Tag: Andrew Carnegie

Happy Birthday, Annie

Annie Merner Pfeiffer is a name that is familiar to us on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College. It is the name on our library.  When people notice that the library is named for her, they assume that she might have been a librarian here or maybe a faculty member. The truth is that Annie Merner Pfeiffer never set foot on the campus.

So why name a building after her? Especially one so central to the educational mission of the school?

Annie Merner Pfeiffer

Born on September 23, 1860 (159 years ago on the day I am writing this) in New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada, Annie Merner was educated in the public schools of Ontario. At the age of 22, she married Henry Pfeiffer.

Henry, born in Lewiston, Pennsylvania in 1857, moved with his family to Cedar Falls, Iowa when he was young. He worked in the retail drug business early in his career before moving to St. Louis, Missouri for a position in the drug manufacturing business. He founded the Pfeiffer Chemical Company in St. Louis in 1901 and in 1908 purchased William R. Warner & Company in Philadelphia.

According to his obituary in the New York Times (April 14, 1939):

Under his direction the Warner company, which had been founded in 1851, became oneof the leading manufacturers of drugs, pharmaceuticals and chemicals used in the drug trade. The company now maintains factories in New York and St. Louis and in fifteen foreign countries.

Philanthropy

Annie and Henry had no children of their own, and subscribed to the philosophy of Andrew Carnegie’s Gospel of Wealth,” written in 1889, which said that those who were wealthy had an obligation to use that wealth to help others.

Like many of those who amassed great wealth in the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Pfeiffers wanted to use their wealth to endow institutions that would build a strong and educated society – places like colleges,universities, and libraries.

Recipients of funds from Henry and Annie Merner Pfeiffer for colleges and universities, both in the United States and abroad, included:

  • Colegio Ward (Buenos Aires)
  • Yenching University (Peiping, China)
  • Ewha College (Seoul, Korea)
  • Albright College (Reading, PA)
  • Bennett College (Greensboro, NC)
  • Cornell College (Mount Vernon, IA)
  • North Central College (Naperville, IL)
  • Ohio Wesleyan University (Delaware, OH)
  • Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY)
  • Baldwin-Wallace College (Berea, OH)
  • Pfeiffer Junior College (Misenheimer, NC)
  • West Virginia Wesleyan College (Buckhannon, WV)
  • Tennessee Wesleyan University (Athens, TN)

This list is not complete. The thing that they had in common were connections to the Methodist Episcopal Church and the fact that they were private liberal arts schools. There were many others, and also scholarships for the students as well.

Annie Merner Pfeiffer was also a Member of the board for the New York Deaconess Association and Methodist Church Home.  The purpose of this institution was to prepare women for all branches of home and foreign missionary work.

Henry died in 1939, and a foundation was set up to continue the work that they had started. President Broyles had been talking with Annie Merner Pfeiffer in regards to a gift for our much-needed library. He died suddenly on September 29, 1945, but the day that his successor, Dr. William Scarborough, was elected by the Board of Trustees one of his first official acts was to announce that she had committed to a gift of $100,000 for the library – with two conditions.

To read this issue, click here.

We read in Kenneth Plummer’s book, A History of West Virginia Wesleyan College, that:

(1) funds were to be made available when construction of the building commenced

(2) at least two other buildings of equal cost were to be constructed at the same time. [Note: this turned out to be L.L. Loar Memorial Hall of Music and Fine Arts and Fleming Hall]

In her will, Mrs. Pfeiffer also left a substantial amount of money to the Methodist General Board of Education for distribution at its discretion. Upon recommendation of Dr. John O. Gross, secretary of the board, Wesleyan was given subsequently an additional $50,000 for the library fund.

As one who has lived in that building for many years (first as a Library Science major, then as a staff member, and as Director of Library Services for a decade), I would like to thank Annie Merner Pfeiffer for her generosity which has had a deep impact on my life.

Happy Birthday, Annie Merner Pfeiffer! And Thank You.

A Stately Statement: The Lynch-Raine Administration Building

Administration Building 2019
Photo by Danny Green, 2019

This stately building on the campus of West Virginia Wesleyan College was built in 1906 on the site of the original Seminary Building, which had burned on February 4, 1905.

After that tragic fire, in the Trustee Response, we read, “A vigorous campaign is in progress for money. The money can be secured only by dash, brains, faith, and persistence”. It ends by saying, “Let rallying be the order not dallying.” These were the words of President Wier.

President Wier did, indeed, go out and rally support.

Gifts came from many people who truly believed in the mission of the school. One major gift even came from Andrew Carnegie. Another from D.K. Pearson, a Chicago millionaire who was a very strong Methodist and a very serious philanthropist.

Pearsons, Daniel Kimball

Daniel Kimball Pearsons had previously given money for the Seminary. He not only donated again when he heard of the tragic fire, but urged his friend Andrew Carnegie to do so as well. Pearsons and his wife had no children, and he had donated his fortune through the years to 54 church-related schools throughout the United States. He believed in education and in young people. In fact, in his biography, he referred to these as his 54 children. He said,

My children are all inanimate objects. I have placed the money I have given them in the shape of perpetual endowments in charge of the management, but those men are simply the instruments chosen to keep the money drawing interest for my children.

From 1906-07 it was simply called the New College Building.

From 1908-28 it was generally referred to as College Hall, although some pictures had the caption Hall of Liberal Arts.

Beginning in 1929 it was most generally referred to as The Administration Building until the Trustee meeting in Fall 1953 when it was renamed the Lynch-Raine Administration Building.

Administration Building Description

Who are Lynch and Raine?

Lynch and Raine Slide

These two men combined for nearly twenty years of leadership as Presidents of the Board of Trustees. Their work and their generosity were major reasons for the growth of the school throughout those early years.

Judge Charles Wesley Lynch

In Bench and Bar of West Virginia, George W. Atkinson said of Judge Lynch

He is incorruptible. He is severely candid and is essentially just. His ability is unusual, and his life and achievements stamp him as a lawyer, jurist, and a patriot of the highest grades.

John Raine

Upon his death, there was an article in the September 1940 issue of the West Virginia Wesleyan College Bulletin honoring John Raine and expressing appreciation for all he had meant to the college.

Raine, John Obituary in College Bulletin

So, the next time you see this building take a closer look. Think about the people who made it possible and the people for whom it is named. It is not just a building with offices and classrooms. It is a symbol of much more than that.

It shows the determination of people not to give up when fire consumed the major building on campus in 1904.

It shows that people outside of our area, and who were not even connected to the school, believed in the mission of the institution.

It honors two men who provided great leadership.

It makes a statement.

Administration Building Murmurmontis 1926
1926