The Ohio blue book; or, Who's who in the Buckeye state; a cyclopedia of biography of men and women of Ohio, Part 114

Author: Van Tassel, Charles Sumner, 1858-
Publication date: [1917]
Publisher: Toledo, Ohio
Number of Pages: 494

USA > Ohio > The Ohio blue book; or, Who's who in the Buckeye state; a cyclopedia of biography of men and women of Ohio > Part 114

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Ohio Colleges and Universities

DENISON UNIVERSITY. The college now known as Denison University was founded in 1831. Its first Board of Trustees was appointed and organized on May 26th and 27th, its doors were opened to students December 13th, and it was incorporated by act of the Legislature of Ohio on the 3rd day of February, 1832. The founders were members of the religious denomina- tion known as Baptists. and they were inspired by a realization that the interests of their denomination demanded educated leaders, not only in the ministry but among laymen as well. From the outset the course of study provided for aimed to give a general educational foundation and not a special training in theology. In addition to the regular subject matter of the typical college curriculum of the time, a certain amount of theological instruction was offered, but this was dropped as soon as the development of Theological Sem- inaries made it easily available elsewhere. For some years an effort was made to manage the school on the "manual labor system." allowing the students to earn their way by labor on the college farm or in shops that were provided, but the system was at last given up as impracti- cable.

Not much was done in accumulation of endowment until about the close of the Civil War. In 1867 a fund of $100,000 was completed for permanent investment, the income to pay expenses of instruction. Since that date, buildings, equipment and permanent endowment funds have been added from time to time until the total valuation. at the beginning of the year 1917. stands at more than a million and three quarters. The last increases, previ- ous to the writing of these paragraphs, was the completion of a new $500,000 en- dowment fund in June, 1916, and the ad- dition of more than 100 acres of land to the college grounds. With this growth of material resources, a broader range of studies has been provided, especially in such subjects as the Modern Languages. Education, History and Political Science. and the Natural Sciences, At the last meeting before these lines were written, the Board of Trustees authorized the es- tablishment of a department of Bible Study and Religious Education. It is not the aim of Denison to give technical training for special professions or voca- tions. hut to provide such a fundamental education as will fit young men and won-

en to get more out of life for themselves and to put more into life for others. no matter what profession or calling they may finally enter. In the first seventy years of its history its degrees were given only to young men. An affiliation was formed with Shepardson College for Wom- en in 1887. and in 1900 the Board of Trus- tees voted to give degrees thereafter with- out distinction of sex. The number of students in college classes at the time of the writing of this sketch is just about 500. Doane Academy, a preparatory school maintained by the same Board, has a registration which brings the total up to more than 600.

Its regularly organized departments of study, each with a Professor of full rank at its head. as shown by the catalogue of 1916-1917, are as follows: Philosophy and

Education, Mathematics, History and Political Science, Greek, Latin, Rhetoric and English Literature, Romance Lan- guages, German, Physics, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Geology, Astronomy. Zool- ogy, and Botany. Instruction in the Theory of Music, with full college credit towards degrees, is given in the Denison Conservatory of Music, under control of the same Board as the college. A depart- ment of Bible Study and Religious Educa- tion is in process of organization. The Conservatory of Music, in addition to the theoretical courses mentioned, provides instruction in Voice, Piano, Organ and Violin, but study in these departments is credited towards the Conservatory diplo- ma, not towards an academic degree.

Among the graduates and former stu- dents of Denison have been many men well known in the public and professional life of Ohio. Ev-Governor Harmon was a graduate in the class 1866. Among other members of the legal profession in Ohio who are Denison men may be mentioned T. J. Keating, H. J. Booth, D. E. Williams, IV. Harvey Jones, and W. A. Donaldson, of Columbus; J. H. Doyle, Howard Lewis, Frank Lewis, and Mark Winchester of Toledo; John A. Chamberlain, David E. Green, Walter Flory, and the late Judge Harvey Keeler, of Cleveland; Frank E. Whittemore. of Akron; Benjamin E.

James of Bowling Green; Judge Howard Ferris and Burton B. Tuttle, of Cincin- nati; Secretary of State W. D. Fulton, Judge Thomas B. Fulton, Judge John M. Swartz, Roderic Jones, J. Howard Jones, Probate Judge Robbins Hunter, and

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Charles Wesley Montgomery, of Newark; Judge B. F. McCann, O. Brit Brown, and Ira Crawford, of Dayton. Among the well known nien of Ohio at present on the Denison Board of Trustees may be mell- tioned Mr. Ambrose Swasey, of Cleveland; Charles T. Lewis, of Toledo; G. Moore Peters, of Cincinnati; Eugene J. Barney, Edward A. Deeds, Frederick P. Beaver, and Judge B. F. McCann of Dayton. Mem- bers of the Board connected with the newspaper business in Ohio are Dr. George V. Lasher, of the Journal and Messenger, Cincinnati; James M. Amos, of the Cam- bridge Jeffersonian, and Osman C. Hooper, of the Columbus Evening Dispatch. The President of Denison is Clark W. Cham- berlain, A. B .. Ph. D .. born on a farm at LaGrange, Ohio, a graduate of Deni- son in the class of 1894, former Professor of Physics in Colby University, Denison University, and Vassar College in succes- sion, and known in scientific circles as the inventor of the Compound Interferometer, one of the most effective instruments ever devised for making delicate measurements in the study of rays of light.

OBERLIN COLLEGE. Oberlin College came into existence in 1833. It was a time of the settling of the West-a period of great material development, and educational quickening. The founders aimed at a pro- foundly Christian, radically conscientious educational center for the Middle West. There was a definite intention also to ex- tend educational opportunities to women. Writing in 1908. William B. Shaw said: "The three young women upon whom Oberlin conferred the degree of A. B. in 1841 were the first of their sex in America to have the privilege of earning such a degree." Since that day the policy of co- education of the sexes has been adopted by all the state universities of the West and the Middle West, by Cornell. Chicago and Stanford, and by most of the smaller colleges founded after Oberlin had led the way. Woman's higher education through- out the world owes much to the fact that seventy years ago a way was found by this pioneer college to give the American girl of that day the same educational priv- ileges that her brother had.

Not only did the college enter upon a marked inheritance of innovation and progressiveness characteristic of the day, but the name "Oberlin" itself was an en- dowment and a prophecy. John Frederick Oberlin, a humble Alsatian pastor, work- ing for sixty years among the people of Steinthal in the Vosges Mountains fore- shadowed in many ways the most strik- ing features of modern education. Pastor Oberlin had been directing his work with an intelligence of high order, with aims broad enough to include all sides of his people's lives-good roads, agricultural methods. all types of educational, moral and religious training, backed by invinci- ble will and courage and infused with a spirit radically democratic in conviction.

From the very beginning men who came to Oberlin to teach were scholars of at- tainment, graduates of Yale, Dartmouth, Williams and Amherst. Honor men in more than one instance, they were proud to cross the Alleghenies and keep alive the torch of learning in the Middle West through restless years. Without qualifi-

cation it mav be said that for three quar- ters of a century Oberlin has stood for an honest and genuine scholarship and opposed to every form of educational sham. and this has not been the least of her services to the nation. Today to the old inheritance is added a consistent eagerness to share in all that is best in

modern social. intellectual and spiritual thought.

In the words of

President Henry Churchill King, "From its historic ante- cedents. from the original plan. from the spirit of those who have shared in tlie work there followed inevitably for Ober- lin College several consequences. The col- lege has stood from the first persistently against the aristocracy of sex, of color, of wealth, and of the clique." President King sums up Oberlin's intellectual and scholastic achievement as follows: "There has been a definite and conscientious fac- ing in the open-minded spirit of the fath- ers of the facts of natural science and evolution. of the new psychology, of the new science of sociology and of modern developments in philosophy and theology. Oberlin continues her traditions of

a world constituency by the establishment in the Province of Shansi in China of a New Oberlin College, the work of the last thirty years. with an enrollment at present of 600 students and a teaching staff of over thirty."

A marked characteristic of the Oberlin undergraduate is his ability to maintain a good scholastic standing while earning his education. Last year. Oberlin men earned $69,076, working in vacation, wait- ing on table in the college halls, caring for furnaces, washing dishes. canvassing, etc.

Another pronounced feature is the cos- mopolitanism of the Oberlin student body. The seventeen hundred students come from every state and territory, from America's island dependencies and from foreign lands. Less than fifty per cent are Ohioans. The foreign countries repre- sented include Albania, Australia. Bohe- mia. Brazil, China. Cuba, Germany, India. Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, Micronesia. Nor- way, Persia, South Africa and Turkey.

Athletics have always been legitimately emphasized in Oberlin under-graduate life but from a point of view somewhat dif- ferent from that of the majority of col- leges and universities. The Oberlin ideal is summed up in the phrase "Every man participating in at least one recognized form of outdoor exercise." Nine years ago Oberlin called one of her alumni, C. WV. Savage. from Pittsburg. to be director of athletic sports for men. with the ranks of a full Professor. Mr. Savage came to Oberlin especially to develop intra-mural sport. He at once began to organize class teams and under his direction student in- terest in all forms of athletics has been developed to such an extent that class schedules now attract wide attention. At present Mr. Savage and a Faculty com- mittee on athletics are carrying forward a movement to equip Oberlin with the finest college athletic field 'in the Middle West. It is planned to spend $50.000 on the following schedule: One varsity base- ball diamond and three practice diamonds, one varsity football field and three prac- tice fields. one quarter-mile cinder track with a 220-yard straightaway. and eighteen tennis courts. For the accommodation of spectators at football games and track- meets a concrete grand stand and bleach- ers will be erected giving a total seating capacity of 5,000. The new plan includes more than twenty-five acres of land, and the general work of construction is in charge of Cass Gilbert, the distinguished New York architect. general architect for all Oberlin College buildings, and Olmsted Brothers, landscape architects, of Boston.

With twenty-three alumni associations scattered throughout the United States, and a roster of approximately 38,000 men and women who have studied within her walls during the last three quarters of a

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century, Oberlin is bound to maintain her influence, always positive, even aggressive, and stands today among the most typical of American institutions of the higher learning. Writing in the Atlantic Month- ly, Hamilton W. Mabie says: "It would not be easy to find a more characteris- tically American community than that which has grown to such large proportions around Oberlin College. Here one finds a life shaped exclusively by American con- ditions, and absorbed in American inter- ests. Not long ago, an intelligent student of education in this country said that, in his judgment. a dollar went further in purchasing power in Oberlin, than at any other college in the land. It is probable that economy of expenditure and lavish- ness of opportunity and of work are nowhere more fruitfully united.

At Oberlin, education instinctively shapes itself for immediate ends in the needs of the time and the community; and in the courses of study and in the interest and tastes of the students one finds a keen sense of the utility of studies for practical uses."

WILBERFORCE UNIVERSITY. Ohio has the honor of having the leading university in America for the higher education of the colored race. Wilberforce University, near Xenia, established before the Civil War. and which is not only the greatest but the oldest institution of learning of this character in the country. While the Negro was deprived for many years of public school advantages in Ohio, he was not lacking in a desire to educate his chil- dren and the first private Negro school in this state was opened in Cincinnati in 1820, but soon failed. It was re-opened in 1832 and was largely conducted by students from Lane Seminary. The seminary au- thorities then prohibited the teaching of Negro pupils by students of Lane and fifty-one students withdrew from the sem- inary and entered Oberlin College. Through their influence Oberlin was

opened to Negro students in 1835. and James Bradley, a Negro of Cincinnati, who entered Oberlin College soon after. was the first Ohio colored college student. The first move to furnish a seminary for the colored race in Ohio originated with Dan- iel A. Payne, a self-educated Negro of Charleston, S. C., which resulted in Union Seminary near Columbus being organized in 1844; Wilberforce University was the outgrowth of this institution. In 1853, the Cincinnati conference of the M. E. Church decided to establish a college for the higher education of the colored race. In 1856, Tawawa Springs (Sweet water) a summer resort was purchased and named Wilberforce University in honor of the great English statesman, William Wilber- force. The grounds comprised fifty-two acres, and of the twenty-four trustees four were colored, Bishop Daniel A. Payne be- ing one; Governor Salmon P. Chase served as one of the twenty-four. Rev. M. P. Gaddes was made principal. He was suc- ceeded by Prof. James K. Parker in 1857. In 1859, Rev. Richard T. Rust, a white minister, was made its first president. The Civil War blighted the prospects of this institution and it suspended in June, 1862. Bishop Payne came to the relief of the institution when it was about to be sold for debt, and his pledge of $10,000 saved the property to his race. Dr. Payne then became president and held that po- sition thirteen years. Just as the uni- versity seemed to be about to enter a new era of prosperity, on April 14. 1865, the day that the great emancipator, Lincoln, was assassinated, some miscreant set fire to the main building at Wilberforce and

it was destroyed. Through the efforts of Dr. Payne by congressional appropriations and by bequests. the institution was again saved, and it is now on a solid foundation and ranks as one of the first small col. leges in the country for white or black.

The present president Dr. W. S. Scar- borough, graduate of Oberlin College, took that position in 1908, and is probably the most learned colored man in America, and through his untiring energy and efforts the institution today is in a flourishing and prosperous condition. It has a Nor- mal and Industrial Department located in a tract of about three hundred acres owned by the State, adjoining the fifty- two acres originally purchased by the university. The state owns the grounds and buildings, and of the nine trustees of the Normal and Industrial Department, the Governor appoints five, Wilberforce University trustees select three and the president of the university is ex-officio the ninth member of the board, and today there are thirty-two teachers and nearly five hundred students. The three depart- ments-Wilberforce University, Payne Theological Seminary and the Normal and Industrial Department-occupy twelve

large brick buildings, including an $18,000 Library Building, a gift of Mr. Carnegie. The value of the grounds, buildings, and equipment is over $500,000. Wilberforce Normal and Industrial Department has not a superior in the state and no other school can offer such advantages to its white students at twice the expense. Col- ored students from Ohio pay no tuition, room rent or incidentals, their only ex- pense being for clothing, books, and $2.00 per week for board. Thus the colored students have a rare opportunity to se- cure college training at an astoundingly low cost.

Wilberforce University students can re- ceive instruction in the following course of study: Classical, Scientific, Academic, Normal, Teacher Training, Theological, Music, English Preparatory, Military, Art, Business, Sewing, Carpentry, Printing, Cooking, Shoemaking. Blacksmithing, Wheelwrighting, Brick-making and Brick- laying, Plumbing. Tailoring, Applied Me- chanics and Millinery, and new depart- ments are being added from year to year.

The influence of Wilberforce on the mental, social and moral welfare of the colored race not only of Ohio but of the whole world, is incalculable.

THE COLLEGE OF WOOSTER (Otherwise known as The University of Wooster). The earliest action looking toward the es- tablishment of The University of Wooster was taken in 1847, by the Synod of Ohio (Presbyterian), when a committee was ap- pointed to study and report. The first charter was taken out December 18, 1866. The organization was brought about by the joint action of the Synods of Ohio, Cincinnati, and Sandusky, with the "hearty God-speed" of the Synod of Cleveland. All these Svnods became united in 1870 as the Synod of Ohio, covering the State. To this united Synod fell the control of the University, now called, more properly, The College of Wooster. In 1901 a change in the charter made more secure the ten- ure by the Synod of Ohio. In 1914 a change in the charter allowed the inter- change of University and College in the corporate name.

The cornerstone was laid June 30, 1868, and the first building was dedicated Sept. 7, 1870. The College Department was opened the same day. The Preparatory Department was opened Sept. 18, 1872, the Musical Department Sept. 13, 1882, the Bible and Missionary Training School

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Sept. 16, 1903, the Commercial Department Sept. 16, 1904, and the Summer School in June, 1895.

The great, main building burned Dec. 11, 1901, and one year from that day five of the present excellent buildings were dedicated. The Chapel was dedicated March 5, 1902, the Library was completed November 6. 1906, Holden Hall (second dormitory for women), was opened Sep- tember, 1907. Kenarden Lodge (dormitory for young men), was completed September 1. 1911. and the I. H. Severance Gymna- sium April 1. 1912. The L. H. Severance Athletic Field was dedicated May 22, 1915.

The first Board of Trustees were Rev. John Robinson. D. D., LL. D., President, Ashland; Rev. William R. Marshall D. D., Columbus; Rev. Henry M. Hervey. New- ark; Rev. John H. Pratt, D. D., Athens; Henry A. True, M. D., Marion; Rev. James A. Reed, D. D., Wooster; Ephraim Quinby, Wooster; John H. Kauke, Woos- ter: David Robinson, Jr .. late of Toledo; Resin B. Stibbs. Wooster; Leander Fire- stone. M. D., LL. D .. Wooster: John Mc- Clellan. Wooster; Lucas Flattery, Wooster; Rev. John B. Stewart. D. D., Cincinnati: Rev. William W. Colmery, D. D., Monroe; Rev. Henry W. Taylor, Franklin; Edward Taylor, M. D., Cleveland; Rev. Morris Cross, D. D., Findlay, and Rev. Edwin B. Raffensperger, D. D., Toledo. The Board was later enlarged to thirty men in addi- tion to the President of the College. The Presidents of the College have been Rev. Willis Lord. D. D .. LL. D., 1870-73; Rev. A. A. E. Taylor, D. D .. LL. D., 1873-83; Rev. Sylvester F. Scovel, D. D., LL. D., 1883-99; Rev. Louis E. Holden. D. D., LL. D., 1899-1915, and Mr. J. Campbell White, LL. D., since 1915.

The College of Wooster stands for botli a wholesome and a whole education. The charter defines its object as "the promo- tion of sound learning and education un- der religious influences." Standing for a broad, liberal culture the College is at the same time positively and frankly Chris- tian, with a cooperative and catholic spirit that is far removed from narrow sectar- ianism. For the physical man every pro - vision has been made that money and skill could develop, in sanitary and fire- proof buildings, gymnasium and athletic fields. The so-called practical side is shown in the two science buildings with their laboratories, said by experts, to be unexcelled for college work. The depart- ments of study are Bible and Missionary Instruction, Biology, Botany, Chemistry. Education, English Literature, French, Geology, German, Greek, History, Latin, Mathematics including Applied Mathe- matics and Astronomy, Music, Oratory, Philosophy and Psychology, Physical Edu- cation, Physics, Political Science, Rhetoric and English Composition, and Spanish. The College is first class, standard, recog- nized, and accredited. It ranks near the top in inter-collegiate athletics. It ranks high in oratorical honors. In inter-col- legiate debates Wooster has won 18 out of 22 debates with other strong colleges. In Christian and educational service it is known and felt around the world. The College of Wooster gets no help from tax- ation. Indeed it is one of the big tax

savers. Free gifts of friends have built her stately walls and endowments. She now has 100 acres of beautiful campus, well equipped buildings of harmony in architecture and symmetry in arrange- ment, worth $1,221,743.60, productive en- dowment of $1,203.301.25 and total assets. May 31, 1916, of $2,620,597.71. The Library has 43.000 volumes of which 40.563 are bound volumes.

There are enrolled this year, 1916-17, 796 students, representing 27 states, and 75 are from 16 foreign countries. There are 92 Seniors, 162 Sophomores, 229 Freshmen, total college 566, and Conserv- atory 162. In each of these figures all previous records are broken. The College Department enrollment runs, the last five years, 435, 433. 440, 517 and 566. There were. in addition, 1281 in the Summer School of 1916. The net total of graduates is 1944, more than 50 per cent. of whom have gone into altruistic service for man- kind. as teachers and Christian leaders.

CASE SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCE, CLEVELAND, OHIO. Leonard Case, tlie founder of Case School of Applied Science, on the 24th of February. 1877. executed a trust deed setting apart certain lands to endow and establish a scientific school in the City of Cleveland. Mr. Case was a graduate of Yale University, a inan of great mathematical and literary ability, and he wished to see established in his own city an institution of learning which would train men for the great industrial Ilfe of the country. After the death of Mr. Case in 1880 the necessary steps were taken to secure a legal incorporation. The preamble to the articles of incorporation is as follows:

"WHEREAS, Leonard Case, late of the City of Cleveland, now deceased, in his lifetime conveyed and assured to Henry G. Abbey, by deeds dated February 24. .1877, and October 16. 1879. certain real estate therein described, and upon the limitations, conditions and trusts therein fully expressed, and thereby directed the said Henry G. Abbey, immediately upon his death. to cause to be formed and reg- ularly incorporated under the laws of Ohio, an institution of learning. called 'The Case School of Applied Science,' to be located in said City of Cleveland, in which should be taught, by competent professors and teachers, Mathematics, Physics, En- gineering-Mechanical and Civil, Economic Geology, Mining and Metallurgy, Natural Ifstory, Drawing, and Modern Languages; and immediately upon the regular organ- ization of such corporation to convey by sufficient deed in fee simple and free and clear of all incumbrances whatever. the said premises to such corporation, to be held and enjoyed by it in perpetuity for the sole and only purpose of collecting and receiving the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and applying the same or the proceeds of said property, to the necessary cost and expenses of providing for and carrying forward in a thorough and effi- cient manner the teaching above named; and such other kindred branches of learn- ing as the Trustees of said institution should deem advisable and to the pay- ment of such other cost and expenses as might be necessary for the general uses and purposes of such an institution."

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The Ohio blue book; or, Who's who in the Buckeye state; a cyclopedia of biography of men and women of Ohio, Part 114

Author: Van Tassel, Charles Sumner, 1858- Publication date: [1917] Publisher: Toledo, Ohio Number of Pages: 494

Author: Van Tassel, Charles Sumner, 1858-
Publication date: [1917]
Publisher: Toledo, Ohio
Number of Pages: 494