The Mount Carroll Seminary was the name of Shimer College from 1853 to 1896. The Seminary was located in Mount Carroll, Illinois, in the United States. A pioneering institution in its time and place, the Mount Carroll Seminary served as a center of culture and education in 19th-century northwestern Illinois. Despite frequent prognostications of failure, it grew from 11 students in a single room to more than 100 students on a spacious campus with four principal buildings. Unusually for the time, the school was governed entirely by women, most notably the founder Frances Wood Shimer, who was the chief administrator throughout the Seminary's entire existence.

Establishment

The Mount Carroll Seminary was established before there were any graded public schools in Mount Carroll,The History of Carroll County, p. 342 and at a time when the need for education was not widely perceived by the pioneer population. In the 1850s, along with the nationwide boom in primary education, there was also a trend towards women's higher education through seminaries and normal schools, particularly in the Midwest. However, such institutions were considered an unusual phenomenon in western Illinois. At the time there were few teacher training institutions in the region at all, and there was widespread opposition to higher education for women.Sawyer, p. 15 In addition, the novelty of women succeeding in business was a source of considerable hostility from the local community.Sawyer, p. 18 From the time of its founding, there were frequent predictions that the seminary would fail.Sawyer, p. 13

The charter for the Mount Carroll Seminary was granted by the Illinois General Assembly on June 18, 1852. This act had been drafted by Judge John Wilson, then clerk of the Carroll County court and a strong advocate of education, and was submitted by State Representative William T. Miller of Mount Carroll.The History of Carroll County, p. 343 The original board of trustees had nine members including Wilson.

The Seminary now existing on paper, it was necessary to find teachers. Judge Wilson corresponded with Isaac Nash, a wealthy farmer in Saratoga County, New York. Boarding in Nash's house at the time were Frances Wood (later Frances Shimer) and Cindarella Gregory, recent graduates of the New York State Normal School. Wood was at the time suffering from tuberculosis, and seeking a change of climate.Sawyer, p. 12 The two were persuaded to be the founding teachers of the new seminary.

Upon the arrival of Gregory and Wood in Mount Carroll, classes began in a single room in the Presbyterian church on May 11, 1853, with 11 students. Enrollment rose in the course of the year, and the school moved to another temporary location in the more substantial Ashway Building. When the school opened in its own building in October 1854, there were 75 students. The Seminary now having teachers and students as well as a legal existence, it was necessary for it to have a physical location. To this end a system of funding by subscription was used, with $5 shares being offered as investments that would bear 6% interest "until dividends shall be declared by the board of trustees, out of profits arising from said seminary."The History of Carroll County, p. 343, citing legal agreement among the incorporators 548 shares were subscribed, which would have amounted to $2,740; however, less than half of this amount ($960.75) was ever collected in cash. Five acres were acquired at a cost of $500 although the land had previously been valued at only $7.50 per acre; the asking price skyrocketed as soon as the intent of building the seminary there was suspected. The seminary building was constructed at a cost of $4,500, largely on credit. Additional debts were incurred for the furnishings, purchased by Wood and Gregory in New York for approximately $2,000. This growing level of debt was a source of substantial discouragement to the incorporators.

Governance

The school was not formally organized under its charter until October 1854, the initial "patronage" relationship between the incorporators and Shimer and Gregory having been informal in nature. Upon organization the Seminary was formally governed by a Board of Trustees, the nine incorporators named in the 1852 charter. However, this arrangement was short-lived.

In 1855, fearing that the school would fail due to the lack of subscription revenue, the incorporators sold their shares in the college to the teachers, Wood and Gregory. This was arranged under favorable terms, with the land donated and the buildings sold at cost, on the condition that Wood and Gregory continue operating the school for at least 10 years. The transfer took effect on March 30, 1855. On February 25, 1867, the school was re-chartered by the state legislature to reflect the new arrangement.

From 1853 to 1896, Frances Shimer was the chief executive of the school; although her title was "Principal", she is conventionally regarded as the first president of Shimer College. Initially the governance of the school was in partnership with co-proprietor Cindarella Gregory, who served as the chief academic officer while Frances oversaw the finances. In July 1870, the partnership ended, when Gregory left the school to marry. The Mount Carroll Seminary subsequently remained the sole property of Frances Wood Shimer until her retirement in 1896.

Frances Shimer's exacting oversight was credited with the survival of the school. Her observance of strict economy in business affairs kept the school solvent.Sawyer, p. 16 For most of her administration, the seminary made no effort to either recruit students or solicit donations, focusing all energy on creating a school that would "merit confidence". In retrospect, the governance of Frances Shimer and her successor William Parker McKee was looked on as a period of unparalleled calm and stability in the history of Shimer College.Moorhead, p. 57

People

Proprietors and notable faculty

Principal Frances Shimer was co-proprietor with Cinderella Gregory until 1870 and sole proprietor from 1870 to 1896. She was also a teacher in the initial years, but as administrative demands mounted academics were largely left to co-Principal Gregory and later Associate Principal Joy. However, she maintained a strong personal presence in the Labor Department, and oversaw all new construction and planting on the campus. Principal Cinderella Gregory, also often spelled Cindarella, served as co-proprietor with Frances Shimer until departing the Seminary in 1870, when she sold her shares to Frances Shimer. Associate Principal Adelia C. Joy joined the Seminary in 1870 and took Cinderella Gregory's place as chief academic officer. Over time, as Frances Shimer advanced in age, Joy came to play an increasingly central role in the school's financial affairs as well.Moorhead, p. 44 Henry Shimer, a physician and naturalist, served for a time following the completion of his medical degree in 1866 as an instructor of natural sciences at the Seminary. He had married Seminary founder Frances Shimer on December 22, 1857. Isabel Dearborn Hazzen, also known as Mrs B.F. Dearborn Hazzen, was the director of the music program and widely known for her skills in teaching music. She became associated with the seminary in the late 1860s.

Alumni Alice Ives Breed, graduated in 1871; social leader, salon holder, clubwoman Dr. Blanche Moore Haines (1865–1944), physician; Michigan State chair of the National Woman Suffrage Association Mari Ruef Hofer (1858/59-1929), composer, lecturer, teacher, writer Gertrude Brown Murrah graduated from the Seminary in 1885 and went on to found the Creal Springs Seminary, later known as the Creal Springs College and Conservatory of Music, located in Creal Springs, Illinois, which thrived for a time but closed in 1916 due to financial difficulties. Samuel W. McCall, governor of Massachusetts, studied at the Seminary from 1864 to 1866, when he was forced to transfer due to the school being closed to male students. Mary E. Metzgar, temperance activist Sarah Hackett Stevenson, first female member of the American Medical Association

Academics

A formal course of study was adopted in 1860.The History of Carroll County, p. 350 The Mount Carroll Seminary thereafter functioned similarly to a preparatory school, with a six-year course of study that could lead the pupil to more advanced study. Some graduates were prepared sufficiently well that they could skip the first years of college. Subjects taught included mathematics, natural science, and classical languages.Hostetter, p. 661

In the early 1870s, the seminary went through a transitional period, and specialized courses of study began to be provided, staffed by specialized instructors.Sawyer, p. 15 The specialized departments of the school included a normal department which trained schoolteachers, and a music department. An 1882 survey divided the 11 graduates from that year into those from the normal program, the collegiate program, the music program and the art program.

The normal department prepared students to become schoolteachers, which was widely regarded as the only proper occupation for a woman outside the home. The demand for teachers trained by the Seminary was high. At the end of each term, large numbers of the seminary's students found immediate employment in teaching, even without formally graduating; in 1877, it was reported that 30 of those enrolled the previous term had found teaching positions. The normal department program followed the teachings of David Perkins Page, an influential pedagogical theorist who had also been principal of the New York State Normal School when Frances Wood and Cindarella Gregory attended.

The music and arts programs were a significant attraction of the seminary. The seminary had the first piano in Carroll County. The seminary's music program began with only 3 students, but grew rapidly. By 1877, the music department had 6 instructors, and by 1883, the conservatory held nearly 40 instruments. The music program in this period was overseen by Isabel Dearborn Hazzen, a voice instructor who became well known in the area. The music and arts programs remained strong even after the seminary became the Frances Shimer Academy of the University of Chicago in 1896. By the 1870s, there was also a literary department.Hostetter, p. 818

In 1878, a department of telegraphy was established, with a single instructor. This was intended to provide the students with an option of a self-sustaining career other than teaching.

Admissions and financial aid

The seminary accepted any pupil who was willing to learn, and is said to have welcomed pupils as young as three. Frances Shimer herself had begun school at the age of two and a half. During and after the US Civil War, female enrollment rose while male enrollment fell. Facing space constraints due to rising demand, the formerly coeducational seminary limited residential study to women in 1866, although some men were still allowed as day students. Despite an expressed intent to reopen the school to male students, it remained a women's school throughout the seminary period and did not become coeducational again until the modern Shimer College program was established in 1950.

Financial aid included the equivalent of work study. The school included a Labor Department that gave students the opportunity to work off their tuition obligations. Some male students were also accepted for these positions, and were assigned to special lodgings.