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Trenton, Missouri
Trenton is a city in and the county seat of Grundy County, Missouri. The population was 5,609 at the 2020 United States census. It is the county seat of Grundy County. The city was the world's largest producer of vienna sausages at its biggest employer, the ConAgra Grocery Foods plant, then bought by Nestlé.
The Crowder State Park Vehicle Bridge, Jewett Norris Library, Plaza Hotel, St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Trenton High School, and WPA Stock Barn and Pavilion are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1869, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad arrived in Trenton. In 1890, Avalon College, which had been founded in Avalon, Missouri by the United Brethren in 1869, moved to Trenton because of proximity to the railroad.
Due to financial difficulties, the college nearly closed again.[citation needed] In 1900 George McAnelly Miller started to turn the school around. He was soon joined by Walter Vrooman who had just returned from Oxford, England where he established Ruskin Hall, a university called the "College for the People" based on the Utopian Socialist writings of John Ruskin. Avalon College was renamed Ruskin College after Vrooman donated 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) to it.
The college directly loaned money to the students and they could work at the school's canning, farming, and novelty wood working businesses. The college admitted women, unlike the Oxford school.
Vrooman then proceeded to attempt to buy the major businesses in the town, starting with three grocery stores, a hardware store, and a drug store. He paid in cash via the Western Cooperative Association. The New York Times on April 14, 1902, headlined its article "Buying a Town Outright". According to the cooperative arrangement, members of the coop who spent at least $300 (equivalent to $11,000 in 2024) in one of its stores would receive a dividend at the end of the year.
The Ruskin experiment collapsed in 1903 when town residents resisted the Utopian business model and Vrooman's wife divorced him saying that he had squandered $250,000 (equivalent to $8,700,000 in 2024) of her money. Miller moved the college to the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn, Illinois in 1903 where it consolidated 12 different colleges and had an enrollment of 2,500 with 8,000 correspondence students. Friction quickly arose there also and the main school burned after being struck by lightning.
Miller moved the college again in 1906 to Ruskin, Florida where 550 acres (2.2 km2) of land around Trenton was swapped for 12,000 acres (49 km2). Many of the Florida campus buildings burned in 1918 and when Miller died in 1919, the college ceased to exist.
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Trenton, Missouri
Trenton is a city in and the county seat of Grundy County, Missouri. The population was 5,609 at the 2020 United States census. It is the county seat of Grundy County. The city was the world's largest producer of vienna sausages at its biggest employer, the ConAgra Grocery Foods plant, then bought by Nestlé.
The Crowder State Park Vehicle Bridge, Jewett Norris Library, Plaza Hotel, St. Philip's Episcopal Church, Trenton High School, and WPA Stock Barn and Pavilion are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1869, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad arrived in Trenton. In 1890, Avalon College, which had been founded in Avalon, Missouri by the United Brethren in 1869, moved to Trenton because of proximity to the railroad.
Due to financial difficulties, the college nearly closed again.[citation needed] In 1900 George McAnelly Miller started to turn the school around. He was soon joined by Walter Vrooman who had just returned from Oxford, England where he established Ruskin Hall, a university called the "College for the People" based on the Utopian Socialist writings of John Ruskin. Avalon College was renamed Ruskin College after Vrooman donated 1,500 acres (6.1 km2) to it.
The college directly loaned money to the students and they could work at the school's canning, farming, and novelty wood working businesses. The college admitted women, unlike the Oxford school.
Vrooman then proceeded to attempt to buy the major businesses in the town, starting with three grocery stores, a hardware store, and a drug store. He paid in cash via the Western Cooperative Association. The New York Times on April 14, 1902, headlined its article "Buying a Town Outright". According to the cooperative arrangement, members of the coop who spent at least $300 (equivalent to $11,000 in 2024) in one of its stores would receive a dividend at the end of the year.
The Ruskin experiment collapsed in 1903 when town residents resisted the Utopian business model and Vrooman's wife divorced him saying that he had squandered $250,000 (equivalent to $8,700,000 in 2024) of her money. Miller moved the college to the Chicago suburb of Glen Ellyn, Illinois in 1903 where it consolidated 12 different colleges and had an enrollment of 2,500 with 8,000 correspondence students. Friction quickly arose there also and the main school burned after being struck by lightning.
Miller moved the college again in 1906 to Ruskin, Florida where 550 acres (2.2 km2) of land around Trenton was swapped for 12,000 acres (49 km2). Many of the Florida campus buildings burned in 1918 and when Miller died in 1919, the college ceased to exist.