Hiram college and Western reserve eclectic institute; fifty years of history, 1850-1900.

Dedication

To the many thousands who constitute

the goodly Fellowship

of

Preface

There are some things which can be stated in a Preface or Introduction better than in the body of a book. Some personal explanations can be made which would be altogether out of place anywhere else. In the preface the author of a volume or treatise mounts his throne and asserts his dictum. It should be known to all that the author whose name appears on the title page of this volume was not the first in the Hiram fellowship to gather material, to outline its use, and to enter upon the writing of a Hiram history. Mainly to the Faculty of Hiram College, and especially to Professor A. C. Pierson who was selected by them, is the credit due for the idea which has been expanded into the present volume. To the great sorrow of a large circle of friends and co-laborers in behalf of Hiram College and higher education, Prof. Pierson died suddenly at the begnning of his work, leaving for another hand to do what it was hoped he would be able to perform. He had gathered considerable material and had outlined his plan of work, and had written a little more than one chapter. Substantially he completed the first chapter of the history, and with slight change that chapter stands as he wrote it and as a memoral of high personal regard and of the high esteem in which he was held by his associates in the Faculty and the students and friends of Hiram College. In his foreview of "University and its Sons," Dr. John Eaton, himself an eminent educator, says : "How often do both the faculty and students of a generation fail to gain the inspiration justly theirs, by reason of the lack of knowledge of the sacrifices and triumphs of those who have gone before them.

How many fail to bestow their wealth in aid of this instruction, and how many sonr fail to take advantage of it because they, or those advising them, do not know v^^hat those receiving it have thereby gained to themselves, or v;^hat they have contributed to the uplifting of mankind and the advancement of civilization." To furnish this knowledge of what Hiram College has accomplished in fifty years in material equipment, and in "the uplift of mankind" is the purpose of this history. The power of a college is not in what it promises to do but in what it does, and this cannot be estimated until many years of deeds have been accomplished. Compared with Harvard with its 265 years of history; Yale with its 201 ; Princeton with itsi 155 ; and Columbia with its 147, Hiram is but a youth; and yet the fifty years of its history now past have proven to be in many respects, within the most wonderful semi-centennial period since the birth of Jesus Christ. Hiram has a past that is worth the study of the friends of education both higher and lower. To give that history accurately and impartially, and to make it pleasantly readable has been the steady purpose of the author. In its preparation he has examined every page of the records of the Board of Trustees for fifty years; its fifty annual catalogues; the records of its Faculty meetings for forty years ; a large number of private letters and other communications ; and much history of contemporary institutions. Acknowledgment is made for aid rendered in material and valuable suggestion to the Faculty of the College, to individual members of its Board of Trustees, to intimate personal friends, to Dr. William T. Harris of the United States Bureau of Education, to members of the Faculty of the University of Michigan, and to Dr. Charles F. Thwing, President of Western Reserve University for his valuable discussion "College Administration," and to all others who for little or much have been willing helpers.

The book is in its nature a memorial, and the personal element is one of its main characteristics, and to deal with these persons and their work without exaggeration giving to each one his proper estimate and setting, without distinction or invidious comparison has been the desire and effort of the author. In many respects the author has had a great advantage in that he had personal and often intimate knowledge of the Institution for fifty years, and of the men and women who from its first Board of Trustees, its first Faculty, and its first body of students have shone in its heavens. With nearly all he was personally acquainted and with some had an intimate personal and professional relationship. From the student body of the College many have arisen who in various positions as business men, preachers, lawyers, educators, statesmen and chief executives of State and Nation have ranked among the best. In memory of these and for the pleasure and profit of those of their humbler companions vi^ho yet remain and to the many who will be interested in their history in the years, perhaps ages to come ; this history of prophecies fulfilled, of struggles met, of victories won, of ambitions yet unrealized, has been prepared with ever-increasing interest by one who owes much to the Institution and its gifted teachers for what he has been, is, and hopes

to be.

F. M. GREEN.

Kent, O., March ii, 1901.

INTRODUCTION-

The founding of a successful school is an event of great significance. Such an institution becomes a sort of second home to a great body of young people, a place where the family group enlarges and the horizon of life expands. Of measureless value is such a place, if it fulfilled its mission. To build a house is not to make a home. That comes of the close and tender associations, the comedies and tragedies, the toils and tears of the long years. There is a momentum strange and powerful in the character of such a place. A thousand subtle influences bear in upon the life that follov/s after, and change at length becomes almost impossible.

The institution at Hiram was fortunate in its beginning. No possible selfish speculation, no merely individual interest had aught to do with its planting. It was not dropped from the hand of some wealthy benefactor that it might create for itself a mission or call to itself patronage. It came in answer to a demand. It was pushed into being by a people who were rich only in faith and aspiration because they felt there was imperative need of it.

It may be said that Hiram was never built to imitate, or to compete with, any other institution. Methods of education approved by experience it has ever been ready to adopt, but it has had from the first its own distinctive field and purpose. Whether it keeps pace with the fads or fashions of other colleges it little notes or cares. It has its own ideals ; it strives to keep them highest and best ; and it seeks to send out students who in the front ranks of life's real service can endure hardness equal to any others.

The institution has been fortunate in its history. Well founded before the civil war, she sent her sons to stand on almost every hard-fought battlefield, and gave the momentum of her life to the saving of her country.

In all the changing tidesj the storms and stress of religious and social life, Hiram has at once been true to its own highest conception of duty, and to the charge committed by the men and women by whom it was founded. There never has been a time in the history of the institution when it could have been accused justly as narrow and illiberal on the one hand, or unstable and unsound on the other. The institution has always felt that all truth was not yet found, but it has accepted certain facts beside the law of gravitation as fixed.

It has varied somewhat in its expression, it has from the first been courteous and tolerant, but the college has always been religous.

It has been reverent. What a story it would tell if the old chapel could repeat the prayers that have been breathed within it in a succession of fifty years ! Here manhood has held profound respect, and God has been unceasingly adored. It has had the spirit of service. It has taught that it is ignoble to take more from the world than one gives; that the world-lifters are immeasurably better than the worldburdeners, no matter how much tinsel the latter wear. It has been a place of faith. There has always been accepted a sublimer hope than that man is the child of a clod and doomed to return. If ever it ceases to hold for man the unwavering inspiration of a divine origin, a divine communion, and an immortal life, the college that has been will cease to be.

What a wealth of history these fifty years have made on Hiram Hill ! Only fragments of it can be told, but these well indicate the kind of life that has been lived. The institution has called to itself earnest and wholesome lives, and furthermore it has developed them. The "Hiram fellowship" is not selfish, it does not forbid others, and yet it remains to a vast company as the choicest and happiest that ever Hfe affords.

As a whole the history of this college is singularly clear and open. In the days of its poverty and hard limitations some faithful workers were too poorly sustained and requited, but intentional injustice has been done to no one. There is no skeleton in the closet here ; and so far as the reputation of the college is concerned, the historian might write in utter abandon of all that has occurred.

Finally, the college has been fortunate in its historian. No man lives who at once knows so well the whole history of Hiram College, and holds so largely the culture and the balance of the good writer, as the author of this volume. For nearly half a century, since 1853, he has been associated with the institution as student, lecturing visitor, or trustee. He has breathed its air and known its workers in all the years. He has no narrow perspective. As a true son of Hiram he has done good work out in the wide world. He has preached ably far and near; as a missionary secretary he has known the length and breadth of the land; he has stood in halls of legislation ; and he has written, and written well, more than can here be told.

But best of all his works, as we believe, is this present volume; for in it he preserves a story that should not be lost, and he tells it as no other could.

With a loyal affection, and in clear and good conscience, he has written the historic truth.

While other histories discourse of more renowned events and cover far wider fields, none of them strike deeper root into the soil of human experience. Here is the story of a group of workers who put their bare hearts against the most serious problems of life, who felt the darkness and found the brightness, and furnished in their own lives examples of the noblest aspiration and achievement.

To write this volume has been to the author a labor of love. It would be hard to give to any writer and his work a higher commendation.

Hiram, O. E. B. WAKEFIELD.

TABLE OF CONTENTS*

CHAPTER I. The Inception and Founding of the Eclectic Institute, 1849-1850

Preliminary — Early Impulses — The Yearly meeting — The meeting at Russell — The Delegate meetings — Bloomfield — Ravenna — Aurora — Hiram — The first meetings of the Corporators — The first meeting under the Charter — The Act of Incorporation — The first building — Hiram in 1850 pp. 3-23

CHAPTER II. The Period of Establishment and First Administration

1850-1857.

The Beginning — The Building — The Situation — The First Day — Organizing the School — Course of Study — The Name — Early Teachers — A. S. Hayden — Thomas Munnell — Mrs. Phoebe M. Drake — Sarah Udall — Charles D. Wilber — Norman Dunshee — Almeda A. Booth — Other Teachers — The Accommodations for Students — Boarding and Lodging — The First Public Exercises — The School's Influence — A New Order of Things — The Church of Hiram — Firm Friends of the School — Zeb Rudolph — C. L. P. Reno — ^James R. Newcomb — Timothy J. Newcomb — Thud Norton — Holland Brown — John Buckingham — The Hiram House — Social Gatherings — The Rise of the Literary Societies — Different Periods — The Eclectic — The Philomathean — Other Societies — The Olive Branch — The Delphic — The Hesperian — The Library Question — Value of Society History — Financial Affairs — The Libraries of the College — Early Commencements — Mrs. Garfield's Letter — Commencement Programme, 1857— Board of Trustees — Carnot Mason — Symonds Ryder — Isaac Errett — William Hayden — Zeb Rudolph — Frederick Williams — Aaron Davis — John Anson Ford — William W. Richards — George King — Ambrose Latin Soule — Jefferson Harrison Jones — Samuel Church — Kimball Porter — George Pow — Presidents of the Board of Trustees — Financial Agents — Treasurer — Close of the First Administration —Miss Booth's Judgment — Mr. Hayden's Farewell — Morning Lectures — Benediction — Trustee pp. 24-93

CHAPTER III. The Eclectic Institute— The Garfield Administration— 1857^

Board of Education— Garfield Becomes Principal— The Hiram History of Garfield— His Personal Appearance— His iCourtesy— Janitor— Valedictory Oration— His Last District- School— The Spring Term, 1852— Music in the Eclectic— Garfield as a Debater— Reply to the Infidel Treat— His Hiram Teachers— Garfield a Teacher— Garfield the Carpenter— Garfield the Preacher— First Sermon in Hiram —Garfield the Lawyer— His First Legal Plea— The Chapel Lecture— From Hiram to Williamstown— Back in Hiram — His Last Visit to Hiram— Summary and Chronology— Changes in the Character of the School— Teaching Teachers— J. H. Rhodes— Memorandum by J. H. Rhodes— Financial Matters— W. J. Ford— Literary Societies- Proposed Changes in the Character of the School — Convention Resolutions — First Resolutions in Favor of a College — Hiram and the Civil War — Commencements— The Hiram Campus — Course of Study — Close of Mr. Garfield's Administration — Mr. Garfield's Summary of Hiram Life pp. 94-133

Chapter IV

The Eclectic Institute — Its Later Life and Close — 1863- 1867.

Formal Resignation of Mr. Garfield — B. A. Hinsdale a Teacher — H. W. Everest and Hiram — Matriculation Fee — C. W. Heywood as Principal — William Lowe — A. J, Thomson as Principal — Piatt Rogers Spencer — Mr. Thomson as Teacher — Biographical Sketch of A. J. Thomson — Theological Department — The Commercial Department — Osmer C. Hill — John Milton Atwater as Principal — The Atwater Family — Looking Towards an Endowment — Scholarships — The College Bell — The Old Hiram and its Students — Mr. Atwater's Memories — Tiffany Hall — The Ideals of Life which Hiram Gave its Students — Number and Names of Trustees — Solicitors for the Institute — Presidents of the Board — Secretaries of the Board — Treasurers of the Board — Principals of the Eclectic Institute — Teachers of the Eclectic Institute — The Students of the Eclectic Institute — The Hiram Spirit — Unity of Action — The Closing Days of the Eclectic Institute — The Last Commencement — The Close of the Eclectic Institute pp. 134-174

CONTENTS.

Chapter V

Hiram College — The Initial Years of the College — 1867-1870.

The Beginning of Hiram College — Hiram and Other Colleges — Hiram College a Member of the Association of Ohio Colkges — The Aim of Hiram College — Co-education of the Sexes — The First President—Prof. Asa M. Weston— Miss Lottie M. Sackett— Osmer C. Hill — Course of Study — Business Methods — Annual Report of the President and Treasurer of the College — First Finance Committee — A Biblical Course — The Legal Status of the College — The Legal History of Hiram College — Authority of the Committee of Examination — The Results of the Examination — The Capital Stock — The Second Faculty of the College — J. M. Atwater Elected President of the College — Amzi Atwater — Cortentia Munson — Contract with J. M. Atwater for Second Year — Thanks to W. J. Ford as Solicitor — Lathrop Cooley as Financial Agent — Close of J. M. Atwater's Administration — An Endowment Fund — The Literary Societies — The Life and Spirit of the Eclectic Institute in the College pp. 175-208

Chapter VI

Hiram College — B. A. Hinsdale's Administration — 1870- 1882.

B. A. Hinsdale the Third President— Mr. Hinsdale's Great Purpose — Some of Mr. Hinsdale's Characteristics — Biographical Sketch of President Hinsdale — President Hinsdale's . First Faculty — Isaac N. Demmon — Wilson S. Atkinson — Edmund B. Wakefield — Osmer C. Hill— A. J. Squire— Miss Ellen Jackson— Mrs. Mary E. Hinsdale, 1873— George H. Colton, 1874 — Colman Bancroft, Mrs. Phoebe B. Clapp, 1876 — Professor Bancroft — Miss Lillie M. Stow, 1877 — Arthur C. Pierson, 1878 — Sketch of Professor Pierson — C. D. Hubbell, Alpha A. Boynton, Louis C. Force, 1879 — Miss Mary B. Jewett, Fred A. Niles, H. M. Stone, 1880— George A. Peckham, Charles F. Schovanek, 1881— Mahlon H. Wilson, Anna M. Wing, 1882— President H^'usdale's Inaugural Address — The Financial Condition — The President's Salary — Lathrop Cooley — Alanson Wilcox — The Annual Reports of President Hinsdale, 1870- 1882 — What These Reports Reveal—A New Boarding Hall — Financial Agent— Alvah Udall, Esq. — Biographical Sketch — Trustees of this Period — President Hinsdale's Literary Work — Close of His Administration — A Crisis in College Affairs pp. 209-254

CONTENTS.

Chapter VII

Hiram College— A Crisis and How it was Met— 1883-1888.

The Old Traditions to the Front— Special Biblical Instruction- Election of B. S. Dean, Vice President— Biographical Sketch— Finding a President— Help from the Ministerial Association — Committee of Trustees— Mr. King Declines the Offered Presidency — ^Vice President Dean's Report— The Need of Larger Buildings — Financial Condition — Election of G. H. Laughlin President, with Biographical Sketch — President Laughlin's Annual Reports, 1884-1887— Close of His Administration — Completion of New Buildings — Mr. Teachout's Resolution in 1886 — The Building Committee — O. C. Atwater — D. H. Beaman — W. H. C. Newington — Dedication of the New Building — Mr. Teachout's Address and Report — Address of Rev. Jabez Hall — Address of William Bowler — Other Addresses — A Great Day — A Financial Agent's Experiences — Dr. W. A. Belding — W. J. Ford — Lathrop Cooley — Alanson Wilcox — O. C. Atwater — Looking for a New President — Prof. C. Bancroft, Chairman of the Faculty — Election of E. V. Zollars — Thanks to Prof. Bancroft — Getting Ready for the New Administration pp. 255-292

CHAPTER VIIL Hiram College — Administration of E. V. Zollars — 1888-1900.

Essential Elements in a College President — E. V. Zollars, a good selection — Mr. Zollars accepts the position — A character sketch of E. V. Zollars and Chronology — Faculty 1888-1900 — The annual reports of President Zollars, 1889- 1900 — Character of annual reports — Interesting statistics, 1867-1888 — Hiram President's hard workers — General Catalog in 1888 — College papers: The Hiram Student — Hiram College Star — Hiram College Advance — The Spider Web — The Logomathean Society — The Garfield Society — The Alethean Society — Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A.— The Student Volunteer Band— The Ohio Hiram College Association — Hiram Association of Cleveland —Athletics — Miller Hall— Hiram Summer School — The New Y. M. C. A. Building — Hiram Conservatory of Music — Eugene Feuchtinger, with sketch — Hiram in 1850 and 1900 — What has been done for the College — Committee on Permanent Endowment — The plan adopted — The final report — Oliver Cans Hertzog — The Phillips Ministerial Loan Fund — Biographical sketch of T. W. Phillips — A

CONTENTS.

Cottage for Young Women— Sketch of Dr. Henry Gerould— The "Hiram House," Cleveland, O.— Brief sketches of Hiram Faculty for 1900, E. L. Hall, H. M. Page, H. McDiarmid, E. E. Snoddy, C. T. Paul, Marcia Henry, F. H. Kirkpatrick, Miss Kate S. Parmly, Clara Louise Whissen, Wm. A. MacKenzie, Emma Johnson Dean, Allie Mabel Dean, Emma O. Ryder — Courses of Study — Commencement Week 1900— The Program— C. L. Loos, H. C. White, A. B. Philputt, J. H. Garrison, J. A. Lord, T. W. Phillips, B. A. Hinsdale, Jessie Brown Pounds— Conclusion pp. 293-354