USA > Ohio > Butler County > A history and biographical cyclopaedia of Butler County, Ohio, with illustrations and sketches of its representative men and pioneers. Vol. 1 > Part 16
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The first sale was held at the court-house in Hamilton, on the 22d and 231 days of May, 1810, under the superin- tendence of the president, secretary, and treasurer, where there were lots and lands sold to the following amount: 29 in-lots in the town of Oxford, for $560.86; 20 out, or four aere lots, for $495.75; 71 country or farming lots of land, at the average price of $3.75 per acre, $28,423.64; total, $29,480.25. The lots and land thus bid off on those days alone would have yielded an annual revenue to the institution of $1.768.81, had the pur- chasers complied with the conditions of sale; but many of the purchasers, residents of various parts of the State of Ohio, as well as of other States, actuated by motives of speenlation, or other motives equally injurious to the prosperity of the institution, attended the sale and bid off lots, and neither before nor after the sale went even to explore the situation of the lands which they purchased. As no payment in advance, or other security, was re- quired, it could only be known who were bona fole pur- chasers after the lapse of a year, when the payment of the interest became due. Of the farming lots hid off, forty-seven were forfeited, and eighteen in-lots and twelve out-lots were afterward forfeited to the institution. This provision, however, was not enforced until the year 1814.
Previous to the day of sale it had been discovered that there was a discrepancy of nearly two thousand acres in the quantity of land in the township according to the survey made by Mr. Heaton, the surveyor appointed by the Board of Tenstees, with the survey of the same towu- ship made by the surveyor-general. It was therefore made a condition that the lots of land should be subject to a re-survey and measurement, to ascertain the true quantity each contained.
The next meeting of the Board of Trustees was held at Cineinnari, on the second day of June, when, on mo- tion of James Findlay, it was resolved that the president of the board call on Jared Man-field, surveyor-general, aud request him to nominate a skillful surveyor to sur- vey and measure the boundary lines of the Miami College township, and calculate the quantity of land, making report to the Board of Trustees, in order that if any de- ficieney existed application might be made for an addi- tioid grant. The surveyor-general acceded to their request, and appointed William Harris, surveyor, to perform that daty, with John Hall and William Spencer chain-carriers.
On the twenty-third day of June, 1810, the Board of Trustees again convened at Cincinnati, when the report of Mr. Harris, the surveyor, was received, by which it appeared that the township contained its full quantity of land. According to his survey there was twenty-three thousand, tar hundre ! and seventy-one and thirteen-han- dreiths acres. On this report being received Juin. . Hoa- ton was requested to re-survey and measure all the lines of the feriuing lots of land by him heretofore laid off; making a complete plat of it. If Mir. Heatou shoukl
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decline, the president was authorized to employ some other surveyor. However, Mr. Heaton complied with the re- quest of the board, and made a remeasurement. That previously done was found to be erroneous. At this meeting the board directed that the next sale of the uni- versity lands should be held at Hamilton, on the twenty- eiglith day of August, 1810.
At this meeting the Rev. John W. Browne was ap- pointed an agent to solicit and receive donations for the Miami University. He was to receive fifty dollars a month and his expenses. He set out on bis mission on the fourth day of January; 1811, and returned to Cin- civaati on the third of August, 1812. During his mission he collected about two thousand five hundred dollars in money and received a number of books. Mr. Browne was drowned shortly after his return from his mis- sion, before he had an opportunity of meeting the Board of Trustees and settling his accounts with them. The books were sent to Cincinnati, and there remained until the latter part of October, 1817, when they were received from the administrator of Mr. Browne by a committee ap- pointed by the trustees for that purpose. The exceutors had for a long time tried to get rid of them. The com- mittre selected such of the books as they deemed proper for a college library. One hundred and eighteen volumes were sold to the Cincinnati Circulating Library Society at seventy-five cents per volume, amounting to 883.50. The rest of the books were sent to auction and disposed of to the best advantage. They brought $382.64, from which, after deducting expenses of sale, storage, and con- tingent expenses, there remained to the credit of the university, including the sum due from the library so- eiety, the sum of $371.86.
In 1820 the books reserved for the college library were sent to Oxford and placed in a room of the college builling. Some time afterwards the door of the room was broken open and a mimber of the books carried off. The amount that reached the treasury of the university, as the fruits of his itinerant labors, was $849.86.
At a meeting of the Board of Trustees held at Ham- ilton on the twelfth and thirteenth days of February, 1811, au ordinance was passed for the erection of a school house in the town of Oxford, and one hundred and fifty dollars appropriated for that purpose. Afterwards one hundred and sixty dollars was appropriated for the com- pletion of the building. The house was erected iu the university square, west of where the main college edifice now stands. It was a structure of hewed logs twenty feet wide by thirty odd feet long, one story high, with a clap- board roof. It bad a fireplace and chimney at each end, built of rough stones. The building was designed (for the the being) to be used by the citizens of the town- ship for an English school. The citizens of Oxford se- lecter James M. Dorsey for their teacher, and in De- cember, 1811, he moved into the building. He had a par- tition run through the middle of the house, dividing it
into two apartments, and lived with his family in one apartment and taught his school in the other. In 1824 the trustees had a second story of logs put on the build- ing, and converted it into a dwelling for the Rev. Robert H. Bishop, the first president. Mr. Bishop continued to live in this building until about 1830, when it was oc- eupied by the janitor. In 1864 it was a stable.
On the seventeenth day of April, 1812, Israel Wood- ruff was appointed collector.
On the fifth day of November, 1813, William Lud- low resigned his office as president, and John Reily was appointed in his room. In November, 1813, Stephen Minor was appointed collector.
The trustees of the Miami University having resolved to erect a building for the use of the college, a commit- tee, consisting of the Rev. Matthew G. Wallace, a Pres- byterian preacher, then of Hamilton : Dr. Daniel Mil- likin, a physician, of Hamilton; and Benjamin Van Cleve, Esq., of Dayton, clerk of the Court of Montgoni- ery County, was appointed to superintend the erection and completion of the building.
Early in the Spring of the year 1816, a plat of ground in the university square having been cleared off of' all timber, brush, and rubbish, Mr. Wallace and Dr. Millikin, two of the committee, attended at Oxford, and caused James M. Dorsey to measure and mark the foundation of the building. The ground for the foundation having been leveled and prepared, and Mr. Vail and the other contractors to perform the mason work being present, on the tenth day of April, 1816, at the request of the building committee, James M. Dorsey laid the first corner-stone of the west wing of the Miami University. It was placed about eighteen or twenty inches below the surface of the ground. According to the original plan. there was to be a center building, with wings on the east and on the west, each wing to be eighty feet long. The building then contracted for was intended to be the one- half of the west wing. Skilnan Alger was the carpeuter. As soon as the necessary fu ds could be raised the Board of Trustees applied them to the erertion of a building for the institution. In 1818, a building fifty-six feet by forty feet, and three stories high, was erected as part of a wing.
A grammar school was then opened. The Rev. James Hughes was appointed teacher, at a salary of five huu- dred dollars per year tuition fees, and house rent, and the school went into operation on the first Tuesday of November, 1818, and was continued until April, 1821- shortly after which Mr. Hughes died. This happened on the second day of May following, and the school was discontinued. The course of instruction pursued was principally confined to the Latin and Greek languages.
Daring this time the Board of Trustees threeted their revenue, after dethaving the expenses of the grammar- school, to the erection of an additional baihiing: and in 1824 a building sixty feet front by eighty six feet deep,
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and three stories high, was completed, adjoining the former building on the east, designed as a center build- ing for the college."
October 5, 1820, Ebenezer Cross was appointed col- lector, and an ordinance was passed requiring the offices uf secretary and treasurer to be held in the town of Ox- ford from and after the first day of January, 1821. Ed- wand Newton was appointed secretary and Merrikin Bond treasurer. On the first day of January, 1821, the offices of secretary and treasurer were removed from Hamilton to the town of Oxford; June 20, 1822. Joel Collius was appointed secretary of the Miami University; October 5, 1823, Skilman Alger appointed collector; April 7, 1824, David Purvianee appointed president of the Board of Trustees.
At a meeting of the board on the sixth day of July. 1824, the Rev. Robert H. Bishop was appointed pres- ident of the Miami University, with a salary of one thou- sand dollars per year, and the occupancy of the mansion house free from rent. William Sparrow was appointed tutor of languages, with a salary of five hundred dollars per year. The price of tuition in the grammar-school was fixed at five dollars, and in the college at ten dollars, per session, to be paid in advance.
September 15, 1824, John Annan, of Baltimore, was appointed professor of mathematies and natural philos- ophy, with a salary of seven hundred dollars per annum. James M. Dorsey was appointed treasurer in the room of Merrikin Bond, resigned. September 15, 1824, James Crawford was appointed collector.
In the year 1822 an effort was made to remove the university to Cincinnati, and make it a part of the Cincin- nati College, and for that purpose a bill was introduced by Mr Williams, of Cincinnati, having for its object the removal. When the news of the hill reached Oxford, Mir. Joel Collins, a warm friend of the university, and at that tine a member of the Legislature, furnished a copy of the bill and other papers, in relation to its passage; and the lessees of the university lands held a meeting, of which James M. Dorsey was chairman and David Morris scere- tary. This meeting appointedl a committee, consisting of Rev. Moses Crume, William Ludlow, Rev. Spencer Clack, James M. Dorsey, Dr. James R. Hughes, David Morris, Charles Newhall, Edward Newton, and Abraham I. Chit- tenden, to prepare and forward to the Legislature a pro- tet against, and to exhibit the injustice as well as the impolicy of, removing or attempting to remove the uni- versity from its present site. This committee also pre- pred and published "An Address to the Inhabitants of Syannes's Purchase."
In this address the committee goes over the whole Ground of the dispute, which had then lasted thirteen There was no restriction upon the powers of the Legislature, they were ample and conclusive. The only questions were as to the good faith to be shown to the inhabitants of Symmes's purchase, and as to the conduct
and well-being of the college. The purchase of Judge Symmes, as originally intended, was seventy miles long by twenty miles wide. It was impossible at that day, and would now be, for many persons to live so near the university that they could board their children at home. It was estimated that not more than one in fifty could possibly be near enough for that purpose. The other forty-nine fiftieths wished the school where it might be the strongest and its expenses the least. Oxford offered them advantages more striking than any other place.
In the first place, Symmes had not fulfilled his agree- ment. He had promised the people who settled on his lands a full township for university purposes, but instead of living up to his promises, he went out selling until be could not have given in any township four sertions of good land, much less thirty-six. He made no donation for this purpose; but, on the contrary, the land which is now the property of the Miami University is the gift of the United States Government. There consequently ex- isted no contract between the dwellers on Symmes's grant and the trustees of the college.
The township of Oxford, by a happy chance, was nearly entirely unoccupied when the gift was made to the State of Ohio. It was favorably situated for leasing. Its grounds were high and salubrious: its natural produc- tiveness was great. It was no further from the Miami River. the great natural highway of the pioneers of this region, than Lebanon. Nearly all of the members of the Legislature from the purchase, in 1809, were in favor of the location at Oxford. Those from Hamilton County were unanimous.
By placing the university on this spot the lessees would- be much better enabled to pay their rents. There would be the natural sale of commodities to the students and professors; there would be the families of the shop keepers and artisans, and in the end there would be the families who would be drawn thither so as not to be far away from their children while the latter were attending the terras. Had the university been placed elsewhere these anticipations could not have been realized. The lands were in the center of a willerness; there was no near market, and it would have taken many years for it all to reach the highest point of rent.
It was also believed by the Legislature that there would - be moral advantages from the selection which could not be had in a large town, such as Cincinnati then bid fair to be. The celebrity of the place and the interest of the inhabitants of the town would depend in a very large de- gree upon the suppression of immorality. No such inter- est would be strong enough in Cincinnati.
Mr. Shields, in support of his motion to reject the bill introduced by Micajah T. Willinas, read this remon .. stranee, and said that "a remoustrance from the citizens of Oxford against the removal of the university, had heen forwarded to the Legislature at the session of 1814- 1815, at which time the subject was discussed." The
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
committee to whom the subject was referred at that time was selected by ballot, and in their report declared that it was not in the power of the Legislature to do away with the acts of a former Legislature, where under those arts rights had become vested. The committee made a report, through its chairman, John Wilson Campbell, being an unanswerable argument in favor of sustaining the establishment at Oxford. This address seemed to tranquilize the minds of the lessees, nor did the dissat- isfied portion of the inhabitants within the bounds of Symmes's purchase make any further attempt to remove the site of the Miami University until 1822. The hill was killed in Committee of the Whole, and although publie notice was given that the attempt at a removal - would be renewed the next year, the Legislature has not since then interfered in any way. The minds of many of the wealthy and influential citizens of Symmes's pur- chase continued to be dissatisfied, and occasionally they manifested a disposition rather to pull down than to raise up the institution at Oxford.
Notwithstanding the able report from the pen of the IIon. Jacob Burnet, strongly recommending the removal of the Miami University from Oxford to Cincinnati, that gentleman in after life, in his Notes, makes use of these words : "The Legislature, however, thought differently, and passed an act establishing the university on the land without the limits of John C. Symmies's purchase. The institution is now in a very flourishing state, and al. though the original beneficiaries of the grant have been wrongfully deprived of their rights, yet it is now too late to relieve them without great temporary injury to the canse of science, and on that account it is desirable that no effort be made to disturb the institution or cheek its advance."
The university began operations in November, 1824, and Robert H. Bishop, D. D., was inaugurated on the thirtieth day of March, 1825. A procession was formed in the Methodist Church at 11 o'clock of that day. First were citizens, then students of the universi y, the secre- tary, treasurer, and collector, trustees of the university, the president of the board, and professors. The body then moved to the college chapel, where the inaugural ceremony took place. The following were the exercises :
1. Music.
2. Introductory prayer, by the Rev. David Purviance.
3. Address, by the Rev. William Gray.
4. Music.
5. Delivery of the charter, keys, etc., and a charge to the president, by the Rev. John Thompson.
6. Inaugural prayer, by the Rev. Alexander Porter.
7. Address, by President Bishop.
8. Music.
9. Conchaling prayer, by the Rev. Stephen Gard.
David Higgins, David MaeDill, and James MeBride were the Committee of Arrangements. Abram I. Chit- tenden acted as the marshal of the day.
The address of Dr. Bishop, a learned and scholarly production, was shortly after published by James B. Camron, of Hamilton.
To give an idea of the course of study, the regulations, and the names of students, we give the first yearly cata- logue almost entire :
BOARD OF TRUSTEES .- Rev. John Thompson, Luke Foster, Esq., Stephen Woods, Esq., Hamilton County ; Hon. Joshua Collett, Rev. William Gray, Warren County; Henry Bacon, Esq., Stephen Fales, Esq., Montgomery County ; Rev. William Graham, Chillicothe: Sampson Mason, Esq., Clark County; Col. John Johnston, Miami County; James Cooley, Esq., Champaign County ; Rev. David Purviance, Rev. Alexander Porter, Preble County; Rev. Stephen Gard, Rev. David MacDill, John Reily, Esq., David Higgins, Esq., James MeBride, Esq., Butler County. Joel Collins, secretary of Board of Trustees. James M. Dorsey, treasurer ..
FACULTY AND INSTRUCTORS. - Rey. R. H. Bishop, D. D., President, Professor of Logic, Moral Philosophy and History, and ex-officio chairman of Board of Trustees ; John E. Annan (of Dickinson College), Professor of Mathematics, Geography, Natural Philosophy, and Is- tronomy, and Teacher of Political Economy; William H. McGuffey (of Washington College), Professor of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and erofficio Librarian ; John P. Williston (of Yale College), Principal of the Grammar School; Samuel W. Parker, Thomas Armstrong. James Reynolds, John S. Weaver, Tutors; John W. Caldwell, secretary of the Faculty.
EXTRACT FROM THE BY-LAWS .- 1st. There shall be a stated meeting of the faculty on the last Saturday of every month, at ten o'clock, A. M.
2d. At this meeting a return shall be made by every instructor of all the absences and deficiencies which may have occurred in his department during the month. and these returns shall be put upon file and preserved until the end of the session.
3.1. The faculty shall also at each of these monthly meetings enter into a full and free conversation on the conduct and progress of the students generally, and if any student, all eireninstances being taken into view. shall be found not making that progress which he might do, or not conducting himself with that order and sobriety which are becoming, information of his situation shall be immediately communicated to his parents, that he may be removed.
4th. No student shall be allowed to recite with any class who does not, within ten days after he may have made application to be admitted into that class, lodge with the president a certificate from the instructor, stating , that his previous Requirements are such as to entitle hit: io a regular standing in said class.
5th. No individual shall be allowed, on aus account whatever, to continue connected with any department who is not, in the opinion of the faculty, fully employed.
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Nor shall any individual be permitted to omit reciting with any class to which he may be attached, but by a vote of the faculty at their stated monthly meeting.
RESIDENT GRADUATE .- Thomas E. Hughes, of Jer- forson College, Pennsylvania.
Seniors .- Samuel C. Baldridge, William M. Corry, Daniel L. Gray, James P. Pressly, Ebenezer Pressly, James Reynolds, James Thompson, John Thompson, John P. Vandyke, John L. Weaver, James Worth, Ebenezer Woodruff.
Juniors. - James H. Bacon, John W. Caldwell, G. R. Gassaway, Thomas A. Jones, John McMehan, Robert C. Schenck, Joseph S. Wallace.
Sophomores .--- Thomas Armstrong, George Bishop, Ber- nard Brewster, Godwin V. Dorsey, Henry P. Galloway, John M. Garrigus, Samuel W. Parker, Joseph H. Reily, James Simpson, Hugh B. Wilson, Taylor Webster, Will- iam Burch.
Freshmen .- William Boyce, Courtland Cushing, Eben- ezer Elliott, William F. Ferguson, James N. Gamble, John Hunt, George W. Jones, Ralph P. Lowe, William (. Lyle, John McDill, James Reily, William B. Russell, Johu Vanausdall, Nathaniel Weed, Elias Williams, Ira Root.
ENGLISH SCIENTIFIC DEPARTMENT.
Third Class. -- William Bishop, Samuel Fleming, Robert G. Linu, William Porter, Ezekiel Walker.
Second Class. -- Freeman Alger, Charles Barnes, John H. Boyce, Robert C. Caldwell, Edward F. Chittenden, John Harrison, William Hueston, Algernon S. Foster, Thomas I. Foster, Cyrus Falconer, Caleb B. Smith, Abner Longly, Hugh Webster.
First Class .- Robert Blair, Joseph Blair, Clement Brown, Jonathan Harshman, Samnel McCleane, Thomas Pursell, Alvah White.
SUMMARY,-College proper, 48; English Scientifie De- partment, 25; Grammar School, 38; total, 111.
(We omit the names in the preparatory department.)
Those whose names are in the above catalogue are natives of fourteen different States. The youngest is in his seventh and the oldest in his thirty-third year. The great body are, however, natives of Ohio, and betwixt the ages of fourteen and twenty-one.
At the close of last session six had their names re- turned to their parents as not having made that improve- ment which would justify any further trouble or expense in endeavoring to give them a liberal education, and fourteen of the good and promising students of that session have been prevented by the circumstances of their lot from prosecuting their studies this session. One of the prevent session has been sent home as not promising.
Add these twenty-ne to the one hundred and eleven given above, and you have one hundred and thirty-two as the sum total of the present year.
The college year is divided into two sessions of five 1
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months each. The Winter session commences on the thet Monday of November and ends on the last Wednesday of March. The Summer session commences on the first Monday of . May and ends on the last Wednesday of September.
The Board of Trustees meets statedly at the end of each session.
COURSE OF STUDY.
I: GRAMMAR SCHOOL .-- The studies of the Grammar School, preparatory to admission into the Freshman Class, are English, Latin, and Greek Grammar, Mair's Intro- duction to the making of Latin, Caesar's Commentaries. Cicero's select orations, Virgil's .Eneid, Greek Testament, Collectanea Minora. and Arithmetic, including vulgar and decimal fractions, and the extraction of roots.
II. THE FRESHMAN'S CLASS, --- First Session. -- Algebra. Sallust, six books of Homer's Ilind, Græca Majora begun, Adam's Roman Antiquities begun, Modern Geography, Prosody revised, English Grammar revised, transiations from Greek and Latin into English, Declamation and Bible recitations.
Second Session .-- Euclid's Elements, Horace's Odes and Satires, Grieca Majora continued, Roman Antiquities fin- ished, Ancient Geography, Morrell's Rome, Neil-on's Greek exercises, Double translations, Declamation and Bible recitations.
III. THE SOPHOMORE CLASS STUDY. - First Session .- (Cambridge Mathematics) Plane Trigonometry, Loga- rithis, Mensuration, Surveying, Horace's Epistles, Græca Majora continued, Double translations, Morrell's Greece, Declamation and Bible recitations.
Second Session .-- (Cambridge Mathematics) Spherica! Trigonometry, Navigation, Dialling, Excerpta Latina be- gun, First volume of Majora finished, Double translations, Declamation and Bible recitations.
IV. THE JUNIOR CLASS STUDY. -- First Session .-- Conie Scetions, Flexions, Physical and Political Geography with the use of the globes. Excerpta Latina finished, Sceon volume of Majora begun, Tytler's Elements of History begun, Composition, Declamation and Bille recitations.
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