Denison University - Adytum Yearbook (Granville, OH)

Page 15 text:

Denisonfs Diamond Anniversary ENISON is looking back with all the complacency of fine achievement upon seventy-live years of history, and even the stress of circumstance which accompanied certain periods of the history serve but to bring out the high lights of her present prosperity. The editors of the 1AiDYTUM have asked for a sketch of the college which shall serve to correlate the year 1906 with the year 1831 and the years between. To begin with, seventy-Eve years is a goodly longevity for any college in the XV est. Of the thirty-three colleges and universities listed in the latest report of the United States Commissioner of Education as belonging in Uhio, only four are older than Denison, vis.: Qhio at Athens, Miami, Kenyon and VVestern Reserve. Ohio State, Qberlin, VVooster, Ohio Wesleyan, Marietta, Witteiiberg and all of the other Qhio colleges are Denisonls younger sisters, as are Michigan and all the other western State universities. The story of the founding of the college is one of intense interest, and the lines of fate which led to its location in Granville intersect in a singular way in the year 1831, for at almost no other date would the choice have fallen upon Granville, fortunate as the decision proved. It was one of the older towns of the State, having been settled in 1805, so that the cele- bration of the centennial of the village has just preceded this anniversary of the college. Granville had always borne the characteristic culture and piety brought from its namesake town in Massachusetts when the original colony came with their traveling church and incipient town government, but in 1831, owing to a variety of causes, Granville was at its flood-tide of prosperity and promise. The important canal-route from Clevel'and had come to a temporary standstill at New- ark, while what was known as the Deep Cutl' was being constructed, and for a considerable period the route of travel and transportation from the East and North to Cincinnati passed through Granville. The enterprising citizens of the village obtained also several lucrative contracts for the construction of portions of the canal, and thus added to the prosperity which important manufacturing enterprises afforded the town. Attention had been drawn to Granville also as the place of origination of the earliest temperance society in the West, and great religious revivals, especially those under the leadership of pastor jacob Little, of the Congregational church, had heightened the already enviable moral tone of the community. But within five years thereafter a severe epidemic of fever swept the community, a financial panic and the death of its wealthiest and most enterprising citizens had demoralized the community economically, and both the National Road and the railway from Zanesville to Columbus had gone through several miles to the south of Granville, leaving it like a fossil on an abandoned shore line. In addition to these conditions the manual labor idea which had led to the establish- ll.

Page 14 text:

'lil' The Board Of Prcsiflclll ...... xX'iCC-I,I'CSiClC11l. . . SCL'1'CllIl'j'. . . . C.l5lllCl ......... . . ll. .-X. SHERXVIN, ESQ. F. P. BEAVER, ESQ. 'l. Ii. RICINTIRE, ESQ. fi:-:xx G. E. LEONARD, D. D. Q. M. DOWNER, ESQ. Q1-:xx G. XY. LASI-IER, D. D. A B. TIIRESHER, ESQ. PEVRTON CASE, ESQ. QEY. ,IQ I.. CI-IENEY, PII. D. CQEV. C. -I. ROSE. EJROF. A. D. COLE. filsv. j. XY. XVEDDELL, D. D. .QI-:xx C. -I. BALDXVIN, D. D. . C T. LEXVIS, ESQ. D. IQINGSLEY, ESQ. XY. H. DOANE, MUS. D. fi. CANBY, ESQ. P Pl.-XRYEY IQEELER, ESQ. 10 Tru siees . .REV. H.. E. COLEY, D. D. .. .G. M. PETERS, ESQ. . . .JQ R. DAVIES, ESQ. T1 .......CD.COONS. E. I. BARNEY, ESQ. Sl. E. x7AN vvOORHIS, ESQ. TORRENCE HUEEIVIAN, ESQ. 1. R. DAVIES, ESQ. VvINTON R. SI-IEPARD, ESQ. E. M. TI-IRESHER, ESQ. REV. B. F. PATT. 3. F, MCCANN, ESQ. DAVID ZOLLARS, ESQ. AMBROSE SVVASEY, ESQ. ' REV. H. E. STILLVVELL, D. D f. M. SXNARTZ, ESQ. REV. H. E. COLEY, D. D. REV. VV. E. STEVENS. G. M. PETERS, ESQ. REV. C. A. EATON, D. D. REV. M. BRELSEORD. I. M. AMOS, ESQ.

Page 16 text:

I I. , I-.Wm -iw was every-wlqel-Q proved, after brief experiment, , A - . .,-L...-,-.1112 . .- - - - V , , , ,J :mm U1 UL U I D ' - - 1- 1 ' intluential 111 securing the college I inncrril piospciity nas K, iw. iiliiiiiuilgl ,IIS uigemgr- of material enterprises has come to constitute one .iiziiiilliiiiiilii-i-I'iziilrantages of the location. while thC'COH?ge itself has-'comelto COU- xmmk. il snlliciein economic basis for the community life, and has given tie town a nroniinence greater than material enterprise could have Welded- I I ' i 'I-hc pi,-11, .lf the enterprise which founded Den1so11 toolt place at. seaagiolp, , ,mu ,.,.i,,.,,- ,,,, 11,0 QYQ11lIlg'Uf Xlay '25, 1830, seventeen prominent Bapt1S'ES 0 f C ' ' of the Ohio Baptist Convention, at the 41-ite niet at the close of the an111vC1'S211'Y citizen of Lebanon, and organized tl1e that and the following year the hduca- 4 iino llaplist lfducation , ocie y. . L, M L l . non Society considered propositions from various communities for the location nl' the instiiniion, the choice of Granville being largely through the activity of Mr. liligirles Sawyer and Rey. .-Xllen Darrow, of Granville, who raised a subscription 1-ir the farni site offered by the citizens of Granville for the institution. The college opened in December, 1831, in the unfinished Baptist Church building, the college building being wholly incomplete at the time. john Pratt, an alumnus of lirown l'niyersity, from which l11Stl'E1ltlO11 came the first three presidents and . . . 1 t the D6011111111 not only president, out hoine of lchabod Corwin. 5011- the mst Q ' t During aweral of the faculty of Denison, was a g g enibollieil for a few months the entire faculty in his capable person. Witliin six months a disastrous fire haddestroyed the new college building, but better build- l. by 1831 the thirty-seven students, with which ings were promptly erectec number the institution had begun, had increased to 183, a11d almost every State in the l'nion was represented in the list. In spite of the tire, the finances had been so conducted as to show a balance of nearlyi5iS1000 in the current expense report of the college for that year. But the disasters to which reference has been made in the career of Granville rendered the existence of the college a precarious one for many years. The high valuation placed up-on a relatively small sumvof money is shown in the fact that a standing offer was made by the trustees to name the college for any donor of 5Bl0,000, a condition which was accepted by Williain S. llenison. of .Xtl2l.l'l'lSVlllG, Ohio, in 1856. lust before this the college had been reinoyed from its farm site, a mile southivest of Granville, to its present noble site on the hill overlooking thegvillage, and a strong effort toward securing the removal of the institution was forever set at rest by the efforts of Jeremiah Hall, who went noni the pastorate of the Baptist Church in Granville to the presidency of the insntunon. raising a sum sufficient to secure its retention in Granville. The lirst substantial endowment of Denison, amounting to EB100,000, was s i-i' nreil during the presidency of Dr. Talbot, 1863-1873, and was made possible iffgifiguililClvlgs-11e1'osity' .of such men as Ebenezer Thresher and gli. E. . - Us - , s . vith tilell families have formed such constant benetactors iixliIiilzrgliiiSLEEnii1St1itxL1tip11. The 11ext great advance in the institution came nf mi uvm-iam R Hirpeisiplpilgy of E. Benjamin Andrews, and the leadership then in the beginnino-A fi l 6 A Cai amy, frcim 1846 to 1550. ,Theseiuieu View is U o tien notable careeis. Dr. Purintons administration, frozu 182111 to 19411. SC - . 1 'tu 1 a' ' ' - ' ' , . C ige inciease in equipment and attendance. and witnessed 12 A 175 A i, 5. we' If .af