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 23
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After an interruption of more than a quarter of a century, law was made a course of study in 1817, and was taught by Charles W. Hare, who announced three courses of lectures : 1. On Natural Jurisprudence. or the science of right and wrong as it appears to human reason, com- pared with, illustrated by and embodied in law : 2. International Juris- prudence, including particularly the theory and practice of the Con-
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stitutions of the United States and of the State of Pennsylvania: 3. Jurisprudence of the United States and Pennsylvania as distinguished from the Common Law of England. Only the first course was given. Mr. Hare losing his reason, and his vacant chair remained unfilled. In 1832 the University trustees were solicited to re-establish the Pro- fessorship: but no action was taken.
In 1850 the Law School was revived and entered upon a continui- outs existence under the scholarly George Sharswood. then Judge of the District Court of Philadelphia. Blackstone and Kent were the authors studied, and moot courts were hekl. In 1852 two eminent jurists. Peter McCall and E. Spencer Miller, were associated with Judge Sharswood in a Law Faculty, and this marked the beginning of a regular system of instruction. These were succeeded by other masters in the profes- sion, but the real beginning of the great development of the Law School of the University dates from 1887. when C. Stuart Patterson and .1. Syndey Biddle were made Professors, with the first named as Dean. Until that time the school had no settled quarters. no equipment, and little more in the way of a library than the Bouvier Civil Law donated by Dr. Peterson. This was now supplemented by the Biddle Law Library, formerly the property of Benjamin II. Brewster, and presented by the Biddle brothers as a memorial of their father. George Biddle. In 1900 was dedicated what is perhaps the largest and most effectively equipped law school building in existence, its cost of nearly $400,000 being met by municificent memorial gifts from the families and friends of distinguished lawers and jurists, and by other generous contributions from members of the legal profession
In 1895 the Western University of Pennsylvania at Pittsburg es- tablished a Law Department with Hon. John A. Shafer as Dean. This "how] is well oficered and amply equipped. Its graduate list. while in
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the necessity of the case small, is of such character as to reflect credit upon it.
THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS.
The Theological Seminary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America was organized at Philadelphia in 1807. The first profes- sor was Rev. Samuel B. Wylie. D. D., who continued in his office until 1851. his classes meeting in his residence. He died in 1852, and the school was conducted by Rev. Samuel W. Crawford, Adjunct Professor. who was assisted by Rev. Theodorus Wylie, son of the first President. Dr. Crawford resigned in 1855, and in 1859 Dr. Andrew Black was ap- pointed Professor, but did not live to take his seat. In 1860 Rev. John Viel MeLeod. D. D., was appointed Professor of Doctrinal Theology, and Dr. Wylie was continued in his chair of Biblical Literature, and Church llistory and Pastoral Theology. In 1856 the institution was incorpo- rated. The faculty was considerably augmented in succeeding years. During the past half century the seminary met for seventeen years in rooms of the First Reformed Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and for twenty-two years in rooms of the Fourth Church, and from 1890 to 1898 in rooms of the Second Church. In 1898 the trustees purchased a fine building overlooking the University of Pennsylvania, about midway between the Medical and Law departments. The alumni list is not large, numbering little more than three hundred. The seminary. hon - ever, enjoys the distinction of being among the oldest in the United States, and among its graduates are many who have occupied some of the most prominent pulpits in the country. Among the students. 1864-65. was Dr. Gregory, now among the foremost scholars in Germany.
Allegheny Theological Seminary, (or, as its legal title runs, the Allegheny Theological Seminary of the United Presbyterian Church of North America). was established in 1825, by the Associate Reformed
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Somod of the West. At the first it had but one teacher. Rev. Joseph Kerr. The seminary was incorporated by the Legislature in 1830. U'n- til 1832 the school was held in Pittsburg, and afterward, in Allegheny. when Hanna Hall was buih out of a Lequest by Thomas Hanna. In ISof the old buildings were razed to make room for a modern structure. the funds being provided in greater part by residents of Pittsburg and Megheny. Since its establishment, more than eleven hundred young men have recited in its classes, the larger number of whom entered the ministry.
The Reformed Presbyterian ( Covenanter) Theological Seminary at Allegheny was established in 1850. The faculty numbers three in-
The Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church in the United States, at Lancaster, grew out of an urgent need. From 1747 10 1824 the Reformed Church in America was without a theological school; there were one hundred and fifty vacant pastomates, and of the eighty ministers then on the roll there were but two or three who were held to be qualified of who would serve as teacher in a theological seminary Under pres- sure of these conditions, in 1825 was opened, at Carlisle, a school of theol- ogy with one professor and five students, on the basis of an agreement entered into by the Synod of the Reformed Church and the trustees of Dickinson College, then under Presbyterian control. In 1829 the school was removed to York, and a classical department was added. In 1835 another removal was made, to Mercersburg, where the classical school developed into Marshall College. When Marshal and Franklin Colleges became one at Lancaster. the Theological Seminary remained at Mercers- burg until 1871, when it also removed to the same place The Faculty numbers six Professors. The graduates aggregate nearly six hundred und fity, and the annual attendance is about one hundred and twenty.
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Crozer Theological Seminary. Upland. ( Chester ), was founded by the widow and children of John P. Crozer, and was incorporated in 1867. By arrangement. Bucknell University ( formerly Lewisburg College) abandoned its theological department, which was under Baptist auspices, to the new school. The Crozer school opened October 2. 1868, under the presidency of Rev. Henry G. Weston, D. D., LL.D., who, now upwards of eighty years of age. yet occupies his old position, as well as the chair of Practical Theology. The school has given instruction to more than two thousand students who have become Baptist ministers. The college buildings occupy an ideal site overlooking the Delaware river, and its real property is valued at about $200.000. The endowment amounts to about a half million dollars.
The Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Philadel- phia, was founded through the effort of Rt. Rev. Alonzo Potter, D.D., in 1862. Its property and endowments amount to $450,000. The school has about five hundred matriculated students, and its alumni number more than three hundred. among whom are three bishops, and about ten who are or have been professors in divinity schools. \ large propor- tion of the alumni are or have been in the mission field.
The Theological Seminary of the Reformed Episcopal Church was established in 1887. upon the gift of a woman who donated land and a building, valued at $150,000, together with a sum of $50.000 as an en- dowment fund. The seminary buiklings form part of a superb architec- tural group of church edifices in West Philadelphia. at the corner of For- ty-third and Chestnut streets. Its educational advantages are offered on equal terms to young men of all denominations, and Presbyterians. Methodists and Baptists have been received and educated.
Meadville Theological School, at Meadville. ( Unitarian), was es- tablished in 1844. and incorporated in 1846. In its original form the
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charter provided that no doctrinal test except "a belief in the divine origin of Christianity" should ever be made a condition of membership in the school. but this was dropped in 1897, and the charter in its present form declares it to be the purpose of the school to "give instruction in religion, theology, ethics and preparation for the Christian ministry." This does not exclude instruction immediately subsidiary to the principal purpose, although at present there is no distinct preparatory department as in the early days of the school. Instruction was at first given in an abandoned church building. The first teacher was Rev. Frederic Huide- koper, who afforded his services gratuitously during all bis many years of service. Later he had for an associate teacher Rev. Rufus P. Stebbins. who was also President, and one or two non-resident instructors delivered lectures at intervals.
The School has steadily grown, and now owns property to the value of more than $500,000, and a library of 25.000 volumes. Of its more than $30,000 endowment. $25.000 was given by parishioners of Rev. Robert Collyer, of New York City. The present faculty numbers six members, with three instructors who give assistance in subsidiary branch-
es. The School has graduated nearly three hundred students, many of whom have entered the Unitarian ministry.
Among Roman Catholic ecclesiastical institutions in the United States few hold a more prominent place than the Theological Seminary of St. Charles Borromeo, at Overbrook. This establishment, designed sole- ly for the education of candidates for the priesthood in the Diocese of Philadelphia, had for its founder the Rt. Rev. Francis P. Kenrick. D.D .. whose plans found consummation in the labors of his successors. The first class. five young men. assembled in 1832. The seminary was the in- dividual concern of Bishop Kenrick until 1838, when the school was in- corporated under Act of the Legislature. In 1865 was bought one h-
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dred and thirty-seven acres of land at Overbrook. upon which was erected one of the finest diocesan ecclesiastical seminaries in the world. The number of professors is fifteen, and the number of students is usually about one hundred and forty.
Villanova College, about six miles from Philadelphia, is the chief religious and educational institute of the Augustinians. It was planted in 1842. chiefly through the effort of Rev. John P. O'Dwyer. and in 1843 Pope Gregory XVI created Villanova a novice and study house of its order. Church and lay departments are maintained, and about one hun- dred and seventy-five students attend.
St. Vincent College, at Beatty. in Westmoreland county, was found- ed in 1846 by Arch-Abbot Boniface Wimmer. to supply the need for Ger- man speaking priests in the United States. He came from Bavaria. whose king. Louis, had afforded him pecuniary assistance. In the early days the College was a purely German institution, but after a time the English language was introduced. From this parent house not only have hundreds gone out into the ministry, but ten colleges in various parts of the country have sprung from it. The annual attendance of students in all the various classes is about three hundred.
St. Vincent's Seminary at Germantown is the central house of the Congregation of the Mission (more commonly known as the Lazarists. or Vincentian Fathers) in the eastern part of the United States-an or- der of priests bound to labor for the salvation of the poor and the train- ing of young men for the ministry. The community was first established near St. Louis, Missouri, whence Rev. S. V. Ryan transferred the cen- tral house to Germantown, in 1868.
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg, in his plans for the development of the Lutheran Church in America. contemplated the erection of a theological seminary at Philadelphia, and as early as 1749 purchased a building site.
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His relative and successor. Rev. John C. Kunze, sought to carry the idea In success, but the Revolutionary war postponed the movement. Mean- time, the pastors of the mother churches, in an unbroken line, gave in- struction to theological students, still keeping in mind the desire of Muhl- enberg, and one of the number ( Rev. C. R. Denne), began the nucleus of a library before the College was brought into being.
In 1864. Dr. C. W. Schaeffer. President of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, urged the immediate establishment of a theological sem- inary, and on October 4. in St. John's Church. Philadelphia, a Faculty was formed: Dr. Charles F. Schaeffer. Dr. William J. Mann. Dr. Charles 1. Krauth, Dr. Charles W. Schaeffer and Dr. Gottlob F. Krotel. Instruction was at first given in the rooms of the Lutheran Board of Pub- lication, and until 1865, when a building was purchased. The capacity of this building was doubled in 1873, and in 1889, on the twenty-fifth an- niversary of the school, removal was taken to new buildings at Mount Viry, the present home of the institution. The grounds. comprising nearly seven acres, are handsomely improved, and contain spacious build- ings sufficient for instructional and dormitory purposes. . A highly valued possession of the Evangelical Lutheran Theological Seminary is the liturgical library, collected at a great outlay of time and money by Rev. B. M. Schmucker, late English secretary of the Church Book Com- mittee. This comprises a large portion of the collections of Petri and other eminent liturgiologists in Germany, and can justly claim to be with- out an equal in America, if, indeed, in Europe. The seminary has grad- uated upwards of six hundred ministers, who are serving in all portions of the United States.
The Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg was established 111 1825. h offers two courses leading to the Bachelor of Divinity de- gree: a regular course for such as have graduated in the classical depart-
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ment of a regular college ; and a post-graduate course for non-resident pupils who have not had the benefit of a collegiate and theological train- ing. The real estate is valued at $160,000, and the library contains 14.000 volumes.
Susquehanna University, at Selinsgrove, was founded in 1858, under the name of the Missionary Institute. It is designed especially to aid the need for ministers in the General Synod of the Lutheran Church. It maintains a collegiate as well as a theological course, and has a corps of sixteen professors and instructors.
The Moravian College and Theological Seminary at Bethlehem had its inspiration in a meeting of Moravian clergymen in 1802. The sug- gestion came from C. L. Benzien, but no definite action was taken until 1806, when Charles de Forrestier and Christian Renatus Verbeek were sent out by the ruling board of the Unitas Fratrum. and in the following year installed Ernest L. Hazelius and John C. Bechler as Professors in a new theological seminary to be conducted in connection with the church school for boys at Nazareth, Pennsylvania. In 1838 the Seminary was removed to Bethlehem, thence in 1851 to Nazareth, and in 1858 to Beth- lehiem. In 1825 the school received the Haga legacy of $25.000. In the last year of its residence at Nazareth. it occupied the historie Ephrata House. built originally for George Whitefield. and which now contains the museum and archives of the Moravian Historical Society. The Col- lege had no existence as such until 1858. ( to this time it had been a class- ical school preparatory to theology), when the Provincial Synod made its title "The Moravian College and Theological Seminary." and in 1863 it was incorporated as such by Act of the Legislature. In 1867 Rt. Rev. Edmund de Schweinitz became President, and the curriculum was con- siderably expanded. In 1885 the College entered upon its period of greatest prosperity under the presidency of Dr. Augustus Schultze, who
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had come from the vice-presidency of the Moravian College at Niesky. Germany, to a professorship in the College, in 1870. In 1800-02 were built a group of buildings on College Heights, in North Bethlehem- Comenius Hall, the principal building: the refectory, and the professors' residence. In 1893 Mr. and Mrs. Ashton C. Borhek erected the Helen Stadiger Borhek Memorial Chapel. Since 1885 the endowments have in- creased to the sum of $1 17.000, and the annual expenses of the institution are about $10,000. During the same period the courses of study have undergone various modifications and additions, bringing them into line with the broadest requirements of the present time, providing thorough instruction in collegiate and theological courses. Special stress is placed upon the splendid literatures of Greece and Rome, and this is in marked contrast to many high-class institutions which have given way before the modern tendency to minimize the value of classical training. It is in- teresting to note the fact that the museum is especially rich in the depart- ments of botany and mineralogy, and the world-wide distribution of Mo- ravian missionaries is traceable in the large number of rare anthropo- logical curios which have come to its shelves.
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CHAPTER XIII.
SOCIAL CONDITIONS.
Said Sir Walter Scott, "there is no heroic poem in the world but is at the bottom the life of a man." Truly, heroic poems were those written in the lives of the makers of Pennsylvania-those who planted on its hills and in its valleys the church and the school house, and laid the foundations of its mighty industries-and it is a most interesting and profitable pursuit to learn of what manner of men they were, for they were the forbears of the American of to-day. This lineage of ours is ex- ceedingly complex. The man among us who can trace his ancestry purely and unbrokenly from the immigrant of his name .- English, Scotch, Irish or German, as the case may be .- is the exception, so intermarried have all these various races. Side by side with this blood admixture, is to be con- sidered. though it cannot be measured. the subtle influences of association, which make of each human being. in some degree, the composite product of those of his fellows with or near whom his lot has been cast in the formative period of his life. And so, in some degree, even though there be no blood relationship, have we of the present been stamped, more or less strongly, with all the good (and the evil, too), of all the peoples whom we are to consider.
. If there is aught in the history of Pennsylvania that is so completely established as to be wholly outside the pale of controversy. it is the fact that its early colonists were a deeply religious people. Penn, in his "Frame of Government." had provided that "all persons living in this Province, who confess and acknowledge the one almighty and eternal God to be the creator, upholder and ruler of the world, and that hold them-
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selves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society. shall in no way's be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion or practice in matters of faith and worship, nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place, or ministry whatever." In response came English and Welsh Quakers. Scotch-Irish Presbyterians. French Huguenots, and, at a later day. German Mennonites and Moravians. All these peoples had been the objects of persecution in their native land, and they came to America intent upon enjoying the freedom there assured to them. and with no thought of restricting the liberties of those religionists who held to a different faith. And so it came that while Quakers were being whipped in New England, and Episcopalians were being driven out of her boundaries, every form of religion was t derated in Pennsylvania. From that carly day, religion has prospered. and to-day Pennsylvania stands first among the states in the number of church organizations. first in the member of church edifices, and first in the approximate seat- ing capacity of the church buildings. In the value of church property. Pennsylvania stands second only to New York, and occupies the same relative position as to the number of communicants or members.
Penn's original Quaker colony claims first attention. In a general way it may be said that Philadelphia was settled by English and Welsh Friends. Old Chester county ( now divided into the counties of Chester and Delaware), was settled by English. Welsh. Germans and Dutch. To the Welsh was set off a forty thousand acre tract on the Schuylkill river, which included that beautiful stretch of country now so familiar to the people of eastern Pennsylvania, and so attractive to them on ac- count of its fine school and college buildings and elegant suburban homes the water-shed between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers, rising steadily from the west bank of the stream first named for about
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twenty-five miles to the sunenit near Paoli. On the northern side, beautiful views are obtained of the Chester valley, or, as it was called by the Welsh, Duffrin Mawr. Many of the towns and townships yet bear the pleasing Cymric names which were originally bestowed upon them. as Uwchlan. Bryn Mawr, Berwyn and Tredyffrin; and names of like origin. as Gwynedd and Penllyn, were carried into Montgomery county.
The influence of the Quakers was potential in the history of the Province, coloring its thought in every department of life. Their re- ligious meetings were first held in private houses, and afterwards. as their numbers uncreased, they erected small, plain buildings, at first of logs, and later of stone or brick, which were frequently used for edu- cational as well as religious purposes. Their distinguishing doctrine, that of "the light of Christ in man," led them to believe that obedience to the inner voice is that which brings salvation : that mortal man needs not so much a pardon at the close of life for errors committed while he lives, as he does guardianship during life that will keep him from error, and that, so preserved from sin in the present life. he will have no sin to atone for at the end. Their worship is for the most part silent and inward. they preferring to "make melody in their hearts unto God." They rejected baptism and the Lord's Supper as observed by other Christians. They abstained from all worldly amusements. They were the earliest in America to condemn and then strenuously oppose human slavery and aid in bringing slaves to freedom, contributing of their means to that purpose, and opening their houses for the concealment of runaways until they couldl safely continue their journey toward free Canada. Their conscientious scruples against bearing arms would not permit them to take an active part in the Revolutionary war, but for the greater part they were true patriots, and afforded the infant govern-
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ment substantial aid in contributing to the support of its army. The distinguishing characteristics of this exemplary people have by no means disappeared. Many of their descendants bore a splendid part in pre- serving the west for freedom when Kansas was a dark and bloody ground, contended for by free-soilers and slavery extensionists. An example of this class was Colonel Kersey Coates, a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania. He taught in the high school in his native town, studied law under Thaddeus Stevens, and was admitted to the bar. . At the solicitation of Mr. Stevens he went to Kansas in 1854 as agent for the Emigration Aid Society of Pennsylvania, whose purpose was to purchase public lands and settle them with a desirable class of free- soilers. He was engaged in this work for two years, and during this time he witnessed many scenes of violence and bloodshed, while his own life was frequently imperiled. He was more than the mere agent for capitalists and homeseekers. His natural instincts led him to abhor slavery, and his convictions had been deepened through the influence of his father, an active aider in the management of the "Underground Railway," and of his personal friend and patron, Thaddeus Stevens, an implacable foe of human bondage. Mr. Coates aided the free-sollers (among whom were many Pennsylvanians ) persistently and fearlessly, and came to be regarded as one of their most resourceful and determined leaders. In two instances his experiences were among the most intensely interesting and thrillingly dramatic of those troublous times. In the one. he was of counsel for the defense of Governor Charles Robinson, p !! on trial for treason because of his refusal to be the tool of the slavery propagandists. In the other, he afforded concealment and protection to Governor Andrew H. Reeder (also a Pennsylvanian ). whose life was in jeopardy. and aided his escape to Illinois. Years afterward. Gover- nor Reeder sent to Mrs. Coates an oil painting of himself in his dis-
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