Tag Archives: Alexander M. Beebee Jr.

Phi Beta Kappa (p. 194)

Posted on June 14, 2012 by | Comments Off on Phi Beta Kappa (p. 194)

four years in college and were designed to provide them a set of standards for meeting problems of religion and of public and private morality. His role as teacher, he filled as effectively as that of president. He encouraged students to examine all kinds of ideas without restraint. One observer and friend stated, “Most fervently did he believe in free thought. He held it to be an indispensable requisite to large discovery of truth. Fetters on the mind he utterly abhorred, and he would have cut off his own right hand before he would have helped to bind them upon any human being.”

Professor Beebee gave most of his attention to his courses in homiletics in the Seminary but he did teach logic to college juniors. Professor Sylvester Burnham, appointed to the Seminary faculty in 1875, by student request, first offered an elective course in Biblical Literature for college seniors in 1887. His approach was an analysis of the Bible as national literature in comparison with other ancient literatures. The course won acceptance and was adopted by other colleges.

Academic incentives in the form of prize competitions numbered three in 1869 and twelve in 1890, and at the latter date rewarded distinguished achievement in the classics, chemistry, history, mathematics, English composition, public speaking, and debate. Professor Lewis had been active in instigating and promoting those in the last three areas. He also encouraged the University to join the Intercollegiate Literary Association in 1876. This organization staged an annual contest among the colleges for the best essays, orations, and examinations in literature which to some extent rivaled in interest the intercollegiate athletic contests of the time. Madison entrants were among the winners in 1878, 1879, and 1880.

The University’s chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, Eta of New York, owes its existence primarily to Professor Lewis. He forwarded an application for a charter to the Union College chapter, Alpha of New York, in 1873 but, apparently through inadvertance, favorable action was delayed until 1878 when Alpha complied. Associated with him as founding members were President Dodge and Professors Maynard, Burnham and Judson and they in turn elected to membership six seniors, the seven remaining faculty members, and 21 alumni.

Throughout the Dodge period the Seminary curriculum retained its major divisions of Old and New Testament, ecclesiastical history,

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p. 154 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

Posted on May 3, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 154 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

Gallup, a member of the Class of 1843 and a Seminary graduate. Eaton shared the Theological Department with Turney and taught intellectual and moral philosophy in the College. Spear became Professor of Hebrew and Latin and Gallup held the chair of Greek. William T. Biddle, Class of 1859, remembered as the leader in organizing students opposed to Removal and who was now preparing for a missionary career, was appointed tutor in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy for one year. The Trustees also retained Dr. William Mather to lecture in chemistry and geology.

The ablest of the new staff was Beebee. Though originally called to teach logic and English literature he subsequently had classes in sacred rhetoric and ecclesiastical and civil history. As a young man he attracted attention with his handsome strong features, keen eyes, and brown curly hair. Students in the ’50’s, particularly those underclassmen whose stumbling recitations sorely tried his patience, feared him as no other professor. His relations with students improved with the years though the undergraduates always held him in awe. His sensitivity to the correct use of language made taking an essay or oration to him for criticism an ordeal to be remembered. Vulgarity or unrestrained humor in his classes he refused to tolerate. “To lead the student on with alluring gentleness and graceful tact, or to burn out his dross with consuming fire, was equally within his power. He was a master of sarcasm but never used it to hurt.”

President Taylor, in his capacity as Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy, took over Tutor Biddle’s classes in 1851. At the President’s request, Lucien M. Osborn was brought in to assist in mathematics and to have charge of the Preparatory Department, or Grammar School. A classmate of Professor Beebee’s and for one year a student in the Seminary, he had been principal of the Hamilton and Morrisville Academies. Except for the brief experience as disciplinary officer under President Eaton, his main interest was natural science. He was a very modest man and pitched his instruction at a rather elementary level. His course in astronomy inspired students with “the majesty of the Author of nature and life.” One of them also remembered the exceptionally high spiritual tone he imparted to the chapel services which he occasionally conducted.

The most noteworthy of the post-Removal faculty was Ebenezer Dodge. His selection in 1853 to succeed Edmund Turney as Professor

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p. 147 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

Posted on May 3, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 147 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

sistence, and sagacity, Dr. Eaton found uncongenial. He preferred rather to represent the University at public assemblies or, in his ornate style, to discuss abstract ideas from the platform or pulpit. The dogged, methodical Professor Spear took over many of the less colorful duties, including those as Librarian, but his.. special interest was finances. Others, the Trustees themselves often managed. Aversion to administration and a desire to give full time to his theological professorship explain Eaton’s enthusiastic efforts to induce ex-Governor George Nixon Briggs of Massachusetts, a prominent Baptist, to become “Chancellor” of the University. Interestingly enough, Eaton began this abortive movement in 1859, only three years after he had taken office, and was joined in it by the entire faculty.

Strained relations between the President and the faculty appeared in 1862 when they refused to support him on a question of honorary degrees. Mrs. Eaton recorded in her diary that a professor told her that one member had been so impudent to the President at a faculty meeting that, had her informant been in Dr. Eaton’s place, “he would have pitched him out the window.” His two foremost critics were Alexander M. Beebee Jr., and Ebenezer Dodge. Beebee, the son of the editor of the Baptist Register, a member of the Class of 1847, and graduate of the Seminary, had joined the faculty in 1850 as Professor of Logic and English Literature. Dodge, an alumnus of Brown University, and Newton Theological Seminary, had replaced Professor Turney in 1853. Appointed under the Colgate family’s sponsorship and enjoying their confidence, he was in a strong position.

The stresses of office impaired Dr. Eaton’s health, and on medical advice in 1853 he went to Europe for a change and to rest. His trip was a moderate success but he complained bitterly that the Trustees failed to provide him with sufficient funds, unaware that James B. Colgate had arranged with a London banker to honor all his drafts. He also worried and fretted about University matters. His return in May 1864, was the occasion for cordial and enthusiastic welcome by students, townspeople and faculty, who had gathered at his home“Woodland Height.”

The year 1864-65 saw no material improvement in conditions and with the Civil War over an opportune time had come for the President to resign. He did so in July 1865, but, at the request of the Trustees, continued to serve until his successor was selected. Failing to induce

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