South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, 1893-1894

File — Box: 4, Volume: 13

Identifier: II

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

After finishing the term teaching in Minnesota, Douglass returned to the South Dakota Agricultural College in Brookings. He was expelled from the school and continued his education at Iowa State College in Ames, earning his B.S. in 1893. He accepted a teaching position after graduation in the lower Madison Valley, Montana, where he was able to go fossil hunting.

1 January 1893--"I am sorry to say that I never have made a very great success of anything. I have been pegging away at books for fifteen years or more but have read very few, and with all this pretending to be studious have learned very little and am thorough in nothing.
"I have sometimes thought I had some genius but that fond delusion is often dispelled by the sunlight of truth."
9 February 1893--"They are going to investigate the Brookings College troubles at Pierre."
4 April 1893--"We expect to be expelled, that is we feel we are very likely to go if we have any such thing printed [proposed newspaper article]. But we are cowards, it seems to me if we do not heroically stand up for right."
8 April 1893--"They had faculty meetings .... Messers Menzer, . . . and myself were called up and . . . fired or suspended . . . and were to leave by Sunday night."
6 November 1893--"After months of suspense, doubts and fears my case is decided at last and I am to graduate, and what I have wished for and hoped for for 10 years or more is on the point of fulfillment. ... In the bottom of my being I am glad it is so and I would not for thousands of dollars have it otherwise yet I have no great happiness, no marvelous exhuberance of spirits."
14 January 1894--"I am in exceedingly poor circumstances as in fact the worst I have [been] for years [I] see little or no hope [that] things will be better for a good while." [Bracketed material is in shorthand.]
13 April 1894--"Yesterday I recd a letter from Prof. Foster saying that he had a school for me at $35.00 per month and board in the best geological region in that part of the state. This morning I telegraphed him accepting the position."

Dates

1893-1894

Language of Materials

From the Collection: Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.