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 5
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The steam engines of Captain Thomas Savory, of Thomas Newcomen, of James Watt, of John Fitch, of Robert Fulton, of George Stephenson, were very different things from those now sent out by the Corliss, and Baldwin, and Paterson, and Taunton, and a hundred other works of to-day; but who are so universally known and so gratefully remembered, in con- nection with this more than Herculean machinery, as are Savory, and Newcomen, and Watt, and Fitch. and Fulton, and Stephenson? True, they began their work before it was day; but they awoke the world to a consciousness of the power and of the capabilities of that wonderful agent, steam. Others have modified its production and its application, and these modifications have been so gradual and so numerous that the more recent inventors are almost lost in their own multitude. What seemed a prodigy of inventive genius half a century ago would be useless on our railroads in this year of grace. But if there are many schoolboys or girls who would need to ask who invented and constructed the locomotive engine called the "Rocket," I humbly submit that the " Normal " thumbscrew would bear one more twist !
In our study of "The Teachers in Franklin College," we shall be all the more intelligent if we look for a few minutes
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at the character of the work they undertook. This work contemplated the elevation of a numerous and well-established Christian denomination in our commonwealth to an entirely different planc.
The " first settlers " of Indiana were well adapted. by their courage and power of endurance, to subdue the wilderness and to cause the earth to yield a bountiful return for the labors of the husbandmen; and, although the necessities arising from their mode of life had quickened and strength- ened their intuitive power of apprehending their own interests, they were far from being absorbed by selfishness; for they loved to meet even the stranger before his feet had crossed their threshold, and to bestow with unaffected simplicity and with a liberal hand the hospitalities of their forest homes.
Many of the pioneers of this state were the sons and daughters of those who introduced civilization into the borders of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas -neither their memory nor their fireside traditions extending backward to a time when their progenitors were not pioneers. Thus borne forward, age after age, upon the front tide of emigration, they had been deprived of the advantages and privileges found alone in long-established communities ; and, adapting themselves to circumstances, they formed habits of acting and thinking in many respects peculiarly their own. They acknowledged few conventionalities, except such as were consistent with their primitive modes of living. Even the common urbanity, which in cultivated society is abso- lutely necessary to make the ordinary intercourse of neighbors tolerable, was offensive to them. They saw in it unwelcome restraint and encroachment upon the manners and customs of their ancestors. Hence the desire ever manifested in those days to drift farther and still farther into the wilderness. A sparse population made it difficult to sustain schools, even if there had been a strong desire to do so. But since few of the people had enjoyed the advantages of a liberal education, limited instruction in the most elementary branches satisfied their desire for learning. As a consequence, before the first generation had lived out its day, many thousands of native adults could neither read nor write, and myriads of others
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possessed no higher intelligence than those who knew not the Alphabet.
The solitude of the wilderness, almost unbroken by the aggressive tread of civilization, favored the development of strong religious sentiment. The carpet of grass, and the embowered arches and ceilings of "God's first temples," inspired in the minds of those primitive worshipers a rever- ence and an awe which the tapestry and drapery of man's weaving and arranging would dissipate. When, therefore, the people assembled, as often they did, from remote districts, and pitched their sylvan tents to spend a season worshiping together, the singing of wild-almost weird-carols, the utterance of impassioned prayers, the loud voice of the fervid and often ecstatic preacher, as he portrayed the solemn realities of the present life and of that which is to come, all conspired to subdue men and to make them the subjects of religious sentiment ; to produce Christians whose zeal was but too apt to rise and fall with external influences ; who were ever oscillating between the most intense fever heat and the cold perspiration of death. Those engaging freely in such exercises presently began to regard the less exalted Christian life and experience as stale and commonplace. They seemed to value religious service because it afforded an opportunity to relieve themselves of an excess of piety ; as an escapement by the safety-valve sometimes prevents an explosion. They themselves cried out, and -- of course, the rocks were silent ! Very onerous was his work, who undertook to conduct these meetings so as to sustain an interest increasing to the end, and yet to avoid the absurdities to which the caprice of the multitude would almost irresistibly drive him. Often very questionable expedients were employed to arrest the attention of thoughtless and wicked men, and to produce their conver- sion, while the means of developing symmetrical Christian character, and the cultivation of the graces of the Spirit were sadly neglected.
If these things are true in reference to the domestic, the social, the intellectual, the moral and the religious condition of the mass of early immigrants to our state, they are more emphatically true of that portion identified with the Baptist
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denomination. For in addition to all the influences that had operated upon others, they had a history fraught with scarcely less interest to them than the annals of the Jews possess for the descendants of Abraham. The fact that earlier adherents to their faith had not been allowed to remain quietly and peaceably in the unrestrained exercise of their religious belief, in some of the older portions of this country, caused them to court the freedom afforded by new homes in the wilderness. As years and decades of years had elapsed, the shadows cast forward by events connected with the life of Roger Williams, of Isaac Backus, of John Leland and of John Ireland had grown larger, it may be, than the events themselves. Having been oppressed at sundry times, and made outcasts from states embracing in their laws both civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction, it is not surprising that Baptists should have come to despise the learning of those schools which seemed to be foster-children alike of church and commonwealth. Armed with the " Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God," comparatively humble men had successfully withstood the misdirected philosophy of the schools. They were not, therefore, disposed to respect " the tradition of the elders," when they supposed these traditions contravened " the weight- ier matters of the law." Indeed, we would expect the pioneer Baptists of Indiana to be tenacious of a church formed by the voluntary association of its members, whose bond of union was a common faith and a common hope, who confessed to no power but the Supreme and recognized no ecclesiastical ·statutes but those found in the Word of God.
Under such regime, to organize an independent church wherever a few persons could be collected together with the requisite qualifications, was only a natural sequence. To se- cure the preaching of the Gospel the more devout of the mem- bership, and those supposed to possess gifts adapting them to the work, were urged forward by the brethren, and were pres- ently "set apart " by the imposition of the hands of the elder- ship. The demand for ministerial labor was so great, and the men to engage in it so few, that higher intellectual culture came to be almost overlooked in judging of a man's qualifica- tions to engage in this sacred calling. In those days many
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were solemnly consecrated to the work of preaching who could hardly read a hymn or a chapter in the Bible intelligibly, and it is believed that some were pressed into this service by the solicitations of their brethren and by their own convictions of duty, who could not read a word when they began to "exer- cise their gifts." Many preachers brought forth by these throes of the churches were fullgrown at birth. They ordi- narily ranged themselves into two classes : First, those who, distrustful of themselves because they had few resources to draw upon, went humbly forward, groping and feeling for the ways of truth in an uncertain twilight, but with a faith sublime in its primitive simplicity that reached upward and took hold of the Omnipotent arm; and, secondly, those who were but too faithfully personated and not caricatured by the inimitable man who " played on a harp of a thousand strings, sperits of just men made perfeck." Both sowed in virgin soil, and generations yet to be born will reap a part of their re- spective harvests.
These were times when with us, Baptist ministers, in a great majority of cases received little or no pay for professional services, and but few of them asked for it. They sustained themselves and their families by other pursuits ; one by labor- ing on his farm, another in his shop, a third by merchandise, rarely one by his distillery, perhaps not less rarely one by teach- ing school. Occasionally the same preacher combined from two to four of these different pursuits, each man, according to his tastes or abilities, making with his hands or the " secular side of his head " the support which his better judgment told him he could not earn by his preaching to the churches, and which the churches were quite' as slow to render as he was to ask it. Under this ministry, and among the people served by it, one would expect to find a confusion of tongues not witnessed since the days of Babel, and the numerous and very diverse organ- izations wearing the Baptist cognomen are far from disap- pointing one's expectations.
The more sagacious and pious of the denomination, looking forward to the future, saw little hope for themselves as a Chris- tian organization, unless some powerful conservative influence could be brought to bear upon their interests. For, as society
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advanced and became more intelligent, and as other denomina- tions sustained an able and well-educated ministry, the younger men and women, who from family associations had ever cher- ished Baptist sentiments, became impatient of the meager preaching to which they must listen at home, and, as might easily be anticipated, sought church relationship elsewhere. It might be a profitable, even if a sad exercise, for each Baptist to learn what proportion of the best membership of all the dif- ferent Protestant churches in his own town or city has been derived from Baptist families. Many of our brethren, half a hundred years ago, felt more keenly than we do the exodus of their children from their own churches. If then common phi- lanthropy invited them, if patriotism urged them, if here and there a prophet besought them, the exigencies of the case de- manded from that generation the founding and establishing of such educational appliances as would elevate both preachers and people. And hence the manifest necessity for Franklin College.
These words were thought to be appropriate, since they in part explain why during the sixteen years of separate territo- rial existence in Indiana and the first eighteen years of its his- tory as a state, no associated effort was made to establish a school of any grade under the auspices of the Baptist denom- ination within the limits of this commonwealth ? What has been said may be a key to explain many other things con- nected with " the teachers of Franklin College."
For several years prior to A. D. 1834, a class of men differ- ing in many respects from those who preceded them, had come to Indiana and identified themselves with the Baptist churches. And, although few of them had pursued a course of study in a higher literary institution, still these later immigrants, rising above others by whom they were surrounded, looked over and surveyed a broader horizon.
It is understood that the inception of Franklin College dates from June 5, 1834, but the first meeting of the organized Board of Trustees occurred on the 18th day of July, 1835. At this last date a definite purpose was manifested to have college in- struction imparted at once. In the absence of any suitable buildings the Board of Trustees tried to rent a small one-story
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frame house, then and still standing near the site of the Pres- byterian Church. But they failed to secure the same. They also offered a Mr. Doan seventy-five dollars for the fee simple of a small house and lot in what is now a part of the College Campus. But Mr. Doan refused to sell for that price. So no person was then engaged as a teacher.
On the 15th day of December, 1835, the Trustees ap- pointed a committee to erect a frame house, 26x38 feet, one story high ; and another committee " to recommend a suitable person for a teacher." And, on the 17th of February, follow- ing, an additional member was placed on the committee to recommend a teacher.
Records dated July 6, 1836, show that the building ordered by the Trustees to be erected was already completed. The Rev. Lewis Morgan had been acting as soliciting, collecting and superintending agent for six months, and the record of his report is as follows: "Mr. Morgan, the Superintending Agent, now files a report of his proceedings for the last quarter, by which it appears he has received subscriptions amounting to $665, of which sum he has received in cash $77, and on former subscriptions, $122.50, making $199.50, which, added to $11.50 on hand at last report. makes $211.00 to be paid over to the Treasurer."
The amount paid this quarter to Agent and sub-Agent for their services was $198.50-exactly one dollar less than they had collected during that time on both old and new subscriptions ! And another committee was appointed to recommend a suit- able person for a teacher for four months !
Then, again, July 27, 1836, further time was given the com- mittee "to recommend a suitable person as a teacher." And a resolution was passed to allow the town, or any individual who would be responsible for injuries, to have the use of the new building for school purposes. The Rev. Byrom Lawrence availed himself of this proposition, and taught a private school three months, which was the first school instruction given in East Franklin. This made him also the first person who taught in Franklin College. He possessed a liberal edu- cation, and gave much time and attention to Geology and
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Mineralogy. He never taught in the employ or under direc- tion of the Board of Trustees.
October 5, 1836, Mr. John Stevens, of Cincinnati, afterward of Granville College, O., was elected a professor of this insti- tution, but on the 4th day of January, 1837, he declined the place to which he had been elected.
The Rev. Mr. Smith, of New Hampton, N. H., also declined an offer of a professorship. So another committee was ap- pointed "to employ a suitable teacher to take charge of the institution immediately." Thisresulted in an effort to induce the Hon. Jesse L. Holman, Judge of the District Court of the United States for the State of Indiana, to bestow so much of his time upon the institution as he could, without interfering with his official duties. But Judge Holman could not accept what was virtually the Presidency of the new college.
April 26, 1837, the Trustees, a second time, authorized their agent "to make a contract with some suitable person to take charge of the institution as teacher, at such salary as he shall think proper."
Thus, for two long years, at almost every Board meeting a new committee was appointed or other names were added to one previously existing, whose special duty consisted in mak- ing arrangements to secure the services of a person who was sometimes called President, again Professor, and next simply Teacher-the title varying somewhat with the hopefulness in- spired or the doubts produced by apparent circumstances. And as often as these committees attempted to discharge the the sole duty assigned them, so often they had failed. One would almost conclude that Harvard, which for two hundred years had been a perennial fountain, sending forth streams to irrigate our country and to cheer the world, had gone dry ; that Yale, and the whole canopy of green that overhangs the classic walks of the "City of Elms," were dead together ; that Brown must again have been converted into barracks- so difficult was it to secure a man with little more than the ordinary qualifications to teach a common school! The catalogues, however, of these venerable seats of learning show them to have been in a very flourishing condition-sending out at that period hundreds of thoroughly educated young
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men annually. True, those committees were composed of men who had enjoyed few of the advantages of the schools; and they may not have possessed well-defined ideas of the person best adapted to their wants ; but so far as the record indicates the overtures made by them, they manifested in every choice a remarkable degree of sound discretion and good sense. And such was the simple, earnest power with which they could plead the wants of their denomination, of the incipi- ent college, and the momentous interests to be promoted, that it was almost impossible to withstand their persuasion. The question, then, forces itself upon us : Why could not one man be found and secured to inaugurate the institution at Franklin? The plain, unequivocal answer is : Men possessed of a liberal education, having adequate conceptions of what a college ought to be, and surveying deliberately all the envi- ronments and dependencies of this projected school, could not persuade themselves or be persuaded to offer themselves upon this altar. The salary proposed was large for that time ; but it must, from the very necessities of the case, be raised chiefly by benefactions from a people wholly unaccustomed to that sort of business. Perhaps nine-tenths of the mem- bership of the Baptist churches in Indiana at that time had never paid a dollar in money for the preaching of the Gos- pel !
It has been my observation that even teachers have some tendency toward terrestrial things. If they are delighted to " sup with the gods," they usually prefer a "square" break- fast and dinner with their own wives and children-the latter being luxuries for which college professors manifest a strong weakness, as well as for a place at which to domicile. It has likewise been my observation that college professors have a decided proclivity to pay for what they and their wives and children eat, drink and wear, and for domiciliary privileges. They may not choose to "wear purple and fine linen, and fare sumptuously every day ;" but they do love to pay, even to the uttermost farthing. Of course they are apt to have a fondness for something to pay with, and if it is practicable, they will somehow get the "wherewithal."
Now, in the years of grace 1835-6 and 7, the " Indiana Baptist
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Manual Labor Institute "-the embryo Franklin College-had in itself little to flatter the vanity or to strengthen the ambi- tion of the teacher, and much less to promise him as a means of support. It had not a book or a chart, or a piece of chem- ical, philosophical or mathematical apparatus, nor money to buy either. And so it was more than two years before the Trustees found the Rev. Albert Freeman Tilton, A. M., who who was born in Deerfield, N. H., October 15, 1809, and who came to them October 2, 1837, being twenty-eight years old, and a graduate of Waterville College, now and for many years called " Colby University."
In anticipation of Mr. Tilton's coming, the Rev. A. R. Hinckley, pastor of the Baptist Church in Franklin, had been employed to open the school and instruct the classes a month or six weeks. Hence, Mr. Hinckley was the first teacher in Franklin College, under direction of the Trustees. He re- ceived forty dollars for his services.
Mr. Hinckley was married to the daughter and only child of Samuel and Lydia Dow, and when he and his wife, Louise Dow Hinckley, died, as they both did a few years afterward without other heirs, the Dows inherited whatever of worldly goods the Hinckleys had possessed-to the amount of, perhaps, five hundred dollars. Subsequently the Dow-Hinckley estates, with accumulated interests, went entire, with a small and most unnecessary exception, into the funds of the " American Baptist Missionary Union." The amount of these aggregated estates was about $8,000, at the beginning of the year 1877, when final settlement was made by the executor. This was altogether the most generous benefaction ever made by a family in the Franklin Baptist Church. It possessed the Divinely-commended virtue of being " all they had," and an additional excellence not overlooked by mortals-that of being a respectable amount in the Missionary coffers at Boston and on the "field." I venture the inquiry whether any other Baptist family in this broad, rich commonwealth has done an equal amount in money for the same object? And the Rev. Aaron R. Hinckley, the first teacher employed by the Trustees in Franklin College, was at the foundation of that benefaction.
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Mr. Tilton entered upon his duties at a salary of six hundred dollars, and the impression made by the new Professor was most favorable. The price fixed for tuition was twelve dollars a year for reading, writing, arithmetic. English grammar and geography ; and for the higher branches of English and the ancient languages, sixteen dollars, which last were subse- quently raised to twenty dollars a year.
On January 3, 1838, a committee was appointed by the Trustees to consider the expediency of purchasing philosoph- ical and chemical apparatus. But at the next meeting of the Board, February 12th, a new and apparently a more pressing want claimed their attention, as shown by the following :
Resolved, That a cooper shop be erected immediately.
And on the fourth day of April next, " the Building Com- mittee reported that they had, agreeably to instructions, let out the building of the cooper-shop, which had been com- pleted and accepted by them." At this meeting Mr. Tilton's salary was raised to eight hundred dollars. Neither the records of the Board nor the " traditions of the elders " show what oversight of the " shop " the Principal of the institution was to exercise ; or whether additional duties in the " manual labor " department occasioned this increase of salary.
In July, 1838, occurred the first " Exhibition ;" it was not called " Commencement." Many of the citizens of this city, now past life's meridian, will remember that day. The very bright and promising boy, William S. Holman, son of Judge Jesse L. Holman. was then distinctly daguerrotyped in the minds of some of us, as the most prominent among the students of Mr. Tilton.
It is believed that Mr. Tilton found the entire teaching of the school to be too onerous for him, and that he asked either to resign, or to have assistance. Meanwhile the income from all sources was not equal to his salary. Hence, the following action of the Trustees.
Resolred, That this Board are well satisfied with the manner in which Mr. Tilton has discharged the duties of Professor in this institution, and are desirous that he should continue his services another year.
Resolved, That, as the low state of the funds renders it in-
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expedient to give high salaries for the present, the committee to employ teachers be not authorized to pay a higher salary for the next year than $600 to any teacher.
And, January 24, 1839, for the purpose of making a division and distribution of the department of instruction, Mr. Tilton was made " Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy," and Mr. Moses Burbank, of Shelby County, Ky .. was elected Professor of Mathematics. But Mr. Burbank declined the Professorship tendered him, and Mr. Tilton was left to do all the teaching, except the little help he could procure from some of his more advanced pupils. His salary, even as reduced, was only partially paid ; and he was requested to act as agent during vacation to solicit and collect funds to pay his own orders drawn on the treasury for teaching; until in Febru- ary, 1840, Messrs. Murphy and Hinckley were appointed .a, committee "to secure the services of a competent teacher for . the tuition fees alone." Probably an unwillingness to brook the thought of failure impelled Mr. Tilton to accept these terms for eight months. But, October 2, 1840, he asked to be excused from longer serving the Trustees as teacher. And the Board, as if to emphasize their action, " dismissed him from further services as professor." And thus the only door that had been opened to " the Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute" was closed-with a slam !
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