Tag Archives: Philetus Bennett Spear

Madison University name changed to Colgate (p. 199)

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largely on the many associations which had been attached to the old name since 1846. It was also suggested that potential donors would be less likely to contribute if the institution bore the Colgate name, believing that the family should assume its chief support. The Colgates, in fact, had not been consulted, nor did they favor the change but once the strength of opinion for it became clear they assented rather than embarrass its advocates.

The University and Education Society Trustees at their meetings in June, 1889, at which neither James B. Colgate nor his brother, Samuel, were present, adopted, without opposition, the motion to petition the State Supreme Court for the change. Dr. Dodge was foremost in urging this step. His leading opponent was Dr. Spear, the recently retired Treasurer, who seems to have been convinced he was called upon to defend the University, whatever the cost, as he had done so effectively in the Removal Controversy of 1847-50. He proceeded to obtain counsel, send communications to the press, circularize alumni, and collect the affidavits of those who agreed with him. To meet his tactics, Dr. Dodge, the faculty, and representative trustees also put their views before the public and the alumni and solicited affidavits. Rather than take immediate action on the petition the court appointed a referee to gather evidence and make a report. Meanwhile, Dr. Dodge died January 5th, 1890; Dr. Spear, who was, he thought, fatally ill, withdrew his opposition at the strong behest of Samuel Colgate who assured him that James B. Colgate would continue to support the University but only if the objectors were to lose their case. The referee preceeded with the hearings and in due time made his report recommending that the petition be granted. The court accepted the recommendation and, on April 21, 1890, authorized the change of name, effective May 26th.

Of the approximately 650 alumni over 400 had signed the affidavits for change while of the 75 who objected, all but 13 withdrew their opposition before the court acted. The undergraduates, who at first disapproved of the new name, by February, 1890, unanimously endorsed it, many of them out of respect to the late Dr. Dodge’s wishes.

Public celebration of the name change was set off by the news on March 14th, 1890, that the Regents of the University of the State of New York had approved it unanimously the day before. The momentous telegram reached Hamilton about noon and soon pandemonium

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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. 155 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

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of Biblical Criticism and Interpretation in the Seminary and Professor of Evidences of Revealed Religion in the College met a cordial reception from President Taylor and the entire faculty. Son of a daring, impetuous Salem clipper-ship captain and a gentle, pious mother, he graduated at the age of twenty-one from Brown where President Wayland had grounded him in religion and logical, practical reasoning. During his student days at Newton, President Barnas Sears developed in him a genuine allegiance to intellectual freedom. His fiery temper and firm will he usually concealed, but both were constant. After four years of teaching he went to Germany to work under the theologians, Tholuck and Dorner; none of his colleagues had been able to enjoy the advantages of foreign study and travel. Members of his classes found, on his return, that his theology was somewhat misty, a characteristic which they laid to the German influences. In 1861 he followed Professor Spear as Librarian and served until 1868. The most valuable and significant period of his career both as teacher and administrator unfolded after he became President.

Phillip P. Brown, on his graduation in 1855, succeeded Professor Osborn as Principal of the. Grammar School. Prior to entering the sophomore class he had been in charge of a Choctaw mission school in the Indian Territory and later of the preparatory department of Shurtleff College, Alton, Illinois, where he was also enrolled as a student. He left the Madison campus in 1862 to become colonel of the 157th Regiment of New York Infantry, which he commanded with bravery at Gettysburg.

The Trustees appointed Hezekiah Harvey as Professor of Ecclesiastical History and Pastoral Theology in the Seminary and Civil History in the College in 1857. He had graduated from the College in 1845 and the Seminary two years later and had served as village pastor. A saintly man, often in ill-health, he was an effective teacher for students preparing for the ministry. In 1861 he became Professor of Biblical Criticism and Pastoral Theology. On Harvey’s return to the pastorate three years later, Dr. Albert N. Arnold, a contemporary of Dodge’s at Brown and Newton, and a New Testament Greek scholar, succeeded him and remained on the faculty until 1869.

Perhaps the most brilliant faculty member of the ’60’s was William Ireland Knapp who, upon graduation in 1860, was given a one-year appointment as the first Professor of Modern Languages. Since his

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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. 140 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

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Chapter VIII – RECOVERY AND EXPANSION 1850-1869

As the embers of the Removal Controversy cooled, the friends of Madison University turned their energy to repairing the serious damage which that intense and bitter conflict had done. Under Stephen W. Taylor’s vigorous presidency, 1851-56, they achieved for it a large measure of recovery. His successor, George W. Eaton, who served from 1856 to 1868, though not so strong a leader, brought the institution through the Civil War years with comparatively slight dislocation. During Eaton’s tenure also, resources and facilities so expanded that the university in 1869, under President Ebenezer Dodge, had every expectation of prosperity and usefulness greater than it had experienced during its first half century.

In the interim between August 1850, when the Anti-Removalists gained control of the University and the Education Society’s Boards, and Taylor’s assumption of office a year later, Professors Eaton and Spear acted as temporary executives. The one “kept his hand upon the helm and his eye upon the starless heavens, the other stood guard over the treasury and cargo.” Final authority and responsibility, of course, rested with the Trustees. Professor Spear, Secretary of both Boards, complained that the Removalist Trustees delayed resigning until August, 1850, even though the injunction against removal had been granted three months previously, because until they should do so and permit the friends of Hamilton to have control, no arrangements for the next year could be made.

The new Trustees, all solid, substantial business men from Hamilton or vicinity, represented the conservative element among the Baptists loyal to Madison University. They and their associates could be expected to perpetuate it with little deviation from the pattern followed hitherto. The President of the Board from 1850 to 1864 was Henry

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Hamilton Student, the first student newspaper (p. 136)

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and Spear. In a joint session, the University and Education Society Trustees agreed on replacements and thus enabled Henry Tower, the new President of the University Board, to give out their names at the close of the week’s exercises when he announced that instruction would be resumed as usual in the fall.

During the period 1847 to 1850, teaching had often become secondary to the question of location. One or more of the faculty was usually absent from classes on removal business, especially Eaton and Raymond. As was to be expected, the students took sides on the exciting issue. Influenced by the professors who favored Rochester, several were eager for relocation. When the Gridley injunction in the spring of 1850 obviated that possibility they eagerly awaited the announcement of the opening of the new institution so that they might enroll and in due time 21 did. Others, uneasy because of the strained atmosphere on the campus and the University’s uncertain future, withdrew, 24 going to Union College. Registration shrank from 216 in 1847 to 140 in 1850. The losses were particularly severe in the collegiate department where the decline was from 140 to 93. Students had been warned on all sides that the institution would soon be dead. Yet not all could believe this prediction. A minority swayed by William T. Biddle, Class of 1849, then in the theological department, and a few like-minded companions, agreed that if classes met in October they would return.

Numerous cases of student discipline reflect the unrest which resulted from the Removal Controversy. The most serious, that in connection with Professor Maginnis’s delivery of Dr. Kendrick’s funeral sermon in January, 1849, has already been mentioned. Disturbances in the dormitories were frequent. George B. Eaton, son of Professor Eaton, no doubt greatly embarrassed his father by instigating several, one involving the exploding of gunpowder under the bed of a fellow student. In many cases the culprits were required to make public confession in chapel as part of their punishment.

The most recalcitrant, perhaps, was George G. Ritchie, Class of 1849, who won distinction for starting the first student publication. As a freshman he discussed with some of the faculty his plan for issuing a paper and, notwithstanding their apparently mild objections, got out the first number on November 2, 1846. He called it the Hamilton Student with the subtitle, “A Semi-Monthly Mirror of Religion, Litera-

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p. 129 – The removal controversy, 1847-1850

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require that the Faculty allow to the Boards of the University and the Education Society the charge which the churches have committed to them, of managing the institution; and that this Board regard and interference of the Faculty, or any members of it, revising and thwarting the action of the Board as entirely unwarrantable.*

 

The Board also proceeded to appoint committees to arrange for moving the University to Rochester.

The Education Society Board, likewise in special session at Utica, concurred in the actions of the University Trustees and voted to hold the Society’s next annual meeting in Albany on June 12, instead of in Hamilton in August, as had long been the custom. Their purpose was to get unquestioned approval for removal without having the proceedings embarrassed “by mere local excitements.”

Because of the irregularities attendant upon the election of the Society’s Trustees in August 1848, the legality of the Board’s activities was in doubt, as even the Removalists tacitly admitted when they sponsored the forthcoming Albany meeting. Taking advantage of this situation, the friends of Hamilton, represented by Benjamin W. Babcock, Henry G. Beardsley, and Theodore Burchard, applied to the courts on May 25, 1849, to set aside the 1848 election and vacate all acts of the Board relating to removal. On June 7, five days before the annual meeting was to be held, the Supreme Court, acting on their application, postponed that gathering until further order. Neverthe­less, some members of the Society, most of them from Albany, it was alleged, assembled and organized themselves into an “Educational Convention” but not without a “pretty deep sense of injury” at the Anti-Removalist move.

As a compromise gesture the Hamiltonians presented to the “convention” a , Fraternal Address written by Professor Spear, in which they urged that the whole institution, and not merely the collegiate department, be transferred in the event that they lost the pending Havens and Wiley suit. The “convention,” however, maintained that the University only be moved and that “a literary and theological school, at least one of a shorter course” be preserved at Hamilton. As was to be expected,  the Anti-Removalists rejected the course suggested at Albany and resolved to await the outcome of the litigation.

Judge W. F. Allen of the State Supreme Court, who heard the Babcock case at Oswego late in July 1849, handed down a decision on

*Colgate University, Board of Trustees, Minutes, Apr. 12, 1849.

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p. 116 – The removal controversy, 1847-1850

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Prof. Philetus B. Spear, P.B. Spear Papers Box 2, Folder 60, p116

thought the faculty should take a neutral stand leaving the decision to the Boards. When a majority of his colleagues became active partisans for the change he at first felt that they were injudicious and later, convinced by the arguments against removal, that they were wrong. All the faculty except Dr. Kendrick and Professor Philetus B. Spear joined in a letter urging Eaton not to prejudice Wilder’s efforts in New York. They pointed out that the Rochester brethren were the first to take effective steps to raise an endowment, which was so sorely needed, and that Madison County citizens had acted only when faced with the prospect of losing the University:

Nothing but necessity has prompted their effort & let that necessity be withdrawn & the subscription falls through & we are thrown farther back than ever from the attainment which we consider vital to the Institution’s prosperity. On the other hand let the enterprise go forward, unchecked by untimely interference, & then when the question comes up for final decision, we have at least an alternative, & a strong argument for endorsement to those who would retain it here.*

As a further check on Eaton, Professors A. C. Kendrick and Conant followed him to New York to talk with Deacon Colgate and others. In Eaton they had an impulsive, emotional antagonist who was to make anti-removal the great crusade of his life. Motivated by what he

*Faculty of Madison University to George W. Eaton, New York, N.Y., Dec. 27, 1847.

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p. 63 – The expanded program, 1833-1846

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the students presented him with a written tribute and held a special meeting to bid him farewell. After six years in which he was to take the principal role in founding and developing the University at Lewisburg (now Bucknell) he was to return to the campus in 1851 as president of Madison University.

The youngest member of the faculty was John Howard Raymond, born in New York City, who in 1837, at the age of twenty-three, acted as tutor in Hebrew even before he had completed the theological course. The next year he exchanged Hebrew for intellectual and moral philosophy and belles lettres and in 1840 became Professor of Rhetoric and the English Language. Raymond had studied three years at Columbia but, when expelled for some student prank, had attended Union from which he graduated in 1832. Following a brief period reading law he had decided to prepare for the ministry and entered the Institution for that purpose. He had at once impressed the faculty with his ability and promise. Admitted to the Class of 1836, he and three classmates proposed to go to Assam and there translate the Bible into the languages of the East. When this venture failed to materialize, he decided to devote himself to teaching.

Raymond’s natural bent toward language had shown itself when, as a schoolboy of nine or ten, he had avidly studied Goold Brown’s Grammar under the author’s direction. He called this book “the foundation of all the intellectual discipline I ever had.” As a student at the Hamilton Academy in 1824-25 he became as absorbed in Latin and rhetoric as he had been fascinated by English grammar. Brilliant and devoted to his teaching he threw himself into his work with great success. On at least two occasions when he was offered more attractive positions, Dr. Kendrick implored him not to leave since he felt the Seminary could scarcely recover from the blow. His sparkling and kindly wit, genial manner, and innate refinement must have helped to bring out the social graces and poise of his students just as his keen intelligence and industry developed their minds.

Philetus Bennett Spear, like his classmate Raymond, joined the faculty in 1837 before finishing the theological course. A native of Palmyra, New York, he was tutor in mathematics and then in Hebrew until he was made “adjunct professor” of that subject in 1842. Spear’s primary interests were administration and finance, and long service in these fields, rather than teaching, gave him his reputation.

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