The Fort Dodge Messenger: Feb. 27, 1907

$10,000 For The Fort Dodge Schools

Will of Late Harry Hawley Provides a Yearly Scholarship

Under School Board’s Control

President Butler of Board Receives a Letter Giving Paragraph in Will Which Provides for Fund for High School.

On the death of Harry W. Hawley at Oakland, California, about a year ago it was announced that provision had been made in his will for a bequest of $10,000 to the Fort Dodge high school, to be set aside as a permanent scholarship fund and its earnings used in helping one graduate each year to secure a college education.

President Bulter (sic) of the school received today a letter from the clerk of courts at Oakland in reply to a request for information concerning this clause of the will which gives information regarding the generous provision not heretofore known. The letter is as follows:

The Clause in the Will.

Oakland, Cal., Feb. 23, 1907

J.B. Butler, Esq., Fort Dodge, Ia.

Dear Sir: – Your inquiry of February 19th at hand, and in repliy (sic) thereto, I quote herein that portion of the will of Henry W. Hawley, deceased, which will interest you and your associates, viz:

“I bequeath to the Independent School District of Fort Dodge, Iowa, and the Board of Directors thereof, the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00) in trust, to be by said board invested in safe interest bearing securities, as a perpetual fund for the founding of one or more scholarships to be known as the “H. W. Hawley scholarship of the Fort Dodge high school;” for the purpose of aiding worthy graduates of that school in obtaining a collegiate education only the income of said fund to be used for this purpose. I direct that the trustees of this fund shall invest the same to the best advantage and disburse the interest as herein directed. It is my wish that on the first Commencement of said school following the collection of the first yearly interest and annually thereafter the said Board and the superintendent of said school, shall elect from its graduates, one or more, who shall have, by his or her proficiency in their studies, shown themselves worthy to be aided in obtaining a collegiate education, and it is my wish that the preference be given to those who have not means of their own, and that no discrimination be made between male and female applicants.

Said Board of Directors shall determine the amount to be paid to each beneficiary, and shall pay the same to him or her from time to time, as needed, until he or she, shall have completed or abandoned college studies.

Should any one chosen as a beneficiary become, in the opinion of said directors, unworthy of said aid, said Board shall discontinue such aid. I am moved to make this bequest in recognition of the good already accomplished by said school, and hope it may be the means of stimulating many of the graduates therefrom in years to come, to strive for a noble manhood and womanhood, and a high plane of moral and intellectual life.”

The attorney of said estate is R.S. Gray, whose address is 201 Bacon block, Oakland, California.

Trusting the above information will be of service to you, I am,

JOHN P. COOK
County Clerk
By A.E. JOHNSTONE, Deputy.

Mr. Hawley spent the years of his boyhood and early manhood in Fort Dodge and was educated in part in the schools which he so generously remembered in his last testament.

He was a many (sic) of brilliant parts and through only about forty years when overtaken by death had had a journalistic career of note, which was brought to a sad and early ending largely through his untiring exertion, which brought on nervous exhaustion and physical collapse.

That he should have turned, in making a disposition of his property, to lingering recollections of his youthful days in the schools of Fort Dodge and was prompted, despite many years of absence from the city, to remember the growing boys and girls of the community with a gift which will be perpetual and will give advantage to each generation in time to come, seems strikingly strange.

As yet it is impossible to learn just when the fund will be available. It is hoped to secure it in time to aid a graduate or graduates of the class of 1908. On behalf of the school board Mr. Butler has written to the attorney who has charged of the estate requesting information on this point.

As stated in the will, the fund will be under the control and direction of the school board, who will also have the power of selection of the graduates to be benefitted. Some plan of selection by merit in study, financial circumstances, etc., will be necessary to be devised.

Tags: 1907, Butler, Hawley