USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > The memorial history of Hartford County, Connecticut, 1633-1884, Vol. I > Part 56
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During Mr. Gallaudet's absence little had been done toward the organization of the Asylum beyond the securing of the act of incorpora- tion, in which the gentlemen who met at Dr. Cogswell's house in April, 1815, - excepting Mr. Gallaudet, - with fifty-four others, prominent citizens of Hartford and vicinity, were named as corporators. These sixty-three persons had contributed the sum of $2,340, nearly all of which was expended in defraying the expense of Mr. Gallaudet's trip to Europe and the cost of Mr. Clerc's journey from Paris to Hartford.
Mr. Gallaudet's energies during the autumn and winter following were devoted to the raising of funds for the new undertaking; and in these efforts Mr. Clerc rendered valuable assistance, being a living demonstration of the fact that a very high degree of education was possible to deaf-mutes. The responses to Mr. Gallaudet's appeals were quick and ample. Private benevolence furnished upwards of $12,000, and the legislature of Connecticut appropriated $5,000. With these sums in hand, the directors of the Asylum issued their prospectus on the 21st of March, 1817, announcing that the Asylum would be ready to receive pupils on the 15th of April. The institution was opened on that day, in the south part of the building now known as the City Hotel, on Main Street. At the end of the first week seven pupils were in attendance, and on the 1st of June there were twenty-one. By the autumn of 1818, the number of pupils having risen to nearly sixty, it appeared to the directors that their work was likely to become national, and it was thought arrangements might be made to educate the deaf of the whole country in the institution at Hartford. It seemed proper, therefore, that the aid of Congress should be invoked. Accordingly, on the 25th of January, 1819, the directors voted : " That the Hon. Nathaniel Terry and the Hon. Thomas S. Williams be authorized and requested to present a petition to the Congress of the United States praying for a grant of money or lands for the benefit of this institution."
In the effort which followed, Messrs. Terry and Williams were aided by the Hon. Timothy Pitkin and their other colleagues from Connecti- cut, and by many other influential and philanthropic members of Con- gress, prominent among whom was the Hon. Henry Clay, then Speaker of the House. Congress responded by an appropriation of an entire township of land, comprising more than twenty-three thousand acres. In consideration of this national bounty, and of the probable national character that would thereafter attach to the work of the institution, it was thought best that its name should be changed. Such change was authorized by the legislature of Connecticut, and the institution assumed the name it now bears.
F. H. Gallaudet -
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THE AMERICAN ASYLUM.
That the term "asylum" should ever have been attached to the insti- tution is greatly to be deplored. Adopted as it was by a majority of the earlier schools for the deaf in this country, its use has been perniciously misleading as to their character; for the term might with equal pro- priety be applied to-day to Trinity College or to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary. All the State institutions which once made the word " asylum" a part of their corporate names - excepting only that of Texas - have discarded it; and it is most sincerely to be hoped that before another historical sketch of the venerable mother school at Hartford shall be written, the objectionable term will have its place only as a matter of history.
The munificent grant of Congress to the Asylum was judiciously converted into cash through the agency of William Ely, Esq., and the moneys thus secured were invested under the direction of the board. The income of these funds has been used to enable the Asylum to receive pupils at about one half the actual cost of their education. The last annual statement as to the condition of the fund - April, 1884 - showed the assets of the Asylum to be $383,251.73, including cer- tain personal bequests amounting to $7,233; and the cash income from invest- ments during the previous year was $18,544.
In 1821 the permanent buildings of the Asylum were completed and opened for use on the site now oc- cupied by the institution.
In 1825 the States of Massachusetts, New Hamp- - shire, Vermont, and Maine sent commissioners to con- fer with the directors with a view of agreeing on some - terms that might be perma- nent for the education in the Asylum of deaf-mutes from those States. These negotiations were successful, and beneficia- ries from the States above named, as well as from Rhode Island, have
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
been since received as pupils without interruption. The arrangements still continue.
In 1830 Mr. Gallaudet, whose labors as an instructor, as principal executive officer, as the representative of the institution before legisla- tures and the public in general, and as a member of the board of directors, had been unremitting and most exhausting, felt himself con- strained, on account of failing health, to sever his connection with the institution, except in his position as a director. That the Asylum should have had, as its ruling and directing spirit during its formative period, a man in whom were combined such strength of character, such patience, such tact and judgment, such social and Christian culture, such enthusiasm, and such disinterested benevolence as were proved to exist in Mr. Gallaudet, was an inestimable blessing. And although he was a paid officer, whose time and strength were understood to have been purchased by the institution, the amount of his salary, never large, fell so far short of being a compensation for his services, that the voice of posterity does no more than justice to his memory when it places him, as the acknowledged founder of the Asylum, and of deaf-mute education in America, high on the roll of the world's benefactors.
Mr. Gallaudet was succeeded in the office of principal by Mr. Lewis Weld, a graduate of Yale in 1818, who had been for four years an instructor in the Asylum, and for eight years the principal of the Pennsylvania Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. During the period of Mr. Weld's principalship the buildings of the Asylum were enlarged and improved. The number of pupils increased from 119 in 1830 to 193 in 1853.
In 1844 Mr. Weld visited Europe for the purpose of examining the prominent schools for the deaf in that part of the world, that the Asylum might have the benefit of any improvements which might be found there.1
Having discharged the duties of his position for more than twenty- three years with dignity and ability, Mr. Weld died in office on the 30th of December, 1853.
He was succeeded by the Rev. William W. Turner, a graduate of Yale in 1819, for thirty-two years an instructor in the Asylum. Mr. Turner was the first teacher of NmW. Jurners 1844 the Gallaudet High Class. He also acted as steward for sixteen years, while performing full duty as a teacher. Under Mr. Turner's administration, which continued until August, 1863, the prosperity and prestige of the Asylum was fully maintained. The number of its pupils increased to 253. The buildings were a second time enlarged and improved.
In 1857 Mr. Clerc, having completed a service of forty-one years as an instructor in the Asylum, and being seventy-one years of age, resigned his position. As a mark of appreciation of his long and suc- cessful labors, the directors voted him a pension sufficient for his comfortable support, which was continued until his death, in 1869.
1 In the summer of 1852 a class for the advanced instruction of the more intelligent pupils was organized, and named the Gallaudet High Class, in honor of the founder of the Asylum, whose death had occurred the year previous.
429
THE AMERICAN ASYLUM.
Mr. Turner resigned the principalship in 1863, and was succeeded by the Rev. Collins Stone, a graduate of Yale in 1832, for nineteen years an instructor in the Asylum, and for eleven years the superin- tendent of the Ohio Institution for the Deaf and Dumb.
During Mr. Stone's term of office carnest efforts were made in various quarters - notably in Massachusetts - to bring into disrepute the method of instruction which had been followed in the Asylum from its establishment. Two institutions were opened - one in Massachu- setts and one in New York -in which the teaching of articulation was to Collins Stone occupy the place of prominence. Mr. Stone so ably defended the
value of the method maintained by his predecessors, - namely, the inanual method, - that although the States of New England were will- ing to allow their beneficiaries to enter the articulating schools if this was desired by their parents and friends, they did not withdraw their confidence or their patronage from the Asylum.1
Mr. Stone's successful principalship was terminated by his sudden death in December, 1870, when he was instantly killed, being struck by a locomotive while driving across the tracks in Hartford. He was followed in office by his son, Edward C. Stone, a graduate of Yale in 1862, who had been four years an instructor in the Asylum, and for two years superintendent of the Wisconsin Institute for the Deaf and Dumb. During Mr. E. C. Stone's administration increased attention was paid to the subject of articulation. The system of Visible Speech, b. b. Show. adapted to the teaching of deaf- mutes by Professor A. Graham Bell, was introduced under the personal direction of Professor Bell. In his early death, which occurred in December, 1878, Mr. E. C. Stone was mourned as one who " loved his work for the work's sake, and, while shrinking from the public gaze, sought earnestly and faithfully to discharge every duty."
Mr. E. C. Stone was succeeded in office by Mr. Job Williams, a graduate of Yale in 1864, who had been an instructor in the Asylum for nearly thirteen years. Under the scholarly management of Mr. Williams the ancient reputation of the Asylum has been handsomely maintained ; and to him belongs the hon- Job Williams. or of having demon- strated the superior- ity of the combined system of instruc- tion, in an unanswer- able paper read before the Conference of Principals held in July, 1884, at Faribault, Minn. The substance of this paper, with the important
1 Mr. Stone, though opposing the elevation of articulation teaching to the place of high- est importance, was willing to give it what he believed to be its proper sphere in a school for the deaf. He therefore did not hesitate, when public sentiment demanded it, to introduce the teaching of speech into the Asylum, and he inaugurated measures that have since led to most gratifying results in this department of deaf-munte instruction.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
facts it narrates, may be found in the sixty-eighth Annual Report of the Asylum.
It has been the uniform policy of the Asylum to employ highly educated men and women as teachers, a large proportion of college graduates being always found in the corps of instructors. In its aim to make its graduates self-supporting members of society, the Asylum has been eminently successful; and this result is no doubt in large measure due to the fact that industrial instruction, introduced as early as 1823, has formed an essential feature in the training of the pupils.
The institution has had as pupils 2,357 deaf children and youth, ninety per cent of whom have come from New England.
The management of the finances of the Asylum has been brilliantly successful. The large fund derived from the sale of lands donated by Congress has been preserved unimpaired. The commissioners of the fund have been William Ely, 1824-1839; and Seth Terry, 1839-1864. The treasurers have been Ward Woodbridge, 1816-1817; James H. Wells, 1817-1837; James B. Hosmer, 1837-1864; Roland Mather, 1864, -- the last-named gentleman acting also as commissioner of the fund. The presidents of the corporation have been John Cotton Smith, William Phillips, Daniel Wadsworth, Nathaniel Terry, Thomas S. Williams, William W. Ellsworth, Calvin Day, and Francis B. Cooley. The secretaries of the corporation have been William W. Ellsworth, Jonathan Law, Seth Terry, Daniel P. Hopkins, Barzillai Hudson, John C. Parsons, and Atwood Collins.
The history of the Asylum would be incomplete without mention of the fact that many of the now flourishing schools for the deaf in the country have received important and direct assistance from the Asylum. Repeatedly have gentlemen from distant States been trained at the Asylum to be teachers and principals. Many times has the Asylum parted with valued instructors that new schools might have the benefit of their experience. It is not, therefore, merely on the fact of priority of organization that the just claim of the Asylum to be called the mother school for the deaf in America is based.
. M. Gallaudet
431
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
THE HARTFORD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
BY THE REV. WILLIAM THOMPSON, D.D., Dean of the Faculty.
THE Theological Institute of Connecticut was chartered the first Wednesday of May, 1834, and was formally opened the following September. A convention of thirty-six Congregational ministers was held in East (now South) Windsor, Sept. 10, 1833, " for the purpose of consultation, and taking such measures as may be deemed expedient for the defence and promotion of evangelical principles." The more prominent members of the body were Drs. Samuel Spring, Asahel Nettleton, Nathaniel Hewitt, Daniel Dow, G. A. Calhoun, Joseph Harvey, and the Rev. Cyrus Yale.
This conference was an expression of the wide-spread alarm created by the speculations and dogmas known as " the New Haven Divinity." The famous "Concio ad Clerum," preached Sept. 10, 1828, by Dr. Na- thaniel W. Taylor, Professor in the Theological Department of Yale College, brought to public notice some of the views held by himself and his associates, which were regarded by many as at variance with the teachings of Holy Scripture. In the leading religious quarterly of New England, the " Christian Spectator," the new doctrines were advocated with great ability and earnestness. The more thoroughly they were examined by many leaders of religious thought in New England and elsewhere, the more elearly did they seem to be " antagonistic to bib- lical doctrines respecting the Divine government, human depravity, regeneration, and the essential difference between the motives that govern renewed and unrenewed men." Such was the judgment of Jeremiah Evarts, Governor John Cotton Smith, Drs. Tyler, Nettleton, Humphrey, Griffin, Ebenezer Porter, Woods, and other eminent men in the denomination.
At the East Windsor Convention, September, 1833, " The Pastoral Union of Connecticut " was organized on the basis of a Calvinistie creed. Its constitution provided for the establishment of a theological seminary, and measures were at onee adopted to execute this design. The founders of the seminary defended their action on several grounds ; but more decisive than all other considerations was the prevalence of religious errors, threatening, as many believed, great and lasting damage to the churches.
The founders of the seminary sought in several ways to guard against the perversion of consecrated funds and other perils developed in the history of kindred institutions. They vested the control of the semi- nary not in a self-perpetuating corporation, but in a board of trustees chosen annually by the Pastoral Union, and required, as a condition of holding office, to give their assent to the creed of the Institute. By this means the seminary is brought into a close relation with the churches.
The institution was located at East Windsor, the birthplace of
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Jonathan Edwards, and the corner-stone of the first edifice was laid by Dr. Perkins, of West Hartford, May 13, 1834.
When the regular course of instruction began, the following autumn, sixteen students were in attendance. Dr. Bennett Tyler was the first professor of Theology, Dr. Jonathan Cogswell the first professor of Church History, and Professor William Thompson gave instruction in Hebrew and Greek Exegesis.
For several years the current expenses of the seminary were defrayed by small gifts from persons of moderate means. At first the trustees were inclined to depend on such aid rather than the proceeds of per- manent funds. The experiment proved unsatisfactory, and a legacy of eleven thousand dollars from Miss Rebecca Waldo, of Worcester, Mass., in 1839, was welcomed as a pledge of necessary endowments. Donations varying from one dollar to seven thousand dollars were re- ceived during the next few years for the support of professors and the increase of the library. In 1849 a second professorship was endowed by the bequest of Mr. Chester Buckley and his wife, of Wethersfield. The attempt to set aside the will of Mr. and Mrs. Buckley was thwarted by the late Hon. Seth Terry, of Hartford. The result of the contest was singularly fortunate. The compromise planned by Judge Terry secured to the heirs-at-law considerably more than the sums specified in the will, and to various public institutions and charities a large proportion of what was bequeathed them.
The third professorship was endowed partly by Dr. Asahel Nettleton, with the proceeds of " Village Hymns."
By far the most munificent contributor to the funds of the seminary was the late Mr. James B. Hosmer, of Hartford. Besides founding the professorship of New Testament Exegesis, he gave one hundred thousand dollars for the erection of the edifice on Broad Street which bears his name; and as the residuary legatee the institution lias received from his estate a large addition to its permanent fund.
Liberal gifts have been made by the late Mr. Richard Bond, of Boston Highlands, and Messrs. S. S. Ward, Roland Mather, and Newton Case, of Hartford. To the last-named gentleman the seminary is indebted for the rapid growth of its library since the opening of Hosmer Hall. By a donation of five thousand dollars, Mr. Joseph Carew, late of South Hadley Falls, Mass., provided for an annual course of lectures from gentlemen appointed by the Faculty. The same amount has recently been given by five individuals to found a Lectureship of Foreign Mis- sions, with the expectation that it will be enlarged into a Professorship of Missions.
In aid of needy students, twenty-two scholarships have been endowed by friends in different parts of New England, varying from one thousand to two thousand dollars each.
The original charter allowed the trustees to hold property to the amount of fifty thousand dollars. In 1859 the General Assembly granted the Institute power to hold any estate, provided the annual income thereof shall not exceed twelve thousand dollars. By a second amendment in 1880, the charter now covers property to the amount of one million dollars, with the usual condition.
Students were furnished with ample facilities for physical exercise at East Windsor. Seventy acres of choice land on the river were
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THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.
offered for their use free of rent. Each student had also the free use of a box of tools in a workshop to be used in cold and stormy weather. With little knowledge of agriculture and none at all of the use of carpenters' tools, and with various other drawbacks, it was not sur- prising that the young men soon left their broad acres and well-stocked workshop for more congenial recreation. Connected with Hosmer Hall is a well-equipped gymnasium.
The establishment of a classical school, as well as a theological semi- nary, was authorized by the charter, and was deemed an important branch of the enterprise at East Windsor.
It was found that a large percentage of the pupils in the best acade- mies of Massachusetts were from Connecticut. In 1850 there was an earnest call for a first-class training-school in this State. East Windsor Hill Academy was organized in 1851. Two members of the theological faculty were in the governing board. Mr. Paul A. Chadbourne, after- ward President of Williams College, was chosen principal of the academy, and from the first a high standard of scholarship and morals was maintained. Its graduates, who entered our best colleges, took a high rank, and when at the end of ten years its funds were reduced, the trustees chose to discontinue the school rather than permit its good name to be tarnished.
The disadvantages incident to the location of the seminary at East Windsor Hill had been embarrassing from the first, and at the end of twenty years they awakened grave apprehensions among its firmest friends. The isolation of the place, sufficiently characteristic in 1834, had become extreme in 1854. The lack of social and church life, and of a literary atmosphere in the surrounding community, aggravated the discomfort of separation from the outer world.
Seeing no reason to expect any marked improvement in the condi- tion of the seminary if it remained at East Windsor Hill, the trustees invited the corporation of Yale College to consider a proposal for uniting the two seminaries. The small and declining number of stu- dents in both institutions compelled their guardians to ask how an impending calamity could be avoided. A conference was held, and upon nearly all the proposed conditions of union the parties were of one mind. While they were seeking agreement on the last preliminary under discussion, the New Haven gentlemen intimated that " dne regard to certain very obvious personal relations and sympathies compelled them to ask a delay of definite action until such time as Providence should seem to indicate." A few years later, in 1864, the Clerical Fellows of Yale College appointed a committee to resume negotiations for uniting the two seminaries. Important changes had taken place since 1856, which seemed to render the scheme more feasible than when it was first proposed. But it met with a second defeat. The removal of the seminary from East Windsor to Hartford had been definitely agreed upon. The transfer was made in September, 1865. The temporary use of two spacious dwelling-houses on Prospect Street was secured, and two others were subsequently occupied by students. This arrangement continued fourteen years, when the new edifice on Broad Street was completed. By the resignation of Dr. Lawrence, the Faculty consisted of Professors Vermilye and Thompson when the institution was transferred to its new home.
VOL. I .- 28.
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MEMORIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD COUNTY.
Before the institution had become fully adjusted to its new surround- ings in the city, propositions were made for its amalgamation with two Western seminaries. A similar overture came from another quarter. It is presumed that no more proffers of this kind will be made.
The largest number of students belonging to the seminary before its removal to Hartford was thirty-four; the catalogue of 1884 contains fifty-four names. The library at that time consisted of seven thousand volumes ; it now has forty-two thousand. The three professorships of 1834 have increased to five, to which has lately been added an Asso- ciate Professorship of Sacred Music and Hymnology.
Of those who have studied at this institution a larger proportion than of those connected with any other Congregational seminary in the country have entered home and foreign mission fields.
The theological position of the seminary is Calvinistic, and in harmony with the accredited formularies of New England Congregationalism.
Faculty, 1886.
William Thompson, D.D., Professor Emeritus of the Hebrew Language and Literature, Dean of the Faculty.
Matthew B. Riddle, D.D., Hosmer Professor of New Testament Exegesis.
William S. Karr, D.D., Riley Professor of Christian Theology.
Chester D. Hartranfi, D.D., Waldo Professor of Biblical and Ecclesiastical History.
Lewellyn Pratt, D.D., Professor of Practical Theology.
Edwin C. Bissell, D.D., Nettleton Professor of the Hebrew Language and Literature, and Instructor in Cognate Languages.
Waldo S. Pratt, A.M., Associate Professor of Sacred Music and Hymnology.
Ernest C. Richardson, A.M., Librarian.
F. C. Robertson, Instructor in Elocution.
435
TRINITY COLLEGE.
TRINITY COLLEGE.
BY PROFESSOR SAMUEL HART, D.D.
THE Episcopalians of Connecticut were enabled to complete their ecclesiastical organization soon after the close of the War of Indepen- dence, by securing the consecration of a bishop. One of the first matters to which they then gave their attention was the establishment of educational institutions which should be under the auspices of their church. A resolution adopted by the Convocation in 1792 led to
TRINITY COLLEGE IN 1829.
the foundation of the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut at Cheshire, which for some years did the work of a school, a college, and a theo- logical seminary. It was often known as Scabury College, but its supporters failed in all their attempts to secure for it a charter which might empower it to confer degrees. The overthrow of the Standing Order and the adoption of the State Constitution in 1818 opened the way for new efforts. The Rev. Dr. T. C. Brownell, a graduate of Union College, and for more than ten years a J. 6. Brownello tutor and professor there,
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