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 7
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FRANKLIN COLLEGE.
Presently after his resignation Mr. Dame went with his family to Minnesota, where he remained about five years, and then returned to Shelby County, Ind. Most of the time since leaving Franklin College he has been engaged in manual labor on his farms - giving attention to teaching only in the case of his son and daughter, who shared his labor on the farm, while he assisted them in their studies. In the pleni- tude of their affection, the " boys " in college, thirty-five years ago, called him " Father Dame," and his comfortable, placid appearance to-day would still more warrant that kindly ap- pellation.
REV. SILAS BAILEY, D. D., LL. D.,
was elected President of Franklin College, July 28, 1852. . Ho cheerfully accepted the place, without persuasion. Indeed, he had a way of consulting his own convictions of duty and acting in accordance with them. When his mind was made up. there was no vacillating. He brought to this institution all there was of and to him. He kept back no "part of the price received for the possession." And it is not invidious to say, no incumbent of a Presidential chair in Indiana ever brought more to his office. The Memorial Sermon by the Rev. H. Day, D. D., and other tributes to Dr. Bailey's mem- ory, heartily rendered by good and great men who knew him best and longest, have been published, and may be read by any that care to know who and what he was. I have said years ago, and cheerfully repeat now, with added emphasis : " After ten years of associated labor with Dr. Bailey and twice that time with others, it is but simple justice to say that toward his co-workers he was the most ingenuous man I have known. Though a very strong man, and thoroughly conscious of his power, he never betrayed the least wish to become relatively higher by depressing others; but always exhibited a desire to elevate and cheer his associates. To the generously-disposed he was a brother in the highest and fullest sense." This being the case, he was in Franklin College, among its Faculty, its Trustees, its patrons and its students, a power and an inspiration. And so entirely was he devoted to his work there that no inducement or persuasion could influence him to resign and leave it, until the evidence
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was unequivocal and unmistakable that the future of his own mind in its relation to his body and to this life depended upon it. Change and rest or softening of the brain was inev- itable. He chose the former, and went, after ten years of characteristic labor in the college. And when he went, the Trustees unanimously said :
"No language can adequately express our appreciation of the services rendered by Dr. Bailey during his official connec- tion with the college, or our regret at his resignation."
And they placed on record the following :
WHEREAS, It has pleased our Heavenly Father to visit the esteemed President of Franklin College with affliction which renders his resignation necessary ;
Resolved That in the resignation of President Bailey, Frank- lin College has sustained a loss which can not be repaired.
Resolred, That by the self-sacrificing devotion and distin- quished ability with which Dr. Bailey has discharged the difficult and complicated duties of his office during a period of ten years, he has laid our denomination in this state under obligations which they can never cancel.
Resolved, That we tender him our deepest sympathy in his affliction, and our desire for his speedy recovery.
After a few months of rest and freedom from the wearing anxieties of college duties, he accepted the pastorate of the Baptist Church at Lafayette, Ind., whose membership and efficiency were much increased and strengthened by his labors. With the return of a measure of former health and strength, he drifted again to college work ; for by nature and a lifetime of training he was a teacher. During several years Kalamazoo College was much benefited by his aid.
But again he was admonished to lay aside his books, his studies and his pen. I think death could have brought him a more welcome message. But he did not repine or subside into melancholy. He left Kalamazoo, returned to Lafay- ette and took a quiet suburban residence, from which he presently buried the one who had been most like a daughter to him ; and a week after " Avis" went, his wife followed her.
Even in the profoundness of his grief he possessed that calm, sublime composure which comes of unwavering faith in God, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. But we all saw that
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he weakened under his bereavement. A few months after the death of daughter and wife he resorted to travel in Europe. The letters he wrote back to his friends rang out like the words of his midday strength. But in a journey of two or three weeks without one whom he had married to make his traveling companion, he became conscious that disease was taking firm hold upon him. . He hastened back from Rome to meet Mrs. Bailey in Paris ; and only lived a day or two after reaching the French capital.
They rented a grave for five years in Pere-la-Chaise, and placed his remains in it. After about one year they gave up the "lease " in that Westminster Abbey of Paris, brought the mortal body of Dr. Silas Bailey to Lafayette, and gave it final sepulture by the side of Avis and the wife you all remember so well and so affectionately.
Like his own President, Dr. Francis Wayland, Dr. Bailey is altogether best represented and reproduced in the lives of the men he taught. They are his "Epistles known and read of all men."
MARK BAILEY
had taught a part of the fall term very acceptably ; and hence, on the 14th day of December, 1853, he was elected Professor of Mathematics. He was, as we all saw him, a most sincere, conscientious Christian gentleman : a superior scholar, having graduated from Brown University twelve or fifteen years after his brother, Dr. Silas Bailey. He was also an exact and some of his students thought an exacting teacher. President Stott says : "Prof. Bailey made the most careful preparations for the recitation-room of any teacher I ever knew." In algebra and geometry, as in other branches of the higher mathe- matics, he dispensed entirely with the presence of text-books at recitations.
He resigned his Professorship May 13, 1859, to become Principal of Ladoga Seminary. All were sorry to have Prof. Mark Bailey leave Franklin. He remained at Ladoga less than three years; then spent some time in Chicago. After- ward he went to Oregon, as I understood, to the same institu- tion in which Pres. George C. Chandler had formerly been ; then he went to California, and afterward again to Oregon,
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where he now is-a teacher in the State University at Eugene. In addition to teaching on the Pacific Coast, he has preached from time to time ; and both schools and churches that have had his services have been highly favored.
JEREMIAH BRUMBACK,
a graduate at Franklin College that year, was elected a tutor, June 25, 1856. And on the 22d of June, 1859, he was elected Professor of Mathematics. This last position he retained until 1864. He then studied law, took an office in Indianap- olis, and there practiced that profession about one year, after which he removed to Boise City, Idaho Territory, where he has since remained. As a lawyer he has been successful.
Few if any of the graduates of Franklin College have pos- sessed better natural talents than Prof Brumback, and his scholarship was of a high order. His mind had a strong and rigorously analytic cast. Those who knew him well would expect him to excel on the bench.
FRANCIS M. FURGASON
was a classmate of Jeremiah Brumback, and was likewise elected as a tutor, June 25, 1856. This position he retained until March 1, 1864. He was Treasurer of the college while tutor; and he discharged the duties of both offices with marked fidelity. He was most kindly attentive to those associated with him in any way. Perhaps no other member of the Faculty had so many acquaintances outside of the college as Tutor Furgason. His modes of instructing classes may not have been so incisive and rigorous sometimes as would have been best for his pupils. Once a class had decided to complain to the Faculty that he was " too easy " upon them. President Bailey somehow learned that fact, and forestalled the action of the young gentlemen by quietly assigning them to another teacher. And no more complaints of precisely that kind were heard from that class! Mr. Furgason after- ward taught a few years in the schools of Kansas City, Mo. But most of the time since he left this college he has been engaged in business. His former friends love to meet him now, when life's shadow has perceptibly lengthened.
FRANKLIN COLLEGE.
BARNETT WALLACE,
having graduated at the late commencement of Franklin College, was appointed tutor, June 27, 1860. He retained that place until June, 1864. This, as all know, was in the time of the Civil War. "Our boys" took to the uniform of blue so courageously and enthusiastically that during the last term of the year 1863-64 there were but two students left in Franklin College, and both these had been so disabled "on the field " that they could no longer perform military duty.
.It was deemed best, in view of these facts, to suspend exer- cises in the college until times were changed. As has already been said, Prof. Brumback studied law. Tutor Wallace, the only other teacher then actively engaged, began the study of medicine ; and in due time he located in this city and entered the practice of his last-chosen profession. As a teacher Dr. Wallace gave full and complete satisfaction to the Board of Trustees, to his associates in the Faculty and to the students. I believe the boys never thought him "too easy " for their good instruction. Profound regrets were felt and expressed that circumstances impelled him to quit teaching. Many years of devotion to the interests of Franklin College, since 1864. have strongly attested Dr. Wallace's love for his Alma Mater.
REV. FRANK J. MARTIN
was appointed a tutor to assist the Faculty one term, inelud- . ing April and June, 1863. He had in former years been a student in the college, but did not finish the regular course of studies. At the close of his college life he entered upon teaching in private schools, and meanwhile studied for the ministry. He was a successful and forcible preacher, and he held several pastorates in which the churches were edified. His ability as preacher of the Gospel and as teacher prompted the Faculty and Trustees of Franklin College to confer upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Dying as he touched life's meridian. he left a very pleasant memory and an excellent name as an inheritance to his wife and children.
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TEACHERS.
The Civil War of 1861-65 having put a period to Franklin College, no teachers were employed by the Trustees fron June, 1864, until September, 1869. A portion of this interval, the college buildings were used by persons conducting private schools in them.
During the academic years of 1869 and 1872, inclusive, a regular Faculty of teachers was employed. But the limit of this paper will permit only a brief mention of the names and offices of the teachers after the reopening of the college.
REV. W. T. STOTT, D D.,
was President pro tempore and Professor of Natural Science for the year 1869-70.
F. W. BROWN,
Professor of Languages for 1869 and 1872, inclusive.
J. E. WALTER,
"Professor of Mathematics, 1869-72, inclusive.
MRS. M. A. FISHER,
Principal of Preparatory Department, 1869-72.
REV. HI. L. WAYLAND, D. D.,
President, 1870 and 1872, inclusive.
A. J. TEED,
Tutor in Mathematics. 1871-72.
So far as I am advised, the names now presented include all who, as Principals, Presidents, Professors and Tutors, have been employed by the Trustees of " The Indiana Baptist Manual Labor Institute," and of " Franklin College "-before the reor- ganization of the institution under the " new charter " in 1872. Under the " new charter " teachers have been elected and have held positions as follows :
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FRANKLIN COLLEGE.
REV. W. T. STOTT, D. D.,
Has been the only President.
J. E. WALTER
was Professor of Mathematics for the year 1872-73.
MISS REBECCA J. THOMPSON
was Professor of History and Natural Sciences for the year 1872-73. In 1873 she was elected Professor of Mathematics.
J. W. MONCRIEF
became tutor in 1873 and continued to 1875, when he was elected Professor of the Greek Language and Literature. He retained this Professorship until 1879, at which time he began to teach in Denison University, O., and he remained there until 1882, when he returned to Franklin College as Professor of History and English Literature.
E. S. HOPKINS
was Instructor in Latin and Natural Science for the year 1873-74.
MISS THEO. PARKS.
was Instructor in Latin and English, 1874-75.
C. H. HALL
was Professor of Natural Science, 1875-76, and of Latin, 1876-79, inclusive; since which he has been Professor of Greek.
G. E. BAILEY
was Professor of Geology and Chemistry, 1878-79.
A. B. CHAFFEE
was elected Professor of Latin, 1879, and has since continued, having in 1883 taken also Analytical Chemistry.
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D. A. OWEN
became Tutor in Geology and Chemistry in 1879, and retained that position until 1882, when he was elected Professor of Natural Science.
W. C. THOMPSON
was Tutor in the Preparatory Department for the year 1881-82.
And I have no knowledge of any others who have given instruction under the " new Board."
At the conclusion of this reading, one is impressed with the idea that whatever may be the results of the labors of the teachers in Franklin College, these results have been attained under great and serious embarrassments.
The enterprise from the beginning contemplated nothing less, as has already been said, than the elevation of a numer- ous and well-established Christian denomination in our commonwealth to an entirely different plane. Preachers and people were alike to be affected. 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 college was projected cared little whether it lived or died. Hence, they could not be induced to aid generously in establishing it. The few, therefore, who heartily espoused its cause must chiefly bear the burdens ; and by far the heav- iest part fell upon the men consenting to become its teachers. These have in all cases possessed at least average abilities for their positions. The marked abilities of a portion of the teachers in Franklin College have been widely known and distinctly recognized.
And yet, during the first quarter of a century of its history, the aggregate yearly salaries of its whole Faculty were less than is paid annually to the President of one of our state institutions ! From one hundred to six hundred dollars a year was the highest salary ever paid to tutors and Professors in this College-until the Civil War caused the price of every- thing else to be two or threefold more than it had formerly
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FRANKLIN COLLEGE.
been. And even then only from three hundred to eight hun- dred dollars a year could be paid. If any material advance has since been made in salaries, I have not heard of it. This could but meet the absolute wants of teachers who stayed well at home, practiced rigorous economy in their families, and who denied themselves the privileges of books, and other appliances of liberal culture. Now that we are entering upon a second half-century, I earnestly bespeak more abundant things for men and women who succeed the generation of teachers nearly passed away.
The entire graduates from this college number about sixty, and would, therefore, seem to indicate only a small attendance of students. But in the absence of certain data, it is confi- dently believed that at least four thousand young men and women have received the principal part of their education - be that much or little-inside these college walls. Those stu- dents have gone back to the parental roof-tree bearing with them better thoughts and higher, purer, holier aspirations. In due time new households have been established. And the men and women of these new households are the pillars in our churches to-day.
In view of the difficulties and di couragements encountered, one can not refrain from asking : Why was not the enterprise abandoned a quarter of a century ago? Why did not the teachers accept other equally honorable and much more lucra- tive places that were freely offered them? Why did they hold on with such tenacity and exhibit such devotion to this strug- gling, lingering, dying, living college? And why did their wives, who came with them to Franklin from the better female seminaries of the land-with agile frames and with hands not then wholly callous from the constant use of the implements of housewifery - so cheerfully and nobly, though silently, as is woman's wont contribute their self-sacrificing toils to es- tablish this seat of learning? To many yet among the living it will scarcely be necessary to say : Those men and women, "Friends of Education," believed in a God of purpose, who was calling them to this particular work as their most impor- tant ministry. And it seemed not to enter their minds that they could abandon Franklin College, although to others
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there appeared to be almost nothing tangible or visible to leave. They would probably just as soon have thought of deserting the church into which they had been born by the regeneration of the Spirit of God, and into whose immunities and privileges they had entered through the ordinance syn- bolized by the burial and resurrection of their crucified Lord and Savior. It has been said, "they were great on Resolu- tions." I admit it. But who else would have been greater with such surroundings?
The discipline that comes to all connected with an institu- tion like Franklin College, whether they be Trustees, teachers. or pupils, is not of the kind that makes men and women of easy, facile faith and compromising deportment ; but rather of that " Old John Knox " character which predicates all upon God's sovereignty, human depravity, election by grace, regen- eration by the Holy Ghost, justification by faith; and the safe-keeping of the church, the bride, the Lamb's wife. until He shall appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
I have tried to tell you what the teachers in Franklin Col- lege attempted and worked for. Others must determine what they have really accomplished.
Alumni and Society of Alumni.
Memorial Paper, By B. Wallace, M. D., Franklin.
A MONTH and a half ago, near the hour of midnight, the stars shone down on a certain locality in the Atlantic Ocean through a cloudless atmosphere. Not a haze existed to obscure a pilot's vision. On the scene came a great steam- ship, plowing her way rapidly on toward her distant haven. Great columns of black smoke from her chimneys were piling themselves up majestically toward the sky; the rattling of her furniture and cargo kept time with the plash of her wheels in the water and the stroke of her engines below. Her super- numerary crew and hundred passengers, trusting the skill and watchfulness of the officers on deck, slept serenely in their ยท berths, dreaming, it may be, of home, and loved ones. and lovers, when, with the suddenness of a thunderbolt's stroke, her side was crushed in; and, in less than a half hour, this steamer, State of Florida, and the bark Ponema, which,crossing her track, had collided with her, and all but a handful of the crews and passengers, had gone down into their fathomless graves. The shrieks of the women and groans of men had died on the air, the water rippled over the place where the accident occurred, and the stars shone back from its surface as if nothing had happened. As with these vessels and their occupants, so has it been with many an individual and many an organization that has sailed proudly out on life's treach- erous seas without well-developed Christian character and well-disciplined mind for helmsmen; but so can it never be with an individual or body of individuals that sails under the guidance of such qualities of character and culture as are usually acquired in a course of training in a Christian college. These qualities are, as a rule, developed slowly, but they abide. Franklin College, with her Society of Alumni, cele-
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ALUMINI AND SOCIETY.
brate this Fiftieth Anniversary with joy and hopefulness ; not that they have yet attained the degree of excellence and greatness to which they aspire, but because they have estab- lished a character and attained a degree of material develop- ment that insure permanence and continuous growth in the future.
Probably few, if any, enterprises in which men have engaged in this commonwealth show a record of more hard work, done under more trying discouragements, than that which is ex- hibited by Franklin College. Her labors were protracted through thirteen weary years before her first alumnus was sent forth, and he was single and alone. He was a man of great meekness, and wanting in those elements of push and self-assertion, a certain amount of which seems essential to the attainment of eminence among men. Yet he was a man of accurate scholarship and sterling integrity. Some of us . who entered the Preparatory Department of Franklin College thirty years ago remember well how thoroughly Tutor Dame taught, and how accurately he transacted the business of the College which was intrusted to his care. In his teaching we particularly remember his mastery of the English language, and how he revealed to us things in analysis of language that we had never dreamed of before. This first graduate, John W. Dame, took his degree in June, 1847, as above suggested, thirteen years after the institution was founded. He was thirty-three years of age. After graduation he taught a three- months' school in Kentucky, then six months in Illinois, and then was elected Tutor of Latin and Greek in his Alma Mater, where he continued to teach till 1856. In July, 1850, he also became Treasurer of the College, which position he held till his resignation in 1856. Immediately after this he emigrated to Minnesota and became a farmer. Within a year of his arrival in his new home he was elected County Surveyor, which office he held for three years. In 1861 he returned to this state and established his home on his farm east of Edin- burg, where he still lives a quiet, unostentatious life, highly respected by all who come in contact with him; a man of vastly more real worth and ability than multitudes of others whose names are mentioned oftener than his.
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FRANKLIN COLLEGE.
Following this first son of the College came others, but not with every recurring year, and never in large numbers. The largest class the institution has ever graduated was that modest class of which some of you have heard during the past few years, that boasts of its D. D.'s, and M. D.'s, and LL. D.'s, and Hon.'s, and Captains, and Majors, and Generals, and Presidents, and Professors, and Honest Granger, etc. ; and there were only six of them.
In 1849 there were three more added to our lone alumnus. Wm. E. Threlkeld was a Kentuckian. Tutor Dame says, " I recollect him as a pleasant young man and a good student." From our old alumni roll we learn that he became a pastor. but have no intimation where ; probably somewhere in his native state. The roll also records that he died the same year, 1849, hence some time within six months of his graduation. This is the extent of our information concerning him.
Matthew B. Phares, soon after graduation, was chosen pastor of the Baptist Church at Greensburg, this state, and was there ordained to the work of the ministry in December of that year, 1849, six months after his graduation. After one year's pastorate at Greensburg he went to Vernon, where he labored for four years in the double capacity of pastor and teacher. Then he located at Dupont, continuing to be both preacher and teacher at that place for seven years. At the expiration of this period, the Greensburg Church again called him to its pastorate, and he accepted ; but soon found himself in the relentless grasp of a hasty consumption, which in less than six months had completed its work; and June 9, 1862. he passed over the river and through the gates into the celestial city. M. B. Phares was possessed of many excellent traits. His amiability and earnest piety, coupled with a genial, kindly spirit, drew to him many warm friends; while his correct scholarship and aptness to impart instruction commanded for him the respect of those with whom and for whom he labored.
The other member of the '49 class was James S. Read. The two years following graduation were partly spent teaching district schools in Jennings and Bartholomew Counties. In 1851 he accompanied President Chandler to the Pacific Coast,
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ALUMNI AND SOCIETY.
where he remained till the end of 1854. During that time he was associated with President Chandler as teacher in the Oregon City College nearly two years. He also engaged in missionary and pastoral work on that coast, and was instru- mental in organizing the Table Rock Baptist Church in Rogue River Valley. He reached the Hoosier State again in Decem- ber, 1854, and the following spring. going to the Atlantic Coast, entered the Baptist Theological Seminary at Newton Center, Mass. Here he remained until he had completed about one-half of the regular seminary course, after which he returned to Vernon and taught a select school for one and a half years. During this time he was also pastor at Butler- ville .: From 1858 to 1861 he was engaged in missionary and pastoral work in the Kankakee country, and in the time organ- ized the Kankakee City and Hackett Baptist Churches. In August, 1861, he became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Franklin, and at the end of a year was called again for another year, like public school-teachers are now sometimes. But he declined the second year's call thinking it his duty to go to Bloomington He was pastor there one year, though his first work was the organization of the " University Gram- mar School," which he taught one year. The next year he had charge of the " Monroe Female Seminary." After this he went East, and was located most of the time at Wilmington, Del., where he taught several terms of private school. He has been, until very recently, for several years pastor of the Chauncey and Grand Prairie Churches in Tippecanoe County, this state. Brother Read has borne the reputation of being a studious man, and a very close and logical reasoner. As a pastor, I have known no other whose visits to his people were so uniformly religious visits. When he was located here we came to understand that when he called on us at our homes it was for the purpose of learning our spiritual state, and ministering as best he might to the spiritual well-being of the different members of our families.
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