Western Maryland College - Aloha Yearbook (Westminster, MD)

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There are many points of interest in its struggle and many acts and achieve- ments worthy to be reckoned in the measure of its success that will have to be omitted in this short sketch. All of this country lying between the P. VV. Sz B. Railroad and the Blue Ridge-the principal geological divide in Maryland and the most important topographical feature of this section-is known as Parris Ridge. The elevation at the end of VVestminster, on a beautiful knob of this Ridge, is known as ALUMNI HAL L. ' .n,,.c f'College Hill. A better place for a College could never have been selected. In the midst of a country of ine scenery and great fertility, with the picturesque Blue Ridge conspicuous in the western horizon, with air pure and invigorating, the site chosen for the College is certainly one of marked adaptation and unsur- passed loveliness. On this spot, which has now become classic, the sixth of September, 1866, Prof. James VV. Reese, master of Door-to-Virtue Lodge of Freemasons, assisted 24

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-SKETCH or western maryland ollege, BY FRUIT. S. SIMPSON, A. M. . lN'estern Marylznnl College is indigenous io this countrv and to this agei 'Neither in theory nor discipline is it an importation from other lands or insti- tutions. .-Xlthongh in its growtli it has profited hy the experience of all, yet it is not the developineiil ol premletcrniinecl plans or ideas, nor is it a calculated creation ! ...ir ' r ef a m. -a p :A - , ,af H rs. nf .W A , ,Y ' f ' 1- ? -- -' efifilg -' ' . ll 'b., ' Q5 1 . 1 a l I1 Us it -- , 15? H 51 - '75 i' ' ' 1 F? . 4' 3' T i E 'lg 'wt tl! l faif l A -1s::i4'i:g?4,4l W i l t il l gjsja' f U Em ' -- fb fier i f, 'xiii 1 gli' ' - 1 f- -:str t m r ' 'fluff - i:f.ff2 '- JE:'..w . - ' me Wt:- , fff-.-Eefi,-' T- wi' 13- 1 1. ' .,, K -,, - .Q N-...Y 4 5 I. fs. ,bygf ij-', I 1. -river,-E I: xhgvgm .G ' AL' -ttf - ',..i 1-zffz:-Fl' Q'555eV '-52 - -'als 1 c. 1 'P -Allfl, '-1 ' :T --.ws ,, -.VI lllllliilllm l if ' if i l illiii ii ii 7 of this and other States. With slender financial resources, among its active friends and very little aid fromiothers, it has accomplished what was deemed inossible only on a large pecuniary basis, and hence some antagonism, honest doubt and depreciation were to be expected, and from the first Vtfestern Mary- landhad' to compete for popular favor with other institutions that had an abund- ance of money, the whole force of tradition, the 'eclat of distinguished alumni, for the maintenance and diffusion of local, theological or political dogmasg but from the beginning' it has contributed its part to the moral and intellectual growth and the sanction of history. 23

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by his WZll'ilL'1'lS. and in the presence ol seventy-tive of his brethren, laid the cornerstone of the building, which. wlicn finished, was to be known as Wfestern Maryland College. Not many years after the completion of this building it became evident that without some cxtrziordiimry change, or very good luclc, the whole enterprise would be :1 failure. 'l'hrough the patience, thewremarlcable popu- larity. and the incorruptible integrity of character of Dr. James Thomas Wfard, BAKER CHAPEL. two citizens of Westminster agreed to furnish the money to place the College on a sound basis, provided Dr. NVard would become its president. The first cata- logue, issued in 1868-69, showed a faculty of six instructors, including the prin- cipal, and an enrollment of seventy students, one-half from Westmiinstei' and the rest mostly from Carroll County. ' 1 In the year 1871, on account of the steadily increasing number of students, 25