Butler University - Carillon / Drift Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

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H3ortI)tDe0tern Christian Uni txQitr X 18-JJ, at ;i meeting of representatives of the Christian Church of Indiana, the question of establishing a college was- fir-t consid- ered. Finding thai the majority of the churches of the state i-ere in favor of the plan and willing to aid in it- execution, a charter was drawn up and subscriptions were taken. Bv 1852 siifficienl money had been raised, and a site for the new school was chosen. This site was in [ndianapolis, and was located along whal i- no College Avenue. By the spring of L855 the new building was ready for occu- pancy. The institution was given the name of Northwestern Christian University. and in two respects, especially, it was in advance of mr.sl of the institutions of (hat time. First, it was declared that Christianity and morality should be taught from the Bible itself as a part of the regular course of instructs n. hut thai this instruction was to he entirely non-sectarian. The other new feature was thai women students were to he received on exactly the same condition- as men. the graduation requirements were to ho the same, and the same degrees were to he con- ferred. This was not done at the opening of the institution, hut was introduced a few years later through the efforts of Miss Demia Butler, who wa the first woman to graduate from the male course of the University. Northwestern Christian Uni- versity was. with one exception, the first institution in the country to place women students on an equality with the men. During the next twenty years the Univer- sity had five different Presidents— John Young, S. K. Hoshour, A. R. Benton, ( ). A. Burgess, and W. F. Black, all of whose pictures hut the last named hang now- in i ill- chapel. Ci)e College Outing tl)e Z av CR1NG the years of the Civil War. the excitement that affected the country touched the Northwestern Christian University as well. Many of the students were fired with the ambition to go to the front. None of the faculty formed companies of students and went to the Held, as was the case in many colleges, hut they did not in any way try to prevent any student from going, and hade each young volunteer God-speed as he laid down book and pencil for the musket. College was unsatisfactory and unexciting. Camp Mor- ton was not far away from the campus, and as the boys recited their lessons they could hear the sound of fife and drum and the volleys from the guns. From the windows they could see the companies of blue-coated soldiers marching by with colors living, and in the deep quiet of the night they sometimes heard the tramp of many feet as the regiments marched away to some far-off state. The faculty consisted of hut four professors. A. II. Benton, in ethics and Greek; S. E. Hoshour, in Latin and Modern Languages: R. T. Brown, in Natural Sciences, and G. X. Hoss. in Mathematics. William Thrasher came into Butler as professor of Mathematics in 1865.