Kenyon College - Reveille Yearbook (Gambier, OH)

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It was a bright summer morning (July 22, 1825) that a party of gentlemen started from Mount Vernon with Bishop Chase for the purpose of exploring the country eastward of and adjacent to this city. (Letter of Henry Curtis) Chase found on the property of William Hogg a suitable site. On top of a hill of tangled underbrush, snakes and fallen trees, he exclaimed merely, “This will do.” The 8000-acre tract was bought for 18,000 dollars. Squatters, v ith no right to property, had settled and raised corn. Below the Bishop's mill was a dis- tillery which was the social artery of the settlement: every path in the underbrush led, like the spokes of a wheel, directly to the still. The work of clearing began. An excavation was made for a permanent college building; a well was dug; temporary log dwellings were built. The Harcourt Parish was established in Gambier in 1827, named for Sir Harcourt Lees, a generous con- tributor. The cornerstone of Old Kenyon was laid on the ninth of June, 1827. The work on the building had begun, but was en- dangered by a country-wide custom of imbibing three glasses of whiskey a day to forget the bugs, hot sun, and the dust of stone cutting.” Chase delivered a sermon to the workmen that so moved them that some wept, some even forgot the daily por- tion of liquor. Work went on, with construction of temporary housing, granaries, a kitchen, stable, schoolhouse and chapel. The v ilderness seemed insurmountable, and domestic and skilled labour was nearly impossible to procure. The 10,000 dollars Chase had collected on a trip East was now gone. He turned to the Congress for a tract of land which he might sell. Regardless of pressure applied by many friends, including his brother Dudley Chase, senator from Vermont, the bill was shelved until the next year. It took many small gifts to allow the work to proceed. The Bishop said that he was like “Elijah in the wilderness, with all my daily wants supplied by the hand of mercy.” The first years in Gambier were raucous and colourful, with the natural overtones of early nineteenth century life. Freshmen were kept in constant misery by upperclassmen putting squeal- ing pigs in their beds, pouring water on them and other such pranks. The Bishop was becoming extremely discontent with Kenyon College after the failure of Congress to pass his application and the treachery of Reverend G. M. West. West had been sent to 7

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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

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England to raise additional funds. He not only failed to raise any kind of money, however, but he even turned on Chase and dis- credited him among influential people in England and America. A third disappointment was the schism between Chase as presi- dent of the institution and the faculty. Chase was a weary Titan whose incessant labours and hopes had been thwarted again and again. He began to become narrow and dictatorial; he was a highly industrious man in his own right and could not quite understand why everyone around him should not follow his example. Professors were told in no uncertain terms where to live and even what they could eat. The professors found Chase a master rather than a leader. They attempted to limit his au- thority through the board of trustees. This action Chase took as a plot to drive him from Gambier. After the diocesan convention in Mount Vernon on the ninth of September, 1831, Chase wander- ed back to his residence in the west end of the Old Kenyon base- ment and wrote his letter of resignation. On the thirty-first of October, 1832, Charles Pettit Mcllvaine was consecrated the second Bishop of Ohio and thus President of Kenyon College. He was a very young man, and a highly « «030 in.. ' 'i101081 a complete line of defeats”. Baseball came into bein' Hill all., th. Civil War. This plat, d.picts a rousing ,c.n. an th. „«.n in 8