Father had a bathroom and pump-
ing system installed.

I have quite definite impressions of my two grandfathers, whom
I never saw, but whose portraits and careers are familiar. My paternal
grandfather, Hendrik Nollen, probably of French Huguenot descent,
was born in 1798, the son of a farmer-innkeeper, in the Netherlands.
When he was a child, he burned his right hand by falling into a fire
made to heat a cartwheel tire, so that he could not do manual labor,
and hence was deflected to a sedentary and more or less intellectual
career. He became schoolmaster and sexton in the village of Didam,
in the province of Gelderland, near Arnhem, and played the organ
in the village church. The economic depression in Holland a century
ago, and the desire for wider opportunities for his seven children, led

234 Grinndl College

him to emigrate to the United States in 1854. It was natural that he
should seek settlement in a Dutch colony then recently established at
Pella, Iowa, where even his limited supply of guilders would buy an
acreage that seemed lordly to European eyes. Grandfather was think-
ing, naturally enough, of the fine estates of Holland, on which
baronial proprietors lived in aristocratic ease on lands tilled by peasant
retainers, and he seems to have dreamed of such a life of lucrative
leisure on his American domain. Unfortunately, he found on arrival
in his Eldorado that there were no peasant retainers in Iowa, that every
land proprietor had to till his own soil and literally earn his bread in
the sweat of his face. The result was that his youngest son Herman
became an American farmer, his one surviving daughter Zwaantje
married a farmer, and the other three sons gradually established them-
selves in the growing town of Pella: my father eventually became a
bank cashier. Uncle Henry a notary and clerk in a law office, while
Uncle Gerard tried to exercise his skill as an artist, painting landscapes
and portraits, and giving lessons.

The town of Pella had been founded in 1847 by my maternal
grandfather, the Reverend Hendrik Peter Scholte, who was a Hol-
lander of the more versatile and enterprising type. He was born in
1805, the older son of a box manufacturer in Amsterdam, of Han-
overian descent; his mother was the daughter of a broker; his parents
were Lutherans. His father's death, when he was sixteen, left him in
charge of the family affairs, but when his mother and only brother
died a few years later, he disposed of the business to continue his
interrupted education at Amsterdam and the University of Leyden.
He was one of the student volunteers who took part in the "ten days'
campaign" against Belgium, when that country won its independence
from the Netherlands in 1830. For this participation in a bloodless
defeat, each of the embattled students received a huge gold medal as
a souvenir from a patriotic old lady. A missionary from the United
States persuaded young Scholte to prepare for the Christian ministry.
Having completed the theological course at Leyden, he began his
ministry at the age of twenty-six, serving two villages in North
Brabant. With him went his bride, Sara Maria Brandt, daughter of
a sugar refiner in Amsterdam for whom his father had manufactured
shipping cases. He soon became one of the leaders in a conservative
revolt against the excessive liberalism and secularism of the established
church. As nonconformists, he and his people were harried and per-
secuted; Scholte was suspended and excommunicated by the State
Church and even imprisoned for preaching in defiance of state au-

APPENDIX B 235

thority. Like new Pilgrims, in search of a land where they might
worship according to the dictates of conscience, he and his followers
disposed of their property and sailed for the promised land, uncertain
of their exact destination, though aiming in general at settlement in
Illinois or the new state of Iowa. At this time he was serving a "free"
church in the city of Utrecht. His own spirit of independence and
his unwillingness to accept any but Biblical authority had led to his
suspension by the synod of the nonconformist association of churches
which had broken away from the State Church. To this action, as to
the earlier action of the established church, neither he nor his con-
gregation in Utrecht paid the least attention. They were secure in
their loyalty to a higher law.

In the spring of 1 847 some eight hundred men, women, and chil-
dren sailed from Rotterdam in four sailing vessels, for Baltimore, and
arrived there after eight weeks on the Atlantic. In order to prepare
the way in the new land, Dominie Scholte and his family proceeded
more rapidly by steamer from Liverpool to Boston, going thence to
Albany, New York, and Washington, finding everywhere the most
generous reception and full information about the availability of
government lands, open for settlement at $1.25 an acre. Conditions
of travel to the Midwest were still somewhat complicated. When the
colony arrived in Baltimore, the travelers went by rail to Columbia,
Pennsylvania, by canal to Hollidaysburg, by switchback railway over
the mountains to Johnstown, again by canal to Pittsburgh, finally by
river boat on the Ohio and Mississippi to St. Louis, where they joined
the few members of the company who had come some months earlier
to gather information. This distance, now covered by air in three
hours, then required several weeks of travel. From St. Louis the
Dominie and a small group of his parishioners traveled to Iowa to
spy out the land, and guided by a Baptist circuit-rider, they selected
a location in Marion County, on the divide between the Des Moines
and Skunk rivers. Here they established the town of Pella, named
after the city across the Jordan, where, according to Eusebius (as
the Dominie alone knew) the early Christians had sought refuge from
the anarchy preceding the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.
So Pella was founded with the motto In Deo Spes Nostra et Refu-
gmm\ t In God is our hope and our refuge." The streets on its original
plat bore the names of stages in the Christian pilgrimage: Entrance,
Inquiring, Perseverance, Reformation, Gratitude, Experience, Pa-
tience, Confidence, Expectation, Accomplishment, and finally End
Avenue, leading to a plot marked "Grave Yard." The names of these

236 Grmnell College

early Dutch pioneers must have seemed to older settlers as outlandish
as their old garb and wooden shoes. There were such jawbreakers as
Michmershuizen, Vanderroovaart, Muelenbrugge, Vanspanckeren, and
odd monickers like Bos, Kraai, Monster, Dikker, Slob, Kars, Kegel,
*t Lam, van Os, Pas, Popesyn, Zwank, Stubenrauch, and Niemand-
sverdriet ("Nobody's grief).

Though possessing only moderate wealth, Dominie Scholte was the
richest man in the colony. He gave the new town a public park, land
for its schools, a campus for the local college, later a town lot for
each citizen enlisting in the Civil War. He also set apart a lot, facing
the park, for the church of which he remained the minister. This led
to the first of a number of schisms in the religious life of the colony.
A commercial traveler who visited the new community and was
shown the town plat, told the Dominie that it was a mistake to build
a church facing the town square, which was certain to be surrounded
by business houses. When Mr. Scholte therefore took back the lot in
question and substituted a lot for the church in the prospective resi-
dential section, his Consistory made violent objection, alleging that he
had laid profane hands on the Lord's property. As a result of stub-
born disagreement, the Consistory excommunicated the Dominie, and
the controversy split the church in two: half of the faithful supported
the Consistory, the other half followed their pastor, who then built
them a church in which he continued to minister to them.

Another problem in ecclesiastical ethics was settled more amicably.
One day the Dominie was surprised by a week-day visit from his
elders and deacons. After an embarrassed silence, an elder explained:
"Dominie, the Consistory has considered this matter carefully and
prayerfully, and we have come to the conclusion that it is not proper
for a minister of the Gospel to have such a beautiful wife as yours.
According to the flesh, I might like to have her myself, but one must
not be subject to the flesh, and this is especially true for a minister."
The Dominie pondered a moment, looked over his glasses at the visi-
tors, and replied: "Brethren, will you advise me further in this im-
portant matter? What shall I do with her, shall I drown her, or poison
her?'* The brethren evidently had not thought that far, and so the
interview ended with a solemn leave-taking.

Though never wealthy, according to American standards, Grand-
father Scholte managed to live in some style. His house was quite the
largest in town, his library by far the richest, his garden a private
park. He kept a carriage and pair, with a coachman who was retainer
rather than servant. When the family were driving along the river,

APPENDIX B 237

there was admiring comment on the beauty of a wooded farmstead
up on the bluffs overlooking the stream. Hearing the conversation,
the coachman turned to Mr. Scholte and said: "/#, Dominee, bet is
weleen moot koetje, maar het gee ft geen melk" "Yes, Dominie, it
is a nice little cow, but it gives no milk."

Dominie Scholte's was never a one-track mind. He was a scholarly
theologian and a preacher of such power that he could hold a con-
gregation for two solid hours of pulpit oratory. But he had the ver-
satility of the true pioneer, and his restless spirit reached out in all
directions. He was gentleman farmer; builder of sawmills, brick
kilns, and lime kilns; land agent, notary, broker, banker, contractor,
dealer in farm implements, attorney, editor and publisher of a weekly
newspaper, school inspector, justice of the peace, and college board
president. In all this manifold activity he lacked the acquisitive urge
of many of his parishioners, and he contrived not to amass the great
wealth that a rich new country might have poured into his coffers.
He remained a conservative in theology, but in all other matters he
was forward-looking. He insisted that the local school must be con-
ducted in English, not in Dutch, and his newspaper was printed in
English. His political interest led to his appointment as a delegate at
large from Iowa to the Chicago convention that nominated Lincoln
for the Presidency; moreover, he was one of the vice presidents of the
Convention, as representing the new citizens of foreign birth whom
Lincoln's managers had the foresight to cultivate.

The "beautiful wife," object of the Consistory's solicitude, was
Dominie Scholte's second. His first wife, my grandmother, had died
in Holland shortly after the birth of my mother, who was her third
daughter. Judging by a miniature painting of her, my grandmother
must have been a girl of rare beauty; in fact, she was said to have been
the belle of Amsterdam, The second wife, whom we children all
called "Grandma," was a woman of great charm and fine culture; my
father used to say that she was about the only person in town with
whom one could carry on an intelligent conversation. She was musical
and artistic, she had studied in Paris and spoke French as well as
Dutch and English, and she loved beautiful things; the walls of the
big house are still covered with her amateur paintings. In her day,
in the fashion of the time, the house was crammed with bric-a-brac,
amid which we children had to thread our way circumspectly. In
the raw new West she was somewhat like an orchid in a weed patch;
she missed the sort of social life to which she had been accustomed in
Europe, and she had a temper! Occasionally passers-by would remark

238 Grinnell College

"The Queen of Pella rages." But to us of the third generation she was
always grandmotherly kind, though also unmistakably grande dame.

My grandmother Nollen, on the other hand, was unmistakably
bourgeois. She was a good Dutch hwsvrouw, completely unpreten-
tious, never idle, limited to her native language (after forty years in
this country her entire English vocabulary was "You well?"), her
knitting needles flying whenever she was free from other tasks. She
was an artist at knitting, for she not only kept her four sons provided
with woolen and cotton socks and leggings, but also contrived the
most astonishing fabrics, such as bedspreads, with original designs.
She always sat with a straight back on a straight chair, up to the age
of ninety, when she succumbed to pneumonia resulting from a cold
caught by getting up to make a fire on a bitterly cold day when the
maid was late. We called her Moetjes, which might be interpreted as
"Little Mother.' 9

I never knew either grandfather personally, both having died be-
fore I was born; but the two grandmothers were fixed stars in our
firmament. One of them gave us children a new "Grandpa." "When
"Grandma" Scholte was in her late forties she was still a charming
woman, and a handsome and debonair young Detroiter named Robert
R. Beard, half her age, fell in love with the rich Dutch widow and
married her. He had blue-black hair and moustache, a fair singing
voice, dressed well, used discreet perfume, and played the guitar
divinely. We children, who called him "Grandpa," though he was
younger than my mother, used to tease him to play "Sevastopol/' a
composition inspired by the Crimean War, in which, while the strings
vibrated to martial music, Mr. Beard pounded the guitar case with his
palm to simulate the boom of cannon. It was thrilling! Mr. Beard
was interested in sports, especially baseball, billiards, and tennis; he
had a billiard room installed in the big house and a tennis court laid
out in the garden. He could always beat us youngsters at billiards,
but we could match him at tennis, and after a hot match he would
bring out all the luscious chilled melon we could stow away. When
we were flying kites, he appeared, his pockets bulging with twine, and
supplied us with all the string our kites could carry. He gave us our
first real bows and arrows, which were vastly more exciting that our
homemade game of "cladders," which consisted of flipping wads of
clay off the end of willow switches.

In later life Mr. Beard became interested in astronomy and had an
observatory built for his own very amateur study of the stars and
planets. Also in later life he was converted to the pietistic religion of

APPENDIX B 239

the Plymouth Brethren and even devoted himself to lay preaching,
always in a curiously strained, unnatural tone of voice, which no
doubt seemed to him more fitting for the high argument than natural
tones would be. He used to talk rather vaguely as if he repented
things he had done as a gay blade in his youth, but without ever giv-
ing us any of the pertinent details, which might have added verisimili-
tude to a "bald and unconvincing narrative," as KoKo would say.
When "Grandma" died, he remained a widower for some years, then
married our cousin Kate Keables, and we used to crack that Kate had
become her own grandmother, with the further complication that she
now became the stepmother-in-law of her cousin Leonora Keables,
who had married our half-uncle Henry Scholte, thus becoming Kate's
half-aunt. Meanwhile our "Grandpa" Beard had been suddenly meta-
morphosed into "Cousin Bob," a title more to his liking. Unfor-
tunately for future delvers into the records of the past, Mr. Beard had
no feeling for the value of historical documents, and he burned up a
mass of Grandfather Scholte's correspondence and other precious ma-
terial referring to Grandfather's contacts with Abraham Lincoln and
other prominent men of the time.

In my boyhood the disposition of the family was as follows: Grand-
mother Nollen was keeping house for two sons in an apartment over
the Pella National Bank; Uncle Henry (Oom Hein) , bachelor, who
worked in Uncle Peter's law office and was volunteer organist at the
Second Reformed Church, and Uncle Gerard (who hated being called
Gerrit) , artist and widower, whose wife had died in childbirth, leav-
ing him solitary and a mildly eccentric spirit. My father was cashier
of the bank; he and Mother and we five children (two others had
died in infancy) lived in a simple cottage near by. Tante *Lwaant]e
("Swanette"), Father's only sister, lived on a farm near town with
her husband, Cornelius Welle, and four children. Uncle Herman, the
youngest Nollen brother, lived on the original family farm, three
miles from town, with Tante Dtrkje and four children. My mother's
oldest sister Sara had married Dr. B. F. Keables, Civil "War veteran
and leading physician in town; they had five children. Her other
sister Maria had married attorney Pierre Henri Bousquet (Uncle Peter,
or Oom Viet Hein) ; she died when their two daughters were small
children; he later married Emma Thompson, his "American wife,"
and they had one daughter. "Grandma" Scholte and her second hus-
band R. R. Beard lived in the big house to which her older son Henry
P. Scholte had added an apartment for himself and Aunt Nora to
whom three children were born. Her younger son David Scholte and

240 Grinnell College

Aunt Marie lived in a cottage near ours; no children. It was an
interesting and varied family connection, all living within easy reach,
and when my mother invited all the tribe and its tributaries to our
house for my father's birthday, we assembled about sixty souls.

My uncles were definitely individual types, and their always amica-
ble relations were no doubt due to their respect for each other's
idiosyncrasies. Of Father's brothers, we saw comparatively little of
the youngest, Herman, the farmer; a quiet, modest, kindly man, his
intellectual and aesthetic interests were kept in abeyance by hard man-
ual labor. We saw more of the other brothers, Henry and Gerard.
Oom Hem, as we called this Uncle Henry, was an old bachelor and
worked in the law office adjacent to the bank. He was always on
hand to play the organ at the Second Reformed Church, and it was
his unfailing custom to pay us a call after the service, before going
home to Sunday dinner* One day he came as usual, but confessed that
he had not attended the Union Thanksgiving Service at the Baptist
Church, for which he produced the alibi: "You've got to draw the
line somewhere, and I draw it at a church with a tank in it." This
was probably a distant echo of the old Dutch Calvinist hostility to
the Anabaptist movement and the vagaries connected with it. Oom
Hem was always most explicit in his opinions. "When the classic
beauty of the famous Lily Langtry (patronized by the Prince of
Wales) was being celebrated, he snorted, "Greek profile! As Greek
as an old shoe!" His favorite expression for anything he disliked was
"Allemaal popcock," which shows how the American vernacular was
infiltrating into Dutch. My father, on the other hand, kept his many
languages distinct. He was averse to the use of slang, and the Dutch
that he wrote in numberless articles for De Volksvriend, published at
Orange City, was pure Dutch. And though he was indulgent to the
liberties taken by literary humorists, I never heard him tell a story
or make a remark that was in the least oflf-color.

Father's artist brother Gerard (commonly called De Scbilder, "The
Painter") never won the success to which his talent might have en-
titled him. His experiment as a photographer in Keokuk proved only
his lack of practical business sense, and even though he was a minor
Ruysdael as a landscapist, and better than most of his contemporaries
at portraiture, there was naturally little market for his work or for
his skill as a teacher of painting in rural Pella. He was quite lacking
in the enterprise that could have gained him fame in a city in com-
petition with other artists. Like my father, whose light also was
hidden under the Pella bushel, Uncle Gerard preferred to "let well-

APPENDIX B 241

enough alone." It must have been the Scholte blood that urged my
generation to seek wider fields and more adventurous living. Father
was quite disturbed at my abandoning a nice safe teaching job in a
state university for a relatively precarious college presidency.

There were two family tales about Uncle Gerard when he was a
small boy. His oldest brother (my father) was a frugal lad who kept
a penny bank in which he deposited the coppers that came his way.
Once, when there had been a Kermes (fair) at Didam, he happened
to look at his bank, and to his disgust found it empty. Suspecting his
small brother, he exacted a confession of the theft, and little Gerard
said tearfully: Ik heb bet allemad op de paardjes verrejen ("I rode it
all up on the little horses/' i.e., the merry-go-round). On another
occasion, his mother had been baking, and sent him with a basket of
poffertjes (fritters) as a present to a friend Frankoom (Uncle Frank)
at the farther end of the village. As he went, little Gerrit lifted the
doily to look at the tempting contents, and yielded to temptation.
Finally he arrived at his destination and made his little speech. When
Frankoom removed the doily, there was just one little poffertje left
in the bottom of the basket. So he said to his small visitor, Wei)
mannetje, zit je nn -maar op dat stoeletje en eet je dat poffertje ook op
("Well, my little man, just sit down on this stool and eat this pof-
fertje too") , and so little Gerrit obediently disposed of the last fritter.

Mother's half-brothers, too, were quite distinct personalities. Uncle
Henry Scholte always came to our house for morning coffee, and
brought with him the dramatic spice for the occasion. We young-
sters hung on his words, for he was a capital raconteur of the small
events of the village. We thought he might have been a great actor;
he looked very much like Joe Jefferson and had much of Jefferson's
homely talent for characterization. But when he set pen to paper his
style was dry and wooden. It was only the special technique of the
spoken word that he handled with the mastery of a virtuoso. Uncle
Henry was a good Christian of the fundamentalist type, in later years
one of the leaders among the Plymouth Brethren, but his piety was
relieved by more than a mere touch of the old Adam, inherent in the
Scholte blood. My father, who was not too squeamish, was rather
shocked at the collection of pin-up pictures of pretty actresses, some-
what in dishabille, over Uncle Henry's assistant cashier's desk at the
bank, and Henry used to joke, with a sly grin, about looking out
the window whenever feminine beauty was passing, especially when
there were muddy crossings and lifted skirts; or about patronizing
shops with "lady barbers" when he went to the city. Of course we

242 Grlnnell College

knew that he liked to draw the long bow for the sake of conversa-
tional effect. He had played the flute and acquired a bit of skill in
tap-dancing in his youth, and even in later years would occasionally
throw a clog-step. He could make a wry joke even o the occasional
lumbago that tormented him. He was a most engaging personality,
and my mother's favorite among the uncles. Of course he warmly
reciprocated her sisterly affection.

Mother's other half-brother, Uncle David Scholte, was a very hand-
some man and had a fine tenor voice, which he exercised with a
strong vibrato on the popular ditties of the day, such as "When the
corn is waving, Annie dear." He was his mother's favorite son, and
she had spoiled him by assuring him that he would always be cared
for; so he had acquired some harmlessly expensive tastes, but no
earning capacity. Not successful in his sporadic attempts at business,
he supplied an alibi for idleness by a quasi-invalid life. He might be
said to have enjoyed ill health; he would say plaintively, "And then
they expect a man to work!" When the family income ran low, after
the division of the paternal estate, he and Aunt Marie moved to the
Far West, where she kept the pot boiling by taking in boarders. She
was a good soldier and continued, without audible complaint, to sup-
ply David with the little personal luxuries to which he had always
been accustomed.

Of our uncles-by-marriage, we saw least of Uncle Neal (Cornelius
Welle) , who had married Father's only sister Zwaantje she a hard-
working farmer's wife, absorbed in housework and family. He was
a short, balding, heavy-set Hollander, laconic, industrious, limited in
his interests, of ordinary bourgeois type. However, our visits to his
farm, or to Uncle Herman's, were red-letter days for us youngsters.
Uncle Frank Keables, the doctor, who had married my mother's
oldest sister Sara, was an "American" who had been a surgeon in the
Civil War, and he and his brother (Aunt Nora's father) had settled
in Pella to carry on their medical professions. He was a bluff and
hearty man, a good practitioner, not overly intellectual. His frankly
expressed theory that "boys should be allowed to sow their wild
oats" which he himself had probably not done was not too good
advice for his own sons. The money he earned in his practice melted
away in the attempt to multiply it by investing in gold-mining stock;
he was one of the numberless suckers whom clever and unscrupulous
operators, among them a later Senator from Colorado, succeeded in
fleecing by dishonest manipulation.

Uncle Peter (Pierre Henri Bousquet) was a notable figure, whose

APPENDIX B 243

eccentricities his mother had attributed to her marrying her own
cousin but this cousin himself, named Abraham Everardus Dudok
Bousquet, had been queer in his own right. Uncle Peter (Oom Piet
Hein) was a large man with fat jowls and light blue eyes, the backs
of his hands like pincushions, his feet like wedges set down flat in
walking, toeing out at a wide angle. His thick lips were always in
motion, though he was chewing nothing but the cud of reflection.
He attended all funerals and weddings within reach. This same piety
led him to invite the young suitor for a daughter's hand to prayer on
the subject. Needless to say, the young man promptly joined. Like
Uncle Frank, Uncle Peter, too, had financial ambitions beyond the
scope of his local law business, and he lost heavily by investing in
far-distant enterprises. His younger brother, whom we children
called "Uncle Herman," shared the family eccentricity. He owned
a cluttered and untidy hardware store, and used to say, "The time
when a man becomes really eloquent is when he has to sell a stove/ 3
To him bicycling (in which he did not indulge) was "the poetry of
motion/ 5 Quite often his aesthetic sense was tempered by practicality,
as in his remark that, "I can't enjoy a landscape when I know that
the man who owns the farm owes me fifty dollars." Also his idea of
"sublimity" was a water tank on stilts.

Anent the "American wife," the early Dutch residents of Pella and
vicinity looked with scant favor upon marriage outside the Holland
community, and their expression Amerikaanscbe vrouw was less than
complimentary. They expressed their estimate of such outlanders in
the dictum, De Amerikaansche vrowwen zitten den beelen dag in een
jutterstoel te fatter en "American wives sit all day rocking in a
rocking-chair." This type of furniture seems to have been an Ameri-
can invention, unknown in Europe. Uncle David's American wife,
Aunt Marie, was no rocking-chair addict; she had the reputation of
being a meticulous housekeeper and also a rather severe critic of
others' shortcomings, which she would judge with acid comment, al-
ways adding, "I say it in love, dear." When Aunt Nora, at a very
early age, married Uncle Henry Scholte, she was naturally a bit on
edge when Aunt Marie made her a sisterly visit, without unpleasant
incident until Marie flipped her handkerchief over the top of the
door and found dust there. Aunt Nora, Uncle Henry Scholte's wife,
had been a great beauty in her early years she too was an "Ameri-
can wife" but no doubt she enjoyed her old age even more than
her youth. After both her husband and her mother died, she re-
marked that she was now free for the first time since her marriage at

244 Grinnell College

eighteen. She was indeed free to travel, to drive her car, to paint
landscapes (she had taken lessons from Uncle Gerard), to write about
her mother-in-law, to enjoy the homage of younger people to her as
a dowager still impressive in her silk and real lace a species of
midwestern grande dame. She enjoyed exhibiting the Scholte relics
in the big house when strangers came to the annual tulip festival in
Pella. She was the first collector of antiques in Pella, and her display
of old Dutch oddities and relics of pioneer days, from candle molds
to duelling pistols (left by a German aunt who had come to the colony
in the early days), became the nucleus of the Historical Museum
later established in the town.

Pella

During my boyhood Pella was a village of 2,000 to 2,500 souls,
located on the watershed between the Des Moines and Skunk rivers,
in the midst of a thriving farm population, largely Dutch. The
stream of immigration from Holland had continued through the
years, and not only the town but the countryside for many miles
about was inhabited by Hollanders whose frugal industry had created
a high degree of well-being. Life was simple and leisurely. None of
the expensive and often cumbersome gadgets that now clutter our
existence had yet been invented or developed. We had no telephone,
no gas or electric light or power, no typewriters, no water system, no
furnace heat, no movies. Nor had we even dreamed of such miracles
as the automobile, the airplane, the phonograph, radio, "canned
music," radar, atomic fission (to us "atom" still meant "indivisible"),
psychoanalysis, television, or a host of commonplaces of today. There
were no electric sweepers or other electric appliances, no dry-cleaning
establishments, no beauty parlors. Our houses were heated by stoves,
the fuel wood, later coal, and lighted by kerosene lamps, which needed
to be cleaned and refilled daily. In the spring the unpaved town
streets as well as the country roads were deep in mud. Even though
we had wooden sidewalks, we sometimes lost our rubbers on the
muddy crossings. The safety bicycle was new and not in common
use. Farmers had horses for work, of course, not for pleasure; the
saddle horse and the "buggy" were still rare. In town only physicians
and a few of the richer citizens kept horses. In the absence of running
water we had no bathroom, and one does not remember with pleasure
the sanitary inconvenience in the backyard, too hot in summer and
cruelly cold in winter, There was nothing hectic about business life;
merchant or banker could knock off from work in office or store
for morning coffee or afternoon tea at home. There was a one-track

APPENDIX B 245

railway connecting Pella with Keokuk southeastward and with Des
Moines northwestward, the "K. & D. M." or Des Moines Valley Rail-
road, later merged into the Rock Island system.

Like the Athenians in Paul's day, the people in and about Pella
were "from every point of view extremely religious," worshipping at
many altars. There were thirteen churches in town, most of them
struggling affairs. Some of them, such as Baptist, Methodist, and
Presbyterian, came in with the moderate influx of "American" resi-
dents attracted by the College; the small Catholic chapel owed its
origin to the Irish railway builders who were in town when Pella had
been the temporary terminus of the K. & D. M. Schisms, caused by
the dour stubbornness of the opinionated Dutch mind, had multiplied
since the first division in Dominie Scholte's day. Thus we had the
First, the Second, the Third, the Fourth Reformed Church. There
were also splinter groups like the Plymouth Brethren and an odd con-
venticle of "Soul Sleepers" or Psychopannachists. The classic expres-
sion of the sectarian spirit came from an elder of a small group that
modestly called itself "The True Reformed Church" and held its
services in a member's house. As the driblet of the "True Reformed"
was approaching the multitude issuing from the First Church, this
elder was heard to say to a crony: "Yes, it is always so: the kingdom
of Satan is more numerous than the kingdom of God." Whatever
their particular denomination or number, these Dutch church-goers
could absorb plenty of punishment: a two-hour sermon in the morn-
ing, another in the afternoon, with coffee served in the interim. Until
the American influence brought the singing of hymns, as well as
sermons in English, only psalms were used in the Dutch service; the
musical setting, all in full and half notes, was strangely impressive
when sung with lingering emphasis by a large and fervently devout
congregation. These good people were enormously impressed by the
erudition of their preacher, and when he spoke with eloquence on
"The Equilibrium and Equipoise of the Soul," as the learned Dr.
"Winter did, there were admiring comments by pious hearers who had
not the foggiest notion what it was all about.

Our English-speaking Second Reformed Church was served, in my
boyhood, by a succession of ministers, most of whom were less than
inspiring, and it was always possible for us to pursue our own reflec-
tions while the minister was prosing. During any interregnum our
leading elder (Dutch, of course) would read us sermons from a
printed collection, but he composed his own long prayer, which al-
ways began, "Lord, we deign to come unto Thee," which seemed to

246 Grinnell College

us literate members a fine piece of condescension on his part. This
elder also conducted what he called the "cathekethical class" for the
instruction of the young. One of my most painful recollections is a
series of twelve sermons on baptism, fortified by a dozen texts from
both Testaments, by which our little preacher proved to his own satis-
faction that sprinkling was really more orthodox than immersion;
our minister was inspired to this effort by fear lest some of his young
people succumb to the lure of the local Baptist church. At another
time an eager homily on Sin by a very young preacher of candid
countenance prompted my sister-in-law to say, "I don't believe the
dear boy would recognize Sin if he met it in the street."

The educational needs of the community were supplied by "Cen-
tral University," founded by the Baptists of Iowa in 1853, and by
a system of public schools from primary through high school. The
"University" (later called "College") had been brought to Pella
largely through the interest of Dominie Scholte, who gave generously,
as did other Hollanders, to secure this institution for the new town.
For many years, however, relatively few of the students came from
the immediate community, while the higher education offered under
Baptist auspices brought some American families to the town. The
"University" never received much financial support from the de-
nomination which founded it. In my day it was still struggling for
survival, and it was not until many years later, when it was taken over
by the Dutch Reformed people, that it began to grow and prosper.
The public schools at that time were neither better nor worse than
those in other midwestern villages, which means that they were dis-
tinctly inferior to European schools. School teaching then was not
so much a career as a stop-gap for young women on the way to
matrimony.

Social life and entertainment were primitively simple. There was
no dancing or card playing in our circle, and convivial drinking was
unknown; our beverages were tea, coffee, and chocolate, or pink lemon-
ade when the circus came to town. Here, however, I must enter a
caveat. At New Year's, and occasionally for a birthday celebration,
there would be a festal advocate borreltje, "lawyer's dram" or egg-
nog, and until the prohibition law came along Mother had a small
supply of homemade wine, used occasionally, in diminutive glasses, as
a nightcap, with a small cookie. Young people had parties, at which
most of the games were spiced with innocent osculation. "We had
coasting, ice-skating on a mill pond, occasionally roller-skating, pic-
nics, or days in the country at farm houses, stowing away mountains

APPENDIX B 247

of food. Swimming, in Thunder Creek or the Des Moines or Skunk
River, was less common; the rivers were treacherous and sometimes
claimed incautious victims. Buggy rides and sleigh rides depended on
the resources of the local livery stables, for few families kept horses.
There was an "Opera House" in town, a rather shabby hall where
occasional lectures, concerts, and even dramatic performances were
available, either by local talent or by companies that played one-night
stands in the sticks: "Uncle Tom's Cabin/' "Ten Nights in a Bar
Room," "East Lynne," and such. Lyceum lectures, later known as
"Chautauquas," were an established custom; the most popular per-
formers were the purveyors of travelogues, especially the explorer,
Paul DuChaillu. In addition to infrequent recitals by visiting artists,
such as Blind Tom, the Negro pianist, we had concerts by Cox's Light
Infantry Band, which owed its excellence and a rather wide reputa-
tion to the patronage of Murray Cox, the local station agent. The
dress uniforms worn by these musicians were most impressive: brown
velvet coats with gilt and blue trimming, white corduroy breeches,
leather puttees, black hats with long white plumes. Young people,
and some of their elders, used to parade around the square while
listening to the music; a favorite number was a medley of tunes listed
as "Potpourri by the Band," the pronunciation of which no French-
man would have recognized. Murray Cox was not above punning
about the program, announcing the next number as a "seem funny."

The Pella National Bank, one of the many institutions originated
by Dominie Scholte, was really a family institution. My father was
cashier for fifty years, my half -uncle Henry Scholte was assistant
cashier (later cashier when Father retired), "Grandpa" Beard was
president, Uncle Peter Bousquet was a director. Its monopoly was
broken when rival interests started another bank, which they brashly
named "First National," but this venture came to a tragic end when
its president committed suicide after consuming the assets and much
of the deposits in bucket-shop speculations. In later years the old
Pella National saw still other rivals rise and fall.

Manufacturing enterprises were few and modest. Farm wagons,
brick and tile, furniture, flour, bakery goods, bologna, and wooden
shoes were the principal products. It was not until much later that
more important industries were established, such as the manufactur-
ing on a large scale of threshing units, window screens, and Venetian
blinds. The Dutch were hearty eaters, and some of their favorite
comestibles gained wide popularity: Pella bologna and beschnit
(rusks), cummin cheese, and a variety of bakery wares, with names

248 Grinnell College

puzzling to outsiders sinternildaas, tnllebant, kletskopjes, krakelin-
gen, krentebroodjes, vetbollen, soesen> flensjes, wafelen, with cinnamon
a common condiment. The sinternikiaas was the most characteristic
specialty, a sort of hard ginger cookie moulded in animal or human
form, particularly appropriate to St. Nicholas' Day, December 6 (in
Holland not confused with Christmas) , when the generous Saint ap-
pears with his servants to bring presents for good children, switches
for bad ones, if any.

In my day the local gardeners still peddled their vegetables on
wheelbarrows from house to house, huckster fashion. In general, busi-
ness had become fairly specialized: there were groceries, clothing
establishments, shoe shops, drugstores (which still sold drugs) , jewel-
ers, hardware and furniture stores, bakeries, photographic studios,
blacksmith shops, lumber yards. It was still the custom of farmers to
barter butter and eggs for store goods, but we had a creamery, and
could look back with amusement at the first advertisement of the
store opened in 1853, which listed, among other items for sale: "Tar,
Ink, Washboards, Buckets, Liquor and Wines, Window Glass, Sugar
and Molasses, Whiskey by the Barrell, Coffee, Rice, Candles, Chewing
and Smoking Tobacco, Nails, Spices, Powder and Shot, Mackerel,
Nutmegs, Soap, Umbrellas, Tubs, Cigars, Lampblack, White Lead,
Sugar (loaf, crusted and brown), Candy, Ginger, Salt, Chocolate,
Blacking, Flasks, Stove Pipe, Clay Pipes, Cordage, Liniment." In that
early day, all the items of such a stock had to be carried 120 miles by
wagon over dirt roads or across a trackless prairie.

In my boyhood the dollar was still full-bodied, in contrast with
the emaciated unit of this day. A dollar then commanded an interest
rate of 10 per cent. One dollar bought a man's labor for a ten-hour
day, or a woman's for two or three days, ten pounds of meat, twenty
loaves of bread, four chickens, or four haircuts; a good pair of shoes
cost three dollars; a man's suit, twenty; a good house, two thousand.
Salaries were in proportion: a college professorship drew a stipend of
about one thousand dollars.

Partisan politics were still marked by a somewhat primitive viru-
lence. Memories of the Civil War were still vivid, and patriots did not
hesitate to wave the bloody shirt; veterans were exhorted to "vote as
they shot," which meant the Republican ticket. However, the majority
of the Dutch, unlike Dominie Scholte, were Democrats, due to the
early identification of the Republicans with the former Know-Noth-
ing movement, directed against foreigners. The attitude of many voters
was expressed by a Dutch carpenter with whom my father, naturally

APPENDIX B 249

a sound money man, was arguing the necessity of opposing the free
silver heresy. Said the carpenter: "Mr. Nollen, I don't bother much
about politics. I put a Democratic ticket in the box and leave the
rest to God." My father, though a pious man, thought that was a
severe test of divine omnipotence.

Presidential campaigns were more picturesque then than in this
more sophisticated day. We had torchlight parades, and for us small
boys there was excitement in marching, clad in cheap soldier caps and
oilcloth capes, carrying flaming torches, and yelling for our party.
The great political orator of that day was Jonathan P. Dolliver, later
a leading member of the United States Senate. He was the son of a
Methodist circuit-rider in West Virginia; he had gone through grind-
ing poverty after coming to Iowa as a young lawyer, and had leaped
into national fame by a political speech, much as young William
Jennings Bryan later electrified his party with his Cross of Gold
oration. The only thing I can remember of Dolliver's speech at Pella
is his Shakespearian quotation, ridiculing the opposition as those who
"crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, where thrift may follow
fawning." Hamlet making votes for the G. O. P.! That was some-
thing new in American stump-speaking.

The Family at Home

On the material side, life in our tape-worm cottage was reduced to
simple terms, and since Father's salary as cashier never went beyond
eighteen hundred dollars (which, however, were still dollars and not
the attenuated units of this day), expenses for a family of seven
souls needed to be kept down to a minimum consistent with decent
living. Labor being cheap, we did have the occasional help of a kitchen
mechanic, always an untrained farm girl. One of these temporary
helpers well expressed the insensitiveness of the breed; she had just
taken out a tray loaded with my mother's best china when we heard
a great crash, and Clientje poked her head in at the door and said
cheerily "I broke the whole durn pan" (Dutch pan is equivalent to
"caboodle"). For masculine jobs we could count on the assistance of
Hendrik Blom, an old man-of-all-work who also pumped the bel-
lows for the organ at the First Church, priding himself on his skill
in "pumping by note," by following the psalm-book. Blom was a
character, an odd mixture of the deference shown to higher-ups by
the typical old-fashioned servant and the self-regard of a respectable
citizen. When he worked for us, he was always invited to join the
family at morning coffee, where he was quite at home. When his

250 Grinnell College

young grandson was working at the "American" house next door,
where there was no coffee-time, Blom called him over the fence to
join us at our table, and when the boy was hesitant about reaching
for the cakes, the old man said: "Help dezelve, Wo^lter > 'tis vri]
Amerika" ("Help yourself, Walter, this is free America"). It was
indeed a land of boundless opportunity for the immigrant, and many
a man who had come from penury in Holland to plenty in Iowa could
speak with feeling of his family's escape from the zwarte brood, the
"black bread" of the Old Country.

My father, John Nollen, was definitely the head of the house,
European style, but he felt the responsibility more than he enjoyed
the privilege of this unquestioned authority. Nor did he need to
assert it. He never laid his hand on a child in punishment: his word
was law and did not require even a frown to support it. In this my
mother fully seconded him, and the household revolved always about
his desires, which, to be sure, were modest enough. His only personal
extravagance was his polyglot library, which became by far the best
private collection in town. When he was a small child, he had been
taught to smoke by relatives with a distorted sense of humor. In
middle life he discontinued this habit as expensive and unnecessary;
he had no other indulgences.

Father was tall (six feet plus) and uncommonly thin. Though his
health was never robust, by a careful regimen he lived to be eighty-
six with a mind quite unaffected by the infirmities of age. His firm
mouth and heavy eyebrows and piercing far-sighted eyes, looking
through old-style spectacles, gave him a somewhat forbidding aspect,
while long hair and a scraggy Horace Greeley fringe of beard made
him look provincial. His flat voice lacked the resonance needed to be
an effective public speaker, though in conversation he was eminent.
His physical aspect gave little hint of his intellectual powers. Essen-
tially self-taught, having had only a common-school education in
Holland, he had succeeded by his own efforts in acquiring an extra-
ordinary fund of knowledge and cultivating an intelligence as clear
and far-reaching as any I have encountered among the great scholars
of two continents. Thus he had mastered all the mathematics known
in his day, later teaching this subject at a gymnasium (secondary
school) in Holland. His natural capacity for mathematics may ap-
pear from the fact that when in his boyhood a book on geometry fell
into his hands, he read it through as if it were a novel, fascinated by
its logical consistency. Without instruction or laboratory experience,
he familiarized himself with modern science, especially chemistry,

APPENDIX B 251

physics, and astronomy. He entertained himself by calculating
eclipses for the longitude of Pella, using the successive volumes of the
American Ephemeris, one of his bookish extravagances. His native
tongue was Dutch, but he became proficient in English, French, and
German and read Latin and Greek more fluently than the professors
who taught the classics at the local college. It was a nine-days' won-
der to the customers of the bank to find the cashier engrossed in
Homer or Plato when business was slack. He taught himself to play
the piano, and I remember falling asleep at night, when I was a child,
to an accompaniment of Beethoven or Chopin. Not only did he have
a wide historical background, but a solid practical grounding in
economics. The one discipline that was foreign to his interest was
metaphysics, which he called "a science of sprained minds"; but he
found Plato's dialogues fascinating. His omnivorous curiosity led
him to purchase the scholia of the Greek authors, so that he might
know what the Alexandrian critics had to say when the "dead lan-
guages" were still alive. So, too, he followed up source material on
the early development of the Christian Church. He had never at-
tended a university, but he was a university. Since he had been a
teacher in Holland, and was really a born educator, it would have
been natural for him to use this talent when he came with his family
to Iowa. Unfortunately there was no outlet for his pedagogical gift
in this new country; so he occupied himself by working on Mr.
Scholte's fella Gazette, in Mr. Scholte's express office, then in Mr.
Scholte's bank, and playing the organ in Mr. Scholte's church. He
also became Mr. Scholte's son-in-law. He was mayor of Pella, 1859-
1864, for some years justice of the peace, president of the school
board, and a member of the board of trustees of "Central University/'
Father's powerful and active mind was not matched by physical
strength or skill. He gave no evidence of mechanical ability. I never
saw him handle a tool or an implement, whether hammer, hatchet,
screwdriver, rake, or sickle; and games, such as tennis, baseball, or
billiards, or even the prevalent croquet, had no part in his life. Ex-
cept when wet weather made roads and woods impassable, he took
his regular exercise in long walks in the country, accompanied by his
unbeautiful mongrel dog, Trust, who also preferred the wider out-
doors. When they left the house, the dog walked with his master up
to a certain corner. If Father continued in the same direction, that
meant a country walk, and Trust went on with him; a turn to the
right meant staying on town sidewalks, and then the dog turned tail
and came back home with an expression of boredom on his homely

252 Grinnell College

countenance. This reminds me of Uncle Peter's amusement at Moth-
er's remark that children were not naughty but merely bored; he
used to call us de familie die zich vervelt: "the family that suffers
from ennui." On one of our walks in town we found at the railway
station a box-car that the Rock Island was sending along its lines to
"make rain" during a dry summer. There was a thin wisp of vapor
issuing from a pipe through the roof, and when Father, always curious,
asked the man in charge what he was cooking, he looked mysterious
and whispered, c 'Electricity!" To some of the pious farmers in the
vicinity this affair was no joke. They turned their rainwater barrels
upside down to avoid catching any of the "devil's water."

Father took no pride at all in his personal appearance. He used to
say that a man who amounted to anything put fine clothes on his
coachman, not on his own back. Of course that was just a manner of
speaking, for there was neither coachman nor coach in our life. Pre-
ferring comfort to display, he wore 'his old clothes until finally
Mother took him by the ear and made him get a new hand-me-down
suit. For years he wore an old gray shawl, a la Lincoln, instead of an
overcoat, and to combat the cold of the bank floor, he always wore
wooden shoes while working as cashier; when he put on leather shoes
to go out, he left the klompen on the back of the stove to keep them
warm. Wooden shoes and Greek classics seemed an odd combination
to some of his friends, but no one ever ventured to indulge in flip-
pant comment on the subject. However, though severity seemed to
be his hall-mark, he had a most affectionate and compassionate heart
and a ready response to the humor of great masters such as Aristo-
phanes, Moliere, Heine, and Fielding; he only smiled when Mother
condemned Tom Jones as "nasty." Care about his diet and daily out-
door exercise had much to do with Father's longevity: add to these
his determination to leave business cares behind him when he came
home from the bank. It was a principle with him that business should
never be discussed at home. So he turned his mind resolutely to in-
terests remote from the daily grind. He was an unwearied and omniv-
orous reader, and for many years wrote weekly articles for a Dutch
paper on any subject that happened to engage his attention, all the
way from Genesis to relativity. He also tried his hand at verse, and
had a long poem privately printed: its title was The Specter of the
Brocken, no doubt suggested to him by Heine's Harzreise. His literary
tastes were catholic, but also quite personal. English poetry never ap-
pealed to him, and even Shakespeare he deprecated as "stilted" in
style, which reminds one of Tolstoy's hatred of Shakespeare. For a

APPENDIX B 253

similar reason, Vergil seemed to him far inferior to Homer, in whom
he found new beauties at every rereading.

Mother, fourteen years his junior, was a helpmeet for her husband.
She too was self-taught, but not in universal knowledge: her schooling
was limited to the most elementary classes of a pioneer village school,
but she learned by contact with people and by assiduous study of the
Bible, much of which she knew by heart. She remembered, from her
school days, the occasion when she was chosen to go to the basement
of the little village school to declaim Watts's hymn "Hark from the
tomb a doleful sound," while another pupil above recited something
about heaven and the angels. This procedure was varied when a small
boy was in the basement declaiming, "How dismal is the tomb/'
while little Mary Scholte above responded with "How lovely is the
tomb." One might gather from this that the taste of the time ran to
"mournful numbers." Like her learned father, Dominie Scholte,
Mother was a consistent conservative in her theology, while Father,
scientifically minded, was liberal, but this difference in attitude never
caused the slightest rift in their half -century of wedded harmony.
Father, too, was a pious Christian and his devout heart lived at ease
with his liberal mind. We always had prayer and Bible reading at
every meal, and on Sunday the entire family occupied a front pew at
church. Father's humane kindliness was in evidence here: he must
have found it irksome to suffer under the intellectually mediocre, not
to say stupid, ministrations of our callow pulpiteers, but I never
heard him indulge in criticism of their jejune offerings.

People in town had great respect for Father, but there was some-
thing formal or remote about his bearing that discouraged anything
like familiarity. He was distantly polite, especially to women, and
Mother told with amusement that, after she was engaged to marry
him, she heard another young woman remark that it was said "Mr.
Nollen was a woman-hater." Nobody who knew Mother could help
loving her. She was "Auntie Jo" to the whole town, especially to the
children, and it was understood that anyone could drop in to her
afternoon tea. Morning coffee was rather more a family function,
with Uncle Henry Scholte as an unfailing guest. Born fourteen years
later than Father, she outlived him exactly fourteen years, and so she
too lived to be eighty-six, as if in a last assertion of family solidarity.

Mother and her five children all visited Pella at. the time of the
seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the town. She was a bit
miffed at the slight recognition given in the proceedings to the real
pioneers and founders, and at her father's now neglected park being

254 Grinnell College

called "Beard's Grove." But she did not lose her sense of humor. As
we stood in front of the big house, watching the midget motors dash
around the square with young couples who had probably never heard
of the pioneers, an old gentleman, who had come all the way from
California to attend the festival, approached Mother and said: "I
wonder whether you remember me. My name is Curtis." She replied,
"Of course I couldn't forget you. You took me to my first party.
When we came to the door you wanted to kiss me. When I held back,
you said '"Why not? All the American girls do.* And I said 'Not
much, I'm Dutch!' "

Boyhood and Schooling

My boyhood in Pella was singularly uneventful. Travel by slow
train on our branch railway was uninviting, and trips were rare, even
for the less than fifty miles to Des Moines. When my father attended
the bankers' convention at Saratoga Springs, it was an event of the
greatest moment to the family. In all our circle only one uncle at-
tended the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. Once Henry and
I went with Father on a business trip to Chicago, memorable for two
facts: Father, having an almost morbid fear of fire, took a room on
the first floor of the old Sherman House, at the vertiginous cost of
five dollars for the three of us; and we attended a concert by the
Symphony Orchestra, conducted by its creator, Theodore Thomas, in
the old Exhibition Hall on the lake front in the midst of the Illinois
Central tracks, so that the music was often interrupted by the blast
of engine whistles and the rumble of switching freight trains. The
hall was arranged in German beergarden style with small tables ur-
gently suggesting the ordering of drinks, which was not for us. Chi-
cago was still in the pioneer stage of its lusty development. Mich-
igan Avenue, now lined with the most expensive shopping oppor-
tunities of the city, then offered a succession of odoriferous wooden
livery stables, over whose sloping approaches a pedestrian climbed
with precarious agility. There were other streets also where the level
of the sidewalks changed frequently and abruptly from low to high,
answering the exigencies of horse-borne freight service. The tracks of
the Illinois Central barred access to the lake, and the days of the outer
drive were still in the distant future.

In general, we stayed at home, getting an education with a modicum
of entertainment. The latter was primitive in its simplicity. We had
occasional parties in our small group of friends with games like post
office, or clap-in-clap-out, or drop-the-handkerchief, and always wel-
come refreshments. There were infrequent performances at the Opera

APPENDIX B 255

House or the College, mostly recitals or lectures. There were buggy
rides and sleigh rides in farm sleighs cushioned with straw or, in later
adolescence, tucked under a buffalo robe with one's best girl in a
"cutter" from the livery stable. There was skating on the millpond,
now and then roller skating. Swimming was frowned upon in our
family, so this use of Thunder Creek swimming hole was infrequent.
Picnics on the river bank did permit company wading. When the
bicycle came in, that was an exhilarating form of locomotion, de-
pendent on the state of the roads, impassably muddy in wet weather.
We had hazel nutting and walnut gathering, and long walks with
Father through the woods near town, spiced with the discovery of
ripe wild plums. There was kite flying, later billiards and tennis with
"Grandpa" Beard. Quite early there were surreptitious adventures,
such as four or five of us small boys meeting at an uncle's barn to
consume canned peaches or "cove" oysters; once we raided our fathers'
cigar boxes and lit up to smoke, but that experience was so lacking
in the expected thrill that I have been off tobacco ever since. Of
course corn silk was different; it did not induce nausea. One of the
frequent excitements of my early youth was the insistent call of the
fire bell in the middle of the night, when the small fry jumped into
their clothes and rushed out in search of the thrilling sight. There
must have been thirty such occasions during my boyhood. As it
turned out the cause was not accidental, for the fire-bug was finally
discovered to be a mentally unbalanced building contractor who set
fires in order to make more work for himself. After he was sent to
an insane asylum, the conflagrations ceased.

Henry and I cooperated in the chores that grew out of the simple
life. We sawed and split wood for the stoves that warmed our rooms
and cooked our food; we planted and weeded our flower garden we
were not tempted to compete with the local professionals in the rais-
ing of vegetables. We raked the yard, carried water from well and
cistern, shovelled snow, repaired the fence, filled kerosene lamps and
trimmed wicks, worked the ice cream freezer, looked after the
younger children, picked apples from our orchard. We won a fret
saw and silver plated napkin rings by selling subscriptions for the
'Youth's Companion.

The high points in our program of recreation came when we were
invited to spend a day at Uncle Neal's or Uncle Herman's in the
country. The spring wagon called for us after our breakfast at home,
and as soon as we arrived at the farm house the day's festivities began
with morning coffee, served with piles of waffles, deliciously inter-

256 Grinnell College

larded with sugar and cinnamon, turban cake, and other delectables.
Tante Zwaantje or Tante Dirkje had worked like slaves in preparation
for the event, with such help as was available, cooking and baking
and boiling and stewing and roasting, for the whole day was one long
feast of good things, dispensed with lavish hospitality. After a
leisurely walk over the farm yard, at noon we found the long dining-
room table groaning with turkey and chicken and ham and potatoes
with gravy and bollen (Dutch rolls) and sundry vegetables and pies
and cake and jellies and coffee with real country cream. During the
early afternoon a walk through the woods, returning to the house for
three o'clock tea with trimmings such as "letters" with almond paste
filling and other marvelous Dutch confections with untranslatable
names. Then a rest in the shade, or a game of horse-shoes, and by
that time supper was ready, another feast as bountiful as the noon
meal. Finally, as a nightcap before driving home in the moonlight, a
tiny glass of homemade wine and a cookie. For us youngsters with
india-rubber stomachs, those days were dreams of pure delight,
"linked sweetness long drawn out." My father, whose habits were
most abstemious, did not indulge very freely in such superabundance.
He used to wonder why reasoning people could not get together for
pleasant converse without filling their stomachs with more food and
drink than was good for them.

But schooling, that was right down Father's alley. He was a born
pedagogue, and he had such a fund of learning to impart as only the
great masters of knowledge could muster. When I was ten and Henry
a bit over twelve, he took us out of school, which seemed to his
European judgment inefficient and intolerably slow, and undertook
our education himself. He gave us all his time outside of banking
hours, assigning us plenty of studying to keep us busy while he was
at the office. We had no vacations. He thought a summer without
classes was a criminal waste of time; as for himself, he revelled in the
torrid heat of an Iowa summer, which he found more stimulating
than debilitating. As a teacher in the European tradition, Father was
a somewhat stern taskmaster. He took great pains in imparting to us,
not only the facts, but also the reasons why they were so. That was
in harmony with his mathematician's habit of demonstrating, prov-
ing, and counter-checking to eliminate all chance of error. But when
he had thus most patiently taught us something, he expected us to
know and to remember. When our adolescent minds wandered, he
would impatiently snatch off his skull cap and ejaculate: "Ezels,
hebben gi] dat we'er vergetenl" ("Asses, have you forgotten that

APPENDIX B 257

again!") He was, indeed, quite conscious of his own superior men-
tality and thinking of the hard and solitary way he had come to his
education, he would say: "If I had the chance you boys have, I might
have been a Humboldt!" referring to the last man who had been
able to master the whole range of human knowledge of his day. And
that, we felt sure, was no idle boast. He considered American text-
books inferior to their European counterparts; so we studied mathe-
matics from Dutch and English texts, the natural sciences from Ger-
man monographs, history from French books. Thus, while acquiring
a command of foreign languages, we used them in the mastering of
other disciplines. Henry, having a mathematical bent, did not study
ancient languages, but as I showed more linguistic interest, Father
taught me Latin and Greek, as well as French and German; Dutch
we had acquired in family conversation. English was our common
medium of communication, and in English literature he allowed us to
find our own way. In spite of our limited means he insisted on ade-
quate educational equipment. So he bought a theodolite for survey-
ing lessons and work in triangulation, a sextant with artificial horizon
for astronomic measurements; also he invested in the American
Epbemeris, so that we might learn to calculate eclipses and do other
astronomical stunts. In the same way he encouraged us in physical
culture by providing us with parallel bars and a horizontal bar, which
we called our "acting pole" and on which we attempted to repeat the
feats that we saw performed by circus acrobats. Father's educational
interest was not confined to his two oldest. For the young children he
prepared a series of primers, based on an original system of reading
by syllables, rather than the conventional spelling method, thus
anticipating later reform in school procedure; these primers Uncle
Gerard printed for him in handsome bold- face calligraphy. The re-
sult of our intensive training was that Henry and I saved four or five
years in the process of our schooling, and with a few additional
courses at the local college (including required study of Mark Hop-
kins' Evidences of Christianity and Noah Porter's portentous Human
Intellect} I was able to get my bachelor's degree at the age of sixteen.
At that tender age I was also entrusted with secondary classes in
physics and chemistry at the College, where I added some sporadic
teaching in history, mathematics, and Greek.

After two years of this desultory pedagogy, I spent 1887-1888 at
the State University of Iowa, where I had my first laboratory work
in physics and chemistry (then my principal interests) and my first
courses in philosophy and English literature, also my first experience

25 g Grinnell College

of military drill. My Sundays that year were hardly days of rest as,
between church and college connections, I met six appointments
regularly; two Sunday schools (one as student, one as teacher),
two church services, Y. M. G A., and Y. P. S. G E. Religious dis-
sipation! The University at that time was a very small college
my graduating class numbered thirty-six with small law, medical,
and dental schools loosely attached thereto; there was no graduate
school. The primitiveness of professional requirements in that day
may appear from the fact that the medical school had no entrance
requirements, and its course consisted of two sessions of six months
each; with this elementary equipment the young sawbones were let
loose on the community. College life was practically featureless.
There was no football, no baseball, no basketball, no orchestra or glee
club; the band had purely military functions. As I was a "barb"
(my family frowned upon "secret societies") I had no fraternity
social life. Literary societies were quite alive, and they furnished the
only practice in public speaking; I was active in the Zetagathian
Society, "seeking the good," so to speak. The academic authorities
assumed no responsibility for such cultural influences as music or
drama, or even for a lecture course. My contact with the theater was
limited to three memorable experiences: a performance of Meg Mer-
rilies by the aging Janaushek (reduced from stardom to one-night
stands) , the appearance in Caprice of Minnie Maddern, then quite
young, only much later famous as Mrs. Fiske, and Julius Caesar done
by Booth and Barrett, this last at Cedar Rapids. When Forepaugh's
circus came to Iowa City, many classes at the University were ex-
cused for a quarter-hour to watch the parade, but we had to go on
our own time to look at Diamond Dick and his band of Kickapoo
Indians selling their wonder-working "Sagwa." More serious events
were a lecture on the race problem by the famous Negro orator,
Blanche K. Bruce, and a political speech by our senior Senator, Wil-
liam B. Allison, of whom it was said that he would not commit him-
self in conversation as to whether shorn sheep seen from the train
were shorn on both sides. I was privileged to attend the meetings of
the Baconian Club at which professors read learned papers on scien-
tific subjects. The laboratory sciences were at that time taught in the
strongest departments of the University, with such really eminent
specialists as Samuel Calvin in geology, Thomas H. Macbride in
botany, and "Tuflfy" Andrews in chemistry. I owe a special debt to
Melville B. Anderson, then newly arrived as professor of English
literature, later professor at Stanford and translator of Dante.

APPENDIX B 259

Conditions of living at the University were simple. Since there
were no dormitories, I shared a room in a private house with a class-
mate, a room heated by a small stove in which we built a fire each
morning in winter with wood purchased from a farmer. There was
no running water, so our ablutions were limited to the ministrations
of the aboriginal pitcher and bowl. Incidentally, we found the same
archaic domestic arrangement at the home of a professor at Cedar
Rapids, where we attended a Y.M.C.A. convention. The furnace was
out of order there, and that night the thermometer registered 3 6 de-
grees below zero, the coldest weather I have ever known in Iowa. In
the morning the water in the pitcher was frozen. We had a fair alibi
that day for joining the great company of the unwashed. In that
early day the dollar of our fathers was still worth about a dollar, and
expenses were correspondingly moderate, compared with present
standards. Tuition was covered by a scholarship; meals at a student
boarding house cost $2.75 a week; our room cost each of us $4.00 a
month; a cord of wood was priced at $3.50.

It was toward the end of this year, 1887-1888, at Iowa City that
a chance contact changed the course of my life. Professor Currier
(Latin, later Dean) , who had been my father's friend since his early
pre-war college training at Pella, brought a young man to the labora-
tory to suggest my taking his place as tutor in an American-Swiss
family in Cham, Switzerland, a post he himself had relinquished be-
cause of failing health. The opportunity for foreign study and travel
seemed most alluring, and since I had no other prospects, I accepted
the offer, thus transmitted, of Mr. David S. Page, assistant manager
of the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, to take charge of the
education of his four children, whom he wished brought up as Ameri-
can citizens. Their mother was Swiss, but she spoke English, and the
family had already spent some time in this country. Traveling ex-
penses were to be paid; my salary would be $500 to $600 a year "and
found," as I was to live with the family. (I found later that teachers'
salaries in Switzerland at that time ran from $240 to a top of $600
annually. Half a century earlier, a brilliant teacher like Elizabeth
Peabody was content with a salary of $400, without board and room
in Boston. The Swiss income tax on my salary was thirty francs
or six dollars, poll tax $1.20.) So, July of 1888 saw me crossing the
ocean for the first time, a foretaste of many other crossings, in the
best Cunarder of the day, the old Umbria, which then held the time
record for the trans- Atlantic passage; we took seven days from New
York to Liverpool; a first-class cabin cost $60, which may be com-

260 Grinnell College

pared again with the cost of comparable accommodations in this in-
flationary period. Arrived in London, I was pleasantly entertained by
the head of the Anglo-Swiss office there, and enjoyed three further
dramatic treats: Sarah Bernhardt in Camllle^ Ada Rehan and John
Drew in The Taming of the Shrew, and the Mikado done by the
D'Oyly Carte Company. On the channel boat crossing to the con-
tinent, I met an English gentleman who proved to be a manufacturer
of oriental specialties. He said his product, made in London, was
shipped to the Far East, and sent back from there in Chinese or
Japanese shipping-cases for the British and American market. I had
heard much at home about the danger to American infant industries
of competition by cheap oriental labor. This was my first experience
of the reverse.*

* This autobiography was left unfinished at the time o Dr. Nollen's death on March
13, 1952.

Footnotes and Index

jKsffiflBtfiHK^^

Footnotes

1 Albert E. Dunning, Congregationalists in America (Boston, n.d.), 124tf, 143, 182ff,
202, 232. Per contra, the dominant Quakers of Pennsylvania resented the influx of poverty-
stricken Scotch-Irish in the early 18th century. Harold W. Dodds, John Witherspoon
(Newcomen Society, 1944), ISff. Arminians preferred freedom of will to predestination,
and stressed the grace of God rather than His sovereignty.

2 Dunning, Congregationalists, 259, 263.
*Ibid. y 268.

*!&, 283ff.

5 Henry K. Rowe, History of Andover Theological Seminary (Newton, Mass., 1933);
Dunning, Congregationalisms, 286fl:.

6 Rowe, And over > 8, 49.

7 C M. Fuess, An Old New England School: A History of Phillips Academy, Andover
(Boston, 1917), 149; Rowe, Andover, 14, 18ff, 20flf.

8 Rowe, Andover, 167.

263

264 Grinnell College

9 Poem, "The Poetaster,'* in Passion Flou>ers (Boston, 1854).

10 H. S. Commager, Theodore Parker (Boston, 1936), 50, 270 tf; Frank H. Foster, A
Gene fie History of the New England Theology (Chicago, 1907), 197.

11 Rowe, Andover, 2, 29, 33; Leon Howard, The Connecticut Wits (Chicago, 1943), 18.
12 Dunning, Congregationalists, 335f; Rowe, Andover> 104.

C. H. Rammelkamp, Illinois College: A Centennial History, 1829-1929 (New Haven,
1928), 18fF; Dunning, Congregationalisms, 33536F.

14 Life and Labors of Rev. Reuben Gaylord (Omaha, 1889), 82-4, 91.

15 Truman O. Douglass, The "Pilgrims of Iowa (Boston, 1911), 21, 26-7, 40f, 134. Pro-
fessor L. F. Parker states that Mr. Reed came to Iowa at the personal invitation of Asa
Turner. '99 Junior Annual, 11.

16 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 134.

17 George F. Magoun, The Past of Our College, 3 Iff.

18 "William Salter, Iowa: The First Free State in the Louisiana Purchase (Chicago, 1905),
55.

19 Cyrenus Cole, A History of the People of Iowa (Cedar Rapids, 1921), 42, 46.

20 William J. Petersen, Iowa: The Rivers of Her Valleys (Iowa City, 1941), 35. With
one-fiftieth of the area of the United States, Iowa is said to have one-fourth of the grade A
arable land in the country. (Report of National Resources Board* 19350

21 Salter, Iowa, 127.

22 Irving B. Richman, loway to Iowa (Iowa City, 1931), 35, 80-81, 92, 149-50.
!/., 58ff.

24 Cyrenus Cole, Iowa Through the Years (Iowa City, 1940), 111-12; Jesse Macy,
Institutional Beginnings in a Western State (Baltimore, 1884, Johns Hopkins Studies in His-
tory and Political Science, second series, Vol. VII), 7.

25 Albert M. Lea, Notes on the Wisconsin Territory; Particularly with Reference to the
Iowa District, or Black Hawk Purchase (Philadelphia, 1836), reprinted as The Book That
Gave Iowa Its Name (Iowa City, 1935).

26 Salter, Iowa, 237; Frederick Jackson Turner, The United States, 1830-1850 (New
York, 1935), 255ff; B. F. Shambaugh, The Constitutions of Iowa (Iowa City, 1934), 118,
189, 218.

27 The Book That Gave Iowa Its Name> 14; Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 23.

28 Richman, loway to Iowa, 150-51; John C. Holbrook, Recollections of a Nonagenarian
. , (Boston, 1897), 63; Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 67.

29 George F. Magoun, Asa Turner t A Ho-me Missionary Patriarch and His Times (Boston,
1889), passim.

30 Dunning, Congregationalists> 32 Iff.

31 Magoun, Asa Turner > 169. Pioneers have left records of the profusion of nature in

FOOTNOTES 265

this new country. They tell of prairies and woods bright with sweet william, violets, but-
tercups, cowslips, bluebells, lady's slippers, columbine, and honeysuckle; rich with wild
fruits such as cherries, plums, crabapples, grapes, raspberries, blackberries, gooseberries, May
apples, and various nuts and succulent plants. Grinnell Herald, October 15, 1929; Iowa: A
Guide to the Hawkeye State (New York, 1938), 13-19. Frederick Jackson Turner, The
United States, 1830-1S50, 256: "In season the wild flowers gave to the prairie an intense
beauty clothed and dashed with gold and azure, vermilion and orange, white and violet."

82 Magoun, Asa Turner, 191.

33 Ibid., IB 6. Malaria haunted the prairies, and no one then suspected Anopheles, A
home missionary in Ohio wrote: "When the vegetation begins to decay and the north wind
to blow, it rolls up the very quintessence of swamp miasma. In a village of 1,000 people
I have counted rising of 500 sick at once. I have had 80 die within the bounds of my
parish in one year." Rowe, Andover, 106.

84 Julius A. Reed, Reminiscences of Early Congregationalism in Iowa (Grinnell, 1885), 6.

85 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 32; Ephraim Adams, The Iowa Band (rev. ed., Boston
[1902]), 56.

86 Magoun, Asa Turner, 218-19.

87 Reed, Reminiscences, 10-11; Douglass, "Pilgrims of Iowa, 295ff.

38 Reed, Reminiscences, 13.

39 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 32-3.

40 Life and Labors of Rev. Reuben Gaylord, 98-9.

41 Ibid., 109.

42 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 44-7; L. F. Parker, '99 Junior Annual, 12.
48 Magoun, Asa Turner, 221.

44 Ibid., 226.

45 Ibid., 269-70; H. K. Edson, Historical Sketch of Denmark Academy.

46 Magoun, Asa Turner, 243-4.

47 Ibid., 269-70. The pioneers were fond of long Greek names, such as the "Catholep-
istemiad" for the University of Michigan. Turner, The United States, 1830-1850, 342.

48 Magoun, Asa Turner, 225. For the Iowa Band, see Magoun, Asa Turner, 232flf;
Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 51; "William Salter, The Old People's Psalm (Burlington, 1895),
9f; General Catalogue of And over Theological Seminary, 1843. For brief biographies, see
Appendix A.

49 Adams, The Iowa Band, 3-5, 15.
5 <> Ibid., 7-8.

^Ibid., 13; Magoun, Asa Turner, 226.

52 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 55-6.

68 Adams, The Iowa Band, 34-5. However, in 1842, there were only 42 ministers of all

266 Grinnell College

denominations in the entire territory, and 2,133 professing Christians, or fewer than 4 per
cent of the population. Ibid., 54. The boisterous crudity of many pioneer preachers was
offensive to delicate ears. Father Mazzuchelli, an Italian missionary in Dubuque, wrote of
such preachers that they used "loud cries, prayers, exclamations, sobs, frenzies, trembling,
sweats, contortions," that congregations "often broke out into violent weeping, cries and
ejaculations, so as to drown the preacher's voice," and many became hysterical. Cole, Iowa
Through the Years, 167.

54 Adams, The Iowa- Band, 33-4.
16.
15, 22, 24-6; Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 56.

57 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 56ff; Adams, The Iowa Band, 27ff; Souvenir Booklet Com-
memorating the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Edwards Congregational Church,
Davenport, 22ff.

58 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 58.

* Ibid., 60, 69.

62 Cole, Iowa Through the "Years, 169.

63 Adams, The Iowa Band, 225, 229-30.
64 Magoun, Asa Turner, 334-5.

65 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 71; Adams, The Iowa Band, 103.

66 Minutes of the General Association of Congregational Churches and Ministers of Iowa
(1843), 17; Adams, The Iowa Band, 103-104.

67 Life and Labors of Rev. Reuben Gaylord, 130; Adams, The Iowa Band, 105.

68 Life and Labors of Rev. Reuben Gaylord, 130. The "Wapsipinicon was then considered
a navigable stream, which was an added attraction. Petersen, Iowa: The Rivers of Her
Valleys, 111.

69 Adams, The Iowa Band, 232-3. Copy of the report adopted by the Eastern group in
Record of Grinnell University, 55ff. With regard to "peculiar privileges," no doubt the
Eastern brethren had in mind the serious handicaps suffered by some colleges which offered
"perpetual scholarships" to early donors, at prices absurdly insufficient to produce the
necessary income. The Catalogue of Iowa College for 1868-1869, 23, proves that the trustees
of "Iowa College" had not taken this advice to heart: "Some years since, when the College
was located at Davenport, the Trustees authorized the sale of Scholarships for four, six, ten,
and fifty years. They now authorize the sale of Scholarships for five, and twenty years."
There were then extant one perpetual scholarship and twenty-six running from four to
fifty years.

70 Adams, The Iowa Band, 108.

71 Magoun, As* Turner, 250; Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 84; James L. Hill, The Gift of
the Bottom Dollar (pamphlet).

FOOTNOTES 267

Grinnell College 'Bulletin, May, 1894, p. 5.

73 Adams, The Iowa Band, 109.

74 Addresses and Discourse at the Inauguration of the Rev. George F. Magoun (Chicago,
1865), 57-8. With the Harvard motto Christo et Ecclesice compare the Grinnell motto
Christo Duce, adopted in 1854.

75 Adams, The Iowa Band, 168; Harold U. Faulkner and Tyler Kepner, America, Its
History and People (New York, 1934), 574.

76 Adams, The Iowa Band, 109-111.

77 Magoun, The 'Bast of Our College, 14, 31. William Windsor called Professor Ripley
"a born linguist, a fluent reader of Hebrew, Syriac, German, Greek and Latin." H. H.
Belfield remembered him as an eloquent and inspiring preacher of commanding presence but
winning manners. '99 Junior Annual, 35, 40.

78 Magoun, Past of Our College, 14; '99 Junior Annual, 40; Leonard F. Parker, "Teachers
in Iowa Before 1858" in Historical Lectures Upon Early Leaders m the Professions . . .
(Iowa City, 1894), 34.

79 There has been some question as to priority in the field of higher education beyond
the Mississippi. Iowa Wesleyan College grew out of the Mount Pleasant Collegiate Institute,
a preparatory school founded in 1843, incorporated in 1844, its building completed in 1846;
it was closed 1850 to 1852. When James Harlan (later Senator from Iowa and Secretary
of the Interior in Lincoln's second Cabinet) became president of the Institute in 1853,
the standards were raised, a charter for "Iowa Wesleyan University" was secured in 1855,
and the first baccalaureate degree was conferred upon one graduate in 1856. This was two
years after the Windsor brothers were graduated from Iowa College, which was thus the
first in this territory to give a completed college course. History and Alumni Record of
Iowa Wesleyan College (Mount Pleasant, 1942), 16, 18-19, 21.

80 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 90; Magoun, Asa Turner, 216.

81 Information from Mr. H. H. Windsor, grandson of William. Souvenir Booklet Com-
memorating the Hundredth Anniversary of the Edwards Congregational Church, Davenport,
3 Iff.

82 N. Howe Parker, Iowa As It Is in 1855 . . . (Chicago, 1855), 250-51.

83 Adams, The Iowa Band, 111; Magoun, Addresses and Discourse, 57, 58.

84 It was purchased by Bishop H. W. Lee of the Episcopal Diocese and others for Gris-
- wold College. Magoun, Addresses and Discourse, 58.

85 Adams, The Iowa Band, 111-12.

86 Josiah Bushnell Grinnell, Hen and Events of Forty "Years . . . (Boston, 1891). The
inaccuracies of this autobiography are corrected by Charles E. Payne, Josiah Bushnell Grin-
nell (Iowa City, 1938). See also Dictionary of American Biography, 8:4-5.

87 New England Magazine, June, 1898. An oekist was a founder of a city. Edward
Augustus Freeman was Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford, author of History
of the Norman Conquest, 15 vols., and History of Sicily.

88 Grinnell, Men and Events, 28, 29. John Trumbull, while a tutor at Yale in 1772,

268 Grmnell College

wrote his verse satire The Progress of Dulness. Joseph Dennie, before 1800, found Harvard
a "sink of vice," a "temple of dulness," and a "roost of owls." Van Wyck Brooks, The
World of Washington Irving (New York, 1944), 60.

89 Auburn Theological Seminary, General Biographical Catalogue 1818-1918, 100; Grin-
nell, Men and Events, 47, 48.

90 Grinnell, Men and Events, 51.
d., 55, 85.

91; Payne, Josiah Bushnell Grinnell, 29.
94 Grinnell, Men and Events, 87, 89.

Q5 Ibid., 92; Early History of Grmnell, Iowa, 1854-1874 (Grmnell, 1916), 4.
fl6 Grmnell, Men and Events, 94, 96; Payne, Josiah Bushnell Grinnell, 41.

97 Early History of Grinnell, 46, 48.

98 Ibid., 34; Grinnell, Men and Events, 286.
90 Payne, Josiah Eushnell Grinnell, 65, 69-70.

100 Early History of Grinnell, 48-9.

101 Grinnell, Men and Events, 328; Magoun, Addresses and Discourse, 15. The removal of
Iowa College from Davenport to Grinnell took place in 1859, but the formal merger of
Iowa College and "Grinnell University" did not take place until 1865 at the inauguration
ceremonies of the institution's first president, George E. Magoun.

102 Early History of Grinnell, 19. A circular dated January 1, 1856, advertising Grinnell
University, Preparatory Department to open in April, names the faculty as follows: Rev.
J. B. Grinnell, A.M., President, Professor of History, Rhetoric and Elocution; Rev. S. L.
Herrick, A.B., Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy; Thomas Holyoke, M.D.,
Professor of Chemistry, Physiology and Agricultural Chemistry; Rev. Samuel Loomis, A.M.,
Professor of Ancient Languages, Mental and Moral Philosophy; Rev. Edward Cleveland,
Principal of Teachers' and Preparatory Department. For the "Female Department": Prin-
cipal, Mrs. A. J, Hamlin, Instructor in French, Painting and Drawing; Mrs. C, S. Wyatt,
Instructor in Instrumental Music; Miss J. E. Loomis, Instructor in Rhetoric, English Com-
position, Botany and Geology; Miss L. Bixby, Instructor in English Branches; William
Beaton, Instructor in Vocal Music.

108 Early History of Grinnell, 19.

104 Jacob A. Swisher, Leonard Fletcher Parker (Iowa City, 1927) ; J. Irving Manatt, in
L. F. Parker, History of Powesbiek County, Iowa ... (2 vols., Chicago, 1911), 2:9-12;
Grinnell Herald, March 15, 1898; Grinnell Review, January, February, 1912.

105 Swisher, Leonard Fletcher Parker, 46.

106 Grinnell Herald, March 15, 1898.

107 Swisher, Leonard Fletcher Parker, 65.

FOOTNOTES 269

108 L. F. Parker, Sarah Candace (Pearse) Parker: A Memorial (Grinnell, 1900); Doug-
lass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 285.

109 Early History of Grinnell, 52, 53. Great preparations were made at Grinnell for the
reception of the visiting committee. Payne, Josiah Bushnell Grinnell , 52-3.

110 Magoun, The Past of Our College, 18, 20. The dishonest treasurer's name is marked
remotus in the Latin triennial catalogue of officers, etc., 1869.

111 Adams, The Iowa Band, 116-17; Grinnell Review, January, 1907, 47.

112 Quinquennial Register of Iowa College, 1897, 9-13.

113 D. L, Leonard, The Story of Oberlin . . . (Boston, 1898), 165.

114 Magoun, The Past of Our College, 2 3 iff; L. F. Parker, Higher Educate in Iowa
("Washington, 1893), 179f. The charter of Iowa College contemplated only "young men'*
as students.

115 Early History of Grinnell, 55. Biographies of Drs. Palmer, Blanchard, and Bushnell
in Dictionary of American Biography,

116 Holbrook, Recollections of a Nonagenarian, 167-72.
117 Magoun, The Past of Our College, 21.

118 General Catalogue of the Theological Seminary, Andover, Mass. 1808 -1908; Auburn
Theological Seminary, General Biographical Catalogue, 1818-1918, pp. 97JGE. See Grinnell,
Men and Events, 308-309, 387, for examples of H. W. Parker's poetry.

119 This is an evident exaggeration. Most Iowa farms at that time were quarter-sections
(160 acres). See George F. Parker, Iowa Pioneer Foundations (2 vols., Iowa City, 1940),
1:125-7.

120 Dictionary of American Biography, 12:202-203; Faculty Minutes, February 7, 1896;
Reminiscences of F. I. Herriott (Ms.) ; Souvenir Booklet Commemorating the Hundredth
Anniversary of the Edwards Congregational Church, Davenport, 29; New England Maga>-
zine, June, 1898. There is a bust of Dr. Magoun in the College Library.

121 Gri nn ell and You, May, 1934.

122 In his address, The Past of Our College, 32, Dr. Magoun did a bit of amende honor a-
blei "Prof. Charles W. Clapp, seven years in the chair of Rhetoric, was a scholar in English
Literature of the last generation rather than this, possessed of a clear, correct and agreeable
diction, and a style of address that mated it well, a laborious and strong-purposed man, who
hardly agreed with the college on the joint education of men and women." No doubt the
word "strong-purposed" is the key to the presidential action so resented by Mr. Clapp's son.

123 Minutes of the General Association of Congregational Churches and Ministers of the
State of Iowa, 1888, pp. 3 iff.

124 Magoun could be adroit on occasion. Professor H. "W. Norris remembers his story
of a young woman, in the days of dress reform, who served notice that she would wear
bloomers when she read her essay at commencement. Dr. Magoun quietly arranged to have
the rostrum lined with shrubs and plants so that none of the audience would be aware of
the daring costume worn by the young radical.

270 Grinnell College

125 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 271.

126 Grinnell Herald, March 15, 1898. L. F. Parker stated that Von Coelln came from the
universities of Bonn and Berlin. D. "W. Norris, '72, remembered him as a big, phlegmatic
German whom Dr. Magoun did not like. '99 Junior Annual, 18, 55.

127 Parker, History of Powesbiek County, 2:176-82.
^Catalogue of Iowa College for 1883-1884, 30.

129 Magoun, The Past of Our College, 32ff. Memorial for Professor Crow, Unit, October
4, 1890.

130 Grinnell and You, February, 1931. Reminiscences of F. I. Harriott (Ms.).

131 Magoun, Asa Turner, 27 Q.

122 Grinnell, Men and Events, 351-2; S. H. Herrick, "The Grinnell Cyclone of June 17,
1882," Annals of Iowa (third series), 3:81-95 (July, 1897).

* 33 Magoun, The Past of Our College, 37.

* Catalogue of Iowa College for 1884-1885, 49-56.

135 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 269-70.

136 Dictionary of American Biography, 7:183-4; General Catalogue of the Theological
Seminary, Andover, Mass.; Reminiscences of F. I. Herriott (Ms.); Scarlet and Black,
November 3, 1900; Grmnell and You, October, 1934; Isabel S. Gates, The Life of George
Augustus Gates (Boston, 1915); Frank P. Brackett, "President George A. Gates. A Tribute,"
Pomona- College Quarterly Magazine, January, 1913.

137 Rowe, Andover,

138 Reminiscences of F. I. Herriott (Ms.)

139 Grmnell and You, November, 1938.

140 Dictionary of American Biography, 20:83-4; Quinquennial Register of Iowa College,
1897, 84.

141 Grmnell and You, June- July, 1925. The Hendrixson Memorial Fund was established
for the promotion of research in pure science.

142 For Professor Almy, see Grinnell and Yo^t, April, June, 1932.

143 Grmnell and You, November, 1938.

144 Dictionary of American Biography, 12:176-7; Katharine Macy Noyes (ed.), Jesse
Macy: An Autobiography (Springfield, 111., 1933); Jesse Macy: Memorial Addresses and
Tributes (privately printed).

145 Macy, Autobiography, 141.
^ Q Ibid., 89.

147 Dictionary of American Biography, 10:79-81.

148 Ibid., 8:594-5; Souvenir Booklet Commemorating the Hundredth Anniversary of the

FOOTNOTES 271

First Congregational Church of Burlington, Iowa, 1938; Mitchell Pine Briggs, George D.
Herron and the European Settlement (Stanford University, 1532).

149 Grmnell and Yoit, November, 1927; May, June, 1933.

150 Grmnell and You, October, 1937; Scarlet and Black, March 26, 1941.

151 Who's Who in America; Scarlet and Black, March 26, 1941.

152 Dictionary of American Biography, 21:537-8; E. R. Harlan, A Narrative History of
the People of Iowa (5 vols., Chicago, 1931), 4:409; New York Times, April 23, 1931;
Grinnell and Yon, April, June, 1931; Baccalaureate Addresses (Cedar Rapids, 1931).

153 president's Report (1892), 13; Grmnell and You, April, 1933.
154 Magoun pamphlet, Iowa College (1873), 14; Gates's Report (1898).

155 Grinnell and You, March, 1922; February, 1930; March, 1937.

156 !&</., March, 1915; March, 1922; February, 1930; March, 1937.
Wlbid., April, 1931.

168 President's Report (1898), 3ff; '99 Junior Annual, 217; Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa,
27lff.

159 Harlan, History of the People of Iowa, 2:25ff.

160 Douglass, Pilgrims of lowa y 214.

161 Harlan, History of the People of Iowa, 5:412.

162 Annals of Iowa (third series), 6:76-7 (April, 1903).

169 Grinnell and You, February, 1937; Parker, History of Poweshiek County, 2:5.

164 Cole, Iowa Through the Years, 422.

165 Douglass, Pilgrims of Iowa, 247.
i^Pulse, 1:141.

i* 7 Scarlet and Black, IX, No. 43.
168 Ibid., XVI, No. 64.

s Letter, October 12, 1889.

170 '99 Junior Annual, 83ff; Grinnell and YOTI, October, 1923; November, 1939. Foot-
ball scores 1889 to 1928 in Grmnell and You, October, 1929.

171 Grmnell and You, March, 1935.

172 Ibid., June-July, 1924.

173 Scarlet and Black, November 11, 1896.

174 Grmnell and You, November, 1936.

272 Grinnell College

175 p rom an address by George Frederic Magoun to the Alumni Association of Iowa
College, June 11, 1895.

116 Helen B. Morris and Emeline B. Bartlett, "The Social Life of a Girl in Iowa College,"
The Midland Monthly, 9:449, 450 (May, 1898).

177 Des Moines Register and Leader, Nov. 21, 1915.

MMffl!^

Index

Abbott, Lyman, 85, 101.

Abbott, Samuel, 6.

Academy (of Grinnell College), co-
education, 134; curriculum, 134,
135; enrollment, 133-4; history of ,
133-6; as Preparatory Department,
(50-61, 75, 78; principals of, 94,
134-5, 185, 186.

Adams, Ephraim (member of Iowa
Band), 19, 30-31, 32, 33-4, 35-7,
38, 39, 41, 43-4, 46-7, 51, 151;
picture of, facing 68; sketch of,
227-8.

Adams, Harvey (member of Iowa
Band), 31, 33, 37, 39, 43-4, 151;
picture of, facing 68; sketch of,
228.

Adams, Robert B., 152, 154.

Adams, Samuel, 5.

Administration Building, picture of

tower, facing 100.
Alden, Ebenezer, Jr. (member of

Iowa Band), 33, 37, 43-4; picture

of, facing 68; sketch of, 228.
Alden, Henry, 128.
Almy, Frank R, 90, 115.
Alumni, of Grinnell, 123, 147, 155-

Alumni Association, 151, 156.
Alumni Recitation Hall, 148, 189.
Alumni Scarlet and Black, 157, 197.
American Association of University

Women, and Grinnell housing

plan, 209-210.
American Board df Commissioners

for Foreign Missions, 9.

273

274

American Home Missionary Society,

9, 11-12, 19, 23, 24, 34, 38, 168,
Anatolia College, 114.
Andersen, Clara Julia, 182.
Andover Theological Seminary,

founding of, 6-7; Iowa Band at,

10, 11, 29-34, 41, 227-30; living
conditions at, 8-9; religious con-
troversy, 84.

Andrews, Kent, 199.

Ap thorp, William P., Iowa Band and,

11, 22, 37.

Arena, 196, 197.

Arnold-Forster, W., 124.

Association of Colleges of the In-
terior, 209. See Midwest College
Conference.

Atherton, Ernest W., 180.
Athletic Union, 178-9.
Athletics, 172-83.
Atkinson, Charles, 44, 151.
Austin, Michael, 173.
Avery, John, 76, 186.

Bacon, Leonard, 34, 54.
Badger, Milton, 34, 47.
Ball, Francis Adams, 47.
Barbour, Erwin Hinckly, 90, 166.
Barnes, Stephen G., 76-7, 186.
Bartlett, Emeline Barstow, 135, 178,

207. See also Nollen, Emeline

Bartlett.
Baseball, 173-4.
Basketball, 178.
Beaman, Gamaliel C., 44.
Beaton, William, 168.
Beatty, Shelton L., 117, 128.
Bechtel, George M., 152.
Belfield, Henry Holmes, 45, 48, 173.
Bergen, Martin J., 181.
Beyer, C. W. H., 142.
Beyer, Harry L., 202.
Birkhoff, George D., 113.
Bixby, Louisa, 55, 56. See also Wol-

cott, Mrs. H. A.

Grinnell College

Black, Hugh, 113.

Blair, John L, 153.

Blanchard, Jonathan, 62.

Boal, J. M., 43.

Board of Trustees (Grinnell). See

Trustees, Board of.
Boodin, John Elof, 106.
Bowling, 178.
Boxing, 178.
Boyd, Evelyn, 128.
Bradley, Dan Freeman, 111, 116,

153-4; background of, 104;

conservatism, 1 04-10 5 ; faculty

changes, 105-106, 137; picture of,

facing 69; presidency of, 103-107.
Bradley Oaks, 104, 154.
Brenton, Woodward Harold, 152,

154.

Brewer, Fisk P., 76.
Bridgham, John Merrill, 167.
Brown, Arthur Milton, 181.
Brown, John, 56.
Bryce, James, Grinnell (town) and,

62; Grinnell College and, 52; Jesse

Macy and, 98.
Buck, Samuel Jay, 61, 74-5, 82-3,

87, 134, 185.
Bullen, Henry L., 47, 185.
Burnet, Percy B., 105.
Burnham, Charles, 24, 37.
Burroughs, Susan, 166.
Bushnell, Horace, 62.
Buttrick, George A., 113.
Buttrick, Wallace, 112.

Calvinists, 6-8.
Carmichael, Henry, 77.
Carter, Preserve Wood, 47.
Carver, Thomas Nixon, 113.
Cattell, Archibald, 152.
Chamberlain, Joshua M., 152, 153,

185, 187, 207, 208.
Chamberlain, Mary, 153.
Chamberlain Park, 153, 181, 207.
Charlton, Joseph W., 128.

INDEX

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 171.

Childs, Mrs. Marquis, 65.

Choral groups, 171.

Chrysler, Louis Gage, 128, 154.

Churchill, Alfred V., 166.

Civil War, Grinnell College and, 61-

2, 158-9; Jesse Macy and, 93-4.
Clapp, Charles W., 61, 70, 76, 168.
Clapp, John M., 120.
Clark, Donald H., 154.
Clark, Edith M. (Mrs. F. A. Mc-

Cornack), 153.
Clark, Isabelle, 188.
Clark, Theodore F., 153.
Cleveland, Martha, 153.
Colbert, Herschel M., 128.
Cole, Rossetter Gleason, 169, 170.
Compton, Carl, 114.
Conard, Henry $., 122, 128.
Conard, Letitia Moon (Mrs. Henry

S.), 128.
Congregational Association of Iowa,

24, 38-9, 40, 41-2, 43, 71, 80-81.
Congregationalism, in Iowa, 11-12,

19, 22, 23, 24, 25, 37, 38-9, 42,

45-6, 60, 71; in New England, 4-

9; in the West, 19-20.
Cowles, Gardner, 129, 153.
Cowles Dormitory, 129, 150, 153,

211.

Cowles Foundation, 211.
Crabb, George Melville, 154.
Crestomathian Society, 185.
Cross, Edward W., 152.
Crow, John M., 76, 77, 87, 88.
Crow, Martha Foote (Mrs. John M. ) ,

87, 135.

Cummins, Albert B., 152.
Cyclone, 197, 203.
Cyclone of 1882, Grinnell and, 70,

78-80, 138, 186, 207.

Darby, John Frederick, 129, 153,

154, 201, 217, 218n.
Darby Gymnasium, 128, 150, 153,

178; picture of, facing 116.

275

Darling, Jay N., 150, 152.
Davenport, Iowa College at, 43, 45,

49.

Davis, Chester Charles, 154, 189.
Davis, Mrs. Hallie Flanagan, 202-

203.

Davis, Walter W., 181.
Davis, William M., 113.
Denmark (Iowa), 17, 22-3, 24, 31,

35, 36, 37, 42.
Denmark Academy, founding of, 27;

principals of, 27-8, 78.
Depression, effect on Grinnell, 121-2.
Dibble, Le Roy, 153.
Dibble, Martha (Mrs. Le Roy), 153.

See also Cleveland, Martha.
Dickerson, L. L., 188.
Douglas, F. Benjamin, 128, 181.
Douglass, Grace, 182.
Douglass, Matthew Hale, 187, 188.
Douglass, T. O., 152, 228.
Drake, George W. } 27.
Dramatic Club, 201.
Dramatic Council, 203.
Dramatics, 200, 201.
Dubuque, lead miners at, 14, 16.
Duke, G. L., 128, 181.
Dutch, in Iowa, 1 19 ; at Pella, 234-57.
Dutton, S. W. S., 62.
D wight, Timothy, 6, 9.

Early History of Grinnell, Iowa,

1854-1874, 56.
Edson, Carrie M., 186.
Edson, Henry Kingman, 27-8, 78,

91, 186.

Edwards, Jonathan, 5.
Ellis, Mary, 135.
Elward, A. H., 175.
Emerson, Oliver, Jr., 24-5, 37, 43,

134, 151.

Emerson, Oliver Farrar, 134, 186.
Episcopal Diocese of Iowa, "adopts"

Grinnell, 123.
Evans, William D., 152, 154.

276

Everton, John Scott, 128.
Experimental Theatre, 202-203.

Farnam, Henry, 54.
Farrar, Samuel, 34.
Fessenden, Debra C., 168.
Fiebiger, Judson E., 154.
Findlay, James Franklin, 117.
Fink, Bruce, 105.
Fisher, Charles Edward, 181.
Fisher, Fanny Orythia, 135.
Football, 173, 174-6.
Fosdick, Harry Emerson, 113.
Frisbie, Alvah Lillie, 152, 201.
Fullerton, Margaret G., 184.

Gannaway, John W., 128.

Gardner, Evelyn, 122, 205.

Gardner, Frances Rebekah, 182.

Gates, Fanny Cook, 116.

Gates, George Augustus, 89, 109,
111, 122, 177; faculty strength-
ened by, 86-7, 137; last years of,
104; Magoun contrasted, 83-4, 85,
86; personality of, 84-6; picture
of, facing 69; presidency of, 82-
91; radicalism of, 84-5, 103;
sketch of, 84; Social Gospel and,
102.

Gates, Hubbard, 84.

Gates, Isabel Smith (Mrs. George
A.), 85.

Gates Memorial Lectures, 110, 113-
14.

Gayer, H. K., 128.

Gaylord, Reuben, 151; Iowa College
and, 42-4; missionary activities of,
24, 36-7; Yale Band and, 10-11.

General Education Board, Grinnell
and, 112, 118-19, 147, 148-50.

Gerrick, S. H., 153.

Giddings, Franklin H., 113.

Gilkey, Charles W., 113.

Gilmore, Quincy, 185.

Glee Clubs, 169, 170-71.

Golf, 178-9.

Grinnell College

Goodnow, E. A., 147, 153, 186, 207.

Granger, Charles, 37.

"Great Awakening," 5, 6.

Greeley, Horace, 53, 70.

Green, Beriah, 52.

Grinnell (town), John Brown in, 56;
James Bryce and, 52, 66; cyclone
of 1882, pp. 78-80; description of,
55, 57-8; Early History of, 56;
founding of, 54-5; J. B. Grinnell
and, 54-5; social customs, 65-6.

Grinnell, Josiah Bushnell, 42, 50, 51,
70-71, 93, 151; antislavery activ-
ities, 53, 56; John Brown and, 56;
childhood and youth, 52; educa-
tion, 52-3; Grinnell (town)
founded by, 54-5; Grinnell "Uni-
versity" and, 54-5, 56, 60; in-
terest in West, 53-4; picture of,
facing 69; political activities, 55;
Julius A. Reed and, 54; State
University regent, 55.

Grinnell, Julia Chapin (Mrs. J. B.),
53.

Grinnell and You, 157.

Grinnell College, Academy (Prepara-
tory Department), 60-61, 75, 78,
94, 133-6; alumni, 123, 147, 155-
7; Anatolia College, 114; chair of
Applied Christianity, 99, 102, 106-
107; art, 129, 165-8; athletics,
172-83; buildings, 55, 70, 78,
110, 111, 129, 147, 148, 150, 189,
206-207, 216, 217; centennial,
129-30, 154; classics, 74, 75-6, 87-
8, 94, 128; clergymen on faculty,
63, 88-9; coeducation at, 62, 71-2,
75, 206-207; first commencement,
62; curriculum, 64, 74, 87-91,
110, 115, 116, 122, 129, 139, 141,
182-3, 200-201, 202, 203, 204;
cyclone of 1882, pp. 70, 78-80,
138, 186, 207; early years of, 59-
66; effect of depression on, 121-2;
dormitory system, 205-212; elocu-
tion and declamation, 200-201;

INDEX

endowment campaigns, 112-13,
118-19, 129, 148; endowment
funds, 146-7, 150-51; English lan-
guage and literature, 76-7 9 88-9,
106, 129; enrollment, 57, 60-61,
78, 83, 112, 114, 115, 119, 121,

128, 159, 162, 208, 219; and Epis-
copal Diocese, 123; faculty and
staff, 137-43, 222-3; faculty of
the "University," 56-7; faculty
salary scale, 148; financial diffi-
culties, 122, 149-50; fine arts,

129, 165-8; Foundation, 147-8;
Gates Memorial Lectures, 110,
113-14; gifts to, 129, 151, 152,
186-8, 189, 217; Grinnell-in-
China, 113, 117; founded as Grin-
nell "University," 54-6; Harvard
Exchange program, 110, 113, 140;
Hyde Prize, 200, 202; inauguration
of first president, 62; Iowa Band
cane, 39; merged with Iowa Col-
lege, 59-60; Ladies' Course, 75, 78;
library, 184-9; Literary Fund for,
54-5, 60; literary societies, 185-6,
201; ministerial tradition ends,
107; modern languages, 75, 88,
105, 115; music, 78, 112, 115,
168-71, 204; name changes, 113,
148; naming grounds and build-
ings, 153-4; New England roots,
3-4; objectives of, 129-30; Phi
Beta Kappa at, 113, 140; physical
education, 129, 181-3; pictures of,
facing 84, 85, 100, 101, 116, 117;
postwar objectives, 215-24; Pre-
paratory Department, 60-61, 75,
78; presidents of, 69-130; publica-
tions, 157, 174, 190-98, 201, 202,
203; religious atmosphere, 72, 111-
12, 216-17; requirements for de-
grees, 116; Rhodes Scholarships,
113; Rosenfield Lectureship, 124;
scholarships at, 129, 151; sciences,
75, 77, 89-91, 105, 129, 217-18;
Social Gospel at, 100-102, 113-14;

277

social program, 212; social rules,
71-2, 86, 138-40, 145; social sci-
ences, 91, 92-102, 106, 115, 129;
student government, 212; teacher
training, 75, 78, 115, 129; Thea-
tre, 199-204; trustees, 110, 111,
122-3, 124-5, 142, 144-54, 217;
tuition at, 122, 149, 191; effect
of wars, 61-2, 114-15, 117, 126-
30, 141, 150, 158-62.

Grinnell College Foundation, 147-8.

Grinnell-m-China, 113, 117.

Grinnell Institute, 185.

Grinnell Magazine, 195-6.

Grinnell Players, 203.

Grinnell Review, 157.

Grinnell University. See Grinnell Col-
lege.

Haines, El wood Lindsay, 154.

Haines, Mary, 135. See Herriott,
Mary Haines.

Haines, Robert M., 61, 135, 153.

Haines, Mrs. Robert M., 153.

Hall, James Norman, 195.

Hall, Newton M., 89.

Hamilton, Henry M., 54.

Hamlin, A. J. (Mrs. Homer), 56,

HamHn, George H., 142.

Hamlin, Homer, 54, 56.

Hardy, Albert Sherburne, 77, 159.

Hart, Albert Bushnell, 98, 113.

Harvard Exchange program, at Grin-
nell, 110, 113, 140.

Harvard University, 5, 6.

Hastings, Cora W., 187.

Hawk, Rupert A., 154.

Head, Walter W., 152.

Heath, John R., 154.

Heidel, William Arthur, 88, 106.

Henderson, Grace Moreland, 135.

Henderson, Lawrence Joseph, 113.

Hendrixson, Walter Scott, 89-90.

Hensley, Mrs. Elizabeth M., 167.

Herrick, Stephen L., 56, 60, 151,
200.

278

Herrick, William. H., 77.

Herrick Chapel, at Grinnell, 111,
112, 171, 205, 216-17; picture of ,
facing 85.

Herring, Clyde L., 152.

Herriott, Frank I, 86.

Herriott, Mary Haines (Mrs. Frank
L), 135.

Herriott, Maxwell H., 154.

Herron, George Davis, background
and education, 99; controversy
over, 100-102, 103; impression
made by, 100; Macy contrasted,
100-101; Rand family and, 99-
102; resignation of, 102; Social
Gospel and, 99; World War I
work, 102.

Herron, Mrs. George D. See Rand,
Carrie.

Hill, James J. (member of Iowa
Band), 30, 33, 35, 43; picture of,
facing 68; sketch of, 228.

Hitchcock, Allen B., 37.

Hixon, Mrs. Frank P., 153, 154.

Hocking, William Ernest, 113.

Holbrook, John C., 25, 37, 43-4, 48,
63, 151.

Holyoke, Thomas, 54, 56, 60, 151.

Home Missionary Magazine, 17.

Home Missionary Society for Iowa,
12, 23.

Hopkins, Harry Lloyd, 154, 189.

Hopkins, Samuel, 7, 8.

Hopkinsians, 7.

Horn, Charles Henry, 135.

Houston, Elizabeth, 22.

Houston, Ira, 31.

Howe, Mrs. Elizabeth, 121.

Hoyt, Charles B., 176.

Hutf, Harry J., 176, 181.

Hurtz, Mrs. Leonard, 154.

Hyde Prize, 200, 202.

Hutchinson, Horace, 30, 31, 33, 35,
37; picture of grave of, facing 68;
sketch of, 228-9.

Grinnell College

Illinois College, founding of, 9-10,
17; Asa Turner and, 17, 19.

Indians, in Iowa, 14-15.

Inglis, Ervine P., 189.

Intramurals, 182.

Iowa, churches in, 22, 24, 25, 37-9,
70; early descriptions of, 11, 12,
14, 15, 20, 34, 35-6; early settlers
in, 14, 15-17, 19, 21-2; home mis-
sion ground, 9, 12, 23, 25-7, 33-4,
48; Indians in, 14-15; naming of,
15; religious controversy in, 23,
38-9; State University of, 55, 58,
73, 74, 75-6, 90, 98, 113, 119,
173, 174, 257-9; Territory of, 15.

Iowa, University of, 55, 58, 73, 74,
75-6, 90, 98, 113, 119, 173, 174,
257-9.

Iowa Band, 29-40, 142, 151, 216-17;
founded at Andover, 10, 11, 29-
33; Iowa College and, 43-4; heir-
loom cane, 39; leader of, 11; mem-
bers of, 29, 32-3, 227-30; pictures
of, facing 68; pioneering service
of, 17-20, 39.

Iowa College (Davenport) , Academy
of, 133-6; charter, 44; coeducation
at, 206; curriculum, 47; descrip-
tion, 45, 49; early years, 46-7,
229; founding, 43; Grinnell mer-
ger, 50, 59-60; library, 184-5; pic-
ture of, facing 85; trustees, 12, 24,
25, 43, 47-8, 60, 62, 70.

Iowa College (Grinnell) . See Grinnell
College.

Iowa College Association, 42.
Iowa Congregational Association. See
Congregational Association of
Iowa.

Iowa Educational Association (at
Yale), 10,24.

James, Mrs. Mary B., 153.
Jennison, Henry Q., 44, 151.
Johnson, Allen, 98-9, 106.
Jones, Arthur J., 216.

INDEX

Jones, Darius E., 168.
Jones, Ethel L., 216.
Jones, Rufus M., 113.
Junto, 196.

Keokuk, early description, 12.
Kimball, Willard, 78, 168.
Kinsey, Robert, 154.
Kirby, "William B., 20.
Kirkpatrick, Stewart Ray, 154.
Kohn, Hans, 124.
Kotschnig, Walter, 124.
Kruidenier, Mrs. David S., 153, 154.

Lane, Daniel (member of Iowa
Band), 31, 32, 33, 35, 37, 39, 43-
4, 47, 48, 151; picture of, facing
68; sketch of, 229.

Lane, Stoddard, 152.

Langan, W. H., 153.

Lattimore, Owen, 124.

Lavell, Cecil F., 128.

Lea, Lt. Albert M., and naming of
Iowa, lOn, 15.

Leavitt, Roger, 152.

Lewis, Faye Cashatt, 155-6.

Lewis, George Henry, 185-6.

Library, 111, 147, 153, 184-9.

Literary societies, 185-6, 201.

Little, Fred Albert, 154.

Longley, Harry S., 152.

Loomis, Miss J. E., 56.

Loomis, Samuel, 56.

Loose, David N., 211, 216.

Loose, Francelia Spitzer (Mrs. David
N.), 211.

Loose Hall, 216.

Lowden, Eleanor, 128.

Luccock, Halford E., 113.

McCandless, Bethana, 142.
McClenon, Raymond Benedict, 105,

115, 128.

McConnell, Francis J., 113.
McCornack, Edith (Mrs. F. A.), 153.

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