Leander Clark College

{{Short description|Leander Clark College was a college in Iowa, United States}}

File:LeanderClarkAfter1889Fire.jpg, after the fire of 1889]]

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.

History

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.[http://www.public.coe.edu/departments/Library/archives/WesternCollege.htm Western College - A Brief History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100605004045/http://www.public.coe.edu/departments/Library/archives/WesternCollege.htm |date=2010-06-05 }}, Coe College Archives website, accessed June 21, 2010

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. 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.Mike Donahey, [http://www.timesrepublican.com/pdf/news/518472_1.pdf Leander Clark College], The Times-Republican (Marshalltown, Iowa), August 2009

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 {{convert|16|acre|ha}} in Toledo.

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. 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.Henry W. Ward (1911), [https://archive.org/details/westernleandercl00warduoft Western, Leander-Clark College, 1856-1911], Otterbein Press, Dayton, Ohio. 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. The Leander Clark campus became a state juvenile home.Don M. Griswold, [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1354457/pdf/amjphealth00058-0025.pdf Scarlet Fever in a State Juvenile Home], The American Journal of Public Health 1923 June; 13(6): 465–469.John Speer, [http://www.tamatoledonews.com/page/content.detail/id/501205/Old-IJH-Powerhouse-demolished.html Old IJH Powerhouse demolished], Toledo (Iowa) Chronicle, August 4, 2009

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.[https://books.google.com/books?id=zg08AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA496&lpg=PA496 Lupton et al. v. Leander Clark College (Supreme Court of Iowa, April 4, 1922)], 187 Northwestern Reporter 496.

Student body

Western College was coeducational from its founding. 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."Negro Alumni of the Colleges of Iowa", by Prof. Paul S. Peirce, in W.E.B. Du Bois and Augustus Granville Dill, eds., [http://www.library.umass.edu/spcoll/digital/dubois/dubois15.pdf The College-Bred Negro American] (Report of a Social Study made by Atlanta University under the patronage of the Trustees of the John F. Slater Fund; with the Proceedings of the 15th Annual Conference for the Study of the Negro Problems, held at Atlanta University, on Tuesday, May 24th, 1910). The Atlanta University Publications, No. 15. Page 30.

Sports

Leander Clark College fielded intercollegiate American football, baseball,[https://books.google.com/books?id=SsfOAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA129&lpg=PA129 The Grinnell Review 1913], page 129 and basketball teams.[https://books.google.com/books?oe=UTF-8&id=AqJBAAAAIAAJ Luther College through sixty years, 1861-1921], page 346 The football team had overall records of 2–6 against Grinnell College[http://www.grinnell.edu/Athletics/football/archives/opponentrecords Grinnell College Football -- All-Time Records vs Opponents], Grinnell College website, accessed June 21, 2010 and 0–3 against Cornell College.[http://www.cornellcollege.edu/athletics/mens-sports/football/pdf/FootballScores.pdf All-Time Series Records], Cornell College website, accessed June 21, 2010