History of MacMurray College

Throughout its 161 years, MacMurray College has been consistently bold and innovative in carrying out its founders’ mission of educating students in the liberal arts tradition – a path that today leads its students toward our 21st Century goal of Life Centered Learning.

The State of Illinois was only 28 years old and for the most part considered an untamed frontier when a group of Methodist clergymen decided to expand a long-standing tradition within their church linking religion and education. By 1846, these clergy already had founded McKendree College near Illinois’ original population center in Madison and St. Clair counties, along with a number of elementary and secondary schools.

In a bold move that defied the conventional wisdom of the time, they decided their next step would be the formation of an academy for young women. McKendree opened in 1829 as an all-male school, but these far-sighted clergy, led by the Rev. Peter Akers and the Rev. Peter Cartwright, fought hard for an institution that would extend learning for women beyond the skills of elementary school.

They planned to build their new school – the Illinois Conference Female Academy -- in Jacksonville, which since its founding in 1825 had grown to be one of the largest communities in the young state. Although the Academy’s board first met in 1846, it took two years to plan and finance the school and to find teachers and administrators. Classes began on Oct. 1, 1848 in the basement of the former East Charge Methodist Church, which is now Centenary Methodist Church.

The Academy laid the cornerstone for its first permanent building, a four-story brick structure with a top-floor observatory, on East State Street in 1849. An addition that housed dormitories for increased enrollment was added in 1855. The name of the school was changed to the Illinois Conference Female College in 1851.

Early leaders of the school broke new ground in attracting students by offering “perpetual scholarships” for families. These scholarships allowed these families for a one-time set fee, to send one family member at a time to the Academy on a perpetual basis so that daughters would follow mothers and sisters to the school.

However, despite the expansion of enrollment, difficult times gripped the College between 1858 and 1868 due to rising costs and the hardships of the Civil War. Throughout the country, many colleges and academies similar to the ICFC closed because of the war and during the tough years of reconstruction.

The College almost closed in 1860, but was saved primarily by a stirring speech delivered to the Illinois Methodist Conference by Mrs. Ann Dumville, a poor housekeeper from Carlinville. In that age, women did not address the Conference elders, but Mrs. Dumville, who had managed to send two daughters to the College, rose like an “apparition from another world” and spoke forcefully about the need for the institution.

The school survived, and through the hard work of local benefactors, was free of debt by 1862. To recognize this “second founding,” the name of the school was changed in 1863 to the Illinois Female College.

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, the College grew and provided a rigorous educational program for women at the preparatory and collegiate levels. Programs of instruction included Latin, Greek, French, German, chemistry, astronomy, physics, botany, zoology, mathematics, rhetoric, natural and moral philosophy and meteorology. Other courses included music, piano, domestic economy and gymnastics.

A student's day was rigidly controlled and began early in the morning and proceeded through a steady succession of classes and study halls to "lights out" in the evening. Social life included chaperoned visits off-campus and the reception of male guests, provided they were approved by the governess. Nonetheless, according to a college historian, the dean experienced some difficulty preventing students from escaping from the residence halls.

More serious pursuits included student support for Union efforts during the Civil War and the development of the Belles Lettres service organization and the Phi Nu Sorority, both of which still exist on campus. Literary societies were created to promote "independent thought and accurate habits of composition.” On a more practical level, a large garden was maintained by staff and students, as well as horses and pigs in a barn that stood on the site of the current Ann Rutledge Hall. Early presidents made soap and chopped wood for use in the school.

Fire destroyed the original College building in 1870, but not the dorm addition, and College activities continued there, and at Centenary Church, until a new Main Building was completed in 1871. When this new structure also burned in 1872, the future of the College was in doubt. But a third Main Building identical to the second was finished in 1873. Enrollment declined, and for the first time, the College’s elders toyed with the idea of admitting men to the school. In 1875, Peter Akers, one of the College’s original founders, wrote, “Get that word out – Female!...Let the College be for the education of all the children that can be sent.”

Despite periods of difficulty, the College continued to push the boundaries of education for women, creating an Academy of Music and Art in 1875. With the permission of the state legislature, the College was the first school in Illinois to grant diplomas specifically in art and music, in 1879.

The College also organized and sponsored lectures, held at Jacksonville’s Strawn Opera House, for students and the public. Among the notable names that came to West Central Illinois in the late 1800s were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Ward Beecher, Susan B. Anthony, Frederick Douglass, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain and Buffalo Bill Cody.

In 1899, the school’s name was changed to the Illinois Woman’s College at the request of its president, Dr. Joseph R. Harker, a dynamic leader who arrived on campus in 1893. President Harker worked tirelessly to build the College financially, academically and physically. Enrollment increased and new buildings were constructed to house growing programs. Among the benefactors solicited by Dr. Harker around the turn of the century were Andrew Carnegie and Dr. C.E. Welch, founder of the grape juice empire.

Harker’s ultimate goal, however, was to raise the academic status of the College to a four-year institution granting bachelor’s degrees for women in a variety of fields. In 1909, the College was fully accredited and offered its first baccalaureate degrees. The academic program rose in stature to stand among the best in the nation. In 1914, the student government was chartered, beginning an uninterrupted association with faculty, staff, and the trustees.

Perhaps the most profound event in the history of the College occurred in the early years of the 20th Century, when a young woman named Miriam MacMurray was sent to the school by her parents, James and Jane. Her father, James E. MacMurray, was a former Illinois state senator and the president of Chicago’s Acme Steel Corporation. The College quickly became Sen. MacMurray’s life-long avocation.

Between 1916, when he was named a member of the Board of Trustees, and his death in 1943, Senator MacMurray donated more than $4 million to the institution and increased the physical assets of the College by more than $5.3 million. He gave both to the general endowment and to the construction of beautiful Georgian-style buildings which today give the 60-acre campus a feeling of dignified permanence.

As enrollment continued to grow, Sen. MacMurray contributed half of the funds needed to construct a new science hall – named after him – as well as residence halls: One named after his first wife Jane, one named after Abraham Lincoln’s first sweetheart, Ann Rutledge, one named after his second wife, Kathryn, and a dining hall that eventually would be named for President C. P. McClelland.

In 1930, in response to the Senator’s overwhelming generosity, President McClelland led the Board of Trustees to rename the school MacMurray College for Women. More than any other person, James MacMurray changed the face of the College and placed it on a solid footing for the immediate future.

As it did throughout the country, the Great Depression derailed the growth of the College for many years. Parents could not afford to send their daughters to a private school and enrollment fell. College officials, so confident of their financial future at the beginning of the decade, were forced to use up a portion of the endowment and make staffing and budget cuts to stay viable.

Nonetheless, the 1930s were years of more relaxed rules governing dormitory hours, required chapel and smoking. Playing bridge was the most popular informal pastime. This period was also noted for the development of the women's initiation ceremony which has become known as "Green Ribbon."

The 1940s were occupied with activities in support of American efforts in World War II, but remarkably building at the College continued as enrollments rebounded. A wealthy New York City philanthropist, Mrs. Annie Merner Pfeiffer, donated half of the funds needed to build a new campus library, which was named in honor of her late husband, Henry.

A few years later, in time for the College’s centennial celebration, Mrs. Pfeiffer also donated half of the funds for the construction of the first free-standing chapel on campus. Today, the chapel is dedicated in Mrs. Pfeiffer’s maiden name – Annie Merner – and has become a landmark in Jacksonville. Approaching town from the east, the tall steeple of Annie Merner Chapel still rises majestically above the trees.

In almost 60 years, the Chapel has hosted pianist Van Cliburn, soprano Leontyne Price, violinist Isaac Stern, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Burl Ives, the Juillard String Quartet, and jazz greats Chick Corea & Return to Forever, Stan Kenton and Taj Mahal.

In 1942, MacMurray College was accredited to offer Master’s Degrees in psychology, physical education and special education, programs that continued until 1961.

During the 1950s the campus returned to normal following the war and student life came to be characterized by such events as presentation of the senior song, senior cut day, the Lantern Drill, and a highlight of the year - the Faculty Show. However, low birth rates during the Depression affected enrollment and the College again faced funding problems. In addition, changing cultural mores led more and more women away from all-female colleges to co-educational institutions and many women’s colleges throughout the nation began to close or merge with close-by all-male colleges.

The debate over co-education at MacMurray was fierce, defined on one hand by a century-old tradition and on the other by fiscal and cultural realities. In 1955, on a motion by Milburn Peter Akers, a grandson of founder Peter Akers, the Board of Trustees accepted a compromise that opened the College’s doors to men yet maintained the semblance of the traditional women’s college.

The Trustees established MacMurray College for Men as a coordinate institution related to the Women's College that would use almost all the same facilities but maintain separate courses, clubs and traditions. There were two student newspapers, two choirs and two dining halls. The women ruled the older northern part of campus, while the men were housed south of Town Brook in newer, more contemporary residence halls built between 1957 and 1966.

The first class of 130 freshman men moved into Blackstock House on September 13, 1957, thus beginning a period of curricular reassessment, redevelopment of social activities and student government, and intensified construction of new facilities.

A men’s intercollegiate sports program was initiated in 1957 with soccer and basketball, followed in 1958 by baseball, wrestling and track. By the time the first class of “Mac Men” graduated in 1961, there was only one campus newspaper, one yearbook and barriers in other areas had broken down on campus. Slowly over the next decade, men and women students closed the gaps that separated them on campus.

The Hub, a popular student meeting place located in Rutledge basement, became inadequate and was moved in 1965 to the new ultra-modern Gamble Campus Center. Dining rooms in the basements of Norris and Blackstock were closed and, in 1967, men joined women for meals in McClelland Dining Hall.

The final step came in 1969, when the Board of Trustees voted to reorganize the coordinate colleges into a single institution and MacMurray College was born.

Financial troubles once again knocked upon the College’s door, as Illinois’ system of publicly-funded universities grew to 12 institutions and the General Assembly created a regional system of 40 two-year “community colleges” that provided higher education close to home at a fraction of the cost of a private school such as MacMurray.

To carve its own path, the College continued to build and develop specialties for students in the classroom, as well as preserve traditions important to students and alumni. A new science building dedicated to chemistry – and later named after the noted African-American chemist Percy Lavon Julian, was completed in 1964. A state-of-the-art Education Complex, containing a new 1,400-seat multi-purpose gym and competition swimming pool was opened in 1975.

Along with its traditional academic strengths, MacMurray quickly developed a reputation for excellence in many education-related fields, including deaf interpreter training and schooling for children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Nursing, criminal justice and business administration also were, and continue to be, highly-acclaimed programs.

Life on campus during the 1960s and early 1970s was dominated by concern for the developing Civil Rights Movement and the war in Vietnam. The mid-1970s saw the development of the Competence-Oriented Participative Education (COPE) curriculum.

The decade of the 1980s ushered in a period of relative calm on college campuses for students nationwide. MacMurray was no exception. For many students, their focus centered on career preparation and graduate school placement, and new programs were instituted to meet these needs.

However, changing financial times created another rough period for MacMurray, and in response, the Board of Trustees elected a respected faculty member and administrator, Dr. Edward J. Mitchell, to be the College’s president. In response to the financial problems, Dr. Mitchell initiated some drastic, yet necessary, steps which restored the College to fiscal health. The endowment was quadrupled and enrollments increased.

As the College faced the beginning of its third century of its existence, more and more course offerings and concentrations began to focus on life-centered fields of study, including social work. MacMurray is only one of three private small colleges in Illinois to offer the degree of bachelor of social work.

Academic emphasis returned to the liberal arts in the form of a new general education program, otherwise known as MacMurray's Core Curriculum, or the "Ideas in Perspective" sequence. Many experts called the innovative program a blueprint for a lifetime of learning.

MacMurray College reached a milestone in 1996 with the celebration of its Sesquicentennial, and one year later Dr. Lawrence D. Bryan was selected as MacMurray's fourteenth president. One of Dr. Bryan’s lasting contributions to the campus during his 10-year administration was overseeing the construction of the Putnam Center for the Arts and William H. Springer Center for Music, twin complexes next to each other that are dedicated to a long-standing tradition at MacMurray of fine arts instruction.

Dr. Bryan’s retirement in 2007 led to a nationwide search for a new president, the College’s 15th since 1846. More than 50 leaders in higher education applied before the Board of Trustees settled on the first woman to lead the campus – Dr. Colleen Hester, the vice president of strategic planning, institutional research and evaluation at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas.