USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Andover > History of Andover theological seminary, 1933 > Part 8
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ber of students required an enlarged faculty, more money must be forthcoming. The friends of the school were not grudging, and no serious need went uncared for. For more than fifty years the three buildings of Brick Row had received no additions, but the Trustees held a large amount of land, and professors' houses were added on occasion.
Two years before the semi-centennial there was a school property valued at four hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of the library, which numbered about twenty thousand vol- umes. $117,000 of this amount was in buildings, $228,000 in investments, drawing an income of six per cent. This pro- vided an income of $17,000, which the Trustees divided into six parts. $1,560 was added annually to permanent fund; $1,020 was assigned to meet the growing needs of the library ; $3,000 was appropriated for the upkeep of the property ; $2,000 went for all other annual expenses except instruction ; $7,900 was set aside for the salaries of five professors and two temporary instructors, and $1,800 went for student aid.
It was felt that the increasing cost of living required larger salaries for the Faculty, for no change had been made for thirty-five years. This would require $40,000 in additional funds, and friends in Boston and vicinity were asked at a meeting in the Old South Church to supply that need. The library needed a new building. That would cost $30,000. The same amount was needed for student aid. Once the war was over the Trustees undertook a campaign to meet the accumulating needs. Believing in the returning prosperity of the Seminary and an increasing number of students, they planned on a larger scale than ever before. They asked for endowment for three new professorships. They saw the de- sirability of bringing distinguished leaders before the students, and for that purpose proposed five lectureships. If three fel- lowships should be endowed, it would be possible for excep- tional scholars among the graduates to enjoy the privilege of a year or two in European study. They asked for funds to provide fifty scholarships to aid the undergraduates. The library needed a separate fund for books and administration as well as for better housing of its store of literature. They
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undertook to increase recent bene factions until the total should amount to $300,000.
Among the particular needs that were felt was a lectureship in missions, for Andover had a reputation as a missionary school. Already it had sent out one hundred and fifty mission- aries, and a lectureship in missions was the logical consequence. The Trustees were impressed by the early death of many missionaries and of pastors in the churches with the urgent need of scientific lectures on health. A still larger sum than for these needs should be available for instruction in elocution. New principles and methods were coming into practice, and sacred rhetoric needed supplementing. To meet the attacks of science upon the citadels of orthodox theology, there was need of lectures on logic and mental philosophy to show the best methods of defence of the gospel against pantheism and ma- terialism. And besides these was the new biblical criticism coming from Europe, and no less than thirty thousand dollars was needed for a new professorship in that field. One hun- dred and fifty college presidents and professors had been trained at Andover. The best students ought not to have to go elsewhere for the best instruction.
When the needs were published there was a generous re- sponse. New chairs were endowed, lectureships were pro- vided, the needs of the library were not forgotten. It is impressive to read the list of the funds reported in 1867 as having been added within little more than a decade. The largest gift was Brechin Hall, given for a library building by two brothers, John and Peter Smith, and John Dove, natives of Brechin, Scotland. This was completed in 1866 at an ex- pense of more than forty thousand dollars. It was constructed of stone, with a tower ninety-three feet high, giving a wide prospect over the surrounding country. The main part of the building was seventy by forty-three feet. Though forty years more were to crowd its space with books, the new structure furnished welcome relief from the pressure upon the limited quarters in Bartlet Chapel.
The recent benefactions included Miss Sophia Smith's endowment of a new professorship in theology, amounting
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to $30,000 ; two Hitchcock donations of $30,000; the Boston Fund for salary increases, raised by subscription, to the amount of $28,000 ; $27,000 for scholarships ; $20,500 pledged for a new chapel; a fund for library maintenance given by the donors of the building, amounting to $19,000 ; the Jones en- dowment of a chair in elocution to the amount of $15,000 ; the Hyde and Southworth lectureships of $5,000 each ; the Reed legacy of $5,000 for the library; the same amount for the Newton Cabinet, and miscellaneous sums to the total of nearly $40,000.
The next few years brought more benefactions, for the needs increased as fast as the means could be provided. A bequest from Frederick H. Taylor of Andover, supplemented by other Taylor donations, made possible the Taylor profes- sorship of biblical theology and history. Into this chair John Phelps Taylor was inducted in 1883. Mr. Daniel P. Stone, a Boston merchant, left about two million dollars at his death in 1878, to be distributed by his wife. She contributed a single gift of fifty thousand dollars to the Seminary, which endowed the Stone professorship of the relations of Christianity and science. Subsequently by making provisional gifts she was the means of bringing into the treasury of the Seminary large addi- tional funds. Within the eight years from 1873 to 1881 two hun- dred and fifty thousand dollars were added to the resources.
The result of all these benefactions was greater breadth of instruction and increased facilities in the buildings. Lectures began to be given regularly in missions on the Hyde foundation, including Rufus Anderson, Julius H. Seelye, Edward A. Law- rence, John P. Jones, Charles Cuthbert Hall, James L. Barton, Edward C. Moore, Otis Cary, and John R. Mott. Some of the lectures on the Southworth foundation, dealing with Congre- gationalism, revivals, and home evangelization, were by Henry M. Dexter, Amory H. Bradford, Williston Walker, Francis G. Peabody, and Arthur C. McGiffert. Soon the new Taylor, Stone, and Smith professorships were available. It became possible to secure the services of a skilled librarian, and Reverend William L. Ropes commenced a service of al- most forty years to the Seminary. The library was enriched by
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large purchases in Germany, and was able to add a thousand books a year. Professor Churchill came to teach elocution.
The new stone chapel of Gothic architecture with its stained glass windows and symbolic signs on the front of the building greatly improved the appearance of the campus and provided needed accommodations for the Seminary church. The low walls and high roof gave it dignity, the three aisles and absence of pillars made an impression of spaciousness, the ash fur- nishings relieved pulpit and pews and screen from gloominess ; and the tastefully tinted walls with their soft shades and bands of deeper color contributed to an atmosphere of restful wor- ship. The old chapel had had bare white walls, high-backed pews with doors, and an old-fashioned box pulpit. The old recitation rooms were dingy and ill-ventilated, and their desks were defaced by pencils and jackknives in the hands of rest- less students. Now Bartlet Chapel was renovated to provide larger and airier rooms, and steam fixtures were installed for heating. Dormitory rooms were furnished in modern fashion. A laundry and a bath-house were erected. New professors' houses were added.
By 1877 eight professors were on the roll; lectures on Egyptology and on the relations of physiology to religious experience showed a recognition of the value of many sub- jects to a theological student; the Faculty was learning to adjust its instruction to the new demands, yet the old cur- riculum was changed little. Exegesis was still the normal grist of the first year, dogmatic theology of the second, and homiletics or history of the third. And the number of stu- dents continued to decline in spite of all the improvements. In 1867 there had been one hundred and fifteen; ten years later the number had fallen to seventy-three.
Andover Seminary had reached threescore years and ten. Was it sufficient to dress itself in new habiliments and to re- furbish the instruments of its craft? The world of thought had been changing, but Andover still kept its Hopkinsian the- ology. Was it time for a new interpretation of religion? Were the tides of modernism to undermine the ancient bulwarks ? Time alone could tell. And time did not wait.
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CHAPTER V
ANDOVER MEN IN THE PARISH MINISTRY
A NDOVER was founded for the distinct purpose of pre- paring men for the parish ministry. At that time the prestige of the Trinitarian Congregationalists was at stake. The Unitarians had the advantage of Harvard instruc- tion and the Harvard reputation. Unless the Trinitarians could establish a theological school that would attract young men of ability, and year after year could supply the Congre- gational churches with orthodox leaders who were able to measure swords successfully in doctrinal controversy when need arose, they would be worsted in the competition of the two theological parties.
There were in Massachusetts alone nearly three hundred and fifty Congregational churches about the year 1800. Of these nearly one hundred withdrew from the evangelical ranks, depriving orthodoxy of church property valued at more than $600,000. In Boston the only Trinitarian Congregational churches were the Old South and the new Park Street. Yet in spite of these serious losses there were scores of important churches which were looking to the Seminary for pastors. It was these men who, often through long pastorates, built patiently to restore the vigor and strength of earlier days. Hardly had the Congregational churches begun to recover be- fore all denominations were placed on an equality before the law. This threw the material support completely upon the members of the churches at a time when they were losing so heavily. But it was in line with the tendency of the period to destroy privilege and to compel every group and organiza- tion to stand on its own feet. Baptists were increasing rapidly with the growth of religious interest which attended the inter- mittent revivals, attracting many of the townspeople, though
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the principle of voluntary support for churches and ministers required pecuniary sacrifices. Episcopalians were luring away some who felt the appeal of order and beauty in church wor- ship. Methodists were planting their chapels on the village borders or out in the open country. And the Unitarians now were on the side of those who wanted equal rights in religion.
It was with these handicaps that the youthful graduates of Andover undertook the task of carrying New England Con- gregationalism to the old position of leadership once more. Some of them had meagre resources. Josiah Peet, who grad- uated in the second class at Andover, found a place of ministry at Norridgewock, Maine. Because the church was poor he spent half his time preaching as a home missionary in the out- lying communities. But when the people of Norridgewock found that Unitarianism was making inroads locally, the church saw that it must exert itself and increased the minis- ter's salary enough so that it could claim three-quarters of his time. This new effort resulted in a revival which brought forty new members into the church, and Peet remained with the Norridgewock church for a pastorate of thirty-eight years. Out of the church went four young men to enter the ranks of the ministry.
It was from such country churches that the Seminary ob- tained most of its recruits, and to them that most of the students went upon graduation. Jacob Ide of the third class went to a pastorate at West Medway in 1814, was made a trustee of Amherst and was honored with the degree of doctor of divinity by Brown, but he held only the one rural pastorate throughout a long life.
Men like these made little noise in the world. They were content to minister faithfully where farmers toiled in the fields and artisans in their little backyard shops. They were the first citizens in the community, respected by the children whom they had baptized and perhaps married twenty years later. They grew gray among the people to whom they ministered, the only pastor that many of their parishioners ever knew. Such men did not need the spur of new scenes, the stimulus of a better folk. Like Charles Kingsley at Eversley, they
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built themselves into the community where they had found a home, and made the place richer because of their presence.
Now and then a graduate of Andover attained to a place of large influence because of his personal ability or the dis- tinction of the church or community. Richard Salter Storrs was in Andover's first class, going the next year to the church in Braintree, far enough from Boston then to remain a coun- try village. Himself the son of a father who was minister in Longmeadow for a generation, he became the father in his turn of a still more noteworthy son, Dr. Richard Salter Storrs of Brooklyn, New York. The church at Braintree kept its pastor for a lifelong service of sixty-two years, except for an interim of five years when his chief attention was given to his duties as secretary of the Home Mission Society in Massa- chusetts. Men were born, grew up, turned gray, and died while he was there. Shy maidens stood before him for a marriage blessing, brought their babies to him for baptism, and saw those children grow to maturity and become mothers before his task was done. The name of Storrs is revered still in the old church in Braintree, with a feeling of pride that the great Brooklyn preacher was a boy in the Old Colony of Massachusetts.
When the Seminary at Andover was looking for a professor to succeed Eliphalet Pearson, it chose Moses Stuart, minister of the First Church in New Haven. When sixteen years later that pulpit was vacant again, the church called Leonard Bacon to its pastorate on recommendation of Professor Stuart. Under the shadow of Yale College the First Church pulpit was a platform of power. Bacon had graduated from Andover a scant two years before, but he proved equal to the exacting demands of the position. One-fourth of the members voted against him when the question of the call was before them. Only twenty-three years old, he was expected to fill the shoes of Moses Stuart and Nathaniel W. Taylor, the eminent theo- logian who went from that pulpit into the Yale faculty. Sev- eral of the prominent members of the church, including a United States senator, later called upon the youthful pastor to suggest that his sermons were not up to their level. "Gentle-
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men," was his reply, "they shall be made worthy." Within three years he was preaching with complete acceptance. Be- fore long he was marked as a man upon whose shoulders might safely be placed heavy denominational responsibilities, and he found time to write and to speak on public platforms. The pulpit was his for fifty-seven years. During that period he found time to write history, to compose hymns as well as sermons, to aid in founding and to edit the Independent, and to fill the position of editor of the New Englander. He debated on public questions in his own city and elsewhere. When the Congregationalists experimented with more unified denominational organization, he was an active leader at the Albany Convention in 1852, at Boston in 1865, and at Oberlin when the National Council was organized in 1871. He was president of the Church Building Society. At the fiftieth anniversary of the Seminary at Andover he was the one to recount the history of the half century. With all the rest he helped to rear a son worthy to rank with himself as a Congre- gational leader, Leonard Woolsey Bacon, class of 1854 at Andover, pastor in Brooklyn, Baltimore, and Philadelphia, compiler of a popular hymn-book, and author of the "History of American Christianity."
The reputation of Andover drew certain students from a long distance. Congregationalists had found their home in New England, and it was not to be expected that their school would reach many in the West or the South. The settlement of New Englanders in New York and Ohio resulted in a small contingent of students from those states, and Presbyterians from New York and New Jersey found their way eastward. An interesting case of a southerner is that of George Wash- ington Kelly, who from Lewisburg, Virginia, caught a vision of what Andover might do for him, and on the fourteenth of October, 1830, started from the land of his nativity on the arduous journey north. Because he kept a diary and an ac- count of his expenses it is possible to follow him on his way. Country roads at best were not smooth highways, and in the South the usual manner of travel was by horseback. Many a road and a bridge was built by subscription, and tolls were
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charged for maintenance. A day's journey was limited to the condition of the roads and the endurance of the horse, and the traveler must allow considerable sums for overnight lodging. Fortunately Kelly found accommodations at country inns for thirty-seven and a half cents, but frequent tolls cost him twelve and a half cents each. He delayed his progress at Baltimore, where he stayed three days and four nights. Balti- more was a considerable town and his total expenditure of $5.75 was probably not excessive. It would be interesting to know what detained him so long when Andover classes had commenced their fall sessions already, but he did not record the reasons. Perhaps it took time to sell his horse, for from that point he traveled by boat to New York. Passage to Phila- delphia took four dollars from his purse, and it cost him fifty cents to lodge there. From Philadelphia to New York five dollars more disappeared. A day in New York cost him one dollar. The trip from New York to Boston was the most expensive of all, and the stage fare from Boston to Andover was $2.25. His total outlay amounted to $35.86, a consider- able sum at a time when a dollar had far greater purchasing power than at present.
Kelly's account book throws a sidelight on a student's re- quirements at the Seminary. Faithfully he records the items. Books were necessary and expensive. He paid two dollars for a Hebrew grammar and $5.25 for a Greek and English lexicon. Thirty cents went for a bucket, twenty-two for a quart of oil. A razor and hone cost him eighty-two cents, a box of blacking and soap 183/4 cents, half an ounce of wafers six cents. To send a letter deprived him of twenty-five cents. A troublesome flue required an outlay of six cents ; one yard of green baize cost thirty cents. A cord of wood cost four dol- lars, but he got along with an apron that took only 121/2 cents of his rapidly dwindling hoard. Apples at 121/2 cents a peck and molasses at thirteen cents for three pints made pan dowdy possible. It cost him twenty cents to get a flannel shirt made, and 121/2 cents for charity to a room sweeper. Literary ma- terial was as necessary as food for the body. Sixteen cents went to pay for two sermons, and 371/2 cents for a copy of
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Doddridge's "Rise and Progress." He paid two dollars for instruction in Hebrew, doubtless to make up for his late arrival, and twenty-five cents was his contribution for mis- sionaries to the Sandwich Islands.
Andover paid its debts for men like Kelly by sending certain of her graduates to the South. George Howe, a Massachusetts boy and a graduate of Andover in 1825, commenced a teaching career of fifty years in a Presbyterian seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. Writing in 1845, he speaks of his attachment to the region in spite of numerous trials and discouragements, and a different state of society from that in which he had been brought up. In the farther perspective he sees faults even in his own New England. He is fully conscious of the needs of the South, and he does his best to induce young men of promise to study for the ministry, because of the serious lack of those who would take the time to prepare properly. He published two appeals, conscious of the many difficulties which those who were educated at the North could not understand rela- tive to seminary attendance, and he had the satisfaction of teaching one hundred and eighteen students in fourteen years, most of whom became active pastors and a few missionaries.
The old custom of students studying with pastors did not pass with the advent of seminaries, and Andover alumni had their part in that practice. John Todd of the class of 1825 had five such apprentices at different times, and it gave him satisfaction to know that they were all doing well. The report which he sent to his class at the end of twenty years from graduation is typical of a large number of Andover alumni. He wrote freely to his classmates, not boastfully, but with gratitude to God that he had been able to help in building up the Kingdom. He had had a part in the erection of three meetinghouses. His direct influence had brought a thousand dollars annually from his churches into the treasury of the American Board. He had attended denominational asso- ciations and had spoken on their platforms. Habitually he preached three times on Sunday and led not less than two meetings during the week. He had failed to accumulate much money since he had married, but he was about even with the
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world. Incidentally he had paid the support of a demented mother for sixteen years. He thanked Providence for habit- ual health and for "mercies from heaven far more than I deserve," and he appreciated a doctor's degree and an election to the board of trustees of Williams College. His pastorates included the Edwards Church at Northampton, the First Con- gregational Church in Philadelphia, and thirty years of active service at Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Many an Andover man knew hardship both during and after his years of study. Under the impulse of a sturdy conscience, stimulated perhaps by the pastor of a rural church, a country boy dreamed of college and a theological seminary, and was willing to endure hardness if he might reach his goal. He might get little but hard knocks, yet the limitless opportunity for service appealed to him.
Such was John Spaulding of the class of 1828. Growing up in a country hamlet, he was able in time to get to Phillips Academy in Andover, "having only thirty dollars, one suit of clothes, no books, and none but God to look to for aid." He made his way through ten years of study at the Academy, at Middlebury College, and at Andover Seminary, and in that time he spent only $1,427.14. For four months in five succes- sive winters he taught school, and he received some aid from the American Education Society, which he repaid, and some from friends. But it was mainly by keeping his expenses down to the lowest point that he was able to continue his long years of preparation. "These hands," he declared, "ministered to my necessities" with the woodsaw, the sickle, the scythe, the axe and the hoe. "These legs ministered to my locomotion to and from college; and seldom through the whole course of my studies did I feel justified for spending a single hard- earned shilling for a ride. My arrival at college was amidst a cold rain storm in September. My room was furnished with nothing save an unwoven carpet of mother earth on its floor ; which a few buckets of water and a broom greatly improved. A few shillings furnished a bedstead and cord ; and the bundle containing my whole wardrobe, which had been my traveling companion all the way from Massachusetts, though wet by
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the storm, furnished a pillow. On that cord, in that wet room, the almost moneyless, supperless, and cover-less student stretched himself for his first night in college. But it was en- tering College ! and that was an acquisition worth more to him than the conquest of Mexico with all of Texas would be now."
Many a country minister found it necessary to work harder at manual labor than in his study. Joseph Bennett, of the class of 1821, could say a quarter of a century later that in the twenty-four years since he had left Andover he had been able to preach every Sunday but one, and on an average five times a week, had made pastoral calls on four hundred families once a year, had attended one hundred church councils, and had always attended Commencement at Andover, and the anni- versaries in Boston ; besides these duties that belonged to his profession he had exercised three hours a day in the open air, for twenty years had felled trees in the woods and had cut up the timber in the yard with the help of his son, enough for three fires, had mowed, raked, and pitched five tons of hay every year for his horse and cow, and had taken care of the animals and of his garden. In that time he had admitted to the church by profession seven hundred and eighty-two per- sons, had brought up two children, "both pious," and the son preparing for the ministry, and had raised twenty thousand dollars to found an academy and to build meetinghouses.
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