History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume II, Part 60

Author:
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 840

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Mary Myers, of Congress. There is something deeply significant here, for full comprehension of which I have not the time or the material. In that same year (1869), the ripening autumn of the enterprise, the synod of Sandusky ex- pressed its gratitude to the "Great Head of the Church," and its appreciation of the "noble and almost unexampled liberality of the citizens of Wayne county." This became known everywhere then, and deserves to be remem- bered now, especially in view of a possible reliance upon great gifts of the great fortunes outside of our immediate environment. We must not lose the original and constant lesson that these great uplifts come after long years of steady lifting up with our own tense muscles and aching shoulders.

Very soon the city and county began to receive the reward of their gener- osity. As early as 1878, Doctor Taylor could assure the surrounding popula- tion that educated families were being brought here for their childrens' educa- tion ; that the annual expenditure of money due to the university's presence was already not less than seventy thousand dollars; that this expenditure was "a steady stream reaching the humblest tradesman, and making itself felt in the whole region. Money paid out by the citizens to secure the university has been repaid to them in threefold measure; and, as the years roll on, this will prove to be an investment of the best character, producing a large and constant interest." In 1883 the same competent authority estimates that "the uni- versity scatters fully one hundred thousand dollars annually through the town and county."

Who can estimate the value, in many directions, of the coming hither of the Agricultural Experiment Station. If now we miss the possibilities of intensive and scientific farming in this county, it is certainly our own fault. Few remember the unsuccessful effort in 1868 to have a contemplated Agri- cultural College founded here by the State and connected with the university. It was a foredoomed and happy failure. But when removal of the experi-

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ment station from Columbus was found necessary, there is the best reason for believing that the decision of the committee responsible for the location was largely influenced for Wayne county by the presence of the university. It was believed on both sides that helpful relations could be developed between the two institutions. In the construction of the wings in 1891-2, special dispo- sitions were made for organic chemistry with the hope that the university might be useful to a class of students who would be seeking special courses associated with agriculture. There can be no doubt that in the near future both institutions will come to their own, in view of the ever-growing im- portance of the field (and the fields) in which they may accomplish a common work by mutually complementary adjustments. "Back to the soil" is no vain slogan. Humanity, like the giant Antæus of Greek mythology, cannot be vanquished save as it is separated from the soil. Every interest, economic or moral, demands the development and improvement of moral life, and the university clasps hands with the Experiment Station for that object. The visible success which is sure to come from the united efforts of the two institu- tions will eventually appear in greatest perfection in their immediate sur- roundings.

And what an addition to this economical value has reached us in the rapid development of the summer school! When the six hundred give place to the one thousand there is certainly something doing and to be done in taking care of those who are doing it. This needs no elaboration. Where shall we look for a similar midsummer infusion of vigor into trade of all sorts? The total contribution of the university, summer and winter, has just been estimated by the best authority at two hundred fifty thousand dollars, annually, with other tributary interests.

Moreover, we must beware of limiting the beneficent influence of the uni- versity to the material aspect. It aids to make the county and the county seat well known by the most diffusive and penetrating kind of advertisement. That noble son of Ohio, Governor Cox, speaking at the corner-stone laying of 1891, pointedly reminded us of this. Even though it has not banished as fully as one might wish some infelicities in the use of the King's English, the university has been telling upon the schools about us. Many sons of Wayne have been attracted to the higher education because the magnet was brought so near to them. Great aid has been given by the successive and evermore artistic and elaborate university buildings to the improvement of Wooster until it is rapidly growing into the "City Beautiful" movement which is a character- istic of our day. No feudal castle reigns on a great hill over a desolate group of huts at the hill's foot, but up a gentle acclivity all who will may go to the

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"white city" and its influences go down the declivity as by gravity. Thus without machinery the university has been drawing the city, in its increasing comfort and regularity and beauty, toward its own standard.

More than this has been the presence of thousands, during these years, of young men and women from the choicest homes of our state and country, Ohio's larger cities are not largely represented, but her smaller cities are, as well as her towns and villages and rural communities. The effect can- not but have been good for the youth who have been growing up side by side with those of their own age from Ohio's best homes who possess moreover so great a variety of talent and culture. . How few intellectual "hoodlums" have ever been drawn to Wooster and how uncomfortable they soon found themselves to be! How inconsiderable have been the numbers of the posi- tively immoral! The institution has always been a fortress for "law and order" and has known nothing of the German University student's card by which one whom neither wit nor wisdom could keep from overindulgence is entitled to concealment rather than to be reported for discipline either civil or institutional. Do all the inhabitants of our city and county realize what this means ? If they do they will surely never vote back again the saloons that lessened, by our own acquiescence, the incomparable value of a sober and steady student-body, nor never, indeed, be contented with any ad- ministration permitting lawlessness despite the law. Nor is the presence among us of specialists in various sciences to be forgotten. More and more in the future, as there will be opportunity for "original" work by a number of professors ( for which opportunity some are already impatient), the re- sult of close association with those who know what is to be known of Nature and Man and Society and Government and of God, will be esteemed at their true value. It is difficult to remember an instance when any evil influence brought hither by a student or a teacher ever left a single trace upon our com- munity, while the intellectual, esthetic, moral and religious values of the university influences as a whole are too patent and too precious to be denied or disesteemed.

And all this is just now receiving very special illustration in connection with the recent spirit for improvement and extension which has sprung up among us. Ours was always a solid community, but just now it is an awakened community. Educational interests and agricultural are regarded as so well secured, that the population, with more unanimity than has ever been displayed, is hotly pursuing an equal commercial prosperity. Always a city of good homes, it must now become a city of better houses. Always financial sound, it is now ambitious to be prosperous by adding manufactures

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to the agriculture. The remarkable thing is the spirit of confidence which is strikingly manifest today, and its evident foundation on the educational and agricultural position already attained. With this spirit the university's rapid development during the past eleven years has had much to do. The unity of interest and certainty of co-operation has come to present expres- sion during the month of September in our local press. The Pennsylvania station agent (Charles H. Wolf) writes: "I have found that a great many first-class people have been drawn to the place solely on account of the institu- tion on the hill, and they are among our very best citizens. They purchase good homes, they live well and add materially to the welfare and prosperity of our city." John M. Criley (banker and Board-of-Trade man and uni- versity trustee) writes down the wind the unreasoning assertion that in a college-town factories cannot thrive: "Now if a thing is true a reasonable man can tell why it is true and I would like to have some reasonable man tell what there is in education that makes it the natural and fatal enemy of industrial enterprise. * * The remarkable industrial development of the United States is due to her exceptional educational opportunities and the super- ior intelligence of her working men. Cleveland has not found col- leges a hindrance, nor has Columbus or Springfield or Chicago or Pittsburg.

The idea is absurd. * X * If the college is inimical to the fac- tory is it conceivable that these clear-headed and far-seeing men (captains of industry) would give so bountifully to the upbuilding of institutions that are destined to destroy the very source of their wealth?" Then our talented fellow-citizen (himself a graduate of the university) testifies that not a manu- facturer approached by the Board of Trade with a presentation of our city's attractions ever "remotely hinted at an objection to Wooster as a college- town." "In such a matter," he concludes, "I much prefer the opinions of successful manufacturers to the cavilling of those who have never manu- factured anything more tangible that an excuse." To all which it may be added that if such an objector will study the continental systems of the technical schools and the peculiarly German arrangement called the "Fort- bildingschule" he would be additionally convinced of his error. The thing to clo is to effect such vigorous co-operation that very speedily all could be added to the university which would enable it to enter upon the department specially related to various industries and especially the varieties of engineering We

may close this paragraph by a somewhat novel but entirely convincing sug-

gestion of President Holden. Speaking of promoting Wooster-interests. he asserts that those who planted the university were "Wooster's early boom- ers" and that they "had increased the value of every inch of Wayne county."

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And this is the novel suggestion : "It is the only institution in this community that has salaried men in the field to boom Wooster by offering education which costs it (the university) one hundred and twenty dollars for seventy- eight dollars and fifty cents, losing forty-one dollars and fifty cents on every student who comes here that our city may be built up and that our citizens who are in trade may benefit thereby."

7. It would probably be of interest if opportunity were offered to trace the development of the university along the lines of the natural sciences, the mental, moral and social sciences, literature, art, music, greater politics, religion and religious activities, including world-wide missions, side by side with the progress of the city and county in education, agriculture, manufac- tures, general business and professional services. There would be found, I think, some subtle correspondences in the forty years of pilgrimage through which both have passed.

It might be of yet greater interest to trace the development of our in- stitution on a background of comparison with the general educational prog- ress of these forty years in our whole country, and, for that matter, in other countries.

But neither of these things is at this writing possible. Suffice it to say that among Ohio's many colleges, Wooster has always been above the standard of admission to, and always a factor in the life of the Ohio College Association ; that no denominational college has developed so rapidly and only Oberlin and Delaware have kept pace with Wooster's more recent progress; that the surge forward of the State Universities of the West, and the strides of Cornell in New York, and the strong growth of the venerable Lafayette with that of Washington and Jefferson, plus the surprising blossoming of Grove City College, and the long hoped for and at last wonderful outburst of power in the University of Pittsburg (all in Pennsylvania) ; to say nothing of the massive institutions on the Atlantic border and those on the Pacific slope and the apparently unlimited resources of Chicago between-make impera- tively manifest the high line of aspiration and endeavor to which every soul in Wooster and Wayne county is primarily called (whatever may be expected ultimately from others) in behalf of the central tower of our present strength and the glory of our past.

8. And now-to bring all to a close-a glance toward the future. I hazard no predictions though I see reason to believe in "streams of tendency." It is evident that Wooster is destined to be a great college and, possibly, a real university. Notwithstanding the multiplication of neighboring col- leges, the diffused college-policy of Ohio (as already noted) is constantly

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proving its wisdom. No real college has ever been slain by this policy, while college-spirit has been developed in many communities and denominations, Ohio will continue to find her account in the many colleges which have wrought so good a work in the past and no one of which need be atrophied or decadent. Ohio will bring "the company to the colors."

The future is in part secured by the full recognition of the demand of pres- ent-day education, and the liberal planning of the present management to meet them. The propaganda literature of this year (1910) is full of the most cogent appeals based upon the clearest conception of what is yet to be supplied. Details cannot be given; they change rapidly. Write for them. The prog- ress of the great effort to reach the six-hundred-thousand-dollar mark is en- couraging. There remains less than two hundred thousand to be secured. Though the time is short, success is regarded as certain because the whole past now presses the institution forward into future growth with irresistible power. "Unto him that hath, it shall be given."

The demands are regarded as possibilities and as certainties under con- ditions of such enthusiasm and co-operation of immediate environment. of alumni, of synod and body of the Ohio Presbyterian churches, of neigh- boring churches across denominational lines (as Presbyterians elsewhere co- operate with their neighboring institutions), plus the gifts of our whole de- nomination in the United States, and the trustful help of large givers to gen- eral educational enterprises. These have all been brought together in re- cent years and they cannot fail to succeed in the future.

The general continuity of policy on all greater lines points in the same direction. Wooster is a great arrow flying toward one target-center. Its position and intentions admit of no question. It is rather singular that. without a single essential divergence, this direction has been preserved, and the same principles frankly accepted by each successive administration. What the original synods desired the original trustees formulated and adopted. What the trustees set forth the first inaugural fully proclaimed. What the first inaugural announced the second further elaborated-the first president being present with a reassuring benediction. What the second inaugural avowed the third frankly accepted-the second president being present and the same presiding officer of the board of trustees voicing the well-known plans and purposes. What the third inaugural acknowledged the fourth accepted un- hesitatingly,"both the second and third presidents being present at the trans- inission of the trust. This hitherto unbroken continuity argues well for the future. An institution so continuously conscious of one reason for be- ing is hard to deflect or defeat.

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There are some disadvantages associated with the youth of a college, but there are also distinct advantages. "Atmosphere"-as it is termed-may be lacking. "traditions" may not be so impressive, facilities may not be so per- fect, but per contra, there may be in the junior institution a happy riddance of hindering traditions-unless a sycophantic and servile imitation consents to import and impose them ; there may be a certain efficiency resulting in some cases from the more modern methods; and the ambitious vigor of youth may tell in its development. Especially may this be true when the foundation principles possess the strength of "eternal laws." Things are coming toward religion in the depths, however contrary the surface current may seem now and then. The ideals of the younger college may be the simpler and also the higher. The initial success, if it has been rapid, may set the pace for a con- tinuance of speed. A high percentage of growth in earlier years is a promise of and a stimulus to a high conception of possibility (and of duty) for the years which must follow. The world's educational enthusiasm is at the boil- ing point and it is rather a favorable thing to be young when enthusiasm is in question. And when no essential modification is needed but only adapta- tion, the higher flexibility of youth is advantageous-though of course it has a dangerous side.

On the other hand the increasing number and financial and moral strength of the alumni, together with the quick sequence of the fiftieth anni- versary presage the power and the occasion for a leap forward within the dec- ade upon which Wooster is now entering. The alumni are perfecting their organization (as before noted) and the semi-centennial will prove (as it has with other colleges) the occasion for united and determined exertion, and that means success.

Meanwhile our whole denominational forces are coming into line on the tremendous import of the secularistic drift in education and the resulting demand for the best possible equipment and management of the institutions of higher learning which share Wooster's consecration as expressed in her motto, "Christo et literis." The college board is growing in power and in- fluence. It is kindling a just and intelligent sentiment in behalf of the col- leges which may with propriety be called Presbyterian. No matter how over- shadowing may be the growth of the state universities stimulated by the tropical luxuriance of lavish appropriations ; religious sensitiveness perceives in them only the shade of the Upas tree if they banish true religion from their curricula and from their care of the young. In this view I cannot sub- scribe to the suggestion that the denominational college must always remain the "small college," giving up large territories to the state universities, and chastening their ambitions to the doing of the "regular college courses" alone.

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This they cannot conscientiously do. The reason for their "being" is just as good a reason for their "well-being." It is important to have college teaching accompanied by Christian influences. Can it be a matter of indiffer- ence that the higher side of the higher education should be imparted without care as to whether the influence of that controlling section shall ignore or even prove hostile to the spiritual influences which we know are essential to the pro- duction and maintenance of that moral and spiritual character without which there can be neither personal salvation nor ultimate persistence of free insti- tutions ?

A testimonial of 1901, mentions the fact that a competent eastern author- ity asserted that the "smaller colleges of the West sent to Princeton for post- graduate study abler men than the larger colleges of the East," and also that a professor of Johns Hopkins "had recently declared that Wooster does as good work as any institution in the northern part of the United States." Then this testimonial proceeds : "This was to be expected. The ecclesiastical con- trol and management, the moral and religious atmosphere, the direct contact with instructors-in fact the many good influences and the minimum of bad. give the denominational colleges strong advantages for producing the best types of manhood and womanhood. These considerations win the confidence of the friends of education and enlist their support for our Christian colleges."

Thus we reach the conclusion of our journey, a much longer one than at first intended. The writer feels, however, that the play will have been worth the candle (and he has burned a good many candles over it-or their equiva- lents) if it will in the least degree help to conserve the principles "most surely believed among us;" or aid in keeping in memory some of the noblest men and women it has ever been his privilege to know ; or to kindle in any of the sons and daughters of this benign mother ( who may not hitherto have known these facts) a deeper interest in her welfare than that which depends too much upon incidental and almost accidental accessories of college life; or to vindicate the truth of God's promise that if we "wait upon" Him, we shall "re- new our strength and run and not be weary and walk and not be faint."

In the firm faith that the University of Wooster will not only grow up to the universum implied in its title, but will carry thither all the profound con- victions of its origin, I put aside the pen to await the better hand which will doubtless revise or rewrite this history for the fiftieth anniversary. For the intervening decade and each one beyond I would repeat the devout wish of Whittier's centennial hymn :

"And, cast in some diviner mould,

Let the new cycle shame the old."

S. F. S.

APPENDIX.

THE ALUMNI ROUND TABLE.

From the Wooster Quarterly, for July, 1910, by the Editor, Prof. J. O. Notestein, Ph. D.

Wooster has celebrated her fortieth commencement. It was one of the surprises of Wooster's beginning that there should be a senior class of six to enter the first year. Hence we may reckon as many commencements as years in Wooster's history. For the first commencement we gathered about a temporary platform built under the oaks a dozen rods northeast of the tall brick pile that was then our single college building. Very unlike was it in outer surroundings to this commencement centered in and about Memorial Chapel. Yet the essential life of Wooster was in that prophetic first celebra- tion of a just completed college year. A small faculty sat on the rough plank platform, yet they were all scholars of high attainments and ideals, while sev- eral of them were teachers of rare power. The six young men who were graduated that day gave orations thoughtful and strong. Five of that six are still strong workers among men, and have amply fulfilled the promise of that first commencement day. There were no alumni to attend that day, making the campus quick with greetings and happy memories.

As one compares the first with the fortieth and recalls all the intervening story of usefulness and power, one is led to say that Wooster's life has been "like a tree planted by the rivers of water." Our founder-fathers "delighted in the law of the Lord" and their successors have not forsaken their loyalty to it ; so doing they kept Wooster in touch with the greatest vital force; in harmony with a deep universal law whereby truth moves on to universal vic- tory. That law will work through the history of Wooster's next forty years. May the one who pens the Round Table notes for Wooster's eightieth com- mencement be privileged to record its result in a like gladness of growth and fruit.

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History of Wayne County, Ohio, Volume II, Part 60

Author: Publication date: 1910 Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen Number of Pages: 840

Author:
Publication date: 1910
Publisher: Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen
Number of Pages: 840