Simpson College - Zenith Yearbook (Indianola, IA)

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College History BLUEBIRD. HALL we say that Indianola was predestined to be a college town? When we consider how early in the history of the village the idea of a school of higher learning was cherished, and with what faith and persistence those pioneers clung to it, in the face of difficulties and discouragements, we can hardly think other- wise. Not later than 1854 a building was erected for a seminary, two blocks east of the southeast corner of the public square, the lower story being paid for by the school district, the upper story by the citizens. This school was conducted 1855-57 by Chas. Griffith, and continued by “fits and starts” until i860, when the history of our institution really begins. At its first session, the Western Iowa Con- ference, in response to a petition from the quarterly conference of Indianola Station, ordered that so soon as the citizens of Indianola should erect and pay for suitable buildings worth at least three thou- sand dollars, the conference should accept the same, assume control, and give its patronage. In the above mentioned building the school opened in September, i860, with E. W. Gray, A. M., of Iowa Wes- leyan, as principal. It was given the euphonious name of “Indianola Male and Female Seminary” by the board, of which Rev. E. M. H. Fleming was president, Dr. IE S. Noble, vice president, Rev. J. C. 22

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jubilee Campaign for 1910. For 1910. the jubilee year for the founding of Simpson College, the Field Secretary presents to the Trustees this plan of campaign to be conducted from 1905 to 1910 to raise funds as set forth below: First: The raising of a fund the undirected subscriptions of which shall be applied— a- To the paying of the entire indebtedness of Simpson College. b. To the raising of the Endowment Fund to at least $250,000.00. Second: The raising of a special fund to build the new Auditorium, to cost at least $40,000.00. The above plan was approved by the Board of Trustees and adopted by the Des Moines Conference and is now being active- ly pushed. 21

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Reed, secretary, and Hon. Geo. W. Jones, treasurer. The first catalogue shows an enrollment of 184 students, unclassified, and varying in age from six to twenty or twenty-five. It also contains the following information: ‘‘The price of tuition ranges from $2.75 to $5.50 per term in the Preparatory Department, and from $6.00 to $9.00 in the Academic Department. Instruction in the Normal De- partment, extra, $1.00 per term. Modern Languages, Drawing and Painting and Music at mod- erate prices extra. In all cases payment in advance. Parents and guardians arc ad- monished that students do not need spending money. Hoarding in private families from $1.50 to $2.00 per week. Students can ar- range to board themselves for about one-half these prices, and those who are near enough to bring their provisions from home, need, in this way, incur but a trifling expense pver what it would cost them at home to live. The daughters of all ministers of the Gospel who are regularly employed in pastoral work, will be admitted to all classes of the regular course at one-half the above prices of tuition. Also the daughters of ministers deceased.” Although today parents could hardly be convinced that their “sons and daughters do not need spending money,” the school has never fostered extravagance. Plain clothing is the rule, and there have always been many self-supporting students who pay their way by- manual labor, suffering thereby no loss of esteem. Prof. Gray’s so- journ extending over but one school year, he left but a faint impress. All we can learn of his subsequent career is that he was surgeon of an Illinois regiment in the Civil War, having studied medicine before he came to the Seminary. About the same year—’61—Geo. W. Jones and Dr. Isaac Windle, brothers-in-law, when surveying their addition to the town, gave to the Seminary that part of the grounds now forming the southwest corner of the campus. A like plot of three acres on the southeast was soon afterward purchased and George E. Griffith gave six acres on the north. The citizens subscribed $4,500 with which a brick building was erected, called by the students “The Bluebird” on account of the color it was painted. As it lasted but little more than ten years, it must have been of flimsy construction. It was .38x48 feet square, 23