the students presented him with a written tribute and held a special meeting to bid him farewell. After six years in which he was to take the principal role in founding and developing the University at Lewisburg (now Bucknell) he was to return to the campus in 1851 as president of Madison University.
The youngest member of the faculty was John Howard Raymond, born in New York City, who in 1837, at the age of twenty-three, acted as tutor in Hebrew even before he had completed the theological course. The next year he exchanged Hebrew for intellectual and moral philosophy and belles lettres and in 1840 became Professor of Rhetoric and the English Language. Raymond had studied three years at Columbia but, when expelled for some student prank, had attended Union from which he graduated in 1832. Following a brief period reading law he had decided to prepare for the ministry and entered the Institution for that purpose. He had at once impressed the faculty with his ability and promise. Admitted to the Class of 1836, he and three classmates proposed to go to Assam and there translate the Bible into the languages of the East. When this venture failed to materialize, he decided to devote himself to teaching.
Raymond’s natural bent toward language had shown itself when, as a schoolboy of nine or ten, he had avidly studied Goold Brown’s Grammar under the author’s direction. He called this book “the foundation of all the intellectual discipline I ever had.” As a student at the Hamilton Academy in 1824-25 he became as absorbed in Latin and rhetoric as he had been fascinated by English grammar. Brilliant and devoted to his teaching he threw himself into his work with great success. On at least two occasions when he was offered more attractive positions, Dr. Kendrick implored him not to leave since he felt the Seminary could scarcely recover from the blow. His sparkling and kindly wit, genial manner, and innate refinement must have helped to bring out the social graces and poise of his students just as his keen intelligence and industry developed their minds.
Philetus Bennett Spear, like his classmate Raymond, joined the faculty in 1837 before finishing the theological course. A native of Palmyra, New York, he was tutor in mathematics and then in Hebrew until he was made “adjunct professor” of that subject in 1842. Spear’s primary interests were administration and finance, and long service in these fields, rather than teaching, gave him his reputation.
