USA > Maine > Kennebec County > Waterville > The history of Colby College > Part 58
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Of course between 1901 and 1927 social life had become less restricted and the college men and women did meet together on other occasions than church "sociables" or during the formal calling hours at the women's dormitories. The Junior Prom in April and the Senior Hop in June were occasions when local clothiers had to put in a liberal rental stock of "tails and white ties," and the local "ten cent teams" exploited the parties by charging profiteering rates to transport a girl and her escort back to Foss Hall after the dance. Favorite places for the big dances were Elks Hall, the KP Hall on Silver Street, and the Ticonic Club House in Winslow. Refreshments were usually served by Hagar the Caterer. In 1913 elaborate fraternity dances in out-of-town halls were unheard of, but by 1927 each fraternity was having a "spring formal."
Although many rules had been relaxed and girls were beginning to take rides in the very few automobiles available to college men, even in 1927 no Colby girl could smoke at the College without fear of expulsion. Probably at no time since the first parties were held at Colby had chaperonage been popular, but by 1927 young people held it in outright disrepute. The "naughty nineteen twenties," which
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seem rather sedate and sober when looked upon in retrospect from the "beatnik" era of 1960, heard the rallying cry of independence for the nation's youth. It was not an easy time to guide and influence young people, but Colby had the person who could do it in Dean Ninetta Runnals. That Colby social life came through those trying years triumphantly is due almost entirely to her unceasing efforts.
By 1936 Dean Runnals' wise guidance had made the Student League such an effective self-governing body that it put to shame the weaker Student Council of the men. She had instituted the powerful elective office of house chairman and the even more powerful Executive Board, which had substantial control over discipline in the Women's Division.
As an instance of changing mores, note what the women's regulations in 1936 had to say about smoking:
The Executive Board of the Student League acknowledges smoking to be a personal habit, subject outside of college limits to the good taste of the individual. Smoking is permitted in the smaller social room in Foss Hall, that room being reserved for use of the girls only, and men are not entertained there. Women are not permitted to smoke elsewhere on the campus except in the small social room.
Impetus to further cooperation came in 1934, when Professor Newman organ- ized the Council on Religion. Although the YMCA and the YWCA still functioned separately, the Council, on which both men and women were represented, served as "a clearing house for the many religious organizations of the college and for cooperation with the local churches." In 1936 the religious groups went a step further with the organization of the Student Christian Movement (later called the Student Christian Association) a truly coeducational body. In the same year Powder and Wig was opened to women, and shortly afterward the Colby Outing Club was formed, one of the earliest organizations to have members of both sexes from its inception.
It was the Second World War that brought the emancipation of Colby women. Ever since its founding in the 1870's the Colby Echo had had a male editor. In- stead of being published "by the students of Colby College," that paper had been entirely controlled by the men, who somewhat grudgingly elected a woman's editor to fill a few inches in each issue with items from the female side of the col- lege. When there remained only a handful of civilian men in the student body, as was the case through the war years, the women took over not only the Echo, but also dramatics, musical clubs, and other organizations. Given the chance to exercise leadership, the women did so well that not even the post-war influx of men could displace them. After 1945 a woman was quite as likely to be elected to a student office as was a man.
A comparison of the Colby Oracle for the years 1939 and 1945 is instructive on this point. The picture of the Echo staff in 1939 shows nineteen men and four women. The Oracle staff shows five men and one woman, and the Council on Religion eight men and two women. In 1945 the class officers of every class were all women. On the Executive Council of the Student Christian Association were two men and four women. The Glee Club, composed of both male and female voices, had twelve men and sixty-four women. The membership of the Bowen Society, a group majoring in Biology, was made up entirely of women. On the
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Oracle board there was not one man, and the whole Echo staff had only four men surrounded by forty women.
When the Class of 1948 were seniors there was a joint student council to which were elected an equal number of men and women, although the Women's Student Government continued to function in regard to matters pertaining strictly to the girls. In that year the Oracle board had five men and three women, but the executive board of the Echo was composed of six women and three men. The governing board of the SCA had twelve women and six men, on Powder and Wig were ten men and five women, and even in the Colby Medical Society, a group of students preparing for medicine and other related fields, the women outnumbered the men ten to six. On the Outing Club Council four men worked with seven women; the men had a mere majority in the Yacht Club; only three men served with seven women on the Social Committee. Women were represented on the governing bodies of the Camera Club, the Radio Council, and the Debating Society. At last the Oracle had begun to publish the pictures of seniors, not in two separate sections for men and women, but in a single alphabetical order. Women now played in the college band and played softball with the men.
One of the greatest changes brought by the war was the increase in student marriages. It had long been taken for granted that, if a woman student married, she must leave college. The high quality of academic work performed by the married veterans and the dignified decorum of their wives led the college author- ities to look upon student marriages with greater leniency. When two students married, they were both permitted to continue in college and were frequently rented an apartment in the temporary buildings intended originally to house only married veterans. In the early 1950's one girl who had married during her college course received her diploma only a few hours ahead of the stork's visit.
Between 1903 and 1950 the change had been gradual, not deliberate, and it was the Second World War which finally gave Colby women equal recognition in the organizations and social life of the college. Changing mores in our whole society, especially in regard to young people, played no small part in this develop- ment of the non-academic side of coeducation. What about the academic area, which Presidents Small, White, and Roberts had regarded as already too thoroughly intermingled and which they desired to push completely into two separate compart- ments?
Long before Pearl Harbor, Colby women had been taken for granted in mixed classrooms. By the time when classes were first held on Mayflower Hill the only segregated classes were those in physical education and in freshman English, and the latter persisted more from convenience than from necessity. In a few years the separation in English had also disappeared and all academic work was done without any thought of segregation. In 1960 Colby College was coeducational by every test of activity except those over which the Trustees exercised direct control. Because the governing board had never seen fit to change the organization they had made at President Small's request in 1890, the Colby catalogue seventy years later still carried two separate lists of students, men and women, and on Commence- ment Day two separate lines marched to the platform for their diplomas.
CHAPTER XLI
The Early Societies
JUST as religion was responsible for the beginning of Colby College, so too was it the reason for the first student societies, the forerunners of the Greek letter fraternities.
In the records of a later society for the year 1858 is an historical account of the first student organization at Waterville College. So far as is known, no society was organized by the students of the Maine Literary and Theological Institution between its opening in June, 1818 and its transformation in 1820. But when the struggling little school became a full-fledged, degree-granting college, its students felt the time had come for an organization such as already existed at Bowdoin, Brown, and Dartmouth.
At a meeting held on October 10, 1820, a constitution, prepared by George Dana Boardman, Calvin Holton, and Ephraim Tripp, was adopted by a group of interested students. It was called the Philathean Society, and the members pledged themselves "to cultivate a spirit of unanimity and friendship in their social and literary intercourse."
From the beginning the Philatheans concerned themselves with literary as well as religious topics, although the emphasis was upon religion. At the first meeting on November 1, 1820, there was an extemporaneous discussion between Bela Wilcox and Elijah Foster on "Is it our privilege to be at all times free from doubts respecting our interest in Christ?" John Hovey read a communication respecting revivals of religion. George Boardman and Hadley Procter debated the question, "For what should the most speedy exertions be made, to christianize the savages of our own nation or the people of heathen lands?"
Colby's first graduate and renowned missionary to Burma, George Dana Boardman, was the Philatheans' first president, and he proudly presided at the society's first anniversary, held in the Waterville Public Meetinghouse on the com- mon between Main and Front Streets on August 13, 1821. That event was the beginning of a long continued practice, the use of Tuesday evening of Commence- ment (the evening before the graduation exercises) for an annual program by the student society or societies. For fourteen years the Philathean Society served as the fountainhead of missionary interest at the College until its dissolution on June 7, 1834.
The many hundreds of fraternity men among present Colby alumni may be interested to know something about the nine men who were charter members of Colby's first student society. George Dana Boardman is well known as the Colby man who followed Adoniram Judson to the Burma mission field. Ephraim Tripp
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founded a female seminary in Mississippi. Elijah Foster became a minister in Massachusetts and died at age of 35. Henry Paine was one of the earliest princi- pals of what is now Coburn Classical Institute. Hadley Procter was principal of Elijah Lovejoy's old school, China Academy, during the three years when Lovejoy was a student at the College. Calvin Holton went to Africa as a missionary and died there at the age of 29. Nothing is known of Bela Wilcox. John Hovey went to Michigan, where he spent a long life as a teacher. Willard Glover was a leading Baptist minister in several Maine parishes until his death in 1866. Those were the nine students of Waterville College who started its first undergraduate organization in pursuit of religion and literature.
For several years previous to 1834 meetings of the Philathean Society had been infrequent and interest had waned. Several of the more devout members were determined to change it into distinctly a missionary society. They succeeded in securing a vote for dissolution of the old organization in June, 1834, and they at once petitioned the Trustees for the right to form a new body to be called the Boardman Missionary Society of Waterville College. Permission was granted, and on September 15, 1834, the Boardman Society was formed, with Amariah Joy as president and Marshman Williams as secretary. The new constitution set forth as the society's purpose "to devise and prosecute measures for the extension of Christianity; to acquire and disseminate a knowledge of the literature, morals and religion of different countries, and of the causes that operate on the moral im- provement of mankind." The program at each meeting was to be consistent with the society's purpose.
In the early years of the nineteenth century no college society was deemed worthy of existence unless it possessed a library. The Philathean Society was no exception, and this explains a vote passed by the Boardman Missionary Society on November 15, 1834: "Since the Philathean Society, previous to its dissolution, had voted to present its library to the Boardman Missionary Society, together with all the money in the Philathean treasury, it was voted to express our thanks to the committee representing the Philathean Society; and it was further voted that George Townsend and Franklin Merriam prepare a catalogue of the books in the Board- man Missionary Society."
In February, 1835, the Boardman Society voted "to lay before the public the wants of the Society and request aid on the enlargement of our library." At the end of March thirty dollars had been collected. It is well to mention a point that will be more fully discussed in the subsequent chapter on The College Library; namely, that in the early years at Colby the libraries of the several societies were more extensive and more commonly used by students than was the college library itself.
In June, 1835, the Boardman Society petitioned the Trustees for a room to be exclusively assigned for the society's use "in the chapel about to be built." That referred to the third building erected at the College, Recitation Hall. The requested room was duly assigned.
The questions debated at the Boardman meetings were certainly pertinent to the society's avowed object. Ought students studying for the ministry to decide early whether they will become foreign missionaries? Is it the duty of Christians to give their whole property, exclusive of what is necessary for their competence and that of their families, to assist in the work of converting the world? Ought missionaries to continue their instruction in a foreign land after being forbidden by the civil authorities? In 1840 the Millerites, with their prediction of the immi-
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nent end of the world, were attracting wide attention. So the Boardman Society solemnly debated the question, Is Mr. Miller's theory founded on evidence sufficient to give it a claim to our credence? After discussion, they voted six to five in the affirmative, and they voted to purchase for the society library a copy of Miller's Lectures.
It was the Boardman Society that started the custom of having a guest orator for the annual observance at Commencement, a custom continued until the last quarter of the century by the literary societies. The first orator, who graced the observance in 1835, was Stephen B. Page, then a student at Newton. After 1840 the oration took the form of a "missionary address."
The Boardman Society showed little vigor after 1843, but it was not until 1855 that it was dissolved and its library presented to the College. That, how- ever, was not the end. In 1858 there occurred a stirring religious revival in Water- ville, as a result of which a group of students decided to revive the society that had honored the name of the first missionary graduate. So, on June 4 of that year, "the students interested in the organization of the Boardman Missionary Society met in Dr. Champlin's recitation room, chose Everett Pattison president, and adopted a constitution."
The revived society set as its object "to aid each other in obtaining missionary intelligence, cultivate a missionary spirit, and unite Christians more firmly in fellow- ship and effort." Any student of the College who gave "evidence of piety in de- voted Christian life" could become a member. The weekly program was to con- sist of a missionary biography, discussion of a question of strictly religious nature, and a religious essay. It was the duty of the treasurer to present during each term "a subscription paper for the cause of missions." The Society took special interest in the aroused public attention to Sabbath Schools and had a committee "to give supervision to Sabbath Schools in the vicinity of Waterville."
Among the subjects spiritedly debated was, "Will anyone who has never heard of the Messiah be finally saved?" After very heated argument, the vote went 8 to 6 in the affirmative. When the Civil War broke out, the Society debated, "Is it the duty of young men intending to enter the ministry to enlist in the war?" The decision was 9 to 3 in the negative. A few years later they decided that the call for missionary labor among the freedmen of the South was not more urgent than the missionary call to the foreign field.
In the 1870's the society manifested a missionary interest in the immediate vicinity. "After an expression of willingness and desire on the part of several members to undertake Christian work in neighborhoods outside the village, it was voted to enter upon such work at once."
In 1871 there had been organized the YMCA of Colby University. Its pur- pose and its programs proved to be very similar to those of the Boardman Society, except for the latter's emphasis upon missions. Hence in 1875 the two groups voted to merge into a single society known as the Boardman Missionary Society and YMCA.
In 1882 the joint society sent a delegation to the International Convention of the YMCA at Charlestown, Massachusetts, and the negro janitor of the College, Sam Osborne, was made a member. The next year saw a strong movement in favor of doing away with the Boardman Society altogether, and making Colby's one re- ligious organization for men the YMCA. After months of negotiation, the matter came to an impasse, and on June 18, the missionary-minded members met in sep- arate session and voted to reorganize separately the Boardman Missionary Society.
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The revival was short-lived, however. On September 30, 1885, the Boardman Mis- sionary Society disbanded and its funds were transferred to the treasurer of the YMCA. But even that second dissolution was not the end of the Boardman So- ciety. Three times after 1885 it was revived, only to lapse again. But, in the early 1900's it showed sufficient strength to secure incorporation into the Com- mencement program of a Sunday evening service designated for many years as the Boardman Sermon.
Just before the Civil War another religious society had been established as a rival of the Boardman Society, the Pauloi, or the Society of Paul. The first item in its original record book tells us how it started.
Among a few professors of Christ connected with Waterville College during the fall of 1860, the project was earnestly considered of estab- lishing some society which might bring them into a closer union with the Savior. A meeting was held at which J. A. Smith was president and Richard C. Shannon secretary. Shannon, having been called upon to read such suggestions as he had prepared on the character and aims of the society, complied. These, having been approved by the brethren, were ordered to be made the basis of a constitution.
Thus we learn that the actual originator of this sanctimonious society was none other than that Civil War officer, builder of railroads, ambassador to foreign lands, and donor of Colby's physics building on the old campus, Colonel Richard Cutts Shannon, 1862.
Upon becoming a member of Pauloi each initiate signed a solemn pledge that he would "faithfully attend every college prayer meeting, diligently perform every college exercise, and strive to avoid indulgence in all foolish and vulgar jesting." So saintly self-righteous did Pauloi become that, when the Society dis- cussed "the true mode of baptism," Brother B --- was excluded from the discussion because of his "heretical views." They also voted not to increase their member- ship because such action would "have a tendency to lessen the feeling of respon- sibility that now prevails."
Such smugness could not last. The record for November 19, 1860, tells us: "Not much headway was made on the business of the meeting. The members were more inclined to consider the approaching examinations and prospects of teaching during the winter vacation." Enlistments in the Civil War were enough to close the society anyhow in 1862, but by its very nature it could not have sur- vived much longer, war or no war.
One activity of Pauloi was, however, of lasting benefit. That was the society's religious work among the French Canadians in that part of Waterville known as the Plains. The record of a meeting on July 7, 1861, says: "Brother Dore spoke of his work among the French. Instead of being repulsed, he was gladly received. He gave an interesting account of his first meeting by the river side. He found their minds were benighted and that many parents as well as children could not read." Thus Pauloi picked up the work begun by Jonathan Furbush in the 1830's, a work in which many Colby students were devotedly engaged for half a century.
As early as 1824 there were undergraduates who were not content to see their societies restricted to religious interests. So there was organized the Antithesian Society. The name was changed a year later to the Social Fraternity, and in 1828 it became the Literary Fraternity and so remained until its dissolution in 1878.
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In 1835 the Literary Fraternity was confronted with a rival, the Erosophian Adelphi, and for more than forty years the two societies existed, sometimes in friendly cooperation, at other times in cold war. Even after the founding of the Greek letter fraternities, the two older societies stayed on. Many Colby men were members both of a Greek letter fraternity and of one of the literary societies.
At first the Literary Fraternity had restricted membership, its constitution providing that "no person shall be admitted into the society who is not advanced one term in the freshman class, and the number elected from our class shall not exceed one half of that class." But when the Erosophian constitution provided that "any member of the College may become a member of this society by subscribing his name to the constitution and paying two dollars to the Treasurer," the Literary Fraternity had to meet the competition. This led to a clash with the faculty, when that body tried to get the two societies to divide each freshman class beween them. Having amended their constitution to comply with that of the rival Erosophian, the Literary Fraternity voted that "if any member of this society decides that our con- stitution should be so altered as to admit only one-half of the freshman class, he shall be considered worthy of expulsion." When the faculty notified each society that it could initiate not more than one-half of the freshmen, there ensued an indignant meeting of the Literary Fraternity, the record of which ends with the secretary's battle cry, "Don't give up the ship!" The society firmly resolved that, "while we lament the circumstances in which we find ourselves placed by the late difference between this society and the government of the College, we believe that the course we have pursued is strictly proper and just, and we are therefore de- termined to maintain it to the end." Then they boldly voted to delete from their constitution the clause which required amendments to be submitted to the faculty for approval.
Matters came to a head in December, 1835, when the faculty suspended from College ten members of the Literary Fraternity for electing a man to membership contrary to the faculty regulations. What ensued is revealed in the society's records.
December 7, 1835. When it was learned that ten members of the society had been suspended for voting to make William Towne a member, the society voted to ask the faculty under what laws or what rule of justice it had suspended only those members who actually voted for Mr. Towne, while other members who approved and abetted that action, but were absent when the vote was taken, were not punished. Voted that the President of the Society give to each suspended member a document testifying to his regular standing and his moral character. Voted also that we do not comply with the proposal of the faculty that we waive our "supposed" rights till Commencement.
February 27, 1836. Voted that a committee of five be chosen to obtain legal advice respecting the rights of the society in the election of members.
March 22, 1836. Voted that we suspend till Commencement the exer- cise of our right to elect members without permission of the faculty, provided the suspended members be restored to good standing in the College.
The Erosophian Adelphi had been more amenable to faculty suggestions, perhaps because they had just been founded and wanted to get a good start under official approval. Their constitution stated: "The faculty shall have the power
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