Monmouth College - Ravelings Yearbook (Monmouth, IL)

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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

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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 earlier years and which may long enrich its spirit and lay the foundation of great character for noble men and women. The first class was graduated in 1 858 with an enrollment of fourteen. Mrs. Margaret Find- ley Thompson, who was born in 1837, is the only surviving member of this class. For many years, she has made her home in Monmouth. She has always held a very deep interest in her alma mater. She is a woman of rare intellect and culture. Mrs. Thompson was a sister of Mrs. David A. Wal- lace. Mrs. Margaret Findley Thompson y ne JJ est a l urnnus Q f MonmOUth College is Rev. John S. Speer, who left Monmouth College in the second graduating class, that of 1860, there being no graduates in 1859. Mr. Speer was born on Novem- ber 25, 1836, being just one year older than his cousin, Mrs. Thompson. No alumnus of Monmouth College has iived a fuller life than this one. He has been a student, a teacher of schools, a professor in College, Muskingum; a superintend- ent of city schools, at Cambridge, Ohio; a soldier, serving in the Civil War, first as Captain of Infantry, Company A, 85th Ohio Volunteer Infantry; then as a Signal Officer; a minister, and not the least, a farmer. He has been a minister of the gospel for nearly fifty-seven years and still can conduct a service with as much vigor and ease as he ever could. He still serves as a minister at Cambridge, Ohio . That David A. Wallace proved to be divinely chosen to become the first first president of Monmouth College was evi- dent from his high quality leadership and per- sonality. His name was a synonym of loyalty, faithfulness, and devotion. He sent many a man and woman into the world who were trained and equipped by his care and faith- fulness, and inspired through his teaching, prayers, and heroic example. Two years after the first college faculty, above mentioned, began the great educationa work of our school, there came another bring- ing with him ability and resources, namely Dr. Alexander Young. He possessed the strength of will that won the the respect of everybody, with scholarship that feared no criticism, with thoughtfulness of the feelings of others that touched every heart — especially every student ' s heart. — 12— Rev. John S. Speer