USA > Ohio > Greene County > History of Greene County, Ohio: its people, industries and institutions, Volume I > Part 48
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EFFORT TO GET ON SOUND FOOTING.
At this crisis agents were sent out to solicit subscriptions. The Uni- tarians of Boston and other Eastern states were appealed to for aid and they responded in a liberal manner, but still the situation was far from being sat- isfactory. The year 1857 found the institution with debts amounting to
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more than eighty thousand dollars, every apparent effort having been made to reduce the debt. Money had been borrowed, mortgages had been laid, the friends of the school had done their utmost-and still it was evident that a change had to be made. After considering the question from every angle, the trustees, in June, 1857, decided to assign the property of the school to F. A. Palmer, of New York city, president of the Broadway Bank, of that city, and a very liberal friend of the school. Two years were to be devoted to the liquidation of the debts of the institution, and these two years, 1857-59, were full of forebodings for the future of the school. The college was kept open, the faculty having been reorganized in the summer of 1857, President Mann agreeing to stay and wait the outcome. The faculty divided the re- ceipts during these two years, this forcing them to be content with only about half of their regular salaries.
Finally came the day of the sale, April 19, 1859. A suit for foreclosure had been entered in the spring of the year by the Hartford Insurance Com- pany, which held a first mortgage on the real estate. The courts appraised the real estate at sixty thousand dollars and the personal property at ten thousand dollars. On the day before the sale the friends of the school held a meeting at which they agreed to pool their funds and attempt to retain the school by outbidding any other prospective purchasers. When the school was offered for sale it was bid in by F. A. Palmer, the assignee, at two-thirds its appraised valuation, no other parties making a bid. The college imme- diately was turned over by Palmer to five provisional trustees for the same amount, and by the latter, on April 22, 1859, to the trustees of a newly organ- ized corporation known as "Antioch College, of Yellow Springs, Greene County, Ohio."
The new corporation had agreed to pay about forty thousand dollars for the school, although it was agreed that certain of the debts of the former man- agement should be met, the debts aggregating about forty thousand dollars. This meant that the new management was assuming an obligation of about eighty thousand dollars. Steps were at once taken to raise this amount among the Christian and Unitarian churches, each denomination giving about half of the full amount. The new board of trustees, twenty in number, were di- vided between the two churches, twelve to the Christian and eight to the Uni- tarian. President Mann, one of the incorporators, became president of the corporation. The faculty and general policy of the school was continued with- out change, it having proved that President Mann had put the school on a basis which commanded the respect of the best educators of the country.
Thus the year 1859 may be taken as the beginning of a new era in the history of the school. It was starting out free from debt and it has never allowed itself to get into the unfortunate condition suffered in the first few
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years of its career. In additions to the liberal donations which the friends of the school had made toward its purchase in 1859, a number made additional donations so that the school was provided with an annual income of five thousand dollars for three years; that is, that much above the tuitional revenue.
The Death of Horace Mann .- But the year 1859, while it saw the emer- gence of the institution from the clouds which had hovered over it for three years, was also destined to witness the death of its masterful president, Horace Mann. He had labored for the school with such energy that his health gave way under the strain. He died within sight of the college which, more than any other man, he had helped to establish and bring through its most trying years. August 19, 1859, marked the end of his connection with Antioch Col- lege, and with his death the college lost its first and undoubtedly the greatest president it has ever had. This is said with all due respect to the able men who have followed him, for, be it said, Horace Mann is to this day looked upon as one of the greatest educators the country has ever produced. He was buried in the college grounds, but the following year his remains were ex- humed and taken to .Providence, Rhode Island, and inhumed by the side of his first wife.
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In September, 1859, Rev. Thomas Hill, D. D., was appointed president of the college and remained at the head of the school until June, 1862, when he resigned to accept the presidency of Harvard University. The friends of the school pledged an additional two thousand dollars a year for three years, this giving the school seven thousand dollars annually above the tuitional revenue. The school, however, gradually lost students, although the class of twenty-eight in 1860 still remains as the largest class ever graduated from the institution. But in 1861 there were only seven graduates, while the following year saw eighteen graduates completing the course. At the close of the school year in 1861, the president went to New England to attempt to raise an endowment fund, and while there Ft. Sumter fell. This blow which plunged the nation into a four-year struggle came very near being the doom of Antioch. Doctor Hill had to give up the idea of getting an endow- ment for the college at this time. The pledges of seven thousand dollars were all redeemed in June, 1862, and there seemed to be nothing to do but close the school.
The next three years, 1862-65, mark another trying time for the un- fortunate school-three years when the whole nation suffered. Antioch was not the only college which was practically forced to suspend for the period of the war. In the summer of 1862 Professor J. B. Weston assumed charge of the school at the request of the trustees, and some of the teachers agreed to remain and be satisfied with such compensation as might be prorated
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among them from the tuition fees. Only a few of the college classes were maintained and the classes of 1863, 1864 and 1865 had but one graduate each.
Things went from bad to worse, and the worse became so bad that nothing seemed to be able to save the college from complete extinction. Church squabbles helped to relieve the monotony, but they only aggravated conditions. The Unitarians seemed to have contributed more money than the Christians, and consequently they demanded more of a voice in the management of the school. The members of the Christian church wanted to blame the Unitarians for all the trouble that had come upon the school, while those who had in- vested in real estate in Yellow Springs with the hope that it would prove a profitable investment blamed both churches. It was certainly an unfortunate situation viewed in any light.
Church Rivalry Comes to a Head .- The upshot of the difference be- tween the two churches lead to a curious agreement between them. In June, 1862, the Christians began an attempt to raise an endowment of fifty thousand dollars in one year, later extended to two years-but if they could not do it, then the Unitarians were to have a like opportunity. The church which se- cured this amount was to have the school.
The Christians, being the first to make the attempt, would seem to have had the advantage, but at the end of their two-year effort they had secured pledges for less than one-tenth of the amount -- less than five thousand dollars. They acknowledged their inability to raise the fifty thousand dollars, and in June, 1864, the Unitarians began their two-year effort to raise the amount. The Unitarians wanted it stipulated before they began their campaign for money that the board of trustees, should they get the full amount raised, should be chosen irrespective of any church affiliation. This was granted, and they went to work. Evidently there were more Unitarians with money than Christians; at any rate, on June 21, 1865, they announced that they' had not only raised the full amount of fifty thousand dollars, but had actually raised double that amount-one hundred thousand dollars.
Thus a second time the institution was saved from utter annihilation. With true christian forbearance the Unitarians did not try to force the mem- bers of their own denomination on the board of trustees, and although all the Christian members of the board had resigned, most of them were re-elected to their former places on the board. At this happy meeting on June 21, 1865, the Civil War then being over, it was planned to open the college in all its de- partments in the following September. A full faculty was provided, and Andrew D. White, later and for many years president of Cornell University, was elected president. However, he did not accept, and the trustees made Prof. Austin Craig acting president. In 1866 Rev. G. W. Hosmer, D. D., of Buffalo, New York, was elected president, and he served with distinction
ANTIOCH COLLEGE. YELLOW SPRINGS.
PRESIDENT'S RESIDENCE, ANTIOCH COLLEGE.
TOARNAVE THE ET 33 6 8 40 THE TRE RRINGHE THE SHAWAMEES IND ELUMSEN, CHIEF.
TH
TAK FAMOUS GAUNTLET, RUNT8 MENTON IN 1778,WAS FRO! ENTRE WOHL TO THE COUNCH HOUSE ANCH ST109 30 RODS WEST OF
MEMORIAL STONE AT OLDTOWN.
HORACE MANN
HORACE MANN MONUMENT, ANTIOCH COLLEGE.
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until he resigned in June, 1872, the resignation to take effect on January I, 1873.
The history of the school since its re-opening in the fall of 1865 has been quiet and uneventful. Doctor Hosmer continued as professor from January 1, 1873, until the close of that school year, the board appointing Prof. Edward Orton to take up the duties of the presidency. The latter, however, resigned in June, 1873, to become president of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College at Columbus. The board selected Prof. S. C. Derby as acting president in June, 1873, and he served in this capacity until 1881. At present he is the oldest professor in Ohio State University, having been at the head of the Latin department of that institution a great many years.
Christian Church Again in Charge .- In 1882 the management of the college was again assumed by the Christian church, an arrangement being made with the board of trustees by which the revenue arising from the en- dowment fund was to be placed in the hands of the church and its general management entrusted to them. O. J. Wait, of Fall River, Massachusetts, was elected president in the summer of 1882, but served only one year. He was followed by Dr. D. A. Long of North Carolina, who served until 1898. In that year an Indiana educator, William A. Bell, a graduate of the institu- tion and founder of the Indiana School Journal, was elevated to the presi- dency. Doctor Bell remained at the head of the college until 1902, when Stephen F. Weston, a graduate of the college, was made dean and placed in active charge, although the presidency was given to Franklin W. Hooper, head of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. President Hooper re- mained in Brooklyn at the head of his school during all of the time that he was president of Antioch, the actual direction of the school being in the hands of Dean Weston. This divided responsibility was maintained until 1906, in which year Dr. Simeon D. Fess, the present congressman from this district, was elected to the presidency.
Doctor Fess was elected to Congress in 1916 and took his seat on March 4, 1917. After taking his seat in Congress, Doctor Fess suggested to the board of trustees that he resign the presidency of the college, but they urged him to continue as head of the school. However, the country was soon' at war with Germany and Congress was kept in session. For this reason Doctor Fess urged upon the board of trustees the acceptance of his resignation as president of the school. This they did and then offered the position to Dr. George D. Black.
Doctor Black had been connected with the faculty of the college since 1907, having been elected in that year to fill the chair of New Testament Literature and Comparative Religions, and at the same time was made vice- president of the college. For some time before President Fess went to Con- (30)
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gress he was absent from the college making speeches in its behalf and also appearing on the lecture platform. Thus Doctor Black, as vice-president, was frequently called upon to serve as acting president. And when the board of trustees offered him the presidency, they felt that they were securing a competent successor to Doctor Fess. However, Doctor Black declined to ac- cept the appointment, but consented to serve as acting president. He felt that the state of his health was such that he could not give the college the time and attention which it demanded.
The history of Antioch College would not be complete without mention- ing the names of some of the men who have been connected with it, either as teachers or students. A study of its graduates shows that more than half of them later taught school, while practically all of them engaged in some business or professional career. Among the most notable men who have been connected with Antioch may be mentioned the following: Dr. Thomas Hill, who went from Antioch to the presidency of Harvard University; Prof. C. W. Russell, for many years vice-president of Cornell University; Dr. Edward Orton, the first president of Ohio State University; Presi- dent G. Stanley Hall, of Clark University; Prof. James K. Hosmer, the historian and for many years professor of history in the University of St. Louis; Prof. James E. Clark, for many years professor of mathematics in Yale University; Prof. S. C. Derby, for the past twenty-five years professor of Latin in Ohio State University; Prof. E. W. Claypole, late professsor of geology, Throop College of Technology, Pasadena, California; Prof. C. H. Chandler, who went from Antioch to Ripon College; Dr. J. B. Weston, late president of the Defiance Theological School: Prof. Nicholas P. Gilman, late professor of sociology in Meadville Theological School and author of several books on social questions; Dr. Frank H. Tufts, late professor of physics in Columbia University; Dr. J. Y. Bergen, the botanist; Dr. Amos Russell Wells, managing editor of the Christian Endeavor World; and George H. Shull, professor of biology, Princeton University.
Dr. Amos R. Wells, editor of the Christian Endeavor World, a gradu- ate of Antioch and for nine years one of its professors, said a few years ago that no other college in Ohio, according to the number of its professors and graduates, had had so many men and women of distinction in the educational and professional world as Antioch.
CEDARVILLE COLLEGE.
Cedarville College was chartered in 1887 by the Legislature of the state of Ohio, but it was seven years before the institution was opened for the reception of students. It is under the control of the General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian church, which has directed its career during the
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thirty years that it has been in existence. It opened for the reception of stu- dents before the present building was erected, its first term being held in the house formerly owned by Rev. Hugh, McMillan where he had conducted an academy half a century before that time. In this quaint old house the first students of Cedarville College gathered on September 19, 1894, but in the following fall the new building was ready for occupancy.
The campus, the building and practically everything connected with the college has been the gift of the members of the church, although the citizens of Cedarville contributed generously to the establishment of the college irre- spective of their church affiliation. The present income of the college is de- rived from tuition, collections from church congregations, voluntary sub- scriptions, voluntary donations from friends within and without the church, and interest on the endowment fund.
The credit for the beginning of the college should really be given to the generosity of William Gibson, of Cincinnati, who left a fund of twenty-five thousand dollars to be used for the establishment of a church college, the bequest being given in honor of his father, Peter Gibson, for many years a member and ruling elder in the Cincinnati Reformed Presbyterian church. A few years later, Robert M. Cooper, an elder in the Cedarville congrega- tion, bequeathed a two-thirds interest in a large farm. Subsequent bequests of importance may be summed up as follows: John R. Lyons, of Marissa, Illinois, gave five hundred dollars as a memorial to his son, James Burney Lyons, who lost his life in the Civil War; Mr. and Mrs. G. W. Harper, of Cedarville, gave five thousand dollars to found and maintain a chair in economics, provided the friends of the college raised a similar amount, the amount being readily raised, Whitelaw Reid contributing one thousand dol- lars toward the fund; W. J. Alford gave the old church building and fitted it up as a gymnasium, his gift being in honor of his parents, Rev. and Mrs. John Alford; and lastly, Andrew Carnegie gave the college eleven thousand seven hundred and ninety dollars for the erection of a library, the same be- ing completed in 1908.
College Buildings and Faculty .- The college now has three buildings --- the main building, erected in 1895; the gymnasium, known as the Alford Memorial, which was fitted out in 1902; the library, opened in 1908. The at- tendance has been averaging about one hundred a year, and since the estab- lishment of the college there have been 206 graduates. There are a number of collegiate courses offered, all leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. There is also a course in agriculture; a course in education, courses leading to the degree of Master of Arts and several courses in theology ; also courses in home economics and music. The first summer school was opened in 1915
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and 142 students were enrolled; in 1916 there were 130 students; in 1917 there were 118 students.
The college has had only two presidents during its career : Rev. David Mckinney, D. D., LL. D .. of Cincinnati, was the first president and served until June, 1915. At that time Rev. Wilbert Renwick McChesney, Ph. D., D. D., was elected president, and was inaugurated on the 12th of the follow- ing November. The faculty now numbers fifteen members, and for the year ,1917-18 consists of the following in addition to the president: Frank Albert Jurkat, A. M., LL. D., treasurer and professor of modern languages and his- tory ; Rev. Leroy Allen, Ph. B., dean and registrar and Harper professor of Latin, Bible and sociology; Anna Margaret Schneder, A. B., professor of English and German; Helen Pauline Oglesbee, director of the department of music; John Edmiston Bauman, A. B., C. E., professor of science and mathematics ; Rev. Arthur St. Clair Sloan, A. B., professor of Spanish and education; Ralph Stewart Elder, A. M., secretary to president and dean, in- structor in Greek; Allen Bird Turnbull, assistant in chemistry; William Rife Collins, instructor in physics; Sherman O. Lining, instructor in mathematics ; Grace Morton, A. B., instructor in home economics ; Mrs. W. H. McGervey, instructor in voice, and Mary Lucile Gray, librarian.
UNITED PRESBYTERIAN SEMINARY OF XENIA.
There is but one theological seminary in America that may with any show of reason contest the claim of Xenia' Seminary to be the oldest theo- logical school on the Western continent; that one is the seminary of the Reformed church in America, located at New Brunswick, New Jersey. Al- though the Dutch church had had an organized existence in America as early as 1628 it was subject to the Classis of Amsterdam and was not authorized to educate and ordain ministers. It was not until after its independence of the mother church had been recognized in 1771 that this authority was claimed; and inasmuch as the Revolutionary War followed soon after, the right was not exercised until after the Rev. John H. Livingston's election as professor of theology in 1784.
The Associate Church .- In the summer of 1753 the Rev. Alexander Gellatly and the Rev. Andrew Arnot came into the valley of the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, and, as they had been directed to do by the mother church in Scotland, on November 2 of that year, they organized themselves into a presbytery, which they styled the "Associate Presbytery of Pennsylvania." Its growth in twenty-three years justified a division of forces, and on May 20, 1776, the presbytery of New York began to be. Very soon after its or- ganization this presbytery recognized the Rev. Robert Annan, D. D., as an instructor in theology by the ordination of his first student-his own brother,
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David-in 1778; and by the licensure of his second student, Mr. William Morrison, in 1782. In 1778 the presbytery of Pennsylvania made provision for theological training within its borders by the appointment of the Rev. John Smith, of Octoraro, Lancaster county, "to direct the studies of such men as were preparing to pursue their studies with a view to the holy min- istry."
Dr. Annan and Mr. Smith received students in their own homes. The teacher was the school. Where the professor was there was the seminary. Both had been enthusiastic advocates of union with the Reformed Presby- terian (Covenanter) church, and in 1782 had cast in their lot with the re- sultant organization, the Associate Reformed church, Mr. Smith continuing for some eight or ten years his work as theological teacher in that body. The entire presbytery of New York entered into this union, but five members of the presbytery of Pennsylvania as it was constituted at the time the vote was taken --- two ministers and three elders-refused to accept the proposed basis, and so the organization of the Associate church was preserved. A little more than one year after this action of the presbytery of Pennsylvania the Associate synod of Scotland, in answer to a petition from the "remnant," sent over the Rev. John Anderson. He reached Philadelphia in the autumn of 1783, and was joined by the Rev. Thomas Beveridge in the spring of 1784. The interests of the Associate church and of the United Presbyterian church were nobly served by these two men. The former was the founder of the theological seminary at Service, Pennsylvania, in 1794, and for more than a quarter of a century the sole professor. Doctor Beveridge was first named by the presbytery to the professorship, but he declined the appoint- ment because he believed Doctor Anderson to be the better qualified to fill the position; however, a son who bore the father's name, Thomas Beveridge, was called to render a like service to his church at Canonsburg, to which place the seminary had been transferred in 1821. After twenty-five years of the labor of love there he removed to Xenia, on the second change of loca- tion, and for sixteen years longer he exercised a hallowing influence upon the young men whose good fortune it was to receive his instruction. His period : of service was the longest save one, that of Doctor Moorehead, in the one hundred and twenty-two years of the seminary's history.
John Anderson must have been about thirty-five years old at the time of his coming to America. He had practically given up the distinctive work of the ministry. He had been licensed as a probationer for that office sev- eral years before, but owing to his very unimpressive personal presence, his weak voice and diffident manner, he received no encouragement to aspire to the pastorate of any of the congregations of the church in Scotland. Never- theless his brethren had not failed to recognize his great gifts of mind and of
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heart, and his thorough furnishing through diligent study and exercise for any service he might be called to render as a minister of the gospel. Con- sequently, when the petition came from their representatives in the new world, Mr. Anderson was at once selected as the man to go to their assist- ance. Their estimate of his attainments may well be expressed in the words of one of them, Doctor Nisbet, who said of him that, "Such a body of divinity had never before crossed the Atlantic."
Had the conditions that occasioned his entrance upon his mission to America not risen ; had the question of union with the Reformed Presbyterian church not been opened, or, had the action of the Associate church in this matter been unanimous, in either case there can scarcely be a doubt that the appointment of the Rev. John Smith as instructor in theology would have been continued, as it was indeed continued by the Associate Reformed church. In this event the origin of the Associate Theological Seminary might properly be carried back to the year 1778, anticipating that of the New Brunswick Seminary by six years. But had a divinity school been established under such auspices it may well be questioned whether it would have been marked by the exalted character which distinguished the Service Seminary from its beginning. The two teachers were nearly of one age. They were both stu- dents of the younger Moncrieff, and in general scholarship and theological acquirement they were quite equally ranked. In oratorical power John An- derson may scarcely be compared with John Smith, but in the better, worthier elements that enter into personal character the former was immeasurably the superior.
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