The history of Colby College, Part 3

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

USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Waterville > The history of Colby College > Part 3

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).

Feeling between the rival communities was apparently very keen. This is strikingly revealed in a letter which James Hall of Bloomfield wrote to William King on January 25, 1816. The letter also shows what measures the rival com- munities were taking to obtain the new Institution.

Nothing but a conviction that it is my indispensable duty could have induced me to trouble you with these lines. Last December we were favored with a letter from the committee of the Trustees of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution concerning the location of that seminary. This was immediately communicated to the Trustees of

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

Canaan Academy, who instantly called a meeting at which it was voted to offer you their schoolhouse, with the land on which it stands, and $200 in ready money. At the same time a subscription was opened, which we are authorized to say will certainly amount to $2500, which together with the half-township of land which may be obtained will stand as follows: Land and schoolhouse, $600; ready money, $200; half-township, $4000; subscriptions $2500; a total of $7300, and not one cent of debt.

We understand that the Trustees of Farmington Academy promise hand- somely. It is one thing to promise and another thing to perform. Your humble servant was once unfortunately preceptor of Farmington Acad- emy, and what I am now about to state are not things I know by hearsay, but things in which I am deeply concerned, for they owe me considerable money, which they have used every means in their power to swindle me out of, and by the want of which I have been greatly distressed. Neither am I the only person whom they have cruelly abused.

They value their schoolhouse at $4000. But even after they had allowed one another bills at exorbitant rates, the whole expense was only $2930. But that was too much, for the house and land are worth not more than $1800. When I left Farmington, there was a debt of $2730, which must have increased since to at least $3000. Their half-township of land, or rather the grant of it, for it was not yet located, was to be shared among a few of the trustees on consideration that they pay $4000 for it. Now put their subscription at $2300, their schoolhouse at $1800, and their half-township at $4000, and the total is $8100. But from this must be subtracted their debt of $3000, leaving a balance of only $5100. This is somewhat short of their boastful claim of $12,000. As you value your own honor and the prosperity of the seminary, be careful how you enter into any engagements with those men of Farmington.10

The modern business man knows well that one does not enhance his own reputation or that of his goods by attacking a competitor. James Hall gained nothing by his attack on Farmington, and the irony of it is that his attack was wholly unnecessary. Although Hall did not know of a letter which William King had written two months earlier, that letter shows that Hall was wasting paper and ink. King had written to the Trustees of Farmington Academy on November 16, 1815:

Your proposition for uniting the friends of your academy with those of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution received the neces- sary consideration. We are directed to thank you gentlemen for the interest which you take in this Institution, and say that our trustees do not think the measure advisable at present. Will you gentlemen advise me as soon as convenient the amount which can be raised by subscription for the Institution provided it is established in your place? Only a substantial subscription will interest our trustees.11

No such substantial subscription was forthcoming from Farmington, as King probably suspected. In one of King's letters, he mentions that Anson and Nor- ridgewock were being considered, as well as Farmington, Bloomfield and Water- ville, but in the official records there is no mention of those two Somerset towns.

CHOOSING A SITE

At the meeting of the Trustees on January 15, 1817, the committee stated that it was continuing its investigations and was not ready yet to make a definite recommendation. That autumn, however, they were ready, and on October 1, 1817, recommended that the Institution be established at Bloomfield.

From a reading of the brief minutes of that Trustee meeting it is not easy to tell exactly what happened, but fortunately there is a lot of external evidence that permits us to read between the lines. Three votes are recorded in success- sion: "(1) to accept the report excepting the place proposed for locating the Institution; (2) that the present is the time for locating the Institution on cer- tain conditions hereafter named; (3) that the Maine Literary and Theological Institution be located at Waterville on condition that the sums raised by the town and raised by subscription of the inhabitants of Waterville and its adjacents, in the judgment of the locating committee, are found in such a situation that they are likely to be realized."

The committee was further authorized to fix upon a spot in the Town of Waterville for locating the Institution and to purchase a plot of ground on which to erect the buildings.

During the months that had passed since the Trustees had first sounded out several communities, Waterville seemed to be at a disadvantage. She had no academy and no Baptist church. But what she did have was a group of energetic and determined citizens, led by the town's two wealthiest men, Nathaniel Gilman and Timothy Boutelle. Singly or in partnership, the two owned vast acreage of Maine land. Both were prominent members of the Jeffersonian party and both were well acquainted with William King. Better still, they were outspoken sup- porters of King's pet project, independence for Maine. Preserved in the King Collection at the Maine Historical Society are several letters from Gilman to King, concerned chiefly with commercial matters, but in every letter Gilman took the opportunity to put himself on record as a booster for an independent state.

When Gilman and Boutelle persuaded the voters to appropriate $3000 from the town for the new Institution, and when they personally guaranteed the private general subscription of $2000, victory was at hand. William King had complete confidence in Nathaniel Gilman and Timothy Boutelle. What may be read be- tween the faded lines of the old trustee record is that it was William King who held up acceptance of the recommendation of the committee on which he him- self had served, and won the Board over to his minority view. As a result, nearly five years after the General Court of Massachusetts had granted the char- ter, it was at last decided to set up the Institution on the banks of the Kennebec in Waterville.

CHAPTER III

Pangs Of Birth

T. HE decision to locate the Institution in Waterville, reached in October, 1817, precipitated a number of actions. The Trustees appointed General Rich- ardson as agent "to agree with a person or persons, by the job, to proceed in erecting buildings, in whole or in part, at the General's discretion." Later in the same meeting, the Board limited the General's authority, however, by choosing a committee to consult with him and decide what buildings should be erected. Eager to get their institution into active operation, the Board made Daniel Mer- rill, Otis Briggs and William King a committee to consider and report when in their judgment instruction could commence, whether any officers1 should be ap- pointed and what their salaries should be. They decided that the tuition fee should be the same as that charged at Bowdoin College,2 showing again that their intent was to provide college instruction, not merely theological studies.

Daniel Merrill's committee presented a favorable report, which the Trustees at once approved.

Your committee appointed to consider the expediency of electing any of the officers of the Institution at the present session and what their salaries ought to be, and also at what time tuition may probably com- mence, report that it is expedient that a professor of theology and a professor of languages, or a tutor, be elected at the present session; that the salary of the professor of theology be $600 per annum, and that of the professor or tutor of languages shall be $500 or $400, ac- cording as the election shall be a professor or a tutor; also that instruc- tion may commence on the first day of May, 1818, provided the Board be furnished with pecuniary ability by the legislature or otherwise.

At that decisive meeting there was no suggestion that the Institution should have a president or any other administrative officer. Apparently the professors, when finally appointed, would be responsible directly to the Trustees. But no professors at all were appointed at that meeting in October, 1817. The Trustees were eager to have a professor of theology get to work as soon as possible, but they could not then agree on a selection. The best they could do was to authorize a committee of seven to consider the matter thoroughly and report at an ad- journed meeting in February.

Daniel Merrill and Caleb Blood were active Maine workers in the Massa- chusetts Baptist Education Society, and they naturally turned to that society for suggestions regarding a professor of theology. As a result, even before the ad- journed meeting of the Trustees was held at Brunswick on February 25, 1818,

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

the Massachusetts society had proposed the name of Rev. Jeremiah Chaplin of Danvers, Massachusetts. The actual proposal was that the theological school conducted at Danvers by Dr. Chaplin should be merged with the newly organized Maine Literary and Theological Institution, and that Chaplin be appointed Pro- fessor of Divinity in the latter. The Waterville Trustees accepted the Massa- chusetts proposal and elected Jeremiah Chaplin Professor of Divinity.3 A further vote provided that "the students sent to the Maine Literary and Theological Institution from said Massachusetts Baptist Educational Society shall have in- struction and other privileges gratis." A second appointment emphasized the well established intent to provide literary as well as theological studies. The Reverend Ira Chase was chosen Professor of Languages, and the Board voted that instruction by both Chaplin and Chase should begin as soon as possible after May 1, 1818.

Meanwhile action had been taken concerning a specific site in Waterville. At the Trustee meeting on February 25, 1818, Sylvanus Boardman had been made a committee of one "to purchase the Vaughan lot, so called, in Waterville, for a site for the buildings of this institution, this lot consisting of 179 acres." That lot, one of the original of the old McKechnie survey of 1762, had passed through several hands until it had come into the possession of the great Kennebec proprietor, Robert Hallowell Gardiner, grandson and heir of Sylvester Gardiner, one of the or- ganizers of the revived Plymouth Company.4 (See also Appendix G) Dr. Whitte- more states that there had been an earlier plan to purchase the Sherwin lot near the present site of the Universalist Church, but no mention of such a plan ever reached the records of the Trustees.5 The cost of the lot was $1797.50, and it extended 40 rods along the Kennebec and back nearly a mile to the Messalonskee Stream. The next lot on the south, called the Briggs lot, slightly larger, 46 rods on the river and extending likewise to the Messalonskee, was soon added at a cost of $2500. Those two large lots provided the Institution with a site every bit as large as the huge Mayflower Hill property to which the College moved more than a hundred years later. The south line was a bit north of the present Getchell Street, and the north line was near the present upper railroad crossing on College Avenue.

Knowing that they must have some place to house students and hold classes, pending the erection of a building, the Board authorized Sylvanus Boardman "to hire for the term of two years the house on the Wood lot, so called, for the accommodation of students." James Wood had purchased the old McKechnie lot Number 106 and had built on it a large frame house, placing it on the site now occupied by the Elmwood Hotel. In 1818 that house stood well out in the coun- try, the stores on Main Street then not extending north of Temple Street. In fact, the trustee records sometimes refer to the place as the Wood farm. For instance, in February, 1818, it was voted, that the next annual meeting be held (on the last day of August) in Waterville "at the house on the Wood farm."

The chief problem facing the new Institution was lack of money, a problem which indeed was to raise its ugly head many times through the ensuing years. At the meeting in Litchfield in January, 1817, the Trustees had voted to prepare a memorial to the legislature "in order to obtain aid and an increase of the funds of the Institution." It was also decided to prepare a circular to be sent to the several Baptist Associations in the entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts, to encourage their assistance to the Institution. But when William King enter- tained the Board at his mansion in Bath, for the meeting in the following October, the committee reported that they had been unable to forward a memorial to the

PANGS OF BIRTH

legislature. The Board at once resolved that a petition must surely go to the legislature when it next assembled in January. William Bachelder was appointed to visit the Baptist associations in the western part of the state (Massachusetts proper) and lay before them a petition to the legislature for an increase in funds for the Institution, and request that the moderator and clerk of each association sign it. Sylvanus Boardman agreed to do the same among the associations in the District of Maine. We shall turn later to the fate of that legislative petition, but let us first note other means that were being used to raise funds.

At the meeting in February, 1818, it was voted to ask the persons who had guaranteed the payment of $2000 in Waterville (Gilman and Boutelle had guar- anteed that public subscription) to furnish the money to buy the needed lot. In August the Treasurer was authorized to secure from Deacon Baldwin, appointed to solicit donations, "all information in his possession relative to that subject, and particularly to furnish such subscription papers as were obtained by the late Wil- liam Bachelder and also the names of persons with whom other subscription papers were left." At the same time a committee, under the chairmanship of William King, was appointed to devise some means to raise the money necessary to meet current expenses.

In August, 1818, King's committee reported that the Treasurer ought to be one who resided in Waterville, who would be near a large proportion of the present subscribers and would be able to collect from them more easily than could someone farther away. It was apparent that the Waterville subscriptions were not being collected in spite of the Gilman and Boutelle guarantee. There- fore, at that August meeting in 1818, the Trustees again took action to secure payment.

Voted, that the Treasurer call for the $2000 guaranteed by certain gentlemen of Waterville on subscriptions made in favor of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, and to pay Robert Gardiner, Esq. for a tract of land in said Waterville, for which the Treasurer is in- structed to take a well executed warrantee deed in the name of said corporation, and the Treasurer is further authorized to borrow in the name of the trustees a sum of money sufficient to discharge any part of the current expenses.

While private subscriptions and petitions to the legislature came repeatedly to the attention of the Trustees, they were also much concerned about realizing usable funds from the land grant on the Penobscot River. Unless either the land or the timber on it could be sold for cash, it remained worthless for the Institu- tion's purposes. So, during 1817 and 1818, the Trustees acted vigorously to get something out of those lands. John Neal was appointed to proceed to the site of the grant, take care of the timber that had been cut by squatters, settle with those unauthorized persons or bring suit against them. Otis Briggs was named agent for sale of the lands. Meanwhile the land had been surveyed and laid out into carefully described lots. In August, 1818, the Board decided to lease or sell the lands on the best available terms, and make such disposition of the timber as might seem best to a committee composed of Timothy Boutelle, Nathaniel Gilman, Asa Redington, Otis Briggs and John Neal. No immediate satisfaction came from this procedure. Several years elapsed before either land or timber brought in any ready cash.

Meanwhile the Institution suffered, both financially and in prestige, because of an unfortunate altercation between Alford Richardson and William King. It

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

concerned the legislative petition of 1819. That petition was drawn up, asking for a further grant of four townships of land and a cash award of $3000 a year. The petition had been put into printed form and circulated among churches and Baptist associations for signatures, so that when King presented the plea of the Institution's Trustees at the spring session of the legislature in 1819 he was able to accompany it with more than thirty supporting petitions. By this time the little Maine school had a lot of friends in the legislature, and prospects were bright for the petition's success. Then came a crushing blow.

One of the most influential members of the Trustees, General Alford Rich- ardson of Portland, protested that the petitions from churches and associations had never been authorized by the Board and were therefore illegal. First let us see what the published histories have to say about this unfortunate affair. Whitte- more says:

Printed petitions of churches, associations, and citizens of Maine and Massachusetts in support of the bill were introduced. When brought up, General Richardson, a member of Board, asserted that these peti- tions had not been legally authorized. This decided the fate of the bill, which was rejected by a vote of thirteen to ten.6

In his address at the fiftieth anniversary of the College, President Champlin said:

There was one serious misunderstanding between two prominent mem- bers of the Board, which caused a good deal of feeling and discussion at the time. Alford Richardson of Portland, better known as General Richardson, was one of the Institution's original incorporators, and William King, also known as General King, and afterwards the first governor of the State of Maine, being favorable to Baptist views though not himself a Baptist, was chosen a Trustee of the Institution at its second meeting in September, 1813. The Institution, being poor and having received from the Commonwealth only the meagerest endowment, had occasion to petition the legislature for further aid. The petition was presented in 1819, and a circular petition, which had been authorized and circulated among the Baptists of the Commonwealth for their sig- nature, accompanied it. Mr. King procured a bill from the legislative committee, providing a handsome endowment for the Institution, with apparently a good prospect of getting it through. At this point he was met by a statement from Mr. Richardson that the circular petitions had been presented without the consent of the Trustees. The presenta- tion of these petitions, it is true, does not seem to have been expressly provided for, but that the preparing and circulation of petitions in some form was authorized is made clear by the trustee records. Why were such petitions authorized at all if they were not to be presented? Why, in- deed, should a friend of the Institution, as Mr. Richardson undoubtedly was, throw an obstacle in the way of their success on this technical ground? As the gentlemen belonged to rival political parties, possibly political rivalry had something to do with it."

In his History of the Baptists in Maine, Burrage says:

The Trustees in 1819 sought from the legislature of Massachusetts additional aid, and Hon. William King, having brought the matter be-

PANGS OF BIRTH

fore that body, procured a bill from a committee, providing for a grant of four townships of land and $3000 a year. There was good prospect that the bill would pass until General Alford Richardson, like King a member of the Institution's Trustees, and a member of the First Baptist Church in Portland, protested that certain petitions presented were with- out the authority and consent of the Trustees. The bill was conse- quently defeated. Probably, as President Champlin later suggested, political rivalry caused Mr. Richardson's action.8

Some light is cast on this controversy by correspondence between William King and Mark L. Hill, held two years earlier, when the Trustees were consider- ing a similar petition to the legislature. On January 15, 1816, Hill wrote to King:

I have seen General Richardson upon the subject of the presentation of the petition. He is full of doubts and fears, appears to be afraid of of- fending or forfeiting the good opinion of his political friends, hesitates about the propriety of asking for any money at present. I have been endeavoring to obviate all those objections in his mind and in the minds of others over whom he has influence, and it is necessary for those of us who do not belong to their denomination to conduct the case pru- dently and not urge things against their inclination. I have proposed to have a meeting at Dr. Baldwin's in a day or two, to settle the mode of procedure, for it will not do for one to pull one way and another a different way.º

Two days later Hill again wrote to King:

This evening we are to have a meeting at Dr. Baldwin's to try to recon- cile and condense the views of our friends the Baptists. A letter has been received from Mr. Boardman, which has paralyzed the thing.10

Those letters reveal that, when General Richardson "threw his monkey- wrench" in 1818, it was not the first time he had stirred the waters of discord. He seems to have been the leader of a minority group within the Board who dis- trusted the non-Baptist members. President Champlin's suggestion that politics was involved in the quarrel was only part of the explanation. Religious feelings and personal animosities were very much in the picture.

How deeply religious convictions were embedded in the political situation is shown by a quotation from the petition which William King presented in 1819:

Your petitioners, in conclusion, cannot refrain from stating what is be- lieved to be a fact, that neither a professed Baptist nor Methodist is now to be found among the instructors at Harvard, Williams or Bowdoin. Considering ourselves pointedly excluded from the government of these institutions, and believing that the religious instruction afforded is of a kind not the most correct, we humbly petition for aid to our own Insti- tution.11

The language of that paragraph is so remarkably like a paragraph in the petition of 1815, when the Trustees had successfully sought the right to establish the Institution elsewhere than on the Argyle lands, that one suspects the two paragraphs were both written by the same hand. That could hardly have been the hand of William King, who was not a Baptist. Could it have been the hand of

HISTORY OF COLBY COLLEGE

that clever Baptist politician, General Alford Richardson? The petition of 1815 had said:

This Institution was established at the request and petition of those per- sons denominated Baptists within this Commonwealth, and their object was, and now is, to have an institution at which their children may be educated, over which they may have some influence and control. At the present time not a single individual denominated a Baptist is a mem- ber of the corporation of any of the colleges within the Commonwealth, and from within the District of Maine they have been very pointedly excluded. As the people denominated Baptists may be considered as comprising one third of the population of the State, they will not be asking too much when they request from the legislature the same aid that has been afforded to Williamstown and Bowdoin colleges as relates to grants of land.12

At first the Trustees sided indignantly with General King in his controversy with General Richardson. In August, 1819, the Board spread a solemn resolution on their records:

Whereas this Board have been informed that representations were made in the Senate of Massachusetts that the petitions presented to that body from the Baptist societies in Maine were got up without consent and con- trary to the wishes of this corporation, therefore it is voted that such representations were not correct, as this Board did authorize this applica- tion to be made to said societies, and requested that the petitions be forwarded to the legislature, and this Board now regret that such rep- resentations should have been made as were calculated to deprive them of such equitable endowment as the present state of the Institution re- quires.

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.

The history of Colby College, Part 3

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