Leander Clark College, originally named Western College, was a college in Iowa, United States. It operated from 1857 to 1919, when it was absorbed into Coe College.
Leander Clark College, originally named Western College, was a college in Iowa, United States. It operated from 1857 to 1919, when it was absorbed into Coe College.
Western College was established in 1857 by the United Brethren in Christ at a location north of Shueyville in Linn County, Iowa. It was named "Western" because it was the denomination's first college west of the Mississippi River. [1]
In 1881, the college, which was facing financial difficulties, moved to Toledo because of a pledge of $20,000 in financial support from that community's residents. [1] Enrollment grew rapidly in Toledo, whose residents' religious values were more compatible with the college's values than had been the case in Linn County. Enrollment grew from 80 students when Western College started operations in Toledo, to 196 students by the end of that school year, and an eventual total of more than 400. [2]
On December 26, 1889, a major fire destroyed much of the college's property, but the facilities were later rebuilt. The campus eventually grew to occupy 16 acres (6.5 ha) in Toledo. [2]
In 1906, Western College changed its name to Leander Clark College in honor of a local benefactor, Major Leander Clark, a United Brethren member who donated $50,000. [1] [2] The college had made an announcement in 1902 promising to change its name in honor of anyone who would donate $50,000 to start an endowment fund to help the school resolve its financial troubles. In 1903, Clark responded to this announcement with a promise to donate that amount if the college could raise an additional $100,000 for its permanent endowment before January 1, 1906. The college met Clark's challenge in 1905, largely because of a $50,000 donation from Andrew Carnegie. [3] In spite of that assistance, the college went bankrupt and merged with Coe College in 1919, bringing a $200,000 endowment to the merger along with its faculty and students. [1] [2] The Leander Clark campus became a state juvenile home. [4] [5]
After the merger, an heir of Leander Clark filed a lawsuit asking for the return of the funds that Clark had provided to the college. The lawsuit asserted that the college had agreed to operate as an educational institution named for Leander Clark, and that it breached its contract with Clark when it ceased to exist under his name. In 1922, the Supreme Court of Iowa decided the case in favor of the college, finding that the primary purpose of Clark's gift was not to perpetuate his name, but to support education. [6]
Western College was coeducational from its founding. [1] In 1910, Leander Clark College officials told a researcher that the college had enrolled "a number of" African American students, but none had ever graduated. [7]
Leander Clark College fielded intercollegiate American football, [8] baseball, [9] and basketball teams. [10] The football team had overall records of 2–6 against Grinnell College [8] and 0–3 against Cornell College. [11]
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Leander Clark was an American businessman, Iowa state legislator, Union Army officer during the Civil War, and Indian agent who was the namesake for Leander Clark College.
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First United Brethren Church, also known as Otterbein Methodist Church, is a historic building located in Toledo, Iowa, United States. Built in 1946, this building replaced an 1886 sanctuary that was destroyed in a fire in 1943. The original church had been associated with Leander Clark College, which had been operated by the Church of the United Brethren in Christ, until its merger with Coe College in 1919. The church became United Methodist after the Evangelical United Brethren Church and Methodist Churches merged in 1968. This congregation and First United Methodist Church in Toledo merged in 1993, and they formed Christ United Methodist Church. The congregation consolidated into the church buildings on South Broadway in August 2015. Hobart Historic Restoration of Cedar Rapids bought this building and plans to converting it into 15 apartments. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017.
Lillian Resler Harford was an American church organizer, editor, and author. She was an active worker in the Woman's Missionary Association of her church, the United Brethren in Christ, and delivered lectures for the Women's Missionary Society. In 1880, she was one of the two delegates sent by the Association to the World's Missionary Conference in London She became the longest-serving president of the Association. Harford died in 1935.
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