which reduced Mrs. Shimer's share in the estate.
In her first interview with William Rainey Harper, President of the University of Chicago, she had named $150,000 as a possible sum she hoped to leave at her decease as an endowment for the school, provided her life and health were spared long enough for her to retrieve the great losses she had sustained in the terrible freeze.
Referring to that interview in a subsequent letter, Dr. Harper wrote, "You will pardon me if I say that in my interview with you -- I was most forcibly struck with your own character, the work which you accomplished and the purpose which you had in mind. -- I felt that if in some small way I could help carry out this purpose it would give me the greatest possible pleasure to do so." Here were two dynamic personalities, two creative minds, two great souls sharing with strong purpose a dream of accomplishment that was to be Shimer College.
In July 1896, after much consultation and correspondence, Mrs. Shimer effected the orderly transfer of her school property to a corporation chartered in May 1896, as the Frances Shimer Academy of the University of Chicago, its affairs to be administered by a Board of fifteen trustees, eight of whom should be drawn from the University of Chicago faculty, the remaining seven from Mount Carroll citizenry, and alums; two-thirds of the Board, as well as the Principal of the Academy, were to be members of the Baptist church. (However, almost every other Protestant denomination has been represented among the other one third of Board members.) The principal office of the corporation was to be in Chicago.
The Executive Committee of the Board was made up of Alonzo K. Parker, President of the Board, Dr. Henry S. Metcalf, Vice President, John M. Rinewalt, Treasurer, Thomas W. Goodspeed, Secretary, William R. Harper, University of Chicago, Mrs. W. Ross Hostetter, a leading alumna, L.A. Crandall and Frank Miller, of the university faculty.
Mrs. Shimer's interesting life ended November 10, 1901. Her last resting place is in the quiet cemetery at Mount Carroll, on a height bordering the Waukarusa and overlooking the town which was the scene of her labors. Every Founder's Day the students, faculty and many alums make a pilgrimmage to her grave and, with a fitting tribute, lay a spray of flowers there.
With the opening of Frances Shimer Academy of the University of Chicago September 15, 1896, there opened a new era in the history of Shimer College. When the Board took over the management of the Academy, there was no money forthcoming from either Mrs. Shimer or from the University, though the school's educational policies were to be directed by it, so the Board was obliged to borrow $3,000, in $500 installments, secured by a mortgage on the Academy property, for the buildings had to be put in order for the opening of school and a modest catalogue issued during the summer. They elected Prof. Frank J. Miller, University of Chicago Examiner in the Department of Affiliations, to serve as Principal of the Academy without pay, in no way altering his relations to the University. Miss Ida M. Gardner, formerly Principal of Warren Academy, was elected to serve as Resident Principal and Dean of the Faculty.
During that trying first year under the new regime, with Mrs. Shimer's strong hand no longer on the reins, the situation, under a Board of Trustees the majority of whom resided in Chicago, absorbed in responsibilities there, who met only infrequently with their Mount Carroll colleagues, most of them busy business men, was not conducive to a smoothly functioning administration. Then there was the painful, at times embarrassing, shortage of ready money for meeting current expenses. Miss Gardner was often perplexed as to how to pay for furniture she felt was needed and for other necessary school supplies, wages of workers and teachers' salaries. At every turn the real Principal, in Chicago,
