The history of Colby College, Part 13

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

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The very year when Babcock resigned, 1836, the Treasurer revealed in his report some of the reasons why the financial situation was so bad. One source of trouble was the persistent failure to collect student bills. The Treasurer said that at least $2500 was due on those term bills, but he could only estimate the amount, because the records handed over to him by his predecessor did not show how much was due from earlier years. The superintendent of the workshop had done well to sell articles valued at more than $2000, but he had not done so well in letting the goods go on credit, with the result that four-fifths of the total sales, $1685, was still due. A third difficulty concerned the use of agents. The Treasurer said, "Much of the business of the college having been done through agents at a distance, whose reports have not been received, accuracy is impossible in many of these statements. If all the information were at hand, the result might vary one way or the other, by as much as a thousand dollars."

So disturbing was the situation into which President Pattison came, in 1836, that it would have taken the heroic measures of another Babcock to keep the head of that "frog in the well" above water. Instead, the state of the exchequer grew steadily worse. As Whittemore puts it, "Something more was necessary to the success of the College than strong leadership, brilliant teaching, and an en- thusiastic student body. .. President Pattison saw clearly that the College could not go on unless radical measures should procure relief. Pattison and some of the professors therefore resigned. It seemed inevitable that instruction would

A PROFESSOR TO THE RESCUE

cease and the student body be scattered."1 At their annual meeting in August 1839, the Trustees accepted Pattison's resignation.

It is well to note what was happening to the college enrollment during those years. Under Chaplin, the largest number in the college proper, as distinct from the theological course, had been 81 in the very last year of his administration, 1832-33. Under Babcock, a boom started. The fall of 1833 saw entrance of the largest freshman class up to that time, numbering 34 men. Freshmen and sophomores, in fact, accounted for two-thirds of all the students, for there were only seventeen seniors and fourteen juniors. The whole enrollment was 94.

In 1836, enrollment was increased by the introduction of a "partial course." That was the designation of those students whom later generations were to call "specials"-students who wanted to study one or more subjects for a single year without any intention of working for a degree. Without those "partials," there were 96 regular students, very evenly divided among the four classes. Sixteen men in "partial course" brought the total to 112. But there was one danger signal. Instead of 34 freshmen, as in the previous year, the new men numbered only 25.

By the summer of 1837, heavy attrition had taken severe toll. Of the 23 juniors in the previous year only thirteen showed up as seniors. "Partial" stu- dents had dropped from sixteen to four. In spite of slight increases among fresh- men and sophomores, the total enrollment had decreased by 18 per cent to 91 students. When, at the end of the college year of 1838-39, the total fell to 75, President Pattison saw the situation as hopeless. In that year there were only nineteen seniors, sixteen juniors, sixteen sophomores, twenty-two freshmen, and two "partials."

To make matters worse, all hope of continuing President Babcock's theo- logical school had been frustrated by the founding of a new Baptist theological seminary at Thomaston, Maine. Adding insult to injury, the promoters of the new school had persuaded Calvin Newton to leave his post as Professor of Rhetoric and the Hebrew Language at Waterville College and go to Thomaston as Pro- fessor of Hebrew and Theology. Most ironical of all was the abortive nature of the Thomaston enterprise. It lasted only three years, never enjoying ade- quate financial support. The Baptist historian, Burrage, wrote, "It had but one large-hearted friend, and he lost hope."? Whittemore, who at the time when he wrote the first Colby history was an executive secretary of the Maine Baptists, knew his denomination only too well. He wrote, "The Baptist problem was not to multiply ministers partially trained and with a smattering of theology. It was to secure men, thoroughly prepared for the intellectual, religious and social leadership in their communities-men who should be qualified to treat the vital questions that arose in a vital way, and in this work Waterville College was quietly performing a leading part. It was furnishing more and better minis- ters than any distinctly theological school, either at Waterville or at Thomaston could have done."3

Into that crisis of mounting debt, decreasing enrollment and dubious sup- port there came to the rescue, not a new president, not a leading trustee, but a humble member of the college faculty. He was George Washington Keely, Pro- fessor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, who persuaded his two remain- ing colleagues to stay with him on the sinking ship, rather than abandon the wreck, as had President Pattison and Professor Newton. One of those men was probably not difficult to persuade, because Samuel Francis Smith, already famous as the author of "America," was principally pastor of the Waterville Baptist

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

Church and only secondarily a part-time professor of Modern Languages at Waterville College. But young Justin Loomis, the professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy was taking a big risk in electing to stay on with Keely. If he were going to get a more secure teaching post, now was the time to seek it. But the heroic decision was made by George Keely himself. He had been of- fered a position in another college at nearly double his Waterville salary. He knew intimately the sad state of the college finances and personally felt the sting, because the college owed him more than a year's salary.

A hundred years later Franklin W. Johnson, the "Father of Mayflower Hill," was to call the moving of the College a "venture of faith." It was indeed such a venture, but not the first in the history of the College. When George Wash- ington Keely, in 1839, persuaded the Trustees not to close the college doors, and when he assumed almost single-handed the responsibility for keeping the sheriff off the threshold, he too was embarking upon a tremendous venture of faith.

Keely's bold plan was to raise, right in Waterville, enough money to keep the College going until a wider financial campaign could bring permanent re- sults. Officially the Trustees took no action at all until a year after Pattison's resignation, and then their action was merely to ask Professor Keely to preside at the 1840 commencement. It is to their credit that they did not close the Col- lege. Tacitly at least, they let Keely go ahead with his seemingly fantastic plan. This does not mean that individual trustees were inactive, although as a cor- porate body they had little hope of survival. Since the day when he and Na- thaniel Gilman had taken personal responsibility for payment of the local sub- scriptions to bring the college to Waterville, Timothy Boutelle had been a con- stant and faithful contributor and a hard worker on the Prudential Committee. In the 1839 emergency Boutelle again showed his devotion to the College by at once pledging a thousand dollars toward Keely's goal of a fund of $10,000 from Waterville subscribers. Nathaniel Gilman, though now spending more time in New York, still held residence in Waterville. His subscription again matched Boutelle's. James Stackpole, Jr., the college treasurer, helped in the solicitation. But, since Keely's plan was a local matter, the other trustees stood aside, wait- ing to see what would happen. Nevertheless they were ready to help when the proper time should come-those prominent citizens like William King and Nathan Weston, Japheth Washburn and Adam Wilson, Eleazer Coburn and Governor Edward Kent.

Ten thousand dollars was a lot of money to raise in Waterville in 1839, when the population of the town was only 2900. That meant an average of four and a half dollars for every man, woman and child in the community. To the amazement of everyone, perhaps even of himself, this mathematician and natural philosopher, this man of books and the ivory tower, succeeded. The ten thousand dollars fund was raised, but as was so often to be the case with later subscriptions, there was a string attached. The people of Waterville pledged twenty thousand dollars on condition that the College raise a total of fifty thousand. We may be sure that the provision was all a part of Keely's plan. He was wise enough to see that, while a locally raised fund could be made a stimulus for a wider campaign, making that fund depend upon the success of a broader effort might better assure the success of both; and only by a general campaign could the College secure any permanent endowment.

When the Trustees convened in annual session on August 11, 1840, they did not elect a new president, and a minute in the old records tells us why. "Resolved, that it is not expedient to elect a President of the College at this

A PROFESSOR TO THE RESCUE

meeting, because until the college is relieved from the pecuniary embarrassments and its finances are in the prosperous condition which we think they will attain in a few months, we cannot offer those conclusive and satisfactory assurances of permanent support which we desire to present to candidates suitably qualified for the responsible position. We consider it important to place the officers of the College on a ground of reasonable certainty in respect to prompt payment of their balances and continuance of the existence of the College."

That last sentence showed that the Trustees were a bit ashamed because so much back salary was owed to Keely and Loomis and Smith, as well as a substantial amount to the departed Pattison. What the record does not state is the astounding devotion and sacrifice of those three professors who remained at the College, for every one of them pledged half a year's salary to Keely's new fund.

Seven months earlier, at a special meeting held in January, 1840, the Trus- tees, confident that the energetic Professor meant business, approved a general financial campaign, by the following vote: "Whereas the circumstances of Wa- terville College are such that pecuniary aid is imperatively demanded, and whereas the citizens of Waterville have with great liberality subscribed more than $10,000 on condition that $50,000 be secured by December 31, 1840, it is therefore voted that the Prudential Committee be requested to take measures to raise the sum of $50,000 by the time aforesaid and that an agent be employed for that pur- pose."

At their August meeting the Board made definite plans for the use of the eagerly sought fifty thousand dollars. First, the debts were to be paid, including back salaries due to the faculty. A substantial sum must go to increase the library and the philosophical apparatus. Regrettably the Board did not vote to set aside, as an income-producing fund, any specified portion of the money, but simply voted that the Prudential Committee should loan on mortgage of real estate "such portion of the fund as may from time to time be in the treasury."

Stephen Stark was appointed fund agent, and at the annual meeting in 1841 he was able to report substantial success. He and his associate agent, Charles Drinkwater, had collected a total of $36,672. Stark had sought subscriptions in thirty Maine towns from Berwick to Ellsworth, while Drinkwater had thoroughly combed the area of Central Maine. Stark concluded his report with a cautious statement: "From what has been done you will be able to judge the prospect of success. I have been almost afraid to say that the prospect is encouraging lest it should diminish the zeal of some who would think the crisis is over. But it is plain that enlightened friends will see that the work is not done until it is truly finished."

To secure the remaining $14,000, the professors themselves took to the field during the long winter vacation of 1842. Their strenuous efforts were finally successful. Subscriptions totaling more than $52,000 were at last secured. From the financial records it is difficult to tell how much of the subscribed amount was finally paid, because during the years of payment new donations were mingled indiscriminately with the subscription receipts. We may be sure, however, that the money received was substantial, for the campaign did save the college from any similar crisis until the trying days of the Civil War.

The success was all the more remarkable in light of conditions of the times. The whole country was in the depth of depression. The closing of the Bank of the United States by the Jackson administration, the scarcity of coined money, the sharp depreciation of paper currency, the low price of farm products when

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

the farmer could sell them at all, made the period from 1839 to 1842 a very poor time to raise money for any philanthropic project. Besides the national depres- sion, another blow had struck the economy of Maine-the extra taxation neces- sary to send the state militia to the northeast boundary in the fiasco known as the Aroostook War. That war, called derisively "Governor Fairfield's Farce," came in the very year of President Pattison's resignation.

The achievement of Professor Keely in saving Waterville College from an ignominious end was indeed remarkable. It is time for us now to take a closer look at the man himself. George Washington Keely had come to the college as Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and he was the only mem- ber of the faculty who retained his title unchanged for more than a quarter of a century. At Waterville, as in most other colleges of the period, it seems to have been almost a game to change professorial titles every few years.

Born in England in 1803, Keely had come to the United States in 1818 and had graduated valedictorian of his class at Brown in 1824. His father, though an Englishman, was a great admirer of the American Revolutionary gen- eral, for whom he named his son George Washington Keely.

Professor Keely at once became popular with the students, and when the Fourth of July crisis arose in 1833, he sought to mediate the difficulty between President Chaplin and the student body, especially the aggrieved members of the United Brethren. He stood loyally by the President right up to the day of the latter's resignation. Both he and Professor Newton signed the faculty's unanimous statement supporting the President's explanatory address in chapel, following the students' protests at his earlier remarks. Keely felt strongly, how- ever, that Chaplin should make some apology for the epithets he had used on the earlier occasion and especially his vitriolic comments about those pious young men who made up the society of the United Brethren. Keely therefore refused to present his own resignation along with President Chaplin's and those of the President's son and son-in-law, and he persuaded Professor Newton to remain at the College with him.

So thoroughly was Keely in command of the situation that the Trustees had appointed him to preside and confer diplomas at the commencement exercises in 1833, when Chaplin refused even to march in the procession. There is evi- dence that he could have received unanimous election as Chaplin's successor, but he would not accept the position. He preferred to be simply a teacher and a loyal supporter of whatever man the Trustees should select to preside over the College.

Although primarily a mathematician, George Keely was interested in all phases of the broad subject then known as natural philosophy, which included what later became the distinctive science of physics. In a letter written in 1861 to a relative who had just been appointed to the University of New Brunswick,4 Keely mentions the common interest in flowers he had enjoyed with the corre- spondent's father. He tells of a visit he had just been paid by the Scotch geolo- gist, Alexander Richardson, who had heard of Keely through the eminent paleon- tologist, Sir William Logan. Richardson asked Keely to help him collect fos- sils in the metamorphic rocks of Central Maine. Keely wrote, "If you go into practical geology, I could make you known to Sir William, though I suppose your friends in Cambridge would have more influence than I." His interest in another science was shown by his inquiry in the same letter, "If it is not too much trouble, I should be glad to learn of you or some of your chemical friends, what publi- cation contains Liebig's method of electric plating as applied to glass. Suppose,

DELD FOR ORIGINAL COLLEGE LOT

Know all Men by these Presents, That I

ROBERT HALLOWELL GARDINER, of Gardiner, in the County of Kennebec, Esquire, in Consideration of Jeverden hundred to Hornety deven Dollars, IT Til. Theological Institution

Cents, paid by the President i) Corporation of the

the Receipt whereof I do hereby acknowledge, do hereby give, grant, sell and convey unto the said President of Corporation their Sonefter vody a certain tract of Land, situate in Waterville ini said fanaty having Lot No. C. , Bounded Easterly to Konnebeck Never. Westerly by five Mile & a holy. Around In Northroky la gat 22. Elevene of stuntherby any Lot /

no nome Containing about one hundred of security nimi arrest, Para fourth of an deve - excepting as Dado through The same bung part of futtern mate . Mi

as delineated upon the Plan - division made for the hours of Sory amin Hallowell . Solomon Adamet Lemuel Pelham Eiges 4 dates reference thereto being had for a more particular description.

to Have and to Hold the afore-granted Premises to the said Presidency S6 Monaten Their Successors and Assigns, to the se and Behoof forever. AND I do covenant with the said President & Corporation Their Successord 4- Hs and Assigns, That the afore-granted Premises are free of all Incumbrances by me made ; That I have good Right to sell and convey the same to the said (President)+ corporation

AND that I will warrant and defend the same Premises to the said President, & Corporation Huis and Assigns, forever, against the lawful Claims and Demands of all Persons. Excepting however, from my said covenants of warranty, any claim, or title, commencing by disseisin, or by virtue of a possession and improve- ment, or from sales for non-payment of taxes.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I the said ROBERT HALLOWELL GARDINER, and I EMMA JANE, wife of the said ROBERT, in token of my relinquishment of my right of Dow- er in the Premises, have hereunto set our Hands and Seals, this Frent Zen. Day of in the Year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and

Signed, Sealed and delivered. in presence of us, David app; Carnes fr Patinsow

1 1

KENNEBEC, SS. Agenst 181 ₫ Then the above-named ROBERT HALLOWELL GARDINER acknowledged the above Instrument to be his free Act and Decd-before me.

Edward Función Justice of Peace.

The sloop Hero

Reputed portrait of Jeremiah Chaplin

Campus in 1830s

COLBY'S MISSIONARIES

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Calvin Helpen, Clarke.

SYRIA

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Dudie Wahofer, 73.

Planver C. Marin. 1802

JAPAN

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Doris Roberts Getcs. '20.

Meleg Ham Fartus,

PRESENTED BY THE CLASS OF 1922

Missionary Tablet

Colby Flag

LECI

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DIS

----

Paul Revere Bell

SPAIN

Abner Coburn George D. B. Pepper

James T. Champlin Gardner Colby

Albion W. Small

John B. Foster

Charles Hamlin

Samuel Osborne

Leslie C. Cornish

Arthur J. Roberts

Julian D. Taylor

Anton Marquardt

Hill Haft

President's house Coburn Hall

Memorial Hall Class of 1902 Gate

LOVEJOY BUILDING

GIFT OF ALUMNI, FRIENDS AND NEWSPAPERS IN HONOR OF AMERICA'S FIRST MARTYR TO FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

ELIJAH PARISH LOVEJOY COLBY 1826 COURAGEOUS EDITOR BORN IN ALBION, MAINE NOVEMBER 9. 1802 DIED IN ALTON, ILLINOIS NOVEMBER 7, 1837

"I cannot surrender my principles though the whole world besides should vote them down. I can make no compromise between truth and error, even though my life be the alternative."

Plaque on Lovejoy Building

Alton riot and (inset) portrait of Lovejoy

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ELIVAI ERLERE LOVEJOY

OFTHE

Hearthstone from the Lovejoy birthplace at Albion, Maine

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for instance, I wish to coat a piece of plain glass with silver. Perhaps you could give me his process."

At their meeting in January, 1840, the Trustees named Keely as a member of the three-man Prudential Committee. The following August he was invited to attend the annual meeting of the Board. Still he was not named Acting President; he was simply asked to preside at commencement. But at the follow- ing meeting a vote was passed that "Professor Keely be requested to perform the duties of President of the College until a President be elected." That vote made him virtually Acting President.

It was Professor Keely who took the lead in seeking a new president, just as he led in raising funds. This is shown, for instance, by a minute in the records for August 10, 1841: "Voted that Professor Keely be requested to give infor- mation to the Board concerning the correspondence which had been had by him with reference to a candidate for the presidency of the College."

In the previous winter, Keely had gone to Boston to interview prospective candidates for the presidency and for the vacant professorship of languages. While there he received a letter which taxed both his judgment and his incom- parable tact. The letter came from Edwin Noyes, who had already served as tutor at Waterville College from 1837 to 1839. After expressing the hope that Keely was progressing well in his search for a president, Noyes continued: "As to the professor of languages, I am sorry you had not a further talk with Mr. Boutelle, as nothing but my relation with him prevents my accepting the office with great pleasure. Not wishing to frustrate any plans you may now have for filling the office, I am almost convinced I shall accept."

In short Noyes was saying, "Don't hurry about the professorship. Wait for me, and I'll probably take it." Why did that suggestion present any problem to Professor Keely? It was because he already had made overtures to another man, and with that rare insight with which he was gifted, Keely felt that James Tift Champlin was the person to fill the professorship of languages. Keely saw in Champlin a man who would bring strength and prestige to the faculty. But Noyes must be handled tactfully. In the situation was an involved family rela- tionship. Noyes had married the daughter of Timothy Boutelle, and Boutelle's son, Dr. Nathaniel Boutelle, had married the daughter of George W. Keely. Many persons would be offended if Keely now snubbed Noyes. It is a tribute to his statesmanship that he persuaded Noyes to step aside, take an interest in the railroads that were just entering Maine, and caused Noyes himself to become an ardent supporter of Professor Champlin.

That Keely was regarded as an expert in mathematics is shown by a letter which he received as early as 1832 from Frederick Emerson of Boston. Emerson wrote:

I take the liberty to forward, with this letter, a copy of the North American Arithmetic. Having devoted an amount of labor to this work seldom bestowed upon an equal number of pages, I am desirous that its reputation should be determined by those on whom the public can rely. It is with this view that I request your examination, and if you have no objection to granting a short note expressive of your opinion of the books, you will confer a favor by directing the same either to the publishers or to the author by mail.

It was 1832 also that Keely received a letter from Amos Eaton, author of popular texts in the sciences. Eaton assured Keely that his Geology was already

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

in print, and that both his Botany and his Chemistry would be ready in March. Eaton boasted that no other book on chemistry described experiments embracing every known principle, yet all capable of being performed at an expense under fifty dollars for both apparatus and chemicals.

Keely had apparently asked Eaton about books that should be in the college library, for Eaton recommended Bigelow's Florenda Bostonentis and Darlington's Westchester County Botany as the best local floras in America. He said Nut- tall's Genera of North America was a good book, but it criticized only ques- tionable species. He said, "If you want one of the best general treatises in the world for twenty-four dollars, get the London Encyclopedia of Plants, an octavo volume of 1159 pages, published in 1829."

In geology Eaton recommended Cuvier's Theory of the Earth; in chemistry he called Silliman's the best work on the subject, but he regarded Beck's Manual of Chemistry as "a good reading book of the small kind." It was the Frenchman, Cuvier, the man whose writings were greatly to influence Darwin a quarter of a century later, that Eaton recommended in zoology. "By all means get Cuvier's Animal Kingdom," he advised Keely.

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The history of Colby College, Part 13

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