Moline College

[ddurbin]

Attention all you Moline folks and Elk County historians.  I need your help on this one.  What do you know about Moline College?  I recently ran across a Commencement invitation to Moline College from 1903.  Its list of graduates (6-7) all appeared to be Elk County residents, mostly from the Moline area.  Several appear to be earlier graduates of Moline High School.  Was there a college in Moline for a period of time, and if so, when and how long?  Where was it?  Can anyone help on this one? 

[Clubine Ranch]

No one around to ask. That age of person is long gone. Might check the records at the Courthouse in Howard. Never heard anyone talk about this. That is very interesting.

[Marcia Moore]

     I am pretty sure I saw that same commencement invitation on ebay recently.  Because the invitation has a date, you should be able to look at microfilm from an old Moline newspaper, and hopefully it will say whether the class is the first, second, third, etc. to graduate from the college.  That will give you an idea how far to look back for information on the college's beginning.  The college may not have had its own building - it may have used part of the high school building for its classes.  It is safe to say, though, that the college was not in operation long.  Back then it was not uncommon for a college student to board a train every day to go to school.  I know the college students from Severy would jump on the train to go to college at Eureka every day.

[ddurbin]

Here is the list of graduates included with the Commencement Announcement of Moline College 1903:
Mary Letitia Sturges
Otis Benton Durbin
Merton John Silger
Walter Bennett Monroe
Frank Ray Harris
Edward Lawrence Dillon
George Groah Broughton

[Flintauqua]

Brother Dan,

Have you figured this out yet.  Have you come across this at the KSHS archives:

________. "No Ghostly Pallor in Moline's 79--Year History." Independence Daily Reporter. Apr. 27, 1958. [1 p.]. (Reel: I557).

I haven't seen this, if you have it or obtain it, I would like a copy.

Oh, welcome back from Disneyworld!!!

Brother Charles

[W. Gray]

Here is my take on this subject.

When I first read this thread about a Moline College several months ago, I was reminded that I had previously came across something about a Longton College in the local newspapers of the late 1870s or early 1880s. The article grabbed my eye and I was thinking "wow" a college in Longton.

I have not been able to again find that article or other information. From what I can recall, though, the college was a two or three week refresher training session for county teachers prior to school starting.

The Howard City Elk County Ledger, August 4, 1877, has information published by its Boston (Kansas) correspondent saying that "Our county normal institute commenced Monday."

Under another story titled "Normal Institute Notes" the same newspaper says "The Normal Institute began its first session at this place on Monday," referring to Elk Falls.

A Professor Greenwood, who the newspaper called the best normal instructor in the West, taught classes in grammar, reading, history, arithmetic and theory and practice.

A Professor Dewy conducted classes in Geography and a Professor Prentiss taught Phonic Analysis.

Forty-one students were listed in attendance from Boston, Howard City, Elk Falls, Longton, Bloomfield, Greenfield, Union Center, Paw Paw, Salina, O. (Indian Territory or Oklahoma?) Elk City, Arkansas City, and Lazette. Moline was just a twinkle in J. F. Chapman's eye that year.

A "normal institute" or "normal school" once signified a teachers college.

I recall concerning the Longton College that the community was losing interest and the college was in jeopardy.

The community probably donated school classrooms and dollars to support the effort each year. Or, it may have been the students were footing all or part of the cost.

In 1877, the Elk Falls normal institute appears to be the very first effort at training teachers in Elk County. Between that year and the 1903 Moline College graduation the school site may have switched from place to place depending on which town was lending support.

If these schools are the same, the number of forty-one attending in 1877 and the six or seven in 1903 seems significant.

A research paper on this subject would really be interesting.

[W. Gray]

I found this in Patterson's College and School Directory of the United States and Canada, 1905.

Under Kansas:

Moline, Elk Co.; pop 695
Moline College; prep; co-ed; none-sect.;
Mrs S. E. Powell, Prin.

Eureka had a Southern Kansas Academy.
Iola had an Iola Business College.
Emporia had the College of Emporia, Emporia Business College, State Normal School, and the Western Musical Conservatory.

Nothing listed for twin sister Chautauqua.

The Elk County superintendent of schools was W. F. Biddinger, Howard.

Kansas was listed as 22nd in population in 1905 with 1,470,495 people of which 1,416,319, or 96.3% were white. 126,977 were foreign born.

The illiteracy rate was 2.9%, third in the nation.


Kansas was, in 2008, 33rd in population with 2,802,134 or about double in 100 years.

[W. Gray]

Thirteenth Biennial Report of the Secretary of State of the State of Kansas, 1901-1902, shows a Moline Business College.

A Mrs E. R. Powell's name is attached with no other information.


Same book shows following population:
Longton, 517
Howard, 1,071
Moline, 643
Grenola, 485
Elk Falls, not listed

Also lists for Moline school system:
Number of cases of tardiness, 23
Number neither absent or tardy, 5
Number of teachers in high school, 1 male
Number of teachers in grade school, 1 male, 3 females
Total teachers employed, 5
Number of months in school year, 8

Moline State Bank had assets and liabilities of $88,645.19


Howard had 3 high school teachers and 5 grade school teachers

[W. Gray]

A list of Kansas Ghost Colleges and Universities in the Historical Atlas of Kansas does not show a former college in Moline.

However, in addition to the state normal schools at Emporia, Pittsburg, and Hays, the list shows that Kansas also had state normal schools in Concordia, Fort Scott, and Leavenworth.

[W. Gray]

Are you sure it was Concordia, Kansas?

Concordia is in Cloud County in north central Kansas and is one county away from the Nebraska border.

The State Normal School at Concordia existed only during the 1870s.

The only other school listed for Concordia, past or present, is a current two-year community junior college.