USA > Minnesota > Rice County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 52
USA > Minnesota > Steele County > History of Rice and Steele counties, Minnesota, Vol. I > Part 52
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Northfield now had a college, but no high school. There were but nine high schools in the state: at Winona, Lake City. Red Wing, Mantorville, Mankato, St. Peter, St. Anthony. St. Paul and Minneapolis. There was neither high school nor graded school north of St. Paul and Minneapolis.
In 1866 the conference voted to raise $10.000 for the college. and secured pledges for the full amount, but pledges do not pay bills. A similar attempt the next year was a failure. In May. 1869, Deacon Goodsell died and did not leave the expected bequest for the college. This meant that even he had lost hope. It was not only a question of finance, but also one of leadership. Three years had passed and no president had been secured. To be or not to be, was now the question. Emphatic answer was made October 13, 1870, when Rev. Jas. W. Strong accepted the presidency, and many generous gifts were made.
But before proceeding further I wish to call attention to one leading characteristic of the college life, viz .: long tenure of office. Seventeen members of the faculty have rendered four hun- dred and eight years of service-an average of twenty-four years.
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All of them are still living. Only two are now in service. Ex- cepting these two, theirs is a finished work, and it can be fairly and candidly told as well now as later, and perhaps better, for errors and omissions now can be corrected. Each has wrought in a separate department. The work of each stands as a unit by itself, and this collection of units will largely represent the whole. What, then, has been the contribution of each to the making of the college?
Four who came to this work in the first eight years of its history have given 144 years of service, ranging from thirty- three to forty years. It was their privilege to put their impress upon the institution in its formative period, and they, more largely than others, have shaped all that has followed. It is proper to speak more fully of their services.
President James W. Strong-1870-1903. Dr. Strong's presi- dency continned for one-third of a century. He wrought in three distinct lines. He financed the college ; he chose a faculty that worked together most harmoniously, and steadily refused larger offers elsewhere, and with his faculty he shaped the general pol- icy of the college. Inauguration day, October 13. 1870, brought pledges to the amount of $16,600, of which $4,000 came from the Goodsell family, showing that their interest and hopes were still with the undertaking. The next month President Strong went to New England in the interest of the college. Here he met Mr. Carleton, the father-in-law of one of the trustees, and Miss Willis, his bookkeeper and adviser. They gave him $1,000 and $500 for current expenses, which was then a pressing need, and a few days later $200 and $100 toward our first piano. Prin- cipal Stone, superintendent of the Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb at Hartford, invited Dr. Strong to drive with him about the city. An hour later an express train struck the carriage at a crossing. Superintendent Stone was killed and for thirty-six hours President Strong was unconscious. Superintendent Stone was widely known in the city, and many became interested in President Strong as his friend. Three months later, when Presi- dent Strong again preached in Winthrop church, where he had spoken twice before his injury, many came to see and hear him. Mr. Carleton's gift of $50,000 came in May. It was then the largest donation that any Western college had ever received at one time. In recognition of it, and in accordance with the vote of the trustees at the time of President Strong's inauguration, the name, which had been Northfield College, became Carleton Col- lege. Dr. Strong made many friends in Hartford, and he thinks that his tragic experience there has brought the college not less than $200,000. A growing institution has many pressing needs. and one campaign has been soon followed by another. Twenty
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members added to the faculty called for endowments and build- ings which must be insured, warmed, lighted and kept in repair. President Strong's itinerary shows frequent absence from home for one, two, three and even four months in a year. Thus he has secured upward of $800,000 for the college, or $24,000 a year, or again, $80 a day for each working day for a third of a century. Nothing has been done in all these years which he has not first rendered possible by securing the funds necessary for its accom- plishment and again by choosing such co-workers as could con- tribute to the upbuilding of the institution, and having chosen to his satisfaction he has been able to retain them permanently. It is a great achievement for one man to secure such a sum as benevolent gifts to a new enterprise, but it is still a greater one to make all these many donors at once friends to himself, to the college and to the cause of Christian education which it represents.
Horace Goodhue-1867-1907. Richard Ilall, a Dartmouth alumnus, was the chairman of the committee to secure the first teacher for the college at Northfield, and naturally wrote to Dr. Asa D. Smith, president of his alma mater, to name a candidate. At the same time Mr. Goodhue was looking for a position, and informed President Smith of his desire to teach. Mr. Hall's letter came a few hours later, and a life work was thus determined. Professor Goodhue came directly from college to Northfield, hay- ing taught in the public schools of New Hampshire and Vermont, and during his senior winter was principal of the high school at Gardner, Mass. September 25, 1867, he opened the preparatory department of the college with twenty-three students, and for a few months was the only instructor. At the organization of the collegiate department he was elected to the professorship of Greek. Under different titles he did the work of a dean for thirty-eight of the forty years of his service to the college, except as he was assigned to other work for stated periods. He always prepared a docket of business for the faculty meeting, and pre- sided in the absence of the president. The discipline of men largely devolved upon him. He made investigations and exe- cuted the enactments of the faculty. In the prolonged absences of the president his responsibilities were still greater, and once for a year he performed the duties of an acting president. Solely because he was a member of the faculty the college has received the Ilomer Goodhue library fund of $1.000. the Wilder bequest of $10,000, the E. C. Ranney annuity fund of $3.500 and the 11. E. Ranney annuity fund of $10,000, which has a present value of $11,192, and is steadily increasing. His canvass in the autumn of 1896, during Mr. Bryan's first campaign, when everything seemed most uncertain, yielded $8,000, and another in 1906
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brought upward of $10,000. In the latter canvass he introduced the continuous pledge, whereby the donor agreed to give a certain sum each year until he gave the treasurer notice to the contrary. This form of pledge has already yielded more than three times the sums first promised, and the end is not yet. But the best of Dean Goodhue's special services to the college has entirely escaped the college historian and so is entitled to fuller mention here. The years from 1893 to 1896 brought heavier financial bur- dens to the college than it had borne since the early days .. Fifty- six thousand seven hundred dollars of assets were canceled from the books as worthless, and within the same three years the indebtedness was increased by $58,000. The foreclosed mort- gages amounted to more than $110,000. From these no interest was received, but the costs of foreclosure must be paid. The net interest earnings, which in 1891 were $18,335, amounted to only $4,103 in 1895. Under these conditions the trustees asked Deall Goodhue to make a canvass for students. There was room for thirty more at Gridley Hall. In 1895, after a quarter of a cen- tury, the undergraduate collegiate department numbered only 117. He gave the larger part of four years to this work. Each year he visited every high school and academy in the state and many of the graded schools. He addressed the schools on the value of a collegiate education. At recess time the students gathered about the rostrum and he passed out large photographs of the buildings, telescope and other things of interest. He met the senior class during the day and called at the homes of those who were expecting to go to college. At the close of school each student received an envelope containing carefully prepared circulars designed to acquaint parents and citizens with the aims and work of the college. By these means the collegiate enroll- ment was increased from 117 to 126 the first six months, and then year by year to 142, 163, 209 and 232. This was only two short of a doubled enrollment. The thirty vacancies at Gridley Hall now paid $45 each, making an added revenue of $1.350. One hundred and fifteen more college students paid tuition and fees. The boarding department made larger profits and the music department had larger earnings. In these ways the college receipts were increased by $6,000 a year, and the increase was a permanent one. Financially, it was equal to $100,000 of new endowment which should pay 6 per cent and the cost of adminis- tration. This accelerated growth gave the college prestige and higher rank among the institutions of the state, and enabled it to drop all subfreshman work long before any of the other col- leges of the state. After forty years of continuons service Mr. Goodhue resigned his professorship, but was soon elected as a trustee of the college and a member of its executive committee.
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William W. Payne-1871-1908. In September, 1871, W. W. Payne was called to Carleton College as instructor in mathe- matics and physics. Previous to this time, Professor Horace Goodhue had taught the advanced classes in mathematics through the freshman year in regular college studies. At this time the department of mathematics and physics was organized, including the pure and the applied branches in both subjects, as they were then taught in the best of the smaller colleges in this country.
The instructor then thought that first-rate physical apparatus for the applied part of the work in the department was absolutely necessary for the best results. Such aid was asked of the college, and the same was forthcoming soon, by the help of interested and generous friends, so that the practical instruction in meteorology, surveying, physics and astronomy was soon on a real scientific basis, which, of course. meant very much for a college in the early stages of its formative period.
In 1872 the name of the department was changed to mathe- matics and astronomy, and the instructor was made professor, which position he held until October, 1908. having thus taught in the college continuously for more than thirty-seven years.
The varied activities and the growth of this department of the college has furnished a theme of very great interest to the friends of the college, especially since the time of its larger equip- ment for scientific work. A very brief outline of its history for four decades will show this.
In 1876 plans for a new, small astronomical observatory were made and the building, conveniently located on the college campus, was completed in 1878, and furnished with instruments of first-rate quality and ample in size for all need at that time. On October 23 of that year the first electrical time-signal ever given, west of the Mississippi and north of St. Louis, was sent to the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad from the observa- tory at Carleton College. Since that time the observatory has continuously furnished daily signals in correct standard time to railway companies and cities over much northwestern territory.
On account of the interest taken in the practical side of meteorology at the observatory the government weather bureau at Washington, D. C., decided to organize a state weather service in Minnesota, and Professor Payne was made director of it, and the observatory was designated as the central station in the state. and an experienced weather observer from Washington was detailed as assistant under pay from the national weather bureau. The plan was to make the science teachers of the leading high schools the observers in local stations which were to be equipped with standard instruments, private forces and instructions for
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regular reports to the central station at the observatory of Carleton college. This work could not be continued because of adverse political influence in the state against the college that was made effective in the weather bureau in Washington. For the same reason a magnetic survey of the state was abandoned although it had been fairly well started with the promise of very useful results.
Attention was then turned to the development of work in practical astronomy. The observatory was furnished with good, modern instruments, but its library was very deficient, and there was no money available for a needed supply of reference books for practical work.
To meet this lack, the director of the observatory started an astronomical publication, called the "Sidereal Messenger," in 1882. This monthly magazine at once brought in, on exchange. all needed current monthlies, and many valuable, standard publi- cations of leading observatories from all parts of the world. The annual subscriptions and the scientific advertising made the new enterprise, from the first, self-sustaining and a little more, besides putting the observatory in touch constantly with all the centers of scientific knowledge and research at home and abroad. That step. under all the circumstances, was a bold one to take, but it proved successful then and still more so in later years, and even down to the present time.
When ten volumes of the "Sidereal Messenger" were com- pleted Professor George E. Hale of Chicago was associated with the director of the observatory in a new and much larger astron- omical magazine called "Astronomy and Astro-Physics." This publication continued for three years, after which it was pur- chased by Professor Hale and its name thereafter was changed to the "Astrophysical Journal." As this later publication was not popular enough to meet the wants of a large part of its patronage, the director of the observatory founded another in 1892 which was called "Popular Astronomy," and which he con- tinned until 1910, when it was sold to Carleton college, Dr. H. C. Wilson, director of Goodsell observatory, being appointed its editor and business manager.
In 1885 it became evident that the little observatory of 1878 was not large enough to do the work and so a new and much larger observatory was erected and equipped at the large expense of about $63,000. This fine, modern astronomical observatory attracted much favorable attention to the college, became of the practical and the scientific work carried by the regular observers and by special students in the post-graduate course of mathe- matics and astronomy which led to the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
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During this time Dr. H. C. Wilson, after long study in the Cincinnati observatory and years of work in the United States naval observatory at Washington, D. C., was made associate professor of mathematics and astronomy in Carleton college. His very efficient aid from this time forward was a large factor in the good results that followed, in giving the college a reputation for scientific work that was both helpful and most gratifying to all interested.
In 1887 the department was very fortunate in securing the services of Miss Charlotte R. Willard, as assistant instructor in mathematics and astronomy. Her ability as a teacher of science, as an observer in practical astronomy and as associate editor of "Popular Astronomy" was unique. It was singularly strong in exact scholarship, and in the even poise of a rare and lovable personality.
After a few years of most valuable service she resigned her position in college and went into the work she most loved, as missionary to the foreign field.
In closing this brief sketch of the growth of the department of mathematics and astronomy the former director of Goodsell observatory is mindful of and can never forget the wise counsel and the unequaled aid so kindly and constantly given by Dr. James W. Strong, then president of Carleton college. Without these it is very doubtful if such worthy foundations could have been laid. They were, indeed, laid conscientiously in Christian fidelity, and it is to be fervently hoped that they will be as enduring in living truth as they have been progressive and stable in actual fact.
Margaret J. Evans, 1874-1908. When the writer came to his service at Carleton in 1883 from teaching in one of the famous old colleges in New England he found conditions rude and primi- tive in many respects, in strong contrast to what he had left ; the library was but little better than nothing, some of the buildings were poor wooden structures, the campus was bare, the college students were few in number. But he found some men and women in the faculty who compared well with those he had worked with in the East. devoting themselves with an enthusiasm that recognized no hardship of self-sacrifice to the building up of the young college. One large and imposing building gave dignity to the campus, and it soon became evident that the gracious woman who presided over that building was one of the vital formative forces in the life of the young college. As its inner life and history opened to him. the many phases of her influence and power became evident.
It was as lady principal, as she was then called, that Miss Evans was best known at that time. In the intimate associations
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of dormitory life the inspiration of her large and winning person- ality shaped the character and ideals of the young women to a remarkable degree, and here her most lasting and important influence was exerted. To a greater or less degree the girls who remained in the hall for any considerable time in those days reflected her character, her ideas, and even her manner; and as they went out into life they carried her spirit and extended her activities. Very much of the "Carleton stamp," especially in the case of the women, was due to the impress made upon them by Miss Evans.
As a teacher she was both inspiring and exacting. The students looked forward to her literature classes with mingled feelings-eagerness because of the interest, the inspiration, the strength of the work, and fear lest they should come short because of the heavy requirements laid upon them. But once in the class the dread vanished and a deep and abiding interest in English literature was kindled. Miss Evans then taught both French and German in addition to the English and all in addition to her administrative work and her outside activities; this shows how Carleton teachers worked in those carly days. To prepare herself more fully and to keep a fresh enthusiasm she broke the routine by occasional trips to Europe and short periods of univer- sity work, and so the interest of her classes was held throughout her whole teaching career.
Naturally from her position and her personal strength Miss Evans strongly influenced the policy and the inner life of the college. In faculty meeting her judgments carried weight and her opinions and advice were frequently sought and carefully considered. And it goes without saying that she was a large figure in the community life, social and religious.
Miss Evans was early recognized among the Congregational churches of Minnesota as a leader and was for very many years, and is yet, president of the Women's Board of Missions of the state. She was called on for addresses on every side and in this way made the college favorably known. And as the years went on she received wider recognition ; she was the first woman to be made a corporate member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and she has been a speaker at the national council of the church. An important phase of her influence was that upon the organization and development of club work among women she early recognized the value of this work in broadening the interests and enriching the life of women, and when the Federation of Women's Clubs was organized she was the first state president. She gave much time and energy to this work, the value of which is gratefully acknowledged by the women of the state. She has also been prominent in the national organization,
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having been a vice-president for some years. Another line of activity has been in the work of advancing library organization and efficiency through the state ; she was appointed a member of the Minnesota Public Library Commission by the governor and has served as chairman of the commission. Other similar activ- ities might be mentioned. All of this outside work has carried the influence and name of Carleton college far and wide, and it has also helped the college through its reaction upon Miss Evans herself, in making her stronger for her work at home.
George Huntington, 1879-1906. In the autumn of 1879 the installment of George Huntington as professor of logic and rhetoric greatly strengthened and enriched the faculty of Carleton College. As the son of Rev. Thomas Huntington, who had also the degree of M. D., Prof. Huntington had received in the public schools of his native Brooklyn, Conn .: of Providence, R. 1 .; in Brown University, and in Andover Theological Seminary of Massachusetts, the best education of New England. A temporary failure in health had given him the industrial training of four years' apprenticeship as a machinist in the Corliss Engine Com- pany's shops of Providence, and a year of practice had made him the successful builder of the engine that ran the machinery of the first Chicago exposition.
Thus versatile by inheritance and attainment, trained further in adaptation by pastorates in Central Village, Conn. ; Providence, R. I., and Oak Park, 111., he brought rare qualities to the new college of Minnesota. Genial, urbane, refined. a lover of the beautiful and the good, he speedily became a potent factor in the social, intellectual and religious life of the college. His gifts as orator, ready versifier, reader in public and private circles, illus- trator, and his personal graciousness and charm made him a social power. As author during his Oak Park pastorate of "Shining Hours," a distinctive book of poems, and editor of the "Scholar." a juvenile magazine, and of the "Sunday School Teacher." he had added large practice to theory as a preparation for his pro- fessional duties. This practice he kept up by the publication. during his college career, of six books first published serially in "The Advance," "Outlines of Congregational History," "Chubby Ruff." "Nakoma," "Kings and Cupbearers," "The Rockanock Stage," and "Maud Brayton." and also by the publication of numerous short stories in the "Youths' Companion," and the religious weeklies. llis professional work was distinguished by painstaking effort under limitations of large classes and scant time to foster logical habits of thought and discourse by its emphasis upon genuineness, sincerity in literary production, upon the avoidance of bombast and grandiloquence in oratory and of artificial "fine writing" in composition, upon the conversational
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tone in public speaking-unless emotion required impassioned utterance-upon the solid principles of logic and rhetoric and upon good taste in all literary efforts.
In the administrative work of the college his special contri- bution was that of pastoral attitude toward the members of the college. His was ever the charity "that thinketh no evil, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things." Many a refrac- tory student owed "another chance" to Prof. Huntington's depre- cation of the application of college penal law, and his inexhaust- ible faith in human nature. His gift of humor proved an effective weapon in more than one student or faculty conflict and won him the title of "The Minnesota Holmes." As poet, he earned the gratitude of the college by his poems of occasion, such as his two hymns for the inauguration of President Sallmen, his poem for the cornerstone exercises of the observatory, the rollicking Carle- ton Alphabet song. Carleton Chimes, and others. He wonl too, wider fame by his frequent poetical contributions to the press, such as the humorous "Incompatible Pilgrims," the tender "When I am Old." and the noble "International Hymn."
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