Tag Archives: James B. Colgate

p. 151 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

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seem to appeal to them but in 1863 these gentlemen and their brother, Robert, proposed that the University and the Education Society attempt to raise $70,000 and offered to match any sum collected up to $30,000. Of the total amount secured, about $15,000 was used to cancel the Society’s debt, $5,000 invested for the use of the library, and the balance, some $43,000 added to the endowment.

The largest single donation was received in 1865 when James B. Colgate and John B. Trevor gave $70,000. They provided that $40,000 be designated the Trevor Education Fund, the income to be used for scholarships for Civil War veterans or their sons, and the remainder to be set aside as a fund for the expenses of the Presidency. The next year they made another gift of $10,000 to constitute an investment fund for campus improvements. Mr. Colgate and Mr. Trevor were partners in James B. Colgate and Company, a large brokerage firm with offices in New York, Baltimore, and Washington. They dealt also in precious metals, and during the Civil War Mr. Colgate assisted the Federal government in maintaining its gold reserve. In addition to contributing to Madison University, Mr. Trevor was a generous benefactor to the University of Rochester.

By 1869 the University had an endowment of more than $180,000 and no indebtedness. Contributions from the churches for current expenses of the Education Society increased from less than $1,000 in 1865 to nearly $13,000, some four years later. To augment the existing University funds and to provide for repairs and new equipment, Treasurer Spear and others, in 1868, launched a successful campaign for a $100,000 “Jubilee Offering.” There were now ample resources for future expansion.

The campus in the 1850’s and ’60’s was still as rural as it had always been. Except for paths flanked by beautiful shade trees, every acre was either “plowed, mowed, or pastured.” An ugly unpainted board fence enclosed the grounds and broad stretches of meadow land which extended in almost every direction over the hills invited youths, disgusted with dull textbooks, for long walks on bright afternoons. In 1851 the students voluntarily laid a mile of hemlock plank walk from the foot of the hill to Broad Street and from the Boarding Hall to the Baptist meeting house and lined each side with maples. Their efforts, coming at a time when every gesture of confidence in the University strengthened morale, gained them the Trustees’ sincere appreciation.

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p. 150 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

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them for funds for the University of Rochester. Both sides sought particularly to win over the wealthy iron merchant and philanthropist, Garrat N. Bleecker, who proved to be a decided Madison supporter; his check for $3,000 was the largest single contribution to the endow­ment. Other agents circulated among the upstate Baptist churches, and there, also, met rivals from Rochester. The solicitors for both institutions proved remarkably successful, thanks to the high level of agricultural prosperity then prevailing in the region. By August 1851, the friends of Madison, having exceeded their goal of $60,000 by $7,000, were ready to lift it to $100,000, a sum they did not achieve.

The University endowment drive naturally cut into the Education Society’s income since its patrons had first to pay their endowment pledges, and consequently the latter organization had a deficit of about $15,000 for several years. The Society had originally incurred most of its indebtedness by attempting to support more beneficiaries than funds permitted. Then, the growing apathy of the churches to the cause of ministerial education in the late ’50’s and the demands of charities attendant on the Civil War greatly reduced annual contributions. The University treasury likewise experienced stringency, forcing the Trustees in 1861 to cut salaries.

To Professors Spear, Eaton and others, invested funds seemed the answer to financial worries. Despite his $2,000 contribution to the endowment in 1850, Deacon Colgate resolutely opposed this means of support, citing Scriptural caution against “anxious care for the morrow” and “distrusting our Lord for the future.” As Dr. Eaton wrote years later, “This had been good advice, had all been like-minded with him and been as ready to give according to their ability.” Fortunately for the University, the Deacon’s friend, Garrat Bleecker, dissented, and in 1853 left the institution $12,000 which, with the $3,000 he had given in 1850, he directed to be used as the foundation for the University’s first chair, the Bleecker Professorship of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy.

Professor Spear, noting that the University’s invested funds had mitigated the effect of the Panic of 1857 on its treasury, urged Deacon Colgate’s sons, James B. and Samuel, to assist in raising $30,000 for its sister corporation, the Education Society, and, more particularly, to establish a Colgate professorship by adding $13,000 to the $2,000 their father had given to the original endowment, The latter idea did not

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p. 147 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

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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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p. 141 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

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Village and Campus, c. 180. First Baptist Church in foreground, A1000-64, Folder 33, p66

Tower who concurrently served as Treasurer from 1847 to 1864. A Waterville, New York, distiller and merchant, sagacious and dignified, he had been a member since 1846 and an Education Society Trustee since 1838. Though he had favored Removal and served as one of the original Trustees of the University of Rochester, no Board member exceeded him in service to the Hamilton institution. Tower’s successor in the presidency was James B. Colgate of New York, son of Deacon William Colgate, who was to serve in that capacity until his death 40 years later. Professor Spear followed Tower as Treasurer, remaining in office until 1888.

The Education Society’s Trustees represented the same shades of opinion as the University Corporation and many sat on both Boards. Its presidents were Deacon William Cobb (1849-58) and Deacon Seneca B. Burchard (1858-61), both from Hamilton, and Samuel Colgate (1861-97) of New York, also a son of Deacon William Colgate. Following their father’s death in 1857, both James B. and Samuel became very influential in the affairs of both Boards. Deacon Alvah Pierce, who had been Treasurer since 1837, retained that office until 1887.

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p. 24 – Administration, setting and staff, 1820-183

Posted on April 27, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Filston Hall, p024

 Filston Hall, ancestral home of Colgate family near Sevenoaks, Kent, England

almost exclusively to “reform movements” within his own denomination or to those in which Baptists had a direct interest, such as Bible translation. Annually he gave a tenth or more of his income to the church and other charities.

Genuinely concerned for the welfare of the Seminary at Hamilton, Deacon Colgate cultivated in other people an interest in the institution. His wife, Mary, and Sarah, his daughter, assisted the women’s auxiliary societies of New York to collect money for the treasury and furnishings for student rooms. His sons, James B. and Samuel, after their father’s death in 1857, were to carry on nobly the family tradition in education which he had begun. The hospitable Colgate home was the usual stopping place for Kendrick, Hascall, and other Hamilton Baptists when they were in New York. The shrewd advice which their host must have given them on denominational and financial questions as well as the credit he often extended to the harried Treasurer of the Education Society made William Colgate its preeminent patron.

The Institution’s financial history resembles that of most early American colleges which frequently ran deficits and were enabled to continue their work only through heroic sacrifices by their officers, faculties,

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Posted in Administration Setting and Staff 1820-1833, Chapter 2, p. 24

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