DEPAUW UNIVERSITY 
 
 Semi-Centennial Reminiscences 
 
 Historical Addresses. 
 
 1 837- 1 887, 
 
 Published by the University 
 GREENCASTLE, IND. 
 
DEPAUW UNIVERSITY 
 
 Semi-Centennial Reminiscences 
 
 Historical Addresses, 
 
 1 837- 1 887. 
 
 Published by the University, 
 
 GREENCASTLE, IND. 
 
 1887. 
 

 2G211 
 
 EXPLANATORY NOTE. 
 On Tuesday, June 21, 1887, occurred the Semi-Centennial Celebration 
 of the founding of Indiana Asbury, now DePauw, University. The his- 
 torical addresses delivered on this occasion, together with an extract 
 from the Year-Book of 1884, relative to the change of name of the 
 University, were ordered by the Joint Board of Trustees and Visitors to 
 be published for the information of the public. 
 
REMINISCENCES OF THE EARLY DAYS OF 
 INDIANA ASBURY UNIVERSITY. 
 
 By Rev. Thomas Aikin Goodwin, A. M., D. D., 
 Of the Class of 1840. 
 
 [Note. — Dr. Goodwin is the only surviving member of the first class graduated 
 from the University.] 
 
 Fifty years ago yesterday the foundation was laid for the material 
 structure which was to be known as the Asbury Universit}^; its moral 
 foundation had been laid long before. Fifty years ago the first Sunday 
 of next November I entered Greencastle, the first person that had come 
 from outside Putnam county to seek an education within its walls. To 
 tell how I came, why I came, and what I found, is to be the theme of 
 the few minutes allotted me. 
 
 For months I had been struggling, under adverse circumstances, to 
 acquire some fitness to enter the Miami University, at Oxford, Ohio, 
 with a view to graduation, as a qualification for teaching. At that 
 period there were but few Methodist teachers in any of the higher schools 
 of the State. I would attend the county seminary a few weeks when 
 farm work was not pressing, then carry my Latin Grammar to the fields 
 and study odd moments, making, of course, but little progress, yet mak- 
 ing progress, if in nothing else, in increasing my hunger for an edu- 
 cation. 
 
 In the midst of these struggles and discouragements, about the first 
 of January, 1837, Rev. John C. Smith, one of the agents of the embryo 
 Asbury University, called upon my father to solicit a subscription. His 
 tongue was as the pen of a ready writer, and my father soon decided 
 that if his son must go to college it ought to be to a Methodist college, 
 for he was an intense Methodist, and had, somehow or other, brought 
 up his children in the same faith. He bought a scholarship. That set- 
 
4 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 tied two questions of importance to me. The first was that I was to go 
 to college, and the second, that I was to go to Asbury University; and 
 everything on the farm, in the home, and at the seminary, when I was 
 in it, was therefore bent in that direction. On my part there was greater 
 application to the class of studies that were preparatory to entering 
 college, stealing more moments for books when work was to be done, 
 thus losing my reputation as a good farm hand, and giving more atten- 
 tion to study during school hours when at school. On m}^ father's part 
 there was diligence to gather the little money that might be needed to 
 defray expenses, while my mother selected, early in the spring, the 
 choicest fleeces of the spring clip of wool for a complete outfit of jeans, 
 and she spun and wove with an eye to that all the summer. 
 
 At last November came. The fall term was to open on the first Mon- 
 day. There was but one way to get to Greencastle, that was by stage to 
 Putnam ville, and from that place to Greencastle as best I could. I left 
 Brookville Wednesday at noon, expecting to reach Greencastle by Friday 
 night. The first seventeen miles were traveled in a two-horse coach. It 
 had been raining for two weeks. There were no turnpikes then in In- 
 diana. We were six hours in reaching Bulltown. From that to Indian- 
 apolis the coach that had been running three times a week had been 
 taken off on account of bad roads, and a two-horse wagon, without cover 
 or springs, had been substituted. In this, before daylight, we started, 
 hoping to make Indianapolis, fifty-three miles distant, before the stage 
 west should leave at ten that night. But we failed. It rained all day, 
 and Rush county roads were at their worst. The corduroy was afloat in 
 many places, and the creeks and rivers, unbridged, were bank full. 
 Night overtook us about ten miles from Indianapois, and it was dark as 
 pitch. About eight o'clock our wagon broke down six miles from In- 
 dianapolis in the middle of a mud hole. We were a half mile from any 
 house and without a particle of light. We soon discovered that the 
 wagon could go no further. There were three of us, the driver, an agent 
 of the stage line, and myself. The only baggage was my trunk and the 
 mail pouch. After considering the situation, it was determined that the 
 driver should ride one horse, without a saddle, of course, and carry my 
 trunk before him, the stage agent should ride the other and carry the 
 mail pouch before him and me behind him. By this conveyance I 
 made my first entrance into Indianapolis about eleven o'clock, the first 
 Thursday night of November, 1837. The town was fast asleep and hence 
 our procession down Washington street, single file, the driver in the 
 lead, with my trunk before him, created no marked sensation and no 
 mention was made of it in the city papers next morning. As the stage 
 for St. Louis had been gone an hour or more, nothing could be done but 
 to wait a day. Friday was put in in visiting the sights of the city, the 
 most important of which, in my estimation, were the State House, just 
 completed, and the Methodist Church, on the Circle ; each of which was 
 a marvel in magnitude and grandeur in my eyes. The State House 
 was the most imposing capitol in the West, so pre-eminent in its style 
 and size that a cut of it adorned the pages of Olney's School Geography, 
 and there was no other Methodist Church in the West, except that on 
 Fifth street, Cincinnati, that could compare, in splendor with that brick 
 
DePauw University. 5 
 
 structure, with its high pulpit, ascended by winding stairs, and a gallery 
 on three sides, and forty by sixty feet in dimension. At ten, Friday 
 night, I took the St. Louis stage, booked for Putnamville, which we were 
 to reach, by schedule time, at eight next morning. There were in all 
 eleven passengers, two of whom were women, nine inside and two out- 
 side. The National road had been in the hands of contractors the pre- 
 ceding summer for grading, and the rain for two weeks and the stream 
 of immigrant wagons had mixed the loose soil into deej^, stiff mud, 
 turning the travel in many places into the unfenced woods, only to find 
 the mud in a few days deeper than in the road, so that no matter which 
 road we took we wished we had taken the other. Midnight found us 
 stalled in a mud hole about half way to Bridgeport. B}^ unloading all 
 but the women, and every man's giving a lift, we got out and reached 
 Plainfield by a little after daylight. Here we took breakfast and changed 
 horses. Noon found us near Stilesville, and again fast in the mud, but 
 worse than before, for lifting would not get us out, it took prying. 
 Under the direction of a stalwart merchant who had been east for goods, 
 and who was easily recognized as leader, we raided a fence and con- 
 structed a temporary corduroy, and by prying at the wheels we were out 
 in less than an hour. As we were about to resume our seats in the 
 coach the driver suggested that we had better not, for the mud hole, a 
 few hundred yards ahead, was worse than that, and that, as we might 
 need them, we had better carry a rail each so as to save time. That was 
 too much for our merchant leader. With language more pithy than 
 pious he said that he did not mind paying his passage and walking, but 
 he would be blessed, or words to that effect, if he would walk and carry 
 a rail. In less than a half mile we had passed the dreaded mud hole 
 and reached Stilesville in time for dinner. Whether that farmer fished 
 his rails out of the mud the next spring, or made new ones, history does 
 not record, but the probabilities are that he never saw many of those 
 rails afterwards. From Stilesville to Putnamville, the roads were better, 
 the road-maker not having disturbed them much that summer, though 
 the road had been cut out and partially graded previously. 
 
 It was nearly night when we reached Putnamville, about twenty 
 hours from Indianapolis. My first inquiry of Mr. Townsend, the tavern 
 keeper, was for a conveyance to Greencastle. He informed me there was 
 none, but if I would wait till Sunday morning he would take me in his 
 two-horse wood wagon for two dollars. I could have walked, and would, 
 but I was no elephant, I could not carry my trunk. From supper to 
 bed time I was entertained by Mr. Townsend with dolorous lamenta- 
 tions because the proposed university had been located at Greencastle, 
 instead of Putnamville. Greencastle was an out-of-the-way town any 
 how, away off the National road ; no stage ran through it or to it ; how 
 could it ever amount to any thing, not being on the National road? 
 Here, said he, we have a stage each way every day, and he continued, in 
 this strain with short intervals, for sleeping, until about ten o'clock, 
 Sunday, when he landed me at Lynch's tavern, on the east side of the 
 square, and I was at Greencastle, lacking about two hours of four days 
 from Brookville, one hundred and ten miles away. 
 
 Notwithstanding I had been informed before leaving home that the 
 
6 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 necessary buildings were not yet finished, and Mr. Townsend had told 
 me they were not even begun, and probably never would be, I had not 
 been able to fully realize the situation. Visions of stately buildings like 
 those at Oxford, and a corps of learned professors, would stand before 
 me, hence, after reaching the town I had strained my eyes to catch a 
 glimpse of things that were not. Gladly dismissing Mr. Townsend, with 
 his two dollars, I turned for comfort to Mr. Lynch, my new landlord, 
 still unwilling to topple my air castle and dismiss my dreams. In 
 answer to my question where the University was, he said, "I don't know 
 fer certain. It was, last summer, at the deestrict school house, but I 
 have hearn that they have moved it to the county siminary. Be you 
 come to go to it ? You will not find it much of a university I reckon." 
 About that time the premonitory symptoms of home sickness, which 
 had been lurking in a mild form ever since Townsend had taken me 
 in hand the night before, became unmistakable. It was more than a 
 symptom now; it was the genuine article, and in no mild form. But I 
 went to my room and dressed for church. My prudent mother had told 
 me not to travel in my best, but to save them for Sunday. It was now 
 Sunday and I donned my new suit of blue mixed jeans, as handsome a 
 piece of home-made as ever came from a v»'eaver's loom ; doubly precious 
 to me because my mother had spun the yarn from choice fleeces from 
 our own sheep. The coat was of the box pattern with a long tail, 
 coming to below the knees, with immense outside pockets, and made 
 roomy, for the bo}^ would grow much before that Sunday suit would be 
 worn out; and the pants were even more roomy, for the days of tights 
 had not yet cursed society. The new pastor, Rev. James L. Thompson, 
 preached his first sermon that morning in the little hipped roofed church 
 about thirty-five by forty-five feet in size. After sermon followed hearty 
 welcomes by the members. When this had somewhat subsided I went 
 to the preacher and introduced myself. I told him who I was, where I 
 came from, and what I had come for. ''Hold, stop, brothers! Here, 
 Brother Dangerfield, Brother Thornburg, Brother Cooper, Brother Har- 
 desty. Brother Xutt, here is Brother Tommy Goodwin ; he has come all 
 the way from Brookville to attend the institution," said the ardent 
 preacher at the top of his voice, and then followed handshakings such 
 as I never had been the victim of before, and no student has ever had 
 since. It was the first realization of their hopes. They had never seen 
 a sure enough student before, except their own children and neighbors. 
 Monday morning I took such books as I thought I might need, and 
 started out to hunt the Universit}^ And I found it, but when I saw that 
 little county seminary, not more than half the size of the Franklin 
 county seminary that I had turned my back upon with disgust for its 
 insignificance, the homesickness of the day before, which had somewhat 
 intermitted, returned with great violence, and I could think of no scrip- 
 ture so applicable as the language of Saul : "Behold, I have played the 
 fool and have erred exceedingly." Entering the south room on the first 
 floor, a room about fifteen by eighteen feet, and finding eighteen boys, 
 ranging from thirteen to twenty-eight years of age, none of them any 
 better clad than I was in my every day suit, and most of them not so 
 well clad, gave no relief to the paroxism. My name was duly entered and 
 
DePauw University. 7 
 
 numbered nineteen. The scripture lesson was long, but the prayer was 
 longer. It was just fifteen minutes, and ranged through the past and the 
 present, and embraced everything from " the President of these United 
 States"' to "the young man who has just come among us to avail him- 
 self of the educational facilities here offered." I trust I was not irrever- 
 ent just then, but inwardly my heart muttered, " Can't see the facilities." 
 I found a class in Virgil consisting of one. To this I was added, and 
 the lesson of the day was assigned. There was no class in mathematics 
 corresponding with my attainments, hence I was put in a class by myself 
 in the fourth book of Euclid, and in Algebra to correspond. Then came 
 the work of the day. " Get your lessons," said Prof. Nutt, mildly but 
 firmly, and all was quiet except the noise of classes reciting in reading, 
 spelling, geography and arithmetic. What with this hub-hub and my 
 homesickness, there was one student that learned very little that day. I 
 ate no supper, but went early to my room at the hotel'. I was too big to 
 cry, but no severer attack of that miserable disease called homesickness 
 was ever known before or since, so far as I know. I went early next 
 morning to the postoffice to mail my first letter home, hoping that I 
 might receive a letter informing me that somebody was dangerously sick 
 and that my presence was imperatively demanded. 
 
 That night my case came before the official meeting. The preacher 
 had undertaken to find a boarding house for me, and he inquired of the 
 brethren. No one had thought of keeping boarders. There had been 
 no demand, hence there was no supply. When the brethren would 
 wander from the main question the preacher would bring them back by 
 saying: " Here, brethren, what about boarding this student? Some- 
 thing must be done. Here they come flocking in and no place to board; 
 we are expected to look after this." At last Wm. K. Cooper said that if 
 the young man would sleep with Professor Nutt he would take him 
 until a better place could be found. Some one suggested that the pro- 
 fessor might have something to say about sleeping with the young man. 
 The result of the negotiations was that the young man and the professor 
 slept together several months, and several families soon begun to adjust 
 their domestic affairs so as to board students, but less than a dozen 
 "flocked" that winter. 
 
 The most marked event of that winter was the organization of a 
 literary society named after the great Plato. In looking around for ma- 
 terial it was found that there were not enough young men of suitable 
 age in the college to form a society. This was remedied by practically 
 constituting it a successor to a debating society which had existed in the 
 seminary the preceding winter, and which included a dozen or more of 
 the young mechanics, clerks and others of a literary turn in the town. 
 In fact and in law the Universit}^ was then and for two or three years 
 latei', and until we got into the new building, the Putnam county sem- 
 inary, subject to all the regulations of a county seminary, except that 
 the county commissioners waived their right to choose the teachers. 
 Our lease for the seminary building expressly provided that the youths 
 of Putnam county should be taught all the branches of education usually 
 taught in county seminaries, and on the usual conditions. 
 
 There were two terms a year in those days, the first beginning the first 
 
8 SeMI-CeNTENXIAL CELEBRATIO^', 
 
 Monday in Xovember and continuing twenty weeks, or to about the 
 middle of March ; the second beginning the first Monday in May and 
 continuing twenty weeks, or to about the middle of September. At 
 the close of the first term, about the middle of March, 1838, the students 
 had a public exhibition in the old church by the aid of seyeral young 
 men of the town, not belonging to the Uniyersity. but members of the 
 Platonian Society. It gaye great ofience to some of the members of the 
 church, because of the use of instrumental music in the church, some 
 of the instruments being yiolins. The offence haying been repeated at 
 the close of the summer term, when the pastor, at the close of the term 
 in March, 1839, announced that there would be an exhibition in the 
 church the ensuing Wednesday eyening, a local preacher, liying in what 
 was known as "Tennessee," that thinly-settled part of the town lying 
 on and east of the Bloomington road, arose in the congregation and 
 said : "And I am authorized to say that there will be a prayer meetin' 
 at Brother Crawley's next Wednesday eyening to pray for them as is 
 desecratin' the house o' God with fiddles and sich !'" 
 
 Dr. Simpson reached Greencastle during the spring yacation of 1839, 
 ready to begin work with the opening of the summer term, the first of 
 May. His goods were sent from Pittsburg to Terre Haute by steamboat, 
 and hauled thence to Greencastle by wagon, while his family left the 
 steamer at Cincinnati and came to Greencastle by stage, yia Putnam- 
 ville. His coming was an inspiration to the school and to its friends. 
 He was plain in dress and pleasing in address, but his yiews of life were 
 not in accord with those who liyed in "Tennessee." John Wheeler 
 came with him to become a student and a tutor. He brought with him 
 several musical instruments, such as an accordeon, a guitar and a bass 
 viol. On these he often played on Sunday, as well as on week days. 
 This gave such offense to the peculiar people who lived in "Tennessee" 
 that at one time they seriously contemplated a church trial for Sabbath 
 desecration. 
 
 During the summer term of 1839, at Dr. Simpson's suggestion, a new 
 literar}^ society was formed. It was at first called Ciceronean, but about 
 that time that barbarism known as the "Continental pronunciation" 
 was beginning to take hold, and that made them call old Cicero Kikero. 
 This led to an early abandonment of Ciceronean, and they gave the 
 name of Philological to the new society. 
 
 At no time, up -to the close of the summer session of 1839, had the 
 number in actual attendance at any one time exceeded fifty. The cata- 
 logue of that year gives 85 names, but it contained all the names of the 
 year, including those who had attended during the winter term, more 
 properly as students of the Putnam County Seminary than as students 
 of the University ; young men and boys who dropped in for a few weeks 
 or a few months to pursue some special stud}^, some to study grammar 
 alone, some surveying alone, and some arithmetic and grammar. The 
 extent of this may be easily imagined by the fact that of the eighty-five 
 whose names appear in that first catalogue only nine were graduated. 
 This condition of affairs continued for ten years or more. It was the out- 
 growth of the educational condition of the State. There were no free 
 schools until ten to fifteen years later, worthy the name, and no graded 
 
DePauw University. 9 
 
 schools until still later, so that whoever desired an education beyond the 
 merest rudiments had to go to such a school, for the county seminary 
 system had proved such a failure that it was abandoned early in the 
 fifties. Without having the figures for accuracy I think I am safe in 
 saying that of the names that appeared on the catalogues of the first 
 twenty years, not over one in eight appears in the list of graduates. It 
 would be a profitable study to call the roll of the students who took a 
 partial course at Asbury during those years. In it w^ould be found, both 
 among the living and the dead, some of the most distinguished lawyers, 
 doctors, preachers, statesmen and busi;iess men of this half-century, so 
 that, while we count the thousand graduated alumni, we might count 
 not less than from five thousand to seven thousand ungraduated alumni 
 who owe much of their success in life to the impetus given them during 
 the few months or years of studentship at Asbury. 
 
 Surveying the field from this semi-centennial elevation, one who was 
 a part of its earliest struggles and triumphs would emphasize one feature 
 of this university which has characterized it from the beginning. Its 
 first students all came from homes of comparative poverty, from that 
 class whose daily bread is dependent on daily toil and constant frugality. 
 They were led to these halls in most cases by the faithful agents whose 
 duty was to at once obtain pecuniary aid and create a hunger and thirst 
 for knowledge. It is not extravagant to say that of the first thousand 
 w^ho attended this institution seven hundred would never have attended 
 any school higher than the very poor country schools of the period but 
 for the influence of the college agents, seconded by the faithful preach- 
 ers of that day. To this must be added the wonderful magnetism of 
 our first president. Wherever he went to preach he aw^akened an interest 
 in the University. These students came in their homespun garb, almost 
 without an exception. They were proud of their apparel because it was 
 the product of the labor of mothers and sisters. Another fact is to be 
 mentioned, not to the disparagement of the brave youths who encoun- 
 tered difficulties to obtain an education, very few of them came from 
 what would be regarded in fashion circles as homes of refinement. They 
 came from Christian homes, with noble hearts and high aims, and what 
 they lacked in Chesterfieldian culture they made up in that higher and 
 better culture which is always the accompaniment of a purpose to do 
 good. Let me emphasize another historic fact. From the day that the 
 first young man entered college expecting to pay his way by ringing the 
 bell and sweeping the rooms, or by grooming some horse, or chopping 
 wood, or working in a garden, to this day such a student has never been 
 snubbed by any member of the faculty or his family, nor by any fellow 
 student whose good opinion was worth anj'thing, nor by any gentleman 
 or lady of the town. Such a student has always stood on his class 
 record just as the most affluent stands, with the odds, if any, in his favor. 
 That can hardly be said of any other college in America. 
 
 Let me from this semi-centennial point of vision mark another char- 
 acteristic. It could hardly be otherwise than that an institution born in 
 prayer, baptized and nurtured in prayer, would be a source of more than 
 intellectual and moral power; it must be a source of religious power. 
 Such has this University been for fifty years, and such it shall continue 
 to be when these walls shall have grown dull with age. 
 
SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORICAL ADDRESS 
 
 Of the liCDiANA AsBURY, HOW DePauw, University, of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, Greencastle, Indiana. 
 
 By Rev. George L. Curtiss, A. M., D. D., 
 Professor of Historical Theology in School of Theology, DePauw University. 
 
 On the birth of a child, kind-hearted friends prognosticate the future 
 of the little one, drawing in glowing colors the greatness of achievement, 
 the heroic in action, and the gentle in nature, or enemies cast the horo- 
 scope, depicting dark misfortunes, cruelty of character, and the final ruin 
 of this, the last addition to the family of man. When half a century of 
 life has passed, it can then be told without conjecture what has been 
 done by the grown-up man, and his excellencies may then be com- 
 mended without fear that as he grows up he will deceive the hopes of 
 friends. "The end of a thing is better than the beginning." 
 
 To-day we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the history of the In- 
 diana Asbury, now DePauw, University. This is a Jubilee year. Born 
 in 1836, opened in 1837, it rounds out its semi-centennial in 1887. 
 
 I. — The Origin. 
 
 Methodism from its beginning was in favor of the most liberal educa- 
 tion of all the people, and Methodist preachers were always the ardent 
 supporters of educational institutions. They have ever been the first to 
 make sacrifices for their planting and developing. 
 
 Previous to 1832, at which time Indiana was included in the Illinois 
 Conference, academies of learning had been located at Augusta and 
 Shelbyville, Ky., Mt. Carmel and Lebanon, 111., and St. Louis, Mo., and 
 each school was reaching out after the proportions and dignity of a 
 college. Methodist ministers had founded these, and by their untiring 
 zeal had kept them alive and filled them with students. 
 
 The Methodist educational movement in the great Northwest, out of 
 
DePauw University. 11 
 
 which came Indiana Asbury Universit.y, commenced October 9, 1828, at 
 the session of the Illinois Conference, held in the Masonic Hall, Madi- 
 son, Indiana. The propriety of establishing a seminary for Methodism 
 in the Northwest was discussed, and determined upon. The Illinois 
 preachers believed that it ought to be located in that State, but the In- 
 diana preachers were as desirous for its location in their State. 
 
 At the next Conference, held at Edwardsville, in Illinois, September 
 19, the Illinois preachers invited the Missouri Conference to unite in a 
 common Conference School. John Dew, John Strange and Peter Cart- 
 wright were appointed a committee on the part of the Illinois Confer- 
 ence to unite in locating said school. Mt. Carmel, Illinois, and Lebanon, 
 Illinois, were pressing their claims for the proposed school. The Indiana 
 preachers were willing to adopt the proposal of Mt. Carmel, but the 
 Illinois preachers were determined that it should be at Lebanon. Strong 
 articles of "Confederation and Agreement between the Illinois and Mis- 
 souri Annual Conferences " were drawn up and discussed, but the In- 
 diana preachers united with a few in Illinois and Missouri and defeated 
 the whole plan. The Illinois preachers supposed only two places, viz : 
 Mt. Carmel and Lebanon, would be in nomination, but the Missouri 
 preachers proposed Mt. Salubria, just west of St. Louis, now occupied by 
 the Roman Catholics. To this the old Abolitionist, Peter Cartwright, 
 objected, saying that he "would rather send his children to a Calvinistic 
 school than to one in a slave State." Dr. Aaron Wood, in Leaton's 
 "Methodism in Illinois," explains this action. "Indiana," says he, 
 "would have united at Mt. Carmel, Illinois, but the leading Illinois men 
 were committed to Lebanon and wanted to draw us all there, and brought 
 over Missouri to checkmate Indiana, and lost both." [Leaton's Meth- 
 odism in Illinois, 306.] 
 
 Nothing more could be done for Methodist education in Indiana until 
 after the establishment of the Indiana Conference. 
 
 When, in 1832, the Indiana Conference was formed, the men who com- 
 posed the new body were deeply conscious that they needed a school of 
 high grade located within the bounds of their territory, which should be 
 directed by sober heads and wa.rm hearts. Three men of advanced 
 thought and liberal views, Allen Wiley, Calvin Ruter and James Arm- 
 strong, were appointed a committee to carefully "consider and report 
 upon the advisabilit}^ of founding a Conference Seminary or College." 
 These men carefully and wisely considered the matter, and reported to 
 the Conference in language that may well be preserved as one of the 
 finest statements of the relation of higher education to the education of 
 the masses, and the relation of a sanctified education to a pure religious 
 life, that was ever penned by mortals. Said they : 
 
 " Deeming, next to the religion of the Son. of God, the lights of Science 
 best calculated to lessen human woe and to increase the sum of human 
 happiness, and having learned from observation and information that, 
 where superior schools and colleges are neglected, ordinary schools are 
 almost universally in a languid state, and many persons live and die 
 without any education, we, therefore, report that a seminar}^ or college, 
 under good literary and moral regulations, would be of incalculable bene- 
 
12 Semi-Cextenxial Celebration, 
 
 fit to our people, and recommend the establishment of such an insti- 
 tution."' 
 
 The project met with embarrassments from various sources altogether 
 without the church, and it did not take tangible shape until the minis- 
 try numbered eighty-eight and the membership 25,000, when at the 
 Conference of 1835. October 15, at Lafayette, a judicious committee was 
 elected to consider the propriety of establishing an institution of learn- 
 ing by the Indiana Conference. On the committee's reporting favorably 
 the Indiana Asbury University was founded. Arrangements were made 
 to at once solicit subscriptions for buildings. During the year several 
 localities subscribed liberally, in hopes of securing its location at their 
 several places. Rockville subscribed S25.000. Greencastle, 818.000, La- 
 fayette, 820,000, Putnamville, 86,000, Indianapolis. 814.000. 
 
 At the Conference held in Indianapolis in 1836, an entire day was 
 devoted to the discussion of the place for locating the University. H. S. 
 Talbot represented Lafayette, T. A. Howard. Rockville. T. W. Cowgill, 
 Greencastle, Wm. Townsend, Putnamville. and Calvin Fletcher, Indian- 
 apolis. These were strong men, capable of presenting their places in a 
 strong light before the Conference. At first there was no selection. On 
 the second ballot Greencastle was chosen by a large majority as the place 
 for the planting of a L'niversity, which should some day in its greatness 
 and thoroughness of work, be second to none on the continent. The 
 successful ballot was taken on Saturday afternoon. On the next Mon- 
 day morning, to carry out the plan blocked out. Rev. John C. Smith 
 and Rev. Aaron Wood were elected agents of the L'niversity to collect 
 funds for the erection of suitable buildings. 
 
 A committee was appointed to draft a memorial to the approaching 
 Legislature, asking for a charter. At the regular session of 1836-47 the 
 petition was presented. Putnam county was represented by Daniel Sig- 
 ler in the Senate and Rees Hardesty in the House. Both were strong 
 men and ardent friends and advocates of the new L^niversity. Marion 
 county was represented by Calvin Fletcher. 
 
 A committee of three appointed by the Conference drafted the charter 
 (under the skillful guidance of Calvin Fletcher) which the General As- 
 sembly were asked to pass. The measure met with violent antagonism 
 from parties who had no love for Methodism, and despised her attempts 
 to found a school of high grade. The discussions were sharp, and at 
 times acrimonious. The Senate was believed to be equally divided, and 
 it was somewhat doubtful if the charter would be granted. A certain 
 Senator, a violent opposer of the founding of the University, was in the 
 unfortunate habit of tarrying long at the wine, and on a certain after- 
 noon became sadly intoxicated. He could not be in his place, and that 
 afternoon, January 10, 1837, Dan Sigler brought up the bill and the final 
 vote was taken, and the charter was granted by a majority of one. 
 
 This charter has been pronounced by competent judges as the most 
 liberal ever granted by the State to an educational institution. 
 
DePauw University. 13 
 
 II. — Erection of the University Buildings. 
 
 As soon as it was announced that a charter was granted to the Metho- 
 dists for a University at Green castle, the agents, Rev. J. C. Smith, of 
 Indianapolis, and Rev. Aaron Wood, Presiding Elder of the Vincennes 
 District, who had been elected in anticipation of this event, commenced 
 their work and pushed it with vigor. Money was collected and the 
 foundation laid. On June 20th, 1837, the ''corner stone" of the first, or 
 what was long known as the "Old College Building," was laid. Rev. — 
 afterwards Bishop — Henry B. Bascom, D. D., of Kentucky, delivered an 
 appropriate address. The general appearance of the man was that of a 
 great workman, and his eloquent address did not detract in the least 
 irom his great celebrity. 
 
 The following graphic description of the scene is furnished by a wit- 
 ness : 
 
 "Expectation was great. The occasion, the unrivaled reputation of 
 the speaker awakened an interest hitherto unknown along the hills and 
 valleys of Western Indiana. Greencastle was put in her tidiest dress, 
 and the doors of her citizens were thrown open to entertain the guests 
 that were expected on the occasion. On Monday, the 19th, the crowd be- 
 gan to appear, and by night the town was full. People came from all 
 parts of the State, and it was estimated that 20,000 people were present 
 on the next day. The renowned orator arrived and was entertained at 
 the residence of one of the principal citizens. 
 
 "On the 20th, the order of the day was a sermon in the Methodist 
 Episcopal church at 9 o'clock, from Rev. Hooper Crews, of Illinois. At 
 eleven o'clock, A. M., the procession was formed and marched to the site 
 of the University, where was the stone which had been prepared, with 
 sundry documents inclosed. Calvin Fletcher, of Indianapolis, on behalf 
 of the trustees, delivered a brief and appropriate address. 
 
 "The procession was again formed and marched to a grove on the 
 southwest border of the town, where temporary seats had been prepared 
 which accommodated about one-fourth of the audience. The stand was 
 occupied by the orator of the day, and Revs. Allen Wiley, James 
 Havens, Calvin W. Ruter, E. R. Ames, and a few other leading ministers 
 of the Conference. Prayer was ofifered by the Rev. E. R. Ames, when 
 Dr. Bascom proceeded with his address, which he read. As the day was 
 extremely chilly for the season, he asked to wear his hat, which he did. 
 During an interlude caused by a slight shower of rain accompanied by 
 a few flakes of snow, the speaker sat down a few moments. It was 
 during this time that a genuine Hoosier possessed with all the well-known 
 hospitality and generosity of his kind, who had provided himself with 
 a roll of ginger-bread, stepped up behind the stand, and plucking the 
 doctor by the coat, broke ofi* a generous piece of his roll and ofiered it to 
 him, saying : 'Mr., as you have been speaking hard you must be hungry; 
 here take a piece.' But the doctor courteously thanked him and de- 
 clined. 
 
 "The address was finished, requiring two hours in its delivery. It 
 was a a masterly production, and was well received. Its impression upon 
 the Methodists of the State was excellent." 
 
14 Semi-Centennial Celebration 
 
 The vast crowd of people gathered upon this occasion dispersed to 
 their homes carrying with thera the feeling that the Church had indeed 
 taken a loDg stride in the matter of Christian education. That step 
 has never been taken backward. 
 
 The new building was occupied in the spring of 1840, though in an 
 unfinished state. This Old College Hall was built in a plain but sub- 
 stantial manner, being a parallelogram of 100 by 60 feet, three stories 
 high, with an attic, the whole surmounted bj^ a plain tower, wherein for 
 many years swung one of the sweetest toned bells that eyer called young 
 men to prayers and recitations. 
 
 This house of education continued until February 10th, 1879, when 
 the cry of nre rang out at noonday bringing faculty and students from 
 their midday meal, to find that this grand old historic building of 
 precious memories was on fire. The yaluable cabinet was entirel}- de- 
 stroyed, but the AVhitcomb library was mostly sayed. For years there 
 had been an accumulation of relics of Methodism in Indiana, which 
 would haye been of value beyond estimate to the future historian of the 
 Church in this State. These were all consumed. 
 
 The insurance amounting to 89,040 was used in rebuilding on enlarged 
 plans at a cost of 817,176. At a later date another valuable addition 
 was made to this restored building. It retains but little of the appear- 
 ance of the building whose "corner stone" was laid by Dr. Bascom. 
 
 As the 3'ears passed on the att-endance of students handsomely increased 
 and larger accommodations were demanded. The University was 
 reaching out to every part of the State ajid to adjoining States, and stu- 
 dents flocked to its hall in great numbers. Year after year it became evi- 
 dent that something must be done to increase the room. The joint 
 board of trustees and visitors, at the annual session, in 1865, determined 
 to erect a suitable building on the new campus, which had been pur- 
 chased ten years before. John Ingle, of Evansville, was president of the 
 joint board. He was instructed to secure plans, specifications and es- 
 timates for a suitable University building that would answer all purposes 
 for a hundred years, costing not to exceed $80,000. Mr. Ingle traveled 
 through several of the eastern states examining college buildings, and 
 fixed in his mind what would be required. Plans and specifications were 
 accepted, and on the 20th of October, 1870, the "corner stone" was laid 
 with imposing ceremonies, in the presence of the Educational Convention 
 of Methodism in Indiana, then in session at Indianapolis. By the 
 arrangement of the faculty and citizens of Greencastle, and the courtesy 
 of the Vandalia railroad, the members of the convention were transported 
 to Greencastle, free of charge, where the ceremony of laying the "corner 
 stone" was had. Dr. Thomas Bowman, president of the University, and 
 Rev. Aaron Wood, D. D., one of the patriarchs of Indiana Methodism 
 and Education, delivered thrilling and eloquent addresses. To Dr., 
 now Bishop, Bowman and D. L. Southard, probably more than to any 
 others is to be given the credit of pushing forward the erection of this 
 grand building. Dr. Bowman traveled extensively through the State, 
 preaching and stirring up the people to give of their means to this 
 building. 
 
 The cost of this building far exceeded the bounds set by the joint 
 
DePauw University. 15 
 
 board, reaching to $100,000, but time has proven the valueof the mistake. 
 
 It was not until 1878 that the building was completed. In 1872, how- 
 ever, "Joseph Tingley Hall" was completed by Charles W, Smith, of the 
 class of '67. "Edwin Ray Hall" was completed by Col. John W. Ray, 
 of the class of '48, in memory of his father. Rev. Edwin Ray. Hon. A. 
 C. Downey finished the hall bearing his name, and Richard Biddle 
 finished the "Hall of Mathematics." The Alumni Association finished 
 the "Alumni Hall of Modern Languages." The "Samuel Meharry 
 Greek Hall" was finished by Rev. Samuel Meharry, of Ohio. Mrs. Sen- 
 ator Lane and Mrs. Bradon, daughters of Col. Isaac C. Elston, one of the 
 first trustees of the University, in memory of their father, finished the 
 "Elston Hall." Mrs. Mary A. Burson, in memory of her husband, a 
 former trustee, finished the "Burson Alcove." The "Daniel DeMotte 
 Hall" was finished by the children of Rev. Daniel DeMotte, a successful 
 agent of the University. President Martin finished the room now used 
 as the President's office. The literary societies vying with each other 
 finished their halls in elegant style. Dr. John Simison finished the 
 "Simison Latin Library Hall," in a tasteful manner. George W. House 
 finished the "House Library of Greek. For a long time the College 
 Chapel remained an eyesore in an unfinished state. But in 1876, Jesse 
 Meharry, of Shawnee Mound, came forward with a liberal donation of 
 $11,000, and soon the work was completed, and the Chapel, one of the 
 finest in all Methodism devoted exclusively to educational purposes was 
 made to bear the name of "Meharry Hall." 
 
 )^^hen the University has been in great need of strong and loving 
 friends to assist her over hard places in building up the work of her 
 hands, much prayer has been made, and good friends have come forward 
 to rescue this plant of Heaven's planting froru withering and dying. 
 
 III. — The Opening of the University. 
 
 So much faith had the Fathers of Methodism in the success of this 
 educational enterprise on a scale commensurate with her largest hopes, 
 that in June 1837, Rev. Cyrus Nutt, A. B., of Allegheny College, having 
 been selected for that work, opened a preparatory school in Greencastle 
 in an old school house, but was in November of that year removed to a 
 building standing on the ground now occupied by the College Avenue 
 Methodist Episcopal Church, The room in which this school was 
 opened was only about twelve by fifteen feet, but it was of ample 
 dimensions to accommodate the class, which consisted of only five young 
 men, viz. : 0. Badger, 0. H. P. Ash, Wm. Stevenson, Osborn Taylor 
 and S. Taylor. The legend is that these boys were coatless and bare foot. 
 All were residents of Greencastle, except Badger, who lived a few miles 
 in the country. 0. H. P. Ash was the only one of this first class who 
 remained to graduate. This was a small beginning for a great University. 
 But some very great results come from very small beginnings. 
 
 On the 5th of Dedember, 1837, the joint board of trustees and visitors 
 attempted to organize the first faculty by the election of Rev. Joseph S. 
 Tomlinson, D. D., of Kentucky, to the chair of Mathematics, and Rev. 
 Cyrus Nutt, A. B., Professor of Languages. Dr. Tomlinson, after some 
 
16 Semi-Centennial Celebration 
 
 delay, saw fit to decline the appointment, and Prof. Nutt went on with 
 the school as before. In March, 1838, Rev. John W. Weakley, A. M., of 
 Ohio, was elected Principal of the Preparatory Department. 
 
 The joint board at their meeting, September 25th, 1838, elected Dr. 
 Tomlinson President and Professor of Mathematics, which was promptly 
 declined. The trustees were at first discouraged on account of the 
 seeming unwillingness of men to accept places in the board of instruc- 
 tion. The truth is there was not much to promise men, and it required 
 a good degree of real faith to see just what was to be the outcome of the 
 infant University. But all honor to the memory of Cyrus Nutt, who 
 was going steadily on with the school, acting as president, professor, and 
 general manager, with such assistance as he could obtain. 
 
 At the semi-annual meeting of the joint board in 1839, on the recom- 
 mendation of Bishop Roberts, then a resident of Indiana, and a trustee 
 of the University, and of Dr. Charles Elliott, then editor of the Western 
 Christian Advocate^ Rev. Matthew Simpson, A. M., M. D., of Allegheny 
 College, was elected President and Professor of Mathematics. This fact 
 Bishop Roberts communicated to Simpson, and united with it his per- 
 sonal influence, and prognosticated what was to be the future of the 
 Indiana Asbury University, and he was induced to accept. The first 
 regular organized faculty was composed of Rev. Matthew Simpson, A. 
 M., President and Professor of Mathematics; Rev. Cyrus Nutt, A. M., 
 Professor of Languages; Rev. John W. Weakley, A. M., Principal of the 
 Preparatory Department, and John Wheeler, Tutor in Languages. 
 
 These men, young in years and buoyant in spirits, with a name to 
 make and a fame to create, entered upon their useful career, Nutt, in 
 June, 1837, Weakley, in November, 1837, Simpson and Wheeler, in May, 
 1839. The judgment of Bishop Roberts and Dr. Elliott was not at fault 
 in so highly recommending Simpson for the presidency, or the trustees 
 in selecting the other men for their places. No mind could look forward 
 to the brilliant career of the then young and feeble plant, and predict all 
 that it was to be in the future of its grand life. 
 
 This first faculty was composed of men who were ultimately to be 
 known far and wide. Simpson was a native of Cadiz, Ohio, born June 
 20th, 1811. He was of Scotch descent; was educated at Madison College, 
 Pa., and was elected tutor when nineteen j^ears of age. Having studied 
 medicine he commenced practice in 1833, but soon became convinced 
 that he was called to preach. In 1837 he was Professor of Natural Sci- 
 ence in Allegheny College. He came to Greencastle in 1839. Simpson 
 was a man of wonderful eloquence, a statesman of high order, an execu- 
 tive officer of careful and prompt action, and the most celebrated man 
 in American Methodism since the days of Asbury. As a bishop he was 
 in labors abundant, and his great influence was felt in every part of the 
 Church. Three of the faculty, Nutt, Wheeler and Weakley, were after- 
 wards college presidents of no mean ability and attainments. These 
 men were the minds who gave shape and character to the new enterprise, 
 and left an impress for Christian culture which shall* never be eff"aced. 
 
 This first faculty still occupied the Seminary building until the 
 spring of 1840, when they moved into the new building still in an un- 
 finished condition. Work was pushed on rapidly so as to be ready with 
 
DePauw University. 17 
 
 a completed building by the Commencement exercises on September 13, 
 1840, which will always be a red letter day in the history of this 
 University, for on that day Hon. David Wallace, Governor of Indiana, 
 delivered the charge and presented the keys of the University to Matthew 
 Simpson, who was thereby inangurated the first President of ''The 
 Indiana Asbury University." What a carreer was before the man and 
 the University ! 
 
 IV. — The Growth of the University by Periods. 
 
 First Period, to the End of Slmpson^s Presidency. 
 
 At the time of the inauguration of President Simpson the first class 
 had been graduated, consisting of three members. The joint board, 
 September 14th, 1840, made changes in the faculty which greatly 
 strengthened it and placed it on the line of more efficient work. It now 
 was as follows : 
 
 Rev. M. Simpson, D. D., President and Professor of Mental and Moral 
 Science. 
 
 Rev. Cyrus Nutt, A. M., Professor of Greek Language and Literature. 
 
 Rev. W. C. Larrabee, A. M., Professor of Natural Science. 
 
 John Wheeler, A. B., Professor of Latin Language and Literature. 
 
 C. G. Downey, B. S., Professor of Mathematics. 
 
 This was the first full faculty after Simpson's inauguration. 
 
 These men remained in their places until March 19th, 1844, when 
 Prof. Nutt resigned, and Rev. B. F. Tefft, A. M., was elected his suc- 
 cessor. The inaugural address of Prof. TefFt was delivered to the trustees 
 at the annual commencement August, 1845. His theme was, "The Far 
 West; Its Present, Past and Future." 
 
 Prof. Tefft came from the State of Maine, under the impression that 
 the far west was Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. He descanted elegantly of 
 the fortunate location of the Univessity with reference to Ohio, Indiana, 
 Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri, the end of the world, as being a center 
 towards which all these States should look for the light of higher Chris- 
 tian culture. His address was learned, eloquent and full of enthusiasm, 
 which always characterized the man and led to his great success. 
 
 Only one other addition was made to the faculty of Arts during the 
 days of Dr. Simpson. Rev. Samuel K. Hoshour, A. M., an eminent 
 scholar, was elected Tutor in Modern Languages. 
 
 Students came from many States to the halls of Asbury to obtain an 
 education of a Christian type. This was the formative age of the Uni- 
 versity, — the period when the future shape and spirit of the University 
 were to be moulded. As the twig was bent, the tree would incline. 
 This was the critical period for the spirit sucid cultus of the new educational 
 enterprise. If the grade be set low, on that grade will it run for years, 
 and to rise to a higher will require herculean labor. If the grade be set 
 high it will continue. There were, providentially, a giant at the head, 
 master workmen at his side, and God over all. 
 
 Dr. Simpson came to the University with clear conceptions of what 
 constituted a University. He was thoroughly conscientious, and be- 
 
18 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 lieved not only in the "survival of the fittest," but in determining what 
 was the fittest, and then in making it survive. Simpson impressed him- 
 self so deeply on the minds and hearts of the students of that day that 
 it is not in the least defaced, though forty years have passed. ' They 
 speak of him with a respect amounting to reverence. He is to them 
 now their educational guiding star, their moral teacher, their Christian 
 adviser. When he passed to the skies they felt another tie drawing 
 them heavenward. 
 
 The government of the Simpsonian period was mild but firm. No 
 man while following the strict path of right in college life ever felt or 
 knew the strength of the law. It was only when he stepped outside of 
 the pathway of law that he felt the rigid force of law. It was expected 
 that students would study, and study hard. Not only did Simpson 
 require this, but all of his faculty required the same. On this as on 
 other subjects they were a unit. One thought ran through all their 
 minds. As a result, the halls of the University were a busy work shop, 
 an immense mind and soul factor}', where trained minds were being 
 turned out, full shaped, symmetrically made and well filled. 
 
 Prof. Cyrus Nutt was a man of excellent heart, cultured head and 
 noble purposes. He was well educated at Allegheny College, and proved 
 himself to be a good educator. His work was neither wood nor straw, 
 but good, solid, honest work. At a later period he returned to the Uni- 
 versity as Professor of Mathematics and acting President, and remained 
 up to 1860, when he became President of the Indiana State University, 
 where his career was worthy the emulation of the best of men. 
 
 Prof. W. C. Larrabee, A. M., came from the State of Maine, where he 
 had been teaching and also acting as State Geologist. He was a gradu- 
 ate of Bowdoin College. At the time of his election he was Principal of 
 the Maine Wesleyan Seminary, though formerly Principal of Cazenovia 
 Seminary. Few minds were so richly stored with knowledge. At the 
 same time he possessed the rare power to tell what he knew in a charm- 
 ing manner. Men heard him talk and were charmed. His pen and 
 tongue were alike. He wrote with the grace of an Addison. His articles 
 in the Ladies' Repository were entertaining and instructive to old and 
 young alike. With a pen he could sketch a pastoral scene so true to 
 nature that one would seem to hear the bleating of sheep in green pas- 
 tures, the lowing of herds at eventide, the song of wild birds as they 
 bent their necks to trill the sweetest notes of praise to God, the rustling 
 of leaves, the waving of branches, or the muttering of distant thunder. 
 His pen was possessed of a weird magic. He was in raptures with the 
 great West. He used to say he loved "even the rattlesnakes and gympsom 
 of Indiana." 
 
 Prof. Charles G. Downey, A. M., was no common man. He was a 
 genius, a skilled educator, and a devoted Christian. Nothing was done 
 by halves. Whatever he undertook in the line of Mathematics he mas- 
 tered, and expected his students to do the same. Under his enthusiasm 
 Mathematics ceased to be a dry study, but became attractive. 
 
 Prof. John Wheeler was a graduate of the first class in 1840. During 
 his student life he had served as a Tutor, and proved a faithful workman. 
 
DePauw University. 19 
 
 While not as brilliant as some men, he was every whit the equal of the 
 best in that noble quality of perseverance coupled with conscientiousness. 
 An Englishmen by birth, an American by adoption, a Christian by 
 change of heart, and an educator by profession, John Wheeler was a 
 man to do solid work in whatever department he might enter, and make 
 good students of men willing to learn. In 1854 he resigned his Pro- 
 fessorship. 
 
 It was fortunate for the new and rising University that in her forma- 
 tive days, three such men were at the head and in the faculty : Simpson, 
 the master administrator and orator, Tefft, the polished teacher and 
 elegant writer, Larrabee, the gifted and polished mathematician and 
 wonderful writer. These men gave a shape to these lines of culture 
 destined to continue felt for years. 
 
 The entire faculty was hard to be surpassed. They WTOught for 
 eternity. This, the Ancients would have called the "Golden Age of 
 Asbury." 
 
 Second Period. — The Period to the Change of Name, 
 
 For want of time I must change my mode of tracing the history 
 of Asbury. 
 
 When Dr. Simpson resigned the Presidency to take the editorship of 
 the Western Christian Advocate, July 18, 1848, Rev. E. R. Ames, D. D., 
 was elected President, which was declined, and Prof. Larrabee was ap- 
 pointed to act as President. July 14, 1849. Rev. Lucien W. Berry, A. 
 M., was elected President. He accepted, and entered at once upon the 
 discharge of his duties. At the next Commencement, July, 1850, he 
 was regularly inaugurated, Gov. Joseph A. Wright delivering the charge 
 and keys of the University. Dr. Berry excelled as an orator. Few men 
 anywhere were his equal in the pulpit. He came to the University with 
 the confidence of the whole church. In the stormy times of 1854 a code 
 of rules was adopted for the government of the faculty, which have not 
 been materially altered up to the present, but form the basis of those 
 now in force. In 1854 Dr. Berry resigned. 
 
 Rev. D. W. Clark, D. D., then editor of the Ladies' Repository, was 
 elected President, but declined to accept. August 14, 1854, Rev. Daniel 
 Curry, D. D., pastor of Hanson Place Church, New York, was elected 
 President. He accepted and entered upon his duties at once. His in- 
 auguration occurred July 18, 1855, Rev. E. R. Ames delivering the 
 charge and the keys of the University. Dr. Curry was a man of superior 
 ability, a native American, a graduate of Wesleyan University, Conn., 
 a man of strong mind and stronger convictions, and a man of unbroken 
 will. In some lines of work he had few if any equals. He lacked that 
 happy faculty of bending himself to the ways and spirit of the West. 
 While a splendid teacher, he was only a moderate governor. An un- 
 necessary College rebellion occurred during his administration, which 
 threatened to depopulate the halls of Asbury. This difficulty culminated 
 December 16, 1856, when the trustees having been called together called 
 for certain papers in the possession of the faculty and the records of the 
 departments. The board heard an appeal from certain students as 
 
20 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 against the action of the faculty. Matters looked exceedingly stormy 
 for a time, but on the 18th, that wise counselor and ardent friend of the 
 University, Hon. Samuel W. Parker, penned and introduced the follow- 
 ing resolution, which was adopted, and w^hich sets forth a fundamental 
 principal, viz. : "Resolved, that as a general rule in all matters of 
 police and government of the University and the students that may 
 enter the University, the action of the faculty must be deemed and taken 
 as supreme and final, from which we would not encourage any appeal 
 to the board." The fact is, the board ought not to have met at this 
 time. The real history of that rebellion has not yet been written. 
 When it is so written, it will doubtless be found that Dr. Curry was as 
 much sinned against as sinning. 
 
 Dr. Curry having resigned in July 1857, Hon. David McDonald was 
 elected his successor. This was declined. Rev. Cyrus Nutt was again 
 elected Professor of Mathematics and Vice-President. Under his 
 guidance the University was carried on successfully till the election of 
 Rev. Thomas Bowman, D. D., to the Presidency. Having accepted the 
 position, he was inaugurated June 28, 1859, Hon, David McDonald de- 
 livering the charge and the keys of the University. Much earnest 
 prayer had been offered to God that He v^^ould direct the trustees and 
 visitors to the right man for this important place. 
 
 Dr. Bowman graduated at Dickinson College, started to become a law- 
 yer, but turned his attention to the ministry when he felt the Divine 
 call to that holy office, and became a successful pastor. When Dr. 
 Bowman came to the University he met a hearty welcome. Men rallied 
 to his side. It was soon believed that the mantle of Simpson had fallen 
 upon Bowman. 
 
 At this time the University had eight departments, viz. : A Chair of 
 Mental and Moral Science, Chairs of Mathematics, Greek, Latin, Belles- 
 Lettres and History, Adjunct to Mathematics and Principal of the Pre- 
 paratory Department, and a Chair of Law. The "Golden Age of Asbury" 
 seemed to have returned. Peace, prosperity, a real substantial growth 
 were hers. Students increased in numbers and the work of instruction 
 was all that could be desired. Dr. Bowman ruled in love. He com- 
 manded attention in the pulpit and on the rostrum. In the class room 
 he made men think. They realized that he knew what he was teaching, 
 and seldom did one question his correctness. 
 
 It was during these years that the great social revolution occurred in 
 the University. Ladies were admitted to the halls of Asbury as students 
 on an equal footing with gentlemen. It occurred at the session of 
 the joint board in June 1866. Being a member of the board, I well re- 
 member the discussions which were long and earnest for and against 
 the proposed measure. Some of the arguments against it were amusing 
 to one favoring it. But when the vote was taken the measure was car- 
 ried by a large majority. The first ladies to graduate were in 1871, viz. : 
 Alice 0. Allen, Mary E. Simmons, Bettie Locke and Laura Beswick. 
 It has now become no uncommon thing to see the fair sex with the 
 sterner kind struggling up the hill of science. It is sometimes hard to 
 tell which will get there first. The pathway is not quite so lonesome as 
 it once was. 
 
DePauw University. 21 
 
 Dr. Bowman resigned in June 1872, in consequence of having been 
 elected a Bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church. In looking along 
 the line I am inclined to sa}^: What a line of Presidents — Bishop 
 Simpson, Bishop Am.es, Bishop Bowman, — men of brains and grace. 
 
 As a successor to Bishop Bowman, after considerable canvassing Rev. 
 Reuben Andrus, D. D., pastor of Meridian Street Church, Indianapolis, 
 was elected July 31, 1872. He was inaugurated September 11, by Hon. 
 A. C. Downey, President of the joint board. 
 
 Dr. Andrus entered upon his duties as President immediately, and 
 prosecuted them faithfully, until September 14, 1875, when he tendered 
 his resignation. Dr. Andrus was a noble-hearted Kentuckian, but 
 reared in Illinois. He was a strong preacher, and a thoroughly good 
 man. Of Dr. Andrus and his times, Dr. Ridpath, the prince of histor- 
 ians, writes : "When Dr. Andrus came to the University in 1872, he 
 found a strong, well organized, well patronized and powerful institution; 
 and when, three years afterwards, he returned to the ministry, he left 
 the college with fuller patronage, happier prospects and far better re- 
 sources than when he came. It was during this epoch that the new 
 building which had been ten years in erection was at last brought to 
 such approximate completeness as to receive the increasing tides of life 
 which had already burst by overflow out of the old halls across the way." 
 
 Dr. Andrus returned to the ministry, and closed his life at Indianap- 
 olis, in 1887. 
 
 After a large amount of correspondence the joint board elected Rev. 
 Alexander Martin, D. D., to the vacant Presidency. Dr. Martin was 
 formerly Professor of Greek in^ Allegheny College, and later President 
 of West Virginia University. Having accepted the Presidency of Asbury 
 he was inaugurated June 21, 1876, after one year of good work, Hon. A. 
 C. Downey again delivering the charge and the keys of the University. 
 Dr. Martin is a Scotchman by birth, a real and versatile scholar, a 
 superior teacher, a perfect master of himself and his students, an en- 
 thusiast in his profession, and a splendid governor. He seems born to 
 command, and fitted by nature to be an organizer. May his bow" abide 
 in strength. 
 
 The Presidents of the University have been men of real greatness. 
 No two of them were alike, but all seemed to have possessed one grand 
 object in life. They were strong and faithful workmen. Simpson, 
 Bowman and Martin served the longest. They are a trio differing 
 greatly from each other, but all alike in grand and noble purposes. 
 
 V. — The University Corporation. 
 
 The ultimate success of any collossal enterprise depends upon the men 
 who compose its corporation. If they are narrow-minded, selfish men 
 the whole enterprise partakes of their narrow character; but if men of 
 broad views, honest convictions, and strong nerve are delegated to carry 
 out the views of their constituents, the enterprise will succeed. The 
 success of the Indiana Asbury University is an argument, incontroverti- 
 ble, of the excellent character of the men who have formed the corpora- 
 tion. 
 
22 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 As we look over the University corporation, — the joint board of trustees 
 and visitors, their officers and agents put into the field, we are led to 
 say: "What a splendid corporation!" Some of the finest minds, and 
 greatest names, and most successful business men of the age have been 
 in the work of forming and developing the University. 
 
 The Presidents. 
 
 Dr. Stevenson, twice called to the office of President of the board, was 
 a great hearted man, but strong in prejudice. Rees Hardesty, State 
 Representative, was twice called to the office. Captain Thornburg, who 
 thought as much of the University as a mother ever did of her first 
 born; Hon. John Cowgill, a man of earnest heart, and one of the early 
 Professors of Law; Hon. Samuel W. Parker, one of the purest and truest 
 attorneys that ever plead at the bar for justice and right, and who was 
 equally at home in the halls of Congress; Bishop Ames; a man of broad 
 and liberal views, a statesman by birth, a ruler by nature; Hon. John 
 A. Matson, who will never be forgotten for his work as twice the Pro- 
 fessor of Law; Hon. David McDonald, the eminent jurist, once elected to 
 the Presidency of the University; Dr. Hitt, a man of conscience and 
 sterling integrity; Hon. A. C. Downey, twice called to preside in the 
 board, covering a period of fifteen years, a Supreme Judge of the State, 
 Dean of the Faculty of Law, one of the stateliest and steadiest men God 
 ever made; John Ingle, a live railroad man and Presinent; Hon. Henry 
 S. Lane, Governor of Indiana and United States Senator, a patriot a 
 humanitarian, a nobleman by nature, and a Christian by profession; 
 and the late incumbent, whose name of French descent but of western 
 birth the University now bears, Hon. W. C. DePauw, — these names 
 mark men of more than ordinary mental power and force of character. 
 
 The Secretaries. 
 
 There have been but four Secretaries for the board, viz. : Tarvin W. 
 Cowgill, Thomas Robinson, J. P. Southard and James C. Yohn, the last 
 of whom for thirty years has been at his post, and whose head and heart 
 have been largely interested in the growth and success of the University. 
 
 The Treasurers. 
 
 For fifty years the University has had but six Treasurers. Not one of 
 them has proven a defaulter to the amount of one cent. It is a pleasure 
 to read the names of Rees Hardesty, James Talbot, John M. Allison, 
 Calvin Fletcher, David Macy, and that son of the University, that native 
 born son of thunder, who was born in a parsonage, and whose heart is 
 as big as himself, Col. John William Ray. 
 
 The Trustees. 
 
 The Trustees have been selected from all parts of Indiana by the 
 election of the Indiana Conferences. With half a dozen exceptions they 
 have been members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and were perfect 
 representative men of Methodism, as well as representative men in pol- 
 itics and business. In all, there have been 136 trustees. Of these four 
 
DePauw University. 23 
 
 have been or became Bishops, fifty-two ministers of the gospel, and 
 eighty-four in other callings. Among these names are Governors 
 Wright and Lane, Lieutenant-Governor Cumback, Senators Howard 
 and Lane, Congressmen Parker, Thompson and Cumback, Judges 
 Downey, Sample, Emmerson, Matson, McDonald, Carpenter, Iglehart 
 and Mitchell. 
 
 As presidents of Colleges there have been : F. A. Hester, Chancellor 
 Sims, Robinson, Simpson, Bowman and Andrus, and as leading attor- 
 neys, Fletcher, Martin M. Ray, Cravens, McDonald, Mcintosh, Daily, 
 Smith, Redding, Binkley and Moore. 
 
 Here have been found bankers, physicians, manufacturers, farmers, 
 merchants, and other professions and callings. Here have been strong, 
 able, conscientious men, who gratuitously, have wroughtfor the elevation 
 of humanity, the salvation of souls, and the glory of God. 
 
 On this board Rev. F. C. Holliday, D. D., the Nestor of the Corporation, 
 has served as a trustee thirty-seven years; next to him ranks D. L. 
 Southard, thirty-six years; John Brownfield, thirty; John Wilkins, 
 twenty-nine; W. C. DePauw, twenty-three; E. R. Ames, twenty-one; W. 
 F. Browning, twenty-one; Iglehart, eighteen; Ti. B. Sims, eighteen; 
 Mcintosh, sixteen; Cumback, fifteen; Hight, fourteen; and several others 
 ranging from thirteen years down to one. 
 
 In the list of official visitors there have been 194 different ones up to 
 1884. Of these thirty-eight have been elected trustees. The longest 
 service as visitor was by William Graham, nine years; S. T. Gillett and 
 J. V. R. Miller, each six years; James Havens, W. M. Hester, B. F. 
 Rawlins, W. H. Goode, H. N. Barnes, S. N. Campbell, T. H. Lynch, J. 
 
 B. Lathrop and G. M. Boyd, each five years; all the rest from four years 
 down to one. These have all been ministers, thirty -three being gradu- 
 ates of Asbury. The corporation of the University has an honorable 
 record. 
 
 The Agents. 
 
 From time to time the joint board has sent out agents to travel 
 through the State to solicit money and students. These have done most 
 admirable work. We can only specify a part, for want of knowledge of 
 all. 
 
 Aaron Wood and John C. Smith were the first sent out. Then William 
 
 C. Smith, Isaac Owen, Samuel C. Cooper and Daniel DeMotte went out. 
 Isaac Owen may be specially mentioned. "A man of energy and steady 
 faith, he successfully sold scholarships for the endowment of the In- 
 stitution." 
 
 To show you the spirit of these men in their efforts to endow the Uni- 
 versity and some of the ignorant opposition to their work I will quote 
 from a letter that has just come into my hand written by W. C. Smith, 
 while an agent, to his brother, G. C. Smith, a Trustee. — "For the welfare 
 and success of our beloved University, I feel a deep interest. The repu- 
 tation, and usefulness of the Church in the State, are closely identified 
 with that institution. The spirit of education is abroad. Young men 
 are preparing to receive an education. And if we do not educate them, 
 
24 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 somebody else will. The ej^es of the great majority of the people of the 
 State who think anything about education, are being turned towards 
 our Church, our Asbury. Consequently, we shall be woefully derelict 
 in duty, if we do not sustain, amply sustain, that Institution. She is 
 rising in popularity and influence. Young men are crowding her halls, 
 and many of the most learned men of the two states, this and Ohio, 
 pronounce her the best institution in all the West. And yet it is 
 enough to make one's heart sick, to find some of our own men, whom we 
 would expect to come forward, and stand nobly by her side, taking no 
 interest in her, or, manifesting their prejudice against all such institu- 
 tions; also, to come in contact with the profound and unbounded ignor- 
 ance, of some of the people, and hear them sa}^ : "I'd rather give my 
 children land than an education." "I've got rich without it, and so can 
 my children." "Education makes cut-throats, thieves, robbers." These 
 things I am constantly meeting. But, thank God, a brighter day dawns! 
 My brother, do, I beseech of you, lift jour pen, and through the medium 
 of the Western Christian Advocate, plead the cause of education, in our 
 beloved Indiana." 
 
 It was in the face of such antagonisms that the Fathers labored hard 
 and long to plant and build up this University, and leave it full formed 
 and grown to their children. Grand men! They builded better than 
 they thought. May their memory be forever revered! 
 
 VI. The Faculty. 
 
 What a list of names are in the roll of the Faculty of Indiana Asbury — 
 now DePauw — University, as from tim.e to time constituted b}'' the Joint 
 Board. Here are some names with a state reputation, others with a 
 national reputation, while some have attained a name wherever civiliza- 
 tion has gone. Others are now laying broad and deep the foundation 
 for a reputation as great in the years to come as any of there confreres in 
 the past or present. 
 
 If time permitted it would be a pleasure to speak of the members of 
 the Faculty who were sons of Asbury. Among them are Joseph Tingley, 
 a good student and a superior teacher, who for thirty years was a Pro- 
 fessor; Philander Wilej^, son of Rev. Allen Wiley, one of the founders of 
 the Universitv; H. C. Benson, S. A. Lattimore. H. A. Gobin, L. L. 
 Rogers, Patterson McNutt, J. C. Ridpath, P. S. Baker, John B. DeMotte, 
 T. J. Bassett, Alice and Anna Downey, H. B. Longden, 0. H. Brooke, 
 H. W. Ridpath, R. R. Overstreet and Rose M. Redding. 
 
 From the Faculty have gone out seven College Presidents, two editors 
 of Church papers, nine authors, one of whom has put himself by his in- 
 dustry, research and culture among the best historians of the century. 
 It is not wrong to mention the name of Dr. Ridpath. Dr. Lattimore has 
 few that outrank him in the scientific world. Prof. Larrabee has no su- 
 perior as an essayist and graceful writer of pure English. 
 
 In the class room the Faculty have done their best and grandest work 
 for men and the world. Here they have patiently and faithfully wrought 
 upon minds coming from east, west, north, and south, until they have 
 been worked into shape for the Master's use. 
 
DePauw University. 25 
 
 The Faculty have been promoters of great revivals of religion in the 
 College halls. Simpson was noted for his earnest work in this line among 
 the students. It is a pleasure now to hear his old students tell of the 
 revivals under his administration, and of the fatherly solicitude he mani- 
 fested for their conversion. AVhile Dr. Berry was President there was an- 
 other great work. I wish I could transfer to these pages the glowing de- 
 scription given me by one of the students of that day, of an exhortation 
 of President Berry, and the marvelous effect, as students by the tens 
 went to the altar seeking conversion. That was one of the things for 
 which the Fathers founded the University. 
 
 May such revivals increase in our College Halls ! 
 
 VII. The Alumnal Record. 
 
 The Alumnal Record is one of the means for showing the amount and 
 character of work done in the University in the years gone by. A sen- 
 tence in the Year Book for 1884 well portravs the thought. "It is only 
 by the lon.s roll of names, including many that have become famous in 
 the great affairs of commerce, literature, science, art, the Church, and the 
 State, that the full magnitude of College work appears. The Alumnal 
 Record is a demonstration of the wisdom and beneficence of all liberal 
 and judicious investments made in favor of institutions of learning." 
 The Indiana Asbury — now DePauw — University has that long roll of hon- 
 orable names in all the great and noble callings of life, who reflect honor 
 upon the Halls where they were educated. 
 
 The first Class was graduated in 1840, by Dr. Simpson, and from that 
 year to the present, there has gone out each year a good and respectable 
 class, until now the graduates number 1,072. 
 
 Here commences the most difficult and yet the most interesting part 
 of our task. How to do exact justice to each member, and at the same 
 time not weary the reader and hearer is a delicate work. The only way 
 to do justice to all the members of the Alumni in a historical review is 
 to give the name, attainments and character of each one. To do so 
 would require a volume of a thousand pages. As such an undertaking 
 w^ould be impractical, we must eliminate a few typical characters in this 
 wonderful line of great men and glorious women. I can only speak of 
 the first-class. 
 
 The year 1840 was remarkable for two events : The election of " Tip- 
 pecanoe and Tyler too," and the honorable graduation of the first Class 
 of the University, consisting of Thomas A, Goodwin, F. L. Maddox, 
 and John Wheeler. 
 
 Two Courses of Study — classical and scientific — had been established 
 at the beginning. The University had early felt the impulse of the age 
 in its demands for a modification of College Courses of Study and adapt- 
 ation of them to future professional pursuits. The first Class had repre- 
 sentatives of both courses. Groodwin and Wheeler were classical, and 
 Maddox a scientific. These gentlemen were men of excellent character 
 and good natural ability, and acquired the very best grade in study that 
 was possible. Wlieeler was the oldest ; an Englishman, born in Ports- 
 mouth in 1815. Maddox was a live Kentuckian, born in Shelby County, 
 
26 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 in 1818, quick and active. , Goodwin was a real full grown Hoosier, born 
 in Brookville, Ind., in 1818. He was descended from one of the old 
 Virginia First Families. 
 
 Wheeler possessed all the typical characteristics of a native English- 
 man, and carried them through life. Maddox glowed with the chivalry 
 of the high bred Kentuckian, and looked upon his native state as the 
 only center of the world. Goodwin was characterized by that free and 
 easy natural independence and warm heartedness born of our free Hoo- 
 sier country. He never was known to ask anybody's pardon for having 
 been born and being a student in the University. This same native in- 
 dependence is his own to-day, though a grave old man of sixty-nine 
 years. 
 
 Wheeler rose by the force of his own sterling character and plodding, 
 hard work to be President of Baldwin University, Berea, 0., and of Iowa 
 Wesleyan University, and died at his post as Presiding Elder of the 
 Keokuk District. Wheeler was not an eloquent, but he was a good, 
 preacher, and looked faithfully after the details of the work, and im- 
 pressed himself upon the churches under his care. 
 
 Maddox was a roving man and loved excitement. He settled in lur 
 diana, practicing law, and served two terms in the Indiana Legislature. 
 On the breaking out of the Mexican War he went to Mexico as a Cap- 
 tain. In after years he wandered away to California, where he died in 
 Sacramento, in 1871. 
 
 Goodwin has been a Minister of the Gospel, President of a College, 
 editor of two or three papers, author of several books, a pamphleteer, a 
 humanitarian, correspondent of religious and political papers, a real 
 estate agent, and an impulsive man always. Goodwin is the author of 
 " A Brother's Inquest over a Brother's Grave," which is the most fearful 
 philippic in arraignment of the lum trafic that has appeared for fifty 
 years. That terrible denunciation of the trafic and of the people who 
 maintain it has never been and never will be answered until the Judg- 
 ment Day. 
 
 Viii. Special Schools. 
 
 At the annual meeting of the Joint Board of Trustees in 1848 it was 
 determined to open a Medical Department in Indianapolis, as it was 
 deemed more suitable to plant this Special School at a place where there 
 were facilities for good clinics. The arrangement having been completed, 
 November 1, 1848, the "Indiana Central Medical College" was organ- 
 ized, as a branch of the University. A competent Faculty in Medicine 
 was selected, some of whom attained to distinction in their profession. 
 Dr. Curran, of Jeffersonville, became known as an expert practitioner. 
 Bobbs was celebrated as a surgeon at Indianapolis. Mears was a prac- 
 titioner and a Professor whose opinions have become authority. Com- 
 egys, at Cincinnati, has long been known as the author and Professor. 
 These were no common men. They taught with devotion and enthu- 
 siasm. 
 
 The Medical School continued in being from 1848 to 1852, and grad- 
 uated three classes, in all forty doctors. Among these graduates were 
 
DePauw University. 27 
 
 men who have taken high position in their profession. Hervey, a pro- 
 lific writer on hygiene and kindred subjects; Butterfield, the micro- 
 scopist; Evarts, justly celebrated as a specialist in the treatment of the 
 insane ; Todd, for years Professor in the Medical College of Indiana, and 
 Thad. M. Stevens, the father of the Health Board of Indiana. 
 
 The timidity of the Trustees, coupled with a want of the most con- 
 genial elements in a part of the Faculty, induced the Joint Board to 
 suspend the School. It might have been carried on successfully and 
 without expense, and now could have had an attendance of 200 students 
 and graduated a class of eighty each year. It was a blunder to suspend 
 the School of Medicine. 
 
 School of Law. 
 
 The School of Law has had a somewhat uncertain and turbulent life. 
 A Professorship of Law was founded in 1853, with Hon. John A. Mat- 
 son as the Professor. In 1854 Hon. A. C. Downey became the Professor, 
 and was succeeded in 1858 by Matson. In 1861 John Cowgill was elected 
 and served two years. Now came an interregniim to 1872 when Hon. 
 William A. Brown, Mayor of Greencastle, was Professor for two years, 
 when the Law School died for the want of life. 
 
 The old Law School lived long enough to graduate fifty-four full 
 fledged lawyers in eight classes. Some of these graduates have taken 
 prominent places in the profession. I might mention Col. Tom W. Ben- 
 nett, and Judges Cullen and J. G. Berkshire. 
 
 The School of Law has since, under the new departure, been opened 
 with Hon. A. C. Downey as Dean. It gives promise of a protracted life. 
 
 A Gerrnan Department. 
 
 In 1853 it was deemed proper to establish a German Professorship, and 
 Rev. Wm. Nast, D. D. was elected the Professor. Dr. Nast visited the 
 University, looked over the ground, and declined. The reason for his 
 action was this : The Baldwin University at Berea, Ohio, had sur- 
 rounding it, a large German population. Rev. Jacob Rothweiler was 
 Presiding Elder on the North Ohio District. He went to Berea to preach 
 and gather the Germans into a church. Dr. Wheeler, an Alumnus of 
 this University was the President of Baldwin University. At his rec- 
 ommendation the Trustees offered fine opportunities to the Germans to 
 take a place in that institution. James Wallace, an Irishman and a 
 Trustee, offered to build for them a suitable building for the German De- 
 partment. Rothweiler became an enthusiast for a German College. He 
 captured Dr. Nast, and thereby captured all German Methodists. Soon 
 the German Wallace College of the Baldwin University was founded and 
 opened. The Germans in M^estern Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and 
 Michigan rallied around German Wallace College and the German 
 Methodist Orphan Asylum at Berea, and made it a power for good. 
 That is the reason why our University had no German Department. 
 
28 Semi-Centexnial Celebration, 
 
 IX. The Financial Growth of the University. 
 
 To build a great University which shall be a long and lasting success 
 r(-(]uires four things, money ^ braim in the Corporation and Faculty^ brains 
 in her students and the blessings of the Lord. The University has always 
 had a plentiful supply of all these necessary things excepting money. 
 Want of money in abundance has been a lasting bane. Trustees and 
 Faculty have pinched, economized, retrenched here that they might do 
 more at another point, and saved there in order to make ends meet. The 
 wonder is how 6,000 students could have been in any manner educated, 
 and how 1,000 were graduated on so small an amount of money. 
 
 The history of the financial growth of Asbury-DePauw University if 
 fully written would be found to have been the result of hard work, care- 
 ful economy and real sacrifice. With it would be much of the romantic. 
 Time is not sufficient to enter into it. 
 
 X. Change of Name and Enlarged Growth. 
 
 The facts concerning this all important transaction have been woven 
 into story by Dr. Ridpath, which must sta-nd forever as the true history 
 of that much criticised transaction, and the development of Asbury into 
 DePauw Universit3^ 
 
 The causes leading to that event, the careful and prayerful thought of 
 the Joint Board, the long and earnest deliberation of Hon. Washington 
 C. DePauw and family, the carefully drawn papers maturely thought 
 out and corrected until not a fault has been found with them, the con- 
 scientious effort to do all things in the fear of the Lord, with an eye single 
 to His glory, and the scrutiny of Him who never fails to detect all error ; 
 these are all matters of history. The criticisms kind and unkind, the 
 generous responses of many of our people to the calls for aid, the words 
 of cheer from most of the Alumni, the ministers, and the friends are 
 known and recognized. The learned Faculty gathered in the various 
 departments of the University, the increasing numbers of students who 
 have flocked to these Halls, the excellent instruction given, and the 
 grand revivals accompanying the presence of the Holy Spirit within 
 these walls, are great facts in the present history of DePauw University, 
 w^hich tend to make her all glorious. 
 
 May DePauw University never grow less ! 
 
DePauw University. 29 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 Of the Transition from Indiana Asbury University to DePauw 
 
 University. 
 
 By John Clark Ridpath, A. M., LL. D. 
 Of the Class of 1863. 
 
 The facts immediately antecedent to the change of name from Indiana 
 Asbury to DePauw University relate to the embarassed condition of the 
 institution, to the efforts of its friends, and to the philanthropy of a 
 benefactor. Let it be known, then, that in the summer of 1881, when 
 Hon. Washington C. DePauw, of New Albany, Indiana, was about to 
 set out with his family for an extended trip in Europe and the East, he 
 provided, like a prudent man, for the possible event of his death. It is 
 well understood that Mr. DePauw has, in the last forty years amassed a 
 large fortune. He has done so by constant application to business, 
 wisdom in the directions of his energies, fortunate investments, and, 
 above all, by the possession of a rare genius for the developement of 
 profitable industries and the management of large affairs. About to go 
 abroad, Mr. DePauw prepared his will. He found himself able, at the 
 age of fifty-nine, not only to provide large bequests for all the members of 
 his family, but also to bestow a part of his fortune upon some benevo- 
 lent enterprise. His family all united with him in the purpose to de- 
 devote a considerable per cent, of his large accumulations to some great 
 memorial which should fitly represent the leading endeavor of his own 
 life, carry forward the work which he should, in the course of time, be 
 no longer able to direct in person, and at the same time perpetuate the 
 family name. 
 
 Such were the fundamental considerations which led Mr. DePauw, in 
 the preparation of his will, to provide that a portion of his estate should 
 be set aside for the founding of a Memorial University. This provision 
 was accordingly made, and everything legally arranged, so that, in case 
 
30 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 of Mr. DePauw's death, a large sum would be left in the hands of his ex- 
 ecutors and family for the establishment, within five years after his de- 
 cease, of an amply endowed institution of learning. The location of the 
 institution, the details of organization, etc., were left to be determined 
 by his wife, children, and the trustees of the bequest. The University 
 so to be founded was to be called DePauw University, as a memorial 
 to the family name. 
 
 Having made these provisions, Mr. DePauw was about to depart for 
 Europe. He was to go, first of all, to London, to attend te Ecumenical 
 Council of the Methodist Episcopal Church of which he was a zealous 
 and devoted member. It happened at this very juncture the friends 
 and agents of Asbury University were making a strenuous endeavor to 
 rescue the institution from her financial embarassments. In doing so 
 they appealed earnestly to Mr. DePauw for aid. At the time they knew 
 nothing of Mr. DePauw's will or the provisions which he had made for 
 the founding of a University. When they appealed to him to contribute 
 something, before his departure, for the relief and development of 
 Asbury, and pressed him to endow one or two memorial professorships, 
 he at length made known to them the existence of his will, and an out- 
 line of the provisions therein contained. The persons to whom this 
 information was communicated were Dr. J. J. Hight, of Cincinnati; 
 Colonel John W. Ray, of Indianapolis, and Dr. J. C. Ridpath. Before 
 there was any time to consult v^^ith the Board of Trustees, Mr. DePauw 
 set out for Europe. President Alexander Martin was also a member of 
 the Ecumenical Council, and departed at the same time for England. 
 It was deemed desirable at once to convene the Trustees of Asbury Uni- 
 versity. This was done at Indianapolis, on the 31st of August, 1881. 
 The meeting of the Board was private. Dr. Ridpath, Vice-president of 
 the University, laid before the body the information which Dr. Hight, 
 Colonel Ray, and himself had obtained relative to Mr. DePauw's pur- 
 poses. An earnest discussion of the situation ensued, and, to sum up 
 the results in a word, it was resolved by the Board, unanimously, that 
 Mr. DePauw should be formally asked by the Trustees to divert the be- 
 quest which he had made for his memorial University to Asbury, and 
 to build the new institution on the foundation already laid. It was 
 also resolved to indicate to Mr. DePauw the wish and purpose of the 
 Board, in case he should yield to their request, to change the name of 
 Asbury to DePauw University, to the end that his memorial bequest 
 might be preserved in its original intent. This action on the part of 
 the Board was proper and right in every particular. Let it be under- 
 stood at once and forever that for the Trustees to ask Mr. DePauw to 
 give up a memorial bequest which he had consecrated to the honor of 
 his family, and not at the same time proffer to him the name of the in- 
 stitution to which the bequest was to be diverted, would have been an 
 act so ungenerous and improper on their part as not to be entertained 
 by large-minded and honorable men. It could not fail to be noticed, 
 moreover, that neither Bishop Asbury himself nor any one in his name 
 had ever given a cent for the development or endowment of the insti- 
 tution. The name Asbury, therefore, was purely honorary. It belonged 
 
DePauw University. 31 
 
 in the same category with the many names of churches which have been 
 given in honor of the bishops or other distinguished members of a 
 Church rather as a passing tribute of respect than as a permanent 
 memorial. The frequent changes made in such names fully attest the 
 fact that the same have been bestowed rather from a passing enthusiasm 
 or personal preference than as a permanent memorial to a founder. 
 
 Fully appreciating these facts, the Board of Trustees unanimously 
 signed a paper, which had been prepared by Dr. Ridpath, requesting 
 Mr. DePauw to divert his bequest to Asbury, and that he accept the 
 change of name. 
 
 The leading objects had in ^;iew by the Trustees in their first commu- 
 nication were three in number : First, to induce Mr. DePauw to begin 
 his great educational enterprise during his life-time; second, to secure the 
 diversion of his bequest to Asbury University; third, to gain Mr. DePauw's 
 consent that the name of the institution might be changed so as to bring 
 the same under the provisions of his will. A iew extracts from the letter 
 addressed by the Trustees to Mr. DePauw may serve to illustrate the 
 spirit in which the enterprise was undertaken. The Committee in their 
 first letter say : 
 
 "Asbury University has long been the child of our mutual anxiety. It is to her 
 and her future that we wish to call your attention; and it is concerning this, our 
 beloved College, that we desire to make a few suggestions of the most vital import- 
 ance. In the first place, we would express to you our deliberate conviction that 
 the time has come when the future of Asbury University presents the alternative 
 of complete success or partial failure. Complete success would mean the creation 
 of a power for good, here in the West, which no adverse influence could successfully 
 antagonize. Partial failure would mean, not perhaps the extinction of the Univer- 
 sity, but her retrogression to an inferior rank and a consequent humiliating abate- 
 ment of her usefulness and distinction. We are fully persuaded that you are as pro- 
 foundly interested as any of our number in seeing that the right alternative is chosen, 
 to the end that the future of the institution, over the direction of w^hose destinies 
 we are placed by the voice of the Church, shall be crowned with additional influence 
 and honor. You are fully aware that the one great condition on which the full success 
 of Asbury University depends, is, so far as human foresight can penetrate, the 
 COMPLETE AND AMPLE ENDOWMENT of the institution. To this end, as you know, our 
 thoughts have been anxiously turned for many years; and it is this one overshad- 
 owing question which we wish to present to you, 
 
 "In the discharge of our duties as Trustees of the University w^e have been long 
 and earnestly seeking for the man, or men, who should assume the great work of 
 endowing the institution. Thus far, as you know, we have been bafiied in our ef- 
 forts. Though many times disappointed, we are not discouraged. The object of 
 the present paper is to present this cause to you, and to express to you the sincere 
 convictions of j^our colleagues on the Board that you, of all men, are the one to 
 whom we may look most hopefully, and we trust most confidently, for the help 
 which we can not furnish of ourselves, and which we are apparently unable to pro- 
 cute from others. We ask, therefore, that you Become the patron of the University 
 over which we are placed in charge, and that you contribute to her resources 
 A COMPLETE AND AMPLE ENDOWMENT. Our rcasous for asking so great and dis- 
 tinguished a work at your hands may be briefly enumerated: 
 
 "1. Such an endowment given by you to the University will assuredly be the 
 means of doing the vastest good, of bestowing the best of all gifts upon your fellow- 
 men, of spreading sanctified learning and establishing the cause of Christ in all 
 these lands. The extent of the benign influence of such a gift would be immeasura- 
 ble, if not infinite. The hallowed effects of such a work would be dispensed as the 
 sunshine into all countries and throughout all time. 
 
32 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 " 2. We rejoice to know that you have been so abundantly prospered in all that 
 you have set your hands to, in the work of life, that you are amply able, without 
 injustice to those other interests which lie near your affections and purposes, to en- 
 dow fully a great University. 
 
 " 3. No other memorial which the greatest wealth can build can compare with 
 this in DURATION AND honoe; or v,^ill so greatly tend to keep alive your memory in 
 the quick affections of jonr fellow-men; or raise up so many in the far future to 
 speak your praise and call you blessed. 
 
 " 4. We have reason to believe that among your most cherished plans and pur- 
 poses is that of founding and endowing a great University, and we most cordially de- 
 sire to furnish the occasion and the opportunity for carrying into full effect and 
 complete realization your hopes and wishes. The entire coincidence between what 
 we, as the guardians of the University, desire to see accomplished respecting her 
 future, and Avhat we have reason to think is contemplated by yourself, furnishes 
 additional grounds of confidence that you will take up the great enterprise presented 
 in this paper, 
 
 " 5. We are sure that such a work as that of enowing the University, the creation 
 of hew departments to answer ever-increasing demands, the fostering and care of 
 the multifarious interests which, foreseen and unforeseen, are ever presenting 
 themselves in a great institution of learning — would furnish to yourself, as it would 
 to us, a vent for the best activities of our lives. Our mutual counsels, and the 
 stimulus of so vast an enterprise, could, though many times beset Vv'ith difficulties 
 and grave responsibilities, not well be other than the most grateful and, we may 
 say, important duties to which earnest men can be called. 
 
 "6. It is our sincere judgment tha,t you aee in every way pitted for this great 
 work. Your large experience in educational matters; your earnest and unselfish 
 purpose to accomplish, without ostentation, the greatest good; and especially the 
 fact, well known to all, that your ample means are consecrated to promote the best 
 interests of men, all conspire to intensify what may be called the fitness of the work 
 here presented for your consideration. 
 
 " 7. Finally, we wish especially to emphasize the fact, now generally conceded 
 by thoughtful men, that those benefactions, which are contemplated out of the ac- 
 cumulations of a lifetime are far more fruitful of good, more certain in result, more 
 immediate in their benefits, and pre-eminently more satisfactory and honorable to 
 the giver himself, if made under his own direction, during his life, while his facul- 
 ties are still aglow and his power of enjoyment still unimpaired, than if left to the 
 hazards, uncertainties, and remoteness of posthumous devises. There is certainly 
 no reason in the world why a man y/ho has been blessed with wealth and has de- 
 termined to bestow a part of that wealth upon society, should not himself see the 
 fruit of his planting, and enjoy in common with others, but in a more intense de- 
 gree, the happy results of his labors and benevolence. 
 
 " We, therefore, confidently appeal to you to undertake the magnificent enterprise 
 of endowing in our State a memorial institution of learning of such proportions and 
 character as shall be and become an agent of the highest good, and at the same time 
 the most glorious monument of your own beneficence and good will to men. In 
 making this most important appeal we beg leave to assure you that we are not in the 
 least unmindful of how much will be due you in return, not only from the State, 
 the Church, and the Nation, but also especially from ourselves. We have most 
 seriously and earnestlj^ considered the whole question arising in connection with 
 what is here suggested, and are deeply impressed with a sense of our duties and 
 responsibilities. We have consulted together, and after mature deliberation we 
 are unanimously persuaded that the institution endowed by your munificence 
 should bear your name. Without arguing the question at length, we desire to say 
 that there can be no debate as to whether a man's monument should be inscribed 
 with his name. In this case there would be not only a propriety, but a peculiar 
 fitness, in giving to the institution, virtually brought into existence by your endow- 
 ment, the name which alone would would properly perpetuate the memory of the 
 founder. Asbury University has borne a great and honorable name, one not to be 
 lightly flung asid^; but Bishop Asbury was in no sense the /ownder of the institution. 
 
DePauw University. 33 
 
 Nor is there living in the world a single person who could be directly wounded by 
 engrafting upon this vital root a new stock with a new name. It is our hope and 
 purpose, under the conditions here outlined, to make the change suggested. The 
 responsibility for such an action would be ours. Nothing could swerve us from 
 what we conceive to be the straight line of dutj^ as it respects this dear and impor- 
 tant trust. We think it our dutj' to pursue the course outlined in this letter. We 
 seek at your hands the endowment of the institution over which we are placed in 
 authority, and take this method of informing you of our wish and purpose, in the 
 event of a consummation of our cherished hope, to confer on the University, thus 
 revivified and recreated by your means, the name of DePauw University. 
 
 " We do not desire to burden this paper with needless details, most of which 
 could be easily adjusted in a few words of mutual counsel. We trust and most 
 faithfully believe that your hopes and wishes are in common with our own. In- 
 stead, therefore, of crowding into this letter extended discussions of minor points, 
 we append brief memoranda expressive of our views on a few of the topics which 
 would, first of all, engage our attention. For these memoranda we solicit, on your 
 part, a careful consideration. We send these notes as giving an outline of what we, 
 after considerable thought and discussion, have unanimously agreed upon; but 
 they are only tentative, and are subject to many and great modifications at the sug- 
 gestion of yourself or any other wise and safe counselor. We are all aiming at a 
 common purpose. You are now abroad. We, your colleagues and friends in the 
 cause of education, have availed ourselves of your absence to deliberate carefully 
 and prayerfully on the great question presented in this paper. The result is before 
 you. We have but one view and wish, and that we have endeavored to express. 
 May the blessing of heaven attend our effort and our great hope be realized. 
 
 A. C. Downey, Thos. B. Redding, 
 
 F. C. HoLLiDAY, Wm. F. Bkowning, 
 Will Cumback, Wm. Newkirk, 
 
 Geo. L. Curtiss, James H. Carpenter, 
 W]M. Graham, D. L. Southard, 
 
 John J, Hight, John Brownfield." 
 
 To this communication of the Board several memoranda were ap- 
 pended relating to the organization of the proposed University, the loca- 
 tion of the institution, the present needs of the same, and other vital 
 topics: The papers were forwarded to Mr. DePauw, then in London, 
 and on the 29th of September, 1881, he answered as follows : 
 
 "J. C. RiDi'ATii, A. M,, Vice-President : 
 
 Dear Brother : — Your valued favor, with accompanying documents, of the 5tli 
 inst., came duly to hand. The giving of so much time and such large sums of 
 money, and invohdng interests reaching, it may be, thousands of years into the 
 future, requires long, prayerful, earnest consideration. Hence, for the present, I 
 submit— 
 
 " That, as a rule, names ought not to be given until the life is crowned by 'dying 
 well.' 
 
 " As to the matter in hand, future wants will be developed by time. Present 
 wants are enumerated by you in paragraphs one to seven of your nriemorandum. I 
 fully concur, so far as they are exact and explicit, in your statement of wants, but 
 am at loss as to three vital points, namely : 1st. Tlie number of professors ; 2d. Ad- 
 ditional buildings ; 3d. Cost of same. The papers are drawn up with great care and 
 clearness; yet long as they are (and nothing could have been omitted), to the end 
 that there may be no misunderstanding, I must ask for your view and that of the 
 Committee and Faculty as to your propositions : 
 
 " First. What of money (and building, if any) is requisite to establish the College 
 of Law on a solid basis?' 
 
 "Second. The number of additional professors and salary now required in the 
 College of Liberal Arts ? 
 
34 Semi-CentenjsIal Celebration, 
 
 "Third. Size (i. e., length, breadth and height) and cost of 'Dormitorv and Board- 
 ing-hall ?' 
 
 ' 'Fourth. What special schools are pressingly needed? "What number of profes- 
 sors, amount of money to equip, and buildings do they call for? Also, please name 
 cost of each of your items in paragraphs 6 and 7. 
 
 ''The answer of these questions will aid me in reaching a conclusion. 
 
 "I shrink from such notoriety as this change AYOuld give, and I greatly fear that 
 my friends and the Trustees much underrate the harsh, unfeeling criticisms it 
 would call forth. I suggest that the want of a campus of one hundred acres or 
 more at Greencastle is a very serious objection to that point. Such a campus is in 
 reasonable reach of Indianapolis, and I have such an one at Xew Albany ; and the 
 selecting of either of these places for DePauw L'niversity would not call out unkind 
 criticisms. Then, if, after the success of the new enterprise was assured, the Trus- 
 tees of Asbury should ask to be taken in and become a part thereof, the dithculties 
 I suggest would not follow, or_, if they did, would be overcome easily and quietly. 
 
 " I know that if a new location is made, the forty years of Asbury]^ its strong man- 
 hood, equipments and endowments as well, are X)ut into the balance, as it were, 
 against the feelings of a man, and given up in whole or in part. Hence, the longer I 
 look over the grounds and consider the difficulties, the more inclined I am to leave 
 the whole ma,tter where it now is in my will ; viz., for my wife, children, executors, 
 and trustees to decide after my death. 
 
 " Very truly yours, W. C. DePauw." 
 
 On the receipt of this communication the same was duly considered 
 by the Trustees, and on the 1st of February, 1882, an answer was pre- 
 pared in a private session held at Indianapolis. On the whole, the enter- 
 prise seemed to progress favorabl}^ In their second communication the 
 Trustees considered the difficulties which Mr. DePauw had suggested, 
 urged him again to accede to their wishes in the premises, and still 
 further elaborated the plans of the proposed University. A schedule of 
 present and prospective expenditures was presented, and Mr. DePauw 
 was asked to assume the burden of such outlays as might be agreed 
 on as requisite for the rapid development of the University. Mr. De- 
 Pauw had now visited Egypt and Palestine, and had returned to Switz- 
 erland. From Lucerne, on the 5th of June, 1882, he forwarded to the 
 Trustees his second answer, and as the same contains the most elaborate 
 and formal statement of the Founder's views relative to the scale and 
 character of the proposed DePauw University, the letter is here inserted 
 in its entirety : 
 
 Lucerne, Switzerland, June 5, 1882. 
 " To the Trustees of Indiana Asbury University : 
 
 "Dear Sirs axd Brothers: — Your esteemed favor of February, 1882, (covering 
 sixteen pages), the record of the official action of your meeting held at New Denni- 
 son Hotel, Indianapolis, on that day, has been forwarded to me by your committee- 
 man. Professor J. C. Eidpath. 
 
 " The long delay in making up this record and forwarding the same to me has been 
 fully and satisfactorily explained by the Professor. Although this delay will ulti- 
 mate in postponing any action contemplated until the end of this year or the early 
 part of next, yet it gives ample time to ascertain if our \'iews can be harmonized, 
 and, if this can be done, to mature and perfect our plans. 
 
 " First of all, accept my thanks, and believe me grateful for the many kind ex- 
 pressions of brethren beloved. I assure you they are highly appreciated, particu- 
 larly so much as refers to my past life and your confident belief as to the future 
 thereof. 
 
 " In your record the pressing wants of the University are in nothing overstated, 
 but in some things understated. 
 
DePauw University. 35 
 
 "Now, as to the matter in hand, I wish to be frank as well as transparent. 
 
 "(1.) As TO Location. 
 
 " First. I have asked Bishop Bowman to go carefully over all papers, and give me 
 his best judgment and conclusion as to what I ought to do. I need hardly add that 
 I will defer greatly to his opinion, and must have it, if attainable, before I make a 
 final decision. 
 
 " Second. One whom Methodists the world over delight to honor strongly urges a 
 National University at Washington City. His arguments are that Washington is 
 the established seat of government, is a great center that is growing rapidly, and 
 increasing in importance and power, and that Methodism ought to lead off there 
 with a great University, and if I lay the foundation and lead, others will aid largely 
 and rapidly, etc. On account of the high character and mature judgment of this 
 friend, I am considering the same. 
 
 " Third. All other things being equal, my preference would be New Albany or 
 Indianapolis. 
 
 "(2) As TO Endowment. I am unwilling to obligate myself to give the University 
 $1,000,000. 
 
 ''Briefly I will say, my will provides for the payment to DePauw University of 
 certain sums of money at stated times, aggregating, say $300,000, to be paid out of 
 my personal effects as other legacies are paid. At a stated time, say five years after 
 my death, my improved real estate is to be sold on long time, payable in annual 
 installments, with six per cent interest. At a later day, say ten years after my death, 
 my unimproved realty is to be sold with like interest and payment. Of the proceeds 
 of these sales 1%% ^^^ ^o go absolutely to said University, and the other parts of said 
 remaining j%% may go to said University if any of my children should die childless 
 prior to said distribution. In average financial times the University w'ould receive 
 from these percentages over $500,000. 
 
 "In good times, with boom in real estate, the University's percentages would ag- 
 gregate more than $1,000,000. But these percentages, you will observe, depend 
 somewhat upon the ability and integrity of my executors and mainly upon the then 
 financial condition of the country. This real estate is in growing Western cities. 
 The history of the world teaches that the price of realtj'- fluctuates very greatly, not 
 only in different cities, but in different parts of the same city, and no man can tell 
 what may be the price of realty ten or twenty years hence in such rapidly growing 
 cities as we have in the West, particularly Chicago. 
 
 "To recapitulate. The University is provided for in these percentages just as my 
 wife and children are. 
 
 " I am very clear in my determination not to prefer the University to my wife and 
 children, but each and all must take their chances in the ability and integrity of my 
 executors, the then financial condition of the country, the stability of the govern- 
 ment, the growth of cities, and the then high or low price of real estate in cities. 
 
 " To have the whole matter clearly before us, suppose we assume,- — 
 
 " First. That I am willing to give now the $300,000 provided for in my will, ac- 
 cording to the suggestions in your record, supplemented by schedule transmitted 
 herewith. 
 
 " Second. That this gift, with the percentages indicated in my will, is entirely 
 satisfactory to all the Trustees. 
 
 " Third. That the contract outlined by you be drawn on this basis. 
 
 "What then? 
 
 " You have no provision whatever for the following wants: 
 
 "(1) The constantly growing and increasing wants of the University. 
 
 "(2) A Campus. 
 
 "(3) A Theological Seminary. 
 
 "(4) Lastly and vital, a sufficient endowment to meet fully the present deficit of 
 $7,000 to $10,000 between current receipts and current expenses. Unless each and 
 all of these enumerated wants are fully met, the University would fall short of my 
 aim and intent, tience, the practical question is. Can we meet and provide for 
 these last named wants ? 
 
 "As to the first item, I think there need be no serious apprehension, as Indiana 
 
36 vSemi-Cextexnial Celebration, 
 
 Methodists are accumulating wealth rapidly, and earnest Christian men are more 
 and more seeking investments of this kind. As the University grows and prospers, 
 many of them will be drawn to it, and give out of their abundance as the founders 
 and fathers did out of their poverty. i3esides, if mj life should be extended, just 
 what more 1 may give the Lord only knows. 
 
 " Second. Campus— the citizens of Putnam Count}^ ought to give ample grounds, 
 conveniently located, well fenced, planted in trees, for this purpose. 
 
 " Third and Fourth. As to endowment for Thelogical Seminary and to meet 
 deficit. 
 
 "Fully 3200,000 will be required. Of this, 850,000 would be available (the. re- 
 mainder of the 8300,000 named in my will), leaving 8150,000 to be provided for, and 
 the p)ractical question is, Will the citizens of Putnam County give the campus com- 
 plete, and will the friends of the University give the 8150,000, payable in one, two, 
 three, four and five years, with interest. 
 
 " These last items — a campus and 8150,000 endowment — I earnestly recommend to 
 the Board for im.mediate action, as the endowment is essential to' the life of the 
 University as it now exists, and the campus is a felt want. If these two things can 
 be accomplished speedily, it will go a great way toward settling the whole matter as 
 you desire. 
 
 " "Whether all you have indicated is brought about or not, let me again urge that 
 this addition of 8150,000 to the endov»'ment is vital. 
 
 " In conclusion, my earnest prayer is that the Lord will rule and overrule, turn 
 and overturn, everything connected with this matter, and bring about such results, 
 and only such results, as will honor God and glorify' the Father in heaven, and be for 
 the good of Methodism ; and may all that is good, and nothing that is evil, come 
 to you and each of you, and abide forever. 
 
 " With high esteem, your friend and brother, 
 
 "W. C. DePauw." 
 
 To this letter Mr. DePauw appended an elaborate schedule, enumerat- 
 ing under different heads the various expenditures to be made on the 
 hypothesis that the plans outlined in the correspondence should be 
 finally agreed upon between the Trustees and himself. The schedule 
 covered a period of four 3^ears, extending from tYie 1st day of August, 
 1883, to the 1st day of August, 1887. The aggregate of outlays indi- 
 cated in the same amounted to the $300,000 Tvhich had been indi- 
 cated as the ba.sis of the plan, and was distributed with great wisdom 
 to the various heads of endowment fund, additional buildings (includ- 
 ing two dormitories, a law school, an observatory, etc.), museum, library, 
 apparatus, and prizes. The suggestion was also added that the matter 
 of the additional campus be at once brought before the citizens of Green- 
 castle and Putnam County, to the end that the needed grounds might 
 be at once procured, and also an appeal that the raising of the $150,000 
 additional endowment should be pressed upon the attention of the 
 Methodist State Convention, which was to convene at Indianapolis on 
 the 27th of June, 1882. Mr. DePauw concluded his schedule with these 
 impressive words : 
 
 " Asbury can live as it is without additional buildings. Library, ]\Iuseum, Observ- 
 atory, Campus, Theological Seminary, etc., etc.; but can not live, eveii as it is without 
 a large increase to the endowment fund or tuition fees to make good the annual 
 deficit. 
 
 "Three propositions are before us: 
 
 " First. Gradual death. 
 
 "Second. Life by tuition fees. 
 
 "Third. Life by *81 50,000 additional endoAvment. 
 
 This communication reached the Trustees at their annual session on 
 
DePauw Univeksity. 37 
 
 the 19th of June, 1882. They immediately resolved to comply with the 
 suggestions and plans submitted by Mr. DePauw. It was determined 
 to raise the $150,000 demanded as a condition precedent to the founding 
 of DePauw University. A communication, was prepared and forwarded 
 to him in which the purpose of the Board to undertake the work in 
 earnest was declared. Early in September Mr. DePauw returned from 
 Europe. Personal interviews were held between him and the Trustees, 
 and the result was that, on the 14th and 16th of October, 1882, he sub- 
 mitted a formal proposition, the nature of which will be fully under- 
 stood from the following two letters : 
 
 "New AlbxVny, Ind., October 14, 1882. 
 " Dr. J. C. RiDPATiT, Greencastle, Ind.: 
 
 "My Deae Brother. — If the triends ot the University in Putnam County will 
 give to said University all the grounds in the city limits south of the.new campus, 
 between Locust Street and College Avenue, and cause all the cross streets therein to 
 be vacated; also, the lots lying south and east of College Avenue Church, and pro- 
 cure the vacation of the street running east and west between said grounds and the 
 new College grounds ; also, all that part of the Ames lot south of Locust Street 
 Church, and fronting on Locust Street, running back 150 to 200 feet deep ; and pro- 
 cure for said University a perfect title to the Durham farm of 120 acres and pro- 
 posed avenues leading thereto for the sum of $18,000 (which sum I will pay); and 
 the friends of the University will add to the endowment fund the sum of $150,000, 
 to make good the deficit between present current expenses and receipts, — I will 
 yield to the wishes of the Board of Trustees and Visitors of Asbury University, and 
 accept the proposal made by them to me to change the name, and will endow it 
 about on the basis of my letter from Lucerne, Switzerland, to you. 
 
 " Respectfully yours, 
 
 "W.C. DePauw." 
 
 New Albany, Ind. , October 16, 1882. 
 " Bishop Bowman, ChaArman Committee Trustees Ashury University : 
 
 "Dear Brothers. — Having provided in my will for founding and endowing of a 
 university to be called DePauw University, to be located in Indiana or out, the 
 location to be decided by my wife, children and executors; the Trustees, Visitors, 
 Faculty and other friends of Asbary University have been making an earnest, laud- 
 able effort to induce me to bestow my gifts on the University at Greencastle— to that 
 end have unanimously and officially again and again proposed to change the name 
 of Asbury to DePauw ITniversity. 
 
 " Plaving visited Greencastle and looked over the ground and fully considered 
 your proposals and consulted loved friends on whose judgment I can rely, I have 
 reached conclusions that will doubtless be satisfactory to you and the friends of the 
 University. I have not concealed the fact that my own preference for the location 
 of DePauw University would be at New Albany or Indianapolis ; y6t gentlemen 
 from all parts of the State, whose opinions are valued iDy me, have grave doubts and 
 fears about establishing a second Methodist university in Indiana. So serious are 
 their doubts and apprehensions that I have yielded to their views and your wishes, 
 rather than locate DePauw University outside of my native State. 
 
 "As to changing the name of Asbury to DePauw, I have not yet obtained mj'- 
 own consent that it should be so changed now. But to meet present pressing wants, 
 that there may be no delay, I will (as soon as the friends of the University comply 
 with the conditions and stipulations hereinafter named) furnish at the dates speci- 
 fied and for the purposes named in my Lucerne schedule, say about $100,000 for 
 needed new buildings, additions to the library, apparatus, museum, and for statuary, 
 paintings, and merit rewards. 
 
 " Second, I will out of the last $50,000 (of the $300,000 named in my Lucerne let- 
 ter) pay $18,000 for the Durham farm of one hundred and twentj^ acres and ap- 
 proaches, and pay the salary of say $2,000 per annum for a professor of theology. 
 
38 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 "Third, As long as it is convenient for me so to do (of which convenience I shall 
 be the sole judge) I will, beginning October 1, 1883, pay quarterly $2,625, or $10,500 
 per aniuim, to meet the wants indicated bv vou in your letter to me of February 1, 
 1882. 
 
 " Lastly, I will provide in my "will for the payment of the remaining $150,000 to 
 the endowment fund, and for about such further endowment as I have indicated 
 in our correspondence. It being expressly understood that when I stated in my 
 letter that my will provided for the sale of my improved real estate some years afteV 
 my death, I did not mean to include in such sale and percentages to said University 
 any part of my manufacturing establishments, or my homestead near the city of 
 New Albany and my city winter residence. All these are given to mj'- wife and 
 children. 
 
 " On the other hand I did not mention the fact that after paying all sums de- 
 vised out of my personal effects and given to my wife and children, there ought, 
 with good management, to be a large sum of personal effects for distribution, and 
 that said University would get a share of the same. 
 
 " Now, all the foregoing is upon the express condition and understanding that 
 said Trustees, without my asking them so to do, have decided to and will change 
 the name of said Universit}' to DePauw University at any time that I assent there- 
 to, or my family request and desire it to be done. 
 
 " And on the further express stipulations and conditions following: 
 
 " If on or before August 1, 1883, the friends of the Universit}^ in Putnam County 
 will give to said University all tlie grounds in the city limits south of the new- 
 campus between Locust Street and College Avenue, and cause all the cross streets 
 therein to be vacated; also the lots lying south and east of College Avenue Church, 
 and procure the vacation of the street running east and west between said grounds 
 and the new College grounds; also that part of the Ames lot south of Locust Street 
 Church and fronting on Locust Street, running back one hundred and fifty feet to 
 two hundred feet deep : 
 
 " And procure for said University a perfect title to the Durham farm of one hun- 
 dred and twenty acres and proposed avenues leading thereto for the sum of 
 $18,000. 
 
 " And the friends of the University will add to the endowment fund the sum of 
 $150,000, to make good the deficits between present current expenses and receipts, — 
 
 " Then I will yield to the wishes of the Board of Trustees and Visitors of Asbury 
 L'niversity, and accept the proposal made by them to me to change the name, and 
 will endow it about on the basis of my letter from Lucerne, Switzerland (say as 
 modified herein). 
 
 " And on the further express stipulation that until the friends of Asbury add said 
 $150,000 in money to said endowment fund, they will pay interest thereon at the 
 rate of seven per cent per annum. 
 
 " Of course, when I or my executors pay said $150,000 that I have agreed to pro- 
 vide for in my will to said endowment fund, then the payment quarterly of $2,625, 
 or $10,500 per annum, will terminate. 
 
 "Verv respectfully yours, 
 
 "W. C. DePauw." 
 
 On the 24th of October, a meeting of the Trustees and Visitors was 
 held at Indianapolis, and the proposition of Mr. DePanw was formally 
 accepted. The nature of the acceptance will appear from the following 
 extract from the Minutes of the Board : 
 
 " The Board of Trustees and Visitors of Indiana Asbury L'ni versify, having been 
 made acquainted with the contents of the letters of Hon. W. C. DePauw, bearing 
 date of New Albany, Indiana, October 14, 1882, relative to the endowment of Indiana 
 Asbury University and change of name, addressed to Professor John C. Pidpath, 
 as well as Mr. DePauw's letter of October 16th, addressed to Bishop Bowman and 
 our Committe of Conference, unanimously adopt the following resolution: 
 
 ''Resolved, That the acceptance by the Hon. W. C. DePauw of the propositions 
 
DePauw UniveRvSIty. 39 
 
 made by us to him relative to the endowment of Indiana Asbury University, and 
 change of name, is a source of great gratification to this Board, as well as|to the 
 friends of Christian education throughout the State and country, and that the plans 
 presented in his letter be, and are hereby unanimously tldopted. 
 
 " Resolved, That an earnest effort be at once made by this Board, and by all the 
 friends of the University, to raise the $150,000 required to meet the conditions ex- 
 pressed in Mr. DePauw's letters. 
 
 " In concluding our lengthy correspondence on this great question, so vital to the 
 interests of the Church and of all our people, we can not forbear to express to Mr. 
 DePauw our profound appreciation of his benevolent decision as well as of our 
 gratitude to God for His favors and blessings. 
 " Your Friends and Brethren, 
 
 "The Trustees and Visitors op Indiana Asbury University." 
 
 The work of raising the $150,000 w^as now formally undertaken. A 
 Committee, consisting of President Alexander Martin, Rev. John 
 Poucher, Colonel Eli F. Riter, Captain Charles W. Smith, and Dr. J. C. 
 Ridpath, was appointed to superintend the canvass of the State. This 
 Committee was assisted in its work by Bishop Thomas Bowman. The 
 duty of raising the local fund for the purchase of the additional grounds 
 for the University was intrusted to another Committee, consisting of 
 Dr. J. C. Ridpath, Franklin P. Nelson, Andrew M. Lockridge, James F. 
 Darnall, Gus. H. Williamson, Thomas Bayne, Robert Z. Lockridge, 
 William Bridges, and Dr. J. E. Earp. These were assisted by a large 
 number of the leading citizens of Greencastle and Putnam County, who 
 made common cause in the enterprise. By the commencement of 1883 
 it appeared that the work had made satisfactory progress, and by the 
 adjourned meeting of the Board, held at Indianapolis on the ist of 
 August, the enterprise promised so well as to give great encouragement 
 to the friends of the institution. At that meeting, however, it was 
 found necessary to ask for an extension of time, and the same was 
 cheerfully granted by Mr. TePauw. The Board then adjourned to meet 
 on the 4th of October. AVhen it came to the canvass of results before 
 the Board, it was found that the people of Greencastle and Putnam 
 county had secured approximately the sum requisite for the purchase of 
 the additional grounds; but the reports from the State at large were much 
 less satisfactory. Scarcely more than one-half the needed sum had been 
 subscribed; and of the amount ($77,000) which had been secured a large 
 per cent, was trammeled with such conditions as to make it unavaila^ble. 
 The outlook was very discouraging. It became evident that unless 
 there should be some sudden rally or else a radical change of plan the 
 enterprise must fail. In the emergency a consultation was held between 
 Mr. DePauw and leading members of the Board, and it was agreed that 
 a iiQ\^ basis of action should be adopted. A plan was devised by which 
 the requisition of the public at large should be reduced to $120,000, and 
 the present sum to be paid b}^ Mr. DePauw to $240,000. Other modifi- 
 cations in the plan were made, and the whole scheme for the founding 
 of DePauw University reduced to the basis of the following agreement : 
 
 " This agreement between the Trustees of the Indiana Asbury University, a body 
 corporate, party of the first part, and Washington C. DePauw, party of the second 
 part, witnesseth that, 
 
 " Whereas, on the fourth day of October, 1883, the following propositions were 
 
40 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 made and submitted by the said first party to the party of the second part, to-\vit : 
 
 "1. That the committee hereinafter named be authorized and instructed to take 
 necessary steps to obtain a change of name from ' The Indiana Asbury University ' 
 to DePauw University, provided that all the Trustees and Visitors except Mr. De- 
 Pauw sign the application for such change. 
 
 " 2. That llr. Robert McKim be invited to proceed with the erection and equip- 
 ment of the observatory proposed by him. 
 
 " 3. That the people of Greencas; le and Putnam Count}' shall pay to the Uni- 
 versity, by January 1, 1885, with seven per cent, interest from January 1, 188-1, 
 860,000, to be expended by the Board in the purchase of grounds and the erection 
 of buildings for the University at Greencastle. 
 
 "4. That Dr. George Manners be respectfullv requested to relinquish his annui- 
 ty of $400 on his first gift of S15,000 to the University. 
 
 " 5. Provided, that W. C. DePauw agrees to pay two dollars to each one dollar 
 principal and interest that may be paid to the Treasurer of said University on tin 
 subscription this day reported to the Board, aggregating about 8120,000, as per 
 schedule made out by said Treasurer. 
 
 "6. That we recommend that a Committee, consisting of A. C. Downey, C. C. 
 Binkley, G. C. Moore, William Xewkirk, and Clem. Studebaker, be appointed to 
 complete and carry out this programme as soon as the written consent of Mr. De- 
 Pauw shall have been obtained ; and, 
 
 " Whereas, the said subscriptions so reported to the Board of Trustees by the 
 Treasurer are as follows : 
 
 Cash received, , $5,224 06 
 
 Conditional notes, 8,271 00 
 
 Absolute notes, 19,807 50 
 
 J. E. Goodwin's heirs' donation, 10,000 00 
 
 Dr. Geo. Manners' donation, 10,000 00 
 
 Same when the annuity is released, 5,000 00 
 
 Meridian Street Church 3,372 00 
 
 Southeastern Indiana Conference, 15,000 00 
 
 Northwestern Indiana Conference, 15,000 00 
 
 Indiana Conference, 15,000 00 
 
 Northern Indiana Conference, 9,896 34 
 
 Cash of Northern Indiana Conference, 928 05 
 
 Notf^s of same, 52 50 
 
 J. W. Emison, ' 1,500 00 
 
 A. Smith 200 00 
 
 Governor A. G. Porter, 500 00 
 
 Rev. J. J. Hight, 125 00 
 
 Rev. R. D. Robinson, 500 00 
 
 J. W. Ray, 200 00 
 
 Total. $120,579 45 
 
 Less error in report from Laporte District, 400 00 
 
 Balance, $120,179 45 
 
 "And, Whereas, the chairman of said Committee communicated the proposi- 
 tions of said Trustees, and furnished him a copy to the party of the second part; 
 and, 
 
 " Whereas, said j^arty of the second part accepted and agreed thereto, as follows : 
 
 " ' New Albany, October 15. 
 " 'Hon. a. C. Downey, LL. D., Chairman of Committee of Trustees of Indiana As- 
 bury University : 
 " 'I have your favor of the 8th, and myself and family have gone over the pro- 
 posals of the Board of Trustees very carefully. 
 
 "'The proposition to change the name now, to my mind, is of doubtful pro- 
 
DePauw University. 41 
 
 priety. But inasmuch as the entire Board of Trustees and A^isitors, backed by the 
 five hundred Methodist preachers of Indiana, as well as leading prominent men 
 and all the bishops of the Church that have spoken of the matter, are of one 
 mind, and urge that the change be made, perhaps I ought not to resist. I, therefore,, 
 hereby give my written acceptance of the proposition of the Board of Trustees, 
 formulated October 4th and forwarded by you, as I understand them 
 
 " Very respectfully yours, " ' W. C. DePauw.' 
 
 " And as follows : 
 
 New Albany, October 15, 1883. 
 
 " 'Hon, a. C. Downey, Eising Sun : 
 
 " ' My^ Dear Judge. — In v/riting you this morning I accepted the proposals of 
 the Trustees as I understand them. To avoid the possibility of a mis understand- 
 ing, let me say that I mean, when the name is legally changed ; when the citizens 
 of Putnam County have paid or satisfactorily secured the payment of the $J0,000 
 on the 1st day of January, 1885, with interest at seven per cent from January 1, 
 1884; when Brother McKim gives a legal obligation to erect and equip an observa- 
 tory according to his plans and ideas ; and when Dr. Manners has surrendered the 
 right to annuity of himseif and wife on the last $15,000 that he gave, I will pay to 
 the Treasurer double the sum of the Goodwin gift and the amount received in cash 
 from Manners and in the Manners' notes and from all other sources included in 
 such Treasurer's schedule, which aggregates about $1 20,000, as made up for the Trus- 
 tees on the 4th of October, and thereafter, on the 10th of July and the 10th of Jan- 
 uary in each year, I will pay said Treasurer double any sum that has been paid in 
 cash in the preceding six months to said Treasurer on account of any of the sub- 
 scriptions enumerated and set out in the schedule aforesaid. I think this is clear 
 and precisely what the Trustees mean What say vou? 
 
 " ' Respectfully yours, " ' W. 0. DePauw.' " 
 
 " And, Whereas, the said party of the first part assents to and accepts the inter- 
 pretation of said propositions so as above stated by the said party of the second part; 
 
 " Therefore the said parties do respectively bind and obligate themselves for the 
 full performance of said contract as above set forth. 
 
 "In testimony whereof the said parties have hereunto set their hands, the Presi- 
 dent _pro tempore of said Board of Trustees, Fernandez C. Holhday, hereby signing 
 the same in the name and behalf of said Trustees ; and by their authority and 
 direction the same is attested by the Secretary of the party of the first part, and by 
 its corporate seal hereunto attached, this 24th day of October, 1883. 
 
 "\_SignM.] The Trustees op the Indiana Asbury' University, 
 
 " By Fernandez C. Holliday, 
 
 '* President pro tempore. 
 '•' W. C. DePauw. 
 
 ^^ Attest: James C. Yohn, Secretary.'' 
 
 Having taken this action, the Trustees adjourned to meet at Indianap- 
 olis on the 20th of December. When that time arrived, and the Board 
 had again convened, it w^s found that the necessar^^ amount had been 
 subscribed by the people of Greencastle and Putnam County, but that 
 the same had not been satisfactorily secured. As it related to the sub- 
 scription of the state at large, it was found that the same had in notes 
 and subscriptions approximated the required sum ; and as Mr. DePauw's 
 endowment was to be paid in only as the public subscription was paid, 
 this fact was deemed a sufficient guaranty for the payment on the part 
 of the State at large. It, therefore, only remained, to complete the de- 
 tails of the work, and to this end an adjournment of the Board was had to 
 the 16th of January, 1884. On that date the Board of Trustees and Vis- 
 itors reconvened at Greencastle. Twenty-five of the leading citizens had 
 in the meantime prepared a guarantee of the $60,000 subscribed by the 
 people of Greencastle and Putnam County. This guarantee was promptly 
 
42 Semi-Centennial Celebration, 
 
 accepted by the Trustees and Mr. DePauw, and after an enthusiastic and 
 harmonious meeting of two days' duration, the great enterprise of found- 
 ing DePauw University was successfully accomplished. On the evening 
 of the memorable 17th of January, 1884, just as the winter sun was set- 
 ting behind the western hills, the cannon, booming in the campus, an- 
 nounced to the waiting State that the work was done; that DePauw 
 University, with her colleges present and prospective, her amplified 
 grounds and promised endowments, was an accomplished fact; that the 
 New had taken the place of the Old ; that the history of the past, with 
 its immense weight of precious memories, had been made secure, and 
 the future put under contribution. 
 
 It now only remained to put the cap-stone on the work by securing 
 the legal change of name in the ("ircuit Court of Putnam County. This 
 branch of the business was intrusted to Granville C. Moore, Esq., one of 
 the resident Trustees at Greencastle, A petition to the Court was pre- 
 pared and notification duly published. The cause came up at the April 
 term of 1884, and was duly called by Judge Silas D. Coffey on the 5th of 
 May. A large concourse of people — citizens, Faculty and students — as- 
 sembled to witness the formal proceeding by which the well-loved Asbury 
 of the past gave place to the well-loved DePauw of the future. After a 
 careful consideration of the petition, his Honor ordered the following 
 decree to be made of record in the Putnam Circuit Court : 
 
 "Wherefore, It is ordered and decreed by the Court that the name of said cor- 
 poration, petitioner in this cause, be, and the same is hereby, changed from that of 
 ' The Indiana Asbury University,' as mentioned in the first section of the charter 
 of said corporation, and from that of ' The Trustees of the Indiana Asbury Uni- 
 versity,' as mentioned in the second section of the charter of said corporation, to 
 that of ' DePauw University.' And it is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed 
 that all the property, real and personal, rights, credits and effects of said corpora- 
 tion, of whatever kind or nature and wherever situated, held, or possessed by peti- 
 tioner in its former name of ' The Trustees of the Indiana Asbury University,' 
 shall be, and the same are hereby, vested in said corporation by its new name of 
 DePauw University, as fully and completely as the same have been heretofore held 
 or possessed by said corporation by its said former name. And it is further ordered 
 and decreed that said corporation, petitioner herein, by its new name of DePauw 
 University, shall have, possess, and enjoy all the rights, powers, privileges, fran- 
 chises, and immunities conferred upon said corporation by its charter and the 
 amendments thereof, and the laws of the State of Indiana, by its former name, and 
 which said corporation had, held, possessed, and enjoyed under its charter and the 
 amendments thereof and the laws of Indiana. It is further ordered and decreed 
 that said corporation, petitioner herein, shall, by its new name of DePauw Univer- 
 sity, be, and remain, hable for all debts, obligations, and duties of said corporation 
 owing to any person or persons or the public, whether arising out of the acts of 
 petitioner, or from the laws of Indiana, or the charter of said corporation or the 
 amendments thereof, as fully and perfectly as the petitioner was liable by its for- 
 mer name of ' The Trustees of the Indiana Asbury University.' And, on further 
 motion , it is ordered by the Court that the clerk make a complete record of the 
 proceedings in this cause." 
 
 So, on the 5th of May, 1884, was this grand educational enterprise 
 brought to a successful and happy conclusion. 
 
 Thus year by year some better thing ensues. 
 
 Some nobler purpose rising o'er the past ; 
 Some budding thought, which Providence renews 
 
 With dew and rain, and brings to fruit at last. 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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