Franklin College - Almanack Yearbook (Franklin, IN)

Page 28 text:

In the home the children were oncouragod to lovc goml bOOkS,,bOOkS were talked over. Tho stories ol' Jacob Abbott and Alice B. Neal gave way, as the chil.dren grew older, to those of Hawthorne and Mrs. Stowe and the lighter work of Washington Irving. Miss Thompsonls school life began early and had many ups and downs. It was ended by three years, work in Shep- ardson College, at Granville, Chio. Dr. Marsena Stone was at that time president and Miss Louise S. Carter flater Mrs. J. R. Downerj principal. Dr. Stone was a suggestive teacher. The girl was very stupid who could pass a year in his classes and not experience an awakening of mind in regard to many phases of life and thought. Miss Carter insisted upon care- ful preparation, a lazy student found no favor with her. Habits of accuracy, order and clearness insisted on by her coniplemented the less rigorous, but more generous, instruc- tion of Dr. Stone. From Shepardson College, Miss Rebecca Thompson was graduated in 1867, at the age of twenty-two. Following this there was a year's teaching in Shepardson, two years in the Greensburg QInd.j High School, and two years in the Indianapolis Institute. In September, 1872, in response to an offer made by the board of directors, she accepted a position in Franklin Col- lege. In connection with her teaching she has been, for some twelve years, college librarian. She has spent one summer doing work with Prof. Stockwell at the Case Observatory, and in '94 spent the summer at Chicago University. In 795 she spent some weeks traveling in Europe. - Prof. Thompson is a thorough instructor, and, like her teacher, Miss Carter, insists on accuracy, order and clear- IIQSS. A I

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Rebecca F. Cbompeon, HJVI.. PROFESSOR IN MATHEMATICS. little village of South Salem, Ohio,'is the if birthplace of Rebeccanl. Thompson. Its acad- f. emy Qa. feeder of Miami Ilniversityj and its aw' A - old-fashioned church made the village. At the side of the church was the burial ground, a shaded, peaceful spot. A fertile, rolling country, with wooded hills and extended views of distant ranges, made this a beautiful home. It is a country rich in Indian legends. The family removed in a few years to Frankfort, in the same county. Frankfort was the site of an old Indian village, and here Daniel Boone had been a prisoner. A quarter of a mile from the school-house were two large Indian mounds. 'These mounds were fre- quently visited by the children after school. No games were so delightful as those played on their summits, no stories so thrilling as those told of Indian warfare and pioneer life, when the children, tired of play, rested, on the grassy slopes. In the Thompson home much was said of freedom, of slavery, of American ideas. Wlien the grandparents visited them there werenfamily stories of ancestors whoihad fought at Brandywine and had suffered at Valley Forge, stories of unwilling entertainment given to Hessian troops in which angels were not entertained unawares. I The fugitive Slave law was in force. There were times when mysterious conversations would take place between the Thompson paren.ts 3 and the father would leave the house carrying a large market basket, into which the mother had packed all of the semi-weekly baking. When the children asked the meaning of this they were told the bread had gone to friends in need? And this was all they' saw of the working of the underground railroad. H l

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Cbarles 6. Goodall, H. IVI. PROFESSOR OF HISTORY. Q HOF. GOODELL says that he is not yet so old Q but that he distinctly recalls the year of his Q V-is birth. lt Was in 1862. He vvas thus a product 1 rep? . , . . . Q of the War, and it is to the spirit of the times that he attributes his fighting qualities. lt Was in Cen- tral Illinois, on his father's farm, that he Was born. It was not in the ordinary log cabin of great men, but in a respect- able farm-house. His early life was spent amid those pastoral scenes which drive some people to poetry, but which had no charms for him. He early resolved to leave the farm and devote his life to the legal profession. Circumstances, hovvever, stood in the Way of acting upon this resolution until comparatively late in life. He Was nineteen years old when the time at last came for the preparation for his study of lavv. Up to this time what education he had had been acquired at the district school. , I By dint of hard Work over his books during the summer of '81 he was able to pass muster 7' in the high school eX- amination at Mankato, Minn. Even at this time he had little thought of college Work, being in haste, like most boys, to get through and into his profession. But before he Was through high school his ideas began to change and he savv the need of higher education. Besides that, a thirst for knowledge Was aroused, which was destined largely to give shape to his course in after life. Q In 1885 he graduated With 4 honors from the high school. Ann .Arbor attracted him because of its extended course in history and political science. He had made up his mind to go there, but more preparatory Work being required and hav-