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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01747 6265
HISTORICAL SKETCH
GENEALOGY 974.701 On2aL
OF
HAMILTON COLLEGE
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IME LOS
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A
HISTORICAL SKETCH
OF
HAMILTON COLLEGE,
CLINTON, NEW YORK.
BY THE REV. CHARLES ELMER ALLISON, CLASS OF 1870.
YONKERS, NEW YORK.
1889.
COMPOSITION AND JI ECTROTYPING BY THE HUBLEY PRINTING CO. L'D .. W. O. HEDGE. BASTERN AGENT. 18 AND 20 ASTOR PLACE N. Y.
PREFACE.
AN article, written for the columns of a newspaper, was the nucleus of these pages. Several alumni desired to have the newspaper sketch in a form more convenient for preservation and reference. Without recasting the original sketch, additions were made, among them records previously published by the College. Although the author of this book, with more propriety, might have made an appendix of those records, they were incorporated in the present form. Graduates and other readers, conversant with the annals of the College, will justly regard this volume a compilation rather than a well-digested history. At best, it is only a sketch. Folios would not suffice to record the labors and achievements of eminent alumni, whose names even, do not appear on these pages. For example, only a brief mention is made of missionary graduates,-" God's Chivalry."
When Samuel Kirkland, himself a missionary, made his weary way into the forest gloom, and subsequently founded in the woods an institution of Christian learning, little did he realize that many, who should tread those walks beneath the poplar trees on College Hill, would afterward, with fect beautiful upon the mountains of distant lands, bring to dying souls, with tongue, pen and press, the same good tidings, and publish the same peace he proclaimed to his dusky disciples. As for those faithful mission- aries, they neither seek nor need earthly honor. Are not their names and achievements written in the chronicles of the King, whose they are and whom they serve ? There they will shine,
.
2
PREFACE.
" When the stars are old, and the sun is cold, And the leaves of the judgment book unfold."
Imperfect as this little volume is, it serves to unbosom its author's love for his ALMA MATER-an Institution associated in his mind and heart with student friends and loved instructors, with home and parents, whose lives were rich in counsel and sweet with tenderness, and but for whose self-sacrificing affection he could not have enjoyed the advantages of the College.
It is hoped that the book will enable widely-scattered graduates, (whose feet have wandered far since, with unexhausted energy, they trod the winding paths of the campus), to stand once more, surrounded by " the boys," in the shadows of the grey halls, from whose windows so many years ago, they eagerly looked out upon life with its untasted joys and unfinished work. Many of them are now "looking out of life's western windows." Possibly a loved name, or pictured college hall, or familiar face in this volume will cause the dimming eyes of some old graduate to " burn again under his white hair as fire burns on the hearth when there is snow on the roof."
" Knowledge is folly unless grace guide it," for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. A college without Christ can- not permanently prosper, nor can it be loved as a Christian College is. Hamilton is conservative. True to her motto, Lux et Veritas, she advocates for the mind old-fashioned culture and for the priceless soul, " the faith which was once delivered to the saints." If these pages shall, even in a slight degree, promote the prosperity of our Mother on the Hill, the author will not regret that, for their preparation, he took up the pen which he now lays down.
C. E. A.
Pastor's Study, Dayspring Presbyterian Church,
Yonkers, N. Y., April 15th, 1889.
CORRIGENDA.
Page 10. line 10. for Wesleyen read Wesleyan.
Page 11, line 13, for Jay read Jas.
Page 18, line 31, for Chieftan read Chieftain.
Page 20. line 33, for 1793 read 1794.
Page 21, line 7. for ninety-three read ninety-two.
Page 23, lines 19, 20, 21 should be omitted. They perpetuate an error which has crept into the College annals. Professor Norton was not the author of the hymn referred to.
Page 24, line 39, for advice read advice.
Page 26, line 15, after brine insert '
Page 29, line 2, after sorrow insert "
Page 40, line 6, (beginning of line, ) for Kirkland read Edmund Wetmore.
Page 63, lines 13, 14, 19, 22 for " insert '
Page 64, lines 13, 16 for " insert '
Page 64. line 23, after Hamilton insert "
Page 66. lines 3, 4 for " insert '
Page 67, line 12, for adequate read inadequate.
Page 69, line 2, for Vermillion read Vermilion.
Page 76, line 17, for siderial reod sidereal.
Page 77, line 22. for " " insert ' '"
Page 79. line 24, for 1793 read 1794.
Page 80. line 4. for indispensible read indispensable.
Page 81, line 17, for ". " insert ' ' Page 81, line 24, for " " insert ' '
Index-page I, omit 14 after Amherst College.
Index-page V. under Hymns insert "Welcome thou servant of the Lord," 59, omit. "Ye servants of God your Master proclaim." 23.
Index-page VI, for Wm. W. 62, read Win. N. 62.
Index-page VIII, line 9, for 5 read 6.
Index-page IX, for Wesleyen read Wesleyan.
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
HAMILTON COLLEGE.
COLLEGI
F
N
T
CLINTON, Oneida Co., N. Y., is widely known, not only as the seat of Hamilton College, but as a village of Grammar schools and ladies' seminaries. It is near the center of the Empire State. The beautiful college town nestles in a tranquil valley,
" Where the Oriskany winding flows, And tells its story as it goes, Of warrior bold and Indian maid."
The nearest city, (Utica, ) is nine miles away, twenty-five min- utes by rail. Clintonians are justly proud of their academic vil- lage. Recently with much pomp and display they commemorated the one hundredth anniversary of the settlement of the place. The President of the United States was present. President Cleveland, when a youth, studied in the Clinton Grammar School, preparing to enter Hamilton College, but the death of his father, a Presbyterian minister, frustrated his hopes. His brother, also a minister of the gospel, graduated at the College, and his cultured sister, Rose E. Cleveland, graduated at Houghton, one of the Clinton seminaries for young ladies.
Years ago students reached Clinton by stages, the more fortu- nate securing seats within the lumbering vehicles, and teaching some fair fellow-traveller how to conjugate Amo, while the less
7
8
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
fortunate, perched themselves on the outside, and sang their student-songs-" Litoria," or " I sat upon the quarter deck, and whiffed my cares away," or "Its the way we have at old Hamil- ton," or,
" Gaudeamus igitur
" Juvenes dum sumus,
" Post jucundam juventutem
' Post molestam senectutem
" Nos habebit humus."
College Hill in Clinton commands a magnificent view. It is reached by College Street, the longest avenue in the beautiful town. Between the foot of the hill and the College campus, the street is divided into four parts, known far and wide, among all Hamilton men, as Freshman hill, Sophomore hill, Junior hill and Senior hill. For nearly a century students have been treading that famous hillside walk. So many have left those winding paths to render Church and State large service and, as alumni, to climb to undying fame, that when the long procession moves before the eye of the scribe up the historic slope, under the senti- nel poplars, through the grey halls, and out into the world, he does not wonder that successive graduating classes, about to say farewell to the College, salute the weather beaten stone buildings with cheers and music.
" For the good and the great, in their beautiful prime, Through these precincts have musingly trod, While they girded their spirits and deepened the streamus, That make glad the fair City of God."
If those who compile the Triennial Catalogues of Hamilton, would publish, as some other colleges do, the names of all stu- dents, whether graduates or not, the reader might know how many have studied within the walls of the old institution. Prob. ably the number would approximate four thousand. Many who did not graduate have become eminent men and recall with pleas- ure and gratitude their student days at the College. The institu- tion has been enriched by their gifts and rejoices in the laurels they have won. The whole number of graduates is over twenty- six hundred.
HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y.
9
CLASSIFICATION OF THE ALUMNI
or
HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y.
WHOLE NUMBER OF ALUMNI,
2605
STELLIGERENTS,
651
WHOLE NUMBER OF ALUMNI LIVING
1954
GRADUATES OF THE MAYNARD LAW SCHOOL,
261
LAWYERS
485
CLEROYMEN
713
CLERGYMEN IN THE SYNOD OF NEW YORK,
143
FOREIGN MISSIONARIES,
34
MODERATORS OF THE PRESBYTERIAN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
5
COMMISSIONERS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF 1888,
13
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS,
29
STATE GOVERNORS,
5
STATE SENATORS,
26
MEMBERS OF STATE CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS
13
SUPREME COURT JUDGES.
28
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS
5
COLLEGE PRESIDENTS,
13
REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
8
COLLEGE PROFESSORS AND TUTORS,
04
THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY PROFESSORS
19
STATE SUPERINTENDENTS OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION
G
NORMAL SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AND PROFESSORS
16
PRINCIPALS OF ACADEMIES AND HIGH SCHOOLS
119
PHYSICIANS,
88
BANKERS AND BROKERS,
49
EDITORS
82
AGRICULTURISTS,
24
MERCHANTS,
49
CIVIL ENGINEERS AND ARCHITECTS,
15
MANUFACTURERS,
20
ENLISTED IN THE WAR FOR THE UNION
174
.
10
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
BRIEF ROLL OF EMINENT HAMILTONIANS.
The roll of graduates carries the names of the Rev. Dr. Edward Robinson, Ex. U. S. Senator David Jewitt Baker, Hon. Charles P. Kirkland, Hon. Gerrit Smith, the Rev. Dr. Stephen W. Taylor. first President of Madison University, Hamilton, N. Y., the Rev Albert Barnes, Prof. Charles Avery, Judge W. J. Bacon of the Supreme Court, Dr. Samuel B. Woolworth, Secretary of the Board. of University Regents, Vice-Chancellor Geo. W. Clinton, the Rev. Dr. Asa Mahan, Ex-President of Oberlin College, the Rev. Dr. Augustus W. Smith, Ex-President of Wesleyen University, the Rev. Dr. Daniel D. Whedon, Dr. A. C. Kendrick, Professor of Greek in Rochester University, and Member of the American Committee for the Revision of the New Testament, United States Senator Henry B. Payne, Hon. A. P. Willard, Ex-Gov. of Indiana, Dr. John N. Pomeroy, the well known jurist and legal author, whose portrait the University of New York has just hung on her walls, and to whose memory the University of California has erected a statue, Dr. William Hague, Dr. Oren Root, Dr. Theo. W. Dwight, of the Columbia College Law School, Dr. Edward North, the Rev. Dr. Anson J. Upson, Professor in Auburn Theol. Seminary, the Rev. Dr. James Eells, Professor in Theol. Seminary, San Francisco, and in Lane Theol. Seminary, the Rev. Dr. Thos. S. Hastings, President of Union Theol. Seminary, N. Y. City, Ex. U. S. Senator Daniel D. Pratt, U. S. Senator Joseph R. Hawley, Dr. Edward Orton, Ex. Pres. of Antioch College and of Ohio State University, and State Geologist, the Rev. Dr. Joel Parker, the Rev. Dr. Alex. McLean, Sec. American Bible Society, the Rev. Dr. Frank F. Ellinwood, Sec. Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, the Rev. Dr. Henry Kendall, Secretary Presbyterian Board of Home Missions, the Rev. Dr. Herrick Johnson of the Presbyterian Board of Aid for Colleges, the Rev. Dr. Henry A. Nelson, Editor of " The Church at Home and Abroad," the official organ of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the Rev. Dr. Arthur T. Pierson, Joint-Editor of the "The Missionary Review," the Rt. Rev. Dr. Theo. B. Lyman, Bishop of North Caro- lina, the Rev. Dr. Wm. E. Knox, Dr. D. H. Cochran, President of Brooklyn Polytechnic, Dr. Isaac H. Hall, the scholar and anti- quarian, Dr. Edwin C. Litchfield, who endowed the Litchfield Observatory, Hamilton College, Dr. John A. Paine, Dr. W. C.
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HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y.
Winslow, the Egyptologist, Hon. G. W. Scofield, Judge of the Court of Claims at Washington, and President of the Washington Hamilton Alumni Association, Brigadier General John Cochrane, Charles Dudley Warner, Hon. John Jay Knox, Ex-Comptroller of the United States Currency, Hon. Abram B. Weaver, Hon. Chan Laisun, Chinese Commissioner of Education, Professors D. W. Fiske, S. G. Williams, Francis M. Burdick, Geo. Prentice Bristol, Brain- ard G. Smith, (Chair of Journalism,) and Dr. A. C. White of the Cornell University Faculty, Dr. Henry A. Frink of the Amherst College Faculty, Prof. Chas. A. Borst of Johns Hopkins University, Prof. Jermain G. Porter, Director of Observatory at .Cincinnati, Ohio, Professors Kelsey, Hopkins, Root, Brandt, Hoyt, Evans, and Scollard of the Hamilton College Faculty, the late John Jay Lewis of the Madison University Faculty, the Rev. Dr. Charles E. Knox, President of the German Theol. Seminary, Newark, New Jersey, the Rev. Dr. Willis J. Beecher, Professor of Hebrew in Auburn Theol. Seminary, Professor Charles K. Hoyt of Wells College, Dr. Adelbert J. Schlager, Professor of Hebrew in the German Theol. Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa, the Rev Dr. Wm. A. Bartlett, Washington D. C., Hon. Elihu Root, Ex-United States Attorney, New York City, Hon. R. A. Elmer, Ex-Second Assistant Postmaster-General, Judge Charles . H. Truax, Ex-Pres. N. Y. Association of Hamilton Alumni, Judge Alfred C. Coxe, the Rev. Dr. J. H. Ecob of Albany, the Rev. Dr. Rufus S. Green, President of the Buffalo Hamilton College Alumni Association, the Rev. Dr. David R. Breed, President of Western Association of Hamilton Alumni, the Rev. M. Woolsey Stryker, and the Rev. Charles F. Goss of the Chicago pulpit, the Rev. Dr. George William Knox, Professor in Imperial . University, Tokyo, Japan, the Rev. Dr. Edward C. Ray of Topeka, Kansas, the Rev. Dr. Wm. N. Page, Ex-President of the Mid-Continent Association of Hamilton Alumni, the Rev. Dr. Robert L. Bachman of Utica, A. H. Eaton, M. D., Prof. Henry B. Millard, M. D., Seldon H. Talcott, M. D., Chief of Corps of Physicians, Middletown State Asylum, A. Nor ton Brockway, M. D., Trustee of Hamilton College, Emmons Clark, Col. of 7th Reg., N. Y. City, Hon. Horatio C. Burchard, Ex-Super- intendent of U. S. Mint at Philadelphia, Hon. Wm. J. Wallace, LL. D., Judge U. S. Circuit Court, N. Y. State, Judge Joseph S. Bosworth, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, N. Y. City, Hon. . Milton H. Merwin, Judge of New York State Supreme Court,
12
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
Hon. William H. H. Miller, United States Attorney-General, Hon. Willard A. Cobb, Regent of the University and editor of the Lockport Daily Journal, Milton H. Northrup, of the Syracuse Courier, S. N. D. North, formerly of the Albany Express, now editor of the Quarterly Bulletin of the National Association of Wool Growers, Chester S. Lord, managing editor of the New York Sun, E. M. Rewey, also of the New York Sun, A. L. Blair, of the Troy Daily Times, Henry C. Maine, of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, George E. Durham, editor-in-chief of the Utica Press, and Hon. Fred. Dick, State Superintendent of Public Schools, Colorado. Many other honored names are recorded in the Catalogue of Hamilton graduates.
The College also has a long roll of honor, luminous with the names of patriot scholars, " History's graduates." The wealthy American, who will erect on College Hill a monument to the mem- ory of these heroes, who laid down their pens to grasp swords and do battle for native land, will honor himself while honoring them. Hamilton furnished to the army 110 officers, 14 Chaplains, 9 Sur- geons, and 41 private soldiers-174 in all.
The scholarship and services of the College have been recog nized by other learned bodies. One turning the pages of the Catalogus Collegii Hamiltonensis-reads the names of many colleges which have titled Hamilton Alumni. Among them the University of Halle, Germany, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Amherst, Brown, Rutgers, Union, Madison, Lafayette, Marietta, New York University, Wabash, University of Vermont, Dartmouth, Bowdoin, University of Wooster, Williams and Knox. With pardonable pride the Editor of the Alumniana in the Hamilton Literary Monthly writes at the head of his department, " Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ? "
An institution of learning which has graduated so many eminent men and in which, to-day, New England, the Middle, Southern, and Western States and foreign countries are represented by under-graduates, commands attention. Its history must interest all who are of a studious habit. An American scholar, who had been listening to the chronicles of Hamilton College said, "Surely the history of an institution of learning is a source of a part of its influence upon the students." For this reason many prefer " a college with the ivy on it." The vine of history creeps over the old college at Clinton.
NON. WM. H. H. MILLER, CLASS OF 1861 .. ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES.
£
£
13
HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y.
THE ROMANS OF AMERICA.
Long before the settlement of the Mohawk valley by the whites, French and English statesmen and churchmen were turning their attention to central and western New York-a region inhabited by the Six Nations, " The Romans of America," who were savages, fierce, wild and cruel, but were also a heroic and patriotic people. They were brave and skilful warriors, wise legislators, keen dip- lomatists and eloquent orators. In all these respects they towered above all other tribes on this continent. In regard to their oratory, the historian SMITH states that in his day, "The art of public speaking is in high esteem among the Indians and much studied." They are extremely fond of method, and are displeased with any irregular harangue, because it is difficult to be remembered. Ben- jamin Franklin wrote a brief paper about the Indians of North America. He said. " The Indian men, when young, are hunters and warriors; when old, counselors; for all their government is by the counsel or advice of the sages; there is no force, there are no prisons, no officers to compel obedience, or inflict punishment. Hence they generally study oratory , the best speaker having the most influence. The Indian women till the ground, dress the food, nurse and bring up the children, and preserve and hand down to posterity the memory of public transactions. These employments of men and women are accounted natural and hon . orable. Having few artificial wants, they have abundance of leisure for improvement in conversation. Having frequent occasions to hold public councils, they have acquired great order and decency in conducting them. The old men sit in the foremost ranks, the warriors in the next, and the women and children in the hindmost. The business of the women is to take exact notice of what passes, imprint it on their mem- ories-for they have no writing-and communicate it to the children. They are the records of the council, and they preserve tradition of the stipulations in treaties a hundred years back ; which, when we compare with our writings, we always find exact. . He that would speak rises. The rest observe a profound silence. When he has finished and sits down, they leave him five or six minutes to recollect, that if he has omitted anything he intended to say, or has any thing to add, he may rise and deliver it. To interrupt another, even in common conversation, is reckoned
14
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
highly indecent. How different is this from the conduct of a polite British House of Commons, where scarce a day passes with- out some confusion, that makes the speaker hoarse in calling to order; and how different from the mode of conversation in many polite companies of Europe, where, if you do not deliver your sentence with great rapidity, you are cut off in the middle of it by the impatient loquacity of those you converse with, and never suffered to finish it."
The Six Nations held in subjection a vast extent of country, and, in proportion to their numbers, they conquered more enemies and held more territory by force of arms than any people of which history gives an account, since the days of Alexander the Great. The Government which should secure the alliance, and the Church which should win the allegiance of these powerful tribes, might thereby hold supremacy on this continent. Should the New World, with its red men and its white settlers, be under the con- trol of France or England ? Statesmen in European council- chambers and warriors with swords and bayonets in American forests, and on American lakes, were answering that question. Zeal of Romanist and devotion of Protestant were aroused.
MISSIONARY ACTIVITY.
As early as 1641 flickering camp-fires in the Mohawk valley lighted up the faces of Jesuit missionaries. In 1700 all Jesuits were expelled by law from the State of New York. Protestant missionaries visited the Indian tribes in Central New York between 1712 and 1764. David Zeisberger and the Moravian Bishops visited Onondaga, and the tribe adopted him, but the French war thwarted the plans of this messenger of the Prince of Peace. Subsequently New England Christians brought Indians out of the forests and placed them in schools in Lebanon, Conn., and Stockbridge, Mass. A large number were at the latter school. At one time Jonathan Edwards had charge of their education. An Indian agent dealt so unjustly with some of the Indian stu dents that they returned to their homes. Dr. Edwards lashed with stinging sentences the unsavory name of that agent. A Hamilton Alumnus has added, by way of a snapper to Dr. Edwards' lash, these lines. "Edwards' portraiture of this man is a master-piece. No jar of spirits ever preserved a reptile in more hideous life-likeness; no drop of amber ever revealed the head and
SAMUEL KIRKLAND
15
HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y.
legs of a venomous insect more clearly than this man is embalmed in this monograph of the great theologian. It is significant that it was in the midst of his struggles with this poor miscreant that Edwards wrote his treatise on original sin."
SAMUEL KIRKLAND.
Among the students in Lebanon, Conn., was Samuel Kirkland. In him the historian is especially interested, because he became the missionary-founder of an institution of learning which was afterward chartered as Hamilton College. Kirkland came of good stock. Miles Standish was one of his progenitors. He was born in 1741, and received his preparatory education at Dr. Wheel- ock's Indian School in Lebanon. Dartmouth College grew out of that institution. The idea of the school had been suggested to Dr. Wheelock by his success in educating a young Mohican Indian, Samson Occum, who became a remarkable preacher, and who was the author of the hymn, " Awaked by Sinai's awful sound." The school was so much resorted to by native tribes that Dr. Wheelock determined to transfer it to some place nearer them. Hanover, New Hampshire, was selected, and when the institution was removed to that place it was chartered as Dart- mouth College.
The late President Fisher, in a memorial address at a Hamilton College commencement, said: " It is well to notice that two of the leading colleges of this Union sprang from the spontaneous efforts of Missionaries, having primary references to the elevation of the Indian. Dartmouth and Hamilton are the outgrowth of Chris- tianity in its purpose to rescue from degradation and lift up to a position of intelligence and true religion the Sons of the Forest. The tide of civilization, sweeping around and beyond them, has borne on its crest the wrecks and fragments of a once mighty nation. The providence of God, with other purposes in view, is working out through them, results broader and grander than even the seer- visioned men, who laid their foundations, foresaw. But while these Institutions live, they will lift up before the oncoming gen- erations, in characters more durable than those chiseled in marble or brass, the fiery signal of the red denizens of the forest. And when thousands of names, once on the lips of millions, touched by the waters of Lethe, have sunk into oblivion, those of Wheel-
16
A HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
ock and Kirkland the humble teachers of this race, will shine lustrous among the stars that gem the firmament of God."
From Lebanon young Kirkland went to Princeton College. Although uot remaining to graduate with his class, he received his degree in course. While yet a college student, his heart burned within him as he thought of the untutored children of the woods. He knew that if he should go to them, many trials and hardships awaited him, "but none of these things moved him, neither counted he his life dear unto himself, so that he might fin- ish his course with joy, and the ministry, which he had received of the Lord Jesus to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." Others had gone into the wilderness that the gloom there might be brightened with the healing beams of the Son of Righteousness. In 1765, the Princeton student, " a good man and full of the Holy Ghost," took his journey into the forest, leaving the world's honors for others to win. He went in the spirit of Him who said,
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