Hiram College - Spider Web Yearbook (Hiram, OH)

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j0bll m. Htwater. Scarce any life was more closely linked with the first twenty years of Hiram history than that of john M. Atwater. He was born on a farm at Mantua Station in june, 1837. His boyhood's home was one of the most influential and substantial Christian homes of all this region. He came to Hiram as a student in T851 and with frequent interruptions of farm work and teaching, he held each year some connection with the school until 1861. As Hiram atthis time gave no degrees he sought one at Oberlin, and here he formed strong attachments. The detail in discipline, the devotion, and the moral atmosphere of the place delighted him: and his life was distinctly tempered by his association with Qberlin. After graduation he returned to Hiram and taught in the spring of '64. He was the last principal of the Eclectic Institute in the year '66-'67, and this last year of the H0lC.l Eclectici' in its good order, and the effectiveness of its class room work has been thought to be one of the best in its history. He was professor of Greek and Latin in the college in ,67-'68, and president of the college from 768 to ,7O. For a time thereafter he gave himself to preaching, holding important pastorates at Wforcester, Mass., at Cleveland, and at other points. A call to .the ill-starred Garheld University at VVichita, Kansas, introduced him again to the much-loved class room. He gave laborious years to Qskaloosa College, Iowa, and accepted the presidency of Central Chris- tian College at Albany, Mo., but here he found that the vigor of life was broken and time had come to rest. He returned to Cleveland in the summer of '99, and renewed pleasantly and familiarly old associations. He preached with a full meas- ure of his old grace and vigor, but the end was closer at hand than friends knew, and on the eve of lan. 17, IQOO, he quietly fell asleep. It would be a personal delight to dwell on almost numberless scenes con- nected with his life. They are all bright, pure, happy. He was an exact student and a strict disciplinarian. He was firm in his own views and plans almost to stubbornness, and yet he was tolerant to an extreme degree of others' feelings and convictions, and he was the soul of courtesy. He was a good man. No one ever would think of connecting him with any questionable doing, he lived in too high an atmosphere. He was a genial man, and yet he was one of the best examples both of natural and cultivated devotion. I9

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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

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He knew how to pray. He was always a lover of XVhittier, and such poems as The Eternal Goodness he knew in his heart. President Atwater was spared the grief of knowing of the martyrdom of his son Ernest, a devoted missionary to China, whose early years were passed at Hiram, but his life had full measure of sore trial and sorrow. lt is comforting to know that in all he was sustained by a strength that was more than human. He walked in a Divine fellowship, and in that he is now at rest.-E. B. Wfakeiield. . 5 fs. r K gt I U of e Z0