Helena Percas de Ponseti was a Spanish professor at Grinnell from 1948-1990. She studied at the Institut Maintenon in Paris (undergraduate), Barnard College (Master's), and Columbia University (Doctorate). Ponseti was a Cervantes scholar and published numerous writings on his work and art.
Walter Scott Hendrixson was born in 1859 and received his B. S. degree from Union Christian College, Meron, Indiana, in 1881. He taught at Antioch College from 1882-1888, and earned his Ph. D. from Harcvard in 1903. He also did graduate work in Berlin and Gottingen in the 1890s. He was a member of the Chemistry faculty at Grinnell College from 1890 until his sudden death in 1925.
Henry and Fidelia Stoddard Little moved to Grinnell, Iowa in 1867. Their children were:
Louise m. Henry Viets
Maude m. Jesse Macy (their daughter was Katherine Macy Noyes)
Elizabeth m. J. P. Lyman (Grinnell lawyer)
Fannie m. Austin W. Alvord (son Max, b. 1890; daughter Louise Alvord Meyers, b. 1882; her sone, David Meyers)
Henrietta m. Will Holyoke (son Tom, b. 1881)
George Davis Herron (1862-1925) was a Congregational Church minister and professor of Applied Christianity at Grinnell College from 1893-1899 where he attracted nationwide attention for his radical statements. After his resignation in 1899 and his scandalous divorce, he joined the Socialist Party and married Carrie Rand. They moved to Italy where he worked for peace as an emissary of President Woodrow Wilson.
The Hill family came to the Midwest in the years before the Civil War, living in both Iowa and Minnesota. James Jeremiah Hill was married twice: his first wife, Sarah Hyde, bore him many children, but only two survived, being Gershom Hyde Hill (born 1846) and James Langdon Hill (born 1848). Both of these sons would graduate from Iowa College in 1871. Sarah Hyde Hill died in 1852. James J. remarried a year later to Sarah Harriman, who bore James six children. The eldest, George Frederick, would graduate in the class of 1881 at Iowa College. This collection contains works of James Jeremiah, Sarah Hyde, Sarah Harriman, the two oldest boys, Gershom and James Langdon, and James Langdon’s wife.
James Jeremiah, a minister from the east coast, is well known for his contribution to begin Iowa College, putting down the first dollar to start it. His son Gershom became a doctor, and worked for many years at the State Hospital for the Insane in Independence, Iowa. Most of his works represented here are related to his work with the mentally ill.
James Langdon was the most prolific writer in the family, boasting a collection of works three volumes in size. He became a minister like his father, and many of his works concern themselves with either the history of Iowa College or morality. There is also a book that James L. was putting together of his family’s genealogy.
Both of James Jeremiah’s wives are represented in the collection, although Sarah Harriman’s “Life and Work of James J. Hill in Minnesota and Iowa, 1853-1870” is by far the more substantial of the two.
James Langdon Hill’s wife also wrote a history of sorts, entitled “Memories”, commemorating her husband’s death in 1931. In it are stories, anecdotes, and some Hill genealogy.
Hill, James Langdon (Class of 1871)
James Langdon Hill, possibly the collector of these materials, was born in Garnavillo, Iowa in 1848. He attended Grinnell College and the Andover Theological Seminary and served as a pastor for Congregational churches in Massachusetts. He was involved with the Society of Christian Endeavor in England and the United Society of Christian Endeavor.