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p. 231 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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1891 to succeed Dr. Beebee as Professor of Homiletics. An alumnus of Hamilton College, he had been minister at churches in Waterford and Newburgh. Dr. George R. Berry came in 1896 from the University of Chicago, where he had received his Ph.D., to teach the Semitic languages. In 1897 Dr. Edward Judson, who had been a member of the faculty as a Latin and modern language professor (1867-74), relieved Dr. Jones of pastoral theology which he had taught in addition to homiletics following Dr. Harvey’s death in 1893. Judson came to the campus on a part-time basis since he continued to hold the pastorate of the large Judson Memorial Baptist Church in New York.

Morale in the Seminary faculty and to some extent among teachers in the College and Academy suffered in the nineties because of the dismissal of Professor Nathaniel Schmidt. It occurred against the background of theological controversy in the United States brought about by the application of higher criticism in Biblical studies as expounded by German scholars. Among the Baptists, the new scientific and literary analysis of the Scriptures made headway in the 1880’s and, like the Presbyterians and Congregationalists, they found it necessary to remove at least two professors from theological seminaries for their unorthodox teachings.

The difficulty at Colgate comes as a surprise, however, when one remembers Dr. Dodge’s liberal views and Dr. Clarke’s progressive theology. Had there been a strong man of Dodge’s stripe in the presidency to give forceful leadership, it might not have arisen. Schmidt had been one of the President’s favorite students and freely acknowledged his mentor’s emancipating influence. In 1891 at the age of twenty-nine and after only three years of teaching he was made Professor of Semitic Languages and Literature, in view of the Trustees’ appreciation of his “marked attainments” as a scholar, linguist, and teacher. He was an editor, also, having induced his associates to establish in 1892 the Seminary Journal, a ten-page quarterly, which he directed for its one-year existence; it carried scholarly articles and book reviews and kept alumni in touch with the Seminary.

Word had spread abroad, meanwhile, that Professor Schmidt denied the divine inspiration and “inerrancy” of the Bible. This was a serious charge when leveled against a seminary professor because he was in a strategic position for corrupting the denomination’s theology at its source. Dr. Hinton S. Loyd, Executive Secretary of the Education

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p. 230 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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Following Professor Thurber’s resignation in 1895, Professor Sisson was made Acting Principal for one year and Professor Frank L. Shepardson succeeded to the vacancy in 1896. A graduate of Brown, he came to Colgate with a fine record as a teacher and as principal of Worcester Academy in Massachusetts. He was to discharge his duties in the Academy with distinction and on its closing in 1912 became Treasurer of the University and Professor of Greek.

Theological instruction in the 1890’s was strengthened and made flexible by the introduction of electives in 1892 and by lengthening all courses of study from two to three years. In 1894, as a new departure, a Bachelor of Divinity degree was authorized for students graduated with an A.B. who had taken the full three-year course, including courses in Hebrew and the Semitic languages and written a thesis.

Easily the most outstanding Seminary professor was William Newton Clarke who had been induced in 1890 to leave the pastorate of the village Baptist church to fill the vacant chair in theology of the late Dr. Dodge. No appointment could have been more momentous. He had graduated from Madison in 1861, served the University for many years as Trustee and Secretary of the Board, been minister to churches in New England and Montreal, and taught in the Toronto Baptist College. For some time he had struggled with theological problems in a period when new interpretations and analyses gave rise to much controversy. His first classroom lectures were the distillation of his advanced thinking and evoked keen interest and active discussion. Though he provoked harsh criticism for what many considered his unorthodox ideas, he maintained that he “endeavored reverently and honestly to deal with the Christian truth.” His students were not required to agree with their teacher but rather “encouraged to think for themselves and form their own conclusions.” These lectures saw publication in 1894 as Outline of Christian Theology, which has gone through 21 editions and represents a milestone in the development of progressive theology in the United States.

Among Dr. Clarke’s colleagues was David F. Estes, a graduate of the University of Vermont, who had studied at the Newton Theological Institution and at Gottingen, had taught in the Atlanta Baptist College, and been pastor in four New England churches. He took over Dr. Harvey’s courses in New Testament in 1891 and in 1892 followed Professor Thomas as University Librarian. Arthur Jones was added in

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p. 229 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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City churches with recreational facilities. By 1898 he had added instruction in gymnastics for freshmen and sophomores to the courses already offered, and introduced medical examinations which were given on entrance to college and at the end of the second year.

The Academy underwent several changes in the 1890’s to improve the quality of its instruction and its standing. John Greene, ’73, a former principal of Peddie Institute in New Jersey, attempted to bring about innovations during the four years of his principalship immediately prior to his transfer to the College in 1893 as Professor of Latin. The Trustees frankly admitted that they had impeded his efforts since they felt the College had first claim on the University’s resources as the division which made the greater contribution to the University’s reputation. By 1893, however, they adopted an aggressive policy under new leadership. Charles H. Thurber, an instructor at Cornell, his Alma Mater, who had studied at Haverford and in Dresden, Germany, was brought in at a generous salary to be principal. He was also made Professor of Pedagogy in the College and authorized to establish an Education Department. His vigorous and progressive approach quickly made itself evident. The Academy curriculum was strengthened; a gymnasium constructed on the top floor of the building, a physical education .instructor employed and athletics encouraged; a paper, The Daily Academe, published; the Taylor house acquired and fitted up for the four Academy fraternities; and a Founder’s Day established to commemorate James B. Colgate’s birthday. Professor Thurber also introduced two “cottage dormitories” to provide living facilities for the Academes, separate from the other University students, an experiment which very soon proved unsuccessful because of the expense and unsatisfactory boarding arrangements.

As Professor of Pedagogy, Thurber offered courses in the history of education; educational psychology and philosophy; and administration methods; and arranged for practice teaching in the Academy. A room was set aside in the Library for magazines and books in education and the Laurie Club, named for S. S. Laurie, an educator at the University of Edinburgh, was organized to promote discussion of pedagogical ideas with membership open to students, faculty, the clergy, and teachers of the village and neighboring communities. Professor Thurber had been a founder of a Cornell-sponsored educational journal
begun in 1893, The School Review, and continued to serve on its board.

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p. 228 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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that the teacher of English literature should stress appreciation rather than scientific critical analysis and that he should not rest satisfied until his students began to love and appreciate the best the writers have to offer. Much of his approach he explained in his little book, The Interpretation of Literature (1896).

Professor Thomas had been appointed Registrar and Librarian in 1892 and continued in those positions after assuming his teaching duties a year later. An alumnus of Madison in the Class of 1883, he had taught at the Albany Academy while studying law and being admitted to the bar; subsequently he took graduate work in English at Columbia and returned to Albany as Chief Regents Examiner in English for the University of the State of New York. His instruction in public speaking was most effective and won wide commendation.

Professor Terry introduced a rich variety of offerings in history and they were continued under his successors, George W. Smith and Charles W. Spencer. Professor Spencer was in effect the spiritual ancestor of the modern Social Science Division, having taught all but one of its disciplines, i.e., education, and having instituted three: economics, political science, and sociology. By training a historian, he was a graduate of Colby College and had studied at Chicago and Columbia, where he was to take a Ph.D. in American Colonial History in 1905.

The Department of Philosophy emerges as an entity in 1890 with Professors Andrews, Beebee, and Burnham giving instruction, part of which had been in the province of the late Dr. Dodge. Two years later the first “Professor of Philosophy” was appointed, Ferdinand C. French, a Brown alumnus and a Cornell Ph. D. During his brief two-year tenure (he was to return for two subsequent periods) he introduced a course in the history of modern philosophy. French’s successor was Melbourne S. Read, a graduate of Acadia College, Nova Scotia, and also a Ph.D. from Cornell. In addition to philosophy he taught psychology and education.

With the completion of the gymnasium required academic courses in physiology and hygiene consisting of textbook reading and lectures were instituted. The instructor, George W. Banning, first Director of the Gymnasium, had studied at the YMCA College in Springfield, Mass., and had an M.D. from Columbia. His experience included appointments as director of gymnasiums and athletic programs and as baseball and football coach for city YMCAs and two large New York

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p. 227 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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Wyoming County village in the western part of the state and later his teacher at Madison. Following graduation in 1879, and study in the Seminary and ordination, he served churches in Stillwater and Utica. In 1888 he published a study of the geology of Oneida County and the next year joined the Harvard Summer School of Geology on a field trip in the Genesee Valley and the Catskills. This experience caused him to decide on his new vocation. In preparation for his duties at Colgate he took a year of graduate work at Harvard where his teachers included the famous William S. Shaler and William M. Davis and where he received his Master’s degree in 1892. “Brig” brought to his new position industry, enthusiasm, energy, imagination and was to demonstrate “unsurpassed ability in the portrayal of his subject and the stimulation” of his students. They gave him their best efforts and warm affection. He stressed field trips as an especially rewarding method for studying the rich variety of geological formations of the Hamilton area. Laboratory work, likewise, was emphasized and he was active in building up the museum collection of rocks and minerals. Somehow he found time for research and writing and by 1899 he had published 17 articles and syllabi. Brigham’s close associate in his department was Wayland M. Chester, ’94, who had earned a Master’s degree in 1896 under his direction and who taught the courses in Biology.

The increased attention being given to modern languages led to the appointment of Robert W. Moore in 1890 to give full time to teaching German and French. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he had studied a year at Strassburg and Berlin before coming to Colgate. For him the purpose of language instruction was to develop reading ability and to give the student background in literary history and the life and customs of the people; any conversational proficiency gained seems to have been incidental. He built up a large collection of stereoptican slides to supplement his lectures.

When Professor Ralph W. Thomas, appointed in 1893, took over instruction in public speaking and rhetoric, Professor Crawshaw was free to pursue his real interest, literature. “Craw” ranks with Brigham as one of the outstanding teachers of his generation, one whom his students held in high esteem which sometimes verged on awe, especially if they had not seen his “human side.” Without the advantages of graduate study, he had acquired a vast knowledge in his field from reading and travel which enriched his lectures and writings. He held

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p. 226 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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ship to each other. Students and a majority of the faculty accepted the more flexible curriculum with enthusiasm. On the basis of a careful statistical study, Professor Brigham concluded in 1897 that the students had not abused it by taking a large number of easy courses and that they kept their programs in balance without heavy specialization in a few departments.

Disturbed by the extent of cribbing in examinations, the students of the College persuaded the faculty in 1895 to adopt an honor system which lasted for two years. Unsatisfactory implementation for its enforcement seems to explain abandoning the experiment. It was not to be revived until nearly a decade later when campus sentiment, in line with that in other colleges, once again favored its re-adoption.

Graduate study won only slight faculty endorsement, particularly in view of the limited library and laboratory facilities and the demands of the undergraduate program. The faculty, however, was at pains to encourage able students, especially those expecting to teach, or to go into science, to take advanced courses in the large universities.

The subject matter and instruction of the science departments seemed to be increasingly attractive and relevant to students. Ernest Fox Nichols, fresh from graduate study at Cornell, followed Dr. Osborn in the Physics Department from 1892 to 1898. A very able research scholar, he was responsible for purchasing several pieces of apparatus for the department and for introducing laboratory work which he felt to be of particular value for training in “accuracy of observation, the power of close and exact reasoning, and a discrimination in judging the weight which each cause shall have in making up the main result.” His successor, Clement D. Child, with a Ph.D. from Cornell, came to Colgate in 1898 to carryon in the Nichols pattern. Professor McGregory’s chemistry courses drew such large enrollments that he turned to promising young graduates for instructors or assistants, some of whom were to have eminent careers in the field. Among them were: Edward Ellery, ’90; John B. Ekeley, ’91; and Thomas J. Bryan, ’93.

Albert Perry Brigham, geologist and geographer, began his eminent career at Colgate as teacher and scholar in 1892 when he took over the Department of Geology and Natural History. As a boy in Perry, New York, he came under the decisive influence of “a nature-loving and nature-knowing preacher,” Walter R. Brooks, then pastor in that

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p. 225 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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mained the fundamental objective but a broader approach can be detected in James C. Colgate’s remarks at the dedication of the Library in 1891. He said:

It always seems to me to be a lack of faith rather than indication of reverence when people are afraid to have their beliefs examined in the broad light of day. A university should be a source of light. While we make no boast yet we believe that the principles for which this university stands . . . need never fear the white light of keenest criticism.

Five years later he explained to students that the chief aim of a college course was “culture” which he defined as a “passion for knowledge”combined with the ability to use knowledge intelligently. The educated man should be able “to reason rightly, to judge correctly, to perceive the beautiful and recognize the true.” In making his point, however, he did not overlook morality as the source for proper conduct and for sound religion. The college provided conditions congenial for the growth of culture, he asserted, but the responsibility for its attainment rested with the individual student. His advice to those unable to benefit from a college experience was, “Go to work, or, if you must go to college, go anywhere but here.”

Mr. Colgate’s statements suggest to some degree the extensive re-examination and revision which the faculty, spurred on by the younger members such as Terry and Brigham, were ‘giving to the entire educational structure. Fewer freshmen were admitted with conditional credits for uncompleted work and admission requirements in the ancient languages were lowered. The grading system and absence regulations were revised. The major changes, however, were to be found in the reduction of the amount of Greek and Latin required and the expansion of elective choices. From 1890 to 1893 there were five courses of study; that for the Bachelor of Arts degree followed the traditional pattern in stressing Greek and Latin; the two courses for the Bachelor of Philosophy gave a choice of Greek or Latin and required French and German; of the two for the Bachelor of Science one required Latin and German and one only German. In 1893 the five courses of study were consolidated into three-A.B., Ph.B., and B.S. with the requirements substantially unchanged except that the candidates for the last took French and German.

After 1896 all the work of the senior year was elective. The student was encouraged, however, to select courses which had some relation-

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p. 224 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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the Seminary and Academy from six to seven. Four of the Seminary professors also taught in the College in 1890 but only one nine years later. Of the 1899 faculty, 15 of the 27 had been appointed since 1890-a rather remarkable turnover in less than a decade. These newcomers included: Albert P. Brigham (Geology and Natural History), Ralph W. Thomas (Rhetoric and Public Speaking), Melbourne S. Read (Philosophy), Charles W. ‘Spencer (History), Clement D. Child (Physics), Wayland M. Chester (Biology), George W. Banning (Director of the Gymnasium), George R. Berry (Semitic Languages), Arthur Jones (Homiletics), David F. Estes (New Testament Interpretation), and Frank L. Shepardson (Principal of the Academy).

Faculty appointments represented an attempt to get men of broader educational experience than the old faculty had. Of the new members, in 1899 three had Ph.D.’s, one an M.D. and four had taken advanced work at leading American universities and one at it European university. The first Ph.D., Ferdinand C. French, came in 1892. The Trustees granted leaves of absence to encourage graduate study and travel in Europe and several men took advantage of the opportunities.

Though James C. Colgate and his associates on the Provisional Committee stressed to the Board in 1891 that adequate compensation was necessary to attract and hold men of ability and promise, the Trustees do not appear to have been able to allocate sufficient funds for the purpose. Instructors’ salaries began at a point as low as $800; by 1899 those for senior professors had risen only from $2,200 to approximately $2,500. In resigning to go to the University of Chicago in 1892 Professor Terry frankly admitted to Mr. Colgate that salary was the chief factor in enticing him away.

Unless there were exceptional circumstances, tenure was not granted appointees until the expiration of their first year on the campus. In 1891 the Trustees established the rank of Associate Professor for those whose “experience and attainments” entitled them to a standing higher than that of instructor but not that of a professor. After 1894 the teachers of both the College and the Seminary organized as the University Faculty to act as single unit on matters of common concern yet each group continued to maintain its separate existence and functions.

During the ’90’s a slight shift in educational philosophy may be observed. Training a Christian ministry and an educated laity re-

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First gymnasium (p. 223)

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Old Gymnasium, A1000-45 Folder 11, p223

enthusiasm ground was broken on May 13th, 1893, on a site where the present James C. Colgate Student Union now stands, and on June 18th, 1894, the building was dedicated.

To accommodate the four Academy fraternities the University in 1891 purchased the home of the late President Stephen W. Taylor which he had built about 1840 “with such careful oversight that local wits insisted that he inspected personally every brick that went into its making.” Reconditioning it involved removing an east wing, converting the interior into four large rooms-two on each floor-and adding broad porches on the front and back. Known as Taylor Hall, it was used by the Academy fraternities until 1912 when it became the YMCA student center, and later was converted to a campus post office and subsequently faculty club.

The faculty of the University increased from 23 in 1890 to 27 in 1899; the number in the College had grown from 11 to 13 and in both

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p. 222 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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Colgate and his son made them up, quietly sending the Treasurer the sums required and having them credited on the books as from the Executive Committee. These deficiencies are explained by increased expenditures for improvements, new equipment, and new instruction. After the Compact of 1893 had been signed the University’s accounts included those of the Education Society and hence comparative statistics for total income and expenditure for 1890′ and 1899 give a somewhat distorted view. It is useful to note, however, that in 1899 real estate and equipment were valued at $700,000 and endowment, including the Dodge Fund, at $1,718,202.

At no time in the ’90’s did the payments from the Dodge Fund exceed $20,000 and in 1895 the figure reached a low of $11,800. Income from other sources declined also. When a Trustee Committee attempted to raise $10,000-among some 1,000 living alumni for a gymnasium and other improvements, they met with apathy and failure. It seemed clear that few alumni or Trustees felt any obligation to contribute. Many of the former, because their low salaries as pastors gave them little surplus, were unable to do so, but one suspects there was a general disposition to let the financial load rest on the Colgates alone. Raising tuition from $30.000 to $45.00 in 1892 and to $60.00 in 1896 and also tightening up on scholarship grants helped in some degree to reduce deficits.

Landscaping made a notable advance in 1891 with the hiring of Ernest W. Bowditch, landscape architect and engineer of Boston. He at once proceeded to make a detailed and meticulous survey of the entire campus which was to serve as the basis for all future plans. A major part of its cost the citizens of Hamilton contributed as an expression of their interest in the University. Under the direction of Professor James M. Taylor, Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, a long-term program of grading, planting, and building new roads was begun and carried out, principally by his crew of Irish groundsmen. In 1893 a sewer system connecting all the buildings was constructed though it was not until 1895 and 1896 that electricity and water from the village began to be available in one building at a time.

The major building erected in the ’90’s was the long-desired gymnasium. Funds accumulated slowly and F. H. Gouge, a Utica architect, drew up plans for a three-story structure in a modified Romanesque style, which echoed the lines of the Library. Amid great

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