Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 4.djvu/540

  and preparatory session. He returned to Washington and resumed his seat in the Senate. The Republicans of Florida, who had a majority in the Legislature, proposed to elect Mr. Welch to the long term in the Senate but he declined the position, preferring the presidency of the Iowa College. There for fifteen years, he labored most successfully, to build up that institution into one of the most successful scientific and industrial colleges in the west. He possessed a remarkable power of organization and was largely instrumental in working out the many difficult problems of the new system of education then in its infancy. He was an enthusiastic advocate of coeducation and demonstrated its practicability and advantages in the college under his supervision. Under his wise direction the foundation was laid in the formative years for the great educational institution which has grown up. In 1877 the United States Commissioner of Technological and Industrial Schools, visited the Agricultural College and, after a thorough investigation of its plans and work, said to President Welch: “You have here the best institution of its kind in the United States.” President Welch was one of the most accomplished and powerful public speakers in the west and was in constant demand for addresses before educational and industrial organizations throughout the country. He was long regarded as the highest authority on industrial education in the United States and was the author of several valuable school text books. In 1882 he was sent by the Department of Agriculture on a mission to Europe to examine and report upon industrial and scientific schools of the old world. His report was one of great value and widely sought for. Dr. Welch died in Pasadena, California, on the 14th of March, 1889. His funeral was held at the college, on the 21st, and was attended by the Governor and other State officers.  MARY BEAUMONT WELCH, a native of the State of New York, was born at Lyons, in Wayne County, on the 3d of July, 1841. She received an education at Elmira Seminary and for several years was a teacher. Her first husband was George E. Dudley to whom she was married in 1858. After his death she married A. S. Welch of Michigan in 1868. She came with him to Iowa upon his election as president of the State Agricultural College, and at once became his most faithful and efficient helper in the varied duties devolving upon him in the organization of the new college. Her influence with the girls was unbounded from the beginning. As the first professor and organizer of the new department of Domestic Economy, she carried on a work that required a high order of inventive and executive ability and filled the position with such marked success as to win for it a high place in the experimental college achievements. She was frequently called upon for lectures in the line of her work and helped to elevate that branch of home accomplishments in public estimation. She aroused among her students much of her own enthusiasm over home making and all improved methods of conducting household 