Coe College History: The First Hundred Years

"Coe College History: the First Hundred Years" is a website containing articles on Coe's history written by Writing Center Students since 2009 (at least).  If you haven't stumbled across this gem of a site I highly suggest checking it out.

The site organizes Coe's history into 7 categories: histories, people, publications, events, the campus, athletics, and daily life.  It also includes a timeline to help keep everything straight.  Over the next 7 weeks I am going to pick an article from each of these categories to give you a taste of  Coe's varied history, and to show you what you can find on this resource.

This week you get a clip from the sites timeline of Coe College.

In the beginning:

1851
-Rev. Williston Jones and his wife open a school ("The School of the Prophets") in parsonage of Presbyterian Church;  his intent is to prepare young men for the ministry; school also includes three young women.

1853
-New York farmer Daniel Coe donates $1,500 to support Jone's school which will provide equal education opportunities for both men and women.
-The Cedar Rapids Collegiate Institute is incorporated.  Trustees purchase an 80-acre farm.
-David Blakely is hired as principal  of the Institute.

1855
-Cedar Rapids Collegiate Institute is suspended due to low attendance.
-Institute's Board attempts to give acquired property to the Iowa City Presbytery; offer is declined.

1867
-Many of the original founders of the Cedar Rapids Collegiate Institute create Parson's Seminary, in hopes of securing financial support from the Parsons estate.
-Parson's Seminary begins its three-year span.

1868
-Parson's Seminary Building, the west half of Old Main, is completed in the summer; used by the seminary beginning in the fall of its second year.

1869
-Parsons Seminary Board report in February records institutional debt at $7,000.

1870
-Due to declining enrollments and increasing debts, the Parsons Seminary suspends operations at conclusion of spring term.

1872
-New fund-raising efforts are made to begin a new Presbyterian college in Cedar Rapids.

1875
-Trustees vote to put Parsons Seminary to rest and incorporate a new school, the Coe Collegiate Institute.
-On September 1, Robert Aaron Condit is appointed Principal of the Coe Collegiate Institute.
-Coe Collegiate Institute starts its first term on October 1 with 40 pupils.

1876
-Institute establishes a Conservatory of Music with C. W. Kidder serving as its principal.
-Fall term enrollment for 1876 is 160 students.

1879
-First graduates of Coe Collegiate Institute receive their diplomas in June.  Commencement exercises at the First Presbyterian Church.  Six graduates; Miss Maggie S. Cooper is valedictorian.

1880
-Institute's second graduate class, two graduate.
-Announcement during the school year; the Institute will become Coe College.

I resisted adding comments to the timeline as I typed it out, but I will tell you there are many stories behind and between the events listed above.  There is even one event I would dispute (was the school really first called "The school of the Prophets"?).

Next week will take a look at one of the published histories on "Coe College History: The First Hundred Years".

~Sara Pitcher, Archives Assistant