Dr. Frank E. Mossman

MOSSMAN, FOSTER

Posted By: Connie Swearingen- Volunteer (email)
Date: 12/6/2015 at 21:47:14

Northwestern Iowa
Its History and Traditions
1804 – 1926

Dr. Frank E. Mossman, a prominent and successful educator of this part of northwester Iowa, has served as president of Morningside College of Sioux City since 1918. His birth occurred at Urbana, Benton County, Iowa, on the 26th of August, 1873, his parents being David C. and Mary Elizabeth Mossman, the former of Scotch-Irish linage and the latter of German descent. The American progenitor of the Mossman family was the great-grandfather of Dr. Mossman, who came to this country from Scotland.

Frank E. Mossman was reared on a farm and supplemented his public school education, acquired at the place of his nativity, by a course of study in the Tilford Collegiate Academy of Iowa, from which he was graduated in 1893.

Three years prior to that time he had removed to Larchwood, Lyon County, this state, where he resided until 1898 and where he followed the profession of school teaching for four years. During the years 1898 and 21899 he served as pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Hutchins, Iowa, preaching on a seven point circuit. In 1900 he entered Morningside College of Sioux City, which in 1903 conferred upon him the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He spent the succeeding year as field agent for that institution, after which he was a graduate student in the University of Chicago from 1904 until 1905. In the latter year he became president of Southwestern College at Winfield, Kansas, thus serving until 1918, when he assumed the presidency of Morningside College of Sioux City, of which institution he has since remained at the head.

On the 27th of March, 1895, at Larchwood, Iowa, President Mossman was married to Miss Zoa H. Foster, who was born at Martinsburg, Elliott County, Kentucky, September 15, 1875. Her parents were B.F. and Eliza E. (Flanery) Foster, the former born at Sandy Hook, Elliott County, Kentucky, June 16, 1848, and the latter at Martinsburg, Kentucky, November 23, 1847. B. F. Foster, a veteran of the Civil War, now resides at Little Rock, Arkansas, but his wife is deceased. President and Mrs. Mossman are the parents of four children, namely; Mereb E., who is a graduate student in Chicago University; N. Benita, a junior in Morningside College; Hobert F., a senior in the high school; and Homer F., who is completing a grade school course at Sioux City. All are still under the parental roof. Mrs. Zoa H. (Foster) Mossman has membership in the Sorosis Club, the Delphian Club, the Faculty Women’s Club and the Women’s Club of Sioux City.

A republican in politics, President Mossman has always been a consistent worker in the ranks of that party. He belongs to the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce, the Sioux City Knife and Fork Club, the Rotary Club of Sioux City, the Iowa State Teachers Association, the Professional Men’s Club and the Morningside Country Club. He was ordained elder in the Methodist Episcopal Church and is director of the State Young Men’s Christian Association of Iowa. Fraternally he is affiliated with the Masonic order, belonging to Morningside Lodge No. 615, A.F. & A.M., and to Sioux City Consistory No. 5. All who knew him speak of him in terms of praise. In his life are the elements of greatness because of the use he has made of his talents and his opportunities, because his thoughts are not self-centered but are given to the mastery of life’s problems and the fulfillment of his duty as a man in his relation to his fellowmen and as a citizen in his relations to his city, state and country.