"O fairest Monticello": Monticello female seminary

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Autumn 2000 by Mitchell, Barbara J

In 1832 Captain Benjamin Godfrey, an Alton businessman, had a problem. He knew it was his Christian duty to put his considerable fortune to good use, but he just could not decide what would be best.

Godfrey had a colorful background. Born in 1794 in Chatham, Massachusetts, a Mayflower descendant, he ran away to sea at the age of nine, lived in Ireland for nine years, joined the U.S. Navy during the War of 1812, and afterwards was the prosperous captain of a merchantman on the Massachusetts, Spain, West Indies circuit. Then he lived in Matamoros, Mexico until he was robbed. This harrowing experience precipitated a religious awakening which convinced him the crisis was a warning from God. He immediately returned to the United States determined to do something better with his life.

In New Orleans he met Winthrop Gilman, who persuaded him to move to Alton where they became business partners. The partnership was such a success they branched out into banking and a stage line. Godfrey was president of the Alton and Sangamon Railroad that built the first rail line from Alton to Springfield.2 Both men built homes for their families on the prairie a few miles away from the hustle and bustle of the river town that (in 1837) had a population of 2500. An article in a 1924 issue of the Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society described Godfrey as "a bold Massachusetts type... the sailing master... vigorous, adventurous, shrewd, tenacious, humorous, of decided, aggressive, constructive ideas."3

Godfrey admitted that his younger days "would make a novel," but in his newfound spirituality he was particularly impressed by one passage in the Bible, "What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul." (Mark 8:36) It was a question that made him rather uncomfortable with the wealth he had accumulated, so he sought a way to use it for the benefit of others. He explained how the answer came to him:

One morning in 1832, while lying in bed somewhat indisposed, my wife came into the room, and as she went out made some remarks. One of our little children, that had just begun to lisp a few words, caught the remark, and while playing by itself on the floor, repeated it over and over for some time. This led me to reflect on the powerful effect of a mother's example on the minds, manners, and habits of their offspring, and the no less powerful influence that females have over society at large.... With these reflections, the idea came into my mind to erect a Seminary, in which females could, with the blessing of God, be prepared to discharge their numerous, arduous and responsible duties.

His wife enthusiastically endorsed the idea, so

... being desirous to act the part of a faithful steward of what God had placed in my possession, I resolved to devote so much of it as would erect a building, to be devoted to moral, intellectual, and domestic improvement of females, particularly those whose means were limited.4

The germ of the idea slowly matured in Godfrey's mind. Two years went by before he finally met the man he believed capable of actually getting the school under way. In December 1834 Reverend Theron Baldwin called on Godfrey to solicit a donation for the new Illinois College in Jacksonville, founded by the Yale Bands Baldwin, a native of Goshen, Connecticut, had graduated from Yale where he came under the spell of President Timothy Dwight. Dwight had traveled throughout New England observing schools. He saw that girls whose families could afford to send them to academies and boarding schools were taught only a little grammar, geography, composition, music, drawing, embroidery, and a smattering of French. However, he was optimistic that girls in the future would have the opportunity to get a better education. He wrote, "It is earnestly to be hoped, that ... the women of this country, who, so far as they possess advantages, appear in no respect to be behind the other sex either in capacity or disposition to improve, may no longer be precluded from the best education by the negligence of men." When he became president of Yale, Dwight began hosting revivals. He envisioned the college as the headquarters of an army of Christ, with the importance of equal education for all as the message Yale alumni would deliver throughout the country.6 As an earnest young divinity student, Baldwin was caught up in this revival spirit. In November 1828 at a meeting of the College Society of Inquiry Respecting Missions he delivered a paper called "The Encouragement to Active Individual Efforts in the Cause of Christ." Afterward, he spoke with friends about projects for opening schools on the frontier and these discussions resulted in the founding of the Yale Band "to promote collegiate and theological education in the West."'

Baldwin's closest friend, Julian Sturtevant, actually directed Illinois College, saying to the students on the first day of classes, "We are here today to open a fountain where future generations may drink." Other members of the Yale Band included Mason Grosvenor, Albert Hale (who was pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church in Springfield from 1839 to around 1867), Flavel Bascom, William Kirby, Elisha Jenney, and Asa Turner. The group would also be instrumental in the founding of Wabash College, Beloit College, Western Reserve University, Marietta College, Knox College, the Lane Theological Seminary (Cincinnati), and Chicago Theological Seminary.8