Category Archives: timeline

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First basketball team (p. 259)

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and Frank R. Castleman, ’06, “lifted Colgate out of the hick college class” by Runge’s interference coordinated with Castleman’s runs. The Dartmouth game in 1905 was of particular importance in attracting attention to Colgate. Dartmouth which had not lost a game for two years was defeated, 16-10, and the exploits of the winning team, hitherto covered only in the Central New York papers, made headlines on the sports pages of the Eastern press.

Basketball which students of the College, Academy and Seminary were playing as early as 1896 gained steadily in popularity but it was not until 1901 that Colgate had a regular team. Its captain was Earl V.

First Basketball Squad, 1901
Picture of basketball squad

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Off-campus study group begins (p.254)

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Two innovations appeared in the Seminary’s program: an off campus study group and an Italian Department. The first, begun in 1905, permitted advanced students to spend a term in New York City under the instruction of Edward Judson, minister of the Judson Memorial Baptist Church in Washington Square, who had taught Pastoral Theology on a part-time basis, 1897-1900. They were thus enabled to gain first-hand experience with urban problems, city missions, charity organizations and settlement work. The second, the Italian Department, established in 1906, for training Italian young men to become ministers of Baptist churches of their countrymen in the United States, was similar to those for Germans at Rochester and Scandinavians at the Chicago Theological Seminaries. Antonio Mangano, a former student at Colgate and a graduate of Brown and Union Theological Seminary, became the professor in charge. With the assistance of three special faculty members, he formally opened the department in 1907 in Brooklyn where it was to continue for twenty years.

Colgate Academy under Principal Frank L. Shepardson held to its philosophy of developing Christian character and high scholarship as essential qualities for useful citizens. Enrollment ranged from a low of 131 in 1906 to a high of 153 in 1905. To improve standards a “pre-academic” course was added to the regular four-year course in 1905 to accommodate the young men who had’ not completed all necessary preliminary subjects on entering, a change bringing to the Academy full accreditation of) the New York State Board of Regents. The extra year also made possible additional offerings in the Scientific Course.

The marked decline in the number of students who planned to enter the ministry which had appeared in the College in the 1890’s was more pronounced in the early 1900’s. A trend, begun in 1897, when the proportion of the graduating class going into teaching exceeded those for the ministry, was maintained without interruption. In the Class of 1908, six were headed toward the pulpit and 13 toward the classroom. Business was generally the second choice but the popularity of this vocation was not to become dominant until a later period. The campus was assuming a distinctly secular coloration.

To give fitting recognition to the opening of the academic year, President Merrill instituted a formal convocation in September 1901, a custom which each of his successors observed in due course. He made it an opportunity for delivering a homily on some aspect of university

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Lathrop Hall completed (p. 250)

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Lathrop Hall, A1000-51, Folder10, p250

Within minutes of the Lathrop Hall dedication Dr. Lawrence, President of the Trustees, laid the cornerstone of an addition to the Chemistry Building-a unique juxtaposition of events in Colgate’s history of building construction. This project, too, came from Dr. Merrill’s initiative. When Lathrop Hall had been assured in 1905 he had appealed at once to Andrew Carnegie for funds and, after extended consideration, $20,000 was granted, provided a like sum be raised for endowment for the Chemistry Department. This condition was soon met and the architects, Harding and Seaver, and the contractors for Lathrop Hall given orders to proceed with plans and construction. The three large laboratories, lecture room and other facilities were in use by the following autumn.

During his first months on the campus the President discovered that the dormitories, East and West Halls, had fallen into serious dilapidation. With the requirements of the science departments satisfied and with increased college enrollment pressing for student accommodations, he made plans for their renovation. The only tangible result, however, was the equipping of a lounging room on the first floor of West Hall which faculty wives opened in December 1905 with a tea for students and professors. More extensive remodeling would come with the next administration.

The last major building project of the Merrill administration was the central heating plant which represented a significant advance in efficient maintenance and comfort. The financial assistance of the Baptist

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Taylor Lake and Willow Path (p. 248)

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Taylor Lake Peninsula, A1000-68, Folder 2, p248

inspiration which came to him from seeing Addison’s Walk at Oxford, his daughter recalled.*  In appreciation of his skill and toil, the Trustees named the lake for the builder whose memory it fittingly perpetuates.

In response to the growing and insistent needs of the physics, biology and geology departments, the President, as early as 1900, urged the Trustees to plan for a science building. It was not until five years later, however, that the $75,000, required before work could start, had been raised by subscription among alumni and friends and that ground could be broken. Student anticipation was especially keen, very much as if each regarded the building as a gift to, him personally. At the formal ceremonies on May 22nd the faculty and the entire student body were present; President Merrill shovelled the first sod and the seniors, followed by the other classes in ,order, pulled the plow which turned the first furrows. Professor Brigham, whose depart-

*Letter, Mrs. Florence Taylor Morris to Mrs. Everett Case, 4 June 1958.

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Merrill House is built (p. 247)

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President's House (Merrill House) now Faculty Club, A1000-55 Folder 2, p247

admirably fitted for entertaining which the President and his wife had intended.

Taylor Lake and the Willow Path, which are among the most distinctive features of the Colgate landscape, may be said to date from 1905 though early in the ’90’s Professor Taylor had begun to drain the swamp area between the foot of the Hill and the Academy and convert it into a lake. Gifts from Hendrick S. Holden of Syracuse enabled him to bring his plans to fruition. Under the immediate supervision of the faithful Lant Gilmartin, a crew of Irish workers, armed with shovels and horse-drawn scoops, dug out the wet clay and spread it along a path over a sewer pipe which connected the Academy with the campus sanitation system. To relieve the bareness of the resulting embankment Dr. Taylor planted golden Russian willows, an

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Whitnall field completed (p. 246)

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Whitnall Field, Grandstand, Old Gymnasium 1905, A1000-72, Folder 2, p246

 

floor of Alumni Hall, had it transformed in 1899 by putting in a hard wood floor, an oak-beamed ceiling, oak stalls on the platform, oak casing around the old iron pillars and hanging portraits of Colgate worthies on the walls; the next year a fine organ was installed. The large assembly room on the third floor was converted into classrooms, the last being finishing in 1903. Whitnall Field, named for the donor Thaddeus O. Whitnall of Syracuse, was completed in 1900; it encompassed a quarter-mile running and a 220-yard straight track, a football gridiron, baseball diamond, tennis courts and a grandstand. The President’s House, a gift of James B. Colgate, was another building project of the first years of the Merrill administration which is of interest. Planned by the Merrills in conjunction with Mr. Colgate’s Yonkers architect friend, Edwin A. Quick, it was finished in 1900 and proved

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James B. Colgate passes away (p. 244)

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acknowledge he had much to learn about educational matters and willing to accept the judgment of the Dean and others.

Dr. Merrill had a clear picture of the University’s finances and sought to improve them. Despite the income from the Dodge Fund there were annual deficits ranging from $22,000 in 1899 to $42,000 in 1908. Of the three divisions of the University, the College accounted for the largest percentage of loss which reached $21,000 in 1908. This increase is explained in part by growth in College enrollment from 151 in 1899 to 287 in 1908 accompanied by more tuitions remitted and additional expenditures for faculty salaries and for maintenance of buildings and grounds. The tuition of $60.00 was much lower than that in most colleges in the east and none was charged in the Seminary; that for the Academy was $45.00. As he had done for the past several years, James C. Colgate made up the deficits, contributing over $300,000 from 1899 to 1908. Meanwhile, the endowment, excluding the $1,000,000 Dodge Fund, grew from nearly $556,000 to $695,513 in 1908.

The University’s munificent patron, James B. Colgate, died at the age of eighty-five in 1904 not long after he had made his last large gift of $100,000 for endowment. In attempting to arrive at a summary of Mr. Colgate’s chief benefactions, admittedly incomplete, Dr. Merrill estimated that they totalled over $1,700,000. Gratefully acknowledging them, he pointed out to the Trustees, none-the-less, that the University would need many friends and many large donations to keep its standing at a time when most of the nation’s colleges were expanding rapidly. On James C. Colgate’s declining to become his father’s successor as Trustee President, the Rev. William M. Lawrence, Class of 1870, was chosen. Formerly pastor of a large Baptist Church in Chicago, where he had a prominent part in founding the University of Chicago, he was an active alumnus and in 1905 had become pastor of the North Orange, New Jersey, Baptist Church.

Dr. Merrill demonstrated a Hair for what later generations would call public relations. He felt that the advantages and needs of the University should be advertised as widely as possible. He traveled extensively to speak before secondary schools, churches and religious groups. Alumni relations he regarded as especially significant and he not only met with alumni clubs but encouraged the forming of new ones. He printed his annual “President’s Report” and mailed it to

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George E. Merrill elected as president (p. 242)

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Chapter XII – THE MERRILL PRESIDENCY 1899-1908

It was with heartfelt fervor that a great crowd of students sang to the tune of “Old Colgate Is the Place For Me” (or “The Pope”)

Oh, Prexie, we’re so glad you’re here,
We’ve waited for you many a year,
And now we greet you loud and true
Oh, Prexie Merrill, here’s to you

as the President-elect and his wife arrived on the 1:36 p.m. train at the Hamilton station on January 25, 1899. They were helped into a coach on sleigh runners to which the undergraduates had attached a long rope and were drawn in joyous procession to the home of Dean and Mrs. Burnham where they were to stay while they got acquainted with the University and town. Dr. George Edmands Merrill was not a complete stranger, however, since he had lectured on the campus the year before and had been a friend of the Dean’s since their student days at Newton Theological Seminary in the 1870’s; Dr. Burnham had been primarily responsible for bringing about his election as Colgate’s sixth president.

Dr. Merrill’s qualifications augured well for a successful term of office. He was fifty-three, a New Englander, a Harvard graduate (1869) and successful pastor. His tastes and attitudes reflected his scholarly and cultural interests and to them he joined considerable ability in business and architecture. He was a Biblical scholar and had traveled rather extensively in Europe. He enjoyed riding horseback and buggy driving. Always described as a “gentleman,” he had a “quiet firmness which was entirely consistent with his graciousness of manner” and “his purposes went forward surely but without noise.” He brought a “refining influence” to faculty and students who seemed to

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First football and track teams (p. 238)

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scholarship and intellectual interests both in the classroom and in their own literary exercises which were still a feature of fraternity life. He saw them also as instruments for supporting high standards of discipline and developing among their members manners, courtesy and gentlemanly conduct.

In athletics, as in fraternity life, Colgate reflected developments to be found in other American colleges. Baseball continued. to attract support; the first track team was organized in 1892; and basketball began as an interclass sport in 1899. But it was the introduction of football, which had been rapidly gaining popularity throughout the country, that marked a radical departure from the old pattern. John W. Peddie, ’94, a freshman who had played the game in preparatory school, is credited with organizing the first team in 1890. It was difficult to find eleven men willing to join in the new game since probably no more than three among all the undergraduates had ever played it before, he recalled nearly 40 years later. The first season two games were scheduled-Hamilton College and St. John’s Military Academy at Manlius. Colgate lost to Hamilton, 14 to 28, a score one spectator interpreted as most encouraging since the losers had little over two weeks’ practice and no “trainer” while their opponents had played all fall and under a coach’s direction. Colgate won the St. John’s game by 14 to 6. The captain was Charles de Woody, student in the Seminary in the Class of 1892.

The 1891 season saw a decided improvement with Colgate winning all five games scheduled. They included the first encounter with Syracuse University with a score of 22 to 16. Contributing in no small measure to the team’s success were the efforts of Samuel Colgate, Jr., the first coach. He had graduated in 1891 from Yale where he had been on a class football team and had come to Colgate that autumn to study in the Seminary. During the 1896 season the team had its first professional coach, Aaron J. Colnon, Cornell, ’93; a training table was provided and athletic tax to defray expenses was introduced.

Control of athletics had rested with the specific teams and their managers and the Athletic Association. In 1893, however, the Association, apparently in a move to re-allocate responsibility, established an Advisory Committee consisting of representatives of faculty, alumni, residents of Hamilton, the three upper classes of the College, and the managers of baseball, football, and track. They were to raise funds,

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The first band (p. 235)

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Glee Club, 1891. First known picture.
Picture of Glee Club

be disassociated from Patrons’ Day it remained a highlight of the spring calendar and became the antecedent of “Spring Party.”

After the spring of 1891 students could no longer look to the Hamilton Female Seminary for dates because that school had come to an end. For a brief period in the middle ’90’s, a successor, Emily Judson Hall, was in operation, but for the most part, they turned to local girls or, for special occasions, they sometimes invited guests from outside. There were the perennial suggestions for coeducation or even what might be called a “co-ordinate college” but all of them were rejected by the Trustees who in 1892 voted that no women should be accepted as students in any department though the few young ladies already in the Academy might complete the course. Perhaps the most compelling reason for this attitude was the difficulty of finding additional funds which educating women at Colgate would require when they were already having problems in meeting regular expenditures.

Throughout the ’90’s student publications and musical groups-the glee club and others-continued to flourish. The editors of the Madisonensis called for new Colgate songs and vainly attempted to revive the old “Alma Mater” of the 1860’s. In the fall of 1895 the first

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