Miami University - Recensio Yearbook (Oxford, OH)

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M1am1 Umversrty Special Collections Gazebo in East Park. A MARK OF THE TIMES iamiis campus and surrounding township is a region where tradition prevails within the guise of change. The past two centuries have brought tremendous growth to the untamed Oxford of 1781. The campus has also expanded from the three original buildings to over 100. Despite the progress and development of the past 200 years, the thoughts and dreams of todayis students still reflect those of the earliest university days. It all started one day in March, in the year 1810; a five-member group hacked and trampled its way through the wild forest and creeks of Butler County carrying with them the ancient academic name of Oxford. They chose the sight of the future college land. Among the deer and foxes along Four Mile Creek, they began to establish a university. This early Oxford was a frontier village for 500 residents. High Street was lined with mudholes in winter and ankle-deep dust in summer. The ladies of the day cascaded down High Street with their trailing skirts sweeping up the dirt of the sidewalks. Oxford then boasted of six stores, three taverns and a few other establishments for the ruddy pioneers. The muddy path leading diagonally to the cam- pus was the symbolic separation of the Oxford pio- neers and the eloquent college men. In November splitting or sawing wood in the building or defacing the furniture and walls. Those first students were all subjected to strict regulations by the faculty. The young men were required to attend chapel services every morning and expected to remain in their rooms during facul- ty regulated study hours. According to Virgil E. Davis in The Literary Societies in 801d Miamiii, they were iiforbidden to frequent any tavern, gro- cery or other place where intoxicating drink was sold? The concerned President Robert H. Bishop warned that students caught patronizing these places of 8cheating and dissipationii would be dis- missed and the names of the proprietors publicly circulated. Regardless, students did find escape from their rigorous studies and strict regulations. Every Fri- day afternoon, the voices of the Erodelphian Liter- ary Society and the Miami Union could be heard. These literary societies spent long hours in decla- mations, orations and debates within their third floor chambers in Old Main. With the organization of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity in 1835, the societies clashed and competed with the Greeks. These soci- eties slowly phased out as the Greek system grew. Fraternities, with their secret rituals and knightly vows, provided the ideal birthplace for many intri- cate, and highly successful, pranks and practical 1824, Miami opened its doors to twenty students. jokes. No doubt the most historic of all student The universityis academic building, Old Main, housed the chapel, a library and recitation rooms. Students were charged $93 for tuition and room and board for the first session in the dormitory, the northeast building. This future Elliott Hall was a three-story brick building that provided little more than iron stove heated rooms. The men furnished their own bed, chairs and table and were expected to buy or chop their own wood. Imaginative stu- dents relied on the hallls trim and woodwork as kindling. These incidents were so frequent that in 1835 the faculty was forced to fine any men caught escapades at Miami occurred in J anuary 1847 on a beautiful snowy evening. Coming home from a prayer meeting in town, a chap began rolling a snowball toward the dark doorway of the Old Main. Before the night was through, the boys had rolled a dozen huge snowballs into the building barricading the doors from the inside. The snowball rebellion, as it came to be known, decreased the junior and senior classes from 32 to 14, as the students found guilty for participation in the rebellion were quickly expeHed. Other pranks came to the highlight the later Eigb teen