A Centennial Memorial History of Allegany county, New York, Part 21

Author: Minard, John Stearns, 1834-1920; Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Alfred, N.Y., W. A. Fergusson & co.
Number of Pages: 1102

USA > New York > Allegany County > A Centennial Memorial History of Allegany county, New York > Part 21

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Professor Jonathan Allen was, in the minds of the trustees, almost the only possible candidate for the vacant presidency. His profound and ver- satile scholarship, his lofty ideals, his catholic spirit, his sympathy with am- bitious and struggling youth, and his long familiarity with the peculiar mis- sion and work of the University, together with his self-sacrificing spirit in its behalf, combined to qualify him in an eminent degree for the position. He was accordingly unanimously called to it. Greatly as he longed for re- lease from responsibility and care in order that he might devote himself to uninterrupted study, he accepted the greater responsibility and care. For twenty-five years he performed the duties of his holy office with such fidelity and success as proved that the trustees made no mistake when they threw the mantle which fell from the ascending Kenyon upon his broad and manly shoulders. During several years before the end came, it was manifest that President Allen was failing in health, but he finished the work of the school year ending June, 1892. At the opening of the fall term he was not able to resume his duties, and September 21st of that year he died, at 70 years of age. In accordance with his well-known wish his body was cremated and his ashes were placed in an old Greek vase, a choice relic in the Steinheim, and so laid away among the classic remains of the long ages agone, among which he had found so great delight.

After prolonged deliberation, the trustees gave a unanimous call to the Rev. A. E. Main of Ashaway, R. I., to the vacant presidency. Mr. Main was a graduate of Rochester University and Theological Seminary, had been a

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successful pastor, and was the able secretary and general manager of the Seventh-day Baptist Missionary Society-home and foreign. He accepted the call and entered upon his work at the opening of the spring term of 1893. Meanwhile the affairs of the University were most acceptably administered by Professor A. B. Kenyon as President ad interim. Through a failure on the part of the trustees and President Main to mutually understand each others' spirit, aims and methods, this choice did not prove so fortunate as all had hoped, and after nearly two years, it was deemed best by both parties to dissolve the contract. Accordingly, President Main's resignation was presented and accepted, and he closed his labors with the school year end- ing June 20, 1895.

At the annual meeting of the trustees. June 18. 1895, the Rev. Boothe Colwell Davis was unanimously chosen president. He accepted the position and entered upon the duties of the office at the opening of the school year beginning September 10. 1895. Thus far his work is most satisfactory, and gives promise of continued success and prosperity. Mr. Davis is still a young man, having large sympathies with young people, entering, with the spirit of youth, into their hopes and plans in a way to encourage and help those who need encouragement and help, and to inspire all with noble aims and lofty ambitions. He graduated from Alfred University with the class of 1890, and after spending three years at Yale University, partly in the divinity school and partly in other work, became the pastor of the First Alfred Church. in which capacity he continued to serve until chosen presi- dent of Alfred University, as before mentioned.

The limits of this article forbid further details respecting the personal history and work of those who have toiled and sacrificed for the establish- ment and upbuilding of the school with devotion equal to those who have been its chosen leaders, though their ability and efficiency have been less conspicuous. The list, including both men and women, is too long to admit of even the mention of their names. Not fewer than eighty persons, during the fifty-nine years of the institution's history, besides those, who, from time to time, have been employed as tutors, have been on the faculty's lists. Doctor Thomas R. Williams, who for 21 years devoted himself to the build- ing up of the Theological Department, deserves to be ranked by the side of the noble presidents who toiled so long and sacrificed so freely for the inter- ests of the University. He was seconded in this department by other able and devoted men.

The present faculty numbers eighteen members, of whom six are ladies and twelve are gentlemen. Among these, four have been on the staff for more than 20 years each, the time of service of the others varying from one to ten years. Of the large number who have been professors in the University, many are now filling similar positions in other institutions. Among these are Professor William A. Rogers, for ten years assistant in the Cambridge Observatory, now professor of Physics and Astronomy in Colby University, Waterville, Me .; Miss Elvira E. Kenyon, principal of

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Young Ladies' Seminary, Plainfield, N. J .; Professor R. A. Waterbury, of the State Normal School at Geneseo; Professor Geo. Scott, professor of Latin in Otterbein University, Ohio; Professor Alfred A. Titsworth, pro- fessor of Graphics and Mathematics, Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J., and others who are equally honored in the institutions where they now labor.

The graduates and old students of the University are to be found in every state in the Union, and some are in foreign countries. They are to be found in all honorable callings. They are members of legislatures, state and national, supreme court judges, lawyers, ministers, missionaries to for- eign countries, physicians, teachers, merchants, farmers, mechanics, etc. The whole number of graduates is over 500, while the number of students receiving instruction for less than a full course is not less than 10,000.

The present facilities for the work of the University, besides the grounds and buildings mentioned in this article under the account of the academy, are a Ladies' Boarding-hall, with accommodations for one hundred students, built in 1859; the Kenyon Memorial Hall, erected to the memory of President Kenyon and dedicated in 1882; a small frame building popularly known as the "Gothic," bought about 1885, used for recitation rooms, and the Stein- heim. In the Kenyon Memorial Hall are rooms and equipments for the department of Industrial Mechanics and of the Fine Arts-lecture rooms, museums and work rooms for the department of Natural History-the Library, numbering 10,000 volumes, and a reading room furnished with current periodical literature, including the great dailies, weeklies, and monthly and quarterly magazines of literature, science and religion.

The Steinheim is an unique building of native rocks and woods. Of the rocks there are in the walls of the building between seven and eight thou- sand different specimens, gathered chiefly from the hills and brooks in the immediate vicinity; of the woods there are in the finish of the interior sev- eral hundred varieties, both foreign and native. The collections within number about 30,000 specimens, gathered from all over the world and rang- ing through almost every subject of interest to the student of nature and history.

The endowments of which Alfred University is now the beneficiary amount to about $180,000. These funds are held and managed in part only by the trustees, more than two-thirds of the sum being in the hands of cer- tain organizations of the nature of trust companies, the income only being paid by them to the University. Recent donations will bring the aggregate up to about $265,000; of these later gifts the school does not yet receive the income. Among those who have generously come to the assistance of the University in this substantial way are its Alumni, who, through an associa- tion organized in 1886, have undertaken to endow the chair of the president. This endowment has been named, in honor of the first and second presidents, the Kenyon-Allen Endowment Fund. To afford all old students an oppor- tunity to share in this labor of love, subscriptions have been received from

THE STEINHEIM, ALFRED UNIVERSITY.

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one dollar upwards, the entire sum being now about $7,000. The value of the grounds, buildings, apparatus, laboratories, museums, libraries and other property, together with the total endowment, may be safely estimated at $400,000. While these figures are small when compared with those of the great universities, they give assurance of permanence and increase of power.

It, perhaps, does not need to be said that the chief factor in the working force of Alfred University is the class-room, with all that it implies of efti- ciency and zeal on the part of those who shape its work, aided by all the facili- ties which the institution possesses. This work carries the student, in steady day-by-day and year-by-year drill, through full courses in Literature ancient and modern-English and foreign, Mathematics, the Sciences, Phi- losophy, the Arts, etc. From its earliest work onward the institution has exercised scrupulous care for the bodily health as well as for the intellect- ual training of its students, while in the routine of daily study and recita- tion the students have been acquiring knowledge and with it discipline of mind. The four Lyceums, which were early formed among the students, have afforded excellent training in the art of imparting to others what has been acquired by their weekly sessions for extemporaneous debates, the reading of original essays and other literary exercises.

Any sketch of Alfred University would be incomplete without at least a brief mention of the influences and forces which help to shape the life and character of students outside of classroom and kindred work. While it has always been the aim of the institution to keep its courses of study up to the normal standards of such courses in all first class institutions, and, while it has always striven to make its instruction of the highest value to the stu- dent, it has also sought to give them high ideals of life and to inspire them with the laudable ambition to reach the highest degree of personal excellence. To this end, religious instruction, which, while it respects the rights of in- dividual opinions and conscience, gives dignity, worth and power to per- sonal character, has been imparted in daily chapel exercises, in religious services for and by the students, and by the general religious atmosphere of the community. The voluntary Christian associations among the students have contributed largely to the creation of such a religious atmosphere in the school, and has put the students in touch with the religious life of stu- dents in other schools throughout the state.

Alfred University has filled an unique place in the educational work of the state. She numbers among her sons and daughters not only the hun- dreds who have won her diplomas. but also the thousands who have entered her halls and taken so much of the instruction she had to impart, of the inspiration she could give during such lengths of time as the necessities of other labor or the pinchings of poverty would permit them to stay. Her blessings have followed them to the ends of the earth. Such an institution could not be other than a blessing to the county, state and nation in which it is located. Glorying in her past, strong in her present and confident in

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her future, she takes her place among the factors which, during the century now closing, have wrought mightily for the development, intellectually, socially and religiously, as well as materially, of Allegany county; and she takes a just pride in the good work which Allegany's sons have been doing throughout the world, for Allegany's sons, are, in very large measure, sons of Alfred.

WILLIAM COLGROVE KENYON .*- It has been given to no man to exert, directly and indirectly, a greater, or more far-reaching influence for good upon the character of the population of Allegany county and of Western New York, than to William Colgrove Kenyon, founder of Alfred Academy and Alfred University. A history of Allegany county which should fail to give a record of his work and to convey to future generations the lessons and the inspiration of his life and his work would be conspicuously defective. The citizen who develops the material resources, who organizes the commerce, or makes, or administers wisely, the laws of his country is worthy of honor; but he who, as a teacher, conveys to his fellowmen the torch of truth and by his own pure life inspires those with whom he comes in contact with the love of truth, kindles a fire, the effects of which are beyond calculation, and deserves the homage of all men as the instrument of divine power. It was from the most humble source, and mainly amid the most simple surround- ings, that William C. Kenyon came and wrought. He was born in poverty, of almost unknown parentage, on the barren plains of Richmondtown, Rhode Island, October 23, 1812. At the age of five years he was bound to a guar- dian and experienced the severity and ungraciousness then attaching to the life of a ward. When he became old enough he was "hired out " summers to neighboring farmers, and in winter he was put out to board and got such schooling as he might, doing "chores" night and morning, and working one day in a week for his board while attending the district school. One who knew him when thirteen, wrote: "His form was slender, slightly clothed, and his countenance careworn. No one made of him a companion or thought of doing so; he appeared melancholy and heart-stricken, said little to any one and exhibited no anxiety to engage in the sports that delighted other children. He was not a scholar. Books had no charm for him. He could read only the easiest lessons, and utterly failed in spelling." At this age he fortunately found a temporary home in a Christian family, and fell under the care of a teacher who treated him with kindness and inspired him with confidence that he might become a scholar. With new hope came new life; latent abilities and energies were developed, and he became possessed of a determination to acquire an education. If his intellectual powers were only moderate, his habits of labor and his relentless will supplied the deficit,

* By Silas C. Burdick, Esq.

16. Kamyon

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and the vigorous use of his faculties resulted in growth and strength. When at work on the farm he kept a book handy that all odd spells might be improved. When about nineteen he bought his time of his guardian giving his note which was paid by funds earned by teaching. He became a machinist and prepared for college while working at this trade. In 1836 he entered Union College and paid his way by working at his trade and by teaching. Leaving college in his junior year, he came to Alfred in 1839 to become the principal of the infant Alfred Academy, where, while teaching, he carried his college studies to completion and received the degree of Master of Arts. His was only a temporary engagement at Alfred as he had planned to give his life to foreign mission work; but, devoting himself to his present work, and surrounding himself with able assistants, he soon found the little school planted in an obscure country community, becoming one of the chief educational institutions of Western New York. The plans of his life were changed, and to found an academy, a college, an university, became his ambition. To this work he gave his life and strength without reserve. A most rare combination of qualities made up the mature char- acter of President Kenyon, and assured his success. Chief among these were honesty, sincerity and love for his fellowmen. While always, at heart, as gentle and playful as a child, he was most intensely in earnest, and his personal magnetism made him a natural master. Prompt and energetic in all his ways, he set things astir and awakened new life, often sharp opposi- tion, wherever he went. To dullness and laziness and all dishonesty and shiftlessness he was a bitter foe. No delinquent failed to receive a prompt and stinging rebuke; but the shaft always lodged in the fault; the unmis- takable honesty and faithfulness of the motive carried healing to the wounded spirit, and the sufferer was sure to be greeted with a polite touch of the hat and a cordial recognition at the next meeting. Though radical and uncompromising in his own views, the fullest freedom of opinion was accorded to others. Though polished and urbane in his bearing, the uncouth rustic was always put at ease in his presence and made to feel himself a peer. No one could live near him and retain a sense of inherent degradation in labor, for to work early and late to the full limit of his ability was the law of his life. Alfred was always the school of the poor. Its doors have stood wide open to any and all who had the ability and disposition to work their way. So President Kenyon, from beginning to end, waged a fierce battle with financial difficulties. His own necessities were always the last to be provided for. He desired and expected to spend his days and to die in the harness. Though often invited to other fields of labor affording larger financial remuneration, he chose to hold to the work he had undertaken, and seemed to take no thought of the needs of declining years. He lived, expended his energies for others, and, having crowded the labors of many ordinary lives into one short one, he died June, 1867. in his 56th year. His beloved University was then so far established that its perpetual existence and usefulness were assured. His enduring monument is in its existence

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and in the thousands of lives that have been made purer, stronger, brighter, and in every way better by the intense glow of his life.

PRESIDENT JONATHAN ALLEN, PH.D., D.D., LL.D.,* was born in Al- fred, N. Y., January 26, 1823. In this rugged region, where unremitting toil was the birth-right of every boy, he grew to six feet, erect, broad-shoul- dered, a perfect specimen of physical manhood. From his New England parents he inherited a love of knowledge for its own sake. His father, a stern, upright man, was a teacher and leader in the community. His moth- er, possessing abundant common-sense, was also endowed with quick perceptive faculties and a fine poetic temperament. These parents thus gave to their son an inheritance rich in all that goes to make the true wealth of a great character. Being naturally religious, he became a member of the church at the age of twelve. At thirteen he was one of the number to make up the first select school in the town of Alfred. (This was taught by B. C. Church.) At seventeen he began teaching, taking charge of his first district school. This was in a neighborhood where it was the pride of the " toughs" to have two or three successive teachers each winter. They had but one that winter. In 1842, when Jonathan was nineteen, his parents re- moved to the then western wilderness of Wisconsin. Here for two years he spent his summers either in surveying or in working on his father's farm. He taught school during the winters and became known at that early age as the best teacher in Rock county. At twenty-one he found himself in possession of enough money (which he had accumulated) to either " take up" a quarter-section of land near his parents, or to return to Alfred to go on with his education. Knowing that it was the earnest wish of his parents to have their children settle near them, it was no small struggle for a duti- ful young man to decide to obtain a higher education. This he did, however, and took the first boat that came down the lakes in the spring. His former teachers, B. C. Church and James R. Irish, had given him a thirst for ad- vancement, but it was Prof. Wm. C. Kenyon who stirred his young soul to its core, and gave him confidence in himself and in his future. Mr. Allen early became a tutor in the Academy at Alfred, and was enabled by this means to pay most of his expenses while pursuing his studies. Sometimes, when his funds were low, he would teach a term in some near district for the winter. Having finished his academic course of study in 1844, Mr. Allen did not wait long before deciding to enter Oberlin College. One of the principal reasons for this choice was the strong religious influences centering there. During the busy years of his college life, he never lost his interest in Alfred. A close correspondence was kept up with Professor Kenyon regarding plans for the future development of the incipient Uni- versity. Indeed, Mr. Allen fully pledged himself to HELP WORK OUT these plans, and received from Prof. Kenyon a letter of gratitude, which was a most fitting exponent of that earnest, true man. While in Oberlin Mr. Allen was asked to take charge of a new academy in Milton, Wis., (his home),

* Contributed by Mrs. A. A. Allen.

---

Alleno

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but this he was not tempted to accept, as his pledge to work for Alfred had not been taken without much serious thought. When he returned to Alfred he remained faithful to his post there, never heeding positions of honor or highly-paid service that were so many times offered him. In 1849 a syndi- cate of five, besides Professors Kenyon and Sayles, was formed with this strange pledge from each, to work five years at a salary of $400, and to give their entire time and all the surplus funds to the growth of the school. This action gave a marked impulse which was felt in all the departments. The special work of Alfred Academy then was the training of teachers for the district schools, and more than 150 young men and women went out each year as teachers for district schools in Allegany and surrounding counties. Many also became teachers in the higher schools and academies that were then being formed. (We are not now writing the history of Alfred Univer- sity. We are simply following one man as a factor in its development.) President Allen was a born radical. In the societies, in the church, and in secular work he was a leader in all the reform questions of the day. Dr. D. R. Ford has said that the secret of his power in directing the varied inter- ests for the general growth of the University, lay in his tact and originality as an organizer. In Alfred, July 12, 1849, Mr. Allen was married to Miss Abigail A. Maxson, the preceptress, and through the rest of his life they were co-workers in the busy lives they were called upon to lead. In 1854 he was appointed general agent for the Educational Society to secure funds for the endowment of a theological department in the school. Though spending only his vacations in this work, more than $20,000 were secured during the first year. The winter of 1856-7 Mr. Allen spent in Albany in the interests of the University charter. During this interval he continued the study of law in the Albany Law School, was examined and admitted to the bar of the state. In 1864 he was ordained by the general conference to the Gospel ministry. This was done with especial reference to his being at the head of the theological department of the Institution. His sermons, lectures, and chapel talks bore the mark of research into many new fields of thought, and were most carefully prepared, though he seldom wrote them out fully, preferring to speak directly to his audience as he would teach a class. During his more than fifty years of teaching his work embraced most of the studies in the college curriculum. He taught at different times, mathematics, history, civics, the natural sciences, literature, rhetoric, elo- cution, Latin, Hebrew, metaphysics, and theology. To him teaching never became a humdrum business. Each pupil seemed a sacred trust, one to be helped in developing the very best that was in his nature. Mr. Allen was called to fill the president's place in the University in 1866, after the death of President Kenyon. In 1869 he received from the Regents of the State of New York the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in 1874 from the University of Kansas the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and in 1886 from Alfred Uni- versity the degree of Doctor of Laws. As Doctor Platts has said, "All these honors came to him entirely unsolicited and unexpected. They were

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the spontaneous expression of the high regard that these institutions held for him as a profound scholar, as an experienced educator, as a Christian gentleman." As the head of the University, no detail of the work was too insignificant to receive personal attention, The grounds, buildings, and the health, as well as the moral and intellectual development of each student received his special care. The co-educational system was considered of great value in giving home-like surroundings to the students and in remov- ing false views of the relations of men and women in their after lives. Be- lieving that the influence of delightful surroundings had great power in forming the tastes, manners and morals, indeed the whole character of the young, Mr. Allen spared no pains and gave much time and means to make the grounds the finest possible exponent of nature and art, so that they might impart life, health and strength to all. He was specially fond of the natural sciences, and, in order to make a home for his private cabinet and a place in which he might study in his old age, he built Steinheim. The walls of this building make, of themselves, a rare geological cabinet of over 7,000 kinds of rock. The interior is a collection of native and foreign woods of many hundred varieties, while the various coins, implements, and other things make up more than 25,000 specimens. These have been collected from all parts of the world and many of them cannot be duplicated. As the years wore on, Mr. Allen's arduous labors as president and trustee of the University began to tell seriously upon his health. His friends, seeing this, persuaded him to accept (in the spring of 1882) the generous offer of Mr. Charles Potter, of Plainfield, N. J., to be his guest on a European tour. A most congenial company of four fast friends was formed for this journey. These were besides himself, Mr. Charles Potter, Mr. Geo. H. Babcock, and Rev. A. H. Lewis. In early autumn they returned, refreshed and in- vigorated in body and mind. Mr. Allen's friends think that this trip abroad added years to his life. He brought many interesting specimens to Stein- heim, and entered with more enthusiasm than ever into his home work. Every department of the University continued to advance, though there was much need of more funds to carry out the many new plans to success- ful completion, and the constant strain for years of making one dollar do the work of ten. the continued effort to "make bricks without straw," again began to tell upon his vigor. In 1891 Judge N. M. Hubbard of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, made us his guests, taking us to the Pacific coast, through the National Park and many more of the "wonder lands " of our country. It was a delightful trip, and we both returned with renewed life. Mr. Allen, though then nearly seventy years of age, felt that he was doing his best work. He gave up no part of it, but added much that seemed to re- quire his special care. He often quoted, when advised to give the labor into other hands, the remark of John Quincy Adams, " An old man has no time to rest." HE PRAYED TO DIE IN THE HARNESS, AND HIS PRAYER WAS ANSWERED. His will-power seemed to conquer most of the weaknesses of the flesh, and his mind was never more clear than on September 1st, 1892.

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A Centennial Memorial History of Allegany county, New York, Part 21

Author: Minard, John Stearns, 1834-1920; Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Alfred, N.Y., W. A. Fergusson & co. Number of Pages: 1102

Author: Minard, John Stearns, 1834-1920; Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Alfred, N.Y., W. A. Fergusson & co.
Number of Pages: 1102