Dr.
William Henry Harrison
Adams
Dr. William Henry
Harrison Adams was born on March 30, 1840 in Effingham County, Illinois.
He was oldest son of Christopher Beeks Adams, (born May 12, 1811 in Ohio, died February 13, 1880 in Long Creek Twp, Macon County, IL)
and
Sarah Gannoway (born abt. 1814 in Kentucky,
died Oct 3, 1854 in Coles County, IL). His father, Christopher, was a
descendant of the John Quincy Adams family. William’s grandfather was
one of
the earliest settlers of Ohio.
His mother was a devout Christian, and had a great influence on William
becoming a minister later in life.
William was very fond of reading in his
spare time as a young boy. In the summer months he would help his
father farm,
and read in his spare time. In the winter, William attended school in a
one-room log cabin schoolhouse in Coles County, IL. William then
continued his
education at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.
William was baptized a
Christian at age 17. He was then admitted to the Garrett Biblical
Institute at
the same school. There he studied to become a pastor. In 1859, when he
was 19,
he became licensed to preach. His first position was as a student
pastor in Chicago,
while still
attending school. He completed his training and graduated from the
Garrett
Biblical Institute at Northwestern in 1870. After he graduated, he was
first
appointed as pastor at the Methodist Churches in Monticello,
Clinton, and Atlanta, IL.
However, on August 12, 1862, William left
his education at Northwestern
University
and joined the
Army during the Civil War. While enlisted in the army, he served nine
months in
the 111th Illinois Volunteers and was promoted to the rank
of 1st
Lieutenant. Following this, he was put in charge of one of the first
African
American artillery regiments in the Western Army, where he rose to the
rank of
Major. He held this position until he resigned his commission on July 4th,
1865, so he could return to school and finished his education at
Northwestern.
Before he enlisted in the army, William
married Sarah E. Campbell on August 19, 1861 in Coles County, IL. This
would
not be a long marriage because Sarah died on August 19, 1866. Not too
long
after she died, William married again to Hannah Westfall Concklin on
August 27,
1867 in Frankfort,
Will County, IL. Hannah was born on October 26, 1842 in Plymouth, Ohio.
William and Hannah met when he returned to Northwestern to finish his
degree
and both graduated from the same school. They had four children
together: Lulu
May (b. December 8, 1869, d. January 26, 1947), Grace Greenwood (b.
August 23,
1871, d. July 4, 1960), Charles C. (born about 1874), and Katherine
Kellogg,
(b. November 11, 1875, d. June 21, 1966). All of William and Hannah’s
daughters
are buried in the family plot at Evergreen
Memorial Cemetery
in Bloomington, IL.
William and Hannah moved their family to Clinton, IL in
the fall
of 1872 when he became the minister of the Methodist Church.
While ministering at the church, William eliminated the church’s
$14,000 debt. This
accomplishment made him very well known and desirable to other
institutions,
which had similar debt problems. William was a forceful speaker and a
tireless
advocate for the needy.
In 1875, William was approached by the
Board of Trustees of Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL
and was asked to become president of the university. I.W.U had a
similar debt
problem as the Methodist Church in Clinton
did, except they owed a great deal more money, between $30,000 and
$40,000. He
was 35 years old when he accepted the presidency at I.W.U, becoming the
youngest president in the school’s history at that time. Besides being
the
president of the university, he also was a professor of Ethics and
Metaphysics.
William had inherited the project of
eliminating the school’s debt, which had grown to $50,000 by 1880. He
came up
with a solution to erase the debt by putting on a celebratory function
for the
university’s 30th anniversary. Distinguished guests attended
and
gave charitable contributions that were applied to eliminating the
debt. The
function was a success, but William was still $9,000 short of paying
off the
full amount of debt.
The
Pantagraph reported this in an article titled “A College For Sale”
because
Gilbert and Fay of Connecticut, the owners of the loan, attempted to
bring the
school to sale, offering it to the highest bidder on January 1, 1881 at
the
south doors of the courthouse in Bloomington.
The Board of Trustees at I.W.U took action against the sale of the
university
and won a thirty-day delay of sale. Again, they charged William with
the sole
responsibility of securing the funds to wipe out the university’s debt
once and
for all. Miraculously, he was able to secure enough money to erase the
debts
for good. This act earned him a reputation of being a “debt killer.” As
a
reward for all of his hard work, the Board of Trustees unanimously
granted him
a three-month vacation with continued pay. To further secure the future
of
I.W.U, William also secured two large donations of land in 1885; 360
acres in Macon County,
IL
and a 400-acre farm in Douglas County, IL.
Besides eliminating the enormous debt of
I.W.U., he was also responsible for helping to establish the College of Music
and the College
of Commerce,
which helped
enrollment grow. Also, a branch of the Adelphic Society was established
at
I.W.U. in 1878. The original Adelphic Society, established at
Northwestern
circa 1860, was a literary and theological society.
Between trying to raise the funds to
eliminate the university’s debts and also teaching classes for
students, the
long hours and heavy workload had taken its toll on William. He was
suffering
from rheumatism (a severe form of arthritis); by the time he retired
from
I.W.U. in 1887. He then resumed preaching and took a position at the
Methodist
Episcopal Church in Atlanta,
IL.
After a few more years of ministering, he
went on a retreat to Hot
Springs, Arkansas
in an attempt to heal
the pain of his rheumatism, which had now become inflammatory. While on
his
trip, he used small doses of chloroform to temporarily alleviate the
pain he
endured. After taking these doses of chloroform, he stopped at a hotel
and
immediately went to bed, falling asleep quickly. At one of these stops,
a few
hours after he had taken a dose of chloroform, in the early evening,
another
guest of the hotel heard William moaning. This person informed the
landlord and
a medical doctor was sent for. The doctor did everything he could for
William,
but he eventually died at 1:00 a.m. on March 12, 1890. The cause of
death was
reported as an overdose of chloroform. This was determined by a
¾ empty bottle
of chloroform, which was found in a drawer in William’s room. The
report
continued that there were no indications that this was a suicide.
Instead, it
was determined that he had accidentally overdosed. He was brought back
to Bloomington and was buried in Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.
His wife Hannah became embroiled in a
legal battle with Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association over her
husband’s life
insurance policy. The company denied the insurance claim based on the
fact that
William had not paid the final premium of the policy at the time of his
death. In
the end, Hannah won the suit and was awarded $10,260.66, more than she
had
originally sued for, which was only $10,000, the actual value of the
life
insurance policy. In today’s money, this would be about $211,329.
Hannah never remarried after William’s
death. She moved to Chicago
to live with her three daughters, who had never married. She died on
November
19, 1932 at the age of 90. She was brought back to Bloomington
and is buried next to her husband in Evergreen Memorial
Cemetery.
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