Charles G. Finney
(29/08/1792 - 16/8/1875)
A HISTORY OF OBERLIN COLLEGE
ITS FOUNDATION THROUGH THE CIVIL
WAR
by
Robert Samuel Fletcher
BOOK 1: THE SHADOW OF A
MAN
Chap
1: Yankee
Invasion --
Chap 2: Apparition
on the Mohawk -- Chap
3: The
Rochester Revival --
Chap 4: Finney
on Broadway -- Chap
5: The Manual
Labor Schools -- Chap
6:
Cincinnati -- Chap 7:
John Jay
Shipherd -- Chap 8:
Elyria
-- Chap 9: A
Grand Scheme -- Chap
10: Oberlin
Colony -- Chap 11:
Oberlin
Institute -- Chap 12:
Immediate
Emancipation -- Chap
13: The Test
of Academic Freedom --
Chap 14: The
Guarantee of Academic Freedom
-- Chap 15: Boom
Times at Oberlin --
Chap 16: New
Leaders for Old
BOOK 2:
OBERLINISM
Chap 17:
God's
College -- Chap 18:
Hotbed of
Abolitionism -- Chap
19: Toward
an Anti-Slavery Church
-- Chap 20: The
Campaign Against the War
-- Chap 21: Female
Reformers -- Chap 22:
"Physiological
Reform" -- Chap 23:
The Whole
Man -- Chap 24:
Joint
Education of the Sexes
-- Chap 25: Free
Soil and the Underground
-- Chap 26: Higher
Law -- Chap 27:
The
Propaganda
BOOK 3: THE STRUGGLE FOR
EXISTENCE
Chap 28:
The Devil
and the World -- Chap
29: Oberlinizing
England -- Chap 30:
Mahan
-- Chap 31: Hard
Times and the Endowment
BOOK 4: LEARNING AND
LABOR
Chap 32:
The
Students--Pious and Prudent
-- Chap 33: The
Students--The Oppressed Race
-- Chap 34: Going
West to College --
Chap 35: Oberlin
Village -- Chap
36: Village
Society -- Chap 37:
"Plain &
Holesome" -- Chap 38:
The Student
Budget -- Chap 39:
Manual and
Domestic Labor -- Chap
40: The
College Farm -- Chap
41: In
Loco Parentis --
Chap 42: The
Collegiate Department
-- Chap 43: From
Prep to Theolog --
Chap 44: Early
to Bed -- Chap 45:
Literary
Societies -- Chap 46:
Music in
Oberlin -- Chap 47:
"Diverting
Influences" -- Chap
48: Commencment
BOOK 5: WAR AND
TRANSITION
Chapter 49:
Company
C -- Chap 50:
Fight for
Freedom -- Chap: 51:
Fulfillment
and Conformity
CHAPTER I
YANKEE INVASION
THIS is a story about Yankees. It is not a
story of Boston, but of men and women from Connecticut, western
Massachusetts, and Vermont who went to live in New York and Ohio.
The early annals of Oberlin College are a part of the history of
the mighty outpouring of New Englanders over the nation and the
world which took place in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries--an outpouring comparable to that of the Northmen in the
tenth and eleventh centuries or, more exactly, to that of the
Scots in later times.
In those days all Americans saw a vision in
the West: fertile acres to be had almost for the asking, mighty
rivers waiting to carry a fabulous commerce, sites for teeming
cities. Scarce a man but felt the urge to "go west and grow up
with the country." "The Valley of the Mississippi is a portion of
our country which is arresting the attention not only of our own
inhabitants, but also those of foreign lands," wrote the editor of
an Emigrants' Guide published in 1832. "Such are its admirable
facilities for trade ,... --such the variety and fertility of its
soil ,... --the genial nature of its climate,--the rapidity with
which its population is increasing,--and the influence which it is
undoubtedly about to wield.... as to render the West an object of
the deepest interest to every American patriot. Nor can the
Christian be inattentive to the inceptive character and forming
manners of a part of our country whose influence will soon be felt
to be favourable, or disastrous, to an extent corresponding with
its mighty energies, to the cause of religion."
Many Christian workers, in Connecticut in
particular, had already come to appreciate the great significance
of the West and had an even grander dream. They would make through
it a new nation and a new world. As a new society was built up in
western America let it be thoroughly Christianized and purified of
evil in order that from it might be spread to all the rest of the
Earth the millennial order foretold in Scripture. The American
Home Missionary Society founded in 1826 by Absalom Peters, the
American Education Society led by Elias Cornelius, whose purpose
was to educate young men for the evangelization of the West, and
the American Sunday School Union were all Protestant Christian
agencies (dominated by Congregationalists and Presbyterians)
devoted to this task. Pious theological students looked to the New
West as the greatest field of effort then open and many of them
went out to preach and to found western schools where other
workers should be trained. Out of the activities of these and
other home missionaries grew most of the early colleges of the
West.
The hill-country Yankee farmers marched
into central and western New York and on to Connecticut's Western
Reserve in Ohio and into other areas south and west of the Great
Lakes, regions which had escaped the first settlers from the South
and the Middle States who followed the Wilderness Trail, the Ohio
River, and the Cumberland Road. Yankee merchants, craftsmen,
teachers and ministers went with the farmers--and beyond. Peddlers
and traders from Connecticut invaded all parts of the West and the
South. New England furnished more than her share of the nation's
teachers, and ministers trained at Yale spread Yankee culture
through congregations and colleges everywhere. Calvinist Princeton
was not without influence in the middle regions and the South, but
cold, Unitarian Harvard made little appeal to the inhabitants of
"the provinces." Yale was puritanical and moralistic, more
conservative theologically than Harvard but infinitely more
dynamic, and sponsoring an aggressive religious individualism
against Princeton's dour authoritarian dogmatism. Yale was the
great Mother of Colleges in the nineteenth century because her
sons were impressed with a great sense of individual spiritual and
moral responsibility and motivated by a deep personal devotion to
the cause of cultural, ethical, Christian missions. Dartmouth,
Williams, Middlebury, and Hamilton in New York were offsprings and
satellites, soon to be joined by others farther west.
The story of Oberlin begins in the rich
Mohawk Valley, which by the third decade of the nineteenth century
had been pretty thoroughly annexed to Yankeedom.
CHAPTER II
APPARITION ON THE
MOHAWK
WEST from Washington County on the borders
of Vermont through the Troy, Albany and Cohoes area and more
especially in the upper valley of the Mohawk around Utica,
Whitesboro and Rome in Oneida County, the New Englanders overlaid
the earlier strata of Dutch and Germans. They had come from
Vermont and Berkshire County, Massachusetts, but mostly from the
Land of Steady Habits. They brought with them traditions of
industry and economy and an earnest and practical piety. Their
ministers and schoolmasters were steeped in the optimistic
theology of Yale, aggressive missionaries of a prospective moral
and religious renaissance. They reaped much of the profit that
came from improvements in transportation and industrial
development in the first and second generations of the nineteenth
century. Certainly they were to a large extent responsible for the
canals and turnpikes and the factories which brought prosperity to
the region. Textile factories began operation at various points
where power was available in the period of the Embargo and the War
of 1812, or soon after, at Oriskany, Utica, Whitesboro, Ballston
Spa, Albany, Troy, and New Lebanon. The digging of the Erie Canal
was started in 1817, and the boom produced along the route by the
funds expended for construction furnished something of a foretaste
of the prosperity which resulted from its operation.
Most of the settlers were
Congregationalists, but many from Connecticut were accustomed to
the semi-Presbyterian polity established there in Colonial times.
In agreements reached in 1801, "The Plan of Union," and 1808, "The
Accommodation Plan," they sank their differences with regard to
church government in favor of cooperative action in the new
country. This would bring together not only all the New Englanders
of the Finger Lakes, St. Lawrence and Mohawk areas but also the
Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who had pushed up the Susquehanna from
Pennsylvania. As the scheme worked out the individual Yankee
churches might organize on the Congregational or Presbyterian
plan, but almost all became associated with the presbyteries,
synods and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church.
Perhaps even Congregationalists believed that an authoritative
ecclesiastical system was preferable where society was in the
formative stage and there might be many irregular and heretical
preachers or other religious leaders who would require
disciplining. But the tradition of Congregational church
independence, though dormant, was not entirely forgotten, and
proved useful as a refuge for minority elements at a later
day.
The Year of Our Lord 1825 was a memorable
one in the Mohawk Valley. Governor Clinton and his party carried
their keg of Erie water along the ditch to Albany--the Great
Western Canal was open! General Lafayette, travelling in the
opposite direction, was feted, toasted and orated to at all the
up-and-coming towns while cannon roared and militia and
independent companies deployed in resplendent uniforms. But to
many the greatest sensation was the appearance on the scene of a
young exattorney who called the merchant from his ledger, the
housewife from the hearth, the farmer from his plow, the
politician from the hustings, the lawyer from the courtroom, and
the student from his classes to consider the things that are
eternal and shall not pass away.
Charles G. Finney was apparently destined
for greatness by every personal quality and physical attribute.
Handsome in a virile way, he was six feet and two inches tall,
with a bold forehead, remarkable, hypnotic, frightening eyes, and
an expressive and sympathetic mouth which partially compensated
for the fierceness of his glance and the harshness of his keen and
assertive nose and chin. Finney was magnetic, dynamic, arresting;
and when he threw his tremendous energy, his keen intellect, his
unmatched courage into a campaign to stir up a live and aggessive
Christianity among church members and bring into the fold the
unchurched sinners, the receptive New York Yankees were stirred to
a high pitch of religious fervor. There were some who opposed him,
though many turned to him as to a new Paul; none, however, could
ignore him.
Charles Grandison Finney was born in
Warren, Connecticut, on August 29, 1792, the seventh son of
Sylvester Finney, a revolutionary soldier and member of an early
Massachusetts family. When he was about two years old his parents
moved to Oneida County in central New York. Here Finney grew up,
receiving the usual common-school education available in the
country schools of the time. In 1808 the family moved again--this
time to Henderson, a town near Sackett's Harbor in Jefferson
County, where he undertook to teach a rural school--with
outstanding success, legend says. After four years of teaching, he
returned to Warren in Connecticut to continue his studies
preparatory to entering Yale College. His course of study at
Warren included several books of Virgil, Cicero's orations, the
"Greek testament so far as to pass the usual examination before
Presbytery & so much Hebrew as to be able to satisfy myself of
the meaning of a text taken." Discouraged from going on to Yale by
his instructor, he went to New Jersey to teach for two years,
after which he returned to central New York where, at the town of
Adams, in 1818, he entered the office of Judge Benjamin Wright to
study law. Under the guidance of Wright he read enough Blackstone
to gain admission to the bar and entered upon a promising legal
career.
Up to this time he had never taken any
particular interest in religion, because, he declared in later
years, of the dearth of churches and educated pastors in the
region where he was brought up. At Warren he had listened to the
sermons of a trained minister, however, without being particularly
stimulated thereby. At Adams he entered the congregation of the
Presbyterian minister, George W. Gale, and became the director of
the church choir. Nevertheless, he continued in his critical,
indeed scornful, attitude toward Christianity. "On one occasion,"
he later wrote in his Memoirs, "while I was in one of the
prayer-meetings, I was asked if I did not desire that they should
pray for me. I told them, no; Because I did not see that God
answered their prayers." He must, indeed, have been a trial to
good Mr. Gale.
In these early years he seems to have been
an all-round good-fellow: he sang well; he danced with grace and
enthusiasm; he was passionately devoted to his 'cello; he excelled
in all sorts of sports; he was a prime favorite with the younger
group generally. The sources are conflicting with regard to his
morals, but they were certainly not worse than those of the
average, unconverted, spritely youths of the time and region. With
his charming personality, oratorical powers and legal training, he
seemed assured of a brilliant political career.
But in 1821 he became interested in the
study of Mosaic law and bought a Bible to be used as a work of
reference in this connection. In the autumn of that year his study
of the Bible, working upon what Gale had taught him, his Puritan
heritage, and his own spiritual sensitiveness heightened by a
knowledge of the prayers of Lydia Andrews, his future wife,
finally brought about his conversion. For three days he wrestled
with the angel, agonized by the deepest conviction of sin and
tortured by fears for his soul's welfare. Finally, while sitting
by the fire in his office, he "received a mighty baptism of the
Holy Ghost." "... The Holy Spirit descended upon me in a manner
that seemed to go through me, body and soul," he later wrote. "I
could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going
through and through me. Indeed it seemed to come in waves and
waves of liquid love; for I could not express it in any other way.
It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recollect distinctly
that it seemed to fan me, like immense wings; and it seemed to me,
as these waves passed over me, that they literally moved my hair
like a passing breeze." It was great news for the little town of
Adams: Finney, the gay, brilliant, care-free young attorney had
abandoned his profession, his promising political future, his
whole former life, for the service of God. When a client came to
his office to consult him, he dismissed him abruptly: "Deacon
B----, I have a retainer from the Lord Jesus Christ to plead his
cause, and cannot plead yours." The people of the community
gathered at the church at a special evening service to see if it
was really true. Finney, previously silent and cynical, prayed and
preached, and a revival was begun in which many others were
converted.
Finney never doubted that he was divinely
called to preach the Gospel and, from the day of his conversion,
seems never to have considered any other career. He pursued his
theological studies under the direction of the Reverend Mr. Gale
and was licensed by the presbytery in the spring of 1824 and
ordained in the following July. On March 17, 1824, he was
commissioned by the Female Missionary Society of the Western
District of New York to preach in the schoolhouses in the
backwoods of Jefferson County north of Watertown. There he found
immorality, deism and atheism. He met the hostility of the
community with the arrogant denunciations of a Jeremiah. At one
schoolhouse meeting in a notoriously iniquitous and irreligious
village he preached on the text: "Up, get you out of this place;
for the Lord will destroy this city." Appearing before another
audience in a similar settlement, he fiayed them with a sermon
from the text: "Ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the
damnation of Hell?" It is a marvel that he escaped being lynched
then and there. Eyes blazing, drawn up to his full height, he
shook his finger under their very noses and told them, in the
voice of a judge sentencing a convicted murderer, that, assuredly,
each and every one of them would some day scorch in the flames of
Hell. Then, having aroused his hearers, he would suddenly change
his tone from condemnation to pleading and thus bring them to a
conviction of their sins, so that sometimes whole congregations
fell on their knees or prostrate on the floor, where they remained
all night and had to be carried away in the morning in time to
make room for the school children! Many of the most hardened
sinners were converted and a religious and moral revolution
resulted, the good effects of which were evident years
later.
Soon echoes of Finney's mighty blows began
to come out of the forest and he was invited into the pulpits of
towns in the canal belt, especially in Oneida County. In
September, 1825, Finney began his campaign in that region at the
town of Western, a few miles north of Rome where Mr. Gale was
living in retirement at that time. There his success was repeated.
"Christians were humbled for their past unfaithfulness," wrote
Gale. "Sinners began to enquire what they must do. Convictions and
conversions multiplied and spread through the town. In some
instances whole households were converted." One of these
households was that of George Brayton, the leading merchant of the
place. A son, Milton, became an outstanding worker for religious
and benevolent causes in Utica. One hundred and forty persons were
said to have been converted altogether. From Western, Finney was
invited to the important canal town of Rome by the Rev. Moses
Gillett, pastor of the Presbyterian Church there.--Rome fell. At
the end of the first inquiry meeting held in that place the
participants "gave vent to their feelings in sobs and groans."
Meetings were held daily for five weeks. "All classes of people
were affected," reported Mr. Gillett. "Four lawyers, four
physicians, all the merchants who were not professors before, and
men of the first respectability in the place, are hopeful
converts."
At Utica, too, Finney's "plain and pungent
and faithful preaching was attended with evident and wonderful
success." According to the minister of the First Presbyterian
Church, S.C. Aikin, the resulting revival "made 'new creatures' of
gamblers and drunkards, and swearers and Sabbath-breakers, and
brought the self-righteous pharisee, the deluded skeptic, deist,
and universalist, to abandon their dreams of happiness and heaven,
without a holy heart, and to fly for cleansing to the blood of the
Lamb." Finney also led successful awakenings in Auburn to the west
and Troy to the east. At the meeting of the Oneida Presbytery in
Utica in February, 1826, Finney was present on invitation and
heard a report on revivals expressing "joy and gratitude" that
such numbers of "men of sound sense and strong minds" had been
"brought as little children to the feet of Jesus."
Certainly one of the most notable
characteristics of Finney's revivals was that so many "men of
sound sense and strong minds" --professed Christians or
"unbelievers" previously--found in these revivals an inspiration
to Christian living and labor. Among these were several lawyers:
Judge Jonas Platt of utica and his son Zephaniah, the Honorable
Zebulon Rudd Shipherd of Troy and Granville (a former
Congressman), and Theodore Spencer of Auburn. Judge Platt was one
of the most prominent men of the region; he had been a Federalist
member of Congress, a general in the militia and justice of the
New York Supreme Court. Spencer gave up the law for the ministry
after his conversion. The Rev. John Monteith, co-founder of the
University of Michigan, and professor in Hamilton College at
Clinton near Utica after 1821, became an enthusiastic Finney man.
Captain Charles Stuart, a retired British army officer was a Utica
school teacher;--Horatio Seymour was one of his pupils. He had
turned to the ministry before Finney's arrival, studied privately
with Monteith for a few months and was licensed to preach in May,
1825. He became a devoted member of Finney's revival band,
sometimes called the "Holy Band." In Utica, Finney converted
Stuart's protege, Theodore Weld, later the brilliant pleader of
causes, perhaps the "strongest mind" of all. Strong-minded too was
Asa Mahan, who graduated from Hamilton in 1824 and was licensed by
the Oneida Presbytery in May, 1827--another complete Finney man.
The Rev. John Frost of the church at Whitesboro was one of the
evangelist's earliest supporters. You may still read the epitaph
on his tombstone: "In his life and death no less than in his
public ministrations he illustrated the force and beauty of the
precepts of the Bible." At Auburn were the Revs. Dirck C. Lansing
and Josiah Hopkins. Mr. Lansing labored powerfully as one of
Finney's lieutenants in the revival cause at Auburn and later in
Utica and New York City. Josiah Hopkins who succeeded Lansing as
pastor at Auburn had taught divinity to John Jay Shipherd, the
later founder of Oberlin College. S.C. Aikin, Noah Coe, Moses
Gillett, N. S. S. Beman, Herman Norton, Luther Myrick and, of
course, George W. Gale were other ministers of the Oneida
Presbytery who worked enthusiastically in the Finney
revivals.
In 1817 Charles Hastings opened a bookstore
at Utica and soon after established a circulating library. In the
early twenties he and his brother, Thomas Hastings, like Finney,
natives of Litchfield County, Connecticut, founded the Western
Recorder. This periodical was the chief organ of the
Presbyterian-Congregational churches of central New York. Under
the editorship of Thomas Hastings it effectively publicized and
editorially defended the Finney revivals. Among the agents of the
Recorder listed in the number dated February 24, 1829, were Z. R.
Shipherd of Granville, George Brayton of Western, John Frost of
Whitesboro, and Joab Seeley of Ogdensburgh, the latter a convert
of Finney's earliest revival in the north of the state.
Thomas Hastings was also a music teacher
and a collector and composer of sacred music. In lecture tours and
through the columns of the Recorder he labored for the
establishment of musical societies "so organized as to call forth
the piety, as well as the musical talent of the country." The
climax of his work in upstate New York came with the founding of
the New York State Central Musical Society in Utica in August,
1831. Hastings keynoted the organization meeting in an address in
which he emphasized the need that music teachers should be "pious
and competent" and pointed out that "revivals of religion had been
attendants on singing school." The Rev. D.C. Lansing became
president of the society; Samuel C. Aikin was first
vice-president; Milton Brayton was treasurer and Hastings,
naturally, was corresponding secretary. In 1829 Hastings, in an
editorial, commented favorably on the work of Lowell Mason in
Boston. But in the following year he wrote a scathing review of a
hymn book prepared by the Rev. Joshua Leavitt of New York City,
secretary of the Seamen's Friend Society: "We are truly sorry that
any minister of the gospel . . . should have associated his name
with such a wretched publication as this." The review and the
influence of Finney resulted in his later removal to New York City
where he supervised the music at several leading
churches.
As Finney aroused the enthusiasm and
admiration of many, he likewise stirred many to bitter opposition.
While a convert like Theodore Weld believed him the greatest of
all preachers, others saw in him the chief enemy of true religion.
"Brother Platt," wrote Weld to a fellow convert in 1829, "I am
persuaded neither you nor I have ever duly estimated the preaching
of that modern Paul . . . for my own part, when I make a plain
estimate of Mr. F.[inney] as a preacher in comparison with
any other--within my knowledge--he rises above them to an
overshadowing height ...." Even his opponents admitted that "as an
awakening preacher, he certainly possessed talents of a high
order," but considered him all the more dangerous because of his
ability. What part of the opposition was due to jealousy and what
part to honest conservatism it is impossible to
determine.
Ministers, New England evangelists and
laymen were irritated by his provoking directness. They found his
voice too penetrating and arresting, his remarkable, hypnotic eyes
too magnetic, and his dramatic and realistic description of Hell's
torments too disturbing. They opposed his stinging denunciations
of individuals and institutions. They objected to his singling out
particular persons as the objects of condemnation or prayer.
Particularly did they decry all groaning and weeping in prayer,
the institution of the praying or holy band of lay assistants and
of the anxious seat at the front of the church for the hopeful
inquirers, and the participation of females in "promiscuous"
prayer meetings. These were the much-debated "new
measures."
Most of the New York ministers were
favorable to Finney, but President Henry Davis of Hamilton College
was alarmed by "certain prominent features" of the Oneida Revival
from the beginning, or so he later declared. And the Rev. William
R. Weeks of Paris Hill, an extreme "Hopkinsian" Calvinist, made a
slashing attack on Finney in his Pastoral Letter of 1827. He
criticized the new-measures men for "Trying to make people angry,"
"The affectation of familiarity with God in prayer," allowing
"Female prayer and exhortation," "Loud groaning, speaking out, or
falling down, in time of public or social worship," etc. The
Oneida Presbytery stood by Finney and denied that the revivals
were accompanied by irregularity or disorder and "Resolved
Unanimously, That the patience and forbearance manifested by Mr.
Finney under reproach, in not rendering evil for evil, has
increased the confidence of Presbytery in his piety and judgment."
Very favorable, too, to Finney was the pamphlet entitled A
Narrative of the Revival of Religion in the County of Oneida,
etc., written by the Rev. John Frost and other friendly ministers
and published in Utica in 1826.
There were some, however, particularly in
New England, who preferred to believe Mr. Weeks; among these were
the revivalists Asahel Nettleton and Lyman Beecher. "They are
driving us back into barbarism under the delusion of a new era,"
declared Nettleton in a letter to John Frost. Reverend Henry Ware,
the scholarly Unitarian product of Harvard and Andover, who was a
few years later to superintend the publication of a life of Jean
Frederic Oberlin, was shocked at what he heard and saw of "the
notorious Finney" on a visit to central New York in 1826. "The
great leader is either a crazy man or an impostor," he wrote from
Utica. And again: "He has talents, unquestionable talents, but no
heart. He feels no more than a mill-stone . . . he is acting a
cold, calculating part .... His tones of voice, his violent,
coarse, unfeeling utterance, his abject groanings, his writhing of
his body as if in agony, all testify that he is a hypocrite, and
yet I try not to be uncharitable."
Finney ardently defended his methods. When
immortal souls were at stake he insisted that one should not be
too nice about the means utilized for their salvation. A certain
amount of excitement he believed to be absolutely necessary to get
most people to act. It should be the aim of the pastor and the
evangelist, said Finney, not to please men but to warn them in a
most direct and impressive way of the imminent danger of their
damnation. In July of 1827 the New England conservatives met
Finney and his western, new-measures men at a convention at New
Lebanon, N.Y., in an effort to iron out their differences. In this
they did not succeed in any large way nor was either faction
persuaded of its errors. The chief result seems to have been to
attract more attention to Finney and his great success as a
revivalist."
CHAPTER
III
THE ROCHESTER
REVIVAL
THE Yankees pushed on through the Finger
Lakes country from central to western New York. One of the towns
to profit most by the building of the Great Western Canal was
Rochester. Its flour mills were already important at the time of
the second war with England, grinding wheat from the rich Genesee
Valley with the power of the falls of the Genesee River. But the
cost of transportation of the flour ate up much of the profit
until the canal, passing over the river at Rochester on the famous
stone aqueduct, gave easy access to the markets of the world. In
1827 four new mills were built and seven more before 1835. In 1815
Rochester had had a little over 300 population; in 1830 it had
nine thousand. This booming community provided a sounding board
for various public figures. The actor Edmund Kean condescended to
favor the inhabitants with a performance of "The Iron Chest"; the
editor-politician Thurlow Weed began in Rochester his climb to
political power, and Sam Patch chose the falls of the Genesee for
his most spectacular and last leap in 1829. Rochester would be
satisfled with nothing less than the ultimate in the way of
preaching.
The Presbyterians were already well
established among the New Englanders in Rochester. The original
First Presbyterian Church, located west of the river and just
north of the canal on the site of the present city hall, was under
the pastorate of the Rev. Joseph Penney. In addition there was the
Second (or "Brick") Presbyterian Church and the Third Presbyterian
Church on the east side, both founded soon after the opening of
the canal. The Rev. Joel Parker, a graduate of Hamilton, where he
was a classmate of Asa Mahan in 1824, and just out of Auburn
Theological Seminary, had established the latter society in 1827,
and it had thriven under his aggressive leadership. As early as
the fall of 1829, Josiah Bissell, an eider of this church, had
invited Finney to Rochester, challenging him with an account of
the sin existing among the "canawlers." In the early summer of
1830 Parker, a thorough new-measures man, went to New York City to
take the pastorate of the First Free Presbyterian Church which had
been built up by Finney's preaching.
In September Finney arrived in Rochester to
supply the pulpit of Parker's Third Church and "revive" the
congregations of all three Presbyterian societies. The pulpit of
the Second Church was vacated soon after he appeared. Rev. Mr.
Penney of the First Church gave him every encouragement. The way
was opened for Finney to boom religion in the Genesee boom
town.
Finney fulfilled all expectations. Henry
Brewster Stanton, a young orator and politician, a reporter on
Thurlow Weed's Monroe Telegraph, went to hear him. Late in life
his recollection of the occasion was still clear. "It was in the
afternoon," he wrote. "A tall, grave-looking man, dressed in an
unclerical suit of gray, ascended the pulpit. Light hair covered
his forehead; his eyes were of a sparkling blue, and his pose and
movement dignified. I listened. It did not sound like preaching,
but like a lawyer arguing a case before a court and jury .... The
discourse was a chain of logic, brightened by felicity of
illustration and enforced by urgent appeals from a voice of great
compass and melody. Finney was a sensation. At one of the early
meetings held in the old First Church building every seat was
taken and hundreds stood in the aisles. The structure began to
give way; the walls spread and a scantling fell through the
plaster of the ceiling. The congregation stampeded and trampled
some in the crowd that stood about the doors. A few even jumped
out of the windows into the filthy water of the canal. The
accident seems rather to have stimulated the excitement than
otherwise. Robert L. Stanton, who was in the panic, was converted
and, along with a hundred others, including his sister and his
brother, Henry Brewster Stanton, joined the First Church early in
January.
It was on the very day following the
stampede that the Rev. John Jay Shipherd, who was to be the
founder of Oberlin, arrived in Rochester on a canal boat from the
East. He was a son of the Hon. Zebulon R. Shipherd, the Troy
lawyer who had been a member of Finney's praying band, and was on
his way to the Connecticut Western Reserve where he hoped to
perform useful service as a home missionary. He and his wife and
two sons and a school-teacher friend stayed over the week-end in
Rochester in order not to profane the Sabbath by travelling on
Sunday. It was a great opportunity, too, for him to renew his zeal
and consecration in the warmth of Finney's presence. Shipherd
preached in the Second Church in the morning, heard the great
evangelist in the evening, and enjoyed "some agreeable private
intercourse with him." Though it undoubtedly had great attractions
for him, the young missionary refused Finney's invitation to stay
in Rochester and help. On Monday he took a canal boat west, happy
in the benediction of his idol and in the knowledge that the "work
of God" in Rochester was moving on with such power.
From September 10, 1830, to March 6, 1831,
Finney preached 98 sermons and attended un-numbered "anxious
meetings." The work was effectively publicized through the
Rochester Observer, a periodical established some three years
previous especially to disseminate information about revivals,
missionary work and the "operations of Societies for the spread of
the Gospel and the promotion of benevolent objects." Reports in
the Observer were quoted in the Western Recorder and the New York
Evangelist and other religious papers of the northern states. At
the end of four weeks of Finney's preaching the Observer reported:
"On the Sabbath no place of worship is large enough to contain the
multitude that assembles.... Such a revival, perhaps, was never
experienced where less disorder was witnessed, or less open
opposition manifested." Every issue contained some new details or
favorable comments. "We have never known a revival more general
among all classes," wrote a participant in November. "The youth,
and those who are preparing for, and those who have just entered
upon, the great theatre of life--the student, the mechanic, the
professional man, and the politician--those who were seeking for,
and those who were in the possession of office and worldly honors,
have been arrested by the spirit of God, and a new song has been
put in their mouths." In December the revival continued "with
unabated interest and power," though Finney showed signs of
physical breakdown from over-exertion. But he kept up the furious
pace through January and February. A final great effort was made
in late February and early March, an effort in which the
evangelist was assisted by nine other ministers from various
western New York communities. Among these were the Rev. William
Wisner, who had been conducting successful revivals in his church
at Ithaca during the winter, and Asa Mahan, now pastor at the
nearby canal town of Pittsford. Developments at Rochester had
attracted so much attention by this time that hundreds came from a
considerable distance and the church buildings were taxed to
capacity. Sometimes it was necessary to hold simultaneous
meetings, and on one occasion Finney preached the same sermon on
successive nights to capacity crowds in the Third and Second
churches respectively. "Enquiry meetings," held during the morning
business hours, overflowed with "anxious sinners." .... "It did
seem," reported the Rochester Observer, "that the heavens were
dropping down righteousness over our heads." Originally planned as
a four days' meeting, it was continued "with unabated zeal"
throughout the fifth day after which, "as the snow was rapidly
melting .... friends from a distance were admonished to improve
what remained to return home." For some time thereafter, however,
local residents came together in two religious services every day.
Near the end of a long life of conservative, "old-school"
Presbyterianism, Robert L. Stanton remembered that "all Rochester
was moved that winter .... The atmosphere . . . seemed to be
affected. You could not go upon the streets, and hear any
conversations, except on religion."
Converts poured into the churches. As has
been noted, a hundred joined the First Church at one time in
January, 1831. About the same number altogether were added to the
Second ("Brick") Church by profession of faith. Mr. Wisner
accepted a call to be settled over this congregation and carried
on the work thus begun by Finney with great success until 1835.
Altogether, in the four and a half years of his pastorate 372 new
converts were admitted. The Third Church admitted 158 converts in
1831. Mr. Finney had more trouble finding the right man for this
pulpit. Asa Mahan was seriously considered, but he went to
Cincinnati. The place was offered to Fayette Shipherd, but he felt
bound to stay with his parents in their advancing age since
brother John Jay had left for "the valley." For some time the
church suffered from brief pastorates or got along with
"supplies." The churches in neighboring towns like Henrietta anf
Pittsford also received a considerable accession of newly
converted Christians. Two new "free" Presbyterian churches were in
Rochester as a direct result of the revival: the Free Presbyterian
Church and the Bethel Free Church. The former fell into dissension
and lasted only from 1832 to 1838, but the latter, under the lay
leadership of such able and enthusiastic Finney men as George A.
Avery and Michael B. Bateham, into the Rochester Central
Presbyterian Church and was later chiefly instrumental in securing
Finney's services for the revivals of 1842 and 1857.
The influence of Finney's success at
Rochester was felt in many other communities. Letters poured in
upon the evangelist in ever increasing volume begging for his
services. "Am pulled many ways," he wrote to Gale. "Don't know
where to go." Theodore J. Keep, the son of the Rev. John Keep of
Homer, came to Rochester to hear the great evangelist. He had just
left Yale because of his participation in the great Conic Sections
Rebellion, when the sophomore class refused to recite Conic
Sections unless they could have their textbooks open. He had not
yet found "spiritual peace" and decided to go to Rochester, hoping
that the great Finney would help him. Sometime in December he
appeared in the "flour city," "rather tall ,... light hair, wears
glasses & a very red plaid cloak." Soon he was writing home
that he "hoped he had passed from death to life" and Mr. and Mrs.
Keep were said to be "much overcome with the intelligence." In
March, the Rev. Mr. Keep and the congregation of the Homer
Presbyterian Church were urging Finney to come among them. He did
not come, but John Keep and his son Theodore were added to the
ranks of the Finney men.
John Keep was a native of western
Massachusetts, the seventh of nine children of a poor farmer. He
entered Yale College in 1798 and "passed regularly, without
interruption through the four years' course of study," waiting on
table part time in the dining hall to pay his way. After studying
theology privately for some time he was ordained in 1805 and
preached for the next sixteen years in the Scotch-Irish town of
Blandford, Massachusetts. He seems always to have been actively
interested in Christian benevolence. Keep was one of the founders
and charter members of the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions. He was a trustee of Hamilton College and for a
time "President of the Board of Commissioners" of Auburn
Theological Seminary. In Homer (1821-33) he was a dominant
influence in the councils of the local Cortland Academy. From 1831
to his dismissal in 1833 he was overtly and enthusiastically
aligned with the "new-measures" cause. "I am now among the older
Ministers," he wrote in the latter year. "But I will learn from my
younger Brethren, and rejoice when they stretch forward beyond me
in winning souls to Christ--the farther, the better.... I verily
believe that the Holy Spirit is with them [the new-measures
men], and that their number will increase."
Perhaps more important than the enlistment
of the Keeps was the organization in Rochester of a phalanx of
active revival Christians, mostly business or professional men and
youths. Though Josiah Bissell, Jr., died within two months of the
close of the revival his leadership did not die with him. He had
been associated with all of the first three Rochester Presbyterian
churches. He had financed the construction of the places of
worship of the Second and Third societies and to the latter had
promised "a half of his biscuit as long as he had one." He was
especially devoted to the cause of Sabbath Schools and Sabbath
observance, and was one of the first vice-presidents of the "Grand
Union For Promoting the Observance of the Christian Sabbath" along
with Arthur Tappan, Francis Scott Key and Lyman Beecher. His
"Pioneer" stage-line was known throughout the nation because its
coaches never moved on Sunday and the drivers' morals were
supposed to be supervised. Bissell had been primarily responsible
for bringing Finney to Rochester and acted the part of manager and
host. Everard Peck was a printer, book-binder, publisher,
bookstore proprietor and paper manufacturer from Connecticut. He
was a leading member of the First Presbyterian Church and the
first secretary of the Monroe County Temperance Society. He
belongs in the list not only because he was a leading Christian
and friend of the revivals and benevolent causes but because his
young son was guided by the influence of these days through the
Oneida Institute and Bowdoin College to a professorship in a later
time in Oberlin College. Samuel D. Porter, also a book-dealer,
associated with Peck, was converted from deism by Finney and
became an important worker for benevolent causes. Then there was
Levi Burnell, "Druggist, at the sign of the alligator, No. 4
Carroll st." Already in 1829 he was secretary of the "Young Men's
Mission Society of Rochester. Of course, there were the Stantons,
Henry Brewster and Robert L., and their brother-in-law, George A.
Avery, and his brother, Courtland Avery. The Averys were
merchants; George dealt in "Groceries, Ship-Chandlery, Paints,
Oils, Window Glass, etc." Both were devoted adherents of the new
movement. The young Englishman Michael B. Bateham may not yet have
arrived in Rochester at the time of the Revival of 1830-31, but
became a complete "Finneyite" just the same when he appeared
sometime before 1834 and opened his seed store and nursery--"The
Rochester Seed Store and Horticultural Repository." He later
became editor of the New Genesee Farmer and, after that, of the
Ohio Cultivator. When the Bethel Free Church was built on the bank
of the canal next to the Washington Street Bridge (at a location
convenient for boatmen and canal-boat passengers), among the
leading contributors were Samuel D. Porter, George A. Avery, M. B.
Bateham, Aristarchus Champion (a benevolent business man like
Bissell) and Everard Peck. Here were more soldiers to fight the
battles of the Lord!
CHAPTER IV
FINNEY ON BROAD
WAY
FINNEY'S reputation as a revivalist spread
throughout the North, and calls for his aid poured in from
ministers and pious laymen in all quarters. Two voices were
particularly loud and insistent: that from Ohio--"the Valley of
the Mississippi"--"in a forming state ready to receive any impress
which may be given it," and that from New York City, the growing
metropolis, the sink of iniquity, "the headquarters of
Satan."
Even in the early nineteenth century there
were two "frontiers," two fields of economic opportunity, the free
lands of the West and the emerging cities. The Yankees flooded out
into central and western New York, the Western Reserve and beyond,
but many, too, merchants; shipmasters, clerks, lawyers, bankers,
went to New York City and helped to win for it the primacy in
trade and commerce. From the time when, soon after 1800, Joseph
Howland, a Mayflower descendant, laid the foundations of the great
Howland New York shipping interest to the fifties, when Captain
Rowland H. Macy of Nantucket started his store and James Talcott
came from Connecticut to establish his dry commission business,
the invasion was practically continuous and rather disconcerting
to the native Knickerbockers. Now these Yankee magnates in New
York's business world were some whose New England consciences were
troubled the by sin of the city and who felt the call to do
something about it. Prominent among these were Anson G. Phelps,
David Low Dodge, William E. Dodge, Arthur Tappan and his brother
Lewis. Phelps and David L. Dodge were among the earlier arrivals.
The former had a Horatio Alger rise from poor orphan to New York's
leading importer of metals. Both had come to the city from
Connecticut before the second war with England. Dodge was a dry
goods merchant, known to history as a worker in the peace cause,
the founder (in 1815) of the New York Peace Society, the first of
the modern peace organizations. William E. Dodge, his son, married
Melissa, daughter of Anson G. Phelps, and left his father's store
to join his father-in-law in the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co.
and lay the foundation of the great Dodge fortune. The younger
Dodge was at one time president of the Chamber of Commerce of the
State of New York. All three established during their lives
reputations for great piety and benevolence and gave their money
and services to various ecclesiastical, missionary and social
causes. The Tappans, natives of Northampton, Massachusetts, and
later arrivals, are better known for their various religious and
reform activities than for their success as leading silk
jobbers.
In 1826, Judge Jonas Platt of utica and his
two children, Helen and Zephaniah, went to the great city to live,
and joined the Brick Presbyterian Church on Beekman Street. Their
pastor was the conservative Rev. Cardiner Spring; Anson G. Phelps
was a leading member. The Platts brought to New York
enthusiastically favorable accounts of Finney's work to supplement
the contradictory reports in the press. In mid-June, 1826,
Zephaniah Platt wrote to Finney: "If I know any thing of the human
heart I am ready to say that some of our N.Y. churches are in
readiness for your preaching."
The Platts persuaded Phelps and the Dodges
that Finney was just the man to stir Gotham from the lethargy of
religious indifference and sin. They pointed out that he was young
and handsome, had a penetrating and arresting voice and manner,
and used a vernacular which had not been desiccated by years in
the rarefied atmosphere of a theological seminary. But there was
opposition among the clergy, particularly from the Rev. Gardiner
Spring, himself. So, shortly after the New Lebanon "debate,"
Phelps invited Finney to a conference in New York at which leading
church workers and ministers could meet him and come under the
influence of his personal charm. Lansing, Aikin, Beman, Theodore
Weld and Zebulon R. Shipherd participated, along with Zephaniah
Platt, the Dodges, Phelps and certain city ministers, including
undoubtedly Spring and the eccentric and radical Samuel H. Cox,
pastor of the Laight Street Church which the Dodges attended. The
meetings, lasting for several days, took place in December, 1827,
at Phelps's downtown home. (He had not yet moved to his "country
seat" between 30th and 31st streets.) "I shall never forget those
days," W. E. Dodge later wrote. "Such prayers I never heard
before. These men had all come from the influence of the recent
wonderful revivals, and were all filled with the spirit." Finney
left New York for Reading, but he was followed by letters pleading
with him to come back and preach. The eider Dodge begged him to
stop in the city on his return north. At least four ministers were
ready, he said, to welcome him. Phelps wrote: "... We Shall Expect
to See you In our Stupid, Poluted [sic] and Perishing
City."
The invitations continued. Finney went on
to new triumphs at Philadelphia. In June, 1828, David Dodge
congratulated him on the birth of a daughter (Helen, later wife of
Jacob D. Cox). "Wm. is married to Miss Phelps." As soon as Mrs.
Finney was able to travel Finney must come back to New York.
Phelps and Platt wrote in a similar vein in July. The next month
Arthur Tappan first appeared in the picture as an advocate of
Finney's supplying Cox's pulpit during his absence. In August,
1818, Finney accepted the invitation and preached for the first
time in New York in the old Laight Street Church "with the entire
approbation and satisfaction" of the congregation.
But it was not until the autumn of 1829
that Finney had an opportunity to lead a real revival in New
York--again "under the management" of A. G. Phelps. This time he
preached in the city for nearly a year, moving the services from
smaller to larger auditoriums as his reputation grew. Many were
converted and the Union Presbyterian Church was formed in October,
1829. This was the first of the several Free Presbyterian Churches
established in New York, Boston, Rochester and elsewhere by
Finney's followers. In them seats were free and transients and the
poor were welcomed at every service. These churches took an
irritatingly "Congregationalistic," independent attitude toward
presbytery. They were strongholds of aggressive revivalism,
reformism and organized philanthropy. Finney's work in the city
was so notable that the Synod of New York passed a resolution
taking official cognizance of it. "The past year, to many of our
churches," ran the statement, "has been a year of the right hand
of the Most High. Jehovah has gone forth in the chariot of his
gospel, and triumphed gloriously over many of the enemies of tile
cross."
It was at this time that the Tappans
supplanted Phelps in the leadership of the Finney cohorts in the
city. They led in the coagulation of the converts into Free
Presbyterian churches. Zephaniah Platt financed the New York
Evangelist, the organ of Finney and his associates in the city,
when it was established under the editorship of N. A. Saxton in
the spring of 1830, but the Tappans took it over the next year and
gave the editorship to the Rev. Joshua Leavitt. Leavitt was
another Connecticut Yankee who had first come to New York in 1828
as agent of the American Seamen's Friend Society. He had been
infected with the liberalism current at Yale where he had studied
divinity two years. Before going to Yale he had been a practicing
attorney, a background which must have helped to draw him to
Finney. The Evangelist was a most important factor, to the end of
Leavitt's editorship (1837), in formulating and disseminating the
religious and moral ideas of the "radical" group.
Having stimulated this powerful impulse in
the metropolis, in late August or early September, 1830, Finney
departed for Rochester.
* * * *
It was in 1829-30 that a certain burly
young Irishman, who is an important figure in this story, came
within the evangelist's orbit. John Morgan was born near Cork and
was brought to this country at an early age. He was living in
Stockbridge, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with his apparently
widowed mother, "an illiterate woman" of "remarkable piety," when
the Congregational Church of that place made up a subscription to
send him through the local academy. He completed his preparatory
work in 1822 and entered Williams College, where he became a
classmate and lifelong friend of Mark Hopkins. Upon graduation in
1826 he went to New York City to teach in a girls' school.
Finney's preaching deeply stirred his somewhat easygoing nature.
In the summer of 1831 he removed, with his young Vermont bride, to
Utica, the heart of the Finney country. There he was taken under
the care of the Oneida Presbytery "with a view to being licensed
to preach the gospel." After an examination by a committee of
Finneyite ministers he was received as a licentiate, becoming
associated in that rank with Capt. Charles Stuart and Charles H.
Weld, Theodore Weld's brother.
* * * *
Early in 1831 Lewis Tappan began to write
to Finney begging him to come back to New York: "I do not think a
powerful revival will take place here unless you do come .... The
ministers here do not use the necessary means and will not. Depend
upon it a blow must be struck in this city, heavier than anything
we have had yet, or the revival will linger, and finally go out."
But the evangelist hesitated. The revival in Rochester was
proceeding with almost unprecedented success; urgent calls for his
services were coming in from New England, from various points in
upstate New York and from Ohio. The known opposition on the part
of many New York City clergymen troubled him. His convert and
lieutenant, Theodore Weld, had always favored delay in approaching
the large population centers. As early as 1827 he had written:
"Don't be in too great haste to get hold of the cities .... Kindle
back fires, Back Fires, BACK FIRES far and wide. Let them stretch
over the interior; the while you are engaged there the cities are
preparing fast--when ripe--at the favorable nick of time--give the
word--rally your forces and in the twinkling of an eye make a
plunge--and they are a wreck."
From Rochester Finney went to Buffalo and
then to New England: Providence, where a firm friendship with
Josiah and W. C. Chapin was cemented, and Boston, itself, where he
reached a temporary understanding with Lyman Beecher.
Few men have been so sought-after. Each
mail brought news of ripening fields awaiting his sickle. The call
from the West grew louder, that from the metropolis more
insistent. In the spring of 1832, Asa Mahan and Theodore Weld
bombarded him from Cincinnati; the Tappans moved heaven and earth
to bring him to New York. "Lord send thy servant Finney here,"
prayed Weld in Cincinnati. But Weld, said Lewis Tappan, knows
little of New York and "thinks the centre of the World is where he
acts." New York City, Tappan declared, was the key to the soul of
the nation: "Do what may be done elsewhere, and leave this city
the headquarters of Satan, and the nation is not saved. It is
truly wonderful what mighty influence New York has throughout the
country. The South, and especially the West, look to this city for
moral impulse. 20 thousand strangers here upon an average all the
time carry to every part of the Union the views and feelings
formed while here. A blow struck here reverberates to the
extremities of the republic." He admitted the importance of the
Great Valley but declared that "very soon Railroads will bring all
the business men to this city twice a year." "It is the opinion of
all the EIders of the Free Pres[byterian] Churches that
this city is the place for you to preach & that now is the
time. May God give you wisdom & grace to make a
decision."
Turning a deaf ear for the time being to
the supplications from beyond the Alleghenies, Finney came again
to New York City in the late spring of 1832. Lewis Tappan, with
the aid of his brother, Arthur Tappan, William Green, Jr., and
other pious business men, took over the Chatham Street Theater and
remodeled this stronghold of the Devil (all theaters were) into a
revival hall in which two thousand persons could be seated. The
renamed Chatham Street Chapel was dedicated April 23, 1832, at
half past five in the morning in order not to conflict with
business hours. Two Sundays later Finney preached two sermons and
administered the Lord's Supper in it. Immediately after, he began
a series of revival sermons which attracted large crowds and
produced many converts despite the cholera panic.
His preaching by this date seems to have
undergone a considerable change; from this period there are no
more accounts of the falling of the "slain" or similar "exercises"
among his hearers. Perhaps it was partly the effect of his sojourn
in Boston in the previous winter; perhaps it was the product of
association with Phelps, the Tappans and other gentlemen of New
York, perhaps only an evidence of greater maturity. It is quite
clear anyway that the character of Finney's appeals had been
transformed, not in essentials, it is true, but in tone. "I do not
mean .... that you have essentially changed your manner or stile
[sic] of preaching but... you reason more than formerly,"
wrote a colleague in March. Another took him to task a few weeks
later: "I fear that the peculiar circumstances in which you have
been placed have led you rather to a discussion . . . of abstract
theological subjects than to those soul-stirring appeals to the
heart and the conscience by which you once brought so many sinners
to the feet of Jesus." Of course, he never did lose his power to
stir the emotions of a great audience, as is abundantly testified
by witnesses of his sermons of later years, but he never seems
again to have gone to such great lengths in "breaking down"
sinners.
A more refined, more "cultured," more
intellectual Finney was emerging--the Finney of New York City--and
of Oberlin.
To assist in the work in the city Finney
brought down from upstate a whole company of his followers: the
Reverends Joel Parker, D.C. Lansing, Herman Norton and John
Ingersoll, father of the great agnostic. Not least important was
Thomas Hastings whom he brought to New York from Utica to
introduce his ideas of church music as a form of worship.
Apparently Hastings took direct charge of the singing at the
Chatham Street Chapel (and later at the Broadway Tabernacle) and
supervised the music at some dozen churches.
But, from the time that he began to preach
at the Chapel, Finney was in poor health. In the summer he fell
victim to the cholera and was for some time unable to appear in
the pulpit. A year later he was still a sick man. Finally in the
winter of 1833-34 his friends prevailed upon him to take a
vacation in some distant land in the hope that the sea voyage
would help him. He sailed on January 20, 1834, in a small brig,
the Padang, bound for Smyrna. The voyage was one of the most
unhappy periods of his life. His stateroom was oppressively tiny
and the little brig was badly knocked about by storms during the
journey of sixty-eight days to Malta. There, and in Sicily, he
spent some weeks, but did not continue to Syria and Palestine as
he had considered doing, but sailed for Boston from Messina,
arriving at the former port July 18. In the autumn of 1834 his
health was rather worse than better. He returned to his labors in
the Chatham Street Chapel with misgivings--seriously considering
giving up preaching altogether. He even sat for his portrait "on
condition that Br. Green shall give it to my family in case I
should be taken away."
A prospect of greater and greater influence
was opening up in New York. Plans were under way for the great
Broadway Tabernacle especially designed for Finney's use. Isaac M.
Dimond seems to have been chiefly responsible for the building of
the Tabernacle. He was yet another Connecticut Yankee, since 1830
a successful manufacturer of jewelry in the city. Construction
began in the spring of 1835 and, a year later, in the completed
edifice, Mr. Finney was installed as pastor of the Broadway
Tabernacle Congregational Church.
Printed propaganda for the cause was
distributed by the "Revival Tract Society," whose committee on
publication included, at different times, Finney, William Green,
Jr., Lewis Tappan, D.C. Lansing, Joel Parker, and Joshua Leaviii,
among others. At the beginning of December, 1834, Leavitt began
the publication in the New York Evangelist of Finney's twenty-two
Friday lectures on revivals of religion--reprinted in book form a
few months later and in successive editions throughout many years,
one of the most influential religious publications of the period.
Further to spread the revival spirit it was planned that the new
Tabernacle should contain a classroom under the choir where Finney
could prepare enthusiastic converts for the practice of the "new
measures" in the ministry.
CHAPTER V
THE MANUAL LABOR
SCHOOLS
EVERYWHERE Finney appealed successfully to
the young men: young lawyers, young business men, young farmers,
young teachers and students. Many of them abandoned their former
occupations and proposed to enter the ministry. The prospect of
spending four years in the usual college course plus two or three
years at a theological seminary daunted them. Some were already in
their late twenties or early thirties and they were impatient to
be about the Lord's business. Most did not have the financial
resources from which to pay the cost of such an extended
preparation; others were in poor health. Besides, did the
traditional dose of Latin and Greek and Mathematics really in any
practical way prepare for the ministry? Did the average college
lay sufficient emphasis on piety and morality? Finney, himself,
had intentionally avoided attending a college, and all emulated
Finney.
New departures in revivals had broken the
crust of indifference and formalism in the churches; new
departures in education, especially designed to meet the needs of
the current situation, furnished the logical solution of the
problem. The Finney men were bold; they were already known as
innovators; they feared conservatism more than experiment, if they
feared the latter at all. Success in the churches evoked
confidence, and the spirit of aggressive reform swept into other
fields.
Rev. George W. Gale, while at Western, took
several young converts into his home to teach them the arts and
divinity as he had taught Finney, following a practice common both
before and since the establishment of the first theological
seminaries. The unusual feature was that these young men paid Gale
for instruction, books and board, not in cash but by working on
his farm for a certain number of hours each day. This was in 1826.
Gale always considered himself the originator of the system of
"manual labor with study," and there is no evidence to show that
he knew at the time of similar prior or contemporaneous
experiments in this country or by Fellenberg in Switzerland.
Perhaps this is a case of simultaneous, independent
invention.
By 1827, Gale was prepared to apply the
combination of manual labor and study on a large scale. At Rome,
on February 14, 1827, when the new-measures men were conveniently
aslembled for the annual meeting of the Oneida Presbytery, Gale
presented to them his scheme for a manual labor school. The Oneida
Academy was formally organized March 1, 1827. In the first
announcement of the school, made public on that occasion, it was
declared that its "primary object" was "to educate young men who
have ultimately in view the gospel ministry." It was expressly
provided that the instructors were to be required "to inculcatge
the truths of the Christian religion, as well as the principles of
science." The students were to support themselves and the school
and benefit their health by three to four hours of mechanical or
agricultural labor daily. In April a hundred-acre farm was
purchased at Whitesboro, a few miles from Utica, and instruction
and farming began in May.
The Reverend George W. Gale and the
Reverend John Frost were, from the beginning, the leading spirits
in the enterprise and were naturally appointed the first agents to
secure funds. Mr. Gale and Mr. Pelatiah Rawson became the first
instructors. In September Gale was able to write to Finney, "Our
School is prosperous. We had an examination last month, much to
the satisfaction of the Trustees. Our crops are promising. We have
an excellent class of young men and they make as good progress in
their studies as any class I ever saw." Toward the end of the year
the faculty turned in their official report to the trustees. In
this it was stated that, "The labour performed by the Students has
been, upon an average, three and a half hours a day. This is the
only compensation which has been received for board and washing
.... About forty acres of land have been cultivated--two for a
garden, and the remainder for corn, potatoes, etc. Twenty acres
have been mown. Between forty and fifty acres of wood have been
chopped, fifty barrels of cider have been made, and other work
necessary on the farm .... The income of the farm . . . has
exceeded the expenses of boarding the students, keeping of stock,
hire in the house, and the hire of a labourer for a year, about
$150. It is, therefore, an ascertained fact, that a student may
defray the expenses of his board, by three and a half hours of
labour, and without interfering with his studies." Twenty-seven
students were in attendance during the first term, and
twenty-three of these were active Christians and intended, for the
most part, to enter the ministry. In June, 1828, the Oneida
Presbytery took official favorable notice of the school: "Whereas
the Oneida Academy promises to be a great blessing to the church
.... Resolved unanimously that it be recommended to the
congregations under our care to contribute liberally to the funds
of this infant and interesting institution."
The second year of the enterprise was a
discouraging one, as it was a season of excessive rain and part of
the crops were destroyed by the overflowing of the river.
Considerable progress was made, however, in 1829, 1830 and 1831.
An additional farmhouse was secured and a considerable expansion
in enrollment thus made possible. A barn and a cow stable were
built and a two-story shop, fifty by thirty feet, where the
students could make boxes when there was no farm work to do. The
student Society of Inquiry established a reading room where its
members could read periodicals, gratuitously supplied by their
publishers: the New York Evangelist, the Western Recorder, the
Rochester Observer, the Sunday School Journal, the Home
Missionary, the Journal of Health, the African Repository, etc. A
"Friend" in New York donated some five thousand volumes for a
library. G. P. Judd, one of Finney's early converts, sent
curiosities from the Sandwich Islands for a "cabinet."
In June, 1829, a petition was sent to the
Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York
requesting incorporation. The charter, promptly granted to the
school under the name of the Oneida Institute of Science and
Industry, entitled it to a share in the state "literature fund."
The first public "exhibition" was held in the Presbyterian Church
in Whitesboro in August "in the presence of a crowded audience."
There were ten speakers. "Among the number was a young Seneca
chief, . . . who spoke in his own native dialect. This, together
with the Latin and Greek orations, was of course unintelligible to
the majority of the audience "The Western Recorder thought it
"highly creditable."
Students and instructors maintained a
strenuous schedule. "The hour of rising and going into the field,
by common consent, has been four o'clock A.M. in the summer
months." Rising time, meal time, class hours and study periods
were signalled by the blowing of a horn. The day was always begun
with devotions. There were some classes at five, an hour before
breakfast! Diet was frugal: "We have griddle cakes and molasses
once a week," wrote one student, "rice and molasses
once--hasty-pudding once, and a baked bread-pudding once. These we
have in the morning. Twice in the week we have codfish and
potatoes for dinner. For the remainder we have bread and butter
and bread and milk." At each meal one student was appointed to
read aloud while the others ate. "We are now reading the life of
Thomas Spencer. No time is lost. Frequently we pass resolutions
and transact important business at the table, while we are all
eating as fast as we can." There was regular weekly drill in
"declamation" and all students participated in formal debates on
Thursday nights. All exercises were compulsory, including manual
labor. "The plough, the hoe, the spade, the shovel, the axe, and
the scythe, fall into the same hands that Virgil, Cicero, and the
sages of Greece--Blair, Paley, Brown, Euclid, and Legendre, have
occupied." Theodore Weld, who attended as a student but who acted
as agent, was "monitor of the milking class," getting up extra
early every morning to supervise the milking of thirty cows and
"get the milk off in wagons to Utica by daybreak."
But piety and high moral purpose were even
more central considerations than manual labor. The Society of
Inquiry kept alive the student enthusiasm for missions. The
revival atmosphere was constantly maintained. Some of the students
walked miles to neighboring communities each week to teach Sunday
Schools. In 1830, from their savings from labor at five cents an
hour, they contributed two hundred dollars "for the establishment
of Sabbath schools in the valley of the Mississippi." In the
"Narrative of the State of Religion" presented at the meeting of
the Oneida Presbytery in February, 1831, it was noted that, "The
Oneida Institute, in Whitesboro, has shared largely in the favour
of the Lord," and that, of the sixty students, "most . . . have
given satisfactory evidence of conversion to God."
Of course, the new-measures men played a
large role in sponsoring and financing the school. Finneyite
ministers who supported the enterprise included, besides Gale and
Frost, Samuel C. Aikin, Noah Coe, Luther Myrick, D. C. Lansing, N.
S. S. Beman and S. H. Cox. George Brayton of Western gave $250.00;
Finney's father-in-law gave a thousand feet of hemlock lumber;
Charles and Thomas Hastings contributed cash and favorable
publicity through the column of the Western Recorder, Josiah
Bissell, Jr., of Rochester, was the largest donor. In 1828 Frost
went to New York City where he presented the cause of the manual
labor institution to the city liberals. Judge Jonas Platt
introduced him and reported favorably on a personal visit to the
school farm. Anson G. Phelps promised a hundred dollars. Platt, S.
H. Cox, Phelps and Gardiner Spring signed a commendatory
testimonial.
But expenditures for buildings and
equipment had outrun donations. There was a mortgage of two
thousand dollars, and the total debt was nearer five thousand
dollars by the end of 1830. The students were growing restless
because theological instruction had not yet begun. Gale met the
crisis by calling the Rev. Nathaniel Beman from Troy to teach
theology and taking Weld away from his studies and his milking
class to appeal for funds to the converts of the revivals. Weld
had considerable success. "He is a lovely young man," wrote Mrs.
Finney's sister who heard him at Adams, "and a wonderful man, and
bids fair to be a very useful man in the world and in the church."
In December Gale sent Weld to Rochester to tap the philanthropic
resources being developed in the revival there. "You know that you
among others advised me to the establishment of this Institution,"
wrote Gale to Finney, "and I had reason to expect your cooperation
so far as it was within your power." The subscriptions secured on
the Genesee brought Gale and Oneida new hope. Late in January,
1831, following Weld's return to Whitesboro, Gale wrote again:
"The Lord has given Brother Weld and this Institution great favor
among the people at Rochester .... Monroe [county] . . .
has given an impulse to a system of education that is to introduce
the millennium .... Little did we think when talking over this
subject what was to grow out of the little experiment . . . in
Western." But Beman did not come, and students began to look to
other institutions where final preparation for the ministry could
be secured.
Now, Hamilton College at Clinton, like
Whitesboro only a iew miles out of Utica, was greatly disturbed by
these developments. President Henry Davis was pretty tough-minded
and lhere might have been trouble anyway, but the fact that he
opposed the revivals and that several of the trustees of the
College were new-measures ministers (Frost, Lansing, Aikin, and
Coe) certainly complicated the situation. President Davis,
himself, believed that Finney's friends were primarily responsible
for the difficulties. "Some believe .... " he later wrote, "that
he ['Mr. Frost] and the other members of the board who are
of the new school, have been hoping that Oneida Academy would be
benefited by the prostration of Hamilton College."
Rev. John Monteith, one of the professors
in the College, was a follower of Finney and an advocate of more
practical education and had assisted Gale and Frost in the
establishment of the Oneida Academy. Davis suspected him,
naturally, of being responsible for student unrest and of being
allied with the "reformers" among the trustees. According to
Davis, when the revival began in Utica one Hamilton College senior
prayed for the president "as an old gray-headed sinner, leading
his scholars down to hell!" and in chapel Monteith prayed: "Thou
knowest, 0 Lord, that the faculty of Hamilton College have sinned
in high places; and we pray thee, 0 Lord, if they are obstacles to
thy work, that thou wouldst remove them out of thy way." There was
an effort among the trustees to get Davis to resign and when he
refused a plan was introduced by Gerrit Smith, the
philanthropist-reformer of Peterboro, for the trustees to take
most of the executive power out of the president's hands. The plan
failed of adoption, but the College tottered; many students left
in mid-course to continue their studies elsewhere.
In 1829 Monteith left Hamilton for
Pennsylvania where he established the Manual Labor Academy of
Pennsylvania on a fifty-acre farm at Germantown. By the end of
1830 this school was declared to be prosperous except for
pecuniary difficulties, with 23 pupils and 3 officers including
the principal, an assistant teacher and a farmer. The students
were required to labor four hours a day by which means they "more
or less defrayed their own expenses, and established their health,
invigorated their constitutions."
When Weld went to Rochester in December and
January, 1830-31, to collect funds for the Oneida Institute, he
presented the cause of manual labor-with-study in persuasive
terms. Perhaps he overdid it, for Rochester new-measures men
decided to have a manual labor school to educate their own young
hopefuls. The Reverend Gilbert Morgan, a graduate of Union College
and Princeton Theological Seminary, at the time teacher of a
school at Johnstown, New York, and a member of the Albany
Presbytery, was secured to direct it. In April, 1831, Morgan
visited the Oneida Institute to study the operation of the manual
labor system there, preparatory to introducing it at Rochester. He
reached Rochester in the latter part of that month and opened the
Rochester Institute of Practical Education in May. In mid-July,
the Rev. William Wisner, acting as "President of the Board of
Directors," issued the first circular announcing the etablishment,
principles, plan and purpose of the school: "The Rochester
Institute of Practical Education was organized in May last ....
Its students exceed forty, collected from four denominations of
Christians, all equally privileged. It owes its origin to the late
revivals of religion in the western part of the state. Many young
men of piety and talents were anxious to prepare for the gospel
ministry, and to support themselves by manual labor rather than
burthen the church." The aims of the school were declared to be
"to secure to its members vigor of health, and strength of bodily
constitution, to cherish the proper moral and religious habits,
and to develop their minds in a direction adapted to their high
destination, and to gird the sterner and nobler energies of the
soul to the power of great accomplishment." The students, like
their brothers at Whitesboro, rose at four, spent a half hour in
devotions, and labored at least three hours a day. Instead of
making boxes they, appropriately, made flour barrels. As at the
beginning of Jefferson's IJniversity of Virginia the students drew
up their own rules and elected their own officers of enforcement.
The success of this plan of student government was dependent, it
was believed, upon the labor system. "Manual labor with moral
truth does in fact elevate the character and call forth the
energies of the soul. Idle, vicious and ignorant young men,
surrounded by temptations, are incapable of
self-government."
The first public examinations of the
Institute were held in January, 1832. It was incorporated by the
legislature in April following, but the financial support received
was wholly inadequate. In April also, Morgan announced the
abandonment of the Institute and the founding of the Rochester
Seminary of General Education. Though apparently manual labor was
given up, the emphasis on piety and "a course of study preparatory
to the sacred ministry" continued in the Seminary.
Gale and many of the other pious Yankees
were persuaded that manual labor was to be the central practical
feature of the coming American, Christian program of education. In
1830 Gale wrote: "Depend on it, Brother Finney, none of us have
estimated the importance of this System of Education. It will be
to the moral world what the lever of Archimedes, could he have
found a fulcrum, would have been to the natural. In July, 1831,
Lewis Tappan, Gale, and others founded the Society for Promoting
Manual Labor in Literary Institutions, and later in the same year
persuaded Theodore Weld, a living, breathing and eloquently
speaking exhibit of the results of manual labor-with-study, to
accept the general agency. In 1832 he travelled over 4500 miles,
nearly 2,000 on horseback or afoot, delivering over two hundred
lectures on manual labor and temperance. His journeys were not
unaccompanied by adventures. In Connecticut the stage in which he
was travelling overturned, and in Ohio near Columbus it was
carried away by the water at a ford. In the latter case he barely
escaped drowning and believed that his recovery from the exposure
was attributable to his temperate habits and a physique
strengthened by manual labor. In May, Gale received a letter from
Weld postmarked Danville, Kentucky. "He is not recovered from his
disaster," wrote Gale to Finney, "thinks it doubtful if he ever
does ....from what he says I judge that he speaks often, and with
great effect both for the temperance and manual labor causes. He
is a marvellous man in many respects! In Kentucky, Tennessee, and
Alabama he spoke once or twice each day on manual labor,
temperance and female education. He observed the evils of slavery
and discussed them privately with James G. Birney and William T.
Allan in Huntsville, Alabama, and Marius Robinson, a student at
the University of Nashville. In November Weld was back in New York
City delivering an address "on the salutory influence of regular
exercise upon the human system" in the Chatham Street Chapel. In
the following winter he prepared at his desk in the office of the
New York Evangelist the first and last report of the Society for
Promoting Manual Labor in Literary Institutions. This document
contains the most elaborate formal printed statement of the case
for the manual labor schools.
Weld had also been commissioned to find a
site for a great national manual labor institution where training
for the western ministry could be provided for poor but earnest
young men who had dedicated their lives to the home missionary
cause in the "vast valley of the Mississippi." Such an institution
would undoubtedly attract many of Weld's associates who had been
in the failure to establish theological instruction at the Oneida
Institute. Cincinnati was the logical location. Cincinnati was the
focal center of population and commerce in the Ohio
valley.
CHAPTER VI
CINCINNATI
By 1830 many conservative, Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians were beginning to suspect that by absorbing so many
New Englanders into the Presbyterian fold through the Plan of
Union they had settled the Goths at the Gates of Rome. Yankee
graduates of Yale, of Williams, of Hamilton and "alumni" of the
Finney revivals were enabled by the Plan to infiltrate into the
Presbyterian churches anywhere--in New York, in the Middle States,
and in the West. The fundamental Calvinist doctrines of the divine
sufficiency, predestination and the total depravity of man were
threatened. The New Englanders accepted these doctrines in
principle but acted in practice much like Methodists, insisting on
"human ability" (with the help of divine grace, of course) to
accept Christ and even perhaps to live a positively good life.
This point of view was associated in the New Englanders' logic
with active revivalism. Why appeal, said they, to a man to accept
Christ if that man lacked the power of decision?
The first settlements in the New West were
in Kentucky and the Ohio valley; the first settlers came chiefly
from the Middle and Southern States. Their Presbyterian ministers
got their inspiration from orthodox Princeton and they founded
orthodox Presbyterian colleges: Transylvania (Kentucky), Jefferson
(in western Pennsylvania), Miami and Centre. Cincinnati's first
Presbyterian minister, James Kemper, came from Virginia by way of
the upper Tennessee valley to Kentucky through Cumberland Gap and
then crossed north of the Ohio, a route followed by those of his
parishioners who didn't float down from Pittsburgh. Also a
Virginian was the dynamic Joshua Lacy who came over from Kentucky
to assume the pastorate of the First Presbyterian Church of
Cincinnati in 1808. Twenty years later, when Cincinnati was
definitely established as the business center and cultural
metropolis of the West, Wilson was the dominant ecclesiastical
figure of the community. He was the natural leader in the defense
against Yankee heresy.
In the 1830's the invasion reached
Cincinnati itself. The pseudo-Calvinists from the northeast were
aggressive; and they were organized through the American Home
Missionary Society; the American Education Society and the
American Tract Society; they were backed by Yankee money from New
York as well as New England and they were inspired by the Finney
revivals.
First to face the redoubtable Wilson in the
Cincinnati arena was the Rev. Amos Blanchard, a licensed preacher
from Vermont. He was an outspoken advocate of the liberal point of
view, a representative of the American Home Missionary Society.
Ordained by the Presbytery of Cincinnati in Wilson's absence, the
latter charged him with heresy and called for the revocation of
the ordination. Blanchard accused Wilson of slander. Their
differences were superficially adjusted in time for Wilson to
concentrate his fire on another invader.
In the spring of 1831 twenty "new-school"
members of Wilson's First Presbyterian Church seceded. On April 9,
1831, they organized the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati
and, in June, called the Rev. Asa Mahan of Pittsford, N. Y., to be
their pastor. Among the charter members were Amos Blanchard and
Mary Blanchard, Franklin Y. Vail and Catharine M. Vail, William S.
Merrell, William Holyoke and John Melindy. Blanchard's position
has been made sufficiently clear. Vail had come to the West from
Connecticut as Secretary of the Western Agency of the American
Education Society, a new-school organization for the assistance of
young men preparing for the ministry. It was he who presented the
call from the Sixth Church to Mahan at the annual meeting of the
Presbyterian Assembly at Philadelphia. William Holyoke, one of the
first three elders of the church, a coachmaker by trade, later
became a leading abolitionist. His name often appears associated
with that of John Melindy in religious and reform activities.
William S. Merrell, a former resident of Oneida County, New York,
had been a classmate of Mahan's at Hamilton College. After
graduation he had taught school for a while in Cincinnati and then
in the South; in 1830 he returned to that city and opened a
drugstore.
Asa Mahan was known throughout his life as
a bitter controversialist. He was usually in hot water. Before
being licensed by the Oneida Presbytery on May 30, 1827, he had
confessed to having circulated gossip and agreed to contradict it.
He preached at Pittsford, near Rochester, from November, 1829, to
March, 1831, and was there associated with Finney's Rochester
revival. As a result of that revival the membership of his church
increased considerably. However, when he was being considered for
the pulpit of the Third Presbyterian Church of Rochester, though
Josiah Bissell declared that he was "anointed of God," there were
some reports of dissension at Pittsford due to his disputatious
nature. But there was no doubt of his enthusiasm for Finney
revivalism and his belief in "human responsibility." When Vail
extended to him the call from the Sixth Church he promptly
accepted and preached his first sermon in Cincinnati to some fifty
hearers on August 25, 1831, in the dilapidated Second-fioor
auditorium of the old "College Hall" on Walnut Street.
A clash between Wilson and Mahan was
inevitable. Mahan was as aggressive as Wilson, another
pseudo-Presbyterian of the yankee tradition, and the champion of
the seceders from Wilson's own church. In sermons, in charges
before the presbytery, and in editorials in his personal organ,
the Standard, Wilson blasted at Mahan. In particular Mahan was
accused of saying that he had never adopted the Confession of
Faith of the Presbyterian Church and never would. Considering
Mahan's combative nature and his theology, it is more than likely
that this charge had some basis in fact. Anyway, a special
committee of the presbytery, made up mostly of hostile
conservatives, was appointed to investigate. On the other hand,
William Holyoke and an associate, representing the Sixth Church,
lodged charges against Wilson of "unchristian conduct" in
slandering Mahan in the press. Eventually the charges and
counter-charges were appealed to the synod, where a settlement was
made.
Blanchard, Vail, Mahan and their
associates, having prepared the ground and sown the seeds, called
for Finney to come and reap the harvest. Amos Blanchard wrote from
Cincinnati, on the first day of 1831, using "the language of the
Macedonfan Cry 'Come over and help us'." He pictured the
"Porkopolis" as a city of about 28,000 people "now increasing in
wealth and numbers beyond a parallel in the history of any other
city" and situated "in the heart, almost, of a country containing
more than 4,000,000 of inhabitants, and capable of sustaining more
than 100,000,000." There Finney would find, he declared, a great
deal to be done: "The whole number of attendants in the 4
Presbyterian churches does not exceed 3,000. There may possibly be
as many more in all the other evangelical churches. Six thousand
subtracted from 18,000 leaves 22,000 who either do not attend
anywhere, or only where damnable error is preached There in this
city a very large Roman Catholic cathedral, a Jew Synagogue, a
Swedenborgian Church, 1 Unitarian, one Universalist, one
Campbellite Baptist, and one Christian or New Light Society. The
regular attendants at these poisonous fountains may possibly be 3
or 4,000 .... Besides these nominal Christians, we have a large
number of Infidels, Owenites, Atheists, and Fanny Wright men, who
with open mouth and daring front, lift high the arm, and rant out
aloud their blasphemies against God." Even within the Presbyterian
churches Blanchard found "a state of spiritual torpor."
"Worldlymindedness exists to a great extent among the eldership,
some going so far as to keep their pork houses open on the Sabbath
where hogs are cut up for the market on Sunday .... When I look
over the empty pews of our churches my soul is distressed and I am
often led to exclaim 'O Lord how long?'" "O do take this matter
into serious & prayerful consideration," he continued. "I have
faith to full assurance that a wide and effectual door of
usefulness is opened here for you--a door such as would have
rejoiced the heart of Paul .... Do not disregard the cry of dying
millions who are rushing dark and unholy into the gates of
eternity .... Do not wait till Satan has made this city the high
place of Belial--a brimming mountain of sin, which will hereafter
send its torrents of spiritual death over these fair and fertile
regions." In the following summer nine other ministers, including
the Rev. Franklin Y. Vail, joined with Blanchard to petition the
evangelist to come to Cinncinnati. Blanchard's invitation was
certainly peculiarly adapted to appeal to Finney's fighting spirit
and must have done much to strengthen his interest in "the dying
millions" of the Great Valley.
Early in 1832 Mahan, having done, himself,
some pioneer work for more aggressive Christianity, led in an even
more insistent supplication. Twelve ministers, fifteen leading
laymen and Theodore Weld, then lecturing in the Valley, signed the
petition of February, 1832. Mahan wrote the petition and led the
list of signers, among whom were Blanchard, Vail, Rev. David Root
of the Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, Rev. Thomas
Brainerd of the Fourth Church, Rev. D.C. Blood of Cleves, Gideon
Blackburn, president of Centre College--a southern liberal, Rev.
Thomas Cole of New Richmond, and Rev. L. D. Howell, teacher in the
"Literary Department" of Lane Seminary. Among the lay signers were
William Holyoke and D. W. Fairbank of Mahan's church, J. C. Tunis,
J. H. Groesbeck, Robert Boal and Dr. James Warren. Mahan and Weld
reenforced the invitation by direct, personal appeals. "Sure I
am," wrote Mahan, "that among the numerous calls which reach you
from different parts of the country none are so loud as that which
calls you to this city .... God has raised you up for the great
valley and it must have your labors." Weld seconded him strongly:
"You never can move this vast valley by working the lever in
Boston, New York or Philadelphia .... Cincinnati is the spot for
you to begin by all means.... Besides, here is to be the battle
field of the world, here Satan's seat is. A mighty effort must be
made to dislodge him soon or the West is un-done." Arthur Tappan
and his brother and other associates in New York and Philadelphia
were willing to finance Finney for an invasion of the West, but
the Tappans much preferred that he should make his headquarters in
New York City. Finney went to New York City. As second choice
Cincinnati took Lyman Beecher.
* * * * *
The Western Presbyterians felt that they
should have their own theological seminary, where Western and
Eastern young men could be prepared in the West for service at the
West. The Rev. James Kemper, an educational pioneer in Kentucky
and Ohio, and the Rev. Joshua L. Wilson were leading sponsors of
the scheme and naturally thought that Cincinnati would be the
appropriate location. Despite their efforts, the logic of the
situation and the promise of a gift of land by Kemper and his
sons, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church eslablished
their Western Theological Seminary at Alleghenytown, across the
river from Pittsburgh.
Cincinnati's disappointment was great but
short-lived, for Yankee money did what the Presbyterian Assembly
had been unwilling to do. New Orleans, like New York and
Cincinnati and most other prosperous American cities, had its
colony of New England-born merchants, lawyers, teachers and
ministers. Ebenezer Lane and a brother, natives of Maine, were
commission merchants in this great Southern port. Like the Dodges,
Phelpses and Tappans in New York their consciences directed them
to do something for religion and morals with the profits they
made. In October, 1828, they offered $4,000.00 to found in
Cincinnati a manual labor institution "to prepare indigent young
men for the ministry." One of the apparent advantages of "manual
labor-with-study" was that it impressed practically-minded
business men favorably.
To supervise the establishment of the
school the "Ohio Board of Education" was organized, its membership
being made up of Presbyterian ministers and laymen, Wilson being
president and Dr. James Warren, corresponding secretary. Elnathan
Kemper, one of James Kemper's sons and a convert to liberal
doctrines, gave land in Walnut Hills for a site for the seminary
in the name of the Kemper family. The charter of Lane Seminary was
granted February 11, 1829. The Rev. George C. Beckwith, born in
New York, but then preaching in Lowell, Massachusetts, was
appointed to a professorship in April, accepted in August, and
arrived in Cincinnati in the following November. He "had 3 or 4
students during the winter, spent the summer following at the
East" and resigned in August, 1830.
The Lanes insisted on the manual labor
system but some members of the board opposed this experiment.
Wilson and David Root prepared a report favorable to manual labor
early in 1829. President Robert Hamilton Bishop of Miami
University, also a Lane trustee, opposed. The following year an
elaborate and favorable report on manual labor as practiced at the
Oneida Institute, at Monteith's school at Germantown, at
Maryville, Tennessee, and elsewhere, was presented to the
Executive Committee of the Board. In July, 1830, Beckwith visited
the Oneida Institute and wrote back to Cincinnati that manual
labor worked well and that the farmers and mechanics of the the
neighborhood approved of it. In January, 1831, G. W. Gale of
Oneida recommended a steward to supervise the seminary farm at
Walnut Hills; in February the trustees made the appointment. But
in the winter of 1830-31, Lane Seminary was in a state of
suspended animation. There were no teachers and apparently only
two students, Amos Dresser and Horace Bushnell, who had come out
from the Oneida Institute and had been given special permission by
the trustees to occupy rooms in the lonesome seminary
building.
At the beginning, conservatives and
radicals, Virginians and Yankees, appear to have teamed up
effectively in behalf of the seminary. But before 1831 the
leadership had passed from Wilson and his local supporters to the
Eastern men. On September 20, 1830, the Board met at Franklin
Vail's house, appointed him agent, apparently at his own
suggestion, and directed him to seek advice and money in the East
where Beckwith had failed. Wilson consented though he expressed a
lack of confidence in the outcome. Vail hastened away, "there
being no time to be lost," and he later wrote, "if the Institution
was to be secured in the hands of the New School Men." Vail's
friends in the Eastern cities suggested that if Lyman Beecher
could be secured to head Lane Seminary money would undoubtedly
follow. The trustees accepted the recommendation enthusiastically
and on October 22 It unanimously appointed Beecher "President of
Lane Seminary and Professor of Didactic and Polemic Theology."
True, Beecher was preaching in a Congregational church at Boston,
but Vail expressed confidence, in a letter to Dr. Warren, that
there would be "no difficulty in having the Dr.
Presbyterianized."
The funds did follow the nomination, as had
been hoped. Arthur Tappan, one of Finney's good angels, agreed to
give the income from $20,000 to the support of the school if
Beecher accepted. Oliver Eastman, who was Vail's successor as
agent, obtained thousands more in subscriptions, but everything
depended on Beecher, and Beecher hesitated. His congregation in
Boston wanted him to stay, and opposition developed in
Cincinnati.
Finney and Beecher had apparently buried
the hatchet. In August, 1831, Beecher wrote to Finney: "... You
and I are, as much, perhaps even more, one than almost any two men
whom God has been pleased to render conspicuous in his church."
After all, they both believed in "human ability" and the efficacy
of revivals. In the following winter Beecher welcomed Finney when
he went to Boston. In February, 1832, Dirck C. Lansing wrote to
Finney asking him to intercede with Beecher in behalf of Lane
Seminary, his acceptance of the appointment being "of vital
importance to the cause of truth and revivals there." Perhaps
conservatives in the East informed Wilson of this rapprochement.
Certainly his suspicions of Beecher were aroused. On November 8,
1831, Asa Mahan, the arch-radical in the West, was appointed a
trustee of Lane Seminary. Nine days later Wilson submitted his
resignation as president and member of the Board. In his letter of
resignation he denounced the election of Mahan and the appointment
of Beecher. "Dr. B. is not a Presbyterian--nor can he honestly
become so without a great change in his theological opinions." It
seemed to him to be "the full determination of the Majority . . .
to render the Lane Seminary entirely subservient to the New School
Theology."
Beecher had been deeply interested in the
opportunity from the beginning. "I have thought seriously of going
over to Cincinnati .... " he wrote earlier to a daughter, "to
spend the remnant of my days in that great conflict .... If we
gain the West, all is safe: if we lose it, all is lost." He had,
he said, "a feeling as if the great battle is to be fought in the
Valley of the Mississippi." Another official invitation was
extended to him in January, 1832, and in June he accepted. On
October 19 Oliver Eastman, now financial agent, wrote from
Philadelphia: "The Dr. and his family left here today in an extra
stage for Wheeling. His wife, sister, and six children are with
him, nine souls. Should he be prospered on his way he will be with
you on Saturday of next week [8 days] or early the week
after. I rejoice that he is on his way." Indeed, all the friends
of Lane Seminary must have drawn a sigh of relief. It was now two
years since the appointment was first made. Beecher had been
"Presbyterianized" by being admitted to Finney's Third Presbytery
in New York City, and an effort of the Rev. Gardiner Spring to get
the Synod of New York to revoke this action had failed. On
December 26, 1832, Beecher and Professor Thomas J. Biggs were
inaugurated together. In January, 1833, Arthur Tappan authorized
Vail to draw on him for Beecher's salary.
But Lane had had students even before it
had a regular faculty. In 1831, when the Rev. Lewis D. Howell, a
student at Auburn Seminary at the time of Finney's revival there,
was interim teacher of the Literary Department, there were fifty
young men attending the seminary. Amos Dresser was the only New
Yorker among them, but this was not to last long. Three Oneida
students went west to teach country schools in the winter of
1831-32. George Whipple and J. L. Tracy went to Kentucky; Calvin
Waterbury got a school at Newark on the Licking River in Ohio.
When in the spring Waterbury talked too much temperance, the
inhabitants threatened to ride him out of town on a rail. He
prudently climbed aboard a raft and floated down to Cincinnati.
There, he and Dresser were soon joined by two other Oneidas,
Sereno W. Streeter and Edward Weed, and by Henry Brewster Stanton
from Rochester. Theodore Weld stopped at Cincinnati twice on his
manual labor lecture tour--in February and March, 1832, and in the
following September. On the earlier visit he delivered several
lectures and supported the call to Finney to come west. Lane, he
concluded, would do as a manual labor theological school if
Beecher would come. The Oneidas need look no farther. It was
worthy of the support of the Tappans and their friends and of the
manual labor society. Weld adopted the seminary as his own and
told the trustees what appointments to make. In Weld's absence the
other New York-Yankee students managed the school through Asa
Mahan.
When Beecher and Biggs were inaugurated in
December, 1832, the enrollment of students had increased to
ninety. But the invasion from the East had just begun. Stanton
returned to Rochester in the spring of 1833, promising to bring
back others from his home town if "the advantages of
instruction-room accommodations, etc." were made "vastly superior
to those of last summer." "I shall probably visit Oneida Institute
about the 10th of April," he added, "where I shall find others
whose eyes are turned westward. As many of these brethren will go
down the Allegheny either in Rafts or Skiffs during the high
water, you will see the importance of giving me an immediate reply
to this." Early in June, Stanton and Weld and six other young
Finneyites arrived in Cincinnati, having completed their journey
down the river from Rochester and Oneida. They were promptly
admitted to the seminary on the recommendation of two other
"Oneidas" already in attendance. The tempo of the seminary was
sharply stepped up, its real head now being on the ground. "Weld
is here & we are glad," wrote Professor Biggs to Vail on July
2.
Lane became definitely a school for
educating young Yinkees in the West. Of the forty members of the
first theological class listed in the General Catalogue of 1881
the antecedents of thirty-seven are known, and thirty-one of these
were Yankees from New England or upstate New York. Lane was Oneida
moved west. In 1834, or before, twenty-four former students at
Oneida Inslitute were enrolled in the literary or theological
departmerits at Lane. Eight students, including Henry B. Stanton
and his two brothers, came from Rochester and vicinity. Several of
these had studied at the Rochester Institute of Science and
Industry. Two Yale men came to Lane. John Tappan Pierce graduated
from Harvard in 1831 and came to Lane from the Princeton
Theological Seminary where he had spent but eight months. Thomas
Williamson, George G. Porter, and Josiah Porter from South
Carolina, William T. Allan from Alabama and James A. Thome from
Kentucky certainly found themselves in a nest of Yankees. Marius
R. Robinson was a graduate of the University of Nashville,
Tennessee; Huntington Lyman had spent some time in Louisiana;
Andrew Benton had been an agent of the American Bible Society in
Missouri, but the first two were born in New York and the last in
Connecticut. It must have been something of a shock to the real
Southerners when on May 28, 1833, James Bradley, "a man of colour"
was admitted to the Literary Department?
Of course, it was necessary to expand the
faculty. Calvin E. Stowe left Dartmouth for a Lane professorship
on condition that $500.00 of his salary should be paid in advance.
George Whipple, one of the Oneidas, abandoned his school in
Kentucky to study theology and teach elementary courses at the
seminary. In mid-summer of 1833 John Morgan arrived to teach in
the Literary Department. He had been recommended for the
appointment by Professor Chester Dewey, active anti-slavery worker
of the Williams College faculty, by Joshua Leavitt, editor of the
New York Evangelist, and by Finney, himself. "I have had
considerable contact with Mr. Morgan," wrote Finney, "& so far
as I am qualified to judge, I most cordially concur with the
sentiments expressed above by Mr. Leavitt." Morgan became the one
member of the faculty closest to the liberal, Yankee, Finneyite
group of students, their trusted adviser and confidant. Weld wrote
of him in June, 1834: "I know of no man whose views on all
prudential matters are more thoroughly judicious and whose
comprehensive grasp of difficult subjects in all their relations
is more perfect." Morgan played the same role in the faculty that
Mahan did among the trustees.
The students at Lane took the initiative in
the affairs of the seminary and practiced piety mixed with
practicality in the Oneida manner. In March of 1833 thirty-two
students, including apparently all the Oneida Institute "alumni"
then present, petitioned against the serving of that harmful and
expensive drink, coffee, at the boarding house. In August another
student committee went so far as to recommend the diet which they
believed was "necessary for the promotion of health and success in
their studies." Manual labor was elaborately organized. The work
on the farm was in charge of a board of monitors and a student
monitor-general, Samuel Wells, formerly of Oneida. The printing
shop was supervised by a committee of students made up of James
Steele, formerly of the Rochester Institute; R. L. Stanton, an
"Oneida," and Marius R. Robinson. Elaborate rules were drawn up
for the "Printing Department." The student printers printed
Webster's Spelling Book and "Dr. Eberel's Treatise on the Diseases
of Children." Alexander McKellar, a skilled cabinet-maker, and
others made furniture in the mechanical department. The Society of
Inquiry Concerning Missions was very active, and many students
taught Sunday Schools in Cincinnati or nearby.
CHAPTER VII
JOHN JAY
SHIPHERD
IT WAS in 1819 that John Jay Shipherd, then
but seventeen years old, "determined to lay aside his books and
attend to his soul's salvation." He was spending a vacation from
Pawlet Academy at the home of his parents in Washington County,
New York, when his horse stumbled and threw him. He was
unconscious for some time as a result of the fall and, when he
came to, determined to seek salvation for fear another accident
might precipitate him unprepared into the other world. He returned
home and--"For two weeks," as his wife later wrote, "he was under
the most pungent convictions of sin, so much so that for two days
he shut himself in his room almost in despair. In this state of
agony he felt that he must be lost, and yielded himself up to his
fate. The Lord mercifully revealed himself to his mind, and he had
great peace and joy." From this date Shipherd was never without a
deep consciousness of sin. In a letter written to his brother in
the same year he speaks of the debt of gratitude he owes to his
parents, "which might be paid did I but possess a right heart. Ohl
that I possessed it and was grateful to my parents and my God for
the innumerable blessings which I have enjoyed and am still
enjoying; but alas! my wicked and deceitful heart will not permit;
gratitude cannot flow from a heart so vile as myne; no, she is too
pure, there is no mansion fit for her habitation." When he
returned to school he had definitely decided to prepare for the
ministry. "He set his standard high and resolved on a finished
education. His ambition prompted him to become no ordinary
scholar; his logic was, the more he knew the more good he could
do, if sanctified."
Zebulon Rudd Shipherd, his father, was a
distinguished lawyer and Federalist politician. Educated at
Bennington Academy and in a private law office, he served as a
member of Congress from March, 1813, to March, 1815, and was for
many years (1819-1841) a trustee of Middlebury College. After his
marriage to Betsy Bull, a cultured, high-spirited woman, he built
a fine mansion on the single, broad, shady street of Fairvale,
just outside of Granville, N. Y., his birthplace, where they lived
until their removal to Moriah, N.Y., in 1830. It was at Fairvale
that the children were born: Fayette, Minnie, John Jay, and James
K., the youngest. It appears that the lawyer engaged in farming on
the side, for John Jay wrote in his earliest known letter,
addressed to Fayette; "We are farming on a larger scale than usual
and we are building a farm house. Father has been absent nearly
three weeks and will probably be absent two weeks more. On account
of his absence all the business, both of farming and building,
devolves on me." The Shipherds were, in the early years, generally
prosperous; for a while they owned Negro slaves. In 1835 John Jay
wrote in a letter to the trustees of Oberlin: "I was brot up with
blacks & slaves & would choke with thirst before I would
drink from the same cup with them: but God has shown me that it
was an unholy pride & sinful prejudice which I dare not
cherish longer through fear of his displeasure." Zebulon later
came to rue his slaveholding days and was generally known as a
liberal, an enthusiastic follower and friend of Charles G. Finney
and attorney for Gerrit Smith, the philanthropist reformer of
Peterboro, N. Y.
Soon after his conversion John Jay Shipherd
left Pawlet Academy at Pawlet, Vermont, and spent the next two
years at the nearby academy at Cambridge, N. Y. He was making his
preparations to enter Middlebury College when one evening in
February, 1822, "feeling somewhat indisposed, he proposed to take
a dose of epsom salts. He was directed where he could find it in
the cupboard, and he, through a mistake, took salt peter.... A
doctor was called who administered an emetic, which ejected it
from his stomach, accompanied with such an alarming quantity of
fresh blood, that his friends gathered about him to see him
breathe his last." Though he did recover, his eyes were so badly
damaged (by the combined effects of overstudy and the poison) that
his entrance into college had to be postponed indefinitely. It was
hoped that a stay at Saratoga Springs and liberal use of the
far-famed waters would restore the full strength of his eyesight.
Neither this treatment nor the attention of a famous oculist in
New York helped him and thus it became necessary to discover an
occupation which would not require much reading.
His father gave up his law practice
temporarily and took over a marble factory in order to start his
son in a profitable enterprise. It was at this time, when John Jay
Shipherd was twenty-two years old, that he married Esther Raymond,
five years his senior, of Ballston, New York, and they went to
live at Vergennes, Vermont, in the neighborhood of the marble
factory. The change in occupation did not in the least reduce his
piety, for, in May, 1825, we find him attempting the conversion of
his brother James by letter. "Dear James," he wrote, "I would
rejoice, and praise God that you have so much encouragment how to
come to Christ the dear Savior of Sinners, and it is my prayer
that you may come quickly before it is forever too late. Oh think
dear brother how much you might enjoy, and how much good you might
do,--how much misery you might escape and what a blessed portion
you might ensure to yourself if you would now repent and believe.
Oh let me entreat you as I love you to come to Christ." A letter
to Fayette written a year earlier shows him as always more anxious
about the things of the spiritual than of the material world. "My
attention is quite too much occupied by the business of the
Factory--more so I hope than it will be when we get through
building our machinery. My mind must now necessarily be employed
in planning machinery etc. and cannot be employed at the same time
in serious contemplation. I have reason to fear that through
strict attention to my business which requires the closest
attention now, I shall neglect my soul & my Savior .... We
have an interesting Sabbath School, 60 or 70 scholars, about 20 of
them are French children." In Vergennes, Mrs. Shipherd afterwards
wrote, though he "received the attentions of both old and young,
and was invited to join in the amusements of the youth,"
nevertheless "he took a decided stand, and threw his influence
upon the cause of Christ and the Church." His interest in Sunday
Schools seems to have been first expressed in active work while at
Vergennes. The marble factory was a total failure as was a later
venture in the whetstone business. Shipherd always seems to have
been lacking in business acumen.
The collapse of these enterprises and the
tragic death of his daughter, Jane Elizabeth, turned his mind
again to the ministry, despite his physical disability. Early in
the spring of 1826 he wrote to his brother of his
"Call:"
"I need your counsel and your prayers.
Since I last wrote you by mail I have felt an increased and
increasing desire to Preach the Gospel. I have thought of it much
and have made it a subject of prayer and sollem meditation. At
first it seemed impossible, my heart, my whole life, my ignorance,
and my eyes, forbade it, and yet I could not rest. 'Go preach my
Gospel' was reiterated in my mind, and has continued to echo there
till I can scarcely dwell upon another subject. The redemption of
the soul has indeed appeared precious to me, and the service of my
Master Jesus more delightful than before. Oh that I might be
accounted worthy to be his minister! And can it be? Does my master
bid me go? Did I know it was his voice that sweetly whispers,
'preach my gospel', Gladly & Quickly would I arise, contend
with all the obstacles which indeed appear like mountains, and
through his strength surmount them all." Shipherd answered his own
question in the affirmative. Perhaps his mind was already made up
at the time.
Esther Raymond Shipherd went back to her
parents' home in order to leave John Jay free to join the
household of the Reverend Josiah Hopkins, author of the
widely-used textbook the Christian Instructer, and later of
Auburn, but then of New Haven, Vermont. In his new work Shipherd
seems to have gotten along generally well, hiring another student
to read to him and taking his notes in shorthand. His period oE
study was brief. "After one year and a half, his teacher sent him
out with a few written sermons to commence with." He was not at
all confident of his ability to preach and determined to spend his
efforts for the most part in the founding of Sunday
Schools.
At the first town he visited,
however--Shelburne, Vermont--they were lacking a minister. He
preached his supply of ready-made sermons with apparent success
and then went on to some of his own devising. Upon the urgent
request of the Shelburne congregation he decided to remain for a
year and sent for Esther and the son, Henry Zebulon, who had been
born to them in the meantime. In the autumn of 1827 he wrote
optimistically to his father:
"Doubtless you feel a deep solicitude for
my success in the great work which I have undertaken. Strange
indeed would it be if you were not solicitous; knowing the nature
of the service & my imbecility .... Your desire is, doubtless,
that I should be useful, rather than honorable in the sight of the
world; & believing as you do, that success in the Ministry of
reconciliation, does not depend upon the armour, which colleges
& Theological Seminaries furnish, but upon the sling &
stone; you will not utterly despair of my usefulness. The want of
education I deeply feel, & present embarrassment through the
weakness of my eyes--but notwithstanding all these imbecilities, I
have to rejoice & bless God, that I am enabled to get along so
well.
"Through the Grace of God given me, I am
enabled to preach in such a manner as to secure the attendance of
a more numerous congregation than they are want to have in this
wicked place. And altho the truth which I preach has not become
like a 'two-edged Sword' (as I ardently desire that it may) it
seems to make a more than usual impression upon the minds of a
few. My hopes of a revival here, have been considerably raised,
but there seems to be everything here calculated to stagger my
faith. Episcopacy deals out its opiates profusely. Infidelity
pours forth its deathful waters in desolating torrents & Satan
has come also into our little church, raising up an Achan in our
Camp.
"But notwithstanding all these obstacles,
in God will I hope, and in his name 'preach the word' &
'preach it faithfully', if by any means I may save some &
clear myself of the blood of all men. I was Ordained as an
Evangelist, on the 17th ult. in this place. It was a most solemnly
interesting day to me & favorably impressed my people. I
should have been highly gratified could you and Ma have been here
.... We are comfortably settled, when will you & Ma &
friends come & see us? Your visits & letters will lay us
under new obligations to love & bless you. Young Zebulon
thrives well--Says Tittie, Kittie, Pa & Ma & doubtless he
is 'friendly' to G. Pa & G. Ma."
Family ties were close among the Shipherds.
Associations with parents, brothers, wife and children, we are led
to believe, were of the greatest importance to the sensitive
nature of John Jay. It is seldom that he omitted in his letters to
say something about the children. His interest in his brother
James's spiritual salvation, though partly explained by his
general piety, appears also as an expression of his fraternal
affection. In the spring of 1828 he wrote to him:
"You are my br. dear to my heart, &
being denied the pleasure of personal intercourse, it is highly
gratifying to enjoy scriptual intercourse .... The present, dear
br., is a most interesting & critical period of your life, for
you are now forming a character for time & eternity. How do
you feel with regard to the future? And why do you wish to obtain
a finished education? to get rich? to be crowned with the laurels
of honor? or to do good? Oh for an assurance that it is for the
latter purpose--to do good to your fellow beings & to glorify
God, for if it be for either of the former I fear it will prove a
curse instead of a blessing. Do you not feel a desire to spend
your life in doing good? You have tallents, & education, which
you may improve so as to do much good should your life be spared.
My br., it is a luxury to do good & my frequent prayer is that
you may enjoy it. Will you not without delay give up your heart to
God, & consecrate yourself to his service, which is pleasant,
the wages of which is durable riches? O my Br. I pray you do it,
serve not him whose wages is death, eternal death."
John Jay Shipherd saw no good in learning
for learning's sake. Learning was only of service as the handmaid
of religion and true religion was expressed in action--in doing
good. This was the theory which was to dominate that "Collegiate
Institute" which he later founded and there was much of Finney's
point of view in it.
As early as 1826 young Shipherd had heard
Finney preach and, though he declared that he did not like his
"impudence and asperity of manner," nevertheless, he was deeply
impressed by his "holy ardor of soul" and "Paul-like boldness." In
December of 1827 he must have found it hard to resist Finney's
invitation to come to Stephentown and "preach as candidate for
settlement" over the church there built up in Finney's great
revival. His father, as a member of Finney's "Holy Band," favored
the venture. "What answer could I give?" John Jay asked his
brother. "Call truely inviting-do more good--pay debts. I asked my
Master (as I hope) & he said No. Leave not that Little Bark,
without a Pilot, to be broken by the mad billows which incessantly
beat against it." He remained in Shelburne where, for a while, he
had a young man studying theology with him. "Tis profitable to me
& for a time (ignorant as I am) I trust will be to him." But
he could not fail to feel the urge westward which was already
drawing so many thousands. "Where will my Master [lead]
me?" he wrote. "To the North West Coast?" But the time to go west
had not yet come.
His stay in Shelburne ended with the first
year. He had become very much interested in the Sunday School
movement and had done much work in aid of such schools for several
years, and concluded to devote himself exclusively to it. In the
autumn of 1828 he was appointed General Agent of the Vermont
Sabbath School Union. Through the next two years he labored in
this field, making his headquarters at Middlebury, where his wife
helped to support the family by taking over the boarding
department of the female seminary. One of the fruits of his
activity in this department was a handbook for Sunday School
teachers. The little booklet, containing 58 pages, was published
in 1828 as The Sabbath School Guide, No. 1. In 1831 it was revised
and reissued as an official publication of the Vermont Sabbath
School Union. He also published the Youth's Herald monthly
throughout 1829 and 1830. This tiny magazine (about 3x5 inches)
was intended also primarily for use in Sabbath Schools. In the
first issue the editor stated that he intended to furnish "simple,
interesting and profitable" reading for children and "an important
aid to parents and guardians, in training up their children, in
the way they should go."
Of course, the issuance of publications was
only a part of the agent's work, most of his time being taken up
with visiting schools, establishing new ones, and founding county
Sabbath School libraries. Shipherd's conception of his agency is
stated editorially in a later issue of the Herald:
"Now, this Agent feels that he has a great
and good work to perform. He has a whole State for a parish, and
many thousand souls to look after. The dear lambs of his numerous
flock are scattered all over the mountains and through the
valleys; and the Bible says, the Devil, as a roaring Lion, goes
about to destroy them. This Agent loves these lambs, and cannot
bear the thought of having them destroyed by the roaring Lion. He
thinks, if they could all be sheltered in good Sabbath Schools;
that the Lion would not find it easy to catch them; and he knows,
that if they could be brought into the arms of Jesus, the Good
Shepherd, they would be safe. Now, for the love which he bears
these tender lambs, he begs the christians to pray, that he may be
a good shepherd, and instrumental of saving them from destruction.
He begs also, that Ministers, Parents and Guardians,
Superintendents and Teachers, and all others, will do what they
can to bring them into the fold of the Sabbath School, and into
the fold of Jesus Christ. Let no one wait for the coming of the
Shepherd; for though he intends to visit his whole flock as soon
as he can; much time must pass away, before he can see them
all.
"Up, then, all you who care for souls, and
labor with all your might, to save these tender ones from the
Devourer. And dear lambs! fly you to the Sabbath School, and to
the Great and Good Shepherd, Jesus; and may he fold you in his
arms, and carry you in his bosom."
Probably partly in recognition of this
work, Shipherd (in company with his brother Fayette and Noah
Webster, who had just published his Unabridged Dictionary) was
granted an hononary degree by Middlebury College at the 1830
Commencement. Absalom Peters' periodical, the Home Missionary and
Pastor's Journal, seems to have been the deciding factor in
sending him forth into the "unplowed spiritual fields" of the New
West Besides, less than half of his $500.00 salary as agent had
been paid. In his letter of resignation he wrote that most people
seemed to expect "God to rain manna from heaven upon his family,
or send the ravens to feed them." In the last issue of his Youth's
Herald appears the farewell to his "Young Readers":
"The time has come when he who has spoken
to you through the Youth's Herald, will speak to you no more. For
two years has the Editor of this little messenger striven to send
to you interesting and profitable truth. Unless you, dear readers,
are benefited, he has no reward for his labors; for he has not yet
received the actual cost of publishing. His aim has been to do you
good. Have you been profited? If you have not, is the fault yours
or the Editor's? He must soon answer to God for the manner in
which you have received instruction. And now, dear readers, as the
Editor has no more to say to you, will you not look over what he
has said, and mind that which is good? Little as the Herald is, if
you will follow its instructions, it will prove to you a herald of
salvation.
"I am pained to part with you, my little
friends; but I must go to a distant land, and try to do good to
others. May God in mercy, send you, the dear lambs of my flock, a
more faithful Shepherd; and may you so repent, and believe, and
obey the Gospel, that the great and good Shepherd will receive you
into his arms."
By the date of the publication of this
issue of his little magazine he was already in "a distant land."
His momentous decision had been made in the spring of 1830, and in
May he wrote of it to his parents: "As it now seems to me the
finger of Providence points westward even to Mississippi's vast
valley, which is fast filling up with bones which are dry; &
the Spirit that giveth life is not wont to breathe upon them, till
the prophet's voice be uttered. Who shall utter it? As if
affrighted at the sight, many who, I think, ought to go, stand
back. The cultivated field of New England & the Middle States
is more inviting than the new & desolate region of the West;
& has a multitude of laborers in it compared with that valley
of moral death. The Lord of the harvest says 'Whom shall I send,
& who will go for us?' The heart of your unworthy son
responds: 'Here am I send me'." From this time on, John Jay
Shipherd's life was devoted to the salvation of the Great Western
Valley.
* * * * *
The Shipherd family, now including two
sons, and joined by Elmira Collins, a schoolteacher friend,
boarded the canal boat near Schenectady for the journey into the
Godless wilderness at one o'clock in the afternoon, Tuesday,
September 18, 1830. Four days later on Saturday afternoon, October
2, they arrived at Rochester. This was either well planned or a
fortunate coincidence, for it allowed them to stay in that town
over the week-end and thus escape breaking the Sabbath and also
hear Finney who was then conducting his first great Rochester
revival. Finney tried to persuade Shipherd to stay and help him;
Shipherd tried to persuade Finney to go west. But they parted with
mutual benedictions, Finney to stay in New York and continue his
revivals and Shipherd to carry out his mission to the "desolate
valley." Neither could have guessed the association which the
future (which both would have considered providential) held for
them. "I was at the Second Church," Shipherd wrote to his brother,
"where I preached in the afternoon. I heard Br. Finney in the
evening, & had some agreeable private intercourse with him.
The work of God there seems to move on with power. Br. F. was very
desirous that I should stop and labor with him, saying that he
never needed me so much; but anxious as I was to stop, my Lord
& Master seemed to bid me depart, saying that his work for me
was in this land farther west."
The little party again took up their
journey at one o'clock Monday morning, and reached Buffalo on
Tuesday. Having improved the opportunity to see the "sweetly
blended... grandeur and beauty" of Niagara Falls they boarded the
Steamboat Henry Clay at nine o'clock Wednesday morning. Though
Miss Collins, Mrs. Shipherd and the boys, along with most of the
crowd of three hundred passengers, were intensely seasick, they
landed safely early on Thursday at Cleveland, then a village of
about a thousand souls. The next day Shipherd received news of a
vacancy at the frontier settlement of Elyria in Lorain County some
twenty-odd miles farther west. On Saturday he arrived in that
village with his family and their companion. On Sunday, October
10, he supplied the pulpit of the First Presbyterian Church of
Elyria, a religious society of but 30 members.
A letter written to his brother, James,
then a student in Middlebury, about a month after their arrival in
Elyria shows the young evangelist-missionary as always with a
single eye to the salvation of souls, including his own brother's:
"Dearly Beloved Brother .... Our journey
was far more pleasant than we anticipated. The stream of God's
mercy rolled along our pathway, nearly 700 miles long, ever fresh
and cheering. 'Tis pleasant to dwell upon that journey altho' it
was from loved ones, for it was ordered by the Lord in kindness.
Think not however that all was pleasant. Your fond heart knows too
well the pangs of separation to believe it could be. 'The fondness
of a creature's love,' 'How strong it strikes the sense!' 'Thither
the warm affections move,' 'Nor can we call them thence.' However
pleasant we passed along, we were receding from loved Parents,
Brothers, Sisters & other kindred near & dear, &
friends we loved; & those curious cords which bound us to
them, thus strained, produced an aching of the heart. Oh brother,
I shall not forget Rutland when I said to you farewell .... When I
said farewell to others, I hoped if we did not meet again on
earth, when life's toil was done to meet in heaven, & part no
more forever; & this hope as a kind heavenly ray chased
sorrow's darkness from the soul: But ah my brother! no such ray
cheered the spirit when I said farewell to you; and for want of it
sorrow filled my heart .... The thot of your continuance in sin is
too disturbing for endurance. You have tallents to do good; it is
your duty to do good; & my soul desires that you may enjoy the
luxury thereof. I desire not simply your salvation, but that you
may be the means of saving others, & thus of honoring God. O
my beloved brother, I tremble for you in view of a bare
possibility that you may be lost; for if you should be cast with
the unprofitable servant into outer darkness yours would be a
tenfold condemnation; for you would sink in hell forever under the
instructions, & admonitions, & entreaties, and prayers of
many anxious friends. Brother Fayette, in a letter this day
received, speaking of the mortality of Middlebury, says 'If
brother James should die in his present state, how awful!' The
very thot struck my soul with a death chill. O brotherl Dear
brother, you must now give your heart to God! "Whether I locate in
this place will not be known till about the first of Jan. &
about the event I have no anxiety. I feel that I am now doing my
Master's work, & am willing to continue it here or elsewhere
as he shall direct. I never labored in his good services more
cheerfully, & I hope that my labor, however poor, will not be
in vain in the Lord."
CHAPTER
VIII
ELYRIA
CONNECTICUT'S Western Reserve on the
southern shore of Lake Erie was a wilderness when Kentucky became
a state. Except for a few scattered settlements in the eastern
portion at Tallmadge, Austinburg, Hudson, Painesville, etc. this
was still true when Ohio entered the Union in 1803. Indeed the
area beyond the Cuyahoga was Indian country until 1805. While the
Southern uplanders and Pennsylvanians were settling in Kentucky,
Tennessee, southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, the Yankees were
occupying the valley farms of western New York and pushing slowly
along the lake shore into the extreme northeastern area of Ohio,
where Cleveland was founded at the mouth of the Cuyahoga in the
last years of the eighteenth century.
In the first decade of the new century a
few New England farmers drove their ox-carts west of Cleveland,
and occasional tiny clearings appeared to break the gloom of the
virgin forest shade. Progress in the occupation of the Lorain
County area was slow, however, until well after the War of 1812
when the Indian menace was at last dispelled. The Beebes, from
Vermont, appeared on the lake front near the mouth of Black River
and on the ridges (lake fronts of former geologic ages), and the
Burrells, of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, settled nearby in
what later became Sheffield Township. Scattered farms were
purchased from the Connecticut proprietors in Amherst Township
from 1810 through 1817 but not until Josiah Harris settled at
North Amherst and Harry and Eliphalet Redington at (South) Amherst
in 1818 could the place be said to have been "founded." In the
previous year log buildings had been put up at Elyria at the forks
of the Black River by Heman Ely, and in 1830 Artemas Beebe erected
a tavern there (a frame building torn down in 1942). In 1818, 1819
and 1820 the Penfields arrived to open up the township later named
after them. In 1817 and 1818 Colonel Henry Brown, of Stockbridge,
Massachusetts, led a colony of his neighbors to establish the
settlement at Brownhelm, among them Peter Pindar Pease, Grandison
Fairchild and Alva Curtis, an uncle of Mark Hopkins. The
Fairchilds, with their three little sons, Charles Grandison,
Edward Henry, and James Harris (only a year old), drove their
wagon through central New York to Buffalo where they took passage
on Lake Erie's newly-launched first steamboat, the
Walk-in-the-Water, to Cleveland. From Cleveland they continued the
journey with a team by a route through the forest that could
hardly be flattered by the name of road. The first houses were, of
course, log cabins, sometimes without chimneys, doors or floors
and even without "chinking" between the logs. By the fall of 1818,
however, Mrs. Curtis could write: "Here is now and then a rustic
dwelling in a field of wheat newly sown and springing up fresh and
green. The tinkling of bells are heard around and even the crowing
of cocks at our neighbors' doors; health is in our habitation and
a pleasing prospect before us of the latter harvest."
One of the last parts of the county to be
opened up was a swampy area known as Township 6 North of Range 19
West of the Western Reserve, but later called Russia Township,
containing the future site of Oberlin. In 1818 a few clearings
were opened in its northern part adjacent to the Amherst
settlement and a short distance from the main east-west,
mail-stage road (Route 113) which connected Elyria with Maumee and
ran through the southern part of the present Amherst township.
Russia Township was regularly organized in 1825, and in 1829 there
were 21 votes at the election. Most of these early settlers were
in the Amherst vicinity, however, the south central portion where
Oberlin was later established being almost unbroken forest until
1833. Before the latter date a road had been opened through it
from north to south, running from the mouth of the Black River on
Lake Erie to Wellington--the present Ohio Route 58. None of the
maps show it, but there appears to have been some sort of a track
from Elyria west to the Oberlin site along the Route 10 and Lorain
Street of today.
In 1822 Lorain County was formally
organized and two years later Elyria was made the county seat. By
1830 that village had a population of between six and seven
hundred people and boasted several stores, two mills, blacksmith
shops, an iron foundry, two taverns, a classical school, and a
newspaper, the Ohio Atlas and Elyria Gazette.
Missionary pastors of the
Congregational-Presbyterian Plan-of-Union persuasion early
appeared among these later Pilgrims. Joseph Badger was the pioneer
of the New England missionaries on the Reserve, founding the
Austinburg church in 1801. There he was succeeded in 1810 by the
Rev. Giles H. Cowles, who in 1830 gave place to Henry Cowles. All
three were Yale men as were many of the early Ohio ministers.
Henry graduated from college in 1826 and from the Yale Theological
Seminary in 1828. At Yale he and his brother and classmate John P.
Cowles were associated with the famous Illinois Band (Flavel
Bascom, Theron Baldwin, etc.), and as late as 1829 he was still
planning to join them. He preached from late 1828 to early 1830 in
Ashtabula and Sandusky and then went East to make Alice Welch his
bride, returning soon after to Austinburg. Stephen Peet and Joseph
A. Pepoon had both been students at Auburn Seminary when Finney's
great revivals were in progress. Peet came to preach in Euclid,
just east of Cleveland, in 1826; Pepoon came to Mantua in the same
year and later preached in various towns in the region. Dr. Alfred
H. Betts, physician as well as minister, came to the church in
Brownhelm in 1820, preaching there and in surrounding communities
for many years thereafter. In 1828 he was joined by his brother
Xenophon Betts, who in 1829 was installed as pastor at Wakeman, a
few miles to the south of Brownhelm and west of the present
Oberlin. In 1826, Frederick Hamlin, the postmaster at Wellington
(nine miles south of Oberlin), wrote to the American Home
Missionary Society asking that a minister be provided for that
community. David Smith was sent in reply to this request and he
was succeeded in 1828 by Joel Talcott, a graduate of Yale and the
Auburn Seminary.
The Western Reserve had its own Domestic
Missionary Society which met in its first regular session on
September 28, 1826, at Aurora "at the rising of the Sun." Giles
Cowles was elected first president. This society was at first
associated with the Board of Missions of the Presbyterian Church,
but in 1830 it became an auxiliary of the American Home Missionary
Society. At the same time the Rev. Daniel W. Lathrop, minister in
Elyria, was appointed agent for the organization. A few weeks
later he wrote to Peters, the secretary of the national society,
calling for thirty more missionaries for the Reserve. This was in
April; in June Lathrop spoke at the anniversary of the American
Sunday School Union in New York City, presenting the needs of the
Valley of the Mississippi for Sabbath School workers and
ministers. About a month later Shipherd resigned as agent of the
Vermont Sabbath School Union to answer the call.
The Yankee missionaries planned schools,
too, to supplement the work of the churches. Western Reserve
College was founded at Hudson in 1826. Charles B. Storrs, a
graduate of Andover, became one of the first professors and
President in 1831. Rev. Beriah Green left his church at Brandon,
Vermont, to join him on the faculty in 1829. Green was an old
friend and associate of John Jay Shipherd's. He apparently had
also studied at Pawlet Academy before going to Middlebury, and had
been one of the managers of the Vermont Sabbath School Union when
Shipherd was agent of that organization. When Shipherd's brother
Fayette was ordained at Pawlet in 1826, Beriah Green led in prayer
and delivered the charge to the congregation. Various secondary
schools were also established at an early date: the Grand River
Institute at Austinburg, a seminary at Brownhelm as early as 1825,
the Huron Institute at Milan--a manual labor school, and the
Elyria High School. When this "high school" was opened in 1832
John Jay Shipherd hoped to have his brother, James K. Shipherd, of
the Thetford Academy, Vermont, appointed to head it. But instead,
John Monteith, formerly of the University of Michigan and Hamilton
College, was brought up from Germantown. Monteith supplemented his
teaching with some preaching in Elyria, Ridgeville and other
nearby points.
Among these missionaries on the Reserve
there was probably a majority of new-measures men. In 1831 a
friendly evangelist wrote to Finney: "In Ohio I found some men of
the right Stamp among whom was President Storrs of Western Reserve
College who is a real Fullblooded thorough going Finneyite also J.
J. Shipperd of Elyria." Mrs. Finney's brother, P. B. Andrews,
wrote to her from the little village of Cleveland, where he was
engaged in making steam engines, that their minister was anxious
to have Mr. Finney come west. Monteith's relationship to Finney
has been developed in a previous chapter. In November of 1830
Stephen Peet invited Finney into his pulpit at Euclid. In the
following February thirteen ministers and laymen of the Grand
River Presbytery (Austinburg, Painesville, Geneva and vicinity)
united in requesting Finney to visit them "as soon as you can
consistently with your other duties," praying that God might "in
his mercy make you instrumental in quickening his people, and in
saving sinners from eternal death." The signers included Giles and
Henry Cowles, and Joseph Pepoon. A special invitation was sent by
the church at Painesville. Finney, of course, did not come--yet.
It was to be over four years before New York would lose him to
Ohio.
In the spring of 1831, Shipherd wrote home
to his parents describing Elyria and the Lorain County environment
in considerable detail:
"The first tree was here cut 13 years ago,
but the village has been mostly built within six yrs. Its site is
a peninsula formed by the two branches of the Black River, which
in the widest place are just about one mile apart. At these points
the main street crosses the branches, & is pretty thickly
settled most of the way. There are numerous other streets laid
out, on some of which they have begun to build. The village is now
growing rapidIy, & the expectation is that it will be large.
It is the third town [on the Reserve] & its water
privileges for this country are uncommonly good. They are not yet
occupied save by a grist mill and sawmills a forge & furnace
but probably will be soon. We are 9 miles from the mouth of the
river & lake, and 24 from Cleveland. This village has the
business of almost the entire County, and some of neighboring
Counties. We have an elegant court house which cost 7000 dolls
....
"The face of the country is plain, crossed
in various directions with sand ridges. From these ridges of light
soil you gradually descend to the low grounds, which are clay or
heavy loam, too wet for plowing but fine for grass. These lands
are heavily timbered with chestnut, oak, white wood, hickory,
maple & Beech, ash &c. I have not seen a pine tree in the
country. White wood is a good substitute. These lands are sold
from 2 to 8 dolls. per acre. They are tolerably well watered. Our
well water is very fine. This place is as healthy as your mount.,
& so is this region generally. The mouths of the streams are
comonly sickly. Provisions are abundant usually. More scarce now,
altho enough. Wheat from 50 to 75 cts. pr. bush. corn from 20 to
37 cts &c. Merchandise something higher than with you or
Middlebury, but coming down. Our climate is something milder than
yours. Our people are mostly from Conn. and Mass. or N.
Y.
"Our moral condition is deplorable. There
are but two Presb. ministers besides myself laboring in this
county, and these two have for months been unable to labor. And
there is but very little lay help. The pop. of this town is about
700 & of this Co. about 6000, which is rapidly growing. The
Co. is very new. The four miles of the town lying north of this
village are almost unbroken wilderness. A few families are
scattered through it, & wolves enough. Returning from a
mission among these families, night overtook me--I lost my way, as
I could not see the marked trees or tracks which were covered with
leaves--& to comfort me while searching for the road a gang of
wolves set up a howling which make the woods ring, but he who
delivered David from the mouth of the Lion & bear delivered me
also, & led me home safely. Let not Mother be troubled about
this; for no one here has ever been injured by the wolves. Wolfish
men are much more to be dreaded; & as I was saying, we who
have to oppose them and labor for their salvation are but very
few."
* * * * *
On February 2, 1831, Shipherd was
definitely settled as missionary pastor in Elyria in succession to
Lathrop. Beriah Green preached the sermon at his induction.
Shipherd found his new duties very exacting for his weak
constitution. "I have as many public services to perform as if my
congregation was twice as large, & have to prepare for them as
carefully. It is seldom that I have a night at home. In the
village or out, I hold a meeting nearly every night. I also spend
what time other duties will permit in visiting, I being judge. The
fact that there are only thirty in the church, to me, is evidence
that there is much to do. And remember that this is the most
prominent place, Cleveland excepted, in the whole bounds of our
Presbytery. O brother there is so much to do, & it is so
connected with eternity that in view of it I should sink did not
my Lord say, 'My grace is sufficient for thee'"
Finding it impossible to rent, the
Shipherds built a house of their own where they lived comfortably
but frugally for the next two years. "Some of our people are
neglilgent in paying salary, but the God whom we serve sends
others with full supplies. We have not wanted any good (temporal)
thing." "We are temporate and have been so in drink & food. We
eat bread & milk for breakfast & suupper & a little
pork with vegetables for dinner." For a while the fear of the
cholera cast its shadow over them as it did over the whole
country. In August, 1832, Shipherd wrote to his parents: "Through
the mercy of God we have had no cases of cholera among us yet.
Some 8 or 10 have died in Cleveland, & many more west of us.
We hope you will not be anxious about us .... If after all we
should be removed, we trust it will be our Father's hand that will
take us." In April of 1831 a third son was born. "Thro' the mercy
of God I am permitted to say that at 2 o'clock this morning we
received another son, large and vigorous, weighing nearly eight
pounds. He is the Lord's. Esther was favored, & is apparently
doing well. You will join us in praise to God, & pleading that
we may have additional grace to discharge parental obligations. O
how great it is!
Every letter written by John and Esther
Shipherd from Elyria contains intimate references to their
children: their sayings, their health, or the state of their
souls. The letter just quoted continues: "The children, of course,
are delighted with their little brother. They say and do many
things which would interest their grandparents if they were here.
Henry learns much in Infant School Wm. considerable. Lately
H--began to play on the Sabb morn. Wm. said
'Re-mem-Sabb-day-keep-holy.' H. sometimes weeps saying that he is
a sinner. They both talk much of you, & express anxiety
(particularly H--) to have you come here." It is not surprising
that the latest born (named Edward) should have become the
favorite of the family. "Edward continues to be lovely in our
estimation. We are happier in him, than, perhaps, either of our
[other] infants. Father made him a swinging cradle, &
Grandma wd. be delighted to see him sit upon the edge of it &
swing himself to a tune of his own chiming. He is healthy, strong,
affectionate, & apparently of good intellectual constitution.
Perhaps he is dearer to us because born in a strange land. He runs
about the yard and garden makes a multitude of various sounds but
does not talk."
Never could Shipherd forget that even these
young, tender shoots had immortal souls to be saved. "With all
that is estimable in these children of our care, we are grieved
that they are children of wrath. We teach them that they are under
obligation to repent now &, in our poor way, pray that they
may now turn to God; yet still we want faith. I do believe that
our most ardent & constant desire is that our children may be
the servants of the Lord." Henry seems to have been particularly
impressed by these parental efforts for his salvation. "He eats
nothing but bread & milk for breakfast & supper, usually;
having engaged to forego the butter for a Testament monthly to
give to poor children. He has obtained two. He said lately, that
if I would give him money to pay the Female Ed. Soc. for heming
his pocket handkerchief, he would abstain from butter at dinner
also."
Despite the fact that Shipherd felt sure of
his selection by God he was often conscious of lack of training
and ability to do the work, "imbecility" he usually called it. In
December, 1831, he wrote to his parents of "the poor furniture
with which I entered the holy ministry--my constant inability to
improve it much--." In a letter written to Finney early in the
same year he expressed the same feeling of inadequacy:
"I am sorry to occupy your time which
thousands want, but can deny myself the privilege of writing you
no longer. I rejoice in the Lord's marvelous work in Rochester
& the region around about--Also in the villages & cities
east of you. The frequent intelligence which I receive from them
by means of the N.Y. Evang. & other periodicals and private
communications, revives my drooping spirit in this valley of dry
bones. O br. I pant to be with you, & inhale the soul reviving
influence which gives life to all around you! I often think how
blessed I should have been could I have remained with you in
Rochester. It was my heart's desire to stop with you, but my
Master seemed to bid me leave for this region, & still I think
it was my duty. Why it is that I have not been permitted to labor
with you, that I might learn of you for a season, I know not. I
have ardently desired it, hoping that I might thus obtain
qualifications for the holy ministry, for which I am now utterly
disqualified. But hitherto God has righteously hindered me. Dear
br. shall I never be taught of God thro' you? I remember your
parting prayer, in which you spoke of my coming as your pioneer,
to this valley of death. I have come, as I believe, under our
Master's direction to this place, a new & flourishing village
24 miles south west of Cleveland, & have received this people
in charge by solemn installation. I have endeavored to preach the
word to them in season & out of season, & preach to them
repentance & the remission of sins. As a pioneer I have opened
the way to a field, than which no one of the same population can
be in greater need of your ministry .... "But whether our Lord
permits you to come or not, counsel your weak & unworthy br.
who is already here desiring to do, but not knowing how. I believe
I do not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. I have spoken
out the truth in the sanctuary, lecture room & from house to
house, fearing no one, favoring no one, at least I have aimed to
do so; & yet the people will not repent. Only two in this
place to my knowledge have turned to God since I came here. The
people are some of them mad at me, & say all manner of evil
against me; while others say, 'This is plain truth,' & sleep
on in their sins; or at least do not awake to righteousness.
"This is indeed a lamentable state of
things. I deplore it, and beg of you to tell me how to produce a
better. I do not preach right, I know not how to preach right. O
tell me how I may thrust the two edged sword into the sinners
inmost soul!"
It is a significant letter also as
emphasizing the early association and unity of purpose of two
great leaders of Oberlin, and also the reverence and respect with
which Shipherd looked upon Finney. Though the great evangelist did
not come to the Reserve in response to this summons, the time was
soon to be when he would follow his "pioneer."
Perhaps Finney gave Shipherd advice which
he could utilize, for in May and June a "new-measures" revival
compared to that in Rochester was reported from Elyria. At the
tirst meetings, "the congregation was small & the prospect
dark, but God's Holy Spirit descended in such overpowering might
that . . . [it] resuited in the hopeful conversion of many
souls." A casual visitor to the town during the "excitement"
reported: "The streets on Monday appeared like Sabbath day. When I
carried my letter to the Post Office, it was with considerable
trouble I could get into a store to obtain a wafer to seal it As
was said of Rochester, 'they have more important business.' The
influence of this work of the Lord is extending into neighboring
towns. It already seems like the scenes exhibited in Rochester, of
which we have read .... It is the Lord's doings, and marvelous in
our eyes, and to Him be all the glory." Shipherd wrote to his
brother: "God is truly doing great things for us in the valley. Oh
that we had help to gather the rich harvest already whitened
around us! On August 14, though Shipherd was "closely confined to
a dark room on account of sore and inflamed eyes," Reverend A. H.
Betts of Brownhelm officiated in the reception of fifty-five
members into the Elyria church. In 1832 Shipherd was enabled to
report to the American Home Missionary Society, by which he was
partially supported, that there were 160 students in the Sabbath
Schools, that there was a Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society
and a Bible and Tract Society and that 63 new members had been
received into the church as a result of the revival.
He carried his labors also into surrounding
communities. On one occasion he "rode thirty-two miles to attend a
two days meeting, and altho' the pastor of that church made a
special effort to collect the ministers within 30 miles of him,
there were but two beside myself." However, on this occasion, "the
meeting was owned of God," despite the generally hostile
community. "It was in a place where infidels lately cut the pulpit
Bible in pieces & scattered it around the church yard. The
congregations were small, but 15 took the anxious seats on the 2nd
day." In reporting the revival to the American Home Missionary
Society Shipherd declared that at least half of the converts at
the Elyria meetings came from adjacent towns. "When they returned
to their homes, the Spirit of the Lord went with them, and in
their several neighborhoods there have since been a number of
hopeful conversions. In our place, conversions have been
multiplied since that meeting, and we hope they yet will be. If we
reckon those who reside in neighboring towns, there have been
probably a hundred hopeful conversions . . . since my last
report." Shipherd was exultant. "The dry bones of this valley," he
wrote, "to which I have prophecied at my Master's bidding, &
with many tears & sorrows, have begun to live." Sometimes he
met resistance. Not always were strange ministers welcomed in the
frontier communities--especially if they advocated the radical
"new measures" and pried into secular matters such as the drinking
of alcoholic beverages. "I have recently returned from a six days
meeting at Monroe in Huron Co. 40 ms. west," Shipherd wrote early
in the spring of the following year to Fayette, "& have not
yet recovered from the prostration of mind & body which it
caused. It was one of the hardest fought battles between the
powers of light & darkness that I ever witnessed, and poor I
was obliged to stand in the forefront. The wicked had mustered
& combined all their energies .... Twice while I was preaching
they discharged muskets, (without lead) close upon us. At one time
they fired against the door, bursting it open, &
simultaneously thro' the windows, driving in upon us the glass and
powder. But thro' Grace I was able to make such an application of
it, as to deepen the impression of truth. The wrath of man praised
God, & altho' it was a school house meeting some 25 or 30
manifested hope."
Shipherd also threw himself
enthusiastically into the temperance cause. We can easily imagine
that there was need of temperance reform on the Reserve as
everywhere on the frontier where life was hard and whiskey cheap.
At the time of Shipherd's first arrival the stores of the village
regularly served free whiskey to their customers as a special
inducement to trade. Late in November of 1831 the church held a
special meeting to discuss the question and, after a lengthy
debate, was persuaded to adopt Shipherd's stand for complete
abstinence from all spirituous beverages. They resolved "that
distilled spirit is the bane of man, & that any but a
medicinal use of it is inconsistent with the Christian character."
Most of those present took the pledge to abstain from all use of
distilled liquors as beverages.
Early in 1832 Shipherd wrote to his father
of his further work for the cause: "We yesterday held a County
Meeting, & I rejoice to say that God was evidently with us.
Our meeting was well attended, & powerfully addressed. Our
place has been like the Dead Sea, but now there is such an
agitation that I hope its waters will soon be purified .... I
yesterday read an appeal to the inhabitants of our County, of
which the Society have ordered a 1000 copies to be struck off for
gratuitous circulation. When published I will send you one. You
will doubtless think it quite patriotic for John; but such are
most of my appellees that I thot it best to hide the minister
believing that I should thereby most effectually accomplish the
minister's work. It is a poor thing, but the best I could write in
the time allowed me. I expect my time will be much occupied in the
temperance work for some weeks to come. I have waged war against
Alcohol in our County, with the design of fighting in person in
all its towns. I hope I trust in the Arm of Omnipotence &
shall wage an exterminating war."
The address referred to was printed in an
anonymous pamphlet under the title of An Appeal to Patriots,
Philanthropists, and Christians, in Behalf of Our Endangered
Republic, and Its Suffering Members. It is indeed full of
patriotism. Shipherd describes the nation with "her feet cemented
to the soil of liberty by Parental blood--her stately frame
compacted by indissoluble precepts--and her lofty head, looking
down upon all the navies and armaments of nations, with invincible
superiority." But there is a "subtle Foe, which threatens the
accomplishment of what mighty nations cannot do--even the
subvertion of our Grand Republic .... Do you ask his name? As
friends and patriots, we reveal it, His name is Alcohol; but
surnamed Rum, Brandy, Gin, and Whiskey." He appeals to statistics
to show that alcohol destroys three hundred and sixty million
dollars annually--enough, he says, to pay off the national debt,
render taxation unnecessary, build a great navy, build all the
canals and railroads needed, found "seminaries of learning of
every grade," establish asylums for all of the unfortunate, send
the slaves back to Africa, give "a Bible to every family, and the
living ministry to every people on our continent" and, indeed,
"furnish the world with the word of God." Whatever one may think
of the financial insight exhibited it certainly is clear that
Shipherd was an ardent foe of Alcohol.
These aggressive measures raised up
determined enemies. Conservatives were disturbed by the
"excitement" associated with the revival, and aggressive
temperance advocacy was looked upon by most Westerners and many
church members in the early thirties as a species of extreme
fanaticism. Shipherd was evidently deeply hurt by the attacks
directed against him and seems to have become at this time a
nervous as well as a physical wreck. Even in January of 1832 he
wrote in a pessimistic vein to his brother: "Since Aug. I have
been able to do but little for my people & the work of God has
lamentably declined. My much enlarged flock have not relapsed into
gross sins; but have fallen asleep." By the following spring he
was greatly discouraged.
"How long we shall remain in Elyria I know
not," he wrote to his father in April. "The enemy comes in upon me
like a flood; but my joy in the midst of trouble is that it is
manifestly the enemy of God. The good people cleave to me. One of
our lawyers, by the name of Parker, once resident in Midd., Vt.
has publicly declared that there will be no peace in E. while I
remain here, & that he will do all he can to effect my
removal. He is making good his word. He has charged me with
illicit intercourse with Miss. C.[ollins]--& a
multitude of enemies have pre[ssed] the charge till it has
flown over the county, & I know not how much further .... I
bless God that I have not been suffered to reproach the holy
ministry comitted to my trust, & can rejoice in saying: 'The
Lord is on my side, I will not fear what man can do unto me.' I
expect sorer things than these. The signs of the times (political
& religious), evince to me that the blood of the martyrs will
ere long be demanded. The state of our country is indeed fearful.
The God of nations only can save us from destroying
ourselves.
"I know not but I should shrink from the
fiery trial, but had rather the days of persecution would come
than that the chh[church]. shd[should]. sleep in
sin. 'The blood of the martyrs has been the seed of the Chh.' If
my blood can make the church more fruitful by flowing from my
veins, than by flowing in my veins let it depart, the grace of God
being sufficient for me to endure the ordeal. My opinion is that
Romanists, Atheists, Deists, Universalists, and all classes of
God's enemies will combine against the Chh. and our once happy
government seems to be fast preparing to favour the murderous
projects. The last for Andrew Jackson!
He felt that he made no headway at all. "I
cannot keep my flock up, nor near to the Gospel standard, nor win
over the impenitent to God," he wrote to his parents in August of
1832. On September 3 he was considering withdrawal: "I . . . feel
that my sphere of usefulness is now much circumscribed. A large
proportion of my congregation are now hoping in Jesus... and the
emigrants to our place of the last year are, mostly, so hostile to
God that they have not, many of them, even for once entered his
house." The following week he presented a half-hearted resignation
to the church. "I have thought," he told them, "that there was a
state of feeling towards me, which so curtailed my usefulness that
I had better retire." Three days later he as half-heartedly
withdrew the resignation, despite which the church voted fifteen
to fourteen to ask presbytery for his dismission--Heman Ely, the
founder of Elyria, casting the deciding vote!
But already John Jay Shipherd had evolved a
grander scheme for bringing salvation to the Great
Valley.
CHAPTER IX
A GRAND SCHEME
TO AN enthusiast of Shipherd's sensitive
nature such apparent failure as that which faced him in Elyria was
all but unbearable, and he looked around for a way in which he
might be more useful to the Christian cause. It is not surprising
that he should have been somewhat disillusioned as to the
effectiveness of the ordinary ecclesiastical organizations in
evangelizing the West. Would not a new colony of selected,
consecrated souls, founded in the virgin forest far from the taint
of established and sin-infected towns, be a more effective
evangelical agency? There sin would not be allowed to get a start,
the whole enterprise being devoted not to worldly ends but to the
salvation of man's eternal soul. When the settlement was firmly
established a school could be founded to educate the "hopefully
pious," and the leaven of this western Zion might be spread by
means of the missionaries and school teachers there educated and
by means of subsidiary colonies, churches and schools throughout
the whole wicked Mississippi Valley.
The plan was certainly not an entirely
original one. The Yankees of this period were much interested in
the possibility of civilizing and Christianizing the frontier by
means of colonies of settlers from Connecticut, Vermont,
Massachusetts or New York. They feared the crudity, the
irreligion, the illiteracy, the lawlessness and the improvidence
of the West, and felt the pressing need of such settlements to
supplement the work of the missionary preachers and teachers. It
is not difficult to find examples. In Rochester, only a few months
after Finney's departure, a group of citizens held a public
meeting to consider "sending a colony into the valley of the
Mississippi" whose purpose would be "to exert an influence on the
surrounding country and cause the Gospel to be preached." At
Royalton, Vermont, it was proposed to establish in the West a
colony of Vermonters "of good moral education and of industrious
and enterprising habits," which "would be a sun, radiating its
enlightening and vivifying rays" over that "moral waste." The
editor of the Vermont Chronicle, fearing that the movement would
depopulate the state, felt called upon to editorialize against it.
In the West, he said, the water was "universally bad," and new
arrivals were certain to get the ague and the fever. Besides, who
would want to give up Vermont's "ever varying prospect of hill,
dale, and glen, of forest, grove, and clearing, of streams and
streamlet, cascade and ravine" for the "unvaried insipid flat" of
the "interminable prairie" Such discussions served, of course,
chiefly to publicize the colony idea.
When Shipherd's house was finished,
following the example of his master, Josiah Hopkins, he took three
students into his home to prepare them for ministerial labors. One
was Jabez Burrell, the son of the founder of the Sheffield
settlement. He had been converted in Elyria during the revival of
the previous May and was, according to his teacher's estimate,
"tallented & devotedly pious." The second was the son of Henry
Brown, the founder of Brownhelm; he had been converted by Finney
while employed at Auburn, N. Y., as a bank clerk. Both, Shipherd
wrote to his father, were "promising young men & shd. be
better taught. The third student was Philo Penfield
Stewart.
Philo Penfield Stewart's greatest ambition
as a boy was to have an unlimited supply of smooth, soft, white
pine to whittle. He is said not only to have whittled out toys for
his younger brothers but, on one occasion, made a useable
wheelbarrow in this way. Stewart was not unique in this interest
as he was born (in 1798) in Fairfield County of the Wooden Nutmeg
State where the jacknife art had long been practiced. The boy's
family was in modest circumstances, and when he was fourteen he
was apprenticed to his uncle, John Penfield, of Pawlet, Vermont.
John Penfield was a harness maker and so his young nephew was set
to learn that trade, though he was never much interested in it.
The important thing about this removal to Pawlet is that there
young Stewart was allowed to attend Pawlet Academy and, while in
attendance, met John Jay Shipherd among the other
students.
Like Shipherd, Stewart felt the call to
carry the gospel into the "Valley of Moral Death" and joined a
mission to the Choctaw Indians at Mayhew in the State of
Mississippi. From this field he was forced to retire on account of
the ill health of his wife. Still hoping for a chance for
usefulness in the West, he wrote to his old friend Shipherd in
Elyria. "The field is white unto the harvest," replied Shipherd.
"Throughout the new settlements of this whole region they are
calling for help to 'break the Bread of Life and turn the hearts
of the people unto the Lord.'" So Stewart came to
Elyria.
Stewart and Shipherd, talking, reading and
praying together conceived the plan of the Oberlin colony and
school. Shipherd described the plan in a letter written soon after
to his brother Fayette:
"My students Brown and Burrell have both
left. Br. Burrell's health has failed; (it was very feeble when he
came here;) and Br. Brown is studying Greek with Br. Monteith in
High School, which, by the way, is flourishing--about 50 scholars.
Br. Stewart, or 'Steadfast' is here. Soon after he came he entered
upon a course of study preparatory to the ministry, both of us yet
doubting whether he could not be more useful as a layman, but
unable to see where or how. At length, while reading in the
Christian Spectator a Review of Dr. Henderson's Residence in
Iceland, delighted with the intelligence & Christian
simplicity of its inhabitants, I proposed to Br. S. that we form a
Colony for the promotion of like, or superior, intelligence and
Christian simplicity. Pastor Oberlin's Bann De La Roche came up to
second the proposal. O! tho't we, how would God be honored in the
influence of his religion upon the world if it were divorced from
Mammon, & wedded to simplicity and true wisdom! In the
examples given by the Icelanders & Pastor Oberlin's Bann, God
has been greatly honored, & every one, almost who has viewed
them with a Christian eye has been ashamed of his own conformity
to this selfish world.
"Now, said we, let us gather some of the
right spirits & plant them in the dark Valley, to give such an
example as Pastor Oberlin's flock, & they will make our
churches ashamed of their unholy alliances with earth. We talked,
we tho't, we prayed, & at length came to the deliberate &
serious conclusion that, God prospering us, we wd. do
this:
"We wd. seek out the most favorable
location & gather a colony to be organized under the
following, or like regulations: viz. each member of the colony
shall consider himself a steward of the Lord, & hold only so
much property as he can advantageously manage for the Lord. Every
one, regardless of worldly maxims, shall return to Gospel
simplicity of dress, diet, houses & furniture, & all
appertaining to him, & be industrious and economical with the
view of earning & saving as much as possible, not to hoard up
for old age, and for children, but to glorify God in the salvation
of men: And that no one need be tempted to hoard up, the colonists
(as members of one body, of which Christ is the head), mutually
pledge that they will provide in all respects for the widowed,
orphan, & all the needy as well as for themselves and
households.
"To promote useful education at home and
abroad, schools shall be established in the C.[olony],
from the infant school up and as high as may be, at least, as high
as the highest High School. The hope is that we may have,
eventually, an institution which will afford the best education
for the Ministry. Connected with the Academy will be a farm &
workshop, where, with four hours labor per day, students shall
defray their entire expense. This may seem impossible; but if they
will do as my entire family do now, eat bread & milk for
breakfast & supper & a plain dinner of flesh &
vegetables, & wear plain clothing, they can do it I am
confident. Around our Schools we will plant all our mechanics,
that those who should, may learn trades while gathering their
education. All the children of the C. [olony] are to be
thoroughly taught in English, to whatever service they may be
destined; yet they are to labor so much while acquiring it, that
it shall not in the least disqualify them for manual labor
avocations. And those who are liberally educated for professions,
may like Paul & other learned Orientals acquire the trades
which, in such fields as many ministers must occupy, will be of
great value, & to all of some profit. The hope is that God
will call many of the children of the Col. [ony] to the
Ministry, & to useful stations in the world. The sole aim will
be to train them up for usefulness: And taken as they wd. be from
the vain amusements and strong temptations of the world--seeing
that all around them were living not for themselves but for God,
it is hoped that thro' the truth & spirit they wd. most of
them consecrate themselves to the service of the Lord. In addition
to the children of the Col. we wd. educate School Teachers &
Ministers from the four winds; for on our plan we can instruct
multitudes. If we can instruct candidates for the Ministry, Home
& Foreign, & for school teaching here, where most of them
ought to labor, and so that they shall work their way & yet
obtain the best education; will you not send us many pupils? We
propose a manual labor establishment for females also, which in
our estimation is immensely important for reasons which I have not
room to name, but which will occur to you. The pastor &
teachers are to simplify as much as others, and of course live on
small salaries. Br. S. & I spent a week in exploring the
country south of us, & think we shall locate in one of three
places within 30 ms. of this."
In a letter written a few days earlier he
described his project to his parents: "We do not now keep pace
with the increase of population in our own country. Something must
be done or a millennium will never cheer our benighted world. The
chh. must be restored to gospel simplicity & devotion. As a
means wh. I hope God wd. bless to the accomplishment of some part
of this work, I propose thro' his assistance to plant a colony
somewhere in this region whose chief aim shall be to glorify God
& do good to men to the utmost extent of their ability. They
are to simplify food, dress, &c--to be industrious &
economical, & give all over their current, or annual expense
to the spread of the Gospel. They are to hoard up nothing for old
age or for their children; but are mutually to covenant that they
will provide for the widowed, orphan, & all the needy as for
themselves & families. They are to establish schools of the
first order from an infant school up to an academic school which
shall afford a thorough education in English & the useful
languages; & if Providence favor it, at length, instruction in
Theology. I mean Practical Theology. They are to connect work
shops & a farm with the institution, and so simplify diet
& dress that by four hours labor per day young men will defray
their entire expense. And young women working at the spinning
wheel & loom will defray much of their expense. And all will
thus save money, & what is more promote muscular, mental &
moral vigor. In these schools all the children of the colony are
to be well educated whether destined to a profession or manual
labor; for those desiring to be mechanics will learn their trades
while in a course of study. These schools will also educate school
teachers for our desolate valley, & many ministers for our
dying world. Also instruct the children & youth of the
surrounding population. To do this we want some twenty-five or
more good families, & $2,000 outfit for the schools. I have
sought out a good location 25 ms south of this where new land may
be had at $2.50 to 3.50 per acre. Dear Parents; shall I try? I do
feel that such an establishment wd. not only do much itself--but
exert a mighty influence upon the churches, & lead them along
in the path of Gospel self-denial. I have given you but a brief
& imperfect sketch, but you will discern its
bearings."
The increasingly difficult situation in the
church in Elyria confirmed Shipherd in his determination to devote
himself wholly to the new enterprise. At the beginning of
September he wrote to his father:
"My confidence in the utility of my
colonizing plan is strengthened by prayer, meditation, &
conference with the intelligent & pious. Yet I feel that it is
a mighty work, difficult of accomplishment. But when anyone goes
about a great & good work, Satan will roll mountains in his
way. Believing that all he has rolled in our way can be
surmounted, thro' the grace of God; & that I can do more for
his honor, & the good of souls in this vally of dry bones, by
gathering such a colony, & planting it, with its litterary
& religious institution, in this region, I am inclined,
Providence favoring, to resign my charge & spend the winter in
the East for the purpose."
The first essentials were the "twenty-five
or more good families," the $2,000, and the land on which to
colonize. Depending largely upon Providence for guidance, Shipherd
and Stewart, "procured horses and started out to find a suitable
location. They had nothing to purchase with, but felt that if it
was from the Lord, the means would be provided. They knew of this
tract of land of about 7,000 acres fin the unsettled portion of
Russia Township]. They rode into the woods and dismounted and
hitched their horses, and knelt and asked direction." We are left
to imply that the answer to their prayers was affirmative. The
decision was supposedly accompanied by signs and wonders. "Coming
out of the woods, they met a hunter, who said, ten minutes before
you entered the woods, a black bear with two cubs came down from
that tree you hitched your horses to." So runs Mrs. Shipherd's
narrative, written many years later. Shipherd's own account is,
comparatively, dry and unromantic. "I came to this city three days
since to attend Synod," he wrote to his brother Fayette from
Detroit. "I was prospered in my journey which I took by land, for
the purpose of exploring, with special reference to the Colony. I
have not yet found any location in all respects so eligible as one
in Lorain County 9 ms from Elyria.' In all events it appears that
the present site of Oberlin in what was then the unscarred
wilderness of south-central Russia Township, was carefully and
thoughtfully selected from all northern Ohio as the most eligible
spot for a colony and school! The owners of the tract of land were
Messrs. Titus Street and Samuel Hughes of New Haven, Connecticut.
Captain Eliphalet Redington, postmaster at (South) Amherst, was
their local agent but he did not have the authority to give away
land--only to sell it--and the founders had no funds. Redington
was interested in the scheme and willing to take joint
responsibility with Stewart on the ground while Shipherd went East
to beg a gift of land from Street and Hughes, and secure money and
colonists. Stewart at Elyria and Redington at Amherst would
receive the colonists as they arrived and manage the beginning of
physical preparation for their reception: the clearing of the
forest and building of a mill and other community
buildings.
The name given to the colony and school was
derived from a little book published in 1830 by the American
Sunday School Union: The Life of John Frederic Oberlin, Pastor of
Waldbach, in the Ban de la Roche. "They [the colonists],"
wrote Shipherd in December, "are to be called the Oberlin Colony,
after Pastor Oberlin, late of the Ban De Laroche in France, whose
memoir is published by the Am. S. S. Union." Oberlin's benevolent
social work and interest in Sabbath Schools naturally appealed to
Shipherd as setting a fine example for his colony.'
* * * * *
John Jay Shipherd had started out
single-handed to conquer the Valley of the Mississippi for the
Lord. He was returning for reenforcements--recruits for his
training camp at Oberlin--recruits and ammunition. The plan was as
yet an airy vision, for money and men were still lacking. His
wife, an expectant mother, he left in Elyria with the three baby
boys under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart. Would that family
ever be united again? This was the question that repeatedly took
possession of his mind as Shipherd rode along, his ambling horse
stumbling over loose stones and slipping in the half-frozen mud.
He allowed the reins to fall loosely on the animal's neck, only
now and then pulling him up at an unusually steep decline. The
newly cut clearings and occasional groups of scattered farm
buildings scarcely left an impression upon his mind. When his
thoughts were not upon his Esther and their little ones he was
dreaming of the village of consecrated souls and the college of
inspired leaders and aspiring students which should soon appear in
the wilderness behind him, sending out its missionaries to the
farthest outposts of white settlement and even among the red men,
until the "Valley of Dry Bones" should be drenched by the living
waters. When he reached towns of any considerable size he climbed
off his horse and, mud besplashed and stiffened by long riding,
sought the house of the local minister or some charitable deacon
who had been recommended by mutual acquaintances. To all he
unfolded his plans for a colony and school which were to
revolutionize the West for Christ. To all he applied for
contributions, but with slight success.
Shipherd is first heard from in Silver
Creek, New York, then called Fayette, from which place he wrote to
his brother on December 10:
"The objects of my tour you know, in part
at least. I will state them definitely. My first aim is to collect
about 50 families of the Lord's peculiar people zealous of good
works, & colonize them in Russia, Lorain County, Ohio, ten
miles south west of Elyria .... The second object is to raise
15,000 dollars for the Oberlin Manual Labor Institute. The third
is to preach dissension to the large churches of the east, i.e. to
send some of their most efficient members to join the fellow chhs.
of the west, and the scattered sheep of the wilderness, & stir
them [up] & aid them to build the Lord's house. What I
have [written] about this enterprise before I know not;
but I want to say sheets full about it now, & receive sheets
full from you in answer: Still I must omit the whole & do it
the more cheerfully, because I hope in the good providence of God
to discuss the subject fully, and within a few weeks, in your
study. Oh that I were there!
"I am in a borrough of your name 200 ms.
east of my dear family; from whom I have been absent 2 1/2 weeks.
I am only 200 ms. on my journey because my horse has sprained her
ancle so that for days she measures the way with a tedious limp. I
cannot cure her nor exchange her; but am compelled to advance with
her as I am able. This trial of my patience I regard as a needed
lesson of patience to prepare me for the sorer trials in my mighty
work. The Lord will overrule it for good, and I am fully satisfied
Good is His will."
Writing in the same letter a week later
from Buffalo, he showed evidence of petulance: "I have here for
days been trying to get money out of the hard hearts of Buffaloes,
but while their Robes indicate warmth, they do not fill the Lord's
treasury. The Lord has opened the hearts of a few to give Sixty
two doll[ar]s." Not until he reached Rochester was the
"Corresponding Agent" of the (still nonexistent) Oberlin
Collegiate Institute able to send back to Stewart an order for one
hundred and sixty-six dollars. It was slow work, and several weeks
elapsed before another hundred was added. The receipts were much
below what had been counted on.
Having visited many of the towns of New
York State with rather indifferent success, Shipherd passed on to
New Haven where he called on the owners of the land on which
Oberlin was to be located. His success in obtaining a conditional
gift of the tract desired from two hard-headed Connecticut
merchants is good evidence that the Founder was not entirely
lacking in resourcefulness and persuasive powers. The contract
entered into on February 16, 1833, between Shipherd on the one
hand and Titus Street and Samuel Hughes on the other provided for
the donation of five hundred acres to the trustees of the Oberlin
Manual Labor Institute "to be forever appropriated to the use of
the same"; possession to be granted immediately and full title at
the end of three years, provided that at the end of that time the
school should be in successful operation in "suitable buildings"
valued at not less than five thousand dollars and with at least
fifty students enrolled. Further, Street and Hughes agreed to sell
five thousand acres to the Oberlin colonists at $1.50 an acre in
farms of fifty to two hundred acres. This last was also a real
concession in view of the fact that the proprietors sold the
remainder of their holdings for an average of six dollars an
acre.
It was welcome news to those who waited in
Ohio. On March 12 Stewart wrote to Shipherd from Elyria: "We
praise the Lord for the goodness & mercy in which he has
crowned your labors, having particular refference to the contract
you have obtained from Messrs. Street & Hughes. The donation
to the Institution is far above what we anticipated. Viewing it as
an indication of Providence we can at least regard it as one of
very encouraging character. I think it will serve to produce a
favorable impression in this part of the country. Those who have
no confidence in the plans may be admonished to speak their
sentiments openly."
Greatly encouraged, Shipherd returned to
the churches of New York and New England for more funds and men
and women who would join in the work. In the month from April 15
to May 18 Eliphalet Redington, now treasurer of the "Board of
Trust," acknowledged the receipt of nearly six hundred dollars
collected by Shipherd. By the latter part of May he felt certain
of success. On the 18th he wrote to the trustees: "That we can
raise the $15,000 contemplated I am confident, & I believe my
confidence is well founded. The wise & good uniformly approve
our plans, & have aided, and express a determination yet more
to aid in executing them. To fill out the $15,000 will doubtless
be much easier than to do, what thro' the grace of God, we have
already executed." Subscriptions for at least ten thousand he
expected to receive before September. At Thetford, Vermont, where
his brother James was principal of the Academy, he secured pledges
for over a hundred and fifty dollars. Most of the gifts were in
small amounts: some five and ten dollars and one $1.50 from
"retrenchment of tea & coffee." It was at Thetford that a
physician offered to "give pills if they will be
rec[eive]d." James wrote to his brother that according to
the opinion of one townsman "you have 'milked this people pretty
well'."
In many towns which he visited Shipherd
appointed agents to continue soliciting funds, receive payments
and subscriptions and encourage colonists to emigrate. The reports
of some of these agents give evidence of the slow progress of the
work. Late in April, Mark Goss wrote from Geneva, New York: "I
have collected $14.50 only, I have partially contracted with four
families who partially agree to go to Oberlin in the fall--not
before. I have spent some little time, according to my minutes
three or four weeks.... I have been discouraged, and lain down as
in the furrow, time & again in finding the cold hartedness of
pretended.... christians .... All I have done has been by
littles."
Another report from "East Berkshire," is
even less encouraging "I have done but little relative to your
concern & have charged nothing for my services. I have however
attended to it sufficiently [to see] that the obstacles
are great and numerous & the prospect of success, very
[slight]. I have already met with entire defeat with
several [of the] candidates which I had in view. One is
dangerously sick. Another from Lowel has been trying for years to
get such a society into operation, now finds that he has 'married
a wife & cannot come'. He is still anxious if he could
persuade his wife. Another pious family are ready but the man is a
poor phisition. So all make excuse. When I look at these lions in
the way I am ready to give all over for lost. But I look again for
some bright speck in this cloud of darkness. Imperious duty
demands an effort ....
"I firmly believe that God will bless every
effort in a work so benevolent & useful ....
"There is not an absolute certainty that I
shall not get something at last."
But wherever Shipherd went he left behind
him some who were completely converted to his scheme and who
earnestly prayed daily "that the barley loaf [might] be
baked at that institution which shall make the camp of Midian
tremble." There were a few who were ready to sell their property,
pull up stakes and throw their lot in with the new colony. There
is no note of hesitation or uncertainty in the letter of T. S.
Ingersoll from Ogden, N.Y., written in the month of
March:
"I am glad the negotiations are so happily
concluded, with Street & Hughes & on so good terms. Some I
have found have been disposed to doubt whether Street and Hughes
would sell their land for this object so cheap as you named. And
others have doubted whether we should, after all, succeed in
attaining a sufficient farm. But instead of 200 acres, they have
given 500 acres I see by your letter. I rejoice that you succeed
as well as you do, especially in obtaining colonists, who can
remove soon. I have not sold my farm yet; but am making every
calculation as if I had: trusting that the Lord will send somebody
to buy in his own time which I shall be satisfied with. I shall go
to Oberlin in May, make all necessary arrangements for the
reception of the family to remove in the fall."
Ingersoll was also evidently acting as
agent, for he continues in the same letter: "It is but small sums
that I can get from the churches where I go; from 5 to 20 dollars.
I labour not to do the work of the Lord deceitfully. I am now
trying to obtain 2 or 3 females to go to Oberlin as school
teachers & other useful employments. I don't know as I shall
succeed; it is so hard to be pruned with some; & others if
they will bear pruning something else is in the way. However, I
see the hand of the Lord in the work, & in the efforts I am
making and believe it will go forward. I am glad to hear that the
executive committee are about commencing the saw mill."
On the very same day Asahel Munger, a
carpenter and joiner of Lockport, New York, wrote of his
intentions: "I am proposing to go to Oberlin Institute.--If
providence should permit, soon after the opening of navigation. We
have Set the first week in May to move--may be a few days later."
Skilled workers of all kinds would be especially in demand in the
first years of settlement. It was undoubtedly with great
satisfaction that Shipherd received early in April the following
message:
"We are calculating to be in Albany the
first of May, I want all the colonists who go from this region to
be there at that time, if practicable. I wish to have you write to
the Agent in the colony that if he wants me to purchase any
articles for the colony I wish him to make out a bill of the
articles he wants me to purchase and send [to] your
brother in Troy. A hand grindstone will be wanted first. I shall
carry one set of tools Mr. Morgan is calculating to go on with us.
Yours with respect,
Bela Hall"
Bela Hall, as will be gathered from his
letter, was a mechanic. In July we find him in Cleveland working
on the engine for the colony. Ingersoll, Munger and Daniel Morgan
(mentioned in Hall's letter) were also among the first colonists
who came to Oberlin.
In the middle of May Shipherd wrote from
Andover, Massachusetts: "During one week, I obtained in N. H. five
colonists, & from them & others 1,000 [dollars?]
subscriptions. Here I am like to obtain the man, of all others I
have seen, best qualified to superintend the Ob. Institute; viz.
S. R. Hall, Principal of the Teachers Sem.--Author of Lectures on
School-keeping, of which the legislature of N.Y. purchased for the
common schools 10,000 cops. &c." The third object of
Shipherd's mission, after money and colonists, was able and
morally purposeful teachers. No man was better fitted for the
headship of the new school than Samuel Read Hall. His emphasis on
the necessity of combining moral, religious and mental training
was reminiscent of Jean Frederic Oberlin and, of course,
particularly pleasing to Shipherd. His Lectures on School-Keeping,
published in 1829, was the first, and for long the most popular,
American book on teaching methods. His first teaching and writing
was done at Concord, Vermont, but in 1830 he became entangled in
the controversy over Masonry and found it desirable to leave and
accept an appointment as head of the Teachers' Seminary at
Andover. Two years later he organized the "School Agents Society"
whose purpose was to "encourage young men to become teachers . . .
especially . . . in the Valley of the Mississippi." Naturally
Shipherd found him in a receptive mood. In the latter part of May,
Shipherd wrote to his brother James: "I spent several days at
Andover in Br. Hall's school, attended his examination
&c....
In bro. Hall's Sem.y at And.r we have an
intimation of what Oberlin will be; for he, the Principal of that
Sem. will probably become prest. of Oberlin."
The next week the Founder wrote to the
trustees recommending the appointment of Hall as head of the
proposed school:
"I recommend that you invite the Revd.
Saml. R. Hall, Principal of the Teachers Sem. of Andover, Mass.,
to become the President of the Oberlin Institute. You probably
already know something of his reputation, altho' he has been
publicly known but a little time .... I spent a few days with him
in his school and out, & confidently recommend him as better
qualified to superintend our Institution than any man I have met
or heard of who could be obtained. And indeed I know of no one,
could we obtain him, in whom there is more of what we want than in
Mr. Hall. For (1) His Piety is more like the Divine Teacher's than
usual. He labors with his might to do good in school and out. (2)
He is better acquainted with the art of Teaching than any one I
can find, having studied it diligently for many years. (3) His
education, altho' not Collegiate, is sufficiently extensive--much
more profound than is usual with graduates from our best Colleges.
(4) He is a Manual Labor man. (5) He is of suitable age--38 years.
(6) He is a practical teacher--makes any thing a student learns
useful to him. (7) He does not teach for money, but to do good.
(8) He is deeply interested in the West. (9) His government
excelIs any I am acquainted with--he teaches his pupils to govern
themselves, and (10) I think he would, to increase his usefulness,
accept your invitation.
Here are the qualifications by which
prospective teachers in the Oberlin Institute were to be tested:
piety, high moral purpose, ability in teaching, and
scholarship.
In the same letter Shipherd proposed the
election of Louisa Gifford of the Geneva Female Seminary as
teacher of the Oberlin Female Department, of James Shipherd, his
brother, as temporary head of the whole school until such time as
Hall found it convenient to take personal charge, and of Dr. James
Dascomb, Mr. Hall's brother-in-law, to teach scientific subjects
and be the colony physician. "In the fourth place," wrote
Shipherd, "I recommend that you elect Doct. Jas. Dascom of
Boscawen, N. H. Lecturer & professor of Chemistry, Botany,
Physical Education or Anatomy and Nat. Philosophy. Doct. D. is a
young Physician of promise--A pupil of Doct. Mussey of Dartmouth
College¸--said by him to be decidedly the best scholar in his
class of 50 members. He is highly recommended by Mr. Hall whom I
nominate as Prest., as a Christian, a Physician, and Lecturer.
Bro. Hall & I think that the Physician of the Colony shd. be a
Lecturer in the Sem., because we cant afford a full salary to such
a lecturer, or full employment to a Physician." Of these three,
Dascomb was the only one to accept.
In June Hall was making his plans for
eventual removal to Oberlin, though he was not formally invited to
become President by the trustees until the meeting of September
13. June 8 he wrote from Andover:
"I have made some arrangements with regard
to apparatus, & have obtained the refusal [?] of the
best Electrical Machine ever made in this country. I felt
unwilling to let so fine a chance fail of being improved. The
plate will be 33 or 34 inches in diameter, & will be superb.
It will cost about 25 dollars more than the machine belonging to
this Seminary--the other apparatus will come 100 or 150 dollars
less.
"I wish you to reserve a farm or two for
some of my acquaintances, and I will write them on the subject as
soon as convenient.
"My health, at the present moment is very
poor. I have seldom been so near 'shut up' by a cold, tho' I think
it is abating."
As James Shipherd declined his appointment
and Hall would be unable to come until late in 1834, late summer
still found the Oberlin Institute without a head. An appeal to
Hall for recommendations resulted in the election of Seth Waldo.
John J. Shipherd wrote to the trustees from Boston in August: "I
have written Andover Theo. Sem. & engaged, if you approve, Mr.
Seth H. Waldo, who I believe will succeed as well as my brother.
He will have to leave the Sem'y. in his Senior year, but I can no
where else find the man we want, & the faculty of the Sem'y
consent to his leaving. They, the present, & the Collegiate
classmates of Mr. Waldo, & S. R. Hall in whose Teacher's Sem'y
Mr. W. has taught, all recommend him. I shall not therefore
describe him particularly. He has taught occasionally for twelve
years & with success both in common Schools & Academies.
He is about thirty years of age." On August 23 Shipherd wrote to
his father from Utica, on his way back to Ohio: "God greatly
prospered me in my Eastern tour. At Andover, I secured a teacher
in bro. James' place; & on Cape Cod an Agent in my place." The
agent secured on Cape Cod was Benjamin Woodbury, who took over the
work of soliciting funds in the East where Shipherd left
it.
In the meantime, in May, Esther Shipherd
went by steamboat and canal back to her parents' home in Ballston,
where her husband joined her and saw, for the first time, his
fourth son then two months old. The other children had been left
with the Stewarts in Elyria. In late August the Shipherds started
back to Ohio--to Elyria--and to Oberlin. Some money and many
friends had been secured. Several colonists were known to be
already on the ground busily engaged in felling the forest and
building homes. Worthy teachers were appointed and had promised to
come. The Shipherd family was all well and healthy and about to be
reunited. "We performed the journey in an open buggy with a willow
cradle at our feet," wrote Mrs. Shipherd, "often remarking that it
was the pleasantest journey that we had ever performed." Thus,
early in the autumn, Shipherd came to his colony.
The Shipherds returned to Oberlin on
September 12, 1833, and a very important meeting of the "Board of
Trust" was held on September 13. At this meeting Shipherd secured
votes appointing Hall, Waldo, and Dascomb as teachers and Woodbury
as agent in the East, but the main business was the presentation
of the report of his financial agency. This report shows that he
secured $1462.75 in cash, of which $115.13 was used for travelling
expenses and "$333.03 have been borrowed by John J. Shipherd to
buy a horse, waggon, &c.--to defray current expenses of self
and family & pay debts." The subscriptions, paid and unpaid,
secured on this mission amounted to $3,641.12, which, plus the
five hundred acres of land given by Street and Hughes and several
gifts of colonists, represented the total assets of Oberlin in
September, 1833.
CHAPTER X
OBERLIN COLONY
WHlLE Shipherd was seeking men and money in
the East, Stewart in Elyria and Eliphalet Redington in Amherst and
their associated members of the "Board of Trust" were making the
local preparations. A trustees' meeting (perhaps the first) was
held on March 8, 1833, at Amherst. Redington reported it to
Shipherd in a letter of that date: "The Trustees of the Oberlin
Institute have been in Session this day at my house. At the
opening of the Session the Throne of Grace was addressed in a
Heart felt and verry appropriate manner by the President, Hon. H.
Brown [Founder of Brownhelm]. Mr. Stewart was appointed
Secretary pro. tem. and after reading Contract and your letters,
proceeded to appoint an Executive Committee consisting of Judge
Brown, Messrs Pease & Stewart." The "Contract" referred to is
undoubtedly the contract with Street and Hughes for the gift and
purchase of the colony lands.
A succinct summary of the work of this
meeting is contained in a letter written by Stewart a few days
later: "There was a meeting of the trustees at Capt. Redington's
on Friday last. . . . The Board thought it would be best to put up
a Steam Saw-Mill the present season if sufficient funds shd be
obtained. It was thought proper to defer purchasing an engine for
the present, & the members of the Board are to improve the
opportunities they may have, to ascertain where a good one may be
obtained. As to the clearing of land it was thot best to make a
contract with some responsible man, if such an one can be found.
As to putting in a spring crop, it was considered to be out of the
question. Brother Pease is expected to go on in the course of a
few weeks. He is to labor for the Institute one year, & be
provided for from the common stock. It is not certain that we
shall go on to the Colony ground the present season." The most
important matter taken up was undoubtedly the question of the
building of the steam mill to furnish power for sawing lumber for
houses and later for grinding grain and other purposes. One of the
leading inducements offered by Shipherd to colonists was that the
trustees would build such a mill. No definite action was taken,
pending the receipt of more news from Shipherd with regard to his
financial success.
Perhaps more welcome to Shipherd in his
lonely journey through the East was the word of encouragement with
which Redington's letter closed:
"Mr. Pease & Family will go on to the
ground immediately after our next meeting, and we now have a
comfortable hope that Rusia will actually be invaded, but we also
hope the invasion will not be as disasterous as was that made by
the Corsican Despot, when he entered the Dominions of the Great
Autocrat of the North. In this region it is manifest that the
intrest taken in the plan, and success of the Institution is
increasing, and even some who have enveloped the undertaking with
Clouds and darkness, begin to discover a glimering ray of light on
the subject. And may the all wise Disposer of events continue to
increase light until eyes Shall See, all hearts Shall feel, and
all hands Shall be opened to bestow their mite, not only on this,
but on many others of the kind throughout our land. Mr.
Leavenworth closed our Meeting this day by Prayer and I think we
all felt that fervency in Prayer, and perseverance in duty to our
Covenant GOD, to ourselves, and our fellow men, will accomplish
much. On Such means depend our contemplated School Colony, and by
means of Such Schools, Labourers must be raised up, qualified, and
Sent forth to evangelize the World."
In April work was begun on the laying out
of the grounds. On the eighth Esther Shipherd wrote to her
husband: "Mr. Tracy has drawn a sketch of the vilige plot, the
Institute, the Meeting house and parsonage, and has got the
building all erected on paper." A little later Stewart reported,
"The Board here met on the Colony ground & determined the
boundaries of the Institute's land, location for the Steam
Saw-mill, etc." On May 20 another meeting of the trustees was held
in Oberlin. Though they "had nothing but logs on the ground for
seats" they were not troubled by that for their eyes were on the
future. At this meeting the colony was laid out according to a
plan proposed by Shipherd. "We had a meeting of a part of the
members of the Board of Trust on the Colony ground on Monday of
this week," Stewart wrote to Shipherd. "The boundaries of the
public square were fixed. It is to be 60 rods long & 40 wide.
It is to be bounded North by the East and West Road. East, by the
North & South Road. The School buildings are to be on the West
& the Boarding house & the Farmers houses on the south."
Here we have the beginnings of the later Tappan Square or
"Campus." The "North & South Road" is now Main Street and the
"East & West Road," Lorain.
Clearing was begun early in the spring. By
the eighth of April a considerable area had been opened under the
direction of Mr. Addison Tracy, one of the trustees. Shortly
after, Peter Pindar Pease, the first colonist, started his log
cabin. On the nineteenth his family moved in. It "was only a shed,
with no door, no windows, and no flooring, excepting rough slabs
which supplied one-half the scanty room. A ditch furnished water
for cooking and drinking. The first meal was cooked, as many after
it were, beside a stump; bread was baked upon the top of a poor
box stove or in the, ashes." When a door was hung at the cabin
entrance Pease wrote on it: "I beseech you, brethren, by the
mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service."
The region still bore very much the aspect
of a wilderness when visited a little later by Miss Elmira
Collins, companion of the Shipherds and teacher of the infant
school in Elyria. She wrote to Mrs. Shipherd: "Since you left us I
have been on that ground consecrated by many (I hope, if not now,
I feel assured it soon will be) to the building of our Redeemer's
kingdom. As I rode deliberately along, holding away the branches
that too often swept across my bonnet and face, I saw in
imagination its future beauty and great glory. And afterwards when
I traversed it on foot to search for its more humble buties (viz.,
knowIs, and wild flowers, and small but precious streams), I
almost coveted the strength of Samson, to tear up by the roots
those mossy trees that so impede its progress; one of which (a
sturdy oak) measuring 18 feet two yards from the roots .... It has
stood there for centuries sister, under the immediate eye of our
Heavenly Father who has yearly increased its growth and for what
purpose he has decreed from all Eternity; and he knows there is no
necessity of a Samson to tear it down. So we will let it rest
patiently. Five acres were chopped, and the fire seemed quite
willing to perform its office, taking hold with all the energy I
felt, and never was I more willing it should rage and destroy. You
will see days and I hope years of happiness on that ground sister,
not withstanding the trials that sometimes rise before you. Two
colonists are at br. Stewarts.
After establishing himself and family as
the first actual settiers, Pease took charge of the work of
clearing under the direction of Addison Tracy of Elyria. By the
last of May Redington estimated the number of acres cleared at
nearly ten and considered six acres about ready for planting.
About the same time Stewart reported to Shipherd: "Two log houses
are now erected on the ground, without chimnes. Brother Pease
brought a cooking stove along with him from Brownhelm. we have
sent off, with a part of Br. James goods, this morning, an
'Oberlin-Stove' [Stewart's own invention] for the other
house. Seven other colonists arrived in this month and were cared
for by the Stewarts in Elyria until they could make provision for
themselves in Oberlin. They all made a good impression on their
host, but he was very doubtful whether they could be persuaded to
sustain the founders' notions with regard to abstention from tea
and coffee.
On June 11 ten heads of families ("the few
Sheep that are collected in Oberlin") addressed a joint letter to
Shipherd telling of the progress of the settlement. Through the
good pleasure of our God," they declared, "we have been preserved
& permitted to set our feet on the Colonial ground & it is
ground, after all the reports we have heard about water & mud
.... We fully believe it will sustain the settlement you propose."
They reported the beginning of religious services and Sabbath
Schools, the extent of clearing (twenty acres chopped, 4 cleared
off and two planting, by that date), preparations for raising the
boarding house, work on the roads, and the progress in building
the steam mill. They concluded: "We will use the language of the
Psalmist and say, Bless the Lord, Oh my Soul, let all within us
Bless his holy name. Dear Brother pray for us, prey for the Peece
of the Colony. We have a special preyre meeting every Saterday
evening in which we remember you & hope to be remembered by
you."
It was in keeping with the pious character
of the Founder and the first settlers that religious meetings
should have been held from the beginning. On May 19, 183B, Rev. E.
J. Leavenworth of Brecksville preached the first sermon ever heard
in Oberlin to an audience of fifty persons, made up, of course,
largely of farmers from other portions of the township. "Does not
this look like a good beginning?" Stewart asked the absent
Founder. A local Sabbath School was established and colonists went
out almost immediately to found others in the surrounding
district. On June 9 two Oberlinites went to Pittsfield and held a
meeting and made plans for a school there. A week later a
beginning was made at Carlisle. Asahel Munger, one of the
colonists, wrote of his activities to Shipherd: "The Lord is among
us. We hope his hand is seen in providing a way of access to our
beloved neighbors by sabbath school instruction. The school in
which Brother Hosford and myself are engaged is 'interesting.' We
have payrents and children . . . who are more and more deeply
interested every Sabbath." Thus promptly was initiated the task of
the conversion of the inhabitants of the "Valley of Moral
Death."
Work had been begun in preparation for the
combination boarding hall and schoolhouse in the middle of May.
The colonists finished hewing the beams at the end of a month; the
rest of the lumber had to be brought from Redington's mill at
(South) Amherst. It was decided to locate this first frame
building opposite the southeastern corner of the square. On July 8
Redington wrote: "If weather will permit we shall raise the house
this week." A little slip of brown paper found among the old
records of the College gives a clue to the rest of the story. It
reads:
"Received of Peter P. Pease for
Oberlin Institute fifteen Dollars in full pay for all the labor
Performed on House frame in Russia By James R. Abbot &
Sons.
Russia, Lorain County, Ohio August 15th
1833
J. R. Abbott"
This "boarding house" was the first
institute building, later known as Preparatory Hall and then as
Oberlin Hall. When the Shipherds returned from the East in the
autumn this was the building in which they lived. It was here also
that the first session of the school met on December 3.
In the middle of June all of the colonists
turned out to make the roads a bit more passable. An old record
shows that five colonists: "Br. Daniels, Br. Hosford, Br. Safford,
Br. Morgan, and Br. Gibbs" with four teams of oxen worked on the
road on June 20, 1833.
The failure to provide a sawmill to cut the
lumber for the construction work of this first year was a great
disappointment to the colonists. This failure seems to have been
due to a disagreement between Shipherd and the other trustees as
to the size of the engine required for the work. Shipherd had
arranged in Buffalo for an eight-to twelve-horsepower steam engine
that could have been sent out to Ohio with the opening of
navigation in the spring, but Stewart and the others on the ground
believed it to be too small. In May the contract for an engine was
let by the trustees to Deacon P. B. Andrews, engine-maker of
Cleveland and brother-in-law of Charles G. Finney. Work was
immediately begun on the mill so that it would be ready as soon as
the engine was complete. Redington reported satisfactory progress
early in July. A trustees' meeting held at Oberlin on July 11 was
largely devoted to construction problems. Two days later Judge
Henry Brown wrote to Shipherd regarding this meeting, adding that,
"All exertions are made by those present to forward the buildings
& also the Steam Engine--But great obstacles are to be
encountered in such work at a distance from most of the materials
to be used, and over which there is so bad a road."
In October William Hosford went to
Cleveland to arrange details for the installment. "I have
forwarded all the engine. . . ," he wrote to Redington. "I have
engaged a surcular saw . . . that on the whole was thought to be
best. The cross cutting Mr. Hudson sed had better be done by hand.
The saw and mill irons will be done next weeke." The installation
was completed about the first of December. Sawing began in
January, 1834, and in the first seven months a
quarter-of-a-million feet of lumber was sawed. Late in July the
mill-stones for the grist mill were secured, and in August the
"Oberlin Steam Mills" were advertised in the Elyria
newspaper:
"OBERLIN STEAM MILLS
"These Mills are in the Southern part of
Russia, Loraine County; eight miles south west from Elyria. The
saw mill has been for some months in successful operation, and
will saw for customers good white wood logs for one half the
lumber, or $3 a thousand; and hard wood at $4 a thousand. The
Grist Mill just put in operation will do custom work for the usual
toll; and is believed in a manner satisfactory to customers. Their
trial will be the best test. Flour will also be exchanged for
wheat at a fair rate, where customers prefer it to waiting for
their own wheat to be ground."
A corn cracker was added to the equipment
in December.
The mill seems to have been unsatisfactory
and unprofitable from the beginning, however, and the next spring
the trustees decided to try to rent it. In 1836 it was sold on
time and in 1837 taken back and sold again. Later we find it in
the possession of a corporation of students. Eventually it was
burned. Deacon Andrews had a hard time getting his pay for the
engine and his bill for repairs seems never to have been honored.
The steam mill was the first of a series of business failures--but
it helped to make possible the cheaper construction of houses and
college buildings.
Shipherd required prospective colonists to
sign a covenant. It began:
"Lamenting the degeneracy of the Church and
the deplorable condition of our perishing world, and ardently
desirous of bringing both under the entire influence of the
blessed gospel of peace; and viewing with peculiar interest the
influence which the valley of the Mississippi must exert over our
nation and the nations of the earth; and having, as we trust, in
answer to devout supplication, been guided by the counsel of the
Lord: The undersigned Covenant together under the name of the
Oberlin Colony, subject to the following regulations, which may be
amended by a concurrence of two-thirds of the
colonists:
"1. Providence permitting, we engage as
soon as practicable to remove to the Oberlin Colony, in Russia,
Lorain County, Ohio, and there fix our residence, for the express
purpose of glorifying God and doing good to men to the extent of
our ability."
The compact further bound the colonists to
"as perfect a community of interest as though we held a community
of property," all surpluses above "necessary personal or family
expenses" to be appropriated for the spread of the Gospel. They
were also required to "eat only plain and wholesome food,"
renounce "all bad habits,--especially the smoking, chewing and
snuffing of tobacco, unless it is necessary as a medicine .... all
strong and unnecessary drinks, even tea and coffee, as far as
practicable, . . . all the world's expensive and unwholesome
fashions of dress, particularly tight dressing [or lacing]
and ornamental attire," and to "observe plainness and durability
in [the construction of their] houses, furniture,
[and] carriages." They undertook also to "provide for the
widowed, orphans, sick and all the needy," "to educate all
[their] children thoroughly, and ... train them up in
body, intellect, and heart, for the service of God," to support
the Oberlin Institute, and "make special efforts to sustain the
institution of the Gospel at home and among [their]
neighbors."
The covenant concludes:
"We will strive to maintain deep-toned and
elevated personal piety, to provoke each other to love and good
works, to live together in all things as brethren, and to glorify
God in our bodies and spirits, which are His.
"In testimony of our fixed purpose thus to
do, in humble reliance on divine grace, we hereunto affix our
names."
Of course, the covenant contained nothing
with regard to the authority for, nor means of, the government of
the colony. In the first year (1833), however, the colonists met
in general mass-meeting to determine matters of common interest,
without any written documents to guide them. All of the known
meetings took place after the return of Shipherd: three in
October, one in November, and one in December.
These meetings dealt with the usual pioneer
problems: the surveying and clearing of land, roads, postal
service and education. At the first meeting it was voted to
"purchase 50 acres or more and hold the same as a parsonage... at
the corner opposite the North East corner of the publick Square."
A committee was chosen to supervise the clearing of this parsonage
lot. As to roads: it was voted "that the Colonists shall bear an
equal proportion in the purchase of land for public roads,
according to the number of acres which each Colonist shall have
taken." At the meeting of October 22 the secretary was directed to
petition for a post office. A week later it was provided that a
committee should be designated "to examine the land in regard to
school Districts & take measures to form a
district."
Even at the first meeting, however, there
seems to have been some doubt in the minds of some of the settlers
whether they possessed the authority to deal with these questions
as a self-constituted commonwealth within the sovereign State of
Ohio. Shipherd, Stewart and a third colonist were chosen a
committee "to ascertain what the law is respecting incorporated
societies in Ohio and draft a petition in accordance with said law
to the Legislature of this State, for an act of incorporation for
the Oberlin Colony." At the last meeting of the year, two days
before Christmas, the petition, drawn up by this committee, was
presented to the assembled colonists, adopted, and ordered to be
sent to the legislature. "To the honorable the Genl. Assembly of
the State of Ohio," begins the original draft. "Your Petitioners,
recent emigrants from New York & New England & now
residents in Russia, Lorain Co, & forming [a]
settlement called the Oberlin Colony, humbly pray that they may as
pious and good citizens be privileged with the following Charter."
The charter proposed was similar to that usually granted to church
societies, which wished to be incorporated in order that they
might legally hold property. As passed by the legislature the word
"Presbyterian" was inserted and the act entitled An Act to
incorporate the Oberlin Presbyterian Society of Russia in the
county of Lorain. There was no debate with regard to its adoption
as it seems generally to have been accepted as just another of the
many incorporations of church societies. But it was used, albeit
with some misgivings, as the basis of self-government for the
Oberlin Colony.
The charter provided that the first meeting
of the incorporated society should take place on "the 2d Monday of
March, 1834." Accordingly the colonists were convened on March 10
but did no business except to select a chairman and a secretary
and adjourn until the next day. On the eleventh, however, a
committee was appointed to draft a "constitution." This
constitution was reported and adopted on April 2. It forms the
third element in the triple basis of Oberlin colony government.
The covenant contained the creed; the charter granted authority,
and the constitution provided the governmental machinery. The
preamble strikes a characteristic note: "Whereas we, the members
of the Oberlin Presbyterian Society, for the glory of God, by
holding up the light of Heaven before the eyes of the millions,
inhabiting this extensive region; as individuals, and as a
religious and corporate boddy, for the better attainment of this
great object, for our mutual benefit (the reasons for our locating
in this vally) do adopt the following rules or constitution."
Various offices were created (clerk, treasurer and three trustees)
and their duties defined. Regular annual meetings and special
meetings called on six days' notice by the trustees were provided
for, and the method of amendment determined.
At first only twenty-nine persons mentioned
in the act of incorporation seem to have taken part in the
meetings but in this summer of 1834 it was voted, "That all
colonists of Oberlin are at liberty to act with those whoos names
are mentioned in the charter of this Society in there affairs as a
Society for the present." Thus it appears that, as in 1833, all
questions of importance continued to be discussed and voted upon
by the adult male colonists in open mass meeting. In 1837,
however, the constitution was radically revised, a board of seven
directors being established at that time. These directors were
elected annually, and seem to have corresponded to the selectmen
of New England town government. The electors, who were defined as
"such male persons of legal age as by a vote of the board of
directors hereinafter created shall be received and shall
subscribe with their own hands to the articles of this
constitution," chose the directors and possessed the sole right of
authorizing taxes.
General meetings of colonists were held
fairly often from March of 1834 through 1837. The distribution of
land, the laying out of streets and the building of roads
continued to occupy much of the time in these meetings. On
December 1, 1835 a committee was appointed "to prepare a draft for
the village of Oberlin and have it recorded or deposited in the
county clerk's office according to law." The original map
authorized at that time and attested by two members of the
committee and showing lots and the names of owners in 1835 is now
in the Oberlin College Library. The subject of roads was later
taken up on several different occasions. A piece of ground for the
interment of the dead was secured from the trustees of the
Institute and, in the following year, a fence was ordered built
around it. A sexton was appointed and his duties defined: "The
business of the sexton is, to dig graves, prepare a hearse if
nessisary, see to tolling the bell and keep an account of
same."
A considerable variety of matters was dealt
with from time to time, such matters as would come before the
legislative organ of any frontier community. A committee was
appointed to plan for the building of a schoolhouse. A resolution
was passed, "that we disapprove of permitting swine to run at
large." At the meeting of May 26, 1836, an official seal was
adopted. It is described in the minutes. "The letter o, of an inch
in diameter. Within this letter a fruit tree full of fruit. This
represents what this society should be as a boddy and as
individuals, a tree indeed yielding the peaceable fruits of
righteousness." Only five years after the first successful
operation of a steam locomotive in England and eight years after
the chartering of the Baltimore and Ohio the Oberlin Society was
considering the possibility of building a railroad. On March 3,
1835, it was "Resolved . . . That T. S. Inger[soll], J. B.
Hall, D. B. Kenny be a committee to explore the rout from this
place to the mouth of Black River, and ascertain if possible
whether it will be practicable to petition for a rail road from
here to that place." In April of 1837, "The committee appointed to
consider the expediency of establishing a Bank presented their
report--accepted and ordered to be laid on the table." No bank was
established.
Part of the time of several meetings was
devoted to the enforcement of the letter and spirit of the
Covenant. It is quite clear that from the beginning Shipherd hoped
to eliminate all worldly, economic motives from the minds of the
colonists. Speculation in land in one form or another was little
short of a mania among Americans of this period. The desire to
make profits from this source was a dominant motive for westward
migration. Eventually there appeared some in Oberlin who desired
to sell their farms for more than they had paid for them. In the
minutes of the meeting of January 29, 1835, we read: "Resolved...
That the conduct of Mr. Townly in disposeing of land in Oberlin
Colony with the obvious intention of Speculation, is unjust and
contrary to the spirit and intention of the Colonists who have
setled at Oberlin,--that we mark such conduct with our entire
disaprobation." In 1837 resolutions were offered and adopted:
"That those who hold lands in this colony and have not aided in
building up the Institution and improving the roads are not in
equity entitled to the rises in their value," and "That to hold
more land than one is able to improve or designs immediately to
improve is inconsistent with the welfare of the institution and is
therefore a breach of good faith and of the Oberlin Covenant."
Holding land unused and unimproved was "inconsistent with the
welfare of the institution," ie. the Oberlin Collegiate Institute,
because such a practice would reduce the opportunities for manual
labor available to students.
In the same year, which seems to have been
one especially devoted to the revival of the Founding Spirit, it
was "Resolved that it is a gross violation of the Oberlin Covenant
as well as of the sacred scriptures, to receive any increase of
our poor brethren for moneys lent them." There was always a
tendency towards communism in the Oberlin colony enterprise, and
in 1837, during this re-study of basic principles, it came to the
fore. A resolution was introduced but voted down, "That it is not
only expedient but the duty of this Church in order to become holy
to put all their property into a common stock fund, having all
things common and thus comply with the requisitions of the gospel
and the examples of the primitive Christians."
Also in 1837 efforts were made to uphold
the fifth article against "all bad habits": "Resolved, that the
use of Tobacco, is inconsistent with the principles of the
Institution and the Gospel, and is a breach of the Oberlin
Covenant--and that we deem it our duty not to patronize any Inn
Keeper or merchant in Oberlin who will vend those articles." At a
later meeting a similar resolution was passed with regard to tea
and coffee.
The Oberlin Colonists seem to have been
very certain that they were making history, for at five different
meetings resolutions were passed for the collection of historical
material.
Though, after its organization in the
summer of 1834, the Oberlin Church held regular business meetings,
the colonial society also dealt with some church matters. This
failure to discriminate between ecclesiastical and civil
government is, of course, a natural Puritan inheritance. On April
21, 1834, a resolution was even introduced, "that money be raised
by levying a tax upon land for the support of the Minister." The
resolution was voted down unanimously. At another meeting of the
colonists (March 1, 1836) one of their members was selected to
"Seat the Congregation." In the spring of 1835 a motion was made
to change the organization into a purely ecclesiastical society,
but was defeated.
It is probable that many of the activities
of the Oberlin Society were illegal under the act of incorporation
of 1834. This was suspected by some at a very early date, and in
the autumn of the same year a petition was presented to the Ohio
legislature, "Praying that all that part of the Township of Russia
in the county of Lorain, included within the following boundaries
... be incorporated by the name of Oberlin Colony, with all and
singular, the rights, powers, and privileges of a corporate Town
and Village . . . A bill of incorporation was passed by the Senate
in December but, after consideration in January, it was
indefinitely postponed by the House in February of 1835. In the
spring of 1836 the matter was taken up again in a meeting of the
colonists and it was ordered "that a committee be appointed to
prepare a Charter to be forwarded to [the] legislature for
the incorporation of Oberlin as a Village." This petition received
consideration in the State Senate early in the following year.
Incorporation was denied by a vote of 24 to 3.
It was not until 1846 that the village of
Oberlin was regularly incorporated. In the interval between 1841
and that date there seems to have been an interregnum in local
government, for the Society was, in that period, occupied entirely
with the building of the meeting house. The only visible agency of
local government from 1841 to 1846 was Russia Township. After the
incorporation of Oberlin Village in 1846 the form of its
government became exactly like that of hundreds of other Ohio
towns.
CHAPTER XI
OBERLIN
INSTITUTE
THE embryonic scheme for a manual labor
school was maturing in Shipherd's mind as he discussed it with
educators in the East. In the spring of 1833, he reviewed the
experience at the Oneida Institute with George W. Gale, conferred
with Samuel Read Hall at Andover and, in August, had an interview
at Boston with William Woodbridge, editor of the American Annals
of Education and apostle of Fellenberg. He had had, of course, the
benefit of counsel with John Monteith in Elyria from the
beginning.
The original plan included only an academic
school--one that would prepare for college. As Shipherd talked
with various people, however, he was persuaded of the necessity of
adding a collegiate course and, eventually, also a theological
department. Rumors of this extension in plans came to Stewart and,
in May of 1833, he wrote to Shipherd and to his brother, Fayette,
protesting against such an ambitious scheme, which was certain, he
felt, to lead to disappointment. He insisted that "a common manual
labour school, a female seminary, and a system of labour connected
with that also" was enough to start with.
Before either of these letters could have
reached him Shipherd wrote to Stewart with regard to the expanded
program:
"You perceive in my recent communications
that I have latterly enlarged our plans of opperation, and it may
seem to you unadvisedly, but, I trust the following reasons will
satisfy you all. (1) The manual labor system requires that the
student be carried through his whole course. If the Institution be
a mere preparatory school for college, the students are always
mere apprentices in Manual Labor; & the benefits of the system
are realized but in small degree. Should we fit them for College
only, there is no institution to which we could send them, where
the Manual Labor facilities would be continued equal to Oberlin.
Hudson [Western Reserve College], for want of land, can
never render the Manual labor of the students extensively
productive for their support. The Lane Seminary has, and can have
but little land, & is full, & will be full without our
students. Moreover, the Principal of the Oneida Institute assured
me that a large farm was indispensible to great success in
extensive opperations; & that the student shd be carried
through his whole course. Again, The making of our Sem'y. equal to
an Academy, College & Theo. Sem'ry. will not at all curtail
the usefulness of Hudson & others; for if we will furnish such
advantages as I propose, students will fill our sem'y. who wd.
never enter those now in existence. The revivals of three years
past have brot. hundreds of youth into our churches who desire to
be educated for the ministry & other useful services, who will
not incur debt necessary in such a course as they must pursue at
any Institute now in being in our country. This I know from actual
conference with youth in the east. Hundreds of promising youth
will doubtless be educated for God's service or not educated, as
we shall or shall not provide them the means of complete education
by their own industry & economy .... Let us therefore begin
with the Academic, & as Providence permit grow into the
Collegiate & Theological, which, I doubt not, will be as fast
as our students shall advance in their studies."
The difference in the makeup of these two
men is nowhere so clearly brought out as in this controversy.
Stewart, himself, wrote a little later: "I think we may balance
each other and become mutual helps. If you should occasionally
feel a little impatience at my moderation, & I, with your
impetuosity, It would not be strange. But if we are always in the
exercise of that charity which 'hopeth all things' it will be well
at the last."
In the prospectus drawn up by Shipherd and
printed in various periodicals in the early autumn of 1833 his
most ambitious plans were incorporated. It is the first official
announcement of the Institute:
"The plan of this Seminary was projected in
July, 1832. It owes its origin to the following facts. The growing
millions of the Mississippi Valley are perishing through want of
well qualified ministers and teachers, and the Great Head of the
Church has latterly inclined multitudes of youth to preach his
gospel, and train the rising generation for his service; but his
people have not yet adequately provided for their education. In
view of these facts the founders of the Oberlin Institute, having
waited on God for counsel, and being encouraged by the wise and
good, resolved to rise and build. Having surveyed the West till
prepared to select the most eligible site for this Institution,
they resolved to locate it in Russia, Lorain County, Ohio, eleven
miles south of Black River Port on Lake Erie. That situation is
easy of access to youth from the East, who have the following
inducements to go thither for education, if they design to labor
in the West when qualified.
"They can there acquire as thorough an
education as in the East, and at far less expense; they can be
much more useful during their course of study, and an acquaintance
with western character, formed by personal intercourse, will
better prepare them for moulding that character when they shall
enter upon professional service. This Seminary thus located, is
also surrounded by 100,000 inhabitants, greatly needing its
benefits. Its site is upon 500 acres of land given as a permanent
farm by the owners of the town in which it is located; and in the
midst of 5,000 acres to be occupied by a colony of the most
valuable eastern families that can be obtained; some of which have
already removed, and there fixed their residence, for the express
purpose of sustaining this Seminary and otherwise glorifying God
and doing good to men, to the extent of their ability.
"The grand (but not exclusive) objects of
the Oberlin Institute, are the education of gospel ministers and
pious school-teachers. To fit them thoroughly for their important
services, they will be furnished with academic, collegiate, and
theological privileges ....
"The system of education in this
Institution will provide for the body and heart as well as the
intellect; for it aims at the best education of the whole man. The
Manual Labor Department will receive unusual attention, being not,
(as is too common) regarded as an unimportant appendage to the
literary department; but systematized and incorporated with it. A
variety of agricultural and mechanical labors will be performed by
the students under circumstances most conducive to their health
and support. All will be required to work probably four hours
daily ....
"This Institution is also to have a Female
Department, on the Manual Labor Plan, for the same reasons that it
is adopted in the Male Department. Housekeeping, the manufacture
of wool, the culture of silk, the appropriate parts of gardening,
particularly raising and fitting seeds for the market, the making
of clothes, &c; will furnish them employment suited to their
sex, and conducive to their health, good habits, and support.
"There will be in connection with this
Seminary, Infant and Primary Departments of instruction under the
general supervision of the President, that the architect who rears
the superstructure may lay well the cornerstone. The primary
departments will be established and sustained at the expense of
the Oberlin Colony, by which the Institute is embosomed.
"This work is in successful progress, and
Providence permitting, the academic course of instruction will be
commenced on the 1st of December next; and the higher department
be opened as soon as the advance of the students shall require
them.
In December the school was to open, but
early in October unwelcome news was received from Seth Waldo, who
had been appointed to take Hall's place as head of the school
until the autumn of 1834. "The next Tuesday after you left
Andover," he informed Shipherd, "I was taken with bilious fever,
with which I was brought to the borders of the grave.... "In
short, he would be unable to go west until his health was
recovered, probably not before the next spring. He recommended the
hiring of a temporary substitute. The man selected as the first
teacher was John Frederick Scovill, a sophomore at Western Reserve
College, and a native of Fort Edward, New York, a town perhaps
thirty miles from Shipherd's own Granville. At the eleventh hour
he definitely promised to come: "Providence seems to say 'Go to
Oberlin!!' therefore you may expect me ('Deo Volente'), on the
spot next week on Saturday. You must not expect as much from me,
as from an experienced hand, as I have taught but little. But I
will not however present a long list of excuses. Looking to God
for assistance, I shall endeavor to discharge the duties imposed
upon me, according to the best of my ability. May heaven bless us,
in all our undertakings."
So the school was opened on schedule. The
Founder wrote shotfly after to his parents:
"The Lord is to be praised that we were
enabled to open our Institution at the appointed time Dec. 3d
--& with 30 scholars. [This does not include the twenty
youngsters in the 'infant school'.] We have now 34 boarding
scholars and expect 40 for the winter. Applicants are without
number, from Lake Erie to the Gulf of Mexico--from Lower Canada to
Long Island Sound, & from Michigan to the Atlantic. The
scholars study and work well. Five minutes after the Manual Labor
Bell strikes the hammers, saws &c. of the mechanical students
wake all around us; & the axe men in the woods breaking the
'ribs of nature' make all crash.
"Nearly all our visitors (& they are
not few) express surprise that so great a work has been wrought
here in so short a time. God be praised!
"I feel as I said in my sleep the other
night-- 'Oberlin will rise & the Devil cannot hinder
it'!"
The school met in the "boarding house," the
one and only frame building in the colony. Only 35 feet by 44 feet
and two and a half stories high, this structure also housed the
Stewart and Shipherd families and all of the boarding pupils, and
contained a common dining room and office! Round about it, like
chickens round a brooding hen, were scattered the rude log cabins
of the colonists, most of them on what is now South Main Street.
On the banks of Plumb Creek stood the communal mill, not yet in
operation. There were a few acres of stubble land which had been
planted to wheat in the previous summer. Probably a larger area
was occupied by stumps. Oberlin had created as yet but a small
breach in the wilderness; in the first year venison was often
included in the fare. The dense, virgin forest was still close
upon the little settlement in December, but was being slowly
driven back by the daily assaults of the colonists and students,
armed with broad axes, beetles and wedges. The acrid smoke from
the burning logs and brush hung over the clearing almost
constantly.
Scofill wrote to an acquaintance two weeks
after school had opened:
"My location at present...is at 'Oberlin',
up to my eyes in business. Almost 40 Young Gentlemen & Ladies
are under my care, all looking up to me for counsel &
instruction. They possess minds too of a rare quality, &
demand the utmost efforts from a teacher to store them with that
rich science, heavenly as well as earthly, which will prepare them
to act successfully & usefully their parts upon the theatre of
life.... The Colonists nowon the ground, are men of sterling piety
& talents--majority of them from the land of steady habits....
Most of the Young men clear their way, by engaging in Manual Labor
4 hours per day. The grand object of this Institution is to
educate those who shall be prepared physically, as well as
intelluctually & morally, to illuminate the world with the
light of Science & civilization."
Eliza Branch taught the "infant school" and
attended the academic course. For her first seventeen weeks of
service in this capacity she received $2.50 per week. "Our little
ones" wrote Shipherd, "H.[enry] W.[illiam] &
E.[dward] are in the Institute's primary Department. E.
Branch Teacher." She lived with the Shiperds in the "boarding
house" and in the spring of 1834 in their new log cabin, where she
performed her four hours of daily manual labor, being Esther
Shiperd's only assistant in caring for a family of sixteen,
including boarders.
At the meeting of September 13 the trustees
had provided for the drafting of an act of incorporation for the
school, and the Oberlin Society appointed a committee on October
15 to cooperate in the preparation of the document and an
accompanying petition. On December 23 this petition was reported
to the society and adopted. As originally drawn up and signed by
the trustees the charter provided for an "Institute... on a plan
sufficiently extensive to afford instruction in the liberal arts
& Sciences," which might be later extended to include
"additional departments for the study of such other branches as
they may think necessary or useful."
The petition which accompanied the charter
is a significant document, a first report of progress, adopted, as
it was, less than three weeks after the opening of
school:
"The foregoing charter your petitioners
respectfully solicit for reasons following
"1.) Institutions like this which we pray
you to incorporate are indispensable to the general diffusion of
Science and virtue which are the basis of our free & valued
institutions.
"2.) Altho' litterary institutions have
been considerably multiplyed in our infant Republic, none have yet
afforded its indigent youth in general an opportunity to acquire a
liberal and thorough education by their own industry. This
extension of the benefits of liberal education to the whole
community is yet a desideratum.
"3.) Your Petitioners believe that this
grand object desired by every enlightened patriot may be secured
by the plan which they have adopted & in part executed which
is as follows to wit[:]
"They have secured by donation 500 acres of
good land in its native State -- have cleared & sown about 30
Acres of the same... have erected a Steam Engine of 25 horse power
which is [soon to be?] propelling a Saw Mill & is soon
to propell a grist mill & other machinery-- have erected a
building for a boarding & school house which will accomodate
40 boarding scholars and have secured funds in addition to the
amount of about 6000 dollars, which a generous public are
continually increasing.
"They opened an Academic School on the 3d
of Dec. inst with 30 Scholars which are increasing as fast as the
accomodations of your petitioners will permit: & would now
have been at least 100 could your petitioners have made room for
them. They have elected a President [Hall] and two
Professors [waldo and Dascomb] which are expected to enter
upon their official services during the ensuing year and have
applications for admission to this seminary from Mishigan to the
Atlantic and from Lake Erie and L.[ower] Canada to the
Gulph of Mexico and Long Island Sound.
* * * * *
"No permanent fund is required in the
O.C.I. for the support of its Prest & Professors for men of
best qualifications have been found & it is believed will be
found as they shall be needed, whose pecuniary compensation will
be only so much as a moderate tuition will furnish. Students are
furnished with board and all its appendages at cost, & are
required to labor 4 hours daily for which they receive all that
their labor can be made to produce from 500 acres of good land and
an engine of 25 horse power with a variety of
machinery."
A charter of the usual type and quite
dissimilar in wording from the Oberlin draft was granted by the
Ohio legislature on February 28, 1834, and authorized the trustees
to hold their first legal meeting on the second Monday of March,
1834.
When the trustees assembled for their first
meeting under the charter on March 10, 1834, Shipherd had already
prepared a broadside, reporting that "our most sanguine
expectations have been hitherto more than realized .... embosomed
by the Oberlin Colony, which consists of pious Eastern families
that have removed to this Valley for the purpose of Glorifying God
.... this Institution is beginning to diffuse the cheering beams
of Christian Science," where "less than one year since was the
darkness of a deep Ohio forest without inhabitant." There were at
this time sixty students in attendance: forty in the academic
department and twenty in the primary school.
The success or failure of manual labor was
looked upon as a test of the whole institution and Shipherd
proudly boasted of it: "The avails from the students have by their
four hours daily labor paid their board, fuel, lights, washing and
mending. Some have added to this, payment for their books--others
still more--and a few have, by this exercise necessary to health,
earned their clothing also; and thus supported themselves without
retarding their progress in study .... The females have generally
paid their board with its appendages by housekeeping--Some their
board, and tuition also, while younger ones have fallen short of
earning their board."
In order to furnish manual labor for the
men and milk for all the students a small herd of cattle was
purchased. On April 15 one cow had been secured, and, on November
1, 1833, Shipherd "in behalf of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute"
entered into an agreement with R. H. Foote of Wellington whereby
the latter promised to "deliver, at Oberlin on the 1st day of
April, 1834 or sooner if requested by the said... Shipherd ....
eleven of his cows heretofore called by him & his family by
the following names--& their calves also: Big Brown Cow--Old
Bragy --Campbel Cow--Scrawney--Scrawneys Mate--Fire
Brains--Bradley Cow--Hamilton Cow--Bell Cow--Hollow Horns &
Brown White Face." The price was $165.00 and "It is further agreed
by the parties aforesaid that the said Foot[e] shall take
as good care of the said cows at his own cost till delivered as
aforesaid as if they were his own & that the said Oberlin
Committee of the second part shall risk the lives, health &
casualties of the cows, and the said Foot[e] warrants the
cows to be with calf." Of course, there were no good meadows as
yet on the colony land so that it was necessary to rent a meadow
in order that "Big Brown Cow," "Scrawney," "Fire Brains" and all
the others might have forage. The subsequent history of the cattle
is told in a rough account kept by Shipherd on a slip of scrap
paper:
Cow list here
Bot of Foot[e]
11 cows
1 Daniels [sold to?]
10
1 Died
9
1 Purchased
10
1 Black & white cow of P.P
Pease
11
1 Deep red cow Purch by J.J.
Ship
12
The circular of March, 1834, states that at
that time the Institute possessed "three yoke of oxen--twelve
cows--fifty sheep." During the summer and fall students were paid
$54.51 for milking cows.
In addition, the forest offered in the
first )'ears an unlimited opportunity for work of the most
laborious kind. On the reverse of Shipherd's memorandum in regard
to the history of the cows is a record of tools lent to stndents,
colonists and teachers. It includes: "E. H. Fairchild--ax," "P. P.
Pease--ax," etc. The young ladies were, of course, accommodated at
housework about the boarding house.
The cost to the students was very low.
According to the Circular, "The expenses of students in this
Seminary are now, for board, at the table spread only with
vegetable food, with fuel, lights, washing, and mending, 8o cents
a week; and 92 cents a week for the same with animal food twice a
day. Students who are able, furnish their own beds, and the
indigent are supplied by the institute. Tuition is from 15 to 35
cents a week. School and classical books are procured by the
Trustees in New York at wholesale, and sold to students lower than
they are usually sold in the East at retail." The highest tuition
paid by any student during the summer and fall terms, twenty-three
weeks throughout, was $8.43 and the next highest $7.83. The 76
students attending in these two terms paid in altogether only
$348.45. That the expense for supplies was low is clear from the
numerous bills still preserved. William P. Cochran, the student
who paid the highest tuition bill of $8.43, bought "1 Latin
Reader" on May 29 for .83 cents, "1 Greek Reader" on June 5 for
$1.15, and "1 Doz. Quills" on the 14th of July for 24 cents,
making his bill, rendered July 23, $2.22. Henry Fairchild was
charged with "1/2 Quire Paper--.11." On June 26, Eliza Branch
bought a "Latin Reader" for 94 cents and S. H. Waldo. the
Professor of Languages, purchased "1 Quire Paper" for 21 cents and
"1 Set French Books--1.76." Miscellaneous expenses for clothing,
medicine, etc. were likewise very low. On May 14. Dr. Dascomb
charged one student 37 1/2 cents for advice and medicine and
another 12 1/2 cents for medicine. On the same day a dose of
calomel cost William Cushman a shilling, but Father Shipherd paid
a quarter for "advice and medicine." Hershel Reed had a tooth
extracted on the 20th and paid a shilling. Cough drops also cost a
shilling. Eliza Branch paid the same amount for a "dose Rhubarb"
on the first day of June and again for an emetic three days later.
A shilling also was the charge for lancing Peter Pindar Pease's
finger. Washing was done for students at 37 1/2¢ a dozen
pieces; candles were supplied at a shilling a pound; mending and
darning was also handled for a very small charge.
One of the first teachers in the Institute
wrote a splendid description of conditions in Oberlin in the
summer of 1834. Her introduction to the colony would not be
considered propitious by most women:
"At Elyria we dined & obtained a 2
horse waggon to transport us (2 gent. from N. Eng. going to the
Institute as students) to our journey's end .... [G]lad
were we when an opening in the forest dawned upon us, &
Oberlin was seen. That, said our driver, is 'the City.' We rode
through its principal street, now & then coming in contact
with a stump, till we were set down--not at the Coffee House, or
Tea House but the Boarding House .... We were soon introduced to
Mr. & Mrs. Stewart--Superintendents of the Boarding &
Manual labor departments. They were formerly missionaries among
the Choctaws and are the very best of persons. The next day we
attended meeting which is held for this season in the school room,
tho it is already too small for the congregation .... Most of the
scholars are hopefully [pious]. They are
[generally] interesting & very intelligent. Some of
them are [apparently] as [cultivated] as any I
have ever known in N. Eng. Institutions .... We have now been here
two weeks--health & spirits good & Oberlin already looks
to us like home. Things about us are all going on so briskly one
cannot well feel sleepy. You hear great trees falling, see fires
blazing, & new houses going up in all directions. There are a
few log houses wh. were put up at first but now they are building
framed houses .... At present we have 60 or more boarders & of
course must submit to some inconveniences--but we do it
cheerfully--looking forward to better times."
Though unable, as yet, to come to Oberlin,
Samuel R. Hall continued his active interest in the Institute. In
October of 1833 he was planning a conference with Dascomb and
Waldo at Andover on the organization of the new school. Hall wrote
in late December to Shipherd that the "path of duty" seemed to
lead to Oberlin. "I propose, therefore," he continued, "to visit
Oberlin in the Spring, & to take a bird's eye view of the
'great west.'"
In the spring of 1834 he was still planning
on assuming the headship of the Institute. The March Circular
states that, "Negotiations are now in progress with Rev. S. R.
Hall, Principal of the Teachers Seminary And. Mass., which, it is
hoped, will in due time result in his inauguration as President of
the Literary department of the Oberlin Institute. Should he
decline, another will be timely elected." The failure of this
distinguished educator ever to assume his position at Oberlin is
probably attributable to his poor health. On September 23, 1834,
the trustees ordered "the corresponding Secretary . . . to
negotiate for a President of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute."
Hall's final refusal must have been received by this
date.
Scovill's appointment was never intended to
be permanent and he left Oberlin at the end of March, 1834. The
first regular faculty members arrived in May. James Dascomb, M.D.,
a student of Dr. Mussey's at the Dartmouth Medical School, came as
Professor of Chemistry, Botany, and Physiology and also as colony
physician. His wife, Mrs. Marianne Parker Dascomb, who had studied
with Zilpah Grant [Banister] at Ipswich, Mass., later
became the first Principal of the Female Department. Seth Waldo
was a graduate of Amherst and a student in the Andover Theological
Seminary. Daniel Branch, said also to have been an Amherst man,
was made Principal of the Preparatory School. Mrs. Branch and Mrs.
Waldo also did some teaching. Branch was Waldo's brother-in-law
and Dascomb was Hall's brother-in-law. Both Waldo and Dascomb were
appointed upon the recommendation of Hall. In June the position of
Professor of Mathematics was offered to Theodore Weld, then at
Lane Seminary, who, however, refused the appointment. What seems
to have been the first formal meeting of the faculty took place in
November:
"At a meeting Nov. 21st 1834 of the Faculty
of Oberlin Collegiate Institute, present Rev. J. J. Shipherd, S.
H. Waldo, James Dascomb & Daniel Branch it was voted that D.
Branch be Secretary of the Faculty. Voted that James Dascomb be
Librarian. Voted that the Faculty meet on Tuesday evening of each
alternate week."
The Circular of the early spring had
expressed the intention of establishing a collegiate department as
soon as students should be found prepared for that work. At their
meeting in September, 1834, the trustees voted that "Teachers in
the Institute be authorized to examine and set upon a Collegiate
course such of the Students as they may judge qualified for such
standing, and that the Trustees be invited to be present at the
examination."
On the 29th of October the first public
examination and "Commencement" was held. It was reported,
fortunately, for a Cleveland paper:
"The examination of this Seminary took
place on the 29th ultimo. and was well sustained throughout. The
studies were English Grammar, Arithmetic, Geography, Botany,
History, Rhetoric, Stenography, Natural Philosophy, Latin, Greek,
and compositions in English. In all these branches the students
appeared well, and evinced the Pleasing fact, that the teachers
have been successful in their attempts for a thorough mental
discipline. In the evening original compositions were read and
spoken, and the exercise enlivened by an ingenious dialogue, and
sacred music."
In September the trustees appointed a
special committee to "draft a code of bye Laws for the government
of the Oberlin Collegiate institute & Report the same at the
next meeting of the Board." The code drawn up by the committee was
presented at the meeting of October 28 and adopted with some
modifications. These "By Laws of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute"
are divided into thirteen chapters: I. "Government of the
Institute & duties of its officers." II. "System of
Education," III. "Of Religious Exercises," IV. "Admission of the
Students & their Continuance in the Institute," V. "Manual
Labor," VI. "Steward's Department," VII. "Student's Rooms," VIII.
"Fire Precautions," IX. "Hours of Labor, Study, Food and
Devotion," X. "Deportment," XI. "The Library," XII. "Terms,
Examinations, Vacations, Anniversary &c.," XIII. "Tuition
Bill." The first paragraph under "System of Education" provides
that, "This shall embrace the instruction of a preparatory or
Academic department, a Teachers department, a Female Seminary, and
a Collegiate department, in which shall be taught thoroughly the
useful arts & sciences common in other similar institutions
with such additions and amendments as experience shall dictate. It
is designed also to add a Theological course when in the opinion
of the Trustees it shall be called for."
The enthusiasm of the religious zealot, of
the inspired reformer, of the optimistic frontiersman led them on.
On the very day preceding the adoption of the "by laws" a general
mass meeting of colonists and students was held, at which it was
"resolved, that in view of one year's experiment we are satisfied
that this institution . . . is of immense importance to the
scientific, political, and religious interests of this great
valley, our nation and the world; and as such ought to be
sustained and liberally endowed by the public."
A month later the First Annual Report was
issued:
"Hitherto the Lord hath helped us. This is
evident from the rise and prosperity of the Oberlin Collegiate
Institute, which the Trustees gratefully report to its patrons and
the public ....
"Its grand object is the diffusion of
useful science, sound morality, and pure religion, among the
growing multitudes of the Mississippi Valley. It aims also at
bearing an important part in extending these blessings to the
destitute millions which overspread the earth. For this purpose it
proposes as its primary object, the thorough education of
Ministers and pious School Teachers. As a secondary object, the
elevation of the female character. And as a third general design,
the education of the common people with the higher classes in such
manner as suits the nature of Republican institutions
....
"There have been during the year, more than
one hundred students; of which 100 were members during the Summer
term; of these 63 were males & 37 females; and more than 90
over 14 years of age--most of whom are eighteen. These are from
six different states. In addition to these, greater numbers have
applied for admission, but could not be received for want of room.
The increase of numbers is not so much the design of this
institution as the good of the world through those it educates.
Therefore none are desired but those who are willing to endure
that mental and manual toil, through which alone qualifications
are obtained for the most extensive usefulness. Drones cannot be
endured in this hive of industry ....
"Cheered onward by the results; and moved
by the spirit stirring facts, that the dearest interests of our
beloved Republic, and dearer Zion, and of a world for whom Christ
died, are all involved in the christian education of our youth;
hundreds of whom beg for admittance to the Oberlin Collegiate
Institute; its trustees are fixed in their purpose that nothing
shall be wanting on their part, to give it a deep and broad
foundation and a noble superstructure. As the work is great,
patriotic, and christian, those to whom it is entrusted,
confidently appeal to the christian public for liberal aid in its
accomplishment."
Shipherd's mission to the East had not
netted so much as it was hoped it would. The problem of securing
funds was still the greatest obstacle in the way of success. Small
gifts of money and goods were, fortunately, received in the autumn
of 1833 and throughout 1834. In September of 1833, John Tolman of
Enosburgh, Vermont, sent over fifty dollars worth of leather
goods:
"Two sides of small upper leather
10 prs thick Brogans
3 " " "
5 " Womens Bootees
2 " Calf Skin Boots"
In October the ladies of Pawlet, where
Shipherd had attended school and Stewart had grown up, Fayette
Shipherd's first parish, sent a box of various articles valued at
seventy dollars "for the Oberlin M. L. Institute." In the
following May the books willed by the deceased brother of the
founder, James K. Shipherd, and valued at $62.00 were shipped to
Oberlin. In July Harmon Kingsbury of Cleveland, always a friend to
Oberlin, presented "for the assistance of Pious, indigent young
men, of promising talents for the Christian Ministry, in procuring
their education, a horse which would have you, as a steward of our
common Master's goods, dispose of as you think best for the
promotion of the above named object. He is a little lame in the
stifle,--has cost me about eighty five Dollars when much lamer
than he now is--will be worth more if he gets well." Four days
later he added to his gift:
"2 Axes
1 Shovel
1 Pitch fork
1 Hoe
1 Neck yoke for waggon harness
1 Joiners plane
1 water Pail
1 Half Bushel
9 Articles which may be of some value to
your establishment."
From the beginning, however, the chief
source of support was the system of so-called "scholarships." The
announcement o{ September, 1833, declares: "Any church or
individual furnishing 150 dollars . . . will establish a permanent
scholarship; i.e. enable not only one individual, but a succession
of individuals to obtain a thorough education for the ministry or
school teaching. Those who establish scholarships may elect their
beneficiaries, providing they select those who are of promising
talent and piety. And any student who will pay to the Treasurer of
this Institute 150 dollars may enjoy its full
privileges."
The March, 1834, Circular further states
that, "The 150 dollars is the proportion of outfit money expended
to furnish an individual with the privileges of the Oberlin
Institute .... It should be understood that students can be
admitted to the boarding and manual labor privileges of this
Seminary, only on Scholarships established by themselves, their
friends, or the benevolent in their behalf; and that these
scholarships do not guarantee the students support, nor any part
of it, nor pay his tuition; but they are so expended as to furnish
board, tuition, books, &c., at a very low rate; and give the
beneficiary peculiar facilities for defraying expenses of these by
those services which are necessary, irrespective of support, to a
finished Christian education."
In the First Annual Report it was explained
that: "Temporary students are received without scholarships, and
charged for board and manual labor privileges the interest thereof
in addition to what is paid by the beneficiaries of these
scholarships; i.e. at the rate of 9.00 per year. Those who board
out of the commons, and do not enjoy the manual labor facilities
of the Institute, are received to all the departments without
scholarships and pay the ordinary tuition." It would appear that
these scholarships might better be called stock, as they
represented an investment in capital and did not relieve the
beneficiary from the payment of tuition, incidental or other
regular charges. It is not surprising that this system of raising
money should have led to much criticism and
misunderstanding.
It was a vulnerable point for Oberlin's
enemies to attack, and the Ohio Observer, the organ of Western
Reserve College (edited by a trustee), made the most of it. In
June, 1834, Oberlin and the scholarship plan were attacked
editorially and by an anonymous contributor in this religious
periodical. The anonymous writer found that, "The most striking
feature of an exceptional character that appears in the Oberlin
Institute is, that while it builds its claims to public patronage
upon its benevolent character, it makes the unheard of requisition
that every student upon his entrance, shall pay or cause to be
paid the sum of 150 dollars for the mere privilege of going to
school there and using the tools of the establishment. The last
privilege amounts to nothing, for almost every one who employs
laborers, expects to find for them the implements of labor, so
that there is 150 dollars for permission to attend on this
Institution, without paying by this money any of the expenses of
board or tuition. Truly there must be thought some wonderful
advantages enjoyed here which are furnished nowhere else in this
or any other land. For there is not, it may be presumed, another
institution in our land, if there is in the literary world, where
'an outfit' of this amount is required on entrance, especially, I
will warrant, no benevolent Institution. There is not another
Manual Labor or Mental Labor College where a student cannot have
free access upon paying the bills that accrue for his necessary
expenses of board, tuition, &c. This is to me very strange,
and I should like very much to see it explained."
In his reply, published a month later,
Shipherd pointed out that the announcement had been, accidentally
or intentionally, misread. Only students able to do so were
expected to pay for their own scholarships; the indigent were
expected to be supplied by benevolent donors. Undoubtedly it did
seem absurd to many readers, however, that the scholarships did
not cover tuition or other ordinary expenses but merely granted
the student admission to the institution and the right to the use
of manual labor tools.
In a statement prepared by Shipherd in the
summer of 1834, 63 scholarships are listed as outstanding. Two are
in his own name, one is credited to Stewart, one to Pease, one to
Redington. Fayette Shipherd's name is in the list as also that of
John Tappan of Boston. A number of Congregational churches held
scholarships: the church at Moriah, N.Y., the home of Zebulon
Shipherd; in Vermont, the churches of Enosburgh, Pawlet, and
Cornwall; in New Hampshire, churches at Dunbarton, Campton,
Plymouth, Franklin, Boscawen, Canterbury, and Concord, and in
Massachusetts, the Tabernacle Church at Salem and the churches in
New Boston, Meredith Valley, and Newburyport. Many of these
scholarships Shipherd had secured himself; others were obtained by
Benjamin Woodbury, the agent in New England from the fall of 1833
to 1835. As early as the middle of September of 1833 Woodbury
notified Shipherd that he had sold a scholarship, for which he
received cash in full, an unusual circumstance, thirty or forty
dollars down being the commonest first payment. The last of
January of 1834, he visited the Female Seminary at Ipswich, Mass.,
and obtained $350.00--one scholarship from Mary Lyon and one and a
third from Miss Zilpah Grant, the principal, and her teachers and
pupils. Miss Grant promised to pay another hundred dollars the
next year, thus increasing the subscription to three scholarships
in all. Woodbury found opposition in some places and much
competition from agents of other causes. A representative of Lane
Seminary called on him at Lowell "was supercilleous as you pleas,
'his obiect was paramount,'--asked many questions--intimated that
there was no very great need of Ob., that there were likely to be
too many Institutions in the West &c &c." By May he had
collected over $1300.00, on October 10 nearly $2500.00, at the end
of his mission in March, 1835, nearly $4,000 in cash and over
$10,000 in subscriptions.
In the winter of 1834-35, O. D. Hibbard, a
student, sold scholarships in western and central New York State
from Buffalo to Utica. Hibbard, like many others, seems to have
misunderstood the purpose of the scholarships. A patron later
wrote to Oberlin that Hibbard had given a quite unorthodox
description of the value of a scholarship: "The scholarship system
he defined to be as follows, the proprietors of scholarships owned
the Institution, the buildings and farm together with some mills
&C. It was all carried on to the best advantage and the
profits divided among those who held scholarships. Said the
scholarship was transferable property, could be deeded or willed
and that an Individual holding a scholarship could Keep a student
in the Institution free of room rent or tuition." When the First
Annual Report of December, 1834, reached the agent he felt
betrayed and wrote to Shipherd with considerable heat. He asked
for some explanation and whether he should cease "Labouring for
scholarships" and instead "labour for donations as a
charity."
There were many others who had
misconceptions about the scholarships. One of the men who had
purchased a scholarship from Woodbury wrote to Oberlin in 1835: "I
expect to send my son or some other young man in September next to
Commence the Study for the Ministry & expect that he will be
Carried threw the whole Course of Study for the Ministry for the
hundred & fifty Dollars that I paid to Revd Mr. Woodbury Sept
2d 1833 .... [I]s the Board & Books included in the
hundred & fifty Dollars?" It is quite obvious that the writer
believed that no additional tuition would be charged and that a
scholarship was necessary to admission.
The attitude of the trustees is shown in a
resolution of July 1, 1835: "That Students who are able on being
recd into this Institution shall pay $150.00 or 8 pr ct interest
on the same." In the following August the sale of these
scholarships was finally discontinued. Whatever they had been in
the beginning, it is clear that they were now recognized as being
no more than charitable donations. Years afterwards, however,
students presented them, hoping to receive free tuition, and they
continued to cause misunderstanding and ill-feeling. In 1849 the
trustees refunded $150.00 to one complaining purchaser.
This was Shipherd's scheme for financing
the school. Stewart had one, too: he would patent a number of
inventions which he was contriving and bestow them on Oberlin as
an endowment. Thus the whittler Stewart would serve the missionary
Stewart. In Elyria he worked on models of a new planing machine
and a new cooking stove. It was his hope that the stove might
prove popular enough to result in considerable profits for the
colony and school. On March 12, 1833, he wrote to Shipherd: "I
wish to employ my time so as most effectually to promote the
interests of the Institution: & I am not fully satisfied at
present how that can be done. I am still occupied about the stove.
If the Furnace had not 'blown out' again I should probably have
had the oven cast, & the whole stove tested before this. I
hope however it will be done in the course of three or four weeks
.... As many as ten families have manifested a desire to purchase,
if it should meet their expectations." Of course it would be
necessary for the trustees to put some money into the enterprises.
"The Board are disposed to try & see what can be made from the
Stove," the inventor continued, "If this is done, it will be
necessary to invest funds to some amount, in them, & this
arrangement would probably retard some of our operations. But we
must comit it all to the Lord. 'Many are the devices in a man's
heart, but the Counsel of the Lord, that shall stand'."
In April Stewart could report much progess
and had become very optimistic with regard to future prospects. "I
am yet occupied about the stove. I have recently had an oven cast
and attached to the part we had before & it operates well ....
It is now rendered quite certain in the view of those who have
examined this stove that it will supercede most if not all other
cookingstoves in the country. At any rate there is a prospect of
considerable profit to the Institution if the business is
prosecuted." Esther Shipherd evidently had considerable faith in
the invention, for, at about the same time, she informed her
husband that, "Mr. Stewart has completed his stove and the people
are very much in favor of it, he has had several spoken for, he
calls it the Oberlin patent."
Before the end of May four stoves had been
cast. In the next month they were all put to use in the new
colony. Early in July Stewart wrote of the enterprise: "I am still
occupied about the stove. We have had 5 cast and fitted up ....
Five more are already engaged. Individuals from different parts of
the country have examined this stove, & uniformly express the
belief that it wd sell in their vicinity in prefference to any
other. It seems to me to be a matter of considerable importance
that we git them spread abroad considerably the present season.
The probability is, that by having one or two in a place, the
Winter coming on we could sell in every such place . . . from a
half a dozzen, to a dozzen, during the next season." Stewart felt
that it would probably be advisable to secure a patent soon,
before the new ideas in the stove were appropriated by other stove
makers.
On June 19, 1834, a patent was panted to
"Philo P. Stewart of Elyria, in the County of Lorain and State of
Ohio" for "a new and useful improvement in the cooking stove . . .
denominated The Oberlin Cooking Stove." In September of the same
year Stewart deeded his rights by this patent to the Institute for
a period of three years "in consideration of the love I bear
towards my redeemer & Saviour Jesus Christ, and for the
promotion ot the Gospel and particularly the Establishment of the
Oberlin Collegiate Institute."
An advertisement dated June 25, 1834,
appears in a November issue of an Elyria newspaper:
"OBERLIN COOKING STOVES
"R. E. Gillet agent--has on hand and will
keep for sale a supply of the celebrated Oberlin Cooking Stoves,
the best kind in use. Orders filled on short notice for any
quantity."
It is evident that arrangements had been
made in the spring with Gillett and Johnson of Elyria, through R.
E. Gillett, to manufacture the Oberlin stove. In a letter of the
last of June Gillett refers to a "few stoves on hand" and three
stoves that had already been sent to Zanesville. A statement
presented by Gillett and Johnson to the Oberlin Institute in the
spring of 1835 lists nine Oberlin stoves made by that firm since
September 1, 1834. One of these stoves was shipped to Akron, and
two were supplied to Oberlin colonists: N. P. Fletcher and Bela
Hall.
In August, 1834, a letter was received from
an agent in Lima, ordering three stoves. Evidently Stewart's
patent was "taking." The prospects for profits from sales of the
cooking stove seemed so good, indeed, that the trustees at their
meeting in February of 1835 released Stewart from his position in
charge of the boarding house so that he might devote all of his
attention to the making of stove patterns.
In February of 1835 a contract was made
with John Moore, proprietor of the Mary Ann Furnace at Newark,
Ohio, whereby he agreed to pay two dollars per stove to Oberlin
for the privilege of making Oberlin cooking stoves and selling
them in certain counties in central and northern Ohio. In the next
year one hundred and twenty-three stoves were manufactured at the
Mary Ann Furnace. Apparently the competition from other patents
was too strong and no more were ever made.
In March of 1834 Shipherd was officially
appointed "General Agent of the Oberlin Institute" to manage the
financial affairs in Oberlin as well as to solicit funds outside.
In June we find him on a visit to Mansfield, where he hoped to get
much aid and did obtain one scholarship. Whatever else Shipherd
was, however, he was not a financier. The most valuable letters
and other records were in the utmost confusion, some of them piled
on the floor and in baskets in the building where they were kept.
It is said that from 1832 to 1835 "it never was possible to
balance his accounts." On October 8, 1834, the auditing committee
of the Board of Trustees reported that accounts showed $42.11 due
to Shipherd and $110.08 due from Pease, but that, "At the same
time from the manner in which the accounts were kept [by
Shipherd] we have no doubt but that Some Items from the
Multiplicity of business have been omitted to be credited,
therefore [we] recommend striking a balance even with both
of your Agents."
Despite the optimistic public
pronouncements it is clear that the enterprise was in a more than
precarious financial state. Already in June the Institute was in
straits. Most of the subscribers for scholarships were failing in
their late payments; few new subscriptions were coming in.
Shipherd wrote to his brother: "Young men of promising talent
& piety, after I have written to them that we are full, &
cannot receive them, come to us, hundreds of miles, & beg for
admittance saying 'we will eat anything & sleep on anything if
you will give us an opportunity to obtain a thorough education for
usefulness, & defray the expense by our own labors.' What
heart that feels in the least for a dying world could bid them
depart if it were possible to provide for them. And yet dear br. I
am under the distressing necessity of rejecting such for want of a
few thousand dollars by which I could place them in such
circumstances as would through the Lord's blessing, in a few years
send them forth to 'endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus
Christ'."
It was planned to expand the enterprise:
the college course was already begun; a theological department was
to be opened soon, and yet there were only a few thousand dollars
in sight, mostly from Woodbury's mission. The tuition received
from the students had fallen short by $76.55 of meeting the
salaries of the teachers. An emergency call was sent to Woodbury.
Money must be forthcoming: "What shall be done?--What shall be
done? was the earnest enquiry," one of the trustees later wrote.
"A large boarding house was needed--3 or 4 professors immediately
and a president of the Institution--and some large College
buildings for the accomodation of the scholars, was Indispensibly
necessary--and the subscriptions already obtained were inadequate
for the demands of the boarding house and necessary improvements,
and it was obvious that unless some measures were devised
correspondent to our wants, and carried into Execution with
promptness, the design must fail." One faction desired to retrench
and bring the enterprise within their ability to pay. They argued,
says the same trustee, who was on the other side, that, "a wise
reduction of our expenditures and a stopage [sic] of our
improvements would bring us to a financial state in which the
labours of our N. England Agent would fully justify us, and bear
us thro'--that board in the Commons could be reduced to almost
nothing." The majority however insisted on holding on and making
an appeal for more adequate support for the Oberlin Institute as
it had been projected.
It is certain that the ship was almost on
the rocks. Succor was immediately needed. It is little wonder that
when it came it was looked upon as providential.
CHAPTER
XII
IMMEDIATE
EMANCIPATION
"I AM in earnest--I will not equivocate--I
will not excuse --I will not retreat a single inch--AND I WILL BE
HEARD." It was the voice of William Lloyd Garrison speaking
through the first issue of the Liberator on January 1, 1831,
denouncing slavery in the Land of Freedom and calling for
immediate emancipation. There may be some doubts regarding the
effectiveness of Garrison as a leader and, in later days, as a
propagandist, but the importance of this first awakening cry of
the New England conscience on the question of Negro slavery can
hardly be denied. And nowhere were there tenderer consciences than
among the Finney men of the expanded New England-- on the Mohawk,
on the Genesee, in New York City, and in Ohio.
Finney and his followers were religious
activists, good soldiers recruited to fight the battles of
righteousness under the banners of the Lord. In 1829 Theodore Weld
wrote to Zephaniah Platt of "the vitality of Godliness...
something more than the negatives & passives of religion."
Stanton, Monteith, the Tappans, George Avery, Lyman, and Weld
demonstrated this vitality in their work for manual labor schools
and for temperance. Wherever Finney made converts to the more
vital Christianity Weld founded temperance societies. "The Lord .
. . sent Mr. Weld here last week [to speak] on the subject
of temperance," Nathaniel Andrews wrote from Whitesboro in 1831.
"His arguments were powerful and conclusive. I think we could not
have found a more able advocate. At the close of his remarks a
constitution found[ed] on total abstinence was presented
& immediately between thirty & forty subscribed to it."
The Rochester Observer described how in January, 1831, when Weld
was on his way west he appeared before a capacity crowd in the
Rochester First Presbyterian Church and "marched up and attacked
and carried the defences of the drunkard, the temperate drinker,
the manufacturer and vendor." We have already noted that his
lectures in the West in the following year on manual labor were
interspersed with others on female education and
temperance.
Down to this time the only important
benevolent organization devoted to the cause of the slave was the
American Colonization Society. The central feature in the
colonization program was the return of colored persons from the
United States to Africa. Southerners supported the society because
it promised to help eliminate the troublesome free Negroes from
the South; philanthropic Northerners supported it simply because
it was the only influential, national anti-slavery society.
Garrison shocked the easy Northern complaisance; colonizationism,
he declared, was really not anti-slavery at all. If emancipation
awaited transportation to Africa it would never come. The way to
free the slaves was to free the slaves--immediate
emancipation.
This sounded logical to the Rochester
0bserver. "The Liberator... is the name of a small but neatly
executed paper which has just made its debut under the editorship
of Mr. Wm. L. Garrison, the fearless but persecuted advocate of
freedom," said the Observer editorially on January 13, 1831. "We
heartily wish Mr. Garrison that success which his noble and
philanthropic undertaking so well deserves." This was while Finney
was still in town conducting his famous revival. In March
following, the Observer took its position frankly by Garrison's
side in opposition to colonization. In November, 1833, a meeting
of "all persons friendly to the Immediate abolition of Slavery"
was held in the Third Presbyterian Church and the Rochester
Anti-Slavery Society was founded. The Monroe County Anti-Slavery
Society was formed, also in Rochester, the following year. The
Rochester Anti-Slavery Society published an official organ in 1834
called the Rights of Man. Active members of these societies were
Finneyites George A. Avery and Samuel D. Porter.
Not only had the life of Professor Beriah
Green of Western Reserve College run a close parallel to that of
John Jay Shipherd, but while pastor at Brandon, Vermont, he must
certainly have been conscious of the presence of William Lloyd
Garrison and his first reforming paper, the Journal of the Times,
at near-by Bennington. Weld visited western Reserve College in
1839 and, though not an immediatist at the time, his whole souled
hatred of all "sin," including intemperance, ignorance and
slavery, undoubtedly stimulated thought along that line. In
November of 1832 Green announced the conversion to immediatism of
the entire Reserve faculty: Elizur Wright, Jr., President Storrs,
and himself, as well as Wright's father and several students. He
gave the credit to the influence of the Liberator, Garrison's
Thoughts on Colonization and a pamphlet by Charles Stuart.
Discussion of the issue of colonization vs. immediatism first
began in "the regular disputations of the college" in the fall
term of 1832. It soon appeared to Green and his colleagues that
the colonizationists advanced expediency as their chief argument
while the immediatists were able to insist on "naked rectitude."
In Four Sermons, Preached in the Chapel of the Western Reserve
College in the latter part of November and the first part of
December, 1832, Green came out on the side of the radicals. When
these sermons were published in February, 1833, under the above
title, President Storrs and Professor Wright declared in an
accompanying statement that they believed the "sentiments" therein
expressed to be "scriptural."
Conservative friends of the college at
Hudson, including some of the trustees, were greatly shocked at
the faculty's sponsorship of such dangerous, radical doctrines. In
the chapel while Green was speaking there was some demonstration
of opposition. The Ohio Observer, the religious paper published at
Hudson, refused to publish letters in behalf of immediatism. The
trustees gladly released Green to go to New York to become the
head of the Oneida Institute, and Elizur Wright, Jr., to go to New
York City to devote his entire time to anti-slavery work. Storrs
resigned because of ill-health and died in September. Certainly,
more or less indirect pressure was brought to bear on Wright to
get him to go. The trustees turned down by only one vote a rule
prohibiting the discussion of abolitionism, when practically all
the students petitioned against such action. The conservatives
rejoiced at this faculty purge. The Cleveland Herald
editorialized: "We sincerely hope that this institution which is
so favorably located, and which went into operation under
circumstances so auspicious, when relieved from the malign
influences under which it has, for some time past laboured, may
yet beneficially subserve the great and important purpose for
which it was instituted, and become as celebrated for its
usefulness as it has heretofore been for its devotion to the negro
question."
But at the same time that the conservatives
won their victory in the college the abolitionists went ahead
organizing the Western Reserve Anti-Slavery Society. The first
officers were Elizur Wright, Sr., of Tallmadge, president; the
Rev. Henry Cowles of the Anti-Slavery Society of Ashtabula County,
corresponding secretary; Owen Brown of Hudson, a radical trustee
of the college and father of the Martyr, treasurer, and among the
"counsellors," John M. Sterling of Cleveland and the Rev. John
Monteith of Elyria. Sterling was a graduate of Yale in the class
of 1820, a lawyer in Cleveland since 1827, and a promoter of all
reform causes. Cowles was one of the most active anti-slavery men
on the Reserve. On July 4, 1834, at Austinburg, he delivered the
principal address at the first anniversary of the Anti-Slavery
Society of Ashtabula County. In this address, it was reported to
the Emancipator that he showed "in a favorable manner the enormity
of the sin of slavery... --the justice, safety and expediency of
immediate emancipation." He spoke again at the annual meeting of
the Western Reserve Anti-Slavery Society held at Hudson in August,
and was elected a "counsellor" along with Monteith, Dr. William N.
Hudson of Chester and John Jay Shipherd. As Stated Clerk of the
Grand River Presbytery he signed a statement adopted at the annual
meeting in September declaring that slavery was "a direct
violation of the moral law." At the meeting of the Synod of the
Western Reserve at Hudson in October Cowles sought, with the
support of Monteith and Stephen Peet, to secure the adoption of a
similar resolution. The opposition advanced "the evil which had
befallen the college in consequence of the agitation" as an
argument against such action, and the resolution was defeated by a
vote of 29 to 27.
John Monteith was the leading abolitionist
of Elyria where considerable interest in immediatism was evidenced
from March, 1834, on -- so much that the Rev. Daniel W. Lathrop
felt that it was interfering with the work of the churches. In the
fall and early winter Charles Stuart toured the Reserve in behalf
of the slave, observing the synodical meeting at Hudson, lecturing
to the students at the college, and at Tallmadge, at Cleveland,
and twice at Elyria. The Lorain County Anti-Slavery Society was
organized February 26, 1835. Monteith was president, Levi Burnell
of Elyria, a Finney man from Rochester, was corresponding
secretary, and the "managers" included L. J. and Robbins Burrell
of Sheffield and Nathan P. Fletcher, Esq., of Oberlin.
Beriah Green stirred up the Oneida
Institute and Utica as he had Western Reserve College and Hudson.
In the summer of 1833 the students at the Institute engaged in a
debate on immediatism and founded an anti-slavery society which
they believed to be the first in the state. One student (C.
Stewart Renshaw) wrote to Finney that it was his chief aim to
"preach abolition --Emancipation from Sin & Slavery." On March
1,1834, the student colonization society dissolved itself in favor
of the anti-slavery society. Milton Brayton wrote to Finney in
August, 1833, that there had been much discussion in Utica and
that he, himself, had been converted to abolitionism. But in the
following winter the Common Council of the City of Utica adopted a
resolution denouncing "the agitation of the question of negro
slavery, as being highly inexpedient at the present juncture of
our national affairs." It was not surprising, therefore, that
Professor Green was hanged in effigy on Genesee Street soon after,
and that the state anti-slavery convention meeting in Utica in
1835 was forced to adjourn by a mob. Alvan Stewart, one of
Finney's lawyer converts, was able, however, to finish his opening
address. Early in 1836 an attack was launched upon the Oneida
Institute in the legislature at Albany because its students were
"in the habit of haranguing the people on the subject of
abolitionism." No action was taken but the Institute was made
increasingly notorious as a hotbed of radicalism, and gradually
declined from this date until it was abandoned and the plant
turned over to the Freewill Baptists in 1844.
The pious gentlemen of New York City were
the key group in the Finneyite organization: they held a central
position, and they had money. They had never been oblivious to the
call of the "oppressed" Negro, but originally, like most other
benevolent northern Christians, they had supported colonization.
In 1831, the year of awakening, they saw the light, and an
informal discussion of immediatism took place among the inner
circle. Overt activity awaited the year of organization, 1833. The
signal for action came from the debates at Western Reserve College
and the Oneida Institute, and from England, where Charles Stuart,
a Finney convert, was participating in the movement which produced
the act emancipating the slaves in the British West Indies. In
July, 1833, a group of New Yorkers threw down the gage to the
Colonization Society by asking in an open letter the embarrassing
and rhetorical question: Was it the ultimate aim of that society
to effect the "complete extinction of Slavery in the United
States"? Among the signers of the letter were Arthur Tappan, Lewis
Tappan, Joshua Leavitt of the New York Evangelist, Theodore Weld
(then at Lane), and Charles G. Finney. They received, as they
expected, a somewhat evasive answer. The New York Anti-Slavery
Society was founded at Finney's Chatham Street Chapel on October
2, 1833, while the mob howled outside. Arthur Tappan was
president; William Green, Jr., vice-president, and the managers
included Lewis Tappan, William Goodell and Joshua Leavitt. The
Emancipator, founded in the previous spring, was their organ, but
such new-measures religious papers as the New York Evangelist and
the Western Recorder gave sympathetic support. Early the next year
the Female Anti-Slavery Society of Chatham Street Chapel was
organized and Mrs. William Green, Jr., became "First
Directress."
Late in 1831 Garrison had founded the New
England Anti-Slavery Society, and in December, 1833, the New
England and New York Yankees united at a convention in
Philadelphia to form the American Anti-Slavery Society. Beriah
Green presided; Elizur Wright, Jr., was made a corresponding
secretary, and Arthur Tappan was elected president. John M.
Sterling of Cleveland helped Garrison draft the Declaration of
Principles. John Frost of Whitesboro and William Green, Jr., of
New York City were delegates. The first managers included from
Ohio: Henry Cowles, John Monteith and Sterling.
Also in 1833 the Rev. Amos A. Phelps of
Boston circulated among the clergymen of the North a "Declaration
of Sentiment" in favor of immediate emancipation. Of the 124
ministers who signed, the majority were from New England, but ten
signers were from New York and sixteen from Ohio. Most of the New
Yorkers were Finneyites, including D.C. Lansing, Joel Parker,
Beriah Green, Joshua Leavitt, and George Bourne. At least half of
the Ohioans were, too: J. A. Pepoon, Horace Bushnell--formerly a
student at Oneida and Lane, John Monteith, John Jay Shipherd,
President C. B. Storrs of Western Reserve College, and, from
Cincinnati, Asa Mahan, John Morgan and Theodore D.
Weld.
In New York City, repressive measures were
to be expected. Certain groups encouraged violence. Col. Watson
Webb's Courier and Enquirer described the Chatham Street Chapel as
"that common focus of pollution," and to Philip Hone, the diarist,
the Tappans and their associates were "a set of fanatics who are
determined to emancipate all the slaves by a coup de main." On
July 4, 1834, a mob broke up a meeting at the Chapel. On the 9th
Lewis Tappan's house was attacked, the windows smashed and the
furniture burned in the street. Two nights later two new-measures
churches (those of Dr. Cox and Mr. Ludlow) were nearly
demolished.
A certain element, including many
influential persons in the North as well as the South, had
determined that the emancipation of the slaves was too dangerous a
question to be discussed. Here must be an exception to "Freedom of
the Press," "Freedom of Speech," -- and academic
freedom.
CHAPTER
XIII
THE TEST OF ACADEMIC
FREEDOM
AS THE Anglo-Saxons have debated they have
hammered out the rules of social controversy. Their freedoms and
liberties have been a chief desideratum of periods of conflict.
The political and religious controversies of the seventeenth
century settled nothing so much as that Englishmen should have
freedom in controversy: of speech, of press, of petition. In every
succeeding era of unusually intense debate of vital issues the
rules have been redefined, most often strengthened. The era of our
struggle for American Independence produced the Virginia Bill of
Rights and, finally, the first ten Amendments to the
Constitution.
The slavery controversy of the middle of
the nineteenth century tested the rules again and established
important precedents. Elijah Lovejoy is celebrated today more as a
martyr to the freedom of the press than to the cause of
abolitionism. John Quincy Adams' battle against the "Gag Rule" was
the greatest fight ever fought in America for the right of
petition. As freedom of the press and the right of petition were
endangered in the heat of the anti-slavery conflict so was
academic freedom in colleges. The threat came not from government
but from the conservative influences--chiefly business
influences--which then, and so often later, have controlled that
peculiar American academic phenomenon, the unacademic "Board of
Trustees." Most college students of those days seem to have been
immature and callow and more likely to lead a cow into the chapel
than to insist on discussing great economic, social and political
issues. The faculty was likely to center attention pretty much on
Greece and Rome and the After-Life. It is not surprising that the
great test should have come at Lane Seminary, for there was
gathered an unusually mature and serious-minded group of students,
led by a genius and inspired by the greatest preacher of the
day.
Theodore weld's zeal for anti-slavery may
be traced to the influenee of the eccentric Scotchman, Charles
Stuart, just as his piety grew from his contact with Finney.
Stuart, born in Jamaica, where he saw slavery at first hand, was a
bachelor school teacher in Utica where Weld as a youngster first
met him. They served together in Finney's "Holy Band"; Weld was
attracted by Stuart's stern and unwavering piety; Stuart saw in
Weld the promise of great intellectual and oratorical powers which
might be of much service in the reform causes. The close
friendship which resulted made of Weld an anti-slavery advocate
fully as devoted and much abler than Stuart; the influence of
Stuart in the history of American anti-slavery was chiefly felt
through Weld.I Weld, as we have seen, cooperated with the Tappans
in 1831 in preparing the way for the foundation of the American
Anti-Slavery Society. In his Southern tour he had privately and
discreetly discussed the slave problem with Robinson, Allan,
Thome, James G. Birney and others. Before coming to Cincinnati he
may have conferred with Arthur Tappan on the importance of
converting all these "glorious, good fellows" at Lane to the
cause. He had been invited to the organization meeting of the
American Anti-Slavery Society at Philadelphia in December, 1833,
but had been unable to attend. At that meeting he had been
appointed one of the first group of four agents of the
society.
The auspices seemed very favorable. Weld's
influence among his fellows was so overwhelming that anything
which he sponsored would be likely to be unanimously accepted. "In
the estimation of the class," wrote Dr. Beecher in his
Autobiography, 'he [Weld] was president. He took the lead
of the whole institution They thought he was a god." The Oneidas
at Lane had been under his influence at Whitesboro and as
Finneyites were predisposed to any thoroughgoing, benevolent
movement. Western Reserve College, Rochester, New York City, and
especially the Oneida Institute under Beriah Green furnished
stirring and well-known precedents.
From June, 1833, to February, 1834, Weld
worked individually among the students to complete the preparation
for a final public discussion. The result was that, despite the
fact that a colonization society had existed in the seminary from
the time of its founding, there was really no opposition worthy of
the name. The eighteen evening meetings devoted to the slavery
question constituted an anti-slavery revival rather than a debate.
The high emotional tone was stimulated by the relation of
"experiences" and by the fervid oratory of the
revivalist-reformer, Weld.
Apparently all the students and all but one
of the faculty (Biggs) attended at some time. Beecher, an exponent
of compromise and Christian forbearance, somewhat grudgingly
granted permission for the meetings. He not only attended some of
the discussion, however, but had a written statement of his views,
drafted by Catharine Beecher, read to the students. Professor
Thomas J. Biggs insisted from the beginning that it was unwise to
allow debate on such a dangerous question.
The students were supposed to prepare
themselves for the discussion by reading the African Repository
and other publications of the American Colonization Society as
well as the various documents published by the American
Anti-Slavery Society. An agent of the former society who had
visited Liberia described conditions as he observed them. But the
students themselves seem to have occupied most of the
time--especially those from the South.
Weld opened the debate with a series of
four powerful lectures in favor of immediate emancipation. Then
came the eyewitnesses: "Nearly half of the seventeen speakers
[who described the condition of the slaves]," wrote
Stanton, "were the sons of slave-holders: one had been a
slave-holder himself; one had till recently been a slave; and the
residue were residents of, or had recently traveled or lived in
slave states." They narrated in gruesome detail all of the
atrocity stories which later became so familiar to the people o{
the North. James Thome described the evils of the "peculiar
institution" as he had seen it in Kentucky. Huntington Lyman, a
Connecticut Yankee who had spent some time in Louisiana, developed
the "horrid character" of slavery in that region, telling how the
Negroes were often professedly worked to death. James Bradley
related the story of his own life, telling how he was brought as a
child from Africa on a slave ship and sold to a planter of South
Carolina who later moved to Arkansas Territory. There his master
died and the slave was allowed to work out to buy his freedom. So,
in 1833, despite inadequate preparation he was admitted into the
academic department of Lane Seminary. Besides giving his
autobiography, Stanton reported that this "shrewd and intelligent
black... withered and scorched" the pro-slavery arguments "under a
sun of sarcastic argumentation for nearly an hour."
After the first nine evenings of debate a
vote was taken on the question: "Ought the people of the
slave-holding states to abolish slavery immediately?" All voted in
the affirmative "except four or five, who excused themselves from
voting at all on the ground that they had not made up their
opinion. Every friend of the cause rendered a hearty tribute of
thanksgiving to God for the glorious issue."
It is clear from the way in which the
question was stated that Weld and his associates had no intention
of fomenting slave insurrections nor of emancipating the slave
through Federal action. Indeed, Stanton declared his belief that
the meetings had demonstrated the effectiveness of moral suasion
in bringing the South to voluntary emancipation. He felt that it
had been irrefutably proved "that southern minds trained and
educated amidst all the prejudices of a slave-holding community,
can, with the blessing of God, be reached and influenced by facts
and arguments, as easy as any other class of our citizens." It was
their plan evidently to abolish slavery by appealing to
slave-holders through a nation-wide anti-slavery
"revival."
The remaining nine anti-slavery meetings
were devoted to discussion of the claims of the colonization
movement. All but one of the students present voted "No" to the
question which was finally put: "Are the doctrines, tendencies,
and measures of the American Colonization Society, and the
influence of its principal supporters, such as to render it worthy
of the patronage of the Christian public?" The students then
formed an anti-slavery society devoted to the "immediate
emancipation of the whole colored race within the United States,"
an end which was to be attained "Not by instigating the slaves to
rebellion"; "Not by advocating an interposition of force on the
part of the free states"; "Not by advocating congressional
interference with the constitutional powers of the States"; but by
"approaching the minds of slave holders [with] the truth,
in the spirit of the Gospel." The chief offices of the society
were given to the young men from south of the river in order to
give special prominence to their participation: Allan was
president; Robinson, vice-president; even James Bradley was listed
among the "Managers."
The students proceeded immediately to make
practical application of these anti-slavery principles thus
professed. Several of them went out lecturing in behalf of the
cause. Thome spoke at the anniversary meeting of the American
Anti-Slavery Society in New York in May, describing in detail the
licentiousness in the South which, he said, was the result of
slavery. Stanton also spoke and, in the same month, contributed a
5 1/2-column article on the Internal Slave Trade to the Rochester
Rights of Man. In mid-June he delivered an anti-slavery lecture in
the Rochester First Presbyterian Church. Others went to work
"elevating the colored people in Cincinnati." They established a
lyceum especially for the Negroes in which regular lectures were
given "on grammar, geography, arithmetic, natural philosophy,
etc." A circulating library, a regular evening school, three
Sabbath Schools, Bible classes for adults and two day schools for
boys were begun. Later a "select female school" was established,
and other special classes for girls were organized and taught by
four volunteers from New York (called "The Sisters"), whose
expenses were paid by Lewis Tappan. In this they were assisted by
Maria (or Mary Ann) Fletcher, the daughter of Nathan P. Fletcher
of Oberlin. Miss Fletcher went to Cincinnati to study in Catharine
Beecher's "Western Female Institute," but at the time that she
undertook this work she had left the school and was living in the
home of Asa Mahan. "About 200 [Negroes] attend school
daily," wrote Augustus Wattles in July, "besides Sabbath and
evening schools, and lectures are well attended." The students and
"the Sisters" also visited among the blacks and mingled with them
socially, thus greatly shocking color-conscious Cincinnati. A
group of Negroes of both sexes were even invited into the Seminary
buildings, having expressed a desire "to see the
institution."
The members of the Board of Trustees were
mostly solid Cincinnati business men and they found these
activities of the students very disturbing. Race feeling was
strong in the city; the riots of five years before had not been
forgotten. Besides, the merchants, manufacturers and bankers of
Cincinnati did about as much business in Kentucky and further
south as in Ohio. Clearly they could not afford to have their
names associated with an institution which was so publicly
identified with abolitionism.
President Beecher considered these student
activities unwise and harmful to the institution but hoped to
prevent any clash between the shocked townsmen and the zealous
students. "If we and our friends do not amplify the evil," he
wrote in June of 1834, "by too much alarm, impatience, and attempt
at regulation the evil will subside and pass away." Professor
Calvin E. Stowe, Beecher's son-in-law, supported him in this
position. Professor John Morgan of the academic department of the
Seminary was an anti-slavery man and sympathized with the
students. In the summer Beecher went East to raise funds and rouse
people of Boston against the Catholics. (A mob burned one
monastery.) Stowe and Morgan were also out of town during the
vacation, leaving only one member of the faculty on the ground.
This was the Rev. Thomas J. Biggs, Professor of Church History and
Church Polity, a man who was exceedingly unpopular with Weld and
his fellow-students, so unpopular, indeed. that they had attempted
to secure his dismissal from the institution.
The first important outside reaction
against these activities at the seminary came in an editorial in
the Cincinnati periodical, the Western Monthly Magazine, in its
May issue. In it, James Hall, the editor, himself not yet
forty-one years of age, denounced the meddling in such serious
matters of "minors, who are at school." Elaborating, he wrote: "We
have seen boys at school wearing paper caps, flourishing wooden
swords, and fancying themselves, for the moment, endued with the
prowess of Hector and Achilles --... but this is the first
instance, that we have ever known, of a set of young gentlemen at
school, dreaming themselves into full-grown patriots, and setting
seriously to work, to organize a wide-spread revolution; to alter
the constitution of their country; to upset the internal policy of
a dozen independent states; and to elevate a whole race of human
beings in the scale of moral dignity." In a scorching reply, Weld
(thirty years old) pointed out that nine students in the
Theological Department were between thirty and thirty-five and
thirty were over twenty-six years old, and charged Hall with
trying to raise the mob.
With Beecher, Stowe and Morgan away, the
trustees went to work to assuage the rising fury of popular
condemnation. Biggs acted as prosecutor. In a letter to Vail
written in July, Biggs intimated that he intended to take action.
He wrote: "we are a reproach and a loathing in the land .... That
the offensive thing must be expurgated from the institution is my
firm conviction. My firm conviction also it was, that we never
should have permitted the subject to be introduced within the
precincts of the Seminary. I yielded my opinion--and said but
little. I now feel it my duty to speak out--be the consequences
what they may! The position I take is, that the thing itself must
be cleared away, and that the Seminary must regain its original
ground of non-committal on these subjects." On August 9, 1834,
Prolessor Biggs appeared at a meeting of the Executive Committee
of the Trustees especially called "to consider the proceedings of
the students in relation to the subject of slavery." A special
subcommittee was appointed to determine what action ought to be
taken.
Beecher and Vail counselled caution and
moderation, but Biggs and some of the trustees had other plans. On
August 18 Biggs again aired his views to President
Beecher:
"I am favoured today with the letter
jointly from yourself and Dr. Vail, its contents I have read and
reperused with deep interest .... and my only regret is that I
cannot, in view of facts, present and past, persuade my mind into
sympathy with yours. The evils which I feel and apprehend seem to
me to call for anything rather than narcotics .... Oneida men or
any other kind of men, beyond this I regard not." He
continued:
"The public here is calling for some
manifesto on the subject from the Trustees. They are not
satisfied--and they demand to know whether they are rightly
informed, when they hear, that on the borders of all the western
& southern slavery, there is located at Walnut Hills a concern
intended to be the great Laboratory and depot for everything
[conceived?] and half-wrought, in New York &
elsewhere, by soi-dissant abolitionists. The Trustees feel
themselves called upon to furnish something to correct and allay
this (not unreasonably) excited state of feeling. We have among
us, as all know, the Master Spirit of Abolitionism, we have it
here in its sublimated state--it has already inflated and
intoxicated nearly all our students--the exhilarations make them
soar above all our heads, and the principle is now pretty well
settled that the one whose head has most capacity for this
empyrical gas, why, he's the Model, and the best theologian, and
best anything else you please. It is now believed to be time to
settle the question, 'Who shall govern?' Students? or faculty in
concurrence with Trustees?"
The Executive Committee of the trustees
"cracked down." The report of the special sub-committee was first
received and discussed at a meeting of the Committee on August 16
and adopted at an adjourned meeting on the 20th and ordered to be
published. The report argued that "education must be completed
before the young are fitted to engage in the collisions of active
life," that, therefore, "no associations or Societies among the
students ought to be allowed in [the] Seminary except such
as have for their immediate object improvement in the prescribed
course of studies." Discussion of subjects likely to distract
attention from the regular studies should be discouraged at all
times, particularly if these subjects were "matter of public
interest and popular excitement." The committee recommended that
the anti-slavery society should, therefore, be abolished and urged
the trustees to adopt rules "discouraging and discountenancing by
all suitable means such discussions and conduct among the students
as are calculated to divert their attention from their studies,
excite party animosities, stir up evil passions amongst
themselves, or in the community, or involve themselves with the
political concerns of the country." Final action by the whole body
of trustees was postponed because of the absence of President
Beecher, and as being unnecessary "as the adoption [and
publication] of the foregoing resolution will sufficiently
indicate to the students the course which the Trustees are
determined to pursue." To make their attitude doubly clear the
Executive Committee summarily dismissed Professor John Morgan of
the academic department of the Seminary who had taken the side of
the students and considered the expulsion of Theodore Weld and of
William T. Allan, the president of the anti-slavery
aociety.
The students in the first class at Lane
Seminary were not children to be beaten into submission to the
pussy-footing tactics of their elders. Early in September one of
their number wrote of the committee's report: "It is a document
worthy of the ninth century and would do honor to Nicholas!" They
hoped that Beecher would take a firm stand when he returned from
the East, but they were prepared for action. "We all intend to
wait patiently and see the result of the recommendation of the
Exec. committee," wrote Henry Stanton to the absent Thome. "If the
law requiring us to disband the Anti-Slavery Society, is passed,
we shall take a dismission from the Seminary. We shall not stay
& break any laws, but shall go quietly, & publish to the
world the reasons for thus going, together with the history of the
Anti-Slavery cause & movements in Lane Seminary. We shall
spread the whole matter before the public, & I trust tell a
story that make some ears tingle. A glorious spirit pervades the
institution on this subject. A few ... will probably truckle--but
the residue, to a single man, will not only have their names, but
their bodies cast out as evil, before they will hasard for one
moment the cause of the oppressed, or yield an inch to the
assaults of a corrupt and persecuting public sentiment, or swerve
one hair from the great principles which have been the basis of
all our operations in regard to Slavery & Colonization. No
never--never! If the laws pass, the theological class will
probably all go in a body somewhere & pursue our studies. We
can have money enough to hire good teachers--perhaps Stowe will go
with us--Morgan certainly will if we need him. Weld will teach the
theology--perhaps! But all these matters are to be settled in full
council. Our plan is to have every student here at the
commencement of the term & then act together."
On the 10th of October the full Board of
Trustees, without waiting for Beecher, ratified the action of the
Executive Committee taken on August 20. Fourteen voted aye and
only three in the negative: Mahan and two of the elders of his
church, William Holyoke and John Melindy. Two peremptory orders
were also adopted and issued: dissolving the anti-slavery and
colonization societies in the seminary as "tending to enlist the
students in controversies foreign to their studies, and to stir up
among themselves and in the community, unfriendly feelings and
useless hostilities," and delegating to the Executive Committee
unlimited authority "to dismiss any student from the Seminary,
when they shall think it necessary to do so."
The trustees undertook to explain their
attitude on the question of discussion of the slavery issue in
general: "The Board consider that the location of the Seminary in
the vicinity of a large city and on the borders of a slave holding
state, calls for some peculiar cautionary measures in its
government; and that the present state of public sentiment on some
exciting topics, requires restraints to be imposed, which under
other circumstances might be entirely unnecessary .... The
proceedings of the students have produced the impression in the
community that the Seminary is deeply implicated with one
particular party on the slavery question; and unless the
impression can be removed the prosperity of the Institution will
be much retarded, and its usefulness generally
diminished."
"Parents and guardians," rejoiced the
Cincinnati Journal editorially, "may now send their sons and wards
to Lane Seminary, with a perfect confidence, that the proper
business of a theological school will occupy their minds; and that
the discussion and decision of abstract questions, will not turn
them aside from the path of duty .... There may be room enough in
the wide world, for abolitionism and perfectionism, and many other
isms; but a school, to prepare pious youth for preaching the
gospel, has not legitimate place for these."
There is some possibility that if the
trustees had been willing to wait for Beecher's return from the
East the difficulties could have been patched up. Certainly the
President was ready to do everything in his power to keep in the
Seminary the group of brilliant young men of whom he was so justly
proud. Just two days before the Board took the final action he
wrote to Weld from Frederick: "They are a set of glorious good
fellows, whom I would not... exchange for any others. I was glad
to hear that to the question what you meant to do, you replied it
would be soon enough to decide when you saw what the trustees had
done. I hope you will be patient & take no course till after
my return." But when he came back to Cincinnati Beecher made the
mistake of trying to explain away the action of the trustees. The
faculty issued on October 13 a statement, signed by Professors
Biggs and Stowe and President Beecher, in which they declared that
they saw "nothing in the regulations which is not common law in
all well regulated institutions." They insisted on the other hand
that they approved of "and will always protect & encourage in
this institution free inquiry & thorough discussion for the
acquisition of knowledge & the discipline of mind," and "also
of voluntary associations of the students for the above objects
according to the usages of all literary Institutions &
theological seminaries," and regarded "with favor voluntary
associations of students, disposed to act upon the community in
the form of Sabbath Schools, Tract, Foreign Missions &
Temperance, & other benevolent labors, in subordination to the
great ends of the institution, of which in all instances the
Faculty as the immediate guardians of the Institution must be
judges." To the students this seemed but "words, Words, WORDS." It
appeared remarkable to many persons that the professors should see
nothing in vesting a committee of the trustees with arbitrary
power of expulsion which would "interfere with the appropriate
duties of the Faculty or the rights of students." The students
regarded the statement as little less than an endorsement of the
trustees' action by the faculty.
On October 15 twenty-eight students
presented a joint request for dismission. Huntington Lyman headed
this list which also included Steele, Robert and Henry Stanton,
Amos Dresser, Bradley (the Negro), and Hiram Wilson. The next day
eleven others, Wattles, Thome, Allan, Whipple, etc., followed
suit. Weld submitted an independent "resignation" on the
17th.
Before the formal enactment of the new
rules by the trustees the anti-slavery leaders among the students
were preparing the story which was to "make some ears tingle."
Lyman wrote to Thome on the 4th of October: "Weld has been engaged
for several days in arranging and pasting in some facts upon the
subject of Abolition so as to be ready for an emergency." He
continued: "Several of us have a plan which we wish to submit for
your consideration and to invite your cooperation. It is to
procure a place where we can study. Get profess[or] Stowe
or some one else to mark out for us a course of study. Then to
adopt our rules and have our regular recitations and debates and
mutual improvements and bone down to study .... We shall in that
case have the best part of the class with us. There will be Benton
& Wells, Streeter, Weed, Stanton, Alvord, Whipple, &
Lyman, to which let us add Thome & Hopkins and nothing is
wanting to make it a most desirable band. The expenses would be
much less than at the Sem and if I am not mistaken the profit
would be much greater."
President Beecher worked desperately to
save the school. Soon after his return he persuaded the Executive
Committee to withdraw their resolution to dismiss Weld and Allan,
and early November he secured a repeal of all of the most
objectionable measures which had been adopted by the trustees. But
it was too late; the majority of the students had already
withdrawn from Walnut Hills and established themselves at
Cumminsville, some miles from the city. In December they issued a
fiery attack on the action of the authorities at Lane and a
defense of their own actions. The kernel of it is, of course, an
apotheosis of the right of free speech in literary institutions:
"Free discussion being a duty is consequently a right, and as
such, is inherent and alienable. It is our right. It was before we
entered Lane Seminary: privileges we might and did relinquish;
advantages we might and did receive. But this right the
institution 'could neither give nor take away.' Theological
Institutions must of course recognize this immutable principle.
Proscription of free discussion is sacrilege! It is boring out the
eyes of the soul. It is the robbery of mind. It is the burial of
truth. If Institutions cannot stand upon this broad footing, let
them fall. Better, infinitely better, that the mob demolish every
building or the incendiary wrap them in flames; and the young men
be sent home to ask their fathers 'what is truth?'--to question
nature's million voices --her forests and her hoary mountains
'what is truth?' than that our theological seminaries should
become Bastiles, our theological students, thinkers by permission,
and the right of free discussion tamed down into a soulless thing
of gracious, condescending sufferance." This appeal and the
history of the whole controversy was copied in the press
throughout the country. The New York Evangelist and similar
religious papers ran column after column regarding it. The
anti-slavery press also gave it much space. Perhaps this publicity
may have had some influence in making the "Rebels" (as they were
now called) adamant against all the appeals of Beecher and others
to return.
The press was, naturally, sharply divided
in its attitude. The conservative Vermont Chronicle said: "We can
only remark at present, that the principles asserted in the
Declaration of the Faculty are those which must be adhered to in
all such institutions." The reaction of the Emancipator was what
was to be expected: "Better that the brick and mortar of Lane
Seminary should be scattered to the winds . . . than that the
principle should be recognized, that truth is not to be told, nor
sin rebuked, nor the rights of bleeding humanity plead for, for
fear of a mob."
The friends of the Seminary were also
divided. Robert Hamilton Bishop of Miami University, a trustee of
Lane who was unable to be present at the meetings, fully approved
the rules by letter. But the Rev. Dyer Burgess, of the
anti-slavery Chillicothe Presbytery, denounced their action and
subsequently refused to pay his subscriptions. George Avery of
Rochester immediately resigned his financial agency and cancelled
his subscription. The next summer he wrote to Vail: "I look upon
the conduct of the Trustees as arbitrary, tyrrannical & wicked
& that of the faculty as indicating a great want of confidence
in God, as time-serving, as governed entirely too much by a desire
to please Men rather than God, in a word as leaving the high and
consecrated ground of strait-forward & unbending obedience to
God for the low grounds, the fogs & quicksands of worldly
wisdom & timeserving expediency." Of course, the Tappans were
much disappointed. They kept their promises to the Seminary but
had no hesitation in expressing their lack of interest in the
school after this. A few years later Arthur Tappan wrote to
Beecher: "I thank you for the particulars respecting your Seminary
and regret that I cannot feel any sympathy in the happiness you
express in its present and anticipated prosperity."
It has sometimes been suggested that the
Rebels' grievances had all been redressed and that there was
little excuse for their refusing to re-enroll in the Seminary. The
promises and protestations of President Beecher do not coincide
very well, however, with an address which he delivered at Miami
University in the following September. It contains sarcasms at the
expense of the rebellious students which might have been copied
from James Hall's Western Monthly Magazine, and restates in
specific terms the Lane trustees' opposition to student discussion
of controversial public issues. The "seats of science," he
declared, "should be retreats from the responsibilities and toils
of life--a neutral territory, respected alike by contending
parties," and he was "convinced that the heat of passion, and the
shock of battle can never be united with the quietness of mind,
and continuity of attention, and power of heart, indispensable to
mental discipline and successful study."
The students were somewhat dispersed. Two
went to Auburn Seminary and four to the Yale Divinity School.
James H. Scott and Joseph D. Gould went to the Western Theological
Seminary at Allegheny Town. Andrew Benton went to Miami. Two
(Robert L. Stanton and Charles Sexton) ate humble-pie in late
October, 1834, and asked for re-admission. Two others (Alexander
Duncan, an Oneida, and John A. Tiffany) apparently followed suit
at a later date. H. H. Spalding, later the Oregon missionary, and
two or three others, had apparently opposed Weld from the
beginning and, naturally, continued as members of the
institution.
But the nucleus of Oneidas and leaders in
the anti-slavery work kept together and established at nearby
Cumminsville an informal seminary of their own. Here, from about
the first of November on, they studied their favorite subjects,
listened to a few lectures on physiology from Dr. Gamaliel Bailey,
later editor of the National Era, and commuted into Cincinnati to
continue their benevolent work among the Negroes. Here they were
joined for a while by Theodore J. Keep, who had come out from
Auburn Seminary intending to enroll at Lane, and by three more
Oneidas: James Parker, William Smith and Benjamin Foltz. Foltz
kept a diary which gives some idea of the pious atmosphere which
surrounded these zealots in their retreat. He arrived at
Cincinnati on September 27, having come by way of Buffalo and Lake
Erie to Huron then south to Norwalk and through Columbus and
Springfield. The next day was Sunday: "Saw brethren beloved in
colored Sabbath School. Heard Br. Mahan preach." He went to
Cumminsville on November 1. One day he chopped wood for a
widow--"I did it cheerfully. Felt that I did it for her Savior
& my Savior." A few days later he "Visited six families to
tell of Jesus... and distribute tracts." Another time--"Rose very
early and devoted all my time to reading and Prayer." The next
evening--"A Person in whose family I had Visited and Prayed called
to see me on the subject of Religion, Poor Man was in Liquor." On
February 22, 1835, "Past 12 o'clock Night, rose and read 2 of dear
Mr. Whitefields sermons." The work with the Negroes in the city
was carried on with increasing success. The Sisters--Phebe
Mathews, Emeline Bishop, Lucy Wright and Maria Fletcher--continued
to cooperate in the teaching. But this halcyon life could not well
be permanent; it was not indeed quite satisfactory. There was need
of haste to complete their theological education. But where should
they go? to Auburn? to Andover?
CHAPTER
XIV
THE GUARANTEE OF ACADEMIC
FREEDOM
IN THE autumn of 1834 the Oberlin
Collegiate Institute was tottering, optimistic official
pronouncements to the contrary notwithstanding. Old debts were
unpaid and few funds were forthcoming for the additional buildings
and other necessary equipment. The school had no president and no
sufficient teaching staff. In October the Honorable Henry Brown,
founder of Brownhelm, resigned as president of the Board of
Trustees; he had been the most prominent local man identified with
Oberlin.
To take his place Rev. John Keep, now of
Cleveland, was appointed, and presided over a meeting on January
1, 1835. Keep, as we have seen, had preached for many years at
Blandford, Massachusetts, and, after that, at Homer, New York.
While at Homer he had come under the influence of Finney. Besides
being a new-measures man he was also an earnest advocate of
"female education" and of total abstinence, and a friend of the
colored race. Like John Jay Shipherd, he heard the "Macedonian
Cry" and went from New York to the Connecticut Western Reserve to
help pour onto the "moral putrefaction" of the West the "savory
influence of the gospel." In 1833 he left Homer to become pastor
of the Stone (now the First) Presbyterian Church in Cleveland, and
two years later organized a church in "Ohio City" (the west end of
Cleveland) which later became the First Congregational Church of
Cleveland, West Side. While still at Blandford, Rev. Mr. Keep had
founded a free school for colored people; he had always been an
active supporter of the American Colonization Society and had
refused an appointment as agent for that organization in 1833. By
1834, however, when he entered the work at Oberlin, he had
accepted immediate emancipation without colonization as the proper
solution of the evil.
At their meeting of September 23 the
Oberlin trustees had taken cognizance of the desperate financial
situation of the Institute and resolved, "That it is expedient to
take immediate & effective measures by agencies and otherwise
to increase the funds of the Institution--", and "That our general
Agent [Shipherd] be instructed to take a tour through the
different Sections of the country for the purpose of collecting
funds for this Institution." Shipherd was a regular subscriber to
the New York Evangelist and the Ohio Observer, in which the Lane
affair had been extensively noticed. He must have seen the chance
for Oberlin to get students and possibly other aid out of the
situation. Very possibly further information may have come to him
from Maria Fletcher through her father or from Theodore Keep
through his father. Besides, Shipherd, as a member of the Western
Reserve Anti-Slavery Society, would have been deeply concerned by
the repressive measures adopted against the discussion of
immediatism at Lane Seminary. Anyway, he chose Cincinnati as his
first objective when he started out on November 24 on this most
successful and most significant of all his financial missions in
behalf of the institute. The journey to Mansfield over the miry,
rutted roads of late autumn he found "slow & tedious,"
especially with the "baulky sullen horse" provided him by one of
the Oberlin colonists. From that point he sent back the wagon and
team (without regret) with some supplies purchased or donated
along the way: butter, "baskitts," dust pans, bolting cloth and
"steel-yards." From Mansfield he proceeded to Columbus where he
met young Keep who told him more "about fallen Lane Seminary" and
encouraged him to seek aid among the Rebels and their friends. So
Shipherd went on to his fateful destination, riding in an
uncomfortable mail wagon, packed among the bags of letters and
papers.
Shipherd was hospitably received in the
home of the Mahans and there good fortune came to seek him. After
years of more or less unavailing efforts Shipherd saw the great
opportunity open up before him. "I believe God has here put my
hand on the end of a chain," he wrote to Eliphalet Redington,
"linking men & money to our dear Seminary in such a manner as
will fill our hearts with gratitude & gladness when it is
fully developed." The "glorious good fellows" who had seceded from
Lane were very favorable to the idea of coming to Oberlin if Mahan
could be secured as President, Morgan as a member of the faculty
and Finney to teach theology. The Tappans were dearly more or less
definitely committed to financing them wherever they went. Thus
might Oberlin secure a whole theological department: students and
two teachers, besides a president and much-needed financial
backing! Shipherd wrote: "God has kindly opened a door to our
infant seminary, wide & effectual, thro' which I sanguinely
hope, it will send forth a multitude of well qualified laborers
into the plenteous harvest of our Lord."
In the same letter Shipherd asked that
Mahan be appointed President of the Oberlin Institute and John
Morgan a professor. Shipherd described Mahan as "a revival
minister of the millennial stamp" recommended by Finney, himself.
He believed him well qualified for the position, "a critical
scholar . . . in intellectual & moral philosophy--a department
. . . commonly assigned to the President," and "a man of
inflexible christian principles who follows the strait line of
rectitude while even great & good men vibrate." Mahan would
fit in well in the Oberlin Colony, he declared. "His interest in
our Institution is intense & he would be willing to toil &
sacrifice in its behalf to any extent so would his estimable
wife." "In the midst of a city's temptations they have maintained
Christian economy & simplicity in their style of living"--in
conformity with the principle of the Oberlin Covenant. But, most
important of all considerations, the Lane Rebels insisted on his
appointment and that of John Morgan, "a man of sterling integrity
& unwavering in his maintenance of high moral
principle."
Mahan, Morgan and the "Rebels" demanded
that as a condition of their coming to Oberlin entire freedom of
speech on all reform issues be guaranteed and that Negroes should
be admitted to the Institute along with whites. Before starting
east Shipherd had written to Nathan Fletcher:
"I desire you at the first meeting of the
Trustees to secure the passage of the following resolution, viz.
'Resolved, That students shall be received into this Institution
irrespective of color.'
"This should be passed because it is right
principle; & God will bless us in doing right. Also because
thus doing right we gain the confidence of benevolent & able
men who probably will furnish us some thousands. Moreover, Bros.
Mahan and Morgan will not accept our invitations unless this
principle rule. Indeed if our Board would violate right, so as to
reject youth of talent & piety, because they are black, I
should have no heart to labor for the upbuilding of our Seminary,
believing that the curse of God would come upon us as it has upon
Lane Seminary, for its unchristian abuse of the poor
Slave."
Much to Shipherd's apparent surprise the
recommendation aroused a storm of opposition in Oberlin. The
slavery question had played no considerable part in the thoughts
of the colonists and students of this pious settlement. Suddenly
confronted with the suggestion that they receive black men into
their idealistic haven, their innate race consciousness seized
control of their minds and the whole community was panic-stricken.
Two years later one of their number wrote of the situation: "A
General panic and dispair seized the Officers, Students &
Colonists--P. P. Stewart the Organ of Opposition at once
proclaimed Bro. Shipherd Mad!! crazy &c &c & that the
School was changed into a Negro School. Its founders would be
disappointed and hundreds of negroes would be flooding the School.
Despondency brooded with sable distrust o'er almost every Soul,
because the Christian patrons made it a condition in their
donations that Colourd people should stand equal in the privileges
of the Institution--many students said they would leave & Br.
Stewart sd. he would not stay." On the last day of December a
paper was circulated among the students in an effort to obtain an
accurate gauge of their opinion. It read: "We, Students of the O.
C. Institute hereby certify our view as to the practicability of
admitting persons of color, to this Institution under existing
circumstances." On the left-hand side was a column marked "In
favor"; on the right a column marked "Against." The number of
names "against" was 32; the number "in favor" 26. Mary Lyon's
nephew and Mary Ann Adams, later Principal of the Female
Department, were among those who voted in the negative. Only six
young ladies voted for the admission of Negroes and fifteen voted
against it; the young men, on the other hand, favored it by a vote
of twenty to seventeen.
The trustees were to meet on the first day
of January. The feeling was so intense that it was deemed
desirable not to meet in the colony. Notices were therefore sent
out on the 29th of December announcing that the meeting would be
held in Elyria. At the last moment an effort was made by a number
of Oberlinites to bring the trustees back to the colony by
addressing a petition to them:
"Whereas there has been and is now among
the Colonists & Students of the O. C. Institute a great
excitement in their mind in consequence of a resolution of Bro. J.
J. Shipherd to be laid before the board--respecting the admission
of people of colour into the Institute and also of the board
meeting at Elyria
"Now your petitioners feeling a deep
interest in the O. C. Institute and feeling that every measure
possible should be taken to quell the alarm, that there shall not
be a root of bitterness spring up to cause a division of interest
or feeling (for an house divided against itself can not stand).
Thereupon your petitioners respectfully request that your Hon body
will meet at Oberlin that your deliberation may be heard and known
on the great and important question in contemplation. We feel for
our Black brethren. We feel to want your counsels and
instructions--we want to know what is duty--and God assisting us
we will lay aside every prejudice and do as we shall be led to
believe God would have us to do."
The petition was signed by 32 (male)
colonists and students, but it was ineffective, the trustees
holding their important meeting at Elyria as intended. There, in a
meeting characterized by one member of the Board as full of
"rancour & malevolence," Mahan and Morgan were unanimously
elected, but the motion to admit Negroes was tabled. "Whereas,"
runs the statement in the minutes, "information has been received
from Revd. John J. Shipherd, expressing a wish that students may
be received into the Institution irrespective of color--therefore
'Resolved That the Board do not feel prepared till they have other
and more definite information on the subject to give a pledge
respecting the course they will pursue in regard to the education
of the people of Color: wishing that this institution should be on
the same ground in respect to the admission of students with other
similar institutions of our land.'"
In the meantime, without waiting for an
answer to his proposals from the trustees at Oberlin, Shipherd had
started east with Mahan to secure financial aid, the support and
adhesion of Charles G. Finhey, and his acceptance of the
theological professorship. Shipherd had, since at least the early
spring of 1834, been considering applying for funds to the
Tappans. Now was a most favorable opportunity. En route up the
Ohio he wrote to his brother from Gallipolis where he had landed
for the Sabbath:
"I hope to be in New York next Saturday
night or Monday night at farthest .... Br. Mahan Pastor of the 6th
Gh. in Cincinnati is with me as an Assistant Agent for our dear
Institute, and it is highly essential that we should be in New
York ....
"Br. Mahan has expressed his readiness to
accept & a confidence that br. Morgan will also accept. Some
twenty theological students who have left Lane Sem. on account of
its gag laws; among whom is br. T. D. Weld, say that if brs. Mahan
and Morgan join the Faculty of our Institute, they shall join the
pupils. Doct. Beecher has said that these men did right in leaving
the Seminary, & called them a company of 'Glorious good
fellows' &c--Moreover bros. Finney, Arthur Tappan & others
in New York have offered some thousands for the establishment of a
Seminary where these young men & others can enjoy the liberty
of free discussion; & these brethren say that they will advise
the N. Y. brethren to turn all in at Oberlin & engage their
energies for its upbuilding. Thus dear br. I trust God has put my
hand on a golden chain which I shall be able to link to Oberlin
& thro' it bind many souls in holy allegiance to our Blessed
King.
"We hope Br. Finney will become Prof. of
Theology at Oberlin. Lane Seminary I regret to say is down, &
Doct. Beecher with it. Oh why did he confer with flesh &
blood! Why not dare to do what he acknowledged to be right! He has
evidently been guilty of duplicity, his sun which I hoped would
enlighten this valley & set serenely in the West, will I fear
go down in a cloud. 'Cease ye from men'!"
Certainly the conjunction of circumstances
was remarkable and it is not surprising that minds of Oberlin
accustomed to look for providences should have deemed it
providential.
The "Rebels" in Cumminsville were ready.
Stanton wrote to Weld early in January: "As to
Oberlin--Study--next summer &c., We have had no formal
expression of opinion since your letter arrived, but we like the
plan well. Brother Finney must go to O. It is the very kind of
contact we need. So good, and rare too, in its moral
characteristics. Our time expires here first of April. Ought we to
go to O. then? We must spend the remainder of our course together
some where! Will it be possible for you to be with us next year?
Even 6 months of your contact would be invaluable to us. With
Finney, Mahan & Morgan!!" James Thome, of Kentucky, concurred:
"I hope the Oberlin enterprise will carry. It suits my wishes, for
I believe it will suit my wants." William Allan, another
Southerner, likewise approved: "This Oberlin plan, however, has
opened up a new train. If you & Finney should go there I would
try if possible to go with the rest. That, with me, will be
putting on the capstone--I shall have passed the rubicon if I
should go to an institution where abolition is concentrated--at
the head of which is that arch-heretic Finney."
Stanton and Whipple wrote a joint letter to
Finney a few days later expressing their deep interest "in the
cause of theological education at the West." They saw the region
in a desperate plight. "The harvest of the great valley is rotting
& perishing for lack of laboring men. The spiritual death in
our churches is alarming. The impenitent West is rushing to death,
unresisted & almost unwarned. The whole Valley is over-run
with antinomianism, Campbelliteism, Universalism &
Infidelity--while Catholicism is fast taking possession of all our
strong holds & is insidiously worming itself into the
confidence of the people, & undermining the very foundations
of pure religion. And the orthodox are quareling among
themselves." They saw only one solution: there must be a great
revival, such a revival as could be produced only by "a new race
of ministers" educated at a seminary "established on high moral
ground, ... & decided in its revival spirit" and its support
of the "great and glorious reforms." No such seminary, they felt,
existed at that time in the West. Certainly Lane Seminary
"governed by a time serving expediency,--by a subserviency to
popular preiudice & opinions" was "ill adapted to fit its
pupils for warring with the sins & enormous evils of a corrupt
& corrupting age." A new Western theological school must be
founded to meet the pressing need.
Oberlin and Finney offered the answer.
Oberlin was strategically located, and Finney was the man, if any
existed, who could train a band of earnest young men to save the
Godless West "Our eyes," continued Stanton and Whipple, "have for
a long time been turned toward you, as possessing peculiar
qualifications to fill a professorship in such an institution.
Holding & teaching sentiments which we believe are in
accordance with the Bible, & having been called by God to
participate more largely in the revivals of the last 9 years than
any other man in the church, we could not but fix our attention on
you as one whom God had designated for such a work ....
Recognizing these truths, & having full confidence in your
qualifications, we strongly desire to become your pupils .... We
cannot but think that the providence of God directly calls upon
you to become the professor of theology in that institution
[Oberlin]. If you should go there, nearly or quite all the
theological students who left Lane, would place themselves at once
under your instruction." How much after his own heart were these
young men! Shipherd, or Finney himself, might have expressed his
opinion of the Western situation in much the same
language.
Now for some months Finney had been
considering retiring from his strenuous duties in New York City,
so that the new invitation from the West came at an opportune
moment. His trip to the Mediterranean had definitely not improved
his health. His friends feared that continuous preaching in the
city in the future would surely kill him. The Tappans had
suggested that the inspired invalid might go to Cumminsville and
complete the preparation of the Lane Rebels for the ministry; they
would bear all the expense. But Finney had decided against this
proposal early in November. Then, in mid-January, Shipherd and
Mahan arrived in New York with their invitation to Oberlin, and
the letter from Stanton and Whipple, representing the Rebels, came
to support them.
The interplay of forces between the
Tappans, Leavitt, William Green, Dimond, Shipherd and Mahan around
Finney cannot be reconstructed at this late hour. But the decision
was made promptly, thanks evidently partly to the conjunction of
circumstances and partly to the persuasive powers of Shipherd, who
saw that the supreme moment of opportunity for his beloved Oberlin
had arrived, and of the Tappans, who were deeply interested in the
education of the Rebels. The result was beyond anything that the
first founders of Oberlin had dared dream of. Arthur Tappan
subscribed $10,000; and his associates, Lewis Tappan, Dimond,
Green and others, agreed to pay eight professors six hundred
dollars annually--all on condition that Finney be appointed
Professor of Theology. Finney in turn agreed to accept the
appointment on the condition that the trustees allow him to spend
three or four months each winter preaching in New York and agree
to "commit the internal management of the institute entirely to
the Faculty, inclusive of the reception of students."
Unless the Oberlin trustees decidedly
revised their stand on the question of the admission of Negro
students the whole structure must collapse. Finney wrote to the
Rebels: "We do not wish the Trustees to hold out an Abolition or
an Anti-abolition flag but let the subject alone for the faculty
to manage." Writing to Finney, John Morgan denounced the trustees'
resolution: "I do not see how consistent abolitionists can give
either their money or personal labours & influence to Oberlin
till the trustees are prepared to rescind this enactment & do
justice to their coloured brethren whether other institutions do
so or not .... I am sure that Weld & the leaders from Lane
will not think of going to Oberlin while this resolution stands.
Even Lane Seminarv did not assume this odious attitude." The Lane
Rebels took the same stand. One of them wrote to Weld: "... Saw a
notice of the request of Shipherd that Trustees should pass Res.
to admit into Col without respect of Colour. The board Res. not
[to] act upon it without further information, declaring it
to be their intention to have their Institution stand on the same
ground as other literary institutions in the land.--This is not
enough in these times, do write to New York & tell Mahan &
Morgan not to accept without having that thing settled. Everything
depended on a change of front by the trustees.
Shipherd wrote two elaborate epistles to
Oberlin in a desperate effort to bring about a change in the
feeling of the community and the trustees on the question of the
admission of colored students and to secure the acceptance of
Finney's condition. One letter, written in New York and dated
January 27, 1835, was addressed to the Church; the other, written
the week before and including a full statement of the situation at
New York, was addressed to the trustees of the
Institute.
Shipherd expressed deep disappointment at
the trustees' previous decision--"surprising & grievous to my
soul." "I did not desire you to hang out an abolition flag," he
continued, "or fill up with filthy stupid negroes; but I did
desire that you should say you would not reject promising youth
who desire to prepare for usefulness because God had given them a
darker hue than others." It was generally agreed, he pointed out,
that emancipated Negroes ought to be educated in order to prepare
them for the proper exercise of their freedom. He reminded the
trustees that other institutions had admitted Negroes to full
privileges: Western Reserve College, Princeton and even Lane
Seminary. Students who were so pharisaical as to object to
association with Negroes would not be forced into their company,
and the danger of "amalgamation" (intermarriage between white and
colored students) he declared to be wholly illusory. Besides,
Shipherd held that the admission of students irrespective of color
was eternally right and he would insist upon it for that reason
despite any considerations of "worldly expediency."
But, after all, the admission of Negroes
was not the crux of the matter. "The difficulties [at
Lane]," he recognized, "did not grow out of the reception of
colored students," "but out of the Trustees' interference with the
Students' right of free discussion, & those matters which
belong to the Faculty to manage." In order to forestall any
possible future unwarranted interferences by the Oberlin trustees
in the internal affairs of the Oberlin Institute Shipherd insisted
on the acceptance of Finney's condition. He threatened to resign
if the trustees would not guarantee "that the Faculty shall
control the internal affairs of the institute and decide upon the
reception of students."
To consider this ultimatum, a special
meeting of the trustees was called to meet at Shipherd's house in
Oberlin on February 9. This was another hectic session, "riotous,
turbulent & filled with detraction [and] slander."
Nine members of the Board, including Keep, the newly appointed
president, gathered at the appointed place early in the evening;
Shipherd's letter was read and "after some discussion and remarks,
prayer was offered & the Board adjourned" to meet the next
morning. Nathan P. Fletcher, an ardent abolitionist, and three
other members favored the adoption of the measure sponsored by
Shipherd and Finney; Philo P. Stewart, also supported by three of
the trustees, opposed. John Keep, ardent Finneyite and friend of
Weld and, as we have seen, an abolitionist, cast the deciding vote
for the proposition. The resolution passed is almost in Finney's
own words and settled the matter satisfactorily for him, for
Shipherd, for the Lane Rebels and for the Tappans. It required a
later misinformed and unsympathetic generation to discover that
the trustees' action was "staggering and inconsequent." There is
nothing ambiguous about it; it is straightforward and
clear:
"Resolved That the question in respect to
the admission of students into this Seminary be in all cases left
to the decision of the Faculty & to them be committed also the
internal management of its concerns, provided always that they be
holden amenable to the Board & not liable to censure or
interruption from the Board so long as their measures shall not
infringe upon the laws or general principles of the Institution."
Mahan, Finney, Morgan, etc., were to be the faculty. With this
faculty controlling the "admission of students" and "internal
management" there was no danger that Negroes would be excluded nor
that the repressive measures enacted at Lane could ever be forced
upon Oberlin. Freedom of students and faculty from trustee
meddling in "internal affairs" was thus a basic principle in the
new Oberlin.
Important as was the decision to admit
Negroes, in view of the great contribution which Oberlin was to
make toward the education of the colored race, it was at the time
of secondary significance. Oberlin was not the first college to
admit Negroes. As we have seen, Shipherd, himself, cited a number
of examples of Negroes who had attended other schools and
colleges. The chief concern of the Lane Rebels, of Morgan, of
Mahan, of Finney was not that Negroes should be admitted, but that
there should be freedom of discussion of the anti-slavery question
and other social and moral problems.
CHAPTER XV
BOOM TIMES AT
OBERLIN
ASIDE from the money promised by the
friends of the slave and the supporters of Finney in New York,
Oberlin's wealth in the things of this world was small. John Keep
stated the situation clearly in a letter to Finney: "Now then as
to funds, Brother, we (trustees) have none, except the land &
buildings etc. at Oberlin, say from 20 to 35 thousand dolls. we
have not the money to build or support teachers.... The Board of
Trustees cannot go on in this matter, only to act as the legal
organ & do what N.Y. friends propose, in the present stage of
the business. Now the whole enterprise is in the hands of these N.
Y. men, with Br. S., Mahan, & yourself. Hold on to it well
& see that it do not fail."
Arthur Tappan had promised to give $10,000
and, later on, to lend $10,000 more for buildings and other
immediate needs.
A Professorship Association was formed, a
sort of living endowment, a group of the New York City brethren
(William Green, Jr., I. M. Dimond, Lewis Tappan and others)
ageeing to pay the salaries ($600 per year) of eight professors.
The association was to be given continuity by the appointment of a
new member whenever any one of the old members died. No wonder
Shipherd was disturbed when this association threatened to go on
the rocks when it was yet hardly out of port. Lewis Tappan, it
seems, doubted Finney's attachment to anti-slavery principles and
threatened to withhold his subscription to the association.
Shipherd called the subscribers together and, after a long evening
of discussion, it was determined "to hold on in the name of the
Lord" and stand "fast whatever gales may blow." The Founder wrote
to Keep: "This meeting has shown us our foundation and greatly
strengthened it." Arthur Tappan was the financial rock on which
the new Oberlin was to stand. By the end of the first week in
October, 1835, he had supplied $17,251.13 to the Institute, $
10,000 as a loan, secured by three notes signed by colonists, and
the remainder representing that part of his gift of $10,000 which
had so far been needed for the construction of the new dormitory,
Tappan Hall.
Though Oberlin gained friends among the
anti-slavery leaders she also made enemies among the large
majority who opposed any agitation of this question and among
those who disliked Finney's methods. Benjamin Woodbury, Oberlin's
financial agent in New England, wrote a resounding protest against
the new program as early as the middle of February:
"My fears are that the appointment of Mr.
Finney as professor of Theology has had an influence on the
subscriptions. A gentleman (Minister) told me yesterday that a
clergyman of his acquaintance had collected a hundred dollars for
Oberlin but was withholding it until it should be known who would
be the Theol. Prof. I do think that this appointment, if it be
one, is exceedingly impolitic. Mr. Finney cannot be a suitable man
for that place, he has had no systematic course of instruction or
study for this. New Eng. is full of men who are entirely qualified
and that too in the sense of the community--and men too who are
not committed any way to their injury or the injury of the
Institution.... The naming of Mr. Finney is nearly destruction to
Oberlin in New England.... I Pray God to guide and save
Oberlin--Again I must say, to all here that Oberlin is not and
will not be committed to Anti-Slavery or any other party of men.
The Inst. must be open and free--'Free trade and sailors rights
entangling alliances &c.' or it will be good for nothing. The
theology of N. E. is not Finnyism nor is it moraly right to place
Finney in at the head of that Inst. It is not tested, it is too
immature, crude and denunciatory ....
"Oberlin had before enemies enough for one
Semny. Now they will increase ten fold--and it is
unnecessary."
When Shipherd went to Boston in April he
was able to secure some small subscriptions at a meeting of
prominent abolitionists. Samuel J. May presided and George
Thompson, of England, introduced a resolution: "That this meeting
having heard with great pleasure & satisfaction the
interesting statements made by the Rev. Mr. Shipherd relative to
the history and prospects of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute,
Ohio, the principal objects of which are the education of young
men for the Christian Ministry, and youth of both sexes for the
work of School teachers, irrespective of color, cordially
recommends it to the confidence & support of the Christian
public." A committee was appointed to receive donations and May,
Thompson, Amasa Walker and a few others made some subscriptions.
In most places Shipherd found, however, that many people had been
turned against Oberlin by the late developments. "Finneyism,
Abolitionism, etc. are excuses of multitudes for not giving
funds," he wrote. "But none of these things move me. I expected
difficulties & hindrances and tribulations, but success in the
end, and the privilege of doing immense good." In Philadelphia
Shipherd and Finney together could not collect enough to pay their
railroad fares back to New York. "The city of brotherly love is
filled with contentions to the exclusion of benevolence, & as
the O. C. Institute is to afford an assylum for the rebellious
Students late at Lane Sem. it ought not to be sustained &c.--
Oberlin's chief hope would be in the Tappans and Finney's other
friends in New York.
It was to be expected that little time
would be lost before Oberlin's great coup would be announced to
the world, but it is a little surprising to find that the
announcement was made before the final agreement was reached! At
least a week before the trustees' meeting of February 10, the
public was informed through various religious papers that Mahan
had accepted the presidency, that ten thousand dollars had been
received for buildings, eight professorships had been endowed and
that Finney was expected to become Professor of Theology. This was
hardly true at the time, but Shipherd's optimistic impetuosity in
making the statement was, as we have seen, soon justified. In
March it was possible to report that Finney and Morgan had
accepted the positions tendered them and that the effort to secure
funds was progressing successfully, especially through the
beneficence of the Tappans and others in New York. Early in April
the reading public was informed that: "The Rev. Asa Mahan,
President of this Institution, Rev. Charles G. Finney, Prof. of
Theology, and the Rev. John Morgan, Prof. Rhetoric, are expected
to enter upon their official duties at Oberlin, about the first of
May next." This expectation was not quite fulfilled. It was the
middle of May when Shipherd (after a narrow escape from going over
Niagara Falls in a steamboat) came back to Oberlin and wrote to
his brother: "Praised be the Lord that I have returned home in
peace & met my dear family & people generally in health
.... Loved Esther met me at the door with another boy three weeks
old--called 'James'. The people gathered around me in love
clusters. Even br. Stewart, who withstood me so strangely last
winter, met me with a kiss which I never saw him give to his wife.
We have a good agent in my place. President Mahan is the man--the
gift of God we all believe. So we all think the Lane Sem. seceders
are not 'rebels' but the choicest of Zion's sons. Bros. Finney
& Morgan are expected here today."
The new faculty was inaugurated at the
anniversary exercises held on the first Wednesday of July in the
big tent given by Finney's New York friends. "It covers an area
sufficient for the accommodation of from two to three thousand
people" wrote a witness of the ceremony. "Over its top streams a
blue flag, upon which is inscribed HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD. In the
objects aimed at, it is supposed this Tent more nearly resembles
'that which the Lord pitched and not man' than any which has been
set up since the days of Moses." "After prayer, the Rev. Mr. Keep,
Chairman of the Board of Trustees, delivered to the President and
Professors their charge, and presented them with a copy of the
charter of Oberlin Collegiate Institute. Rev. Asa Mahan was
inaugurated President aud adjunct professor of Theology. Rev.
Charles G. Finney, professor of Theology. Rev. Mr. Morgan,
professor of Literature of Bible and Church History. President
Mahan in his address gave an exposition of his views of the best
course of study to be pursued at the Institute." Mr. Finney then
delivered an address attacking the usual type of theological
education as deficient and even harmful. The character of
theological education, therefore, he declared "must be altered."
"The exigencies of the church and of a world lying in wickedness
demanded it." The services were long but, according to Shipherd,
not tedious. He wrote in the Evangelist, "The audience hung upon
their lips for hours, without indicating a desire through
weariness to drop off." The next day Shipherd was, himself,
installed as pastor of the Church. Finney preached the sermon of
installation. So was the new epoch in Oberlin formally
begun.
George Clark, the first Lane Rebel to
arrive, came with Mahan; others soon following. Thirty-two of them
attended some department of Oberlin at one time or another. Of the
Cincinnati "Sisters," Maria Fletcher, of course, returned to her
home in Oberlin. Phebe Mathews came to Oberlin in the summer of
1836, where she married the Rebel, Edward Weed, in the fall.
Neither Mr. or Mrs. Weed ever enrolled at the Institute but they
made their home in Oberlin for a year and a half while Mr. Weed
was travelling in Ohio as an anti-slavery lecturer. Theodore Weld,
also, as we shall see, spent some time in Oberlin, though never a
member of the institution. Many young men came direct from the
Oneida Institute to Oberlin. Of course, they could not be expected
to go to Lane Seminary any more. Of the ninety listed in the
secondary department at Oneida in 1834 twenty later studied at
Oberlin and only two of them were Rebels who came by way of
Cincinnati.
Oberlin was about the only college left for
young radicals to attend. Throughout the country the conservative
interests had suppressed or disciplined anti-slavery organizations
and abolitionist teachers and students in the academies and
colleges. We have already noted the purge at Western Reserve
College. In 1835 some fifty students left Phillips-Andover Academy
because they were not allowed to form an anti-slavery society. At
Amherst President Humphrey required the abolitionist society to
disband. At Hamilton the students' anti-slavery society was
dissolved at the "official request of the Faculty." Students at
Hanover College, Indiana, announced that they had organized an
anti-slavery society but: "At the request of the Faculty . . . we
state that the Society was formed contrary to their advice . . .
that while they disapprove these proceedings they do not think
proper to prohibit them." Some students left Marietta College
because of the temporizing attitude of the administration there on
the slavery question. Rev. Asa Drury, the most active abolitionist
at Granville College (Granville, Ohio, now Denison University),
was dismissed. He believed that it was because of his views on
slavery and advised the radicals among the students to go
elsewhere. The abolitionist, John W. Nevin, of the faculty of the
Western Theological Seminary, had planned to address the
Pittsburgh Anti-Slavery Society in June, 1835. He withdrew at the
last minute because--"it is apprehended that very serious injury
would result to the Seminary with which I am connected." Karl
Follen of Harvard College helped to draw up the "Address" at the
convention of the New England Anti-Slavery Society in 1834. As a
result he was informed in the following year that his services
would no longer be needed. President Robert Hamilton Bishop of
Miami University, though supporting the action of the trustees at
Lane, was friendly to the student anti-slavery society in his own
institution. The Miami trustees, therefore, forced his resignation
and put a reactionary in his place. The attack on the Oneida
Institute in the New York legislature was of a piece with this
trend.
It was to be expected that young Yankee
reformers would be attracted from everywhere to the college where
academic freedom was guaranteed. The most notable group, besides
those from Lane Seminary and from the Oneida Institute, came from
Western Reserve College. At least six students transferred from
Hudson to Oberlin: Samuel Adair, Kansas missionary; George Allen,
teacher of music in Oberlin for many years; Timothy Hudson,
anti-slavery lecturer and professor in Oberlin; Calvin Steele;
Michael Strieby, financial agent in later years, and Horace
Taylor, who was to hold many positions of responsibility at
Oberlin --and betray them. Hudson was the grandson of the founder
of the town of that name and the son of the active abolitionist of
Chester X Roads, Dr. W. N. Hudson. Taylor was probably the leading
abolitionist among the students' at Western Reserve College. As
early as May, 1834, he delivered a "very able address" to the
Tallmadge Anti-Slavery Society "in which he presented 'eternal
truth' in a favorable and convincing manner." Sherlock Bristol was
expelled from Phillips-Andover for abolitionist activities and
came to Oberlin in the spring of 1835. Danforth B. Nichols left
Granville College for Oberlin in the same year on the advice of
Professor Drury. David Stuart, son of Robert Stuart the
fur-trader, apparently transferred from Amherst to Oberlin under
similar circumstances. George W. Bancroft and several other
students came to Oberlin from Marietta in the fall of 1836.
The rush of students, attracted by the
publicity secured through the events of the preceding winter,
began early in the spring before the arrival of the faculty. On
April 2 a college freshman wrote to a friend: "Almost every house
is full within half a mile of the Institute, and students are
continually flocking in .... Nearly 300 students were connected
with the school at some time or other in 1835 and considerably
more than that number in the following year. It was a great
problem what to do with them and undoubtedly all suffered
privation in those first years. Hiram Wilson, one of the Rebels
who left Lane "for conscience sake," later wrote that he found
Oberlin in the spring of 1835 "obscure and difficult of access"
over roads that were "desperately bad." The President and his
family lived in a log cabin (the same built by Pease in 1833) and
the whole "warm hearted Christian community" were "subject to
great inconveniences and much self denial."
The "Barracks," later called "Cincinnati
Hall," was erected especially for the temporary use of the Rebels
until other more desirable buildings could be provided. It was a
long, narrow (20 feet by 144 feet), one-story building containing
twenty-four rooms for two students each. It was made of
freshly-cut beech lumber and sided on the outside with beech slabs
with the bark on--hence its common name--"Slab Hall."
The first boarding house, constructed in
1833, officially denominated "Oberlin Hall" in 1837, was, of
course, in use. A new boarding house was started in 1834, finished
in 1835 and named "Ladies' Hall" in 1836. It was the largest
building for the reception of students available at this time.
Another building, containing a chapel, recitation rooms and
dormitory facilities, was authorized by the trustees in May and
called "Colonial Hall" because part of the cost of building was
subscribed by colonists and because the main room in it was used
by the church as well as for chapel services. It was completed the
following year. A house for Professor Finney was erected on the
site of the present Chapel which bears his name and a house for
President Mahan on the present site of Warner Hall. These houses
seem to have been generally attractive and comfortable homes, too
luxurious in the eyes of some colonists who remembered the
"Oberlin Covenant."
The most important new building was that
erected with the funds provided by Tappan, primarily as a
dormitory for the theological students. It was called Tappan Hall
and was a four-story brick building surmounted by a cupola. It was
occupied by students in 1836. John Jay Shipherd's brother,
Fayette, was at this time preaching in Walton, N. Y. He persuaded
a number of his parishioners to join together and form an
association for the building of a dormitory at Oberlin especially
for Walton boys. A site was furnished by the trustees for this
purpose on the west side of what is now Main Street. Walton Hall
came the nearest to a fraternity house of any dormitory erected in
the early days of Oberlin.
The rush of students was so great that some
buildings were occupied before completion. For two years the
chimneys on Ladies' Hall were not completed, but just peered out
of the roof, creating a considerable fire hazard. The cupola of
Tappan Hall was still unfinished in 1837. Theodore Weld gave his
anti-slavery lectures in the fall of 1835 in the bare and drafty
assembly room of the still skeletal Ladies' Hall. One girl, Sarah
Capen, was seriously injured when "attempting to ascend a flight
of stairs in the Boarding house [Ladies' Hall] where a
beam was left in such a position as to endanger life."
A student letter gives a picture of the
situation at the end of the year: "We have been subjected to a
good many inconveniences from the great influx of students, the
want of sufficient accomodations, (there being three or four in a
room,) and the unsettled state of things around us. But all these
we have willingly submitted to, for the present, in prospect of
better times, and from a desire to promote the interests of the
institution. I am glad to say, that a spirit of mutual
accomodation has existed, which has greatly contributed to our
comfort and happiness. In truth our attention has been so much
engrossed with affairs of higher interest that we have hardly had
time to think of the circumstances around us.
"Things are rapidly improving here. Tappan
Hall is nearly raised to the 4th story, and will be completed, I
suppose, in the spring. It is a noble building, and will
accomodate a great number of students. Colonial Hall is almost
ready for students, and will accomodate fifty, besides containing
a large chapel. The colonists are fast raising for themselves
substantial houses, and this place is assuming the appearance of a
settled village."
In early August, 1835, William Green, Jr.,
and Mrs. Green visited Oberlin to see the wonder with their own
eyes. Green reported back to the Professorship Association in
September. George W. Gale stopped over in October on his way west
to found Knox College in Illinois. He was most favorably struck by
the physical progress made in two years and by the thoroughly
Christian atmosphere.
In February, 1836, the public was
officially warned that additional students could not, at that
time, be cared for. The trustees felt "constrained .... to caution
all applicants for admission against incurring the expense of a
journey to Oberlin before hearing definitely from us." Shipherd
gloried in Oberlin's mounting popularity. A glowing account which
appeared in the New York Evangelist a little later must have been
inspired by him. "The College University of Oberlin, in northern
Ohio .... " it runs, "has outstripped all the present enterprises
of the age. It has 800 acres of the most beautiful land,
surrounding the college, belonging to it. It has eight endowed
professorships. Its buildings are spacious and elegant, though yet
not complete. Two hundred and fifty students during the last year,
were obliged to occupy unfinished rooms, and near one hundred
others who applied for admission, were denied for want of
room."
The surplus of students became so great
that the trustees at their meeting in March of 1836 determined to
establish branch schools for the training of preparatory students
who would be received at Oberlin when ready for college. It was
recommended "to Bro. Jabez L. Burrell to take measures for
establishing a branch manual Labor School on his farm and that
this Board will sustain him with its counsel and influence"; this
school at Sheffield became the most important of the branch
schools. In June forty students were enrolled at the "Sheffield
Manual Labor Institute" including the one Negro--James Bradley.
Eighteen or twenty or more students were sent to the Elyria High
School. A somewhat larger number (at least 24) were assigned to
the Grand River Institute at Austinburg, a school headed by a
prominent abolitionist, O. K. Hawley. Two or three went to
Farmington Academy and something over a dozen to the branch at
Abbeyville where Amos Dresser became a teacher. Necessary expense
of removal, such as the transportation of baggage, was paid for
students transported to Austinburg. The trustees even issued a
public announcement that they would "aid (funds excepted) in the
establishment of branch institutions elsewhere," and "refer
applicants at Oberlin to them; and receive them when fitted for
College in preference to others; provided the Oberlin course of
study, preparatory to college is pursued; and the institution is
founded upon the grand physical and moral principles of the
Oberlin Institute." Readers were assured that, "An institution
thus founded can be at once filled with students from Oberlin
Collegiate Institute, as was the Grand River Institute at
Austinburg." This system of branch institutions was only
temporary. The Sheffield school was abandoned in August of 1837;
apparently this marked the end of the practice.
On September 24, 1836, the first regular
Commencement was held when fifteen young men, including several
Lane Rebels, were graduated from the Theological Course. Well over
two thousand people were present in the tent to hear the orations
by the graduates and the inaugural addresses of three professors:
James Dascomb, Henry Cowles and J. P. Cowles. About a hundred and
twenty new students were received, nearly half joining the College
and Theological departments. John Keep wrote a month later to
Gettit Smith: "15 theological students 'graduated' at the
Commencement on 14 Sept. & young men who, I have no doubt will
be known in the Churches & in the Country, by their successful
well doing. Commencement day was rainy but the 'big tent' was well
supplied with auditors, & good judges--men who have been at
Literary Institutions, were full of the expression of their
approval--Surely it is out of place to speak of Oberlin, as many
do, as the 'school of dunces.' . . . With the exception that we
have no money, the whole concern is in a state of marked
prosperity. Nearly 150 have this fall entered the College and
Theological departments, between 20 & 30 theological--&
now about 400 are in a course of study in our connexion. During
the summer, the recitations, lectures, & manual labor &c
&c have all gone on with system & energy & great
promise--scholars industrious in the main--embodying an unusual
proportion of native talent--selfdenying & heavenly in their
aims."
They were boom times--"with the exception
that we have no money."
CHAPTER
XVI
NEW LEADERS FOR
OLD
WHEREVER Finney went he drew the spotlight
of public interest. Now that spotlight turned on Oberlin. The many
Finney converts and followers throughout the North now gave their
moral and sometimes financial support to Oberlin, and Finney's
detractors became the detractors of Oberlin. The coming of Finney
to Oberlin was of supreme importance. One can no more think of
Oberlin without Finney than of Harvard without Eliot, Williams
without Mark Hopkins or Yale without Dwight. It should be
remembered that, though he was interested in anti-slavery and
other reforms, favored the admission of Negroes to Oberlin and
excluded slaveholders from Communion in New York, the spread of
the Gospel was his supreme purpose. His chief hope in connection
with Oberlin was that here an army of inspired evangelists might
be trained who would lead the van in the battle for the Lord in
the Valley of Moral Death. In his major purpose Finney was more
exactly in accord with Shipherd than with Weld. Shipherd as a
Finneyite had built Oberlin according to a pattern acceptable to
his master; the coming of the great evangelist was not really a
revolution but a perfect consummation of the first plans of the
Founder.
Though Asa Mahan became President of the
Oberlin Institute his influence and reputation in Oberlin and in
the outside world never equalled that of Finney, but he was one of
the greatest of the followers. Shipherd recommended him to the
trustees as a "critical scholar in the different sciences, but
especially in intellectual & moral philosophy," having,
"according to Mr. Finney, the best mind in Western New York while
he was there laboring." To Oberlin in 1835 Mahan brought a great
store of enthusiasm, of energy, of devotion and optimism. On March
1835, he wrote to Nathan Fletcher from New York: "As soon as
possible after my arrival in Cincinnati I intend to start for
Oberlin .... I hope that we shall be able to say to all our
pupils, be ye 'followers of us as we are of Christ.' Brother
Finney is a man of God full of [the] holy Ghost and of
faith. His like cannot be found in any other institution in the
country. His coadjutators [sic] will be men of kindred
spirits. Will not the Lord of hosts be with us and the God of
Jacob be our refuge? He will. Oberlin shall yet become a great
luminary in the kingdom of Christ, whose light shall encircle the
whole earth."
John Morgan also consented to accept a post
at Oberlin when he was assured that the trustees had taken the
right stand on the slavery question and that Finney and Mahan
would be there. His liberalism lost him his job at Lane Seminary
but opened the way to Oberlin. Erudite, versatile, good-natured,
not overly ambitious, Morgan was one of Oberlin's outstanding
leaders and "characters" for over a generation. One of his pupils
in Lane and Oberlin has left a few contemporary word-pictures of
him: "As rough & as noble as ever," "the same tear-eyed,
melting-hearted, but aligator-hided John." When this young man,
James Thome, became Professor of Rhetoric, Weld suggested that
Morgan might give him some help. Thome wrote to Weld of his
interview: "I told him when I reached O. that you had consigned me
to him as the proper man to qualify me for my professorship. He
rolled his huge outer man from side to side, like a dutch scupper
careening at its moorings, haw-hawed & exclaimed 'What a
confounded numscull that Weld is.'"
Another appointment of major importance was
that of the Rev. Henry Cowles, of Austinburg, to be Professor of
Languages. Cowles had been associated with Shipherd in various
capacities. They had both been active members and officers of the
Western Reserve Anti-Slavery Society. In October, 1832, they spoke
on the same program at a meeting of the Western Reserve Branch of
the American Education Society at Detroit. Cowles was a thorough
scholar and a prime factor in the intellectual and spiritual life
of Oberlin from 1835 through the Civil War. When his acceptance
was officially announced, the Ohio Observer, organ of Western
Reserve College and usually hypercritical of Oberlin and all
associated with it, spoke of him in the highest terms of praise:
"We are not in the habit of speaking in flattering terms of public
men; but everybody knows that Mr. Cowles is a lovely man .... As a
minister of the gospel, his labors are highly appreciated by the
churches, and have been blessed by God to the salvation of many
souls. As it is, Mr. Cowles will be an acquisition to Oberlin; and
we are glad that the Trustees have chosen a man whose feelings and
views are identical with those of the Christian public on the
Reserve.
Cowles had at first opposed the
establishment of another theological department in northern Ohio,
fearing the results of a clash between Hudson and Oberlin. But he
changed his mind and in the autumn drove alone in a wagon to
Oberlin, sending back a letter to his wife shortly after his
arrival describing the hardships of the journey and giving his
first impressions of the place. The journey required three days;
the first day "by diligence and patience" he reached Chagrin, the
second, Dover; and he arrived in Oberlin, catching up with a
farmer whom he had sent ahead driving the family cow, on the third
day. From Elyria he found the going execrable: "... You will be
apt to think that you will certainly turn over; but I find that a
large waggon at least does not turn over very easily." He advised
his wife when she followed him to take a saddle "and when you come
to the terrible & horrible, & feel unable to walk any
farther, then unharness, put on the saddle & ride into
Oberlin." "I attended prayers today at 4 o'clock," he continued,
"was publicly introduced to the students somewhat to my
embarrassment, and then attended a meeting of the Faculty for the
first time. What a rush of responsibilities comes over me! What an
entrance upon new & untried scenes! O how I need strength
equal to my day!--I expect now to take charge of two classes in
Greek, the History & perhaps soon another in Euclid. Thus the
work begins." His wife, Alice Welch Cowles, followed him soon,
despite the uninviting description which her husband gave her of
the journey. Except in shortness of years, her contribution to
Oberlin equalled that made by the professor. As Principal of the
Female Department and leader in the moral reform movement she took
second place to no other Oberlin woman of her day. Oberlin was
beginning to appear: Finney, Mahan, Morgan--and now the Cowles
family.
John P. Cowles and E. P. Barrows, one a
brother of and both classmates of Henry Cowles at Yale, were also
elected to positions in the faculty. The former occupied the post
of Professor of Literature of the Old Testament and of the History
of the Jewish Church from 1836 to 1839, when an unfortunate
controversy led to his resignation. Barrows refused the
appointment, but, over a generation later, finally accepted a
similar offer and taught in Oberlin from 1871 to 1880. A fourth
Yale man was appointed Professor of Sacred Music. Elihu Parsons
Ingersoll was another Finney man, a native of Massachusetts and
graduate of Yale in the class of 1832. He held his position for
one year only, though he lived in the community somewhat longer."
The distinguished abolitionist, James G. Birney, was elected
"professor of Law, Oratory & Belles Lettres" but never came.
Jonathan Blanchard, also an abolitionist and later successively
president of Knox and Wheaton colleges, applied for a position,
but was not appointed. In the summer of 1836 James M. Buchanan, of
Danville, Kentucky, who had been forced out of the Centre College
faculty for his anti-slavery activities, became Professor of
Mathematics and Natural Philosophy on Birney's recommendation.
Oberlin was not to his liking and he resigned a few weeks later.
At about the same time George Whipple, one of the Lane Rebels,
became Principal of the Preparatory Department at a salary of
$400.00 a year. Of the original faculty of 1834, James Dascomb and
Seth Waldo remained. Both resigned early in 1835, but Dascomb was
persuaded to return.
The storm which accompanied the dispute
over the admission of colored students was no mean gale. For some
time Keep thought of resigning. In March of 1835 he wrote to
Shipherd: "I accept your exhortation not to withdraw from the
Board at Oberlin, and will reply that I have concluded not to do
it so long as there is a prospect of doing good by remaining. At
our last meeting I told the Board that if the opposition members
persisted in their complaints, & would not themselves either
withdraw or draw with us, that I should retire, & leave them
to take their own course &c." The leadership of this able
minister had been of great significance in time of crisis and his
retention was fortunate for the institution. Two pillars of the
early days did drop out, however: Eliphalet Redington and Judge
Frederick Hamlin. The work of Redington as trustee and treasurer
had been second only in importance to that of Shipherd and Stewart
in 1833. Nathan P. Fletcher also left the board in 1836, largely
because of personal grievances arising out of the epochal
controversy. In the same year Levi Burnell, former head of the
defunct Lorain Iron Company of Elyria, became Secretary and
Treasurer. Owen Brown, the father of John Brown, was attracted to
the Board because of his anti-slavery sentiments. He had recently
resigned as a trustee of Western Reserve College because of the
decline in reform zeal in that institution. Stewart and Shipherd,
too, their work on the foundations being done, left the erection
of the superstructure to others.
Stewart, as we have seen, had been the
outstanding opponent of the admission of Negroes; he had also been
chiefly instrumental in forcing the resignation of N. P. Fletcher,
next to Keep and Shipherd the outstanding abolitionist among the
trustees. Fletcher and his faction bitterly attacked Stewart for
his stand on the Negro question, for his insistence on "Christian
economy" in diet, etc., and for his alleged mismanagement as
steward. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart left Oberlin in sorrow and
disappointment in the autumn of 1836, and in 1838 he resigned his
position as trustee.
In 1837 and 1838 we find them living in New
York City in poverty, Stewart teaching a school for colored people
(evidently it was mixed education to which he objected). In
September of 1838, Stewart took out his second stove patent, an
improvement on the "Oberlin Stove." This first "Stewart" stove was
distinguished by a fire-box hanging in the oven, crescent-shaped
covers or lids, and a water reservoir which set over the smoke
pipe and utilized the heat which otherwise would escape up the
chimney. Its chief virtue was the efficient use of fuel. Stewart
claimed that it cooked or baked satisfactorily with only three
pieces of wood. Japanned tin covers were even provided for the
sides to keep the heat in in the summer when it was not desired to
warm the room. It was because of this feature that it later came
to be known as "P . P. Stewart's Air Tight, Summer and Winter
Cooking Stove."
The Stewarts removed to Troy from New York
and there lived in straitened circumstances for some time before
any considerable amount of money was realized from the invention.
N. Starbuck & Son finally agreed to undertake the manufacture
of the stove, which they did with considerable success for more
than ten years. A paragraph from a letter from Stewart to William
Dawes, written in 1846, sounds like an advertisement, but gives
some conception of the success which the Connecticut whittler had
finally achieved: "The expectations entertained at an early day,
in regard to the ultimate success of the Summer & Winter,
airtight, Cooking Stove, have not been disappointed. The number of
stoves manufactured and sold during the year ending Jan. 1st,
1845, was 3000. The number manufactured and sold during the last
year was 4800. When we consider the high price of the stove ($16:
at wholesale, $22: to 24: retail,) all warranted and the very
small number returned, it is apparent that the families who have
them in use, set an unusually high value upon them. Individuals
frequently acknowledge themselves under very deep obligations to a
kind Providence, for bringing into their possession an article of
so much value in the domestic department. Good house-keepers
seldom use the stove long without becoming very much attached to
it: and the sum of their testimony is, that there is no one of the
important branches of labour appertaining to a cooking apparatus
that cannot be performed with this stove, in the most perfect
manner; with all convenient dispatch; with unusual comfort to the
operator, and with an exceedingly small quantity of
fuel."
By patents of 1853 and 1859 the stove was
enlarged and again improved. The most interesting improvement was
the addition of a "tin roaster which he placed upon the apron." On
this, meat was hung "and revolved by a spit and roasted by the
heat from the front of the firebox." The new stoves were even more
popular than the old "Stewarts" had been. They were manufactured
by firms in Troy, in Buffalo, and in St. Louis, and many of them
were still in use in the memory of living men.
In the period of his financial success
Stewart did not forget the good causes to which he had given so
much of his earlier years. Indeed, he seems to have given away
almost all the profits that he made. Ministers and missionaries
could always purchase his stoves for the wholesale price or less.
In 1845 he gave $500.00 to the Oberlin Institute and other
extensive donations followed. In the same year and in the next we
find him contributing materially to Professor Morgan's salary. In
1846 in Oberlin's hour of greatest financial need he came west and
appeared before the trustees, suggesting means of dealing with the
situation and making another large contribution. As late as 1862
he and his wife sent a New Year's gift of money to the Oberlin
faculty. Stewart was always particularly interested in health
reform. In 1860 he returned to Oberlin to lecture on that subject.
The News reported it:
"On Tuesday evening of last week, Mr. P. P.
Stewart, of Troy, N. Y., addressed the students in the Chapel on
the subject of health.
"Mr. Stewart is known to the public at
large as the inventor of the cooking stove which bears his name;
to the friends of Oberlin College as one of its founders, and
since resigning his seat in the board of Trustees, as a munificent
contributor to its resources.
"But his personal friends know him rather
as one whose sympathies are largely enlisted in discussing,
originating and applying means for the restoration and maintenance
of bodily health. As an inventor, his patent may be his pet, but
hygiene is then its twin, and rather the Jacob than the Esau. This
was evident to his audience. He could not forget his stove, nor
could he wander long from his theme."
One may read between the lines of the story
that Stewart was somewhat of a "character," but it is clear that
he was sincere, honest, industrious, thrifty and a practical,
benevolent Christian. His success in the material world was never
attained at the sacrifice of ideals or of religion. He valued his
success only in that it gave him greater ability to do
good.
Shipherd continued at intervals (notably in
1836 and 1838) to serve in the capacity of financial agent, but it
was clearly apparent to him that his work for Oberlin was largely
done. He had laid the cornerstone; others must build upon it. As
early as October of 1835 he requested the Church to relieve him of
his pastorate and, early in the following year, he definitely
resigned. Ill health was undoubtedly one of the immediate causes
of his resignation. " . . I have had some paralytic affections" he
wrote his brother, "which I thot said to me, 'set thine house in
order for thou shalt die and not live.' Poor Esther buried me,
& Henry grieved in his orphanage. Eliza too mourned that she
was fatherless I really felt that my days were well nigh
finished."
Besides, success in Oberlin had germinated
in the mind of the "Pioneer of the Valley of Dry Bones" an
expanded vision. He would fill the whole region with institutions
on the Oberlin plan where, through manual labor combined with
study, the young men and women of the West could be trained up for
the great work of converting the valley to Christianity. In his
official letter of farewell to his congregation he wrote: "The
Great head of the church, is Opening before me a Door of
Usefullness, wide and effectual in the work of Christian
Education, and distinctly calling me into that great and blessed
work so that while I can do but little in the plenteous harvests
by personal ministry I can do much to supply it with effective
Labourers & thus preach Christ still thro the Oberlin
Institute and kindred Seminaries which under God I may aid in
building." The New York merchants, members of the Oberlin
Professorship Association, were to back him in the grand new
enterprise by which land speculations were to finance a succession
of missionary colleges in the West. Eliza Branch, acting as
amanuensis, wrote of the plan to Fayette Shipherd: "The brethren,
Dimond, Clark, and Hunt, having pledged $13,000 . . . he will
leave Oberlin about 1st June, on an exploring tour .... He is to
select and purchase the most eligible site for a manual labor
institution. The design is to get 10,000 acres and to raise money
enough on the sale of it to endow the college, & aid O. some
$10,000. In addition to this enough to make a second purchase for
a Theological Sem, from which enough must be saved for a third
purchase, & so on, until through these, that great valley
shall be supplied with efficient laborers, who will reap down her
harvests, already ripe, & gather them unto the garner of the
Lord."
Elihu P. Ingersoll, Professor of Church
Music and Principal of the Preparatory Department at Oberlin in
1835-36, had a brother, Erastus S. Ingersoll, who had originated a
scheme to establish a Christian colony and school a la Oberlin in
the central part of Michigan. Professor Ingersoll resigned from
the Oberlin faculty to aid his brother and easily persuaded
Shipherd to sponsor the enterprise. Dr. Isaac Jennings, Oberlin's
medical reformer, also participated in the preparation for this
manual labor, missionary school near the present Lansing, which
was to be called the Grand River Seminary. In June of 1836
Shipherd issued an announcement of the new institution, together
with a plea for financial aid. This appeal, written in the
wilderness on a bark table "in an Indian wigwam on the banks of
the Cedar [River]," is reminiscent of those made in
previous years for Oberlin:
"To the Brethren and Sisters of Eastern
Churches.
"Beloved in Jesus-I address you from the
Great West, on a subject, and under circumstances as interesting
as this Valley is extensive ....
"Three years ago I was among you on an
agency in behalf of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute, (then
prospective,) hoping thereby, under God, to do much to supply his
'plenteous harvest,' with effective laborers. Now, I am in the
center of Michigan, seeking a location for Oberlin second; not
because I, or my Oberlin associates have occasion to forsake
Oberlin first; but because 'the place is too strait for us,' and
there remaineth beyond us much land to be possessed in the name of
the Lord; and because the Oberlin mode of possessing it, is
[has?] succeeded by the Lord beyond a parallel
....
"Therefore, beloved, I am here, (with a
dear member of our faculty, and a hundred brethren of this state,)
sent of God, we trust, to find the place where we will continue
his precious Oberlin work."
Shipherd was careful to make it clear that
he was by no means withdrawing his support from Oberlin Institute.
"As my Oberlin brethren concurred with me in the belief that I
could be more useful as a pioneer in planting other colonies and
institutions, and I have necessarily left the institution for this
work, while it is yet immature greatly needing funds, let me
commend to your Christian beneficence my worthy and beloved
successor in its agency, John Keep .... "
President Jackson's famous "Specie
Circular" requiring payment in gold for Government lands spoiled
many a promising land speculation scheme, but few as unselfish as
this one. Shipherd wrote to his brother: "Genl Jackson's 'Golden
Order' about specie payment for land cramps me in my new
enterprise--cramps Oberlin & nearly all in business." After
the financial collapse of 1837 his New York backers were unable to
pay their subscriptions. In May, 1839, failure was acknowledged in
a circular sent to all subscribers and signed by E. P. Ingersoll,
Jennings and Shipherd. In the meantime Shipherd had been promoting
a similar enterprise in Indiana.
In March,1837, the founding of another unit
in the system of pious mission colleges was announced. This was
the Lagrange Collegiate Institute, of which Shipherd wrote to the
editor of the New York Evangelist: "I am happy to inform those who
pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into it, that
another Oberlin .... is rising in Lagrange county, Indiana." He
continued: "The hope of our republic, of our American Zion, and of
the world, degraded in ignorance and sin, is Christian education."
The grand design appears in a later sentence: "Literary
institutions must rise as the forests fall; and the seeds of
Christian science must be scattered upon the fallow ground of
prairies and plains as they are broken up. Enlightened minds
clearly see that much delay will be irretrievable ruin." The
Lagrange Institute was to follow closely the Oberlin pattern. "To
meet the demands of physiological law, and the indigence of
promising youth," manual labor was to be required. It was to
partake, too, of Oberlin's reform character: "This institution
will allow free discussion, and openly sustain the great moral
enterprises of the day--such as revivals, temperance in all
things, the strict observance of the Sabbath, moral reform,
Christian union, human rights, under whatever color or
circumstances, &c." Shipherd expected that it would receive
its students partly from the overflow from Oberlin. Nothing more
is known of this project, but it is suspected that it, too, died
of financial malnutrition.
He was again engaged in raising funds for
Oberlin in 1838, but his health was much impaired by the constant
travelling and (as he believed) the impossibility of obtaining
Graham diet. When, therefore, he received a call to the First Free
Church in Newark, New Jersey, he accepted. His term in that
pastorate was not long, however, for a controversy over the
question of the seating of Negroes arose when Mrs. Shipherd took
her Negro maidservant with her to church and brought her, with the
rest of the family, into the pastor's pew. In the autumn Shipherd
was again seeking subscriptions for the Oberlin
Institute.
In 1842-43 Shipherd preached in Buffalo and
in Strongsville, Ohio, but in the latter year he turned again to
Michigan. In November of 1843 he went to that state to take care
of Oberlin's interests in certain lands and to make a preliminary
survey for a new colony and school. In February of the following
year he led the first colonists to Olivet, another new Oberlin.
Two months later he wrote to Amasa Walker, thanking him for a
gift: "And I thank the Lord that he is thus & otherwise aiding
us to do his good work at Olivet. Our progress is slow but I trust
safe. Our prospect of usefulness appears to me to be fair." His
weak body was breaking. Though, he wrote to Hamilton Hill, he was
"happy in confidence that we are doing God's work," he recognized
that he was "weary & worn and greatly pressed with labors." He
died at Olivet September 16, 1844.
The last letter written by the Founder to
his friends and associates in Oberlin contains a restatement of
the principles of the Oberlin Institute as he understood
them:
"Allow me also to express my humble &
earnest prayer that they [the trustees], with the beloved
Faculty, Sec.; & all in the different departments, may do the
work after the Christian model--especially, that the departments
of Biblical Instruction, & Physiology, including Manual Labor
may receive the attention due to their great importance. If these
departments wane, the life current will flow out, & the heart
of Oberlin die. The greatness of Oberlin is doubtless attributable
under God to her adherence to the noble principle, that public
Institutions no less than private christians must do right however
contrary to popular sentiment. That the managers of Oberlin
Institute may never swerve from this grand principle is one of the
strongest desires of my soul. To each I would say with emphasis
'Be not conformed to this world.'"
So the "Pioneer" passed, leaving the task
of continuing the great work at Oberlin to Mahan, Morgan, Cowles,
Keep, and Finney.
Book
Two
Oberlinism
"Our Institute and colony are peculiar in
that which is good..."
J. J. SHIPHERD,
April 14, 1834.
"Oberlin must be the burning and the
shining light which shall lead on to the Millennium."
JOHN KEEP TO LYDIA KEEP, London,
November 5-13, 1839 (Keep
MSS).
"The institution [Oberlin] has
always sought, and still seeks, by the blessing of God, the
promotion of earnest and living piety among the students. This has
ever been a primary aim with the Faculty. They never deem their
work done with their pupils till they see them following the Great
Teacher."
T. B. H[UDSON] in the
Independent (New York),
January 22, 1857.
CHAPTER
XVII
GOD'S COLLEGE
IN THE first half of the nineteenth century
militant Protestant Christianity saw itself marching to the
conquest of America and the World. Rank on rank they advanced with
flying banners: the revivalists leading the way, the missionary
societies, the Bible societies, the Sabbath reformers, the
religious education and Sabbath School societies, and the tract
societies. Combined in the same great army and under the same
staff were the anti-slavery societies, the peace societies, the
Seamen's Friend Society, the temperance societies, the
physiological reform and moral reform societies. Closely allied
were the educational reformers whose task it was to train a
generation for Utopia. In the heavens they saw the reflection of
the glorious dawn, which was just beyond the horizon, when all men
should know Christ, should serve him in body and in spirit, and
acknowledge their universal brotherhood.
The movement was to some extent
international. In England the Methodists, Quakers, the
Evangelicals (the latter at the height of their power in 1833)
established Bible societies and fought for the abolition of
slavery in the British dependencies, for temperance, for Sabbath
observance, for morality, for sobriety and thrift. In France the
Societe de la Morale Chretienne was founded in 1821 under the
presidency of the Duc de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, "patron banal
de toutes les philanthropies de la terre." This society opposed
Negro slavery and worked for better physical hygiene, for the
suppression of gaming houses and lotteries and for the improvement
of the morals of the younger generation. The society was in
correspondence with the peace and Bible societies in England and
the United States and with the Colonization Society in the United
States. Among its members were the statesman Guizot, Victor de
Broglie, the Duc de Choiseul, Lafayette, De Tocqueville and Father
Jean Frederic Oberlin, himself.
But it was in America that there was the
greatest hope for success. In America all things were being made
new. In America where all was progress, development, movement and
hope, in America the Millennium seemed about to begin, to be
completely achieved by one last tremendous effort by the organized
hosts of Christian reform.
One great and devoted brigade gathered
about the standard of Oberlin, captained by Finney, Shipherd,
Mahan and Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cowles, aided by a hundred able
lieutenants. Nowhere else was the vision quite so clearly seen;
nowhere else was consecration to the great Cause quite so complete
and fervent. And from the Oberlin center went out an influence
whose power is beyond estimation, through the thousands of young
men and women educated in the Institute, through publications like
the Oberlin Quarterly and the Oberlin Evangelist, and through the
preaching of Mahan and of Finney. Much has been written on the
work of individual men in the reform movement, but the Oberlin
unit (which was larger than Finney--perhaps larger than the sum of
the human elements which made it up) has been underestimated, by
some even overlooked. In Oberlin the story of Christian reform is
complete; Oberlin was the embodiment of the movement.
It should never be forgotten that Oberlin
was first and foremost a religious school. "You are not only
educated," Finney reminded the graduating class in his
commencement address of 1851, "but educated in God's College--a
College reared under God, and for God, by the faith, the prayers,
the toils and the sacrifices of God's people. You cannot but know
that it has been the sole purpose of the founders and patrons of
this College to educate here men and women for God and for God's
cause." Had Shipherd been alive and present how gladly he would
have added his Amen! Had not his purpose been in his own words,
'to "educate school teachers for our desolate valley, and many
ministers for our dying world"?
Throughout his life Finney jealously
guarded this predominant religious emphasis. In 1846 we find Lewis
Tappan sympathizing with his efforts to block the attempt of some
faculty members "to make Oberlin a literary institution at the
sacrifice of its religious character." In 1859 Finney wrote from
England to Henry Cowles: "No one has written me of any special
religious interest there. This oppresses me. I have no hope for
Oberlin if their zeal for the conversion of souls & the
sanctification of believers abates & subsides. It matters not
at all to me how much of money or of students or of any thing else
they have. The more of these things the worse if the leaders fail
to be intently aggressive in the direction of spiritual progress
.... What is to be done to hold the college to the point for which
it was established?" Further similarly critical letters led the
faculty and resident trustees to address a joint letter to the
absent President in the following year assuring him that they
regarded "the spiritual culture of our pupils as more important
than all other culture & their salvation paramount by far to
all other interests." In 1862 the first aim of the College was
declared in an official announcement to be "to teach and enforce
divine truth and promote sound piety." Two years later Finney was
reported as still insisting that Oberlin "should make the
conversion of sinners and the sanctification of Christians the
paramount work and subordinate to this all the educational
operations." In early Oberlin learning was always looked upon as
the handmaid of religion.
The course of study was designed to fulfill
this aim. Bible study and Hebrew were emphasized and Greek and
Latin "heathen classics" put in second place, "on the ground that
the poetry of God's inspired prophets is better for the heart and
at least as good for the head as that of Pagans." The faculty took
a very direct interest in the welfare of the students' souls in
class and out. In 1837 the professors visited the students in
their rooms and held "religious conversation with each student for
the purpose of awakening a better state of religious feeling in
Coll[ege]." In 1843 the Prudential Committee made an
investigation of "the present apparent lack of vital piety in the
Institution as well as of the very depressed state of the
Treasury." Official reports treated the state of piety as a matter
of the first importance. "The moral and religious state of the
pupils is deemed to be encouraging. Truth seems in general to gain
ready access to their minds and hearts; conversions are frequent;
and a healthy tone of moral sentiment is sustained." So the
faculty declared in 1855. In 1859 the trustees called upon the
faculty and Ladies' Board to prepare "a report of the religious
state of the pupils during the year including the number of
hopeful conversions and students making profession of religion."
In 1862 Mrs. Dascomb stated in the report of the Female
Department: "While we have had no special outpouring of the
Spirit, occasional conversions have encouraged our hearts." Four
years later she recorded "a good degree of seriousness and
earnestness on the part of our pupils regarding the salvation of
the soul." The hope was that, as was reported to be the case with
the class of 1842, the students might be morally and spiritually
transformed during their connection with the
institution.
Finney's purpose in coming to Oberlin was
to train the Lane Rebels and others to go out as evangelists and
spread the revival movement of the Western New York type. It was
his theory that the conversion of sinners was the first essential
to the Millennium, which, once accomplished, would be followed by
the comparatively easy success of other reforms. Immediately after
the inaugural services and Commencement in July of 1835 the Big
Tent or "Lord's Tabernacle," in which these exercises had been
held, was struck, and President Mahan and the older theological
students began a revival campaign with it in neighboring towns.
Despite the fact that Finney was unable to take part because of
his poor health, Shipherd could report that, "God filled it
[the tent] and made it the birth place of many souls." A
similar tour was made in the following year. Every year young men
students (even though unlicensed) went out as revivalists during
vacations and as supply preachers on the Sabbath. They were
supposed to obtain permits from the faculty but seem generally to
have been encouraged.
Efforts were made to keep religious
interest alive at all times but special periods of spiritual
outpouring were of common occurrence. Oberlin's leaders took great
pride in these revivals and certainly no student generation passed
without taking part in one.
From 1836 to 1842 the revival spirit was
kept up almost continuously. At a Thursday Lecture early in
October of 1836 the students passed a resolution "that they had
better have a protracted meeting & a day of fasting &
prayer." Classes were suspended and a religious reawakening of
unusual power was experienced under the preaching of Mahan and
Finney. In the autumn of 1838 the Evangelist declared that "during
the entire year" the College had been "blessed with the special
influences of the Holy Ghost." "A revival of religion," continued
the account, "has been constantly enjoyed." In February of 1840
James Fairchild wrote that the special meetings were of "uncommon
interest": "Everyone seems to have set himself to seek the Lord
and he has certainly not forgotten to be gracious." Finney led.
"During the past week he has preached twice a day," wrote
Fairchild, "and seems every day to gather more strength and fresh
energy. If any man, save Paul, was ever caught up to the third
heaven to hear unspeakable words, it must have been Mr. F." In the
summer of 1841 a revival grew out of a day of prayer for rain.
"Both the natural rain and the rain of grace seemed to descend
together .... "In February of the following year the Evangelist
could report "a revival of great interest" lasting through several
weeks.
Though these revivals were undoubtedly
periods of intense religious excitement, demonstrations or
"exercises" of the Kentucky type were evidently generally lacking.
In 1839 an article appeared in various religious papers in the
East describing a meeting at Oberlin--"a mixed prayer-meeting, of
young men and young ladies, in which one of the number . . . from
the excess of his emotions had fallen prostrate on the floor, and
the rest were clapping their hands, shouting 'Glory to God,' and
making all sorts of noisy demonstrations about him." President
Mahan in a letter to the New York Evangelist admitted the general
accuracy of the description of the particular meeting but insisted
that it was exceptional and unprecedented. It is quite clear from
his statement that Oberlin leaders certainly did not encourage
this sort of thing.
Undoubtedly an examination of the records
for that purpose would reveal a period of religious reawakening in
practically every academic year. A few examples, however, will
suffice to illustrate. In 1850 a young lady student wrote to a
friend: "There is preaching every morning at half past ten. At six
in the evening there is an inquiry meeting held at the music hall,
and a prayer meeting at the chapel. At seven those at the music
hall come to the chapel where we have preaching, after which the
anxious (both professors and non-professors) are requested to take
their seats forward. A great many go forward, to be prayed for.
The inquiry meetings are full, both of persons and of interest,
and a few have yielded themselves to God." In the following year
the Evangelist announced that Professor Finney had preached daily
for two weeks and many students had been converted.
When, in 1860, Finney returned from a two
years' sojourn in England, an unusually successful revival was
stirred up. Mrs. Finney wrote of it to an English friend: "It is
such a season as we have not seen in Oberlin as long as I lived
here and as much as I have seen in days gone past of the workings
of our Lord in this community. On Sunday Evg I go to the ladies'
Hall where I meet a large number of young ladies; on Monday I meet
about 200 more; Tuesday & Wednesday & Thursday I hold a
general meeting for all females and besides this have two other
meetings a day to attend." During this revival a prayer meeting
was held every morning at eight, at four in the afternoon on three
days of the week, besides inquiry meetings three evenings and
regular church meetings three afternoons a week, not to mention
the regular Sabbath services. The special female prayer services
mentioned by Mrs. Finney were additional! This revival, despite
the physical collapse of President Finney, continued for over two
months. "Such a breaking down and humbling of the church I have
never seen in Oberlin," wrote Mrs. Finney. Here was excellent
proof that the old power of Finney and the old piety of Oberlin
were not yet gone.
Hot from the fires built by Finney,
students and colonists went out to nearby settlements, to the
East, to the Far West, to the West Indies, and to Africa to kindle
new flames and finallv, it was hoped, set the world ablaze for
Christ. Thus was Shipherd's dream fulfilled that Oberlin should be
a center of Christian influence in the Mississippi Valley and in
the world beyond.
As Shipherd was a Sabbath School organizer
before he went west it is not surprising that Oberlin students
should have been encouraged from the very beginning to teach
Sunday Schools in surrounding communities. Usually two young men
would go together to a neighboring school district, secure the use
of the schoolhouse for the Sabbath, and there hold their religious
services: Bible classes, juvenile classes, etc. "We generally go
out on Saturday afternoon," wrote a young man in 1835, " . . .
attend S.S. in the morning, and then have two exercises at the
usual time of holding public worship." Sometimes the more advanced
students would preach. At first this was done without any formal
organization but later the Oberlin Sabbath School Association was
formed to coordinate and guide the work. In 1858 twenty schools
were thus being maintained, mostly in schoolhouses but one in a
barn. Forty student teachers were employed, and carriages and
horses were furnished to those who must travel to the more distant
points. A circulating library of over five hundred religious works
was owned by the association. By 1861 the number of student
teachers had increased to 59, the number of schools to 23, and the
average attendance to 586. Revivals were reported as occasionally
springing from the seed thus planted. The practical training given
to the teachers was perhaps as important as the effect upon the
pupils. A teacher in the hamlet of Pittsfield one year might very
possibly be carrying the Gospel to the Negroes in Africa, to the
West Indies, or to the Indians of our own West a year
later.
Closely associated with the Sabbath School
Society and of earlier organization was the Oberlin Bible Society.
This was a society of students, teachers and colonists which
imported Bibles, collected subscriptions, and sold or donated the
Bibles to the people of the town and neighborhood. Between fifty
and a hundred Bibles were thus distributed in 1840-41. The final
purpose of the society was to see that in Russia Township "every
family be supplied with a Bible." The Bible Society continued
active until well after the Civil War.
Interest in missions was always strong in
Oberlin. Of forty "female" students who reported their future
intentions in 1836, seventeen declared that they hoped to enter
the mission field. At that time Oberlin had six different
missionary societies: the Foreign Missionary Fraternity with
thirty-six members--all pledged to be missionaries, the Foreign
Missionary Society, the Home Missionary Society, the Ladies'
Missionary Society, and two societies of enquiry! E. Henry
Fairchild, James Fairchild's brother, then a college student,
wrote to a friend in the spring of 1835: "Where is a single spot
that does not present a field of action? Our own country is
calling loudly for preachers, China lies open and Millions of
benighted heathen present their claims on us. India this very
moment needs a thousand [torn] ful missionaries. Ethiopia
is stretching forth her hands to God and the isles are waiting for
his law, and what shall we do? Will we make this promise, we will
do what we can? Oh! let us feel that we are agents in carrying
forward the work of God, let us aim to be the benefactors of human
souls, and surely the thorns and thistles that are strewed along
our path will be turned to pleasant flowers." The romantic
attraction of the foreign field was always strongly felt by the
students. A young girl, a student in the college, reported in her
diary in 1856 a ride in the country with two girl friends: "All us
three and only us three together made us think of Africa. We may
be there all three alone together, in the course of a few years.
Things look very so now, though perhaps not in Africa but some
other heathen place." The highest vocation to which anyone in
Oberlin could aspire was that of spreading the "Good News" at home
or abroad.
Oberlinites took an active interest in
evangelizing the American Indians. P. P. Stewart, the associate of
the Founder, had been a missionary to the Choctaws. Groups of
Oberlin missionaries went among the Indians of Oregon and the
tribes on the shores of Lake Superior.
In the summer of 1838 the religious needs
of the Indians beyond the Rocky Mountains were presented at a
meeting of the "Oberlin Missionary Society." The facts presented
were "of thrilling interest" to many present. Jason Lee, a
Methodist missionary, had started the work in the Willamette
Valley in 1834. In 1836 Dr. and Mrs. Marcus Whitman and Mr. and
Mrs. H. H. Spalding had gone out under the supervision of the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, a
Presbyterian-Congregationalist organization. Their reports led to
widespread interest in the Oregon missions throughout the American
churches. Two members of the audience at Oberlin were stirred to
action: J. S. Griffin and Asahel Munger.
John Smith Griffin, a native of Vermont,
entered the Oberlin Theological Seminary in 1836 and graduated in
August of 1838. The call to Oregon came to him just as he was
preparing to go out into the work of the world. He secured his
dismission from the Oberlin Church in September. Asahel Munger, a
carpenter and joiner of Lockport, New York, was one of the first
Oberlin colonists of 1833. Munger also heard the call and
"solicited the opinion of the [Oberlin] Church respecting
his qualification as a mechanick labourer and teacher on a mission
to the rocky Mountains." It "was Resolved that under present
circumstances the church can not feel justified in recommending to
Br. & Sister Munger to embark in their proposed missionary
expedition." But they were not to be stayed by this rebuff.
Griffin and the Mungers joined forces and persuaded the
Congregational Association of North Litchfield, Connecticut, to
fit them out for the mission.
February found them at St. Louis where
Griffin met and forthwith married Desire Smith, a sister of the
second Mrs. H. H. Spalding. In April, 1839, they set out on
horseback across the plains with a mixed party under the guidance
of the famous mountain man, Paul Richardson, an employee of the
American Fur Company. The hardships met along the trail were such
as were to be expected at that time. There were hailstorms and
windstorms. Great herds of buffalo and bands of Indians were
encountered. Rivers must be crossed and recrossed, either by
wading or in "bull boats made of buffalo hides and poles." On one
occasion Munger was thrown bv a mule and his shoulder broken. They
visited the trappers' rendezvous on the Green River and were
horror-stricken at the amount of raw alcohol imbibed. To add to
their troubles there was disagreement within the party. Several
fellow travelers separated from them when they were only a few
days out. Differences arose between the Griffins and the Mungers,
especially because Munger blamed Griffin for the diet which made
Mrs. Munger unwell. Finally, the Snake Indians stole some of their
horses.
At Fort Walla Walla, the Griffins left the
Mungers and proceeded to the Spalding's station at Lapwai, where
Griffin secured employment as a blacksmith for the winter. Munger
went to the Whitmans at Waiilatpu where he was employed at his
trade of carpenter in finishing their house. Narcissa Whitman
wrote to her mother early in October of 1839: "Two missionaries
from the Oberlin Institute have come here--I mean to Oregon--for
the purpose of establishing a self-supporting mission. Rev. Mr.
Griffin and wife, and Mr. Munger and wife. They will find it very
difficult to get along, probably, upon that system. Mr. Munger has
engaged to finish off our house .... Mr. Griffin and wife are at
Mr. Spalding's and must labor for their food this
winter."
Griffin, who is reputed to have been "a man
of strong opinions," had some trouble in establishing himself in
missionary work, making two unsuccessful attempts to found
missions among the Snakes. For a while he was chaplain for the
Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia. In 1841
the company helped start him in as a farmer. Two years later he
took part in the famous Champoeg convention, where he voted for
the establishment of the provisional Oregon government. In 1848 he
edited and published the Oregon American and Evangelical Unionist,
one of the first periodicals published in the Northwest. He lived
until 1899. Munger became mentally deranged, started to go back
East, gave it up and, in 1841, while employed by the Methodist
Mission at Salem, threw himself on a bed of hot coals and thus
took his own life.
It was in 1843 that the Oberlin mission to
the Indians of upper Minnesota was started. Robert Stuart,
prominent in the Astoria expedition and employed in the early
forties as Indian Agent for Michigan with headquarters at Detroit,
was interested in Oberlin and sent his son there to study for a
while. On a visit to the Institute he suggested that some of the
pious graduates anxious to do Christian service ought to undertake
the conversion of the Ojibway Indians. The idea, we are not
surprised to hear, was favorably received, and when Frederick
Ayer, an American Board missionary of some years' experience in
Minnesota, came to Oberlin looking for helpers, several men
offered their services to the Board. They were, however, uniformly
refused commissions because of the Oberlin stand on perfection and
slavery. In June of 1843, therefore, the Western Evangelical
Missionary Society was founded especially to sponsor this Indian
mission. This society was almost exclusively an Oberlin
organization, eight of the nine members of the Executive Committee
being Oberlin men.
This committee immediately proceeded to
accept and send to the West eight missionaries. Among the first
and leading members were Mr. and Mrs. Alonzo Barnard, S. G. Wright
and D. B. Spencer. The region around Lake Superior was then still
a howling wilderness: St. Paul was but a row of dirty cabins;
there were no other towns west of Sault Ste. Marie. Spencer went
ahead in the spring of 1843 to prepare the way and when he wrote a
letter to Professor Finney's children soon after his arrival it
had to be carried to Sault Ste. Marie to be mailed.
The rest of the missionaries followed in
the summer, after having been formally commissioned by the new
missionary society. As with the Mungers and Griffins the last
stage of the journey was performed under the guidance of agents of
the American Fur Company. They were taken in a company schooner
from Sault Ste. Marie to La Pointe, a trading post on an island
near the western extremity of Lake Superior. From La Pointe they
travelled in canoes and on foot to the mission field around Red
Lake and Leech Lake. The hardships of the young wives on this
journey must have been almost unendurable. Wives were felt to be
very helpful and necessary in the work and in 1846 Sela G. Wright,
a bachelor, returned to Oberlin to get him one. With the help of
the Female Principal he selected a young lady and, after three
interviews, married her and took her back to the mission. With
their own hands these missionaries cleared the land, built their
cabins, schoolhouses, and church buildings and raised their own
food and some for the starving Indians.
The mission was maintained until 1859. At
least eighteen Oberlin students worked in it at one time or
another. None of them received regular salaries. They got along as
best they could on contributions from the Indians and occasional
gifts from missionary societies in Oberlin and various Oberlinite
churches. In 1852 Mrs. Shipherd recommended to the Oberlin
Maternal Association "that each member of the Association, who
might feel disposed, should obtain coarse, strong cotton cloth,
and make a shirt for a man of common size" to be "sold to the
Indians, and the avails used to support an Indian child in
school." The visits of missionaries at Oberlin helped keep up
interest in the work. Much valuable publicity came to the cause
through the sojourn of the converted Indian squaw Hannah in
Oberlin in 1848 and 1849. Schools were maintained (one of them on
the manual labor principle); the Indians were taught to raise
vegetables and wear white men's clothes; a number were believed to
have been converted to Christianity. Barnard wrote a schoolbook in
the Ojibway tongue. But the climate was very severe; the Indians
seem not to have been of the best type; the children did not take
to books; whiskey became more plentiful as the years passed and
frontier towns were established nearby. It was the whiskey that
led to the final abandonment of the mission.
Oberlin's most important missionary work
was done not among the Indians but among the Negroes. This field,
however, will be treated in a subsequent chapter.
Oberlin was originally founded under the
Presbyterian-Congregational Plan of Union, hence the occasional
references to its Presbyterian origin. Shipherd was a member of
the Huron Presbytery; Mahan had been the minister of a
Presbyterian church in Cincinnati. Professors Finney, Morgan and
Cowles were all connected with presbytery.
Well before the founding of Oberlin some of
the more zealous Congregationalists on the Reserve had attempted
to withdraw and form a purely Congregational association and, in
1834, as a result of their activities the Independent
Congregational Union of the Western Reserve was founded at
Williamsfield, Ohio. Oberlin took no part in this organization,
but, in 1835, when "delegates from more than twenty churches, and
about the same number of ministers assembled in convention at
Hudson .... to confer together on the expediency of a new
Ecclesiastical organization of churches on the Western Reserve,"
President Mahan and Professor John P. Cowles of Oberlin were among
the active participants. This convention resulted in secession
from the Plan of Union and the founding of the General Association
of the Western Reserve of which the radical Oberlin Collegiate
Institute became the nucleus and head as the conservative Western
Reserve College at Hudson was the heart of the Plan of
Union-Presbyterian organization. The Congregational convention of
1836 was held at Oberlin. The constitution as drawn up and adopted
at this meeting and revised in 1837 declared that the chief
purpose of the association was "to maintain approved
Congregational usages, to cherish adherence to the system of
doctrine generally received by the orthodox Congregational
churches in New England, to facilitate and promote christian
intercourse and communion with one another, to support and aid
each other in difficulties and trials, and to unite their counsels
and efforts for the welfare of the churches, the salvation of
souls, and the general interest of Christs' kingdom." Also in 1837
a local association was formed at Oberlin including the
Congregational churches of Lorain County and known as the Lorain
County Congregational Association. It was practically exclusively
an Oberlin enterprise and its chief service seems to have been to
ordain the graduates of the Theological Department of the Oberlin
Collegiate Institute. This was an important function, however, for
the presbyteries usually denied ordination to the young men from
Oberlin because of the radical views on theology, and slavery held
there.
Meanwhile Congregationalists elsewhere in
the West were revolting against the Presbyterian domination, and
associations were established in western New York, Iowa, Michigan
and Illinois. In southern Ohio the Marietta Consociation had been
formed and it was from this body that the call came in 1852 for a
convention of all Ohio Congegational churches. When the convention
assembled at Mansfield, of the forty ministers present sixteen
were either members of the Oberlin faculty or Oberlin graduates.
The expected controversy between the Oberlin radicals and the more
conservative Congregational element did not develop; the
Congregational Conference of Ohio was organized and a constitution
and articles of faith drawn up and adopted. The General
Association of the Western Reserve was absorbed into the state
association. Oberlin, with its large church membership (in 1854
ten times as large as that of any other Congregational church in
Ohio) and its Theological Department, became naturally a powerful
influence in this state organization. The association, as would be
expected considering this Oberlin influence, took a firm stand in
favor of all sorts of reforms: temperance, anti-slavery, etc. In
1852 also a general convention of Congregationalists from all over
the United States was held at Albany, N.Y. John Keep, John Morgan
and a number of Oberlin graduates were present among the delegates
who came from sixteen states and territories. Experimental and
non-conformist Oberlin was much more at home in Congregational
independency than under the dogmatic and authoritarian
Presbyterian regime. Congregationalism in the Yankee belt from
Vermont to Kansas and even in California and Oregon became
thoroughly seasoned with Oberlin radicalism.
The period was one of many new religious
dispensations and several of them touched Oberlin. One Oberlin
student, Lorenzo Snow, became dissatisfied with Oberlin's
religious doctrines and joined Joseph Smith's Mormons at Kirtland.
He eventually became the husband of nine wives, and a prominent
leader. missionary and, at last, president of the Church of Latter
Day Saints. It was inevitable that the spirit-rappings heard by
the Fox sisters near Rochester should interest Oberlin. At least
one "medium" visited the community, but most people were
skeptical. The Evangelist declared spiritualism to be "irrational,
anti-scriptural, delusive and mischievous."
William Miller was a Yankee New Yorker who
spent his youth at Hampton, Washington County, about ten miles
from Shipherd's home. He concluded, after a meticulous examination
of the Bible, that the World would come to an end in 1843 and the
thousand-years reign of Christ would begin. In 1836 he published
his main arguments in a book entitled Evidence from Scripture and
History of the Second Coming of Christ, about the Year 1843. More
widely circulated was Miller's Works, edited by Joshua V. Himes
and published at Boston in 1841. Miller sent a copy of it to
Professor Finney with his compliments. Apparently a considerable
number of the less orthodox Yankees were converted. The most
influential converts were the Rev. Mr. Himes, an abolitionist
clerkman of Boston, and the Rev. Charles Fitch, a New England
Congregational minister who had previously accepted the Oberlin
doctrine of "Sanctification."
Charles Fitch came to Cleveland where he
gathered a little flock of followers in the famous "Round Church,"
especially provided with a great central skylight through which on
the "final day" their ascension was to take place. He wrote
letters to the Oberlin Evangelist in behalf of the millennial
doctrine and Henry Cowles answered him in a dozen articles under
the title "No Millennium." Oberlin couldn't believe that a
revolutionary millennium would come until it had had a chance to
convert the World to Christ. But Oberlin maintained free speech,
and Fitch defended his thesis in eight lectures in Oberlin in
September, 1842. "He thinks Christ will descend with a sound of
the trumpet," reported the Evangelist, "--the righteous dead will
be raised--the righteous living changed--and all taken up together
into the air--that the world will then be destroyed, a new earth
filled up, which the righteous shall inhabit with Christ till the
end of a thousand years, when Satan will be loosed for a little
season . . . and the righteous inhabit the new earth forever."
When 1843 and most of 1844 had passed and no trumpet had sounded
the Evangelist "affectionately and fraternally" invited the Second
Adventists back "to reengage in the work of converting the world
to Jesus Christ."
Oberlin had its own peculiar heresy, looked
upon by many religious leaders as fully as dangerous as adventism,
Mormonism or spiritualism. From the beginning Oberlin leaders
followed Finney in rejecting the extreme Calvinist doctrine of
election, and maintained their belief in human ability, i.e., the
doctrine that sinners are responsible for their own sins and for
their own regeneration and that they are free to seek or reject
the salvation offered by Jesus Christ. The "heresy" variously
called "perfectionism," "sanctification" or "holiness," which
brought down upon the head of Oberlin and Oberlinites so much
opprobrium, was merely an expansion of this doctrine.
In the autumn of 1836, as we have seen, a
series of particularly intense revival meetings were held. Every
effort was made by President Mahan and Professor Finney and
associated members of the faculty to win impenitent students to
Christ and, beyond that, to encourage the converted to a more
complete victory over temptation. As a larger and larger
proportion of the students and colonists was added to the list of
the converted church members, more attention was given to the
effort on the part of these Christians to live a life more
acceptable to Christ. After one sermon devoted to an appeal to
Christians to be more Christ-like, a young man arose and asked how
completely he could hope to attain such an aim--how completely he
could expect to overcome temptation. President Mahan was
especially impressed by the enquiry and, after much thought and
prayer, he propounded to the people of Oberlin the doctrine of
"Christian Perfection" or "Sanctification." Christ, he replied to
the young man, will give you a complete victory over temptation as
He gives pardon for sins committed. Christ, if you let Him, will
sanctify you in this life and help you to live sinlessly and
attain to "Christian Perfection" before death.
How stimulating was the hope thus offered!
No longer were Christians in Oberlin to be oppressed by the belief
that man was totally and utterly depraved and that even his best
acts were "a stench in the nostrils of the Lord," nor by that
almost equally discouraging theory of Leonard Bacon's that man was
commanded to be perfect and could be perfect but never would. By
laying hold on righteousness, by consecrating the will simply and
wholly to the good, by complete faith in Christ, a new "baptism of
the Holy Spirit" (sometimes called "the blessing") might be
attained and a positively good life, pleasing to God, thereafter,
be lived.
Mahan was careful to point out that this
sanctification did not mean "the certainty of never sinning
again," nor "emancipation from all temptation." What it did mean,
he declared, was emancipation of the will from "the thraldom of
sin," "emancipation of the intelligence from the darkness &
tendencies of sin & introduction into 'God's marvelous
light,'" and a "consequent change in the sensibility so that the
balance of its tendencies shall always be in favor of holiness."
Of course the Oberlin doctrine, which was subscribed to, in
perhaps slightly differing forms, by Finney, Henry Cowles and John
Morgan, was confused with antinomian perfectionism of the variety
advocated by John Humphrey Noyes, the theology which formed later
the theoretical basis for the sexual experiments of the Oneida
Community. As early as 1837, Henry Cowles, seeing the danger of
such a confusion, wrote to the Cleveland Observer denying that
anyone at Oberlin believed that, "we can in such a sense receive
Christ that He shall act in us and displace our moral agency and
personal responsibility so that we cannot sin." Such a belief it
is clear enough would be entirely inconsistent with the Oberlin
doctrine of human ability and responsibility. "Now I have never
yet seen the man who holds those sentiments," continued Professor
Cowles, "and I am sure that none of our students have any views of
the kind at all."
All of the Oberlin theologians wrote and
preached about this doctrine, but Mahan's Christian Perfection,
published in 1839, was the most elaborate and most influential
presentation. A great stir was caused among Christians throughout
the North by the enunciation of this point of view in Mahan's book
and in the preaching and writing of his colleagues. Catharine
Beecher wrote to Finney from Cincinnati, in November of
1839:
"On my return from N. Eng. this fall I came
within an ace of coming to see you & the rest of the good
people at Oberlin, of whom rumour speaks somewhat strangely--as if
we might there see what I had never hoped to see but in
Heaven.
"However, while stopping at Rochester with
bro. George and his wife, I read the Oberlin Evan[gelist],
Pres. Mahans vol. & heard from sister Sarah other items that
in the end led me to see matters, probably very much in their true
aspect.
"After reading Pres. Mahans work I came to
this conclusion--there is a practical difficulty resulting from
past views of christian imperfection that needs to be met somehow
and tho' the right way is not yet clearly seen-- yet discussion
will bring it out before a great while & Oberlin is helping
along ....
"I rather think they [the Oberlin
people] are in the predicament of Cowper when he says I have
caught an idea by the tail. I think in time you will have the
whole subject mastered in all its perfect proportions."
Most of the comment was, however, much less
sympathetic; in fact, almost all of it was unfavorable. The
Reverend John Calvin, a staunch supporter of his namesake, wrote
to the New York Evangelist: "No event has occurred since the great
revivals of 1830 and 1831, which to my mind, has been as ominous
to the best interests of the Church of Christ, as the appearance
of that book [Mahan's Christian Perfection], in connection
with the stand that is taken on the subject of Perfection at
Oberlin." The Chenango Presbytery in New York adopted a special
resolution denouncing the doctrine:
"whereas, the doctrine that sinless
perfection or entire sanctification is attained in the present
life, is contrary to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures, as well
as dangerous, if not utterly destructive to the life and growth of
true holiness, and whereas efforts have been extensively made, and
are still making through the Oberlin Evangelist, and by some
professed preachers of the gospel for the spread of this delusive
error--an error so artfully combined with some of the most
precious truths of the Bible, as to deceive, were it possible, the
very elect;
"Therefore, resolved, That it is the duty
of the churches in connection with this Presbytery, to
discountenance the publications which disseminate this pernicious
and delusive error; and not to invite its preachers into their
pulpits, nor listen to their instructions."
The Presbytery of Cleveland felt it
necessary to appoint a special committee to refute the doctrine
and confound the Oberlinites. In 1841 the Presbytery published an
eighty-four-page pamphlet prepared by this committee, and entirely
devoted to the denunciation of the dangerous error of the Oberlin
theologians. In the same year the Synod of Ohio adopted a
resolution declaring: "we regard the errors of that body called
the Oberlin Association, as very great, and exceedingly dangerous
and corrupting in their tendency; and would warn all our people to
beware of them. Their preachers ought, by no means, to be received
by our Churches as orthodox ministers of the word, nor ought the
members of their churches to be admitted to communion, unless they
shall renounce those errors, and give evidence of true faith and
holiness."
When the Fairchild brothers, after
finishing their course in the Oberlin Theological Department,
applied to the Huron Presbytery for a license to preach, that body
refused even to examine them because they would not renounce their
belief "in the doctrines taught at Oberlin and in their way of
doing things." The connection between the controversy over
perfectionism and that over the Plan of Union and the rivalry
between Oberlin and Hudson can easily be perceived. Orthodox
Calvinism, the Plan of Union, conservatism with regard to the
reforms of the day, distrust of revivalism, and Western Reserve
College were on one side; Sanctification, Congregationalism,
enthusiasm for reform, "new measures," and Oberlin were on the
other.
The "Oberlin Perfectionists" assumed the
offensive in July of 1841 when "a meeting of those interested in
the doctrine of Entire Sanctification" convened in the First
Methodist Church at Rochester, N. Y. President Mahan delivered the
opening sermon. A resolution was unanimously adopted, "That entire
sanctification in this life is attainable, in such a sense as to
be an object of pursuit, with a rational expectation of attaining
it." The committee appointed to prepare tracts "in illustration
and defense of the doctrine of entire sanctification of believers
in this life" was made up entirely of Oberlinites: Finney, Morgan,
Cowles, and Father Shipherd. In 1842 conventions of Oberlin
Perfectionists were held at Buffalo and LeRoy, New York, and in
1843 at Medina and Strongsville, Ohio, Shipherd playing the
leading role as sponsor and organizer. Perfectionist
congregations, often under the ministration of Oberlinites, were
established in New York City, Rochester, Strongsville, Buffalo,
and several other towns in western New York and northern Ohio. In
far-off Siam, two American missionaries were dismissed by the
American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions because they
embraced the Oberlin heresy.
For a few years during the forties
Sanctification occupied the center of interest at Oberlin. The
students who believed that they had experienced the "blessing"
formed an exclusive praying circle in which they discussed their
experience. In 1840 a young lady student wrote to her parents that
she had been favored with "exalted and glorious manifestations of
God himself, and . . . assurance that there is power in his grace
to overcome all, yes all sin and all relish or inclination to
sin!!" She continued: "I have... departed from Christ. But he is
leading me to desire and pray for this great blessing, for entire
and permanent sanctification. Yes, I do desire it, and I believe
the Lord will do this work for me. I feel that there is a power in
the Gospel which very few christians have known anything about.
There are some most precious promises in the bible which assure us
that this work shall be done. My soul grasps these promises with
delight." When Charles Livingstone reached Oberlin from far-away
Scotland in 1840 he came immediately under the influence of
Oberlin's peculiar doctrines. "My endeared Parents and Sisters,"
he wrote, "it is now Sabbath evening; all is calm & peaceful.
I have heard Mr. Finney preach from 1st Peter 6-7 and President
Mahan in the afternoon from Romans 8 & 15. Such sermons I
never [heard] before. There is considerable prejudice in
many parts of America against Oberlin because we believe the
promise of our dear Saviour that he will save us from our sins in
this life and, that being delivered from our enemies, [we]
should serve him in love without fear all the days of our life. It
is because [of] the power and willingness of our Saviour
to sanctify us wholly & to preserve our whole spirit &
soul & body blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ." A large number of students naturally devoted themselves
earnestly to the effort to find the great experience of "the
blessing." Some did so undoubtedly to the detriment of their
health and their intellectual attainment.
Zeal for sanctification did not last long.
Oberlinites, in general, soon came to the conclusion that too much
introspection was required in the struggle for perfection and that
it was better to devote one's time to doing God's will to the best
of one's ability.
Father Keep's advice to students that they
"press on for the attainment of entire sanctification" but "show
their attainments by their works rather than by their
declarations" bore good fruit. Oberlin Christians became so busy
as missionaries, preachers, teachers and advocates of Christian
reform that they found less and less time to court the "baptism of
the Holy Spirit." Interest in the doctrine died out because
Oberlin's leaders and Oberlin thought generally were fundamentally
objective, and sanctification, on the other hand, was
subjective.
In the meantime, as the years passed and
nothing particularly terrible came out of Oberlin, most church
people lost their fear of the Oberlin doctrines, and Oberlinites
were accepted everywhere as Christians of a practical turn of mind
who were doing good in their own effective way. The Mansfield and
Albany Congregational conventions of 1852 were not only important
as marking the death of the Plan of Union but also as Love Feasts
at which the Oberlin heretics were fraternally received into the
fold by their Congregationalist brethren. "It is time this terror
of Oberlin were frankly and honestly discarded, East and West,"
wrote the editor of the conservative New Englander in commenting
on the Albany Convention. "It is a conviction to which we are fast
attaining, that God had his own purposes both in the Oberlin which
was and that which is; that notwithstanding its defects or
excesses, it served God in introducing an element greatly needed
in the Christian experience and thinking of the age; that it won
our thoughts to features of gracious life and character, which the
current theologies and practice of the times were leading us to
forget. We trust that its effect, in the whole, will not be to
leave a dangerous error, but to correct a loose and shallow type
of religion more fatal than any error." The rift between Oberlin
heterodoxy and Congregational orthodoxy was finally and completely
closed at the Oberlin Council of 1871.
The Oberlin religious theories were
rationalizations in theological terms of Oberlin's practical
philosophy of action. Oberlin was from the beginning intensely
ethical; its force was thrown into the scales, without stint or
reserve, on the side of righteousness. Righteousness was
interpreted as love of God and fellow men. In a discussion in 1839
the question was put, "Why ought I to love my neighbor?" President
Mahan answered, "Because I perceive intuitively that it is right."
Professor Cowles said, "Because my love will be useful to my
neighbor." Professor Finney pleased everybody with the solution,
"I ought to love my neighbor because his welfare is valuable." The
doctrine of human ability was the natural expression of this
strong emphasis on righteousness, i.e., on ethics, for it placed
the responsibility for the choice between love and sin upon the
individual. Love and ethics were, of course, the motivating power
for the Christian reform movements of the period, which were often
all called "moral" reforms, though the term was also used in a
more restricted sense as applying to one branch of reform. The
reformers working for a millennial society could hardly be
expected to believe in man's total and hopeless depravity. The
Oberlin doctrine of sanctification taught that man was capable
(with Christ's aid) of achieving his highest aims as an individual
and socially, of creating a society on earth which should be an
earthly counterpart of Paradise. It was man's privilege and duty,
said the Oberlin thinkers, to live a perfectly ethical and
righteous life and to create a perfectly ethical and righteous
social order.
The entire man--spiritual, mental and
physical--must be "sanctified." Shipherd wrote to his brother: "To
be sanctified in body, etc. we must know more of Physiology. As an
essential means of holiness I am now studying 'Graham's Science of
Hm Life'.... Next to searching the Scriptures & a few
spiritual commentaries like Bro. Mahan's, Bro. Finney's & Bro.
Fitch's writings I would urge you (if need be) to search Graham's
Science of Human Life." Another Oberlin reformer, an advocate of
the peace cause, showed his appreciation of this connection
between the doctrine of Sanctification or Perfectionism and
reform. "The doctrine we hold here," he wrote from Oberlin, "that
it is the privilege of every Christian to be perfectly in sympathy
with Christ, pledges us to do all that we believe he would have us
do in favor of Peace. By their fruits ye shall know them." This,
then was the Oberlin purpose; to live the righteous life,
encourage others to do so and, as the agents of the Lord, help to
establish the Millennium.
Shipherd's statements of 1833 and 1834
chiefly emphasize the religious purpose of the colony and
Institute. Beginning with the re-founding of 1835, however, the
social aim is also given a large place in all declarations of
objects. "By precept and example we are taught to take a deep
interest in all the great moral enterprises of the day," wrote a
committee of college students to the English patrons in 1839, "to
prize nothing more highly than the elevation of humanity. In short
to cultivate a sympathy with Him who died that we might live." On
the same occasion the faculty prepared a statement of Oberlin
principles: ". . . In the class of external habits, economy,
frugality, industry, and self denial--in our mental system, real
thinking, rigid discipline & a truly christian course of study
in which the Bible & whatever facilitates the understanding,
the cordial reception & wide propagation of its truths shall
be the main things--in our social system the hearty recognition of
equal human rights as belonging to all whom God has made in his
own image; a deep sympathy with the oppressed of every color, in
every clime; and a consecration of life to the well being of
suffering humanity--& finally this paramount principle, that
the cultivation of the moral feelings is the first of all objects
in education, Gospel love to God & man, the first of all
acquisitions and more precious than all other
disciplines."
It should not be supposed that the
religious aim was lost sight of. It was still the primary one. In
1840 the trustees officially resolved that "the great object of
this Institution" was "To supply the world with the best means of
grace." Of course, the religious and the social objects were
inseparable in the fully developed Oberlin philosophy in which
piety expressed itseft in benevolence. This is made clear in the
statement of aims adopted by the trustees on the occasion of
Shipherd's death. It follows:
"1st, the education of youth of both sexes
in strict accordance with the spirit & aims of the gospel,
developing the mental powers in connection with a judicious system
of manual labor to preserve the body sound & healthy & the
growth of a vigorous & aggressive piety.
"2nd, To beget and to confirm in the
process of education the habit of self denial, patient endurance,
a chastened moral courage & a devout consecration of the whole
being to God; in seeking to promote the best good of
man.
"3rd, So deeply to fill the mind & to
imbue the character with the principles of Christian benevolence,
that those educated in this Seminary may be well qualified to
engage uncompromisingly in the practical enforcement of the
teachings of Christ and in his spirit, for the annihilation of the
chattel principle as applied to man, for the removal of all
oppression, for the abolition of every form of sin & for the
establishment & perpetuity of universal liberty.
"4th, To expunge from the list of books
studied such portions of the heathen classics as pollute &
debase the mind and to restore the Holy Bible to its place as a
permanent text book in the whole course of intellectual
training.
"5th, To act efficiently for the
purification of the Church & the Ministry & thus furnish
the World with a class of pious men & women intellectual &
holy who shall firmly maintain aggressive action against all which
God forbids & in support of all that God requires.
"6th, To maintain a College which shall
present a permanent practical protest against the prejudice so
wickedly cherished by the inhabitants of this Country towards the
Colored people & which shall afford the youth of both sexes
among them, all its advantages irrespective of color or of
caste."
At the time of the endowment drive, in
1851, the Prudential Committee published a statement of "objects,"
"wants," and "claims." It is probably the best single statement of
the Oberlin Program. The objects were declared to be: 1. "To
afford the means of a liberal and thorough education at so low a
price that it may be within the reach of the humblest and most
indigent class of students." 2. "The union of physical with mental
culture . . ." 3. "... The thorough education of women." 4. "...
To educate men for practical life." 5. "...The cultivation of the
spirit of progress, the encouragement of every judicious ahd
enlightened reform." 6. "... The inculcation of a liberal yet
evangelical and practical Christianity." 7. "... The training of a
band of self-denying, hardy, intelligent, efficient laborers, of
both sexes, for the world's enlightenment and regeneration."
Oberlin was, by this date, prepared to claim considerable
achievements. As to her work for reform the committee proudly
boasted: "Oberlin College has been greatly successful in making
her students intelligent and vigorous reformers. The friends of
unpopular but needed Reform have rarely looked to her in vain. For
this they have blessed her. For this the world has cursed her, and
while it has cursed, has reverenced and honored her."
Oberlin's chief spokesman on reform was Asa
Mahan. In an address to the American Physiological Society in 1839
and in a series of articles on "Reform" published in the
Evangelist in 1844 he elaborated on the principles taught and
practiced at Oberlin. Mahan declared that the true Christian
reformers were neither reactionaries, believing that the fathers
"were the men, and that wisdom died with them," nor radicals,
aiming at the dissolution of existing institutions, but moderate,
practical men working for "the correction of existing abuses, and
the conformity of all institutions, domestic, civil, and
ecclesiastical, to the fundamental ideas of universal reason, and
the pattern on the mount." "Ingenuous liberality" he held to be
the correct spirit of reform. The reformer must never be dogmatic.
"He should never speak as one having authority. He should ever
appear as an honest, earnest inquirer in the boundless field of
knowledge--an inquirer, who believes he has some important truth,
and is anxious to present it to the world, and yet fully sensible,
that he may have connected with that truth some important error."
Open-mindedness must be associated with enthusiasm for the truth,
but that enthusiasm must never be allowed to become fanaticism. "I
had much rather err with an honest inquirer, than be right with
the bigot." "I fully believe," Mahan continued, "that he is among
the number who have gained the most complete victory 'over the
beast, and over his image, and over the number of his name,' who,
together with the most sacred regard for truth and right, is in
his own bosom, the most perfectly free from the spirit of
intolerance." Oberlinites prided themselves on their practice of
hearing all sides of every case, a tradition of which President
Mahan was the peculiar sponsor.
Reform, according to Mahan's formula, could
never be dissociated from Christianity nor Christianity from
reform. The Bible was the most important aid to man's reason in
determining correct objects of reform; and no man destitute of the
true spirit of reform was in any full sense a Christian. Mahan's
definition of reform and of practical Christianity amounted to
essentially the same thing. "The fundamental spirit and aim of
Christianity," he wrote, "is the correction of all abuses, a
universal conformity to the laws of our existence as far as
revealed to the mind, and a quenchless thirst for knowledge on all
subiects pertaining to the duties and the interest of humanity."
It is not, therefore, surprising to discover that the adjective
"moral" was applied to the Oberlin school of reform as a synonym
for Christian, and error, wrong, immorality considered identical
with sin. This identification of Christianity with reform and the
classification of all wrong as sin made it easy to carry over the
Oberlin doctrine of "Perfectionism" or Sanctification to the field
of social philosophy and social action. It thus became the
privilege and duty of men to go onward with the help of God toward
perfection in all things.
All were especially warned against
"ultraism." "Ultras" Mahan described as those so-called reformers
who put the chief emphasis on form rather than principle, who were
impractical in their ideas, characterized by a spirit of
denunciation and hate and were narrowly and fanatically devoted to
one special reform. This classification was, obviously, intended
to include the "comeouters" of the Garrison-Foster type, the
monomaniacs who appeared occasionally in each of the movements,
and probably also the non-resistants and women's rights advocates.
The reformer must put principle first and must not be blinded by
mere form. He must be mentally sound and well-balanced, a
practical man and, especially, he must be motivated by
benevolence. He must eschew all personal denunciation; if he
testified against oppression it should be because he loved the
oppressed and oppressors too. Finally, he must recognize the
existence of many legitimate and desirable reforms, interrelated
and interdependent.
The true reformer, held Mahan, was a
universal reformer, seeking the correction of all evils. No man,
said he, could consistently be a temperance advocate and not an
opponent of slavery nor an enemy of war and not a sponsor of moral
reform. He recognized that the "great reformatory movement of the
age" was legitimately divided into special departments, but
insisted that it was equally true that all real reforms were
"based upon one and the same principle, to wit, that whatever is
ascertained to be contrary to the rights, and destructive to the
true interests of humanity, ought to be corrected." For this
reason every evil: "intemperance, licentiousness, war, violations
of physical law in respect to food, drink, dress, and
ecclesiastical, civil, and domestic tyranny," ought to be
corrected. "Reform is manifold and yet it is one. E Pluribus
unum." Theodore Weld in a letter to Lewis Tappan expressed the
same idea: "God has called SOME prophets," he wrote, "some
apostles, some leaders. All the members of the body of Christ have
not the same office. Let Delavan drive Temperance, McDowell--Moral
Reform, Finney--Revivals, Tappan--Anti-Slavery etc. Each of them
is bound to make his own peculiar department his main business,
and to promote collaterally as much as he can the other objects."
This conception was the current one among the Christian reformers
associated with Oberlin.
Nor did Oberlinites neglect to put the
theory into practice; they supported all "legitimate" reforms.
Because of the large contribution made in those fields, special
attention will be given to the anti-slavery movement, the peace
movement, "Physiological Reform," moral reform, and educational
experiment.
CHAPTER
XVIII
HOTBED OF
ABOLITIONISM
IT WAS in February, 1835, that the trustees
had finally agreed that the new anti-slavery faculty should have
exclusive control of the internal administration of the
institution, and resolved that "the education of people of color .
. . should be encouraged & sustained." In April "One of the
Trustees" wrote to an Ohio periodical that, beyond a doubt, the
institution would "be known as the decided opponent of SLAVERY as
it is practiced upon the colored people of this country. In June a
concert of prayer in behalf of the "downtrodden people of color"
was held. This meeting resulted directly in the formation of the
Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society with 230 members. "Indeed," wrote
Shipherd, "when the motion to resolve ourselves into an
Anti-slavery Society was decided by rising, the congregation came
up en masse, arm and soul to this good work of God. Shipherd
himself became the first president, and he and Finney and Mahan
were the first to subscribe to the constitution. This document,
the original of which is preserved in the Oberlin College Library,
is practically an exact copy of the constitution of the Lane
Seminary society. This was natural, as the Oberlin Anti-Slavery
Society was, to all intents and purposes, the Lane society
redivivus. The object of the organization was "the immediate
emancipation of the whole colored race within the United States,"
an object to be attained by "moral suasion," i.e. by the
new-measures revival technique.
The interest in the cause was intensified
by the series of inspired lectures delivered by Theodore Weld in
the unfinished assembly room of Ladies' Hall in the fall. "I have
been here ten days," Weld wrote to Tappan in November, "lectured
every day--occupied the Sabbath with the Bible argument--and
expect to next Sabbath. Our meetings are held in one of the new
buildings. It is neither plastered nor lathed and the only seats
are rough boards--thrown upon blocks. And you may judge something
of the interest felt at Oberlin on the subject of abolition when I
tell you that from five to six hundred males and females attend
every night and sit shivering on the rough boards without fire
these cold nights without any thing to lean back against--and this
until nine o'clock."
By winter the membership of the Oberlin
Anti-Slavery Society had increased to three hundred. In December
the Young Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society and the Female Anti-Slavery
Society were organized with 86 and 48 charter members
respectively. The history of the latter society was continuous at
least to 1855. The Oberlin Young Men's Anti-Slavery Society was in
existence at least as early as 1842, was reorganized in 1851 and
was still holding meetings in 1853. In 1852 their organization
numbered among its speakers such prominent leaders of the
anti-slavery movement as C. C. Burleigh, Salmon P. Chase and John
P. Hale. This society was chiefly interested in the "social and
moral elevation of the colored race" through the maintenance of
schools for the Negroes of northern Ohio. After the first few
years the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society ceased to function as a
formal organization but the term was sometimes, appropriately
enough, applied to the whole unanimously anti-slavery community
(college and colony) when gathered in the frequent mass meetings
held for the discussion of anti-slavery matters.
The first anti-slavery center in northern
Ohio was, of course, Western Reserve College at Hudson during the
incumbency of that remarkable faculty: C. B. Storrs, Elizur
Wright, Jr., and Beriah Green. But Western Reserve College, as we
have seen, was purged, and the anti-slavery leadership passed
naturally to Oberlin. At the meeting of the Western Reserve
Anti-Slavery Society in 1835 John Keep, President Mahan, Theodore
Weld and the Hon. Zebulon R. Shipherd (father of the founder of
Oberlin) were the star speakers. In 1836 the annual meeting,
originally scheduled to meet in the chapel at Hudson, was
adjourned to Oberlin.
In the fall of 1834 this society had sent
out a call for a state convention of abolitionists. Most of the
Lane Rebels, Timothy B. Hudson, then a student in the Collegiate
Department at Oberlin, and Professor Henry Cowles were among the
delegates when the convention assembled at Putnam. Weld and Cowles
played an active part, Weld drafting the "Declaration of
Sentiment" and Professor Cowles drawing up the constitution.
Reports on the "condition of the people of color" were submitted
by Lane seceders. Professor Finney was elected to be one of the
vice-presidents and President Mahan one of the "managers." A
letter from President Mahan, expressing his allegiance to
abolition principles, is printed in the appendix of the published
proceedings. Under such good Oberlin auspices were the activities
of the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society inaugurated.
The first anniversary was scheduled for
Granville, but the churches and other meeting places in town were
closed to the trouble-making reformers. "The Abolitionists so far
acceded to their wishes," wrote "Rebel" Augustus Wattles to the
Emancipator, "as to build a large temporary temple on a hill about
1/4 of a mile out of the village. I have written to Oberlin for
the students to come down in season to put it up." The "temporary
temple," located on Hubert Howe Bancroft's father's farm, was
later used as a barn; whether it was raised by Oberlin students or
not the records do not make clear. But there were enough
Oberlinites among the delegates to have done it. President Mahan
and Professor Henry Cowles, who led the Oberlin contingent, were
hospitably entertained in the home of Asa Drury (Yale, 1829),
Professor of Languages at the Granville Literary and Theological
Institute and president of the Granville Anti-Slavery
Society.
Twenty-six persons from Oberlin were
present among the delegates who crowded the temple-barn "from the
hay-gallery to the stable." When the members of the society were
all comfortably bestowed in the loft and on the freshly hewn
beams, the speakers took the wagon floor. James G. Birney
introduced a resolution calling for the full and free discussion
of the subject of slavery throughout the North. James A. Thome,
Lane Rebel and Oberlinite, read "An Appeal to the Females of
Ohio." Professor Cowles called for a show of hands in favor of the
abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of
Columbia. John Rankin denounced the cruelties of the middle
passage. President Mahan introduced a motion declaring it to be
"the duty of the church to debar from her privileges all who
persist in the sin of holding their fellowmen in the bondage of
slavery." F. D. Parish of Sandusky City attacked the Ohio "Black
Laws," moved that the thanks of the society "be respectfully
tendered to Ashley Bancroft for the use of his barn," and
recommended that the delegates "heartily forgive the unkindness of
that portion of our fellow-citizens, which rendered it necessary
to hold our meeting in so unusual a place." A final resolution was
adopted unanimously (as were all the others) thanking the citizens
of Granville and vicinity for their hospitality, whereupon the
Ohio abolitionists adjourned and returned to the town amid a
shower of rotten eggs. Some of the delegates were assaulted with
clubs; an Oberlin student, William Lewis, was knocked down. It was
soon after this convention that Professor Drury was dismissed from
Granville Institute (later Denison University) and at least one
student left for Oberlin. Those who went out to lecture against
slavery in nearby communities were sometimes mistreated. John
Alvord, another "Rebel" and Oberlin "theolog," had some trouble at
a schoolhouse meeting. "A violent mob," wrote Thome to Weld,
"attacked the house, broke in the windows--sash &
all--throwing in stones of several pounds weight .... Several . .
. were egged from head to foot. The audience sallied out and drove
off the mob, cudgeling them after the right manner." There was
just about enough persecution to maintain the enthusiasm of the
reformers at a high pitch.
Throughout the rest of the history of the
state society Oberlin played a significant (though perhaps
proportionately less important) part. In 1837 the anniversary,
held in the Friends' Meeting House at Mount Pleasant, was opened
by John Keep, who delivered an address "explanatory of the objects
of the convention, and followed his remarks by prayer." Ten
members of the Oberlin society were present as delegates. At the
1838 anniversary in Granville (this time in the Presbyterian
church), George Whipple of Oberlin was one of the secretaries. The
Oberlinites came to the 1839 anniversary in force. Seventeen
delegates were Oberlin residents (including students) and at least
four more were former students. Professor and Mrs. Finney and
Professor and Mrs. Henry Cowles represented the faculty. Among the
former students, Hiram Wilson and Lorenzo Butts were active in the
convention. Finney presided over part of the sessions and
presented and defended a series of resolutions which were adopted.
At the anniversary at Massillon in 1840 President Mahan and
Professor Morgan were present and played a leading part. In all of
these years an Oberlin representative was included among the
vice-presidents. Oberlin interest and general interest in the
organization seemed to decline after 1840, probably due to the
competition from the Liberty Party. Closely associated with the
state society in these years was the "Ohio Ladies' Society for the
Education of the Free People of Color." At its 1841 meeting two
Oberlin "coeds" served as secretaries. Representatives from
Oberlin also took part in the meetings of the Lorain County
Anti-Slavery Society.
Everywhere Oberlinites were in the van.
Lane Rebels represented Oberlin at the annual meetings of the
American Anti-Slavery Society in 1835 and 1836. R. E. Gillett and
Amos Dresser were present as delegates to the national convention
from the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society in 1838. President Mahan was
elected one of the managers for Ohio in 1837, in which capacity he
was joined by George Whipple in 1839. When the National society
split in 1840 most Oberlinites went with the Anti-Garrisonian wing
which became the American and Foreign Anti-slavery Society.
President Finney spoke at the meeting of this association which
took place in the Broadway Tabernacle in New York in 1851. John M.
Langston, an able Negro graduate of Oberlin, addressed the other
society at its 1855 anniversary.
When the World's Anti-Slavery Convention
met in London on June 12, 1840, Oberlin was praying for its
success. The feelings of the Treasurer of the Institute were so
strong, in fact, that he felt impelled to enter them in his
daybook. "This day," he wrote, "convenes at London, England, the
friends of Liberty from all parts of the civilized world. May the
Sweet Spirit of peace preside over all their deliberations and
fill every heart." On the first day of this convention Thomas
Clarkson was chosen chairman and Daniel O'Connell delivered an
oration. On the third day James G. Birney spoke for the American
anti-slavery men and in the afternoon, John Keep, "delegate from
Ohio, U. S.," in his turn attacked the South's peculiar
institution and presented the claims of the Oberlin Institute to
the support of abolitionists the world over. At a later session
the Reverend C. E. Lester read an extensive eulogy of the work of
Hiram Wilson, an Oberlin graduate, among the refugees in Canada.
At the international anti-slavery convention held (also in London)
three years later, Wilson was present in person to ask for support
in his enterprise and Amasa Walker, Professor of Political Economy
at Oberlin, appeared and spoke as the regularly accredited
delegate of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute and the Ohio
Anti-Slavery Society.
From the summer of 1835 through the summer
of 1837 the North was flooded with anti-slavery agents. While Weld
was lecturing in Ladies' Hall in November of 1835 he was, at the
same time, conducting schools for anti-slavery lecturers at
Oberlin and at John M. Sterling's law office in Cleveland. The
other Lane Rebels were his aptest pupils. In later years
Huntington Lyman described the experience in his simplified
spelling. "So we formed a clas," he wrote to a number of the
Oberlin faculty, "and Weld red and related and suggested and we
copied and discust and swallowed .... We mingled a chapter on
chemistry with our recitations which woz confined to the rediest
way to deterge tar and fethers."
There is not much point in attempting to
discriminate between anti-slavery lecturers who came out of the
Oneida Institute, Lane Seminary in 1833-34, and Oberlin. There
were a few who had attended all three institutions, others only
two, some only one--but they were all the same breed. After all,
Lane's radicalism came from a transfusion from Oneida, and
Oberlin's chiefly from a transfusion from both. Stanton, S. L.
Gould, Edward Weed, and Weld, all anti-slavery workers of first
rank, ended their careers as students at Lane and were never
officially connected with Oberlin, but they were all identified
with Finney and with everything that Oberlin stood for. From 1836
through 1838 Weed made Oberlin his headquarters for his
lecture-tours and conducted there at least one school for agents.
His wife, Phebe Mathews Weed, lived in Oberlin much of that time.
After her death he married Zeruiah Porter, the first graduate of
the Ladies' Course.
Of the famous "Seventy" sent out as agents
by the American Anti-Slavery Society in these years and recruited
by Weld, Professor D. L. Dumond has tentatively identified
sixty-two. Sixteen from this list were or had been students at
Oberlin; twelve of these had been at Lane; nineteen altogether
were Lane Rebels. William T. Allan, from Alabama, Lane and
Oberlin, had a long and active career as an anti-slavery agitator.
In 1836 and 1837 he lectured in Ohio, New York City, western New
York, and before the Michigan Anti-Slavery Society, of which
Robert Stuart, fur-trader, pious Presbyterian, and friend of
Finney, was president. Later he joined with his fellow-rebel J. J.
Miter, William Holyoke (one of the three liberal members of the
Lane Board of Trustees at the time of the "Rebellion"), and George
W. Gale (founder of Oneida Institute and Knox College) in
leadership of the Illinois Anti-Slavery Society. At the 1839
convention of that organization Allan represented Lincoln's own
Sangamon County. Amos Dresser, an Oneida-Lane-Oberlinite, dared to
invade Tennessee and got himself whipped by a vigilance committee.
It was an effective martyrdom and Dresser never tired of repeating
the story of it from the platform or on the printed page. The
whipping of Amos Dresser became a legend.
Whipping, egging, tarring and feathering,
riding on a rail were apparently welcomed by the more zealous. It
was thus that the accolade for distinguished service to the cause
was granted. One Oberlin abolitionist preserved the coat bearing
the heraldic protein and passed it on to his descendants, who a
century later offered it, still showing traces of egg spatterings,
as an historic relic for the College museum. A student, writing to
his brother from Oberlin in the spring of 1837, reported in
bombastic language the achievements and hardships of Oberlin
anti-slavery advocates:
"Perhaps you will wish to know what the
Oberlinites have accomplished the past winter. I assure you that
they have not been idle, especially those who have pleaded the
cause of the oppressed, nor has their success been small. But they
were not permitted to go on unmolested by the modern mobites, for
mobs followed them at evry step. S.[amuel] White was mobed
near Granville .... The inhabitants of this place declared that no
abolitionist should lecture there unless his blood moistened its
soil. White, hearing of this, said he would lecture or lay his
bones there. One man standing out, said to W---- did you say you
would lecture or lay your bones here? I did, W---- replied. You
have lectured, now your bones shall whiten the soil, at which he
sprang at W---- like a tiger and attempted to kick him, but the
blow was parried off At length he was held across a stump by half
a dozen men (by the way one good old, pious deacon held him by the
hair), where they intended to cut his face and paint it with India
ink, which would always remain. But they forgot that he had feet
& over he kicks the dish that held it. And not being able to
obtain any more they concluded to let him go, finding that they
could do nothing with him. [James M.] Blakesly also has
been mobed in Jamestown, where he has been lecturing
....
"The accounts of those who have been
engaged in the cause is truely encoureging [sic]. Br.
Parker related [an experience he had] while he was
lecturing in a town comparitively [sic] not more than half
civilized. At his second lecture when he entered the room he found
a tall lusty man, with a long whip swearing that he should not
lecture (he afterward found that he was the head of the mobites),
& cracking his whip. At length pacified by the ladies he
concluded to hear the lecturer pray. Soon B. P. began to lecture,
this man dropt his whip. Soon, off comes his hat. Then he gazed
attentively at the speaker and revolves every word and soon the
big tears began to flow down his cheeks. After P-- had finished
speaking, he read a constitution & requested those who were
willing to sign their names. This man immediately was up &
said put down my name.
"This proves conclusively, that if the
public mind at the North were only enlightened, Slavery would melt
away like snow under the scorching sun of midsummer. When this
time shall come, trully may America pride herself as being a land
of freedom. But till then let her blush and hide her head for
shame that she has been fatened by the blood of her
sons."
These accounts are probably repeated more
or less as told by the principals to admiring fellow-students.
They serve, however, to show how much Oberlin students were
interested in the cause and to sustain Delazon Smith's description
of their lionization of agents who were persecuted. "And if he
chances," wrote Smith, "to have been so fortunate, as to have
received a cowhiding, or a coat of rotten eggs, he then becomes
indeed an object of their highest adoration." Everywhere these
agents left a trail of local anti-slavery societies. The agency of
Professor J. P. Cowles to Michigan in this same winter was
directly instrumental in the founding of the Michigan State
Anti-Slavery Society. A few anti-slavery speakers went out from
Oberlin in the forties, notably Timothy B. Hudson, agent of the
Ohio Anti-Slavery Society, but never again anything like the
numbers of these first years. After 1840 the movement entered a
new phase; the "revival" period, the period of "moral suasion,"
had passed.
In Cincinnati the Lane Rebels and the
"Sisters" had engaged in social, religious, and educational work
among the free Negroes to prepare them for full citizenship. Two
Rebels, Augustus Wattles and Hiram Wilson, led in the continuation
of this program, Wattles in Ohio and Wilson in Canada.
Wattles collected most of the data for the
report on "the condition of the colored people of Cincinnat"
prepared for the Lane Seminary Anti-Slavery Society in 1834-35. He
took the superintendency of the Negro schools established in
Cincinnati by the Rebels and later extended his activities to
cover the whole state. Wattles even attempted to establish a
manual labor school for Negroes on the Oneida-Oberlin plan, where
they could study agriculture and physiology "as taught by Combe,
Graham and Alcott." These schools were financed from various
sources but particularly by the Ohio Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society
of which Susan Lowe Wattles was corresponding secretary and in
which Mrs. Finney, Mrs. Cowles, Elizabeth Prall and other Oberlin
women played a prominent part. In 1839 Amzi D. Barber of Oberlin
succeeded Wattles in charge of the Ohio colored schools. Most of
the teachers came from Oberlin. In his report in 1837 Wattles
wrote that he "Visited colored settlements in Brown Co. In the
lower camp found a school of 55 scholars taught by a young man
from Oberlin who built the house, himself," and slept in it all
winter for fear whites would burn it. He continued: "On Red Oak
there is an 'amalgamation' school taught by a young woman from
Oberlin .... 20 colored scholars. Visited Springfield twice, good
school of 33 scholars; teacher from Oberlin." Shubael Carver, a
theological student at Oberlin, taught a colored school at
Chillicothe at least two winters, assisted part of the time by his
coed sister Eliza, also of Oberlin. In 1839 Barber wrote to the
Philanthropist that there were more than twenty teachers from
Oberlin teaching colored schools in Ohio and Canada. Many of those
in Ohio had trouble with the neighboring whites, especially in the
southern part of the state. Miss Lucy Hall, a senior in the
Ladies' Course, went to take charge of a Negro school at Big
Bottom, Pike County. A vigilance committee threatened to tar and
feather her and ride her on a rail if she did not leave. There is
much about the work of Oberlin teachers in Negro schools, about
their devotion and hardships, in Barber's reports of 1839 and
1840.
The Lane Rebel Hiram Wilson proposed to do
the same sort of thing among the fugitives who had reached the
safe haven of Canada West. When Wilson graduated from the Oberlin
Theological Department in the early autumn of 1836, he received
twenty-five dollars from Professor Finney, contributed by some of
the New York philanthropists. With this and what he could beg on
the way wilson began his work among the Negroes in Canada. He
first established a series of colored schools, recruiting the
teachers in Oberlin. Joseph Lawrence, one of the first to go from
Oberlin, took sick after only ten weeks' teaching at Amherstburgh,
and died in February, 1837. An Oberlin girl, Diana Samson, "came
on . . . just before the death of brother Lawrence," Wilson
reported, "and is now teaching in his stead. Her strong faith in
Christ, and ardent devotion to the cause of the oppressed, are
equal to the important station she occupies .... She has
twenty-two scholars." Later in the year Wilson wrote to Elizur
Wright, Jr., from a "steamboat, between Buffalo and the Fails": "I
am just returning from Northern Ohio .... Three female teachers
have started for Canada from Oberlin; one, Miss Rider, has gone up
the lake to Amherstburgh. Two, Mrs. Brooks and Miss Snow, from the
families of Prof. Finney and President Mahan, are with me." He
added: "Three or four young men from Oberlin are to enter the
field soon as teachers."
Wilson, like Wattles, hoped to establish a
manual labor school like Oberlin, a school which would welcome
Negroes and poor whites alike, training thereby a great number of
young workers for the field and breaking down race barriers. He
even planned to have an associated colony where "a considerable
number of pious, intelligent, worthy, white families" should
mingle with Negroes and take an interest "in their improvement,
mental & moral." As at Oberlin, mulberry trees and sugar beets
would be raised in the labor department. Following this design, he
established in 1842 the "British American Institute" at Dawn Mills
(near the present Dresden) on the Sydenham River, Canada West. The
students were to work between three and four hours a day. The aims
of the Institute were declared to be: 1. "To raise up competent
teachers of color to supply destitute places." 2. "To qualify
young men of talent & piety to proclaim the 'glorious gospel
of the blessed God' with clearness & power." 3. "To bring
forth upon the Anti-Slavery battle ground Colored champions who
will wage a successful warfare somewhat after the manner of the
Washingtonians in the Temperance cause by narrating their woeful
experience of Slavery." The financial hurdle proved to be too high
and, despite a begging expedition by Wilson to England, he
recognized even in 1845 that the Institute was likely to be a
failure. In 1849 Wilson discontinued his connection with it. It
continued under other management for a while, usually referred to
as Dawn Institute, but by 1850 an observer reported that it had
"dwindled down to a small concern, and the managers are much
embarrased by debt." Its lands were sold by a court order in
1871.
From his first arrival in 1836 until his
death in 1864, however, Hiram Wilson engaged as teacher, preacher
and almsgiver among the colored fugitives. From 1850 to 1853 he
served as agent of the Canada Mission at St. Catharines under the
American Missionary Association. A disagreement in the latter year
led to his severing his official connection with the national
association, but he continued to cooperate unofficially. The work
in Canada was undoubtedly very difficult, the fugives being
suspicious, naturally, of all white men from the United States.
Wilson, himself, was at first suspected of being a kidnapper but
eventually came to be generally very popular with the Negroes. we
have it on the contemporary testimony of a Negro preacher that he
"ate, drank, slept, prayed, and preached" in the Negro cabins and
that his influence over them was "almost unbounded." Fugitives
from all over the United States were directed to his house where
they could be sure that they would find a welcome, shelter,
clothing, encouragement and aid in securing employment.
In 1853 he wrote to Hamilton Hill of his
work:
"Fugitives are frequently arriving who are
to be clothed and cared for. But a short time since I had the
pleasure of meeting a poor sable pilgrim at my door from the house
of bondage. He had just come from Maryland. He was a stranger
& I took him in --Hungry & I fed him--naked and I clothed
him. He appeared very grateful and said he meant to be a man--that
he had a wife in Toronto--& small child who had escaped last
summer & he was anxious to get to them. I furnished him with
some means & directed him to the Steam Boat but first gave him
a spelling book. He had acquired a slight knowledge of letters
which he learned in a Grave Yard where he came from, enquiring
& spelling out the names of the dead. Another called on me
last saturday evening, just from Hagerstown, Md. He was promptly
fed & clothed & comforted. Such cases as I have named are
frequent." On the Sabbath he preached and conducted a colored
Sabbath School and spent the remainder of the day walking up and
down the Welland Canal "distributing Religious, Peace &
Temperance Tracts to the Sailors," preaching on the ships and
keeping a lookout for more fugitives.
Of course, the free colored and fugitive
population of Oberlin became considerable and there was work to be
done right at home. Negro children aftended the regular schools
with the whites in Oberlin, but early in the forties a school was
begun "designed chiefly for adult persons who have been debarred
in earlier life, by slavery or prejudice, from the advantages of
education." The teachers were students from the Institute, among
them Lucy Stone. A committee, including Hamilton Hill, J. A. Thome
and Amasa Walker, was constituted to finance the enterprise. This
work among the Oberlin colored population was extended and
systematized when the Oberlin City Missionary Society was founded
in 1860. Though spiritual, moral and educational needs were
recognized this organization put more emphasis on physical
"relief."
The anti-slavery influence in Oberlin
itself was so strong that few of the nine thousand students who
matriculated before the firing on Fort Sumter escaped complete
conversion to the cause. Mahan, Morgan, Cowles and, perhaps
occasionally, Finney preached sermons against slavery on the
Sabbath. Special lectures by outsiders and faculty members were
given on the evils of slavery at frequent intervals. In 1843 the
faculty officially requested Professor Hudson "to deliver to our
students a course of lectures on anti-slavery." Lecturers from
outside included, besides Weld, Cassius M. Clay, William Goodel1,
C. C. Burleigh, Garrison, the Fosters, Joshua R. Giddings, John P.
Hale and Salmon P. Chase--speakers of varying points of view, but
all zealous against slavery. An economic boycott of the products
of slave labor was established in Oberlin after the formal
discussion of the subject in April of 1836 and, though never
consistently carried out, it was never quite abandoned in
principle. The effort to grow beet sugar was considerably
stimulated by the desire to furnish a substitute for
slave-produced sugar.
Oberlinites were taught to believe that the
Fourth of July was a "cruel mockery" as it had extended freedom to
whites only. In 1837 the students celebrated "the day by holding
anti-slavery meetings in the neighboring villages." Two years
later thirty-nine Oberlin men and women agreed henceforth to work
on Independence Day and donate the proceeds for the advancement of
anti-slavery. Twenty years later a young lady student wrote in her
diary: "Friday the Fourth--the glorious--ha ha--the glorious
Fourth. Well, so it is. God have pity on us." On July 4 1859, the
same girl commented: "Liberty is dead But God grant there is yet
hope that she will arise from the dead still more beautiful and
lovely."
Not July 4 but August 1 was the gala day
for Oberlin abolitionists. No year was allowed to pass without
some recognition of the anniversary of the emanicipation of the
slaves in the British West Indies. "The anniversary of the
emancipation of 800,000 persons held in slavery in the British
West Indies," wrote the editor of the Evangelist in 1842, "must be
a more interesting time to the friend of human rights, than the
anniversary of American Independence, so long as the principles of
the declaration of that independence are so utterly disregarded by
our slave holding and pro-slavery citizens." In 1842 the
celebration was particularly successful. A concert of prayer for
the slaves was held in the morning and a large public meeting in
the afternoon. This afternoon meeting was presided over by "a
brother . . . whose face is as black as a slave-holder's heart."
The speakers were President Mahan, G. B. Vashon (a sophomore and a
Negro born free), W. P. Newman (a freshman and an escaped slave),
Professor Thome (a former slaveholder), and Professor Morgan
(representing the white non-slaveholders). The day was closed with
a banquet at which eighty Negroes and 170 whites sat down to the
table. At the 1846 celebration the Musical Association furnished
special singing; James Monroe was on the program, and Lucy Stone
delivered her first stirring public speech. The singing of
anti-slavery songs was always a part of such occasions: Whittier's
"Gone, Sold and Gone" set to music by George W. Clark, the "Song
of the Coffle Gang"--"said to be sung by Slaves, as they are
chained in gangs, when parting from friends for the far off
South--children taken from parents, husbands from wives, and
brothers from sisters," "0 Pity the Slave Mother," or other
selections from Clark's Liberty Minstrel, the favorite
anti-slavery song book.
Orations and discussions at literary
society meetings were certain every few weeks to drift back to the
all-absorbing slavery question. Examples are numerous: "Should
philandropists avoid the use of the produce of slave labor as far
as they are able? [1840]", "Would it be practicable to
extend the right of sufferage [sic] to the colored men of
the nation, were they all emancipated? [1840]", and
"Resolved, That the amalgamation of the white and black races in
this country is feasible, proper, and should be encouraged
[1859]". The last was, of course, a particularly dangerous
topic, even in Oberlin. The programs of rhetorical exercises and
Commencements regularly included orations or essays on slavery. In
1837 a special student representative of the Oberlin Anti-Slavery
Society was allotted a place; he spoke on "Slavery, A Moral Evil."
In commenting on the exercises of 1841 the Evangelist declared,
"Probably no greater interest could be excited than was felt in
the address on 'The Political Economy of Slavery [by John
Todd, a candidate for the A. B.]', and the thrilling music
that followed. An old and trembling Revolutionary Soldier was so
much interested that he arose and asked leave to address the
congregation, and was only prevented by the want of time."
Whenever a Negro appeared upon the platform at Commencement it was
pretty certain to lead to a special demonstration. In 1858--"One
of the speakers . . . [was] colored, but none the less a
man and a brother. His oration, followed by the anthem, 'The
Gathering of the Free' produced a profound sensation." Definitely
abolitionist speeches were delivered repeatedly by members of the
graduating classes: in 1848, "Freedom of Speech and Southern Gag
Law"; in 1850, "A Plea for the Oppressed"; in 1851, "American
Independence and Republican Liberty" and "The Higher Law"; in
1854, "Liberty's Final Conflict and Triumph" and "The Millennium
of American Chattelism"; and in 1859 a discussion between two
College seniors on "The African Slave Trade." Nor does a listing
of titles give a sufficient idea of the ubiquity of the subject
for it was undoubtedly often the case, as in 1839, that, though
there was but "one Anti-Slavery speech, . . . every speaker gave
it a blow in passing."
If the anti-slavery sentiment in Oberlin
was so strong and so general, why then did the College contribute
so few abolitionist lecturers after 1837? The answer is--the
answer to so many queries about Oberlin--Finney. Already in the
autumn of 1835 Weld and Tappan were expressing dissatisfaction
with Finney because of his emphasis on revivalism at the expense
of reform--almost to the exclusion, they felt, of the anti-slavery
cause. In the following summer Finney called the Lane Rebels in
Oberlin into special session to dissuade them from going into the
abolition field and to persuade them to go out as revivalists
instead. This does not mean, of course, that Finney had deserted
the cause of anti-slavery but that he felt that the cause of
Christ must come first. "Bro. Finney," Allan wrote to Weld, "has
used his heart & head & influence to convince us that it
is our duty to preach. He groans over the subject & speaks of
himself as being agonized about it. Thus we are situated--you and
Stanton groaning on one side & Finney on the other." Finney
held that if the world were first converted to Christ then the
great reforms could easily be accomplished, that "The only hope of
the country, the church, the oppressor & the slave was in wide
spread revivals." "Nothing," he told young men who were about to
graduate from the Theological Course at Oberlin, "Nothing will
make the slave holder unclinch his grasp but the horrors of
Hellfire. These must be made to thunder upon his conscience or he
will still oppress." The Rebels were torn between the two duties.
In 1839 Thome admitted that "if ministers & professing
christians generally were as holy in heart & strong in faith,
as they should be, they would further the interests of the
oppressed more effectually by preaching the cross--the Whole Cross
I mean--than by forming Anti-Slavery Societies--composed
indiscriminately of Christians, worldlings & infidels." But,
he added, "while the estate of the church, the ministry, & the
religious press remains as it now is, I am satisfied that direct
Anti-Slavery efforts, such in the main as are now being made, are
proper & necessary." As would be expected, however, after the
withdrawal of the Weld influence, Oberlin students, in general,
accepted the theory that the best way to help the slave was to
work for the coming of Christ's Kingdom in which all men would be
brothers. It is entirely possible that the preachers,
missionaries, and pious teachers who went out from Oberlin to
promote the establishment of that Kingdom, and who, at the same
time, were enthusiastically devoted to the anti-slavery cause, may
have done as much for the slave as the same number of anti-slavery
lecturers would have done.
There is no evidence of any decline in
Oberlin's zeal for the anti-slavery cause. Early and later Oberlin
put its shoulder to the wheel of the anti-slavery crusade. In
politics and in the church its leaders and sons and daughters
fought for the freedom of their dark-skinned brothers and sisters.
In the pulpit, in the schoolroom and as missionaries of the
American Missionary Association Oberlin men and women worked for
the freedom and elevation of the colored race. Oberlin men and
women played a part in the struggle for freedom in Kansas, and
fugitives from the "house of bondage" were nowhere surer of a warm
welcome than at Oberlin.
CHAPTER
XIX
TOWARD AN ANTI-SLAVERY
CHURCH
THIS acceptance of Finney's point of view
meant that Oberlinites had two battles to fight: first, to convert
the Christian Church to reform, including anti-slavery, and then,
second, convert the world to the Christian Church. The battle to
make the church an anti-slavery society began early. In September
of 1835, before Weld had begun his historic lectures, the Oberlin
Church resolved: "That as Slavery is a Sin no person shall be
invited to preach or Minister to this church, or Any Br. be
invited to commune who is a slave holder." In 1846 the Church
adopted the report of a committee of five faculty members (Thome,
Morgan, Dascomb, Fairchild, and Hudson), withdrawing all
"fellowship with slaveholders or with those who lend their
influence to sustain slavery." Until after the Civil War the
Oberlin Church included in form letters given to members
transferring to other churches the sentence: "This certificate is
not intended as a recommendation to any church that sanctions or
tolerates slaveholding."
Wherever, in churches or religious
organizations, Oberlin men gained sufficient influence similar
resolutions were adopted. In 1839 a former Oberlin student wrote
from Fitchville that the Congregational Association of Central
Ohio, of which he was secretary, had adopted a resolution, "That
Slavery, as it exists in these United States, is a violation of
all rights--a heinous sin against God, and ought in no instance to
be tollerated by the Church of Christ." Of course the General
Association of the Western Reserve (the "Oberlin Association")
passed repeated resolutions denouncing slavery. In 1837
resolutions drawn up by W. T. Allan, one of the Lane Rebels who
had attended Oberlin, were adopted by the association. By these
resolutions the members of the association bound themselves to
"have no Christian communion with those who practice slavery, nor
with any who justify the system." They declared that "oppression
in all its forms is sin" and that "the practice of soliciting or
receiving funds from Slaveholders for the purpose of carrying on
our benevolent operations is wrong." The convention at Mansfield
in 1852, which resulted in the formation of the Ohio
Congregational Conference, adopted resolutions declaring slavery
to be "a great violation of the law of God and of the rights of
man" and denying "ecclesiastical correspondence with slave holding
bodies."
Some churches were split apart by the
differences between the abolitionist-perfectionist-Oberlin group
and the more conservative faction. The Church at Strongsville,
Ohio, was thus divided at the time of Shipherd's pastorate there.
The radicals formed the Free Congregational Church of
Strongsville, locally known as the "Oberlin Church." Preaching was
mostly supplied by Oberlin professors and students until the
churches re-united in 1882. Even in the church at Brownhelm a
similar rift developed. Out in Chicago the anti-slavery element in
the Third Presbyterian Church left and founded the First
Congregational Church in 1851. Of course, James A. Thome's church
in Cleveland was Oberlinite and abolitionist. The
Oberlinite-perfectionist churches of western New York--Rochester,
for example--were thoroughly abolitionized as were Broadway
Tabernacle and other Finneyite churches in New York City,
sometimes at the expense of a church row. In Boston, the
Marlborough Chapel was a center of Finneyism, Oberlinism,
perfectionism, and abolitionism.
And the Oberlin Christian abolitionists
reached out a fraternal hand to friends of the slaves in other
denominations. Particularly close were Oberlin's relations with
the non-Calvinist and abolitionist Freewill Baptists. Their
General Conference held in Ohio in 1839 declared the cause of the
slave to be "the cause of God." The Oberlin Evangelist commended
this Baptist group for their stand on reform, and the Morning
Star, Freewill Baptist organ, spoke favorably of Oberlin. This
sect had no college of its own in the early nineteenth century and
so sent its ministers or prospective ministers, perforce, to the
colleges of other denominations--at least three of them to
Oberlin. After an adventurous career as missionary, preacher, and
religious editor, David Marks came to Oberlin with his wife to
secure a formal education. Here he sickened and died and was
buried in the Oberlin cemetery. Only recently the Freewill
Baptists erected a new monument at his grave. Daniel Graham
(Oberlin, A.B.--1844) edited the Freewill Baptist Quarterly for
many years, and was for a while president of Hillsdale College
when it was a Freewill Baptist institution. Henry E. Whipple
(Oberlin, A.B. --1848) was an influential member of the same sect
and left the principalship of the Oberlin Preparatory Department
for a long career as a professor at Hillsdale.
Friendly, too, were Oberlin's relations
with the Wesleyans, Methodists who broke away from the General
Conference on the slavery issue. Led by Orange Scott and Luther
Lee, they held their first conference at Utica in 1843, and were
always strongest in the "Finney districts." The church
publication, the True Wesleyan, was strongly reformist.
Oberlin was never narrowly denominational.
It was recognized that essentials of faith and morals were much
more important than labels. In 1848 the Oberlin Evangelist printed
with "pleasure" a circular issued from Syracuse by a group of
radical ministers calling for union of all Christian reformers,
whatever their previous denominational connection.
It was the Oberlin doctrine that slavery
was a sin, according to the Bible and according to modern
standards of Christian brotherhood. Oberlinites read with approval
Theodore Weld's tract, The Bible Against Slavery, first published
in 1837, Beriah Green's The Church Carried Along (1836), Charles
Fitch's Slaveholding Weighed in the Balance (1837), J. G. Fee's
The Sinfulness of Slaveholding (1851), and the anti-slavery
theological writings of Wesleyans like Luther Lee, LaRoy
Sunderland, and Lucius Matlack. When the Church Anti-Slavery
Society offered a prize "for the best tract on the teachings of
the Bible respecting slavery," the contest was won by an Oberlin
student, Isaac Allen, for an essay entitled Is Slavery Sanctioned
by the Bible? In 1862 Reuben Hatch (Oberlin, A.B.--1843) published
his elaborate study, Bible Servitude Re-Examined, in which he
attempted to prove that slavery in the modern sense was not
sanctioned in the Sacred Scriptures.
In 1847 Henry Cowles, assisted by Professor
Morgan, drew up a formal report on the "Duty of Churches in
Relation to Slavery." First, he declared, the church must
recognize slavery as a sin--"pure unadulterated oppression, the
very thing God abhors and most pointedly condemns." And Christians
must act, too. "Let us enforce humanity and the rights of man, not
only, or chiefly for humanity's sake, but for piety's sake--not
only by the voice of universal man demanding his rights, but with
the voice of God, proclaiming: Set my Sons and Daughters Free. My
wrath is on the oppressor."
Oberlin Christians renounced their
allegiance to all Christian benevolent societies which did not
take part in the battle against the sin of slavery. The most
important result of this action was the establishment of the
American Missionary Association, a powerful Christian anti-slavery
agency which sent its representatives into every important
anti-slavery battle ground: the border states, New Mexico,
Kansas.
The American Missionary Association
originally grew out of a merger of the "Committee for the West
India Missions," the Western Evangelical Missionary Society and
the Union Missionary Society. David S. Ingraham, a Lane Rebel, led
a group of Oberlin students in criticizing the American Board for
allowing its missionaries among the southern Indians to hold
slaves. In 1837 he began missionary activities among the freedmen
of Jamaica, where he was later joined by other pious
abolitionists, several of them also from Oberlin. The "Committee
for the West India Missions," including in its membership Lewis
Tappan and Anson G. Phelps, was organized some time later to
collect funds for this enterprise. In 1843 Oberlin men founded the
Western Evangelical Missionary Society, which officially announced
that it would not "solicit or knowingly receive the wages of
oppression, especially the price of the bodies and souls of men,
for the prosecution of the work of the Lord." The third
organization, the Union Missionary Society, was an outgrowth of
the Amistad Case.
The Amistad was a leaky old schooner which,
in August, 1839, drifted into Long Island Sound and was boarded by
the officers of a United States coast survey vessel. On board this
"mysterious schooner" a large number of naked black savages were
found in charge and also two Spaniards who were their prisoners.
while being shipped as slaves they had risen and captured their
masters. What should be done with them? They were mutineers, but
the slave trade was illegal. Should they be freed or returned to
the possession of their Spanish masters? A great deal of interest
was aroused all over the country, and a committee, including Lewis
Tappan, Joshua Leavitt and Anson G. Phelps, was organized in New
York to fight for the Negroes' freedom in the courts. The case was
carried from one court to another until finally in 1841 the blacks
were freed by the Supreme Court, after Roger Baldwin and John
Quincy Adams had appeared as counsel in their behalf.
The Amistad Committee continued to care for
the Africans after they had been freed. They were instructed in
the English language and in Christianity and it was determined to
send them back to their home in Mendi on the African west coast.
Funds were raised for this purpose in New England and New York,
and the Union Missionary Society (mostly American Negroes) was
formed to supervise and support the whites who were to go back
with them and found a Christian and anti-slavery mission. In
November of 1841 a farewell public meeting for the Negroes and
missionaries was held in the Broadway Tabernacle. The
missionaries, Rev. William Raymond and Mrs. Raymond and Rev. James
Steele, were former Oberlin students except Mrs. Raymond. Steele
graduated from the seminary in August, married; his wife died a
few days later, and he left for Africa in the fall.
In 1846 the Union Missionary Society, the
Western Evangelical Missionary Society (of Oberlin), and the
Committee for the West India Missions were merged into the
American Missionary Association. The Union Missionary, which had
been the organ of the Union Missionary Society, gave way to the
American Missionary edited by Lane Rebel George Whipple. The new
organization supervised the Indian Mission in Minnesota, the Mendi
Mission in Africa, the Jamaica Mission and missionary work among
the Negroes in Canada and the United States. Slaveholders were
excluded from membership and their contributions declined. Oberlin
was a dominating factor in the society; up to 1860 over
nine-tenths of all its workers were former Oberlin students, and
both its able executive secretaries, George Whipple and Michael
Strieby, came from Oberlin.
Steele and Raymond arrived in Sierra Leone
late in 1841. Steele soon returned to America on account of ill
health. Raymond and Mrs. Raymond remained in Freetown through the
rainy season. In 1842 Raymond arranged with King Harry Tucker of
the Kaw-Mendi for the establishment of the mission. A site was
selected, houses built, a school established and Christian
preaching begun. Raymond and his successors not only preached the
Christian faith but combated slavery, opposed the use of rum and
tobacco, and sought to establish peace between the native tribes.
In 1847 Raymond sent out an urgent plea for help in carrying on
the work. At the same time he wrote optimistically: "Of the
ultimate success of the mission I have not the least shadow of a
doubt. God has planted it, and He will not pluck it up--the devil
cannot!" A few days later he was dead.
Young George Thompson was jailed in
Missouri for aiding fugitive slaves. His imprisonment clinched his
decision to devote his life to the Negroes. In 1846, after having
been pardoned by the Governor of the State, he came to Oberlin to
prepare himself for the African mission field. In April of 1848 he
was examined and ordained by the Council of the American
Missionary Association. Rev. Sherlock Bristol of Oberlin extended
to him the right hand of fellowship and George Whipple gave the
charge. A hymn was sung from Professor George Allen's hymnbook.
Lewis Tappan kept the minutes. Before he left New York news was
received of the death of Raymond--thus Thompson became head of the
mission.
Reenforcements, many of them from Oberlin,
followed soon. In 1849 Mar-gru (renamed Sarah Kinson) came as a
missionary. She was one of those who had been on the Amistad, and
had studied a while at Oberlin at the expense of the American
Missionary Association. Eight missionaries were in the company
which arrived in 1850. There were nine persons in all in the party
of 1852. Samuel Gray and Mahala McGuire who were among the new
recruits were American Negroes from Oberlin. They were later
married. Gray took charge of construction work and acted as
mechanic in charge." Others came in later years. The number of
Oberlin students active in this mission before the Civil War was
probably about thirty. It was quite clearly an Oberlin
enterprise.
In the missionary work among the freedmen
in the West Indies, Ingraham had the assistance of others from
Oberlin. The earliest of these was James A. Preston. Preston was
one of the four young men to receive in 1837 the first A.B.'s ever
granted by Oberlin. He immediately entered the Theological Course,
which he completed in 1841 when he married an Oberlin coed and
left for Jamaica. Strieby lists 36 former Oberlin students who
went to Jamaica as missionaries before 1861. Of the several
different mission stations established, one was known as
Oberlin.
The American Missionary Association helped
finance Hiram Wilson part of the time for his work among the
Negroes in Canada, and sent city missionaries to serve with the
free colored people of Northern cities such as Syracuse, Portland
and New York City.
The Association also put much emphasis on
the maintenance of anti-slavery ministers and colporteurs
(distributors of tracts) among the white citizens of the United
States, particularly in the Middle West. In 1853-54 two-thirds of
the home missionaries aided were in the three states of Ohio,
Illinois and Wisconsin. In no year between 1850 and 1860 did the
association have less than 75 missionaries in the upper
Mississippi Valley.
The first requirement for one of these home
missionaries was that he must be aggressively anti-slavery, must
"talk it, preach it, pray it, vote it." The reports to the society
contain many variations on this theme. One missionary wrote from
Wisconsin that he had preached "six anti-slavery sermons, bringing
God's word to bear fully on American slavery." The Rev. U. T.
Chamberlain, another Lane Rebel and Oberlin graduate, preached so
often and effectively on anti-slavery to his congregation in
Pennsylvania that they insisted on putting anti-slavery into their
confession of faith.
Nor were their activities limited to
preaching. Some gave weekday lectures on slavery and engaged in
public debates with those who defended it. One man sent in a
"Brief of an Anti-slavery Lecture" and the American Missionary
printed it for the assistance of others. The missionaries also
distributed thousands of Christian anti-slavery tracts and books,
especially those published by the allied tract publishing company,
the American Reformed Tract and Book Society of Cincinnati. The
tract work was especially concentrated in southern Illinois and
Indiana where it was supposed to be most needed. Several
colporteurs were sent out at different times to engage in this
work exclusively.
The western anti-slavery congregations thus
built up heard of the A.M.A.'s work among Negroes from their
pastors and through the columns of the American Missionary, and
were encouraged to become active participants in the cause by
making contributions. So one phase of the propaganda built upon
the other.
And the association was a participant, too,
in the contest over slavery in the territories. After the passage
of the Kansas-Nebraska Act the American Missionary urged every
minister to "preach a sermon to his people on the subject of
Christian Emigration," and suggested that some should "go with a
pastor as a colony to Kansas." Christian anti-slavery missionaries
were promptly dispatched to the debated area; two arrived in the
latter part of 1854; ten were sent altogether. Amos Finch, the
first to appear, had eight regular preaching appointments by
January, 1855. "I deal faithfully with slavery at all my
appointments," he reported, "and on other occasions when
opportunity offers." Samuel L. Adair, a brother-in-law of John
Brown, was the second A.M.A. missionary to arrive. He later
established himself at Osawatomie and sheltered two of the Brown
boys on the night of the massacre, but neither he nor his
associates sanctioned the use of force. Kansas, they believed, was
to be won by spiritual and not by "deadly" weapons. Adair was
never-tiring in the cause, preaching to his various congregations
the abolition of slavery along with "emancipation from sin,"
circulating the American Missionary, and sheltering fugitives in
"the back kitchen."
Oberlin made its usual contribution. Adair
was an Oberlin man. Four of the six anti-slavery missionaries in
Kansas supported by the A.M.A in 1856-57 were Oberlin men. One of
these was John H. Byrd who commenced preaching at Leavenworth in
the summer of 1855 and later moved to Atchison where he organized
colored Sunday schools and Bible classes and gained the nickname
of "the nigger preacher." Byrd also took a fairly prominent part
in Kansas free-soil politics.
The reports of Adair, Finch, Byrd and other
agents, published in the American Missionary, the Independent and
elsewhere, made excellent propaganda for dissemination in the
East. One Oberlin missionary, Horatio N. Norton, after several
months in the field, devoted the winter of 1856-57 to travelling
through the free states, lecturing on Kansas and advocating the
emigration of free-soilers to the Territory.
The abolitionists of the American
Missionary Association never gave up the hope that the men of the
South could be won over by moral suasion--by revival methods. As
there was considerable anti-slavery sentiment in the border state
of Kentucky, that seemed a logical point at which to start the
invasion. From 1848 to 1859, except for two years at the beginning
of the Fifties, the A.M.A. maintained one or two colporteurs in
Kentucky. Most of the work of the A.M.A. in Kentucky centered
around Kentucky's native anti-slavery preacher, John G. Fee, who
received funds from the association from 1848 on. Fee was entirely
in sympathy with the association's point of view, holding that
slavery could be destroyed by political action and by "moral
suasion" brought to bear in the South. He defined "moral suasion"
as "truth quickened by the Spirit of God." He was an army in
himself, writing many anti-slavery pamphlets and distributing
them, on Sundays preaching powerfully against slaveholding as a
sin, and on weekdays lecturing against slavery as a social and
economic evil. But Fee did not battle alone, for the association
sent to his support at least ten other anti-slavery ministers and
teachers, seven of them from Oberlin.
The climax of the Kentucky campaign came in
Fee's plan to establish a school at Berea which would, as he put
it, "be to Kentucky what Oberlin is to Ohio, Anti-slavery,
Anti-caste, Anti-secret societies, Anti-rum, Anti-sin." It was to
be, like Oberlin, a manual labor school, located in a Christian
colony and supporting reform principles. Fee collaborated with
three of the Oberlin missionaries in working out his plan and, in
addition, sought the advice of Professor E. H. Fairchild of the
Oberlin faculty. The program was finally agreed upon in December,
1858. But the new school's history was interrupted at the end of a
year. The hysteria following the Harper's Ferry raid led to the
expulsion of Fee and his associates from Kentucky. The A.M.A.
raised a relief fund of fifteen hundred dollars for their
assistance.
As Oberlin attacked the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions for its noncommittal attitude
toward slavery, so it attacked the American Tract Society for its
refusal to publish and distribute anti-slavery literature. When,
in 1858, the Boston branch of the Tract Society broke away from
the main organization on this issue, John W. Alvord, one of the
Lane Rebels, became its senior secretary. The Boston society (also
called American Tract Society) proceeded to publish a large number
of anti-slavery tracts, including a prize essay by Professor Thome
on "Prayer for the Oppressed," and became, under AIvord's
leadership, another Christian anti-slavery society.
Though the Christian anti-slavery
convention movement of the firties did not start in Oberlin,
Oberlin gave it strong support. A Christian Anti-Slavery
Convention was held in Cincinnati in 1850 in Mahan's old Vine
Street Church (formerly Sixth Presbyterian). George Whipple was
made vice-president; a colored student from Oberlin introduced a
resolution, and a letter from Professor Henry Cowles expressing
his disappointment at his inability to attend was ordered
published in the report. At the convention held in Chicago in the
following year five men from Oberlin (including Keep, Finney and
Cowles), besides former President Mahan and at least six Oberlin
graduates, participated. Finney and Mahan are listed among the
vice-presidents and George Whipple was one of the secretaries.
Mahan and Finney spoke, deploring the impression, which they
declared had been made on the minds of the people of Scotland and
England, that the American anti-slavery movement was "mainly
infidel, with Garrison at its head." Finney particularly
emphasized the point that this convention was a "Christian
Anti-Slavery Convention." The convention at Ravenna, Ohio, on June
18, 1852, was presided over by John Keep. E. H. Fairchild, M. E.
Strieby and J. A. Thome played an active part, but the convention
seems to have been a less representative one than either of those
preceding. The Wellington convention of two years later was pretty
much of an Oberlin aftair. By this time the movement was losing
force. The Kansas question was absorbing most of the attention of
anti-slavery men.
In 1859, however, the idea of Christian
organization against slavery was revived by a group of clergymen
who held a convention at Worcester, Massachusetts, and organized
the "Church Anti-Slavery Society." This stimulated the Ohio
Christian anti-slavery leaders and a call for an Ohio convention
was sent out, signed, among others, by fourteen residents or
graduates of Oberlin. When the convention assembled at Columbus in
August, Oberlin men were numerous among the delegates and
definitely dominated the proceedings. The session was opened with
remarks by Professor Peck and John Keep. Thome presented the
report of the Committee on Resolutions. Prof. E. H. Fairchild of
Oberlin was chairman of the executive committee. Peck was the
outstanding orator as well as the hero of the hour because of his
late experience in the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue Case. The
convention was definitely a "higher law" convention, insisting
that no man-made law was binding if it conflicted with God-made
law; it stood for "No communion with slaveholders and no obedience
to the Fugitive Slave Law."
After the adjournment, Fairchild, as
chairman of the executive committee, announced the appointment of
an agent whose duty it was "to lecture in all prominent places in
the State where he can obtain a hearing, setting forth the
enormous evil and sin of slavery, the delinquencies and
obligations of Christians in regard to it, and the prostitution of
the various branches of the general government to its support." He
also issued a call to "Anti-Slavery Christians of all
denominations throughout the Western States and Territories" to
meet at Chicago in October. At Chicago, with a broader
representation, the principles of the Ohio convention were
reiterated. In 1860 came the presidential campaign and the
question was left to the statesman and the soldier.
Oberlin and Garrison had nothing in common
but their consecration to the freeing of the slave. Garrison was
destructive, "ultra," and impractical; Oberlin was, in comparison,
constructive, conservative, cautious and practical. Though
Garrison was a "perfectionist" there was very little similarity
between his brand of that doctrine and Oberlin Perfectionism or
"Sanctification." His "come-outerism" was antipathetic to all that
Oberlin held dear. He denounced the organized Christian Church and
cast it aside as wholly and hopelessly polluted. Oberlin, as we
have seen, sought to make the Church into a great anti-slavery
society. With government and politics, likewise, he would have
nothing to do. "The Constitution," he declared, "is a covenant
with death and an agreement with Hell." The Oberlinites said it
was a great anti-slavery document which had been misinterpreted by
corrupt judges. Garrison was a radical non-resistant (at least,
until the Civil War); Oberlin's leaders believed that force was
righteous when used for a righteous cause. Garrison favored the
complete equality of women with men; Oberlin opposed the general
participation of women in public exercises and attempted to keep
them "in their place." It is a significant fact that not a single
one of the male leaders of the Oberlin community or alumni was a
Garrisonian, whereas all of the outstanding women abolitionists
educated at Oberlin supported him.
When, in 1840, the national anti-slavery
society split, it was over exactly these issues: political action,
relations to the church, women's rights, etc. Garrison dominated
the group known as the American Anti-Slavery Society. Oberlin and
the friends of Oberlin, like the Tappans, supported the American
and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. The conflict between the two
factions was, it may be imagined, most heated and generally
unedifying. Lewis Tappan wrote to Finney that the Garrisonians
were "a stench in the nostrils of the people." "Garrison & his
clique," he declared, "have blighted the prospects of the cause."
The Ohio Garrisonians cautioned their "friends against
contributing to the support of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute,"
which they declared truly to be the deadly enemy of the American
Anti-Slavery Society. They also organized a rival state
society--the Ohio American Anti-Slavery Society, which later
became the Western Anti-Slavery Society. From 1845 to 1850 they
published at New Lisbon the Anti-Slavery Bugle as the Western
mouthpiece of Garrison and his associates.
Betsey Cowles, Lucy Stone and Sallie Holley
were all Garrisonians. Betsey Cowles of Austinburg, who graduated
from the Ladies' Course in 1840, was one of the ablest
anti-slavery leaders in northern Ohio and an outstanding woman
reformer in the West. She was a contributor to the Bugle and a
close friend of the radical Garrisonian, Abby Kelley Foster. Lucy
Stone (A.B.--1847) kept a picture of Garrison on the wall of her
room in Ladies' Hall; she almost worshipped him. For a while she
was the only subscriber to the Liberator in Oberlin; she was the
Oberlin agent of the Anti-Slavery Bugle. SaIlie Holley was a
daughter of Myron Holley and a graduate of the Ladies' Course in
1852. Her attendance was made possible by the assistance of Samuel
D. Porter, the abolitionist trustee from Rochester. In the fifties
both Lucy Stone and Sallie Holley were accredited lecturers for
the American Anti-Slavery Society, along with Samuel J. May, the
Fosters, C. C. Burleigh, Parker Pillsbury and other radicals. Both
developed considerable reputations as speakers. Abby Foster called
Sallie "far the most eloquent woman that has ever blessed our
anti-slavery platform." Some of the coolness which existed for so
long between the Oberlin leaders and the most prominent of the
early women graduates is explained by this alignment.
In 1846 and 1847 the radicals invaded
Oberlin but without making any save unfavorable impressions.
Stephen S. Foster and Abby Kelley Foster constituted the attacking
party in 1846. They came in February with the recommendation of
Betsey Cowles, who begged her Oberlin friends to extend to them
"Christian forbearance and hospitality." The time of their visit,
however, was most inopportune as a revival was under way, and
naturally the leaders disliked having the interest of students and
other prospective converts diverted. Nevertheless, three meetings
were held in which the "come-outerism twins" presented their
radical views, denouncing the Church and political action. The
appearance of a woman as a public speaker was objected to on
principle. Most listeners were unfavorably affected, concluded
that Mrs. Foster was vulgar and shameless and that they had no
constructive program to offer. Only Lucy Stone had a good word for
them. She "had a grand time with them. They lectured three times.
Set the people to thinking, and I hope great good will
result."
The Fosters were not satisfied either and,
in June, wrote to Oberlin asking another hearing at a time when no
religious meetings were in progress. The faculty declared their
opinion that the Fosters were "unsafe advocates of the slave" and
resolved that it was "undesirable and unadvisable for them to
come." Mrs. Foster wrote caustically to Lucy Stone in regard to
this decision: "It is 'undesirable and inadvisable' forsooth, for
us to come to them, --and all because we are infidels. And so it
is not advisable and desirable that they should meet us face to
face and counsel us; or, failing to do that, expose us. No! no!! .
. . It is desirable to attack us in our absence, and send the cry
'Infidel' on our heels, all over the country, but give us no
opportunity to refute the vile slanders. I tell you, Lucy, these
men know their position in Church and in State is the most corrupt
and damning infidelity, and therefore they don't dare to meet us
before the people for an investigation." "Such people," she
declared, "would be beneath contempt were it not that they have
souls to save, and that they are doing so much
mischief."
Public opinion in Oberlin was aroused to a
fever pitch all summer long over the question of whether the
Fosters should appear or not. A group among the students and
Negroes was anxious to have them come; Finney and most of the
faculty opposed it. All sorts of rumors circulated with regard to
Mr. and Mrs. Foster who were, it was said, referred to as "low,
degraded, licentious vagabonds" and "infidels, of the blackest
dye." It was even whispered that Mrs. Foster was going to have a
baby and that her appearance on the public platform would be
indecent. The Fosters announced that they were coming anyway, and
it was finally determined that, though they might not defile the
meeting house, they could speak in the old chapel in Colonial Hall
if members of the Oberlin faculty were allowed time for reply from
the same platform.
The discussion was begun on a Tuesday
evening early in September and lasted through Friday evening, most
of the time being taken up in a twelve-hour debate between Mr.
Foster and President Mahan on "come-outerism." It must have been a
rather exciting affair, as personalities were freely indulged in
on both sides. The Fosters were past masters in the art of public,
oral abuse, and Mahan was no amateur at recrimination. Even the
Musical Association adjourned "to accommodate the discussion then
in progess . . . on disunion in church and state organizations."
President Mahan impugned the sincerity of his opponents, and
Foster returned the compliment. The Bugle said that Mahan
described come-outerism as a hideous monster "the size of a four
bushel basket" with many great claws "each armed with hellish
daggers." The results of such a discussion could be only increased
bitterness. "The discussion is now over," wrote the editor of the
Evangelist. "We are not aware that disunion and come-out-ism have
made one new convert. Every body here knows that the current of
public opinion sets more powerfully against those views now than
it did before the discussion, and that the Fosters were deemed
weak in argument--strong only in vituperation."
In 1847 Garrison entered Ohio in person
accompanied by Frederick Douglass, Stephen Foster, J. W. Walker,
and Samuel Brooke, the "indefatigable General Agent of the Western
Anti-Slavery Society." They arrived in Oberlin at Commencement in
time to hear two of the graduates "denounce 'the fanaticism of
Come-outerism and Disunionism,' and . . . make a thrust at those
who, in the guise of anti-slavery, temperance, etc., are
endeavoring to promote 'infidelity'!" They might have had a
partisan on the program, but Lucy Stone would not write an essay
because the faculty objected to ladies reading their own
pieces.
The debate on "come-outerism" occupied the
two following days. Garrison wrote from Oberlin to his
wife:
"Yesterday, at 10 o'clock, we began our
meetings in the church --nearly three thousand persons in
attendance. Another was held in the afternoon, another in the
evening--and this forenoon we have had another long session.
Douglass and myself have done nearly all the talking, on our side,
friend Foster saying but little. [Perhaps he had used all his
ammunition the previous year.] The principal topics of
discussion have been Come-outerism from the Church and the State.
Pres. Mahan entered into the debate in favor of the U. S.
Constitution as an anti-slavery instrument, and, consequently, of
the Liberty Party. He was perfectly respectful, and submitted to
our interrogations with good temper and courtesy. As a disputant,
he is adroit and plausible, but neither vigorous nor profound ....
What impression we made at Oberlin, I cannot say; but I was
abundantly satisfied as to the apparent effect."
Garrison was over-optimistic. In a letter
written a few days later a member of the audience declared that
"the reply of Prest. Mahan was masterly and dignified, overturning
and scattering to the winds every position of his opponent."
Evidently each side retreated from the field assured of its
victory.
Garrison was pleasantly entertained by
Hamilton Hill and Professor Timothy Hudson. He enjoyed meeting his
admirer, Lucy Stone, "a very superior young woman" with "a soul as
free as air." This visit was characterized by none of the personal
rancor which marred the appearances of the Fosters in 1846.
Professor Morgan was charmed by Garrison's personality, and found
his manners so pleasing that he no longer wondered, as he wrote to
Mark Hopkins, "at his influence over those who approach him with
sympathy for his sentiments." He regarded Douglass as "one of the
greatest phenomena of the age" and found him "full of wit,
human[ity] and pathos and sometimes mighty in invective,"
but he was sorry to find him so much "under the influence of the
Garrison clique." But there is no more evidence of any conversions
on either side in 1847 than in 1846.
Garrison's doctrine could have found full
expression only in revolution. Oberlinites denied the necessity of
such extreme measures, preferring to carry on their campaign for
the slave through the regular channels of ecclesiastical and civil
organizations. Garrison had no faith in human institutions as
constituted, because slavery existed under them, but Oberlin
maintained its practical belief in democracy in Church and
State.
CHAPTER XX
THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST
WAR
IN THE perfect society war must cease,
swords be beaten into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.
Instead of an army of soldiers equipped with musket and bayonet
let the youth of the nation join with those of other nations, form
one great brigade of workers, preaching and praying for every good
cause, living in close touch with the earth, ready at any time to
pick up the axe and the hoe when leaving the pulpit or the desk.
Slavery must cease; there must be a reformation in morals;
physical laws must be obeyed; the heathen everywhere must be
converted and war must be made impossible.
The organized peace crusade in America
began early in the century. The first peace societies were formed
in New York and Massachusetts in 1815. It was not, however, until
thirteen years later that the work of local organization was
integrated in the American Peace Society by the first great leader
of the cause, William Ladd. Relations between English and American
pacifists were close all along, the Society for the Promotion of
Permanent and Universal Peace having been founded in London in
1816 partly as a result of influences emanating from America.
Zealots for the cause always claimed that the societies played a
large part in smoothing over the serious diplomatic difficulties
which arose between the United States and Great Britain from 1837
to 1846. Certainly those difficulties stimulated the interest in
organized peace activities. It was in this period that the peace
movement took root in Oberlin.
In Oberlin as elsewhere there were two
schools of pacifists: the radicals and the conservatives. The
radicals were followers of Henry C. Wright, Adin Ballou and
William Lloyd Garrison, who believed that all use of force was
wrong and had organized, in 1838, the New England Non-Resistance
Society. The conservatives sided with President Allen of Bowdoin,
who believed that war and the use of force generally might be
justifiable in certain circumstances, especially in
self-defense.
The radicals were the first in the field.
On June 18, 1840, they formed the Oberlin Non-Resistance Society,
and declared their belief "that all wars are anti-christian--that
governments sustained by force, and acting upon the principles of
retaliation, must be left to other hands than the disciples of
Jesus--that the weapons of the christian's warfare are not carnal,
but spiritual . . . that parental authority is the only human
authority, approved by God; and that christians are to render
allegiance only to God, not to man--hence we may not employ
violence in restraining sin or promoting holiness among men; nor
take any part in military services; nor assist in the execution of
penal enactments; but bear all things for Christ's sake, boldly
testifying against all strife and sin, wherever they may be
found." It is clear enough that Oberlin was profoundly moved by
the formation of this society. As early as April of 1840 the
Dialectic Association discussed the question: "Would it be our
duty, should there be a levy, to take up arms in the anticipated
struggle with Great Briton?" On September 23, 1840, the question
for debate was "Is Capital punishment ever consistent with the
principles of benevolence?" and, a week later, "Do the interests
of our country demand the proposed standing army?" In the
following spring the issue was faced squarely in a meeting of the
same society: "Are the principles of the New England
Non-Resistance Soc. consistent with the Bible?"
Students were active in the Oberlin
Non-Resistance Society (the vice-president, secretary and
treasurer were all students), but no members of the faculty
allowed themselves to become associated with it in any way. The
faculty, indeed, seems to have denounced the organization as
anarchistic and too closely identified with the "come-outerism"
and anti-Sabbatarianism of William Lloyd Garrison and the Fosters.
The leaders of the society denied the charge and insisted that
they were only attempting to put the true religion of Jesus Christ
into practice. Most Christians, they declared, were compromising
with the Devil in admitting the righteousness of any form of war
or the use of force. "How long," they asked, "shall earth continue
one vast . . . slaughter-house of brethren; while the followers of
the Prince of Peace calmly look on, smile, and assist in the
bloody ravages therein continually perpetrated? Is it not our duty
to cry aloud and spare not? Has not the time come for us to
cleanse our skirts from the guilt of blood, and to speak out, till
the fatal enginery of war and strife are laid aside? till peace is
proclaimed throughout all the earth, and good-will spreads to
every family of man? till the millenial glory shall break in upon
the earth, and Jehovah shall reign King of Kings, and all the
kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdoms of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, whose dominion shall be without
end?"
Though the conservatives, supported as they
were by the united faculty, were far stonger and more numerous,
not until 1843 did they organize a society. The Oberlin Peace
Society, founded in that year, unlike the Oberlin Non-Resistance
Society, had the official approval of the Institute. The immediate
impetus which brought about its organization seems to have been
the coming of Amasa Walker to Oberlin as Professor of Political
Economy. Professor Walker had been a member of the old
Massachusetts Peace Society before the formation of the American
Peace Society and continued to be one of the outstanding American
leaders of the peace movement.
The faculty and colonists (there were
undoubtedly some students present, though they did not take an
active part) met in the chapel on March 21, 1843, for the purpose
of forming a peace society. The meeting was called to order by
Hamilton Hill, the British Secretary and Treasurer of the
Institute, and Amasa Walker was chosen chairman. The task of
drawing up a constitution was referred to a committee made up of
Henry Cowles, William Dawes (the financial agent), Amasa Walker,
David Cambell (the Grahamite, formerly in charge of the boarding
hall, who had twice been in a Boston jail for refusing to serve in
the militias), and H. C. Taylor (the editor of the Oberlin
Evangelist). Adjourned meetings on the 25th and 29th discussed
this constitution, which was adopted on the latter occasion. Some
officers of the former Non-Resistance Society were members of the
new organization; Deacon H. A. Pease, who had been on the
executive committee of that society, was one of the
vice-presidents of the new association. It is not surprising that
the constitution should have shown their influence and it is more
than probable that the three meetings required for the adoption of
that document were made necessary by differences regarding the
question of defensive war. In the constitution, as finally
approved, the principle of non-resistance is stated but, at the
same time, the necessity of defensive war is recognized. This
broad platform, like that of the American Peace Society, made it
possible for both radicals and conservatives to remain in the same
organization but constituted, by and large, a victory for the
conservatives. The society at its meeting on March 29 adopted
resolutions in favor of an active peace propaganda and a congress
of nations, and expressed optimism because of "the long peace" in
Europe and the "happy adjustment of the late difficulties . . .
between the United States and Great Britain."
On Monday, April 8, 1843, the managers of
the society posted a
NOTICE
The Oberlin Peace Society, will hold a
meeting in the Chapel next friday at two o'clock P.M. at which
time the following question will be discussed, viz: "Is all war
sinful?"
The whole community (male & female)
are invited to be present. As arrangements will be made for the
discussion to commence promptly and continue but two hours, a
punctual attendance at the time appointed, is requested (2
O'clk P.M.)
By order of Managers
L. Burnell, Secy.
If the "managers" ever thought that any
such question could be debated to a conclusion in two hours in
Oberlin they showed a surprising lack of insight. The faculty,
under the lead of Professor Finney, took the position that all war
was not necessarily sinful, but the opposition must have been
pretty stiff, for adjourned meetings were still being held well
into May. "The discussions lasted for several weeks," wrote a
young lady student in the Collegiate Department. "They were the
most interesting I ever attended. Prof. Finney says that
selfishness & that alone is sin. Then all war if it is sin
must be selfish, which he thinks cannot be proved." As usual when
Finney entered the arena he carried all before him. Oberlin was
arrayed, from this time, on the conservative side. Two years later
Lucy Stone was immensely disappointed to hear Professor Cowles and
Professor Morgan taking the stand that war might sometimes be
right.
The Oberlin Peace Society had, also, at one
of its early meetings in 1843, appointed delegates to attend the
World's Peace Convention: William Dawes, Hamilton Hill, H. C.
Taylor and Amasa Walker. When this first "international congress
of peace advocates" in all history met at Freemason's Tavern in
London on June 28, 1843, Amasa Walker was present as a delegate
from the Oberlin Peace Society. The other Oberlin delegates,
unable to attend themselves, despatched an address to the
convention. "We should be glad," they declared, "to meet with you
personally in this Holy Convocation. But [as] we cannot,
permit us to say 'Peace be with you all'.... In your worlds
convention we confidently look for this enlarged spirit of
Philanthropy, which shall make us all feel that our field is the
world, and all mankind are our countrymen." Fourteen delegates
from the United States took part in the proceedings, including,
besides Walker, Lewis Tappan, John Tappan and George C. Beckwith
of the American Peace Society. Among the British delegates were
Joseph Sturge, the Quaker philanthropist, and Richard Cobden. The
leader of the French delegation was the Duc de la
Rochefoucauld--Liancourt, president of the Society of Christian
Morals. It was assumed by the committee of arrangements that war
was "inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity and the
interests of mankind." The convention adopted resolutions favoring
the government control of the sale of munitions, a congress of
nations and arbitration treaties, and condemning the Opium War.
Professor Walker, a vice-president of the convention, introduced a
resolution calling upon women to exert their influence against
war,--to "frown on the warrior and the duellist .... the
epaulettes, and the plumes." An "Address to the Civilized
Governments of the World" was prepared and presented to the heads
of more than fifty governments, among others to Sir Robert Peel,
King Louis Philippe and President Tyler. It was believed by the
friends of peace that the convention furnished most effective
publicity for the cause.
Though the Oberlin Peace Society seems to
have died an early death, the peace cause continued to be actively
agitated in the middle forties. Even the Oberlin Agricultural and
Horticultural Society was invaded. In 1844 Professor Fairchild
delivered the annual address before that body on the subject, "The
Cost of War." Five years later Hiram Pease exhibited at the
agricultural fair "an old sword elegantly converted into a bread
knife, with the motto on its trenchant blade, 'Thou shall not
kill,' also an old bayonet transformed into a 'corn-cutter.'" The
Oberlin Evangelist regularly admitted peace propaganda to its
columns, and declared editorially that one of its objects was "to
hasten the day when men . . . shall learn war no more." Among
other means of bringing about peace it favored a congress of
nations. In 1845 and 1846, George Sturge, the English Quaker and
brother of Joseph Sturge, offered a prize of $25.00 for the best
essay written in Oberlin answering the article of the Episcopal
Church of England, which says, "It is lawful for a christian to
fight at the command of the civil magistrate." In March of 1847 a
Lorain County Peace Society was formed at a meeting in the Court
House at Elyria. The object of the society was declared to be "to
disseminate truth respecting the evils of War, and the best means
of its abolition." William Dawes was elected president and Dr. N.
S. Townshend, the Oberlin trustee and founder of the agricultural
college in Oberlin, was chosen secretary--evidence, of course, of
the Oberlin origin of the society. In June of the same year Henry
Cowles declared editorially in the Oberlin Evangelist: "... We
believe that all international wars may be easily avoided."
The Oregon question and the Mexican War
furnished very practical issues for the peace advocates to face.
The Oberlin Evangelist criticized Polk for demanding the whole of
Oregon and for the "confident not to say insulting air and tone
with which our administration put forward their claims." Why did
we want Oregon anyway?
"What! are we out of land that we should be
in such hot haste to grasp another empire two or three thousand
miles West of the Mississippi? Does any sane man believe that when
Oregon shall all be peopled, it will form an integral part of this
United Republic? or that it is at all desirable it should?
"Besides, and more than all, have we
counted the cost of war with Great Britain? Have our rulers
considered who shall bear the responsibility for . . . the blood
that will be shed--the hellish passions that will be inflamed--the
horrid demoralization that must result--the commerce crippled--the
sinews of prosperity cut--the treasure squandered--the debts
incurred .... have they--our rulers and the mad clamorers for
war--begun to estimate these evils and ask themselves who will
bear the responsibilities of having incurred them?" Oberlin's
opposition to the Mexican War may be partially explained on
anti-slavery grounds, but, of course, there was never any danger
of Oregon becoming a slave state. As to the Mexican War, Oberlin
denounced it in no uncertain terms as soon as Taylor had crossed
the Nueces. "Who can justify such a war as this?" asked the editor
of the Evangelist. "We have no fellowship with wrong doing--done
by our own country, or by anybody else's country under heaven.
Wars of aggression like this we not only deprecate and deplore,
but most unqualifiedly condemn. The conscience of the world and
the court of heaven are against us, and we should not be
disappointed if bitter woes betide our nation for it, to befall us
ere all is over." On the very day of the publication of this
editorial the people of Oberlin, gathered in mass meeting, adopted
a set of denunciatory resolutions declaring that, "The government
of the United States, by an unconstitutional and outrageously
unjust annexation of Texas, and by a menacing and insulting
display of an armed force on Mexican territory and before a
Mexican City, has plunged the country into a war in which the God
of justice and the common sentiment of the world are against us,
and in which every blow struck on the part of this nation will be
an act of robbery and murder." Nor was any retreat made from this
position. A year later the Evangelist called the conflict "most
dishonorable, unjust, and nefarious . . . conceived in sin." When
the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo was signed there was no
celebration in Oberlin. "'A dreadful sound is in the ear' of the
nation," declared the editor, "for it has done a damning deed ....
We do not ourselves think that bonfires, and illuminations, and
thanksgivings, and congratulations become us in the present
crisis; but rather confession, humiliation, sackcloth and
ashes."
The later history of the peace crusade in
Oberlin is bound up with the story of one of the greatest leaders
of that movement, Elihu Burritt, the "learned Blacksmith." His
sweet, Christian spirit, associated as it was with an invincible
attachment to reform principles, appealed strongly to the rank and
file at Oberlin. It was in 1844 that Burritt began the publication
of his Christian Citizen at Worcester, Massachusetts. In the
heading of each number was a cut showing a lion and a lamb lying
down together and the motto: "God hath made of one blood all the
nations of men." Already in the summer of 1845 he had become
well-known in Oberlin. In July the Dialectic Association laid a
tax of one dollar on each member for his benefit. The literary
societies joined in inviting him to be their speaker at
Commencement. He was forced to decline on account of ill health,
but expressed great disappointment especially at thus being
deprived of an opportunity of meeting "my dear friend Prof.
Walker, whose heart beats true and strong to the cause of
humanity." Not until 1854 did Burritt visit Oberlin, when he spoke
in favor of "Ocean Penny Postage." In September of 1845 the
Evangelist published one of his propaganda letters, "Facts for a
Thousand Millions," in which he presented an estimate of total
mortality in all wars: "Loss of life in the Jewish Wars,
25,000,000--By Wars in the time of Sesostris, 15,000,000 . . .
etc. American Indians destroyed by the Spaniards, 12,000,000--Wars
of Napoleon, 6,000,000"--reaching a total of 683,000,000 killed in
all wars! The dead if placed in a row, he declared "would reach
442 times around the earth, and four times around the sun" or if
lumped in a great mass (in a figure much like one of Van Loon's)
"would form a globe of human flesh of nearly a mile in diameter,
weighing 1,820,000,000,000 lbs!"
Borrowing from the methods of the
temperance reformers Burritt drew up a pledge to be signed by
opponents of war all over the world:
Believing all war to be
inconsistent with the spirit of Christianity, and destructive
to the best interest of mankind, I do hereby pledge myself
never to enlist or enter into any army or navy or to yield any
voluntary support or sanction to . . . any war, by whomsoever,
for whatsoever proposed, declared, or waged. And I do hereby
associate myself with all persons, of whatever country, colour,
condition, or who have signed, or who shall hereafter sign,
this pledge, in a 'League of Universal Brotherhood'; whose
object shall be to employ all legitimate and moral means for
the abolition of all war, and . . . the abolition of all
institutions and customs which do not recognize and respect the
image of God and a human brother in every man of whatever
clime, color or condition of humanity.
The idea came to him while on a tour in
England and the first signers of the pledge were secured in
England in the summer of 1846. Before the year was out Professor
Walker, at the request of Burritt, was moving to secure signers in
Oberlin. Of course, the pledge was very close to a non-resistant
document, and most of the Oberlin leaders gave it the cold
shoulder, but the students and colonists signed gladly, and in
September of 1847 Amos Dresser could report over seven hundred
pledges for Oberlin.
Amos Dresser was one of the most active and
radical peace advocates in Oberlin. He had studied at the Oneida
Institute and at Lane Seminary, and came to Oberlin in 1835 as one
of the Rebels. He finished the Theological Course in 1839, but
even before this had made a reputation as a temperance lecturer
and a martyr to the cause of anti-slavery. For a while he was a
missionary in Jamaica. He returned on account of ill health and
was for a while connected with Shipherd's new institute at Olivet.
Dresser was a friend of H. C. Wright of the New England
Non-Resistance Society and was himself a thorough non-resistant.
His Bible against War, published at Oberlin in 1849, was a
denunciation of defensive war and an attempt to show that
non-resistance was the true Christian doctrine--"a searching
analysis of the Bible arguments so often quoted as testimony in
favor of war, and a triumphant vindication of the principle that
'all war is inconsistent with Christianity.'" It was intended as a
direct answer to President Mahan, who declared that the Old
Testament expressly sanctioned the right of self-defense, and to
Prolessor Finney, who declared that "there can be no reasonable
doubt" that "war has been in some instances demanded by the spirit
of moral law." He early became associated with Burritt as western
agent for the Christian Citizen and as agent for the League of
Universal Brotherhood in northern Ohio. His headquarters were at
Oberlin where he carried on a cobbler's shop in order to pay his
expenses. He was Oberlin's leading radical in the peace
movement.
The most spectacular organized
demonstrations against war in the nineteenth century were the
international peace conventions of 1848 to 1851. We have already
noted the World's Peace Convention of 1843 which was held in
London. After that initial experiment no more were held until
Burritt took up the idea in 1848. As his League of Universal
Brotherhood included signers in England, America, France, Holland
and other countries it was natural that it should sponsor
international gatherings which would bring these members together
and help to break down national antipathies and smooth over
misunderstandings. The first convention under Burritt's
sponsorship was held in Brussels in September, 1848.
Burritt now bent every effort toward a
greater congress to meet in the following year in Paris. He
secured the cooperation of the London Peace Society in England;
and in the United States a special Congress Committee, with
members from the American Peace Society as well as from the League
of Universal Brotherhood, was formed, with Bradford Sumner of
Boston at its head and Charles Sumner a member. Through the
columns of the Christian Citizen Burritt begged his countrymen to
send a large delegation, thus making the congress a truly
international and worth-while affair. Special meetings to stir up
interest were held all over the country. On May 30, 1849 "the
friends of peace" in Oberlin assembled to consider what they could
do. Professor Morgan presided; Henry Cowles and Hamilton Hill
acted as secretaries. Resolutions were passed expressing approval
"of the approaching meeting to be held in Paris" and commending
"the course of Elihu Burritt, and his associates, in laboring to
establish a COURT OF ARBITRATION for the settlement of all
[inter]national disputes." Four delegates were appointed
"to represent the male department of the Institution," including
T. B. Hudson, James Monroe and J. D. Cox. Two were chosen to
represent "the female department," one of them being Sallie
Holley. "To represent this meeting generally" eight others were
designated, among them being President Mahan, Professor Finney,
William Dawes, John Keep, Amos Dresser and Hamilton Hill. Peace
interest had reached such a high point at this time that a special
periodical, called the Oberlin Peace Banner or Western Peace
Banner was issued. Though no single copy is known to have survived
to the present day it seems to have been published for about a
year, from June, 1849, to June, 1850. The Oberlin "friends of
peace" provided that the minutes of their meeting should be
printed in the Banner as well as in the Evangelist.
Of all the delegates thus selected only
two, Mahan and Hill, actually made the trip to Paris. Hamilton
Hill was also chosen as delegate by a gathering of the friends of
peace in Elyria, presided over by his predecessor as Secretary of
the Institute, Levi Burnell. Besides, his health seemed to demand
a rest and he was anxious to see his friends in England. The empty
treasury of the Institute was left in the hands of a clerk lent by
J. M. Fitch. On July 18, 1849, President Mahan and Treasurer Hill
sailed from Boston on board the Canada in company with "Mr. Wm. W.
Brown, the eloquent fugitive slave," another delegate.
The Peace Congress at Paris was a dramatic
event. War and rumors of war were all about; Paris itself was
apparently on the verge of a new revolution, but in the splendid
Salle de Ste-Cecile, a spacious concert hall in the heart of the
city, the friends of peace gathered from both sides of the
Atlantic. The auditorium was hung with the flags of all nations.
On the platform sat the more distinguished members: in the centre
Victor Hugo, chairman of the convention, "the fashionable author,
the historian and artist of the salons, the poet of the tribunes";
at his right the Abbe Deguerry of the Madeleine, a Roman Catholic
Priest; and, next to him, Richard Cobden, distinguished British
liberal leader, "cool, composed, and matter of fact"; then M.
Visschers of Brussels, and Joseph Sturge the English Quaker. On
the chairman's left were M. Coquerel, a French protestant
clergyman, "a large man, somewhat approaching corpulency, with his
ample black coat buttoned across his chest, a red ribband of the
legion of honor in one of his buttonholes, and a double eye-glass
dangling at his breast"; then Professor Walker, a member of the
legislature of Massachusetts and still nominally on the faculty of
the Oberlin Collegiate Institute; and next to him M. Girardin of
the Parisian newspaper, La Presse, "his whole person and
countenance . . . expressive of bold independent individuality,
and indomitable courage and energy." Burritt, who did not sit on
the platform, was given a great tribute of applause by the 1500
delegates and guests present at the opening session. Twenty-one
delegates were in attendance from the United States--three of them
(if Walker is included) associated with Oberlin.
Victor Hugo opened the session with an
impassioned oration, in which he prophesied that a day would come
"when those two immense groups, the United States of America and
the United States of Europe, shall be seen placed in the presence
of each other, extending the hand of fellowship across the ocean,
exchanging their produce, their commerce, their industry, their
arts, their genius, clearing the earth, peopling the deserts,
improving creation under the eye of the Creator, and uniting, for
the good of all, their two irresistible and infinite powers, the
fraternity of men and the power of God." Among other speakers on
the first day of the Congress were M. Visschers, Mr. Cobden and
President Mahan. President Mahan favored a permanent arbitration
congress like the later Hague Tribunal, but Mr. Cobden believed it
was better to appoint a special board of arbitration whenever a
difficulty arose. In general the convention stuck to generalities,
avoiding anything which might lead to discord--so much so that
President Mahan felt that its usefulness was much restricted
because "it settled no great principles, and proposed no definite,
well-defined measures for the accomplishment" of peace.
All delegates agreed in their enthusiasm
over the hospitality of the French and the French Government.
President Mahan wrote to Henry Cowles:
"Nothing can be said in too high
commendation of the treatment which the Congress received from the
French government. . . . On Saturday evening the entire Congress
went in to a soiree at the house of the Minister of Foreign
Affairs. On Monday we were invited to visit the palaces of
Versailles and St. Cloud. In honor of such visitation the water
works were ordered to play, an honor only conferred on such great
occasions as the visitations of sovereigns, and events of kindred
character. The meeting of the Congress in such a place and under
such auspices cannot fail to make a deep impression upon the heart
of France and Europe too. One little incident will indicate the
state of facts on this point. I happened to be standing at one
time arm in arm with two gentlemen, one a Scotch and the other an
Englishman. Two very interesting gentlemen approached and offered
us their hands with the kindest expressions of friendship and
gratification. After the greeting, I said to the strangers, 'I
American, he Scotchman, and he Englishman.' 'I Frenchman, he
Spaniard,' was the reply. We all locked arms in a circle in token
of the fact that we were brethren."
The chief result of the Congress was the
stimulation of interest in the peace cause. The returning
delegates were most effective propagandists. A great reception was
held in Boston at which Mayor Josiah Quincy presided. Burritt felt
that his efforts had been "crowned with a great
success."
No time was given to allow the enthusiasm
from this success to die down. Burritt seized the opportunity to
stir up interest in another convention to be held in 1850 in
Frankfort. Early in January a mass meeting was held in the chapel
at Oberlin and the Oberlin Peace League founded. At first the
League of Universal Brotherhood, the idea of which was suggested
to Burritt by Professor Walker, was merely the unorganized sum
total of all the signers of the pledge. Later, however, local and
national societies were formed. The American National League of
Universal Brotherhood was founded in 1848 with Walker as its first
president. In 1850 Elihu Burritt was president, Walker,
corresponding secretary and Hamilton Hill of Oberlin and William
Hosford (an Oberlin graduate) of Michigan among the
vice-presidents.
The Oberlin local society was organized on
January 8 and 14, 1850. The objects of the League were declared to
be "to abolish utterly the custom of international war, and to
promote universal peace among the nations of the earth." These
objects were to be promoted "by holding forth the truth respecting
the cost, the folly, the manifold evils, and the sinfulness of
war; and also the desirableness and practicability of universal
peace; by employing all appropriate means to induce our general
government to take right action on this subject; and by extending
pecuniary aid to active and useful laborers in this cause." Twelve
resolutions were adopted containing the usual platitudes and three
resolutions of a practical nature. One of these resolutions
recommending the cutting of the "sinews of war" by opposing taxes
and loans to be used for military purposes was attacked from the
floor but finally passed, nevertheless. Another resolution
proposed petitioning Congress to negotiate arbitration treaties
with all civilized powers. A third hailed "with joy the call for a
Congress to meet at Frankfort, Germany, during the present
season."
Dr. Isaac Jennings was chosen chairman,
Deacon H. A. Pease, treasurer; and William Dawes, Hamilton Hill,
Henry Cowles, I. Mattison of the Peace Banner, G. N. Allen, N. W.
Hodge, and Amos Dresser were on the board of managers. The
Constitution provided that members should adopt the "Pledge of the
League of Universal Brotherhood." It is unlikely that Oberlin
leaders had changed their views on defensive war but they
doubtless felt that it was inexpedient to quibble about such
matters when the cause of Peace so needed all its friends. Burritt
certainly had fully conquered Oberlin, at last.
The Christian Citizen praised the Oberlin
group in no uncertain terms: "Our brethren in the 'banner town,'
Oberlin, Ohio, have opened a new campaign of operations in their
community, which, we are confident, will be attended with a
success equal to their best expectation. They occupy a very
important portion of the great American field of labor; and we
hope they will sow in a faith that never withholds its hand, but
scatters its seed of love morning, noon, and night, in all places
and seasons. What a work for human brotherhood they would
accomplish, if they could, as it were, create a moral atmosphere
in Oberlin, which, being inhaled by hundreds of young men
connected with the Institute in that place, should transform their
first ideas, and make them breathe forth in their future life and
ministration the spirit and principles of PeaceI" This, of course,
was exactly what the Oberlin leaders hoped to do.
Early in the spring of 1850 President Mahan
returned, and his appearance stimulated further activity. The
Lorain County Peace Society was revived and a meeting scheduled
for July 4 to hear Mahan and consider what might be done for the
Frankfort Congress. The meeting took place in Oberlin according to
schedule, Mahan in his address in the morning developing "the
foundation principles of the modern Peace movement." At the
afternoon session a group of resolutions were explained and
adopted: "that war . . . assuming to do what should be done by a
High Court of nations, promising to obtain rights by inflicting
infinite wrongs and to conquer a peace and to multiply its
blessings by generating the untold mischiefs and miseries of war,
has shown itself to be despicably absurd in principle and
ruinously desolating in practice," "that the cardinal doctrine of
the Peace movement, which is the substitution in place of war of
those long tried and proved terms of promoting justice; namely,
written law; organized courts and forms of arbitration,--is
unquestionably sound in principle and cannot fail to be most
felicitous to human well-being in practice," "that inasmuch as the
efficient power of law in all virtuous and intelligent communities
lies not in the swords, but in enlightened virtuous public
sentiment; therefore, we have no occasion to rely on the sword to
sustain and enforce the decisions of a High Court of nations--the
public sentiment that will create such a court,--and will find
utterance through its decisions being in reality mightier and more
availing to the cause of peace and justice than armies," that "we
deem Conventions and Congresses of the friends of Peace to be of
immense utility, especially for the purposes of promoting
internation fraternity, and universal brotherhood," and that "to
accomplish these great ends it is in our view indispensible that
the friends of peace in every village, city or township should
organize for this specific end."
Nearly two months previously at a meeting
in Columbus an Ohio State Peace Society had been formed. An Ohio
society had existed as early as 1815, but it seems long since to
have ceased to function. At the meeting in May, 1850, a typical
constitution was drawn up and adopted as well as a series of
resolutions. These resolutions denounced war from every angle,
recognized that women should and could play a large part in the
work, approved the peace conventions, and recommended that
Congress provide a naval vessel to take delegates to the Frankfort
Convention across the Atlantic! Oberlin dominated the convention.
William Dawes was elected president; Henry Cowles, corresponding
secretary and M. B. Bateham, editor of the Ohio Cultivator, and
Cowles' son-in-law, treasurer. The delegates appointed to attend
the Frankfort Congress included William Dawes and Henry Cowles as
well as Joshua Giddings, John Rankin and others. Amos Dresser was
a member of two important committees and addressed the convention.
Professor Cowles was chairman of the committee which drew up the
"Address of the Ohio State Peace Society to the People of
Ohio:"
"Fellow-citizens of Ohio, the great Peace
Reform has begun. Three World's Peace Conventions, namely, at
London, Brussels, and Paris--have been held, and another in
Frankfort-on-the-Main, is to convene next August .... Shall Ohio
do its part to abolish the custom of war, and wreath around the
nations of the earth the bands of universal brotherhood? . . . Let
townships, villages, and cities, churches and other ecclesiastical
bodies, colleges, academies, and high schools, organize peace
societies, and if they see fit, connect themselves with the State
organization. But especially let them take measures, to have at
least each Congressional District represented by one or more
delegates to the Peace Congress at Frankfort."
Despite the efforts put into the
preparations for the Frankfort Congress it hardly attracted as
much attention as its predecessor. A large delegation from the
United States (probably between thirty and forty) was present at
the first session held in the impressive auditorium of St. Paul's
church, where the famous Frankfort Parliament had met two years
before. The Americans joined the British and French in the praises
of Peace and denunciation of War--in long and, often, bombastic
and platitudinous orations. Though some Germans took part, most of
them were in the galleries wearing uniforms. No peace congress
could be really prosperous in the military atmosphere of Germany
in the middle of the nineteenth century. Neither William Dawes nor
Henry Cowles actually appeared at the convention, though as late
as June 18 the latter was making his plans to do so. Hamilton
Hill's son, however, attended and reported the proceedings for the
Oberlin Evangelist, declaring that the meeting was "eminently
successful in its projection, progress and termination." Such
optimism was possible only for blind enthusiasts in the cause. We
see today that the forces of militarism were growing stronger
everywhere and that the days of Burritt's international peace
movement were already numbered.
Only one more truly international peace
congress was held--that which met in London in 1851. Amos Dresser
represented Oberlin. Josephine Penfield Bateham (a graduate of
Oberlin in 1857 and a step-daughter of Professor Cowles) seems to
have been excluded because of the British aversion to women
delegates. Mrs. Bateham had been appointed a delegate from Ohio
along with Dresser and her husband, M. B. Bateham, editor of the
Ohio Cultivator. Bateham, himself, was practically an Oberlin man,
having been a follower of Finney and his ideas since his Rochester
days. Mrs. Bateham was "editress" of the Ladies' Department in her
husband's paper and wrote back a number of interesting letters
describing her experience. She reported some of the speeches at
the convention (heard by her from the gallery) and described the
"oft repeated cheers and cries of 'hear,' 'hear,' which welcomed
the speakers." But she, like most of the other delegates, was
apparently more interested in the Crystal Palace Exposition and
the sights and society of a foreign land. She wrote more
extensively of the cast iron sculpture and "flowers in coloured
pearl" shown at the exposition, of soirees and the "pic-nic of the
Olive Leaf Societies in the Anerly tea gardens" where she rode a
donkey and drank tea in a tent. The convention apparently didn't
produce much of an impression.
In the fifties the anti-slavery cause
swallowed up the energies and interest of most reformers; and
other reform movements, especially the peace crusade, suffered
accordingly. Oberlin's participation in the peace cause was pretty
definitely limited to the period 1840 to 1850. True, the ladies
participated in the Olive Leaf sewing circle movements and the
literary societies debated such questions as, "Can a Christian
Minister conscientiously go as chaplain of an army in time of
war?" As late as 1854 there was "a somewhat lively discussion"
when the Young Men's Lyceum debated whether "the United States
should . . . support a standing army in time of peace." In the
same year Burritt lectured in favor of Ocean Penny Postage. It was
only a few years, however, before Oberlin men by the score were
shouldering muskets and donning blue uniforms. In January, 1862,
Dr. R. A. Fisher of New Haven lectured in Oberlin on Cannon,
Gunpowder, and Projectiles!
CHAPTER
XXI
FEMALE REFORMERS
"IT IS a thing positively disagreeable to
both sexes to see a woman a public character," declared Professor
James H. Fairchild to the students of the Oberlin Collegiate
Institute in June, 1849. This was just a little less than two
years after the graduation of Lucy Stone. Antoinette Brown, the
first ordained woman preacher, and Sallie Holley, the famous
anti-slavery lecturer, may have been in the audience, for both
were students in Oberlin at the time. The notoriety of Lucy Stone,
Antoinette Brown (Blackwell) and two or three other militant
women's rights advocates in the Oberlin student body has obscured
the fact that official Oberlin as well as student and town opinion
generally opposed them at the time. "They hate Garrison, and
women's rights," Lucy Stone wrote to her parents of her Oberlin
associates. "I love both, and often find myself at swords' points
with them,..." It is true that now and then one of the young
ladies appeared in bloomers and that the amount of discussion of
this badge of militant feminism in the literary societies
indicates that others lacked not the desire to wear them so much
as the courage. In 1860 a number of Oberlin ladies even came to
the polls and demanded the right to vote! But the soberer voice of
Oberlin spoke through Professor Fairchild who called the woman
suffrage movement a "Rozinante of reform" and said that the idea
of women holding office was "too unnatural to be dreamed of." "We
think we are progressive," wrote the editor of the Lorain County
News (Oberlin), "we trust we are generous, we believe we are
liberal, we hope we are not destitute of gallantry, we desire to
be reformatory, in theory at least, we solemnly aver that we are
both a philanthropos and a philgynikos, but, bless you, ladies!
don't vote."
The women's rights movement of the period
before the Civil War succeeded in securing general recognition of
the right and propriety of women speaking in public. Oberlin gave
only grudging consent, but furnished women with the education
which, more than anything else, made their success possible.
Oberlin's attitude was that women's high calling was to be the
mothers of the race, and that they should stay within that special
sphere in order that future generations should not suffer from the
want of devoted and undistracted mother care. If women became
lawyers, ministers, physicians, lecturers, politicians or any sort
of "public characters" the home would suffer from neglect. It is
not improbable that one reason why the early Oberlin Fathers
favored "joint education" was that it was hoped that thus the
young ladies could be more readily kept in their proper relation
of awed subjection to the "leading sex." Washing the men's
clothing, caring for their rooms, serving them at table, listening
to their orations, but, themselves, remaining respectfully silent
in public assemblages, the Oberlin "coeds" were being prepared for
intelligent motherhood and a properly subservient
wifehood.
Oberlin opposed women speaking in public
mixed gatherings both on practical and Biblical grounds. In 1838
the Female Principal, Mrs. Alice Welch Cowles, wrote in her diary:
"God will not lead me to speak or instruct in the assemblies
because, if I mistake not, he has told me with other females, not
to do so." When Abby Kelley Foster came to Oberlin in 1846,
"mounted the rostrum in angry debate," and shook "her delicate
fist in grave men's faces," most Oberlin people were properly
shocked at the "specimen of what woman becomes when out of her
place." True, the second Mrs. Henry Cowles presided at the
Temperance Convention at Columbus in 1853, but six years later her
husband wrote in the Oberlin Evangelist that women might not speak
in large public assemblies "without violating the natural sense of
propriety which God has given us, or the real sense of
scripture."
Lucy Stone's career at Oberlin was one long
protest against this point of view. She came to Oberlin because it
was the only college then open to women, in order to prepare
herself for the career of a public lecturer. She was determined to
get some training in public speaking. Against all precedent she
persuaded Professor Thome to allow her and Antoinette Brown to
debate before a mixed rhetorical class, but the college
authorities forbade a repetition of the performance. Lucy also
stirred the Young Ladies' Association to new life and often
appeared on its programs. On August 1, 1846, she delivered her
first public address, on "Why we rejoice today," at the
celebration of the Oberlin Negroes on the anniversary of
emancipation in the West Indies: "... She ascended the stand and
in a clear, full tone, read her own article." Of course, she was
much criticized for her boldness. "... I was never in a place,"
she wrote, "where women are so rigidly taught that they must not
speak in public." When she finished her collegiate course in 1847
Lucy Stone was determined to read her own essay at Commencement, a
thing that young lady candidates for the A.B. had never been
allowed to do; she refused, in fact, to write at all if her essay
must be read by a man. She prepared a petition to the faculty and
to the Ladies' Board asking that she might read her own essay,
"but the petition was rejected, on the ground that it was improper
for women to participate in public exercises with men." She did
not write an essay, protesting that by doing so she would be
making "a public acknowledgment of the rectitude of the principle
which takes away from women their equal rights, and denies to them
the privilege of being co-laborers with men in any sphere to which
their ability makes them adequate."
As Antoinette Brown planned to be a
minister, she, too, desired an opportunity to gain training and
experience in public and semi-public speaking. In 1847 when Lucy
was silent in protest, Antoinette read her own essay ("Original
Investigation Necessary to the Right Development of Mind") because
she was graduating from the Ladies' Department rather than the
College Course. Her battle really began when Lucy left Oberlin and
she (Antoinette) began her theological study. The faculty refused
to receive her as a regular member of the Theological Department
but allowed her to attend the classes if she cared to. She was
registered in the catalogue as a "resident graduate, pursuing
Theological Course"! She wrote sensibly to Lucy, who thought she
had come back to Oberlin "upon dishonorable terms": "I came back
here just upon no terms at all. They refused to receive me in the
Institution. I came back to study Theology and get knowledge. I do
get it; they don't interfere. I am not responsible for their
conduct or decisions .... I am bound to put myself into the most
favorable position for improvement possible while the day for
improvement lasts . . . and what if they or anybody else think I
act unwisely, or dishonorably, or foolishly, what can that be to
me? I respect their advice, but I do not abide by their
decisions." Professor Morgan was thoroughly out of sympathy with
her aims and efforts and frankly told her so--"he had
conscientious scruples in reference to young ladies' delivering
orations and preaching sermons." Professor Finney, though he did
not believe that women were "generally called upon to preach or
speak in public," allowed her to take an active part in his
classes, even calling upon her to give her religious experiences.
Probably Antoinette Brown's greatest triumph was her admission to
the Theological Literary Society, in whose meetings she took a
full part--in "discussion, orations and essays." "They talked and
talked about preventing me but at last let it go," she wrote to
Lucy. Prof. Morgan "would have no discussion or declamation from
the ladies but as it was a society, the members had a right to say
what I might do and they were too evenly divided to prevent me
from speaking." She was the only young lady who ever belonged to
one of the regular men's literary societies. When she finished her
theological studies in 1850 she received no recognition at
Commencement, and she was tactful enough not to request
ordination. In May, 1853, she returned to Oberlin and addressed
the Young Ladies' Literary Society on "Woman's Sphere." In
September she was ordained in her own church at South Butler, N.
Y., by the Rev. Luther Lee of Syracuse, Gerrit Smith delivering an
address. So Oberlin reluctantly gave to America its first ordained
woman Protestant minister.
President Mahan always favored allowing the
young ladies to take part in speaking exercises in mixed groups.
In 1839 he and Professor Thome proposed that the ladies' and men's
rhetorical classes meet together and that the former as well as
the latter should read their compositions before these
"coeducational" classes. The young ladies "from modesty, or
delicacy. . . felt reluctant to read compositions before" the
young men and petitioned against the proposal. Some of them, it is
said, "went to their rooms, and wept, at the dire necessity, they
supposed to be laid upon them." The separate classes were
reestablished. Professor Thome, as we have already seen, let Lucy
Stone and Antoinette Brown engage in a debate in his rhetorical
class in the middle forties. President Mahan favored allowing Lucy
Stone to read her own essay at Commencement. In the following
year, 1848, he moved heaven and earth in an effort to secure
permission for his daughter Anna to read her own essay on
Wednesday with the men of the college class. "But the Faculty
moved straight along notwithstanding, & voted that she have
the usual alternative of reading her own piece Tuesday, or of
having it read by some gentleman on Wednesday." A similar denial
met similar requests from Sarah Pellet in 1851 and Antoinette
Edgerton in 1854.
In 1854 an official statement of policy was
made in the Evangelist:
"The meeting on Tuesday is a Ladies'
Meeting; that on Wednesday is a gentlemen's meeting. On Tuesday a
lady--the Female Principal presides; the Ladies' Board occupy the
stand; young ladies exclusively sing, the young lady pupils fill
the orchestra, and none but ladies appear before the audience. If
gentlemen mingle in the audience, they come to attend a ladies'
meeting, in which the most fastidious cannot object to having
ladies read their essays.
"On Wednesday, a gentleman presides,
gentlemen fill--not to say crowd--the stand, the speakers are
gentlemen, and those young gentlemen do not read their essays, but
deliver them with whatever rhetoric they may be able to
command.
"These circumstances make a wide difference
between the two occasions, a difference which, duly seen and
appreciated, repels the charge of inconsistency in permitting the
personal reading in the former case and not in the
latter.
"The young ladies of the College class have
never been hindered from reading their essays--with their own
sex--in connection with the Female Department."
Essays were read for the young lady
graduates in 1855 and 1856 also. There were no candidates in 1857.
Mary Raley, in 1858, seems to have been the first to read her own
composition on Wednesday, a practice which was followed
subsequently. Thus at last the young lady graduates of the
Collegiate Department won the right to read essays at Commencement
with their male classmates if not to deliver orations.
At least as early as 1860 young ladies also
took part in the Junior Exhibition, but an Oberlin student writing
of the event in the University Quarterly warned the
public:
"Let none . . . ignorantly fancy that we
here hold 'the more advanced views' of woman's rights and duties,
and that the fair performers at the Junior Exhibition were raving
Bloomerites, quarreling with customs and abusing St. Paul. Our
college does not produce this genus. On the other hand, it has
been partly Oberlin's mission to show that a liberal education
does not rob woman of her nature, 'divest her of the softer
graces' and give her a masculine character."
But Oberlin's little group of "raving
Bloomerites" was better known to the public than the great
majority of more conservative and decorous ladies. Lucy Stone,
Antoinette Brown, and Betsey Mix Cowles of Austinburg, all former
Oberlin coeds, played leading roles in the radical woman's rights
movement. Of course, the first National Woman's Rights Convention
was held at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848. The second was held
at Salem, Ohio, in 1850, and Oberlinite Betsey Cowles was elected
president. Daniel Hise, a liberal Salemite, recorded that the
"Convention was a perfect jam all Enthusiasm--they did honor to
their sex, cursed be the pityful whining Politicians, that still
persists in withholding from her, her Political rights." Betsey
Cowles was a guest in the Hise household and he was much impressed
by her intellect and playful disposition. At the fourth national
convention, held at Cleveland in 1853, the speakers included
Lucretia Mott, Mrs. Foster, Mrs. Bloomer--herself, and Lucy Stone
and Antoinette Brown.
Though the women's rights movement was
frowned upon in Oberlin as an ultra-radical reform, there was one
type of reform which was considered the legitimate and special
sphere of "females": the movement for the reform in sexual morals
or "moral reform." This does not mean that men did not play a part
in it in Oberlin and in the nation (the founder and patron saint
was a man), but men were decidedly in a minority. Woman's place
was in the home; the moral reform movement was a crusade to
protect and purify the family, therefore, it was preeminently
proper that women should participate in it.
The Rev. John R. McDowall, a product of the
Princeton Theological Seminary, began to take a deep interest in
the abandoned women of New York City in the late 1820's. Soon he
came to be recognized as the founder of a new cause, the prophet
of a new reform. With the aid of William Goodell, the anti-slavery
editor, he began the publication of a little bi-weekly paper, the
Female Advocate, devoted to the rescue of "female profligates" and
the formation of moral societies. This was in 1832. In the
following year the Advocate was restricted largely to the
temperance cause; and another periodical, McDowall's Journal, was
established to be the organ of the new crusade. So fanatical and
frank was McDowall in his campaign for "moral purity" that the
"respectable" elements in New York society demanded the suspension
of his journal. A grand jury presented it as a public nuisance,
with the approbation of papers like the New York Observer, and
McDowall and his Journal retired from the scene under a
cloud.
But the efforts of the "Martyr of the
Seventh Commandment" had not been in vain. As was to be expected a
group of the New York City "brethren" took up the movement. Late
in 1830 they formed the "Christian Benevolent Society"--"the
object of which is to endeavor to reform depraved and abandoned
females." McDowall was employed as their agent. Anson G. Phelps
and Arthur Tappan were on the executive committee. The next year
the name "New York Magdalen Society" was adopted; Tappan was
elected president; McDowall was chaplain. This organization was
short-lived, but in 1833 a Society for Moral Reform was founded,
which in September of that year grew into the American Society for
Promoting the Observance of the Seventh Covenant. Unlike its
predecessor, this society devoted itself primarily to "the
preservation of the virtuous," a policy followed throughout the
remainder of the history of the movement. Its officers included
such Finneyite reformers as Beriah Green and John Frost of the
Oneida Institute, Josiah Chapin of Providence, Horace Bushnell and
Theodore Weld (both Oneidas who went to Lane Seminary), Joshua
Leavitt of the New York Evangelist, and Lewis Tappan.
In the following year the New York Female
Moral Reform Society, destined to be the most powerful and
long-lived organization engaged in this movement, was formed as an
auxiliary of the American Society for Promoting the Observance of
the Seventh Covenant. Very shortly the latter sank into a coma and
the female society itself became the active national unit,
receiving both male and female moral reform societies from all
over the nation as auxiliaries. Mrs. Charles G. (Lydia Andrews)
Finney became "First Directress" (the highest executive officer)
and Mrs. William Green, Jr. (whose husband became a leading member
of the Oberlin Professorship Association founded in 1835) was
"Second Directress." Mr. Finney addressed the session of the
society at the Chatham Street Chapel in December, 1834. He told
the ladies that Christians should "visit these houses, and fill
them with Bibles and Tracts and make them places of religious
conversation and of prayer, and convert their wretched inmates on
the spot.
The New York Female Moral Reform Society
bought McDowall's Journal and continued its publication, in 1835
and later years, as the Advocate of Moral Reform. Under the able
editorship of Sarah Towne Smith (later Mrs. Martyn) the periodical
became the centralizing organ of the national moral reform
movement, contributing much to the prestige and power of the
society which controlled it. By 1837 it enjoyed a paid circulation
of over 16,000, several thousand more numbers of each issue being
distributed gratis.
Over 250 local societies were auxiliary to
the New York Female Moral Reform Society in 1837: 138 in New York,
25 in Massachusetts, 29 in Connecticut, 27 in Ohio and the
remainder scattered from Maine to Michigan. These societies
included over 15,000 active members. It was appropriate that the
name should be changed, as it was in 1839, to the American Female
Moral Reform Society, its activities having become truly national
in scope. The ladies of the society recognized that, "The sin of
licentiousness has made fearful havoc in the world, corrupting all
flesh, drowning souls in perdition, and exposing us to the
vengeance of . . . God, whose law in this respect has been
trampled on almost universally not only by actual transgression,
but by the tacit consent of the virtuous, and by the almost
perfect silence of those whom He has commanded to 'cry aloud and
spare not.'" They determined to strive, through the Advocate, to
awaken "interest in the subject of Moral Reform by the diffusion
of light and information," to labor for "the formation of a public
conscience in relation to the sin of licentiousness," and "to
afford a channel of communication, in which the thoughts and
feelings of females throughout the Country may more freely
mingle." The years from 1836 to 1845, the period during which
Sarah T. Smith was "editress" of the Advocate, constituted the
hey-day of the reform.
In the early thirties the movement was
taken up enthusiastically by many young men--particularly college
and theological students. In February of 1833 McDowall reported
the receipt of letters of commendation from students at Auburn
Theological Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Andover
Seminary, and the Baptist Theological Seminary at Hamilton, New
York. In the same year a "standing Committee on Lewdness" was
chosen at Western Reserve College, including Horace C. Taylor,
later of Oberlin, and H. H. Spalding, the Oregon missionary. On
the 15th of April of the following year the student body assembled
in the Chapel "to take into consideration measures for the
promotion of moral purity." An organization called the Magdalen
Society of the Western Reserve College was formed, and H. C.
Taylor was elected president. In the spring of 1834 the Moral
Reform Society of Brown University and the Moral Purification
Society at Williams were established. Similar organizations
appeared shortly after at the Oneida Institute in New York, and at
Amherst. George A. Avery and M. B. Bateham were members of the
Young Men's Moral Reform Society of Rochester, which appointed a
"vigilant committee" whose duty was to discover houses of ill fame
and report them to the police.
Oberlin was always in the van in any reform
which could be reconciled with Christianity, and took up this
movement enthusiastically. Even in 1834, while the colony and
Institute was yet in embryo, the Oberlin Church contributed ten
dollars to McDowall's cause. In the following year two moral
reform societies were founded:the Young Men's Moral Reform Society
of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute and the Oberlin Female Moral
Reform Society.
The young men were the first to organize.
They officially recognized "the destructive prevalence of the vice
of licentiousness" which was "threatening to deluge our land with
the miasma of Sodom," and recognized it as their duty,
"irrespective of the taunts, the reproach, or the calumny of
drunkards, infidels, or time-serving moralists, when they see this
enemy of everything that is of good report, hovering over the
habitations of domestic bliss and innocence, and carrying from the
abodes of peace the sons and daughters of chastity, to raise their
voice like a trumpet-tongued angel of mercy and sound the alarm."
Forty dollars was raised to pay subscriptions to the Advocate. One
of the members of the Executive Committee was E. H. Fairchild,
later President of Berea. The Oberlin men's society was the first
such society to become auxiliary to the New York Female Moral
Reform Society, a practice encouraged by that society and followed
by a few other young men's societies.
As in New York, so in Oberlin, the chief
burden of the moral reform movement fell on the women. The men's
society still existed in 1845 but was not really active. The
minutes of the Oberlin Female Moral Reform Society extend from
1835 through 1859. The Constitution, adopted in 1835 and published
in the Advocate, provided the usual machinery of organization and
stated the purpose of the society: "The first object of this
society shall be to promote and sustain moral purity among the
virtuous. We therefore pledge ourselves to refrain from all
licentious conversation, to cultivate and promote purity of
feeling, of action, and dress, both in ourselves, our associates,
and all who come within the sphere of our influence. The second
object shall be to reclaim by such means as are sanctioned by the
word of God, all those who have wandered from the path of
virtue.
Oberlin really took the task of reclamation
seriously. Three reformed ladies were, at one time, brought from
New York City and enrolled as students in the
Institute.
The Oberlin society prospered. In the six
years 1835 through 1840 inclusive 380 members were associated with
it. In the latter year 71 copies of the Advocate were regularly
received at the Oberlin post office. By 1854 the total number of
names on the register of members had passed 850 and over a hundred
copies of the Advocate were taken. Five years later this number
had been increased by twenty-five. There were as many as 225
active members at one time in the middle forties. In 1837 it had
the fourth largest membership of the 268 societies then in active
existence. Considerable gifts of money were secured to aid the
work of the national organization, several Oberlin women being
constituted life members at an expense to the local society of ten
dollars each. In 1854 the editor of the Advocate wrote, in
commenting on the Oberlin sorority: "Many daughters have done
virtuously, but thou excellest them all."
The membership of the Oberlin Female Moral
Reform Society included married women--wives of professors and
townsmen --and also young ladies of the Institute. The activities
and interests of the society must have overlapped somewhat with
the Maternal Association. The married members of the reform
society were probably all members of the Maternal Association, and
the latter organization often discussed moral problems. The
leaders of the society among the older women included Mrs. Alice
Welch Cowles and Mrs. M. D. P. Cowles (the first and second wives
of Professor Henry Cowles), Mrs. Esther Shipherd (wife of the
Founder), the first two Mrs. Finneys, Mrs. Mahan (wife of
President Mahan), Mrs. Dascomb, Mrs. Caroline Rudd Allen (wife of
the Professor of Music), and Miss Mary Atkins (Assistant in the
Female Department from 1847 to 1849 and later the founder of Mills
College in California). Most of them and a few others became life
members in the national society.
Alice Welch Cowles was the head and front
of the moral reform movement in Oberlin. She was the first
president of the local society and for some years the Western
vice-president of the national organization. Upon her death in
1843 an extended obituary was published in the Advocate. Hardly a
meeting of the society passed that she did not preside or speak.
"Causes of Impurity," "Early Engagements," "Simplicity and Economy
in Dress" were among the topics which she discussed. Mrs. Finney,
the first chairman of the New York society, naturally also became
very active in the cause in Oberlin after her removal there with
her husband in 1835. When, for example, at a meeting of the
Oberlin society in 1839 Mrs. Cowles offered a few facts "on
insults to ladies in hotels & steamboats at Cleveland," Mrs.
Finney also spoke "on licentiousness on steamboats & in
hotels" and warned "mothers to watch their children from their
infancy." After the death of Mrs. Cowles, Mrs. Finney succeeded
her as vice-president of the American Female Moral Reform Society
from Ohio. Her death, in 1848, also received a lengthy notice. The
Oberlin society sent a delegate, Mrs. Lucy Gilbert, to the annual
meeting of the New York Society in 1838. At the national annual
meeting of 1846 Eliza C. Stewart, then of Troy, wife of the
co-founder of Oberlin, was an active member. Her husband later
showed his sympathy with the cause by running a large
advertisement of his stove in the Advocate and
Guardian.
A peculiarity and great advantage of the
Oberlin organization was to be found in the opportunity to
influence the large body of young lady students. In a late annual
report the conversion of these students to moral reform was
recognized as a major aim of the society. "Our situation throws us
into contact with a mass of youthful mind," wrote the secretary,
"over whom we would gladly exert a purifying influence." In the
thirties and early forties Mrs. Cowles, who was also Principal of
the Female Department, recognized the possibility of aiding
college discipline by encouraging the society. In 1842 a
resolution was passed providing that members should report all
cases of unchastity to the next meeting if unable to bring about
reform by a personal appeal. Mrs. Cowles secured an amendment to
the effect that, in cases of delinquency discovered among the
students, members should report to the Female Principal. Thus all
society members supposedly became informers for the "Dean of
Women." Mrs. Cowles lectured the young ladies repeatedly in behalf
of the cause and the society. In 1841 she expressed to them her
wish that one maxim could be written "as with the point of a
diamond upon [their] very hearts: Never allow yourself to
be caressed or fondled over by the other sex till after marriage."
She called upon them to aid moral reform as a cause and to
contribute to the society "one cent, six cents, fifty cents." In a
talk given the following year she said frankly, "I hope no young
lady will fail to become a member [or the Moral Reform
Society], unless her character and principles are such as to
injure rather than do good[!]" No wonder there was a large
enrollment of ladies from the Institute! If they did not join, it
was tantamount to wearing a scarlet letter!
Among the young ladies who were active as
members were Caroline Rudd, Mary Hosford, Elizabeth Prall (the
first three women to receive college degrees), Lucy Stone and
Antoinette Brown, Mary Ann Adams (later for a time head of the
Female Department), and Sarah Pellet. Lucy Stone was secretary and
treasurer in 1845. Antoinette Brown was on the executive committee
three years later. Caroline Rudd was a leading figure both as a
student and in later years as the wife of Professor George Allen.
Elizabeth Prall took a really prominent part in her student days.
At a meeting in 1836 she read an essay on "What is the proper
treatment of licentious men?" and four years later introduced a
resolution, which was adopted by the society, "That the disgrace
of the gentleman who takes improper liberties with a young lady,
shall be as great, as that of the young lady who permits such
liberties." Sometimes these female students had something very
practical to offer as when Miss Mary Foster of Boston "gave an
account of her journey from Oberlin to Boston last fall which was
very instructive and was calculated to put females, who are
traveling alone, on their guard in reference to those gentlemen
who are too ready to proffer their assistance." Even youngsters,
like twelve-year-old Mary Louisa Cowles, who was just entering the
Preparatory Department, sometimes attended society meetings. "Went
to ladies moral reform society," this young reformer wrote in her
diary. "Mrs. Finney spoke to the ladies."
Sometimes outside speakers appeared on the
program. Dr. William Alcott of Boston, the health reformer, spoke
on "dress, diet, marriage" in 1840. A Mr. Foote, the agent of the
New York Female Moral Reform Society, addressed the Oberlin group
in 1836. In 1840, Sarah T. Smith, the "editress" of the Advocate,
made a speaking tour into the West, appearing before the moral
reform societies at Elyria and at Oberlin. She spoke principally
to the students, pointing "out the immense responsibilities
resting upon Young Ladies educated here, surrounded by such a
flood of light, and enjoying privileges probably superior to any
in the world."" Her audience seems to have been very favorably
impressed. The Oberlin Fathers were so enthusiastic that the
Prudential Committee invited her to take the place of Mrs. Cowles
in "the Superintendence of the Ladies Department," Mrs. Cowles
desiring to retire on account of failing health. The pious and
very moral lady considered the proposition long and earnestly. She
seems to have been much attracted to Oberlin, both by its
enthusiasm for moral reform and by the doctrine of perfectionism
which she had espoused. Finally in September, however, she gave
her answer in the negative. She feared "the effects of that
climate on a constitution already debilitated, and which has
suffered from the western bilious fever somewhat severely," and
she felt that no one could fill her place in the moral reform
movement. It seemed to her to be her duty to stay in New York,
despite the attraction of the work in Oberlin. "It is more painful
to me than I can easily express," she wrote to Secretary Burnell,
"to give up the cherished hope of again seeing the beloved
brethren and sisters in that garden of the Lord, as a fellow
laborer, but if I am where Jesus would have me, all is infinitely
well." "what I can do for Oberlin," she added, "shall always be
done, to the full extent of my consciousness of ability." Miss
Smith married the Reverend Mr. Martyn in the following year. It is
not improbable that the prospect of this alliance may have been a
factor in the decision.
The Oberlin men most interested in moral
reform were Amos Dresser (the non-resistant), President Mahan, and
the two editors of the Evangelist: H. C. Taylor and Henry Cowles.
The support of the two latter was, of course, especially important
because of the publicity secured through the columns of the paper.
Mahan's support was important because of his national reputation
as the sponsor of perfectionism and his position as the official
head of the Oberlin Institute. In 1842 he delivered a lecture to
the local society on methods of promoting the cause. His address
before the American Physiological Society in Boston in 1839 on the
"Intimate Relation between Moral, Mental and Physical Law" was
printed in both the Graham Journal and the Advocate of Moral
Reform.
Mahan also aided in the founding of the
moral reform society in Elyria which became, therefore, in a sense
an offspring of the Oberlin organization. A Female Moral Reform
Society of Sheffield was formed at that place, made up of local
ladies and members of the branch school then associated with
Oberlin. In 1846 a society was organized at Olivet, Shipherd's
second Oberlin, sponsored by Amos Dresser. Doubtless other
societies founded under Oberlin influence have escaped the
record.
An agent of the New York society, in
addressing the Oberlin Female Moral Reform Society in 1836, listed
the causes of immorality as he saw them: ". . . Impure
imagination, Dress of females, Slavery, Public opinion licenses
the evil, Females receiving visits of gentlemen protracted to a
late hour, Low prices of labor in cities, Voluptuousness, Balls,
Parties, Theaters, Novel Reading, Classics, Prints and Books." The
crusade for a reform in morals led the reformers to take a stand
on all of these subjects. They insisted on the strictest etiquette
in the association of the sexes, set up an extremely modest
standard of dress, decried dancing, considered the reading of
novels injurious, and branded theaters as the very workshops of
Satan.
Females were cautioned to resist the
approaches of all males other than their husbands, and to be
constantly on the alert for insidious attacks upon their chastity.
"Courting after bedtime" was held to be an exceedingly dangerous
practice. "Seeking a wife," wrote "Philo Decorum" in McDowall's
Journal, "is certainly not a deed of darkness. Then, why not do it
in daylight?
Let every young lady, then, lay it down as
an unalterable rule: That she will in no case, keep company after
her usual hour of retiring to rest, and the consequence will be,
they will be almost certain to get good, genteel, and decent
husbands." The constitution of the Oberlin society included a
special article dealing with the subiect: "Believing that the
prolonging of visits with any gentleman after the usual hour for
retirement, is one of the 1st steps toward licentiousness, we
pledge ourselves to discountenance such practices by precept and
example."
An earnest effort was made to establish an
attitude of deepest reverence toward the marriage relation and all
that related to it. The Oberlin constitution pledged the members
"to speak of the Marriage institution in such a manner as shall
sustain its original honor, and its character of moral purity."
Mrs. Cowles often urged upon the young lady students a soberer and
more sensible view of marriage. In the autumn of 1836 she devoted
one entire talk to this subiect, laying down certain rules as
basic:
1. Never speak lightly of
marriage.
2. Never join with those who
do.
3. Never make indecent
allusions.
4. Speak of marriage in a dignified,
serious manner.
5. Do not pretend that you never think
of this subject.
6. Avoid anxiety about it.
7. Commit the subiect cheerfully to God.
Because of the serious, indeed divine, nature of the ordinance
of marriage the young females were warned against early and
hasty engagements.
Of course, the double standard was
combated. The constitution of the Young Men's Moral Reform Society
of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute was severely criticized by the
editor of the Advocate because it pointed "no finger of scorn at
licentious men." The female society, however, officially declared
the belief "that the licentious man is not only as guilty, but in
a majority of instances more guilty than the licentious
woman.""
Immodest or supposedly indecent dress was
repeatedly attacked by the reformers. In 1834, McDowall published
a letter from an anonymous correspondent: "I have long expected
that some individual accustomed to the use of the pen, and an
advocate for Public Morals, or at least opposed to Public
Indecency, would give a word of wholesome advice to females, about
dress. I have, however, waited in vain. Nothing regarding it has
appeared to my knowledge. The present fashion is, to cut their
frocks, &c., so open about the neck, that they rest but little
if any upon the shoulders, but slide down on the arms, nearly half
way to the elbows. The exposure which this effects, especially
when they stoop forward, I need not define. All eyes must witness
it." Even male attire was occasionally criticized as being
insufficiently modest and sober.
Mrs. Alice Welch Cowles, the leader in
Oberlin moral reform, was zealous in behalf of modest attire. In
1836, she asked her old teacher and friend, Zilpah Grant: "Ought
not young ladies to be told what impressions it makes on the minds
of gentlemen, respecting female character and dispositions, when
they see them exposing their necks, or making other efforts to
attract and display?" Evidently her question was answered in the
affirmative for some time later she said in an address to her
young charges: "I suppose that a lady gaily dressed, especially if
she exposes a beautiful neck, makes a stronger appeal to the
sensual feelings of the other sex than otherwise. On this point I
would speak with much caution because I know but little--I long to
see a change. While I suppose that simplicity of dress promotes
purity of mind I cannot dress otherwise. I do not feel at liberty
to have anything in my dress which shall tend to awaken in my
husband even the susceptibilities which lead to impurity. I was
delighted with the simplicity and purity which seemed to pervade
every mind at Mt. Holyoke [which she had recently
visited]. When will the time come that there will be as much
of the same spirit manifested by young and old, in all our
villages and cities." The Oberlin rule of dress as finally adopted
was in Mrs. Cowles' words: "Dress so as not to be noticed." "Dress
in such a manner as not to attract particular notice one way or
another," said Mrs. Finney.
The dress question was an exceedingly
popular one in the Oberlin Female Moral Reform Society. When she
spoke before the society in 1840, Sarah T. Smith "dwelt at some
length on the subject of dress." At a later meeting in the same
year the organization expressed its gratitude "to our heavenly
Father for the decided stand taken with us by some of the
gentlemen of our acquaintance against the improper, and even
immodest modes of dress practiced by a few young ladies in our
midst." A year later it was resolved that, "we do all in our power
to discard not only all indecent, but all unbecoming fashions . .
. as being great incentives to crime." Dress was discussed in
1847, 1854, and 1855.
The pictures of the graduating classes of
the firties and sixties show how useless it is to battle against
fashion. Even in Oberlin short sleeves and low necks became the
rule, though as late as 1864 a young lady who wore such a scantily
cut dress might see "only the whites of the eyes" of pious
associates.
Dancing was believed to have decidedly
immoral tendencies. A writer in the Advocate attacked the waltz,
which he described as consisting "of a whirling movement, in which
the hand of the lady is on the gentleman's shoulder, while his arm
encircles her waist." "An unsophisticated American girl would
shrink with abhorrence from such personal familiarities if offered
to her under any other guise than that of fashion," continues the
critic, "but the dictates of this relentless despot must be obeyed
at whatever sacrifice." The editor of the Oberlin Evangelist
pronounced his dictum several years later: "We have never yet
heard that dancing parties have improved either health, regular
habits, education, refinement of feeling, or piety; we have
usually known them to prove detrimental and often destructive to
all these choice interests: therefore we say, let their sentence
be according to their deeds." The rule against dancing at Oberlin
was an outgrowth of this attitude.
Novel reading was considered one of the
most dangerous stimulants to immorality and soon came to be
condemned as an evil in itself.
PUT DOWN THAT NOVEL! [warned the
Advocate] It is wasting your time.
PUT DOWN THAT NOVEL! It is perverting your
taste.
PUT DOWN THAT NOVEL! It is giving you false
views of life.
PUT DOWN THAT NOVEL! It is endangering your
morals.
PUT DOWN THAT NOVEL! It will ruin your
soul.
In another number young men were called to
witness the consequences of marrying a lady who read
novels:
I loved her for her mild blue
eye,
And her sweet and quiet air;
But I'm very sure that I didn't
see
The novel on the chair.
But now-
The live-long day does Laura
read
In a cushioned easy-chair,
In slip-shod shoes and dirty
gown,
And tangled, uncombed hair.
For oh! the meals! I'm very
sure
You ne'er did see such "feeding":
For the beef is burnt, and the veal is
raw,
And all from novel reading.
A writer in the Oberlin Evangelist, even as
late as the firties, declared that novel reading acted "on the
mind as ardent spirits do on the body." The novel-reader, he
believed, was likely to be driven to insanity or led to
infanticide or other crimes. The Oberlin Female Moral Reform
Society passed a resolution in 1842, declaring, "That in view of
the wrong views of human life instilled--the time wasted--the
hopes wrecked-- and the souls ruined by novel reading--it would
greatly promote the well being of society, if this style of
literature were banished from our world."
Timothy Hudson, for many years Professor of
Greek and Latin, felt that all novels were not evil, but found it
difficult to distinguish the good from the bad. "My sentiments on
the subject of fictitious reading generally are becoming more
stern," he wrote to a friend in 1844. "I do not say that I will
never read another fiction: but I do say that they will I hope be
few and far between. --Happily novels do not embrace the richest
and best literature of our grand old English tongue. With the wide
realms of Poetry and History and Elegant essays--and science
adorned with regal splendor and crowned with a coronet gleaming
with gems--with all this I may willingly resign the spider-web
creations of the novel weaving tribe--even tho' some things
'beautiful exceedingly' should be relinquished thereby." Most men
condemned all novelists. One early Oberlin colonist wrote of "such
miserable stuff as the writings of Thackery and Dickens, the
Newcombs, Little Dorrit & the Virginians, etc., etc." Bulwer
usually came in for an unusually heavy share of condemnation. when
in the forties an Oberlin student sent his future wife, also an
Oberlin student, a present of one of Bulwer's books, she
replied.
"I received your bundle and note this
morning in due season. I have not examined the book at all yet,
and indeed I don't know what to think about it. Emily has been
telling me what President Mahan's opinion of it is, and that you
almost agreed with him. If it is really impossible for me to keep
my heart right while reading it, or even improbable that I shall;
I do not wish to read it, and I am sure you would not be willing
to have me read it. I do not wish to do anything, or read anything
that will be injurious to my highest interests . . . At all
events, I have reading enough for several days, so I think I will
lay Eugene Aram aside until Friday Evening or till I hear from you
again. It cannot be wrong not to read it--and I like to be on the
safe side."
Professor Calvin E. Stowe of Lane Seminary
declared of Bulwer "that he deserved only to be pitied, despised
and execrated." It was Professor Stowe's wife who turned the tide
in favor of the novel and eventually of the theater, also. When
reformers admitted the righteousness of reading Uncle Tom's Cabin
the way was opened for the establishment of a generally more
lenient attitude toward fiction. As early as 1848 the Oberlin
Maternal Association agreed that children might be allowed to read
stories by Charlotte Elizabeth or T. S. Arthur. The ground was
thus broken, but Harriet Beecher Stowe finished the job. The
literary societies debated the justifiability of novel reading,
early and late. In the fifties the younger generation was changing
fast. The best friend of a daughter of Professor Cowles and Alice
Welch Cowles wrote to her in 1858, without any evidence of
consciousness of guilt, of having read books by Charlotte Bronte,
James Fenimore Cooper, Mrs. Southworth, John Foster,
etc.
The theater was looked upon as the mother
of the whole brood of sin in the cities. In 1840 two members of
the Oberlin faculty had the temerity to attend a theatrical
performance in Columbus. A colleague wrote of the affair to a
friend: "Sometime ago Professor [T. B.] Hudson and Tutor
[William] Cochran, while attending a meeting of the
College of Teachers of this State at Columbus, in the capacity of
delegates from O., stole a visit to the Theatre. The fact
providentially come to the ears of the Faculty and those brethren
forthwith addressed a letter to the Faculty resigning their posts
in the institution." Probably only the early resignation and
evident contrition of the culprits saved their official lives.
They were reinstated after much heart-searching and praying on the
part of their shamed associates and the shocked trustees. The
literary societies were very much interested in the theater
problem, discussing such questions as: "Can the Theater be so
conducted as to be worthy the patronage of the good?", what is
"the moral influence of theaters," and even "Resolved that
Theaters might be made agencies in moral reform." In the firties
with the victory of fashionable dress and novel reading came a
relenting toward the theater. In 1856 a Mrs. Webb of Philadelphia
read selections from the dramatic version of Uncle Tom's Cabin in
the Oberlin College Chapell The editor of the Evangelist conceded
that the readings had "an excellent moral and religious
influence." But even in 1864 students were forbidden to read
Shakespeare in mixed groups, a ban which was first evaded and
then, soon after, lifted.
At first moral reform, like the other
reforms, depended exclusively upon moral suasion. Like the
temperance workers and the abolitionists, however, they eventually
determined to call in the arm of the law. In January of 1842 a
committee was appointed in the Oberlin Female Moral Reform Society
"to circulate petitions to be presented to the legislature, for
the suppression of licentiousness," and in December of 1843
another petition was prepared "asking that some adequate
punishment be made legal for the Seducer." As a result of
petitions presented from all over the state A BILL to suppress
crimes against chastity was introduced in the Ohio legislature
providing, "That any man or woman who shall live and cohabit in a
state of adultery, shall be deemed guilty of a crime, and on
conviction thereof shall, each, be imprisoned in the penitentiary,
and kept at hard labor, for a term not exceeding three years, nor
less than one year,..." Seducers were to be punished by a prison
term of six months to three years and the publisher of obscene
books and pictures punished by a fine. Despite the petitions from
over four thousand lady reformers of Ohio the bill was killed by
an unfavorable report from the Committee on the Judiciary in the
Senate. The effort was more successful in some other
states.
Horace C. Taylor, the editor of the Oberlin
Evangelist, had been enthusiastic for the Seventh Commandment
Cause as a student in Western Reserve and in Oberlin. He now made
the Evangelist an organ of the movement. When a new legislature
met in December of 1843 he urged the sending of new petitions
urging "the enactment of a law to punish libertines." He felt that
it was "high time to give some legal protection to virtue." At the
time of the publication of this plea its author had been living in
adultery with a young woman of his household for a matter of
years. Within a few weeks he confessed to seduction and the
procuring of an abortion in order to conceal his crime. He was
dropped from the Evangelist and his offices in the Institute,
excommunicated from the Church, and imprisoned for one year. But
the damage which he had done to the cause of moral reform, with
which his name was publicly identified, could not be repaired by
this punishment. Associated as it was with the similar fall of
other reformers (which the psychologists may explain), it dealt
the movement a blow from which it did not soon recover.
There were serious and startling defections
from the New York society. Mrs. William Green, as we have seen,
was associated with Mrs. Finney in the founding of the New York
Female Moral Reform Society. George Cragin was publishing agent of
the society, in charge of the publication of the Advocate of Moral
Reform; he was also an agent for the collection of funds for the
hardpressed Oberlin Institute. In 1838 Mrs. Green, and in 1839,
Cragin, went over from puritanical moral reform to the sexual
experiment of John Humphrey Noyes, the experiment which was later
to grow into the Oneida Community! Mary Cragin, converted to the
new movement sometime before her husband, wrote to the
Perfectionist prophet: "Ah, bro. Noyes, how have the mighty
fallen. In him you will find a most rigidly upright
character--Grahamism, and Oberlin perfection all in ruins. How he
clung to Oberlin, as with a death-grasp! . . . The Lord has pulled
down strong towers. Bless the Lord--on the first of December he
will be without money and without business. How this rejoices me!"
In 1845 and 1846 there took place a violent schism in the national
society. Mrs. Sarah T. (Smith) Martyn left the fold and started
the White Banner as a rival to the Advocate. Despite Oberlin's
attachment for Mrs. Martyn the local ladies adhered to the old
society and continued to subscribe to the Advocate. They even sent
a special contribution of $24 to help tide the parent organization
over this crisis.
The moral reform crusade was now declining
from its zenith. The loss of Mrs. Green, the Cragins and Mrs.
Martyn was serious. Many others had also dropped out as a result
of the "rumpus"; the fall of Taylor and other hypocrites was
extremely damaging. The Advocate of Moral Reform and Family
Guardian, as it became in 1848, discontinued the arresting and
irritating assault upon immorality. Its tone became notably milder
and it assumed eventually the character of a pious and moral
magazine for the family circle. The energies of the society were
largely diverted to the support of the home for "destitute,
respectable females, without employment, friends, or home," called
the "House of Industry and Home for the Friendless." The moral
education of children continued to be much emphasized. Finally,
the transformation of the movement was completed by the dropping
of the words "Moral Reform" from the title of the periodical (it
becoming the Advocate and Guardian) and the change in the name of
the parent society to the American Female Guardian
Society.
Oberlin remained loyal to the cause through
these changes. The Oberlin Female Moral Reform Society, the Church
and individuals contributed money and clothing to the House of
Industry, and the subscriptions to the Advocate increased in
number. In one issue of that periodical in 1848, $50 was
acknowledged from Oberlin. In the same year Mrs. Dascomb visited
the House of Industry and gave an account of it to the Oberlin
society. Ten years later the national society's agent, or "home
children's missionary," visited Oberlin, bringing a group of poor
New York boys with her. On the afternoon and evening of the
Sabbath, President Finney relinquished the pulpit to
her.
Though the Oberlin society declined and
then entirely disappeared in the late fifties, the people of
Oberlin did not cease to support the movement. The Oberlin Ladies'
Benevolent Society contributed a barrel of clothing, and a
Thanksgiving collection of $25 taken up in the Oberlin Church was
donated in the winter of 1858-59. The next year "a barrel of
clothing containing also a bed quilt from Anna Penfield," etc--was
sent by the Benevolent Society and this was repeated in 1862. One
entire collection from the Oberlin Church was usually donated
every year. In 1864 a special social was held to collect money for
the House of Industry. Twenty dollars was raised. By this date
however the moral reform movement had ceased to exist, being
metamorphosed into a system of charity for the poor in the
cities.
CHAPTER
XXII
"PHYSIOLOGICAL REFORM"
The Health
Movement
ONE of the first books in the library of
the Oberlin Collegiate Institute was Dr. Edward Hitchcock's
Dyspepsy Forestalled & Resisted, a series of lectures
delivered before the students of Amherst in the spring of 1830 by
the Professor of Chemistry and Natural History, later President,
of Amherst. It was acquired early in January of 1836 and Philo P.
Stewart drew it out twice in April of that year. Hitchcock's book
is but one item in the extensive literature intended to enlighten
the laymen of the time on personal hygiene, and aid in the
prevention of disease. He urged a limited and selected diet,
opposed all alcoholic beverages and narcotics, emphasized the
importance of regular exercise, and recommended fresh air,
cleanliness, sufficient sleep, correct posture. Hitchcock freely
acknowledged his indebtedness to Dr. George Cheyne, the Scotch
writer of popular medical books of the middle eighteenth century.
Cheyne advocated vegetarian diet and mineral and other baths in
his Natural Method of Cureing the Diseases of the Body, published
at London in 1742 and dedicated to Lord Chesterfield. Two Scotch
brothers of the nineteenth century were destined to be even more
influential in teaching Americans better habits. These were George
and Andrew Combe, the publishers of the Phrenological Journal.
George's Constitution of Man and Andrew's Principles of Physiology
were tremendously popular both in America and in England. Of
course their writings are tainted with the phrenology illusion but
they contain many sound maxims, nevertheless. American health
reformers cited the Combes as theologians cite the
Bible.
In America an important work in spreading
knowledge of good hygiene was done by two semi-popular medical
journals: the Boston Medical Intelligencer and the Journal of
Health of Philadelphia. In the last two years of its life
(1826-288) the Intelligencer was addressed rather to the public
than to the medical profession, aiming at "promoting health, and
preventing disease generally." It contained attacks on
intemperance of all kinds and articles on the care of babies and
on proper diet and its preparation, and recommended frequent
bathing and active exercise in the open air. The Journal of Health
("conducted by an association of Physicians") was published in
Philadelphia from September, 1829, to August, 1833, and
anticipated many of the rules of health later advocated by
Sylvester Graham. Feather beds and corsets were denounced. All
were exhorted to limit themselves to one dish at a meal. There is
even a recipe for bran bread in the issue for March 10,
1830.
This was an excellent educational program
but it made little headway. It required the recognition of the
care of the body as a moral duty and the crusading spirit of
zealots like Drs. Sylvester Graham and William A. Alcott to make
the health movement into a true reform. Was not gluttony as much
of a sin as drunkenness? Was not cleanliness next to Godliness?
The American people were tremendous meat eaters, five or six or
even as many as thirty kinds of flesh and fish sometimes being
served at one meal! The quantity of meat consumed at a sitting is
really more awe-inspiring than the amount of drink absorbed. Men
in the cities and women everywhere seldom took any regular
exercise. The bathtub had not yet become an American institution.
Harriet Martineau found baths a rarity in private houses, though
the demand for soap and water had generally increased as a result
partly of the publication of several editions of Combe's
Principles of Physiology. If the Millennium was to be realized in
the United States here was another important field of
labor.
Sylvester Graham became General Agent for
the Pennsylvania Temperance Society in 1830 and immediately began
a series of lectures on the dangers of intemperance of all kinds.
He concluded that alcoholic intemperance was no more dangerous
than intemperance in eating and that he had a call to lead a new
reform. The cholera epidemic of 1832 interested people more than
usual in the problem of hygiene and the prevention of disease, and
Graham's lectures on how to escape this scourge gave him a strong
hold on the public mind. Disciples appeared wherever he lectured,
and "Ladies' Physiological Reform" societies were formed in
various towns and cities in New York and New England. Graham's
lectures in Boston led to the foundation there of the American
Physiological Society in 1837. The object of the society was
declared to be "to acquire and diffuse a knowledge of the laws of
life, and of the means of promoting human health and longevity."
Willard Sears, friend of Finney and Oberlin trustee, was on the
executive committee. Dr. William A. Alcott was the first president
and leading spirit. David Cambell, the landlord of the Graham
boarding house in Boston, was corresponding secretary. By the end
of the year this organization boasted over two hundred members,
and over twice as many in 1838. Samuel Reid Hall, first
president-elect of the Oberlin Institute, and Amasa Walker, later
Professor of Political Economy and member of the Board of Trustees
at Oberlin, lent their influence to the work of the society. In
1838 Walker became a vice-president. Regular meetings were held
and a number of tracts and lectures were published throughout 1837
and 1838.
Dr. Alcott, a cousin of Bronson Alcott, and
trained as a physician at Yale, was hardly less enthusiastic and
prominent in the cause than Graham. As early as 1835 Alcott had
established his Moral Reformer, and Teacher on the Human
Constitution at Boston, a monthly periodical devoted to "Health
and Physical Education." It contained articles on physiology,
temperance, diet, bathing and a favorable notice of the Oberlin
Collegiate Institute in far away Ohio. In 1837 David Cambell began
to edit, also at Boston, the Graham Journal of Health and
Longevity--"designed to illustrate by facts, and sustain by reason
and principles the science of human life as taught by Sylvester
Graham." In 1840, when Cambell left Boston for Oberlin, the Moral
Reformer and Graham Journal were merged in the Library of Health
under the editorship of Alcott.
Graham's ponderous two-volume Lectures on
the Science of Human Life was the Bible of the Physiological
reformers. His Treatise on Bread-Making was perhaps even more
widely read. Dr. Alcott contributed many volumes, including
Vegetable Diet, The House I Live In, The Young Wife, The Young
Mother, The Young Man's Guide, and The Young
House-Keeper.
Oberlin, as usual, was in the van.
Shipherd, Stewart, Mahan, and Finney were all Grahamites. When
Shipherd was away on financial missions he felt that he suffered
intensely if unable to get a Graham diet. In 1841 he expressed the
opinion in a letter to his brother "that another precursor of
holiness will be a greater reform from gluttony &
epicureanism." Finney was a strict Grahamite for several years.
Stewart was always a dyspeptic, and a vegetarian to his death. The
colonists agreed in the Covenant of 1832 and 1833 to eat "only
plain & wholesome food" and renounced tobacco, and "all strong
and unnecessary drinks, even tea & coffee as far as
practicable." In 1834 it was provided by the rules of the
Institute that board should be "of a plain & holesome kind."
Each meal was limited to "one dish with its accompaniments." "Tea
& Coffee, high seasoned meats, rich pastries & all
unholsome & expensive food" were excluded from the common
table. Physiology was made a required course. Shipherd considered
"Biblical Instruction, and Physiology, including Manual Labor" the
most important departments in the school. In July of 1836 the
trustees ordered the Secretary to invite Graham, himself, to
lecture in Oberlin. Late in the previous year the "Female Society
of Oberlin for the Promotion of Health" was founded. "Believing
that the usual dress and diet of females retards their physical,
intellectual and spiritual improvement," runs the preamble to
their constitution, "and that we are bound to conform to right
principles ourselves and to do all we can to induce others to
adopt them, we form ourselves into a society." Three or four years
later the men of the colony and Institute formed the Oberlin
Physiological Society, the object of which was declared to be "to
acquire and diffuse a knowledge of the laws of life, and the means
of promoting health and longevity." Mahan was president; Shipherd
was one of the vice-presidents; a student was recording secretary;
and the executive committee consisted of Finney, Henry Cowles, Dr.
Dascomb and Dr. Jennings. In June of 1837 a regular agent of the
Graham Journal was appointed for Oberlin. In February of 1839
President Mahan addressed the American Physiological Society in
the Marlboro Chapel in Boston on the "Intimate Relations Between
Moral, Mental and Physical Law," and reported informally on
conditions at Oberlin. "Tea and coffee," he told the Bostonians,
"are excluded from almost every family in the place; flesh meat is
seldom eaten .... All condiments and seasonings are laid aside.
Due regard is paid to dress, exercise, etc. Sickness is rarely
known in the place ...." At the health convention held in New York
in June of 1839 George Whipple and William Dawes were present as
delegates from Oberlin, and Whipple addressed the meeting at some
length. Lewis Tappan, William Chapin of Providence, Amasa Walker,
and other friends of Oberlin also took part.
In 1840 Dr. Alcott spent ten days in
Oberlin and delivered an address to the Oberlin Female Moral
Reform Society on "dress, diet, marriage," etc. He was so
favorably impressed with the attitude of Oberlinites toward the
health movement that he seriously considered removing to Oberlin
from Boston and "setting up [in Oberlin] a Journal of
Physical Education (using that term in the larger sense) of the
same size, price, etc. of the Oberlin Evangelist." Young James
Harris Fairchild, however, was somewhat critical of Alcott. He
wrote to his future wife: "The celebrated Dr. Alcott of Boston
made us a visit a few days since & gave us a smack of his
doctrine. I am not entirely certain but he may hold some
truth--but if it has no abler advocate than himself the world will
eat beef-steak & baked potatoes for some centuries to come."
But Fairchild varied from the Oberlin norm on the conservative
side. Most Oberlinites accepted the radical health
program.
Graham's teachings may be summarized under
twelve main heads:
1. Clothing should be adequate but not too
warm and never tight.
2. All ought to sleep about seven hours a
day, preferably from 10 P.M. to 5 A.M., but never after meals.
Feather beds were considered highly injurious and "comfortables"
objectionable. Sleeping apartments should be
ventilated.
3. Bathing in warm or cold water was highly
recommended--even in winter! As to diet:
4. Wine, cider, beer, tobacco, tea, coffee,
and all other stimulants were prohibited to all Grahamites. Soft
water alone was to be drunk at meals.
5. "The chief food should be vegetables and
fruit, to be eaten in as near their natural state as possible."
Meat and fish were discountenanced.
6. Bread of unbolted wheat was recommended
as the chief element in the diet. Rye, Indian corn, rice, sago,
and tapioca were also recommended "if plainly cooked."
7. "Fats or gravies of any kind" were
prohibited. Good cream was recommended as a substitute for butter
or "Graham butter" made of milk and flour might be
used.
8. No pastries or sweets other than honey
and maple syrup were allowed. Pies made of unbolted wheat or
cornmeal were excepted.
9. No condiments such as pepper, mustard,
oil, vinegar, etc. were to be used.
10. None should overeat and all must eat
slowly and masticate their food thoroughly. And finally
11. The taking of medicine was frowned
upon, abstinence from food being recommended as a curative,
and
12. Regular exercise in the open air was
insisted upon as essential to health.
Oberlin strove to live up to the code at
every point. The colonists in the covenant pledged themselves to
renounce "tight dressing." The constitution of the Female Society
of Oberlin for the Promotion of Health provided that all members
must "abstain from all modes of dress that are injurious to
health, such as exposing the feet by wearing thin hose and shoes
in cold or wet weather, compressing the chest and preventing the
full expansion of the lungs, especially by lacing and tight
dressing." At first all young ladies in the Institute were
required to wear flannel dresses if they possessed any. The
original rules of 1834 required the students to "keep their beds
from 10 O'Clock P.M. to 5 O'Clock A.M." Davis Prudden brought a
feather bed with him, but his classmates told him it was "wrong to
sleep on one as it injures the health & makes one puny &
sickly." He suspected, however, that they wanted it for
themselves. There seems to have been no absolute prohibition upon
feather beds at Oberlin, though in the Graham boarding houses in
New York and Boston boarders were forbidden to "sleep on a feather
bed during any part of the year" but on a bed of "hair, moss, or
straw . . . or any thing harder if he chooses." Bathing was
generally believed in at Oberlin, though the equipment of the
boarding houses for this purpose was certainly not very
satisfactory. David Cambell wanted to have a new dormitory built
at Oberlin which should contain regular "bathing
apartments."
At first Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, with the
occasional advice of faculty members such as Dr. Dascomb and
Professor Finney, regulated the diet in the boarding house. After
the Stewarts' departure in 1836 the management was turned over to
a joint student faculty committee. There was a general feeling
throughout this period that the diet furnished, though sparse, was
not orthodox according to Graham. To correct this deficiency David
Cambell, editor of the Graham Journal, was invited to give up that
publication and introduce complete Grahamism in Oberlin.
David Cambell was born among the granite
hills of New Hampshire. About 1835 he was persuaded that Grahamism
was the true way of life and took it up enthusiastically, giving
up meat, tea and coffee, though he was very fond of them. Mrs.
Elisa Cambell, a dyspeptic, was also converted and her health
materially improved as a result. They plunged energetically into
the movement, Mr. Cambell, as we have seen, becoming secretary of
the American Physiological Society. They also established a Graham
boarding house at their home at 23 Brattle Street in Boston, where
vegetarian diet and whole-wheat bread could be secured by
Grahamire transients. Here the rules laid down by Sylvester Graham
for his New York boarding house in 1832 and later published in
Nature's Own Book were followed out in detail. The Cambells'
establishment was the first Graham House in Boston. From April,
1837, through December, 1840, he also edited the Graham Journal.
No one could have been better equipped to put Grahamism into
effect in Oberlin. For a short time even, Cambell had been steward
in a boarding school, the "Mount Pleasant Classical Institution"
at Amherst, but left because the school was not thoroughly
impregnated with the reform spirit.
Cambell was enthusiastic about the
opportunity to come to Oberlin, which he declared he looked upon
as "a model Institution for the approaching Millenial Church." He
was anxious to establish a "Boston Hall," a new boarding house, at
Oberlin, which should be properly planned and equipped for the
Graham regimen. With the aid of Willard Sears he undertook to
raise money for it, unsuccessfully, however, on account of the
hard times. He concluded to give up the Graham Journal but hoped
to resume his work as a reform editor in some other connection
after becoming settled in the new environment. The two Cambells
caused no little excitement when they arrived in Oberlin in May of
1840, bringing a cask of rice, a cask of tapioca, a box of sago
and a copy of Nature's Own Book, containing recipes for Graham
bread, pumpkin bread, cracked wheat porridge, rice porridge, bread
coffee, potato coffee and other reformed dishes!
Of course, no tea or coffee was served in
the boarding house. Originally the prohibition in the Oberlin
Covenant had extended also to chocolate but this was deleted in
the draft finally signed. Horrible stories were told about the
effects of tea. Professor Thome, in 1843, related in the Oberlin
Evangelist the story of a shoemaker who drank twenty-two cups at
one sitting and lapsed into unconsciousness shortly after. His
life was saved only by timely medical aid! At the Second American
Health Convention in New York in 1838 Professor Whipple of Oberlin
told the harrowing tale of a young lady who drank some strong tea
at a quilting. She went into convulsions and died. A physician who
was called declared (so said the professor) that her "death was
occasioned by drinking strong tea rapidly." There seem to have
been always, however, some drinkers of tea and even coffee in
Oberlin. Though in 1837 the colonists voted not to patronize any
merchants who dispensed it, the wife of the Secretary-Treasurer of
the Institute admitted that she and her husband imbibed from the
social cup "when we feel that we need it." Students, were more
easily controlled and must get along at the boarding house table
as best they could with crust coffee and rain water!
Meat eating was frowned upon. It was not
only unhealthy and unnatural but, declared a writer in the Graham
Journal, the eating of animal food tends "to produce ferocity of
disposition." Down to the coming of Cambell, however, meat could
usually he obtained at the boarding house table by those who
desired it. Mr. Cambell felt that he could "not conscientiously
furnish flesh meat." The Prudential Committee arranged to have
meat carried into the hall for such students as required it, but
relieved "Bro and Sister Cambell from all responsibility or care
of the same." The meat-eating students had to wait eleven months,
while the committee reconsidered their action and the faculty were
called in for advice, before the order was carried out and the
meat actually appeared. Fruit and vegetable foods, plainly
prepared, were regularly served. Boiled rice, puddings, berries,
potatoes, squash, beets, onions, rutabagas (not tomatoes for they
were still believed to be poisonous), baked apples, boiled cracked
wheat, "Johnecakes," and great quantities of indifferently good
Graham bread appeared on the boarding house menu. The recipes in
Nature's Own Book include Cracked Wheat Mush, Bread Pudding, Samp
Pudding, Rye Mush, and, of course, Graham Bread. Milk, eggs, and
cottage cheese were allowed, though of animal origin. "Bread,
milk, and fruit, or bread and porridge with fruit," wrote Graham,
"are true and wholesome diet." Graham bread was a sort of religion
with many. In 1839 an Oberlin 'coed' wrote enthusiastically home
to her parents whom she expected soon to visit: "I want to have
the privilege of baking as much as once for you, and I want you to
provide a quantity [of] first rate Graham flour, that you
may have at least one oven full of coarse food if no more. I know
father will like it, and I think mother and the children will."
Perfectionism and anti-slavery were not the only doctrines spread
by Oberlin.
"Butter, at best," ran the Graham boarding
house rules, "is a questionable article, and should be very
sparingly used by the healthy, and not at all by the diseased." E.
P. Ingersoll, formerly Professor of Sacred Music at Oberlin, wrote
to the Graham Journal in 1837, telling how he conquered his
appetite for butter, which he loved "as the drunkard does his
brandy." Having finally won out against temptation he found that
he was entirely cured of cankers in the mouth.
Pastries, candies and all highly flavored
foods were considered deleterious and all persons were warned
against their use except in very moderate quantities. Pies and
cakes were included in the Graham recipes but they were rather
different from the articles usually called by those names.
Piecrust, for example, was to be made by "sifting coarse flour,
and taking hot, mealy potatoes, and rubbing them in as you would
butter; then [taking] pearlash, and sour milk or water and
wet[ring] it, rolling the crust if you please in fine
flour." The "monstrous" apple pie served occasionally in the
boarding house with its thick upper and lower crusts was probably
made in this way. As to cake, Graham declared: "Cake made of
coarse wheaten meal, like gingerbread, (leaving out the ginger)
wet with milk, without other shortening, can be made very
palatable." Very little sweetening was to be used in any case.
Honey and maple sugar were to be preferred to refined cane sugar
because in a more natural state. While in Oberlin, Cambell kept
bees to produce honey for the boarding house. Students were
prohibited from using at the table pepper or other condiments,
even when purchased at their own expense. When Professor John P.
Cowles, an unmarried teacher who took his meals at the boarding
hall, brought a pepper shaker to the table it was ordered removed
by the trustees. His subseqnent dismissal was not unrelated to
this offense! Such spices were believed to be irritating to the
lining of the stomach and unduly stimulating to the
passions.
All students were expected to be temperate
in the consumption of all foods--even of Graham bread and
vegetables. In 1835 Mrs. Stewart granted one young lady student a
rebate of 30 cents--"credit for abstemiousness"! At the height of
the Cambell regime a young man wrote to his father that he was
"absolutely hungry a good part of the time." In earlier years some
of the students lived for a while on a diet of bread and water or
bread and salt. Grahamism taught that soft water was in itself
really nourishing!
Many students were undoubtedly indifferent
to the diet question, but some became enthusiastic advocates of
the cause of physiological reform. A Quaker student, Pardon D.
Hathaway, after eighteen months of Oberlin Grahamism, "using only
two or three articles of food and those of the purely vegetable
kind, without any condiments or seasoning whatever, even to the
excluding of salt . . . using no other drink besides water" and
bathing "every day, using a coarse towel and body-brush
thoroughly," was ready to declare that the cause of physiological
reform was "a cause which lays just claim to the aid of every
Christian and philanthropist, and one which must prevail, as that
day arrives when 'Lamentation and woe shall no more be heard in
our borders,' and 'the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth
as the waters do the sea.'" Another student declared that the
Oberlin regimen had saved him--body, mind and soul. Previously
life had become a complete burden to him; he was constantly
attended by "a feeling of languor and dullness" and "could walk
but a short distance, without intolerable weariness. His mental
alertness and moral judgment also suffered "for physical, mental,
and moral transgression, all go together."--Then he came to
Oberlin and began taking daily baths and eating Graham bread. "My
mind," he exulted, "immediatly burst from its debasement and
reassumed its pristine vigor .... My physical powers seem entirely
new. Youth has returned again .... Cheerfulness has taken the
place of despondency. Faith takes the place of darkness, and
happiness of gloom and misery."
Some accepted a sort of a half-way covenant
of diet, and others opposed the reform regimen entirely. Hannah
Warner told her parents: "I do not carry Grahamism very far. I eat
lean meat, butter & all that you do except fat meat &
spices. We drink no tea or coffee. I think a meat diet is better
for me because it makes more blood & keeps the system in more
vigorous action. I think too that bathing in cold water every
morning in the winter brings the heat too much on the surface.
Bathing twice a week I think is often enough in the morning in the
winter. I think it is better not to eat anything between our
regular meals." Her brother believed that his health was failing
on account of the inadequate nourishment he was receiving "upon
the grayham diet." He began boarding himself, eating butter and
meat, etc. and concluded that he felt much better as a result.
Professor John P. Cowles declared that physiological reform at
Oberlin went "beyant all the beyants entirely." He even charged
the system with having caused the death of some of the "female"
students. "But you," he accused the trustees, "have simplified
simplicity, and reformed reformation, till not only the health and
lives of many are in danger; but some, I fear, have already been
physiologically reformed into eternity."
Delazon Smith, Oberlin's most unrelenting
critic, declared that the food at the boarding house was "State
Prison Fare!" He was more explicit: "As for their water gruel,
milk and water porrages, crust coffee, &c., they are really
too filthy and contemptible to merit a comment. They are usually
known among the students by their appropriate names, such as
Swill, starch, slosh, dishwater, &c. &c. One of the above
with an apology for bread, constitute the essentials of each
meal." He held that "if students could not purchase other articles
of food at the stores, tavern, &c., it would be utterly
impossible for any of them to sustain their healths, if not their
lives, or be obliged to leave these heights of zion." The people
of the neighboring towns, he said, had become so well acquainted
with the effects of Oberlin diet that they could identify a young
man from Oberlin by his "leak, lean, lantern jawed visage!" Smith
quotes an Oberlin poet as expressing the situation
perfectly:
Sirs, Finney and Graham first--'twere shame
to think
That you, starvation's monarchs, can be
beaten;
Who've proved that drink was never meant to
drink,
Nor food itself intended to be
eaten--
That Heaven provided for our use,
instead,
The sand and saw-dust which compose our
bread.
* * *
But why on us, pursue your cruel
plan?
Oh why, condemn us thus to bread and water?
Perchance you reckon all the race of
man,
As rogues and culprits who deserve no
quarter;
And 'tis your part to punish, not to spare,
By putting us upon State Prison
fare.
* * *
Our table treasures vanish one by
one,
Beneath your wand, like Sancho's, they
retire;
Now stakes fsic] are rare, and mutton
chops are done,
Veal's in a stew, the fat is in the fire,
Fish, flesh and fowl are ravish'd in a
trice--
Sirs Finney and GrahamI cannot one
suffice?
When wine was banished by your cruel
fates,
Oh! gentle tea, for thee I trembled then;
"The cup which cheers but not
inebriates,"
Not even thou must grace our boards againI
Imperial is dethroned as I
forboded--
Bohea is dish'd, Gunpowder is
explodedl
Venison is vile, a cup of coffee
curst,
And food that's fried, or fricasseed,
forgot;
Duck is destruction, wine of woes is
worst,
Clams are condemned, and poultry's gone to
pot;
Pudding and Pork are under prohibition,
Mustard is murder, pepper is
perdition.
But dread you not, some famished foe may
rise,
With vengeful arm, and beat you to a
jelly?--
Ye robbers of our vitals' best
supplies
Beware! "there is no joking with the
belly,"
Nor hope the world will in your footsteps
follow,
Your bread and doctrine are too hard to
swallow.
After all, however, Grahamism did not last
long in Oberlin. In March of 1841 a group of Oberlin colonists
called a mass meeting to protest against the continuation of the
vegetable diet in the boarding hall. They believed, so read the
notice calling for the meeting, "that the health of many of those
who board there [at the Hall] is seriously injured . . .
not only in consequence of a sudden change of diet, but also by
the use of a diet which is inadequate to the demands of the human
system as at present developed." In April Cambell was forced by
public opinion and private pressure to resign his position as
steward. Despite this fact he remained a friend of Oberlin and
declined to receive any salary for his year's work. For some time
he continued to have hopes of building a Boston Hall at Oberlin,
where those students who preferred the simple diet might have it.
This he was never able to finance. Probably some individuals in
Oberlin continued to practice the Graham rules, but here as
everywhere the Graham influence declined rapidly after 1840. In
1845 even Finney could repent of his former "bondage" to Grahamism
and declare his belief that the proper rule of diet was to "prefer
those things which are most consistent with and conducive to the
best physical state of our bodies, not hesitating, however for
conscience sake to eat such things as are set before us in our
journeys and wanderings, provided they are not positively
injurious." Finney, in short, no longer looked upon diet as a
moral question and, therefore, for him and for many others
Grahamism had ceased to be reform. Oberlin students and colonists,
wrote one disappointed reformer, "rushed with precipitous and
confused haste back to their flesh pots; and here under the
exhilerating and bewildering influence of fresh infusions of the
chinese shrub and the Mocha bean, with the riotous eating of
swine's flesh and drinking the broth of abominable things, they
succeeded in arresting a necessary renovating work." The author of
this statement, written in 1852, is unfair, however, for
Oberlinites, and Americans generally, certainly lived more
intelligently and more temperately because of the popular study of
physiology and the attention to hygiene which the movement had
stimulated.
Some of the most enthusiastic would not
give up the cause, and in 1850 they formed the American Vegetarian
Society with Dr. Alcott as president and Sylvester Graham and P.
P. Stewart among the vice-presidents. As the name of the
organization would imply, its purpose was somewhat more limited
than that of the earlier American Physiological Society, being
devoted to the development of "habits of Abstinence from the Flesh
of Animals as food." Oberlin did not participate. In 1854 Dr.
Alcott wrote to Henry Cowles, then editor of the Oberlin
Evangelist: "My heart fails me, this morning on receiving your
letter .... That I must give up Oberlin,--and such men as Finney
& you with it, is inexpressibly painful." "Most glad am I," he
wrote in the same letter, "of your disdain in regard to tobacco
& tea & coffee--and feather beds. I wish it could have
been extended to animal food, pastries & condiments." In 1860
Stewart, who had left Oberlin in 1836 and was then engaged at Troy
in the stove business, returned and delivered a lecture on diet in
the College Chapel. His audience, however much it may have been
entertained by his discourse, seems not to have been moved at
all.
With their emphasis on prevention by
right-living it is not surprising that some Grahamites should have
come to believe and teach that medicine was unnecessary. In fact,
drugs, they declared, were as harmful as coffee, alcohol or
pepper. The physician was the human race's worst enemy.
Down to recent years, it has almost always
been true that the public was generally suspicious of physicians.
Besides, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries some
undoubtedly did more harm than good with their mercury and
venesections. Oberlin's own Dr. Dascomb prescribed calomel rather
often. All over the world unorthodox schools of medicine had
flourished since the middle of the eighteenth century: homeopathy,
"Thomsonianism," and hydropathy. The Americans, with their belief
in free inquiry and free action--complete democracy--welcomed them
as a relief from the long tyranny of orthodox physicians.
A new medical theory was fairly certain of
a warm reception, for a while, at least. Dr. Isaac Jennings was
Oberlin's medical reformer.
Dr. Jennings was born at Fairfield,
Connecticut, in 1788. In 1809 and the years following he studied
medicine in the office of Eli Ives, M.D., at New Haven, there
being at that time no regular medical school in the state. After
the medical department at Yale was established he was granted an
honorary M.D. by that institution. For a number of years he
engaged in a normal medical practice in the towns of Trumbull and
Derby, but sometime in the twenties he came to the conclusion that
drugs and bleeding were positively harmful and ceased to use them.
For a while he continued this "no-medicine" practice at Derby,
recommending vegetable diet, bathing, and abstinence from
stimulants. Sometimes he gave a bread pill or a dose of colored
water when the patient insisted on having some kind of a dose. At
first he seems to have attracted little attention, and he did not
try to publicize his work. In the late twenties he began to be
known abroad and to lose his practice at home. In 1838 he was
invited to the annual meeting of the American Physiological
Society and to the American Health Convention, both held that year
in Boston. In 1837 he sold his office and library at Derby and
visited Oberlin for the first time.
His address before the Oberlin Maternal
Association might have been delivered by any Grahamite. He
discussed "the importance of non-conformity to the customs of the
world, in regard to dress, tight-lacing etc." and declared the
"use of tea & coffee" to be "not only unnecessary but
injurious & a great sin in the church." The vote of the
Oberlin Society at that time against the sale of tea and coffee
may very likely have been passed through his influence. His speech
to the students of the Institute, however, dealt with his pet
doctrine. A young lady student, who heard it, wrote home to her
brother: "Dr. Jennings lectured to us last evening about Medicines
used in sickness--he seems to disapprove of them altogether. He
mentioned the case of a Lady afflicted with the typhus fever, he
visited her morning and evening for a day or two and did all he
could to relieve her. I do not recollect what he prescribed for
her but she got no better, she was very restless and sick, and
could keep nothing on her stomach except cold water. He was deeply
affected by her case and when he left her he walked the fields and
tried to think what he could do for her, he at last came to a
clear pure spring of water and took a vial from his pocket emptied
it--rinsed it, and then filled it with Aqua fontana pura and
returned to the house and told his patient to take just four drops
from the vial (which he had filled at the spring) once in four
hours, and to take nothing else. Next morning he called again and
found that after taking the drops she had been much better, he
told her to continue taking them, she did so, and soon recovered.
This, with many similar cases seemed to prove his doctrine very
conclusively. He lectures again this morning on the same subject."
Oberlin was converted (not Dr. Dascomb, of course), and Jennings
was well pleased with the colony. Two years later he joined them
and became a member of the Board of Trustees and the Prudential
Committee of the Institute.
Professor Finney and Father Shipherd were
closely associated with Dr. Jennings from the beginning. Finney
publicly opposed the use of medicine nearly a year before Jennings
came to Oberlin. Whether he had come under the influence of
Jennings elsewhere or had arrived at the same conclusions
independently via the Graham route is now impossible to say.
Anyway, in July of 1836 we find the evangelist lecturing the
students on preserving health and "condemning almost the whole
class of physicians, who instead of trying to prevent disease...
go about & give this pill to one man & another to another
man, without knowing whether it will kill or cure." In 1841
Shipherd wrote to his brother with regard to Jennings: "His
Lectures are of far more worth than the advice & medicines of
other Doctors & I hope his labors of love will bring him
needed support. While people will walk after the flesh fulfilling
its lusts they must be sick; but the grace of God is wonderfully
manifest in the recuperative power which He has given nature by
which diseases are thrown off without medicines more surely &
safely to the patient than with them .... I consider Doct.
Jennings & his Theory & practice of Hygiene as harbingers
of the Millenium. Fail not my Brother to understand and aid him."
It is not surprising, therefore, that it should have been these
three--Jennings, Finney and Shipherd--who were appointed as a
sub-committee of the Prudential Committee in 1840 to "enquire and
report upon the question: whether there is any local or assignable
cause for the frequent occurence of cases of determination of
blood to the brain or affection of the head among persons engaged
in intensive intellectual labor." They were the leading exponents
of medical reform in Oberlin.
Dr. Jennings' school of bodily cure was
known as orthopathy, "no-medicine," or "new practice." Nature, he
said, was always doing her best to keep the human system in health
and vigor. All that mortal could do was to give the patient rest
and provide the "vital forces" the best opportunity to carry on
the battle. The temperature of the room ought to be controlled.
The demands of the patient for water, etc., should be promptly
supplied. But, above all, the system was not to be disturbed by
unusual demands; especially were physic, bleeding, and stimulants
barred. The "vital powers" he held, could not be aided by
medicine. In fact, he declared, "the whole system of stimulation
and medication is a gross and awful delusion .... Joab-ic
treachery, outwardly a kiss, but inwardly a plunge of a dagger
deep under the fifth rib." "On the contrary there is good reason
to believe," he wrote in the Medical and Scientific Examiner,
"that the best method of obtaining a recruit of the vital forces .
. . is to keep quiet, take a kindly care of the body, and then
leave the mustering, marshaling and entire disposition of the
forces to an unrestricted operation of natural law."
The homeopaths gave only minute doses of
drugs; the hydropaths prescribed only water; Dr. Jennings'
theories were in close accord with the teachings of most medical
reformers of the day. Dr. William Alcott, as early as 1841,
expressed in his Library of Health his curiosity to know more of
orthopathy and called on Jennings to expound it to the public. To
meet this demand the latter published at Oberlin in 1847 his book
on Medical Reform with the subtitle, A Treatise on Man's Physical
Being and Disorders, Embracing an Outline of a Theory of Human
Life and a Theory of Disease--Its Nature, Cause, and Remedy. The
relation of orthopathy to Grahamism is clearly shown in the
chapter on causes of disease in this work. The chief causes as
listed are: alcohol, tea and coffee, tobacco, animal food, butter
and cheese, tight-lacing, defective education, ungoverned passions
and contagions. His theory of the nature and proper treatment of
disease (or "impaired health") is, of course, developed in great
detail. He uses the term heteropathy to describe the usual medical
practice in contrast to orthopathy, as the homeopaths applied the
term allopathy to all non-homeopathic practice. Dr. Alcott and
Professor Finney wrote brief notices of recommendation of the
work, which were printed as a sort of preface. Dr. Alcott declared
his belief that the promulgation of Jennings' views "would do
more, at the present crisis, to meliorate the condition of
mankind, physically and morally, than . . . anything else, short
of the everlasting gospel itself." Finney was equally enthusiastic
in his commendation. "Having suffered much," he wrote, "from
impaired health and medical treatment, and having conversed with
numerous eminent physicians, I was struck with the fact that
clouds and darkness rested upon their pathway; that they were
agonized . . with uncertainty at every step-hating empyrics, and
yet obliged to be nothing else themselves. I said to myself the
whole subject of medicine must need thorough revision if not utter
subversion . . . The more I look at your fundamental principle,
namely, that disease is in no case wrong action or a positive
entity, but in all cases is only impaired action resulting from a
deficiency of vitality, and yet the best that is possible under
the circumstances . . . the more I find myself verging to the
conclusion that this must be true." In that very year Finney had
an opportunity to demonstrate his faith. In the typhoid epidemic
of the summer of 1847 Jennings treated several patients, Finney
among them. He was ill for over two months, during which time he
received no drugs of any kind and but very little food and that of
the Graham variety, "crackers of unbolted wheat meal," gruel,
pudding, boiled rice, and baked sweet apples. His recovery was
looked upon by many as a triumph for orthopathy and Jennings wrote
a long account, describing the case in some detail.
Orthopathy, however, was not much more
long-lived in Oberlin than Grahamism. As late as 1853 we find one
of the literary societies debating the question whether "medical
practice has been a curse to the world." But in the sixties
Jennings was ready to declare that "the cloud of prejudice which
has been raised in Oberlin on the questions of diet and medicine"
had made the minds of Oberlinites "as impenetrable as the grisly
hide of the rhinoceros." It was Dr. Dascomb, Jennings said, who
was responsible for this state of things. Even in Oberlin, its
home, orthopathy was dead, its inventor admitted. "No iron-clad
monitor could more effectually ward off shell and shot than the
people of Oberlin do the shafts of physiological and pathological
truths."
* * *
Historically the temperance movement was
the parent of the "physiological reform" movement, as we have
seen. If it was sinful to drink liquors harmful to the physical
body, it followed that it was sinful to eat harmful foods, take
poisonous drugs, wear tight or inadequate clothing, or neglect
exercise, bathing or ventilation. By the same reasoning it is
equally evident that temperance was logically merely one phase of
the attempt to reform health habits by moral suasion.
At least since the preaching and
publication of Lyman Beecher's Six Sermons in 1826 practically all
liberal Presbyterians and Congregationalists (and some not so
liberal) had subscribed to the cause of temperance. Oberlin's
early sponsors were all advocates of temperance. Shipherd was very
active in the interest of temperance while settled in Elyria.
Theodore Weld interspersed temperance lectures among his addresses
on behalf of manual labor and anti-slavery. Oberlinites, unlike
most temperance men of the early thirties, were "teetotalers" from
the beginning. In the Covenant they pledged themselves to abstain
from "all strong & unnecessary drinks." The church took the
same stand and agreed, in 1835, to use sweetened water at the
Communion. Students were always forbidden the "use of intoxicating
liquor for drink." When Oberlin men travelled they always put up
at temperance houses, which could be found in most communities.
There was an Oberlin Temperance Society as early as the summer of
1834, and preachers and teachers educated at Oberlin taught
temperance as if it were a fifth Gospel. Nevertheless, temperance
was not on a par with the other reform movements at Oberlin.
Practically nobody in Oberlin needed to be reformed; all agreed on
the desirability of temperance and only sporadically did interest
in the subject develop sufficiently to stimulate organized
activity in that field.
The first such period of special interest
came in the early forties when the Washingtonians (a society of
reformed drunkards) had stirred the whole nation with their spicy
and effective methods of propaganda. In 1842 a Lorain County
Washingtonian Society was formed, and the Oberlin Evangelist
hailed the event as another step toward the Millennium. When the
second meeting of this society was held at Amherstville on August
2 of the same year, the delegation from Oberlin arrived in a
procession of forty wagons and carriages led by the Oberlin band.
The Oberlinites must have been honorary members. It is
unimaginable that any of them had had the proper background for
full membership! President Mahan offered the invocation; H. C.
Taylor, fresh from his trial at Elyria for "lynching," was a
member of the committee on resolutions; the Oberlin Musical
Association furnished the singing. In the following month Oberlin
also sent a delegation to the Northern Ohio Washingtonian
Convention held at Medina, "a noble gathering of men and women who
were resolved to give battle to the monster Intemperance, till he
is slain." The meeting was held in the Oberlin Tent, and a
delegation from the Oberlin Young Ladies' Literary Society
presented "a beautiful blue scarf" to Captain Turner, the
Washingtonian leader.
Temperance again appeared as a major
interest in Oberlin in the early firties when the work of Neal Dow
in Maine had stimulated interest in state-wide prohibition.
Oberlinites could not say too much in favor of the Maine law and
joined enthusiastically with other Ohio temperance advocates in
the effort to secure the passage of a similar law in that state.
In 1851 a referendum was held on the question whether the system
of licensing the sale of alcoholic beverages should be prohibited
in the constitution. Oberlin was all in favor of abolishing the
system which the Evangelist declared to be "an unmitigated curse."
If intoxicating beverages were to be sold, at least the state
ought not to be a partner in the criminal business! License was
defeated by the close vote of 113,000 to 104,000.
For the next three years after this minor
victory an extensive campaign was waged by Ohio reformers for
complete prohibition. In this campaign Oberlin played an active
part. Enthusiastic state temperance conventions were held in
Columbus in 1852, 1853, and 1854, the second being attended by
Neal Dow, himself. All of these sessions were reported in full in
the Oberlin Evangelist, that of 1852 by James Monroe, then a
member of the Ohio legislature. An Ohio State Temperance Executive
Committee and, later, an Ohio State Temperance Alliance, were
organized to carry on the battle between conventions.
In Oberlin, the young men students, the
townsmen generally (including faculty members), and the women
organized to help carry on the fight for the "Maine Law" for Ohio.
In November of 1852 "The Oberlin Students' Temperance Society" was
formed with the expressed purpose of preparing those engaged in
winter teaching and preaching to act as advocates of the
prohibitory law, circulating petitions and giving temperance
addresses. They mutually promised each other as students of
Oberlin College that they would exert themselves to the utmost "as
we are laboring as teachers, to secure signatures to the 'Maine
Law' petition, and in forming temperance societies and stimulating
public sentiment on the subject of temperance." It was at a
meeting of this society, faculty and townsmen appearing as guests,
that, in August of 1853, the agent of the Ohio State Executive
Committee appeared, and a local committee of teachers, students,
and colonists was appointed to collect funds and circulate
petitions. At the commencement exercises, a few weeks later, one
of the theological graduates delivered "A Plea for the Maine
Law."
But it was the women of Oberlin who took by
far the most prominent part in the early prohibition movement.
When the first Ohio State Women's Temperance Convention was held
in Representatives' Hall in Columbus, January 13 and 14, 1853,
Mrs. M. D. P. Cowles, second wife of Professor Henry Cowles of
Oberlin, presided. Over a thousand men and women were in the
audience as delegates or guests. A "State Temperance Society of
the Women of Ohio" was formed and a petition sent to the
legislature praying for the passage of a "Maine Law" for Ohio. An
auxiliary society was immediately formed in Oberlin with four
hundred and fifty members. "We will pray, we will petition, we
will agitate to secure the enactment of rigid and wholesome laws,"
declared the secretary. "We glory in the Maine Law .... We
confidently expect that like the waters of the deep broad main
that surges [along] her shores and, courses its sublime
way along the magnificent line of the states, so this Healing
Fountain of Temperance, that has gushed forth from her hills, will
send abroad streams that shall deepen and extend until our whole
land from Eastern main to Western, shall be renovated by its
life-giving waters." A second women's convention was held in
Dayton in September of 1853. Josephine Penfield Bateham, an
Oberlin graduate and daughter of Mrs. Cowles, presided as
president; Mrs. Hodge of Oberlin was assistant secretary; Mrs.
Peck and Mrs. Cowles also attended from Oberlin. The formation of
auxiliaries in ten counties was officially announced. At the first
anniversary of the society, held in Columbus on January 12, 1854,
the opening prayer was made by Mrs. Taylor of Oberlin; Mrs. Hodge
of Oberlin acted as temporary secretary; Mrs. Cowles and her
daughter, Mrs. Bateham, were elected members of the executive
committee, and Mrs. Hodge joined the immortal Mrs. Amelia Bloomer
of Mt. Vernon and three others on the Committee on a Memorial to
the Legislature.
What were the results of all this
agitation? Restrictive laws were passed in 1851 and 1854
prohibiting the sale of spirituous liquors for consumption on the
premises. In 1859 villages and cities were given authority to
prohibit "ale and porter shops and houses, and places for
significant or habitual resort for tippling and intemperance."
Oberlin immediately put this authority into effect to stamp out "a
rum shop on the borders" of the village--Oberlin's first
"temperance war." The Ohio laws were not effectively enforced in
most places, however. The resolutions of the state temperance
convention of 1855 dealt largely with the problem of putting teeth
into the laws already passed. The hope of securing a completely
prohibitory law seems to have been decidedly on the wane. As the
anti-slavery conflict became more intense other issues were
overshadowed--temperance (or prohibition) among them.
When the slavery issue seemed to be well on
the road to settlement Oberlin returned to the temperance
question. In 1863 the Oberlin Temperance League was founded among
the young people of Oberlin, mainly through the efforts of Miss
Julia Fairchild. Its membership was made up largely of students,
but also included some boys and girls of the town who were not
connected with the College. By 1865 there were three hundred and
fifty on its rolls, all of whom had signed the pledge "to touch
not, taste not, handle not." This society formed the beginning of
the continuous chain of organizations which led through the
society of adults bearing the same name in the early seventies and
the later Oberlin Temperance Alliance to the Anti-Saloon
League.
CHAPTER
XXIII
THE WHOLE MAN
"The system of education in this Institute
will provide for the body and heart as well as the intellect; for
it aims at the best education of the whole man."
JOHN J. SHIPHERD'S first
announcement of the Oberlin Institute,
New York Evangelist, September 7,
1833.
REFORMERS have always recognized that the
surest way of changing society was through the education of the
young. All over the Occidental world there was a reawakened
interest in education and educational methods in the late
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The educational
experiments of Pestalozzi, of Fellenberg and of Robert Owen were
watched with close attention by Americans as well as by their
fellow Europeans. The new spirit of benevolence and democracy
developed in America in the late twenties and thirties demanded
education for the children of all citizens, rich and poor, and
presented a situation especially favorable to educational reform.
On this side of the water William C. Woodbridge, Horace Mann,
Samuel Read Hall, Henry Barnard, William A. Alcott, Calvin E.
Stowe and many others studied the European methods, elaborated and
amended them, explained them to their fellow American teachers,
and experimented for themselves.
Again the Christian reformers were first in
the field, preparing the way for the better-known political
reformers like Mann and Barnard. In October, 1830, a Convention of
Teachers and Friends of Education was held at Utica in the heart
of the Finney country. Among others, the Revs. G. W. Gale, John
Frost and Dirck C. Lansing--all Finneyites--were in attendance.
There was much discussion of defects in the common school system:
"incapacity and ignorance of teachers," "bad government of
schools," "want of suitable apparatus," etc. Another convention
was called for the following January (1831) at the same place.
When again assembled Rev. Gilbert Morgan, later of the Rochester
Institute of Practical Education, was called to the chair. The
"New York State Lyceum" was organized, devoted to the "improvement
of education, especially in common schools," and an elaborate
report was received from the "Committee on Studies and Exercises."
This report recommended the expansion of the school curriculum to
include natural sciences, political science and bookkeeping, the
abandonment of learning by rote, the provision of more teaching
apparatus, etc.
Samuel Read Hall, the author of Lectures on
School-Keeping and principal of the Andover Teachers' Seminary,
called a meeting of educational reformers at his institution in
1832. The American School Agents' Society, then organized, planned
to send educational agents to the West and South, "improve the
schools, [and] promote the establishment of Lyceums." Hall
was the dominant figure in the society and held the office of
vice-president; G. W. Gale, of the Oneida Institute, was a
secretary. A report of the Board of Directors emphasized the
importance of the "appropriateness of knowledge to the wants of
life," the "absence from our schools of all articles of apparatus
for visible illustrations," the neglect of "moral culture," and
the "want of well qualified instructers."
Shipherd, the founder of Oberlin, was in
close touch with two of these educational reformers: William C.
Woodbridge and Samuel Read Hall. Woodbridge, a graduate of Yale in
the class of 1811, spent several years in Europe in the twenties
observing the work of the educational leaders there, especially of
Pestalozzi and Fellenberg. From 1830 to 1837 he edited the
American Annals of Education, the most important American
educational journal of its time. Shipherd was a reader of the
Annals and, in the summer of 1833, we find him visiting Woodbridge
and Hall to get their advice on plans for the Oberlin Institute.
Hall, as we have seen, was elected first President of Oberlin, and
had much to do with the selection of the first faculty and the
planning of the school, even preparing a design for a schoolhouse
for Oberlin, which contained a "General S.[chool] Room,"
and "S.[chool] Room for Girls." Hall's health prevented
him from actually coming to Oberlin to undertake its
management.
If Hall had come to Oberlin it would
probably have become primarily a normal school. As it was, the
emphasis on teacher training in Oberlin's early years may be
partially attributed to his influence. Hall was the American
pioneer in the movement, though Horace Mann secured the
establishment of the first state-supported normal school at
Lexington, Mass., in 1839. The provision of right-minded,
adequately trained and competent elementary school teachers had
been recognized as one of the fundamental necessities of
educational and social reform and a prime means of propaganda. One
of Shipherd's chief purposes in founding Oberlin was to furnish
"pious school teachers" for the "desolate Mississippi valley." He
included in his scheme a Teachers' Seminary, whose purpose was
declared in 1834 to be to make the student teachers "familiar with
the physical and intellectual constitutions of those whom they
educated, and thoroughly discipline their own minds .... and thus
exalt common schools above what they can be, while they are taught
by temporary and uneducated instructors."
Every year hundreds of Oberlin students
went out to temporary or permanent teaching appointments. Until
the mid-forties no special course of training in teaching methods
was provided, though Alice Welch Cowles, a former pupil in Joseph
Emerson's school at Byfield, did conduct some discussions on the
subject among the young ladies. In 1845, however, Professor Amasa
Walker presented a report to the trustees on teacher training.
"Common schools," declared Walker, "are the Colleges of the
people--Nineteen twentieths of the whole population receive
education in no other. To exert an influence in these therefore is
to strike at the masses of society. The vocation of the School
master is one of great responsibility & influence, & the
preparation [of] a class of persons for that responsible
station is an object worthy the highest efforts of Christian
Philanthropy. The government of this Seminary can engage in no
higher or better work, & if by a moderate degree of effort a
good Normal School can be connected with this institution, your
committee believe that a vast amount of good might be done to the
people of the West, & a great interest be created in the
community in favor of Oberlin. The attention of the wise &
good throughout the land is directed toward common schools, they
are rising in importance in public estimation every day, and,
while to a great extent the Colleges of our land are in a
languishing condition, our common schools are constantly
increasing in favor. These and many other considerations that
might be named seem to render it highly desirable in a region like
this that a School for the preparation of Common School teachers
should be established."
In 1846 a separate Teachers' Department was
established. In 1848 the first diploma was granted to a graduate
of that department. By 1850 twenty students were enrolled. At
first the Teachers' Course differed from the regular College
Course largely in the omission of Latin and Greek and of one
year's residence, the time required thus being reduced to three
years. "Lectures on Teaching" were added, apparently usually given
in the fall term before the students ventured out to their winter
schools. (The winter vacation lasted from the fourth Wednesday in
November to the fourth Wednesday in February.) Beginning in 1861
the College announced teachers' institutes every fall "continuing
about six weeks, in which special instruction is given in the
branches pursued in Common Schools." Lectures were also given on
the "Theory and Practice of Teaching . . . by experienced and
distinguished teachers" besides exercises "in the best methods of
teaching the various branches." In 1864 the name "Teachers Course"
gave way to "Scientific Course," but the content continued the
same even to the "Lectures on Teaching." The numbers enrolled did
not greatly increase; only twenty-eight were listed in 1866. Many
others, however, took advantage of the teachers' institute and
gained experience as teachers under supervision in the Preparatory
Department.
To Jean Frederic Oberlin, himself, belongs
the credit for establishing the first "infant school" of modern
times. It was Robert Owen, however, who made the most spectacular
experiment and did the most toward popularizing the idea.
Americans quickly took it up; the American Journal of Education
and the American Annals of Education contain many pages on the
subject. In Woodbridge's "Address" in the first number of the
latter he listed infant education as second only in importance to
female education. In 1828 an "Infant School Society" was
established in Boston, and similar societies were founded in New
York and Philadelphia. Shipherd brought a teacher for an infant
school to Elyria in 1830 and, appropriately enough, included an
infant school in the institution named after the originator of the
idea. When the Institute was opened on December 3, 1833, it
contained an infant school taught by Eliza Branch, who was brought
especially from Vermont to teach it. The experiment, however, was
given up after about a year. In Oberlin as elsewhere the infant
school became the primary department of the public school, and the
special types of instruction adapted to very small children were
abandoned.
There was much discussion of new methods of
discipline and the motivation of study. Reformers taught that the
rod was really not necessary and that obedience and industry might
be secured by "moral suasion." This was just the type of reform
that appealed to Oberlinites. In 1837 we find an Oberlin
student-teacher, George Prudden, governing his pupils at Lockport,
N. Y., "by moral principles, instead of the rod and rule." Two
years later another Oberlin teacher wrote from the central part of
Ohio: "My school numbers 30, and is in a flourishing condition. At
first fighting and swearing prevailed, but for weeks I have heard
and seen none. My endeavor has been to instill the principles of
love into their minds for a rule of action . . . School is now
half out and I have not whipped a scholar. They appear, as said
above, ashamed to do wrong." There were some who even decried
emulation, "the desire to excel," as a motive for study. Samuel
Read Hall, for example, believed that "by banishing the principle
of emulation from our schools, many evils may be averted and much
benefit secured." If the scholar's self-interest and
responsibility to parents and to God were appealed to and, above
all, if study were made interesting, Hall declared that it would
not be necessary "to excite emulation." Catharine Beecher, the
distinguished leader in the field of "female education," heartily
seconded Hall's position. At Oberlin, in the period covered by
this study, artificial appeals to emulation were always
discouraged. There were no prizes and no honors; there were not
even any valedictorians or salutatorians at Commencement. No term
grades were recorded in the earlier years; a student was either
passed or failed.
Miss Beecher reported her observation that
if "a correct tone of moral sentiment" were established in a
school, physical punishments and emulation could easily be
dispensed with. For this reason, and for its intrinsic importance,
character education, both moral and religious, was held, by most
educators, to be the highest aim of the schools. Woodbridge found
moral and religious education in their proper position of
prominence at Fellenberg's school at Hofwyl. Oberlin's emphasis on
the "cultivation of the sensibilities" as well as "the mental
faculties" was thus also in line with the best educational thought
of the age.
The new emphasis on physical education and
on practical education, the war on the "Heathen Classics," the
encouragement of instruction in music, and the "elevation of
female character" were all prominent phases of the trend of
educational thought in the middle third of the nineteenth century.
In each instance their expression at Oberlin deserves a more
detailed and special treatment.
In Woodbridge's American Annals of
Education and in the Quarterly Christian Spectator, John J.
Shipherd read of "Fellenberg's celebrated school at Hofwyl in
Switzerland." Hofwyl was the prototype of most of the manual labor
schools of the nineteenth century. There Fellenberg's pupils not
only engaged in gymnastics but were afforded "opportunities for
gardening" in the afternoon in order to develop their physical as
well as mental powers. W. C. Woodbridge, Rev. Elias Cornelius of
the American Education Society and others advocated the Swiss
pedagogue's methods in the United States. The "physiological
reformers" gladly seconded the educational reformers, believing as
they did in the absolute necessity of exercise in the open air for
the maintenance of health.
But there was a special situation in the
United States which made Fellenberg's ideas acceptable. In fact
there are good grounds for supposing that a similar type of
schools would have been established in the United States had the
Swiss innovator never lived. In the first place, in a country
lacking surplus capital it was difficult to finance schools, and,
secondly, on the frontier there was a great deal of unskilled
labor required to clear the forest, build houses and school
buildings, and begin agricultural activities. Land and lumber were
cheap; labor was the most expensive commodity. If the students did
the work they could build their own schools and raise the food for
themselves and their instructors. The democratic ideal, then
developing in America, favored the combination of learning with
honest and honorable toil. In the eyes of the small farmer and
frontiersman learning was flattered by the association. The sons
of these farmers, we are repeatedly informed, often sank into an
early grave when they left the axe and the plow for unrelieved
devotion to study. Sports were considered suitable for young
children only and too undignified for mature students. Gymnastics
were uninteresting and silly. Manual labor exactly fitted the
situation. A few hours' work a day would pay the student's
expenses, instill true principles of democracy, protect his health
and keep him out of mischief.
As we have already seen, George W. Gale's
Oneida Institute, established at Whitesboro near Utica, was the
pattern for most of the American manual labor schools. The
Christian reformers took up the idea enthusiastically and
organized the Society for Promoting Manual Labor in Literary
Institutions. Theodore Weld was the agent and his report issued in
the name of the society early in 1833 is the most detailed
statement of the case for "manual labor-with-study." He argued
that it was desirable that students should engage in manual labor
because the wages earned would help to pay for their education and
thus enable the poor to study, because it would promote in the
students "habits of industry," "independence of character," and
"originality," because its "moral effect would be peculiarly
happy," and because the students would gain thereby important
practical training in manual pursuits. Manual labor was declared
to be preferable to gymnastic exercises because it was productive,
more interesting and educational, as well as because gymnastics
were declared to be dangerous, unnatural and "unphilosophical,"
and because the "laboring classes . . . are disgusted and repelled
by the grotesque and ludicrous antics of the gymnasium." Above
all, manual labor was recommended, however, because it furnished
the exercise felt to be necessary to the health of students. To
prove the necessity of regular exercise to good health many
quotations were included: from John Quincy Adams, from Prof.
Hitchcock's Dyspepsy Forestalled & Resisted, from the Journal
o[ Health, from Dr. Mussey of Dartmouth, from President
Wayland of Brown, from Thomas S. Grimke of Charleston, S.C., and
from Justice Joseph Story. The report is like a patent medicine
advertisement, so filled is it with testimonials.
John Jay Shipherd became an enthusiastic
convert and promoter of this cause also. When feeling unwell he
regularly resorted to the axe as to a tonic. "I am also chopping,
loging, etc.," he wrote on one occasion to his brother. "I have
blistered my hands over & over, & the pain of them is
sweet; for it relieves my scalded brain." In January of 1833
Weld's report was issued. In August of the same year Shipherd
announced his Oberlin Collegiate Institute, which he sometimes
referred to as the "Oberlin Manual Labor Institute."
Manual labor was the most prominent feature
of the Oberlin Institute in its early years. All the early
statements are full of it: the petition to the legislature for
incorporation, dated December, 1833, the so-called "First
Circular" of March, 1834, and the First Annual Report of November,
1834. Shipherd declared in the summer of 1834 that the Oberlin aim
was to give as thorough education as elsewhere "and yet through
the Lord's blessing, its alumni [should also] have health
and muscle, with a disposition to 'endure hardness as good
soldiers of Jesus Christ.'"
Manual labor was actively practiced
throughout the first fifteen years and more. It was one of the
chief attractions of the institution. It may be classified with
Oberlin's other "peculiarities": anti-slavery, "Grahamism,"
perfectionism, etc. From Oberlin the manual labor idea was spread
throughout the West by students and teachers. The young lady who
wrote to her parents that she hoped to be allowed to make a batch
of Graham bread for them during her approaching visit added: "I
want also to have the privilege of milking one cow every morning,
and I shall want to do a few other chores for exercise, and
perhaps a little sewing for mother." The branch schools
established to take the overflow of students from Oberlin in 1836
all enforced manual labor. Hiram Wilson founded a manual labor
school for fugitive Negroes in Canada. Of course, Shipherd's
Olivet in Michigan was also a manual labor institution.
Though the actual practice of manual labor
declined and the college farm was sold, the ideal was officially
adhered to even into the sixties. As Horace Greeley put it in the
New York Tribune: "We don't admit that Oberlin has given up manual
labor--far from it--though it has been somewhat staggered in its
adherence thereto, mainly because of its inability to provide
labor for all its pupils, especially in proper variety." The
emphasis on manual labor as an aid to health, however, was early
subordinated to the support of that system for its pecuniary
benefit to the student. An official report from the faculty in
1846 declared that the system in Oberlin had proved decidedly
beneficial to the physical well-being of the participating
students, but the same report devoted about five times as much
space to the financial results. Everywhere there was a decline in
the popularity of manual labor with study. In 1865 even Theodore
Weld partially recanted. The system worked best under frontier
conditions where the amount of available work requiring little
skill was comparatively large. By the sixties, too, the "grotesque
and ludicrous antics of the gymnasium" were being practiced by an
increasing number of health devotees.
Without manual labor it is very doubtful if
Oberlin would have attracted enough students to justify the
continuance of the institution. The practice of manual labor with
study did not, of course, die out, as so many writers have
supposed. Cornell was founded on manual labor principles in the
sixties. Berea College in Kentucky, copying its system directly
from Oberlin, continues its use to this day, under circumstances
approximating those of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute a hundred
years ago. Besides, there is a direct connection between the
manual labor movement and the later introduction of manual
training and agricultural and mechanical education.
Of all the early manual labor schools,
Oberlin maintained the system the longest and on the largest
scale. It is surprising that writers on this interesting movement
have so long overlooked it.
The manual labor system, the backbone of
the Oberlin educational scheme at the beginning, was recommended
because it would help to keep the student in strong and vigorous
health. Three or four hours at the woodpile, in the field or (for
young ladies) at the washtub were expected to furnish not only the
financial wherewithal and a certain practical training, but also
physical vigor and, therefore, a clear head for the hours at the
study table. The students (and probably some of the faculty) soon,
however, came to overlook all motives other than the financial
one. Much of the labor performed was of little benefit from the
health standpoint. With the rush of students in the fifties,
following the great sale of scholarships, any effort to furnish
labor to all was frankly abandoned.
A different type of physical exercise was
gaining popularity in America at that time--gymnastics. Karl
Follen and Karl Beck had introduced the Jahn system of gymnastics
from Germany in the twenties. In 1827 Signor Voarino's Treatise on
Calisthenics Exercises Arranged for the Private Tuition of Ladies
was published in London and many copies were introduced into this
country, and within ten years the young ladies at Oberlin were
practicing this form of exercise. The men were too dignified and
too busily engaged in manual labor to do so. But as early as 1847
the editor of the Ohio Cultivator concluded from the appearance of
Oberlin students that the manual labor system was not fulfilling
expectations as to its effect on health and physique. He urged the
college authorities to "build a gymnasium, and require the
students to practice a regular system of gymnastics, in connection
with their daily study and labor." In the fifties a strong
movement for systematic physical training began among the
intellectual and religious leaders of the United States. Emerson,
Holmes, Beecher and Higginson spoke and wrote in behalf of
regular, scientific physical exercise and described American men
as "hollow-chested, narrow-shouldered, ill-developed." By 1859 an
Oberlin student writer could draw as sad a picture of the results
of study without exercise as the best of them: "A shattered
remnant of former glory survive to the attainment of Senioric
dignities, among which spectacles fill a conspicuous place. . . .
The proud day of graduation at last arrives, and their efforts
receive the plaudits of a crowd of curious listeners .... Their
performances are a nine days' wonder, and garrulous gossips may
even sound their praises a month. The proud youths, after a few
days of needed rest, return to their friends by easy stages,
bearing with them the well-thumbed, coveted sheepskin and a
diseased liver."
The example of Amherst in building a
gymnasium and the Rev. Mr. Higginson's article in the Atlantic
spurred Oberlin students to action. In the summer of 1860 a
Students' Gymnastic Club was formed and began exercises--"swinging
scepters or clubs in such a way as to bring all the muscles into
vigorous action." At the time of the annual meeting of the
trustees in August a petition was presented in behalf of the
students, signed by three of their number, stating that $350.00
had already been raised for the erection of a gymnasium building
and requesting the trustees to make an equal contribution. A joint
session of the faculty and trustees showed that the majority were
frankly unsympathetic. They did not share the opinion of some
students that "a half hour in the Gymnasium is worth two at sawing
wood" and that manual labor was unsatisfactory because it did not
"unbend the mind and furnish that relaxation which student life
demands." A spokesman reported that it was the general consensus
that if any money were available it should go to promote
productive labor rather than unproductive. The Board did consent
to grant land for the erection of the gymnasium, but no money, and
by formal resolution they made clear their position, expressing
"their high regard for manual labor & their solemn purpose to
sustain & encourage its interests in this College hereafter as
heretofore by every means in their power." The attitude of the
College authorities was much like that of the farmer whose boy
wanted to play baseball when the corn needed hoeing. The manual
labor system, a step forward in its day, became a stumbling block
to progress in its decadence.
Having failed to secure financial aid from
the College, the gymnasium enthusiasts organized a joint stock
company. Stock or scholarships were sold at $3.00 and $5.00, the
former entitling the holder to use the gymnasium for two, and the
latter for four, years. Professor Peck, two townsmen and two
students were named as trustees and managers. Stock certificates
were advertised in the local paper:
GYMNASIUM!
"A SOUND MIND IN A SOUND
BODY."
All persons who by their subscriptions are
entitled to certificates in the New Gymnasium, and all others, as
many as desire a manly development of Muscle and wish to
secure
C E R T I F I C A T E S
May receive them of the
undersigned.
E. Gray, West College St.
C. T. Fenn, 48 T.[appan]
H[all].
The gymnasium, a one-story structure,
eighty by thirty feet, situated on Tappan Square, was completed in
March, 1861, at a cost of something over a thousand dollars. On
the 30th the building "was opened with appropriate exercises, and
a new era in the physical culture of Oberlin students
inaugurated." Prolessor Ellis, Professor Peck and Principal
Fairchild spoke. Samuel Putnam of the Worcester Gymnastic Club, of
Worcester, Massachusetts, who had been hired as instructor for
three months, demonstrated his fitness by various feats and "gave
great satisfaction to the spectators." For the time "vaulting bars
and dumb bells [were] in the ascendant" at
Oberlin.
Short was the shrift of the first Oberlin
gymnasium. Less than three weeks after its opening the guns of the
harbor batteries in Charleston drowned out all lesser noise. The
instructor was one of the first to enlist. Of the three signers of
the gymnasium petition: Nettleton joined the army early and soon
became a colonel (later a general and years later, under Harrison,
Acting Secretary of the Treasury); Scott went away with the famous
Oberlin Company C, and was taken prisoner in the first engagement;
Morey volunteered a few months later. Because of the war many
subscriptions were never paid, and Professor Ellis, Samuel Plumb,
and other guarantors incurred considerable losses. The building
was probably never well suited to its purpose, anyway. No one was
secured to succeed Putnam as instructor. In 1863 the College paid
the remaining debt of the Gymnasium Association (about $200.00)
and took over the building. In the fall of the year it was torn
down, only a little over two years from the time of its
completion. For the next twelve years Oberlin was to be without a
gymnasium.
The gymnasium was distinctly a gymnasium
for men, though there was some talk of allowing the ladies to use
it during certain days in the week. Gymnastics for the ladies was
introduced earlier but developed more slowly. In the thirties what
seem to have been very moderate exercises were practiced, probably
under the leadership of the Female Principal. Nancy Prudden
reported to her parents in 1837 that every day at five in the
afternoon she and the other young ladies practiced "calisthenics,
entering and leaving the room, etc." The interest in such
exercises was probably stimulated by the physiological reform
movement of that time. In the late fifties (1858) the Prudential
Committee appropriated "the ground south of the Boarding Hall to
the use of the young ladies of the Inst. for a recreation ground,"
and a committee was appointed to put it in condition. When the new
Ladies' Hall was constructed (in the middle sixties), the top
floor was left open as an exercise room for rainy days. What form
of exercise the young ladies engaged in in the places set aside
for their use, we can only guess--probably nothing very
strenuous.
The new interest in sports in the fifties
and sixties was a result not only of the general secularization
and the advance of culture toward the west but of a realization of
the value of sport for physical recreation. It is significant that
in 1858 the Phi Delta society debated the question, "Resolved,
that the revival of the athletic sports of the ancient Greeks
would be beneficial to the mental and moral condition of the
present age." A few years later we even find one of the ladies'
societies discussing whether "the ladies of the different classes
ought to form themselves into sporting clubs."
Education for the masses--for the
poor--implied, of course, useful training. It was to be expected,
therefore, that practical education would be emphasized in this
period, especially in the United States, and that the success of a
school or a system would be measured by the useful facts or skills
which the students acquired. Yankee farmers contemplating sending
their children to college asked the question: "Of what use is this
education? Can my children earn a better living because of it?"
Probably all of the educational reformers favored a practical
training, but some interpreted "practical" in a way that the
public was not likely to follow. Lowell Mason certainly regarded
musical training as practical, but the average American of his day
as certainly did not. In Oberlin the course in Physiology, taught
from the very beginning, was considered one of the "practical"
courses, and such apparently it was. Scientific subjects, in
general, were likely to be classified with the practical subjects,
as distinguished from the classical or literary subjects. Shipherd
in his earlier statements always referred to "practical" education
as the aim at Oberlin. In this he included religious education and
everything that would help to fit the student for service as a
minister, missionary, or pious school teacher. The teaching of
Hebrew was preferred as against Latin partly because it was more
"practical."
The general understanding of practical
education was more restricted. Practical education was usually
thought of as that which involved dealing with common things in an
ordinary way and especially preparation for earning a livelihood.
The Oberlin manual labor system with its domestic department and
work on the college farm was practical in this sense. The training
of teachers, agricultural education, mechanical training, and
commercial education were universally recognized as truly
practical. The Teachers' Course at Oberlin has been previously
dealt with. Mechanical training was never attempted on any
considerable scale. Agricultural and commercial education,
however, both appeared, and deserve special
consideration.
Oberlin was one of the pioneer schools in
the introduction of agricultural education. For years there had
been much discussion of the matter all over the country. The
manual labor system was supposed to give some training in farming,
but largely failed in this aim in Oberlin as elsewhere. As early
as 1832 a special "Convention of the Friends of Agricultural
Education" was held at Albany. An elaborate plan for an
agricultural school was presented, but nothing came of it until
the fifties when the "People's College" was still-born. A number
of purely agricultural academies were actually founded, such as
the Gardiner Lyceum in Maine and the Cream Hill Agricultural
School in Connecticut. "Farmers' College" was established near
Cincinnati in 1846, but it was not granted the right to confer
degrees until 1855. Nor until that date did it have a farm or
educate many farmers. Perhaps more significant was the appearance
of courses in the application of science to agriculture in the
offerings of various established colleges. In 1843 the Amherst
College Catalogue announced "a lecturer on agricultural chemistry
and mineralogy," and four years later Yale offered lectures "in
the application of science to the arts and agriculture."
Instruction in agriculture was provided for in the University of
Georgia in 1855.
In 1845 Norton Strange Townshend was
appointed a trustee of the Oberlin Institute to take the place of
Amasa Walker. Whether Dr. Townshend may rightly be, as he is often
called, "the father of agricultural education in America," he
certainly was the father of agricultural education in Oberlin. Dr.
Townshend was born in Northamptonshire, England, in 1815, but when
he was fifteen years old moved with his parents to a farm in
Lorain County, Ohio, not far from Oberlin. In 1837 he began the
study of medicine in Elyria, which he later continued in
Cincinnati, New York, Edinburgh, Dublin and Paris. He received a
diploma from the Ecole de Medecine in the Universite de France and
returned to Elyria to practice in 1841.
In the very next year following his
election to the Board of Trustees of Oberlin, Townshend submitted
a proposal for the establishment of an agricultural school. The
memorial is dated at Elyria, August 26, 1846:
"It has been proposed to the faculty of
this institution to establish an Agricultural School in Oberlin to
be in Session during the whole or a part of the College
vacation.
"The plan requires the Selection of four or
more lecturers to give instruction upon the following
subjects:
"1 Geology with Mineralogy & Chemistry
showing their applications to well digging--draining--the use of
manures and other means for the amelioration of soils &c
&c.
"2 Vegetable Physiology and Botany in their
applications to field, orchard & garden culture with Specific
instructions respecting the cultivation of the most useful plants
&c &c.
"3 Comparative Anatomy, Physiology and
Pathology--their bearing upon the raising & feeding of
stock--the improvement of varieties--& the treatment of
diseases common to this region &c &c.
"4 Natural Philosophy in reference to their
forces and implements used in Agriculture--with Meterology &
Farm Bookkeeping &c &c.
"Lectures (say four) on the above mentioned
topics given daily through the course.
"Lecturers remunerated and all expenses
paid for the sale of admission tickets.
"It is believed this enterprise would not
interfere seriously with the regular duties of the lecturers nor
be inconsistent with the original objects of this
institution."
The trustees commended this plan "to the
favorable consideration of the Faculty & Prudential Committee
to take such action as may be deemed necessary," but the
agricultural school was not actually established for eight years
more. In the meantime, Dr. Townshend, Professor Dascomb and
Professor James H. Fairchild prepared themselves for their later
work by giving extension lectures on agriculture under the
auspices of the Lorain County Agricultural Society. In 1849 a
course on the application of chemistry to agriculture was added to
the College curriculum, described after 1850 as "Lectures on the
Application of Science to Agriculture and the Arts."
There was much discussion, in the late
forties and early fifties, of the need of scientific agricultural
education in Ohio. In the very same year that Townshend made his
proposal for a school at Oberlin, the President of the Ohio State
Board of Agriculture, at its first annual meeting, recommended the
establishment of an Ohio agricultural college. Early in 1854, M.
B. Bateham of the Ohio Cultivator, a Finneyite who had married two
Oberlin girls, declared that "better education of farmers . . . is
the great want of the age."
In September, 1854, a prospectus was issued
for the "Ohio Agricultural College, Oberlin, Lorain Co., O." The
object was declared to be "to place within the reach of Farmers,
both old and young, the means of acquiring a thorough and
practical acquaintance with all those branches of Science which
have direct relations to Agriculture." It was to meet in the
winter "when the farmer himself, or his sons, may best spare the
time" and when, during the long College vacation, Oberlin
buildings were available. The subjects taught were to "embrace
whatever pertains to Animals, Vegetables, Land or Labor." The
school was to begin on the first Monday in December and continue
three months. The tuition was placed at the comparatively high
figure of forty dollars for the three months.
Dr. Dascomb was to lecture on "Chemistry in
all its applications to Soils, Manures, Animal and Vegetable Life,
and the Domestic Arts, &c." Professor J. H. Fairchild's
department would be "Natural Philosophy; Elements of Engineering
and Land Surveying; Rural Architecture; Landscape Gardening and
Farm Book Keeping," and Dr. John S. Newberry would deal with
"Geology and Mineralogy; Botany, Descriptive and Physiological,
with special reference to the history and habitudes of all plants
cultivated in the Garden and Orchard, or in the Field; the various
modes of culture, and soils adapted to each." Dr. Townshend,
himself, was to teach "Comparative Anatomy and Physiology, with
special reference to the feeding and breeding of Stock; History
and Description of Domestic Animals in their several varieties;
Veterinary Medicine and Surgery; Entomology." He planned to
perform various operations on domestic animals before the class.
The school was to use the Music Hall and the Laboratory. The
rental was appropriated, before it was received, for the building
of a fence around the latter building.
Mr. Bateham gave the school a fine
editorial send-off in the Ohio Cultivator, expressing his hope
that hundreds of young Ohioans would take advantage of the
opportunity thus afforded them for becoming scientific as well as
practical agriculturists. He visited the classes at Oberlin in
January and was favorably impressed. A resume of a lecture "On the
Secretion and Composition of Milk" was published in the
Cultivator. It was a source of disappointment to Bateham and to
Townshend that the attendance was so small.
The Ohio Agricultural College never met
again at Oberlin.
In 1855 and again in 1856 the lectures were
repeated in Cleveland, Dr. Dascomb, Prof. Fairchild and Townshend
being among the lecturers as at Oberlin. Dr. Townshend made an
unsuccessful attempt to secure financial aid through the Ohio
State legislature and then abandoned the enterprise. There were
probably never more than forty students attending the lectures at
any one time. Dr. Townshend served for some time in the Ohio
Assembly and Senate, the United States House of Representatives,
and on the State Board of Agriculture. In 1857 he resigned from
the Board of Trustees of Oberlin College. During the Civil War he
acted as Medical Inspector in the United States Army and in 1867
was on the Wool Tariff Commission. In 1869 he returned to his
chosen field, having been appointed first Professor of Agriculture
in the Iowa Agricultural College. In 1870 he was made a trustee of
the newly-founded Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. Three
years later he resigned his position in Iowa to become the first
Professor of Agriculture in the Ohio institution, which later
changed its name to Ohio State University. In this capacity he
served until 1891, and died in Columbus in 1895. The agricultural
building at Ohio State was named in his honor Townshend
Hall.
Dr. Townshend had taken an active part in
securing the passage of the land grant for colleges in 1862. It
was natural that Oberlin should favor the distribution of the
funds made available by this act among the existing colleges
rather than the establishment of a new state institution. At a
meeting of the Prudential Committee late in x1864, "Profs. Cowles
& J. H. Fairchild, one or both of them, were made a committee
to meet delegates from other Colleges in Ohio, at Columbus on the
27th inst. to consider the propriety of memorializing the
legislature of the State for the allotment of the National Grant
for Agricultural Colleges, among the principal existing colleges
of the State." Again, two years later, Governor J. D. Cox
(Oberlin, A.B., 1851) having suggested the possibility of
Oberlin's receiving some part of the grant, the Prudential
Committee, together with the resident trustees and faculty, "Voted
that it was expedient to take measures to secure an appropriation
from the Legislature of one third of the grant." No other attempt
has ever been made to establish agricultural courses in Oberlin,
but the influence of Dr. Townshend, who made his first experiment
at Oberlin, has been a very significant factor in the history of
American agricultural education.
The business school or "commercial college"
is a characteristic product of the American belief in practical
education. As such it is not surprising that it should have
developed in the middle third of the nineteenth century when so
many other typically American things appeared. In this period
wandering teachers conducted classes in penmanship, bookkeeping,
etc., in various towns and cities all over the country. Some of
these classes developed into permanent business colleges.
Successful business schools colonized, and by the sixties chains
of commercial colleges, like the Bryant and Stratton schools, had
been established. Among the pioneers were James Bennett and Thomas
Jones of New York and P.M. Bartlett of Philadelphia, all of whom
founded schools in the early forties. Equally important were the
itinerant penmen, Silas S. Packard and Platt Rogers Spencer. These
schools differed from the usual educational enterprises in that
they were conducted for profit. The course of study was often
ridiculously short and the teachers inadequately trained.
Nevertheless they did an important work in preparing skilled
clerks and bookkeepers (not executives), and were probably largely
responsible for the rapid introduction of women into office
work.
In the very first year of the existence of
the Oberlin Institute, Mr. B. A. Webster appeared and taught "the
art of Stenography with ability and success" in four lessons for
two dollars! In 1844 students petitioned the trustees that
bookkeeping be made a regular part of the course of instruction,
but no action was taken. The next year, however, and for five
years following, Mr. E.G. Folsom taught writing, bookkeeping and
shorthand as an extra, the students paying so much per lesson or
course of lessons. Lucy Stone wrote to her sister in September of
1845: " .... At [1 o'clock I] recite Phonography (which
does not come regularly in the course, but I am learning it)."
From 1850 to 1853 "Book-keeping" was a regular part of the
curriculum in the Scientific Course. In the latter year a college
student, Robert W. Gilliam, submitted a bill "For instruction in
bookkeeping to the members of the Scientific Course, "23
hours--$5.75."
Writing teachers appear to have been on
hand much of the time. S.C. Ingersoll taught penmanship in 1841 at
fifty cents per pupil. Elizabeth Maxwell (later Mrs. James Monroe)
took writing lessons in the following spring. In 1843 the faculty
voted that "the individual appointed to teach writing be required
to give twenty-five lessons to each course and that his pay be at
the rate of 50 cents for each pupil, and that the institution can
assume no responsibility for the payment of these bills." In 1849
and 1850 a student from Maine in the Preparatory Department gave
an evening "course of instruction in Writing to 13 Gents of the
Senior preparatory Class @ 50 cts each." In 1853 Peter Pindar
Pease was granted "the use of one of the Recitation rooms for his
Son to teach a class in Writing upon his undertaking to keep it in
repair."
One of the most interesting of the
penmanship teachers was Platt Rogers Spencer, the inventor of
Spencerian penmanship. Born in New York, he moved to Ashtabula
county in the Western Reserve when a boy. His early life was
divided between the practice of writing and his battle with
intemperance. Eventually he became a teetotaler and an
abolitionist, an early member of the Ashtabula Anti-Slavery
Society. From the thirties to his death in 1864 he travelled about
lecturing, giving writing lessons and founding business colleges.
He published a series of copy sheets and copy books, beginning in
1848, which made his system of writing famous.
Apparently in 1859, he established in
Oberlin a "Chirographic Institute" which later became part of the
"Commercial Institute, under the general patronage of the
College." An announcement of this school in the College Catalogue
for 1860-61 continues: ". . . It is under the direction of
experienced and able Instructors, and embraces in its course the
most approved form of Book Keeping, and all the branches of
Commercial Science usually taught in similar Institutions. The
Spencerian System of Penmanship is taught under the supervision of
its author. Students in the Institute are required to observe the
same regulations as to general conduct, as the students of the
College." In 1862 a separate circular and catalogue was issued
announcing the course of the "Spencerian Commercial and
Chirographic Institute" of Oberlin as it was then called. S. S.
Calkins was principal of the commercial department, and P. R.
Spencer, Jr., son of the inventor of the system of penmanship, was
principal of the "chirographic department." During the war period
the Union Telegraphic Institute was also established at Oberlin,
by Chester H. and Chauncey N. Pond, especially for the training of
telegraph operators. Professor Dascomb was secured to teach
theoretical physics as background for their work. Late in 1865
this school was consolidated with the Commercial Institute and the
whole chartered as "Calkins, Griffin & Co's Union Business
Institute." The Institute's telegraph lines ran to Wellington,
Medina and Elyria, and for a while the Wellington news column in
the Oberlin newspaper was reported "By O. B. I.
Telegraph."
In its beginning the business school was
closely associated with Oberlin College. The "Board of Referees"
in 1862 was made up of ten members of the College faculty, the
pastor of the Second Congregational Church and a member of the
College Board of Trustees. In 1865 this board included a number of
business men besides the College professors. After 1866 the
professors are no longer listed by name. Announcements of the
business school appeared in the College Catalogues of 1860 to 1864
and again in 1865-66, but stopped after that. Apparently the close
association ended on the latter date.
In 1866 the Institute included a commercial
department, a telegraphic department, and a chirographic
department. The full commercial course required from eighteen to
twenty weeks and included "Business Customs and Correspondence,"
"Business Drill," "Political Economy," Commercial Arithmetic,
Penmanship, Commercial Law, and "Physical, Mental and Moral
culture." The full telegraphic course took from five to eight
months and included "Practical Telegraphy," "Management of
Batteries," "Telegraphic Bookkeeping," and "Theoretical
Telegraphy." In the chirographic department the Drake brothers
taught business and ornamental Spencerian penmanship, including
"Off-Hand Flourishing, Old English, German And Church Text." The
influence of the College is to be seen in the rules against using
tobacco, swearing and Sabbath breaking and in the provision for
prayer meetings on Thursday and Friday evenings.
In these early years the Commercial or
Business Institute bore about the same relation to the College as
did the Conservatory of Music. Students very often took courses in
both the College and the Institute. The Conservatory, however,
grew into the College, whereas the business school grew away from
it. Otherwise, business training as a part of higher education
might have begun in Oberlin rather than at the University of
Pennsylvania.
As an aid to the development of character
and to make school work more attractive, training in music,
especially vocal music, was urged. William Woodbridge was greatly
impressed by the appreciation of music which he found among all
classes of the German people and the emphasis on musical
instruction in the schools of Pestalozzi and Fellenberg. Though
disgusted with the "fascinating but corrupting strains of the
Opera and the overpowering chants of the Vatican" he was
completely persuaded that music was a great aid to true piety and
a prime means of elevation and improvement. Lowell Mason took up
the task of introducing the teaching of music in the schools of
the United States. In 1832, in association with George James Webb,
he founded the Boston Academy of Music. In this institution he
taught music to Boston children free of charge, according to the
Pestalozzian method. Four years later he began his convention or
institute for the training of music teachers. In his little Manual
of the Boston Academy for Instruction in the Elements of Vocal
Music, on the System of Pestalozzi, published in 1839, he
presented the arguments for teaching music to children: "It
improves the voice . . . conduces to health . . . tends to improve
the heart . . . tends to produce social order and happiness in a
family . . . [and] is intellectual and disciplinary." "The
effects of a suitable style of music in connection with judicious
words," he declared, "is now to some extent well known. It tends
to produce love to teachers, love to mates, love to parents, and
love to God; kindness to dumb animals, and an observance of the
works of nature and of the events of Providence; and leads the
mind 'through nature up to nature's God.'" Here was another great
aid in the struggle for the reformation of the world.
The story of the development of music
teaching in Oberlin will be reserved for a separate
chapter.
The content of a college course should be
elevating, conducive to piety, and practical. Was the old
curriculum all of these things? Was this true of the Odyssey?--of
Euripides?--of Ovid? of Horace? The answer given by many reformers
was "Obviously not." Many of the "classics" ordinarily studied in
a college course were not only pagan but positively immoral. If
the main purpose of education was to develop high moral character
and stimulate piety, the portions of classical Greek and Latin
literature usually included in the college curriculum were, for
the most part, ineffective and even harmful. Likewise, their study
was of little practical value and the attention given to them was,
generally speaking, a waste of precious energy. This time and
energy would much better be spent, said some, on elevating
Christian, practical writings. The Bible was, they thought,
neglected. Why should not the students study the original Greek of
the New Testament rather than the sophisticated, heathen Greek
classics? Would it not be more important to understand Hebrew, in
order to be able to read the Old Testament in the original, than
Latin, which was of no fundamental use to the Christian scholar or
clergyman? If Latin must be studied let Christian moral writings
replace the pagan, immoral ones. But were there not classics in
English worthy of careful study which were, at the same time,
Christian and moral? Instead of Virgil or Horace let American
students read Paradise Lost or Cowper's poems.
Thomas Smith Grimke, of the famous reformer
family of that name of South Carolina, was the chief spokesman of
this viewpoint. In addresses and printed pamphlets and books he
presented his arguments against the heathen classics to educators
and Christians throughout the Union. The Bible, said he, is the
great classic, and its study in the original and in translation
should occupy the position of greatest prominence in the college
curriculum. Weed out the dangerous, pagan writings, he exhorted,
and put the Hebrew, Greek and English versions of revealed
Christian truth in their place.
In most colleges and theological schools
this was looked upon as heresy. The Yale Report on the Course of
Instruction, prepared by President Jeremiah Day in 1827,
represents the majority, conservative attitude. The study of the
Latin and Greek classics, said the Yale President, was of basic
importance as the best means of "mental discipline." A knowledge
of Latin was essential to those intending to enter any of the
professions. The ancient classics furnished the most satisfactory
standard of literary taste. No man could be said to be really
educated, held the conservatives, if he did not know the accepted
classics in the original Greek and Latin. In the middle fifties a
report on curriculum prepared by the faculty of the University of
Alabama shows that the prevailing favorable attitude toward the
traditional classical studies still continued. It was only young
institutions of doubtful scholarly character that actually
experimented with a reformation.
In 1834, by the initiative of Beriah Green,
the Oneida Institute of Science and Industry at Whitesboro, N.Y.,
struck all Latin out of the curriculum and substituted Hebrew for
it. Instead of Homer the students at Oneida were to read the New
Testament and selections from the Septuagint. In the same year a
special joint committee of trustees and faculty at Western Reserve
College investigated "the subject of studying the Bible and
Christian Authors, as Classics in College, instead of Heathen
Authors." The shadow of old Yale, however, kept the ancient
curriculum intact in the new Yale of the West. Oberlin, as was to
be expected, followed the example of Oneida.
Shipherd, Asa Mahan and the many former
Oneida students deserve about equal credit (or blame) for the
establishment of the reformed, Christian curriculum at Oberlin.
The First Report, as prepared by Shipherd and published in the
autumn of 1834 when the first students were received into the
Collegiate Department, expressed the intention of "substituting
Hebrew and sacred classics for the most objectionable pagan
authors." A few years later, when the Founder was planning another
"collegiate institute" in Michigan, he provided for a course of
study "of a decidedly christian character, exclusive of
demoralizing pagan authors." Mahan was always a staunch contender
against the "heathen classics." He devoted his inaugural address
in 1835 to an attack upon them. "He objected to the present plan
of studying the Latin and Greek Classics (more especially the
Latin), in a Collegiate Course. He believed it to be better
adapted to educate heathen, as such, than Christians. He believed
the mind could be disciplined as well by the study of Hebrew and
Greek Scriptures
Instead of spending so much time on the
classics, he would have students acquire a knowledge of the
natural sciences, of American law, of History, of men and things.
He would fill their mind with truth, facts, practical, available
knowledge." The young men from Oneida, encouraged by Mahan, kept
student sentiment stirred up against the classics. In 1837 one
class was considering petitioning the faculty to eliminate Latin
entirely. "If we should petition," wrote one of them, "I think we
would accomplish our object, as the President is strongly opposed
to Latin." Almost certainly the Oneida students were responsible
for the public burning of a number of copies of classical texts,
which was so widely and unfavorably reported in the religious
papers. Two years later a group of "Oneidas" went on strike
temporarily because a Hebrew text that they were supposed to use
contained explanations and translations in Latin. Two of them, it
is said, even took the Oberlin bookseller to task "for bringing
such a book with Latin translations of Scripture in it, into
town."
The Oberlin course did not exclude Latin
entirely at any time. In 1839 the number of pages required in the
College Course was only a little over eight hundred, however, as
compared with thirteen hundred at Yale. In Oberlin, Plautus,
Seneca, Livy and Horace were entirely omitted, and gave way to the
more Christian but possibly less pure language of Hugo Grotius' De
Veritate Religionis Christianae and George Buchanan's Psalms. This
change was probably not so absurd as outsiders and later
generations at Oberlin have supposed. Grotius was a brilliant
Latinist and his De Veritate was long the accepted Protestant
manual of apologetics. Its broad, non-sectarian character fitted
well with the liberal Oberlin theology. The Scotch scholar's
Latin, metrical version of the Psalms has, in recent years, been
called "a wonderful achievement" and his work, in general,
described as equal to that of the minor classical writers such as
Seneca and Manilius. The chief difficulty with this book was that
it was out of print in Scotland and the Institute could not afford
to have it reprinted. The Oberlin curriculum included smaller
amounts from the usual Greek classical authors but, in addition,
required the reading of three hundred pages from the original New
Testament. Among studies given at Oberlin and not at Yale it is
interesting to note "Lowth on Hebrew Poetry," "Cousin's
Psychology," Anatomy and Physiology, Cowper's Poems, Milton's
Poems, "Science and Art of Sacred Music," and "Lessons in English
Bible once a week." The study of Hebrew was, of course,
required--"one recitation a day through one third of the Junior,
and the whole of the Senior year." It was optional at Yale and
most other orthodox colleges.
A committee, made up of John J. Shipherd,
Professor Henry Cowles and Professor Morgan, declared that they
believed the Oberlin curriculum, though different, was at least as
good as "that of any other college or seminary in our land." They
continued: "It proceeds on the ground that the poetry of God's
inspired prophets, is better for the heart, and at least as good
for the head, as that of Pagans--that Isaiah and Jeremiah, Job and
David, are preferable to Homer and Virgil, Horace and Ovid. Are we
christians, and shall we doubt it? And not doubting it, shall we
act as if we thought the tasteful emanations of heathen genius
could impart a diviner light to the mind, and a nobler warmth to
the heart than the inspirations of the Holy Ghost? . . . We should
like to have every classic read, whose pages do not breathe the
spirit of murder and lust; but as we would have the God of love
and purity prosper us, we dare not put corrupting books into our
young men's hands."
Students, of course, were converted to this
point of view and, in turn, preached it to their friends. Davis
Prudden wrote from Oberlin in 1837 to a brother then in
Yale:
"Never will I enter the so long venerated
walls of Yale or any other eastern College, while the door is open
to a course of study so admirably adapted for the improving and
training of the mind as is pursued here. You may extol & exalt
to the skies Yale steeped in heathen classics. But grant that I
may breathe in the pure, celestial air of the sacred literature
& drink deep at the fountain of natural science & I will
not envy the lofty air & exalted name of Yalense. Shall those
who are preparing for the ministry steep themselves completely in
the polluted streams that flow from the heathen Classics? The
poetry of the bible far exceeds any thing that uninspired man has
yet obtained, in grandeur & loftiness. Why not study this
thoroughly in the original tongue & by this means become
entirely imbued with its spirit."
The first and most colorful of the teachers
of Hebrew in Oberlin was Joshua Seixas. He was a descendant of one
of the oldest Jewish families in America, his grandfather, Isaac
Seixas, having come to America from Portugal in 1730. His father
was the famous Rabbi Gershom Mendez Seixas, the minister of the
Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation in New York City at the
time of the Revolution, and a loyal and influential patriot.
Joshua, born about 1800, became a teacher of, and writer on, the
Hebrew language. It is not known where he received his education;
one would suppose at Columbia, as his father was a trustee, but
the printed records of the University do not include his name. He
attracted considerable attention by undertaking to give a reading
knowledge of Hebrew in six weeks, classes meeting one hour a day.
In New York, in Philadelphia, in Washington, at Princeton
Theological Seminary, at the Seminary at New Brunswick, New
Jersey, and at Andover Theological Seminary, he conducted classes,
his testimonials say, with much success. He was the author of a
Manual Hebrew Grammar, published in 1833 and revised in the
following year, which was used in his classes. The second edition
was even recommended to those who might care to learn the language
without a teacher! A reviewer in the Christian Examiner of Boston
gave the text "unqualified commendation." It appealed, of course,
to the well-known American desire for shortcuts to
learning.
Shipherd brought "Professor" Seixas to
Oberlin in the summer of 1835, and soon one hundred and
twenty-seven pupils were pursuing his course "with animated zeal
and decided success." The learned Hebraist brought with him all
the Hebrew Bibles he could find in New York and a large supply of
his own grammars, twelve of which are still in the Oberlin
Library. A son, James Seixas, was born in Oberlin in October and,
soon after, the father was called to initiate the students at
Western Reserve at Hudson into the mysteries of Hebrew. Late in
January, 1836, he went from Hudson to Kirtland, where he received
three hundred and fifty dollars for instructing the Mormon Elders
for seven weeks in the tongue of the earlier prophets (a task
which, it would seem, Joseph Smith's magic spectacles should have
made unnecessary). The Prophet Joseph often talked with him and
was very favorably impressed.
There seems to be no doubt that Joshua
Seixas was a man of real learning and, though certainly rather
eccentric in the classroom, an effective teacher. A student in one
of his classes at Western Reserve College wrote of him: "I never
saw any man talk and have so much to say as Mr. Seixas in
recitation in my life," and again: "I am well satisfied that he is
a man of great learning." "You recollect how Seixas used to drill
us--that laughter loving man," wrote James H. Fairchild a few
years later. He was possessed of some musical talent and, after
his return to New York City, founded the first organized choir of
the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue where he also served for many
years as chief instructor in Hebrew. He died in New York some time
in the seventies.
In later years the Hebrew classes were
passed about from one instructor to another. Among those who
taught them at various times were John P. Cowles, Henry Cowles,
William Hoisington, James H. Fairchild, Charles Penfield, and John
Morgan. In the forties there was some feeling that Oberlin had not
gone far enough, that all the "Heathen Classics" ought to be
dropped. At a meeting of the trustees in 1841 a resolution was
introduced by Father Shipherd and carried "that the Faculty be
earnestly requested to re-consider with much prayer &
deliberation the great question 'Ought not the time devoted to the
study of the Heathen Classics to be improved in the study of the
Holy Scripture & Natural Science?'" On at least three
different occasions students applied to the faculty for permission
to graduate without Latin "in consequence of weak eyes" or for
other reasons. On each occasion the faculty consented. But when a
certain Daniels "requested the privilege of graduating without the
study of Hebrew," his request was refused! In 1845 the trustees
resolved "that no Student shall be denied the approbation of
College at the end of his course by reason of any want of
knowledge in the heathen classics, provided he sustains well an
examination in other branches needful to prepare him for his great
work of preaching Christ & Him Crucified." Latin, for all
practical purposes, was therefore eliminated for the time being
from the required courses in the curriculum. From the very
beginning there was some opposition to the "new curriculum." John
F. Scovill and Seth Waldo, the first teachers in the academic
department, did not approve. John Morgan was at least cool.
Professor John P. Cowles denounced the new course in no uncertain
terms and defended the ancient classics in public addresses in
Oberlin, itself. Cowles was at a loss to see how Milton's poems
could possibly be used in so advanced a class as the third year of
college. Nothing could ever be made, said he, of a course in
English Poetry! If the Greek and Latin classics were left out of
the curriculum, what else, he asked, could the students possibly
find worthy of substituting for them? The burning of the classics
brought down a flood of abuse on Oberlin from all quarters of the
scholastic world. In 1839 the American History of Oberlin College
Education Society refused to give further aid to students at
Oberlin, nominally because of the deficiency in the classical
course at the Institute.
From 1840 to 1860 the Oberlin curriculum
changed gradually from peculiarity to conformity, the process
being speeded up by the elimination of the chief exponents of the
new curriculum: Shipherd (who died in 1844), and Mahan (who
"resigned" in 1850). In 1841 "Cowper's Poems" disappears from the
Catalogue; in 1843 Milton and Buchanan's Psalms drop out. Grotius'
De veritate was discontinued after 1846. In the fifties Hebrew was
first made optional (1852) and then (in 1858) dropped entirely
from the College Course. In the same decade the classical course
was strengthened by the addition of Livy, of Homer's Odyssey, and,
finally in 1859, of Horace! In 1861 we find a student writing a
fulsome eulogy of the classics in the Monthly. By that time
Oberlin College required at least as advanced and as extensive
work in Latin and Greek as its rival, Western Reserve, or Amherst
in the East. Some of Oberlin's curricular peculiarities did not
disappear, however. The study of the Bible in English was never
given up. Increased emphasis, in fact, was placed on it in the
fifties with the discontinuance of the reading of the Old
Testament in the original Hebrew. Some study of the Bible was
required of all students in Oberlin College from the beginning
down to recent years.
CHAPTER
XXIV
JOINT EDUCATION OF THE
SEXES
IN THE Circular of March, 1834, Shipherd
declared that one of the prominent objects "of the school shall be
the elevation of female character, bringing within the reach of
the misjudged and neglected sex, all the instructive privileges
which hitherto have unreasonably distinguished the leading sex
from theirs."
If it was important to educate youths and
infants in order to improve society it was even more fundamental
to educate the mothers who would perforce give the children much
of their early training. "No effort is perhaps more important,"
declared Woodbridge, "than to educate that sex who are destined to
give the infant mind its first impression." Philo P. Stewart,
Shipherd's associate in the founding of Oberlin, wrote to
Secretary Levi Burnell in 1837: "... I believe that there is no
other way to secure success in our great moral enterprises, than
to make prevalent the right kind of female education."
An able group of American theorists,
beginning with Dr. Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia, had written and
spoken on the necessity of a more thorough education for females.
Notable among them were De Wilt Clinton, T. H. Gallaudet, Emma
Willard, and Catharine Beecher. William Russell in his American
Journal of Education and his successor, William C. Woodbridge, who
changed the name of the periodical to the American Annals of
Education, wrote in favor of the education of women and accepted
many articles on the subject by others. All of them stressed the
social significance of women as the teachers of the race, whether
in the family circle or in the school. Women, they insisted, were
especially adapted to teach by their greater patience and
gentleness. They ought therefore to be trained as teachers and if
unmarried, and so having no children of their own to teach, they
might instruct in schools and release men to occupations for which
they alone were qualified. The "elevation of female character" by
education was one chief means by which the whole race was to be
elevated.
While the theorists were rationalizing the
movement an even larger group were engaging in actual experiments
in teaching "females." Back in the eighteenth century some female
academies had existed and a number of academies accepted both
girls and boys. None of these institutions, however, did much to
stimulate female education elsewhere. But in the early nineteenth
century there appeared a number of teachers whose influence,
through their pupils and the example of their respective schools,
was far reaching: Joseph Emerson at Byfield, Saugus, and
Wethersfield, Emma Willard at Troy, Zilpah Grant at Ipswich,
Catharine Beecher at Hartford, and Mary Lyon at Ipswich and Mr.
Holyoke. These were the teachers who formulated the accepted plan
of female education of that period, which included emphasis on
moral and religious education, training in domestic science and
economy, and preparation for teaching. If women were to be
prepared to mold the infant mind, to bring about through education
the salvation of mankind, and at the same time to preside with
success over their domestic establishments and be the pious and
intelligent companions of their husbands these were the
considerations which should receive first place. The merely
ornamental accomplishments, much emphasized in some female
seminaries, were frowned upon by these leaders; young women were
to be educated primarily for "future usefulness," i.e. for the
salvation of the world and the establishment of the Millennium. In
commenting on the words of the Psalmist's prayer that their'
"daughters may be corner-stones, polished after the similitude of
a palace," Joseph Emerson told his pupils: "Much is meant by this.
Females are the foundation of society; they need some judgment,
energy, and vigor. They may be, and ought to be also, polished.
The education of both sexes is committed to them. In half a
century society must be composed of such as have been educated in
great measure by females." From Joseph Emerson's school came
Zilpah Polly Grant (Banister), later of Ipswich, Mary Lyon,
founder of Mount Holyoke, and Alice Welch (Cowles) of Oberlin.
Zilpah Polly Grant, assisted for a while by Mary Lyon, was in
charge of the famous Ipswich Female Seminary at Ipswich,
Massachusetts, from 1818 to 1839. Emerson was the teacher and
inspirer of Miss Grant, Miss Lyon and Mrs. Cowles. Miss Grant,
next to Emerson, "molded, trained, informed, and inspired" Miss
Lyon and greatly influenced Mrs. Cowles, her cousin's wife.
Marianne Parker (Dascomb) graduated from Ipswich under Miss Grant
and Miss Lyon in 1833. Alice Welch Cowles and Marianne Parker
Dascomb were the great principals of the Female Department at
Oberlin in the first forty years of its existence. Mrs. Cowles as
Principal from 1836 to 1840 and Mrs. Dascomb, whose association
with the school as member of the Ladies' Board and as Principal
covered a period of forty-four years, brought the ideas of their
distinguished teachers and associates to Oberlin and firmly
established them there.
Oberlin's peculiar contribution to female
education was the admission of young ladies to the complete
college course and "joint education of the sexes" for students of
college grade. Now there was nothing unusual about educating boys
and girls together in academies and seminaries; at least two
"coeducational" academies had been founded in the eighteenth
century. The practice had crept up from the dame school, often for
reasons of economy. When it was decided to include a Collegiate
Departmerit in the plan of the Institute a Female Department was
established alongside it, in which was to be furnished
"instruction in the useful branches taught in the best Female
Seminaries." It was evidently intended that most, if not all,
young ladies should take this course. It is notable, however, that
when the first college classes were begun in the autumn of 1834,
members of the Female Department participated in some of them and
thus, for the first time, college students shared their classrooms
and class instruction with women. So "coeducation" spread from
secondary education to higher education as it had climbed from the
dame schools to the academies.
In 1835 young ladies were received into the
Institute to the number of about a fourth of the whole with
results satisfactory to the administrators and teachers. John Keep
wrote to Gerrit Smith that, "The young ladies about 60 to 80 all
appear well, & do well--& the uniting of the sexes on the
Oberlin plan of education gains in popularity." Mrs. Cowles, the
Female Principal, listed in her notebook under
"Peculiar advantages:
"Mutually stimulating each
other.
"Young gentlemen converse on important
subjects with ladies educated in the same classes with
themselves.
"Ladies become educated who never would
have been on other systems."
In March of 1836 the faculty were invited
to meet with the Board of Trustees and presented "the result of
their experience in relation to the effect of placing young
gentlemen and Ladies under the same system of instruction &
discipline":
"After a detailed exhibition of facts and
the results of personal observation in reference to the effect of
the system upon the manners of young gentlemen--upon the manners
and especially the modesty of young ladies, and in general upon
whatever pertains to purity, propriety and progress in all
desirable improvement; and other gentlemen of the Institute having
sustained the views of the Faculty by pertinent facts, it
was
"Resolved That after more than two years
experience in the plan of Uniting a male and female department in
the same Institute we are amply sustained in the opinion that the
mutual influence of the sexes upon each other is decidedly happy
in the cultivation of both mind and manners, and that its effect
in promoting real virtue and in correcting the irregularities,
frivolities & follies common to youth is unquestionably
beneficial.
"Resolved Also that our experience shows
satisfactorily that under proper management, no serious evil, but
much good will result from carrying out the same principle, viz.
That of associating the Sexes,--which lies at the basis of the
very idea of human Society; which God himself has inserted in its
structure--which mankind have almost universally admitted--and the
exceptions to which, as in the case of monasteries and nunneries
have been artended with unparallelled and most disgusting
licentiousness."
Of course, the system was viewed with some
suspicion by outsiders, many suspecting that it approximated free
love. Said Lyman Beecher: "... This Amalgamation of sexes won't
do. If you live in a Powder House you blow up once in a while."
Delazon Smith, a disgruntled student, charged in his "History of
Oberlin" (1837) that the close association of male and female
students led to many cases of moral delinquency, that matrimonial
engagements were quickly made and broken and that the attention of
some ladies was largely distracted from their studies thereby. As
late as 1858 a writer in the New York Evangelist characterized the
association of the sexes in colleges as a "rash experiment," which
imperiled the innocence of young ladies and outraged the "common
sense of fathers and mothers, and the wise instincts of the female
mind."
In 1845 a special committee, consisting of
Amasa Walker, Henry Cowles and the wife of President Mahan,
presented a "Report on Educating the Sexes together" in which they
recognized that the system was attended with certain
"Evils
"1. A tendency to spend too much time &
to be too much engrossed in each others society. This tendency
makes it necessary to adopt specific rules respecting calls,
visits, late hours, study hours, walking out in the evening, rides
into the country &c &c.
"These rules are imposed with more
strictness upon the young ladies than upon the young men. The
latter often resist their action upon the young ladies, speak of
these regulations with contempt, the results of which are very
unhappy, & obedience on the part of the young ladies is
secured with great difficulty.
"2. A second great evil is early
matrimonial engagements. These result sometimes in violation of
this engagement; and usually in a great absorption of time &
thought, in a decline of piety, distaste for study, and impaired
usefulness."
The committee insisted that they were not
"discouraged from still prosecuting our plan of educating the
sexes together," that they deemed "the good results very
valuable," but that the evils were "such as should admonish us of
the . . . necessity of some immediate & efficient remedy."
They suggested that the young ladies ought all to be concentrated
in the boarding house under the immediate eye of the Lady
Principal, rather than in private families, and that lectures
should be delivered in an attempt to create a "more healthy public
sentiment touching these points."
Mrs. Cowles, when she was Principal of the
Female Department, had regularly talked to the young women on such
subjects as "Early Engagements" etc. It is presumed that Mrs.
Dascomb and other principals continued the work at "General
Exercises." Professor Cowles occasionally talked to the young men
on manners and morals, discussing "the necessity of a wise &
careful control of the youthful feelings & affections, not
only in their social relations among themselves, but with the
other sex." Professor Finney also sometimes discussed associated
subjects in his lectures on Pastoral Theology. As a general rule
long engagements were frowned upon and, therefore, it was not
deemed expedient for young gentlemen to enter into them until they
had at least entered the Theological Course. It is clear that
marriage "at proper age, under fitting circumstances," was
"approved, not condemned" and that "engagements, not having
prospectively long time to run, and in other respects proper,"
were "not considered, or found to be, an evil."
The Oberlin point of view is well stated in
an article which appeared in the Evangelist in the middle
fifties:
"We take it the golden mean lies in so
shaping the association of young gentlemen with young ladies as to
make its general tone elevated and pure; the topics of
conversation solid, not vapid; more sensible than sentimental; and
drawn from the realms of literature, science and morals, rather
than from the limbo of Vanity. Similar studies, common
recitations, the daily measuring of mental strength, conduce
greatly to the practical impression on each sex that the other are
to be held and deemed as intellectual and social beings. The
relation of beau and belle is in good measure displaced by the
more healthful one of fellowstudent. The idea that the young lady
is a toy or a plaything is very thoroughly exploded by the
practical working of intellectual competition on the College race
ground,--to say nothing of the influence of that higher nobler
Christian life, in which united efforts for the salvation of souls
deeply engross the heart."
In the spring of 1836, the trustees had
ruled on recommendation of the faculty, "That students be
prohibited from forming the marriage connexion while members of
this Institution," and the regulation has remained in force ever
since. Immediately after Commencement, however, the Evangelist
usually carried a long list of the weddings of embryo
"Reverends."
In the elementary courses, the young ladies
and men were sometimes in separate classes but almost always met
together in more advanced branches. President Fairchild believed
that this arrangement afforded a "wholesome incitement to study,"
the members of one sex being particularly anxious to appear to the
best advantage before those of the opposite sex. As there were, at
first, no course grades or honors in Oberlin, entire reliance was
placed upon "the natural love of a fair standing with teachers and
associates [including those of the other sex] as the
supplement to higher motives for exertion."
It has usually been said that the founders
did not intend that any of the young ladies should take the
Collegiate Course, but a statement prepared by Shipherd for the
Ohio Observer in 1834 implies rather definitely that this was not
the case. "we knew, moreover," he wrote, "that female education
was grievously neglected and too generally of such a character, as
to fit its subjects better for a place at the toilet with the
pretty trinkets which were the fruits of their education, than to
qualify them for happy and useful companionship in life; and as
there was not a female manual Seminary; or a female Collegiate
Institution in the United States, we felt that there were
[was] yet unoccupied in the shades of Academus a wide
area." Anyway, in 1837 four ladies were admitted to the Collegiate
Course with the men and in 1842 three of them received the A.B.
degree, the first bona fide college degrees ever granted to
women.
The faculty seems to have been divided on
the question of the feasibility of young ladies taking the
classical college course, however. Mahan was almost certainly
favorable to the idea, but Morgan and Mrs. Cowles, the Lady
Principal, seem to have opposed at first. Mary Hosford, one of the
first three women to graduate, wrote to Mary Kellogg (Fairchild) a
few months before the historic Commencement of 1841:
"The trials, perplexities and
discouragements with which we met in our first year you are quite
too well acquainted with. [Miss Kellogg had started the course
with them, but dropped out.] The sophomore year was hardly
less difficult. We seemed destined to days, and nights even, of
toil and fatigue. But these last two years have been fraught with
comfort and pleasure, and we have succeeded beyond our own
expectations. Often do I look back to the time when so many, who
occupied the most influential stations in the school, stood out
against the course we were pursuing, and especially the unkind
coldness and indifference of her to whom we would look for
sympathy and counsel, and contrast with our situation, with our
incentives to take the course which seemed best to us, the
situation and incentives to action which are laid before those who
are behind us. Most of the faculty are now in favor of [women
taking] the college course, and Mrs. Cowles is advising all
those young ladies who have strength and means, to take a thorough
course! Sometimes I feel like weeping tears of joy over those dear
young ladies who are now making their way through the same path
that we have trod, peaceful and unmolested. After the catalogue
was issued last fall, Mrs. Cowles met us on the side-walk, and
took us by the hand, and shed over us some of the sweetest tears
you ever saw, and instead of discouraging us as she had done
formerly, gave us a 'be of good courage' and 'onward.'" Mary
Hosford apparently was quite conscious of her historic role as a
pioneer woman college graduate.
It was not in the classroom, however, but
in the social intercourse centering about the boarding house table
that the two sexes were brought in closest relation to each other.
The promiscuous boarding table was the heart of joint education in
Oberlin even down into the twentieth century. It was here that the
boasted influence of the fair sex on the manners of the males was
brought to bear. Professor John Morgan, doubtful as he was at
first of the whole idea of joint education, admitted to his friend
Mark Hopkins that "the young ladies manifestly exert a civilizing
influence on the young men." A visitor to Oberlin in 1836 wrote a
letter to the New York Evangelist recording his
impressions:
"In regard to bringing both sexes into the
same table--and also in calling in the aid of the female scholars
to perform all the labor for themselves and for others,--I will
give you my impressions as I have received them, by spending two
days in the place, and enjoying every facility both for inquiry
and observation, which I could desire.
"The rooms for the young ladies are
entirely distinct from the young men, and no young man is allowed
to enter them. They have also a pleasant room for meetings and
visits among themselves, devoted exclusively to their use. At the
tables in the dining hall, there are about four young men to one
young lady, and these are seated, usually, on one side of the
table, 2 or 3 together, at regular intervals. Here they perform
the same services for those within reach, as they would in a
private family--and results have been happy.
"All the grossness and vulgarity so often
witnessed in college commons is here excluded--and the matron
informed me that if some new comers happened to manifest a
disposition to coarseness, when placed beyond the immediate eye of
the young ladies, the stationing of one or two of the most
discreet near them, never failed at once to suppress
it."
The young men and women were separated in
their manual labor, though the domestic labor performed by the
latter brought them into rather "domestic" relations with the
young men. They not only waited on table, but did the washing and
mending for the men as well as for themselves, kept the rooms
clean, and washed the dishes. It was the Oberlin ideal that the
sexes should meet "in the same circumstances and with the same
restraints that control the intercourse of young persons in
well-regulated Christian families generally." It was distinctly
understood also that in such Christian families the man was the
head of the household--and in Oberlin the male was often spoken of
as "the leading sex."
There was no tendency to feminism. The only
right demanded for women by the Oberlin leaders was "the right to
be educated." (They seem to have failed entirely to realize that
education would open to women the way to all the other privileges
hitherto the exclusive property of the male.) To the question: "Is
'the woman question,' so called necessarily involved in your
experiment?" an Oberlin spokesman replied in the Evangelist: "Not
at all. Its doctrines might be taught here in theory or in
practice, as elsewhere; or they might not be. Pupils may or may
not hold or discuss these opinions, at their option. There is
nothing in the system which trenches upon these questions
necessarily. The first and greatest right of women--the right to
be educated, as a being endowed with intelligence equally as
man,--is fundamental to the system; beyond this it goeth not."
Bearing this in mind, it is not surprising that, though the two
sexes usually united in the same classes, "In those exercises
which have for their direct object a preparation for public
speaking and for public life the ladies take no part."
As the years went on Oberlinites became
increasingly enthusiastic about "joint education," and it became
an important part of the Oberlin Gospel. In 1851 it was officially
reported that the results of the system were "cheering, beyond the
most sanguine expectations." "The same teachers educate six
hundred young gentlemen and young ladies at an expense to the
public less than in most Colleges is incurred in educating two
hundred young men. The female pupils enjoy privileges for mental
culture of a higher order than are enjoyed by ladies, perhaps in
any other one school in the world. The mutual, social and moral
influence of the sexes has been highly salutary." Six years later
Professor T. B. Hudson wrote to the Independent: "The joint
education of the sexes has been here attended by the best results
.... The manners of both sexes are improved by proper association.
Better order prevails in all departments. Sickly sentimentalism is
checked. A quiet and healthy emulation is supplied to each sex by
the presence of the other in the same classes. Meanwhile, the
ladies are educated to be women, and not men." In 1862, it was
still a source of great pride. A statement in the Oberlin
Evangelist described the system in glowing terms. "Brothers and
sisters are here on common platform of opportunities and
facilities for education. They meet in the recitation room and at
the table. Under wise social regulations, this system is proved to
be fraught with many and great benefits, and liable to but few
incidental evils. It enkindles emulation; puts each sex upon its
best behavior; almost entirely expels from College those mean
trickish exploits which so frequently deprave monastic College
society, and develops in College all those humanizing, elevating
influences which God provided for in the well-ordered association
of the sexes together!" The students seem to have been equally
well satisfied. One young man wrote to an intercollegiate
publication in 1860:
"Brothers in the monastic Colleges we pity
you, but we think there is hope, if not for you, of your
successors. The day of deliverance dawns .... Women are to be
educated because we choose civilization rather than barbarism. Of
course in the ages when women were practically regarded as
soulless, there could be no joint education. Man was educated
alone because there was nobody else to be educated. The old
institutions of learning were not organized on such a basis that
women could be admitted into them. Hence if women were to be
educated at all, seminaries must be built for them. But when the
civilized world comes to adjust itself properly to the new phase
of human progress, the education of woman, the sexes will be
educated together...
It is our happy experience, of a quarter of
a century's growth, that it is better for both sexes to travel
together along the paths of science. Womanhood becomes more
beautiful, and manhood more strong and elevated, as they are
brought out side by side in harmonious contrast. The principle,
that it is not good for man or woman to be alone, is older than
any monastic seminary of learning. Separate from each other, the
sexes cannot be educated in the best and highest
sense.'
He prophesied more truly than he or his
readers could have guessed: "We read in the signs of the times,
that in the next age the maiden shall, with her brother, con the
classic page, and with him woo the muses in their sacred haunts.
Be cheered by this promise of better things; God's plan as shown
by the common nature, the likeness of himself which has impressed
on man and woman, must succeed. God meant the joint education of
the sexes. So it shall be. Our grandchildren will wonder why it
was not always so." Even John Morgan, who, in 1835, wrote to
Theodore Weld: "The mixing of young men & women together in
the same institution strikes me as not at all judicious," was
converted, and in 1872 bantered President Mark Hopkins on the
failure of Williams to adopt coeducation. "I suppose," he wrote,
"Williams is bound to be exclusive of ladies--a great mistake I
think. But it may not last forever."
Already, by 1867, several other American
colleges had adopted "joint education." Two years before, Sophia
Jex-Blake, the first British woman physician and a distinguished
feminist, had written after a visit to Oberlin: "whatever
shortcomings or errors may be recorded against Oberlin, it should
ever be remembered in her favor that she took the initiative
before all the world in opening a college career to women." In the
next generation the propriety of college education for women was
to become practically universally recognized in the United States,
and, under the name of coeducation, the system of educating the
sexes together was to conquer a great part of the American college
world, even long established men's colleges in the East trembling
in the balance.
CHAPTER
XXV
FREE SOIL AND THE
UNDERGROUND
"This College [Oberlin] is in Ohio,
and is the greatest sinque of Free Soil iniquities this side of
Vermont, New Hampshire and Hell."
Brownlow's Knoxville Whig, December 24,
1853, quoted in C. S. Ellsworth "Oberlin and the Anti-Slavery
Movement up to the Civil War," 115.
". . . Oberlin, that friendly light-house
which guards the entrance to the harbour of British
freedom."
REV. C. E. LESTER (a Negro) on
June 18, 1840 in Proceedings of the General Anti-Slavery
Convention ... held in London ... 1840 (London--1841),
321
IN THE beginning the settlers and teachers
at Oberlin were Whigs by conviction, tradition, and habit. Very
early, however, they began to exercise their influence within the
party in behalf of the slave. In 1835 they petitioned the Ohio
legislature in behalf of the civil rights of colored persons. In
1838 the Oberlin Anti-Slavery Society bartered its support to a
certain Whig candidate for the legislature for a written promise
that he would attempt to abolish the Ohio "Black Laws." The
Democrats attributed the defeat of their candidate to Oberlin. In
1839 the Lorain County Anti-Slavery Society, which was strongly
impregnated with Oberlin influence, resolved, "That it is the duty
[of] Abolitionists to use their influence to secure a
nomination for office of men who are friends of Equal Rights, and
to give their votes for such men." Before the formation of the
Liberty Party Oberlin was thus definitely committed to political
action in behalf of the slave.
Oberlin's faith in the Whig party was
severely shaken when many Whig members of the Ohio legislature,
including the delegate elected by Oberlin votes, helped to pass a
stringent state fugitive slave law, the famous "Black Act" of
1839. As a result, when, at a special meeting of the American
Anti-Slavery Society held in Cleveland in October, the venerable
Myron Holley of western New York, proposed the formation of a
special anti-slavery political party, Oberlin delegates supported
the proposal. President Mahan, Professor Finney, and Edward Wade,
brother of Benjamin Wade and then "Professor of Law" at Oberlin,
all spoke for it. "Rebel" H. B. Stanton wrote to Whittier that it
was "one of the most interesting debates on political action" he
had ever participated in. The resolution was laid on the table
but, when both Whig and Democratic candidates proved
unsatisfactory to the abolitionists, an anti-slavery nominating
convention was held at Albany (April, 1840), Alvan Stewart, the
Finney convert, presiding and Joshua Leavitt acting as
co-secretary. James G. Birney was nominated and the Liberty Party
was launched.
The Evangelist urged the friends of Oberlin
to vote the Liberty ticket. H. C. Taylor was an active Liberty
worker; Oberlinite M. E. Strieby was a Liberty Party elector for
Ohio. In 1841 at the Liberty conventions at Akron and Columbus
Oberlinites and Oberlin's friends were prominent among the
delegates: H. C. Taylor, Dr. James Dascomb, L. D. Butts, Francis
D. Parish of Sandusky City, J. M. Sterling of Cleveland, John
Monteith of Elyria, Edward Wade, and O. K. Hawley of Austinburg.
At the Columbus convention John Keep reported on English
abolitionism as observed on his trip abroad. The "Big Tent" was
furnished free of charge for at least two Liberty Party
conventions. Thus, from the beginning (though the Oberlin vote for
Birney in 1840 was small) the Oberlin leaders gave their support
to the anti-slavery third party and were followed by many friends
and former students elsewhere.
The annexation of Texas and the Mexican War
roused the ire of Oberlin men as of abolitionists everywhere.
Oberlin was ready for any sacrifices in order to prevent the
spread of slavery into the new Western territories. A group of
leading Oberlin citizens and professors declared, in a statement
published in the summer of 1848, that, "The first and great aim of
the friends of freedom at the present time should be . . . the
total prevention of the extension of Slavery over any of the
territories now under the jurisdiction of this Government."
President Mahan attended the Buffalo convention which organized
the "Free Democracy" or Free Soil Party and nominated Martin Van
Buren, the leader of the disgruntled Democrats called
"Barnburners." He supported the action of that convention upon his
return and most of the Oberlin men voted Free Soil in the Autumn.
In November, in one of his extempore supplications, Professor
Finney prayed that Southern men would "spit in the dough-faces of
the North." Of course, Van Buren was overwhelmingly defeated and
the Free Soil Party disintegrated, but the Oberlin vote brought
about the election of Norton S. Townshend, one of the Institute's
trustees, to the lower house of the Ohio legislature. Townshend
controlled the balance of power between the Whigs and Democrats in
that body and secured the repeal of the Ohio Black Laws and the
election of Salmon P. Chase to the United States Senate! Here was
at least one direct tangible result of the Oberlin participation
in third party politics.
The passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in
1850 and the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 awakened
the Yankees from Maine to Iowa to the menacing advance of the
"slavocracy." The spontaneity of the movement which produced the
Republican Party reflects the thoroughness of the preparation by
anti-slavery societies, anti-slavery periodicals and anti-slavery
schools, churches, and missionary associations. The Republican
Party was the party primarily of the Yankees of New England--and
of New York, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin and Iowa. Its
birthplace was certainly no more truly Ripon, Wisconsin, or
Jackson, Michigan, than Utica or Rochester, or Oberlin. It is
surprising how literal-minded and subservient to mere technical
chronology some historians have beenl
Long before the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was
passed the Western Reserve had been warned by Edward Wade and
others that it was part of an "atrocious plot" to exclude free men
from Kansas. One of the very first meetings held in the North to
protest "against this nefarious scheme" took place in Oberlin on
January 28, 1854. The final passage of the measure by the Senate
by a one-sided vote shocked and shamed the Oberlinites. "The
progress of political corruption and of pro-slavery power since
1820 has been fearful," remarked the Oberlin Evangelist. "Unless
arrested now, we shall have nothing to expect but universal
slavery--its admission as a national institution." On July 1,
1854, a meeting of citizens of Lorain County was held at Oberlin
and declared against any future bargains with slavery or any
yielding to the South. The socalled "Oberlin Anti-Slavery
Platform" was drawn up on August 3. "Either slavery must prevail
throughout the land, or it must be entirely abolished." "The time
has come when the people of the North should rally and combine
their energies, not only to prevent the spread of slavery, but to
crush the system itself." Oberlin voters declared it to be their
purpose to bring slavery "to an end where it is, as well as to
oppose its extension over territory where it is not." All past or
future compromises were renounced. Unlike the majority of
Republicans, Oberlinites were not afraid to recognize the obvious
implications of the "House Divided Against Itself."
Oberlin gave its full support to such
Republican leaders as Philemon Bliss, the Elyria lawyer who had
studied at the Oneida Institute; Dr. N. S. Townshend, Oberlin
trustee; J. H. Giddings, always a friend of Oberlin and Oberlin
notions; Benjamin Wade and his brother, "Professor" Edward Wade;
Congressman Harrison Gray Otis Blake of Medina, and James
Monroe.
James Monroe, a graduate of the College in
1846 and of the Theological Department in 1849, Professor of
Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres from 1849 to 1862, was Oberlin's chief
contribution to the new party. He was a native of Connecticut who,
after several years of country school teaching, was persuaded by
Garrison to become an anti-slavery lecturer. After a few highly
successful years speaking in behalf of the slave in Connecticut
and neighboring states he concluded that he needed more education.
He had intended at first to go to the Oneida Institute, but when
informed by Beriah Green that the school was about to be suspended
he turned, naturally, to Oberlin. When he came West in 1844 he
brought with him a letter of introduction from Samuel J. May to
Professor Amasa Walker describing him as "an ardent &
effectual laborer in the Anti-Slavery cause." At Oberlin he was
converted from his Garrisonian predilections and enhanced his
reputation for "pure, beautiful & powerful eloquence" in
addresses on slavery delivered at the regular exercises and on
special occasions throughout northern Ohio. Twice he refused
nominations from the Free Soilers but, in 1855, accepted the
Republican nomination for assemblyman and was elected. He
continued to represent Lorain County in the Assembly until 1860,
and was a state senator from 1860 to 1862. He gained a reputation
for "manly honesty and truthfulness" as well as oratorical
ability, even among his political opponents. His outstanding
achievement was the passage of the Habeas Corpus Act in 1856, an
act whose purpose was to counteract the effect of the Federal
Fugitive Slave Law.
Oberlin delivered its moral influence and
its votes almost unanimously to the Republican Party. In 1856 the
Evangelist ran up the banner of Oberlin Republicanism which was
not to be lowered for over half a century. "By all that is fearful
in the pending crisis--by all that is sacred in freedom and
right--we urge our fellow citizens to ensure the election of the
men whose banner flings to the breeze the freeman's emphatic
sign--Free Press, Free Speech, Free Men, Fremont and Victory!
Professors Monroe and Peck spoke for Fremont at many meetings in
northern Ohio. A straw vote taken at random in a group of alumni
at Commencement showed 204 for Fremont, two for Fillmore and one
for Buchanan! The actual election figures show overwhelming
Republican majorities in Russia Township in all elections from
1856 on. In 1857 a member of the faculty was ready to assert at a
Thursday Lecture that "a person committed fully to the Democratic
party could not be a Christian." Of course, the Oberlin influence
on voters was not limited to Russia Township, or any other
geographical unit. It was felt wherever the Evangelist was read,
wherever former Oberlin students taught or preached. It was most
concentrated, however, on the Western Reserve and fully
appreciated by friend and foe. In the spring of 1859 the Cleveland
Plain Dealer declared: "A man can no more go to Congress from this
Reserve without Oberlin, than he can go to heaven in a sling ....
"
Another method of attacking the slave
system was by emigrating or encouraging emigration to Kansas. In
August the men of Oberlin led in the organization of an emigrant
aid society, the purpose of which was to encourage free-soil
settlers to go to Kansas and, by their votes and moral influence,
save it from slavery.
The Kansas Emigrant Aid Association of
Northern Ohio was organized at Oberlin on August 21, 1854.
Professor Fairchild was made president and John A. Reed of Oberlin
and Treasurer Hamilton Hill, secretaries. There were eight
vice-presidents, among them Philemon Bliss, Ralph Plumb--later an
Oberlin resident, Francis D. Parish--the Sandusky abolitionist,
and Judge Joseph R. Swan of Columbus. Swan was also a New York
Yankee --born at Western, Oneida County, a place much involved in
the Oberlin background. Swan was an abolitionist and critic of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act, soon after elected Chief Justice of the Ohio
Supreme Court by his Republican supporters. There were twelve
members of the executive committee of whom ten were Oberlin
residents or directly associated with the College. All seem to
have been of one opinion--that the Kansas test of strength was
crucial. "Let Slavery triumph now, and the fate of this nation may
be sealed; but let the fair land of Kansas be rescued from the
threatened dominion of Slavery, and it will plume afresh the
drooping wing of Freedom, and inspire a rational hope, that,
having vanquished the slave power once, the North will be filled
with a life that shall work out the complete redemption of our
government, and the enfranchisement of the oppressed millions of
our land." Plans were immediately made to take practical action.
It was decided that not only should the association aid "emigrants
in getting to Kansas, by way of providing for their transportation
at reduced rates, and their reception, comfort and location upon
their arrival" but assistance should be given in the erection of
schoolhouses and supplying of teachers. The members of companies
so aided must be "anti-slavery men, temperance men, and otherwise
men of good moral character." A committee was selected to arrange
for special railroad rates and an advance agent was sent to the
Territory to prepare the way for the first company. Information
and advice was sought from Eli Thayer's well-known New England
Emigrant Aid Society. Two explorers were sent out to Kansas to
find the best sites for settlement; one of them was the active
anti-slavery worker, Samuel Plumb, of Lenox, Ashtabula
County.
In all, this association sent out from Ohio
to Kansas at least seven different companies of settlers,
numbering from twenty to over a hundred individuals each. The
first company left Oberlin in October, 1854.
"On Monday of this week [wrote the
secretary to the Cleveland Leader] a company of forty-three,
under the auspices of our Association, started for Kansas . . .
The men composing the company were just such as are now needed in
that country, rugged, hard workers, who know how a living is
earned here, and hence, will bravely meet the hardships which at
first must necessarily be encountered.
"The prayers and earnest good wishes of
thousands who are left behind, follow this noble band of
freemen."
Though they started out with high hopes the
party broke up immediately upon arrival at Kansas City and many
returned home without even entering Kansas. Those who stayed
suffered severely from poverty and the intense cold of a winter
west of the Missouri.
Only small groups went out in 1855, but
early in 1856 the largest of all the bands was assembled. The
company was recruited and led by Samuel N. Wood of Oberlin and Mt.
Gilead, Ohio. He spoke in various towns throughout the Western
Reserve, pleading for money and firearms! This company seems to
have been well supplied with "Beecher's Bibles" and "psalm books,"
in which it was impossible "to read more than six psalms . . .
without turning over a new leaf!" As early as the middle of
February Oberlin had contributed "two hundred and five dollars and
three rifles" besides several emigrants!
Excitement was at a fever pitch in Oberlin
in 1856 as a result of the "Sack of Lawrence." A pro-slavery
sheriff attempted to arrest Samuel Wood at Lawrence, the
anti-slavery headquarters. Wood was rescued by his Northern
friends, so the sheriff came again with a large armed force,
burned down the hotel and wrecked the press of the Free-Soil
paper. Wood escaped and in the fall was back in Ohio raising
another company of emigrants. Several Oberlin men were involved in
the "Kansas War" which followed, some of them agents of the
American Missionary Association. In October Josiah G. Fuller, a
graduate of the Theological Department in the Class of 1854, was
one of a group of northern men arrested by pro-slavery officers on
the charge of murder.
On May 27, the day after news had been
received of the trouble at Lawrence, an indignation meeting in the
Chapel crowded it to its utmost capacity. Denunciatory resolutions
were drawn up. Professor James Monroe said that the "audacity and
atrocity" of the slave power had reached such a height that words
failed him. Professor Hudson declared that "the spirit of true
democracy had utterly perished from the self-styled democratic
party; that instead of sustaining a government by the people, and
for the people, they had surrendered themselves, bound hand and
foot, to the sway of a petty oligarchy--a few thousand
slaveholders." In the middle of June, President Finney's son
returned from the front and described his experiences to a
sympathetic crowd in the chapel. Professor Cowles' son and other
Oberlinites wrote letters every few weeks, giving their story of
the latest developments. The students were profoundly stirred. The
senior class sent a petition to the faculty, asking "permission to
graduate before vacation, in order to emigrate immediately."
"Members of other classes will no doubt leave more or less," a
young lady student confided to her diary, "but the Seniors en
masse . . . God go with them." Another company left Oberlin early
in July. How many students it contained is not known, but all of
the senior men were present to deliver their oratorical attacks
upon slavery and other evils at Commencement in August! In March
of 1856 the Young Ladies' Literary Society considered the
question: "Resolved that under existing circumstances Ladies ought
to emigrate to Kansas." In October one of the men's societies
debated for an evening whether, "in case Buchanan should be
elected the next president of the U. S., the Free States should
immediately take measures to protect their citizens in Kansas,
even though they should come in conflict with the general
government."
Of course, only a few hundred settlers were
actually transported to Kansas under the supervision of the Kansas
Emigration Aid Association of Northern Ohio, and some of them
would have gone anyway. The indirect effects of its propaganda are
not measurable.
An important result of the Kansas emigrant
movement to Oberlin was that it brought the New York Yankees,
Samuel and Ralph Plumb into the picture. Back in 1836 Samuel Plumb
was secretary of the anti-slavery society at Vernon in Trumbull
County, Ohio. By 1840 the Plumb brothers had moved to Lenox in
Ashtabula County and were leaders of the Liberty Party in the
eastern part of the Western Reserve. Samuel Plumb was, in the
early fifties, a member of the state legislature, and Henry Cowles
was with him on the steps of the old Capitol when he was knocked
down by a political opponent. He showed his radical leanings when,
in 1853, he headed a committee which reported favorably on a
memorial from a peace society. We have noted his activities as
explorer for the Kansas aid society. Ralph Plumb went to the state
legislature in 1855, studied law, and began practice in Oberlin in
1857. By 1858 both were established in Oberlin as leading
citizens, wholly sympathetic to the Oberlin outlook.
Oberlin and Oberlinites were always ready
to give aid to those Negroes who took their fate in their own
hands. From the middle thirties to the Civil War, fugitives were
constantly passing through Oberlin on the "Underground Railway."
One of the first recorded instances was in 1837. Saturday evening,
April 28, the community was thrown into a turmoil by the news that
a former student, Martin L. Brooks, had brought in four fugitive
slaves in a wagon on their way to Canada. A student wrote home to
her brother some two weeks later:
"They took supper in the dining hall, and
then went into the sitting room where crowds of students flocked
around them to see, and converse with them. About half past seven
or eight o'clock they went to the tavern, where they remained till
Monday night, and were then taken to Hudson by a couple of
students--[William] Sheffield and [Sherlock]
Bristol. When they started a report was in circulation, that their
Masters were after them, and were only a few miles from Oberlin.
They accordingly went prepared for an attack from their Masters.
About two hours after they started, five other Young Men
[armed with "dirks, butcherknives, pistols, etc.," says
Delazon Smith], went out after them on horse back to see that
no harm befell them on the road. Happily their fears proved
groundless, they were permitted to proceed unmolested.
Oberlin was already prepared to appeal to
the "higher law" against the legal rights of the masters and the
legislation of state and nation. The masters had the law on their
side. There had been a Federal fugitive slave law since 1793. In
1839 the Ohio legislature by a large vote had passed a statute
which practically extended the jurisdiction of Kentucky, so far as
fugitive slave cases were concerned, over the state of Ohio.
Professor Finney introduced a resolution at the 1839 meeting of
the Ohio Anti-Slavery Society declaring that this act was not
"obligatory upon the citizens of this State, inasmuch as its
requisitions are a palpable violation of the Constitution of this
State, and of the United States, of the common law and of the law
of God." In the autumn of that very year Professor Thome of
Oberlin felt it necessary to discontinue his classes and go into
hiding temporarily because of the part which he had played in
procuring the escape of "an aged colored woman [of Kentucky
who] was about to be sold into Southern slavery!"
In 1841 came the first attempt to recapture
a refugee in Oberlin. Three "kidnappers" arrived in town in
February of that year. With the support of a constable from
Pittsfield, they entered the house of one Leonard Page and,
finding a Negro man in a closet and a woman under a bed, seized
them and started with them back toward Pittsfield. It was evening,
and citizens and students were attending a meeting in the Colonial
Hall. As soon as the news of the capture was received the meeting
adjourned and part of the men set out after the "slave-catchers."
By superior numbers (and probably the display of weapons) the
Southerners were overawed and forced to repair with the alleged
fugitives to Elyria, where their claims could be examined in open
court. While the wheels of justice were getting in motion the
Negroes escaped from the Elyria jail and, stopping for a few
minutes in Oberlin for supplies and advice, pushed on to
Canada.
No one will ever know how many fugitives
went north by way of Oberlin. One thing, however, is certain: all
who came were hospitably received and cared for, and none was ever
forcibly returned from Oberlin to the "House of Bondage."
Townsmen, students, college faculty and officials were involved in
the conspiracy. On one occasion a Negro man, dressed like a woman
and with his hands and face whitened, was escorted to the lake by
a college student. The students quite plainly looked upon the
arrival of a band of Negroes as an opportunity for a lark.
Repeatedly the fugitives were housed in the homes of members of
the faculty. For those who chose to remain in Oberlin, schools
were provided. They were cared for in illness and, if they died,
given a decent burial at public expense in the village cemetery.
The schools were taught by college students and, on at least one
occasion, funds of the Institute were diverted for their support.
The Female Anti-Slavery Society and the Maternal Association took
a special interest in caring for the female fugitives. For a time,
at least, the Prudential Committee of the College maintained a
regular "Fund for Fugitives."
The propaganda value of all events
associated with the "Underground" was fully appreciated. When a
Negro woman died in Oberlin in 1841 a notice was published in the
Evangelist:
"Died,--At Oberlin, on Thursday morning,
September 16, CHARLOTTE TEMPLE. The deceased was formerly a slave
in Virginia. She has been in this place most of the time for the
last two years, during which she has maintained a uniform, upright
Christian character ....
"She was ignorant of her own age, but her
hoary head and furrowed cheeks showed that her years had not been
few. The numerous scars upon her body told of the extent of
inhuman barbarity inflicted upon her. The slavery from which she
fled still retains in its grasp all her relatives. Children and
grandchildren survive her. But they were not present to smooth her
dying pillow nor follow her to the grave. The mother died alone,
and was buried by strangers, without one from among her numerous
offspring to follow her to the tomb; for they are all shut up in
the prison house of slavery."
When, thirteen years later, a four-year-old
mulatto fugitive died in Oberlin, over a thousand persons attended
the funeral. "The bloodhounds," runs the twenty-first annual
report of the Oberlin Maternal Association, "urged by their more
ferocious masters, pursued the mother with her fainting burden,
till the child, like a hunted deer, fell sick. When it reached us
it was so near heaven as to be no longer valued by pence and
dollars. It was left with us to die while its adopted mother fled
beyond the bounds of danger. A monument furnished by the friends
of the fatherless heads the little mound, bearing the inscription,
'The Stranger's Grave.' By this grave we tell our children of the
sorrows of the little slave. In the shadow of this monument our
Sabbath school children with thankful hearts and tearful eyes
sing--
I was not born a little
slave
To labor in the sun;
To wish I were but in my
grave,
And all my labors done.
"Long may we from this silent spot go to
our closet and pray for the slave-mother with her countless
sorrows, and for her motherless children with all their
unmitigated miseries, and by this stranger's grave may we vow
eternal enmity to a system which blots the moral sun from heirs to
immortality, and which at their birth consigns the son to become a
beast of burden, and the daughter to a life of prostitution." The
headstone was paid for by the dimes of Sabbath School
children.
Of course, not all of the Oberlinites
working for the fugitives were in Oberlin. Wherever a former
Oberlin student might live there was likely to be a station on the
Underground Railroad. On the Welland Canal in Canada, Hiram Wilson
waited to receive the escaping Negroes, find them a job and a
place to live, aid them in securing a rudimentary education, and
look after the needs of their souls.
Three Oberlin students even crossed over
the border into Dixie to entice and guide slaves to freedom.
George Thompson attempted to help two slaves to escape across the
Mississippi from Missouri into Illinois. He was captured, found
guilty of "grand larceny," and suffered in a Missouri penitentiary
for nearly five years, beguiling the time by conducting revivals
and prayer meetings, composing poems, reading "Mahan on
Perfectionism," and writing pious letters to the Oberlin
Evangelist. Calvin Fairbank ventured repeatedly into Virginia and
Kentucky and even as far as Arkansas to escort Negroes out to
liberty. Perhaps he was the most daring operator on the whole
Underground Railroad. In 1844 he was associated with Delia A.
Webster, also a former Oberlin student then teaching in the
academy at Lexington, Kentucky, in planning and attempting to
execute an escape. They were both seized and convicted on the
evidence of a letter which Fairbank had addressed to friends in
Oberlin, but had not mailed. Miss Webster was soon pardoned, but
Fairbank served a prison sentence of more than four years. Less
than three years after being freed he was caught again and served
twelve more years! In the few years when he was free he claimed to
have liberated forty-seven slaves. Most Oberlin people did not
approve of such aggressive tactics, but when he visited the town
and College again after his pardon in 1864 he was received as
something of a hero.
From the passage of the Federal Fugitive
Slave Act in 1850 Oberlin was in a practical state of rebellion
against the national government. This law provided for the use of
Federal marshals and Federal commissions to secure the return of
fugitives from the Northern states, required Northern citizens to
aid in their recapture, and prescribed fines and imprisonment for
those who interfered with the execution of the law. Oberlinites
refused to recognize the act as constitutional and binding. In an
address before the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society in
New York in May, 1851, Finney insisted on calling the measure,
"the Fugitive Slave Bill"--"for he could not call it a law, for he
did not believe it was a law." "The fugitive law must be repealed,
or it will repeal the Constitution," declared the Oberlin
Evangelist. "Enforced it cannot be--without such excitements and
agitations as shall shake the continent, and make the bonds of our
Union as flax amid the flames."
Some of the subjects discussed by the
literary societies show how much Oberlin was thinking about the
"higher law" and nullification as applied to this act. In
September of 1850 one of the ladies' societies considered the
question: "Ought christians to obey the new Fugitive law?" In
April of the following spring one of the men's societies, after an
hour and a half debate, voted in the negative on the question:
"Ought a functionary of the government either to execute a law
which in his opinion conflicts with the divine law or else resign
his office?" Two years later the same society was debating: "Ought
we to resist by violence the execution of the Fugitive Slave law?"
The rival organization discussed the same issue in different
forms: in 1854, "Resolved that the people of Massachusetts would
have been justified in resisting the forces of the United States
and detaining the Slave Burns in freedom by violence?", and in
1856, "Does the injustice of a law free the citizens of the U.S.
from the moral obligation to obey it?" But would Oberlinites act
on their principles if the opportunity presented itself? The test
came in 1858.
CHAPTER
XXVI
HIGHER LAW
"The individual must still use his own
intellect and his own moral faculty, to decide for himself the
path of his duty. He may owe to a court the most respectful
consideration and pondering of its decision; but when to his mind,
after careful, candid examination, God appears to decide against
the court, he must act accordingly and submit peacefully to the
penalty, if he cannot honorably evade it."
JOHN KEEP in the Oberlin
Evangelist, April 24, 1852.
"Oberlin is the nursery of just such men as
John Brown and his followers. With arithmetic is taught the
computation of number of slaves and their value per head; with
geography, territorial lines and those localities of slave
territory supposed to be favorable to emancipation; with history,
the chronicles of the peculiar institution; and with ethics and
philosophy, the higher law, and resistance to Federal enactments.
Hence the graduates of Oberlin are Masters of Art in abolitionism,
and with the acquirement of their degrees, are prepared to go a
degree or two further, if occasion requires. Here is where the
younger Browns obtain their conscientiousness in ultraisms, taught
from their cradle up, so that while they rob slaveholders of their
property, or commit murder for the cause of freedom, they imagine
that they are doing God service."
The Pennsylvanian (Philadelphia),
quoted in
the Oberlin Evangelist, December 7,
1859.
FUGITIVE slaves were regularly cared for in
Oberlin out of Russia Township funds. The township records contain
repeated entries of appropriations for "poor stranger" or
"transient paupers." In March of 1856 the township trustees voted
$10.50 "to pay J. M. Fitch for boarding a poor stranger" at James
Armstrong's. Fitch was a former printer, proprietor of a
book-store, superintendent of the Sunday School, and a local agent
on the Underground. Later, money was provided from the same source
to pay Armstrong for "Keeping Lott family," to pay $41.00 to Dr.
"A. Steele for [medical] services to Tr[ansient1
poor," and to recompense Mayor A. N. Beecher for expenditures in
behalf of the "Wilford family--Transient Poor."
In 1856 Artson P. Dayton was Town Clerk in
charge of these accounts and also acting School Manager for the
township. In 1857 his place in both capacities was taken by John
M. Langston, Mulatto Oberlin College graduate and practicing
attorney. Simeon Bushnell, assistant in Fitch's store, succeeded
Langston as Clerk in 1859. Dayton had originally come to Oberlin
as a mason but took up the practice of law, and in 1858 became a
United States deputy marshal, in which capacity it was his duty to
enforce the Federal Fugitive Slave Law! He certainly was
well-informed about the workings of the Underground in Oberlin. He
may also have been jealous of his colored successor.
Sometime in the early spring of 1858 a
full-blood Negro called John, or John Price, turned up in Oberlin.
On March 29 Lungston, the colored Clerk, recorded in the township
records that, "Trustees made arrangement with George Logan to Keep
John Price & Josephine Chaffin, Paupers, for 2 weeks from 27th
March 1858, at $3.00 per week. Logan to board & Keep said
Paupers." John was later moved to Armstrong's, where so many other
"paupers" had been cared for, and further appropriations were made
to cover his board at $1.25 a week throughout the summer to
September 10.
Oberlin was one of the most notorious
refuges of fugitive slaves in the North; it was to be expected
that masters and Federal agents would look there for their lost
property. The appointment of Dayton as deputy marshal presaged
some sort of drastic government action. Apparently he was involved
in an attempted seizure of alleged escaped slaves on Monday night
of Commencement week, 1858. President Hitchcock of Western Reserve
College was the guest speaker, and he had just completed his
address when the fire-bell was rung to call townsmen, students,
and visitors to rescue the threatened Negroes. The supposed
fugitives were saved from an apparently wholly illegal
abduction.
Late in August, Anderson Jennings of
Maysville, Kentucky, arrived in town and put up at the somewhat
notorious tavern kept by Chauncey Wack on the east side of South
Main Street, an establishment sometimes known as the Russia House
or Railroad House. The fact could not long be concealed that
Jennings had gotten in touch with Dayton and the two were looking
over the village for "likely niggers."
Dayton certainly knew all about John Price
who had been "on the town" now for several months. Jennings
promptly "recognized" him as being the slave of a Kentucky
neighbor by the name of Bacon. The latter was notified and sent an
agent to recover his property. The agent and two deputy-marshals
joined Jennings at Wack's the second week in September. It may be
easily imagined that Oberlin people noted the presence of these
four armed strangers and were very much on the alert. Oberlin's
record as a safe haven for fugitives must not be
spoiled.
The "slave-catchers" must have seen the
scowls on the faces of the local citizens; they decided it would
be prudent to try strategy. So Jennings bribed a rather elfish
twelve-year-old farm boy by the name of Shakespeare Boynton to
help them. (This youngster later testified in open court: "Expect
I am a son of [Lewis Boynton], but it's hard telling
now-a-days!") Following Jennings' instructions, Shakespeare
persuaded John Price to ride out with him into the country to get
another Negro to dig potatoes for the Boyntons. When the two were
a mile or so east of town they were overtaken by a carriage
containing three of the slavecatchers. This was the first in a
rapid series of crises in the life of John, but he seems to have
taken it calmly. Shakespeare later testified that the Negro was
picking his teeth with his jack-knife when his pursuers appeared.
They made him surrender his "toothpick" and hustled him into their
wagon; the Boynton boy turned his horse toward Oberlin. At Wack's
tavern he collected his reward of twenty dollars from Anderson
Jennings.
Meantime the slavecatchers with their
prisoner drove down the diagonal road from East Oberlin to
Wellington. There they were joined by Jennings at the Wadsworth
House where they stayed while waiting for the southbound train on
the "Big Four."
But Oberlin was warned. Seth Bartholomew of
Oberlin was visiting Pittsfield to put up posters advertising a
Great Panorama, and saw John and his captors headed south and in a
hurry. Ansel Lyman, an Oberlin preparatory student, hitch-hiked
back from Pittsfield with Bartholomew and heard all about what the
showman had seen. Lyman seems to have passed the news around among
the students; Bartholomew found J. M. Fitch, Professor Henry Peck
and Attorney Ralph Plumb together on the street and told
them.
The community and student body had been
much aroused by previous efforts to carry off Negroes and were
determined that this attempt should not succeed either. There was
a spontaneous outpouring down the Wellington road: students,
townsmen, youngsters, leading citizens, perhaps faculty members;
some on foot, some on horseback, some piled into nondescript
wagons. A few were carrying shotguns and pistols, of which a part
were probably loaded. Simeon Bushnell, Fitch's clerk, drove fast
horses on a light buckboard. Two college seniors, James L. Patton
and W. D. Scrimgeour, and a senior theolog, John G. W. Cowles--son
of Professor Henry Cowles, went together. Chauncey Wack went, too,
with two livery-stable-keepers; he wanted to get another
ten-dollar bill for a suspected counterfeit Jennings had paid him.
Ansel Lyman recruited two student cronies: William E. Lincoln and
Richard Winsor, both Englishmen.
Within a few hours a large crowd had
gathered in Wellington, a crowd which was augmented by neighboring
farmers who had come to help put out a fire. The Negro was held by
his captors in a room on the second floor of the hotel, besieged
by the would-be rescuers from the street and by way of the halls
and stairways. There were confused and inconclusive parleys about
legal papers; some in the crowd threatened to tear down the
building. There was ribald shouting and cursing--the participants
were not all "saints" of Oberlin. Somebody in the hall stuck his
fist through a stovepipe hole and punched Anderson Jennings in the
head! Then the students Lyman, Winsor and Lincoln climbed a ladder
and broke in the window. Winsor seized John Price; the door was
pushed open, and he was passed over the heads of the crowd down
the stairs and out into the street where he was thrown heels-up
into Bushnell's buckboard. There was much hurrahing and Bushnell
drove off in a cloud of dust toward Oberlin.
It was evening when J. M. Fitch and
Professor James Monroe brought John Price to the home of James
Harris Fairchild, Professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy and
later President of Oberlin College. After spending three days and
nights in a back chamber at the Fairchilds', John went on to
Canada and was never heard from again.
Oberlin seemed to have defied and flouted
the Federal authority. Here was a chance for the Government to
make an example for the enlightenment of other stations on the
"Underground Railroad." On December 7, 1858, Federal marshals
appeared in Oberlin and served papers upon fifteen Oberlin
residents, ordering them to appear before the United States
District Court at Cleveland to answer to charges of infringement
of the Fugitive Slave Law. Five other Oberlinites, also indicted,
appeared voluntarily along with the fifteen, to plead not guilty.
These included Henry E. Peck, Associate Professor of Intellectual
and Moral Philosophy, James M. Fitch, and Ralph Plumb, attorney.
W. E. Lincoln was teaching school down in the central part of the
state. He was arrested in his schoolroom, manacled and taken to
Cleveland, where, however, he was released, as were the other
accused, without bail. Besides the twenty-one from Oberlin,
sixteen from Wellington were presented. The cases against the
latter were not pressed and the trial thus concentrated
exclusively on the Oberlinites.
Oberlin and its Republican friends welcomed
the test. A great change had taken place in public opinion in
northern Ohio since the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law. Oberlin
found itself actually popular among the majority of its neighbors
on the Reserve! Prominent Republican lawyers from Cleveland and
Elyria volunteered to defend the accused without charge. On
January 11, 1859, twenty-six of the "Rescuers" and a larger number
of their friends and sympathizers from Oberlin and elsewhere held
a banquet and organization meeting--the "Felon's Feast." A
sumptuous dinner was provided. Music was furnished by the Oberlin
String Band. "Stirring sentiments and speeches" were listened to
for nearly five hours. Ralph Plumb responded to the toast: "The
Alien and Sedition law of 1798 and the Fugitive Slave Act of
1850--alike arbitrary, undemocratic and unconstitutional." A
committee of five members was selected for "defence and offence."
A "Rescue Fund" was established; and Professor James Monroe,
Oberlin's star salesman in the recent endowment drive, was sent
out to collect subscriptions in neighboring towns. Oberlin bid
defiance to the Democratic Party and the Federal
Government.
When the trial opened on April 5, it was
evident that not only the men from Oberlin but Oberlin, itself,
and the Republican Party were on trial. The Democrats had control
of the court --even the jurors were all Democrats. Only one of the
twelve was from the Western Reserve--Daniel P. Rhodes of
Cleveland, father of James Ford Rhodes, the historian. The
Republicans, however, turned out as counsel for the defense.
Special reporters were present to cover the trial for the New York
Tribune, the Worcester Spy and the Pittsburgh Commercial Journal,
along with the representative of the Ohio press. The eyes of the
nation, in the spring of 1859, were on the Cuyahoga County
Courthouse.
There is not much use in pursuing justice
at this late date, and the author gladly leaves the task for the
legal historian. Justice, it can fairly be said, was aimed at by
nobody at the time. The prosecution and the court sought to
crucify Oberlin and the Republican Party and vindicate the
Administration. The prisoners and the defense sought a martyrdom
which would expose the essential tyranny of the Fugitive Slave Law
and gain votes for the Republicans.
Simeon Bushnell, driver of the buckboard,
was first to be tried. The witnesses on whom the prosecution
chiefly depended were the Kentuckians, Seth Bartholomew--the
showman, Chauncey Wack--the tavern keeper, the Democratic
postmaster at Oberlin --E. F. Munson, a Democratic postmaster from
Rochester (Ohio), two Oberlin livery-stable proprietors, and an
unemployed painter. Bartholomew testified that he heard Ralph
Plumb, Peck and Fitch conspiring with Bushnell to rescue the
Negro. Various leading Republican citizens of Oberlin
(Photographer and former Mayor David Brokaw, Brewster Pelton, Dr.
H. A. Bunce and Dr. Homer Johnson) swore that Bartholomew was an
inveterate liar. The Democrats (Postmaster Munson, the
livery-stable proprietors, Chauncey Wack, etc.) swore that his
reputation for veracity was pure and unsullied. The court believed
the Democrats.
The District Attorney ridiculed the "Saints
of Oberlin" and condemned Higher Law as "Devil's Law." "Higher Law
people ran into the predicament of free love and infidelity," he
told the jury. "If St. Peck and St. Plumb 'go off' on this law, he
would advise them to go where some good man preaches the Bible and
not politics. Do you preach the Bible at Oberlin, or do you point
out the spires of the churches as hell poles?" Albert Gallatin
Riddle, counsel for the defense, eulogized the men of Oberlin who
had stood at "the front, striking with us blow for blow for
freedom." Jennings' papers were irregular, he insisted, and the
seizure of John Price was, therefore, wholly illegal, so the men
of Oberlin were entirely justified in interfering with what was
essentially a kidnapping. (It was Riddle and not the District
Attorney who was subsequently elected to Congress.)
Bushnell was found guilty by the Democratic
jury. Charles Langston, a Negro, brother of John M. Langston, was
also convicted, and the two were sentenced by the Democratic
judge, on May 11--Bushnell to 60 days and $600.00, Langston to 20
days and $100.00. The court then took a recess until July, the
accused remaining in jail in the interim because of a technical
disagreement with the judge over a point of honor.
During the recess application was made to
the Ohio Supreme Court for a writ of habeas corpus to take
Bushnell and Langston from the custody of the United States
District Court on the ground that the Fugitive Slave Law, under
which they had been convicted, was unconstitutional. There was
some hope of success because the justices of the state court were
all Republicans, Chief Justice Swan owing his office to the
support of the free-soil Republicans. By a vote of three to two,
however, the court upheld the constitutionality of the Fugitive
Slave Law and denied that it had any power to interfere with a
Federal court, anyway. Justice Swan, who had been an official of
the Kansas Emigrant Aid Society of Northern Ohio, cast the
deciding vote. The Republicans saw to it that he did not serve
another term.
It seems pretty clear that the Oberlin
prisoners were quite glad to stay in jail, however, despite the
fact that Professor Peck was thus kept from acting as moderator of
the General Conference of Ohio Congregationalists! In jail they
could most effectively exploit their martyrdom to the advantage of
the cause of anti-slavery and the Republican Party. The jail was
no palace, and lunatics were housed in the same building, but the
sheriff and jailor were both friendly and did everything to make
their guests as comfortable as possible under the circumstances.
An Oberlin cobbler was allowed to have his last and established a
shoe shop in "cell No. 3 upstairs, Cuyahoga County Jail, where he
will be happy to meet his patrons." A saddler "opened a shop under
the shed in the Jail Yard." Students procured books and
recommenced study. On July 4 Fitch printed the one and only copy
of the Rescuer, a periodical devoted to illustrating "the nature
and claims of the Higher Law, the iniquities of American slavery,
and the injustice and illegality of the Fugitive Slave Act."
Distinguished visitors were frequent. A Cleveland friend reported
one day in April: "Father Giddings dined with the Prisoners
yesterday under the kind protecting care of our good Anti-Slavery
Sheriff."
On April 17 Professor Peck was allowed to
preach to a crowd in the jail-yard from a doorway of the
jail-building. On another occasion the Oberlin Sabbath School was
taken to Cleveland on the train. In Cleveland they paraded behind
a brass band from the depot to the jail. Refreshments were served
in the park nearby. They were received within the jail in class
groups by J. M. Fitch, their "beloved superintendent."
Never for a moment did the men of Oberlin
waver in their denunciation of the fugitive law. On April 23, a
week after his conviction, Simeon Bushnell wrote to Professor
Monroe from the jail:
"They may do their worst, & when I am
again out, I will rescue the first slave I get a chance to rescue
. . . I have sworn eternal enmity to the fugitive slave law, &
while God lets me live I mean to defy it, and trample upon it . .
. I have never for one moment regretted the part I took in the
Wellington rescue, and I hope none of you will, for we did right.
We did our duty; at least so far as we went. Perhaps we did not go
far enough. Had we given Jennings & his Associates a coat of
tar before leaving Wellington perhaps they would not now be here.
But enough, keep up good couragel The good Lord will yet bring all
things out right ....
"P.S. Perhaps you had better burn this,
dead dogs tell no tales, & burnt letters cannot be
read."
The Oberlinites out of jail stood
resolutely behind those in jail. In May the "Faculty and Resident
Trustees of Oberlin College" presented an address "to their
Friends and Patrons throughout the Country" defending the Rescuers
unequivocally. In the statement they proudly acknowledged
Oberlin's activity as a station on the Underground Railroad, where
fugitives were always welcome. As to John Price, they declared
their belief that "it would have been inexcusable cowardice and
wickedness in our people to have allowed this poor man to be
kidnapped and dragged into bondage without an effort to save him."
They denounced the Fugitive Slave Law as "not . . . of any binding
force," and "utterly subversive of the fundamental principles of
our government," and declared their intention to continue to treat
it as null and void.
Oberlin was in a grim state of mind in the
spring of 1859. There were many who urged a resort to force. Some
of the subjects discussed by the literary societies were ominous:
"Res., That it would be wise to release Mr. Bushnell and his
companions by force, provided they are not protected by our state
courts," and "Resolved that it is the duty of citizens of Oberlin
to forcibly resist the Fugitive Slave Law, henceforth and
forever." Of course, the leaders opposed the use of violence, but
the students and the rank and file of townsmen were clearly
restive. Threats of lynch law were heard in other parts of the
Reserve. "The shortest, best and most practicable method of
disposing of men thieves .... "a correspondent wrote to the
Portage County Democrat in May, "is to set them dangling at the
end of a rope four feet from the ground."
The leaders of the Republican Party
encouraged the agitation and made political capital out of it. On
May 24 a mass meeting of "the foes of slavery and Despotism and
the friends of State and Individual Rights" was held in the Public
Square in Cleveland in front of the jail yard. It was estimated
that six thousand were present, representing all parts of northern
Ohio. Resolutions were adopted by acclamation denouncing the
Fugitive Slave Law and expressing sympathy for the prisoners. It
was also provided that a fund to be known as the Fund of Liberty
be collected through the County Republican Committee. Some of the
prisoners spoke from inside the jail yard. A fiery letter was read
from Cassius M. Clay. Addresses were delivered by former President
Mahan of Oberlin, the Hon. Joshua R. Giddings and Governor Salmon
P. Chase.
The prisoners and their friends were
entirely conscious of the propaganda value of the situation. The
Rescuer shows this plainly enough, as do their letters. J. M.
Fitch wrote from the jail to Professor Monroe the last of
April:
"We are cheerful & hopeful--yea more we
are full of comfort. We are sure our enemies--the blasphemous
enemies of God and humanity are finding that the farther they go
the deeper they sink. We are animated to see that these
oppressive, unfair, and inhuman proceedings are preaching to the
state & the nation more effectually than a thousand of us
could do if our lives should be devoted to the work. This is
enough. May the God of the poor use us, and these stirring events
to awaken a sleeping church and a sleeping State to a knowledge of
the fact that the bolts of heaven are hanging over us, and the
wrath of heaven is out against us because of our indifference to
the Miseries of his suffering poor. If in his infinite mercy he
shall condescend so to use us, then will the temporary
inconvenience we suffer be unworthy of thought." There is no doubt
that the Rescue Case, like "Bleeding Kansas," was exceedingly
fruitful of converts to the Republican Party and the anti-slavery
cause.
The case was brought abruptly to a close
when the four slavecatchers were indicted for kidnapping before
the Common Pleas Court of Lorain County. If their trial had ever
come off it is clear now, as it was to them then, that that court
would have been as unanimously Republican as the court which tried
Bushnell and Langston had been Democratic, and that conviction
would have been certain. Jennings had spent many unprofitable
months in Ohio already and he was, of course, anxious to avoid a
jail sentence. An exchange of prisoners was therefore effected and
both indictments were dropped; the Kentuckians and the Oberlinites
still awaiting trial went free.
On July 7, 1859, the prisoners left the
jail and marched to the railroad station escorted by a guard of
honor of Cleveland citizens. Hecker's Brass Band led the way, and
as the train pulled out for Oberlin played "Home, Sweet Home." At
Oberlin "their reception was a grand affairl" According to a
participant "It was understood before noon yesterday that they
were released and would be in on the evening train, so a meeting
in the church was appointed at 8 o'clock and the news circulated
by means of hand bills and otherwise, and by half past seven many
hundreds of citizens and students, including all the Fire
companies in uniform, the Brass band &c &c were in waiting
at the Depot. And at the same time the church was rapidly filling
up. Cannons were fired and bells rung every 25 minutes until 12
o'clock. When the procession reached the church, bouquets and
wreaths of flowers were thrown upon the Rescuers which were caught
upon their arms or head & thus worn into the church, and as
they marched in through the aisles & ascended the platform,
such deafening and tremendous shouts of applause greeted them as
it is impossible for my weak pen in any fitting words to describe.
But it was gratitude, yes, overwhelming gratitude to God for his
goodness to many a heart, as least, and prayer was in many a heart
that God might have all the Glory."
"AII Oberlin was there. Father Keep
presided. We had music from the choir--(Marseilleise, &c.)
organ, and bands, and speeches either long or short from each
individual of the Rescuers, also from Sheriff Wightman, Jailor
Smith, & Henry R. Smith, and others of Cleveland. Also from
another Sheriff, The Probate Judge, Mr. Washburn, Mr. Horr &c
of Elyria. Each one of these was cheered as never man was before
in Oberlin. The house was nearly as much crowded as on
Commencement days, but remarkable order was observed. When the
Doxology was sung and the benediction pronounced it wanted ten
minutes of midnight."
The next day the senior class held a
special reception in honor of Professor Peck to whom they
presented a "complete set of Works of W. H. Prescott, in seventeen
volumes, finely bound in sheep." One of the seniors delivered "an
appropriate and feeling speech" and the professor "responded in
remarks of several minutes length, during which the profuse tears
of the class showed how strongly their hearts had been drawn to
him during his confinement in Cleveland." On the 12th there was
another great celebration when Simeon Bushnell was released and
returned to take up his temporarily deferred duties as Russia
Township Clerk. Professors Fairchild, Peck, Monroe, and the Hon.
Joshua R. Giddings were among the speakers. Early in the following
month at a general mass meeting, the matrons of Oberlin presented
to J. M. Fitch and Mrs. Fitch "a beautiful sewing machine--Grover
& Baker's best--in testimony of service rendered as
superintendent of the Sabbath school." The part which he had
lately played in Cleveland was not forgotten.
"So the Government has been beaten at
last," commented the Plain Dealer bitterly, "with law, Justice,
and facts all on its side. and Oberlin, with its rebellious high
law creed, is triumphant."
Oberlin's spirit was definitely not broken.
Even before the prisoners returned, an association called the Sons
of Liberty was formed, whose object was declared to be to see to
it that no person should be deprived of life, liberty or property
without due process of law. When Marshal Dayton visited Oberlin
again in March, 1860, he was given an hour to get out and stay
out. He was followed out of town by a band of Negroes who forced
him to promise to resign as marshal and to give them the names of
those who had been associated with him as informers. He named
Postmaster Munson, Chauncey Wack and a certain Bela Farr. One
Sunday in April Professor Monroe and Ralph Plumb introduced at
church a nearly white woman, formerly a slave, and then took up a
collection to help her buy her mother. In the same month "A
Rescuer Still" wrote to the local newspaper describing how he had
recently received "a couple of pilgrims, whose exodus had, for
many weary nights, been guided by Freedom's star." In January,
1861, when Congressman Riddle's housemaid, Lucy, was seized as a
fugitive in Cleveland, a number of Oberlinites went to the
assistance of their erstwhile defender. Two omnibus loads of
would-be rescuers went to the city but with less spectacular
results this time. Four were jailed and the rest returned next day
"with bunches on their bodies and sore heads, the effect of the
policemen's clubs."
The Rescue Case attracted attention
throughout the nation and the world. It was one in the chain of
events which led directly to the election of Lincoln and the Civil
War. The reports of the American Anti-Slavery Society carried
detailed accounts of it. Frank Leslie ran a report of the case on
the front page of his Weekly accompanied by a drawing from a
photograph showing the Rescuers in front of the Cleveland jail.
Gerrit Smith contributed money for the aid of one of the student
Rescuers. A native of Philadelphia was so stimulated to sympathy
for the College by the case that he concluded to present ninety
volumes from his personal library for the use of the students. The
"Edinburgh Ladies Emancipation Society" of Edinburgh, Scotland,
sent Secretary Hill £10 as "a token of interest &
sympathy for the Oberlin rescuers." The annual conference of the
Michigan Congregational Association adopted resolutions of
sympathy and approbation, and the Iowa State Congregational
Association adopted similar resolutions and collected $46.00 for
the Rescue Fund. William Lloyd Garrison discovered a new
fraternity with Oberlin and wrote to Professor James Monroe: "What
a humiliating spectacle is presented to the world in the trials
now going on at Cleveland of your humane and Christian citizens
who so nobly delivered the spoiled out of the hands of the
oppressor!... What a work of moral regeneration yet remains to be
done in Ohio, in Massachusetts, throughout the North, in
opposition to slavery and slave-hunting! But this very persecution
will give a fresh impetus to our noble cause."
* * *
While the Oberlin trial was in progress
John Brown was visiting the Western Reserve making his
preparations for Harper's Ferry. When he lectured in Cleveland in
the latter part of March he shared the platform with his
lieutenant, J. H. Kagi. Kagi went to visit the Rescuers in the
jail. In August, Brown's eldest son, John Brown, Jr., came to
Oberlin and probably recruited Lewis Sheridan Leary and John A.
Copeland at that time. Leary was a harness-maker in Oberlin, and
his nephew, Copeland, was a carpenter who had been a student in
the Preparatory Department of the College. Leary approached Ralph
Plumb for money to be used in "assisting slaves to escape." Plumb
collected $17.50 for him, but asked no questions. Both of these
Oberlin colored men were with Captain Brown when he raided
Harper's Ferry in October. Lewis Sheridan Leary was killed in the
fight at the engine house; John Copeland was executed on December
16 for his participation.
There is every reason to believe that,
despite the conservative attitude of a few, most Oberlinites
warmly sympathized with Brown and his followers. On the day of
Brown's execution the bell tolled for an hour, and a mass-meeting
in the Chapel was addressed by the leading citizens and faculty
members. "Professor Peck surpassed himself," reported the
students' magazine. "His summer's incarceration has given him a
rich experience from which to draw, when about to speak for the
downtrodden, or account the deeds of the martyrs of Liberty."
James A. Thome, a Lane Rebel and member of the Board of Trustees,
preached a funeral sermon for Brown at Hudson on December 8 and
repeated it in the Oberlin College Chapel six days later. He also
wrote eulogistic editorials on Brown for the Evangelist. "For
ourselves," he declared, "we can see no signs of hallucination or
of infatuation in John Brown. We esteem him as the Wise Man of our
times." At a "joint collation of the men's literary societies, one
of the toasts was 'John Brown: The hero of Harper's Ferry--the
true representative of the American idea!'" It was a source of
great satisfaction to many that Oberlin Negroes had shared in the
raid and thus attained a sort of associate martyrdom. On the day
set for the execution of Copeland "a meeting of sympathy for the
bereaved parents and friends, and indignation against the civil
oppression that is so fast driving good men mad, was held in the
Chapel." On the afternoon of Christmas Day of 1859 Professor Peck
preached Copeland's funeral sermon in the First Church. A
collection was taken up to pay the expenses of an unsuccessful
attempt to recover the body and to erect a monument in the Oberlin
cemetery.
Oberlin had hoped to reform the nation and
the world--put an end to war, destroy the liquor evil, improve
educational technique, elevate standards of personal morality,
promote piety and abolish slavery--through the exercise of moral
suasion. By a great nation-wide and world-wide emotional appeal
the human race was to be brought to see the light of truth and
righteousness as Oberlin saw it.
But moral suasion had failed for the most
part to show great immediate results, and, as it failed, resort
was made to direct action. The impatient (and enthusiasts are
likely to be impatient) insisted on a short-cut to the goal--an
appeal to force. The benevolent temperance revival gave way to the
belligerent prohibition movement. The moral reformers abandoned
their efforts to reform prostitutes and loose-livers and, instead,
appealed to state legislatures to pass laws providing for
stringent punishment of adulterers. The advocates of direct action
against slavery were everywhere gaining ground over those who
would approach the slaveholder as well as the slave as a brother
with a soul to save.
The Kansas struggle and the Rescue Case had
carried Oberlin far in this direction. From the defensive use of
direct action in the Rescue Case to the aggressive action of the
John Brown Raid was the next logical step. For Oberlin and for the
Nation the anti-slavery debate was closed. It must have been clear
to many that the final decision now would be made on the field of
battle.
CHAPTER
XXVII
THE PROPAGANDA
"THE very name of Oberlin became a power in
the land," wrote the president of a neighboring college in the
middle seventies. "There went forth from the little village
planted in the forest, a voice which reached distant and unwilling
ears and compelled attention. The voice came not from the college
as a merely literary institution, but rather from the
all-pervading spirit of the place--from teachers, pupils and
patrons whose religion was largely philanthropy, and whose
philanthropy was intensely religious. In a word, Oberlin was a
noble and potent ism with a college attached."
The last statement is one of those
exaggerations which serve to emphasize important truths. Oberlin,
it would be more truly said, was an "ism" as well as a college. As
such it was limited by no geographical bounds; it was a party, a
faction in the church and the political and social community
rather than merely a town and a college. There were true
Oberlinites in London, in Edinburgh, in Manchester who had never
been west of Land's End. There were many in New England who had
never been beyond the Hudson. There were many more among the
untravelled Yankee farmers of northern New York as well as on the
Western Reserve. Reformers like Joshua Leavitt, Lewis Tappan,
William A. Alcott, and Elihu Burritt were naturally and powerfully
drawn to Oberlin as the most perfect exemplification of pure,
Christian reform, and would have been glad to be classed as
"honorary Oberlinites." Students who went out from Oberlin, with
or without a diploma or degree, went out in ninety-nine cases out
of a hundred as missionaries of Oberlinism, anxious to convert
their parishioners, pupils, clients, customers and associates to
the theology, philosophy and politics of Oberlin.
Major factors in the dissemination of
Oberlinism were the Oberlin Quarterly Review and the Oberlin
Evangelist. Both were founded especially as religious periodicals
but dealt with associated matters. The Review was edited by
President Mahan, assisted by William Cochran and, later, by
Professor Finney. It was addressed primarily to the clergy.
Publication began in August, 1845; the last number was issued in
May, 1848. The grand object of the Quarterly was declared to be no
less than the "development, elucidation, and scientific
arrangement of first principles in Religion, Moral Philosophy and
Taste," including a "strict and impartial review" of "the rise,
progress, and systematic peculiarities of Supralapsarian
Calvinism, . . . the false assumptions, and anti-christian and
demoralizing tendencies of the Sensual School of Philosophy,
founded by Locke, and the Transcendental School founded by Kant;
and the various and conflicting systems of church polity and
ecclesiastical domination." This publication, however, included
not only articles on "Holiness," "Simplicity of Moral Actions,"
and "Sanctification" but also an attack on the Odd Fellows as a
dangerous secret society, a paper on "Fourierism" by Professor
James Fairchild and articles on "Learning and Labor" and a
denunciation of the anti-slavery "Come-outers" by James A.
Thome.
Much more long-lived and influential and
broader in the scope of subject matter treated was the Oberlin
Evangelist, published every two weeks from November 1, 1838
through December 17, 1862. Undoubtedly the Evangelist was
established primarily to expound the peculiar theological views
held at Oberlin. A large portion of its space was taken up with
sermons by Professor Finney, President Mahan, Professor Cowles and
others. The official statement of objects printed in the first
issue, however, listed as the subjects to be freely discussed:
"Christian Education, Slavery and Abolition, Moral Reform,
Missions, the Christian Sabbath, Revivals of Religion, and any
other subject that may be seen to be of the highest importance."
This promise was entirely fulfilled. There is hardly an issue
without some editorials or news items dealing with the greater or
lesser reforms. There are reports of anti-slavery conventions,
local and national; articles from the pen of Elihu Burritt--"The
Learned Blacksmith" peace advocate, attacks upon the theater and
novel reading, accounts of the new medical practice of Isaac
Jennings, letters on health from Dr. W. A. Alcott, and discussions
of intemperance of one form or another, as well as sermons and
news of the Oberlin Institute and College. Secular interests were
otherwise strictly excluded. News items of no propaganda value are
entirely lacking. There were no advertisements except of books
published in Oberlin, occasional musical conventions and other
educational and philanthropic enterprises. Probably none of these
advertisements were paid for. Sanctification and allied subjects
occupied more space comparatively at the beginning. The attention
given to reforms and particularly anti-slavery increased as time
passed. The "Oberlin Evangelist Association" which published this
periodical was made up of the Prudential Committee and faculty of
the Oberlin Collegiate Institute plus others chosen by these
charter members. This association elected an editor annually and
made arrangements with the local publisher. Horace C. Taylor was
the first editor and was succeeded in 1844, after his "fall," by a
committee of editors headed by President Mahan and including Henry
Cowles, James A. Thome and George Whipple. This division of
responsibility being found inconvenient, "the sole responsibility
was . . . committed to Prof. Henry Cowles" later in the same year.
Henry Cowles continued as editor throughout the remainder of the
history of the publication, except for nine months in 1847 and
1848 when President Mahan was in charge. After 1848 Mr. Cowles
devoted his entire time to the Evangelist, his professorship
having been discontinued for reasons of economy. R. E. Gillett was
the publisher and printer until July of 1844 when he was succeeded
by J. M. Fitch, whose services from that date were only second in
importance to those of the editor. At the beginning of 1857 Fitch
sold out to Shankland and Harmon.
The constitution of the association
provided that the profits (if any) should be "faithfully
appropriated to the cause of Christian education in this
place"--that is, of course, to the Oberlin Collegiate Institute.
For some years there was a profit, a considerable part of which
was used for the salaries of faculty members. Besides, the editor
was paid a small salary and contributors received an honorarium
for their articles published. President Mahan was paid $112.50 for
his nine months' service as editor in 1847-48. Payments for
contributions were at the rate of 75 cents a column at that time.
Professor Thome made $75.00 in one year in this way, undoubtedly a
very welcome addition to the small payments made from other
sources on his regular salary. In 1851, $350.00 from the surplus
of the association was voted to be set apart at one time to help
pay the expenses of the endowment drive.
The paper passed through various
vicissitudes. Always having eight pages, the size of the page was
proudly increased from a modest 9 x 11 1/2 inches to 10 x 13 1/2
inches at the beginning of 1844, and Lewis Tappan commented
favorably on the "new dress." In the early forties there was talk
of moving the paper to New York City, but happily for Oberlin this
plan was never carried out. In the spring of 1848 the printing
office burned, destroying Mr. Fitch's type and many of the records
of subscribers and payments. One issue was printed out of town
(March 15, 1848), and the issue of March 29 was published so late
that it contains correspondence from Boston dated April 13! The
next issue is dated May 10, all intermediate numbers being skipped
in order to catch up. The circulation climbed to over 4300 in 1847
and 1848, but ten years later had fallen off to less than 2500. In
1857 Mr. Fitch used over $400.00 of his own funds to keep the
press going. Suspension was threatened in the following year if
the list of subscribers was not increased by at least a thousand.
The Evangelist, however, struggled along until the last of 1862
when the interest in war and the financial inability of old
subscribers gave it the coup de grace. "We receive too many
letters saying--'My husband is in the army! or 'is slain in
battle,' or 'my means are cut short'; 'stop my paper at the end of
the year'; or 'till the war is over.'" The editor can be forgiven
for making a brief summary of the Evangelist's achievements (and
in a great part his achievements): in opposing slavery on
Christian principles, in ministering "to the spiritual culture of
the heart and to the consequent improvement of the life," and, as
the organ of the College and Theological Seminary, "a sympathetic
nerve, binding Oberlin to many praying Christian hearts," aiding
materially in building out of the struggling, nearly bankrupt
Oberlin in 1838, the large and powerful, permanently founded
Oberlin of 1862.
If anything, Editor Cowles underestimated
the importance of his paper. It was the Evangelist which, more
than anything else, kept the Oberlin party together. When agents
went abroad to collect the ever-needed funds they invariably
carried with them the Evangelist subscription list as a guide to
those favorably disposed toward the Institute and the point of
view which it represented. Subscriptions were often sent free to
generous donors, and copies were usually carried by agents to help
prepare the way for later solicitations. More significant than the
size of the circulation of the Evangelist was its wide
distribution throughout New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and
the Old Northwest. Unfortunately only partial lists survive, but
the picture is easily reconstructed. A map of subscribers would
look very much like the maps of student homes (see pages 508-509),
with perhaps an even greater concentration in western New England
and upstate New York. Subscribers in towns in New York from Oswego
alphabetically through Youngstown include names from forty-seven
different counties. Many cities were represented: there were
twenty-three subscribers in Poughkeepsie, twelve in Rome,
fifty-five in Rochester, eleven in Rensselaersville, fifteen in
Syracuse, twenty-eight in Troy (including P. P. Stewart), eight in
Utica, twelve in Warsaw, and fifteen up in Watertown. In some
cases these names represent persons to whom the paper was sent
gratuitously, but most of them were paying subscribers and loyal
and earnest advocates of Oberlinjan principles, lovers of reform
and practical piety. One of their number, a resident of one of the
smaller New York towns, spoke for his fellows in verses published
in 1850 when there was talk of enlarging and secularizing the
paper:
THE OBERLIN EVANGELIST
That choice little sheet--I love
it most dearly;
I love the sweet principle truth which
it brings,
And should, from my heart, regret most
sincerely
To have it the vehicle of common place
things.
I love the choice sermons of dear
brother Finney;
So full of instruction, so pure, and so
good;
The deductions so clear, he can not but
win thee
To share his rich viands of spiritual
food.
I love the pure doctrine of present
salvation
Which shines on its pages so full and so
clear--
May it spread through the length and the
breadth of
the nation,
Till darkness and error shall both
disappear.
I love its staunch doctrines of moral
reform,
Its pleas for the brethren, for freedom
and peace;
Its truths will endure, invigor and
warm,
While falsehood must die, and prejudice
cease.
So pray, brother Fitch, let the paper
remain
In its present nice snug little
form;
It has room enough now, the truth to
maintain,
The strongholds of error to battle and
storm.
The financial agents, faculty, and trustees
were also propagandists of Oberlinism. The agents first "sold"
Oberlin to prospective donors and then made their appeal for
funds. The abler of them, like William Dawes and Joab Seeley, left
a trail of loyal Oberlinites behind them. Keep and Dawes not only
collected thirty thousand dollars on their English mission but
more or less successfully "Oberlinized" England.
Some of the faculty and trustees were in
demand as preachers and lecturers. Amasa Walker, Norton Townshend,
James Monroe, in their capacities as political speakers and
legislators, aided also in spreading the net. President Mahan and
President Finney carried the name of Oberlin up and down the
nation and abroad.
To many, Oberlin was known as Finney's
college. Their writings likewise must be considered a part of the
Oberlin propaganda.
But most important of all was the work of
the eleven thousand former Oberlin students, who went out as
preachers, teachers, missionaries, and into every walk of life in
every part of the country and even to foreign countries. Literally
thousands became ministers, teachers, and ministers' wives;
hundreds became missionaries; others entered the professions or
edited papers; some were employed as lecturers by religious and
reform societies. Many undertook to distribute reform and
religious tracts and even made it a profession. In 1846 it was
proposed to establish a special "Colporteur Department" for the
education of young men intending to devote themselves to the
distribution of propaganda literature. All, though they may have
specialized in some one phase of the campaign for the
establishment of the Millennium, were reformers in general,
supporting anti-slavery, peace, temperance and moral reform as
well as their particular hobby. All likewise were Christian
reformers, working for revivals, missions and Bible societies,
opposing "come-outerism," but anxious to purge the church of
worldly, sinful and reactionary influences in order to make of it
a great world reform society. Wherever there was work to be done
for Christian reform, Oberlin alumni and present students were
sure to be doing it. Upon returning from the Christian
Anti-Slavery Convention at Chicago in 1851, President Finney
reported: "I have never met elsewhere so many of our students who
have gone abroad to bear their testimony for God. It was not to me
a matter of pride, but of devout thanksgiving to God. There I saw
more than I had ever seen before what those men are doing who have
gone forth from these halls of study and prayer. I saw how they
are struggling to sustain every good cause, and with what zeal and
self-denial they are spending and being spent in God's
work."
The hundreds of youths who went out from
Oberlin to the winter schools every year taught a new "three r's"
as well as the old: "Religion, Reform, and Republicanism."
"Several hundred of the pupils engage every winter in teaching
schools of every grade," wrote Professor Hudson in 1847. "They
carry with them high attainments, and better modes of teaching,
than were before common in the schools they have taught .... Most
of these teachers exert a healthful moral and religious influence
on their pupils." The young Oberlin teachers in country
prayer-meetings as well as spelling-bees and examined their pupils
on the state of their souls as well as their knowledge of
multiplication. One young man told proudly of how the children
gathered around his desk at recess and sang "Mid Scenes of
Confusion," while the "Spirit of God was sensibly present," and
how on another day a little girl stayed after school "and,
kneeling down, confessed her sins and gave herself to Christ in a
most melting manner."
In 1841, a young lady teacher wrote home of
the people in her district at Avon, Ohio: "They seemed wrapt in
selfishness, following their own lusts & desires. They were
light, trifling & full of jestings & you know these things
are not consistent with piety. It is our duty to be cheerful but
not vain. They needed reforming in everything almost, but I did
not feel that they were in such a state yet that I could reprove
them for their good on any thing but the subject of religion. I
could tell them of the love of Christ & their ingratitude to
him but the smaller things which tend to perfect the christian
character, such as denying ourselves the superfluities of life,
destroying our lives by lacing & the evils of other bad
habits, I felt would immediately call forth the epithet,
Oberlinism, & I thought it better not to introduce such
subjects until their minds were more prepared to receive them."
Some, however, attempted instruction, by example or precept, in
the "smaller things which tend to perfect the Christian
character." Welcome Benham always refused tea and coffee when
"boarding round." "In respect to the disuse of tea & coffee I
have said but little farther than my example," he wrote to
Secretary Burnell. "When through blind love to me I have been
earnestly solicited to participate with them in it, I have kindly
told the reasons why I refused. Some of my scholars have left it
and now join with me in my dish of milk (which abounds
here)."
Always the Oberlin teachers were faithful
advocates of the cause of the "Brother and Slave." In 1844 Mary
Plumb Fairchild wrote from Michigan to her future husband of her
experiences in school teaching. It seems that she occasionally
took time off to tell the pupils a story or two. "I always
intended to have a good moral to the tale," she wrote. "Some times
I tell them about the poor heathen children, and ask them what
they can do to send the Bible to them. Then I tell them about the
slaves--this subject seems to interest them as much as any. One
day when their feelings had all been roused by an anti-slavery
story, I asked them if they could tell me what an abolitionist is.
They were all silent, so I told them that it was one who wished to
have the slaves free, and who would do all that he could to make
them so. They all agreed that they were abolitionists. I know not
how firm they may be but I believe they are at present sincere.
There are very few abolitionists in the place and I suppose it
would not be so easy to convert the older people as the
children."
Sometimes Oberlin's student teachers even
invaded the slave states direct from the fount of abolitionism. In
the late fifties several taught in Madison, Rockcastle, and Estell
counties in Kentucky "in the midst of a slaveholding community,"
never hesitating however to declare:
"I am an abolitionist,
And glory in the name."
At the public exercises at these schools
the pupils showed how thoroughly they had been converted by their
teachers, "The compositions and orations were full and free in
expressing the compassion of the pupils for the slave, and their
condemnation of oppression," On one occasion one "young gentleman
pronounced with great power a thrilling poem entitled The Suicide,
representing a fugitive, torn and bleeding, plunging into a river
at the approach of dogs and men pursuing." One of the schoolhouses
was burned down, but the work continued elsewhere. After the
slaves were freed the Oberlinites were equally enthusiastic
advocates of civil rights and political suffrage for the
Negro.
Oberlin students and graduates also carried
with them wherever they went a better understanding of the
importance of physical exercise, a love of music and, often, the
ability to lead singing or to play an instrument, an appreciation
of the mental and moral capacities of woman, and a belief in
training for practical life, the influence of which in the Middle
West it is entirely impossible to gauge or even
estimate.
Sending out its ministers and "pious school
teachers," a "band of self-denying, hardy, intelligent, efficient
laborers, of both sexes," to save souls, to promote "every
judicious and enlightened reform," and especially to work "for the
annihilation of the chattell principle as applied to man," Oberlin
had realized much of Shipherd's grand dream of 1832 and
'33.
BOOK
THREE
The Struggle for
Existence
" . . .76 cents in the vaults."
Oberlin Collegiate
Institute's
Treasurer's Day Book,
June 27, 1849
CHAPTER
XXVIII
"THE DEVIL AND THE
WORLD"
"The Devil, the world & carnal
professors are determined that Obn shall not rise."
J. J. SHIPHEPD, April 14, 1834.
"I hope you will keep things regular. Rely
upon it all your errors will fly the land through .... Oberlin is
a spectacle. Not a few are waiting and watching."
JOHN KEEP TO MAHAN, FINNEY,
MORGAN AND COWLES, JUly 1,
1836.
IN THE first ten years of its history
Oberlin was tried in the fires of adversity. In this period it not
only repeatedly faced financial bankruptcy but was forced to cope
with the jealous rivalry of Western Reserve College, charges of
fundamental religious heresy, violent dissension in the faculty,
the opposition of the powerful National Education Society, a
general assault on the character of the institution by an able
though unprincipled student, attacks from members of the state
legislature, and two nauseous scandals.
When Oberlin was founded the Western
Reserve College, established at Hudson in 1826 by the
Plan-of-Union Presbyterians of the Reserve, was just struggling
into active existence. As late as 1829 there were only six
students in its collegiate department. In 1834 it listed 87
students altogether. It was still as much in need of funds as of
students. Naturally, therefore, there were many among its friends
and leaders who viewed the appearance of the Oberlin Collegiate
Institute with considerable alarm. The Ohio Observer, published at
Hudson and essentially an organ of the college, was frankly
critical of Shipherd and his scheme. There was no need and no
room, they held, for another institution in Ohio--"A State which
has already five or six half-starved Colleges, one of which,
founded by the charities of the benevolent, is within forty miles
of Oberlin, and is yet very inadequately sustained by funds and
students." Nor did the correspondents and editors of this paper
hesitate to reflect upon the competence and honesty of the
founders of Oberlin. The seeds of a not too friendly rivalry were
thus early sown.
Shipherd always insisted that he did not
intend that Oberlin should compete with the school at Hudson. The
field of Christian education in the New West was large enough for
all, he declared. Some people took him at his word and gave their
friendly support to both schools. Judge Henry Brown, the first
president of the Oberlin Board of Trustees, had been one of the
founders of the college at Hudson and continued to be one of its
most influential trustees. It was supposed by Brown and by others
like the Rev. Henry Cowles of Austinburg that the young men from
Oberlin would go to Hudson for their theological, and perhaps for
their collegiate, training-- When the Theological Course was
established at Oberlin in 1835 the break was completed. Judge
Brown resigned from the Oberlin Board of Trustees; Henry Cowles
turned his back on Hudson, much to the disappointment of the Ohio
Observer and joined the Oberlin faculty.
The theological department at Hudson was
still a paper scheme, but when it was known that Finney had been
appointed to the professorship of Theology at Oberlin, the western
Reserve authorities got busy and invited him to Hudson. The
trustees of that college elected him "Professor of Pastoral
Theology and Learned Eloquence." As late as March of 1835 John
Keep, the new head of the Oberlin Board of Trustees, expressed the
wish that Finney, Morgan and the Lane Rebels might go to Hudson
instead of to Oberlin. Henry Cowles begged Shipherd to "forego the
organization of a theological department at Oberlin--at least for
the present--and let it go to Hudson." He very much feared that
"jealousies and heartburnings and the heresy hunting spirit" would
characterize the relations of two theological institutions so near
to each other. Fifty-three clergymen of the Western Reserve area
signed a petition urging Finney to go to Hudson. But Arthur Tappan
said No. "I sincerely hope," Tappan wrote to Shipherd in May, "he
[Finney] will not listen a moment to any such proposition,
for nothing short of a thorough change in the men who govern that
Institution [Western Reserve College] .... would insure to
the friends of liberal sentiments the glorious results now
confidently anticipated from Oberlin."
Western Reserve suffered severely from the
competition of Oberlin, there is no doubt. As we have seen,
several of the more liberal students left and went to Oberlin.
While Oberlin's enrollment tripled from 1834 to 1835; the
enrollment at Hudson increased only from 87 to 107. By 1841,
Oberlin's student body passed the five hundred mark; Western
Reserve had 140. In 1852 Oberlin enrolled over a thousand;
Reserve's enrollment had declined to 23 exclusive of the medical
studentsl There were no junior and senior classes. The theological
department had ceased to exist. In the late fifties and sixties
when Oberlin's student body usually considerably exceeded a
thousand, the number of students at Reserve averaged about a
hundred. Relations were much more friendly in the fifties and
later. In 1858 President Hitchcock of Western Reserve delivered
the Commencement Address to the Oberlin literary societies. In
1859 Ex-President Pierce attended the Oberlin Commencement and
commented very favorably on it, even commending coeducation. From
the comparison of statistics given it is evident that rivalry from
Hudson was not much to be feared in the later period, anyway. But
in the thirties and early forties it was a more serious
matter.
In these years Oberlin's peculiarities,
mistakes, and misfortunes (and they were many) were eagerly seized
upon by the partisans of Western Reserve as ammunition for their
unrelenting attacks. When Oberlin was charged with maintaining
heretical theological doctrines, Reserve became particularly
anxious to maintain the purity of the orthodox Christian faith.
When a member of the Oberlin faculty was dismissed, the Ohio
Observer published his parting thrusts in extenso. When the
American Education Society declared its intention to cease giving
financial aid to students at Oberlin because of the lack of
emphasis on Greek and Latin, friends of Oberlin pointed out that
the western representative of the society was a professor at
Hudson. Oberlin, on its part, claimed a monopoly of the reform
spirit in the Northwest and denounced Western Reserve College as
the seat of reaction and ally of the slaveholder.
Most Christians in the North looked upon
Oberlin's doctrine of "Sanctification" or "Perfectionism," justly
or unjustly, as a most dangerous and unchristian heresy. Probably
more ministers were turned against Oberlin because of her stand on
this matter than for any other reason. Synods passed resolutions
excluding Oberlin ministers from their pulpits and denying
ordination to Oberlin graduates because of it. Donors ceased their
contributions in horror of it. Prof. Henry Cowles' father wrote to
him: "Before the publication of the Evangelist my feelings were
pretty strongly enlisted in favor of Oberlin but since reading the
publications of Mahan and Phinney [sic] my views and
expectations are much changed." In 1843 a member of the Oberlin
Board of Trustees resigned for fear his parishioners and
associates might think him an "Oberlin Perfectionist." The Ohio
Observer (also published as the Cleveland Observer) filled many
columns with editorials and correspondence denouncing the Oberlin
heresy.
Professor John P. Cowles greatly injured
the Oberlin name by his attacks. He seems to have been a real
scholar and man of determined character, as set in his views as
was Mahan. Unfortunately for Oberlin his views did not agree with
those of his colleagues. He was a champion of the classics; he
considered dietetic reforms silly; he opposed "joint education of
the sexes, and he publicly attacked "Sanctification" and its
authors. As he, himself, later wrote, he was "at all times a
leading opposer to the wild schemes and notions that were
constantly springing up in Oberlin." President Mahan was never the
man to bide with open opposition, and, as early as 1837, we find
him writing to Finney of Professor John Cowles' unchristian
conduct and begging Finney to use his good offices to bring Cowles
to reason. There is little doubt that Cowles was tactless in his
assaults upon Mahan and Finney and their doctrines from the very
Oberlin pulpit. There is little doubt, on the other hand, that
Mahan and his associates were impatient of criticism. In June of
1839 Finney wrote the recalcitrant professor a letter in which he
reproached him with having "disappointed & pained some of your
best friends." In October the trustees resolved "that the
connexion of Prof. John P. Cowles with this Institution under
present circumstances is undesirable." In the spring of 1840 he
opened a "School for Young Men" at Elyria.
But John P. Cowles was not the man to
retreat without firing a shot; he fired a whole broadside--a
broadside of sixteen letters attacking Oberlin, which were
published in the Observer from November 6, 1839, to April 1, 1840.
Here was something choice for Oberlin's enemies; so great was the
demand for the issue containing the first letter that the copies
printed were soon exhausted and an advertisement was inserted
early in December offering to buy back a limited
number.
Cowles declared that the combining of men
and women in the same classes was forced on the young ladies
against their expressed will. Much of the teaching, he said, was
unscholarly and the trustees were, for the most part, wholly
incompetent. He insisted that his dismissal was due to his support
of the classics, his bringing pepper to the commons table, his
opposition to "joint education" and his public criticism of the
doctrine of Sanctification. About half of his letters were taken
up with denunciation of the peculiar Oberlin theological doctrine.
Freedom of discussion in Oberlin, said the dismissed professor,
was dead. Mahan was a tyrant and sometimes overruled important
decisions of the faculty. Finney was equally assertive and
unwilling to listen to criticism. "You have so thoroughly
persuaded yourselves that Oberlin is God, and God is Oberlin," he
chided them, "that you will doubtless think me an heir to the
bottomless pit because I have withstood the 'Deity in
you.'"
To many loyal supporters of Oberlin it
seemed that Cowles had been tempted of the Devil and had fallen
from Grace. He was "devoid of all Christian feeling," they felt,
and "almost beside himself." "But what shall we think of the
conduct of J. P. Cowles?" wrote James A. Thome to Levi Burnell. "I
tremble for him 'lest haply he be found fighting against God.' . .
. May the Lord bear with him & yet bring him to repentance."
But Oberlin's enemies undoubtedly believed it all, the uninformed
and disinterested, much of it. Even the conscientious historian of
the twentieth century must accept the general truthfulness of
these letters and recognize their value as historical source. At
the time, such attacks, coming from a former member of the Oberlin
faculty, a graduate of Yale and a man with an enviable reputation
as a Christian and a scholar, dealt a terrific body blow to the
already tottering Oberlin reputation.
At about the same time an attack came from
another quarter. As part of the campaign to educate ministers, for
the West especially, the American Education Society was founded in
1815. The society collected funds from benevolent Christians all
over the land and dispensed them to "hopefully pious" and
deserving students in the various colleges. Oberlin and the
society clashed from the very beginning. In 1834 and 1835 it was
hoped that Oberlin students could support themselves under the
manual labor system, and it was feared that grants from the
American Education Society would tend to make the recipients
unwilling to work and thus undermine that system. In March of 1835
the faculty voted unanimously against "recommending able bodied
young men to the Education Society for the purpose of securing aid
from them." Two months later the trustees ordered an investigation
of the rumor that two Oberlin students were receiving such aid. By
1836, however, they were called upon to reverse themselves, when
it became sufficiently patent that most "indigent students" would
be unable to pay their way entirely by manual labor and school
teaching. Early in that year, therefore, the trustees declared
themselves "willing that Students in our Institution should enjoy
the patronage of that [American Education] Society with
the advice and at the discretio of the Faculty." In the autumn
they went further and declared their readiness to "recommend to
the patronage of the American Education Society, those Students .
. . whose circumstances and character shall seem in the judgment
of the Faculty to entitle them to such aid." Thus completely had
the leaders at Oberlin changed front.
Now it was the turn of the Western Reserve
Education Society (the local branch of the national society,
controlled largely by Western Reserve College men) to demur. They
charged that Oberlin did not give wholehearted support to the
raising of funds for scholarship aid, nor even formal lip service.
The impression created by Oberlin Catalogues and Oberlin agents
that students there could support themselves without outside
assistance, they said, hindered the efforts of others to raise
funds for student aid. To meet this rather just criticism
Professor Morgan issued a statement in behalf of the Oberlin
faculty in April of 1837 disabusing young men of "the impression
that, without any other resource than the daily labor of three
hours, they can fully support themselves and will have no need of
the assistance of friends or of any society." Though the Observer
felt that the language employed was "not so frank, full and direct
as was desirable," it was accepted as sufficient by the officers
of the society, and several Oberlin students received aid from
that organization during the next two years.
Early in 1837 a Committee of Inquiry was
appointed by the Central Branch of the American Education Society
to investigate the course of study at Oberlin and determine
whether they were justified in continuing to give aid to young men
preparing for the ministry there. Of course, Oberlin's scanty
course of classical studies drew critical attention. Oberlinites
replied that the additional work in Hebrew and in the Greek of the
New Testament counterbalanced the deficiency in Latin and profane
Greek. But the New England clergymen who controlled the policies
of the society were stern defenders of thorough classical
training; and at a meeting of the governing board of the American
Education Society, on December 25, 1838, it was
RESOLVED, That the deficiencies in
the classical and theological training of students at the
Oberlin Institute, are such, that the Board judge it
inconsistent with the rules of this Society, to render further
aid to students pursuing study at that Institution.
Oberlinites claimed that they had not been
given a fair trial, that Oberlin leaders had not been allowed to
testify in defence of their curriculum, that only Oberlin's
enemies had been heard. Oberlin had become the victim, they said,
of intolerable injustice, of prejudice, and of the rivalry of
Western Reserve College. An Oberlin Education Society was
immediately formed and appeals made for money and supplies for the
Oberlin students thus cut off from outside aid. The next catalogue
contained a comparison of the curriculum of Oberlin with that of
Yale which purposed to show that the course at Oberlin was equal
in every way to that of the New Haven college except for the
shorter readings in Latin and classical Greek. But Oberlin's
reputation had, of course, been lowered another notch in the view
of conservative intellectuals everywhere and of New Englanders in
particular.
The Lane Seminary authorities, naturally,
did not look upon Oberlin with any greater enthusiasm than did
those of Western Reserve College. Lyman Beecher, speaking before
students at Miami University in the autumn of 1835, assailed the
"extensive, wholesale, intellectual manufactory" containing "all
the departments of instruction, male and female, from the infant
school till the topstone is laid of the university." The Oberlin
Institute was, of course, the only notable example of such a
school. In 1843 Lane Seminary joined with Western Reserve College,
Marietta, Wabash and Illinois College to divert eastern funds away
from Oberlin. They formed the Society for the Promotion of
Collegiate and Theological Education at the West to unify and
control the raising of funds for Yankee, "Presbygational"
educational institutions in the Mississippi Valley. It was
specifically announced that none of the funds raised would go to
unorthodox, radical, experimental institutions which sponsored
dangerous social "ultraisms."
In 1837 a dismissed Oberlin student had
published an eighty-two page assault on Oberlin which is scarcely
matched for bitterness and scandalous libel in the controversial
literature of the period. Delazon Smith's History of Oberlin, or
New Lights of the West, published at Cleveland and more commonly
known by its cover title, Oberlin Unmasked, was a juicy bit for
the special enemies of Oberlin, the scandal mongers, and the
critics of the church and of the Christian colleges generally.
Smith depicted the Oberlin students, faculty and townsmen as
Negro-worshippers and advocates of miscegenation. The system of
dietetics he described as little short of insanity and resulting
in injnry to health and even in death. The faculty, he said, were
tyrannical ranters, absolutely intolerant of differences of
opinion. The financial management was dishonest and inefficient.
Joint education of the sexes, he described, with some erotic
detail, as an immoral system which led in practice in Oberlin to
decidedly immoral relations between the students of opposite sex.
He called upon the "Citizens of the Republic" to denounce these
"blood-suckers" and "desperadoes" and "lash them naked through her
dominions."
Delazon Smith came to Oberlin from
Conewango, N. Y. in 1834 or 1835. He was born at New Berlin,
Chenango County, N.Y., on October 5, 1816. When he was about
fifteen he went to Conewango as a tailor's apprentice. There, he
is said to have become "profligate" and associated "with the more
immoral part of the community." When, however, a revival took
place in the community and a "large number of the youth were
hopefully converted," young Smith "manifested a hope in believing
and was admitted a member of [the] church."
He decided to enter the ministry and
shortly afterward went to the Oberlin Institute to prepare. In the
thirties the "free thinkers" in America were aggressive and well
organized. They sponsored a number of periodicals through which
they conducted a violent attack upon "priest-craft," the Bible and
"superstition" in general. One of the most important of these
journals was the Boston Investigator, edited by Abner Kneeland,
which was to be found in the reading room of the Oberlin Society
of Inquiry in 1836. In May of that year the faculty "advised" the
society to drop it. In 1836 also "Dr." Samuel Underhill
established his Cleveland Liberalist in which he strove to
counteract "the doctrine of mystery, miracle, fire and brimstone"
with "rationality, truth, evidence, reason and common sense."
"Friends of truth, liberality and just-privileges" in Cleveland
and vicinity listened enthusiastically to his lectures in "Italian
Hall."
Several Oberlin students joined the
anti-religious brotherhood! William Sheffield, David L. Parker,
Alexander H. Thompson, Richard H. Thompson and Delazon Smith were
among the number. In November of 1836 Smith announced to the
Oberlin church, of which he had become a member upon entering the
Institute, his total disavowal of the Christian religion. We are
not surprised to hear that "this announcement drew down upon
[his] head the frowns and anathemas" of the "brethren."
The Oberlin Fathers were not likely long to tolerate what they
considered atheism in their midst. Parker and R. H. Thompson were
dismissed by the faculty on the 29th of October, 1836. Asahel
Munger, a colonist and later a missionary in Oregon, brought
charges against Smith before the church in February. A committee
headed by Professor Morgan, being appointed to confer with him,
reported that "said Delazon Smith distinctly stated that he does
not believe in the divine origin of the Bible or in the efficacy
of prayer." On March 3, 1837, he was excommunicated by a unanimous
vote. He was likewise expelled from the literary societies of
which he was a member. He continued to stay in town, and in June
certain Oberlinites brought charges against him which resulted in
his being arrested and conveyed to the county jail at Elyria,
where, however, he was released and the arrest declared illegal.
He wisely did not return but went on to Cleveland, where Dr.
Underhill received him with open arms. William Sheffield was
expelled from the Institute early in July for "irreverent and
blasphemous expressions with regard to the deity," and, a week
later, excommunicated from the church for "open and avowed"
infidelity. No official action seems to have been taken against A.
H. Thompson, but his name disappears from the lists of students at
about the same time. Aggressive "free-thinking" was thus rooted
out of Oberlin.
But at least two of these men struck back
at their "persecutors." Three years later Parker was furnishing
information to those members of the Ohio State legislature who
were working for the revocation of the Oberlin Institute charter.
When Smith was so unceremoniously ushered out of Oberlin he
carried with him the manuscript of his reply, "Oberlin Unmasked,"
which he had already announced for publication through the columns
of the Liberalist. In the middle of August, Smith and Underhill
had two thousand copies of this pamphlet ready for distribution at
37 1/2 cents a copy or three dollars a dozen. "It must prove a
cure for wild fanaticism ...." the public was told. "It will strip
the masks from the Rev. hypocrites, and expose them to the lash of
public opinion . . . Mariah Monk will be supplanted by a
reality."
Smith dealt in detail with the war on the
Classics, the manual labor system, the Graham system, the system
of joint education ("Connexion of male and female departments"),
revivalism and immorality in the church, abolitionism and
intolerance. His case was considerably strengthened by a letter
written by N. P. Fletcher, a former trustee of the Institute,
which he was able to quote in toto, a letter which charged certain
responsible officers with incompetence and dishonestv. Of course,
such a spicy pamphlet would be sure to have a wide circulation. In
many a town dog-eared copies were passed on with cynical chuckling
from hand to hand, and those who read related the gist of it
(perhaps slightly elaborated) to their friends at the corner
store. Probably as many people in the late thirties and early
forties knew Oberlin through Delazon Smith's pamphlet as knew it
through the Evangelist. The editor of the Ashtabula Sentinel read
it and concluded therefore that Oberlin "should be discountenanced
and frowned upon by every virtuous citizen and lover of decency
and good order." The Boston Investigator accepted it as "another
proof that the geatest seeming piety is no guarantee whatever
against the greatest scenes of depravity." When a certain Mr.
Blackney was on his way to bring his family to Oberlin to give
them an education, a chance acquaintance at Albany who had read
Oberlin Unmasked, told him "with a solemn countenance" that he was
"surprised that [he] should dare to take [his]
Daughters to Oberlin," where, he said, "white and Black Persons
walk[ed] arm in arm in the Public Streets" and
amalgamation was supported on principle. Oberlin Unmasked was the
chief source of information of those members of the Ohio
legislature who sought repeatedly to repeal the Oberlin charter.
It is doubtful whether, without it, these attempts would ever have
been made.
Though the later career of Delazon Smith is
irrelevant to the story of Oberlin it has too much intrinsic
interest to be left out entirely. As so often is the case, the
disgraced student turns out to have an outstandingly successful
career. Smith studied law in Cleveland for a year and then in 1838
went to Rochester, N.Y., where he edited the New York Watchman a
"liberal paper" intended to "protect the country vs the blasting
power of Priestcraft, Superstition and Error." He later edited
other papers at Rochester and at Dayton, Ohio. In the early
forties he served as special United States Commissioner to
Ecuador, showing that he had gained some political influence. In
1846 he moved to Iowa where he continued to engage in politics.
There he was converted again and devoted part of his time to the
Methodist ministry!
He built up a reputation for "transcendent
oratorical powers" and was remembered many years after his
departure for Oregon as the "smartest man Oberlin College
produced!" It was in 1852 that he joined a caravan bound up the
Oregon Trail. In Oregon he edited a paper (the Oregon Democrat)
for a while. He was elected a member of the legislature and of the
constitutional convention of 1857. When Oregon was admitted as a
state two years later Joseph Lane and Delazon Smith were elected
to the United States Senate. Smith drew the short term and served
less than a month. He died in the autumn of 1860. The Oberlin
Evangelist commented on his death: "It is a somewhat painful
comment on the distribution of public honors and trusts, that of
more than ten thousand students who have been in attendance here,
the least worthy has attained the highest distinction. Our
experience in this regard may be singular, but this instance does
not stand alone."
* * *
The state of public opinion with regard to
abolitionism being what it was during the thirties and forties it
was to be expected that attempts would be made to silence the
abolitionists at Oberlin as those at Western Reserve, at Lane
Seminary and elsewhere had been silenced. Ohio legislators got the
hint from a statement published in the Western Monthly Magazine at
Cincinnati in 1836: "The Abolitionists have had under their
control, the Oneida Institute in New York, the Oberlin Institute
in Ohio, and the Lane Seminary in Ohio. The latter institution was
reformed by the good sense of its trustees; the legislature of New
York have taken measures to purify the Oneida Institute from this
foul abomination, and it is believed that there now remains but
one school in which murder and robbery are openly inculcated as
christian virtues."
The Democrats were glad to accept the
challenge, for Oberlin was the symbol of all that they abhorred.
The Whigs often defended it but not always with too much
enthusiasm. In the period from 1837 to 1843 several bills
favorable to Oberlin were defeated and four unsuccessful attempts
were made to repeal the charter of the Institute, all because of
Oberlin's social radicalism.
There was no debate on the granting of the
charter to the Oberlin Institute in 1834, because the community
and institution had not yet been converted to abolitionism. But by
1837 the work of Weld, Mahan, and the Lane Rebels had been so
thoroughly done that Oberlin was notorious as a "hot bed of
abolitionism." Because of this reputation a revision of the
charter allowing an increase in the number of trustees from twelve
to eighteen was voted down in January of 1837. When, a month
later, a bill was introduced for the incorporation of the
Sheffield Manual Labor Institute (one of the Oberlin branch
schools), the legislators consented to its enactment only after an
amendment had been added excluding colored students from the
school. At about the same time an incorporation of the town was
denied, as one of the senators declared, "because the name was
"Oberlin," and that you are considered especially friendly to the
blacks." Three times in the early forties, for similar reasons,
the legislature refused to incorporate Oberlin literary societies.
Some legislators suspected that they were disguised abolition
societies. One declared that he "did not want the statute book
disgraced with the name of Oberlin. He did not like the knowledge
that emanated from that institution. It sent out scholars, who, as
school teachers, instilled their abolition doctrines into the
minds of our children .... They (the students) go about preaching
moral reform, and get together congregations, where they compel
virtuous women to hear disclosures of the licentious and
corrupting practices of eastern cities."
The first attempt to repeal the charter was
made in 1840. Evidence of Oberlin's abolition character was
furnished by D. L. Parker, one of Delazon Smith's associates, and
by other local enemies. A proposal was even considered calling for
a legislative investigation by a joint committee of the Senate and
the House. The proposition was defeated, however, and the repeal
bill postponed. Later in the year, charges were brought forward
that the Oberlin agents in England (see the next chapter) had been
raising large amounts of money to aid escaping fugitives passing
through Oberlin on their way to Canada, and thus the prevailing
Anglophia was joined to the pro-slavery bias to make Oberlin an
object of detestation. The first Oberlin slave rescue, which took
place in the spring of 1841, further strengthened the opposition.
In March a second bill for the repeal of the Institute's charter
was introduced but was indefinitely postponed by a Whig
vote.
Early in 1842 another effort was made
following the receipt of two petitions for repeal signed by four
hundred citizens of Richland County. The Democratic members of the
legislature accepted the cue gratefully and supported another
measure for the repeal of the charter of the Institute, which they
described as "dangerous to liberty, law and morality, an
excrescence upon the body politic." The measure was killed by
postponement.
The fourth and last attempt at repeal of
the charter (1842-43) came the nearest to success. A test vote in
the Senate to lay the measure on the table was carried by a
majority of one only. Delazon Smith's pamphlet, Oberlin Unmasked,
was extensively used to strengthen the Democratic charges and
testimonials were introduced in favor of the author's good
character and integrity. The Democrats also resorted to the usual
vituperation, calling Oberlin "a foul stench in their nostrils,"
and "banditti ..., and negro stealers supported by enemies of the
country abroad, and emissaries at home."
The abolitionism of the institution did
not, of course, constitute legal ground for the repeal of the
charter. Probably the Democrats never expected to succeed. But
they had very definite political ends in view: (1) The persecution
would be popular with the great body of anti-abolitionist voters,
and (2) the Whigs would be forced to take a stand for or against
Oberlin--if they voted for, they could be dubbed "abolitionists"
by the Democrats, if against, they were likely to lose more
supporters to the Liberty Party. These political attacks probably
did not do Oberlin a great deal of harm, but they show the extent
and character of the popular feeling against the
institution.
Extremely harmful, however, to Oberlin were
the repercussions from a bizarre incident which took place in
1840. A certain Horace Norton from Ripley, Ohio, a "prep" in his
teens, wrote several "obscene letters" to a certain young lady
student. The recipient turned the notes over to Alice Welch
Cowles, the Female Principal, who gave them to her husband,
Professor Henry Cowles, who, in turn, gave them to Timothy B.
Hudson, then Professor of Latin and Greek. Later letters were
intercepted at the post office by H. C. Taylor, a theological
student who was acting postmaster at the time. Finally, in one
note, Norton proposed to the girl a clandestine meeting in the
woods outside the village. Taylor and several associates arranged
that an acceptance in a feminine hand should be returned to the
luckless Romeo. At the appointed hour, Norton arrived at the
rendezvous to find, not an amorous young lady, but about fifteen
wrathful male students, including several from the Theological
Department (Taylor among them), headed by Professor Hudson. For a
while they "labored with" him in an effort to bring him to
repentance. Failing in this, after a short session of prayer, they
bared his back, laid him on a log and gave him twenty-five lashes!
"The whole operation was most fearfully romantic from beginning to
end," wrote a tutor the next morning.
The victim hastened to Wellington, from
which point he went home to tell his story to a sympathetic and
indignant father. At its next meeting the faculty expelled him for
immoral conduct and ordered that his father be notified of their
action. The father replied by denouncing the "conspiracy of a most
nefarious kind formed against a boy--a friendless youth of 18, by
a band of ruffians" and by declaring his intention of "bringing
the authors . . . of this wicked and literally bloody conspiracy
to the bar of human justice--and for the verdict of public
opinion." Both of these threats he carried out. Hudson and four
theological students confessed publicly before the church to
having participated in the affair. Norton sued them for damages,
and the trial which followed at Elyria "caused more excitement and
agitation than any one which has ever before taken place in Lorain
[County]." Many persons from Oberlin, including Finney,
himself, were subpoenaed as witnesses. The Nortons won a judgment
of $1,500.00, but the case was appealed and the damages reduced to
$550.00 by the Supreme Court of Ohio. In a criminal process in
which the Oberlinites were charged with "Assault and Battery with
clubs, rawhides, teeth, nails, fists, feet & ropes," all were
found guilty and fined from fifty to a hundred dollars apiece. "We
have never before heard such strange details," wrote the editor of
an Elyria paper, "such cold-blooded atrocity, and such shocking
impiety drawn out upon any other trial." As to the "verdict of
public opinion," the story of the "Oberlin Lynching," in one or
other of its many versions, was soon known in every American city
and hamlet.
Opinion in Oberlin was sharply divided on
the matter. Some of the "lynchers" were locally prominent; four
were students in the Theological Course, two of these were also
teachers in the Preparatory Department, and Hudson was a popular
member of the faculty. One of the literary societies seized the
opportunity to debate the question, "Is Lynch law ever
justifiable?" The faculty postponed action from meeting to
meeting. On September 18, they debated all the afternoon and until
nine o'clock in the evening as to whether it was "ever justifiable
for individuals, unauthorized by law, to take it upon themselves
to inflict punishment." When a vote was taken five out of twelve
cast their lot with the affirmative and on the side of the
"lynchers": President Mahan, Professors Hudson and Cowles and
Tutors James H. Fairchild and C. A. Jenison. Finney, Morgan and
Dascomb were among the seven who voted in the negative. After the
five students had confessed, a resolution was introduced "to
ascertain the names of other individuals engaged in the Norton
affair." It was passed once but reconsidered and lost. Finally,
some two months and a half after the incident, an official
statement was approved and published recognizing "that the
chastisement of Norton was, under the circumstances,
unjustifiable," but adding, that, while the faculty regarded his
conduct "as the most deliberate & flagrant wickedness" that of
the "lynchers" was only a "mistake." There is no evidence that the
men involved were punished in any way by the faculty or trustees.
There were some in Oberlin quite evidently who looked upon them as
heroes.
Gossips and enemies of Oberlin picked up
the story with avidity, and passed it on with the usual
elaborations. Threats of "counter-ynching" were not wanting. "We
have much trial with the most unhappy Norton affair," Shipherd
wrote to his brother. "Gog & Magog threaten to reduce Ob" to
ashes soon. Secret meetings are held in adjacent towns for its
accomplishment. But the Lord is on our side. What can man do to
us?"
Friends of Oberlin were greatly troubled
both by the facts of the case and by the "hesitancy and
heartlessness" of the faculty in their disavowal. Gerrit Smith,
the philanthropist and reformer of Peterboro, N.Y. who had
recently given twenty thousand acres of land to Oberlin, wrote to
Finney in January of 1841:
"What is the truth about the Oberlin
Lynching Story? Could I have a brief version of the story from the
pen of Brother Mahan or yourself. I should then know just what to
say when I hear, that even the Faculty of Oberlin have turned
mobocrats ....
"It appears to me, that the public mind
should without delay be disabused of its false impressions in
respect to this unpleasant matter. Until it is, Oberlin will
suffer in the esteem of many, who are wise and good . . . All
should be done, which can be done within the limits of
righteousness, & done very speedily too, to show that Oberlin
not only does not countenance the practice of deception & the
laying of traps & the perpetuation of mob violence, but that
she has not the least patience with such crimes."
When another friend went to the house of an
acquaintance to persuade him to subscribe to the Oberlin
Evangelist, he was informed that his acquaintance did not care to
take a paper that came from the place "where the man was
whipd."
Sixteen years after the affair took place,
the story, in barely recognizable form, was retold by a Kentuckian
in a book entitled Abolition Unveiled. In this version Horace
Norton had become Tom Shaw and his young lady correspondent had
developed into a Negro girl called Susa Bean. The student lynchers
had become "several of the Professors," who now appeared as
defenders of the purity of "a very charming colored young lady"
from "the wiles of the depraved and wicked" whites. While one of
the "professors" lays "on the rod with mathemathetical precision"
another prays for Tom Shaw's soul. The victim is made to exclaim:
"Away with such cruel treachery. Tell me no more about human
perfection--the equality of races--the elysium you intended to
make Oberlin: if it's not a hell on earth, I am mistaken." Forty
years afterward, the student paper at Cornell University printed
another garbled version!
Following close upon the heels of this
scandal came another, an even more unfortunate affair. Horace
Taylor was one of the confessed lynchers. In 1836 he came to
Oberlin from Western Reserve College where he had been the leader
among the students in anti-slavery and moral reform and the
valedictorian of his class. At the time of the whipping he was a
theological student and a few weeks later he graduated, delivering
a commencement oration on the "Validity of Civil GovernmentI" Soon
after, he was appointed a member of the Prudential Committee and
became editor of the Oberlin Evangelist, in the columns of which
journal he continued enthusiastically to further the cause of
reform in sexual morals. Later he was elected to the Board of
Trustees. Suddenly, in December of 1843, the Evangelist shocked
its readers by the announcement that the late editor had confessed
to and "is proved guilty of the following crimes:
1. Of purloining money during the past two
years, from the Ev. office, and of embezzling funds sent by mail
from subscribers.
2. Of pilfering, for more than a year past,
from the money drawer of the Post Office, to which he has had
access.
3. Of seduction, under aggravated
circumstances. Subsequent to the death of his wife, some eighteen
months since, he took into his family a young woman of unblemished
character, to manage his concerns. This woman he seduced. To
prevent detection, he advised, and concerted with success, the
requisite measures to secure abortion.
The heavens were falling!
No crueler blow was ever struck against
Oberlin. Taylor, editor of the Oberlin Evangelist--organ of
perfectionism, "acknowledged Leader of Moral Reform efforts at the
West," "perhaps more than any one else in the North of Ohio Leader
of the Liberty Party," Oberlin trustee, member of the Prudential
Committee, acting postmaster at Oberlin;--this man was a thief, an
adulterer, and a dastardly hypocrite! Finney, who was then in
Boston, received a letter from his younger daughter:
My dear Father,--I will write a few lines,
dear father . . . Mr. [Taylor] is a thief! . . . We
suppose him one of the most wicked men in [Oberlin]. Oh! I
would not be a wicked thief like him . . . I feel very sad, dear
father . . . What shall I do? Your own dear friend is a villain! I
feel as if I should cry every minute .... Oh, father, I hope you
will not be such a thief!
Taylor was immediately excommunicated from
the church and, soon after, his name was stricken from the rolls
of the Lorain County Association. On February 15, 1844, he was
sentenced to one year in the county jail, and two hundred and
seventy-five dollars fine. (This was his second sentence in two
years!) January 18 was set aside by the Oberlin church as a
special day of fasting, prayer and humiliation. At the next
regular meeting of the trustees Taylor's resignation was received
and accepted.
Oberlin's friends abroad were equally cast
down. Sherlock Bristol, then acting as financial agent, wrote to
Secretary Hamilton Hill from Rochester:
"I have today recd your last, dated on the
8th inst., containing the mournful, distressing, disheartening
intelligence of the fall of our bro. Taylor. Oh! My brother! My
heart is overwhelmed with an ocean of sorrow; Sorrows of my own,
& sorrows I feel in sympathy with my brethren who love the
cause of holiness, and the readers of the Evangelist scattered
over the land. As if a mountain fell--& drew my soul into the
deepest depths of sorrow, & bound it there. I feel the
dreadful stroke . . . Bro. Taylor! dishonest.' nay, a thief:
purloining in Oberlin! purloining from the money of the Lord! My
heart throbs & swells in rebellion against the sacrilege,
& I cry out It cannot, it cannot be. The Editor of the
Evangelist.' The preacher of the doctrine of Entire
Sanctification, & of the way in which it is to be attained,
living among the precious revivals of Oberlin, beneath the very
wings of the Cherubim, perpetrate this deed--not under the
influence of poison .... but deliberately--in cool calculation,
reenacting the deed from day to day! Oh! bro. Taylor, Son of the
Morning! how art thou fallen from heaven! How has the gold become
dim & the fine gold cloyedt Bro. Taylor fallen--Would God I
had died for him! I speak it deliberately. Would God the midnight
assassin, had taken my life, than that thou hadst fallen! Rather
would I have heard, that my wife and dear little son had been laid
side by side in the grave, than that that deed had been done. For
then had they rested in peace--& the cause of holiness had
moved on! But now, how shall the lips of slanderers be filled,
& the enemy triumph! . . . I have just read carefully your
letter again, & am the more astonished still. I find that one
word partially obliterated by the seal I entirely misread. It was
the word 'Seduction." I certainly misread it at first. Until this
second or third reading, I did not suppose he was guilty of any
crime but stealing. And is it, can it be true? Tell it not in
Gath. Publish it not in Askelon. Ah! but it will be published in
Askelon & told on the housetops in Gath! & the daughters
of the Philistines will rejoice ...." "Our heads are in the
dust!", wrote Weld. "But God reigns and Hell's gates shall not
prevail." "The dreadful intelligence from Oberlin," Tappan wrote
to Finney, "is very afflictive, but we must not lose any
confidence in God. He is the same now & forever, blessed be
His name."
In the minds of a great proportion of
Americans Oberlin was a name for everything that was dangerous and
vicious. Oberlin was known to most people as the home of racial
amalgamation, unchristian heresy, inadequate scholarship,
wholesale immorality, mob violence, and disgusting hypocrisy.
Oberlin was by many believed to be "a kind of Sewer into which all
the filth and froth gathers of all sorts and colours."
CHAPTER
XXIX
OBERLINIZING
ENGLAND
OBERLIN'S unsavory reputation in many
quarters greatly complicated the financial problem. When one agent
applied to a certain minister for aid for Oberlin, the latter
replied that "he was very glad to hear that the Institution was in
want of funds to carry on their operations. He hoped they always
would be." A year later (in 1837) a correspondent wrote to the
Cleveland Liberalist: " . . . The Oberlin Institute is hard
pushed--and unless they can make a raise they must stop payment,
and the dear youth that are now taking their comfort . . . (poor
souls) will have to go to work and honestly earn their own
victuals." As donations secured by solicitors constituted the only
source of revenue outside of the small payments by students, the
attitude of the public was a very important factor. Fortunately,
Oberlin's strong stand on religious and moral questions produced
firm friends as well as inveterate foes. Oberlin's chief financial
support came from the abolitionists. It would have died an early
death without their aid. The most successful appeals for funds
were made on the ground that money contributed to Oberlin would
help directly in raising the Negro out of the mire of
slavery.
Oberlin depended for financial support in
1835 almost solely on Arthur and Lewis Tappan and their benevolent
friends in New York. The misfortunes of the Tappans were
therefore, likewise, the misfortunes of Oberlin. In the summer of
1835 there was a great outburst of resentment against
abolitionists all over the Union. In Charleston, South Carolina, a
mob seized all anti-slavery propaganda found in the post office
and burned it in the street, together with effigies of Dr. Samuel
H. Cox, William Lloyd Garrison and Arthur Tappan. Mobs broke up
anti-slavery meetings in Utica and in Boston. All sorts of threats
were made against Arthur Tappan. It was said that a purse of
$20,000 had been taken up in New Orleans as a reward for anyone
who should successfully kidnap him and take him south. To protect
him against an attempt to claim this reward the Mayor of New York
spent one whole night pacing up and down in front of the Tappan
residence! "The Lord has hitherto preserved me . . . from the hand
of the assassins .... " Arthur Tappan wrote to Shipherd in
September, "and we begin to feel that the danger is passing over."
"The drafts you speak of as to be drawn will be duly honored if my
life is spared. If I had foreseen the storm that has gathered
around my head I should not have dared to assume the
responsibilities I did for your Institution." Then in December
came a disastrous fire which destroyed some fifty acres of
buildings in the heart of New York City, including the Tappan
store. Much of his goods was rescued by Negroes and other friends,
and the construction of another store was immediately begun. The
loss, however, was very large.
All money received by the Institute in the
great year of 1835 was immediately expended for salaries,
buildings or supplies. The cash balance on February 8, 1836, was
$2.68. Notes totalling ten thousand dollars due in October, 1836,
1837, and 1838, were held against the Institute by Arthur Tappan
as security for his loan of October, 1835. The financial future
was built on hopes--hopes that Tappan would be prosperous and
could be persuaded to cancel these obligations with more
subscriptions, and that other rich men of liberal views, like
Gerrit Smith, would also give large sums. Salaries were to be paid
out of the receipts from the Oberlin Professorship Association.
Payments by the association had already fallen behind in February
of 1836 and the treasurer of the association had paid to the
professors some three hundred dollars more for salaries than he
had collected from the subscribers.
In an effort to put the finances of the
school on a firmer basis several agents went out to secure money
for running expenses and to attempt the collection of $100,000 for
an endowment. Among the number were H. B. Clarke, Henry Cowles,
George Whipple, John Keep and John J. Shipherd, himself. Clarke,
in three months, secured two hundred-dollar subscriptions and
collected $325.00 cash at a cost to the Institute of $150.00.
Professor Cowles undertook three different agencies in the winter
of 1835-36. On a visit to New York and New England in February his
expenses nearly equalled his cash collections. Both Cowles and
Whipple found it next to impossible to get anything in New York
because of the great losses resulting from the fire. Whipple's
mission was almost a total failure.
The situation became increasingly critical
as money became tighter in New York, and Lewis Tappan refused to
make any further payments to the Oberlin Professorship
Association--because, he said, "Finney is not an Abolitionist." In
April, 1836, a new debt of $1500.00 was incurred by the purchase
of some forty thousand mulberry trees for the ill-fated silk
enterprise. To meet the crisis, Shipherd went to New York to
secure a loan or raise further subscriptions. "I pray God to help
me, a worm," he wrote back to Oberlin on his arrival in the
Metropolis, "with a mouth & wisdom which none can gainsay nor
resist, that I may obtain relief for Christ's suffering cause at
Oberlin." He needed divine aid, for the situation in New York
seemed almost hopeless. No loans were to be had for less than 25%
to 30% interest per year. He found Oberlin's New York patrons
scarcely able to "live under their pressure" and absolutely unable
either to give or pledge any large amounts. Payments to the
Professorship Fund were falling behind rapidly. Still he had hope
that Arthur Tappan would again come to the rescue.
Keep arrived in New York early in June and
at the end of the month he had not yet collected enough to pay for
his board. Not only was money exceedingly scarce, but he found
seven or eight agents of other colleges and seminaries also
pestering the much harrassed philanthropists of the city. He did
persuade Tappan to cancel two thousand of the ten thousand dollar
debt and to promise ten thousand more, if the agents of the
Institute could raise a hundred thousand in all before January 1,
1837. Keep recognized that this condition was not likely to be
fulfilled, but concluded that there was nothing to do but try--or
give up the rosy hopes for Oberlin's future. Of course, he tried.
This was, he felt, the last desperate effort. "if these men cannot
be induced to come up to our help & actually give what is
needed to insure success to Oberlin, she must dismiss her many
scholars, & creep along till by the silk operation or in some
other way she can grow bigger."
In this summer of 1836 the students and
teachers at Oberlin were feeling the pinch of poverty as never
before. In June the students were officially informed that they
must pay up their debts and meet future bills promptly if the
Institute was to continue to "conduct its operations upon correct
Christian principles." It was necessary to reduce the food
furnished in the boarding hall to a starvation level. In September
it was down to bread and salt and, finally, from the sheer
inability of the Institute to secure any more supplies, the
management of the commons was turned over to a committee of
students and faculty. Oberlin was precious close to dissolution.
It was in the nick of time that Shipherd, on another mission to
New York in October, secured five thousand dollars from I. M.
Dimond, the Yankee jeweler, Finneyite and subscriber to the
Professorship Association. Three thousand was used to pay pressing
debts and two thousand dollars was sent back to relieve the
situation on the spot. Oberlin was saved again, though it was
found quite impossible to raise the $100,000 endowment and thus
secure the new Tappan gift. "Come then magnify the Lord with me,"
wrote the Founder, "& let us exalt his name together. To Him
let us, joined by our loved associates, consecrate Oberlin anew
& walk softly before him forever, fearing not what men can do
unto us."
It was well that this temporary relief came
when it did, for what had been a tightness of credit in 1836
became the Panic of 1837. The letters of Oberlin's friends and
agents are full of it. Early in April banks in northern Ohio were
refusing to do anything except receive. "I do not know what
farther to say," wrote a "brother" from Maumee on April 11, "the
wheels are all fast." Later in the same month William Dawes found
"panick" in New York. "Over this place there hangs a pall of
mourning--yes--deep depicted mourning. Men who a few months since
could confidently boast of their thousands and hundreds of
thousands, are now pennyless .... Their sin has truly found them
out . . . and those who worshipped Mammon--mourn--mourn that their
God has vanished." "0 tempora; O Mores!" wrote another agent from
up state New York. "A dreadful panic has seized the nation. Order
has become confusion. Tranquility is changed into the wildest
frenzy & the hearts of men are fainting for fear. Paper is
almost worthless. I found myself unable to get a seat in the stage
from Syracuse to Madison altho' I had as current paper money as
the nation affords. The Stage Agent said it would not buy oats for
their horses . . . Many a gentleman has been unable to get a meal
of victuals for want of 'chink' in the city .... Banks have
refused to redeem their Bills. Mobs have been resorted to, to
compel them to do it .... The pressure is immense. Famine stares
thousands & thousands in the face." By summer the banks and
other large business concerns all over the nation had suspended
specie payment. The wheels of industry stopped; trade other than
barter practically ceased. Arthur Tappan made a personal appeal
for help to Nicholas Biddle of the Bank of the United States of
Pennsylvania but, receiving no aid, was also forced to
suspend.
"The sources of financial aid for the
Oberlin enterprise were largely dried up. Tappan could do nothing
for it and keep faith with his creditors. The subscribers to the
professorship fund resolved that the Oberlin Institute "was worthy
of being sustained," regretted their inability to pay in full, and
recommended that subscribers pay twenty percent on their pledges.
Other subscribers likewise defaulted. Joshua Giddings wrote to the
Treasurer early in 1838: "I regret to say that I am wholly unable
to meet my subscription to the Oberlin Institute. The unparalleled
pressure in money matters has put it beyond my power to command
funds to the amount due that Institution. Nor from present
appearances can I give any encouragement that I shall be able to
meet it at least for some time to come." Oberlin's creditors in
the meantime continued to press for payments and threatened to
bring legal action for recovery. "The very utmost that can be done
is to keep in us the breath of life," declared Father
Keep.
There was practically no improvement in the
years immediately following. Gifts of goods of various sorts were
secured, but money was not to be had. There is a pitiful
similarity in the reports of two agents: one writing from the
Western Reserve and one from the city of Rochester. "You can form
no idea of the poverty in the country," wrote the former. "But few
farmers have raised enough for their own consumption .... Under
these circumstances they do not feel called upon to aid." The
agent in Rochester wrote: "You can form but little idea of the
scarcity of money here .... There is but little money to be had
here except the Corporation 'Shinplasters.' I suppose that no time
ever was when it was so difficult to raise money as the present."
By 1839 Oberlin was almost starved out. In July Shipherd wrote to
the Treasurer begging for ten dollars to pay for flour. The
faculty felt impelled to present to the trustees "a frank, full
statement of the character and condition of the Institution."
"During almost two years past," they complained, "our regular
supplies have been cut off and we have received only scanty
remittances."
In desperation Oberlin turned for financial
aid to England. In England a successful campaign had been waged
against the slave trade and slavery in the British Empire and the
victors were ready to invade the foreign field. In 1807 William
Wilberforce, ably assisted by Granville Sharpe and the Quaker
Thomas Clarkson, had secured an Act of Parliament prohibiting the
slave trade. Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton succeeded Wilberforce as the
leader in the battle to emancipate the slaves on the West India
sugar plantations. It was Buxton who founded the anti-slavery
society at London in 1823, the prototype of societies in
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester and other British cities.
Wilberforce and Buxton were supported by a distinguished group of
reformers: Thomas Clarkson, Joseph and Samuel Gurney, the
philanthropic London bankers--the "Tappans" of England, George
Thompson, whose visit to Boston had involved Garrison in so much
trouble, and Joseph and Thomas Sturge, benevolent Quakers. In
1833, the very year of the death of Wilberforce, an act was passed
by Parliament providing for the emancipation of the slaves in the
West Indies on August 1, 1834. Naturally the British reformers
turned their eyes next to the United States, where millions of
black men were still in slavery. The British and Foreign
Anti-Slavery Society founded in London by Joseph Sturge in April,
1839, was especially aimed at foreign (i.e. American)
slavery.
Oberlin had been supported since 1835
almost exclusively by the philanthropic friends of the slave. If
money was no longer to be had in America, how natural to turn to
the friends of human rights in England, especially as many of
them, particularly among the Quakers, were persons of some
property. Englishmen might doubt the propriety of giving money
directly to American anti-slavery societies. Would they not feel
that it was more tactful and less an interference with the
internal affairs of a friendly nation if they were to make their
donations to an abolitionist educational institution like Oberlin
and thus indirectly help the oppressed? As early as 1836 Professor
John P. Cowles had been delegated by the Board of Trustees to
attempt to negotiate a loan in England. Nothing came of this. In
1838, however, as the financial situation grew gloomier and
gloomier, discussion of an English mission was revived. In March,
1839, the trustees definitely commissioned William Dawes, "a man
of singular piety, tact and address, though his education is
rather limited," to undertake to lead the mission.
Weld was the unanimous first choice for
agent. Mahan and Dawes joined in begging him to accept the
commission. But the state of his health prohibited any such heavy
labor. Finney and James A. Thome were also talked of, but finally
Dawes, who had already established a considerable reputation as a
successful mendicant, and "Father" John Keep, "a dear man" Gerrit
Smith called him, were selected. Weld did contribute, however, by
drawing up a circular presenting the cause of Oberlin, which was
subscribed to by the outstanding American anti-slavery advocates:
the Tappans, Garrison, Birney, Whittier, Gerrit Smith, Joshua
Leavitt, Wendell Phillips, Joshua Giddings, Samuel J. May, Weld,
Angelina Grimke Weld, Sarah Grimke and others. In this circular
Oberlin was described as "the great nursery of teachers for the
coloured people in the United States and Canada," "an admirable
school for the training of anti-slavery lecturers and preachers,"
and the only school "in the United States in which the black and
coloured student finds a home, where he is fully and joyfully
regarded as a man and a brother." The soft pedal was put on
Oberlin's peculiar theology and on any sectarianism. The whole
basis of the appeal for sympathy and financial aid was to be the
anti-slavery character of the institution.
Fortitled with this circular, personal
letters of introduction to prominent English reformers, "nearly
all of the prominent anti-slavery works," a life preserver apiece
and morphine-and-lemon drops against seasickness, Keep and Dawes
embarked from the Battery at New York on the sailing packet,
Gladiator (Captain Thomas Button), May 20, 1839. Regular
commercial sailings of passenger steamships had begun the year
before. On May 18, two days before the sailing of the Gladiator,
Daniel Webster and his party embarked from New York for England on
the steamship, Liverpool, one of the first passenger steamers. The
Oberlin agents preferred the sailing ship because the charges were
a third less and because liquors were not included in those
charges, this despite the fact that the Liverpool would take about
a week less in the passage.
The voyage occupied three weeks and, to the
Oberlin agents, seemed rough enough. "When the Breese is 'stiff';
& at all a side wind the vessel rolls upon its side, & the
floor is slant at an angle of 25 & often 35 & 40
degrees--& rocks from side to side--rises up, as if you were
not to descend again--& then pitches down, as if to go to the
bottom--& another wave takes it, & with all its bulk it is
tossed like a cork." On one occasion a real gale blew up. "To us,
unaccustomed to the ocean it was terrific as well as sublime,"
wrote Keep. "The high rolling waves, constantly breaking at top in
a white foam-apparently ready & determined to devour our Ship
.... Occasionally the rolling wave poured its torrent over the
sides of the Ship. Br. Dawes & myself stood side by side,
& enjoyed the scene--conscious of the power & goodness of
God . . . connecting with the scene Wives & Children, &
Home & friends--the Beloved Institution for which we stand
& ride on the Bosom of the Deep, & hope & pray &
expect great things." Truly these returning Puritans saw the hand
of the Lord as clearly in the sea and in the storm as did their
physical, spiritual and moral ancestors two centuries before. The
pitching of the ship and the "constantly bad smell of the bilge
water" had its inevitable effect. Father Keep's illness was
mercifully brief, but Dawes suffered much the whole way. Keep was
able to eat heartily of fish, and mush, molasses and milk (for
there was a cow on board), and slept well. Dawes was so weak from
lack of nourishment that, at the end of the voyage, he was barely
able to keep up and about. "But he is cheerful, & calm, &
strong & unwavering," wrote his companion, "& when he has
been retching severely, he has sweetIy said, 'It is all right--I
am happy, Brother.'"
As the Lord was seen in the waves and wind
so the Devil was found on board. The passengers included several
slaveholders, besides "Gamblers, Wine Bibbers, Epicures--utterly
averse to religious conversation." There were three ministers
among the passengers besides Mr. Keep, but even these were cause
of anguish to the pious Oberlinites. One was a Roman Catholic and
another was "among the chiefest in the use of his knife & fork
at table & in his devotion to the brandy & wine bottle,
segars, checkers & chess & facetious anecdote--&
apologies for Slaveholders." Services, however, were held on the
Sabbath, and, once, Father Keep, with the ship rolling heavily,
discoursed to those able to leave their berths on the Providence
of God. Always their minds were on the great enterprise before
them, and, when they spoke of Paul's voyage and shipwreck, Father
Keep felt unable to answer the question put to him by Mr. Dawes:
"Were the Apostles sent out on a more important Mission than
ours?"
To supplement the recommendations already
secured, committees of students were formed which prepared letters
directed to Keep and Dawes, expressing their "views respecting the
department with which it is our privilege to be connected." The
committee from the Theological Department included H. C. Taylor
and Michael Strieby. "This Institution is very dear to our hearts
.... "they declared. "It is dear to us because it is located in
the great 'Mississippi Valley,' which is destined to receive &
sustain a vast population, & to become, ere long, the seat of
power & influence of this country." "We can say
unhesitatingly, we love Oberlin," wrote the committee from the
College, "that we prefer it to any other institution with which we
are acquainted." The young ladies' committee, headed by Mary Ann
Adams, in its letter described in some detail the system of
instruction and government for females and told how "Young Ladies
from N[ew] E[ngland], N[ew] Y[ork]
& Ohio bent hither their footsteps ardently panring for
knowledge & improvement." The names of the prominent British
reformers who subscribed at an early date and recommended the
cause of Oberlin were published and used as an aid in extending
the work. The list was headed by Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton and
included the Gurneys, Joseph and Thomas Sturge and George
Thompson, who had previously made a contribution to Oberlin when
in Boston in 1835. The introduction to Harriet Martineau's Martyr
Age of the United States of America, 4,000 copies of which were
reprinted for the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Emancipation and Aborigines
Protection Society, included, in addition, the entire letter of
recommendation from the aged and revered Clarkson.
Of course, Keep and Dawes did not consider
themselves as merely collectors of money. They believed that they
were truly missionaries dropping the first seed, "as the incipient
step towards Oberlinizing England." "In all your prayers," begged
Keep, "do not fail to ask that, while our Mission may result in
good to O[berlin], it may also do good to England." In the
work of Oberlinizing England much dependence was put on the
Oberlin Evangelist, and several copies of each issue were
generally sent to the British agents for distribution. Finney's
Lectures on Revivals was also a powerful piece of propaganda.
Between four and five thousand copies of the English edition of
this work, published in August of 1840, were sold in England
within a little over six months. Many friends were won for Oberlin
and its agents by Finney Revivalism. Among them were Mr. and Mrs.
Hamilton Hill, who furnished free room and board to Mr. Dawes and
Mr. Keep at their London boarding house. Mahan's PerIectionism was
also read but was considered more controversial. Of course, Father
Keep was often called upon to give advice on starting and managing
revivals and also to preach in various pulpits, including that in
Bishopsgate Chapel once occupied by Dr. Watts. Though Keep was a
fundamentally modest man he seems to have believed that he had
prepared the way for Oberlin's great work in the Mother Country;
which he conceived to be "in the providence of God to effect a
great, universal & permanent change in the religious state of
Great Britain."
Of course, the friends made for Oberlin by
Keep's preaching and Finney's writings often gave tangible
evidence of their friendship, but the great share of the money
obtained was secured through another approach. After all, Keep was
most welcome in the pulpits of the Independents (the
Congregationalists of England) and they, being of the poorer
class, had little to give. Revivalism did not appeal to the
Quakers, and they were distinctly not interested in educating
ministers! Some success was had with Evangelicals in the Church of
England, but High Churchmen, Methodists and Baptists were
cold.
The great bulk of the contributions came
from the friends of the slave, many of whom, and those best able
to contribute, were Quakers. The appeal made by Keep and Dawes for
funds was almost always on the ground that the best way to destroy
slavery in America was to help the Oberlin Institute. In Oberlin,
wrote the committee of theological students, "the despised Colored
man finds a home & a welcome to any standing to which his
character may entitle him." "We have been in the hottest of the
anti-slavery contest," added the college students. "And this we
deem the glory of the Institution, that the poor here meet a
hearty welcome, and the wronged African, denied admission
elsewhere except on most degrading terms." It was the anti-slavery
plea which was so effectively presented in a hundred and more
towns of Great Britain and Ireland, at the meetings of the
anti-slavery societies of Newcastle, of Birmingham, of Glasgow and
at the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London in June, 1840. It
was the anti-slavery plea that brought the London County Council
within three votes of appropriating £200 to Oberlin. It was
the anti-slavery argument that accounted for most of $30,000
collected.
The picture of the United States presented
was of a nation completely dominated by slavery, where none cared
or dared speak up for the oppressed, where all free discussion of
the subject was prohibited, where clergymen and statesmen were
involved in an infamous conspiracy to continue the system, where
schools and colleges were universally closed to the aspiring black
man. Against this background, Oberlin was placed as the one haven
of refuge for the down-trodden race, the one school where they
were freely received, the one hope for their future. A poet of
Derby was inspired to write "Lines suggested on hearing Revd. J.
Keep lecture on American Slavery":
Away to the rescue ye Britons
away, for Liberty groans, in the west,
And the blood of the Slave in a horrible
tide has crimsoned her snowy vest,
Aftrighted she turns to the land that
she loves,
and cries for the mighty aid
Of those who ere' while against her
foeman united in blessed crusade.
America needs you, ye heroes arise and
gird you anew for the strife,
For her falls have re-echoed the groans
of the slave, her rivers have swallowed his life,
Her forests & prairies no refuge
afford, excepting one holy spot:
'Tis Oberlin's walls; the only retreat
where the white man injures
him not.
These claims aroused criticism in America
from two different sources: the other anti-slavery men and the
pro-slavery forces. Other reformers insisted that all the credit
for anti-slavery work was being claimed for Oberlin, and other men
and institutions were thereby slighted. Beriah Green was much hurt
because he felt that insufficient recognition was given to the
Oneida Institute. Father Keep was reported as saying in his speech
at Glasgow, that it was dangerous to deliver public addresses
against slavery in America. If one did, he could expect spies in
the audience and slaveholders peering through the doorways, dirk
in hand. At this point he held up a deadly looking knife of
American manufacture! Abolitionists, he said, were threatened with
instant death if they dared to enter a slaveholding state. The
Ohio Observer picked up this statement and attacked it as "too
ridiculously false to have been made by an American minister
except under strong excitement." At a previous date the same
periodical, never friendly to Oberlin and none too enthusiastic
about anti-slavery in general, went so far as to charge Keep and
Dawes with "getting money from the people of England under false
pretenses."
The extremely patriotic, hundred percent
Americans, North and South, were deeply irritated that American
citizens should criticize American institutions in a foreign
country, particularly in Great Britain, with whom relations were
strained at the time. There was something splendid and noble about
Dawes' statement that, "Oberlin is not an American Institution,
that the peculiar institutions of America are against it, that it
solely exists in reference to the abolition of Slavery & the
Slave trade throughout the world & [so] as to
ameliorate the condition of all men by lessening of human
suffering & extirpation [of] all evil." Critics saw
nothing in it, however, but treason; they never read beyond the
first clause. A Kentuckian even felt called upon to relieve his
feelings by writing a letter to Father Keep. "Sir, what can you be
called but a traitor," he asked, "false to your Country in uniting
with a foreign power to abrogate the prerogations licensed by the
Constitution of the U. S., and stating roundly, inadvisedly and
falsely with what cruelty Slaves in the U. S. was treated?" After
describing the anti-slavery men as "matronly hell hounds,
misanthropic devils, and traitorous renegades" he closed by
observing, "Oh God, Thy Word too oft subserves the villain's viler
purpose." Neither the agents nor the leaders in Oberlin were mnch
disturbed by these inharmonious voices; they were accustomed to
opposition. Receipts continued to roll up. Nearly £900 was
sent home in August of 1839, £800 in November, £1000 in
February of 1840 and £1200 in the following June! The total,
exchanged into American money, had reached over $19,000 by that
date.
One of the biggest efforts made was that to
secure an appropriation from the charity funds of the Corporation
of London. The petition for a grant was first presented at the
Guild Hall before the "Coal and Corn and Finance Committee" of the
London County Council. The agents argued that Oberlin was an
international enterprise, properly belonging to the world, and was
"pursuing distinctly the welfare of the Nations, as well as that
of America," and that the success of Oberlin was, therefore, of
direct interest to the city of London, the metropolis of the
world. The hearing lasted several hours, after which, by a vote of
15 to 4, the Committee agreed to recommend to the Council an
appropriation of £200. It was nearly a month later that the
Council heard the committee report in favor of the grant to
Oberlin as a means of exercising the moral influence of that body
against slavery in the United States. An amendment was introduced,
however, expressing "abhorrence of the slave system" but
eliminating the donation as "an unwarranted intermeddling with the
affairs of foreign powers." When the vote was taken viva voce
there was some doubt about the outcome and, therefore, a division
was called for. Those favoring the grant went to one side of the
room and those opposed to the other. "On our side," Keep wrote
home to his wife, "One cried out to the other--ah, you sustain
slavery--let those who love freedom & hate slavery come over
here. No--No--No--No--was the cry. They rallied each other on both
sides & at length the certain count said lost--by 4." The vote
stood 42 for the amendment and 38 for the original report granting
£200. The defeat was a great disappointment at the time, as
Keep and Dawes had expected an easy victory after their success in
the committee. In later years, however, it seemed surprising that
even such a vote should have been received--a sort of moral
victory. Certainly the prospects for the mission were not injured
by the decision. A number of members of the corporation made
personal contributions.
As Cavour is said to have brought Piedmont
into the Crimean War in order that he might have a hearing at the
peace conference so Keep and Dawes secured appointments as
delegates to the international anti-slavery convention held at
London in June, 1840, in order that they might present the claims
of Oberlin. This convention was called by Joseph Sturge and the
British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and the aged Thomas
Clarkson made his last public appearance as its presiding officer.
It was an English-speaking convention, the delegates present being
mostly residents of Great Britain, with a few from outlying
portions of the Empire: Jamaica, Guiana, Australia, besides fifty
from the United States. It was on the evening of June 14, the
third day of the convention, that Keep had his opportunity to
present Oberlin in a brief address. He described the "accursed and
most abominable slave system" of the United States, "the giant sin
of the giant republic of the Western hemisphere," as a "scaly and
slimy monster," and declared that in "no community was its
character ever so bad, or its atrocities so vile." Finally he
turned to Oberlin, which he described as "a new seminary .... to
which the black man is invited, and where he is received to the
full enjoyment of the same equal privileges with the white man"
and where was being trained an "abolition phalanx" of young men
and women "who will go down to him [the Negro] in his
degradation, sympathize with him, stay by him, weep over him, pray
with him, teach him, comfort him, pour oil into his wounds, and
raise him to the dignity of a man." The Oberlin delegates were
naturally critical of Garrison and all his activities at the
convention, and when the women delegates from the United States
were excluded from the floor of the convention, they took the side
of propriety. Though Keep was disappointed at the exhibition of
dissension and lack of Christian spirit among the American
representatives at the convention, all in all, he considered it "a
great meeting--much valuable discussion-- . . . an influence which
could not be had in any other method." At least it had served
their purpose of securing further publicity for
Oberlin.
The agents found the teas, soirees and
banquets to which they were invited excellent means of making
contacts. There were many such gatherings during the convention.
On June 16 they had tea with E. Reid in company with Lucretia Mott
and others. On the 21st they dined at William Ashurst's; Garrison
was also present and Mrs. Mott called it "a visit full of interest
and delight." Three days later, the last day of the convention, a
great banquet was held for all the delegates at the "Crown and
Anchor." Here the American radicals had an opportunity to ease
themselves of convictions suppressed in the public meeting.
Garrison spoke injudiciously (according to Keep) but Lucretia Mott
made an excellent impression.
The round of social affairs in London and
other great English cities must have been a strange experience for
the Ohio Puritans, but, of course, they considered it their duty
to attend whenever the cause of Oberlin might be effectively
furthered. Mrs. Martineau made it her special task to see that
they were introduced to the right people. Invitations and
donations followed. "I took the omnibus at 1/2 past 5," wrote Keep
to Mrs. Keep in December of 1839, "to comply with a polite
invitation, sent me through Mrs. Martineau's influence, to pass
the evening with Mrs. Smith & her Daughters. The result of
this visit will be 50 for O[berlin]. They had gotten their
opinions & feelings respecting American Slavery from
Martineau. Their hearts were full & said I was the first
American abolitionist they had seen--& put questions to me for
5 hours . . . & got from me the pledge that I would meet them
again on the 19, when they will invite in a circle of select
friends to learn of Oberlin & America." In the following
February, Keep and Dawes were invited to tea at the home of a
certain Deacon Piper in London in order that some thirty guests
could hear of Oberlin "as it is." One gathering led to another. A
week later they received a formal invitation:
Miss Hannah Travers who had the pleasure of
an introduction to the Rev. Mr. Keep and Mr. Dawes about a week
ago, at her friend Mr. Piper's, requests the pleasure of their
company at tea, some evening that they are disengaged, in order
that she may have the gratification of inviting a few friends to
meet them to hear particulars respecting the Oberlin
Institute.
When Keep was in Bristol a certain Dr.
Estlin "sent his servant with his elegant carriage" to take him
out in the country for a call. Sitting alone in this splendid
equipage, and reviewing the "enchanting--absolutely luscious"
landscape, the Reverend Oberlinite felt like an English nobleman,
though he realized that "something more would be needed." There is
no doubt that he enjoyed this glimpse into high society though he
was shocked at the "bare necks of the unmarried Ladies . . . naked
clear off each shoulder--& down the back to exposement of the
shoulder blades" and, at banquets, turned his glass down with
self-righteous satisfaction. In Leeds Mr. Dawes had, in
twenty-four hours, "three invitations to sumptuous dinners--two of
which, duty required that I should attend." At one dinner he found
himself "surrounded by rich, elite and influential & meats
& drinks to profusion, with 4 several challenges to drink wine
as a token of cordial welcome to England." At a quarter to eight
he excused himself, though the other guests were "still at their
creams, jellies, fruits, nuts, wines, etc, etc, etc."
But the mission was not all banquets. One
Deacon who was approached for funds declared that Americans were
"a set of sharpers" and "it would be better for the world if they
were all sunk in the ocean." Often Keep trudged all day long from
door to door with little result, or wasted precious hours in the
anterooms of the wealthy. It is significant that on one occasion
he felt forced to rest for a day or two "on account of blisters on
the bottom of my right foot & three painful corns upon the top
of the same"!
The total collections were something more
than six thousand pounds, about thirty thousand dollars at the
rate of exchange then existing. Though several gifts of £100
each were secured from single individuals, the greater part of
this money was obtained in small sums from the "lower orders."
Thomas Sturge gave a hundred pounds and Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton
gave an equal amount. William Evans, a Member of Parliament from
Derby, gave fifty pounds. But there were also gifts from "Mrs.
Quin and her two grandchildren for whom may prayer be made in
Oberlin" and the "Students of the Session Hall in
Edinburgh."
The most money (£1788) was secured in
London and vicinity, though £343 was obtained in Glasgow,
£246 in Liverpool, £222 in Manchester, £215 in
Birmingham and £537 in Bristol. Bristol gave the itinerants a
particularly warm reception: the Mayor gave £5; the Dean of
the Cathedral £5; and even Patrick O'Farrell, a Catholic
Priest of the city, contributed £1 10S. In addition to cash,
about two thousand volumes of books, besides some "philosophical
and chemical apparatus," were donated. Finally, Oberlin secured an
efficient Secretary and Treasurer in the person of Keep's and
Dawes' benevolent host in London, Hamilton Hill. It was hoped that
Hill would serve as "a permanent bond of union," "a permanent
channel of communication" between Oberlin and England. There was
never any doubt about Hill's ability. His minutes and other
records are in excellent form. He was always the complete
Englishman, however, and did not fit too well into the thoroughly
Yankee atmosphere of Oberlin.
God had saved His college! The most
pressing demands could now all be met. In February of 1840 the
Board of Trustees and faculty united to observe a day of "fasting,
humiliation, & prayer," "in view of the special mercies of
God, in signally providing for our pecuniary necessities, by
raising up for us friends in a foreign land." Keep and Dawes
returned to America and Oberlin late in 1840. In the following
August they reported in person to the trustees, who formally
acknowledged their devout gratitude to God, the English reformers,
and Keep and Dawes, and presented forty acres of land to each of
the latter. The agents believed that their mission had other
results also; that it had helped to "promote a mutual interest and
unite the sympathies of good men in both countries," and begun the
Oberlinizing of England.
Even before the mission had set sail for
England Gerrit Smith of Peterboro, N. Y., had come to the aid of
the bankrupt Institute. Gerrit Smith was a thorough reformer, a
friend of education and unwavering enemy to slavery. More
important, he was an immensely wealthy man, one of the greatest
landowners in the United States. As early as 1836 he had been
appealed to, to aid Oberlin. In January John Keep wrote to Smith
recommending Oberlin as an institution "preeminent in promoting
Revivals," where "slavery is brought upon the table with all its
kindred topics." The philanthropist contributed a hundred dollars
and was rewarded with a request for more two months later. In the
same year, Zebulon Shipherd, the father of Oberlin's Founder,
wrote to Smith, inviting him "with cordiality and respect to
bestow upon" Oberlin a professorship of $600 per annum. Finally,
in April of 1839, Gerrit Smith decided to give to Oberlin twenty
thousand acres of land in the western part of Virginia and two
thousand dollars in cash. Thus, before the arrival of the mission
in England, a ray of hope had appeared; the "Heavenly Father" had
"raised up" Smith to be a co-worker in Oberlin's great
task.
Some of the gold turned out to be iron
pyrites. Arthur Tappan unexpectedly seized $4,752.00 of the
British funds; and the title to the Virginia lands was
disputed.
Arthur Tappan had lent ten thousand dollars
to Oberlin in 1835, but both Shipherd and Finney were led to
believe that there was a strong possibility, close to certainty,
that the notes given for this loan would be cancelled by later
subscriptions. In 1836 two thousand dollars of the loan, as we
have seen, were cancelled by subscription. There still remained
nearly nine thousand dollars (counting interest) to be paid, but
when the mission was sent to England it was definitely understood
that funds there obtained would not be demanded by Tappan. In
December of 1839 a draft for £800 from Keep and Dawes was
negotiated through Arthur Tappan & Co. and immediately applied
on various debts. A second draft on Baring Brothers for £1000
(worth $4,752.00 at exchange) was sent to them in March, but this
sum was held for application on the Tappan debt and no withdrawals
were allowed. Oberlin men felt that Tappan had been guilty of bad
faith, but he was, it should be remembered, fighting an
unsuccessful battle against bankruptcy and felt morally and
practically bound to liquidate all possible assets. Tappan kept
the £1000, but later remittances from England were negotiated
through Prime, Ward, & King.
As to the Virginia lands, John Brown, the
son of Owen Brown of the Board of Trustees and later of Harper's
Ferry fame, was sent as Oberlin's agent in 1840 to investigate and
sell these lands. Nothing came of this agency, however, except a
claim by Brown against Oberlin and perhaps an interest in Virginia
on his part. There seemed very little prospect of realizing
anything immediately out of the Gerrit Smith gift. Squatters were
in possession of the choicest portions and there was another title
covering part of it. The people of the region and the courts of
the state were hostile to absentee landlords and Oberlin in
particular. It seemed therefore an excellent bargain to exchange
ten thousand dubious acres for the remainder of the Tappan debt.
In the spring of 1841, therefore, the notes held by Tappan were
cancelled in return for a deed from Oberlin for 9637 acres of the
Gerrit Smith land. Thus, by 1841, the larger claims against the
Institute had all been satisfied and the immediate danger of
bankruptcy removed--and Oberlin had been given a broader moral
foundation by the contacts established with the Old
World.
CHAPTER XXX
MAHAN
OBERLIN owed much to its first President,
Asa Mahan. He was a man of action and of intellect--"the best mind
west of the Mountains," Weld had called him in 1834. He became
widely known for his several able books in the field of theology
and philosophy, most important being his Doctrine of the Will
(1845) and Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfection (1839). He
was the special sponsor of Oberlin's peculiar theological "heresy"
and, more than anyone else, of Oberlin's stand on reform.
Rivalling Finney as a fiery preacher and an inspiring teacher, he
surpassed him in the rude give and take of free-for-all debate. He
was "just the man," as one admirer put it, "to keep the public
mind awake." It was Mahan who gave to the Oberlin of 1835 to 1850
much of its peculiar tone of effective--and
irritating--aggressiveness.
There was never any doubt about Mahan's
high moral principles, his sincerity, and his devotion to the
truth, but out of these virtues grew his chief shortcomings. He
was imperious; he was egotistical; he was overbearing; he would
brook no opposition nor criticism. In the heat of argument he
would often overstep the bounds of good taste and good manners.
Mahan was the sort of man who made firm friends and bitter
enemies, unfortunately, many of the latter. In Oberlin the number
of his enemies grew until they included all of the faculty and
many of the trustees and, at last, as a result he was forced to
resign.
The dismissal of John P. Cowles in 1839 may
be taken as the beginning of the series of quarrels which
culminated in 1850 in Mahan's departure. There were some,
including Cowles' brother, Henry Cowles, who blamed Mahan for this
unfortunate episode and never quite forgave him for it. As a
result of his highhanded methods in meetings of the faculty and
his cruel and tactless personal allusions in public and in private
the number of those who felt themselves personally aggrieved
steadily increased. As early as 1844 he was requested by his
colleagues to resign, on the ground that "his constitutional
traits are so annoying that the other members of the faculty
cannot work with him." He was charged with tyrannizing over the
students and with treating the professors harshly. It was declared
that he was unpopular with the colonists and that he was "the
chief obstacle to pacification in the Ministry around." There were
several, however, including John Keep, who pointed out that it
would be suicidal to dismiss "one of the most talented, spiritual,
laborious, efficient and influential of their number, the honored
head of their Institution." Could the Oberlin Evangelist possibly
stand the loss of one of its ablest contributors. Was it not well
that there should be one man in Oberlin "whose terrible rebuke,
all, and especially the wayward, will fear and dread?" What would
be the effect on the reform causes and sanctification if their
leading sponsor should be dropped? Perhaps, after all, the real
cause of opposition to him was his aggressiveness on these
questions. If Mahan left, would not the now increasing
cautioushess of Professor Morgan supercede the bold and righteous
assertivehess of the President as the dominant motif in Oberlin
thought and action? Mahan promised his colleagues that if they
would waive their opposition to his continuance in the presidency
for the time-being he would retire without complaint if at any
future date they should again become dissatisfied. The atmosphere
was thus temporarily cleared, though some unpleasant rumors
filtered out into the press.
The trouble over the payment of salaries,
which came to a head in 1846, served to rekindle the fires of
factionalism. Dawes and the President thought the teachers should
accept with gratitude what funds could be collected and not expect
always to receive their full salaries. Mahan's salary was fully
subscribed, but others were not so lucky, and Mahan "most entirely
objected to any part of the money subscribed for him being
appropriated to any other use whatever than for himself." As one
means of economy it was decided to drop Hamilton Hill. The old
sores were opened. Professor William Cochran resigned and Finney
threatened to go. "The devil is at Oberlin sure enough," wrote
Lewis Tappan. "Tell it not in Gath. What an exemplification of the
Oberlin sanctification." Tappan suspected that Mahan's
imperiousness might be at the root of the matter. "It is thought
by some that you are too critical [?] & overbearing";
he warned him, "that you assume too much; that you concede too
little .... I love you much brother Mahan & therefore I write
so freely. Do examine yourself & check every seeking of
ambition. Do not Lord it over God's heritage nor insist upon
having everything as you think & as you say. Do not magnify
yourself."
In 1848 and 1849 Mahan was entangled in a
famous church trial, which fairly tore the Oberlin community
asunder. Back in 1846 a certain Mrs. G---- abandoned her children
and husband, a leading Oberlinite, formerly General Agent of the
College and publisher of the Evangelist. She declared that, as she
was no longer in the flesh but "in the resurrection state .... it
would be wrong for her to live with Mr. G---- as her husband." The
church thereupon excommunicated her but she was readmitted when it
was decided that she was insane! For a while she was held in an
insane asylum, and upon her return from that institution her
husband excluded her from his home. Thereupon, in February of
1848, Peter Pindar Pease brought a series of charges against him
before the Oberlin Church. G----, he held, had "violated the
marriage covenant" in refusing to live with his wife and in
abusing and neglecting her. He was also charged with "neglect of
family worship," lying, and "improper conduct towards other
ladies."
The actual trial did not begin until the
following June, and then lasted for a matter of weeks. The wife
related her woes and the husband told in detail his story of
connubial infelicity. The trouble, said he, was that Mrs. G--- had
"a will as unchangeable as the tide of time." About half the town
testified: Professor Finney, Dr. and Mrs. Dascomb, Professor John
Morgan, William Dawes and Mrs. Dawes, William W. Wright, Horace C.
Taylor, President and Mrs. Mahan and innumerable lesser lights.
The testimony taken occupies some hundreds of manuscript pages.
President Mahan, as council and as witness, threw himself, with
his usual precipitancy, unreservedly on the side of G---- "in
untiring effort to screen him from [what was, according to the
majority] deserved rebuke!" Among others, Professor Henry
Cowles felt that the President's action was unwise and mistaken,
if not worse. Part of the charges were sustained and part not
sustained. On Christmas Day by a vote of 31 to 23 the accused
husband was excommunicated. As a result of this episode, by the
beginning of 1849 the relation between the President and the
faculty had again become tense. Mrs. Brewster Pelton, the wife of
the keeper of the tavern and a close friend of the Mahans, was
holding parties "partly for the sake of promoting social feeling
& partly to help support the tavern." There was great need
certainly of "promoting social feeling" and the tavern has usually
needed "supporting." The clouds were gathering again, and again
there was much talk of asking President Mahan to
resign.
Fortunately Mahan was away in France and in
England, attending the World Peace Congress and preaching, during
most of 1849 and part of 1850, or he would, undoubtedly, have
become involved likewise in the controversy over the appointment
to the Oberlin postmastership, which led eventually to another
involved church trial and an investigation of Representative
Joshua Giddings in Congress. On the other hand, Mahan's absence
gave his irreconcilable opponents a chance to organize and make
their plans for another attack. Upon his landing in New York all
was ready for him. Joab Seeley, an agent of Oberlin, had persuaded
the people of a church at Newark, N.J., to give him a call to be
their pastor. This would furnish him a reasonable excuse for
resigning his position at Oberlin; neither he nor Oberlin need be
embarrassed. George Whipple and Lewis Tappan talked to him
heart-to-heart, urging him to accept the call and retire from the
presidency quietly, "in such a manner as would not exhibit to the
world a quarrel between the members of the faculty." But Asa Mahan
was not to be so easily set aside; when he reached Oberlin he
never said a word about his call to the Newark church. It had been
previously decided to present him a statement upon his arrival,
advising his resignation. Such a formal statement signed by all of
the faculty was prepared the last of February and presented to him
on March 5, 1850. They expressed their views frankly enough: "we
think that God has given you eminent abilities as preacher &
public speaker .... We believe, also, that your talents as a
writer have made you useful to many souls & might make you
useful to many more .... While we cordially thus express our high
estimate of your abilities in the respects we have indicated, we
must with equal frankness say that we regard you as deficient in
those peculiar gifts which qualify for the presidency of a
literary Institution. This has long been with us a growing &
is now ripe conviction. With all your endowments, God does not
appear to us to have given you that peculiar sort of wisdom &
tact which is specially necessary in the President of a College to
unite the Faculty in confiding & cheerful cooperation with him
as their head & leader." They, therefore, expressed their hope
that he would retire from the presidency of Oberlin and accept the
call to Newark.
Instead of resigning, Mahan gathered his
henchmen about him and fought back. Most prominent among his
supporters in this crisis were William Dawes, Rev. George Clark (a
Lane Rebel and evangelislt conducting services in Oberlin at the
time), Brewster Pelton and Thirza Pelton, and (less
enthusiastically) Dr. Isaac Jennings and his son, John Jennings.
Shortly after receiving the formal statement from the faculty, the
President addressed a note to Mr. Dawes, declaring that the
faculty had asked him to vacate his position without presenting
specific charges. Would Dawes please make "inquiries on the
subject?" Of course, the latter immediately bestirred himself to
bring pressure to bear in behalf of the President. On March 11 a
statement signed by three resident trustees: Dawes, Josiah B. Hall
and Isaac Jennings, was presented to Mahan. They declared that "a
large majority of the students, embracing all the departments of
the institution, as well also, a large proportion of the
Colonists, including the most spiritual, besides almost the entire
number of all the christian patrons of the institution throughout
the churches in our land" believed that his removal would "cause
great sensation, and lasting grief." The remedy for the evils
prevailing in the Institute, they declared, was not to be found in
the "removal of its President but by [in] a speedy return,
of all concerned in its operations, to the original principles
& methods of promoting the kingdom of our Redeemer." The
trouble was not with Mahan but with the faculty, they held. The
professors were not fully in sympathy with the President's views
on the teaching of the Bible and the omission of the "heathen
classics." The "reformatory character [of Oberlin] &
its peculiarities which have constituted its excellencies" would
be done away with, they insisted, if the President resigned. The
Oberlin idea and the Oberlin ideal were at stake.
The faculty thereupon replied to the
President and his supporters in another formal statement. Mr.
Mahan, said they, had misconstrued and misinterpreted their
previous statement--"so far as respects the nature of our
communication to you, your letter is incorrect from beginning to
end." Further to strengthen their case they quoted from a letter
from Professor Finney: "The loss of confidence in Bro. M's
discretion and fitness for his position in several respects has
become so universal in the Faculty & so extensive in the
Community that to go on so is useless & even impossible."
Finally they reminded the President of his pledge to resign if the
faculty requested it. A crisis had been reached and an explosion
seemed certain. President Mahan insisted that he would not leave
unless compelled. Some of the faculty were ready to resign; Dawes
and his associates were talking of dismissing them all.
It was a clear issue: were "the services of
the President or those of all the rest of the Faculty . . . of
most importance to the Institution?" On April 1 a special meeting
of the trustees was called for the 18th of the same month to make
the decision.
All was gloom and apprehension when the
trustees assembled on the date fixed,--"there was darkness that
could be felt." It was the darkest meeting, wrote Father Keep to
Finney, "the darkest I ever attended . . . & I had been
through many storms." After some preliminaries the faculty
presented their case and it was fully discussed. Then petitions
were received from colonists and students. Dawes had, evidently,
been very active; the great majority of signers seemed to favor
the President. Two identical petitions were received from the
"inhabitants of Oberlin," declaring that they had "heard with pain
& regret of the contemplated resignation of President Mahan
& of the possibility of his removal to a distant field," and
earnestly expressing their desire that he might be retained in
office. There were 285 signatures, headed by Thirza and Brewster
Pelton, and including John G. Jennings, Emily P. Burke (the late
Lady Principal), and even Chauncey Wack, proprietor of Wack's
tavern! Between eighty and ninety colored citizens presented a
petition in which they "most earnestly implore[d]" Mahan
not to resign. Over two hundred students expressed their desire
that the President "should still retain the position you have so
long occupied and honored." "As a spiritual guide we need your
counsel and advice, as a teacher your faithfulness and
instruction, as a christian your precepts and example." On the
other hand, twelve of the 128 male students who had signed this
petition requested the next day that their names be removed, and
nineteen other male students from the Collegiate Department
prepared a joint statement declaring that they had "a tender
regard not alone for our much esteemed Pres." . . . "but that in
the other members of the Faculty we repose an undiminished
confidence and that we value them [also] as Instructors
and men." Also 25 adult male citizens (including such well-known
men as Nathaniel Gerrish, Hiram A. Pease, William H. Plumb, Fay
Hopkins, Dr. Alexander Steele, Lewis Holtslander, and Dr. Homer
Johnson) united to express their opinion "that Pres. Mahan's
greatest usefulness, the highest well-being of the church, of this
community, of the Institution, and of the cause of Zion, demand
that his connection with this Institution do now
cease."
On the third day a settlement was reached.
The trustees were ready to accept Mahan's resignation but as he
would not offer it they did not feel justified in asking him to
retire. It was finally decided that the faculty would withdraw
their request for his resignation if the President would accede to
a "basis of unity and hearty cooperation" drawn up by the faculty
and trustees jointly, and containing their chief objections to his
character and conduct. The paper as presented to Mahan, provided
that
"1. He should see that his self-esteem has
amounted to self conceit & has led him to over-rate both his
natural abilities & his moral attainments, & that under
the same influence he underrates the ability and character of his
brethren.
"2. He should see his tendency to attribute
unworthy motives to his brethren & promise to do so no
more.
"3. He should see his tendency to set forth
himself & the institution and Oberlin in a boastful manner
& thus exhibit us in an attitude that is odious to God &
man.
"4. He should be aware of his tendency to
deal in wholesale denunciation of the church & the ministry
& to publish anecdotes unadvisedly, derogatory to the
character of individuals.
"5. He should see his tendency to make
strong positive statements amounting, though not intended, to
misrepresentation as to matters of fact on points where he is
committed & promise to guard against it.
"6. He should be aware of his liability, in
his popular political discourses to assume an attitude & use
language unbecoming to a Christian minister & the President of
a religious Institution.
"7. He should be careful not to leave his
work in the Institution without consultation & arrangement
with his brethren, thus embarrassing our operations &
burdening the other Instructors.
"8. He should refrain from agitating the
minds of the Students on questions which involve the established
order of the Institution.
"9. He should refrain from committing the
Institution to sentiments which he only holds or which are
contrary to the views of his brethren.
"10. He should not act as counsel in cases
of discipline before the Church in Oberlin, or interfere in such a
way as to endanger the harmony of the Church."
The paper was read to the President,
article by article, and thus assented to by him. He seemed to be
"very sincere & hearty in his admission of the specified
faults & in his consent to the course demanded." He promised
to do his utmost to amend. So, wrote Keep to Finney, "By early
candle light on Sat. eve [April 20] .... the whole
Faculty, in the presence of the Trustees, & with them . . .
all took each other by the hand . . . full of hopes &
promise." Of course, "the result was received by the community
& the students with general rejoicing." The great excitement
passed off quickly and it seemed that a new period of peace and
harmony was beginning. When George Whipple, one of those who had
been most prominent in taking action with regard to the President,
visited Oberlin a little later, Mrs. Mahan invited him and all of
the families of the faculty to her house for supper. It was agreed
that Mr. Mahan was very cordial.
But, in the meantime, new fuel was being
added to the fire. When Oberlin tired of discussing the troubles
with the President there was always Mrs. Emily Pillsbury Burke to
consider. Mrs. Burke was the new Principal of the Female
Department. She came to Oberlin highly recommended by the Rev.
Samuel Aikin, then of the First Presbyterian Church of Cleveland,
after several years experience as a teacher in female seminaries
in Georgia and in New England. Though she was "very plain
looking," her sociability, familiarity, and gentleness with the
young ladies won her popularity immediately; it was so much in
contrast to the stiff and stern rule of Mary Ann Adams. At first
her pleasing character and thorough knowledge of the Bible gained
her the approbation and respect of the faculty and their wives,
also. All were pleased with the energy with which she went about
cleaning, renovating and refurnishing Ladies' Hall. "But alas!"
wrote Mary Jane Churchill, wife of Professor Churchill, to her
brother, "the Ladies Board have taken a miff and sent her adrift.
So it has turned us into the greatest excitement. The young ladies
cry and gentlemen too pretty near, and the old ones scold and
wonder." It seems that she "k-i-s-s-e-d" one of the young
gentlemen who boarded in the Hall. The shocked (and probably not
particularly flattered) young man rushed posthaste to the Ladies'
Board and told them of this affront to his manly purity! The Board
immediately dismissed her; "such a principal will not do for our
daughters," said they. In January another lady was appointed to
succeed the fallen one.
The poor, hurt creature fled from the cruel
action of the Ladies' Board to the sheltering home of her friend
and fellow-poetess, Thirza Pelton. There her many sympathetic
friends, including the young lady students, could come to weep
with her, and when the momentous special session of the trustees
of April, 1850, had finished with the question of the President's
"self conceit" they turned to hear from Mrs. Burke. She had been
treated "unjustly and in an unchristian manner," she said. She
besought the trustees to call for the charges against her and give
her a fair trial and an opportunity to defend her reputation,
"according to the injunction, 'Judge the fatherless, plead for the
widow.'" She was backed up by three petitions: one signed by fifty
young lady students, one by 13 male students, and the third by 99
citizens of Oberlin. "We feel grieved," declared the young ladies,
"by being deprived of her instruction, sympathy & influence,
which we enjoyed for a few months, with, as we supposed, a
reasonable hope that she would be continued to us." Four out of
five members of the Ladies' Board, feeling that they were no
longer supported by public opinion, offered their resignations.
The trustees thereupon expressed "their entire confidence in the
ability, integrity & sound discretion of" the members of the
Board, thus politely, but effectively, rebuking Mrs.
Burke.
As the weeks went by it became increasingly
apparent that the settlement of April had not been a settlement at
all but merely a truce. The wives of the members of the faculty
did not reciprocate the friendly advances made by Mrs. Mahan, and
the latter felt that she was being openly snubbed. The Mahan and
Burke controversies were complicated by a re-opening of the post
office affair and the wounds resulting from the recent divorce
trial were evidently still rankling. Oberlin seemed to be about to
disintegrate. Thirza Pelton had an inspiration. Before Oberlin
completely collapsed why should not the members of the President's
party pull out of the wreck, taking with them as many students and
the good-will of as many of Oberlin's old patrons as possible, and
found a new institution in which all would be of one mind and
purpose? Mrs. Pelton and John G. Jennings secured a tract of land,
just across the Cuyahoga, south from Cleveland. On this tract they
would establish a "National University" (later officially called
Cleveland University), of which Mahan would be President, and a
female seminary, Sigourney Seminary, of which Mrs. Burke would be
the head. The Rev. George Clark and William Dawes were to act as
financial agents. In June and July these plans were put into
effect. Clark and Mrs. Pelton began collecting funds in Boston and
elsewhere; several thousand acres of land were purchased, and
Mahan tentatively accepted the presidency of the embryonic
institution. There is no doubt that the "National University" was
a real threat to Oberlin, and it was recognized by most as being a
potentially dangerous rival. The name aroused ironical comment
among many, however, who considered it a typical expression of
Mahan's "self conceit" and egotism. It was even suggested that a
more appropriate name would be: "The Universal University for all
Creation wherein the Idea of the Infinite will be fully Elucidated
and all who do not admit the fact will be sent to their proper
place by its Pres., the greatest man who ever has or ever will
live, associated with the greatest woman in the 19th century, who
must be at the head too!"
Late in August came the regular annual
meeting of the Board of Trustees. Mahan presented his resignation,
simply stating that he had already accepted the presidency of the
new institution in Cleveland. A committee of Oberlin citizens
presented a petition asking for his retention, but the trustees
"told them that the President had left the Board no alternative
& that they saw no room for negotiation." The resignation was
unanimously accepted and a "respectful and affectionate, but not
flattering" resolution was adopted in recognition of the
President's fifteen years of service. Morgan was appointed
President Pro Tempore. Thus quietly was the long conflict between
President Mahan and the faculty concluded. "There is no commotion
among either students or people on account of Pres. Mahan's
resignation," wrote the Acting President to Finney shortly after,
"and I do not think there will be .... We trust the Institution
will not be 'dismantled' on account of his absence, though we
shall probably lose some of his warm admirers as soon as they can
provide accommodations for them at the 'National University.'" By
November Father Keep found the faculty "harmonious" and "general
tranquility & union . . . returning to the Colony."
For the site of the projected Cleveland
University (the name "National" was early abandoned) a tract of
about 275 acres of land was purchased by Brewster Pelton and John
G. Jennings on the heights overlooking the Cuyahoga river, about a
mile south of the city. The setting was inspiring. There was a
magnificent prospect of Cleveland and Lake Erie, and there were
many fine trees located just where they would be "needed for the
formation of walks, arbors, rides and fountains," with which it
was expected that the grounds would be adorned. Part of this land
was to be divided into city residential lots, the proceeds of the
sale of which were supposed to provide part of the needed funds.
The remainder was to be kept for the campus, whereon were to be
erected the buildings for the university, the female seminary and
an orphanage!
Mahan brought with him from Oberlin certain
educational theories and practices. The manual labor system was to
be installed and less emphasis was to be put on the heathen
classics and more on the Bible. (The omission of "Joint Education"
is notable.) In addition, it was declared to be a fixed principle
of the institution not to run in debt and, in order to save money,
no dormitories were to be erected. Mahan intended to establish in
the plan of study what he chose to call the "new education." This
seems to have meant a liberalized curriculum with an elective
system, the object of instruction being "not to carry the student
through a multitude of studies without his thoroughly mastering
any one of them, but to perfect him in those he does study." The
university was intended to be a source of civic pride and
enlightenment. A sort of extension system was planned whereby the
public would be admitted by ticket to the popular lectures which
were to be a part of every course, and thereby the university
would "present facilities for mental and moral instruction to all
the surrounding population." Cleveland was thus to be made "the
great Athens of the great valley of the West." "Let the commerce
of the city continue to increase .... " prophesied Mahan, "and
then let the light of Science from University Heights dawn over
the whole scene . . . and who can tell to what extent Cleveland
will enlarge its borders and strengthen its stakes."
When in March, 1851, Cleveland University
was incorporated by act of the Ohio legislature, the Board of
Trustees contained several prominent Cleveland businessmen and the
Oberlin--Mahan clique: Mahan himself, William Dawes, the Rev.
George Clark, and Brewster Pelton (representing his wife),--all
except Jennings. The construction of the building was begun
seemingly in the summer of 1851; there were encouraging reports of
progress in the autumn. Classes began in temporary quarters in the
city in April, 1851. In the following August commencement
exercises were held in the Melodeon Building. Three young men (all
former Oberlin students) were graduated and Mahan delivered his
inaugural address on "The Comparative Merits of the Old and New
Systems of Liberal Education." A faculty, including professors of
Music, Natural Science, Modern Languages, Mathematics, Elocution,
Oratory and Belles Lettres (James A. Thome, formerly of Oberlin),
and Mental and Moral Philosophy (Mahan, of course), was selected.
In the following spring recitations and lectures were being held
in the new building on the heights. At this time there were 37
students enrolled, though not all of them were "regularly
entered." At the Commencement held in June of 1852 eight of these
(five former Oberlin students) were granted degrees. In December
of the same year Mahan resigned and the short course of the
Cleveland University was finished.
The sudden collapse was due to a number of
causes. A break between Mrs. Pelton and Mahan in the spring of
1851 led to a lack of harmony which would probably alone have been
mortal to the enterprise. The rivalry between the Cleveland
University and Oberlin College was often denied but oftener
admitted. Mahan and Dawes naturally approached the former donors
to Oberlin for financial aid for their new university, and this
caused more ill-feeling at Oberlin. Someone in Oberlin retaliated
by showing Mahan's "Confessions" of April, 1850, to some of the
most influential backers of Cleveland University. The result was
that Ex-Governor William Slade of Vermont, the Secretary and
Treasurer and one of the most prominent figures connected with the
enterprise, withdrew, and certain individuals in Boston who had
made large subscriptions refused to pay them. This appears to have
been the death-blow. The building of the university was later
occupied by Humiston's Cleveland Institute. John Jennings made a
respectable fortune and a reputation by his sale of the lands on
the heights which were later known as the "Jennings allotments."
The university is chiefly remembered today through the names of
streets: College Street, University Street, Literary Street,
Professor Street, Pelton Avenue and Jennings Avenue, and by the
Pilgrim Congregational Church which was founded by the same group
which attempted to establish the university." What became of Emily
Pillsbury Burke is still a puzzle. Mrs. Pelton died early in
1853.
Just what the occupation of Asa Mahan was
from his resignation of the presidency of Cleveland University in
1852 to the time when he assumed the duties of a pastor at
Jackson, Michigan, in 1855 is unknown. Most certain it is,
however, that he continued to be a thorn in the flesh of Oberlin.
For five years he pressed his claim for back salary with an
exasperating persistence which would have been impolitic for a
teacher still on the faculty. He even demanded payment for
services rendered during vacations since 1835. In reply the
trustees insisted on docking him for time lost while in Europe in
1849-50. On one occasion Mahan turned one of the college notes
over to one of his creditors, the latter threatening to use legal
methods to collect. Some payments were made, but even in 1856 the
dismissed President was asserting "that both in law & equity
the college" was indebted to him to the extent of "from $600 to
$1200 at least." By that date the trustees had ceased to give any
consideration to his pleas.
Mahan could not forgive Finney for the
letter he had written from England supporting the faculty stand
against him. Mr. Dawes was undoubtedly expressing the former's
views when, in 1850, he declared the evangelist "guilty of
unchristian conduct" in writing as he did. But it was not until
1855 that Mahan unleashed his wrath upon Finney, his successor as
President of Oberlin. Then he undertook a desperate and wholesale
campaign of slander and defamation. To Lewis Tappan he declared
that, there had "been a sad declension in purity at Oberlin &
especially on the part of Mr. Finney." For the good of Oberlin, he
insisted, Finney ought to be asked to resign. When John G. Fee,
the Kentucky educator and abolitionist, visited Cleveland, Mahan
told him a story which greatly shocked Fee and Tappan and others
to whom the latter related it. Mr. Finney, said Mahan, in
conversing with a beautiful, young lady, remarked to her, "You
have the prettiest foot and ancle of any lady in Cleveland!" Of
course, the battle of spiritual titans was entertaining to the
irreligious, but to the friends of Christianity and Oberlin it was
a sad spectacle. Lewis Tappan took it upon himself to castigate
Mahan severely, "I fear that the origin of your feelings toward
Mr. F[inney], and Oberlin," he wrote to the slanderer,
"may be found in two things--wounded pride and excessive
self-esteem. The circumstances under which you left O. may have
embittered you against the Institution and the members of the
Faculty, while your self-esteem (which is extraordinarily
developed in you) may have been exceedingly wounded by remarks
that have been made . . . respecting you." In another letter he
put it even more bluntly: "Your mind has dwelt upon the subject so
long, and you are so self-conceited--so sensitive to your
reputation--so idolatrous of your influence that you have, I fain
believe, done immense injustice to Mr. F. and to yourself." It was
a great relief to all concerned when Mr. Mahan and Mr. Finney had
an interview and "mutually agreed to 'bridle the
tongue.'"
From 1855 to 1857 Mahan served as pastor of
the Congregational Church at Jackson, Michigan; in the latter year
he came to the Plymouth Church at Adrian. In 1859 Mahan secured
the removal of the nearly bankrupt Michigan Union College to
Adrian and had it reincorporated as Adrian College. He served as
president for a number of years. In 1865 we find him traveling
about raising money for a Methodist Protestant College in Akron,
of which he was to be president. In May he appeared again in the
Oberlin pulpit for the first time in fifteen years. During the
last years of his life he resided in England where he died on
April 4, 1889.
With all his shortcomings Mahan was
undoubtedly a man of force. When he was eliminated Oberlin
changed. The opposition to the "heathen classics" died down
because the leader of the movement was gone. "Sanctification" was
soon a matter for apology. From 1850 Oberlin moved away steadily
from radicalism toward moderation and from heresy toward
orthodoxy.
CHAPTER XXXI
HARD TIMES
AND THE
ENDOWMENT
THE funds secured in England by John Keep
and William Dawes were all used to pay debts and provide for
current needs. No permanent fund was established. "Endowments for
the Professorships of the Institution were not solicited," wrote
Keep and Dawes in their official report. "Reliance for the daily
food and raiment of the teachers is placed upon the daily bounty
of God, whose providence never fails his children when they do His
will and trust in Him. The friends of the Institution have it
still in charge to wait upon the Lord to learn what aid they may
still be required to afford to it."
There was really no noticeable improvement
in the finances of the institution. The professors almost never
received their full pay. In 1840 we are told that the "brethren by
going ragged (actually) and living upon the most frugal
principles, ease off from our Treasury as much as possible." Even
in 1841, when Keep and Dawes had just completed their successful
quest for money, the Institute owed the faculty between three and
four thousand dollars. The salaries of Mahan, Henry Cowles and T.
B. Hudson were over a year behind! Shipherd, on one occasion, was
unable to get his mail from the post office because he had no
money with which to pay postage. In 1843 the professors received
from the treasury an average of twenty dollars apiece and during
the preceding year only about fifty dollars each. At a meeting of
the faculty held late in the former year one member reported that
he had not yet been able to pay for the clothes he was wearing
though he had had them a year. Another said, "We have not a dollar
in our house, nor have we had for months." John Morgan wrote to
Mark Hopkins that he must spend the winter vacation in labor in
order to earn money enough to support himself the remainder of the
year. In the year 1845-46 Professor George N. Allen received
$88.00 from the College, $17.00 from the church and about $40.00
from piano pupils. Professor Dascomb received $210.00 in all in
the same year. Professor Finney was the only member of the faculty
who received his salary ($600.00) with anything like regularity,
the money for that specific purpose being furnished by a
philanthropist and friend, Josiah Chapin of Providence, Rhode
Island. When Shipherd died in 1844 the Institute owed his estate
over $1600.00. Amasa Walker was appointed Professor of Political
Economy not only because he was one of the leading American
economists and an outstanding reformer, but because he was a man
of considerable property and was willing to serve entirely without
salary. It was Professor Walker who, in the winter of 1843-44,
raised a hundred dollars in Boston and sent it on to Oberlin to be
used, as he put it, in "buying flour & other necessaries for
the faculty."
An attempt was made to balance the budget
in 1842. The trustees tried unsuccessfully to persuade the members
of the church to contribute a considerable proportion of the
salary of Professor and Pastor Finney. Outlays for construction
and repair were stopped as far as possible. The Prudential
Committee even refused to sanction expenditures of about thirty
dollars for repairs in Mrs. Mahan's kitchen. The buildings
suffered considerably from neglect. Threadbare and emaciated
students gathered in the classrooms of dilapidated buildings to
hear ragged professors sound the clarion call for world reform. In
the same year (1842) the trustees strove to secure further income
by charging tuition in the Collegiate Department, as they had not
done since 1835. But it was one thing to charge tuition and
another to collect it. In 1845 and 1846 students owed the
institution over five thousand dollars--and the Treasurer quite
frankly classified half their notes as "bad or doubtful." In 1846
Henry Cowles, who made a special investigation of the situation,
reported that "the evils of non-payment of debts here are becoming
enormous & seriously threaten the very existence of the
Institution."
Agents were kept constantly at work at home
and abroad seeking aid. The faculty and trustees themselves
contributed. Some was secured among the colonists. In 1844 a
"Student's Professorship Association" was formed among the alumni
to help support Professor James Fairchild, but the receipts were
never large. It was not that graduates and former students were
not loyal, but they, too, poor teachers, preachers and
missionaries for the most part, were struggling with poverty.
Gifts of goods: beef cattle, a "horse beast," grain, land, five
brass clocks from Plymouth Hollow, Ct., etc., were more numerous
than gifts of money. The cattle and grain could be eaten by
teachers and students but other gifts, especially land deeds, were
hard to realize on. The Gerrit Smith lands were a liability rather
than an asset. Another donation of land was gladly exchanged for a
herd of Durham cattle which Father Shipherd helped to drive in to
Oberlin from Michigan. Actual cash was hard to find in the
depression of the early forties. Usually the best that could be
done was to secure loans and collect promises--subscriptions, they
were called.
Many of these subscriptions were never
paid, for one reason or another. Some had subscribed beyond their
ability to pay. Others backed out because of Oberlin heresies. A
subscriber from Fitchburg, Massachusetts, wrote to the Secretary
in 1845: "I do not feel disposed to pay [my subscription]
as I was altogether deceived about the character of the
Institution when I made [it] .... What little fruits of
your peculiar doctrines are seen in this vicinity are not such as
we New EngIanders can in any way fellowship & therefore you
will not think it strange that I can not with my present views pay
you anything more." And then there was the man who wrote: "I owe
only $5.00 and it is not a willing offering. The institution is
not such an institution as I supposed it would be when I
subscribed .... I have had a five dollar note on the Miami
Exporting Company which I designed to send you for some time ....
I know there is some discount on the money now ... I have felt
& now feel that it will answer my conscience to pay that bill
and therefore will send it to you for the remainder of the
subscription." Undoubtedly many subcriptions were paid in that
kind of money! Three years later Miami Exporting Bank notes were
worth 65¢ on the dollar. There was a good chance that notes
of the Exchange Bank of Cincinnati would be contributed as they
were, at one time, worth only 12 cents on the dollar. Bank notes
of other institutions were at a discount of 5, 10, 20, 50, and 75
Percent! Even when an agent did obtain money instead of promises
it was necessary to check up to see if it was worth
anything!!
By 1845 the institutional debt had reached
sixteen thousand dollars, an amount equal to the total budget for
two entire years. At the August meeting of the trustees the
"Special Committee on Retrenchment" reported: "We feel that
Something ought and must be done, & yet we feel, that without
the interposition of him to whom belongs the Gold & Silver,
& in whose hands are the hearts of men, we are Bankrupt, &
the enterprise must be abandoned." Amasa Walker declared that if a
vigorous effort was not immediately made to liquidate the debts it
would be necessary to "wind up the affairs of the Corporation by a
sale of its property for the benefit of its creditors." The
non-payment of these obligations not only injured the Institute
financially but threatened to alienate valuable friends, many of
whom were among its creditors. A thousand dollars was owed to
Josiah Chapin of Rhode Island; nearly fifteen hundred of I. M.
Dimond's loan was unpaid; over nine hundred dollars was still due
Elizur Goodrich for mulberry trees bought in 1836! Just three
weeks before the trustees assembled, an additional loan of five
hundred dollars had been greedily accepted.
A high-pressure campaign was put on by
Oberlin's financial agents, the inveterate Dawes, Sherlock Bristol
and Joab Seeley, fortunately all remarkably industrious,
persistent and self-sacrificing solicitors. Dawes, himself, gave
five hundred; Amasa Walker gave five hundred and I. P. Williston
of Northampton and Elizur Goodrich contributed similar amounts.
Lewis Tappan gave a thousand dollars, likewise Samuel D. Porter,
the Rochester Finney convert and member of the Board of Trustees.
Philo Penfield Stewart, forgiving Oberlin for its slights "until
seventy times seven," contributed two thousand dollars, despite
the fact that he had given five hundred just the year before.
Members of the faculty also helped by contributing large sums on
paper from their unpaid back salaries. President Mahan led off
munificently with $500.00. Early in 1846 it was announced that
sufficient subscriptions had been received to clear up the
debt.
As a precaution against running in debt
again, the trustees decided that teachers disabled by ill-health
or absent from exercises on their own business should not be paid,
and that unpaid back salaries should not constitute a legal claim
upon the corporation. It had been the original idea of Shipherd
and Stewart that "self-denying" teachers, who would require no
fixed salary but merely enough to support their families, should
provide the instruction in the Oberlin Collegiate Institute.
Neither of the founders received a regular salary himself. The
munificent foundation of 1835 had resulted in the dropping of this
conception and the establishment of fixed and comparatively high
salaries. In the hard times of the forties, when it was hardly
ever certain from day to day whether the institution could
continue, there were some, especially Dawes and Sherlock Bristol,
who felt that faculty salaries were too high and that, like the
founders, they ought to be grateful for whatever the charitable
might contribute, giving themselves gladly to the great task of
educating teachers and preachers for the "Valley of Dry Bones."
Perhaps the faculty had lost some of the missionary zeal which
animated the founders; perhaps they had never had it as Shipherd
had. Anyway they insisted not only that their salaries be paid
when possible but that the institutional indebtedness to them be
considered at least on a par with the indebtedness to outsiders.
Some teachers refused to make even nominal contributions until the
trustees' ruling on this matter was revoked. Lewis Tappan came
zealously to their support, denouncing the trustees' policy in
repeated letters to Mahan, Dawes, Bristol, Hill and Finney. "And
then [as to] the resolution that the Trustees will not be
obliged to make up any deficiency in the salaries of the
Professors! If I do not mistake this, if persisted in [it]
will be a severe blow to the Institute," he wrote to Dawes in
March. "No literary or theological institution," he added, "can
flourish if the professors are not free from disturbing cares
about supporting their families .... As a friend of the
Institution I beg you, dear brother, to get that resolution
repealed." Some members of the faculty, including Finney (Chapin
having stopped his gifts), were seriously considering resigning in
protest; William Cochran, Professor of Logic, actually did so.
When the trustees met again in August, 1846, the faculty submitted
an ultimatum demanding that the right of professors or their heirs
to sue for the recovery of back salary be recognized, and that if
the time should ever come when the Institute's liabilities
equalled or exceeded its assets it should "be the duty of the
Treasurer or Corresponding Secretary immediately to call a joint
meeting of the Faculty & Board of Trust for consultation." The
trustees, faced by the united faculty and whipped into line by
Tappan, capitulated; the faculty recommendation was adopted, and
the stultifying regulation with regard to salaries thus
repealed.
Serious efforts were made to make the books
balance. The regular Alumni Dinner at the 1846 Commencement seems
to have been called off to save money. The faculty members agreed
to reductions in their nominal salaries. Nevertheless, in the next
fiscal year the current expenses exceeded the ordinary receipts by
over two thousand dollars "showing to a certainty that without the
prompt application of some preventive the Institution will soon
become bankrupt." Timothy Hudson hesitated to reenter the faculty
for fear that salaries would be further reduced or paid only in
part. Though Hudson did come in, other members of the staff
resigned or were dropped: W. W. wright in 1846, George Whipple in
1847; Henry Cowles in 1847, and James A. Thome in 1849. There was
an effort in 1846 to secure the resignation of Hamilton Hill in
order that he might give way to a cheaper "ready writer." Whipple
resigned to accept an attractive offer as secretary of the
American Missionary Association, but the discontinuance of service
of Wright, Cowles, and Thome was directly related to the effort to
balance the budget. In 1849 another special effort to raise funds
was made in order to provide absolutely necessary repairs for the
buildings.
It was in 1849 that Hamilton Hill went to
Paris to the Peace Congress, leaving the keeping of the books to a
clerk by the name of Wyett. The casual comments of the latter
entered in the Treasurer's Day Book give us an excellent picture
of the financial state of the Institute: "Oberlin, June 27,
1849
Treasurer Hill this day delivered up the
keys to his 'Pro Tem,' there being 76 cents in the vaults."
"Thursday, June 28
Stood at the bar and said 'no money' to
sundry destressed applicants till 3 o'clock .... "
"July 7, 1849
Well, Saturday P.M. has come again and we
have to record dull times."
"Monday morning, July 9
Got my mouth all made up to take in a
little cash this morning. A student . . . called to pay his
tuition, but as might be expected he roused out a parcel of old
junk in the shape of 'Treas. O.C.I. Pay etc.'"
"July 11
Be it remembered that this day we took in a
little cash (5.52) but 'tis used up in advance, we having begged
from the building fund to save ourselves from prison."
Among these comments are regular business
entries of various sorts: payment for "candles for prayer
meeting," credits to students for manual labor performed, a
statement of merchandise "exchanged for a watch," a cash payment
to Jacob Dolson Cox for services as an assistant teacher, orders
for meat on local butchers issued to Professor Fairchild and Dr.
Dascomb in lieu of salary overdue. The Pro Tem Treasurer's last
comment is dated:
"October 27, 1849
And now, farewell! Past all doubt Pro Tem
had made his last 'Entry'....
"In taking leave of thee, dirty Blotter, I
return thee thanks for the kindly assistance which thy smutty face
has rendered in the financial campaign of 4 months which we have
fought together. Pity thou couldst not take on a new dress before
the esquire resumes his pen, but he has doubtless returned
profoundly impressed with sentiments of Peace, & no doubt will
permit thee to accompany thy associate Pro Tem into honorable
retirement.
"May his honor every morning be greeted by
a clean floor, a bright fire, & till full of cash.
"Bowing out at the back door, we repeat,
farewell!
Pro tem"
But it was to be some time before Hamilton
Hill was to have a full till.
Hope was long held out that the Gerrit
Smith lands in Virginia would be a source of income of importance.
The disposal of half of them to Arthur Tappan as a final payment
on the debt to him had been a benefit to Oberlin, it is true, but
it had not brought in cash, and cash was what was needed. The
remaining ten thousand acres caused the trustees a tremendous
amount of trouble and turned out in the end to be a financial
mirage. Strenuous efforts were made to sell out at as low as 25
cents an acre. Two sales were actually made. One-quarter payment
was made on the first sale (1851), and then the College was forced
to foreclose the mortgage which it held as security. After the
sale in 1853 the trustees took the land back when the purchasers
pled that they had supposed that the title was clear, but found it
much incumbered with rival claims.
It was plain that Oberlin must clear its
title or give up hope of getting anything out of it. According to
the best legal advice, one claim covering about four thousand of
the ten thousand acres, was superior to Oberlin's claim. The
College wisely dropped its effort to establish title to that tract
and concentrated on the remaining six thousand acres or more. To
this latter tract the Gerrit Smith-Oberlin title seems to have
been good. Squatters, however, had settled on the best of it, and,
when eviction proceedings were started, many technical obstacles
appeared. Because of a minor imperfection in the Smith deed all of
the heirs of Peter Smith, Gerrit Smith's father, had to sign a
quit claim to Oberlin. This was done with considerable trouble.
But new technicalities were then produced and thus the litigation
dragged on. The squatters had a great advantage in "the deeply
rooted prejudice against not only Oberlin but the 'Yankees'
generally." Oberlin's agents, Virginia lawyers, were half-hearted
in their efforts. When the war broke out the matter was still
unsettled, but the squatters were in possession. After the war
litigation was resumed and eventually the case was fought through
nobly --but unsuccessfully--by Theodore Burton. The mineral rights
of a very small tract (it is in the oil region) have been retained
by the College and small royalties are received on
them.
In order to keep the institution going,
Oberlin's agents must be constantly a-begging. It was the old
story. In the spring of 1850 Professor Morgan described the
situation in a letter to Finney: "We are much pressed for funds.
We are not in receipt of half of our Salaries." He continued: "We
have thought again seriously of the endowment of the Institution
as the only thing which can save us from destruction." Even
Oberlin's best friends tired eventually of the continual demand
for money. "Oberlin, they say, is like the horse leach, crying,
give, give, give, and you can never satisfy her." If Oberlin could
only be endowed and have a regular and dependable income then much
of this begging could be eliminated.
There had been serious talk of attempting
to secure an endowment at least as early as 1848, the trustees
having discussed the possibility of raising $200,000 by the sale
of scholarships at their annual meeting in August of that year. A
year later they resolved "that the Faculty be requested to make an
effort to raise $50,000 by donations." The project was presented
to Oberlin's best friends, and the officers of other colleges were
asked for advice. Some favored the idea but many opposed.
Nevertheless, it seemed to be the only alternative to extinction
and so, in the autumn of 1850, the great effort began. The plan
was to get as much as possible by donations and the rest by the
sale of scholarships at one hundred, fifty, and twenty-five
dollars each. The agents would secure negotiable notes, and, when
the one-hundred-thousand desired was obtained, the cash would be
collected and the scholarships distributed. If this amount was not
obtained by January 1, 1853, the whole transaction would be void,
thus friends of Oberlin were encouraged to give to the limit in
order to save the other subscriptions. Those who bought the
hundred-dollar perpetual scholarships were entitled to free
tuition for themselves, their children or assigns forever. The
fifty-dollar certificates were for eighteen years' tuition, the
twenty-five dollar ones for six years'. The hundred thousand was
to be invested when obtained, and the income, which it was hoped
would be from six to eight thousand dollars, used to pay fifteen
to twenty teachers an average of $400.00 a year. Thus Oberlin
College (no longer Collegiate Institute) would obtain a permanent
financial foundation.
In this financial campaign agents were able
to appeal to the self-interest of prospective subscribers,
pointing out to them that an investment in one of these
scholarships would be very profitable for their children, laying
"up in the way for them the means of securing that education which
fire cannot consume, nor the vicissitudes of commerce snatch from
their hands." At the same time the benevolence of clients was
appealed to and Oberlin's record exhibited. Oberlin claimed the
aid of the philanthropic because of its provisions for student
self-support and physical training in the manual labor system,
because of the unique success of "joint education," because of the
great number of schoolteachers trained there for the education of
the West, and above all, because of the Institution's work in the
field of reform and in the promotion of "a liberal yet aggressive
and Evangelicat piety."
The colonists and teachers in Oberlin
started the campaign off with a contribution totalling twenty
thousand dollars. Professor Timothy B. Hudson and Father Keep went
East together by way of Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Pittsburgh
produced nothing. Philadelphia, where the Quakers objected to
contributing to a sectarian college, gave only a little over two
thousand dollars. Receipts in New York were small also, though
Lewis Tappan promised one thousand dollars and Horace Greeley gave
a hundred. In Boston they found that Mahan and Dawes had been hard
at work for some time soliciting money for Cleveland University
from Oberlin's former patrons and conducting an "insidious"
campaign to undermine "confidence in Oberlin." On his way back to
Ohio Hudson stopped at Peterboro and interviewed Gerrit Smith, who
received him with his usual graciousness, stated his financial
inability to contribute in a large way, but on Hudson's departure
pressed two hundred dollars into his hand. Hudson's and Keep's
mission cannot be considered a success, netting, as it did, only
ten thousand dollars, some of it in land and cancelled
notes.
But other agents were busy nearer at home
where, for obvious reasons, the scholarships were more in demand.
Among these agents were Charles H. Penfield (step-son of Henry
Cowles), Henry E. Whipple, Wallcott B. Williams, Miner Fairfield
and the brilliant young Professor James Monroe. Monroe was
outstandingly successful, securing over two thousand dollars in
Pittsfield alone!! By Commencement, 1851, 1450 scholarships had
been sold and $80,000 of the $100,000 derived had been subscribed.
In the early autumn the campaign dragged, but, late in January,
1852, it was announced that the hundred thousand mark had been
reached. Oberlin had an endowment!
Theological education in the West seems to
have decidedly declined in popularity in the fifties. The
Theological Department died out in Western Reserve College. The
classes at Lane Theological Seminary were less than half as large
in the fifties as in the forties. The seminary at Oberlin seemed
to be on the wane too, only twenty students being enrolled in
1852. In order to save the Theological Department, therefore, a
department which seemed to the trustees and faculty the very
marrow of the institution, it was determined, as soon as the
general endowment had been completed, to attempt a special fifty
thousand dollar endowment for the teaching of Theology. In this
effort wealthy patrons were depended upon for large donations, it
being highly impractical to attempt the sale of special
scholarships as long as tuition was free anyway in that
department. The sum desired was not secured, but Willard Sears of
Boston, Lewis Tappan and others saw to it that the seminary was
kept going. A renewed attempt to complete the endowment was made
in the late fifties with Henry Cowles as agent. But another period
of hard times had set in, and again it failed, though some twenty
thousand dollars in cash, notes and other credits was secured,
enough to pay the professors of Theology (J. H. Fairchild had
become Associate Professor of Systematic Theology in 1859) and
maintain the department for a few years longer.
But nothing is ever really finished. As
soon as the $100,000.00 subscription had been completed the agents
were sent back over their tracks to collect. Sometimes, as usual,
goods had to be accepted in lieu of cash; twenty-five Webster's
Dictionaries (which the College seemed to have no use for and
immediately sold at 25% discount), a harness turned in for a
$50.00 scholarship, a hundred-dollars' worth of stock in the Rock
Creek and Trumbull Plank Road Co., and a fraudulent mortgage from
H. C. Taylor. As the funds had to be reinvested anyway, the
College was glad to take a mortgage on the good property of
subscribers and then merely collect interest on the amount
subscribed. The collection of these small amounts of interest and
the supervision of the many mortgages, including those made as
security for new loans, was a complicated and laborious task. A
good many subscribers did not pay at all, and there was often
difficulty in collecting interest, so that a large number of petty
legal suits had to be instigated in the next few years. On the
part of those who had overestimated their future wealth when
making subscriptions there were many requests for release. If such
release was granted it was usually on the condition of the payment
of interest. The fund collected or secured reached $70,000 in
August, 1853, and $30,000 in 1860," a fairly good percentage when
we consider the hard times and loose business practices of the
times. In the late fifties and sixties the general budget came
very close to balancing from year to year!! This was an
achievement.
It should not be supposed that the faculty
were immediately transported to a bed of roses. On the contrary,
their teaching burden was enormously increased and their salaries
grew steadily less adequate as general prices advanced. From 571
in 1851 the total number of students leaped to 1020 in 1852, and
to 1305 in 1853! Besides, the new accessions seemed to be on the
whole less mature, and had "less fixedness and rigidity of
character," thus requiring closer attention on the part of the
teaching and administrative staff. To keep down the number of
students, agents solicited the donation of scholarships as well as
cash and thus began the retirement of the certificates. It was
unfortunate that the endowment should have been secured just
before the general price level, and therefore the cost of living,
began to go up rapidly. As early as 1855 an effort was made to
raise money for salaries, but not for ten years was any
considerable advance made.
The significance of the establishment of
the endowment is not that it in any way added to the luxuries or
even comforts of the faculty but that it assured Oberlin College
of permanence.
A BALLAD OF OBERLIN*
there is a Place that growes in
grace
a Plase of great repute
the Plase i mene is Christian beene
the oberlin institute
the Eastern fees blow down the trees
& turns out Evry best
& Pedlars ther i do
declare
are turning into Pristes
the Studians all from Evry
Call
& likewise Evry quarter
to Clear thair head Eat Nought but bred
with a Little Salt &
watter
freedom thay Cry the time is Nigh
that Negroes must be free
the autintot must leave his Cot
and vile barberity
the Place growes well & who Can tel
what providence may Deeme
thay bilt a SCoole to teach a
foole
& made it go by Steame
all you that want a berth
to Live quite free from Sin
you must go to ohio
& Live in . . . oberlin.
*Literally transcribed from a contemporary
manuscript in the Oberlin College Library .
Volume
II
BOOK
FOUR
Learning and
Labor
"Each student belongs still to the world,
not isolated from sympathies and obligations and activities. The
ends he pursues are such as appeal to men in general, the
reputation he desires is the same that will serve him in the work
of life, and the motives to excellence are the natural motives
which operate on men at large .... The college is a place for
education, not merely for the acquisition of learning .... The
great object is such a discipline as is qualified for service in
the world."
JAMES HARRIS FAIRCHlLD, Inaugural
Address
as President of Oberlin College, August
22, 1866.
"The administration of the college was
certainly of a high order; its discipline and control of a
thousand students--adolescents of both sexes--I believe to be
unequaled in success. Indeed the chief merit of the Oberlin
community to my mind is to have evolved such an educational
institution, in whose spirit the pupil's participation was itself
an education apart from its curriculum of studies.
[¶] On the other hand there was weakness in
instruction; ... though it certainly was equal to the average of
Western Colleges of that time."
DENTON JAQUES SNIDER (A. B.,
1862),
A Writer of Books (St. Louis--n. d.),
156-157.
CHAPTER
XXXII
THE STUDENTS--PIOUS AND
PRUDENT
APPROXIMATELY eleven thousand men and women
and boys and girls were enrolled in all branches of the
institution from 1833 through 1866. Of these about 6500 were males
and a little over 4800, females. Eleven thousand youths thus came
under the influence of Finney and Mahan and learned to love
religion and the reform causes.
The age of graduation from the Collegiate
Department was considerably higher than it is today--about
twenty-five years as compared to twenty-two years at present. The
trend here evidenced began early, the faculty taking official
cognizance of the fact that students were younger and less mature
in a report issued in 1855. In the Civil war years graduates
averaged about a year younger than in the previous period. There
was a great range in ages as a result of the presence, at one
extreme, of the youngsters in the Preparatory Department and, at
the other, of the family men in the "Shorter Course" and
Theological Department. On the roll books for the years 1852
through 1854 the ages of 490 students in all departments are
given. Among them were six who were twenty-six years old, two who
were twenty-seven, two who were twenty-eight and one, thirty-six.
The average of all was nearly nineteen years despite the fact that
thirty-nine sixteen-year-olds, thirty-seven fifteen-year-olds, and
twenty-four under fifteen were included from the ranks of the
Preparatory Department. The total range in this period was from
eleven to thirty-six.
The students were almost all farmers' sons
and daughters with pious intentions, poor preparation and little
money. A young man who, in 1836, had just transferred from Yale,
found them "coarse and green . . . but noble, good hearted,
pious." To him they appeared "far different from those at New
Haven, very friendly indeed, rugged & healthy." He was almost
disappointed, however, at their dress, for he did "not see that
their clothing appears inferior as a general thing to what is
ordinarily found in society." "To be sure," he continued, "we have
no fops and dandies--nor is it any disgrace to wear coarse &
patched clothes. But many dress rich & elegant." The sunburn
of manual labor must have lent the men at least the appearance of
health and ruggedness. Professor John Morgan wrote his impression
of Oberlin to Mark Hopkins in the same year:" . . . The people are
genuine Yankees of the best class of plain farmers .... The
students, though many of them crude, are a fine set of young men
.... "
That the students were of New England
farmer stock appears from a study of their home addresses. Of the
162 enrolled in the Collegiate and Theological courses in 1836,
all but ten came from New England, New York or Ohio! New York led
with 72; Ohio followed with 44; New England sent 39. Of the ten
from elsewhere, one was from Ireland, one from England and one
from Alabama. There were 310 students in the entire institution,
New York sending 120 to Ohio's 112, Massachusetts' 24, and
Vermont's 16. In the following year 92 of the total number of male
students came from New York and 66 from Ohio. New England
contributed 45. Almost all of these were from rural areas. As
Oberlin was founded and led chiefly by New York Yankees it is not
surprising to see New Yorkers predominating in the early years. By
1840 Ohio had surpassed New York in the contribution of students
to the advanced course, but New York was still unchallenged in
second place. In 1850 more states were represented, but the
relationship between Ohio, New York and New England remained about
the same. Three students from Scotland and one from Ireland
appeared; Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois sent 16 together. By
1860 the Oberlin student body had become more localized on the
Western Reserve, as will be seen from the maps. Of the 221 persons
registered in the Collegiate and Theological departments, 115 gave
an Ohio home address. Only 30 hailed from New York, 14 from
Michigan and only 18 from all New England. Of the thirteen hundred
students in all departmerits over nine hundred were Ohioans,
mostly from the Western Reserve. Oberlin was becoming more
provincial, one of "the Ohio colleges." That this was a long-time
trend and not a temporary swing is seen from the fact that in 1866
only about a quarter of all the students and only 48 of the 132 in
the Collegiate and Theological departments were from outside Ohio.
This change, however, should not obscure the major consideration
that, throughout the period, Oberlin students came largely from
the area settled by New Englanders and were predominately of
Yankee stock.
The hundreds of letters from candidates for
admission still preserved in the archives of the College are our
best source of information on the ambitions and professed motives
of Oberlin students, From them it may be safely inferred that the
manual labor system was Oberlin's greatest drawing card. It seemed
as if every indigent young man or woman north of Mason and Dixon's
Line in search of an education looked to Oberlin as the answer to
prayer.
Their poverty was undoubtedly their chief
reason for preferring the manual labor system, A typical applicant
wrote to President Mahan in 1848: "Hearing of your highly
commendible school and that it is sustained by the plan of Manual
Labor, where those who have a thirst for the waters of the Pierian
Spring and have not the pecuniary means of Satisfying it are . . .
Instructed, fed and all their wants suplyed at the christal fount
of knowledge by simply performing a few hours labor on the farm
belonging to the Institute, I therefore wish to know the
particulars in relation to the school." In 1845 a former Oberlin
student recommended a friend for admission: "He is desirous of
getting an education with a view to the Ministry & greater
usefulness. But he is poor having not much else than his mortal
body, His friends that would help him are also poor. He turns
imploringly to you as a 'brother having need,' trusting that you
have 'bowels of compassion.'" Mary Lyon applied for a place for a
nephew, one of nine children, who had "nothing of his own" and
could not expect "anything from his father," but was an "able,
skilful laborer on the farm." Charles Livingstone, brother of the
explorer, "resolved to go to Oberlin tho' he 9had] nothing
beyond his industry to depend upon" because of the attraction of
the self-supporting system, and this all the way from Glasgow,
too. Everything points to the conclusion that Oberlin was the true
"poor man's college," and manual labor, more than anything else,
made it that.
One suspects that this financial motive was
often basic with those who gave other reasons for selecting
Oberlin. A number however, stated that they were attracted by the
manual labor system because their health demanded physical
exercise.--"Having experienced in some degree the evil effects
which result from a close application to studdy without physical
exercise I am anxious to obtain a place where Manual Labor is
connected with an institution for the benefit of the students." So
wrote R. D. Hathaway to President Mahan, and others found it
"indispensable" to their health, "to take considerable exercise in
the form of manual labor."
Young ladies, too, were often attracted by
the prospect of paying at least part of their expenses through
their own exertions. When Susan Hooker wrote to the Secretary in
1839, she was careful to state that she was "fond of domestic
labor, and," she added, "it agrees with me." There were
undoubtedly many, however, who felt as did the sister of an
Oberlin student who wrote to him: "I have no desire to cast in my
lot at Oberlin yet... I do not like to wash, scrub floors, milk
&c. &c. for a living, as long as I can get along without
it." Nevertheless, this same young woman was in Oberlin within a
year washing and scrubbing, if not milking, to help pay for her
education. A faculty committee on manual labor reported to the
trustees in 1845 its belief that "very few would ever enter the
Inst here if they were not encouraged to expect that labor would
be furnished them sufficient to enable them to pay a great part of
their expenses."
Marcus W. Fay may be taken as typical. In a
letter written to Secretary Burnell in 1841 he gave his reasons
and qualifications for coming to Oberlin: "First to obtain an
education by my own exertions without involving myself in debt,
Secondly the religious character of the institution. My object in
seeking an education, is a preparation for the gospel ministry. I
am poor, but have the blessing of health, I am in my 23 year, and
have followed farming as an occupation, except when studying or
teaching." Probably the great majority of young men going to
college in the early nineteenth century were impelled to do so by
religious motives. At a missionary institution like Oberlin this
was practically universally the case. Finney's reputation as an
evangelist, Mahan's unorthodox advocacy of perfectionism, and the
wide circulation of the Oberlin Evangelist attracted many zealous
young souls who thought themselves called to the ministry or
missionary service.
One youth, anxious to enjoy the advantages
of "the Oberlin institution," appealed to a local minister for
assistance in securing admission: "I feel very anxious to come. My
mind is drawn out after ciance. I want to prepare for the
ministry. My mind is drawn out some for poor heathen souls. I have
no peace of mind when I give up the thoughts of being a minister
for Christ. I feel like droping every thing and prepare for the
ministry." Doubtless most of the youth who entered Oberlin felt it
their "duty to go and proclaim the glad tidings of the gospel unto
thousands that sit in darkness and in the region and shadow of
Death."
Shipherd had early preached the advantages
of preparing for religious work in the West in a western school.
Easterners who hoped to take part in the harvest in the Great
Valley were apparently often attracted to Oberlin for this reason.
In 1836, Elam J. Comings, then a sophomore at the University of
Vermont, transferred to Oberlin. Let him give his motives for
doing so in his own words:
"My reasons for leaving that institution,
and seeking another are simply these. My first and principal
reason is--I wish to go where more prominence is given to
religious education. It is a notorious fact that while the
officers of the University are diligent and unsparing in their
efforts to thoroughly discipline the intellectual powers, they
wofully neglect the moral training of their Students. And a second
reason has regard to expense. It is quite unpopular for Students
to labor at all at Burlington, and indeed were it otherwise in
this respect, as things are now situated, it would be a difficult
matter to obtain work to do. And as a third reason for coming I
would say, I have for a long time been anxious to spend my life,
after I shall have finished my preparatory course of study, in the
West: and think that it would, on some accounts, be desirable to
finish my studies there. Such as becoming habituated to the
climate, acquainted with the people, etc."
The young ladies, too, seem to have been
prompted often by pious intentions. Sometime early in 1836,
forty-six young ladies, members of the institution, prepared
statements, each giving her home address, date of birth, date of
entering Oberlin, residence in Oberlin and future intentions. Of
the forty who included statements with regard to their intentions,
seventeen definitely mentioned missionary work as a possible or
probable future employment. Cornelia Barnes was studying "to
prepare for Foreign Miss. Labor, Teaching, Translating Scriptures
etc." Elizabeth Humphrey declared: "Have long contemplated the
field of Foreign Missions, and if the 'Lord wills' hope to get to
enlist in that glorious cause." Others were less specific.
Florella Brown, half-sister of John Brown, later of Harper's
Ferry, merely stated that she designed "to prepare herself for
usefulness in whatever field the Lord [might] see fit to
place her." Several others preferred to limit themselves to
similar pious generalizations. Of the seventeen who considered
mission work a field of possible "future usefulness," five
mentioned teaching as an alternative. Twelve referred to teaching
alone. Therefore it would appear that teaching and spreading the
Gospel among the heathen were close rivals for popularity among
the Oberlin young ladies in the early days. That another ambition
was really in many of their minds is certain, but none of them was
so bold as to write that she hoped to marry an eligible young
minister. Perhaps that is what was meant by those who discoursed
vaguely about preparing "for laboring more efficiently in the
vineyard of Christ."
It was not unusual for a young man and a
young lady to come to Oberlin together, enjoy each other's company
as much as the rules allowed in this coeducational institution and
marry on the completion of their course. A student, Ralph Tyler,
wrote to Secretary Burnell in November, 1837:
"You will conclude at once that I am not
very formal, and perhaps not formal enough. The object of this
letter is to apply for admission in behalf of a lady who has a
mind to come to Oberlin with me early in the Spring.
". . . The Lady is Sarah Ann Lay of
Westbrook this state, a plain farmers daughter brought up to the
useful employments of domestic life. She became a school teacher
at 15 & has taught every summer since & one or two
winters. She has had little advantage in select schools. She has
been a member of the church for some years. She seems to have
gained universal confidence in the different towns where she has
taught. She seems very desirous to be prepaired for the greatest
usefulness in her Master's cause &, in view of considerations
which I presented, she & her parents have concluded that
Oberlin is the place for such preparations. We have looked over
the catalogue together and conclude she can prepare by spring to
enter the middle class.
"This is desirable that she may finish her
education at the same time I close mine, for (in confidence) we
have concluded after about a years correspondence and an interview
of late to become companions & fellow laborers in due
time."
As students were not permitted to "form the
marriage connection" while members of the Institute, it is
probable that courses were often cut short when such conditions
obtained. Miss Lay completed her preparation for "greatest
usefulness" the very next year and became Mrs. Tyler in 1838.
Incidentally, Mr. Tyler's frank description of his fiancee might
be taken as a good picture of the typical Oberlin student girl in
the early days.
Undoubtedly many young women were attracted
to Oberlin merely because there were so few places where girls
were admitted at all to the opportunities of an advanced education
and because Oberlin was everywhere known to be devoted to the
elevation of the "neglected sex." There were some, also, who felt
that many female seminaries were too worldly. "I have felt
unwilling to go to most of our Seminaries, where the great object
is to make mere butterflies of females," wrote Achsah Colburn, who
attended from 1837 to 1841. "I wish to go where not only the
intellect, but the moral principle will be cultivated,
disciplined, and trained for active service in the vineyard of the
Lord." It is evidence of the common attitude toward the position
of women that a large proportion of the young ladies were modestly
presented as candidates for admission by near male relatives
rather than venturing brazenly to address the august college
officials themselves. Even the feminist Lucy Stone called on her
brother to make application for admission for her. When one did
dare to write in her own behalf it was, as in the case of Almira
Welch, "with no ordinary feelings of embarrassment."
It is probably partly because of this
circumstance that the young women appear more commonly to have
been "sent" to school, whereas the majority of young men seem to
have entered on their own initiative. One father sent his daughter
to Oberlin partly to break up an engagement which did not suit the
family. Occasional sons were also "sent." Another parent
explained: "I wish to have my son educated at Oberlin, as I
believe there is a higher stand of piety there than at any other
Institution, and the moral influence of the community better than
at any other place. I know of no other place where I should feel
so safe in sending him." The son, it seems, preferred "some
Eastern Institution where he thinks the literary advantages are
greater than at Oberlin," but the father felt that there was a
better chance of his being converted at the pious new college in
the West.
The reasons presented by an ambitious
blacksmith for desiring to place his daughter in Oberlin are
characteristic: "We are unable to sustain her at any but a Manual
Labour Institution. And we also have confidence that there the
heart will be cultivated, as well as the mind. And though away
from Parents, she will be surrounded by religious influence
instead of worldly. And again we sympathize with the Oppressed and
those who have no comforter, and we wish our Child to be with
those who do so preeminently, manifesting it by their works."
Hundreds of Oberlin's best friends were attracted to her support
by her stand on the great moral questions of the day, particularly
because of her sympathy for the "Oppressed."
One young man expressed "a strong desire to
go" to Oberlin because "it possesses an Abolition sentiment of
which I am peculiarly fond." An apprentice "in the office of the
Alton Observer, edited by Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy," the Illinois
Martyr, planned to enter Oberlin in preference to any other
school. Oberlin's abolition principles were so well known that it
is doubtful if any would come who did not sympathize with the
"downtrodden slaves." The youth who wrote from Hartford shortly
after being liberated from jail, in which he was confined "for
refusing to violate his conscience" in "performing military duty,"
doubtless had some inkling of the fact that a Non-Resistance
Society was forming in Oberlin, or at least that Oberlin might be
expected to favor the pacifist point of view.
Of course, also, there were many
applications from colored men and women, because the fact that
Oberlin admitted Negroes and that they were well treated had been
advertised by the press throughout the English-speaking world.
"Having heard however that you the people of Oberlin take a
delight in helping to elevate the down trodden of your country I
take this opportunity in order to address you in my own behalf,"
wrote one Negro from Pittsburgh in 1846. In the same year a young,
black barber wrote to President Mahan:
"I succeeded in walking out of Slavery on
the 22d of April last. I am now in Marion County Ohio where I have
worked five months for my board and 3 months Schooling which I am
now receiving. I can read a little and write such a hand as you
here see.
"Dear sir I understand that you are a lover
of liberty not for the white man alone but for all of every Clime
and of every Color, and that the literary institution over which
you preside is a philanthropic institution seeking to dispense the
blessings of knowledge to as many of the human race as possible.
And therefore I feel emboldened to address you and to request
admission as a student if there is any hope of my getting along
there."
These Negroes, were, of course, even more
certain to be poor than were the whites, and it is probable that
this applicant, like many others, failed to enter because of the
slight prospect of his obtaining work sufficient for his
support.
Oberlin's reputation as a school where
colored students would be received (believed, in fact, by many to
be exclusively for Negroes) was so widespread that youths of the
darker hue asking for advice as to where they might receive an
education, were almost certain to be referred to it. "I doubt not
Sir but that you are acquainted with the Hon. Mr. M. M. Clark
agent for the Ohio School Institution," wrote another colored man.
"He was remarking to me when last in Wheeling that Oberlin would
be a very good place for my brother and by the request of my
mother I write to you to see If upon what terms they take
students. I have a couple of brothers who have been raised, as you
may almost term it, in the arms of base and degraded servility
with but very little education. It is my wish that they should be
well educated if it takes all my labour." In 1855 Lewis Tappan
wrote to Oberlin asking if the daughters of "a respectable colored
man who lives in the vicinity" and who had "been to California and
. . . made money" might be received. Tappan's application in their
behalf would, of course, alone have been sufficient to secure a
favorable reply. A business firm in Boston wrote early in the
sixties to inquire whether "a very intelligent Mulatto" in their
employ might obtain an education at Oberlin, and in 1859 William
Lloyd Garrison inquired of Professor Monroe whether an opening
could be found at Oberlin for "an amiable and worthy colored youth
(handsome and but slightly tinctured with African blood, about 19
or 20 years of age), to obtain an education .... by paying his way
by some sort of manual labor."
Some seemed to think that Oberlin was an
asylum for colored undesirables. A slaveholder-by-chance wrote to
an Oberlin townsman from Tennessee:
"Dear Sir--The Oberlin Institution being
open for the education of all classes, poor ignorant black or
white, it is altogether probably that I shall send a black girl
now about 14 years of age to it, at the best practical moment. I
am married to a southern lady who received the girl, as her
servant, from her father. By the law of the State I am regarded as
her Master and Proprietor. My wife dislikes her on some futile
ground and wishes me to dispose of her. Negroes sell very high at
this time. I could get 700 to $800 for her. But I have no notion,
thank the Lord, of doing any such thing either to please my wife
or for money. She will become free by being carried into Ohio. But
she is not fit for freedom without some education. She has many of
the defects of the race--Shiftlessness &c--however has as far
as can be observed no lewd tendencies. Please inform me of the
cost of boarding tuition &c per session and
oblige."
During the Civil War, Finney's
brother-in-law wrote from Michigan, recommending a freedman for
admission to the institution though, he admitted, "he can now
barely read a little." Pencilled on the back of his letter is a
note: "Wrote that cd not receive the man unless he cd enter the
classes & even then we have no fund that cd be appropriated to
pay his expenses." Negroes, it is clear, were not to be admitted
to Oberlin merely because of the color of their skins any more
than they were to be excluded for that reason.
Few applicants, of whatever color, had very
high scholastic attainments to present. The faculty could expect
little more from new students as a rule than a knowledge of the
"three R's." Applicants often frankly admitted their modest
attainments. In 1835, Richard Fenn wrote of his daughter, "She has
studied but little beyond the branches of a common English
education." In 1840 a young man described his previous education
as embracing only "a general knowledge of Reading, Arithmetick and
English Grammar." "My education is quite limited," wrote another
eight years later, "being such as is obtained in the common
country district schools of N. Y." Though S. S. Dillman (in 1850)
had made some progress in higher mathematics and read Caesar, four
books of Virgil, five of Cicero's orations and part of the Gospels
and Xenophon's Anabasis in Greek he described his sister's
"qualifications" as "about as good as could be attained in second
rate, backwoods, common schools; that is .... a pretty fair
smattering of Geography, Arithmetic, and English Grammar, but not
thorough enough to pass either." An applicant of the Civil War
years listed all his accomplishments in a few words: "I can read
and write, have studied grammar and geography, and arithmetic both
mental and practical." There were, of course, a good many, who,
like young Mr. Dillman, had more advanced training. Occasional
transfers from other colleges and students entering the
Theological Course were well grounded in the general cultural
subjects. The common school education was, however, much the more
usual preparation for entrance to Oberlin.
There were many applications for admission
from older men with inadequate preparation. They were doubtless
attracted by the "Shorter Course," a three-year academic course
designed to prepare such persons of advanced age for entrance into
the Theological Department. The 1855 Catalogue stated that this
course "preparatory to the study of Theology, [might] be
pursued, at the discretion of the Faculty, by students of an
advanced age ONLY." Let some of these maturer applicants speak for
themselves:
1857: "My Education is very inferior, as I
have been to School but little, since the age of 10 years .... I
have seen hard times, to get along--as my health for most part of
the time, has been extremely poor, and now at the age of 25 years
I cannot boast of a Dollar in this world, but I trust that in the
next I have an Heavenly Inheritance."
1839: "I am an ordained Minister .... I
have a wife & one child & would be glad to rent a house
while connected with the Institution."
1837: "I have a family which consists of
wife and child about a year old. Could a room be procured
sufficiently large to admit a small cookstove, or with a fireplace
that would answer to cook for my small family?"
1837: "At the age of 28 with a wife and 2
sons, one 2 1/2 the other 1/2 year old, I am, notwithstanding,
thinking seriously of leaving my store to commence a course of
study preparatory to the Gospel Ministry .... Will you be so good
as to tell me by return mail or with as little delay as may be
whether the preparatory department is filled? whether a small
house or part of a house with a garden spot connected with it
could be rented or purchased at a reasonable price and near the
institution?"
Of course the presence of these mature men,
some of them with families, almost all dedicated to the ministry,
did a great deal to maintain the sober, pious atmosphere which
characterized Oberlin especially in the first two
decades.
Notable examples of this group of older,
married men were David Marks, the Freewill Baptist, and Josiah
Willard. Willard came to Oberlin with his wife, Mary Thompson Hill
Willard, in 1841. He was enrolled in the Preparatory and
Collegiate departments from 1842 to 1845 when an attack of
tuberculosis forced him to abandon a sedentary life. Their little
daughter, Frances Elizabeth Willard, learned to read in copies of
the Slaves' Friend, the juvenile anti-slavery periodical, before
the family moved on to Wisconsin.
Other letters of application contain
revealing statements. A Middlebury student expressed his intention
of transferring to Oberlin because, among other things: "I think
that the classical books which are studyed here have a bad
influence in forming the characters of young men. They have in a
great measure an attendency to corrupt the habits, morals, and
minds of those who pursue them, to say nothing of the time which
is lost in commiting to memory ideas which are of no consequence.
The authors read here are very pure in style but very corrupt in
sentament." It is probable that Oberlin's stand against the
classics attracted a number of students, either because of their
conscientious scruples or their deficiencies in the dead
languages. After the sale of the scholarships in the endowment
campaign of the early fifties it is very likely that many came
merely because they found themselves in possession of
scholarships. One or two letters suggest this rather
candidly.
The credentials furnished by friends and
acquaintances of the applicants usually, of course, contain
references to their mental ability and achievements and just as
universally to their pious intentions and moral character. The
Oberlin Catalogue always made it very clear that "testimonials of
good moral character" were necessary. "Certificates of good
standing in some evangelical church" were also expected. One young
student was described by his sponsor as: "a young man of nobleness
of character a pious devoted christian of prudent and economical
habits, temperate in all his habits--no tea or coffee, or tobaco
in any of its forms. Is willing to endure almost any privation for
the sake of obtaining an education. He has heared of the fame of
Oberlin and wishes a place." If he lived up to this description he
was the model Oberlin student. Sometimes recommendations do not
contain one word about scholarship!
One young man inclosed (it is true with
some trepidation) a certificate from a phrenologist, prepared
after an examination of the bumps on his head. He never came to
Oberlin. It may have been that this peculiar type of certificate
did him more harm than good as, though much discussed, phrenology
was not generally approved in Oberlin.
The Oberlinite of the twentieth century
feels a debt of gratitude to the young man, who "in choosing a
Home that is to become the Alma-Mater of five or six the most
important years of my life" felt it so important to "make a good
selection" that he wrote to President Mahan a list of favorable
and unfavorable comments which he had heard on Oberlin and asked
the President to reply. Probably Mahan never took the time to do
so. The student never came, but the analysis of Oberlin which he
made remains as a sample of the common attitude toward Oberlin and
of the factors which decided students to come or not to come to
the Institute:
"By report there are some things that are
for, and some against the Oberlin Institute; but report is too
fallacious to become a criterion of judgement, were I qualified to
judge; therefore, though it appear rather indecorous in me, I will
mention the principal ones, that I may hear from you directly
rellative to them. The first Con that I mention is perhaps, all
things being considered, of but little importance. It is said that
there is an unreserved intercourse of blacks, and whites. I adopt
the principles of the anti-Slavery constitution, so far as I am
acquainted with them; that is, I advocate the importance of
immediate emancipation:--But I have ever lived among whites
exclusively, and to be now associated with blacks would be
disagreeable, admitting it to be right. Another Con. It is said
that the Oberline Scholars are generally superficial, in
consequence of their being too much hurried. I can say nothing
relative to this of course. Another and the last Con. It is said,
that the no. of Students is too great, for the No. of Teachers.
About this I know nothing.
"The first pro. that I mention is one that
some consider an objection--viz. The doctrine of Christian
Perfection is believed and taught there. I infer from this, that a
good Religious influence may be enjoyed, and this is what I very
much want. Another Pro. I infer from the fact that there are a
large No. of Students that good Literary Societies are sustained,
and if so, I could derive benefit from them. Another Pro. I am a
Grahamite and I understand that the Students feed at a
graham-table. Another Pro. It is said that those in indigent
circumstance, may they chose, defray their expenses, or at least
part of their expenses by manual labor. Another and the last Pro.
is one at which you may smile, but it is so nevertheless. It is
said that males, and females attend the same Institution, and
recite in the same room. Such an arrangemerit, I verily believe,
would have a good influence. I suppose there is a preparatory
department; of this however I must be certain--for into it, I must
first enter; having studied Latin but eight or nine months, Greek
about four, Algebra and Geometry about three."
We smile and wonder if perhaps there were
not other young men attracted to the new center of learning in the
West, partially, at least, because "females attend the same
Institution, and recite in the same room."
CHAPTER
XXXIII
THE STUDENTS -- THE OPPRESSED
RACE
IT WAS the inclusion of young ladies and
Negroes which especially differentiated the Oberlin student body
from that in other colleges. The mixture of the races in schools
was not unheard of but was generally frowned upon in the North as
in the South. Joint education of the sexes in a collegiate
institution was an entirely new and somewhat shocking departure.
The combination of the two made Oberlin odious.
When Oberlin's financial agent in New
England received word in 1835 that students were to be admitted
irrespective of color, he wrote a strong letter of warning and
protest:
"New England will scarcely bear to have
young Ladies at the same semy. with young white Gent: this point
might be gained, but to place black and white together on
precisely the same standing will not most certainly be endured
whatever the right may be [in] New England even, and if
not here then not in this Country--and in trying to do this you
will lose the other object, nay you lose Oberlin. For as soon as
your darkies begin to come in in any considerable numbers, unless
they are completely separated, . . . the whites will begin to
leave--and at length your Institute will change colour. Why not
have a black Institution, Dyed in the wool--and let Oberlin be? .
. . In my humble opinion, if you do not at least keep the blacks
entirely separate, so as to veto the notion of amalgamation I am
persuaded that the Colony and the Institution embracing every
interest of this enterprise as I understand it will be blown sky
high and you will have a black establishment there thro'
out!"
No large proportion of colored students
ever entered Oberlin, but in many localities it was believed to be
exclusively, or at least largely, a colored institution, a
reputation which, in some quarters, it has not as yet outlived.
Artemas Ward undoubtedly scored a great hit with many readers
when, in 1865, he wrote that Oberlin was "a very good college,"
but it was his "onbiassed 'pinion that they go it rather too
strong on Ethiopians." "As a faithful historian," he continued, "I
must menshun the lack that on rainy dase white people can't find
their way threw the streets without the gas is lit, ther bein such
a numerosity of cullerd pussons in the town." In 1852 one young
lady student found it desirable to reassure her family in
Massachusetts: "I received your letter and take this opportunity
of answering it so that you can tell anybody that asks that we
dont have to kiss the Niggars nor to speak to them without we are
a mind to. I dont think that there are six pure Niggars here that
go to school. They are almost all part white... they dress a great
deal better than the rest of the students. You may tell them that
ask you that I have not kissed a Niggar yet nor ant a going to nor
hant seen any one else .... " Many people had a great horror that
the association of whites and blacks in such a way would lead to
intermarriage--"amalgamation." There is no evidence that this fear
was ever realized in Oberlin College, though it is related that
one Negro student fell in love with a white girl, and, when she
refused his offer of marriage, threatened suicide.
Negro students might room in the boarding
house, eat at the boarding house table and attend classes and
religious exercises along with the white students. In 1866 the
Lady Principal reported with regard to the New Ladies' Hall: "The
number of ladies of color in the Hall during the spring was six--
the past term eight--and seven names are registered for the coming
term. We have as yet rejected no application in that direction,
nor would we, if we honorably could, be without a representation
of our colored students. These ladies have been seated at
different tables by the side of white ladies, and if it so
happened opposite white young men." Twenty years earlier a young
man wrote to his sisters at home: "About every fifth one at the
table is a darky. And the best appearing chap I have seen here is
black." "At the Boarding House," wrote Artemas Ward, with
characteristic, humorous exaggeration, "the cullured people sit at
the first table. What they leave is maid into hash for the white
people."
In the literary societies and at
Commencement the colored youths took their part on the programs.
In 1850 Lucy Stanton, a colored girl, was even elected president
of the Young Ladies' Association (later Ladies' Literary Society).
On the 21st of August Miss Stanton presided "with dignity and
honor" at the Annual Exhibition of the society, a formal, public
meeting, at which President Mahan offered the invocation. A few
days later she graduated from the Ladies' Department. She read her
essay along with the rest. The Oberlin Evangelist described the
event: "One of the graduates was a colored lady .... and when her
subject was announced, 'A Plea for the Oppressed,' and she stepped
into the stand, expectation was raised, and expectation was more
than gratified. Her charming voice, modest demeanor, appropriate
pronunciation and graceful cadences, riveted attention, while the
truthfulness of her pictures controlled the emotions of her
hearers." Despite the customary prohibition of applause, there was
a burst of clapping after she sat down. Once, five years before,
this taboo on applause had been broken when William C. Whitehorne,
a colored man from Jamaica, delivered his commencement oration on
"Intellectual Conflict," which, the editor of the Evangelist
observed, "would have done honor to any young man of any
complexion in any college in any lands."
There was undoubtedly a tendency among
certain persons to overemphasize the virtues and intellectual
achievements of colored students and to lionize them socially as
part of the anti-slavery propaganda. Delazon Smith declared that,
"when the arrival of one of them is announced, there is a great
noise, like the rush of many waters, so great is their anxiety to
see another of their colored brethren," and "a young lady who is
so highly favored, as to obtain a seat at table, by the side of
one of these 'southern gentlemen,' especially if he be a fugitive
from his master, . . . is then considered a 'sister indeed, in
whom there is no guile.'" This seems to have been more
characteristic of the earlier days. Even in 1846 one prep.
student, at least, objected to being called "Brother" by a Negro,
and in 1866 Mrs. Dascomb admitted that there is "occasionally a
manifestation of prejudice against color."
"I wish to know if the colored students
associate with the whites on all occasions," wrote a prospective
student in 1851, "if they recite in the same class and dine at the
same table. There is an opinion prevalent in this community that
students are obliged by the rules of the Institute to mingle with
the colored population farther than is right with the differences
nature has made between the two classes." In replying to this
inquiry, the Rev. Henry Cowles stated semi-officially the policy
of the College with regard to the association of the two races in
the institution:
"The white and colored students associate
together in this college very much as they choose. Our doctrine is
that mind and heart, not color, make the man and the woman too. We
hold that neither men or women are much the better or much the
worse for their skin. Our great business here is to educate mind
and heart, and we should deem ourselves to have small cause to be
proud of our success if we should fail to eradicate, in no long
time, the notion that nature had made any such difference between
the colored and the white classes that it would be wrong for
either to associate with the other as beings of common origin and
a common nature. We believe in treating men according to their
intrinsic merits--not according to distinctions over which they
can have no control. If you are a young gentleman of color, you
may expect to be treated here according to your real merit; and if
white, you need not expect to fare better than this.
"In this college colored and white students
of the same sex, walk together when both are agreed to do so--not
otherwise. They eat together if both prefer it, or if neither
chooses to eat elsewhere. They meet in the same classes for
recitations if they happen to be studying the same branches, at
the same stage of progress. They worship together before the same
common Father --that is, if they both have the heart to worship at
all."
This is an accurate statement, except that
it should have been made clear that there was no special bar to
the association of white and colored students of the opposite
sexes.
The officers of the Institute (and later
College) were not anxious, it is clear, to admit an unduly large
proportion of Negroes. On the other hand there is no evidence to
show that colored applicants, otherwise properly qualified, were
ever denied admission. When, in 1852, during the endowment
campaign, "the Rev. Saml Cornish . . . made enquiry . . . if the
Board [of Trustees of Oberlin College] would be willing
& pleased to sell $20,000 of Scholarships to the colored
people of Philadelphia, Baltimore & New York," the trustees
resolved that they would "be happy to sell $20,000 of $100 Schps
to all irrespective of color and also that the Trustees continue
to receive Students also irrespective of complexion." It is
significant that they were willing to dispose of such a large
proportion of the scholarships to Negroes. It is worth noting,
however, that they specified $100 scholarships, which would not
bring in so many colored students at any given time as would $25
or $50 scholarships. In the 60's the Rev. Charles Avery, of
Pittsburgh, gave $6,000, the income of which was to be used for
the aid of "indigent and worthy" colored students. The Treasurer,
and the principals of the Preparatory and Ladies' departments were
constituted a committee to decide "upon the amount of money to be
paid to those colored young men and women who shall be recommended
either by the Faculty or by the Ladies' Board as suitable objects
to be assisted from the proceeds of the Avery Bequest." Many of
the abler Negroes were, in later years, given substantial
assistance from this fund.
Oberlin never had a colored member on the
faculty, despite a petition requesting such an appointment
presented to the trustees in 1852. At least one colored college
student, however, taught classes in the Preparatory
Department.
There were many interesting individuals
among the colored students who attended school at Oberlin.
Frederick Douglass sent his daughter Rosetta to Oberlin in 1854.
Several converts of missionaries in Africa and the West Indies
were enrolled at one time or another. Tippoo Nunnion, Thomas
Tucker, Sarah Rinson, and William Whitehorne were all converts
from heathen shores. During the Civil War the Oberlin Company
"confiscated" an "intelligent contraband' in West Virginia and
sent him back to study. The Oberlinites found him "as white as,
and far more intelligent and gentlemanly than the average of the
slaveholders." There were others whose stories are worthy of a
more detailed narration.
In a surprising number of instances masters
sent their own children to Oberlin to school. In 1851 a
Mississippi planter sent his colored offspring (two boys) to
Oberlin in care of a Cincinnati law firm. From time to time money
was provided for their tuition and support. The outbreak of the
Civil War naturally terminated the arrangement. In 1855 a
slaveholder of Osceola, Missouri, sent his quadroon children and
former slaves (a boy and a girl) to Oberlin to be brought up and
educated. They were taken into the home of an Oberlin white woman
and, after a period of study in the common schools, were enrolled
in the Preparatory Department of Oberlin College, the girl living
for a while in Ladies' Hall and becoming an accomplished musician.
In 1837, through the mediation of Salmon P. Chase, a wealthy white
Louisiana planter sent his four colored children, two boys and two
girls, to Oberlin and freedom. One of them, Lawrence Minor,
eventually became a member of the College Class of 1850 and a
leading Negro educator. Southern planters contributed quite a bit
of money to the support of abolitionist Oberlin!
As a leading agent in the Underground
Railway, the Quaker Levi Coffin often had colored children placed
in his care for education by their white fathers or relatives. In
1854 a planter of Washington, Kentucky, sent him his daughters to
be educated, and Coffin wrote to Oberlin to secure accommodations
for them. He wrote of them to Secretary Hill: "Their father lives
in Washington, Ky, has kept his daughters at school in Ohio for
some years, most of the time. He is a Man of Wealth and White and
owns Slaves, but his daughters are nearly White. Their Mother is
not living. I feel a deep interest in them. Wilt thou please
inform me whether Boarding in a private family can be had, the
terms of Board, tuition &c with all the rules &
regulations &c &c." There is no definite evidence that
these girls came to Oberlin. Possibly they may be identified with
the two unnamed Kentucky colored girls referred to by Coleman in
his Slavery Times in Kentucky. Their master-father, he says, sent
them to study at Oberlin. They came back from college to visit him
during one vacation and found him dead. In order to settle the
estate they were sold from the auction block!
In 1860 a member of the Louisiana
legislature was much embarrassed to find that he had inherited his
cousins, the daughters of his uncle and a light-colored slave. He
shipped these girls to Coffin at Cincinnati, with a request that
he provide for their edIication at Oberlin and a draft for five
hundred dollars to pay their initial expenses at that institution.
Lizzie, Frances and Amelia Cage stayed in Oberlin from June to
November of 1860. Coffin sent money and instructions to Secretary
Hill from time to time. The youngest sister, Amelia, was never
officially registered in the Preparatory Department as were
Frances and Lizzie. When the Civil War broke out money ceased to
come from their cousin, and Coffin obtained positions for them as
household servants. Their relative and legal owner is said to have
lost all his property in the war.
April, 1848, seventy-seven slaves attempted
to escape from the city of Washington on the Schooner Pearl. Among
them were four brothers and two sisters of the name of Edmondson.
The schooner was captured and the fugitives brought back to
Washington. As a punishment many of them were sold to slave
traders. Mary and Emily Edmondson were sold to an Alexandria
dealer who took them by sea to the New Orleans market. The
brothers were either sold or ransomed, and the sisters were
brought back to the Capital with the expectation that their family
might be able to raise enough money to buy their freedom. Their
aged father finally went to New York City and appealed to
anti-slavery men there for aid in raising the $2,350 demanded for
the two girls by the slave traders. The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
took a personal interest in the case, and at a public meeting
sponsored by Beecher the money was raised and the two sisters
became free.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, the sister of the
famous minister, herself already widely known as the author of
Uncle Tom's Cabin, decided to take these girls under her wing and
provide them with an education. She wrote of them to Mrs. Henry
Cowles at Oberlin: "They seem to me remarkably amiable and docile
as well as intelligent and having come of such an excellent stock,
I have great hopes of them." No better place could have been found
for them than Oberlin and no better family than the Cowles family
of which they became a part. Mrs. Stowe, in the same letter,
states her intentions with regard to them:
"I want them to have a thorough solid
education calculated to strengthen and develop their reasoning
powers and judgment rather than their taste and imagination, which
are generally active enough in girls of their class. I want them
also to become practically acquainted with household duties
....
"One thing with regard to their education I
should not forget to mention. They have naturally fine musical
abilities and it is very desirable to their success as teachers
that they should have a thorough knowledge of vocal music if
possible. I consider it one of the most essential
things.
"With regard to their religious character I
should like to have them imbibe that style of piety of which I
have seen many examples from Oberlin, that kind which is pure,
peaceful, humble, self denying and willing to spend and be spent
anywhere for Christ."
Early in July Mrs. Stowe sent fifty dollars
for their support and a little later her husband sent thirty more
for her, remarking, "She is using up her 'Uncle Tom' money very
fast in charitable deeds to the poor blacks, and as it is all
hers, and as it may be the Lord's will that she so use it, I make
no objection." In August the "authoress" added twenty dollars and
suggested that it, with the thirty last sent, be used to provide
two scholarships, "so that when these two have been educated there
two others may succeed them. I foresee an opening in this way to
accomplish much good. Twenty five dollars of this money was given
by the sewing society of the Salem St. Church, Br Edward Beecher
minister, and the scholarship may stand in their name."
She took a great interest in the education
of the girls as is shown in her letters. "I notice already the
improvement in Emily's last letter as to spelling," she wrote.
"Tell her to write rather large and form every letter distinctly.
Young writers often think that writing a small hand makes their
writing look better but they are mistaken." Further funds for the
support of the girls were raised "by the ladies of Farmington,
Conn., at a fair held expressly for this purpose." Altogether Mrs.
Stowe sent Mrs. Cowles three hundred and ten dollars--a much
larger amount than was available to the average pair of sisters in
Oberlin for a year's education.
The little girls of the Cowles household
(as undoubtedly many members of the Preparatory Department in
which the colored girls were enrolled) found the Edmondson sisters
very interesting. Little Mary Louisa Cowles wrote to her aunt in
August of 1852: "The Misses Edmondson are living with us this
summer. We like them both very much to say nothing of loving them
dearly." Mrs. Cowles seems to have found much "to try" her in
Emily. Mrs. Stowe said she was not surprised at this, however,
adding that Emily had "been through enough to ruin five ordinary
girls."
Late in the following winter Mary Edmondson
showed alarming symptoms, and soon it became clear that she was a
victim of that dread disease which took such a large toll in the
Cowles household and in Oberlin in the ante-bellum period. On May
18 she died of "pulmonary consumption." Emily returned to
Washington where she entered the family of a lady to "assist in
the care of young children, and in return, receive some facilities
of education."
Even more famous in his day was Anthony
Burns who attended Oberlin from 1855 to 1862 with the exception of
one term. A fugitive from slavery in Virginia, he escaped to
Boston by sea, but he was followed and arrested May 24, 1854,
under the Fugitive Slave Law. Two nights later the friends of the
slave gathered in Fanueil Hall at the invitation of Bronson Alcott
and Thomas Wentworth Higginson to consider whether a man should be
carried back into slavery from the very "cradle of liberty."
Heated by the fiery oratory of Wendell Phillips, the crowd became
a mob and attacked the jail, only to be repulsed and their leaders
arrested. Anthony Burns, guarded by several hundred soldiers, was
taken from Boston amid the groans and hisses of a multitude of
fifty thousand men who lined the streets and packed the roofs and
balconies. It was estimated that this rendition cost the
Government at least $40,000. Shortly afterward, however, he was
purchased to freedom with funds raised by the members of the
Twelfth Baptist Church of Boston.
Later, a Boston woman of anti-slavery
tendencies gave him the use of an Oberlin scholarship which she
owned. It was a matter of great local interest when Anthony Burns
arrived in Oberlin "to prepare himself by study, for greater
usefulness to his oppressed race." In 1856, Charles Emery Stevens
published a history of the case entitled Anthoney Burns, A
History, the sale of which helped the young colored man to pay his
expenses while studying. He also, at various times, received
further charity from the friends of the slaves. In December of
1860 he wrote in a good flowing hand to Gerrit Smith of Peterboro,
acknowledging the receipt of a gift of ten dollars. After leaving
Oberlin, Burns became the pastor of the Zion Baptist Church at St.
Catharines in Canada. A tall, broad-shouldered Negro of light
brown color, he was a good speaker and much loved by his
parishioners in the short time that he was with them. He died at
St. Catherines in 1862 and is buried there.
The type of the adventuress was not
lacking. Oneda Estelle Dubois escaped from her owners in Alabama
shortly before the war and came to Ohio. She studied for probably
not more than a term at Oberlin, where she was known as Oneda
Laco. In 1863 she was lecturing in Washington and attempting to
raise money for a Negro college in Haiti. Mary Edmonia Lewis
attended Oberlin for four years. She was indicted in 1863 for
poisoning two white coeds, but was found not guilty in a
sensational trial when defended by J. M. Langston, the Negro
lawyer. Three years later she had a studio in Rome (Italy!), where
she had made quite a reputation as a sculptress.
The first colored student at Oberlin was
James Bradley, one of the Lane Rebels, who attended the Sheffield
Manual Labor Imtitute (a branch of Oberlin) in 1836. In 1844
George B. Vashon of Pittsburgh received the A. B. degree, the
first to be granted to a colored man at Oberlin. He had a useful
career as a lawyer and teacher in Negro schools. William C.
Whitehorne, who graduated in the following year, became a merchant
and editor in Belize and Panama. William Howard Day graduated in
1847 in the same class with Lucy Stone and Antoinette Brown. He
served many years as an editor and lecturer in behalf of his race,
in England, Scotland and Ireland as well as the United $tates. In
1852 he married Lucy Stanton, whose graduation from the Literary
Department (Ladies' Course) in 1850 has been previously mentioned.
Two Negro men received the bachelor's degree in 1849: James Monroe
Jones (later a gunsmith and engraver) and John Mercer Langston.
Langston was probably the most distinguished of Oberlin's Negro
graduates of the earlier period. He made a good record as a lawyer
at Oberlin. He later became an educator and held various political
offices.
Negro men received the A. B. degree in 1850
(Lawrence W. Minor, later President of an Agricultural and
Mechanical College at Alta Vista, Texas), in 1856 (John C. Jones,
who became principal of various colored schools), in 1857 (William
A. Jones, for many years a dentist in British Columbia), in 1858
(John G. Mitchell, later Dean of the Payne Theological Seminary at
Wilberforce University), in 1859 (Elias T. Jones, a gold miner in
British Columbia for many years), in 1860 (Benjamin K. Sampson,
professor at Wilberforce and head of various colored schools), in
1861 (Charles A. Dorsey, who taught in Brooklyn for nearly forty
years), in 1862 (James H. Muse, who became a minister in
Cleveland; New Haven, and Washington, D.C.), in 1864 (John H.
Cook, lawyer and teacher of law in Howard University), in 1865
(George G. Collins, also of Howard, Dr. Thomas L. Harris, a
physician, and Thomas De Saliere Tucker, a convert from the Mendi
African Mission, who became an editor of various New Orleans'
newspapers during Reconstruction and later President of a Negro
college in Florida), and in 1866 (James H. Piles, member of the
Mississippi legislature and for several years Examiner in the
United States Patent Office at Washington).
Lucy Stanton was the first colored girl to
graduate from the Ladies' Courses. Her example was followed by
others in 1855 (Ann M. Hazle), 1856 (Louisa L. Alexander, Emma J.
Gloucester, Sarah K. Wall and Sarah J. Woodson), 1860 (Blanche V.
Harris and Susan Elizabeth Reid), 1861 (Maria L. Waring), 1864
(Mary McFarland), and 1865 (Marion I. Lewis). At the Commencement
in 1862 Mary Jane Patterson received the A. B. degree, probably
the first African Negro woman in the world to attain that
distinction. Miss Patterson was born in Raleigh, North Carolina,
and was brought to Oberlin in her early youth by her parents,
probably fugitive slaves. She studied one year in the Preparatory
Department and four years in the College before graduation. Upon
receiving her degree she went to Philadelphia where she taught in
the "Institute for Colored Youths" for seven years. In 1869 she
went to Washington to teach and in 1871 became the first colored
principal of the newly-established Preparatory High School for
Negroes. She held the position until 1884, except for one year,
and did much to build up the institution which now occupies the
Dunbar High School building. After the appointment of a Negro man
as her successor she continued as a teacher in the school until
her death in 1894. The next two colored girls to receive the A. B.
degree were Fanny M. Jackson and Frances J. Norris, who graduated
in 1865.
In 1860, a Negro, Charles H. Thompson,
graduated from the Theological Course. He later served for some
time as President of Alcorn University in Mississippi. Many who
did not graduate late served as teachers and ministers to their
own race. Anthony Burns, already referred to, is a case in point.
Samuel Gray, who attended for two years only, became a missionary
in Africa under the American Missionary Association. Blanche
[sic] K. Bruce, Reconstruction Senator from Mississippi
from 1875 to 1881 and Register of the Treasury under Garfield and
McKinley, claimed education at Oberlin, but the College records
contain no mention of his name.
There never was a large proportion of
Negroes connected with the Oberlin Institute or College and the
majority of these were usually in the Preparatory Department. A
list of colored students made out at the request of Father Keep in
1852 shows that there were at that time 44 in all and that all but
three of these were either in the Preparatory Department or were
taking the Ladies' Course. One was in the Theological Department,
two were in College. Seventeen were enrolled in the Ladies' Course
and the remaining twenty-four in the Preparatory Department.
Thirteen were "Gentlemen" and thirty-one "Ladies." There were over
a thousand students listed in the Oberlin Catalogue of 1852-1853.
Colored students represented less than five percent. Probably
there was never a larger proportion than this. In the spring of
1859 only thirty-two Negroes were reported, at a time when the
student body numbered 1200 altogether. OF course, there may have
been other colored students in the summer and fall terms, but the
percentage was probably not so high as that of 1852. An official
statement of 1860 placed the proportion of colored students at
four percent of the total student body in the year just passed.
The Rev. Henry Cowles, editor of the Oberlin Evangelist, made a
list of colored students in Oberlin from 1835 to 1862. It is known
to be incomplete, but is probably as complete as the official list
of all students. J. M. Langston, the Negro lawyer, also made a
check of colored students; and his list of men contained only two
more than Cowles' list. Approximately 8,800 students attended some
time at Oberlin before the 1861 Commencement. Professor Cowles
lists only 245 Negroes as attending in this same period. This is
less than three percent of the total. We seem to be amply
justified in concluding that less than one-twentieth of the
students attending Oberlin in ante-bellum days were
colored.
Yet, though the number educated was small,
it was a contribution of vast importance to the civilization of
the African race in America--a contribution greater, certainly,
than that made by any other educational institution in the same
period.
CHAPTER
XXXIV
GOING WEST TO
COLLEGE
AS WE have seen, the majority of students
in the Collegiate and Theological departments came from New
England and New York in the thirties, and a considerable, though
declining, percentage continued to represent those sections. In
the early years the journey from their homes to Oberlin was an
adventure involving many days, occasional hardships and,
sometimes, real dangers.
In 1836 when Elam J. Comings started west
from his home in Vermont he noted in his journal that it "was fine
& pleasant," and he rather enjoyed the ride, "watching the
course of the ten thousand little rills tumbling from the snow
capt mountains," and "cheered with the songs of birds, bleating of
flocks, the life & animation of nature." Nevertheless, at
heart, he was sad. "My thoughts were turned inward & were
embittered by the sad recollection of friends with whom I had just
parted. A painful recollection of Parents, Brothers & Sisters
whom I had left in tears now & then rushed upon my mind &
started the unbidden tear from its lurking place. O, how severe is
it to part with friends. Those tears of affec[tion], those
half-uttered blessings, those last parting embraces can never be
forgotten." Before the completion of through lines of railroads,
the journey from New England to Ohio was not an enterprise to be
undertaken lightly.
From the founding of the Institute to 1850
the canal boat, the steamboat and stagecoach were almost the only
means of transportation available. In the first generation of its
use the Erie Canal was the greatest artery of east-west traffic.
The hundreds of blunt-nosed boats, drawn slowly along its course
by teams of mules or horses, carried an ever-growing stream of
wheat from the West and all sorts of manufactured articles from
the East. They also carried thousands of passengers. Students
coming to Oberlin from the East usually travelled on the canal.
The passenger boats were very much like other canal boats in
outward appearance, except that they were perhaps more brightly
painted. The inside was divided into three parts: a "forecastle"
for the crew of five or six, a ladies' cabin, and the main,
gentlemen's cabin. The latter two, separated only by a curtain,
were fitted out identically, but the gentlemen's cabin was
considerably larger. A fat, squat, iron stove occupied a central
position. Near it, at meal-times a table would be constructed by
placing planks on trestles. At night wooden shelves furnished the
sleeping quarters. These "berths" were in three tiers--one near
the floor, one very near the ceiling and one between. At night all
doors and windows would be shut tight to keep out the mosquitoes
as well as the "deadly night air." As a result the atmosphere in
the cabin was certain to become heavy and poisonous, particularly
for those "on the top shelf." On hot nights many passengers were
forced to climb down and go out on deck, running the risk of
insects and fever rather than suffocate. Morning must have been a
great relief to the travelling student, when he could douse his
head in a pail of water dipped out of the canal and jump to the
tow-path and walk for a while. During the day passengers usually
spent much of their time on the deck on the roof of the cabin,
playing cards (not Oberlin students!), reading, chatting or
dozing. The only unpleasant circumstance in fine weather was the
occasional passage under very low bridges or a jam at the locks.
It was not a bad way to travel if one were patient.
Elam Comings made his journey from Vermont
to Oberlin largely by water and as far as possible by canal. His
summary his travelling expenses may serve as an outline of the
trip:
Paid for passage Burlington to whitehall
[Lake Champlain] $1.50 From Whitehall to Troy
[Champlain Canal] 1.25 Paid 4 cts for a lemon Paid for
lodging at Albany .12 1/2For ride on rail road from Albany to
Schenectady 1.00 For dinner 8 Paid for passage from Schenectady to
Buffalo [Erie Canal] 5.00 For breakfast 6
Paid for dinner .12 For freight [and
fare?] from Buffalo to Cleveland 2.50 From Cleveland to Elyria
by stage 1.25 For supper and lodging .75
After crossing Lake Champlain, he "Arrived
at Whitehall . . . a town of considerable business but the most
ill looking, irregularly layed out & most filthy place that I
ever saw. The town in a continual crowd and bustle with ten
thousand emigramts .... Found it impossible to find a suitable
boat. The best I could do was to take one filled with the noisy,
intemperate profane trash with a few Americans no better. The
wreckless oaths of the whole company (or nearly so), drinking,
smoking and . . . the continuous yelling of infants promised a
great variety of disagreeables, yea more--of the intolerables.
But, however, the ride was not void of interest. The scenery was
of a wild romantic character, finely varied by hills and valleys
richly clad in the green verdure of spring. The grass starting
forth over the hills & valleys . . . formed a pleasing variety
for the eye to rest on; and the manners and character of the
passengers, though an unpleasing thot, I trust not an unprofitable
theme for meditation ....
"As night approached . . . the passengers,
all aware of their scanty room for sleep, began the strife to see
who would have the berths which, resulted in many hard words ....
But I determined to have nothing to do with it & determined to
spend the night on deck rather than camp with 26 or 30 individuals
in a little cabin of 12 feet by 10 & according wrapped up in
my cloak & camped with naught but the dark and frowning sky
for my covering. But the air being warm & sultry was able to
sleep some at intervals till 4 o'clock when it began to rain &
I was obliged to find shelter in the cabin with my fellow
sleepers."
At Albany Comings "for the first time saw a
rail car in operation." In fact, as he noted in his itinerary, he
rode from Albany to Schenectady on the railroad, returning to a
canal boat at that point. His boat was detained at German Flats
for three days "by an immense crowd of boats jambed in for 9 miles
in length." Comings was much irritated at the ungodliness of the
"Canawlers." "To-day several men fell in a contention about whose
boats should go through the locks first which resulted in a bloody
& shameful fight, such a one as a dog should blush at." And
again: "Have heard little else than the most terrible oaths and
blasphemes of the multitude all day. What a complete hell is
this!" It was a great joy to the passengers to get started again.
The remainder of the haul to Buffalo was comparatively pleasant
through the "extended meadows and corn fields" of the Mohawk
Valley, past Utica and Rome and through a "long swamp" where only
"Now & then the forest was broken and a few log huts erected."
Farther west "large fields of wheat stretched themselves on either
side & the orchards spread over the hills now full in bloom
presented a most lovely appearance." In the vicinity of Rochester
the traveller found the country "fertile and delightful" and
remarked on the "many very fine fields of wheat the largest and
best I ever saw." Of course, he "viewed with some degree of
pleasure the locks [at Lockport] & the canal through
the rocks for seven miles," but "With pain [he] beheld a
great multitude standing about the taverns and groceries &
spending the day [Sabbath] in a most wreckless
manner."
When Charles Livingstone, younger brother
of the explorer, came to Oberlin from Scotland in 1840, he wrote
home a long letter describing his journey. From Albany to Buffalo
he traveled by canal:
"We reached Albany about 6 next morning . .
. where I took canal to Buffalo 363 miles from do [Albany]
on the borders of Canada. The canal boats are long & narrow
drawn by two horses & very comfortably fitted up to accomodate
passengers, cushioned seats & stoves in them .... I paid one
sovreign & 25 cents, being 36 cents less than the common fare.
I told them I came from Scotland and paid a great deal for
travelling so they took it. [!] We started from Albany
about 11 oclk on Wednesday. In the canal boats all fare alike,
there is no distinction between Rich and poor, all have the same
privileges. Toward evening I saw a young man looking at a map of
Ohio pointing out places to some who were going to the state. I
went to look at the map too & asked him if he knew where
Lorain County was & did he know what part Oberlin College was.
Yes, said he, I am a member of it. I told him then that I had come
from Scotland to study there. Oh indeed, I wish I had seen you
sooner. He then introduced me to a young Lady who was returning to
Oberlin. His name is Mr. Sherlock Bristol A. B. from Cheshire
Connecticut. Ladys name Miss Ingram ... I was then considerably
relieved as I could get nobody who knew anything about Oberlin. It
rained on Wednesday all day and all night and in the morning we
learnt that part of the bank of the canal had been broken down so
we had to stop when we got about 15 miles from Albany. We
ascertained that it would take eight days to mend it."
The young theological student made the most
of the delay. "On Sabbath he [Bristol] preached. There was
a great number of boats before us and behind us. Another boat came
along side of us. We got a piece of clothe stuck up by 4 poles
over his head protect him from the heat of the sun which was very
warm that day .... His text was Malachi 3 verse 14 first clause of
verse. He had my hymn book and gave out the 75 hymn which 3 or 4
sung accompanied by a flute."
The 1838 Catalogue of the Oberlin
Collegiate Institute announced that, "None can be received who
travel on the Sabbath, on their way to Oberlin." Bristol and
Livingstone and the two young ladies, therefore, felt called upon
to stop over the next week end at Canastota, though it involved
losing the remainder of their fare to Buffalo which had been paid
up at Albany. On Monday they resumed their journey. "We passed
about 12 miles from the falls of Niagara then came to Buffalo
where we left the canal and went on board a steamer on Lake Erie,
saw Canada across the Lake .... We would have got to Buffalo from
N. York in 7 days had the break not happened in the canal. We
might have got there sooner by taking the railroad . . . but it is
dearer."
The trip by steamboat through Lake Erie to
Cleveland was not always too comfortable. Lake Erie was well known
for its storms and the little steamers of the day were sometimes
badly knocked about. All of the passenger boats in the thirties
were of the old side-wheel variety, though usually they possessed
a vertical stern wheel also. The first propeller-equipped steamer
was put in service in 1841. Explosions, wrecks, and fatal fires,
though over-publicized, were all too common. The Oberlin
Evangelist of August 18, 1841 contains a notice of a "DREADFUL
CONFLAGRATION!" in which there were "170 LIVES LOST!"
Deck passage was cheaper and probably not
more unpleasant than in the cabins. The Prudden boys from Lockport
needed to save money. George, the elder brother, wrote to his
parents: ". . . We took deck passage & spent the windy night
upon the top of the upper deck, with the clear sky for our bed
curtains, alternately engaged in sleeping & vomiting. Had we
not been so sick, I think our situation might have been tolerably
pleasant. The wind blew hard but as it was directly to our back we
did not feel its effects so very much. I understood however the
next day that the Passengers in the Boat which was moving the
other way, against the wind, were very much frightened at the
violence of the storm. Our fare on the lake was two dollars and a
half a piece. Freight on our barrel 50 cents. At Cleveland we met
with another young man destined for Oberlin who had gone through
Lockport but an hour or two before we started, and had come all
the way from Buffalo on the same boat. He accompanied us to
Oberlin." Few women would care to try the deck passage, as did
Lucy Stone, but, at least, she had fair weather.
After reaching the village of Cleveland
(1000 people in 1830 and 6000 in 1840), there remained a hard
journey by wagon or stagecoach. The famous Concord coach of the
type later used in Rocky Mountain staging had come into general
use by this time. The great wooden body covered with painted
canvas was suspended from the running gear on thoroughbraces made
of several layers of leather straps. The nine or more passengers
inside (Dickens describes a case when twelve were crowded in.)
were thrown against each other and the sides of the coach with
great violence whenever the wheels collided with a stone or stump
or bounded over baked or frozen ruts. One passenger usually rode
on the box with the driver and occasionally others were stowed
away with the baggage and other freight on the flat top. Even in
the East the roads were abominable, everywhere going up and down
steep hills and through fords. They were full of great mudholes
that seemed bottomless, and at certain seasons of the year the
ruts were so deep and hard that it was almost impossible to turn
the coach out of them. Again and again the passengers were
required to disembark when going up a steep hill or in order to
pry the vehicle out of a more than usually boggy spot. It was not
an unheard of thing for the coach to be overturned, when all hands
were required to right it and help to control and untangle the
plunging horses.
In the summer of 1838 the Elyria paper
reported an accident. "The Mail coach which left Cleveland for
Detroit on Wednesday morning last, on its way to this town, was
overturned with a full load of passengers, on the bridge between
Dover Furnace and the Stage-house in that place. The editor of
this paper, with a young lady under his care, were of the company
of eight passengers inside, and there were three outside, two on
the top and one with the driver, making in all twelve persons. The
coach was turned bottom upwards off the bridge into the creek. Of
those inside none were materially injured. One on the outside was
severely hurt, and one slightly." It is a wonder not that there
should have been some such accidents but that there were no more.
Charles Livingstone wrote that he rode from Cleveland to Oberlin
"over one of the worst roads ever I saw. The carriage was hung on
springs drawn by two horses. Such a shaking we got on that road I
never got before." The Rev. Jabez Burns, who visited Oberlin in
1847, presumed "that the very worst roads in any part of the
civilized world may be found between Cleveland and Oberlin."
A young lady writing to Mr. Finney a few
months before the founding of Oberlin portrays the possibilities
of staging west of Buffalo in the thirties. She took the stage to
Cleveland because she feared to make the trip on the lake in the
threatening storm. She found the traveling "most horrible. We rode
eight miles upon the lake shore and so near that evry wave dashed
upon the coach. It was truly terrifying. We were nearly five hours
going Seven miles. But this was not the worst. We had to pass
through a swamp nine miles long where it seemed evry minute as if
the stage would upset but the Lord was with us and we were kept
from harm. I was in the Stage three days and two nights and
stopped at no time only long enough to change horses." Mrs.
Dascomb made the trip from Cleveland to Elyria in a stage in 1832.
She wrote of it to her parents: "Road very bad--from ruts &
mud--we were in constant danger of overturning. Once when we came
to a ditch in the road, the gent. got out and took down the fence
so that we cd. turn aside into the adjoining field & ride
around the obstacle."
Oberlin, in the early days, was not on the
main stage line, however. Doctor and Mrs. Dascomb obtained a wagon
for the last lap of the way:
". . . At Elyria we dined and obtained a 2
horse wagon to transport us (& 2 gent. from N. Eng. going to
the Institute as students) to our journey's end. Found the waggon
a very comfortable conveyance, and was in no fear of being turned
out into the mud, for the driver assured us it cd. not turn over.
You can not conceive of a more miserable road than we had--the
last two miles especially--but still I enjoyed the ride & our
party was all very cheerful. When passing through the woods, I was
so delighted with the black squirrels, the big trees, and above
all, the beautiful wild flowers, that at times I quite forgot to
look out for the 'scraggy limbs' that every now and then gave us a
rude brush--till a warning from Dr. D.--that I wd. get my eyes
torn out, seconded perhaps by an unceremonious lash from a
neighboring bough, wd. recall me to the duty of self preservation.
Glad were we when an opening in the forest dawned upon us. &
Oberlin was seen."
In 1837 Artemas Beebe, the Elyria tavern
keeper, ran a stage to Oberlin from Elyria on Tuesdays, Thursdays
and Saturdays. In 1839 J. L. Ladd proposed to establish "a two
horse stage from . . . [Oberlin] to Elyria, and the mouth
of Black River, and back, once a day, stage to leave Oberlin every
day at 7 oc. A.M. and return the same evening at 7 oc." There are
no records to show whether this service was ever established or
not. In the spring of 1840 readers of the Oberlin Evangelist were
informed that "Mr. Lewis Holtslander will send a team to Cleveland
to carry passengers and freight twice each week." In the fall of
the same year Mr. Holtslander undertook to "send a carriage to
Cleveland to carry passengers and freight three times a week."
Carriages left Oberlin on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and
departed for Oberlin from the "Cleveland Temperance House" on
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. In 1841 the same individual
began daily service each way. "Good COACHES--good teams--and
honest, faithful drivers" were promised. Even before this Henry
Cowles wrote to his wife from Oberlin: "There is a daily stage--a
real stage coach from Cleveland to this place every day, leaving
Cleveland in the morning and carrying through for one dollar. It
is the old line of western stages with the addition of an off
shoot to Oberlin which leaves Elyria when the stage from Cleveland
arrives, and returns from here there in time to fall into the
return track." It was only twelve years after the establishment of
daily stage service to Oberlin that the railroad reached
it.
Before the railroad actually entered
Oberlin, however, a line built through Wellington furnished easy
connections to Cleveland. In midsummer of 1850 it was triumphantly
announced that "the Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati Railroad .
. . is now complete and in fine running order from Cleveland to
Wellington .... From the latter place to Oberlin nine miles,
carriages are in readiness, so that passengers go through from
Cleveland to Oberlin in about three and a half hours, and at the
very low price of one dollar, twelve and a half cents." For the
next two and a half years this was the usual route of travel to
and from Oberlin.
In the spring of 1852 construction was
begun on the "Toledo, Norwalk, and Cleveland Rail-Road" which was
to bring "to the very doors of our College the facilities of
Rail-Road travel." Its progress was watched with the greatest
interest and in the autumn the editor of the Evangelist proudly
recorded: "At this present writing, Oct. 8, the rails are laid a
mile or more beyond us and are progressing rapidly. The locomotive
now passes our village daily, and we seem to realize that we shall
be put in railload connection with the Eastern and Western world."
In the following year one passenger train was running each way
every day. In July, 1853, there were three passenger trains each
way "(Sundays always excepted)." For a week in August free rides
were offered to all who lived along the line, and one day 1200
people from Oberlin, Grafton and Wakeman took advantage of the
opportunity! In 1866 three trains stopped in Oberlin going east
and four going west. This railroad (later absorbed by the New York
Central) originally ran south of Elyria by way of Grafton. The
depot was south of the track and east of Main Street at
approximately the present location of the freight station. In 1866
the line was changed to connect directly with Elyria. It was at
the same time that the present depot was built on a site donated
by Oberlin citizens--"the finest of any intermediate station on
the road." Oberlinites were so enthusiastic about it that they
talked "of an oyster supper and house warming in the most approved
style."
Even before the railroad reached Wellington
students and others coming to Oberlin found railroad travel opened
up for part of their way. Lucy Stone found it possible to ride in
"the cars" all the way from Albany to Buffalo even in 1843. It was
not nearly such a harrowing experience, she informed her mother,
as she had been led to expect. Of course, the trains of those days
were nowhere near equal in speed and convenience to those of the
twentieth century. One young girl, after arriving in Oberlin,
wrote home to her mother in North Blandford, Massachusetts: "...
Had a very pleasant journey but did not get along so fast as we
expected. There was another train ran off the track, one that we
was to meet. Wee went so slow that Albert got off and went into an
orchard and got some apples and got on agane so wee did not get to
Buffelow till most dark."
Most travellers on the early railroads were
prone to expatiate on the "wonders of the modern age." Professor
Henry Cowles made a flying trip from Oberlin to Newark, N.J., and
back in 1852. "... The wonderful speed of travel by steam," he
wrote, "has almost annihilated distance." On his return journey he
"chose the route via Erie Rail Road from New York to Dunkirk --a
route which never can fail to charm the lover of nature's wild,
rugged, and romantic scenery. We were glad to see manifest
evidences both of careful supervision and of general prosperity.
All along the narrow defiles, we saw sentinels stationed at
suitable distances, whose flags gave notice to the flying trains
that 'all is right.'" An English lady visitor to Oberlin, just
after the close of the Civil War, rode in a sleeping car.
Especially for an English visitor, her comments were
flattering:
"Of all modern inventions and appliances
for luxury in travel, commend me to the American sleeping cars, in
some of which I have enjoyed a better night's rest than at many an
inn. The 'cars' on American railways are always long saloon
carriages, with an aisle down the center leading to doors at the
ends, and down each side a row of seats, each containing two
persons, and commanding a separate window. These seats are
cleverly made with reversable backs, so that the passengers can
sit with either back or face to the engine: Almost all choosing
the latter alternative, except when parties of three or four sit
facing each other 'sociable' fashion.
"Starting by an evening train, we forthwith
secured sleeping berths by payment of an extra dollar, and were
initiated into the ingenious plan for their construction. Down
came the backs of two opposite seats, which fitted exactly across
the space between, and formed a solid couch, on which was laid a
good mattress, a brown rug, and some pillows, a curtain separating
off the passage-way. My friend and I secured two opposite berths,
and, with windows partly open on each side, soon slept the sleep
of the just, disturbed only by the conductor's anxiety to shut up
our windows, lest we should, as he said, 'freeze to death and be
burnt with sparks from the engine!' Having so good a bed, the
regular motion on the broad guage was really rather lulling than
otherwise.
Such luxuries were not, however, for the
vast majority of Oberlin students even after they became
available. When John (a student in the Collegiate Department)
reached Cleveland on his way to Oberlin in the same year, he found
that "the Toledo train had departed . . . went out prospecting and
discovered that there was a freight train going according to
various accounts at 4.30, 5., 5.30. & 5.45. Having disposed of
our duds we started up Superior St. Saw the city monument &c
&c. Went to the Court House and heard some rather amusing
things. Left C. at 5.45 on the Freight. Laid over at Grafton
nearly an hour. Arrived at Oberlin 9.15. Had the pleasure of
jumping off. To add to the sublimity of the occasion, it snowed
like everything. Put for Mr. Bardwell's. Found the folks all abed.
Succeeded in waking them up. Got something to eat, went to bed."
The next day he confided to his diary: "Was quite surprised on
waking up this morning to find myself in Oberlin. Went to Latin
and Greek--Saw Alphonse & learned that he & C. E. W. came
on the express yesterday afternoon. Went in pursuit of my trunk.
Found it at the depot (It was left in Cleveland.). Went & got
it with a wheelbarrow. Settled my incidentals ($2.00 outrageous).
Bot my books. Paid $15.00 on board, was appointed Chief Milker
Commanding Dept. Saw Brewer of Farmington Ill. Shook hands with my
class mates, wrote home, unpacked by trunk, and did lots of other
things, but didn't study any. Feel tremendous blue, almost
homesick. What's the use anyhow?"
For periods varying from a few weeks to ten
or more years these students were to make their homes in the
village of Oberlin under the paternal supervision of the
authorities of Oberlin College.
CHAPTER
XXXV
OBERLIN VILLAGE
A LESS attractive natural setting than the
flat, glacial plain of Russia Township would be hard to find. The
beauty of the present Oberlin is largely man-made. It was partly
because of the swampy location that in 1836 James M. Buchanan
determined to abandon his position on the faculty after a tenure
of only a few weeks. Finney, himself, admitted that the site was
"unfortunate, ill-considered, hastily decided upon; and had it not
been for the good hand of God in helping us at every step, the
institution would have been a failure because of its ill-judged
location."
The surroundings must have had a very
depressing effect upon the youths who came from homes in the
varied and beautiful scenery of New England and New York. One
young man whose home was among the splendid hills of Leon, in
Cattaraugus County, New York, wrote longingly of "the green woods
of my native hills." A young lady student in the early fifties
resorted to poetry, lamenting the case of
One whose early years
Among the hills that skirt the east were
spent,
Where many a mimic mount its bold front
reared,
While from its rugged side cool streams
are sent,
Which murmuring o'er their pebbly
bottoms go,
To moisten and refresh the vale
below.
Who found in Oberlin--
Instead of varied scenery, hill,
and dell
With woodland interspersed and flowery
lawn,
Where sparkling waters from their
fountains well
And dancing, laughing, sing their
rippling song,
. . a level, low and changeless
land,
Whose waters sluggish in their channels
stand.
Many were the boys who must have longed on
a hot day for a decent swimming hole as did one preparatory
student who wrote to his brother just before the Civil
War:
". . . I have wished I could have a place
to go in swimming, for there is no place nearer than Black River
and that is about 4 miles from here. The only stream there is in
Oberlin is Plumb Creek, and that is a little larger than the brook
which comes into Dayton's pond generally is when it is all dried
up.
"But if you were only here so that you
could go down and behold the beautiful scenery on its banks, and
take a sketch of it you would like it very much, I have no doubt.
You would start out, say, just after a rain, when all nature is
beautiful You would stand upon its clayey banks and behold spread
out before you in a beautiful landscape, old logs, bits of bone,
negroes, old and young, peaces of leather, &c--stumps, rail
fences &c. &c. Entranced you would stand taking in, as
only such an artist as you are can, the different points of the
scene, when attempting to take in a different point your heels fly
from under you and in consequence of the attraction of gravitation
you paint a full length profile of yourself in Ohio mud. So much
for landscape painting in Ohio. Plumb (not Plum) Creek, the only
element of natural beauty which Oberlin afforded, appears to have
been an object of ridicule from the earliest days.
Not only was the Oberlin region flat and
uninteresting, but the stiff, clay soil made life tedious for
gardeners and farmers and sometimes almost unendurable for
pedestrians. It is a dreary, muddy picture which a daughter of one
of the faculty members gives us in a composition written in 1845.
The composition is in the form of a letter:
". . . In compliance with your request I
will try to give you something of a description of Oberlin. In the
first place it is surrounded by trees. You cannot see more than
two miles at the farthest. The soil is very clayey, I should
think, for when it rains it is very mudy and there are so few
sidewalks that it is very difficult to walk more than a rod
without getting a free shoe in mud. Of course [you] are
under the nesity of . . . wareing high and thick shouse. The
bildings are not very near each other and probelay would look very
lonesom to you as you are accostomed to see them surrounded with
shade trees and subery while here it is a rare thing to see even
[a] rose bush. They have lately built a larg brick meating
house, which is surrond by mud and can [only] bee entered
by [an] inclined plain made of rough boards."
Henry Howe, who visited Oberlin a year
later, of course wished to sell his book. Contrast his description
with the foregoing one: "The town is situated on a beautiful and
level plain, girted around by the original forest in its primitive
majesty. The dwellings at Oberlin are usually two stories in
height, built of wood, and painted white, after the manner of the
villages of New England, to which this has a striking
resemblance." Both of these descriptions were true.--White painted
houses, unshaded, stood along rutted streets; the town was
surrounded by "majestic"--and swampy--forest.
One young man who came to Oberlin in 1836
declared soon after his arrival: "I was more disappointed in the
appearance of the soil, than in any other one thing. It looks
almost like a swamp." In 1851 a student wrote to her parents in a
postscript to a family letter: "You need not worry about me; the
most that I worry about is that I shall get stuck in the mud and
cant get out." The next spring a young man wrote to his brother:
"You have probably heard of Ohio Mud but I never had any
conception of it untill I saw it with my own eyes and walked in it
with my own feet. One good rain here lasting three hours will wet
up a mortar bed in the road knee deep. But to balance this, one
day's sun will dry it entirely up and leave the roads so that it
will be dry walking in the middle of it." Five years later a
"prep" apostrophized October in his diary: "Old October, all hail
. . . ! You came today open handed, and you poured upon us rain
and storm; as a consequence you will leave us mud. But
nevertheless you are welcome, sit down!" The next day, he added:
"Whew, October! you've did a fine job!" Just as the end of the
Civil War period the editor of the local newspaper felt called
upon to devote an entire article to "Mud!!" and found that subject
"as inexhaustible as the supply," but he was finally forced to
stop in order to wash his hands.
Oberlin was never a large town, even
comparatively; it was always dependent on education as its chief
industry. Writing in January, 1835, Brewster Pelton, the tavern
keeper, estimated that there were "thirty dwelling houses within
one mile" containing three hundred people including the hundred
students then in the Institute. A student wrote to his father in
1837: "I would say . . . that there are 70 or 80 dwelling houses
in the collony besides the college buildings. Some are brick &
some wood,--besides shops, stores, mills . . . --& this has
been done in about 5 years." The Committee on Farms and Gardens
reported to the agricultural society in 1842 a population of 1398.
By 1847 it had increased to 1736. When Henry Howe visited Oberlin
in 1846 he estimated that it contained one hundred and fifty
houses. A report made to the agricultural society in 1849 puts the
population as only 1570, even including 450 students. The census
of 1850 gives the entire population of the township as 1887. A
careful enumeration in 1855 revealed a population of over two
thousand: 1127 females and 914 males. The incoming student, even
in 1859, was not impressed with the size of the community. "When I
got off the cars at the Oberlin station," wrote young Henry
Prudden to the folks back home, "I looked about to see where the
town was, but I could see but 5 houses. what to do I did not know,
but I finally asked a young man the way to Prof. Cowles. He said
he was going right there so I went with him under his umbrella for
it rained very hard." The streets were muddy rivers and the
sidewalks were probably not in the best of repair. If it happened
to be after dark a guide would be particularly necessary, for
there were no gas lights at this date. This reception must have
been a partial cause of Henry Pruden's later homesickness. The
national census found 2915 residents in Oberlin in 1860 and 3343
in 1870.
1850 Oberlin contained the largest
percentage of Negroes of any community in the Western Reserve or
even northeast of Columbus. In the township Negroes made up nine
percent of the total in 1850, 17% in 1860 and 25% in 1870. The
percentage in the village itself was somewhat higher: 25% in 1860
and 1870, separate figures not being available for 1850. Colored
persons have made up about a quarter of the population ever
since.
In 1835 the plan of Oberlin was merely the
intersection of two roads (the present Lorain and Main streets)
with a second east-west road (College Street) intersecting the
north-south road farther south. In that year Professor Street was
laid out north and south in front of the homes of Finney and
Mahan, then under construction, and parallel to Main Street. Thus
the common, College green, or Tappan (Hall) Square, the present
"campus" or park, was bounded on four sides by roads and this has
remained the key to the Oberlin town plan ever since. These four
streets have been extended and other streets laid out intersecting
them at right angles. In 1835-36 a fund contributed by various
colonists was used to build "a comfortable passage for carriages
to the west line of the Oberlin colony." In the fifties, with the
building of the railroad, construction was pushed south along Main
Street the toward the "Depot." In 1862 Forest Street was opened up
west from Professor Street and Mayor and Professor J. M. Ellis'
house was built on it. The town plan with the campus at the center
is symbolic of the dominant part always played by the College in
community life.
Some of the early college buildings were on
the square: Tappan Hall near the center, the Chapel just south of
it after 1855 and, in the late sixties, French and Society halls
at the northwest and southwest corners respectively. South of the
square and facing it were (east to west) Oberlin Hall, the New
Boarding House (Ladies' Hall), and Colonial Hall. Behind these
were Walton Hall (on the west side of Main Street) and the
Laboratory on the east side of Professor Street. Music Hall was
west of Professor Street across from the Laboratory on the present
site of Baldwin Cottage. None of these buildings (except, perhaps,
the Chapel) was remarkable for beauty. John Morgan wrote truly to
Mark Hopkins in 1851: "There is little in the plan or buildings to
recommend it--the almost entire attraction is in the living
soul."
Probably the best available sources on the
appearance of early Oberlin are the papers of the Agricultural and
Horticultural Society. Each year a report was made to this society
on the condition of door-yards, gardens, streets, etc., as well as
on agricultural and industrial production. In 1841 fourteen men
were complimented on their excellent gardens, of whom four,
including Professor Morgan and Father Shipherd, were selected for
specoa; mention. Seventeen were listed as having gardens which
were "poorly Managed, Meagre production & a Scandall to
Agriculture." In the following year D. B. Kinney was found to have
"the best selected fruits of Apples, Plumbs, Cherries &
rasberries in this Village," and "Sister Pelton" was declared to
have "the best cultivated and arranged Vegetable Garden . . .
cultivated by her own hands." In the garden she was often to be
seen "with Gentle hands guiding the spade, the shovel, the rake
and the how [sic] in their appropriate office." It was
decided that "Sister Crosby [had] the most beautiful
Flower Garden" but to the "Ladies of the Institute" went the palm
for second best--"for System in arrangement, due proportion of
Mounds, beds, etc." In 1861 Bayard Taylor, after lecturing in
Oberlin, commented on the "little evidences of taste and culture
everywhere manifest, --the vines, flowers, ornamental shrubs, the
neat bits of lawn."
Though there were many well kept gardens
still there were dooryards which presented quite a different
appearance: "Steril Door yards, covered with weeds of every
noxious character, pools of stagnant water, piles of Decaying
Chips, Shapeless timber, hog pens & hen roosts, the affluvia
arising from which finds its way thro. broken windows, to the
eating table & sleeping apartments. Add to them the nausea of
Drains of the Kitchen and back-house often pass[ing] in
front and in full view, beautified by the Insignia of the house
wife with 1/2 Doz dish cloths, Mops &c--Paraded each side of
the Door ..... Cart wheels, broken sleds &c &c strewed
around."
Everywhere were animals and fowls running
at large. In 1841 there were "75 Hogs Turned loose in the
beautiful Village of Oberlin--to ravage, waste & discomfort
and Destroy the fairest portions of our gardens, vex the peacable
Inhabitants, and in particular to war against the most
defenceless, Ladies & children." This was despite the fact
that as early as 1835 the colonists had voted that hogs should be
penned, and in 1839 a special committee had taken up the question
of "Hens and Hogs" and reported that "no good Citizen, no sincere
Christian will suffer his hogs to run at Large, & that he or
she, who does so, violates every good & honest principle. If a
citizen suffers his swine to run at Large [he] Should meet
and Receive the Marked Contempt of his Neibours--& if a
Christian Brother is so neglectful of his duty--Should be kindly
admonished, expostulated with and if persists in, The church
should be told of his Offence, &--If no repentance after a
suitable Labour is performed his association with the Church
Should be Cut Off--and he or she permitted to Continue their
association unmolested with the Animals they so Democratically
Cherish." As to hens it was decided that they "should be reared in
abundance & Suffered to go at Large at all times except in
Seed time & Harvest." Three years later another committee was
appointed which prepared a "Report on Street Hogs":
"Your Committee to whom was referred the
subject of keeping Hogs, recommends
"1. That those who will keep Hogs, Should
keep them inclosed, for the obvious reason that Street Hogs are
tresspassers against individuals & the public & as a Hog
is not morrally responsible for his actions the owner must of
course be morrally responsiable for all trespasses by his Hogs.
"2. Any Hog, Hogs or Pigs found in the Sts.
of this Village, should be reported to the owner if he can be
found, & if he neglects to put them up he should be admonished
to do so by any member of this Society.
"3. If any person, after being notified
& admonished, Shall refuse to take care of his Hogs, he Should
be esteemed as Void of all regard to the rights of his neighbor
& the community and as such reported to this Society at its
next meeting thereafter."
Hens as well as hogs eventually became
somewhat of a problem and in 1847 another committee suggested,
"that in case . . . fowls are not restrained by [their]
owner . . . it shall be deemed right & not unneibourly, for
the person affected to Kill & use such fowls --[and]
That all fowls, roosting or laying Eggs shall be deemed as
belonging to the Occupier of premises where such fowls roost or
lay Eggs."
The village ordinances published in 1848,
but adopted soon after the incorporation of the village in 1846,
provided for the impounding of hogs and (at certain seasons and
hours) of cattle found running at large. Hogs and chickens were
not the only trespassers. As late as 1862 the News reported that
citizens were pestered by vagrant cows: "There must be at least an
hundred vagabond animals of this sort which get their entire
living in the streets, swarm upon and soil the sidewalks and crowd
themselves into whatever door yard is open to their forcible
assault. And the worst of the matter is that many of the
mischievous beasts belong to people who are abundantly able to
give them an honest living, and whose standing in society is such
that they should be ashamed of constantly trespassing on the
rights of the public .... Oh that . . . every nomadic cow and pig
might be speedily impounded." The passage of the ordinance had
apparently not greatly affected the number of wandering
animals.
In the same week that this notice appeared
the Prudential Committee voted to "pay some young man to drive the
cattle from the Square" and appointed a committee "to see if any
alterations can be made to the entrances to Tappan Hall whereby
the young cattle may be excluded therefrom." The next week the
News announced that, "The Students of Tappan Hall inform us that
several calves and bovine yearlings will be sold to the highest
bidder at half-past eleven o'clock some evening of this week, less
their owner speedily removes them and keeps them away from the
Square. They vow that the proprieters of said stock will have to
look it up at the meat market unless it is speedily cared for."
Photographs taken in the seventies show posts set in the walk at
the entrance to the square through the hedges, so we conclude that
by that date the livestock were satisfactorily
excluded.
Tappan Square in the early days must have
presented a decidedly pastoral appearance: hogs rooting about,
chickens scratching for worms (except "in seed time and harvest"),
and young cattle endeavoring, for some unknown reason, to get into
Tappan Hall. In September of 1843 Professor Henry Cowles recorded
in his Day Book: "Put my horse into Tappan Hall square to pasture
nights." A dozen years later a student wrote to his sister: "We
had quite a novel seen [sic] last night in Tappan square
as it is called . . . A man had a horse that he could not ride. It
would throw him off. A young man here told him that he would break
it for him .... When he got it a going it began to jump up and
down just as lambs do when they play. He had to hang like a monkey
to the horse to keep it from throwing him off but he sucseeded
[sic] in breaking it so the man could ride it."
There was also considerable agricultural
activity on the square. As early as 1836 the Prudential Committee
determined to plant mulberry trees there. Many of these trees were
still alive in 1841 and 1842, as also some fifteen peach trees. In
the latter year it was agreed to rent small tracts of ground on
the square to the students to be used for gardens, and very likely
the young ladies' flower gardens which received second prize from
the Agricultural Society in that season were among those located
there. This practice seems to have been kept up for some time; six
years later a representative of the town appeared before the
trustees to ask the Institute authorities to cover an open "drain
running thro the Instu's garden & down the Main St." In 1840
"rooty bagas" were on the square and in 1849 a crop of corn. In
1848 President Mahan's oxen and cows got into the corn belonging
to the institution and a committee assessed damages of six dollars
against him. It is suspected that this corn was also on Tappan
Square.
In 1859 the proceeds from the hay cut on
the square were appropriated to the preparation of the ground for
the setting out of the group of evergreens of which the former
"Community Christmas Tree" was a late survivor.
The forest was an enemy and, as in most
frontier communities, it does not seem to have occurred to the
settlers that it might be desirable to save some trees for shade
and ornament. In 1836 a student wrote to his parents: "Oberlin is
bounded on all sides by woods. I should think that all that has
yet been cleared was not more than 300 acres, but yet they are
clearing very fast and in a few years the woods will mostly
disappear." It was three years later that the Agricultural Society
heard a report from a "committee on line fences, Ornamental &
fruit Trees." This committee recommended the "planting of Mulberry
Trees by the Sides of the Streets," as they were both ornamental
and (were expected to be) useful. They also recommended "the Elm,
Sycamore, the Maple & Locust for the Streets--the pair, the
plumb, the cherry & the Apple Trees for Door yard." They
expressed great enthusiasm for fruit trees, especially apple
trees, suggesting that they might be planted on "the public common
[Tappan Square] at least upon one or more sides . . . if
Proper Security could be afforded them from Injury." That these
recommendations were not without result is evident from the report
of another committee on trees submitted in 1841 which includes an
expression of "hope that the Spirit of planting trees, so
laudabley manifested last season, will be revived with the opening
of the Spring." Besides the elm, maple, hickory, chestnut and oak
this committee suggested the locust and the horse chestnut,
particularly for use about buildings. In the middle forties the
village ordinances gave special protection to the
trees.
The Institute does not seem to have taken a
very active part in beautifying its grounds in these early years.
Henry Howe's drawing made in 1846 shows only two trees growing on
Tappan Square. A year later Mr. Bateham, the editor of the Ohio
Cultivator, recommended very strongly "the planting of more trees
about the college buildings, grounds and walks, as in the city of
elms, where old Yale is located." In 1844 and 1845 the trustees
and in 1852 the Prudential Committee issued orders for the setting
out of trees around the college buildings and on Tappan
Square.
In the spring of 1856 a holiday was allowed
the students in order that they might set out trees. A young lady
student described the event in her diary: "Wednesday April 23d.
Today we students have had a jubilee. The young men are planting
or rather transplanting trees into Tappan Hall yard, so because
they were thus engaged we have had our jubilee at whatever best
pleased us. No recitations at all nothing but evening prayers.
Early in the morning the gentlemen met at the new Chapel for
assignments. Then they by companies went out into the woods for
trees or commenced on the ground digging. The Freshman class
passed our house on foot going west earliest of any. Again this
afternoon I saw several of them planting in the opposite corner."
The group of trees on the northeastern corner of the square is
often called "Sophomore Grove" and is said to have been planted by
the sophomore class on that "Arbor Day." A clump of evergreens
donated by a firm in Rochester was set out on the square in 1859.
These trees and many others were set out and cared for by the
Arboricultural Association, an organization of college students
and faculty members, led and inspired by Professor J. M. Ellis.
"On Saturday, April 2, [1859] the gentlemen of the
institution turned out in a body to cultivate and set out trees in
Tappan Square. The trees already growing were thoroughly mulched
and manured, and two hundred more (forest and evergreens) set out.
The members of the Senior Preparation Class planted a grove west
of the Chapel, with a view of caring for it during their course.
The Freshmen and Sophomores also planted groves. The students
generally, assisted by several members of the Faculty, worked
heartily and performed a good amount of labor." To these early
efforts we owe the larger trees on the present beautiful
"Campus."
At a comparatively early date the Square
was fenced in, at first by a regular old-fashioned worm fence and
later [1854] by "a neat and substantial railing" built
jointly by the College and townsmen. Secretary Hamilton Hill (like
a true Englishman) had recommended in 1841 the use of hawthorne
hedges, but when in the fifties a hedge was planted around the
square, it was not hawthorne but Osage Orange, a very pleasing
improvement. Most of the yards of private dwellings were also
fenced in. Some of the long-time leases made by the College for
building lots prescribed enclosure--"the front being a neat picket
or board fence." It was a practical necessity too to put up fences
if lawns and gardens were to be protected from the marauding
livestock.
The wandering hogs did not help the
condition of the streets; the sticky Oberlin clay everywhere made
sidewalks very necessary. What was probably the first Oberlin
sidewalk was built "of plank from Main Street to Professor Street
in front of the Institute buildings." Elsewhere it was described
as a "side walk and railing from Collonial Hall to Main Street
Constructed at an expense of 140$." In the following year the
Institute contributed $25.00 to "a good plank walk 3 feet wide
west of the square from Lorain Street to Colonial Hall." At about
the same time a board walk was also built across the square from
Tappan Hall (where the young men roomed) to the Boarding Hall
(Ladies' Hall), largely at the expense of the students who used it
so frequently. The first town ordinances included three sections
especially devoted to the protection of streets and sidewalks:
prohibiting any obstruction of them and providing a fine for "any
person [who] shall willfully ride, or drive, or lead any
horse or other animal, on any of the said sidewalks."
Before the outbreak of the Civil War a
student could be found who would write home to his family that
Oberlin was "a very pleasant place with nice sidewalks." Board
walks are very slippery, however, when wet. Just after the war a
freshman, carrying an armful of books, slipped, fell on the books
and broke two ribs! Board walks, too, require constant attention
and replacement, which they did not always receive in Oberlin. The
local paper found conditions almost unbearable in the spring of
1861. The editor declared: "One fourth of the walks in our
otherwise moral and orthodox village are indecently dangerous. A
proper degree of risk is exhilarating, but the amount we daily
encounter, is destructive and discouraging. The walk on portions
of East and West College streets, Mill street, West Lorain and
Main street near the railroad, is suffered to remain, month in and
month out, in a state hardly navigable for cats .... From the
peculiar and workmanlike construction of our walks a few weeks
suffice to loosen here and there a plank which are left as so many
foot-traps to break the shins of well-meaning pedestrians. Then
the nails by which they are fastened, are sure to work up from one
to two inches and so remain, a perpetual terror to wearers of
crinoline and a perpetual source of revenue to dry-goods
merchants." The editor was not exaggerating the danger to the fair
sex as appears from a letter written by a college girl to a former
classmate three years later:
"Oh larful me [She is suddenly reminded
of an untoward accident and proceeds to describe it]. I must
tell you of a small adventure M. Aimira had the other day. Well we
were coming from prayers the other night, we came across Tappan,
were going to go across lots. You know that path through the
grass. Em and I had stepped off from the walk, by the door we used
to go into an essay class through, & Mira jumped down. Lo
& behold one of the article's [AImira's] hoops caught
upon a nail in the walk & drew out the whole length. Poor M.
A. M. was all in a tremble. (You know her). She begged me to 'step
on it quick.' As well as I could for laughing I did as I was
bidden. She rushed off and drew it from under my feet. I nearly
died. What should the little article do but haul out her penknife
to cut the hoop off. I died then entirely. So did Em. She found it
was no go and tried with her trembling fingers to break it, all
the while asking Em and I to stand before her so that none of the
occupants of Tappan Hall should by some chance see her trouble.
Finally I had to get down and break off her hoop for her. We left
it in the grass, came past the next day & it was gone. We
expect she will get it some day in class, probable is it not
Sallie Mariar?" Before the crinolines had disappeared flagstone
walks were being built to supplant the plank ones on the busiest
streets and across the square in front of Tappan Hall.
In the sixties the pride of Oberlin was its
gas street lamps, first lighted in 1859. The News declared:
"Nothing in the material convenience of our village strikes
visitors with more surprise than our provisions for lighting the
town by gas. Our principal streets, depot and all the public
buildings are well supplied with it, and it is a rare public
convenience." The lights were often life-savers in the days while
any of the plank walks remained.
Very little was done to improve the
streets, except to grade them occasionally in a rather haphazard
fashion. In the early fifties a plank road was built "from the
depot to the college," but there was no paving. When Sophia
Jex-Blake, the English traveler, heard the shout of "Oberlin" at
the door of her railway coach she climbed down to find an omnibus
waiting "outside the station, in the midst of roads so like
ploughed fields as to make a conveyance very
desirable."
In the thirties the Collegiate Institute
handled all sorts of merchandise and its account books charge
against teachers and colonists: soap, sugar, calico, sheetings,
shingle nails and similar necessities. Very early, however,
independent stores were established. T. S. Ingersoll was doing
business in his general store a few weeks after the founding of
the Institute. In 1841 there were three stores, and in 1846 Henry
Howe found "3 dry goods and 1 book store."
By 1851 there were two book stores, two
shoe shops, two combination drug and grocery stores, two dry goods
and grocery stores, one grocery exclusively, a harness shop, and
two carriage shops besides blacksmiths, carpenters, coopers, and
two tailors. James M. Fitch and William H. Plumb were the
proprietors of the book stores. Fitch was a leading citizen:
printer and publisher of the Oberlin Evangelist, superintendent of
the union Sunday School and prominent anti-slavery man. Plumb was
also, at that time, proprietor of the hotel and a livery stable.
It was a great shock to the community when, a little later, he
absconded, leaving debts estimated at $20,000.00. Brewster Pelton,
the leading merchant of the early days, was the proprietor of one
of the general stores. Isaac M. Johnson, who had been converted by
Shipherd in Elyria back in 1831-32, came to Oberlin in 1851 and
soon superseded Pelton. Hiram Pease's carriage shop was already a
landmark on the northeast corner of Mill and Main streets. Edward
F. Munson ran a blacksmith shop on the hill south of Plumb Creek
and west of Main Street in the interval between his
postmasterships.
All of the stores were then on Main Street
or on what is now East College Street. The sale of Oberlin Hall in
1854 marked the begnning of the advance of business enterprises
along the south side of College Street toward the west. The
removal of Ladies' Hall and the laying out of College Place in
1866 put a limit to that advance. The News described the business
places of the town in 1860: "There are at present three general
Mercantile establishmemts, besides one exclusively devoted to Dry
Goods and Clothing, two exclusive Bookstores, four Shoe stores,
one Jewelry and fancy store, three Merchant Tailors, five Family
Grocers, a Flour Store, three Meat Markets, one Stove and Tin
Shop, Two Steam Flouring Mills, one Saw Mill, one Planing Mill and
Sash Factory, two Cabinet Shops, two harness Shops, two Livery
Stables, two Hotels, and two Restaurants. Besides these, Lawyers,
Brokers, Dentists, Daguerreotypists, Printers, Book-binders and
Barbers, in short, all things required to make up a goahead Ohio
Village, excepting a grog shop is to be found in
Oberlin."
Dr. H. A Bunce, a former student in the
College, ran a drug store from 1856 to 1864, when he died of
"consumption." H. L. Henry's Drug Store advertised:
CLEAN TEETH
SWEET BREATH!
and sound and
HEALTHY GUMS,
by using
SHART'S TOOTH-SOAP,
PRICE, 10 CENTS
P. R. Tobin sold harnesses "at the sign of
the Morgan Horse--1 door north of the engine house." O. S. B. Wall
and David Watson, both colored men and both Rescuers, were
partners in the shoe business. John Hancock bought out a shoe shop
in 1862 and advertised in the News: "Call one and all at the old
stand, and have your understanding improved and kept
dry."
In the forties David Brokaw came to Oberlin
and set up as a portrait painter and daguerreotypist, sharing with
a dentist the rooms over the post office on the southeast corner
of Main and College. A. C. and Henry M. Platt learned photography
in his studio and became Oberlin's leading photographers of the
early days. Their advertisements in the News offer "Photographs,
Ambrotypes, Cartes De Visites." J. M. Fitch sold the photograph
albums which now preserve so many of the old pictures taken by
them.
In 1833 the mail was brought over from
(South) Amherst. When a post office was first established it was
called "Russia." A few letters from Oberlin, unstamped and without
envelopes, bearing the postmark "Russia, Ohio" are still preserved
in the archives of the College. Edward F. Munson, the blacksmith,
being the leading local Democrat, was postmaster from 1843 to 1861
except for the Taylor-Fillmore administration when Whigs replaced
him. Of course, a Republican triumphantly succeeded him soon after
Lincoln was inaugurated. The main mail stage route of the early
days went through Elyria, "Whiskeyville," (South) Amherst,
Henrietta, etc. Artemas Beebe of Elyria carried the mail in
four-horse stagecoaches daily from Cleveland to Fremont over this
route. From 1838 to 1840 he sent a man on a horse from Elyria with
the Oberlin mail three times a week; in the second year a led
horse carried the papers once a week--many an Emancipator nso
doubt. From 1840 to 1844 the mail was carried to Oberlin in a
two-horse coach three times a week. The Government allowed the
contractor three hours to make the journey each way! By 1852 mail
was being brought from Elyria by coach six times a week. Then came
the railroad.
From pioneer days the corner northeast of
the intersection of College and Main streets was occupied by a
tavern or hotel. Brewster Pelton played host in 1834 in a log
cabin, but built a two-story tavern (30x40 feet) in 1835. As late
as 1848 the Agricultural and Horticultural Society held its
banquet in the "Oberlin House" kept by "Mr. B. Pelton." The hotel
was closed for a time but was opened again in 1850 under the
management of W. H. Plumb. Three years later it was officially
commended by the Oberlin Evangelist as "the home of order and
quiet." Wack's Tavern on Main Street was not generally looked upon
with so much favor. It was there that the slave catchers stopped
at the time of the Rescue. Wack was a Democrat. When W. H. Plumb
absconded, the College took over the uptown hotel and leased it to
a succession of landlords under whom it was known as the Palmer
House and the Monroe House. It was during the war when it was
called the Monroe House that a patron blew out the gas and was
saved from asphyxiation only when the proprietor broke open the
door. In the fall of 1865 the College sold the building; it was
burned down in January. Most people agreed that the fire was
something of a blessing, the thirty year old hostelry was in such
disrepair. Henry Viets built the present brick hotel building,
aided by a bounty of $2,500 from the College.
Mr. W. H. Plumb sent a carriage from the
hotel to meet all the trains in the early fifties. In 1860 a "NEW
and SPLENDID OMNIBUS" was purchased to perform this service. This
was probably the very vehicle in which Sophia Jex-Blake, the
English feminist, rode from the depot to the hotel in 1865. She
has left us the most detailed extant description of service at the
old "Monroe House":
"Begrimed as we were with our night
journey, the national instinct claimed some means of ablution.
'Can we have a room to wash our hands?' A rather wandering gaze,
and 'I guess you can,' preluded our introduction to a small room
not yet 'red up,' where a basin full of dirty water looked
unpromising for our chances. But our host was equal to the
emergency,--in a moment the said basin was seized, and its
contents flung out of window. I thought of the notice we had seen
often at Niagara, 'Stones thrown from above may strike passers
below,' but gratefully accepted the goods the gods provided, and
washed in peace.
"We then got a good country breakfast of
eggs in all forms (being expected to eat the boiled ones
American-wise, smashed up in glasses with milk, etc.), with
biscuit, and the rather nice pink tea which always puzzled me as
to its materiell. By-the-by, with the usual American inversion of
words, 'biscuit' means hot rolls, hardly once baked, to say
nothing of twice.
"This meal was served in a queer low
dining-room, with posts supporting the ceiling and beams running
across it, the common eating-room of the house."
From the beginning, the tavern on the
corner was under conservative, moral, and temperate management. A
visitor in 1848 commented: "I put up at the hotel, and found no
swearing, no drinking or smoking, no noise and confusion. When
called to partake of our meals, the blessing of our common Father
was asked to rest upon the fruits of his bounty, and all seemed
with a willing heart to say, the presence of the lord is here! May
God's choicest blessings rest upon those who conduct that and
similar houses." Fourteen years later the Evangelist announced:
"An excellent public house is now kept at the centre of the
village .... Visitors will find it a quiet Christian Home, free
from the nuisance of tobacco and of whatsoever doth intoxicate. Of
his own accord, the lease under which he holds the house binds him
to 'keep it on strictly temperance principles, neither keeping for
sale nor selling anything that can or will intoxicate, including
under this, ale, strong drink, hard cider, tobacco and cigars.'"
In the sixties there were various
refreshment stands. The year before the war a "NEW ICE CREAM
SALOON" was opened on the east side of (South) Main Street. Dr.
Bunce, the apothecary, advertised that he sold "The most Delicate
Flavored Soda Water in the Village." Burnett's Restaurant offered
beef steak, pork steak, broiled chicken, fish, game, oysters, tea,
coffee, and toast. You could buy candy of John Watson, a colored
man and one of the Rescuers. It is recorded that when "Watson's
horse died and he could not raise money to buy another he gave up
draying and kept a confectionery store."
Down to 1856 liquor might be sold in
Oberlin by license, but in that year a village ordinance was
passed entirely prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors,
especially defined as including "every species of spirituous
liquors, including cider, ginger wine, ale, porter and strong
beer." By 1865, however, a citizens' committee, including Dr.
Dascomb, Professor Fairchild and others, reported that liquor was
sold in two drug stores and in Samuel Munson's saloon. They
reported that Munson had no respect for "the sentiments that
prevail generally in this Community." (He was one of the Democrat
Munsons, of course.) A month later he was fined $25.00 and costs
for liquor selling.
Besides the college publications (the
Evangelist, the Quarterly Review, and the Students' Monthly) two
newspapers were printed and published in Oberlin. The first was
the short-lived Oberlin Times and Students' Literary Journal
attempted by J. M. Fitch in 1853. The second was the Lorain County
News which has had a continuous life, under different names, from
1860 to the present day. It was printed by V. A. Shankland and J.
F. Harmon and ably edited by Professor H. E. Peck, L. L. Rice, and
J. B. T. Marsh in succession. It is the most important single
source of information on life in the village in the later
years.
There was some manufacturing in Oberlin
from the building of the community steam mill in 1833-34. Run by
the Institute for the first two years, it was leased in 1836 and
later sold. It burned in 1844. In the late fifties and the sixties
there was a considerable boom in local enterprise. In August,
1860, the News editorially called attention to the advantages (?)
of Oberlin's location and bragged: "We make the best lumber, the
best flour, the best of sash and blinds, the best of photographs,
the best of harness, the best of boots and shoes, the best of gas
(notice politicians who need the article) and do the best of
printing."
Local industry was distributed along Plumb
Creek (though certainly no power was secured from it) from Water
(Park) Street on the east nearly to Professor Street at the west.
Lumber and saw mills were in the Water Street area, while the
blacksmith shops, wagon shops, sash-and-blind and cabinet shops,
machine shops, and a carding mill were grouped around the
intersection of Main and Mill (Vine) streets. In addition James
Bailey made military saddles for the army; C. C. Hudson and Co.
concocted Hudson's Tooth Paste put up in "neat, opaque, glass
bottles," and the local tombstone-maker also produced "elegant
marble mantles and sideboards." In 1866 the enterprising Samuel
Plumb even incorporated the Oberlin Woolen Manufacturing Company.
Every American town in those days hoped to be the Lowell or
Pittsburgh of tomorrow.
As the buildings were, with few exceptions,
of very frail wood construction there was always much danger from
fire. Some provision had been made for fire fighting in 1836, and
as early as 1837 two voluntary fire companies were organized and
were considering the purchase of an engine. Just ten years later
the Prudential Committee appropriated fifty dollars to help in
buying one, and in 1850 the Oberlin Society voted to give the
northwest "basement room of the church for an Engine House." It
would appear, however, that engines were not actually secured
until 1852. From 1852 to 1858 fire drills were held on the
meetinghouse grounds. These engines were, of course, of the old
hand-pump type and evidently not the only reliance in time of
need, for on the back page of the Charter and Ordinances for 1856
is printed in large letters:
ON THE OCCURRENCE of FIRES,
Let every man
TAKE WITH HIM A PAIL,
and also
WATER, IF PRACTICABLE.
Later in the fifties a very elaborate
ritual was provided for the fire department. "At all fires the
Mayor and Councilmen shall severally bear a staff with a gilded
flame at the top, . . "The Chief Engineer was to "wear a leather
cap painted white, with gilded front and the words 'Chief
Engineer' painted thereon in black," and other officials were to
be similarly designated. All this must have greatly increased the
temptation to turn in a false alarm!
The two years 1865 and 1866 constituted a
climactic period in the history of Oberlin fire fighting. The old
Empire Hook and Ladder Company of pre-war days was reorganized and
re-invigorated--almost all of its members now being ex-soldiers.
In July, 1865, the Whitney livery stables on Main Street were
burned, with considerable loss of harnesses, buffalo robes, hay
and grain. Early in 1866 there was a fire in the Union School.
Little damage was done except to the schoolbooks, which were all
thrown out the windows! Then the hotel burned down as the whole
town watched--burned to the ground despite the fact that students
working at the pumps were furnished free stimulants from one of
the drugstores! The sight of inebriated college students was more
of a shock to most than the prospect of the burning tavern. There
was a great to-do about the inadequacy of equipment and the
freezing up of one hand engine when it was borrowed to flood the
skating pond. (Two members of the Excelsior Skating Club were
arrested while on their way to church on a Sabbath morning.) In
the fall of 1866 a steam fire engine was purchased and at a public
demonstration threw a stream of water over the College
Chapel.
But fighting fires was hardly more than a
secondary activity for the volunteer fire companies. Firemen's
conventions were much more important. In 1860 the Oberlin hook and
ladder company rode to Sandusky with the Oberlin Citizens' Brass
Band in their gorgeous new band wagon and came home with the
silver trumpet. "They ran eighty rods, planted a ladder, and had
man a man on the top of it in one minute and fifteen seconds." In
1865 and 1866 the revived "Empire" company appeared at all the
tournaments in northern Ohio wearing red pants, white shirts and
red ties.
Commencements, rescues and fires did not
furnish the only interruptions to the rural quiet of the village
streets. There were occasional runaways past the rigs hitched
before the stores, as in 1860 when a driverless team dashed down
Main Street and smashed an expensive carriage against the railing
of the Plumb Creek bridge. Fourth-of-July was a nerve-wracking day
for dogs, horses and old ladies, begun at dawn with the firing of
the "Baby Waker" cannon on the square. Tuesday evenings in the
sixties the Citizens' Brass Band played patriotic music on the
bandstand near Tappan Hall.
Places of business stayed open until eight
o'clock most evenings and much later on Saturday. On Saturday
nights the country people drove into town to do their weekly
shopping, and knots and crowds of men and boys gathered on the
board walks at the corner of Main and College streets and before
the more popular stores. There was an increasing amount of
rowdiness in the war years. Crowds of riotous boys disturbed
home-stayers with their shouts and cat-calls and even severed the
traces of the teams and removed the wheels of carriages during
services at the church. Storms of hand-clapping and stamping often
preceded public lectures. Disturbances accompanied the arrival and
departure of trains at the depot. There were a few burglaries. In
1858 two stores were broken into, and in 1865 four thousand
dollars worth of government bonds were stolen from the home of a
pious deacon while he was at church.
After Dr. Dascomb gave up his practice and
began to devote himself wholly to his college duties Dr. Alexander
Steele was invited to Oberlin to take his place. By 1851 Oberlin
had a dentist and four physicians: one homeopathic, one autopathic
and two orthodox. Dr. Jennings practiced autopathic or orthopathic
medicine. Dr. Keys was the homeopathist. In 1855 a student wrote
to her sister: "I am taking medicine yet, it is Homeopathy and
very pleasant to take, I will send you one pill. I have seven of
them to take at once." Homer Johnson, the other "regular" doctor,
had come to Oberlin in the forties and was to have a long period
of service. In the sixties anyone who thought he needed psychiatry
could go to William Smith or Gillanders, phrenologists. "Those who
are doubtful as to what is in their heads," advised the News,
"will do well to call and be 'examined.'"
There were no lawyers or banks in Oberlin
until the fifties. Anson P. Dayton and the colored man, John M.
Langston, hung out their shingles in the middle of the decade.
Ralph and Samuel Plumb followed them a few years later. The Plumbs
soon gained high rank among Oberlin's leading citizens.
Ralph Plumb stuck mainly to the law and
Samuel Plumb became a business man and banker. It was Samuel Plumb
who built the gas works in 1859. By 1861, at least, he was engaged
in private banking, having set up his office on the present site
of Comings' bookstore next to the old Ladies' Hall. Less than two
months after the National Banking Act of 1863 was passed he opened
the stock subscription list for the First National Bank of Oberlin
and put his own name down for $20,000.00. Other large subscribers
were President Finney, Professor Cowles, Professor Peck, John
Keep, I. M. Johnson, Ralph Plumb and Henry Viets. In June, Plumb
was elected president and business began in September. By
February, 1864, the bank was doing so well that Plumb was
authorized to buy new furniture worth nearly thirty dollars; a
stove, a table, six chairs, a wash stand, "etc.," and a doster. In
August the First National Bank was advertising government bonds
for sale.
Thus in the war years Oberlin's economic
organization was brought to normal maturity. Who remembered the
dreams of Christian communism?
CHAPTER
XXXVI
VILLAGE SOCIETY
IN AUSTERE and shocked dignity, its back
turned toward the institution of which it was once so essential a
part, the old meeting house stands across from the northeastern
corner of the square, the only building now surviving from the
Finney era. It is appropriate that it should be the last survivor,
for the church which it housed was the most powerful factor in the
life of the Oberlin community, excepting only the College
itself.
It was in August of 1834 that the "Brethren
& Sisters of Oberlin assembled at the school room--Br. J. J.
Shipherd in the chair" and "Resolved that a church be formed" to
be styled "The Congregational Church of Christ at Oberlin." At
first services were held in "the school room" in Oberlin Hall. In
1836, however, Colonial Hall, built jointly by the Institute and
the colonists, was available, with a much larger auditorium. As
both school and town grew, this, in its turn, became too small. In
the spring of 1842 a young lady student wrote to her mother: "The
congregations are still growing larger [under the stimulus of
Finney's preaching]. The Laboratory and Chapel in Colonial
Hall are crowded every Sabbath." Later in the summer the big tent
which was used for Commencement was put up every week-end in order
that the congregation might be united.
Over a year before, it had been decided to
"proceed forthwith to take measures for building a meeting house."
A committee was appointed to take charge of construction,
fortunately including Thomas P. Turner, an experienced house
carpenter, formerly of Thetford, Vermont. Plans were donated by
Willard Sears, of Boston, a friend of Finney's. They were
apparently the work of an architect named Lodge. Turner was given
direct charge of the work of construction, though under the
surveillance of the committee. On June 17, 1842, the corner stone
was laid. Professor Finney led in prayer and a special hymn was
sung:
God of Israel! lend thine ear,
Listen to our humble prayer;
Let our praise ascend on high,
Hear, Oh hear our fervent cry.
As we lay the corner stone,
For thy worship, Lord, alone.
May the presence of thy love
Rest upon us from above;
May thy glory and thy grace
Shadow o'er this holy place;
Shield us by thy power divine
O thou God of Oberlin.
The Oberlin people taxed themselves to the
limit to provide for the construction of the building, and appeals
for financial aid were sent out through the columns of the Oberlin
Evangelist. From time to time acknowledgements were made of
receipts: a hundred dollars, fifty dollars, one dollar, a hat, "12
lbs. nails," a cheese, four bushels of apples, "2 3/4 yds. fulled
cloth," "1 horse waggon" and even two cows from two residents of
Medina. As Iate as June of 1843 the appeal was renewed. The
meeting house was progressing slowly due to the lack of funds.
"Donations in money, provisions, goods, or materials . . .
[would be] thankfully received." Not until late in 1844
was the building ready for occupancy. "A large brick meating
house, which is surrounded by mud and can only be entered by an
inclined plain made of rough boards."
The relation of the church to the Institute
and College was always very close. When the original confession of
faith and covenant were adopted the faculty of the Institute took
an official part in their preparation. Often in the making of an
important decision the advice of the faculty was asked. The
preaching was done by professors from the Institute. After the
pastorate of Shipherd, Professor Cowles and Professor Morgan
filled the pulpit temporarily. Then Professor Finney became pastor
and Professor Morgan was associated with him. At first the
pastor's salary was entirely furnished by the Board of Trustees of
the Institute, the colonists of course contributing to his support
through their contributions to the Institute. No change was made
in this relation even though the trustees appealed to the
colonists in 1842 to make some direct contribution to the support
of the pastor. Some money, however, was raised by the church
members to pay a small salary to Professor Morgan for his
assistance during the extended absence of Professor Finney. The
singing was furnished by a choir which was practically identical
with the Musical Association in the Institute and, therefore, made
up mostly of students. Professor Allen directed this choir,
receiving a stipend of a hundred dollars a year for his services.
As the students were required to attend church services as a part
of their training, the gallery was usually filled at all services.
The church was as closely bound up with the Institute and College
as it was with the community.
To understand the great importance of the
church in Oberlin it must be borne in mind that the prominent
characteristic of the community, as well as the College, was
piety. The Sabbath was devoted, without reservation, to the
worship of the Lord. "Is there a place in the wide world which has
such Sabbaths as we have?" James Fairchild wrote to Mary Kellogg
from Oberlin. "In Palmyra last winter, even while we were at
meeting, the railroad cars would go rumbling by as if in mockery
of the truth which we had met to acknowledge but here there is no
such contradiction. No sound is heard but the voice of prayer and
praise and there is no gathering place except the house of
God."
A visitor to Oberlin from New England in
the early fifties has left us a revealing description of Oberlin
of a Sunday:
"The Sabbath was Peace from beginning to
end, for there is probably not a community in the world more
pervaded by religion than that of Oberlin. Religion is the very
atmosphere of the place, so that not unfrequently impenitent young
men and women as they are traveling thither for the first time to
commence study, are brought under deep conviction by the fact that
they are going to Oberlin, where such multitudes have been
converted .... The church edifice is very large and will seat
twenty-five hundred persons. This immense house was perfectly full
from top to bottom . . . and in the deep galleries entirely round
the house, were seated a thousand young men and ladies, students
in the institution from fifteen to twenty-five years of age. A
more interesting sight we never beheld, and it brought the tears
instantly to our eyes. Among them, here and there, might be seen
neatly dressed colored persons, sitting with bright intelligent
faces, and with no apparent consciousness that they belonged to a
proscribed race .... The choir was composed of about one hundred
and twenty choice singers, seated directly behind the pulpit, and
accompanied by several instrumental performers, and the music was
as nearly perfect in its general character and effect for church
music as could well be conceived. I noticed five colored persons
in the choir. Mr. Finney preached in the forenoon from the text
'My grace is suflicient for thee,' and to those who have heard him
in his best moods, on so spiritual a theme, we need scarcely say
it was a rich treat. Ministers do not often hear preaching, but
one such discourse would last us a year ....
"As usual Oberlin is enjoying a revival,
though without the of any special services .... The afternoon was
occupied with the reception of members and the administration of
the Lord's Supper. At six o'clock there was an inquiry meeting, at
which there were eighty present, though there had been scarcely a
word addressed to the impenitent during the day. Some twenty or
thirty neighborhood prayer meetings were held during the
evening."
In the last analysis the Oberlin pulpit
meant the preaching of Finney. To Lucy Stone he was merely "the
crossest looking man I ever saw," but to most students, townsmen
and visitors his glittering eyes, shaggy brows, beak-like nose and
expressive mouth represented the very center and symbol of Oberlin
and the Oberlin idea. To go to Oberlin was to hear Finney, the
great actor of the American pulpit. His preaching was always live,
emotional, spontaneous, and dramatic as well as logical--qualified
particularly to appeal to younger people. He never wrote out his
sermons, using only a brief skeleton or outline, itself referred
to seldom or not at all. His sermons were essentially
extemporaneous, though, of course, thought out carefully before
hand.
Often he would begin one of his sermons in
the morning and then continue it in the afternoon, as in July of
1855 when he preached all day on "Faith" and in 1857 when two
sermons were required for his exposition of the text: "Whoso
covereth his sins shall not prosper: but who confesseth and
forsaketh them shall have mercy." Though Finney sometimes preached
on worldly matters such as the assassination of President Lincoln,
he dealt for the most part with the great central theme of sin and
salvation. "Robbing God," "A Sinner a Nuisance," "Joined to
Idols," "Turn or Die," "Blood the Condition of Pardon," "Sinners
Condemned," "Your Sins will Find You Out" were typical sermon
subjects. He was probably most effective in dealing with the
terrible scenes of judgment, redemption and damnation. Here was a
real opportunity for the full use of his descriptive powers. One
of his most famous sermons was on "The Wages of Sin." Others of
similar tenor were: "Guilt and Doom of Sinners," "Plowing of the
Wicked, Sin," "Wicked Turned into Hell," and "The Devil Seeks to
Devour." The latter part of his skeleton for the sermon having the
last named title (as preached in 1863) runs:
"4. Suppose you must cross a desert
swarming with lions.
5. Lions seek their prey in
darkness.
6. So the devil carries off his victims in
the night.
7. He prowls about you in the night
peculiarly.
8. If this doctrine were really believed it
would beget general sobriety, vigilance, and anxiety.
9. The skepticism that prevails is as the
devil would have it.
10. Many a soul has been carried captive
because of unbelief.
11. What would you think of one crossing
the desert swarming with lions as careless as you are. "You would
expect him to be devoured."
The final portion of his outline of the
sermon on The Wages of Sin is of a similar nature:
"10. Hell has its use.
11. Hell the less of two evils.
12. The best use that God can make of
sinners.
13. They shall glorify God.
14. But can you endure it? Have you
considered the import of the figures. Heaven--City of Gold, Robes,
Harps, Eternal Joy, Songs, Shouts,--not overdone.
Hell--Lake of Fire, Chains, Darkness,
Furnace, Smoke, Wages, Death, How Long--Eternally, Cruel to
conceal this.
15. Christ interfered to save from
this."
But it was Finney's striking manner of
delivery, his importunate personal appeal to each individual
hearer that made these sermons most effective. Few who had heard
that sermon on The Wages of Sin could ever forget it.
"Indeed, it almost makes one shudder, even
after the lapse of years," wrote the Rev. Charles Bush in 1876,
"to recall some of them [Finney's Sermons]--that
especially from the text, 'The Wages of sin is death'! The
preacher's imagination was as vivid as his logic was inexorable
.... How he rung the changes on that word 'wages' as he described
the condition of the lost soul: 'You will get your "wages"; just
what you have earned, your due; nothing more, nothing less; and as
the smoke of your torment, like a thick cloud, ascends forever and
ever, you will see written upon its curling folds, in great
staring letters of light, the awful word, wages, Wages, WAGES'!
"As the preacher uttered this sentence, he
stood at full height, tall and majestic--stood as if transfixed,
gazing and pointing toward the emblazoned cloud, as it seemed to
roll up before tim: his clear shrill voice rising to its highest
pitch, and penetrating every nook and corner of the vast assembly.
People held their breath. Every heart stood still."
No wonder students dreamed of the Last
Judgment as Mary Gilbert did in 1853? Young people carried away
with them from Oberlin the memory of these terrible sermons, if of
nothing else.
Finney's prayers were also impressive but
of quite a different character. His prayers before the largest
congregation were as intimate as if he were in his own closet.
Supplications took the place of warning, tears the place of
sweeping, stabbing gestures. The great orator-preacher became mild
and simple as a little child. These prayers were evidently never
prepared but were the spontaneous gushings of a highly emotional
and impetuous spirit wrought up to its highest point of pious
zeal. He prayed for the poor and sick of the community, for the
students; he prayed for rain and accepted ensuing showers
gratefully as the answer of an anxious, listening Deity. More than
once he noticed the choir in his petitions, "Telling the Lord how
he could not hear the words of the first pieces we sang, but heard
the second etc." One Sabbath in the summer of 1864 he prayed about
the ladies' long dresses. Sometimes his phrasing in prayers as in
sermons was more forceful than elegant, as at the Thanksgiving
Service in November, 1848, when he prayed "that the southern
aristocrats might spit in the dough faces of the north until they
provoked them to put an end to Slavery, [and] that the
dinner of the ungrateful might not choke them to
death."
Sometimes Finney would direct a part of his
discourse especially to the student-filled gallery, as in 1859
when one of the young ladies noted in her diary: "He addressed a
portion of his sermon to the seniors, a large class. Also the
Senior ladies' class. Mentioned the cases of two individuals . . .
who . . . had come all this way through College and were not yet
converted. Said he had spoken with one or two of the class about
this .... He appealed strongly to them, fearing the blood of their
souls would be on their skirts. I saw a member who was deeply
affected and put his handkerchief to his face." Of course, every
effort was made to convert the students, this being Finney's first
aim in Oberlin. At the conclusion of many sermons the
evangelist-Professor issued the call for sinners to come forward
and acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. Large numbers of students
went forward on many such occasions and later joined the church by
hundreds.
The perennial revivals were, of course,
community as well as college affairs and kept the religious zeal
of the village at a high pitch. The whole town would be given over
to prayer meetings, experience meetings and song service. Class
meetings in College, faculty meetings, sessions of the
agricultural society, social gatherings were turned to the
dominant religious questions of the hour.
But it was not only at times of revival or
on the Sabbath that the inhabitants of Oberlin turned to religion.
To most of them religion was life, and life itself was only
significant as it seemed to reveal to them the Deity and His will.
"I believed I sinned in taking a small piece of pie after I had
finished my meal," confided the wife of a professor to her diary.
"It would have benefited others, & did not, but perhaps
injured me. The great law of love violated. I came into my room
immediately to kneel before Savior, & repent, that I had
grieved His infinite heart of love." When drought burned down the
crops and threatened famine a "Day of Humiliation and Prayer for
Rain" was set aside. Such a day was August 28, 1854. The practice
was fully justified by the Evangelist, though it was recognized
that: "God has higher and better ends in view than large harvests
and uncounted stores, so that He will measure out to us of the
latter, only as He sees he can do so, the higher and better good
not being imperiled thereby," and also that it was perhaps for the
moral good of the country that it should be so
scourged.
The church was the chief arbiter of morals
in the community. The Institute sometimes entered this field, as
when in 1848 the Prudential Committee refused the application of a
certain Mr. Lake for the lease of a lot. The committee concluded
"that said Lake is not a man that the Com[mitte]e can
satisfactorily lease a Lot of land to, he being upon his own
confession given to swearing." Earlier, when a lot on Main Street
"South of the Creek on which the steam mills stand" was leased by
the trustees it was specifically provided that "in no case are the
premises to be occupied by females except as members of a family
having a married head and in all cases to be subject to the
general regulations of the Institution." When Professor George
Allen leased the lot on which he built his house south of the
Music Hall he agreed to "occupy and use the said premises in all
respects in accordance with the principles and precepts of the
Christian religion," and "in conformity to the 'Oberlin Covenant'
so-called."
Of course, almost every Christian man in
the community considered himself to be his "brother's keeper" and
the same was true among the students. The students were, likewise,
subject to a separate system of disciplinary administration to be
examined later. Most of the cases brought before the local
Justice-of-the-Peace were for the recovery of money due. In 1838,
for example, Bela Hall claimed payment from Nathaniel Gerrish "on
a note of hand . . . of three Dollars and sixty-eight cents." The
names of church members do not appear often in these
suits.
The church itself was a court which heard
all sorts of cases, civil and criminal as well as questions of
doctrine. In 1838 one "sister" brought the charge against another
sister that she was guilty of "Unchristian conduct" on four
points:
"1. Busy body in other persons' matters
2. Tattling
3. Slander
4. Falsehood."
Such cases were tried before the body of
members of the church assembled in regular or special business
meetings. The case named lasted through several meetings. In the
previous autumn another church member had been indicted for
continuing the use of tea in violation of the Oberlin Covenant.
There were cases of Sabbath breaking to be considered. In 1839 a
young man confessed to the charge of having worked as steward on a
lake on the Sabbath. Three years previous a colonist was charged
with having "violated the Sanctity of the Sabbath by travelling
and driving a loaded team from Ridgeville to Oberlin on that holy
day." In 1851 Henry Bates was charged with a long list of crimes,
not only Sabbath breaking but also disobedience and disrespect to
parents, dancing and card playing. W. H. Plumb, who was in charge
of the boarding house for a time and thus brought in close
relation with the young ladies of the Institute, confessed that he
had in the case of one of them "trampled upon her affections and
... permitted her to be exposed to the sneers and ridicule of
others." One man was brought before the church for breaking a
fence. In the early fifties a political conflict between two
candidates for the postmastership was aired in the church, the
case running over a period of more than four years.
Of course, there were trials for heresy.
Delazon Smith, a student was excommunicated for his acknowledged
atheism. In the thirties a citizen was indicted for:
"1. The neglect of reading the Holy
Scriptures and prayer in his family.
2. The neglect of meeting with God's people
on the sabbath and on other days to worship.
3. The neglecting the Ordinances of God's
house."
Purely business matters were also dealt
with. The tavern keeper and his wife were excommunicated for
absconding in order to escape payment of debts. One particularly
complicated case involved the charge that a man had kept property
out of his father's estate in order to defraud his father's
creditors. Another case arose out of the delivery of ten barrels
of poor flour. Not the least interesting cases were those
involving the relation between husband and wife.
There is a pleasanter side to the picture.
The church was also a charitable institution and its beneficences
were large for that day. The poor fund of the church was usually
between one and two hundred dollars. This was distributed to the
"Widow Smith," "Clark's family," "funeral Expenses [of]
Miss----," for "Half load of wood for Mrs. Butts," etc. Fifty-one
dollars was appropriated in 1856 "for a colored woman to aid in
the purchase of her Daughter." Several hundred dollars was usually
raised annually for the use of various benevolent societies. In
1859, when the poor fund was $115.88, there was also raised and
expended for the American Missionary Association, $160.83; for the
Oberlin Bible Society, $59.35; for the Congregational Church in
Nebraska, $41.11; for the Home for the Friendless, $27.36; for the
Seaman's Friend Society, $75.14; for the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions, $3.38 (not popular in Oberlin
because considered pro-slavery): for the Home Missionary Society,
$25.63; and for the Rescuers' Fund (this being the year of the
Oberlin-Wellington Rescue), $ 185.81.
The Town of Russia was left to care for
some of the poor. In 1856 the records show that a meeting of the
township trustees was held, "the object of the meeting . . .
[being] to dispose of the town poor." "Mr. Charles Woodman
was put up, and it being found that Isaac Hill offered to keep him
at the rate of $1.30 per year--no one biding less, the trustees
then declared that Mr. Hill have the keeping of him." It is
doubted whether any Oberlin colonist was ever taken care of by the
town.
The sick were nursed by neighbors and
acquaintances. A family in which there was sickness could expect
the aid and comfort of most of the community, especially, of
course, fellow church members. When Professor James Monroe was ill
in 1850, Mrs. Monroe wrote to her parents: "He has not been able
to sit up except to have his bed made & is very weak and much
prostrated .... He has had the very best of care. I think I never
saw a sick person receive such attention, five or six individuals
take turns in watching nights and they did take care of him
through the day until the last week. We have not wanted for
anything that friends could do for us. Mrs. Prof. Hudson has the
babies." The students followed the same practice: taking turns in
"watching" with any of their number who might be ill.
Before the war the meeting house had become
entirely too small for the number of persons who desired to attend
the services. So in 1860 the congregation "swarmed," and the
Second Congregational Church was organized, including in its
membership many prominent citizens: J. M. Fitch, J. M. Ellis,
Samuel Plumb, Henry Cowles, G. N. Allen, the Fairchild brothers,
Elisha Gray (co-inventor of the telephone), John Keep, Henry E.
Peck, Giles Shurtleff, and W. W. Wright among others. Services
were held in the College Chapel during the war years; the Rev.
Minor W. Fairfield, a graduate of the Collegiate and Theological
departments and brother-in-law of Professor Fairchild, was the
pastor. There never were any differences between the two churches.
The great Sunday School, which had had a continuous history since
1833, remained united for some years longer. Its six or seven
hundred attendants met in the Chapel at nine o'clock on Sunday
mornings under the superintendency of J. M. Fitch, as they had
been accustomed to do since 1855. When, after the war, a building
was constructed for the Second Church the members of the old
church contributed over five thousand dollars.
But other organizations had divided the
community. In the decade of the fifties the Episcopalians
organized the opposition to "0berlinism" and the college
administration which existed among some groups of townsmen. Their
effort was to combat in its very lair what they called Oberlin's
"wild ultraisms," "indecent dogmatism" and "politico-religious
teaching." They wished to provide a place where Oberlinites could
enjoy "Christian worship in which their devotional feelings shall
not be chilled by the crude and often disgusting puerilities of
the 'College Chapel' and its head Prof. F." This enterprise seems
to have been chiefly the work of the Rev. Francis Granger, an
Episcopalian missionary having his headquarters at Elyria. He had
the backing of a Cleveland Rector and of the Rt. Rev. Charles P.
McIlvaine, Bishop of Ohio, of President Lorin Andrews of Kenyon
College and of certain churchmen in the East. Apparently
Episcopalian services were held in Oberlin as early as 1851.
Christ Church Parish was organized in 1855. The first name among
the subscribers is that of Attorney Anson P. Dayton who was soon
to be known as chief informer in the Rescue Case! Democratic
Postmaster E. F. Munson was another charter member. The College
and the Congregational church did not welcome the
invasion!
Apparently it was the Episcopalians who
introduced into Oberlin the celebration of Christmas. As late as
1863 most Oberlinites looked upon it as "a sort of heathen
institution" and treated December 25 exactly like any other day.
In 1866, however, Christmas services were held at Christ Church,
and the merchants rejoiced in much buying of presents.
After the Episcopalians the Methodists were
the next to organize, and were holding religious services and
"sociables" in Union Hall in 1861. By 1864 they had been granted
the use of a room in old Colonial Hall. In the mid-sixties there
were also small congregations of Wesleyan Methodists and Baptists.
The views of the Methodists and Wesleyans being not so very much
in conflict with the dominant Oberlin attitude, they were
apparently more hospitably received than the conservative
Episcopalians and the Calvinist Baptists.
Secret societies had always been opposed in
Oberlin, and the establishment of a local Lodge of Free Masons in
1867 stirred up a great storm. Professor Finney preached three
sermons against them and, with the support of Dr. Dascomb,
attempted to secure their exclusion and expulsion from membership
in the First Church. President Fairchild spoke, of course, in
favor of compromise, caution and tolerance. Masonry triumphed. In
the spring of 1868 a grand Masonic convention was scheduled for
the old meeting house on condition that those opposed should be
allowed to express their views. The convention was held and, amid
a scene of considerable confusion and disorder, all non-Masons who
attempted to speak were ruled out-of-order. But professor Finney
continued his one-man campaign in the press and from the
pulpit.
The lives of the mothers of Oberlin did not
differ greatly from those of other women of their day. In the ten
years from to 1834 to1844 the number of children per family
averaged a little over three. If they took student boarders, as
most of them did, their cares were further increased. With no
plumbing, no sewers, no modern conveniences of any sort, fretful
days must have been the rule in many families. The church
furnished the chief relaxation from a home life of drudgery. There
were, however, other social diversions. In the very first year a
sewing circle was established.
At the beginning of 1835 the Maternal
Association of Oberlin was founded. Mrs. Shipherd was the first
superintendent and Mrs. Stewart the first corresponding secretary.
"Deeply impressed with the great importance of bringing up our
children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord," began the
constitution" we the subscribers, agree to associate for the
purpose of devising and adopting such measures as may be best
calculated to assist us in the right performance of this duty."
Meetings were to be at least once a month and to be devoted
largely to the problems involved in the training of their
children. Among other items it was provided that, "It shall be the
indispensable duty of every member to qualify herself by prayer,
by reading and by all other appropriate means, for performing the
arduous duties of a christian mother, and to suggest to her sister
members, such hints as her own experience may furnish or
circumstances render necessary." There was also for a while a
"Paternal Association" but it seems to have been short-lived and
inactive.
The regular meetings were, of course,
occasions for social intercourse. There is much to be read between
the lines of a resolution passed at the annum meeting in 1836 to
the effect, "that the knitting for benevolent objects be excluded,
unless individuals bring it from home, and make no remarks upon
it, that our attention may not be diverted from the object of the
meeting." Later in the same year a whole afternoon was spent in
discussing "the advantages and disadvantages arising from
afternoon visits." Some felt that such visits "had a tendency to
dissipate the mind, to induce scandal ie. tale bearing." The
conclusions finally reached were: "That all invitations for large
parties and even small ones should be discouraged, but when we
could visit our friends without injury to our children or
disarranging our domestic regulations, and do it for the glory of
God, we were at liberty to do so, and yet, no one should expect us
to return that visit, unless perfectly consistent with other
duties." Thus was one social problem settled directly and
effectively.
It was generally the Oberlin view that no
child was too young to be converted. At an early meeting of the
Maternal Association discussion centered on a boy of "4 years who
seemed anxious to please God in every thing he did. Would often
ask if God would like such & such a thing. Even the manner in
which he should take his food was matter of inquiry that he might
not sin." The assembled ladies concluded that the evidence seemed
to show that this "child had been born of the Spirit." At a
previous meeting one mother gave "an account of the hopeful
conversion of her little son, aged 4 years 4 months, a few weeks
before his death." Even in the middle sixties the Pastor of the
Second Church stated that he believed that at least a hundred
children had been converted within a short time. Of course the
Sabbath School was a numerous body and an important influence in
the lives of the pious children.
The Oberlin Sabbath, it is clear, was the
Puritan Sabbath transplanted into the forests of northern Ohio,
and it must have been rather tiresome for the younger children. It
was undoubtedly not without reason that the Maternal Association
devoted an entire meeting to the discussion of the question, "How
can we make our children happy on the Sabbath & yet prevent
their desecrating that holy day?" Among other ideas brought out,
"It was remarked that all play things which the child was allowed
during the week should be put away Saturday night & books
proper for the Sabbath brought forward ... Singing hymns was
mentioned as adding to the interest to be awakened on the
Sabbath." One is not surprised to read that Mrs. Mary Willard got
her ideas for bringing up Frances E. Willard from meetings of this
association.
There is abundant evidence that Oberlin
youngsters even in the early days took delightful rambles through
the woods, played games, had simple parties and picnics and
enjoyed themselves in mild way as children in a rural town were
accustomed to do. Mary Cowles, the daughter of the editor of the
Evangelist, records in the diary kept in her twelfth and
thirteenth years that on various days she: "Played ball... with
johny kendall," "went to see adellia hall . . . went out to the
barn and hunted hen's eggs," went with smith [her half
brother] after the cows. Went into the woods with him and got
a large bunch of flowers," etc. The religious and moral values and
dangers in all such activities were carefully weighed,
however.
The Maternal Association, at one time or
another, considered most of the important phases of child
management in Oberlin. The problem of what amusements should and
should not be encouraged was often discussed. Among the amusements
which could be listed as "harmless" were placed: "Dolls and Tea
sets for little girls . . . also raising broods of chickens, pet
kittens &c. Family picnics including the members of several
neighboring families, a ride &c." It was decided that "Games
in the form of marbles or checkers" need not be discouraged "when
amusement simply was the object." "Children's parties were spoken
of as of doubtful utility" and many even "deprecated the effect of
the intense excitement which would be likely to attend"--"the
approaching Exhibition of the Union School." As for the
Fourth-of-July, most mothers "objected to the use of powder in any
of its forms. The practice of having Sabbath School Celebrations
on that day was by some thought a good one. Some spoke of picnics
as not objectionable provided parents accompany their children
& join with them in their sports." Some children were, of
course, without the pale with their parents among the "publicans
and sinners." Mary Cowles noted one day in her diary: "While we
were going down . . . as we passed Mr. Wacks tavern we saw one man
who was gray headed, lame, bent over pitching quoits with a man
about as old as father .... As we came back as we passed mr wacks
we saw not old men but eddy and helen wack, quite small children,
engaged in the same business. . . . How much this exercise of
chance and skill must be loved." The little bigot did not explain
just why quoits was so much worse than other games. Probably
whatever a non-church-goer and a Democrat did seemed
wrong.
Thrift combined with benevolence was in
Oberlin a major virtue and instilled into the children as early as
possible. One Oberlin mother told her sisters that when her
children seemed "disposed to spend a penny foolishly she always
reminded them that one penny alone would purchase fifteen pages of
tract." In the children's column of the Oberlin Evangelist a story
appeared of a little girl who "lay upon her death bed, parched
with a fever." A visitor asked her if she would like an orange,
and, receiving a reply in the affirmative, gave her a penny. But
the little girl resolved at once to give up the orange, and send
the penny to the heathen. An accompanying poem repeats the story,
beginning:
Upon her bed of death, she lay,
That gentle child and young;
And the slow moments passed
away,
By fevered anguish wrung.
At last
. . . she passed in weakness on,
Through death's dark gate of pain,
To taste the living fruits, nor
know
Faintness or thirst again.
Oberlin children were well prepared for
later benevolence to missionary societies, anti-slavery societies,
moral reform societies and church work in general.
The provisions for common-school education
were certainly no better than in other Ohio towns of the same size
in these early years, this despite, or perhaps because of, the
existence of the Institute and College. The original plan quite
definitely did not envisage public schools apart from the
Institute. Children of colonists were to be educated in the
Institute from the Infant School through as far as they could, or
wanted to, go. After 1834, however, the elementary school in the
Institute was abandoned and the tuition charged in other branches
later was a barrier to some older children. So a system of free
schools was needed, though not always enthusiastically
supported.
At first the Oberlin public schools were
merely ungraded one-room affairs administered by Russia Township
School District No.5 (later 3) and supervised by the Russia
Township school manager. The schools were kept in rented rooms: in
President Mahan's house (!), in George Fletcher's shop, in Tappan
Hall, in the meeting house, etc. and the teachers (usually college
students, were hired at low rates of pay, $20.00 a month without
or $1.50 or $2.50 a week boarding round.
A small schoolhouse was built on the
parsonage lot (in front of the site of the present James Brand
House) in 1836, but it provided room for only one of the two or
more schools which had to be maintained. As in most schools of
that day, the children studied Sanders' Spelling Book, Colburn's
and Adams' Arithmetics. Woodbridge's Geography, and the Eclectic
Readers. Conditions in the schools were apparently sometimes quite
unsatisfactory. In 1842 the Russia Township school manager (or
superintendent) visited a school kept in a room in Tappan Hall and
reported "a manifest deficiency in the government." There was much
"noise of moving the feet, crowding through the seats, moving of
chairs, whispering and talking aloud." "When a recess was
allowed," he continued, "the boys went out disorderly making much
noise. When they came in . . . instead of hanging their hats or
laying them in their places some were flung half way up the
house."
As early as 1838 it was recognized that a
large schoolhouse was needed, but not until 1851 was the brick
Union School built on a lot donated by the College just north of
President Mahan's house on Professor Street. The dedication
ceremonies attracted so many citizens that it was necessary to
adjourn to the College Chapel where addresses were delivered and
songs sung by a "select choir" including among other
pieces:
"The old-fashioned Bible, the
dear, precious Bible,
The family Bible, that lay on the
stand."
In this building was established Oberlin's
first graded school. In 1860 a high school course was added and
the first board of education elected with the colored lawyer John
M. Langston as secretary. The school was literally and
figuratively under the shadow of Oberlin College, its first
superintendents and teachers being all members or graduates of the
College.
Perhaps the reason that the Paternal
Association did not prosper as the Maternal Association did was
that the interest of the men was already largely taken up with the
Oberlin Agricultural and Horticultural Society. This society was
in existence as early as 1837, probably founded a year or two
before. Several professors were charter members, undoubtedly
including Professor Henry Cowles and Dr. Dascomb, who were always
leaders in agricultural activities. The period of the greatest
prosperity of the organization seems to have been the forties,
though at the very end of our period, in 1865 and 1866, numerous
meetings are reported in the local paper. At the annual meetings
reports on various agricultural problems were presented and
discussed. There were usually, as we have noted, a "Report on
Farms and Gardens" and reports on hens and hogs, on ornamental
trees, line fences, bees, silk, alternate cropping, horses,
plowing, manufactories and statistics of Oberlin. Father Shipherd,
himself, made the report on alternate cropping in 1841. The report
on statistics constituted a sort of agricultural census. 1842 the
record listed: 113 horses, 271 cows, 54 oxen and 217 sheep in the
Oberlin Colony. The harvest of the preceding year had produced
1390 bushels of wheat, 4725 bushels of corn and rye, 2450 bushels
of oats and peas, 14,250 bushels of potatoes and 355 tons of hay.
Several acres of sugar beets, rutabagas and carrots were also
reported. Similar censuses were taken in 1839, 1847 and 1849. It
seems probable that it was not done every year, though some of the
reports may have been lost.
The annual meeting of 1847 seems to have
been particularly successful. A meeting in the chapel of Colonial
Hall was scheduled for nine o'clock, to be "opened by prayer." The
"Plowing, Ex.[hibition] of Cattle, Horses, Sheep, Hogs,
etc." was at ten o'clock. The plowing took place on the square.
The dinner was at twelve-thirty and after that the procession
"will be formed and repair to the Church under the direction of
the Marshals." The address, by Professor Thome, came at the
afternoon meeting. The several reports on hogs, horses, plowing,
etc. were heard in the evening preceded by prayer, followed by a
benediction and interspersed with music by the choir. The line-up
for the great noon procession included in order:
"Pres. of the Society and orator of the day
Executive Committee
Pres. and Officers of County
Society
Farmer wives generally
Farmers "
Farmers Daughters Farmers Sons
Mechanics
Banner born[e] by two young men
Inst. Music Faculty of College & Prof.[essional] men
generally
Young Ladies of Inst.[itute] Young
Gents. of Inst.[itute]"
Evidently everybody was in the procession.
The banner carried bore a device showing "a beautiful Farm house
& farm, tastefully laid out & embellished with shrubbery
and ornamental trees" and the motto, "Liberty and Labor," which
was also the title of Professor Thome's lecture.
In this year, as in some others, the
society sponsored a fair. Horses and cattle were displayed in an
open lot near Colonial Hall, sheep and hogs in the Institute barn,
and fruit, flowers, vegetables and "manufactories" in the Music
Hall. The display of beets, cabbages, carrots, etc., was said to
be gratifying. Many were awed by the sugar beet which weighed over
thirty pounds. There were also, of course, "rich boquets of
flowers and specimens of fancy work, and of the fine arts." The
"manufactories" included a black buggy, two bird cages, a case of
dental instruments, "two selfsupplying or Phonographic Penns," an
"atmospheric churn," books printed by J. M. Fitch, lasts and
boots, and "some Paintings by Misses March possessing both the
beauties of art and nature, being the representation of Birds with
the feathers attached." Similarly ambitious anniversaries were
held in the two following years.
The meetings of the agricultural society
also furnished, in the words of the editor of the Ohio Cultivator,
"a rich intellectual feast." The address, usually on some subject
related to agriculture, was the central feature. Most of the
professors discoursed one year or another. In 1847, as we have
seen, it was Professor Thome. In 1844 the orator was Professor
Fairchild, in 1848, Professor Hudson, and the next year, Professor
Cowles. Professor Cowles spoke on "Science and Agriculture." The
Cultivator editor commended the "sly wit with which he discoursed
on weeds" and "the poignant humor with which he touched on the
farmer's neglect of drainage." His only criticism was that the
address was too short. In 1845 Dr. J. P. Kirtland, outstanding
physician and naturalist of Cleveland, was the speaker. No wonder
that the organization was considered so important that on one
occasion, at least, the "Faculty adjourned without transacting any
business for the purpose of attending an agricultural
meeting."
The history of the society through the
fifties and early sixties is obscure, but the Lorain County News
contains brief notices of occasional meetings. There seems to have
been a revival of interest in 1865, but certainly after the
forties it did not again occupy such an important place in the
community. The Oberlin society had a direct influence in the
organization of the Lorain County Agriculture Society in 1846.
Several of the charter members of the county association were
Oberlin men. At the first fall meeting H. C. Taylor won the
premium for subsoil plowing and D. B. Kinney for the best
cultivated farm. In 1847 the organization sponsored a series of
lectures to farmers. The lecturers were Dr. Norton S. Townshend of
Elyria, Professor Dascomb and Professor Fairchild.
Oberlin was an agricultural community;
cows, horses, hogs and chickens roamed at large. Corn and
rutabagas grew on the college green. In 1850, 121 agricultural and
horticultural papers were received at the post office. Students
and faculty members, as well as townsmen, milked cows, raked hay
and hoed potatoes. In 1846 Professor Henry Cowles recorded in his
journal: "Week ending July 18, did all the rest of my haying, viz.
four good loads from S. lot--12 from middle parsonage lot; 7 from
N. village lot . . in all . . . 31 for the season." The year
previous, the Professor of Sacred Music, then on a tour in the
border states, received a letter from his wife with regard to
affairs at home. "Our potatoes I am sorry to say," she wrote, "are
diseased .... We have spread ours on the barn floor .... The new
cow is very 'troublesome in bucking down the fence." D. B. Kinney,
an Oberlin farmer, testified in an address before the Agricultural
Society: "Often have I stood beside the President [Mahan]
in the logging field, and he lifted well .... The Professors . . .
are truly agriculturalists . . . and I am free to say that they
are neither afraid nor ashamed to engage in the preparation and
application of the various manures with their own
hands."
The Oberlin Collegiate Institute was
established in a setting of rural piety. The Reverend professors
hoed their corn and tended their cows; and the male students,
preparing for the ministry, left their Moral Philosophy and
rhetoricals to spread manure and work in the hayfield in the
afternoons.
CHAPTER
XXXVII
"PLAIN &
HOLESOME"
"O thou boarding house! place of all on
earth most happy, looked upon by all as the abode of the most
lovely and the most learned ladies. Many look upon thee with deep
and intense interest for the sake of thy occupants. Many come into
thy halls at morning, at noon, at evening, where they are
bountifully supplied with all necessary food. Many a youth has
come tremblingly to thy door, with determination strong, yet
fearing. Many have been joined in the holy bonds of wedlock which
man is not to put asunder. Joy and mirth have there dwelt. Thou
hast had trials also, fire has been a devouring enemy of thine,
then were there anxious looks....
"Sure thou are not surrounded by the most
beautiful nor art thou of a very lovely appearance outwardly, yet
thou hast a gardin like unto the gardin of Eden. There thou
displayest thy treasures, which have been compaired to the most
beautiful flowers. There are certain laws which govern thy inmates
are there not? are these laws ever broken or is the authority of
those in office ever disregarded? Some for this self same
fa[u]lt have been told to depart to return no more, have
they not? There have [been] meetings and partings at thy
gate, have there not? There friends have bid adue to friends never
to meet again on earth. There have sisters met brothers who come
laden with the love and hearty good wishes of those at home. Thy
life has been an eventful one though short."
--From a composition written by
HELEN COWLES,
July 29, 1846 (Cowles-Little
MSS).
LADIES' HALL, commonly known as the
Boarding House, was the center of the social life of Oberlin
Institute. Oberlin Hall, the first frame building, was the first
boarding house but gave up its common name and its purpose to
Ladies' Hall when that building was completed in the summer of
1835. A considerable number of the young lady students roomed in
the building and many of the young men came in for their meals. In
1845 it was seriously damaged by fire, but it was repaired and
continued to be used for twenty more years. It is this building
which is usually spoken of as the first dormitory for college
girls in the United States. It was torn down in 1865 when the
second Ladies' Hall was nearing completion.
The agitation for a new boarding hall began
in the fifties. In 1853 a special committee was appointed to
gather funds, including Mrs. Finney, the Dascombs, Mr. and Mrs.
Cowles and the Pecks. The need was advertised in 1855 through the
Oberlin Evangelist. Mrs. Finney secured promises of large
donations from W. C. Chapin of Providence, her husband's friend
and special patron, and from Lewis Tappan of New York. In 1860 the
Prudential Committee "Voted that J. H. Fairchild be a
Com[mittee] to visit the Ladies Seminaries at College
Hill, Cincinnati, at Oxford and any other in his way, with a view
to obtain the best information and most improved plans & other
details having reference to our contemplated Building." On May 22,
1861, the corner stone of the new hall was laid and dedicated,
Father Keep leading in the consecrating prayer and Professors
Monroe and Fairchild delivering addresses on joint education and
its significance. The raising of funds went forward slowly because
of war conditions, and construction had to be stopped after the
foundation walls had been finished. Not until early in 1866 did
the "varnish brush and carpet hammer" give "the last touches to
the New Ladies' Boarding Hall." The new building contained 47
rooms for about twice that number of young ladies, and on the
first floor was an office, reception room and parlor for the Lady
Principal, a large room for "General Exercises," a parlor where
young gentlemen might be entertained until eight o'clock in the
evening, a common sitting room, an office for the Steward, a room
for the ladies' literary societies and the large dining
room.
Tappan Hall, located in the center of the
square, was the main dormitory and also contained recitation rooms
and the society rooms. In the later thirties a high cupola was
erected on the long barracks-like, four-storied, brick structure.
It was expected that eventually it would be provided with a clock,
but, as in the case of the meeting-house tower, the clock was
never obtained. In fact, in 1841 the tower was cut down as it was
feared that it might otherwise be blown over. The whole building
swayed perceptibly in a strong west wind and there was always some
fear that it might collapse. In 1851 braces and studs were put in
to further strengthen its frame. A student wrote home in the late
fifties: ". . . Some of the people here [are] scared for
fear that Tapan Hall will blow over. . . It has always been
considered insecure, when there is considerable wind it rocks
perceptably. Hull was thinking of rooming there next term but he
has given up that idea now." As the old Ladies' Hall gave way to
the new Ladies' Hall, so, eventually (after our period), Council
Hall took the place of Tappan as the chief men's dormitory,
inheriting its reputation for instability on the upper
floors.
The rooms in Tappan Hall were all single
ones without closets, with a ventilator opening over each door
into the large central hall. At first they were furnished by the
institution with a bedstead, a table, three chairs and a stove.
The stove was a small open one, a Stewart invention. Charles
Winslow engaged a room furnished in this way in 1837, and Charles
Livingstone arrived just in time to secure a room provided with "a
table desk, stove and bedstead." That very year the trustees
decided to dispose of all movable furniture in the men's
dormitories except the stoves, and from that time on the young men
furnished their own rooms. Students were requested to paper and
paint their rooms neatly if they hoped to retain them for their
entire course of study. Occasionally they were allowed to sell
improvements to successors.
We may well be grateful to the student,
who, in 1860, realizing that many had seen nothing of Tappan Hall
rooms but the occasional glimpse of "a pair of boot-heels looking
calmly down upon them from a fourth story window," wrote a
realistic description of the interior of such a room:
"Enter then. On your right is a
clothes-press, minus shelves and front, within which are suspended
some old clothes, a hat and a towel; in one corner a broom; in the
other a backless chair, on which stands a bucket of water, flanked
by a bar of yellow soap, part of which seems to have suffered
decomposition in the water during the morning ablutions, from
which it came dripping and so softened that it is perfectly secure
in its attachment to the stool. With end jutting up to the outline
of a clothes-press is an article of furniture. Two boards six feet
long and six inches wide, two boards two feet long at the
ends--this quadrangle supported by posts one foot high; short
boards laid across; a narrow straw tick; sheets and covers,
tumbled together, and not overly clean; this is the bed. At the
head of the bed a box, with an old coat on it as a cushion--this
is the study chair. Before the box is a red table, rickety, and
old, on which is a slate and an Algebra. Arranged against the wall
at the back of the table, are books on Phrenology, 'Constitution
of Man,' &c. At one end of the table is a discolored plaster
model of a head, full of bumps, well-developed and labeled. This
is one side of the room.
"All there is to be seen on the other side
is a little rusty stove, with a shoe-brush and an open box of
blacking upon it, a pair of old boots, a wood-saw, an old trunk,
three square inches of mirror, and two sticks of wood."
The rooms in Ladies' Hall were somewhat
more completely, if not necessarily better, furnished. In 1835,
when the hall was new, Delia Fenn found it "done off quite
handsome." The double rooms (occupied by four girls in the boom
period) were provided with closets and equipped with a stove,
bedsteads, tables and chairs. Some, undoubtedly, supplemented this
furniture, as did Lucy Stone, who bought "a fine big rocking
chair, with one arm-shelf" costing four dollars, an expense which
she felt would be counterbalanced by her increased comfort
generally and "rest for my headaches." Mrs. Emily P. Burke, Lady
Principal in 1849-1850, carried on a campaign to have the young
ladies' rooms supplied with bureaus and rag carpets, but evidently
without great success, as none of the Catalogues for the years
immediately following list any such furnishings. She did succeed
in having the rooms papered.
Mrs. Burke also won the hearts of the young
lady students by her war on the bed bugs which seem also to have
been a regular part of the equipment. During the winter vacation
"she had the hall vacated .... " wrote a faculty wife. "No one
remaining but herself and one young lady for a room mate--so . . .
she had a nice time to freeze out the bed bugs . . . she had all
the pillow ticks emptied and washed thoroughly, every bedstead in
the hall taken down and thoroughly scalded and then frozen."
Despite this thorough cleaning, three years later the plague was
back again. When one college girl arrived in Oberlin in July, of
1854, she "went to bed tired, liked to have been eaten up by the
bugs, got up and killed about a hundred, went to bed and could not
sleep much." After having scalded her bedstead a few days later it
is reported that she found more comfort.
When the new Ladies' Hall was completed
each room was "furnished with neat new furniture to the extent of
a stove, table, wash-stand, curtains, chair, bedstead and straw
bed." A few rooms were furnished with carpets, but for these an
extra charge was made. In 1868 a large majority of the rooms were
provided with a carpet--looking glass--wash bowl and
pitcherchamber and a soap dish, besides the furniture already in
said room." "All other articles of bedding [besides the straw
mattress] will be furnished by the occupants; also, table
napkins." Some uncarpeted rooms, however, were still available at
reduced rates.
Early college bills (1835) carry charges
not only for board but also, as rooms were free at that time,
extra items such as candles, wood, washing, "Damage on broken
Furniture," "2 Sheets @ 56¢.," "2 Pillow cases @20¢.,"
"Use of Bedding" and "Use of bowl & Pitcher." Wood for use in
the little stoves was, of course, a necessity, but it was
available in unlimited quantities. "Wood is only 1.00 a cord,"
wrote one young man to his parents in 1837, "cut, dried and
delivered at the door, first rate wood, maple, beach, hickory and
black walnut--or free of expense if we cut it and get it up
ourselves." Each dormitory usually had its ugly wood house, adding
to the generally unsightly appearance of the surroundings. Though
candles were the usual source of artificial light, oil began to be
used in the fifties. In 1858 Miss Abbie Summers, of Livonia, N.
Y., "obtained special leave to sit up late in her room to get her
lessons; had protracted her studies until 2 A. M. when having
occasion to replenish her lamp of burning fluid, she attempted to
fill it while it was burning. An explosion of the vapor set fire
to her clothes, and before she arrested the flames she was fatally
injured, surviving only some 6 3/4 hours." It is not doubted that
the Lady Principal used this instance as an argument against the
granting of future light cuts.
The new Ladies' Hall was not only provided
with an assembly room, a parlor and a sitting room, but the attic
was floored and provided with a sky light "for rainy day
promenades and exercise." The old Ladies' Hall had had an assembly
room (used by Theodore Weld for his anti-slavery lectures in
1835), and in 1856 the Prudential Committee set aside a reading
room, but were rather shocked when it was reported to them "that
the young ladies were expecting to have the room furnished with a
carpet, etc., etc." The dumb waiter provided in the new hall for
carrying up trunks and the ubiquitous fire wood must have been a
welcome relief to those already overtired with much climbing of
stairs.
Stimulated by Dr. Dascomb, the faculty and
trustees took an unusually advanced stand on the subject of
student health and sanitation. In 1836 the faculty "Appointed J.
Dascomb and H. Lyman a Board of health on the part of the
institution." In 1854 the trustees provided for paying the
expenses of students during sickness, though it was also
determined that "repayment of such expenses should be asked from
the friends of such sick Students." At the very same meeting, on
the recommendation of Dr. Dascomb, it was voted to install a water
filter in the new College Chapel then under construction.
Nevertheless, the amateur nursing of fellow students and faculty
wives and the practice of excluding fresh air from the sick room
rather reduced the chances of a student's recovery. A young lady
student wrote in 1842 to her parents: "One of the young ladies had
a touch of the ague last Sabbath and I don't know as she is over
it yet. Last Sabbath morning I went into her room and was there
about five minutes when I became very sick and went out as quick
as I could. I was hardly able to speak when I got to my room, and
Mary said I was white as ashes. I suppose it was caused by the bad
air although there were several in the room that had been in some
time without affecting them!" Deaths from diseases such as typhoid
and dysentery as well as tuberculosis were all too common. Minerva
Gilbert reported that there was a death from dysentery and cholera
almost every day in the summer of 1854. It is obvious that the
sanitary conditions were not too good.
Evidences of poor sanitation are not hard
to find. An open sewer flowed through the square. The outdoor
toilets connected with all dormitories were noisome nuisances. The
minutes of the Prudential Committee contain repeated references to
the problem involved in caring for them. The new Ladies' Hall
erected in 1866 included a running water system: "two large water
tanks on the third floor with a capacity of nearly 100 barrels
each, and from them pipes . . . to convenient faucets on each
floor."
The By-Laws of 1834 contain various rules
regarding the dormitories. There were three rules for the
prevention of fires:
"1st. Fire shall not be removed from one
place to another except in a close firepan one of which shall be
kept for the use of every story in each building.
"2d. Combustible matter shall not be left
more exposed to fire than the floor nearest the fire; and the
doors and dampers of stoves shall always be closed by Students
when they leave their rooms or retire to rest.
"3d. Monitors appointed by the Faculty
shall visit all the Rooms assignned to them and see that every
fire is secured and every light extinguished at 10 o'clock P.
M.--Sickness excepted."
There is no evidence to show whether fire
monitors were actually appointed in the thirties, but in 1840 the
Prudential Committee were "instructed to appoint a vigilence fire
Committee consisting of a number sufficient to furnish one person
for each floor of all the College Buildings, whose duty it shall
be to examine each stove or fire place every week & report the
state of the same to the Prud. Committee to see that such report
be duly made & generally to see that the laws adopted by the
Trustees respecting fire be duly executed." In the following year
such student "committees" were appointed, and some of their
reports are still preserved in the archives of the College.
Sporadic efforts are made to check the fire danger at later dates
as in 1858 when the Prudential Committee voted a fine of fifty
cents to be levied on any student who changed the location of his
stove.
The By-Laws also provided that "The Rooms
shall be kept in a neat and cleanly manner, and well aired."
Occasional inspections were made by members of the faculty. In
1841 a regular committee, made up of Professor Morgan and
Secretary was chosen for that purpose. The Lady Principal was
supposed to inspect the young ladies' rooms. When Mary Ann Adams
was Principal it is said that she always looked under the beds.
Lucy Stone remembered that Miss Adams once complimented her on the
fact that her room was always clean. To this Lucy replied, "I
always know when you have been there, Miss Adams, for you always
leave the hem of the vallance of my bed turned up." There were
also inspectors who appraised the damage done to furniture and saw
that the cost of repairs was put on the offending student's
bill.
The rules also provided that no student
should "enter other's room without his permission, nor do that in
his own room which shall disturb his neighbor." All students were
required to be in their rooms by 10 o'clock and "refrain from loud
talking. singing, or any other noise that might disturb the repose
of others" after 9 o'clock. Young ladies were required to go to
their rooms at 7:30 in winter and 8 o'clock in summer. Passersby
and innocent bystanders were protected by the regulation
prohibiting any student from throwing "water, dirt, or anything
offensive or dangerous, from the windows of any building of the
Institution." The sweepers were expected to sweep the hallways
between 5:30 and 7 A. M. on week days and also after 4 P.M. on
Saturday "preparatory to the Sabbath." Taking it for granted that
all students would desire to sweep their rooms out every week-day,
the faculty ordered that: "No student is permitted to sweep the
dust out of his room into the passage or entry, at any time after
the hall has been swept, till nine o'clock P.M. On Saturday dust
shall not be swept from the rooms into the hall, after four
o'clock P.M., nor on the Sabbath at all."
The earliest rules provided that "The
ladies shall not receive at their rooms the visits of Gentlemen."
This simple regulation was later expanded to read: "Students are
prohibited, on pain of expulsion, from visiting those of the other
sex, at their rooms, or receiving visits from them at their own,
except by special permission from the President, or the Principal
of the Female Department, in a case of serious illness." This
regulation is repeated in the special rules issued for the
government of the Female Department. It was a very important
regulation because of the experiment in joint education in
general, but particularly because young ladies and young gentlemen
sometimes roomed in the same buildings. When Ladies' Hall was
completed in 1855 the faculty voted that "after a sufficient
number [of rooms] is selected for the . . . Young Ladies,
the highest class have the right to choose, then the next highest
and so in order to the lowest." One of the young lady occupants of
the hall wrote in August of the same year: "This building is
designed for the ladies and when other buildings are erected
sufficient to accomadate the gentlemen this is to be occupied
alone by them." in the following year a number of students
petitioned the faculty "that the partition in the hall between the
Ladies' & Gentlemen's apartments be made more
secure."
There is no evidence to show that this
coeducational rooming continued in the dormitories after 1835. The
great majority of students in later years, however, lived in
private homes, and many of these homes kept students of both
sexes. The propriety of such an arrangement depended entirely on
the character of the family heads. In 1852 facts came to the
attention of the Ladies' Board showing that, in some families,
there had been "carelessness ... in placing [young ladies]
in rooms loosely connected with rooms occupied by gentlemen." The
members of the Board decided to make an inspection. In the
following year they found it necessary to inform one "matron" that
because of certain "improprieties which have occurred in her
hall," she would not, henceforth, be allowed "to room both
gentlemen & ladies."
While the number of students was quadrupled
in the period from 1836 to the middle fifties, no new dormitories
were completed until after the War, so that a larger and larger
proportion found it necessary to live in private houses. Whereas
only 12 out of the 70 students in the Collegiate Department lived
with private families in 1839, 61 of the 107 male college students
whose rooms are given in 1856 lived out of dormitories. In 1865,
after Oberlin Hall and Walton Hall had been sold, three-fourths of
young men in College (67 out of 88) did not live in
dormitories.
Rooms in private homes were far from
luxurious as a rule.
"My room is about a quarter of a mile from
the institute," wrote George Prudden in 1836, "in a garret--
(quite a poetical place). The place is such that when the house is
finished &, that is, is plastered there will be two very
convenient rooms here. But now it is so near open to the rooms
below that we can hear all the noise in those rooms &
consequently are much disturbed. Near the house is a steam saw
mill, which keeps a constant noise all the day." Nor were the
rooms of a later period much more comfortable. Twenty years
afterward his son attending Oberlin also lived in a
garret.
Girls, too, sometimes lived in "small and
unplastered" rooms. Delia Fenn described to her sister in a letter
written from Oberlin in the thirties the accommodations she might
expect if she came to Oberlin and lived with Mr. and Mrs. Asahel
Munger: "Wood Mrs. Munger said would always be close by and, as
they have a boy with them, it would, a part of the time at least,
be brought in. They have a good stone trough for water from which
they will expect you to get water though I have no doubt but they
will assist at any time if you do not feel able to get it. Water
for rinsing clothes she said would be brought. They now live in a
log house. Before it is their framed house into which they will
move before long. You will have the log house to wash in. I shall
be so near you that if at any time you are not well or for any
other reason want assistance I can help you."
Of course, the Lady Principal and the
Ladies' Board supervised the administration of the private rooming
houses as well as of the regular dormitories. In 1852 the Ladies'
Board passed on a request to allow one young lady to room in one
house and board in another. Ten years later they ruled, "That no
young lady shall board in any but a regularly organized family,
where one at least of the heads of the family presides at table
and family worship." In the early sixties "Matron's meetings for
those who have young ladies of the Inst. in their families" were
regularly held under the supervision of Mrs. Marianne Dascomb, the
Lady Principal. There were over a hundred such matrons in
1862.
Relations between students and the families
in which they boarded were not always of the pleasantest. "One
sister remarked [to the Maternal Association] that she had
her faith, and patience, sorely tried every day by the conduct of
those boarding in her family." The Lady Principal did what she
could to improve the attitude of roomers but her efforts were not
always successful. Mrs. Cowles occasionally gave talks to her
charges on their duties toward the families in which they boarded.
She especially advised them to cultivate good manners, correct
language, good pronunciation, neatness, and love of children, all
qualities, which, she pointed out, were also necessary in a good
minister's wife. "Identify yourselves with the interests of the
family," she exhorted the young ladies. They were warned against
selfishness, tattling, "busy curiosity," slander and gossiping.
Mrs. Cowles kept roomers and boarders, herself, and understsood
clearly the problems involved.
Each rooming house, whether owned by the
College or not, tended, of course, to become a social unit. It was
generally felt by Oberlin mothers that young lady roomers and
boarders (also often employed as servants) should be furnished the
same "privileges and . . . means of moral and mental improvement .
. . as we would have furnished to our own daughters were they left
to the mercy of a cold world." The matrons felt called upon also
to "exercise over all those connected with our family circle, as
boarders, a maternal care, and watchfulness by trying to make the
home circle pleasant and attractive, not only to our own sons, but
to those Lads, who may be with us as boarders." In many instances,
of course, such a homey atmosphere was successfully created. The
girls who stayed at the Crockers' in the thirties always spoke "of
going home to grandpa's" when referring to their return to their
rooming house. Not all young ladies were pleased with the idea of
close association with Negroes in the dormitories, but none was
ever excluded on account of her color. Neither were roommates
always the most desirable. Mary Barnes was troubled by the fact
that her roommate was "impenitent and a careless sort of person."
Another "female student" wrote home that she had been "put in with
a real old maid, wears spectacles, gray hair." "I am watching for
an opportunity to escape," she admitted. This same young lady gave
a very favorable picture of life in the Ladies' Hall in general,
however. "They are like a family," she wrote to her mother. "One
young lady goes to the post office every day and brings in letters
to those to whom they are sent. She does not read them as I told
you [!]"
"Board shall be of a plain and holesome
[sic] kind; only one dish with its accompaniments shall be
eaten at one meal." So read the first rules with regard to the
Steward's Department. "Tea & Coffee, high seasoned meats, rich
pastries & all unwholesome & expensive food shall be
excluded from the Commons table; & yet the steward shall
always make the diet as palitable as consistent with these rules
.... The students shall be furnished with only 3 meals a day." It
was also provided that, "Students who choose their board without
meat may be gratified, and the price charged accordingly, provided
there is enough of this kind to fill a table, and they do not
change without the consent of the Steward." From the facilities
for sleeping and eating provided it is quite clear that students
coming to Oberlin must be "disposed to deny themselves the 'lusts
of the flesh and the pride of life.'"
The period from 1835 to 1841 is the period
of experimentation both in diet and in management in the boarding
department. A vegetable table was installed alongside the regular
diet in the summer of 1835. A young lady student wrote to her
father in August: "All must sit at the meat or vegetable table. I
of course go to the latter. At this table they live well, have
puddings 2 or 3 times a week and frequently boiled rice. They also
have garden sauce such as berries, potatoes, squashes, beets,
onions, &c and frequently baked apple." In 1835 and 1836 the
students seemed to be engaged in a contest, as Delazon Smith later
wrote, to see "who can live the longest, and eat the least amount
of wholesome food." In the spring of 1835 about twenty of the
sixty or seventy eating at the commons ate only bread and drank
only water. "Probably you think this would be hard living," wrote
one of them, "but I assure you it is better than you or I think it
is."
Bread was the chief, sometimes the only,
solid basis of diet. Bread with water, bread with salt, bread with
milk, bread with gruel, bread with gravy made from flour and water
mixed with "pot liquor," and occasionally bread with butter too
ancient to tempt the most ravenous appetite were the commonest
menus. George Prudden found that there was "no intention . . . of
pampering mens' appetites, and making them slaves to their
stomachs." "Cold water, milk and wheat will make the sum almost
entirely of our articles of food .... We have not had what you
could call a meal of meat since we have been here. Twice we had a
few mutton bones--just enough to set the appetite, once we had a
little fish, & a little dried beef several times--We
frequently have what is called Graham pudding made of wheat just
cracked, & boiled a few minutes in water. Boiled Indian
puddings sometimes, & Johnecakes--This makes the sum total of
our living--a splendid variety--I assure you .... If I only could
have a little coffee & a mouthful of meat now & then, with
a pretty respectable room in which to deposit my body, I should
consider myself well provided for, as to temporal
wants."
And such bread! It was soggy, sour and
indigestible and said to contain the crusts discarded at previous
meals. In December of 1835 the faculty had found it necessary to
vote "that the Agent be directed to secure sweet bread for the
commons' table." In 1836 the almost bankrupt state of the
Institute treasury added practical reason to the theoretical
motives for providing a "plain & holesome" diet. The plain
fact of the matter seems to been that money was not forthcoming
with which to purchase meat, except "a few mutton bones." In
September the bill of fare was reduced to bread and
salt!
Mr. and Mrs. Stewart, who were in charge of
the dining hall during these first years, were enthusiastic
supporters of dietetic reform but not particularly skilled in
business management. By the middle of September the boarding
department and the Institute were practically bankrupt. Many
students had failed to pay their board bills, and gratuities from
outside were not coming in. The situation was critical. Finally
the trustees proposed to the students that they take over entirely
the management and financial responsibility for the boarding
department. A mass meeting of students and teachers was held to
consider the proposition. One of the students who attended wrote
home:
". . . The faculty last evening called
together those students who board in the Hall & stated to them
that the students were owing the Institution about $ 1,000, that
there was not one dollar in the treasury nor no provisions in the
pantry. This was owing partly to students not paying their bills
& partly in the negligence of the Agent in requiring those
students who will not pay to leave the hall. A resolution of the
trustees was brought Proposing to the students to take the charge
of the boarding establishment upon themselves which was rejected.
A motion to adjourn was made untill the next evening. But one of
the Professors arose and said we do not know as we can live untill
another day, we cannot live without eating, no money in the
treasury, no food in the larder, therefore if we adjourned the
meeting we also must adjourn eating. I assure you we were in
desperate circumstances and the students showed it, for necessity
put eloquence on their tongues unrestrained till the hour of
midnight."
There seemed to be no alternative. The
students organized a "boarding department" independent of the
Institute and chose Professors John P. and Henry Cowles, Mrs.
Henry Cowles, George Whipple, and a student, W. L. Parsons, a
committee to manage it. Mrs. Cowles became the matron. The
students (through this committee) paid to the Institute $300.00
rent per annum for the use of the dining hall and kitchen,
purchased food, collected bills and ran the establishment
generally on an entirely independent basis."
By the spring of 1837 the board had
considerably improved if we may believe a young lady student, who
wrote to her brother: ". . . Our fare here is generally very good,
as good as I could wish. We have meat as often as four or five
days in a week, and crust coffee almost every morning, which I
like very much, and not unfrequently a graham pudding with maple
sugar or molasses, besides every Sabbath we have either pie or
cake for dinner. We had once some of those large apple pies, that
Brother Buchanan spoke of last fall. You can better imagine, than
describe my surprise when on entering the dining hall one day, I
saw something that looked like a pie, in a sheet iron platter
about two feet long, and one wide, and three inches deep, these
were in fact, monstrous pies, the upper crust was about an inch
thick, the lower, half an inch, and the rest was filled with
apples, --they were very nice however."
That pie must have been a sight for sore
eyes after the long, lean months of bread and salt of the
preceding year. During the winter of 1838 and 1839 the control of
the dining room began to dip back into the hands of the officials
of the Institute, whether because of mismanagement by the
independent department or because of a desire on the part of some
to enforce stricter Grahamism it is hard to determine. The diet
during that period was certainly less satisfying, some meals
consisting only of rutabgas and potatoes, beets, bread and salt.
In the spring the Prudential Committee offered the stewardship to
W. H. Plumb, the hotel keeper, but he refused.
In 1840 David Cambell of Boston, the former
editor of the Graham Journal, was secured to come with his wife
and assume the duties of steward. He served in this capacity from
the spring of 1840 to the spring of 1841. Unfortunately there are
no descriptions of meals during the Cambell regime, but Charles
Livingstone described the diet as it was just before, when the
Graham system was supposedly being followed. "Mother will be
anxious to know what we get to eat," he wrote home to Scotland.
"Well at breakfast we have wheat bread and Milk with corn bread
that they call engine [sic] corn. It grows very high and
thick. There is no oat meal. We crumble the bread in the milk and
sop it. Sometimes [we have] apples beat up with sugar made
from mapletree .... Sometimes at dinner . . . we have eggs beat
together & potatoes beat to the eggs with apples ....
Sometimes cheese just resembling squeezed curds [cottage
cheese?]. Supper bread and milk. Our living is very plain you
see but excellent. It is named the Graham system by one of that
name in N. York living in that manner upon vegetable diet. Some of
the students in the hall will have meat, others live in this
way."
Cambell, as a leading Grahamite, could "not
conscientiously furnish flesh meat" and, therefore, for a time, at
least, the meat table was abandoned. There was opposition to his
administration from the first by the "confirmed flesh eaters." In
the winter the father of one of the students wrote to Professor
Finney that his son was "absolutely hungry a good part of the
time" and raised the question whether perhaps "animal food was
[not] intended by our Creator as congenial to our health."
In March a mass meeting of colonists was called to meet in the
chapel to protest against the continuation of the Graham diet,
"which is inadequate to the demands of the human System as at
present developed." The Prudential Committee and faculty took up
the question, and in mid-April Mr. Cambell resigned upon the
request of the Prudential Committee. This seems to have been the
end of experimentation in diet in the Oberlin Boarding
House.
This does not mean, however, that the food
served to Oberlin students ceased to be "plain & holesome" and
economical. When Lucy Stone ate at the boarding house table in
1846 she had "meat once a day, bread and milk for supper, pudding
and milk, thin cakes, etc. for breakfast." At no time during the
early days do the meals approach those served at Franklin College
in Georgia, for example, where breakfast included bacon or beef,
corn or wheat bread with butter, coffee and tea; and dinner (at
noon) consisted of corn bread, bacon, vegetables, beef, lamb
mutton, and shoat or poultry! Take, for example, a student's
description of board in 1852:
"For dinner today we had brown bread and
nice white bread too, butter, cheese, apple pie, Stewed apples and
cold water. Our dinners are better on other days; I will tell you
what we had through the week for dinner... one day fish &
potatoes, another fresh meat, potatoes and dressing with good
gravy, another day--rice with raisins in, a very few in it, and
potatoes and sallet green. Sometimes we have warm pancakes, wheat
flour ones with sugar and cream on them. Breakfast is indeed very
spare but our dinners on week days are warm and good. Supper is
like breakfast--rather down-hill--I call it." Econmy rather than
principle seems to have been the chief reason dictating the
plainness of the food served in these later days.
Against this background it is easy to
understand the enthusiasm with which a former student later wrote
of the "bowls of luscious milk with blackberries, and the warm
biscuits and delicious honey" occasionally enjoyed by some lucky
ones at the home of a neighboring farmer.
After 1841 the boarding house and the farm
(so long as it was maintained by the college) were rented to
stewards who agreed to board the students, taking upon themselves
the financial and managerial responsibility. Grandison Fairchild,
W. W. Wright, Henry Viets, Hamilton Hill, W. H. Plumb, and Deacon
Follett held this position at various times. They bought the
equipment: linen, plates, knives, forks, spoons, etc. as well as
cows and pigs which were part of the establishment, and when they
departed sold this material to their successors. The Steward
always agreed to employ students in the establishment. It should,
of course, be noted that where the stewards were married it was
their wives who were really in charge and did much of the
work.
The Oberlin commons must have looked
strange to those familiar with the commons at Yale or others of
the old colleges in the East. Here and there sat a Negro, and
usually at least every third person was a "female." The sexes were
intermingled for practical as well as (or rather than) social
reasons. "At meals the ladies set around among the gentlemen to
wait on the table, get milk, bread, etc. when wanted," wrote a
young man in 1836. This common table at the boarding house was an
important element in Oberlin joint education. "I tell you what it
is," one youngster confided to his brother in the late forties,
"it seemed quere enough when I came here too get up at five
oc[lock] and then at six go out into the dining hall and
take Breakefast with so many by Candle light. Oh! fudge Charlie
you think there aint any body worth looking at but Harriet Smith.
I wish you could see some of our girls out here; especially a
couple that set opposite me at the table. I tell you they are
about X." It was here, if ever, that the young ladies must
exercise their "civilizing influence" upon the young
gentlemen.
For the first twelve years the students sat
at the long tables on backless benches or "forms," but in 1847, as
the result of a petition from the young lady boarders, the
Prudential Committee agreed that "as far as the female portion of
the Boarders be concerned, a chair at abt. 50 cts be substituted
for benches." Not until 1854 were chairs secured for the young men
also, hence the custom of seating the young men on one side and
the fair sex on the other, as, obviously, if men sat on benches
and women on chairs they could not well be seated together.
Elizabeth Hanmer, a student in 1852, wrote to her mother from the
Oberlin Boarding House: "The gentlemen take their meals here in
the dining room, ladies on one side of the table and gentlemen on
the other, the dining hall itself is longer than our house, three
rows of tables, and while they are eating it is constant laughing
and talking a merry time enough. I have not learned to talk as
fast as some yet." Each young man had his tablemate who sat
opposite him and, it is said, cared for his napkin between meals.
One's luck in tablemates might well make or mar a whole term.
Luden Warner, of corset fame, benefactor of Oberlin, boarding at
the hall for a time in the early sixties, was lucky. "I sit at one
of the best tables," he bragged, "and have for a table mate one of
the finest and smartest ladies in the Hall. I never before knew a
person whose conversation was so interesting and profitable as
hers. She has travelled considerable, and can converse on any
subject."
The dining room in the new Ladies' Hall,
completed just at the end of the Civil War, seemed almost
luxurious with its "twelve long tables, each seating eighteen
persons--giving ample accomodation for 216 boarders," its "gas
chandelier over each" table, and the 600 silver-plated forks and
spoons stamped "Ladies' Hall." A photograph taken in this room in
the early seventies shows round tables instead of long tables, but
the gas chandeliers are still in evidence--gas flares, without
mantles. Again "the ladies set around among the gentlemen," but
gentlemen in white coats do the serving. It is the beginning of a
new epoch.
Many students ate at private boarding
houses, at the hotel and elsewhere. Some boarded themselves. "I
buy bread at the boarding hall," Warren Warner informed his sister
in 1841. "I can buy butter & meat and etc. etc. and bake
potatoes on the Rove and live rich enough for two thirds of the
expense that it would be to me to board in the hall." In 1854
another boy wrote: "I have not had any boarding place since I came
back from looking after a school, but have lived on a few crackers
and tea cakes. I went down to the Grocery this morning to get
something for my breakfast, but behold when I handed them my
money, they said it was not good. It made me feel rather bad seen
[sic] it was the only two dollars that I had." Married
students sometimes rented or built houses and, of course, ate at
home.
In 1836 the trustees provided that young
men might club together and build rooming and boarding houses on
leased Institute land. Lucien Warner boarded part of the time at a
club of fourteen young gentlemen. He missed that peculiar
"civilizing influence." "The society of such a collection of
boarders," he wrote in a letter, "is just what could be expected
from a lot of young men living secluded from ladies. Some would
like to have everything carried on in the best of order, but
others only wish to swallow their food and run. Without the
restraining and refining influence of ladies, it is found
impossible to maintain decorum, and instead of our meals being a
place to cultivate refinement and to refresh our minds from our
studies, it is only a place for satisfying hunger." There were
evidently no such remarkable conversationalists among the young
men as the tablemate who so inspired him at Ladies'
Hall.
CHAPTER
XXXVIII
THE STUDENT
BUDGET
ECONOMY was a basic principle at Oberlin.
If the Institute was to be of real service to the sons and
daughters of poor Yankee farmers it was essential that the expense
be as low as possible. Tuition at first was from $10.00 to $14.00
a year; in 1834-35, $12.00 in the Preparatory Department and
$18.00 in the Collegiate Department. This was cheap in comparison
to the charge in eastern colleges: $72.00 at Harvard, $40.00 at
Yale, $40.00 at Princeton, $57.00 at Union, $36.00 at Bowdoin, and
even $27.00 at Dartmouth, the "poor mans college." Tuition at
western schools like Granville (later Denison), Illinois College
and Western Reserve was roughly the same, however. The poverty of
the frontier made these low rates necessary; beneficences from the
East made them possible.
In 1835 Oberlin executed a great coup when
the tuition was made free in the Theological and Collegiate
courses. This was done at the suggestion of the Oberlin
Professorship Association in New York, that group of
philanthropists who constituted themselves a living endowment of
the Oberlin faculty. The fees in the Preparatory Department were
to be $15.00 a year for men and $12.00 for young ladies. As a
special concession to the colonists, however, and, it would seem,
as an encouragement to large families, the trustees "Voted, That
families residing in Oberlin, and sustaining the principles of the
Oberlin Covenant be allowed to send all their children of suitable
age to the lnstitution, and that two students only from each
family be charged with tuition." To all the world it was
advertised that higher education at Oberlin was free.
The income from the Professorship
Association was very much curtailed within a short time after its
establishment, due to the financial depression which swept the
country in the next few years. The Institute was in a very
difficult position financially, being unable to pay its teaching
staff in full at any time. It was natural that there should be a
movement to reestablish tuition charges in order to augment the
income of the institution. In 1836 and, again, early in 1842 the
faculty voted against such a measure, despite the fact that they
would gain personally by its adoption. The trustees at their
annual meeting in August, 1842, however, voted to charge tuition
in the College beginning with 1843. A fee of $10.00 was assessed
for the spring term of 1843. This decision was affirmed at the
next annual meeting, and it was decided that the Preparatory
Department rates ($15.00 for men and $12.00 for ladies) should be
charged to students in the College. The Board, however, assured
"those Students who are pennyless of their deep & abiding
sympathies, referring them to the example of the Indians for
encouragement [?!] and that their necessities when made
known to the Board of Education shall receive prompt attention
& every practicable judicious measure be adopted to meet
them." Furthermore, it was determined to order the Prudential
Committee to admit to the Collegiate Department "free of all
charge for tuition such pious & indigent youth as in the
opinion of the Faculty give satisfactory evidence of proper
intellectual and christian character & of their intention to
enter the gospel ministry or some approved field of Christian
effort, on condition however that if anyone having received such
tuition free afterwards shall fail to carry out such intention he
shall become indebted to and bound to pay the Institution the full
amount of such tuition with interest." Pious young ladies in the
fourth year of the Ladies' Course might expect a similar
exemption. Tuition in the Theological Course continued to be
free.
The charge of $15.00 for men and $12.00 for
young ladies was not changed until 1860 when the tuition for the
latter was raised to $13.00. Though, as we have already seen, this
was much less than the amount charged in most other colleges,
there was some complaint among the students and some were very
tardy in their payments. Professor Henry Cowles was delegated to
make a study of the situation in 1845 and reported that those who
did not pay their bills were not deserving, for the most part, and
that there seemed to be no reason for reducing tuition. At any
rate, tuition was not changed. In the fifties and sixties the cost
of tuition was really much less than the nominal charge. This was
true because the scholarships sold in the endowment campaign were
transferable and were rented out at low rates. Zephaniah Congden
paid out only $6.00 a year scholarship rent in lieu of tuition in
1853. The College Catalogue of 1866 in its estimate of student
expenses includes scholarship rental of $8.25 to $9.00 instead of
tuition charges. The tuition charges at Brown in 1866 were $50.00
and at Western Reserve, $30.00. Oberlin tuition costs were,
throughout this period, very reasonable.
Room rent at first was from three to six
dollars a year. It was provided free to members of the Theological
and Collegiate departments in 1835 and 1836 and to all ladies in
the boarding house from 1837 to 1842. Otherwise it was usually
$4.00 (in a double room) or $6.00 (in a single room). In 1842
young ladies were assessed $2.50 per term of 40 weeks for rooms in
Ladies' Hall. A few years later they were paying from seven to ten
cents a week. The young men also sometimes paid by the week: in
1853, 15 cents a week in Tappan Hall, a shilling (12 1/2 cents) a
week in Walton Hall and 10 cents a week in other college
dormitories. In the late fifties and in the sixties rent advanced
somewhat. Rooms in Ladies' Hall went up to $4.50 to $6.00 in 1857;
and $6.00 to $12.00 was assessed in the new Ladies' Hall when it
was first opened, extra charges being made for the carpeted rooms.
Rooms in Tappan Hall cost $7.80 per year at the same time. Room
rent in private houses was also low. Davis Prudden and his brother
paid a shilling and a half a week (18 3/4¢ for two attic
rooms in 1836. In 1836 Henry Cowles was renting rooms for
75¢, $1.00, and $1.25 a month, and house-keeping apartments
for $1.50 a month and 50 cents a week. In 1842 and 1843 he was
charging 16 and 20 cents a week for rooms. Henry Prudden, living
at the Cowles home in 1859, paid 25 cents a week room
rent.
Board at the Oberlin Institute Boarding
House (Ladies' Hall) was at first from 80 cents to $1.00 a week;
the second year it was from 75 cents to $1.00. When in 1835 the
vegetable table was introduced young gentlemen paid only seven
shillings (87 1/2 cents) for it. There is one record of a man
paying only 50 cents. Board at the meat table continued to be a
dollar, and ladies were charged 75 cents. In 1836 the charge was
raised to $1.00 to $1.25 for young men and $.75 to $1.00 for young
ladies. In 1837 board was fixed at one dollar a week for all, a
price which remained unchanged for sixteen years. In 1846 a rumor
reached the trustees that board at some other institutions was
cheaper and, with praiseworthy jealousy, they ordered the
Prudential Committee to make an investigation and see if "the
present price can be diminished." The rumor seems to have been
unfounded, for at this time board was $2.25 per week at Harvard,
$1.50 to $1.75 at Brown and from $1.00 to $2.00 at Amherst. Even
in the West at Hudson (Western Reserve) and Denison board was
$1.25. Whether or not the committee had these facts before them,
no change was made in the charge. Of course, their prices must be
considered in relation to the money standards of a day when
students received from 2 3/4 to 10 cents an hour for work, and
oats and potatoes were 25 cents a bushel. Nor, as we have seen,
was the board furnished at these prices of a very elaborate or
varied character. Board at private houses was little, if any,
cheaper. Mr. and Mrs. Cowles were furnishing board to students at
one dollar a week in 1842 and 1843.
Beginning with 1853 the price of board
steadily advanced. Students coming to Oberlin in the summer of
that year were discouraged by the increasing costs. One young man
wrote to his sister: "Board costs more than we expected--it is 9
shillings at the boarding-hall, in some places it is ten and at
the hotel they ask twelve." There were a few who kept to the old
low rates, he found. "There is a widow lady living in the next
house from the one that we room in that boards for six shillings
per week. I am acquainted with a young man that boards there and
he says they have first-rate board. She might have several hundred
boarders at that rate, but her number is limited to ten and when
one leaves a vacancy the rest choose out of the students one that
shall fill it." In 1855 the college boarding rates were advanced
to $1.25 and $1.50 and two years later were listed at $1.50 Io
$1.75. Mrs. Cowles received $1.50 per week in 1859. Of course, the
appearance of war prices meant a further rise. In 1864 board was
$1.75 to $2.50 a week and three and four dollars in town. In 1866
board cost Oberlin students from $2.50 to $3.50 a week.
There were, of course, other minor
expenses. A regular incidental fee was charged, beginning with
1835 when the Prudential Committee "Resolved, That each Schollar
shall be charged fifty cents at the close of the quarter for Bell
ringing & warming, Cleaning and Lighting Resitation Rooms." In
the following year this was raised to $2.00 for gentlemen and
$1.00 for ladies and in 1857 to $2.25 for all students and in 1865
to $6.00. Many students cut their own wood from the forest for
their little heating stoves. Up to 1850 it could always be
purchased at $1.00 per cord. After that it went up to $1.25 and
$1.50. Sometimes it was furnished by the week. In the winter of
1864-65 wood was provided for 60 cents a week and in the spring
for 50 cents. Washing was three shillings (37 1/2¢) a dozen
in the early days, 50 cents a dozen in the late fifties and
sixties. This was not a very large expense, however, if, like one
young man in 1853, you wore only one shirt and one collar a week
and washed your own socks.
Then there were such items as lighting,
repairing clothes, making clothes, soap, charity, doctor bills,
travel, books, etc. Elam Comings included in his incidental
expenses in 1836: a Hebrew Grammar--1.37 1/2; an ax--1.50; "for
Missions--.50"; soap--.04; shoes--2.00; "for trimmings for
pantaloons"--.31, and "for fruit--.12." This gives some evidence
of the character of the dissipations of the early days also!
Besides tuition, traveling expenses, board and room, Frances
Hubbard, who attended in the middle fifties, purchased an
umbrella, a penknife, "scissors," ambrotypes, soap and soap jar,
candles and lighting fluid, blacking and brush, apples, pencils
and rubber, "Post Office stamps," a "Moreno dress and trimmings,"
garters, "Gum Elastic shoes" (overshoes or rubbers), bonnet lining
and trimming, "Morocco bootes," a sun bonnet, mitts, "ivory birds"
(?), and "velvet and flowers for bonnet." She also expended some
money for collections: "for Seamen," "for Missionary," "for
Colored woman," "for Burrett" (Elihu Burritt, peace advocate),
"for Kansas," etc. On one occasion she even paid out 37 1/2 cents
for a "present for teacher." The list of miscellaneous expenses
grew as time went on, students had more money, and Oberlin shops
offered more temptations. Items in the expense account kept by a
young man in 1865-66 have somewhat of a modern sound: neckties,
peaches, concert, two tickets to Theodore Weld's lecture at 25
cents each, paper collars (!), photographs (no longer
"ambrotypes"), shoe heel, "6 stub pens," "Nov. 27--By one tooth
filled--.25"; "Dec. 23--Tooth pulled--.50," maple sugar, lemonade,
music lessons, expenses of Jr. Ex. (Junior Exhibition), and broken
glass. This young man subscribed to the Lorain County News of
Oberlin and Harper's Weekly. He paid a quarter for getting his
trunk up from the depot, spent ten cents "treating Bedient" and 16
cents for "Laughing Gas." Oberlin interests at this time are
reflected by his contribution to the freedmen and 25 cents to a
"Colored Soldier."
In 1834 it was officially estimated that "a
study year of forty weeks" would cost from $58.00 to $89.00. In
1839 necessary expenses, including board, room, incidental charge,
tuition (free) and lights, were placed at only $50.00. The total
annual expense of an economical student at Oberlin was officially
estimated at $75.00 in 1846 and $85.00 in 1851. In 1857 Professor
Timothy B. Hudson staten in an article in the Independent that the
cost of a year's study at Oberlin need not exceed two hundred
dollars. The Catalogue published in 1866 gave an expense estimate
of from $150.00 to $225.00, scholarship rent, incidental charges,
board, room, lights, washing, books and fuel being included. The
earlier estimates are undoubtedly too low, taking into account, as
they do, only part of the actual necessities of student life.
Books were often a large item; and all must spend something for
clothes. The later estimates seem to be more nearly accurate,
though many undoubtedly spent more.
The Oberlin estimate of $58.00 to $89.00
must have looked attractive to many poor but ambitious young men
at a time when Princeton, Harvard and Yale essentials cost from
$160 to $200. Even at Amherst the expense of a school year was
placed at over $200.00. Alexander H. Stephens' expenses at
Franklin College in Georgia were about $200.00 a year, and Charles
Sumner spent about the same amount at Yale. Both have been praised
for their economy. Average expenses at Western Reserve for the
academic year 1834-35 were estimated to be about $147.00. Board,
room and tuition at Illinois College cost about a hundred dollars
in 1836. In the thirties expenses at Oberlin were undoubtedly as
low as anywhere in the country. Considering the general rise in
prices, costs in the 60's were also low, though not so markedly
so. The cheapness of tuition or "scholarschip rent" was a major
factor. The average expenses reported by 32 young men in the
Collegiate and Theological departments in the fifties or early
sixties was $188.90 a year. Of course, as Professor Cowles wisely
said in reporting this investigation, "What it costs young men to
obtain an education at College, turns not merely on his bills for
board, tuition, room, fuel, & books; but is largely affected
also by the style of dress which general usage demands, or is
thought to demand; . . ." In early Oberlin a young man or woman
might wear patched clothing, and public opinion was always kind to
those forced to be economical. There is little doubt, however,
that expenses demanded by "general usage" increased considerably
in the 50's and 60's. In the final analysis, however, it is not
possible to gain a very good idea of the comparative cost of
education at different schools except by the comparison of such
items as tuition, room, and board, other expenses being so much
dependent on the individual. Some could live cheaply at Harvard,
their budget limited only by the high tuition charges. Some spent
a good deal at Oberlin despite the low official costs.
The Institute at first furnished most
supplies and services and charged them to students. In 1834 even
books and other students' supplies were dispensed in this way. A
typical early bill runs:
W. P. Cushman to O. C.
Institute
|
Dr.
|
May 29--To 1 Latin
Reader
|
-- $0.83
|
June 5--To 1 Greek
Reader
|
-- 1.15
|
July 14-- To 1 Doz.
Quills
|
-- .24
|
|
|
|
$2.22
|
Oberlin, July 23, 1834.
After a few years books were purchased from
individual book stores but other items foreign to term bills of
the twentieth century continue to appear on students' statements.
A typical bill is that made out to a Miss Foote in
1835:
Miss P. Foote Dr. to board 12
weeks at 6/
|
$9.00
|
to Washing 10 pieces
|
.15
|
to Candles
|
. 37 1/2
|
to Wood
|
.63
|
Incidental charges
|
.07
|
|
$10.22 1/2
|
|
|
Credit by labor 260 1/2 at 3 cts
per hour
|
7.82
|
Dec. 31, 1835.
|
P.P. Stewart,
|
|
Steward.
|
On other bills appear such items as: "2
Sheets @ 56¢," "Cloth for Curtins--9 yds. @ 14," "1 Mattras,"
"Use of Bowl & Pitcher --8," and "1 Axe-helve." One girl's
bill included not only "8 weeks board @ 4/," "eleven weeks at 6
Shillings, candles and washing," but also "Expense in
Sickness--.50." This was in 1835. In a statement to the Institute
made in May, 1835, Dr. Dascomb includes charges against several
students. Fortunately the cost of medical service was very low.
The Doctor Professor charged one student 12 1/2¢ for a dose
of calomel, another, 25¢ for an emetic and cathartic, a young
lady, 12 1/2¢ for a dose of Rhubarb, another, the same for a
dose of castor oil. It cost only ten cents to get a blister
plaster, and the same for "salts & senna." Dr. Dascomb pulled
teeth for a shilling apiece. The furnishing of medical service
like the handling of books was, for the most part, discontinued
after the first few years. Even in 1836, however, there appear in
students' statements, in exceptional cases, such items as "One
hat," "1/2 quire of paper @ 12 1/2 cents," "8 catalogues--50
[cents]," "one steel pen," and "1 Botany."
Much more common are other charges, at
first sight, equally odd. Washing at 3/ (37 1/2 cents) a dozen
appears as regularly as board. In 1835: Mr. Grumley was charged 6
1/4 cents for knitting and 25 cents for "Making Tow Frock"; Mr.
Butts paid 37 1/2 cents for "Making Collars"; another young man
was charged a shilling by the Oberlin Collegiate Institute for
"mending Pantaloons"; a colored boy paid 13 cents for "Hemming 2
pocket h'kf"; and E. B. Sherwood, besides being indebted to the
Institute for board and washing, was also required to pay 78 cents
for "Making a Vest, etc." In 1836: William Sheffield paid 6 cents
for "Mending Cloak" and sixty cents for "Making Apron"; James H.
Fairchild paid 15 cents for "Washing 5/12 doz . . . @ 3/"; another
young man paid 75 cents for "Making one pantaloons," and another
38 cents for "footing 1 pair stockings." The Institute hired the
"coeds" to do the washing, ironing and sewing and put the charges
on the young men's bills.
There is more than sufficient evidence that
the bills incurred by students were not always promptly paid. The
spirit of philanthropy was, we may perhaps fairly say, only
slightly tempered by business acumen, and the result was that
students let their bills run on, and the College authorities,
conniving in this laxity, lost considerable sums of money which
were rightly due. In 1834 to I836, under the management of
Shipherd and Stewart, it would seem that a majority of the
students became indebted to the Institute. The trustees decided
finally that the time had come to balance the budget by requiring
prompt payment of delinquent charges. A formal notice was read to
the students at the boarding house table, therefore, declaring,
"that by the rules which govern the Faculty and Trustees No
Student indebted to this Institution at commencement of next term
can be admitted to recitations or a seat at commons. But until
such indebtedness is adjusted," the announcement continued, "must
be regarded as standing in the attitude of a new applicant,
irrespective of their previous connexion with the Institute--and
no persons after the first of March next will be expected to avail
themselves of the privileges of the boarding department until they
have presented the Steward with a certificate from the office that
the above regulations are complied with." In June of the same year
a more rigid regulation was announced, providing that full payment
would be required of every student on the first days of September,
December, March and June respectively, and also at the close of
each term.
It was as a result of the financial
collapse of the Steward's Department at this time that the
management of the commons table was turned over to a student
organization. At the same time the students were also notified
that they were "expected to render at the office of the Treasurer
a copy of their account current monthly as near the first day of
the month as may be, and that the same is required to be in
business form." Hundreds of these monthly statements made out by
the students furnish to us our best source on student
finance.
In the Laws and Regulations of 1840 it was
provided that "Every student [is] required to settle his
bills with the Treasurer, before the expiration of two weeks after
the commencement of each term." For the stricter enforcement of
this rule it was further provided that, "No student shall be
permitted to recite, after that time has elapsed, till he shall
have obtained the Treasurer's certificate that he has complied
with this regulation." Professor Finney preached a sermon from
Romans 13:8: "Owe no man any thing," in which he held that it was
a sin to be in debt. But many students continued to be delinquent.
For this situation they cannot be exclusively blamed: first, the
public was allowed to believe that students at Oberlin could pay
most of their expenses by manual labor and would, therefore, need
little money; second, Shipherd's doubtfully ethical "scholarships"
did not include tuition, though many of their purchasers believed
that they did; and, lastly, money was very scarce, at the time,
anyway, and most of the students came to Oberlin because they were
impecunious. As late as 1845 Professor Cowles and a committee
prepared a report on the problem in which they stated "that the
evils of nonpayment of debts here are becoming enormous &
seriously threaten the very existence of the Institution." As the
school was subject to a considerable annual deficit at this time
the situation was truly a serious one. The committee recommended
that "a culpable negligence in any student to pay honest dues
whether to the Institute or for board, be treated by the Faculty
as a moral offense, & made a matter of discipline, & that
a special law be introduced into our code to this effect." No new
rules were added to the Laws and Regulations, but the findings of
the committee are significant to us as evidence of the late
continuance of the debt problem.
Americans of the twentieth century have
little conception of the scarcity of currency, especially sound
currency, a hundred years ago. As a result of this scarcity
business was often carried on by barter, or some commodity was
used as a medium of exchange. On the outer frontier it was fur or
whiskey; on farms farther east, usually grain. Farmers often would
not see more than a few dollars of cash for a year at a time. Now
Oberlin students were (as we have seen) the sons and daughters of
poor farmers, and it was with difficulty that they could scrape
together enough cash to pay their traveling expenses to college.
They were attracted to Oberlin particularly by the manual labor
system whereby they might barter their wages for tuition, board
and room. The institution itself was impecunious also, so accounts
were kept in such a way as to obviate as far as possible the
handling of cash. On one side of the monthly or quarterly
statements was an account of charges accrued against the students
for board, room, tuition, etc. On the other was an account of
wages due to the student for manual labor performed. The balance
either to credit or debit was carried over to the next month or
quarter. Faculty, and even colonists at first, as well as
students, kept accounts on the Institute books, thus making it
possible to do business without much actual cash. Those having
such accounts would write orders on the Institute to the credit of
other individuals. These orders were comparable to bank checks and
circulated more or less as currency. The Institute usually paid
students their surplus earnings, if any, in such orders. A student
wrote to his family in 1843: "The greatest trouble we have is want
of money. There is but little in the place. I tried hard to borrow
enough to pay for a pair of shoes, this afternoon but found it
impossible. I have had but two dollars in money of my last years
wages. What I shall do I know not. My boarding is paid by my
teaching, but there is no money to be had." The shortage of money
at this time may be partly explained by the expenditure of all the
cash the community could collect for the meeting house. It is not
surprising that the institution orders sometimes spoken of as
"Treasury Script" should have depreciated, especially as the
Steward required part payment in cash in the middle
forties.
Many students were helped out of their
financial difficulties by charitably minded friends of Oberlin. It
was a difficult problem to do enough manual labor to pay any
considerable portion of expenses, and study and attend classes at
the same time. The Female Principal wrote to her husband in 1838
of what must have been a common experience: "One dear, promising
young lady was in my room last night. Pay day had come, and she
had enough for this time, but said--now, I must study less or not
pay next month. The tears were in her eyes. She said she labored
now so as to hinder study some, she thought. O how precious the
boon from Mrs. Chapin and others for the benefit of such ladies
appeared to me."
For some time several students at Oberlin
were beneficiaries of the American Society for Educating Pious
Youth for the Gospel Ministry, receiving small stipends to make up
the difference between the returns from their manual labor and
their expenses. Oberlin's "peculiarities" were too much, however,
for the orthodox directors of the American Education Society, as
it was usually called, and in 1838 all further receipts from this
source were cut off? An independent "Oberlin Board of Education"
was forthwith organized, and early in July the Evangelist
published an appeal for aid for indigent students in Oberlin.
Special agents were named to receive funds in New York, Boston,
Providence, Rochester, Detroit, Cleveland and other smaller towns.
By August 14 it was possible to report gifts of over 170.00 in
money besides "two shirts, three prs. pantaloons, two coats, one
vest" from "ladies in Franklin, O." Receipts did not equal the
sums previously supplied by the American Education Society, and in
the autumn the members of the Oberlin Board of Education issued a
second plea. "Those who love Oberlin" were reminded that "the
wants of a large number of indigent young men, pursuing their
studies here for the gospel ministry, are peculiarly pressing."
These appeals were renewed from time to time in the next few
years. "Dear brethren and sisters in the Lord," ran one of them,
"think of your brethren here who have given themselves to Christ
in his precious gospel. They cheerfully forego all the lucrative
employments of life: they give up their time to study for the
gospel ministy, or to benevolent labor for the destitute, and now
may they not ask your aid in bearing some of their unavoidable
burdens?"
At first the receipts were in currency for
the most part, but, in that time of money scarcity, it was much
easier to secure donations in goods. Oberlin agents, appreciating
this fact, emphasized the need for warm clothing. In 1840 one list
of acknowledgments was concluded with a plea for winter wearing
apparel: "It is hoped the friends of our young men will remember,
as winter approaches, that the wants of many cannot be supplied by
parents, that some of them are sons of widows; and, that
substantial materials for clothing, suited to the season, warm
woolen socks, &c., as have heretofore been received and
acknowledged, will be very acceptable, and greatly encourage them
in their laudable undertaking of preparing for the gospel
ministry."
Some of the gifts were of the particularly
useful kind desired: "3 pair woolen socks," "1 vest," "1 pair
linen pillow cases," "1 bosom," "2 flannel aprons," "1 towell," "1
pair drawers," and "1 pair mittens." "Miss Conkling" of
Rensellaerville, N.Y. contributed "1 printed calico coverlid, 6
1/2 yds. bleached cotton, 10 yds. unbleached sheeting." Some gave
candles ("4 lb. stearin candles"); some, soap ("5 gallons
[!]"); one man presented "10 lbs. feathers" to rest the
study-weary heads; another gave razors, and another, a buffalo
robe. Food was, of course, gladly received: butter, pork, cheese,
dried apples, "1 heifer," "1 sheep," onions, dried pumpkins, and
corn. Some donations were not so directly useful to the indigent
students: for example, a "two-horse lumber waggon" given by a
Cleveland friend, a churn, a hundred acres of land, and a quarter
of a ton of hay! Professor Finney was overwhelmed with benevolence
and self-abnegation one Sabbath in the very midst of a prayer. He
there and then consecrated to the Lord (to be used by pious and
poor students) "1 Spring cushion Mahogany Sofa, 6 Cane-Seated
Curled Maple Parlor Chairs, 1 Blue Broad Cloth Cloak, 1 Goat's
Hair Camblet Wrapper." These he kept at his home awaiting
purchasers, but, as no one appeared to buy his household goods and
personal clothing, he settled with God for $70.00.
Individual patrons often helped notably in
the support of worthy students. Gerrit Smith must always be
included among the best friends of Oberlin and Oberlin students in
the early years. At the request of Professor Morgan he sent $15.00
to aid James Monroe (later professor at Oberlin, Congressman and
Consul to Rio de Janeiro) in the completion of his course. In the
same year George Thompson (of Missouri prison fame) wrote to the
New York philanthropist:
". . . I should be exceedingly glad of some
help to prosecute my Studies, in preparation to preach the gospel
to the suffering Poor--the colored Race--in this country--or
Africa if the Lord permit.
"Myself, and dear wife feel strongly bound
to the Slave and Colored race--to live & die for the present,
and eternal good--
"My house rent here is 30 dollars a
year--besides our Provisions and clothing--
"I have my Books to buy--but with what
shall I buy them? I have just come from Prison--Tho I may not be
able to recompense you here you shall be . . . recompensed at the
Resurrection of the Just--& he that giveth to the Poor,
lendeth to the Lord &c. &c. Inasmuch as ye did it unto one
of the least of these My brethren--ye have done it unto Me &c.
&c.--...
"I will not plead--I will not
prescribe--Nor will I murmur, should you feel unable to aid me at
all--The Lord direct you & give me that which is
good--
"I shall wait with some anxiety to hear
from you--that I may know whether I must travel & beg this
winter" It seems scarcely possible that this plea was entirely
without result. Sallie Holley was especially aided by Smith. In
1850 he helped pay for the education at Oberlin of the famous
fugitive, Anthony Burns.
Oberlin students, however, were always
encouraged to support themselves as far as possible. The two chief
means of self-support were manual labor (in the boarding house for
the young ladies and in the forest and on the farm for the young
men) and teaching. The preparatory students (as we have seen,
representing the larger part of the total) were taught almost
exclusively by the more advanced students in the Theological and
Collegiate departments. In 1836, when 37 1/2 cents a dozen was
charged for washing, young men received 18 cents an hour for
teaching. Three years later James H. Fairchild was paid 15 cents
an hour for teaching and Arithmetic and 18 cents for teaching
Latin. His was earning 15 cents an hour for teaching Arithmetic
and 10 cents for teaching Grammar. Sallie Holley made a shilling
an hour teaching a composition class in 1850. In the following
year Jacob Dolson Cox received 18 3/4 cents an hour for 179 hours
of Algebra classes, and C. H. Churchill received the same pay for
24 classes in "Geog. of Heavens." At the commencement of the war
Judson Smith was paid 25 cents an hour as a student teacher, and
at the end of the war Lucien Warner was paid at the same rate.
Some students, unable to obtain teaching appointments, gave
independent lessons in drawing, music, or languages. Antoinette
Brown (the first ordained woman minister) supported herself while
studying theology in this way. Frances Hubbard made over fifty
dollars teaching drawing and painting in 1856.
During the three-months vacation in the
winter most Oberlin students scattered to the country schools of
all the Northern and some of the Southern States "with shawls
strapped to full valises, and hopes clinging to lean wallets."
Their first aim was to get money which would make possible the
continuance of their college studies. Teachers in Ohio in 1840
might expect between $13.00 and $14.00 a month on the average. Men
averaged about $16.00 but young ladies only $10.00. In 1837 one
Oberlin student hired out for $17.00 a month. Five years later
another was promised $20.00 a month in lumber or bank notes. He
preferred lumber as not being "quite as precarious property . . .
as bank notes." Sometimes there were additional gratuities if a
teacher happened to be popular. Lucy Stone received for teaching a
school in Wellington, besides her regular pay, "a great lump of
maple sugar," some apples, and "a good new broom." A young man
teaching a subscription school in Tennessee in 1849 collected from
$1.50 to $2.00 a day. He considered this unusually profitable.
Sixteen years later John G. Fraser was offered $40.00 a month
without board at one place and $100.00 for three months with
board, at another. Teachers' wages were fortunately advancing as
were costs of an education.
The experience was a valuable part of their
education, bringing them in contact with all sorts of people, and
placing them in a position of responsibility requiring tact and
initiative. It was often extremely difficult work with many
hostile pupils, suspicious parents, unwilling tax-payers, and the
Oberlin reputation to live down. The number of pupils might be ten
or twelve or it might be seventy. There were sure to be all ages
up into the twenties and all grades and classes. Not only did they
teach Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar and
Spelling but when called upon to do so instructed the more
advanced in Latin, Greek, Chemistry, Philosophy, Rhetoric,
Geography of the Heavens, etc. Mary P. Fairchild, teacher in
Michigan in 1843, found that, "There are so many different books
and such a variety of scholars, that it is quite easy to spend six
or seven hours in hearing recitations." For a while she divided
the grades with a companion teacher, part of them being taken into
a separate room. This very desirable arrangement had to be given
up, however, after a short time "when the gentleman of whom we
borrowed a part of our stove pipe needed it." The school room must
have been conducive to study with two teachers carrying on classes
at the same time! An Oberlin man who taught in a district school
in the winter vacation of 1865-66 near Rolling Prairie, Indiana,
heard thirty-seven recitations in a six hour school day, even
though he usually had but twenty scholars in
attendance.
Of course there were serious disciplinary
problems in these one-room, rural schools. In 1839 Welcome Benham
bragged that he managed the boys in an obscure district without a
single whipping, but twenty years later William H. Long, a
freshman, was struck on the head with a heavy iron fire poker by
one of the pupils in his school and deprived "of reason for
several weeks thereafter." George Smith, a prep student, had a
school at nearby Camden in the winter of 1854-55. He boarded
'round in the log cabins of the local farmers and found the food
rather poor because of the scanty crops of the previous
season.--"But I have had the pleasure of having some wild turkey
and venison to eat." "I have not had occasion to punish any very
severely yet," he wrote to his sister, "and am in hopes that I
shant. There is 30 scholars that come to me now, some of which,
are larger than I am .... I have four scholars in the a b abs, Ten
in arithmetic, and two in grammar. The others study reading,
spelling, and writing." The young teacher at Rolling Prairie after
the war had to resort to all sorts of disciplinary measures in
order to persuade a certain six-footer to speak a piece. Nor did
the teachers' duties stop with the schoolroom. He was expected to
run a spelling school, sometimes a singing school. He usually felt
it to be his duty to attend prayer meetings and other church
services and take an active part, often, in fact, to
preach.
In 1860 the Ohio State Commissioner of
Common Schools reported that a large percentage of Ohio teachers
were undergraduates on vacation from the local colleges. "This is
especially true of Oberlin College .... "he continued. "I am
informed that there are now from five to seven hundred of the
Oberlin students, male and female, engaged in teaching in this
state; ..."
Many of these teachers were poorly
prepared, it is certain. Many took schools after only a term or
two in the Preparatory Department. At first they went without
special preparation in teaching methods and without certification.
From 1846 a special Teachers' Course was maintained in the
Institute and those who chose this department supposedly received
some professional training. In later years special lectures to
teachers were delivered in the autumn just before the beginning of
the long winter vacation. In most of the states a system of
certification by examination for prospective teachers was
established. All were expected to be able to answer such questions
as: "Why are there twice as many degrees of longitude as
latitude?" (To which one hopeful answered, "Becas the
circumferance is greater than the diamiter."), "If I sell 2/3 of a
farm for what 3/4 of it cost what per cent do I gain? .... How
wide must a man make a door-way 7 ft. high so that a circular saw
8 ft. in diam. may pass through?" and "Describe the liver, its
location and office."
There was other vacation work for those who
preferred it or failed to obtain a school. One young man tried
lecturing on phrenology. In 1840-41 James Fairchild took a
pastorate for the three months in Palmyra, Michigan. His duties
were the usual ones of a pastor: "to preach on the Sabbath, attend
prayer meetings during the week, visit families, stand by the
bedside of the sick and dying and direct the fearful soul to Him
who tasted death for every man." Another tried lecturing on the
wonders of nature. He wrote of his enterprise to Secretary Hill:
"Shortly after leaving Oberlin in November I entered into
partnership with a Mr. Rider; went to Cincinnati and purchased a
large and beautiful assortment of Philosophical Apparatus, which
cost about $500; I have been lecturing, on the subjects enumerated
in the enclosed bills [what they were we can only guess],
from county to county during the winter and have been so far
fortunate as to meet with considerable success." One preparatory
student went too far in his efforts to make money and was
apprehended as a counterfeiter!
It was officially estimated that of
approximately $11,400.00 earned by male students in the academic
year 1841-42, $5,400.00 or nearly half, came from school teaching.
Unfortunately, over $800.00 of this amount was lost in bank
failures. The remaining $6,000.00 of this amount represented
receipts from manual labor.
CHAPTER
XXXIX
MANUAL AND DOMESTIC
LABOR
THE manual labor system was basic in the
scheme of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute. Shipherd announced in
the first official presentation of the plan in the autumn of 1833
that, "The Manual Labor Department will receive unusual attention,
being not (as is too common), regarded as an unimportant appendage
to the literary department; but systematized and incorporated with
it. A variety of agricultural and mechanical labors will be
performed by the students under circumstances most conducive to
their health and support. All will be required to labor probably
four hours daily." "All its Students, rich and poor, male and
female," declared the Circular of the following March, "are
required to labor four hours daily; little children, peculiar
cases and providences excepted." All of the other early reports
and notices refer to the manual labor department as a
characteristic feature. In 1844 the Founder declared that if the
departments of "Biblical Instruction & Physiology, including
Manual Labor . . . wane, the life current will flow out, and the
heart of Oberlin die." We have already seen that a large
proportion of the students were attracted to Oberlin by the
prospect of self-support. As late as 1845 a select "Committee on
Manual Labor in the O. C. I." reported that "the success of the
institution... depends upon the continuance of this
system."
The first rules of the Institute provided
that, "The Students shall be classed in convenient numbers, under
suitable monitors, who shall keep an accurate record of their
classes with a daily account of the hours & minutes which each
one shall labor, the degree of diligence, & efect with which
they labour, and an account of their deportment in general; and
report the same to the general Agent on Saturday of each week; and
no account shall be passed to the credit of the Students for
Manual Labor by the hour, or by the Job, unless sanctioned by some
monitor or agent of the Institute weekly." The next year the
trustees ruled that "an account of the labor performed by each
Student who labors for, or boards in the Institute, shall be
handed into the Office of the Institute on Saturday of each week
by a Monitor when he has one, if not by the individual himself.
This is to be done whether work has been performed for the
Institute, or for individuals by the job or by the hour. Every
Student who boards in the Institution is required to labor for the
Institution, unless permission be granted by the Agent to labor
elsewhere."
Thousands of the reports handed in to meet
this requirement still exist and constitute one of our best
sources of information about the manual labor system at Oberlin.
In November, 1835, T. P. Turner, Oberlin's carpenter and builder,
reported that "Henry Fairchild has labored for O. C. Institute 284
hours at 7 cents per hour . . . getting out 70 floor boards . . .
planing 237 feet board." In the next year Edward Grumley's account
of labor includes: "milking and tending cows," "cutting wood at
boarding house," "putting bedsteads in ladies Hall," and "digging
potatoes." In August, 1838, another young man reported:
"2 Hours burning Stumps
3 " building walk for Prof. Finney
3 " hanging Gate etc.
4 1/2 " preparing . . . sewer for Prof.
Finney"
Printed forms were provided for these
reports during part of the early period, and were almost always
used in 1837 and 1838.
The authorities insisted that all students
should put in the minimum amount of labor. George Prudden wrote in
the late summer of 1836:" . . . we are compelled to work three
hours. My time is from 3 to 6 o'clock in the afternoon." The
faculty required "that the unmarried students who do not work for
the Institute shall labour the same number of hours as those who
do, and work regularly." A certain Mr. Baldwin felt called upon to
report: "Labored 24 [hours] last week but not for O. C.
I." In 1835 the hours of labor required were reduced to three
instead of four and this was officially announced in the catalogue
published in that year.
The students were organized in divisions:
"Preparatory students to constitute the first division and labor
from 7 to 10 A. M. --the Freshman class to constitute the second
division and labor from 9 to 12 A. M.--The Sophomore and Junior
classes to constitute the third division and labour from 1 to 4 P.
M.--The Theological classes to constitute the fourth division and
labour from 3 to 6 P.M." At first tools were charged to the
student laborers when taken and credited to them when returned.
The earliest day-books in the Treasurer's Office give lists of
tools lent to students: axes, wedges, etc. It was determined a
little later, however, "that the circumstances of the Institution
render it Impracticable to Lend its tools and any person who shall
take them, shall be charged and required to pay for same." A fine
of a shilling was imposed on any student who took tools belonging
to another. Manual labor was given an academic flavor by the rules
and directions adopted and by the organization of the workers into
classes. Samuel Cochran reported in August of 1836: "The classes
organized, and I set to labor in E. J. Wilcox's class at Rolling
logs--8 cts per hour." Father Shipherd, himself, prepared a set of
"Rules for cutting cordwood on the Institution Farm." These rules
provided in part that: "The wood shall be four feet long; &
split as small as four inches in its greatest diameter. No round
wood over four inches in diameter will be received. Limbs must be
trimmed close .... The wood must be closely piled on poles which
shall raise it a little from the ground."
Wages for "the best Class of Mechanical
Labourers" were at first set at 7 cents an hour and "the Standard
price for the first class of Labourers on the farm" at 6 1/4 cents
and a little later at 5 cents an hour. As a matter of fact the
wages paid were somewhat higher. Labor reports show that in 1836,
8 cents was paid for "loging," 7 cents for "chopping," 6 cents for
hoeing potatoes, and 10 cents for harvesting, though one boy
received only 5 cents an hour for "thrashing wheat." Eight cents
an hour seems to have been the regular wage in the following year
for binding wheat and carting manure. One cent less was paid for
milking, picking up sticks, and "Plowing the Green." In 1838 a
student received 8 cents for sledding timber, cleaning oats and
"shoveling manure." But another was paid only 6 cents an hour for
planting corn and another 5 cents for "Planting Beens." There is a
lack of uniformity in the wages paid for the same kind of work
which leads us to believe that they varied somewhat with the
energy and ability of the laborer.
There was work enough and to spare in the
first few years. The forest must be cut away and the stumps
grubbed out. There were roads and buildings to be constructed. The
General Agent (R. E. Gillett) reported for the season of
1835:
"There has been 25 acres Land cleared this
season and sown to wheat.
"There has been on the Home Farm 30 acres
chopd &
37 acres 1/2 chopd ....
"There has been chopd 50 acres one Mile off
on the east farm.
"There has been for Mill 350 cords wood cut
and sold to Mill Company and 250 more is to be
furnished."
It seems clear enough that Delazon Smith
was entirely justified when he wrote in 1837 that, "Nearly all the
labor since this Institution was first established, has been
chopping, logging and burning brush; and this too, a great portion
of the year, ankle deep in mud and water!" Such work, though
necessary, was certainly not very profitable to the Institute nor
yet, perhaps, appropriate for students. The critic continued: "How
beneficial such labor must be to a student, and how pleasurable
the transition from log-heaps and burning brush to books, is
better imagined than described."
The mechanical work performed by students
was mostly in the erection and repairing of the Institute
buildings. Preference was always given to contractors who would
use student labor. Thomas P. Turner, who was in charge of much of
the construction, used students regularly. Under his direction
students in 1835 worked at: "laying flour [sic]," "putting
up 7 bedsteads," putting up a pump, "staining bookcase shelves,"
"tending boardkiln," and tending mason. In the late thirties
reports of labor contain such items as: "putting up stove pipe,"
"carrying brick," "sawing laths and carrying them into the
Office," "mixing and carrying mortar," "making steps," "hanging
gate," and "filing and setting saw." Of course, after the first
few years, work on construction ran out, but repair work was
always necessary. Even in the sixties we find Lucien Warner, as a
student, doing the necessary repairing on the college
buildings.
In the ideal manual labor system mechanical
work, more profitable and perhaps more educational than logging
and farming, played a large part. The steam engine purchased to
saw lumber for the colonists was also intended as a part of the
manual labor establishment. The First Annual Report (1834) states
that the manual labor department "is also furnished with a steam
engine of twenty-five horse power, which now propels a saw mill,
grist mill, shingle and lath saw, and turning lathe, to which will
be added other machinery, as experience shall prove expedient. One
work shop is now erected and supplied with tools. Others are to be
added as necessity requires, and funds allow." Students were
warned, however, that the "agricultural system is much more
extensive than the mechanical" and that "a large majority can work
in mechanism to but little pecuniary profit."
There is no evidence to show that any
considerable amount of shop work was ever done by Oberlin
students. At first the shop was under the direct control of the
Institute but was transferred after a few years to a group of
students who constituted themselves the "Oberlin Mechanics Steam
Engine Company." This organization became deeply involved
financially and the shop was therefore sold off to individuals.
The Institute lent $2000.00 to J. M. Eells, a student, to enable
him to buy a quarter interest in the shop with the understanding
that he would "furnish students in the Institution with manual
labor at the chair making business to as great an extend as his
means will allow." The arrangement with EelIs lasted less than one
year, at the end of which time the whole shop was taken over by
"Jennings, Wilder & Co." a corporation organized by Oberlin
citizens "desirous of increasing [their] power of doing
good, supporting [their] families, and advancing the cause
of righteousness, especially in the education of pious young men
in Oberlin." There are no known records of the students (if any)
who worked for this company. Of course, students were engaged in
mechanical labor for individual mechanics in later years. Charles
Livingstone, for example, worked in the printing office. In 1849
students ventured into broom making. Twenty-two acres of broom
corn was raised, and sufficient material produced for the
manufacture of 600 dozen brooms. Over 175 dozen had already been
made by the last of October.
Some men were employed at ringing the bell
as a signal for rising, meals, classes and public meetings. Others
were engaged in sweeping the halls and sawing wood. A few were
employed as amanuenses in the college office, copying records and
writing letters. In short they would do any kind of work to help
pay for their education from teaching classes to skinning a cow.
One student reported on the same sheet: "Instructing in Biblical
Ant[iquities] and History" and "Chopping wood." The vast
majority of work, however (after the forest had been cleared and
the buildings constructed), was that done by the men on the
college farm: hoeing potatoes, watching cows, feeding pigs,
"planting rooty bagas," haying, plowing, moving the barn, "sewing
grass seed," cutting peas, milking, spreading manure, threshing
beans, cultivating "corn & pumions," and planting and hoeing
mulberry trees,--and by the young women in the dormitory and in
village homes: washing, ironing, scrubbing, mending, waiting on
table, and "doing the dishes."
The Catalogue of 1835 announced that the
young ladies "perform the labor of the Steward's Department,
together with the washing, ironing, and much of the sewing for the
students."
The economic relation between the sexes in
the thirties was much the same as that in any well-regulated
family. While the male students worked in the fields and in the
shop, the female students prepared their meals, washed their
dishes, cleaned their rooms, washed their socks and linen, mended
their trousers and made shirts for them. The Steward received from
the young men clothing to be washed and mended and distributed it
to the ladies. The ladies were, in turn, paid by the Institute for
this labor, and the men paid the Institute by the piece for
washing and sewing done. One of the major reasons why joint
education was supported in Oberlin was that this mutual economic
dependence of the sexes made it possible to cheapen the cost for
both.
It was claimed that this system made for
sound bodies and clear minds among the young ladies, that through
it they learned something of domestic science, and, of course,
that it was a great aid to the female students financially. In a
letter written by Miss Mary Ann Adams in behalf of the Oberlin
young ladies to John Keep, Oberlin's agent in England, the ladies
are made to say:
". . . Our manual labor system . . . we all
consent in saying is the very thing we need. After having our
minds absorbed in some abstract subject until we become weary with
intense thought, we repair to some household duty and the mind and
body becoming relaxed, we return to the page we left and grasp the
thoughts with avidity, & instead of the pale face which too
often belongs to the student we see a continual freshness and
glow. There are other benefits resulting from this system. While
the majority of well educated ladies are ignorant of domestic
affairs, here the two are blended, here domestic economy which it
is true should be inculcated by the mother is carried on to still
greater perfection, here knowledge of domestic affairs, high
intellectual culture and even refinement of manners are considered
as consistent with each other."
Fortunately the "Hints and instructions for
the benefits of those connected with the domestic department of
Oberlin Collegiate Institute" prepared by the Principal of the
Female Department in 1838 are preserved. Here we have the
essentials of the simple system of domestic economy taught. There
was a special list of
"INSTRUCTIONS FOR THOSE WHO PREPARE FOOD.
1. Begin in season.
2. Assist in cooking and placing the
different articles of food on to table. Bread butter & etc
& etc.
3. Arrange the food tastefully.
4. Temper the seasoning; so as to make the
dish healthy, palatable and economical.
5. After meals. Gather the food from each
table.
6. Carefully preserve it all.
7. Put that which is eatable in its proper
place.
8. Such as is fit for soap grease into a
barrel of lye down cellar.
9. Put such as is unfit for either of the
above places, into the slop barrel.
10. Leave the pantry in as good order as it
is found."
On the first day of January, 1839, a young
lady student wrote to her parents: "I have just come from the
kitchen where I have been scouring knives. Every day immediately
after breakfast and dinner, you may imagine me in the kitchen,
engaged with several young ladies in scouring or washing knives
and forks." This washing of the knives must have been quite a
ceremony for it required eight rules:
"l. Commence when the bell rings for
leaving the table.
2. Gather the knives and forks from the
table.
3. Place them on the north end of the
table, at the east side of the kitchen.
4.Wash them clean.
5. Wipe them dry.
6. Avoid wetting the handles.
7. Place the knives and forks in separate
departments in knife box.
8. Place those of a kind in the same
department."
There were eleven rules for
mopping:
"1. Never use a dirty mop.
2. Always have clean suds or clear water.
3. Change the water often, when
necessary.
4. Never touch the mopboards with a dirty
mop.
5. When washing a specified portion of the
floor, wash
against the mop boards first.
6. Use the mop when first wrung to wipe
near the mop boards, while the water and mop are clean.
7. When wiping the floor do not mop across
the boards.
8. Wipe the floor dry.
9. Always leave the mop and pail clean.
10. Never leave dirt on the mop
boards.
11. Never leave the corners of a room
dirty."
Elizabeth Maxwell found Monday "the hardest
day of all the week" next to the Sabbath. She explained: "Monday
is our wash day. We have no lessons but generally a longer lesson
for Tuesday. We are always so glad to get to bed that we never
think of our straw beds and sleep more soundly than if it was
down." It was partly because of the necessity of washing that
Monday morning was set aside as a half holiday and not interrupted
by classes for a period of over eighty years, long after the
domestic system of manual labor had been forgotten. A few
suggestions entered by Mrs. Cowles, the Lady Principal, in her
notebook in 1836 give some small notion of the washing and ironing
work:
"WASHING DEPARTMENT.
Never carry your own articles into the wash
room until the gentlemen's are finished. Perfect punctuality.
Improvement of every moment.
Wed. & Fri. ladies wash their colored
clothes.
Ironing room vacated by 7 o'clock."
The "gentlemen's" washing came first!
Evidently Monday was not the only wash day either. The "Resolution
passed by the young ladies as regulations of the boarding house"
in 1838, dealt with ironing, washing, and sewing.
Retire at 10 o'clock.
Rise at 5 o'clock.
Ironing room vacated Sat. 7
o'clock.
Ironing sheets left by each young lady in a
suitable condition for ironing.
Each young lady can put 10 articles of
clothing a week into the wash if she pleases, but is not to exceed
that number. No clothes washed except they are marked the whole
name and a bill pinned on to the bundle. Clothes to be brought as
early as 7 o'clock. Wed. Eve.
The young ladies can wash their dresses,
dark clothing and woollens at such times on Tues. and Thurs. as
will not interefere with the general washing, and any time on
Wednesday provided a class of three or more can be formed. No
washing specified in the preceding regulations done after
Thurs.
"SEWING
No sewing carried from the sewing room
unless a given piece is placed under the special supervision of a
young lady, and the superintendent permits her to take it away
from the rest of the work."
The returns from domestic labor were small
but, at least in 1835 and 1836, played a considerable part in
enabling the "coeds" to pay their expenses. From three to five
cents an hour was promised for domestic labor. In the winter of
1834 and 1835 Sarah Capen worked 547 hours at 3 cents per hour and
Fanny Fletcher 359 hours at 3 1/4 cents per hour, but another
young lady received only 2 1/2 cents an hour for a hundred hours
of domestic labor. In the later months of 1835 young ladies
received from 9 1/2 to 3 cents an hour. In statements rendered on
December 31, 1855, P. P. Stewart, Steward, credited Miss M. F.
Kellogg (later the wife of Professor and President Fairchild) with
68 1/2 hours of labor at 2 1/2 cents an hour; Miss Elizabeth Prall
(one of the three first female recipients of the A. B. in 1841)
with 563 hours at 2 3/4 cents, and Delia Fenn with 611 hours at 3
cents. During the summer and fall of 1836, however, Zeruiah Porter
(the first graduate from the Ladies' Course) received regularly
three or four cents an hour. In March, Florella Brown (half-sister
of John Brown of Harper's Ferry) worked in the boarding house for
3 cents an hour; Catherine More was paid 4 cents.
In 1836 the Catalogue announced
encouragingly that "nearIy all the young ladies . . paid their
board by their manual labor." This estimate is easily checked
because double entry statements of student finances were prepared
in that year, credit from manual labor being listed on one side
and indebtedness for board, washing, tuition and other expense on
the other. From these it appears that at this time a considerable
number of the young ladies did receive enough from manual labor to
pay for their board at least. In 69 accounts taken at random from
those rendered in 1836 receipts from domestic labor were over 60%
of total expenses, including washing, tuition, lights, etc. as
well as board. As far as the students were concerned the system
appears to have been financially successful at that
time.
Labor in the domestic department was
considered so important that applicants for admission were
required to certify "their ability and disposition to perform
domestic labor" as well as their character and present educational
advancement. All were at first required to labor four hours a day,
but this requirement was soon reduced to three and then to two
hours. In April of 1836 two young ladies were dismissed from the
boarding house "simply because their health [was] not
sufficient to enable them to perform the manual labor required."
It was not logical, however, that the students should go on
forever literally supporting themselves by taking in each others'
washings. Beginning with 1840 the Catalogue becomes less
encouraging. Prospective students in the Young Ladies' Department
are told that "many have paid their board by manual labor, but
they were those . . . who had some responsible situation in the
domestic department." The young ladies are warned that, "It is
found that [their] highest good .... physical and mental,
is best promoted, by not attempting more than three hours' daily
labor besides her own work." In the 1855 Catalogue, and for
several years following, female students are advised not "to do
more than defray about half the expense of their board." Of course
many of them continued to do some work around the boarding house
and others worked as "hired girls" in homes in town. In the middle
forties Lucy Stone worked in the kitchen of the boarding hall,
keeping her Greek grammar, it is said, propped up before her so
that she could read as she wiped the dishes. In the late fifties
one student wrote to her mother as a matter of course: "It is
Monday and the rest of the Boarders are washing." Throughout the
sixties the Catalogue carried the statement that, "Young ladies,
in the Ladies' Hall, have the privilege of defraying a part of
their expenses by domestic labor." In the 70's, however, as we
have previously seen, young men appear as waiters in the hall.
Various odd jobs and teaching in the Preparatory Department were
open to women as well as men. In 1858 Miss L. M. Stiffler received
"one dollar seventy-eight cents for taking care of the reception
rooms thirteen weeks." Nine years later girls were earning money
by "ringing Hall bell during the Spring term" or by "carrying the
Hall mail." Housework was, nevertheless, the usual type of manual
labor for young ladies.
Young men often worked cutting and carrying
cord wood for the hall. There were even, occasionally, one or two
in the Steward's Department. In 1835 and 1836 E. B. Sherwood did
the baking in the boarding house and was, therefore, "properly
intitled to $1.50 per week for his service." In the fifties, when
Lucy Stone was washing dishes, Jacob Dolson Cox (later General,
Governor and Secretary of the Interior) baked the bread. For the
most part, however, the men were employed outdoors on the college
farm.
CHAPTER
XL
THE COLLEGE FARM
THE lands belonging to the institution
furnished opportunity for much student labor. The "college farm"
was, in fact, the mainstay of the manual labor system for men, as
the boarding house furnished most of the labor for the young
ladies. The General Agent was put in charge of "the manual labor
of the male Students & all the farming operations, together
with the Mills and erecting of buildings," by order of the
trustees early in 1835. Frederick Hamlin, of Wellington, was at
first appointed to this important post but, due to his
unwillingness or inability to handle the agricultural part of his
duties, a practical farmer had to be employed in addition. In 1835
Jonathan T. Baldwin held this position. In the following year
Robbins Burrell and Perez Otis took his place, Burrell at
Sheffield and Otis at Oberlin. R. E. Gillett succeeded Hamlin as
agent in 1836. His reports for that and the next years, list
buildings completed, land cleared and manual labor performed. P.
R. Skinner became practical farmer in the spring of 1837; his
signature succeeds that of Gillett in manual labor reports the
last of May. In 1838 the office of General Agent was discontinued
and the new farmer, C. T. Carrier, who succeeded Skinner in the
spring of the year, took complete charge of the farm and of
agricultural manual labor for the next four seasons.
Of course, the farm had to be stocked and
equipped. It has been impossible to discover what became of
"Scrawney," "Scrawney's Mate" and the other cows that Shipherd
bought in the autumn of 1833, but three years later it was
necessary for the students to raise funds to purchase "9 cows @
$25 each . . . or starve," says N. P. Fletcher. In 1837 seven
members of the faculty subscribed ten dollars each to buy a yoke
of oxen, and the next year Carrier reported 11 cows ("2 lost!"), 4
oxen, 1 bull, and 2 horses. In 1841 there were 24 cows, 4 oxen, 2
bulls, 13 calves and heifers, 34 sheep, and 5 hogs. The
institution had by this date accumulated many tools and other
equipment: cradles, sickles, scythes, rakes, hay forks, hoes,
wedges, beetles, a fanning mill for winnowing, "a X cut saw,"
axes, spade, "1 Grub How & 1 Mattock," etc. In addition there
was a wagon, a cart, "Whippletrees & Neck Yoke," "One large
water trough at Barn," and the "relics of the Threshing Machine."
Wheat was the chief crop raised: there were about 45 acres of it
in 1838, which produced, however, only a little over 10 bushels to
the acre. Considerable land was put into pasture, and oats,
potatoes, peas, beans, buckwheat, rye and corn were raised in the
later years. Some fruit Frees were set out: apple trees, and peach
trees on Tappan Square. Of the fruit trees set out only about one
out of ten lived.
The students milked the cows, mended the
fences, hoed the potatoes and threshed the grain at from six to
ten cents an hour. But "Labour on the Farm," as Agent Gillett
reported, was "unproffitable," to the Institute at least. In the
period from June 1, 1836, to August 31, 1837, expenditures on the
farm amounted to $2,996.47 and receipts to only $974.77. To
balance the account the Treasurer charged $2,021.70 to "stock,"
but value of stock on hand, it is clear, had increased by no such
amount. The Treasurer's books show that the farm was "in the red"
to the extent of $2,664.67 on January 1, 1841. A report to the
trustees later in the same year states that, "Recent very thorough
investigation by a com. appointed for that purpose shows that for
the last 3 years the farm has drawn upon the treasury of the
Institution for its support about $474.57 or 158.19 pr year--over
and above all it has done and produced. The same com. also
ascertained that but for the milk which was furnished by the
farmer to the boarding house at from 2 to 4 cts per quart the farm
would have sunk some 3 or 4 fold that sum." Though it is not easy
to reconcile these figures with the accounts in the Treasurer's
books, it is clear enough that the farm was a financial liability.
Considering the fact that the number of students thus employed
averaged only about twenty, we are entirely justified in
concluding that the farm was a failure from every point of
view.
Figuring largely in this failure was the
ill-advised silk-culture experiment. Throughout American history
sporadic and ineffectual efforts have been made from time to time,
usually encouraged by governmental agencies, to establish the
culture of mulberries and the silk worm. During one period only,
however, did the interest in the industry become widespread among
the people and seem to hold any considerable prospect of success.
This was in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, and
Connecticut was the center from which the movement spread. In
February of 1828 certain citizens of Wyndham and Tolland counties
petitioned Congress for aid "in the Cultivation of the Mulberry
Tree and of Silk." Already the House of Representatives had
adopted a resolution directing the preparation of a manual on
methods of silk culture, and in the same month published, as a
government document, De Haggi's, Treatise on the Culture of Silk
in Germany. In 1831 the legislature of Massachusetts appropriated
$600.00 for the compilation and printing of "a concise Manual, to
contain the best information respecting the growth of the Mulberry
tree, with suitable directions for the culture of silk." J. H.
Cobb's Manual Containing Information Respecting the Growth of the
Mulberry Tree, published in Boston in 1831, was the result. A year
or two later Congress ordered 2000 copies of this little booklet
for free distribution, and it was therefore reprinted in
1833.
Cobb's Manual stimulated great interest.
Production boomed in Connecticut, and in 1833 four tons of silk
cocoons were said to have been produced in Wyndham County. In 1835
the Hartford County Silk Society began the publication of the Silk
Culturist, which became the organ of the movement as the boom
advanced. The object was stated to be "to introduce and extend the
knowledge and practise of cultivating and raising mulberry trees,
feeding and managing silk worms, and reeling silk from cocoons, in
the most approved method."
The culture of silk was urged with the same
fanatic zeal which characterized the anti-slavery, temperance, and
moral reform movements of the period. Not only was it urged that
silk culture would be profitable but it was insisted that there
was "in the whole range of man's varied manual labor pursuits
none, . . . so innocent, moral and healthy."" . . . Women,
children, cripples, and indigent paupers can be useful in this
fascinating occupation [tending silk worms]," wrote one
enthusiast. "The refined intellect can here scrutinize the
ingenuity of a most wonderful insect." The silk industry was
recommended as particularly appropriate for the employment of
persons in the penitentiaries. Silk societies similar to the
Hartford society were formed in nearly every county in Connecticut
and in most of the northern states. Indeed a map of these
societies would cover much the same area as a map of anti-slavery
or temperance or other reform societies. The state governments
joined the crusade. Bounties for silk production were provided by
Massachusetts (1835), Vermont (1835), Pennsylvania (1836),
Maryland (1836), Georgia (1838), and New Jersey (1838). So great
was popular enthusiasm that the editor of the Silk Culturist felt
called upon to warn people against buying cabbage seeds from
itinerant peddlers of "mulberry tree seeds." Morus multicaulis was
the most popular mulberry tree, and interest in Morus multicaulis
assumed the proportions of a craze. Thousands of these trees were
planted all over the country; eighteen advertisements for mulberry
trees appeared in one issue of the Silk Culturist. Already in
August of 1835 the editor announced that, "Silk must eventually
become one of the staple productions of the United
States."
Ohio, so closely linked with Connecticut
and New England in general, would not be expected to escape the
epidemic. In the summer of 1835 the Cleveland Whig reprinted at
least two articles on silk. Early the following year the editor of
a Hudson paper reported the receipt of "130 skeins of sewing Silk,
manufactured by M. E. Patchen, of Newbury, Geauga County." Others
were recommended to follow this example. In 1837 Cyrus Ford of
Massillon advertised 100,000 Morus Multicaulis, and A. S. Chen of
Columbus announced that he had on hand for sale "100,000 plants
and cuttings of genuine Morus Multicaulis." John Boyden of
Cleveland was also ready to supply the silk grower with mulberry
trees of the favorite varieties. In his annual message to the
legislature in December, 1836, the Governor of Ohio declared: "The
soil and climate [of Ohio], so well adapted to the growth
of the Mulberry, may place Silk manufactories in a favorable
position: and the adaptation of our soil to the Sugar Beet, may
bring that article into successful competition with the sugar cane
of the South." (The interest in beet sugar was contemporaneous but
not so widespread. The Silk Culturist espoused its cause as well
as that of silk.) Numbers of persons were engaged in cultivating
mulberries near Canton, Dayton, Columbus, and Xenia. Ohio rapidly
rose to the first place among western states in silk production.
In 1839 when Connecticut was credited with 17,500 pounds of silk
cocoons out of a total of 61,500 pounds produced in the United
States, Pennsylvania came second with 7,260 pounds and Ohio third
with 4,300 pounds. Every state in the Union reported some silk
made.
Northern Ohio seems to have been the
favorite western habitat of the Morus. A silk grower writing from
Geauga County early in 1837 declared that, "Whoever has visited
Ohio, especially the northern part of the State, will readily
perceive the adaptation of the soil, more particularly that
situated on the route of the great ridge road, for the rearing and
cultivating the mulberry." In 1839 almost exactly three quarters
of the silk reeled in Ohio came from the northwestern part of the
State, nearly one quarter from Huron County alone. It is clear
enough, therefore, that the Oberlin silk experiment was no freak
but part of a widespread campaign for silk production.
The original germ of the Oberlin scheme
came, however, from New York, the State in which so much of early
Oberlin originated. Eliphalet B. Coleman was a minister of
Pembroke, N. Y., and a friend of Father Keep. His heart, it seems,
had "long been pained for destitute young females, who possessed
an ardent desire to obtain an education." He determined to set up
a female or, more likely, a coeducational institute on the manual
labor plan, silk culture to furnish the labor for both sexes. Silk
culture seemed to him ideal work for self-supporting female
students. "The labor in rearing the Silk Worm," he wrote, "is not
only very light and simple, but more productive than any other
that has ever yet been undertaken at such an institution; and in
every point of view, peculiarly adapted to that object." The young
ladies could earn, he believed, instead of the pittance of 3 cents
an hour received at Oberlin "with perfect ease .... more than one
shilling per hour, and with industry twice that much."
In February of 1836 he wrote to a friend in
Oberlin describing his scheme and suggesting its advantages for
Oberlin Institute. "My present plan," he wrote, "is to set out the
coming spring 50,000 trees on 50 acres of land, which in three
years will, I calculate, defray all the expense of 200 students. I
mean, Cloaths, Board, Books, Tuition and everything. This will be
easily done by their devoting three months in the Summer
exclusively to this object; and then attending to their studies
the other nine months of the year." This letter was turned over to
the Oberlin Board of Trustees and the plan so enthusiastically
received that on March 10, 1836, they appointed Shipherd and
Burnell "a committee to correspond with Rev. E. B. Coleman with a
view to preparing the way for uniting his enterprise in the
cultivation of Silk with this Institution." Burnell wrote
immediately to Coleman, suggesting that he visit Oberlin to
discuss preliminaries of a merger and look over the local
situation.
Coleman had agreed to take 50,000 White
Italian Mulberry trees at $30.00 a thousand of Elizur Goodrich,
President of the Hartford County (Connecticut) Silk Society and a
leading figure in the silk movement. Being unable to find land for
his trees he agreed to give up his own scheme for one season at
least and "bring the 50,000 trees on to you as soon as they can be
got there . . . provided you will furnish me with the means of
defraying the expense, and allow me eight dollars per week for my
services." The Prudential Committee seized upon the proposition
with avidity, immediately authorizing the payment of $8.00 a week
to Coleman, $100.00 for the transportation of the trees and
$1,500.00 for the trees. The treasury of the Oberlin Collegiate
Institute could hardly bear such a drain, but it was evident that
new charities were depended upon. A representative of the
Prudential Committee immediately wrote to Mr. Goodrich at
Hartford, informing him that it had been decided that Oberlin
should go into the silk industry and that a large number of
mulberry trees was needed for that purpose: "... Knowing that you,
sir, have a large nursery in N. Y. State, they wish to lay the
claims [of] this infant, but great and rising institution
before you, having strong hope that your benevolence, and wish to
promote christian education in this way, may induce you to permit
a quantity of your trees to be removed to this place, &
receive as a reward, the pleasing conscienceness of having done an
essential service to multitudes who are now preparing or who may
hereafter prepare themselves for usefulness in the world." In
June, apparently as an afterthought, the Committee, with doubtful
benevolence, appointed the Rev. Mr. Coleman an "Agent of the
Oberlin Collegiate Institute in soliciting funds" to help pay for
the mulberry trees which he had been instrumental in selling
them.
In the middle of May Coleman started the
mulberries for Oberlin. The actual number shipped was 39,105, no
more being available. They were put on board a schooner at
Sacket's Harbour and sent by way of the Welland Canal to
Cleveland. Arriving in Cleveland early in June they were
transferred to another schooner which landed them at the mouth of
the Black River (Lorain). Packed in twenty boxes, 6 feet long, 3
feet wide and 3 1/2 feet high, it required ten teams to bring them
overland to Oberlin. The expenses for packing and transportation
alone were over two hundred dollars.
Great expectations were held with regard to
the silk venture. Coleman wrote to Burnell: "I calculate that 100
acres of trees will, in 4 years, sustain 400 students, that is, 4
to the acre. And then you can go to any extent desirable, that
your means will admit of. Those 50,000 trees the first or present
summer will sustain from 500,000 to 1,000,000 worms, & if
50,000 more should be added in the fall they would probably yield
the next Summer $2,000, and then increase at the rate of two or
three thousand Dollars a year for ten years; and by the
calculations of some of the best judges (or those who ought to be
such) four or six times as fast as that." Shipherd, in New York,
trying to raise money for an already almost bankrupt Oberlin,
approved. "All my reading & conversation since I left home,"
he wrote, "confirms my opinion that there is no branch of Manual
labor that can be carried on half so profitable as the culture of
silk." He was, however, not sure of the fitness of Oberlin soil
for mulberry growing and therefore doubted "the propriety of
planting 50 A. altho' I like grand movements." He also called
attention to the fact that the Chinese Mulberry, or Morus
multicaulis, was said to be much better than the Italian White
Mulberry, or Morals alba, which had been purchased for Oberlin.
Certainly, in this case, Shipherd was not the rash one, though it
should not be supposed that he was in any way, opposed to the
enterprise.
Coleman wrote detailed instructions for
preparing the land and planting the mulberries. Whether or not the
managers of the enterprise in Oberlin had any other directions for
setting the trees and cultivating them is unknown. A copy of
Cobb's Manual ... Respecting the Growth of the Mulberry Tree ... .
(Boston--1833) was in the possession of the Institute at least as
early as the forties but whether at this time or not is
uncertain.
Anyway, shortly after the arrival of the
shipment of trees, work was begun on planting. E. S. Grumley
reported in his labor bill for June 1836: "setting out
mulberries-11 hours--.08 --88," "plowing drains in mulberry lot--5
hours--.10--.50," and "harrowing for mulberries--8 1/2
hours--.6--.53." Lewis Cowles was at work as early as June 5
"planting mulberries" at 6 cents an hour. O. D. Botsford reported
"21 1/2 hours [!] work at Mulberrys" on the11th also at 6
cents per hour. On June 13 another young man spent "11 1/2 hours
planting Mulberry trees at 6d." On June 10 the last of 21,585
trees was planted at Oberlin; the remaining 17,520 being set out
on Robbins Burrell's farm at the "Sheffield Manual Labor
Institute." More were secured and transplanted in the autumn;
altogether 55,000 were set out in 1836: 30,000 at Oberlin and
25,000 at Sheffield. In the next spring still more were planted on
Tappan Square where some of them still stood five years
later.
The process of cultivation began
immediately. In the middle of July, Davis Prudden wrote to his
father: "I expect to pay for my board and tuition by labor, but I
suppose it is rather uncertain. They give the students 33 cents
for hoeing a row of mulberries. Some hoe a row in 2 1/2 hours,
others 3, 4 and 5 hours. At log[g]ing they give them 8
cents per hour." His brother, George, wrote the same day: "I began
to-day to labour on the farm. My employment was to hoe mulberry
trees, & such hard hoeing I scarcely ever saw. I worked at it
about an hour & a half & got completely tired out. I think
I shall try to obtain some other lighter employment. Davis's work
for a time is to watch the cows. He has five cents an hour &
scarcely nothing to do. I suppose he will tell you more about the
matter himself." Both Davis' and George's labor bills for July,
1836, are preserved in the College archives. George is credited
with "hoeing 1 row of mulberry trees" on July 18 and 19, but he
turned to other occupations for the rest of the month; "moving
barn--3 hours--8c per hour" and "Hoeing Potatoes." Davis' bill
shows that he earned 15 cents on July 18 "watching Cows--5d--3
hours." During the rest of the month, however, he hoed mulberries,
making $1.75 at this occupation in the course of July.
The Oberlin leaders were morally certain
"of maintaining the Female Department from [this]
promising plantation." But the management was bad and very few
worms were ever procured to feed upon the mulberry leaves. The
heavy clay of Russia Township was not well suited for mulberries
and the trees lacked intelligent care. It is even said that the
cattle were let into the patches where the trees were planted and
the new shoots were broused down. The summer of 1836, to cap the
climax, was very dry and the chances of the trees surviving thus
farther reduced. Thousands of them were dead by the next
spring.
The "Silk Department" account for 1836-37
shows a deficit of $1564.69, of which $1,373.15 was the cost of
the trees, and most of the remainder chargeable to student labor.
The credit side of the silk account was $2.50! This did not
discourage from further planting, however, and in the spring of
1837 the young men were as active setting out Morus multicaulis
(or Chinese Mulberries) as they had been in setting out the Morus
alba the year before. The labor reports of 1837 contain not only
frequent references to planting and cultivating mulberries, but
also list many hours of work at pruning trees. There are no
reports of pruning in the droughty season of 1836, which must
partially account for the large loss of trees in that year.
Writing in 1837, P. P. Stewart was still advising the maintenance
of a mulberry plantation as a means of encouraging female
education. Work on the mulberries practically ceased in 1838. One
report referring to setting trees in June and another including a
charge for "wartering trees" in September are the only evidences
in the records that the trees still existed.
There are a few reports which contain
statements of labor spent in planting or cultivating beets, which
implies that the sugar beet craze was also touching Oberlin. This
is not surprising, for the arguments presented by advocates of
that cause were the kind to which Oberlinites were particularly
susceptible. One of them wrote to Mahan in 1836: "Now, it has
suggested itself to me, that you may connect the cultivation of
this most valuable root, for the purpose of manufacturing sugar,
with the cultivation of silk, and thus serve the double object,
yes; quadruple,aye-and still more--e. g. a healthful and agreeable
kind of manual labor,--a profitable kind of employment for the
students,--and last that I can mention, introduce the cultivation
of that which, if I mistake not, is to be the barley loaf to roll
down against the tents of Slavery and crush them." Beet sugar
would be a great comfort to those whose consciences pricked them
when they purchased or consumed slave products.
But Oberlin was not to be allowed to forget
the mulberries. In 1839 a "friend" in Lockport, N.Y., wrote to
Secretary Burnell that he was "satisfied that rearing Silk worms
and the Chinese Mulberry would be more profitable to your
institution than anything you can do." In the following year
another friend wrote from Michigan to state that he had "about
10,000 trees and some of the most approved kinds of silk worm
eggs" and wished to remove with them to Oberlin, providing the
attractions offered were sufficient. In the previous spring a
Quaker, interested in the Institute, collected donations of Morus
multicaulis trees and shipped them (1250 in all) to Oberlin. In
1841 an Elyria man offered a gift of trees to the Institute, as he
was not "able to dispose of them in any manner." The trees in the
Square furnished ever-present reminders and eventually aided the
manual labor system further when students were hired to dig them
out. Elizur Goodrich of Hartford, whom they still owed for the
40,000 Morus aIba of 1836, sent them occasional notices by mail.
In 1844 the Institute was still negotiating with him in an attempt
to persuade him to take land in lieu of cash.
The failure in Oberlin was typical. Silk
culture declined rapidly and "the very name became a byword."
Production of silk cocoons in the United States dropped from
61,552 pounds in 1839 to 10,843 pounds in 1849. Production in
Connecticut declined from 17,538 pounds in the former year to the
negligible amount of 328 pounds in the latter. The Ohio output
decreased about 75 Percent.
A "cocoonery" was established in Oberlin on
East College Street. In 1838 a certain Hezakiah Brooks rendered a
bill "for feeding silk worms." There is no evidence, however, of
any silk ever having been produced in Oberlin.
Much had been expected of the manual labor
system and in proportion to the expectations were the
disappointments. At the request of the American Education Society
it was officially announced on behalf of the Oberlin faculty that
young men expecting to come to Oberlin should be disabused of the
"impression that without any other resources than the daily labour
of three hours, they can fully support themselves." All of the
students did not work the required minimum period each day. Some,
said an observer, were "left to the Fostering Liberality of their
Friends and permitted to roam at Large in Indolence, and
effeminacy." The General Agent reported officially that the
"average of Students' Labour through the winter or from the first
of Dec. [1835] to first Feby. [1836]--fwas] 2
1/4 Hours per Day."
The Catalogue of 1836 was the last to state
that students were required to work three hours a day. The next to
be published (in 1838) merely gives the information that: "At
present no pledge can be given that the Institution will furnish
labor to all the students: but hitherto nearly all have been able
to obtain employment from either the Institute or colonists."
Increasingly cautious statements appear in most of the later
Catalogues. The rule on manual labor in the first printed Laws and
Regulations (1840) required only two hours of labor per student
daily, and included provisions for excusing students from even
that amount, "for good and sufficient reasons."
At the opening of the fifth decade in the
century there came a crisis in the history of manual labor at
Oberlin. The trustees voted at a meeting early in 1840 "that the
Faculty be requested to co-operate with the Prudential Committee
& Farmer, either by delivering frequent lectures to the
students or otherwise for creating in the Institution a healthful
public Sentiment in favor of not less than three hours daily
manual labor; and so far as practicable see that no student fail
of his appropriate Physical exercise, whether he makes that labor
available at the highest price or not." The students seem to have
been stirred up on the question, to a certain extent, at least,
for one of their literary societies debated the question: "Does
the interest of this Institution demand a law requiring students
to labor?" A member of the Board of Trustees resigned, partially
because "of the manifest failure to fulfill the so often made, and
reiterated pledge to sustain the manual labor department of the
Institution--allowing as a substitute, profitless and hurtful
recreations."
Due to the financial failure, the office of
practical farmer was discontinued, the farm rented out, and the
independent agricultural venture given up. A "Manual Labor
Department" was organized in the school with Horace C. Taylor as
Superintendent of Manual Labor. The trustees still regarded manual
labor "in this Institution as an essential and indispensable part
of its arrangement." In August of 1841 Taylor made his first
report as head of the new department. Manual labor in Oberlin,
however, was not to be revived at this time. In the following
winter one student wrote to his father: ". . . Work is very scarce
except choping. I can get but very little except choping cord wood
which is most too hard work for me, and I can earn but little. I
have to go about a half a mile to the woods and get three
shillings per cord." A year later the faculty "Voted to omit
calling for reports of Manual Labor until more labor can be
provided for students." Thus low had the system fallen.
Most of the farm was rented to Grandison
Fairchild, who took charge of the boarding house at the same time.
He also purchased or "borrowed" the larger part of the stock,
tools and produce on hand. "The home farm," as it was called,
which was rented to Fairchild, consisted of about 80 acres south
of College and west of Professor streets. The rent was $100.00 per
year, better certainly than the losses under Institute management.
Other smaller tracts were rented out for smaller sums, the rents
from the former "farm" amounting to over $200.00 altogether in
1842. Twelve acres west of the present Finney Chapel and Peters
Hall were rented to President Mahan at a nominal rate. By sale of
stock, equipment and rentals, etc., the debt on the farm had been
reduced by over a thousand dollars before January, 1844. In 1846
or 1847 W. W. Wright succeeded Grandison Fairchild both in charge
of the boarding hall and as tenant on the farm. Wright agreed to
furnish labor to students in the Institute to the amount of at
least $700.00 a year.
For part of this period the lands were
divided up among the students in small lots in a sort of a
manorial system, the Institute taking the part of landlord and the
students of villeins. The students were subject to the forfeiture
of their holdings if they failed to take good care of the crops
growing on them. The Institute reserved to itself "the privilege
of purchasing any or all crops in the fall by paying for the same
a fair market price in Oberlin." The General Agent reported in
1837 that, "The Tillable ground has been parcelled out &
rented to students in quarter acre lots at the rate of six dollars
per acre after the land was fitted for seeding." In the forties
gardens on Tappan Square were rented to the students, male and
female, Lots were let to agriculturally inclined youth--"such
Students as may wish it for purposes of gardening"--as late as
1860.
In the late forties there was a renewed
effort to revive the system. A committee reporting in 1845
recognized that "the Manual Labour department [was]
declining and falling into disrepute with the students," but
insisted that all students, especially those indebted to the
Institute, be required to work, and reaffirmed its belief that the
manual labor system was essential to the success of the
institution. The very next winter Prolessor Henry Cowles found it
possible to write a glowing letter to the New York Tribune
describing the remarkable success of the system (?!), a letter
which Greeley called "of more real worth to mankind than all the
Presidents' and Governors' Messages, Kings' speeches and
Diplomatic despatches of the last ten years." In June of 1847 a
college literary society again debated the advantages of labor
with study. In August the trustees "Resolved, that the P. Come
[Prudential Committee] be requested to take the most
prompt & efficient possible measures to resusitate
[sic] & carry forward the manual labor department and
they are hereby authorized to make such appropriations & make
such use of the Institutes land as may be deemed needful and
proper to give the greatest usefulness to the department," and,
"Resolved that the hearty cooperation of the Faculty and the
Colonists be solicited to encourage & stimulate the Students
to engage in systematic manual labor & to afford them all the
possible facilities for procuring employment."
In the spring of 1848 Richmond Hathaway was
appointed "superintendent of the Manual Labor department" to
manage agricultural activities on the portion of the lands not
rented out, to "see to & superintend .... the repairs made
about the Instn.," and "do all that can be done towards obtaining
employ other than by the Instn for all the students that require
labor." Two plows were donated by a friend to education. A yoke of
oxen, horses, a cart and a wagon were purchased. The college farm
was revived. For the two following seasons Hathaway continued his
administration. In the first year most of the work was expended in
cultivating summer fallow, clearing land, re-laying rails and
cutting wood. Thirty tons of hay were produced, however, and ten
acres of corn planted, cultivated and harvested. In 1849, besides
corn, there were fields of potatoes, beans, wheat and broom corn.
The wheat crop was small because of a visitation of the rust. It
was estimated that the male students earned about $3000.00 in
manual labor in 1848; and in 1849, $2160.38 was reported paid out
for labor by the Institute alone. Hathaway's report is
enthusiastic and optimistic, but there was a "big nigger in the
woodpile." He wrote:" . . . Although there are some pecuniary
disadvantages that attend in the employment of Students these can
never counter-balance the moral, intellectual and physical
advantages that he derives from manual labor. [¶]
There is no other system of education that is so perfectly adapted
to his nature, it develops in beautiful harmony all his powers,
and is well pleasing in the sight of God, as it tends in an
eminent degree to preserve the student in his fear. The Manual L.
Dept. should therefore receive the prayers, the warmest sympathy,
the fostering care, and the hearty cooperation of the Board of
Trustees." Unfortunately, Oberlin was not in a position to bear
the burden of those "pecuniary disadvantages." In the autumn of
1849 farming was again abandoned to independent
farmers.
In the fifties the College began to lease
its lands for ninetynine years, "renewable forever," on condition
that lessees would furnish labor to college students. A grant in
fee simple could not be made because of restrictions in the
original deed to the Institute, but the permanent lease amounted
to much the same thing. In 1853 W. W. Wright bought the largest
tract of land, previously rented by him, for a little over
$2,000.00 and agreed "Yearly .... to employ Students of said
College, in some department of Manual Labor, (when applied for,)
and pay them for their labor the current market price, to an
amount each year of at least Two Dollars for each Acre of Land
hereby demised." The Board of Trustees, on its part, agreed to use
the funds received for the "sustaining of said Literary Manual
Labor Institution." By 1866 all of the college farming lands had
been thus leased.
Student self-support by manual labor did
not come to a sudden end but declined more or less steadily. Even
after the College gave up an institutional farm the young men
often engaged in agricultural labor. In 1855 a student wrote to
his sister: "O I forgot to tell you that I am to work for my board
now. I have a cow to milk, a horse to curry and feed, two pigs to
feed, and one of the prettiest little dogs to take care of that
you ever did see."
Nor did the authorities cease to give
lip-service to the manual labor idea. The official endowment
appeal, issued in 1851, placed first among Oberlin's claims to
public support the system of manual labor. A few months later in a
reply to a letter criticizing manual labor schools published in
the New York Tribune, Professor Cowles declared: "Oberlin has
never thought of giving up manual labor. She has no temptation or
occasion to do so. On the contrary, her Trustees and Faculty are
monthly making new arrangements to provide labor for the students,
and have in their experience a growing testimony in favor of the
manifold utility of the system." A faculty report published three
years later declared that, "Full as much manual labor is performed
absolutely, yet, less relatively, than in the early years of the
College. It still appears that more than half of those who have
the ministry in view, depend solely on themselves for their means
of education.'
Doubtless the official spokesmen of the
college could not see, as we can, how steadily and surely the
system was declining. The sale of the college farm lands made this
outcome inevitable! In 1859 one student wrote to his parents: "I
have not found any work to do steadily. I doubt whether I shall.
Mr. Cowles says he does not know of any regular work. He will
supply me with some now and then. I am going to do some for him
this afternoon." From 1856 through the sixties the College
Catalogue announced modestly: "The Institution does not pledge
itself to furnish labor for the students; but arrangements have
been made with those who have the land of the College, to furnish
employment, to a certain extent. The College also gives employment
to a few around the buildings. Diligent and faithful young men can
usually obtain sufficient employment from the inhabitants of the
village .... Many, by daily labor, have been able to pay their
board."
Labor furnished by private persons could
not be depended upon to a certainty. The employment "around the
buildings" naturally became the chief reliance of laboring
students in the later years. Labor bills of 1855 include such
items as: "sweeping music hall," "fixing sidewalk," "piling up the
wood at the Chapel," "cleaning up the yard," and "warming and
sweeping church for Thursday lecture." A few years later a student
received "twenty-five cents for blacking the stove in the front
Reception Room of the Ladies Hall." Lucien Warner earned $1.75
"mopping and cleaning" in 1861. William Harris earned one dollar
"blowing [the organ] for commencement exercises 2 days" in
the same year. There was almost an endless quantity of wood to
saw, for which the college paid 6 shillings a cord after 1864." In
1866 O. G. Morgan earned money lighting lamps, sweeping Tappan
Hall and cleaning stove pipes and chimneys. Another student made
four dollars in the same year "taking up and putting down carpets
in Ladies Hall." No large-scale manual labor system could, of
course, depend on such odd jobs, nor were there any great
educational values in such labor. The editor of the Lorain County
News interpreted correctly the significance of the sale of the
last of the college farm lands when he wrote in June of 1866: "The
College has disposed of its last farm property, and Finis is
written on the lingering relics of the manual labor school that
occupied such a goodly place in Father Shipherd's
scheme."
The manual labor system was financially
almost fatal to the Oberlin Institute and College. The loss from
the mulberries was a heavy burden assumed at a crucial moment in
Oberlin's financial history. Most of the labor performed by the
young men was largely unproductive; clearing the forest in the
early years and sweeping the halls in the later. From the point of
view of the students the system was, financially at least, more
nearly successful, though the earliest expectations were never
realized. In the thirties and forties manual labor was undoubtedly
the chief means of support of a majority of students. Sixty-two
bills of young men students in 1836, taken at random, averaged
$7.37 due to the Institute, as against $4.21 earned by manual
labor. In eleven of these accounts the wages for manual labor
actually exceeded expenses. This, of course, does not take into
account money earned by school teaching during the winter
vacation, a source of earnings probably almost as important as
manual labor. Sixty-nine bills of young lady students taken at
random in the same year show an average expense of $5.12 as
against $3.15 earned by manual labor. As late as 1851 it was
officially declared that "four fifths of all the students who have
graduated at Oberlin the last twelve years have mainly supported
themselves during their entire course of study." But, as time went
on, it became more and more necessary to have other means of
support.
The effect on the main end of education and
on the students' lives in general we have no means of measuring.
The modern critic would be likely to conclude that such labor was
not generally conducive to the best results in scholarship. One of
the earliest students, writing some years later, corroborated this
estimate. In a letter to Professor Fairchild, Amzi D. Barber
wrote: "I labored during my entire course of study both from
principle and choice. I do the same now. I supported myself by the
blessing of God and so far I may be regarded as successful, but as
it respects the acquiring of a good sound education I regard
myself as having been very unsuccessful."
It is clear enough, however, that many poor
young men and women attended Oberlin who could never have afforded
an advanced education without the labor system. In view of this
fact and the apparently generally good effect on student health
and morale it seems unfair and untrue to call the manual labor
system, without reservation, a failure. With better management,
under the early frontier conditions, the system might have been
really successful.
CHAPTER
XLI
IN LOCO PARENTIS
THE Board of Trustees was the corporate
body legally responsible for the Institute and College. As
originally constituted it included among its members the founders
and their associates: Shipherd, Stewart, Redington (the Amherst
postmaster), Burrell (Shipherd's pupil), Pease (the first
settler), prominent local citizens like Judge Henry Brown, and
Addison Tracy of Elyria (a convert of Shipherd's revival of 1832);
and nearby ministers of the Gospel--Joel Talcott of Wellington
(Yale--1824) and John Keys of Dover. Within the year after the
granting of the charter these were joined by the Rev. John Keep
(Yale--1802) of Ohio City, Nathan P. Fletcher, an Oberlin
colonist, and Judge Frederick Hamlin, postmaster at Wellington.
The bickerings and financial difficulties of the first years did
not make for long terms of service, and by 1840 only three of the
charter members remained: Shipherd, Pease and Burrell. After
Shipherd's death in 1844 only Pease was left. Peter Pindar Pease,
a comparatively uneducated and exceedingly "modest and diffident"
farmer, continued officially on the board until 1861. Father Keep,
who missed being a charter member by a few months only, was long
the dean of trustees, winning his paternal title by thirty-six
years of intelligent and conscientious service. The Oberlin
trustees were all pious but of varying ability. Probably Owen
Brown, the stuttering tanner of Hudson, father of John of
Ossawatomie, who served as trustee from 1835 to 1844, was not much
more of an intellectual or a business executive than Peter Pindar
Pease. Dr. Isaac Jennings, the reform physician, and an active
member for many years, was a man of some education and experience.
Amasa Walker's term was only three years; he was a man of broad
interests, probably the most scholarly of them all, America's
outstanding economist. Dr. Norton S. Townshend of Elyria,
primarily a veterinarian, was a trustee from 1845 to 1857. An able
and well-educated scientist and abolition politician, he was
chiefly interested in agricultural education.
Francis D. Parish, a Sandusky lawyer, gave
long and valuable service; he was a trustee from 1839 to 1878.
Parish was a New York Yankee who had studied two years at Hamilton
College before beginning his legal career at Sandusky in 1822.
Being also an active church worker and a reformer, he was
naturally drawn to Oberlin. In 1834 he had joined with two others
to ask the American Home Missionary Society to send a pastor to
his frontier community. In 1843 he became the first president of
the Oberlin-sponsored Western Evangelical Missionary Association,
and was, for a while, vice-president of the American Missionary
Association. He was a notorious agent of the underground railroad
and in 1845 was arrested for protecting two fugitives from arrest.
The three trials that followed lasted until 1849, when he was
subjected to a fine of $500.00 for his infraction of the old
Fugitive Slave Law of 1793. He was a leader in Ohio in the early
days of the Free Soil Movement.
Samuel D. Porter of Rochester (trustee,
1844-1876), a devoted friend of the "oppressed," was one of
Finney's early converts. Willard Sears, of Boston, served on the
board from 1845 to 1862. He was another Finney man. John M.
Sterling (Yale--1820), the Cleveland lawyer and leader in all
reforms at whose office Weld had held his anti-slavery seminar,
was a trustee in the forties. William Dawes of Hudson, Ohio
(1839-1851), was a loyal fiscal agent and a pious promoter of the
founder's ideals. Of course, Mahan was an ex-officio member during
his presidency. Finney was elected in 1846 and continued
ex-officio after succeeding to the presidency in 1852. The Rev.
James Barr Walker had been editor of religious papers published at
Cincinnati and Chicago and during his trusteeship (1851-1863) was
preaching at Mansfield and Sandusky. He was an active anti-slavery
man (a convert of Theodore Weld), and a believer in Oberlin
"Sanctification." He founded a colony and school in Michigan on
the Oberlin plan and called it Benzonia. The Rev. Henry Cowles
(formerly of the teaching staff and editor of the Evangelist for
many years), Rev. James Thome (a Lane Rebel and leading preacher
in Cleveland), and Rev. Michael Strieby, Secretary of the American
Missionary Association after 1864 (a member from 1845 to 1899),
were other ministerial trustees. The trustees were lawyers,
physicians, ministers--notably not merchants or bankers. None of
the chief benefactors--the Tappans, Gerrit Smith, W. C. Chapin of
Providence, Aristarchus Champion or George Avery of Rochester,
etc.--except Willard Sears were among their number.
The Board dealt largely with matters of
grand strategy: educational policy, the appointment of teachers,
the erection of buildings and financial matters generally, the
latter being usually exceedingly urgent. As the Board usually met
only once or twice a year it was necessary to appoint a group of
local residents to deal with finance in the intervals between such
meetings. The first Prudential Committee was chosen in October of
1834: Shipherd, Stewart, Pease, and two others. The committee was
not expected to dispose of property or determine important
policies but only to transact "such business as becomes ordinarily
requisite to carry on the daily operations of the Institution."
Its minutes are filled with resolutions providing for the purchase
of cows, tools, and equipment in general, orders for the repairing
of buildings and construction of sidewalks, decisions on the rates
of payment of student teachers, prices of room and board and the
like.
To the faculty under the chairmanship of
the President was left the internal administration of the College.
The first By-Laws provide that: "The executive authority shall be
vested in the Faculty. Consisting of the President, Professor,
Tutors & General Agents. It shall be their duty as far as
practicable to advance the Students in their several departments
of moral, mental and physical education, and faithfully execute
the laws established by the Trustees." They were required to:
"hold stated meetings once in two weeks to promote the general
interest of the Institute," "keep a legible & accurate record
of their proceedings," "register in a permanent book the names,
ages, and residences of all the Students with the address of their
parents or guardians and of their benefactors, with their
subscriptions & payments, the time of their entering &
leaving the Institute, their attainments in knowledge at the time
of entering, their conduct & progress in the different
departments, and whatever may present a fair view of their present
and prospective characters, and annually report so much of the
same as they shall deem expedient to the Benefactors whose
scholarship they may enjoy," and "report the state of the
Institute to the trustees at their annual meeting." Unfortunately
for history the personal record was never kept in the detailed
form provided.
Discipline was exclusively under the
control of the faculty. "The Faculty," read the 1834 By-Laws, "may
make and enforce such rules as they may judge expedient, provided
they do not infringe upon the laws and general principles of the
Institute." The Prudential Committee, it was provided, might sit
with the faculty "in such cases of discipline . . in which the
Faculty shall need counsel," upon the invitation of the latter
body. To make sure that the faculty should always be independent
in this sphere, Professor Finney required as a condition of his
coming to Oberlin that the trustees promise never to interfere in
the "internal control" of the institution. This promise was made
in a resolution of February 10, 1835.
The first By-Laws, so-called, included a
few disciplinary rules. In the chapter headed "Deportment of
Students" are the following regulations: "1st. It [their
deportment] is to be that of Gentlemen and Ladies according to
the known rules of propriety and virtue. 2d. All vulgar &
profain words, writings, & actions with all gambling or
playing at games of chance, use of intoxicating Liquor for drink,
riot quarrelling or insubordinations and contempts of
Institutional Authorities are expressly forbidden. 3d. No Students
shall use fire arms, or burn Gun Powder in any way without
permission from the president or Principal of his
department."
These prohibitions were undoubtedly copied
from the codes of Eastern colleges. They may be duplicated in the
laws of English colleges at Cambridge and Oxford and of Harvard
and Yale in the colonial period. Students were also prohibited
from doing anything "on the Sabbath or the evening preceding the
Sabbath which may be inconsistent with their own religious duties
or the religious privileges of others." Students must not create
disturbances in the dormitories and the "Ladies" must "not receive
at their rooms the visits of Gentlemen." The faculty was fully
empowered to "dismiss any students, who, after fair trial, in
Scholarship, moral, or manual labor shall appear too delinquent
for continuance, or whose deportment in other respects may render
him unworthy of the privileges in the Institute."
These laws of 1834 seem never to have been
published and were intended by the trustees merely for the
guidance of the faculty. The original idea was that the students
would be expected to follow the common rules of decent etiquette
and morality and obey the dictates of Christian charity.
Delinquencies would be dealt with when they arose according to the
particular exigencies. As late as 1837 the faculty definitely
voted against the preparation of any formal code of student laws.
Not until 1840 was the first set of Laws and Regulations approved
and printed. It contained thirty-eight paragraphs of rules, but
the introduction addressed to "Dear Pupils" and signed by
President Mahan emphasized the fact that it is not "a complete
code," that "oral rules" might be added from time to time and, in
addition, "the ordinary laws of Christian morality" were "to be
considered as binding on every pupil." The "Dear Pupils" were
further reminded that the "regulations are made for the good of
the students themselves" and that, "Every student should feel that
the law is his helper and support, that its spirit is the spirit
of benevolence, and its mandate the voice of love."
The great majority of the rules dealt with
the payment of bills, absence from classes and prayers, the
library, student preaching and teaching, rooms and board, manual
labor, literary societies and the procedure of discipline.
Students were supposed to be allowed only two weeks grace at the
beginning of the term to settle with the Treasurer. Absences from
literary or religious exercises must be excused by some member of
the faculty, and previous permission must be secured for leaving
town. Library hours and fines for books over-due and payments for
books damaged were provided. There were only a few rules dealing
with matters of deportment in the restricted sense. The
traditional prohibition against using firearms or burning
gunpowder reappeared. The drinking of intoxicating beverages and
the use of tobacco in any way continued, of course, to be listed
among the taboos. The rule against gambling and "games of chance"
was made more specific, the latter being explicitly defined as
"cards, checkers, chess, or any other game of chance or skill." It
was definitely ordered that, "No student shall travel on the
Sabbath." (The trustees had formally resolved at a meeting in July
of 1836 that "journeying on the Sabbath" was "an infraction of the
Moral Law.") Also, students must not visit those of the other sex
in their rooms, and the marriage of a student would automatically
lead to his dismissal.
Revised codes were issued every few years,
but not many important changes were made in them. Provisions with
regard to the hours of "athletic exercises and sport" were added
in 1847. In the same revision there appeared for the first time
the "peculiar" Oberlin rule against secret societies. "No
student," it runs, "is permitted to join any secret society, or
military company." In Civil War days the "or military company" was
naturally dropped. The rules for manual labor were omitted after
1842. In 1853 and thereafter students were "prohibited from
unnecessarily frequenting groceries, taverns, and similar places
of public resort." In 1859 this was extended to include the
railroad stations. In 1867 the adjective "sedentary" was
introduced to describe the "games of chance" prohibited to Oberlin
students, thus somewhat liberalizing the literal meaning of this
regulation.
Of course, Oberlin's peculiar and chief
disciplinary problem grew out of the experiment in the "joint
education of the sexes." The basic Oberlin rule was that which
prohibited students from visiting those of the opposite sex in
their rooms. It appeared, as we have seen, in the "By-Laws of
1834" and in more elaborate detail in the printed laws of 1840 and
later. On March 4, 1836, the faculty resolved to "recommend to the
Board of Trustees to pass a law prohibiting students from forming
the marriage connection while members of the Institution." Five
days later the trustees ratified this action (though just why it
needed their ratification is not clear) and it has remained a rule
of Oberlin Institute and College ever since. "Any student entering
into the marriage relation," read the first printed rules, "shall
be considered as permanently debarring himself from the privileges
of the Institution."
At least as early as 1852 it was found
desirable to issue a separate set of regulations for the young
ladies. In the general laws for all departments issued in the
following year "Young men are required, in all their associations
with ladies of the Institution to respect the regulations of the
Female Department, and are not allowed to protract a call so as to
interfere with study hours." The rules for ladies repeat some of
the rules and all of the preface of the general laws and
regulations. The rules against traveling on the Sabbath and
against visiting or receiving visits of those of the opposite sex
in private rooms are among the repetitions. Young ladies were
required to study from eight until twelve in the morning, from two
until five (four in the fall term) in the afternoon and after
seven-thirty in the evening (eight in the fall term). They were
required to remain in their rooms after the beginning of the
evening study hours, except when attending literary societies,
choir practice or evening religious services. All must retire at
ten o'clock. A formidable list of prohibitions were laid upon
these early "coeds." Their walking was especially restricted: They
were not allowed to walk in the streets for recreation on the
Sabbath. They were not allowed "to walk for recreation with
gentlemen" on any day of the week except by special permission.
Those who did not live with their parents could not even "walk in
the fields or woods without special permission from the
Principal." They must have special permission to go to the
railroad station. None could ride horseback at any time. Finally,
to make doubly sure that they never had an hour of unsupervised
freedom, it was provided that no young lady shall "leave her
boarding place for any length of time, excepting for her regular
exercises in the Institution, without previous consultation with
the matron of the family." After 1865 "Gentlemen and ladies" were
not supposed "to accompany each other to or from religious
meetings." This last regulation survived into the twentieth
century.
Disciplinary cases were tried before the
faculty in full session, or (in most cases when young ladies
solely were involved) before the Ladies' Board, a body made up of
the Lady Principal and several wives of professors. All students
were held to be on probation for the first six months of their
connection with the school and might be dismissed summarily at any
time during that period if any undesirable traits of character
appeared. At the end of this term the faculty voted those who had
sustained a good character and made satisfactory progress in their
studies into the full status of students in the institution. The
names of those thus formally received were read at evening
prayers. This practice was helpful in keeping down the percentage
of dismissals, for technically those dropped during probation
never had been members of the institution. The control of the
faculty over the conduct of students did not stop at the
termination of probation, but the procedure of trial and dismissal
became somewhat more elaborate.
Members of the teaching staff, special
monitors or students were supposed to report breaches of the
rules. The accused would be brought personally before the faculty
and grilled. Other students were required to testify at such a
hearing and were liable to expulsion themselves if they refused.
Often a committee would be appointed to investigate a particular
charge, "labor with" the accused, and report to a later meeting.
If found guilty, the culprit might be only privately admonished,
privately dismissed or expelled or, in the worst cases, publicly
dismissed or expelled. Public dismissal meant that the decision of
the faculty was announced at prayers before the full student
body.
It was truly hard, however, for the
Christian faculty to wash their hands of these souls, and even
after a student was dismissed some of them usually went again to
"labor with" him to make a confession and, perhaps, thereafter be
received again into the school. In 1841 three students were tried
for having "held a mock [revival] meeting in the woods"
where one of them "acted the part of an exhorter." They were found
guilty and it was ordered that two of them be "sent away, and that
the reason be stated publicly." All were readmitted, the prime
disturber "on the profession of repentance before God, having
publicly confessed his sin."
Confession would usually lead to
reinstatement though sometimes only to a mitigation of punishment.
"If he makes full confession," the professors provided in one
case, "he is to be privately dismissed, otherwise publicly." In
another case it was determined that a guilty student should "make
a public confession dictated by the Faculty and receive a public
admonition, and at the same time be advised privately to leave the
Institution, if he refuses to make this confession, that he be
publicly expelled." The confession drawn up by Professor Henry
Cowles and signed by the student in this case is still preserved,
as are a number of others.
The scene in chapel on the occasion of such
a public confession must have been impressive and singularly
reminiscent of old Puritan New England. The students and faculty
members being assembled, there was a strained silence and every
eye was turned toward the culprit who walked slowly with bowed
head to the front of the room and, in a faltering voice, read his
statement:
"I, W------ W------ , do hereby confess
before the Faculty and students of this Institution that I have
rashly transgressed one of its most sacred laws by entering the
apartment of a young lady not only without permission but after
permission had been twice refused me. Though my conduct in this
matter may admit of a slight extenuation in the fact that the
young lady was confined by sickness, yet it has no apology; and I
do now confess that the act was precipitate, unjustifiable, &
adapted to break down the wholesome & needful regulations of
the Institute, and bring disgrace upon its character before the
public. For this offence I ask forgiveness of my fellow students,
of the Faculty, and of my God; I solemnly promise hereafter to
yield implicit obedience to the laws of the institution and study
in all things to promote its honor and welfare."
We are unfortunately left in the dark as to
the nature of the admonition but it certainly was pious and, must
have been, under the circumstances, terrible--something like John
Wilson's excommunication of Anne Hutchinson two hundred years
before. Despite the implication of the last sentence this young
man was not readmitted.
Dismissal, especially under such
circumstances, was a bitter thing for the students and their
parents to swallow. A dismissed student, who seems not to have
profited much more intellectually than morally by his attendance,
agonized as follows in a letter to the treasurer in 1849: "0, I
would give this World . . . if I had never met with Such
Misfortune . . . I want you Gents in the Name of God to reseve me
back and Try me, and See if I dont Due right." "I have basely
neglected the high privileges you have extended to me," wrote
another. "With fools I have prostituted myself at the shrine of
vanity. I have madly squandered immortal treasure . . . I wish to
come back like the prodigal. I will be a servant. I will live for
the good of the whole world. I will improve the benefits you
afford me. As I love the course of truth I will love the interest
of this Inst. I do not wish to have you decide that I am worthy to
be received .... I am unworthy. Let me have the crumbs that fall
from your table. I do not know of another lnst. so well adopted to
my circumstances .... I ask to be restored to the privileges I
have again & again forfeited."
Parents were variously affected. Some were
merely disappointed in their children; some were irate. "Your very
kind letter was duly received, communicating very painfull
intelligence of the conduct of my Son," wrote one father in 1848.
"I am under many obligations for the kind and frank manner you
have manifested for my Sons and his parents interest. Permit me
dear Sir to apologize for his rudeness. I am sure when he reflects
[upon] his position [he] will regret his conduct,
as much as I can do, and I assure you I have had many troubles and
disappointments in my life, this one is more severe than any that
has happened to me or my family." A less well educated parent was
equally depressed under similar circumstances: "Dear Brother in
Christ," he wrote to Secretary Burnell. "I must tell you that I
right this line with great pain in hart [to] think that
Nathanil conducts himself so that he have to leve the school."
Some, it was to be expected, took the part of their children. A
mother objected to the expulsion of her son because it was her
impression "that it was the invariable practice of all Colleges to
reprimand twice--and the third time for the same offence expel." A
father expressed himself as "Much disappointed in the course of
the faculty." They "injured me in a most injust manner," he
declared, "in the expulsion of my Son without cause . . . and that
without giving me the least intimation of what [they] was
about to do."
Besides being dismissed from college,
students guilty of gross misconduct might, if, as was often the
case, they were members of the church, be tried before their
fellow members and excommunicated. Delazon Smith, who led the
atheist group of students in the late thirties, was never formally
expelled but his excommunication from the church amounted to the
same thing. A college freshman was called before the church to
answer charges of "irregularities as a student, leaving town
without permission etc .... intercourse with females of
questionable reputation . . . night carousals and improper
company." In the very same month a church committee found two
preparatory students guilty of an immoral relationship.
Outside of those arising from the close
relation of students of the two sexes disciplinary cases were
generally of a decidedly petty nature from the point of view of
the twentieth century. They were petty also as compared to the
misdemeanors dealt with in contemporary colleges like the
University of Georgia, where students stabbed each other, staged
wholesale riots and assaulted members of the faculty. Perhaps the
presence of students of the gentler sex accounted for this also.
Punishments were meted out, however, for petty thefts, for lying,
for breaking the Sabbath, for profane swearing and blasphemy, for
card-playing, for fighting, for indulgence in tobacco, for
absences from exercises, and for visits out of town without
permission.
One of the earliest cases was that of a
young lady student charged with petty pilfering. Others were found
guilty of "stealing from fellow students," "deliberate lying in
numerous instances," and "stealing sundry articles from citizens
and students." In 1861 a young woman from Cincinnati was "charged
with theft, falsehood, and general unwillingness to submit to the
authority of the Principal." She confessed and was allowed to
remain, on condition that she restore the stolen articles and
"make an acknowledgment of her guilt before the ladies of the
Boarding Hall." Two years later "a colored girl from Indiana" was
"found guilty of lying & forgery," and summarily
dismissed.
Blasphemy, breaking the Sabbath and general
impiety were not likely to be tolerated in pious Oberlin. One
young man was expelled for "irreverent & blasphemous
expressions with regard to the deity & for gross insolence of
[to] the Faculty." Another was publicly dismissed on being
convicted "of profanity, mockery of religion, blasphemy,
prevarication, neglect of study & concealing those guilty of
other crimes." A young fellow who came from Elyria to Oberlin on
the Sabbath because he had no money to pay for his keep in the
former town was "admonished and required to make a public
confession." Antoinette Brown believed that some who were expelled
for other reasons nominally, were thus harshly dealt with in
reality because they were not Christians.
Though the rules required students to
abstain from the use of tobacco the faculty was evidently not
prepared to punish those who occasionally indulged. They did,
however, appoint a committee "to inquire into the facts relative
to the use of tobacco in the institution," on another occasion
requested President Mahan "to make a communication to the students
on the use of Tobacco," and, again, ordered the monitors in Tappan
Hall and other dormitories to "take cognizance of any use of
tobacco which comes within their knowledge." When students were
reported to be in the habit of using tobacco, faculty committees
were appointed to "converse with" them. No records survive of any
instance when the use of the "filthy weed" was the sole cause of
discipline. Probably the pressure of public opinion was ordinarily
sufficient to enforce the prohibition against it.
There were a few instances of physical
encounters being punished--evidently in no case anything
particularly desperate. In 1835 two roommates "had a contention
between themselves which was proved to have been a most
unchristian affair." In the mid-forties two young men were
admonished publicly "for engaging in angry contention and
blows."
The want of faculty minutes for the period
from 1846 to 1866 renders our picture of discipline necessarily
incomplete. Certainly many other kinds of misdemeanors must have
been dealt with. There are isolated instances in the existing
records. One student was expelled for setting fire to the
outbuildings. Another was dismissed for "having in his possession
a Pack of Gamesters Cards." It was rumored that a young lady was
dropped "in consequence of her wearing Corsets."
Absences from classes and other exercises
and unauthorized journeys out of town required some attention. On
one occasion a special committee was appointed to "labor with" a
student "for absenting himself from recitation." Similar cases
among the young ladies were usually dealt with by the Ladies'
Board. One young lady was threatened with suspension because she
had "taken a trip to Toledo with a bridal party" without
permission. Two others were, on another occasion, reprimanded for
"protracting their vacation two or three days after the close of
the regular vacation." In 1840 seven young men who attended a
circus in Elyria without permission were summarily dismissed,
despite the fact that some of them had permission to go out of
town.
Since the Middle Ages students in many
institutions were required to put their money in the hands of
tutors. The Oberlin faculty recommended that parents and guardians
of minor students at Oberlin "secure the services of someone of
the teachers in the Institution," to whom their funds might be
committed. The necessity of drafting "a rule respecting
trafficking with and by such students as are minors" was
discussed. Some parents were glad to have the teaching or
administrative staff check up on their children's finances. "I
wish my son to be very prudent & careful in making bills,"
wrote one father to the principal of the Prep Department. "I
intend to pay all charges against me, if they be any way
reasonable." "What is William doing now?" another anxious parent
inquired of the Secretary of the Institute. "He never writes me
excepting he wants money and he is then very brief .... Will you
please say (in confidence) what his general course has been for
the last year--and what his standing is as a scholar and a
Christian? Also in what state that debt for the Buggy & Horses
is, and whether you know him to be much in debt." Of course, this
paternal supervision was probably necessary in the case of many
younger preparatory students.
The responsible head of the Female
Department was the Lady Principal, and upon her devolved some of
the most difficult problems of administration and discipline. The
first woman to assume these duties was Mrs. Eliza C. Stewart, the
wife of P. P. Stewart. She was not only matron of the boarding
hall and in charge of domestic labor, but also did the work of a
principal of the Female Department, though she never had the
title. She served over a year from the spring of 1834 to the late
summer of 1835. Then she was succeeded by Mrs. Marianne Parker
Dascomb, wife of Professor James Dascomb. Mrs. Dascomb had studied
under Zilpah Grant and Mary Lyon at Ipswich Female Seminary,
Ipswich, Massachusetts, and was, in the opinion of her charges,
"well fitted in heart, mind and manners for the responsible
station." She also served about a year, retiring to give way to
Alice Welch Cowles in the following summer.
Mrs. Cowles was the wife of Professor Henry
Cowles and a woman of more than ordinary attainment and piety. She
was a close friend and relative of Zilpah Grant with whom, and
Mary Lyon, she studied in Joseph Emerson's school at Byfield. Mrs.
Cowles was an enthusiastic moral reformer, an active leader in
that movement. She resigned in 1839 on account of ill-health, the
beginning of the tubercular attacks which were eventually to cause
her death.
In 1837 there had been some talk of
securing Angelina Grimke to assist Mrs. Cowles. "Mrs. Cowles is
good, uncommonly good; fills her place admirably, I know of no one
that would do better," wrote Mrs. Mahan (the wife of the
President) to Theodore Weld. "But as she must have assistance,
would it not be for the interest of our Institution to have Mrs.
[sic] Grimkd here?" Nothing ever came of the proposal. In
1840 considerable pressure was exerted to secure Sarah Towne
Smith, the "editress" of the Advocate of Moral Reform, as Mrs.
Cowles' successor. Miss Smith considered the proposal seriously,
but finally turned it down. In 1839 Mary Ann Adams, a young
Oberlin graduate, became Assistant Principal of the Ladies'
Department and, in fact, Acting Principal. In 1842 she was made
Principal, holding the position until 1849. Though she is
described by one student as "the prettiest and sweetest young lady
here," she was generally quite unpopular and considered
unnecessarily strict. In the late forties she lost the confidence
of her associates on the Ladies' Board with the exception of
President Mahan's wife. She was requested to resign in
1849.
The search for "someone better fitted to
mould & influence the numerous pupils coming under her
direction" was not, however, an easy one. Mrs. Emily Pillsbury
Burke was appointed Principal in the summer of 1849. She had had
some experience in a seminary in Georgia, and seems to have been
very popular at first with teachers, townsmen, and students. Her
popularity increased in the following winter when she made a great
effort to renovate and repair the Ladies' Hall. Her downfall came
suddenly and soon. She was so unwise as to kiss one of the male
students. He reported it to the Ladies' Board! Despite the
petitions of half the students and population, she was dismissed.
Mrs. Mary Sumner Hopkins served from 1850 to 1852. She finally
resigned when the trustees overruled her decision on the admission
of a young lady student. The trustees retracted their decision,
but evidently to no purpose.
In 1852 Marianne Dascomb was recalled and
served for the next eighteen years. Mrs. Dascomb was a pious
product of the pious Ipswich school. We, today, would consider her
extremely "strait-laced," but her Irish wit seems to have saved
her from unpopularity. She completely identified herself with the
College; she was to the Female Department what Finney was to the
College in general and Keep to the Board of Trustees. "Mrs.
Dascomb, the principal just came in to invite me to a meeting," a
young lady recently admitted to the college wrote her mother in
1852, "she is the lady I wrote to, and we all love her." She
resigned in 1858, but was persuaded to reconsider by the
insistence of the students and the trustees. She continued as
Principal until 1870 and served on the Ladies' Board until her
death in 1879.
The Principal and Ladies' Board were by no
means entirely dependent on negation. "Moral suasion" was supposed
to be a major factor in student government in Oberlin. Often new
regulations were submitted to the young ladies for comment and
acceptance before being promulgated. The Principal was, in the
earlier years, aided by some of the older and "more advanced young
ladies" who acted as assistants. Students were urged to correct
each others faults in a kindly and sympathetic manner. At first
the young ladies were gathered together to report to the Principal
every afternoon. In later years they were required to attend
"General Exercises" every Tuesday. At these exercises all must
report their own "failures" (infringements of the rules). A record
of such infringements was read before the faculty and Ladies'
Board at the end of the term. "General Exercises" also furnished
the occasion for lectures to the lady students by the Principal on
morals, manners, religion and hygiene. A committee of young ladies
wrote to the financial agents in England in 1839:
"We have also each week a lecture from our
beloved principal in which she embodies much important
instruction. She holds up before us the great laws of life &
health, teaches us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made and
not guiltless if we trample upon these laws. Again we listen to
her kind voice pointing out some defect in character, habits,
manners &c and the remedy suggested. But the center around
which all her feelings circle is the cross of Jesus, and here she
leads her young charges. And to sit where Mary did is held up as
of more importance than any other attainment."
Mrs. Cowles gave her charges all sorts of
advice: "Be accurate in everything," "Be scrupulously honest in
very little things," "Cultivate a cheerful countenance," "Make
short calls," "Never wear dark skirts under light skirts or
dresses," "Never wear dress and cape of different colors." She
gave talks on "Benevolence," on "Learning," on "Marriage," on
"Politeness," on "Conversation" and on "Woman's Duties." She
discussed "Elevation of Character," "A Complete Finish," "Personal
Cleanliness," important qualities for a minister's wife, and
"Rules for gaining knowledge and improvement." In her talk on
cleanliness she advised a general bath frequently.
As rules for conversation she suggested the
following, among others:
"Never attempt to speak when you
have nothing to say.
Never slander.
Never attempt to shine.
Avoid egotism, boasting, indelicacy,
etc.
Learn the meaning of words and phrases
in common use among good speakers and writers.
Use clean and chaste language.
Learn to listen to others."
There are college students of both sexes in
the present century who ought to be offered some such advice. She
also presented certain pertinent aids to "gaining
knowledge":
"Learn your own ignorance.
Investigate thoroughly.
Guard against dogmatism.
Learn to retract willingly.
Never trifle with sacred things.
Indulge not in ridicule.
Be humble."
Of course, she gave many talks on the
relations between the sexes. "The connection between the caress,
the pressure of the hand, lounging on each others shoulders &
laps, and the increase of the human species is exceedingly
intimate," she told them. "If young ladies knew how intimate they
would not laugh and say it was old-maidish and old-womanish to
disapprove of these things." She found the moral reform movement a
helpful auxiliary in maintaining chaste and decent relations
between students of the opposite sexes.
Sometimes similar talks were given to men,
but they were not regular. In 1838 Professor Henry Cowles gave
some wholesome advice that sounds as if it may have been
influenced by his wife's ideas. He made "a few remarks on
punctuality" and cautioned them "with respect to singing and
praying loud" in their rooms. He also listed the main requisites
for successful study--four in all. The first requisite he declared
to be "a heart at peace with God"; the second, the avoidance of
"excitement of every kind"' third, "the absence of all corroding
care"; and finally, "a wise and careful control of the youthful
feelings and affections." Undue "anxiety with respect to future
connection" and long engagements he believed to be especially
hurtful. Some betrothed couples, he believed, should stop school
and get married, even though this might mean "farewell to their
high hopes of usefulness and farewell to the presence of
Christ."
The enforcement of the rules of the Female
Department and the punishment of delinquencies of all sorts among
the female students was left to the Ladies' Board under the
chairmanship of the departmental Principal. "The Female Board of
Managers in the Oberlin Collegiate Institute" was established by
vote of the trustees early in 1836 "with power to regulate and
control the internal affairs of the female department of this
institute." Though created by the trustees it seems generally to
have been looked upon as subordinate to the faculty, who committed
special powers to it, such as the right to admit and exclude young
ladies applying for membership in the school, and sometimes, as in
1840, ordered it "to institute inquiries relative to the character
and promise of the young ladies of the Institution." This board
was made up of the wives of faculty members, who left their
babies, their bread, and their dusting to pass upon the moral
character of young women of the student body. "I have but just 10
minutes in which to write, as I have a meeting of the Ladies'
Board to attend this afternoon, besides various household duties
to perform." So wrote the second Mrs. Henry Cowles to her
step-daughter in 1849. "My cares have never been greater I think
than at present, but I have strength equal to my day," she added.
"I think, however, that I was not quite wise in attempting to take
care of a family of seventeen [!] without the aid of a
hired girl." One must always think of these administrative and
disciplinary officers as stealing a moment only amidst other
pressing and often burdensome duties.
The Ladies' Board not only considered cases
of improper conduct but propounded supplementary regulations when
they seemed to be called for. In 1852 they ruled that young ladies
who wished to visit the cupola of Tappan Hall to enjoy the view
must obtain permission from Mrs. Dascomb. A little later in the
same year the Prudential Committee aided in handling this
particular problem by having "a lock & key put upon the door
leading to the cupola upon Tappan Hall & that sd key be kept
at [the Treasurer's] office."
The ladies were called upon to deal with
all sorts of petty disciplinary cases. In the early fifties five
young colored ladies were tried on the charge of "general
inattention to their studies, great laxness in observance of the
rules of the department and disrespectful treatment of their
teachers." The Board prayed with them and put them on special
probation for three months. Later in the same summer a
sub-committee was appointed to decide on the case of a young lady
who had "been impudent to her teachers & very troublesome to
her classmates by the various little tricks which she practiced
upon them." The supervising ladies, at another time, took
cognizance of certain female students who "had been seen standing
on the fence near the public highway" and "sitting on the steps
[of their boarding place] in an unbecoming manner." Young
ladies whose behavior at public meetings was not exemplary were
liable to receive attention. One young lady was convicted "of
having studied her lessons at the Thursday lecture," and two
others "admitted the charge of improper conduct in whispering
& writing during the sermon" but were given a second
chance.
The rule that young ladies must be in their
rooms by eight o'clock or half past seven in winter was one of
those most often violated, therefore it was a rule which the Board
enforced jealously and zealously." When the ladies studying
"Geography of the Heavens" asked "the privilege of being out to
study the constellations after eight o'clock in the evening" it
was decided that they might be out in the yards of their boarding
houses until ten, if the teacher considered it essential. When,
however, a certain Miss White requested permission to spend one
evening a week at Mrs. Finney's practicing singing in preparation
for a literary society anniversary, the ladies of the Board,
though they "regretted much to disoblige Mrs. Finney . . . decided
not best to grant the request." Every now and then a young lady
who had stayed out after hours was hailed before the female court
of justice charged with: "keeping late hours with gentlemen,"
"prolonging her visits with gentlemen much beyond the usual hour,
& . . . at least in two instances [having] been out to
walk with gentlemen after nine o'clock," being "out on a pleasure
ride and detained beyond the usual study hour at eve," or even
"violating the rules of the school in remaining in company with a
gentleman till after ten o'clock." Necessary as it undoubtedly was
to maintain this rule during the experimental stage of "joint
education," it is not surprising that it was unpopular. It seemed
to these "pre-historic coeds" that the rules for men and women
ought to be the same. In 1861 one of the young ladies' literary
societies debated the issue: "Resolved that the young gentlemen of
the Inst. ought to be subject to the eight o'clock rule." The
affirmative must certainly have won an easy victory.
The question of the relation of the sexes
in the institution was the most serious and peculiar of all the
disciplinary problems. Girls were sometimes dismissed by the
Ladies' Board "for unwise & improper intimacy with several
lads" and the faculty occasionally disciplined some male student
for "spending too much time with the young ladies." Most such
cases were handled by the faculty as involving male students and
being of a particularly serious nature. It was the faculty which
authorized Professor Cowles to write to a certain probationer in
1842:
"Dear Brother: It is made my duty by the
Faculty to appraise you that you cannot be received into our
Institution, and that in our judgment it is desirable for you to
leave the place as soon as it can conveniently be done .... Bro.
Sterry and Mr. Graham satisfy us most fully that your habits of
associating with young ladies are not such as will sustain the
character of this Institution or the honor of the Christian name.
We have good reason to fear the presence of young men whose
conduct indicates an unchaste mind. They may do less mischief
elsewhere--here their example & influence cannot fail to be
most pernicious!
"We shall be happy to avoid a public
investigation and expose of the matter above referred to. We think
the best course for yourself & for the Institution is for you
to withdraw silently & immediately ....
"In behalf of the Faculty
Henry Cowles"
Great emphasis was placed upon the rule
prohibiting students from visiting those of the opposite sex in
their rooms. On the successful enforcement of this rule the whole
experiment of joint education of the sexes must stand or fall. It
was by far the most important of all rules in Oberlin and it was
enforced with the greatest strictness--at least after the first
two or three years. In 1836 a student was dismissed because he had
"broken one of the fundamental laws of the institution, which is,
that no male student shall go into the chamber of the young ladies
on any occasion, without a special permission from the principal
of that department." After this case was settled it was voted that
any male student visiting a female student in her room should be
punished by expulsion.
Probably the most famous disciplinary case
in the history of early Oberlin was that of two college
sophomores, Walter Smith and Jonathan E. Ingersoll, who visited a
young lady student while the latter was lying ill in her room. The
young men had carried a trunk to the floor where she was lying
sick and were told by young lady students who were nursing her
that they might go in. But the law was the law, and the faculty,
after seven meetings on the question, expelled them. "It proved a
tremendous excitement .... " wrote a coed to her family. "The
students, all or nearly so petitioned the Faculty to permit them
to return . . . No one thought they had any immoral motive in view
but it was a thoughtless thing, they did not think of the
consequences. We expect it will produce quite an excitement
abroad. Please write in your next if you have heard the report."
The students were re-admitted.
The furore created is certainly not
exaggerated in this letter. The petitions from the students are
still preserved: one signed unanimously by the twenty-five
seniors, one subscribed to by seventeen juniors, one signed by
twenty-four sophomore classmates, another by a majority of the
theological students, and a fifth by their fellow boarders. The
students were sufficiently respectful and subservient in their
approach to the august faculty, but insistent nevertheless. "We
recognize the Law violated," agreed the sophomore, "and also its
penalty, to be just. We fully acknowledge the propriety of the
proceedings of the faculty in inflicting this penalty upon those
of our number who had violated this Law. But considering the
general character of the individuals expelled, that their usual
conduct has hitherto been irreproachable, and remembering that the
individuals have already suffered much for their offence, and
remembering that the impression is fully made upon the minds of
the Students generally, that this Law cannot be violated with
impunity, we cannot but indulge the hope that a consideration of
all the circumstances in the case will lead you Honorable Body to
decide, that these individuals may again be restored to our
number, and the object contemplated by the violated Law
secured."
It is not doubted that the punishment had
been sufficient and that Oberlin students and the public generally
had been impressed by the fact that improper intimacies would not
be permitted among Oberlin students.
CHAPTER
XLII
THE COLLEGIATE
DEPARTMENT
MAHAN and Charles G. Finney, the two
Presidents, were the dominant leaders and most popular teachers.
But Henry Cowles, John Morgan and James Dascomb were the wheel
horses, patient, hard working, discreet, well balanced, highly
esteemed and respected and possessed of sound judgment. It was
they who gave solid stability to College and community and offset
the heat and freaks of Mahan and Finney. These five together gave
Oberlin over a hundred and seventy years of loyal service, an
average of thirty-four years apiece. These five men were the
guardians of the inner temple, who kept the fire burning at
Oberlin through stressful years and, in the meantime, trained
others to take their places when their watch should be
up.
Asa Mahan was, all agree, an aggressive and
effective speaker, a stimulating teacher who stirred his pupils in
College and in the Theological Course to a high pitch of
enthusiasm for the subjects which he taught. There were always
some, however, among the students as well as among the members of
the faculty, who resented his overbearing and intolerant manner
and his rash and dogmatic utterances. Finney did little teaching
in the Collegiate Department but his fiery sermons on the Sabbath
constituted the lodestone which drew many a student to Oberlin.
Though a man of "deep piety and boundless genius," he was probably
at no time so much attached to Oberlin and its interests as were
his associates. His long absences, running into months and years,
stirred repeated rumors of resignation, and kept the other members
of the faculty almost constantly on the "anxious seat." James
Dascomb, whose science classes included pupils from all the
departments but the theological, was an excellent teacher, deeply
immersed in his subject, though his achievements were sharply
limited by the lack of good laboratory facilities. Henry Cowles,
who first taught languages in the College and later
"Ecclesiastical History and Pastoral Theology" and the "Literature
of the Old Testament" in the Theological Department, was a
"studious, mild, careful, kind and lovely" man. He was however
generally a poor teacher and "not much as a preacher," his
greatest work being done as an author and as editor of the
Evangelist. The genial Irishman John Morgan was Professor of New
Testament Literature from 1835 to 1880, and the most influential
conservative in Oberlin. Mahan and Finney were the sails which
swept the ship along before the wind; Morgan was the sturdy anchor
which held it safe in dangerous shallow waters. Venerating Luther
and Calvin and the New England church fathers, he was, in theology
and other matters, cautious almost to the point of timidity,
always ready to compromise, to qualify, to limit and state more
exactly. Finney once said to him, "Unbelief is one of your
principles of interpretation." He was a thorough scholar but not a
particularly successful teacher except with a few of the brightest
and most studious who did not require the sparkling presentation
which he could not give. Finney never attended college. Mahan
graduated from Hamilton College and Andover Theological Seminary,
Henry Cowles from Yale, Dr. Dascomb from the Dartmouth Medical
School, and John Morgan from Williams.
The second generation of Oberlin professors
were all Oberlin trained, thoroughly steeped in the spirit and
purpose of Oberlin. Two of them were Lane Rebels of the famous
Theological Class of 1836. James Armstrong Thome, the son of a
Kentucky slaveholder, converted to abolitionism by Theodore Weld,
was Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres from 1838 to 1848. He
was a friend of equality between the sexes as well as between
races. George Whipple stepped from the principalship of the
Preparatory Department in 1838 to the professorship of Mathematics
and Natural Philosophy. During many years he kept the minutes of
meetings of the faculty and served as a member of the Prudential
Committee. In 1847 he resigned to become secretary of the American
Missionary Association.
In 1840 a former student wrote to Levi
Burnell that he did not intend to return, "Because Oberlin has
deviated from the original intentions of its founders," "Because
you have an expelled sophomore student [T. J. Keep] for a
Principal of the preparatory department," and "Because you have a
sophomore student for a linguist." The last statement referred to
Timothy Hudson, who left Western Reserve in 1835, when in his
second year, to become Tutor in Latin at Oberlin, and Professor of
Latin and Greek from 1838 to 1841 and, after an interval as an
anti-slavery lecturer, again from 1847 to his death in 1858. He
did not receive his bachelor's degree at Oberlin until 1847,
though all agree that he was a man of high attainments in his
chosen field of ancient languages. He was remembered in Oberlin as
intellectual rather than pious, but as a stern exponent of
morality, a "specimen of the ancient Puritan of the type of MiIton
and Vane." (He had been one of the "lynchers" of Norton in 1840.)
It was a great shock to Oberlin when he was killed on the railroad
at North Olmsted in 1858.
William Cochran was a student at Oberlin
from 1835 to 1842, a tutor from 1839 to 1842, and Professor of
Logic and Associate Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy
from 1842 to 1846. His colleague, James Monroe, wrote of him:
"Prof. Cochran was a most successful teacher. Many will remember
forever the vivid and indelible impressions which his accuracy,
his thoroughness, and his tireless vivacity made on their minds.
He had the rare power of making the dryest formulas of logic
interesting, and inspiring his class with constant enthusiasm." He
was associated with President Mahan in the development of the
Oberlin theology and in the editorship of the Oberlin Quarterly
Review. In interests, in ability, in character and temperament
there was much in common between him and the President. He died in
1847 at the age of thirty-three shortly after resigning his post
on the faculty. Unlike Hudson, he was one of those most zealous
for the saving of the students' souls.
James Monroe was politician, financial
agent and professor rolled in one. He succeeded Thome as Professor
of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in 1849, serving in that capacity
until 1862. Already in 1847, when he was still a tutor, Professor
Morgan described him as "a fine scholar and one of the most
splendid orators I ever heard speak" and "as pure and noble as his
talents are extraordinary." James Harris Fairchild-- "altogether a
noble man, of a sound head, an equally sound heart, accurate
scholarship, too much modesty for so much merit"--came to Oberlin
as a student in 1835 and finished his course in 1841. From 1839 to
1842 he was a tutor; from 1842 to 1847 he took Hudson's place as
Professor of Latin and Greek; then for twelve years he was
Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, becoming
Associate Professor of Theology and Moral Philosophy in 1859.
George Nelson Allen, a pious, hard-working, sensitive soul, was
also an all-round handy man. Coming from Western Reserve in 1835,
like Timothy Hudson, he served at various times as Professor of
Music, Principal of the Preparatory Department, Professor of
Geology and Natural History and Secretary and
Treasurer.
Four of the youngest were Charles H.
Penfield, Henry Everard Peck, John M. Ellis and Charles Henry
Churchill. Penfield, a stepson of Henry Cowles, graduated from the
College in 1847. He taught Latin and Greek with moderate success
from 1848 to 1870 when he resigned to take a position in the
Central High School at Cleveland. Henry Peck, son of Everard Peck
of Rochester, studied at the Oneida Institute and then graduated
at Bowdoin. He graduated from the Theological Course at Oberlin in
1845. He was Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Mental and Moral
Philosophy from 1851 to 1865. A radical and something of an
eccentric, he was not always in perfect agreement with the more
conservative members of the faculty. As a thorough abolitionist,
he teamed up well with Professors James Monroe and John M. Ellis.
He died in Haiti in 1867 where he had been serving as Minister
from the United States since the close of the War. His chief claim
to fame was his part in the "Rescue Case."
John Millott Ellis, a graduate in the Class
of 1851 with General J. D. Cox, Professor J. A. R. Rogers of
Berea, Charles G. Finney, Jr., and L. F. Parker of the University
of Iowa, recaptured the spirit of the founders perhaps more
completely than did any of the other younger men. A moral
exemplar, he was deeply pious; Oberlin granted to him her first
D.D. He was popular as a teacher, respected as a leader in the
community (Mayor of the village in 1861-62 and chairman of the
volunteer committee throughout the war), active in the Musical
Union, and deferred to by older heads in the Prudential Committee
for his business acumen. Like James Fairchild and Churchill,
however, his greatest work was done in the post-war period.
Charles Henry Churchill was a native of Vermont and a graduate of
Dartmouth in the Class of 1845. After teaching for a while in
Cleveland he came to Oberlin to study theology, completing his
course in 1853. For five years he taught Latin and Music at
Hillsdale College in Michigan. In 1858 he came back to Oberlin as
Professor of Mathematics (including Astronomy and Physics). He was
always interested in music, having played the organ in chapel
during his last year at Dartmouth. In Oberlin he ranked next to
Allen as a teacher of music and leader in the Musical Union. He
was always a popular teacher, particularly of the scientific
subjects.
College students often objected to the use
of recent graduates and even undergraduates in college classes. It
was their feeling that these youngsters assumed too grand a manner
and lorded it over them with unnecessary dignity. The use of
theological students and even collegiate undergraduates to teach
elementary college classes was a common, but certainly
unfortunate, practice. In 1844-45 fifty dollars was expended for
the hiring of student teachers in the Collegiate Department. In
1840 an undergraduate declared that one of the chief faults of the
institution was the practice of the professors "of leaving their
classes in the charge of senior students." In 1851 Charles C.
Starbuck, a college senior, received twenty-five cents a
recitation for teaching freshman Greek for thirty-two recitations.
In 1864 a student in the Theological Department was paid fifty
cents an hour for teaching freshmen.
The sole justification of such a practice
was to be found, of course, in the tremendously heavy teaching
schedule of the regular instructors. In 1849 John Morgan wrote to
Mark Hopkins that for his "meagre and ill paid salary" he was
required to take charge of five classes daily. When James H.
Fairchild was a senior in the Theological Course but also already
a tutor in the College he wrote to his fiancee, describing a
typical day with a young Oberlin student-teacher:
"Let me tell you how I have spent the day.
Commencing with 6 o'clock A.M. The first half hour I officiated at
the morning devotions in the chapel. The next half hour at
breakfast. From 7 to 8 I was engaged in preparing two lessons in
Hebrew. From 9 to 10 listened to a lecture from Professor Cowles
on Church History. From 10 to 11 heard a lecture from Prof. Morgan
on the 'Epistle to the Hebrews'; from 11 to 12 is my hour for
manual labor; from 12 to 1 I was occupied with dinner and a bit of
Theological discussion with Samuel Cochran, Professor Hudson and
some other young men who board at our house; from 1 to 2 heard the
senior college class in Hebrew; from 2 to 3 spent in my room,
studied a little; from 3 to 4 spent in our little singing circle;
from 4 to 6 (nearly) at the Thursday lecture of President Mahan;
from 6 to 7 at supper and playing with George Thompson, who makes
sport for us all; from 7 to now in the Faculty meeting which
occurs every Thursday evening. So the day is finished
....
"Here are fifteen compositions which must
be criticized before next Monday. Some of them are quite
long."
Recitations, chapel, "Thursday Lecture,"
faculty meeting, manual labor, papers to grade--it was a full day.
Many teachers found it necessary, in addition, to preach or engage
in other bread-winning activities in vacation and in term time in
order to make both ends meet financially. The teaching burden was
greatly increased by the sale of the endowment scholarships in the
50's. At the same time the advance in salaries lagged considerably
behind the rise in the cost of living. The Oberlin teaching staff
was kept together only by the repeated appeal "to the principle of
self-denial and self-sacrifice for a great object." This was one
reason why Oberlin graduates received all the new appointments;
men of equal ability from other institutions would not have stayed
on similar terms.
Besides the regular faculty and the student
teachers there were at least three visiting lecturers: Edward
Wade, Professor of Law from 1838 to 1848, Amasa Walker, Professor
of Political Economy and History, 1842-50, and James Barr Walker
"Lecturer on Harmony of Science and Revealed Religion," 1856-66.
Though these men gave only short courses of lectures, they were
not uninfluential among faculty and students. Both of the Walkers
were also members of the Board of Trustees. Wade and Amasa Walker
will be further dealt with in this chapter.
The standard American college curriculum of
the middle third of the nineteenth century consisted of liberal
doses of Greek, Latin and Mathematics in the freshman and
sophomore years (the classics predominating in both years but
Mathematics occupying more time in the second), courses in science
in the junior and senior years (Mathematics and Classics being
continued, but much less time being devoted to them), and Mental
and Moral Philosophy in the senior year. Rhetoric was usually
studied and practiced at least throughout the last three years.
Weak courses in Political Science, Political Economy, and History
were sometimes included, usually in the later years. Less often
there were classes (sometimes optional) in French. In general,
however, we may say that the first year was the year of Classics,
the second the year of Mathematics, the third the year of Science,
and the fourth the year of Philosophy.
Of course, all took the same subjects;
electives (or "optional courses") were almost unheard of, except
at Harvard where the parents or guardians of undergraduates might
choose between a certain few alternative courses. A writer in the
New Englander in 1851 even defined a college as "a collection of
students who from beginning to end pursue together an appointed
course of study."
In Oberlin's early years, as we have seen,
the Institute reduced considerably the amount of Greek and Latin
classics studied and substituted Hebrew, English Literature and
other subjects instead. Orthodox college teachers and scholars all
over the United States heaped opprobrium on Oberlin therefore, and
an unhappy dissension broke out within the ranks of teachers and
students. Gradually the amount and character of Latin and Greek
studied in the regular course was restored to something
approximating that required in other colleges, and Hebrew was
dropped.
The Oberlin freshman studied Cicero (De
Senectute and De Amicitia or in later years, Cicero's Epistles)
and Livy and, in the sixties, Latin Prose Composition. In Greek he
read the Acts of the Apostles and Xenophon's Cyropaedia, to which
was later added the Odyssey and Greek Prose Composition. Freshman
"Math" included Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry. First year men
(and women) of the Collegiate Course attended the lectures on
Physiology with students from the other departments.
The second year student read Cicero (De
0fficiis), Tacitus and Latin poetry. The poetry was Buchanan's
Psalms at first, but eventually became a course in Horace. The
Greek included Xenophon's Memorabilia and Aeschines and (or)
Demosthenes On the Crown. Courses in "Greek Tragedy" and "Greek
Composition" appear in the later years. Geometry and Trigonometry
were continued and Conic Sections begun. All sophomores were
protected against atheism and deism and prepared for conversion by
a course in the "Evidences of Christianity," in which the
classical work of William Paley was the text. An introductory
science course (Botany or Geology) prepared the student for the
emphasis on that field which came in the following
year.
In the early days "Cowper's Poems" and
General History (Alexander Fraser Tytler, Elements of General
History, Ancient and Modern) were studied throughout the freshman
and sophomore years. These courses were, however, dropped in order
to make way for classical studies and make the curriculum more
orthodox. All college students were required to attend a weekly
class in the English Bible and take part in extempore discussions
or declamatory exercises throughout their course.
The work in Latin and Greek seems to have
consisted mainly of drill in grammar and vocabulary and as a rule
students did not find it very stimulating. Just when blackboards
were introduced in Oberlin for use in classes in Mathematics is
not clear but they were certainly in use in the late fifties. A
college student of 1859 described an Algebra class in her
diary:
"This A. M. in Algebra had a sad time. Mr.
Parmenter asked me to do an example which I could not do and so
failed. Then he called on me for another example which I failed
on. And then after another lapse of time wished me to go to the
board and put on an example in elimination. I told him I could
not, he said he would help me and tell me what to do, and I was
obliged to go, but I can assure [you] I felt as though I
would rather be anywhere else. We got part way through the example
when the bell rung and we left it. I felt like a little fool upon
the board expressing my infant ignorance, before the whole class.
Well I mean never to do the like again."
The chief object of Mathematics was felt to
be the training in mental discipline, and efforts to make the
subject interesting or practical were, therefore, likely to be
frowned upon. The texts used at Oberlin were the standard ones of
the time: the Algebra by Professor Day of Yale, the Geometry
adapted from the French text by Prof. Charles Davies of West
Point, Bridge's Conic Sections, and later the various mathematical
texts by Prof. Elias Loomis, for some time of Western Reserve
College. Day's text was rather elementary but clear and logical
and well adapted for college use in this period when preparatory
work in Mathematics was so much neglected. Davies' books were well
arranged and not too difficult for the ordinary student. Loomis'
textbooks were written in a clear, simple style and well adapted
for class use. They were popular with the students because so
compact and because of the unusual emphasis placed upon practical
application rather than theory.
Against the comparatively drab background
of these courses the lectures in Anatomy and Physiology stood by
contrast as by far the most interesting and practical course of
the freshman and sophomore years. "We have lectures dayly on
Physiology & Anatomy from Proft. Dascomb," wrote a student in
1837. "An extremely interesting study, but no less interesting
than important. But alas! its importance is not realized by the
great mass of men. How many live from 10, 20, 50, 70 years &
know nothing at all about the house they inhabitI How many
diseases might be prevented if men only understood this science.
Proft. Dascomb estimates them at 9/10--truly appalling." The local
interest in "physiological reform" and Dascomb's unusual ability
as a teacher probably furnish the chief explanation of the
extraordinary popularity of this course.
The junior year was mainly devoted to
scientific studies: Natural Philosophy, Astronomy, Chemistry and
an advanced course in Anatomy and Physiology. No Mathematics and
little or no Latin was included. The study of Demosthenes and
Aeschines On the Crown was continued and the Epistles of the New
Testament were read in the original Greek. The third year
curriculum also included Whately's Logic and Rhetoric and
Stewart's or Mahan's Intellectual Philosophy.
James Dascomb, as Oberlin's scientist, was
the presiding genius of the junior year. Generally well-founded in
his field by his study under Dr. Mussey at Dartmouth, he kept up
with developments by reading scientific journals, engaging, in so
far as his duties as a teacher allowed, in practical
investigations and visiting courses at other institutions. Dascomb
taught the Chemistry. Natural Philosophy, now known as Physics,
was taught by the successive professors of Mathematics, none of
whom was a specialist in science.
The text in Natural Philosophy (Physics)
was the standard one by Denison Olmsted of Yale, which contained
chapters on the basic principles and laws of Physics and on
Projectiles and Gunnery, Machinery, Hydrostatics, Hydraulics,
Pneumatics, Atmosphere, Mechanical Agencies of Air and Steam,
Acoustics, Electricity, Magnetism, and Optics. Olmsted defined
natural Philosophy as "the science which treats of the laws of the
material world." An Oberlin student's notes contain a similar
definition: "What is natural philosophy? It is [the]
science which investigates the reasons of the various phenomena
which occur in the material world." In general the fundamental
principles presented by Olmsted would be recognized as valid
today, though in the field of electricity, of course, this is not
true. Olmsted is little beyond Benjamin Franklin and defines
electricity as a "peculiar fluid" the velocity of which is
apparently "instantaneous."
Students' notes on Natural Philosophy and
Chemistry contain much that is illuminating, although, in some
instances, they may be misquoting the lecturer: "What is meant by
Hydrostoticks? It is that branch of natural Philosophy which
explains the nature, gravity, pressure and motions of fluids.
Hydrolicks considers and explains particularly the law and
operations of fluids in motion whether comprehensible or
incomprehensible." "Chymistry," scribbled a student at the first
lecture in 1842-1843, "is science which investigates the
properties of all bodies and determines the laws by which its
action is regulated." The approximately fifty lectures in
Chemistry followed roughly the order of discussion used in J. L.
Comstock's Elements of Chemistry (which later supplanted Graham's
Chemistry as the textbook) from "Calorick" through fermentation.
The course was so brief, however, that not all topics were
covered. There appears to have been no mention of analytical
chemistry, for example. The emphasis on fermentation (two lectures
at the end of the course) may very likely have been associated
with Oberlin's position on temperance.
In both Natural Philosophy and Chemistry
the equipment and apparatus was entirely inadequate. But this was
the normal state of things even in the eastern colleges, and it
was never intended nor allowed that students should themselves do
experiments. In the winter of 1836-37 Dr. Dascomb went to New York
and New Haven where he heard lectures by Professor Silliman of
Yale, the "Father of College Chemistry Teaching," and secured some
apparatus and also plans for a laboratory building. The laboratory
was completed in 1838, a one story masonry building approximately
fifty by thirty feet, containing a lecture room copied after
Silliman's at Yale--with raised seats, arched ceiling, etc. In the
same year the Prudential Committee expressed their willingness
that the Doctor should expend $400.00 for further apparatus
provided he would personally take the field as financial agent and
raise the money. The equipment continued unsatisfactory and
incomplete throughout our period. As late as 1864 we find
Professor Churchill writing a pitiful note to the
Treasurer:
"Oberlin, July 29, 1864
"Treas. Hill,
Dear Bro.
If the College can afford one of these
little Hygrometers I wish very much you would purchase one for the
Philosoph. Department, price $3.50.
Truly yours,
C. H. Churchill."
Though the apparatus was poor and
inadequate and though the demonstration lecture method seems to
have been used exclusively, there were probably no more popular
courses than those in Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and
Physiology. The students always found the demonstrations
entertaining if not universally enlightening. "I've just come home
from Chemistry," wrote Elizabeth Maxwell to a friend in the early
forties. "We have had some beautiful experiments and a very
interesting Lecture. But had to run home in the rain as fast as we
could." It must have warmed the good Doctor's heart after over
thirty years of teaching at Oberlin to be singled out by his
students for special recognition. In 1865 the "Senior Class and
Fourth Year Ladies" expressed their appreciation of Professor
Dascomb's teaching by presenting to him an "elegant" and
"beautiful copy of Irving's Sketch Book, costing twenty
dollars."
As the keynote of the third year was
physical law, that of the final year was mental, moral, human, and
divine law. Neither Latin nor Mathematics was studied and there
was only one class in Greek. Hebrew was studied in the senior year
until that language dropped entirely out of the college curriculum
in the fifties. There was one course in Science, usually Geology.
All seniors were supposed to attend lectures on Law or Political
Economy, or "Social and Political Science." But the characteristic
studies of the fourth year were Butler's Analogy, Kames' Elements
of Criticism, Intellectual and Moral Philosophy and, for a time,
"Mahan On the Will."
Moral Philosophy was the mother of all of
these subjects. Except for the course in Greek, the entire fourth
year was devoted to it or to its offspring. Moral Philosophy, as
taught by Aristotle, was studied in the universities of Europe in
the Middle Ages. With very little change it was taken over by the
Scottish and English universities of later years and passed on to
Harvard, Yale, and Princeton in America. Other American colleges
copied it from them. Even in the eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries it included almost every topic under the sun: ethics,
religion, psychology, logic, aesthetics, politics, law, and
political economy. Excursions were even sometimes made by the
lecturer into the field of natural science.
During the first third of the century of
Oberlin's existence the course was beginning to disintegrate.
Separate courses in the social sciences were appearing, for
example, though social questions were still discussed in "Moral
Philosophy." In later years "Psychology" and "Philosophy" sloughed
off and left only the "Senior Bible" of the twentieth century. Two
things held the course together: the moral purpose which
characterized the treatment of all topics discussed and the
personality of President Mahan (the subject being everywhere,
almost invariably, taught by the head of the college).
Mahan's course in Mental and Moral
Philosophy at Oberlin, though fundamentally like similar courses
in other colleges, was exceptional in that the President was a
student of German Idealism. He acknowledged his debt to Cousin, to
Coleridge, and to Kant and the name of the last appears on many
pages of his printed lectures. His associates believed him most
indebted to Cousin. A contemporary reviewer wrote: "Mr. Mahan is
an ecclectic, being more decidedly a follower and imitator of
Cousin. His ecclecticism degenerates sometimes into the merely
aggressive, and he delights occasionally in strange and
incongruous combinations of Kant, Coleridge, Cousin and himself,
but showing here and there great vigor and acuteness, and very
considerable philosophical ability." It is a tribute to Mahan that
years after his departure "metaphysical investigations" should
still have been considered Oberlin's strongest point
scholastically. It is a greater tribute that he should have had as
a pupil a James Harris Fairchild who in turn should be the teacher
of a Henry Churchill King. At the time of Mahan's death in 1889
Fairchild wrote: "His work here as a teacher can never be
forgotten by his pupils, and the impulse which he gave to the
study of philosophy in the College is not yet exhausted." Nor was
it to be for many more years.
The study of this subject had a two-fold
object: the establishment of sound moral character and conversion
to Christianity. Something was done by way of preparing the
students' minds in the second and third years when Paley's
Evidences of Christianity and Whately's Logic were ordinarily
read. In the late thirties Cousin's Psychology, Stewart's Elements
of Intellectual Philosophy and "Leslie on Deism" were studied in
the third year. The inclusion of "Leslie on Deism" indicates
another aim of the study which was to combat the rationalism which
had so completely dominated thought in the late eighteenth
century. For a while The Elements of Moral Science by President
Wayland of Brown was used as a text, but this gave way to Mahan's
own writings, when published. Bishop Joseph Butler's Analogy of
Religion, Natural and Revealed was assigned throughout the period
and into the eighties. When its use was discontinued, an "Alumnus"
(probably an old one) wrote to the Oberlin Review protesting. It
was a "hard" book he admitted, but should be retained for this
reason if for no other--as a source of mental discipline. Besides,
he declared, "no other work can pretend to rival the Analogy, in
presenting the foundation arguments for both natural religion and
revelation. None of us are too secure in our religious belief.
Butler's argument appeals to the true basis of all belief, the
reason; and by convincing it, gives us a firm foundation on which
to build." Lord Kames' Elements of Criticism contains eight
hundred pages devoted to aesthetics and particularly to literary
criticism. Probably at Oberlin as elsewhere, however, it was used
as the springboard from which to dive into religious and moral
disquisitions.
Our best source on "Mental & Moral
Philosophy" as taught at Oberlin is, of course, the abstract of
Mahan's lectures printed in 1840. "Mental Philosophy," declared
the President, "is the science of mind." "Moral Philosophy . . .
is the science which defines the rules of moral conduct, and the
reason or ground of moral obligation, or the reasons why moral
agents are bound to act in conformity with such rules." Over a
hundred lectures were included dealing with such topics as: "Idea
of Right and Wrong," "Consciousness," "Sense," "Association,"
"Imagination and Fancy," "Reason" (several lectures), "The Soul,"
"God," "The Will," "Love," these all under Mental Philosophy, and
under Moral Philosophy: "Intentions," "Moral Obligation" (several
lectures), "Rewards and Punishments," "Government," "Prayer,"
"Temperance and Dress," "Contrasts," "Integrity of Character,"
"Duties arising as members of Civil Society." In such a course
naturally Mahan found many opportunities of instilling into his
pupils the peculiar Oberlin point of view. "The individual that
will stop his ear at the cry of the needy and perishing and lay
out the Lord's treasures of which he is the appointed steward, for
the gratification of vanity, or pride, or ambition, will, in the
great day of final reckoning, be regarded and treated as a
robber," he told them. Mahan, the moral reformer, denounced "dress
so arranged as to excite lust" and declared that seduction should
be made a crime punishable by death. As between man and wife he
believed, however, that ultimate authority always rested with the
husband. It was the duty of all citizens he said, "To regard the
law of right or the will of God as of supreme authority above all
human enactments." Here is the "Higher Law" ten years before the
Fugitive Slave Act was passed. Slavery, he described, as "the
perfection of tyranny." In his lectures before the seniors Mahan
trained himself and his hearers for those remarkable series of
debates on come-outerism and war. The chief link between the
Oberlin curriculum and the real world of reform societies and
fugitive slaves was through "Mental and Moral
Philosophy."
When Mahan resigned in 1850 Finney
succeeded him as President and as lecturer in this course. He was
absent so much, however, that it was eventually determined to
appoint an assistant to take his place in teaching Theology and
Moral Philosophy. James H. Fairchild was therefore "promoted" in
1859 from the professorship of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy
to be Associate Professor of Theology and Moral Philosophy.
Fairchild taught the latter subject for over thirty years,
carrying on the tradition of Mahan and making noteworthy
contributions of his own. In the very first year of this new work
he made a great impression on his students. "I have always
thought," wrote one of them in later years, "there was never
anything better." In 1869 Fairchild published these lectures as a
text-book, Moral Philosophy, or the Science of Obligation, later
revised and renamed Moral Science, or the Philosophy of
Obligation.
Geology, as then taught, fitted beautifully
into the scheme of studies of the senior year, for it amounted
essentially to another course in the evidences of religion. One of
the chief objects of this course was to show the students that the
facts of Geology and the story of Creation as given in Genesis
were in perfect agreement and that science generally supported
revealed religion. Professor George Nelson Allen, who taught
Geology in Oberlin from 1848 to 1871, explained that the word
"day" as used in the Mosaic narrative did not mean twenty-four
hours but merely a certain epoch of unknown length. He took up the
account of Creation in class, verse by verse, and analyzed it
"scientifically." It is significant that in his lectures to a
Bible Class ten years later Charles Penfield covered the same
subject in much the same way.
Illustrative material was felt to be
absolutely essential to proper instruction in Geology. Hence the
emphasis placed in all institutions upon the collection of
specimens in "cabinets." The students formed a "Natural History
Society" in 1839 and commenced collecting minerals, etc. The
cabinet thus begun was housed in Tappan Hall. It was evidently
small, however, and not very satisfactory for instructional
purposes. In 1846 the faculty decided that regular courses in
Geology should be introduced and George Allen, two years later,
began teaching the subject. Immediately he set to work collecting
more "rocks," shells, minerals, insects, etc. In 1849 the old
Music Hall was divided to furnish a place for exhibiting this
material. From time to time the trustees made special grants to
enable Allen to visit other cabinets and buy more specimens. In
the seventies the former Union School building was purchased and
renamed Cabinet Hall in honor of the collection which was then
moved into it. Undoubtedly some of the specimens now in the
possession of the College date back to this early period. At an
early date there were "field trips." A student wrote in 1859: "We
have been studying Geology this term which is a very interesting
study. Next Monday we are intending to take a trip to the lake and
thereabouts for the purpose of putting our knowledge in practical
use by making attacks upon Rocks & investigating the forces at
work in forming deposits. We have engaged teams to take the ladies
and all, a good time is anticipated."
The political and social sciences, as we
have seen, were just in the process of separating off from Moral
Philosophy. Political Economy (Economics) appeared first as an
independent study at Harvard in 1820, at Yale in 1824, at
Dartmouth in 1828 and at Princeton in 1830. Francis Wayland's
Elements of Political Economy, first published in 1837, was the
standard text, though the French economist Jean B. Say's earlier
work was also sometimes used. Courses in Political Science were
usually devoted to the study of international or American
constitutional law. One course in social science was included in
the curriculum for the final year throughout the early history of
Oberlin. It is not at all certain, however, that the course was
always actually given.
It seemed to be rather difficult to secure
a satisfactory man to give the lectures in this field. In 1835
James G. Birney, the famous anti-slavery leader, was elected
"Professor of Law, Oratory and Belles Lettres," but he did not
accept the appointment. A short time afterward the Hon. Zebulon R.
Shipherd, the father of the Founder, was approached, but also
declined. The next year, successive, unsuccessful efforts were
made to obtain the services of Alvan Stewart, another anti-slavery
lawyer, of Utica, New York, and of the Reverend Theodore Spencer.
(The reader will recognize all three as Finneyite lawyers from New
York.) At last, in 1838, Edward Wade of Cleveland, brother of
Congressman Ben Wade, accepted the position of Professor of Law.
But, though his name appears with the faculty in the three
succeeding catalogues, he never gave but one course of lectures at
Oberlin. The young men who attended cross-questioned him so
mercilessly that he concluded that his preparation was, for the
time at least, inadequate. In 1840 and again in 1850 efforts were
made to get Finney to lecture on the "Great Principles of Law."
"Law" was finally dropped from the curriculum in 1856, after
having actually been taught during only one term. Of course, these
lectures were never intended to train professional lawyers, but
merely to give the students a general knowledge of government and
to prepare them for Finney's legal theology.
In 1842 Amasa Walker became "Professor of
Political Economy and General History." Walker was a former
wholesale shoe merchant of Boston who had retired to his family
home at North Brookfield, Massachusetts, when only forty-one years
of age on account of ill health. Living on the moderate fortune
which he had accumulated he devoted himself to reform, politics
and the study of Political Economy. He was an advocate of the
immediate emancipation of the slaves, Elihu Burritt's first
lieutenant in the peace crusade, an active proponent of free
trade, a leading promoter of the Lyceum movement, a one-time
president of the Boston Temperance Society, and a friend to every
other reform. It was natural that he should be attracted to
Oberlin and that Oberlin should be attracted to him.
"He is a self-made man," wrote Mr. Finney
in December of 1841 when his appointment was being discussed. "Of
a very philosophical turn of mind. A pretty good English scholar.
Has read considerable Latin .... His views of political economy
are certainly unlike anything ever taught in any school so far as
I know. He maintains with us that true political economy must
consist in national and individual obedience to the law of God
.... He has been unable to attend meeting much for some time. He
regrets this much & so do I. I have told him that we do not
want him there unless he has the spirit of doing good and that
should he go without that spirit he will be very unhappy there as
well as useless. He knows fully what we expect of him if he goes
there. He calculates & wishes to conform to Oberlin habits of
living. To sell his furniture & get it made there, etc., etc.
His business talent is said to be peculiar. His piety will I trust
improve." On January 17, 1842, Walker wrote to Hamilton Hill
accepting the appointment to teach Political Economy but not
History. "Such are now the indications of Providence," he wrote,
"that I have concluded to accept the appointment and come to
Oberlin as soon as the weather & travelling will admit, which
I understand will be about the last of May or first of June ....
After having made a fair experiment, should it appear that I am
useful, and that I am clearly in the path of duty, and in a
station which I am qualified to fill, I trust that I shall unite
my heart and interests as fully with the dear Institution as those
who are now so devoted to its welfare."
Fortunately one set of notes taken by a
student on the forty-seven lectures delivered to the seniors and
theologs in 1842-43 is still preserved. Though very rough and
sketchy they give us a generally good idea of the character and
content of Political Economy, "the science of national wealth," as
taught by Walker that year. Twenty of these lectures were devoted
to banking and currency, showing the practical nature of the
presentation. Banking was a pertinent question in that period of
depression, and Walker, as a former Boston bank official, was
especially qualified to speak on the subject. Nine lectures were
devoted to the tariff. Six dealt with capital ("the accumulated
productions of labor which is employed in the production of
wealth") and labor ("any sort of action performed by man or beast
or machinery which produces wealth"). There were three lectures on
trade and three on taxation. Less than two hours were devoted to
the theories of value ("just what an article will fetch") and cost
("the amount of labor which it costs to produce" an article). The
two final lectures dealt with credit and interest. Credit, Walker
defined as "the use of property without paying for it
immediately." He continued: "It enables those who cannot use
property to assist others .... It is a stimulus to industry." He
recognized, however, its dangers: "The idle can rob the frugal. It
holds out temptations to be too expensive. Farmers' credit is
sometimes injurious. It many times induces men to enter into
speculation. It operates as a tax. Merchants must charge more for
[because of] bad debts.'
While in Oberlin, Walker contributed in
other ways. He charged nothing for his services. He stimulated
interest in the peace movement. He served actively on the
Prudential Committee and Board of Trustees. In 1843, he went to
London as Oberlin's representative at the Peace Convention. The
evidence is not clear as to how many and what years Walker taught
in Oberlin. Certainly he did not give the course in 1843-44, but
he was back again the next year. His name continued to be listed
with the faculty in the catalog until 1850 when he formally
resigned. In later years, though much involved in politics, he
gave a considetable part of his time to Political Economy. He
lectured on that subject for a number of years at Amherst College.
In 1850 he spoke before the session of the American Institute of
Instruction at Northampton on "Political Economy as a Study for
Common Schools." His text book, The Science of Wealth, was first
published in 1866 and early in 1867 he donated a copy to the
Oberlin College Library.
Henry Peck taught Political Economy in
1855, but who, if anyone, conducted the courses in Law, Political
Economy, and "Political and Social Sciences" in other years is
unknown. It may fairly be said, however, that Walker, together
with Mahan and Finney, established the tradition of the Social
Sciences in Oberlin.
The study and practice of rhetoric and
oratory constituted almost the entire work in English in the
American colleges in the middle of the nineteenth century. Oberlin
departed from the usual rule in the early years by introducing the
study of English Literature in the College Course (Milton,
Cowper's Poems, "English Poetry"), but soon abandoned it and
conformed to the normal practice. Richard Whately's Rhetoric and
Logic were studied throughout our period, at first in the
sophomore and later in the junior year. From 1858 to 1863
"Practical Lectures on Rhetoric" were given in the first term of
the freshman year. All students were required to attend weekly
classes in composition throughout the period of their attendance.
The emphasis on rhetoric in literary societies and in the
curriculum was the strong point in the college training of those
days.
CHAPTER
XLIII
FROM PREP TO
THEOLOG
WHEN the name Oberlin Collegiate Institute
was officially changed to Oberlin College in 1850 there were some
who thought it inappropriate. The College proper was after all,
they pointed out, only a part of the institution. In 1850 only 69
out of over 500 students were in the College: in 1852, 64 out of
1,020, in 1860, 199 out of 1,311. Not until 1875 was this number
surpassed. The great majority of the students were, at all times,
in the Preparatory and the Female departments; in 1853 these two
departments enrolled 1,182 out of the total of 1,305! The
Theological Department (not "Seminary") climbed from 35 in 1835 to
64 in 1840 and then declined more or less steadily to 32 in 1844,
22 in 1849, 20 in 1852, and 16 in 1857. After a recovery, which
brought its enrollment up to 36 in 1859, it declined again almost
to the point of extinction in 1867 when it contained only eleven
students. Small numbers were enrolled in the Teacher's Course and
in the Scientific Course, never more than thirty at any one time
in our period. Besides, there were the associated schools and
independent private classes: the Winter School. (or schools), the
Ohio Agricultural College (one year), the Department of Music (and
later Conservatory), the Commercial Institute, the French School,
the German classes, writing classes, elocution classes and drawing
classes. It should be understood that Oberlin College, after 1850,
was the official designation of this whole conglomerate of
departments and not of the "Collegiate Department"
alone.
Yet the "departments" were not water tight
compartments. As a matter of fact the institution offered a single
series of classes ranging from Arithmetic, English Grammar,
Algebra, Geometry and introductory Latin Grammar, to Conic
Sections, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Hebrew, advanced Greek
and Latin, and Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, etc. Young men
in the Preparatory Department took one combination of courses;
preparatory students in the Young Ladies' Department took another.
The same was true of the other departments except for Theology
which required a special group of courses. In 1851, for example,
the freshmen in the Classical and Scientific Courses in the
Collegiate Department and in the Teacher's Course, the men in the
second year of the "Shorter Course . . . preparatory to the study
of Theology," and the third year students in the Young Ladies'
Department, all attended the lectures on Physiology and Hygiene
together. The second year young ladies and the freshmen in the
Scientific Course and Teacher's Course pursued "Conchology"
together. Those enrolled in the "Shorter" and Classical courses
(sad to relate!) did not pursue it at all. "Classical" freshmen
were required to read Xenophon's Cyropaedia and Cicero de Amicitia
et de Senectute in the first term, but it was optional with
members of the Scientific Course, while the students in the
Teacher's Course read "Cicero's Four Orations vs. Catiline" and
the young ladies read no Latin or Greek at all. Some of these
courses called for three years of study, some for four. The time
spent in the Preparatory Course depended, naturally, entirely upon
age and achievement.
The first requirement for admission to the
Oberlin Institute was that the candidate should be of
unimpeachable morals. "Conditions of admission to the Institute
shall be trustworthy testimonials of good intellectual & moral
character, ability to labor 4 hours daily, freedom from debts,
total abstinence from ardent spirits as an article of drink or
refreshment & Tobacco except as a medicine," and the use of a
"scholarship." Such was the rule in 1834 and 1835. The word
"intellectual" was interlined! Perhaps it was an
afterthought.
The "intellectual" prerequisite was
somewhat elaborated in the 1835 Catalogue, which required that
applicants provide "evidence by personal examination and by
certificate of possessing such mental qualifications as will
enable them to improve the facilities afforded here for a thorough
education." In the following year youths considering entering
Oberlin were warned that they might "be subjected to an
examination as to their character, talents, and literary
attainments." After 1836 male students appear to have been
received into the Preparatory Department regardless of scholastic
attainments. Young ladies, however, must always "make previous
applications in writing, certifying their age, state of health,
character, present attainments, and the time they propose to
continue here." The six months period of probation took the place
of scholastic admission requirements to a certain extent, those
who failed utterly in their studies being dropped summarily during
that period or sent back to a more elementary department or
class.
Chief emphasis, however, was laid upon the
piety and morality of applicants. The requirement of "testimonals
of good moral character" was never dropped. None would be admitted
who travelled on the Sabbath. In 1835 a young lady student wrote
to her sister: "I have just been over to Mr. Shipherd's to inquire
if I can have a sister received here next winter. He said if I had
a sister who was a pious person and whose object was to be useful
in the world . . . he thought likely they would receive her." In
1853 a young lady was refused admission because her parents were
not legally married. A few years later there was an incredible
rumor among the students that one young man was not received
because he "was seen drinking a glass of root beer." The existence
of the rumor, however, indicates the general understanding of the
strictness of the moral prerequisites. There is nothing surprising
in this in view of the declared preeminence of the training of the
"moral sensibilities" and the instillation of true Christian piety
in the Oberlin scheme of education.
After the discontinuance of the short-lived
"Infant School" (1834) no students were received under eight years
of age; those entering the Collegiate Department must be not
younger than fourteen. After 1850 females "from abroad" must be at
least sixteen, and beginning in 1855 it was required that all
students from out of town should be sixteen or older "unless
committed to the special care of some approved resident of the
place"; nor should any be "under fourteen except by special
arrangement with the Faculty or Principal of the Female
Department."'
Young men with little or no schooling but
otherwise admissible were placed in the Preparatory Department.
This department was a real necessity in the early days of Oberlin
when academies and other secondary schools preparing for college
were exceedingly rare in the West. Geography, Mathematics,
elementary Latin and Greek, English, History and Religion were the
fields taught.
W. C. Woodbridge's Geography was the first
one used, supplanted by S. Augustus Mitchell's in 1843 and by the
geographies of Colton and Fitch in 1857. From 1856 to 1867 the
text was supplemented by the Key to Pelton's Hemispheres, the
famous rhymed geography. The scientific information in this book
was not only presented in metrical form but set to music. It was
suggested, for example, that the verses on the "States and
Territories" be sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne:
1.
"Our Country, the United States, shall
now engage our rhyme,
And Washington is capital of this most
favor'd clime;
Now every individual State in order we
repeat;
New England, or the Eastern States, our
notice first shall meet.
5.
"Now to the Middle States we come;--of
these New York stands first,
And Legislative wisdom there in Albany
is nursed:
New Jersey is the next we name, a
fruit-producing State,
At Trenton, its Metropolis, the Hessians
met their fate.
14.
"Ohio, pride of Western plains, where
grain and pork abound,
Columbus is thy capital, and fertile is
thy ground;
New Michigan invites our lay, among the
lakes it lies,
A growing town, 'tis Lansing called, a
capitol supplies."
And much more on the same order.
At first Mathematics included only
Arithmetic, but Algebra was added later. The arithmetic textbook
used in the early years was the famous text by Dr. Daniel Adams
"in which the principles of operating by numbers are analytically
explained, and synthetically applied; thus combining the
advantages to be desired both from the inductive and synthetic
mode of instructing" etc., etc. The book begins with simple
numeration and notation and carries through to cube root and
arithmetical and geometrical progression. From it pupils might
learn apothecaries weight, how to deal in "Federal Money" and
English money,
"Thirty days hath
September
April, June and November "
as well as that remarkable
verse:
"At Dover Dwells George Brown,
Esquire,
Good Carlos Finch and David Fryer,"
by which one was supposed to be aided in
determining the day of the week of the first of the month. In the
middle fifties Adams' gave way to Stoddard's and Ray's
Arithmetic.
The trend toward classical studies in
Oberlin generally, which was the reverse phase of the decline of
Hebrew, appeared in the Preparatory Course, the reading in Latin
and Greek becoming much more difficult and extensive. For those,
however, who were not preparing for college a special English
curriculum was provided to train them for teaching or serve as
preparation for the Teacher's or "Scientific" Course.
The work in English included grammar,
rhetorical reading, compositions and exercises in declamation. The
"immortal" McGuffey's Rhetorical Guide was used in the forties but
was superseded by Henry Mandeville's abstruse Elements of Reading
and Oratory. The study of oral English through the latter text
involved the mastery of a remarkable technical vocabulary,
according to which one sentence of Brutus' oration at the death of
Caesar was described as a "compound declarative single compact of
the second form" and another as a "compound indefinite
interrogative close"! Bullion's English Grammar was used for many
years.
"Grimshaw's Goldsmith's Histories of
Greece, Rome and England" were prescribed in the thirties and
early forties along with Noah Webster's History of the United
States, to which is prefixed a Brief Historical Account of our
English Ancestors, from the Dispersion at Babel, to their
Migration to America and of the Conquest of South America, by the
Spaniards. These gave way to "Taylor's General History" and later
to the universally popular Outlines of Universal History
translated from the Lehrbuch der Weltgeschichte of Dr. Georg Weber
of Heidelberg. In addition to the study of the Bible, preparatory
students of the first few years also read Josiah Hopkins'
Christian's Instructer and Nevin's Biblical
Antiquities.
The curriculum for young ladies in the
preparatory course of their department was considerably lighter
and more elementary. It included, for example, no History, no
Greek, and no Latin, until the fifties when Latin Grammar was
added. The preparatory work of the young ladies before 1850 was
really not secondary education at all.
The regular Young Ladies' Course, entered
by those who had "passed" the ladies' preparatory course, was
itself partly secondary. The course covered three years at first
but was later extended to four years. Many classes were attended
with the male preparatory students; English Grammar, History
(Grimshaw and Webster and later Weber), Geography, Bible,
etc.
The young ladies were given an especially
heavy dose of religion. Long after the young men in the "prep"
course had ceased to study Hopkins' "Instructer" it was assigned
for the ladies; Nevin's Biblical Antiquities, included in the
Ladies' Course in 1856, was still listed thirty years later!
Josiah Hopkins, the teacher of John J. Shipherd, was the author of
the Christian's Instructer, Containing a Summary Explanation and
Defence of the Doctrines and Duties of the Christian Religion.
This little book, the second edition of which was published in
1833 with a recommendation by Charles G. Finney, was a sort of a
layman's guide to theology and contained chapters on "Truth of
Revelation," "Atonement," "Regeneration," "Natural Ability,"
"Perseverance of the Saints," and "Future Punishment." It
certainly must have been an aid in understanding Finney's
"doubleheader" sermons which all students were required to attend
on the Sabbath. John W. Nevin's A Summary of Biblical Antiquities;
for the use of Schools, Bible-Classes and Families was an
elaborate aid to the study and understanding of the Bible. It
contained an account of the Jewish religion and data on the
geography, vegetation, climate, buildings, furniture, agriculture,
social customs, etc. of the Holy Land. Its study should have been
good preparation for prospective Sunday School teachers,
missionaries, and ministers' wives.
In the early forties, in addition to these
two books studied in the first year, William Paley's Evidences of
Christianity was read in the second year, Marsh's Ecclesiastical
History and Jahn's Biblical Archaeology in the third year, and
Joseph Butler's Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed along
with "Lectures on Intellectual and Moral Philosophy; Principles of
Sacred Interpretation; [and] Lectures on Theology" in the
fourth year! Paley's Evidences was the best known apology for
Christianity of that period and a textbook in many English and
American schools and colleges. John Marsh's Epitome of General
Ecclesiastical History was highly recommended by Rev. Joseph
Emerson, the patron saint of higher education for women, and was a
sort of abridged and revised "Book of Martyrs," illustrations and
all. Jahn's Archaeology served the same purpose as Nevin's
Biblical Antiquities and repeated much of the material. It was
probably considerably more difficult and must have been rather
confusing to the young ladies because of the many Hebrew and Greek
quotations. Butler's Analogy was another much-used defense of
Christianity, a masterpiece of logical argument, "a compact of
profound thought." A student in the Young Ladies' Course wrote an
essay on the Analogy in 1849. "Butler's argument," she wrote, "was
addressed to that class of persons who believe in God as the
author of nature, but not as the author of the Bible. His object
is to show that from analogy we might expect a revelation and such
a one as is contained in the Bible, for there is nothing against
the truths taught by it in natural religion but much in favor of
them." In later years the young ladies also read Mahan "On the
Will" and his Mental and Moral Philosophy.
The feminine mind, though dragged through
this morass of theological profundity, was not considered strong
enough to conquer the difficulties of Latin and Greek. No
classical languages were included in the course until 1858 when
Cicero's Orations were introduced. In 1859 Virgil's Aeneid and
Sallust were added. Cicero and Virgil and several other classes
were shared by the young ladies in the first year of the regular
course with the young men of the senior preparatory class. At no
time in our period were any ancient languages included in the
other years of the Ladies' Course. Except for Hebrew, Latin and
Greek, however, the young ladies attended practically all the
classes of the Collegiate Course: Geometry, Trigonometry, Conic
Sections, Botany, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Astronomy,
Geology, Physiology, Mental and Moral Philosophy, Political
Economy, and Kames' Elements of Criticism. To make up for the
classics omitted, after 1850 the ladies studied French, Zoology,
Elijah H. Burritt's Geography of the Heavens, Conchology and
Mineralogy, "Watts on the Mind," Guizot's History of Civilization,
Marcius Willson's American History (in the early fifties),
Constitution of the United States, "Linear Drawing," and English
Literature. Burritt's Geography of the Heavens is half an
elementary scientific astronomy and half a literary guide to
stargazing. With each account of a star or constellation there is
associated an account of the mythological name and pertinent
quotations from classical literature. Conchology was very much in
vogue as a study in seminaries and colleges at the time. It was
the study of the form and structure of shells and their
arrangement in systematic order. The first year young ladies
studied Webster's United States and Grimshaw's Goldsmith's History
of England and France, through the forties. In 1850 these were
dropped for Guizot and Willson. Guizot's History of the
Civilization of Europe was probably the best general survey of
world history then available. Willson's American History is a
solid volume of nearly seven hundred pages which treats not only
the United States but Canada, Mexico and, appropriately at that
date, the history of Texas and the late Mexican War. The young men
in all departments wrote compositions, delivered declamations and
engaged in discussions regularly throughout their course. The
"misjudged sex" only wrote compositions.
To make the curriculum comparable to those
of the leading female seminaries French, Poetry, Modern
Literature, and Linear Drawing were added. These were subjects
supposed to be peculiarly appropriate to the feminine mind.
Drawing was the only one of the so-called "ornamental branches"
taught at Oberlin, embroidery, wax work, the making of hair
ornaments, etc., found in the curriculum of some "finishing
schools" being noticeably absent. Antoinette Brown had a private
drawing class in the late forties. In 1852-53 Miss L. D. Fuller
taught the regular drawing classes for a shilling and a half an
hour. A few years later Frances M. Hubbard, a student in the
Ladies' Course, taught Linear Drawing and also "Oriental" and
"Grecian Painting." Anna M. Wyett began her 32 years of service as
teacher of drawing in Oberlin in 1855. A private studio for
teaching drawing and painting was opened in 1860 "over Mr. Fitch's
bookstore" by a Professor Couch. Young ladies also often studied
piano or voice in the "Music Department" or later in the
"Conservatory."
But it was never intended "to send out into
the world a company of Butterflies, to glitter a while, and then
vanish, but to send out a set of pious, well educated and genteel
(not fashionable) young Ladies prepared to be useful in any
circumstances." The more serious and "useful" subjects received
the chief emphasis. "Our course of study embraces five years
[with the preparatory work], the works which we
investigate are such as are calculated to furnish discipline of
mind and a supply of rich thought," wrote Mary Ann Adams in 1839.
"Indeed so far as we know, no female seminary in our country is
more thorough. We are taught not only to fully appreciate the
worth of an author but to think for ourselves upon the various
subjects brought before us, and we do feel that this knowledge
after which we are searching is of more value than the diamond
which sparkles in the sands of India and the pearl in its ocean
bed." Except for the ancient languages, young ladies were admitted
to a course exactly like that of their brothers in the Collegiate
Department. Indeed, they attended the very same classes! This made
a great impression. "Our advantages here are great, very great,"
wrote another student. "I heard one of the young Ladies remark
that when she first came here, at almost every recitation her
heart was so melted down in view of her great privileges that she
could hardly keep from weeping."
The teaching in the Preparatory Department
was done by a principal or principals sometimes aided by a tutor
and by a number of college and theological students who were paid
by the hour. In the Ladies' Course there were one or two
principals and several student teachers. Taking the year 1844-45
as an example: George N. Allen and W. W. Wright received $600.00
together for their salaries as Principal and Assistant Principal
in the Preparatory Department. Nelson W. Hodge, the genial
punster, received $400.00 as tutor. $350.00 was distributed among
seven student teachers. James Monroe received eighteen cents an
hour for teaching languages and Henry E. Whipple a shilling for
Arithmetic and fifteen cents for Elocution. The two Lady
Principals, Mary Ann Adams and Lorinda Moore, received only
$350.00 together, and $150.00 was paid to the student teachers.
Lucy Stone was paid a shilling an hour for teaching Arithmetic and
Lucretia Smith the same for Grammar but Sarah J. Curtis received
only ten cents for teaching Arithmetic.
Pay for student teachers varied all the way
from ten cents up to twenty-five cents an hour, the latter wage
sometimes being paid in the middle sixties, when the currency was
depreciated and general prices high. In 1838 George W. Bancroft
taught Latin and Greek at a shilling and a half an hour; in the
following year another student was paid fifteen cents an hour for
taking charge of a class in Roman History. In 1840 William B.
Brown, later the distinguished pastor of the First Congregational
Church of Newark, New Jersey, secretary of the American
Congregational Union, and a trustee of Oberlin College for over
twenty years, taught Arithmetic and Grammar classes for fifteen
cents an hour. Other student teachers received 18 3/4 cents an
hour for teaching Geometry and Nevin's Biblical Antiquities in the
same year. Edward H. Fairchild, later Principal of the department
and then President of Berea College, was paid 15 cents for
teaching Arithmetic and 18 3/4 cents for Bible and "Retoric" in
1841. In 1850 Sallie Holley, anti-slavery speaker and daughter of
the reformer and sponsor of the Erie Canal, received only a
shilling an hour for instruction in composition. At the same time
two young men were credited at the rate of 15 cents an hour for
teaching Marsh's Ecclesiastical History and Burritt's Geography of
the Heavens. In the spring of 1861, Jacob R. Shipherd, one of the
Oberlin-Wellington Rescuers was teaching for a shilling and a
half; W. W. Parmenter, who died in a Confederate prison a few
months later, received the same. A. A. Wright, later one of the
most distinguished members of the Oberlin faculty, obtained
twenty-five cents an hour in 1864, but Frederick D. Alien, who
became a Leipzig Ph.D. in 1870 and was Professor of Classical
Philology at Harvard from 1880 to 1897, received only 18 3/4
cents. Sometimes also the wives of professors taught classes by
the hour or corrected compositions at 31 cents a week.
The cost of instruction in these classes
was evidently very low and as a result the Preparatory and Female
departments were always profitable, in contrast to the Collegiate
and Theological departments where most of the instruction was
given by salaried professors. No doubt some of the teaching of
such brilliant youngsters as Frederick Allen, A. A. Wright, W. W.
Brown, Sallie Holley and Lucy Stone was excellent, but the great
majority must have been poorly equipped both in knowledge of
content and method. The use of these student teachers could hardly
be justified on any grounds but those of economy. By the end of
our period the many disadvantages of the practice were being
recognized and the trustees were being urged to supply more
permanent, salaried tutors for the elementary classes. The senior
preparatory class was taught by the Principal and other regular
teachers when the available staff made this possible.
Even the Principals of the Preparatory
Department (with one or two exceptions) seem not to have been men
of particular fitness for their work. Daniel Branch and E. P.
Ingersoll (also professor of Sacred Music) held the position for
only a year apiece. George Whipple, a Lane Rebel and later
secretary of the American Missionary Association, was an able
executive and may have been a successful teacher. He was in charge
from 1836 to 1839. Theodore J. Keep, who succeeded him, was not a
college graduate, having left Yale in his sophomore year. George
Nelson Allen, Principal from 1842 to 1846, was scandalously
underpaid and overworked and much more interested in his music
than in "prep" teaching. Little is known of the work of Henry E.
Whipple (1846-1853), but as a teacher later at Hillsdale College
he was successful and popular. E. Henry Fairchild was the most
outstanding, both for the length of his term of service (sixten
years) and for the reputation which he made as a teacher and
administrator. Doubtless the duties of the Principals of the
Preparatory and Female departments were unusually laborious;
certainly the salaries paid were small. In view of these
considerations it is perhaps surprising that it was possible to
secure persons as able as Marianne Dascomb, Alice Welch Cowles and
E. H. Fairchild.
Evidently the prep students were no more
universally sober and industrious than high school students of
today. "Attended recitations as usual," wrote a young lady in
1849, "and between them our class engaged in lively play, for
exercise, a few minutes. When the Professor entered, I rather
feared he was displeased, but do not know." As to composition
class, one girl confessed: "My pieces are generally picked up in a
few minutes and I assure you correspond with the time employed in
writing. I cannot take time to do justice to a piece of writing
and unless we are naturally smart a good composition would . . .
look too much like borrowed greatness." Another admitted to her
mother that she was so busy that she "took an old composition." In
1854 a young lady "read in her composition class as her own an
article which her teacher afterward found in a periodical." She
was, of course, disciplined. A few months earlier another student
soliloquized in her diary: "The bell has just told [sic] 9
and with a feeling akin to satisfaction I have shut myself in my
little room having just returned from the Ladies lyseum. But
whence this feeling of satisfaction? Does it arise from a sense of
duties well performed? Let me see, my latin lessons only half
looked out for tomorrow, which should have been all done, and then
my subject for declamation is not yet found whereas it should be
partly learned. But then I have done what I could, and why not be
satisfied." Ten years later another wrote to a former classmate:
"Do you know that you took my old Algebra home instead of yours? I
have wanted it lots. I wish we could exchange. I want the answers
to the examples in it."
For students on the college level who did
not care to attempt the study of advanced Latin and Greek,
alternate courses were offered from which the classics were
largely or entirely omitted. This was the scheme which had been
tried at Amherst in 1827 and 1828, but which failed and was
abandoned. The University of Virginia was securing the same result
by allowing students to choose between the various "schools"
within the university. These were first steps toward the
development of the modern "elective" system.
A student at Oberlin might, after 1846,
enroll in the Teachers' Department (or Course) or, after 1850, in
the "Scientific Course." The former course, as the Catalogue
announced, embraced "most of the studies pursued in the Collegiate
Course, except the [ancient] languages, with such
additions as are necessary to adapt it to its purposes." The
students in this course attended some classes with the college
students and others with the young ladies. There is a marked
similarity between the Teachers' Course and the course of studies
pursued in the Young Ladies' Department, though the young men in
the former completed their work in three years whereas the Young
Ladies' Course covered four years. A diploma but no degree was
granted to graduates of these courses. On the other hand the
regular A.B. degree was granted to those who completed the
four-year "Scientific Course." In the latter course, offered from
1850 to 1858 only, and especially intended for "such students as
have not the ministry in view or may have little taste or ability
for the study of the languages," the Latin and Greek was omitted
as in the Teachers' Course, but additional work in Mathematics and
Science was given to replace it and fill out the full four years.
Some confusion has resulted with regard to these courses for two
reasons: First, the Teachers' Course was placed under the
supervision of the Principal of the Preparatory Department and
hence the students pursuing it came to be classified (even in the
official General Catalogue of 1908) as preparatory students, even
though they were pursuing much work of college grade. Second,
there has been confusion because, in 1864, several years after the
four-year scientific course was abolished, the designation of the
Teachers' Course was changed to "Scientific Course," though the
content was in no way altered, no degree being granted and only
three years required for completion. The important fact remains
that, from 1846, a student might enroll in a course which included
no Greek or Latin but did include all of the other subjects
usually pursued in collegiate institutions, though for eight years
only were degrees granted for the completion of such a
course.
In 1833 when Shipherd announced his plans
for the Institute he had declared that special provisions would
"be made for those who are more advanced in life when they
commence their studies." This promise was fulfilled when the
"Shorter Course" was established in 1836. Only "students of
advanced age" were admitted to this course and then only by
special vote of the faculty. It was a three-year course including
some of the subjects studied in the regular Preparatory Course and
some of those studied in College. There was no Latin, but Greek
and Hebrew were both included. This practice was continued
throughout our period but the number enrolled was always small.
Those who successfully completed the course were received into the
Theological Department but granted no degree.
Down to 1850 no modern foreign languages
were taught in any department of the Institute. In that year,
French was introduced in the second year of the Scientific Course,
the second year of the Young Ladies' Course and, optionally, in
the first year of the Teachers' Course. In the late forties,
however, there seems to have been something resembling a stampede
to enter independent French classes. There were private classes at
least as early as 1844. "I have just commenced studying French,"
wrote a young lady student to a classmate four years later. "There
seems to be a general panic among the people here, and strange to
tell large classes in French have been formed." In the same year
(1848) Charles Penfield was learning both Italian and French. In
the spring of 1850 a student applied to the Prudential Committee
"for the use of one of the recitation rooms in Tappan Hall to have
a class in French one hour in the afternoon daily." The request
was granted and he was charged 12 1/2 cents an hour without wood
or 25 cents with wood. In the autumn the regular instruction in
French began.
There never seems to have been quite so
much interest in German as in French, though private instruction
in German is known to have been given as early as 1854, and a
native German appeared on the scene to conduct a class in 1860. In
1854 some 78 college and "prep" students petitioned the trustees
to make German or French an alternative to Hebrew. Hebrew was
dropped from the curriculum, but the modern languages were not
added, nor for many years were they, despite student agitation and
discussion, to become a part of the regular classical college
course.
Though he was not the first teacher of
French in Oberlin, nor in the Institute, Joseph Albert De La Forat
may rightly be called the Father of the Oberlin French Department.
It is said that De La Forat left France with his father because of
political differences with Louis Napoleon Bonaparte. He turned
naturally to French teaching as a means of making a living in
America. De La Forat arrived in Oberlin in 1860 and remained
approximately six years, until the autumn of 1866. At first he
organized a French Boarding School (something like the present
Maison Francaise) in a house on North Main Street above the First
Church. In 1864, however, he moved into a classroom in Tappan Hall
where he taught his private classes and also the classes in the
Ladies' Department of the Institute at salaries varying from
$30.00 to $75.00 a semester.
Never a master of the English language De
La Forat amused the students with his faulty grammar and strong
continental accent. "Prof. De La Forat" wrote one of his pupils in
1863, "expresses himself as comically as ever. The other day he
was greatly excited about the conspiracies in Ohio, and in his
indignation he declared the copperheads ought to have the head cut
immediately." He appears, nevertheless, to have been an able and
stimulating teacher and his classes became steadily more popular,
and, in 1865, the Prudential Committee consenting, he found it
desirable to enlarge his Tappan Hall classroom at his own expense.
As a means of advertising his classes and recognizing those who
took a full course in the language, a French Commencement was
usually held, at which students received special diplomas and read
French essays or delivered orations in French:
"Le Changement, Madam Tibbits,
d'Oberlin.
L'armure du Chretien, Sarah E. Furnas,
de Troy.
Les Trois Mondes, Mary C. Raymond, de
Bowling Green ....
Le Temple Inconnu, Amelia Chapman, de
Kingsville . . ."
In 1866 De La Forat left for Cleveland
where he continued his profession as a teacher of his native
language.
The Theological Department was the crown of
the Oberlin Institute. The complete Oberlinite passed from the
Preparatory Department through the Collegiate Department and
graduated finally from the Theological Department. Such men were
thoroughly impregnated with Oberlinism. The ablest minds and the
choicest spirits were all urged to go on through the full course
in order to prepare themselves for greatest usefulness. The
Theological Department set the tone of the whole Institute. The
professors in that department were the leaders of the faculty:
Finney, Mahan, Morgan, Henry Cowles, and, later, Henry E. Peck and
James H. Fairchild. It was never forgotten that it was the
founding of the Theological Department that brought the first
three of these and the Lane Rebels to Oberlin and refounded the
institution when it was on the verge of collapse. The students of
Theology were, especially in the thirties and forties and only to
a lesser degree in later years, looked up to as the leaders of the
student body. In all religious and many secular activities they
took the prominent part. Theological students regularly taught
classes in the Preparatory Department and sometimes in the
College. They instructed the great Oberlin Sabbath School and did
a large part of the teaching in the missionary Sabbath Schools in
surrounding districts. Occasionally they engaged in personal
conferences with other students on the state of their souls. In
the work of maintaining the high standard of piety for which
Oberlin was famous the inspirational preaching of Finhey was ably
supported by the precepts and example of other professors and of
the theological students.
Unlike the College curriculum the course of
study in the Theological Department remained practically unchanged
throughout the period. The conditions of admission were "hopeful
piety and a liberal education at some college, unless the
candidate has otherwise qualified himself for pursuing with
advantage the prescribed course of study" as in the Oberlin
"Shorter Course," and a "certificate of good standing in some
evangelical church." In the first or "junior" year the course
included "Evidences of Divine Revelation, Sacred Canon,
Introduction to the Study of the Old and New Testaments; Biblical
Archaeology; Principles of Interpretation; Greek and Hebrew
Exegesis; Mental and Moral Philosophy; Compositions and
Extemporaneous Discussion." "Biblical Geography" was added to the
studies of the junior year in the 50's. In the second or "middle"
year the subjects studied were "Didactic and Polemic Theology;
History of Theological Opinions; Greek and Hebrew Exegesis;
Composition and Exposition Discussion." The only changes made in
the work of this year was the transfer of "History of Theological
Opinions" to the third year and the addition of "Biblical
Theology" and "Homiletics." In the third or senior year the
courses were "Pastoral Theology; Sacred Rhetoric; Composition of
Sermons; Sacred and Ecclesiastical History (including the History
of Theological Opinions); Exegesis continued; Church Government;
Extemporaneous Discussion." It is notable that introductory Hebrew
was not included, students being expected to have studied that
language in their college course.
Though there were other effective teachers
in the old Theological Department, it was for forty years after
its founding essentially a one-man institution. The Lane Rebels
came in 1835 on condition that Charles G. Finney should be their
teacher, and later students were attracted mainly by the prospect
of studying under him. Professors J. H. Fairchild and H. E. Peck
ably substituted for and supplemented him, but nobody ever took
his place or supplanted him. When Finney was away, as so often
happened, the attendance fell off; when he returned, it climbed
again.
Finney, as was natural for a self-educated
man, believed that most formal education was too theoretical and
cold. In his inaugural address as Professor of Theology in 1835 he
attacked the usual education of ministers. "Their physical
education was defective. It rendered them soft and effeminate.
Their mental education was defective. Their studies, for the most
part, consisted in efforts of memory, while it should consist in
the disciplining of the mind and invigorating of the
understanding--in teaching students to reason consecutively,--to
think on their legs--to draw illustrations living from nature
around them--and understand the law of God.... Their moral
education was defective. They pursued such studies that the more
they studied the more cold their religious affections must become,
because their minds were employed upon topics that alienate them
from God. In view of Finney's interest in "practical" training for
the pastorate, of his dominant position in the seminary, and of
his personal eccentricities, it was to be expected that his
lectures on Pastoral Theology given in the senior year would
constitute one of the most distinctive and characteristic courses
in Oberlin's theological curriculum.
Three different sets of students' notes on
these lectures survive: One set taken in 1837, one in 1843 and one
in 1857. Three of Finney's own manuscript lecture outlines for
Pastoral Theology are in the Oberlin library. One is undated, but
apparently belongs to the period of the forties and forties. The
other two are dated 1872 and 1875 respectively. The outline for
1875 is in script nearly an inch high, legible even to the failing
eyes of an old man. Our sources then span most of the forty-one
years history of the course. In 1837 it apparently consisted of
only six lectures which were almost entirely devoted to manners
and the relations of ministers with the opposite sex. It is
understandable that Finney, the gentleman from New York City,
should have been troubled by the uncouth manners of the farmer
boys who attended Oberlin in that early period. Undoubtedly the
talks on etiquette were called for. By 1843 the course had
expanded to about twenty lectures and to include study habits,
business habits, hints on the preparation and delivery of sermons
and suggestions regarding pastoral visits. There appear to have
been no major changes in content or treatment after
1843.
At the beginning Finney told his students
that pastoral theology embraced "the whole field of the Pastoral
Office," and he differentiated sharply between the tasks of the
evangelist and the pastor. It was the province of the former, he
declared, to "win souls to Christ & gather a flock" and of the
latter to "feed, lead, superintend, & watch over it." General
theology, he defined as treating of "God, His attributes &
relations," while pastoral theology was the practical study of the
pastor's relations with his flock.
The pastor and his flock had reciprocal
duties, according to Finney. The Pastor must "demean himself
[so] as to deserve the confidence of the People," "give
himself wholly to the work" and "avoid every irrelevant
engagement," "feed the flock with truth well digested," "warn them
publicly and privately," "pray for & with them," and "bring
everything into the light of the law of God." On the other hand,
it was the duty of the people of his flock "to relieve him as far
as possible from all that . . . is not his proper work," "to
receive him as one called and sent of God as an ambassador from
the court of heaven," "to attend his appointments," "to receive
and obey the truth," "to cordially & boldly cooperate with him
in forming & controlling publick sentiment in respect to every
branch of morals," and "to illustrate the Gospel in their
lives."
He submitted a list of qualifications for
the ministry: "A living, ardent piety--not last year's piety--but
living now." ("A deeply pious man," he said, "will do good though
he have not good talents"), "age and manhood," sound education,
"aptness to teach," ordination and "the call." Also he should have
"an amiable temper," a "body not deformed," "a spirit of
self-sacrifice," a "gift of personal conversation, moral courage,
patience and perseverance, independence," "a mellow sensibility,"
strong faith, "deep spiritual discernment," and "common sense."
His education should provide him with an understanding of logic,
"a sound mental philosophy," "at least so much knowledge of
language as to be accurate & perspicuous," "an outline at
least of natural science," and a thorough grounding "in the
fundamentals of both natural & revealed theology." He should
possess "dignity of Character" not as shown in "studied reserve,"
"anti-social carriage," "affected sanctity," or in officious "airs
& manners," but demonstrated in "such serious purity of
conversation as to forbid all trifling in [his] presence,"
and "such a compassionate earnestness of piety as shall force the
impression that [he is] a serious & a holy
man."
It was very important, he felt, that a
minister should be married to a good wife. "Marriage [is]
the right of women & no man for slight cause should defraud
them." "An unmarried minister is a peculiar temptation to the
other sex." "Ministers need a wife more than other men." "When a
man is tied up to a bad wife and cannot be divorced he had better
get out of the ministry." In one lecture he suggested ten
"Indispensable or important qualifications in a
[minister's] wife:"
"1. Good health.
2. A thorough and extensive education.
3. Prepossessing appearance.
4. Conversational powers.
5. Discretion.
6. She should be a leader of her
sex.
7. Gifted in prayer.
8. A good house keeper.
9. A good judgment in the qualities of
articles to be bought.
10. Economy."
A minister's wife ought to have, said
Finney, the "ability to keep a secret," a "spirit opposed to caste
and aristocracy," an "unambitious temper," a body not weakened "by
tight lacing," and a "willingness to be poor." She must avoid
"getting mixed up with neighborhood scandal," and "indulgence in
dress," and "every appearance of fondness for the society of the
gentlemen."
He opposed early engagements for various
reasons, especially because they distracted the attention from
study and from prayer and other religious exercises. As a young
man approached his ordination, however, he should look about him
for a suitable mate, gauging the available young women by the
standard previously submitted. The neophyte was warned that after
entering the ministry, whether married or not, he must be
particularly careful about his relations with women. Gallantry
must be avoided. "Show me a minister that is a Gallant among
ladies & I will show you one who is doing little good."
"Suffer not yourself to trifle with young ladies in conversation
nor in any way." "Beware how you write ladies; what is written is
written." Finney recognized, however, that the minister must be at
ease in the company of the opposite sex and not live as a recluse.
It was one of the arguments in favor of coeducation that the
prospective pastor was thus prepared to take his place in the
mixed society of his parish.
Apparently Mr. Finney did not object to the
attendance of young lady visitors at these lectures. In 1840,
James H. Fairchild, later President of Oberlin, but then a young
"theolog," wrote to his future wife: "Mr. F.[inney] has
just closed his pastoral Lectures. He gave us a half dozen or more
on the subject of marriage & the qualifications necessary in
the wife of a pastor, probably both for the benefit of those young
men who have yet a choice to make & for the young ladies who
were present at the lectures.... He spoke at some length on early
engagements etc., said much that is true & some things that
are not so true."
Finney's advice with regard to manners
throws some light on the practices of the time and the region, as
well as on his own attitude and on the status of the Oberlin
theological students. Ministers, he said, should always avoid
levity and "all winking and roguishness," should be grave but not
morose, dignified but not sanctimonious. "Where ministers hold out
the idea that they are the great ones of the earth they create a
false impression of religion." A minister should be polite and
considerate, should "observe unusual personal kindness." In 1843
he told his students: "True politeness is nothing else than the
practice of true benevolence," and, in 1857: "Good manners
[are] benevolence acted out, bad manners, selfishness
acted out." Ministers, of all people, he insisted, must avoid
slovenliness, affectation, effeminacy, coarseness and vulgarity,
selfishness, impertinence, and a spirit of contradiction. They
should beware of "band box manners" and of anything "foppish."
They should not wear ruffles, rings, breast pins, beards and
whiskers (This was in 1843, before he took to wearing them
himself.), and they should not carry "gaudy pocket handkershiefs."
Evidently much more needed and occupying much more time in his
talks were warnings against vulgarity and coarseness. They should
not blow their noses with their fingers; they should not use a
dirty handkerchief; they must not spit on the carpet; they must
not put their feet and muddy boots on the sofa or on the door
jambs, nor pull off their stockings before a family! He related
the story of a young clergyman who "called on some ladies after
walking some distance, took off his boots & hung his socks on
the andirons the first thing," and told of another ministerial
acquaintance who "put his feet up in a window in a lady's parlor
to enjoy the cool air!" He advised the embryo preachers to keep
their nails cleaned and pared and their teeth clean. It was
disgusting, he said, "in anxious meetings to be obliged to smell
the breath of a filthy mouth." At table, he reminded them, they
were not supposed to cut their meat with their pocket knives nor
wipe their mouths on the table cloth!
The minister, declared the teacher, must be
the true shepherd of his flock. He ought to be the leader in his
community in secular as well as ecclesiastical matters, and "He is
not to admit for a moment that he is going out of his sphere" when
he takes such leadership. "The legitimate field of Pastoral
influence," said Finney, "is as extensive as the field of moral
obligations & responsibility." It was desirable, of course,
for the minister to be "acquainted with the principles of reform,"
though he ought not to be an "ultraist" fanatic. "The minister
must have a natural adaptation to be a leader--he is to marshall
the host of God's elect." He should visit his parishioners often
and deal with them directly and frankly. He should not "go to get
a dinner" but to transact the business of the Lord and rebuke them
for their transgressions. Though the pastor ought to be
straightforward, he ought, when possible, also to be tactful. "Be
careful to find your people when they are not out of humour,"
Finney advised. "Never get all the family together when you want
to talk to them. The devil often makes children cry, etc." "If
possible visit the sick in the morning. Ask what kind of medicine
they have been using so that you may not be deceived." "Don't
assume that God is visiting them with judgments." "Don't appear
unfeeling." "Always have respect for the state of the nervous
system . . ." In their business affairs they were recommended to
set a good example for others: "Be punctual in all business
transactions." "Avoid trading horses." "Do not throw too much
business upon your wife." "If you have a garden attend to it. If
the weeds grow in it they will grow in your heart."
He gave detailed advice as to the conduct
of religious services. The invocation should be solemn and short.
The Scriptures should be read slowly, emphatically and "with
unction." The Bible should be handled reverently. In announcing
the hymns "name the place twice," "notice whether you are
understood," and in reading the hymns be careful to "avoid nasal
tones." His own prayers were likely to be long and emotional, and
he advised the theologs: "Pray in the Spirit"; "If the Lord draws
you near to Himself don't be too short"; "Be honest, earnest,
childlike," but "Don't be tedious."
He urged careful preparation of all
sermons. A minister should not study more than three or four hours
a day, preferably in the morning after a light breakfast. The
subjects should be timely and suited to the congregation.
Illustrations should be drawn "from familiar circumstances and not
from ancient history and monarchs." Though sermons need not be
written out, an outline or skeleton was suggested. This was
Finney's own practice. He opposed the reading of sermons and
favored preaching from notes, because, he said, it was more easily
understood, more interesting, more instructive and more easily
remembered. This was the Oberlin style of preaching throughout the
early years. In delivery he advised that they be "animated but
never vociferous" and "avoid studied gesticulations" and all stiff
formality. Finally, they must put their whole soul into it. "Men
are not cabbage heads," he told them. "You may [be] the
most learned--yet you have God as one of your hearers. Preach so
as to please God, for He is taking notes."
The course quite clearly was fresh,
realistic and stimulating, and must have contributed greatly to
the effectiveness of the many young ministers who went out from
Oberlin in those early days.
When he was in Oberlin Finney also taught
the course in General or Systematic Theology (Didactic and Polemic
Theology). As originally taught it dealt in a broad way with God
and His attributes and with divine law. As time passed, however, a
larger and larger emphasis was placed upon the development of the
peculiar Oberlin views. Freedom of the Will and "human ability"
were defended and the related doctrine of Sanctification or
perfectionism was elaborated. In the theological classes as in all
classes the meetings were opened with prayer; Finney had
introduced the practice in Oberlin. With him it was far from a
matter of form; often the keynote of the hour's discussion would
be struck in the prayer. Sometimes, even, his deep, personal piety
led him on and on until a large part or the whole of the
recitation period had been consumed in divine supplication.
Professor Finney did not usually lecture in this course, but led
the discussion. One great theological theme after another would be
taken up and pounded out in informal debate and sometimes the
facts and reasoning presented would lead the evangelist-teacher to
change his own point of view. In the days of the Lane Rebels it
was not necessary to use artificial methods to stimulate
discussion, but in later years he sometimes drew names out of a
hat and called on the persons whose names were drawn to speak. The
tone of Finney's classes was always lively though always also
fundamentally serious. He, himself, joined in the laughter which
followed really witty thrusts by the debaters, though he always
frowned upon any mere smartness or lightness.
Finney was fundamentally, however, the
ideal, the inspirer and the figurehead of the institution. He was
so often absent that the best a student could hope was that
sometime during the three years of the Theological Course Finney
would be on the job, and then, perhaps for a semester, he would be
privileged to sit under him. The everyday routine work of running
the department and of teaching most of the courses was in the
hands of Morgan, Mahan, Cowles, Peck and Fairchild. It was John
Morgan especially who kept it going and substituted in the pulpit
during the only too frequent and too much extended absences of
Finney.
* * *
From the beginning the long vacation had
been placed in the winter instead of the summer in order to give
the students an opportunity to teach in rural schools. This
vacation lasted for twelve weeks--after 1847, from the fourth
Wednesday in November to the fourth Wednesday in February. Up to
1850 there were two terms of school only: one, the short term,
beginning at Commencement in August or September and the other,
the long term, after vacation in February. In the early years
there was also a short vacation in early July conforming with the
season of heavy work on the farm. In 1850 the two-term plan gave
way to a scheme of three terms, each twelve weeks in length. The
First or Fall Term lasted from the fourth Wednesday in August
(Commencement) to the fourth Wednesday in November (the beginning
of vacation). The Second or Spring Term was from the fourth
Wednesday in February to the fourth Wednesday in May, and the
Third or Summer Term from the latter date to Commencement. The
nearness of the beginning of the winter vacation to Thanksgiving
Day and of the end to Washington's Birthday had much to do with
the tradition of festivity long associated with those holidays in
Oberlin.
What Summer School is to students of the
present generation, Winter School was to the students of the
mid-nineteenth century. There were many, particularly among the
residents in town, who had no teaching appointments and preferred
to continue their studies throughout the winter. Winter School
gave the student a chance to make up entrance requirements or
other deficiencies and catch up with his class. The Winter School
or "Winter Term" as it was sometimes called was not an integral
part of the school year. All responsibilities, including the
financial ones, were assumed by the little group of teachers who
chose to take charge of it. Sometimes the managers were charged
for the use of classrooms, etc. The 1851 scholarships did not
apply to this term. The usual rules were in effect, however; some
manual labor was usually available, and full credit was given for
the courses taken. At first there were separate schools for young
men and young ladies but these were later united under one
management.
In the forties only the elementary subjects
were given but, later, various college classes were also included.
In 1864-65 for example there were advanced classes in Greek, Latin
and Mathematics. The usual facilities for studying music, drawing,
and French were also usually available during the winter. "During
the vacation a Winter school is held here, using the recitation
rooms and apparatus of the College," a student wrote to the
University Quarterly in 1861. "This is conducted by two members of
the Faculty and several Tutors. Its excellent advantages are
availed of by about two hundred and fifty preparatory Students,
and a sprinkling of College men bringing up classical arrears. A
few, too, who wish to get more French and German than they find in
the regular curriculum, or who wish to secure some culture of a
miscellaneous character, hybernate beneath the wings of Alma
Mater." Among the available sources of "miscellaneous culture"
there were usually a lecture course, informal literary societies
and singing schools. Throughout the fifties and sixties the number
of students in attendance ran slightly over 250 on the average. In
1864-65 only 34 of the total of 261 were doing work of college
grade. The tuition varied from $3.25 to $7.00.
Nevertheless, Oberlin in the winter must
have almost equalled in dullness Oberlin in the summer at the
present day. The older and more experienced professors usually did
not teach in Winter School; all of the "theologs" and most of the
college students went out teaching and preaching or back to their
homes. The fourth Wednesday in February when the students returned
from their winter adventures was a day of great excitement. "The
winter has been a very pleasant one on the whole," wrote a college
girl on Thursday, February 28, 1856. "But there have been some
flaws in the picture as there always must be .... Yesterday the
term commenced. We had a happy time at the Chapel that morning
shaking hands with old friends, I assure you. Today is fast day."
A year later the same young lady commented in her diary: "The term
opened yesterday morning. A pleasant day and many pleasant
meetings with old acquaintances. Today is fast day, and no classes
therefore until tomorrow. I am in a quandary about mine. Two
classes which I wanted to join come at the same hour. What a poor
body can do or had best do in such a case I don't know. Probably I
shall give up Livy and study the Freshman Greek instead. I don't
like to a bit, it will be bad every way almost." Evidently even
before the coming of the elective system one could have
conflicts.
Monday was set aside for Rhetorical
Exercises. Bible classes, which also met only once a week, were
held on Saturday. Other classes met on Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday or on five days including Saturday also. There
were no classes in the afternoon, which was reserved for exercise,
manual labor, study and special meetings. It seems clear that
students were not graded at all on their work in early years.
Later, however, grades expressed in digits from 0 to 6 were given
for daily recitations and oral examinations. Professor Churchill's
classbook for the period from 1858 through 1862 shows that he, at
least, had a strong partiality for 6, which was, of course, the
highest grade obtainable. Course grades do not appear to have been
recorded; students merely being reported as passing or failing.
The giving of prizes or honors was frowned upon; there were no
valedictorians or salutatorians, no cum laudes nor ranking of any
sort. "At the close of each term," a committee of young ladies
wrote to John Keep in 1839, "we are thoroughly examined in each
study by our teachers, and our progress recorded only by their
sweet smiles and a sweet consciousness of having performed our
duties." The Oberlin faculty did not believe in the appeal to
emulation.
Though there are evidences of occasional
outline maps, blackboards and some "philosophical apparatus,"
teachers were generally poorly provided with the mechanical aids
to instruction. The classrooms themselves were poor, often badly
ventilated and overcrowded. In 1843 we find the senior prep class
making representations to the Prudential Committee regarding "the
crowded state of the Recitation Room in Oberlin Hall" and
requesting that it should be enlarged "by moving the partition
between it and the adjoining room." Students sometimes contributed
to the furnishing or repairing of the classrooms which they used.
In 1844 the theologs helped fit up the classroom under the choir
in the new meeting house which was assigned to their use. In 1850
Professor Timothy Hudson "presented a request to the . . . effect
that as the class under his charge are about to paper the walls
& carpet the floor of the Southwest recitation room . . . the
woodwork should be painted by the Inst. & that they should
have the sole use of it for their recitations."
Apparently there was much that was
sophomoric in the attitude of the students (even those of college
grade) in the latter years. One student diarist noted at various
times in 1865: "The Sophs. got 'high' and received two lectures,
one from Prof. P--d, and the other from Prof. E--s"; "Attend Bible
class at 8. Having waited 10 minutes for Prof. P--d, the class
(according to his command previously given) adjourned. While in
the act a man loomed up in the distance. We were not certain as to
who it was .... Don't know whether it was right, but I can't see
anything really wrong about it, as Prof. has instructed us so to
do." "Had a small excitement Sat. J. G. Hamilton on his own
private hook (Prof. Churchill being sick) went and got a teacher
in Evidence. Several of the class bolted (among them I). A good
many of the class were a good deal disgusted. A set of resolutions
was drawn up (mei auctoris), censuring him, but on account of
mitigating circumstances & some slight explanation, they were
not publicly presented."
There were some lecture courses like
Dascomb's Chemistry, Mahan's Mental and Moral Philosophy and
Walker's Political Economy in which students took notes on
lectures (verbatim if possible) and memorized them. In general,
however, classes were conducted on the recitation or
"question-and-answer" method which was the rule in all American
schools at the time, in which the intention was not to elicit
discussion but to drill the students in memorizing rote answers.
It is enlightening that as late as the middle sixties the literary
societies should debate such questions as: "Resolved that reciting
from books is more beneficial than reciting from notes" and
"Resolved that we ought not to confine ourselves to textbooks in
our course of study." Certainly there was little or no required
library reading.
All students in all years of all courses
were required to attend and participate in weekly classes in
practical composition. The young men engaged in writing and
speaking ("Compositions, and either Extempore Discussions or
Declamations weekly throughout the whole course; and also public
original declamations monthly") but the young ladies practiced
writing only (.. Compositions, weekly, throughout the
course").
"Let me see," wrote Tutor James H.
Fairchild to his betrothed. "You would be glad to know how I
officiate at the composition class. Well, the exercise is opened
by prayer, as usual. Then I call the roll and take my seat in
front and listen with the most profound interest and attention
while the young ladies bring forth out of their treasure, things
new and old--dreams, visions, tales, descriptions, and
metaphysics--(I mean no burlesque). This done I gather up the
compositions and we disperse. At my room I proceed to examine
these same compositions more critically, making a point here and a
note or interrogation there, putting in one word and taking out
another and on the margin and blank page making certain notes and
remarks and suggestions. The employment is interesting and
profitable for me, but I do not feel fit for it." Of course, the
subjects dealt with were legion: "dreams, visions, tales,
descriptions, and metaphysics."
Class or interclass, public rhetoricals
were held once a month. The young ladies took considerable
vicarious satisfaction in attending these public performances. A
college girl recorded in her diary in 1856: "This P.M. Composition
class, and a composition, and then I went to John's
[rhetorical exercises], senior's. He had a declamation; he
is an orator; it was terrible but grand." In later years the
ladies in the Collegiate Department themselves took part, but
intermediately their essays were read for them. On October 26,
1857, Sprague Upton, a "prep": "Attended Rhetorical in A. M. and
extemporized on a political question. In the P.M. went to the
Chapel and had the honor of listening to what is called the
Monthly Rhetorical. Three Freshmen, two Sophomores, and two
Seniors were the combatants for the honors. A lady's essay was
also read by Prof. Monroe. The exercises were good. Weather: very
windy and cold." The program was often interspersed with music,
and occasionally there was a special feature. Of a Latin Dialogue
at a "Monthly" in 1863 the local paper said: "The characters were
stated to be Coppercaput (a copperhead) and Conjunctionis Miles (a
Union Soldier). The Latin was spoken unhesitatingly and well
pronounced. The performance reflected great credit upon the two
gentlemen representing the characters. Altogether the exercises
were good, and well pleased the large audience
present."
It was the tradition in most of the
colleges of the time for the juniors to put on a special, public
program of speaking shortly before Commencement. The Junior
Exhibition, as it was called, did not appear in Oberlin until
1860, but was a regular institution for many years thereafter.
Usually there was a Latin Oration, a Greek Oration, a discussion,
English orations by the young men and essays read by young ladies.
At literary society meetings, private and public rhetoricals,
Junior Exhibition, and Commencement, the Oberlin student had many
opportunities to practice public speaking.
Students might withdraw books from the
library if they paid a special fee but they were not encouraged to
do so. The original laws of 1834 provided: "No student shall draw
more than one volume from the Library at a time, nor shall books
be drawn, except at the times appropriate to this purpose, which
shall be fixed by the Faculty." After the spring of 1837 students
might draw two books at a time, but in the next year the librarian
was granted the power to censor the students' reading by giving
out or withholding books at his discretion. In 1843 the faculty
voted further to guard the books from the students by "so
arranging the library that hereafter students making applications
for books shall be waited on at the door."
Professor Dascomb served as librarian from
1834 to 1873, except in the years 1846 to 1853 when Henry E.
Whipple was in charge. Of course, his other onerous duties left
him little time and energy to devote to this particular
chore.
The original library was small and of
irregular quality. Early in 1835 Dr. Dascomb valued the whole
collection at a little over a hundred dollars. At the end of 1836
it consisted of less than eight hundred volumes, mostly donations
from members of the faculty and relatives and friends of Shipherd
and of Finney. In the field of belles lettres there were the works
of Southey, Milton, Dryden, Cowper, Burns, Goldsmith, Pascal's
Letters and Irving's Bracebridge Hall. History and biography were
represented by Rollin's Ancient History, Scott's Napoleon, "Life
of Jackson," "Life of Pinkney," "Henry Clay," Gibbons' Roman
Empire, and Jefferson's Notes on Virginia. Of these, Goldsmith,
Bracebridge Hall (as near the novel as they dared to go) and
Scott's Napoleon were particularly popular with the readers. The
number of times that "Spurzheim on Education" and Fowler's
Phrenology were withdrawn bespeaks the popular interest in the
science of bumps on the head. The frequency with which the three
copies of "Wesley on Christian Perfection" were charged out
suggests that the Methodist doctrine may have been directly
instrumental in the development of Oberlin
perfectionism.
The list of books also includes many titles
of interest to the students of Mental and Moral Philosophy:
"Cousin's Introduction to Philosophy," "Rush on the Mind," "Brown
on Cause and Effect," "Cunningham on Infidelity," "Zimmerman on
Solitude," and the works of John Locke. All of these were
repeatedly borrowed in the first four years of the library's
existence. Also often referred to was Brown's History of Missions,
in two volumes. The first volumes listed in the catalogue were the
Annals of Education for 1831, 1832 and 1833, the gift of the
Founder. They are still in the library, the second volume bearing
Shipherd's autograph in pencil on the fly-leaf. Of course there
were copies of Samuel Read Hall's Lectures on School-Keeping and
Lectures to Female Teachers as well as the "Memoirs of Oberlin
."
There were a few volumes on scientific
subjects: "Dictionary of Chemistry," "Kirby's History of Animals,"
Malte Brun's famous Geography translated from the French, several
volumes of Silliman's Journal and a number of textbooks.
Characteristic was the inclusion of works on music: Porter's
Musical Cyclopedia, "Dissertation on Musical Taste," and
Callcott's Musical Grammar. Serials included Blackwood's, the
Biblical Repository, the American Quarterly 0bserver, and six
volumes of the Spirit of the Pilgrims. Naturally there were many
volumes on religion: Fox's Book of Martyrs, "Campbell on
Miracles," "Salvation made Sure," and the sermons of Lyman Beecher
as well as of Charles G. Finney. An inventory of January, 1836,
listed altogether over 120 volumes of "Theological
Books."
The reform spirit of the institution was
reflected in the number of titles on slavery and "physiological
reform." Among these were "Right and Wrong in Boston," A. A.
Phelps, Lectures on Slavery and Its Remedy; Lydia Maria Child, An
Appeal in Favor of That Class of Americans Called Africans,
William Jay, Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the
American Colonization and American Anti-slavery Societies, and the
Anti-slavery Record. In the latter field were Hitchcock's Dyspepsy
Forestalled & Resisted, George Combe's Constitution of Man,
and "Physical Culture of the Finns."
Naturally the library included such
reference works as the Encyclopedia Americana, the Library of
Entire Knowledge, and "Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia." There was a
copy of Aesop's Fables and two volumes of Blackstone. There were
many volumes of Greek, Latin and Hebrew classics and at least two
books in French, but no other foreign language was represented.
All and all, those students who got access to the library may well
have profited by the opportunity.
The library grew slowly. In 1837 a thousand
dollars was appropriated for new books. In 1840 Keep and Dawes
purchased over four hundred dollars' worth in London and secured
gifts of approximately two thousand volumes besides, bringing the
library up to 3,700 volumes in that year. There must have been
further additions in the forties because in 1848 "H. E. Whipple
presented a request [to the Prudential Committee] that
there may be an extra shelf put up in the library." In 1852,
however, accessions had been so few that some of the students felt
called upon to petition the same body "to do what they can to
improve the Library by an infusion of some modern works," and five
years later Professor Hudson reported that the library was
entirely inadequate and that some new books constituted one of the
greatest needs of the College. When first reported in the
Catalogue the number of books in the college library was estimated
at 5,500 and the number in the literary society libraries at
2,500. In 1862 these figures were raised to 6,000 and 3,000
respectively and in 1863 to 6,500 and 4,000. A plea for donations
of printed works always followed.
Throughout most of our period examinations
were oral and public. Those at the end of the Summer Term occupied
a whole week immediately preceding Commencement and may be
considered as having been practically a part of those exercises;
the anniversaries of literary societies and other special
rhetorical exhibitions were usually scheduled for the late
afternoons after the examinations.
Each instructor took charge of the
examination of his own classes, either asking questions orally or
passing out cards on which the questions were written. Students
were expected to stand before their classmates and visitors and
answer clearly and accurately. Other members of the faculty and
distinguished guests were encouraged to ask additional questions.
John Monteith, principal of the Elyria High School, visited the
examinations on at least two occasions. The entire Board of
Trustees adjourned one of their regular sessions in August of 1840
in order to attend the examination of President Mahan's class in
Moral Philosophy. James A. Garfield, then of the Eclectic
Institute at Hiram, planned to visit the Oberlin examinations in
1853. A professor from Williams College was in the audience in
1859. Room-mates of other classes, ambitious "preps," and giggling
younger brothers and sisters attended to gloat over their friends'
discomfiture. Parents came to see if it was really worth while to
continue their children in school.
Of course, as one young lady student wrote
home to her parents, they "felt it a duty to make all the
preparation they reasonably could & then resign all into the
hands of him who guideth all things right." In 1838 James
Fairchild wrote to a fellow student: "If you wish to see us in
trouble come in on Monday at half-past ten a.m.--examination in
Natural Philosophy, Olmsted's... I reviewed one volume of this
work yesterday, 300 pages, besides 35 of Dr. Dascomb's lectures on
Astronomy, and 10 of President Mahan's on Moral Philosophy --how
thoroughly you can imagine.
Most any student of the twentieth century
might write home as did a freshman in the Young Ladies' Course in
1862: "Another thing that I know will please you is that in both
my examinations I got 6. Trigonometry and History. We were
examined in Mineralogy some time ago, and in that also I received
a 6, and I had had nothing else in that all the term. We are not
to be examined in Botany until next term I have had nothing but 6
so far. In every thing but Trigonometry I have done better this
term than ever before, and in that my marks are better than I
feared." More exclusively characteristic of its period is the
entry in the diary of a "coed" of 1854: "Have been examined in
Botany, Conic Sections, and History of Civilization. All done
satisfactorily. But O my wicked heart. We had several spectators
in the last class, and I performed my own part satisfactorily and
was called on to recite for two others which the Lord helped me to
do, and do it well, and now I keep feeling sensations of pride,
because my performances were approved. O my Father help me to
drive this evil far from me, help me to overcome it entirely and
may the place which it fills in my heart be filled with
gratitude."
One suspects that these examinations were
not particularly difficult, as they were looked upon not only as a
test of individual students but also of the institution and the
teacher. As a result the instructor was as anxious as were the
students that they should answer satisfactorily. Occasionally
visitors wrote commendatory letters for publication. In 1839 one
anonymous observer wrote to the editor of the Evangelist: "I have
witnessed the examinations in different colleges and seminaries,
yet I never recollect to have attended one where the classes
manifested a more thorough acquaintance with the respective
branches."
In 1862 written examinations were
introduced in some of the college subjects. It was plain enough
that such examinations were found more satisfactory as tests of
the students' achievement but, of course, they lacked entirely the
advertising value of the public, oral examinations.
CHAPTER
XLIV
EARLY TO BED
THE Oberlin student led a busy life.
Numerous classes, study hours, daily periods of manual labor,
religious exercises and meals occupied most of the time. Davis
Prudden wrote to his brother in 1837: "For this week I have been
obliged to spend 24 hours in the recitation room, debate twice,
read and write a composition. Besides working 3 hours daily,
spending 3 hours more daily in public prayers and other necessary
duties. But there is one consolation in regard to it, that it
learns the habit of hard study when I do study.
His sister, Nancy Prudden, gave a detailed
account of a typical day in the life of a young lady in the
Preparatory Department of the Oberlin Institute in the same year.
"Perhaps you will wonder how my time is occupied so that I can
spare no more of it to write," she explained to the folks at home.
"I will give you a description of my duties through the day. At
five o'clock in the morning we are awakened from our slumbers by
the ringing of the large Institution bell which is the signal for
rising, fifteen minutes from this time the small bell is rung for
one of the young Ladies to leave her room, that the other young
Lady may have half an hour alone to spend in devotion, at the
close of this half hour the first young Lady returns to her room
while the second leaves it. Thus each young Lady can enjoy the
privilege of private devotion. After that, breakfast, then work,
at nine, either lecture, or recitation, from ten to eleven
recitation in History, from eleven to twelve study--dinner fifteen
minutes after twelve. At one meet Mrs. Cowles in the sitting room,
then work again, recitation in Arithmetic at 3, from 4 to five
study, at 5 practice Calisthenics, entering and leaving the room
courtesying etc. Fifteen minutes before 6 prayers, then supper,
then work, study hours at eight. At half past nine the bell rings
for the young Ladies to retire, and thus ends the day.
The rules of the Boarding House adopted by
vote of the young ladies provided that all should rise at five in
the morning and retire at ten in the evening. Among the "Duties to
be performed" listed by the Female Principal in her notebook were:
"Devote half hour in the morning to private devotion"; "Present at
table, morning Noon, Night"; "Room in order at eight o'clock";
"Punctual at labor"; "No calling in study hours"; "Not going to
the pantry or bakeroom without a reasonable excuse." Mrs. Cowles
was the Principal at the time and the meeting with her after
dinner was the occasion for reporting and explaining
"failures"--infractions of the rules.
The routine had changed very little when
described by another young lady student nearly two years later: "I
have just come from the kitchen where I have been scouring knives.
Every day immediately after breakfast and dinner, you may imagine
me in the kitchen, engaged with several young ladies in scouring,
or washing knives and forks. This is all the work I have. At nine
o'clock we all have recitation in the Bible .... From 10 to 12 I
am generally engaged in studying. After dinner we all meet Mrs.
Henry Cowles in the sitting room, where we spend about half an
hour, then we work until nearly two o'clock. From that time until
4 I am employed with my book, or at work for myself. From 4 to 5 I
recite in Geography. From 5 to 6 all the students both male and
female are assembled in the dining hall for evening worship, after
which we take our supper, which generally consists of bread and
butter or milk, or for a rarity we have jonny cake and milk and
sometimes hulled corn and milk, and it is all very good. After
supper I study, or work again, till 7. From 7 to 8 I recite in
Arithmetic. As this recitation is in the evening I cannot attend
any evening meetings, or singing school, which renders it very
unpleasant. We hope, however, to have the hour changed in a few
days. So you see that every hour in the day is taken up. I think
the winter will pass away pleasantly, and I hope
profitably."
Writing in 1842 Elizabeth Maxwell lamented
her tardiness: "Saturday morning I did not get up till 5 o'clock
and it took me until half past six to dress, sweep the Assembly
room and attend to devotion, then 'twas breakfast time and at
seven I commenced work which kept me till half past eight, then
came up to my room & studyed till 12, 3 hours and a half to
get 3 lessons, at 12 went to dinner, half past to the sitting room
as usual to 1 o'clock, then a recitation in Greek in the Chapel,
at two Arithmetic at Tappan Hall, at 3 Composition class in the
Assembly room, at 4 writing class in Oberlin Hall, at 5 History of
Rome which we are reviewing for examinations in the
Ass[embly] room. At 6 prayers, half past supper, 7 work
half an hour, and then I was almost tired out."
Lucy Stone took naturally to the full
schedule, which she described to her parents: "I want to tell you
how I spend my time, so that you can think of me, and know each
hour of the day what I am doing. I rise at five o'clock, and am
busy until six taking care of my room and my person. At six we go
to breakfast, which, with family worship, lasts until seven. Then
I go and recite Latin until eight; from eight to nine recite
Greek; from nine till ten, study algebra; from ten till eleven,
hear a class recite Arithmetic; from eleven to twelve recite
algebra; from twelve to one, dinner, and an exercise in the
sitting room which all the ladies are required to attend. From one
to two, hear a class recite arithmetic; from two to five I study;
five to six we have prayers in the chapel, and then supper. We
study in the evening. These are the duties of every day except
Monday, which is washing day. In the afternoon of Monday, from
three to four, I attend composition class. In addition to what is
done during the other days, we have, every Tuesday, to go to the
Music Hall and hear a lecture from some of the Ladies' Board of
Managers--this from three to four o'clock. Every Thursday there is
a prayer meeting which we are all required to attend." The Tuesday
afternoon lecture gave an opportunity for the Female Principal and
others of the Ladies' Board to discourse to the young ladies on
morals, manners, and domestic science.
The original laws of the Institute provided
that the "Hours of Labor, Study, Food, and Devotion shall be
arranged by the Faculty to meet the change of Seasons, provided
that the Students are required to labor 4 hours daily, Study 8
hours except the time be employed in religious Services, Keep
their beds from 10 o'clock P.M. to 5 o'clock A.M. and are
permitted to retire at 9 o'clock P.M. & rest till 5 A.M. if
they please, and have allowed them at least a half hour in the
morning and as much in the evening for devotion." The routine for
male students varied in detail from that of the young ladies.
There was, of course, no meeting with Mrs. Cowles for them. In the
early years they met together for prayers in the chapel at six in
the morning in addition to private devotions and prayers (or
chapel) again in the afternoon. The teaching force was so pressed
for time that classes were held not only in the evening but, in
one instance at least, at five o'clock in the morning.
Charles Livingstone, the explorer's
brother, gives an excellent summary of the male student's day in a
letter written in the spring of 1840: "We rise in the morning some
at 4, mostly all up at 5. Then you may hear the voice of prayer in
every room. At 6 o'clock we assemble in the chapel for prayers; a
chapter is read by someone of the professors; a hymn sung by the
choir .... Then, when we come out of the chapel, Breakfast bell
tolls. This is about half past six. There is a large hall capable
of seating upwards of 200 students at meals. I don't board in the
hall but at Mr. Burnells. Then my recitation of arithmetic at 7,
Geography at 8, & Grammar at 11, all large classes. Dinner
bell at ten minutes past 12. Go to work at two till six when we
all assemble in the chapel for evening prayers. Half past six
supper bell tolls. After supper Mr. Benham [his room mate]
and I read a chapter and pray to our Heavenly Father. Then we
study till 9 or ten, then go to bed. You will be taking a laugh at
my expense I think at rising so soon when Janet recollects so much
trouble she had to get me up to be at the warehouse at 8." Young
Livingstone was still in the Preparatory Department at this
time.
Students of the fifties also led busy lives
and arose before the birds. One student wrote to her mother in
1852: "I have learned to get up early. Monday morning I was up at
three and washing." "Time spent here," she wrote to a friend the
next year, "is filled up with a great variety of exercises. Indeed
I know no leisure after Monday morning until the following
Saturday evening. It is certainly harder work than teaching can
possibly be. But there is a reward up in life's future years, well
deserving our energies here." Church on Sunday, washing on Monday,
General Exercises on Tuesday and Thursday Lecture were the
outstanding events of the week for the girls of this period. Mary
Gotham was a special music student. "You probably would like to
know something about what I am doing," she wrote to a former
classmate "Well! I will give you my regular week's business: I
have to go to church twice on Sunday and hear the longest dullest
sermon you ever heard. Monday I wash, read Composition, and
rehearse pieces. Tuesday my lessons begin. I practice music from
seven to eight, have a recitation from eight till nine, one from
eleven till twelve, practice from one till two, then four go to
General Exercises, to Prayers at five. Wednesday the same
excepting General Exercises. Most always have a lecture on
something that hour. Thursday the same, with the exception of
Thursday lectures. Friday we have no lecture. Saturday a bible
class at ten."
John G. Fraser had budgeted his time. He
noted in his dairy in 1865:
"Thursday. As Prof. gave us a scheme to
time ourselves by, I have concluded to get up an opposition
trusting to the comparative merits of the two and the impartial
judgment of mankind--
Prof. Penfield
|
My Plan
|
|
|
Get up 5.00
|
6.20
|
Dress 5.00-5.30
|
6.20-6.30
|
Milking
|
6.30-7.00
|
Breakfast 6.00-7.00
|
7.00-7.50
|
Study 7.00-9.50
|
|
Recitations 9.00-12.00
|
8.00-11.00
|
Study
|
11.00-12.00
|
Dinner 12.00-1.00
|
12.00-1.00
|
Exercise 1.00-3.00
|
1.00-2.00
|
Study 3.00-5.00
|
2.00-4.30
|
Milk
|
4.30-5.00
|
Miscellaneous 5.00-6.00
|
5.00-6.00
|
Supper 6.00-7.00
|
6.00-7.00
|
Study 7.00-9.00
|
|
Cut up
|
7.00-9.00
|
Retire 9.30
|
9.15"
|
|
|
For the most part he followed his schedule
fairly closely, studying, attending classes and milking "as
yewzhuaul," but now and then there were days when he didn't "feel
very studious," as in July of the same season: "Scrabbled around
and kinder got my lessons this morning. Got all-one of the Ex.s in
Calc. and was not called on once. Got tired of studying this P.M.
and went up to C. E. W.'s and persuaded him to go down to the
Depot; then to p.o. then to library (drew two books by proxy, Easy
way. You don't have the trouble of reading them), thence back to
the house with the milk, thence to supper, thence to Society,
thence back again, and at the present time (10.10) I am engaged in
writing in this Journal. Have spent a respectable kind of day,
though I don't feel as though I had done much. Don't feel very
studious. Bad. bad."
It is perhaps characteristic of students to
be proud of being busy and to desire to impress their parents and
friends with their long hours and heavy duties. This seemed to be
the purpose of one youngster who wrote home in 1867: "My
recitations were changed yesterday and now I recite Grammar at 8
P.M., Elecution [sic] at 1 P.M., attend Law Lecture (in
the commercial) from 2 P.M. until 3 P.M., and from 3 P.M. until 4
P.M. Arithmetic, from 4 till 5 Musical Union (free), and lastly,
from five till 6, prayers in College Chapel. Then I go and get my
crackers and strong butter. It keeps me humping to get my lessons
you better believe. I usually get up about half past four or five
and study until called for hash and slop called Coffee and then
start for class."
Allowing for the tendency to exaggeration
it is safe to condude that the Oberlin student's time was pretty
fully occupied even after required manual labor had been
discontinued.
As religion played a large part in the
thought of students and teachers, religious services occupied a
considerable portion of the busy weekly program. Attendance at
chapel was required of all. The By Laws of 1834 provided that:
"There shall be daily public prayers in the Institution Morning
and Evening under the direction of the Faculty, at which all the
Students shall regularly attend, except those who for sufficient
reasons may be excused by the Faculty, and those exercises shall
be attended by the reading of the Holy Scriptures."
Morning chapel was an asceticism practiced
only in the early years. The faculty voted to allow the young
ladies to have morning devotions in the Boarding House as early as
1836. Public morning prayers were entirely discontinued in the
early forties. Prayers consisted of reading from the Bible by a
professor and the singing of a hymn. The faculty members
officiated "in the Chapel in alphabetical order--the first each
morning during one week,--the second each evening during the same
week, thus going through the list." This did not mean that all of
the teaching staff attended all services. It was looked upon as an
innovation when in 1860 "the Faculty took upon themselves the duty
of attending the daily college prayers in a body." Though there
was certainly nothing of irreverence there must have been some
informality in the chapel meetings of the early years, for Charles
Livingstone wrote to his parents in 1840: "Some come to chapel
without their coat and napkin. Others have a thin linen jacket.
Some stand up when they get tired sitting." Morning chapel, in
particular, must have been somewhat characterized by that general
sleepiness and preoccupation with secular matters so prevalent in
college chapel exercises of a later era.
As we have seen, opportunity was afforded
to all for private devotions in their rooms. Morning religious
service in the boarding hall was substituted for public chapel.
Every meal was first consecrated by a prayer. Classes were opened
with prayer and sometimes with the singing of a hymn. A special
young peoples' prayer meeting was usually held on Monday evening,
and class prayer meetings were held on Tuesday or Sunday. A
religious lecture was delivered on Thursday afternoon. Then there
were two church services on the Sabbath.
The Monday evening meetings were the center
of active religious life for the more pious students. These
meetings seem not to have been under supervision but depended on
the spontaneous religious interest of the student body. "This
evening," wrote one pious young girl in the mid-fifties, "Young
Peoples Meeting was peculiarly interesting. God was there and our
souls received much good. I enjoy these meetings so very, very
much, I told them tonight of God's goodness to me. I love to
speak. I feel so much at home." A little later she commented:
"Monday in the evening was Mon. prayer meeting. I enjoy and value
it more than any other meeting in all the week. Mr. Barber says
this is because of its social nature. He, Mr. Barber, and I walked
together from meeting to the corner." Mr. Barber was certainly
quite right, for religious gatherings of this type furnished, as
they often have, much-needed social recreation.
Class prayer meetings do not seem to have
been held continuously nor under uniform arrangements. In the
forties the faculty sponsored prayer meetings "on Sabbath evening
for each department of the Institution." In 1852 a number of
"Ladies who are members of the school" petitioned the Ladies'
Board to be allowed "to meet in circles Sabbath evenings for
religious conversation and prayer." The Board agreed that they
should be "permitted to do so but are recommended to return to
their homes before 8 o'clock." In the following year each of the
rhetorical classes was expected to meet once on the Sabbath for
Bible study in addition to the Bible-study classes during the
week. In 1859 a prep student wrote in his journal: "I have been to
our class prayer meeting this evening. It is probably the last one
we shall have. I wish I could have my heart as warm at all times
as it is at these meetings, but my studies seem to drive out the
thought of religion and it is very often hard to get my thoughts
back again to it." The following year in a period of normal but
not unusual religious interest, Professor Fairchild reported to
the trustees: "Weekly prayer meetings have been maintained in all
the classes, attended by some member of the Faculty, or by the
teachers of the classes. In the Theological Department a daily
prayer meeting is maintained for several weeks during a portion of
the spring term, with considerable interest."
From 1852 until 1864 there were fairly
regular meetings of the Students' Missionary Society of Oberlin
College. An address or addresses on missions and the taking up of
a missionary collection were the essential features of such
meetings. Returned missionaries furnished most of the speakers. S.
G. Wright and Alonzo Barnard told of their experiences with the
northwestern Indians; J. M. Fitch, Loren Thompson and Bigelow
Penfield described conditions in Jamaica; George Thompson and
Albert Bushnell reported on Africa; other speakers contributed
inspiring accounts of mission work from Siam, India, the Sandwich
Islands, Kentucky and Kansas. In 1859, "Rev. R. G. Wilder, who has
spent twelve years as a missionary in India, entertained a large
audience for an hour and a half by giving a description of some of
the horid [sic] customs of the Hindoos." The collections
taken up were usually devoted to the work of the American
Missionary Association, of which the Students' Society was an
auxiliary. These collections were sometimes comparatively small,
on one occasion in 1862 being only $3.03 "together with a lead
pencil from Father Keep which he promises at some time to redeem."
At another meeting, however, between sixty and seventy dollars was
raised.
Thursday Lecture (a week day sermon) was a
survival from Puritan days. The College and the church cooperated
in paying the expenses of the meeting and there was considerable
disappointment if the attendance of townsmen as well as students
was not large. In 1843 the Prudential Committee urged the Oberlin
business men to close their stores during the period of this
service (3-4 P.M.). Usually members of the faculty were the
preachers, but occasionally outsiders appeared, as when in 1856
Horace Bushnell preached an anti-slavery sermon. Many of the
lectures must have been deadly, leaving little or no impression on
the students' minds. "I went over to Thursday lecture," Mary
Cowles wrote in her diary. "Mr. Patton and Sarah went with me;
there not the sermon but my own thoughts did me good. I listened
little to the former, but much to the latter."
Nor were all activities at Thursday Lecture
on the program. In the middle sixties a sprightly young coed wrote
to a former classmate: "I read your letter in Thursday lecture.
(We have to go to the church yet. Is it not mean?) . . . I giggled
audibly & showed it to Beck, who did likewise. I glanced
across the room and caught W's eye. It had a sort of amused,
enquiring look in it that tickled me more than ever." There was
even more going on on another Thursday.--"You know that side
seat," wrote the same young minx, "all along the church next to
the wall? Nell, Em, Frank S., Louise Clark, Miss Clary, Lot
Blackney & ever so many of us sat on that seat, as it was the
only one vacant. Just across from Lot, sat Miss Brigham. (Mira's
classmate) We were all laughing and whispering .... What should
Miss B. do but write a little note to Ladies & hand it to Lot?
It was a request to stop whispering as it disturbed her so she
could not hear the lecture. Lot passed it clear up & down that
seat--nearly the whole length of the church. When it came to me I,
not knowing who wrote it & supposing it was Louise, wrote on
the paper, 'We follow your example.' I soon found who wrote it,
but before I could help myself they had handed it back to her, not
before they had written lots more on it. Miss B. felt dreadfully,
cried ever so much. Said she only meant it for Lot & the girl
next her, begged pardon E. F. & I, &c, &c. She is
going to report those girls."
All students were required by the rules to
attend "the weekly religious lecture." Students were also required
to attend church services twice (sometimes there were three
sermons) on the Sabbath. The rule adopted in 1834 was never
changed in any vital way in our period. It provided that, "The
officers & Students of the Institution will attend worship on
the Sabbath with the Congregational Society in Oberlin. Any
student of a different religious denomination from the
Congregational Society in Oberlin, if of age, on his own request,
and if under age, at request of his parent or guardian, may attend
worship on the Sabbath with any other religious denomination by
leave of the Faculty, provided his attendance with such other
denominations shall be regular." As for some years no other
religious denomination was represented in Oberlin all of the
students must necessarily attend the Congregational services. Even
after the establishment of the Episcopal church and other
religious societies the great body of young people continued to do
so.
Attendance at divine services was certainly
not an onerous duty for most students. Many had come to Oberlin
because of its reputation for piety and others found it convenient
to conform to majority opinion. The meeting house was the finest
building in Oberlin, one of the finest in the region. There was
always a large crowd present and the singing of the choir was
impressive. To the farmers' sons and daughters all of these things
were very wonderful. "It is the largest church that I ever saw,
and it is crowded full every Sabbath," wrote one. A young lady
explained enthusiastically to her mother: "Now, about our church,
there is but one, and we all go twice on sunday. It is a rather
splendid affair, will seat about three thousand persons they tell
me. If you could hear the singing you would call it sweet music.
Today there were about seventy in the choir. There were two base
[sic] viols and some other music besides and several
negroes too."
A boy from New York State saw surprising
resemblances between Oberlin and New York City: "Every hour when
the bell rings the streets every way are thronged and remind me of
Broadway. At church yesterday I should think there were over
twenty five hundred people and still the house was not full. There
are more people attend here every sabbath than there are at
Broadway Tabernacle and this Church will seat nearly as many as
that. The Choir numbers over a hundred choice singers for no one
can enter it without going before a committee chosen for the
purpose, and showing himself to be independent alone. The
Professor of Music in the College leads the choir and their
singing is very fine. Then add to all this, Finney in the pulpit
and Oberlin is a very attractive place on the Sabbath .... Every
Sabbath he winds up with an appeal to the feelings and then
invites the anxious ones forward. Yesterday after preaching he had
the front seats cleared and about two hundred came forward, but
the excitement was not so high as it was a week ago & Finney
has commenced lashing the Church to pay for it."
No academic year was really successful
which was not marked by a special season of revival among the
students. The Christianizing of students having been long
recognized as a chief purpose of the American College, the Day of
Prayer for Colleges was instituted in the 1820's as a season of
fasting and special prayer, "that God will pour out his Spirit on
the colleges of our country." It was hoped that these "Concerts of
prayer" would stimulate student revivals, and such was often their
effect. As early as 1839, if not previously, the practice was
copied in Oberlin and February 28 was set aside as a day of
special supplication for American colleges. The opening of the
spring term was believed to be a time peculiarly propitious for
stimulating a revival. The exercises of the day usually consisted
of a general meeting for prayer and conference in the morning and
preaching in the afternoon and evening. President Finney often
delivered the sermons, calling the students' attention to the need
of a new consecration of all schools and colleges to the
missionary and evangelistic cause. "The young should renounce
worldly ambition and follow Christ in this work," he told them one
year. "College students should organize to keep up this spirit."
As college work was opened after vacation by the Day of Prayer so
it was closed in the autumn by the special Thanksgiving services,
when gratitude was expressed to God for His grace during the past
year and intercession made for the protection of the students
while at their tasks as teachers during the coming
winter.
Revivals among the students were almost
yearly and sometimes seem to have grown out of the Day of Prayer.
Often classes would be suspended and all time devoted to prayer
meetings, experience meetings and occasional sermons. The revival
of February, 1840, was the result of the second known Day of
Prayer in Oberlin. The revival of July of 1841 grew out of a
period of prayer for rain. Neither Finney nor Mahan were present
and the movement began more or less spontaneously among the
students. Prof. James Thome wrote to Theodore Weld:
"A more powerful work of grace has perhaps
never been witnessed in O. It broke out about a week ago in the
preparatory dept. and is extending through all the departments.
The theological brethren have been much blessed.
"The work still goes on with deep power.
Bros. Finney and Mahan are both absent, attending the convention
at Rochester, still the revival makes a mighty headway. In many
cases the recitations are suspended, and the hours of recitation
are devoted to prayer. Prayer meetings are held day & night in
several different places. The voice of prayer & the song of
praise may be heard of evenings through the entire
place.
"Praise the Lord for his wonderful goodness
to usward. To day the sisters have a fast and general prayer
meeting."
At about the same time a student wrote
enthusiastically to his father: "The Lord is doing a mighty work
in this place. The class to which I belong have a prayer meeting
together every sabbath evening. Last Sab. evening the Spirit of
the Lord was poured out in a powerful manner & the whole class
prostrated before God .... Our class have spent the week in
meetings & self examination ... The work has spread from one
class to another until the whole place seems to be solemn on
account of the presence of God."
Professor Morgan declared, "I never in my
life I think, witnessed such proofs in the simplicity,
earnestness, and confidence of prayer, of the presence and power
of God's spirit." Weeks after the beginning of the movement the
editor of the Evangelist declared: "At the time of writing this
the interest is deepening and extending. All feel it to be a work
of God. Brethren, pray for us." During much of the time scholarly
activity was suspended. There were undoubtedly many, who, like
James H. Fairchild, raised the question: "Is this sustaining the
literary character of the Institution?" but answered that
question, as he did: "If there be such a thing as the reality of
religion . . . all other things are and must be subordinate to
it." Oberlin was always ready to recognize the subordination of
all other things to piety. Certainly the students were not likely
to be less pious because revivals sometimes resulted in the
omission of classes.
CHAPTER
XLV
LITERARY
SOCIETIES
THE nineteenth century was the great age of
popular oratory, and no college or academy was complete unless it
had two rival literary or debating societies. Oberlin, being
coeducational, usually had at least four--two for each sex. The
Oberlin societies differed from similar societies in other
institutions in that no element of secrecy was involved. Oberlin
men and women believed that secret societies were undemocratic and
endangered republican institutions. At least from as early as 1847
students were explicitly prohibited from joining secret
organizations.
Two men's literary societies destined to a
long history of friendly rivalry were organized in 1839. The one
was first known as the Dialectic Society. When finally chartered
in 1844 by the state legislature, after much opposition from the
Democratic pro-slavery element in that body, it was arbitrarily
given the title of the Young Men's Lyceum. This continued to be
its name until 1859 when it adopted the Greek letters Phi Kappa
Pi. The rival organization was first known as the Philomathesian
Society and was made up at first mostly of freshmen, whereas the
Dialectic was recruited exclusively from the upper classes. In
1841 an unsuccessful attempt was made to form a third society. The
members of this abortive organization joined the Philomathesian
and the new name of Union Society was adopted. In 1854 the Union
Society became the Phi Delta.
These societies met at first in various
recitation rooms in Oberlin and Tappan Hall. In 1841, however,
they joined with the Musical Association to build the Music Hall.
The hall was a very plain building with one large room used for
the regular music classes, for the meetings of the choir and of
the men's literary societies. Professor George N. Allen collected
the funds for its construction on his own responsibility. He
persuaded the Prudential Committee to contribute about $100 in the
form of the proceeds of the sale of the old mill--if he could
collect it. The two men's literary societies contributed about
$200 together. About the same amount was solicited and collected
from colonists. The Musical Association raised another hundred
from the sale of tickets to concerts. Professor Allen contributed
largely from his own pocket. In 1847 the Musical Association moved
to the choir of the church. Three years later the literary
societies gave up their claim to the Music Hall and received a
room in Tappan Hall again, instead. When the new College Chapel
was built in the late fifties the society room was transferred to
this new building.
To the Ladies' Literary Society belongs the
honor of having the longest continuous history, though at various
times its existence hung by a thread. It was founded in July of
1835 at a meeting in Cincinnati Hall (a men's dormitoryl),
declared to be devoted to "the promotion of literature and
religion" and first christened "The Young Ladies' Association of
the Oberlin Collegiate Institute." In a formal statement prepared
especially for the attention of British philanthropists in 1839, a
committee of young ladies reported the purpose and activities of
this association:
"We have connected with our Seminary, a
Literary & Religious association, in which capacity we meet
frequently and each one in turn, according to appointment, writes
and communicates to us her thoughts on some important and
interesting subject. We hold correspondence with many
distinguished and pious ladies of our own and other lands and with
some who have left for pagan shores, by this means we collect much
valuable information and often have our spirits
refreshed."
The Young Ladies' Association of the
Oberlin Collegiate Institute received a new lease on life from
Lucy Stone and Sallie Holley in the middle forties. (It is, of
course, untrue that Lucy Stone founded it, the society having been
in existence for eight years when she came to Oberlin.) The name
was officially changed to the Young Ladies' Literary Society in
1850, and in 1867 it became the Ladies' Literary Society or L. L.
S. There were periods when this organization was almost defunct.
It reached a particularly low state in 1848 after the graduation
of Lucy Stone. There were other years when the scantiness and
dullness of the minutes lead us to conclude that the society was
in a state of more or less suspended animation. In many meetings a
large part of the program was omitted due to the absence of the
performers. The period of the sixties was one of reviving interest
and energy. In 1852 or 1853 a second ladies' society was
organized, named the Young Ladies' Lyceum, and by 1856 was an
active and ambitious rival of its sister society. In 1861 this
society adopted the name Aelioian.
The ladies' society met in the early years
in the attic of Ladies' Hall, an unfinished room with long
backless benches like those used in the dining room. The young men
presented the society with a stove, and later a carpet and chairs
were obtained. In 1865 the two ladies' societies moved into a fine
new room in the New Ladies' Hall.
There were other minor, shorter-lived
societies. As the regular societies did not ordinarily admit prep
students, young men in this department sometimes had their own
organizations and argued and orated to their hearts' content in
imitation of their elders. In 1844 the students and faculty of the
Theological Department formed a literary society and regularly
elected Professor John Morgan president, at least through 1851.
Founded as the Theological Literary Society the second adjective
in the title was dropped after 1857. H. E. Peck and C. H.
Churchill were active members, and J. Mercer Langston, the negro
lawyer and politician, was secretary for one year. Other
secretaries were G. F. Wright, the scientist-theologian, and W. E.
Lincoln, one of the Rescuers. During the winter vacation of 1849
the stay-at-home faculty formed a literary, society. "Your father
and I," wrote Mrs. Henry Cowles to her step-daughter, "are
attending this winter the weekly meetings of a Literary Club,
composed of the following individuals--Professors Morgan, Hudson,
Dascomb, Fairchild, Messrs. Hill, Cowles, Tutors Hodge and Whipple
and their Ladies, Tutor Penfield, Miss Tenney & Miss Wyett. We
meet at the several houses of these individuals by rotation, and
occasionally by invitation go early and take supper. Two hours are
usually occupied with compositions and declamations and the
remainder of the evening with general conversation. I think them
profitable and pleasant."
College literary societies of the
nineteenth century always prided themselves on their libraries and
many a college library of today (including that of Oberlin
College) owes much to the contributions from the literary
societies. The Union Society became active in book-collecting in
the early fifties, managing to wheedle a number of volumes,
probably government documents, out of both William H. Seward and
Salmon P. Chase. In 1853 Professor Peck promised the Young Ladies'
Literary Society twenty dollars worth of books if each member
would read one book during the ensuing year. In 1854 and 1855 the
Phi Delta Society took the initiative in forming the College
Literary Societies' Library Association. In 1857 the library
established by this organization, supported by the joint efforts
of the Phi Delta and the Young Men's Lyceum, was made a regular
depository for United States Government documents. In the
following year it could report over eight hundred volumes: 185
volumes of history, 223 of poetry and general literature, 143
volumes dealing with the arts and sciences, 67 volumes of
theological works, and 179 volumes on "Jurisprudence," the last
mostly government documents. Lectures were sponsored by the
association as a means of raising money, but, though these
lectures may have enriched life for the listeners, the financial
results were not satisfactory. In 1860, 1200 volumes were
reported. Only about three hundred volumes were added in the next
three years.
In 1859 the two ladies' societies resolved,
following the example of the men's societies, to form the Ladies'
Society Library Association. The book committee immediately
proceeded to Fitch's book store and bought Motley's Dutch
Republic, Tennyson's works in two volumes, and Irving's
Washington. Mr. Fitch contributed a discount of $5.00 on the total
purchase price of $13.75. On a purchase of $26.00 worth of books
at Goodrich's they received a discount of $10.00. It might have
paid the men's association to hire a committee of young ladies to
make their purchases. In about a year and a half they had
assembled between three and four hundred volumes. Eventually the
College Societies' Library Association and the Ladies' Society
Library Association were merged in the Union Library Association
and their libraries united. Later their combined collection was
absorbed in the College library.
The literary societies engaged in another
joint activity, the publication of a college magazine. As early as
1846 the Young Ladies' Association had planned a publication to be
known as the Oberlin Ladies' Banner. A committee was appointed to
obtain the consent of the Ladies' Board and the faculty, but
returned at the next meeting to report that "the measures of the
society respecting the publishing of a paper were totally
disapproved." It was in the autumn of 1858 that the Phi Delta
Society proposed the publication of a monthly magazine through the
joint efforts of the four college societies--"to be of 40 pgs.
same size and style as the Atlantic." Early in October an
agreement was reached and the first number of the Oberlin
Students' Monthly was issued under the date of November, 1858. For
the next two and a half years this ambitious periodical made its
appearance regularly every month, each number containing from
thirty-five to forty pages of essays, stories, editorial comment,
Oberlin news, book notices, poetry and musical compositions. "In
general," commented the Evangelist in 1859, "it fairly represents
the ability and energy and aims of the students of the
college--their habit of thinking upon whatever concerns mankind
and of saying what they think--usually with earnestness, often
wisely and well."
Its contents certainly, in general, compare
very favorably with student magazines produced in Oberlin in more
recent years. It roused strong criticism from the Yale Literary
Magazine, however, whose editors took offense at an unfavorable
comment on their periodical in the columns of the Monthly. After
all, the Yale editors declared in a leading article, the Oberlin
publication was not strictly a student enterprise as it contained
articles by graduates and faculty. They were also inclined to be
rather supercilious about the Monthly's preoccupation with
religion, morals and politics, the inclusion, for example, of
"long editorials on the 'Dred Scott Decision,' 'Popular
Sovereignty,' and 'Stephen A. Douglas'--a rehash of what has been
in the country papers for the past year or two." But one can
hardly imagine an Oberlin publication of this era not being
concerned with slavery and reform.
The Students' Monthly was brought to a
sudden end by the outbreak of the war. In one of the last issues a
poem appeared entitled "The First Gun," commemorating the firing
on the Star of the West. Another bombardment in Charleston Bay in
the next month brought on real civil war and in Oberlin spelled
the end of the gymnasium and of the Student's Monthly. The last
number issued is dated April, 1861.
During this same pre-war period the Oberlin
literary societies joined with the societies of other colleges in
the publication of an intercollegiate magazine: The University
Quarterly: Conducted by an Association of Collegiate and
Professional Students, in the United States and Europe. The
periodical, published at New Haven from January, 1860, through
October, 1861, contained news and essays from students in
thirty-odd colleges and universities in the United States, Germany
and England. Oberlin items are in a prominent place. The only
other western schools represented at first were Antioch and
Beloit. Later the names of Marietta and the University of Michigan
appeared.
Meetings of the literary societies were
limited to Wednesday evenings by an order of the faculty passed in
1839, but when two societies used the same room, one of them had
to meet on Tuesday evening. Meetings began all the way from 5:30
to 7 P.M. Those who were tardy or absent were fined 6 1/4 cents, 5
cents, or sometimes 10 cents. The faculty at first recommended
that meetings should close at or before 9:00 P.M., but in later
years the regular closing hour was 9:45 or 10 P.M. Ordinarily the
societies met every week. For a short time, however, the Young
Ladies' Association, at the request of Mrs. E. P. Burke (the Lady
Principal) and Mrs. Dascomb, who felt that "the young ladies were
very much pressed with study . . . and needed . . . more time or
less duties," voted to meet only every other week.
All meetings began with roll call and
prayer and sometimes with the singing of a hymn. The literary
program would include essays, orations or declamations and usually
a discussion. The critic gave the criticism of the program
immediately after or at a subsequent meeting. Regular and
miscellaneous business (or as one secretary spelled it:
"messalanious bussiness") took up a great deal of time, sometimes,
in fact, to the entire exclusion of the literary program. In the
men's societies there seemed to be a more argumentative spirit.
Sometimes even the motion to adjourn would be debated, amended,
laid on the table, and taken up again before the meeting could be
brought to an end. Discussion played a much more important part
than it did in the women's societies, the young ladies favoring
set essays, poems, and declamations. One of the commonest subjects
for discussion in the ladies' societies was: "Is discussion worth
while?" In 1852 it was moved at a meeting of the Young Ladies'
Literary Society that discussion should henceforth be omitted from
the regular exercises. After a long debate the motion was voted
down.
The most important item of regular business
was undoubtedly the election of officers. This took place in most
cases every month, and so, as there were a goodly number of
offices, everybody stood a good chance of being elected to
something at least once a year. These officers practically always
included a president, vice-president, recording secretary,
corresponding secretary, treasurer and critic. The president was
required to give an inaugural address and sometimes an
"exaugural," so succeeding presidents filled a considerable part
of the total program. In the Young Ladies' Literary Society in the
fifties it was one of the duties of the vice-president "to prepare
the room for the meetings of the society." This would seem to be
an excellent solution to the great question, "What should the
duties of a vice-president be?" In the Union Literary Society,
however, the office of sexton (whose duty it was "to ring the
bell, light the lamps, keep them in order, make the fires and
attend to the general comfort and neatness of her Room") was
auctioned off to the lowest bidder. In 1843-44 this appointment
went at the low figure of $3.75, which may explain why at a later
meeting of the same year "the Sexton neglected to build a fire"
and a volunteer had to perform the service
gratuitously.
All applicants for membership were voted on
and occasionally the decision was in the negative. Members of the
men's societies were required to be enrolled in the Collegiate
Department. At first "any young lady" could become a member of the
Young Ladies' Association by subscribing to the constitution, but
later both of the ladies' societies limited their membership to
young ladies in the College, the Ladies' Course, or the Senior
Preparatory Class. Colored students seem always to have been
welcome. Lucy Stanton and Fanny Jackson were active in the ladies'
societies; George B. Vashon, the first Negro graduate, W. C.
Whitehorn and J. M. Langston were prominent in the men's
societies. Elizabeth Maxwell, who attended a meeting of one of the
men's societies in 1842 reported that "a colored man read an
original poem exquisitely grand."
Another important matter of business was
the grand question of badges. The Young Men's Lyceum in 1850
considered a "blue satin ribbon one inch in width & three
fourths of a yd. in length."
Four years later a gold key was recommended
as more suitable. The Phi Delta adopted a pin with "a delta
crossed by a phi and . . . engraved [with] the date of
organization and also of incorporation." The members of the Young
Ladies' Literary Society appeared at the 1857 anniversary
exercises wearing "blue and white rosettes . . . in front of the
left shoulder."
There were many matters to be settled with
regard to the equipment and care of the society rooms. In 1843 the
Union Society appointed a committee "to see that there be no more
holes made in music hall." Nearly two years later a motion "to
cover the opening in ceiling with glass was lostl" Resolutions
which called for the expenditure of money were likely to be
defeated. A motion "to purchase a box to serve as a wood box for
the Soc. Room" introduced at a meeting of the Lyceum "was lost by
a majority of one." When, at a March meeting of the same society,
the attention of the members was called to the fact "that it was a
cold day and wood was needed . . . and also that seven panes of
glass were needed for the windows," it was moved that the sexton
be empowered to purchase the required wood and glass. The motion
was laid on the table, however, and the shivering but economical
members proceeded calmly to debate the question whether inmates of
penitentiaries should be paid for their labor! Then there was the
great problem of lights. In 1854 the Ladies' Literary voted to
instruct the treasurer to procure a supply of candles. Two years
later the ladies' society room was equipped with lamps and an
agreement reached between the two societies whereby each society
"would pay for one of the two lamps and each furnish one half of
the fluid." At an even earlier date the president of the Union
Literary Society "appointed a committy to enquire the price of two
young Chamdoliers." The men's societies also had joint problems
with regard to their meeting place. Consultation between them
seemed to be required for: "obtaining a border for the walls of
the room," "getting two drawers put into the desk," "procuring a
sweeper or duster," removing the clock, and making "a more
suitable disposition of the Bust of Chase (S.P.)." The painting of
"Demosthenes on the Sea Shore," presented by the artist A. H.
Pease to the Union Society in 1842, must have complicated the
question of the location of this "Bust of Chase (S.P.)." At a
meeting of the Lyceum in 1858, "It was moved and seconded that the
Board of Directors be instructed to purchase Worcester's
Dictionary in conjunction with the Phi Delta Soc. It was moved to
amend this motion by inserting, 'and two spitoons' after the word
'dictionary.' The amendment was lost." Undoubtedly the amendment
was considered funny, as Oberlin students did not smoke or chew,
at least on so public an occasion as a literary society meeting.
At a meeting of the Aelioian in 1863 it "was moved & carried
that the young ladies come together on Saturday, June 13th at 1 of
the clock and mend the carpet."
There were often applications for excuses
from taking part in the exercises or from attendance "on account
of pressure of study," "because he had to milk," or "on account of
domestic duties. At one meeting of the Union Society so many
members asked for excuses that one young man "moved an adjournment
sine die." The pessimist was voted down. Occasionally some one
asked for an honorable dismission, which was also occasionally,
though not often, refused. Graduating members were regularly
dismissed and usually made honorary members. Taxes of a few cents
were now and then levied to meet small expenses. Fines were the
usual method of punishment, because of their financial advantage
to the society. It required a special vote of the Union Society
"to refund 6 1/4 cts. to Mr. Weed, having been fined by mistake."
More drastic disciplinary measures were sometimes used, however.
In 1848 Sallie Holley was expelled from the Young Ladies'
Association because she "had not fulfilled her duties faithfully
as a member of the society." She was later readmitted.
Resolutions of sympathy and sorrow were
drawn up and adopted on the occasion of the death of a member. The
Lyceum "lost one of its most valuable members and the cause of
truth an earnest advocate." The Young Ladies' Literary Society
took "pleasure in remembering the lovely example and christian
character of the one 'not lost but gone before.'"
Except for a short-lived coeducational
society which met in the winter terms of 1859-60 and 1860-61, the
men's and the ladies' literary societies were always separate. In
the early years guests of the opposite sex were allowed to visit
meetings, but later this privilege was limited to the occasions of
special public exercises.
The debates of all the societies, often
dealt with the "woman question," the advisability of coeducation,
and marriage problems. When in 1855 the Young Men's Lyceum debated
whether "the sexes ought to be educated under the same course of
study," the secretary reported that "a fiery discussion ensued."
There must have been an equally warm debate when the same society
considered the resolution, "That no college student until the
senior year should dabble in matrimonial affairs" and when at an
earlier date the members of the Dialectic discussed the question:
"Should students form matrimonial engagements while persuing their
studies?" The young ladies, too, entered the field. In the fifties
questions for debate included: "Is married life more conducive to
a woman's happiness than single?" whether "the marriage relation
is essential to the happiness of mankind," and whether "it is
proper for ladies to make proposals of marriage." The ladies'
societies naturally spent more time in discussing women's rights
than did the men's societies. Woman suffrage was before the ladies
repeatedly. It is unfortunate that the two sexes could not have
joined in some of the debates; they would have been undoubtedly
less one-sided: "Resolved that the intellectual ability of ladies
equal that of gentlemen," "Resolved that ladies have a right to
debate and declaim in public," "Resolved that women should enter
the medical profession." The ladies voted in the affirmative on
the last and would probably have done so on the others had a
ballot been taken. The men also occasionally discussed similar
subjects: "Resd, That for equal labor, the wages of women should
be the same as those of men . . ." and "Resolved that it is right
for women to attend as delegates the great conventions on
Temperance, Anti-slavery, Religion, etc." The tendency on the part
of some of both sexes to ridicule feminism is apparent in the
burlesque subjects debated in the Young Ladies' Literary Society:
"Resolved that Betty the cook's discoveries are of more advantage
to society than the discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton," and
"Resolved that women should be allowed to sing bass!"
The literary program often included essays,
poems and orations as well as a debate. The ladies sometimes
omitted the debate and the young men in later years often devoted
the whole evening to it. Usually some subject was presented for
general discussion once a month or occasionally.
That there was a tendency for the young
disciples of Demosthenes to soar is clear enough from the titles
of some of the essays and orations: "Life More Solemn Than Death,"
"Sublimity of Nature," "What Needs the Soul in Affliction,"
"Whither Are We Tending?" and "Instability of Earthly Pleasure."
Perhaps some of these were trial balloons for commencement essays.
Of course the subjects were infinite in variety: "The Secret of
Success," "The Asylum for Idiots at Columbus," "The Willow and
Dewdrop," "Boil Your Peas," "Is Art a Perfect Medium?" "A Trouting
Excursion to Plumb Creek." In 1856 George W. Andrews read an essay
before the Young Men's Lyceum on "Whiskers." Extempore speeches
were often inspired by immediate surroundings: "Our Clock" and
"The Bust of Chase."
Student interest in the stirring current
events of the periods is clearly shown in some of the debate
subjects:
1840--"Resolved that the U. S. Bank should
be immediately rechartered."
1842--"Ought the United States to render
assistance to Texas under existing circumstances?"
1849--"Has the War with Mexico resulted in
any good to the United States?"
1849--"The recent discovery of Gold in
California a curse (or a blessing) to our Country."
1850--"Resolved that the extension of
territory is beneficial to this nation."
1850--"Ought Christians to obey the new
Fugitive law?"
1850--"Ought Webster to be hung?"
[After the Fourth-of-March speech.]
1850--"Resolved that the United States
government ought to provide a homestead for every man who does not
now possess one."
1852--"Resolved that the recent publication
of Mrs. Stowe will be productive of more good than the efforts of
Anti-Slavery lecturers."
1852--"Resolved; That it is the duty of
anti-slavery men to separate themselves from the old parties (whig
and Dem.) and vote with a third party."
1854--"Resolved that the question of
slavery extension should be left to the inhabitants of the
territories."
1854--"Resolved that the people of
Massachusetts would have been justified in resisting the forces of
the United States and detaining the Slave Burns in freedom by
violence."
1855--"Resolved, that Utah should be
admitted into the Union with a constitution allowing
poligamy."
1855--"Resolved that the avowed principles
of the Know Nothing Society are consistent with the principles of
the American Government."
1855--"That the Friends of progress have
reason to rejoice in the success of the Allies at
Sevastopol."
1858--"Resolved, That the citizens of
Kansas should resist the Lecompton Constitution."
1858--"Resolved, that it would be expedient
for the people of the U. S. to support Stephen A. Douglass for
Pres. in the next Pres. Campaign."
1859--"Resolved that it is the duty of
citizens of Oberlin to forcibly resist the Fugitive Slave Law,
henceforth and forever." (The Rescue Case was on at this
time.)
1860--"Resolved, That Jno Brown should have
the sympathy of true friends of freedom."
The ballot taken on the last question
resulted in 14 ayes and 12 noes.
Of course the slavery question took up much
of the Oberlin students' attention. The popularity of this issue
is evident from the subjects just listed. Topics which were
definitely propagandist in nature were also debated. In 1840 the
Dialectic Association debated the question: "Would it be
practicable to extend the right of suffrage to the colored men of
this nation, were they all emancipated?" A discussion as to
whether "the Constitution of the United States [was] a
pro-slavery document" was "engaged in with considerable animation"
at a meeting of the Young Men's Lyceum in 1849. The young women of
the Young Ladies' Literary Society debated a few years later
whether a slaveholder could be a Christian. Just before the
outbreak of the war one of the men's societies took up the problem
of inter-marriage between the races: "Res, That the amalgamation
of the white and black races in this country is feasible, proper,
and should be encouraged." This was a dangerous subject, even in
Oberlin.
As early as 1836 the Young Ladies'
Association put on a dialogue on slavery, and one young lady
representing a slave blackened "her face, neck and hands with
smoked cork," and "took cold on account of having her neck
exposed." Mrs. Alice Welch Cowles opposed such a demonstration
because she believed it was contrary to "good taste for young
ladies to appear in any coloring, except what nature had given
them." She was overruled by the majority of the Ladies' Board,
however, despite the fact that she had the support of the Lady
Principal, Mrs. Dascomb, and the "colored" girl participated in
the dialogue. In later years there were enough members of Negro
extraction to make such resorts to artifice
unnecessary.
Other reforms came in for occasional
consideration also. There was "a some what lively discussion" when
the desirability of maintaining a standing army in time of peace
was considered. Discussions of the peace question seem usually to
lead to conflict. Prohibition was a practical issue in the
fifties. In 1852 and 1853 both the Young Men's Lyceum and the
Young Ladies' Literary Society debated the advisability of
adopting the Maine Liquor Law in Ohio. Socialism and communism had
made little impression on Oberlin students so far, but one of the
men's societies in 1851 considered the question: "Resolved, That a
general and equal distribution of property would tend to benefit
mankind." Of the various issues involved in the moral reform
movement the question of the theater and the reading of fiction
attracted the most interest: "Is the reading of fictitious works
injurious to the mind? .... That the inherent tendency of the
drama is to vice," and "Resolved that Theatres might be made
agencies in moral reform." The works of Byron caused considerable
worry. "Is the reading of Byron & Shakespeare beneficial to a
student preparing for the Christian Ministry?" This was the
difficult problem thrashed out at a meeting of the Dialectic in
1843. At a later date somebody presented a copy of Byron's works
to the library of the Ladies' Literary Society Library
Association. The men of the Phi Delta were disturbed about the
influence that such reading might have upon their "sisters" and
raised the question whether "the works of Lord Byron ought to be
excluded from the Ladies' Library."
Religion furnished an almost unlimited mine
of subjects for debate, especially suitable because never settled:
"That the light of nature is sufficient to prove the existence of
the Deity," "Is an inebriate accountable to God for the crimes he
commits while intoxicated? .... Resolved that inferior animals
have a future existence," "Resolved that the Noachian Deluge was
universal." The new revelations and "isms" of the period
contributed excellent and timely programs: "Res., That the General
Government ought to suppress by force the Institution of Mormonism
in Utah," and "Resolved, That the Rappings [near
Rochester] are worthy of confidence as revelations from the
Spirit World." The Catholic question was much in the public eye
and Oberlin students discussed such matters as: "Ought the
government of the United States to adopt any measures to prevent
the increase of papacy in the Country," and "Res., that catholics
should receive their share of public money [for schools]."
George W. Andrews, uncle of the late Oberlin organist, and S. P.
Millikan, father of the scientist, took part in the debate on the
latter issue.
Scientific and pseudo-scientific subjects
were settled off-hand in an hour or two of perhaps eloquent but
usually totally uninformed debate. In 1859 the Phi Kappa Pi
Society "went into committee of the whole to discuss the ques. of
the plurality of worlds. After an animated discussion the chairman
. . . reported that the Com. had discussed the question without
coming to any conclusion." The next year the same society spent an
evening debating the question: "Resolved that the undulatory
theory is the true theory of light." The rival society conceded
one session to the consideration of the nebular hypothesis. The
young ladies of Aelioian were attacking an equally difficult
though more mundane problem when they debated whether "Roosters
crow in the morning from observation [or]
instinct."
The young ladies' societies discussed some
subjects of peculiar interest to their sex and seldom, and never
formally, debated by their brothers: "Resolved: it is a good thing
to have lady clerks in dry-good-stores," "Resolved that domestic
happiness is enhanced by housekeeping," and "The comparative
merits of sweeping, cleaning, baking, and dusting." Many sessions
were devoted to the always-enthralling subject of feminine attire:
"That a frequent change of the fashions is a benefit to the
world," "That ladies do not sufficiently cultivate taste in
dress," "That laced stays are beneficial," "That large Sunbonnets
are a nuisance," "That Hooped Skirts are a nuisance," "Would it be
for the advantage of our Country to have a National Costume
established by law?" Bloomers were discussed in the Young Ladies'
Literary Society at no less than four separate meetings. A few
Oberlin girls actually wore bloomers but to the vast majority it
never became a practical problem.
The college life around them contributed
many "discussable" propositions. "Resolved that the Natural
Sciences should be substituted in the regular college course for
the Dead Languages" aroused much partisanship. There were other
live questions of a similar nature: "Is it advisable that the
faculty of Oberlin College should introduce the study of the
Modern Languages into the College Course? .... Ought Hebrew to be
left out of the collegiate course? .... Resolved that reciting
from books is more beneficial than reciting from notes," and
"Resolved that mathematical studies are of more practical benefit
than linguistic studies." They even dared occasionally to discuss
matters of administration: "Resolved: That the long vacation of
this Institution should occur in the summer," and "Resolved that
the young gentlemen of the Inst. ought to be subject to the eight
o'clock rule." It was one of the young ladies' societies that
offered the latter suggestion!
Considering the avowed literary nature of
the societies it is surprising that so few debates dealt with
truly literary matters. There were some, however: "Resolved that
the influence of the writer is greater than that of the orator,"
"Resolved that the popularity of a literary work is an evidence of
its real merit," "Resolved that there are greater causes for
producing literature now than there were in the reign of Queen
Elisabeth," "Is Criticism on the whole beneficial to Literature?
.... Whether the times of ancient Greece and Rome were more
favorable to the production of poetry than the present," "The
comparative merits of the Dictionary of Webster and the Dictionary
of Worcester." In the latter debate Webster's carried off the
palm.
There were also a good many entirely
unclassifiable topics, concocted by the youthful imagination to
meet the unlimited demand for subjects for debate. It was the
Young Men's Lyceum which took up the question whether or not dogs
ought to be taxed, but it took the ladies of the Aelioian to spend
an evening arguing the pros and cons of whether "a cow is better
than a dog." The ladies' programs also included: "Resolved that
yesterday is past and can never return," "Resolved that two little
trunks are preferable to one large one," and "Resolved that it is
never best to indulge in the Blues." The cosmopolitan character of
the Oberlin student body made it possible for two young Scotchmen
(Livingstone was one.) to debate with two Yankees the question:
"Does Scotland furnish more interesting associations than New
England?" There was enough of the strutting patriotism of the time
in Oberlin to suggest "that America is more than a match for Old
England in everything," but undoubtedly some of the British
students came valiantly to the defense of Britannia. In the
sixties the young men of Phi Kappa Pi considered (we hope with
candor) the problem: "Is the increase of education favorable to
the growth of eloquence."
From 1861 to the end of our period the
Civil War furnished a large proportion of the problems debated:
March 19, 1861
"Resolved that the sentiment, 'The
Union must and shall be preserved' embodies the policy that
should be pursued in the present crisis."
July 16, 1861
"Resolved that dissolution without
Slavery is preferable to union with Slavery."
November 12, 1861
"Resolved that the Administration
did right in deposing John C. Fremont." (A vote taken on this
question resulted in a tie.)
March 11, 1862
"Resolved that the rebellious
States if they shall be subjugated should be reduced to the
condition of territories."
March 25, 1862
"Resolved that Gen. McClellan
ought to be relieved from his command of the Army of the
Potomac."
April 7, 1863
"That persons uttering disloyal
sentiments ought to be dealt with as traitors." (Negative
decision.)
November 11, 1863
"Resolved that our government does
right in removing Generals." (This from the ladies!)
March 1, 1864
"Res'd that Abraham Lincoln should
be renominated for the Presidency."
April 4, 1865
"Should the Government furnish men
and means to educate the freedmen?"
May 2, 1865
"Resolved that the Military
leaders of the Rebellion, who will take the oaths of
allegiance, ought to be allowed to remain in this country
unmolested."
All of the societies adopted resolutions of
"sorrow and grief" upon the assassination of Lincoln, whom one of
them described as "an Honest man, a Representative man, the
Emancipator of Millions, the Preserver of the Union, and a Leader
whose virtue, wisdom and administrative acts place him side by
side with the Father of his Country." In June the Phi Kappa Pi
held a mock trial of Jefferson Davis and found him guilty of high
treason.
As a rule the society minutes are dry and
sterile, particularly those of the ladies' societies.
Occasionally, however, the wit of a secretary broke through the
formalities, and the reader gains a glimpse of the actualities of
society meetings and of the genius of the recorder. In 1843 J. H.
McClelland referred to "a season of small talk and altercation as
usual," but at the next meeting this "offensive portion [of
the minute] was voted to be expunged." It is, nevertheless,
still legibleI Such was too likely to be the fate of frankness.
One very informal meeting of the Young Men's Lyceum was recorded
in informal style and the minutes allowed to stand. There must
have been other meetings of a similar character.
"Owing to the Term being so far advanced
the house was small.
"The season was late and the attention of
the Pres. was called to the fact of the extreme looseness of the
ventilator over northwest door in Soc. room. A suggestion was
acquiesced in to come down from the presidential chair and take a
seat by the stove.
"Thus arranged the remains of the 'Young
Men's Lyceum,' its true friends, those who 'stuck to it to the
last,' proceeded to the transaction of business. First, the
calling of the roll was omitted. The Sec. was unable to find
minutes of the last meeting which in the hurry of the occasion had
been neglected by the absconding Sec. It was understood to be the
evening for general discussion but the Soc. had no disposition to
engage in discussing the question before the house. It was thrown
overboard and then followed motion after motion which is not our
purpose to transcribe. Soc. became loquacious. Every one talked
but the Sec.
"The only remarkable thing which was done
was to adjourn which some member was happy enough to
move."
Descriptions of society meetings by
visitors are rare but, of course, generally more enlightening than
official minutes. Mary Dascomb described an interesting meeting of
the Theological Society in a letter to Professor Monroe in 1863:
"I attended an interesting exercise in the Theol. Society Wed.
night. After an animated discussion of the 'wine' question, in wh.
all took the right side [!], and gave their reasons, an
extempore exercise took place, highly beneficial I shld. imagine.
A topic and name were given by each member, and when the Pres.
drew a name, the owner thereof had to come forward, take a topic
from the mass, and speak on it five minutes immediately: 'Who was
Melchisidec,' 'was the Flood universal,' 'Nature or Art, which is
ahead,' 'Unity of the Human species,' 'Matrimony &c,' were
well treated." Similar extemporaneous programs were not unusual in
the other societies. One of the societies, however, debated the
question whether "the habit of extemporaneous discussion is an
evil one."
Seldom did the secretary have the temerity
to comment on performance as in the middle forties when the
minutes of one meeting of the Union Society state that "The
Exercises opened up with a superlative richness, which did honor
to those who performed a part, as well as to the Soc." It was the
duty of the critic to do this, and the critic has performed a
service of great value to posterity in giving us an unusual
insight into the actualities of society meetings. One critic
"complained that the gentlemen did not pour themselves out
sufficiently," and another commented on a debate of the middle
sixties: "Mr. N.'s remarks were evidently written out and
committed--they certainly were well written. They deserved a
little more vim and naturalness in delivery .... Mr. Pond's arm
movements had too much of a slashing character to be graceful . .
. Mr. Jeakin's eyes were cast down too much of the time. Every
speaker needs the magnetic fire which he draws from the eyes of
his audience."
Whispering and other irregularities were
not uncommon. At a meeting in 1860 "the chairman reported a good
discussion with some disorder." The personal encounter which took
place between two members in the Mock House of Representatives
held by the two men's societies in 1861 was probably due to
emulation of the real body at Washington. Of a regular meeting of
the Phi Kappa Pi in 1866, however, the critic reported: "In
general we feel compelled to say that there is an abundant lack of
good order in our society. The attitudes assumed by some members
of the society--e.g. a full length extension on a sofa--are
probably very comfortable, perhaps very striking, but positively
very unbecoming. If a man is sleepy he had best go to bed and pay
his fine." He noted a "Senior asleep on the back seat" and a
"Junior located as follows, head in one chair, feet in another,
corporal frame in a state of suspension between, toothpick in
mouth engaged in reading; highly respectful both to the Society
and the speaker." In commenting on another meeting the critic
wrote: "Those of us who have taught school have doubtless been
annoyed by the oft-repeated query by the youthful idea 'please may
I gowout?' Thirteen youths were seen to leave the society last
week. We would suggest to the president that he apply the old rule
'only one to be out at a time.'" At a meeting of the Theological
Literary Society in 1845 the secretary reported that, "some
slipped out before the exercises were through and others stood a
long time with hats in hands, as if very impatient, all which
tended to create an uneasiness among all the members of the
society present and almost render it impossible for a good effect
to be produced."
Neither is it to be supposed that programs
were always carried out according to schedule. Very often some, or
even occasionally all, of the speakers and debaters were absent or
had failed to prepare. The Young Men's Lyceum adopted the policy
of bluffing the orators into action. In 1849 they authorized a
certain Mr. Parker "to appoint members to take part in the
colloquy, and to enforce them in the name of the Lyceum to commit
their parts and to rehearse them a sufficient number of times to
render them able to perform their parts with credit two weeks from
this night." Two years later a "motion [was] made to
sternly command the speakers at the Anniversary to have their
pieces prepared for rehearsal in one week from that time." Often
members who failed to fill their allotted appointments were fined.
In 1847 the Theological Literary Society voted that "those who are
delinquent . . . shall be marked by the president, and reported by
the chairman of the committee of assignments, to the treasurer, as
obnoxious to a fine." The same rule was adopted in Phi Delta, but
one of the members of that society "preferred to pay to the
treasurer of Soc. twenty-five cents than to bore it (the
Society)."
The period of the sixties saw the men's
societies attacked by an epidemic of mock meetings of various
types. In 1860 came a Mock Republican Convention, in 1861 a
session of a Mock House of Representatives, in 1862 a Mock Cabinet
Meeting, and in 1865 a mock trial of Jefferson Davis. The Mock
Convention is significant because it served as a precedent for a
long line of illustrious succeeding conventions. Though it lasted
two days it seems to have been a comparatively unpretentious
affair, held entirely under the auspices of the Phi Delta Society.
There seems to be no record even of who the nominee was. The final
minutes read: ". . . The society went into Committee of the whole
to nominate a President and Vice-President of the U.S., since
which time it has not been heard of." The Mock House of
Representatives which convened under the joint auspices of the Phi
Delta and Phi Kappa Pi was a much more ambitious and elaborate
project. The session lasted through six nonsuccessive days.
Representatives were selected for the various states roughly
according to population; the House was organized with A. B.
Nettleton as speaker (to represent the Hon. Frank P. Blair, the
choice of the Oberlin boys), twelve standing committees were
appointed and considerable business taken up. The President's
message was received and discussed; a compromise between the North
and the South was debated but voted down by 18 ayes to 24 noes,
and a motion to recognize the Southern Confederacy was tabled and
then taken up and negatived. The Mock Cabinet Meeting held at a
meeting of Phi Kappa Pi in 1862 was evidently a minor event. The
mock trial of President Davis, however, was described by the News
as "spirited and ably-conducted." There was a large audience in
attendance at each of the sessions. The paper continued: "Much
skill and ability, and no little amusement, were manifested in the
conduct of the trial, which resulted of course, in the conviction
of the arch traitor for treason. The unexpected and exciting
mock-tragedy, at the close of the trial, in which a band of
desperadoes rushed in to rescue their doomed chief, was well
carried out, and the whole affair was pronounced a decided
success."
The societies, singly or jointly, invited
outside speakers to appear before them in public meetings during
the year or at Commencement. They uniformly selected the most
distinguished names: John Greenleaf Whittier, Horace Greeley, Mark
Hopkins, S. P. Chase; and these gentlemen almost as uniformly
declined the invitations. A member of the faculty would finally be
called upon; Monroe would speak on some phase of the slavery
question or Penfield would deliver his address on "The Latin
Language and Literature." There were exceptions, as when in 1852
C. C. Burleigh, the radical abolitionist, addressed the societies
jointly. In 1861 the two men's societies inadvertently invited two
men for the same Commencement, and, as luck would have it, they
both accepted. In the end both James A. Garfield (then at the
Western Reserve Ecclectic Institute and a member of the Ohio
Legislature) and the Reverend Edward Beecher (the former president
of Illinois College and then a pastor at Galesburg) were heard,
though on different evenings.
Each society usually held one special
meeting or "exhibition" each year known as the "Anniversary." The
Anniversary differed from other meetings in that the program was
longer, interspersed with special music ("Mr. Pease and Sister,"
ran the minutes of one annual meeting of the Y. L. L. S.,
"relieved the audience with a Song, 'The Old Oak Tree.'"), open to
the public and the pieces more carefully prepared. These meetings
were held in the Music Hall, the Chapel, or the Church and were
looked upon as among the really important events of the college
year.
Preparation for the Anniversary involved
not only many hours of worry for the performers but the joyous
labor of decorating the place of meeting. James H. Fairchild wrote
of a semi-annual meeting of the Y. L. A. in 1859: "The Chapel
seemed like a grove of evergreens. The orchestra was occupied by
the singers (young ladies) so concealed among the pine trees as to
be almost invisible." The "ladies and gentlemen" usually joined in
the work of decoration, making of it a social event in itself.
"Spent some time to-day," one student confided to her journal,
"with a number of young ladies and gentlemen, wreathing flowers
and evergreens to decorate the chapel [in Colonial Hall],
for the Anniversary of the Lyceum." It was the music and the
decorations which gave to these anniversaries their special
flavor.
At first, Anniversaries were held at most
any time, in March, in June, in September and in August.
Eventually the faculty insisted, however, on confining them to
commencement or examination week. The societies were not easily
reconciled to this arrangement, and when in 1853 the Musical
Association was allowed to hold a public meeting in term time the
men's societies were stirred almost to rebellion. The Young Men's
Lyceum passed resolutions denouncing such favoritism, and the
Union Society went so far as to vote to "withhold patronage from
the concert" to be sponsored by the Musical Association. A
committee of the faculty came down to a later meeting of the
society, however, and overawed them into expunging the
resolution.
In the late fifties and sixties the two
college men's societies would sometimes join in Union Exhibitions
and often united in plentiful "collations." In 1860 the Young
Ladies' Literary Society proposed to hold a collation after their
anniversary but this proposal was negatived by Mrs. Dascomb. For
the men, however, such feasts were the order of the day. In 1858
the members of the Lyceum and some invited guests enjoyed "a
sumptuous oyster supper" followed by "sentiments and speeches."
The Phi Delta and Phi Kappa Pi held a joint collation in 1859
which a reporter called "The Great Event of the nineteenth
century." "After a feast of fat things, (oysters et cetera,)
[continues the account in the Monthly] in the getting up
of which the committee manifested exquisite taste, and in the
getting down of which all manifested very exquisite appetites; the
company was regaled with another feast--of sentiment, toasts,
poetry, music and eloquence." The toasts included: Music, The
Legal Profession, The Republican Party, The Students' Monthly, The
Sophomore Class, Oberlin, John Brown, and the Ladies' Literary.
The toast to the Sophomore Class was: "A band of 'United
Brethren'--first in play--first in study--and first in the hearts
of the ladies." And to "Oberlin: Born on the soil of poverty,
rocked in the cradle of persecution, now enjoying a glorious
triumph over all; her College the home of the poor, the patron of
Progress, the fortress of Truth: its students--the gentlemen,
beaux-ideal of true manhood; the ladies, belles-real of all that
is lovely."
At a joint meeting in 1862: "The Committee
on lemonade through its chairman Mr. Day assisted by the other
members of the committee brought in a report of well-prepared
lemonade which by general consent was temporarily laid on the
table."
Such convivial meetings often closed with
singing, if not "Auld Lang Syne," then, a society song:
For the Truth and our
banner, we are ready to die
Right and true is the heart of the Phi
Kappa Pi.
CHAPTER
XLVI
MUSIC IN OBERLIN
TO George Nelson Allen more than to any
other man belongs the credit of giving music the place it had, and
has, in Oberlin. He was a student and apostle of Lowell Mason of
Boston.
Mason was not only a teacher and a teacher
of teachers, but a compiler of song books and a composer and
arranger of hymn tunes, and is remembered by many people more for
the music for "Nearer, My God, to Thee," "My Faith Looks up to
Thee," and "Greenland's Icy Mountains" than for his work as an
educational reformer. Over a million copies of Mason's song books
were sold. This combination of music teacher, song-book compiler
and hymn-tune composer was repeated in each of that group of men
more or less directly associated with Mason in this period and
usually known as the New England School of hymn writers. Among
these, and all later influential in one way or another in Oberlin,
were: Thomas Hastings, Finney's friend from Utica, who wrote the
music for "Rock of Ages," compiled several important collections
of songs, directed music at the Broadway Tabernacle, and was later
associated with Mason in a school for training music teachers in
New York; George James Webb, Mason's partner in Boston and author
of the music of "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus"; William B.
Bradbury, composer of Sunday School songs and disciple of Mason;
Benjamin Franklin Baker, Mason's successor as teacher of music in
the Boston schools and compiler of the Haydn Collection of Church
Music, and the mild and pious Isaac B. Woodbury, one of the most
popular of the composers of his day and the compiler of widely
used collections of choruses, especially the Cythara and
Dulcimer.
George N. Allen was a true disciple of
Lowell Mason. For over a generation he taught music in the Oberlin
Institute and College and, like his better-known associates,
compiled a song book, The Social and Sabbath School Hymn Book,
first published in Oberlin in 1844, and composed several hymn
tunes, the best known of which is Maitland, the tune usually sung
with the words of "Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone." Like his
prototypes, too, he was renowned for his piety.
Allen, however, was not the first teacher
of music in Oberlin. The honor of having been the first Professor
of Music in an American college belongs to Elihu Parsons
Ingersoll, who was born at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and
graduated from Yale College in 1832. After studying a year at the
Auburn Theological Seminary in central New York he returned to
Yale, graduating from the Yale Seminary in 1835. By 1833 he had
become one of Finney's satellites, which probably accounts for his
appointment in 1835 as "Professor of Sacred Music" in the Oberlin
Collegiate Institute at the time of Finney's coming to Oberlin in
1835. He served in that position one year, resigning in the summer
of 1836 to become associated with Father Shipherd in the ill-fated
Grand River Seminary in Michigan. The next year the faculty
instructed Professor Morgan to write to a certain Lewis Bradley
with regard to his accepting the professorship. It was also
determined to make indirect "inquiries regarding Bradley's piety."
His appointment was later recommended but Mr. Bradley never came.
Professor Finney was always intensely interested in church music
and was somewhat of a musician and singer, himself. It will be
remembered that as a young lawyer he was directing the church
choir at Adams at the time of his conversion. Probably he deserves
considerable credit for the introduction of the teaching of music
in Oberlin.
It was during the academic year of 1836-37
that George Nelson Allen, of Boston, transferred from Western
Reserve College to Oberlin. This transfer seems to have been the
result of the clash between Allen's liberal opinions on reform and
religion and the views held by the college authorities in Hudson.
Allen had taught a singing school in the same town. One of his
pupils wrote him early in 1836: "There are many who deplore the
unhappy circumstances that make it necessary to take this step.
[The closing of his singing school by the college
officials?] We feel as if the spirit again called forth, was
the same that banished Mr. Green, and the lamented Storrs
[reform members of the faculty], and though we do not know
how to be reconciled to the loss of every choice spirit that is
raised up, yet we know Hudson is not worthy of them, and it is
better to go where their worth can be appreciated. You may be
assured that the members of your singing class, are grateful for
your faithful instructions, and very much regret that they can
enjoy them no longer." The next year when "The students . . .
requested advice in regard to employing G. N. Allen, who had
applied to teach a Singing School in Coll[ege]," the
faculty of Western Reserve "Resolved that they be not advised to
employ him."
Allen was enrolled in the Collegiate
Department at Oberlin for one year and in the Theological
Department for two years. In 1837 while still a student he became
the "Teacher of Sacred Music" in the Institute, at a salary of one
hundred dollars. He served the Institute and College for
thirty-three years: as Teacher of Music from 1837 to 1841 and
Professor of Music from 1841 to 1856 and again from 1858 to 1864
and as Professor of Geology and Natural History (1848 to 1871) and
Secretary and Treasurer (1863 to 1865). In addition to his other
duties he was also Principal of the Preparatory Department from
1842 to 1846.
Young George Allen, living in Boston before
coming to Western Reserve College, may very likely have attended
the Boston Academy of Music and certainly would have come under
the influence of Lowell Mason. Whatever the course of Allen's
earliest musical training we know that in the winter vacation of
1838-39 he attended one of the conventions for music teachers
which Mason had inaugurated in 1836. While he was away Enoch Noyes
Bartlett, a student in the Theological Department, substituted for
him, teaching music at a shilling and a half an hour. In February
of 1839, Allen wrote from Boston: "I have, during my stay here
this winter, been taking lessons on the Piano-Forte and violin and
attending other instruction in music under Professors Mason and
webb,--with a view to preparing myself to be more useful in this
department." Allen introduced Mason's method, ideas and singing
books at Oberlin. After his return from Boston the classes in
vocal music became increasingly popular. The 1839-40 Catalogue
stated: "Instruction in sacred music is free to all. Not far from
one hundred have attended the regular classes in this department."
The next annual Catalogue gives the number of music pupils at 250
and the year after it was announced that, "Systematic instruction
[in Sacred Music] has been given to upwards of four
hundred pupils, including a large class composed of children of
the citizens of the village." Allen also often led singing school
during the winter vacation and was for many years the guiding
spirit and first chorister of the Oberlin Musical Association,
later the Musical Union.
The regular instruction was supplemented by
occasional conventions. In October of 1851 Professor Mason,
himself, took charge of a musical convention in the meeting house.
Particular attention was given in this convention to "the manner
of correctly performing the different styles of Church Music." In
the summer of 1855 a convention was held during commencement week
under the direction of Professor I. B. Woodbury. Those who took
part were expected to aid in the regular commencement concert,
also directed by Woodbury. Of the other musical leaders mentioned,
Hastings and Baker also later visited Oberlin, the one as a guest,
the other as a concert director.
There was a tendency among the pious to
frown upon most instrumental music. About the only instrumental
music heard in Oberlin in the early years was the accompaniment to
the choir and other choruses--a bass viol alone, or with violins,
cellos, and sometimes a parlor organ called a "seraphine." Allen
had written from Boston, while studying there under Mason,
suggesting the purchase of a piano: "Is it not desirable that
there should be a Piano-Forte connected with the Institution? Can
you encourage me any in making the purchase? Will the Institution
be able to appropriate money for that object within two years
say--a part if not a whole? Or will the Institution so favor me
with respect to my support in consideration of my services as
teacher of music, that I can assume the responsibility myself? My
own opinion is that there ought to be a piano connected with the
Institution." A piano is said to have been established in one of
the buildings of the Institute a year or two later, but whether
purchased by Allen or with funds furnished by the school is not
certain. Considerable opposition was aroused by what was looked
upon by some as the worldly character of such music. At a meeting
of the trustees in 1841 a resolution was actually passed "that it
is not expedient to introduce Piano Music as a branch of
Instruction in the Institution." Five years later William Dawes
offered his resignation from the Board of Trustees partly because
"a vast amount of time, and money [had] been expended for
fashionable amusements and accomplishments, such as Piano Music,
Dress, etc., etc."s
In the early forties the trustees generally
kept a close watch for fear that worldly music would supplant the
pious and moral variety. In 1841, when Allen was appointed
"Professor of Sacred Music" it was also "Resolved that it is the
sense of the trustees in the appointment of Mr. Allen that the
style of Sacred Music taught in this Institution be in accordance
with what is understood to be the style of the Manhattan
Collection or of Thos. Hastings." The following year a committee
including Amasa Walker, President Mahan and Father Keep was
appointed "to wait upon George N. Allen to confer with him
respecting the pieces as well as the style of music generally
adopted by him."
Beginning with 1849-50 there appears in the
Catalogue the announcement that, "Instruction in Instrumental
Music can also be had at moderate charges." The 1853-54 Catalogue
carefully explains, however, that "Instruction in Instrumental
Music forms no part of the course of this Institution," this
despite the fact that the Ladies' Board had in the previous year
appointed "a committee to confer with the Faculty on the propriety
of having Piano Music under the control of the officers of the
school." This Catalogue last cited continues, nevertheless, to
announce that, "ample facilities are here afforded, WITH EXTRA
CHARGE, to those who wish instruction in instrumental music. In
this department special pains have been taken during the past year
to provide suitable instruments for practice, and to procure
thoroughly competent teachers, while at the same time the terms
are as moderate as can possibly be afforded." The tuition for
instruction in piano was placed at $8.00 a quarter. It is quite
clear that the "Department of Instrumental Music" was under the
general administration of Oberlin College even though such
instruction may have formed "no part of the course." The expansion
in the catalogue announcement corresponds with a parallel
expansion in the work offered. Writing in 1855, George Allen
refers to a committee which was named by the faculty "to establish
or inaugurate the Dept. of Instrumental Music" and which appointed
him "superintendent to provide instruments and
teachers."
A disagreement between Allen and other
teachers and members of the administrative staff, largely over the
question of finances, led to his resignation. Professor C. H.
Churchill took his place both as Professor of Sacred Music and as
Superintendent of the Department of Instrumental Music in 1856-57.
The arrangement made with Professor Churchill is given at length
in the minutes of the Board of Trustees and gives an excellent
idea of the work expected of the Professor of Sacred Music in
Oberlin College:
". . . In the department of Music he is
expected to teach the vocal classes as they have been taught
heretofore by the professor in that department: he is with the
concurrence of the Church and the Oberlin Society to take charge
of the Choir and the arrangement of the music for the Sabbath and
give one or more public concerts of music annually under the
direction of the faculty and will have charge also of the
instrumental music, the avails of which last services is to be his
own. In the department of mathematics he is to teach an amount
equivalent to one recitation per day. Of his compensation, $200 is
to be drawn from the Professorship fund; $100 is expected to be
paid by the Oberlin Society for his services in the choir on the
Sabbath as well as for the teaching given to the children of the
Society in vocal music in connection with the students, which
amount is by agreement to be paid to the trustees of this College
for this purpose; and $300 it is expected will be raised by one or
more public concerts the avails of which are to go to the said
trustees to be by them paid towards his salary."
The "Professor of Sacred Music" was clearly
more than a mere college professor; he was a community official.
In 1857-58 the position was vacant despite the offer made to
Professor Babcock of Boston. In 1858 Allen resumed his teaching of
music in addition to his professorship in Natural History, and was
granted a regular salary of $600 by the College.
A great impetus to appreciation of and
interest in instrumental music was given by the building of the
organ in the Oberlin meeting house. The first public performance
on this organ was given on March 6, 1855. The editor of the
Oberlin Evangelist was ready some months later to give it official
approbation: "We are now prepared to say that we regard this organ
in its place, and used judiciously, as a valuable auxiliary to
religious worship. It has great compass, admits a wide range of
modulation, and holds all its immense resources subject to the
will of one man. In this latter respect it has a great advantage
over a large band of performers on small instruments. The melody
of its tone is unrivalled. Indeed, it seems to us, in this
respect, to leave nothing more to be desired. No instrument can
have the power of expression which God has given to the human
voice; but so far as mere melody of sound is concerned, the organ
seems to have come as near perfection as it is given mortals to
attain." It is probable that there were some who were never quite
satisfied with the use of the organ in meeting and there must have
been even more who were occasionally reminded of Mr. E. M. Foote's
remark that after a solemn sermon the organ should never seem to
say, "Hurrah boys, meetin's out."
That there was already a demand for musical
instruction of a higher order in the West is certain. In 1848 a
young lady wrote from Kentucky asking to be admitted as "a member
of the ensuing term, for the purpose of studying Music." Two years
later Mathias Day wrote from Mansfield, Ohio: "Forty Pianos are
heard groaning and sputtering all over town. And quite frequently
as I pass up and down the streets I see through an open window
some doomed little prodigy turning her eyes impatiently towards
outdoors and wishing her lesson was over. Now to the question."
The upshot of his letter was that he desired to secure a music
teacher from Oberlin who could give private piano lessons and in
addition play the church organ for a salary of seventy-five or a
hundred dollars. It seems that the church didn't have an organ as
yet but the members were "almost persuaded" as one was offered to
them "on very favorable terms which is said to be a very good one
and the owner of it says that if we won't buy it he will put it up
and let us play on it at any rate--quite liberal! The next
question is who will play it? We have no one in our congregation
who can murder music quite scientifically enough to manage the
machine so that it [would] do us about as much good as a
one horse cart." Soon there were many ambitious young musicians in
Oberlin, though many of them doubtless philosophized as did Mary
Gorham in 1853: "It is very dull to thump upon a piano for an hour
at a time and play no tune, but if I keep athumping perhaps I will
do something some day." Already in the 1850's the way was being
prepared for the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.
The center of Oberlin's musical life was
the Oberlin Musical Association which changed its official name to
the Oberlin Choir in 1856, and to the Oberlin Musical Union in
1860, under which name it continues at the present date? This
organization is one of the oldest musical societies in the West,
dating as it does from 1837.
In February of that year seven young men
petitioned their "Beloved Instructors," the faculty of the
Institute, " . . . in behalf of a number of students, who feel
deeply interested in the cause of Sacred Music,
"1st. That a Society may be formed whose
object shall be to elevate the standard, and improve the style of
church music in this Institution.
"2nd. That a committee of three may be
appointed by the faculty to examine individuals, and to recommend
those, who possess the necessary qualifications, as worthy of
membership; and that no one unless thus recommended, be permitted
to belong to the Society--
"3rd. We feel that without the hearty
approval and cooperation of the faculty, we cannot, we wish not to
do anything. If, therefore, they can recommend the formation of a
Soc. as above requested, and sustain it when formed, we further
ask that they would manifest the same publicly to the students,
that nothing may appear to be done clandestinely."
The petition was favorably received, and
George Allen and two other students (signers of the petition) were
appointed a committee to examine candidates. The successful
applicants for membership met in the chapel in Colonial Hall,
March 15, 1837, and adopted the constitution presented by Allen.
The constitution stated that the object of the Oberlin Musical
Association thus established was "to advance its members
theoretically and practically in the knowledge of musical science,
with special reference to correctness, facility and taste in
church Psalmody." Meetings were to be once a week. New members
might be admitted if recommended by the committee of examination
and "accepted by a vote of the members present at any regular
meeting." Choristers, a secretary, a treasurer and a librarian
were to be elected. By 1846 there were 72 members; in 1855, 136,
and in 1860, 179.
The organization was distinctly a religious
association. The original by-laws provided that, "No person shall
be admitted to membership . . except such as can give testimonials
of Christian character." This is to be expected considering the
Oberlin environment and the well-known piety of George Allen. In
1845 Mrs. Allen wrote to her husband, then in Boston: "I was
struck with a remark of Anna Hill last week. She said, 'Abby, is
it not a pity that I can't join the choir?' 'Why don't you?' 'Oh,
because I am so wicked!'" In the next year a special committee was
appointed "to report on the propriety of admitting those who are
not professors of religion to take part in the singing on the
Sabbath." The songs sung at regular meetings as well as at church
services were, almost all, religious in theme. Meetings were
always opened with prayer. The rules adopted in 1847 provided
that, "Any member convicted of immoral conduct that would be a
disqualification in a candidate for membership, shall be debarred
from the exercises of the Society."
George Nelson Allen served as first
chorister and was the leading spirit in the organization from its
founding in 1837 to the late fifties. Professor C. H. Churchill
took his place; John P. Morgan and George Steele led after the
founding of the Conservatory. Allen was paid entirely by the
Institute at first, but in 1847 the church undertook to provide a
hundred dollars of his salary in view of his services as leader at
religious meetings.
One of the most outstanding events in the
early history of the association was the visit of Thomas Hastings
in 1845. The secretary was stimulated to unusual literary efforts:
"Sat. July 19, 1845.
"Thomas Hastings being in town the news ran
like wild fire --the choir were gathered at a moment's
warning--Mr. Hastings appeared and by request took charge of the
choir for the evening. His valuable instructions were most
gratefully Recd.--His grave and venerable appearance produced
profound respect--His mildness and gentleness were most
winning--The smile on his countenance bespoke a soul at peace and
filled with most heavenly music--and as it flowed from his lips it
charmed to the most exquisite pleasure. The house was nearly
filled with listeners, who gazed entranced."
Hastings' song books as well as those of
Woodbury, Webb and Mason were used by the association. Mason's
books seem to have been the most popular, which is to be expected
in view of Allen's training under him. All of these men, but
particularly Hastings, were noted for their piety, and thought of
music primarily as a mode of worship. Probably the supereminent
piety of Hastings explains the trustees' preference for his music
as expressed in their official resolution. The very first song
books purchased for the use of the association in 1837 were
Mason's Boston Academy Collection of Church Music, published in
the preceding year. Three years later a dozen copies of Mason's
Lyra Sacra (1837) and two dozen copies of the Boston Academy's
Collection of Choruses (1839), probably also by Mason, were
ordered purchased. In 1847, when there were nearly two-hundred
volumes in the library of the Oberlin Musical Association, there
were still 19 copies of the Collection of Choruses. Of other song
books by Mason, there were 20 copies of the first volume and 30
copies of the second volume of the Sacred Harp: or Beauties of
Church Music (coyprighted in 1841), and 30 copies of the Psaltery,
prepared by Mason and Webb in 1845. The library also included 31
copies of Hastings' Manhattan Collection and 30 of his Psalmodist
and 7 copies of the Sacred Lyre, also by Hastings. There were a
few copies of three books of secular songs: Webb's The American
Glee Book, The Liberty Minstrel, and Freedom's Lyre. These last
anti-slavery song books would be expected in an Oberlin
collection. In the fifties the Dulcimer (125,000 of which were
reported by the publishers sold in one season) and the Cythara,
both compilations by Isaac B. Woodbury, were exceedingly popular.
The association passed a special resolution of commendation of the
Cythara in 1854.
Meetings of the musical association
constituted, for the students, a popular extracurricular activity,
rivalling the meetings of the literary societies. Most meetings it
is true were largely taken up with singing like the one written up
by a poetical secretary in 1851:
"At the early toll of bell
Choir met in the Chapelle;
Nearly all the members
there--
G. N. Allen in the chair:
Choir spent an hour or two
Singing as they always do.
Business none: at least 'twas such
It did not amount to much.
Several pieces were rehearsed
For Commencement. Choir
dispersed."
There was, however, occasionally some
business to be done. A long list of officers must be elected each
year. Now and then there must have been considerable rivalry as at
a meeting when 52 votes were cast for candidates for treasurer
though only 40 members were present. Of course there was the even
more important question of seating to be argued--always a matter
of hot dispute in choirs. Now and then members were expelled by
general vote because of delinquency or failure to abide by the
rules. Taxes must be levied to pay for new music and other
equipment. Light was very necessary when meetings were held in the
evening. At one of the very first meetings the treasurer was
instructed "to procure six lamps for the use of the Society of
cheap quality." Throughout the months of May and June, 1845,
meetings had to be given up because "there was no oil for lighting
the house." It took some such emergency to prevent a meeting,
though one rehearsal was adjourned in 1846 to make way for the
debate between President Mahan and the Fosters on "Come-Outerism,"
and the meeting of December 2, 1859, was "postponed on account of
the 'John Brown' meeting in the Chapel."
Strict rules of discipline were necessary
to keep the singers in order and assure their presence. A young
lady student wrote in her diary in the fifties: "Choir meeting.
Went over with Sarah. . . . When we arrived there were very few
present. No ladies. Presently when the five minutes allowed for
the tolling of the bell had expired S. and I went over to the
front seat and Sarah took a pencil from her pocket and marked the
names of those on the front seat who were then absent, which were
all but herself. I had half a mind to open the melodeon and
commence playing, thinking it well to improve the time but did
not. Mr. Thompson came down and tuned his bass viol. Then it was
very lonely up in my old seat without Lilly. The evening passed
but without raising me to that state of happiness which it
sometimes does. Although I enjoyed the music very, very much,
still it made me sorrowful." And: "This evening was choir meeting.
Went again with Lilly. We were the first ladies present. Others
came in however in course of time . . . Then we did have such a
fine sing, such beautiful music. Friday nights are so, so very
delightful, the best in the week . Several new members joined and
consequently some seats changed."
The musical society had one great social
advantage over the literary societies: both sexes were members.
"Choir practice" was the chief coeducational activity. We even
hear of a wedding being solemnized at one meeting in 1842. In
January, 1863, Deacon W. W. Wright wrote from Oberlin to his son:
"Very cold today 4 deg. below zero this Morning yesterday morning
0 .... Freddy froze his toe last evening waiting on a young lady
from quire meeting." "Freddy" was Frederick De Forest Allen, later
Professor of Classics for many years at Harvard.
The great musical occasion of the year was
the grand concert or concerts at Commencement in August. The
activities of each season pointed up to Commencement. In the first
Commencements after its organization (1837 and 1838) the
association assisted with incidental music, one piece in 1838
holding the audience, as said one reporter, "chained in breathless
and painful suspense." In 1837 William L. Parsons delivered an
"Oration on Sacred Music" as the official representative of the
Musical Association at the exercises. The independent musical
concert first appeared in 1840. At the 1842 commencement exercises
when the association gave a concert of sacred music in the chapel,
"The house was crowded, the audience appeared well satisfied,
amount of money received about $150." From that time on concerts
of vocal music by the Musical Association were a regular part of
Commencement. The association also continued to sing numbers
between the student orations.
The climax of the history of the
association under the leadership of Professor Allen was the
performance of the Oratorio of Absalom in 1852. This oratorio was
originally arranged by Professor Woodbury and published in his
Dulcimer. It contained music taken from the works of Beethoven,
Rossini, Handel, Hummel, Haydn, Romberg and Mine, as well as
original compositions by Woodbury. As expanded for the Oberlin
presentation it contained also an aria and recitative by Professor
Allen. The people of Oberlin showed much curiosity about this, to
them, new form of vocal concert. The church was well filled each
night; over $500 was taken in at 25 cents per person. The crowd
was further swelled by the holders of the complimentary tickets,
which were distributed to all singers. Oberlin's first oratorio,
first music on a grand scale, created a sensation. "It is rare,"
declared the editor of the Evangelist, "that the plains of the
great West have rung to the echoes of music so varied, so chaste,
and so charming. But the Genius of musical culture is on her way
westward, and we hail her coming."
With the middle fifties the practice began
of hiring a director from outside to train the chorus in the last
few weeks before Commencement and take charge of the actual
concert. No less a person than Professor Woodbury, himself,
trained and directed the singers for the 1855 Commencement. Though
not an impressive looking man, "below medium stature, with black
hair and whiskers," his reputation as a composer, editor and
director of sacred music set him apart, in the eyes of Oberlin
people, from ordinary men. Of the directors who came to Oberlin
each year through 1863, Professor Woodbury and Professor E. M.
Foote, of Ypsilanti, Michigan, were probably the most popular. In
1857 Professor Cowles reported to his wife then on a visit:
"Professor Babcock [another outside director] .... is
leading the choir every evening till nine, and they sing loud. I
fear some of them will suffer for these late hours and violent
exercises of voice." In 1858 and 1861 the Cantata of Esther was
presented, and in 1859 the Oratorio of David, as arranged by Webb,
was sung. On the latter occasion Foote was aided by three soloists
brought from Cleveland. The concert of 1860 was of an unusually
popular and secular nature. The program included not only the
Hallelujah Chorus, but also the "Anvil Chorus. Marseillaise,
various opera choruses, ballads, waltzes, and all sorts of
quartettes and solos, with organ, piano and orchestral
accompaniments." This concert proved so very attractive that three
performances were given within a week. Most Oberlinites evidently
liked this sort of thing, though there was some criticism. The
editor of the Evangelist commented favorably on the omission in
1861 of "those exceptionable pieces which are sometimes introduced
for popular amusement, of low taste and of doubtful or bad social
or moral influence." Undoubtedly, opera choruses were somewhat out
of place in the Oberlin meeting house. One is a little surprised,
however, to find on the highly commended 1861 program, not only
"Moses in Egypt," "The Transient and the Eternal," but also a
quartette, "Charge of the Light Brigade, music by Professor
Barnett," and solo, "God Bless Our Volunteers" also with music by
the director.
John P. Morgan of the newly-founded
Conservatory of Music directed the concert for the first
Commencement after the War. The secretary of the Union recorded
his "unbiased" opinion of it in the minutes: "Second and final
concert was grand! . . . Choruses more effective. Audience--quite
large (!) Some appreciated and were delighted; others were
stupified; and still others went away (only a few, be it said, for
the honor of the people at large) at the close of the first part,
saying they had got their fifty cents worth already." The News
reported that the "house was densely packed, and ten o'clock
dismissed a weary audience." In the opinion of the editor the
program (an Oratorio) was too long. It may be guessed that he was
one of those who concluded that the first part was worth the full
fifty cents. George Steele, also of the Conservatory, took charge
in 1864 and 1866. The programme given in 1866 was another of the
popular variety and the editor of the News expressed his opinion
"that the concerts of the Union would be still more popular were
there more interspersions of the simple style of song and ballad
music." There was no one to speak up in defense of the old
standard religious music, the Evangelist having ceased
publication.
In the earliest days the sombre notes of
the bass viol, which was always looked upon by New Englanders, for
some reason, as the least worldly musical instrument, formed the
usual accompaniment to the chorus. The first of these instruments
owned by the association is said to have been built by the Scotch
theological student, Lane Rebel, and cabinet maker Alexander
McKellar under the direction of George Allen. Anyway, in the
autumn of 1840 the society was paying the last installment on "the
double Bass Viol." Six years later some money had to be provided
to repair it. In 1850, "the committee on double Bass Viol reported
that they found the instrument in a sad state and [that
it] ought to be sent abroad for recovery." On motion of J. D.
Cox, $12 was appropriated for the purpose. The condition of this
venerable and sober instrument was very likely due, in part at
least, to an accident of three years previous, described by one of
its would-be torturers in a letter of January, 1847: "I have had
the Double Bass in My room on till [sic] within a few
days, got so I could play on it considerable, and was agoing to
play on it in Singing School but I let an other fellow take it to
His room and He let it fall and split the back of it, so I am up
stump there, and shall not play on it this winter." Ten years
later, the instrument having outlasted its usefulness, was
presented by the association to Professor Allen. Rivals soon
appeared. A piano, a seraphine, and a flute occasionally joined
in. In 1851 a firm in Buffalo presented a melodeon to the
association. The organization formally thanked the manufacturers
and donors and agreed "to recommend their instruments to
purchasers."
Very early in the forties (or possibly in
the late thirties) an Oberlin Band was organized and affiliated
with the Musical Association. The enterprise was a financial (if
not an artistic) failure, and in 1842 and 1845 the instruments,
including a cornet, bugle and bass trombone, were taken over by
the Musical Association in lieu of a debt owed by the Band. This
apparently spelled the end of the latter organization. At the
performance of the Oratorio of Absalom in 1852, instrumental
accompaniment was furnished by an orchestra including a piano, a
melodeon (the gift of the previous year?), two flutes, two
violins, a violoncello, a violone [?], a horn and a drum.
After 1855 the Department of Instrumental Music stimulated
interest and furnished trained musicians. At the 1859 Commencement
music was furnished by the Choir and the Oberlin String Band
alternately. In the following year the Union was assisted by an
orchestra, containing five violins, a viola, two flutes, two
horns, two violoncellos and a violon[e], and also by the
Citizen's Brass Band of nineteen pieces. These, together with the
chorus, should have furnished sound enough for one evening.
Occasionally this brass band performed independently from a band
stand on Tappan Square. It seems to have become defunct in the war
period, but in 1866 a new band was organized by George Steele as
another musical expression of the new conservatory.
Oberlin became famous for its chorus.
Visitors at Commencement and on the Sabbath commented on the
singing in superlatives. Hastings is said to have declared that
Oberlin had the finest sacred music in the land. At great
celebrations like that on the return of the Wellington Rescuers
from the Cleveland jail in 1859 the choral music always played a
large and widely heralded part. There were three things which made
the greatest impression on new students: Finney, the meeting house
and the choir. The association was also a financial asset. With
funds raised at concerts chandeliers were purchased for the
meeting house in 1844, gas fixtures in 1860, and the chapel bell
in 1859. Alonzo Pease was hired to paint the portraits of Finney,
Fairchild, Dascomb, and Mahan in 1860, and the choir paid him $50
apiece. All of these generally excellent paintings now hang in the
College library. Part of the receipts were used to pay the
salaries of visiting directors and in 1857 of the regular
Professor of Music. Much of the cost of the church organ was met
from the same source. Most important of all, the Musical
Association educated the musical taste of Oberlin students and
townsmen.
There was and is a tendency to think of the
Oberlin Musical Association (--Choir--Union) as merely a church
choir, but its history as just outlined shows that it was much
more than that. Yet its contribution to the Sabbath services, in
which it always took part, was a very great one. It was one of the
unique features of early Oberlin.
The return of John Paul Morgan, son of
Professor John Morgan, from the Leipzig Conservatory of Music in
the summer of 1865 was a sensation and an event of the first
importance in the history of music in Oberlin. He not only took
charge of the regular commencement concert but gave a Grand Organ
Concert, himself. The people of Oberlin in general "were on the
'qui vive' in anticipation of the rich treat" and when the concert
actually took place some selections "elicited rapturous applause."
Many listeners, like the editor of the local news sheet, however,
"were unable to fully appreciate . . . some of the ...
inexplicable German productions" but heartily enjoyed "the
beautiful execution of the overture to 'William Tell' and
variations on 'The Last Rose of Summer.'"
After having studied for some years under
Allen and Churchill in the Department of Instrumental Music,
Morgan had begun private teaching in 1861. For nearly two years
thereafter he gave piano lessons in Oberlin and Cleveland, leaving
for Germany in the spring of 1863. That fall Professor Churchill
and another Oberlin boy, George w. Steele, son of Dr. Alexander
Steele, announced that they would give instruction at Oberlin in
"Cultivation of the voice, Musical elocution, Elementary
Principles of Notation, Harmony, Thorough Bass, Piano and
Organ."
George N. Allen had given up his musical
activities in 1864 and in 1864-65 Professor Churchill again took
temporary charge of musical instruction in the College at a dollar
a lesson. The way seemed to be open for a more elaborate program
of musical instruction in Oberlin. John P. Morgan and George W.
Steele joined forces and in September, 1865, opened the Oberlin
Conservatory of Music, at the same time assuming the work of
teaching vocal music in the College for a remuneration of $250 a
year. This arrangement continued through 1866.
The Leipzig Conservatory had been founded
in 1843 by Felix Mendelssohn and quickly established its
reputation as the leading center of musical education in Germany.
The three founders of the Oberlin Conservatory--Morgan, Steele,
and Rice--all studied there. John P. Morgan and George Steele had
gained their interest and early training in the Oberlin Department
of Music while students in the Preparatory Course. Oberlin's
musical tradition and the history of musical instruction is
continuous from Ingersoll and Allen (1835 and 1837) to Morrison
and Shaw in the present generation. The tradition of the Oberlin
Conservatory of Music thus stems from Mendelssohn's Leipzig
Conservatory and from Lowell Mason through George Allen and the
Oberlin Department of Music of earlier days.
This dual background was recognized in the
division of the Conservatory in the earliest days into a school of
church music "including instruction on the organ, solo and choral
singing, directing, etc." and a school of secular music "including
the study of the piano-forte, violin, viola, violoncello, and
other orchestral instruments; solo and chorus singing, solo
playing with accompaniment and ensemble playing." Instruction was
to be given in classes of three or four pupils each in all
departments.--"In the 'Conservatory' (what a name) they teach in
classes altogether," wrote an Oberlin woman to her son shortly
after the opening, "and it doesn't seem to me to be a very good
way for one who is so nearly a 'new beginner.'" Tuition was $100
per year for those not connected with the College and twelve
dollars per term for college students.
A really ambitious program was immediately
undertaken. Early in the autumn of 1865 the Oberlin paper boasted:
"The Conservatory of Music have added to their teaching force a
fine instructor on Brass instruments and the violin. Mr. Steele
assures us of his efficiency. They expect to secure, in the
Spring, another teacher of vocal music, who has a fine reputation.
We hope the growing popularity of the Conservatory may keep all of
them busy." The announcement for 1866 states that: "The
piano-forte instruction is given on the principle adopted at all
the conservatories of Europe, the working of which has been tested
and approved by the most eminent pianists. At the weekly
rehearsals only works of acknowledged excellence are produced, the
constant performance and hearing of which must contribute greatly
to the cultivation of a correct and elevated taste in the pupils."
The announcement continues: "The organ is taught in the most
thorough manner, the system used combining the excellencies of the
Leipzig school and that of A. G. Ritter, of Magdeburg. A weekly
organ recitation is held, in which the pupils have constant
opportunity to hear the compositions of the masters for that
instrument, and organ pupils who are competent are allowed to
perform." The organ in the church was used by teachers and
students. For those studying the piano-forte there were "ten or
fifteen brass instruments and a Chickering Grand Piano for . . .
evening rehearsals." Instruction in violin and voice was also
offered. The announcement for 1867 lists under "Authors Studied":
Piano--Czerny, Heller, Plaidy, Bertini, Clementi, Moscheles,
Cramer, and Bach; Organ--Ritter, Schneider, Bach, Rinck and
Handel; Voice--Duprez, Danzi, Bassini, Bagioli, Vaccai, Concone,
Zolner and Brambilla. In choral singing it was planned to take for
practice in the advanced classes Mendelssohn's oratoria "St.
Paul," and Handel's oratoria, "The Messiah." By 1867 over one
hundred students were enrolled for these courses.
In 1866 Morgan left Oberlin to continue his
musical activities in New York. Steele carried on the work, but
concluded that he needed training abroad. In 1867 he left for
Leipzig, the College taking over the Conservatory and appointing
Steele Professor of Music (note that the adjective "Sacred" is
definitely dropped) at a regular salary, payment of which was to
begin on his return to Oberlin. The College hired teachers to
carry on the instruction in the interim: John C. Fillmore, Cyrus
A. Bentley and A. L. Barber.
John Comfort Fillmore was another Oberlin
product who also studied at Leipzig. In a long letter written from
Germany in 1866 to his classmate, A. A. Wright, he described the
reactions of an Oberlinite at the fount of musical culture: "The
classes here are wonderfully different from those to which you and
I were accustomed at Alma Mater. No roll is called, we go when we
please and I know a New Yorker who hasn't been in his Harmony
classes for months. I happen to know also (for he told me himself)
that he spends his nights drinking and wh--ing .... Sunday too, is
a very different day here from the Oberlin Sunday. The churches
are usually full in the morning, and in the afternoon the
congregations may be found enjoying social chats in the Beer
Gardens, dancing in the various dancing Halls, rowing on the
river, or walking in the parks." Fillmore described his routine of
hours of practice, attendance at orchestra rehearsals and at Opera
performances. "Every Friday evening we have general exerises in
solo playing, a sort of musical Rhetorical Exercise where the best
of the pupils perform Piano and Violin Solos, Quartettes, Trios,
Etc. Etc." Here was a tradition to be handed on to Oberlin.
Fillmore stayed only the one year as teacher at Oberlin, going on
to spread the Oberlin-Leipzig musical influence at Beloit,
Milwaukee and Pomona colleges. He is perhaps best remembered for
his work with Alice Fletcher on Amerian Indian music.
In 1868 the Prudential Committee took
sufficient interest in this new department to vote to "favor the
proposal to exchange a gold watch belonging to the College for a
piano for the use of the Conservatory." The Conservatory was to
be, quite definitely, a part of the College. The trustees voted
that, "All pupils receiving instruction in music, whether vocal or
instrumental, shall be subject to the rules and regulations of the
College, it being understood that the professor of Music and his
pupils sustain the same relation to the faculty in respect to
government as the Principal and students of the Preparatory
Department or Ladies' Department." This was a much-needed reform
according to at least one Oberlin mother and landlady. "I can
assure you," wrote Mrs. W. W. Wright to her son, "It makes a great
buzzing here among the girls--but it was high time for something
to be done. Now they must go to church, observe the study hours,
go to prayers, & render their reports to the Principal ....
Hitherto they have been the most careless members of our schools.
Indeed they have had no laws. Now they will not be all the time
running over our students in their study hours or tempting our
young men to visit till ten o'clk when they ought to be at their
Latin & Greek." Besides being under the rules of the College,
the students in the Conservatory were declared to "be entitled at
their graduation to official testimonials from the College to that
effect." The arrangement seemed to be satisfactory all around.
Though in 1867-68 expenses were barely paid, in 1868-69 there was
a profit of $260 and no charge whatever was made upon the College
treasury for the free vocal instruction still given to all college
students.
Professor Steele returned from Germany late
in the autumn of 1868, which fact may very likely have accounted
for the better financial returns of the latter year. In the summer
of 1869 Mr. and Mrs. Fenelon B. Rice, also just returned from
study in Germany, came to Oberlin to assist in the commencement
concert. Steele persuaded them to stay as teachers in the
Conservatory. Rice was a Freewill Baptist, educated at Hillsdale
College and the Boston Music School (under Benjamin F. Baker and
others) as well as in Leipzig. As early as 1864 he had visited
Oberlin when he appeared as a soloist on a program conducted by
Steele. In the following year (1869-70) the staff was made up of
Steeles and Rices: George W. Steele and Lottie M. Steele, and
Fenelon B. Rice and Helen M. Rice. Besides these regular
instructors, Judson Smith, Chas. H. Churchill and Stephen C.
Leonard taught respectively "Art and Science," "Laws of Sound,"
and "History and Aesthetics of Music." One hundred and forty-seven
pupils are listed in the special Conservatory of Music Catalogue
issued for that year.
Beginning in 1869 the arrangement with the
College was somewhat changed. As President Fairchild stated it in
his "Annual Report" for 1869-70, Professors Steele and Rice took
"the pecuniary responsibility of the department, teaching without
charge the classes in vocal music which the College has heretofore
provided for and leading the singing daily at prayers and
providing the music for the monthly Rhetorical Exercises and for
Commencement, and receiving in return the use of the Conservatory
room and of the chapel when necessary and the advantages of the
position (as part of the College), thus saving the College from
any outlay for the music." This understanding remained in effect
until 1885 with no notable alteration.
In 1871 disagreements between Steele and
Rice came to a head. Steele withdrew from all connection with the
College but established a conservatory of his own in the village,
for which he secured articles of incorporation dated January 15,
1872. The corporation was to have a total capital of $1000, all
shares (of $200 each) being held by members of the Steele family.
The corporate name was "The Oberlin Conservatory of Music." So
Oberlin found itself with two conservatories of the same name, for
Rice continued with the College as Professor of Music and also
taught with Mrs. Rice the courses in his own conservatory. Steele
issued an announcement for 1872 containing the names of two new
teachers and notably omitting the names of the Rices. Quarters
were taken up "on College Street, fronting the Square."
Professor Rice reported the work of the
other Oberlin Conservatory (the one associated with the College)
in August of 1872: "At the beginning of the year we were thrown
into some embarrassment by the unexpected resignation of Prof.
Steele just at the opening of the Fall Term, and the organization
by him of an opposition school. We succeeded in securing the
services of Miss L. C. Wattles, a graduate of the Leipzig
Conservatory of Music, and with the very unanimous cooperation of
the College authorities and citizens generally we have been able
to keep the Conservatory in about its former condition with only a
slight falling off in the number of pupils. The increased expenses
of the Conservatory by this, and the results arising from our
pupils being under rules while Prof. Steele publicly advertised
that his were not--these and various other annoyances, made it
seem better--when he made an offer last Spring to sell his entire
interest here--to accept it."
It was undoubtedly advisable to combine the
schools. In April, Rice and an associate purchased the equipment,
the charter and the good will of Steele's "Oberlin Conservatory of
Music": "1 Organ, 1 Piano, 3 Stoves with pipes and zincs belonging
with them, 108 Chairs, 2 Busts and Brackets, 1 wash stand and the
furniture belonging thereto, 2 signs, All the small signs, 3 Music
Stands, 1 Blackboard, 2 Wood boxes, Shovel, 7 tongs, and 1 Ash
bucket, All except the Piano being in and upon the premises leased
by the said Steele of Samuel Royce in said Village of Oberlin, and
now used by the Oberlin Conservatory of Music." And further
Professor Steele agreed that he would "never in any way engage in
the business of teaching music in any of its branches in the said
Village, or be in any way whatever connected or interested with
any other person or persons in such business in said
Village."
This fiasco, which gave Rice a financial
interest in the Conservatory as a corporation, put it on a
somewhat more independent footing, though the agreement of 1869
still remained in force and the Conservatory can never be said to
have been entirely separate from the College. The Conservatory
Catalogues of 1872-73 and following years, for example, carry at
the head of the list of the faculty the names of "Rev. James H.
Fairchild, President," and "Mrs. A. A. F. Johnston, Principal of
the Ladies' Department." Both, of course, held the same position
in the College. Except for the few months of the schism under
Steele the students in the Conservatory were always subject (after
1867) to the disciplinary rules and administration of Oberlin
College. The number of music students taking special work in the
school increased to nearly 350 in 1874 and approached 500, ten
years later. In that latter year Warner Hall, the present main
music building, was completed. In 1885 the financial
administration was partly merged with that of Oberlin College, "it
being understood that all the receipts of the Conservatory will be
devoted to its uses and the Conservatory will be self
sustaining."
The establishment of the Conservatory made
certain that music, originally introduced in Oberlin as a means of
grace and reformation, would come more and more to be appreciated
for its own intrinsic value and be assured of a permanent place in
the life of the College and community, despite changing conditions
and viewpoints.
CHAPTER
XLVII
"DIVERTING
INFLUENCES"
THE serious-mindedness of early Oberlin is
appalling. The consciousness of a wicked world and an approaching
day of atonement clouded the spirits of students and teachers.
Life was a serious business and death was momentarily awaited.
Anything which diverted the attention from religion was sinful.
Religious gatherings were considered by most as more important
than study; literary society meetings and rehearsals of the
musical association furnished the only other regular form of
recreation, unless manual labor (!) and mealtimes at the boarding
hall be included under that head. Finney believed that "glee, fun,
hilarious mirth, games, charades, and pleasure seeking grieve the
Holy Spirit, destroy [the] spirit of prayer, offend
[the] conscience, harden [the] heart, darken
[the] mind . . . and break up . . . fellowship with the
Father, and His Son Jesus Christ."
In the forties there were a few lectures
and other evening entertainments. They became steadily more
numerous and more popular in the fifties, and a regular part of
college life in the next decade. The old timers were right when
they accused Oberlin of having forsaken its pristine puritanism.
In 1843 a series of lectures were delivered on Phrenology and
Phreno-magnetism." Two years later a Greek, who had been captured
by the Turks, delivered two lectures. The wife of one of the
professors wrote of the event to her absent husband:
"We have been very much interested in
attending two lectures from a Greek. He was formerly a slave taken
in the capture of Scio by the Turks in 1826. He gave us a correct
idea of Grecian costume & habits & together with a
description of the massacre.
He was dressed (during the lectures) in the
war habiliment. It consisted of crimson velvet tunic white chemise
beneath breeches-sandalls--red sash--brace of pistols--&
another weapon resembling a large carving knife sheathed .... The
sword he asserted was the same which Lord Byron 'that benefactor
of Greece' inherited & brought to them. He was quite a learned
man & came with recommendations from Yale College, &c. He
married an American lady--has been in the country but a few years.
His recitation of Greek war songs & the like was peculiarly
interesting .... A number of specimens of curiosities was
exhibited. The turkish pipe was singular . . . He was very
graceful in all his movements. Spoke with a brogue of
course."
In 1850 the famous and popular Alleghenians
sang in Oberlin. Their repertory was not at all pious, though
generally considered very moral, containing such "simple but
touching" pieces as:
"The farmer sat in his easy chair
Smoking his pipe of clay,
While his hale old wife with busy care,
Was clearing the dinner
away--
A sweet little girl with fine blue
eyes,
On her Grandpa's knee was catching
flies."
It is very possible that the audience was
pleased, but the Evangelist assumed a critical tone. The editor
found that there was not enough of soul in the music and that the
dress of the one lady member was "offensive to modesty and genuine
good taste."
In the spring of 1853 Bayard Taylor
lectured in Oberlin on "the Arabs, their character, customs,
literature, etc." An evidently realistic and impressive portion of
his address was that in which he described in detail his
experience while under the influence of hashish. A young lady
student confided to her diary: "'Twas on the whole so interesting
hated to have it close. Evening very pleasant. Company, Mr.
Smalley." Two years later Horace Mann delivered two public
lectures.
There were, of course, many reform
lecturers and they were generally more welcome than those who
merely strove to entertain. Temperance lecturers, woman's rights
advocates and peace propagandists were occasionally heard.
Anti-slavery speakers were always on the program: the Fosters,
Garrison, William Goodell, C. C. Burleigh, Frederick Douglass.
Returned missionaries and Kansas emigrants spoke now and then in
the church. Joshua H. Giddings gave formal addresses in 1856,
1859, and 1860. In 1859 he was reported to have held the audience
"in breathless attention for more than an hour and a half." In
1856, however, a young lady student, unaffected by the
considerations which influence a journalist to mercy, wrote in her
diary: "Friday evening went to a lecture by the Hon. J. R.
Giddings. In our seat with Sarah. The lecture [was]
'fierce'; Put that in quotation marks--another fierce for
myself."
Of course the theatre was anathema at
Oberlin. The greatest concession ever made to this tool of Satan
was when, in 1856, the dramatic version of Uncle Tom's Cabin was
read by a Mrs. Webb of Philadelphia at a gathering in the Chapel.
Several "panoramas" were exhibited at Oberlin in the fifties. In
1853 the use of the church building was granted for a Panorama of
Niagara Falls, which presented this "world-famed Cataract . . . to
every point of view, in every variety of phase, by sun-light and
moon-light, and in every season of the year," thus saving the
expense of several trips and much climbing. In the middle fifties
the Rev. Mr. Cowles took his whole family to a panorama on a
complimentary ticket.
Soon after its formation the College
Societies Library Association sponsored a series of public
lectures, including the reading of a poem by Rev. James Barr
Walker entitled "Ten Scenes in the Life of a Lady of Fashion,"
said to be a graphic presentation of the "emptiness and vanity of
such a life." These long poems must have been popular. In 1861 the
Rev. John Pierpont, the poet-reformer and grandfather of J. P.
Morgan, read his poem "The Golden Calf" as one of the numbers of
the same association's course of lectures, and the Evangelist
accounted "it a rich treat to hear such a poem delivered." Though
Prof. Youmans' lecture on the "Chemistry of the Sunbeam" was
sponsored by the Oberlin Fire Fraternity it was given in the
Chapel and favorably reported in the Students' Monthly.
Horace Greeley appeared in 1859 on his way
to the Colorado gold fields and again on his return in the spring
of 1860, on both occasions speaking on "Western North America." A
"prep" student reported: "He had the old drab coat on, but not the
white hat. I went down to the depot the next morning on purpose to
see how he looked, and I never saw a man who looked more as if he
did not know any thing than he did." Carl Schurz spoke on "France
since 1848" and "American Civilization" in consecutive years.
Though some Oberlinites were under the impression that he was a
"Russian by birth" Schurz seems to have been appreciated. Besides
Schurz, the lecture courses of 1861 included John G. Saxe, Bayard
Taylor and Dr. J. G. Holland, co-editor of the Springfield
Republican and later first editor of the Century
Magazine."
The faculty had always frowned upon evening
meetings. In 1837 the hour for such meetings was set at 5:30. Ten
years later the Musical Association was persuaded (temporarily) to
give up its meetings after supper and hold its rehearsals at four
in the afternoon. The rage for lectures and other evening
gatherings was an evidence of corrupting influences. In 1860 a
committee of trustees and faculty members wrote to Professor
Finney: "Public lectures and other public evening entertainments
are a growing pest. We deplore them: have labored hard to exclude
almost every application." Finney believed that only drastic
measures could bring Oberlin back to the early standards. He was
opposed to all social gatherings and even considered the
desirability of discontinuing Commencement and literary society
anniversaries!
Needless to say, Finney and the
conservative members of the faculty were fighting a losing battle.
Lectures and evening entertainments continued to be popular and
came to be accepted by the pious as well as the worldly as at
least not positively sinful. In 1863, though a notice of it was
refused a reading in the church services, the lecture of J. G.
Holland on "Fashion" seems to have been quite successful. In the
same year Mrs. Helen Markham Wheeler delivered a series of five
lectures for ladies only on Anatomy and Physiology. These lectures
were illustrated with "the celebrated French 'Modelle de Femme' or
artificial female figure." The proceeds above expenses were
donated for the building of Ladies' Hall. It was during the same
season that what was probably the first humorous lecture in
Oberlin was delivered by "Artemas Ward." Not even the News could
find a good word to say for him, but found him "funny often, witty
rarely, vulgar occasionally, seriously earnest never." Ward got
revenge in an essay on Oberlin written some two years later, an
essay which shows more insight than his Oberlin critics were
willing to allow him. In 1865 President Fairfield of Hillsdale
gave a series of three addresses. "In the evening," noted a
student in his diary, "I attended Prof. Fairfield's second
lecture, subject, 'Tentlife in Palestine.' I think I can say with
truth that it was the most interesting lecture to which I ever
listened. At its close I went and saw a stone from the Pyramid of
Cheops, another from the old wall of Jerusalem, some Olive wood
from the Mount of Olives &c &c. I also saw a bottle of
Dead Sea water and tasted of it. It was intensely salt with a
somewhat sickish taste. That will do to tell of to my posterity or
in other words to future Frasers." In the following year came
Theodore Tilton, "six feet and some inches in his boots . . .
seemingly more of a nineteenth-century Puritan than he is," and
Ben Butler "with his drooping eye-lid, twisting of the mouth,
short neck, shambling gait and hesitancy of speech," both
denouncing President Johnson and demanding equal suffrage for the
Negroes. Early in the same year Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke on
"Social Manners" but left his audience as cold as himself. They
found in his lecture "nothing new or striking whatever in
thought," just "the old, old art of 'putting things.'"
Even in the early period there were
occasional happy, but informal, social gatherings. If so many
youths of both sexes are brought together the joy of their very
youth and vigor will find some way to express itself, no matter
how sober the atmosphere about them. Even in 1837 when Davis
Prudden's young sister, Nancy, arrived in Oberlin from Lockport it
was the signal for the gathering of many Western New Yorkers in
what must have been suspiciously like a party. Davis wrote of it
to their brother:
"But the pleasure of her company . . . has
made me feel so well that I have hardly contained myself since,
like a wild colt let loose from confinement which expresses its
delight by its antic movements & caperings .... The evening on
which she arrived those who came from Lockport & its vicinity
assembled in the sitting room, quite a large company, 14 in
number. We spent the evening in bringing fresh to our minds things
that occurred in times past by & gone and refreshing ourselves
with the fond associations which cluster around the word home. How
pleasant when one is far away from this magnet of our earthly
happyness to meet with those who were formerly conversant with
those friends who surround this hallowed spot. It seems as if
Providence had not only provided this means of happyness to guilty
& fallen man, but has set his own seal of approbation upon it
& invited us all to come & drink deep of its
sweets."
Such reunions must have occurred often, and
no one thought of reprimanding those who took part in them. When
the students returned from the long winter vacation to attend the
opening service of the new term there was much hand-shaking, some
embraces and caresses, and many social chats. As in September in
the twentieth century so in February three-quarters of a century
earlier the whole body of students were in gala spirits, which
mood wore off only when tales of vacation experiences had been
twice-told and the renewed glamour of college life had become
tarnished with familiarity.
Though the terms "stag party" and "bull
session" are undoubtedly of modern origin, the practice must go
back into antiquity. As early as 1840 James H. Fairchild wrote to
his sweetheart: "Hudson and Hodge & Henry [his
brother] have been in my room and hindered me one hour. That
hour I would have spent in finishing this scrawl but it is gone
now. We had a fine [chat?] & some finer apples.--My
head aches a little and I must sleep." How many, many students
since have spent just such Sundays as that described in a student
diary of 1857: "After breakfast went into Mr. Marshall's room
where I got into a debate with Mr. Hayden and which was continued
by him and Mr. M. and Mr. Walker. Problem, on the subject of
Demonstration in Metaphysics. As they were all against me, I
necessarily had a savage time. Discussed with them until meeting
time. Attended church all day. Finney preached. In P.M. strolled
with Chester. Weather very pleasant all day." Late in the season
the same student noted more mysteriously: "In eve. Chester, Morey,
Crall, Ferril and Humphrey were in my room. Had a glorious kick up
and enjoyed ourselves at the expense of the institution." At the
very end of our period (1865) another young man confided to his
journal: "In the afternoon Cassius and Alphonse were at my room. I
didn't study much, but 'cut up.'" And a little later: "Spent the
evening very pleasantly with A.W. We discussed the following,
'Resolved, is the moon made of green cheese.'"
In the more worldly period of the fifties
and sixties, sweets of one sort or another furnished a cheap and
comparatively harmless form of amusement. Of course, such orgies
would hardly have been tolerated in David Cambell's day. One young
man, reporting his activities to a classmate gone to war,
confessed that he "went to Dewey's room & with him, Bostwick,
Dan & Royal indulged in a musk-melon & fixins till
eleven." Another admitted that he "Was foolish enough to go in for
some lemonade (10 cents), of which I drank 6 or 8 glasses," but
this could be excused on the ground that it was Independence Day.
Maple sugar parties have always been popular on account of the
abundance of the wherewithal. The daughter of the editor of the
Evangelist attended a sugaring off in 1856: "Wednesday our folks
and some others . . . went out by invitation to Mr. Roserter's
sugar bush and spent the afternoon. We had a very pleasant time
indeed. I enjoyed it exceedingly. It is always pleasant in the
woods even if the branches are bare. It was a very pleasant
relaxation and pleasant every way." In 1861 the senior class,
never having given a party before, concluded unanimously that it
would be desirable to have a maple sugar pull. The faculty seems
to have been particularly anxious during this year to maintain the
Oberlin reputation for sobriety and earnestness, and to restrain
"the overplus of animal feeling in the young." Permission for the
party was refused.
Sleigh riding in the winter time was a
splendid and exhilarating sport as well as a social diversion. It
seems never to have been expressly forbidden but was supposed to
be closely supervised. In January of 1836 a disciplinary case
regarding a sleigh ride came to the faculty. The minutes state:
"Several students having recently taken a sleigh-ride to Elyria
without permission of the faculty; it was ordered that, although a
repentance and proper feeling seems to be manifested on the part
of those students, still the good of the institution requires that
public expression of the feeling of the faculty be made respecting
the case. Which is to be done this evening." An almost exactly
parallel case arose in Western Reserve College two years later.
College students everywhere were kept firmly in hand by the
faculty. Of course, sleigh riding was even more narrowly limited
by the weather than by man-made restrictions. Many a gay party has
been ruined by an untimely thaw. A little note written in the late
forties tells its own story:
"Sister Mary Jane,
"I am sorry to say that on account of the
weather, and the state of the roads, we have concluded it best not
to go on that sleighride we proposed last evening. I hope you will
excuse me for the disappointment, if such it has been. And as 'we
know not what a day may bring forth,' we may have one
yet.
Yours respectfully, Thursday morn.
Kenyon Cox."
Almost any unexpected event will furnish a
pleasant feeling of excitement to a group of students tied down by
studies and college rules. Every town has fires. The smell of
smoke and the lurid glow of a house in flames, not to mention the
uniforms and insignia of the firemen running with the fire engine,
furnished a show that no puritanical regulations could ban. It was
not entirely with sadness that a young lady student reported two
fires of 1859 in her diary: "This A.M. there was a fire. We girls
were in our room when we heard a man hollering, we thought he said
fire, but then thought not until he repeated the cry, which was
issued from many mouths. The fire was west from here, and proved
to be Mr. Edward Smith's new brick house. A lot of us girls went
up stairs into the garret and looked out to the fire. Hundreds of
men kept running by our house on their way to Mr. S's. The house
was not burnt down fortunately." The last sentence appears to have
been an afterthought, tacked on by a pricking conscience. The
second fire was at night: "I had hardly gone to sleep when the
alarm was given. All men were of course up and out. The girls most
of them came into our room as it was not visible from their rooms.
The fire proved to be a house belonging to Mr. Kush over on Main
street north of the church. The sight was perfectly grand and
sublime yet awful in its sublimity. The house we saw smoking then
it burst into flames but they were subdued and the house saved. We
saw the timber fall in and such a beautiful sight."
Occasionally, of course, the heavens
themselves put on pageants of a grander and sublimer nature than
anything possible to puny man. "Eclipse of the sun between 4 and 6
P.M. Quite a sensible difference in the intensity of the light
during the eclipse. It seemed mellow like moonlight." This from a
girl student's diary in 1853. There was another eclipse six years
later and "we girls" enjoyed it almost as much as the fire: "The
sun was eclipsed this afternoon .... We girls were all out on the
front walk and steps most of the time .... We took our Latin books
and intended to study, but I did very little studying, only looked
at one word and that I knew before was a common noun in Plato. . .
. We had a very pleasant time of it with each other, our smoked
glasses and the great sun, which at first shone very brightly as
if in defiance of its coming shame .... The eclipse was not quite
completed [?] here, but farther north no doubt it was. At
its height the moon left only a small half circle on our man as we
called it, in view. They say there will be another eclipse in '66,
fifteen years, where shall I be then? When the eclipse was waning
we left the place and went into the house, many of us with smutty
faces from the glasses we had used."
After all, there were many kinds of
recreation that were strictly within the law. Here and there
groups of "young ladies and gentlemen" would gather for a social
hour of singing about a piano or melodeon. Especially if the songs
sung were religious, there was no one to object. One young lady
indulged in "unloading hay with some other girls for the fun of
it." Hannah Warner was invited by "a sister classmate . . . to
take a ride of ten miles with her & spend a day and night with
some friends of hers." She "accepted the invitation with pleasure,
for I [she wrote to her parents] had been in a wagon but
once since I left home and I had but one ride on runners."
Seventeen years later ten fellows ("Quite a jolly crew," said one
of them.) rode to Elyria in a lumber wagon to attend the County
Fair and hear a political speech. They "had an excellent time" and
felt "well repaid for [their] labor, and [their]
money."
In the springtime nature beckoned as
enticingly as it does today even in Russia township. "Spring is
getting ready to arrive," a college man reported on March 15, "I
heard a killdeer and a slew of frogs today making observations to
that effect." A young lady student wrote as early as 1842:
"Pleasant weather continues and we have some pleasant walks in the
evening after supper and sometimes in the morning before
breakfast." Eleven years later another noted with unconscious
humor: "After tea took a walk to the graveyard, very pleasant."
Another in 1856: "We had a pleasant moonlight walk coming home,"
and a year later: "Bro. Wheeler . . . wanted to know if I had got
to study, and asked me to walk down that way. So we walked to the
end of the sidewalk up north and back, and he escorted me to the
gate at home." Each of these quotations was written in
spring.
But one might err even in a springtime
stroll. Young ladies were prohibited from walking "in the street
for recreation on the Sabbath." They were not "allowed to walk for
recreation with gentlemen" at any time without the permission of
"the Principal or the lady with whom they board." In May, 1859, a
young lady's diary informs us, a group of girls "went to the woods
behind Dr. Dascomb's new place." It is to be feared that they thus
became subject to disciplinary measures, for the Laws and
Regulations of the Female Department of Oberlin College revised
and republished in that very year provided that, "Young ladies,
who do not reside with their parents, are not allowed to walk in
the fields or woods, excepting the grove assigned for this
purpose." Ladies' Grove furnished one sylvan retreat where the
student nymph might wander. As the miscalled "Arboretum" it
continues to furnish Oberlin its one romantic spot. In 1854 the
Ladies' Board even concluded that "the practice (which prevails so
extensively) of ladies and Gentlemen engaging promiscuously in
playing in the yards of their boarding house" was improper and
should be discouraged. These rules against promiscuous playing and
walking were probably never strictly enforced, certainly not in
the fifties and sixties when youthful zest and vigor began to wash
away the dikes of stiff repression. If one walked "with a
gentleman" on the Sabbath it was of course never "for recreation,"
but though the journey might be ever so necessary that did not
prevent the production of a certain amount of pleasantly guilty
satisfaction being developed as a by-product!
It has long been an open secret that
breaking rules is itself a most attractive form of student
recreation. Professor Coulter concludes that "the college student
of the Old South was a happy creature: [because] he had so
many rules to disobey." Though the pious and moral spirit of
Oberlin was too strong to tolerate anything like the savage
roisterings and open flouting of the laws which were
characteristic of the University of Georgia, there were still some
among the students who took pleasure in doing that which was
forbidden. Students were prohibited from playing "cards, checkers,
chess, or any similar game of chance or skill." Professor
Fairchild even condemned "Authors," quoting the text, "If meat
make my brother to offend, etc." Very early in the history of the
Institute a student was dismissed for "having in his possession a
Pack of Gamesters Cards." It was proved that this young man "for
diversion . . . did play himself and entice others to play with
him." A dismissed student "peached" on a classmate in a letter to
the Secretary: "My class can tell you that Mr. H. was anxious to
learn to play at cards and carried a pack to the room of Mr. Weed
. . . for instructions in the game." In the sixties a group of
"young men who met on Tappan Hall Cupola . . . for a casual (?)
game of cards" forgot that someone in the town might have a
telescope! There is no known instance of students being punished
for playing checkers or chess. The playing of these games was
probably not uncommon, though prohibited throughout the whole
period covered in this volume. In 1839, however, the faculty of
Western Reserve College ordered Tutor Clark to admonish some
students who had "been engaged in playing checkers" on the
Sabbath. The puritanical attitude was evidently not confined to
Oberlin. Smoking and drinking always hold a special charm for
young men attending schools where they are forbidden. Less than
six years after the founding of the Institute two young men were
brought before the faculty "charged with having gone to Gibb's
tavern in Carlisle on the 4th July, without leave, with there
having smoked segars." In the sixties two students were dismissed
for going to Elyria, becoming intoxicated and annoying "a
sleighing party of young ladies and teachers." A great deal of
satisfaction was always to be had out of staying out after hours,
particularly in mixed company.
Mixed parties and picnics were unheard of
in the early years. George Prudden complained in 1836 that it was
"next to impossible for one to see or become acquainted with more
than two or three of the ladies." The stiff, puritan face slowly
relaxed. A young lady writing to a former classmate in 1846 shows
a phase of student thought that letters to parents give no hint
of: "I board at the Hall and there is some good folks here, and
some slick fellers too, one in particular, a Mr. Cox [Jacob
Dolson Cox!] from New York city--O Now that makes me think of
something, but don't let it get back here what I have told you.
Timothy H's girl has mittened him and it has almost killed him."
The boarding house table, mixed classes, and choir practice, etc.
were fully taken advantage of by those who sought the society of
the other sex. In the letters and diaries of the pious it appears
as a significant fact that they were often more interested in the
souls of those of the opposite sex than of those of the same sex.
The ways of the world seem to have been creeping in. William
Dawes, in 1846, complained that the faculty was allowing
"profitless and hurtful recreations."
The most rapid transition in the trend
toward a generally more liberal attitude came in the fifties,
particularly the later fifties. This is characteristically notable
in the matter of feminine attire. One young lady was reported to
have been dismissed from the Institute for "wearing corsets" in
1840. The young ladies in the picture of the graduating classes of
1854 and 1855 are all dressed in black silk with long sleeves and
high necks ornamented only with lace or linen collars and cuffs.
Their hair is tied up smoothly and simply. The ladies in the
graduating classes of 1857 and later appear in their class picture
wearing dresses of various colors, some with short sleeves,
occasional low necks and elaborate coiffures. In 1862 the Young
Ladies' Literary Society debated the question: "Resolved, that the
primitive style of dress in Oberlin was more conducive to study
than the present" and the rival society, in 1865, considered the
issue, "Resolved, that laced stays are beneficial."
Beginning with the late fifties there is
sufficient evidence of the popularity of "promiscuous" parties and
picnics. Earlier, with the exception of family picnics, and
informal gatherings in boarding house parlors, they seem to have
been entirely lacking. In 1859 a junior and senior "pic-nic" was
held "in D. B. Kinney's orchard." There was "toasting and
speechmaking." In 1860 the boarders at Ladies' Hall (gentlemen as
well as ladies) "held a picnic in the woods known as 'De Forests'
Grove,' situated one mile and a half northeast from town. The
committee had the ground neatly prepared with seats, tables and
speakers' stand. The company assembled in the highest spirits, and
after passing some time in playing games, etc. proceeded to the
intellectual part of the entertainment. The program consisted of
orations, poems, political speeches, toasts and responses, music
and cheering. Everything in this part of the programme was spicy
and taking; the music especially was well executed, and in the
open air produced the happiest effect. Substantials followed, and
by the way, the feast did credit to the getters-up. Among the
other good things was a box of layer raisins donated by the
gentlemanly clerks in the store of Kinney and Reamer. After the
disposition of the edibles, charades came in,--then games--'Pizen'
predominating. It was rather amusing to see venerable Seniors and
Theologues performing impromptu, classical revolutions among the
russet leaves, and dancing metaphysical jigs about the 'pizen'
centre.
"After spending the time thus from three
o'clock until seven, the jolly company of one hundred and fifty
dispersed, pronouncing the affair an entire success."
The News contains other notices of the
students' social activities. In 1861 it reported that,
"Pic-nicking, parties, visits, &c., have been the order among
the students for the last six days. The weather has been very
favorable, and all affirm that they have enjoyed themselves
first-rate.' "The next month it was noted that, "'Ye young men and
maidens' held a strawberry Festival at the Ladies' Hall on
Saturday evening, and crowded a great deal of enjoyment into a
couple of hours. New chairs for the sitting room are to be one of
the practical results of the gathering." Two years later: "The
Oberlin and Wellington band wagons, crowded with jubilant
Sophomores, drove out of town on Monday, bound for the lake. The
Sophs. report that the Elephant went round.'"
A letter written in the summer of 1864
introduces us fully into the modern era. It is addressed by a
young lady to her former classmate:
"Would you like to know how that ride came
off to Clarkes' [?] I'll proceed forthwith to tell you.
The P.M. after you left about one, had you been looking from the
window, as were all the tribe here, you might have seen Mr. P. K.
assisting your humble servant into the carriage in which was Miss
Merwin, his coz, a pretty girl, black hair &: eyes, something
like Jule Tucker in style, and Mira in size. We started off &
just behind us in a real stylish double carriage, two nice ponies,
came Frank and Henry, Lem & Anna. Had a gay ride. The boys
raced till I was nearly frightened to death. We went to Elyria to
a cave there. It was gay, something like Tinkers Falls, but not
quite so nice. Then we went to his home. It is a real nice little
place, the yard very much like Mr. Morrisons We had one of the
gayest suppers this side of Jordans strand. Had everything I could
think of & much more. We finished our tea at just ten minutes
past seven, and we were only nine miles from home. [All ladies
were required to be in by eight o'clock!] Well we played hide
& coop & blind man's buff a few moments and then at half
past 7 the boys started for the horses, & at quar. of 8--we
were on our way home. Gay wasn't it? It was also gay when C.
proposed that Miss M. should drive, which she was very glad to do.
She sat on that little seat in the middle or rather out of the
middle and his majesty sat mighty close to me, nearer than I had
any desire for, even me, & you know my desires are not small.
Well, to make a long story short, and not to go in to too many
particulars, I will only say--that I do not wish truly and
honestly to have another kiss from Perkins K. Clarke to the
longest day I live."
It is clear enough that many in the student
body did not trouble themselves over the question whether "glee,
fun, hilarious mirth, games, charades and pleasure seeking" might
harden the heart or destroy the spirit of prayer.
There is no evidence of anything that could
be called athletic sport in the period of the thirties. There was
no time for it. In the forties, however, the crude and irregular
game of football of those days, in which no uniform was used and
almost any large number might play on a side, was sometimes played
on Tappan Square. In 1847, however, the regulations provided that,
"Athletic exercise or sports must be confined to the hours between
12 M. and 2 P.M. and between 6 P.M. and 7 1/2 P.M." In 1850 even
the trustees took notice of sports, voting that "the Prudential
Com. be authorized & directed to prohibit all games of play by
persons not connected with the College on Tappan Hall
Square."
In 1859 and 1860 there was a rage for
cricket. A preparatory student wrote to his brother in June of the
former year: "Instead of wicket they have Cricket here for a play.
There are 8 or 10 companies belonging to the college; the green
[Tappan Square] is all marked up with alleys. I am going
to join the Junior Prep club if I can get a chance. Every noon
after dinner those who do not have recitations have an hour to
play ball in." Townsmen as well as students became interested in
this sport; the Monthly stated that it was becoming "alarmingly
popular." It was a seven days' wonder, however; after the craze of
1859 and 1860 little more is heard of it in Oberlin.
Skating was the prime sport of the war
period. In February of 1862 it had become popular enough to call
for a discussion by the Maternal Association. The secretary
reported that: "The propriety of allowing boys and girls to skate
together in the evening was introduced. Many, indeed most,
objected to this; one elderly sister who represented the views of
our mothers upon such subjects remarked, that skating for girls
was a new idea & she could not give her opinion; when she was
a girl there was work enough to be done to furnish all the
exercise they needed and if girls were out after dark mothers
might have reason to feel anxious." A place was provided for the
sport by damming up a tiny creek so as to make a pond in the
hollow behind the present Lord Cottage. It was a sad thing when,
one night, the muskrats bored a hole through the dam and let the
water out. In the winter of 1862 and 1863 the Burnside Skating
Club (the General must have been popular at Oberlin), and in later
years the Excelsior Skating Club, rented the pond, membership fees
being collected from those who cared to skate. When the ice was
sufficiently firm a streamer was raised on a pole so that all
could know that there was "Skating Today," when there was "a
general rally to improve the precious opportunity."
Various simple ball games like "three
o'cat" were undoubtedly played very early. Henry Prudden wrote to
his brother in 1859 that he had "played base more times than he
ever said scat to an owl." The organized game of baseball in
something like its modern form was played in the East in the
fifties. In the war it was a popular sport in the army and
directly afterwards was being taught to the local boys by returned
soldiers in every town and hamlet in the country. In 1866 the game
became tremendously popular, and early in May ball players were
very much in evidence on the college grounds. The News reported
later in the year: "Base ball rages. The fever is running down to
the youngsters and the eight-year olds have their 'clubs' and
match games, and talk glibly about 'crack' players, fly catches,
home runs, &c. All right, boys.--Base ball won't sting you, as
some other B's might--such as betting, brandy, billiards, &c."
The moral appeal was, of course, the right one for Oberlin. Soon
after the surrender at Appomattox the Penfield Base Ball Club was
organized at Oberlin and in October, 1865, defeated the Forest
City Club of Cleveland by the score of 67 to 28! It was quite a
game: one Oberlin player was hit in the face by a batted ball and
a Cleveland boy had two teeth knocked out. It was the first game
played by a Cleveland ball club with an outside organization. The
Penfields played two games with Cleveland teams in 1866, one being
lost 14 to 48 and the other won to the tune of 64 to 21 runs. In
1869 the Forest City Club beat the Oberlin "Resolutes" 17 to 2;
two years later this Cleveland team was playing the Cincinnati
"Red Stockings" and the Philadelphia Athletics.
Of course the very "live" ball used in
these games accounts for the large scores. They certainly
furnished sufficient exercise! Home games were played on the
diamond on Tappan Square. Even in the late sixties, however, many
students seldom or never engaged in games of any kind. Lucien
Warner, who graduated in 1865, remembered taking part in only one
game of baseball while in Oberlin. Even in the great baseball year
of 1866 the editor of the News admitted that "the saw and hoe have
more friends yet, in the Oberlin Catalogue, than the shot gun or
ball club."
The comings and goings which have always
been so characteristic of American college life meant that there
would naturally be seasonal periods of special social activity.
New students must be welcomed and old friends greeted at the
beginning of a term or end of a vacation. In November and August
came the temporary or, often (unexpectedly perhaps), permanent
partings. The secretary of the Young Men's Lyceum put his own
feelings in the minutes of the last meeting before winter vacation
in 1853. He recorded that; "the Fraternity was dissolved
peacefully and quietly, but withal in Sorrow and Sadness of heart,
with the hope of meeting again at the appointed time to strengthen
the bonds of friendship and pursue the flowery paths of Science."
After the building of the railroad it was a ceremony to visit the
depot at the opening or closing of school and bid farewell to
departing friends or welcome the new arrivals. "This morning,"
[Henry Prudden wrote to his parents in 1859], "all our
lady boarders went away, I went down to the depot to see them off
and got wet through before I got back. Our recitations are all
through with except Rhetorical." The reunion after the winter
vacation was a time of special rejoicing. But Commencement was, of
course, the greatest social event of the year, as it marked not
only the end of one academic year but also the beginning of
another.
CHAPTER
XLVIII
COMMENCEMENT
ATER examinations came the great event of
the year, the time when village and college were placed on formal
exhibition before the world, an opportunity for reunions of former
students, a big show for the country people, a feast of oratory
for all.
"Commencement! The week of all the
fifty-two. 'Busses roll to and from the trains loaded with
passengers. Portly Trustees take an annual look after
'Institution' interests. Alumni in white cravats shake hands and
introduce the alumni-in-law of Alma Mater. Ushers bustle about
with their blue badges. Melons, sweet cider and gingerbread are
hawked and consumed on every corner. The graduates-to-be saunter
about with quiet, conscious dignity. Busy cooks muster their
resources in the way of pastries and substantials. Country couples
of either sex walk up and down the street or sit in some quiet
corner of the big church in the very fullness of enjoyment. The
essays are read or orations spoken. Fathers from the farm, the
shop, or study, mothers from 'home' listen with beating hearts,
justly glad--justly proud perhaps. The 'Praeses' cuts, with the
kindly diploma, the web of training which has been six years
weaving. Great week! Memorable to the Freshman just bending to the
work; memorable to those to whom the pleasant associations of hall
and recitation room, the kindly relations of class and societies
are to be hereafter--memories." There were many who deprecated
this carnival spirit at the anniversaries. Finney, in 1860, even
advocated their discontinuance as being undesirable worldly
celebrations. In the earlier years Commencements partook more of
the character of revival camp meetings.
Not until 1836 were there diplomas to be
granted, and then only to Theological Department graduates. The
first college degrees were conferred in 1837. In both 1834 and
1835, however, public exhibitions were held in lieu of regular
commencement exercises. The first of these exhibitions, which took
place on October 29, 1834, included the reading of compositions,
the speaking of pieces, "an ingenious dialogue, and sacred music."
The "Anniversary" of 1835 was marked by the inauguration of
President Mahan, Professor Finney and Professor Morgan and the
installation of Shipherd as pastor of the church.
The exercises of 1835 and later years,
until the meeting house was available in 1843, were (when the
weather permitted) held in the Big Tent or "Tabernacle," which had
been presented to Finney by admirers upon his coming to Oberlin. A
woman who had attended the Commencement in 1837 wrote shortly
after to a friend: "The first thing that attracted our attention
after we entered the Village was Mr. Finney's Tent which will hold
three thousand people, a flag on the top with the inscription,
'Holiness unto the Lord.' It is indeed a beautiful sight."' Four
years later another commencement visitor waxed even more
enthusiastic. "I shall not easily forget," she wrote, "the
emotions that filled my mind, as on the morning of the 24th of
August I caught a view of the majestic tent, stretching its
whitened canvas to the breeze beneath the glowing canopy of
heaven, like a hilloc of snow on an islet of green. From the top
staff its banner of blue, on which was inscribed, 'HOLINESS TO THE
LORD,' while the stillness of the scene, the freshness of the air,
and the serenity of surrounding nature, combined to render it one
of the most interesting objects, on which I had ever looked ....
Methought the object before me was a fit emblem of those, under
whose direction it had been raised, laboring on the one hand to
preserve the purity and sanctity of that law, first promulgated in
thunder on Sinai, and on the other, striving 'by pureness, by
knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by
love unfeigned, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good
report,' to bring forward the latter day glory of the church, when
she shall be presented 'holy and without blemish' to Him who hath
redeemed her by his blood."
In the forties the meeting house was easily
the finest church building in the Reserve, and the commencement
exercises lost nothing in impressiveness when transferred to that
structure. Every inch of sitting and standing room was usually
occupied on such occasions. The regular carpets were usually taken
up to save the unusual wear on them and sawdust procured and
dumped in the aisles to deaden the sound of leather heels upon the
wooden floor. This was very important because there was always a
steady stream of people coming and going during the program. The
general preparations were in the hands of the juniors but the
sophomores were given the special task of procuring the sawdust.
They made a gala event out of it, each young man "dressing up" in
some fantastic costume and securing some rawboned nag to ride.
Each would then secure a bag of sawdust and the whole number would
ride solemnly to the meeting house, each rider bearing a sack on
the saddle before him. The sawdust had to be taken out at the
expense of the institution, however. In 1863 cheap, rough carpets
were furnished in lieu of the sawdust and perforce the interesting
custom was abandoned. Sawdust or carpets, the gatherings at
commencement time in the Oberlin meeting house were great
occasions.
The week before Commencement was occupied
with examinations, the "Exhibition" of the senior class of the
Preparatory Department and the anniversaries of the various
literary societies. On Sunday a special sermon was usually
addressed to the graduates. The official graduating exercises were
usually on Tuesday, Wednesday, and sometimes Thursday. The
exercises for the graduates from the Ladies' Course took place
almost invariably on Tuesday afternoon. The graduating exercises
of the Collegiate and Theological departments were usually on
Wednesday but were shifted from one time to another. The meeting
of the alumni and the musical concert, the latter usually in the
evening, were other high points on the commencement
program.
The greatest Commencement of the
Theological Department was the first one, which took place in
September of 1836. Despite unfavorable weather, about two thousand
persons assembled under the "impressive awnings" of the Tabernacle
to hear orations on "New Measures," "Power of the Heart," "Signs
of the Times," "The True Standard of Human Action," and similar
weighty topics. James Watson Alvord's piece on "New Measures,"
which was, in essence, a defense of the revival methods of Finney,
was printed in full in the Ohio Observer. Friends and visitors
were very flattering in their comments on the performance. But
never again did the "Theologs" hold the limelight, being forced
from this time on to yield the center of the stage to the
graduates of the Collegiate and Ladies' courses.
The first graduate from the Ladies' Course
was Zeruiah Porter who finished in 1838. In the next year there
were five young lady graduates (including Florella Brown, John
Brown's half-sister) and in 1840, four. In none of these years,
however, were graduation exercises held for them. In 1841,
however, in connection with the Anniversary of the Young Ladies'
Association (or Literary Society) "testimonials" were distributed
to seven young ladies who at that time had completed the regular
Ladies' Course. Delia Fenn read an essay entitled "The Royal Road
to Excellence"; Catherine Snow's essay was on "Contrasting
Spectacles"; another discoursed on "The Importance of Cultivating
a Literary Taste." President Mahan then addressed them briefly
and, we may be sure, appropriately.
The young ladies attracted special
attention because of the talk about joint education and the rarity
of educated women. There was considerable comment on the exercises
of 1845, partly because as many as eleven young ladies were
included in this graduating class. The reporter for the Cleveland
Herald wrote: "Each young Lady read her own production, and the
entire performances were exceedingly creditable to the pupils and
teachers. The compositions evinced a thorough course of
instruction, cultivated taste and talents, and a moral force and
beauty, the bright sun-light of woman's mind. The exercises, even
to the music, which was sweet as the carol of birds and in fine
keeping with the melodious voices of the speakers--were conducted
by Ladies. At the close, Diplomas were presented to the members of
the class by President Mahan ...."
Somewhat more realistic is the description
of the exercises written by a girl in the Preparatory Department
as part of a composition: "In the afternoon at 2 o'clock I went to
the new church which is a large brick building opposit Mr.
Gillet's house; you remember the place. The church was almost
full, especialley the gallery. The order of exercises were
distributed --one sheet served for both days. The exercises
commenced with music by several of the young ladies, accompanied
by a Seraphena--prayer by the President. Music again-10 young
ladies read composions [sic], some of which were very good
.... The Ladies Board of Managers sat in the pulpit and the young
ladies of the Institution sat in the archestry. It was with great
difficulty that the ladies were heard the house was so large and
full. After the Diplomas were Presented we were dimissed with
Benediction and I presume to say that the ladies were glad
enough."
The young lady graduates and attending lady
students invariably dressed in white with blue sashes. The
procession of "young ladies of the Institution, dressed in white
muslin with the inevitable blue sashes," wrote a local journalist
of the exercises in 1861, was "a goodly, fair sight to see." Four
years later one of the young ladies wrote to a classmate:
"Commencement is approaching rapidly. We are beginning to talk of
white dresses, partners for marching, etc."
In 1860 the Lorain County News became lyric
in describing the exercises:
"At an early hour yesterday morning
visitors began to assemble from all directions. The streets were
lined with teams and the morning trains from the east and west
came in heavily loaded. By noon the village was alive with
strangers from the rural districts and neighboring cities, and the
prospect for a sublime jam at the church in the afternoon was
painfully flattering. Long before two o'clock the mammoth church
edifice was crowded to its utmost capacity. Every available inch
of sitting and standing room was eagerly appropriated by those who
had 'come to the Commencement.'
"At a quarter before two the young ladies
of the Institution, numbering nearly four hundred, marched in
procession from the Chapel across Tappan Square to the church,
where they were seated together at the west end of the
gallery.
"This feature of yesterday's entertainment
was one of the finest sights we have ever witnessed. The young
ladies were dressed in uniform snow-white, with blue flowing
sashes, and uncovered heads. The airiness of their dress and their
personal beauty made the effect half enchanting, and hundreds who
had never witnessed the spectacle before were perfectly
enthusiastic in their compliments--rapidly exhausting their fund
of exclamation points and double superlatives.
"When the exercises commenced hundreds were
remaining outside in the shaded yard that surrounds the church,
being unable to obtain a respectable peep within. Those inside the
building must have numbered from three to four thousand, yet
remarkably good order was preserved though out.
"After a brief and eloquent prayer by Rev.
Mr. Whipple of Boston, the reading of essays began, and continued
with frequent intermissions of music, until 5 o'clock. When the
last one had been read, the whole class of twenty-nine took their
positions in double rank upon the stand to sing the 'class song,'
and receive from Dr. Morgan their diplomas.
"The sight was a beautiful one, and
produced a fine effect. When the class had sung the first verse of
the song the ladies of the Institute rose, at the same instant,
and joined in singing the chorus, which was a reply to their
sisters that were going out. The air of spontaneity and absence of
all stiffness that characterized the whole proceeding, added much
to the effect.
"Pausing in the middle of the song, the
young ladies remained standing while the venerable Dr. Morgan
addressed the graduating class and presented the diplomas. We
would like much to reproduce the remarks made by the Professor.
They were certainly the most touching and appropriate that we have
ever listened to on a similar occasion.
"The diplomas being presented, the song was
concluded, all joining in the chorus:
"Then Farewell, Farewell
dear sisters,
And may each one's motto be,
All through life's uneven
pathway,
Lo! 'The world hath need of
thee.'
"This closed the exercises of the
afternoon, and the numerous congregation that had spent nearly
four hours on a warm day in a crowded house, quietly dispersed
expressing themselves richly repaid for all their trouble and
inconvenience."
Some of the young ladies' essays really
seem to have made quite an impression. In 1846 Louisa Jane Lovell
read an anti-slavery and anti-war essay entitled "True Valuation
of Human Interests." She declared, in conclusion, "the brightest
omen is the spirit of reform, which everywhere breathes throughout
our land, every branch of which has for its ultimate aim the
promotion of human interests." Michael Bateham, editor of the Ohio
Cultivator of Columbus, was in attendance. The impression made on
him was so great "as subsequently to induce him to seek her
acquaintance and love." They were married the next year; she died
the year following; and two years later he married another Oberlin
wife, the step-daughter of Professor Cowles. We do not know
whether he selected her on the basis of her graduation essay or
not.
But the essays of the young ladies read on
Tuesday--"rich in thought--correct in sentiment, chaste in
language," as they were said to be--were only the appetizers which
prepared the intellectual palate for the strong meat offered by
the college and theological graduates on Wednesday. The young
men's orations dealt with all sorts of weighty matters in the
fields of social problems, ethics, philosophy and theology. Such
subjects as: "Right the Basis of Law," "The Political Economy of
Slavery," "National Responsibility," "Moral Heroism" (by James
Monroe), "Position of the American Christian on the Moral
Battlefield," "The Influence of Philosophy in Forming the
Character of an Age," and "The Dawn of Mental Freedom" were
characteristic. A visitor in 1855 heard "little . . . of
'Demosthenes and Cicero,' of Parnasus and Olympus, but much of our
relations to our Country and the race, of our duties to man and to
God."
The Oberlin gospel of reform was
continually cropping out and the orations were invariably
characterized by seriousness of purpose. In 1848 a man who
attended the exercises at Western Reserve College at Hudson as
well as at Oberlin compared the two. He found that: "At Hudson the
reasoning powers were cultivated more than the imagination and
sensibilities. At Oberlin the order was reversed. At Hudson they
manifested great reverence for the church and her institutions as
they now exist; at Oberlin the church was often criminated. At
Hudson we had the bright side of the picture--all was well; at
Oberlin this was pronounced a 'degenerate age,' 'a faithless
generation,' and 'reform' was demanded. At Hudson marked attention
was shown to the Faculty; at Oberlin very little .... At Hudson
there was an inexcusable hesitancy; at Oberlin the pieces were
thoroughly committed. At Hudson the speakers seemed to have
learned elocution more from precept than from example; at Oberlin
more from example than from precept."
Four young men received the bachelor's
degree in 1837 and twenty in 1838, including George N. Allen and
the Fairchild brothers, James and Henry. This number was not
greatly exceeded until 1861 and 1862, in both of which years
degrees were granted to twenty-eight men and women.
The first degrees were granted to women in
1841, to Mary Caroline Rudd, Mary Hosford and Elizabeth Prall. One
would like to have heard Professor Morgan read Mary Hosford's
essay: "A Lady's Apology"--supposedly for aspiring to the
bachelor's degree. A visitor found the young ladies' essays good
and deserving "to be spoken with all the spirit and life which the
feeling of maternity could not have failed to produce, instead of
being condemned to an indifferent reading by a Professor who had
nothing to do with the composition." Not until 1858 was a young
lady allowed to read her own essay on the Wednesday program.
Though prohibited from speaking, these first female bachelors
"received the diplomas to which they were entitled, on the stage,
in the same manner as the young gentlemen, same degree, to wit,
that of Bachelor of Arts."
Music always played a large part in the
exercises, especially choral music. There were usually occasional
intervals of singing interspersed in the program between the
orations and essays and, after 1840, a special commencement
concert. In 1839 James Fairchild found the singing "divine" and
declared that: "The audience could hardly contain
themselves.--There were many shed tears that do not often weep."
At the end of each program the graduates usually sang a "parting
song," sometimes as in 1851, written by a member of the
class:
Friends, fare ye well!
The parting hour is nigh,
And we must leave each soul-embalmed
spot,
Where we have met
In the sweet years gone by--
Sweet years!--whose joys can never be
forgot!
What our full heart
Feels, none can tell;
But as we part,
Farewell, farewell!
This side the tomb
We may not meet again!
One of our number now lies in the
graver
Briefly he beamed
A mental star, and then
Sunk as a meteor 'neath the midnight
wave!
We too shall soon
Sleep, and the knell
Ring for our last
Mournful farewell!
Teachers, farewell!
Our hearts must always feel
For you, whose kindness made our pathway
bright,
Affection deep:
We go to draw the steel
Of truth, whose power ye taught us, for
the right!
For your kind care,
Our bosoms swell
With gratitude!
Farewell, farewell.
The alumni association was formed in 1839
as the Association of Alumni of the Oberlin Collegiate Institute,
and its purpose declared to be "to cultivate and strengthen
friendly feeling among its members--to perpetuate the purity and
prosperity of the Institution from which they have graduated--and
to secure mutual aid and sympathy in carrying forward efficiently
and successfully the great objects of our being." Membership was
limited to graduates of the Collegiate Department and provision
was made for the expulsion of those who should become "decidedly
immoral." Young lady recipients of a degree were included from the
beginning, it being voted on August 26, 1841, "that we consider
the ladies of the present graduating class as included in the
motion of reception."
The association met annually during
commencement week, listened to an address by one of their number
and elected an orator for the following year. In 1847 John Todd,
the founder of Tabor, discoursed on "The American Clergy and the
Times"; in 1862 Professor J. M. Ellis spoke on "Weakness and
Strength of the Republic"; Professor Robert C. Kedzie of the
Michigan Agricultural College delivered an address on "Wind and
Water" in 1864, and J. M. Langston spoke on "Ethical
Reconstruction" in 1866. A banquet was often featured. In 1842 the
trustees of the Institute paid the steward twenty-five dollars to
prepare a dinner for two hundred. The reunion of 1856 was
especially successful. One hundred and seventy out of two hundred
and twenty-two living graduates were present--probably an all-time
record. James H. Fairchild delivered an oration on the history of
Oberlin. There was a grand "collation" and "after the material
repast came the feast of reason and the flow of soul"; sixteen
responses to toasts--each (fortunately!) limited to five minutes.
Among them were: "Oberlin and her children--well met again" by
Father Keep, "The Faculty--Tried and found Faithful" by Professor
Morgan, "The glorious good fellows of Lane Seminary--May their
shadows never be less" by Rev. George Clark, "Our graduates, the
Ladies--Much learning hath not made them mad, but with womanly
grace they sustain their honors and duties" by Rev. James A.
Thome, and "The Presidential Campaign--The Sons and Daughters of
our Alma Mater are always among the tried friends of Freedom" by
C. B. Darwin of Iowa. A ten-thousand-dollar fund for the college
library was inaugurated and four thousand dollars pledged on the
spot.
Another great Commencement was that of
1858. President Hitchcock of Western Reserve College spoke on
Monday night and his audience went directly from the church to
prevent the capture of a fugitive slave. The governors of both
Ohio and Michigan were present on Wednesday and addressed the
assembly at the close of the regular exercises. "I suppose you
have heard the commencement exercises all talked over long before
this," a junior man wrote to his coed fiancee. "I need not notice
them. All there is to say is, that all the lions duly roared
according to order, from the two governors down to the stupidest
sen--alumnus,--no senior, for they were seniors then. They had not
yet graduated into nonentities. The choir did its roaring in the
evening. I was there--made a desperate dash through the crowd at
the imminent risk of my bones and my lady's--crinoline--secured a
third rate seat and a first rate head ache--sat there for three
mortal hours, except such part of them as I spent in the
delightful recreation of standing up (which part was about two
thirds)." A gentleman from Elyria had his horse and buggy stolen
while he was attending the exercises.
In 1849 the usual ceremonies were dispensed
with on account of the cholera epidemic, it being "understood that
large gatherings of people, protracted excitement, and mental and
physical exhaustion" encouraged the spread of the much-feared
plague. Professor Morgan, however, delivered an address to the
graduates, their families and friends, other students and the
townspeople on the customary day. In 1850 during the program on
Wednesday the alarm of fire was given and a panic averted only by
the presence of mind of a student who announced to the audience
that it was a false alarm. As a matter of fact a fire had broken
out in a student's room in Colonial Hall. The exercises were
adjourned until the flames had been subdued, when the audience and
orators returned to the regular business of Commencement, the more
enthusiastic, undoubtedly, for the intermission.
Directly after the conclusion of the
exercises came the weddings of the new alumni and alumnae. Then,
fortitled by the advice of President Finney and Mrs. Dascomb on
successful matrimony and, in at least one year, by the gift of a
patent stove from Philo P. Stewart, they sallied out to make over
the world.
The undergraduates and preparatory students
reopened their textbooks and elected new officers for their
literary societies. "It is the day after Commencement," wrote one
of these undergraduates. "The students are hurrying up & down
the hall in all the bustle of choosing rooms for the year. I can
hear them now, through my closed door--questioning, disputing,
knocking at the doors, & discussing the relative worth of the
rooms as if the fate of the kingdom depended on a correct
decision. Through the early morning the two weddings seemed to be
the topic. Now they are over with and, for the moment,
half-forgotten in this new excitement."
Book
Five
War and
Transition
"In this collision the cause of the slave
is that of humanity, of liberty, of civilization, of Christianity.
It is the cause of God against Satan, and woe to the power that
attempts to longer crush labor under the heel of
capital."
CHARLES GRANDISON FINNEY (In a
letter to Barlow,
February 13, 1863--O. C.
Library).
"Oberlin commenst this war. Oberlin wuz the
prime cause uv all the trubble. What wuz the beginnin uv it? Our
Suthrin brethrin wantid the territories -- Oberlin objectid. They
wanrid Kansas fer ther blessid instooshn -- Oberlin again objecks.
They sent colonies with muskits and sich, to hold the terrytory --
Oberlin sent 2 thowsand armed with Bibles and Sharp's rifles --
two instooshns Dimokrasy cood never never stand afore -- and druv
em out. They wantid Brechinridge fer President. Oberlin refused,
and elektid Linkin ....
"Oberlin won't submit. We might 2-day hey
peese ef Oberlin wood say to Linkin, 'Resine!' and to Geff Davis,
'Come up higher!' When I say Oberlin understand it ez figgerative
fer the entire ablishn party, uv wich Oberlin is the fountin-hed.
There's wher the trubble is. Our Suthern brethren wuz reasonable.
So long az the Dimokrasy controld things, and they got all they
wanted, they wur peeceable. Oberlin ariz--the Dimokrasy wuz beet
down, and they riz up agin it."
PETROLEUM V. NASBY [David Ross
Locke],
The Struggles (Social, Financial and
Political) of
Petroleum V. Nasby (Boston--c. 1872),
44-46.
CHAPTER
XLIX
COMPANY C
LINCOLN and the majority of Northern men
may have fought the war for the Union, but Oberlinites were
interested only in the slavery issue. There was no tremendous
enthusiasm for Lincoln in the election of 1860, though a noisy
ratification meeting was held when news was received of the
nomination. Oberlin considered Lincoln's "ground on the score of
humanity towards the oppressed race" altogether too low and was
much irritated at his promise to enforce the fugitive slave law.
Editorially the Evangelist wished the Republicans had chosen a
better man, but agreed to support him as certainly better than any
Democratic candidate. Deploring the weakness of the Republican
position, Oberlin men must strive to elevate the "moral tone" of
the party and "bring it more fully into sympathy with freedom and
righteousness." There was considerable local political activity.
Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky spoke to a capacity crowd in the
meeting house; the Lincoln Glee Club furnished the music. Stephen
A. Douglas' campaign train stopped at the depot. The Little Giant,
said the News, "drew himself up one inch above his usual height,
so as to attain the dizzy altitude of five feet two," and made a
brief speech. There was not much applause. The election of Lincoln
was celebrated with a grand torch-light procession and a bonfire
on Tappan Square.
Immediately they went to work to exert
pressure to make sure that there would be no compromise to save
the Union at the expense of the slaves. In March, Ralph Plumb,
Rescuer and ambitious local political leader, wrote to James
Monroe, then a member of the Ohio Senate, expressing his
preference for peaceable separation rather than any effort to
patch up the Union with slavery. He agreed that it might "be the
best thing for the cause to let the separation come." Even kindly
old John Morgan declared to his bosom friend, Mark Hopkins: "With
all my heart I wish there may be a complete separation from the
slave power which has incalculably demoralized the whole nation
and will do it worse still if the shadow of a concession is made
to it." Early in February the citizens of Oberlin held a mass
meeting and adopted resolutions which were sent to the compromise
convention then assembled in Washington. "As Christians," these
resolutions read in part, "as citizens of the Commonwealth, as a
part of our common country, in the name of our common humanity,
and in the love and fear of God, we solemnly protest against any
concession to Slavery or to the demands made by its abettors in
any form whatever, and especially against making such concessions
at the behest of traitors in arms against the Union."
On Friday, April 12, 1861, a telegram was
read at the regular session of the Ohio State Senate announcing
that Fort Sumter had been fired upon. The news was greeted with
silence by the members, including Finney's two sons-in-law, James
Monroe and Jacob Dolson Cox, and their close friend, James A.
Garfield, but Abby Kelley Foster, the radical abolitionist,
screamed out from the visitors' gallery, "Glory to God!"
Oberlinites had never had much in common with Abby Kelley but most
of them, like her, now seemed to welcome the catastrophe and
little more was heard about "moral suasion."
On Saturday, April 13, Sumter was
surrendered and the Monday morning papers contained the
proclamation by President Lincoln calling for 75,000 volunteer
troops to put down the rebellion. Four days after the call was
received two Ohio regiments left for Washington. At Oberlin the
faculty immediately moved to repeal the prohibition against
student participation in military companies. Mayor Hendry issued a
proclamation denouncing the "foul conspiracy" against the
Government, "liberty and the hope of man," and calling a mass
meeting of the citizenry. The great Union rally was held in the
old meeting house on Wednesday evening, April 17. Among the
temporary officers were Peter Pindar Pease, John M. Langston, the
Negro lawyer, and A. B. Nettleton, the last an undergraduate who
was soon to distinguish himself as a soldier. Speeches were given
by Professors Peck and Fairchild and by Fitch, Plumb, and
Langston, all of whom expressed satisfaction that the hour of
decision had arrived. A vigilance committee was appointed "to take
such action as circumstances may demand"; the Musical Union sang
the "spirit-stirring" Marseillaise and the Star Spangled Banner.
No effort, however, was made to secure enlistments, the village
fathers counselling delay.
The students of the College, however, were
not to be put off. With the consent of the faculty they held a
meeting on Friday evening and made plans for the enlistment of a
company. The next morning a participant wrote to his brother: "It
is in the midst of the most intense and alarming excitement that I
address you these lines. WAR! and volunteers are the only topics
of conversation or thought. The lessons today have been a mere
form. I cannot study. I cannot sleep, I cannot work, and I don't
know as I can write." Professor and State Senator Monroe arrived
from Columbus on Saturday and called for enlistmeats at a meeting
held that night. Forty-eight young men came forward and entered
their names on the rolls of Oberlin's first company. Over four
thousand dollars was raised to outfit them. The revival technique
was being effectively used again. The excitement did not abate on
the Sabbath: more names were added; Father Keep rose during the
giving out of the notices in church and asked if any more war news
had been received; Professor Morgan preached a war sermon in the
afternoon. At a meeting held on Monday evening the enlistments had
reached one hundred and fifty. The Citizens' Brass Band offered to
go as a unit to furnish martial music; one dear lady wrote the
Governor, volunteering to nurse "those of our boys who may need
such services." On Tuesday two companies began drilling on Tappan
Square.
But the faculty insisted that those under
age should not go without the consent of their parents and that
the weak and sickly should be weeded out, so the number was cut
down to exactly one hundred organized in one company, which
appropriately took the name of the Monroe Rifles in honor of the
Oberlin politician-professor. Giles W. Shurtleff, a theological
student and Latin tutor, was elected captain. The women of the
town and the young ladies of the College turned to, to prepare
such a military outfit as the time and circumstances permitted.
Some began to scrape lint. On Thursday, April 25, cheered on by
most of the residents and students assembled at the station, the
Monroe Rifles took the cars for Cleveland where they joined the
Sprague Cadets, the Cleveland Light Guards, and the National
Guards of Cleveland, the Painesville Union Guards, the Hudson
Infantry, the Franklin Rifles, the Tyler Guards of Ravenna, the
Union Guards of Youngstown, and Company A of Warren to form the
Seventh Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry. They were quartered at
the fair grounds of the Cuyahoga Agricultural Society--renamed for
the occasion Camp Taylor. On April 29, 1861, the Oberlin company,
now known as Company C, was regularly mustered in for three
months' service.
A few excerpts from the diary of one of the
boys, Sergeant E. B. Stiles, will take us closer to the thoughts
and emotions of those crowded hours:
"April 25th
"There are many changes & vicisitudes
in life and among them is that of changing a student's for a
soldier's life, laying aside the especial study of the gospel of
peace and taking up the instruments of death. It is a strange step
to take, and especially so for one who is so great a coward as
myself, as little addicted to placing himself in positions of
peril and yet all of this has taken place to day with myself. I
enlisted several days since--to day came on to the camp ground.
The last few days have been filled with excitement in the usually
quiet village of Oberlin. The drum has been beating to arms--great
crowds assembling to listen to exciting speeches & enrol
companies--two have been formed at O .... Started from
O.[berlin] 2 P.M. Oberlin turned out en masse to bid us
farewell. It was hard to leave those fine experiences and
dear--march'ed through the streets at Cleveland eliciting the
applause of multitudes--took supper on the camp grounds &
found it better than I had expected, our quarters are not the best
but we can endure it I hope.
" 26th
"Did not sleep much last night,
the boys laughed and joked so much that there was little chance
for sleeping. This is queer business for me, we have drilled
some, hope to be able to endure that part of it very well
....
"27th
"I should have slept some last
night but it rained hard--our barrack leaked--many of us became
quite wet & cold & hence were not in very good position
for sleeping--was on guard 3 hours consecutive this P.M. but as
I have escaped being out at night I could well afford to do it
....
"28th
"It has been a queer Sabbath--our
company has not drilled any but others have & there has
been nearly as much noise and confusion as on other days--had
some services this afternoon, they were short but good. Prof.
Ellis talked to our company some--we sung and had quite an
interesting time. The Co. all marched down town to hear Mr.
White preach ....
"29th
"We are not drilling near as much
as the company expected hence some dissatisfaction--not very
serious--we elected new officers--the result creates some
dissatisfaction--it is feared a serious rupture will take place
in the company tho I trust not. . . . Were mustered into
service--all admitted the examination was very slight. The
discipline will be more strict now.
"30th
"There are all sorts of rumors
about the time of our departure and destination. I begin to
realize that a soldier is nothing but a machine and is supposed
to know nothing, or care nothing.
"May 1
"I had little thought when this
month commenced that I should be a soldier in the U. S. service
when it closed but such it seems is the fact.--Where I may be a
month hence it is hard to guess--perhaps ere another 30 days
shall have passed my earthly pilgrimage will have been closed.
The fortunes of war are strange and unexpected--we must
joyfully take them as they come, hoping for the best."
On May 5 the regiment was started from
Cleveland for Camp Dennison near Cincinnati. That night was spent
in Columbus. No barracks were as yet available, so the Sprague
Cadets and the Monroe Rifles took over the State House, the
Oberlin unit, appropriately enough, occupying the Senate Chamber.
"Have each a fine sofa to rest upon to night," wrote one youngster
on official Senate paper from the desk of Senator Monroe. The next
day, Monday, they reached the muddy, half-finished camp in the
midst of a soaking rain. On Tuesday, much to the sorrow of the
Oberlin boys, E. B. Tyler was elected colonel of the regiment over
James Abram Garfield, their choice. But at least they had the
satisfaction of knowing that the entire camp was in command of
Oberlin's own newly-appointed general, Jacob Dolson Cox. The lane
on which the six hastily-constructed huts assigned to the company
were located was labelled College Street. The juniors and seniors
called their quarters Tappan Hall; another unit was labelled in
large letters LADIES' HALL. On the first week-end in Camp Dennison
Professor Peck came to them from Oberlin with an offering of
sweets, letters, etc. He preached to them on Sunday and found that
they had already earned a unique reputation. "Them Oberlin
fellows," said an outspoken sentry, "ain't worth a damn; they
won't steal nor swear." They were the "praying
company."
It had become apparent to all in places of
responsibility that the rebellion was not likely to be put down in
the three months' period for which the first volunteers had
enlisted. Therefore, on May 3, President Lincoln called for men to
serve for three years. General Cox and James Monroe addressed the
men of Company C on May 23, urging them to re-enlist for the
longer term of service. It was argued that the moral influence of
a group of men like those who composed the Oberlin company was
greatly needed in the army. "Ministers of the Gospel, college
alumni, and seniors, serving their country as privates, must speak
eloquently for the righteous cause they had espoused." On June 1
Professor Peck again appeared in camp to add his influence to that
of Cox and Monroe. "Some are ashamed to turn back after putting
their hand to the plough," wrote Sergeant Stiles in his diary.
"Others think the demand is not urgent enough to call them away
from their previous occupations--causing them to sacrifice their
course of study and all their plans & bright prospects for the
future . . ." About two-thirds re-enlisted. "It is hard," wrote
Stiles, who was one of them, "for me to give up my studies, plans
etc. but it would be harder still to remain at my desk in this
hour of my country's peril." The three-years men were immediately
granted a furlough, during which most of them visited Oberlin and
their homes. There they received "a perfect ovation"--"old and
young --grave and gay all left their usual occupations to greet
and make happy the Monroe Rifle boys." At the same time the ranks
were again filled to the maximum by new volunteers, also mostly
Oberlin students.
The furlough enabled a majority of Company
C to escape part of the uncomfortable and sickly days in the mirey
camp. The supply of drinking water was secured at first from the
Little Miami River not far below the point where a slaughter house
drained into the stream. Probably a majority of the men were not
immune to the ordinary childhood diseases. Many, like (the later
Professor) George Frederick Wright, were not constitutionally
hardy enough for the long stints of guard duty. The cooking
arrangements were exceedingly bad and much poorly-prepared and
half-cooked food was eaten. As a result there was a great deal of
illness, and the barn which was appropriated for an emergency
hospital was soon full of cases of measles, pneumonia, dysentery,
and typhoid.
The men who kept their health or were not
on leave drilled steadily, marching and countermarching in single
file, in column of fours and in double ranks. When rifles arrived
the manual of arms became the order of the day. Hardie's Tactics
was studied by all who could obtain copies; an abridged edition
was specially prepared for others. General Cox continued his
reading of military history in English and French, setting an
example of diligence for his subordinates. These first volunteers
were evidently generally above the average, however, in physical
stamina, moral character and education. General Cox speaks of
three or four companies of college men being in the camp.
President Lorin Andrews of Kenyon College was colonel of the
Fourth Ohio. When the men were sent into action the last of June
they were probably no rawer than troops must necessarily be when
but two months out of civil life.
On June 27, 1861, the Seventh Ohio was
moved in a train of twenty-five cars, running in sections, by way
of Columbus, to Bellair on the Ohio River. In the afternoon of the
same day they crossed over into rebel territory. "Were I 30 or 40
feet lower I might be said to be on secession soil," Stiles wrote
in his diary that night, "but now I am on the top of a house which
has its foundations in a secession state .... This war business
seems more and more like a reality I do not hesitate to go
forward. My trust and hope is in an all divine one who will wisely
direct my ways."
The western part of Virginia was debatable
ground. Many of the mountaineers of this region were thoroughly
loyal to the Union and quite unsympathetic with the Richmond
government. In April and May part of the citizenry (perhaps a
majority) had repudiated the seceded state administration and
formed an independent loyal government. Two years later they were
to secure recognition as the State of West Virginia. These
Virginia Unionists demanded Federal military protection. The
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, a chief line of communication between
the loyal East and the loyal West, was endangered in this region
and must also be defended.
On May 23 a small detachment of Confederate
troops actually reached the railway at the junction at Grafton,
but were driven back by Ohio and Indiana troops led by General
George Brinton McClellan and defeated in an engagement near
Philippi, called the "first land battle of the Civil War."
McClellan then cleared the Confederate troops from the northern
portion of western Virginia.
Attention was, in the meantime, directed to
the Kanawha valley further south where Union sentiment was less
strong. General J. D. Cox was sent with a small force up the
Kanawha, and General M. S. Rosecrans was ordered to march south
from the Baltimore and Ohio to join forces with Cox at or near
Gauley Bridge, the point where the New River and the Gauley unite
to form the Kanawha. General H. A. Wise (Governor of Virginia in
John Brown's day) commanded the Confederate forces in this region,
where he was soon joined by General J. B. Floyd (formerly
Secretary of War under Buchanan). It was fortunate for the Union
cause that neither of these political generals would take orders
from the other and that counsel in the Confederate camp was,
therefore, divided. On July 21 came the battle of Bull Run. The
Northern general McDowell was discredited and McClellan was called
East to take his place. Robert E. Lee, temporarily put in the
shade by Beauregard and Joseph E. Johnston, was shunted off to the
mountains to take command and try to make Floyd and Wise
cooperate.
Cox reached Gauley Bridge on July 29
without serious opposition. Gauley Bridge is situated among rugged
mountains covered then as now with a blanket of forest and laurel.
The road to the Bridge passed through a narrow defile with a
craggy precipice on the one side and the foaming and unfordable
river, already hastening to the Falls of the Kanawha a mile below,
on the other. It was a natural stronghold which could easily be
held by a small force against superior numbers.
The Seventh was under the command of
Rosecrans, at first, and was used by him for the most strenuous
service. They were carried from the Ohio River on the Baltimore
and Ohio to Grafton and then to Clarksburg; from that point they
furnished their own transportation. On the night of June 29 and 30
the regiment undertook a forced march to Weston, some twenty-five
miles to the south, where a considerable sum of Virginia State
funds was known to be deposited. The objective was reached at five
o'clock in the morning and the money was secured --and the men
properly initiated into the life of the soldier. Another punishing
and, this time, fruitless march to Glenville, twenty-eight miles,
was made on July 8. Three companies started, but Company C was the
only one to arrive before nightfall.
The regiment was reunited on July 23, and
during the next month was moved on further south to Summersville
and then to Kesler's Cross Lanes. Their duty at the latter point
was to guard the communications between Cox at Gauley Bridge and
Rosecrans, whose main force was held at Clarksburg to the north,
and especially to keep an eye on Carnifex Ferry nearby, where it
was feared that the Confederates might attempt to cross the
Gauley. Cross Lanes was well located for this purpose, being at
the intersection between a road from Gauley Bridge to Summersville
and one which led to the ferry about four miles to the
south.
General Floyd made a feint at attacking Cox
directly at the Bridge and the latter, thereupon, ordered Colonel
Tyler to march to his support with the Seventh. On August 20 and
21, therefore, the regiment made another all-night march, covering
the twenty miles to Gauley Bridge before dawn. Carnifex Ferry thus
being uncovered, Floyd crossed and advanced in the direction of
Cross Lanes. On Saturday and Sunday, August 24 and 25, the Seventh
marched back again to face him.
That Sunday night Company C was quartered
in and about the Vaughan store and farmhouse at the crossroads; A
and K were nearby. After a supper of salt meat, hardtack, and
green corn from neighboring fields washed down with water from the
Vaughan well, the men lay down in the road or stretched out on the
platform before the store. They were wet through with sweat from
the strenuous march and the cool night air chilled them to the
bone. "I tried to sleep on the stoop," wrote Sergeant Stiles, the
diarist, "no go--snuggled by the fire with the chaplain &
surgeon and procured a little rest."
Here, while the men were at breakfast the
next morning, they were surprised by the Confederates, who poured
over the hills from the south and east in greatly superior
numbers. "More crackers & meat for breakfast," continued
Stiles. "While we were eating crack! crack! went the guns of our
pickets. We were nearly surrounded & attacked by Floyd's
brigade of from 3500 to 4000 men with cavalry and artillery--made
some resistance--fled --had hard times in the woods--were again
surprised and taken prisoners by Col. Tompkin[s] and Capt.
Barber, others escaped--were led back through the old camp of the
enemies and our imprisonment began. They have treated us very
kindly so far."
Company C played in tough luck, being
surprised and surrounded by a superior force in its first
engagement. Apparently Colonel Tyler had not made proper disposal
of his men to guard against such an attack and the regiment was
caught completely unprepared. Only Companies K, A and C made any
show of resistance, rallying on the hill behind the Vaughan house.
For this, Company G paid dearly, being cut off from their fleeing
comrades, and thirty-four, including Captain Shurtleff, captured.
The others scattered through the woods, hiding in the laurel
whenever enemy troops approached, and, after various adventures,
found their way through the enemy lines and back to the regiment
at Gauley Bridge. General Floyd reported to Lee: "Tyler's command
is said to be of their best troops. They were certainly brave
men." Two college boys, Joseph Collins and Burford Jeakins (one of
the captives), died of their wounds. Though it was an isolated
affair and though Company C fought in many other more famous and
victorious battles, the affair at Kesler's Cross Lanes should
aIways be remembered as the Oberlin boys' first baptism of fire
and, therefore, for them, and for Oberlin, "one of the most
memorable fights of the war."
Twenty-nine of the men of Company C who
were captured at Cross Lanes were to experience life in several
Southern prisons and endure hardships as great as those of the
battlefield and more demoralizing.
From the banks of the Gauley they were
marched overland. the private soldiers tied together with a rope
in the manner of a slave coffle. Captain Shurtleff and another
officer were granted temporary parole and were, therefore, enabled
to do something for the comfort of their comrades. There was not
much that they could do, however, and the march was unpleasant
enough: the men were lightly clad; the food was poor and
inadequately cooked; on at least one night the prisoners camped in
the open in a cold, drenching rain. The route was that of the
present U. S. Highway 60 east through White Sulphur Springs and
Lewisburg over the mountains to Jackson Station and Jackson River
where they were loaded onto freight cars to be taken to
Staunton.
From Staunton, the next day, they were
taken by train to Richmond where the officers were separated from
the enlisted men, the former being placed in Liggon's tobacco
warehouse, the latter in a similar building owned by John Wilder
Atkinson. Selden B. Kingsbury, a freshman, here made a little
notebook from material in the old office of the tobacco company in
which he recorded his prison experiences:
"Sept. 4, 1861.
"Bread and meat for breakfast, I
believe that I am home sick. I know I am sick. We have food
twice a day. A little food and plenty of guards. When will I
see home. My heart aches.
"Thursday--Sept. 5, 61.
"Our bed is the bare floor. We
have no blankets. Six men were wanted to wash some clothes for
wounded prisioners. I volunteer and feel better for haveing
something to do.
"Fryday--6, 1861.
"How long the day is! How hard it
is to have nothing to do! I almost envy the Slaves that I see
pass to and fro before my bared windo. I am resolved to try and
find something to busy myself with. I wish I had a Greek
Testament."
The Oberlin boys had little more in common
with their irreligious fellow-prisoners than with their
Confederate captors. "I do wish that Co. C could be by
themselves," wrote Stiles, "then we would have some
peace--anything but this cloud of smoke, spittle & horrid
oaths." He continued: "September 7th Sat.--Have read some Paradise
Lost. I must have me a Bible. How can I live without one? My
health continues good--begin to feel the need of exercise. It is
so different from the past 4 or 5 months. Shall have to practice
Stewart." (The co-founder's doctrine of abstemiousness was
evidently not wholly forgotten.) The next day was Sunday. "Oh,
what a Sabbath! As much smoking, playing of cards, etc as ever--no
church--No prayer meeting--or anything to distinguish the
day."
Captain Shurtleff, in the meantime, was in
somewhat pleasanter company, being associated with the officers
and one Congressman (!) who had been captured at Bull Run. He was
able to spend his time profitably reading Thier's Consulate and
Empire, two novels of Thackeray, and Livy and Virgil, which books
he purchased by the sale of his watch to one of the Confederate
officers. On September 10 he was allowed to visit his men and say
farewell to them, as the authorities had decided to remove part of
the prisoners to Charleston. In company with some thirty other
officers, including Colonel Corcoran of the 69th New York, and a
considerable number of enlisted men, he was taken to the home of
secession. At Charleston they were paraded through the streets
behind a brass band to the great satisfaction of the populace who
had not seen any Yankee prisoners before.
Shurtleff's prison experience included the
two prisons in Charleston, the one at Columbia, South Carolina,
"Libby" at Richmond, and Salisbury, North Carolina. At Charleston
the prisoners were kept in Castle Pinckney and the jail--most of
the time in the city jail. On December 1 Shurtleff wrote to a
fellow-tutor at Oberlin:
"Well, here we are, huddled together, 30
officers and 120 men, in the most filthy, uncomfortable jail in
the world. Officers 7 and 8 in a room 10 by 15; men 15 in a room
the same size. I, and most others, are destitute of money and
nearly destitute of clothing. The privates are many of them almost
naked. Their rations are three hard crackers per day, about 3 ozs.
meat, coffee and sugar for one meal. Ours is the same."
"I think often of Oberlin and its dear
people," he continued, "I fear for the interests of the
Institution there during this crisis. I hope no course will be
taken which shall weaken its power for good. I never before
estimated the value of a thorough Christian education as I do now.
I confess that my desire to get safely through this struggle and
devote my life with all its energies to the dissemination of
Christian education is most intense. I tell you, Merrell, the
position you now occupy is one of the greatest responsibility and
the greatest usefulness. I am glad you occupy it. Please remember
me to my old pupils who may enquire about me."
On the first day of 1862 Shurtleff and
others were moved to Columbia. The next day he wrote to James
Monroe requesting that money, clothing and books (Herodotus and a
Lexicon) be sent him. The captain always described the treatment
received in Columbia in most favorable terms. "... Have seen more
humanity and courtesy manifested here during the last 18 hours
than during all our previous experience in the south," he declared
to Monroe. The comfort of the prisoners was added to by the
articles which they purchased with Confederate paper money
counterfeited by them in the jail!
Then came the joyous news that they were to
be returned to Richmond for exchange! But the negotiations between
the two governments relative to the terms dragged while they spent
two months in the notorious Libby prison. Here Shurtleff and a few
companions, encouraged by the sound of the guns of McClellan's
army, which was then approaching Richmond from the Peninsula,
concocted an elaborate scheme for escape. They secured civilian
clothes, cut iron bars with a saw made from a watch spring, made a
hole through a floor of two-inch oak planks with a pocket knife
and then tunneled through a brick walll But their plan was
foiled--and they were sent back south to the prison in Salisbury,
North Carolina, early in May of 1862.
At Salisbury, though the private soldiers
suffered considerably at first from close confinement and
unsanitary surroundings, the officers were well housed and allowed
considerable freedom for outdoor exercise in the yard of the
prison. They seized the opportunity to organize baseball teams and
played almost every day. On July 4, 1862, a special game was
played for the entertainment of visitors from the town--this
besides a greased pig race, a sack race and a wheelbarrow race.
But the Oberlin captain, though taking an active part in all these
games, was depressed by the irreligious atmosphere. In May he
wrote a letter on thin paper which was compressed so that it would
go into a brass button of an exchanged soldier's uniform and thus
be carried through the lines. "Profanity and obscenity are ringing
in my ears constantly," he wrote. "Oh for a breath of the precious
atmosphere of our village. It seems to me now that I shall want to
spend my life with you after the war is over, absorbing and
enjoying the social and religious influence prominent among
you."
It was late in the following month that
Captain Shurtleff was finally exchanged. "It was just at sunset of
a bright Sabbath day in August," he wrote later, "that we stepped
from rebel soil upon the flag of truce boat on the James River and
saw the Stars and Stripes waving over our heads. We gathered
beneath that flag, reverently uncovered our heads, and sang
'Praise God from whom all blessings flow.'"
Oberlinites were following the careers of
Company C in prison and on the battlefield with anxious pride, and
the return of the captain and tutor was properly celebrated. Of
course, the students and residents gathered to greet him at the
meeting house. "And a more glad, hearty, emphatic welcome,
stranger or citizen never received at Oberlin before," reported
the News. "Applause on applause swelled and filled the church as
the Captain, thin and pale from his long confinement, ascended the
stand .... A brief welcome speech from the Chairman, Mr. Fitch,
was followed by an interesting recital by Capt. S. of incidents
connected with his year's imprisonment.... The hearty
hand-shakings that followed the close of the meeting must have
assured the Captain that the welcome extended him was not one of
mere ceremony. He has a furlough of thirty days in which to
recruit health and strength, when he will again take the field."
But when he did "again take the field" it was not with the old
company, but as commander of a regiment of Negro
soldiers.
The rank and file of the Oberlin prisoners
remained in Richmond eleven more days after Shurtleff's removal to
Charleston, keeping themselves mentally fit by studying French,
German and Latin, though occasionally disturbed by the firing into
the windows by drunken guards. Of the thirty-four prisoners taken
at Cross Lanes, one died of wounds soon after, four were
recaptured--the remaining twenty-nine were sent to Richmond.
Shurtleft, as we have seen, was separated from his command.
Private Lucius V. Tuttle was sent to the prison at Tuscaloosa,
Alabama. The remaining twenty-seven were removed to New
Orleans.
In New Orleans the prisoners were placed in
the old Parish Prison (the city jail), a massive and gloomy stone
structure built back in the days of French occupation. Here they
were not only associated with criminals, but actually placed under
the supervision of "trusties," much to their disgust. The men were
badly overcrowded in their cells. The space in some cells was
indeed so limited that all must lie on the same side at night
"spoon fashion," like slaves on the middle passage, and all turn
over at once--if at all. For several weeks no blankets were
issued, but the men suffered more from heat and lack of air than
from cold. A few hours every day they were granted some relief by
being allowed to visit the yard, an area in the center of the
building "about 3 by 6 rods in size--paved--with a water tank in
one corner." From one side the scaffold cast its menacing shadow
on the flagstones; no green thing was visible. The semi-tropic sun
kept the bricks and stones at a baking temperature. At night and
when any of the prison rules had been disobeyed they were again
returned to the stifling stench of the overcrowded
cells.
There is little wonder that most of them
sickened--the victims of the heat, the unsanitary conditions, lack
of exercise and air and poor rations. Several were infected with
typhoid. Private Biggs, a country boy from near Elyria, and the
brave Sergeant Parmenter, a senior in Oberlin College when he
enlisted, succumbed.
But the mental and spiritual suffering of
sensitive minds must have been worse than any physical disease or
hardship. To combat monotony and morbid despair the men turned to
carving bone, making rings, pendants, stilettoes, penholders--all
sorts of "bone jewelry." Some of the cleverer ones became
exceedingly skillful and sold enough of these articles to visitors
and guards to purchase much-needed additions to their prison fare,
especially molasses, fruit and fresh vegetables. Saws, files and
other tools officially forbidden were smuggled in by interested
guards.
Of the twenty-seven prisoners from Company
C in New Orleans exactly twenty were Oberlin students, and they,
true to their training, initiated various intellectual activities.
Latin grammars were in great demand among them and several spent
much time reading Livy, Caesar and Virgil. There was probably even
more interest in modern languages. Sergeant Stiles found a real
French tutor among his fellows, whom he was glad to discover to be
a "bad Catholic!" At the end of his diary he listed "Books read
while a prisoner." These included Mary J. Holmes' Lena Rivers,
Susan Warner's The Hills of Shatemuc, Tom Brown at Rugby, Dickens'
Bleak House, Nicholas Nickelby, and Pickwick, Hawthorne's House of
the Seven Gables and Milton's Paradise Lost, Pope's Poetical Works
and Shakespeare, as well as such religious works as Pilgrim's
Progress, Richard Baxter's Saint's Everlasting Rest, Jonathan
Edwards' Religious Affection, The Life of Captain Vicars (the
pious autobiography of an English officer in the Crimean War), and
two publications of the American Tract Society: William Allen
Hallock's Memoir of Harlan Page: or The Power of Prayer and John
Angell James' The Anxious Enquirer after Salvation.
The Oberlin boys, several of them Phi Delts
and Phi Kaps, also led in the formation of a debating society, the
Union Lyceum. They met once a week and elected officers and
listened to orations and debates and the reading of the manuscript
paper called "The Stars and Stripes." Exactly half of the first
officers were Oberlinites. W. H. Scott, the vice-president, was an
absentia graduate of Oberlin in the Class of 1861; both members of
the debate committee were from Oberlin; Leroy Warren (A. B., 1858,
Sem. 1861) and Edwin P. Smith, a freshman in 1861; Alexander
Parker, on the declamation committee, was a classmate of Warren's.
The main feature on the program of the first regular meeting held
on November 28, 1861, was a debate on the question
"Resolved,--That the present war will be ended by the Spring of
1862" conducted entirely by Oberlin boys: Scott, Warren, Parker,
Stiles and Smith.
But probably the reading of "The Stars and
Stripes" attracted more interest than any other portion of these
programs. A variety of headings was used:
THE STARS AND STRIPES.
A Weekly Publication, Devoted to
Literature,
Science, The Arts, and General
INTELLIGENCE.
Published every Thursday in the Parish
Prison, N. O.
Price: Attention.
Editor, J. W. Dickens.
Vol. 1 December 12, 1861 No.3.
THE STARS AND STRIPES.
Floating at Parish Prison, New
Orleans.
Published in Cell No. 9, Third Floor, by
the Union Lyceum.
Motto: "Liberty and Union, now and forever,
one and inseparable."
Editor, Wm. C. Bates.
Vol. II. January, 1862. No. 1.
When the Oberlin theolog, Leroy Warren, was
editor, the motto was Philippians IV, 8 "Finally, brethren,
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever
things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there
be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
An excellent motto for pious young men exposed to so many
temptations.
"The Stars and Stripes" contained essays,
poems, letters to the editor, news (mostly "local intelligence")
and notices, all with a sprinkling of soldier humor. There were
even market reports:
"Bread. -- Readily taken in small
quantities. Bone. --Sales small, owing to change of guard. Soup.
-- Considerable decrease, owing to abundance of water.
Rice. --None in market.
Meat. --Heavy.
Woollens --Very abundant in the form of
rags."
Of course, there were many jokes about food
and clothing:
"We notice a growing disposition among the
prisoners to break out,--particularly in the pants!"
"The boys in No. 4 who were so frightened
by finding a few grains of rice in their soup on Tuesday are
recovering. Joe Mullaly [a criminal who served as cook]
assures us it was a mistake."
"Notice to Prisoners.
"All prisoners of war leaving for the North
during the month of December are cautioned that the weather there
is generally cooler at this season than here, and it would be well
to get accustomed to the wearing of pants or jackets before
leaving their present quarters; otherwise their awkardness may
attract attention in Washington and at home."
A sober note was not wanting, however, as
in the letter from "In Earnest" decrying the "twin demons," "the
very common vices of vulgarity and profanity."--"In many of our
cells the last words you will hear at night, and the first in the
morning will be either vulgar or profane." The letter is anonymous
but the reader is morally certain that the author of it had sat at
the feet of Finney.
The Oberlin boys were sorely troubled by
the vicious and irreligious character of many of their associates.
"I wonder how much virtue there is in the Northern army?" mused
Stiles. "Judging by the portion visible at present it is a very
small quantity. Oh that the soldiers were all good virtuous
God-fearing men! Then could they trust in an arm stronger than
man's. Then would God lead them on to victory & success till
truth & righteousness prevailed."
Often Sabbaths passed much like any other
day to the great distress of the active Christians. Occasionally
ministers came among them to preach, but even then the results
were not all good, as when one man prayed for "Thy servant,
Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States!" There was
much longing for the pious atmosphere of Oberlin. "How I would
like to have been there as on former Fri[days]! Blessed
seasons were those spent in the chapel or Soc.[iety]
rooms--wonder if I shall enjoy the like again," Stiles wrote in
his diary. Again on a Monday evening: "How I would like to be at
the Young People's Meeting this eve .... Wonder if we are
remembered in their prayers. Without doubt." The Oberlin boys did
all they could to bring Oberlin atmosphere into the morbid and
vicious life of the prison. They conducted Bible classes every
Sunday and prayer meetings twice a week, regularly announced in
"The Stars and Stripes."
But with all their efforts to occupy the
time, their life was often, of course, depressingly dull. For
nearly a week Selden Kingsbury did not write at all in his diary.
"Our prison life is so monotonous," he explained, "that one gets
tired of writing the same things over every night." On another day
he spent most "of the time walking, eating and wishing." But there
were red-letter days like the one when the men were surprised "by
an order for Co. C, 7th Reg. to fall into a line down in the yard.
After thus formed letters were distributed to most of us. I
received one from Theod Wilder and together with other class mates
here one from our Class mate, Mr. Adams. How pleasant it is for a
prisoner of war to receive those most strong proofs of
friendship." --Then there was that day when it was announced that
they were to be removed from the prison!
It was the first day of February, 1862.
"Never did mortal feel happier than did our prisoners this P.M.
when the General came in and told us that we should start from
Parish Prison next Mon. Tues. or Wednes.--The boys could hardly
contain themselves but performed all manner of antics." The
prisoners were merely being taken to another prison as it turned
out, because of the threatening approach of Admiral Farragut and
General Butler toward New Orleans--but, anyway, it was a change!
They partially retraced the route by which they had come south--by
train through Jackson to Mobile, up the river from Mobile to
Montgomery and from Montgomery again by rail east through Georgia
into North Carolina where they were placed in a former cotton
factory building at Salisbury,the same prison depot where their
own Captain Shurtleff was held.
On May 21 the parole of honor was signed
and on the 30th and 31st they travelled in box cars to Tarboro
where they spent Sunday, June 1, the ringing of the church bells
reminding the boys of Company C of "dear old Oberlin and its
precious Sabbath." From Tarboro they were sent down the Tar River
to Little Washington, "the well on a couple of scows, the sick in
the miserable old cabin of the boat." On June 3 they were released
to officers of Burnside's command. "0 most blessed of all happy
days! Greeting--farewell!!!--farewell bondage--farewell hunger,
thirst, & all manner of ills. About 7 o'clock we were cheered
by the sight of the star spangled banner & soon we passed
forever, I hope, from the hands of southern rebels." They were
placed on board a comfortable little steamer and landed at New
York on June 10, 1862. Part of the men were mustered out because
of physical disabilities resulting from their prison experience;
others returned to Company C or followed Captain Shurtleff into
the colored regiment which he commanded.
* * *
The remnants of the Seventh who escaped
capture reassembled at Gauley Bridge under the immediate eye of
General Cox, spending some weeks of a fine autumn there in
complete inaction, enjoying the swimming and boating on the
Kanawha, gathering paw-paws and persimmons. There at Gauley they
were visited by Professor Peck who presented the regiment with a
fine silk flag. He reported that the men were in excellent spirits
despite their recent misadventure. The latter part of October the
boys were removed to Charleston where the members of Company C
were given a library by a local citizen in recognition of their
character as student soldiers. This library was later carried east
with the quartermaster's stores. At Charleston also an escaped
slave who came to camp was turned over by Colonel Tyler to the
"abolitionist" company and sent north by them to Oberlin for
education.
In mid-winter they were moved east to the
Valley of Virginia where, during the next six months, they were to
learn something of the art of war from that master teacher,
"Stonewall" Jackson. At the battle of Kernstown Corporal A. C.
Danforth, a sophomore, and three other members of Company C were
killed. Danforth's body was brought back to Oberlin and impressive
funeral services were held for him in the church. "I remember
seeing the bullet hole in his overcoat," wrote an Oberlin boy
nearly seventy years later. Sergeant Day was "mentioned in the
despatches" for capturing a lieutenant from Jackson's personal
staff. The company lost three more killed at Port
Republic.
In the summer of 1862 Company C was camped
at Alexandria, from which point the Oberlin boys undertook
patriotic tours of Washington and Mt. Vernon. Here the brigade
celebrated Independence Day. There was a display of fireworks;
Sergeant Charles P. Bowler, a College junior and Phi Delt, read
the Declaration before the brigade. On the next day the men
received Springfield rifles to take the place of their flintlock
muskets. In August they were in the army which attacked Jackson at
Cedar Mountain. In this engagement the Seventh Ohio lost nearly
60% killed and wounded, the greatest punishment endured by any
Ohio unit in any single battle. Of Company C only four passed
through unhurt; five were killed, including the elocutionist of
July 4, Sergeant Bowler. The survivors fought also at
Antietam.
The autumn was spent in camp on the heights
across the river from Harper's Ferry. Here the company's sadly
depleted strength was partially re-established by the addition of
thirty one new recruits. Here, also, Captain Shurtleff found them
upon his return from Southern prisons, but did not resume command.
They camped in the Virginia mud during the
winter of 1862-63, fought at Chancellorsville in May and at Round
Top and Culp's Hill at Gettysburg in July. In the fall they were
moved by train to join Grant in eastern Tennessee, where he was
assembling an army to take revenge on Bragg for the battle of
Chickamauga.
There they followed Hooker up Lookout
Mountain into the famous "Battle Above the Clouds," though they
suffered comparatively light losses, the enemies' guns being fired
chiefly over their heads. Members of Company C never forgot the
eclipse of the moon which they saw that night from their picket
posts on the mountainside overlooking the Moccasin Bend of the
Tennessee. Later many of them climbed to the highest crags hunting
mementoes. Sergeant Cole "got some laurel and some rocks from the
dizzy heights." The original volunteers had now nearly finished
their three years' period of service and, therefore, an effort was
made to secure their re-enlistment, but most of them, including
all of Company C, felt that they had done their share. The
veterans of the Seventh reached Cleveland June 26, 1864, and
encamped on Cleveland Heights to be mustered out. Only sixteen of
the original Monroe Rifles returned to Oberlin at the time.
Sergeant O. C. Trembley, who had fought through three years
without being wounded, fell off the boat and was drowned in the
Ohio River when a short distance below Cincinnati. This was in
many ways the most tragic event in the history of the company. The
official date of the muster-out was July 6, 1864.
The Seventh Ohio had a great record and a
sad history. Fox, in his Regimental Losses in the American Civil
War, calls it "one of the finest regiments in the service composed
of exceptionally good material." The Seventh stood second in
battle losses among Ohio's 198 infantry regiments in the war, and,
as we have seen, it sustained the severest punishment suffered by
any Ohio regiment in any one battle--at Cedar Mountain. Company
C's losses were greater than those of any other single company in
the regiment. Out of 151 enrolled 28 were killed or died of
wounds; five died from other causes; 68 were wounded; 40 were
taken prisoner--34 at Cross Lanes. Company C was the only company
in the regiment to report no deserters.
CHAPTER L
FIGHT FOR
FREEDOM
BUT Company C was only one of several units
of Oberlin soldiers. In the early autumn of 1861 a company made up
chiefly of farmers from the neighboring district was recruited
with the aid of Professor Peck and James Monroe. Fifty-two men
were secured and organized as the Lorain Guards, choosing Alonzo
H. Pease, the painter and nephew of Peter Pindar Pease, captain,
and John W. Steele, son of a local doctor, first lieutenant. They
were mustered in at Cleveland September 17, 1861, and became
Company H of the 41st Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The regiment played
a part in many decisive engagements, among them Shiloh,
Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Resaca and the siege of Atlanta. Pease
resigned because the colonel insisted on returning escaped slaves
to their masters. Steele rose to the rank of major.
At about the same time nine Oberlin boys
(later joined by a tenth) enlisted in the 2nd Ohio Cavalry, the
first cavalry unit to be raised in the northern part of the state.
Among this group were Alvred Bayard Nettleton, a college junior
and popular student leader, Charles Grandison Fairchild, Luman
Tenney, who had just completed his prep course, John Devlin and
William P. Bushnell, also preps. Fairchild's most intimate friend,
William N. Hudson, son of the late beloved Professor Timothy B.
Hudson, now left behind in Oberlin, could not forbear writing him
a note on the very next day:
"Oberlin, Sept. 17, 1861
"My dear Charlie:
"You had just time, in the midst of the
crowd and discomfort, to catch my hand for a moment, and to touch
the extended fingertips of the two Dulcinias. Libbie had borrowed
my handkerchief to wave her farewells to you and Luman, and they
were crazy to see you both. I searched for you--alas
unsuccessfully--with might and main. Didn't get a glance at Luman.
Bid John Devlin good-bye and got a glimpse of Willie Bushnell as
he stood on the rear car and shook hands with Dan. Childs, who for
that privilege ran frantically after the train. I was very sorry
not to see Luman & not to talk longer with you, but consoled
myself and walked home with the Dulcinias aforesaid.
"I have been thinking about you dear boys
in camp to-night under the cold drizzling storm. Your situation is
different enough from mine. I sit here in my little room with my
lamp burning before me and the brighter light of pleasant memories
and ambitious hope. The snugness of the room is enhanced by the
drizzle outside. Across the darkness comes the sweet voice of
Phebe Haynes. Here am I with my loved books and loved friends
around me--there you perhaps on guard in the dreary night. Dear,
dear boys, God bless & keep you! God send that you may come
again speedily and uninjured.
"Love, much love to dear Luman. Love, much
love to your dear self. Remember me to Nettleton, Willie Bushnell
and any other friends with you. You may rest assured that wherever
you are, you are followed by anxious eyes & loving
hearts--Goodbye for now.
Will."
The Second Ohio Cavalry had a long,
brilliant service, fighting with and against the Indians in the
southwest, chasing Quantrell and Morgan, raiding into Tennessee,
under Mead and Grant in the Wilderness, in Custer's division under
Sheridan in the Valley of Virginia and at Five Forks. They marched
and fought 22,000 miles through twelve states and one territory,
watering their horses in twenty-two rivers from the Arkansas to
the Appomattox. Tenney rose to the rank of major and Nettleton
commanded the regiment on the last charge at Five Forks and was
brevetted brigadier general for gallantry. The Second suffered the
heaviest battle losses of any of Ohio's thirteen cavalry
regiments. "... In my entire division, numbering twelve regiments
from different states," General Custer wrote to the Governor of
Ohio in February of 1865, "I have none in which I repose greater
confidence than the 2nd Ohio."
In May of 1862 when Stonewall Jackson,
driving his troops to superhuman efforts, thrust aside all
opposition in the Shenandoah Valley, captured Winchester and
threatened Maryland, he gave Washington a great fright. The war
Department thereupon sent out a hurry call for troops to defend
the capital. Governor Tod of Ohio immediately issued a
proclamation asking for three months' volunteers to meet the
emergency. The response was prompt: twenty-seven out of the
thirty-three students in the Cleveland Law School joined up; some
twenty-odd came from Western Reserve College. Forty Oberlin boys,
including a considerable percentage of students, organized the
"Chase Cadets" and were mustered into service at Columbus on June
10, 1862. The Oberlin men were scattered, but most of them went
into the 87th Ohio Volunteer Infantry which served at Baltimore
and Harper's Ferry, where it was needlessly surrendered by Colonel
Miles. Their term of service being out before the surrender,
however, they were paroled, sent home and mustered out at Columbus
on September 20, 1862.
In the meantime, in August, another three
years' company was raised in Oberlin and vicinity and became
Company F of the 103rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Philip C. Hayes, a
theological student who had graduated from the College in 1860,
was captain. At the end of the war he rose to the colonelcy of the
regiment and was brevetted a brigadier general.
In September Cincinnati was all a-jitter
because the Confederate General Kirby Smith was raiding up through
Kentucky. Governor Tod seems to have shared the panic of most of
his fellow Ohioans. All newly recruited Ohio troops such as the
103rd were ordered to the defense of the Queen City. Lew Wallace
took charge of the troops and began throwing up entrenchments. The
Governor issued a dramatic call for men: "Our southern border is
threatened with invasion. I have therefore to recommend that all
loyal men . . . form . . . into military companies and regiments
to beat back the enemy at any and all points .... Gather up all
arms in the country, and furnish yourselves with ammunition for
the same .... The soil of Ohio must not be invaded." The order was
literally obeyed by tens of thousands of Ohioans. The proclamation
was received in Oberlin on September 4, and on the following day a
mass meeting of all citizens and students was held on the square.
Committees were appointed to enroll volunteers, collect muskets,
rifles and supplies and drill guards to protect the home town.
Some eighty Oberlin boys, mostly from the college and preparatory
classes volunteered to go to the defense of Cincinnati.
Approximately sixty others from neighboring towns joined them at
the railroad station. Without uniforms, of course, and armed with
whatever rusty old firearms could be dug up, one cannot help but
wonder whether they were a military asset or not when they reached
the city. They were, nevertheless, welcomed by the frightened
citizens "with open arms and free lunches." Part of the group was
sent home within a few days, but the majority organized a company
under William M. Ampt, a college senior, as captain and remained
on guard duty for a month until all danger of attack had clearly
passed. None was ever regularly mustered into the military
service, but they were given free passes on the railways and
honorable discharges from the service of the "Squirrel Hunters of
Ohio."
At first the United States Government had
refused to accept Negro recruits, and Governor Tod of Ohio was
particularly averse to any such recognition of the citizenship of
the colored man. In 1862, however, General David Hunter organized
a regiment among the fugitive slaves in North Carolina and his
example was followed in Louisiana and elsewhere. The first Negro
regiment to be recruited by a Northern state was the famous 54th
Massachusetts. This regiment was sponsored by prominent
anti-slavery Republicans such as George L. Stearns, Amos A.
Lawrence, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Professor Louis Agassiz, Samuel J.
May, Gerrit Smith, John G. Palfrey and Wendell Phillips. Negro
recruits were drawn from all over the North. As recruiting officer
in the West, James Mercer Langston, the Negro lawyer of Oberlin
(A.B., 1849), was selected. He was assisted by O. S. B. Wall, a
Negro shoemaker also of Oberlin. Langston's success in securing
recruits is evidenced by the large number of soldiers in the
regiment from Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Among these were
twenty-one from Oberlin. This was the regiment which gained such
martial laurels at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, under Colonel
Robert Gould Shaw, the regiment immortalized by Augustus St.
Gaudens' beautiful memorial on Boston Common. Henry N. Peal,
another shoemaker from Oberlin, one of the color-bearers, was
among four Negroes specially mentioned for gallantry. While
carrying his flag in another engagement he was mortally wounded.
For a while both of the regimental flags were carried by colored
boys from Oberlin. Langston also secured recruits for the 55th
Massachusetts, but there is no record of any Oberlin boys entering
this regiment.
To Langston also belongs the credit for the
organization of the first Negro regiment from Ohio. Governor David
Tod finally agreed to call a Negro regiment in the summer of 1863,
and gave Langston his full support from then on. Oberlin men
practically created this regiment, though apparently there was not
a single Oberlin Negro in the ranks. Langston was assisted by J.
A. R. Rogers (A.B., 1851; Sem., 1855), one of the first teachers
of Berea, in enlisting recruits in the southern part of the state.
J. B. T. Marsh (A.B., 1862), a student in the Theological
Department and assistant on the staff of the Lorain County News,
was recruiting quartermaster. Captain Giles W. Shurtleff resigned
from Company C to become lieutenant colonel and then colonel of
the regiment, bringing three other "C" men to aid him as
commissioned officers. James L. Patton (A.B., 1859; Sem., 1862)
became chaplain. All, of course, were white, as it was at first
the uniform practice to officer black regiments with white men,
but, being Oberlin-trained, they must have been unusually
sympathetic officers. The regiment was first known as the 127th O.
V. I. but later was numbered Fifth United States Colored Troops
(5th U.S.C.T.). It established its military record in the fighting
around the "Crater" at Petersburg and at New Market Heights.
Shurtleff was brevetted brigadier-general at the end of the war.
His statue on South Professor Street is familiar to all visitors
to Oberlin. Several Oberlinites became officers in other Negro
regiments. Orindatus S. B. Wall of Oberlin was commissioned a
captain early in 1865, one of the first Negroes ever to be
commissioned in the United States Army. He was engaged in
recruiting among the freedmen when the war ended.
Following the crushing defeat of the Army
of the Potomac at ChancelIorsville in May, Lee started the
invasion which led to Gettysburg. In mid-June Governor Tod issued
another emergency call for troops, but little progress was made in
recruiting these six-months men in Oberlin, the alarm not being
taken very seriously. A second proclamation was received, however,
on June 29, when Confederate troops had already entered
Pennsylvania--and this time Oberlin acted. All stores were closed
at three o'clock when a war meeting was held on the corner, and
plans were made to enroll a company of militia. This company then
enlisted was made up almost entirely of students and became
Company A of the 57th Battalion, Ohio National Guard. The only
other company in the battalion was from Elyria. Before this unit
had been organized, however, the battle of Gettysburg had been
fought. It, therefore, was not called to the colors, though it
maintained its organization and engaged in occasional drills. What
with the Morgan Raid, the Vallandigham excitements, etc., however,
there were enough alarms in Ohio in 1863 to keep the boys
constantly on tenter hooks. A News reporter thought he heard
disloyal sentiments expressed by some of the loafers at Wack's
Tavern on South Main Street. The Plumbs, Fitch, Langston, E. H.
Fairchild and others led in the organization of an Oberlin branch
of the Loyal League to combat local "copperheadism." Nearly three
hundred persons took the league's pledge of loyalty at a meeting
in the church. "Plots thicken," wrote Mary Dascomb to James
Monroe, then consul in Rio de Janeiro. "our volunteer company have
just received commissions, and hope to be ordered soon." But the
National Guard saw no active service until 1864.
John Brough, Tod's successor as governor of
the state, had a great idea in the spring of 1864. Why should not
the states of the Middle West, no longer seriously threatened by
invasion due to the success of the Western campaign, send their
militia to do guard duty along the Potomac, especially at
Washington, so that seasoned veterans might all go to the front to
help Grant smash Lee. Brough united in April with the executives
of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin in offering men for that
purpose, eighty-five thousand in all--thirty thousand to be
furnished by Ohio. The offer was immediately accepted, and
mobilization of the Ohio National Guard for service for a hundred
days was immediately begun.
On Sunday, May 1, 1864, a great farewell
meeting was held in the Oberlin meeting house, Company A being
present to hear Professor Peck's timely address. On Monday the men
rode in wagons over the muddy road to Elyria in a storm of sleet
and snow. For a week they drilled in Elyria, being quartered about
in private houses. On Monday, May 9, after a Sunday furlough which
gave them a chance to hear another Finney sermon, they took the
train for Cleveland, where they were mustered in as Company K of
the 150th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. "The departure of Company A's
[later K] one hundred boys has decimated the College and
Theological departments," reported the Lorain County News, "and
very sensibly diminished the number of Preparatory students. An
uncomfortable sense of loneliness rests upon those who remain. A
'goneness' is apparent everywhere. Our chapel prayers,
recitations, society meetings, prayer meetings, lectures, all show
it. The Musical Union has lost its tenors and basses, the
societies their Anniversary representatives, the preparatory
classes their teachers, the Monthly rhetorical its speakers.
Several annual exhibitions have already been given up or
postponed, and others no doubt, will share the same
fate."
Albert Allen Safford, A.B., 1861, a
theological student was captain of this company. Henry L. Turner,
a college senior, was first lieutenant. George W. Phinney, A.B..
1861, left his theological course and the janitorship of the
meeting house to become second lieutenant. James H. Laird, the
orderly sergeant, had graduated from the College in 1860 and was
also studying theology. The company had actually on the muster
roll eighty-six names. All but twelve were at the time students in
some department of Oberlin College and three of these twelve had
been at some previous date. Among the rank and file were Albert
Allen Wright, later for many years Professor of Geology and
Zoology, Lucien Calvin Warner, who became a corset manufacturer
and donor of buildings to Oberlin, and George K. Nash, governor of
Ohio from 1900 to 1904. Members of a company in the same regiment
but recruited in Cleveland were Robert R. Rhodes, a brother of
James Ford Rhodes the historian, and Marcus Alonzo Hanna. Perhaps
this was the beginning of the association of Nash and
Hanna.
Company K participated in no bloody
charges; it lost but one man in action, but it did have the
fortune to be located for a few very critical days at the exact
center of the military stage. The whole regiment was sent to
garrison the defenses about Washington; & was moved from one
fort to another until finally on July 4 they were placed in Fort
Stevens. This fortification was in the northern suburbs of the
city on Seventh Street not far from the Soldier's Home where
President Lincoln had his summer residence. At intervals during
artillery drill, for this was the men's chief duty, they were able
to get away to see the sights of the Capital and often saw the
"tall, gaunt form" of the great President in "his long, yellowish
linen coat" with "his strong, kindly face."
The Confederate General Jubal A. Early, who
had succeeded to the role of the dead "Stonewall" Jackson,
defeated the Union forces under General Lew Wallace in the
Shenandoah valley and, with Grant far away in the Wilderness,
struck north through Maryland, and, in the first week of July,
threatened Washington itself. Early marched his men toward the
Seventh Street entrance, and on July 11 was before Fort Stevens,
then garrisoned only by Oberlin's Company K, the Thirteenth
Michigan Battery and fifty-two convalescents. This tiny force made
a show of resistance; Early drove in their pickets, but did not
assault the fort. The next day a reenforcement of veterans came to
their assistance--and Washington was saved! The company was
returned to Cleveland and mustered out after 113 days of service.
The College authorities excused the men from all of the work in
classes missed during their period of service.
The units mentioned by no means include all
the men who went from Oberlin. No complete check of the number of
Oberlin students and alumni who went into the army has ever been
made but guesses have been usually 750 or 850. The Catalogues
dated 1861-62 and 1862-63 list the names of 77 undergraduates in
the Collegiate Department who left school for the army, almost
exactly one-third of the total enrollment of men in those two
academic years. It is likely that this list is incomplete; the
Lorain County News reported on April 12, 1863, that 188 had
enlisted from the whole institution; 9 from the Theological
Department, exactly one hundred from the College proper, and 79
from the Preparatory Course. By June it was reported that 295
students and townsmen had entered the army from the community.
Alumni, of course, usually joined regiments raised near their
homes; students often did.
Probably no Oberlin men were actually
conscripted; only five men were thus obtained from the entire
county during the war. The system provided that if the prescribed
number of volunteers could be secured by payments of bounties or
otherwise there would be no actual conscription. In February of
1864 over seven thousand dollars was raised by subscription in
Oberlin for the payment of such bounties. In the following summer
an equal amount was secured by taxation in Russia Township. In
general, we may conclude that Oberlin College and town made a
decidedly patriotic showing.
It is surprising that in such an idealistic
community there was so little doubt expressed about the
desirability of the sacrifice of embryo preachers, missionaries
and teachers in this brutal, bloody work. It is clear enough,
however, that there was some question in the minds of many.
Captain Shurtleff must have troubled some spirits when he publicly
expressed his uncertainty about the wisdom of the enlistment of
such men as those who made up Company C. "God grant," he wrote to
a fellow tutor in the summer of 1862, "that I have not been
instrumental in causing such tremendous sacrifices without good
and even glorious results! . . . I tremble lest all this horrible
carnage degenerate into a mere political struggle without any
great moral results. Oberlin can do more by her prayers and
influence at home, if she takes the right ground (and who can
doubt it?) than a thousand regiments in the field. Let there be no
further action which shall weaken the home influence of the place,
or cripple the energies of the Institution. 'Tis religion our
country wants and educated Christians.'" Henry Cowles commented
editorially on this letter in the Evangelist, calling attention to
the continued need for Oberlin men in "the war with spiritual
arms"--men now being sacrificed in the "warfare with carnal
weapons." "The work of elevating that long crushed race is but
just begun. Whichever way the war works--to cripple slavery or to
reestablish it, the demand for Christian anti-slavery labor and
influence will be augmented fifty fold; and such Christian young
men as these we let go to the camp and field of blood cannot be
spared from the greater work .... Hence we looked with heavy heart
upon these noble young men going from us to the field of war ....
We hope better counsels will prevail henceforward."
These doubts were, of course, to a
considerable extent, due to Oberlin's impatience with the
President's conservative policy with regard to slavery.
Oberlinites said that they put righteousness before political
expediency; Lincoln seemed to them to be doing the reverse. Topics
discussed in the Oberlin men's literary societies in 1861 give an
idea of the trend of Oberlin thought: "Resolved that dissolution
without Slavery is preferable to union with Slavery," "Resolved
that the government should take steps toward the immediate and
unconditional emancipation of the slaves," and "Resolved that the
government of the U.S. ought to declare the immediate abolition of
Slavery in the Seceded States as a war policy." One student who
had been among the "Rescuers," W. E. Lincoln, wrote to Gerrit
Smith despairingly: "I regard the present aspect of the era as a
fight for a blood-stained, oppressing Union." He was desperately
searching for something practical that could be done for the
slave. He continued: "Would an armed diversion a la Garibaldi be
of use?--I am ready to fight at any time in this way. To fight for
this Union wh. will rivit the chains of the bondman tighter, I
never will nor can.--Oh for our hero John Brown now; has not God a
successor? The Lord open the way.--Surely now we could recruit to
one or 2 thousand for such a diversion. --The Lord guide--Oberlin
does not sympathize with me in these ideas but holds me rather a
crazy loon." Evidently Smith was no more ready than the Oberlin
fathers to support such radical measures, but all the old
abolitionist group were dissatisfied with the situation as it
was.
During the 1861 Commencement a series of
special meetings were held to discuss the question whether the war
power ought to be exercised to abolish slavery. Besides Oberlin
faculty, townsmen, students and alumni, the discussion was
participated in by guests, including Congressman Ashley from
Toledo, Dr. Edward Beecher, formerly president of Illinois
College, and, probably, James A. Garfield. Resolutions were
unanimously adopted declaring it to be "the duty of the American
people to demand of the Government immediately to abolish Slavery
in the seceded States by the exercise of the war-power." In
September the news of Fremont's freeing of the slaves in Missouri
by proclamation was joyously received and Lincoln's reversal of
that order further undermined Oberlin's confidence in him.
"Fremont had taken the true ground--a noble position," declared
the Evangelist. "But now a cold chill comes over our enthusiasm.
The President's countermand . . . summons the arms of the nation
once more to stand guard over the slaves of rebels, and to be very
careful how they damage this 'peculiar institution.'
On July 29, 1862, a mass meeting was held
at the chapel to call for definite government action against
slavery. In a formal resolution the President was called upon "to
proclaim universal emancipation, and to enforce the same to the
full extent of his executive ability." There were speeches by
President Finney, John Keep and Principal E. H. Fairchild, and J.
M. Langston "stirred the blood of all by his eloquent appeals." Of
course, Oberlin enthusiastically approved the Presidential
Proclamation when it did come, tardy though it seemed to them. On
September 24, 1862, the News made a feeble attempt at a
headline:
"GOOD NEWS. The President has issued a
Proclamation ABOLISHING SLAVERY . . . Laus Deo." On January 1,
1863, a general mass meeting was held in the chapel to hear the
"words of freedom" read. "Our venerable Father Keep," reported the
News, "gracefully assumed the chair and--not at all
intrusively--took charge of the meeting. At his request the
Proclamation was read by J. M. Langston, Esq., the audience
seated. Then all rose to their feet, and in the ringing tones of
Mr. L., it was again read. After this, his voice trembling with
emotion, Prof. Cowles led in most appropriate words of
thanksgiving and prayer. Then without speech or comment, Father
Keep declared the meeting adjourned."
Generals Fremont and Benjamin F. Butler
were always popular with Oberlin and Oberlin's friends because of
their aggressive stand on emancipation. In December of 1862 and
January of 1863 former President Asa Mahan went to Washington,
taking with him a plan for the conduct of the war which involved
the appointment of Fremont as commander-in-chief. He was cordially
received by Secretary Chase, Secretary Stanton and Senators Wilson
and Wade, and had several long interviews with President
Lincoln.
President Finney allied himself definitely
with the radicals and against Lincoln and his cautious policy on
the slavery issue. In 1862 we note one of the young ladies'
literary societies debating the question: "Resolved that Pres.
Lincoln is not so bad a man as Pres. Finney thinks he is." In
January of 1864 Finney wrote to Gerrit Smith expressing the hope
that the Republican party would nominate for President "a less
conservative man than Mr. Lincoln." "We need a more radical man to
finish up this war. I hope the radicals in & out of congress,
will make their influence so felt in respect to the coming
nomination that Mr. L. will see that there is no hope of his
renomination and election unless he takes and keeps more radical
ground. The people are prepared to elect the most radical
abolitionist that is if he can get a nomination." He continued: "I
think he is honest, but he is conservative constitutionally, and
is by marriage interlocked with Southern interest so far as to
embolden Kentucky to hold out against emancipation. If Butler were
Pres. I do not think Kentucky would hold out a month. I also
believe the rebellion would perish in three months. The fact is
the South dont fear Mr. Lincoln. There is no man in the land they
would so much fear as Gen. Butler. And they would have good reason
to fear him. He would not only end the war but would reorganize
the South I believe in 6 months. It seems to me that this can be
done and that Butler would do it."
The second Oberlin student mock convention
held under the auspices of the Phi Delta society nominated Chase
for President. The Phi Kappa Pi, however, debated Lincoln's
renomination and the judges voted unanimously in favor of the
affirmative.
After Lincoln had been nominated,
Oberlinites, of course, had no choice but to support him. In
September John Keep wrote to Gerrit Smith: "I heartily join you in
your purpose to sustain the President, as the only course, which,
apparently, can save the Nation .... as we are now situated, it
would seem to me that a vote cast against Lincoln is practically
treason." On October 12 General Garfield addressed a Lincoln rally
in the church. The Lorain County News reported that on the day of
the election "the venerable FATHER KEEP appeared at the polls
leaning on the arm of a friend, and with trembling limbs and
voice, remarked .... that his first vote was given in 1800, and
that this was doubtless the last vote it would ever be his
privilege to give for President. He then handed up a written
sentiment, which he requested might be read to the throng
surrounding the polls, as follows:
"'Palsied be the tongue which now wags for
treason, and the hand which would cut the jugular vein of our
Christian Commonwealth.
'John Keep, age 83.
'Oberlin, Nov. 1864.
Endorsed--"A Freeman's Vote, 1864, for
Abraham Lincoln."'
"Late in the afternoon, Col. Giles W.
Shurtleff, of the 5th U. S. Colored Regiment, who had just arrived
on the cars, came up, limping from the effect of his yet unhealed
wounds, and tendered his vote for Lincoln and the
Union."
"Joint education of the sexes" was the
salvation of Oberlin College. There were enough young ladies to
keep the institution running more or less as usual despite the
large number of young men absent in the ranks. There were times,
of course, when it was hard to keep one's mind on declensions,
chemical formulae and equations. The women of Oberlin were
actively engaged in the appropriate wartime activities. "At the
time of the first enlistments," reported Mrs. Dascomb, "our fears
were excited for the good order of our Dept. For two weeks all was
excitement --Studies & study hours were trespassed on, the
girls went wildly about with knitting in hand and petitions on
their tongues to attend soldier's meetings, and we feared a season
of disorder was about to be inaugurated .... But quiet returned,
duties seemed duties again."
When Company C was enlisted, five hundred
Oberlin ladies immediately formed a "Florence Nightingale
Association" and went to work immediately "preparing woolen hose
and underclothing for the volunteers." In the fall the Young
Ladies' Literary Society even debated whether the "ladies should
organize themselves into Military Companies and drill." But it was
left to an Oberlin town girl actually to join the army. She wore a
uniform for several weeks before her sergeant sent her home!
Probably the "Florence Nightingale Association" was identical with
the "Oberlin Soldiers' Aid Society" of the later years of the war.
This organization held forty-six meetings in the year ending April
8, 1864, and prepared and forwarded quantities of hospital stores
to the headquarters in Cleveland: shirts, underwear, socks,
sheets, quilts, pillows, napkins, besides canned tomatoes, fruit,
butter, eggs, and hundreds of pounds of dried fruit. At the end of
the war Oberlin needles were kept running in behalf of the
Freedman's Aid Society.
Several Oberlin men engaged in volunteer
nursing. Samuel Plumb went to Virginia to care for the wounded
Oberlin boys after the battle at Cross Lanes. In 1864 Rev. Minor
W. Fairfield, Dr. Homer Johnson and D. P. Reamer, a local business
man, nursed for the United States Christian Commission. Professor
Henry Peck was Oberlin's most indefatigable war-worker, spending
many months altogether on good-will missions to "the
boys."
The news of the fall of Richmond reached
Oberlin on Monday, April 3, 1865. "The old six-pounder was brought
out on Tappan Square, and belched forth, a large bonfire blazed
up, rockets shot towards the heavens, a balloon ascension was
greeted by a score of voices singing 'John Brown's body,' drums
beat, and speeches by the citizens and students occupied the time
till a late hour of the night." This was the notice from the town
paper. An undergraduate, John G. Fraser, wrote in his diary: "Went
to Young People's Meeting in the evening. Had a pleasant time ....
After meeting I went to celebrating the fall of Richmond. They had
a big bonfire, lots of fire crackers, a little good speaking and a
great deal that was rather soft." Just a week later came the news
of Appomattox. "I went to Rhetorical. Heard that Lee's army had
surrendered," wrote Fraser. "Glory Hallelujah! Praise God from
whom all blessings flow." The following Friday was set aside as a
special day of Thanksgiving by proclamation of the governor of
Ohio. A salute was fired on the square at six in the morning. All
classes were dismissed for the day. At ten-thirty a religious
service was held in the First Church at which Professor James
Fairchild, Principal E. H. Fairchild and Professor Morgan spoke
"quite jubilantly." In the afternoon, prayer meetings were held in
both churches. The evening was marked by a great bonfire and a
general illumination, a parade with "transparencies," patriotic
speeches, fireworks and balloon ascensions.
That very night Lincoln was assassinated in
Ford's theater; the next morning he died. The next morning, too,
jubilation gave way to mourning, suspicion and hate in Oberlin and
everywhere. "The news was brought to our class at the close of a
recitation," wrote Lucien Warner, who had often seen Lincoln when
stationed at Fort Stevens the year before. "For nearly five
minutes we sat motionless, forgetting that the class had been
dismissed. I have loved other public men, but the death of no one
could have affected me like that of President Lincoln. Ever since
I looked upon his honest genial countenance I have loved him like
an intimate friend .... Further study was out of the question." "I
can hardly think or write of anything tonight but the
assassination of Mr. Lincoln & Mr. Seward," wrote young
Fraser. "It seems as if it must be some lurid dream, some
frightful nightmare, and still I know it must be true .... It
seems as though it must have been a fiend from the bottomless pit
who could take in cold blood the life of such a man .... I feel
more like enlisting today than ever I did before. What fate don't
such wretches deserve? . . . The bell has tolled all day and
almost all the students have put on crepe."
It was inevitable that the late rebels
should be blamed. On Sunday (it was Easter) President Finney
preached two sermons, morning and afternoon, calling for the
vengeance of the Lord and the Nation on the South. He declared
that the Government had "already shown a dangerous amount of
forbearance." "We must show the world," he insisted, "that
rebellion is a fearful, terrible thing. The President was an
amiable man, tender, kind-hearted, but perhaps he stood in God's
way of dealing with the Rebels just as they ought to be dealt with
for the good of the nation, and for the good of humanity." The
South's sufferings during the war had not been punishment, he
held, but only the inevitable consequences of resistance to God
and the Nation's laws. Now the Rebels must be chastised; as many
of the leaders as could be captured should be tried for treason
and hanged!
Some went to Cleveland when the funeral
train passed through. Among these was young Fraser. "It was a sad,
sad sight," he told his diary. "The crowd was the largest I ever
saw and by far the most quiet and orderly. The very skies seemed
to be weeping for the good man's fall. I looked upon his face
three times. It has a quiet, peaceful look upon it, as though he
were at peace with his God, himself and all the world. How could
an assassin have the heart to kill such a man? . . . The crowd on
the trains was very great. I am not any sorry that I went although
I got pretty much wet."
The next week, when the Phi Kappa Pi
debated the question, "Resolved that the military leaders of the
Rebellion, who will take the oath of allegiance, ought to be
allowed to remain in this country unmolested," the judges'
decision was unanimously in favor of the negative. Early in June
the same society held a mock trial of Jefferson Davis at which the
jury turned in a verdict of "guilty of High Treason."
The 1865 commencement exercises were
climactic. Never before had there been such a large number of
returning alumni present. "Tidal currents of alumni surged up and
down the walks, eddied into the bookstores, and around the
corners. Handshakings alternated with reminiscences of the old
days." There was more than the usual tendency to look backward as
even the least discerning could see that 1865 put a period to an
epoch in the history of the nation and of Oberlin. The aging
Theodore Weld returned to join in a reunion of Lane Rebels and,
under the auspices of the men's literary societies, to deliver a
"Grand Oration . . . to thousands of delighted hearers, on
Wednesday Evening which, though nearly two hours long, held the
audience spell-bound." President Edmund Burke Fairfield of
Hillsdale College (A.B., 1842) discussed political and public
issues in his Concio ad Clerum before the theological graduates.
The College graduating class was the largest in Oberlin history
(twenty-three gentlemen and thirteen ladies). Each one of these
delivered an oration or read an essay--usually referring to the
war or the issues associated with it. John Brewer spoke on
"Illinois and the War," Cassius M. Clark on "The Patriots' Duty,"
and Fanny M. Jackson, a colored girl, read a poem entitled "The
Grandeur of our Triumph."
The alumni collation was held in the New
Ladies' Hall: "cold chicken and tongue, light biscuit, hot coffee,
flaky pastry, and peaches and cream"--none of the "traditional
bran bread."
Among the speakers were J. M. Fitch and
Major-General Jacob Dolson Cox. Cox urged that the soldier dead
should not be forgotten. Subscriptions for more than $500.00 were
taken up for a soldiers' monument.
On Wednesday Professor Ellis, who had taken
such an active interest in the student soldiers, delivered his
address on Oberlin and the American Conflict:
"Out of the darkness and tempest, we are
sailing into the quiet harbor of peace .... [¶] It is
fit that the circumstances of the hour should give color to our
meeting, and engage out thoughts and words today. [¶]
We celebrate not merely the achievement of our aims for the four
years past, but no less the victory of the moral conflict which
for a half century preceded and culminated in the conflict of
arms."
He called attention to the changed position
which Oberlin had come to occupy in the public mind due to the
fact that the principles which had once made Oberlin a "hissing
and a byword" had finally triumphed. He reviewed Oberlin's part in
the preparation for the final conflict: on the public platform, in
the mission fields, in the pulpit, in politics, in the "Kansas
Crusade," on the "Underground Pathway," in propagandizing through
the classroom. "It is safe to say that ten thousand advocates for
the oppressed against the oppressor have gone forth from these
Halls .... As teachers, lawyers, men of business, farmers, and in
every sphere of activity they have made their influence
felt."
Finally, he reviewed Oberlin's contribution
in the war: major generals, brigadier generals, colonels and
privates, Company C, the "Squirrel Hunters" and the "Hundred-Days
men." "Let us not fail to enshrine their memory in our deepest
hearts and teach it to our children."
"... And so, taking courage from the
strange past, rejoicing in the grand triumphs of the present, and
trusting in God for the issues of the future, let us gird
ourselves for the new conflicts, and move on to still more
glorious victories."
CHAPTER
LI
FULFILLMENT AND
CONFORMITY
THE founding of Oberlin occupied the years
1832 to 1835. Then followed fifteen years of struggle, of
aggressive and positive action. The institution was constantly on
the verge of bankruptcy; the teachers were seldom paid the meager
salaries promised them; the school and colony were ringed around
by opposition and suspicion. But these were the years when
Oberlin's reputation was established at home and abroad among the
friends of social reform and revivalism as the capital of Finney
evangelism, the light-house of the slave, an institution friendly
to peace, to "physiological" and moral reform and to every good
cause. To others it was known as the cyclone-center of trouble
making: the school where Negroes, white girls and white boys were
educated together, the fount of the dangerous heresy of
perfectionism, and of wild fanaticism in reformed diet and other
"fads." These were the years of "peculiar" Oberlin and the general
public was so much impressed, positively and negatively, that in
certain sections and walks of life it is supposed that there has
been no change since.
But the transition from the early
radicalism began early. The period after 1850 was marked by a
combination of fulfillment and conformity which really by the end
of the war had translated Oberlin from its unique status. In some
fields, notably anti-slavery, Oberlin had triumphed and the rest
of the North now applauded where it had once condemned. On other
questions, such as dietetic reform and pacifism, Oberlin had
retreated from its radical position.
The opening of this period of change was
marked by significant events: the resignation of Mahan, the change
of the official name, the establishment of the endowment and the
choice of Finney for the presidency. All of these developments
were of some significance.
After Shipherd, Asa Mahan was the No. 1
irreconcilable Oberlinite. He was the recognized sponsor of
"Sanctification." He was the head and forefront of the war on the
"heathen classics." He and Professor Thome were willing and
anxious to go much farther in granting equal privileges to the
young ladies in the Oberlin plan of "joint education of the
sexes." No other Oberlin man, except perhaps Dresser or Walker,
was so publicly identified with the peace movement; and, after
Mahan's departure, of all the workers for peace in Oberlin there
remained only Henry Cowles and Hamilton Hill--neither of them
possessing great abilities for personal leadership. Mahan and the
fallen Horace Taylor had been the outstanding male proponents of
moral reform. The women leaders, Alice Welch Cowles and Lydia
Andrews Finney, were dead. Mahan was not so indispensable to the
anti-slavery cause, but it should be remembered that it was he who
had debated the Fosters and Garrison and represented Oberlin in
many anti-slavery conventions such as the Free Soil Convention at
Buffalo in 1848. It was Mahan who had elaborated the whole
doctrine of Christian reform in speeches at Boston in 1838 and in
articles in the Evangelist. It was Mahan who presented the
theoretical side of reformism to the students in Moral Philosophy.
Finney seems to have agreed with Mahan on most of these issues but
his interest in social reform, in worldly matters generally, was
always secondary and subordinate to his main purpose--to save
souls for Christ. The departure of Mahan, Oberlin's leading
professional reformer, could not fail to have a considerable
influence on the spirit of Oberlin in general.
The change of the official designation of
the institution from Oberlin Collegiate Institute to Oberlin
College was effected by an amendment to the Charter of 1834
approved by the Ohio State legislature on March 21, 1850. Perhaps
this superficial change was significant; certainly it was
symbolic. At first the peculiarity of the title had been a source
of pride as was the uniqueness of the school; the change to the
more regular form implied a new and greater consideration for
general opinion, a conscious desire to conform. Some thought it
was a most desirable change, making it clear to all that work of
full college grade was done at Oberlin and that it was not just a
preparatory school. Others parted with the old name reluctantly
because endeared to so many by long association and because it
seemed more logical as covering all departments. It appeared to
some then, as to many today, rather odd that a "college" should
include a "college" along with other departments. Besides, what
was the use, asked Michael E. Strieby, "its juvenile pranks have
for so many years delighted its friends, and vexed its enemies
that I doubt whether a new name would enable either friend or foe
to know, love or hate it more or less than they do now." Though
the evidence is not explicit, it is fairly clear that the change
was a gesture toward respectability, a bid for recognition as a
not too "peculiar" educational institution, in a sense a mild
apology for "juvenile pranks" of earlier years. This
interpretation is further justified by the fact that the new name
was adopted as a preliminary to the first endowment
"drive."
It is not easy to conclude whether or not
the endowment campaign made Oberlin less willing to disturb
conservative sensibilities and vested interests than in the
previous days of hand-to-mouth finance, though the writer is
inclined to believe that it did have that effect. But certainly
the achievement of the endowment as a result of the sale of
scholarship certificates was a very great influence to
conservatism. Complacency seems always to be the product of
security, and the relative financial security of Oberlin after the
endowment was established apparently produced a relative
complacency in the faculty and student outlook. Though the College
continued to be necessitous, it was no longer perennially on the
verge of bankruptcy. Further, the investment of the funds, secured
in various types of mortgages, gave Oberlin a greater interest in
the maintenance of the status quo. Most important of all the
result of the scholarship sale was the bringing in of a tidal wave
of students. Oberlin became one of the largest educational
institutions in the country--apparently the largest--in the early
sixties. This very size militated against the old radical
solidarity. And, besides, in addition to those youths who came to
Oberlin because of Finney, because of their enthusiasm for
anti-slavery and other reform causes, there now appeared a great
number who came because some relative or friend provided them free
tuition through a scholarship. Many of these, naturally,
originally had no particular enthusiasm for "Oberlinism" and,
though undoubtedly some were converted, there was certainly a
greatly increased proportion of the student body who had no
especial zeal for the principles of the founders.
There is every evidence that student life
in the fifties became steadily more "worldly," that student
thought was less and less exclusively of the soul's salvation and
the social evils which it was their duty to remove and more and
more of this life, and its pleasanter side at that. As has been
noted elsewhere, parties and picnics, almost unheard of before,
became numerous in the late fifties and sixties. Evening lectures,
outdoor sports, "collations," strawberry festivals were so popular
that Finney was moved to make vigorous protest against such
"diverting influences"--"diverting" from the main end, religious
thought and activity. Oberlin students were becoming less morally
purposeful and, by-and-large, less aggressively and vocally
pious.
Though Oberlin was much more than Finney,
Finney was an essential part of Oberlin. The spiritual and moral
heat generated by Finney's revivals had produced Oberlin. The
faculty wrote to him late in 1850, "... You are our natural head
& leader." It is significant that today many persons,
including Oberlin graduates, students and, occasionally, faculty
members, are under the impression that Finney was President from
the beginning. It is unlikely that Mahan's prestige or reputation
in Oberlin or out, great though it was, ever equalled that of
Finney. Finney and Oberlin were inseparable; Oberlin without
Finney certainly seemed unthinkable. It was, therefore, very
appropriate that Finney should be made President. Finney returned
from his first evangelistic campaign in England in the spring of
1851 and at the regular commencement meeting of the trustees on
August 26, 1851, he was appointed President, accepted, and
immediately assumed office.
Finney's address to the graduating class
delivered two days before his election was really his inaugural--a
powerful statement of the evangelical purpose of the founders and
a rousing appeal to the students not to prove recreant to that
purpose. He took his text from 1 Kings 2:2-4: "Be thou strong
therefore, and show thyself a man," etc. Show yourselves to be
men, he implored, above the beast in that you recognize a higher
moral law, responsible to Christ because redeemed by his blood,
owing more to society than most men because educated by society,
and especially obligated to high Christian endeavor because
educated in Oberlin--"God's College," consecrated to Christ by the
founders. His words were not without special application to the
great issue of the hour. "Finally, show yourselves to be men of
principle in these trying times when the question is gravely
raised whether the law of God is above the law of man, whether
human institutions and laws are to set aside the authority of
God." He closed with an appeal for Christian missions: "You need
not be afraid to go among the Indians of the forest, to the
Islands of the great sea, among the slaves of the South, or the
African tribes on their own soil: the Lord will lead you and give
his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways." Such was
the ringing challenge with which Finney began his
presidency.
Appropriate and inevitable as Finney's
election appears, it was, nevertheless, in some ways unfortunate.
Finney's attachment to Oberlin always came second to his devotion
to the saving of souls, and when evangelistic labors called him to
New York or to England Oberlin suffered from his absence. When he
had been away longer than usual the rumor would begin to spread
that he was not coming back at all, and dissatisfaction would
immediately appear among the students, dissatisfaction among the
theologs particularly that they should be deprived of his guidance
in Pastoral and Systematic Theology, among the college seniors
that they should miss his lectures on Mental and Moral Philosophy,
and among the students generally that from the pulpit of the
meeting house they heard each Sabbath not the dramatic and
awakening appeals of Finney but the labored didacticism of Morgan
or the uninspired scholarship of Henry Cowles. There seemed to be
a general feeling among the students that if they came to Oberlin
and Finney wasn't there they were somehow being cheated. It was,
after all, a perfectly understandable feeling. Wasn't Finney
listed in the Catalogue as President and Professor of Mental and
Moral Philosophy and Theology? They had been attracted to Oberlin,
forsooth, under false pretenses. The faculty and trustees felt
more or less at a loss in their leader's absence and were subject
to considerable pressure from the students. As a result, when
Finney was away any length of time he was the recipient of
repeated letters begging him to come back and certainly not to
resign.
Nor were the rumors of Finney's resignation
entirely unfounded in fact. Within a few months after his entrance
upon the duties of the presidency he was considering withdrawal in
order that he might devote more of his time to revivals. John Keep
wrote to him early in March of 1852 begging him not to take the
step. The Theological Department, he insisted, could not possibly
continue without Finney. Would he willingly and consciously
destroy it and thus injure the whole cause of Christianity in the
West? Finney, he declared, must not overlook or "undervalue the
moral power you now have in and through the Oberlin school." What
would friends and enemies think? "Finney, turning his back upon
Oberlin, and leaving his own child of promise to die. Finney, the
Evangelist, the Reformer, whom God has used to make a deep and
widely extended mark upon Christendom, abandoning the very
strongest agency within his reach to carry on & secure a
triumph to his toils when he is dead." "Whatl" asked Keep, "Is
this sagacity[?] Is it wisdom[?] Is it
generalship[?] Is it common sense[?] Is it
Christian prudence[?] Is it in accordance with God's
method[?] Is it benevolence[?]" Professor Morgan
supported Keep, pleading with Finney to limit his evangelistic
work to four or five months in the year and spend the remainder in
writing and teaching at Oberlin. Besides, was not the Oberlin
audience worth preaching to? "There is here now the greatest
congregation I have even seen in Oberlin, the galleries of the
noble church crowded with masses of young people twice as numerous
as usual and on Thursday the Chapel is crowded to a jam, orchestra
included. If you have anywhere else a more important assembly to
address, it must be an exceedingly interesting one. As I have
aimed my feeble pocket-pistol at the vast assembly from Sabbath to
Sabbath, I have earnestly wished you were here to pour in your
heaviest shot in the name of the Lord." Morgan's appeal must have
been almost irresistible, for Finney loved a good audience, and in
May he was back again in the Oberlin meeting house preaching from
the text: "Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven."
In the spring of 1855 again when Finney was
in Brooklyn rumors of impending resignation so disturbed the
faculty that a special committee was chosen to communicate with
him on the subject. The hope was expressed that there were no
grounds for the persistent rumors and that Finney would soon
return. "... We exceedingly desire your presence .... We have
every reason to feel that the great mass of the community, the
whole body of students, and the entire Faculty most sincerely,
earnestly, and affectionately desire your early return, and desire
it too with the hope that your last days may be spent at Oberlin."
A year later while the president was in Oberlin and preaching
regularly (one sermon on "The Destruction of the Wicked") he was
seriously considering resignation, but Professor Morgan again
begged him to hold on, emphasizing the danger of jealousy and
dissension in the faculty over the selection of a successor. "May
God have mercy on us and never suffer Satan to triumph over us."
Again in 1860, when Finney had been in England over a year, the
faculty and trustees felt called upon to make official
protestations of their confidence in him and need of his
leadership because of, at least implied, threats of resignation.
"We cannot think of the closing of such labors among us without
sorrow. We trust they will not close but with your life." One is
led to conclude that President Finney had something of the
temperament of the prima donna and that, as a result, Oberlin's
peaceful, Sabbath calm was rather artificially maintained during
the first decade of his presidency.
It is not surprising to find that
dissatisfaction was expressed on both sides. Finney found the
piety of Oberlin declining (as perhaps it was); he objected to the
more "worldly" spirit among the students, to the increased number
of evening lectures, the parties and picnics and other recreations
engaged in. James A. Thome, on the other hand, a Lane Rebel and
trustee, hoped the President would resign. "I am inclined to
believe," he wrote to Henry Cowles, "that a change in the
Presidency & Theo.[logical] Headship is indispensable,
& awaits us in the gracious provisions of Him whose ways &
whose times are wiser than ours. Bro Finney is not the man for the
work..." Lewis Tappan agreed with Thome that Finney was not fitted
for the presidency but reminded him that Finney had said so when
elected, but the position had been forced upon him. James H.
Fairchild, in later years, ratified this opinion: Finney, he
concluded, had none of the qualities of a good administrator; he
did not try to exercise the powers of an administrator; he was
never more than nominally president, only a figurehead. One cannot
refrain from commenting that he was a very impressive figurehead
and that his moral and spiritual leadership was of more
significance than any merely administrative activity could ever
have been.
Finney's very weakness as an administrator
plus his continued absence from Oberlin were of positive advantage
to the faculty, for they were left to run their own affairs to a
large extent. Even when present and presiding over trustees' or
faculty meetings Finney never attempted to dictate. Though his
opinions, of course, bore great weight, they were often
questioned, argued against and voted down. Repeatedly he was
forced to yield and did so graciously. There was a marked contrast
between his position as arbitrator and chairman and the
dictatorial and dogmatic procedure of Mahan. Therefore, the
tradition and precedent of faculty independence, first established
by Finney's insistence in 1835, were further strengthened by his
neglect and tolerance while President.
As has been noted before, the sales of
scholarships in the fifties did not furnish a permanent solution
of the financial problems of the College. Approximately fourteen
hundred certificates providing for tuition for six or eighteen
years or perpetually had been distributed and, as a result, the
attendance pushed above the thousand mark in 1851-52, passed
thirteen hundred in 1852-53 and 1859-60 and never dropped below a
thousand again except in the war years 1861-62, 1862-63 and
1863-64. All scholarships were transferable, and, until the
six-year certificates had been retired, the College had no income
from tuition, all students being invariably provided with
scholarships. Even when those were out of the way the College's
obligations to the holders of perpetual and eighteen-year
certificates were so great that receipts from tuition were only
nominal. In 1862-63, for example, the expense of instruction was
almost all met from the seven thousand dollars in interest
received from investments; tuition payments were reported at
$27.05! Not until the seventies were the eighteen-year
scholarships retired and, though every effort was made to buy up
or beg the four hundred perpetuals, a number were still
outstanding at the time of the fiftieth anniversary in
1883.
The teaching burden was greatly increased
by this doubling of the number of students in the institution. The
College could not possibly afford to hire more teachers, and so
the faculty had to teach more and larger classes and more of the
work was turned over to student teachers. (The expenditure for the
payment of student teachers advanced from $1,451.74 in 1853-54 to
over $2,000.00 in 1859-60.) Besides, almost immediately after the
College had undertaken this heavy instructional obligation the
general price level advanced greatly, and the professors found
increasing difficulty in making ends meet with their meager
salaries of six hundred dollars a year. Professor Morgan found
himself in desperate straits in 1855. In a pitiful report
presented to the trustees in that year he estimated his personal
debts (for "current expenses," piano, "garden ditching," and
"Subscription for Theo.[logical] Lib.[rary]") at
nearly eight hundred dollars, his available assets ("Due from
boarders--1/2 perhaps good," "Due on salary," a pair of steers, a
heifer, "wood chopped in the woods" and three pigs) at less than
six hundred dollars. "I have not mentioned hens & cows because
they cannot well be spared to pay debts"--"P.S. We have no
provisions of any value on hand except our garden." Salaries could
not be increased without new income: there was an annual deficit
each year even with six-hundred-dollar salaries. Tuition charges
could not be increased to balance the general inflation of prices
and provide the additional income required--because practically no
tuition was ever paid. What to do?
The only solution was to solicit more
contributions--a difficult thing to do successfully when Oberlin
had just announced the completion of its endowment campaign. Pleas
for donations went out through the Evangelist in 1855, and an
attempt was initiated to endow a Finney Professorship of
Systematic Theology. Just before the war it was decided to attempt
to secure an endowment for the Theological Department. The general
endowment did not properly provide for that department, the
scholarships not being necessary for theological students who
never paid any tuition. Henry Cowles, editor of the Evangelist and
former professor and financial agent, undertook the task of
collecting the funds needed in the years 1858 to 1863. He had a
hard time of it due to the financial disorders following the
panics of 1857 and 1861. The Finney endowment he was entirely
unable to secure--and the effort was abandoned for the time being.
But, with the aid of his wife, who travelled with him some of the
time, and a letter of recommendation from Governor Salmon P.
Chase, he collected about ten thousand dollars for the theological
endowment (largely in promissory notes and partly in old
scholarship certificates and odd sums of money and donations of
clothing to relieve the distress of the faculty). As a result it
was possible to make a slight general increase in salaries in
1860, the unrestricted donations being distributed equally between
the individual professors, the Treasurer and the Principal of the
Preparatory Department.
Additional funds came from other sources.
Hamilton Hill, the British treasurer, returned to his native land
in the winter of 1862-63 to try to duplicate the achievement of
Keep and Dawes over twenty years before. He collected about two
thousand dollars, over a quarter of it from the Sturges, old
friends of Oberlin, and £10 from the Ladies' Anti-Slavery
Society of Edinburgh. The mission produced a net amount of a
little over a thousand dollars --nothing remarkable, but a
help.
Back in 1843 the "Society for the Promotion
of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West" had been
organized to direct financial support away from Oberlin to
Oberlin's more orthodox and conservative rivals. Now during the
war Oberlin had become "respectable" enough to ask, through the
person of Michael Strieby, financial agent following Cowles, to be
added to the list of beneficiary institutions. At the annual
meeting of the Society in 1862, after "a full hearing of the case"
and discussion, the request was acceded to and Oberlin received
the official endorsement of the organization. In the ensuing year
fifteen hundred dollars was appropriated specifically for the use
of the Theological Department. Additional amounts were obtained by
Strieby and other agents under the auspices of this society in
later years--$3,634.00 in 1863-64; $4,350.00 in 1864-65, and about
$3,500.00 in 1866-67.
Large gifts from W. C. Chapin, formerly of
Providence but then of Lawrence, Massachusetts, Dr. Charles Avery
of Pittsburgh and I. P. Williston of Northampton were of very
substantial assistance. Chapin had long been an important
benefactor of Oberlin, in many years paying Finney's entire
salary. He had considerable investments in cotton mills and made
enough profits even during the war to contribute considerable sums
from time to time. On January 1, 1864, he made his largest
gratuity: $10,000 in personal notes and thirty shares in
"Saunders' Cotton Mills--Lawrence, Mass. at $500 per Share"
totalling $15,000. Dr. Avery, a well-to-do Pittsburgh
abolitionist, contributed important sums for the education of
colored students at Oberlin and, in 1866, $25,000 was set aside
from his estate by his executors, the income to be used for the
aid of worthy Negroes studying in Oberlin College. J. P. Williston
gave considerable sums. In May, 1862, he wrote a surprise letter
to Treasurer Hill enclosing a check for a thousand dollars. "I
have unexpectedly made considerable profits," he wrote, "in
manufacturing free labor cotton from India and I wish to give a
portion of it to your College that has always taught... that we
should love our Neighbor as ourselves." During the next three
years he gave several thousand more, most of which was used to
raise the professors' salaries.
Salary increases were made possible by
these various additions to income, and when Professor Monroe went
to Rio de Janeiro as consul no substitute was hired to take his
place, but the rest of the faculty divided his salary among
them--one hundred dollars additional for each and two hundred to
those who did extra work on account of Professor Monroe's absence.
In 1865, after Monroe's return, all professors' salaries were
advanced to a thousand dollars and the next year the salary of the
Principal of the Ladies' Department was increased to $650.00. John
Morgan reported a comparatively munificent income in 1867; a
thousand dollars from the College and eight hundred for his
services as co-pastor of the church.
The income tax returns for 1865 under the
war revenue act give us an unusually accurate picture of the
financial status of Oberlin professors and residents. President
Finney reported $2,235; Dr. Dascomb, $1,775; Professor James H.
Fairchild, $1,440; Professor Morgan, $1,226; George Allen only
$801, and Professor Churchill less than $800; Professor Peck less
than $700. Faculty incomes were still considerably lower than
those of most town merchants and professional men: Max Straus
reported net profits of over five thousand dollars from his
dry-goods store; store-keeper Isaac M. Johnson over three
thousand. Banker Samuel Plumb was listed for $2,572, over three
hundred more than the President of the College. James M. Fitch,
bookseller and printer, Sunday-school superintendent and Rescuer,
gave his income as $2,257, a few dollars more than President
Finney. The income of S. S. Calkins of the business college was
$1,942. Even John M. Langston, Negro attorney, had an income
larger than that of most professors. It is evident that,
considering the high commodity prices at the time, the Oberlin
professors were quite clearly not yet on Easy Street, but their
status must have seemed fortunate if they looked back to any of
the three preceding decades.
Never since coming to Oberlin had Finney's
health been really robust, and as he reached the sixties fears of
a general breakdown increased among his friends and associates.
Oberlinites were already lamenting the great and imminent loss to
Oberlin in the first weeks of 1861. But when the second Mrs.
Finney died in the winter of 1863-64 he bore up well under the
loss and the next year married Mrs. Rebecca Rayl, the Assistant
Principal of the Ladies' Department. Soon after, however, being
seventy-three years of age, he determined to resign the
presidency. "Our college," he wrote to the trustees, "needs a
President who can give more attention to the details of its duties
than I can give. My duties as Pastor & as Professor of
Theology demand the use of all my remaining strength .... Last
year I was quite overdone by the labor & excitement connected
with the commencement & the meeting of the Board of Trust ....
I now feel quite clear that I should sustain this responsibility
no longer I have given you my views of the man we need as
President and must leave the responsibility of the appointment
upon the Board of Trust, praying earnestly that you may be
Divinely directed, and that God will give us a man who has the
requisite qualifications and whose whole heart & strength will
be given to the realization of the great end for which Oberlin
College was founded." The trustees accepted the resignation,
paying just and appropriate tribute to their great leader as "the
main earthly source of [Oberlin's] popular power and
spiritual influence." "You came to it in the day of small things,"
they reminded him. "You have stood by it in the days of trial and
adversity. You have lived to see it prospered, honored and
useful." They recognized that his leadership was not dependent on
the title of President. "You have always been, and always will be
while you live, its recognized head. To you the nominal Presidency
is of little significance. It was only by great urgency that you
were induced to accept it. It, and not you, was honored by that
acceptance: and now that you resign it, you only lay aside a name,
and not your real power either in the College or in the estimation
of the public."
Finney dropped his responsibilities at
Oberlin one at a time: he had discontinued his teaching of
Systematic Theology in 1858; he left the presidency in 1865; he
discontinued his church pastorate in 1872, but he continued to
give his lectures on Pastoral Theology to the theological students
down to the very year of his death in 1875.
First Michael Strieby and then James
Monroe, perhaps the most logical candidate, were invited to accept
the presidency, but both declined; and at a meeting of June 22,
1866, James Harris Fairchild was appointed, his service beginning
immediately. Fairchild had been associated with Oberlin from 1834
either as student, as teacher, or as administrator, for under
Finney much of the routine work of the presidential office had
been performed by him. He was, therefore, already thoroughly
acquainted with the administrative duties involved. "The new
appointment to the Presidency meets but one response from all the
great army of Oberlin students and alumni--that of hearty
approval," commented the local paper editorially. "The man whom
all admire and esteem, one who has been identified with the
Institution from the outset, one who has done not less than any
other to give it its present character all welcome to its
Presidency." The evening after his appointment became known, a
crowd of the young men marched to his house and stood in his
flower beds while he made a modest speech from his porch in reply
to their vociferous congratulations.
James H. Fairchild was formally inducted
into the presidency by Father Keep and delivered his inaugural
address on the afternoon of August 22, 1866, during commencement
week. The title of his discourse was "Educational Arrangements and
College Life at Oberlin." It is an important historical document.
President Fairchild had, years before, assumed the role of Oberlin
historian, had shown himself historically minded and objective,
seeing more clearly than most others the essentials of the Oberlin
spirit and the true significance of the Oberlin contribution. His
inaugural, like so much of his writing, is essentially historical,
a kind of stock-taking of Oberlin at the shifting of
administrations. This is perhaps what inaugurals always are at
their best. Coming from a man like Fairchild, however, whose
associations with Oberlin lay as much in the past as in the
future, there is more of the retrospective than usual, and one
feels that it is not so much Fairchild as Oberlin, itself,
speaking.
With just pride he called his hearers'
attention to the achievements of the past third-of-a-century:
achievements in the field of Western education and contributions
"to the solution of some special problems, educational, social,
political, ecclesiastical and theological." Oberlin had expanded
physically beyond the most sanguine dreams of its decidedly
sanguine founders. Oberlin had become a hotbed of radicalism. "No
doctrine was accepted because it was old, or rejected because it
was new. Possibly the presumption was held to be in favor of the
new, but the old never yielded without a vigorous struggle." From
this "magazine of living energy" had gone out a disturbing but
vitalizing influence through all the Northwest and all the nation.
Fairchild recalled these days, climaxed by the further excitement
of the war, with satisfaction, but accepted their passing without
any apparent great regret. Such extreme pressure, he felt, could
not be permanently maintained. "Earnest sympathy with every good
work" should be continuously maintained, of course, but he saw in
the future a period of less aggressive action, a period of
relaxation from the fury of the fight, and he clearly welcomed
it.
He advanced seven great factors as
essential to Oberlin's success in the past and in the future: (1)
the sympathy and support of an interested and Christian community;
(2) the joint education of the sexes, an elevating and stimulating
influence on both sexes; (3) the Preparatory Department, a
recruiting ground for college students and laboratory for students
who planned to become teachers; (4) the practice of students going
out as country-school teachers in the winter vacations, thus
bringing them "a knowledge of the world and a sympathy with its
needs"; (5) the Theological Department, contributing a moral and
religious tone to the whole institution; (6) the welcome to
colored students, a blessing to the Negroes and to the white
students who were "so educated as to take naturally a right
position on the great question of our country and our time"; and
(7) the deep, prevailing Christian piety.
But the central theme was the "somewhat
unusual style of college life" which prevailed at Oberlin. Here he
grasped at a unique and significant feature of the Oberlin of that
day: "Each student belongs still to the world, not isolated from
sympathies and obligations and activities. The ends he pursues are
such as appeal to men in general, the reputation he desires is the
same that will serve him in the work of life, and the motives to
excellence are the natural motives which operate on men at large."
This situation he saw as inseparably associated with joint
education, the absence of grades and prizes, the prohibition of
secret societies, and freedom of discussion of current political
and economic issues, and producing unusually good order, assiduity
and real and practical interest in studies. His own opinions, as
here expressed, may be taken as those of Oberlin down at least to
1866. "Study will be effective in proportion to the motives which
induce it, and he who lives in sympathy with the movements of the
world and feels its claims, is most likely to give himself
earnestly to a preparation for his work .... The college is a
place for education, not merely for the acquisition of learning .
. . the great object is such a discipline as is qualified for
service in the world." These were strange words in the academic
world of 1866.
The man who thus came to the presidency,
though of the very stuff of Oberlin, was a conservative compared
to the leaders who had preceded him. He was no aspiring
prophet-dreamer like Shipherd; he had too much "common sense" to
be a dietetic reformer like Stewart; he was too essentially
temperate to fight as fanatically for universal reform as Mahan
did; he was too bashful and self-distrustful to deliver the
thrilling, scorching sermons of a Finney. He was never an
extremist: he had opposed certain students' hastily-made plan to
go to Kansas in the summer of 1855; he severely criticized Calvin
Fairbank for his attempt to kidnap slaves in the border states; he
went against the majority opinion at Oberlin on the issue of the
ethics of the Harper's Ferry raid; his participation in the
"Rescue" was limited to harboring the fugitive--at the request of
the Rescuers. Those who knew him best, attempting to characterize
him, constantly used such words as "moderation," "gentleness,"
"balance," "quiet trust in the ruling of Providence," "a most
judicial mind," "quiet dignity," "solidity," "serenity,"
"steadiness," "sanity," "perfect control." In a sense he
represented a reaction against the zealous reformism and heresy of
the early days. At the time of Fairchild's death in 1902, a
graduate, who had in later life accumulated considerable wealth,
commented on his influence: "Oberlin was radical in its early
days, and radicalism easily becomes rant. It is but a step from
the reformer to the crank. That Oberlin escaped this danger was
largely owing to the clear vision of President Fairchild:" So the
personal character of the man who understood the essence of
Oberlin's primitive aggressiveness better than any other was an
added force in the trend toward conformity.
As Finney's preoccupation with more central
and exciting interests had strengthened faculty self-government,
Fairchild's modesty, diffidence and temperance served to preserve
that tradition. Fairchild simply did not have the makings of a
dictator, and he never pretended to be the "executive" of Oberlin
College. One spoke of him as not so much the President as "the
regulator or balance wheel keeping the parts of our educational
machinery . . . in harmonious relation and movement." When he
passed from office in 1890 he wrote a statement of the traditional
position of the President in Oberlin as it had come to be
recognized at that time. "The President of the College," he wrote
in part, "is chairman of the faculty and also of the trustees, but
his personal authority is limited to special cases of emergency."
The presidential status was clearly partly the expression of his
own unassuming personality.
In the sixties and seventies there are
numerous other evidences of change besides the succession of
Fairchild to the presidency. There were a number of important
additions to the teaching staff: Giles Shurtleff in 1865; Judson
Smith in 1866; in 1869, Hiram Mead in Theology and Fenelon B. Rice
in Music; in 1870 and 1871, Madam A. A. F. Johnston, Principal of
the Ladies' Department, W. H. Ryder in Greek, E. P. Barrows, and
James R. Severance, later Secretary and Treasurer. Henry Matson
came as the first full-time librarian in 1874. Treasurer Hamilton
Hill resigned in 1864 and retired to his native England in the
following year. Henry E. Peck resigned in 1865; Mrs. Dascomb
retired in 1870; Father Keep, dean of trustees, died in the same
year; George Allen retired in 1871; Dr. Dascomb in 1878. James M.
Fitch's relations to the College were not official, but his
activities as printer, editor, bookseller, abolitionist-politician
and superintendent of the Sunday School had given him a status at
least equal to that of a faculty member. He sold his bookstore in
the spring of 1867 and, on a Sabbath early in June, sent his
death-bed blessing to the Sunday School. Professor Morgan's
service ended in 1880 and Henry Cowles died the next year. The
services of four men of the older Oberlin continued through the
ninth decade of the century and beyond and helped to keep alive
old traditions and old memories. They were James Monroe, who
returned to teach in 1883, Charles H. Churchill, J. M. Ellis, and
President Fairchild, himself. But at the end of the century James
H. Fairchild, then retired, was the last surviving protagonist of
the old Oberlin.
And there were physical changes. The first
Ladies' Hall was torn down in 1865 when the second Ladies' Hall,
on the present site of Talcott, was ready for occupancy. New
recitation buildings, French and Society halls, were constructed
in 1866-68. Colonial Hall was removed and in 1870 the soldiers'
monument was erected on its site. Council Hall was begun in 1871
(the cornerstone laid at the Oberlin meeting of the National
Council of Congregational Churches) and completed in 1874. Two
years later the College Chapel was enlarged and its original
simple beauty destroyed. Flagstone walks were constructed; the
trees on the square grew tall enough to cast an appreciable
shade.
In the sixties the Theological Department
was threatened with extinction, but by a supreme effort, which
involved the collection of considerable funds from Oberlin
townsmen, it was saved and its faculty increased. With the passing
of Finney, however, that department lost its chief attraction. The
rapid growth and firm establishment of the Conservatory of Music
and the Business College caused or reflected a greater interest in
secular things. There was a fairly steady increase in the
proportion of young lady students; since 1881 they have always
been more numerous than the men students. The vivid personality
and prestige of Madam Johnston and her insistence on the admission
of the lady students to most of the privileges open to the young
men further emphasized the feminine trend. Perhaps there was some
relationship between this trend and the swing from aggressive
radicalism toward mid-Victorian conservatism.
The system of "joint education of the
sexes," which had made Oberlin more peculiar and bizarre in the
early years, now, in the sixties and seventies, under the name of
coeducation, made it prominent, as the higher education of women
became a matter of increasing general concern. Considerable
expansion of the practice of collegiate "joint education" had
taken place quietly in the first third of a century after its
adoption at Oberlin, particularly through its introduction at
small religious colleges in the West which looked to Oberlin for
inspiration and leadership. These included Olivet, Hillsdale and
Adrian in Michigan, Iowa College (later Grinnell), Drury, Tabor,
and Cornell College in Iowa, Knox and Wheaton in Illinois, Beloit,
Lawrence, and Ripon in Wisconsin, Wilberforce, the Ohio Negro
college, Northfield College (later Carleton) in Minnesota, Berea
in Kentucky, Washburn College in Kansas and Pacific University in
Oregon." In most instances the introduction of coeducation in
these schools was directly traceable to the Oberlin
influence.
In the late sixties the eyes of the
educational world began to be turned on Oberlin's plan of
associating the sexes in the same college. In 1865, Sophia Louisa
Jex-Blake, the English feminist and first English woman physician,
came to Oberlin to observe the workings of coeducation on the
campus. The Rev. Thomas Markby in an article on "Joint Education"
published in the Contemporary Review of London in 1868 quoted some
of the material on Oberlin presented by Miss Jex-Blake. About the
same time M. Celestine Hippeau, a leading French educational
reformer, was sent by the French Government to study the practice
at Oberlin and other American coeducational institutions. He gave
a favorable impression in his L'Instruction publique aux Etats
Unis, published in Paris in 1869. In 1867 Lord and Lady Amberley,
the liberal-minded parents of the liberal-minded Bertrand Russell,
included Oberlin in a tour of experimental American institutions.
The Honorable Dudley Campbell (M. A. Cant.), a distinguished
London barrister, came to Oberlin in 1871 and, in an article on
"Mixed Education of Boys and Girls in England and America," first
published in the Contemporary Review in 1872 and later as a
separate pamphlet by Rivingtons, described coeducation as he found
it. "At Oberlin College in the State of Ohio," he wrote, "where
the pupils number a thousand, half of them women, the ages vary
from seventeen to seven-an-twenty; and there the system has been
in successful operation for more than five-and-thirty years. The
testimony of the Professors is unanimous to the effect that the
general tone of the students, not only as to conduct, but also as
to industry, is far superior to what is usual in colleges managed
on the separate principle. Cases of ungentlemanly behavior are
almost unknown." He reported a conversation with one of the
faculty members in which the professor said in part, "The system
answers very well with us .... We find that the presence of the
girls has a good effect upon the men and that of the men upon the
girls. We think that the girls if kept away from young men will be
dreaming about them, and it is better that they should see them.
Nothing acts as a better antidote for romance than young men and
women doing geometry together at eight o'clock every morning."
"After spending some days in visiting the different classes,"
continued Campbell, "I became convinced that the words above cited
were free from the slightest exaggeration. Whether they were being
instructed by a gentleman or a lady, the attention of the pupils
was above criticism. And the women seemed to have no difficulty in
holding their own with the other students."
An American woman, Miss Mary E. Beedy,
delivered a lecture in 1873 before the "London Sunday Lecture
Society" on the subject of "joint education" as practiced in the
United States. The lecture was published in pamphlet form. Despite
the fact that this Miss Beedy was an Antioch graduate she drew her
illustrations largely from Oberlin and quoted Fairchild's 1867
address on coeducation extensively. She explained the spread of
coeducation in America in the following words: "Oberlin sent out
staunch men and women. Wherever these men and women went it was
observed that they worked with a will and with effect. The eminent
success of Oberlin led many parents in different parts of the
country to desire its advantages for their sons and daughters. But
Oberlin was a long way off from New England and from many other
parts of the country; besides some thought it an comfortably
religious place; negroes were admitted, and it was altogether very
democratic, much more so than many people liked. So parents began
to say, Why can't we have other colleges that shall provide all
the advantages of Oberlin and omit the peculiarities we dislike?"
The European interest in Oberlin and its plan for the higher
education of women should, of course, be seen against the
background of developments going on there: the founding of Girton
College for women at Cambridge in 1872 and the opening to women
students of continental universities such as Zurich in 1868,
Copenhagen in 1875, and all Swedish universities in
1870.
Probably the most important document in the
history of college coeducation is President Fairchild's address
before a meeting of college presidents at Springfield, Illinois,
on July 10, 1867. It was entitled "Coeducation of the Sexes," and
was a description of the Oberlin experience and a defense of the
practice. It was published in full in Barnard's American Journal
of Education January, 1868, in the Report of the [United
States] Commissioner of Education for 1867-68, and in James
Orton's The Liberal Education of Women: the Demand and the Method,
Current Thoughts in America and England, published in 1873. In the
generation which followed it was easily the article most quoted by
proponents of the cause of coeducation. Thus Oberlin's primacy
came to have a more than accidental significance. Oberlin became,
as Anna Tolman Smith has put it in a later Report of the
Commissioner of Education, "a model and exemplar for all colleges
that proposed the open door for women."
A great impetus was given to the collegiate
coeducational movement as a result of its adoption in the late
sixties and early seventies by Bates and Boston University in New
England, Swarthmore in Pennsylvania, and Cornell and Syracuse in
New York. The possibilities were thoroughly canvassed by specially
appointed committees at Williams, Dartmouth, Amherst and Harvard,
and those institutions were the target of considerable criticism
because they decided in the negative. All of the Western state
universities established under the Morrill Act became
coeducational: Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio State.
Michigan became the favorite example of coeducation in a state
university, and President Angell, an enthusiastic protagonist of
the practice.
The 70's was the period of the great debate
on coeducation. Dr. Edward H. Clarke, a physician of Boston,
issued in October, 1873, a book entitled Sex in Education in which
he warned that coeducation threatened the physical well-being of
the whole mass of American women. The book was widely quoted in
the press and is now most important for the flood of matter in
defense of coeducation which it called out. In this literature,
Oberlin, as the college where coeducation had been longest
established, was often called to witness as an example of
practical success and Fairchild's address of 1867 was cited.
President Edward H. Magill of Swarthmore delivered An Address upon
the Co-education of the Sexes in the same year, giving Oberlin
"where coeducation has been well tested for more than thirty
years," Antioch, and Michigan as proofs of the safety and
advantages of coeducation. Dean George F. Comfort of Syracuse
wrote a book in reply to Dr. Clarke which was published in 1874
under the title of Woman's Education, and Woman's Health. He
recognized Oberlin's pioneer position as the place where "the
movement for opening colleges and universities to women was
inaugurated." The most complete collection of opinion on the
question of woman's education at this time is that entitled The
Liberal Education of Women, edited by James Orton of Vassar
College. In this volume President Fairchild's address is reprinted
as also the reports favoring coeducation for Williams, Cornell and
Harvard. President Andrew D. White of Cornell presented the
statistics of Oberlin as the most effective reply to Dr. Clarke.
James Freeman Clarke in his report to a committee of the Harvard
Board of Overseers recommended coeducation for that institution on
the basis of the experience at Michigan and Oberlin. "I believe
the system is good in itself," he concluded, "that it is in
accordance with the ideas of modern society--that in practice it
has worked very well, wherever tried, and that the sooner it can
be introduced at Cambridge the better it will be for our excellent
University." Also included is a paper read by Thomas Wentworth
Higginson at a "Social Science Convention" in 1873 favoring the
plan and also citing President Fairchild and Oberlin. President
Eliot, however, demurred. Admitting that Oberlin was "altogether
the most favorable example of an institution for the coeducation
of the sexes in this country, and therefore in the world," he
insisted that he had evidence that it was not wholly successful
even there and therefore still on trial. Whichever side they took
few omitted some reference to the Oberlin experience.
Meanwhile coeducation was so widely adopted
in American colleges and universities that interest in the debate
declined. Even the conservative South was invaded in 1882 when the
University of Mississippi admitted women. It was something of a
moral triumph for Oberlin when her ancient rival Western Reserve
accepted women students and President Carroll Cutler presented a
statement to the Western Reserve Board of Trustees in praise of
the once-despised Oberlinism of "joint education." Already in 1873
there were nearly a hundred coeducational colleges in the United
States. In 1890 there were 282 and in 1902, 330, about half of
them still in the Middle West, the region of Oberlin's greatest
influence. Coeducation, once an Oberlin "peculiarity," thus became
a typical Americanism.
The admission of women and Negroes had
been, perhaps, the two most notorious features of the old Oberlin
College. With the triumph of emancipation the Negro came to be
recognized in the North as educable, and the nation, suddenly
interested in the cultural and intellectual elevation of the
freedmen, turned to Oberlin as the institution most prominently
identified with Negro education. As Oberlin testified to a
listening world that women really had minds, so Oberlin also
testified that the Negro was a human being and produced examples
of colored persons who had made notable progress in scholarship.
"There is no essential difference," reported Principal E. H.
Fairchild, "other things being equal, between their standing and
that of the white students."
Berea College in Kentucky, closed after the
John Brown raid by vigilantes because of its abolitionist taint,
was reopened in 1865 on the full Oberlin pattern--coeducational
and coracial. Several members of the staff, as in pre-war years,
were Oberlin graduates, and Principal E. H. Fairchild was secured
in 1869 to 'become President. He visited the commencement
exercises in 1868 "held in the grove, on the college grounds,
under a bower prepared with considerable expenditure of labor, and
quite artistic," in which fourteen white and twelve colored
students participated. "The spirit and tone of the place" reminded
him forcibly of the early days of Oberlin. Of course, there was
opposition in a border state like Kentucky. The Ku Klux often
threatened the town. A visitor from the North was startled in the
night to hear shouts of "Hurrah for Jeff Davis" and "Jeff Davis
was a white man"; horsemen often galloped wildly through the
streets firing revolvers in every direction. But there was no
actual bloodshed, and by the mid-eighties Fairchild, speaking at
an educational conference in New Orleans, dared to proclaim the
system of "coeducation of the sexes and the races" practiced at
Berea. "They room in the same buildings, board at the same tables,
recite in the same classes, sit promiscuously in all assemblies,
work at the same wood-piles or in the same dining-hall, play on
the same grounds at the same games. No distinction whatever is
made on account of color."
In 1870, Richard Theodore Greener, a Negro
prepared at Oberlin, graduated from Harvard College and received
the A.B. degree, reputedly the first colored man to finish the
course at America's leading scholarly institution. By that date
most first-class Northern colleges admitted properly qualified
colored students. Another Oberlin peculiarity had thus ceased to
be peculiar.
As Union troops conquered parts of the
slave states Oberlinites beheld the opening of the great
opportunity to do something constructive for the
"contraband"--after January 1, 1863, freedmen. Former and present
Oberlin students gave active support to the various "Freedmen's
Aid" societies and especially to the American Missionary
Association. Rev. Jacob R. Shipherd (Oberlin, A.B., 1862), Rescuer
and nephew of the Founder, was the first corresponding secretary
and leading full-time worker of the Northwestern Freedmen's Aid
Commission with headquarters at Chicago. When, in 1865, all the
freedmen's societies were federated in the American Freedmen's
Union Commission, Shipherd went to Washington as one of the
national secretaries in association with Frederick Law Olmsted and
others.
The sixteenth annual meeting of the
American Missionary Association, from the beginning an Oberlin
anti-slavery enterprise, was held at Oberlin in October of 1862. A
resolution was adopted expressing gratitude for the Emancipation
Proclamation which, it was declared, "inspires the hope that under
God the freedom of large masses of the enslaved is near at hand."
Within a few weeks after the adjournment of this meeting five
Oberlin students had left to work among the "contraband" at
Fortress Monroe or in South Carolina, including among their number
the Negro Thomas D. Tucker, brought over from Africa by George
Thompson to be educated at Oberlin. "We are thankful," commented
the editor of the Evangelist, "that at last a new direction is
given to the enlistments from Oberlin College." In April of 1863
the Commandant of the Contraband Camp at Washington spoke before
the Students' Missionary Society. The crowd in attendance was so
large that an adjournment to the First Church was necessary.
Students were beginning to go off in troops to become preachers
and teachers among the former slaves. Ten left in one band in
September of 1864, seven young ladies at another time in the
following year. Early in 1866 Professor Cowles contributed an
admittedly incomplete list of between thirty and forty students
engaged in this work among the freedmen with the American
Missionary Association. By 1866 the association had 353 persons
under its supervision working among the Southern Negroes--264 of
them being women teachers. For the next few years this was the
main field of effort, and in it Oberlin students and former
students played, as would be expected, a very large part. In 1868
not only were both of the executive secretaries in New York
Oberlin men (George Whipple and Michael Strieby), but in the two
subordinate departments, the Middle-West Department (Kentucky,
Tennessee, Georgia, and part of Alabama) and the Western
Department (Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi,
part of Alabama and Texas), Oberlin men were in charge as field
secretaries. Jacob R. Shipherd was at the head of the Western
Department, and E. M. Cravath, a graduate of the College of 1857
and of the Theological Department in 1860, headed the Middle-West
Department. The general field agent with headquarters in New York,
the Rev. Edward P. Smith, had been a student in the Preparatory
Department for two years.
Oberlin's work in the Negro schools of
Washington was important from the beginning. Fugitives naturally
flooded into the capital city in large numbers and there was a
great demand for social, educational, and religious workers among
them. Rev. Danforth B. Nichols (A.B., Oberlin, 1839) had been a
city missionary in the Chicago slums in the fifties; he was one of
the pioneer group of missionaries who went from Boston in the
spring of 1862 to teach and preach among the fugitives in the
occupied area along the South Carolina coast. The next year he
returned from that field to become Civil Superintendent of the
fugitives in Washington and environs. He taught schools in Duff
Green's Row on Capitol Hill, in McClellan Barracks and, later, at
Freedman's Village, Arlington Heights, where "the first thoroughly
systematic and genuine contraband school was established within
the sight of the national Capitol." John Watson Alvord, Lane Rebel
and graduate of the Oberlin Theological Department in the famous
class of 1836, came to Washington at about the same time to
distribute the schoolbooks and religious books especially compiled
by the American Tract Society of Boston for the use of Negro
fugitives. In 1868 George F. T. Cook, a student in Oberlin from
1853 to 1860, was made superintendent of colored schools for the
District of Columbia, a position which he held to the end of the
century. In 1871, Mary Jane Patterson, first colored woman to earn
a bachelor's degree (Oberlin, A.B., 1862), became principal of the
colored high school. Miss Patterson continued as assistant
principal after Richard T. Greener, of Oberlin and Harvard, took
charge in 1872.
In 1865 the United States Congress
established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands
to furnish relief and educational opportunities for the Negroes,
and President Johnson, following Lincoln's known intention,
appointed General Oliver Otis Howard as its executive head. Howard
was a benevolent but, perhaps, rather inefficient and gullible
administrator, who was also, more important to our story, a
Congregationalist. He made the Oberlinite Alvord general
superintendent of the schools for freedmen which were established
and administered by the Bureau. John Mercer Langston, Negro lawyer
and graduate of the Collegiate and Theological Departments at
Oberlin, became general inspector. Alvord was also head of the
ill-starred Freedmen's Bank, and Langston was associated on the
Board of Trustees with Frederick Douglass and others. The chief
clerk of the Bureau from 1867 to 1872 was an Oberlin Negro
graduate in the Class of 1864 (John H. Cook), and Capt. Orindatus
S. B. Wall, the colored Oberlin business man, was appointed
"Employment Agent." In 1867 President Johnson, having broken with
General Howard, offered the commissionership to Langston, but the
latter suspected a disruptive purpose on Johnson's part and
refused the offer.
Howard, Alvord and Langston were naturally
partial to Oberlin men and women and to the Oberlin-affiliated
American Missionary Association. Bureau funds to the extent of
nearly a quarter-of-a-million were turned over to the association
for the extension of its educational program. Money was even
allocated to Oberlin to help build college buildings, because it
trained so many white and Negro teachers for the South. In 1868,
nearly a quarter (532) of all the teachers under Alvord's
supervision (2,300) were supplied by the Oberlin-dominated A. M.
A. Oberlinites--Alvord, Langston, Whipple, Strieby, Shipherd,
Cravath and Smith--were not only the leaders in this educational
work among the Negroes, but many of the rank and file of the
teachers, certainly scores, probably hundreds, were Oberlin
graduates, undergraduates or former students. Lovejoy Johnson
(Oberlin, A.B., 1861) was superintendent of colored schools at
Helena, Arkansas; Joseph H. Barnum (A.B., 1854), formerly
superintendent of Oberlin schools, was superintendent of Negro
schools in Memphis from 1866 to 1875. After a tour through the
South in the winter of 1866-67 a Cleveland pastor wrote: "At every
place, from Lexington, Ky., to Charleston, S.C., I found some
representatives of Oberlin connected with the schools."
The agents and teachers of the American
Missionary Association and the Freedmen's Bureau were not, it may
be imagined. enthusiastically welcomed by the Southern whites. The
name Oberlin was a red flag south of Mason's and Dixon's Line and
it is not surprising that Oberlin teachers, especially if they
were black, were occasionally visited by the K K K. At Mayfield,
Kentucky, Alvord reported in 1869, the night-riders "proceeded to
the boarding place of the teacher, a young colored lady educated
at Oberlin, and drove her from the town." When Rev. John P.
Bardwell (Sem., 1844) was in Grenada, Mississippi, attempting to
organize Negro schools "he was assailed by a former
slaveholder--backed up and encouraged by a mob--dragged out of his
chair, beaten with a heavy cane and his life directly threatened."
In Memphis where the teachers of the Negro schools came mainly
from Oberlin, a mob burned the schoolhouses and attempted to
frighten the teachers away. Rev. George W. Andrews (A.B., 1858),
preaching and teaching among the colored people at Marion,
Alabama, wrote to James Monroe that he was ostracized by all
Southern ministers and forced to carry firearms on all occasions
to protect himself and his congregation and pupils from the Ku
Klux Klan. It is quite possible that Oberlin-educated teachers
were overly enthusiastic and tactless in their dealings with the
extremely delicate race situation. Southern whites and some modern
historians charge them with being "political emissaries among the
Negroes, organizing them into 'loyal leagues,' and impressing upon
them the duty of voting the Republican ticket." Langston was frank
about his activities in behalf of the Republican party and was
notorious among white Democrats for his political work. The whole
question as to whether the carpetbag teacher did more good or evil
is still one to arouse passionate recriminations. Most
hundred-percent Southerners still can see nothing but evil in
their story. But some recent Southern students of reconstruction
are willing to admit that they "did much to lift the pall of
illiteracy which had been imposed upon the Negroes while slaves."
The chief difference between the Oberlinites and the Southern
whites was, quite definitely, not how but whether the Negroes
should be educated.
Howard University was founded in Washington
to be the cap-stone of the system of Negro education. The idea
originated with a group of members of the Washington
Congregational Church, particularly three ministers: C. B.
Boynton, pastor and founder of the church and Chaplain of the
House of Representatives, Benjamin F. Morris, and Danforth B.
Nichols, the Oberlin graduate. Nichols was one of the first
trustees and a member of the first faculty and was responsible for
the adoption of the name of the Commissioner of the Freedmen's
Bureau by the new institution. A charter was granted by Congress,
and "Howard University" was established without "restriction based
on race, sex, creed or color." Other Oberlinites played an
important part in its early years: Amzi Lorenzo Barber (A.B.,
Oberlin, 1867) was Principal of the important preparatory division
for some time; John M. Langston founded the Law School and was
acting President for one year.
The American Missionary Association was
responsible for the establishment of a whole chain of consolidated
elementary and advanced schools for Negroes in the South. It had
taken the initiative in the reopening of Berea in 1865. In 1866
Fisk University was founded in Tennessee by Erastus Milo Cravath
and E. P. Smith (A.M.A. agents and Oberlinites) associated with
General Clinton B. Fisk and Professor John Ogden. Cravath (A.B.,
Oberlin, 1857; Sem., 1860) served first as Secretary and then as
President. At Talladega, which dates from 1867, most of the early
teachers, including H. E. Brown, the first Principal, were former
Oberlin students. Oberlin men and women played an important part
in the other colored schools founded by the A. M. A., and Oberlin
principles and the Oberlin tradition inspired them all. No other
American college was so well suited to serve as a pattern.
Oberlin's racial tolerance was of primary significance but hardly
less important were the Oberlin musical tradition, Oberlin's
practice of mixing "learning and labor," and coeducation of the
sexes.
There was a close connection between
educational and religious missionary work in the South and
economic and political carpetbaggism. New England had "civilized"
the Middle West through missionary work and colonization. Oberlin
was a notable example of what could be done. Yankee missionaries
and emigrants had "saved" Kansas. Colonization in the South would,
many believed, be necessary to support activities of ministers and
teachers. "Now the South must be converted and puritanized,"
declared the Oberlin Lorain County News in January, 1864. "It must
be settled by men who at heart hate slavery and oppression in
every form, and who will labor not more for pecuniary reward, than
for the social and moral elevation of the people, both black and
white."
Some Oberlinites joined the migration. Late
in 1865 the News reported that Samuel Plumb, Capt. L. H. Tenney,
C. T. Marks and several others had gone South with an eye to
business. Joseph H. Barnum engaged in cotton planting before he
turned to school administration at Memphis; John Lynch (Oberlin,
A.B., 1851) became a planter in Louisiana. Horace C. Taylor went
into business at Corpus Christi, Texas, and was appointed
postmaster. James H. Piles, a Negro graduate in 1866, became a
member of the Louisiana legislature and Assistant Secretary of
State. Benjamin Franklin Randolph, a former Oberlin student, was
murdered in South Carolina while campaigning for the Black
Republicans.
Stephen W. Dorsey, a runaway boy from
Vermont, was befriended by Samuel Plumb when he wandered into
Oberlin just before the war. He married Helen Mary Wack, daughter
of Chauncey Wack, Oberlin Democrat and proprietor of the Russia
House (or Railroad House), and served in the Union army as an
artillery officer, surviving charges of cowardice at Murfreesboro.
After the end of the war he acquired two cotton plantations and a
store at Demopolis, Alabama. He was also appointed postmaster but
was forced out and, after a visit to Ohio, went to Helena,
Arkansas. In Arkansas he was the leading representative of the
corrupt railroad interests which were closely allied with the
Republican state machine. He was chairman of the Republican state
committee for several years, United States Senator for one term,
and secretary of the Republican National Committee in 1880, in
which capacity he managed Garfield's successful campaign for the
Presidency. His involvement in the "Star Route" post office frauds
led to his retirement from public life. The fortuitous association
of this adventurer with Oberlin cast a dark shadow on what was
otherwise an unselfish and benevolent program.
John M. Langston (A.B., 1849) and another
Oberlin colored man, William H. Day (A.B., 1847), worked for two
decades for Negro suffrage. In 1848-50 they had organized Ohio
Negroes into a Negro suffrage society. In 1853 they called a
national convention to meet at Rochester and in 1853-54 Day
published the Aliened American at Cleveland as the organ of the
campaign. Langston looked upon the enlistment of Negro troops in
which he was so active as a step toward Negro citizenship and
suffrage. In 1864 the National Equal Rights League was founded at
a convention of Negroes at Syracuse, a prominent part being played
by Frederick Douglass, Charles B. Ray, George B. Vashon (Oberlin's
first Negro graduate), and Langston. Langston was elected
president and re-elected in the following year. As president of
this organization he lectured throughout the North in behalf of
Negro suffrage--at the Cooper Union in New York City, at the
Chapel in Oberlin and in various towns further west. Apparently
most Oberlinites followed Langston rather than Gov. J. D. Cox
(A.B., 1851) who, in a much publicized letter to Oberlin friends
in the summer of 1865, declared his opposition to the general
extension of the suffrage to Negroes. Though the adoption of the
Fifteenth Amendment was chiefly the result of political
considerations, Langston's campaign helped to get the idealists'
wing of the Radical Republican group in line.
In Northern and national politics Oberlin
was no longer outcast. Oberlin had been abolitionist when that
meant treason: Oberlin had been "Free Soil" when that was heresy;
Oberlin had been Republican in the fifties when to be Republican
was to be dangerously radical. Oberlin was also Republican in the
sixties and seventies when only Republicans were patriotic and
"respectable." Oberlinites who had once defied and flouted the
national law were now making and administering it and labelling
traitors those who disobeyed or criticized the law thus made.
Jacob Dolson Cox became Governor of Ohio and Secretary of the
Interior. James Monroe was Consul in Rio and, after 1870, Member
of Congress, passing out the post offices to the friends of
Oberlin and other loyal supporters of the G.O.P. and hobnobbing
with his old friend, later President, James A. Garfield. Prof.
Henry E. Peck was appointed Minister to Haiti in 1865 and died of
yellow fever in 1867. Langston followed him in the same position
from 1877 to 1885. Isaac Stone (A.B., 1852) was consul at
Singapore from 1864 to 1869, and Almond A. Thompson (A.B., 1854)
held the consulship at Goderich, Canada, in the seventies. An
anonymous writer to the Lorain County News in 1863 reported
Oberlin people numerous at the capital: "I meet them at every turn
and hear of more than I see." Many held minor clerkships, but
William M. Ampt (A.B., 1863) was Chief Clerk of the
Quartermaster's Department, Edward G. Chambers (A.B., 1848) was
clerk to the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Newell C.
Brooks (A.B., 1858) was Chief Clerk of the Army Medical
Department, and Charles C. Darwin (A.B., 1868) became Assistant
Librarian of Congress in the seventies.
Other educational ideas of early Oberlin
were also being widely adopted. More colleges, especially in the
West where Oberlin's influence was strongest, had music
departments, and there was a slowly increasing number of
independent conservatories or conservatories associated with
colleges. Great strides were made in higher practical education,
agricultural and mechanical especially, as a result of the
establishment of the land grant colleges, but Oberlin had given up
its work in this field with the decline of manual labor. At the
same time there came a new era of experimentation with manual
labor for college students. In Berea and in some of the Negro
colleges the system used was directly influenced by the early
experiences of Oberlin, and Berea preserves today a practice based
on the old Oberlin plan of the thirties and forties, a practice
which seems to function most successfully in an agricultural and
self-sufficing society. The influence of Oberlin is less clearly
evident in the experiment with manual labor in the land grant
institutions such as Cornell. There was considerable expansion,
too, in the late nineteenth century in the teaching of domestic
science and in business training, but Oberlin had dropped these
also, though the Oberlin Business College was, for several years,
closely associated with the College proper. In the 70's there was
an hiatus in the emphasis on practical physical education at
Oberlin, but the later distinguished work of Dr. Frederick Eugene
Leonard and Dr. Delphine Hannah in that field must have been
inspired by some surviving vestiges of the early theories of
"physiological reform." In general the Oberlin curriculum had
subsided to the normal, classics and all, and the territory so
suddenly seized in the thirties and then evacuated was only slowly
reconquered in later years in the wake of many other institutions.
In general there was an increasing tendency for Oberlin to cease
to experiment and to adopt innovations only after Eastern
institutions had tested them and given to them their stamp of
approval. Oberlin did hold stubbornly to her ban on grades and
honors and yielded to the advance of Phi Beta Kappa belatedly at
the end of the century.
Oberlin was received also into the full
fellowship of the orthodox Congregational Church. Oberlin's
ultraisms had long since been given up. Dietetic reform and the
memory of Graham were a laughingstock even at Ladies' Hall.
Pacifism had been tramped down under the feet of blue-coated
Oberlin soldiers fighting a holy war for human rights.
Sanctification was seldom mentioned, and then apologetically.
Oberlin was too successful and too respectable now to be
heretical. The final love-feast came in 1871 when the first
regular National Council of the Congregational Churches of the
United States of America was held at Oberlin. That good
Congregationalist soldier and friend of the black man, 0liver Otis
Howard, was assistant moderator. Finney prayed and preached
repeatedly before the assembled ministers and pious laymen. The
cornerstone of a new Oberlin theological building--Council
Hall--was laid. It was a brave day for Oberlin--now
triumphant.
A great change in public sentiment toward
Oberlin had been going on since the later fifties and was
generally completed, in the North, when it became apparent that
now Oberlin was generally very much the same as many other
colleges: coeducational as most Western colleges were, admitting
Negroes as all did, and pious in a Victorian and quiet sort of
way. Oberlin's financial agents found gratifying evidences of this
change. In 1859 Henry Cowles came back from a tour through
Michigan reporting that: "Oberlin's students are no longer
despised among the Michigan churches. The day of their exclusion
from Christian confidence & fellowship seems to have passed
away." Four years later he reasserted this opinion at the end of a
similar mission. "In general," he wrote, "the unfavorable opinions
of Oberlin held by many in its early years, have largely passed
away. Intelligent people generally admit that the college has done
good:--usually they say, great good." The decision of the Society
for Promoting Collegiate and Theological Education at the West to
aid Oberlin, reached after long years of opposition, is further
evidence of this change. Henry Cowles' observations were mostly
made in the West but, in 1866, Charles H. Churchill reported a
similar change of opinion even in New England.
It was recognized by some, however, that
this more respectable reputation and status was gained at a
certain cost. "Oberlin now is not what Oberlin was," lamented the
ladies of the Maternal Association at a meeting in 1865. They
proudly recognized that this was partly the result of the spread
of Oberlin principles "all over the land," but some suspected a
"degeneracy from true Christian principles." Many of the old
leaders were much troubled by what they conceived of as a grave
declension of aggressive, single-minded, Christian devotion in the
Oberlin school and community. Henry Cowles, in resigning his
agency in 1863, gave expression to his troubled thoughts on this
question. He wrote: "The Oberlin that was, I loved, approved, and
was never weary of defending and commending. The Oberlin that is,
I am often afraid I do not fully understand. I am in perpetual
danger of presenting the Oberlin of old as the Oberlin that now
is, and am not unfrequently startled by some new development that
seems to indicate a wide departure from the old paths, ways and
spirit .... I am sometimes greatly distressed by these indications
of degeneracy." Finney had agonized over what he believed was the
decay of vital Christianity in Oberlin since the fifties. "The
fact is," he wrote in 1868, "our students, especially of late
years, I mean the mass of them, lack the power of the Holy Ghost."
Young ministers going out from Oberlin, he feared, were too much
like other ministers to attract any special attention. The cost in
terms of the reform spirit was not so often counted, but was an
even higher price.
The day of Oberlin as a cyclone center of
reform, as an "experimental college," a great disturbing, driving
force in American social, religious and educational life was over.
Oberlin had spent its initial dynamic energy. A little leaven had
leavened the whole mass, as Shipherd had dreamed, and now was
absorbed and overwhelmed in that mass. Oberlin had lost its
uniqueness, but had contributed thereby to the character of
American society.
"The history of Oberlin has been very
romantic. If it were written, it would prove that 'facts are
sometimes stranger than fiction.' I have lived to see more
accomplished than I ever expected. And now, when I walk the
streets & see our throngs of students and our fine buildings
going up, & recall the dangers overcome, and the obstacles
removed, in our early history, it reminds me of the saying 'A
little one shall chase a thousand,' and I am ready to put my hand
upon my mouth, before the Lord, and be still."
CHARLES G. FINNEY
at the Dedication of Council Hall,
August 1, 1874.