USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Waterville > The history of Colby College > Part 23
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conference upon any Colby student. The many admirers of Colby's most dis- tinguished baseball player, John Coombs, will be interested to know that he was the first Colby man ever to receive the B. S. degree in course, and his graduating class was that of 1906. Only because Coombs' name preceded theirs in the alphabet, did he receive his diploma ahead of his classmates William Dodge, Rex Dodge, and Karl Kennison, the other B. S. men in the class.
Science did get some recognition in the curriculum, but in 1870 a rigidly pre- scribed course of study was still demanded of all students, every member of the same class taking exactly the same subjects each term. For instance, fresh- men all took in the first term Latin, Greek, Geometry, and Elocution; in the second term Latin, Greek, Algebra, Geometry, and Elocution; in the third term Latin, Greek, and Algebra.
In view of the Trustees' vote concerning the B. S. degree in 1868, it is interesting to note that, at least so far as catalogue designations are concerned, the science offerings in 1870 differed very little from those in 1860. In the year before the Civil War juniors had to take one term of the Mechanics of Solids and one of the Mechanics of Liquids, also one term each of Chemistry, Physiology, Optics, Mineralogy and Geology. The only science for seniors was a single term of astronomy. Altogether the course required seven term courses in the field of science. The only difference ten years later in 1870 was that mechanics had been reduced to a single term, mineralogy was not mentioned, and a term of zoology had been added. Not yet had the label "physics" come into use. The two departments of science which the College boasted in 1870 were called respectively Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and Chemistry and Natural History. The former was in charge of Professor Moses Lyford, while Professor Charles Hamlin handled the latter.
It is well to note that by 1870, the faculty had been increased to eight persons, including the two endowed professorships. President Champlin was Babcock Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, while Hamlin held the Merrill Professorship of Chemistry and Natural History. Besides Champlin, Hamlin and Lyford, the other faculty members were Samuel K. Smith, Professor of Rhetoric and Librarian; John B. Foster, Professor of Greek and Latin; Edward W. Hall, Professor of Modern Languages; and Julian D. Taylor, Tutor of Greek and Latin.
Professor Hall was not kept very busy teaching modern languages. In the first term he taught German to seniors; in the second term French to sophomores and juniors; and in the third term French to sophomores and German to juniors. He was given other duties, sometimes taking a class in Latin or in History, and in 1873 he succeeded Professor Smith as librarian.
There is no question that it was the Gardner Colby gift and the gratifying result of the subscription campaign that enabled the College to make important advancement immediately after the Civil War. It certainly was not increased enrollment. The number of students was 64 in 1867-8, 51 in 1868-9, 52 in 1869-70, 53 in 1870-71, 52 in 1871-72, and 52 in President Champlin's last year, 1872-73. Whatever may be said of Champlin's accomplishment, and it was indeed such as to make him one of Colby's great presidents, it did not lie in the attraction of new students. It was left to his successor, Henry Robins, to triple the enrollment within ten years.
In 1870 the College celebrated its semi-centennial. The question has often been asked why the hundredth anniversary was celebrated in 1920. Some per- sons have ventured the guess that World War I postponed an intended observance
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in 1918, which would have been the centennial year of Jeremiah Chaplin's first holding of classes. But that does not explain why the celebration was not held in 1913, the hundredth anniversary of the original charter. The simple fact is that the centennial year was fixed as 1920 because the fiftieth anniversary had been celebrated in 1870 and the seventy-fifth in 1895. The real question is, therefore, why 1870 was chosen as the date for observance of Colby's first fifty years.
The first mention of a semi-centennial celebration to be found in the trustee records is under the date of August 10, 1869, when Ebenezer Cummings, Joseph Ricker, and James Hanson were appointed a committee to confer with a com- mittee of the alumni, to make preparation for a semi-centennial celebration. At a session of the Board on the following day, the committee reported that the alumni approved, and President Champlin, William Shailer, Dr. Ricker, and Adam Wilson were made a committee to arrange for a semi-annual celebration at commencement in 1870, and they were directed to invite the alumni to co- operate with them.
No word in the official records nor elsewhere gives any clue to the fixing of 1870 as the fiftieth year. It is true that the Civil War had so upset the Col- lege in 1863 that any significant observance of the fiftieth year of the charter would have been hardly feasible at that time. But no such condition interfered in 1868. A significant observance could have been arranged in that year, be- cause exactly fifty years had elapsed since Jeremiah Chaplin arrived in Water- ville and began teaching his seven theological students in the Wood house on the present site of the Elmwood Hotel. To President Champlin and the Trustees, however, there was no doubt that 1870 was the proper year for the semi-centennial. In a printed communication addressed to all alumni of the College on July 1, 1870, and signed by President Champlin and Professor Hamlin, the opening sentence was, "This being the semi-centennial of the College, we are anxious to secure the attendance of as many of the graduates as possible at our coming Commencement, August 2 and 3."
Why was the 1870 date so obvious to those men? It was because June 19, 1820, was the day when the institution became truly a college. Although the Maine charter of that date still designated the school as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, it was that charter which first gave to its trustees the authority to confer degrees, and until it could confer degrees the institution was not truly a college. Furthermore, until 1820, only theological studies had been pursued. Although a literary department had been intended from the begin- ning, it was not actually started until 1820, and it was out of that department that the liberal arts college known in 1870 as Colby had grown. Finally, it was 1820 when, for the first time, classes were conducted on the college lot rather than in the rented Wood house in the village.
On the occasion of the celebration of the semi-centennial in 1870, President Champlin said, "Maine had become an independent state, and at the first session of its legislature in 1820 had granted the Institution collegiate powers."5 It was clear to President Champlin and his contemporaries that the non-degree-granting institution had been but a Massachusetts experiment toward what the State of Maine made a true college.
It seems strange that, in all the years since 1813, Colby College has never celebrated an anniversary of its original charter. However the authorities may have felt in 1870 about the sacredness of the 1820 beginnings, the fact remains that the original authority to start the institution out of which the college grew
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was granted in the old State House in Boston, when on February 27, 1813, the Governor of Massachusetts set his signature of approval to the act creating the Maine Literary and Theological Institution. It is entirely fitting, therefore, that in 1963 will be celebrated the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of this College, the sesquicentennial of its original charter.
The principal event of the semi-centennial celebration was the address of President Champlin. He reviewed the history of the College, from the earliest attempts to interest Baptists in applying for a charter. He devoted much atten- tion to the old mechanics shop, and from that sad experience he drew the fol- lowing conclusion:
It may be doubted whether men who receive a real education in an agricultural or mechanical college will in many cases remain practical, working farmers and mechanics. I think the experience shows that men whose wits have been thoroughly sharpened, by whatever form of culture, generally contrive to live by their wits, and not by their hands.6
In an earlier chapter comment has been made on President Champlin's ap- parent disapproval of the action taken in 1820, when the theological depart- ment was made subordinate to the literary. After recounting the incident in detail, Champlin said in his historical address:
Had the Institution retained its original and more popular form till the affections of the denomination had crystallized around it, and the denomination itself had withal grown up so as to demand a college, I can but think its history would have been different.
It is clear that Champlin felt, as indeed did many others connected with the College, that the support given it by Maine Baptists had been at best sporadic and lukewarm. That may have been true of some of the Baptist churches and their ministers, but it certainly was not true of individual Baptists. No one knew better than President Champlin, on that August day in 1870, that the most generous contributions ever received by the College had come from staunch Baptists like Gardner Colby, Abner Coburn, and Joseph Merrill.
President Champlin paid deserving tribute to the men who had done so much to make the College what it had become in 1870: to Jeremiah Chaplin, the first President; to William King, Maine's first Governor; to Daniel Merrill, the Sedgwick pastor who had been the true founder of the Institution; to Timothy Boutelle, who had shown himself a loyal supporter, both with his time and his money, from 1818 until his death. Then, in conclusion, Champlin said:
Perhaps we may say now, at the end of fifty years, that the College is fairly founded. It has funds enough-which it never had before-to sustain it on its present scale of operations, without drawing upon the principal. We want, however, not only permanence, but progress. To stand still in such an age is tantamount to moving backwards. Unless we move ahead, we must fall behind.
Champlin was no man to be content with the platitudes expressed in those sentences. He minced no words when he pointed out the mistakes of the past.
Previously to our recent successful endeavors, no improvements what- ever had been made upon the premises, no additional teachers had
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been employed, and no considerable additions had been made to library or apparatus for thirty years. In the meantime other colleges were making improvements, leaving us behind. This want of stir seemed to imply that we had gone to sleep, or were about to give up the ghost. Hence we lost both prestige and patronage, which we have not yet been fully able to recover. But I am confident it will return in due time, if we continue to improve as we have in the few years just past. Of all things, stagnation is the most to be dreaded in a college.7
In previous chapters we have seen how the college lot, which once stretched from the Kennebec to the Messalonskee, had been depleted by sales until only the campus itself and a few nearby house lots remained. The final restricting sale came in 1870, when the Trustees authorized the Prudential Committee "to consider any change which Maine Central Railroad Company may propose to make in their road, affecting any lands belonging to the University and to act in the matter as their judgment may dictate."
The subsequent action was the removal of tracks along the river bank back of the college buildings and the reversion of that right of way to the College; but in its place the College gave up nearly twice as much land that it owned on the south and the west, so that the main campus of the College was for many years limited to the modest area of 29 acres. Besides the sales to individuals, a large slice had gone in 1848 to the Androscoggin and Kennebec Railroad, the first rail line to enter Waterville; but it was actually the deal of 1870 which sealed the fate of the College to be hemmed in for another three quarters of a cen- tury between the railroad and the river.
In the summer of 1870, old Recitation Hall, in which the chapel was no longer needed, was completely renovated into the rooms that this writer's own col- lege generation knew in the second decade of the present century. There were two classrooms on each of the three floors, the most memorable of which be- came "Dutchy" Marquardt's German room on the second floor, and "J. Bill" Black's history room and "Cassie" White's Greek room on the top floor. In the south room of the first floor the YMCA used to hold its Tuesday evening meetings, and in that room someone had long ago installed a wheezy parlor organ. All that, however, was many years after 1870, when the building was first converted into solely a classroom building.
When the Trustees voted to remodel Recitation Hall, they accompanied that vote with another significant action. Their entire vote read:
Voted, that the Prudential Committee be instructed to proceed with alteration of the Chapel Building substantially as proposed by Mr. Esty the architect, and that they also proceed to the erection of a new build- ing for a cabinet and chemical laboratory, provided funds can be se- cured by subscription.
Thus it came about that the College was to secure a second new building in the Champlin administration. The funds were secured, owing largely to the generosity of Abner Coburn, and at the north end of the campus, in direct line with Memorial Hall, was erected, in 1872, Coburn Hall, Colby's first building devoted to the sciences. In early correspondence it was referred to as a building for "cabinet and apparatus." That meant everything that then pertained to the biological sciences, to geology, to physics, and to chemistry. Burrage says it contained four rooms for lectures and laboratory work, a hall for collections
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in geology and natural history, and the Hamlin collection of the birds of Maine.8
No sooner had the Trustees voted to erect the science building when funds should be available, than right there in the meeting room on August 3, 1870, four men immediately made the needed funds available by pledging on the spot ten thousand dollars each. Thus Coburn Hall became a true memorial of the semi- centennial, provided by the generosity of Abner Coburn, Gardner Colby, Joseph Warren Merrill, and Judge William E. Wording.
So great was the immediate rejoicing among the Trustees that they exhibited a spontaneous burst of generosity. Gardner Colby moved and it was unanimously voted that, beginning in the fall of 1870, all faculty salaries should be increased twenty-five percent.
Although President Champlin would never have admitted it, the most im- portant and most enduring action of his entire administration was the admission of women. That story is fully related in Chapter XL.
Looking forward confidently to enlargement of the faculty, the Trustees pro- ceeded in 1871 to consider the division of several departments. It is noteworthy that those initial considerations, as well as the final decisions, were made by the Trustees, not by the faculty, although President Champlin may have discussed the issues in faculty meeting. If he did so, the secretary of the faculty missed the significance, for the faculty records are silent on the subject.
The first move in the direction of departmental division was made at the annual meeting in 1871, when the Board voted that,
at the earliest day practicable there be established, instead of a depart- ment of ancient languages, two departments, one of which shall be called the department of the Greek Language and Literature; the other the department of the Latin Language and Literature.
Dr. Sheldon, the former President who had become a member of the Trustees, then moved to consider dividing into two departments the present department of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. The matter was referred to a committee composed of Sheldon, Dr. Hanson, and Moses Giddings. The committee asked that the matter be tabled until the 1872 meeting, when the Board voted that the old department be made two, under the respective titles of the department of Mathematics and the department of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy. Thus began the linkage of two fields of science, physics and astronomy, which would later induce Col. Richard C. Shannon to erect a unique physics building topped by an astronomical observatory.
When the present writer entered the College in 1909, North and South Col- lege, Memorial Hall, Chemical Hall and Coburn Hall were heated by steam, but the rooms in Recitation Hall still had the big box stoves. Students of the writer's generation can well remember the ritual with which Dr. J. William Black opened his classes on the top floor of that building. After the class had made its leisurely entrance, Dr. Black would emerge from his adjoining office, clad in a long linen duster and gloves. Going to the wood closet, he would pick up a few sticks of big two-foot logs, carry them to the stove, lift the cover and place them gently within. Picking up the poker, he would stir the fire, close the cover, brush his arms and breast with his gloved hands, look about the room, notice that the sun was pouring in one window, go to that window and adjust the shade, then walk with great dignity into his office, remove gloves and duster, step out again, stand behind the desk and say, "Good morning. I will now call the roll."
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Such stoking of fires by professors, common in Recitation Hall as late as 1910, was the everyday chore of all professors and of all students in their dormi- tory rooms prior to the winter of 1871-72, for it was in August, 1871, that the Trustees decided on their first venture into central heating. They voted "that $3750 be appropriated to be used this fall for repairs on North College and heating it with steam."
It was in 1872 that, for the first time, two of the college buildings were renamed for persons. Hitherto the middle brick building had been known as Chapel or Recitation Hall. Immediately after the building of Memorial Hall, the most common name for the recitation building was Old Chapel. At the annual meeting in 1872, Dr. Ebenezer Cummings proposed that the remodeled building be named Chaplin Hall, after the first president. The motion was tabled until the adjourned session in the afternoon. Then Rev. Franklin Merriam, a Massachusetts member of the Board, proposed an amendment, naming the build- ing for President Champlin. The result was a happy compromise honoring both presidents. The Old Chapel became Champlin Hall, and North College became Chaplin Hall. Ironically enough, the college generations between 1900 and 1920 had not the slightest idea that the two buildings officially had names that honored the two presidents. Neither presidential name was ever used when either students or faculty referred to the structures. The northern dormitory was al- ways North College and the middle brick building was always Recitation Hall.
Every college can boast of incidents which faculty and townspeople re- garded as serious or even criminal, but which after the lapse of many years ap- pear more humorous than solemn. Such an incident at Colby occurred during the Champlin administration. When Joseph Coburn Smith was editor of the Colby Alumnus in 1940, he brought to light the story that he called "The Privy Arson Case."
Back of the college buildings, on the site where Hedman Hall was later built, was a small, undecorated, but useful structure, which served as a com- mon latrine for the dormitories. Interior plumbing was quite unknown in that day. Just as the single out-door pump supplied water for the students' ablutions, the little building in the rear served the demands of nature.
The building was not just a wooden shack, but actually much more impos- ing. Its walls were of stone, of the same material of which Memorial Hall was later built, for the latrine had been erected shortly before the Civil War, re- placing an older wooden structure. Once built, the stone building was left to take care of itself. By 1872 it had become sadly dilapidated, especially with respect to its internal appointments. The students repeatedly complained about it, but nothing was done.
On the night of May 14, 1872, the building caught fire and all except its stone walls was destroyed. In those days the town authorities were much more ready to interfere in college affairs than has since been the case. On the Mayflower Hill campus the city officers of the mid-twentieth century never stepped in until requested to do so by college officials. But, after that out-house fire in 1872, the selectmen of Waterville didn't wait for college action, but proceeded directly to act on what they suspected was a case of arson. It was the old court record of the case which Joe Smith found, and which shows how seriously the incident was considered.
The inquiry resulted in the following court record signed by Justice Drum- mond:
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CHAMPLIN'S YEARS OF FULFILLMENT
Whereas the municipal officers of the town of Waterville complained to me that a certain building, the privy owned by the President and Trus- tees of Colby University, situated on their grounds back of the col- lege buildings, was on May 14, 1872, destroyed by fire, and that reasonable grounds exist for believing that the fire was not accidental in origin, but was caused by design, six good and lawful men were summoned before me to make due inquiry.
Whereas, also, it appears that on June 18, 1872, a subpoena was duly issued by me, and Nathaniel Butler, Jr., was duly summoned to appear before me on June 22, 1872, to give evidence of what he knew relating to the origin of the burning of said building, and the said Nathaniel Butler, Jr. having failed to appear, he hath thereby committed a con- tempt of this court. The sheriff of Kennebec County, or either of his deputies, is commanded in the name of the State of Maine to take the body of him, the said Nathaniel Butler, Jr., and bring him forthwith before me to answer to said charge of contempt.
Joe Smith naturally became curious to learn how the episode could be treated so seriously and then so suddenly dropped. Fortunately one of the students named in the court record was still living. Horace W. Stewart of the Class of 1874, himself a dignified, retired justice of the courts, though a very aged man in 1940, still resided at East Vassalboro, Maine. Joe at once called on Judge Stewart and from him got the remainder of the story.
The Judge said he and Butler, disgusted at the faculty's neglect of the struc- ture, had decided to touch it off. "The walls were laid up in stone, just like Memorial Hall. In fact, by that time, it has received from students the name Memorial Hall Junior. It had two openings for windows, but no sash, and the door had long ago disappeared. The damage was confined to the interior ap- pointments and was really minor. But it did make quite a blaze."
Judge Stewart then told how there gathered a group of eight students, who spent the night at Col. Heath's lumber camp in the woods above Benton. "Heath's men were tickled to see us and fed us with beans and doughnuts as big as a skillet. Because the next day was Sunday, we knew that no legal step could be taken; so we came back to town."
Stewart was at a loss to explain how suspicion became directed at him- self and Butler. "It must have been the janitor. That was before Sam Osborne had the job. Sam would never have told on a student. He was close-mouthed; he was a darling."
Judge Stewart gave Butler credit for settling the affair to the satisfaction of both the college and the town authorities. "Nat was a very conscientious fellow, and after a while he confided in his father, a distinguished Baptist min- ister and a trustee of the College. Dr. Butler came to Waterville and talked with President Champlin. It was finally agreed that, if we would pay thirty dollars damage, the charge of arson would be dropped. So I sent home for the money to pay my half, and we heard no more about the matter."
Judge Stewart expressed surprise when Joe Smith told him that the official court records had been preserved for nearly seventy years. He had no idea the case had been treated with such ceremony. But, as Joe left the old gentleman, that co-arsonist of 1872 got in a last word: "Anyhow, the college ought to have rebuilt the structure long before that."
Who was the companion of Judge Stewart in that blazing episode? Who was Nathaniel Butler, Jr .? He was the son of Nathaniel Butler, Sr., of the Class
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