History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 82

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104

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In regard to the former question, after con- siderable agitation, a committee of the Faculty was appointed to examine and report on the subject. In August, 1834, this committee pre- sented an able and sensible report, taking the ground on which the college had always stood in favor of the classics, but recommend- ing the study of the Bible also in the original languages. The discussion was carried on with much earnestness among the students and friends of the college, but good sense pre- vailed, and the classics in fact always retained their accustomed place in the course of study.

The manual labor system was, at that time, a fashionable hobby all over the land. The Presbyteries of Grand River and Portage, in their capacity as Education Societies, had, in 1822-23, by resolutions " recommended to the managers of the education fund, to adopt a system of manual labor for all students under their care, and that the avails be applied for the support of those students by whom the labor is performed.

In March, 1830, the Trustees resolved "that they deem it expedient that the students in this college, during term time, labor for exercise and the preservation of health, either in agri- culture or some of the mechanical arts, at least two hours every day, except the Sabbath, according to regulations hereafter to be made, and that it be recommended to all students now connected with the college, and required of all who shall hereafter become members, to labor in conformity with such regulations, ex- cept in extraordinary cases, of which cases a committee appointed for the purpose shall determine."

To carry out this system, the college pro- vided three workshops-a cooper-shop, cabinet- shop and wagon-shop-and a farm for those

who preferred that kind of work. They even went so far in 1837, as to consider the expedi- ency of opening a blacksmith's shop. These shops and the farm were provided with tools and superintendents, and an earnest and perse- vering effort was made to carry out the plan successfully. At one time, the students formed a mechanical society to carry on work, and had a standing advertisement in the Ohio Observer of their cabinet wares. A steam engine was procured for the shops. No care or expense seems to have been spared. But the students, like so many other people, proved to be disin- clined to manual labor. Very few had any knowledge whatever of the use of tools, and many had no capacity to learn to use them skillfully, especially as the inclination was wanting. The wares were found to be rude, ill-jointed, unworkmanlike and hard to sell. Many, for various reasons, got relieved from the requirement to labor, and an invidious dis- tinction grew up between the workers and the non-workers. It even turned out that this un- willing labor was not beneficial to health. Gradually, after many shifts, one part of the system after another was reluctantly given up, until the whole was abandoned. The last lin- gering ray of it is found in the catalogue for 1851-52.

But greater questions than these agitated the college. About the time of founding the col- lege, the slavery question began to agitate the country. It was in 1829 that Garrison came out boldly and decidedly in the advocacy of the immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery. He went on to attack the scheme of colonization as affording no remedy for the evil, and its advocates as enemies of the slave and real supporters of the system of slavery with all its horrors. The Liberator first published in 1831, quickly aroused the whole nation North and South. Many men of keen, moral sensibilities took up the cause of the oppressed with great fervor, and with true martyr-spirit were ready to sacrifice everything-to make all other questions and all other interests subor- dinate to this one. The Liberator found its way to the Western Reserve; it came into the hands of President Storrs, of Profs. Wright and Green, and into the hands of the students. Its arguments and appeals were here " like good seed sown on good ground." One of the students who had recently had an

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interview with Garrison, and had brought a package of documents and copies of the Lib- erator to distribute in the college, calling on President Storrs "and, seeing the Liberator on his table, asked the slow-spoken, sedate thinker what he thought of Garrison's writings on slavery. The answer was, "I do not see how they can be refuted." President Storrs and Profs. Wright and Green immediately became ardent advocates of Garrison's views, and lost no opportunity to proclaim and defend them. They were able and eloquent men, and their advocacy had great influence in the community. In 1832, Prof. Wright began to write in the Obserror and Telegraph, then published at Hud- son, against colonization, and in favor of aboli- tion. These articles aroused a great deal of opposition with some and great favor with others. In the summer of 1832, Profs. Wright and Green sent for Mr. Amos P. Hawley, of the sophomore class, and requested him to pre- pare a colloquy to be spoken at the ensuing commencement, and gave him for the subject of it "The Recaptured Slave." The colloquy was successful. At the opening of the next term, the question of negro slavery and its re- lations to colonization became prominent sub- jects of discussion among the students.

On the 8th of May, 1833, President Storrs and Prof. Green delivered addresses at the annual meeting of the Tallmadge Anti-Slavery Society. President Storrs spoke nearly three hours with great power. It was his last work. He had always been feeble in body, but now his lungs were seriously affected, and this great excitement and over exertion prostrated him. On the 26th of June he received leave of abscence for six months that he might travel and recruit his health. Ile went to Braintree, Mass., to the house of his brother, the Rev. R. S. Storrs, where he rapidly declined and died of pulmonary consumption September 15, 1833. Prof. Green received a call to the Pres- idency of the Oneida Institute, at Whitestown, N. Y. He resigned his professorship and left Hudson in June. Prof. Wright resigned at commencement in August. Thus only Prof. Nutting and Tutor Walker were left of the old Faculty.

When Profs. Green and Wright resigned, conservative people rejoiced, and declared that they had been dismissed by the Trustees and their course, and all their opinions on this sub-

ject, condemned. This was not true. There is no intimation of anything of the kind in any of the records of the college. Prof. Green de- clared it to be false in a letter to the African Repository. He resigned only because he deemed it his duty to accept his call to Whitestown. Prof. Wright, in a letter to the Observer and Telegraph, dated Hudson, September 9, 1833, says : " My resignation was produced. not by any attitude the board had assumed or was likely to assume, but simply by an invitation to another field of labor." The effect, however, of this year's transactions and of the misunder- standings which grew out of them, on the pros- perity of the college was very great. and con- tinued for a long time.

This was a reformatory era in other respects also, and the students were thoroughly impreg- nated with the spirit of it. They entered with ardor into the temperance movement under the lead of the Faculty. They had their Temper- ance Society, made investigations and published their reports. The Society of Enquiry entered into what was called the moral reform move- ment. They had a standing committee on lewd- ness, and published a lengthy report on the subject. In 1834, they formed what they called a " Magdalen Society," in defense of the seventh commandment, in sympathy with Mr. McDowell and his movement in New York. One of the students prepared and published a tract on the subject for general circulation. The young men went abroad lecturing on this sub- jeet also. They seem to have felt the moral burden of the world resting heavily upon their shoulders, and they were determined to dis- charge their responsibilities manfully. We can not but admire their devotion to duty, as they understood it, and to righteousness. But it is difficult to imagine the students of the present day going about the country lecturing on slav- ery and the seventh commandment, however much they may debate any and all subjects of present interest in college.

On the 13th of July, 1831, the college church was organized with twenty members. Seven other persons joined the church on the same day. The reasons for forming a separate church are not stated in the record, nor is it known who were the chief movers in the matter. It is probable that the founders had before their minds the example of Yale College and And- over Theological Seminary. The college church

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has been greatly blessed with frequent and powerful revivals from the first down to the present year, though the effect of these revivals is but partially seen in the membership of the church. Many young men born into the king- dom here have preferred to unite with churches at their homes. The church now unites with the village church in preaching services, main- taining. however, in all other respects, an inde- pendent organization.

The financial condition of the college, up to the close of President Storrs' administration, had been steadily improving. At the time the charter was obtained, the property in the hands of the Trustees amounted to about $10,000. At the close of the year 1833, all the receipts from donations had amounted to about $54,000. There had been expended for grounds, buildings, including Middle and South College, the Presi- dent's dwelling-house,* the work-shop, etc., $14,- 600 ; for agencies, instruction, library, appar- atus, etc., probably about $17,000. The funds in hand, therefore, aside from the buildings, grounds and appliances for instruction, were a little over $22,000. Besides this sum in actual possession, more than $32,000 had been sub- scribed, which, for various causes, was never paid, though there was then good reason to expect that it would be paid. President Storrs himself devoted very little of his time to finan- cial affairs ; he had not the health, and probably not the inclination for very much work of that kind. He was a student, a teacher and a preacher.

After commencement in 1833, the first work of the Trustees was to fill the chairs made vacant by death and resignation. The instruction for the succeeding year was provided for by the appointment of Mr. Clement Long, Instructor, and Mr. William C. Clark, Tutor, both gradu- ates of Dartmouth College. In November, Rev. Nathaniel S. Folsom, a graduate of Dartmouth. was elected Professor of Sacred Literature, to succeed Mr. Green, and probably entered upon his work immediately. In March, 1834, Mr. Long was elected Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. The chair of Mathematics was not filled until 1835, when Mr. Jarvis Gregg, also a graduate of Dartmouth, accepted an appointment to it ; the work meantime was per-

* South College was built in 1830-31, at a cost of about $5,000. The double-house for the President and Professor of Theology was built in 1830.

formed by Tutor Walker. Rev. George E. Pierce was elected President in March, 1834, but did not enter on his office until commence- ment. The college year 1833-34, was, there- fore, an interregnum ; but there was the same number of instructors as during the previous year, and the work went on probably with more calmness after the first anti-slavery excitement was over.

President Pierce was a Connecticut man, a graduate of Yale College in 1816, had taught an academy two years, studied theolegy at Andover, and had been a most successful Pastor of the church at Harwinton Conn., for twelve years. When he entered upon his office as President, he was just forty years of age, with good health and great animation, and his spirit and energy were immediately felt in everything. He was deeply imbued with the Connecticut idea of a college, and he kindled anew the determination to carry it out speedily and thoroughly. He immediately began the effort to increase the endowment, to erect new build- ings, to establish new professorships, to elevate the standard of scholarship, to increase the library and apparatus for instruction.

The Trustees were ready to follow such a leader, and to support him in all his projects. The building of the chapel was begun early in 1835. President Pierce appealed, through the Ohio Observer and the New York Evangelist, to the friends of the college to contribute $50,000 to increase its resources, and agents entered on the work of raising the money. There was an obvious and decided improvement of college affairs in all respects. The number of students increased, the requirements for admission were raised, the course of study was made much fuller, fences and grounds were improved, trees were planted in the college campus and on the streets. Everything showed that a man of taste, force and high ideal and decided views was at the head.

The work went forward with great rapidity. In 1836, the chapel was completed and dedi- cated at commencement, with a sermon by President Pierce. In the same year, Rev. Lau- rens P. Hickok, a graduate of Union College, came as Professor of Theology, the work of that department having been performed during the interim since President Storrs' death by President Pierce. After the accession of Prof. Hickok, President Pierce gave instruction in

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other branches of theology. Prof. Folsom having resigned, Prof. Elijah P. Barrows, a graduate of Yale College, came, in 1837, to the Chair of Sacred Literature. With this enlarge- ment of the theological faculty, North College was built in 1837-38 for the use of divinity students. Prof. Gregg served but a part of a year in the Chair of Mathematics and Physics. and was then transferred to the Chair of Homi- letics and Pastoral Theology. His sudden and premature death in less than a year from his first appointment was a serious loss to the col- lege, for he was a man of fine scholarship, of great promise, greatly beloved by the Faculty and students. The Chair of Mathematics and Physics thus made vacant was immediately filled by the appointment of Mr. Elias Loomis, a graduate of Yale College, who went to Eu- rope for a year's study and travel, commis- sioned also to procure books for the library and apparatus for the department of physics and instruments for the observatory. He brought to his chair great abilities and enthusiasm in his department and power of work. Under his guidance the mathematical part of the library and the apparatus were considerably increased, and, in 1838, the observatory was erected and admirably equipped. In 1838, Dr. St. John, a graduate of Yale College, was appointed Pro- fessor of Chemistry and Geology, and a large apparatus for that department was procured. This led to the erection of a new building for the accommodation of the two departments of physics and of chemistry and geology. This building, called Atheneum, was not completed, however, until 1843. Meantime, in 1840, Rev. Henry N. Day, a graduate of Yale College, had been added to the Faculty, taking the chair of of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology ; and in the same year Mr. Nathan P. Seymour, also a graduate of Yale College, had taken the Chair of Languages vacated by Prof. Nutting. In February, 1844, a modification of the charter was procured from the Legislature so as to allow the establishment of the medical depart- ment in the city of Cleveland. A course of medical lectures had been begun in Cleveland in the autumn of 1843 by Dr. Delemater and his distinguished associates. The department was fully organized, and the first class gradu- ated in March, 1844.

It is evident that during the first decade of President Pierce's administration, there had

been a great enlargement and improvement of the institution. Three large, convenient and substantial edifices had been erected, and an astronomical observatory had been built and equipped. The Faculty had been increased from four to eight members, besides tutors. The number of students had increased from 83 to 140 ; the apparatus and library had been enlarged ; the requirements for admission and those for graduation greatly increased ; a new and flourishing department added. The Fac- ulty which President Pierce gathered was com- posed of men distinguished for learning, gen- eral ability and teaching power, men who would have given honor and distinction to any insti- tution. He showed himself to be an admirable judge of men. Not only did the broad founda- tion of the college seem to have been laid, but the Connecticut ideal seemed to have been ac- tually realized. It was almost to the minutest particular a faithful copy of Yale College.

During the second half of President Pierce's administration, the financial difficulties of the college increased until they became well-nigh overwhelming. The causes of these difficul- ties were two-first, what seemed to be unwar- rantably large expenditures for buildings and instruction ; and, second, the opinion of some. whether well or ill founded, that the manage- mens of the funds was not so careful and pru- dent as it should have been. The four build- ings erected during the first half of President Pierce's administration, viz., the Chapel, North College, Observatory and Atheneum, cost but little above $22,000, or the actual fund inher- ited from President Storrs' administration. If the question were asked whether these build- ings were all necessary, we should have to re- ply that the plan on which Yale College was conducted was adopted here as the sum of all wisdom in such matters. The plan required abundant dormitories and a separate church- all the appliances for a community complete in itself, and separated from the rest of the world. It is easy now to find fault with the plan, and to point out other less expensive methods which have proved successful elsewhere. But the buildings then erected have proved very useful ever since, and are indispensable accord- ing to that plan. If we look at the expendi- ture for instruction, it certainly cannot be said that the salaries of the Faculty were ever large, and if we consider how much the President and

defumer

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Professors contributed to the fund of the col- lege out of their salaries, it will be acknowl- edged that they were quite inadequate to their support. But even these small salaries, under the pressure of the circumstances, were often paid in a manner which made them by no means equal their nominal value. Seven hun- dred dollars was the highest salary paid to any one except the President, who received $900 ; and President Pierce often gave out of this $200 a year to the college, and the Professors were in general equally liberal in their dona- tions. Indeed, it is doubtful if any college was ever served by such able men for so meager stipends. The number of the Faculty was such that the salaries of all, with that of the Treas- urer, amounted from $3,500 to $7,500 a year. If the number of the Faculty should be drawn into question as unwise and unnecessary, the answer is easy, that it was the plan to have the institution a real college of the highest order ; it must therefore be fully manned by able schol- ars and teachers. If the number of students was as yet small, it was reasonably expected that they would increase as the population grew. and that an able Faculty would attract students. Indeed, the number of students was increasing, and the learning and ability of the Faculty did establish for the college the high- est reputation, until the operation of the second cause mentioned led on to the most serious disasters.

It has already been said that the financial necessities of the college kept President Pierce in the field as an agent a large part of the time for several years. His self-sacrifice and devoted labor in this hard and unpleasant task, we should think, have rarely been equaled ; but, with all his toil, to make ends meet, it was impos- sible. As early as 1836, the college had a debt of $6,000, though the nominal assets were $60,000. But these assets were largely sub- scriptions, many of which. after years of waiting, finally failed altogether ; others were land, or other property, which could not then be wisely converted, or converted at all without serious loss. This state of things continued -the expense going on, which must be met with ready money-the assets, however much they might be nominally, never answering to their face, and hard to bring into usable form. The debt steadily increased, until, in 1846, it stood at $35.000, and the assets at $38,000.

The annual deficit at that time was such that five years more would consume all the assets in hand, and leave only the fixtures and the debt. The difficulty in paying the salaries of the Pro- fessors, and the sacrifice required of them, led to the resignation of Prof. Hickok and Prof. Loomis in 1844, the former being called to the Chair of Theology in Auburn Seminary, and the latter to the Chair of Mathematics and Physics in the University of New York. This was in every respect a most serious loss to the college. But it was not to be expected that such men would submit to so much perplexity in the matter of support when they could do the same work elsewhere in more comfortable circum- stances. Their places were, however, speedily filled, and the college went on doing its solid work, maintaining its high scholarly and liter- ary character, but groaning under its financial burdens. Prof. Hickok's place was filled by the transfer of Prof. Long to the Chair of Theol- ogy ; Prof. Loomis', by the appointment of Mr. James Nooney, a graduate of Yale College. Prof. Long's chair was filled by the appointment of Rev. Samuel C. Bartlett, a graduate of Dart- mouth College.

In view of the failure of pledges and the de- preciation of property, the board resolved, in 1845, to enter on an effort to raise $40,000 to replace the losses and pay the debts. This subscription was completed in 1848. They im- mediately began a new effort to add $60,000 to the permanent fund, the entire sum to be raised by January 1, 1850. This effort, entered upon with great vigor, was also successful. But the slowness with which payments were made left the college still in difficulty. Although the debt was diminishing, it was still $28,000 in 1850. The pressure of creditors and the im- mediate necessities of life led to the practice of loaning the money of the permanent fund to the general fund. From this and other causes, such as an inadequate system of book-keeping, arose a suspicion, in the minds of some of the Trustees, whether well grounded or not. that the management of the funds was not good ; that there was a lack of business accuracy and order ; that the distinction between meum and tuum in the funds was not accurately kept. There can, of course, be nothing dishonest in the mere loaning from one fund to another ; but, considering the difficulty in which the col- lege then was-the pressure on every side-it

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is not strange that it excited nervousness in the hard-worked and ill-paid Faculty, and among some of the donors. No one could for a mo- ment question the perfect integrity and high Christian character of President Pierce and the Trustees. But "the best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley," and the college had had too serious an experience already of the uncertainty of pledges to trust the general fund too far with the sacred resources of the permanent fund. Moreover, it was the growing sentiment on all sides that the expenses should, by some means, be brought down to the proba- ble income, or nearly to that, and that the gen- eral fund should be so managed as speedily to remove all indebtedness.

In 1850, the sum of $60,000 had been sub- scribed to the permanent fund. In view of this fact and of the importance of the work of col- lecting and securely investing this, and in view also of the earnest request of President Pierce, that he might, as speedily as possible, be re- leased from all financial responsibility, at the meeting of the board in March, a finance com- mittee was appointed, consisting of President Pierce, Mr. Joseph Perkins, Hon. E. N. Sill and Mr. C. L. Latimer, all of them men who were skilled and practiced in financial business, to take charge of the whole matter of collecting and investing the new fund, of the administra- tion of the general fund. and the payment of the debt. They were specially "charged to see that no part of the permanent fund was diverted from its proper purpose, or entangled with other funds or effects of the college." This committee, at the outset, made a full and minute survey of the state of affairs. With a debt of $28,000 they find assets applicable to its payment of $38,000. They declare that this debt must be paid without further delay, that the assets applicable to the purpose are " barely sufficient to meet the demands," and that " decision and energy will be very requi- site " in the management of the matter, or " the funds will melt in our hands and our debts be left an incubus upon us." Besides interest, the annual expenses were then $1,500 beyond the reliable income. But all attempts at the reduction of expenditure were met with oppo- sition. There seemed to be a great desire on all hands to retrench, without retrenching ; and the committee, finding at the end of a year and a half that, with all their efforts they could not

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History of Summit County, with an outline sketch of Ohio, Part 82

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848- Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey Number of Pages: 1104

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?; Graham, A. A. (Albert Adams), 1848-
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Baskin & Battey
Number of Pages: 1104