Monmouth College - Ravelings Yearbook (Monmouth, IL)

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19 TRAVELINGS History of Monmouth College p The founders of Monmouth College were pi- oneers, living in the sparcely populated commun- ity of Monmouth, surrounded by prairie lands which stretched away in all four directions. These men, Porter, Ross, Erskine, Wallace, Brown, Morrison and ethers, inspired by the spirit of the frontier laid the foundation of our college through courage, persistence and determination. Not now, nor at any period since, and probably never again will appear here such a distinguished constella- tion of those intellectually great as existed in Illi- nois during the quarter of a century immediately antecedent to the founding of Monmouth College. At that time in the life of the pioneer with its hardships, deprivations and poverty, one could not go far to seek for an education. It must, to be available, be brought to his door. The found- ers of Monmouth College appreciated the sacri- fices of the fathers and mothers who fought and conquered the wilderness and resolved that their children should not surfer loss on account of self- denial and hardships of their ancestry. They felt that divine afflatus which had led Webster in speaking of his father, to say, If I ever fail to remember him who pioneered his way into the wilderness that the lot in life of his children might be better than his own had been, may my name and the name of my posterity be forever blotted from the memory of mankind. Rev. J. C. Porter and Rev. Robert Ross, then pastors of the Associate Reformed, now the United Presbyterian Church over congregations of Cedar Creek and South Henderson in Warren and Henderson Counties, first conceived the idea which led to the establishment of Monmouth Col- lege. Led in this movement by these pastors, the Second Associated Reformed Presbytery of Illi- nois, met in the South Henderson Church in Oc- tober, 1852, and took the first step in this work. It was resolved that these two ministers, together —10—

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19 TRAVELINGS 13$ . with Rev. W. R. Erskine, be a committee to devise and report means and measures, and at the next meeting of the Presbytery held at Clayton, in Adams County, in April, 1853, upon the report of this com- mittee it was resolved that an academy should be established which was located at Monmouth, and its first board of di- rectors consisted of Rev. J. C. Porter, Rev. Robert Ross, Rev. W. R. Erskine and Messrs. Madden, A. C. Harding and N. A. Rankin. This board placed Rev. James R. Brown promptly in charge of the Academy and it was opened for the reception of students in November, 1853. „ , , , ill The First College hucn marked success attended the undertaking that in the summer of 1 855 the Presbytery resolved to raise the institu- tion to the grade of a college, and measures were taken to provide buildings and funds, and in January, 1856, the Board of Trustees elected a faculty. Rev. David A. Wallace of Fall River, Massachusetts, was chosen president; Rev. Marion Morrison of Tranquility, Ohio, Professor of Mathematics; and Rev. J. R. Brown, before mentioned, Professor of Ancient Languages. These persons accepted their respective appointments and on the first Monday of September, 1 856, Monmouth College opened for the reception of students for the first time, as a college. It is to these early founders that we owe the existence of Monmouth College. It is through their sturdy spirit, bred of poverty and self-denial, that marked its The Old Main Bui ' .dinff — 11— J