History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 114

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 114

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Negotiations to the same effect were soon renewed, though excited feeling rendered their success impos- sible. But other changes soon turned the current of events. The resignation of Dr. Brown as president at Washington, and the election of Dr. Wylie, with his transfer to the vacant place, were simultaneous. His election was secured amidst excitement by the casting vote of the president, Dr. John Anderson, and a like tumult prevailed at Canonsburg. In the hot strife thus engendered motives were of course assailed. Parties resorted to the public press for vindication. Sharp lines of division were drawn between former friends, extending even to ministers and churches. Dr. Brown, retiring from the college, continued in his

pastoral relation for six years longer, with the warmest love of his church generally, as well as the sympathy of a portion of the public drawn to him as an injured man. During these six years, and for just the same period afterwards, Dr. Wylie presided at Washington, but neither his fine talents, scholarship, address, and energy, nor the warm devotion of friends and stu- dents could wholly raise him above the adverse influ- ences growing out of the circumstances of his election. Men of the highest honor were enlisted on both sides of that controversy, in view of which fact the judg- ment even of this remote generation should be held in abeyance. Yet the evils of the warfare were clear and abundant. In such a condition of things it is not a little to the credit of Dr. Wylie that there was an average of nine graduates from the college during the twelve years of his administration. But his retire- ment in 1828 to take charge of the Indiana State University at Bloomington was soon followed by the suspension of the college itself. He died in 1851, having passed threescore years. Dr. Wylie's suc- cessor at Canonsburg was the Rev. William McMillan, A.M., a nephew of the venerable founder of the col- lege and an alumnus of its first class. He was a man of rugged scholarship and force rather than of social and literary culture. He was measurably successful during his presidency of five years, adding fifty-nine names to the roll of alumni. He also supplied the church of Miller's Run. The chief reason of his resignation was the alleged failure of the board to sustain him in a controversy with certain students charged with mutiny, sedition, and rebellion. These charges, involving the reputation of the principal, as he claimed, the board on investigation did not regard as sufficiently proven. He was subsequently president of Franklin College, at New Athens, Ohio, and died in 1832.

The last Wednesday of September, 1822, marks the crisis and dawn of the true glory of Jefferson College.

The Rev. Matthew Brown, D.D., LL.D., who then held a call in his hand to the presidency of Centre College, at Danville, Ky., and was favorably consid- ering it, was elected that night to the place made vacant by President McMillan's resignation. A prompt committee managed to have him brought from Washington to Canonsburg before breakfast the next morning, ready to preside at the commencement, confer the degrees, and deliver the baccalaureate address, all on the same day. Confessing himself be- wildered, as in a whirl of events, he could not resist what seemed to him and his brethren a clear call of the Lord. He carried into his new position the bene- fits of his official experience of ten years at Washing- ton, and the fine reputation he had so fairly won. If his character was not the most symmetrical, he still had the elements of success in an eminent degree. Opposites blended in him most remarkably. Special eccentricities, a hasty temper, and the reactions of mirth and depression were all joined with a vigorous

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intellect, clear judgment, quick discernment, good sense, ardent piety, and untiring energy. If his im- petuosity sometimes involved him in mistakes, his students loved him, even the wildest of them, for the depth of heart which never failed to make him a friend of all disposed to do right. His strong hold upon the public also, especially upon the church, gave him a power in behalf of the college only sur- passed by his unrivaled skill in canvassing for pat- ronage. Finding the institution with about eighty students, he soon greatly increased the number, and kept it at a high figure to the end of his service. In every other respect, also, the college was advanced. During the twenty-three years of his presidency the graduates numbered seven hundred and seventy-two, or an average for the whole period of thirty-five. In word and deed he was a promoter of revivals, and re- joiced in at least two of great extent through his min- istry, both in the college and the church, of which for fifteen years he acted as pastor. It must have been grateful to his heart that, upon the occurrence of the first simultaneous vacancy in the college and church at Washington, six years after leaving that place, he was cordially invited to resume his old position in each. He ever continued to love that community, and the church of which he had been the first pastor. And there, by his own request, his body was laid down to rest beside beloved dust, after his spirit had been called, July 29, 1853, at the venerable age of seventy- seven years, to its glorious rest.

two classes, numbering in all ninety-six members. A portion of his remaining life was spent as a professor in the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Dan- ville.

Next in order comes an alumnus of 1825 in the person of that noble Christian, gentleman, refined scholar, and eloquent preacher, the Rev. Alexander Blaine Brown, D.D., son of Dr. Matthew Brown. After serving for six years as Professor of Belles- Lettres and adjunct Professor of Languages,-four of them before the retirement of his venerable father, -he was advanced to the presidency in 1847, and filled it with great credit and success for nine years, when failing health compelled the exchange of labor for rest. He was, however, able during the remain- der of his life to minister to a loving people as pastor of the Centre Church. He died in 1863. He lives still in many hearts. Four hundred and fifty-three di- plomas bear his signature, equal to fifty for each year.

In turn two eminent gentlemen succeeded in this important office, viz., the Rev. Joseph Alden, D.D., LL.D., author of standard works on mental philoso- phy and the science of government, and the Rev. David H. Riddle, D.D., LL.D., the former for five and the latter for three years, extending to the union of the colleges. Both of these presidents did honor- able service in this office, sustaining well the prosper- ity`of the college. . Dr. Riddle is an alumnus of the class of 1823. He was a son-in-law of Dr. Matthew Brown.

JEFFERSON COLLEGE AT CANONSBURG IN 1842.

The Rev. Robert J. Breckenridge, D.D., LL.D., of Kentucky, succeeded Dr. Brown upon his resigna- , impossible to do justice to the long line of professors tion in 1845, and for two years gave to the college the so identified with its history. They were generally men of very creditable ability as well as fidelity, and their names shall not perish from the college records nor from the hearts of the alumni. Of such were Samuel Miller, Abraham Anderson, John H. Ken- benefit of his great name and brilliant talents. But the government of a college not proving congenial to his taste any more than suitable to his gifts, he re- turned to his beloved State in 1847, having graduated 29

In such a sketch of sixty-three years it would be

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

nedy, Jacob Green, C. J. Hadermann, Washington McCartney, Richard S. McCulloh, Henry Snyder, Aaron Williams, Samuel R. Williams, Robert W. Orr, John Fraser among the dead, and Robert Pat- ' terson, Samuel Jones, and Alonzo Linn among the living, a majority of them being distinguished sons of the college. The Rev. Drs. James Ramsey, Abra- ham Anderson, and Thomas Beveridge, of the Asso- ciate Theological Seminary at Canonsburg, at different times also rendered important services as professors extraordinary, the two former in Hebrew and the latter in evidences of natural and revealed religion. But fidelity to truth as well as deference to the affec- tionate memories of forty-four classes must claim distinct mention of William Smith, D.D., a graduate of 1819, an honored Professor of Languages from 1821 until the union of 1865, who departed this life in the peace of the gospel July 17, 1878, at the venerable age of eighty-four years.

Returning once more to the other branch before brought down to the suspension of 1828, we may trace the new life of Washington College through a

professors and some twenty boys of the vicinity ex- alted into students. His own resolution, however, inspired confidence ; his vigorous administration and extensive correspondence soon made the college known, and the third session ended with a collegiate roll of one hundred and nineteen young men, each class being respectably filled. Meanwhile, by a visit to Harrisburg, he had secured an annual State appro- priation of five hundred dollars for five years, to sup- port a department for the special education of teach- ers. At that stage of progress he handed over the institution to the successor of his own nomination, the Rev. David McConaughy, D.D., LL.D., an alum- nus of Dickinson of 1795, called from the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church at Gettysburg, Pa., in the spring of 1832.

Dr. McConaughy's administration partook of the moral dignity of his character, without sensational or spasmodic effort. His resignation, in September, 1849, was followed by his peaceful death at his home in Washington, Jan. 29, 1852, " in the seventy-seventh year of his life, and the fiftieth of his ministry." The

WASHINGTON COLLEGE IN 1842.

period of thirty-five years. The interval of suspen- sion had brought to Washington as pastor of the Presbyterian Church just the man to reorganize the college, in the person of the Rev. David Elliott, D.D., LL.D., a graduate of Dickinson College in 1808, then in his forty-third year, having been a pastor at Mer- cersburg, Pa., for seventeen years. With the college as well as the church in view, he had been recom- mended by his admiring friend, Dr. Matthew Brown, upon the resignation of Dr. Obadiah Jennings to ac- cept a call to the church of Nashville, Tenn. And the nobleness of both these eminent men, Drs. Brown and Elliott, is revealed in the fact that the most un- tiring devotion of each to these rival interests never cast a shadow over their confidential friendship. Dr. Elliott peremptorily declined the offered presidency, and only yielded at last as a temporary expedient, until a permanent successor could be obtained. He opened the college accordingly Nov. 2, 1830, with two

survivors of the three hundred and eighty-eight alumni who passed under his care can never forget the scholarly ability of his instructions nor the beauty of his life. Copying the portrait drawn of him after death by the hand of his discerning friend and im- mediate predecessor, we may well say that if indeed, " as it regarded direct personal activity abroad and tactical skill in meeting sudden emergencies connected with the government of a college, he may have lacked some of the qualities desirable in a president, it is equally certain that his commanding talents, his ex- tensive and accurate scholarship, his unwavering in- tegrity, his purity of motive, his paternal care and affectionate regard for his pupils, the dignity and uni- formity of his deportment, and the captivating benevo- lence of his disposition, in a word, the concentrated force of the many and rare qualities which clustered around his character, gave him a power and control over the public mind and over the hearts of the young

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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

men against which these few incidental defects pre- sented but slight resistance."

Dr. McConaughy's successor was the Rev. James Clark, D.D., (then) called from the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church in Belvidere, N. J. He brought to the college a high character and the accomplish- ments of a superior education. But he resigned, in July, 1852, after a service of two years, that he might accept a call to a church in Lewisburg, Pa. At the present writing he is a resident of Philadelphia, hav- ing the respect of his brethren, and doing the work of a gospel minister as occasion demands. Upon his retirement the writer of these pages, at the age of thirty-five years, and in the fourth year of his present pastoral charge, was pressed into the office of presi- dent by the trustees until a permanent successor could be procured. Then, as also afterwards in 1870, he declined to allow the use of his name by influen- tial trustees as a candidate for the permanent office, ever preferring the direct work of the ministry. A son of the college, a pupil in former years of nearly every one of the professors, the youngest member of the faculty, and withal carrying the weight of a la- borious pastorate, he felt the restraint of great em- barrassment in undertaking this responsible trust. But, sustained by the trustees and the professors, and encouraged by the confidence of the students, his con- nection with the college in this capacity, anxious and laborious as it was, was far more satisfactory than he expected. It was, however, a welcome relief, upon the graduation of his second class, the commencement of 1853, to surrender the reins to the successor of his preference and nomination.

The inauguration of the Rev. John W. Scott, D.D., of the Jefferson class of 1827, as president of Wash- ington College, upon the occasion just named, marks ! a new era in its history. A special relation had just been formed with the Presbyterian Synod of Wheel- ing, the object of which was to bring collegiate edu- cation more directly under the influence of religion and the church. Under that system the management of the institution was still in the hands of the trus- tees, as before, but in consideration of the revenue derived from an endowment of sixty thousand dol- lars, as well as other funds raised also by the Synod, that body had also the nomination of members of the board of trustees and the faculty, and from the persons thus nominated the board elected. The ar- 1 rangement was indeed denominational, in the sense of a more positive religious influence, coupled with systematic study of the Bible, and, in the case of Presbyterian students, a like study of the standards of the church. But from this last course all who so preferred were excused, and beyond this also the largest liberty and exemption from sectarian influ- ences known in other colleges was allowed. Justice to truth demands the statement that, under the lead of a very efficient president and the instruction of a faculty of more than usual ability, the twelve years

of this arrangement were not surpassed by any like period in thorough scholarship, and that, too, without the disadvantages of denominationalism, which 80 many feared. Two hundred and sixteen were added to the alumni, of whom one hundred and eighteen became ministers, including six foreign missionaries. During this period several revivals of religion ex- tended their influence into the college as others had done before. Profs. E. C. Wines, D.D., William J. Martin, William H. Brewer, James Black, D.D., William J. Brough, D.D., and others of this period were worthy successors of William P. Aldrich, D.D., William K. McDonald, LL.D., Richard Henry Lee, LL.D., Robert Milligan, Nicholas Murray, James W. McKennan, D.D., and others of the preceding period since the resuscitation. The last three named, as well as Prof. Black, were worthy sons of the college. The president, in his voluntary retirement preparatory to the union of the colleges, carried with him the high esteem of all connected with the institution.

The foregoing recital brings us down to a most in- teresting event, several times referred to; viz., the union of the colleges.

For this event there had been a long course of preparation. Away from the localities of these in- stitutions there had always been a public sentiment averse to their separate existence. Attempts to unite them had been made at intervals through their whole history. We have before seen how near that of 1815 came to success. But many causes combined at length to force this, result. Financial pressure was one of the chief. Each had been betrayed by bad example into the ruinous policy of endowment by cheap scholarships, Jefferson leading the way in 1851, and Washington following two years afterwards. In each case the revenue thus provided only rose to the lowest level of expenses in cheap times, with small salaries, without any provision for expansion or prog- ress. The injury came in the almost total displace- ment of tuition fees, in the fastening of permanent responsibilities upon the colleges out of all propor- tion to their means, and in an evident lowering of the public estimate of the pecuniary value of collegiate education. The cost of living, which was doubled if not trebled by the civil war of 1861-65, demanded as a necessity a reduction of the working force, or else a great increase of funds. The large benefactions to colleges in the East, as the fruit of fortunes accumu- lated during the war, produced a competition in buildings, appliances, and new professorships such as had never been known before. Unwonted facilities for travel and transportation also made access to all institutions easy, and reduced their cost to substan- tially the same level. Both Jefferson and Washing- ton, in these circumstances, and with the experience of reduced finances, must be speedily lifted out of their perils, or look the question of life or death in the face.

In fact, by a process of depletion, the result of the

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

change of financial condition in the country produced by the war of the Rebellion and continued ever since, all other assets had been sunk except the buildings, and an endowment of Jefferson to the net amount of $56,099.39, and of Washington to the amount of $42,689.33. The former of these endowments was fastened for a long term of years in a loan with interest at six per cent. The latter, being free, had been for the most part invested in government bonds, and was thus made more productive through the high premium then, and for some time afterwards, realized upon gold as compared with the value of cur- rency. No important help coming to either, and that for the very reason of their hopeless condition, a do- nation of $50,000 was offered by the Rev. Charles C. Beatty, D.D., LL.D., on the sole condition of their union. It was followed with a proposition of sur- render, on the same condition, of the ecclesiastical relation of Washington College by the Synod, and the tender of the perpetual use of its endowment to the united college, so long as it should continue to be Protestant and evangelical. Even then the two boards were reluctant, and only consented under the resist- less force of public sentiment, concentrated by the joint action of the alumni at the last moment of the crisis.

The union thus effected under a legislative act, dated March 4, 1865, was a step forward, but it proved to be incomplete and unsatisfactory. The corporations were merged into one, the departments and classes were apportioned and separately con- ducted at the two former localities, but with the effect of undue expense, a want of unity, and the old rivalry more or less continued. The presidents of the old colleges, Drs. Scott and Riddle, gracefully retired, in order that the unity of the future might be represented fairly in the person of a new presi- dent, whose antecedents were identified with neither institution.

In due time the choice fell upon the Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D.D., LL.D., an alumnus of South Han- over College of the class of 1835, and twenty years afterwards its president, but then pastor of the West Arch Street Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, a gentleman of the finest talents and culture. His in- auguration, April 4, 1866, was followed by an honest effort on his part, seconded by the faculty and trus- tees, to make the experiment a success, but the com- plicated system was inseparable from difficulties which could not be overcome. After three years of able ser- vice the president resigned, April 20, 1869, to accept a pastoral charge in the city of Baltimore, having in- troduced one hundred and thirty-four graduates into the goodly company of the alumni. Again, however, the clamor had arisen for further change, and neither patrons nor alumni would be satisfied without it. Nothing would answer the demand short of absolute consolidation at one place. The trustees again hesi- tated, but finally yielded to a necessity, and by care-

ful steps reached with singular unanimity a plan which found its expression in an amended charter of Feb. 26, 1869, which of itself settled every question except that of location. This question, after a com- petition opened to any place in the State of Pennsyl- vania, was to be settled by a two-thirds vote of the board within sixty days, or on their failure by the voice of four out of five disinterested arbitrators upon whom two-thirds of the board might agree. It was settled, however, by a two-thirds vote of the trustees on the 20th of April, 1869, in favor of Washington. Among the inducements offered by that community was a subscription of $50,000 to the funds of the insti- tution. For a time litigation, attended with the re- straint of an "injunction," arrested the progress of the consolidation, but in due time it was sanctioned by the highest courts of Pennsylvania and of the United States.

During the interval of legal contest Prof. Samuel J. Wilson, D.D., LL.D., of the Western Theological Seminary, Allegheny, Pa., exercised the office of president for one session at Canonsburg, and the present writer in like manner for the following year at Washington. But at the commencement in 1870, the way for permanent reorganization having been sufficiently opened, the Rev. George P. Hays, D.D., pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of Alle- gheny, an alumnus of the Jefferson class of 1857, was elected president, and other corresponding changes were made. The inauguration took place in the town hall at Washington on the evening of Sept. 21, 1870, in the presence of a large assembly, composed of the trustees, faculty, students, citizens, and strangers. The oath of office was administered by the Hon. Wil- liam McKennan, judge of the Third Circuit of the United States.

The administration of Dr. Hays, extending over a period of eleven years, was both energetic and suc- cessful. His resignation, previously offered chiefly from considerations of health, was accepted by the board at the time of the annual commencement, June 20, 1881, and he shortly afterwards entered upon his duties as pastor of the Central Presbyterian Church of Denver, Col. A portion of his time, during the first years of his presidency, was given to financial efforts in behalf of the college, in which his success was as great as could be reasonably expected, con- sidering the monetary stringency then prevalent throughout the country. Besides the labor of teach- ing, he carried his habitual activity into the several branches of the college administration, the effect of which was felt in different directions. The litigation, however, which grew out of the consolidation of the two old colleges at one place, as previously related, still overhung the institution with its cloud of dis- couragement. And so it remained with more or less of hindrance until the final decision of the whole case by the Supreme Court of the United States at the December term, 1871, the second year of Dr. Hays'

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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

official service, and nearly three years after the act of consolidation itself thus called in question before the several courts of the State and the nation. But even the clearing away of these legal strifes did not more than prepare the way for the restoration of the classes from the depression thus produced. The calm cour- age and perseverance, however, of a united faculty and board of trustees, under a divine blessing, proved equal to the emergency. It is enough to say that an administration commencing in 1870 in the heat of these conflicts, ended in 1881 with an institution established, a full faculty, and a catalogue of students numbering one hundred and eighty-five, together with every other token of stability and progress. Notwithstanding the disadvantages of the legal con- flict, and especially the dissolution of the higher classes under the injunction of a court, the graduates of these eleven years reached the number of one hun- dred and seventy-seven, of whom twenty received the degree of B.S., whilst one hundred and fifty-seven, having completed the classical course, received that of A.B. It is proper to add that in 1871 the course of study in the scientific department was enlarged so as to cover the period of four years, the same as the classical, and, also, that since that time the Greek and Latin languages have been elective studies after the sophomore year.

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 114

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216