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

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The student body was not large. In ' 60-61 there were seventy-six students; in ' 61-72, seventy-three; in ' 62-63, fifty-three. In 1803 there was only one grad- uate, H. C. Griffin. Manv of the most promising students had left for the battlefield, but within the college walls were fought miniature battles among the student sympathizers of both sides of the conflict. Out of six seniors of the class of ' 61, three enlisted. J. W. Daugherty. G. W. Spahr and P. J. Squire. The latter was killed at Shiloh. From the other classes went also Henry C. Long. John C. Duncan. L. Mothers- head. John I. Morris and John Denton. Chauncey Butler, now secretary of the college, was in ' 64 a prep, only fifteen years old. Nevertheless, he enlisted and went to the front. Ex-President Butler enlisted in February of 1862, and saw three years of hard military service. He was in the battles of Atlanta, Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Joseph Gordon, of the class of ' 63, whose picture hangs on the east wall of the chapel, went out with the first troops that enlisted from Indiana. It was in the spring of ' 61. The men enrolled under the first call were enlisted for a period of three months, and sent to Virginia. In whatever part of the state they had been recruited, they were brought to Indianapolis and fitted out. preparatory to being sent to the front. They came into town from day to day in unordered squads, were taken out to camp, formed into companies and regiments, uni- formed, furnished with arms and equipments, and after proper drill and prepara- tion, the well ordered columns, with knapsacks on their backs and arms at right shoulder-shift, marched through the streets on their way to take the train. And with one of these regiments marched Joseph Gordon. There is fun in camp; the soldier has no care; the responsibility of the future belongs to others. He lives from hour to hour; his wants are in some sort pro- vided for, and no further act of his is required. And so, song and jest and jollity go on. There are hard lines in camp life, discomfort, weariness and waiting, a dreadful monotony sometimes that grows maddening. So it is with soldiering, and so it is with life. Joseph Gordon learned all this. For a short time he lived it. It was in the mountains of Virginia, he made acquaintance with cold and hunger. After days of toil he found sleep sweet on the cold, bare ground. Thirst parched his lips, and his eye grew bloodshot with vigils on lonely picket station. He was grimed with the soil of earth, and coarsest fare furnished him nourishment. Btrt he lived the free and careless life of camps, and his heart swelled with pride at making part of war ' s pageantry. When song and jest went ' round, his voice piped in boyish treble among the notes that swelled from coarser throats. Put although we live regardless of the future, heedless of what the morrow may bring in store for us, the inevitable hour comes to meet tis. One day when with his comrades Joseph Gordon rushed in deadly charge across a lead-swept field panting, not more from physical exhaustion than from exaltation of spirit, joyous with the fierce joy of battle, confident, victorious; in that moment there came one lightning flash of agony and death claimed him. So he died at seventeen, and the fair promise of his life was blotted out with a musket shot. He died a boy, but he died with men, and his spirit goes march- ing on. A. F.

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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.

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Butler ttinitoergttp X the summer of 1875, Northwestern Christian University was re- moved from Indianapolis to its present site in Irvington, and two years later, in recognition of the gifts of Ovid Butler, the name of the institution was changed to Butler University. The main building was the only one erected at the time of the removal, the others being added gradually at later periods. The dormitory was built in 1882, and at first both boys and girls resided there. The observatory was added in 1889, Burgess Hall and the power house in 1890. the gymnasium in 1892, and the library in 1903. At this time Burgess Hall was known not as the science building, but as the preparatory building, for a goodly number of the students were in the preparatory department, and their recitations were held there. Prior to the erection of the gymnasium building the large room on the second floor of Burgess Hall, now occupied by the physic- department, was used for physical training. ( )n the third floor of this building, the room which is now the museum, was occupied by the library. In the main building the girls ' study hall was on the first floor, the boys room was on the south side, and the third floor rooms were used as club rooms by several flourishing literary societies.