Seeking info on N.S. BASTION/BASTIAN, when he was principal of the preparatory department (high school) at McKendree College for the school year of 1838-1839. McKendree is a Methodist college in Lebanon, St. Clair Co., and BASTION was appointed to the post as part of the regular Methodist system of appointing their ministers. I have corresponded with the Methodist archivist for the church at the state level. While they have later info on the college, they have no information on any instructors from the 1830s. McKendree also has an archives for the college itself. But the Methodist archivist I emailed with several times a couple of years ago indicated that the college archives were kept very separate, even when the subject matter overlapped. There might be information on BASTION at the college. He told me personal contact was the best way to communicate with the McKendree archivists, so I did not pursue it, since I'm too far away and can't afford to come do it myself, much as I'd love to do a genealogy trip. Wish I'd had the time and interest when I lived in St. Louis 15 years ago! I did go to the campus, but it was a day the library, where the archives are, was closed. So, is there someone who can actually go to the McKendree Archives and see if there is any information on Bastion? If the archivists are reluctant to be helpful, you can bribe them with a promise of a copy of a photograph of Bastion in exchange for information. It doesn't date from that time period, but I do have one of him in distinguished old age. It's not, of course, today's quality, but I could go down to Kinko's and see what they could do with it. That is only if they do have some information, of course! Thanks, Doris Waggoner Seattle