USA > Ohio > Delaware County > History of Delaware County and Ohio : containing a brief history of the state of Ohio biographical sketches etc. V. 1 > Part 63
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The North Ohio Conference met August 11, 1841, at Wooster. To this body the delegation first applied. The conference considered the mat- ter favorably, and appointed a committee of five to confer with a like committee to be appointed by the Ohio Conference. August 25, the delegation appeared before the Ohio Conference, at Urbana. On the following day Drs. Charles Elliott and William P. Strickland were deputed by the con- ference to visit Delaware and examine the prem- ises. They carried back a favorable report, and many yet remember the Irish enthusiasm with which Dr. Elliott advocated the establishment of a college, and the acceptance of this property. The conference was ready for the measure, and voted that it was expedient to establish a Methodist col- lege in Ohio; that the two conferences (embracing about two-thirds of the State) should unite in the enterprise ; and that, if the Sulphur-spring prop- erty was conveyed to the church, on the terms proposed, Delaware should be selected as the seat of the college. A committee of five were appointed to act with the committee from the Northern Con- ference.
The joint committee thus constituted met at Delaware, September 1, 1841. The committee consisted of Revs. John H. Power, Adam Poe, Edward Thomson, James Brewster and William S. Morrow, from the North Ohio Conference, and Revs. Jacob Young, James B. Finley, Charles Elliott, Edmund W. Schon and Joseph M. Trim- ble, from the Ohio Conference. Of these dis- tinguished men, Dr. Joseph M. Trimble is now, after forty years, the only survivor. The
committee voted to accept the property if the citi- zens should perfect their offer, and the title could be made satisfactory to the conferences.
The way being thus prepared, a subscription was opened, and was signed by 172 persons. No subscription exceeded $500, and the aggregate amounted to but $9,000. That the movement might not fail, certain parties, trusting to future local subscriptions, obligated themselves for the deficit. But no further subscriptions were ob- tained, and, some years afterward, $500 were raised by voluntary contributions among the min- isters in the North Ohio Conference, to relieve 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 enter- prise, 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 (November 6, 1840), the population was but 893-there was not much busi- ness, and there was little accumulated wealth in the community. No doubt, if the Methodist Church had invited competition from other places for the location of the college, it could have had much larger offers than the one from this town. But the amount raised in Delaware was, at that time, the just measure of the ability of the place. The university was welcomed to the town; it brought wealth and prosperity with it, and it has often since met with a liberal response from the citizens to its appeals for aid.
The conference committee met November 17, 1841, and received from Mr. Powell a bond for the conveyance of the property donated by the citizens. The title was finally made to the Board of Trustees. In addition to the ten acres thus conveyed, the committee purchased from Mr. Powell an adjacent property on the south, of five
* A striking illustration of the opportunity for advance in news- paper enterprise since that day, is shown in the fact that the Del- aware papers of 1841 made not the slightest allusion, editorial or " local," to 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 follow- ing notice, given in the advertising columns :
"METHODIST EPISCOPAL COLLEGE.
"A general meeting of the subscribers will be held at the Exchange Hotel, this, Saturday, evening, October 23, 1841. It is important that all be there."
+ President Thompson, in his inaugural, estimated that the uni- versity brought from the first at least $16,000 yearly to the trade of the town. It would surely be in bounds to say that it now, with its 600 students and yearly income of orer $32,000 expended here, adds at least $100,000 annually to the business of the city.
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acres, at a cost of $5,500, and the furniture of the Mansion House for about $2,000 more. On the added lot was a comfortable cottage, the home of Mr. Powell, which was subsequently occupied for some years by the President of the college, or by one of the professors. . Additional purchases have since been made, from time to time, at a total expense of a little over $20,000, until now the college campus contains about twenty-five acres lying in one continuous lot, besides the ten acres to be further described, the property of the Mon- nett Hall of the university.
Immediate steps were now taken looking to a formal organization. A committee was appointed to apply to the Legislature for an act of incorpora- tion. A special charter, conferring university powers, was granted by the Legislature March 7, 1842. 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-Gov. Allen Trimble, Lemuel Rey- nolds, 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-Gov. Mordecai Bartley, Frederick C. Welch, Wilder Joy, Henry Ebbert, John H. Harris, Rev. Adam Poe, Rev. William Burke, Rev. Leonard B. Gurley. Of these, though the charter did not so prescribe, fourteen were laymen and seven were ministers. By the provisions of the charter, the corporators at first held their office for life; and, of the original number, the venerable Dr. Leonard B. Gurley, of Delaware, is now the sole survivor .* The right of perpetu- ation of the Board was reserved to the two pat- ronizing conferences, each appointing alternately. These conferences have been divided into four, each with the same right of appointment. This arrangement continued until the year 1869, when, by a general law of the State, the President 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, and assigned severally to the four conferences. The tenure of office was reduced to five years, so that each conference now annually elects 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. The office has
* Since this was written, Dr. Gurley died, March 25, 1880, at the ripe age of seventy-six years.
been held by eighty-six different persons. The Board, as now constituted, consists of the follow- ing, the date indicating the year when each came into office: Ex officio-1875. Rev. Charles H. Payne, D. D., LL. D., President of University. Ohio Conference-1852, Rev. Joseph M. Trimble, D. D., Columbus; 1868, Rev. Andrew B. See, Zanesville; 1877, Rev. Frederick Merrick, M. A., Delaware: 1876, James Y. Gordon, Portsmouth ; 1845, Hon. James H. Godman, Columbus. North Ohio Conference-1869, Rev. Aaron J. Lyon, M. A., Delaware ; 1876, George Mitchell, M. A., M. D., Mansfield; 1877, Rev. Gaylord H. Hartupee, D. D., Norwalk; 1878, Hon. Thomas F. Joy, Delaware; 1867, William A. Ingham, Cleveland. Cincinnati Conference-1860, John R. Wright, M. A., Cincinnati; 1864, John Davis, M. D., Cin- cinnati ; 1872, Rev. Lafayette Van Cleve, M. A., Hillsboro; 1873, Rev. Richard S. Rust, D. D., LL. D., Cincinnati ; 1870, Phineas P. Mast, M. A., Springfield. Central Ohio Conference -- 1870, Rev. Alexander Harmount, D. D., Lima ; 1876, John W. Hiett, Toledo; 1867, Rev. Bishop Will- iam L. Harris, D. D., LL. D., New York City ; 1878, Rev. Leroy A. Belt, M. A., Toledo ; 1879, Hon. William Lawrence, LL. D., Bellefontaine. Association of Alumni-1872, Rev. Wesley G. Waters, D. D., Toledo; 1872, H. Eugene Parrott, M. A., Dayton; 1872, John W. King, M. A., Zanesville; 1875, Charles W. Cole, M. A., Cin- cinnati ; 1873, Lewis Miller, Akron.
One of the conditions of the donation to the church was that the academic work of the college should be begun within five years ; but the con- mittees from the conferences did not wait even until the organization of the Board of Trustees. It was thought best to commence this work immediately ; and a sub-committee was appointed to secure teachers, and open a preparatory school. This committee 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 for tuition for his compen- sation. 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 Hamilton, where the Ohio Conference was in session, October 1, 1842. At this meeting, the Board elected the Rev. Edward Thomson, M. D.,
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to the presidency of the university, with the understanding that the appointment was but nom- inal 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 the preparatory school should meanwhile be continued, and appointed the Rev. Solomon Howard as Prin- cipal with authority to employ his own assistants. He was given the use of the buildings and furni- ture, and was expected to get his support from the tuition fees of the pupils, both sexes being still admitted. Prof. Howard began his school the same autumn, and continued it successfully for two years. During the second year of his school he was assisted by. Mr. Flavel A. Dickinson, who had been employed as Principal of the Delaware Academy. At the end of this time, the Board of Trustees was prepared to organize a college faculty.
Though no large immediate income was to be expected from subscriptions or from tuition, yet the Board of Trustees felt great confidence in the final success of a school supported by the numbers and wealth of the Methodist Church of Ohio. Relying upon these, the Board, September 25, 1844, resolved to organize a faculty and begin the aca- demic work of a college. Dr. Thomson, who had recently been elected editor of the Ladies' Reposi- tory, was re-appointed President, though again with the understanding that he should not imme- diately enter upon duty. As it was foreseen that the school would for a while be small, and the income limited, the Board created but four additional places, and made the following appoint- ments : Rev. Herman M. Johnson, Professor of Ancient Languages ; Rev. Solomon Howard, Pro- fessor of Mathematics ; William G. Williams, Principal of Preparatory Department; Enoch G. Dial, Assistant in Preparatory Department.
The salaries paid or rather promised to these men were gauged by the resources which the Board hoped to have at their command by the end of the year. The President's salary was fixed at $800; the Professors were to be paid $600 each, and the teachers in the Preparatory Department 8400 and $350 respectively; but it was many years before even these meager salaries were paid as they became due.
Wednesday, November 13, 1844, was the day appointed and advertised for the opening of the school; but the opening was less encouraging than had been hoped. Dr. Thomson was not present, and did not enter upon duty for nearly two years
afterward, and Prof. Johnson was detained for many weeks. The other three teachers of the five who were appointed to positions in the faculty, met in the basement of the Mansion House, the former dining-room, which had been temporarily fitted up as a chapel, and proceeded to enroll the students applying for admission to the classes. Only twenty-nine presented themselves. This was a smaller number than had previously attended the preparatory schools under Capt. Cobb and Prof. Howard. But the students now were all males of a maturer age, and more advanced standing, and most of them were from other parts of the State. From this small number the faculty were able to organize all the college classes below senior, though the representation in the upper classes was very small.
The fact that none but male students were admitted is worthy of a moment's notice. At that date the co-education of the sexes in the higher schools of learning was almost unknown, and, at the organization of the university, the question of a departure from the usage of former years and of older institutions was not even mooted in the con- ferences or in the Board of Trustees. It was taken for granted by them that this college was to fall into line in this respect, as in all the other usages of college organization. But this subject, which was so quietly ignored by the conferences and the Board of Trustees, was already making its entrance into the discussions of professional educators, and could not be so summarily disposed of by them. The advancing sentiment of the country was bringing women more and more prominently, not only into social life, but into pub- lic and responsible positions in the educational, religious and secular fields of labor; and the church began to demand a higher education for its daughters as well as for its sons, to fit them for these larger duties. The experiment of co-educa- tion was in successful trial in one of the large schools of the State .* In view of these facts the subject became for years one of frequent and earn- est debate in the faculty of the new college. President Thomson expressed very decided views against what some regarded as advanced ground on this subject, and his position, if there had been no other obstacle, prevented any public agitation or effort in the matter. At length, as will be seen further on, the problem was solved for the univer- sity by the founding of a ladies' college in Dela- ware. Thenceforward the courtesies due to a * Oberlin College, organized in 1833.
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sister school, if not a conviction of policy in regard to co-education, forbade the introduction of ladies into the university, and the question long ceased to be a practical one in the councils of the insti- tution. But years after the subject had been thus practically shelved, President Thomson took occa- sion in one of his baccalaureates, to declare that his views had undergone an entire revolution on this subject, and that he now favored co-education. Yet he did not live to give his potent advocacy and his suffrage to the measure which finally united the two schools, and made co education the law of the university.
The table given further on, shows that the cat- alogue enrollment of students of the university for the first year was but 110, from which num- ber the attendance gradually increased to 257 in 1850. The next year showed 506 names, just double the last number on the university books. This sudden increase was due to the system of cheap scholarships that year put into successful operation by the Board of Trustees. Of these about four thousand were sold, and thus both the endowment of the university was largely increased and the circle of its patronage greatly widened. The movement at once called attention to the uni- versity. Many hundred parents were led to seek a higher education for their sons than they had before deemed within their means, and the thought of such a possibility excited the generous ambi- tion of many young men, who had else remained content with the little learning acquired in the common schools of their own neighborhoods. These scholarships are still held by thousands of families, and have always been an incentive to large numbers to seek an education in the univer- sity. The result is, that the attendance since that date has always been large. At no time, not even during the dark days of the rebellion, or of the financial collapse afterward, has the enrollment gone as low as before the inauguration of the scholarship system. Only once (1863), has the aggregate fallen as low as 300, and it has usually exceeded 400. In the last years it has been more than 600.
The number of teachers was from the first too small for the work imposed on them, and the increase in the number of students and the multi- plication of classes necessarily brought increase in the faculty. In the academic course of study, a few generations ago, attention was devoted entirely to the languages and mathematics. These, with their subdivisions, constituting the trivium and
the quadrivium of the old universities, embraced about all the matters of human knowledge that could then be made subsidiary to the end of school discipline. But, in our own century, the marvel- ous development of the physical sciences has opened a wide and profitable field of study, both for know !- edge and discipline ; and the modern colleges have recognized the rightful place of these subjects as a part of the academic curriculum. The first appointments to the- faculty were to the two first- named fields, languages and mathematics ; but, at the opening of the second year, the claims of the other large class of sciences were recognized by the establishment of a chair of Natural Science. This was filled by the appointment of the Rev. Frederick Merrick as its incumbent. Before the end of the year, Doctor Thomson assumed his place as President and Professor of Philosophy. It was a meager scheme for a university faculty ; but it was sufficient to give instruction in each of the great departments of study ; and no class has been graduated from the university without at least some instruction in all the subjects which go to make a complete and symmetric culture. The first graduating classes were, of course, small; and, by the time the classes had grown to a respect- able size, the number of departments of instruction had also been increased, either by the subdivision of the former chairs, or by the addition of new ones. There has been a remarkable permanence in the faculty. Several of the number have remained connected with the institution during almost the entire period of its existence, now thirty-six years; and these, with two exceptions, have been the longest in one consecutive service, of all the college educators in the State.
There have been three Presidents.
1. Rev. Edward Thomson, D. D., LL. D. He was born in 1810 at Portsea, England, but by growth and education he was an American. His home from early youth was at Wooster, Ohio. Here he received a good classical training, and afterward graduated in medicine at Philadelphia. In 1832, he entered the ministry, in the Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and at once became noted for his ability as a preacher and a writer. In 1838, he was chosen Principal of the Norwalk Seminary, the first Meth- odist school in the State of Ohio. His success here established his reputation as an educator, and pointed him out as the fittest man for the presi- dency of the university, to which position he was elected first in 1842, and again in 1844. In the
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spring of the last-named year, he was appointed editor of the Ladies' Repository, in Cincinnati, but resigned this office after two years' service, to assume the active duties of his position at Dela- ware. For fourteen years he filled and graced this office. No college President in the church has shown larger administrative abilities, or won a more enviable place in the affections and admiration of college and church alike. In 1860, he was called by the General Conference to edit the Chris- tian Advocate, in New York ; and again, in 1864, to. the higher office of Bishop in the church. He died suddenly in Wheeling, W. Va., March 22, 1870.
President Thomson taught but little during his connection with the university. He usually had the senior class in one study ; but he found his happiest field of instruction and influence in the Sunday lectures before the university. It was here that he made his wonderful power felt, and left the lasting impress of his thought and spirit on his rapt listeners. His lectures, whether written or extemporized, were models of sacred eloquence, worthy of any audience for their depth, beauty and fervor. Bishop Thomson's publications are numer- ous, and his literary remains yet in manuscript are very extensive.
2. Rev. Frederick Merrick. He was born in 1810, a native of Connecticut; and was educated in the Wesleyan University, Connecticut. In 1836, he became Principal of Amenia Seminary, New York; and, in 1838, Professor of Natural Science in Ohio University, Athens, and member of the Ohio Conference, For one year, 1842-43, he was Pastor of the Methodist Church in Mari- etta. In 1843, the conference appointed him financial agent of the Ohio Wesleyan University, to which institution he has since that time devoted his life.
In 1845, he was elected Professor of Natural Science, and was made acting President for the year until Dr. Thomson entered upon duty. In 1851, he was transferred to the Chair of Moral Philosophy, and, on the resignation of President Thomson, was chosen as his successor. He held this office for thirteen years ; and then, in view of failing strength, in 1873, he resigned the presi- dency and was appointed Lecturer on Natural and Revealed Religion. This relation to the college he still sustains. In addition to his other duties, Dr. Merrick has been Auditor of the University for more than thirty years, and has often acted as its agent in raising the endowment or getting funds for improvements upon the buildings and grounds.
After President Merrick's resignation, the Rev. Fales H. Newhall, D. D., of Boston, was elected to the Presidency, but, from prostration induced by intense and continued literary work, he was unable to enter upon duty, and resigned his office the following year. The university meanwhile, and until the accession of his successor, was for three years successfully administered by Prof. McCabe, the senior Professor and Vice President of the university.
3. Rev. Charles H. Payne, D. D., LL. D. President Payne was born at Taunton, Mass., October 24, 1830, and graduated in 1856, at Wes- leyan University, Connecticut. He taught several terms in his early years, and was tutor for six months after graduation, but has spent most of his life in the ministry. A vigorous thinker, an accomplished speaker and writer, and a devoted pastor, he has served some of the leading Methodist churches in Brooklyn, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. It was from this last city that he was called to the presi- dency of the university in 1875. He took his seat the following year. His administration began in the gloomiest days of financial depression, but the growth of the university during his adminis- tration has been very rapid and great. A quick- ened interest for the university was felt through- out the church ; the four conferences were stimu- lated to renewed efforts for the endowment; the school was advertised on a much more liberal scale than before, and, not least, the university and the female college were united. This measure, which had long been advocated and worked for by many friends of both schools, was at length accomplished in 1877. As the result of all these influences both the enrollment and the income of the uni- versity have been doubled in the last four years.
The Professors who have held chairs in the university are the following :
1. Rev. Herman M. Johnson, D. D., Professor of Ancient Languages and Literature. He was a graduate of Wesleyan University, Connecticut, and before coming to Delaware had held the Chair of Ancient Languages in St. Charles College, Missouri, and in Augusta College, Kentucky. Prof. Johnson had abilities as an instructor, of the first order. His mind was analytic, he had remarkable talent to explain and illustrate the sub- jects that he taught, and his scholarship was broad and thorough. After six years' service here, he accepted the professorship of Philosophy in Dick- inson College, and was afterward raised to the I presidency. In this office he died in 1868.
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2. Rev. Solomon Howard, D. D., LL. D. Prof. Howard had been at the head of the preparatory school for two years before the organization of the college faculty. At that time he was appointed Professor of Mathematics, but held the office for only one year. He was subsequently, for some years, Principal of the Springfield Female College, and became President of the Ohio University, at Athens, in 1852. He died in California in 1873. 3. Rev. Frederick Merrick.
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