One diploma from The Bible School signed by E. S. Young, President, Manchester College, 16 March 1897.  A previous accession number of 88-8-335 had been given to the object and belongs to a previous accessioning system. 

Notes:

First and former president on the Manchester College campus, David N. Howe, along with the Trustees, sold the institution to avoid financial ruin. They had been duped by the second college president, Professor Kriebel, who promised to endow North Manchester College with a million dollars from an anonymous, aging millionaire.  This endowment had turned out to be an empty promise that ran the college towards bankruptcy.  

E. S. Young and his brother (S. S. Young) purchased the College after the Kriebel scandal. They came from Mt. Morris, Illinois with the intent to start their own German Baptist Brethren college and Bible School.  The name they gave the institution was, "Manchester College and The Bible School."

From, A Century of Faith, Learning and Service, by Timothy K. Jones, pg. 20.:

"The Bible Department, however, seems to have taken center stage in the early days of the college.  Catalog descriptions of courses and degrees spanned 14 pages in 1896-97.  The aims of the Bible School, the catalog noted, included giving 'everyone who desires it, whether intending to work in the ministry, Sunday-school, prayer meeting, or mission field, a broader knowledge of the Word of God.'  The school had the added goal of establishing Bible school in districts and local churches, 'so that many who cannot leave their homes may have an opportunity for a short term of Bible study.'  The school even offered a correspondence Bible course."

Description prepared 18 April 2009 by Jeanine M. Wine.