Kenyon College - Reveille Yearbook (Gambier, OH)

Page 7 text:

George Wharton Marriott visited Chase out of curiosity one day at his lodging. This was a fortunate meeting, for Marriott was of the High Church party, and Chase’s previous acquain- tances had been made exclusively among Evangelical or Low Church men. Through Marriott, Chase met such influential beneficiaries as Doctor George Gaskin, canon of Ely, and Lord Kenyon. Chase travelled through northern England visiting private homes and conucting a quiet crusade. He impressed everyone immensely with his size, his good looks and with the fervour of his piety. His crusade was a complete success. Lord Kenyon’s daughter Margaret erected a log cabin shrine to Philander in an “Ohio garden” out of her devotion to the impressive cleric. Bishop Hobart's attacks had ceased and he even proposed a re- conciliation. Money was pouring in in liberal amounts from admiring benefactors—from Lady Rosse, from Hannah More and from Sir Thomas and Lady Ackland. The Bishop from Ohio longed for America, and with sad adieux he left for New York on July twenty-eighth, 1824, after a full, successful year. At the annual convention of the Diocese of Ohio at Chillicothe on November third, 1824, a constitution of the new seminary was drafted. It incorporated assurances that there would be no schism in “the peace and unity of the Church. The orthodoxy and loyalty to the Protestant Episcopal Church was left up to the jurisdiction and judgment of the General Convention and the Bishop. There has never been any questioning of the orthodoxy and loyalty of the seminary to this day. The College finally evolved as Kenyon College on December twenty-ninth, 1824 at Chase's farm in Worthington. It boasted of a library, a faculty, a board of trustees and one student, whose name was Hunter. The College has survived and proceeded with its work through turmoil and chaos from that day without lapse. The institution at Worthington was not to remain on this site for very long. Offers came from Zanesville, Franklinton, Chillicothe and Cincinnati. Chase, however, had made up his mind that Kenyon would not be a city college” because “the students are exposed to the temptations of those who find it to the interest or malicious pleasure to seduce them from studies into vice and dissipation.” Nor would he place it in a village. There was only one alternative: to take to the woods.” 5

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These interior sketches of Old Seventy-four show just how primitivo life in Gambier must have been during the 1820's and 30's. It was a temporary building erected by the Bishop to house the school and chapel. The abovo picture shows the Faculty Bonch. which was ab- ducted many times by discontented students. This is an interior view of tho schoolroom and the chapel. 4

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It was the pride of the country side . The mansion was built by Bishop Mcllvaino for his residence in 1833. It still remains in slightly dilapidated condition. Its muddy waters border the Hill on the West. Titanic in the non-exrstant in the dry months of the summer. spring, practically • ... iHimml