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TO
receive the same fortune twice is an experience
that rarely happens, but that was the good luck
of Illinois Weslyan university at Bloomington,
Ill., due to the philanthropy of two of
Decatur's most interesting citizens, Rev. and
Mrs. Hiram Buck. Their name is
perpetuated in the Buck Memorial History library
of that institution. Hiram Buck,
presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, was a resident of Decatur thirty-two
years. Mr. Buck joined the Illinois
Methodist Conference in 1843, and served in the
ministry for fifty years, most of the time as
presiding ender. A man of wide influence,
a church leader, an able organizer, he was
honored both in the Methodist church and
outside.
REV. HIRAM BUCK
Elder Buck was one of the founders and
incorporators of Illinois Weslyan university at
Bloomington in 1853, and was a member of its
board for the rest of his life. When he
passed away, his wife took his place on the
board. The university was always near to
his heart, and some time before his death he
gave the institution a half section of land to
be used as endowment. Some time later the
school was badly in need of money, and asked the
consent of Mrs. Buck to sell the land.
She advised against it, realizing that the land
was increasing in value, but so badly was the
money needed by the school that she gave her
approval. When the land was put up for
sale, she was not satisfied with the price
offered, so she bought back the land herself.
By this deal the university came into possession
of $60,000.
About three years before her death Mrs.
Buck made an offer to Weslyan to give the
school all her property at her death, on the
condition that $325,000 be raised to pay off
existing debts on the school. Mrs. Buck at
that time owned nearly 1,000 acres of land in
Douglas county, valued at $200,000 to $250,000.
She stipulated that $200,00 was to go for a
library building at Weslyan.
The requirement as to raising the $325,000
was met by the citizens of Bloomington and
Normal, and the Methodist church, and as a
result Weslyan within a few years had its
beautiful new Buck Memorial library. It
was dedicated in 1923.
Mr. Buck had acquired his extensive
land holdings about the time of the Civil war or
before, when land could still be had at $1.25 an
acre. Its rise in value made him a rich
man, and his wife, knowing his life-long
interest in Weslyan, realized that it would be
his wish that the university profit by it after
her death.
A PIONEER
Mrs. Buck was one of the pioneers of Douglas
county. Her maiden name was Martha
Hammet, and she came to Douglas county with
her parents when she was three years old.
For seven weeks the family lived in a tent, then
in a squatter's cabin, without floor or chimney,
and with not even the cracks between the logs
chinked. In later yeas Mrs. Buck
spoke of the days of her childhood, when there
were no mills, no schools, no roads, no
churches, when Indians frequently visited them
and were so curious about the white "papoose" of
the family that her mother feared they might
carry the baby off.
Mrs. and Mrs. Buck were married in
1846. She was a strong, capable woman.
Mr. Buck, who was a man of striking
personality, was fond of horses, and delighted
in a good horse race. It was a familiar
sight to see him going about the city mounted on
horseback.
Mr. Buck passed away in 1892 and Mrs.
Buck in 1918.
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