Hiram College - Spider Web Yearbook (Hiram, OH)

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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

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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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EGWQV w. EVQYQSI. The subject of this sketch came to Hiram as a student in I852 and re- mained as student, teacher and principal, with brief absences, until 1864. His longest period of absence was when he was a student of Qberlin College, from which he graduated in 1863. He was born at North Hudson, New York, May IO, 1831, and died at Des Moines, Iowa, May 21, 1900. His education began in the public schools of his native state, and at the age of sixteen he was a teacher in the common schools at North Hudson. He afterward attended in succession Geauga Sem- inary at Chester, Ohio, The Wfestern Reserve Eclectic Institute, Hiram, Qhiog Bethany College, 'West Virginia, for a short time: and Oberlin. Ohio, wherc he graduated receiving the degree of A. B. In 1864 he was elected to the presi- flency of Eureka College, Eureka, lllinois. In 1872 he became pastor of the Christian Church at Springfield, Illinois. In 1874 he was professor in Kentucky University at Lexington. In 1877 a second time president of Eureka College. In 1881 he was elected president of Butler College, Irvington, Ind., where he remained until 1886. In 1886 he was elected chancellor of Garfield University, Wfichita, Kansas, where he remained three years. He then became president of the Southern Illinois State Normal 'University at Carbondale, where he remained until elected dean of the College of the Bible in Drake University, a position he held at the time of his death. He was a Uborn teacher and in the class room had few superiors. On the public platform either as preacher or lecturer, though modest he was grace- ful in gesture, felicitous in speech, and brilliant in thought. I He was the author of two books which have had a deservedly wide patron- age: The Divine Demonstration, a work on Christian Evidences, and Sci- ence and Pedagogy of Ethics. His literary style was clear and strong and often elegant. I-Ie had a sensitive nature, a social temperament, and was a delightful com- panion for the fireside circle. He bore au unstained character through his long life, in public and in private, for nearly seventy years: and when he died there was no flaw found in his armor or stain on his shield. He was one of the makers of Hirarn's high character, both as a student and teacher, and in her annals his name deserves to be written large. Ken-r, O. E. M. GREEN. 2 I '