USA > Maine > History of the Baptists in Maine > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42
In 1827, Professor Briggs was transferred to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy. In the further development of the work of instruction, Rev. Calvin New- ton of Bellingham, Mass., a graduate of Union College and Newton Theological Institution, was added to the teaching force of the college in 1832 as professor of rhet- oric and the Hebrew language. In the same year Mr. John O'B. Chaplin, a son of the president, and a grad- uate of the college in the class of 1825, who had charge of the Latin School from 1826 to 1828, was elected pro- fessor of Latin and English in the college.
These appointments indicate growth, but the growth was slow. Theological features in the course of instruction were retained, as is seen in the appointment of Professor Newton as professor of Hebrew. President Chaplin, in addition to his other duties, was made professor of theol- ogy in July, 1829, and retained this title until July, 1832. A medical department of the college was organized, and in 1830-1832, the degree of Doctor of Medicine was conferred upon fifty-five students. By an arrangement with the Clinical School of Medicine at Woodstock, Vt., students
207
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
from Waterville College completed their studies in that institution ; but evidently the arrangement did not prove satisfactory and the medical department of the college was discontinued.
An attempt was also made to organize in the college a department of manual labor. At the annual meeting of the trustees in August, 1827, the following action was taken: "That it is expedient to have a convenient mechanic's shop erected on the college lot, at which such students as are disposed may employ themselves a small portion of the day in such work as may yield them some profit." The prudential committee was charged with the duty of carrying this vote into execution. Rev. Daniel Merrill of Sedgwick, who was deeply interested in this new movement, was made an agent to collect funds for the erection of the proposed shop. He was successful in securing the needed funds, and the shop was erected in 1830, for the most part by the students of the college ; and work in the manual labor department of the college was commenced in 1831, under the superintendence of Mr. D. N. B. Coffin. Subsequently two other shops, and two storehouses for lumber, were erected, chiefly by student labor. Students were allowed so much an hour for their work, and were employed in the manufacture of doors, blinds, sashes, bedsteads, tables, chairs, carriages, boxes, and also in printing.
The result is stated by Dr. Champlin in these words : "As a financial operation, one may readily guess the result. The shops steadily ran the college in debt, till they absorbed not only the collections made by Mr. Mer- rill, but several thousand dollars besides."1 For a decade and a little more, the experiment was continued and then abandoned.
Evidently from the first some of the friends of the college had not regarded President Chaplin as possessing qualifications for the most successful administration of its
1 Dr. Champlin's Historical Discourse delivered at the Fiftieth Anniversary of Colby University, p. 10.
M
208
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
affairs. This appears in the selection of Mr. Barnes for the presidency when the Maine Literary and Theological Institution became Waterville College. The trustees evi- dently felt that in the building of the new institution, which was to be literary rather than theological, a differ- ent man was needed. It was a difficult task, it was seen, that awaited anyone, even the man best equipped for the position. But when Mr. Barnes declined to accept the presidency and there was no other candidate in view, Dr. Chaplin happily stood ready to continue the work he had so heroically begun. Dr. Champlin, referring to Presi- dent Chaplin, has well said :
"The work before him was great and arduous, for which, however, by his talents, his attainments, and above all, by his steadiness of purpose he was admirably fitted. To start a college in a new state, such as Maine was then, and especially a college without an endowment, as this was, is no slight task. Few are aware of the self-denial, the patience and the persistence required in such a case in order to sustain a college during its novi- tiate. These qualities seem to have been possessed in an eminent degree by Dr. Chaplin. With a singular indiffer- ence to everything like ease or worldly aggrandizement, he pursued his purpose with a calm persistence which never faltered nor flagged amidst the most formidable difficulties. During all the thirteen years of his connec- tion with the college, it was the subject of his labors and his prayers by night and by day, in term time and in vaca- tion. How often do we find on the records of the trustees votes like the following : 'Voted that the president be an agent for procuring funds for the college during the ensu- ing vacation.' And in obedience to such votes he went forth into all parts of this and the neighboring states, awakening an interest, and gathering up contributions and students for the college."
But here was not to be his life work. Dr. Chaplin resigned the presidency of the college in the summer of 1833. His lack of tact in dealing with students seems
209
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
to have been the immediate cause of bringing about this action. On the Fourth of July the students organized an anti-slavery society and celebrated the event in the even- ing on the college grounds. There was much cheering in connection with the celebration, and such exuberance of spirits as young men are wont to exhibit on such an occa- sion. This was displeasing to President Chaplin, and he severely reprimanded the students not once but twice. The students were indignant, and insisted that the presi- dent had done them a wrong. Unable to bring the stu- dents to submission, the president caused a meeting of the trustees to be called. As a result of this meeting the resignations of President Chaplin, Professor Conant1 and Professor Chaplin were received and accepted. "I have long regretted," said the late Rev. James Upham, D. D., writing late in life,2 but a student in the college at the time of the trouble, "that some wise friend, outside of the college, could not have interposed and laid his hands on both parties, so making peace. It is a pity that the stu- dents, justly incensed as they were, could not have real- ized that, in smiting the venerable president, they were smiting their own father-the father at least of the col- lege, the one man without whom the college would have had no existence; who had begotten it ; cherished it and brought it up through the perils of childhood and youth with such toils, self-sacrifices and heartaches as are beyond the possibilities of the present generation ade- quately even to conceive; that they were striking down one of the most godly men of the age, who walked with
1 Professor Conant was a graduate of Middlebury College, Vt., in 1823. After a post- graduate course of two years, he was a tutor in Columbian College, Washington, D. C., 1825-27. He then came to Waterville as professor of the Latin, Greek, and German lan- guages. He was afterward from 1835 to 1851 professor of languages and biblical litera- ture in Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution (now Colgate University), and from 1851 to 1857 professor of the Hebrew language and biblical exegesis in Rochester Theological Seminary. In 1857 he resigned his professorship in order to devote himself to Bible revision. He was for many years in the service of the American Bible Union, and was also a member of the American Old Testament Revision Committee. His rank among American scholars was very high.
2 A communication in Zion's Advocate in 1883 or 1884.
15
210
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
God as closely as did Isaiah or Enoch; one who was as humble as he was great, and habitually suffered from a conviction of unfitness for the work, from which work he had fearfully shrunk at first, and which he accepted only through the greater fear of displeasing God ; one who was eminent in scholarly worth, and must ever occupy a high place in the roll of distinguished educators and college founders. It is to our shame that we struck him."
The memory of the heroic, self-sacrificing labors of Dr. Chaplin remained. As the years went by there was a growing appreciation of his services, and at the annual meeting of the trustees in August, 1841, resolutions were adopted "in grateful remembrance of the able, untiring and successful labors of the late President Chaplin," and a committee was appointed to devise some monumental memorial of Dr. Chaplin 1 at Waterville." A marble tab- let, on which was inscribed an appropriate inscription in Latin, was prepared. For many years it occupied a place on the wall in the rear of the president's desk in the old chapel, and when Memorial Hall was erected this tablet was transferred to the western wall of the new chapel, where it still remains.
Dr. Chaplin was succeeded in the presidency in Septem- ber, 1833, by Rev. Rufus Babcock, Jr., a graduate of Brown University, class of 1821. He had been a tutor in Columbian College, also pastor of the Baptist church in Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and at the time of his election as president he was pastor of the Baptist church in Salem, Mass. He was thirty-five years of age, possessed attrac- tive public address and was believed to have many excel- lent qualifications for the presidency.
1 Dr. Chaplin, after leaving Waterville, was pastor at Rowley, Mass., and at Willing- ton, Conn. His last years were spent at Hamilton, N. Y., where he died May 7, 1841. Hon. James Brooks, editor of the New York Evening Express, who was a student at Waterville College during the presidency of Dr. Chaplin, said of him: "His discourses were as clear, as cogent, as irresistibly convincing as problems in Euclid. He indulged in little or no ornament, but pursued one train of thought without deviation to the end. I attribute to him more than to anyone else the fixture in my own mind of religious truths, which no subsequent reading has ever been able to shake, and which have princi- pally influenced my pen in treating of all political, legal or moral subjects, the basis of which was in the principles of the Bible."
211
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
President Babcock directed his attention at once to the financial needs of the college. The institution was in debt to the amount of $18,000. It had no means to meet more than three-fifths of its current expenses, and its credi- tors were becoming uneasy.1 In his inaugural address, Dr. Babcock exhibited a clear understanding of the condi- tion of the college, and suggested measures for improving its financial resources and increasing its influence. With energy and enthusiasm he addressed himself to the task upon which he had entered, and in 1834, the year follow- ing his inauguration as president, the indebtedness of the college had been removed, and for the first time in its his- tory the college catalogue showed an enrollment of over one hundred students.
In 1836, the trustees authorized the erection of a build- ing midway between the two dormitories to be used as a chapel and for recitation-room purposes. The archi- tect was Thomas U. Walter, a prominent Baptist in Phila- delphia, and afterward the architect of the capitol at Washington as rebuilt in accordance with plans which he submitted in 1851. The recitation rooms were in the basement, above was the chapel, and above the chapel were the library and a room for the philosophical appa- ratus, also used as a recitation room. A tower, afterward somewhat reduced in size, crowned the structure. The estimated value of the college property was now $50,000.
An important need of the college at this time was a larger and better library, and Rev. John O. Choules, pas- tor of the Baptist church in New Bedford, Mass., was made an agent of the college for the purpose of enlarg- ing the library. Dr. Choules was a native of Bristol, England, and was about to visit his old home. While in England, he obtained from the British government and private individuals about fifteen hundred valuable books, which at once found their way to Waterville, and greatly increased the efficiency of the library.
1 History of the Higher Education in Maine, by Edward W. Hall, LL. D., Librarian of Colby College, p. 110. I am indebted to this admirable history for much valuable infor- mation concerning the college at Waterville.
212
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
President Babcock was not long in discovering the growing opposition to the college in Baptist circles in Maine on account of the elimination of the theological features of the institution as originally organized, and he sought to remove the opposition by making provision in the college for theological instruction. He called atten- tion to the fact that a theological class was at that time pursuing theological studies in the college, the course as arranged being limited to a single year. It was evidently the hope of Dr. Babcock and the friends of Waterville College that this provision for theological instruction at Waterville would bring harmony into the divided ranks of the denomination, and win back to the support of the col- lege those who had been aggrieved on account of the change by which the theological features of the institution had early disappeared. But this hope was not realized.
Nor were Dr. Babcock's labors in behalf of the college long continued. A severe pulmonary attack, in the early part of 1836, had admonished him that he must seek a milder climate for residence and his resignation followed July 18th.1 To the trustees this was a great disappoint- ment, but they addressed themselves at once to the task of finding a worthy successor.
Such a successor was found in Rev. Robert E. Pattison, a graduate of Amherst College, and pastor of the First Bap- tist church in Providence, R. I., who had served the college at Waterville as professor of mathematics in 1828-9. He was thirty-six years of age, possessed strong intellectual gifts, teaching ability, and was very impressive in pub- lic address. Rev. Dr. Joseph Ricker, who was a student in the college from 1835 to 1839, says2 that President Pat- tison's administration "marked the palmiest period in the history of the college under its original name." In the matter of cash endowment it was bankrupt, but in spirit
1 Dr. Babcock became pastor of the Spring St. Baptist church in Philadelphia, subse- quently was pastor in New Bedford, Mass., Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and Paterson, N. J., and died in Salem, Mass., May 4, 1875, while on a visit among his old parishioners.
2 Personal Recollections, p. 93.
213
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
it was rich. "The half has not been told," adds Dr. Ricker, "when it is said that its president's executive abilities were of a high order. He was a royal teacher as well. His power to inspire his pupils was of a rare quality. His relations to such of them as had worthy aims, and were doing their best to realize them, were very close. They were not so much those of the master as of the father and brother." In the college at that time were such students as Martin B. Anderson, Oakman S. Stearns, Samuel L. Caldwell ; indeed at no period of its history has there been a more brilliant student body at Waterville than at that time. The class graduated in 1839 numbered eighteen, and was the largest class the college had thus far graduated.
But the financial affairs of the college were in a sad con- dition. June 12, 1839, a conference of the friends of the institution was held at Hallowell, and a movement was organized for the relief of the college; but the move- ment was not successful, and President Pattison resigned in December, "impelled thereto," says Dr. Ricker, "by the desperate financial straits to which the college was reduced, and also by the hope that a step so extreme would prove a bugle call to the denomination to hasten to the rescue." It was a dark day for the college. The country had passed through a financial crisis of great severity, and the money resources of the Baptists of Maine had been greatly crippled. So well-nigh hopeless were the conditions that it was virtually decided to close the college indefinitely.1 Most of the professors tendered their resig- nations. Prof. George W. Keeley, one of the strongest men of the many strong men who have served the college on its board of instruction, urged his associates to remain until one more effort could be made to save the college. They remained, and the decision to suspend was revoked. The faculty and the friends of the college in Waterville subscribed $10,000. The Baptists throughout the State and beyond responded to the calls which were made in the
1 Dr. Ricker's Personal Recollections, p. 302.
214
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
columns of Zion's Advocate from week to week, and Dec. 11, 1840, the glad announcement was made that $50,000 had been subscribed for the relief of Waterville College. That was a great day in the history of the educational interests of the Baptists of Maine.
A successor to President Pattison was now to be found. At the meeting of the trustees in connection with the com- mencement in August, 1841, Mr. Eliphaz Fay, a classmate of President Babcock at Brown University, was elected president of the college. A lawyer by profession, he was at that time principal of Dutchess Academy, Poughkeep- sie, N. Y., and it was believed that he possessed high qualifications for the presidency. Evidently in this there was disappointment. Dr. E. W. Hall says there is "some ground for believing that the faculty and President Fay did not work harmoniously," and in August, 1843, Mr. Fay presented his resignation, which was accepted, though a petition from a majority of the students in college against its acceptance was presented to the trustees.1
The pastor of the Baptist church in Waterville at that time was Rev. David N. Sheldon, a graduate of Williams College in 1830, and of Newton Theological Institution in 1835. From 1835 to 1839, he was connected with Baptist missionary work in France. From May 16, 1840, to Nov. 5, 1841, he was pastor of the Granville St. Baptist church in Halifax, N. S. Then he came to Waterville. He had been in Waterville a little more than a year when he was called to the presidency of the college. An untir- ing scholar, he had enriched his mind while abroad by acquaintance with the best French and German writers. Already he was in sympathetic relations with the faculty and the students, and with his election as president better days for the college soon returned. Dr. Sheldon remained in the presidency of the college until the summer of 1852. During the latter part of his administration he was not in harmonious relations with the denomination. In 1844, he
1 History of Higher Education in Maine, p. 113. Mr. Fay returned to Poughkeepsie, N. Y., where he died March 19, 1854.
JAMES T. CHAMPLIN, D. D., LL. D.
215
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
preached a sermon before the Maine Baptist Convention at China, which awakened dissent and discussion. Among those who were especially dissatisfied with reference to the doctrinal statements in the sermon was Rev. N. M. Wood, Dr. Sheldon's successor in the pastorate of the Baptist church in Waterville, and Mr. Wood and Dr. Sheldon carried on an extended theological discussion in the columns of Zion's Advocate. In this discussion the divergence of Dr. Sheldon's views1 from those held by Baptists was made to appear, and hastened his resignation as president of the college.2
The trustees now turned again to Dr. Pattison, whose brilliant service for the college from 1836 to 1839 was still well remembered. Dr. Pattison accepted this second appointment and entered upon his duties in the autumn of 1854, but failing health, after three years of splendid ser- vice, compelled him to tender his resignation.8
President Pattison's successor was found in the faculty of the college in the person of the professor of the Greek and Latin languages, Rev. James T. Champlin. A grad- uate of Brown University in 1834, he had served as a tutor in the university, and also from 1838 to 1841 as pastor of the First Baptist church in Portland. He then came to
1 These views, though more clearly divergent, were expressed in a volume subsequently published by Dr. Sheldon, entitled Sin and Redemption. At a meeting of the Maine Bap- tist Convention, held in Rockland June 17, 1856, on motion of Dr. Adam Wilson a commit- tee was appointed "to consider and report whether any, and if any what action should be taken by this body in reference to a volume entitled 'Sin and Redemption,' recently pub- lished by one of its members." This committee consisted of A. Wilson, H. V. Dexter, Isaac Sawyer, Wm. Tilley, J. M. Follett, L. B. Allen, N. Butler and N. M. Wood. The committee reported the following resolution, which after considerable discussion-appar- ently the whole evening was devoted to it-was adopted: "Resolved, That the main doc- trines of the work entitled 'Sin and Redemption' recently published by a member of this body are, in the view of this convention, essentially unscriptural and fatally erroneous."
" Soon after retiring from the presidency of the college, Dr. Sheldon returned to the pastorate, accepting a call to serve the Elm St. Baptist church in Bath. He entered upon his labors there in February, 1853. His position became an increasingly uncom- fortable one and he resigned in 1855. Subsequently he became pastor of the Unitarian church in Bath. In 1862, he returned to Waterville and accepted the pastorate of the Unitarian church in that place. He died in Waterville Oct. 4, 1889.
3 Dr. Pattison was subsequently connected with the Oread Institute at Worcester, Mass., Shurtleff College at Alton, Ill., and the Union Theological Seminary at Chicago. He died in St. Louis, Mo., Nov. 21, 1874.
216
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
Waterville and entered upon what proved to be his life work. When elected president of the college in 1857, he had already won wide recognition as a scholar by his edi- tion of Demosthenes on the Crown and other educational works. The University of Rochester, in 1855, had con- ferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Divin- ity. President Champlin at once addressed himself to the duties of his office. The needs of the college he already clearly understood. In his inaugural address he said : "Entering upon my duties at an important crisis in the history of the institution, I see nothing but labor and responsibility before me." But the prospect ( d not dis- courage him. Indeed, in labor and responsibility he found, as he said, his "chief incitement." And he added: "If Waterville College, in its present state of maturity, and with its acknowledged advantages of situation, etc., does not for the future make reasonable progress, it will be either from the want of proper management here, or for the want of proper co-operation and support among its friends." In the spirit of these words, recognizing fully the obstacles to be overcome, Dr. Champlin entered intelli- gently and vigorously upon his new task.
The college at that time had three buildings very much out of repair, and an invested fund of about $12,000 or $15,000. To increase this fund was a matter of present urgent necessity, and Dr. Champlin, like the business man he was, directed his attention first of all to the financial needs of the college. In 1859, Rev. Horace T. Love was made financial agent of the college. Mr. Love succeeded in obtaining subscriptions to the amount of $25,000, and then relinquished his agency. Dr. Champlin and other members of the faculty continued the work, but their self-denying labors were not crowned with great success. Soon after occurred the Civil War. The stu- dents of the college joined in the great uprising that characterized the beginnings of this great struggle for national life. Among the first to enlist in Waterville were some of the students, and the number of students steadily
r
bib
GARDNER COLBY.
217
HISTORY OF THE BAPTISTS IN MAINE.
diminished as the war was in progress. In 1860 and 1861, the catalogue recorded the names of one hundred and twenty-two students. In the catalogue of 1864, only sixty- two students were enrolled.
In the early part of 1864, Dr. Champlin was in Boston, and in an interview with Rev. Jonah G. Warren, D. D., corresponding secretary of the American Baptist Mission- ary Union, he learned that Mr. Gardner Colby, a wealthy Boston merchant, whose home was in Newton, Mass., some of whose early years were spent in Winslow and Waterville, and whose mother Dr. Chaplin, the first presi- dent of the college, had befriended, was meditating gener- ous purposes with reference to Waterville College. Dr. Champlin at once called on Mr. Colby, made known to him the financial condition of the college, and secured from him the acceptance of an invitation to visit the college at the approaching commencement. Mr. Colby came to Waterville at the time, and on commencement day Presi- dent Champlin received from Mr. Colby a letter dated Waterville, Aug. 10, 1864, in which he announced his pur- pose to give Waterville College $50,000,1 one-half when other subscriptions should amount to $100,000, independ- ent of Mr. Colby's, and the other half when $100,000 had
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.