USA > Indiana > Vigo County > History of Vigo county, Indiana, with biographical selections > Part 55
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Harrison township has 9 teachers, 4 brick buildings, and 528 of school age.
Honey Creek township has 9 teachers, 9 frame buildings, and 435 of school age.
Linton township, 12 teachers, 12 frame buildings, 538 children.
Lost Creek township has 12 teachers, 10 frame and one brick school-houses; 570 children.
Nevins township, 13 teachers, 11 frame buildings, 945 children.
Otter Creek township, 9 teachers, 8 frame and 1 brick, 436 children.
Pierson township, 10 teachers, 8 frame and 1 brick, 545 chil- dren.
Prairie Creek township, 7 teachers, 5 brick buildings, 651 chil- dren.
Sugar Creek, 10 teachers, 8 frame and 1 brick, 695 children.
Riley, 11 teachers, 8 frame and one brick, 651 children.
Prairieton, 7 teachers, 5 frame buildings, 297 children.
Total pupils in the county, 21,219; of the city of Terre Haute as per school census of 1890, 14,516.
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The Rose Polytechnic Institute is a school of technology. In order to understand the functions of the school it is necessary to take a brief survey ofthe field of technical training. This phrase describes all those forms of training youth which deal with the application of art or of science to the industrial arts. Those schools in which designing for the patterns of textile fabrics, or for the decoration of wood, iron, pottery, gems, etc., is the principal end, are called art schools, or schools of design, of which the South Kensington system is the most famous example; all those in which the principles of physical science are studied with reference to their application to the solution of practical problems in building, machine construction, and design, or in civil engineering, are called polytechnic or technological schools. There is great confu- sion just now in the use of terms, technical education being used to describe all that which aims at a directly practical end as opposed to the education given at the college; while that part of it which does not deal with ornament or textile design is sometimes described by the same term. The word technology, which for- merly signified the terms used in the sciences, now means the application of the sciences to industrial ends. The term polytech- nic, originally used to describe schools of technology, has refused to yield to the more desirable synonym, technological, partly be- cause it is an easier word, and partly because it contains a sugges- tion of the many-sidedness of the subject which the better word lacks. There is no good word corresponding to polytechnic or technological to apply to the persons who practice the profession indicated, and so these persons are called, now as always, engi- neers, and the business engineering. A few still cling to the term scientific schools in speaking of these institutions. In the present prevailing confusion of terms, the best that can be said is that a polytechnic school teaches technology to engineers. Engineering is the term that includes all the arts of production and construction which arise from the physical sciences. Its object is to bend the forces of nature to the service of man.
The old idea that Latin, Greek and the humanities are all there is of a higher education, happily is passing away. That ancient conception was the evil genius of advancing education. It was the stumbling block of the centuries. There may be some education in the exclusive classics, if used only as a polish to the real and the true, but to make it a foundation structure is a nearly fatal misedu- cation, because it is simply looking backward; it may hinder more than help, because the mind that would advance must look in the direction it would go.
Buildings and Grounds .- The institute occupies a well-graded,
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sodded campus of ten acres, lying on Locust street, between Twelfth and Thirteenth streets, in the city of Terre Haute, Ind.
Three buildings have been erected, the academic building, work-shop and chemical laboratory. The academic building is a handsome edifice of brick, with stone trimmings, four stories high above the basement story ; it contains forty-six rooms. The building is 200 feet long, with terminal transepts sixty-four feet deep, and central transept eighty. The work-shop is also of brick, two stories in height, and contains ten rooms. The chemical labora- tory is of brick, cruciform in shape, of one story, and perfectly ven- tilated; it contains four rooms.
The scientific school was founded in 1874, by the munificence of the late Chauncey Rose, of Terre Haute. As the honored life of this most generous and public-spirited gentleman drew near its close, among the many benefactions that suggested themselves as deserving objects of his liberality was a school in which young men might be thoroughly trained in the seiences applicable to the in- dustrial arts. Careful study of the plans and methods of such schools, and consultation with numerous experienced educators, fixed this sug- gestion in his thoughts; and out of his deliberations grew the es- tablishment, whose first detailed and formal publication of its progress and purposes is set forth in the following pages.
Inviting the assistance of his trusted friends, Messrs. Josephus Collett, Firmin Nippert, Charles R. Peddle, Barnabas C. Hobbs, William A. Jones, Demas Deming, Ray G. Jenckes, Gen. Charles Cruft, and Col. William K. Edwards, he associated them with him- self in a body corporate in conformity with an act of the general assembly of the State of Indiana, approved February 20, 1867, and the amendments thereto, said act being entitled " An act concern- ing the organization and perpetuity of voluntary associations, and repealing an act entitled 'An act concerning the organization of voluntary associations, and repealing former laws in reference thereto,' approved February 12, 1855, and repealing each act re- pealed by said act, and authorizing gifts and devices by will to be made to any corporation or purpose contemplated by this act."
September 10, 1874, articles of association were adopted setting forth the objects of the corporation to be the establishment and maintenance in the county of Vigo, and State of Indiana, of an "Institution for the intellectual and practical education of young men," designating the corporate name as "Terre Haute School of Industrial Science," and entrusting its administration to the cor- porators under the title of managers.
Instruction in the school was provided to be based on the prac- tical mathematics and the application of the physical sciences to the
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various arts and manufactures, with other branches of active busi- ness, and was to include such training as would furnish the pupils with useful and practical knowledge of some art or occupation, and enable them to earn competent livings. Preference was to be given to students who were residents of Vigo county, moderate tuition fees were permitted to be charged, if considered necessary, and ap- plicants for admission were required to be not less than sixteen years of age, and to be so prepared as to pass satisfactory examina- tions in the branches of a fair English education.
October 10, 1874, the board of managers was organized, by-laws were adopted and the following officers elected: President, Chaun- çey Rose; vice-president, Josephus Collett; treasurer, Demas Deming; secretary, William K. Edwards.
At the same time a committee, comprising Messrs. Cruft, Peddle Hobbs, Jones and Collett, was appointed to consider plans for carrying into effect the objects of the association.
On the 12th of December the committee reported progress, and Messrs. Peddle, Cruft and Jenckes were deputed to confer with an architect. One week thereafter Mr. Rose made his first donation, being a deed of conveyance of the ten acres of land now occupied by the institute, and personal securities to the amount of $100,- 000. The committee on architect reported conferences with Mr. Isaac Hodgson, of Indianapolis.
December 26 Mr. Hodgson was elected architect, and Mr. Rose made a further gift of $86,000 in bonds of the Evansville Terre Haute & Chicago Railroad Company.
By the end of January, 1875, the architect had prepared sug- gestive sketches, which were submitted to the consideration of Mr. Rose, and having met his approval, were adopted by the board of managers, and detailed drawings with specifications and estimates of cost were ordered to be prepared. These being in readiness by the latter part of April, on the 21st of that month they were ac- cepted, and proposals for building were ordered to be solicited. Early in May a number of bids had been received, and after due consideration, a contract for the entire building was awarded to Messrs. McCormack & Sweeney, of Columbus, Ind., at the total price of $81,000. On the 9th of August, all the preliminaries in the way of gathering materials, executing bonds and contracts and the like having been accomplished, Messrs. C. R. Peddle, Josephus Collett and Charles Cruft were elected a building committee, and Messrs. Cruft, Jenckes, Nippert and Edwards were chosen as a committee on the laying of the corner-stone.
On the 11th of the following month the ceremony of laying the corner-stone took place, at 4 o'clock P. M. An immense concourse of
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citizens of Terre Haute and visiting strangers marched in proces- sion from the center of the city to the grounds of the school, to witness the exercises over which Gen. Charles Cruft presided by request of the board. When the company had been called to order, prayer was offered by Rev. E. Frank Howe, pastor of the First Congregational Church, and a choir of mixed voices sang a selec- tion. The corner-stone was laid by the architect, assisted by the contractors and their workmen, a metal box with numerous inter- esting memorials of the occasion being deposited therein. The president of the day then introduced Col. William K. Edwards, who delivered an appropriate and eloquent address. A second musical selection was sung by the choir, and was followed by a masterly oration by Barnabas C. Hobbs, LL. D. The benediction by Rev. Mr. Howe closed the exercises.
On the same day a meeting of the board of managers was held, and unanimously passed amendments to the articles of incorpora- tion, which changed the name of the association from " Terre Haute School of Industrial Science" to "Rose Polytechnic Institute." This alteration was not affected without persistent protest from the venerable founder; but the universal wish, not alone of his fellow- managers, but of the entire community of his fellow-citizens, that his noble benefactions should bear his own honored name, at length overcame his modest scruples, and he reluctantly gave his consent. Proper legal measures were also authorized to effect the transfer of the property of all kinds that had been received from Mr. Rose, from the industrial school to the Polytechnic Institute.
The work of construction progressed apace, and by the summer of 1876 had proceeded so far that questions of purchasing appliances for heating the building began to suggest themselves. Proposals to furnish the requisite fixtures were invited, and in July the con- tract to supply them was awarded to Messrs. R. P. Duncan & Co., of Indianapolis, at a cost of $8,759. In November of 1876 the contractors for the building had completed their work in accordance with the plans and specifications of the architect, and had added, with his approval, certain matters amounting in the aggregate to $1,700. This sum was allowed them, and on December 1 the final warrant for their payment was drawn, the total cost of construction being $82,700.
On December 27 Mr. Rose presented a statement of certain pay- ments he had made for the benefit of the school, amounting to $31,255.66, with quittance in full thereof, and at the same time transferred the sum of $100,000 in certificates of preferred stock in the Evansville & Crawfordsville Railroad Company, as an addition to the endowment.
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At the annual meeting, held on June 2, 1877, Mr. Rose tendered his resignation as a member of the board of managers, in consider- ation of his great age and infirmities. In deference to his wishes, his fellow-members accepted it, but most unwillingly. Mr. Josephus Collett was elected to succeed him as president of the board, and Mr. Charles R. Peddle was chosen as vice-president. During the same month a contract for the building of the machine shops of the institute (designs for which had been prepared by Mr. Hodg- son ) was awarded to Messrs. Clift & Williams, of Terre Haute, at a cost of $14,400. Mr. Rose died on August 13, 1877, and on October 17 the vacancy occasioned by his resignation was filled by the election of Judge William Mack.
The total of Mr. Rose's gifts to the institute prior to his death reached the sum of $345,614.61. By his will a specific legacy of $107,594.34 was bequeathed to the institute, and it was constituted his residuary legatee after the payment of his devises to his family, to the Rose Orphan Home and the free dispensary. What may be the exact amount to be derived from the settlement of the estate it is impossible to determine, but it is reasonable to estimate that the grand aggregate of his donations to the school will consider- ably exceed $500,000.
On September 26, 1878, Col. William K. Edwards, who had most ably and efficiently discharged the duties of secretary of the board of managers from its organization, died, and Mr. Samuel S. Earley was chosen on the 2d of November to succeed him as a member of the board and as secretary. Toward the close of that year the machine shops were finished, and some debts which had been in- curred in the various works of construction were paid. The question then arose whether with the means remaining at their command the managers could purchase the costly equipment required for the school and have sufficient income to cover its running expenses should it be put in operation. Committees and officers of the board were deputed to visit the principal institutes of technology in the country and make careful investigations concerning their appliances, methods of management and cost of maintenance. From these in- vestigations it became evident that it would be impossible to pro- cure the outfit without a serious impairment of the capital proposed to be retained as endowment, and at the same time that even after the acquisition of the equipment, the endowment fund as it stood would not furnish revenues sufficient for the current outlay of a school of the character Mr. Rose had desired to establish. There was no alternative, therefore, but for the managers to defer the opening until accumulated income should supply funds for the out- fit, and the settlement of Mr. Rose's estate should place at their
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disposal such portions of their legacy from him as would swell their permanent resources to the required amount. It was not until the beginning of 1882 that these results had been approximately at- tained. By that time the executors of Mr. Rose were enabled to pay the specific bequest-for the greater part in cash and pro- ductive investments, with the remainder in valuable real estate- and accrued interest had so far grown as to provide a basis for the purchase of equipment.
Pending this delay, some further changes had occurred in the personnel of the board. The prolonged absence in Europe of Dr. B. C. Hobbs as a member of the World's Peace Congress, and the. removal to Mount Vernon of Mr. R. G. Jenckes, led to the withdrawal of both these gentlemen in January, 1879, and on the 31st of that month Messrs. Robert S. Cox and Preston Hussey were elected to fill their places. Trusty custodians had been appointed to care for and protect the buildings, and small outlays made from time to time for books, apparatus and specimens for the cabinet. Diligent inquiry had continued to be prosecuted also into the availability of candi- dates for the professorships of the faculty, and a number of eminent educators had been invited to visit Terre Haute and confer with the managers upon the future organization and conduct of the school.
Finding themselves by the receipt of the specific legacy possessed of funds which yielded an income of about $25,000, the managers felt that the time had come when they might take the necessary measures for opening the institute. Their first important step was the election of Dr. Charles O. Thompson, of Worcester, Mass., to the presidency of the faculty. This occurred on the 20th of Feb- ruary, 1882, and the president of the board, with the secretary and Gen. Charles Cruft, visited Worcester for a personal conference with Dr. Thompson, Toward the end of March he accepted the ap- pointment and immediately began the work of selecting a faculty and preparing a detailed plan for the organization of the school. Professors of chemistry, of elementary and the higher mathematics, and of drawing and the superintendent of the machine shops, were chosen and accepted. Those whose services were necessary, re- ported for duty so soon as their prior engagements admitted, and by the end of the summer of 1882 great progress had been made in the work of preparation. It was found that a small class could be provided for by the beginning of March, 1883, and in August of 1882 circulars were published inviting applications for admission. An opportunity for the purchase of the apparatus and library of the late Dr. John Bacon, of Harvard College, was availed of by the board, and a most admirable collection of instruments and scien- tific books was added to the resources of the school. Power, ma-
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chinery and tools for the shop were purchased by Mr. Edward S. Cobb, the superintendent, under the sanction of a committee com- posed of Messrs. Peddle, Nippert and Cox, cases for the miner- alogical specimens were constructed after the plans of Prof. Charles A. Colton, of the department of chemistry, and the elegant collec- tion was mounted, labeled and stored under his skilled labors. Shelving for the library, designed by Prof. Clarence A. Waldo, the future librarian, was provided and the early purchases of the board and the Bacon library were catalogued by the secretary and ar- ranged by members of the faculty. Large additions to the library and apparatus were made by President Thompson, who had sailed for Europe in July of 1882, for study of the methods and progress of technological instruction in the more advanced schools abroad. Tables, easels, models, in brief all the required appliances for the department of drawing, were procured upon the suggestions of Prof. William L. Ames of that department, and by the time anticipated everything was in readiness for the opening. On the 6th of March candidates for admission were examined, and a class of twenty-five members was selected from the most proficient.
Board of managers: Josephus Collett, president; Charles R. Ped- dle, secretary ; Demas Deming, treasurer ; Firmin Nippert, Esq., Hon. William Mack, Preston Hussey, Hon. Richard W. Thompson, LL. D., William C. Ball, A. M., Leslie D. Thomas, Esq.
Faculty: T. C. Mendenhall, LL. D. (resigned), president and professor of physics; William L. Ames, B. S., professor of drawing ; Clarence A. Waldo, A. M., professor of mathematics; James A. Wickersham, A. M., professor of languages; William A. Noyes, Ph. D., professor of chemistry; Malverd A. Howe, C. E., professor of civil engineering; Carl Leo Mees, M. D., adjunct professor of physics; Thomas Gray, B. Sc., professor of dynamic engineering; John A. Parkhurst, B. S., instructor in mathematics; Clarence A. Waldo, librarian; Mrs. S. P. Burton, registrar; Miss Annie W. Al- len, assistant librarian.
Coates College .- In February, 1884, Mrs. Jane P. Coates, of Greencastle, Ind., decided to found an institution at Terre Haute, Ind., for the "higher Christian education of women." That the institution might be denominated "Coates' College," and that she would purchase for it the property known as the Gookins or Duy property in Terre Haute.
February 16, 1885, Mrs. Coates wrote to Hon. B. E. Rhoads, with whom she had corresponded, and discussed the matter as follows: "Being conscious of what the Christian religion has done for myself, and believing that all education should be for the glory of God and the good of man, I would desire that the Holy
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Scriptures be daily and systematically read and studied in the col- lege, and hoping that the day of small things will not be despised, but that this comparatively small gift * will be received in the spirit in which it is given." She required also, in the same letter, that the property should be vested in a board of trustees.
As a result of the proposition of Mrs. Coates, an organization was formed, and the necessary articles of incorporation were exe- cuted, by which a corporation was duly created, with a self-perpetu- ating board of trustees.
The first board of trustees consisted of Rev. George R. Pierce, Hon. B. E. Rhoads, Dr. Joseph T. Scovel, H. P. Townley, Leslie D. Thomas, S. C. Stimson, E. M. Mering, Charles W. Conn and S. B. Davis. The corporate name adopted was "Coates College."
March 17, 1885; Isaac N. Phelps conveyed the real estate agreed upon to the college thus incorporated.
On May 21, 1885, Rev. L. G. Hay, D. D., of Indianapolis, was elected president of the college and financial agent. .Dr. Hay accepted the positions, and soon after entered upon the duties of his position. The college has no organic relation to any church organ- ization, but its articles of association provide that two-thirds of the members of the board shall always be members of the Presbyte- rian Church. The college opened October 6, 1885, with three pupils, viz .: Misses Frances Haberly, Ester Barth and May Davis, and two teachers, Dr. Hay and Prof. Stanley Coulter. The number of pupils increased to thirty-six in the school year 1877-78. In August, 1888, Dr. Hay resigned the presidency, and August 21 John Mason Duncan was elected president and accepted the posi- tion. President Duncan entered at once upon tlie discharge of his
duties. Since that time the school has prospered beyond the most sanguine expectations. The year 1889-90 the college had an enrollment of 100 in all departments, with an excellent working faculty. During the year it has acquired considerable other real estate, and now owns a fraction over twelve acres of land. It has built a large school building which is handsomely finished and fur- nished with the latest styles of school furniture and fixtures, nothing like the furniture being in use in this part of the country. It now has college classes up to and including junior.
It was felt, in establishing this institution, that it would be un- wise to establish a school of only academic or seminary grade. That there were enough of those, and if Coates College was to ac- complish the work its founder desired, i. e. " the higher Christian education of women," it must adopt a high standard, the equal of the colleges for men.
A curriculum was adopted which is a modification of those of
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Wellesley and Vassar. . And it is the settled purpose of its trustees to offer to the young women of the Mississippi valley all that is use- ful, that either of those colleges, which are pre-eminently the best in the country for young women, can or does offer. And that, at less expense and near to their homes. The college is fitted with laboratories, gynasium, art, and physics departments, etc. The geographical location of the college is peculiarly happy, being about equal distances from the great cities of the Mississippi valley, Chicago, Cincinnati and St. Louis. Neither could a more healthful location be found than the one occupied, a locality unequaled for its beauty.
Coates College offers especial advantages to the citizens of Vigo county, who have daughters ambitious to obtain a college education equal to that of their brothers, and which is unattainable elsewhere, except at great expense and long journeys from home.
State Normal School .- Dr. E. T. Spottswood, afterward removed to Terre Haute, introduced in the legislature in 1854, a bill to estab- lish a normal school to be supported out of the State funds. While not called by that name the idea was practically the same. He was at that time a representative from Vermillion county. December 20, of that year, a bill passed appropriating $50,000 for a normal school, to be located wherever the citizens would offer the greatest advan- tages, and help in the way of donations of not less than $50,000.
Vigo county promptly subscribed $50,000 in cash and $25,000 in realty. Fifteen hundred of her citizens petitioned the county board and the city council, in favor of the donation. J. A. Vry- daugh was architect and superintendent of building. The work was done by Terre Haute parties. Brick work, J. B. Hedden; stone work, Wagner & McFarland; wood work, Capt. James Hook; fin- ishing, S. T. Reese; roofing, Moore & Hagerty; iron, W. J. Ball & Co .; painting R. Buckle.
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