Page:Shimer College History 1853-1950.pdf/8

 crowned with success the career of Mrs. Shimer one is reminded of the saying, "Never underestimate the power of a woman." Her ingenuity and resourcefulness seemed equal to every emergency. Every obstacle was a challenge, every crisis an opportunity that called out her reserves.

In December, 1857, Frances A. Wood had married Henry Shimer, a naturalist, whom she had come to know in Mt. Carroll's church circles, where he was an active leader. When young, back in Pennsylvania, he had learned the trade of a stone mason, had then taught school, and came west through the influence of his home-town pastor who had gone out to Mt. Carroll as the Baptist minister. Henry Shimer had helped to construct the original Seminary building. A few years later he graduated from the Chicago Medical College and took an M.A. degree from Chicago University. He afterward spent two winters attending the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Bellevue Hospital Medical School in New York and attended Bellevue Hospital Clinics; later spent one winter studying at the University of Pennsylvania and Jefferson College Medical School in Philadelphia. He became a learned scientist and expert taxidermist, many of his specimen and collections going to the Smithsonian Institution and to the Chicago and St. Louis Academies of Science. Hence he was a real acquisition to the faculty of the Seminary and also served as resident physician with a wide country practice.

During the dark days of the Civil War most of the young men students joined the army -- the young recruits drilling on a vacant square across the street from the school. The young ladies, no less patriotic, made uniforms for their soldier school-mates, as well as beautiful flags for the companies that went from Mount Carroll.

By 1866 crowded conditions caused the elimination of young men students. The next year the school housed 100 boarders and many day pupils.

After being connected with the school eighteen years as educational director, Miss Gregory withdrew, Mrs. Shimer purchasing her interest in 1870. Shortly thereafter, Miss Gregory became the wife of the Rev. L.L. Lansing of Minneapolis. For Mrs. Shimer the loss of Miss Gregory was a heavy blow, as her daily help and sympathetic counsel had become almost indispensable. Left to carry the load alone, this seemed to Mrs. Shimer to be her darkest hour.

In the fall of 1867 a full-fledged music department was opened by Miss M. Ophelia Mason, who was designated its principal. It came to be well and favorably known as the Mount Carroll Conservatory of Music. The Vocal Music Department was presided over by Miss Isabelle Dearborn who came out from Lynn, Massachusetts in 1869. She possessed a voice of exquisite purity, rare sweetness and flexibility; had been trained by celebrated teachers and proved to be a very competent instructor and wonderful friend to those under her direction. Her gracious poise, beautiful character, fine judgment and quiet charm, added to her superior musical gifts, made