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 18
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"In the midst of this prosperity a train ' untoward influences began to set in. In the Fall of 1836 Professor MeGuffey, who had previously shown signs of restiveness and dissatisfaction, resigned, leaving a month or so be- fore commencement, for the professed purpose of visiting Clinton, Mississippi, with the view to the presidency of- a new college (which he said had been tendered him), about to be established there. But the whole project of such a college proving a failure, he engaged with Pro- fessor O. M. Mitchel, of astronomical celebrity, for a time, in an institution in Cincinnati, undler an old charter for a Cincinnati college. Afterwards he was elected to the presidency of the 'Ohio University' at Athens; but after serving there for three or four years, the institution not flourishing, nor likely to flourish to satisfaction, and his social surroundings not being entirely happy, he re- signed in 1845, and accepted a professorship of meutil and mord philosophy in the Virginia University, at
Charlottesville, where he spent the remainder of his life, dying within the last three or four years.
" At the close of the session Professor Bledsoe, who had never seemed entirely satisfied in the institution, ' followed suit,' as it is said in rather slang phrase, by handing in his resignation. Having taken orders in the Episcopal Church he went South, having originally come from Kentucky. Whether he devoted himself to the work of the Gospel ministry exclusively or immediately, or not, I am unable to say; but my impression is that he still continued in the educational department in some academy or school in one of the Southern Gulf States. He was afterwards elected to a chair (I believe of math- eniaties) in the University of Virginia, not very far from the same time with the accession of Professor McGuffey. During the rebellion he is said to have been connected with the military department of the confederacy in the capacity of chief of ordnance, I think. I have under- stoodi, too, that towards the close of the war, he was seut. over to England by the Confederate Government, as one of the commissioners to solicit 'comfort and aid' in the straits and peuury of its latter day. I think also I have heard of his death since the close of the war. The va- caneies produced by the resignations of Professors Me- Guffey and Bledsoe were supplied by the appointment of Samuel S. Galloway and Channecy N. Olds, both of them graduates of the institution. The institution still continued to move on prosperously till between 1833 and 1840, as the catalogues of the period, of which I loft a pretty complete list with Professor Bishop, I think will show.
"In 1838, perhaps in 1837, for my memory is not very distinct in regard to minutia during that period of numerous and frequent changes, Professors Galloway and Olds resigned. A Rev. John McArthur, of Cadiz. Ohio, was elected to the professorship of Greek, and! I be- lieve, at the same time, a Professor John Armistrong was elected professor of mathematics. Professor MeArthur was a man of some eminenee as a preacher and as a man of literature. Professor Armstrong was an excellent math- ematician of the old style, and a very good and worthy man, but hardly modern enough in manners and mode of instruction to exert a, commanding influence among our 'Young America' students. After three or four years he resigned, and was succeeded in the Fall of 1843 (I think) by George A. Westerman, a young gentle- man who was highly recommended by Professor O. M. Mitchel. In the mean time other malign influences had begun to operate, to add to the force aud effect of the former in disturbing the quiet and prosperity of the institution --- entirely extraneous in their character, and which ought not to have been inggal into the college. These were the antislavery agitation, or, as it was called, the abolition excitement ; and the troubles in the Pre-by- terian Church, between old and new school parties, which finally, in 1897-8, split the great Presbyterian Church in
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PROGRESS OF THE UNIVERSITY.
the United States into two distinct branches, which re- mained separate for thirty years, both of which causes were rife, and in some cases very intense about that time. Each had its faction in the board. The one was deter- mined to exterminate all abolitionism, by which was meant all decided antislavery sentiment from the institu- tion, or as I once heard one of the members of the board, at one of their meetings, with a good deal of bitterness, express it, that 'no abolitionist or sympathizer with abo- lition should ever, with his eensent, be a professor in the university.' These were the politicians of the board. The other, or as it might be denominated, the ecclesios- tical, faction was composed of a very few members, clerical and laical, of one or two of the older branches of the Presbyterian Church, of strong theological prejudices, who were as decided in their opposition to all new- schoolism ; and these two factions, as is related of Herod and Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles and the people of Israel,' on a certain memorable occasion, conspired together . to effeet their particular object.' The other members of the board having no special prejudices or partialities to gratify, in other words 'no axes to grind,' simply yielded unsuspectingly to their plans and management. This I know from one of these same members himself, who in the result had his eyes opened.
"The storm that was thus brewing was destined first to break upon the head of Dr. Bishop, who had incurred the dissatisfaction and suspicion of both, but particularly of the ecclesiastical faction. The resignation of Professor MeCracken seemed to present a favorable opportunity for commencing operations under the pretext of a general re- organization. The plan was-and I am sorry to say that I have reason to believe that there were members of the faculty, as already constituted, who were. privy to it- for all the faculty to resign, and then elect a new presi- dent on the ground of Dr. Bishop's advanced age, and make whatever disposition of the other departments as might seem to be best. Two of the older members of the bo: rd, and strong partismms of the ecclesiastical faction, waited upon me, to inform me that all the other members of the faculty except Dr. Bishop and myself had agreed to tender their resignations; and to ask me to do the same, assuming me that we would all, excepting the doc- tor, be again immediately re-elected. I replied to their proposition by saying that I had no objection to resign- ing in case I could see any necessity or just reason for such a course; but if it was merely to make the way etsy and quiet for cutting off the head of that noble and venerable old man, the father of the institution, who had by his wise and able management and superintendenes, under God, raised it from nothing to what it was in its prilmiest days, and what it still was, although beginning in fol the effects of more troublons times, I would But resign. They might, if they would, cut off my head, and declare my chair vacant, as they had the power, and as I know some of them bad the will, as I fell under the
same suspicion and ban from both the factions as Dr. Bishop. And this would, I presume, have been done, but matters were not yet matured for such a result, and I was, therefore, reserved for another and future holocaust.
"This scheme of a general, voluntary resignation not succeeding, the managing spirits in the board went about their work in a more direct way. . The presidency was made vacant by the removal of Dr. Bishop to a new pro- fessorship of history, with (I believe) some adjunets in the department of moral science, ercated for the purpose, for they could not face public opinion with a direct and absolute removal. Rev. George Junkin, D. D., presi- dent of Lafayette College, Pennsylvania, a man perfectly satisfactory to both the fuetions in regard, and, indeed, se- lected with a special view, to their two hobbies, was chosen president. James C. Moffat, a talented and scholarly young professor, from the same institution, since & pro- fessor in Princeton College, and at present a highly re- spected professor in Princeton Theological Seminary, and author of a book on testheties and other minor works, was elected professor of Latin.
"Dr. Junkin was a man of ability and scholarship, and a somewhat experienced educator. He had acquired a name and fame as the prosecutor of Rev. Albert Barues, in the great theological controversy which terminated in the temporary division of the Presbyterian Church into Old and New School; to which, I presume, he owel Fis election to the presidency of the university. He was a man who had his hobbies, and was not always the most judicious in introducing, and in discussing and defending, them. One of these was the subject of Scripture prophe- sies, on which he published quite a celebrated and able work. Professor Bishop will, I presume, recolleet his in- troducing the subject, not very appropriately or in goo -! taste, in his inangural address, and expatiating, very clo- quently and at large, on the great battle of Armageddon, in which the powers of Antichrist are to be Sually dis- comfited and destroyed, which he interpreted in a literal sense. In the fervor and zeal of his declamation he, all at once, broke out into the apostrophe, 'Where, where will the students of Miami University be on that day? On which side will they be found?' And he will also recollect the amusing caricature cartoon, suggested by the circumstance, which some wag among the students exo- ented and placarded on the chapel door afterward, repro- senting 'Captain Junkin, with the students of Miami University, marching to the battle of Armageddon.' Two other of his hobbies were extreme Calvinism, as opposed to Arminianism, and anti-abolitionism, to the extent of the justification and defense of American slavery. Moreover he was a man of such intensities of temperament and dogunatic mold of mind as to render him Bable to be embroiled in frequent unpleasant controversy, both publi. and privare, with those of a different opinion from his own. In his very first opt-et in the college, on one of the evenings of the public exercises preliminary to the
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTI.
commencement on which he was to be inaugurated, he unfortunately got into an open quarrel, in the presence of the assembled audience, with the ushers of one of the literary societies, almost threatening a riot. Although on the abstract point of difference and dispute the doctor was right, yet such was the injudiciousness of his course in raising such an issue at such a time, and such the vio- lence of his manner, that it seemed doubtful to some of the members of the board whether it would be best to proceed with the inauguration.
"Indeed, Dr. Junkin did not seem to understand a Western connnunity and the state of things in the college. On these points the men that were especially aetive and efficient in getting him there, under the influence of their prejudice and distorted views, deceived and did him great disservice by their representation of the state of things, es- pecially in the 'eollege. The consequence was that he went, at their eall, honestly and mistakenly, in the spirit, and as he supposed, clothed with the functions, of a great and gen- eral reformer. But the doctor had the perspicacity and good sense to find out by his experienee his mistake; and had it been in his power to have commenced de novo with the stock of knowledge and experience which he had gained at the end of the first two years of his connection with the college, the result would have been different, both to him and it. But it was too late. The result was, that his presidency did not prove a success, and he felt it. After struggling along for three and a half years against difficulties, and a tide of unpopularity on the part of a considerable portion of the students, and also of the gen- era! community, he resigned, and went back to Lafayette, in the Fall of 1814, and thence to Washington College, at. Lexington, Virginia, of which he had been elected president, where he served for a number of years, till the commencement of the Rebellion. At this period he published a masterly work on what he denominated the ' grand fallacy'-John C. Calhoun's doctrine of States' rights-and redeemed himself nobly in the minds of many in the free States, whom he had formerly greatly dis- satisfied by his views and treatment of the subject of slavery; and although his daughters and two of his sons had_ married Southerners-' Stonewall' Jackson and a Colonel Preston, of Virginia, both being his sons-in-law- and he had buried his wife, an estimable lady, to whom he was greatly attached, in Lexington, finding he could not control the drift of secessionism in the college, he resigned his presideney, and loyally and indignantly left the State, and came North, shaking off the dust of scces- sion from his feet against it.
" Disappointed in their expectations, and chagrined at the unsnecessful result of their plans, and perhaps more highly exasperated against any members of the faculty whom they suspected of not entirely sympathizing with them in their views, the prime movers of the action by which the presidency was changed, and Dr. Junkin brought there, seem to have come to the determination to make a
thorough and short work of it, and eliminate by one fell stroke all unsatisfactory elements from the faculty. Ac- cordingly an adjourned meeting of the board was appointed to be held late in the Fall, away from the seat of the college, at Lebanon. At this meeting the work was done, and the desired reform effected, by the elimination of Dr. Bishop and myself-the doctor, by removing the chair from under him, in the annihilation of his professorship, and me, by removing me from my chair. Professor Watter- man was also arbitrarily removed, and an almost entire new organization was effeeted, leaving only Professor MeArthur of the old professors remaining. who was per- fectly satisfactory to both the aforesaid factions. This terminated my seventeen and a half years' connection with the institution as a professor. Several years after- ward, at the solicitation of Dr. Anderson, in the early part of his presideney, I accepted an appointment as a member of the Board of Trustees, and served several years. Until I left that region I kept myself pretty well posted in regard to matters in general connected with the institution, but my knowledge of them in particular was too second-hand and limited to render me a fit chronicler of its later minute history."
As will be seen by the preceding sketch, the path of the leaders of the university was not free from dificul- ties. The slavery question had become important; but there were many difficulties connected with it which are not, now to be perceived. Dr. Junkin sided with the majority of the electors in this eounty, and Dr. Bishop and Professor Scott were in the minority. The other question was that of denominational allogianee. The Presbyterians were just then passing through a division on points which now seem very trivial; but which were not then so regarded. But the univer-ity, which was to a great extent under their control, was a State institution, and those who belonged to other sects objected to the views which were there taught. Dr. Junkin became in- volved in a warm contest with the Rev. Thomas E. Thomas, of Rossville, in which the slavery question and the Presbyterian question were prominent. Dr. Junkin made a good defense to the charges against him, but the dissatisfaction continued.
He was suceceded in 1844 by the Rev. E. D. Me- Master, D. D., who held the office until 1849, then re- signing, having Rev. W. C. Anderson, D. D., as his successor. Dr. Anderson acted as president until 1854, when the Rev. J. W. Hall. D. D., was called to the presidency by the unanimous voice of the Board of Trus- tees. Dr. Hall presided over the university for twelve years, resigning in 1866. His administration was sur- cessful, and when he left there was twelve thousand dol- lars in the treasury. The Rev. R. L. Stanton, D. D., succeeded him, and resigned in 1871; and after an in- terval of one year Rev. A. D. Hepburn was chosen presi- dent, bobling that position until the suspension of the institution in 1873.
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PROGRESS OF THE UNIVERSITY.
The university derives its revenue from the leasing of the lands of the college township, which are leased for ninety-nine years, renewable forever without revaluation, subject to an annual quit-rent of six per cent on the pur- chase money. This rent yields an income of nearly six thousand dollars.
An act of the Legislature, passed in February, 1809, directed that the lands should be "offered at auction for not less than two dollars per acre," and " the les- sees shall pay six per cent per annum on the amount of their purchase." The first sale was held in Hamilton on the " fourth Tuesday in May," 1810. The lessees did not have originally the right to subdivide their lines; but by an act passed March 22, 1837, they were permitted to do so, the original quit-rent being apportioned pro rata. This was found to work injury to the university, and in March, 1862, the State repealed so much of the act of 1837 as allowed the pro rata division of the quit-rent, and enacted that in all cases of subdivision there should be an increase of the quit-rent, and that no subdivision should be allowed except on the payment of one dollar per annum. Under this premiumi the income is slowly increasing.
The university has never been aided directly by the State, only indirectly, in that the lands are exempt from State taxes -- the quit-rent to the university being reckoned an equivalent. The corporation received the lands in a state of nature, and from these lands and from tuition fees all the money was raised which has been expended in buildings, apparatus, salaries, etc. The buildings, apparatus and library cost upward of $100,000.
From 1824, when the college was opened in the woods, t# 1873, when it was temporarily suspended, nearly one thousand young men were graduated, and more than that number received a large part of their education in Miami University. These men have exercised no little influence in giving character and tone to the great West, and not to the West alone, but in other parts of our land, and in other lands, their influence has been felt for good. A gentleman who had had opportunity to know whereof he affirmed, and was competent to give a just decision, re- marked, on a publie occasion, that in proportion to nun !- bers Miami University had sept forth more useful men than any other college in our land.
Owing to various causes there had been a gradual de- eline in the number of students since 1860; considerable money had been spent in the repair of the buiblings, and a debt of near $10,000 had been ineurred. Under these rireumstances, the trustees concluded, in July, 1873, that it would be proper and wise " to suspend instruction in tlw university," for a time.
Since 1873 the debt has been paid in full, and a sur- plus of $30,000 has been speurely invested at eight per rout; and it is hoped that within two years the university will be again opened for the instruction of pupils in all the branches that pertain to a liberal education.
The university was not behind her sisters, or behind the remainder of the county of Butler, in the men she sent to the army. . They forin a noble army, and are to be found on every battle-field in the West and many in the East. They are as follows:
THE ROLL OF HONOR.
Adams, Robert N., Brigadier-general.
Ayers, Stephen C., B 20th Ohio.
Anderson, Charles, Colonel, 93d Ohio.
Andrew, George L., Sanitary Inspector.
Andrew, John W., Lieutenant, E 20th Indians.
Aten, Aaron M., Lieutenant.
Bellingham, Daniel, A S6th Ohio.
Brown, James L., A 60th; K 86th ; A 167th Ohio.
Brooks, Robert F., Surgeon.
Barrows, Charles C., C 93d Ohio.
Beaton, William M., 1 167th Ohio.
Beaton, Daniel P., A 86th; 1st Sergeant, M 2d O. V. C.
Brooks, Frank D., A 167th Ohio.
Brooks, John K., A 167th Ohio.
Brooks, Theodore D., Assistant Surgeon, 38th Ohio.
Brooks, Peter, A 167th Ohio.
Brown, Henry L., A 167th Ohio.
Bennett, Robert N., B. 20th Ohio.
Billings, John S., Surgeon.
Boude, J. Knox, Surgeon, 118th Illinois.
Bonde, Edgar A., 20 Lieutenant, 7th Missouri Cavalry.
Burrowes, Stephen A., B 140th Ohio.
Brice, Calvin S., Captain, 185th Obio.
Beckett, David C., Major 61st Ohio.
Brown, Charles E., Major, 65th Ohio.
Bishop, William W., Major, Ilinois Cavalry.
Bishop, George S., A 167th Ohio. - Bishop, Robert H., Jr., A Soth; A 167th Ohio.
Bartlett, Thomas B., F 167th Ohio.
Britton, Orson.
Bell, Thomas C., Captain.
Chamberlain, William H., Major, Sist Ohio.
Chamberlain, John R., Lieutenant, C 81st Ohio.
Cartwright, Noah, E 15th Kentucky; Lieutenant-colonel.
Clopper, Edward N., ist, Lieutenant, K 834 Ohio.
Clark, J. Harvey, I 167th Ohio.
Chidlaw, Benjamin W., Chaplain, 39th Ohio.
Clough, James F .. F 69th Ohio.
Childs, James H., Acting Brigadier-general, Penn. Vols. Dennison, William, Governor of Ohio.
Dennis, Charles, Captain, 47th Ohio.
Davis, Benjamin F., A 86th ; M 2d Ohio Cavalry.
Douglas, William C., A 86th ; K 86th ; A 167th Ohio.
Druly, Thaddeus C., A Soth Ohio; 9th Indiana Cavalry. Davies, Samuel W.
Dunn, N. Palmer, Capt., 29th Ind., killed at Chickamanga.
Do.les, Ozro J., Lieutenant-colonel, Alabama Cav., U. S. Vols. Davies, J. Pierce, 2d Lieutenant, 2d Maryland Cavalry.
Denise, Charles E., 4th Sergeant, 146th Ohio.
Dudley, Adolphus S., Chaplain, 146th Ohio.
Dickey, Theophilus L.
Panner, Sammuel S, K 37th Ind .; Ist Lieut., 1 12th C. S. C. T.
Davidson, John M., F 167th Ohio.
Evans, Frank, Major. SIst Ohio.
Evans, William H., B 20th Ohio
Evans, Owen D., B 20th Ohio; A 69th Indiana. Ellis, A. Noisen, Captain.
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HISTORY OF BUTLER COUNTY.
Elliott, James H., 3d Corporal, H 156th Ohio. Farr, William L., A Soth ; A 167th Obio,
Ferguson, William MI., A Soth ; A 167ch Ohio. Ferguson, James S., Assistant Surgeon, 167th Ohio. Fullerton, Thomas A., Chaplain. Fullerton, Hugh S., Ist Lieutenant, C Ist Ohio H. Artillery. Fullerton, Erskine B., Ist Lieutenant, K 86th Ohio. Fullerton, George II., Chaplain, ist Ohio. Fullerton, Joseph S., Brigadier-general.
Fithian, Washington, Surgeon, 14th Kentucky Cavalry. Fithian. Joseph, Surgeon.
Falconer, Jerome, 2d Sergeant, C 93d Ohio.
Falconer, John W., Captain A List U. S. C. T.
Galloway, Henry P., O. N. G., 100 days' service.
Galloway, Albert, Captain, E 12th Ohio.
Gath, Sampson, D 47th Ohio. Graham, Mitchel M., A 86th; K 86th Ohio. Graham, Harvey W., A 167th Ohio. Graham, Frank, I 167th Ohio.
Guy, William E., Sergeant, A 86th Ohio.
Gill, Heber, A 167th Ohio.
Goodwin, R. J. M., Colonel, 37th Indiana.
Galbraith, Robert C., Chaplain.
Groesbeck, John, Colone !. 39th Ohio.
Gregg, John C., I 167th Ohio. Galloway, Samuel, Commissioner, Camp Chase. Hollingsworth, William R., B 39th Ohio.
. Huston, R. L. M., A 167th Ohio.
Hart, J. H., Lieutenant-colonel, 71st Ohio.
Hazeltine, James F., A 86th; Lieutenant, 127th Ohio. Howell, Benjamin R., B 20th ; Captain, F SIst Ohio. Howell, John, Captain, Battery A Bailey's Light Artillery. Hair, James A., B 20th Ohio. Harris, Joseph, Sergeant, E 75th Ohio. Harris, A. L., Captain, C 20th; Colonel, 75th Ohio. Hunt, John R., Ist Lieutenant, SIst Ohio. Hughes, Melancthon, Ist Sergeant, K 40th Ohio. Ifarrison, Benjamin, Brigadier-general. Haynes, Moses II., Surgeon, 167th Ouio. Hudson, R. N. Howard. William Crane. Hiatt, J. Milton, Surgeon. Harrison, Carter B., B 20th; 521 Ohio. Hamilton, William, I 167th Ohio. Hor, Versallus, Colonel, 26th Ohio. Hibben, Sapinel. Judy, George. Jordan, W. Jones. Jones, Abner F. Kenly, George W., A 167th Ohio.'
Kumler, W. Festus, A 167th Ohio. Kleinschmidt, Edward IL., A Sith; K Soth Ohio. Keil, Lewis D., Ist Lientenant, H 157th Ohio. Lyons, Charles C., Navy, Master's Mate. Lyons, James D., A 86th ; A 167th Ohio,
Lyons, Robert L., A 167th Ohio
Lewis, John C., Captain, F 167th Ohto. Lewis, Telemachus C., B 12th Ohio; 36th Indiana. Lough, James M .. B 20th ; A Soth Inf., Lient., 21 O. V. C.
Lowes, Abram B., Captain, P Isth Indiana. Leake, J. Bloondield. Lowrie, James A. Lowe, William B., Captain, 10th U. S. Infantry. Langdon, E. Bassatt, Colonel. Lowe, John G., Colonel, O. N. G.
McFarland, Prof. R. W., Lieutenant-colonel, 86th Ohio. McCormick, John H., Ist, G 67th Indiana, Major. McMillen, A. J., Chaplain, 14th Kentucky. McKee, Samuel, Colonel, 14th Kentucky. MeCracken, S. M., D 47th Ohio.
Mccullough, Robert N., A 86th Infantry ; M 2d Ohio Cav. McClung, Orville L., F 69th Ohio. MeClure, William C., A Soth; K Soth Ohio. McCracken, John C., A 167th Ohio.
McClung, David W .. Captain. McClung, William C., A 167th Ohio. McDill, John B., Surgeon, 63d Ohio.
MeLandburg, Henry J., B 26th Ohio; Captain, 17th U. S. I. McClung, Alexander C .. Captain, SStl: Illinois. McClenehan, John, Lieutenant-colonel, 15th Ohio.
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