Page:Frances Wood Shimer 1826-1901.djvu/12

 with Miss Gregory. A desire to study medicine was accentuated by the illness and death of her mother, but, as none of the medical schools at that time admitted women students, she was forced to abandon the idea. The substitution of teaching as a profession did not extinguish the original intent, which was cherished as a possibility to be achieved when she should have opportunity and leisure; but it was the origin of the motives which led to her future investigation of the general status of women, especially the lack of advantages for higher education, and to the determination to use her influence for the establishment of schools which would afford women opportunities to prepare for professions or for any line of practical work.

After graduating from the Normal, she taught until symptoms of consumption made it necessary to seek a change of climate. An acquaintance, in correspondence, had alluded to the lack of educational facilities in the “New West.” This led to correspondence with Judge Wilson, an acquaintance of Mr. Nash, at Mt. Carroll, and to the decision that that young and promising village would be a desirable place for the proposed school. Nothing daunted by insecure health, the hardship, inconveniences, or privations of a sparsely settled country, or the sacrifices of pioneer life, Miss Wood and her friend Miss Gregory undertook the long journey to Illinois, found the right sphere for the activities of mind and heart, and became the founders of a school which for forty-three years was known as Mount Carroll Seminary.

The first term opened May 11, 1853, with eleven pupils, and closed with thirty. For the next term the demand for accommodations from non-resident pupils was sufficient to warrant plans for a permanent school, and this idea of permanency was one of the corner-stones in the original design of the founders. To some of the more progressive residents of the village the outlook was so promising that they were desirous of assuming some of the honors and sharing the emoluments of the enterprise; therefore a charter was obtained from the legislature, a stock company formed, $3,000 subscribed, five acres of ground purchased, and a building forty-four feet square&mdash;the present Center&mdash; commenced in the summer and occupied in October, 1854, with Miss Wood and Miss Gregory