USA > Pennsylvania > Greene County > History of Greene County, Pennsylvania > Part 29
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But by far the most important educational agency in the county is that of Waynesburg College. It is not only an institution in which every citizen may justly cherish a pride, affording as it does the highest grade of academic culture at his own door, but is a source of prosperity to the town, and indeed to the whole county, even to its remotest borders. Though not so numerously attended, nor so liberally endowed, nor so widely celebrated on account of age and a long line of illustrious alumnorum, yet the elements of all liberal studies may as successfully be acquired here, as in the older and more noted institutions; for, after all, it is not what is put into a student by costly and elaborate appliances, but what can be developed in his inner consciousness, and made to grow and strengthen with use, that is the main end of education, and it is a question which challenges con- sideration whether the smaller and more secluded institutions are not more favorable for the development of the mental faculties, than those where crowds are gathered, where students must spend large sums of money, and squander much valuable time by night and by day to preserve their social standing. Of the eminent men, who have, by their talents, acquired national and even cosmopolitan prominence, the majority are the children of the minor institutions, and in the coming years the men who shall wield the healthiest influence in church and State, and win for themselves imperishable fame, will come from the institutions which bend all their forces to the strengthening of the individuality of the student.
Waynesburg College originated in a long-felt want on the part of the membership of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Pennsylvania for an institution of learning in their midst of a high order. Madison College, at Uniontown, Fayette County, Pennsyl- vania, and Beverly College, at Beverly, Ohio, had been subjects of their patronage, and confident hopes had been entertained that these institutions would afford all needed facilities. But for rea- sons not necessary here to be set forth, these anticipations had not been realized. " A sense of the need," says Dr. Miller, in his history of the college, from which this sketch is chiefly drawn, " of better educational facilities must have pervaded the entire Synod.
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The number of candidates for the ministry was small, and the Pres- byteries felt that provision must be made to meet a demand so vital to the interests of the church. In this state of things the Pennsylvania Presbytery, at its meeting in Greenfield, Washington County, Pennsylvania, in April, 1849, passed the following:
WHEREAS, the educational interests of this Presbytery impe- riously demand that an institution of learning be established in its bonnds; therefore,
Resolved, That a committee of five persons be appointed to receive proposals for the location and establishment of such an institution and report at the next meeting of the Presbytery.
The Reverends John Cary, Phillip Axtell, and J. H. D. Hender- son, and Elders Jesse Lazear, and Samnel Murdock, constituted that committee. In the autumn of this year the Synod adopted resolu- tions upon the subject of education, of which the following is an extract: " Many young men will continue in the ministry with only such preparations as the highi-schools afford. Bnt, admitting a snf- ficient number of institutions, the want of a fund is a serious obstacle. To many young men, such a fund is the only hope. Aided by the church, they can proseente their studies and the ministry with high prospects of usefulness. Deploring, therefore, the difficulties of obtaining an education within our bonnds, your committee are of opinion that the means of correction are in the hands of the Synod, and that no time should be lost in taking measures to that end."
Applications for proposals made by the committee appointed for the purpose were responded to by the people of Waynesburg, the county seat of Greene County, a town at that time of some twelve hundred inhabitants, and of Carmichaels, a town of about half the population, situated in the central part of Cumberland Township, in the valley of the Monongahela River, known as the seat of Greene Academy. Neither party offered a very large sum of money; but, as was shown by the report of the committee, the offers of citizens of Waynesburg were more considerable than those of Carmichaels, and it was accordingly adopted as the seat of the proposed college. Failing in the first proposal, the citizens of Carmichaels, in the fall of 1849, proposed " to erect a building sixty feet long and thirty five feet wide, and three stories high, which they would tender to the Pennsylvania Synod, to be held by the Synod and used as a Female Seminary, in consideration of their extending to it their patronage." But the Synod deemed it prudent to reject this offer, and concentrate all their patronage upon one institution.
As yet no school existed at Waynesburg which should form a nucleus for the proposed college. That there might be something on which to build, in the autumn of 1849, the Rev. J. Longhran with- drew from Greene Academy, and opened a school of a high grade,
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which was merged into the college when the buildings were ready. The citizens of Waynesburg subscribed some five thousand dollars for the erection of a building, the work upon which was begun in the autumn of 1850, and was completed and occupied in the spring of 1851. It was a substantially built three-story brick edifice seventy by fifty feet, and was erected at a cost of $6,000.
To give legal validity to its operations, application was made to the Legislature for a charter, which was granted in March, 1850, of which the following are some of its provisions:
SEC. 1. Be it enacted, by the Senate and Honse of Representa- tives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That there shall be and hereby is established in the borough of Waynes- burg, Greene County, State of Pennsylvania, a college or public school for the education of youth, in the English and other languages, literature and the useful arts and sciences, by the name and style of " The Waynesburg College; " the said college to be under the man- agement of seven trustees, a majority of whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, and which trustees and their successors shall be, and they are hereby declared to be, a body politic and corporate, in deed and in law, by the name, style, and title of " The Waynesburg College," and by such name shall have perpetual succession, and shall be able to sue and be sned, plead and be impleaded, etc.
SEC. 3. That Jesse Lazear, Jesse Hook, W. T. E. Webb, Bradley Mahanna, John Rodgers, Mark Gordon, R. W. Downey, William Braden, A. G. Allison, William W. Sayers, A. Shaw, John T. Hook, and John Phelan, are hereby appointed trustees of said corporation, to hold their office until their successors are elected in the manner hereinafter provided. By the further provisions of this section, three of the seven trustees were to be appointed by the stockholders of the building, and four by the Pennsylvania Presbytery of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and if the stockholders at any time should fail to elect their part of the trustees, the Presbytery might eleet the entire number; provided, that the said Presbytery should establish and maintain at least three professorships in said college within three years after being notified that the building had been completed, otherwise the stockholders were to elect the whole number of trustees after a failure of said Presbytery to establish and maintain said professorships within said period.
SEC. 4. The President and Professors of the said college for the time being, shall have the power to grant and confirm such degrees in the arts and sciences to such students of the college and others, when, by their proficiency in learning, professional eminence or other meritorious distinction, they shall be entitled thereto, as they may
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see fit or as are granted in other colleges and universities in the United States, and to grant to graduates on whom such degrees may be conferred, certificates or diplomas as is usual in other colleges and universities.
To this charter two supplements were proenred: The first in 1852, increasing the number of trustees to twenty-one, the second in 1853, authorizing the Presbytery to elect twelve, and the stock- holders nine, of these trustees. In 1854 the stockholders declined to elect trustees, whereupon the Synod elected the whole number, which it has since continued to do. Thus the stockholders, on the one hand, early and cordially gave the college fully into the control of the Synod, while the Synod, on the other hand has ever respected the rights of the stockholders in the selection of persons to fill the Board of Trustees.
In the fall of 1850, Miss Margaret K. Bell was employed to take charge of a school of young ladies, with the design of founding a female seminary in connection with the college. A separate build- ing was proposed, but never erected, a seal and diploma were en- graved, and several classes of young ladies were graduated, and received diplomas under the seal of Waynesburg Female Seminary. During the summer of 1851 this female school was conducted in the Baptist church, and the college in the Cumberland Presbyterian church, Rev. P. Axtell assisting Prof. Loughran in the latter. In the autumn following, both schools were conducted in the new build- ing under the management and tuition of the following instructors: Rev. J. Loughran, A. M., President; Rev. R. M. Fish, A. B., Pro- fessor of Mathematics; A. B. Miller and Frank Patterson, Tutors; Miss M. K. Bell, Principal of the Female Seminary. "On the first Tuesday of November, says Dr. Miller, " the college went into formal operation in the new building, and that day marked my own entrance as a student, and also as a tutor, from which date my con- nection with the institution has been unbroken."
Of the opening of this new institution, President Miller recalls most pleasant reminiscences. "This first term," he says, "in the new building was a truly pleasant and auspicions beginning. As I now look back upon that winter's work, it seems to me that no set of students and teachers were ever happier or more intent on the
faithful discharge of duty. Unbroken harmony prevailed. * * Twenty-six years of ardnous and unremitting toil lie between the cheerful work of that winter and the grave responsibilities of the present !
" The opening of the spring term, May, 1852, witnessed a large increase of students, the number in all for this first year being one hundred and thirty. The end of the year was marked by the graduation of the first class in the Female Seminary: Elizabeth
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Lindsey, Caroline Hook, and Martha Bayard. At the close of the second year, September, 1853, a class of four graduated. At the same date the first class of young men graduated from the college -- A. B. Miller, W. E. Gapen, Clark Hackney, and James Rinehart. This commencement day, September 28, 1853, being the first in the college proper, was an occasion of great interest. The Pennsylvania Presbytery held a called meeting the day before, in Waynesburg, and the Synod met in the evening of that day, so that nearly all the members of the Synod were on the platform at commencement, as also other distinguished visitors, among them IIon. Andrew Stewart, and Hon. Samuel A. Gilmore. The young men composing the class seemed not to lack in appreciation of the part they were to play, or the pre-eminence due them as the first class. Displaying their class motto, Ducimus, above them, they spoke to the apparent satis- faction of a crowded audience. "I may be pardoned," says Dr. Miller, " the egotism of saying it was my privilege to lead my own class, by delivering the first graduating performance, and thus to enjoy the distinction of the ' first born,' of the many sons of Alma Mater."
Immediately following the commencement, the college was for- mally received under the control of the Pennsylvania Synod. This action had been delayed from the fact that the Cumberland Presby- terians of Ohio and Pennsylvania had formed one Synod, and it was deemed expedient that the college at Beverly, Ohio, which was already under the charge of the Synod, should be supported before adopting another institution. But when, in 1852, the Synod was divided, Beverly College was turned over to the Ohio Synod, and Waynesburg College was fully received under the fostering care of Pennsylvania Synod. The Synod set forth the grounds of its action in a long report, the leading points of which may be thus condensed: " (1). No denomination can maintain a respectable standing without institutions of learning. (2). No denomination can discharge its obligations to maintain the purity of the scriptures, and to present their doctrines in an efficient manner, without collegiate institutions. (3). Only institutions of a high grade can give character and efficiency to a church, in order to which an institution must receive liberal patronage. (4). The benefits of a union between churches and col- leges are reciprocal. (5). ' It will be better for the interests of the church that Pennsylvania Synod possesses one well established and influential college, than for the church to be burdened with several feeble ones.'" This report was prepared by Revs. John Cary, J. Loughran and J. T. A. Henderson, and was unanimously adopted.
Dr. Miller proceeds to state in the following succinct terms the relations of the Cumberland Presbyterian church to Waynesburg College:
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"1. The charter secures to the Synod the perpetual use of the property, provided the Synod sustains therein at least three profes- sors. The charter makes no requirement as to the manner in which the professors are to be supported.
" 2. Of the twenty-one trustees, the charter grants to the Synod the appointment of twelve. The Synod has, in fact, for twenty-four years, appointed the whole number of trustees.
" 3. By mutual agreement, it is a by-law that the trustees shall elect no person to a professorship until the Synod has first nominated the person for the place.
"4. The endowment fund of the College is held by another Board, styled the Board of Trust of the College Endowment Fund of the Pennsylvania Synod, consisting of five members appointed by the Synod, and acting under a charter securing to this Board all needful powers, and perpetual succession."
After two years of faithful and acceptable service, as instructor in mathematics, Prof. Fish resigned. Whereupon the Synod nomi- nated, and the trustees confirmed the nomination, to make Alfred B. Miller, Professor of Mathematics, to fill the vacancy. The following is the resolution adopted by the trustees on this occasion: " Resolved, That Rev. Alfred B. Miller be employed as Professor of Mathematics, at a salary of one hundred and fifty dollars per session." As there were only two sessions a year, it requires no very profound compu- tation to show that the salary voted was not excessive.
The first President of the College, Rev. J. Loughran, was educated at Jefferson College, and though he did not graduate, the college subsequently awarded him the degree of A. M. A man of large attainments and a ready expounder of learning, he was a popular instructor, but was not so successful in managing the financial problems which arise in all institutions, when but meagerly endowed , and unprovided with sufficient funds to pay current demands. Doubtless discouraged by the outlook, in August, 1855, he resigned. To fill the vacancy the Synod nominated the Rev. J. P. Weethee, and he was duly elected President. He had previously been Presi- dent of Madison College, at Uniontown, and later of Beverly College, Ohio. Simultaneously with his election, the Rev. T. J. Simpson was appointed financial agent of the college, and by his earnest labors
directed attention to the institution, and while he was not able to largely increase the endowment fund, he succeeded in bringing in a large number of new students, and created a kindly feeling among the members of the denomination towards the college, which bore fruit in subsequent years. Mr. Weethee entered upon his duties as presi- dent with much zeal, and a strong desire was manifested on the part of the people to support his administration; but it proved not entirely harmonious, some of his religions views not being fully in accord
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with those of his supporters, and his management of the college itself not being in harmony with the views of certain members of the faculty.
As has already been seen, there had been, previous to organizing under the College charter, a Female. Seminary conducted in the Baptist church, over which Miss Bell, subsequently Mrs. Miller, pre- sided, and some classes in this department had been graduated from it under the title of the Female Seminary, before any graduations took place in the college proper. When the charter had become oper- ative, President Wethee insisted that the college should be conducted and classification should be made without reference to the sex of the pupils. This was not in accord with the existing system, and accordingly provoked some opposition. The President maintained his position in a public address in the college chapel, previously an- nounced, before a large audience of teachers, students and citizens. Ile declared that the Female Seminary was without a charter, and without any title to recognition. This opened the way for a pro- tracted investigation before the constituted authorities, and a decision was finally reached that the institution must be regarded as " One College, with male and female departments." By-laws were also adopted, which prescribed the duties and privileges of the president and principal of the female department. In the fall of 1858 Presi- dent Wethee resigned.
In his brief account of the college, Dr. Miller says, " Many of the friends of the college thought the prospects gloomy indeed, and feared that this educational effort would terminate in a repetition of the Madison College trouble. The regular meeting of the Synod was held at Carmichaels soon after the resignation, and in the records of that body I find abundant evidence of feelings of discouragement in such expressions as ' the educational enterprise within our bounds is considerably embarrassed;' ' there is but a partial faculty;' ' de- mand for immediate attention and action,' ' that the institution be conducted on the most economical plan possible.'" During the three years since 1855, a debt had been inenrred of over three thousand dollars. The Rev. J. Loughran, who was now at the head of a school in Wisconsin, was addressed with a view of his again becoming Presi- dent, but without success. In this emergency, Hon. John C. Flen- niken, a member of the board of trustees, lately State Senator, was elected President, pro tem., but exercised only nominal oversight of the institution.
In 1859 the Synod was again called on to wrestle with the old problem, viz., how to carry on a college without money. A com- mittee appointed to fill the vacancy in the Presidential office, recom- mended to the trustees the name of Alfred B. Miller, who, as student,
Emanuel Beall
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professor, and during the last year vice-president, since its founding had been connected with the college, and he was duly elected.
In the face of many discouragements, and with a certain prospect of great labors and uncertain reward, he accepted the position. IIis own account of his experiences in conducting the college and in hold- ing together and paying the salaries of professors, forms one of the most interesting chapters of collegiate history, and would indeed be amusing were it not in reality so sad. " I was made President of the college," he says, " as already noticed, in the autumn of 1859, though iny management of its internal affairs began with the preceding year, Mr. Flenniken being only nominally president. As a student or professor I had been in the college from the first, and felt the deepest possible interest in its welfare. If I had any conviction of Providential direction of my life, it is that God has led me in the course I have pursued in regard to our college. The institution was projected under circumstances by no means promising. Preceding efforts had been only failures, and there was even then a dead college on the hands of the Synod. When I spoke to an associate in an academy, a noble young man, then a candidate for the ministry in the Presbyterian church, of my purpose to enter Waynesburg Col- lege as a student, he said in response, 'your people cannot sustain a college in Pennsylvania. They failed in Uniontown; they will fail in Waynesburg. Come with me to Washington; that will be better.' I replied, 'I will go to Waynesburg College, and help to make it succeed.' Certainly, if I did not say so to him, I said it in my heart; and then and there was born the resolution on which rest these years of labor for the college. At various times I have earnestly desired to see the way open for me to leave; but as there are obstructions to a river on all its sides but one, so convictions of duty have ever shut me up to the direction in which my life of labor has been running on through all these years. How much better another man could have discharged the duties of the place, I cannot know. It is a source of comfort to have the internal assurance that I have done as well, as was in my power to do, in performing a work to which my Heavenly Father called me, and which I have been able to do only through a sense of his sustaining grace.
" A debt of over three thousand dollars hung upon the college when it came under my control. A piano that had belonged to it had been sold for debt. My salary was very inadequate, and, worse, there was no reasonable ground of hope that it would be paid. Dis- sensions had turned a portion of the community against the college, and had begotten in the public mind a feeling of distrust in regard to the future. Accepting the position, and going to work under these unpromising circumstances, it seemed to me much more like an effort to make a college, than the honor of presiding over one-nor 17
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have I yet outgrown that feeling. My special aims were, first, to get the college out of debt, and to establish confidence in its value and permanence. To accomplish the former, and to keep the neces- sary teaching force in the college without inenrring debt, has been the constant, ever perplexing problem through all these years. After looking in vain for other sources of reliable pecuniary dependence, I found it necessary to assume toward the college, in fact, the relation of president, financial agent and board of trustees. Taught by bitter experience how great are these cares, thus thrown on a college pres- ident, and admitting that ordinarily such a course could promise only financial ruin, I must record my profound conviction that in this case, nothing but the unbounded liberty allowed me in the man- agement of the college could have saved it from hopeless failure. The struggle, that has been necessary on my part, would furnish ac- count of personal sacrifices and pecuniary expedients that would put ordinary credence out of the question, some of which, aside from my personal knowledge, are known only to Ilim from whom there is nothing hidden. I am sure that only the faith whiel
Laughs at impossibilities, And cries, It shall be done,
could have held me to my purpose through the labors, perplexities, and responsibilities crowding these years. And yet these years have been full of pleasant work, full of occasions for devout thankfulness to Ilim who leads us in the way that is best, full of grand discipline and experiences that enrich the souls of men, and out of which come strength and patience and the noblest service and sympathy in all grand schemes for human well-being.
" For the sake of my fellow educators, I wish to say to my church, from my heartfelt sorrows in that respect, that an incompetent sup- port is a great hindrance to the usefulness of a college president or professor. I have been compelled to preach in order to live, some- times supplying points twenty miles distant; I have been compelled to deny myself books greatly needed; to stay at home when I should have traveled; to walk many miles because I could not afford to pay hack-fare; to be harassed with debts that have eaten up the mind as cancers eat the flesh; in short to do a great many things, and to leave undone a great many things, which doing and not doing greatly hindered my usefulness as a public servant of the church. I once turned superintendent of schools, and walked all over Greene County, in order to save a little money, and still the college went on-while the nation was fighting battles. At another time I edited the Cum- berland Presbyterian, did all the necessary correspondence of the office and kept the books, at the same time teaching six hours a day in the college, exercising general over-sight of its financial affairs, and often preaching twice on the Sabbath. How imperfectly all
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