Muskingum University - Muscoljuan Yearbook (New Concord, OH)

Page 20 text:

OT antiquity but a touch of distinction is gained by Muskingum’s history. It was just at the height of the severe business panic of 1837 that a group of New Concord citizens set out bravely to found a college for the education of their children and the general advancement of the community. At the time the charter was granted, March 10 i B57. A ndrew Jackson had just moved out of the White House. Muskingum did not grow very rapidly during the rest of the nineteenth century. During the first sixty years the graduating class never exceeded twenty-two. For many years the college was run as a local institution, gov- erned by a local Board of Trustees, but in 1877 control was transferred to the United Presbyterian Presbyteries of Muskingum and Mansfield and later extended to the United Presbyterian Synod of Ohio. With the installation of President J. Knox Montgomery in 1904, the institution entered a period of almost phenomenal growth. In that period the student body increased from eighty to over eight hundred and the Campus grew from one and a half acres to one hundred and two acres. From a struggling school with a small capitalization at the beginning of the century the college has grown to an institution with a total valuation, including endowment, of about two and a half million dollars. The lake, the stadium, Brown Chapel, Montgomery Hall, the W omen’s Dormitory, Cam bridge Hall, and numerous minor properties were all acquired during the administration of President J. Knox Montgomery. The greatest | structure thus far in point of expense, size, and capacity will be the new Physical Education Building. Having resumed the construction of this building where his father was forced through lack of funds to leave it four years ago, President Robert N. Montgomery hopes to have a large portion of it ready for use by next fall. —: 16 :—