Tag Archives: Jonathan Olmstead

p. 110 – The removal controversy, 1847-1850

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funds for the University because the impression was current that the professors lacked piety “& that their ladies pattern too much after the vain & fashionable of the world in the manner & expense of their parties.”

Noteworthy as these personal and social irritations are as background for the Removal Controversy, they are overshadowed by financial matters. When the University Trustees first met in 1846, they had “a charter to sustain the dignity of a University but not a dollar of invested capital.” The Education Society had failed to obtain funds and carried a $20,000 debt. In the First Compact the University Board had agreed

to make earnest and extended efforts for the collection of an endowment sufficiently large, to exempt [the University] from the necessity of continued appeals to the Churches, but never so increased as to foster inaction in the Faculty, or independence of the Churches.

Their goal was $50,000, half of the income to be expended for the theological professors’ salaries and the remainder for general instruction. Nothing had been accomplished, however, by the time agitation for removal began.

The constantly depleted treasury had borne heavily on the faculty, who were not content to accept the frugal standard of living of their predecessors two decades before. Particularly vexatious was the inability of the Treasurer to pay them promptly at the end of each quarter. Professor Raymond, for example, was sometimes paid in $5.00 driblets. In 1847 the University Board raised the salary scale to $1,000 per year for theological professors and $800 for those in the collegiate department, but there was no assurance that these promises could be kept consistently.

The tide of dissatisfaction might have been stemmed had Nathaniel Kendrick been a younger man and in good health. His influence in the faculty, so significant in the past, had given way gradually before the energy and iniative of his colleagues, the oldest of whom, Conant, was his junior by twenty-six years. Though they greatly respected the venerable Nestor, some of these younger men were restive and discontented. In the Education Society, also, Dr. Kendrick ceased to be active because of the illness which confined him to his bed from 1845 until his death three years later. He and his generation were becoming historical figures. Deacon Olmstead died in 1842 and Samuel and

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p. 99 – Administrative problems and incorporation, 1833-1846

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tion;” no record remains, however, to show that it was awarded. Dr. Joseph Penny, a native Irishman who seems to have had some flair for landscaping and who had recently become President of Hamilton College, inspected the Institution in the summer of 1836, in company with Deacon Olmstead; whether he hoped to win the premium is not known. The natural beauty of the campus surpassed, the visitor believed, that of the majority of public institutions in the United States. He liked especially the grounds west of the buildings because of their varying smooth green slopes and shaded groves and dells. Cutting a few trees, he thought, would open fine vistas through to the buildings, and suggested new paths, the removal of fences which broke up the north surface of the Hill, and the planting of a few clumps of trees in that area. “The buildings,” he wrote, “though plain, are in good keeping with the objects for which they are designed; and this is the first requisite of good taste.” Covering them with a coat of pure lime and sand, followed from time to time by pure whitewash, he believed, would both provide protection and give an effective contrast to the green lawns.

Trustees and faculty approved Dr. Penny’s recommendations, and several of them Steward Edmunds put into effect. His labor supply was students who took their exercise with shovel or axe in hand. The young men were especially active in building paths and lining them with maples transplanted from the nearby woods; many are still standing. Most of the work was done under the direction of the Students Association and was usually without pay.

Until 1833 the buildings consisted of the present West Hall and the Cottage Edifice. The student body, meanwhile, had grown so large as to overcrowd them and applicants for admission had to be turned away. At its annual meeting in 1832 the Society voted to erect another dormitory. Since none of the bids was satisfactory, the Board accepted Deacon Burchard’s offer to purchase the materials, hire the workmen, and superintend construction, himself. Work was started in the summer of 1833, and by December the whole edifice was completed except for plastering and installing furnaces. Students contributed much of the labor. The total cost was approximately $6,000, nearly $2,000 less than the original estimate. Dr. Kendrick, reporting for the Board in 1834, wrote: “It is worthy of grateful acknowledgement, that the lives and limbs of the builders were providentially protected, and

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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. 94 – Administrative problems and incorporation, 1833-1846

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Chapter VI – ADMINISTRATIVE PROBLEMS AND INCORPORATION, 1833-1846

The Board of Trustees of the Education Society faced problems in the years from 1833 to 1846 which were no less serious or perplexing than those in the period from 1817 to 1833. Often, when no solutions were apparent, the members resorted to prayer, and after they rose from their knees with uplifted spirits, the answers came to them, they reported. To lighten the burden of the local Executive Committee, which had to grapple first with the problems, the Trustees met twice each year instead of only once, as had been their custom. In 1837 the Society enlarged the Board from ten to a maximum of thirty, seven constituting a quorum.

Deacon Jonathan Olmstead presided over the Board from 1831 to 1842. No member was more conscientious. His fervent piety and deep religious faith, plus a sagacious and practical business acumen, made him a leader among his associates. If he sometimes was unduly quick to take offense they bore with him because they understood his moods and appreciated his true character. His wise counsel and generous benefactions were exceeded by no one.

Following Deacon Olmstead’s death in 1842, Seneca B. Burchard, a resident of Hamilton since the early 1820’s and a leading member of the Baptist Church, succeeded him and served until 1846. Deacon Burchard was well qualified for the office since he had been on the Board almost continuously since 1822, a member of the Executive Committee since 1826, and Treasurer from 1826 to 1837. He was a man not easily discouraged and, once he undertook a project, he was sure to complete it. His fellow Trustees counted him a valuable member of the board. Alvah Pierce, also a deacon in the village church and the son of one of the first settlers, became Treasurer in 1837; he had the distinction of remaining in office for fifty years. Systematic and frugal, he watched

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p. 54 – Teaching and learning, 1820-1833

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of Inquiry, each maintained an existence independent of it. In addition to these groups there grew up on the campus the ephemeral Gamma Phi and Lyceum Societies and the relatively permanent Musical Society; little is known of the first two; the third, which existed as early as 1832, fostered vocal music and sang at commencements.

Commencement week included not only the graduation ceremony but also oral public examinations of the various classes. Immediately following the examinations came the “exercises” or “exhibitions” at which juniors and seniors delivered orations. The part of the program given over to the seniors, however, was technically the commencement. The week’s activities gave the officers an opportunity to show something of the work of the Institution and at the same time provided students who were graduating a chance to make useful contacts with denomi­national leaders who might attend. Even though no class had completed the course in June 1821, “public exercises” were held so that friends of the school could see and hear its students at the end of the first year’s work. The program consisted of fifteen orations, all on religious subjects, including one in Latin and one in Greek.

Arrangements for the commencement of 1822 set precedents which were followed rather generally until students were to be graduated from the collegiate department in the middle 1830’s. The newspapers of the vicinity were notified of the week’s program, a public dinner planned, parchment diplomas printed, a procession provided for, and Jonathan Olmstead appointed marshall. Probably this commencement and all those before 1827 were held in the Baptist meeting house. Concluding the 1822 program was an “Address to the Class-By the Professor,” identified as Kendrick since he usually delivered a kind of baccalaureate sermon to subsequent graduating classes. Alumni remembered long afterward the sound advice and fatherly admonition packed into them. Nor did they forget tearful farewells as they went their separate ways once the ceremony was over.

Of the 110 men who had finished the course in the Seminary by June 1833 nearly all had entered the ministry. Nine became foreign missionaries and probably most of the others at some time in their careers preached in the sparsely settled parts of the United States. In any survey of these alumni Jonathan Wade stands out. His fame as a missionary rested not only on his preaching but on his scholarly efforts. He reduced several Burmese dialects to written languages, wrote

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p. 47 – Teaching and learning, 1820-1833

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Expenses at the Seminary were, of necessity, less than at other comparable institutions. Board, washing and lodging cost only a dollar a week; tuition was $16 a year; and $70 was considered ample for all the needs of the average student. At Andover where no tuition was required, annual expenses varied, in 1825, from $60.00 to $80.00. They ranged from $123.50 to $129 at Brown during the period 1829-33.

A few scholarships, available for the most promising students, yield­ed $70 annually. Jonathan Olmstead established the first in 1822 in accordance with a resolution of the Executive Committee specifying that anyone endowing a $1,000 scholarship “for the support of a Divinity, Charity Scholar, Shall if he Choose have that Scholarship bear up his name forever.” Friends in New York endowed fifteen scholarships worth $70 a year.

The Education Society at first undertook to pay all the expenses of
needy students, or beneficiaries, and often provided them with shoes
and clothing. By 1823 the Executive Committee asked those who had
graduated to refund, if possible, the money spent for them. Later, for a
few years, beneficiaries were required to pay $20 annually toward
their expenses, a policy the Committee considered not only as increas-
ing the means to sustain the school but well calculated to “improve the
young men, in the saving course of prudence and economy, and to
keep up an enterprise to provide in part for themselves, which they
will need through life.” By 1832 they had decided that instead of
gratuitous aid they would grant loans subject to no interest until the
beneficiaries had graduated.

Seven Indian youths who came from the Baptist Carey Mission in
Michigan with the Rev. Isaac McCoy in 1826 constituted a special
class of beneficiaries. The United States Department of War had
agreed to pay part of their expenses, but when a cut in appropriations
held up funds, they had to be supported by the Society and by
independent contributions. They belonged to the Ottawa, Chippewa,
and Potawatomie tribes and rode into the village on Indian ponies to
the astonishment of townspeople and students. One man remembered
as a small boy seeing them throw tomahawks at a mark on a tree about
three rods away and the bystanders’ amazement at their accuracy in
hitting it with the handles up or down as the audience requested. The
Indians were also noted for their fondness for singing hymns. Howev-

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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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p. 21 – Administration, Setting, and Staff, 1820-1833

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became the policy of the Society its resources were opened up for the Institution and Clark Kendrick was made its chief agent in Vermont. His efforts in collecting funds and selecting students made his death in 1824 a severe blow to the struggling Board and Executive Committee. Assistance from the Baptists of the Green Mountain State continued until 1830 when they formed themselves into a branch of the Northern Baptist Education Society (originally the Massachusetts Baptist Education Society) because many of their young men were under its patronage. What interest in education remained was diverted into founding denominational academies within the state.

The Baptists of Connecticut, too, participated in the movement to provide an educated ministry and in 1818 founded an education society. Noting the possibilities of tapping resources in this quarter as they had done in Vermont, the New York society sent Joel W. Clark and Jonathan Olmstead to Connecticut in 1822. They bore a diplomatic letter of introduction and were authorized to broach the question of a union of forces behind the Hamilton institution. A few months later the Connecticut society by a unanimous vote agreed to cooperate. The relationship lasted until 1827 or 1828 when “with friendly dispositions and from local considerations of convenience” the Connecticut society decided to send no more students or funds to Hamilton. Henceforth their energies were devoted to establishing their own academy and assisting the Northern Baptist Education Society.

Since the Executive Committee had come to believe by 1831 that New York State alone was large and prosperous enough to maintain the Seminary, they agreed not to interfere with the plan of the Northern Baptist Education Society to extend her auxiliaries in New England. The support which the Institution had found among Baptists of the Empire State, especially those of New York City, made it possible for the Committee to come to this decision.

The earliest contact between officers of the Institution and metropolitan Baptists seems to have been in 1820 when Joel W. Clark and Elon Galusha went to New York to solicit books for the library. Their visit prepared the ground for discussing the possibility of consolidating the New York Baptist .Theological Seminary, which was not proving a success, with the school at Hamilton. After their return to Hamilton, Kendrick took up the question in a letter to the Board of the New York Institution. He pointed out the superior benefits of a seminary in the

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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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p. 15 – Administration, Setting and Staff, 1820-1833

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Chapter II – ADMINISTRATION, SETTING AND STAFF, 1820-1833

Responsibility for maintaining and directing the newly established Institution* rested with the Trustees of the Baptist Education Society. These ten (later twelve) ministers and laymen included many of the denominational leaders in the state. The first President of the Board, the widely-traveled home missionary, Peter Philanthropos Roots, it will be recalled, was one of the founders of the Society. The clergymen succeeding him for brief terms were John Bostwick of Hartwick, likewise a founder; Joshua Bradley, dynamic pastor of the First Baptist Church of Albany, who later helped to found several seminaries in the Mississippi Valley; and Obed Warren of Morrisville, whose integrity and character gave him much influence in removing the fears and prejudices of many against the institution. Serving later as President were the Reverend Clark Kendrick, one of the chief Baptist leaders in Vermont; and the Elbridge, New York, pastor, Sylvanus Haynes, noted for his paternal friendliness to young preachers. Squire Munro, prominent member of Haynes’s church, a wealthy farmer and land speculator, was the first layman to become President of the Board. Jonathan Olmstead, his successor, whose term was extended from 1831 until he died in 1842, had been host to the group who founded the Society. He took such an important part in the Board’s activities that the Trustees inscribed on his tombstone they erected in the University Cemetery a tribute to “his wise and liberal counsels, and his personal benefactions.”

The Trustees, though ardent in their religion, were essentially conservative and practical, and almost without exception men of limited education. By background and experience they were fitted to preside

* Usually known formally as the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution until 1846 though it had no “official” name.

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