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

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The Beginnings THEY FOUNDED US Long ago some thoughtful men gathered together all ideas concern- ing the pastime of the less thoughtful sex. From this spark girls be- came females; later they were women, and today we hear them called MacMurrians. The Illinois Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in ses- sion at Paris, Illinois, September 23, 1846, Bishop Hamline presiding, appointed as the first Board of Trustees, with author- ity to establish a school for the higher education of women. Rev. Peter Akers, Rev. Peter Cartwright, Rev. W. D. R. Trotter, Rev. Wm. J. Rutledge, William Thomas, Matthew Stacy, Nicholas Mil- burn, William Brown and William C. Stribling. These men met m the Metho- dist Church at Jacksonville, October 10, 1846, and organized by the election of Rev. Peter Cartwright, President; William Brown, Secretary and Mat- thew Stacy, Treasurer. They are therefore entitled to recognition as the Original Founders of the College. The School was first chartered in 1847 as the Illinois Conference Female Academy. In October 1848 the first classes were organized, and a year later Bishop James laid the cornerstone of the first building. By 18 52 the first building was completed, and the institution named Illinois Conference Female College. In the first catalog after announcing the Preparatory Department, in which was to be taught Reading, Writing, Spelling, Defining, Geog- raphy, English Grammar, Arithmetic, Elements of Natural Science and History, Watts — On the Mind, the Construction of Maps, and Needle Work, the following statement is made: The requisites for admission into the Academic Department, are a knowledge of English Grammar, Geography, Arithmetic and History. Then comes the following course of study: ACADEMIC DEPARTMENT (Including Three Years) Firsf Year — Firsf Term Latin — Anthon ' s First Lessons Natural Philosophy — Parker ' s Chemistry — Gray ' s Ancient Geography — Mitchell ' s Philosophy of Natural History — Smellie ' s SccomI Term Latin — Caesar Mineralogy and Geology — Hitchcock ' : Botany — Woods ' Physiology — Jarvis ' [ 17 ]