USA > Indiana > Johnson County > Franklin > Franklin College, Franklin, Ind. : first half century jubilee exercises, June 5 to 12, 1884 : addresses, historical, biographical and statistical matter, poem, hymn, general catalogue, etc > Part 3
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The purposes of the Education Society were vast and far- reaching. Its Board of Directors was granted "power to establish one or more literary or theological seminaries, and to appoint trustees for the government of the same, to be chosen annually." The trustees thus chosen were authorized to appoint their own officers, make their own by-laws, and
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were required to report annually to the Board of the Educa- tion Society.
With the founding and progress of the Education Society it is not the purpose of this paper specially to deal. Some facts must be stated, however, to make what follows intelli- gible. The first meeting of the Baptist friends of education was held June 5. 1834, at the Baptist meeting-house in In- dianapolis. William Rees was chosen chairman and Ezra Fisher clerk. The meeting passed resolutions and discussed the educational needs of the State; appointed a Committee on Correspondence and to draft a permanent Constitution : also to examine proposed sites for the future institution of learning.
The next meeting was held at Franklin, October 2 and 4. 1834, when several brethren were appointed to write for the press and arouse the Baptists of Indiana on the subject of education. and a committee was appointed to draft a Consti- tution for the new institution of learning.
The Education Society met next at Indianapolis, January 14 and 15, 1835, and completed its organization by adopt- ing a Constitution and electing officers. A Constitution was also adopted for the Indiana Baptist Institution. as it was then called, and subscription papers for the location of the College were issued for four different places-Indianapolis, Franklin. St. Omer and Mr. J. M. Robinson's place, the last two places both being situated in Decatur County, near the present town of Adams. These subscription papers were to be returned at the meeting of the Board of the Education Society at Indian- apolis in June following. Accordingly, June 3, 1835, the subscription paper of Mr. J. M. Robinson and that of Samuel Harding, on behalf of Franklin, were presented and referred to a committee consisting of brethren Ezra Fisher, Eliphalet Williams and Lewis Morgan, to examine the proposed sites and report as soon as practicable. The Board of the Educa- tion Society again met June 24, 1835, and heard the report of the Committee on Location, and it was agreed by a " unani- mous vote of all present to locate the institution known as the Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute at Franklin, Johnson County, Ind., on the site east of town."
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FRANKLIN COLLEGE.
The record does not clearly reveal just what inducements were offered by the different places. Indianapolis and St. Omer seem to have dropped out of the contest, and the loca- tion of the institution at Franklin is without doubt due to the tact and energy of Samuel Harding and Lewis Morgan. Of the three members of the Committee on Location, Ezra Fisher and Lewis Morgan favored Franklin, and Eliphalet Williams favored either Indianapolis or St. Omer.
At the same meeting, June 24, 1835, the Education Society appointed thirty-five men a Board of Directors of the Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute. The list is as follows: Lewis Morgan, Samuel Harding, Jefferson D. Jones, Samuel Herriott, John Foster, Dr. Pierson Murphey, Nicholas Shaffer, Robert Gilcrease, George King, Milton Stapp, Jesse L. Holman, George Matthews, John McCoy, Seth Woodruff, Joseph Chamberlain, Silas Jones, Wm. B. Ewing, H. J. Hall, J. L. Richmond, Henry Bradley, Samuel Merrill, N. B. Palmer, Ezra Fisher, Robert Thomson, George Hunt, John Walker, Wm. Phelps, Win. Rees, James V. A. Woods, Eliphalet Williams, John Hawkins, D. Thomas, Win. Polk, Byrum Lawrence and Wm. Stansil. Of this first Board of Directors three are still living-Eliphalet Williams, at Lebanon, Ind .; Wm. Stansil, at Sullivan, Ind., and Nicholas Shaffer, in Oregon.
The new Board of Directors, in accordance with the instruc- tions of the Education Society, met July 18, 1835, and perfected an organization by electing Samuel Harding President ; Jesse L. Holman and Samuel Merrill, Vice-Presidents ; Samuel Her- riott, Secretary, and Nicholas Shaffer Treasurer. Committees were appointed to prepare by-laws for the regulation of the Board ; also to superintend the surveying and platting of lots of land donated to the College. The Treasurer was required to give bond in the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, an amount supposed to be commensurate with the responsi- bilities of the position. The Board also took steps toward securing the temporary use of the public school-house in Franklin.
Up to this time the institution had received donations of land from George King and Harvey McCaslin. Mr. King's donation consisted of a three-acre strip of land running east
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and west through what is now the central part of the College Campus. Mr. McCaslin's donation consisted of five acres, which now forms the south side of the Campus and the north side of Mr. Joseph A. Dunlap's land. The institution had also bought from Austin Shipp an eighty-aere tract of land lying just east of the five acres donated by Mr. McCaslin. The institution had no money and but few subscriptions ; vet the Treasurer was ordered to collect money for making the first payments on the land bought from Mr. Shipp. At its second meeting, August 6, 1835, the Board adopted by-laws, appointed Lewis Morgan, Henry Bradley and Samuel Hard- ing a committee to divide the State into four agency districts, and tried either to rent or purchase the house of Mr. Doan for school purposes, the house being situated on what is now the east side of the College Campus.
October S, 1835, Samuel Merrill, N. B. Palmer, Henry Brad- ley, Lewis Morgan and J. L. Richmond were appointed to procure a charter from the Legislature, and were afterward instructed to procure the charter with full collegiate powers. The first action of the Board toward the erection of a build- ing was taken at this same meeting, and Jefferson D. Jones. Robert Gilcrease and Pierson Murphey were appointed a build- ing committee, to submit plans and estimates. In December, 1835, Ezra Fisher was appointed Superintending Agent, but declined, and the following January Lewis Morgan was ap- pointed instead, and Harding, Fisher and Bradley were appointed to prepare instructions for the agents. With the exception of some local agency work done by Samuel Hard- ing, Lewis Morgan was therefore the first college agent. At the same meeting Samuel Merrill, Samuel Harding and Lewis Morgan were made a committee to recommend a suitable teacher: the building committee was ordered to erect a frame building, twenty-six by thirty-eight feet, to be finished by May 1, 1836, and an order of fifty dollars was granted the building committee-the first order ever issued by the Col- lege. On February 16, 1836, the building committee reported a contract with James K. Gwinn, a carpenter of Franklin, for the erection of the " Seminary," as it was called, and the build- ing was finished the following summer, at a cost of about $350.
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not including the cost of seats. The building was ordered to be painted white, and was located a little to the west and south of the present south College building.
On July 6, 1836, J. L. Richmond, James V. A. Woods and Lewis Morgan were appointed to draft regulations for the Seminary, and to procure a suitable teacher, and the agent. Lewis Morgan, was authorized to rent the Seminary building for a school-room until the next meeting of the Board. Thus ended the first year's work of the first Board of Directors of Franklin College, and, looking back now at the means and resources with which it worked, it must be said that there had been material progress. A building had been erected and partly paid for, and the college lands had been partially cleared. What was most needed was a competent teacher. On this matter of a teacher the Board took somewhat decisive action October 5, 1836. The committee formerly appointed to recon- mend a teacher was discharged, and the Board itself elected as Principal of the Seminary, Prof. John Stevens, of Cincin- nati, afterward, for many years, a Professor in Denison Uni- versity, at Granville, O. Prof. Stevens, however, declined, and on January 4, 1837, the Board voted "that the Hon. Jesse L. Holman be respectfully invited to accept the office of Principal of the Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute, and that he de- vote so much of his time and attention to this Institute as will not materially interfere with the duties of the office of Judge of the United States District Court." As the Judge's district included the entire State of Indiana, we are not surprised to learn that he declined the offer, "believing that it would inter- . fere with his official duties." The Board was still, in April. 1837, in want of a teacher, and Lewis Morgan was again ap- pointed to procure a " suitable person." That " suitable per- son " seems to have been the Rev. A. R. Hinckley, ther, or soon afterwards, pastor of the Baptist Church of Franklin, who taught for a short time in the summer and early fall of 1837. Meanwhile, the Board had secured the services of the Rev. A. F. Tilton, of Maine, a graduate of Waterville College, now Colby University. Prof. Tilton entered upon his duties as Principal of the Institute about the 1st of October, 1837, and continued to hold the position for three years. Prof. Tilton
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and the Board seriously misunderstood one another from the beginning, owing to the tardiness with which the Professor's salary was paid, and the fact that no adequate assistance was furnished him in teaching. At one time the Board voted to em- ploy assistance as soon as the number of students reached forty. But serious obstacles were in the way, both in employing competent teachers and agents. At different times Moses Bur- bank, of Shelbyville, Ky., and Warren Leverett were elected teachers, but neither served. At different times, the Rev. A. Goodall, of Paris, Ky , the Rev. F. A. Williams, of Newton, Mass., and the Rev. J. W. Haynes, of Tennessee, were each elected agents, and Mr. Haynes was the only one who served.
While Prof. Tilton was teaching in the bare, unfurnished lit- tle seminary, Lewis Morgan was platting and selling lots of the college grounds, what is now known as "Morgan's Plat of East Franklin." Financial relief, however, came but slowly in this way, as real estate was too abundant to command a high price, and all sales had to be made on time. The agency work met with many discouragements, as, up to November 25, 1841, more than a year after Prof. Tilton's resignation, the total subscriptions amounted to but $2.900, and a large part of this amount was uncollected.
To meet payments on the land bought from Mr. Shipp, a loan had to be negotiated from the surplus revenue fund, which was afterward repaid by funds collected by agents. At one time the Board bargained for the sale of about twenty-five acres of the college lands at a very fair price, but the land after- ward depreciating in value, the purchaser refused to consum- mate the contract. and the Board compromised with him, instead of standing upon its rights. Yet, there was progress under Prof. Tilton. On the subject of philosophical apparatus, the Board went so far as to pass a resolution and appoint a com- mittee in January, 1838. The first Examining Committee was appointed at the same time. They were A. R. Hinckley, David Monfort and Lewis Morgan, and the record shows that the Committee did its work. A cooper-shop was built under the supervision of Jefferson D. Jones, and Mr. James Frary, who still lives in East Franklin, did the work in the spring of 1838. The first exhibition was given in the summer of 1838. Prof.
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Tilton, A. R. Hinckley and Nicholas Shaffer prepared the "schemes," as the programmes were then called, and Travis Burnett built the stage. A " scheme " of that exhibition would now be sought after.
With a liberality beyond its means, the Board, on July 4, 1838, voted to appropriate $100 for philosophical apparatus and a bell. The apparatus was not soon forthcoming, and the bell did not arrive until the fall of 1839. On Christmas day of that year the faithful man-of- all-work, Jefferson D. Jones, was "authorized to obtain a handle to the bell of sufficient strength to ring it, and to erect a frame on which to place the bell as economically and as substantially as he can." The bell was skillfully hung in the forks of a tree, but it either gave forth an uncertain and unmusical sound, or else the mischiey- ous students of the little seminary in the woods must have cracked it in their midnight pranks, for, some three years after, we find that Prof. Robinson was ordered to get the bell cast over. At the exhibition of 1839 Judge Wm. W. Wick de- livered an address, which was afterward published. This was the first public address delivered on behalf of the college on such an. occasion.
After Prof. Tilton's resignation, in the fall of 1840, Wm. M. Pratt was chosen Principal, but never assumed the duties of the position, and Mr. T. J. Cottingham occupied the seminary for a private school for some time. In May, 1841, Wm. M. Pratt, F. M. Finch, A. R. Hinckley and Henry Bradley were ap- pointed a committee to recommend a plan for a suitable build- ing, and the Executive Committee was instructed to advertise for sealed proposals for its construction ; but, owing to the low state of the college finances, the bids were returned unopened. The year 1841 was a peculiarly gloomy time for the college, and when the General Association met at Aurora, in the fall of that year, the friends of the college were ready to despair. After long and deliberate consultation , at a session of the Board, which lasted nearly all night, the following resolution was adopted :
" Resolved, That we who are present solemnly pledge to attend the next meeting of the Board, except the Providence of God
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prevents, and do all in our power to build up and sustain the institution." 1674663
This resolution was signed by J. L. Holman, Robert Tisdale. Henry Bradley, A. F. Tilton, J. Currier, George C. Chandler, E. D. Owen, Simon G. Minor and Wm. M. Pratt.
The Board met at Franklin, November 25th following, and, true to their pledge, almost all who had signed the resolution were present. Joshua Currier was appointed Principal of the institution. and William J. Robinson and his sister Julia were appointed teachers.
School was opened in December of that year, and while Mr. Currier never accepted the position offered him, William J. Robinson and his sister Julia were both teachers in the insti- tution for the next year and a half, and their work was highly satisfactory to the Board.
At this time young ladies were admitted to all the privileges of the school, and in August, 1842, the Board took steps to organize a young ladies' department, and invited Misses Sarah S. and Harriet L. Kingsley to take charge of it. They never did so ; but Mrs. A. F. Tilton appears to have had charge of this department the next year.
In August, 1842, the Board adopted a plan for a brick build- ing, twenty-six by thirty-six feet and two stories high, and it is believed to be substantially the same plan as the present North College building, except that it was afterward made forty-two by eighty-four feet, and three stories high.
In December, 1842, Prof. A. F. Tilton submitted to the Board a plan to raise $10,000 endowment. His plan was substantially this : He would be one of one hundred men to give $100 each by the first day of January, 1844; $7,000 of the amount to be used as a permanent endowment fund, and $3,000 to be used in the erection of a building. The fly in the ointment in this plan was the reservation of a six-years' scholarship by each donor, and the Board was thus influenced to launch various schemes for scholarship, endowment, which, in the end, all proved financially disastrous to the college.
Just about this time may be noted the first donation of books for the library. The books were given by Mr. Dow, and the list is as follows : " Benedict's History of the Bap-
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tists," " Abercrombie on the Intellectual Powers," " Letters on the Mode and Subjects of Baptism," by Stephen Chapin, ". Baldwin on Baptism," and " Baldwin's Letters."
On April 10, 1843, Prof. William J. Robinson and his sister were compelled to leave the institution by reason of the death of their father. The Board elected George C. Chandler Prin- cipal, and he entered upon his work at once. The following summer Prof. Wm. Brand became connected with the college, and about a year after Prof. John B. Tisdale was added to the faculty.
In June, 1843, the Board decided to dispose of the eighty- acre tract of land belonging to the college, and apply the pro- ceeds at once to the erection of a building. Soon afterward a sale was made to Lewis Hendricks, the consideration being 266,000 bricks to be laid in the wall of the new building. A committee was also appointed on the plan of the building; but the plan of the North Building, as finally adopted, was proposed by Profs. Chandler and Brand, the third story being afterward changed to accommodate the chapel. The North Building was, therefore, planned and its construction begun in August, 1843; but the building was not finally completed and ready for use until the fall of 1847. After the completion of part of the brick work by Lewis Hendricks, what was left to be done was let to Samuel Hall; the carpenter work was done by Travis Burnett and A. C. Compton; the roof was built by Isaac Garrison, and the plastering was let to a con- tractor named Anderson. All the work on the building was done by piece-meal, as the Board had the money and as con- tractors were willing to wait for their pay. Many were the experiences of the Board while the work was progressing. On one occasion Samuel Hall, the contractor on the brick work, sued the college on an order, and final judgment was averted by the purchase of the order by Lewis Hendricks. Deductions were made on the bill of Travis Burnett for mak- ing sash, because the sash would not fit; but Mr. Burnett refused either to accept the deduction or arbitrate the matter, and the Board finally paid the whole bill under protest. During the whole of the time the North Building was in process of erection, the Board was using the trowel or the
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hammer with one hand, and warding off impatient creditors with the other Various were the expedients resorted to in order to procure money. Goods and wares donated to the College were sold either at Franklin or in different parts of the State. At one time the Board consulted the County Commissioners and took legal advice on the subject of peddling clocks donated to the College, clock peddling being in those days the essence of evil in the eyes of the law. The cost of the North Building is nowhere in the records minutely summed up; but as near as it can be approximated, it was $5,600. The foundation (not the corner-stone, for it was made wholly of bricks) was laid in the autumn of 1844, and Prof. John Stevens, of Cincin- nati, delivered an address on the occasion.
A regular course of collegiate studies was adopted in the fall of 1844, and the next year the institution was rechartered, with the name Franklin College, instead of Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute.
The first degree of A. B was conferred August 4, 1847, upon John W. Dame, afterward tutor in the College and Treasurer of the Board. The first mention of literary societies was July 14, 1847, when the north attic was assigned to the Ciee- ronian Society and the south attic to the Demosthenian So- ciety. These societies, if I am rightly informed, were after- ward merged into one society, called the Union Literary, and from this body sprung the present societies-the Perielesian and Webster.
In 1848 Prof. John S. Hougham and Achilles Vawter be- came members of the Faculty. and the following year Mr. Vawter, as Librarian, reported 755 volumes in the College Li- brary, 581 of which number had been donated during the year. On July 26, 1848, Milton Stapp, who had been made chairman of a committee to investigate the college books, and the manner of keeping them, reported on the financial condition of the col- lege, and, by a forced double entry balance, made the following result :
Resources.
Subscriptions
$ 982 50
Real Estate
9,500 00
Bills Receivable
2.295 00
College Furniture
1,000 00
$13,777 50
.
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Liabilities.
Scholarship No. 1 $2,296 67
Scholarship No. 2. 2,720 00
Bills Parable. 2,121 77
Orders Outstanding
1,700 88
Due Milton Stapp for philosophical apparatus
160 00
Balance in favor of the college.
$8.999 32
$4,778 18
President Chandler resigned his position October 5, 1849, and his intention of so doing was made known to the Board in the following letter :
Gentlemen of the Board:
After mature deliberation, and I trust sincere prayer, I have concluded that it is my duty to tender you my resignation of the honorable and responsible position of President of your College ; this resignation to take effect at the close of the pres- ent collegiate year. GEO. C. CHANDLER.
President Chandler's resignation was, in all probability, due to the financial condition of the college, and a requirement of the Board that each member of the faculty should do one-third of a year's agency work. His administration was no failure. He found the institution an academy, he left it a college. He found it almost without buildings, he left it with a building equal, at that time, to most of the college buildings of the state. He left it, too, through no fault of his own, overwhelmed with debt, and with few resources. President Chandler's labors were not properly appreciated by the Baptists of the state. nor did the denomination know, at that time, what it cost to make a college. The Baptist Abrahams who had bound Isaac and laid him on the altar. for the sake of higher education were indeed few. Their sacrifices and their support were very largely in the form of resolutions.
The two years following President Chandler's resignation were full of gloom and despondency for the college. In July, 1850, the debt of the institution was $3,281.74, with scarcely a cent in the treasury. Part of this debt was in the form of a judgment in favor of the estate of Lewis Hendricks. On this judgment an execution had been issued, and the Sheriff of John- son County stood ready to levy upon and sell the college prop- erty. This disaster was happily averted by some friends of the
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college assuming the payment of the judgment. The Board rec- ommended as a plan for lifting the debt, that each friend of the institution give $100 toward that object, and Prof. Hougham and the Rev. T. R Cressey were appointed to carry out the plan.
After the resignation of President Chandler, Profs. Hougham. Brand and Dame constituted the teaching force of the college : but, July 28, 1852, the Board elected Dr. Silas Bailey Presi- dent, and he entered upon his work the next fall.
Previous to Dr. Bailey's acceptance of the Presidency of the college, various endowment movements had been set on foot with considerable promise of success, but with little else than the promise. At one time the Board had voted to sell six-year schol- arships at thirty dollars-what is now less than the cost of a year's tuition in the college. But the proposition was after- ward modified. How to endow Franklin College without giv- ing anything, was a problem which weighed heavily upon the heart of the denomination in those days.
After Dr. Bailey assumed the Presidency the outlook began to be more hopeful. So much so that, in January, 1853, the Board appointed Dr. Bailey and Prof. Hougham a committee on another building.
The committee was authorized to borrow sufficient funds to erect a building the same size and dimensions as the North Building. The money thus borrowed was paid out of the en- lowment fund. The Building Committee made a final report in December, 1855, which is full and complete, and entered upon the records of the Board. The total cost of the South Building, including part of the furnishing thereof, was $7,- 321.56.
The question of establishing a Department of Agricultural Chemistry was brought before the Board in April, 1853, and it was afterward proposed to raise for its support an endow- ment of $12,000. Some teaching in this department was done by Prof. Hougham, but, for lack of means, the department was finally abandoned. Dr. Bailey, in addition to his regular work, taught classes in theology, and, at one time, was ap- pointed to a theological chair.
In the winter of 1855-'56 occurred, perhaps, the most serious
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internal trouble the college has ever experienced-the famous " snow-ball " rebellion. The students, having engaged in a snow-ball fight, one party took refuge in one of the college buildings, still pelting their outside assailants. The outside party, forgetting that college property was between them and the foe, began throwing through the windows until consider- able damage had been done. Some attempts were made by the students to repair the damage, but the faculty decided to prosecute them for malicious trespass. The boys were con- victed before a Justice of the Peace, but, on appeal to the Com- mon Pleas Court, were acquitted, on the ground that the tres- pass was without malice, the law at that time providing for the punishment of malicious trespass only, instead of mischiey- ous and malicious trespass, as at present. In April, 1856. about twenty-five students petitioned for the removal of Dr. Bailey, but the Board, after giving the petition a respectful hearing, passed resolutions strongly sustaining President Bailey, and recommending the expulsion of several students. Milder counsels at last prevailed, and, before the next college year began, the trouble had healed over.
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