USA > Ohio > Delaware County > Delaware > Fifty years of history of the Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio : 1844-1894 > Part 8
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The Board of Trustees, in filling vacancies or new chairs, have recognized the excellence of the work done in the Uni- versity ; and have not felt the need to go elsewhere for com- petent teachers. Aside from the members of the first Faculty, and one or two of later appointments, all the pro- fessors and tutors elected to positions in the University have been from among our own alumni. This circumstance might seem to indicate a perpetuation of routine methods or persistent types of teaching. But fortunately, thus far, the Presidents of the University, upon whom the policy and methods so largely depend, have been graduates of other schools ; and all the younger professors and almost all the other teachers have taken post-graduate work elsewhere, and bring with them to their duties here the best ideas and methods of other schools as well as of our own.
The University has been notably free from internal troub- les. There has rarely been any difference of judgment in regard to policy or measures ; and there has been no aliena- tion of feeling, and never any appeals to the Board from con- tending parties. Jealousies, factions, quarrels, have been absolutely unknown in the Faculty; in their place have been mutual regard, co-operation, and a sincere desire to pro- inote one another's personal and professional interests, and the prosperity of the University.
Fifty Years of History. 109
Happily, too, the inost cordial relations have always ex- isted between the University and the citizens. No invidious class words are known here, such as, in the University towns of the old world, mark the antagonismns between the Uni- versity and the people-"Gown and town; " "College and Philistines." Living, as most of the students do, in the families of the citizens, intermingling in the same circles, attending the same churches, members of the same political or other organizations, many of the students coming from the families of the town, and many of the students from other places finally intermarrying with the families here, there has been no possibility, as there has been no occasion, for antipathy between them. The churches of the city have always welcomed the attendance and membership and con- tributions of the students. In some of the churches they are a large and influential element ; and provision is regu- larly made for their presence and union in the public worship, in the Sunday Schools, church leagues, and social entertain- ments.
SEMI-CENTENNIAL.
In the year 1894, the Ohio Wesleyan University completed its fiftieth year of service. The celebration of this semi- centennial anniversary was anticipated with interest, and suitable preparations were inade that the commemorative exercises should be appropriate and satisfactory. These exer- cises were held in conjunction with the exercises of the fiftiethi Commencement of the University. There was an un- precedented and gratifying attendance of the friends of the institution. The alumni, especially, were gathered in large numbers, many of them from the extremes of the continent, to do honor to their Alına Mater. Other visitors, many dis- tinguished in Church and State, in professional and busi- ness life, came to share in the solemnities and the festivities
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Ohio Wesleyan University :
of the occasion ; and all seemed gratified with the past of the University's history, and enthusiastic with the promising outlook. It was a week of enjoyment which those that participated in it will never forget.
We are glad to avail ourselves of Professor Whitlock's graphic and happy description of the occasion. He says : "The jubilee exercises continued for six days, and consisted of sermons, addresses, historical sketches, reminiscences, concerts, class dinners and reunions, alumni banquet, art and literary society exhibitions, battalion drill, students' athletics, greetings from other colleges, and in conclusion, a general University reception. The programme was elaborate and was carried out with the omission of no essential feature.
During these days the platform was graced by the pres- ence and utterances of governors of States, bishops, doctors, editors, college presidents, professors and students, attorneys, physicians, railroad and bank officials, and merchants; and the latter were equal to the very best professional speakers with their words of wisdom, thrilling the vast audiences, and inspiring enthusiasm.
The Baccalaureate Sermon, by President Bashford, on Sun- day morning, June 17th, in topic, conception, breadth of treatment, and in suggestive and inspiring teachings, was worthy of the occasion, and was a key-note to the great week to follow. Bishop Walden had charge in the afternoon of the semi-centennial love-feast ; and with Faculty, students and visiting clergy shared in the conduct of prayer and re- vival services at 5:30 each morning. On Sunday evening, Bishop Foster preached the sermon before the Christian As- sociations. His presence, always a benediction, was espe- cially fitting on this occasion. Fifty years ago he delivered the University's first master's oration. Even before that early date the youthful preacher, the aggressive student, and
III
Fifty Years of History.
the eloquent logician, was recognized in the great West as a coming man in the Church and country. The intervening years have brought into international prominence and use- fulness the masterly thinker and theologian, the educator and author, and the sagacious and almost omnipresent gen- eral superintendent.
On Thursday afternoon, Governor Mckinley inade the final address of the extended programme. His international reputation, official position and prospects, Napoleonic pres- ence, and clear, penetrating voice, are sufficient to command attention at any time and anywhere. On this occasion, all these were but servants to the inherent merits of his message. Perhaps the presence and possibilities of the thousand cultured and educated youth moved him as con- gressional halls and political conventions do not. The scholar, the statesman, the administrator of great public trusts, the pure and magnetic personality, the conscientious Christian citizen, all appeared in his rounded periods of practical wisdom and burning eloquence.
Within the fifty years there have been four presidents, Edward Thomson, Frederick Merrick, Charles H. Payne and James W. Bashford. The first and second of these four chief- tains have gone to their reward. But the spell of their in- fluence abides in wonderful richness. The impress of their work, counsels, and life, is seen in all that the institution now is. As the old students, their students, passed again about the campus and through the halls, they seemed to be reaching out for hands once warm to their touch, but now eluding their grasp; to be listening for voices that once wakened them to a new life, and were music to their ears, now silent in the grave, but whose namnes they utter only with tenderest love and profoundest reverence.
The institution has a unique history in the length of
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Ohio Wesleyan University :
service of several of its professors. Dr. Robert Allyn, in 1890, remarked to the writer, " You sometimes change presi- dents, but your professors go on forever." Three men, Drs. Merrick, McCabe, and Williams, have given just one hundred and fifty years of service. Dr. Merrick began his labors as agent one year before the institution was organized, and as professor, president, and lecturer, continued his connection with it until March 5th last, when his death broke the circle.
Dr. McCabe began his professional career here in 1845, and is as deeply devoted to his beloved work as in earlier years. For four years he was acting President, successfully directing affairs in a critical period. His scholarship, ear- nest and clear convictions, untiring energy, affectionate coun- sels, magnetic eloquence, and facile pen have strongly im- pressed many thousands of students passing beneath his molding hand. Dr. Williams was present and helped to organize the first classes, and has never been absent a single term since; and now, with a step as elastic and a mind as quick and clear as in middle life, he gives promise of much future service. He is widely known for his accuracy in scholarship, breadth of learning, mastery of the classics and of the English language, skill in New Testament exegesis, and his thorough and stimulating methods of instruction.
At the historical meeting, Dr. McCabe gave reminiscences covering his period of services, emphasizing the leading features of the institution; and Dr. Williams read an historical sketch, such as only the maker of history can produce. Dur- ing the jubilee, these veterans were the observed of all ob- servers, their praises were upon every tongue.
Three other members of the Faculty, Professors Whitlock, Perkins, and Semans, have given one hundred and three years of service to the University ; but this number of years
II3
Fifty Years of History.
is so comparatively small that it seems not to be known even to their immediate friends.
Historical celebrations naturally bring contrasts. The be- ginning and the present of the Ohio Wesleyan University are now placed in the more vivid contrast by the continued presence of those who were a part of the beginning. The contrast is to be noted in the seat of the institution, in build- ings, equipments, endowments, and in students. In 1844, Delaware was a village of scarcely more than a thousand in- habitants, surrounded by dense forests, accessible by no public conveyances save the tri-weekly stage, which could make but a few miles per day in the Winter and Spring sea- sons. This date preceded railroads and mostly turnpikes in Ohio. Now the village, through university stimulus, has grown into a beautiful inland city of ten thousand inhabit- ants, having all modern conveniences and improvements, is in the midst of richly cultivated agricultural and horticul- tural lands, and is upon leading lines of commerce and travel.
There was at the beginning but one building upon the campus, a frame structure three stories high, and this was made to contain recitation rooms, offices, library, chapel, and literary society halls. Now there are seven buildings of good size and rare adaptation. The new University Hall is the most imposing and the most complete college building in Ohio, and has few equals in the entire country. At the opening in the Autumn of 1844, there were present twenty- nine students and four instructors ; now, twelve hundred students are annually enrolled, and there are forty members of the Faculty. Professor E. T. Nelson, at the historical meeting, read a paper which was wonderfully suggestive in its striking statistics and in the variety and compactness of the information it contained. Two thousand one hundred
II4
Ohio Wesleyan University :
and eighty-six students have been graduated. About seven times that number have drunk at the same fountain for a longer or shorter period. In the earlier history of the insti- tution the relative number of those not graduated was much larger than of recent years.
Three hundred and seventy-seven graduates have been min- isters of the Gospel, and six thousand five hundred years of service already stand to their credit. Sixty-nine of these graduates have taken their theological course at Boston Uni- versity, thirty at Drew Seminary, eight at Garrett, and a few at the schools of other denominations. After the war, many of the graduates began to seek professional training in the leading universities of this country and of Europe, and have secured the degrees of M. A. and Ph. D. from them. More than one hundred have taken a full post-graduate course in law and received the degree of LL. B., and are in the van of advocates and jurists in many of the States of the Union. The same is true in the medical profession.
Some sixty of the graduates have become college presi- dents, about three times this number college professors, and a still greater number have been instructors in academies and the public schools. Dr. Nelson estimates six thousand years of service in the work of teaching. This is a work the Church ought to contemplate with pleasure. He also says that one hundred and forty-six homes have been built up in which both husband and wife are alumni of this institution ; that sixty of the University's grandchildren have been gradu- ated ; and that great-grandchildren have already been en- rolled.
The statistics make clear what has long been the pride of trustees, faculty and friends-a prevailing missionary spirit. Sixty-four graduates and fifteen undergraduates have gone to the ends of the earth in the holy and heroic crusade of
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Fifty Years of History.
missionary work. They are in every mission field of the Church, save Africa. Such men as Drs. Nathan Sites and H. H. Lowry, in China ; T. J. Scott and William A. Mansell, in India; J. F. Thomson and Charles W. Drees, in South America, will indicate the cast and the efficiency of the workers sent forth.
The Ohio Wesleyan University had a small beginning. There have been discouraging chapters in its history. Methodism in Ohio has not always seemed to appreciate its needs and its services, and possibilities of good to the Church. But it has had a steady growth in popular favor, resources, students and influences. It enters upon its second half century with a reputation, equipments and consecration of great promise. The place of a denominational college in the work of the Church is better understood. Wealthy laymen are coming to adopt it as their heir. Loyal alumni are plan- ning to place their Alma Mater above want. People of all faiths and no faiths are learning, as never before, that the Christian college is the best educational center for their sons and daughters. The monument of fifty years of successful history is a prophecy of the greater prosperity that will be realized in the future.
STATISTICS OF THE OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.
School Year, end- ing June.
Real Estate, Cabinets, Li- brary, Etc.
Endowment.
Income.
No. of Profess- ors.
No. of Other Teach'rs
Seniors.
Juniors.
Sopho- mores.
Fresh- men.
Prep. and Other Courses.
Total.
1845
$ 15,500
2
2
0
2
2
14
92
110
1846
16,000
$ 3,500
1
3
2
8
4
12
140
172
1848
16,000
$ 38,000
4,400
5
1
9
7
16
154
194
1849
16,000
45,000
4,000
5
1
9
4
9
19
139
180
1850
17,000
54,000
3,300
5
2
6
5
13
14
219
257
1851
22,000
71,000
3,500
5
5
11
12
18
460
506
1852
30,000
106,000
4,200
1
6
11
16
17
540
592
1853
35,000
108,000
3,550
5
4
12
12
16
24
536
594
1805
72,000
112,000
9,200
5
3
12
18
67
405
511
1856
72,000
113,000
8,536
5
10
14
37
47
133
541
1857
77,000
115,000
8.652
3
12
25
41
42
406
526
1858
77,000
116,000
8,700
3
24
27
12
50
343
486
1859
77,000
116,000
8,910
5
3
32
14
46
396
543
1860
82,000
116,000
8,228
5
3
21
25
36
57
320
459
1862
82,000
116,000
9,915
5
4
17
26
33
12
189
307
1863
82,000
114,000
9,810
2
18
25
20
31
185
297
1864
82,000
114,000
10,835
5
2
24
31
41
246
360
1865
84,000
130,000
11,305
1
1
14
27
45
291
410
1866
84,000
131,000
13,533
1
22
28
38
60
394
551
1867
95,000
185,000
9,884
2
28
36
72
85
243
497
1868
95,000
206,000
16,388
3
25
13
63
79
183
393
1870
128,000
230,000
19,765
1
39
17
63
88
185
417
1871
128,000
230,000
16,749
2
44
41
59
88
183
415
1872
157,000
230,000
18,762
2
44
18
45
57
225
419
1873
175,000
234,000
16,305
3
14
18
57
223
417
1874
178,000
235.000
16,933
4 3
27
38
33
44
224
366
1876
180,000
220,000
16,973
3
37
26
27
38
207
335
1877
180,000
233,000
22,866
2
29
21
34
37
201
323
1878
231,000
244,000
30,023
11
37
14
52
59
420
612
1879
231.000
251,000
32,837
8
11
39
51
55
41
429
615
1880
231,000
253,000
30,035
14
31
33
45
83
419
611
1881
231,000
263,400
34,973
11
38
14
89
102
395
668
1882
231,000
278,000
39,760
9
11
53
57
88
89
385
672
1883
231,000
297,000
53,755
11
9
56
74
64
108
481
783
1884
231,000
344,000
57,890
11
12
68
71
71
100
481
791
1885
237,000
350,000
56,655
13
14
66
55
70
117
154
763
1886
238,000
354,000
58,335
13
14
57
49
151
438
750
1887
238,000
422,000
66,514
12
15
63
55
74
144
544
830
1888
241,000
430,000
72,260
13
16
1
55
93
160
603
973
1889
251,000
439,000
65,696
12
14
69
81
91
185
544
970
1890
261,000
445,000
80,970
13
15
82
9,5
114
191
633
1,117
1891
262,000
458,000
83,374
15
21
92
102
119
213
566
1,082
1892
262.000
506,000
89,893
16
22
100
52
124
255
686
1,217
1893
400,000
508,000
87,494
16
25
84
50
92
245
800
1,271
1894
500,000
550,000
81,312
17
27
94
78
117
182
668
1,139
4
1
1
10
15
135
162
1847
16,000
72,000
110,000
7,000
5
3
6
23
55
53
266
423
1861
-2,000
116,000
5,581
5
26
37
33
82
200
438
1869
100,000
212,000
15,110
9
36
32
36
47
223
574
1875
180,000
240,000
17,765
7
27
472
530
1854
1
A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLEGE BUILDINGS.
Prepared by REV. J. M. BARKER, PH. D.
-
-
GENERAL VIEW OF THE COLLEGE CAMPUS.
THE BUILDINGS.
The material equipments of the University are among the best. The attractive campus, embracing forty acres in the center of the city, affords ample ground for the necessary growth of a great University. Nature has given it some of
--
ELLIOTT HALL.
the finest decorative touches. The green lawn, fine shade trees, and large campus, make it a delightful place for student-life.
The college buildings rank among the best for architect- ural beauty and convenience.
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Ohio Wesleyan University :
Elliott Hall, formerly "The Old Mansion House," was built for visitors, chiefly for those seeking the invigorating climate and the health-giving waters of Delaware. It is fifty feet square and four stories high, and well constructed. It has served excellent educational purposes for half a century.
THOMSON HALL.
Two years ago, it was removed to a new site on the campus, and placed in good re- pair. Its desir- able recitation rooms may be in 11se for at least another half-cen- tury. The Phys- ical Laboratory occupies the first floor of this liall, and the other rooms are de- voted to class work.
Thomson Hall is doric in style, and measures 55
by 88 feet. The Chemical Laboratory occupies the first floor; the audience room, 23 feet high, covers the entire upper floor, and serves as a lecture room. At Commence- ment time it is utilized for an Alumni banquet hall.
Merrick Hall is a substantial edifice, three stories high, and built of Delaware blue limestone. It is used as a Hall of Science. The first floor is admirably adapted for the Bio-
ELLE
F
UNIVERSITY HALL AND GRAY CHAPEL.
122
Ohio Wesleyan University :
logical Laboratory, while the second floor is equally as well suited for the Physiological Laboratory. These rooms con- tain all the modern convenience and appliances for original research. Upon the third floor is located the large and valuable Museum and Cabinets.
University Hall and Gray Chapel, the most stately build- ing on the campus, was completed in 1893. It is a massive building of Romanesque style, and built of buff Amherst sandstone, and supplied with all modern appliances for light, heat and ventilation. It has a frontage of 150 feet, and a depth of 160 feet. The west and north elevation is four stories high. The building is crowned with a graceful tower, 148 feet high. It unites under one roof the Adminis- trative Offices, Lecture Rooms, Ladies' Parlor, Y. M. C. A. Hall, six literary halls, twelve recitation rooms, and Gray Chapel. All of the material used is of the highest excel- lence, and the finish and decorations are beautiful and of the mnost approved patterns. It is one of the most complete college buildings to be found in America. It, and the other buildings on the campus, will enable the University to accommodate two thousand students.
Gray Chapel will seat from twenty-five hundred to three thousand people. It is here that the students meet daily for religious worship and instruction, and in lecture courses and concerts hear some of the most distinguished men and women of the nation. The monthly Sunday afternoon lectures by the President are heard by crowded audiences and with unabated interest. From this rallying center of the University life goes forth an intellectual, social and spiritual power to touch literally every continent on the globe.
Monnett Hall is located on a separate campus, containing ten acres. The broad walks, well-kept lawn and large shade
friedman
MONNETT HALL.
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Ohio Wesleyan University :
trees give charmn to this picturesque spot. It contains a spacious parlor, a well-selected library and a reading room, three elegantly furnished literary halls, and a large dining hall. Beautiful suites of rooms, with all modern improve- ments, are tastefully furnished. The Hall accommodates
THE PRESIDENT'S RESIDENCE.
two hundred and fifty young women, who have the home protection and supervisory care of experienced and culti- vated teachers, with the invaluable advantages of co- education.
REMINISCENCES
OF THE
FIRST HALF-CENTURY
OF THE
OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY.
BY
REV. L. D. MCCABE, D. D., LL. D .. VICE-PRESIDENT.
ADDRESS.
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen :
I have been requested to speak to you of the reminiscences of my forty-nine years of labor in your University. It oc- curred to mne that reminiscences are rather to be read in the results of history than in the history itself.
The story of the past reveals itself most truly in the char- acter and in existing facts. Our present satisfactions and aspirations and realizations disclose the trend of life-long efforts. The records of memory may be blemished by in- firmity of recollection, but our living enthusiasmn, our pres- ent hopes and purposes, are the sign manual of past occur- rences upon the pages of unmistakable character. So not so much out of past events as out of a heart, fashioned and informed by these events, would we speak to you at this hour; for when we deal most truly with ourselves, we meas- ure existence as did the Hebrews, by a living, thrilling pres- ent, ever moving onward, and by this token surely the great names of clergy and laity, associated in the building up of your University, have weight with us more by what they are than by what they did.
Not the smallest inspiration of this hour is from the real and living communion with the great characters once here, but now who watch the progress of education and learning from seats immortal.
Character is really organized victory. It is not a stately building commanding admiration by cloud-capped towers,
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Fifty Years of History.
but it is soul forces adjusted, drilled, disciplined and con- centrated to do earnest battle, achieving illustrious victories. Happy, then, is the institution that is shielded by the glory of the great characters that have preceded us in the found- ing and building of the Ohio Wesleyan University ; for hon- orable worth and ennobling genius never die; transferred to the unseen, they are not removed from possibilities of service on earth.
Those whose earthly lives were wrought into the permna- nent welfare of the Ohio Wesleyan University still live to protect her manifold interests, and by their inspiring pres- ence to illumine her paths to future triumphs.
This immortal, unseen side is the powerful side of human advancement, and well for the workers who, in conscious purity of motive, can claim partnership with the forces which move upon us from invisible characters. These chiar- acters are this hour swinging in orbits of real and efficient existence and can be relied upon for these attractions and unearthly inspirations which do somehow sway the sincere and the earnest into the paths of unquestioned success. And so, believing that the living present, "compassed about by so great a cloud of witnesses," is more than any past, we address you out of the worthy enthusiasms of a life as truly conceived as to its specific aiins and purposes. That we may seem to neglect the record of the disciplines by which these enthusiasins have been attained inay be pardoned, as Alpine travellers forget the ice and gloom and perils of the ascent, and joyfully point up to heights illumined by radiant dawns.
This is an auspicious period for the cause of higher educa- tion, and particularly for the higher education of Method- ismn. The age of the destructive shifts into the constructive ; especially is this so in the realm of Theology ; that full, ever-
I28
Ohio Wesleyan University :
welling fountain-head of energies and irresistible changes in the realm of mind.
We pass from the thrall of metaphysical divinity to bibli- cal divinity. Theology more and more conforms to the book, less and less to any traditional systems. Acknowledged leaders in Theology scan no more the musty guess-work of mediæval charts, but with the compass, the Word of God, in hand, they dare the rising stormns.
Methodism as a factor among constructive forces is already well forward, because she has slight work to be undone. She is the freeborn daughter of the eighteenth century. She brings tidings on the mountains of salvation, with no link of ancient fatalistic creeds to hinder her beautiful feet. Her positions, first assumed, have firmly stood the test of all sub- sequent investigation. Human freedom, and the offer of universal salvation, made in good faith to every child of Adam, have been her broad and lofty vantage-grounds, seen and known of all. Refusing to be embarrassed by the in- explicable metaphysics of the last centuries, she seized upon the obvious truths of the gospel, and the manifest facts and needs of human nature, and in flaming earnestness addressed them to a perishing world, and the whole theological world acknowledges the reasonableness, the efficiency and the magnetisin of her doctrines. A more biblical Theology than this of the eighteenth century the world has never seen, and it is not a mistake to infer from the confessions of friends, and from the conformities of foes, an acknowledgment of the high philosophical character of Wesleyan Theology.
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