women’s dormitory. His death in 1890 terminated consideration of such radical departures. The Madisonensis editor in 1870 had heartily disapproved of coeducation though his successor six years later enthusiastically endorsed the idea.
Among the freshmen on the campus in the fall of 1876 there was a fourteen-year old who was to become Governor of New York, Secretary of State, and Chief Justice of the United States; he was Charles Evans Hughes. His classmate, Edward F. Waite, remembered him as no infant prodigy but as a hardworking, good all-around student. Shy at first, he proved to be companionable and “ready for whatever fun was going.”
One of the young freshman’s closest friends was a sophomore, Albert P. Brigham, destined to become an eminent geographer and geologist, who was his neighbor in West Hall and a fellow member of Delta Upsilon. Hughes described him as a “real sort of father to me.”
The boy’s studious habits did not keep him from ball playing, tramping over the hills, coasting, skating, and even snowballing. He himself told of joining his classmates in painting a cow red, white and blue and putting it in the chapel and in hoisting a stove to the roof of West Hall as a protest against the shortage of coal in the classrooms. Though at the end of his second year he transferred to Brown University to take courses not available at Madison, he cherished fond memories of his friendships and instruction on the Hill.
In the next decade there was another undergraduate whose subsequent career makes his campus years of particular interest-James C. Colgate, Class of 1884. Contrary to his inclinations but in accord with the wishes of his father, James B. Colgate, he entered Madison rather than Yale where his cousins, the sons of Samuel Colgate, enrolled. Furthermore, at his father’s insistence, he lived in Dr. Dodge’s home, an arrangement which neither he nor the President liked. They, nevertheless, worked out a satisfactory modus vivendi– the boy was to have his freedom to come and go as he pleased and in turn, agreed not to leak confidential information. Despite his initial reservations, he maintained in later years that he had acquired a good education, not only in the classroom and study but also in rubbing shoulders with boys less privileged than he. His fellow students found him very friendly and ready to take part in sports and other activities. He was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon, first editor of the yearbook, the Salmagundi, and a leader in the YMCA. He enjoyed hiking over the
