USA > New Jersey > Burlington County > Burlington > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 45
USA > New Jersey > Mercer County > History of Burlington and Mercer counties, New Jersey : with biographical sketches of many of their pioneers and prominent men > Part 45
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President Smith was much admired in society, as well as in the chair and the pulpit. Gen. Washing- ton, in a letter to his adopted son, George Washington Park Custis, written from Mount Vernon, July 23, 1797, said, " No college has turned out better scholars or more estimable characters than Nassau, nor is there any one whose president is thought more capable to direct a proper system of education than Dr. Smith."
Dr. Lindsley said of him, "His person, presence, and carriage were so remarkable that he never entered the village church or college chapel, or walked the streets, or appeared in any company without arrest- ing attention or creating a sensation, not of surprise or wonder, but of pleasing, grateful admiration, a kind of involuntary emotiou and homage of the heart, a tribute as cordially yielded as it was richly deserved."
Yale conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and Harvard that of Doctor of Laws. Hc delivered an address before the American Philosophi- cal Society in Philadelphia, which gave rise to his volume on "The Variety of Complexion and Figure of the Human Species."
As a mark of the growth of the college under his administration it has been noted that four professors were added to the faculty. They were John Maclean, M.D., the father of ex-President Maclean. He was a surgeon in the civil and military service of Great Britain, a native of Scotland, a man of superior at- tainments in chemistry, and also in mathematics and natural philosophy. He came to this country in 1795. He added to the reputation of the college. He married a daughter of Dr. Absalam Bainbridge, of Princeton, and sister of Commodore Bainbridge, . U.S.N. Professor William Thompson was elected Professor of Languages in 1802, the Rev. Henry Kollock of Theology in 1803, and Rev. Andrew --- Hunter of Astronomy and Mathematics in 1804.
EIGHTH PRESIDENT, REV. ASHBEL GREEN, 1812- 22 .-- Dr. Green was elected president Aug. 14, 1812. church at Hanover, Morris Co., N. J., the place where President Green was born July 6, 1762 ; he graduated at this college in 1783, in the presence of Gen. Wash- ington and the American Congress, and spoke the valedictory to his class. He was an attractive preacher, a sound theologian of the Calvinistic school, and an ecclesiastic of leading influence in the courts and councils of the Presbyterian Church. Upon his inauguration as president the faculty was recon- structed. The Rev. Philip Lindsley was chosen Pro- fessor of Languages, and Professor Slack was elected Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy. The number of students was not large, but was in- creasing. Notwithstanding a wonderful revival of religion began in the college in the year 1814, there was unusual turbulence and disorder among the stu- dents, both before and after the revival, and the re- bellion reached its climax in 1817. For several days the college exereises were entirely interrupted. A large number of students were sent home, the good name of the college suffered reproach, and the civil authorities were called upon to enforce authority and protect the college property. Only twenty-one stu- dents took the first degree in that year. Professor Slack resigned, and Henry Vethake, late professor in Queen's College, was elected to fill his vacancy.
In 1818 a new professorship was created, that of "Experimental Philosophy, Chemistry, and Natural
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History," and Jacob Green, a son of the president, was elected to fill the chair. John Maclean was : elected tutor while a student in the theological semi- nary, at the age of nineteen years.
The administration of President Green was not a smooth one. There was friction in the faculty and turbulence among the students. During it there were three hundred and fifty-six gradnates, of whom twenty-nine became presidents or professors of col- leges, and a large number became distinguished in high places in Church and State. The graduating class of 1821 numbered forty. President Green was patriotie and well versed in public matters. He was the first president of the college who was a native Jerseyman. The Theological Seminary, which was ; established in Princeton at the time lie became presi- dent of the college, was located here in no small de- gree through the efforts and influence of Dr. Green. Ex-President Maclean says of him, "No president of the college ever kept more constantly in mind its -- original design as an institution devoted to the inter- ests of religion and learning." He made Dr. Wither- spoon his model character. He resigned his office as president Sept. 22, 1822, and died in Philadelphia, May 19, 1848, near the close of his eighty-sixth year, and was buried with the presidents at Princeton. He : was a fine and venerable-looking man. He had four sons, Robert S., James S., Jacob, and Ashbel Green. He was eminent with the pen, and was an extensive author. His biography, written chiefly by himself, was published and edited by the Rev. Dr. Joseph H. Jones.
NINTH PRESIDENT, REV. JAMES CARNAHAN, 1823-54 .- The successor of President Green was Rev. James Carnahan, D.D., elected May 12, 1823. He was born in Cumberland County, Pa., Nov. 15, 1775, and gradnated at Princetou in 1800. He was licensed by the Presbytery of New Brunswick, taught a classi- cal sehool at Georgetown, D. C., for nine years, and was pastor of a church for several years at Utica, N. Y.
Dr. Carnahan came with less reputation than his predecessors, and was about forty-eight years old when he became president. The faculty at that time consisted only of the president, vice-president, a pro- fessor of mathematics, and two tutors. With experi- ! ence in teaching, a well-disciplined mind, a gentle spirit, strong common sense, with sincerity, modesty, Two important events affecting the interest of the and dignity, he proved a successful officer, and : college occurred during liis term of office, namely, the during his administration of thirty-one years the col- ; burning of old Nassau Hall and the withdrawal of lege prospered. The Whig and Clio Halls, the East and West Colleges, a professor's house, a refectory, and a chapel were built.
A Law Department was organized in 1847. The appliances of the college were increased, the campus was improved, the standard of study was gradn- ally raised, and the faculty was enlarged. Instead of two professors and two tutors to aid him, as when he began, he had at the time of his resignation
six professors, two assistant professors, three tutors, and a teacher of modern languages. He conferred the first degree on sixteen hundred and thirty-four students, about as many as the whole number of his predecessors liad conferred from the origin of the college. The number who became ministers of the gospel was two hundred and ninety-one. He brought the number of students in attendance from one hun- dred to two hundred and thirty. His administration was pacific. In tendering his resignation, June 29, 1853, he said, "Many cases of irregular and bad con- duct on the part of individual students have occurred, yet it may not be improper to remark that except on one occasion, which happened a few weeks after I came into office, no general combination to resist the authority of the faculty has taken place in thirty years, nor have the studies and recitations of the classes been suspended or interrupted a single day from the same cause."
He died March 3, 1859, and was buried in Prince- ton, next to his predecessor, President Green, in the eighty-fonrth year of his age.
The professors who were members of the faculty under President Carnahan were Jacob Green, John. Maclean, Luther Halsey, Robert B. Patton, Albert B. Dod, Henry Vethake, John Torrey, Samuel L. Howell, Lewis Hargous, Joseph Addison Alexander, Joseph Henry, Benedict Jaeger, James W. Alexan- der, John S. Hart, Stephen Alexander, Evert M. Topping, Alex. Cardon de Sandrans, George M. Giger, Matthew B. Hope, Richard S. Field, James S. Green, Joseph C. Hornblower, John T. Duffield, John Forsyth, Lyman Coleman, John Stillwell Schank, Elias Loomis, Richard S. Mccullough, and James C. Moffat.
TENTH PRESIDENT, REV. JOHN MACLEAN, 1854- 68 .- The election of the Rev. Dr. John Maclean as the successor of President Carnahan occurred in De- cember, 1853, and his inauguration June 28, 1854. He was a son of Dr. John Maclean, a former profes- sor in the college, who was born and educated in Scotland, and was a chemist of celebrity. President Maclean had been connected with the college either . as tntor or professor from the time of Iris graduation, and was vice-president under President Carnahan. His administration was much like that of his prede- cessor.
the Southern students in the civil war. On the 10til of March, 1855, a fire broke out in the second story of the building at half-past eight o'clock in the evening. The wind was high, and all efforts to save the build- ing were vain, and before midnight the whole struc- ture, except its old stone walls, were a mass of ruins. Many of the students lost their property, and the val- nable library of the Philadelphia Society was nearly destroyed.
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President Maclean and the trustees proceeded forth- with to rebuild the edifice, and it was made fireproof, and was slightly improved, but the old walls were retained .. The long entries were discarded and com- partments were substituted. The building was heated by eight furnaces. The number of students soon atter this ran up to about three hundred, and the institution went on prosperously.
When the civil war broke out in 1861, nearly one- half of the students were from the slaveholding States, and it is not difficult to imagine how hard it was to control and repress the impetuous and excited young men assembled from all parts of the then convulsed Union. The result was that those who had gone to their home beyond the line of the non-seceding States in vacation did not return to college during the war. President Maclean was eminently loyal to the national cause, as were the other members of the faculty with perhaps a single exception.
Notwithstanding these untoward events, Dr. Mac- lean during the fourteen years of his presidency con- ferred the first degree on eight hundred and ninety-five graduates. In the first year the number of graduates was eighty, and in the last year, 1868, it was sixty- three.
The financial interests of the institution received most important aid during Dr. Maclean's administra- tion. He says that within that period, including the last year of President Carnahan's. presidency, the ! actual increase of the funds vested in approved and reliable securities, after paying for rebuilding the college, was not less than two hundred and forty thou- sand dollars; of this sum one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars were for professorships, over fifty thousand dollars for scholarships, six thousand dollars for prizes, and about sixty-four thousand dollars for general purposes. In addition to this was the gift of Dr. John N. Woodhull of divers houses and land ad- jacent to this college, estimated at the time at twenty thousand dollars. Also other gifts were made by Gen. N. N. Halsted for the observatory of about sixty thousand dollars, and by John C. Green in the pur- chase of land for various contemplated improvements since carried out, besides other gift-, all of which at that time amounted in the aggregate to more than four hundred thousand dollars. It thus appears that President Maclean retired from the college at a time when liberal things were devised for the institution, and when confidence in its management was mani- fested by its friends and alumni.
prepared and published a valuable history of the col- lege in two oetavo volumes. Though an octogenarian, he still moves about with his faculties in full vigor, filling offices of important and honorable trusts, cordially receiving visits from his hosts of friends, the same unchanged gentleman of true nobility, the best-loved man in Princeton, his name honored wherever known, and known throughout all the States of America.
The following professors were chosen and admitted to the faculty during President Maclean's administra- tion : Lyman H. Atwater, Arnold Guyot, William A. Dod. George A. Matile, Henry C. Cameron, Joshua H. McIlvaine, John S. Hart, Charles A. Aiken.
ELEVENTH PRESIDENT, REV. JAMES MICCOSH, FROM 1868 .- President McCosh was inaugurated as successor to President Maclean, Oct. 27, 1868. He was a native of Scotland, had been pastor at Brechen, in that country, for sixteen years, and had been Pro- fessor of Logic and Metaphysics in Queen's College, Belfast, for about the same number of years before he came to Princeton. His arrival here was just one hundred years after Dr. Witherspoon came from Scot- land to preside over the college. He brought with lim a high reputation for character and scholarship. He was then the author of several metaphysical works which ranked high for their merit. Among these works were his "Method of Divine Govern- ment," "Intuitions of the Human Mind," "Typical Forms and Special Ends in Creation," "The Super- natural in Relation to the Natural." He has pub- lished several new works of high character since he has been in Princeton.
Dr. MeCosh was warmly received by the friends of the college, and he has been well sustained from the day of his inauguration. He is an enthusiast as an educator, and he has been very successful in enlisting the co-operation of wealthy men, especially those of Scotch descent and who were Presbyterians. He is pre-eminently a scholarly man, intensely studious, and ever watchful for the success of the institution over which he presides.
The administration of President MeCosh was com- menced under favorable circumstances. The civil war, which had affected the number of the students, had now resulted in peace and a maintenance of the Union. The educational facilities in the Southern States had been greatly impaired by the exhaustive draughts of the Confederate government and army, and Princeton College was regarded as the most at- tractive institution to which the Southern young men could be sent to obtain their education. Moreover, the liberal things which, as already mentioned, had been devised by some of the benefactors of the col- ! lege foreshadowed for it a prosperous future.
With a sense that the growing infirmities of age and the anxious cares of a long life in the service of the college had so impaired his strength as to make it advisable for him to surrender his place to another, he tendered his resignation to the trustees in the year 1868, which was accepted. He retired to a house in Dr. MeCosh has been president of this college for fourteen years, as long as the term of his predecessor. He has more than fulfilled the expectations of his Canal Street provided for him by his friends, where he now resides, with an income provided for him by the trustees of the college. He has in the mean time : most sanguine supporters. In enlarging the currie-
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ulum and raising the standard of study, in raising the number of students and providing a place and appliances for them, in the erection of new buildings and creating new chairs, and in raising all needed money and funds with which to extend the grounds and buildings and to keep them in excellent order, President McCosh has, through the trustees, accom- plished more for the college than any of his predeces- sors liad done. Old buildings have been transformed or swept away; new ones of great beauty and cost have been multiplied yearly, until the group of them astonislies the beholder who walks among them. The Observatory, the Gymnasium, Dickinson Hall, Re- union Hall, the Chancellor Green Library, the John C. Green School of Science, Witherspoon Hall, Ed- wards Hall, Murray Hall, the presidential mansion at Prospect, the Marquand Chapel have all made their appearance since Dr. McCosh took charge of the institution. In addition to these, new houses for professors have been erected, the grounds have been enlarged and beantified, the faculty has been enlarged : to about thirty in number, and the number of students has risen to five hundred and upwards.
THE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE has become an impor- ! tant branch or department of the college. The Scien- tific Hall is the largest and most expensive of the college buildings. It is fully endowed and thoroughly equipped. The general course of study prescribed in this department is very comprehensive, and there . are also elective courses, such as biology and geology, chemistry aud mineralogy, civil engineering and ar- chitecture. Students are admitted only after ade- quate preparation, and they are regarded as members of the college, subject to all the rules and discipline, and entitled to all the privileges of students in the literary or academie department. It is called the John C. Green School of Science, because he estab- lished and endowed it magnificently.
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The new professors and teachers who have been added to the college since Dr. McCosh has been president are the following: William A. Packard, James C. Welling, Joseph Karge, Cyrus F. Brackett, Henry B. Cornwall, Theodore W. Hunt, George Mc- Closkie, James O. Murray, Charles McMillan, Ed- ward D. Lindsey, Charles A. Young, S. Stanhope Orris, Charles G. Rockwood, William M. Sloane.
When Dr. McCosh came here in 1868 there were nineteen teachers, now there are thirty-five. There were two hundred and sixty-four students, and now there are five hundred and thirty-seven; and it is estimated that the gifts to the college since he was inaugurated president amount to two million five hundred thousand dollars.
OFFICERS AND ALUMNI .-- There have been thirty- four different Governors of New Jersey who have been ex-officio presidents of the board of trustees, Governor Belcher having been the first, and Gover- nor Ludlow the last one. There have been eleven presidents of the college, Presideut Dickinson the /
first, and President McCosh being the present inenm- bent. There have been one hundred and seventy-five members of the board of trustees during the existence of the college, embracing the most prominent men in Church and State in New Jersey and in adjoining States.
There have been seventy-five professors in the col- lege from its organization to the present time.
The present faculty is very large, containing about thirty professors. The accession of new students this fall (1882) will reach nearly two hundred.
The whole number of the alumni, including the dead and the living, may be set down at five thousand four hundred and thirty-nine.
Of this number a large proportion entered the min- istry and the other learned professions. The propor- tion of graduates who became eminent as jurists, statesmen, divines, and professors iu literary institu- tions will be found larger than in other similar insti- tutions. These graduates belong to every State in the Union. In the Continental Congress there were more members from Princeton College than any other, there being twenty-eight, while Harvard and Yale, ranking next, each had twenty-three. It may be noted that a very large proportion of the alumni of Princeton were, in the earlier history of the college, from the Southern States, where they sought high places in political offices, both State and national. Their circumstances favored such pursuits and such rewards. Things have changed wonderfully through- out the country. Popular education has been raised so high as to begin to toueh our colleges, and the scientific and practical departments of these higher institutions are so well adapted to the useful arts that they begin to meet the people and shower their benefits directly upon the varied pursuits and busi- ness of life, instead of confining them to the learned professions.
BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS .- There is now no build- ing on Nassau Street between the old Presbyterian Church and Washington Street, formerly known as Wilson's Corner, east of the School of Science, except the old mansion of the president. The campus ex- tends along the whole front. The old Maclean house, the old City Hotel, which in the days of the Revolu- tion was kept by Maj. Hyer with the sign of " Hudi- bras," the compact row of dwellings east of the liotel, ineludiug the Col. Beatty house to the western eorner, are all removed, not a vestige of them is to be seen there. The campus is inclosed on the whole front on Nassau Street by a handsome iron fence, the pavement in the street is well flagged, as are also the extensive walks through the campus from building to building, and the lawns are kept with nice care and attention.
Instead of the four acres which were originally re- quired and furnished to secure the location of the college here, additions liave extended the acreage to above sixty acres.
Nassau Hall, or North College, is in the centre of
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the group. Many of the original uses to which it was applied have been extinguished by the provision of new and separate buildings. Its present use is lim- ited, except a few rooms for students, to the museum of art, one of the most interesting and attractive places on the college grounds. The college bell and elock are retained on this hall. The building was first used in 1756, when the college was transferred from Newark to Princeton.
The original presidential mansion, built when Nassau Hall was erected, has never been burned, and not very much altered either within or without. It is at the present time occupied by the Rev. Professor Murray.
The Geological Hall was built in 1803, in the rear of the president's house, and nearly opposite the west end of Nassau Hall. It was formerly used for recita- tion-rooms, the library, literary societies, geological cabinet, and lecture-room, and the Philadelphian So- eiety. It has recently been converted into offices for the treasurer and the college officers having charge of the grounds and order of college.
There was another building corresponding to this one built at the same time opposite on the east side of the campus. It was known as the Philosophical Hall, where the museum of natural history and the refectory were kept. It was taken down after Dr. McCosh came, to give place to the new library.
East and West Colleges : these dormitories were erected in 1833 and 1836, on the opposite sides of the orignal back campus. They are four stories high. Each has rooms for sixty-four occupants.
The literary halls, Whig and Cliosophie, built about the year 1837. They are Greciau buildings, and eost about six thousand dollars each.
The old chapel is a eruciform structure, in the Byzantine style, erected in 1847. It was capable of seating four or five hundred students. It stands near the east end of North College. It has been used for public speaking and preaching. Now that a new chapel is ereeted, it will probably be applied to some other use.
The Halsted Observatory was built by Gen. N. N. Halsted, of Newark, N. J. The corner-stone was laid in 1866. It consists of a central octagonal tower supporting a revolving dome, with a smaller dome on the east and west side. It was well built of stone at the cost of sixty thousand dollars. This first munifi- cent gift of the kind was followed by other like gifts. A suitable telescope has just been completed for it, the second in size and power ever made.
The Gymnasium is a stone building, a beautiful structure, near the observatory and above the railroad depot. It was built in 1869, at a cost of forty thou- sand dollars, a gift of Robert Bonner and Harry G. Marquand, of New York. It is provided with com- plete apparatus, and it fully meets the end of its erection.
stone with red-brick trimmings in 1870, as a memorial of the reunion of the Old and New School divisions in the Presbyterian Church. It accommodates about seventy-five students with rooms. It cost fifty thou- sand dollars.
Dickinson Hall is a three-story stone building, de- voted exclusively to elass instruction iu lecture- and recitation-rooms, with furniture adapted to such use. The rooms in this as in Reunion Hall are warmed by steam. It was named after the first president, Jona- than Dickinson, by its donor, John C. Green. Its original cost was one hundred and ten thousand dol- lars. He afterwards furnished it, and invested for it another one hundred thousand dollars, making the two hundred and ten thousand dollars, the Elizabeth Foundation Fund, in memory of his mother. He also gave twenty-five thousand dollars for an income for the care of this hall and grounds. It was built in 1870.
The Chancellor Green Library : this is a very ar- tistie and beautiful stone building, both in its interior and exterior finish. It consists of a central octagonal building under a dome, with a small tower wing on two sides corresponding to the large central one. The library is in the central structure, admirably and skill- fully arranged, and contains fifty-five thousand vol- umes. The two literary halls have each eight thousand volumes, and the Philadelphian Society has eight ' hundred, making a total of seventy-one thousand eight hundred volumes. The little wing at the west end is ! a beautiful room for the meeting of the trustees.
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