The history of Colby College, Part 1

Author: Colby College
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press
Number of Pages: 716

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THE

HISTORY

of COLBY

COLLEGE

by ERNEST CUMMINGS MARRINER

ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY

3 1833 06655 7650

974.102

W31CCM

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019

https://archive.org/details/historyofcolbyco00unse

الساق

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THE HISTORY

COLBY COLLEGE

DIS & IN

Ernest Cummings Marriner Historian of Colby College

COLBY COLLEGE PRESS WATERVILLE, MAINE 1963

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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Contents

Chapter

I. The Beginning 1

II. Choosing a Site 9

III. Pangs of Birth 17

IV. Jeremiah the Prophet 25

V. A Modest Start 33

VI. Waterville College

VII. The First Decade

VIII. The End of a Reign

IX. Dynamo from Salem 83

X. A Professor to the Rescue 91

XI. Years of Struggle 99

XII. College Life in the Early Days 109

XIII. The Martyr and the General 117

XIV. The College Lands 131

XV. Calm Before the Storm

139

XVI. Champlin and the Civil War 151

XVII. A New Name 161

XVIII. Champlin's Years of Fulfillment 167

XIX. Redoubtable Quintet 181

XX. Standards, Academic and Religious 195

XXI. Colby Life in Robins' Time 207

XXII. Pepper and Salt 219

XXIII. Janitor Sam 233

XXIV. The Great Coordinator 241

XXV. The Youngest President 253

XXVI.

The Man from Chicago

263

XXVII. Unlucky President 275

CONTENTS

Chapter

XXVIII. Honeymoon Years 289

XXIX. War Comes to the Campus 303

XXX. The Centennial 315

XXXI. Beginning the Second Century 323

XXXII. The Passing of Roberts 333

XXXIII. Interregnum 341

XXXIV. They Also Taught 351

XXXV. A Great Administrator 365

XXXVI. Mayflower Hill 377

XXXVII. New Clothes for Alma Mater 387

XXXVIII. A New President and a New War 403

XXXIX. Fitting Colby to its New Clothes 413

XL. The Distaff Side 431

XLI. The Early Societies 449

XLII. Fraternities and Sororities 463

XLIII. The Library

477

XLIV. The Healthy Body 495

XLV. Playing the Game 509

XLVI. The Academies 525

XLVII. Colby in Three Wars

535

XLVIII.

The Alumni

547

XLIX. Adult Education 557

L. Organizations and Publications 565

LI. Religion at Colby 575

Notes

589

Bibliography

599

Appendices

A. Original Petition to the Massachusetts Legislature, January 20, 1812

603

B. Text of Original Bill of 1812 604

C. Text of Bill of 1813 607

CONTENTS

Appendices

D. Charter of 1813 609

E. Land Grant of 1815 611

F. Amendment to Charter, 1816, granting permission to locate in any town in Kennebec or Somerset counties 612

G. Deed of lot in Waterville on which to erect college buildings, 1818 613

H. Letter written by Mrs. Jeremiah Chaplin to friends in Danvers, 1818 614

I. Maine Literary and Theological Institution; Address to the Public, 1819 617

J. Maine Legislative Act to enlarge the powers of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution 620

K. Act of Maine Legislature, changing the name to Waterville Col- lege, 1821 621

L. Petition of Trustees to the Maine Legislature, 1820 621

M. Land Grant of 1861 by the Maine Legislature, amended in 1862 622

N. Act changing the name to Colby University, 1867 623

O. Act empowering the Trustees of Colby University to elect their own chairman 623

P. Act changing the name to Colby College, 1899 624

Q. Amendment to the Charter, authorizing alumni trustees, 1903 624

R. Act amending and restating the Charter, 1959 625

S. Amendment to the Charter, authorizing alumnae trustees, 1931 627

T. List of Colby Missionaries 628

U. College Officers, 1820-1960 630

V. Trustees, 1820-1960 633

W. Faculty, 1820-1960 639

Index 651

Foreword

As Colby College approaches 1963, the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the granting of its charter by the General Court of Massachusetts, a new history of the college seems appropriate. Many changes have occurred during the third of a century since Dr. Edwin C. Whittemore published his history of the college in 1927. A great deal of material not available to Dr. Whittemore has also come to light concerning Colby's first century. Decision has therefore been made to publish an entirely new account.

The present history seeks to portray the development of the college against the background of the changing times. For instance, early events are shown in the light of the Baptist movement of the early nineteenth century, of the con- troversy between Federalist Boston and Jeffersonian Maine, and of the impor- tance of the Dartmouth College decision by the United States Supreme Court. In the later periods consideration has necessarily been given to the effect of the Civil War on Maine business and finance, the splurge of investment in western lands, the theological conservatism of Maine Baptists, and the shifting tides in New England regarding coeducation.

Persistently this history seeks to answer the recurring question, "Why?" Why was the theological course so soon abandoned? Why did General Richard- son wreck the chances to secure an additional land grant? Why did Gardner Colby's restrictions on his gift in 1865 cease to be effective? Why was the Cen- tennial celebrated in 1920 instead of 1913? Why did enrollment of men de- cline alarmingly in the first decade of this century? These and many other ques- tions confront any serious inquirer into Colby history.

The historian is indebted to many persons for their generous assistance. Miss Marion Rowe and her helpers at the Maine Historical Society have provided invaluable, guided access to the King papers and other records. Miss Ruth Hazel- ton and assistants at the Maine State Library have been very helpful, as have employees at the office of the Secretary of State. The Librarian of the Massa- chusetts Archives has opened the precious handwritten journals and other records pertaining to our original charter.

Colby alumni who have supplied information have been so numerous that a mere listing would take several pages and would almost certainly omit some name. To all of these members of the "Colby Family" the historian is profoundly grateful.

Greatest debt of all is owed to members of the college staff who have given so willingly and unselfishly of their time. Librarian John McKenna, Associate Librarian Elizabeth Libbey, and Mrs. Webb Noyes have responded repeatedly to

pleas about the Colbiana Collection. Professor-Emeritus Carl Weber has been a mine of information about the collection of rare books and manuscripts. Pro- fessors Richard Cary and Alfred Chapman have made valuable suggestions. Mr. Allan Lightner, Assistant to the President for Development, has given detailed information about the Mayflower Hill campaigns, and has been zealous in identify- ing portraits and other items from the old days. Alumni Secretary Ellsworth Mil- lett has answered hundreds of questions, and Recorder Rebecca Larsen has made numerous computations. For information on finances and new buildings thanks are owed to the late Vice-President Galen Eustis, his successor Ralph Williams,

FOREWORD

and Treasurer Arthur Seepe. The chapter on athletics could not have been in- cluded without the generous help of Professors Gilbert Loebs and Leon Williams. Many a valuable suggestion has come from the Director of Public Relations, Rich- ard Dyer. Much information about fraternities and sororities has been supplied by Dean George Nickerson and Miss Frances Thayer. On many points Dean- Emeritus Ninetta Runnals has been extremely helpful, and constantly available have been the voluminous records and the marvelous memory of Dr. Herbert C. Libby. As Director of the Colby College Press, Professor Cary has patiently edited the manuscript and supervised its printing.

Not to be forgotten are two patient faculty wives, Mrs. Richard Mayers and Mrs. Harold Pestana, who accomplished the Herculean task of typing the long manuscript from my nearly illegible handwriting.

Waterville, December 1, 1961

Ernest C. Marriner

List of Illustrations

FRONTISPIECE: Colby College campus

SECTION I: following page 96

1 Deed for Original College Lot

2 The Sloop Hero Jeremiah Chaplin Campus in 1830s

3 Missionary Tablet Paul Revere Bell Colby Flag

4 Abner Coburn George D. B. Pepper James T. Champlin Gardner Colby

5 Albion W. Small John B. Foster Charles Hamlin Samuel Osborne

6 Leslie C. Cornish Arthur J. Roberts Julian D. Taylor Anton Marquardt

7 President's House Coburn Hall Memorial Hall Class of 1902 Gate

8 Lovejoy Building plaque Lovejoy and Alton riot Lovejoy birthplace hearthstone

SECTION II: following page 224

1 J. Seelye Bixler Franklin W. Johnson A. Galen Eustis Robert E. L. Strider II

2 Herbert L. Wadsworth George G. Averill George Otis Smith Neil Leonard

3 George H. Parmenter Webster Chester Herbert C. Libby William J. Wilkinson Edward J. Colgan

4 Beginning at Mayflower Hill

5 Laying cornerstone of Miller Library Laying cornerstone of Lorimer Chapel Carl J. Weber and Edwin Arlington Robinson Treasure Room 6 Beautifying Mayflower Hill

7 Graduation Days

8 Miller Library at night Montague Sculpture Court Bixler Art and Music Center Children at play near President's House

SECTION III: following page 384

1 Alumnae Building Foss Hall

2 Mary Low Carver Louise Helen Coburn Florence E. Dunn

3 Eleanora Woodman Dedication of Runnals Union Dedication of Woodman Hall

4 Women's Activities

5 The old Gymnasium Cheerleaders on Colby Night The old field house

6 Football, Old and New

7 Hockey, Basketball, and Track

8 Baseball on the old campus Dedication of Coombs Field Baseball on Mayflower Hill

SECTION IV: following page 544

1 From the old to the new campus

2 SATC in World War I CTD in World War II

3 "Pop" Newman and women of the SCA ROTC on parade

4 War Memorials

5 Chamber music at the President's House Colby Community Symphony Orchestra Exhibition in the art gallery

6 Old campus and Waterville citizens

7 Old-timers and new campus Student in Mary Low Hall Chapel seen through doorway of Miller Library

8 Outing Club Lodge Adult Recreation Center

CHAPTER I

The Beginning

I UN the beginning God. To apply the opening words of Genesis to the founding of Colby College is not sacrilege; it is rather a tribute to the ardent piety of the founders. The Baptist clergymen and laymen who started the institution on the banks of the Kennebec sincerely believed that they were obeying the will of God. To them the most important thing in life was to live close to God, seek constantly to know His will, and then diligently try to perform it.

From the earliest colonial times, the New England minister had been the leading educated man in the community. To assure that the profession could be filled by native sons and not remain dependent upon immigration from England, the Bay Colony had set up the College at Cambridge in 1636. The established church of the colony thus made sure of an educated, orthodox clergy. The Epis- copalians did the same by their establishment of the College of William and Mary in Virginia in 1693. Orthodox Congregationalists founded Yale in 1701, and the Presbyterians established the College of New Jersey, now Princeton, in 1746. Thus, as Dr. Donald Tewksbury puts it, "The American college was founded to meet the spiritual needs of a new continent. It was designed primarily as a nursery of ministers and was fostered as a child of the church."1

With the exception of a few state universities, almost every American college founded before the Civil War was organized, supported, and often controlled by a religious denomination. In 1857, a promotional society reported, "Aside from the state institutions, the colleges of this country may now be divided among some twenty denominations, with whom they are either organically connected, or to the control of whose membership they are mainly subject."2

By the time of the Revolution, separation of church and state had become an important political issue, especially to the denominational colleges, for their very existence was involved. Before 1775, nine of the colonies had a recognized state church, called "the standing order." In those colonies, beginning with Massachusetts in the founding of Harvard, colleges representing the established order had been set up by church and state acting together. Naturally, such col- leges occupied a privileged status, and generally the founding of institutions by dissenting sects had been discouraged. So it came about that Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Columbia and Dartmouth enjoyed exclusive rights in their re- spective states before the Revolution.

When the Constitution of the United States recognized the principle of separa- tion of church and state, the exclusive privileges of the colleges founded by "the standing order" were challenged. Slowly, and against strong conservative opposi- tion, the state legislatures were induced to grant not only operative charters, but

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

also land and money, to minority denominations for educational purposes. "An era of complete religious freedom in the establishment of colleges, such as was not known in any other country, was thus ushered in by this distinctive American solution of the problem of relations of church and state as applied in the realm of higher education."3

The Baptists were slow to come into the newly opened field. Unlike Con- gregationalists and Presbyterians, they had not brought from the Old Country a long tradition of an educated clergy. In fact, among their membership there were many who actually opposed the education of ministers. From earliest times this denomination had recruited its members from the lower and relatively uneducated classes. It had been profoundly influenced by the Great Awakening in Jonathan Edwards' time, and by the Second Awakening in Timothy Dwight's era, though neither of those preachers had been a Baptist. That denomination had adopted a strong evangelistic flavor which encouraged the entrance into the ministry of young men of religious zeal regardless of their lack of education. To the majority of Baptists in many a community, even a little learning was a dangerous thing.

The first Baptist colleges therefore came into being as the result of local movements by respected, influential Baptist leaders, rather than because of any general concern for education throughout the denomination. Since the time of Roger Williams, the Baptists had gained such prominence in Rhode Island that they became practically "the standing order" in that state. Rhode Island had thus achieved a status that distinguished it markedly from other Baptist communi- ties. There higher education could be established for Baptist clergy and laity without serious opposition. When, therefore, a few strong leaders, themselves educated men, were joined by others who had broken with the orthodox faith on the doctrine of infant baptism, and were still further reinforced by a group of Philadelphia Baptists, the founding of Brown University was the result. Char- tered in 1765, Brown was for nearly fifty years the only Baptist college in America. Not until 1813 did another group of Baptists secure a charter to found a college, and that group was an association of clergy and laymen in Massachusetts' sparsely settled District of Maine. The institution for which they secured a charter, the second Baptist college in the country, was the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, the forerunner of Colby College.

Among the more than a thousand degree-granting colleges now operating in the United States, Colby stands thirty-third in respect to age. Of the thirty-two preceding colleges, four were located in Pennsylvania, three each in Virginia, New York and Maryland; two each in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Vermont, South Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee, and one each in Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, North Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky. Denominationally those colleges were, at their founding, ten Presbyterian, six Congregational, six Episcopal, one Baptist, one Dutch Reformed and one German Reformed, while seven of them were established by the state. The oldest of the state-founded col- leges is the University of Georgia, founded in 1785, but it was preceded by fifteen private institutions sponsored by religious denominations, and denominational origin continued to be the common pattern until after the Civil War.

· No one person can be credited with originating the idea of a Baptist college in the wilderness of Maine. It probably came to fruition out of the conversation of Baptist clergy in the District whenever they met for conference during the first decade of the nineteenth century. The Baptists had then been in Maine for more than a hundred years. In 1682 a delegation from the First Baptist Church of Boston established the first Baptist church in Maine at Kittery. But the pastor

THE BEGINNING

soon encountered difficulties with "the standing order," with the result that the church broke up and the pastor departed for South Carolina. Says the Baptist historian Burrage, "Baptists were regarded as fanatics, and their doctrines as destructive to the welfare of both society and religion."5 Hostilities with the French and Indians greatly retarded Maine settlement anyhow, and nearly another hundred years elapsed before the Baptists again appeared in organized form east of the Piscataqua. By 1768, however, the sect had become strong enough to es- tablish two Maine churches, one at Gorham, the other at Berwick. These were followed, during the next fourteen years, by Baptist churches at Sanford, Wells, Acton and Lyman. As late as 1782, however, there were no Baptist churches east of York County.

The eight years from 1782 to 1790 saw a rapid spread of the sect in Maine, with churches at Bowdoinham, Thomaston, Limerick, Parsonsfield, Newfield, Waterboro, Cornish, Fryeburg, Whitefield, Vassalboro, Hebron and Buckfield. The year 1796 saw the founding of the very influential Baptist Church at Port- land, and in 1801 another church of even more substantial influence at Yarmouth.

In polity Baptists, like Congregationalists, have always held to the autonomy of the local church. For purposes of common fellowship and to discuss matters of common concern they established what is called the Association, a group of Baptist churches within a defined territory. These associations, in most states, agreed to form state conventions, so that in Maine today we have, for example, the First Baptist Church of Waterville in the North Kennebec Association of the United Baptist Convention of Maine.

Originally the first Baptist churches in Maine, those in York County, were considered to be within the New Hampshire Baptist Association, but as churches were organized along the Kennebec and the Androscoggin, there was formed the Bowdoinham Association to which all the Baptist churches in Maine outside of York County belonged until 1804, when a separate Lincoln Association was formed. Such was the situation, when there was written in the minutes of the Bowdoinham Association, in 1810, the first record of any concerted action toward the founding of a Baptist college in Maine.

It was at the Association's annual meeting, held that year in Livermore, that on September 27, 1810, the Association took the following action: "It being in contemplation to establish an institution in the District of Maine for the purpose of promoting literary and theological knowledge, Brethren Blood, Boardman, Merrill, Titcomb and Tripp were appointed a committee to take into consideration the propriety of petitioning the General Court for incorporation."6

Who were these five men, the first whose names appear in any preserved record concerning Colby College? Rev. Caleb Blood was pastor of the Baptist Church in Portland, then located on Federal Street. Well educated himself, he was a leader in the not too popular cause of an educated Baptist ministry. Syl- vanus Boardman, the pastor at North Yarmouth, had similar views. When the new college got under way, he committed his own son to its care, proudly saw the son become a member of the first graduating class and then go to far-away Burma to become a missionary with the famous Adoniram Judson. Daniel Mer- rill was to prove to be one of the most influential persons in finally securing the coveted charter. Formerly a Congregationalist minister, he broke from that sect on the issue of infant baptism and became a Baptist, taking with him almost the entire membership of his church at Sedgwick, which thereafter functioned as a Baptist church. Like many another minister of the time, Merrill was elected to political office and was a member of the Massachusetts legislature in the winter

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

of 1812-13, when, after repeated defeats, the petitioners finally persuaded the General Court to grant them a charter.

Benjamin Titcomb, who in 1810 was pastor of the Baptist church at Bruns- wick, had the distinction of being one of the partners who established the first newspaper in Maine, the Falmouth Gazette, first published in 1794.7 He was a man of sound education and broad culture, who shared unreservedly Caleb Blood's convictions concerning an educated clergy. The fifth man had already shown himself a crusader for education. Called to Hebron by that town's early settler, Deacon William Barrows, to help him found a Baptist church in the new com- munity, Elder John Tripp became not only the first pastor of the Hebron church, but also, with Deacon Barrows, a co-founder of Hebron Academy, which had received its charter in 1804, six years before Tripp became a member of the committee appointed by the Bowdoinham Association.

The committee of five proposed, and the association approved, solicitation of funds to promote the contemplated institution, but there is no evidence that any substantial sum was forthcoming, or indeed that any intensive canvass was made. A more important action was the decision to solicit the cooperation of the Lincoln Association. When the Bowdoinham Association met at Readfield in September, 1811, they had received intimations of support from the two neigh- boring associations. A year earlier they had set up a committee merely "to take into consideration petitioning the General Court." Now they decided to act, and a committee was appointed "to petition the General Court, with such as may join them from the Lincoln and Cumberland Associations."8 The latter was in- cluded because in 1810, the Baptists had formed a third association in Maine, called the Cumberland Association.

If any one man deserves to be called the father of Colby College, that man is the Reverend Daniel Merrill of Sedgwick. It was he who presented to the Massachusetts legislature the first petition, on January 20, 1812. The full text of that petition will be found in the Appendix of this history (Appendix A). The petitioners made a point of the familiar New England protest against taxa- tion without representation. The legislature, they said, had been generous with grants of public lands to institutions under Congregationalist control. Yet the Baptists had inevitably shared in that giving, since the lands belonged to all the people regardless of religious affiliation. The legislature ought to treat Baptists in the same way it treated Congregationalists. The petitioners next called atten- tion to the rapid growth of Baptist churches in Maine. Finally, they asked that a seminary be founded in which "our religious young men might be educated under the particular inspection of able men of the same sentiments."

There is no question that the petitioners originally intended a strictly Bap- tist institution. As at first written, the 1812 petition said: "Your petitioners fur- ther pray that your honorable body will cause the overseers and trustees of the proposed seminary to be appointed from among the ministers and churches of their own denomination." Before the petition reached the legislature, that re- strictive clause had been stricken out. With eager ears attentive to talk in the State House corridors, Daniel Merrill had evidently come to the conclusion that such restriction stood no chance of legislative approval, and he persuaded his fellow petitioners not to ask for it.

What sort of institution did the petitioners intend? The text of the petition itself would make it appear that they were interested only in a theological semi- nary. But the earliest mention-that in the records of the Bowdoinham Asso- ciation in 1810-had used the words "for the purpose of promoting literary and

THE BEGINNING

theological knowledge." Charles P. Chipman, who was librarian of the college from 1911 to 1923, investigated this matter thoroughly and published his find- ings in a monograph, The Formative Period of Colby College. Chipman points out that Dr. Henry S. Burrage, in his History of the Baptists in Maine,? and President James T. Champlin, in his address on the occasion of the fiftieth anni- versary of the College,10 both took the stand that the purpose of the founders was to establish a theological school and that the establishment of a college later was an afterthought. But Chipman did not agree. "These views I believe to be en- tirely mistaken, and due either to ignorance of the original documents still on file in the State Archives of Massachusetts, or to hasty conclusions drawn from an incomplete examination of those documents. The founders intended from the beginning to establish an institution of collegiate rank in which both literary and theological instruction should be given."11 Concluding his argument, Chipman says, "It is noteworthy that in the legislative records the purpose of the proposed institution is invariably given as the promoting of 'literary and theological knowl- edge.' If the idea was simply the establishment of a theological school, why should the word 'literary' be mentioned in every case?"12

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The history of Colby College, Part 1

Author: Colby College Publication date: 1963 Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press Number of Pages: 716

Author: Colby College
Publication date: 1963
Publisher: Waterville, Colby College Press
Number of Pages: 716