hon. c. g. saunders, a.b., ll.d.
my father, george w. saunders, was born in england, june 3, 1837. his parents emigrated with their children and settled in oneida county, new york, in the spring of 1852. my mother, mary e. walker, was also born in england and came with her people in the forties to the same county in america, and i presume they should properly be placed in that large class of people who were “poor but honest”; my maternal grandfather, thomas walker, became a prosperous farmer, and lived to a very old age. shortly after his coming to america, my grandfather, william saunders, became an invalid and my father, being the oldest of a large family, was compelled to assist in earning a livelihood for the family and so was deprived of early educational advantages. he was a man of strong natural talents, of strict integrity, and was commonly known as a “hard-headed old englishman.” he became a very successful farmer before his death and “passed over the grade” financially just as i became of age. my sainted mother was a plain, home woman who loved her family and her god, and who devoted her life 127 to her family of eight children and her husband. i was the oldest child, and was born on the 10th day of april, 1861, in oneida county, new york. in 1868 my father removed to iowa city, iowa, where he was a railroad foreman for five years, and during those years i attended the graded school when i was not sick. in the spring of 1873 my father concluded he did not desire to rear his boys about a railroad, and so settled upon an eighty-acre farm, near stuart, iowa. at this early age, when i was puny and weak, i was forced by the financial condition of the family to enter upon the active duties of the farm. many a day have i plowed, when i did not possess sufficient strength to pull the plow around the corners, and lifted it around by getting the handles upon my shoulder. in the spring of 1876, my father saw that he could make only a bare living upon his small farm, so he sold it and removed to vail, iowa, and settled in the rich and fertile valley of the boyer river. at this time he had about two thousand dollars, a weak body, and an ambition to achieve success. an injury sustained while in the railroad employment incapacitated him from doing the heavy work of the farm, but it did not impair either his ambition or his energy. i worked from seven in the morning until sundown on the long summer days behind a heavy team. mother sympathized with me, but father never realized that the toil was beyond my strength. he was a firm believer in the doctrine of “hard work” and that 128 “satan finds mischief still for idle hands to do,” and governed himself accordingly. he loved his family and did the best for them that his means permitted.
the county was new and people were all poor, but the land owners characterized the others as “poor renters.” for four years we were in the latter class. i completed the country school, in the spring of 1877, and then desired to enter the vail school, the course of which did not extend beyond what would now be classed as the eighth grade. we lived three miles from town, and as my people could not afford to pay my board in the village, i was necessarily compelled to live at home and go horseback to school. when i was about sixteen, i determined to become a lawyer and so informed my people. they treated the announcement as a boyish whim, and later discouraged me from entering upon such a course. father urged that i might become one of those “educated fools” and mother, who was a devoted member of the methodist church, quoted to me that passage of scripture, “woe unto ye lawyers.”
books to the amount of about seven dollars were required if i should enter the vail school and that was a large sum of money in our large family. the turning point in my life came on a cold december day in 1877. i had taken a load of hay to denison about eight miles away. all the way there and back i was pondering over the question of an education. when i drove into the yard after returning from 129 town, father came to assist in putting away the team. i was stiff with cold, but i said, “father, i am going to vail to school after new year’s.” he retorted, “where is the money to come from for the books?” i said, “father, you spend six dollars per year for chewing tobacco” (his only bad habit), “and you can afford that much to send your boy to school.”
i went to school two and a half months that winter and likewise the next two winters. i then secured a second-grade certificate and taught a county school the two winters preceding my twenty-first birthday. each winter i taught a four months’ term—wages $30 per month the first winter, and $35 the second. the first winter i walked three miles across the prairie, cared for a team at home and acted as my own janitor at the schoolhouse. this was the awful winter of 1880-81, when the snow was four feet deep on the level. there were no roads that were available to me, and i made my own path. i saved one hundred dollars that winter and a like sum the following winter, so when i attained my majority in april, 1882, i had two hundred dollars. i had never had an overcoat and i did not possess even a trunk. i owned a colt that i sold for fifty dollars. that summer i worked on my father’s farm at a wage of twenty dollars per month for five months, and on september 15, 1882, i started for drake university with $350, a suit of clothes and a trunk. i had thought by day and dreamed by night of a college 130 education, and now the dream was to become a reality. as the train whistled at the station, father grasped me by the hand and, with tears streaming down his face, said, “boy, i have opposed this all the time, but i guess you are doing the right thing.” that was the first word of encouragement i had ever received from my parents to proceed with my education.
my room, partially furnished, cost me four dollars per month when i shared it with another, and board was $1.75 per week in the “club.” we did not fare sumptuously, but we had sufficient wholesome food to keep us in good health. i did not earn any money during the first fall and winter, but in the spring i seized an opportunity to earn three dollars per week by sweeping six rooms, carrying the coal for the same, and ringing the bells for all the classes and the college bells from 6 a. m. to 9 p. m. a watch was necessary for my work, so i took part of my hard-earned wages and bought a watch which is now a treasured possession. the following summer i worked upon the home farm and returned to drake in the fall. i did janitor work during my second year at the same scale of wages. i also spent many of my saturdays grubbing stumps out of a lawn near the university. in the spring of my second year i worked saturdays on the streets with a shovel, receiving $1.50 for eight hours’ work. in the spring term of my second year, some of my college chums found that my return was doubtful: 131 hence they elected me steward of the boarding club for the succeeding year. this paid my board and room rent during the third year. in the summer following my second year, i assumed the role of book agent. this experience was not very successful, netting me only about seventy-five dollars for my summer’s work.
when i entered drake university, i had two years of preparatory work to do. i carried five studies for three years, reciting daily in each. this was possible because we had eight class hours of forty-five minutes each. as i approached the end of my third year, some of my teachers urged me to return for another year. i found that by carrying six studies all the year i could graduate classical, and on the last sunday night before commencement i determined to return, notwithstanding the fact that my purse was empty. i worked again on the home farm in the summer vacation, and returned in the fall with sixty dollars and an assurance of a loan of one hundred dollars from my father. the university had agreed to take my notes for the tuition of my senior year, so i returned in the fall of 1885 not knowing how i should get through the year, but confident that in some way i would earn some money and complete the course. the evening i returned to the university, the secretary of the faculty offered me the editorship of the college paper. frank morgan, of blessed memory, assumed the business management, and we divided two 132 hundred and forty dollars between us as the profits of the venture. a personal friend, who was as poor as i, with me rented a furnished room in which we kept “bach.” i shall not state the amount it cost us for fuel, coal oil and food, but it was much less than the expense of boarding in the club. i edited the paper, carried six studies, and broke down about two weeks before commencement. i did not take my final examinations, but was awarded my degree upon my class standing. i had borrowed the promised one hundred dollars from my father, had given my notes for my tuition, and when we made our final division of profits arising from the paper, i had sixty dollars in my pocket and my college degree.
between the winter and spring terms of my senior year, i applied for the principalship of the high school at manning, iowa. for six weeks the board was in a deadlock and then it elected the other applicant. it was a bitter disappointment, as such positions were not numerous and most of them were then filled. i planned to teach two years and then pursue the study of law. about two weeks before commencement, i was offered the principalship of a two-room school just outside the corporate limits of the city of des moines. but i saw, however, that i could immediately take up the law, and so about july 1, 1886, i entered the law office of c. c. nourse and in the next fourteen months i read the junior year of the law course laid down by the state university. 133 in the fall i took charge of my school, but i read law nights, mornings and saturdays. i was fortunate in securing board at a very reasonable price. by close economy i paid all my debts and had about one hundred and fifty dollars left when the fall of 1887 came. i then entered the state university of iowa, passed the examinations of the junior year, became a member of the senior class, and graduated in june, 1888.
such in brief is the story of my struggle for an education. i have written it with the hope that it may encourage other young men and young women of limited means to make the effort that i made to open the gates of opportunity. while the expenses have increased, the opportunities for employment have multiplied in a much greater ratio, and i am fully convinced that any young man or young woman, with fair health, may secure a higher education if he has it in him and is but willing to pay the price of toil and sacrifice.
some may inquire, did it pay? within one hundred feet of where i performed janitor work, drake university in 1900 conferred upon me the ll.d. degree; three times have i been elected to the state senate. the state bar association has honored me with its presidency.
council bluffs, iowa.
