History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 115

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 115

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Since the consolidation of 1869 important additions have been made to the endowment funds of the col- lege. The Rev. Charles C. Beatty, D.D., LL.D., of Steubenville, Ohio, president of the board of trus- tees, besides the munificent donation of fifty thousand dollars in 1865 to secure the union of the two old col- leges, added a further gift of twenty-five thousand dollars in 1874 for the endowment of the Greek chair. In like manner, Francis J. Le Moyne, M.D., of'Wash- ington, an alumnus of Washington College of the class of 1815, and for many years an efficient trustee of the same, gave the sum of twenty thousand dollars, March 22, 1871, to establish a professorship of agri- culture and correlative branches, and in 1879 he gave a like amount for a chair of applied mathematics, adding also the further sum of one thousand dollars, to be divided equally between these two professor- ships for their equipment. To the five hundred dol- lars thus allotted to the chair of agriculture an amount was added sufficient to purchase a set of Prof. Henry A. Ward's casts of plants and animals, consisting of three hundred and twenty-seven pieces, at a cost of fourteen hundred dollars. Of this amount the sum of six hundred dollars was realized from a "loan ex- hibition" held in the college in 1879. Thus we have the noble examples of these benefactions-that of Dr. Beatty to the amount of seventy-five thousand dollars, and that of Dr. Le Moyne to the amount of forty-one thousand dollars-as abiding and powerful appeals to men of means and public spirit so to devote a portion of their substance that after their decease it may be a blessing to coming generations. Other gifts, both by

subscription and legacy, have also reached the treas- ury in smaller amounts. Among these it is proper to mention a memorial gift in 1871 of four hundred and sixty-nine dollars and seventy cents by the Sabbath- school of the First Presbyterian Church of Washing- ton, for the improvement of the scientific apparatus of the college. That the college is able to keep its expenses within its income is largely due to the emi- nent skill and vigilance of its treasurer, Mr. A. T. Baird.

An additional token of progress, not less marked, is the fine improvement of the college buildings by reconstruction and enlargement, begun in 1873, and finished in time for dedication at the close of the exercises of the commencement, June 30, 1875, at a cost of seventy-nine thousand and fifty-three dollars and forty-five cents. The funds appropriated to this improvement were derived in part from the subscrip- tions of the citizens of Washington and vicinity in 1869 to secure the location of the consolidated col- lege at this place, and in part from other resources in the hands of the board, including some special dona- tions for this purpose. The halls of the Phild and Union and the Franklin and Washington literary societies were dedicated on the day preceding the commencement with appropriate exercises, in the presence of a large number of their respective alumni. But on the afternoon of commencement-day a vast assembly of citizens and strangers convened in the campus to witness the dedication of the capacious and elegant new college building. The Hon. Thomas Ewing, president judge of the Court of Common Pleas, No. 2, of Allegheny County, presided. On the plat- form were many distinguished gentlemen from sev- eral States. The dedicatory address was delivered by the Rev. James I. Brownson, D.D., vice-president of the board of trustees ; after which the prayer of dedication was opened by the venerable Charles C. Beatty, D.D., LL.D., president of the board. Stir- ring addresses followed from Governor Hartranft, of Pennsylvania, Governor Jacobs, of West Virginia, the Hon. Simon Cameron, the United States senator from Pennsylvania, Gen. H. H. Bingham, of Phila- delphia, the Rev. William S. Plumer, D.D., LL.D., of South Carolina, and others. Each of these gentle- men, tracing the evidences of progress, offered the warmest congratulations to the authorities of the col- lege and to its numerous friends, near and far away, upon the fine structure before them, and upon both the history and prospects of the honored institution.

Besides the present members of the faculty, the fol- lowing gentlemen have been associated with it during the term of Dr. Hays, viz., Terence Jacobson, Pro- fessor of English Literature, 1870-72 ; George B. Vose, Professor of Mathematics and Engineering, 1865-74; Hiram Collier, Professor of Agriculture and Correla- tive branches, 1870 ; George Fraser, D.D., Professor of Mental and Moral Science, 1872-75; and William H. G. Adney, Professor of Agriculture, etc., 1873-80.

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Temporary service was also rendered at different times in the department of mental and moral science, to meet emergencies, by the Rev. W. F. Hamilton, D.D., and the writer of this sketch.

The vacancy created by the retirement of Dr. Hays , by Dr. Brownson in token of his official authority extended through the first session of the following collegiate year. During this interval the duties of the presidency were most ably and satisfactorily dis- charged by the vice-president, Alonzo Linn, LL.D., in addition to the labors of his professorship. With an increased number of students, the order and effi- ciency of the college were fully sustained.

On Nov. 16, 1881, the committee having in charge the nominatior of a president called the board to- | carry forward the work of his distinguished prede- gether and presented the name of the Rev. James D. Moffat, an alumnus of the college, of the class of 1869, and pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Wheeling, W. Va., who was thereupon unanimously elected to this office. Mr. Moffat, having after care- ful consideration signified his acceptance of the presi- dency thus tendered, entered upon the discharge of his duties as the head of the institution at the opening of the second term of the year on Jan. 4, 1882. His formal inauguration, which had been postponed by the action of the board, in order to afford the alumni and friends of the college opportunity more generally to witness it, took place in the town hall at Wash- ington, June 20, 1882, the evening preceding the an- - nual commencement. Meanwhile the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity had been conferred upon him by the handsome and unanimous action of the trustees of Hanover College, Indiana.

The ceremonies of the inauguration were simple but very impressive. A procession was formed in the college campus at seven o'clock P.M., consisting of physicians, six or eight United States senators, six the undergraduates, alumni, faculty, and trustees, cabinet officers, fifty or more representatives in Con- which, headed by a fine brass band and under the | gress, and sixty president judges, together with forty-

direction of the chief marshal, the Hon. John H. Ewing, an alumnus of Washington College of the class of 1814, and a trustee continuously since 1834, reached the town hall at the appointed hour, where an immense concourse of strangers and citizens were in waiting. The solemn exercises were opened with prayer by the Rev. Daniel W. Fisher, D.D., presi- dent of Hanover College. In the absence of the venerable president of the board, the Rev. Charles C. Beatty, D.D., LL.D., on account of sickness, the Rev. James I. Brownson, D.D., vice-president, acted in his place. The exercises of the evening were en- livened with the excellent music of Toerge's orchestra, of Pittsburgh. An introductory address was deliv- ered by Dr. Brownson, which was followed by an address of the Rev. Samuel J. Wilson, D.D., LL.D., in behalf of the trustees, setting forth the history of the college, its great success and usefulness in the past, its fine prospects for the future, and its strong claims upon the support of its friends and the com- munity at large. The oath of office was then im- pressively administered to the new president by the

Hon. William McKennan, LL.D., judge of the Circuit Court for the Third Circuit of the United States, after which the keys of the college, and also a copy of its charter and by-laws, were handed to Dr. Moffat and duty. The able and eloquent inaugural address of President Moffat brought the services of the even- ing to a happy conclusion, and the large audience separated in the spirit of confidence that the outlook for Washington and Jefferson College was never brighter than at present. Hearty and unanimous congratulations were tendered to the young president, who takes his place of dignity and influence both to cessors and to fulfill a service of filial devotion to his own cherished alma mater.

It only now remains, in order to complete this sketch of the college, that we give a brief summary of the re- sults of the past as the best possible prophecy of the future, adding the fruits of the seven years interven- ing since a like statement was given in the "Cen- tenary Memorial." Any other county of the common- wealth, if not, also, of the nation, may be challenged for the production of an equal list of educated sons, whether to fill her own high places, or to lead society in other counties and States. And receiving from far and near, beyond her own borders, the youth of other communities, she has sent them back by hun- dreds, fitted by thorough collegiate training for every variety of professional and other responsible service. More than three thousand graduates, besides an al- most equal number who have taken a partial course, embracing fourteen hundred ministers of the gospel, seven hundred and fifty lawyers, and four hundred

five presidents and seventy-five professors of colleges, twenty-five professors in theological seminaries, and as many principals of female seminaries, to say no- thing of the headship of countless academies,-surely this is a production of cultured men which may be safely put into competition with that of any other community in kind or value, or with any scale of ma- terial interests, actual or possible, in like circum- stances. Proud, therefore, as we may be to be reck- oned in the front rank of the world's competitors as producers of the world's finest wool, and rejoicing as we do in the heritage of a soil and climate unsur- passed for the multiplied and varied comforts of life, our highest exultation is in the educated men who have carried the name and fame of Washington County as a chief home of culture into the foremost rivalry of our country, and made it known also across the seas.

Academies.1-It is a matter for deep regret that the glory of these useful institutions, for the most

1 By Rev. James I. Brownson, D.D.

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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

part, belongs only to the past generations. A num- ber of them were vigorously conducted in the county, as were others elsewhere, and were most important feeders for the colleges, besides their work of training teachers for the common schools. They were usually projected and fostered by the ministry with the aid of fresh graduates from college, who were led to employ a year or two in teaching, partly to supply themselves with funds that they might prosecute their profes- sional studies. Both the disposition and the ability to obtain a liberal education were thus brought to very many young men who otherwise would never have thought of it. The change which has dried up most of these fountains may perhaps be accounted for by various causes. Cheap scholarships have doubt- less enticed many lads to college at an earlier stage of study than formerly. The establishment of State normal schools may have diverted many students into their channel. The advance of utilitarianism in lead- ing so large a portion of the people of our day to disparage the mental training which so peculiarly attends the study of the classics, and to estimate educational culture, if not even religion itself, by the rule of dollars and 'cents may have had its natural effect. But whatever the causes may have been, the evil results are manifest. And happy will be the day of restoration, for which the best educators long, when once more our students shall pass through the teach- ing and discipline of good academies as the best prep- aration for the more advanced instruction and gov- ernment of the college.

Historic connection with Washington and Jeffer- son College claims the first place in these sketches for CANONSBURG ACADEMY, which in its catalogue goes under the name of JEFFERSON ACADEMY. It virtually dates from the college charter of consolida- tion of 1869, which, in its effect, the same year located Washington and Jefferson College at Washington. In fact, however, the organization of the academy dates from March 19, 1872, when, under that charter, .the trustees elected the Rev. William Smith, D.D., David C. Houston, John Hayes, William G. Barnett, M.D., John W. Martin, M.D., J. W. Alexander, M.D., and J. Nevin Brown as directors of the academy, with instruction to hold their first meeting on the 3d day of April following. This delay of organization was a fruit of the litigation following the college charter of 1869, and only settled, as we have seen, in December, 1871.

It was an express provision of the college charter of 1869 that "an academy, normal school, or other institution of lower grade than a college" should be established at the place losing the college, or at each of them, should a new place be chosen for the con- solidated college. And in either or each place, as the case might be, as much of the property there located as the board should think necessary for the use of such an institution was to be placed in the hands of seven trustees or directors chosen by the board for i

this purpose, and thus authorized to carry the organ- ization of the academy into effect. Of the original seven directors chosen, as we have seen, in 1872, John Hays, Esq., departed this life July 21, 1875, at the venerable age of seventy-six years, and was followed July 17, 1878, by the Rev. Dr. William Smith, in his eighty-fifth year. The place of the former was in due time filled by the election of Dr. Boyd Emory, Sr., and that of the latter by the choice of the Rev. Thomas R. Alexander, pastor of the Mount Prospect Presbyterian Church, Mr. Alexander has also suc- ceeded Dr. Smith as president of the board. In a liberal exercise of its discretion, the college board set apart for the use and control of the academy the col- lege buildings at Canonsburg, the president's house, and two additional professors' houses, together with a valuable portion of the libraries, apparatus, and furniture formerly belonging to Jefferson College, re- linquishing all further right in them.

The academy was most fortunate in the selection as its first principal of a scholarly Christian gentleman of the highest fitness, integrity, and industry, in the person of the Rev. William Ewing, Ph.D., an alum- nus of Washington College, of the class of 1842, and the recipient of its first honor. He has been careful to associate with himself assistant teachers of excel- lent ability, who have well sustained his efforts to raise the standard of scholarship to the highest attain- able point. And for the purpose of further enlarge- ment he has lately purchased from the college the large boarding-house formerly known under the so- briquet of " Fort Job."

As now constituted the academy has two depart- ments. The classical prepares young men for college, and the normal is designed for the special training of teachers. It has a laboratory and gymnasium, and of late has made large additions to its library. The average attendance of students for the years that are past has been an hundred and upwards. Those who have completed the course have gone, according to their preference, to Washington and Jefferson Col- lege, to Lafayette, to Princeton, and to Wooster, and in general have taken high standing in these leading colleges. One of these students took a first-class prize in one of the Irish colleges, and did not in his success fail to return thanks to his academic principal for the fine start given him in that direction. In the course of these years the academy has won a high and de- served reputation, and has the confidence and good wishes of the friends of sound scholarship joined with wholesome moral and religious influence. The failure to obtain more minute details of this history will account for the comparative brevity of this sketch; but enough has been given to establish past success and to assure a future of great public benefit.

Passing now from the only surviving academy to those which live only in history, we present first :

WEST ALEXANDER ACADEMY .- This excellent and

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

useful institution was organized in 1828 by the Rev. John McCluskey, D.D. (an alumnus of Jefferson Col- lege, of the class of 1822), the same year of his settle- ment as pastor of the Presbyterian Church of West Alexander. He managed the school alone, employing subordinate teachers, and taking an active part him- self in the work of instruction, until 1836, when, at his request, on account of the great increase of stu- dents, a board of trust was chosen to assist him. A legislative charter was secured in 1840, and in 1849 the academy was formally taken under the care of the Presbytery of Washington, as at once a parochial and presbyterial institution. The resignation of his pastoral charge in 1853 passed the church and the academy together from the hands of Dr. Mccluskey into those of his excellent successor, the Rev. William H. Lester, who in full strength still stands in his lot. The venerable doctor himself, after some years of FLORENCE ACADEMY next claims attention. It was located in the village of Florence, formerly known as Briceland's Cross-Roads, in the northern part of Washington County. It was preceded, and perhaps suggested, by an excellent select school for young ladies, founded by the venerable Rev. Elisha McCurdy, pastor of the Presbyterian Church there, in 1832, and conducted for four or five years with fine success by Mrs. Rachel Lamdin, a lady of superior intermingled ministerial and educational labor in Philadelphia and its vicinity, was at length com- pelled by the infirmities of age to accept repose, and on the 31st of March, 1880, was called to the heavenly reward. During the quarter of a century of his head- ship of the academy it sent forth a large number of young men, forty-four of whom became ministers of the gospel, thirty-two of these entering the service of the Presbyterian Church. Fifteen more were | scholarship and tact as well as of devoted piety. added to this list in the few years of his successor's The average number of pupils in that school was about thirty or forty, and its effect was very marked in the mental, moral, and religious culture of the young ladies of the neighborhood. charge of the institution. A goodly proportion of these heralds of the gospel were brought to Christ during their academical training. Diligent teaching, energetic administration, earnest Biblical instruction, and the genial influence of religious culture and ex- ample were richly crowned with the fruits of the blessing which prayer brings down from heaven. The purposed reduction of expenses to the lowest possible point brought the poor and the rich side by side as equal sharers of these benefits. Most of the students of all those years entered Washington Col- lege, and are numbered among her sons. A great public loss was sustained when the doors of the West . trustees, and took possession of the building on Mr. Alexander Academy were closed.

CROSS CREEK ACADEMY was opened near the same time as that of West Alexander, by another promi- nent Presbyterian pastor, the Rev. John Stockton, D.D., at Cross Creek village, in his ministerial charge. Its site was under the shadow of Vance's fort, so in- timately associated with frontier history, both civil and religious. There Smith had broken the silence of the wilderness with the trumpet of the gospel, and there, too, the eloquence of the "silver-tongued" Marques had thrilled the hearts of a second genera- tion with the heavenly message. Their successor, the venerable Stockton, received his seal from God upon a most honored and successful ministry of fifty years, begun in 1827, and relinquished in 1877, at that hallowed place. He departed this life in the peace of the gospel May 5, 1882, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. Among his first efforts to extend, the

kingdom of his Master was the establishment of this academy, with special reference to the training of ministers. Its teachers, with various intervals, were Samuel and George Marshall (the latter a son of Jefferson College, in the class of 1831, and afterwards a distinguished Presbyterian minister), John Marques, Robert McMillan, and Thomas M. C. Stockton, son of the pastor. Thirty ministers of the gospel came forth from that school, besides many other students who have filled honorable places in secular life. Washington College, the alma mater of Dr. Stockton himself, was the resort of most of the young men who caught their classical inspiration in this acad- emy. But for more than a score of years it has been another instance of suspended animation, relieved only by an occasional and spasmodic effort to revive the spirit of by-gone times.1

The spirit of liberal education, thus fostered, led to the establishment, in 1833, of the academy. Its first principal was Mr. Robert Fulton, a former student and teacher in Washington College, and a relative by marriage of Mr. McCurdy. After a brief experiment he erected an academy building in the village, on a site conveyed by the trustees of the Presbyterian Church. But the title proving defective he surren- dered the property, upon remuneration, to the same MeCurdy's farm, which until then had been occupied by Mrs. Lamdin's seminary. Mr. Fulton was the sole proprietor and head of the academy until 1839, three or four years subsequent to Mr. McCurdy's resigna- tion of his charge because of advanced age, and his consequent removal to Allegheny City. Having meanwhile received a licensure to preach, he disposed of his interests at the end of six years to take charge of an academy and church at Ashland, Ohio, where he subsequently died. During most of these years he was very efficiently assisted in the instruction by Mr. James Sloan, a graduate of Jefferson College, of the class of 1830, who was afterwards both a teacher and pastor at Frankfort, and later still for many years the worthy and successful pastor of the Presbyterian

1 An accurate list of the sons of this academy and that of West Alex- ander is not in the power of the writer, and therefore none is attempted. Very many of them are well known.

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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

Church of Pigeon Creek, in the Presbytery of Wash- ington. Dr. Sloan departed this life in 1871, in Mo- nongahela City. For the last two years of his term Mr. Fulton had for his assistant his nephew and former pupil, Mr. Samuel Fulton, an alumnus of Washington College, of the class of 1836, who still survives, though lately compelled by broken health to resign his charge as pastor of the Great Valley Presbyterian Church, in Chester County, Pa.

Mr. Fulton's successor as principal was the Rev. William Burton, also pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Florence. Messrs. John Rierson, John Russell, John Kerr, and James G. Ralston suc- cessively acted as assistant teachers. Mr. Kerr, after much service in the gospel ministry, is still a respected member of the Presbytery of Blairsville, and Mr. Ral- ston rose to distinction as the founder and head of a prosperous female seminary at Norristown, Pa., hav- ing before his death worn the titles of D.D. and LL.D. Messrs. Joseph Sheets, John A. Smith, and George W. ; Miller quickly followed in their order as principals, all of them being alumni of Washington College, of the respective classes of 1839, 1840, and 1845. The last named was subsequently the very successful prin- cipal of the academy at Carmichael's, Pa., and is now a prominent member of the Washington County bar.

The palmy days of the academy were embraced in the period of Mr. Fulton, when there was an average attendance of seventy students. Within the fifteen years of its existence, many were trained in it who . year or two before its close, Dr. Eagleson himself had afterwards rose to more or less distinction. In the want of a catalogue, memory supplies the names of the Rev. Messrs. Alexander Swaney, D.D., James D. Mason, D.D., David R. Campbell, D.D., William M. Robinson, David P. Lowary, and others of the sacred calling ; Prof. Cochron, of Oberlin College ; Drs. Jo- seph Rodgers and Thomas M. C. Stockton, and John Fulton, John McCombs, Caleb J. McNulty, and Wil- liam Johnson, attorneys. The last two acquired promi- nence in Ohio, the former as a member of the Legis- · lature of that State, and also as clerk of the United States House of Representatives, and the latter as a member of Congress.

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 115

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