MacMurray College - Tartan / Illiwoco Yearbook (Jacksonville, IL)

Page 30 text:

1915 ILLIWOCO KBJ i.w.c A New Era. arinoi ' , and maidens left their looms and the house of learning to sow the fields and tend the hearth fires. Neither was the house of the College spared, for there came devastating flames and a part of its glory was shrouded in ashes. These trials wei ' e grievous to be borne, yet never did the light of the house go out, nor fail to show a shining path to those who sought its guidance, for faith- ful ones there were of God ' s own elect who faltered not in their duty, but with earnest striving strengthened and sustained that which had been builded for such noble purpose. With uplifted eyes they beheld the young womanhood of future years coming to seek the wisdom more to be desired than rubies or gold, and with determined souls they let no disaster bring defeat. A new era; as out of night ' s shadows a new day dawns, so from the hard- ships of a cramped and hindered service did the college struggle into a fuller life. Into its councils came one whose wisdom was ripe with the full strength of manhood ' s best years. His right hand I ' evealed a cabalistic symbol, the mai ' k of the mystical number seven; it was his by the divine right of succes- sion as the seventh in the line of preceptors of the house of the College. Upon his bi ' ow he bore the name Joseph, given to him in the sacred rite of Christian baptism, and with it was the gift of vision, so that he was a dreamer of dreams; and it was according to the interpretation of his dream that this man of wisdom set himself to accomplish all that was thus shown to him. He had a gift of vision — and was a dreamer of dreams. 24

Page 29 text:

1915 ILLIWOCO rara I.W.C. manner of the found in of the house of the W o m an ' s C o 1 1 e f e ; n o r from that time to the present have its doors ever opened at the ap- pointed time without disclosing those who, with eager hearts, awaited a welcome to the instruction there given. Decades passed but they brought not al- ways times of joy, for the maintenance of the house was a matter of grave concern, so that oft times the counsel- lors and the precep- tors were sorely per- plexed to know how to provide that which was required. There came upon the land the vicissitudes of a devastating civil war, when men and youths buckled on the warriors ' ilL CONFERENCE FEMALE COLLEGE ,ta.fe ' Builders were summoned to add yet other chamhers. Shrouded with ashes — and yet no disaster drought defeat.

Page 31 text:

1915 ILLIWOCO I.W.C. Tlie name of the praeceptor irliose uisdom has blessed the house. ' In those days there was added much substance to the College, and its bor- ders were extended. Builders came with bricks and stone and mortar and added other chambers and a house of music, wherein were all manner of musical instruments and a place of assembly, where with the organ and the stringed instruments, all could unite their voices in the melody of song. And the name and the fame of the house of the Woman ' s College spread abroad until so many were the fathers who sought there a place for their daughters, that the counsellors were constrained to once more summon the builders together to raise a house greater than any yet built, and to it they gave the name of the preceptor whose wisdom had blessed the house and strengthened its foundations for all the years to come. ■. : THE MAMB:0F.r ' ,-: -? ' ' - v ' 25