North Central College - Spectrum Yearbook (Naperville, IL)

Page 17 text:

Noiaii-wvesiii-12N SPECTRUM College. The thought of my having to study instead of going out to plough was indeed a novelty. The old building? Yes--as I was about to say, it was a frame building. The front door opened intoa broad hall and led through into the chapel at the east end. Two recitation rooms were on either side of this hall. The basement was used for the singing classes conducted by Prof. H. C. Smith. Everyone had to take singing in those days but there wasn't any charge. The upstairs was used as a dormitory for the students. The First Graduating Class. The first graduating class CMiss Simms, Mr. Dreisbach, Miss Prattj went out in 1866-that was before my time, but I often heard of them. There were just three teachers when the College began, Prof. John E. Miller, Prof. J. E. Rhodes, and Miss C. M. Harlacher, all of whom have now passed beyond except Miss Harlacher, now Mrs. Schultz, who was the first preceptress. Rev. Smith of Greensbury, Ohio, was elected the first president. The number of students, you say? Well, in 1869, when I came, there were 243 students and the College building was too small, anyway it was too inconvenient to get there, and so the Board of Representatives from the different states met and decided to move the college activities to Naperville. But things are so changed around here. The new buildings on the cam- pus, the new arrangement of the-the sports, you say? Ch! we never had any College games, and yells, we never heard of them. My no! we came to college to study. In the winter we went skating and in the spring and fall we hired 11 ,.-- V f ,zv-7-l,,,Y ---1 v. -brine ,v -,. ,. F., ,.,,,,, QNX

Page 16 text:

NOIZTHWESTEEN especraummwg RETROSPECT history of the College from its beginning! Such a job, Where could f '4 I ever begin to ind out about all those things, and the time was drawing near so rapidly when it had to go in! The muses were frozen stiff or sunken so deep in the mud that they refused to ' respond to earnest entreaties, and yet-it had to be written! It was in the last stage of desperation that I started for the Annual room when I stopped to listen. There were the usual sounds in the college building, the tick, 'tick, tick, of the office typewriter, the do, do, do, from the singing class, till one was almost forced to add,-bread at last, the familiar cough from the room around the corner, but what was that? It Was not the practic- ing of an oration, for all I could hear was, It is all changed-all changed. The speaker was an old man of perhaps some seventy odd years and was evidently much impressed. I advanced timidly, Beg pardon, sir, are you a stranger here? A stranger? well, yes,-a stranger and yet not a stranger. A stranger because everything around here seems so changed and yet a greater lover of North Western never was than I have been. His eyes bore that vacant reminiscent stare and I knew that he was ready to talk, so I asked: You were a student here? '4Yes, yes, a student in the College while it was located at Plainfield, Ill., and then after it was moved up here into these grand old walls. Fifty years ago! and yet it all seems to me like only yesterday. That cold ride over the old Plank road by stage from Joliet to the College shall always remain fresh in my mind. Tell you about it-well, maybe I can. You know the plans for a college were begun way back in '58 when the church realized that educa- tion was being demanded by the young people, and so they tell that the mem- bers of the Illinois Conference decided to ask Wisconsin, Indiana, and Iowa to join them in starting a College. Those were exciting times for me when my parents said I could go to ' - la, F ' . - I L The College at Plainfield 10

Page 18 text:

No1aTHwEsTEl2N SPECTRUM Peeiclent A. A. Smitlil W Corner Stone Laying at Naperville. out to neighboring farmers. Well, in 1870, on the 17th of May, the exercises of the corner stone laying were held at Naperville. Nearly all the professors Went and a few students who had some extra money. It was a Warm, sultry day and the program lasted pretty long. It was a grand building. The main part, 46x71 feet, five stories high, and a wing 442458, three stories high, was the completed building. Let ine see, I believe it eost about 532,000 Without any inside furnishment. 12