Tag Archives: James Edmunds

p. 101 – Administrative problems and incorporation, 1833-1846

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To supplant the Cottage Edifice, which the increased enrollment made too small for dining purposes, a new Boarding Hall was built in 1838 under the supervision of Steward Edmunds. It was 95 feet long, 42 feet wide, and two stories high. Its site “on the plain” where the present Huntington Gymnasium now is, was considered to have several advantages: students would get exercise by walking down the Hill for their meals; produce could be brought in easily from the Society’s farm; and access to the village for business purposes would be convenient. The Cottage Edifice was fitted up for classrooms.

Students themselves provided what today would be called janitor service. They not only kept their own rooms in order but also rang the bell for classes and services, swept and lighted the classrooms, and heated them with wood which they themselves sawed and chopped. A sense of cleanliness and neatness does not seem to have restrained some from throwing various objects out of dormitory windows. The faculty and Students Association found it necessary to make regulations prohibiting the practice, the Association even voting a fine of one shilling for throwing out water, especially mop water.

The Board and students took measures for fire protection, but no significant conflagrations occurred. In 1837 the Trustees directed the steward to take out a $10,000 fire insurance policy. Occupants of dormitories were required to furnish themselves with sheet-iron covered pans for carrying live coals to their stoves and were directed not to steal embers from classrooms. Each was supposed to have a pail full of water in his room in the evening before retiring for use in case of emergencies. One December Sunday in 1837 there were two small fires in West Hall. The first started in a chimney during the night, and burned into the ceiling by morning when it was put out. The second happened in the afternoon when most of the students were attending services in the village. When the alarm was given, the congregations in the Baptist,· Congregational, and Episcopal churches immediately broke up and raced for the Hill in sleighs, on horseback and on foot. Before many arrived the blaze, again in a chimney, had been extin­guished. Within a few days the Board asked that two bucket brigades and a property-recovering company be formed, but apparently these organizations were short-lived because within a few years new ones were established.

By 1840 the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution had

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p. 97 – Administrative problems and incorporation, 1833-1846

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to agony of spirit in devising means for life.” In 1840 he wondered why the Baptists of the State of New York couldn’t raise $20,000 for the Institution if those of Maine and Massachusetts provided $50,000 for Waterville College. Two years later Dr. Kendrick wrote that the claims of ministerial education were “but faintly perceived and more feebly felt by the great body of the churches throughout the State” while the Board and faculty were carrying a burden which was “greater than they can long endure.”

Two of the Board’s most effective agents for collecting funds were James Edmunds, Jr., the steward, and Zenas Freeman. Both were on intimate terms with Dr. Kendrick and possessed remarkable energy and keen judgment. As they traveled up and down New York State presenting the claims of the Institution on the generosity of the churches and individuals, they constantly met competition from agents of other denominational interests, notably the American and Foreign Bible Society, and home and foreign missions. Adverse economic conditions, such as the Panic of 1837 and low crop prices, also reduced collections.

Auxiliary societies continued to be an important reservoir of funds. Those in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan sent contributions and students to Hamilton. There were also several women’s organizations, particularly the New York City Baptist Female Education Society, which channeled large sums to the treasury. Between 1836 and 1841 these groups contributed $10,000. The Young Men’s Education Society of New York and Brooklyn likewise deserves mention for its generous patronage.

Among the individuals who made sizable gifts were: Deacon Olmstead with two $1,000 scholarships; Deacon Colgate with one; Mrs. Hulda E. Thompson of Troy, New York, with one (the largest donation by a woman); and Stephen B. Munn of New York City, $1,500. John Rathbone, also of New York City, gave the Education Society 13,000 acres of mountain land in western Virginia, estimated to be worth between three and five thousand dollars. Justus H. Vipton, Class of 1833, missionary to the Karens in Burma, endowed out of his meager salary a $1,000 scholarship for the exclusive use of students preparing to become missionaries in the Far East. An even more exceptional gift was $100 from Mrs. Jane G. E. Reed, a missionary to Siam and window of Alanson Reed, Class of 1835, who had died in

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p. 83 – Student life, 1833-1846

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entered left to go into the ministry without completing their courses or even advancing to the beginning of the theological instruction. The principal reason was lack of funds.

The Education Society, so far as its means permitted, assisted poor students after they had been enrolled long enough for the faculty to judge their “character and talents.” As beneficiaries, they received board and tuition in return for a pledge promising to refund the expenditures in their behalf. In 1840 the Trustees refused to accept students as beneficiaries unless they gave clear intention of completing their course.

The total annual expense in 1833 in any of the three departments was $58.00, of which $16.00 represented tuition and $42.00 board and washing at the rate of $1.25 per week. By 1846 expenses for a lay student in the collegiate department totaled $93.00. Of this sum, tuition represented $30.00; board and washing, at $1.25 per week, $50.00; room rent, $9.00; incidentals, $3; and sacred music instruction $1. A non-ministerial student in the academic department paid the same charges except tuition, which was $20.00. Ministerial students in the academic and collegiate departments were not charged for room rent, hence their expenses were $74.00 and $84.00 respectively. Stu­dents in the theological department paid only $54.00 since tuition and room rent were free.

The quality of food which the Steward, in his efforts to keep down expenses, was able to provide for $1.25 per week would not be rated very high by modern standards. One student wrote in 1841, that breakfast consisted of coffee, bread and butter; dinner of meat, potatoes, bread and butter; and supper of milk, bread and butter. Today such a diet would be considered totally inadequate, but a century ago when Americans made relatively little use of fresh fruits, milk and leafy vegetables it was not so unsatisfactory as it now seems.

In the late 1830’s, Steward James Edmunds had great difficulty in getting provisions. Flour cost more than $60.00 a barrel and ordinary quality wheat $1.87 a bushel. Over three barrels of flour, or fifteen bushels of wheat, were needed each week to supply his boarders. Since the Steward did not find sufficient breadstuffs in the immediate vicinity, he had go as far as Ohio to buy them. He also resorted to substituting potatoes for the expensive wheat flour.

The Cottage Edifice served as the commons until 1838 when the

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