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A DISCOURSE
ON THE
History of Marietta College,
DELIVERED BY
PRESIDENT I. W. ANDREWS
AT THE CELEBRATION OF THE
FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY,
JULY 1st, 1885
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HISTORICAL DISCOURSE
IBY PRESIDENT ANDREWS.
The first half-century of Marietta College is completed
this year. This period of fifty years, from 1835 to 1885,
embraces only the college history of the institution. Most
colleges date from a point prior to the beginning of their
college work. They count in a pre-existent period of
greater or less duration. But Marietta was a college, in
reality as well as in name, fifty years ago. In the autumn
of 1835 there were two college classes—the Sophomore
and the Freshman—and three years later the members
of that Sophomore class, having finished their course, re-
ceived their first degree in the arts. Though our first
half-century is strictly a half-century of college work, in
an historical sketch reference may well be made to the
antecedent circumstances.
In the year 1830 there was established at Marietta by
Rev. Luther G. Bingham the “Institute of Education.”
It embraced four departments; the two higher being
known as the High School and the Ladies Seminary. At
first the lowest department occupied a brick building on
Front street, originally the law office of Governor Return
Jonathan Meigs. Very soon a building at the South
corner of Putnam and Second streets, used of late years
for law offices until it was recently destroyed by fire, was
purchased, and all the departments were gathered there.
In February, 1832, the High School was removed to the
6
old Muskingum Academy, then standing on the lot next
north of the Congregational Church, where it re-
mained a few weeks till the room known as the Library
Hall, on Front street, was fitted up for it. Here it con-
tinued till the close of the school year in the summer of
1833.
Mr. Bingham was the proprietor of this group of Schools
and had the general superintendence, but he employed
others in the work of instruction. In an advertisement
of September 11, 1830, it is announced that “the recita-
tations in the High School will be conducted by a gradu-
ate of the Ohio University, of competent qualification,”
probably Mr. Samuel P. Robbins, son of a former minister
of Marietta. The next term Nelson Brown, M. D., a
graduate of Williams College, became instructor in the
High School. In April, 1831, Mr. Mansfield French is
associated with Mr. Bingham as proprietor, and he and
Dr. Brown give the instruction. In June, Mr. Henry
Adams, a graduate of Amherst College, takes the place of
Dr. Brown, and continues until August, 1832. The fall
session of that year opens with Mr. Henry Smith as
teacher in the High School. In the next spring he re-
turned to Andover Theological Seminary, and Mr. D.
Howe Allen, from the same seminary, took his place for
the rest of the school year.
In the spring of 1832, after the High School had been
in operation about a year and a half, Messrs. Bingham
and French invite a meeting of the friends of education
to consider certain plans which they wish to present. Of
this meeting, held March 15th, Dr. S. P. Hildreth was
Chairman and Mr. Douglas Putnam, Secretary. The
propositions were read by Mr. French, and remarks were
made by Messrs. Bingham, Caleb Emerson, Arius Nye.
and John Cotton ; after which a Committee of seven, Mr.
Emerson, Chairman, was appointed to report a week later.
At the adjourned meeting, March 23, an elaborate report
was made suggesting the appointment of an advisory
F-y
/
Board of Trust. This was done ; and Caleb Emerson,
James Whitney, Dr. S. P. Hildreth, Dr. John Cotton,
Arius Nye, Weston Thomas and Douglas Putnam were
appointed. These gentlemen were not a corporation in
any sense, nor had they any control of the property, which
was private ; but this was the first step in the direction
of establishing a permanent institution of learning.
With the next fall session (that of 1832) began the in-
struction of Mr. Henry Smith, who continued to teach in
Marietta till 1855. The name of the institution, which
had heretofore been “The Institute of Education,” now
appears as “The Marietta Collegiate Institute.” In the
American Friend of Sept. 8, which has a full advertise-
ment of the institution, there appears an editorial notice,
containing this among other things : “It is the intention
of all concerned to take early measures to make the Ma-
rietta Collegiate Institute an entirely public institution so
as to perpetuate its advantages on a permanent basis.”
The proposed measures were taken a few weeks later.
The first entry in the college records bears date Nov. 22,
1832, when a meeting was held at the house of Rev. L. G.
Bingham (on the north corner of Front and Scammel
streets, for many years the residence of the late Weston
Thomas) of which John Mills was Chairman and Douglas
Putnam, Secretary. A draft of a bill for the incorpora-
tion of an institution under the name of the “Marietta
Collegiate Institute and Western Teachers' Seminary,”
was presented and approved, and a committee appointed
to confer with Mr. Smith with reference to a permanent
professorship in the proposed institution. The charter
was obtained, bearing date Dec. 17, the Hon. Joseph
Barker, Jr., being the Representative from this county in
the General Assembly. The Board of Trustees consisted
of nine men : John Cotton, Douglas Putnam, John Mills,
Luther G. Bingham, Culeb Emerson, Arius Nye, Jonas
Moore, Anselm T. Nye, and John Crawford.
On the 16th of January the organization took place by
8
the choice of John Cotton, M. D., President, Douglas
Putnam, Secretary, and John Mills, Treasurer. At the
same meeting a resolution was adopted asking Messrs.
Bingham and French to state the terms on which they
would transfer their Institute property to the Trustees.
A few days later these terms were accepted and the
property was duly transferred, though the former pro-
prietors were requested to continue in charge till the close
of the school year.
Before the institution was opened in the fall of 1833 in
its new form, four young men had been appointed to the
work of instruction, all members of the Theological
Seminary at Andover. Two of these, Henry Smith and
D. Howe Allen, had been teachers in the High School at
Marietta. The first of these was made Professor of the
Languages; Mr. Allen, Professor of Mathematics; Mr.
Milo P. Jewett, Professor in the Teachers’ department;
and Mr. Samuel Maxwell, Principal of the Preparatory
department. Mr. Smith was a graduate of Middlebury
College, Messrs. Allen aud Jewett of Dartmonth, and Mr.
Maxwell of Amherst. When the institute was opened
Oct. 16, Messrs. Smith and Maxwell entered upon their
work of instruction, while the other two remained in New
England presenting the claims of the new institution to
the friends of education and religion in that region. The
beginning of a new educational year was a change
in two respects. Before, the place of instruction was
the Library Hall on Front street; now, it was a large
new building on the college campus. Then, it was one
of a group of Schools under private owners ; now, it is a
public institution, under the control of a chartered cor-
poration.
In this sketch of educational work at Marietta prior to
the college we may properly enough speak of a still
earlier period. Even before the present century began,
and within the first decade after the first settlement here
in April, 1788, steps were taken for the establishment of
9
an academy. In April, 1797, a meeting of citizens was
held for this purpose, and a committee appointed to pre-
pare a plan of a house suitable for the instruction of the
young and for religious purposes. This committee con-
sisted of Gen. Rufus Putnam, Hon. Paul Fearing, Griffin
Greene, Hon. R. J. Meigs, Jr., Charles Greene, and
Joshua Shipman. This was the origin of the “Musking-
um Academy,” and the building was doubtless the first
structure erected for such a purpose in the “Territory
northwest of the river Ohio.” This was used for worship
until the present Congregational Church was completed
in 1808, and as a place of instruction for about a third of
a century. The building was moved in 1832 to Second
street between Scammel and Wooster, where it now stands.
The first instructor in the Muskingum Academy, the
pioneer of the institutions for higher education in Mari-
etta, was David Putnam, a graduate of Yale College in
1793. How many others of the teachers had received a
liberal education is not known. Among those who had
thus been educated were Nathan K. Clough, Dartmouth,
1806; Hon. Elisha Huntington, Dartmouth, 1815, after-
wards Lieut. Governor of Massachusetts ; Hon. Wm. A.
Whittlesey, Yale, 1816, long a citizen of Marietta, and a
member of the thirty-first Congress; and Levi Keyes, Ohio
University, 1826. It is probable that from the beginning
of the century until the time when Marietta College was
founded this town furnished almost uninterrupted facili-
ties for instruction in the higher branches of an English
education, and most of the time for such classical in-
struction as was required for preparation for college.
The charter obtained in December, 1832, was defective
in giving no power to confer degrees, and in having a
clause allowing the legislature to repeal it. In February,
1835, a new charter was granted by the State, giving the
necessary power to confer degrees, and without the ob-
jectionable clause authorizing a repeal. The name was
10
also changed from The Marietta Collegiate Institute and
Western Teachers' Seminary to Marietta College.
In the spring of the same year the Rev. Joel H. Lins-
ley, then pastor of the Park Street Church, Boston,
Massachusetts, was elected to the presidency. Thus,
when the fall session of the institution was opened as
Marietta College in 1835, the Faculty consisted of five
members: a President, who had charge of the depart-
ment of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, a Professor
of the Greek and Latin Languages, a Professor of Mathe-
matics and Natural Philosophy, a Professor of Rhetoric
and Political Economy, and a Principal of the Prepara-
tory department. -
The college was founded in the interests of religion as
well as of education. From the first it was intended to
be a Christian college. The Trustees in their first pub-
lished statement, August, 1833, say: “The Board wish
it to be distinctly understood that the essential doctrines
and duties of the Christian religion will be assiduously
inculcated, but no sectarian peculiarities of belief will be
taught. In their annual report issued September, 1835,
they say: “During the past year the Board of Trust
have received new manifestations of the favor of God
upon the work in which they are engaged. He has en-
larged the circle of the friends and benefactors of the in-
stitution, and has again visited it with the converting in-
fluences of His Spirit, bringing a large portion of the
youth connected with it to consecrate themselves to the
service of Jesus Christ. Engaged as the Board profess
themselves to be in advancing the Redeemer's Kingdom
by means of this institution of learning, so signal an ex-
pression of the approbation of God cannot fail to be the
occasion of devout gratitude to Him and of increased
ardor in the work.
In the same report they say: The honor of origina-
ting Marietta College is not claimed by the Board of
Trust; its existence cannot properly be ascribed to them
11
or to any combination of individuals, but to the leadings
of Divine Providence.” The establishment of the col-
lege not only had the warm approval of the most intelli-
gent Christian men West and East, but the Trustees were
urged to go forward by such men as President Day and
Professors Goodrich and Silliman of Yale College, Rev.
Dr. William S. Plumer of Richmond, Virginia, and
others. The Trustees seem to have been influenced by
considerations of duty from the beginning, and their
earnest, unceasing and self-denying labors, with the re-
markable generosity shown in their oft-repeated gifts,
prove that they regarded themselves as engaged in a
work laid upon them by the Great Head of the Church.
We have been looking back over this period of fifty
years to see how Marietta College came to be. We have
inquired into its origin and antecedents. Let us look
now at its name and its locality.
For the fifty years it has remained in the same place ;
it has borne the same name ; it has been the same insti-
tution. Some colleges are named from a founder, or
early donor, as Williams, Harvard, Vanderbilt. Some
bear the name of a distinguished man, as Washington,
Hamilton, Franklin, Lafayette. Some are named from a
state, as the College of New Jersey. Ours is named from
the town where it is located. There are some advantages
in this method of naming. The name of an early donor
may be given prematurely. There are some institutions
that might be glad to drop the personal name they bear.
The name of a state is too general, and the name of a
donor, or a man of eminence, is not a sufficient designa-
tion. The graduates of the oldest college in the country in
preparing for their two hundred and fiftieth anniversary in
1886, are trying to find out something about John Harvard.
Yale College seems to have had at first neither place
nor name. It dates from 1700 when ten ministers pre-
sented some forty books for the founding of a college in
12
the Colony of Connecticut. It was chartered in 1701,
and at their first meeting the Trustees ordered “that
there shall be and hereby is erected and formed a Colle-
giate School, wherein shall be taught the liberal arts and
languages, in such place or places in Connecticut as the
said Trustees with their associates and successors do or
shall from time to time see cause to order.” It was
nominally at Saybrook, but in fact at Killingworth, where
the Rector, or President, lived. After his death in 1707
the Senior class were with the Rector at Milford and the
rest of the students with the tutors at Saybrook. It was
finally located at New Haven in 1710.
It had no legal name till 1745. It was simply The
Collegiate School. In 1718 Elihu Yale sent from London
goods to the value of two hundred pounds, equal to about
nine hundred dollars, and the Trustees gave his name to
a building they were then erecting. By degrees the name
was applied to the institution itself. It was not till 1745
that the name was given by charter to the corporation.
The College of New Jersey, in operation since 1748, is
called by various names. At the inauguration of the pres-
ent President the Trustees speak of it as the College of New
Jersey ; the under graduates call it Nassau Hall ; and Dr.
McCosh calls it Princeton College. Even in its own cata-
logues it receives the popular as well as the official desig-
tion. Not unfrequently we hear it said that such a man
was educated at New Haven, or at Cambridge, instead of
Yale or Harvard.
Marietta is a good name for our college. We have
those among our benefactors whose names might have
been given to the college with much appropriateness.
But they would not have desired it. Its present name
identifies the institution with the town. Marietta men
founded it and they have most generously nourished it.
The name has thus an appropriateness aside from its being
a designation. The name is euphonious and historical. It
takes us back to the most interesting decade of our na-
13
tional history. It was given to the infant city by the
officers of our War of Independence just before the break-
ing out of the French Revolution that carried to the scaf-
fold the unfortunate Marie Antoinette, and was intended
to commemorate the sovereigns by whose aid our Inde-
pendence was achieved. As the day approaches which
will mark the centennial of the founding of Ohio, Mari-
etta will become mofe and more a familiar word to the
people of the State and the great Northwest. We are
glad that no one has tempted our Trustees to transfer this
college to some other locality.
As the college has remained in the same town where
its existence began, so has it remained in the same part
of the town. The private institution which was its pre-
cursor had two or three local habitations; but the college,
as well as the collegiate institute, has always been on the
city square between Fourth and Fifth streets, Putnam
and Butler. In the early days the question of a change
of location was discussed. At a meeting of the Trustees
in September, 1835, Dr. Cotton was authorized to purchase
the square known as the Foster Square (between Fifth
and Sixth streets and South of Wooster). In the Janu-
ary following this entry appears : “The following resolu-
tion was submitted by C. Emerson and unanimously
adopted : Resolved, as the present opinion of this Board,
that it is expedient to erect the college buildings of Ma-
rietta College on the hill land purchased by Doctor Moore
of D. H. Buell, Esq., or on lands contiguous thereto ;
provided suitable accommodations and arrangements can
be made for that purpose.” The magnificent views which
a site on the hill furnishes were a strong inducement to
make the change, but other considerations finally decided
the question. Probably the present site is the best in the
town for the purpose.
The south building of the present group was com-
menced in 1832, by Messrs. Bingham and French, and
was completed by the Trustees in 1833. It was originally
14
intended to be three stories in height, and a catalogue
issued in 1832 gives a plate of it as such a building; but
the plan was doubtless changed before the edifice was
finished. The land attached to the building and trans-
ferred with it to the Trustees in 1833 was a little more
than half the square—the half on the Fifth street side,
with one hundred and fifty feet front on Fourth street.
The campus, or college yard proper, was a lot of one
hundred and fifty feet in width running through from
Fourth street to Fifth, and lying a little south of the
middle of the square. There were three dwelling
houses on the square, all on the Fourth street front,
and a brick building on Putnam street, erected in
1813 for a cotton factory. In the winter of 1834–35,
the house of Mr. Billy Todd, at the corner of Putnam
and Fourth, was purchased. It was used till 1870 as
the President's house, and for students’ rooms till
1874, when it was taken down. The lots south of the
original college yard, with a brick dwelling house built
by Benjamin Corp in 1817, were purchased of Wm.
Slácomb in 1836. The house was afterward owned by
Mr. Hinman, but came into the possession of the college
in 1854. Since 1870 it has been used for the Preparatory
department, a large frame addition having been made to
it. The brick building on Putnam street was fitted up
and used for some years for the English school, and for
the academy, and was removed in 1869.
The building erected in 1832–33, now used as a dormi-
tory, served for all purposes till 1850. It contained, besides
rooms for students, the chapel, recitation rooms, with ac-
commodations for the library, cabinet, and apparatus.
Rooms in the basement were intended for recitation pur-
poses, and were so used for about ten years.
The cornerstone of the middle building of the group
was laid at Commencement, 1845, the Hon. Lewis Cass, of
Michigan, making a brief address on the occasion. Re-
marks were also made by President Linsley and Nahum
15
Ward, Esq. The whole work of the college having been
crowded into one building for so long a time, the greatly
increased accommodations furnished by the new struc-
ture were fully appreciated both by faculty and students.
It was used when first occupied in 1850 for the most part
as now; save that then the chapel service was held on
the second floor where now are the Latin and Rhetorical
rooms, and the college library occupied a part of the
room then as now known as “Slocomb Hall,” while the
libraries of the literary societies were in the alcoves in
the society halls. - -
The completion of the north, or library, building in
1870, enabled us by the transfer of the chapel service to
provide two additional recitation rooms, and to give to
the college and society libraries their present elegant
and commodious quarters.
A word more may be said about these buildings. They
were built almost exclusively with home funds. The first
money raised at Marietta was to purchase the Institute
property. What was obtained abroad was used for the
support of the professors and other kindred purposes.
The second edifice originated in an effort to provide a
temporary building for the Philosophical and Chemical
lectures. It was proposed to raise one thousand dollars
in subscriptions of two dollars, each donor to have cer-
tain privileges of attendance upon lectures. The plan
was subsequently enlarged and the present building was
erected. For it the college is indebted to the citizens of
Marietta and Harmar, with some aid from other parts of
the county. The whole work was done under the direc-
tion of a building committee appointed by the donors,
Hon. Rufus E. Harte being the architect and superin-
tendent. The original subscription is interesting for the
signatures, containing nearly two hundred names, most of
them autographs.
The third building was also erected with home funds,
though in a little different sense. For this the college is
16
indebted to the generosity of the Alumni. It is their gift
to their mother, and was intended to be a Memorial
Alumni Hall, and to furnish accommodation for the
college and society libraries. The first contribution for
this specific purpose is well remembered. The President
was spending a sabbath in an eastern city. A graduate
of the college who was taking him to church spoke of the
desirableness and importance of the Alumni contributing
to the funds of the institution, and intimated his own
purpose to do something in that direction. The sugges-
tion was made to him in reply that one of the most press-
ing wants of the college was better accommodations for
the valuable and relatively large libraries of the college
and of the literary societies, and that the hope had been en-
tertained that the Alumni might undertake the erection of
a building for such a purpose. The suggestion was favor-
ably received, and the next morning brought a check for
$500. With so generous a gift to inaugurate it the effort
could not fail of success; and for fifteen years we have
been enjoying the accommodations of this fine edifice.
Thus this college has had her buildings erected by the
citizens of the place and its vicinity, and by her children
who sought to provide for her material wants. She has
squandered no money in brick and mortar for the pur-
poses of display, but from the first there has been the
earnest desire to furnish both instructors and students
such books as were needed for their work.
In the first catalogue, issued in the year 1837–38, these
words are found ; “The college library contains about
3,000 volumes, embracing an extensive and choice Selec-
tion of philological works procured by the professor of
languages on his recent visit to Europe. For this portion
of the library a convenient room has been fitted up,
which is open to the students a portion of each day for
reference and study.” How the college came by these
philological books is told by Rev. John Todd, D. D.,
writing in 1847 : “A few years since a plain farmer left
17
his hard-earned property to the care of a few friends to
distribute. We gave $1,000 to each of several colleges,
and directed that the money be laid out for a library. In
consequence of these books the now able President of
Marietta College (Rev. Dr. Henry Smith) has compiled
a lexicon, which is an honor to him and to our country.
He has dedicated it to the memory of the good man who
gave the money. What a beautiful monument has God
thus erected to the memory of Samuel Stone !”
That the Trustees of an institution just starting into
life should have appropriated for the purchase of Greek
and Latin classics, with lexicons, grammars and other
helps, the first thousand dollars given for books is worthy
of record. It may truly be said that the Trustees of
Marietta College have from the first appreciated the im-
portance of a good library. Books they have held in higher
esteem than buildings. They have not compelled their
professors to make brick without straw. At the celebra-
tion of the twenty-fifth anniversary in 1860 the whole
number of volumes in the college and society libraries
was 17,000. There were then only fifteen colleges in the
United States that reported a larger number. According
to the last report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education,
of 362 colleges reported, twelve have more books than
Marietta, two have the same number, and 347 have less.
Our total is now somewhat larger than at the date of the
Commissioner's report, being 33,000 volumes. At the
one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Yale College,
President Woolsey gave the number of volumes in their
college library as 22,000. At our fiftieth anniversary,
we report exclusive of the Societies, 20,000.
Much is said of late of the use of books in a college
library by the students for reference. It will be noted
from the extract just read from our first catalogue that
arrangements of this kind were made here very early, so
far as the classical department of study was concerned.
The classical books were placed in a convenient room,
18
open to the students a portion of every day for reference
and study. All the early students will remember the
Philological room, where the Philological library was kept.
Though there have been some changes of rooms, it is
pleasant to know that the Philological room of old is the
Greek room of to-day.
While the books purchased for the college library have
been for the most part those directly connected with the
work of instruction, it has been enriched by gifts from
various persons, more particularly in the historical de-
partment. Prominent among the names of these donors is
that of the late Samuel P. Hildreth, M. D., L.L. D. Dr. Hil-
dreth, who came to Marietta from Massachusetts early in
the century, was an indefatigable collector of historical
material as well as specimens in the department of
Natural History. Both his valuable collections were
given to the college, and are designated as the Hildreth
Cabinet and the Hildreth Cabinet Library. The latter,
to which additions have been made by his son, Dr. George
O. Hildreth, now contains over eight hundred volumes.
In this collection are also many Enanuscripts relating to
the early history of Ohio, gathered and bound by Dr.
Hildreth.
The correspondence and other papers of General Rufus
Putnam, including nearly twenty commissions, civil and
military, the earliest dating back to 1760, have also been
given to the college by his grandson, the late Col. William
R. Putnam. By these and other gifts the library has
been growing more and more valuable in the department
of American history, especially that of Ohio. And when
by and by there shall come to its alcoves other collections
of books, pamphlets, and manuscripts, in accordance with
the expressed purpose of the owners, the library of
Marietta College will have few equals in this department.
A valuable addition was made to the library a few
years since by Mrs. Elizabeth W. Lord, widow of the late
Dr. Asa D. Lord, so long and prominently connected with
19
educational work in Ohio, and afterwards Superintendent
of the State Asylum for the Blind at Batavia, New York.
The gift comprised about a thousand volumes and five
hundred pamphlets, mostly of an educational character
and including many rare journals and reports.
What has been the character of Marietta College? Has
it been a genuine college? Has its character corres-
ponded to its name? It has not called itself a university;
it has not professed to do university work, in distinction
from college work, if the distinction can be stated. It has
aimed to give young men such facilities of study and in-
struction that they could be recognized in the world of
letters as men of liberal culture.
The name of college was given to it by the legislature
in 1835, and there were two college classes in the autumn
of that year. At the beginning there were four depart-
ments of instruction, each in charge of a permanent pro-
fessor. There were the departments of Moral and Intel-
lectual Philosophy, of the Greek and Latin languages, of
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, and of Rhetoric and
Political Economy. There was not at first a distinct de-
partment of Natural Science, though instruction was
given in Chemistry, etc., by the Professor of Natural Phi-
losophy. In this Marietta was not an exception; at that
time the Juniors in Williams College recited in Chemis-
try to a tutor, and heard a few lectures from a professor.
But in 1840 provision was made here for regular instruction
in Chemistry and Mineralogy, and in 1846 this depart-
ment was established by the election of a permanent pro-
fessor. From that time to this the time of one professor
has been devoted to this, class of studies.
Though there was no professorship of Chemistry at
first, there was one of Rhetoric and Political Economy.
When this was left vacant in 1840 by the resignation of
Professor Allen, the work was divided between Professor
Kendrick, who was elected in his place, and Professor
Smith. The catalogue for that year gives their work as
20
follows: Henry Smith, Professor of Greek and Rhetoric;
John Kendrick, Professor of Latin, Political Economy,
and English Literature. A few years later the two
languages were brought together again under Professor
Smith, and the two English branches were placed in
charge of Professor Kendrick. On the election of Pro-
fessor Smith to the presidency in 1846, Professor Ken-
drick was made professor of the two languages, and the
English work was divided among the different members
of the Faculty. As, besides the four permanent officers,
there was a tutor, there were five men engaged in college
instruction. With three exercises a day of each class,
and four classes, there would be twelve exercises each
day for the five instructors, so that no one would be re-
Quired to attend more than three recitations or lectures
a day.
This was the general plan for about twenty-five years,
when a Professorship of Rhetoric and English Literature
was re-established, and a few years later the department
of ancient languages was divided. For the last twenty
years there have been six permanent officers of instruc-
tion ; two in the higher English studies (as Mental and
Moral Philosophy, Rhetoric, Logic, English Literature,
Political Economy, Civil Government, International Law,
etc.,) two in the general departments of the classic
languages, giving instruction also in German and French,
and two in the departments of Mathematics and the
various branches of Natural Science. In recent years
all the college work has been done by the perma-
ment professors, the time of the tutor having been given
to the preparatory department. It should be stated that
at no time have the college professors been required to
give instruction in the preparatory department. If any
temporary work has been done there it has been volun-
tary, and extra compensation has been made.
We need not be ashamed of this record of the work
done here. That Marietta entered upon her career with
21
four permanent officers of instruction, and upon her
Second quarter century with five, and for many years has
had six, whose whole time has been given to the college
classes, entitles her to great credit; much more than she
may receive from those who have little knowledge of the
history of colleges in this country. Colleges are a little
ambitious to show a large list of names in their faculties,
and many persons doubtless think that the old institu-
tions have always had many professors. *
When Timothy Dwight became President of Yale
College, the institution lacked only five years of the close
of its first century. President Dwight entered upon his
college work with one professor and three tutors. There
was a chair, as we say, of Mathematics and Natural
Philosophy; but none of Latin, none of Greek, none of
Natural Science, none of Rhetoric and English Literature,
none of Political Science. The President with Professor
Josiah Meigs, and Tutors Stebbins, Sherman, and Atwa-
ter, constituted the college Faculty. Far be it from me
to say anything in disparagement of those tutors. Roger
Minott Sherman became one of the most eminent
lawyers in New England. When a boy of ten years
I lost no opportunity of hearing this eloquent advocate
make his appeals to the jury. He became one of the Su-
preme Judges of Connecticut, and, had it not been for his
connection with the Hartford Convention, he could have
had whatever he wished in the way of political preferment.
Tutor Atwater, another of President Dwight's Faculty,
achieved distinction also. Five years later, one year after
leaving his tutorship, he became President of Middlebury
College, and subsequently held the same office in Dickinson
College, Pennsylvania. This suggests that there is some-
thing not entirely unlike this in the experience of Ma-
rietta. Though no one of her tutors is known to have
been president of two colleges in succession, it is true
that two of her first three tutors became college presidents.
I may, perhaps, be allowed to add that the first tutor who
22
served under me, taking office in 1855, may be compared
judicially with Roger Minott Sherman, as the other two
of whom I have spoken have been compared with
Jeremiah Atwater, my tutor of 1855 being now one of
the Supreme Judges of Ohio. I have said that President
Dwight had with him at first, in the instruction of the
undergraduates of Yale College, but one professor.
There was no linguistic professor there till 1805, when
James L. Kingsley was elected Professor of Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin. There was no separate professor of
Greek till 1831.
The history of Harvard is similar. Besides the pres-
ident there was in 1800, when Harvard was in the
last half of her second century, but one professor whose
duties were in what we should call the college depart-
ment, Samuel Weber, Professor of Mathematics and
Natural Philosophy. There was no professor of Latin or
Greek till 1811. Williams College, which began its work in
1793, started with a president and one tutor. There was
not even a professor of Mathematics and Natural Philoso-
phy for thirteen years, and none of the classics for
twenty-two years. And there was but one chair for the
two ancient languages till 1853. The college laws, 1795,
make no mention of professors. The president and
tutors are the teachers and executive body.
This glance at the early work of some of our colleges
of highest repute shows that almost all their instruction
was at first by tutors instead of professors. Often these
tutors began their teaching immediately after their
own graduation. The difference between permanent and
temporary instructors was the same then as now, and it
was a great improvement in a college when students re-
ceived their instruction from permanent professors. At
Marietta there has been no occasion for this change, as
nearly all the instruction has been professorial from the
beginnming. In the first catalogue issued every study
now thought essential to a liberal education is enumerated.
23
Even the German is not omitted ; and through almost
the whole history of the college, German has been studied,
either as required or optional. Political Science has also
had a prominent place. Complaint is often made that in
many colleges little or no attention has been given to
studies of a governmental and economic character.
Whatever may be true of other colleges, Marietta is
certainly not open to this charge. These branches have
always been taught here, and for the last quarter of a
century they have been made specially prominent.
The best course of study, however, requires efficient
trustees and able instructors. Without these, no institu-
tion will do educational work of a high grade. A brief
reference will be sufficient, as memorial addresses have
already been delivered.
The two charters of December, 1832, and February, 1835,
contain the names of the same nine gentlemen. The
resignation of Arius Nye, Esq., was accepted in March,
1835, and Mr. John Crawford seems not to have acted
after 1834. Of the other seven Dr. John Cotton was a
graduate of Harvard and Rev. L. G. Bingham of Mid-
dlebury. Mr. Douglas Putnam had finished his Junior
year at Yale, and Dr. Jonas Moore had been through the
first three years at Dartmouth. Col. John Mills and Mr.
Anselm T. Nye—both natives of Marietta, as also Mr.
Putnam—had enjoyed the advantages of the good schools
of Marietta, and had received some classical instruction.
Caleb Emerson, Esq., who had come to Marietta in early
manhood, had an insatiable thirst for knowledge, and
taught himself Latin so that he was able to teach his
children. All these were men of mark. They had strong
individual characteristics, but they labored together with
great harmony to establish the college which they
loved. They were all earnest Christian men, and desired
to build up an institution where high intellectual culture
might be blended with earnest sincere piety. They rep-
24
resented three denominations of Christians, but as trus-
tees they knew no lines. In 1838 Rev. Addison Kings-
bury, educated at Amherst and Andover, was elected a
member, but there was no other addition to the Board till
1845. -
An examination of the record shows how much time
these gentlemen devoted to the college. Were I to speak
of their work as it seems to me to deserve I should be
deemed extravagant. Their fidelity to their great trust,
their patience, their courage, their generosity, their sac-
rifices, were equalled only by their sagacity, their breadth
of view, the steadiness with which they resisted all
temptations to temporary expedients. They acted under
the consciousness that they were laying the foundations
of an institution that was to continue for many centuries,
and whose future prosperity would depend largely upon
their work. There was nothing narrow or petty in what
they did. With the scantiest means they laid large
plans, exhibiting a faith that seems almost sublime.
Of these early Trustees, only two survive : Mr. Douglas
Putnam, one of the founders, and Rev. Dr. Addison
Kingsbury, a member since 1838. There is not an
Alumnus that does not rejoice to see them here to day.
In 1845 an amendment to the charter was secured, au-
thorizing a larger number of Trustees. Since that time
thirty-nine gentlemen have been elected. Seventeen of
them have been clergymen, and twenty-two, laymen.
Eight have been connected with the college as students.
Fourteen of the thirty-nine have died, and eighteen are
now members of the Board. Including the three presi-
dents, who are members ea officio of the Board of Trus-
tees, there have been just fifty members ; a half-century
of years and a half-century of Trustees. Eleven of the
Trustees have been the descendants of the men who
founded Ohio and the North West through the settle-
ment made by the Ohio Company. And eight others
have been connected with the early settlers by marriage.
25
The pleasant duty of speaking of the Trustees who have
passed away has been fitly performed by one whose name
on Our annual catalogue stands next to the two to whom
I have just referred.
Pictures, too, of the members of the original faculty
have been presented to us by one who knew them all and
sat under their instruction. And those later professors
whom death has also called away have been this morning
commemorated in loving terms. This leaves but little
for me to say. -
As we have already been told, three of the four who
began the work of instruction in the college classes were
the first men in scholarship in their respective classes.
And their subsequent success showed the wisdom of the
Trustees in the selection they made.
Fifty years ago it was a rare thing, even in the oldest
institutions, for a professor to go abroad to improve
himself by foreign study. But Marietta in her very
infancy gave leave of absence to Professor. Smith for this
purpose. In December, 1834, the Trustees passed a
resolution that Mr. Smith have leave of absence, with a
a continuance of salary, from and after the first of July,
1835, to the first of November, 1836, for the purposes of
study. §
It will be seen that this arrangement was made while
the institution was yet a collegiate institute. The full
college charter had not yet been obtained ; though steps
were taken at that meeting for securing it. Stronger
proof could hardly be given of the desire and purpose of
the Trustees of this young institution to make it a place
where young men could have the highest advantages of
liberal culture. That the purpose to have well qualified
professors is still operative appears from the fact that of
the six who have been elected here within the last twelve
years, five studied abroad after graduating, and the sixth
had devoted four years to post-graduate study in Johns
Hopkins University. Tour of the six have received the
26
degree of Doctor of Philosophy, on examination, from
Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Johns Hopkins.
There have been in all twenty-one professors, including
the first president, not including the first principal of the
academy. These were graduated as follows: three from
Middlebury College ; three from Dartmouth ; two,
Williams ; two, Amherst ; two, Yale ; one, Harvard ; one,
Princeton ; one, Iowa; one, Beloit; and five, Marietta.
Besides those educated at our own college, thirteen were
from New England colleges, two from Western colleges
established on the model of the New England colleges,
and one from the old College of New Jersey. Of these,
eight have deceased : Messrs. Linsley, Smith, Allen and
Jewett of the first faculty, and Messrs. E. B. Andrews,
Walker, Evans and Rosseter of the later professors. Six
are now connected with the college, and a seventh, the
Venerable Professor Kendrick, is with us as Professor
Emeritus ; and four are in other institutions, viz : Rev.
Dr. Addison Ballard, Professor of Moral Philosophy at
Lafayette College ; Mr. W. B. Graves, Peabody Professor
of the Natural Sciences at Andover ; Dr. S. S. Orris,
Professor of Greek at the College of New Jersey; and
Dr. Irving J. Manatt, Chancellor of the University of Ne-
braska. Four of the twenty who game here as professors
became presidents, here and elsewhere.
It has been stated that three of the four gentlemen
constituting the first college faculty had taken the high-
est honors of the colleges at which they were educated,
viz., President Joel II. Linsley, Middlebury College, 1811;
Professor Henry Smith, Middlebury, 1827; Professor D.
Howe Allen, Dartmouth, 1829. A statement of like char-
acter may be made of those composing the Faculty of
1855–56. Of the five who were associated with me when
I entered upon my duties thirty years ago, four were men
who had stood at the head of their respective classes: .
John Kendrick, Waledictorian at Dartmouth in 1826,
Addison Ballard, at Williams in 1842, George H. Howi-
27
son, at Marietta in 1852, and Martin D. Follett, at
Marietta in 1853. -
The statements now made concern the completeness of
the course of study and the character and fitness of those
constituting the Boards of Trust and Instruction. In
order to know what the college has accomplished in its
first half-century the inquiry must reach the number of
students who have here been educated. -
The first class was graduated in 1838, and the number
of classes, including that of the present year, is forty-
eight. The total number of graduates is five hundred
and sixty-six. All but twenty-four of this number have
received the degree of Bachelor of Arts having completed
the course of study prescribed in the best colleges of the
country. Ten have pursued the course in which German
and other studies are substituted for the Greek, and four-
teen have taken the Scientific course which has now been
given up. Five hundred and sixty-six graduates in forty-
eight classes gives a yearly average of a small fraction less
than twelve. To some this annual average and this total
for forty-eight years will seem small. Those who are not
familiar with higher education and its statistics, especially
in the West and South, think large colleges are the rule
and small ones the exception. They read in the papers
of the number of students in attendance at various
colleges and suppose them all to be members of the four
regular classes—candidates for the first degree in the
arts or a kindred degree. For some colleges the supposi-
tion would be correct; for many it would be incorrect.
To find the number of college students proper you must
take one-fifth or it may be one-tenth of the number re-
ported in the newspapers.
The number of colleges in the United States graduating
large classes year by year is very small. They can almost
be counted on one's fingers. According to the last Report
of the United States Commissioner of Education, forty-
six per cent of the colleges reporting the number of
28.
students in attendance have senior classes, in the classical
course, numbering five and under. And sixty-two and a
half per cent. have senior classes of ten and under. In
all the colleges reporting, the average number in the
senior class (classical) is eleven. Deduct ten of the
largest colleges and the average senior class of the re-
mainder is only eight; deduct twenty colleges and the
others average senior classes of seven.
The number of graduates in a given period is a much
better criterion of the work accomplished by an institution
than the total number in attendance. A college is estab-
lished to secure a specific result. Students resort to it to
receive a certain amount of culture and discipline which
is tested by examinations and indicated by the testimonial
of the college. When the inquiry, then, concerns the
amount of work done by an institution in twenty-five, or
fifty, or a hundred years, it is equivalent to asking what
has been its contribution to the number of liberally
educated men. The question is not as to the number on
the catalogue ; not how many have been in attendance a
few months, or a year, or two years, but as to the number
who have completed to the satisfaction of competent
judges the work necessary for a degree. To say of a
college that it has given instruction to so many hundreds,
in a given number of years, or thousands it may be, while
it has graduated but a small fraction of those who have
been enrolled in its regular elasses, is not quite the
language of commendation. The inquiry at once Sug-
gests itself, what has become of the large fraction who
did not complete the course -
What proportion of the students that are matriculated
in the colleges of the country from year to year remain
till their graduation, there is no means of knowing from
published documents. The probability is that the num-
ber of graduates, taking all the colleges, is much less than
half the number that enter. The only college, so far as
I know, whose general catalogue contains the names of
29
all the members of the several classes, as well as the
graduates, is Williams. In that institution for the sixty
years, from 1820 to 1880, a little less than sixty-four per
cent of the matriculates have finished the course. The
statistics of Marietta give a ratio approximately the same :
the graduates in her forty-eight classes being a little
more than sixty-three per cent of the number matriculated.
As the course of study occupies four years, and the
catalogue gives the members of the four classes, if a class
during its course of four years suffered no diminution
the number of graduates for a series of years would
average one-fourth of the number on the catalogue for
the same time. But losses will occur through death,
sickness, poverty, etc., and if the graduates average one-
fifth of the names on the catalogue the record is a good
one. Taking the forty-eight catalogues of Marietta the
number of graduates is a little more than one-fifth the
number enrolled on the catalogues. This permanence of
students in a college may be expressed also by comparing
the number of seniors with the number of freshmen for
a series of years. For our whole history the seniors have
been to the freshmen as seventy to one hundred. In
some instances a class has numbered more at the close of
the senior year than at the beginning of the freshman.
Including that of the present year the number of
classes graduated, as already stated, is forty-eight, and
the total number of graduates is five hundred and sixty-
six, giving an annual average of twelve, nearly. Har-
vard College in its first forty-eight classes numbered three
hundred and one graduates ; and its annual average did
not reach the number ten till it had sent out eighty-two
classes; and to reach an average of twelve required
eighty-eight years. Cornell University gives the first
degree in the arts to six students the present year, and
Washington and Lee University conferred but a single
college degree the last year.
Our first class of graduates numbered four, and there
30
has been one other class of four. There have been three
classes of twenty-two each. There have been fluctuations
here as elsewhere. Most colleges have had classes of
three, two, one. Four is our smallest class. Many insti-
tutions have occasional blanks in their early history. The
forty-seventh class at Harvard numbered eleven ; the
next year was a blank, there being no graduates. Mari-
etta has been fortunate in escaping the loss of an entire
class. A small class one year does not imply a succession
of small classes. In 1868 the number of graduates was
a small one, as our record shows. But in the ten years
following there were more graduates than in any other
ten years in our history. And three years after the
graduation of that small class there was a larger number.
admitted than in any other year.
While, thus, looking at the succession of individual
years, there have been fluctuations in attendance and in
the number of graduates, there has been steady progress
if we regard the decades of years. In the first nine
years, covering the number of classes in the administra-
tion of the first president, the number of graduates was
eighty-five. In the nine years of the second administra-
tion the number was ninety-three. In the first ten years
of the third administration there were one hundred and
nine graduates ; in the Second decade, one hundred and
twenty-eight ; and in the third, one hundred and fifty-one.
Thus each period shows an advance over the one preceding
it, the gain of the fifth over the fourth, however, being
much the largest of all. The last decade shows also a
higher degree of permanence than either of the preceding
decades. The annual average of graduates for the whole
period being a fraction over twenty per cent. of the
number on the catalogue, the average for the last ten
years is twenty-three per cent.
It is not strange that the friends of an institution should
desire for it large classes. This is an indication of pros-
perity obvious enough to the most simple. But, as a test
31
of excellence, it is by no means trustworthy. The desire
for large numbers is a temptation to make the terms of
admission too easy ; to adapt the requirements to the
attainments or lack of attainments of the candidate. The
hospitality so characteristic of western homes is worthy
of all commendation, but the hospitality of a college
which is open to all comers, regardless of their fitness,
does not commend itself. Unfortunately the ambition to
secure students is not limited to the west or to institutions
still young. Some of the oldest and richest colleges in
the country seem to be as eager in the race for numerical
supremacy as rival cities in the strife for growth in popu-
lation. Western colleges that aim to do genuine and
thorough work are thus exposed to a double embarrass-
ment ; obliged, on the one hand, to meet the strong de-
sire for numbers manifested by colleges and universities
that think more of the name than the reality, and on the
other to encounter the strenuous efforts for patronage put
forth by institutions of long standing and high repute
that might better rely upon the prestige which comes
from large endowments and historic fame. .
If we look at the highest educational good of the student,
the small college, other things being equal, has indeed
the advantage. The method of instruction at the United
States Military Academy, where the number in the recita-
tion room is always very small, is unquestionably the best
for the pupil. And one of the chief arguments for the
elective system is that classes would be divided into sec-
tions and thus the instructors would be enabled to do
their work more efficiently. Taking the whole period of
our history the average number in the class room has
been about fifteen. It can hardly be doubted that more
improvement has been made, a better education Secured,
than if the number had been twice as great. With thirty
in a class two sections would be necessary and that would
require an increase of instructors. That hitherto the
number of teachers in our larger colleges has not kept
32
pace with the increase in the number of students cannot
be questioned, and in this respect therefore the character
of their work has not improved. The evil of large num-
bers in a recitation room is obvious enough when those
reciting together are of the same grade ; it becomes much
more serious when a portion of the students are two or
three years behind the others in discipline and attain-
ment. If the friends of Marietta are desirous that the
classes should be larger, they must remember that this
renders imperative a corresponding increase of endow-
ment, if the same standard of excellence be maintained.
It is worthy of notice that many of the successful men
of the country have come from small colleges or from
Small classes. Of the nine gentlemen composing the
present Supreme Court of the United States six were
members of small classes and three of large classes. And
one of these three spent the first three years of his course
in a small college. In the first class of a prominent
college in Illinois there were two graduates ; one of them
afterwards became the governor of that state. The late
Judge Folger, Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals in
the State of New York and. afterwards Secretary of the
Treasury under President Arthur, was the only graduate
of his class. *
The impression is prevalent that students often enter
college too young ; that maturity of years is requisite
in order to profit by the course of study, and there-
fore, the older students derive more advantage than
the younger. Our experience of fifty years does not
confirm this. It shows, on the contrary, that when
a lad is well prepared for entrance he is old enough
to do the work required. The average age of our alumni
at graduation is twenty-two years and seven-tenths. The
average age of those who have held the highest rank in
their respective classes is twenty-two and four-tenths. A
very considerable number of these fell much below the
average age. The influence of a well-arranged course of
33
study makes amends for the lack of maturity. The lad
of sixteen or seventeen grows more, intellectually, in the
four years of the course than the man of twenty-four or
twenty-five. So far as our experience goes, early system-
atic study in a good classical course is the best possible
preparation for subsequent intellectual growth.
The members of the Supreme Court of the United States
have been referred to as showing that eminent men often
come from Small colleges and small classes. They show al-
So the advantage of early education. The nine Justices
are all graduates, and most of them finished their collegiate
studies at an early age. The ages of eight of them at
graduation are known: One was twenty-three years, one
was twenty-one, two were twenty, three were seventeen,
and one was sixteen. The average age of the eight was
nineteen years. Of the senior editors of five promi-
ment religious newspapers in New York and Bos-
ton—the Congregationalist, Christian Union, Evangelist,
Independent, and Observer—the oldest at graduation was
twenty-one and the youngest was sixteen and one-third,
the average being eighteen years and one-sixth. The le-
gitimate inference from these facts, and many others
might be cited, is that a course of liberal study may
be commenced at an early age. There is no need to
keep back a student from college till he becomes a ma-
ture man in years.
. It is often said that some students go to college and
others are sent; the implication being that the latter class
reap little benefit. All honor to those who go of them-
selves; who work their way if need be ; who overcome
great obstacles to secure the much cherished education.
No word should be spoken to discourage them, but they
should be encouraged in every way. The man who is
impelled by a burning thirst for knowledge is never too
old to begin his college studies. But so far as the remark
quoted tends to dissuade parents from sending their sons
to college its influence is harmful. In the benefit re-
34
ceived there is no such difference between those who go
and those who are sent. The student who completes his
course at twenty-one or twenty-two must have begun his
preparatory studies by fourteen or fifteen, and must have
been supported by his parents ; that is, he has been sent
to college. It is wisdom for the parent to send his sons
and not wait for them to go of themselves. In after
years not one son in a thousand will fail to thank his
parents that he was thus sent, in this way Saving precious
time and making sure the liberal education which other-
wise might never have been gained.
The graduates of Marietta are distributed among the
various professions and occupations as follows : thirty-
four per cent are clergymen ; twenty-eight per cent bus-
iness men ; seventeen per cent lawyers; eight per cent
physicians ; eight per cent professors and other teachers;
five per cent all others. The proportion of business men
is large, but this is no cause of regret. It is rare now to
find an intelligent man holding the opinion that the cost
in time and money of a liberal education is thrown away
if the graduate does not enter one of the learned profes-
Sions. The great business enterprises of our times are
demanding men of the best intellectual training as well
as of high natural capacity.
Eighty-six of our alumni are the sons of clergymen.
In a large number of cases there have been two or more
graduates from the same family. One hundred and six-
ty-eight of the five hundred and sixty-six alumni are in
groups of two, three, and four brothers in the same
household. Three families have sent four sons each,
fourteen have sent three, and fifty-seven have sent two.
Twenty-eight have received degrees whose fathers were
students before them. It may also be added that one
hundred and twenty of the graduates are the descendants
of the early settlers, representing sixty of the pioneers.
There is not time to give any financial history of the
college. The enterprise was entered on in the firm be-
35
lief that such an institution was needed, and the move-
ment was made by men who were willing to show their
faith by their works. The first effort to raise funds was
made here in March, 1833. Something more than $8,000
was raised, of which the seven Trustees gave about half.
The Trustees assessed each other. Messrs. Mills, Moore,
and Bingham gave $1,000 each. Remembering the re-
peated gifts of the Trustee who alone is left of that
group of seven you wonder that he was assessed but
$200. But he was the youngest of the seven, and the
others deemed that sum to be his full proportion. Would
you know what is the total of his benefaetions to Marietta
College, multiply that first gift by four hundred. Many
citizens of Marietta and vicinity have given often and
largely according to their ability, and the aggregate
amount contributed by those who have lived here, in-
cluding bequests, probably exceeds $280,000.
The first efforts at the East were made by Rev. Mr.
Bingham, one of the Trustees, and by Professors Allen
and Jewett. Later Rev. N. W. Fisher, of Burlington,
Ohio, and Charles Goddard, Esq., of Richmond, Virginia,
engaged in this service. While thus employed Mr.
Goddard was elected to a professorship, which the state of
his health compelled him to decline. Some years after-
ward Rev. J. R. Barnes and Rev. Joseph Chester rendered
service as agents, and still later Rev. Francis Bartlett.
The time of President Linsley was largely occupied in
outside work for the first three years after his election in
1835, and at intervals afterwards. The College Society,
formed in 1843, rendered opportune aid for a number of
years. Among the largest early donors at the East were
Samuel Train, Esq., of Medford, Massachusetts, and Hon.
Thomas W. Williams, of New London, Connecticut.
Very little expenditure for agency work has been
made during the last thirty years. What has been done
in a financial way has been chiefly by the President in
vacation and by correspondence. There has been no ab-
36
sence in term time to interfere with his regular work of
instruction. The number of persons approached has been
Small, but in most cases those who have given have re-
peated their gifts. A gentleman in Massachusetts some
years ago gave a hundred dollars. A year later he gave
the same sum. The third year unsolicited he sent by
mail his check for a like amount, and this was continued
for about ten years. In 1863 a personal friend in New
York sent in response to a letter $200. The next year,
without application, he repeated the gift. The third he did
the same, and thus for six years. Then for two years it was
$300 a year; then $1000 a year for two years. A few
months later he died. It is pleasant to have such friends.
In seeking to interest men in the college I could never
forget the gifts of the Trustees. The remembrance of
their great generosity made me unwilling to approach
men simply because of their pecuniary ability. I felt
that it was not every one who was worthy to be enrolled
among the noble men by whose liberality Marietta College
had been largely sustained. The same feeling kept me
from urging the cause. It was an object worthy of a
cheerful giver and I could not press it. A good lady
whose husband I had seen told me she thought I was a
poor solicitor; that most men who came to him presented
their cause as if it were a matter of life and death ; she
should not expect me to succeed at all. A few weeks
after this her husband wrote me pledging $5000.
At our quarter-century celebration only one bequest
was reported—that of Mrs. Mary Keyes, of Columbus,
formerly of McConnelsville, of $5,000. Soon after an-
other of the same amount was made by Mr. D. T. Wood-
bury, also of Columbus. Within a few years, and prior to
the present year, three bequests have been made, amount-
ing to about $100,000. Mr. Truman Hillyer, of Colum-
bus, has given in real estate and money something over
$30,000, receiving an annuity during his life. Col. W. R.
Putnam made the college his residuary legatee, from
37
whose estate it is estimated $35,000 will be realized. Both
of these gentlemen expressed great satisfaction in the
disposition they had made of their property. Col. Put-
nam’s will was made many years before his decease, and
he seemed to regard his property as sacred to the purpose
to which he had devoted it ; too sacred even for himself
to use Save for the support of himself and family. The
third bequest was by Dr. Henry Smith, the second Presi-
dent of the college. After bequeathing to the college his
library, the will reads: “I give to the college fourteen oil
paintings, purchased in Rome about the year 1856, in
memory of my son, Albert Linnekogel Smith, who re-
quested before his death that these paintings might be
given to Marietta College as the nucleus of an Art Gal-
lery.” This son died at the age of sixteen, and nearly
twenty years before the father ; yet the request was re-
membered and his last wishes carried out. After making
provision for his two sons on the decease of his wife,
who was to have the use of everything during her life,
he made the college his residuary legatee ; expressing
the hope that funds might be found sufficient to endow a
professorship. In that case he wished it to be named the
Henderson Professorship in memory of his mother,
Phebe Henderson Linsley. Dr. Smith’s mother had
married for her second husband Dr. Joel H. Linsley,
who became the first President of Marietta College. The
professorship will thus bear the name of the wife of the
first President of the college and the mother of the sec-
ond—a beautiful memorial from a son to his mother.
Since the present year began another bequest has been
left to the college by Mr. Cornelius B. Erwin, of New
Britain, Connecticut. He left $15,000 to endow ten
scholarships, and $15,000 for the general purposes of the
college. This institution is also one of five residuary leg-
atees. It is estimated by those acquainted with the value
of the estate that this residuary portion will much exceed
the direct bequest. Mr. Erwin began to give to Marietta
38
many years ago, his first gifts being to aid young men in
the payment of tuition. Very soon he signified his pur-
pose to provide in his will for five scholarships of $1,000
each. The idea of helping young men remained with
him, though he increased the sum and made the basis
more liberal to the college.
It should be noticed that this bequest of Mr. Erwin's,
which promises to be much the largest the college has re-
ceived, comes from one whose early advantages were very
limited, while he greatly desired an education. He de-
termined to use a portion of that wealth which God had
given him, to help young men to obtain that which he
wanted but could not secure—a liberal education.
Besides these large bequests others are known to exist
in the wills of living persons; and such additions to the
funds of the college may be confidently expected from
the alumni and others. The financial outlook is full of
encouragement. The large wealth of the old colleges
comes from recent gifts. Yale College was one hundred
and fifty years old before its endowment for general pur-
poses had reached $140,000, In 1864 the funds of Williams
College for all purposes amounted to but $90,000. Thirty
years ago Princeton was virtually without endowment.
In 1862 the estimated value of our whole property was
$77,000. Aside from the residual bequest of Mr. Erwin
the net resources of Marietta are now nearly five times
that amount. Thus in financial matters as in other things
the fifth decade of the college has been the most prosper-
ous in its history. t
The coincidence in time between the completion of
fifty years of the life of the college and the close of my
administration, makes a few personal words not inappro-
priate. Taking my first degree at Williams College in
1837 I was appointed a year later tutor in Mathematics
at Marietta, with the understanding that the professor-
ship in that department, then vacant, would be given to
39
me if mutual acquaintance should make it advisable.
Detained a while by my engagement at the East I could
not reach Marietta till the winter. Through the kind
consideration of the Trustees my probation was brief,
the election to the professorship being made within three
months after my coming here, my duties to begin with
the next college year. In 1850, on the resignation of
Colonel Mills, who had given gratuitous service as
treasurer for seventeen years, I was appointed to succeed
him. In January, 1855, on the resignation of President
Smith, the Trustees elected me to the presidency. For
forty-seven years, therefore, I have been in the service of
this college : one year as tutor, sixteen as professor, and
thirty as president. A life less eventful could hardly be
found. Serving under Trustees for whom I had the
highest respect and whose plans it was my earnest
desire to carry out, and associated in instruction with
men of ability and fidelity with whom it has been a joy
to work, these forty-seven years have passed quietly and
pleasantly, almost imperceptibly.
It has been my good fortune to know personally every
member of the Board of Trust, every member of the
Board of Instruction, and every Alumnus of the college.
Of the 566 graduates all but four—the first class—have
been graduated since my connection with the institution
began, and nearly all have come under my instruction.
As professor or president I have served under every
Trustee, and, with a single exception, with every profes-
sor. It was the resignation of Professor Jewett in the
summer of 1838 that was the occasion of my coming.
When I entered on the presidency in 1855 there was no
one here of the original Faculty; but all were then living.
To-day they are gone, not only from us but from the
world which they did so much to bless. Of the eight
Trustees when I came in 1838 two only survive—Mr.
Douglas Putnam and Rev. Dr. Addison Kingsbury. Of
the eighteen Trustees in 1855 when my administration
40
began three only are left—the two just named and Mr.
William P. Cutler. Of the twenty members of the present
Board of Trust, all but five have been elected since 1863;
or after I had completed a quarter-century of college
work. Of the original Faculty, as has been said, none re-
main; but the venerable Professor Kendrick, who came
in 1840 and after thirty-three years of active service was
made Professor Emeritus in 1873, is still spared to us. Of
the other professors all have come since 1869. Our
senior professor entered the college when I became Presi-
dent. May his health soon be fully restored, and may
he continue for many years to be the senior professor
of the Faculty of this college.
In looking over the years spent here I see great occa-
sion for thankfulness. A better Board of Trustees, and
abler and more congenial associates could hardly be
desired. The work of instruction has always been a pleas-
ant one to me, and my efforts have received from these
hundreds of young men all they deserved, and more.
Many shortcomings there have been in teaching and in
administration; none can know them better than I do.
But a sincere desire to secure for every student the best
possible culture, an identification of myself with the in-
terests of the institution, and a readiness to do whatever
lay in my power to increase its true efficiency and make
it in the best sense a Christian college—these, if I know
myself, have ever actuated me. Now that my relation to
the college is about to be changed, my interest in its suc-
cess will not, I trust, grow less. My prayer is that in all
respects it may prosper; that it may accomplish all that
its noble and generous founders ever anticipated for it.
And so I commend it to the Trustees, to the Faculty, to
the Alumni, to all the friends of Christian learning. I
commend it to Him whose servants and stewards we all
are, and without whose blessing there can be no true
SUlCCéSS.
iii
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