carried heavy administrative as well as teaching responsibilities. Though these two senior members were the only ones in the group who served as trustees, other members acted with them on the Executive Committee or “took agencies” for collecting funds. Such an arrangement, which obviated lines of distinction between the administrative and teaching staffs, made for close cooperation in the common cause of education.
At first faculty organization was informal, though there is mention of a set of by-laws in the early ’20’s. In 1830 the Trustees, in place of the Executive Committee, were empowered by the Society to “appoint the Professors, determine their salaries and time of service.” Three years later the Society granted the faculty broader power “to administer in general the internal government of the Seminary” subject to approval by the Board.
As might be expected at a seminary supported by a denomination not entirely cordial to the idea of a trained clergy, faculty salaries were low. During 1822-23 Hascall received $350. The next year $400 became the standard salary for professors and remained so until 1829 when they were granted $500. The average income of college teachers for the period was about equal to that of clergymen. Alfred Bennett, one of the best known Baptist ministers of the state, never received over $400, often only $300, with some of it in produce. However, professors at Auburn Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), Brown, and Amherst earned from $200 to $600 more than Hascall and his high-minded associates. The latter were reasonably contented with small incomes. Their great purpose was to train as many young men as
possible to become the spiritual leaders of Christians, from Hamilton to Burma.
Hascall’s teaching career started in 1818 when he began to receive young men into his home to study for the ministry. Most of the ten students present at the opening of the Seminary in the ‘brick academy” in 1820 had studied with him privately. His appointment as the first teacher seems to have been tentative, hut in 1822 the Executive Committee “Voted that Brother Daniel Hascall be considered as has long been the design of this Committee, Professor of Languages in this Institution.” From 1828 to 1832 he also taught “Natural Philosophy.”
Hascall’s background and experience fitted him very well for instructing
