DR. I. J. STODDARD

Few if any events in the history of Pella had a greater or more beneficent
effect on the spiritual and intellectual development of the community than the
coming of this cultured and devoted servant of God. Inspired by the highest
ideal of Christian service, possessed of great natural ability and a thorough
education, he was eminently fitted to lead a pioneer people in everything that
made for a high standard of Christian citizenship.

He was born in Eden, Erie county, N. Y., in 1820, being one of a family of nine
children. His father and mother were reared in Vermont, and moved to New York,
four hundred miles away, traveling on horseback, and settled near the city of
Buffalo in 1819. They were Baptists and their children were well grounded in
that faith. Ira Childs Stoddard, the father, was a minister of the gospel, and
preached for fifty-seven years, being eighty-four when he preached his last
sermon. He lived two years after that time, then passed away to his reward. The
mother, Charlotte Joy Stoddard, lived to be ninety-one years old, and died in
1886.

Dr. Stoddard lived on a farm until he was about nineteen, attending the country
school in the neighborhood with his brothers and sisters. Young Ira Joy was sent
from home at nineteen to fit for college, and went through his college course at
Colgate University, Hamilton, N. Y., graduating in 1845. In 1847 he was
graduated at the Theological Seminary of the same college, and was ordained a
minister of the gospel in September of that year. In the same year, after
marrying Drusilla Allen, he sailed from Boston for Calcutta, under the
appointment of the Baptist Missionary Union.

Ten years Mr. and Mrs. Stoddard held to their work, teaching and preaching,
caring for the sick and needy among their charges, both spiritually and morally.
The deadly climate told on them, and they were obliged to return to America.
Upon their return to New York physicians advised them to go to Iowa. It is
questionable if Central College would have lived if Dr. and Mrs. Stoddard had
not been providentially guided to cast their lot in Pella just at the time when
our college needed strong, self-sacrificing friends. The climate of Iowa soon
restored them to health, and Dr. Stoddard commenced to drive over the prairies
in his light buggy, to sow the seeds of missionary interest.

In 1861 he attempted to serve his country in the field by enlisting at
Knoxville, Iowa, but was rejected by the surgeon' s examination. Failing in
this, he next took up the work of helping to clear up the college indebtedness.
This was accomplished by 1865. The campus was fenced, walks were laid out, and
trees were planted. It was then felt that the school was on the high road to
prosperity. Dr. and Mrs. Stoddard, feeling that the college was now well on its
feet, and their own health in a measure regained, once more turned their faces
to the rising sun, and left in 1886 for India. The grief felt in the community
was great. After years of arduous and fruitful work in parts of India where no
missionaries had ever penetrated before, they were again driven from their post
by the dreaded fever, which almost completed the work it had begun years before.
Having returned to Iowa, they again regained their health, and so wedded were
they to their mission in the foreign field that in 1881 they tried once more,
and for the last time, to return to India. Coming as far as New York the
examining board decided that their strength would not hold out for another term.
Bitterly disappointed, they were obliged to turn back. From that time, until God
called them to their reward, they lived here, a blessing to the community and a
tower of strength to Central College, for which they not only worked and
sacrificed, but to the support of which they contributed to the full extent of
their financial ability. The ground on which Memorial Hall stands was one of
their gifts to Central.