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Sample article: Hesston College (Hesston, Kansas, USA)

Hesston College (formerly Hesston College and Bible School) (Mennonite Church USA) opened its doors on 22 September 1909. Twenty-one students, three teachers, one faculty assistant, and three staff members comprised the new learning community.

Faculty members were D. H. Bender principal, J. D. Charles, and J. B. Kanagy. Estella Cooprider was a student faculty assistant. T. M. Erb, primary founder, was business manager, John A. Cooprider was superintendent of building and grounds, and Henrietta (Brunk) Cooprider was cook and matron.

One building, later named Green Gables, contained all activities. A second facility, the Administration Building was built, 1914-1918, and dedicated in 1919.

The school, located near Hesston, Kansas, was the dream of Pennsylvania immigrants of Swiss origin who had begun arriving in Harvey County in 1880. Though Bethel College opened its doors in 1893, the cultural gap between the General Conference Mennonites and the "Old" or MC Mennonites was too broad to bridge.

Conversation about a school west of the Mississippi River had begun at least as early as 1902 when Elkhart (Indiana) Institute was in the process of becoming Goshen College. When neither funding nor location materialized for a second school, the conversation in Indiana died. But it refused to die in Kansas. It was the topic of conversations around dinner tables, across line fences, and on meetinghouse grounds.

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