St. Clair County, Illinois - Chapter 31, 1928

Chapter 31

ToHN Francis Harmon was electpresident at the session of the Board, June lo, 1908. He was then in the sixth year of a successful pastorate at First Church, East St. Louis, and it seemed appropriate for him to finish the year. He therefore remained in East St. Louis until Conference time and closed up the year's work. Tho he made frequent trips to Lebanon dur ing the summer, conferring with the faculty and directing various activities in preparation for the opening of the new college year. Before recording the story of his administration at McKendree, we will give a brief sketch of his hfe. He was born near Olney, May i, 185S. He was one of a large family of sturdy Puritan stock. He grew up on the farm in Clay County, and attended the district schools there. Later he was a student for several years at the Southern Illinois Normal at Carbondale and the Central Normal School at Danville, Indiana. He was admitted on trial into the Southern Illinois Conference in 1882 and received into full connection in 1884. He then spent four years in Garrett Biblical Institute at Evanston and graduated from that institution in 1888. He received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from McKendree in 1900. He served pastorates at Metropolis, Mt. Carmel, Mt. Vernon, and East St. Louis, in each of which he had good success. He was markedly evangelistic in his church work, and was noted for his zeal in prohibition work. After serving seven years, 1908 to 191 5 as president of McKendree, he became president of the Kansas Wesleyan at Salina, Kansas, where he served three years.

When he went to Kansas, he transferred his Conference membership to the Northwest Kansas Conference, of which he is still a member. He spent the years from 1918 to his retirement in 1927 in church efficiency work throughout several states in the west. He was constantly engaged in conducting revival meetings, dedicating churches, raising money for churches and colleges, and delivering numerous special addresses of various kinds. He was a member of five general Conferences of the Methodist Church, and was a member of the Book Committee from 1904 to 1912. In September 1882 he was married to Mary C. Mervin of Louisville. Their two sons and four daughters ,ire all living except the oldest son.

President John Harmon

Richard, who was killed by accident after he was twenty. His d.iughter Grace graduated from McKendree and spent several years as a missionary in Korea. Dr. Harmon now lives on his farm in Clay County, where he is enjoying a well-earned rest from the nervous strain and worry of public life in which he served the church for more than forty years. During the year 1927 he was called to the unus ual duty of conducting the funeral service of two of his brothers who had spent their lives in the home community and whose deaths occurred with only a short interval between. He performed these services at the special request of the deceased. When he was placed in charge of McKendree College, he was fifty years old and in the prime of efficiency as a leader of men. He moved with his family into the former home of Uncle Ben Hypes, where he lived during the entire seven years of his term at McKendree. All his children were students at McKendree, tho only two received degrees. These were Grace and Marian.

He found the college in the best condition that any president ever had in all its history. It had more than a hundred thousand dollars of productive endowment and sixty thousand more subscribed but conditioned on the completion of the second hundred thousand. The attendance of students was good and growing. He managed to keep it growing during the entire period of his presidency. But of course while conditions were good there was still much room for improvement.

In his first report to the Board after a year in the office, he enumerates some of the needs of the college, as dormitories, endowment, charges for preacher students, and some industrial enterprise, as a factory which would give employment to students who were trying to make their own way through college. The fiiculty associated with President Harmon at the beginning of his term were, William C. Walton, James C. Dolley, Edwin P. Baker, Edward B. Waggoner, Frank W. Cady, Thomas S. Hewerdine, and Bertram E. Wiggins. The Director of the Music Department was Professor Fred Pesold. Other members of the music faculty were Miss Otilla Pesold and Miss Cleda Lindly, teachers of Piano; Arnold Pesold, teacher of Violin; and Miss Jennie Blanck, teacher of Vocal Music. After a year Professor Cady went to the English

Department m Middlebury College, Vermont, which was his Alma Mater, and he was succeeded by Professor William F. Thrall. Also at the same time Professor Hewerdine went to a new position in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Robert A. Giles became Professor of Mathematics. Professor Pesold retired and Professor Frank M. Church became the head of the Music Department. At the same time Miss Amy Pinkerton became teacher of Voice, though she was succeeded after a year by Miss Latchipell Myrick. Miss Rhoda Brockman became instructor m Expression. Her successor was Mrs. Morfyg F. Miller, who only staid one year and was succeeded by Miss Marian McCray.

In igii two new departments were established. Agriculture and Home Economics. In charge of the former was Prof. Frank C. Grannis, assisted later by Prof. George R. New. The Home Economics Department was placed under the direction of Miss Villa M. Sprague. A little later Miss Alexa C. Sligh became instructor in Violin and Miss Sarah C. Seabrook instructor in Art. Some years later Prof. George A. Crossthwait was in charge of the Agriculture work and Prof. New taught Chemistry and Physics.

At the end of Dr. Harmon's term, Cyrus S. Gentry was Director of Athletics, tho Homer T. Osborn had occupied the position before him. Miss Edna McCay was teacher of Home Economics; Miss Frances Berry taught Expression; David Morris Hardy was instructor in Violin ; and Miss Anne E. Wilkinson was the Art teacher. Professor Milton S. Cushman substituted a year for Professor Thrall while he was on leave of absence to do graduate work.

The big thing in Dr. Harmon's administration was the erection of the dormitories and dining hall. These three buildings, with their equipment cost the college a little more than a hundred thousand dollars, and their addition to the equip ment of the college wrought a great change in the institution Itself. Before that time none of the students had lived on the hill, but after that nearly all of them did. That greatly increased the problems of discipline and administration and made a great difference in the social life of the students. Of the money thus invested, sixty thousand dollars had been subscribed before Dr. Harmon took charge. To this was added ten thousand from Mr. P. M. Johnston, who had already subscribed an equal amount during Dr. Chamberlin's administration, and five hundred dollars from John A. Patten of Chattanooga, Tennessee. When the Southern Illinois Conference met in Centralia in September 1909, Dr. Harmon induced that body to subscribe thirty thousand dollars to complete the hundred thousand, and thus meet the conditions necessary to claim the contributions of the Clark Brothers of Philadelphia, Mr. Carnegie, and Dr. Pearsons. The Conference subscription was in the form of a note signed by the officers of the corporation and it was to be paid by the regular educational collections. Since it drew six per cent interest, it was as good as that much endowment. The Board met in special session and with careful deliberation, discussed the possibilities of one or more new buildings. The largest donors had expressed a willingness to have their money invested in new buildings instead of endowment if that were preferable to the authorities of the college. A building committee was appointed, consisting of President Harmon, T. A. Wilson, Frank Condrey, J. B. Messick, and J. C. Eisenmayer. Mr. W. C. Zimmerman, of Springfield, the state architect, was employed to draw the plans. The specifications were advertised and competitive bids received, and contract was finally let to the Simmons Construction Company of Chicago. The work was begun m the spring of 1910. It was supposed that the buildings could be finished and ready for use in the fall of that year. But the weather was not always favorable and labor was not abundant. A considerable portion of the unskilled work was done by McKendree students. Some of them quit and entered college as soon as the fall term opened and some kept on with part time work. James A. Landis had been an engineer before he came to college. He ran the hoisting engine for the construction company until late in the fall and had a book handy in order to utilize every minute in study when his duty as engineer did not require his whole attention. It took the greater part of the winter as as well as the summer to get the buildings ready for use. They were actually occupied by students first in the spring term 191 1. At first the rates charged students was seventy five cents a week for room and two dollars and a quarter for board, or three dollars a week for both room and board in buildings equipped with all modern conveniences and every thing new. The Girls' Dormitory was named Clark Hall, the Boys', Carnegie Hall, and their common eating place was called Pearsons Hall, thus commemorating the names of the chief donors of the three buildings. Each dormitory has a capacity sufficient for housing seventy-two students, and the dining hall can accommodate as many as tables are provided for, up to three hundred.

Carnegie Hall was fully occupied after the first year, but Clark Hall did not have its rooms all full until 1927. Of course some of the students always prefer to board out in town.

Professor Frank C. Grannis was employed by the Executive Committee in the spring of 191 1 to take charge of the work in Agriculture which they were planning to establish. He was a graduate of the School of Agriculture of the University of Illinois. Some equipment was secured during the summer and plans were made for beginning the work with the opening of the school year 1911-1912. A small tract of land, donated by Dr. B. M. Hypes, was used as an experiment field. Three horses were provided and a stable was rented near enough to the college for convenience. A wagon and some farming implements were also purchased with donations made to the department by friends of the college. The total of the gifts for equipment amounted to one thousand, seven hundred and sixty dollars. This was all from Lebanon or St. Clair County, except five hundred dollars which was given by Governor Deneen. There were sixty-seven students enrolled in Agriculture that first year. An Agricultural "Short Course" was also given during the year, chiefly for the benefit of the farmers in the vicinity of Lebanon, or main' ly those living close enough to Lebanon to attend to their home work and attend daily lectures at the same time. The course lasted ten days, and there were several lecturers from the State University. There were one hundred enrolled in the "Short Course" the first year, though some of them were regular students in the college. The Agriculture Course was designed to cover two years work which might be covered in a regular college course if the student should so elect. But if he wanted a full four-year course in Agriculture, it was necessary for him to transfer his credits to some University, where he could finish his course. In the nature of the case, a college like McKendree could not hope to maintain an agriculture equipment equal to that of the tax-supported state university. So the time came when the students who really wanted agriculture would go to the university in the first place. The experimental work only lasted a few years. The student who started field or garden work in the spring would go home about the first of June and therefore could not complete his experiment. So the work became chiefly class room and theory work which any student might elect. In 1919, the Agriculture professor, H. Reese Brentzel, was offered a better salary in another institution and resigned. The college authorities did not see fit to fill the vacancy, and so that was the end of the Agriculture Department. Its career covered a period of eight years, from 191 1 to 1919.

About the same time the Agriculture department was initiated, an Agriculture Experiment Station was established at Lebanon. It was the result of an agreement between Mc- Kendree College and the University of IlHnois, to the effect that if McKendree would furnish a suitable field, the University would maintain a regular agriculture experiment station similar to a number already established in various parts of the state. The college authorities negotiated the purchase of twenty acres of land, adjoining the city limits on the south, from Mr. C. J. Pfeffer for two thousand five hundred dollars. The money was furnished by Governor Deneen as a donation to the college. The land was deeded to the University of Illinois with the provision that if the University ever ceasei to use it for agriculture experiments, the title shall revert to McKendree College.

Up to the present time the University has maintained platted experiment fields which are calculated to illustrate certain principles in scientific farming, and the farmers of the community may freely observe the results of these experiments.

The Home Economics Department was inaugurated in the fall of 191 1 with Miss Villa M. Sprague as teacher. She was educated at the University of Illinois and was full of enthusiasm for the new department. Attractive rooms were fitted up in the basement of the dining hall. There was a sewing room, a dining room, and a kitchen. The sewing room was equipped with built-in shelves and drawers, a good number of sewing machines, dress models, mirrors, and whatever else was necessary for the art of dressmaking. The dining room was nicely furnished with the usual furniture for that important part of a modern home. Many delightful dinners were served there to the faculty and other small groups of people, in order that the girls who were acquiring skill in the arts of serving might have opportunity for practice. The kitchen was equipped as a cooking laboratory with a separate gas stove for each girl and the various utensils needed in the development of this important science. Between the kitchen and dining room was the butler's pantry, which also served as a storehouse for the jellies, jams, and canned goods which were pre duced as a result of the students exercise of these household arts.

The Home Economics equipment was mostly secured by donation from many friends of the institution. The gifts recorded in the minutes, given by twenty-six individuals or firms, amounted to one thousand, three hundred and sixty dollars. Of this one thousand dollars was in hundred dollar gifts. Among these good friends, special mention should be made of Mr. and Mrs. T. A. Wilson, who were not only among the largest givers, but also used their influence to secure many other gifts, and served on the committee that purchased a large part of the equipment in St. Louis. Dr. Wilson was primarily responsible for the gas plant which gave the girls an opportunity to "cook with gas" which was a privilege enjoyed by nobody else in town. In fact, it was thought by some that the name Wilson should be placed on the front door of the department.

The first year there were thirty-seven students enrolled in Home Economics, besides forty-three who took the short course which was given at the same time with the "Short Course" in Agriculture. Miss Sprague was also the advisor and leader of the "Domestic Science Club", which was composed of a group of Lebanon house-keepers who held regular meetings and discussed many of the problems which came up in their home life. They were thus permitted to utilize the knowledge and training of the Home Economics teacher and have the advantage of the latest university research in this important field. In fact, it was a sort of continuation course of education in their own particular line, for these practical house-keepers.

After two years of service Miss Sprague abandoned teaching for matrimony and became a home-maker for a teacher in one of our state institutions. She was succeeded by Miss Maude Willard who was in the position only one year until she became the wife of Professor Frank M. Church, head of McKendree's Music Department. The next teacher was Miss Edna McCay. She staid only one year and was succeeded by Miss Mabel R. Stiffey of Ohio. The next year the teacher in this department was Miss Mary Sumpter Garth, a southern lady. She was followed by Miss E. Grace Brown who staid a year and a half and married the Chemistry teacher, Pro' fessor E. E. Holmes. She was succeeded by Miss Carrie Bell Robertson who finished out the year and served until the middle of the next year, when she had an opportunity to take charge of a tea room in a large western city and preferred that work. That year was finished out by Miss Margaret George who was elected for the ensuing year, but had an attractive offer in a southern school which she preferred to accept. The next year the department was reorganized and Miss Kathleen Taylor was placed in charge of the foods' courses and served as dietitian for the dining hall, while Miss Esther Burnette had charge of the sewing and house courses. This was a nice arrangement for the teachers, but the number of students in the department would scarcely justify the employment of two teachers. So after two years.

Miss Taylor was married and the work was readjusted so that Miss Burnette could handle all that was necessary. After another year she too forsook teaching for matrimony, and her successor was Miss Ruth Walton, a McKendree graduate, who had had two years experience teaching this same line in high school. She occupied the position two years and by that time, 1925, it became evident that the physical equipment of the department had not kept pace with the progress of the science for the last ten or fifteen years. In fact, m all these years very little had been added to the original equipment which was quite sufficient in 191 1, but not at all adequate in 1925. Some of the high schools had better facilities for teaching this work than McKendree. The tax-supported institutions could easily secure new equipment as it was needed, but with a church school, it was more difficult. But it was evident that the time had come when it was necessary to invest a considerable sum in a new outfit or abandon the department and let the girls who desired this particular training go to the state schools. As it was the tuition fees of the department did not even approximately provide for the salary of the teacher. So under the financial pressure of the college with insufficient endowment and with many problems hard to solve, the authorities decided to abandon the department which thus came to the end of its career after fourteen years, from 1911 to 1925.

Not all of the narrative just given of the departments of Agriculture and Home Economics belong to the administration of President Harmon, but it seemed best to complete at least the outline of the story before leaving it.

Another enterprise initiated by him was the "College Press". There had long been a feeHng that the College should have a printing press. It had not owned one since the one it sold in 1852. A machine of that kind could be used not only for printing the college paper, but also for printing programs, cards, examination questions and various miscellaneous jobs which otherwise the college would hire done at considerable expense or leave undone altogether. Dr. Harmon made a deal with Mrs. Sarah Watson of Mt. Vernon by which he purchased from her two used printing presses, with an outfit of type and tools, all of which was said by a disinterested printer to be worth not less than nine hundred dollars, yet he secured the complete outfit for four hundred dollars, which sum was to be paid in tuition fees for her grandchildren, two of whom were about ready to enter college at that time. By the terms of the agreement, if her grandchildren did not use all this amount in tuition the college was under no further obligation to pay the debt. As a matter of fact, only a portion of it was so used. About this time the college had acquired the T. A. Wilson property which adjoined the campus and for several years served as a home for the Music department. In the rear of the brick residence was a frame building which served very nicely as a printing office and press room, and also as a book store. Here for several years the "McKendree Headlight", the college paper of the time, was printed, and job work was done, both for the college and sometimes for some of the people in town. Mr. James E. Rymer was placed in charge of both, the press and the book store. He was a capable young man who had had experience as a practical printer and was anxious to get in touch with the college in the hope that he might be at least a part-time student in the college course. He did do some college work but never finished the course because the "Press" kept him too busy most of the time to think of doing anything else. Also occasionally one or two other students found part-time work in the printing office. In the book store, Mr. Rymer handled the text books for the college students, both new and second-hand, stationery supplies and even athletic goods. This was a very convenient arrangement while it lasted, but it was found that if the printer was to have a living out of his work, the college would have a deficit to make up, for the college paper with a small subscription list, a low price, and no advertisements, was not much of a money maker. After a few years the "College Press" was closed down and Mr. Rymer took over and edited the "Lebanon Journal", which was the older of the two Lebanon papers at that time. Some months later the Lebanon Journal was destroyed by fire, building, equipment, files of the paper, and the entire plant. That was the finale of a historic paper.

Another important enterprise m the H.irmon administration was the raising of enough endowment to complete a total of $200,000. To do this, required $66,000. Dr. John W. Hancher of the Board of Education came to the assistance of the college and engineered the campaign. It was not a large sum compared with what he had raised at many other places, but the difficulty of the field made him feel that it was a serious undertaking. He called in several educators and college men from various parts of the country to assist in the work. Among them were Dr. Carl M. Doney, then president of the West Virginia Wesleyan, and Dr. Alfred E. Craig, then president of Morningside College at Sioux City, Iowa. Some inspirational rallies were held and the canvass was made. The full quota of subscriptions was reached, tho some of it was subscribed in very small amounts which made it difficult and expensive to collect, but the full amount was raised and eventually collected. McKendree now had $200,000 of productive endowment. The most it had ever had. But even with this, the financial pressure was not relieved in the least, for the growth of the institution increased expenses faster than the new endowment increased income. Additional teachers were needed and salaries needed to be raised, so that it was just as much of a problem as ever to make ends meet. The material resources were increased considerably during Dr. Harmon's administration. Besides the increase in the endowment mentioned above, the buildings increased from four to eight and tho they were just doubled in number, they were more than doubled in value. The land holdings increased by the addition of Hypes Field and the Swearingen forty acres in Crawford County. The attendance of students also made a substantial advance. The total unrepeated enrollment the year before he came was two hundred and twenty-six. The year he left it was exactly three hundred according to the record m the catalogues. Tho in some of his years, the enrollment had been even higher.

Dr. Harmon did not leave McKendree on account of any lack of success in the work or because the Board wanted him to leave, but because the door was open to what seemed to him to be a larger field of usefulness. The authorities of the Kansas Wesleyan felt that he was just the man their institution needed and they were so determined to have him that they offered him a salary just about double what he was receiving at McKendree. In addition to this inducement, they sent a committee who tried to convince him that it was his moral duty to leave McKendree, now well-established, and put this newer institution on her feet. He therefore closed his relations with McKendree with the end of the school year 1914-1011 and went to the Kansas Wesleyan.

Beginning with the group that graduated during the presidency of Dr. John Harmon, we are no longer attempting to give biographical sketches, unless it may be of some who have paid for space in the book and have furnished the data for a sketch. But the earliest of these left McKendree less than twenty years ago and probably m.my of them have not yet reached the climax of their usefulness and it is therefore too soon to write their history. Therefore from this point on we will merely give a list of the names of each class with their occupation and post-office address where we have the information.

The Class Of Uh19 The Class Of 1910

THE CLASS OF 1910 Albin, Grover Cleveland, A. B., Pastor Nebraska Conference Birkhead, Leon Milton, A. B., Pastor Kansas City, Mo. Burgard, Edmund J., A. B., Business, Webster Groves, Mo. Cummins, Wesley Erett, A. B., Lawyer Cairo

The Class Of 191.5

Moss, Norman McAnally, B. S., Pa; Petty, Bert M., A. B., Pastor Pfeffer, Louis Herman, B. S., Farmer Reisner, Earl Ephraim, A. B., Past-or Roberts, Frances Ella, A. B., Rogers, Bernard Adlai, A. B., Shields, Paul Austin, A. B., Pastor Stewart, Alice Victoria

Smith, Charles, A. B. Stansfield, Frank Akin, B. S., Business Stice, Earl Franklin, B. S., Business Turner, Frank Clayton, A. B., Educator Van Dyke, Seth Howard, B. S., Educator Walrath, Arthur Miller, A. B., Dentist