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110th Anniversary of Lindsey Wilson Training School is today What would Columbia be like without Lindsey Wilson College? Though hard to imagine today, the great institution which appears solid as Gibraltar hasn't always had such a rosy outlook as today. 'Through all the adversity and roadblocks, however, strong leaders seemed always to emerge, men of courage, conviction, and faith who had a clear vision of Lindsey Wilson's destiny...' Jim writes in outlining Lindsey Wilson College's first 110 year history. By JIM "Columbia has enthusiastically embraced the greatest opportunity that has ever been presented her. We have been intensely interested and are now supremely happy." (The Adair County News, October 8, 1902, upon the occasion of Columbia being selected as the site of the Methodist training school.) One hundred and ten years ago today, the future came to Columbia. On January 4th, 1904, the Lindsey Wilson Training School opened and changed Adair County forever. In early 1904, the population of Columbia had changed little from the 675 citizens enumerated in 1900, and the influx of students (and in many cases, their parents, who came to Columbia to be near their children) wrought powerful changes. Scarcely a year after the school opened, the "L.W.T.S. Notes" column in the Adair County News remarked, "Three new pupils entered the Lindsey-Wilson last week, making the enrollment three hundred and six," and in mid-June, 1905, at the end of the first full academic year, the paper saw fit to comment thus: "From the very hour [Lindsey Wilson's] bell called the first ingathering of students to its halls, a steady and almost phenomenal growth, both in students and interest, have been experienced, and just what its future will reveal can not be foretold." When this graying alumnus attended Lindsey Wilson College several decades ago, however, there were but 175 or so full time students, about 20 full time faculty members, and six administrators, including the President. (Recent articles in ColumbiaMagazine lead me to believe these numbers have edged up a bit in the ensuing years; nearly 650 degrees were conferred during calendar year 2013.) Through good times and bad, however, "the Lindsey-Wilson," as it was known during its earliest days, has been integral to Columbia for the past fivescore and ten years. From the beginning - from before the beginning - Lindsey Wilson had no greater champion than the local newspaper. In the fall of 1902, when the decision to locate the school in Columbia was tantalizingly close but not yet made, the News pointedly told its readers, "We are not for the Methodist school because of religious views but for the simple fact that a school of such magnitude would be a power for good and a blessing to our town in a business sense as well as otherwise." And a few weeks later, "The importance of moving forward with this proposition, until it is crowned with success ought to arouse the people of this town and county... To lose now would be equal to a calamity and to cease work may mean a loss." Almost twenty years later, as August 1921 drew to a close, the News reported (and opined) that "The Lindsey-Wilson will open September 6th and prospects are good for a splendid beginning. The dormitories have been put in a good sanitary condition, and the best of water is on the grounds. The faculty is made up of experienced teachers, and the discipline is correct. The school is run economically, and the closest attention is paid students..." The above article concluded with this chilling question: "What size town would Columbia be at this time had not this school been established here?" Perhaps the News itself had given the best, albeit indirect, answer in December, 1904, less than a year after Lindsey Wilson opened: "This enterprise has done more to awaken our people, to brighten the future of Columbia, to invite worthy families to cast lots with us than any other, if not all, other recent enterprises combined." Despite the rosy beginning, however, Lindsey's path often seemed thorn-strewn--the panic (recession) of 1907; the opening of the free graded and high school in Columbia in 1909; World War I, when many of the students and even its young principal, Paul Chandler, were called to the armed service of their country; the pandemic influenza outbreak of 1918-19; the Great Depression of the 1930s and early 1940s; World War II, when enrollment fell precipitously; and a general decline in the 1960s and early 1970s. Through all the adversity and roadblocks, however, strong leaders seemed always to emerge, men of courage, conviction, and faith who had a clear vision of Lindsey Wilson's destiny. Chief among these leaders were Dr. A.P. White, who kept the school going during the Depression; Dr. V.P. Henry, brought in during the second world war to close the school but who instead almost single-handedly kept Lindsey open and in Columbia, successfully -- at great personal cost -- fending off efforts to move and/or close the school; and Dr. L.R. McDonald, whose calm demeanor and steady hand gave Lindsey Wilson the opportunity to catch its collective breath and look to its future instead of its past. These three gentlemen, as well as so many other men and women who came before and after them, gave unstintingly of themselves to keep Lindsey open through the darkest of days and the toughest of times. Much has changed since Dr. McDonald and your humble scribe were freshmen together at Lindsey Wilson (his first year as President, my first year as a student): a campus utterly transformed, both figuratively and literally, and a burgeoning, engaged student body increasingly involved in community service. In February, 1906, in a well-aimed jab at the nattering nabobs of negativism, the News foretold the future, the impact of Lindsey Wilson today: "Those who laughed at the solicitors for funds to build the Lindsay-Wilson School ought to now realize the magnetic touch given Columbia. Every thing is moving and the future is rosy. It takes schools to bring our inland towns the most desirable citizens. We have the attractions and the people, the kind we want, are coming, coming." - JIM This story was posted on 2014-01-04 05:33:13
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