Tag Archives: James B. Colgate

Memorial Chapel (p. 268)

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be well-organized appeals in the form of the annual alumni fund.

The early years of the Bryan administration saw renovation and adaptation of four old buildings. Work on the dormitories, West, and East Halls, which Dr. Merrill had planned and to which the growing enrollment of the College gave urgency, was completed-West in 1910 and East, with a Commons for feeding 100 in the basement, a year later. At the termination of Colgate Academy in 1912, its facilities became available for other uses. Administrative offices were moved from the Library to the academy building, henceforth known as the Administration Building, and Taylor Hall, which the Academy fraternities had occupied, was taken over for the post office and the YMCA.

The long recognized need for an infirmary was met in 1913 through the generosity of Mrs. James C. Colgate whose contributions enabled the University to acquire and equip the former Phi Kappa Psi fraternity house on East Pleasant Street for this purpose,

Though the College, Seminary, and Academy each had its own chapel, the College chapel had become so crowded by 1915 that only a part of the student body could be accommodated. Plans for a new building were drawn by Harding and Seaver, architects of Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and a location chosen which would bring buildings together around the north quadrangle. The donor, Miss Mary Colgate, sister of James C. Colgate, who gave it in memory of their father, James B. Colgate, specified that it should be in the simple New England meeting house style. Construction began in the spring of 1917 and it was first used for the September 1918 convocation. Miss Colgate dedicated the building in June, 1920, and provided an endowment for its maintenance. Its symmetry and simple classical beauty have made a focal point on the Hill ever since.

By the early 1920’s the campus had grown into the park-like tract that its planners and creators, especially the landscape architect Ernest W. Bowditch, and Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, James M. Taylor, had envisioned. The former died in 1918 and Dr. Taylor resigned two years later to be succeeded by Lt. Colonel James Ballantine, who had recently come to Colgate as Director of Military Instruction. Colgate’s buildings and grounds by 1922 had an estimated value of $1,100,000.

Though the size of the faculty had increased from 36 in 1908 to 48 in 1922 these figures are misleading since the first includes ,21 for the

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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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p. 219 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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James B. Colgate was its first chairman and his son and Gardner Colby the other members. Another innovation, though relatively minor, which shows the trend to modern practices was the regular employment in 1890 of stenographers in the Treasurer’s and Dean’s offices.

This period saw also a slight change in the composition of the Board of Trustees. As early as 1885 James C. Colgate’s classmate, Edward M. Grout, ’84, had spearheaded a movement for alumni representation, citing several northeastern colleges where it was to be found. Inertia and the priority of other subjects seem to have delayed action till 1894 when the Board permitted all College degree holders and graduates of the Seminary’s full course to make nominations by mail ballot; the Board reserved the right to choose one alumnus from the nominees, however. The first balloting was held the next year and Grout was selected. Thereafter he was to be a permanent member of the Board, except for a two-year interval, until his death in 1931.

One of the most significant events of the ’90’s or of the University’s entire history, in fact, was James B. Colgate’s munificent gift of the Dodge Memorial Fund in honor of his dear friend, the late President. At a meeting of the Board in June, 1891, which the Education Society Trustees, by previous arrangement, attended, and from which the donor was absent, Samuel Colgate read a communication from his brother announcing the gift of securities worth $1,000,000. Three “custodians,” one of them being James C. Colgate, were named and were empowered to elect their successors and to have control of the Fund independently of the University Trustees. One half of the annual income was to be paid to the University and the balance added to the principal The total income was to be turned over when it reached a figure satisfactory to the University Trustees for providing an adequate supplement to the University’s over-all income. It is worthy of note that Mr. Colgate imposed no conditions on the use of the expendable income. He was “confident that this University will continue to be in the true sense of the term, a Baptist University where the ruling purpose is to discover and teach truth in order that it may be fearlessly, yet reverently, followed wherever it may lead.” One wonders if he appreciated the far-reaching implications of this statement. Since there developed some question as to the validity of the Deed of Gift the Board requested, and the State Legislature passed in 1900, an act chartering the ‘Dodge Fund Trustees and making the

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p. 217 – Colgate in the 1890’s

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Chapter XI – COLGATE IN THE 1890’s

The death of Dr. Dodge in 1890 marked the end of an era. He and his friend, James B. Colgate, had retarded but not prevented change. With Dodge, or the “magister,” as he was sometimes called, no longer on the scene and the aging Patron gradually relinquishing responsibilities to his son, James C. Colgate, the University moved forward with unprecedented speed. The change of name from Madison to Colgate University seemed to foreshadow innovation. Starting with the Board of Trustees, the administrative structure was reorganized, the endowment greatly augmented, the physical plant expanded and improved, several young scholars added to the faculty, new academic departments set up, the curriculum liberalized, student life, especially fraternities and athletics, given new vigor, and the alumni encouraged to participate in the University’s life. Even though there was no president for most of the period, to the distress of students and others of the academic community, morale was high and a quiet, well-founded pride was abroad on the campus. Colgate was getting in step with her sister institutions.

The Trustees quickly discovered after Dr. Dodge’s death that he had been the center of administration and with his removal they had no effective communication with the faculty and students. On faculty recommendation, they reconstituted their Provisional Committee with James C. Colgate as chairman and directed it to take over the President’s duties until that office should’ be filled. In 1891 they replaced this body with an Executive Committee with James C. Colgate as the most important member. Dean Newton Lloyd Andrews carried out the routine campus duties of the President’s office until June 1891 when four of his’ colleagues were associated with him to share the burden. “His rich experience,” Dr. Crawshaw remembered,

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p. 196 – Administration, Faculty, and Instruction in the Dodge Era

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Society, apparently anticipating possible criticism, appointed a standing committee in 1888 to examine classes and departments and to report to the Board.

Dr. Dodge’s liberality as Professor of Christian Theology undoubtedly encouraged his Seminary faculty colleagues to venture in new directions. His theology was always open to revision, Dr. Maynard recalled..Yet, he had a strong conservative strain and was no iconoclast. Dr. William Newton Clarke, his friend and successor, saw him as “swift in spirit, and cautious in step.” He permitted wide freedom in class discussion and had consideration and patience for students, no matter how extreme their views.

Professor Hezekiah Harvey, who had resigned from the faculty in 1864 returned in 1869 as Professor of New Testament Interpretation and Pastoral Theology. A saintly man who suffered from chronic ill health, he held a moderate position, emphasizing an evangelical creed. He had no quarrel with Biblical scholarship as such but rejected radical interpretations; his real concern was to teach in terms of the “practical necessities of the pastorate.”

The third division of the University, the Grammar School, or Colgate Academy, developed its own organization and policies independently of the College and Seminary with the completion of its building in 1874. The University Trustees, of course, maintained a general oversight. Mr. James B. Colgate was especially interested in its fortunes and liked to visit the school and address the students. He felt that the faculty should stress instruction in morals and stated “If any teacher dare to teach . . . sentiments subversive to the teachings of God’s word, let him be dismissed.” The school’s major purpose continued to be preparation for college but it did offer an “English and Scientific Course” for those not planning to go on. A large percentage of the graduates entered the College. Francis W. Towle, ’62, was principal 1873-82, and James W. Ford, ’73, followed him from 1883 to 1888. Outstanding among the faculty was Eugene P. Sisson, a graduate of Oswego Normal School, who joined the staff in 1873 after five years as principal of the Hamilton High School. He was sometimes acting principal and taught in the Academy until its closing in 1912 when he became Assistant Professor of Mathematics in the College. A natural teacher, “Daddy” Sisson won and held the affection of his students who prized his fatherly oversight and timely encouragement.

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Introduction of electives (p. 189)

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fervent and healthful piety is directly encouraged.”

Dean Andrews maintained in 1872 that every teacher, no matter what his subject or how great his erudition, should communicate to his class morality and ethical judgments. At the Convocation of the University of the State of New York in 1886, President Dodge, in defending the philosophy of liberal education versus the utilitarian approach, held that the true test of a college subject was not whether it would help one make money but whether it would develop manhood. Especially valuable were the languages, literature, and civilization of the Greeks and Romans. He would not exclude other subjects,however, and stressed the importance of cross-fertilization for increasing knowledge. Fearful perhaps of a drift from the old moorings, James B. Colgate, in 1889, at the cornerstone-laying for the Library, took occasion to reiterate his view that “When intellectual distinction and not Christian character becomes the highest object to be obtained, Universities become, by their stimulus to worldly ambition, centers of pride and error.”

To give flexibility to the curriculum, the faculty had from time to time arranged for abridged courses of study for older students who wanted to begin their preaching careers with the minimum preparation. In the 1850’s a shorter “Scientific Course”-from which Greek and Latin were omitted-was instituted. Relatively few students availed themselves of this short-cut for which a Bachelor of Philosophy degree was granted and it was eliminated in 1885.

The revolutionary curriculum change was, of course, the introduction of electives. Stimulated by President Eliot’s innovations at Harvard which caught the imagination of the younger faculty and students, it encountered vigorous opposition, especially from the professors of the classics and mathematics. Slowly, however, the wave of the future engulfed them and in 1885 a radically revised curriculum emerged which provided, in addition to the old Classical Course, three different Scientific Courses, one which included only Greek; a second, only Latin; and a third which omitted both Greek and Latin. Students in the Classical Course were candidates for the Bachelor of Arts degree and those in the other three for the Bachelor of Science. Within each course, electives were offered to juniors and seniors. Professor William S. Crawshaw, who as a young instructor had attended the heated discussions, commented years later in his autobiography, My

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p. 181 – Administration, Faculty, and Instruction in the Dodge Era

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tion he indeed earned and proudly bore. He, his brother, Dennis, and some of their associates were campus figures of song and story and many of them faithfully served the University until their well-earned retirement many years later.

The new wind of change brought various improvements to the buildings as well as the grounds. Exteriors were repainted, ventilators installed in classrooms after more than a decade of complaints by students and faculty, and bathrooms, a gift of James B. Colgate, were fitted up in East Hall. As a kind of finishing touch to his efforts, Professor Taylor, in the spring of 1887, planted ivy around Alumni, East and West Halls to hide their bare stones and mortar.

The Boarding Hall, a prominent feature of the old campus, was converted in 1874 into apartments for married theological students and their families since meals were no longer served there because most students now ate in “clubs”, i.e., fraternity or private groups, or boarded themselves in their rooms. Five years later fire destroyed the

Colgate Academy (Administration Building 1912-63), A1000-8 Folder 4, p181

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p. 178 Administration, Faculty, and Instruction in the Dodge Era

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tration were the Treasurers of the University and the Education Society. Professor Philetus B. Spear, Class of 136, who had been appointed University Treasurer in 1864, continued in that office until 1888. He had a well-deserved reputation for shrewdness, thrift, industry, and energy in the solicitation of funds. Through his management, and with the cooperation of James B. Colgate, the University added several acres to the campus to extend the northern boundary to its present limit.

Spear’s immediate successors were James W. Ford, ’73, former teacher and Principal of Colgate Academy (the Academic Department or Grammar School), who served from 1888 to 1889, and William R. Rowlands, ’74, who was in office from 1889 to 1896.

Deacon Alvah Pierce, University Trustee, 1846-47, 1850-91, and Treasurer of the Education Society since 1837, completed his 50 years of service in 1887. His successor was Hinton S. Lloyd, Class of 1856, and a graduate of the Seminary in 1858, who, following pastorates in New York State, had already been the Society’s Corresponding Secretary since 1877. On being appointed Treasurer ten years later he carried on in both capacities until 1907 when he retired as Treasurer but continued as Corresponding Secretary until 1915. He, like Spear, was astute, industrious, and had a painstaking zeal for ministerial education.

Financing the University in the Dodge period posed few problems, thanks in large part to Treasurer Spear’s frugal management and the generosity of James B. Colgate and members of his family. Mr. Colgate enjoyed making his donations as, for example, the “Arizona” gift of $50,000 for endowment. This was a free-will thank-offering made in 1880 “to recognize God’s providence” in preserving that steamship on which he had been a passenger when she was en route to Liverpool the previous November and seemed sure to founder after striking an iceberg. This gift and others helped to raise the total endowment of $177,000 in 1869 to $539,000 in 1890. Annual income from student fees, investments, and other sources for the same period rose from $23,000 to $40,000 while annual expenditures showed an increase from $25,000 to $36,000. For 11 out of the 22 years of the period there were modest deficits. In the early 1870’s the Grammar School shared in the Literature Fund as distributed by the Regents of the University of the State of New York.

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p. 175 – Administration, Faculty, and Instruction in the Dodge Era

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James B. Colgate, A0999-3, p175

department” and that intellectual freedom should be extended to professors and students alike. If a younger colleague needed “eldering” Dr. Dodge gave him counselor criticism in the most kindly and understanding spirit. The faculty regarded him as a genuine friend who was especially concerned with their personal welfare and professional achievement. His ideals of character and attainment constantly stimulated them to “higher intellectual exertion and nobler living.”

James B. Colgate matched Dr. Dodge in sturdiness of character. Though often gruff in manner he could be genial on occasion. His outlook on life, however, was anything but light-hearted. He opposed the use of alcohol, tobacco, card-playing, theater-going, and dancing and asserted that the waltz was “conceived by the evil one and should be condemned by all.” He did, surprisingly, have a keen delight in oil paintings, gardens, and flowers and kept an extensive greenhouse on his estate at Yonkers. Without much formal education, he had a sharp analytical mind and wrote with clarity and grace. His religious faith was “simple and childlike” and his conservative Baptist doctrinal views he held tenaciously. His great wealth came from his Wall Street activities in securities and specie in partnership with John B. Trevor.

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p. 173 – Administration, Faculty, and Instruction in the Dodge Era

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Chapter IX – ADMINISTRATION, FACULTY, AND INSTRUCTION IN THE DODGE ERA

Ebenezer Dodge, President of Madison University, and James B. Colgate, President of its Board of Trustees, were the dominant figures in its development from 1869 to 1890. They were easy yoke-fellows as they worked and counseled together for its advancement. Dodge was fifty at the beginning of the period and Colgate fifty-one. Their families had been on terms of intimate friendship since the 1840’s when Dodge was pastor, first at New Hampton and then New London, New Hampshire; the latter was the home of the Colbys, Mrs. Colgate’s family. Dodge was a welcome guest at Glenwood, the Colgate estate overlooking the Hudson at Yonkers, and his host, of course, always stayed at the President’s House when he made his annual visits to the campus at commencement. Colgate confided to his journal soon after Dodge’s death in 1890, I had no friend like him outside my family, and again, “His entering my home was always a joy & when he left it, it was a Regret to all… his great & grand thoughts touched my nature and always after his leaving me I felt myself a better man & my home enriched by his presence.” It was singularly appropriate that Mr. Colgate’s daughter, Mary, when she gave the chapel in her father’s memory nearly a generation later, Should provide two marble plaques to commemorate him ,and his co-laborer and friend.

Dr. Dodge’s administration was to a large extent the reflection of his own personality, perhaps too much so, though he was devoid of ambition, self-importance or self-assertion. His role was somewhat that of a pastor who exercised his responsibility toward his people, not in a dictatorial fashion but in such a way that there could be no uncertainty as to his views or wishes. His quick temper, which he almost invariably kept in control, was well known and on occasion he could act swiftly

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