Expenses at the Seminary were, of necessity, less than at other comparable institutions. Board, washing and lodging cost only a dollar a week; tuition was $16 a year; and $70 was considered ample for all the needs of the average student. At Andover where no tuition was required, annual expenses varied, in 1825, from $60.00 to $80.00. They ranged from $123.50 to $129 at Brown during the period 1829-33.
A few scholarships, available for the most promising students, yielded $70 annually. Jonathan Olmstead established the first in 1822 in accordance with a resolution of the Executive Committee specifying that anyone endowing a $1,000 scholarship “for the support of a Divinity, Charity Scholar, Shall if he Choose have that Scholarship bear up his name forever.” Friends in New York endowed fifteen scholarships worth $70 a year.
The Education Society at first undertook to pay all the expenses of
needy students, or beneficiaries, and often provided them with shoes
and clothing. By 1823 the Executive Committee asked those who had
graduated to refund, if possible, the money spent for them. Later, for a
few years, beneficiaries were required to pay $20 annually toward
their expenses, a policy the Committee considered not only as increas-
ing the means to sustain the school but well calculated to “improve the
young men, in the saving course of prudence and economy, and to
keep up an enterprise to provide in part for themselves, which they
will need through life.” By 1832 they had decided that instead of
gratuitous aid they would grant loans subject to no interest until the
beneficiaries had graduated.
Seven Indian youths who came from the Baptist Carey Mission in
Michigan with the Rev. Isaac McCoy in 1826 constituted a special
class of beneficiaries. The United States Department of War had
agreed to pay part of their expenses, but when a cut in appropriations
held up funds, they had to be supported by the Society and by
independent contributions. They belonged to the Ottawa, Chippewa,
and Potawatomie tribes and rode into the village on Indian ponies to
the astonishment of townspeople and students. One man remembered
as a small boy seeing them throw tomahawks at a mark on a tree about
three rods away and the bystanders’ amazement at their accuracy in
hitting it with the handles up or down as the audience requested. The
Indians were also noted for their fondness for singing hymns. Howev-