Page:Shimer College History 1853-1950.pdf/7

 sentinels. Within that line were set at intervals maples and other deciduous trees that have become towering giants, every autumn glorious to behold. Between these lines of bordering trees 30,000 osage orange plants were set to form a hedge enclosing the campus. An arbor vitae hedge, put in years later, lined the entrance driveway on either side.

With the help of an inexperienced boy Miss Wood set out 2,000 evergreens comprizing 15 varieties, 600 deciduous trees of 60 varieties, 1,000 apple trees, 400 pear trees, 300 cherries, 25 crabapples, 1500 grape-vines, beside quantities of small fruit. Every vegetable that flourishes in the Illinois climate was grown in the kitchen garden.

Beside dotting the campus with beautiful trees she set out many kinds of roses, ornamental shrubs and flowering plants. Later she bought acreage, some distance from the school, on which to grow additional food supplies and develop a nursery. It is said she once worked out all day in a drenching rain to plant orchard trees delayed in transit, fearing they might die unless gotten into the ground as soon as possible.

Scarcely was the permanent building occupied before it became apparent that more room would soon be needed. Two wings were planned, one to the south, soon to be added, the other an ell to be attached to the northeast corner of the first structure, and built later.

In 1857, in the midst of the second building project, a financial panic struck the country. Business and industry were paralyzed with fear and distrust. Workmen, uncertain of their pay, laid down their tools. With only the masonry and carpentry about completed, the work of the building came to a standstill. Yet rooms in the new wing had been engaged for the fall term and the opening date was near at hand. Undaunted, Miss Wood did the work of two men, helped handle brick, laid floors, bought glass, paint and paper at wholesale, glazed forty windows, painted the building inside and the trim, except for the cornice, outside. She also papered and repainted most of the rooms in the main building. When the opening day arrived all was ready.

This manual labor was in addition to her bookkeeping, correspondence, employment of teachers, laying in of supplies of food and fuel, installing of furnishings in the new wing, supervising the work of others and oversight over grounds and gardens.

Her clock struck twelve when in 1876 bids for the construction of the second or east wing were so much in excess of the school's ability to pay, while the need for expansion was so urgent, that Mrs. Shimer turned architect and building superintendent, had stone quarried, timber cut, lumber sawed and brick made from land she owned or purchased, with machinery she bought and by men she employed. She supervised the details of construction, heating, ventilating, plumbing, and lighting, and completed the building at a cost much less than the lowest bid. One must exclaim, "What a woman!"

As one contemplates the prodigious labors and shrewd management that