Page:Shimer College History 1853-1950.pdf/5

 become too grasping, by the mere threat of transferring the whole project to the rival town, these Mount Carroll folk might be brought to terms.

Negotiations to purchase the property were begun, "even if I never go near it" she writes. The townsfolk, as well as the Board, getting wind of these proceedings, were much perturbed. Board members felt they should have been consulted, that the women had not been properly communicative. Throughout her career, Frances Wood kept her own counsel until the strategic moment to speak out.

The following Monday she was taken around to view the six or eight sites under consideration in Mount Carroll. An eminence south of the village was the first choice of the two ladies. The Board, learning of their preference and reasons for it, decided unanimously on that location. There the school stands today.

Here five acres were purchased from Messrs. Halderman and Rinewalt with four years to pay. These public-spirited gentlemen, in turn, took $500 worth of stock in the Seminary corporation.

The Board of Trustees now organized the Seminary under the charter granted by the state and contracted for the services of Misses Wood and Gregory at the princely stipend of $300 a year each, plus room and board. They also contracted for the erection of a brick building of two and a half stories, 42 x 46 ft., that would provide twenty rooms, the contract price $4,500.

Miss Wood was soon absorbed in drawing plans for this structure and worked in close collaboration with the architect, whose ultimate plans embodied many of her ideas and suggestions. The Trustees, however, were stymied for lack of funds and were obliged to borrow in order to get their building finished and furnished.

In the summer of 1854, while the building was under construction, Miss Wood went east with $2,000 provided by the Board, to buy furnishings and provisions. Accompanied by her hometown furniture dealer, she went to Albany and purchased all needed furniture at wholesale. Returning to Milton she engaged women and children to pick great quantities of fruit, which she dried and canned, as fruit was not to be had in the pioneer settlement of Mount Carroll. She also had a big supply of bedding made up and pillows from old feather-beds. These she packed around the fruit jars and shipped back to the school.

On October 24, 1854, the school moved into the new building with twenty-five boarders and twice as many day pupils, and was formally organized as Mount Carroll Seminary under the control of a reorganized Board of Trustees. Both young men and young women were received, and Misses Wood and Gregory retained as principals.

Harassed by the many details to be attended to, some of the Board favored "giving the whole concern into our hands to manage entirely ourselves," Miss Wood writes home. "I think they will all agree to do so, but I don't know as I crave so great responsibility, though I do think we could perhaps do better and effect more than by any other management." She continues, "I feel more than ever that this is a better place for us than east, not as regards gain in dollars and cents (for I know we are not getting rich here) but there is such an ample field for labor, and now, if I know my own heart, my desire is to do some good in the world." ... "You know, sister, my whole ambition has been to do something smart, as I called it, to win honors in some shape, but I trust I have done with such ambition."

From then on Miss Wood carried on with supreme consecration to the task of making the Seminary a center of learning where young men and women could receive intellectual discipline, spiritual inspiration and cultural advantages of a high order. She sought the best teachers available, for the Board had authorized the joint principals to select their own teaching staff and household