Celebrating the Sesquicentennial of Almira College - Greenville College are excepts from the following ten vignettes. The complete vignettes will be published in a commemorative booklet as well as on a monthly basis in the Greenville Advocate. The vignettes and other sesquicentennial celebration information can be found online at www.greenville.edu/backup/150years .

    In 1892, nine local men, led by Walter S. Dann, a Greenville businessman, and Frank H. Ashcraft, a Free Methodist minister, purchased the Almira College property, which then was reopened and renamed Greenville College. Wilson T. Hogue, for whom Hogue Hall was named, served as the college's first president.

A College in Greenville 

    Building a college for women in Greenville was a very difficult task in the mid-nineteenth century. It took about seventeen years (1837-1854) before the Greenville community accepted the idea. Many thought girls needed only enough education “to be able to read the Bible . . . and write well enough to sign her own name.” (Perrin, 51) The first Illinois Superintendent, William H. Powell, regretted that local pride and religious differences brought on efforts to establish too many schools. He thought three or four were sufficient when more than twenty colleges and seminaries were established in Illinois during this period.

    Almira College was an institution of “local pride and religious difference” which struggled for some thirty-eight years under four administrations and even weathered a bankruptcy. Yet, persistence was rewarded and we can celebrate 150 years of Christian Higher Education in Greenville , Illinois . There would not be a Greenville College today if there had not been an Almira College . Some six local men purchased about twenty-four acres on the east side of Greenville in November 1854 on which to build the College. Three years later Almira was incorporated by the State of Illinois and organized under a board of trustees.

Pioneers of Higher Education - Stephen and Almira (Blanchard) Morse 

    The following is a narrative describing Almira Blanchard Morse, Stephen's wife and partner in education. Written by Mrs. Ethel Allen Washburn, Almira's niece, and daughter of the late Dr. and Mrs. W. A. Allen of Greenville , the piece is an excerpt of a work originally published in The Greenville Advocate June 8, 1942 .

    We must remember that colleges and universities closed their doors to women students in those days. Many of you here today are familiar with the story of the founding of Almira College . Of how that fine gentleman, John B. White of New Hampshire , also a graduate of Brown University , came to visit his old friend Stephen Morse. Both men, eldest sons of large families, each with several sisters, had often discussed plans for a college for women in the West. Together they talked of funds with Greenville as the location, both Mr. and Mrs. Morse being deeply interested in the plan.

    Almira, then about 33 years old, had just received a legacy of $6,000 from her uncle Samuel Blanchard, a merchant in New Orleans , brother of Seth Blanchard, her father (my grandfather.) Almira gladly donated all of her legacy to this cause now so dear to their hearts. Like the women in the Bible “she gave all that she had.”

What Motivated John Brown White?

    John Brown White (1810-87), lawyer, minister, educator, chaplain and college president, was motivated by several people and factors. White's major motivation can be summed up in a single statement, “Man proposes but God disposes.”

    Starting a college in Greenville was extremely difficult. But White and Morse agreed that “Man proposes but God disposes” did not mean that man would give up proposing. He told a friend that “'the Lord had called him into education and he intended to pursue it until ‘ Providence ordered otherwise.'” (DCJ, JBW, 81) Many later events, although some were very difficult, only increased John's motivation.

    President White served Almira College for twenty difficult years. He left it for three years to serve as a chaplain in the Illinois 117th (1864-67) and then attempted to start another college for women in upper Alton . John Brown White did not stop proposing new adventures after 1878. He remained on the board of visitors of Almira College . From his home on Second Street in Greenville , he returned often to Almira College to speak or conduct a wedding.

Women's Education

    In 1855, people of the day would have considered Almira College and her founders progressive. Established nearly fifteen years before Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley , the Harvard, Yale, and Princeton of women's colleges in the East, Almira College was located in the middle of midwestern farmland. Almira Blanchard Morse donated her inheritance to the establishment of a women's college, bringing culture and refinement to a land of fertile minds.

    Named after Almira Blanchard Morse, Almira College is unique in its name. It was not a women's seminary, nor was it an academy or an athenaeum. It was a four-year college, dedicated to providing complete education for women. Courses were not confined to the “feminine” topics of language, music, literature, and art, but students also studied history, rhetoric, geology, chemistry, philosophy, moral science, natural theology and political economy.

Student Life at Almira College

(An Excerpt from Still Abides the Memory by Mary Tenney)

    The school day began early with the clang of the rising bell sounding through the halls at six o'clock . Kindling had to be brought from the wood-box just outside the door, and a fire nursed carefully to the staying stage. Next one's toilet was made, and toilets were no small undertaking – consider the prevailing methods of hair dressing. Then the walnut beds with their straw-filled ticks and their bright homemade quilts must be shaken and tucked into order, and dust-every speck of it-must be removed from commode tops and dressers. After that came the grand finale procession of slop-pails down three flights of stairs and out through the chilly morning air to the nineteenth century predecessors of our modern pastel-tinted bathrooms.

    In no time at all it was eight o'clock and chapel bell rang. Usually President White or one of the teachers had charge, but occasionally a visiting speaker came. Immediately afterward, study and recitation began. The chapel was used as study hall. The rooms in the lower hall, except those needed for culinary purposes, were the meeting places for the classes. Here occurred those unforgettable discussions of current affairs, of ethical problems, of poetry and history and foreign literatures that constitute the most important part of a college education.

Sale of Almira College

    Almira's first president, John Brown White, resigned in 1864 because he was discouraged over the continual financial struggle. During the next several years the financial condition of Almira College worsened and the Morses urgently sought the return of White, who was willing to return if the financial situation was solved. Although many efforts to raise funds and pay off a $15,000 debt lagged, the Morses, as they had often previously, assumed the debt and guaranteed White a salary of $1,000 annually. White returned in 1867 and attempted some changes, including a “normal school” for training teachers, to increase enrollment.

    Negotiations with Frank Ashcraft and several other leaders in the Central Illinois Conference of the Free Methodist Church led to the sale of Almira College property in April, 1892. Rev. Wilson T. Hogue, of Buffalo , NY , was invited to the presidency of the college, renamed Greenville College , where he served until 1904 when he was elected a bishop of the church.

Greenville College : The Beginnings

    Trustee Walter S. Dann, a leading Greenville businessman, headed the search for a president in July, 1892. He telegrammed Wilson T. Hogue, “pastor of the Virginia Street Free Methodist Church , Buffalo , NY , and chairman of the Buffalo District, Genessee Conference.” (Hogue, History, 334) During the next twelve years, he served as president and completed his doctorate at Illinois Wesleyan University . He finally left the college when elected bishop in 1904. (Hogue, History, 334)

What is in a Name?

    Greenville College was first named Almira College in honor of Almira Blanchard Morse (1820-1881) who gave her $6,000 inheritance to build a college for female students in 1855. Interestingly, the first two Almira College campus buildings were not named for many years. Almira College House (which houses the Richard W. Bock collection) was not named for over a century and Hogue Hall (initially referred to as Old Main) did not acquire the “Hogue” name until 1932 although it was constructed in the late 1850s.

A College with a Purpose

    The mission of Greenville College is to “transform students for lives of character and service through a Christ-centered education in the liberating arts and sciences.” This mission statement is essentially the same as it was in 1855 and in 1892. President John Brown White declared in 1855, “The aim of this institution is to promote true and thorough Christian education.” And President Wilson Titus Hogue reiterated in 1892 that “No means or effort will be spared in endeavoring to give every student the best advantages for securing a liberal culture. With that type of education which limits its aim to this world, rejecting the grand motive forces, drawn from a future life, this institution will have no sympathy. ‘Education for character' will be our motto. Hence the Bible will have a place in all our courses of

Music Department Dedication Part of Sesquicentennial Celebration

    Greenville College , which agreed in the spring of 2002 to purchase the Free Methodist Church , took possession of the church Monday, February 7. In order to better serve the campus community and the local community, the college will renovate a large portion of the building. The initial renovation process will take six months to complete, during which time the college will continue to offer chapel and music programs in the sanctuary. The rest of the building will be closed until completion of the construction. A dedication ceremony, planned for Homecoming 2005, will showcase the renovations to alumni and the community.

    In 2002, the college received a $2 million gift to be used towards the purchase of the church. This, the largest single gift to date, was received from the estate of a deceased, anonymous donor who lived in central Illinois but had no previous connection to the college. She lived a very frugal life, in a modest rural home. Yet she saved all she could and invested in the stock market over the course of her entire lifetime.

    The college plans to convert the 38,000 sq. ft. building into a new home for the Music Department. The facility will include classrooms, over 20 practice rooms, prayer chapel, choral library, lab for music listening, studios, prayer garden, and ensemble practice space. The sanctuary, which will eventually be transformed into a recital hall, will be ideal for performances by the Greenville College Choir, additional student groups, senior recitals and visiting guest artists.

    As funding becomes available, the college's long range Master Plan calls for the construction of a beautiful glass atrium, which will serve as an attractive meeting place for elegant dinners, receptions and other special events. The lower-level of the atrium will contain a controlled acoustical environment where lab bands from the Contemporary Christian Music program can practice and perform, without disturbing local residents. This building will also house the Blackroom, a concert space currently housed in the Student Union. The atrium will serve as a connector building between the current facility and a proposed 1300-1500 seat chapel/auditorium, which will be located on the west side of the atrium.

    Fundraising efforts are underway to raise support for the recital hall renovations and the atrium facility. Naming opportunities, outlined on the G.C. website at www.greenville.edu/campaign/naming, exist for both projects.

    Since its founding in 1892, music has remained an integral part of the Greenville College curriculum. Students can major in music, music education, pedagogy and literature, church music and contemporary Christian music. In fact, nearly 20 percent of students have chosen to pursue a music degree.