Hiram College - Spider Web Yearbook (Hiram, OH)

Page 17 text:

BIIYKQ HGYOII BillSddlQ. Burke Aaron Hinsdale was born at XVadsworth, Ohio, March 31, 1837. lt was his good fortune to be one of a family in which industry, honesty and good sense were virtues strongly marked. Such educational advantages as the country schools near the farm home afforded were his until his seventeenth year when he became a student of the Eclectic Institute at Hiram. He came as he said 'twith the smell of the furrow on his garments, but he soon became prominent as a student. He was then, as throughout life, a great reader, and he seemed from the first to know how to read profitably. The period of his student life at Hiram extended from the winter of 1853 to the spring of 1860, but it was often broken by intervals during which he taught in the country schools. In the catalogue of 1881 he is named as an as- sistant teacher, and in those of ,62, '63 and '64 he is named as teacher of English. Though it was his ambition to complete a course in one of the eastern colleges he was unable to do so. However upon the broad foundation laid at the Eclectic Institute he built so well that the most prominent institutions of the land were at length glad to confer upon him their degrees. He left Hiram in '64 to become pastor of the church at Solon, Ohio, and in '66 he assumed similar duties with the Franklin Avenue Christian Church of Cleveland. He served also at this time as one of the editors of the Christian Standard. At the opening of Alliance College in the fall of '68 he became pro- fessor of history in that institution. The fall of '69 found him once more at Hiram, this time to occupy the chair of history and English literature in the college now entering on its third year. At the close of his first year in this capacity he was chosen to the presidency of the college, a position whose duties he discharged with marked ability and faith- fulness for twelve years. Although his special field of instruction covered philos- ophy, history, rhetoric and Biblical literature, he never hesitated to take other classes when the distribution of the work made it necessary. He came to his place when the young college with small means and few instructors was striving hard to do the work which its new dignity imposed upon it. Both physically and intellect- ually he was a strong man, yet the burdens of administration and instruction which he took upon himself were heavy even for his broad shoulders. He was a tire- less worker. The class-room claimed him for five and even six hours per day, and as college treasurer he looked after many details of business. The chapel lec- tures, then quite a prominent feature of the work at Hiram, became in his hands a source of great profit to the students. He usually preached twice on Sunday, addressed frequent teachers' associations, contributed copiously to the columns of I7

Page 16 text:

KE A.H1NSDALE. BU ATE ATW JOHN M. ,V - CI. W EVERESD HARVEY

Page 18 text:

the Christian Standard and the Christian Quarterly, and prepared and delivered many formal addresses. Some of these addresses he afterward published in a volume entitled Schools and Studies, which he dedicated to the students of Hiram College as a token of remembrance and an acknowledgment of indebted- ness, quoting Bishop Sanderson's saying: I have learned much from my masters, more from my equals, but most of all from my disciples. At least five of his published works were brought out while he was at Hiram. As a teacher he had few equals. He insisted upon honest and thorough work. VVith him mental discipline was the great end of college work, and he sought to make the development of the subject in hand a means to the development of the student. As a disciplinarian he could be stern and severe when occasion demanded, but the kindness of his heart often led him to ask: How can we maintain discipline and yet save these boys T' In his intercourse with students he spoke plainly and without reserve what he thought, especially in the way of criticism or reproof. He seldom praised-perhaps too seldom-but students came to value very highly a word of commendation from him, knowing that it meant much and that there was no flattery in it. He was thoroughly honest and sincere in word and act and he sought to beget those sterling qualities in his stu- dents. At Hiram on last Commencement Day he said 1 The best thing that Gar- field ever did for Hiram students was to teach them to put away cant and other forms of insincerity, to cultivate truth and reality, to be themselves, to be strong, and to quit them like menfl The same might be said with equal truth of Hinsdale, and it is easy to understand why he added, It was a great lessong it still lives in Hiram College. If I did not believe that such is the case the college could not interest me save as a reminiscencef' The debt which Hiram College owes to him it is difficult to over-estimate. The three years preceding his administration formed the transitional period from the academy to the college. The twelve years during which he was at the head of the college gave it its character and stability and made it prominently known among the colleges of the state. To the students of his day and especially to the alumni who long sat at his feet as learners his memory will ever be dear. They will never cease to be thankful that for a time their lives touched his and lylvgrq efarichpd with that power which comes from close contact with a strong and e p u sou . Qf his work as superintendent of the Cleveland schools from 1882 to 1886 and as professor of the art and science of teaching in the University of Michigan from 1888 to the time of his death at Atlanta, Ga., on the twenty-ninth of No- vember, IQOO, space will not permit a review. Suffice it to say that he had won a national reputation as an educator and as an author, and that while his fall in the height of his usefulness and power touches the Hiram fellowship very lglepply-,Chis losi vglll be deplored by every earnest worker in our educational e r .- 1eo1'ge -. o ton. 18