Beloit College - Codex Yearbook (Beloit, WI)

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Q2 C ODZLY. enthusiasm with which a great work of devotion is begun. Only the teaching went on. ' The student of our beginnings must read for himself the history of the Hnancial campaign that ensued: Prof. Bushnell wrote it out for the twenty-hfth anniversary 5 it was printed in the quarter-century pamphlet, and it cannot well be abridged. No more help could be got from abroad till Middle College was finished by the people of Beloit. That promise must be redeemed. An active canvas to talk college was begun. The prejudice against an abolition-college began to soften, faith, at that time drooping or almost dead, began to revive. At length it was deemed best to call a public meeting, though few thought that it could succeed. The meeting rose to the best hopes of its promoters, and the needed amount was raised. Says Prof. Bushnell: It has always seemed to me that, if there has ever been a crisis in the history of this College, it was at the time when Beloit raised her second subscription of four thousand dollars, and the success with which that effort was carried through, inspired courage and hope through all the time thereafter. Thus the citizens of Beloit gave at the start a site valued at three thousand dol- lars and twelve thousand dollars in money or labor. From time to time since, they have aided nobly in efforts to erect other buildings or to broaden the work. Middle College was occupied in the autumn of 1848, and for six years was the only college-building, all public exercises, except Commencement, being held in what is now the geological room. Growth. In the fall of 1848, a preparatory school was opened, but in the expectation that high-schools and academies would soon be multiplied and built up throughout the region, it was then little thought that the preparatory school would last till now, be enlarged into an academy, and be to-day the principal feeder of the college-course. Yet, so the people of this region have willed. The time from 1848 to 1850 was the great harvest of funds, most notipeable being the gift, by Mrs. Hale, of land that was sold for thirty- nve thousand dollars. Rev. A. L. Chapin, then the pastor of a Presbyterian church in Mil- waukee, was elected President November zo, 1849, began work February 1, 1850, and was inaugurated in the grove july 24th of that year. He is the one living man who has seen and helped the whole life of the College from its inception on the Chesapeake to the present day.

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THE IJISTOA' lf OF BEL OIT COLLEGE. 21 Chapin, then only a trustee, read a sketch of the slender history thus far made out, Rev. Stephen Peet gave an account of the still more slender resources. Prof Stowe was to have made an elaborate address, but was prevented by illness, his place was taken by several others, who spoke, with a fire that is still remembered, as to the need of a college and the good that it could do. A lead box, nlled with articles of current interest and sealed, was put in place, and then, upon it, Father Kent, the President of the Board, set the corner-stone. The honest old building stands there yet, somewhat modernized and beautified, but substantially the same, having never yet shown so much as a crack in its walls. May the omen prove abundantly true. The First Teachers and Learners. October 15th of that year, tive young gentlemen , as an old history politely calls them, became the first Freshman class, S. T. Merrill, the principal of the Beloit Seminary, had charge of them through most of that year. They were taught at first in the same old basement, after- ward in the house on Pleasant Street, now owned by Miss King, and nnally, with the boys and girls of the Seminary, in Middle College. The names of four of that first class may be found at the head of the roll of the Alumni, the fifth was Strong lVadsworth: it was counted a sign of the future that Mr. Wadsworth, after taking half of his course at Beloit, was admitted at Yale to the class corresponding to the one that he had left. - April 27, 1848, J. J. Bushnell arrived, descending from Frink and Walker's stage at the door of the Rock River House, and hastening to find Rev. Dexter Clary, the Secretary of the Trustees. joseph Emer- son arrived on the 24th of May. These two young men, college-class- mates and somewhat experienced as college-tutors elsewhere, had been called and were now elected to divide the work of instruction, Mr. Bush- nell taking mathematics and Mr. Emerson the ancient languages. As a matter of fact, they divided the work on another line, Mr. Bushnell taking the business, and Mr. Emerson the teaching. Struggle. Nor was Mr. Bushnell's the less important task. The walls of Middle College had gone up as high as four thousand dollars would pay for and then had stopped, lloorless, rooiiess, windowless, bleak. The subscrip- tion had been reduced, as subscriptions generally are, and things looked dark. It was the low tide that always tends to follow the flood of

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THE IJISTOA' Y OF BEL OIT COLLEGE. 23 For'the first three years there were, of course, no graduates, in 1851 the juniors made a substitute for Commencement by holding rhetorical exercises in the grove. Those out-door gatherings must have had a peculiar charm. The place was the natural amphitheater just opposite Prof. Porter's. Near the boundary-line and facing west, two stages were erected, one like that now used in the church, the other for the band. A canopy, tied from tree to tree, kept off the sun, but, unhappily, not the dust. The whole country came in and picnicked under the trees. It was really but not wholly a gain when the exercises were moved, in 1862, to the newly completed First Congregational church. The country lost interest and came in no more. The exercises in the grove were never rained upon, the first Commencement in the church was wet, and there have been many wet ones since. The history of the College buildings is concisely this: Middle College, - - 184.7-8, ' 810,000 00 . North College, - - 1854, 8,000 00 Chapel, - 1858, 6,000 00 Laboratory, - 1868 Qwar-pricesj, 5,000 00 Memorial Hall, - 1869 Qwar-pricesj, 26,000 00 Gymnasium, - - - 1874, 4,000 00 Observatory and equipment, 1881-3, 22,000 00 The Battell Clock was given in 1881. Oflicers. . 1 Of the older professors we may make this record: J. I. Bushnell, 1848-733 S. P. Lathrop, I849-543 M. P. Squier, 1850-66, F. W. Fisk, 1854-593 I. P. Fisk, 1856-71, H. B. Nason, 1858-665 H. L. Kelsey, 1860-635 E. P. Harris, 1866-685 I. H. Eaton, I868-773 I. W. Petti- bone, I87I-8I3PCf6I Hendrickson, 1870-843 T. C. Chamberlin, 1872-86. It would require a volume to trace the work of these men and estimate its worth. I Of living and present instructors, joseph Emerson, in his forty-nrst year of service, is now in Europe, enjoying well-earned and needed rest, but expecting to return to the harness 5 William Porter began workin Sep- tember, 1852, and is, therefore in his thirty-seventh year, J. I. Blaisdell began work in 18595 ex-President Chapin is at his home in Beloit, able, though an invalid, to aid with his counsel the College to which he has devoted his life, he resigned the presidency in 1886, but taught and labored, all too abundantly, for two years more. Rev. E. D. Eaton, having served live years as trustee, became President in 1886: it was a peculiar gratification to the Alumni that one of their own number should