The Women Behind Almira College
“The Aim of the Institution is to provide facilities for the highest and best education of woman” is how Almira College for Women was described in their 1872/73 catalog. Almira College for Women, although not the first, was one of only a few institutions to offer a four-year degree for women in the middle of the 19th century. From its inception in 1855 to its closure in 1890, Almira College gave the women of Illinois the same opportunities that many of their brothers, fathers, and husbands had. Greenville University, formerly College, stands not only on this history of academic ambition but also on Almira College's goal of elevating women in higher education. This paper will explore the history of Almira College, beginning with how the college was founded and the people who played a role in establishing it. This paper will look at two women who greatly impacted the history of Almira College—Almira Morse, from whom the college was named, and Elizabeth Wright White. Finally, a brief description of what daily life may have looked like for the women who attended Almira will be explored.
The Founding of Almira
Who was responsible for bringing Almira College to life, and what led them to start a women's college in Greenville Illinois? When discussing the founding of Almira College, two families take center stage. The first family that played a significant role in the founding of the College were the Whites—John Brown White and his second wife Elizabeth Wright White. In addition to the Whites, the Morse family—Almira Blanchard Morse and her husband Stephan— played a leading role in the founding of Almira College for Women. The story of John B. White’s involvement in the founding of the college is often the narrative one finds when examining the existing scholarship. While this paper focuses on the relatively untold stories of the women of Almira, mentioning the story of John White and Stephan Morse provides context for the founding of the Almira College.
Who is John White, and what led him to play a significant role in the founding of Almira? John Brown White was born on March 10, 1810, in Bow New Hampshire. The early part of White’s life saw him dabble in several trades. Donald C. Jordahl, a former history professor at Greenville College, wrote in his book A Biography of John Brown White that by the age of twenty-eight, White “already had some experiences in medicine, military, teaching, and law.”[1] Due to the variety of early interests White explored, he attended several schools. White started at Pembroke Academy, then New Hampton Institution, and graduated from Brown University where he received his bachelor's in 1832 and master's three years later. At Brown, White would meet two people who would change his life forever: a lifelong friend, roommate, and eventual co-founder of Almira College—Stephan Morse, and a lady by the name of Mary Mariam, who would come to be his first wife.
After schooling, White briefly went into law, much to Mary’s dismay. After much encouragement from both his wife and his uncle, in 1838 White took a teaching job at Wake Forest College in North Carolina. However, White never felt truly comfortable teaching in the South. In the decades leading up to the Civil War, many Southerners associated any Northerner with the idea of abolition.[2] White, being raised and educated in New England, carried a certain social stigma while teaching at Wake Forest. Reflecting on White, one student wrote, “He was a New Englander and was not fitted to preside over a Southern College. He was often rude in speech and manner and in his intercourse with students.”[3] Jordahl notes that this comment might reflect more on this individual than White. Indeed, many students enjoyed his professorship to the point he was appointed president of Wake Forest College in 1849.
Stephan Morse also taught at Wake Forest for a few years in the later years of the 1830s. However, in June of 1841, Stephan Morse decided that he could be more useful if he joined his brothers in their mercantile business in Greenville, Illinois. By 1853, White had accepted the position of president of a new college in Brownsville, Tennessee. Brownsville College had promised the Whites much, but they were delivered very little. Although John White had not arrived at Brownsville until late 1853, by late 1854, White was already in talks with Stephan Morse about opening a college in Morse's hometown of Greenville, Illinois.
As for which family was the first to propose the idea of a women's college being built in Greenville, there is no definitive answer. Even in 1876, a student who tried to pen the history of the college up to that point was at a loss when it came to who first proposed the idea.[4] Mary Alice Tenney in her book Still Abides the Memory, presents John Brown White coming to Greenville in 1854 at the request of his old classmate Stephan Morse. The book then describes a picturesque scene of John White and Stephan Morse sitting and discussing their hopes to further women's higher education, whilst the glow from the fireplace illuminates the room around them. Hearing the men’s conversation, Tenney then records that Almira walked in and boldly proclaimed that there shall be a women's college in Greenville. Jordahl exhorts Tenney’s book as a masterpiece of “exposition, narration, journalese, and poetry.”[5] However, Tenney was a professor of English and not a history professor. As such, she wrote a masterpiece of literary endeavor, not a history book. Even so, Tenney knew many Almira College graduates as well as many Greenville residents who knew both the Whites and the Morses. It is reasonable to assume that Tenney could have accessed sources not available to researchers today. Another possibility is that this notion comes from Will C. Carson, who might have met both the Whites and the Morses. Carson wrote in the 1909 Historical Souvenir of Greenville, “In 1854, at the request of his old class-mate, Prof. White visited Greenville.”[6] Regardless of who originally proposed the idea, it was an initial gift of $6,000 donated to the college by Almira Morse that kicked off the project of a women's college in Greenville.
The question remains, why would John Brown and Stephan Morse want to start a college for women? In the 1909 Historical Souvenir of Greenville, Will Carson explains:
“They [John White and Stephan Morse] were each the eldest son of a large family with sisters whose educational advantages were in their day very limited. It must be remembered that while colleges and universities opened their doors to young men, they were closed against young women. Girls must be content with an education that only prepared their brothers for college. This injustice these young men keenly felt and determined to accomplish something toward elevating the educational standards of women.”[7]
John White and Stephan Morse saw the educational disadvantages of their sisters and women of their time. They were determined to right this wrong by opening a college for the higher education of women in Greenville.
Before exploring the stories of Almira and Elizabeth, a few important milestones need to be mentioned. In early 1855, a wooden two-story home was constructed on the land that would eventually play host to the college. In September of that same year, a preparatory school opened on the second floor of the home, while the first was made into an apartment in which the Whites lived. In May 1856, plans were drawn up for a more permanent brick building, modeled after a building from Illinois Female College (which was renamed MacMurray College) and a building at Brown University. James Caton of Greenville was engaged "to make 500,000 bricks on the college grounds for $4.75 per thousand."[8] The large brick building, commonly referred to as “Old Main” was open and occupied sometime around the 1857 or 1858 school year. With a permanent building in place, and with funds raised, Almira stood ready to make good on its promise of providing facilities for the highest and best education of women.
