Beloit College - Codex Yearbook (Beloit, WI)

Page 27 text:

YYJE HIS T016 Y OF BEL OIT COLLEGII. 25 students. The total is one hundred and twenty-live. The pages are fifteen, in the catalogue of 1888-89 the pages are hfty-two. In the catalogue of 1853-54 the students are one hundred and seven, the smallest number recorded. The three highest records are two hundred and fifty-three in 1867-68, two hundred and sixty-five in 1887-88, and three hundred and six in 1888-89. The Alumni are now three hundred and eighty-two. The students taught in the forty-two years are over three thousand. General Retrospect. As the history of any human institution works down from its beginnings and draws nearer to the time of the observer, it seems to have less of both the heroic and the picturesque. Yet both those elements may be there, and the one be often the other. This generation can hardly appreciate the sacrifices that the measure of success thus far attained by Beloit College has cost. But sacrifices are still being made for Beloit, and there is need for a plenty yet. Scattered all along the history are things, little and great, on which the eye delights to rest. Who remembers that Young Ladies' Literary Society, organized in 1838, and helping to found the college-library with a few historical works, and again to buy the college-bell and provide cases for the first collections for the cabinet? Who knows of that benevolent sewing- society that, in September, 1849, decoyed Prof. Bushnell away from his bachelor-den in Middle College, that they might lay a carpet, hang curtains, and upholster a lounge, and that afterward put an occasional study-gown, coat, or shirt upon each of the two professors who were too busy to marry? It was in preparation for a second raid of this kind upon Prof. Bushnell that two of the good ladies drove to Milwaukee in an open conveyance in cold weather. Who does not see something picturesque in the story of the Coronation of Alma Mater by the class of 1862? Who started the ingenious device by which JUNIOR X blazes through the windows of the church in December of each year? Tradition gives the credit of it to the class of 1870. Whose faith and foresight gave the name College Street to the eastern boundary of the campus before ever the Chesapeake made that historic trip? There is uplift in the very thought of that act, as though it were a part of a great revelation that the College must come to this place. It was no common sight, that torch-bearing escort, when President Eaton was inducted into office.

Page 26 text:

24 CODEX. be. thought worthy to succeed the founder. The younger professors, not here mentioned, can bide their time for the commemoration of their work. - Rev. Dexter Clary served as Secretary of the Trustees till his death in 1874, and was then succeeded by Rev. H. P. Higley. In humbler but not less truly important spheres and in not less faith- fulness and friendship to a great multitude of students have been the labors of Miss Ana T. Dewey, the matron of the college-club for all but about two of the twenty-five years between 1857 and 1882, and of john B. Pfeffer, the man-of-all-work for the last twenty-three years and over: their names open the springs of gratitude in many an old student's heart. The War. The part taken by the college in the war of the rebellion has been often stated, but must not be omitted here. More than 4oo, out of perhaps 750 who could bear arms, were in the Union army, and forty-six died in the service, the names of the latter are on a marble tablet in Memorial Hall. One Commencement was omitted because both the professor of rhetoric and the Senior class were in camp at Memphis, the daily prayer-meeting began with their return. The Catalogues. The hrst catalogue is dated H1849-5o, and is of great interest to those who care for the way in which good things have co'me to be. The names of the trustees are largely strange tolthose not familiar with the past. The Faculty of the College consists of five, the instructors in the Seminary are given, they are three of the live, and Miss Adaline Merrill and Miss Cornelia Bradley, A' Instructors in Ladies' Department. There are no Seniors, four Juniors, no Sophomores, four Freshmen, nine sub-Freshmen. The future prominence of Beloit in editorship is suggested by the fact that this roll of seventeen contains the names of S. D. Peet, J. M. Bundy, Horace White, and Harlan Page. The rest of the preparatory school number forty-one. The. Beloit Seminary is credited with eighty-hve gentlemen and hfty-nine ladies The requirements for admission and the course of study, though not so high as now, are high and worthy of great respect. The library is said to contain over a thousand volumes. The pages in this catalogue are sixteen. ' In the catalogue of 1850-51 the girls have disappeared, to return no more. There is a normal and English department of sixty-four

Page 28 text:

26 cormx. Such things are impressive and elevating, they rouse us to realize the mission and the Worth of the college. And again we say, happy is that college which has associations of an ennobling sort connected with its very site. About us is an unusual wealth of the handiwork of God in the kingdom of the Howers. Here are three great geological formations, full of extinct creatures of the primal world, to incite us to reverent study. Far north and south extends our beautiful valley, teeming with fertility, the certain future abode of millions that will need and use and support the College. Far northward stretches that noble view which has thrilled many a heart with delight. About us are the three great types of prairie, spreading or rolling till they break into the billowy hills. Here is an antiquity dating far back of history, far back of the colonial times in which were the beginnings of the colleges of the Atlantic coast, for here, dotted, upon our very campus, are the memorials of a mighty but mysterious race: as among the trees and the mounds is poured, as seemingly nowhere else, the liquid gold of the sunset or the silver sheen of the moonlight, the spirits of their chiefs seem to come forth from these, their places of interment, and to bid us use well the inheritance that is ours. REFERENCES. Dr. Cutler and the Ordinance of 17873 an article by Dr. XV, I , Poole in the North American Review, April, 1876, First Annual Report ofthe Trustees of Beloit College, january, 1849. Inaugural Address of President Chapin, 1850. Inaugural Address of Professor Squier, july, 1851. The Chicago Magazine, March, 1857, Proceedings of the Tenth Anniversary, july S, 1857, Beloit College-Its Origin and Aimsf' an article by President Chapin in the New Englander, April, 1872, Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Anniversary, july, 1872. i Historical Sketch of Beloit College: a pamphlet prepared by request of the United States Commissioner of Education for the Centennial of the Declaration of Independence, 1876. The Beloit College lrlonthly, and The Round Table, 1853-89. The Beloit College Register, 1862-7o. The University Quarterly, 1S6o-61. Catalogues, 1849-89. The Beloit Journal, Free Press, and other local newspapers. Proceedings at the Fiftieth Anniversary ofthe First Congregational Church of Beloit, Dec.. 28-30, 1888 fNot yet publishedl.