Tag Archives: Daniel Hascall

p. 33 – Administration, setting and staff, 1820-1833

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Besides the chapel, West Hall contained a lecture room, a library, and studies and sleeping rooms which could accommodate about seventy students, two to the room. Occupants were permitted to paint the walls of their rooms if they wished and furniture from the “stone building on the plain,” which groups and individuals had provided, was transferred to chambers in the new building bearing the names the donors had specified for those in the old one. Since lack of furniture made it possible at first to use less than half of the sleeping rooms, appeals went out for contributions of beds, bedding and other equipment. Outfitting quarters for students cost $50.00.

Extensive renovations have obliterated all traces of the original interior but externally the building is the same as it was in 1827. One observer then wrote that the structure was plain, well designed and constructed, and showed marks of strict economy. Today architects still comment on its simplicity and excellent proportions. In the general exterior design it resembles other college buildings of the period including Painter Hall at Middlebury, Hascall’s Alma Mater.*

Within a week after West Hall was dedicated, Hascall had completed, at a cost of $950, a “large convenient” boarding house, known as the “Cottage Edifice,” and a wood house; both were, of course, necessary complements to the new classroom and dormitory building. The boarding house, which stood between West and the present Alumni Halls, was 48 feet long and 34 feet wide and two stories high. The cellar and kitchen were in the first story, the dining room and living quarters for the steward and his family in the second.

The campus of the 1820’s and 30’s probably was bleak, bare of trees or shrubs, and without landscaping to enhance the natural beauty of the site. A new road down to the present College Street was opened and about ten acres to the north stretching to that highway were purchased. Hascall, acting as superintendent of buildings and grounds, cleared the space around the buildings and enclosed it with a fence. He also removed to the rear of the boarding house an old distillery, presumably once operated by Samuel Payne, for the students to use as a workshop. By 1829 Kendrick could report that the Education Society owned real estate worth over $12,000.

Hascall, Kendrick, and other faculty members to a lesser degree,

* The Trustees of the Hamilton Academy purchased the “building on the plain” for their boys’ department which occupied it until the academy was discontinued in the 1850’s. Hamilton Academy Record Book, Apr. 28, 1827.

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p. 32 – Administration, setting, and staff, 1820-1833

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the Annual Meeting. Appropriately enough, Stephen Gano, of Providence, at the request of the Executive Committee and on the strong recommendation of Nicholas Brown, gave the sermon, preaching from Isaiah, XXIX, 11, 12, “And the vision of all is become to you as the words of a book that is sealed….” His massive form, majestic appearance and powerful melodious voice held the attention of his hearers. Hascall, who followed him with an address “embracing a view of the providence of God which had conducted the Institution to its present elevation,” must have felt triumphant and at the same time humble as he related what had been achieved. Choral music of a “superior style” was interspersed throughout the program. A spirit of thanksgiving and devotion pervaded the audience as they realized what Hascall and his co-workers had accomplished. At noon members  of the Education Society attended a dinner provided for them by the Executive Committee and in the afternoon were present at a meeting of the newly formed Society of Alumni and Friends, at which Gerrit Smith, the First Vice President, presided.

Commencement the next day tested the strength and seating capacity of the chapel. It was estimated that between two and three thousand people ‘packed themselves in for the occasion. Since the floors held, there was no fear of their giving way in the future. One observer described the room as follows:

The chapel occupies part of the third and fourth stories, with an arched ceiling similar to a well furnished meeting house. The whole of the  fourth story is embraced in the chapel, and forms the gallery except about twenty feet on the west end, which is appropriated to rooms. The center room about twenty feet square, is designed for philosophical apparatus, and opens by folding doors on to the stage, or west gallery of the chapel, and forms, when opened, an admirable platform for the trustees and faculty to occupy at commencement. That part of the gallery appropriated to the stage is about 8 feet wide perhaps, and  is finished with a railing in front, and commands a full view of the audience in the galleries, and also in the pit. That part of the chapel, which we call the pits the area between the galleries formed by a continuation of the panels, or walls in front of the galleries, down to the floor of the third story, excluding all that part of the third story under the galleries. This pit has seats ascending, with a platform and  desk at one end, sufficiently large for all ordinary occasions of worship. It strikes one as templum in templo.*

* New York Baptist Register, June 16, 1827.

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West Hall completed (p. 31)

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West Hall.
West Hall

depression such as that on a cold January day in 1827 when he wrote to his friend and counsellor, Nathaniel Kendrick, then at Hartford, Connecticut, on an “agency.” Hascall reported that he had returned from a fundraising trip with little to show for his efforts. Though the building was progressing, he had difficulty in keeping the workmen in materials since the sawmills were shut down. Beset by family worries and in doubt as to whether he should continue as pastor, he continued, “I find myself in a strait place and no one to advise me in your absence. I shall not abandon the work of building until it is finished; unless Special Providence requires it.” This letter, one of the most human in the University’s archives, lights up with a warm glow the intimate relationship between these two men to whose herculean labors the Institution owed so much.*

Hascall’s experience in putting up the “building on the plain” must have been helpful when he came to erect West Hall. According to tradition, he had the gray limestone for the walls quarried from the  hill above the old golf course. Construction progressed so well that on May 28, 1827, a year before the contract stipulated, he turned over the completed building to the Executive Committee.

Formal dedication of the structure came on June 5th as part of the exercises of the week of “public examinations,” Commencement, and

* Daniel Hascall, to Nathaniel Kendrick, Hartford, Conn., Jan. 15, 1827.

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p. 29 – Administration, setting, and staff, 1820-1833

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Mrs. Samuel Payne, A0999-3, p29

Deacon Payne seems to have acquired a moderate amount of wealth in agriculture. He took a rather active part in the political life of the county and twice sat in the State Assembly. He belonged to the conservative wing of the Democratic-Republican party and, his solid figure and dignified presence must have been well known at caucuses and conventions. For many years he ‘was a Justice of the Peace and in 1832 a Presidential Elector. Mrs. Payne, a kind and pious woman, who made her home a place where the young men of the Institution could find understanding and cheer, was known as “the Students’ Mother.” In the early years before rooms were available in the “building on the plain,” students lived with the Paynes. Without children of their own, they gave to the school the love and affection they would normally have bestowed on a family.

The choice of a site for the new building, now to be on the Payne farm, the Executive Committee referred to a committee of six. Hascall, whose plan for the structure they had already approved, served as a member. He had represented the Institution at a meeting of the Board of the now auxiliary New York Baptist Theological Seminary in New York City whose members raised $2,000 by their own efforts for the building and later, when additional funds were needed, borrowed $1,000 more at 7 percent interest.

A gift of $1,000 from Nicholas Brown proved another important addition to the building fund. Brown’s pastor, the Rev. Stephen Gano of the First Baptist Church of Providence, Rhode Island, returned from a visit to Hamilton in 1825 enthusiastic about the Seminary and

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p. 27 – Administration, setting, and staff, 1820-1833

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enclosed on three sides with a fence of oak posts and hemlock boards. Subsequently the Trustees bought about four and a half acres adjoining the yard “for cultivation by the students and for building lots.”

No plans or descriptions of the interior exist but it is certain that the building was used both for classrooms and as a dormitory. Accommodations at the time of opening were ample since they were designed for forty students and only about thirty were registered. Seniors had rooms on the third and second floors, the “middle class” on the second, and juniors” on the first. As a means of encouraging donations for outfitting student rooms the Executive Committee agreed that any individual or group providing furniture worth $50.00 might give a name to the room. Articles contributed included chairs, tables, cots, candlesticks, snuffers, pitchers, sheets, pillow-cases, blankets, towels, shovels, tongs, brooms, and “save-alls.” The congregation of the “South Baptist Meeting House,” New York City, asked that the room they furnished be named for their pastor, Charles G. Sommers, who had been the first young man aided by the New York Baptist Theological Seminary. They also requested that it be occupied by Norman Bentley and Seth Smalley, both of the Class of 1826.

Only two years after the completion of the “stone academy,” enrollment had jumped to fifty. At a special meeting of the Board in August, 1825, called to discuss the overcrowding, the Trustees agreed that another building was needed and directed the Executive Committee and the agents to take measures for its erection “without interfering with the funds of the Society.” Perhaps the Board had in its mind Deacon Colgate, Gerrit Smith, or Nicholas Brown, the wealthy Baptist merchant of Providence, Rhode Island, when they further resolved that any person making a donation equal to the cost of a new building might select a name for it. At the request of the Executive Committee, Daniel Hascall prepared and presented a plan for a four-story structure, 100 feet long and 60 feet wide, to be completed in two years ‘at a cost of $6,500. His plan was accepted.

There is no evidence to show where the proposed building was to be placed though there is reason to believe it was to have been located near the “stone academy.” However, the Trustees may have had a different idea, for at a special meeting in February, 1826, they appointed Jonathan Olmstead, Seneca B. Burchard, and Samuel Payne “to enquire into the propriety of purchasing a farm to be

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First building erected (p. 26)

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The First Building c. 1823, A1000-24, Folder 1, p26
Engraving of the first Colgate building, c. 1823

a brick building worth $3,500. By November 1822 they had more than fulfilled their contract. The building was made of stone instead of bricks and its dimensions, 36 feet by 64 feet, were in excess of specifications. It had cost $32.72 more than had been agreed upon and was ready six months earlier than promised. Daniel Hascall had taken the lead in enlisting the support of the villagers, particularly the members of the Baptist Church, and had supervised the construction. His personal finances became so involved in those of the project that a decade later he was in debt over $1,100 and never was fully reimbursed for the sums he had advanced. When the Seminary vacated the brick building the Hamilton Academy used the entire structure until a fire destroyed it in 1855.

The new building, later known as the “building on the plain” or the “stone academy,” stood on the east side of the present Hamilton Street and was dedicated at the Education Society’s annual meeting in June, 1823. A crude woodcut shows the three-story building to have been simple, unpretentious, and similar to remaining examples of the architecture of the period in this locality, such as East and West Halls. Hascall, by direction of the Executive Committee, had the yard

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First issue of New York Baptist Register (p. 19)

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and his brother editors announced their support of the Institution, a policy which their successor, Alexander M. Beebee, steadily maintained for thirty years after he took over the paper in 1825. Since the periodical was widely read, its continued assistance was a valuable asset.

The Register prepared the churches for visits from agents of the Society who collected contributions and testified to the genuine piety and purpose of the Seminary. The Executive Committee had stated in 1820:

There remains no doubt but a liberal patronage will be afforded this Institution, from the flourishing region of the country bounded east by the Green Mountains, west by the Niagara River, north by Lake Ontario and the river St. Lawrence, including, perhaps, some portion of Pennsylvania on the south. Within these limits are nearly five hundred Baptist churches; about three hundred of which are in the state of New York, west of the Hudson River. But a small number of these churches have been visited, or even become acquainted with this Society.*

The contacts the agents made not only produced a large part of the annual income but also won over many Baptists hostile to the training of ministers. When the needs of the Seminary required special exertions, and that was fairly regularly, the Trustees appointed full-time paid agents. Among the most successful were Joel W. Clark and Elon Galusha. Occasionally, friends of the Institution were induced to make collections in their own areas and often Kendrick, Hascall, or other faculty members “accepted an agency.”

The agents received donations of goods as well as money; and in their reports are found listed such items as cloth, articles of clothing for students, chairs, a saddle, a thermometer, a bed, and stoves. Some could be used and others sold. Contributions of food, such as an 18-pound cheese, a bushel and a half of dried apples or 565 pounds of pork, valued at $33.90, could be added to the larder of the boarding house or sold to merchants. The Reverend Spencer H. Cone, prominent Baptist preacher of New York City, sent 42 copies of his edition of Jones’ Church History to be sold for $219.50; he agreed to give a quarter of that amount to the Institution. General Abner Forbes, member of the Vermont legislature, donated 60 merino sheep including “one good size full blooded Merino buck.” The wealthy Peterboro

* Baptist Education Society, Annual Report, 1820, p. 6.

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p. 18 – Administration, Setting, And Staff, 1820-1833

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In addition to Kendrick, Clark, Olmstead, and Daniel Hascall, the personnel of the Committee included Elon Galusha, John Peck, and Seneca B. Burchard. Galusha, son of Jonas Galusha, a former governor of Vermont, was making a reputation at Whitesboro as one of the most eloquent Baptist preachers in the State. He was later to figure prominently in the antislavery controversy which would split the denomination in the ‘forties. “Father Peck,” the greatly loved and benign pastor of the Cazenovia church, subsequently became well known as a far-ranging agent for home and foreign missions. Burchard, one of the most important of the stalwart laymen intimately associated with the Institution, left a record of service matching that of Olmstead. A newly appointed faculty member in a confidential letter described Burchard and Olmstead as “two very grave and sober and considerate and economical Deacons. They are shrewd and judicious men, however, and are perhaps the fairest representation of the whole Bap. Community with whom we have to do.”*

The high point in the year was the Society’s Annual Meeting,usually held, the first week in June. The date was fitted into the schedule of “public examinations” of the students and the “public exercises” of the juniors and seniors. At this time the officers of the Society brought together all those interested in the Institution. The procedure on these occasions resembled that of the meetings of Baptist associations with which Kendrick and his associates were familiar. A sermon by a well-known preacher selected long in advance opened the program and no doubt attracted a crowd of rapt listeners who, it was hoped, would stay through the remainder and really more important part of the meeting. From the various reports then submitted they learned of the year’s achievements and the problems and hopes for the future. The last item of business was the election of Trustees, who in turn immediately chose their officers.

With the exception of the first two, all meetings convened in Hamilton, probably at the Baptist meeting house until the Society had halls of sufficient size in its own buildings. The Reports of the occasions, which were prepared almost entirely by Kendrick, constitute one of the most enlightening sources for the history of the Institution. Announcements and news about the Seminary also appeared in the New York Baptist Register, the State organ of the denomination published at Utica. In the first issue, February 20, 1824, Elon Galusha

* Joel S. Bacon to George W. Eaton, Georgetown, Ky., Aug. 28, 1833.

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14 accepted for ministerial training (p. 14)

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Meanwhile, the Executive Committee had been receiving several applications for assistance from young men desiring ministerial training. By May, 1820, fourteen had been accepted as beneficiaries of the Society, that is, all or part of their expenses were paid out of its treasury. Since the Society did not yet have its own institution, they studied with Hascall, Kendrick, Clark, and the Rev. Elon Galusha in Whitesboro.

With the selection of Hamilton as the site for the school, it became necessary to obtain a full-time instructor. The Executive Committee sought in vain to engage at least three of the most promising young men in the denomination, one of whom, Stephen W. Taylor, some years later, became an outstanding teacher and president of their institution as well as the first executive officer of Lewisburg (Bucknell) University. The Committee finally fell back on Daniel Hascall “whose services thus far have been acceptable.” With ten young men, he began formal instruction on May 1st, 1820. Meeting in the third story over the Hamilton Academy, erected by the citizens of the village as per their agreement, Hascall, his students, and classroom represented the embodiment of the ideal cherished by the founders of the Education Society since 1817.

Colgate University had now come into being, though in a form vastly different from that of 1969. The first stage in its development was over. Daniel Hascall, Nathaniel Kendrick and their associates on the Executive Committee could report that though they were conscious “of a want of wisdom, to manage with any correctness, the unadjusted and complicated concerns of this infant Institution” they had “been much encouraged in the belief, that God has hitherto made it the care of his fostering providence.”*

* Baptist Education Society, Annual Report, 1820, 3, 7.

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Ebenezer Wakeley introduces a bill for incorporation (p. 12)

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The Baptist Education Society’s first year proved more prosperous than its founders had expected. Its agents had raised over $2,400 in donations and $55.00 in subscriptions. Already one student, Jonathan Wade, of Hartford, New York, had been received as a beneficiary and was studying Latin with Daniel Hascall. The sum of $27.12 for his board for fifteen and a half weeks at $1.75 per week was the chief expenditure. So sanguine were the members that they directed the Trustees to apply to the state legislature for a charter for the organization. A committee was also appointed to select a site for the new institution.

News of the founding of the Education Society had spread to New England, New York, and Philadelphia. William Staughton, Luther Rice, and the Board of the Triennial Convention, believing that the interests of the denomination could best be served by a concentration of effort, hoped that the Society would become an auxiliary organization of the Convention and send men and funds to its institution in Philadelphia; But no step was taken in this direction. Hascall, Kendrick and the others had clearly indicated in the Constitution that the Society was to have its own institution and one of the arguments urged for supporting it was that the school would be located in up-state New York.

As directed by the Society, the Trustees petitioned the legislature for a charter. Ebenezer Wakeley, a member who, was in the Assembly, in January 1819 introduced a bill for incorporation and headed the select committee to which it was referred. He later learned that General Erastus Root, a fellow assemblyman of great influence with the majority party, opposed the bill on the ground that it would charter a religious society. An extremely able man, scholarly, sarcastic, dissipated, and sometimes uncouth and rough, Root could be a dreaded antagonist. When Wakeley called on him one evening in an attempt to explain the purpose of the Society and win him over he exclaimed, “What the devil do you want with an act of incorporation?” and swore that the bill should be defeated. The next morning as the Assembly went into the committee of the whole the Speaker called on Root to preside. Wakeley feared that the General would ask to be excused so that he could participate in the discussion, but after a moment’s hesitation he took the chair and thus eliminated himself as an opponent on the floor. As Wakeley presented the reasons for the bill, Root would frequently scowl at him. On its third reading it passed with 62

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