“ A century ago it was not thought necessary for females to have an education, any more than to read and write, and that they could learn at a common district school, and if carried beyond this they thought it would lead them to neglect the more common, and consequently more useful employments, such as Culinary and Domestic Arts. ”

“ Each week the girls took turns at building their fires in the morning. The other building, a newer one, was heated by a furnace and the rule was that the temperature in each room was to be no higher than 70 degrees.
"A teacher made the rounds every morning to see that that rule was rigidly kept. If not, the heat was turned off. That was a "sure cure."
"I can sense that the Frances Shimer College of today covers a wider outlook on life than was required fifty or sixty years ago; that each decade brings out some thought contingent upon the advancement of womankind. ”

“ The very fact that Frances Wood wanted to study medicine shows the stirring of a spirit expansion in the desires and aspirations of the young women of the time. Her special interest in education can be traced back to some of the compositions of her early school life. ”

“ Harriet Plous Mervis has written of her lovely new home in Barrington, Illinois. The new home is across the road from the farm of her husband's parents. She has one son, Mike, three and one-half years old who is "a red headed dynamo who keeps us amused and amazed." She writes that she would like about four more red headed boys and just one girl so that she can go to Shimer. ”

“ Now came a period of four years of teaching for Frances about which we do not know a great deal. We are sure that those years were spent faithfully carrying out the young teacher's ideals and that they brought to her continued investigation of the lack of opportunities for higher education of women. Her determination was renewed to use her influence and efforts to help establish schools which would give to women the same chance for preparation for any profession or practical work which their brothers enjoyed. ”

“ On May 4, 1946, Frances Shimer was hostess to many high school seniors of the county and surrounding towns. They were invited to come to the college to enjoy a day of sports. The sports program for the afternoon was tennis, golf, swimming, baseball, and volleyball. Due to rain, scheduled activities did not take place, and substitutions were made. The guests swam in the college pool, played volleyball in the gymnasium, danced in the grill, visited the stables, and took tours of the campus. ”

“ There had been much experience in learning to live with the harsh elements of nature and with the native inhabitants. The particular settlement called Mount Carroll to which Frances and Cinderella were invited to come was on the stage route from Galena, the oldest town in northern Illinois, to Peoria to the southwest by way of Dixon's Ferry. ”

“ You will be sorry to hear of Isabelle Cleveland Hersey's Death She was my roommate at Frances Shimer in 1901 and '02; was related, I believe to the Campbells or Miles in Mount Carroll. She has a stroke a year ago and apparently recovered. Her son, Paul and daughter, Virginia ,lived in Medford Oregon. She lived in Los Angeles, Was married to my brother, Dexter Hersey, the day before our wedding, I played the wedding march. She and Dexter had planned all winter to visit their children in Medford and left Los Angeles May 15th, were there only a week when she had another stroke and died suddenly. ”

“ Helen Gaggin writes of coming to Shimer from Pittsburgh with Edith Warner. She roomed in West Hall with Myra Jocelyn and too first year college Latin. On leaving Shimmer, she graduated from Lake Erie College and worked as a laboratory technician in hospital for 13 years. For the last year she has been at the University of Pittsburgh working in the Biology Department on a Tropicalization Research program for Dr. Peter Gray. She has applied for admission to the Quartermaster Food and Container Institute to be held at Northwestern University and Chicago Institute this summer. ”

“ Mary Catherine Nelson Johnson is moving to Washington, D. C., to join her husband who is teaching at Annacostia Naval School.
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Ellen Francke Irwin graduated from Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa, after leaving Frances Shimer. During the past year she has served as instructor in English in the Lincoln School in Savanna. Prior to that she was employed in a publishing business in Chicago. Mr. Irwin is in the employ of Crum and Forster Insurance Company in Freeport. They will reside at 925 South Caroll Avenue, Freeport, Illinois. ”

“ All this would do well enough for those whose rank in life require and whose ample fortunes will admit of it but there are but few of this class and even for the parents of those it would be well for them to remember that their wealth may take wings and fly away."
In later years Frances got away from the use of "female" in describing women's education. That her school for girls was known as Mount Carroll Seminary without the "female" may have been due to the fact that for the first few years boys were also received. ”

“ She has written faithfully all these years. She has an eighty-nine year old mother living who has made her home with Isabelle and now is with her duaghter, Florence, in Los Angeles. Dexter will visit us here next month, then he my husband an I will go east to visit my daughter, Harriett, who has a country place near Pembridge in New York, Westchester County. I am very, well, keep so busy all the time what happened to our Round Robin that you and Sarah started again? I do enjoy the Alumnae Records, but it so long since I was at school there are not many names familiar. ”

“ Marelene Hostetter Coxe is laboratory technician at Billings Hospital in Chicago.
Nancy Boldenweck Mertz graduated from Bradford Junior College after leaving Shimer and studied art at the Boston Museum School and School of the Chicago Art Institute. She served as a lieutenant in the Waves during the war. After a wedding trip in the east, she and her husband plan to live in California. ”

“ These preparations included not only the funds that were needed, most of which she had earned by her own efforts, but they embraced such scholastic requirements as would admit her to the senior class of the institution. This admission was by examination.
The normal school at Albany was the first one to be established in Frances' native state. It was founded in 1844, and was a part of the movement to train better teachers which accompanied the widespread interest in education of which the founding of the many academies throughout the country was also a result. ”

“ Majorie Thompson got her Master's degree during the winter at the University of Chicago.
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Ruthe Wheller Dean and her husband visited campus May 3rd for a few hours. It was her first visit to campus since her student days here. She recalled most vividly the thrill she knew being chosen head marshall to lead the graduation procession across the quadrangle as the whole marching group sang "Lead On, Oh King Eternal" a truly inspirational occasion. Ruthe's husband is the author of some thirty published books for boys, two of which have been the choices of the Junior Liteary Guild. ”

“ Now he never provided any board except now and then a scanty meal of potatoes. As for running him in debt he need have no apprehension as no one will trust him where he is so unfortunate as to be known. ”

“ Gloria Gordon Stien and her husband, Lt. David Stein, were killed in an automobile accident in California, November, 1945.
Judith Ritenour French graduated from Katherine Gibbs School of Chi-
Vetrans---
Men and Women
Do you want to Go to College?
Frances Shimer College, Realizing the crowded conditions elsewhere, opens its classes to vetrans in Carroll County and vicinity. We offer you:—
Small classes, individual attention and flexible program which make Shimer especially suitable for vetrans who want to continue their education. ”

“ I graduated from Frances Shimer in 1888 as Flora Frantz. I taught School for a number of years, married C.M Conrad, and moved to Burlington, Iwoa. I reared and educated five childeren:
Frantz Conrad graduate of Norman Oklahoma,and now a successful practicing attorney in Oklahoma City, Is a vetran of World War I.
I am the mother of Gleen V. Conrad, who was the air inspector of the aeronautics branch of the U.S Department of Commerce of Iowa. He was a first lieutenant in aviation in World War I and served during the entire war, having enlisted shortly after it started. ”

“ Estella H. Lane, who has served as Dean of Students for the past three years at Frances Shimer College, has resigned her position, effective July 1, to accept the position as Dean of Women at Green Mountain Junior College, Poultney, Vermont. Green Mountain College has a student body numbering 300. In the past it has been a junior college for women. ”

“ Miss Bell, because of poor health, has resigned her position on Shimer's staff after eight years with the college. Her works have been exhibited widely in Illinois and Iowa, and her water colors are well known nationally. Miss Bell plans to live in Phoenix, Arizona, near her father's home.
Minneapolis Alumnae Meet
We have received a letter from Mrs. W. H. Ramsey, our Minneapolis counselor, reporting a lovely alumnae tea held in the home of Mrs. Frank Bowman, in Minneapolis, on Sunday afternoon, May 19. Mrs. Wiggins, who graduated from Frances Shimer in 1913, assisted Mrs. ”

“ In the diving competition, Nancy Soboda won top honors. To add variety and speed, three races were run off: candle race, potato race, and tandem race. Those in the swimming ballet were Gail Byers, Nancy Soboda, Donna Zipprich, Joan Brizzie, Barbara Grundfest, Berthan Jansey, Joy Mapes, and Barbara Smith.
Towns represented by our guests on this joyous day were Sterling, Savanna, Mount Carroll, Lanark, and Milledgeville. These girls and their sponsors are looking forward to having this Play Day become a part of the college tradition.
***
Late!
MRS. JOY GIVES NEW ORGAN
Mrs. ”

“ Carroll, Illinois, to take over the assignment of admissions secretary. She will succeed Miss Helen Campbell who has accepted the appointment of registrar at Frances Shimer. Mrs. Homedew comes to Frances Shimer from the Mt. Carroll Senior High School where she has served as teacher and registrar for the past thirteen years.
Admissions work is not altogether new work to Mrs. Homedew, as she served as private secretary to the late President William Parker McKee for several years. Much of her work at that time dealt with student procurement. Mrs. ”

“ Gold and daughter Barbara, Mrs. Geo. F. La Pointe, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Woodruff, Mrs. George Van Aucken, Misses Gertrude, Jane and Mary Olson, Mrs. Guy H. Ramsey, Mrs. M. McCormick, Mr. Bradley Bowman.
Those having torches will pass them on to others. --Plato
Carry the light to more girls; give your share to the new residence hall fund.
FRANCES SHIMER, PIONEER
By Mary Dewhurst Miles
CHAPTER TWO -- CONTINUING EDUCATION
(Continued from preceding issue)
When Frances found that the study of medicine was denied her, she determined to enter normal school and devote some time to teaching. ”