Middlebury College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Middlebury, VT)

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v their diplomas, and from that time forth the number of graduates rapidly increased year by year. When the preparatory school was moved from the original building to a vacated female seminary in 1805, the college might be considered to have acquired its first building, but Painter Hall, which was erected in 1815, is the oldest college building now standing. It had been hoped that the state would furnish aid to the college, but the petition sent in 1810 resulted in words of praise for the efforts of the founders, but no pecuniary aid was forthcoming. The financial situation during these years was precarious, but through the labors of the men who had set their hearts upon the establishment of an institution of higher learning at Middlebury, the college was able to continue its existence. From the very beginning Middlebury has been strongly influenced by Yale uni- versity. A majority of the trustees were Yale men, graduates of that institution formed the greater part of the faculty, and Dr. Dwight, the president of Yale, was one of the most enthusiastic friends of the college. He made three visits to Middlebury and on his return from the third trip praised the college highly, terming the stu- dents . . . as virtuous a collection of youths as can be found V in any seminary in the y world. The story of the first half century of the Z college is one of flnan- 5 y cial struggles, for the if institution was forced Q to depend almost en- - tirely upon private gifts. ff' fs g I The success of her Zz ' W ? graduates, however, L I j 1 finally enabled the col- T le e to 'XD21l'1tl Tl A 4155 g c 1 . ic ?, 4 discussion as to the ad- 0 i t . . y ,, mission of women be- 7 fic gan in 1870, but it was not until 1883 that the institution became co- educational. In 1902 the trustees took up the question of the segrega- tion of the two col- leges. But it was not until the fall of 1931 that the two colleges actually began separa- tion - the women of the class of 1935 being admitted to what is called the Women's College at Middlebury. DR. JIZRIZMIAH A'rwA'r1zR, Preriflenl 1800 - X

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' P 177111 '7Cll!L'fl.fllALUfJC 4' . ' ,sf Ms tory IRGIN forest still shaded much of the state when Middlebury College began its existence. The scattered groups of settlers, who fought against the forces of nature for sustenance, had come from the comparatively civilized sections of Massachusetts and Connecticut. Like so many pioneers, they were motivated by two fundamental characteristics, a love of church and a respect for education. They were of the same stock that made and supported Harvard and Yale. It is not surprising then to find that even before 1791 four public academies had been founded in Ver- mont. With the dream of a college to complete their educational system, the legislature of the state chartered the University of Vermont in 1791, but no real work was done toward the establishment of a college until much later. Meanwhile the inhabitants of Middlebury had obtained a charter for a grammar school, subscribed four thousand dollars, quadruple the amount called for in the charter, and the Addison County grammar school became a reality in 1797. Wliile building operations were still in progress, Dr. Timothy Dwight of Yale had visited Middlebury and encouraged the idea of founding a college. A combination of fortunate circumstances, coupled with the hope of aid from the sale of state lands, led a group of townspeople to take the necessary steps. The building erected to house the grammar school was large enough to house the college also. It was a wooden, three-story structure, containing twenty rooms and a chapel. From this small beginning the college has expanded its plant gradually, until today fourteen permanent buildings, in addition to temporary buildings and fraternity houses, are required to fulfill the needs of the students. The student of the present era has difficulty in visualizing the simplicity of the early days of the college. No laboratories, no carefully catalogued library, no staff of professors and instructors, and no complicated schedules were necessary in the early eighteen hundreds. Instead the founders of Middlebury simply Procured books, appointed an instructor, and collected a number' of students. All did not go smoothly in the early period of the college's life. The struggle of Vermont for a position as a sovereign state na.tura1ly occupied the minds of the people to a great extent, and the advancement of education was thus hindered. Indeed, when we contemplate the struggles of the settlers for even the necessities of life, the fact that they still had time and energy for the development of cultural institutions is remarkable. It is therefore necessary to wait for two years after their first petition before the group interested in the establishment of a college rec-eived a charter from the legislature. On Tuesday, October 28, 1800, the incorporation was declared expedient by the committee of the whole, and on November 1 the charter was signed by Isaac Techenor, the governor, and Roswell Hopkins, the secretary of state. Among the trustees were Gamaliel Painter, Seth Storrs, Samuel Miller, Daniel Chipman and Darius Mathews, all of whom had been trustees of the Addison County grammar school. The first meeting of the trustees was held on November 4, 1800. At this meeting Seth Storrs was selected as secretary and joel Doolittle was chosen as tutor. Dr. Jeremiah Atwater, who was nominal principal of the grammar school, now devoted most of his time to the collegeabecoming in reality its first president. The first man td be graduated from Middlebury was Aaron Petty, who received in 1802 the first college degree granted in Vermont. The next year three men received Y W N5 1' Q 1' - K,1' . -S,-'U . G,,l' . xifl' f f - fa ,A , ,. f ff , x. . C. 5 P X ' ' ' '7 X X ff, 4. ' 11. 4, ,a lv fa 4- M 1- n, l'

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