Eastern Kentucky University - Milestone Yearbook (Richmond, KY)

Page 27 text:

EVEREND BRECK RESIGNED as Chancellor of Central University in March, 1880, and in il JuJy, Dr. L. H. Blanton became the second and last leader of the still fledgling university. It was about this same time that the financial distress of the institution became more and more worrisome. The minutes of the Board began to deal with finances in growing detail. Any worry of the administrators, however, was not reflected in the yells of the following classes. The Class yell of 1896 -Hi ' . Shinoski! All by Fate! The Leap-Year Class ' . We ' re up to date ' . Ho! Whackety! Allegy Nix! Eighteen hundred and ninety-six! The Class Yell of 1897 Hip!Zu!Rah-Zu! Seven from eleven! We re the boys Of ninety-seven! The Class Yell of 1898 Sehen Sie nicht! Der Alligator bate. ' We ' re the class Of ninety-eight! The Class Yell of 1899 Rah! Rah! Rah! We ' re on lime! We ' re the Class Of ninety-nine! The Class Yell of 1900 We ' ve never flunked! And never Blundered! For we are the Class Of Nineteen Hundred! ' The Central University yearbook, the Cream and Crimson, looked back on these days in 1901, Central ' s last year in Richmond, with an optimism toward the finances of the institution that the Board minutes would indicate as unrealistic. The editors wrote, The severe financial depres- sion which the new institution was soon called upon to undergo rendered reorganization necessary, and Drs. Blanton and Logan were elected to the offices vacated by the resignation of Drs. Breck and Pratt. Under the new management the University immedi- ately entered upon a career of prosperity and suc- cess; large sums were added to the endowment, new departments were established, and larger numbers of students were enrolled.

Page 26 text:

C.U. Curators Pick Richmond As Site ENTRAL UNIVERSITY was incorporated by the Commonwealth of Kentucky March 3, 1873, and in the months ahead the founders of Central University, including the Reverend Stuart Robinson, Robert L. Breck, Josephy Chambers, Ben- nett H. Young and J. V. Logan, set out to secure a cam- pus, a faculty and set an opening date for the new university. Meeting in Richmond December 31, 1873, these men, who were members of the first Board of Cura- tors of the university, voted to open the University September 1, 1874; to proceed with the purchase of ground for the campus and to construct, for S30.000, a budding to serve the College of Arts, and to visit and inspect sites for the campus. The Curators took note at that meeting that a paper had been presented by citizens of Madison County relinquishing the con- dition of location at Richmond from subscriptions for the University, to an amount sufficient to compJete the sum of 5150,000 required for the endowment. Accepting the paper as an act of good will by the Madison Countians. The Curators nevertheless, chose to locate the school at Richmond. They were no doubt influenced by the fact that the leading contributor to the institution was SingJeton P. Walters, an influential member of the local gentry, whose initial contribution of $17,500 later grew to 525,000. He was also a trustee of the University. In fact, Walters actually made land available to the new university ' . Forty acres from the north-west corn- er of 249 acres of land he purchased in January, 1874, became the Central University campus. Walters kept legal possession of the campus tract until 1882 when he sold it to Central for $9,325. When Central had sought to buy the land from its original owner the price had been $12,000. Work had already begun on Central University ' s physical plant at the time Walters purchased the property for the campus. Brick for the Main Build- ing were made in a kiln located about sixty yards west of where the building stands. The Reverend Robinson had been elected as the first Chancellor, but resigned in April, 1874, before the University opened. In that same month, the Rev- erend R. L. Breck was elected Chancellor, at an an- nual salary of $2,500. Dr. Breck was a prestigious ad- dition to the Chancellor ' s Office. The son of a U. S. Congressman, he was married to a niece of Mary Todd Lincoln, the President ' s wife. The Curators established tuition for the new uni- versity at 560 per year, and in June, voted to form a medical college in Louisville. Central University actually began its first term September 22, 1874, and on June 17, 1875, the new institution granted the first collegiate degree ever awarded in Richmond — the Bachelor of Laws — to M. French Tipton. Central University was not long in operation before notes of financial concern began to creep into the minutes of its Board of Curators. On June 14. 1876, the Chancellor was directed to once again canvass the state for money and in March of 1879 the Curators voted to agree on a plan by which only five professors could conduct the academic program of the Univer- sity. In May of the same year Jonathan W. Pratt re- signed as President of the College of Philosophy, Let- ters and Science. The Board noted his resignation with a flowery letter that hinted he had resigned for the good of the institution ... so that his $2,500 annual salarv would be saved.

Page 28 text:

HE FIRST GREAT DEPARTMENT to be add- ed to the University was the College of Den- tistry at Louisville. This soon became one of the largest and most prosperous colieges of the in- stitution. In 1897 the College of Law, with Judge William Chenault as President, was established. Although stiii in its infancy, this school is inferior to none in the State, and promises in time to become one of the most prosperous of the University ' s departments. The University also has three branch schools, as follows: A Preparatory Department at Richmond, Ky.; S. P. Lees Collegiate Institute at Jackson, Ky.; Hardin Collegiate Institute at Elizabethtown, Ky. All of these have a large attendance, are doing good work, and in every way are a credit to the parent institution. But, in reality, old Central U. was dying. In fact, in 1880, soon after Blanton ' s assumption of office, the Curators decided that the only possible way to con- tinue scholarships for valedictorians of high school classes would be to reduce the salaries of a portion of the faculty. The school continued to meet financial crisis after crisis, mainly by reducing faculty and salaries. Also confronted were the academic problems of the day, including the teaching of evolution, which it em- phasized should be presented only as a theory. The implication was that instructors should also point out weaknesses in Darwin ' s arguments. Two entries in the Board minutes of 1882 give an in- dication that by even that early date the days of Cen- tral University were numbered. On January 25, 1882. meeting in Frankfort, the Board discussed a letter from Dr. Beatty of Centre College asking for a con- fidential conference. This was likely a prelude to the merger to come nine years later. In March, apparent- ly feeling the pinch of a state law levying a tax to support the public institution in Lexington, the Cura- tors voted to test the constitutionality of the statute. Times got even harder. There were more salary re- ductions and in 1885 the administration was stream- lined by combining the boards of Curators and Trus- tees. Financial stresses led the Curators to admit women students in the depression year of 1893 to help boost the enrollment, but by 1895 the dollar pinch was worse, necessitating further salary reductions. Throughout the total crisis, the Curators never lost sight of their mission to educate. On June 12, 1900, with the end only one year away, they passed a reso- lution to give greater prominence and more time . . . to the study of the English Bible in the curriculum ...