Miami University - Recensio Yearbook (Oxford, OH)

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Right: Pole Rush used to be an institution at Miami during Scrap Day which was an annual competition between the freshman and sophomore classes. President Guy Potter Benton organized the first Pole Rush in 1903 to replace the perilous Tower Rush of years past. Photo courtesy of Kaye YorWMurstein Alumni Center 1 8 175th Anniversany

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A Heritage of ExceHence ver the span of her first 175 years Miami has come to be known by many names. To members of Greek letter organizations she is the llMother of Fraternities. To sports enthusiasts she is the Cradle of Coaches. In her formative years she was called the iiYale of the Early West. Historians know her as the iiAlma Mater of a President? while admission counsellors sometimes refer to her as Ohiois Public Ivy? Americais poet laureate, Robert Frost, summarized the feelings of generations of Miami stu- dents when he pronounced her the prettiest college that ever there was . . . Miami is unique among American universities because she has all the ambiance of an independent Eastern college while maintaining the essen- tially Western tradition of a public land-grant institution. And her grant of land is one of the very oldest in the nation, dating back to May 5,1792 when a single township In the Old Northwest Territory was committed to her support in an Act of Congress signed into law by our first President, Geor e Washing ton. To this day $7500 of public assis- tance is realized each year, as it has been for most of the past 175 years, from annual land rents paid by lot owners in the college township to the University. Though regarded as a munificent sum when the Miami University was char- tered by the State of Ohio on iiShe is a rural college . free from the distractions and vices of city life. Every visitor to Oxford is impressed by the loyalty, diligence and seriousness of purpose characteristic of Miami students, free to think and develop amid the natural beauty and historic associations of this famous old college town. -- 1914 Miami publication February 17, 1809, $7500 soon proved to be woefully inadequate to meet the yearly expenses of the University. As a consequence, Miami early developed a reliance on the financial support of students and alumni to help secure her present and assure her future, a tradition of giving which continues to this day and helps account for much of Miamiis uniqueness. Yet Miamiis distinctiveness is attributed even more to the multiplicity of her roots. For in the square mile that was Ox- ford before the Civil War, no less than five institutions of higher learning emerged. The one called Miami was char- tered as a school for men only - there weren t any womens colleges in 1809. Then in the 1840is and 18505 when higher education for women finally came to be recognized as eminently desirable, three independent womens, col- leges emerged in Oxford e the Oxford Female institute in 1849 we recognize its prin- cipal building today by the name of the Oxford College Halli; the Western Female Seminary in 1853 tit was called Westernii because it was the western outpost of the Mount Holyoke SeminaIy of South Hadley, Massachusetts; Peabody Hall today is on the site of its original buildingi; and the Oxford Female Col- lege of 1856 tthe Marcum Conference Center now stands on its site, having re- placed O.F.C.is old Fisher Halli. In 1838 the Theological Recenslo - 1 907 175th Anniversary 1 7

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A Heritage Of ExceHence s: And this spirit and interest in athletics is growing, growing perceptibly and decidely, and is the most hopeful sign of the glorious athletic future that lies before Miami, if the student body but desires such a future and sets itself about securing it? Recensio - 1908 Seminary of the Associate Re- formed Synod of the West tPresbyterianl also appeared in Oxford, in a building which is still called the Seminary on a street still appropriately named Church. Though the Theological Seminary as an in- stitution of higher learning was closed before the Civil War, the Presbyterian influ- ence on Miami remained. Un- deed, Miamiis first seven presidents were all ordained Presbyterian ministersn . t was the Owl War which put little Miami tits highest pre-war enrollment was only 250l to its severest test. From 1861 to 1865, Miami faculty, students and former students fought in uniforms of blue as well as gray, Miamians served in the cabinets of both Abra- YorWMurstein Alumni Center 0 59 :4 U- o 39 0 1: :5 0 U o H o .C Q. ham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. Five Miamians served as governors of Ohio, Michi- gan, Indiana and Illinois during the war years, while ten others served as Union generals and three as Confederate. Two former Miami students served as admirals of the Union Navy, while Oxfordis own Lottie Moon served the cause of the South as one of the Southis principal spies. The Civil War so drained the human and financial resources of Miami that the University was forced to close its doors in 1873, not to reopen until 1885 when annual state oper- ating appropriations were finally assured. The period from 1809 to 1873 is still referred to as iiOld Miami. The period since 1885 is called New Miamiii. Old Miamiii has been a school for men only. With the admission of Ella McSurely in 1889, iiNew Miamii, be- came coeducational. With the coming of coeducation the principal reason for the sepa- rate existence of the indepen- dent womensi colleges was gone. The Oxford Female Insti- tute and the Oxford Female College merged in the 18805 to become the Oxford Col- lege for Women, which in turn was absorbed by Miami Uni- versity in 1928. Finally, in 1974, the last remaining pri- vate womensi college in Ox- ford, the Western College, be- came part of Miami. A town of colleges had become a col- lege town. Left: Miami baseball at the turn of the century. Uniforms, people and equipment had changed but the same winning traditions condnued. Upper Left: The Ladies' basketball team of 1907 played a very untiring schedule of two games. Against Oxford College the women were victorious 9-5 but against Wilmington College they were not so fortunate, losing 1 5-1 0. 7 ' 175th AnniverSaIy i 19 '