HOBART j THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS 1822-1922 Book 418: PRESENT!-;!) BY HOBART THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS 32I5M 72ISM HOBART THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS 1822-1922 BY MILTON HAIGHT TURK GENEVA, NEW YORK Published bt Hobabt College At the Pbess of W. F. Humphrey '82 1921 &< 1^ First printing March, 1921 Second printing July, 1921 SEP 22 !8f| TO HER LOYAL SONS CHARLES DELAMATER VAIL '59 AND BEVERLY CHEW '69 THEIR COLLEGE DEDICATES THIS LITTLE STORY OF HER LIFE WHICH HAS BEEN MADE HAPPY BY THEIR LOVE AND SUCH AS THEIRS PREFACE The present sketch of Hobart College in its first century was prepared at the request of the Centennial Committee and with the active assistance of its members. It is hoped that a more comprehensive history of the College, with appendices including all important documents, may be forthcoming in time for the Centennial Celebration; of such an account this may be submitted as a partial draft. The writer desires to record his obligation to Mr. George M. B. Hawley '92, who most gener- ously and at cost of no small labor has contrib- uted to this little work from his extraordinary store of information concerning the past of Geneva and Hobart. CONTENTS I Geneva Academy Becomes a College - - - 9 II The Church and the College 15 III The English Course 22 IV Little Old Men of the Sea - - - - - - - 27 V A Chronicle of Trustees 30 VI The First Half-Century, 1822-1872 - - - - 38 VII The Second Half-Century, 1872-1922 - - - 45 HOBART The Story of a Hundred Years 1822—1922 I. Geneva Academy Becomes a College The establishment of Hobart College one hundred years ago was due to the same con- siderations which had brought about the much earlier foundations Education on the Atlantic seaboard. Nor in the were the conditions surrounding it Wilderness very different. At the close of the Revolution the Genesee Country, as it was called, was a wilderness. When civilization came in, it entered by way of Geneva, the "gate- way" to the Genesee Country. "Here we pro- pose building the city," wrote Phelps in 1788, "as there is water carriage from here to Schenec- tady, with only two carrying places." For many years Geneva had a distinctly command- ing position. In 1822, when the story of the College opens, Rochesterville was an infant village, albeit a very sturdy infant; Geneva had (9) 10 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS already reached the dignity of over 1700 inhabi- tants, 250 dwellings, two printing presses, a bank, a land office and so on. There was work, and plenty of it, for the missionaries of religion and of education. The Genesee country was rich and it developed with startling rapidity. For such work Geneva was an important radial point. The first Presbyterian synod for this district was the Synod of Geneva; the first Episcopal mission- ary in this region, Davenport Phelps, had his headquarters at Geneva,, where in 1806 he founded Trinity Church. In the great work before them religion and education kept step, as they have so often done. Geneva Academy was in Geneva operation apparently before 1800; Academy a charter was asked for it in 1807, and secured in 1813. In its earlier years the dominant influence in the Academy seems to have been Presbyterian; later on apparently members of the Episcopal Church were in control. In any case, when the ques- tion of raising the Academy to a college came up, it was naturally Churchmen who raised it. Hamilton College was already in existence and was making many just demands upon the loyalty of the Presbyterian Church, which had established it. GENEVA ACADEMY BECOMES A COLLEGE 11 In 1813, through the efforts of that stout- hearted missionary, Amos Baldwin of Utica, an annuity of $750 had been granted by Trinity Church, New York, to Fairfield Academy to secure theological instruction there. In 1821, when Geneva Academy had been for several years suspended, this annuity, at the instance of Bishop Hobart, was transferred to Geneva Acad- emy; and with it were transferred also the Reverend Daniel McDonald, Principal of Fair- field, several students, and a collection of books. As a condition of the transfer a lot was chosen by Bishop Hobart on Main Street, and funds were secured by local public subscription with which a stone building was put up on that lot. This building — Geneva Hall — was finished and ready for the combined academy and theological school in 1822. From the beginning, however, the object had been a college. The transfer of funds from Fairfield was made, as the subscription paper for the build- The Object ing of Geneva Hall stated, "with a College the intent to use all practicable means to raise the academy to the highly useful station of a college." Before the com- pletion of the building the Principal of the Academy and the Rector of Trinity Church, Geneva, join in urging upon Bishop Hobart 12 H0BART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS that this plan, advocated by him as early as 1818, be carried out forthwith. "Such is the charm of a diploma to a youth," they aver, "that he will ever prefer a college to an academy. . . . A diploma, like an oath in disputes, cuts off all controversy, and the possessor is admitted by the world as competent, without further examination." A petition for a college charter was addressed to the Regents of the University of the State of New York on January 22, College Charter 1822; on April 10, 1822, a pro- April 10, 1822 visional charter was granted. Collegiate work was already a part of the routine of the combined theological school and academy, and it was not difficult, with Geneva Hall ready for occupancy, to begin in 1822 the preparation of young men for the receipt of the degree which the officers expected to be able to grant. Full corporate powers were still to be secured, but the existence of Geneva College as an institution dates from this year. The Regents required the accumulation of funds yielding $4000 a year before a permanent charter should issue, and allowed three years for that enterprise. It was no small undertak- ing. "I am afraid this will be a difficulty with you," wrote Bishop Hobart. "Means, however, must be devised for surmounting it." GENEVA ACADEMY BECOMES A COLLEGE 13 The theological school was after a time dis- continued, and some $20,000 secured directly to the College from the Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting Religion and Learning in the State of New York. Before this matter, in which Bishop Hobart was no doubt active, was formally concluded, he fell ill and was obliged — in September 1823 — to give up work and go abroad. He did not return until after the granting of the permanent charter. The Startin fund of $5000, the legacy of Mrs. Sarah Startin of New York, was also turned over to the College by the Bishop, and there was a very small Permanent Academy endowment. But these Charter funds all together yielded less than half the necessary amount; nearly $35,000 had still to be raised. Geneva Hall had already been provided by Genevans mainly. It was now necessary to make a strenuous campaign through- out the western counties, a campaign which appealed to all good citizens to secure for the Genesee country a valuable educational founda- tion. Some help was received, of course, especi- ally from members of the Episcopal Church, in New York City and other eastern towns, but the list of subscriptions by counties shows that the contributions came very largely from those who might expect to benefit most directly by the es- 14 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS tablishment of the new institution. The desired sum was obtained within the time set, and on February 8, 1825, the permanent charter was granted. II. The Church and the College What was the relation of the new institution to the Protestant Episcopal Church, and how was that relation maintained? This much debated question is a matter of history, and can be answered only by a dispassionate recital of the facts. The College, as we have seen, had been established by a fundamental majority of Churchmen and an indispensable minority of non-churchmen. As President Hale wrote in 1848, "it was a part of the Church's mission in the West;" it was also a part of the mission of education in the West. Did it fulfil its obliga- tions? In the first place, there is no evidence that Bishop Hobart or the Protestant Episcopal Society for Promoting Religion and Learning, who had both endowed Religious the College, expected any organic Liberty a connection with the Episcopal Fundamental Church. In 1818 Bishop Hobart Principle made his plans to enlarge the Academy Board by the addition of Episcopa- lians; in 1821 in his Convention address he spoke of the college as one "in which there will be no influence unfriendly to the Church." The new Board, as named in the Charter, fully (15) 16 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS answered these expectations, for it contained a decisive majority of Churchmen. On the other hand, Bishop Hobart was himself not a member of the Board, the laymen greatly exceeded the clergy, the Board was made up largely of Genevans, and several denominations were represented in its membership. Furthermore, the Charter contained —and it still contains — the very unequivocal provision that no "ordi- nance, rule or order" of the Board shall "extend to exclude any person of any religious denomina- tion whatever from equal liberty and advantage of education, or from any of the degrees, liber- ties, privileges, benefits or immunities of said College, on account of his particular tenets in religion." The charter did not, like that of Columbia College, require the president to be a member of the Episcopal Church; indeed, like the public appeals which had preceded it, it did not mention any church. The clause just quoted was the only restrictive provision of the Charter of Geneva College; beyond that the Trustees were Broad unfettered and could make of the Educational new institution what they would. Policy At their first meeting in 1825 they at once established, along with the usual Classical course, a non-classical or English course, the first of its kind. This new curricu- THE CHURCH AND THE COLLEGE 17 lum was obviously intended for the business men, farmers and engineers of the new country; it showed the fixed purpose of the Trustees to make the institution useful to the whole district and not merely a training school for the Church. When the question of the presidency came up, however, the majority stood for the selection of a clergyman, who was sure to be an Episcopal clergyman. Since The First at this time, and long afterward, President practically all college presidents were clergymen, a different outcome could not be expected. The first president, Jasper Adams, was drawn from the educational field, having been president of Charleston College. The decision in favor of a clerical head cost the new college the support of a few trustees; others, however, who like these were not members of the Episcopal Church, remained its faithful sup- porters as long as they lived. The relation between the College and the Church was formally recognized in the official report of the Diocese of New York to the General Convention of the The Diocese Protestant Episcopal Church which and the Col- met in Philadelphia in November lege in 1826 1826. Doubtless the words were those of Bishop Hobart, who had visited Geneva a few weeks before; never at all events has the 18 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS ecclesiastical situation of the College —as it was and is —been more precisely set forth : it seems advisable to quote the entire reference. "It was mentioned in the last report of this Diocese, that there was a prospect of having a College established at Geneva, in the County of Ontario, principally under the direction of the members of our Church. The measure has since been carried into effect. And while, at Geneva College, no peculiar privileges are enjoyed by Episcopal students over others, and every measure unfavorable to the fullest tolera- tion of all religious sentiments, or tending to a system of proselytism, is most scrupulously avoided, the youth of our own Church are exposed to no inducements to forsake her, but have every facility of becoming established, strengthened and settled in her primitive and evangelical doctrines and order." This liberal religious policy was also repeat- edly reaffirmed on behalf of the College during its early history. In the "Address President to the Public" published by the Hale on Trustees in 1830 it is emphatically Church and set forth, while in his Inaugural College Address in 1836 President Hale gives it eloquent expression. "From these remarks" (on religious instruction), he says, "I trust, I shall not be suspected of any purposes, which may be regarded as sectarian. THE CHURCH AND THE COLLEGE 1 I value my own religious liberty too highly to design any infringement on that of others. Our institution is, as all institutions of the kind must be, under the care of a particular denomination. The same is true of the other colleges in this state, and throughout our country, and it is not a cir- cumstance to be objected to them, so long as they are managed in a catholic spirit. Each denomi- nation should do its part in the promotion of learning, and yet each cannot have its own col- lege within every state, without a ruinous division of effort." This policy has always been consistently maintained. The College has al- ways had among its most faithful alumni lay- men, and some clergymen also, of every promin- ent communion. Members of the present faculty whose recollection extends over thirty years recall no instance of complaint on ecclesiastical grounds. The tendency of the College, nevertheless, has been to draw closer its bonds of sympathy and affection with the Episcopal Church. The Board of Trustees has always been made up of a decisive majority of Churchmen with a minority of members of other denominations. The Presi- dent of the College has always been a clergyman of the Episcopal Church and generally, like the first president, a clergyman of previous educa- tional service. But certain changes in relation to the Church have taken place. Evidently in 20 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS the early years of the College it had no Sunday service and the daily morning prayers were in- formal. "We have introduced the Religious daily service in our Chapel," wrote Services President Hale in 1848, "and have separate Sunday services for our students." He rejoices also in "a very neat chapel, with its chancel and altar" and a "cross upon the gable." When this little wooden building gave place in 1862 to the present stone chapel, there occurred also the Swift endowment of the Chaplaincy, of which it was a condition that the incumbent should be a presbyter of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Furthermore, in 1874 the Charter was modified by the provision which makes the Bishop of the Diocese a mem- ber of the Board of Trustees. By such appropriate means the College has recognized its ancient relation and obligation to the Church; it has also, in almost every year of its history, repaid in full measure that obligation by sending its graduates into the parochial and mission fields. During the first twenty years of the life of the institution, when the Episcopal Church in Western New York consisted largely of mission stations, the work of Geneva College as a part of "the Church's mission in the West" was notable, about thirty per cent of her graduates becoming clergymen, while Columbia College, in a stronghold of the diocese, had about THE CHURCH AND THE COLLEGE 21 seven per cent during the same period. Of the total number of graduates twenty -four per cent or 264, have so far entered the min- istry, and of non-graduates 92, a Hobart's total of 356, of whom 187 are living. Work for the There have been fifteen bishops, Church of whom nine are living. The first Hobart man to be elected to the Episcopate was Neely '49. He was followed in that dignity by Welles '50, Brewer '63, Paret '49, Worthing- ton '60, Gilbert '70, A. R. Graves 9 66, Wells '67, F. R. Graves '78, Mann '79, Moore '99. Nor has this service of the College to the Church shown any recent falling off. The general catalogue of twenty-five years ago shows a pre- ponderance of lawyers over clergymen, which is reversed in the latest summary, and so far as elevations to the Episcopate are concerned 1920 was certainly the banner year. Of the ten bishops consecrated in that year four were Hobart men: Ferris '88, Davenport '93, Moulton '97 and Fox '97. Could Hobart College have done more for the Church had it been organically bound in allegiance to her? A free service is the best service. No legal provision could have pro- duced a more consistent or more mutually helpful relation than that which has continued with little change and no abatement between the Church and the College for a hundred years. III. The English Course Like the relation of the College to the Church, the establishment of the English Course was directly connected with the foundation of the College. In the Announcement of Decem- ber 18, 1826, it is stated that "the plan of a purely English Course was never suggested until near the close of the subscriptions." Nevertheless the printed circular letter of March 1, 1824, nearly a year before the granting of the perman- ent charter, is devoted entirely to a description of this project, while the much longer pamphlet issued later in the same year is largely concerned with it. In both statements it is set forth as a special feature of the new institution which should commend it to the patrons of education in the West. It thus became an obligation of the College and at the first meeting of the Board it was, as has been noted above, at once established. In the circular of March 1, 1824, it is pro- posed to institute in Geneva College a course "in direct reference to the practical "For the business of life, by which the Agri- Practical culturist, the Merchant, and the Business Mechanic may receive a practical of Life" knowledge of what genius and ex- perience have discovered, without passing through a tedious Course of Classical (22) THE ENGLISH COUBSE 23 Studies." No name is here given to the new curriculum, and it is still nameless in the pamphlet. "Our collegiate institutions," reads the latter publication in part, "have heretofore been established with the design of preparing young men for the learned professions. Their course of discipline and instruction has this object principally, and perhaps solely, in view. So obviously is this the fact, that a young man, who, after leaving College, turns his attention to merchandise or farming, is considered as having in a great measure lost four years of his time at the most important period of his life. Part, and a very considerable part of his studies has no important bearing upon his profession, and the habits he acquires at College are in general not favourable to his future pursuits. All the advantages he obtains of literary and scientific information might be gained under another system much more efficaciously, and at far less expense of time. ... In our Colleges, Chem- istry, Mathematics, and Natural Philosophy are taught as liberal sciences, both for the sake of the discipline they give to the mind, and because a general knowledge of their principles is desirable in every walk of life, and is absolutely essential to him who would be esteemed a scholar. Geneva College, in addition to the mode of 24 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS teaching these sciences to the general scholar, will also teach them practically, that is, with a direct application of their principles "Teaching to the purposes of life. . . . Our Sciences divines, our physicians, and lawyers, Practically" have Colleges erected to give them four years of preparatory instruc- tion for their separate professions; and to these institutions, our Legislature, and in several instances individuals, have exhibited a splendid munificence worthy of all praise. Is it not time that some particular atten- tion should be bestowed upon the education of farmers, mechanics, manufacturers, and merchants; and that both our Legislature and liberal minded individuals should be called upon to give to an institution having this object in view, some of that patronage which has been extended with such a noble and enlightened liberality to our different Colleges?" The language of this pamphlet might lead one to expect a school of technology and of agriculture too, but the length of The First the new course as proposed in the Non-Classical same document, two years, indi- Course cates that a more modest notion was in the writer's mind. In the ad- dress "To the Patrons of Geneva College" in December, 1826, however, the course is laid out THE ENGLISH COURSE 25 on a three-year basis. There it is spoken of as "an extensive English Course of studies;" French is offered as a substitute for Latin and Greek; and the definite statement is made: "This idea of connecting an English with a Classical Course of instruction, was first adopted by us, and has been thought so valuable that it has been introduced by at least two of the Colleges in New-England." Thus did Geneva of the Genesee country, in her verdant but aspiring youth, give an educational hint to the effete East. This Course has been maintained from the opening of the College to the present day. Great difficulties beset its early administration. As a Hobart alumnus, President Smith of Trin- ity, remarked long afterwards, "the Founders of the College were fifty years ahead of their time, and it is just as fatal to an institution —as it is to a man —to be a half -century ahead of its time as to be a half -century behind it." In the first place, the new institution lacked scientific apparatus, desirable for the Classical and indis- pensable for the English Course. More than this, the students lacked proper preparation. Even if the College could institute adequate instruction in modern languages and science, it was many decades before it could secure prepara- tion in those subjects that would be in any way equivalent to that provided in Greek and 26 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS Latin. But the faith of the Trustees was pledged to the venture. It was promptly under- taken and unflinchingly maintained. The development of this pioneer enterprise has been an interesting one. It was at the beginning a course in Arts —that is, Development in Letters and Science combined — of the Course without Greek or Latin; it is such still. But in 1825, and long after- wards, when the study of Greek and Latin was pursued daily throughout the four years, the difference between the two courses was a very great one. In the process of time, however, a mighty development has taken place in both school and college instruction in modern lan- guages and sciences, while —and partly because of this development —there has occurred a heavy reduction in the requirement in Greek and Latin. As a result the old Classical course, now known as the Arts course, and the old English, now called the Scientific course, differ mainly in the requirement of two years' work in Latin or Greek in the former. Under the elective sys- tem, either may be made largely literary or pre- dominantly scientific, as the student's tastes and interests may dictate. Thus have the old-time "militiamen," as the Classical students used to call their English compatriots, been merged in the regular army. IV. Little Old Men of the Sea The pamphlet of 1824, in which the advan- tages of the new and broader curriculum are so eloquently set forth, contains an appeal of somewhat different char- "OneStu- acter to the prospective patrons of dent Free for the new College. The incorpora- Twenty tors do not ask a mere gift; they Years" offer a quid pro quo. Their agents who scoured the adjacent counties, carried in their hands certificates which stated in due form that the subscriber, having "paid $100.00 to the Funds of Geneva College, is himself, his heirs and assigns, entitled to the privilege of sending one student to the Geneva Academy, or to Geneva College, free of tuition fees, for twenty years, commencing from the date hereof, or at any time he may choose." A great many of these certificates were issued, representing much more than half of the money collected locally to complete the initial endowment of the College. Thus began an Iliad of woes. In the first place the Trustees were met at once by a demand on the part of the sub- scribers for the continuation of the The Academy Academy. At their second meeting Once More they listened to the report of a committee setting forth, with apparent justice, (27) 28 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS that the mention made of the Academy was intended merely to secure a return to the sub- scribers in case the College were not established and only the Academy remained to meet these obligations. The subscription was "to the Funds of Geneva College;" it was only in order to raise the academy to a college that the sub- scription was asked and made. But the farmers of Western New York in those days had practical minds ; many of them came from New England. A twenty year certificate gained greatly in value if it could be used as soon as a son was able to read! And the certificate certainly said, "to the Geneva Academy, or to Geneva College." The Trustees agreed with their committee; they provided at this meeting for a subfreshman class, but went no farther. Nevertheless in December 1826 we learn that they have established the "Academic School," which opened January 10, 1827. This school, set up for pupils who would pay no tuition, was not likely to lighten their burdens; in 1834 they were able to terminate its existence. But not the existence of the Certificates! "The Certificates held by the subscribers," says i( - TT . TT . the 1826 Announcement, "are of To His Heirs ' , . . „ the same nature with Bank or and Assigns" Insurance Stock: they may be sold or otherwise transferred like other stock, LITTLE OLD MEN OF THE SEA 29 and at the decease of an owner, go to his heirs and assigns in the same manner with other property." There was, in a word, no end to them! Year after year and decade after decade, back came these little old men of the sea, to perch upon the weary shoulders of the educational Sinbads of Western New York. The original trustees all passed to their account, but this account remained unsettled. Values changed; prices rose; "good boarding" could no longer be obtained in Geneva, as in 1824, for "one dollar or one dollar and twenty- five cents per week:" the Certificates were still good. The Civil War came on: they survived it. The other day a gentleman of some eighty years displayed one, remarking that it was good for but one year more and he ought to enter at once. He was under the impression that our "little men" lived but a century. The writer believes he was mistaken; the doors of his putative Alma Mater are still open to him. V. A Chronicle of Trustees The roll of the Charter Trustees of Geneva College is a partial roster of the Worthies of the Genesee Country. At the head of James Rees the list stands James Rees, who had been Senior Trustee of the Academy and became the first Chairman of the new Board. He was eighteen years old when Yorktown fell. As a boy of fourteen he had entered the Phila- delphia banking firm of Thomas Willing and Robert Morris and had become private secretary to Morris. One of his duties was to fill out and cancel the enormous issue of bank-notes with which the Revolution was financed. He came into frequent contact with Washington and Hamilton, and saw many meetings upon which the fate of a great nation was to hang. Having seen the Genesee Country as Secretary to the Indian Commission of 1797, he removed here in the following year, and remained till his death in 1851. He became a father of industry and philanthropy in this section, director of countless mercantile, charitable and religious organiza- tions. He held many public offices; served as Major and Assistant Quartermaster General in the War of 1812, having command of the defense of the Lake Ontario Shore from Oswego to the Genesee River. Genial, resourceful and inflexi- on A CHRONICLE OF TRUSTEES 31 bly honest, he was able to render to Geneva Col- lege a unique service which terminated only with his death. Nearly half the original members of the Board had long terms of service. Its first Secretary, Hon. Bowen Whiting, District Attorney and Judge of the And His County and State Supreme Courts, Fellow- a member of the Legislature and a Workers man of wide prominence and dis- tinguished culture, devoted himself to the interests of the College till his death in 1850. With him may be mentioned James Carter, a Geneva physician, whose tenure of office closed with his life in 1846. Judge Whiting was of the Dutch Reformed Church, Dr. Carter a Presby- terian. Herman H. Bogert, born, like Rees, before the outbreak of the Revolution, a prominent lawyer and landholder of Geneva, resigned when past eighty in 1849. Hon. Abraham Dox, a Geneva merchant and director in many local industries, an officer in the War of 1812 and member of the Legislature, served until 1850. Of national as well as great local promin- ence was John Canfield Spencer, a brilliant lawyer, Secretary of State and of War, who was a most active friend of the College during its earliest years. S2 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS Among the Charter Trustees, however, three in particular far exceeded the normal limits of such service. David Hudson, a lawyer and member of the Legislature, held his post till I860. Thomas Davies Burrall, a man of marked literary tastes, author and inventor, served till his death in 1872. Fin- A Trustee ally, one of the most energetic of for Sixty the original Board, William Steuben Years DeZeng, a merchant and manu- facturer of Geneva, where he was active in the town and in the Church, saw Geneva Academy and College through more than sixty years of its existence as an institution, relinquishing his office with his life in 1882. Of shorter service in the original Board were Rev. Orin Clark and Rev. Daniel McDonald, who may be called Bishop Hobart's clerical aids in the founding of the College; Samuel Colt, an officer of 1812, who with Bogert bought and laid out the entire village of Dresden; Judge Elnathan Noble of the Livingston County Court; Hon. Robert Selden Rose, Congressman for many years and founder of a very prominent Geneva and Hobart family; General Walter Grieve of the War of 1812; David Cook, a well known Geneva merchant; Rev. Henry Axtell, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Geneva; Judge Philip Church of Angelica, first County A CHRONICLE OF TRUSTEES SS Judge of Allegheny; Hon. Henry Seymour, Mayor of Utica; Judge Elijah Miller of Auburn; Rev. Francis Higgins Cuming of Calvary Church, New York; Rev. Henry Anthon of St. Mark's, New York; Judge Jesse Clark of Waterloo; and Rev. Lucius Smith of Batavia, who had been active in securing the original endowment of the College. This completes the tale of the twenty-four Trustees named in the Charter. It is impossible even to mention all who by effective service have since deserved a place Earliest among Hobart's worthies. The Elections Board almost immediately added to its strength Hon. James Wadsworth of Geneseo, widely known as a pioneer of Western New York and head of a family that has since attained national distinction; in 1828 they elected Rev. John Churchill Rudd of the Gospel Messenger, who served for twenty years. In 1833 Joseph Fellows, who had just become Agent of the Pulteney Estate, began a service which lasted forty years; in 1836 were elected Rev. Gustavus Abeel, Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Thomas Folger, whose distinguished son, Charles J. Folger, Secretary of the Treasury and Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals, had graduated in that year; in 1839 Rt. Rev. William Heathcote DeLancey, who, 34 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS coming to reside in Geneva upon his election as first Bishop of Western New York, was imme- diately made a trustee; his lifelong and most fruitful devotion to the College has passed to his descendants, her faithful sons. In 1843 Rev. William Shelton of St. Paul's, Buffalo, began a forty years' service on the Board; in 1844 the first alumnus In the Forties was elected, Rev. Henry Gregory and Fifties '26; and in the same year Hon. Allen Ayrault of Geneseo, founder of the Ayrault Scholarships, who in 1860 was joined in the Board by his nephew, Rev. Walter Ayrault '40, Chaplain of the College; in 1849 Rt. Rev. William H. A. Bissell, Rector of Trinity, Geneva, and Bishop of Vermont, who held his post for twenty years. In 1851 was elected David Saxton Hall, Secretary of the Board for almost a quarter-century; in 1853 Horace White, who founded the professorship that bears his name, and was followed in the Board by his distinguished son, Andrew D. White, who had been a student in Geneva Col- lege under President Hale; in 1853 Col. Peter Augustus Porter of Niagara Falls, who served until his death in battle in 1864; in the next year Isaac Augustus Hawley, head of a family long and honorably associated with Hobart; in 1855 Judge James Cosslett Smith of Canandai- A CHRONICLE OF TRUSTEES 35 gua, who had been a student in the days of President Mason, and whose children, three of them graduates of Hobart, have won signal distinction in the fields of literature, law and education; in 1856 William B. Douglas of Geneva and Rochester, who built St. John's Chapel and in many ways earnestly devoted himself to the cause of the College during his trusteeship of half a century; and John Hewett Swift of New York, who endowed the Chap- laincy. In the sixties may be recorded Samuel Hopkins VerPlanck '47, long President of the Geneva National Bank; Rev. Morgan Dix, the distinguished Rec- In the Sixties tor of Trinity Church, New York, who served for thirty years; the Rt. Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe, second Bishop of Western New York, scholar and poet, himself most devoted to the College and the cause of much good will towards it in others; Alexander Lafayette Chew '45, an active trustee for more than forty years and head of a family singular in its attachment to the College; and Rt. Rev. Frederick D. Huntington, First Bishop of Central New York, who served for twenty years. The list grows very long, yet among trustees elected in Hobart's third quarter-century the names at least must be recalled of Hon. Stephen 36 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS H. Hammond '54, and Peter Richards of Geneva; of Rev. Henry R. Lockwood '64, of Syracuse, and —well known in Hobart annals In the Third —Philip Norborne Nicholas '66, Quarter Secretary and Treasurer of the Century Board, for many years its senior member, and an authority on all things Hobartian; Judge James M. Smith of Buffalo, Chairman of the Board; and Hon. Levi P. Morton, Vice-President and Governor. Nor may we omit the names, appearing in the last decade of the century, of William Henry Walker of Buffalo, a most generous friend of the College; Rev. Charles Frederick Hoffman of New York, founder of the Intercollegiate Prizes by which Hobart students greatly benefited; Dr. Herbert M. Eddy 9 66, of Geneva; Hon. Walter A. Clark, Treasurer of the College; Rt. Rev. William D. Walker, third Bishop of Western New York; Samuel Douglas Cornell '60, of Buffalo, enthusiastic Marshal of many a Hobart Commencement, whose father had preceded him as Trustee; Frank Engs Blackwell '67, of New York, whose gifts as a speaker, rare as his devo- tion to his Alma Mater, were the delight of many Hobart audiences; and finally D. J. Van Auken, a Hobart man by attraction, who as Treasurer served the College, until his death, as he served himself or better. A CHRONICLE OF TRUSTEES 37 All these have wrought for the old College, which now so inadequately commemorates their labors— all these and indeed many others still living or of recent election: to them shall some later chronicle devote a happier and more endur- ing tribute. VI, The First Half Century: 1822-1872 In the development of the College from the beginnings which we have already traced, two epochs stand out beyond the rest: in the first half-century the administration of President Hale, with the shorter term of President Jackson following it, a period all told of about thirty years (1836-67); in the second half -century the administration of President Stewardson, with the shorter tenure of President Jones preceding it, a period in all of fifteen years (1897-1912). Dr. Hale's twenty-two years, the longest service in the history of the College, were devoted to the establishment of the institution, to making it a going concern, fit to meet the needs of the mid- nineteenth century; it was the similar and not less difficult task of Dr. Stewardson, working upon the considerable beginnings made by Dr. Jones, to re-establish and indeed reconstitute Hobart College as a twentieth century college of liberal arts, with a similar institution for women, William Smith College, affiliated with it. The group who had by the most determined exertions succeeded in incorporating the College had, as we have seen, great difficul- ties to face from the very start, and Pioneers ,i & * i i £ they sunered unhappy losses irom their own number. Bishop Hobart returned (38) THE FIBST HALF CENTURY 39 to his labors in October 1825, but he was never able apparently to take an active part in college affairs, and in September 1830 he died, worn out with the combined labors of a city rector and an urban and missionary bishop. Dr. Clark of Trinity Church, Geneva, and Dr. McDonald, the guiding hand of the College in its earliest years, had gone before him. President Adams and his successor, President Richard Sharpe Mason, remained in office but a short time. Upon a group of laymen, mainly Gene- vans, depended such continuity of management as the College enjoyed until it came under the hands of Benjamin Hale. A more stout-hearted band of educational pioneers surely never essayed a well-nigh impos- sible task. The Church to which alone they could make appeal was little more than a west- ern mission; they had exhausted every form of persuasion in gathering their little endowment; they were under obligation to give free instruc- tion to an extent which only Providence could determine; they were engaged to conduct, besides the regular course, a new course requiring teachers and apparatus, and, as they soon found, they had an academy still on their hands. When our distinguished sister institution, Dalhousie of Halifax, celebrated its centennial a few years ago, it was noted that after it had 40 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS erected a building in 1818, it proceeded no farther. Without professors or students, it lay down, not for an aeon, but for a Staying decade or two, while its building was Awake used for other purposes. The men who were responsible for Geneva College never lay down. Nor indeed was such a course open to them. Geneva College might have gone to sleep under their care; it would probably have waked up, if at all, in other hands. But these Trustees knew how to stay awake. Two things they had set before them, and no third: to conduct the College liberally, and to conduct it! These tenacious men, capably led by their Chairman, James Rees, and most unselfishly sup- ported, in the Faculty, by Horace Early Webster, carried the College Struggles through its earliest years. When President Hale, in 1848, reviews this period, he finds that the great difficulties of the College were due, as might be expected, to its inadequate financial establishment and the relative weakness of the Church with which it was connected. The more the Episcopal Church in Western New York needed a college, the less it was able to endow and equip one. The College was to help make the Church what, for the sake of the College, it ought already to THE FIRST HALF CENTURY 41 have been— a strong self-supporting ecclesiasti- cal body. As to the financial situation, in its attempt to maintain instruction and provide apparatus, the College seems soon to have exhausted its original fund, while the certificates continued their depressive influence upon the student income. In the pamphlet of 1824 an appeal to the Legislature for aid to the College is appar- ently in mind, but no grant for running expenses was secured for some time. In 1834, however, the State put up the Medical College, afterward known as the Middle Building, and the "Medical Institution of Geneva College" commenced operations in the following year. While it lent some strength to the institution, it remained largely distinct from it, and did not ease its burdens. So the College struggled on until the election of President Hale in 1836. Benjamin Hale was a Massachusetts man, educated at Bowdoin. Like Adams and Mason, his predecessors, he was under forty when elected, and he had already "Little Ben- been professor of Chemistry in jamin, our Dartmouth for eight years. He Ruler" was a fluent and persuasive writer and speaker. Kindly and just, he was yet ready for controversy when he thought the truth required it. The Hobart men who as students 24 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS knew him are very few now and they are very old, but they still pay him the tribute of affection and respect. To them "little Benjamin, our ruler," —to use the phrase recorded in the charming memorial address of Andrew D. White —is still, what he doubtless was, a lovable, yet a commanding figure. Under President Hale's control the College rose rapidly. The faculty was greatly strength- ened in 1836; in 1837-8 Trinity Good Hall was erected through the aid Progress of the Society for Promoting Relig- ion and Learning; and in 1838 an annual grant of $6000 was secured from the Legislature. There was a steady increase in strength and numbers until 1846, when the danger of the loss of the State appropriation made itself felt. With the adoption of the new Constitution the appropriation ceased. Aid was, however, again secured from the Society for Promoting Religion and Learning, on the condi- tion that $15,000 be raised in Western New York; which was done, and the Hobart Professor- ship established. In 1851 Trinity Geneva Church, New York, once more came Becomes to the aid of the institution which Hobart it had helped to found, granting $3000 per annum in perpetuity. In consequence of this gift Geneva College was renamed in honor of Bishop Hobart. THE FIRST HALF CENTURY 43 Relieved of the uncertainties of legislative aid, the College again moved forward. In 1841, the new Medical College* having been erected, the entire group of buildings on the old site, Geneva, Middle and Trinity, were free for academic purposes; to which group the "neat chapel," referred to above, was added in 1848 by the remodeling of an older wooden structure. It was a compact, well placed, and for a small college of that day not inadequate plant. Such the physical equipment of the College remained when Dr. Hale laid down his office in 1858. The presidency of Dr. Abner Jackson, who had come from a professorship in Trinity College, maintained finely the traditions first definitely established for the College President by President Hale. His determined Jackson and unselfish labors carried the College safely through the great shock of the Civil War. He added, through the liberality of William B. Douglas, the present stone Chapel to the College plant, while the College funds were greatly increased, outstanding benefactions being those of Allen Ayrault of Geneseo, John Hewett Swift of New York and Horace White of Syracuse. *The next ten years was the period of greatest prosperity for the Medical College; it was moved to Syracuse in 1872. 44 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS Dr. Jackson, greatly regretted, returned to Trinity as president in 1867, and his successor, James Kent Stone, remained in office but one year. Dr. James Rankine, the beloved rector of St. Peter's Church, Geneva, then added for two years the duties of the presidency to those of his pastorate; in 1871 he was succeeded by Dr. Maunsell Van Rensselaer, president of DeVeaux College, who remained in office till 1876. Dur- ing this period, with the generous help of Bishop Coxe, some $65,000 was added to the resources of the College. At the close of Hobart's first half -century the total endowments of the College are reckoned at $266,000; its buildings at $53,000; its income from all sources at $13,700. VII. The Second Half Century: 1872-1922 Hobart had now a certain establishment as an academic institution of definite traditions and recognized grade. In giving an account of her stewardship through A New the next half -century certain facts Situation must be well considered. Geneva did not maintain the position of influence and importance which it had held when the College was founded. The development of the Erie Canal and still more that of railway traffic had altered completely the early situation. Syracuse on the one side, and still more Rochester on the other, rapidly outstripped the old gateway village of Western New York. With their growth these cities were naturally selected as college sites. Hobart thus had to reckon in her later career with two competitors, backed by denominations much more numerous than that with which she was connected, and with the powerful local support which large cities afford, while at the same time not far away rose the commanding academic figure of Cornell. The elder daughter of the days of stage-coach and canal looked soberly upon these strapping youngsters of the railway age. She had faced absolute extinction before; she faced relative (46) 46 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS inconsequence now. She had to refit. But she had been a "great struggler" all her days; a struggler, and no straggler, she meant to remain. The expansion of the college curriculum in the eighties and nineties was as rapid as it was widespread. All educational land- AndNew marks were moved. While other Demands than scientific subjects shared in the movement, it was marked phy- sically by the great development of laboratory and, less noticeably perhaps, library facilities. Dr. William Stevens Perry, who had resigned the rectorship of Trinity Church, Geneva, to accept the presidency of Hobart in April 1876, transferred his energy and fine scholarship, later in the same year, to the service of the Diocese of Iowa; he was succeeded immediately by the Reverend Robert Graham Hinsdale, who remained in office till 1883. During his term, in 1879, Merritt Hall, the gift of Mrs. Julia Douglas Merritt, was put up, and some laboratory equipment was then installed; but only a portion of the building was devoted to this purpose, and the facilities thus provided, however excellent in quality, were quite inade- quate in extent. The outstanding achievement of the admin- istration of President Eliphalet Nott Potter was the provision of an adequate Library, for which THE SECOND HALF CENTURY 47 he secured not only a fine building, but a greatly increased supply of books; yet it may be that the students of his day President will find other causes for greater Potter gratitude. Those who remember the charming hospitality of his home and that of our beloved Chaplain, Dr. Rob Roy Converse, those who knew the fine courtesy of Francis Philip Nash, who met the bright wel- come of Charles Rose, or the smile that was like a blessing of Hamilton Smith, learned what no books could teach them. They are gone, these "old familiar faces," but surely they think their lot happy, whether students or faculty, who were young in those good days. The Library Building was erected in 1885 and extended in 1895; it had a stack capacity of 100,000 volumes and good read- ing-room and office space. There Demarest are now nearly 70,000 books and Library over 25,000 pamphlets in it, and there is still one large stack-room unused. Modern methods of teaching have made the library an intimate and essential feature in the work of all departments, and the College owes a lasting debt to Mrs. Agnes Demarest, Mrs. Merritt, Mrs. Vail and others, who built and endowed it, and to Professor Vail, under whose loving care it grew and flourished. 48 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS If the new Library was equal to its task, proper laboratory facilities, and the instruction which could be given only with such equipment, were not yet supplied. Hobart closed her third quarter-century with this work still to be done. It had been delayed too long, and the College suffered for the delay. This critical educational period of the eighties and nineties, while it had shown progress in an absolute sense, had been, because of the almost violent expan- sion elsewhere, for Hobart an epoch of relative retrogression. In the administration of President Robert Ellis Jones the work of re-equipment was at last vigorously undertaken. Dr. Jones President had come to the College from Jones: New parochial life, but he had been an Progress earnest student of educational problems, and he was a keen builder. Throughout his term of office he gave himself whole-heartedly to his work for Hobart College. During this administration an unusual opportunity arose for a disinterested test of the standards of Hobart College, an Hobart Wins opportunity of which the faculty Many Prizes and students promptly availed themselves. The Association for Improving the Condition of Church Schools, Colleges and Seminaries, founded by the Rev. THE SECOND HALF CENTURY 49 Charles F. Hoffman, D.D., of New York, offered a number of valuable prizes to be awarded to the students of the Church Colleges of the United States. The subjects of examination were English, Greek, Latin, Mathematics and Physics, and the papers were set and judged by professors in Columbia University. These examinations continued for more than ten years, and during that time (1899-1910) Hobart College took eighty-five first and second prizes, of a total value of $8700, entirely distancing all her competitors. While these examinations were going on, in 1906, Hobart College was placed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching upon the Carnegie original list of forty -six institutions Foundation entitled to share in the benefits of the Foundation. It is unnecessary to inform those who have read this account of the College that no alteration in its relation to the Church was involved in its acceptance of this benefit. The friends of the College could rejoice unqualifiedly at this public recognition of the standing of the institution, supporting as it did the direct evi- dence afforded by the intercollegiate contests of the soundness of its instruction. Returning now to the physical development of the College under President Jones —two new buildings were put up, while two others were 50 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS entirely remodeled. The erection of Coxe Hall by the Diocese in memory of its brilliant and dis- tinguished bishop, Arthur Cleveland Coxe Hall Coxe, gave the College, besides an and Medbery auditorium, much needed offices and class-rooms, while it made possible the remodeling of Merritt Hall as a Chemical Laboratory, a use to which it was well adapted. At the same time the erection of Medbery Hall, a five-section dormitory, the gift of Miss Catherine M. Tuttle of Columbus, Ohio, brought about the immediate alteration and refitting of Trinity Hall as a Physics and Mathematics building. As an incident of this development, which occurred in 1900-01, the College for the first time left Main Street behind, the two new buildings forming sides of an open quadrangle of which the older structures on Main Street formed also a side. With the addition of these facilities coincided a corresponding increase in personnel. Such considerable beginnings had been made when Dr. Langdon C. Stewardson accepted the presidency in 1903. Dr. Steward- President son had been Professor of Philoso- Stewardson phy and Chaplain at Lehigh, where he was beloved alike by students and by faculty. To his high educational fitness for the post, he added a sincere affection for THE SECOND HALF CENTURY 51 youth and a deep sympathy for the problems of youth. To him the student was never merely the student; he was first of all a young man whom he hoped to serve. If he was not so great a believer in "the wall" as his predecessor, he nevertheless recognized the necessity of a sub- stantial physical foundation for modern collegi- ate work, and meant to secure it. The earliest years of Dr. Stewardson's term of service were devoted to the development of administrative facilities and to the organization and consolidation of the Alumni of the College, to whom he again and again presented the cause of the College and its difficulties with rare elo- quence and force. President Stewardson's strength with the alumni was of great impor- tance to the College when it came to the greatest innovation of its career. The account of this new departure can best be given substantially in the President's words, contained in a special Address to the Alumni, published in December 1906. "Through the generosity of Mr. William Smith of Geneva the sum of approximately $475,000 was on December 13, 1906, conveyed to the Trustees of the William College for the purpose of founding Smith William Smith College for women. College This school is to be co-ordinated with the men's department of Hobart College 52 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS and is to be under the general management and supervision of its Board of Trustees. To guar- antee the fulfilment of Mr. Smith's wishes, how- ever, he is at the outset to be represented on the Board by three trustees, one of whom is to be a woman, and ultimately or as soon as resignations occur, by two additional trustees, one of whom is also to be a woman." "A site has already been purchased by Mr. Smith at a cost of $27,500. It consists of a beautiful estate of some twenty -four acres in extent, which was formerly owned by Mr. J. D. Patterson. The older alumni will remember it as the home of Mr. William B. Douglas. It is situated on rising ground immediately adjoining the Hobart Campus, being bounded on the east by Pulteney Street and on the south by St. Clair Street. A spacious brick mansion upon the summit of the hill is to be altered or enlarged in order to provide a suitable home for the young women, while in the neighborhood New Equip- of Pulteney Street and near the ment — More Hobart College grounds is to be Courses built a large hall which is to be known as the William Smith Hall of Science. This Hall is to be equipped with Biological and Psychological laboratories and is also to contain the necessary lecture rooms and offices. In addition to the laboratories provided THE SECOND HALF CENTURY 53 by Mr. Smith, he is also to furnish a professor of Biology, an assistant professor of Psychology, instructors in Mathematics, Physics, English and Modern Languages, and, it is hoped, a professor of Political Economy and Social Science." "The educational plan adopted by the Trus- tees is that of the co-ordinate instruction of men and women and is to be clearly distinguished from what is com- Co-ordinate monly called co-education. Under not Co- this plan there is but one faculty, educational and the same educational advan- tages and degrees are offered to women as to men, but the women and the men are not, except perhaps in certain very small classes doing advanced work, to be brought together in the same lecture rooms. In accordance with this plan the present Chemical and Physical Laboratories are to be open, but at different hours, to the women of William Smith, and in like manner and under the same conditions the laboratories and adjoining class-rooms of Wil- liam Smith are open to Hobart College men. The Library of Hobart College is to continue as always free to men and women alike and at the same hours." It was an occasion of pride for the College and its friends that this gift, by far the largest in its history, came from a fellow-citizen, a 54 HOB ART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS Genevan who had spent his working life where Hobart was best known. William Smith was older than the College and had been William in business in Geneva since its early Smith, days. Satisfied, for himself, with 1818-1912 less than most men, though de- termined to accomplish more than most, he had with a singular great patience made his plans to devote the fruits of a life-time of honorable toil to the education of women. Doubtless he had a confidence in his own life and strength which few mortals enjoy; yet it was justified in his case. At the age of eighty-eight he signed his deed of gift; he was ninety years old when William Smith College opened its doors, and he lived to see four classes enter its halls. None will refuse tribute to so impressive a record of aspiration and fulfilment; it is itself a monument, the worth of which the endurance and prosperity of William Smith College can hardly enhance. Mr. Smith's gift brought back into the possession of the Trustees of Hobart College the old Ridge tract, which had been sold nearly fifty years before and greatly improved and beautified in the meantime. With the addition of Boswell Field, the gift of a most devoted alumnus, Charles P. Boswell '60, the entire campus now stretched in a long rectangle for half THE SECOND HALF CENTURY 55 a mile from the shore of Seneca Lake, the Hobart Campus on the east side of Pulteney Street, and the William Smith Smith Campus and Boswell Field Observatory on the west side. Smith Observa- tory with its site on Castle Heights also passed to the College. It had won fame through the work of Professor Brooks of Hobart, who had dis- covered more comets than any other living man. Smith Hall and Blackwell House— as the remodeled dwelling was called in honor of Eliza- beth Blackwell, first woman physi- cian, who had taken her degree Women's from Geneva Medical College in College Grows 1849 —were ready in September Rapidly 1908, and the new co-ordinate col- lege was duly opened with a freshman class of eighteen students. In 1909 a temporary gym- nasium was provided on the Ridge; in 1910, on receipt of a further gift of $25,000 from Mr. Smith, Miller House —named in honor of Mrs. Elizabeth Smith Miller of Geneva —was erected and opened as a second dormitory. In 1912 a Domestic Science Course was instituted. Af- ter the fourth class entered in 1911 there were sixty students in William Smith; in 1912 the first class graduated twenty students, being somewhat larger than at entrance. By 1914 there were one hundred women enrolled. 56 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS It was the intent of the President and Trustees to set up the new college without dis- turbing the habits and traditions of the old, yet with the hope of making of the two independent units a stronger institution than either could be of itself. It was felt that the Hobart men who were in college when this great change took place had some grounds for complaint; every effort was made, however, to avoid wounding their susceptibilities. The Hobart Campus was strictly reserved for them; as a college they might ignore the new institution. If as individ- uals they did not always succeeed in doing so, as events now and then have indicated, President Stewardson and the Trustees can not fairly be held responsible. Doubtless the situation was alleviated by the very solid advantages which Hobart immediately realized. The faculty Hobart' s was considerably enlarged; fine Gains biological and psychological labora- tories were opened to Hobart men, who promptly filled them. At the same time President Stewardson was able to fulfil one of the dearest wishes of his heart and theirs in the open- ing in 1908 of Williams Hall, a beautiful and well equipped gymnasium. The first gift for this purpose, that of Mrs. Charles D. Vail, was used for a swimming pool; Mr. Hiram W. Sibley THE SECOND HALF CENTURY 57 provided the equipment; while the building itself was the gift of Mrs. T. J. Emery of Cincinnati. President Stewardson's Report to the Trus- tees in January 1908 records gifts of $575,000 during his four or five years' tenure of office, and quotes the Treasurer's report showing that the value of the College property had risen in that time from $675,000 to $1,200,000. It had been indeed a period of rapid development —of such broadening of foundations and extension of activities as the old College had long awaited and rejoiced to see. The old-fashioned college of the seventies, with the considerable additions made under President Jones, had now been rounded out into something like the desired whole— a twentieth century College of Liberal Arts. The erection of a new educational unit beside the old added greatly to the President's cares, but the work for William Smith went for- ward with gratifying results. In the great changes he had brought about Dr. Stewardson had had the loyal and active support of his whole faculty; he continued to enjoy it in fullest measure. His official burdens they might alle- viate, but not his private cares. When the graduation of the "Charter" Class of 1912 set the first mile-stone in the history of the new 58 HOBART: THE STORY OF A HUNDRED YEARS college, the President was able only to send from abroad his felicitations to his first Alumnae. His resignation was received not President long afterwards and his administra- Stewardson tion closed in September 1912, less Resigns than ten years from its inception. He had achieved much, and changed not a little, in the old college, but through all changes and chances he had never lost sight of his first care —the students of Hobart College. Therefore his own generation of Hobart men, and not a few of earlier days to whom he had become well known, remember him, and will long remem- ber him, with affectionate regard. The recent history of Hobart College is necessarily to a great extent the story of her experience during the Great War. Some im- provements in living conditions in the Hobart dormitories were made during the adminis- tration of President Lyman Pierson Powell, but larger plans were necessarily held in abeyance. From the outbreak of the conflict in 1914 men began leaving to take their part in it. When the United States declared Hobart Does war, the College, already reduced, Her Bit was all but denuded. During the critical period of 1917-19 Hobart was fortunate in the wise and strong guidance of Dean Durfee, who as Acting President was THE SECOND HALF CENTURY 59 responsible for both colleges. Hobart put into the service of the country 395, or nearly one third, of her graduates and undergraduates. They received ten decorations and many cita- tions. Eleven fell in battle or died of disease. In the autumn of 1918 a Student's Army Training Corps was established and Hobart became a military post. By dint of united and enthusiastic erf ort under S. A. T. C. Dean Durfee's direction, the work of the Post was carried on in a manner which received the commendation of both civil and military authorities. Of the thirty-one institu- tions in New York and New Jersey Hobart was one of seven to be reported by the District Director, Professor W. E. Hocking of Harvard, as "doing the War Issues work in an excellent manner, showing a certain initiative and imagi- nation, over and above the plans of the Com- mittee." The sudden return to regular work in January 1919 was smoothly accomplished, and in the autumn of that year both colleges opened with the largest enrollment in their history. By this time, however, the new Executive of the College, President Murray Bartlett, returning from his service in France, had already devoted his energies to her peaceful but urgent cause.