Page 123 - Poat_to_Poot_Engels

When Will attended the University of Chicago, they were experimenting
with many new innovations in education. Students could enter the college
with advanced standing by certificate from a Junior College, or by
completing college level classes in High School, or by receiving passing
scores on University examinations. Many advanced students were able to
bypass their first year of math or English classes. Will Poot apparently
skipped most of the first two years of classes. He was able to complete
his studies for a college degree in only two years. He may have received
some college credits for his classes at Central High School in Grand
Rapids. He received special education there while the school was
developing a Junior College curriculum. At the University he scheduled an
accelerated study program and received credits by passing the final exams
for each course sequence. He may have completed his undergraduate
studies in 1897. (If he did not enter the University until after his family
moved to Chicago, then he would have graduated in June 1898.) Family
members remember seeing his diploma, but in 2005 the University of
Chicago was not able to locate his transcripts. The University Registrar
said that the early school records were stored in an old basement where
some records had been lost or damaged. There are few details known
about this phase of Will's education. During the first few months he could
have been separated from his family. In January 1896, William submitted
his application to the Moody Bible Institute.

At this time, Rev. JW Poot and the remainder of the family were seeking an
opportunity to move to the Chicago area. Their prayers were answered
when on February 11, 1896 the First Reformed Church of Gano decided to
issue a call for Rev. JW Poot. At the decisive church meeting, 41 votes
were given to JW Poot, and only 14 votes were given to the other five
ministers under consideration. The call was issued and Rev. Poot promptly
accepted.

A brief conflict arose when the congregation in Hudsonville, Michigan tried
to keep Rev. JW Poot at their church. The congregation had grown rapidly
during his short term of leadership and he was very popular. JW was firm
in his decision, and the congregation reluctantly agreed to give their
blessing.

The Poot family wasted no time moving to Chicago. Five weeks after the
call was issued, Rev JW Poot was officially installed on March 23, 1896. His
son Abe probably played music for the Gano church as he had done in
Hudsonville. The church went through the procedure of accepting JW's
wife, Mrs. Fredericke Sophia Poot, and his eldest son, William F. Poot, into
the congregation. This seems a curious formality, but William was 18
years old and considered an adult.

The Reformed Church of Gano was a young congregation when Rev. Poot
arrived. It had been sponsored in 1891 by the First Reformed Church of
Roseland. The parent church was just two miles north of Gano, but

- Chicago, College, and Marriage - page 3 -