Western Maryland College - Aloha Yearbook (Westminster, MD)

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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

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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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additional space was provided by erecting at a cost of seven thousand dollars a wing at present known as Uwingsl Hall, after the capable and beloved pre- ceptress who devoted the prime of her life to the interests of this Institution. In 1882, through the great faith and patient efforts of the president, another building made necessary by the increasing popularity of the school was com- pleted and most appropriately called Ward Hall. By this time the widely increas- ing usefulness of the College had caused it to make such an impression on the V f' .f W ' fi if ' PROF. SIMPSONS RESIDENC E. State of Maryland that in 1878 the Legislature established twenty-six free scholar- ships. Dr. Thomas H. Lewis was made president of the College in 1886, and his first efforts were devoted to bringing the school out from under the financial embarrassment which was greatly obstructing its usefulness. Under his skillful! management the debt which had been in existence from the foundation of they College was wiped out to the last cent before the close of the year I889.H 26