Iowa
History Project
____________________________________
~~~*~~~
______________________
In the fall of 1850 Josiah White, the founder of the famous
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company and the chief pioneer promoter of the rich
beds of anthracite coal in Pennsylvania, visited the Indiana Yearly Meeting of
Friends with the thought in mind of founding somewhere in the West a manual
training school where “poor children, white, colored, and Indian” might receive
a religious education in accordance with the teachings of the Friends. Short of
stature, corpulent in build, and dressed in the full Quaker garb, Josiah White
was much in evidence at this annual gathering.(305)
When the purpose of White’s visit
was made known, every inducement was brought to bear to persuade him to lend
his aid to the Yearly Meeting Boarding School (Earlham College) which was then
struggling for existence; but all to no avail. His mind was fixed, and nothing
now could turn him from his course. More than satisfied with what he had seen
and heard of the western country, he retuned at once to Philadelphia, his home,
and included in his written will an endowment of $40,000 for the establishment
and maintenance of two schools under the care of the Indiana Yearly Meeting,
directing that “the land for these schools be bought where I am now in
negotiation to purchase, if they can be, viz: a tract one and a half miles
square in the Indian Reserve, Indiana”.(306)
Such a generous sum seemed for a
time to disconcert the western Friends; and it was with some hesitancy that
they accepted the trust with its attendant responsibilities. Two committees
were appointed—one for each of the schools—and in 1851, in the heart of the
growing Quaker settlement about Salem, 1440 acres of prairie land were
purchased in a single tract in the northwest corner of Lee County as a site for
what was to be called “White’s Iowa Manual Labor Institute”.
The
purchase having been made, the Indiana Yearly Meeting appointed a board of
trustees, with Joseph D. Hoag as president, to look after the interests of the
school. Fortune seemed to smile upon the project in the opening days, for in
his second annual report (for the year 1853-1854) Hoag informed the Yearly
Meeting that five hundred acres of the prairie sod had been broken and
enclosed, and an orchard of six or seven hundred apple trees had been set out
on that part of the tract designed for the school buildings; while arrangements
had been made for having five eighty-acre farms with good dwelling houses ready
to rent by March 1, 1855.(307) Thus, at the outset the prospects were bright; but hardly had
fortune smiled until disaster followed. With an abundance of fertile lands to
be had on every hand almost for the asking, satisfactory renters were not
easily found; drouths caused a failure of crops; and the panic of 1857 brought
about a shortage of funds for building. Finally, in 1864 the Indiana Yearly
Meeting proposed to the newly established Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends that
the latter take over this important trust, an dafter due consideration it was
so arranged.(308)
A new board of
trustees now took control. The $8400 worth of building materials and the $2600
in funds collected by the former trustees were put to use and the construction
of a two-story brick school building seventy-four by thirty-five and one-half
feet in size was begun in the spring of 1866.(309) As the
walls rose to completion and materials were needed for roofing it became clear
that unless some source of revenue other than the income from the farm were
secured the building could not be completed for want of means. In this predicament
the board laid the situation before the Yearly Meeting in 1867 in the following
statement:
Owing to the
extreme high prices of labor and material, the cost of thus enclosing the
building will so far exceed original estimates, as to incur an indebtedness of
$1500, or $2000, which is a source of deep regret to us, and we earnestly hope
that Friends generally may feel the necessity of carrying on the work so nobly
begun by our late dear friend Josiah White, and cast in their several mites
into the treasury towards the completion of the structure.(310)
But it so
happened that at this time most of the Iowa Friends were more concerned in
casting “their several mites” into the treasury for the erection of a new
$16,000 yearly meeting-house, and in consequence paid little attention to the
appeal from the trustees of White’s Institute. The trustees soon reached the
limit of their credit, and then, rather than see the entire project fail, they
turned to means little contemplated in their appointment by the Iowa Yearly
Meeting of Friends or in the will of Josiah White.
White’s Institute Under State Control
With an
accumulated debt of nearly $3200, and with no available funds with which either
to complete the building or open the school as contemplated by the donor, the
trustees of White’s Institute appealed to the State legislature in 1868 for
assistance.(311) For ten years or more the
Iowa State Teachers’ Association had urgently called the attention of the
legislature to the need of some sort of a school for juvenile offenders in the
State.(312) When the appeal for aid
came from the trustees of White’s Institute, it was suggested that the State
lease the property and there conduct such a school—thus fulfilling, in a way,
the will of Josiah White.
In consequence,
on January 17, 1868, Senator John A. Parvin introduced “A Bill for an act to
establish and organize a State Reform School for juvenile offenders”;(313) and on January 25th Representative Charles Dudley
introduced a similar bill in the House of Representatives.(314) Thorough investigation of the
subject was made; and on March 31st the subject was made; and on
March 31st the proposed measure received its final approval and was
published as required by law. By the provisions of this act the State of Iowa
was to lease from the trustees appointed by the Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends
the buildings and grounds of White’s Iowa Manual Labor Institute for a period
of ten years or less for use as a reform school, and an appropriation was made
amounting to $15,000, of which $2,500 was to be applied in liquidating the debt
already incurred by the Institute. A board of trustees appointed by the State
was to open the new institution as soon as practicable.(315)
In accordance
with the provisions of the act the trustees met and organized on April 28,
1868. The board chose Senator Parvin as its president, M. A. Dashiell as
secretary, and Isaac T. Gibson of Salem as treasurer. A formal lease was
entered into with the Quaker trustees of the institution, and plans were made
for completing the necessary construction work as rapidly as possible. So
marked was the progress that on September 21st the board announced
through the newspapers of the State that the Iowa Reform School was ready to
open its doors; and on the seventh day of October the first boy to be committed
to the institution came from Jasper County.(316)
In his first
annual report to the Board of Trustees (for the year 1868-1869) Joseph McCarty,
the Superintendent of the Reform School, reported that there had been committed
to the institution during the year forty-six youths, ranging from nine to
eighteen years of age and coming from twenty-two of the counties of the State.
Among the causes for commitment, twenty-five were for larceny, five for
incorrigibility, five for vagrancy, three for burglary. Furthermore, the facts
showed that seventeen of these youths came from homes where neither father nor
mother was living, and five from families where the parents had separated.(317)
The rules
inaugurated to govern this group of juvenile offenders were neither harsh nor
rigid. An honor system prevailed, and in so far as possible the principle of
“family” was maintained. Aside from the mental and moral training obtained in
the regular school work, every evening the boys were required to attend
assembly where the scriptures were read and prayer was offered. A Sunday school
was conducted with organized classes; and during the year ten thousand texts
were committed to memory by the boys. Regular preaching services were conducted
by ministers from the surrounding country or by officers of the school. “Many
of the boys”, said the Superintendent, “have very fine voices for singing, and
take great delight in these exercises.”
Though the joint
committee appointed by the legislature to visit and inspect the Reform School
reported in 1870 unanimously that the institution is no longer an experiment;
that its adoption, as one of the permanent institutions of the State, is not
only wise but an absolute necessity for the public good”,(318) it early became apparent that the site of White’s Institute was
not well adapted to the ends which the State had in view. As pointed out by
Senator Parvin, it seemed unwise for Iowa to make permanent improvements on
land which the State could not own, the Friends having no power to convey title
to any part of the property. The Superintendent also pointed out the fact that
the school was not only “down in one corner of the State”, but that the
“nearest railroad point now is about fourteen miles distant, Fort Madison,
twenty-five miles, and Burlington and Keokuk, thirty-five miles. To all these
points the roads are quite rough, and during a great portion of the year very
disagreeable.”(319)
Notwithstanding
these disadvantages commitments to the school increased, the number for the two
years from 1869 to 1871 reaching ninety-one. Of the conditions then existing
Superintendent McCarty said: “We have but one family building, and its capacity
will accommodate comfortably about fifty inmates. Into it are now crowded
eighty-five boys, and still they are coming.” He further called attention to
the fact that “the law under which the school was organized, provides just as
much for the reception of girls as it does for boys; yet for want of
accommodations, we have been compelled not to receive them when brought to our
door.”(320)
Thus it was
apparent that the need for extension was imperative; and so, in 1872 the
legislature passed an act carrying an appropriation of $45,000 for a new and
more centrally located reform school for the boys, to be owned by the State,
and another appropriation of $5,000 for organizing a school for the girls where
the boys were then kept.(321) The commission charged with carrying the new arrangement into
effect, early located the boys school at Eldora, in Hardin County, where it
still remains; and in April, 1873, they opened the girls’ school on the White’s
Institute farm, with L. D. Lewelling and wife, Quakers of Salem, as Superintendent
and Matron.(322)
In his report of
November, 1875, Superintendent Lewelling states that since the opening of the
girls’ department forty-seven girls had been committed to his care, under the
following charges: incorrigibility, fifteen; vagrancy, thirteen; prostitution,
seven; larceny, six; immoral conduct, four; manslaughter, one. Of these
forty-one girls, the Superintendent declared that “only eight are of families
living in normal conditions.” “One little girl of fourteen years old with a sweet
face and gentle manners” was brought to the institution as a “common
prostitute”. The parents had separated and the girl was an outcast.(323) Firmly, and yet with tender care
and affection these girls were taken in hand, everything that was possible being
done to turn them back into the healthful channels of society. The far-reaching
results of this important work, in all probability, will never be known.
During the years
that the State thus held control of the Institute, little was known of the work
in detail by the Iowa Friends at large, the annual report of the trustees to
the Yearly Meeting concerning itself only with the gradually accumulating
indebtedness. As the lease drew to a close, however, and the State applied for
a short extension, a new interest was awakened among the Friends. During the
early years of occupation by the State extensive improvements were made and the
land was well tilled; but when the boys were removed to Eldora less acreage was
needed and the farm, with little consideration, was rented and the property
allowed to run down. When the Yearly Meeting’s trustees assembled at the
Institute in the fall of 1877 to consider the proposed extension of the lease,
they “found the buildings and fences
very much out of repair, and the farm grown up to weeds”. Instead of again
turning it over to the State they “determined to ask an appropriation from the
State Legislature of a sum sufficient to put the farm in as good repair as it
was when leased.”(324) In consequence, early in the spring of 1878 the girl’s department
of the State Reform School was transferred to a location about one mile west of
Mt. Pleasant,(325) where it
remained until May 25, 1880, when it was moved to its permanent location at
Mitchellville in Polk County.(326) It now became necessary, therefore, for the Friends to make new
arrangements for the conduct of White’s Manual Labor Institute.
White’s Institute As An Indian School
As soon
as the control of the Institute property reverted to the trustees appointed by the
Yearly Meeting.(327) they had
the articles of incorporation renewed and amended, and then set about to bring
the farm out of the dilapidated and thriftless condition into which it had been
allowed to fall while leased by the Sate. During the year 1879-1880 about a
mile of new barbed wire fence was built; some five hundred rods of hedge fence,
“which had been long neglected”, was trimmed; and an orchard of one hundred and
fifty apple trees, thirty cherry trees, and fifty grape vines was set out. In
addition, the trustees paid off the debt that had been hanging over the
institution for more than a decade, and in 1880 reported to the Yearly Meeting
that they would “soon be in a condition to start a school on a small scale in
accordance with the will of the founder.”(328) It was not
until a year later that the funds at hand warranted the opening of the school.
With John and Abigail M. Fry as Superintendent and Matron, the institution
started on its new career on the first day of October, 1881.
Two years passed
by with small though encouraging results, when there came an unexpected turn of
affairs. Benjamin and Elizabeth B. Miles, who had long been in charge of the
Indian “Government Boarding School” at the Osage Agency, resigned their
positions, and in 1881, “with the approval and encouragement of the officers,
of the Indian Department [Bureau]”, they opened up, at a cost to themselves of
some $8,000 a “Training School for Indian Children” at West Branch, Iowa. The
project was an immediate success, the government paying to Mr. and Mrs. Miles
the sum of $167 per year for the keep of each Indian boy or girl sent to the
school. Soon the requests for admission outnumbered the capacity of their
buildings, and in consequence they turned to the trustees of White’s Institute
with a request to be allowed to lease that property. So thoroughly in accord
with the will of Josiah White was the request, that the trustees unhesitatingly
leased to Benjamin Miles and his wife for a term of three years form November
1, 1883, the Institute “school building, barn, and 480 acres of land”, with the
understanding that the lessees were “to board, clothe, and educate the eleven
white children for the use of said building and land.”(329)
The West Branch
school was speedily moved to Lee County; and the rooms and halls of the large
building, which ten years before were filled with the juvenile wards of the
State, were now turned over to Indian children. The results were indeed
pleasing, for to the Yearly Meeting in 1886 Mr. and Mrs. Miles were able to
report that seventy-five Indians and thirteen white children were enrolled I
the school, and that of this number forty-eight had made application and been
received into the membership of the Society of Friends.(330)
It was in the
midst of such success that there came a disaster from which the institution has
not yet recovered. On May 27, 1887, in some unknown manner the main building
caught fire and was completely destroyed. Every effort was put forth to hold
the students together until arrangements could be made to continue the work;
but within a month after the fire there came an order from Washington,
directing that all but three of the Indian children be sent to Haskell, the
government Indian school at Lawrence, Kansas. This having been done, Isaac N.
Miles and wife took charge of the twelve white children remaining, and in a
small frame building on the farm continued the school; while Benjamin Miles and
his wife Elizabeth, broken in health, retired from the work.(331)
An Attempt To
Fulfill White’s Will
Not since
the disastrous fire of 1887 has White’s Iowa Manual Labor Institute given
promise of any real success until within the last few years. What with the
continuous wrangle of certain local persons interested alone in selfish gain,
the distance from convenient markets, and the rise in recent years of
first-class public schools and charitable institutions, the school has had a
hard struggle to maintain its place.
Immediately
after the Indian school broke up, the trustees set to work to erect a new
building. By an extended lease of 960 acres of the farm to Charles and Matthew
Lowder, they received in advance $3,500 with which to begin. Isaac N. Miles and
his wife remained in one of the cottages on the farm with the twelve white
children belonging to the Institute, holding the school together as best they
could while the new quarters were being constructed. The new building, a
two-story brick structure, though not completely finished, was opened in the
fall of 1888, with Silas and Mary T. Taylor as Superintendent and Matron.(332) But the success of former years did not seem now to attend the
enterprise. Gradually the number of pupils increased from twelve in 1888 to
twenty-five in 1896. Then came a steady decline until 1903, when but eight children
could be reported as belonging to the institution.
To devote a
fourteen hundred acre farm to the maintenance of so small a school seemed
indeed preposterous; and so, in their desire to administer to the best
advantage the trust confided to them, the trustees closed the doors of the
Institute and during the year 1903-1904 applied $1,365.60 of the proceeds from
the farm in helping needy students to attend other Friends’ schools as follows:
“five at New Providence Academy, three at Penn College, twenty-three at
Whittier College and six at Central City, Nebraska.”(333) But certain disaffected persons had
watched with jealous eye this attempt to utilize the income from the Institute
farm in other schools; and with the avowed purpose of blocking the plan they
brought suit at law to have the trust taken from the Yearly Meeting. In
connection with the annual report of the trustees, submitted in 1904, the
following “Original Notice” confronted the Iowa Friends:
You [the trustees] are hereby
notified that there will be on file September 26th, 1904, in the
office of the Clerk of the District Court of Lee County, State of Iowa, at Fort
Madison, a petition of… (names of petitioners)… , claiming of you that you as
Trustees, Superintendent and Manager of White’s Iowa Manual Labor Institute…
created by the last will and testament of Josiah White, deceased, and claiming
that you are violating and wholly disregarding the trust created by said will
and asking that you be removed as Trustees… And that the management of said
trust fund and institution, be taken out of your hands and management, and out
of the hands and management of the Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends.(334)
Much as the
Friends have disliked to engage in legal proceedings, it was apparent that a
contest was inevitable; and so the trustees were instructed “to take such steps
as may be necessary to safeguard the interests of the heirs of Josiah White,
the donor, and of the Yearly Meetings.” On the grounds that the plaintiffs were
members of the Yearly Meeting, and in consequence could not sue the body to
which they belonged, the attorneys for the Yearly Meeting demurred; but the
plaintiffs were sustained, and the case came to trial in the District Court at
Fort Madison in June, 1908. Upon the hearings in the case the court gave as its
finding “that it was the intention of Josiah White, deceased, to establish and
maintain perpetually a manual labor school on the farm… in controversy”; “that
it is a diversion of the funds of said trust, and contrary to the intent of
said Josiah White… that any of the income of said farm should be used for the
purpose of paying the tuition of pupils while attending or entering at any
other school or institution of learning”; and “that the defendants should
[again] start said school upon said farm as soon as practicable and as soon as
pupils may be obtained, after the buildings have been put in the proper
condition to receive them”.(335)
It was now made
clear that the Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends must, if it expected long to retain
control of White’s Institute, administer the trust both in accord with the
terms of the will and to some practical effect. That the investment was
sufficient for the purposes intended was apparent, for during the year
1906-1907 the rents from the farm alone amounted to $4,947.47; while during the
seven years from 1902-1909, when Newton Branson served as the managing member
of the board of trustees, the funds which accumulated, over and above all
current expenses, amounted to $12,879.90. To save permanently this important
trust, now valued at nearly $175,000, it was apparent that the Yearly Meeting
must awaken to its responsibility in the matter, for the court had spoken in no
uncertain terms.
Fortunately, at
this critical juncture James B. Bruff, a prominent Quaker attorney living at
Atlantic, Iowa, was appointed a member of the Board of Trustees in 1908. Bruff
appreciated the seriousness of the situation, was appointed president of the
board, and took hold of things in a business-like manner. With a full treasury
at hand he first set to work clearing away the rubbish about the institution, and
putting the buildings, schoolhouse, and farm into good condition. The main
brick building, so inadequate and ill-adapted for housing both boys and girls,
was remodeled, and in addition a contract was let for a new and up-to-date
dormitory for the girls, which was rapidly pushed to completion. For a time the
money in the treasury rapidly dwindled, the disbursements for the two years
from 1909 to 1911 amounting to over $21,000. Then, abandoning his lucrative
practice in Atlantic and with a determination to make the project succeed,
James Bruff and his wife Jessie moved to the Institute and assumed personal
control as Superintendent and Matron. In this capacity their first annual
report to the Yearly Meeting stated that “a school on the Institute premises”
had been successfully conducted during the year just passed with twenty-four
students enrolled, and that there was “a surplus on hand after paying the year’s
obligations, of something over $1,500.”(336)
After many years
of ups and downs, White’s Iowa Manual Labor Institute now gives evidence of
approaching that usefulness and efficiency so long maintained by its twin
sister institution in Indiana. Thirty-eight students were enrolled during the
last school year, 1912-1913. Ten of these were day pupils from the surrounding
country; three were enrolled as resident students, paying for the year’s board
and tuition $100 each; and twenty-five were children under written contract by
parent or guardian to remain in the entire custody of the institution until of
legal age. Of these latter no fee of any kind is charged. They are made to feel
that the services rendered during the latter years of their stay will be ample
compensation for their care and keep while young; and, says the Superintendent,
“this thought thoroughly pervades the children.” Here all work together on a
common plane, the drudgery of labor being lost in the pleasantness with which
tasks are assigned and done. In this, again says Superintendent Bruff, “we have
thus far admirably succeeded.”(337)
To-day the fourteen hundred and forty acres are dotted here and there with fields of grain and browsing cattle. Cosy farm cottages and a little Quaker church nestle among the groves and orchards; while in the center of the broad expanse stand the large school buildings. The voices of happy children are heard I this healthful country home, where under the kindly influence of those strong and healthy manhood and womanhood. Surely now, if ever, Josiah White’s hopes are being realized.
Notes
305- Quoted in the Friends’ Review, Vol. IV, 1850, p. 174. See also Coffin’s Philanthropy of Josiah White in Western Work, Vol. XVIII, July, 1909, pp. 4, 5.
306- Quoted in the Friends’ Review, Vol. IV, 1850, p. 175.
307- Minutes of Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1854, pp. 35, 36.
308- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1864, pp. 4-6, 21.
309- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1866, pp. 22, 23.
310- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1867, p. 21.
311- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of Friends, 1868, p. 7.
312- The Iowa Instructor, Vol. I, p. 377.
313- Iowa Senate Journal, 1868, p. 55.
314- Iowa House Journal, 1868, p. 121.
315- Laws of Iowa, 1868, Ch. 59, pp. 71-77.
316- Report of the Iowa Reform School in Iowa Documents, 1870, Vol. II, pp. 3, 4.
317- Report of the Iowa Reform School in Iowa Documents, 1870, Vol. II, pp. 12-14.
318- Report of the Joint Committee to Visit the State Reform School in Iowa Documents, Vol. II, p. 3.
319- Report of the Iowa Reform School in Iowa Documents, 1870, Vol. II, pp. 23, 24.
320- Report of the Iowa Reform School in Iowa Documents, 1872, Vol. II, pp. 5, 19, 21.
321- Laws of Iowa (General and Public), 1872, Chapter 77, p. 79.
322- Report of the Iowa Reform School in Iowa Documents, 1874, Vol. II, p. 25.
323- Report of the Iowa Reform School in Iowa Documents, 1876, Vol. III, pp. 46, 48, 49.
324- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1878, p. 15.
325- Report of the Joint Committee to Visit the Girls’ Department of the State Reform School in Iowa Documents, 1880, Vol. IV, p. 3.
326- Report of the Joint Committee to Visit the Girls’ Department of the State Reform School in Iowa Documents, 1882, Vol. IV, p. 3.
327- The trustees at this time were Clarkson T. Penrose of West Branch, Benjamin C. Andrews of Pleasant Plain, and Henry Dorland of Salem, Iowa.
328- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1880, pp. 10, 11.
329- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1882, p. 17; 1883, p. 13; 1884, p. 18. It should also be noted that in the spring of 1884 the trustees leased the remaining 960 acres of the farm for five years to Charles and Mathew Loweder, the profits to be divided equally.
330- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1886, pp. 30, 31.
331- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1887, p. 6.
332- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1889, p. 8.
333- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1904, p. 28.
334- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1904, pp. 29, 30.
335- Quoted from a copy of Judge Bank’s decision in the District Corut of the State of Iowa, at Fort Madison, July 30th, 1908.
336- Minutes of Iowa Yearly Meeting of (Orthodox) Friends, 1907, p. 40; 1912, p. 34.
337- Personal letter from James B. Bruff to the writer, July 28, 1913.