Avalon College
Avalon and Trenton, Missouri
1873-1900
E-Travel
Most of what we know of Avalon College comes from newspapers published in the small towns and villages of northeast Missouri. The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune and the Carrollton Democrat were among the prominent ones. In 1958 the Democrat published the recollections of F. W. Rickenbrode, an 1882 graduate of Avalon College.
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History
Founded in 1869, Avalon Academy was a product of the United Brethren in Christ, their only school in Missouri. While it was placed in a rural area of Livingston Couty unreached by either railroad or paved road, Avalon Academy attracted students from a fifteen-county area of northeast Missouri. Classes began in 1873, and by1881 enrollment had reached 181. In that year the school added college-level classes and became known as Avalon College. In addition to music, business, and art departments, it offered both Classical and Scientific programs of study. Mr. Rickenbrode remembered his college courses as being “psychology, mathematics, zoology, botany, Caesar, Cicero, Latin, Greek, Algebra, penmanship, plane and solid geometry, astronomy, geometry, and ancient history.”
Avalon College attracted rural students—many with limited financial resources. The Braymer Bee profiled a female student who had attended the college in the 1890’s. She reported, “I had three dresses for my wardrobe the first year at college. One was a Sunday gingham, one ordinary gingham for school and a calico dress to wear while the better dress was being washed.”
Pinterest image of the eleven members of the 1894 graduating class. Posted by Hodge.
Despite the rural setting, Avalon College offered a rich life for students. There were two rival literary societies–Cleiomathean and Philophronean—allowing for oratorical contests and debates. A school team debated with Grand River College. Each graduate was expected to give an oration at commencement. The Music Department presented an annual concert featuring both vocal and instrumental ensembles. Students published a school newspaper—Wide Awake. In 1884 newspapers noted a
pancake social at which the male students were expected to eat the pancakes cooked by the females.
Bricks and Mortar
A Livingston County farmer, David Carpenter, donated ten acres of land on Scott’s Mound for a campus and set aside an additional 40 acres for building lots so that the town of Avalon (present population 47) grew up around the campus. By 1873 a two-story brick building was ready for the opening of the school. Later a third floor with a mansard roof was added to the structure. Rickenbrode notes the school bell which rang at 5:00 each morning to awaken students boarding in the area.
In 1893 the college moved to Trenton, a county seat town of 5,000 served by a railroad and a new library. There it occupied a modern three-story brick building with 29 rooms, including a 600-seat chapel, literary society rooms, labs, and recitation rooms.
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This building was later used by Ruskin College, and until 1923 by Trenton High School. It was razed in 1923 when a new high school was built. The original building at Avalon housed a Presbyterian college and later the Avalon High School. With its two upper stories removed, it became private residence in the 1960's.
Cardcow image of the Trenton building.
Sports
At Avalon College, Mr. Rickenbrode noted, there “were no baseball, football, basketball, or other sports of that nature. The young people went to that institution to obtain an education and their time was taken up in studying or in receiving instructions.”
However, after the move to Trenton, those students formed a baseball team which defeated a team from Jamesport 21-20 in 1893. The 1894 team lost to Jamesport.
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