USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of genealogy and biography of the state of Pennsylvania with a compendium of history. A record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation, Volume I > Part 19
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In 1870 Dr. Leavitt resigned the presidency, and was succeeded by Robert .A. Lamberton. LL. D .. a prominent lawyer of Harrisburg, and from 1871 to that time a member of the board of trustees. During the presidency of Dr. Lamberton of thirteen years the enrollment was in- creased from 87 to 50m. and the course of instruction was broadened greatly. Also under him was elected a large laboratory, one of the most completely equipped in the United States, for general. qualitative, quanti- tative, organic, industrial and sanitary chemistry, for gas and water
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analysis, for ore assaying, and for general and special metallurgical and mineralogical work. In 1887 Mrs. Mary Packer Cummings erected, as a memorial to her father. Judge Packer. the Packer Memorial Church, which, with its superb organ and beautiful decorations, is one of the noblest and costliest churches in the state.
Dr. Lamberton died in 1863. and Dr. Coppée, senior Professor. ad- ministered the affairs of the University until the election of Thomas Mes- singer Drown. L.L. D. Dr. Drown came to the institution one of the most thoroughly equipped instructors in the country. He was a graduate of the Philadelphia Central High School and of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, and later studied at Yale, Harvard, Freiburg, Heidelberg and Paris. His instructional work included labors at Harvard and Lafayette, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology, where he was in charge of the Chemical Department when he was called to Lehigh. Under him the Physical Laboratory ( burned in April, 1900), was replaced and equipped with apparatus of the most advanced type for instruction in physics and electrical engineering. In the same year was instituted a four years' course in geology, especially adapted to the needs of teachers and those desirous of undertaking practical geo- logical surveying, and Professor E. H. Williams provided for the pur- poses of this department a fully equipped geological laboratory. The work in mechanical engineering was strengthened by optional studies in marine engineering, and the civil engineering department by a special laboratory for tests of strength of materials for building and general construction : in the last named. tests are made. free of charge, by a mem- ber of the teaching corps, for municipalities in the state of Pennsylvania not possessing private testing laboratories.
The University Park contains thirteen buildings, but no dormitories, the students being boarded and.lodged at private residences or in the fra-
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termity houses at Bethlehem and South Bethlehem. Since the founding of the university, more than twelve hundred students have been grad- uated, and nearly as many more have taken partial courses. Lehigh University has never conferred honorary degrees.
The Pennsylvama State College, in Centre county, founded in 1855, was the outcome of a long-cherished plan of men who were solicitons that the agricultural supremacy of Pennsylvania should be maintained. Their animus is not to be properly appreciated unless we recall the fact that at this time, with the exception of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Insti- tute of New York, there was not a single college offering a course of instruction in science as such. In the present day, when so many new in- dustries have grown up, it seems strange to think that practically the first teachings of science should be applied to agriculture. It was not. however, until 1859 that the first small building of the Farmers' High School ( as it was first designated ), was opened for the reception of a chiss of one hundred. In the second year. the first President. Dr. Evan Pugh, took his seat. He was an enthusiast in the cause, but an intelligent one, for he came fresh from attendance at the leading European universities and industrial schools, and from immediate contact with men of high scientific attainments and purposes akin to his own. He died all too soon (in 1863), but he left a permanent impression upon the institution whose future he had comprehensively planned, and he witnessed, in the year before his death, the first governmental recognition of scientific edu- cation in the passage of the Morrill Act of 1862, and the dignifying of his school by its new appellation of the Agricultural College of Penn- sylvania.
The early years of the college were years of hard struggle and dis- couragements, but gradually the institution built up a manual labor sys- tem which naturally led up to laboratory work, thus fulfilling the de-
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sire of the founders, to which were added courses in ancient and modern languages, social economy, commercial law. civil engineering, natural history, etc., and after a time young women were admitted upon the same terms as young men. At the time of this writing ( 1903) the curricula comprise four general courses -- Classical, General Science. Philosophy and Latin-Scientific : nine technical courses-Agriculture, Biology. Chem- istry. Civil Engineering. Electrical Engineering, Mathematics. Mechan- ical Engineering. Mining Engineering, and Physics: to which are added short courses in Agriculture, Chemistry, Mining and Elementary Me- chanics. The College buildings are the main building. a part of which was opened to students in 1859: the engineering building ( with a boiler house and dynamo room attached ). from which heat and light are supplied to all the public buildings, which is one of the finest buildings of its kind in the United States, at present overcrowded with the four departments of civil, electrical, mechanical and mining engineering : the armory, which is also used as a gymnasium: the botanical and horticultural building. with the necessary conservatory and green houses: the chemical and physical building, in which these two departments are combined under one roof : the cottage for young women, the offices and laboratories of the Agricultural Experiment Station ( established in 1887). and thirteen residences for. the president and professors. In addition to these are the residences of the superintendent of grounds and buildings, with four cottages for workmen, and with barns, sheds. tool houses, etc .. on each of the two farms. The equipment of all the technical departments is of the best kind and sufficient for every ordinary purpose of instruction. while some are among the very best of their kind in the United States. The value of the college property is $1.392.000. a part of which is repre- sented by the land grant aid afforded by the proceeds of public land sales under congressional legislation, and the state has made an average annual
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appropriation of about $22,000 for buildings, equipment and maintenance. The last report gave the number of instructors as 43, and of students a$ 392.
The Pennsylvania Military College at Chester, favorably known throughout the United States, is the direct successor of the boarding school opened at Wilmington. Delaware, by John Bullock, in 1821. He conducted it with much success until his death. in 1847. when it passed into the charge of Samuel Alsop, who in 1853 transferred it to Theodore Hyatt. In 1856 a military department was organized under the direction of Lieutenant Jefferson II. Nones, an ex-officer of the United States army. The institution now took the name of Delaware Military Academy, and the state furnished it with two field-pieces and arms for the cadet corps, while the Governor appointed Principal Hyatt to the position of colonel and aide-de-camp on his staff. Increased facilities having become necessary, the institution was removed to West Chester, Pennsylvania, and the first session there was opened September 4. 1862. under the corporate title of the Pennsylvania Military Academy. In 1865 removal was made to Chester, where rented buildings were occu- pied until 1868, when a suitable edifice was completed. The principal building was burned down in 1882, and the school occupied the Ridley Park Hotel until the former could be replaced. Colonel Theodore Hyatt died in 1887, and was succeeded by Colonel Charles E. Hyatt. the present Principal. In 1892 the name of the institution was changed to Pennsyl- vania Military College. Changes, improvements and additions have marked the passing of recent years, and the present equipment of build- ings affords excellent advantages for the collegiate education and military instruction of a large corps of cadets.
Lincoln University, in Chester county, founded in 1857. for the education of young colored men, owes its establishment to the zealous
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labors of the late Rev. John M. Dickey. D. D., a devout Christian min- ister and large-hearted philanthropist, whose active life extended over a full half century, terminating with his death, in 1878. in his seventy- second year. The story of the greatest of his achievements, the founding of Lincoln University, is worth the telling, and, in part, for the light it affords as to the sentiments of a class of a past generation with reference to human slavery.
In 1849 Dr. Dickey was serving in the pastorate of the Presbyterian church at Oxford. He was in his forty-third year, an age when most men are inclined to take life quietly, and avoid, rather than seek. new and untried ventures. But now he entered upon a new field which was to claim his attention during the remainder of his life. At a meeting of the Presbytery of New London, called for the ordination of the Rev. James L. Mackey. the pioneer missionary of the Presbyterians to Corisco. Africa. he conceived the idea of creating an institution for the traming of colored missionaries for the evangelization of the Dark Continent. His mind and heart were well prepared for the work which he was to essay. He was deeply interested in all pertaining to education, having been, as early as 1835. the principal agent in the founding of the Oxford Female Sem- inary. But weightier considerations now pressed upon him. A man of naturally large benevolence and broad sympathy, his interest in the colored race was intensified by hereditary influences. His mother, a woman of remarkable strength of character. was spoken of as "the friend of all, but especially of those in need; the colored people around her shared largely in her sympathies and kind instruction." His father had been one of the most active managers of the Chester County Colonization Society from its foundation in 1827, and he himself was further strength- ened in his daw ning purposes through his own intimate association with Elliot Cresson, a generous ally and benefactor of the Society before
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named, and whose sister became his wife. To add to all these influences were the strong impressions he received during a home missionary service in south Georgia and Florida.
Dr. Dickey's first effort was to induce Mr. Mackey to abandon his purpose to go to Africa. He urged that it would be a better service to remain at home and open a school for the training of colored men, whose bodily constitutions better fitted them for such missionary work. Here the matter rested for some years, during which time occurred the notori- our Parker case. Two free colored girls had been kidnapped from their home near Oxford and taken to Baltimore, where one was soll and sent to New Orleans. Dr. Dickey, became the leader in the twelve months' contest for their recovery. a service attended with such great bodily danger that, when leaving home in connection with the case and the subsequent trial. he bade farewell to his family. uncertain that he would live to return.
In 1852 opportunity came to Dr. Dickey to advance the purpose which he had never ceased to cherish. James R. Amos, a young colored minister of the Methodist church, desirous of extending his education. solicited Dr. Dickey to obtain for him entrance to an academy. Dr. Dickey, with much difficulty, gained for his protege admission to the school connected with the Presbyterian Synod of Philadelphia. The faculty was soon obliged to relegate the colored student to the position of janitor. on account of the prejudices of his white classmates, who. learn- ing shortly afterward that he was continuing his studies privately. pro- tested in a body and his dismissal became imperative. Dr. Dickey then sought to secure his admission to Princeton Seminary, but the entrance examination proved as effectuil a barrier as race prejudice was in the former instance. Unable to enter a school, for some time the young man once a week visited Dr. Dickey's study, each time walking a distance of
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twenty-eight miles. Meantime. Dr. Dickey corresponded with almost every school in the United States that was understood to hold at all liberal views toward the colored race. but without success, and he finally deter- mined upon the creation of an institution for the education of colored youth only. His first mention of his project was before a colonization meeting held in Oxford church. It was given form before the Presby- terian Assembly of 1853 in a memorial from the Presbytery of New Castle, and the assembly resolved to "cordially approve and recommend the establishment of a high school for the use and benefit of the free colored population of the country." October 8th following. the Pres- bytery of New Castle adopted resolutions providing for the establishment of such an institution, and these embodied the desires and conclusions of Dr. Dickey. reciting the inability of the colored people to secure educated ministers and teachers, the difficulties experienced by colored youth in obtaining a liberal education, and the great need for missionary work in Africa, for which an educated colored ministry would be emi- nently adapted. In April following ( 1854) a charter was procured from the legislature for Ashmun Institute. named for Jehudi Ashmun. who was agent for the Liberia Colonization Society from 1822 until his death in 1828. a man of deep piety and self-sacrificing spirit. By the terms of the organic act. Ashmun Institute was to be "an institu- tion of learning for the scientific, classical and theological education of colored youth of the male sex."
Meantime. Dr. Dickey had given himself unsparingly to the ardu- ous work of providing means for the projected institute. He first en- deavored to obtain a site in or near Oxford, but encountered stremous resistance, the people fearing a reduction of value of contiguous prop- erty. He then selected a farm tract near Hinsonville, which he bought upon his own responsibility. For three years after the granting of the
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institute charter. Dr. Dickey was busied in obtaining money for the purchase of the land and the erection of buildings. He delivered in- numerable addresses, and made urgent personai appeals to people of heart and means, traveling often and far in prosecution of his work. and facing indifference, prejudice and opposition almost everywhere. He was put to such straits that he mortgaged his private property to provide for the erection of the first buildings. He finally overcame what appeared to be insuperable difficulties, and on the last day in the year 1856 he had the satisfaction of seeing Ashmun Hall opened and dedi- cated. This was while the slave power was yet dominant in the United States: while the fugitive slave law was in force: before Abraham Lincoln had become a national figure, and seven years before that im- mortal man had penned the Proclamation of Emancipation. But faith was strong in Dr. Dickey, and upon a marble slab in the front wall of Ashmun Institute were inseribed the words of hope and promise : "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." Upon this dedicatory occasion an eloquent address. "God Glorified in Africa," was delivered by the Rev. C. Van Rensselaer. D. D. Secretary of the Presbyterian Board of Education, who had been a warm friend of the enterprise. Next day. January 1. 1857. the first short session was opened under the charge of the Rev. J. P. Carter. A. M .. of Baltimore, who was the principal and the sole teacher. There were but four students at the opening, and among them was James R. Amos, whose name is already familiar in this narrative. He had labored in the erection of the build- ing, and was the first steward of the institution. He was the first graduate. in 1858: in the same year he was licensed by the Presbytery of New Castle, and in 1859 he sailed for Liberia, where he labored faith- fully for five years as a missionary and a pioneer in extending mission
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work. In 1864. while on a visit to the United States, he came to an untimely death from consumption.
The story of Ashmun Institute during the years which intervened before the close of the civil war is a record of difficulties and strug- gles. But. finally. as prophesied in the memorial slab in the original building. the night was gone and the day had dawned. With the res- toration of peace. in 1865. came new friends and more bountiful gifts. In the following year, out of grateful recognition of the Martyred Emancipator. the grandest figure of his age. by charter amendment Ashinun Institute became Lincoln University.
The property of Lincoln University comprises a tract of one hun- dred and thirty-two acres of land, upon which stand a handsome group of buildings-University Hall. for recitation purposes : Livingston Hall. for commencement assemblages. the gift of Miss Susan Gorgas, of West Chester: the Vail Memorial Library, provided through the mu- nificence of William H. Vail. of Newark, New Jersey: the Harriet Watson Jones Hospital. built by J. M. C. Dickey. of Oxford: four dormitories : Houston Hall. for the theological students, the gift of H. H. Houston, of Philadelphia: Cresson Hall. the gift of the Freedman's Bureau. through the instrumentality of General O. O. Howard, and Ashinun Hall and Lincoln Hall. both built with undesignated funds.
The University is open to students of all religious denominations. the only requisite for admission being evidence of fair moral char- acter. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States commends the school, and holds a veto power in the election of professors in the Theological Department. The number of students now enrolled is 241. In all more than one thousand young men have been under training in the University: four hundred in the full college curriculum and six hundred in a preparatory and partial course. Two
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linndred of these have been fitted for the ministry by an additional three years' course of instruction in theology, and entered the ministry of the Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Congregational and Episcopal churches. Other collegiates entered the legal and medical professions, and a large number became teachers. The president is Rev. Isaac M. Rendall. D. D.
Allegheny College, Meadville, possesses a history at once unique and deeply interesting. Its founder was Timothy Alden. D. D., of Boston, a descendant of John Alden. of "Mayflower" fame, and a grad- uate of Harvard, as were all his male ancestors from 1665 down. His mother was a descendant of Fox. the martyrologist. Dr. AAlden was a brilliant scholar. At college he was distinguished for his proficiency in oriental languages, and his graduating oration was in Syriac. Ile preached acceptably in Boston and New York, and spent his vacation preaching to the Indians. In 1815 Meadville had a population of only five hundred. but some of its citizens projected a college, and called to the work Dr. Alden, who declined a call to the presidency of a college at Cincinnati in order to plant an institution at Meadville. Dr. Alden went east and succeeded in obtaining donations to the amount of about $4,000, while the people of Meadville and vicinity contributed over $5.000-this, considering the hard times following the war of year of 1812, showing remarkable generosity-and the state added a further sum of $7.000. In the same year the college was chartered ( 1817). the first commencement was held. and. while there were no graduates, the high grade of scholarship is evidenced by the fact that a llebrew oration and four Latin orations were delivered. During the fifteen years of President Alder's administration there were but twelve graduates in all. Instruction was given in the old log court house and in Dr. Alden's residence until 1822, when was built Bentley Hall, So
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named in honor of Rev. William Bentley, who at his death left to the institution a library valued at $3.000. AAbout 1832 Dr. Alden presented to the Presbytery of Erie a petition asking that body to take Allegheny College under its patronage, but this was denied. the Presbyterians already having two small colleges in western Pennsylvania. The effect of this was to reduce the attendance of students and lose an annual state appropriation of $1.000. Dr. Aklen saw failure staring him in the face. and he resigned.
Bentley Hall stood untenanted for two years, when Rev. Homer J. Clark came to the pastorate of the Methodist church at Meadville. Determined to resuscitate the college in the interests of his denomina- tion, he procured a meeting of the Pittsburg Methodist conference in 1
Meadville, and that body pledged its patronage and $20.000 for the establishment of the school. The monetary pledge was not fulfilled, but the school was reopened in November. 1833. with Rev. Martin Ruter. D. D., President : Rev. Homer J. Clark. D. D .. Vice-President and Professor of Mathematics: and A. W. Ruter as Professor of Languages. Dr. Ruter graduated fourteen students during his four years' preff dency, and resigned to become superintendent of his church missy work in Texas. He was a man of industry and versatility-the author of a Ilebrew grammar. a "History of the Martyrs," and a "History of the Methodist Church," which was the standard for ministers of that denomination for nearly half a century-and his services and talents find standing attestation in Ruter Hall. erected in 1855 by the citizens of Meadville, and named in his honor. He was succeeded by Rev. Homer J. Clark ( 1837-47). who, during his administration added nearly $60,000 to the endowment, but seriously impaired his physical powers in the effort. Dr. Barker next came to the presidency and discharged the duties of the position with signal ability and singular loyalty. re-
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peatedly dechning other similar places with larger salary, until he was stricken with apoplexy in December. 1859. the twelfth year of his in- cumbency. Under President Loomis, the fine Culver Hall was erected. The most important feature of his administration, however, was the admission of females as students, which result was in greater part brought about through the instrumentality of Professor Hyde, and it is worthy of remark that Allegheny was one of the first colleges in the country to introduce this innovation. Under the administration of President Bugbee. Alexander Bradley, of Pittsburg, added to previous liberal gifts, endowing the chair of Latin in perpetuity. During the same period. Hulings Hall was built. and a United States army officer was first assigned to duty there as instructor of military science. Under President Wheeler the college course was completely modernized, and the policy was adopted of appointing only specialists to the faculty. Dr. William H. Crawford became President in 1893. and during his term several new chairs were founded and a gymnasium was built.
Allegheny College counts among her alumni an extraordinary num- ber of distinguished men. Among them are two bishops of the Meth- odist Episcopal church-Kingsley and Thoburn; six college presidents -Martin, of DePauw University: Marvin, of the University of Kan- sas: Goff. of the Western University of Pennsylvania: Freshwater, of Baldwin University, Ohio: Williams, of Allegheny College ; and Harts- horn. the founder of Mount Union College, in Ohio; several dis- tinguished jurists, among them Judges John J. Henderson and Pierson Church: two governors of states-Pierpont. of West Virginia, and Lowndes, of Maryland. Former President Mckinley was a student at Allegheny College in his freshman year.
Dickinson College, at Carlisle, chartered in 1783. had for its prin- cipal sponsors Benjamin Rush and John Dickinson, and the institution
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was named for the last named, who was then the chief magistrate of the state, and who became the first President of the College, continuing in that position until his death, in 1808. His gifts to the college in- cluded a plantation of two hundred acres in York, another of five hun- dred acres in Cumberland county, five hundred dollars in money, and the nucleus of a library from his own collection of books. April 6. 1784. was elected the first Faculty: Dr. Charles Nisbet, a Scotchman. Principal, and James Ross, Professor of Greek and Latin. When Dr. Nisbet came, in 1785 (the grammar school having previously been opened under the direction of Professor Ross). the Rev. Robert David- son, pastor of the Presbyterian church of Carlisle, was called to the chair of History and Belles Lettres, and a Mr. Jait was chosen to "teach the students to read and write the English language with cle- gance and propriety." Instruction was first given in a small brick build- ing near the corner of Bedford street and Liberty avenue. In 1798 the present fine site was purchased from the Penns, and upon it was built a commodious edifice which was destroyed by fire before its completion. Among the subscribers to the rebuilding fund were Thomas Jefferson. Count de la Luzerne, the French minister, and seventeen members of Congress. The plans were drawn by the United States government architect, and as the result of his labors the present West College was erected. a superb example of colonial architecture. This edifice was the first of a series of eleven fine buildings now constituting the college establishment, the first of them being a building for grammar school and religious purposes, which was burned down in 1836 (the year following its erection ), and was replaced with the present substantial brick edifice. Among the present buildings are the Tome Scientific School, provided through the generosity of Jacob Tome, of Port De-
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