Meanwhile, a new star of hope arose in the heavens, and for several years at least it was a star of considerable brilliancy. It was made known, namely, that the will of Mr. Lewis Baldwin Parsons, a benefactor and philanthropist, and who died in Detroit, Michigan, December 21, 1855, after a successful life as a manufacturer in Buffalo, N. Y., contained a bequest setting aside a very considerable amount of money to found a Presbyterian college in Iowa. It could not be a matter of surprise, therefore, that the brethren in Cedar Rapids, who had struggled so hard to found a college with Mr. Coe's donation, and who had been so sorely disappointed, should now with enthusiasm welcome the thought that the Parsons legacy might be located here and be added to the Coe donation, and thus become the foundation of a strong college in Iowa in connection with the Presbyterian church. Accordingly, steps were taken to incorporate a new body of stockholders into an organization to be known as Parsons Seminary. The date of the first meeting with this end in view is November 10, 1866, and the following persons were chosen to serve as officers until the annual meeting in December: Rev. James Knox, president; Hon. George Greene, vice-president; Dr. John F. Ely, secretary; and Mr. S. C. Bever, treasurer.
At the annual meeting, December 3, 1866, the following officers were chosen: George Greene, president; James Knox, vice-president; John F. Ely, secretary; W. W. Walker, treasurer.
It was resolved immediately that Mr. Coe should be requested to deed to the new organization the eighty acres of land already donated by him to the Cedar Rapids Collegiate Institute, and at a meeting of the board of trustees of Parsons Seminary, held January 4, 1867, Judge Greene, president of the board, reported that he had visited Mr. Daniel Coe at his home in Durham, N. Y., and had procured from him the deed to Parsons Seminary of the land in question.
This most generous act of Mr. Coe reveals the large and unselfish character of the man and declares the nobility of his motive to promote the cause of high christian education in the west.
This act of Mr. Coe also gave great encouragement to the board of trustees of the seminary to proceed in their work, and they proceeded vigorously to raise what must in those days have been a considerable sum of money, for the purpose of erecting a suitable building for college purposes upon the edge of the eighty acre plot nearest to the town. The two town lots which had originally been purchased for the location of the school building were sold to the trustees of the First Presbyterian church, to become the site of a house of worship, which building was erected by them in 1869, and still stands a substantial edifice of stone, facing the public square long known as Washington Park, now George Greene Square.
The ways and means and plans for this new building occupied the attention of the board for many meetings during the years 1867 and 1868, and the work was pushed with all vigor to enable the trustees to open their seminary in the new building in the fall of 1868.
Meanwhile, the school work was inaugurated, pending the erection of the building on the college grounds, in the Wadsworth block, a row of unpretentious buildings resembling a barracks, on Second street and Fifth avenue, in the school year 1867-8. The principal of this school was the Rev. A. B. Goodale, a Presbyterian clergyman who survived in southern California until a few years ago.
Mr. Charles J. Deacon, our highly esteemed and greatly respected fellow citizen, who has spent a long and useful life among us, as an attorney, and who has been for several years a most valuable trustee of Coe College, was one of the first students of Parsons Seminary, and he has furnished us the following reminiscences which we gladly incorporate in this historical sketch:
"I came to Cedar Rapids and enrolled as a student in Parsons Seminary early in September, 1868. The school had been in progress under that name for a year previous, but then for the first time entered into the new building, now the west half of the main building of Coe college. This school was then prosperous and the body of students very enthusiastic. Dr. A. B. Goodale was the principal and Prof. Augustus Maasburg was the professor of Latin, Greek, French, and German. Miss A. D. Kelsey, a graduate of Mt. Holyoke, and a most estimable lady, had charge of the primary department, and also taught many of the classes in mathematics, and had charge of the botany class. Miss Lindsay, a sister of Mrs. Goodale, taught painting and drawing. A few weeks after the school opened, Professor and Madame Masurier came, and Professor Masurier took charge of the music, and Mme. Masurier was given the care of the French class. I remember also that Miss Addie Goodell, now Mrs. Birdsall, of Lake City, Iowa, was a student in the seminary, and it became necessary to have an assistant in the primary department, and she was employed in that capacity.