Delaware Township (part 1 of 6)

Introduction

The Ohio Wesleyan University is a child of faith. In 1841, Charles Elliott, J. M. Trimble and W. P. Strickland drove from Urbana to Delaware to look at the grounds and hotel building which the citizens of the latter place had offered to the Methodist Church for college purposes. When the three preachers returned to the seat of the Conference, only one of them had money enough with him to pay for the carriage in which they made the journey ; and Dr. Trimble made the first contribution to the college by meeting the expenses of that historic visit. Dr. Elliott's speech portraying the possibilities of a college for Ohio Methodism awakened great enthusiasm, and led the Conference to accept the gift of the citizens of Delaware and to undertake to launch a University upon faith. But in his wildest dreams no member of that Conference supposed that within fifty years the college would secure a larger endowment than Yale secured during the first one hundred and fifty years of her existence ; that during the life-time of the first teachers the college would send out 2,200 graduates and 15,000 students with their lives touched to nobler issues by the refining influence of Christian culture ; that in addition to enriching every department of life, the college would send forth thousands of teachers, and hundreds of ministers, and more missionaries than the Methodist Church had commissioned down to the day when the college was founded. The past at least is secure, as the solid achievements recounted in the following pages amply demonstrate.

The incipient University is still a child of faith. With the need of a new library and a large endowment to sustain it ; with the need of ten more professorships in the college, and the cry for special departments, and the demand for professional schools, - in a word, with the imperative need of millions of money, of inspiring teachers, and of divine power, - all, to develop the talents and enrich the lives and to transform the characters of those who come to us ; the toilers of to-day are looking on every side and upward for help and crying with the apostle of the nations : " Who is sufficient for these things?"

But the toilers of to-day as little dream of the possibilities of the next half century, as those who worked upon the foundations dreamed of the achievements of the first fifty years. With over twelve hundred students crowding our halls ; with representatives now at the college from eightyfour counties in Ohio and thirty-one States in the Union and thirteen foreign countries; with the splendid buildings erected and in process of erection ; with over a million dollars now invested in the University, and the Holy Spirit touching the hearts and turning the thoughts of men of means toward this golden opportunity ; with our older graduates wisely and bravely helping to shape the civilization of the twentieth century, and our recent representatives winning honors and taking high rank in the foremost professional schools in the land; with the college aiming to develop every faculty of every student to its highest power, and to devote the whole to the loftiest service of humanity ; and above all with the divine blessing resting upon us in daily work and affording gracious manifestations of God's presence in countless seasons of refreshing, and the Holy Spirit eager to guide us in the great tasks that yet remain unfinished - we boldly prophesy that if trustees and teachers and taught remain true to the lofty standard lifted up, live in communion with God and devote their lives to the service of mankind, the Ohio Wesleyan University will become in the twentieth century one ot the most potent factors of Methodism throughout the world.

The Ohio Wesleyan University

The Ohio Wesleyan University was founded in 1844. It owes its location, if not its establishment at that particular date, to the famous White Sulphur Spring in Delaware. This spring had early attracted the attention of tourists and seekers after health. In order to accommodate these, and to encourage further patronage, two enterprising citizens. Judge Thomas W. Powell and Columbus W. Kent, erected in the year 1833, on a spacious lot, embracing the spring, a fine hotel, which soon became known to tlie citizens as the Mansion House. The waters were salubrious, and the locality healthful ; and for some years the Mansion House was kept in successful operation. But the town of Delaware was not very widely known, and was not easily accessible ; and it was, perhaps, too early in the history of the State to hope for large returns from a business enterprise of this kind ; and, at last, in the Summer of 1841, Judge Powell, who had become the sole proprietor, concluded to abandon the attempt to establish a Western watering-place.

The spring property being thus brought into the market, it was suggested by the Rev. Adam Poe, the Methodist pastor in Delaware, that the citizens should purchase it, and offer it to the Ohio and the North Ohio Conferences, jointly, as a site for a Methodist college. Mr. Poe's suggestion met with

The circumstances of Ohio Methodism at that time made the suggestion especially opportune. As early as 182 1, the Ohio Conference, in connection with the Kentucky Conference, had established at Augusta, in Kentucky, the first Methodist institution in the world vested with collegiate functions. For many years it was the only Methodist college in the Church ; it had able scholars in its Faculty, and it educated many distinguished men. Among them, our own adopted sons, our honored Randolph S. Foster and William T. McClintick are illustrious instances. But Augusta College was unfortimately located. It was in an obscure village in Kentucky ; it was almost inaccessible ; the " plant," as we say in business enterprises, was insignificant; but, especially, it was on the wrong side of the river to suit the growing anti-slavery sentiment of the people in Ohio ; and it was at length manifest that the institution could never command their patronage or their contributions. After an experiment of twenty years, the college was a pronounced failure, and was eventually discontinued.

The failure of Augusta College to meet the wants of Ohio Methodism left this largest Protestant denomination in Ohio without any denominational school of a higher grade than an academy. Naturally, the thoughtful men of Methodism were solicitous in regard to the educational future of their Church in Ohio ; but, as yet, their thoughts and counsels had not crystallized into action.

As early as September, 1840, Dr. Edward Thomson, then Principal of Norwalk Seminary, in a long report to the North Ohio Conference, from the Committee on Education, said : "There is no Methodist college in Ohio. We blush to think that it contains no institution to which our youth can resort for collegiate instruction, without imbibing ideas at variance with the religion of their fathers, and the Church of their adoption. There is no State in the country in which the Methodist Church is more in need of a college than Ohio." This, so far as we know, was the first public, or at least published, expression of the need of a Methodist college in Ohio. Yet Dr. Thomson did not, in this paper, go so far as to recommend the immediate establishment of a college. But Dr. Elliott, in an editorial in the Western Christian Advocate^ December 3rd, 1841, in alluding to the Delaware movement, said : " For several years past there has been much conversation among the Methodists of Ohio, respecting the establishment of a college, or university, of the first order, in a central part of the State." Evidently the condition of things in Ohio Methodism was ripe for such a movement ; it only wanted a leader.

It was this peculiar conjunction of circumstances that led Dr. Poe to his thought. With him, to think was to act ; and in this matter the Church followed his lead. It is needless now to inquire whether the whole movement was not precipitate. No doubt, had the Conferences invited competition, they could have had much larger offers than the one from Delaware.

The property thus proposed for a college site comprised about ten acres of ground, lying in the suburbs of Delaware, towards the southeast quarter of the town, and separated from the rest of the town by the insignificant " Delaware Run." The town has since grown quite beyond the college campus. Of this ground, a part, on which the Mansion House stood, was held in fee simple ; and the remainder, including the spring, was held by a perpetual lease without rent, from the corporation of Delaware. The investment in the grounds and buildings was about $25,000 ; but the owner offered to convey his interests in the entire property for $10,000. This sum, it was thought, could be raised by a subscription among the citizens of the town and county ; and, accordingly, a delegation was appointed to wait on the Conferences, and ascertain whether they would accept the property, if conveyed to them as proposed.

The North Ohio Conference met August nth, 1841, at Wooster. To this body the delegation first applied. The Conference considered the matter favorably, and appointed a comniittee of five to confer with a like committee to be appointed by the Ohio Conference. August 25tli, the delegation appeared before the Ohio Conference, at Urbana. On the following day, Drs. C. Elliott, J. M. Trimble and W. P. Strickland were deputed by the Conference to visit Delaware and examine the premises. They carried back a favorable report, and many long remembered the Irish enthusiasm with which Dr. Elliott advocated the establishment of a Methodist college, and the acceptance of this property. The Conference was ready for the measure, and voted that it was expedient to establish a Methodist college in Ohio ; that the two Conferences (embracing the western two-thirds of the State) should unite in the enterprise; and that, if the Sulphur Spring property were conveyed to the Church, on the terms proposed, Delaware should be selected as the seat of the college. A committee of five was appointed to act with the committee from the Northern Conference.

The joint committee thus constituted met at Delaware, September ist, 1841. The committee consisted of Revs. John H. Power, Adam Poe, Edward Thomson, James Brewster and William S. Morrow, from the North Ohio Conference, and Revs. Jacob Young, James B, Finley, Charles Elliott, Edmund W. Sehon and Joseph M. Trimble, from the Ohio Conference. Of these distinguished men, to whom was committed this weighty responsibility, Dr. Joseph M. Trimble was for many years the last survivor, and died May 6th, 1891. The committee voted to accept the property if the citizens should perfect their offer, and if the title should be made satisfactory to the Conferences,

The way being thus prepared, a subscription was opened by the citizens and was signed by one hundred and seventytwo persons.* No subscription exceeded $500, and the aggregate amounted to but $9,000. That the movement might not fail, certain parties, trusting to future local subscriptions, obligated themselves for the deficit. But no further subscriptions were obtained, and some years afterward, $500 were raised by voluntary contributions among the ministers in the North Ohio Conference, to relieve the Rev. Adam Poe from the payment of a note given on this account. Such was the difficulty, at that time, of raising even this small sum for an enterprise, which, as the citizens said in the preamble to their subscription, " would greatly add to the value of property in the town and county, and be of great public utility and benefit."

But the town was small ; at the United States census the year before, 1840, the population was but 893 ; there was not much business, and there was little accumulated wealth in the community. The inducement they offered to secure the location of a college, destined to be the central institution of a great Church, was absurdly small. But the amount

A striking illustration of the advance in ;/«<(',f-paper enterprise since that day is shown in the fact that the Delaware papers of 1S41 made not the slightest mention, editorial or local," of this movement, the most important that has ever affected the interests of the town. The only reference to the matter during the whole progress of the negotiation is found in the following notice, given in the advertising columns of 77!^ Otintaiigy Gazette.

" METHODIST EPISCOPAL COLLEGE. A general meeting of the subscribers will be held at the Exchange Hotel, this Saturday evening, October 23rd, 1841. It is important that all be there."

raised in Delaware was the just measure of the ability of the place at that time. The University was welcomed to the town, and it has often since met with a generous response from the citizens to its appeals for aid. On the other hand, it has brought with it population, and wealth, and prosperity, to the town. President Thomson, in his inaugural, estimated that the University added from the first at least $20,000 annually to the business of the town. It is surely within bounds to say, that now, with its yearly income of $90,000 expended here, and with its 1,200 students who pay for their living and expenses, not to mention the many families that the University has attracted hithet, it adds at least a quarter of a million of dollars annually to the business movements of Delaware. Perhaps, after another fifty years, the education of Delaware will be so far advanced that it will not be good form for any citizen here to die without leaving something to the Ohio Wesleyan University.

The Conference Committee met again November 17th, 1 841, and received from Judge Powell a bond for the conveyance of the property donated by the citizens. The title was finally made in 1850 to the Board of Trustees. In addition to the ten acres thus donated by the citizens, the committee purchased from Judge Powell an adjacent property, on the south of the original grounds, of five acres more, at a cost of $5,500, and the furniture of the Mansion House for about $2,000 more. Dr. Trimble paid Judge Powell fifty dollars as an earnest to bind the contract for the additional purchase, the first money given to the University, the first money paid on its debt.

It was certainly full late in the history of Ohio Methodism for the establishment of a university. The other denominations in the State had already good foundations for their several denominational schools ; Catholic, Presbyterian, Congre- gational, Episcopalian, Baptist. The population of the State in 1840 was 1,500,000, and the Methodist Church in Ohio then numbered 150,000 members. In 1844, when the school was opened, there were within the proper territory of the two patronizing Conferences, 107,000 members. In the many Methodist families thus represented, besides others in the State who might be counted on as patrons, there were many thousand young men who needed an education ; and there was wealth enough in the Church on which to rely for at least an incipient college endowment.

Organization

Immediate steps were now taken looking to a formal organization. A committee of Jacob Young, Joseph M. Trimble and Adam Poe was appointed to apply to the Legislature for an act of incorporation. A special charter, under the old State Constitution, conferring University powers, was granted by the Legislature March 7th, 1842. This charter was evidently drafted by Dr. Trimble. It is marked by a lack of lawyer-like niceties and guarded details ; but it adequately secures the legal tenure of the property, and by its very indefiniteness grants the trustees the amplest possible academic powers. The corporate powers were vested in a board of twenty-one persons, from different parts of the State. These were William Neff, Samuel Williams, ex- Governor Allen Trimble, Lemuel Reynolds, Thomas Orr, William Bishop, William Armstrong, Rev. James B. Finley, Rev. Jacob Young, Rev. Edmund W. Sehon, Rev. Leonidas L. Hamline, Judge Patrick G. Goode, George B. Arnold, ex- Governor Mordecai Bartley, Frederick C. Welch, Wilder Joy, Henry Ebbert, John H. Harris, Rev. Adam Poe, Rev. William Burke, Rev. Leonard B. Gurley. These men were of prominence in State or in Church. They have long since

Of these trustees, though the charter did not so prescribe, fourteen were laymen and seven were ministers ; and this ratio of ministers and laymen has always been kept in filling vacancies. By the provisions of the charter, the corporators at first held their office for life. The right of perpetuation of the Board was vested in the two patronizing Conferences, each appointing to all existing vacancies, alternately. These Conferences were afterwards divided into four, each with the same right of appointment. This arrangement for alternate appointment continued until the year 1869, when, by a general law of the State, under the new Constitution, the President of the University was made ex offtcio a member of the Board, and the remaining twenty members were divided into four classes of five each, which were assigned, severally, to the four Conferences, and the tenure of office was reduced to five years, so that each Conference should annually elect one trustee for the period of five years. In 1871, the charter was further so modified as to give the Association of Alumni a representation in the Board, equal to that of each Annual Conference ; and in 1883 the West Virginia Conference was admitted as one of the patronizing bodies, with equal right of representation in the Board. The number of acting trustees is now thirty-one. The trusteeship has been held by one hundred and nineteen different persons. Of these, perhaps a score had scarcely more than a nominal relation to the Board, until they resigned or went out by expiration of office. About twenty-five have died during their term of office.

Academic Work

within five years ; but the committees from the Conferences did not wait even until the organization of the Board of Trustees. To provide for the safety of the buildings and to meet the public expectation, it was thought best to commence this work immediately ; and a sub-committee of Revs. Adam Poe and William S. Morrow was appointed to employ a teacher to open a preparatory school. This committee at once engaged Capt. James D. Cobb, a graduate of West Point, and an ex-army officer, as instructor in the new school for the year 1841-42. Capt. Cobb was about fifty years of age, and was assisted by his son. It was arranged that. he should have the free use of the Mansion House, but look to the receipts from tuition for his compensation. He had a mixed school of boys and girls. At the end of the school year, Capt. Cobb resigned his place and moved to the South for his health.

The Board of Trustees held their first meeting at Hamilton, where the Ohio Conference was in session, October ist, 1842. At this meeting, the Board elected the Rev. Edward Thomson, at that time the Principal of Norwalk Seminary, to the presidency of the University, with the understanding that the appointment was only nominal for the present, but a pledge to the Church and the public that a college faculty would be appointed, and the college opened at no distant day. The Board, however, determined that a Preparatory school should meanwhile be maintained, and appointed the Rev. Solomon Howard as Principal, with authority to employ his own assistants. He was given the use of the buildings and furniture, and was expected to get his support from the tuition fees of the pupils. Professor Howard began his school November ist, 1842, and continued it successfully for two years. Both sexes were still admitted, and the attendance was largely local. He had at first but four little boys as his pupils, but the number for the year was 130, During the second year of his school he was assisted by Mr, Flavel A. Dickinson, a recent graduate of Yale College, who had taught one year as Principal of the Delaware Academy, and who brought his school over en masse.

Meantime, in 1843, an appeal was made to the Church for an endowment fund, and for the sale of scholarships. It was hoped that, by these agencies, the institution could be safely guarded from financial failure, and a good attendance of students secured.

The Trustees felt great confidence in the final success of a school supported by the large numbers and the growing wealth of the Methodist Church in Ohio. Relying upon these, the Board, September 25th, 1844, resolved to organize a Faculty, and to open the institution with a college curriculum and college classes. Dr. Thomson, who had recently been elected editor of the Ladies'' Repository^ was re-appointed President, though again with the linderstanding that he should not immediately enter upon duty. Ks it was foreseen that the school would for a while be small, and the income limited, the Board established but four additional places in the Faculty, and made the following appointments : Rev. Herman M. Johnson, Professor of Ancient Languages ; Rev. Solomon Howard, Professor of Mathematics ; William G. Williams, Principal of the Preparatory Department ; Enoch G. Dial, Assistant in the Preparatory Department.

The salaries paid, or rather promised, to these men were gauged by the resources which the Board hoped to have at their command by the end of the year. The President's salary, when he should enter upon duty, was fixed at $800 ; the Professors were to be paid $600 each, and the teachers in the Preparatory Department $400 and $350 respectively ; but it was many years before even these meager salaries were paid as they became due.

Wednesday, November 13th, 1844, was the day appointed and advertised for the opening of the school. The weather was disagreeable ; the day was rainy and chill ; the surroimdings were not comfortable, and the prospect was not encouraging. Dr. Thomson was present but for a day or two, and did not enter upon duty for nearh' two years afterward, and Prof. Johnson was detained from duty imtil after the winter holidays. The other three teachers of the five who were appointed to positions in the Faculty reported for duty. They met in the basement of the Mansion House, once the dining-room, which had been temporarily fitted up as a chapel. This room might, if crowded, have held a hundred and fifty students, but only twenty-nine presented themselves for enrollment. This attendance was not as large as the teachers had hoped, or reasonably expected. But the students now were all males, of a maturer age, and more advanced standing, and most of them were from other parts of the State. From this small number the Faculty were able to organize all the college classes below senior, though the representation in the upper classes was very small. By the end of the year, there were only two juniors, two sophomores, fourteen freshmen, and there were ninety-two in the Preparatory and other courses. Such was the initial catalogue of a university, which, long before its jubilee year, enrolled more than forty times the first number of students, annually, and graduates a hundred at a time. It was the beginning, though humble, of a momentous movement, whose influences have been felt around the globe.

itself all thoughts and all resoiirces. The Conferences and the Board of Trustees found that before the University could gather many students or much money, the Church at large needed to be educated to the just conception of a college ; and to the special claims which the new college presented for their support. It may be doubted, indeed, whether the education of the Church, in these respects, is yet complete.

Delaware In 1 844

Delaware in 1844 was a little village of twelve hundred inhabitants, away from the lines of travel, of commerce, of intercourse. There were no railroads in the State, and but few good pikes. In bad weather it took the tri-weekly stage a whole day to plough its way hither from Columbus. There were no paved walks or graveled roadways in the town ; and in the Winter the Faculty and students extemporized walks of tan-bark, or else literally waded through the mud to their lodgings down town, to the post-office, or to church. There were no street lights, and on dark nights lanterns were necessary. There was no town-clock ; but the courthouse bell was rung at 6 o'clock in the morning and at 9 o'clock at night. There was no bookstore in town ; there was a single weekly newspaper. There were two small common school buildings ; the Delaware Academy built ten years before by a stock company, in the interests of a better education, had completely failed, and was standing empty. There was not a good church building in the place. But the several congregations, Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, were prosperous, and their pulpits were well filled. The experienced and venerable Rev. Henry Van Deman was the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church ; Dr. Tuttle, (afterwards President of Wabash College), was the pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church ; Rev. William L. Harris, (after- wards Professor, Missionary Secretary, Bishop), was the pastor of the Methodist Church ; and the able and catholic Dr. Eli H. Canfield was the rector of the Episcopal Church. These men and their successors would have honored any pulpit in the land. Under such impulses, all these congregations within a few years afterwards erected good and commodious church edifices.

The University grounds, while not a public common, were often the common pasture of the town, overrun by cows and hogs ; the surface was mostly as nature left it, rough, ungraded, brushy, and in the low ground, swampy. The sulphur spring was, of course, the chief attraction. To strangers, the taste and the odor of the water are not inviting ; but the water is wholesome and refreshing; and people soon forget its sulphurous character, and acquire a fondness for the water which they never lose. The condition of the spring in its natural state was that of an almost inaccessible marsh. Later, about 1830, the citizens filled in around the spring, and put in a modest stone basin, level with the surface. This was its condition when it came into the possession of the University. The present attractive appearance of the spring, its fine marble basin, and the pleasant approaches, are due to the public spirit, many years ago (1870), of Mr. Sidney Moore, President of the Delaware County National Bank.

The Mansion House, now renamed " Elliott Hall," was the only building available for Academic purposes, and was ill adapted to this end. It was of frame, lathed and cemented on the outside ; but in the interior finely finished in walnut and tastefully decorated with plaster mouldings. The drawing-room and parlors on the first floor, and some of the large rooms on the second floor, were converted into recitation rooms or the professors' studies. The chambers on the third floor were let to students, until, some years later, they also were needed for general purposes. In the basement, the old Mansion House dining-room was reconstructed into the college chapel ; and the large kitchen, with its huge fireplace and brick oven, became the lecture-room and laboratory for the Professor of Natural Science. On the south side of the main building was a large two-story annex, which was let as a boarding-house to a steward for the accommodation of two or three of the Faculty and a half-score of students who had rooms in the building. In the rear of the Mansion House, on the east side, were long, wide porches, level with the first and second floors, 12 and 25 feet from the ground. In 1848, the boarding-house was discontinued ; the cement outside of the main building was replaced with a good closejointed covering. The lofty and unsafe porches were torn down, and the annex removed to a location near the spring. Here it was let to students, and, happily, was soon burned down. With this exception, and the exception of the first Monnett Hall of the Ohio Wesleyan Female College, as further mentioned, no one of the college buildings has ever been destroyed by fire, or even seriously damaged.

Endowment

Education, the world over, is largely a gratuity, and especially so in the higher institutions of learning. In the older and better-endowed colleges, no student pays a tenth of the actual cost of his education. Grounds, buildings, cabinets, libraries, endowments, and all the educational appliances of science and art, are the gifts of the founders of the school to the students who attend it. A college, to be eminently successful in its work, should have all these before it opens its doors to the public. Fortunately, this is sometimes realized in the benefactions of wealthy men. But in former times, in this Western country, neither State nor denominational schools could afford to wait for the accumulation of all these before beginning their work ; and the result was, that most of our schools were started upon very meager foundations. Such was the case with the Ohio Wesleyan University. The Board of Trustees started with nothing, and were in debt. To secure a present support and a future growth, was, of course, a matter of immediate and vital concern.

The only resources of the institution were the contributions of its friends ; and these, at first, came slowly and sparingly; and it was not until 1849 that the indebtedness of $7,000 for the purchase-money was all paid. We have seen that the Conferences early devised plans for the endowment of the University. In 1843, ^^ Ohio Conference appointed Revs. Frederick Merrick and Uriah Heath, agents to raise funds from donations to the University, or by the sale of scholarships entitling the bearer to tuition, at the rate of $100 for five years. The following year, the North Ohio Conference appointed similar agents to work within its bounds. These agents, in the course of two years, obtained subscriptions and notes for scholarships to the amount of about $30,000, and some donations of land worth perhaps $15,000 more. The interest on these notes, and some tuition fees, constituted the sole revenue of the institution for the support of the Faculty. Tuition for the regular Academic studies was early fixed at $30 a year; and it has never been changed, though, since the era of cheap scholarships, no student has paid tuition. Art studies alone are not covered by the scholarships. As the sale of scholarships progressed, the tuition gradually fell to nothing. Perhaps two or three hundred of these higher-priced scholarships were sold, mostly " on time ;" hut, unfortunately, many of them were never paid for, though the tuition had been promptly claimed and enjoyed. The Faculty was then wholly dependent on the income from the endowment notes. But, though agents were continued in the field for the sale of scholarships, the aggregate did not perceptibly increase. At the end of six years, the total net assets were estimated at only $70,000, and, of this, the endowment money and subscriptions reached only $54,000. The institution was still on the borders of inanition. It was evident, that, unless a more effective policy were adopted, the school was destined to failure, or, at best, to a feeble existence.

At length, in the Summer of 1849, the Faculty, upon the suggestion of Professor Johnson, devised and proposed to the Board of Trustees a system of scholarships at a much cheaper rate than those at first sold. It was hoped that these would be popular, and be sold to an extent sufficient to give the institution both money and students for, at least, all present necessities. The trustees held a special session to consider the subject, September 24, 1849,' at Dayton, where the Ohio Conference was in session. The measure was felt to be perilous ; a failure would jeopard all ; and they deliberated a long time before they came to any conclusion. Finally, with the approval of the Conference, the Board adopted the plan, and ordered the sale of scholarships, entitling the holder to tuition, at the following rates : (i) for three years' tuition, $15; (2) for four years' tuition, $20; (3) for six years' tuition, $25 ; (4) for eight years' tuition, $30. Unlike the old series of scholarships, the new ones were to be paid for in full before they were used.

The system was needlessly complex ; the second and fourth rates alone would have been better than the four ; and the price could have been one-half higher without lessening their salableness. But the success which crowned the effort quieted all criticisms. Three agents were appointed by each Conference to put the new scholarships upon the market. In two years, they had sold nearly three thousand, and paid into the treasury of the university, besides the expense of the agency and the support of the Faculty meanwhile, a sum sufficient to raise the nominal endowment, in 1854, to a round $100,000.

The exact number of scholarships sold was 3,740, calling for a little more than 25,000 years of tuition. It was estimated that an average annual attendance of 500 students would exhaust this large aggregate in fifty years. As the attendance has not averaged this figure, the period for the final retirement of the scholarships may be somewhat prolonged. Subsequently, the agents, under the authorit}^ of the Board, issued a few hundred additional scholarships to the full value of money or lands ostensibly given to the University, but for which the institution paid a full equivalent. But this policy has now been stopped; and the Board has ordered that no more scholarships be sold. After the issue of ihe cheap scholarships, the Board, to obviate complaints by the purchasers of the old higher-priced scholarships, with unbusiness-like facility extended the time of the old scholarships at a ratio equal to the new. This added many hundred years of tuition to the obligations of the University. In 1890, there were still due, on all these series of scholarships, fourteen thousand years of tuition. At the present average attendance of students, this large obligation may be cancelled in twenty years.

Part of this amount was still in unproductive land, and part in uncollected scholarship notes. But the income for the following year, 1855, was estimated to be $8,500, which the Committee of Ways and Means, in their report to the Board, say " will be amply sufficient to meet and defray all current expenses." In view of this hopeful condition of the finances, the salaries of the Faculty were now increased as follows : the President was paid $1,400; the professors, $1,000 each ; the tutors, $500 each.* The value of the real estate, and other property of the University, had also largely increased ; and may be estimated at another $100,000. Thus, the end of the first decennium saw the institution in a healthful financial condition, and with good prospects for the future.

But the most gratifying result of the new scholarship system was the increase in the enrollment of students. In 1850, before the effort began, the number of students was 257; in 1851, after the agents had been a year at work, the number was 506, nearly double the attendance of the previous year. This was not an unexpected result; indeed, one of the dangers that had been predicted was that of overwhelming numbers. But the friends of the measure relied on the general laws of average in such cases, and the Faculty anticipated just about the number that came. They could readily enough instruct this number, or even more.

This sudden influx of students, brought about by the offer of cheap scholarships, revealed what was, and is, a constant condition of things throughout the land ; it revealed the hunger of the people for just such opportunities as the University gladly put within their reach. There are, all the time, five thousand, perhaps ten thousand, young people, in our Methodist families in Ohio, who need only a wise suggestion from their pastors or from other friends, to turn their

In 1857, the salaries were again raised by an addition of $200 each, all round. During the war, the salaries were reduced to their former figure ; but, after the return of business prosperity, they were restored to the rate paid in 1857 ; and, later, again, and again, increased. For twenty years past, the President has been paid §3,000 a year, and a house free of rent, and the professors have been paid, on an average, $1,600 a year. But there is scarcely a member of the Faculty who has not been offered larger salaries elsewhere.

The greatest inconvenience from this sudden increase in the students was due to the want of a chapel large enough to hold them. This was a want that had already been seriously felt. As early as 1847, an effort was made to raise the means for the erection of a chapel, by the publication of a volume of sermons "by the Bishops, and the Senior Preachers of the Ohio and North Ohio Conferences." The volume was published, and about a thousand copies were sold. The effort was, of course, a failure. As the sum of $1,000 would not have laid even the foundation of a building, the Board the next year devoted the amount to the repairs already mentioned of the Mansion House ; and the hope of a building was for the present abandoned.

Meanwhile, after the great increase in the attendance, the old basement chapel was far-away outgrown, and the religious services of the University were temporarily transferred to the basement of William Street Methodist Church. Even this was too straitened for the army of collegians that gathered for morning prayers. One day, President Thomson read at these services, for the morning lesson, the first chapter of Haggai : " Is the time not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built?" As he read, his heart was touched, and a few minutes after, he came, deeply moved, to Professor Merrick, with a written proposition to sell his modest home, in Cincinnati, worth a thousand dollars, and give it all to aid in erecting a suitable chapel for the University. It was a word that burned like fire, a trumpet call to duty, to which the Church was quick to respond.

Professor Merrick, himself, now kindled to enthusiasm, went out with his old skill as an agent and in a few weeks brought sixteen thousand dollars back for the new chapel.

On Saturday, July 26, 1851, during Commencement week, the corner-stone was laid of a building large enough for a chapel, and a number of recitation-rooms. The building, which cost about $20,000, was dedicated the following year. The structure was three stories in height, and measured eighty-five feet by fifty-five. The main audience room, twenty-three feet high, covered the entire upper floor. The capacity of this room was about six hundred sittings, which was then thought the utmost probable need of the institution for long years to come. The building was afterwards named Thomson Chapel, in honor of the first President.

The Conference agencies for the endowment and building fund were continued for some years ; and it will be seen by reference to the table of statistics further on that the endowment slowly increased for a number of years. At length, in 1866, the centennial year of American Methodism, a general advance was made throughout the connection. Educational interests were everywhere the foremost ; and, in Ohio, the result of the effort was a large addition to the funds of the University. A portion was devoted to building and general improvement ; and the endowment was increased to considerably more than $200,000. Unfortunately, the resources for building and grounds did not prove as ample as was hoped; and, after the "hard times" of 1873 set in, it was deemed necessary to draw upon the endowment fund for these purposes. About $40,000 were thus consumed. The growth of this fund has, nevertheless, been so constant, that the heavy draft on it was soon more than made good.

Of the amounts given by individuals to the University, it is proper to name a few. Mr. Jedediah Allen early gave a tract of ground in Marion County, which he estimated at $15,000 ; it was finally sold in 1856 for nearly $18,000. Thomas Parrott, Esq., of Dayton, one of the trustees, be- queathed in 1864, $18,000, which was devoted to the endowment of the chair of Mathematics, John R. Wright, Esq., of Cincinnati, another trustee, and an alumnus, paid in 1866, $25,000, and obtained subscriptions from others to the amount of $5,000 more, for the endowment of the chair of Greek Language and Literature. Phineas P. Mast, Esq., also a trustee and alumnus, has paid in $10,000, besides other benefactions. Mrs. Eliza Chrisman, now of Topeka, Kan., paid $10,000, and has subscribed an additional $10,000 to the chair of Biblical Literature. Judge D. J. Corey, of Findlay, O., paid $10,000. Mrs. Rebecca Brown, of Bellefontaine, O., gave a tract of land adjacent to that town, which yielded $6,000, toward the endowment of the chair of Latin. Mr. John B. Kessler, of Troy, O., left a bequest (1868) which yielded about $8,000. Mr. William L. Ripley, of Columbus, O., bequeathed (1880) real estate to the University, which yielded $10,000. Within the last decade, the contributions to the endowment fund of the University have been more frequent, and some of them on a generous scale. Of these donations, in cash or realty, may be mentioned the following, a large part of which, however, are subject to life annuities to the donors or some member of their families. The list is given here without reference to the dates of the donations or bequests. Rev. Dr. Joseph M. Trimble, for twenty years President of the Board of Trustees, $46,000 ; Rev. Dr. Gaylord H. Hartupee, an alumnus and trustee of the University, $30,000 ; another honored alumnus, long one of our Faculty, $27,000 in cash, besides other large provisions ; Amasa Bishop, $23,000 ; James S. Brittain, $30,000 ; Clinton J. and Sarah J. Howard, $22,000; James S. Mitchell, $16,000; Henry Amrine, $g,ooo; Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Leonard B. Gurley, $13,000 ; Rev. Stephen C. Frampton, $8,000 ; Rev. Dr. David Rutledge, one of the agents of the University, $6,000 ; and the Association of

A number of smaller gifts, of the value severally of $5,000 or less, but aggregating perhaps $35,000, are equally worthy of special mention, but must be grouped in this general statement. But besides these amounts, already paid in, towards the endowment of the University, the Board has been formally notified of two subscriptions, of $30,000 each, soon to be paid, for the establishment of new professorships, by two of the trustees, Morris Sharp, Esq., of Washington C. H., O., and Zenas L. White, Esq., of Columbus, O. We know of other friends who are devising even more liberal things for the University, and who purpose to become their own executors, but are not yet quite ready to carry out their intentions ; and still others who have executed their wills with generous bequests to the future wants of the University.

In addition to these gifts for the permanent endowment of the institution, many noble gifts have come into the treasury for various other specific objects. President Merrick, some years before his death, transferred to the University his whole estate, valued at $18,000, for the foundation of an annual lectureship on Practical Religion. David S. Gray, Esq., of Columbus, the president of the Board of Trustees, gave $27,000 to the completion of Gray Chapel in the University Hall. This magnificent structure, whose total cost reaches nearly $200,000, was paid for by the gifts of many others, equally generous, though from smaller means. And within the present year, Charles E. Slocum, M. D., of Defiance, Ohio, now one of the Trustees of the University, has generously provided for the erection of a library building on the University campus that will cost from $50,000 to $60,000. His gift is one of the largest single gifts ever received by the University ; and the Slocum Library building

From the foregoing, it appears that no chair in the University, with the single exception of the professorship of Greek Language and Literature, has yet had a living endowment. Five or six other chairs have received the names of generous donors, but not one of these foundations is self-supporting, and several of them have less than half of a minimum endowment, and the salaries have to be paid from the miscellaneous endowments of the University. Clearly, the policy of the Board hereafter should be to give no name to any professorship, in recognition of a sum less than a sufficient support of the incumbent. The minimum for the endowment of a chair is now thirty thousand dollars, and several new professorships have been promised at this rate. But the minimum ought to be raised to fifty thousand dollars; and even this amount will, in the near future, prove too little to pay the salary of competent men. Already many colleges, and even common schools, pay much larger salaries to experts and specialists ; many of the pulpits and offices in the Church pay from three to five thousand dollars ; and the Ohio Wesleyan University has already felt the draft upon its Faculty from both these quarters.

As we have seen, the University has no income from tuition fees. Most of the large colleges in the East charge from $ioo to $150 a year for tuition, and a large part of their income arises from this source. For example, in 1891-92, Harvard University received from the students in the College of Arts, with an enrollment but little larger than ours, over $300,000 in tuition fees. The Ohio Wesleyan aims to make education as nearly free as possible. With no revenue from the fees of students, the institution relies on the endowment for the support of the Faculty. Yet from the meagerness of its income, the University has never had as large a force of teachers as it needs, and has never paid its teachers as large salaries as they could get in other schools or in other professions.

The amount of the endowment at the successive periods in our history is shown by the statistical table at the end of this history. The growth of the fund has been slow, but secure, and it now reaches the sum of five hundred thousand dollars, of which, however, two hundred thousand dollars is still subject to annuity, and yields but little to the present maintenance of the school. The endowment fund has been guarded by the trustees with scrupulous care, and but little that has come into their control has ever been lost to the institution. One very liberal provision in behalf of the University, which had been secured to the institution by will, carefully executed many years before the death of the testator, and which would have been worth probably $10,000 a year, was finally lost to the cause for which he had long toiled, by his revocation of the will in extreme old age if not dotage, and at the point of death.

By the contributions from the Conferences and the Church Board of Education, the University has an annual sum of about four thousand dollars for the help of worthy students. The amount given to each is small, and usually in the form of a loan. The late John Taylor, of Zanesville, Ohio, left to the University for this cause a property worth $10,000, which will be realized, however, only at a future day. The late William Glenn, of Cincinnati, left a bequest to the University which yields $350 a year to the same object. The institution greatly wants some immediate provision of generous amount

Library

For the first ten years, the institution had nothing that was worthy of the name of library. A few hundred books of a very miscellaneous character, old and refuse, mostly second-hand school books, had been slowly gathered by the agents. But they were rarely referred to and never read. In 1853, Mr. William Sturges, of Putnam, Ohio, offered the University a liberal subscription for a library, on condition that within the year a further subscription of $15,000 should be secured for a suitable library building. Professor Merrick undertook the agency for this, as he had for the chapel, and raised the amount within a few weeks. The building was finished and dedicated in 1856. Meanwhile, President Thomson visited Europe and purchased a valuable library of about three thousand volumes with the money - $6,600 - paid by Mr. Sturges. But this foundation by Mr. Sturges, valuable as it was at that early date, now constitutes but a small part of the present library of the University. Two large alcoves in the library are the contributions respectively of Dr. Joseph M. Trimble and William A. Ingham, Esq., members of the Board of Trustees. Since Dr. Trimble's death, his widow has placed in his alcove about five hundred volumes from his private library. The widow of the late Rev. Dr. Charles Elliott has given the bulk of his private library, rich in patristic and controversial literature, to the University. The widow of Dr. James F. Chalfant, of the Cincinnati Conference, lias given his select library to furnish an alcove bearing his name. The late Dr. Benjamin St.

James Fry, editor of the Central Christian Advocate; St. Louis, Mo., left his unique library of Methodist Church history to the University. The late Bishop Isaac W. Wiley bequeathed to the University his valuable library, which now fills an alcove bearing the inscription, " The William E. Wiley Memorial Library," in memory of his son who died in September, 1883, while a member of the senior class of the University. The friends of the late Rev. John N. Irvin, B. D., an honored and scholarly alumnus of the class of 1870, have purchased his valuable library for the University. It stands in an alcove bearing his name. The late John O. McDowell, M. D., an alumnus and trustee of the University, bequeathed his select medical library of over 303 volumes as a foundation for " The McDowell Medical Library." This has been supplemented by a donation from Mrs. Philip Roettinger, of Cincinnati, of about two hundred volumes from the medical library of her father, the late A. C. Mc- Chesney, M. D., of Cincinnati. These bequests of professional, theological and medical literature are especially notable as gifts which point to the coming post-graduate departments of the University.

John W. King, Esq., an alumnus of the University and long a valuable trustee, has undertaken to secure for his Alma Mater complete sets of all the great quarterly reviews and monthly magazines of the English world; and he has already placed about four hundred volumes of this choice literature in " The King Periodical Alcove." The Rev. Dr. David H. Moore, editor of the Western Christian Advocate^ has furnished for the University library a complete set in thirty-nine large volumes, of Hubert H. Bancroft's History of the Pacific States, and of Mexico.

riches of the library ; and other persons have made special additions of books in English Literature, Historical Research, Criticism and Art, for " seminary work " in the several departments. The library has received for many years copies of all the publications of the United States, and of the State of Ohio. Some of these, such as the " History of the War of the Rebellion," of which perhaps sixty volumes have been issued, and as the Ohio Geological Reports and the State " Roster of Ohio Soldiers" in ten volumes, are unequalled in the publications of any other government. The publications of the Smithsonian Institution are among the most valuable additions made annually to the library.

Since the purchases made from the Sturges gift, the University has not been in circumstances to expend much money for books. There is a small sum of $30 a year for books for the Biblical Department, from a bequest of Mrs. Dr. Mann, and a varying sum of possibly $70 a year, arising from special examination fees, which is appropriated to the library. Further, the Board, by trenching upon other equally urgent necessities, has been enabled to appropriate a few hundred dollars annually for periodicals and other requirements of the reading-room. We are thus able to keep the tables well supplied with the current literature, and to make the use of all these free to the students. The library and the reading-room are open for about eight hours daily. Aside from these insignificant amounts, the library has been dependent on the miscellaneous contributions of its friends. Still, as we have seen, there has been a continued, though slow, and uncertain, growth ; and the library now, including a good collection of books at Monnett Hall, perhaps two thousand in number, catalogues about seventeen thousand volumes. Other valuable additions are definitely promised. John Williams White, Ph. D., Professor of Greek in Harvard

University, one of our honored alumni, of the class of 1868, has arranged to put on our shelves, from time to time, within the near future, a complete working library in the department of classic learning ; and the Rev. Dr. Michael J. Cramer, of East Orange, N. J., also an honored alumnus, of the class of i860, has notified the Board of his purpose to leave the University his valuable professional library of five thousand volumes. Other friends have intimated their thought of similar testamentary arrangements. We hope it may be many years before these bequests become available ; but we also hope that other immediate provisions may be made for our needs in this direction. Perhaps the greatest special need of the University now, is of a liberal endowment, with a good annual income for the regular enlargement of the library, as the current wants of the various departments suggest. To furnish the coming Slocum Library building with a library to start with, adequate to the immediate wants of the institution, or equal to the libraries of the great schools of the country, would swallow up our entire income for years to come. Any amount of money could easily and wisely be expended for books ; but we ought to have, at once, a permanent fund of at least thirty thousand dollars whose annual income should be devoted to this one purpose. A library so endowed and wisely used would be as efficient for good as any professorship in the University. Has the University any friend who will put such a boon as this within the reach of the Faculty and of our thousand collegians ?

The Ohio Methodist Historical Society, with its headquarters at the Ohio Wesleyan University, was organized in 1859. The movers in this organization were a number of the older preachers and laymen of Ohio who desired that the early denominational history of the State and of the Church at large should be recorded and preserved in some central and safe place. The society had anniversaries during Commencement week for a number of years ; and some of the appointed addresses were exceedingly interesting and valuable. The Faculty assigned an alcove in the library for the collections and archives of the society. Some contributions to this were made, especially by the late Samuel Williams, one of the incorporators of the University, and an early resident in Ohio, who left it his valuable library of Methodist historical books and periodicals.

In connection with Mr. Ingham's contributions to the library, should be named the liberal provision made by him, in 1870, for a course of ten lectures on the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion. In pursuance of his wish, the Faculty selected some of the ablest thinkers they could find to deliver such a course before the University. The lectures were heard with profoimd interest and satisfaction by very large audiences ; and, after the completion of the course, were gathered and published in 1872, in a volume, entitled, " The Ingham Lectures," which will long remain among the ablest discussions known to the Church.

There have been other courses of lectures delivered before the University, and heard with equal interest and profit. In 1884, ex-President Merrick transferred his entire estate to the trustees as an endowment of an annual lectureship on Experimental and Practical Religion. This foundation will amount to $18,000, but was subject to an annuity during his life. But as the donor desired that the lectures should begin before his death, he arranged with the Faculty to invite, from year to year, distinguished lecturers for this appoint-

In 1888, by Dr. Daniel Curry, five lectures on " Christian Education ; " in 1889, by ex-President James McCosh, of Princeton College, on " Tests of the Various Kinds of Truth ; ' ' in 1890, by Bishop Randolph S. Foster, on "The Philosophy of Christian Experience ; " in 1891, by Dr. James Stalker, of Glasgow, Scotland, on " The Preacher and his Models ; " in 1894, by Dr. John W. Butler, of Mexico, eight lectures with the title, " Sketches of Mexico." These several courses have all been published in volumes, entitled, " The Merrick Lectures." The volumes thus far published, and the lectures yet to be delivered and published, will long perpetuate the name and influence of the founder.

Still other courses of lectures, or important single lectures, have been delivered, by appointment, before the University, or before select classes. Among these may be mentioned especially, a course of six lectures in 1890, by Dr. John Bascom, ex-President of Wisconsin State University, on "Socialism;" a course of six lectures, in 1891, by Dr. John T. Gracey, of our missions in India, on " Comparative Religions," and a course of five lectures, in 1893, by Rev. Richard T. Stevenson, Ph. D., of the class of 1873, ^^w our Professor of History and English Literature, on " The English Race in the Eighteenth Century."

In January, 1859, the University purchased from Dr. William Prescott, of Concord, N. H., his cabinet of natural history, valued at $10,000. This cabinet was large, and, in some of the departments, very complete. But there was no place on the premises large enough for displaying its riches, except the chapel. This room, which already seemed small for the wants of the institution, the trustees, at a special session, at once appropriated to the uses of the cabinet. It was fitted up for this purpose, and so remained until 1874. Meanwhile the chapel services were held, at first in the lecture-room of the William Street Methodist Church, but afterward, by dividing the students into two sections, in one of the large lecture-rooms of the University.

In 1869, the Board began the erection of a large stone building on the high ground near the spring. This was intended for recitation rooms and for chapel. A failure of the building fund delayed this building till 1873. Its cost was about $40,000, a large portion of which was finally taken from the endowment fund. It bears the name of President Merrick - " Merrick Hall." Upon its completion, it was thought that the room on the third floor designed for the chapel afforded a more convenient place for cabinets and museum, and they were finally arranged there ; and Thomson Chapel was reconsecrated to the religious services of the University.

Large additions have been made to the cabinets. In 1867, R. P. Mann, M. D., of Milford Center, Ohio, at large expense of his own time and money, made for the University a collection of many thousand fossils and rocks, illustrative of the geological ages, especially the Silurian and Devonian in Ohio. These are arranged in a separate cabinet, adjacent to the Prescott cabinet. Aboiit the same time, the Rev. Herman H. Herzer contributed a large number of rare and valuable specimens of fi^ssils found by himself in the septaria of this locality and elsewhere. Some of these fossils are unique, and of great scientific interest to paleontologists.

In 1885, Drs. Merrick and Trimble, of the Board of Trustees, contributed a very complete series of crystalline minerals, and several thousand specimens of the more common mineral forms.

The Rev. William Kepler, Ph. D., of the class of 1868, one of the most indefatigable paleontologists in the State, has contributed a number of typical fossil fish collected by himself.

The Rev. Charles H. Warren, of the Ohio Conference, an enthusiastic naturalist, contributed a very complete suite of the native grasses of Ohio, and specimens of all the native woods of our forests.

Mr. Charles E. Copeland, of the class of 1892, missionary at Singapore, in the Straits Settlements, sent to the museum in 1892, four large cases, containing several thousand specimens, representing the marine life of that wonderful district.

Rev. Dr. Thomas J. Scott, another of our graduates, of the class of i860, of the India Mission, has sent to the University a complete pantheon of the idols of Hindustan. They are in marble, gilt, about sixty in number, and constitute, perhaps, the finest collection in the United States. The University has many other symbols from heathen lands.

A very good beginning of an archaeological museum has been made. In 1888, the Rev. Joseph Weber, the evangelist, an undergraduate of the University, who spent some time in the Holy Land, contributed a large number of objects of rare value, containing several hundred mounted birds and animals of Palestine, specimens of the rocks and minerals, and many curiosities representing the daily life of the people of that interesting land. It is Mr. Weber's in- tention to continue his contributions until the museum of his Alma Mater shall contain complete illustrations of the history, customs, natural products, geology, and mineralogy, of the Bible Lands.

In 1891, Mr. William R. Walker, of Columbus, O., gave the University a collection of many hundred of the veiy choicest relics of the Mound Builders. It is the purpose of the donor to bring together a collection that will give a full and complete view of the life and customs of this strange people, and will prove of educational value in ethnological studies.

We have seen that the old chapel was restored in 1874 to its former use. The Lecture Association of the students contributed $800 toward the furnishing of the chapel ; and, by the efforts of the Faculty and the senior class, a fine organ was placed in the chapel at an expense of over $1,600. This audience room has capacity for about six hundred sittings ; laut had even then grown too small for all occasions, except prayers. The Sabbath lectures were delivered here for a while; but soon had to be transferred to the City Opera House, which, also, soon could not accommodate the congregations that attended those services. For other public occasions, Thomson Chapel was too small from the beginning. The Commencement exercises were held here a few times in the first years after it was built, but it was always uncomfortably crowded ; and thereafter, for many years, these exercises were held in one of the groves on the college campus. Excursion trains were sometimes run from the neighboring cities; and the attendance was often estimated as high as five thousand. After a while, as early as 1885, the chapel became so straitened for daily exercises that it was necessary to excuse a number of the students from attendance. But at last even this undesirable measure was ineffectual, and for some years - 1889-1891, relief was sought by transferring the daily chapel services to the auditorium of St. Paul's Church in South Delaware, in the immediate neighborhood of the University.

This arrangement was found inconvenient and expensive ; and in September, 1891, occupation of Thomson Chapel was resumed, but with the now definite prospect of final and adequate relief in the immediate future. Already the Board of Trustees, at the session in June, 1890, had ordered the immediate erection of a University Hall that should furnish first and foremost the much-needed college chapel ; and also more and better accommodations for the academic work of the institution. Mr. McClintick's report to the Board says : "The time has arrived when a commanding structure, somewhat in consonance with the reputation which the University has established for itself, should be erected to meet the wants that are already very pressing, and that will be more so in the immediate future."

Well-considered plans were adopted, and the contracts let for a building which ranks among the largest and most complete college edifices in the country. The corner-stone was laid June 18, 1891, and it took two years to complete the building. It is a massive stone structure, 160 feet long, 150 feet deep, and four stories high. The entire pile bears the name of University Hall. It includes the chapel, now called Gray Chapel, in commemoration of the noble life of the Rev. David Gray, a venerable pioneer preacher in Ohio, the father of David S. Gray, Esq., of Columbus, O., President of the Board of Trustees, who gave $27,000 toward the building fund, and through whose generosity and leadership the erection of the building was so promptly assured. This beautiful auditorium seats 2,000 persons, and can be enlarged by the opening of the adjacent lecture-room for the accommodation of 400 persons more. The chapel is octagonal in form, with the floor rising from the rostrum with a gentle slope. The seats are arranged in seven sectors, with aisles radiating from the pulpit as a center. A spacious gallery, with seats placed in ascending tiers, extends two-thirds of the circumference of the room. The dome in the center of the chapel rises to the height of 56 feet from the floor. It is lit from above by day, with beautiful opalescent glass, giving a softened tint to the inflooding light, and, by night, from dome, gallery and walls, with hundreds of incandescent electric lamps. The splendid organ was built by the Roosevelts, and cost $15,000. The beautiful case of the organ is only surpassed by its marvelous perfection as a musical instrument. The University Hall contains, besides the chapel, a commodious and well-furnished hall for the Young Men's Christian Association, capable of seating 500 persons; several lecture rooms, ten recitation rooms, six society halls, the administrative offices, professors' studies, ladies' parlors, wide corridors, and other needed conveniences.

In anticipation of the new building, in 1889, a year before the action of the Board ordering its erection, the Rev. John M. Barker, Ph. D., of the class of 1874, was appointed Financial Secretary of the University, with this interest as his special work. The subscriptions secured by him were generous and encouraging ; but the crisis in the business affairs of the country came, unfortunately, just in the midst of his efforts. Nevertheless the building went on, and money was given for the larger part of the expenditure, and the rest was borrowed from bank. When the building stood finished,

Such was the situation at Commencement week, June, 1893. '^h^ completion of the building was anticipated with rejoicing, but also, in view of the heavy debt, with grave anxiety. On Tuesday afternoon, June 20th, Governor William McKinley delivered, in Gray Chapel, before a magniBcent audience, an eloquent and masterly memorial address, on President Rutherford B. Hayes, late one of the University Trustees ; and on Wednesday morning, June 21st, the Hon. John Sherman, the distinguished senior Senator from Ohio, delivered the formal University address before a great and gratified audience. Everybody was delighted ; ever)body was full of enthusiasm. The chapel more than met the most sanguine expectations ; and the anxiety about the debt began to abate. At two o'clock in the afternoon, the hour appointed for the dedication of the University Hall and of Gray Chapel, an immense audience was present. The dedicatory sermon was preached by Bishop Henry W. Warien, of Denver, Colorado; and then, under the skilful management of Ex-President Charles H. Payne, amid unbounded enthusiasm, the whole amount due on the building was raised, and University Hall and Gray Chapel stood free from debt. The formal and impressive service of dedication was conducted by Bishop John M. Walden, of Cincinnati, one of our honored trustees.

On Thursday, the Commencement exercises of the University were held in the same place. A great and longdesired work was at last accomplished, and the expressions of satisfaction, and the congratulations of all present, trustees, faculty, students, alumni, friends, were most hearty and unbounded.

The completion of the University Hall gives the institution accommodations for two thousand students. We can gather into one central and convenient room all the students, for daily devotions, and our greatly larger audiences for the Sabbath lectures, for the annual revival services, and for Commencement exercises. And we have now lecture halls and recitation rooms, sufficient in number and in size, to answer all our present needs. These enlarged facilities for academic and religious work will, with the blessing of God, be enjoyed, and the results of them realized for centuries to come.

On the site of the University Hall, the foremost and finest location on the campus, originally stood the " ^Mansion House," later the " Elliott Hall," which was the first and for some years the only building on the grounds. It served an excellent purpose where it first stood for nearly half a century; but in 1891, it was removed to a new site, south and east on the campus, and refitted for a new service. The physical laboratory rooms occupy the first floor, and the commercial department rooms the third floor. Professor Williams retains the rooms on the second floor, which he has occupied since the opening of the school, now fifty years ago.

Grounds

The original college campus included the ten acres donated by the citizens, and the five acres bought by the Conference committees. Additional purchases of ground were subsequently made, from time to time, at an expense of a little over $20,000, until now the campus contains about twenty-five acres lying in one continuous tract, besides the ten acres to be further described, the premises of the ]Monnett Hall of the University. In addition to these tracts, the University has recently bought, at an expense of a little more than $10,000, a most eligible lot of about five acres, sometimes called from the former owner, " The Barnes Property; " and we now, by the gift of President Merrick, have come into the possession of Oak Grove Park, three acres of forest and dell.

On the added lot of five acres, purchased from Judge Powell, was a comfortable cottage near the street, the home of Mr. Powell. This was subsequently occupied by the President of the college, or by one of the professors, until 1856, when it was sold and moved off the campus. In the rear of this cottage, and in front of the present Sturges Library building, was a row of a half-dozen or more Summer cottage rooms, built for the accommodation of the guests of the Mansion House during the watering season. These were afterwards rented for some years to the students ; but all these buildings were removed in 1855, leaving the space in front of the University buildings unincumbered, and open for the planting of additional shade trees.

The college campus has a diversified character, which art has greatly improved. In 1872, Messrs. Wright and Mast, of the Board of Trustees, spent about $5,000 in reconstructing the surface, making walks and drives, draining and planting. These improvements were on the northern part of the grounds. It was in the plan of these generous alumni to slope the front of the lot to the level of the street ; but this would require the removal of many beautiful shade trees ; and they have not yet seen their way to resume the work. Since that time the low ground in the late additions has been filled and regraded.

Another friend of the University, and of science. Rev. Joseph H. Creighton, M. A., of the Ohio Conference, has given largely of his money, and yet more of his time, to the establishment of an arboretum on the college grounds.

This contemplates the planting of at least one specimen of every tree, domestic or exotic, that can be made to grow in this climate and soil. Since i860, Mr, Creighton has, under singular difficulties, gathered, planted, and properly labeled nearly one thousand varieties of trees and shrubs. If this plan be completed, the collection will add greatly to the embellishment of the grounds, as well as give them a scientific value found in but few instances in the United States.

Co-Education

The fact that for thirty years none but male students were admitted to the University is worthy of a moment's notice. At the date of the organization of the University, the coeducation of the sexes in the higher schools of learning was almost unknown, and the question of a departure from the usage of former years and of older institutions was not even mooted in the Conferences, or in the Board of Trustees. It was taken for granted by them that this college was to fall into line in this respect, as in all the other usages of college organization. But this subject, which was so quietly ignored by the Conferences and the Board of Trustees, was already making its entrance into the discussions of professional educators, and could not be so summarily disposed of by them. The advancing sentiment of the country was bringing women more and more prominently, not only into social life, but into public and responsible positions in the educational, religious, professional, and secular, fields of labor; and both Church and State began to demand a higher education for their daughters as well as for their sons, to fit them for these larger duties. The experiment of co-education was in successful trial in one of the large schools of the State.* In view of these facts, the subject became for years one of frequent and earnest debate in the Faculty of the University. President Thomson expressed very decided views against what some regarded as advanced ground on this subject ; and his position,, if there had been no other obstacle, prevented any public agitation or effort in the matter. At length, as will be seen further on, the problem was solved for the University by the founding of a women's college in Delaware. Thenceforward the courtesies due to a sister school, if not a conviction of policy in regard to co-education, forbade the introduction of women into the University, and the question long ceased to be agitated in the councils of the institution. But years after the subject had been thus practically shelved, President Thomson took occasion in one of his baccalaureates, to declare that his views had undergone a revolution on this subject, and that he had come to favor co-education. Yet he did not live to give his potent advocacy and his suffrage to the measure which finally united the two schools, and made co-education a prominent feature of the University.

In the establishment of the University, while no provision was made for the education of women, there was a felt want that the daughters of the Church should have the same privileges of education as were afforded to the sons. The rapid growth and the success of the University increased this sense of want, especially in the case of families whose sons were entered in the University. The first to attempt to supply this demand were the Rev. William Grissell and wife, who came to this place in 1850. Encouraged by the citizens, Mr. Grissell bought the old Academy building in South Delaware and opened a ladies' school in September of that year.

The attendance was encouraging ; but, in 1852, Mr. Grissell found that he could no longer carry on the school with success. At this time the idea of a college for ladies was taking hold of the public mind, and several meetings of citizens who were interested were held in relation to the matter. Just at this time, in 1852, the parish now known as St. Paul's, in South Delaware, had been constituted of a small colony of about thirty members, mostly from William Street Methodist Church, of which the Rev. John Quigley was appointed pastor. They met for worship in the chapel of Mr. Grissell's school ; and, in order to retain their place of worship, and for other local reasons, encouraged the movement for a college on this site. Accordingly, the property was bought from Mr. Grissell, and an organization effected under the name of *' The Delaware Female College."

But it was felt by many that the location for a successful college must be more eligible, and the accommodations more ample than the old Academy and two-fifths of an acre of ground could present. To Dr. Ralph Hills is due the first suggestion of the homestead of the late William Little as the most desirable site in Delaware. This suggestion met with instant favor, and, when it was found that the family consented to sell the property, an organization was at once effected, articles of association were adopted, and a subscription was opened to obtain the needed amount. The result was, that in April, 1853, "^he Ohio Wesleyan Female College " acquired " a local habitation and a name."

Among the incorporators, twenty in number, were Dr. Ralph Hills, Professor William L. Harris, James C. Evans, Augustus A. Welch, Rev. Joseph Ayers, and Professor Wm. G. Williams, of whom all are now dead except the last two.

( 1867), The price paid for the original purchase was $7,000, and for the addition nearly as much more. The grounds, lying within the corporation at the western head of the principal cross street, were beautiful and romantic ; and the house on these grounds was large and commodious. The property was at once offered to the North Ohio Conference, and accepted by that body, with the right of perpetuation of the Board of Trustees. Subsequently, the Central Ohio Conference and the Ohio Conference became joint patrons of the school with equal rights.

In the course of the first year, the necessity for more room was felt, and a two-story wooden house with chapel and large recitation rooms was erected as a temporary relief. This served the purpose for a few years, but the continued growth of the school led, in 1855, to larger plans. The southern wing of a building which was supposed to be large enough for the probable wants of the school was first erected ; then, after some years, the central block and the other wing.

The means for all this expenditure were raised mostly through the labors of agents appointed by the patronizing Conferences. Of these, the Rev. Joseph Ayers, at that time Presiding Elder of the Delaware District, was the first ; and a large part of the initial labor of founding the school was done by him. These agents did not have an unreaped field in which to gather, as the University agents were also at work during the same years. But, by indefatigable effort, the means were gradually obtained, and the end was at last reached. Of the many who contributed to this cause, particular mention must be made of Miss Mary Monnett, afterwards Mrs. John W. Bain, a pupil of the school, who, in 1857, gave $10,000 toward the building fund. Her timely help made the completion of the building certain and im-

About 1870, the south wing of this building was injured by fire. The roof and the upper story were destroyed, and other parts deluged with water. But the operations of the school were not suspended, and the parts burned were immediately replaced, better than before.

The school was always self-supporting, and, for most of the time, the tuition and the boarding fees not only paid the Faculty, but yielded some revenue for the general purposes of the institution. A scheme for an endowment by scholarships, similar to that of the University, was at one time attempted, but the attempt was soon abandoned, and no permanent fund was ever secured.

In 1866, certain ladies, mostly alumnse of the institution, organized themselves into an association to raise a fund for a college library. In pursuance of their plan, they soon raised about $2,000, which sum the trustees borrowed for the completion of the College buildings, as being just then a more pressing want than the acquisition of a library. But, in 1869, Mr. William A. Ingham, of Cleveland, who had imdertaken to fill an alcove in the University library, gave this College also $1,000 worth of books, in honor of his wife, formerly Miss Mary B. Janes, who, in 1858-62, had been the teacher of French and belles-lettres in the College. In view of this donation, the Board ordered the Executive Committee to fit up a library and reading-room in the central building, and to invest $1,000 of the ladies' library fund in books. The balance of the loan, the Board had not repaid to the association when the union of the schools took place ; and, in view of the large University library which thus became accessible to the ladies, and the inability of the Board, the association forbore the formal collection of the .amount.

The first President of the College was Prof. Oran Faville, M. A., of McKendree College, Illinois, and Mrs. Maria M. Faville was the first Preceptress. Their united salary was fixed at the sum of $i,ooo. A number of other teachers were appointed in the academic and musical departments. The first term opened August 4th, 1853, and the calendar was arranged to agree with that of the University. The enrollment the first year was 159, and the number of pupils attending each year afterwards generally largely exceeded 200, and sometimes reached 300. In 1855, President Faville's health compelled his resignation, and he removed to Iowa, of which State he was subsequently Lieutenant Governor, and Commissioner of Public Instruction. He died in 1872.

His successors were the Rev. James A. Dean, who remained but a short time, and Rev. Charles D. Burritt, who also resigned before the end of a year. The Rev. Park S. Donelson, D. D., was elected in 1856, and remained President for seventeen years, until 1873, when he resigned to engage in pastoral work. The next President, and the last before the union of the two institutions, was William Richardson, M. A., who had been favorably known in the public school work, and who, in 1877, resigned to re-enter that field.

The degrees conferred by the institution were Mistress of Liberal Arts for those who took the classical course, and ]\Iistress of English Literature for those who took the scientific course. The classical course embraced studies largely the same, at first, as those in the University, except Greek. This language, too, was finally included as optional, and upon the few who took the entire course the degree of Bachelor of Arts was conferred.

The graduates of the College numbered, in 1877, when the union with the University took place, over 400. They have long had an alumnal organization, and the local graduates have, for many years, maintained a literary association with monthly re-unions.

Union

" ArticIvE IX. If the Conference or Conferences patronizing this College, and the Conferences patronizing the Ohio Wesleyan University, located in Delaware, Ohio, shall, at any future time, recommend the union of the two institutions, so far as the same can legally be effected, then the trustees of this College, on their part, shall proceed to take such steps as may be legal and necessary to accomplish this object."

Such, even at that early day, was the hope of at least some who participated in the establishment of the new College. But the times were not yet ripe for the desired result. It was not until a quarter of a century had passed that the friends of this movement felt themselves strong enough to act. The trustees of the Female College were now almost unanimous in favor of the proposition, but the trustees ot the University yet hesitated. The committees on the subject at first reported adversely ; and then asked the judgment of the Conferences in the premises. A vote in these bodies was obtained, either instructing the two boards to unite the schools, or, at least, referring it to their discretion. The Association of Alumni also voted in favor of the union, and sent a deputation to the University Board to urge the measure upon their favorable consideration. At length, the pressure of sentiment outside convinced the most conserva-

Finally, in 1877, the Board of the University unanimously adopted a resolution, that, if the trustees of the Female College should discontinue the academic work of that school, and transfer the property, free from debt, to the trustees of the University, they would accept the property, and open the University to ladies, and would establish a special course of study of high order for ladies, with appropriate degrees for the completion of the course. They voted further, that, in case of the discontinuance of the Female College, the University, under this arrangement, would adopt the alumnae of that institution on such terms as might be found desirable.

The trustees of the Female College at once accepted this proposition, and conveyed to the University the school and all the property in their possession. A debt of about $9,000, incurred by the trustees for additions to the campus, was paid by the Central Ohio Conference from the amount raised for the University by its agents ; and thus the University came into the unincumbered possession of a property worth at least $100,000, had at once an addition of nearly two hundred students per annum to its enrollment, and gained an increase of thirty per cent, in its income. There were other gains. The union of the schools removed a distracting question from the councils of the University and the Church, put this large and influential school abreast of the sentiment and progress of the age, and concentrated upon itself the interest and the benefactions which had been diverted to another institution, or altogether lost between the conflicting claims of the two rival schools.

Hall from the University, though not exceeding half a mile from gate to gate, occasions, as had been foreseen, some inconvenience in the arrangements of the classes, especially of those in which both sexes are represented. These meet, according to circumstances, in one locality or the other, but all the classes in which ladies largely outnumber the gentlemen are taught, when possible, at Monnett Hall. Separate daily chapel exercises were held at the latter place for a while, for the accommodation of the inmates ; but this arrangement was not long continued. Better walks, and the establishment of street railways, make the going to and from rapid and easy. But all these things are matters of detail, and at most occasion a little trouble to the Faculty or the students. The advantages from the union of the schools and from co-education of the sexes are so manifest and so great, that, in summing up the result, minor inconveniences can be patiently adjusted or quietly ignored.

Professor Whitlock has admirably expressed the general conclusions that educators have now reached on the subject of co-education. He says: "Co-education has intellectual, moral, social and physical advantages. The association of the sexes in collegiate work is mutually inspiring, stimulating and helpful. Better habits of preparation result, a higher grade of mental discipline, and broader views and sympathies. There is mutual recognition of ability, and a generous rivalry ; and there is a largeness about the whole system that is itself educative. It is the family system. It is not an interruption of relations between men and women that are common in all other periods of life ; it is the preservation in the school of the divine pattern. Results prove that while it does away with false modesty, it does not lessen true womanly delicacy ; that university educated girls make the most modest, cultured, and womanly wives and mothers.

*' Morally, the difficulties and failures of co-education are less dangerous than the undue emphasis of sex, the stimulation of the imagination, and the unnatural views of life, common in separate education. Young people do not learn to avoid moral dangers until they know where they lie ; and this they best learn under a system of instruction that acquaints the sexes with the true character and ability of each.

"The free intercourse between the sexes, so often urged as an obiection to co-education, is not greater than elsewhere ; and the craving for society is met and satisfied under the most restraining and refining circumstances. Constant association tends to lessen, rather than to create intimacies, except when they are founded on mutual esteem, intellectual and aesthetic tastes. This freedom, even admitting occasional social entanglements, compares in its results most favorably with life out of college, and with the follies and frivolities from which separate education is not exempt. Marriages resulting from college friendships are far more likely to be happy than the average marriages in the world, where the attraction has not so good a foundation. Mutual tastes, aims, purposes ; common habits of life and thought ; and a common pursuit of truth under helpful and inspiring influences, make a broad and safe basis for the truest and best life unions.

" The physical ability of women to study along-side of men is taken for granted. Statistics covering a thousand cases show that the health of college women has the advantage over that of working girls, and also over that of women in the average walks of life. All thought of physical inability may be thrown to the winds, and women may march unhindered along-side of their brothers."

Co-education in Delaware is an unqualified and large success. There is now no doubt that, from the merely material standpoint, the union has been a great help to the University. The attendance of five hundred ladies annually for the last five years, and the enlarged facilities at Monnett Hall, have been large factors in the reputation and growth of the University.

But the union of the two institutions has exerted a reflex beneficial influence on the development of the Ladies' Department. The expensive tuition fees were at once cancelled, as all the ladies were admitted to the University on scholarships. The attendance of ladies rapidly grew to three times what it was the year before the union was consummated. In 1876, the number of ladies was 172 ; for the last five years it has ranged from 444 to 537. This number was far beyond what the founders of the Female College expected, in their most sanguine hopes ; and the College building which they planned and completed according to their expectations could not have accommodated Tialf the present number. In 1890, the trustees ordered the enlargement of the building to twice its former size. The additions cost over fifty thousand dollars. The old Monnett Hall of the Ohio Wesleyan Female College, with its two wings and central block, is now, in fact, but one of the wings of the new Monnett Hall of the Ohio Wesleyan University. The building as it now stands is two hundred feet long, one hundred feet wide, and four stories in height. This large building has ample room for the accommodation of two hundred and fifty ladies, giving each a separate room or suite of rooms. The upper floors are accessible by several wide stairways, and by an elevator. The building contains an assembly hall or chapel, reception rooms, parlors, library and reading room well supplied with books and periodicals, three halls for the Ladies' Literary Societies, and a large, light dining-room, with capacity for all the inmates at once. Young ladies residing in the Monnett Hall have the counsel and care of experienced and cultivated teachers, and are subject only to the restrictions essential to good habits of study, health and behavior. Monnett Hall has a healthful location, and the sanitary conditions are the best. But a separate hospital is provided on the same campus for cases of sickness, and the patients have the best medical service and skillful nursing. During the eighteen years since the union of the two schools, but a single death has occurred at the Hall. The Monnett Hall is likewise the headquarters of the Art Department, and of the Conservatory of Music. The piano rooms for practice are in a separate building a short distance from the main hall. But the Assembly Hall also is provided with grand pianos, and numerous concerts and recitals are given there by noted artists, teachers, and pupils, which all the ladies in the building have the privilege of attending.

Religious Influences

The University is under the auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church ; but it is not sectarian in its teachings. It aims to be evangelical, yet liberal ; and has always had a fair patronage from other Protestant Churches, and even from the Catholic Church. Of late years, we have had among our students, representatives of nations and ethnic religions outside of Christendom, mostly from China and Japan. The religious influence of the college life here has always been constant and controlling. Devotional exercises, conducted by the members of the Faculty, are held in the chapel each day ; and a sermon or lecture at appointed times on the Sabbath. For many years this was a weekly appointment, under the charge of the President ; during recent years, it has been monthly. Attendance upon these college services, and npon some church service on the Sabbath, is obligatory. Weekly meetings for prayer are maintained by each class separately, and two weekly meetings held in the hall of the Young Men's Christian Association, for all students in common who choose to attend. The proportion of religious students in the college classes increases with the advancement of the class ; and few students pass through the college course without becoming hopefully pious. More than once, the University has graduated large classes in which every member was religious ; and in every class graduated, the majority have been members of some church, a large proportion of whom became so through their connection with the University.