SHSU’s fourth president,
Henry Carr Pritchett, was the son of William Ira Pritchett, who in turn was the brother of Carr Waller Pritchett (1823-1910). Henry's uncle Carr Waller had migrated from Virginia to Missouri in his youth and as an adult was a preacher, astronomer, and later founded the
Pritchett School Institute in
Glasgow, Missouri.
“Legend has it that Berenice Morrison, 17-year-old niece of [Carr Waller] was staying at the home of Pritchett.... The two were observing Coggia's comet pass overhead when Pritchett expressed his desire to have a proper telescope to observe the heavens.
“Morrison, the heir of her deceased parents' considerable fortune, obliged Pritchett's wish. The young woman pledged $100,000 for the construction and endowment of an astronomical observatory at the school. The facility — the first permanent observatory west of Chicago — was completed in 1875 and featured a state-of-the-art Clark telescope.”
ruralmissouri.org
The
Morrison Observatory remained in Glasgow after the closing of the Pritchett school in 1926. A decade later it moved a few miles southeast to Central Methodist University where it still stands to this day.
2 comments:
I know it's a bit confusing, but Bernice was not the niece of C W Pritchett, but of James Oswald Swinney, who was indeed a founder of the Pritchett Institute.
Thanks, RKH – something about this story didn’t mesh well with us and I’m sure something was lost in the translation. As you hint, there are a lot of Pritchetts out there.
Cheers.
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