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FIFTY YEARS OF HISTORY OF THE OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY DELAWARE OHIO 1844 -1894
GENEALOGY 977.102 0370WD
M. L
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 00864 4533
GENEALOGY 977.102 D37OWD
FIFTY YEARS OF HISTORY C
OF THE
OHIO
WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY,
DELAWARE, OHIO.
1844-1894.
PROFESSOR E. T. NELSON, EDITOR.
THE IMPERIAL BIPRESSTE
CLEVELAND
THE CLEVELAND PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO., CLEVELAND, O. 1895.
COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY THE CLEVELAND PRINTING AND PUBLISHING CO.
1501594
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Introduction, . .
5
History of Ohio Wesleyan University, by Prof. W. G. Williams, 7
Description of Buildings, . II7
Reminiscences, by Prof. L. D. McCabe, 125
Frederick Merrick, 136
University Hall and Gray Chapel, 143
Semi-Centennial Celebration, PAGE.
147
Address of J. D. Van Deman, : 149
W. F. McClintick, . 152 Chas. W. Fairbanks, 162
Dr. W. D. Godman, 167
Miss Kate Kauffman, 199
Poem by E. J. Wheeler, . . . 168
. 66 Mrs. O. F. Brown, . 171
Address of John W. Hoyt, . . 173 James M. DeCamp, . 178 Wilson M. Day, . . 18I
Greetings from other Institutions,
PAGE.
PAGE.
President Seth Low, 230
Schurman, 231
Super, 237
Harper, . 231
Rogers, . 237
Scott, .
231
Sterling, 237
Cone, . 232
Gilman, . 237
Thompson, 232
66 Warren, .
238
66
Sanders, 238
Ort, .
Marsh, 233
Dwight, 233
66 Eliot, 239
McDowell, 233
Vice-Chancellor Beiler, 239
President Scott,
239
Hon. J. G. Woolley, 239
President Scovel,
239
Raymond, 235
Peters, 240
Quale, . 236
66
Long, .
240
Striking Statistics, by Prof. E. T. Nelson, . . . 241
Tentlı Quinquennial Catalogue, Ohio Wesleyan University, 251
Board of Trustees,
252
Officers of the Board, 256
Faculty,
257
Instructors,
267
Department of Art,
. 270
PAGE. Address of Prof. A. E. Dolbear, 186 Henry C. Hedges, . 190 66 Dr. Arthur Edwards, 194
Dr. Spencer M. Free, 204 Dr. Wm. F. King, . 208 Remarks of Gov. W. Mckinley, 213 Address of Dr. Chas. H. Payne, . 213 66 Ex-Gov. C. Foster, . 226
230
President Sproull, .
236
Jordan,
232
232
Fiske, . 238
Thirkield, 238
Chancellor Day, . 234
President Goucher, 234
Secretary of Amherst College, . 235 President Crawford,
235
King, 240
Zollars, 236
IV
Table of Contents.
Alumni Record Ohio Wesleyan University, .
PAGE. . 272
PAGE.
PAGE.
PAGE.
Class of 1846 .
. 273
Class of 1863 . · 303
Class of 1880 . . 372
'1847 . 273
1864
· 305
1881 . 377
1848 . 274
I865
. 308
1882 . 382
1883 . 387
1850
1851
1852 1853
1854
1855 282
"
66
1857 1858
1859
290
66
1876 1877
360
1894
455
1861
297
66 1878
365
1862 301
1879 .
. 368
Quinquennial Catalogue of Alumnæ of Ohio Wesleyan Female College, . 463 History of Ohio Wesleyan Female College,
. 464
Board of Trustees,
. 466
Officers of Board,
469
Faculty,
470
Instructors,
472
Alumnæ Record,
475
PAGE.
PAGE.
Class of 1855
PAGE. . 475
Class of 1863 483 484
Class of 1871 . . 497
16 :1856
476
1864 - 1865 .
. 486
16
1873 . 50I
1858 . 477
66 1866
487
1874 . · 503
1859 . 478
1860. 479
66 1867 1868.
· 489
1875 .
504
1861 . 480
1877 . · 509
Honorary Degrees Conferred, .
512
Ohio Wesleyan University,
· 512
Female College, .
518
Degrees Given on Examination, 519
Alphabetical Index, . · 520
1866.
1867
. 312
392
277
278
· 405
1870
1871
1872 1873 . 1874 .
1875 .
316 · 322 . 326 · 331 338 . 343 349 354 356
66
1884 1885 . 1886 1887 . 1888 1889 . 1890 . 1891
421 · 427
434
66
287
1892 .
442
1865
294
1868. 1869
399
409
279 28 г
415
1856 284 285
I893 449
1876 . 507
490
1862 . . 481
1869. 492 1870 · 495
1872 . . · 499
1857
. 476
1849 . 275 277
· 309
INTRODUCTION.
BY PRESIDENT BASHFORD.
The Ohio Wesleyan University is a child of faith. In 1841, Charles Elliott, J. M. Trimble and W. P. Strickland drove from Urbana to Delaware to look at the grounds and hotel building which the citizens of the latter place had offered to the Methodist Church for college purposes. When the three preachers returned to the seat of the Conference, only one of them had money enough with him to pay for the carriage in which they made the journey; and Dr. Trimble made the first contribution to the college by ineeting the expenses of that historic visit. Dr. Elliott's speech portraying the possibilities of a college for Ohio Metliodismn awakened great enthusiasm, and led the Conference to accept the gift of the citizens of Delaware and to undertake to launch a University upon faith. But in his wildest dreams no member of that Conference supposed that within fifty years the college would secure a larger endowment than Yale secured during the first one hundred and fifty years of her existence; that during the life-time of the first teachers the college would send out 2,200 graduates and 15,000 students with their lives touched to nobler issues by the refining influence of Christian culture; that in addition to enriching every department of life, the college would send forth thousands of teachers, and hundreds of ministers, and inore missionaries than the Methodist Church liad commis- sioned down to the day when the college was founded. The past at least is secure, as the solid achievements recounted in the following pages amply demonstrate.
The incipient University is still a child of faith. With the need of a new library and a large endowment to sustain it; with the need of ten more professorships in the college, and the cry for special departments, and the demand for
VÍ
Introduction.
professional schools,-in a word, with the imperative need of millions of money, of inspiring teachers, and of divine power,-all, to develop the talents and enrich the lives and to transforin the characters of those who come to us; the toilers of to-day are looking on every side and upward for help and crying with the apostle of the nations: "Who is sufficient for these things ?"
But the toilers of to-day as little dream of the possibilities of the next half century, as those who worked upon the foundations dreamed of the achievements of the first fifty years. With over twelve hundred students crowding our halls; with representatives now at the college from eighty- four counties in Ohio and thirty-one States in the Union and thirteen foreign countries; with the splendid buildings erected and in process of erection; with over a million dollars now invested in the University, and the Holy Spirit touching the hearts and turning the thoughts of mnen of means toward this golden opportunity; with our older graduates wisely and bravely helping to shape the civilization of the twentieth century, and our recent representatives winning honors and taking high rank in the foremost profes- sional schools in the land; with the college aiming to develop every faculty of every student to its highest power, and to de- vote the whole to the loftiest service of humanity ; and above all with the divine blessing resting upon us in daily work and affording gracious manifestations of God's presence in count- less seasons of refreshing, and the Holy Spirit eager to guide us in the great tasks that yet remain unfinished-we boldly prophesy that if trustees and teachers and taught remain true to the lofty standard lifted up, live in communion with God and devote their lives to the service of mankind, the Ohio Wes- leyan University will become in the twentieth century one of the most potent factors of Methodism throughout the world.
THE OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY,
1844-1894.
BY PROFESSOR WILLIAM G. WILLIAMS.
The Ohio Wesleyan University was founded in 1844. It owes its location, if not its establishment at that particular date, to the famous White Sulphur Spring in Delaware. This spring had early attracted the attention of tourists and seekers after health. In order to accommodate these, and to encourage further patronage, two enterprising citizens, Judge Thomas W. Powell and Columbus W. Kent, erected in the year 1833, on a spacious lot, embracing the spring, a fine hotel, which soon became known to the citizens as the Man- sion House. The waters were, salubrious, and the locality healthful; and for some years the Mansion House was kept in successful operation. But the town of Delaware was not very widely known, and was not easily accessible; and it was, perhaps, too early in the history of the State to hope for large returns from a business enterprise of this kind ; and, at last, in the Summer of 1841, Judge Powell, who had become the sole proprietor, concluded to abandon thie attempt to establish a Western watering-place.
The spring property being thus brought into the market, it was suggested by the Rev. Adam Poe, the Methodist pastor in Delaware, that the citizens should purchase it, and offer it to the Ohio and the North Ohio Conferences, jointly, as a site for a Methodist college. Mr. Poe's suggestion mnet with
8
Ohio Wesleyan University :
a cordial approval, both from the citizens of Delaware, and from the members of the two Conferences.
The circumstances of Ohio Methodismn at that time made the suggestion especially opportune. As early as 1821, the Ohio Conference, in connection with the Kentucky Confer- ence, had established at Augusta, in Kentucky, the first Methodist institution in the world vested with collegiate functions. For many years it was the only Methodist college in the Church ; it had able scholars in its Faculty, and it edu- cated many distinguished inen. Among them, our own adopted sons, our honored Randolph S. Foster and William T. McClintick are illustrious instances. But Augusta Col- lege was unfortunately located. It was in an obscure village in Kentucky; it was almost inaccessible; the "plant," as we say in business enterprises, was insignificant; but, espe- cially, it was on the wrong side of the river to suit the grow- ing anti-slavery sentiment of the people in Ohio; and it was at length manifest that the institution could never command their patronage or their contributions. After an experiment of twenty years, the college was a pronounced failure, and was eventually discontinued.
The failure of Augusta College to meet the wants of Ohio Methodism left this largest Protestant denomination in Ohio without any denominational school of a higher grade than an academy. Naturally, the thoughtful men of Methodism were solicitous in regard to the educational future of their Church in Ohio; but, as yet, their thoughts and counsels had not crystallized into action.
As early as September, 1840, Dr. Edward Thomson, then Principal of Norwalk Seminary, in a long report to the North Ohio Conference, from the Committee on Education, said : "There is no Methodist college in Ohio. We blush to think that it contains no institution to which our youth can
9
Fifty Years of History.
resort for collegiate instruction, without imbibing ideas at variance with the religion of their fathers, and the Church of their adoption. There is 110 State in the country in which the Methodist Church is more in need of a college than Ohio." This, so far as we know, was the first public, or at least published, expression of the need of a Methodist college in Ohio. Yet Dr. Thomson did not, in this paper, go so far as to recommend the immediate establishment of a college. But Dr. Elliott, in an editorial in the Western Christian Advocate, December 3rd, 1841, in alluding to the Delaware movement, said: "For several years past there has been much conversation among the Methodists of Ohio, respecting the establishment of a college, or university, of the first order, in a central part of the State." Evidently the condition of things in Ohio Methodismn was ripe for such a inovement ; it only wanted a leader.
It was this peculiar conjunction of circumstances that led Dr. Poe to his thought. With him, to think was to act ; and in this matter the Church followed his lead. It is need- less now to inquire whether the whole movement was not precipitate. No doubt, had the Conferences invited competi- tion, they could have had much larger offers than the one from Delaware.
The property thus proposed for a college site comprised about ten acres of ground, lying in the suburbs of Delaware, towards the southeast quarter of the town, and separated from the rest of the town by the insignificant "Delaware Run." The town has since grown quite beyond the college campus. Of this ground, a part, on which the Mansion House stood, was held in fee simple ; and the remainder, in- cluding the spring, was held by a perpetual lease without rent, from the corporation of Delaware. The investinent in the grounds and buildings was about $25,000; but the owner
IO
Ohio Wesleyan University :
offered to convey his interests in the entire property for $10,000. This sum, it was thought, could be raised by a sub- scription among the citizens of the town and county ; and, accordingly, a delegation was appointed to wait on the Co11- ferences, and ascertain whether they would accept the prop- erty, if conveyed to them as proposed.
The North Ohio Conference inet August 11th, 1841, at Wooster. To this body the delegation first applied. The Conference considered the matter favorably, and appointed a committee of five to confer with a like committee to be appointed by the Ohio Conference. August 25th, the dele- gation appeared before the Ohio Conference, at Urbana. On the following day, Drs. C. Elliott, J. M. Trimble and W. P. Strickland were deputed by the Conference to visit Delaware and examine the premises. They carried back a favorable report, and many long remembered the Irish enthusiasm with which Dr. Elliott advocated the establishment of a Methodist college, and the acceptance of this property. The Conference was ready for the measure, and voted that it was expedient to establish a Methodist college in Ohio; that the two Conferences (embracing the western two-thirds of the State ) should unite in the enterprise; and that, if the Sulphur Spring property were conveyed to the Church, on the terms proposed, Delaware should be selected as the seat of the college. A committee of five was appointed to act with the committee from the Northern Conference.
The joint committee thus constituted met at Delaware, September Ist, 1841. The committee consisted of Revs. John H. Power, Adam Poe, Edward Thomson, James Brew- ster and William S. Morrow, from the North Ohio Confer- ence, and Revs. Jacob Young, James B. Finley, Charles Elliott, Edmund W. Sehon and Joseph M. Trimble, from the Ohio Conference. Of these distinguished men, to whom
REV. JOSEPH M. TRIMBLE, D. D.
12
Ohio Wesleyan University :
was committed this weighty responsibility, Dr. Joseph M. Trimble was for many years the last survivor, and died May 6th, 1891. The committee voted to accept the property if the citizens should perfect their offer, and if the title should be made satisfactory to the Conferences.
The way being thus prepared, a subscription was opened by the citizens and was signed by one hundred and seventy- two persons .* No subscription exceeded $500, and the aggregate amounted to but $9,000. That the movement night not fail, certain parties, trusting to future local sub- scriptions, obligated themselves for the deficit. But no further subscriptions were obtained, and some years after- ward, $500 were raised by voluntary contributions among the ministers in the North Ohio Conference, to relieve the Rev. Adam Poe from the payment of a note given on this account. Such was the difficulty, at that time, of raising even this small sum for an enterprise, which, as the citizens said in the preamble to their subscription, "would greatly add to the value of property in the town and county, and be of great public utility and benefit."
But the town was small; at the United States census the year before, 1840, the population was but 893; there was not much business, and there was little accumulated wealth in the community. The inducement they offered to secure the location of a college, destined to be the central institution of a great Church, was absurdly small. But the amount
* A striking illustration of the advance in news-paper enterprise since that day is shown in the fact that the Delaware papers of 1841 mnade not the slightest mention, editorial or " local," of this movement, the most important that has ever affected the interests of the town. The only reference to the matter during the whole progress of the negotiation is found in the following notice, given in the advertising columns of The Olentangy Gazette.
" METHODIST EPISCOPAL COLLEGE.
A general meeting of the subscribers will be held at the Exchange Hotel, this Saturday evening, October 23rd, 1841. It is important that all be there."
I3
Fifty Years of History.
raised in Delaware was the just measure of the ability of the place at that time. The University was welcomed to the town, and it has often since inet with a generous response from the citizens to its appeals for aid. On the other hand, it has brought with it population, and wealth, and prosper- ity, to the town. President Thomson, in his inaugural, esti- mated that the University added from the first at least $20,000 annually to the business of the town. It is surely within bounds to say, that now, with its yearly income of $90,000 expended here, and with its 1,200 students who pay for their living and expenses, not to mention the many families that the University has attracted hither, it adds at least a quarter of a million of dollars annually to the busi- ness movements of Delaware. Perhaps, after another fifty years, the education of Delaware will be so far advanced that it will not be good forin for any citizen here to die without leaving something to the Ohio Wesleyan University.
The Conference Committee met again November 17th, 1841, and received from Judge Powell a bond for the con- veyance of the property donated by the citizens. The title was finally made in 1850 to the Board of Trustees. In addi- tion to the ten acres thus donated by the citizens, the co111- mittee purchased from Judge Powell an adjacent property, on the south of the original grounds, of five acres inore, at a cost of $5,500, and the furniture of the Mansion House for about $2,000 inore. Dr. Trimble paid Judge Powell fifty dollars as an earnest to bind the contract for the additional purchase, the first money given to the University, the first money paid on its debt.
It was certainly full late in the history of Ohio Methodisın for the establishment of a university. The other denomina- tions in the State had already good foundations for their sev- eral denominational schools; Catholic, Presbyterian, Congre-
14
Ohio Wesleyan University :
gational, Episcopalian, Baptist. The population of the State in 1840 was 1,500,000, and the Methodist Church in Ohio then numbered 150,000 members. In 1844, when the school was opened, there were within the proper territory of the two patronizing Conferences, 107,000 members. In the many Methodist families thus represented, besides others in the State who might be counted on as patrons, there were many thousand young men who needed an education ; and there was wealth enough in the Church on which to rely for at least an incipient college endowment.
ORGANIZATION.
Immediate steps were now taken looking to a formal organization. A committee of Jacob Young, Joseph M. Trim- ble and Adam Poe was appointed to apply to the Legisla- ture for an act of incorporation. A special charter, under the old State Constitution, conferring University powers, was granted by the Legislature March 7th, 1842. This char- ter was evidently drafted by Dr. Trimble. It is marked by a lack of lawyer-like niceties and guarded details; but it adequately secures the legal tenure of the property, and by its very indefiniteness grants the trustees the amplest possible academic powers. The corporate powers were vested in a board of twenty-one persons, from different parts of the State. These were William Neff, Samuel Williams, ex- Governor Allen Trimble, Lemuel Reynolds, Thomas Orr, William Bishop, William Armstrong, Rev. James B. Finley, Rev. Jacob Young, Rev. Edmund W. Sehon, Rev. Leonidas L. Hamline, Judge Patrick G. Goode, George B. Arnold, ex- Governor Mordecai Bartley, Frederick C. Welch, Wilder Joy, Henry Ebbert, John H. Harris, Rev. Adam Poe, Rev. William Burke, Rev. Leonard B. Gurley. These mnen were of prominence in State or in Church. They have long since
15
Fifty Years of History.
yielded their places to others. Dr. Gurley, the last survivor, died in 1880, at the ripe age of seventy-six years.
Of these trustees, though the charter did not so prescribe, fourteen were layınen and seven were ininisters; and this ratio of ministers and laymen has always been kept in filling vacancies. By the provisions of the charter, the corporators at first held their office for life. The right of perpetuation of the Board was vested in the two patronizing Conferences, each appointing to all existing vacancies, alternately. These Conferences were afterwards divided into four, each with the same right of appointment. This arrangement for alternate appointment continued until the year 1869, when, by a gen- eral law of the State, under the new Constitution, the Presi- dent of the University was made ex officio a member of the Board, and the remaining twenty members were divided into four classes of five each, which were assigned, severally, to the four Conferences, and the tenure of office was reduced to five years, so that each Conference should annually elect one trustee for the period of five years. In 1871, the charter was further so modified as to give the Association of Alumni a representation in the Board, equal to that of each Annual Conference; and in 1883 the West Virginia Conference was admitted as one of the patronizing bodies, with equal right of representation in the Board. The number of acting trus- tees is now thirty-one. The trusteeship has been held by one hundred and nineteen different persons. Of these, per- haps a score had scarcely more than a nominal relation to the Board, until they resigned or went out by expiration of office. About twenty-five have died during their term of office.
ACADEMIC WORK.
One of the conditions of the donation of the property was that the academic work of the college should be begun
16
Ohio Wesleyan University :
within five years ; but the committees from the Conferences did not wait even until the organization of the Board of Trustees. To provide for the safety of the buildings and to meet the public expectation, it was thought best to com- mence this work immediately; and a sub-committee of Revs. Adam Poe and William S. Morrow was appointed to employ a teacher to open a preparatory school. This com- mittee at once engaged Capt. James D. Cobb, a graduate of West Point, and an ex-army officer, as instructor in the new school for the year 1841-42. Capt. Cobb was about fifty years of age, and was assisted by his son. It was arranged that he should have the free use of the Mansion House, but look to the receipts from tuition for his compensation. He had a mixed school of boys and girls. At the end of the school year, Capt. Cobb resigned his place and moved to the South for his health.
The Board of Trustees held their first meeting at Hamil- ton, where the Ohio Conference was in session, October Ist, 1842. At this meeting, the Board elected the Rev. Edward Thomson, at that time the Principal of Norwalk Seminary, to the presidency of the University, with the understanding that the appointment was only nominal for the present, but a pledge to the Church and the public that a college faculty would be appointed, and the college opened at no distant day. The Board, however, determined that a Preparatory school should meanwhile be maintained, and appointed the Rev. Solomon Howard as Principal, with authority to employ his own assistants. He was given the use of the buildings and furniture, and was expected to get his support from the tuition fees of the pupils. Professor Howard began his school November Ist, 1842, and continued it successfully for two years. Both sexes were still admitted, and the attendance was largely local. He had at first but four little boys as his
I7
Fifty Years of History.
pupils, but the number for the year was 130. During the second year of his school he was assisted by Mr. Flavel A. Dickinson, a recent graduate of Yale College, who had taught one year as Principal of the Delaware Academy, and who brought his school over en masse.
Meantime, in 1843, an appeal was made to the Church for an endowment fund, and for the sale of scholarships. It was hoped that, by these agencies, the institution could be safely guarded from financial failure, and a good attendance of students secured.
By the midsummer of 1844, the Board of Trustees was prepared to begin the academic work of a college.
The Trustees felt great confidence in the final success of a school supported by the large numbers and the growing wealth of the Methodist Church in Ohio. Relying upon these, the Board, September 25th, 1844, resolved to organize a Faculty, and to open the institution with a college curricu- lum and college classes. Dr. Thomson, who had recently been elected editor of the Ladies' Repository, was re-ap- pointed President, though again with the understanding that he should not immediately enter upon duty. As it was fore- seen that the school would for a while be sinall, and the in- comne limited, the Board established but four additional places in the Faculty, and made the following appointments : Rev. Herman M. Johnson, Professor of Ancient Languages ; Rev. Solomon Howard, Professor of Mathematics; William G. Williams, Principal of the Preparatory Department ; Enoch G. Dial, Assistant in the Preparatory Departinent.
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