Cornell College - Royal Purple Yearbook (Mount Vernon, IA)

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upper story the auditorium, where an audience of sixteen hundred can be seated. This room is well proportioned and beautiful in appearance. The size of the whole structure is 7 5x1oo feet, and it is finished in excellent style, much cut stone being used in its construction. There are three towers, the largest of which terminates in an observatory affording a magnificient view of many miles in every direction. In this tower is the valuable clock donated by john F. Cory, Esq., which strikes the hours and quarters on a peal of bells. ' Bowman Hall, for ladies, was erected in 1884-5, at acost of f40,000, Rev. G. B. Bowman, D. D,. donating one-fourth of the entire amount. No school in the country offers better accomoda- tions to young ladies. The building is heated with steam and is supplied with all modern appliances. There are elegant reception rooms, and the dining room is large and well lighted. The rooms for lady students are commodious, and tastefully furnished. The boarding department is under the ex- cellent management of the matron, Mrs. C. E. Henderson, and the superintendant, Prof. J. E. Har- lan. Mealsican be conveniently served to over one hundred and fifty students. A college may have a beautiful location, magnificent buildings, and be under excellent finan- cial management, but unless it has a faculty of character, ability and devotion, it cannot have either power or usefulness. During the-whole existence of the school, with hardly an exception, the selec- tion of teachers has been wisely made. When good teachers have been secured, it has been the policy of the college to retain them, and some have given the greater part of their lives, to work in the school. Rev. A. W. Keeler, D. D., Dean of the Theological Department of Central Tennessee Univer- sity, was the first President of Cornell College. In 1859 he resigned, and before entering upon his present work, filled many of the best appointments in the Upper Iowa Conference. Rev. Samuel M. Fellows, A. M., who, as principal of the Seminary, was much respected, was elected President, and remained in office until 1863, when death relieved him of his duties. His piety and excessive labors, in connection with an able administration of the affairs of the college, gave him a name which is remembered and honored. The third President of the college, Rev. Wm. F. King, D. D., LL. D., was placed in charge of the school immediately after the death of Pres. Fellows, and two years later, in 1865,' was formally elected to the position which he has so long and worthily filled. His force of character, fine scholarship, and gentlmanly bearing have admirably fitted him for the deli- cate and difficult duties of a college president. and he has largely contributed to the prosperity which

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the first term of Cornell College began with a Faculty of the Presidentand Preceptress, three Profess- ors and three lady teachers. Q Thus the work of founding Cornell College was carried on. It required talent, toil and prayer, for people were poor and the other enterprises of the new State had to be sustained. Railroads had hardly begun to stretch their iron arms across the State and all the pine lumber and hardware, with other materials in the first two buildings, were hauled on wagons from the Missis- sippi river. Many who could not give money donated teaming, or personal services, and no man was considered so poor that he could not do something. Only religious zeal, under good leadership, could have accomplished such a result. It is a matter of congratulation and tbankfulness to God, that Cornell College commenced her work on the foundation of self-sacrifice and heroism, which in- corporated and sustained Iowa Conference Seminary. The site of the college was originally chosen on account of its great beauty, and the character of the people living about it. Time has proven the wisdom of the choice. Town and college are located on an elevated plateau from which stretch away broad valleys in every direction, and these in the distance are bounded by hillsiwhere the earth and sky seem to meet. Bishop Gilbert Haven in a letter to the New York Afizforafe said: Never have I seen a lovlier landscape than that which stretches out from Mount Vernon, the site of Cornell College. From that open or that shaded top your eye takes in the loveliest lay of land that any college in America looks upon 5 at least any that I have seen. Bishop Foster in a recent address said he had seen but two colleges as beautifully lo- cated, one being near Constantinople overlooking the Bosphorus.. The original seminary building was, after the erection of the main college building, in 1857, used as a ladies boarding hall until the fall of 1885, when Bowman Hall was made ready for occu- pancy. Since that time it has been fitted up so as to afford excellent accomodations for the com- mercial department, the conservatory of music, recitation rooms in history and science, and for the chemical laboratory which occupies a large part of the upper story. The college building proper contains on the first two floors recitation rooms, while on the third Hoor are found the halls of the literary societies. Art Hall, familiarly known as the C. B. A., erected in 1873, contains the halls of the art de- partment, Prof. Cumming's studio, and a number of rooms which are rented to gentlemen students. The Chapel building, the finest structure of its kind in the State, was erected in 1876. It is of stone, and contains in the lower story the library, museum, and morning assembly room, and in the

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Cornelia To name helped to may they motto is, D 1 A. Miller must be mentioned, as one who has helped the College on different occasions. all benefaeltors would require ,a volume, for many loving hearts, and liberal hands, have found' and nourish Cornell College. May the blessings of heaven rest upon them, and and future benefaejtors, see more, and more good acomplished by this institution, whose Dem ff H111za1zz'fas-for God and Humanity. 5 ' 'i Sl asfwoayai