History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 87

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096

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meat, in flour, milk and corn, in lights and firewood. One can not help wondering, nowadays, how they managed all this- whether, once in awhile some one did not get the cream, and some one else the skim milk, and whether eveything was lovely in consequence.

The college not only formed a large landed estate, and kept a hotel and shops, mills and stores; it boarded, also, its entire family of professors and students. One looks curiously to-day at its inventory of goods-pots, pans, pails, tubs, saucers, spoons, white dimity bed-curtains, mixed all up with oxen, cows, and vinegar. Then what could have been the need of "trundle-beds?" Possibly to put to bed some homesick fresh- man.

The charge for board, tuition, room-rent, lights and fuel varied from fifty dollars to seventy dollars per annum. Perhaps it is not to be wondered at that the provender afforded should have come in for its share of adverse criticism. An early col- lege publication advertises, " cash will be given at the seminary store for hats and old shoes suitable for making coffee;" it also chronicles an "Awful Catastrophe-Died very suddenly, on Wednesday last, seventeen interesting hogs, of sore throat, en- deared to the students by their unassuming manners, gentle- manly deportment, and a life devoted to the public service. The funeral of each of them will be attended every day until the end, in the dining-hall."

Those were the days when discipline was somewhat stern. We read of a sophomore who was commanded to the room of a professor, and severely beaten with a rod. For the first time in his life a Mississippi freshman received bodily chastisement, and even Doctor Sparrow, the vice-president, took care to see that it was well laid on.

Nor was Bishop Chase's course in Gambier all smooth sail- ing. Difficulties appeared which grew to great proportions. "Kenyon college," he wrote at the time, "is like other colleges in some respects, and unlike all in many other respects. The fundamental principle in which it differs from all others is, that the whole institution is patriarchal. Like Abraham on the plains of Mamre, it hath pitched its tent under the trees of Gambier hill, it hath its flocks and its herds, and its different families of teachers, scholars, mechanics, and laborers, all united under one head, pursuing one common interest, and re- ceiving their maintenance and food from one common source, the funds and farms of the college." The picture, it must be confessed, is not without its beauties, though the coloring is certainly more occidental than oriental. Accurately drawn, it would have shown western workmen ready to cry "indepen- dence," a western faculty to question the limits of authority, and western Young America to cheer them on. Pecuniary troubles added to the embarrassments of the situation. So on the ninth of September, 1831, Bishop Chase resigned the presidency of the college and the episcopate of Ohio. The next day he mounted "Cincinnatus," and rode sorrowfully away, and Gambier saw his face no more. He was afterwards elected Bishop of Illinois, and died at " Robin's Nest," where he had founded Jubilee college.

In the language of one well qualified to judge with accuracy, "thus closes the record of Bishop Chase's labors in founding a theological seminary and college. He probably had no supe- rior in all the qualities necessary to originate such an institu- tion. The versatility of his manners was such that he could adapt himself readily to any condition of society. Whether he were in the log-cabin of Ohio, where the whole family slept,

ate, cooked, received guests, and lodged them -in the same apartment, or in the magnificent halls of Lord Kenyon, sur- rounded with the refinement of the old world, Bishop Chase was equally at home, and capable of winning golden opinions. Add to this an energy that never flagged, a will that never succumbed, and a physical system that never tired, and we have such a character as is seldom produced, but which was precisely adapted to the great work that he accomplished. Bishop Chase was equally remarkable for industry and endurance. Daylight selcom found him in bed, and he seemed as fond of working or travelling in the rain as though water were his native ele- ment. He would preach at Perry (fifteen miles from Gam- bier), and as soon as daylight peeped in the east on Monday morning, take his bridle himself, go to the field, catch 'Cincin- natus,' mount and be off to set his head men at work in Gam- bier. Bishop Chase began a work for the church in Ohio, and in truth for the whole west, such as no other man then living would have attempted, or probably could have accomplished."

What the subsequent history of Kenyon college might have been, had Bishop Chase remained at its head, it is idle to spec- ulate and vain to surmise. In laying its foundations his great work was done. A lawyer of Ohio was wont to say concerning him that he was an almighty man. Nor did the countryman come very wide of the mark, who, when meeting him one day, called him "general." "I am not general," was the somewhat curt reply. "I beg pardon; ] mean judge." "I am not judge." "Well, then, bishop." "Why do you call me bishop? How do you know that I am a bishop?" "Well, I knowed," said the man of homespun sense, " that whatever you was, you was at the top." The countryman was right. Philander Chase was not only a lover of men, but a leader of men; now gentle as a child, most sweet and winning; now, again, imperious, invincible. All honor to his memory!

Kenyon's second president was Charles Pettit McIlvaine, D. D., D. C. L. (oxon), who came to Gambier at the early age of thirty-three. Born in the same year in which George Wash- ington died, he bore a close resemblence to the Father of his Country, both in appearance and character. He looked a king among men; he was great, also, as a thinker and an orator. He had already filled the office of chaplain at West Point, and had won renown in the great centers of Washington and New York.

Such a man, coming to Gambier, could not but be warmly welcomed. He saw at once, moreover, the importance of the institutions, and girded himself to labor in their behalf. New buildings were much needed. Besides, there was an accumula- tion of debt. Bishop McIlvaine, therefore, before establishing himself in Ohio, solicited aid, chiefly in the eastern cities, and received in all nearly thirty thousand dollars, the larger part of which was contributed by friends in Brooklyn and New York. This was done in 1833. Without the help thus opportunely given by the new bishop, Kenyon must have perished, the trus- tees having determined that it would be impossible for them, as things were, to carry on the college.

The first by-law passed under bishop Mellvaine's administra- tion is characteristic : "It shall be the duty of every student of the college and grammar-school, on meeting or passing the president, vice-president, any professor, or other officer of the institution, to salute him or them by touching the hat, or un- covering the head, and it is equally required of each officer to return the salutation."

In winter the rising bell rang at five o'clock, and the first

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recitation was held at twenty minutes after five. In the summer the first bell rang before sunrise, and the second at sunrise, for prayers. At nine o'clock in the evening all lights had to be put out, and all students to go to bed. The professor of chemistry was also physician to the college. Each morning he attended at his office to see the sick, and excuse persons to be absent on that account. No plea of sickness was allowed without the doctor's written certificate.

In those days the diocese of Ohio was poor, and so Kenyon college paid the salary of the bishop. The arrangement was not strictly just, for Kenyon received only a part of the bishop's time and energy. So strongly did bishop McIlvaine feel the injustice of this arrangement that he finally took a resolute stand, and the college was no longer taxed for his support.

He was necessarily absent from Gambier much of the time ; so a vice-president was elected, who was his representative when absent, and who governed in the ordinary college affairs. Dr. William Sparrow was the first vice-president.

President Hayes entered Kenyon as a student in the fall of the year 1838, and was graduated in 1842. A classmate writes that for the first two years of his course he did not really lead his class, but had a reputation as a reader of newspapers, and as a person well informed in politics. He afterward came rap- idly to the front in scholarship, taking a particularly high stand in mathematics and logic, and was graduated with the honors of his class. His commencement address, "College Life," with the valedictory, is still spoken of in terms of the highest recom- mendation. The uniform suit of the class, worn at graduation, would now look somewhat strange. It consisted of a coat of blue Kentucky jeans, with black velvet collar, a white waistcoat and white linen trowsers.

A college friend of President Hayes has written: "I'recol- lect him as one of the purest boys I ever knew. I have always recollected of him that in our most intimate, unreserved, private intercourse, I never knew him to entertain for a moment an unmanly, dishonest or demoralizing thought. And when we met in after life, in scenes which called for the highest manhood and patriotism, I found the man to be exactly what his boyhood had promised.

Hon. Stanley Matthews says of him : "Hayes, as a boy, was notorious for having on his shoulders not only the levelest but the oldest head in college. He never got in any scrapes, he never had any boyish foolishness ; he never had any wild oats to sow; he was sensible, not as some men are, at the last, but sen- sible from the beginning."

The following incident of President Hayes' college life may almost seem prophetic. We give it in the words of his intimate friend, Hon. Guy M. Bryan, of Texas, the facts having been certified to us by the President himself :

"There were in those days two rival literary societies in the college-the Philomathesian and the Nu Pi Kappa; the last known as the Southern society, and the first as the Northern, because the students of the slave States belonged to the one, and those from the free States to the other. The college for years had been largely patronized from the Southern States, but this patronage gradually waned until, in the winter of 1841, there were so few Southern students in the college that the members of the Nu Pi Kappa were apprehensive that the society would cease to exist for want of new members. This was a serious question with the members of the society. I determined to open the subject to my intimate friend Hayes, to see if we could not devise some mode to prevent the extinction of the society,

which was chartered by the State, and had valuable property. We talked over the subject with all the feeling and interest with which we would now discuss the best means of bringing about an era of good feeling between the two sections of the country. At last Hayes said, 'Well, I will get "Old Trow," Comstock and some others to join with me, and we will send overa delega- tion from our society to yours, and then we can make new ar- rangements so that both societies can live in the old college.' He and I then went to work to consummate our plan. Ten members of the Philomathesian joined the Nu Pi Kappa. A joint committee was then appointed from the two societies, that reported a plan by which students could enter either society without reference to North or South. Thus Hayes, by his magnanimity, perpetuated the existence of the Nu Pi Kappa society, and should he be elected President, I earnestly hope that he may be equally successful in his best efforts in behalf of a civil policy which will wipe out forever the distinction between North and South in the government of our common country."

The following letter from President Hayes, written after his last election as Governor, may be taken as fairly representative of the kindly feelings entertained by the graduates of the college in general:

"FREMONT, Ohio, October 13, 1875.

MY KENYON FRIENDS: A host of congratulatory dispatch- es are before me. I can not acknowledge with even a word of thanks the most of them. But yours, first to be replied to, touches me particularly. Accept my thanks for it. I hope you will all have reason to remember old Kenyon with as much satisfaction as I do. I have no more cherished recollections than those which are associated with college life. Except the four years spent in the Union army, no other period of my life is to be compared with it. I hope you may all have equal rea- son always to think of Kenyon as I do.

In the greatest haste, I remain, sincerely,

R. B. HAYES."

The expenses of living in Gambier in early days were very small. The annual charges were:

For instruction, thirty dollars; for board at the college table, forty dollars; room rent in a room with a stove, four dollars; room rent in a room with a fire-place, six dollars; for theologi- dal students and sons of clergymen the total charge was fifty dollars.

Those were the days when the boys were required "to sweep their own rooms, make their own beds and fires, bring their own water, black their own boots, if they ever were blacked, and take an occasional turn at grubbing in the field, or working on the roads." The discipline was somewhat strict, and the toil perhaps severe, but the few pleasures that were allowed were thoroughly enjoyed.

During the President's school-days there were two great men at Gambier, Bishop Mellvaine and Dr. William Sparrow. There were other eminent men among the instructors: Major Douglass was a man of ability, and the traditions which still linger in the place concerning Professor Ross clearly show that he was possessed of remarkable power; but Bishop McIlvaine and Dr. Sparrow were pre-eminently great men-men whose greatness has been felt as an educating influence on both sides of the Alleghanies. Bishop McIlvaine's was a divided duty, for in addition to his college labors he had the care of a large and struggling diocese; while Dr. Sparrow gave to Kenyon his full and undivided strength, and so had the stronger hold upon the students. He led them not oniy wisely and bravely, but

HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

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faithfully, and with a true heart. President Hayes speaks of him as "one of the giants;" Secretary Stanton also honored him through life, and sent for him in his later days that he might be baptized at his hands.

Until the year 1840 there was a joint faculty of theology and arts in Gambier. At that time separate faculties were consti- tuted with separate heads, Bishop McIlvaine continuing at the head of the Theological seminary, while Major D. B. Douglass, LL.D., was elected to the presidency of the college. Major Douglass was an accomplished civil engineer, a soldier and "every inch a man." He began his work earnestly in Gambier, and improvement was the order of the day. But the time was not ripe for him. He was succeeded within a few years by Rev. Dr. S. A. Bronson.

In 18.42 a pecuniary crisis came. Bishop McIlvaine labored with all his might, and secured the needed thirty thousand dol- lars.

The chief event accomplished during Dr. Bronson's presi- dency was a sale of a large portion of the college lands. Though of very considerable value, these lands, from the first, had brought to the institution only the scantiest returns. One agent after another had been employed to oversee them. The raising of sheep proved disastrous; the culture of wheat could not be made to pay. Many of the tenants turned out to be either shiftless or dishonest. So, in the year 1850, after much discussion, it was determined that the form of the investment should be changed, and the lands were ordered to be sold.

Almost immediately there came increased prosperity. Hap- pily, too, at this juncture, Lorin Andrews, LL.D., was elected president. The friend and champion of popular education in Ohio, he found helpers in every county of the State. The list of students was quickly swelled, so that in 1855 "room for

enlargement" was a thing of necessity. President Andrews resigned in 1861 to enter the Union army. He was the first volunteer from Ohio, entering the service as colonel of the Fourth Ohio infantry. Very soon, however, he contracted dis- ease, from the effects of which he died. His body rests in a quiet nook of that college park, which so often echoed to his step. With President Hayes, he was for a time a member of the class of 1842.

· His successors in the office of president of Kenyon college have been Charles Short, LL. D. (1863-67), James Kent Stone, A.M. (1867-68), Eli T. Tappan, LL.D. (r868-75), William B. Bodine, D.D., the present incumbent.

The rolling years have brought added endowments to Ken- yon, though she still waits for such large benefactions as have been given to colleges in the eastern states. Upon the occasion of his latest visits to his native land, Mr. George Peabody con- tributed the endowment of one professorship (twenty-five thou- sand dollars), chiefly out of regard and affection for Bishop Mc- Ilvaine, his early and life-long friend. Mrs. R. B. Bowler, of Clifton, Cincinnati, gave the sum requisite for another professor- ship, in memory of her husband, whose interest in Kenyon had been warmly manifested. Mr. Jay Cooke bestowed thirty thousand dollars in the days of his large prosperity. Other considerable sums have also been received, chiefly through the exertions of a long tried and devoted advocate and helper, Rt. Rev. Gregory Thurston Bedell, D.D. By his ardent and faith- ful endeavors, Bishop Bedell has secured contributions for Gam- bier, in all amounting to nearly two hundred thousand dollars.

This sketch has been written with special reference to Kenyon in the past. A rapid glance at the buildings of the institution may help to give an idea of her development and growth, and of her capacities for present usefulness.

BEXLEY HALL.

Bexley hall stands upon a knoll at the northern extremity of the village. It was erected for the exclusive use of the Theo- logical seminary, after a design given by the architect of the London crystal palace. It contains the library of the seminary -about seven thousand volumes-and furnished rooms, each with separate bed-rooms, for thirty-four students.

The College park is about half a mile in the opposite direc-

tion; a broad and well shaded avenue leads the way thereto. Near the southernmost point of this park, just upon the brow of the hill, and overlooking for miles the charming Kokosing valley, stands the more massive and venerable edifice of Ken- yon college. This building is of plain stone, one hundred and ninety feet long, and four stories high, including the basement; with battlements, pinnacles, belfry, and a spire one hundred

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

and seventeen feet high. It contains upwards of fifty rooms for students; also the libraries of the Philomathesian and Nu Pi Kappa societies.

Rosse hall, a substantial stone building in Ionic architecture, is used for lectures and rhetorical exercises on commence-

ment occasions, and is capable of accommodating nearly a thousand persons.

Close by old Kenyon stands Ascension hall, an imposing structure, and one of the finest college buildings in the land. It contains two spacious and elaborately furnished halls for the

ROSSE HALL.

literary societies, six recitation and lecture rooms, the library of Kenyon college, with its museum, and twenty-six rooms for students. The tower is used for an observatory.

Directly north of Ascension, and about fifty yards from the village street, stands the college church, the "Church of the Holy Spirit," which was finished in 1871. This most beautiful of all the buildings in Gambier is cruciform-with the tower in one of the angles-the nave and chancel being ninety feet and

transepts eighty feet in length-all the windows are f stained glass-the church finished in oak, and the walls tastefully illu- minated. The building is of the same freestone as Ascension hall, laid in courses, with dressed quoins and facings. It will accommodate a congregation of about six hundred. Ivy, transplanted from Melrose abbey, has already begun to adorn its walls. Within, the coloring and the carving are most attractive. The funds for the erection of this college church

ASCENSION HALL.

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HISTORY OF KNOX COUNTY.

were given by members of the Church of the Ascension, New York, as a tribute of appreciation for their former rector, Bishop Bedell.

To the north and east of the village, and some distance from the main street, environed by trees, and commanding an exten- sive and beautiful prospect of the valley of the Kokosing, stands Milnor hall, built for the use of the preparatory school. This is a plain structure of brick, the main buildings four stories high.

Hon. Columbus Delano recently contributed ten thousand dollars to this institution.

In all her requisites for admission, and in the course of study, Kenyon does not materially differ from the leading colleges of the Eastern States. She aims to give a thorough liberal educa- tion, and believes in the value of hard mental discipline. She believes also in right religious influences, and labors to afford them, pursuing steadily "the true, the beautiful, the good." In her view, "Christianity is the science of manhood," and all truth, being God's truth, should lead finally to Him. So her faith is liberal, conservative, evangelical, catholic.

The new college chapel should be seen to be appreciated. It is a poem in stone and mortar, and both within and without is surpassingly attractive. Used, as the chapel is, for daily col- lege prayers, it has a steady influence for good. A new clock and full chime of bells have been added, to make it all complete.

Its construction was due to the liberality of the former par- ishioners of Bishop Bedell, of the Church of the Ascension, New York; and those munificent donors have planted a thing of beauty, "a joy forever," on as exquisite a site as ever was graced by the house of God.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES.

Rt. Rev. Gregory T. Bedell, D. D., President ex. officio.

Rt. Rev. Thomas A. Jaggar, D. D., ex-officio.

Rev. William B. Bodine, D. D., ex-officio.

PERMANENT BOARD.

Under Constitution, Article III.

Rev, N. S. Rulison, D. D., of Cleveland.

Rev. A. H. Moss, of Sandusky.

Rev. Leighton Coleman, S. T. D., of Toledo.

Hon. M. M. Granger, of Zanesville.

Rev. Erastus Burr. D. D., of Portsmouth.

Hon. Rufus King, of Cincinnati.

Rev. John Boyd, D. D., of Marietta.

Gen. Wager Swayne, LL. D., of Toledo.

ELECTED BY THE CONVENTIONS OF THE DIOCESES OF OHIO

AND SOUTHERN OIIIO. Under Constitution, Article VI.

Rev. Alfred F. Blake, of Cincinnati.

Mr. George W. Jones, of Cincinnati. Rev. John W. Brown, S. T. D., of Cleveland.

Gen. J. H. Devereux, of Cleveland.

Rev. I. Newton Stanger, of Cincinnati.

Mr. William J. Boardman, of Cleveland.

ELECTED BY THE ALUMNI.

Rev. J. Mills Kendrick, of Cincinnati. Mr. Levi Buttles, of Cleveland.

Rev. William W. Farr, D. D., of Philadelphia.

Mr. Charles E. Burr, of Columbus.

MARDENBRO WHITE, ESQ., of Gambier,

Secretary, Treasurer and Agent.

COLLEGE FACULTY.

Rev. William B. Bodine, D. D., president, Spencer and Wolfe professor of mental moral philosophy.

Lawrence Rust, A. M., vice-president, Professor of the Greek language and literature.

Rev. Edward C. Benson, A. M., professor of the Latin lan- guage and literature.

Theodore Sterling, A. M., M. D., Bowler professor of natural philosophy and chemistry.

McIIvaine professor of English literature and history, In- structor in rhetoric.

Eli T. Tappan, LL. D., Peabody professor of mathematics, civil engineering, and astronomy. Instructor in logic.

Rev. Cyrus S. Bates, D. D., acting professor of mental and moral philosophy.

William T. Colville, A. M., Instructor in German and French.

Candidates for the Freshman class are examined in the fol- lowing studdies:

English-Grammar, reading, spelling, and composition.

Mathematics-Arithmetic, alegebra, to quadratics, four chap- ters of Tappan's geometry.

There are two examinations in arithmetic. The first is on the primary rules, factoring, greatest common measure and least common multiple of integers, compound numbers (including the metric system), fractions and decimals. The second examina- tion is on percentage and interest, circulates, greatest common measure and least common multiple of fractions, and extraction of roots.

Latin-Grammar, including prosody; Arnold's Prose Com- position to chapter X; Cæsar, four books; Cicero, six orations; Virgil, four books of the Æneid.

The English method of pronunciation is preferred.

Greek-Grammar, including prosody and composition; Xen- ophon's Anabasis, three books; Homer's Iliad, one book.

Goodwin's grammar is used as a manual. Some simple reader or companion book of exercises should be used in con- nection with the grammar.

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History of Knox County, Ohio, its past and present, Part 87

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co. Number of Pages: 1096

Author: Hill, N. N. (Norman Newell), comp; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-; Graham, A.A. & Co., Mt. Vernon, Ohio
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Mt. Vernon, Ohio : A. A. Graham & Co.
Number of Pages: 1096