Tag Archives: Student Societies

p. 162 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

Posted on May 3, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 162 – Recovery and expansion, 1850-1869

gallery with his classmates he grew so absorbed in Dr. Brooks’s sermons as completely to lose consciousness of his surroundings.

The missionary spirit which had vitalized the activities of the Society for Inquiry and the Eastern and Western Associations waned after 1850. Furthermore, the Removal Controversy had carried off many of the leaders whose ardent interest in the objectives of the organizations, students of succeeding generations did not share. Most noteworthy of the Eastern Association’s members was Jonathan Goble, Class of 1859, a Marine from Perry’s expedition to Japan, who returned to the Empire in 1860 as a missionary and subsequently achieved fame for translating the Gospel of Matthew into Japanese; he is also credited with the construction of the first jinrikisha. By 1860 both the Eastern and Western Associations had ceased to exist. The Society for Inquiry, which absorbed their activities, carried on into the 1890’s.

More closely conforming to contemporary interests was the Theological Lyceum which the Seminary students and faculty organized in 1854 to promote the “intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of its members.” Topics for essays and discussions at its meetings included: Christianity and the Crimean War, spiritualism, freemasonry, and the propriety of a minister’s resorting “to firearms or deadly weapons in defense of political rights.” The Lyceum became practically moribund in the 1860’s, but did not expire until 1871.

For many undergraduates the question of secret societies was much more absorbing than participation in those of a religious character. Despite faculty action suppressing fraternities in the 1840’s and a stipulation in the Laws of 1853 that students “shall form no organizations … except with the consent and under the direction of the faculty and … shall not become members of secret societies,” attempts to establish such groups persisted. Partly circumventing the rules, some under- graduates had themselves initiated into Phi Upsilon at Hamilton College, but this ruse was far from satisfactory to those who sought a fraternity on their own campus. Among them was Caleb H. Gallup, Class of 1856, who after discussing the problem during summer vacation with a cousin, then a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon at Kenyon College, returned to Madison fired with the idea of founding a local chapter. Gallup and a few close associates thereupon petitioned for a charter which the parent chapter at Yale granted to them as Mu Chapter, March 1, 1856.

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p. 89 – Student life, 1833-1846

Posted on May 2, 2012 by | Comments Off on p. 89 – Student life, 1833-1846

Students Association, formed in 1835, was said to have “wielded a power next to that of the Faculty.” Its leaders repressed many customs observed at colleges as contrary to good order and fostered a sense of personal discipline and “esprit de corps” which stressed “close study, and religious culture.” The organization provided for lighting, heating, and sweeping the classrooms, carrying mail, and the maintenance of the grounds. The faculty permitted the Association to require labor from its members for these activities and to tax them for necessary funds. Students also published the Institution’s annual Catalogue, though not without friction with Dr. Kendrick on at least one occasion over the type to be used.

Next in importance to the Students Association was the Society for Inquiry which prospered. An active exchange of letters was conducted with foreign missionaries and with similar groups at other colleges and seminaries. One corresponding secretary in 1837 informed his counterpart at Rutgers College: “Our Society is founded on strictly Catholic principles, and it holds correspondence with Institutions of every Evangelical denomination. We are engaged in the same glorious enterprise, though belonging to different wings of the great army.”

The members found letters from the Far East particularly interesting. A student wrote in 1838 to William Dean, Class of 1833, then at Bangkok, Siam, “Cloistered here we scarcely look out upon the changing scenes of the world, and our views of it must be partial and are, perhaps, erroneous… But you stand upon the vantage ground. …” Several missionaries sent the Association articles for the museum which the organization maintained to illustrate the life and customs of foreign lands. Regular meetings were usually devoted to reports by the members. The subjects included a wide range of interests, but attention was given also to such topics as “The Origin, Progress, & Influence of Harvard University,” “The Present State of the Church of England,” and “The Present Conditions of Popery.” The Society’s public meeting at commencement time were often notable for outstanding speakers. President Eliphalet Nott of Union College, a friend of Professor Eaton, addressed then in 1844.

The Eastern Association, like the Society for Inquiry, also carried on extensive correspondence with foreign missionaries in the Far East and with comparable organizations in other colleges and seminaries. Members continually struggled with themselves over whether or not they

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Missionary Society forms (p. 52)

Posted on May 1, 2012 by | Comments Off on Missionary Society forms (p. 52)

out that all of them had returned to orthodoxy to the great rejoicing of the whole community. This episode would seem to indicate skill in stimulating searching examination of theological beliefs.

The rise and development of student societies follow the pattern for such extracurricular activities at other American colleges and seminaries in organization, interests, and program. The first was the Philomathesian, founded in August, 1821, probably with the particular approval of Hascall who had belonged to a group somewhat like this one during his college days at Middlebury. Its interests were literary and theological and its objectives included training in public speaking, maintenance of a library, correspondence with missionaries and with similar organizations on other campuses, and an “inquiry into the most eligible fields of ministerial labor.” Designated members delivered sermons at weekly meetings which the audience and a student critic commented upon. The secretaries conducted an active correspondence with missionaries and the societies at Amherst, Williams, Hamilton, Andover, and other institutions. The library of over fifty volumes consisted chiefly of gifts and included not only religious books and periodicals but also many secular items and newspapers. The secretaries occasionally solicited subscriptions from editors in return for communications. The library served as a useful supplement to the Seminary’s meager collection of books and its remnants, distinguished by the society’s bookplate, may be located today on the University Library’s shelves.

The consecration of Wade and Kincaid, “first fruits of the Institution,” to missionary service in Burma gave a strong impetus to student interest in missions which resulted in the formation of the Missionary Society in 1824. It resembled the Philomathesian Society, which it absorbed seven years later, though its primary concern was missionary work. Besides seeking “the religious improvement of its members” and raising funds for missions it sought “information relative to the climate, productions, civil government, &c of the various nations of the earth “… [and also a] detailed account of their present moral condition and of the obstacles or the successes with which the introduction of the gospel in probability would be met.” In 1832 the organization changed its name to Society for Inquiry though its purpose remained, in general, the same. The members were divided into, nine groups in accordance with the months of the academic year. Each group investigated a

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Philoponian society (p. 49)

Posted on May 1, 2012 by | Comments Off on Philoponian society (p. 49)

The Board, seeing greater opportunities for student labor on a farm, began negotiations which, as has been seen, resulted in the purchase of the Payne property in 1826. Lack .of tools arid planned work led a few students, in August 1827, to form the Philoponian Society: the Greek name meaning “industrious” or “loving labor.” They stated in their constitution that they found by experience “that a suitable portion of exercise, is desperately necessary, to preserve the health of students & render their minds vigorous and active.”*By the end of the year a majority of their colleagues had joined the society.

Members were required to exercise outdoors an hour and a half each day, weather permitting. At the direction of their president, they assembled in the basement of West Hall and, tools in hand, marched to work under the supervision of monitors. In good weather they cultivated the farm or cut timber in the surrounding woods. They also leveled the ground around the new buildings and in other ways improved the campus. In bad weather they practiced gymnastics. At a special meeting in May 1828, when spring fever doubtless was virulent, they “Voted to erect a dam previous to commencement to raise a pond for bathing.”

The profits of the Philoponian Society went into a common fund which was divided each May according to the amount of work each member had done. The officers of the Education Society repeatedly commended the manual labor organization, furnished necessary tools, and required all beneficiaries to become members. One student in 1830 wrote to his brother at school in Peekskill, “labour is valued very high here and enables us to study more than if we laboured not. I advise you by all means to labour an hour or more every day.” By 1832, however, the Board, believing this extracurricular activity took too much time from studies and desiring labor for students which would be more profitable and independent of weather and seasons, established a window-sash factory on the campus. The Trustees planned to use its products in the present East Hall which they then contemplated building. The Philoponian Society reorganized into a “Judiciary Board of the Sash Factory” which lasted until 1833 when the factory seems to have been discontinued.

Wasting time or “loafing and inviting one’s soul” the authorities of the Institution discouraged. The following is the schedule of a student in 1831:

*[Colgate University], Philoponian Society, Record Book, 1827-32, Constitution

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