USA > Ohio > Wayne County > History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume I > Part 45
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5. It is also to be noted that the whole enterprise stood in the minds and hearts of our founders, as a most promising provision for the "defense and confirmation of the common evangelical faith." They felt that "false philoso-
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phy" and "science falsely so called" were rapidly developing. They saw the danger of attack upon the very citadels of the "like-precious faith," and dreaded the approach of a secularized and de-christianized public education. For that reason the denominational college became to them a prime necessity. This appears in the first resolutions passed by the original trustees and finds frequent expression in the documents of this period, coming naturally to full- est declaration in the opening addresses of the next period.
6. It was equally in the thought of our founders that the denominational college should be the distinctively proper annex to the Christian home. "Our sons" appear as the basal plea. That plea was plead in thousands of homes and from hundreds of pulpits. It stirred many a heart to prayer and opened many a hand to give. In those days of family altars and the consecration of serious covenant vows, parents felt some anxiety concerning the spiritual en- vironment into which their children were to be sent. They knew how much it meant for youth's plastic years and how much would be determined by that environment concerning the life-work to be undertaken by those in whom home affections and church expectations and state needs would meet. When this sentiment is as true and deep as Presbyterian doctrine and earlier practice would have it, there can be no wonder that the yearning of the home is for a college as nearly like the home conditions under which the new generation has been born and trained, prayed for and prayed with ; as can possibly be found or made.
7. Nor did the founders lack educational aspiration in the midst of their religious inspiration. They meant to do their best (and they did surprisingly well, all things considered) to found an institution which should set forward the higher education in a state already well provided with facilities for that purpose. It "must be," they said, of higher standing in organization and scholarship than some of the then existing neighboring colleges. They dared to hope for equality with leading Eastern institutions. As Western Reserve liked to be called "the Yale of the West," so Wooster aspired to be called "the Princeton of the West." It was not another college they desired, but a super- ior college. They declared that they dared not claim a distinctively Christian and denominational character without putting forth every possible effort to attain this high rank. They were sincere in emphasizing both terms in the dedicatory motto Christo et Literis. When in 1869 they put forth more de- cided claims for half a million endowment, the trustees said, "No less sum will enable the board to pay such salaries as will enable them to command the best talent in the country in filling their professorships." They had elevated conception of the faculty they were to choose. They must be "such as would
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send the students away vacation after vacation rehearsing the excellencies of their professors." They owed such instruction to the students and thus only could they gather, they said, "the best students." They owed such a faculty to the most sacred interests entrusted to a Christian college. The synod of Sandusky ( 1868) invited and urged its people "to exercise enlarged liberality in aid of this effort to secure a large and ample endowment so that the board of trustees may place in the institution a faculty composed of men endowed with the highest order of talent and the ripest scholarship."
So then, it is plain that our founders were no strangers to the times in which they lived, to the compass and meaning of the higher education, to the consecrating touch of sacredness in their trust, to the immense and world-wide interests sure to be served and conserved by a well appointed Christian college. They realized that they were building along the line of the world's progress, as well as in harmony with the best traditions of their Presbyterian ancestors. They noted that all Christians in our noble state were willing with them, to accent every word of that inseparable trinity of the Ordinance of 1787, "Re- ligion, morality and knowledge." Nobler motives never actuated any deed of collective wisdom than those which created the University of Wooster. Each motive illumines each of the others. Nothing is lacking and nothing is redundant. That undertaking is best which brings out the best in the men who undertake it. They hold the ideal and the ideal holds them.
More fitting close to this first period's history cannot be made than to cite the closing words of Dr. John Robinson's review of it, uttered at the first inauguration (1870) : "Such is the genesis of the idea realized before us today in this University. With what intense earnestness this idea possessed the minds and hearts of many members of these synods, is manifested by the fact that action was taken by one or more of these synods every year (except 1850-51 and 1862-63) for the last twenty-three years. It is evident, more- over. from this sketch that God baffled our efforts and plans until the very best time for success had come. In these recent years, a higher conception of the kind of institution which the age demands has been formed; the conviction of the need of such a University has become more deep and wide-spread ; reunion has given us greater strength and called us to mightier effort in this world's evangelization ; pecuniary means are more abundant and a larger spirit of liberality prevails. This is evidently God's time for this work. * *
The world, our own country, the church, struggling and rising, our own be -. loved Zion, the Father, Son and Spirit, look with interest, demand fidelity and energy, and expect success."
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PERIOD OF EXPERIMENT.
II. The second period may be designated as that of experiment. The long course of inception and preparation had done much, despite variations of progress, to make the conditions favorable. The idea had become familiar to the people as well as to their natural leaders-the pastors. The Univers- ity had grown from a felt necessity to a partially realized achievement. Gen- eral passive consent, however, was far from universal and self-sacrificing co- operation. The way was just open for a fair experiment. Faith was strong and success was promised. But many conditions must be met. A mere name, even though that of a venerable and enlightened Christian denomination, would not answer to conjure with. There must be a real college and one of high grade or-bitter disappointment. Yet the means were not on hand to execute the large plans or make good the confident promises of ardent ad- vocates. The superstructure was yet to be erected though the foundations had been well and truly laid. The church's persistence was to be tested. The state area had not as yet been fully penetrated. Will the endowment notes be paid as they mature? How can the expenses of the initial years be met ? Will the counsel to patronize given by the synods be ratified by the community in which so many deep-rooted attachments to neighboring and eastern insti- tutions presented such positive claims? Will the southern part of the state come so far-passing on the way old and tried opportunities? Can the high ideals of excellence, professed and promised, be made actual all at once ? Will the distinctly Christian and denominational character of the University detract from or aid its development? Can another college adhering to the lines of the older classical curriculum (though not wholly neglecting the sciences, yet insufficiently equipped for modern methods of scientific instruc- tion) succeed in the midst of the abounding and increasing enthusiasm for the natural sciences and the clamor for a practical education? ( The Federal gov- ernment's grants were going in this direction.) Can the denominational col- lege be planted and flourish in view of the new development of the state uni- versities ? The situation was full of thorny interrogatories, despite the atmos- phere laden with interest and hope.
Well, certainly an answer would be found to all such questions if sturdy confidence in and outspoken announcement of their fundamental motives and meaning could avail. Whoever ponders the declarations with which this per- iod of experiment was entered upon will conclude its failure to have been impossible if grit and grace go for anything in this world. "We aim at more than this," the trustees say [ that is more than a high rank among the colleges
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of the land]. "It is a Christian college. It is a Presbyterian college. The first thought of its founders was born of the necessities of the church. Everything pertaining to it has been dedicated to Christ and His kingdom. In this day of rationalism and ritualism and vain philosophy, this day in which so much of the cultivated intellect and so many of the great schools of the country are drifting away into infidelity and false religion, it is our purpose to plant here a firm bulwark for God's truth, and to lift high above all its towers the banner of the cross." Again they refer to "this day of wonderful events, of Christian progress and missionary enterprise," together with the "one hundred and fifty vacant pulpits of Ohio" as calling imperative- ly for just such an institution. "We would make it," they say, "not only a Christian college but a missionary college, a college of revival, a college within whose walls the converting, sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit shall reign and from whose doors there shall go forth streams of cultivated, regenerated, consecrated intellect to make glad the city of our God." They mention the joy of the reunion, and emphasize the definite relationship of the church and the college thus: "Our doors were not opened until all our interests, the entire control of the institution and every dollar of its property had been placed in the hand of the reunited synod." Existence is considered as se- cured, but whether the "high vantage ground which the wants of the church and the exigencies of the times demand shall be attained; whether we shall be able to build upon the soil of Ohio a Christian university that shall equal leading institutions and shall be an honor to the Christian liberality and the consecrated wealth of the Presbyterian church in this great state, depends largely upon the spirit in which the whole church shall now lay hold of the work." Information is to be laid before the synods. "In this way." say the trustees, "the religious character of the University, its general direction and the safe investment of all its property is perpetually secured to the Presby- terian church-the disadvantages and dangers both of a close corporation and of state control on the one hand, and if minute and excessive ecclesiastical management on the other are effectively avoided."
But the greatest document of this period containing the clearest explana- tion and most forcible indication of the Wooster ideas, meanings and motives is the inaugural address of Doctor Lord-the first president. It was de- livered on the opening day, September the eleventh, 1870. He congratulates the assembled officers and friends upon the success thus far obtained: "For the difficulties of your design," he said, "were commensurate with its great- ness. That design was no less than to build another strong bulwark against
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the winds and tides which are blowing and drifting the men of this generation from truth and life to the shores of error and death; to rear, on broad and deep foundations, another fitting temple of literature and science conceived of in their highest forms and widest reach, and ennobled and glorified by the pervading presence and power of religion. But how formidable the attempt!" Comparing the situation of three short years before that day, he was amazed to see the building and to know of the pledged endowment "inadequate indeed, but revealing a profound interest in collegiate education that is to be broad and liberal but to be filled with Christian ideas and the Christian spirit, recog- nizing thus the prime fact that all truth, natural as well as revealed, has its source and end in God." Doctor Lord was hopeful that other departments would be added, constituting in time, a true University. He demanded a democratic freedom of accessibility to all men. The place for "all studies" should be the place of studies "for all men." "The essential test of citizen- ship in the comonwealth of science and letters should be character, mental and moral quality and attainments, not condition, race, color or sex." With advo- cacy of co-education and criticism of the proposed curriculum in favor of more modern languages, English literature and natural science. Keep the classics, but do not keep out the "moderns" (as commissioner Harris used to call them). He denies all fear of the cultivation of the sciences in a Chris- tian college. "All knowledge leads to truth and all truth leads to God." Pages of eloquent discussion of this theme follow. Proving that knowledge is theistic, Dr. Lord advances to claim the University for all essential truth properly called Christian. "But also," he adds, "the University has organic connection with the Christian church." This is not for a narrowly sectarian purpose, but that "the most direct and powerful influence of Christianity and its highest safeguards may be thrown around education in the future." Anticipating the results of the drift from the spiritual to the material, Doctor Lord says: "The danger is that, if the church has no institutions of its own, where its voice may be heard and its power felt, there may come a complete divorcement between education and religion, an issue from which the citizen and the state may well recoil in horror as from a supreme calamity." *
"In the presence of so great a danger it were not wise to trust alone in indi- vidual Christian men or in small and close corporations to meet and avert it. Individuals and corporations may change. The limits of a single life have sometimes proved sufficient to revolutionize cherished opinions and effect the diversion of great and sacred interests. If there are any surer means or greater securities by which the aims and benefactions of enlightened liberality may be guarded, and by which, also, the alliance of education with religion
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may be welded and made permanent, most certainly we ought to have them. Such means and securities, we believe, are found in the church. If they are not there, they do not exist. This university, therefore, has its distinctive character as a temple of learning in its direct and vital connection with the Temple of God." Dr. Lord would have brought into the University halls all the volumes "in which are embalmed the achievements of their learning and genius, who have added to the sum of human thought and knowledge." But he would place above them all the inspired word of God. This he would do, not to restrict inquiry nor fetter mind, but because we know that "the God of creation is also the God of revelation; that the hand which laid the founda- tions of the earth and balanced and lighted the stars, is the same hand that traced the lines and pages of the Bible." "In this belief we have founded and today dedicate this University." "It is our de- sire and will be our aim to make this University an ornament and power to the church, a pillar and bulwark to the state." The writer has been anew im- pressed with the rich content, the forcible diction, the elevated conceptions and cogent reasonings of this first inaugural. He wishes it might be republished from time to time and widely circulated among students and patrons as a clear and convincing statement and vindication of the "things most surely be- lieved among us."
The opening day reached its close in the strong address of the Hon. John Sherman. He outlined his own broad view of what a university should be, and hoped we might have one in Ohio. His special charge was to build in with the tendency of the age, which was severely practical, in order to make the institution really serviceable. The address was, in its pithy and pointed brevity, its wise counsel to concentration and in its assurance that every dis- covery in nature deepens and strengthens the profound reverence of the edu- cated mind for the Almighty Ruler and Maker of us all, worthy of its author and of his distinguished career as a statesman. Impressively did he say : "Under modern lights the Christian faith shines higher and purer than before. The inscrutable mysteries of our being-its dependence only on Almighty power, its yearnings for the dim, invisible life to come, are the ties of human nature to religious faith. Let the mind be instructed and the preacher and the hearer alike be left free and as sure as the earth moves in its course the true religion will prevail." Such were the sentiments and convictions of Wooster's first day.
The conditions favorable for this period of experiment were the fact of opening with a property (deducting the cost of the campaign) estimated at
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four hundred thousand dollars; a faculty of five professors "eminently quali- fied for their work," ecclesiastical relations settled, a medical department pre- viously organized in Cleveland and now accepting the new charter without any fixed pecuniary responsibility resting upon the University ; a collegiate depart- ment organized and the hoped-for addition of "Law Science." The building, unfinished, but massive and adapted in many regards to educational needs, was highly praised on all sides. Quotations might be made which would now seem extravagant and yet at that time there was perhaps no superior single building provided for any Ohio college. Its position and outlook were justly cele- brated by contemporary journals. Apparatus and library were being rapidly provided. There were some indications of increase in the endowment.
But reconstruction of the church boundaries (presbyteries and synods) seemed to distract attention to a certain degree. The disposition of the large memorial fund then being raised to signalize the reunion of the branches was held in suspense, and, so far as I am advised, never brought to the new enter- prise any considerable sum. Yet the work went bravely forward. Admis- sion standards were at once placed on the same grade with many Eastern col- leges and with all neighboring ones, and admission was wholly by examination. Of the new faculty, Doctors Lord, Stoddard and Kirkwood had already won wide and deserved reputations as scholars and professors. Special personal talent had been recognized in Professors Jeffers and Fullerton. The peculiar clearness and teaching power of the former has been recognized in every posi- tion he has since occupied, and the exquisite taste and refined personality of the other-together with his skill in writing and criticism-remain with those who mourn for the touch of his vanished hand as the beams of the dying sun linger long after the flaming disc has disappeared.
The medical department was confidently announced and there were con- nected with it some of Cleveland's most distinguished physicians. Four classes were at once organized and a "Commencement" assured for the follow- ing June. The prevailing spirit was that of congratulation. To quote one expression : "It was four years' from nothing to a University which takes rank with the foremost institutions of the land." A remarkably full cur- riculum was offered, based, it is thought, upon that of Princeton. Classical studies were prominent of course, and intellectual and moral science. yet Eng- lish and the natural sciences were not neglected. Doctor Stoddard gave spe- cial lectures on "Mind and Matter," which were of recognized apologetic value. Constitutional and international law were provided for, though later the latter was neglected. Differential calculus was a required study. Civil
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engineering was hinted at. The scientific course, parallel in many things with the classical, provided for the modern languages. Special courses in history were promised, associated with other studies, but distinguished by outlines during the term and examinations at the close. Biblical instruction was to form a part of every course. Daily religious services were at once es- tablished upon which, as upon Sabbath chapel, the attendance of all was ex- pected. The Bragg donation of five thousand dollars for the library began to be realized. Orders for apparatus from abroad were only somewhat delayed by the Franco-Prussian war and a confidential assurance was given that more would be provided as needed. Two literary societies were formed at once. The attendance for the first year reached sixty-one, two of whom were young women, and from the beginning the character of the students was fixed as that of men of character, with the very slightest infusion of rowdyism. The gradu- ating class numbered six : Messrs. W. A. Irvin, H. L. Henderson, J. E. Kuhn, J. C. Miller, J. H. Packer, W. R. Taggart. All had taken the classical course. Three are yet living and in efficient service of church and state.
During the second year a notable addition was made to the faculty in the person of Dr. D. A. Gregory as professor of mental and moral science. He took charge also of the English when Dr. Fullerton resigned at the close of this year. Mr. H. A. Rowland, afterwards famous in connection with Johns Hopkins University, was made instructor in natural science. The curriculum was changed by adjustments which were advantageous. Tuition was slightly reduced, and remission of it to candidates for the University entrusted to the discretion of the executive committee and the faculty. Schol- arships were still offered covering tuition perpetually for the modest sum of five hundred dollars, and four years for two hundred dollars. Doubtless the experience of such colleges as Washington and Jefferson and Hanover had proved a warning to our founders. I once asked, being then a member of the board of trustees, the treasurer of Washington and Jefferson how many students paid tuition. "Eight." was the reply. The rest were being taught on the ruinous system of perpetual scholarships sold at twenty-five dollars. The same system compelled Hanover ultimately to grant free tuition while recouping itself in part by an increase of incidental fees. (I may be pardoned for injecting here the statement that during my father's presi- dency at Hanover the scholarship policy was discontinued.) During this second year there was an increase in the number of students, and there were eight graduates.
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The third year was marked by the opening of the preparatory depart- ment. It was at first confined to a two years' course. The first superintend- ent was the Rev. J. A. I. Lowes, an approved and experienced teacher. More young women were enrolled and the attendance reached one hundred and seventy-four. The medical department reported an attendance of seventy- one, making a total of two hundred and forty-five. Preparatory seniors numbered seventeen and juniors eighteen. Elective courses were now opened after the sophomore year. The "Brainard" Missionary Society appears. Tuition was brought up again to $15 per term, and expenses for room, fuel, light and boarding need not exceed four dollars weekly, and might be lessened in various ways. A new and most competent instructor in modern languages was secured, the Rev. Mr. Lippert. A contemporary assures us that "classes were more thoroughly organized and the work better systematized." There were thirteen graduates, twelve of whom had pursued the classical course. President Lord resigned at the close of the year, partly because the demands of the work were growing beyond his physical strength and partly on account of his desire to prepare for publication the results of his former labors in the chair of theology at the Northwestern (now McCormick) Theological Seminary.
Despite financial difficulties, partly solved by the recall into fiscal service of the Rev. L. K. Davis, so successful at the beginning : these experi- mental years were eminently successful. Dr. Lord was pre-eminent for per- sonal affability as for mental resources. Organization made progress. The students met treatment at once courteous and firm. The doctrine of the University, founded on the duty of the church to care for the higher educa- tion of her own children by an institution so wholly under her own care and control as to admit of no question concerning its religious character and influence, had been successfully commended to the mind and heart of the great body of Ohio Presbyterians, and was already obtaining credit through- out the denomination. The future was secure ; however, much patience might be required for a slower pace of development than a first enthusiasm had expected. The able faculty had proven that men of first-class ability could be procured for this service of the church. as for other services, without offering any brilliant pecuniary reward. A spirit of great confidence had been imparted to the whole inner circle of the founders and was penetrating wider areas. It was becoming clearly evident that this enterprise was neither "state" nor private in its origin, meaning and reliance, but represented the church awaking to a repeated call of one of the greatest needs of humanity
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