A history of Auburn Theological Seminary, 1818-1918

Front matter

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PRINCETON, N. J.

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Preface

It would be difficult for the writer to mention the names of all those to whom he is indebted in the preparation of this History. They are a goodly number and they have aided him in a variety of ways, for which he is thankful, but he must make special and grateful mention of the Rev. President George Black Stewart, D.D., LL.D., the Rev. Professor Robert Hastings Nichols, Ph.D., and the Rev. Professor William John Hinke, Ph.D., D.D., for their generous help freely given. They have examined much of the manuscript, and have made many suggestions which have been almost uniformly adopted. At the same time the writer alone must bear the responsibility for the book as a whole, especially for its failures in matter or manner, while he may be permitted to share with them in whatever excellences may appear in its pages.

The writing of the history has been a labor of love gladly undertaken, by the appointment of the Faculty, in the midst of other pressing duties, and has required much more time and labor in securing accurate data and correcting traditional mistakes than will be suggested to most readers. Only those who have done similar work can fully appreciate the difficulties met and the labor required to prepare it. That it is not free from mistakes and from unfortunate omissions is, of course, certain. But such as it is, it is now submitted to the kindly judgment of those most interested, the Alumni of Auburn Theological Seminary wherever found, who, true to their Alma Mater, are now engaged in the Master's service the world over, and to all those, who, during the second century of "Our Mother," shall follow in their steps.

John Quincy Adams.

May, 1918.

Chapter I. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

The land Question. The rapid settlement of Central and Western New York. The character of the early settlers.

Chapter II. THE WORK OF THE CHURCH

The pioneer work of the Church and the organizations engaged in it. The revivals of 1798 and following years. The first organizations on the field. The Plan of Union of 1801 and 1808. The progress of the Church until the Exscinding Act of 1837.

Chapter III. THE FOUNDATIONS LAID

The Beginnings of the Seminary. Action of the Presbytery of Cayuga; of the Synod of Geneva; of the General Assembly; of the meeting at Cannndaigua, and of the Committee on Ministerial Education. A Theological Seminary only. Further action of the Synod.

Chapter IV. THE WORK BEGUN

Breaking ground for the first building. Laying of the corner stone. First meetings of the Governing Boards. Erection of four Departments. Election and inauguration of the first Faculty. Opening of the Seminary. Endowment of the Chair of Christian Theology. Earliest Catalogue. The village of Auburn and reasons for the location of the Seminary.

Chapter V. THE MEN WHO DID IT

Some of the Founders of the Seminary; Lansing; Wisner; Alexander; Squier; Davis; Parsons; Bellamy; Edwards; Lincklaen; Brown; Hyde. The first Faculty; Lansing; Richards; Mills; Perrine.

Chapter VI. THE FORMATIVE PERIOD

1821—1837

Declaration signed by the Faculty. Changes in the Faculty. Ordinances and Internal Regulations. Curriculum. Terms and Vacations. Contemporary accounts of Commencements. Endowments. New building. House of Exercise. The students and their Organizations. Board bills. Matriculation pledge. Drowning of four students. The Society of Alumni. Treasurers of the Seminary. The Beginnings of the Library.

Chapter XIII

The second President. Growth of the Seminary. Changes in the Faculty. Special Lectures. Dr. Riggs' and Dr. Hoyt's Anniversaries. Archaeological Institute. American Committee on Religions. Ministers in Residence. Students. The B. D. degree. Pastoral Scholarships. Fellowships. The Club Hou^e. Summer Schools. Seminary colors and seal. Library Extension.

Appendix

A. Dates of the establishment of the older Theological Sem-

inaries in the United States.

B. Charters of the Seminary with Amendments.

C. The Originxil Board of Trustees.

D. The Original Board of Commissioners.

E. The Directors.

F. The Plan of Union of 1801.

G. The Plan of Union of 1808.

H. The Originxil Ordinances and Regulations.

I. The Faculty by Departments.

J. Summary of Students.

K. By-Laws of the Board of Directors.

ILLUSTRATIONS

(in order of their appearance)

ORIGINAL SEMINARY BUILDING.

MORGAN HALL IN 1918.

DIRCK CORNELIUS LANSING.

HENRY MILLS.

MATTHEW LARUE PERRINE.

JAMES RICHARDS.

SAMUEL HANSON COX.

LUTHER HALSEY.

BAXTER DICKINSON.

JOSEPH FEWSMITH.

SAMUEL MILES HOPKINS.

LAURENS PERSEUS HICKOK.

WILLIAM G. T. SHEDD.

CLEMENT LONG.

EDWIN HALL.

EZRA ABEL HUNTINGTON.

JAMES EDWARD PIERCE.

JONATHAN BAILEY CONDIT.

WILLIS JUDSON BEECHER.

HERRICK JOHNSON.

ANSON JUDD UPSON.

TIMOTHY DARLING.

RANSOM BETHUNE WELCH.

THEODORE WELD HOPKINS.

HENRY MATTHIAS BOOTH.

HALSEY BIDWELL STEVENSON.

EDWARD WAITE MILLER.

JAMES STEVENSON RIGGS.

ARTHUR STEPHEN HOYT.

GEORGE BLACK STEWART.

HARRY LATHROP REED.

ALLEN MACY DULLES.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

WILLIAM JOHN HINKE.

HERBERT ALDEN YOUTZ.

HARLAN CREELMAN.

ROBERT HASTINGS NICHOLS.

FRANK WOOD MOORE.

HARRIS BATES STEWART.

THE CAMPUS AND BUILDINGS.

Chapter I. THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE

The land question. The rapid settlement of Central and Western New York. The character of the early settlers.

The character and work of an institution, as of an individual, is largely determined by its heredity and early environment. The soil out of which it springs, the occasion of its establishment, the aims and methods of its founders, give it an initial character and send it forth to accomplish its work with its future moulded, to a great extent, by these and kindred forces which preside at its birth. Then the life within, and the life and conditions without, henceforth work together to develop and discipline this primary character, but it is seldom that they wholly change it. If it has life the institution must grow and develop, but its history will be the legitimate fruitage of its earlier years. Certainly the history of Auburn Theological Seminary furnishes abundant illustrations of these statements.

The Seminary was founded for the specific purpose of educating ministers of the Gospel to serve the growing population of Central and Western New York. The only seminaries at that time in any sense tributary to this region, Andover and Princeton, were further away from it than the Pacific Coast is today from Auburn. They were not able to supply the needs of their own portion of the country, and could give little help to these far western lands. The need here was great and imperative, the opportunity a challenge, and the far seeing men of that day with much labor and self-denial accepted the challenge and did their best to meet the need. In telling the story, therefore, of our Seminary it is necessary to give some attention to the history of this part of the State, and to the character of the early settlers and of the men to whom the Seminary owes its beginnings.

As is well known, the charters granted by England to the various companies or colonies of the new world were often in conflict. So little was known of the geography of the new lands, that for a long time this occasioned little trouble. The charters of Massachusetts and Connecticut, for example, included all the lands between certain parallels running due west from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean, thus covering much of the territory which the New York charter also covered. Before the war of the revolution Massachusetts agreed with New York to surrender all right to the land extending from the eastern boundary of the latter State far enough west to include all the settlements then existing, which did not extend beyond the Catskills and the Mohawk Valley. This was sufficient for the time. At the close of the war, however, the further conflicting claims of these two States were submitted to a commission appointed by the respective States. These commissioners met at Hartford, Conn., December 16, 1786, and reached a unanimous decision. The sovereignty and right of jurisdiction of New York over the whole of the territory within her present borders was confirmed. To Massachusetts was given the right of pre-emption from the Indians of all of the land west of a line running from the Pennsylvania border through Seneca Lake to Lake Ontario, except a tract on the west one mile wide the length of the Niagara River. To Massachusetts was also granted the right of pre-emption to ten townships of six miles square each between the Owego and Chenango rivers. Upon the extinguishment of the Indian titles, portions of these tracts were sold to Samuel Brown and his associates ; to Oliver Phelps and Nathaniel Gorham ; to Robert Morris; to Colonel Charles Williamson, the representative of Sir William Pulteney ; and to Samuel Ogden and the Holland Land Company. In the course of these various transfers of titles, many acres were sold to actual settlers or small speculators.

The controversy between Connecticut and New York was settled by an agreement between the United States government and the former State in 1800. On condition of releasing all claims to land within the territory of New York,

DIRCK CORNELIUS LANSING Professor, 1821-1826

Connecticut was granted 3,300,000 acres in Ohio called "the Western Reserve", which was soon placed upon the market for settlement.

After extinguishing the Indian titles to the lands in Western and Central New York, the New York legislature on February 28, 1789, passed an act authorizing the survey of what was known as the "Military Tract", which had been set apart in 1782 for the payment of the bounties due the soldiers of the Revolution. It was to be divided into twenty-five townships of one hundred lots of six hundred acres each. In 1790, two additional townships were added, and in 1794, still another, making twenty-eight in all. This "Military Tract", which figures largely in the subsequent history of the State, according to an old description "lay east of Ontario county", which then covered all of the State west of Seneca Lake, and included what are now the counties of Cayuga, Onondaga, Cortland, Seneca, and parts of Oswego, Wayne, Tompkins, Chemung, and Schuyler. i

New York had acquired the title to this tract from the Onondaga and Cayuga tribes of Indians in 1788 and 1789. It was surveyed in 1790 under the direction of the State Surveyor General, Simeon De Witt, who had been an ofiicer in the Revolutionary War. It has been usual to ascribe to him the giving to the townships classical names, but General De Witt positively denied having any responsibility for them. Probably we owe them to Robert Harper, then Deputy Secretary of State. (1) Patents were issued to soldiers in July 1790, but many of the old soldiers had grown discouraged after waiting so many years, and they disposed of their claims for a mere song, and soon there arose great confusion in the titles. In 1797 "the Onondaga Commission", as it was called, was appointed to pass upon the titles, and secure the settlers in possession. Few soldiers, however, ever occupied their claims. The settlement of this Tract began somewhat later than that of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. In April, 1788, Oliver Phelps of Sufiield and Nathaniel Gorham '

(1) See The Historical Magazine and Notes and Queries Concerning the Antiquities, History and Biography of America, Vol. Ill <1859) p. 53.

of Charlestown, Massachusetts, had purchased from that State all the land ceded to it which lay west of the Military Tract. The eastern boundary was called the Pre-emption line, and it also formed the western boundary of the Tract.

In 1790 between Lake Erie on the west and the pre-emption line on the east, there were only ten hundred and eighty-one people scattered in thirty towns. The largest of these towns was Canandaigua, which according to the census of that year contained "eighteen houses and 106 souls". Beginning with 1790, however, the settlement was very rapid. Pioneers came from Pennsylvania and New Jersey by way of the Susquehanna and Tioga rivers, to Newtown, now Elmira, thence by land to the head of Seneca Lake and down the lake and river to the shores of Cayuga and the country beyond, following chiefly Sullivan's trail. The larger number, however, came from New England and eastern New York by way of Albany and the Mohawk. Penn Yan in its name perpetuates to this day one of the meeting places of these two hosts of emigrants. Either way the journey was exceedingly toilsome. There were few roads, and those that existed were hardly more than trails. There were few bridges by which to cross the many streams, and the shoals in the rivers made navigation even in the small flat bottomed boats of the day very difficult. Indians were numerous, and game of all sorts large and small abounded. For obvious reasons the immigrants travelled usually in companies.

Many of these first settlers had the same desire which has belonged to their descendants to push on further west. They built a log cabin, cleared a few acres, and after a few years sold their farm to newcomers, and moved west, to repeat the operation oftentimes again and again. It was no uncommon thing to find a man who had changed his residence in this way six times. The hardships these people endured cannot be told. Most of them were extremely poor. Food was scarce. Many of the log cabins had no windows, the only outlet being the open space in the roof whence the smoke issued, while through the chinks between the logs the snow piled in drifts during the winter.

After this first wave of immigration came the men and women who settled the towns, cleared up the land, built the roads and began to raise and ship large quantities of produce. With them also came merchants who exchanged rum, molasses, pots, kettles, clothing, farm tools and machinery and whatever else the people needed for lumber, wheat, pot and pearl ashes, and anything else that the settlers had to offer. This rapid growth of what was then the new West had its effect upon New England, as have later migrations, and thus early it began to lose many of its best families.

'The rapidity of the settlement of Western New York, and the uninterrupted prosperity attending it constitute a circumstance which finds no parallels in the previous history of new settlements" (2). This rapidity of settlement is scarcely understood today. When the difficulties of transportation and the privations of pioneer life then are taken into account, there has been nothing to equal it since in the settlement of our new West. This will be seen by the following comparisons.

Minnesota first appeared in the U. S. census of 1850 with 6,077 population. In 1880 it had multiplied one hundred and twenty-eight times, and reported 780,773. California first appeared in the same census in 1850 with 92,597. In 1880 it had multiplied nine times, and reported 864,694. Kansas first appeared in the census of 1860 with 107,206 population. In 1890 it had multiplied thirteen times and reported 1,428,108. In the first thirty years, then, of their history these three States increased one hundred and twenty-eight, nine and thirteen fold respectively. In the first thirty years of the history of Western and Central New York, from 1790 to 1820, its population increased four hundred and sixty-nine fold. No wonder that the men of that day were amazed at this rapid growth, and that the Church was unprepared to meet the demands for ministers thrust upon it. Nothing like this had ever been known. It is not strange that the writers of the day spoke of the growth of towns in

(2) Hotchkin's History of Western New York, New York, 1848, p. 17.

this region as if it was brought about by the waving of a magician's wand.

The reasons for this rapid settlement of the then "New West" are evident. It was one of the first great westward movements of our always restless population in the effort to better themselves. It was born of the spirit of adventure which is ever seeking for new lands to explore. "The call of the wild" was heard in New England and elsewhere in the older lands, and the response was this westward march of the people. But this was not all. The country itself was attractive. The Indians had cleared and cultivated thousands of acres but much of it was still heavily wooded, and great labor was required to fit the land for cultivation, but the soil was very fertile and the land cheap. Then the many streams and lakes were filled with fish, and game abounded on every hand. It was comparatively easy "to make a living" from what nature provided, until the labors of man had subdued the wilderness, cleared the land and established civilized and Christian homes. A description of the "The Genesee Country" and of "The Military Tract" by Robert Munro, printed in 1804, gives statistics and descriptions that confirm all that has been said, and thus sums up his conclusions. "The cheapness and fertility of land in this country, together with its easy communications with different markets, and the temperateness, and healthiness of the climate in general, are advantages, not possessed in an equal degree in other new settlements, which render this country an object of attention to those who wish their estates in a few years to increase in extent and value." When we learn that the price of the best unimproved land was two to four dollars an acre, and that farms having twenty to thirty acres improved, with a house and barn, were sold for from six to twenty dollars an acre, it is no wonder that the country seemed attractive to many.

Public improvements were endeavoring to keep pace with this growth of population. In 1794 commissioners were appointed to lay out a road from Utica west by way of Cayuga village to the Genesee river at Avon as straight as practicable, and six rods wide. Of course, settlements followed rapidly along the line of this highway. Other roads east and west and north and south were constructed as fast as money and men could be obtained. On September 30, 1799, a stage began to run regularly between Utica and the Genesee River, arriving at the other end of the route on the afternoon of the third day. In the next year the Manhattan Company of New York completed the building of a bridge across Cayuga Lake, about a mile north of the present crossing by the New York Central railroad, about a mile long, and costing $150,000., considered one of the greatest achievements of that day. These are but samples of a long list of public improvements by which the state and the new settlers sought to keep pace with the rapid development of the natural resources of the country.

But what was the character of these early settlers ? As we have seen, they came from widely separated sections of the country. The majority were probably New Englanders, but among them were English, Dutch, Germans, Scotch and Irish, new immigrants to the new world ; and many also, as we have already said, from Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

There is a common notion that these men and M^omen were almost all God-fearing and God-honoring people, who loved their fellow men as themselves, and were in morality and religion model citizens. Probably it it. to this period of the state's history that pulpit orators refer when they tell us of the day when family worship and family religion. Sabbath keeping and Bible study, were well nigh universal ; so much superior to conditions now or during the settlement of the newer west. It will be somewhat of a shock to some good people, doubtless, to know that the same moral and religious conditions, or lack of them, which have marked the later western movements, belonged to this earlier one, and that as a consequence the same difficulties confronted the faithful few as in later years in the far west. It was a common remark of the day that there was no Sabbath west of the Genesee river, and there was not much of one for a long way east of it. Infidel clubs, avowedly atheistic, were common. The use of intoxicating liquors was almost universal. Gambling, horse-racing and licentiousness, abounded on every hand. It is not difficult to understand the reason for this. This westward movement was contemporaneous with the French Revolution and with the rapid spread in this country of French infidelity. The uprooting of the people from their old life and surroundings had the same effect then as always of unsettling them in their moral and religious life. Even with the rapid growth in population the people were scattered and isolated, and it was difficult to bring them together for any religious meetings. Doubtless the different settlements varied in character, as is always the case, but from all we know the general conditions were as above stated. Quotations might be given from many writers that would illustrate this fact. Perhaps two are sufficient. The first is from the Rev. William Wisner, D.D., one of the founders of the Seminary, and for many years pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Ithaca. Dr. Wisner had been trained as a lawyer, and practiced his profession for years previous to his entering the ministry. He says :

"My own congregation was made up when I came among them, of men from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, New York, and a few from different New England States. It is impossible for a man who has spent his life in the land of steady habits, as New England has long been called, to form a correct idea of the moral condition of Western New York fifty years ago. When the writer came into this region in 1800 it was, with a very few exceptions, one wide-spread moral desolation. In the entire district north of the Pennsylvania line, and west of Oneida county, there were but three settled Presbyterian ministers. The rest of the country was missionary ground. I spent the first twelve years, after coming into the country, in the study, and in the practice of the legal profession, in one of the most thriving and beautiful villages, which ornamented the banks of the Susquehanna and the Tioga rivers, and as I was in the habit of attending the courts in the counties of Tioga, Broome, Steuben, Seneca and Alleghany, and occasionally in Ontario and Cayuga, I had a good opportunity of knowing what the state of society was. The use of intoxicating drinks was almost as universal as the use of bread, and drunkenness was so common that occasional intoxication brought no disgrace upon the inebriate. In the village where I resided, it was common in the fall and winter for the most respectable inhabitants to meet at each other's houses five nights in the week to play cards and drink hot punch. At those meetings they would usually remain together until eleven or twelve o'clock, and often till two or three in the morning."

He says also that he had seen almost all the court officials so drunk as to be unfit for business, and that his own village was no worse than, hardly as bad as, many of the others. (3)

To the same effect are the statements made by Dr. Gillett. He says : "The character of this immigration was one to excite alarm and apprehension. The first settlements were formed at the period when French infidelity had attained the largest influence which it ever possessed in this country. Even where pious families were to be found, they were as sheep without a shepherd, and were disheartened and discouraged by the prevalent irreligion around them. Some who had been members of churches in New England seemed to Ijave left their religion behind them. In many places there \^£ie po one to be found to take measures for the establishment; of •public" religious worship. 'The habits of the people were loose and irreligious. The Sabbath was made a day of business, visiting, or pastime. Drinking and carousing were frequent concomitants.' In other places, however, there were those to be found who were still mindful of the professions or the pi;ivileges of earlier days, and who longed for the enjoyment of the means of grace. Gathering their neighbors around them, they would endeavor to observe in their little assemblies the forms of public worship, and seek to edify one another in prayer, exhortation, and the reading of the Scriptures." (4) It is needless to multiply quotations, the facts are too well known.

(3) Incidents in a Pastor's Life, by Rev. William Wlsner, D.D., p. 273.

(4) History of the Presbyterian Church by Rev. E. H. Gillett, D.D., Vol. 1:398.

Chapter II. THE WORK OF THE CHURCH

The pioneer work of the Church and the organizations engaged in it. The revivals of 1798 and following years. The first organizations on the field. The Plan of Union of 1801 and 1808. The progress of the Church until the Exscinding Act of 1837.

But what was the Church doing to stem this tide of infidelity, irreligion, and immoraUty, which many of the early settlers brought with them, and which at times threatened to make of this beautiful country a moral and a spiritual waste, or to assist what forces there were in these new communities making for morality and religion ? Again our reply must only be a general one. Details must be largely omitted, and the reader must always remember that local conditions varied greatly. It is only in the large that the description will apply.

It must be remembered that the settlement of the region under discussion took place before the days of the organization of a single one of our great missionary boards or societies, which in later years have watched so constantly and followed so closely the pioneer host on its westward march. We of today can scarcely realize how this fact complicated the question of home missions. There were a goodly number of local societies in the New England states and in the eastern part of the state of New York, and they did most excellent work, but they often overlapped in their work, and there was no general oversight of the whole field, nor planning to meet its rapidly growing needs. This state of things continued for many years and many of the still existing problems of the rural and village churches of this region are the results of this lack of organization and direction of the work in the early day. The New York Missionary Society, formed November 1, 1796 ; the Northern Missionary Society

HENRY MILLS Professor, 1821-1867 of northern New York, 1797; the Connecticut Missionary Society, of the same year, one of the first to send missionaries into this western field; the Massachusetts Society, and the Berkshire and Columbia Missionary Society, including eastern New York and western Massachusetts, of 1798, were among the agencies helping in this home Mission field. All of these societies sent missionaries into the then far west, and did what they could perhaps under the circumstances to meet the growing needs of the country. As early as 1790 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church sent missionaries into this region who labored for a few months, but none of them remained permanently. In 1800 it sent as one of its missionaries to the Military Tract the Rev. Matthew LaRue Perrine. But at the close of this year, 1800, no Presbyterian or Congregational minister had settled as a pastor on the Military Tract, though by this time a number of churches had been organized among the nearly 30,000 people living on it.

Among the men who were commissioned as the first missionaries in this region are many whose names should be held in everlasting remembrance by the churches of the state. It would be invidious to attempt to name them, for many equally deserving would be passed by, and it would be almost impossible to make the list complete on account of imperfect records. As a rule these men were graduates of New England colleges, and had studied theology at the feet of the then masters of this science. Their salaries were pitifully small. The people to whom they ministered were widely scattered, and as a consequence they were obliged to travel over wretched trails and roads by horse back or on foot for many miles. They stayed in one-room log cabins often for weeks or months, and shared the humble fare of the people for whom they labored. Many of them during the long winter months travelled hundreds of miles, preaching almost every day for weeks together, and they were often away from their own homes for long periods. The winters were very severe, the snow very deep, the roads generally mere trails, the bridges few, and wild beasts common. The story, which ought to be more fully told, is a wonderful record of heroic service which has been repeated again and again in the subsequent history of our country, although it is doubtful whether in any other the deprivations met and difficulties overcome were ever greater.

The labors of these heroic men were not in vain. It must often have seemed to them as if they were sowing the seed on stony ground and amid the thorns, with little, if any, prospect of a satisfactory harvest. But God remembered his own. A revival of religion, which powerfully affected this whole region and led to the organization of many churches, began in 1798 and, in the succeeding three years, spread over almost the whole of western and central New York. "The tide of infidelity which was setting in with so strong a current was rolled back, and western New York was delivered from the moral desolation which threatened it. The general prosperity, the religious order, the benevolent and literary institutions, which constitute the glory and happiness of tlTis section of country, it cannot be doubted, are, in no inconsiderable degree, attributable to the change produced in the current of public sentiment, as the consequence of this extended revival of religion. The year 1798 is an era which should long be remembered in western New York, as giving a character to this part of the State, which laid a foundation for its large prosperity, and improvement in all things useful." (1) It is well to note that this revival extended over several years, and was by no means confined to the year mentioned.