Under the shadow of Knox College, in the city of Galesburg, originated the idea of founding and endowing a college in some of the frontier settlements farther west. Rev. B. F. Haskins and William J. Wood were the prime movers in the matter. The plan proposed was in brief this: A company was organized and officers chosen - a president, secretary and treasurer. Persons by the payment of one or more shares became members, and when a sufficient sum was secured to promise success, a location was to be selected and a lot of land entered. A village was to be laid out in a central and desirable place for a college. The lands and village lots were to be appraised at not less than twice the government price, and members of the company could receive back at the appraised value lands and lots to the amount of stock they had paid in. In this way they hoped to enlist many in the enterprise - to speedily form a good settlement - and to secure an endowment in land for an institution of learning. In 1854 or 1855 a locating committee, consisting of B. F. Haskins, W. J. Wood, John Cross, B. F. Atkinson and one more (name unknown), came into Page county and selected a large tract of unentered land for the object contemplated. It was not a denominational movement, although the movers in the matter were Christians, and did not hide their light. Almost all the orthodox denominations were represented in the company, and at first all aided in maintaining religious worship. They were as a body active in reforms, warm advocates of temperance, anti-slavery and anti-secret societies. As soon as a place could be furnished for a school, a school was opened. Christian ministers were members of the company, and Sabbath services were regularly observed. About the year 1858, in the autumn of the year, the parson accompanied B. F. Gardner and wife to Amity. Through the particular year cannot be fixed with certainty, it was the one when a most splendid comet decked the heavens, the tail of which reached from the horizon to the zenith - a sight which many among us never beheld. The nights were cool, and the mornings, frosty. The people of Amity were very busy preparing for winter. There were many new comers, and many hastily and poorly constructed dwellings, as is common in new settlements. Some were even living in tents, but "necessity knows no law." Not-withstanding the urgency of business, religious meetings were held every evening, and the parson remained most of the week, visiting through the day and attending meeting in the evening, where was manifested unusual religious interest.

There for the first time I fell in with one, a brief sketch of whose history I will venture to relate, for the lessons it contains:
      Albert V. House of respectable parentage, like too many youths chafing under wholesome home restraint, left home early to learn the shoemaking trade. Next he enlisted in the United States army, and served through the Seminole Indian war in Florida. there he acquired a strong appetite for intoxicants, which, though kept in subjection, attended him through all subsequent life. He was at Amity at this time, with a young and interesting family, and was working at his trade. He possessed an unusual gift for public speaking - had exercised it as an exhorter in the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he was a member, and had been active in Christian work in Amity. A few days before I saw him, he had set out for St. Joe to replenish his stock in business, taking his own conveyance, as there were then no railroads. He reached Marysville the first evening as daylight was fading from the western sky. It was a cold evening, and he, to use his own words, "was chilled to the heart." Just opposite the hotel where he stopped was a saloon brilliantly lighted, warm, and very attractive. The temptation was too strong to be resisted. He was brought back from Marysville prostrate and penniless. I found him profoundly penitent, greatly humbled, and deeply depressed. His Christian friends gathered around him and encouraged him to return to the Lord heartily and renew his trust in Him. Conscious of his weakness and aware of the temptation to which itinerancy would expose him, he united with the Council Bluffs Congregational Association in April, 1860, and afterward preached at Hawleyville, Glenwood, Nevinville, Otho, Parkersburg, Manson, and Lawler, at which last place he died in May, 1875. While laboring at Glenwood he was invited to a celebration of a wedding occasion, where wine was passed. It offended him greatly. He spoke of it as a very narrow escape on his part from a ruinous fall, and ignorance alone could excuse the act, in his estimation. At the meeting of the Iowa State Congregational Association at Sioux City in 1872, the Lord's Supper was observed on Sunday afternoon, and a temperance meeting was held elsewhere in the city at the same hour. Fermented wine was used. As I put the cup to my lips I wondered if Brother House was present. Afterward on meeting him I asked if he were there. He said, "No, I was called upon to speak at the temperance meeting. Why?" I replied, "They used fermented wine." "Oh!" he exclaimed, "I am so glad I was not there. I wouldn't have been there for ten thousand dollars."

The history of Amity affords an example of the inutility of pushing organic union, where there is not intelligent union of heart. At first all worshiped together, but as numbers increased, the preferences of the different denominations, while attracting those who were of the same mind to each other, at the same time drew them away from the common multitude, until Amity has become noted for the number of its churches in proportion to its population.

The college movement at Amity was originally undenominational, but even a Christian college seems to flourish best under the patronage and support of some particular denomination. The majority of the trustees of Amity college has for many years been United Presbyterians, and they, therefore, hold the control of it.

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