Monroe
City was the site of one of Northeast Missouri’s leading
colleges in days gone by. E. B. Talcott gave the property
originally known as the “Mound” for use as a seminary
or institution of learning when Monroe City was officially
plotted in 1857. The townspeople spent $10,000 to erect a
two story brick building with twenty four well equipped
classrooms on a seven and a half acre campus.
After
receiving the charter in 1860 the school opened with
brothers G.B. and S.C. Comings as principals. They
maintained the school until 1876. Rev. James S. Green was
in charge for three years after the Comings brothers and
Rev. R.M. Beeson was principal between 1879 and 1882. He
was succeeded by Prof. A. Wood Terrill, 1886-1886, who
developed a broader field of studies. Under his
administration, the Institute reached its height in 1884
when it had an enrollment in excess of a hundred pupils.
The
curriculum was considered liberal and prepared students
for more advance institutions. The Monroe Institute was
considered one of the leading colleges in Northeast
Missouri. Professor Terrill introduced to the seminary a
music department, business and art classes as well as
improving the logic, geometry, rhetoric and literature
courses. The faculty that year included:
R.
Manning Walker, A. M.
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Greek
and Latin
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Miss
Betty Hopper
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Vocal
& Instrumental Music
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Miss
Ettie Jones
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Drawing
& Painting
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Miss
Callie White
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Principal
of the Preparatory Dept.
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Mrs.
A. Wood Terrill, M. A.
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History,
English & Philosophy
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Prof
Terrill A. M.
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Mathematics,
Physics, German
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In
1886, the Rev. J.S. Dongle assumed management of the
Institute which was sold the next year to J.H. Blincoe. It
was feared the Institute would be used as an apartment
building. However, Mrs. M.H. Hubbs, Macon, leased the
school and tried to maintain it. But interest was
dwindling mainly because of the progressive public school
system which had been established and the high cost of
tuition to the private institution. A school year
consisted of two terms. Costs per term in 1887 were listed
as: Juvenile course, $10, Preparatory, $15: Academic, $20;
and Collegiate, $25.
Mrs.
A. Wood Terrill and W.J. Marr tried to keep interest in
the dying institute but the doors were forced to close on
May 12, 1892.
The
building has since been used as private residences.
In
July 1861 war clouds gathered over northeast Missouri and
the Monroe Institute became involved in the Civil War. The
Union Army’s 16th Ill. Guard under the
command of Col. Smith, stationed at Palmyra, Mo. was
ordered to break up a camp of secessionists at Florida.
Col. Smith and his five hundred men met opposition in a
skirmish in the Swinkey hills south of Monroe City. It was
here while camping overnight that he learned from reports
that he had stirred up a veritable hornet’s nest.
Secessionists were swarming all around him, causing him to
withdraw to Monroe City where he took refuge in and
fortified the Monroe Institute. The troops remained here
for four days, being shot at many times with musket and
cannon. Out of twenty five rounds of cannon fire from 1 ˝
miles east of the Seminary building, it was hit only three
times.
It
was the battle of this building which brought a relatively
unknown man, later General and President, Col. U.S. Grant
and his troops out of Illinois into Missouri with orders
to relieve the men in Monroe City and squelch the uprising
in Northeast Missouri. This first battle of the Civil War
in Northeast Missouri ended just before Grant arrived, so
he marched on crossing Salt River at Hunnewell and
continued on to Florida and Mexico.
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