The Black ISC Student Experience to 1950
A Tracing Race at ISU Project
Clarence Smith earned a two year certificate in Structural Engineering from Iowa State College in 1924. While attending school, Smith lived in several homes, including: 128 Lynn; Box 522 Station A; and 226 ½ Main Street.
Johnston “John” William Shoales was born on 2 January 1872 on the Choctaw Reservation, in Doaksville, Indian Territory, Oklahoma (Territory), one of nine children of John Ross Shoals and Hattie Crittenden Shoales.
Shoales lived in Valliant, McCurtain County, Oklahoma, while studying at ISC, working on the home farm during the summers and teaching during the winter, reportedly one of the largest stock farms in the Territory. In total, he spent four years at Iowa State, residing in the Experiment Station Barn (1904/05; 1906/1907, Fall 1907) the Horticulture Barn (1905/1906), and the Horticulture Laboratory (Spring 1908). Although he did not graduate with a degree, he did earn a degree from the Tuskegee Institute. During his time at ISC, he was a member of the ISC Welch Eclectic Literacy Society in 1907 and 1908.
In 1905, Shoales was the President of the Choctaw Freedman’s Farmer’s Institute, and later worked as an assistant teacher for the Oak Hill Industrial Academy for Choctaw Freedmen from 1912 to 1913. He died in July 1977 in Idabel, McCurtain County, Oklahoma.
H. G. McGuire attended Iowa State College in 1920 or 1921. He was described as an original member of the Interstate Club according to J. R. Otis (1991).
Sources
Otis, J. R. “Little-known facts about F.D. Patterson.” (1991) In Frederick D. Patterson, Chronicles of faith: The autobiography of Frederick D. Patterson. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, pp. 187-89.
Archibald “Archie” Warren Madison was born 13 November 1920 in Ames, Iowa, to parents Walter Garfield Madison (ISC class of 1914), the first licensed Black plumber in the state, and his wife, Gussie Irene Askew Madison. Archie graduated from Ames high School in 1938 and enrolled in Iowa State College. During his time at ISC, Archie lived at home with his family at 1204 Third Street. His parents housed many Black ISC students there until they moved to live year around in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1942. (Walter Madison had already taken a job there as Chief Engineer at Fisk University in 1938.) Archie left Iowa State after two years in the engineering program to move to Nashville, where, according to his 1944 Army enlistment record, his civil employment fell into the category of “plumbers, gas fitters, and steamfitters.” He had joined his father’s business as an employee of Madison Plumbing and Heating before the company gained its government contract at Tuskegee Institute, which is likely where he met his future wife, Daile Sheppard Moore. The couple married in June 1942.
In 1944, Archie enlisted in the Army as a Private, serving in the Pacific Theater during World War Two. After his discharge, he re-enlisted in 1947 and served as a Lieutenant in an Army engineering dump truck company in Occupied Korea. He died there 5 October 1948 and was survived by his widow and three children: Beth Irene, Gail Paulette, and Archie Warren Madison, Jr. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Nashville.
G. T. Lucas attended Iowa State College from 1920-1921. An original member of the Interstate Club, Lucas lived in Ames at 226 ½ Main Street (Otis, 1991).
Sources
Otis, J. R. “Little-known facts about F.D. Patterson.” (1991). In Frederick D. Patterson, Chronicles of faith: The autobiography of Frederick D. Patterson. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, pp. 187-89.
