Flora Stone Mather College - Polychronicon Yearbook (Cleveland, OH)

Page 33 text:

HIS year we celebrate the twenty-fifth Anniversary of the College for XVomen. Vtfe, who are enjoying the results of twenty-five years of incessant toil on the part of those con- cerned with our College, are apt to forget that colleges indulge in infancy just as we do. The College for Wfonien first beheld the light of day in the Ford residence on the corner of Adelbert Road and Euclid Avenue. Dr. Hiram C. Haydn was the first president, and Miss Maude Kimball was the first student. During the First year twenty-three young women, but two of them in regular courses, enjoyed the opportunities offered. The faculty list covered but one page of the catalogue. The tuition was Fifty dollars, matriculation, live dollars, but there was no charge for diplomas. Miss Mary Louise French, who graduated in eighteen hundred and ninety-one has the honor of being the first graduate of the College for XVomen. VVhen we remember that on this twenty-fifth anniversary, we are about to lay the corner stone of our seventh College building and that our College ranks in scholarship among the great colleges for women in the world, we can but express our heartfelt thanks to those worthy ones who have given the best of their lives to our growth and welfare. 36

Page 32 text:

Department of Philosophy Professor- Herbert Austin Aikins, Ph.D. Department Professor- Francis Hobart Herrick, Ph.D., Sc.D. Department of Professor- ' Mattoon Monroe Curtis, Ph.D Department Professor- Frank Perkins VVhitman, A.M., Sc.D. Department Professor- Henry Platt Cushing, Ph.D. 35 Instructor- Jared Sparks Moore, Ph.D. of Biology f'lZSlll'1LC'Zl0l'.S'- 'Walter Edward Sullivan, Ph.D Ralph John Gilmore, A.M. Anthropology of Physics Associate Professor- Harry Wfilliain Springsteen, Ph.D. of Geology Assoriate Professor- Clinton Raymond Stauffer, Ph.D.

Page 34 text:

A Letter From Dr. Hiram Haydn The First President of the College for Women XVENTY-FIVE years have silently passed away, since the day of small-very small-things. Then we had not a foot of land nor a building and began in rented quarters. W'e had no faculty but a borrowed one. For the Adelbert Faculty, sym- pathising with our plans offered, for a College that put girls by themselves, to duplicate their services for us, for three years, a most generous' offer. So we were well cared for in the beginning. Prophecies of failure were plenty, encouragements, few. But after awhile Mrs. Clark, guided by the argument of the President, con- cluded to invest ten thousand dollars in a college yet to be. lt was a great step by faith. From that moment I felt that the Col- lege was assured and that other monies would follow. And sure enough, Mrs. Leffingwell had caught sight of it, and small as it was had faith in its future, and left to us a lovely bequest. Then Mr. Vlfoods, capitalist, without children, lost his wife and deter- mining to link her name with the College for lfVomen, gave us over fifty thousand dollars in her name. By this time Mrs. Samuel Mather, whose father had carried his family with himself in interest in Adelbert College, saw the value of our College not only to the coming woman but also to the College for the coming man. The founding of our College took the fangs out of the bitterness over the exclusion of girls from Adelbert College. Enemies fast be- came friends and those who declaimed against us talked for us or, at all events, concluded to wait and see what would come out of the great adventure, for it was a great venture by faith. But I never, for a moment, doubted but that Cleveland was to have a great University and in it, a College for Wfomen. Wfhat Mrs. Matheris loyalty has done for us, it would be hard to tell in this brief account. Money and her precious influence she gave, and though dead, she yet lives among us in Guilford Hall, Haydn Hall, and in the noble band of those who will rear a beautiful Dormitory to her name. To her mother's memory, she gave fifty thousand dollars to the general fund. But time would fail us to speak of Mr. and Mrs. ldfade, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler, Mr. and Mrs. Mather and 37