An outfit called Backes Auctioneers is wrapping up this week five days of online auctions to disperse the contents of Iowa Wesleyan University buildings --- ranging from cooking utensils through books and beds to grand pianos.
Trustees of the Mount Pleasant university announced in May, when it became evident that Iowa's oldest coeducational institution of higher learning no longer was financially viable, that it would close and now it has --- decisively.
Iowa Wesleyan was one of three nearby private colleges that were popular with students from Lucas County more than a century ago --- the others being Parsons College at Fairfield and Simpson College at Indianola. Transportation was a factor here --- all three were close to home and linked directly to Chariton by rail.
Nearly every August for many years running, Iowa Wesleyan placed modest advertising in the Chariton newspapers, hoping to attract another student or two. The advertisement at left here is from The Chariton Herald of Aug. 20, 1891.
The advertisement from the Aug. 7, 1889, edition of The Patriot is similar, but contains a bit more information: Attention of young people and parents invited to this "Oldest College in Iowa." Full Classical, Scientific, Preparatory, select English and Normal courses. Special attention given in Preparatory department to all "common branches." These branches can be taken at any time. Thorough Normal training. Military department under charge of U.S. officer for both young men and women. One of the best music schools in the West. Fourteen able and experienced teachers. Tuition for time in actual attendance. Best moral and social influences. Fall term opens Sept. 11, 1889. Send for catalogue to the President, J.T. McFarland, D.D.
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I've been curious about what would become of buildings on the Iowa Wesleyan campus and it looks now as if the Mount Pleasant Community School District will acquire the central campus containing several of the most significant buildings, Including the Howe Athletic Center, Holland Student Union, University Chapel (top photo with statue of Sen. James Harlan in the foreground), P.E.O. Building, Old Main and Pioneer Hall. Price tag: $1,135,000 --- a bargain when current construction costs are considered. The school district also plans to buy, for $115,000, the university's practice fields.
P.E.O. members nationwide have been concerned about the fate of items and displays related to its history (the organization was founded on the Iowa Wesleyan campus in 1869). A purchase by the school district probably is good news in this department.
Other buildings around the central campus, including dormitories, have gone or probably will go to private developers.
University archives have been transferred from the University library to the museum campus of the Henry County Heritage Trust.
The Harlan-Lincoln House, operated as a museum by the university, will not be sold but apparently will pass into the ownership of a new nonprofit designed to preserve it and carry its work forward. This was the home of Sen. James Harlan, an early Iowa Wesleyan president, whose daughter, Mary, married Robert Todd Lincoln, son of President Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln. So the museum and its displays contain items related to both the Harlan and Lincoln families.
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