Drury University History

   According to a history of Springfield's Drury University that is on the institution's website, the school was founded in 1873 by Congregationalist home missionaries as a liberal arts college patterned after Congregationalist liberal arts schools in the East like Oberlin, Yale, and Harvard. After considerable debate, Springfield was chosen over Neosho as the school's location. The school was organized and endowed by James and Charles Harwood of Springfield, the Reverend Nathan Morrison of Michigan, and Samuel Drury, also of Michigan. At first, the institution was named Springfield College, but, after Drury gave a $25,000 gift to the school, the name was changed to Drury College to honor his recently deceased son. The Reverend Morrison was named president of the school, and the first classes began on September 25, 1873.
   The campus was located where it still is today, but it included only about an acre and a half. The curriculum in the early days emphasized education, religion, and music, and students came from as far away as western Oklahoma. Five students, all women, made up the first graduating class in 1875.
   Today, the campus has expanded to ninety acres, encompassing the original site. Drury College became Drury University in 2000, reflecting the school's growth and its wide range of academic offerings.
   That's a short version of the history, as chronicled on the school's website, but I wondered what I could learn about the college's beginnings from newspapers published at the time of its founding. The answer is not much.
   An advertisement, which sought to recruit students to Drury, ran in the St. Louis Missouri Republican (and perhaps other newspapers) for several weeks leading up to the first classes in the fall of 1873. After announcing that the fall term would begin on September 25, the ad promised "Full Classical and Scientific Courses of study, an able and experienced corps of instructors, (and) equal advantages to both sexes." Special attention would be paid to preparing teachers for the public schools. Students would receive "thorough drill and broad culture in the Ancient Classics, for which the best Eastern Academies are famous."
   A notice also ran in the Springfield Missouri Weekly Patriot on September 18, one week before classes were scheduled to begin, asking prospective students and/or their parents to meet with the school president in an office on the Springfield square on Tuesday the 23rd or Wednesday the 24th between the hours of two and five p.m. to facilitate planning and organization for the start of the term.
   And that's about it, as far as the early history of Drury that can be gleaned from contemporary newspapers is concerned.