LOUISA COUNTY, IOWA

The Republican Centennial Edition, Wapello, Louisa County, Iowa
Thursday, July 12, 1956, Section Three, Page 40
Transcribed by Lynn McCleary, July 4, 2019

NORMAL ACADEMY SITE AT GRANDVIEW
By Milton Hunter

    The following information regarding the Eastern Iowa Normal School at Grandview is gleamed from a scrap book long in the possession of the Marcellus Hunter family, a history of Louisa County published in 1889 by the Acme Publishing Co. and personal recollections.

    In 1856 the building, first known as the Grandview Academy, was a two story brick building, containing eight rooms and located on grounds comprising one city block. One source of information claims it to be the first similar institution of learning to be erected west of the Mississippi river.

    The following is a clipping from which I quote – “This institution begins its spring term with seventy five students. Rev. M. R. Johnson has been canvassing subscriptions to it in the vicinity of Grandview and has raised over two thousand dollars. On the whole the school is doing well and promises in the future to become something for Louisa County to be proud of.

    I quote from another clipping, dated June 1875 – “The Institute of Learning at Grandview is about to or has recently changed its name from Grandview Normal Academy to the Eastern Iowa Normal School, thus dropping the local part of its name.

    Among the faculty and students we find the following names, G. W. Story, Nellie Latta, Ella Graham, A. W. McCandlass, Laura Graham, Abba Williamson, Austin Shotwell, Eldon Hahn, M. J. Smith, O. N. Potter, Emma Wilson, David Sprague, Cora Letts, A. W. Eldridge, D. E. Barnes, R. A. Chenoweth, Minnie Smith, Lizzie Latta, Belle O’Brien, Orpha Woodruff, L zizizMLcghnlaiueqlynWiruff [typed as written], Lizie Mclaughlin, G. T. Eldridge, Marcellus Hunter Mattie Frishie, Anna Latta, George Schemer and J. R. Syphrit.

    As time went on other institutions of learning came into existence and it became unprofitable to carry on in the capacity of a Normal School. The next step was a two room public school. My first attendance was in 1894 and my teacher, Mrs. Alice Lindsay. She was followed by C. Emma Vandevort, Seneca Finn, M. L. Carrigan, Charles Curran, R. J. Boal, Lincoln Hughes, Lenna Williamson, M. May Jones. In 1903 I entered high school in Wapello.

    The old Academy building was torn down in 1922, having been sold to J. M. Buster – Ralph Hardman using a steam engine to pull it down. The bricks were sold, and the ground was sold to the City of Grandview. The old Academy grounds have now become a beautiful park and picnic grounds.