USA > Indiana > A history of education in Indiana > Part 34
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It is not meant that this condition of affairs was due to the opposition of the churches to State education simply, or any disposition on the part of the State to ignore the churches. It was rather a remnant of the earlier thought in this country, long cherished in Indiana, that all higher education, including that in secondary schools even, was the child of the Church, as elementary training was long held to belong to the family. This Prof. Mills believed and con- sistently maintained throughout a long and most useful pub- lic life in educational circles in Indiana, standing for the most liberal policy toward State-founded, State-supported, and State-controlled elementary schools, but denying the right of the State to give financial aid to any one institution that was not equally accorded to others of collegiate rank, however founded. While other influences were felt in the founding of these Church schools, this one of the prior claim of the Church, and an inherent right, along with private interest, to the control and encouragement of superior education, was the predominant one. The founders of Hanover, Wa- bash, Asbury, Franklin, Concordia, and Earlham Colleges, all organized as schools prior to the middle of the century, were strongly possessed of this spirit; and, while pronounced friends of education, regarded the State's assumption of au- thority over all education with distrust.
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A second cause of this division of the interest among the churches may be found in the once prevalent, and now in places common, impression that a State institution is likely to neglect the religious life of students.
This, it is well known, is still the attitude of the Catholic Church, and may be said to be the ground for all Catholic schools, whether elementary, academic, or superior, in In- diana or elsewhere. The responsibility of the Church for the life of its membership makes illegitimate the use of any secular agency of education of any grade. Protestant de- nominations, on the other hand, have, with few exceptions, accepted the secular education in childhood and youth, but rejected it in the college and university. Indiana has but few Protestant parochial or Church-supported schools of lower rank than seminaries, but a dozen colleges. Of course, upon pedagogical grounds, this attitude can only appear contradictory. The earliest years fixing life's habits might better lay first claims to the Church's oversight.
A third reason definitely assigned in a few instances for the establishment of Church-supported colleges was the ne- cessity felt for a ministry trained in the West. In the early history of the State the first clergymen of every denomina- tion, as well as the first teachers and professors and col- lege presidents and capitalists, and the most scholarly men generally, came from the East or the South. But this source could not long be depended upon. The West felt the need of filling its own professions. The movement in Indiana appeared first among the Presbyterians, and led to the found- ing of Hanover College in 1827, and six years later of Wa- bash College. Subsequently other denominations, notably the Methodists, Baptists, and Quakers, established similar schools. With all of them, except the last, the training of young men for the ministry has been throughout the years, if not the leading, one ever-present motive in their main- tenance. The first faculties were selected from the clergy ; the first libraries were, when not classical, theological; and the curriculum, in matter and treatment, emphatically such.
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Finally, a not insignificant factor in the multiplication of denominational schools, though certainly a less worthy motive, is the need each organization saw of having its own school taught by its own adherents, as a means of defense, and of maintaining its place in society, and promoting the truth intrusted to its keeping. This felt "need of an institu- tion of learning under their immediate patronage, and sub- ject to their direction," was formally or implicitly given as a reason by more than one denomination for the establish- ment of such separate institutions. From the point of view of the Church, this was doubtless legitimate. It was one efficient means of conserving and promoting the growth of the doctrines and the policy which alone made the organi- zation significant. It was held that the youth of every church had a claim upon the Church for instruction in its tenets. The denomination, on the other hand, was depend- ent for its existence upon this trained membership. Hence schools maintained by the various sects. But looked at in the interest of liberal education, it exhibits only faction and antagonism-the exaltation of class interests and the division of resources. It too often assumed, as it does sometimes to- day, that all culture should be tinged by the theological interpretations of a particular creed. Knowledge was some- times less valued for itself than for its ecclesiastical and religious significance. The secularization of learning has greatly exalted education both in the Church and outside.
The accompanying table presents a list of the denomi- national schools now claiming collegiate rank and granting degrees. The date assigned to each has been made, as far as could be had, the time of opening the school as a college. Only those are included in the list that are still in existence. The number might be considerably extended by mentioning those that have been and were really efficient, but which are now closed, or reduced to secondary or semi-collegiate rank. Of such class were the Fort Wayne College; Howard Col- lege, Kokomo; Ridgeville College; and Smithson College, Logansport. Among them have been, as there are yet, some
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of the most efficient institutions-institutions whose records show learned men in their faculties, honored alumni, and a regenerative influence upon the community. Most of them will be found mentioned elsewhere. The table includes fifteen institutions, excluding the purely private schools, considered in another chapter:
Table of Denominational Colleges.
1. Hanover College
Presbyterian.
1827
2. Wabash College .
Presbyterian.
1833
3. Indiana Asbury University (De Pauw)
M. E.
1837
4. University of Notre Dame
Catholic
1842
5. Franklin College
Baptist
1844
6. N. W. C. University (Butler).
Christian
1858
7. Earlham College
Friends
1859
8. Moore's Hill College.
M. E
1854
9. Union Christian College .
New Light.
1859
10. Hartsville College.
United Brethren.
1859
11. St. Meinard's College.
Catholic
1861
12. Concordia College (founded in Missouri in 1839). .
Lutheran
1861
13. Jasper College.
Catholic
1889
14. St. Joseph's College
Catholic.
1891
15. Taylor University
M. E
1891
A. HANOVER COLLEGE.
First among the denominational high-grade schools of the State was Hanover Academy, chartered by the Presby- terians, December, 1828, supplemented by a theological de- partment two years later, and rechartered as Hanover Col- lege in 1833, but five years after the incorporation of Indiana College at Bloomington. The school was originally opened in 1827 by the Rev. John Finley Crowe, pastor of the church in Hanover, the stronghold at that time of Presbyterianism in Indiana. The settlement was composed chiefly of immi- grants from Pennsylvania and the South, the first president of the college, in 1833, being the Rev. James Blythe, D. D., of Kentucky, whence in the early history of the institution many students were drawn. After ten years a new charter granted university privileges to the institution, the name remaining unchanged.
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DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES.
A charter was sought of the Legislature in 1832, but was defeated, chiefly through the influence, it was claimed, of the adherents of the State College at Bloomington, who asked "that the few active friends of education in the State should unite in support of one college, and make it prosper ous and efficient, rather than that they should fritter away their strength on several weak colleges." Other opposition came also * from certain members of the Legislature "who were averse to chartering sectarian institutions, and espe- cially Presbyterian institutions."
The school was originally opened pledged to the manual- labor idea, and the charter provided explicitly "that the students should ... be exercised and instructed in some species of mechanical or agricultural labor, in addition to the scientific and literary branches there taught"; and re- quired an annual report to the Legislature upon the success of the plan, showing "the progress and effects of such agri- cultural and mechanical exercise and instruction upon the health, studies, and improvement of the students." Students worked at cooperage, wood-chopping and rail-splitting, farm- ing, carpentering, and printing. For the time this was re- garded as a privilege, and drew students from other States. But to make the plan helpful, students were paid for their labor-often more than it was worth-and the college corpo- ration became bankrupt. Within ten years from the found- ing (about 1835) the policy was abandoned.
In 1844, at the instance of President McMaster, the char- ter was surrendered, with a view of locating an institution in its stead at Madison, Indiana. Madison was then one of the most flourishing and populous cities in the State, and the school was projected on a comprehensive scale. Among the trustees were the Rev. Sylvester Scovill, Hon. Jere Sulli- van, Hon. J. G. Marshall, and Hon. James G. Blake. Labo- ratories of philosophy and chemistry were advertised, and
* Says Judge William McKee Dunn, in Early History of Hanover Col- lege. The Bohemian, June, 1883, p. 103.
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a library of fifteen hundred volumes. The founders an- nounced as their purpose "to promote sound education and liberal learning, having a just relation to and including in- struction in the religion of Nature and the Holy Scriptures." Special instruction was offered in the art of teaching, to those wishing to engage in that occupation. Hanover Col- lege, including all its property, was sold the same year by William McKee Dunn, as receiver, and bought by William- son Dunn for $400.
Notwithstanding the promise of Madison University, the Presbyterian Synod of Indiana, of which the Hanover school was the official representative, refused to accept the new institution as a substitute for Hanover College; and a few months afterward the latter was rechartered, with full col- lege powers and privileges. The theological department, which had been organized in 1830, was in 1840 transferred to New Albany, whence it was removed in 1859 to Chicago.
Hanover College has had ten presidents since 1832, be- sides its honored founder, Rev. John Finley Crowe, who, as principal (1827-1832) and professor, served and honored the institution for more than thirty years .* Its graduates num- ber seven hundred, including such well-known names as Noble Butler, Thomas A. Hendricks, Dr. E. J. Hamilton, and others, besides three thousand students. Women were first admitted in 1880, the first alumnæ leaving in 1883. Few schools in Indiana have done more for liberal, general cult- ure, or made larger contributions to the learning and effi- ciency of the State's professional and business life, than Hanover College.
B. WABASH COLLEGE.
Wabash enjoys the unique and significant distinction among the colleges of the State of being the only non-coedu- cational institution among Protestants, and of having had
* His labors at Hanover College closed with his death, January, 1860. The president of Indiana University, Dr. John M. Coulter, is a grandson of Rev. Mr. Crowe.
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DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES.
throughout its history of fifty-five years but three presidents, its present head, Dr. J. F. Tuttle, having administered the institution since 1862, or more than half of the whole period.
The institution, like the one last mentioned, was estab- lished as a school of the Presbyterian Church; but, unlike Hanover Academy, the Wabash College was meant to be "a literary institution in connection with manual labor." Its very name, "The Wabash Manual Labor College and Teach- ers' Seminary," under which its first charter was given, sug- gests a different constitution. The former planned to sup- ply the scattered churches with ministers trained for the pulpit-a native ministry. And for fifteen years the school was a theological seminary. The latter, while not neglect- ful of the like interest, sought rather to provide a liberal and generous culture to all classes. As retaining the manual- labor bias, the latter was merely following the prevalent spirit. As a school for the preparation of teachers, it was one of the earliest in the State, or even in the Northwest. As a college it aspired to the standards of the highest lit- erary and scientific institutions in the land. The present name was substituted in 1851, and the manual-labor policy abandoned in theory as it had already been in practice.
In December, 1833, the school was opened, and for more than two years continued as an academy under Prof. Caleb Mills, the first president, Elihu W. Baldwin, elected in 1834, not being inaugurated until July, 1836. His two successors have been Dr. Charles White, 1841-1861, and Dr. Joseph F. Tuttle, since 1862. Among its professors the institution has been honored in the services of such men as Profs. E. O. Hovey, John L. Campbell, and John M. Coulter in science, Prof. Caleb Mills in the languages, Colonel Henry B. Car- rington, of the United States Army, etc.
From the first the institution took high rank as a classi- cal, humanistic school. For thoroughness of work and effi- ciency in discipline the college has and has had no superior. Its characteristic conservatism has kept it from pedagogic blunders committed by many more ambitious and restless
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schools. Here more than in any other Indiana college classi- cal learning has found an honest recognition. Greek lin- gered long among the required subjects, and is still among the conditions of entering upon the classical course. But two courses are offered, the other being the scientific. A single elective in each course is offered in the junior year and two to seniors. Beyond this the work is prescribed.
The library of the institution is the largest and best se- lected college library in the State. It contains thirty thou- sand volumes, and is particularly rich in review and peri- odical literature and works of general reference. Its mu- seum, including specimens in mineralogy, palæontology, zoölogy, botany, and archæology, occupies three large rooms, and is both complete in its materials and admirably arranged for use.
The property investments of the college, including grounds, buildings, laboratories, and libraries, are valued at not less than $300,000. Its endowment is about three quar- ters of a million.
C. ASBURY (DE PAUW) UNIVERSITY.
Very early in the history of the State University, while it was yet Indiana College indeed, the Methodists of the State finding less representation on the Board of Trustees and in the faculty of that institution than they claimed as their right, and failing, after petition to the Legislature and to the appointing officers, to secure a share in its manage- ment, the Indiana Conference advised upon the founding of a college or seminary that should be under the control of the said Conference.
A charter was asked for, and on the 10th of January, 1837, granted by the General Assembly to the "Indiana As- bury University " at Greencastle, "forever to be conducted on the most liberal principles, accessible to all religious de- nominations, and designed for the benefit of our citizens in general." Under the authority of the Conference commit- tee a preparatory school had been opened in Greencastle by
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DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES.
the Rev. Cyrus Nutt. The Rev. Matthew Simpson was in- augurated September, 1839, first president of the institution. A department of law was organized in 1846, and “The Indi- ana Central Medical College " at Indianapolis adopted as a branch of the University in 1848. German and French were made a part of the course in 1847, and Samuel K. Hoshour made instructor. It is worth noting that the first chair of English in the institution came five years later. In the fall of 1867 the doors of the University were first thrown open to girls, the first graduates (four) being in the class of 1871. Two years later, upon the appointment of John C. Ridpath as professor of English literature, a normal department was organized and added to his chair. Little has been pre- served of the character or success of this work.
Not until 1858 is any mention made in the records of a course in history ; it was then combined with that of belles- lettres, from which it was separated in 1881. Up to 1882, also, the Department of Natural Science included all the work offered in science. In that year physics was erected into a separate chair, and chemistry and physiology united in another.
In respect to its curriculum, the experience of De Pauw University has been one with that of other like institutions. As compared with Indiana University, whose course is char- acterized elsewhere, De Pauw passed through a long prepara- tory stage. German and French were introduced later, but English earlier. By the former, history was dignified by a separate chair in 1879, by the latter in 1881. Speaking gen- erally, in De Pauw the development of the sciences seemed most backward. The privileges of the institution were ex- tended by compact to Indians in 1843, and to girls in 1867. A formal theological training was first offered in 1882.
In the beginning, Asbury University was the school of Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Along with the growth of the Church were organized new conferences, which have borne and still bear a proportion of the responsibility in its maintenance and share its privi-
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leges. These are the Indiana Conference, the Northern In- diana Conference, the Northwestern Indiana Conference, and the Southeastern Indiana Conference. Financially, it has been mainly dependent upon the support accorded by the several churches, its productive endowment, after forty years, being less than $150,000. In 1880 and following, the condition of the institution's affairs was most unpromising. The annual deficit was more than $10,000. At this juncture, but after prolonged deliberation, aid of a substantial and much-needed sort was obtained through the benefactions of Mr. W. C. De Pauw, for more than twenty years one of the institution's trustees. In 1884, having received more than $200,000 toward an endowment, almost as much more for building and expense, and the assurance of a liberal addi- tion to the endowment in the future, the trustees by legal process changed the name of the school to De Pauw Univer- sity. The constitution of the University was greatly modi- fied, the curriculum enlarged, new schools added, accommo- dations increased, and a new lease taken of life. Upon the death of Mr. De Pauw, in 1887, it appeared that besides for- mer contributions, he had remembered the University in a bequest, variously estimated, because of its contingent char- acter, at between one million and two million dollars.
The presidents of the institution have been Bishop Mat- thew Simpson, Revs. L. W. Berry and Daniel Curry, Bishop Thomas Bowman, Revs. Reuben Andrus and Alexander Martin, and Dr. J. P. D. John, in the order mentioned. Among its professors have been William C. Larrabee, Cyrus Nutt, John Clark Ridpath, A. C. Downey, and Samuel K. Hoshour; and among its alumni such men as ex-Governor Albert G. Porter, Senators D. W. Vorhees, of Indiana, and Newton Booth, of California, Prof. George W. Hoss, Rev. Charles N. Sims, and Dr. John C. Ridpath; Hon. T. B. Redding, the microscopist, and Thomas B. Wood, the mis- sionary.
De Pauw University is a fair illustration of that con- ception of a university which makes it a group of related
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schools. In the college of liberal arts the curriculum repre- sents the modern impulse toward a guarded elective course, co-ordinate departments, optional subjects, and generally progressive tone. Its organization includes half a dozen schools, enrolling a thousand students, about one third of whom are in the college of liberal arts.
D. FRANKLIN COLLEGE.
Next to the Presbyterians, the Baptists in Indiana were among the earliest to move in the direction of a school for higher education. A beginning was made in 1834 by the organization of the "Indiana Baptist Education Society."
The proposed school was originally called the "Indiana Baptist Institution," or the " Academy," and was opened in October, 1837, as the "Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Insti- tute," at Franklin, in Johnson County. As far as appears, the only phase of industry introduced was in the furnishing of a cooper-shop, which was run some years-the name of the institution being changed in 1845 to Franklin College, as more suited to the character of the work done.
In 1842 girls were admitted to the institution, with all its privileges. Prof. J. S. Hougham says: "Until some other college can antedate the academic year of 1842-'43, I venture to insist that this (Franklin) was the first chartered college in Indiana that received both sexes as students."* Two years later a regular course of collegiate studies was adopted. The school received meager support from the Baptists of the State, some sought its removal, funds were limited, subscrip- tions failed of collection, college appliances were wanting, the faculties were uncertain, and the administration greatly hampered in every way. In thirty years the institution had more than half a dozen presidents and principals, and was much of the time without either. There was really no en- dowment, and in 1864 the school was closed by order of the trustees. It 1872 it was again revived under the manage-
* History of Franklin College, p. 67.
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
ment of the Franklin College Association, subscriptions were taken, the old debts paid, and $50,000 set apart as an endowment, which has since been increased to about $80,000.
In its first fifty years it turned out sixty graduates; but in the same period it is estimated that its students numbered from three thousand to four thousand. For many years its instruction included the elementary subjects ; the beginnings of physics, chemistry, and astronomy ; something of the higher mathematics, and the languages.
The institution rested upon a somewhat different plane from that of most other colleges. "The enterprise," says Prof. Hougham, " contemplated from the beginning nothing less than the elevation of a numerous and well-established Christian denomination in our Commonwealth to an entirely different plane. Preachers and people alike were to be af- fected. Habits of thought and modes of action were to be changed. Deep-seated prejudices were to be removed; and a large majority of those for whose special benefit this col- lege was projected cared little whether it lived or died."
That this part of the work has borne acceptable fruit appears in the more liberal support, the vigorous manage- ment, the enlarged curriculum, and a wider influence.
E. CONCORDIA COLLEGE.
What is now Concordia College, at Fort Wayne, was founded by a colony of Saxony Lutherans, in Perry County, Missouri, in the year 1839. Four years afterward a theolog- ical course was added, and in 1849 the institution was moved to St. Louis, and became the charge of the Missouri Synod. For more than thirty years the institution had a president, but was administered by a "director," not only the officers but the professors being the most scholarly men. In 1861 the college proper was moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, the theological seminary remaining at St. Louis.
The institution has no endowment, expenses being met by the Church Synod. Tuition is free to those preparing for the ministry. The attendance is large, having grown from
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DENOMINATIONAL COLLEGES AND ACADEMIES.
seventy-eight in 1861 to nearly two hundred and fifty dur- ing the last college year. The school is one of a group of schools maintained by the Lutherans in this country : one in Milwaukee, Wis .; one in New York city; and one in Concordia, Mo., with a branch in St. Louis-all opened in recent years. *
F. EARLHAM COLLEGE.
Among the Protestant denominations, the Society of Friends was fifth in order in the provision of superior edu- cation in Indiana.
In 1847, in the midst of the manual-labor movements in education, the society undertook the establishment of an in- dustrial boarding school. Fifteen years before, the general question had been discussed, and it was recognized that the " welfare of the society " required some such provision. Even at that early day the membership in the State was large for Western settlements, and a system of schools was planned to reach every Friend's neighborhood, and do for the children and the youth what the State, with thirty years of legislation, had failed to accomplish. Preparatory schools then, or within the next decade, were opened at Spiceland, Bloomingdale, Sand Creek (in Bartholomew County), Blue River (in Washington County), Fairmount, Amboy, and Westfield; and soon after at Plainfield, Thorntown, and New London.
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