Carl Schurz Vrooman, son of Hiram and Sarah Buffington Vrooman, was born in Macon, Missouri, October 25, 1872. When Carl was three years of age, the family moved to Kansas where they lived until 1900.
He was educated at Washburn College, Topeka, Kansas, and Harvard University. Carl left Harvard in 1894 on account of ill-health, and went abroad for eighteen months to recuperate and study European politics, society, and economics. He toured France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, and parts of England, avoiding tourist routes and studying the lives of the people. It was on this trip that he met Julia Green Scott (who was from Bloomington, IL) on the French Riviera, whom he married December 28, 1896.
In 1898 Carl was appointed regent of the Kansas State Agricultural College. He served until 1900 when he moved to Bloomington, where he lived for the rest of his life. Julia and Carl Vrooman lived in the house Julia’s parents bought in 1872. Built in 1869, the home had 17 rooms and in 1900, an 18-room addition was put onto the house, designed by local architect Arthur Pillsbury. Julia Vrooman called this Mansion "home" from her birth in 1876 until her death in 1981 at the age of 104.