University of Iowa

“ He came to Iowa in 1870 and received his education in the common schools, at St. Joseph's College at Dubuque and in the Iowa State University. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1886. In 1892 a professor in the Law Department of the State University and since the latter date has been a lecturer in the same department, and since 1897 has been lecturer in the Medical Department. ”

“ The last biennial period brought the University an income of $402,000, the sources of which were State and National endowments and private bequests. The value of the buildings, furniture and grounds amounts to something like $653,000. The total number of graduates since the organization of the institution is 6,130. The University has been fortunate in the election of regents whose aim has invariably been the highest good of the institution, each instructor being free to teach the truth unbiased by religious creed or party expediency. ”

“ After tracing thus briefly the growth of the public school system in Iowa, we turn with interest to the institutions for higher education, the State University, State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and the State Normal School. In addition to these there are a number of denominational colleges, each occupying a field peculiarly its own. Foremost among these stands Iowa College at Grinnell, a worthy representative of the Congregational Church and a college which has given to Iowa high rank in the educational world. ”

“ Iowa might well go much farther and require that each woman who graduates from her university shall be prepared by suitable studies for the position of homemaker which sooner or later she may assume. Iowa is a progressive state in many respects. She is the first to put her educational institutions under a coordinating board. This board has within its power to take a distinct step in advance by enabling the university to offer studies which are especially suited for developing educated women as homemakers and as guardians of efficient social personality. ”

“ Iowa is indeed a remarkable state and her people a peculiar people. We have but few drones in the hive. Our population is made up of simply the young and the strong and the enterprising of the other states that have come hither to build up their personal fortunes, and who have at the same time laid well and strong the foundations of a great state. There is scarcely a college or university of any of the older states that is not well represented in our men and women. We have come together here and what one did not know he has learned from his next door neighbor. ”

“ They should be encouraged by men of wealth, by state legislatures and by the establishment of endowments to provide the means of carrying on their researches. There are men of this kind in the State University of Iowa ”

“ One of the State Board of Examiners, is Ella A. Hamilton of Des Moines. The ‘Northwestern Educational Journal’ is edited by a woman. The school of Domestic Economy at the State Agricultural College, is in charge of Mary B. Welch as dean. A number of young ladies, graduates of the State University and other literary schools, have gone to this School of Domestic Economy to finish their education.”
Many of the most talented editorial writers for Iowa journals have for many years been women; and among Iowa authors of books on various subjects are many brilliant women. ”

“ The first ten years of the institution were marked by a singularly rapid growth, considering the fact that they included the darkest days of the Civil war, when nearly every male student was drawn from the college halls to the service of his country. At the end of the decade the faculty numbered eight professors and instructors, and 375 students were enrolled, fifty-one of whom were in college classes, the largest enrollment of collegiate students in the state, unless at the State University. ”

“ He was reared on a farm, acquired a good education and taught school. He graduated at the Alfred, New York, University and studied law, coming to Iowa in April, 1854, locating at Marion in Linn County where he began the practice of his profession. In February, 1856, he was a delegate to the State Convention which met at Iowa City and organized the Republican party of Iowa. In August, 1862, he raised a military company for the Twentieth Iowa Volunteer Infantry, of which he was chosen captain, serving under General Francis J. Herron. ”

“ The work of the university is organized in a college of liberal arts, colleges of law, medicine, homœopathic medicine, dentistry and pharmacy, a graduate department, the Iowa School of Political and Social Science, and two hospitals. The college of liberal arts confers the degrees of B.A., B.Ph., and B.S. The graduate college confers the degrees of M.A., M.S., Ph.D., civil engineer, and electrical engineer. The college of liberal arts maintains a summer session for teachers and a summer school for library training. ”

“ His early education was acquired in Sharon Academy after which he entered Beloit College, remaining two years, then entered Carthage College where he graduated in 1879. He took the law course in the Iowa State University, finishing in 1881. ”

“ An educational institution for both sexes in Iowa City, Iowa, organized with an endowment by Congress of two townships of land, to which has been added a permanent annual State appropriation of $125,000, and a tax of one-fifth of a mill for building purposes, making a total annual income of over $402,000, including tuition fees. ”

“ The capital and largest city of Iowa, it is an important manufacturing and commercial city, and noted especially for its extensive insurance interests and exceptional railroad facilities. It has many important buildings, among them the Capitol, built at a cost of three million dollars, the United States Government Building, the State Arsenal, a State Historical Building, completed in 1908 at a cost of five hundred thousand dollars, Drake University, Highland Park College, Des Moines College, and a state library. ”

“ The State Historical Society has removed its valuable collection to one of the buildings of the University. In recent years more liberal appropriations have been made by the Legislature enabling the Society to enlarge its scope of usefulness, and issue in place of the Record the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, a quarterly publication of the highest class, ably conducted by Dr. ”

“ Welch to the long term in the Senate but he declined the position, preferring the presidency of the Iowa College. There for fifteen years, he labored most successfully, to build up that institution into one of the most successful scientific and industrial colleges in the west. He possessed a remarkable power of organization and was largely instrumental in working out the many difficult problems of the new system of education then in its infancy. ”

“ He attended the common schools several years and in 1863 came to Iowa, making his home at Cedar Rapids. He entered the Iowa State College where he graduated as a civil engineer in 1872. Soon after he entered upon the study of law and began to practice in 1874, locating in Boone. ”

“ In 1862 he was chosen president of Iowa College, although he did not leave his church at Lyons until 1865. He remained president for twenty years, retiring in 1884, though he continued to teach mental and moral philosophy. ”

“ His education began early and he remained a student of science throughout his life. Trained as a physician and surgeon in which profession he attained distinction, he at the same time investigated many branches of science. He became a resident of Iowa as early as 1847, settling at Dubuque which became his permanent home. He was the leader in the organization and promotion of the Iowa Institute of Science and Art which was organized at Dubuque, and was its president for many years. ”

“ The title remaining in the State, the lands were exempt from taxation, the person leasing with the privilege of buying, was neither required to improve nor to live upon the land, as in the case of one taking a homestead, and the amount that one person could lease and buy was not limited. These conditions made the college lands the most desirable investment to a large class of people who had confidence that in the future there must be great increase in the value of Iowa lands. This plan of disposing of the college grant met the approval of the General Assembly and was promptly enacted into law. ”

“ In the public schools he acquired sufficient education to teach, thus earning his tuition at an academy and a course of law lectures. In 1801 he came to Iowa, taking up his residence at Lyons, where he began to practice law. ”

“ He continues:
“The statistics of the penitentiaries and almhouses throughout the country abundantly show that education is the best preventive of pauperism and crime. Education, too, is the great equalizer of human conditions. Every consideration of duty and policy compels us to sustain the common schools of the State in the highest possible efficiency.”
The first Superintendent of Public Instruction after Iowa became a State, James Harlan, was succeeded by Thomas H. Benton who laid the foundation for our magnificent school system. ”

“ He called attention to the fact that “the Historical Department for which the State is providing a home, will be an important auxiliary to the development of the higher education of our future citizens.” He further says:
“We have a right to expect in the development of Iowa a truthful, sensible and incorruptible journalism and a literature which gives more strength to the mind than agitation to the nerves. ”

“ Upon leaving the academy in 1878 the young man spent a year on his father's farm. In 1880 he was made teacher of natural science, a position which he held for three years. During this time he became especially interested in geology which led him to spend a year in Colorado, partly at Colorado College and partly in field work. In 1884 he entered the Iowa Agricultural College, and before completing his contemplated course preparatory to teaching, he became especially interested in glacial geology. ”

“ Children between the ages of five and eighteen years of age, residents of the State, who, deficient in intellect, are unable to acquire an education m the regular schools, are entitled to receive training free in this institution.
REFORM AND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS
In 1868 the Twelfth General Assembly passed an act for the establishment of the Iowa Reform School. The trustees leased a building at Salem, in Henry County, where a school was opened for the reception of pupils. The Fourteenth General Assembly made an appropriation for suitable buildings which were located at Eldora. ”

“ To the seekers after new homes, from the old world, or from the Eastern and Middle States of the Union--be they mechanics, agriculturists, or professional men--Iowa offers many advantages. On her soil, with prudence, economy and sobriety, added to good health, no one can fail to acquire a competency, if not to amass a fortune.
We have said thus much of Iowa, because we believe it to be due to her; due to her enterprise, and due to the worthy people who have made her soil their home;--and because, although no longer one of her citizens, we love her still! ”

“ C. C. NESTLERODE, pioneer educator, was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, March 27, 1824, where his early education was acquired. He taught school several years in Ohio, and while visiting at Galena, Illinois, in December, 1854, learned that a meeting of the State Teachers' Association of Iowa was soon to be held at Iowa City. He walked the entire distance to be present at that gathering of the teachers of Iowa, and was so deeply interested in the enthusiasm of the pioneer teachers of the new State that he resolved to remain in Iowa. ”

“ When eighteen she graduated from the Emma Willard Seminary at Troy, New York, and at nineteen was married to Austin Adams, a talented young lawyer. They came to Iowa, making their home in Dubuque. Both were students of science, history, philosophy and poetry. Mrs. Adams was one of the earliest and most enthusiastic advocates of the advancement of women, and was a leader in the progressive movements of the times. ”

“ His education was acquired in the public schools of his native town and in the New London Literary and Scientific Institution. He worked on a farm and taught school until his parents removed to Iowa in 1860, when he began to read law. ”

“ Cornell owes its inception to a Methodist circuit rider, the Rev. George B. Bowman, a North Carolinian by birth, who came to Iowa from Missouri in 1841, three years after the territorial organization of the commonwealth. This heroic pioneer, resourceful, far seeing, and sanguine of the future, eminent in initiative and in the power of compelling others to his plans, was one of those rare men to whom the task of building states is intrusted. He was not himself a college man, but with him education was a passion. To found institutions of higher education he considered his special mission. ”

“ Later he became a member of the faculty of Oskaloosa College, where he remained for twenty years, serving a large portion of the time as president of the institution. For many years he was editor of the Christian Evangelist. In 1873 he was one of the Iowa Commissioners to the World's Fair at Vienna. ”

“ His education was acquired in the common schools and academies of Orange County. In 1857 he removed to Iowa, locating near Lansing, where for several years he was engaged in farming and school teaching. ”

“ He grew to manhood in Oakland, Michigan, where his father settled on a farm. Acquiring sufficient education by the time he was nineteen to teach school, with his earnings he pursued studies in the higher institutions of learning. He removed to Iowa in 1876 where he became principal of a public school in Fayette County. ”