History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 59

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920

USA > New York > Oneida County > History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 59

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" In 1834 the Oncida Institute had about 140 students. Among them were Levi A. Skinner, Isaac Stryker, William Abbott, Egbert Bagg, Samuel H. Coxe, Thomas G. Frost, Burdett Hart, Charles J. Lowery, David A. Holbrook, and Henry L. Moss.

" Among the earlier students who afterwards acquired a national reputation were Theodore D. Weld, Charles Wads- worth and Caleb Lyon. Rev. Samuel W. Willis testifies that the public addresses delivered by Mr. Weld had a marked influence in building up the institution.

" The anti-slavery agitation that followed the coming of Beriah Green is well remembered throughout Central New York. Denouncing the Oneida Presbytery as guilty of the crime of slave-holding, Beriah Green and three others with- drew from that body, and formed the Whitesboro' Associa- tion. A new Congregational Church was organized at Whitesboro', with a creed fashioned by Mr. Green, and a wide gulf of alienation opened between the Oneida Insti- tute and its original patrons. The repairer of this breach appeared in a quarter and a shape most unlooked for. It was clearly what the chemists call a case of catalysis, where a third element intervenes and brings into sympathy and union two elements previously at war with each other.

" In 1841 the Free-Will Baptists opened a denomina- tional school in the village of Clinton. Here they had purchased the large building previously occupied by Rev. Hiram H. Kellogg's Domestic Seminary for Young Ladies. This was called the Clinton Seminary. Its principal was Rev. Dr. John Jay Butler, now professor of sacred literature in Hillsdale College, in Michigan. One of its prominent teachers was Daniel S. Heffron, afterwards superintendent of schools in Utica.

" The Clinton Seminary was a vigorous, enterprising school. It grew apace, and when straitened for room in its original quarters its removal to the Oneida Institute build- ings, and its adoption of a new bame, began the fourth chapter in the eventful and tangled history of what is now honored far and near as the Whitestown Seminary. It placed itself under the care of our Board of University Regents, and became an important factor in our State sys- tem of higher education. The few venerable survivors of

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

the good men who at the birth of Oneida Institute cast their bread upon the waters, now rejoice with devout grat- itude that they have found it after many days. Yale College tabernacled for sixteen years at Killingworth and Saybrook before its final home was fixed at New Haven.

" The changes that have marked the beginnings of Whitestown Seminary have removed obstructions, its friends will trust, from a long career of increasing useful- ness in the classic village, where it is now a fostered and fostering source of culture and thrift. Not less than ten thousand young men and women have been helped to a higher ideal of manhood and womanhood by the discipline and nurture of Whitestown Seminary. Among the causes of its present prosperity none are more familiar and con- spicuous than the high scholarship, Christian activity, and heroic permanency of its board of instructors. Principal Gardner has kept his post of duty, through sunshine and gloom, for twenty-eight years. His well-chosen associates have shared deeply in his spirit of unselfish consecration to a good work. William D. Walcott's example of munifi- cence has inspired others with the grace of giving. And the end is not yet. It is fitting that such an institution should have its historian and its half-century jubilee."

The membership of the Alumni Association includes- or may include-, " any who have been connected as officers, benefactors, or students, either with the Oneida Academy, afterwards named the Oneida Institute, founded and located at Whitesboro', in 1827, or with the Clinton Seminary, founded in 1841, or with the Whitestown Seminary, into which the Oneida Institute and the Clinton Seminary were merged in 1845."* The following officers were elected for the Alumni Association: President, Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, Utica ;} Vice-Presidents, Samuel W. Green, Brooklyn ; Mrs. D. M. Chapman Heffron, Chicago; President Oren B. Cheney, Bates College, Maine; Recording Secretary, Pro- fessor Franklin P. Ashley, Whitestown; Corresponding Secretary, Miss Mary Cauldwell, Whitestown ; Treasurer, Henry J. Cookinham, Utica; Necrologist, Professor J. W. Ellis, Whitestown; Board of Managers, Colonel J. S. Lowery, George C. Horton, Utica ; Miss Nellie M. Evans, Marcy ; Dr. Smith Baker, Whitestown ; Samuel R. Camp- bell, Miss J. M. Hughes, New York Mills; Professor J. W. Ellis, Miss B. M. White, Whitestown; W. Stuart Walcott, New York Mills.

After the formation of this association it was resolved to make arrangements for a half-century anniversary, with public literary exercises, at the close of the current semi- nary year (June, 1878). All arrangements werc completed, and the anniversary exercises passed off in a very enjoyable manner. One of the features of the occasion was the able historical address which was delivered on the 20th of June, by Rev. E. D. Morris, D.D., of the class of 1846, and now

of Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio. The fol- lowing extracts from bis address are given : .

" In celebrating the close of half a century. in the life of this honored seminary, our minds instinctively run back- wards through the entire century to note, as history records them, the changes which a hundred years have wrought. Limiting our range of vision simply to this central region in what is now the Empire State, we realize how immense and amazing these changes have been: This remarkable valley, with its winding river and tributary streams, with its long lines of convergent hills, with its unique variety and combination of natural attractions, remains the same. But how vast the transformation which an inflowing civil- ization, inspired by Christian ideas and Christian aspira- tions, has effected ! Even ninety years ago the old Fort Schuyler, with two or three adjacent huts, represented the beautiful city of Utica; and the Whitestown road led the adventurous pioneer out at once into the depths of a com- paratively unpenetrated wilderness. This township itself, in 1788, included the whole of the State west of the line which divided it from the German Flats; and in that ex -. tensive region, stretching from this point to the Niagara River, scarcely two hundred inhabitants could have been. found. The centre of population in the United States, now passing decade by decade through Southern Ohio, then rested near the Atlantic; and the magnificent development since witnessed from the Alleghenies to the Mississippi, and even to the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, was then at best a vague possibility.

" But the fame of the Whitestown settlement and the Genesee country was even then beginning to attract that steadily-increasing wave of immigration from New England, from other portions of the seaboard, and from the Old World, which within the succeeding forty years not only occupied this extensive area, but flowed far out beyond the boundaries of the State, and began to manifest its presence and potency in the Western Reserve and in the farther west. And wherever that remarkable tide of immigration extended, it. carried with it all the seeds of a vigorous social, political, and religious life. The home, the school, the court, the church, sprang up spontaneously in its course. Bountiful nature everywhere encouraged the process, and human intelligence, human energy, human zeal and conse- cration wrought out the finished result. The period from 1788 to 1828, brief though it was, witnessed changes phys- ical, intellectual, social, in this region, which would seem a marvel beyond belief had they not been exhibited later in other regions, and on a still larger scale. During these four decades a noble State may be said to have sprung into existence between the Falls of the Mohawk and the Falls of Niagara,-a State with roadways and canals ; with villages and growing cities; with an intelligent and industrious rural population ; with educational and benevolent institutions ; with laws and governments; and with religion embodied in fair sanctuaries and largely enthroned in the life of the people. Hardly anywhere in the history of this continent can be found the record of a transformation more rapid or marked, or more pregnant with momentous results. ,

" Of this development, the provisions for education, both general and liberal, constituted from the first a decisive

# Articles of Association.

+ At the semi-centennial (June 16-20, 1878) Charles H. Harris, of New York, was elected president in place of Hon. Ellis H. Roberts. In place of the above-named vice-presidents were elected Professor Edward North, of Hamilton College; Hon. Walter Ballon, Boonville; and Mrs. Sarah Merriman Moshier, Lowville. The name of Professor Gardoer was added to the Board of Managers, the other officers ro- maining the same.

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

feature. As early as 1793 the Oneida Academy, which in 1812 blossomed into Hamilton College, had been estab- lished through the Christian sagacity and Christian devotion of Samuel Kirkland ; and prior to 1828 numerous other schools, primary and academic, had come into existence, and had begun to make themselves felt in the intellectual nnd moral experience of the people. Such institutions were demanded alike by the healthiest traditions and intel- ligent judgment of the inhabitants, and by the radical necessities of such a type of civilization as they were en- gaged, half unconsciously, in establishing. For without such education as the natural ally of morality and religion, the pioneer life of our continent, in its vast westward movement, would inevitably have degenerated, as some isolated cases have proven, into ignorant and brutal lawless- ness, and even into barbaric decay. In that vast move- ment, as it has now extended even to the Pacific, the school has been hardly less an indispensable element than the court-house or the church .*

" The 'Oneida Institute of Science and Industry,' as this seminary seems to have been named originally, was the natural outgrowth of such a development as I have briefly described. As early as 1826 a preliminary school had been established in the neighboring town of Western, by Rev. George W. Gale; one primary design of which-as its founders described it-was to test the practicability of com- bining manual labor with literary culture. In the follow- ing year the foundations of the institute itself were laid by Mr. Gale, in furtherance of the same general scheme; an association of Friends in the vicinity and region, who had become interested in his project, giving him generous assistance. A farm of 115 acres was purchased ; buildings were erected at a total cost of $15,000, and the work of instruction was at once begun. The year 1828 reveals the institution in full progress, although the legal incorporation was not secured till 1829. Some specific tendencies, cur- rent in the region, favorcd the new enterprise. The exten- sive revivals prevailing during the years just preceding had turned the attention of many young men, especially within the Presbyterian Church, to the work of the ministry, and to other kindred forms of Christian service . .

Much discussion was held over the plans of the institu- tion. A theological department was organized in the sum- mer of 1833. The characteristics of the early management of the seminary were,-the combination of manual and mental labor, the substitution of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures for the ordinary classical course, and the free ad- mission of young men of all classes and colors to the priv- ileges of the institution. The results of these plans are too well known to nced comment here.

Rev. George W. Gale, the founder of the Institute, was a native of Dutchess County, N. Y., and a graduate of Union College and Princeton Seminary. He was licensed to preach in 1816. His only pastoral charge was at Adams, Jefferson County, where he remained until his health failed, in 1826. He was connected with the Oneida Institute un- til 1835, when he removed to Illinois and founded the in-

stitution so favorably known as Knox College, and located the village-now city-of Galesburg. Through his re- markable energy and tact the funds for that college were procured chiefly at the East, and by his efforts it was placed upon a firm and sure foundation. He died in 1862, of paralysis.

The Institute at Whitestown had completed and perfected its organization in 1834, and Beriah Green became its first president. Owing to many drawbacks, after an existence of sixteen years, the Institute, in 1844, was necessarily closed. The same year the property was purchased by the trustees of the Clinton Seminary, under the management of the Free- Will Baptists, and that institution was removed to Whitesboro'. A new charter was given it in 1845, and Whitestown Seminary was henceforth to be a "power in the land." A Biblical school was organized in 1844, and continued for ten years. At its organization Rev. Moses M. Smart, A.M., and Rev. J. J. Butler, D.D., were ap- pointed as instructors. The former retired from service in 1849, and in 1851 Rev. John Fullouton, D.D., previously employed in the academic course, became a teacher in this department. In 1854 this school was transplanted to New Hampton, N. H., where it continued its existence until 1870.

The attendance at Whitestown Seminary in the first de- cade, from 1844 to 1854, rose from 173 to 317, and during the second decade from 317 to 565. In 1869, after a quar- ter of a century, the number of students was 522. It has been reliably stated that " not less than ten thousand young men and young women have been helped to higher ideals of manhood and womanhond by the discipline and nurture here afforded." " In addition to the amount paid at the original purchase, a subscription of $25,000 was raised in 1860 and the subsequent years for material improvement, and it is estimated that the entire amount expended for such purchases, including the generous gift of William D. Walcott, Esq., for the erection of Walcott Hall, is more than $50,000."

Among the principals of the seminary appears the name of Rev. Daniel S. Heffron, A.M., who was in charge in 1845 and 1846, and a member of the faculty from 1841 to 1848. He was also a member of the board of trustees from 1843 to 1869; eight years the clerk and fifteen years the presiding officer of the board. He was for several years superintendent of public instruction in the city of Utica. He is at present residing at Washington Heights, near Chicago, Ill.

Samuel Farnham, A.M., was principal from 1846 to 1853. The present principal, Professor James S. Gardner, was in 1848 a senior in college, and at the same time a teacher in Whitestown Seminary. His connection with the institution extends through a long term of years, and his name has become an honored one, both as a teacher and socially.

During the year ending June, 1878, the names of 387 students were on the rolls of the seminary, and its present condition is in every way flourishing and prosperous. The following persons compose the present board of trustees : President, William D. Walcott, Esq., New York Mills ; Secretary and Treasurer, J. S. Gardner, A.M., Ph.D.,

* Why not place the schools first on the list ? Imagine an unedu- cated people controlling this republic !

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Whitestown ; Hon. Samuel Campbell, New York Mills ; Professor Edward North, L. H.D., Clinton ; Roderick Sholes, Esq., Bridgewater ; Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, LL.D., Utica; David. G: Young, Esq., Columbia ; Parley Phillips, Esq., Unadilla Forks; Rev. Philemon H. Fowler, D.D., Utica; Ellis Ellis, Esq., Utica; Colonel Israel J. Gray, Whitestown'; Lewis Lawrence, Esq., Utica; M. M. Gard- ner, M.D., Utica; Albert Brayton, Esq., Newport ; David M. Miller, Esq., Oneonta; Charles E. Smith, M.D.,.Whites- town ; Ebenezer Lewis, Esq., Marcy ; Newton Sholes, Esq., Bridgewater ; Merritt N. Capron, Esq., Boonville; George C. Law, Esq., . Whitestown ; N. Hinckley. Gates, Esq., Johnstown ; John G. Moshier; Esq., Lowville; Henry J: Cookinham, Esq., Utica ; W. J. P. Kingsley, M.D., Rome.

Faculty .- James S. Gardner, A.M., Ph.D., Principal and Professor of the Natural Sciences; Jos. W. Ellis, A.M., Pro- fessor of Latin and Higher Mathematics; Wm. Z. Luther, A. B., Professor of Greek, German, and English Literature ; Franklin P: Ashley, Ac.M., Professor of Commercial Instruc- tion and Mathematics; Miss Belinda M. White, Preceptress and Teacher of Moral Science, Geometry, and Drawing; Miss Josephine M. Hughes, Teacher of Rhetoric, English and French ; Miss Mille O. Hannahs, Teacher of Piano Music ; Miss Ella M. Gardner, Teacher of Oil-Painting; Joseph W. Ellis, A.M., Teacher of Vocal Music; Franklin P. Ashley, Ac.M., Librarian;

The courses of study include collegiate, Latin, and Eng- lish courses for ladies ; an English and scientifie course for gentlemen, and classical and commercial courses. In the musical department, every facility is provided for thorough instruction in all branches. A large new music-hall and five new music-rooms have recently been fitted up and sup- plied with new Chickering pianos. Frequent lectures upon scientific and literary subjects are dolivered before the stu- dents by professional men of the vicinity. The library contains 2000 volumes, the use of which is allowed to students free of expense.

There are five literary societies connected with the semi- nary, viz. : the Union Literary, the Irving Brothers, and the Y. G., sustained by the gentlemen ; and the Bronte Dungh- ters and the E. T., sustained by the ladies. Each has an elegantly-furnished hall and a growing library. An organi- zation called the Students' Christian Association is also sustained, and maintains a reading-roomi, in which is found a choice selection from the current newspapers and periodicals.

An annual paper, called . The Whitestown Index, is pub- lished by the students in the interests of the seminary.

CLINTON LIBERAL INSTITUTE.

The following account of this " temple of learning" was prepared principally by Rev. S. P. Landers, and inserted in Rev. A. D. Gridley's history of the town of Kirkland, and is so complete in its details that we reproduce it here with necessary statistics for later years :

" The ministers and delegates from the several associa- tions comprising the Universalist Convention of the State of New York met at Clinton, May 11, 1831. Among the acts of that body at this session was the appointment of a committee of three, namely, Rev. S. R. Smith, D. Skinner, and A. B. Grosh, 'to collect important facts, and prepare

an address to the several associations, and to the Univer- salist and liberal portion of the community, on the subject of establishing a literary institution in this State, not only for the purposes of science and literature; but with a partic- ular view of furnishing with an education young men de- signing to study for the ministry of universal reconciliation.'

" The election of this committee was the initial step in preparing the way for the erection of the Clinton Liberal Institute.

"On June 1, following, the central association met at Cedarville, Herkimer County, when the same subject was brought before that body, and resolutions were passed-

" 1. Approving the recommendation of the State Con- vention respecting a literary institution.

" 2. That it be located at Clinton.

" 3. That a Board of Trust be appointed.

" 4. Contains the number and names of said board.

" 5. That Joseph Stebbins and John W. Hale, of Clinton, David Pixley, of Manchester, Timothy Smith, of Augusta, and Ezra S. Barnum, of Utica, constitute an executive committee with usual powers.

" 6. That Joseph Stebbins be treasurer.

" 7. That sister associations be solicited to unite with us in promoting the objects herein contemplated.

" Numerous associations throughout the State responded to the acts of the State Convention, pledging themselves to aid in every practicable way the project of establishing such a school at. Clinton. One of the principal causes of this effort to found a,sohool on liberal principles in theology was (what seemed to be) the seetarian character and the prose- lyting influences on students made in the various academics and colleges of our country.

" The first report of the executive committee, dated Clinton, Aug. 20, 1831, in explaining to the public the object of the contemplated seminary, says, among other things, that ' it is not to be sectarian.' "On the contrary, while it is deemed all important that the young mind should be strongly impressed with the pure morality of the gospel, we wish to leave the responsibility of indoctrination to the natural guardians of youth.

" Pledging ourselves that as we have seen and felt the evils of sectarian influence in the existing seminaries of learning, so we will use our constant endeavors to preserve the one now projected from its contaminations.'

" A preliminary school for males was opened Nov. 7, 1831, on College Street, in a building owned by William Johnson, nearly opposite Mr. Kelsey's. This school had four terins a year, and was taught by George R. Perkins, now of Utica, who was connected with the Institute from this time until the year 1839.

" The female department was commenced Nov. 21, 1831, in a house on the east side of the green, now owned and occupied by A. W. Mills, and it was taught by Miss Burr. In May of the following year it was formally opened in the new building erected for that purpose, on Utica Street, by Miss Philena Dean, now the widow of the late Professor Marcus Catlin. The present site for the male department was purchased of John Sweeting, and the substantial stone edifice, 96 by 52 feet, and four stories high above the base- ment, was built in 1832, by contract, for $9300.

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HISTORY OF ONEIDA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

" As Harvard College was nourished and strengthened io its infancy by the labors and sacrifices of benevolent men, so the history of Clinton Liberal Institute, like that of many other literary institutions whose beginnings were small and when money was scarce, is the history of a strug- gle. It is well understood and acknowledged that Rev. Stephen R. Smith, for many years a resident and preacher in Clinton, was the founder of the Institute. Associated with him was Mr. Joseph Stebbins, whose first subscription was larger than any other person's, and who advanced from his own purse, as funds were needed to complete the build- ings, more than $5000. 'To these two men,' says Dr. Sawyer, in his memoir of Mr. Smith, ' the denomination owes a debt of gratitude which few at this day can fully appreciate. Others, it is true, labored with them, but they stand pre-eminent,'

" The library of the Institute was commenced by Mr. Smith taking a basket on his arm and soliciting books from his friends in this vicinity, and by obtaining donations in books from publishers in Boston and New York.

" This school, thus founded, was commenced in the stone building Dec. 10, 1832. The faculty consisted of Rev. C. B. Thummel, Principal and Professor of Languages ; George R. Perkins, Professor of Mathematics ; and E. W. Manley, Assistant. During the first year there were in attendance 108 pupils, most of whom studied the higher branches.

" Iu the female department, after brief terms of princi- palsbip by Misses Burr, Dean, and Fosdick, the services of Miss Almira Meech were secured as preceptress. The in- stitution was chartered by the State in 1834, and in 1836 it was put under the visitation of the Regents, receiving its share of the public money. In 1836 a lot of six and one- half acres of land called ' The Knob,' bought of William T. Richmond, was presented to the Institute, together with valuable apparatus estimated at about $800, by Mr. R. W. Haskins, of Buffalo. It was designed by the donor to build an observatory ou the top, but, owing to various hindrances, this generous project was never carried out.

" Early in the year 1838, Mr. Thummel was succeeded by Rev. Timothy Clowes, LL.D., and Miss Meech by Miss L. M. Barker. It is due to Miss Barker to state that this was the beginning of a career as instructor in Clinton which lasted thirty years, excepting, however, a short period spent in New York, and at Whittemore Hall, in Massachusetts. She was successful as a teacher and an exemplar to young ladies, and her pupils in large numbers are now exerting a happy influence in society as the result of her excellent in- structions. . . . She collected about $2000 of the fund for erecting the present Ladies' Institute. She built the house now occupied by Mr. Peter Fake. After years of expe- rience she felt that she could not realize fully her idea of a true school while it was under the control of a board of trustees ; and so she planned and built the ' Home Cottage' for a new seminary, it being the school property now owned by Dr. J. C. Gallup." This enterprise, however, proved too large for her means and her failing energies, and she sold the building to its present proprietor. After this she built a smaller school-house, calling it ' Cottage Seminary' (which is now owned by Miss Anna Chipman), and where, sur- rounded by friendly hearts, she at length passed away.

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History of Oneida County, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 59

Author: Durant, Samuel W Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss Number of Pages: 920

Author: Durant, Samuel W
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : Everts & Fariss
Number of Pages: 920