USA > New York > Tompkins County > Landmarks of Tompkins County, New York : including a history of Cornell University > Part 51
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121
500
LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.
ment than those mentioned in the law of Congress had no bearing upon the intrinsic nature of the trust itself. To hold that it could, would be to hold that a trustee may change the nature and responsibility of his duties under a trust by mis-investment. The opinion of the court, which was pronounced by Mr. Justice Blatchford, followed that pronounced by the New York Court of Appeals. A dissenting opinion was presented by Mr. Justice Brewer, in which Mr. Justice Gray concurred. This opinion held that the act of the Legislature of New York, under which the land scrip was bestowed upon Cornell University was the legislation of a sovereign state prescribing the duties and powers of one of its officials, and also a declaration of the duties cast by a trustee upon his agent in respect to trust property. In either aspect its voice was potential in respect to that which was, under the authority, thereafter done by official or agent. In this view, the land commissioners had no authority to make a limitation in the contract, by which thirty cents an acre and the net proceeds were to pass to the national fund. No sub- sequent legislation on the part of the State of New York, and "no agreement between it and Cornell University as to the possession of these funds can have the effect to relieve the State from its liability as trustee, or place the title to those funds elsewhere than in the State." The use of the proceeds of the land scrip fund are stamped with the limitation imposed by the original act of Congress. Under the decision of the highest court of the State of New York and of the United States, the Cornell endowment fund was the gift of Mr. Cornell to the univer- sity. It was not, therefore, subject to any limitation which might apply to the land scrip fund, and can be used for any of the purposes of the university which the trustees deem proper.
BUILDINGS, COLLECTIONS AND MUSEUMS.
The attention of the trustees was early directed to the acquisition of collections of natural history and of art. One of the first collections obtained before the opening of the university was the Jewett collection in paleontology and geology, which was purchased by Mr. Cornell at a cost of ten thousand dollars and presented to the university. This col- lection, which had been made by a scientist in Albany, was regarded at the time as extremely complete. Soon after the charter of the uni- versity, the Legislature passed an act giving to the university a collection of duplicates in the same department from the State museum in Albany.
501
CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
A larger and more important acquisition was that of the Newcomb collection of shells which was purchased by the trustces in February, 1868. Dr. Newcomb had spent many years in the Sandwich Islands and in Central America, in which he had made an extensive, and almost une- qualed, collection of shells illustrating the conchology of that region. Many of thesc shells were of the highest value and some were absolutely unique, the only collections at the time which could be compared with it was the type-collection made by Professor Adams of Amherst and a simi- lar collection at Yale. The university also authorized the purchase of the mineralogical cabinet of Professor Benjamin Silliman, jr., of Vale College. Smaller, but valuable, additions were made, among others a collection of four hundred birds, presented by Greene Smith, esq., the son of Gerrit Smith. Valuable gifts of books were also received which are mentioned in connection with the Library. The Museum of Archaeology is a recent, but most valuable, addition to classical study and to the history of art. This beautiful collection is the gift of the Honorable Henry W. Sage. When the Library was moved from the McGraw Building, the rooms which it had occupied were devoted to a Museum of Archaeology. This was fitted up for its purpose during the year 1893 and it was formally dedicated in February, 1894. President White had early insisted that a museum of casts would be one of the most valuable acquisitions for the study of the history of art which could be made in this country. The acquisition of original works of art was impossible, but in place of them the exact models almost equally valu- able for purposes of study could be obtained. Mr: Henry W. Sage, whose large interest in the development of the university was not con- fined to any one department, made this beautiful gift to the study of the humanities.
The museum is an outgrowth of the system of instruction followed in the arts course and of the needs of graduate work in the classical departments at Cornell. The leading ideal in its formation is to furnish the best illustration of the develop- ment of antique sculpture. It therefore consists principally of a collection of full-size plaster casts, numbering nearly 500, of notable examples of Greek and Roman bronzes and marbles. These have been furnished or made to order, for the most part, under the direction of the foreign museums possessing the original. Some specimens of Egyptian, Chaldean, Assyrian, Persian and Etruscan sculpture have been added for purposes of comparison. The principal groups, distributed in eight sections over 5,300 square feet of floor area, illustrate Oriental and early Greek sculpture, classical mythology, Greek athletic statuary, architectural sculpture, the school of Praxiteles, later Greek, Pompeiian and Graeco-Roman sculpture. No attempt has been made to illustrate Christian sculpture.
502
LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.
As a museum of classical sculpture, the collection is actually excelled by no other university museum in the United States, and among other foundations only by the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston. The total cost of the collection and equipment is about $20,000.
On the 30th of June, 1868, Mr. John McGraw proposed the erection of a fire-proof building suitable for the needs of the university. This building (the present McGraw Hall) was begun soon after, and was de- signed to accommodate the library, the collections of natural history and to afford lecture rooms for the departments of geology, anatomy and physiology.
No provision had yet been provided for suitable accommodations for the department of mechanic arts, when, in the summer of 1870, the Hon. Hiram Sibley offered to erect a building for that purpose. On the 9th of August a contract was made for its erection. The Sibley building as originally planned was designed to be one story in height with a French roof. Mr. Sibley consented to increase the height of the building by one story on a pledge from President White to expend a sum equal to the cost of the extra story, in apparatus, models, etc., for the departments of civil and mechanical engineering.
At the same time the need of residences for professors was being seri- ously felt. Most of the students and faculty were accommodated within the gloomy and disagreeable walls of Cascadilla. The city itself at this time contained no more residences than were needed for its own popu- lation. On January 24, 1870, the lease of land to professors, which would enable them to build upon the university ground, was authorized. This important action has contributed more than anything else, perhaps, to give the University a unique character by establishing upon its grounds a university colony. It was proposed at this time to erect a residence for Professor Goldwin Smith on the half lot additional as- signed to Professor Fiske and connected with his residence. The erection of the president's house by President White was originally proposed at the time of the offer of Mr. MeGraw to erect the hall which bears his name. The first residences for professors upon the univer- sity grounds were those of Professors Law and Fiske. President White proposed on June 21, 1871, to ercet a president's house for his own occupation, which, upon his resignation, should become the property of the university for the use of the president. The house thus begun was planned by one of the earliest students of the university interested in architecture, Mr. W. H. Miller, who has since been the architect of the
503
CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
Sage Library and the School of Law. The president's house was not completed until the summer of 1873, President White retaining his resi- dence in Syracuse for the first five years after the opening of the uni- versity, and occupying rooms in Cascadilla Place during the occasion of his visits to Ithaca.
Upon the acceptance of the report of the committee appointed to consider the subject of female education in the university February 15, 1872, a committee was appointed to prepare plans for the Sage College. These were drawn up by Professor Charles Babcock, and the building remains one of the most simple and dignified in architecture and one of the most satisfactory of all structures on the university grounds. This building was erected during the year 1872-73 and formally opened for the use of students at the opening of the fall term, 1874.
On May 7, 1872, the contract for the erection of the Sage Chapel, in accordance with the offer of the Hon. Henry W. Sage, was authorized and on the following morning the executive committee went in a body upon the grounds of the university and formally selected its present location. The plans originally contemplated a stone chapel, which were afterwards changed to one of brick. The chapel as proposed was designed to accommodate an audience of five hundred. The contract for its erection was made on June 22, 1873.
Provision was made in the summer of 1874 for laying out the grounds of the Sage College by a skillful landscape gardener, and about the same time the wooden bridge across Cascadilla was replaced by the present structure of iron.
At the meeting of the trustees upon June 16, 1880, the Hon. Henry W. Sage offered to erect at his own expense a conservatory for the botanical department at a cost not to exceed $15,000.
On September 3, 1880, the erection of a physical laboratory was authorized, and it was directed that plans and estimates for it should be prepared at once, and on December 18, 1880, an appropriation was made to erect and cquip the same.
The erection of an armory was authorized April 29, 1882, and a new building for the departments of chemistry and physics on June 9 of the same year.
On June 14, 1883, the erection of a memorial chapel, to serve as a mausoleum for the benefactors and officers of the university, was ordered.
In the summer of 1887, Mr. Alfred S. Barnes offered to give $45,000 in addition to the amount already subscribed by the members of the
504
LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.
Christian Association, to erect a building to be used for the purposes of the association. The plans of this building were authorized Sep- tember 27, 1887, and the construction was immediately entered upon, the building being formally opened for public use at Commencement, 1888.
The erection of a building for the civil engineering department was ordered by the trustees at their meeting October 26, 1882. On June 20, 1888, it was provided that this building should be made of stone, in order to correspond with the other buildings of the quadrangle. On June 19, 1889, the name Lincoln Hall was bestowed upon it in honor of President Lincoln, by whose approval the act of Congress, donating public lands for agricultural and mechanical education, became a law. Work upon the same was begun in April, 1888.
On September 19, 1888, the Hon. Henry W. Sage, feeling deeply the immediate nced of a library building while litigation regarding the realization of Mrs. Fiske's will was still pending, proposed to advance to the university the necessary funds for the erection of the building. By a letter July 15, 1889, Mr. Sage proposed that this library building should be a free gift, if by the decision of the United States Supreme Court the bequest of Jennie McGraw should fail.
The erection of a new chemical laboratory was ordered at the meeting of the Board of Trustees October 24, 1888, the plans for which as prepared by Professor Osborne were formally adopted, and a site chosen. The erection of the building was begun in July, 1889.
On February 18, 1891, an appropriation was made for the erection of a law school building, plans for which were, on April 25, 1891, accepted and the contract was made on September 21, 1891.
On March 13, 1883, Mr. Hiram Sibley, of Rochester, presented $50,000 to the university to be spent in the erection of additions to the present buildings of Sibley College to provide additional accommo- dations for the growing classes,
IX.
THE UNIVERSITY AS ESTABLISHED.
THE university may be regarded as especially fortunate in the choice of the first professors elected. They were, in general, young men
505
CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
whose reputation and scholarship were such as to promise high success in the administration of the departments of instruction to which they were called. Professor Evan W. Evans, the first professor nominated, was born in Wales. He had graduated with high honor at Yale, and been instructor in mathematics in that institution, and afterward a pro- fessor in Marietta College, Ohio. He had contributed to Silliman's Journal, and was the author of a text book in mathematics. His in- terest in the language of his native country led him to pursue studies in the Cymric literature and philology, in which he had no superior in the United States. The editor of the leading foreign review of Welsh literature has stated that Professor Evans was the only American scholar, whose researches in that language had received distinguished recognition abroad. Students of those early days will bear him in grateful memory. His instruction was marked by admirable clearness, and left the impression that the form in which it had been presented was almost the final form of definite and precise statement. Although a silent man, his judgment upon all questions of organization in those early days of the university, was of great value; that loyalty to con- viction and to friendship, which is characteristic of his nation, made Professor Evans's association valued by all his colleagues.
Dr. George C. Caldwell had been an early student of scientific agri- culture, whose works upon agricultural chemistry had already won recognition. He had studied the methods of agricultural instruction abroad, especially at the famous Agricultural College of Cirencester, England, and had afterward received his degree at the University of Göttingen. A scholar of excellent judgment, careful and exact in all his work, his studies have contributed to the reputation of the university in his department.
Professor Eli W. Blake had graduated both in the academic and scientific departments of Yale University, and later, studied at the University of Heidelberg. He had been professor of physics in the University of Vermont and, at the time of his election, was acting pro- fessor in Columbia College. While his residence here was confined to two years, his work bore the impression of a versatile and enthusiastic scholar.
Professor James M. Crafts, professor of general and analytical chem- istry, was a graduate of the Harvard Scientific School, and had studied afterward in France and Germany. Some of his original investigations had already been published in the Proceedings of the French Academy
64
506
LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.
of Sciences, and in Silliman's Journal. Atthe time of his election he was an assistant in the Lawrence Scientific School. Although his con- nection with the university was limited on account of ill health, the private investigations which he has since pursued in France and in this country, have made him one of the most eminent chemists that America has produced. He is at the present time a professor in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Dr. Burt G. Wilder was a graduate of the Lawrence Scientific School and a favorite pupil of Professor Agassiz. Hc had already won reputa- tion as a contributor to various scientific and popular journals, and had published some extremely curious and interesting investigations upon the silk-spinning spiders of the south which had attracted attention. He had also served as an assistant surgeon in the army. During his residence in the university he has trained some of the ablest and most devoted scientists of this country. In investigations in the structure of the brain and the nervous structure of men and animals, and in the effort to promote a uniform system of nomenclature in anatomy, he has been one of the most active and influential representatives.
Professor Albert N. Prentiss was one of the first graduates of the Michigan Agricultural College-the first institution of the kind in the United States. His scientific investigations had been of high merit, and he possessed unusual ability as an organizer. To his taste and skill as a landscape gardener much of the beauty of the university grounds is due. Few botanists in this country have trained so many eminent scholars.
Mr. Lebbeus HI. Mitchell, whose name appears in the early announce- ments as professor of mining and metallurgy, never entered upon his duties. His life has since been prominent for his explorations in Abyssinia, and later, for service as Vice Consul-General in London.
Professor Law had already become eminent by his writings; Pro- fessor Wheeler was known as an admirable classical teacher, and Professor Morris's training had fitted him to organize instruction in the new field of practical mechanics.
The university thus inaugurated, and accompanied by the enthusiastic hopes of the friends of modern education, entered a period of stern limitation and embarrassment, from its restricted resources. Its wealth was in the future, in the national lands, the value of which would rise with the development of the industrial prosperity of the States in which they were located. An attempt to realize at once the proceeds
507
CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
of these lands would have destroyed the benefits which were to spring from Mr. Cornell's far-reaching purpose. The support of the univer- sity was based on the income of Mr. Cornell's gift of $500,000 and of the college land scrip fund and the Cornell endowment fund. The sep- arate funds last mentioned amounted to about $405,000. Funds for the erection of buildings had to be derived from the interest on the endow- ment. Thus the university, embodying so vast a scheme of universal edu- cation, was limited from the beginning in carrying out the scheme of its founders. The university grounds were those of a country farm and rough in the extreme. Cattle roved over the campus and were sup- plied with water from a spring in front of the site of McGraw Hall. Anything like landscape gardening was almost beyond the wildest dream of any friend of order and beauty. From the funds which had accumulated in three years all the necessary buildings had to be erected, and chemical and physical apparatus, collections and books acquired. The funds of the university were all needed for its current expenses without this additional cost, while it aimed to embody great departments of instruction and courses of study which did not exist in other institu- tions, and obliged at the same time to make provision for recognized and established branches of study. The faculty, from whom everything was expected, did not at first exceed in numbers that of smaller institutions with a limited course of study. Growth seemed impossible, and to maintain upon the original scale that for which provision had already been made, doubtful. In addition to this, the cost of non-resident lecturers impaired still further the available funds for regular depart- ments of work. A single building had been erccted mainly for a dormi- tory. No provision had been made for a university building with lecture rooms, museums and general offices. At the same time, the cost of new buildings had to be taken from the regular annual income, all of which was needed for the support of an organized institution in full operation. The limitations and discouragements of those first years can scarcely be overestimated. The only hope of relief was in sacrificing the land upon which the future of the university depended. To have done so would have reduced the university at once to the scale of one of the smaller colleges. Mr. Cornell maintained with a tenacity begotten of a lofty purpose his position that the lands must be retained. In the mean time, the financial difficulties increased. Generous friends gave McGraw Hall and Sibley College at a most opportunc time. The execution of the national trust thus became in a degree possible; but
508
LANDMARKS OF TOMPKINS COUNTY.
financial bankruptcy seemed impending. At the same time the country was slowly approaching the crisis of 1873. Credit and currency, which had been inflated during the war, had to assume a normal standard and relation to business necessities. Twice the trustees intervened to meet a deficit of about $150,000. The number of students which had reached 412 the first year, and rose in the third year to slightly above 600, de- clined from that point. From 1873 to 1878 the numbers remained about the same; from 1878 to 1882 the numbers declined still further and in one term of this year the number of students in attendance in a single term reached only 312.
President White had been absent for five years in Europe, with the exception of an interval of seven months, in which he was in residence from September to May in 1878-9. The friends of the university felt that his presence was necessary. The alumni passed passed resolutions at their meeting in June, 1880, asking the trustees to request his return. In obedience to this action, the trustees themselves passed resolutions expressing their sense of the urgent need of a personal and responsible head of the university and desiring President White's return if consist- ent with his plans. Mr. White, therefore, resigned his position as minister to the court of Berlin and, in the fall of 1881, resumed his posi- tion at the head of the university. This was the year of greatest decline in the history of the university. In the following year the number of students slightly increased, but it was not until 1884-5 that the number of students equaled that recorded thirteen years before. Since this time the growth of the university has been very rapid. The increase in the number of students has been simply the index of the interior development. By favorable sales of land the endowment of the univer- sity had been greatly increased, the salaries of professors advanced and large appropriations made for fuller equipment and the erection of additional buildings.
On June 17, 1885, President White tendered his resignation of the office of president of the university, it being nearly nineteen years from the date of his original election to that position. He withdrew in obedience to a purpose which he had long since formed. In presenting his resignation, President White said: "The present meeting com- pletes twenty years since with our dear and venerated friend, Ezra Cornell, I took part in securing the charter of the university, submitted. its plan of organization and entered this noble board. And now, in accordance with a purpose long since formed, I hereby present my
509
CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
resignation as president and professor of history. The university is at last in such condition that its future may well be considered secure, thanks to your wise administration; its endownent has been developed beyond our expectations; its debt extinguished; its equipment made ample; its faculty increased until it is one of the largest and most effective in our country, and an undergraduate body brought together, which by its numbers and spirit promises all that we can ask for the future." After reviewing the fundamental principles of the university and expressing his satisfaction in their triumph after twenty years, he said: "At two different periods when about to leave the country for a time, I have placed my resignation in your hands and you have thought best not to accept it. I now contemplate another absence from the country in obedience to what seems to me a duty, and must respectfully insist that I be now permanently relieved and my resignation finally accepted. Although I have but reached what is generally known as the middle period of life, I feel entitled to ask that the duties hitherto laid upon me be now transferred upon another, and that I be left free to take measures for the restoration of my health, to which I have for several years looked forward with longing, and which I hope can be made eventually useful to the university and possibly to the public at large." The trustees in accepting his resignation which was presented with so much urgency, adopted a preamble and resolutions. " The resignation by Andrew D. White of the presidency of Cornell Univer- sity becomes an era in its history. For twenty years he had devoted his best exertions, energy and industry, his large intellect and loyal zeal to the organization and growth of this institution. The project onee con- ceived, he, hand in hand with its benefactor and founder, pressed it to a successful issue. Their dreams have been realized and their efforts crowned with noble and generous results. How great have been the eares and anxieties during those twenty years, few, if any, can realize. How large and generous his benefactions equally bestowed upon the university and its friends, few will ever know. How beautifully he has created for us friends by his social and personal character; how great has been his influence in our behalf is to become a part of our history. During these twenty years the respect and affection of all connected with the university towards him has grown and strengthened. The purity of his character, the blamelessness of his life, his noble ambition, his generous and self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of education, his wisdom and kindness of heart have made his name and person very near and dear to all of his associates."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.