Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 46

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 930

USA > Pennsylvania > Indiana County > Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I > Part 46

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In 1893, also, the board erected to the northward of the main building the model school, and named it in honor of their third president, the A. W. Wilson Hall. This building contains eight large airy classrooms with ample playrooms in the basement for use on stormy days.

The following have served as principals of the Indiana Normal School : Edmund B. Fair- field, D. D., LL.D., from 1874 to 1876; David M. Sensenig, M. S., 1876 to 1878; John H. French, LL.D., 1878 to 1881; Leonard H. Durling, A. M., 1881 to 1888; Z. X. Snyder, A. M., Ph. D., 1888 to 1892; Charles W. Dean, Ph. D., 1892 to 1893; David J. Waller, D. D., 1893 to 1906; James E. Ament, LL. D., from 1906 to the present time.

The first trustees elected by the stockhold- ers were: John Sutton, Silas M. Clark, Wil- liam B. Marshall, Daniel S. Porter, Alex M. Stewart, William B. Hildebrand, Joseph R. Smith, Andrew W. Wilson, George S. Chris- tie, James R. Daugherty, Irwin MeFarland, George R. Lewis. Trustees appointed by the State were Hon. Daniel J. Morrell, of Johns- town; Hon. John K. Thompson, Marion Cen- ter; Gen. Thomas F. Gallagher, New Alexan- dria ; Col. S. M. Jackson, Apollo; Hon. E. S. Golden, Kittanning; Hon. J. C. Clark, Greensburg. Officers of board : John Sutton, president; Silas M. Clark, secretary ; Peter Sutton, treasurer; W. B. Hildebrand, assist- ant secretary.

First faculty : Edmund B. Fairfield, D. D., LL. D., principal ; Hiram Collier, A. M., chem- istry and physics ; J. H. Young, A. M., lan- guages; Thomas J. Chapman, A. M., English grammar and literature; David M. Sensenig,

MAIN BUILDING Pennsylvania State Normal School, Indiana, Pa.

Pennsylvania State Normal School, Indiana, Pa. PARTIAL VIEW OF ANNEX

LNY

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

M. S., mathematics; A. H. Berlin, M. S., su- age plant in connection with the refectory. perintendent of model school; A. J. Bolar, A. This cold storage plant is pronounced by ex- M., mathematics and English literature; Miss perts to be one of the very best in all the Jane E. Leonard, history and geography ; country. It enables the school to manufacture its own ice, and to furnish its students at all times with the choicest fresh meats. Mrs. Anna M. Sensenig, English branches ; Miss Grace Oviatt, penmanship, drawing and bookkeeping; Mrs. M. S. Berlin, vocal music ; and Miss Maggie Lichteberger, instrumental music.

Present board of trustees : Representing the stockholders -- Messrs. Thomas Sutton, Ed- ward Rowe, Griffith Ellis, J. Wood Clark, John P. Elkin, Harry W. Wilson, Harry White, John W. Sutton, William S. Daugh- erty ; representing the State-Messrs. Sum- mers M. Jack, S. J. Telford, W. R. Loughry, J. C. Wallace, J. Dick Wilson, John A. Scott, John S. Fisher, Tom E. Hildebrand. Officers of the board: President, Thomas Sutton ; vice president, Hon. John P. Elkin ; secretary, J. Wood Clark; treasurer, Harry White, Jr.

Indiana's student growth has never been phenomenal, but it has been steady, and has increased from 328, the total enrollment of that first term back in 1875, to nearly 1,500, the number for the year just closed, the larg- est in its history.

The year 1903 marked a strong advance in Indiana's material equipment. The Normal's lian marble. Occupants of these rooms pay Recitation Hall was then erected. It stands from seventy-five cents to one dollar a week

just to the southward of Wilson Hall, com- pleting the east wing of the quadrangle. A stately structure it is and one of the most beautiful on the campus. The dimensions are a frontage of 130 feet and a depth of 123. The building is the school proper of the Nor- mal and contains twenty-four large, beautiful rooms. The trustees honored themselves by naming this building after one of their most widely known and most faithful teachers, Jane E. Leonard.

During that same year there was erected to the westward of the south wing of John Sutton Hall another most beautiful and im- posing structure, 123 by 92 feet in size and three stories high. In the basement of this building are the laundry and storage, while on the first floor are the kitchens, dining- rooms, and the steward's office: the musical conservatory occupies the second story, while the third floor is used as a dormitory. This building is known as Thomas Sutton Hall, in honor of the president of the board of trus- tees.

In 1913 a power plant was built at a cost of $100,000, which will furnish heat, light, power and hot and cold water.

During the past year two notable additions to the buildings have been made-an annex to the dining hall, seating from eighty to one hundred; and an annex to the girls' dormi- tory, accommodating sixty-two girls. The (lining-room annex contains a very large fire- place, which promotes good cheer and helps the ventilation materially. The annex to the girls' dormitory affords to each two girls oc- cupying it a suite consisting of a sitting-room and bedroom. There are two large wardrobe elosets, one for each girl. In the bedroom each girl has her own bed, and there is a porcelain lavatory supplied with hot and cold water. No dormitory, however high the charges of the school, affords its occupants better rooms than these. This building is practically fireproof, and its bathrooms-one on every floor-are tiled and finished in Ita-

extra.

All the buildings are built of stone and brick in the most substantial manner, and are heated by steam, direet or indirect, with the fan system. The main building, used as the girls' residence, is equipped with two large passenger elevators-one hydraulic, and one electric-running from the basement to the top floor, which makes the upper floors more desirable in some respects than the lower ones. This entire building is heated by steam and lighted by electricity. Every floor is supplied with an abundance of hot and cold water, and the bathrooms, lavatories and waterclosets are of the most approved patterns.

On account of the method of lighting and heating the possibility of a fire is small, while danger from it is reduced to a minimum by ample arrangements for extinguishment, and by fire escapes abundantly provided for each floor and for each room. Two new and im- proved fire escapes were added this last year. In brief, this immense building is planned and furnished throughout for the conven- ience, safety and success of its occupants.

During the last few years something more than $60,000 has been spent in improving the Each student's room is furnished with a bedstead, a bureau, a washstand with neces- institution's plant, the most noteworthy im- provement being the erection of a cold stor- sary china, two chairs, a study table and a

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

neat case of bookshelves. All rooms are car- physician or special nursing, the student pays peted and have plain shades to the windows. The night watchmen have their headquarters in this building, and make the rounds of all the buildings on the campus four times each night.

Each student's room in the boys' dormitory is furnished with two single iron bedsteads, a bureau, a washstand with necessary china, two chairs, and a study table. The windows are provided with plain shades.

that cost, and the cost of filling the physician's prescriptions. At some distance from the main buildings, and off the campus, the in- stitution maintains a small hospital to which cases are confined if there is cause to suspect contagion. In short, every precaution is taken to protect the health of the Indiana student; and during more than a third of a century but two deaths have occurred in the institution, and it has never suffered from an

The laboratories for physics, chemistry and epidemic, notwithstanding the thousands who biology are located on the first floor of Leon- have been under its care. ard Hall. Few, if any, normal schools in this country are better equipped for science work than is Indiana. These laboratories perience. All who visit the institution are are supplied with every necessary instrument and equipment for individual study.

The boarding department of this school is under the charge of a steward of wide ex- delighted with its beautiful, spacious dining- room, and its immaculately clean kitchens, fit- ted up with every modern appliance of worth. The kitchen is presided over by an expert chef. There are four assistant cooks. The great bake-ovens are in the basement. All the bread (white, Vienna, Graham, whole wheat, cornbread and biscuit), pies and pud- dings are baked here. A professional baker has charge of the ovens.

A good reference library is accessible every day to all students. Here are found the lead- ing encyclopedias, dictionaries and other standard reference books, historical charts, maps and other conveniences so essential to successful student life. There is also a large library of choice works of history, biography and literature free to all students. It is not the aim to mass books merely for the sake of It is the steward's aim to provide good, sub- stantial, wholesome food. While it is plain, it is always the best quality to be found in our markets. It is doubtful if there is another school in the country, whatever its character or charges, that provides a greater variety of, making a large library ; but the aim is to have every usable book and periodical. The addi- tions to the library during the year will ag- gregate about five hundred volumes. In con- nection with the library is a reading-room, supplied with newspapers and periodicals. or more wholesome, food for its students than

The infirmary is pleasantly located in a does Indiana. The bills-of-fare vary with Ice cream is regularly served twice a week. Special meals are prepared for the sick.

retired portion of the south wing of John the seasons. Sutton Hall. This infirmary, by every physi- cian who has ever seen it, has been pronounced to be one of the finest and best in the State. All water served on the tables is from the wells at the school, drilled to a depth of more than two hundred feet. It contains three tiled bathrooms, a dispen- sary, a kitchen and dining-room, nurses' pri- vate quarters, ample closets, ward for girls, Each table seats from eight to twelve and so far as possible is presided over by a teacher. private room for girls, ward for boys, and private room for boys. The west end is fitted Students are permitted to room and board with private families, or to room in private homes and take meals in the school, at the dis- cretion of the principal only. for boys, the east for girls. These two apart- ments are separate and distinct, being divided by a hall. Every sanitary precaution is here taken, and every necessary arrangement is The institution owns a first-class laundry, and has it under the management of compe- tent people. The price of board here includes free laundry to the extent of ten plain pieces a week, in addition to towels and napkins. In the basement of the girls' residence is a place to do washing and ironing for the use of girls only, and many of them attend to the laundering of their own handkerchiefs and other small pieces. All water in the laundry provided for the intelligent care of the sick. A graduate nurse is always in charge. Many a serious illness has been averted by early caring for the student in this infirmary. The excellent health of our girls is proverbial, and the infirmary is responsible in no small degree for it. No extra charge is made for care in the infirmary, not even for the con- sumption of common remedies, a stock of which is always on hand. But in case the is sterilized, in order to eliminate any possi- illness is such as to require the care of a bility of spreading infectious diseases.

THE TRAINING SCHOOL-WILSON HALL Pennsylvania State Normal School, Indiana, Pa.

JANE LEONARD HALL, NORMAL RECITATION BUILDING Pennsylvania State Normal School, Indiana, Pa.

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

The institution is fortunate in its location, government must and will be controlled and the site being one of great natural beauty, administered by the educated; hence, the while the surrounding town is characteris- tically beautiful, and has developed those moral influences so desirable in the seat of an institution of learning. The town has a pop- ulation of more than 6,000, and maintains churches of the following denominations : Methodist Episcopal, Free Methodist, Episco- pal, Presbyterian, United Presbyterian, Cath- olic, Lutheran, Baptist, Wesleyan Methodist, German Lutheran and Christian.

Growth and improvement have especially marked Indiana in the past few years, and bid fair to continue. Many blocks of excel- lent brick pavement have been laid, and con- tracts for many more have been let.

The place is reached by rail without dif- ficulty, being the northern terminus of the "Indiana Branch" of the Pennsylvania, the change from the main line being made at Blairsville Intersection, where the Indiana train awaits the main line train. The Indiana Branch connects at Blairsville with the West Pennsylvania division. Indiana is also on the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg, which gives connections with all northern points. The institution is within ten minutes' walk of either depot. The Pennsylvania stops all its trains at the "Campus Landing" on the first day of each term. Both the railways put on extra coaches at the opening of each term in order to accommodate all, if possible, with seats. The Pennsylvania now runs a special train for Indiana students only, from the campus direct to the Union Station at Pitts- burg, at the close of each term. The train is chaperoned by teachers.

Telephone connection can be made from the main building with all leading points.

Reference has been made to Indiana's nat- urally beautiful location. Here, in the foot- True, it cannot and does not confine its

hills of the Alleghenies, thirteen hundred feet courses to common school subjects, realizing the necessity of having the content of its courses broad and cultural. These facts ahove sea level, with a clear, pure atmosphere, its inhabitants have always been free from miasmic or malarial complaints. For more make the normal school a desirable institution than a third of a century the health record of the school has been phenomenal.

The campus, comprising twenty-three acres, has its natural beauty greatly enhanced by the constant care of a landscape gardener. It is the belief of the institution's authorities that such surroundings are a potent factor in lence. the upbuilding of the student's character.

genius of our government implies an educated citizenship. This attitude of the State toward the instruction of its people makes it the one competent agency in supplying qualified teachers for its schools. This the State of Pennsylvania does through its publie normal schools, whose function is the preparation of teachers for the common schools of the State. The learning and training imparted by the State through its normal schools has not for its purpose the bettering of the condition of one class of persons at the public expense ; the school does not exist for the benefit of its students simply, but for the benefit of the whole people, and its work is done with the general welfare always in view.

It is sometimes declared by some well- meaning critic that the normal should be "a purely professional school," meaning that the school should not do academic work, but de- vote itself to the teaching of pedagogics, psy- chology, the philosophy of education, etc. All experienced trainers of teachers realize the inefficiency of such work. Those so trained rarely make successful teachers. As well might medical students devote their time to the study of diagnosis and the theory of dis- ease, apart from materia medica and the com- mon diseases encountered in actual practice. The average high school graduate has been away from the common school subjects for from four to five years. His knowledge of those subjects was obtained at an immature age. In his normal school course they must be reviewed from the standpoint of a teacher. Ilis view will be very different from the view he had as a child. The normal school must not only teach how to teach, but what to teach and the educational value of study subjects.

in which to obtain a general education for any purpose in life. More and more farseeing parents have recognized this, and have insisted upon the privilege of paying full tuition for having their children educated in the normal school, thus benefiting by its peculiar excel-

For thousands of years thoughtful men Pennsylvania, in common with most of the have realized the educational and cultural American States, realized practically from its value of music, and its psychological effect founding the necessity of an educated citizen- in giving tone and sanity to mental life. ship. It is axiomatic that a just and efficient American educational leaders believe in music

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

as a school study, and insist upon the com- not to be adapted to the life and work of the mon school teachers possessing a fair degree school for other reasons, to withdraw from of musical knowledge and ability. To meet the institution. this demand in training the leading normal schools have founded strong departments of music. The department at Indiana has grown into a well-equipped conservatory, second to none in this section of the country.

The life of a community determines the practical side of its school education. Amer- ica is a business country ; hence, in its cities everywhere high schools are offering business courses. To prepare teachers for this class of high school work, this Normal maintains a business school. So thorough and excellent is the course that many graduate from it, not to teach, but to take up business careers. In short, it is the purpose of this institution to prepare teachers for every grade and kind of teaching of wide demand.

All questions of internal organization in a school must be determined by the fundamen- tal conception of the function of the school. In determining the nature and character of discipline in a normal school, the function of the institution makes it necessary that it be but slightly, if at all, reformatory in its na- ture. The general welfare of the State would not be promoted by licensing one of evil ten- dencies or certain shortcomings to teach in the schools of the Commonwealth. It is, therefore, the policy of the administrative au- thorities to ask any student who does not conduct herself or himself in all things as be- comes the lady or gentleman, or who is found prosperous condition.

In the government of the school the larg- est liberty consistent with good work and order is allowed. The disciplinary power of the institution is brought to bear upon the student only to bring him to a rational un- derstanding of freedom, and to lead him to such self-government as will make him capa- ble in the future of wisely governing others who shall become his pupils. It is the de- sire and aim of the faculty to make the gov- ernment in the school ethical in its basis.

This school is not denominational in any sense. Its authorities, however, aim to make it a place of gentle but positive Christian in- fluence. To this end family worship is held daily, and students are required to attend the church of their own choice on Sunday morn- ings.

The Y. M. C. A. and the Y. W. C. A. aid in the religious culture of all whose homes are in the institution. They include a large portion of the students. These associations have charge of the Thursday evening prayer- meetings, and hold a joint meeting Sunday evenings. Endeavor is made to promote Sab- bath observance. Students are thus encour- aged to become Christian workers, and school life is made to minister to the elevation of Christian life.

Besides these associations, there are vari- ous others of a practical type and in a highly

THE OLD EAST BALCONY Pennsylvania State Normal School, Indiana, Pa.

THE PRINCIPAL'S PRIVATE VERANDA Pennsylvania State Normal School, Indiana, Pa.

CHAPTER XVII

CHURCHES

PRESBYTERIAN

The Presbyterian Churches of Indiana county are principally in the Kittanning Presbytery, the present boundaries of which are identical with those of the two counties of Armstrong and Indiana, except that a small portion of the latter county at the southern border, about one tenth of the whole in extent, and separated from the rest of the county by Blacklick creek, is attached to the Presbytery of Blairsville. The Allegheny river, a noble and historic stream, flows through the western border of the Presbytery in a southerly direction, dividing the county of Armstrong into unequal parts. The Kiski- minetas river with its chief branch, the Cone- maugh, and Blacklick as above, outline its southern boundary.

The territory now covered by the Pres- bytery of Kittanning has been included, by turns, in whole or in part, within the bounds of . several other Presbyteries. First of all, it was a part of Redstone, that mother of Presbyteries west of the Alleghenies, erected by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, May 16, 1781, aud formally organized at Laurel Hill Church, now in Fayette county, September 19th of the same year. This pioneer Presbytery was not described by bounds by the body creating it, but only by the ministers and churches originally under its jurisdiction, and hence it reached from the summit of the Alleghenies to the setting sun, or, at least, to the farthest western border of civilization. This arrangement continued undisturbed for twenty years.

That part of the Kittanning Presbytery east of the Allegheny continued in Redstone Pres- bytery until by the Synod of Pittsburg, in October, 1830, the Presbytery of Blairsville was erected with the "Pittsburg and Stoys- town turnpike" as its southern boundary. Its first meeting was held at Ebenezer, presum- ably in April following. In this connection it continued twenty-six years, or until the treats.

Synod of Pittsburg erected the Presbytery of Saltsburg, October 21, 1856.

SYNODICAL CONNECTIONS

The synodical connection of this Presbytery has been nearly as varicd as its Presbyterial. In the first place the original Synod of New York and Philadelphia had jurisdiction over our whole territory; then, at its organization in 1788, the territory became part of the Synod of Virginia, and finally it was included in the bounds of the Synod of Pittsburg, the first in the West, formed by the General Assembly in May, 1802, and whose first meet- ing was held in Pittsburg on the 29th of September in the same year. When the Synod of Allegheny was erected, in May, 1854, its first meeting being held at Allegheny in Octo- ber of the same year, that part of this Pres- bytery, as now bounded, lying west of the Allegheny river was included within its limits. At the reconstruction in 1870, this Presbytery was one of the six assigned by the General Assembly to the Synod of Erie. Fin- ally, upon the consolidation of synods in 1882, it became a part of the Synod of Pennsyl- vania. Thus, in whole or in part, the Pres- bytery has had six different synodical con- nections.

PLANTING AND GROWTH OF CHURCHES

The early settlers in this region were largely of the Presbyterian faith, and the member- ship of the churches here now is largely com- posed of their descendants, a sturdy, conserva- tive people, trained in the faith which they hold, nourished from infancy on the Bible and the Westminster standards, and devotedly at- tached to the church of their fathers. While there are churches of numerous other denomi- nations of Christians within the hounds of this Presbytery, no other in the number of its churches and members, it is believed, is nearly equal to that of which this article

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Few rural districts are more solidly Pres- said river to the Conemaugh, to the mouth of byterian than this. In connection with the Blacklick, and up that creek to the Blairsville early settlements, churches soon began to and Hollidaysburg turnpike road, and thence eastward along said road to the eastern boun- dary of the Synod, and that the ministers and churches so detached be erected into a Presbytery to be called the Presbytery of Saltsburg; that said Presbytery be directed to hold their first meeting at Indiana on the appear, but in most cases, it is believed, without any formal ceremony of organization conducted by Presbytery, as the earliest Pres- byterial records contain no account of any such proceedings. The churches seemed to have been recognized as enrolled by the early Pres- byteries just as they reported themselves or first Tuesday of January, 1857, at 2 o'clock

appeared at the meetings to make "supplica- tions for supplies." For many years churches were few in number, and far separated from each other as well as weak in numbers, and resources, and the early ministers in supply- ing their congregations and attending ecclesi- astical meetings often had long and tedious journeys to make, a circumstance that, while involving hardship, contributed, no doubt, to make them the hardy and heroic men that they were.

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Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 46

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 930

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 930