Bangkok two years after his graduation. The money was in payment of his student loan even though his notes had been canceled when he sailed for the mission field.
Since collections and gifts failed to meet the needs of the Institution, the Trustees resorted to other measures. Charges for tuition and board were raised in the mid-’30’s. Special subscription campaigns were launched for salaries and debts, but it is not clear, however, what the cash returns actually were since it often happened that subscribers paid only part of their pledges. In 1837 the Trustees decided that it would be expedient to start a drive for a $50,000 endowment fund. Such a venture required caution because many Baptists, William Colgate among them, opposed an endowment on the ground that income from such a source would make the Institution independent of the churches whose agency it was and who had been its chief support. Dr. Kendrick, who was thoroughly familiar with this objection and also with the condition of the treasury, wrote with some asperity in the 1837 Annual Report “There is a happy medium between a state of penury, which paralyzes [sic] all the energies of the Society, and cripples the Institution in its faculty and students, and such a profusion of funds as allures to luxury, and induces to forgetfulness of a daily dependence on the Father of mercies.” Even the most sanguine Board members had no expectation of a “profusion of funds,” but they did hope that enough might be raised from a regular income to defray a part of the annual expenses. In 1839 the goal was raised to $100,000, but five years later not more than $10,000 had been collected. It was not until 1850 that efforts to establish an endowment succeeded.
The beauty of the campus and the village in their setting of rolling hills, broad valleys, woods, and farmland invariably drew appreciative comments from visitors and students. By the middle 1830’s the campus included about 170 acres. Most of it was given over to cultivated fields and pasture which supplied the Boarding Hall with dairy products, meat and vegetables; 50 acres were occupied by the Institution’s buildings and Samuel Payne’s home. Near the buildings were walks and groves often used by the students for retreat and meditation.
Landscaping did not seem to awaken the Trustees’ interest until 1836 when they appointed a committee for laying out the grounds. They also offered a prize of $70.00 for the best plan which united “the greatest beauty and simplicity with the least expense in consumma-